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160,000 some odd hominid generations before agriculture. No matter how much bamboo I stuff my face with, I’ll never be able to digest it, because I don’t have the evolutionary history of a panda bear.
Here’s another way to frame this critique that highlights its absurdity:
“The paleo approach is wrong because it ignores the health implications of our evolutionary history since the paleolithic, thus one’s evolutionary history does not have health implications.”
Myth: Paleo enthusiasts romanticize the paleolithic era.
Truth: We don’t. Though even if we did, this would be a really bad argument.
Explanation: I love my iphone. A world without Star Wars is the stuff of nightmares. And don’t even get me started on Spotify. Make no mistake, I’m glad I was born in 1975 and not 134,900 B.C. It’s an amazing time to be a human being.
In this particular mischaracterization, paleo enthusiasts are said to believe that life was better for humans in the paleolithic, therefore humans today should eat like cavemen. So all you have to do if you’re a paleo critic is show that life wasn’t better in the paleolithic, and you’ve eviscerated the paleo argument in a dazzling rhetorical fluorish. Ta da!
Again, the problem, once again, is that this isn’t some universally held, foundational belief upon which ancestral health rests. More importantly, it has no bearing whatsoever on the merits of the paleo approach. Regardless of whether your average paleolithic human’s life was joyous and fulfilling or nasty and brutish is immaterial to whether they were afflicted by diet-induced diseases.
What the ancestral health view does say, rather, is that human biology was shaped for the vast majority of our evolutionary history in the paleolithic era. As such, most of our body’s adaptations were in response to selection pressures we faced during that time. This would mean that foods we consumed throughout the paleolithic are more likely to lead to higher levels of biological fitness than foods that we’ve added to the human diet since that time. To put another way, foods introduced in the neolithic deserve much greater scrutiny for their impact on our health, given that they’ve only been around for a small part of our evolutionary history. So when we’re looking for the causes of diseases of civilization, they should naturally be our first suspects.
Something we’ve been eating for 2 million years is much less likely to be disease causing (and even more unlikely to affect reproductive fitness) than those introduced since the industrial revolution. This shouldn’t be a controversial notion to any biologist.
Myth: Hunter gatherers/paleolithic humans don’t acquire diseases of civilization because they don’t live long enough to get them.
Truth: Several lines of evidence reveal this to be false.
Explanation: First, the archaeological record clearly demonstrates a decline in human health with the advent of agriculture. Skeletal remains in the early neolithic reveal evidence of anemia, bone demineralization, cavities, and other signs of poor health and nutrition. After we started farming wheat, our bones shrank, died earlier, and were sicker while we were alive. There were other contributing factors, for sure, but poor nutrition was clearly one of them. It has only been in the very recent past that we’ve figured out how to live longer in spite of our inferior diets.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, direct evidence from modern day hunter gatherer populations proves this claim untrue. The prevalence rates of the diseases of civilizations in those eating traditional diets are far lower than the rates in modern age matched controls. What’s more, in cases where hunter gatherer populations have transitioned to modern lifestyles and diets, the diseases of civilization (diabetes, hypertension, gallstones, obesity, cancers, gout, stroke, heart disease, etc.) start to emerge in force, usually a few decades after the nutritional transition occurs.
It’s evidence such as this that leads us to believe that, as Harvard evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman states in his book The Story of the Human Body: “a large percentage of the medical conditions that afflict human beings today are evolutionary mismatches because they are caused or aggravated by modern lifestyles that are out of sync with our bodies’ ancient biology.”
And, so, if most medical conditions today are mismatch diseases brought on by modern foods, what’s the glaringly obvious way to prevent them (hint: it’s not a diet whose foundation is whole wheat)?
Myth: The paleo diet is pseudoscience.
Truth: While the paleo diet still largely exists outside the mainstream, it is firmly rooted in the soundest biological principle of all
Explanation: It isn’t surprising that many folks are skeptical of things that exist outside of the mainstream health community. As the saying goes: “What do you call alternative medicine that has been proven? Medicine.” In other words, if an ancestral diet was scientifically sound, it would have already been accepted into the mainstream.
This is typically a reliable line of reasoning, as much of what exists outside the mainstream is either devoid of any scientific foundation or outright fraud. On the other hand, science and medicine are not stagnant endeavors, and change and progress are an essential part of the process. This means there will always be things that are not part of the mainstream today that will be part of it in the future.
Have some folks come to some absurd conclusions about health using an evolutionary perspective? Yes. Yet, if I were to incorrectly derive the formula for the area of circle, this doesn’t mean we should reject mathematics. That, as emphasized in this particular defense of the ancestral approach from the journal Evolutionary Psychology, would be throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
Have some folks used the paleo diet’s popularity primarily as a vehicle to make some extra dough? Sure. These sorts of thing are bound to happen in every sphere of human inquiry, particularly when they become popular. But the ancestral movement has on the whole been quite good about policing itself.
Those who take the time to understand it will realize that the ancestral health movement is firmly rooted in evolutionary biology. It’s a movement that was started by scientists, is grounded in evolutionary theory, and further informed by insights gleaned from the fields of biochemistry, anthropology, and archaeology. And, as science should, it has changed over time in response to evidence – at a pace much faster is typical, likely because it is unbound by institutional interests.
On the other hand, mainstream nutrition research is an unequivocal mess, and has floundered in large part precisely because, unlike the other biological disciplines, it has not used evolution as a guiding framework. What’s more, it has made a habit of extracting cause and effect relationships from observational population data, and has repeatedly failed to modify its ideas even in the face of scientific evidence that refutes them. That, without a doubt, is pseudoscience.
Myth: The paleo diet is about eating a lot of meat.
Truth: Meat, despite its reputation, is a nutrient-dense, low-toxin food. However, it is entirely possible to eat an evolutionarily appropriate diet without consuming animal products.
Explanation: It is certainly true that an evolutionary perspective on health will divorce one of the notion that meat is unhealthy. Yet, all this means is that meat is an evolutionarily appropriate food, and, particularly given how long our species has been consuming it, is very unlikely to be causally related to the diseases of civilization. Animal products are as nutrient dense and low toxin a food as there is.
And while it is true that it’s much easier to get adequate dietary protein and essential fats and amino acids if you’re incorporating animal products into your diet, it is still entirely possible to avoid evolutionarily novel foods and not eat meat. For me, and for many other migraine sufferers, obtaining adequate protein from plant sources exclusively would necessitate eating migraine inducing amounts of carbohydrate. Having a protein-dense, carbohydrate-free whole food (i.e. – meat) available is essential.
Whether or not one incorporates animal products into his or her diet is entirely a personal decision. Some folks are rightly concerned about the treatment of animals raised for human consumption, particularly in the factory farming system. I and many (perhaps most) other ancestral health proponents I know are as well, which is why we obtain our animal products from farms where they’re raised humanely. But I think telling people that meat is bad for them as way of cutting down their consumption of animal products is a dishonest approach.
It’s also worth noting that since I switched to an ancestral diet, I eat far MORE fruits and vegetables than I did previously. I suspect this is true of most other folks as well.
Myth: The paleo diet is one diet.
Truth: Humans are well adapted to a vast array of possible foods. One person’s version of the paleo diet may look completely different than anothers, yet both are equally healthful.
Explanation: Here’s another one that drives ancestral health proponents nuts. It goes like this: “There was no single paleolithic diet. Humans were living in all four corners of the earth during the paleolithic, and different civilizations ate very different things from each other.”
To which we say….precisely our point! We’re well adapted to eat a LOT of stuff, and in today’s world of the glorious supermarket we have an endless array of foods to choose from that are healthful. As such, there’s no reason that in the 21st Century we should be suffering en masse from diet related mismatch diseases.
Again, the goal here is not to eat like a caveman, it’s to place any foods humans didn’t eat prior to the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions under heightened scrutiny, especially since the we know that our modern diets and lifestyles are likely responsible for the vast majority of diseases humans now acquire.
The bottom line is this: the paleo approach to nutrition and health isn’t about living or eating like a caveman, nor is it about one single, rigid dietary protocol. It is simply about using evolutionary biology as a guiding framework for understanding what we should and should not put into our bodies. It just so happens that, when it comes to our diet and lifestyle, a lot changed when the paleolithic ended, and so it’s highly reference point for anyone interested in using evolutionary history to understand our health.
So, for those critics interested in crafting a credible challenge to this approach to understanding human health, I’m going to help out by giving you the the actual argument you must make. Here it is:
“Why Evolutionary Biology and Human Evolutionary History is Not Relevant to Our Understanding of What Human Beings Should Eat”Click to viewAnother classic science fiction franchise is getting the "reboot" treatment, but its biggest star could be even harder to recast than William Shatner's Captain Kirk. A new Bill And Ted movie finally got the green light — probably from the same people at MGM who thought that War Games sequel was a good idea — and it could show up in the next couple of years. The biggest question: where are they going to find an actor who can bring the Keanu? Click through for details.
As in the original, Bill and Ted are high-school students who are in danger of flunking unless they create a "full presentation" on the subjects of all their classes. They travel through time and meet the historical figures they're supposed to have learned about, including Gandhi and Calamity Jane this time around.
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The main differences are that the phone Bill and Ted use to travel through time isn't an old-school phone booth, but something "funkier." Their band is called the Atomic Gorillas instead of the Wyld Stallyns. The script is supposedly full of "hip" pop culture references for today's kids, like Bill and Ted worrying they're going to miss The Dark Knight. No clue whether there's a George Carlin character this time around, or who might play him. There are a lot fewer "Whoas."
I was a lot more excited about a new Bill And Ted when I briefly thought it would feature Keanu and Alex back in their original roles, playing middle-aged stoners who have made a mess of their lives in spite of all Carlin's predictions.
If we have to have a remake, maybe it can do something new and interesting with the concept — like instead of being the saviors of a future world, Bill and Ted are actually patsies, given a time machine by someone who wants to wreck history but doesn't want his/her fingerprints all over it. And then Bill and Ted have to undo all the damage they've done. That would be totally excellent. [Moviehole]The LG G2. We already know plenty about its rear-mounted volume controls, funny cases and passion for classical music. We've even seen a video of the 5.2-inch 1080p handset in the flesh. But a question mark has remained over a couple of basic specs until today, when pages from a supposedly leaked manual appeared at reputed surprise-spoiler Nowhereelse.fr. Assuming the info is legit, which it seems to be, we can say that the thing between the volume buttons on the back of the phone is not a fingerprint reader, as some had hoped -- it's just a power/lock button. Also, the phone will follow in the footsteps of the iPhone 5 and Moto X by housing a nano-SIM slot. But unlike those two handsets, the G2 will offer microSD storage expansion, not to mention a removable 2,610mAh battery. At this point, there's really nothing left to discover except some availability info -- oh no, wait, we have some of that too.A FIVE-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE STUDY into the security landscape has found that incidents and attacks are growing in number and sophistication.
The study has been produced by Intel and is based on the findings and work of the firm's McAfee division acquired in 2010.
"August marks the fifth anniversary of Intel's announcement that it would buy McAfee. Since that time, much has changed in the cyber security world," explained the firm in the introduction.
"For this retrospective, we brought together a dozen thought leaders from Intel and McAfee who have been here since before the acquisition to explain how the cyber security marketplace and our work together has evolved."
The document, McAfee Labs Report Reviews Five Years of Hardware and Software Threat Evolution (PDF) is a wide-ranging look at the threat network out there, and a look back over some of the more infamous assaults on industry. The hack on T.J. Maxx gets a very early mention.
"The last 10 years have produced a monumental increase in the number of major data breaches and the volume of records stolen, from T.J. Maxx's 2007 breach of 94 million records to this year's theft of 80 million Anthem patient records," said the firm.
Times change, though, and so do hackers and the tools in their armoury. The historical side is interesting, but it is the picture of the future that has us putting masking tape over our webcam and locking down our internet like a bank vault.
McAfee said that there were 9.4 million security incidents in 2010, and 42.8 million in 2014, and that a "perfect storm" is coming because of a combination of human beings, greed, malware, espionage, wearables, the cloud and the internet.
Connected devices, for example, have shot up in use over the period, from five billion in 2010 to 16.3 billion now. The use of wearables has tripled in just two years to 146 million, while the Internet of Things has gone from 800 million devices in 2010 to 1.5 billion today.
"We all thought that more users, more data, bigger networks, and many more
types of devices and other targets like the cloud, combined with more attacks,
clever new malware, and increasingly sophisticated actors, were creating a perfect security storm," the report said.
"Most of these predictions came true. Cyber attackers have certainly taken advantage of this massive increase in potential targets and expanding attack surface."
These threats, which were initially aimed at organisations as opposed to human beings, have evolved and adapted, and now go after anyone and everyone.
"At first, these threats were a concern mostly for governments, financial institutions and security vendors, but they are now a major concern for enterprises and consumers, as they can significantly impact the value of businesses and can cause major headaches in our personal lives," added the document.
Users of the internet now face nation state cyber espionage which is blatant but denied, and so many threats that even McAfee has been taken aback.
"Although we expected and predicted most of this development, the rapid evolution of malware, increase in attack volume, and large scale of nation-state attacks has been surprising," the firm said.
"We all expected significant growth in the volume and technical capabilities of cyber attacks. The conditions were just too tempting to ignore. Threats have evolved like a classic arms race, with criminals developing new attacks, the security industry responding with new defences, and so on."
The report also takes in the past three months, which is what these quarterly reports usually do. McAfee found that ransomware is growing at a rapid pace, increasing by 50 percent against the previous quarter and 127 percent against the same quarter last year.
Mobile malware attacks have increased by 17 percent against Q1, but infections have fallen by one percent. Spam is also falling, but other flavours of attack are not. McAfee found that there are 6.7 million attempts made to lure people to bad URLs, and 19.2 million infected files slung around, every single bloody hour. µIt’s hard to spend any time on the Internet, or even watch the news, without hearing about the newest craze, Pokémon Go. It seems to have quickly become incredibly popular. Well, despite three of our staff members trying to explain it to me, I still don’t understand what it is or how it works. I guess I’m just from the wrong generation! But I’ve been told that there are Pokémon, gyms, and PokéStops all over the Creation Museum. We’ve even had non-Christian guests come to the museum chasing these PokéStops.
I did a Facebook Live broadcast as three staff members tried to show me how to play Pokémon Go. While we walked around the Creation Museum entrance and the bookstore, we captured several Pokémon—or at least I tried to. I was told they could be found all over the museum’s gardens and in different places throughout the museum. You can view that video here:
Here are some photos from when the AiG staff were explaining to me about Pokémon—and, while live streaming, we ran into another guest at the Creation Museum:
To view my other Facebook Live videos, be sure to follow my Facebook page.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken
This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.An Al Sharpton guest has the early lead for today’s most simultaneously inflammatory and nonsensical statement.
Ras Baraka, mayor of Newark, NJ, said that in clamping down on sanctuary cities such as his, the Trump administration is “trying to intimidate us into being what I’ve called fugitive slave catchers.”
Not only is the image abhorrent, it is utterly illogical. By enforcing the immigration laws, the Trump admin is not seeking to force illegal immigrants into uncompensated labor. To the contrary, the goal is to deport them.
Far from challenging Baraka over his repellent metaphor, Sharpton adopted it, asking Baraka what will happen if the Trump admin starts cutting federal funds “because you won’t break rank and do what you said, [be] a fugitive slave kind of” catcher.
Note Baraka’s smile as he says “what I’ve called” fugitive slave catchers. So Baraka has used this vile phrase before and is well-pleased with himself about it.Activation of SMO, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Activation of SMO, organism-specific biosystem Activation of the transmembrane protein SMO in response to Hh stimulation is a major control point in the Hh signaling pathway (reviewed in Ayers and Therond, 2010; Jiang and Hui, 2008). In the absen...
Axon guidance, organism-specific biosystem (from KEGG) Axon guidance, organism-specific biosystem Axon guidance represents a key stage in the formation of neuronal network. Axons are guided by a variety of guidance factors, such as netrins, ephrins, Slits, and semaphorins. These guidance cues are...
Axon guidance, conserved biosystem (from KEGG) Axon guidance, conserved biosystem Axon guidance represents a key stage in the formation of neuronal network. Axons are guided by a variety of guidance factors, such as netrins, ephrins, Slits, and semaphorins. These guidance cues are...
Basal cell carcinoma, organism-specific biosystem (from KEGG) Basal cell carcinoma, organism-specific biosystem Cancer of the skin is the most common cancer in Caucasians and basal cell carcinomas (BCC) account for 90% of all skin cancers. The vast majority of BCC cases are sporadic, though there is a rare fam...
Basal cell carcinoma, conserved biosystem (from KEGG) Basal cell carcinoma, conserved biosystem Cancer of the skin is the most common cancer in Caucasians and basal cell carcinomas (BCC) account for 90% of all skin cancers. The vast majority of BCC cases are sporadic, though there is a rare fam...
Class B/2 (Secretin family receptors), organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Class B/2 (Secretin family receptors), organism-specific biosystem This family is known as Family B (secretin-receptor family, family 2) G-protein-coupled receptors. Family B GPCRs include secretin, calcitonin, parathyroid hormone/parathyroid hormone-related peptide...
Differentiation Pathway, organism-specific biosystem (from WikiPathways) Differentiation Pathway, organism-specific biosystem This pathway provides an overview of the directed differentiation molecules used to induce early and derivative cell lineages from human pluripotent stem cells. The initial version of this pathway is...
Disease, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Disease, organism-specific biosystem Biological processes are captured in Reactome by identifying the molecules (DNA, RNA, protein, small molecules) involved in them and describing the details of their interactions. From this molecular...
Diseases of signal transduction, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Diseases of signal transduction, organism-specific biosystem Signaling processes are central to human physiology (e.g., Pires-da Silva & Sommer 2003), and their disruption by either germ-line and somatic mutation can lead to serious disease. Here, the molecula...
Dopaminergic Neurogenesis, organism-specific biosystem (from WikiPathways) Dopaminergic Neurogenesis, organism-specific biosystem Converted to human from mouse: http://www.wikipathways.org/index.php/Pathway:WP1498
Ectoderm Differentiation, organism-specific biosystem (from WikiPathways) Ectoderm Differentiation, organism-specific biosystem Model depicting ectoderm specification based on the literature and highly enriched gene expression profiles via comparison across dozens of independent induced and embryonic pluripotent stem cell lin...
FOXA1 transcription factor network, organism-specific biosystem (from Pathway Interaction Database) FOXA1 transcription factor network, organism-specific biosystem
FOXA1 transcription factor network
GPCR ligand binding, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) GPCR ligand binding, organism-specific biosystem There are more than 800 G-protein coupled receptor (GPCRs) in the human genome, making it the largest receptor superfamily. GPCRs are also the largest class of drug targets, involved in virtually all...
Glypican 3 network, organism-specific biosystem (from Pathway Interaction Database) Glypican 3 network, organism-specific biosystem
Glypican 3 network
HHAT G278V abrogates palmitoylation of Hh-Np, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) HHAT G278V abrogates palmitoylation of Hh-Np, organism-specific biosystem A loss-of-function mutation in HHAT that abrogates palmitoylation of Hh ligand is associated with Syndromic 46, XY Disorder of Sex Development, which results in testis dysgenesis (Callier et al, 2014...
Heart Development, organism-specific biosystem (from WikiPathways) Heart Development, organism-specific biosystem This pathway has been largely adapted from an article by Deepak Srivastava, Cell. 2006 Sep 22;126(6):1037-48. In this pathway are known transcription factors, miRNAs and regulatory proteins that impa...
Hedgehog 'on' state, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Hedgehog 'on' state, organism-specific biosystem Hedgehog is a secreted morphogen that has evolutionarily conserved roles in body organization by regulating the activity of the Ci/Gli transcription factor family. In Drosophila in the absence of Hh...
Hedgehog Signaling Pathway, organism-specific biosystem (from WikiPathways) Hedgehog Signaling Pathway, organism-specific biosystem The Hedgehog family of proteins are signaling proteins that are crucial for a number of physiological processes including morphogenesis during development. In adult organisms, it is also involved in...
Hedgehog ligand biogenesis, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Hedgehog ligand biogenesis, organism-specific biosystem Mammalian genomes encode three Hedgehog ligands, Sonic Hedgehog (SHH), Indian Hedgehog (IHH) and Desert Hedgehog (DHH). These secreted morphogens can remain associated with lipid rafts on the surfac...
Hedgehog signaling, organism-specific biosystem (from KEGG) Hedgehog signaling, organism-specific biosystem Functional set; Cellular processes; Cell signaling
Hedgehog signaling, conserved biosystem (from KEGG) Hedgehog signaling, conserved biosystem Functional set; Cellular processes; Cell signaling
Hedgehog signaling events mediated by Gli proteins, organism-specific biosystem (from Pathway Interaction Database) Hedgehog signaling events mediated by Gli proteins, organism-specific biosystem
Hedgehog signaling events mediated by Gli proteins
Hedgehog signaling pathway, organism-specific biosystem (from KEGG) Hedgehog signaling pathway, organism-specific biosystem The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway has numerous roles in the control of cell proliferation, tissue patterning, stem cell maintenance and development. The primary cilium is an important center for tr...
Hedgehog signaling pathway, conserved biosystem (from KEGG) Hedgehog signaling pathway, conserved biosystem The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway has numerous roles in the control of cell proliferation, tissue patterning, stem cell maintenance and development. The primary cilium is an important center for tr...
Hh mutants abrogate ligand secretion, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Hh mutants abrogate ligand secretion, organism-specific biosystem Hh signaling is required for a number of developmental processes, and mutations that disrupt the normal processing and biogenesis of Hh ligand can result in neonatal abnormalities. SHH is one of a n...
Hh mutants that don't undergo autocatalytic processing are degraded by ERAD, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Hh mutants that don't undergo autocatalytic processing are degraded by ERAD, organism-specific biosystem Hh signaling is required for a number of developmental processes, and mutations that disrupt the normal processing and biogenesis of Hh ligand can result in neonatal abnormalities. SHH is one of a n...
Integrated Pancreatic Cancer Pathway, organism-specific biosystem (from WikiPathways) Integrated Pancreatic Cancer Pathway, organism-specific biosystem An integrated pathway model which displays the protein-protein interactions (PPIs) among the relevant proteins for pancreatic cancer. This pathway is a collection of different mechanistic protein pat...
Ligand-receptor interactions, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Ligand-receptor interactions, organism-specific biosystem Repression of Hh signaling in the absence of ligand depends on the transmembrane receptor protein Patched (PTCH), which inhibits Smoothened (SMO) activity by an unknown mechanism. This promotes the p...
Pathways in cancer, organism-specific biosystem (from KEGG) Pathways in cancer, organism-specific biosystem
Pathways in cancer
Proteoglycans in cancer, organism-specific biosystem (from KEGG) Proteoglycans in cancer, organism-specific biosystem Many proteoglycans (PGs) in the tumor microenvironment have been shown to be key macromolecules that contribute to biology of various types of cancer including proliferation, adhesion, angiogenesis a...
Proteoglycans in cancer, conserved biosystem (from KEGG) Proteoglycans in cancer, conserved biosystem Many proteoglycans (PGs) in the tumor microenvironment have been shown to be key macromolecules that contribute to biology of various types of cancer including proliferation, adhesion, angiogenesis a...
Release of Hh-Np from the secreting cell, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Release of Hh-Np from the secreting cell, organism-specific biosystem Cholesterol and palmitoyl-modification of Hh-Np render the ligand highly hydrophobic and results in its close association with the plasma membrane of the producing cell after secretion. Hh-Np tether...
Signal Transduction, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Signal Transduction, organism-specific biosystem Signal transduction is a process in which extracellular signals elicit changes in cell state and activity. Transmembrane receptors sense changes in the cellular environment by binding ligands, such a...
Signaling by GPCR, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Signaling by GPCR, organism-specific biosystem G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs; 7TM receptors; seven transmembrane domain receptors; heptahelical receptors; G protein-linked receptors [GPLR]) are the largest family of transmembrane receptors i...
Signaling by Hedgehog, organism-specific biosystem (from REACTOME) Signaling by Hedgehog, organism-specific biosystem Hedgehog (Hh) is a secreted morphogen that regulates developmental processes in vertebrates including limb bud formation, neural tube patterning, cell growth and differentiation (reviewed in Hui and...
Signaling events mediated by the Hedgehog family, organism-specific biosystem (from Pathway Interaction Database) Signaling events mediated by the Hedgehog family, organism-specific biosystem
Signaling events mediated by the Hedgehog familyMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Stephen Fry: "I'm the only person I hurt" in drug taking
Actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry has said there is a "huge moral difference" between historical drug use and cases of sexual abuse.
He was responding to suggestions he should be arrested after admitting in his latest memoirs to taking cocaine in places such as Buckingham Palace.
But Fry told the BBC he was "the only person I hurt" through drug use.
He also described the late DJ Jimmy Savile as "an absolutely monstrous, depraved and repulsive piece of work".
'Lack of judgement'
Interviewed by Evan Davis on the BBC's Newsnight programme, Fry said: "If people think I should be arrested for historical drug abuse, that's fine. I'm the only person I hurt.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Fry says he took drugs in high-profile locations including Buckingham Palace and the House of Commons
"I do personally see a huge moral difference between invading somebody's physical space, raping them, groping them against their will, having sex with when they're under age, and me feeding my face with stuff that did me harm."
He accused establishment organisations of being "so horrified by their own lack of judgement" about Savile and his abuse that they have turned against the same type of people; disc jockeys and light entertainers.
"If you want to talk about rock stars, do we have to name the rock stars that we think almost certainly had sex with 14-year-old children?" he said.
"But those 14-year-old girls were so proud of it that they now in their 50s wouldn't for a minute call themselves 'victims'."
Fry also said it was wrong to use the term "victims" for alleged victims "before the case has even come to court, before certain figures have even been charged".
He said: "If they're guilty then quite clearly there should be evidence, but they shouldn't be hung out like fly paper to try to attract other 'oh yeah, I think he touched me too when I was that age'."
'Patted bottom'
Fry was asked whether he worried about the possibility of accusations because he was in the celebrity circle in years past.
He said: "I've always thought them pretty repulsive things to do. I've never groped anyone as far as I'm aware. But groping is not the same as penetrative rape.
"Again, things are nuanced and it's pretty grotesque to grope especially an underage child who doesn't quite know what's happening to them.
"But it's not as grotesque as raping them. And the law has to be clear on that. Suddenly, everyone isn't Jimmy Savile just because they may have patted somebody's bottom, you know."
Fry recounts taking drugs in high-profile locations including Buckingham Palace, the House of Commons, BBC Television Centre and a number of private members' clubs in his book More Fool Me.White House Censors Words "Islamist Terrorism" From Francis Hollande's Speech
Oh my.
You can hear on the audio what seems to sound an awful lot like a break in the sound (like someone hit the bleep button) as the translator simply stops translating when she hears Hollande says the forbidden words "terrorisme Islamiste."
The bolded words are what the translator refuses to translate:
"But we're also well aware that the roots of terrorism, [Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq. We therefore have to act both in Syria and in Iraq, and this is what we're doing within the framework of the coalition.] And we note that Daesh is losing ground thanks to the strikes we've been able to launch with the coalition."
I'm trying to hear the French to make sure this isn't just a tricky patch of translation. But it seems not to be. Hollande speaks very simply and is one of the easiest French speakers to translate. The words I can hear are very clear. The part which has been censored I can't hear, because the translator is still translating the last sentence as he says the censored words "terrorisme Islamiste," but the words that follow are plain enough.
Which leads me to conclude as everyone else concludes: There was no difficulty translating this bit. Instead, another person in the booth pushed the "mute" button the translation when he heard the words "terrorisme islamiste."
Here are the words I can hear --
...terrorisme Islamiste [audio cut, but he seems to say "en Iraq et en Syrie" Then French audio returns:] Nous devons agir en Irak et en Syrie. C'est ce qui le faisons dans le cadre dans la coalition. Nous constatons que Daesch est donc --
Translation, --
Islamist terrorism [audio cut]. We must act in Iraq and Syria. That's what we must doing in the framework of the coalition. We note that Daesch is therefore--
This is extremely straightforward French. I listen to Hollande a lot because it's almost as if he's speaking purposefully simply for non-native speakers (which, given the Party Socialist's support from foreign-born voters, he probably is.)
This is virtually first semester stuff. A non-speaker can easily map each French word for each English word (agir = act, nous devons = we must), except for the "c'est ce qui" stuff, which is like third semester ("This is that which").
I can't hear the worlds before Islamic terrorism but I can guess, because that's also almost certainly straightforward as well: "Nous savons, beinsur, que les racines de terrorisme, terrorisme Islamiste--" or something like that. "Racine" is used in French just as it is in English -- to mean "root" both literally and figuratively.
So this is not any problem with translation; this is someone hitting the Mute button and touching the translator on the shoulder to tell her to skip over this dangerous passage.
However, the forbidden words do appear on the White House's transcript/translation of Hollande's remarks.
At 4:38, the censorship begins:Next Game: at Colorado 9/23/2017 | 7:00 PM FS1
SEATTLE (AP) — Dante Pettis had four touchdowns including an NCAA record-tying eighth punt return touchdown of his career, and No. 6 Washington finished off the undercard of its schedule with a 48-16 rout of Fresno State on Saturday night.
Pettis had touchdown receptions of 4 and 7 yards in the first half, and a 73-yard TD pass from Jake Browning on the second play of the second half to give Washington (3-0) a 48-7 lead. But it was his 77-yard punt return late in the first quarter that left Husky Stadium buzzing and put Pettis' name into another record book.
Pettis caught the kick from Blake Cusick near the Washington sideline, shook one defender initially, hurdled another in the open field and finally stepped through a last tackle attempt. Pettis also got a key downfield block from Myles Bryant to complete the return and give Washington a 27-0 lead.
Pettis' return was the eighth of his career, tying him with Antonio Perkins (Oklahoma) and Wes Welker (Texas Tech). Pettis also tied the NCAA record for consecutive games with a punt return touchdown at three. Pettis returned one 67 yards for a score in the season opener against Rutgers and had a 61-yard return last week against Montana.
Pettis wondered last week if teams would continue kicking to him. Fresno State (1-2) did and paid for it.
Aside from the punt return, Pettis also tied a career high with the three TD receptions. He was the recipient of another nearly flawless night from Washington quarterback Jake Browning, as the Huskies' 27 first-quarter points was one off the school record.
Browning was 19-of-22 passing for 255 yards and four touchdowns and a passer rating of 243.7. Myles Gaskin added touchdown runs of 28 and 7 yards but Washington's run game remains a concern headed into Pac-12 play next week. Gaskin also had an 8-yard touchdown reception in the final seconds of the first half to give Washington a 41-7 lead at the break.
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to oppress humans."
The petition was signed by families of terror victims during a weekend retreat organized and sponsored by OneFamily, an organization that offers support to bereaved family members. Among the family members who signed the complaint are Brenda and Nachum Lemkus, whose daughter Dalia was murdered in November 2014; and Doron Mizrachi,whose son Ziv who was murdered in November 2015.
Brenda Lemkus said: "Our darling daughter Dalia was murdered as a result of the constant incitement of the Palestinians and their glorification of terrorists. When we heard that the incitement and glorification of terrorists was so widespread in Palestinian soccer we didn't think twice about joining the campaign and signing a complaint. The incitement has to stop."
OneFamily CEO Chantal Belzberg says: ""Soccer is a game played all over the world. It is supposed to unite people from different backgrounds and promote peace among nations. Sadly, the PFA has opted to turn it into a weapon of terrorism. We know what it means for a bereaved family to suddenly discover that the terrorists who slayed their loved one are ‘heroes’ whose actions are promoted by the PFA on football fields. We're determined to put an end to these shameful activities."Town in New South Wales, Australia
Eucalyptus (bimble box), Geijera (wilga), sandalwood and Acacia (ironwood) Trees that are common in the Walgett district:(bimble box),(wilga), sandalwood and(ironwood)
Walgett is a town in northern New South Wales, Australia, and the seat of Walgett Shire. It is near the junctions of the Barwon and Namoi Rivers and the Kamilaroi and Castlereagh Highways. In 2011, the town of Walgett had a population of 2,267 including 1,004 Indigenous persons and 1,073 non-Indigenous Australian-born persons.[1] The balance of the population was born overseas.
In the 2016 Census, there were 6,107 people in the Walgett Local Government Area. Of these 52.9% were male and 47.1% were female. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people made up 29.4% of the population. Walgett takes its name from an Aboriginal word meaning 'the meeting place of two rivers'.[2] The town was listed as one of the most socially disadvantaged areas in the State according to the 2015 Dropping Off The Edge report.[3]
History [ edit ]
The area was inhabited by the Gamilaroi (also spelt Kamilaroi) Nation of Indigenous peoples before white settlement. A post office was gazetted for "Wallgett on the Barwin River" in 1851 and the town sites were surveyed in 1859. The district would have been occupied prior to this by squatters and their livestock.[4] The town of Walgett was proclaimed on 20 March 1885. The surveyor Arthur Dewhurst mapped the town, naming three streets after British Prime Ministers: Fox (main street—Castlereagh Highway), Pitt and Peel. Arthur Street was named after another surveyor. Walgett Courthouse was built in 1865.[5]
Walgett was a port in the late 19th century for paddle steamers that plied the Murray-Darling river system. The first steamer reached Walgett in 1861 and travelled to the town regularly until c.1870.[4]
Euroka Station, 10 miles (16 km) south of the town on the Castlereagh Highway, was purchased by Fred Wolseley in 1876 and was the site of the invention of the Wolseley Shearing Machine. The machine was tested at Bourke in 1888 on 184,000 sheep and eventually revolutionised the shearing industry.
Walgett's history includes the Freedom Rides in the mid-1960s.[6] The Freedom Riders, consisting in the main of Sydney university students, including Charles Perkins, arrived in Walgett on 15 February 1965. They protested outside the Walgett RSL Club because they had been told the club was refusing to admit Indigenous ex-servicemen. They also picketed a ladies' dress shop (Sheehan's), protesting the fact that the proprietor would not allow Indigenous women to try on dresses.[citation needed] After their protests the Freedom Riders left town and headed for Narrabri, when a short distance from town their bus was forced off the road by a car driven by a local farmer. This event led to Walgett, the Freedom Riders and the plight of Indigenous Australians receiving national and international media attention.[7]
Climate [ edit ]
Walgett has a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) with hot to very hot in summer and mild to cool in winter, with occasional frosts. Summer temperatures frequently rise above 40 °C (104 °F), and a maximum temperature of 49.2 °C (120.6 °F) was recorded on 3 January 1903, which is one of the hottest temperatures recorded in the state.[8] The annual rainfall is fairly low, at 480.6 millimetres (18.92 in) which falls fairly evenly throughout the year; however, summer rainfall usually falls as heavy but infrequent downpours associated with thunderstorms; winter rain is usually very light, but can last for days at a time.
In December 2018 midst drought, the Barwon River at Walgett ceased flowing, reduced to a series of stagnant pools.[9] Bore water from the Great Artesian Basin being used by the town was of questionable quality in relation to the Australian drinking water guidelines, leading to concerns of usage within the town.[9]Israel is to grant refugee status to 100 orphaned Syrian refugee children, in line with a decision by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on Wednesday.
According to Channel 10, the children will receive temporary resident status and become permanent residents after four years, and be able to remain in Israel for their entire lives.
Channel 10 said that the children will be integrated into Arab Israeli families. Furthermore, any of the children’s immediate relatives will also be considered for refugee status.
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The government made the final decision on the future of the refugees and will now liaise with the relevant international organizations to bring the orphans into the country.
Israel has been in open conflict with Syria since its creation in 1948, fighting three conventional wars against its northern neighbor.
NOW by @MoavVardi – Israel to take in Syrian orphans as refugees w/ path to citizenship. Arab-Israelis will help absorbing. #syria #Israel pic.twitter.com/syk0j4cUDh — George Deek (@GeorgeDeek) January 25, 2017
For more than half a decade, the Syrian civil war has raged just across the border from the Jewish state, reportedly claiming the lives of nearly half a million souls and driving millions more from their homes.
The Israeli government has declared itself neutral in the complex conflict, but has not avoided the massive humanitarian catastrophe at its own doorstep.
Israel has treated those wounded in the conflict for the past several years. Over 2,000 Syrians have been treated in Israel, 600 in Safed’s Ziv Medical Center alone, since December 2013. Many are women and children.
The official line from the Israeli army is that it will treat any Syrian who requires serious medical assistance, no matter who they are. Medical assistance to Syrian civil war casualties, the IDF says, is a humanitarian initiative.
Additionally, non-governmental organizations continue to work to help Syrians.
The Amaliah organization — which in Hebrew means “the work of God” — offers a number of humanitarian services for Syrians, including providing food, medical aid, drinking water and educational materials; coordinating visits to Israeli hospitals; holding women’s empowerment workshops; and pushing for an internationally backed safe zone in southern Syria.
In September, even when the UN was unable to transfer aid to Syrians during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha because it was too dangerous, the IDF transferred one ton of meat from Amaliah.
Since August, again with coordination of the IDF, Amaliah has brought in three busloads of Syrians — 120 kids — to be treated in Israeli hospitals.
Another initiative, an online crowdfunding campaign, “Just Beyond the Border,” has raised over $350,000 in one month to bring much-needed emergency aid to the children of Syria — more than double its original aim.
The campaign’s title reflects the ideology behind it: that Israelis simply cannot ignore the horrors taking place in neighboring Syria.
Dov Lieber contributed to this report.The world of college football recruiting is a shady one, even when all parties involved are following the rules.
That’s because there’s a lot of negative recruiting that goes on, where one coach takes a shot at another coach behind closed doors to try to land big-time recruits.
According to 5-star OT Jackson Carman, who signed with Clemson on Wednesday, coach Dabo Swinney convinced him to choose the Tigers by saying Ohio State coach Urban Meyer was on the back end of his career:
Dabo Swinney told Jackson Carman during his recruitment that Urban Meyer is on the back end of his career in terms of years left. “It wasn’t a major factor, but it was an underlying one,” Carman said. — Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) December 20, 2017
Swinney, who genuinely seems to be a nice guy, probably didn’t appreciate Carman telling that story, but it’s not hard to believe that it actually happened.
Still, it’s been only a couple of hours since Carman signed with the Tigers and he’s probably already in the doghouse with his new head coach.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A teenager who supplied ecstasy to fellow pupils at Greenwood Academy has been jailed for three months.
Kieran Miller, 17, of Gateside, Irvine, pleaded guilty to possessing the class A drug with intent to supply it at the Dreghorn school between March 6 and 27 this year.
Kilmarnock Sheriff Court was told that police received information that “a supply of ecstasy was taking place in or around the school”.
Officers went to the school around 12.30pm on March 27 and Miller was detained.
He was searched and, while nothing was found on his person, in his schoolbag he had 32 purple tablets, a “tick list” and cash.
The tablets were later found to be ecstasy. Miller was interviewed at Saltcoats police station and the court heard he gave “a lot of information in relation to whom he’d supplied some tablets”.
He was charging his young customers £10 a tablet.
Miller, however, refused to name his supplier.
Martin Duffy, defending, said his client had been a pupil at the school at the time of the offence.
He said: “I think what comes across is the extreme remorse he feels for getting himself into this.
“It was a money-making scheme which he did not think through.”
The solicitor said Miller came from a family with “no experience of the court process” and the offence had had a significant impact on his parents.
He has since left school and applied for courses at college.
Mr Duffy said: “He is a keen footballer. He does not use alcohol, drugs or tobacco.” Miller, he said, was aware courts took “a very dim view of behaviour of this sort”.
Mr Duffy added: “He has been left in no doubt as to the potential consequences for himself.”
Sheriff Alistair Watson told Miller he took account of the fact he was only 17, came from a good background and had shown remorse.
However, he had class A drugs which were “potentially hugely dangerous, particularly when your intention was to supply them for financial gain, effectively to children”.
The sheriff added: “In my view the supply of drugs, within a school environment particularly, has to be treated with no tolerance whatsoever. I send out this message to anyone tempted to engage in the supply of drugs at a school – the result at my court will almost inevitably be the visitation of a custodial sentence.”The Game
HEX: Shards of Fate combines the amazing community and roleplaying aspects of a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMO) with the compelling collectible and strategic gameplay of a Trading Card Game (TCG) to create an entirely new category of a game, the MMO/TCG.
Create and customize your champion with talents, gear, and game altering abilities that revolutionize the Trading Card Game. Take up the side of good with either the heroic humans, noble coyotle, proud orcs, or the creative elves. If you have more sinister goals, then play as the destructive dwarves, zealous vennen, aggressive shin’hare, or cunning necrotic.
Encounter deep TCG puzzles and explore the world of Entrath. The PVE experience offers hundreds of hours of gameplay, storytelling, and the chance at rich rewards. You’ll find gear, gems, and over 300 unique cards at launch.
Advanced, cutting edge AI will challenge players of all skill levels while still being accessible. Cryptozoic hired the most experienced TCG AI expert in the world to build this system from the ground-up. In addition to the latest in TCG artificial intelligence, each opposing champion has a personality and approach to the game specific to that champion.SAN FRANCISCO — All but eclipsed by Facebook and Twitter, Myspace is aiming for a comeback.
The onetime king of social networking plans to revamp its Web site beginning on Wednesday, narrowing its focus on entertainment for people 13 to 35 years of age, also known as Generation Y.
“Over time, Myspace got very broad and lost focus of what its members were using it for,” Michael Jones, the president of Myspace, a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, said in an interview.
Mr. Jones said the more than 120 million Myspace members were primarily using the site to listen to music and share opinions and information about that music, as well as about movies and television shows. The new site will emphasize that content with a simplified service that removes much of the clutter that Myspace was known for, Mr. Jones said.
And Mr. Jones said Myspace would no longer seek to compete with Facebook, but rather to complement it. “Our focus is social entertainment,” he said. “Niche players have long staying power.”
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Analysts say that burnishing Myspace’s tarnished brand, even with a more narrow focus, will not be easy. While Myspace, founded in 2003, still has a large audience, its fortunes have steadily eroded in the last few years.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mr Justice Sweeney said Harris had taken advantage of the trust placed in him because of his celebrity status
Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris has been jailed for nearly six years for 12 indecent assaults against four girls - including one aged just seven or eight.
Mr Justice Sweeney said Harris, 84, had taken advantage of his celebrity status and had shown "no remorse".
The sentence of five years and nine months has already been referred to the Attorney General's Office under the "unduly lenient sentence scheme".
One victim said the abuse had taken away her "childhood innocence".
Harris, who was found guilty of offences that took place between 1968 and 1986, was told by the judge he had "no-one to blame but himself".
He displayed no emotion and stared straight ahead as he was jailed.
Image copyright Julia Quenzler Image caption The BBC's David Sillito said Harris was "staring ahead" during the court hearing
Image copyright AP Image caption Press photographers tried to get pictures as a van thought to be carrying Harris left the court
Image copyright AFP Image caption Harris's daughter Bindi, centre, was in court as her father was sentenced
Before Harris was sentenced, prosecutors said he would not stand trial over allegations he had downloaded sexual images of children.
It sends a message that no-one is untouchable and justice can come at any time Peter Watt, NSPCC director of national services
They had claimed Harris had indecent images of children, as part of a larger collection of adult pornography, but decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute him.
'Psychological harm'
During sentencing, the judge said Harris "clearly got a thrill" from committing some of the assaults on his four victims while "others were present or nearby".
He said Harris touched the youngest victim intimately when she approached him for an autograph in Portsmouth, while another was "groped" at an event in Cambridge.
As well as the girl who was aged seven or eight, Harris's victims were two young teenagers and a childhood friend of his daughter Bindi. He abused his daughter's friend between the ages of 13 and 19.
The judge said Harris "fancied" this victim and assaulted her in her home and his, breaching the "trust that her parents had placed in you".
He said the assaults resulted in the teenager suffering panic attacks, anxiety and led to her becoming an alcoholic, saying she had "suffered severe psychological harm".
Speaking after sentencing, she said the jail term was "immaterial" but the verdict was "what I wanted, what I went to court for".
She added: "I do hope that women will come forward now, celebrity or not."
Image copyright Met Police
The sentences broken down are:
Count 1: Assaulting an autograph-hunter, who was aged seven or eight, in the late 1960s - Nine months
Count 2: Assaulting a teenage waitress in the 1970s - Six months
Count 3: Assaulting a childhood friend of Harris's daughter between the ages of 13 and 19 - 15 months
Count 4: Same victim as count 3 - 15 months
Count 5: Same victim as count 3 - 15 months
Count 6: Same victim as count 3 - 12 months
Count 7: Same victim as count 3 - 15 months
Count 8: Same victim as count 3 - 12 months
Count 9: Same victim as count 3 - 12 months
Count 10: Assaulting Australian woman Tonya Lee, who was 15, in 1986 - Nine months
Count 11: Same victim as count 10 - Nine months
Count 12: Same victim as count 10 - 12 months
Some of the sentences will be served at the same time, making a total of five years and nine months.
Harris is likely to serve half of the sentence in prison and was told he would not have to pay compensation to his victims. However, the judge said he could have to pay the costs of the prosecution.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office did not say who had referred the sentence as being "unduly lenient" but said it "only takes one person to trigger the process".
The sentence must be considered within 28 days for possible referral to the Court of Appeal, the spokeswoman added.
Harris was prosecuted based on the law at the time of his offences, when the maximum sentence for indecent assault was two years in prison, or five years for victims under 13.
Two of his victims were in court for the sentencing, which saw members of the press and public fill the public gallery and watch from an overspill court via a video feed.
Harris's daughter Bindi was with him in court but his wife Alwen, who has been consistently present throughout the trial, did not attend.
Image copyright Getty Images
In court
Jane Peel, BBC News correspondent
The queue outside court two began to form at 07:45 BST - more than two hours before the hearing was due to begin.
Rolf Harris had started his final journey to Southwark in a boat from his house on the Thames, in Bray, Berkshire, but he arrived as usual in a car.
His daughter Bindi was with him but there was no sign of his frail wife, Alwen.
Perhaps in contrast to his mood, he wore a jazzy, multi-coloured tie and a light grey suit.
He had brought with him a similarly bright suitcase with a stripy design. Harris knew he would be going to prison. The only question was for how long.
He had been allowed to stay seated, but was told to stand as Mr Justice Sweeney announced that he would be jailed for five years and nine months.
There was no visible reaction from him or his relatives who were in court as he was led to the cells by two dock security officers.
Peter Watt, of the NSPCC, said: "It sends a message that no-one is untouchable and justice can come at any time."
Alan Collins, of law firm Slater and Gordon, told the BBC his firm had been contacted in "recent days" by people making new allegations against Harris.
He said the calls had come from both the UK and overseas, and lawyers would meet the complainants in the coming days.
Earlier, the court heard impact statements from the four victims, including from the childhood friend of Harris's daughter.
Reading out the statement, prosecutor Esther Schutzer-Weissman said the abuse had "haunted" the victim and left her feeling "dirty, grubby and disgusting".
The statement from the victim who had been seven or eight said the abuse had taken away her "childhood innocence".
Harris indecently assaulted a waitress at a charity event in Cambridge when she was aged 13 or 14, who said the star had "treated me like a toy".
'He said sorry'
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Woman who gave evidence against Rolf Harris: "At the time, I felt I would be raped"
One woman told the BBC she met Harris when she was 18 and he was "very kind, very nice" - but then "sexually abused" her.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave evidence in the trial but the attack in Malta was not the subject of a prosecution because at the time of the incident the offence was outside the jurisdiction of a UK court.
She said Harris led her into a room to show her his artworks.
"He closed the door and then he pushed me up against the wall," she said.
"It was quite intimate, it was forceful and it was scary... I don't know how long it took to be quite honest but I couldn't get away.
"And then he suddenly just stopped, he hugged me and said he was sorry."
She said she had thought she was going to be raped, but she did not report it because she did not think anyone would take her seriously.In college, I once found myself on the D.C. metro with one of my favorite professors. As we were riding, a young white child began to climb on the seats and hang from the bars of the train. His mother never moved to restrain him. But I began to see the very familiar, strained looks of disdain and dismay on the countenances of the mostly black passengers. They exchanged eye contact with one another, dispositions tight with annoyance at the audacity of this white child, but mostly at the refusal of his mother to act as a disciplinarian. I, too, was appalled. I thought, if that were my child, I would snatch him down and tell him to sit his little behind in a seat immediately. My professor took the opportunity to teach: “Do you see how this child feels the prerogative to roam freely in this train, unhindered by rules or regulations or propriety?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “What kinds of messages do you think are being communicated to him right now about how he should move through the world?”
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And I began to understand, quite starkly, in that moment, the freedom that white children have to see the world as a place that they can explore, a place in which they can sit, or stand, or climb at will. The world, they are learning, is theirs for the taking.
Then I thought about what it means to parent a black child, any black child, in similar circumstances. I think of the swiftness with which a black mother would have ushered her child into a seat, with firm looks and not a little a scolding, the implied if unspoken threat of either a grounding or a whupping, if her request were not immediately met with compliance. So much is wrapped up in that moment: a desire to demonstrate that one’s black child is well-behaved, non-threatening, well-trained. Disciplined. I think of the centuries of imminent fear that have shaped and contoured African-American working-class cultures of discipline, the sternness of our mothers' and grandmothers' looks, the firmness of the belts and switches applied to our hind parts, the rhythmic, loving, painful scoldings accompanying spankings as if the messages could be imprinted on our bodies with a sure and swift and repetitive show of force.
I think with fond memories of the big tree that grew in my grandmother’s yard, with branches that were the perfect size for switches. I hear her booming and shrill voice now, commanding, “Go and pick a switch.” I laugh when I remember that she cut that tree down once we were all past the age of switches.
And then I turn to Adrian Peterson. Not even a year ago, Peterson’s 2-year-old son, whom he did not know, was murdered by his son’s mother’s boyfriend. More recently, Adrian Peterson has been charged with negligent injury to a child, for hitting his 4-year-old son with a switch, in a disciplinary episode that left the child with bruises and open cuts on his hands, legs, buttocks and scrotum.
In the text messages that Peterson sent to the boy’s mother, he acknowledged having gone too far, letting her know that he accidentally “got him in the nuts,” and that because the child didn’t cry, he didn’t realize the switch was hurting him. It would be easy to demonize Peterson as an abuser, but the forthrightness with which he talked about using belts and switches but not extension cords, because he “remembers how it feels to get whooped with an extension cord,” as part of his modes of discipline suggests he is merely riffing on scripts handed down to him as an African-American man.
These cultures of violent punishment are ingrained within African-American communities. In fact, they are often considered marks of good parenting. In my childhood, parents who “thought their children were too good to be spanked” were looked upon with derision. I have heard everyone from preachers to comedians lament the passing of days when a child would do something wrong at a neighbor’s house, get spanked by that neighbor, and then come home and get spanked again for daring to misbehave at someone else’s house. For many that is a vision of a strong black community, in which children are so loved and cared for that everyone has a stake in making sure that those children turn out well, and “know how to act.” In other words, it is clear to me that Peterson views his willingness to engage in strong discipline as a mark of being a good father.
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Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that the loving intent and sincerity behind these violent modes of discipline makes them no less violent, no more acceptable. Some of our ideas about discipline are unproductive, dangerous and wrong. It’s time we had courage to say that.
I am not interested in haggling any more with black people about the difference between spankings and abuse, because when emotions and stakes are both as high as they are, lines are far too easily crossed.
Stakes are high because parenting black children in a culture of white supremacy forces us to place too high a price on making sure our children are disciplined and well-behaved. I know that I personally place an extremely high value on children being respectful, well-behaved and submissive to authority figures. I’m fairly sure this isn’t a good thing.
If black folks are honest, many of us will admit to both internally and vocally balking at the very “free” ways that we have heard white children address their parents in public. Many a black person has seen a white child yelling at his or her parents, while the parents calmly respond, gently scold, ignore, attempt to soothe, or failing all else, look embarrassed.
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I can never recount one time, ever seeing a black child yell at his or her mother in public. Never. It is almost unfathomable.
As a kid in the 1980s and 1990s I loved family sitcoms. "Full House," "Who’s the Boss?," "Growing Pains." You name it. But even before my own racial consciousness was fully formed, I remember knowing that I was watching white families very different from my own, in part, because of how children interacted with their families. Invariably on an episode, a child would get mad, yell at a parent, and then run up the stairs (white people’s sitcom houses always had stairs) and slam the door.
What I know for sure is that yelling, running away or slamming anything in the house that my single mama worked hard to pay for would be grounds for some serious disciplinary reprisal. Even now, when I think about what kind of behavior I would permit as a parent, I am clear that slamming doors in my home is unacceptable.
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Still, I also know that my anger was not an emotion that found a free and healthy range of expression in my household. My mother is my own personal hero, but just as she did many things differently than her own mother did when it came to raising daughters, I know I will think very intentionally about making space for my children to experience a full range of emotions – anger included -- in the safety of home. They can’t slam the door, but they can close it.
As for Adrian Peterson, he will have to deal with the legal consequences of his actions. It has long been time for us to forgo violence as a disciplinary strategy. But as Charles Barkley notes, if we lock up Adrian Peterson, we could lock up every other black parent in the South for the same behavior. Instead, I hope Peterson is a cautionary tale, not about the state intruding on our “right” to discipline our children but rather a wakeup call about how much (fear of) state violence informs the way we discipline our children.
If the murder of Michael Brown has taught us nothing else, we should know by now that the U.S. nation-state often uses deadly violence both here and abroad as a primary mode of disciplining people with black and brown bodies. Darren Wilson used deadly force against Michael Brown as a mode of discipline (and a terroristic act) for Brown’s failure to comply with the request to walk on the sidewalk.
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The loving intent and sincerity of our disciplinary strategies does not preclude them from being imbricated in these larger state-based ideas about how to compel black bodies to act in ways that are seen as non-menacing, unobtrusive and basically invisible. Many hope that by enacting these micro-level violences on black bodies, we can protect our children from macro and deadly forms of violence later.
Perhaps it is audacious of me to encourage black parents to focus less on producing well-behaved children in a world that clearly hates them. Black boys and girls are suspended or expelled from school more than all other demographics of boys and girls, often for similar behaviors, simply because their engagement in those behaviors is perceived as more aggressive.
White children in general are raised to be Columbus, to “discover” the world anew and then to manipulate and order the universe to their own liking. If we take away the colonizing impulse in living this way, I think it would be amazing to have the luxury of raising black children who also view the world as a space of their own making, a space to be explored, a space to build anew. A space where occasionally, simply because you live there, you can opt to walk in the middle of the street instead of being confined to the sidewalk, much as you might sling your leg across the arm of a chair in your own home, because it is home.
But for so many black children, these kinds of frivolous choices will get you killed or locked up. For black children, finding disciplinary methods that instill a healthy sense of fear in a world that is exceptionally violent toward them is a hard balance to find.
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The thing is, though: Beating, whupping or spanking your children will not protect them from state violence. It won’t keep them out of prison. Ruling homes and children with an iron fist will not restore the dignity and respect that the outside world fails to confer on adult black people.
What these actions might do is curtail creativity, inculcate a narrative about “acceptable” forms of violence enacted against black bodies, and breed fear and resentment between parents and children that far outlasts childhood.
Violence in any form is not love. Let us make sure first to learn that lesson. And then if we do nothing else, let us teach it to our children.Christian radio host Janet Mefferd said that she had only one problem with a statement recently released by a group of conservative evangelical faith leaders: It didn’t condemn the existence of gay Christians.
During her radio show yesterday, Mefferd expressed her support for the “Nashville Statement” released by The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood that stated the group’s disapproval of same-sex marriage and related issues. The only problem with the statement, Mefferd said, is that it did not denounce the existence of homosexual Christians.
“Nowhere in this statement do they deny that there is such a thing as gay Christianity,” Mefferd said. “It matters because that is the biggest Trojan horse that I think we as conservative evangelicals face today.”
Mefferd went on to claim that LGBTQ activists, in addition to “propagandizing the kids” in schools, are trying to change the fundamental views of the church.
“It’s moved now from saying you can be a Christian who is celibate and you’re fighting your same-sex attractions,” Mefferd said, “that’s one thing. But now we’re getting more and more books that are pushing the boundaries now within Christian circles.”
“It’s not just a matter of being a Christian but fighting my temptations, like any Christian would have to fight temptations” Mefferd said. “It’s now going into, ‘No, I’m gay.’”Amazing Mom, Devin Clifton, recently decided to sit her 4-year-old son down and talk to him about an issue most parents wouldn’t dare bring up.
“I made a video of my first conversation with my 4 year old son about gay marriage,” Devin wrote to Gay Marriage USA.
She added:
We have brought him to local pride festivals and he has been around gay couples but this is the first time we had ever talked about it. I wanted to show how 1) it is easy to explain homosexuality to kids and 2) everyone is born innocent and taught to be hateful. I knew how accepting he is when he was 3 and told two black guys in drag that he liked their dresses. He is such an amazing kid. I am lucky to have him.
Watch Logan and Mom’s conversation about gay marriage below:0 Tired of trash along our freeways? Here's how to do something about it
KIRO 7 noticed trash piling up along our state’s busiest freeways. So we started asking questions and found out there actually is more litter than ever before.
We’ve also discovered the WSDOT is no longer using Department of Corrections inmates to cleanup trash. (no longer has a contract with the Department of Corrections to have inmates cleanup trash.)
Related Headlines Government stalemate leads to criminals no longer picking up trash on…
For the first time in nearly 20 years, statewide cleanup help is not being provided by paid prison inmates and those on community supervision.
Amy Clancy looked into why the clean-up stopped and possible solutions. Read her full report here.
According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, people complain about litter more than anything else. You can take cleaning up into your own hands by adopting a highway.
Here’s a Q &A section provided by WSDOT:
How do I sign up for the Adopt-a-Highway program?
All you need to do is contact your local coordinator.
How do I know what is available for adoption?
You can look up what is available online or contact your local coordinator.
How often are we required to clean up our section?
This is outlined in your agreement with WSDOT. The agreement is for a 4 year period which can be extended or canceled.
Can we landscape our section of the highway?
Contact your local WSDOT contact if you’d like to do more.
What is a mile post or a mile marker?
Have you noticed those small markers along the side of Interstate highways and some other roads? They are usually green or white and have the word MILE along with a number; some just have the number.
These "mile markers" show the number of miles from where the Interstate route entered the state in which you are traveling. The counting always begins at the state line in the south (for north-south routes) and in the west (for east-west routes). So, mile marker numbers always get larger as you travel east or north.
When and where do we get the equipment (hats, vests, signs, etc.)?
WSDOT offices have volunteers pick up equipment before their first time picking up litter and hold onto the equipment, other offices loan the equipment for litter pickup only.
Do we get "pick up sticks"?
WSDOT does not provide these. However, you can buy them at your local hardware store.
How do we practice good safety when picking up litter?
Use the equipment provided to you by your coordinator and follow WSDOT's safety tips.
Why can't we pick up litter on holidays?
Traffic tends to be greater during these times, and you are encouraged to pick up during non-peak traffic flows, such as weekends and mid-day during the week.
What do we do if we find large or dangerous objects?
Please do not pick them up. Try to leave a bright marker or piece of tape by the object. Call your coordinator and they will arrange for WSDOT crews to pick up the object(s).
How do we report a pick up?
Your WSDOT contact will send you an activity report for you to mail in after each pick up or you can use the Online Activity Report. This is important because WSDOT needs to keep track of how often groups are picking up litter. It also allows WSDOT to maintain insurance coverage for our volunteers.
How do we pick a name for our group?
The signs are intended to recognize you or your group, not your message. Many groups simply have the name of their family or organization. You can choose to have “in memory of” a loved one. Two lane highways have signs with space for up to three lines of text with |
construction; officials are studying the kind of units they need and what they can charge.
Eventually, the county wants a 35-acre development that includes single-family homes, a public plaza, walking trails and a retail center. At least 3,000 people could live there, Himler said.
Merchants in the Suitland Corner strip mall will have to move because of the development. (Arelis Hernandez/TWP)
The owner of Kim’s Beauty Supply, J. Kim, says she is ready to retire after 30 years of business. (Arelis Hernandez/TWP)
The plans have stirred some frustration among the few merchants who operate on parcels the county has bought, and soon will have to close or move elsewhere. Small business owners leasing space in the Suitland Corner strip mall received orders to vacate in October but won a reprieve until Jan. 5.
"It was unfair," said Geri Murphy, whose son owns a perfume shop on the strip. "You don't replace one set of merchants with another set just like that."
J. Kim, owner of Kim's Beauty Supply, said she was ready to retire after 30 years. "I'm just tired," she said.
For Baker, the project is the fulfillment of a promise made 20 years ago by his mentor and predecessor, Wayne K. Curry (D), who began the process of buying up land as the Metro system prepared to extend the Green Line.
"Wayne saw long before other people that you could revitalize this community," Baker said at a groundbreaking last month for Town Square's townhouses.Like most bowlers with genuine pace, he talks of how he enjoys seeing fear in batsmen's eyes, how he loves to see them jumping about. There could be a few South Africa batsmen doing that if he plays at the Wanderers
Pat Cummins could come hard at South Africa again, this time in whites © Getty Images
To see Pat Cummins up close, it's hard to believe he is only 18. Tall and broad-shouldered, he is physically imposing for such a young man. Like most bowlers with genuine speed, he talks of how he enjoys seeing the fear in batsmen's eyes, how he loves to see them jumping about at the crease.
It is only when he speaks of his cricket-watching memories that his age truly registers. His idols were not the bowlers of Craig McDermott's era, but men like Stuart Clark and Brett Lee, who still hold playing contracts. Cummins was 13 when Glenn McGrath last wore the baggy green.
This Thursday at the Wanderers, Cummins could become Australia's second-youngest Test debutant of all time. Choosing the starting line-up for this match will be the final act of Andrew Hilditch's selection panel. By picking Cummins they would go out with a bang.
Although Australia's batting was the key problem in their Cape Town disaster, the bowling in the second innings also disappointed the captain, Michael Clarke. Peter Siddle was the last of the fast men chosen for that Test and could be the first one out, although Mitchell Johnson was less threatening than Siddle at Newlands.
Cummins has shown in the nets that he can trouble even the best of Australia's batsmen. Before the ODI in Durban late last month, he struck Michael Hussey on the body and left a bruise so painful that Hussey was still talking about it a fortnight later.
Although Cummins has played only three first-class matches, the selectors are confident his body can handle five-day cricket. Late last summer, Cummins bowled 33 overs in the first innings of a Sheffield Shield match in which Western Australia's Marcus North scored a century. North described Cummins' work as the most sustained fast bowling he had experienced since his Test career.
A week later, Cummins bowled 48 overs in the first innings of the Sheffield Shield final, and 65 for the match. He is confident Test cricket will not be a stretch.
"Yeah I think so," Cummins said when asked if he was ready for Test cricket. "Just watching the last few games and training hard over the last few weeks I think I've started to become closer to being ready but I guess you never really know until you're out there and bowling. I'm sure if I do get the chance it will be a good support group around the side and making me feel comfortable."
Cummins is already used to big leaps. On this tour, he made his ODI debut having not yet taken a one-day wicket for his state. He has nine first-class victims to his name. McGrath was also rushed into Test cricket, relatively speaking, but he still had 32 first-class victims at the time.
Not that the metronomic McGrath is the template for Cummins. Fast outswingers are the key weapon in Cummins' artillery, along with his quick bouncers, and Dale Steyn is arguably the world's best at that combination.
"I hope I am a similar bowler; he's obviously unbelievable," Cummins said of Steyn. "He's just about the best bowler in the world at the moment. He's incredible. I've never really studied him but it's always the aim to bowl fast and fast outswingers and he obviously does it very successfully so I guess he's someone you look up to and really try and strive towards."
While swing is an important part of Cummins' style, his speed is what initially made the selectors take notice. He is already breaking the 150kph mark. His pace was honed in the backyard against his two older brothers, Matt and Tim, both of whom have played first-grade cricket for Penrith, the Sydney club where Cummins burst on to the scene. A wicketkeeper, Tim went from facing Pat in the backyard to feeling his fast deliveries thud into the gloves.
"Growing up I was always trying to be a fast bowler and always a bowler as a kid," Cummins said. "It's probably only in the last couple of years where I've grown a bit more and got a little bit stronger the speed started to pick up a bit. It's great seeing the fear in the batsman's eyes. As a kid there was nothing more exciting than seeing someone like Brett Lee charge in and really give it to the batsmen and you could see the batsmen jumping around and looking pretty uncomfortable."
There could be a few South Africa batsmen feeling that way if Cummins plays at the Wanderers. Hussey might not be the only man to end the tour bruised by Cummins.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.While it’s clear that wind power has a lot of potential, harnessing that potential rests largely on being able to store energy for use when the wind isn’t blowing. A new design by Copenhagen-based architectural firm Gottlieb Paludan called Green Power Island may help to spell a solution.
The Green Power Island makes use of pumped hydro, a storage strategy that’s already in wide use. Conventional pumped hydro systems use vertically separated reservoirs to utilize the power of water and gravity; during times of low demand (off peak), water is pumped using excess energy from the lower to the upper reservoir. As demand increases, the water is allowed to flow downhill into the lower reservoir, generating electricity in the process. In this system, the amount of power that can be stored is limited by the amount of water that can be stored–and, of course, the height difference between the two reservoirs.
Paludan has taken this strategy and given it a new twist with his proposed Green Power Island. His design makes use of seawater pumped into a lagoon-like reservoir built into an artificial island. When demand is low, pumps driven by wind turbines empty the reservoir. At peak periods, water is allowed to flow back into the reservoir, through turbines generating electricity to meet the rising demand. By positioning the reservoir within an existing body of water, the system removes the necessity of having to create two reservoirs at different heights.
While there are environmental questions and concerns associated with this “artificial island” design, Paludan is confident that these islands can be constructed in ways that minimize impact on local wildlife and water quality. Plans have already been drawn for Green Power Islands in several locales, including Copenhagen, Bahrain, Jiangsu, and Tampa, and Florida. According to Planetsave, each island–built primarily around wind energy storage, but also featuring PV/concentrated solar/biomass production facilities–will be designed to enhance the surrounding environment and utilize the space with mixed used capabilities, including recreation trails, beaches, harbors, and even residential and business units.
Like what you are reading? Follow us on RSS, Twitter and Facebook to get green technology news updates throughout the day and chat with other green tech lovers.‘United Cyprus Federation’ under discussion: Turkish Cypriot leader Akıncı
Ömer Bilge / NICOSIA
CİHAN photo
A “United Cyprus Federation” has been on the agenda of resumed negotiations with the Greek side of the divided island, Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı has said.All issues, excluding the current guarantor system, are on the table of talks, Akıncı told journalists on the sidelines of the July 20 ceremonies marking the 41th anniversary of the Turkish military intervention on the island following a pro-Greek coup.The name used for a unified Cyprus plan rejected by the Greek side in 2004, known as the “Annan Plan” in reference to the then-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, was “United Federal Republic of Cyprus.”If negotiations continue at the current pace, a solution to the decades-long Cyprus issue could be shaped within months, Akıncı said.Commenting on the possible structure of the to-be-found state, he said the percentage of soil left to Greeks and Turks on the island, as well as the places to be shared, have been left to later stages of the talks.The guarantor statuses of Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom have also been left out of the debate so far, Akıncı also stated.According to the plan, Turkish and Greek states will be founded first for the Cypriot federation, with each having their own citizenship system. The new state will have one lower and one higher parliament, while both Turkish and Greek Cypriots will have the right to reside in any part of the island.Turks residing on the Greek side of the federation and Greeks living on the Turkish side will have the right to vote in both the state elections and the local elections where they live, as well as the right to vote in European Parliament elections.However, they will not have the right to vote for or run in the elections of the opposite state, due to the large population gap between Turkish and Greek Cypriots in the favor of the latter.This restriction, intended to guarantee equality, is against the current EU code, so it requires approval in the parliaments of all EU member states in order to avoid a constitutional crisis in the future, Akıncı stated.The police forces of the proposed new federal state will consist either of 40 percent Turks and 60 percent Greeks, or 50 percent each, but Akıncı stressed that the exact ratios have yet to be outlined.So I was catching up on Markiplier's videos (I got MONTHS behind due to convention season) and I got to his One Shot playthrough and it reminded me... I super love this game still! I also, REALLY love Niko... Thus we have a super adorable Niko with his most favorite food! The funniest part is that this marks the third time, recently, that I've drawn pancakes, but to all of you it's the first time you're seeing it! So.... yay? I've had a bunch of practice recently!Links!Like what I do? Want to support me AND get some super awesome rewards? Head on over to my Patreon I have Prints, Charms, Postcards, and Badges for sale! Click below for details:Interested in a Commission? My digital options are on the Menus below, feel free to message me for traditional art too!Story highlights Queen Elizabeth did not attend church on Christmas Day
Palace says she is recovering from "heavy cold"
London (CNN) Queen Elizabeth did not attend church on Christmas Day, Buckingham Palace announced Sunday after confirming she is recovering from a "heavy cold."
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh traveled to Sandringham by helicopter.
"The Queen continues to recover from a heavy cold and will stay indoors to assist with her recovery," Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
"Her Majesty will participate in the Royal Family Christmas celebrations during the day."
Prince Philip attended the Church Service on Christmas Day.
The Queen's husband Prince Philip, her son Prince Charles, and her grandson Prince Harry all went to church as expected.
The Queen has spent Christmas at the royal couple's country home, Sandringham House in Norfolk, every year since 1988 and has not missed a Christmas Day service during that time.
Prince Charles was accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall and his son, Prince Harry.
Read MoreThere are a lot of big success stories in DC's Rebirth initiative so far, but one of the biggest and most surprising has been The Flash.
The series, from writer Joshua Williamson and artist Carmine Di Giandomenico, has tied very closely to DC Universe: Rebirth #1, dealing with the return of the pre-Flashpoint Wally West as well as touching on the mystery of The Comedian's blood-splattered button from Watchmen appearing in the Batcave.
As a result, the book has sold out everywhere and retailers I've talked to have said it's the most sought-after Rebirth title among fans who got on board late. For those who are all caught up, though? DC has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive preview of The Flash #2, due in stores and on digital services like ComiXology on Wednesday, July 13.
“2016 is the 60th anniversary of Barry Allen becoming The Flash, and it’s a privilege to be a part of it,” said writer Joshua Williamson. “‘The Return of Barry Allen’ in The Flash #79 [1993] is one of my favorite comics of all time. It’s where I became a Flash fan for life.” “LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE” Chapter Two: In issue #2, The Flash trains novice speedster August Heart to help protect the people of Central City from the Black Hole, a new breed of rogue with a deadly agenda for the Fastest Men Alive.Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City not subject to Open Records Act
OKLAHOMA CITY – Transparency and public input are missing from Oklahoma City’s use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which is designed to improve blighted areas, Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid said Thursday during a town hall meeting.
Oklahoma City, which has eight TIF districts located mostly in the downtown area, has used that financing mechanism for areas that are not considered impoverished or blighted, according to Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. Five other TIF projects are under consideration.
“This issue totally merits your attention,” LeRoy told a crowd of about 175 people who attended the town hall meeting at the Tower Hotel. “You’re on the verge of doing a lot of TIFs if you’re not careful.
TIFs have a place under the sun, but the devil is in the details.”
LeRoy questioned if Oklahoma City officials, including the mayor and council, have used TIFs properly.
“Are you addressing a true need such as a brownfield or a grocery store in a food desert? Or, are you giving money to a large corporation for something they would have done anyway?” he asked.
TIFs were designed to restore physical blight and revive certain areas of a city. However, Oklahoma law allows a mix of activities including writing a check to a private developer or financing public projects such as a park or school improvements.
A problem mentioned by Shadid is that Oklahoma City is not transparent and open when considering a TIF district.
“That’s missing when it comes to TIFs,” he said. “We had all of these public meetings and discussions with MAPS 3, but not with any of the TIFs.”
Part of the controversy surrounds the Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City, a nonprofit that is not subject to Oklahoma’s Open Records law. As a result, many records associated with TIFs and other economic development activities are not privy to the public until the projects and records are turned over to city officials. During the interim, Alliance officials conduct business on behalf of the city without public input or official oversight.
As a result, LeRoy suggested state law be changed to make TIF records a part of the Open Records Act.
In addition, he said city officials should consider reducing or eliminating the amount of TIF funds diverted from public schools. LeRoy also said specific community benefits such as affordable housing or green building standards should be attached to any TIF proposal. Another recommendation by LeRoy centered on capping the amount of a TIF at 2 percent of the city’s total revenue, forcing the city to “live within its means.”
LeRoy told the audience of several examples nationwide where TIFs were abused by local officials, costing taxpayers in those areas millions of dollars.
One example involved a TIF in Des Peres, Mo., where the financing mechanism was used to lure a Nordstrom’s department store.
“They claimed blight because they didn’t have a Nordstrom’s,” LeRoy said.
He also mentioned Chicago’s Central Loop, which has cost taxpayers there almost $1 billion over 23 years. Mega outdoor stores Cabela’s and Bass Pro have consistently used TIF funds to locate in various markets.
After Cabela’s went public, company officials admitted to shareholders that TIF funding allows the company to grow faster.
TIF education
Thursday’s town hall meeting was organized to educate citizens about TIF districts and a brewing controversy over another proposed downtown TIF that would divert money from Oklahoma City Public Schools. The TIF district would be created to encompass the 499 Sheridan office tower project, the OG&E tower, future development of the Cox Convention Center and private development on MAPS-owned property.
TIF funds from those properties would provide enough money, reportedly $165 million, so city officials could complete their dream of a convention center hotel and parking garage.
Typically, TIF districts are comprised of a specific geographical area drawn by government officials. The amount of money placed in the TIF fund is the difference between existing property taxes and increases in future property values. Government services such as public schools, libraries and health departments receive the bulk of existing property taxes with schools receiving about 60 percent of all property tax revenue. The property tax increases, referred to as an increment, funds the private or public improvements proposed for the TIF district.
However, Shadid, LeRoy and several citizens at Thursday’s meeting believe the proposed downtown TIF will do nothing more than benefit large corporations. Some residents opined that the proposed TIF be nixed and all property taxes increases get forwarded to the school district. It was unclear how much money Oklahoma City Public Schools would lose if the proposed downtown TIF is approved.
“We’re getting ready to put our foot on the accelerator in ways we never have and for things we’ve never considered,” Shadid said, referring to the five TIFs currently under consideration.What if you could create a complete set of amazing wireframes in just a few hours? What if you could make these wireframes behave like an actual app so that users can click through them? And what if you could not only click through them, but also simulate touch and swipe gestures, page transitions and test how a mobile app reacts when the user tilts or turns their phone or changes their location?
Berlin-based Pidoco has just released a set of new features which allow designers, analysts and UX folk to prototype a vast range of interactions in their wireframes in order to simulate realistic interactive behavior of future applications. Pidoco’s “Extended Interactions” work on both stationary PCs and mobile devices like tablets and smartphones and thus allow designers and developers to test drive applications in a realistic setting at an early stage.
Wireframes are built in the web browser, but can be simulated on iOS and Android devices using the Pidoco App. Users need no programming knowledge to use Extended Interactions, since you can define them easily via a convenient “Interaction Dialog”. All you need to do is select from a variety of options a trigger (e.g. swipe, pinch, click, hover, device flip) and the corresponding reaction (e.g. show a new page, display a pop-up, slide in a new screen, play a sound or even place a call).
A screen section called “My Interactions” allows users to manage interactions, which makes it easy to copy an interaction to other elements or find elements that share the same interaction.
In addition, Pidoco offers a number of other features which make it a great tool to work with, such as real-time collaboration à la Google Docs, a commenting and discussion feature, different types of templates including so-called “global layers” that work like layers in Photoshop, an automatic specification document generator, various export options, a wide selection of UI elements and icons that you can expand by uploading your own images, versioning, an issue tracker, an API against which you can write your own code, and much more.
In light of its latest release, Pidoco is offering a special deal to all Wireframes Magazine readers. You can now sign up for a free trial and get 50% off on all annual Pidoco plans purchased before August 15, 2014, using the promotion code wm2014.There was one major problem with the Santa Clara County crime lab report that implicated a San Jose man of sexual assault:
It wasn’t true.
The document was a fake, created by a San Jose police detective. The crime lab analyst who purportedly prepared the document doesn’t exist. The number used to identify it was false.
Even so, detective Matthew Christian testified as though the phony report were authentic.
The case unraveled when the defense attorney sought the résumé of the lab analyst, only to learn there was no such person. Christian then remembered that he had concocted the report in an attempt to trick the defendant, Michael Kerkeles, 54, into admitting that he had forced a developmentally disabled neighbor into sexual acts. It was an acceptable tactic. But Christian said that by the time he was called to testify, more than a year later, he had forgotten the ruse.
The case, which attracted no public attention when it was dismissed last December, has raised concerns both about how the charges were handled and about how police and prosecutors responded when the fabrication and false testimony was discovered.
San Jose police Capt. Andy Galea said last week that after this incident, the department had banned detectives from using ruse crime lab reports when questioning suspects. He declined to say what discipline, if any, Christian received.
Prosecutors said they had referred the case to an internal committee that reviews cases involving allegations of potential criminal conduct by police officers. That committee, headed by Assistant District Attorney David Tomkins, concluded that the matter amounted to an honest mistake by the officer, Chief Assistant District Attorney Marc Buller said last week.
“We all make mistakes,” Buller said.
Buller also expressed confidence that the trial prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Jaime Stringfield, had done nothing wrong in eliciting testimony about the phony report while a contradictory lab report sat in her file.
Before the ruse was discovered, Christian and Stringfield ignored several signs – beyond the fact that no one named Rebecca Roberts worked in the county lab – that could have warned them the report was a fake.
The phony report claimed the crime lab had found semen on a blanket in Kerkeles’ garage – on the same day the blanket was seized. The report also claimed the DNA had been matched to Kerkeles. But obtaining DNA test results normally takes at least several days. In addition, Stringfield had in her file an authentic report from crime lab examiner Nancy Marte that concluded semen could not be found on the blanket.
Outside experts expressed concerns about the conduct of law enforcement officials in the case.
“On its face, it is reckless,” said Laurie L. Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor who is an expert in prosecutorial ethics. “On its face, it is asking for trouble. It questions the credibility of both the prosecutor and the police.”
Stringfield said in an interview last week that she had paid scant attention to the real report, because it did not help her case. During that interview, she blamed Kerkeles’ defense attorney for not exposing the discrepancy between the two reports, both of which had been provided to the defense.
The fabricated report became key evidence against Kerkeles, because Stringfield failed at two different preliminary hearing dates to establish that the young woman at the center of the case was a competent witness – unable to convince the court that she knew the difference between a lie and the truth.
After the ruse was uncovered, the charges were dismissed with the agreement of the prosecutors. Kerkeles, who has no record of sex abuse charges, insisted last week in an e-mail interview conducted through his civil attorney Tim McMahon that he is innocent and that the incident “tore my life apart.” But Stringfield said in court documents that she still believes Kerkeles is guilty; last month, she helped persuade Superior Court Judge Edward Lee to deny Kerkeles’ request to be declared innocent.
Case’s origin
Questioning tactic
slips into police file
The case dates to March 2005, when the mother of a 22-year-old mentally disabled woman saw her daughter running from the direction of Kerkeles’ house down the street. (The Mercury News is withholding the name of the woman, who has the mental capacity of a 7- or 8-year-old.)
Later, the woman said Kerkeles had “touched her all over” on a blanket inside his garage.
Kerkeles was charged in April, largely based on the word of the woman and her mother. He was quickly released from custody on bail.
The accuser told widely contradictory stories to the officers and a nurse about whether she had been to Kerkeles’ house, and whether he had sexually attacked her. The woman told officers that a teen who previously lived nearby also had been raped at the house, an allegation the girl denied.
Kerkeles said he never touched the woman.
On May 4, 2005, police seized a blanket from Kerkeles’ garage. That day, Christian prepared a report that said testing proved that semen identified as Kerkeles’ was found on the blanket.
Christian would later explain he prepared the report to use in interviewing Kerkeles – the law permits police to lie during questioning, as long as their techniques are not coercive.
Christian did not return calls from the Mercury News. But Galea, the San Jose police captain, said fake reports, while legal, were rare. In this case, Kerkeles asked for an attorney, so the interview with Christian never went forward.
The officer later said he put the report into a police file and forgot about it. Galea said normal procedure would require an officer to write the word “ruse” on such a document after it was used in an interview.
By late July 2005, both the fake report prepared by Christian and the authentic report prepared by Marte were in the hands of the prosecutor. They also had been provided to the defense. Defense attorney Kurt Seibert twice asked Stringfield for more information about the two reports in 2005. But Stringfield turned down the requests, saying one was too “vague.”
She said in an interview last week that because she considered the case to be based on the victim’s testimony, she paid little attention to the reports. She described first noticing the report of “Rebecca Roberts” as she and Seibert went through Christian’s file in the courtroom as they awaited a hearing last year.
“I went through the file and remember seeing that report and thinking, ‘Holy moly, I actually do have physical evidence,’ ” she said.
Though the crime lab is a division of the district attorney’s office, Stringfield said, she did not know the names of the lab analysts and would not have known the name Rebecca Roberts was fictitious. In the report Christian later would prepare on the matter, he said he did not recall when Stringfield found the fake report that it was phony. Nor did he notice that the name Rebecca Roberts was one he had made up himself.
Case unravels
Résumé request;
charges dropped
By the third preliminary hearing date, the accuser was still deemed not competent to testify. Stringfield went forward, basing her case on the word of the woman’s mother, along with testimony from nurses and police officers with whom the woman had spoken.
Christian testified that the accuser told him that Kerkeles had engaged in sexual relations with her on the blanket on his garage on several occasions. As Stringfield questioned Christian later, after he had testified about the woman’s statements, Stringfield changed course:
“This blanket that you seized, did you submit it to the crime lab for analysis?” she asked.
“Yes,” Christian said.
“Are you aware of any results?” she asked.
“Yes. There was semen found on the blanket,” Christian said.
Superior Court Judge Gilbert T. Brown ordered Kerkeles to stand trial. Stringfield listed Roberts, the fake analyst, among her trial witnesses.
Seibert filed more requests for information from Stringfield about the lab reports, and asked for Roberts’ résumé.
Prosecutors forwarded the request to the crime lab. It was returned with an arrow pointing to Roberts’ name. The note next to it reads “not real.”
Stringfield then contacted Christian, who told her he recalled creating the fake report. The charges were dropped last December.
Contending he had been improperly prosecuted based on the false word of an unreliable witness, Kerkeles went back to court this year to seek a finding that he was innocent of the charges. “Christian’s explanation for his perjury was and remains fantastical,” the motion filed by Seibert states.
But Stringfield, in opposition, disagreed: “I in no way believe defendant is factually innocent,” she wrote.
Judge Lee denied the request.High-level professional soccer is coming to San Diego, after all.
The North American Soccer League, designated as a second-division league by U.S. Soccer, is expected to announce a San Diego expansion franchise that will begin play in 2018, first at USD’s Torero Stadium and later at a 10,000-seat venue it plans to build at an undisclosed location in North County.
The club’s majority owner is European star Demba Ba, and the investment group includes three of his former teammates: Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard, French international Yohan Cabaye and Senegalese goal-scoring machine Moussa Sow. Ba left open the door of playing for the team he owns after his contract with China’s Shanghai Shenhua expires next summer.
“When I came and saw the city and looked at the football, I thought: ‘This is right on point, this is the right spot,’” Ba said. “American soccer is growing, and I know that Americans, if they put their head into something, they’re going to be successful.
“I want to be part of this success.”
The NASL: a closer look »
Q & A with NASL San Diego owner Demba Ba »
The deal with eight-team NASL was finalized last month, but Ba’s group said it “purposely delayed” the announcement so it wouldn’t conflict with the public debate over the SoccerCity proposal for the Qualcomm Stadium land and its pursuit of a Major League Soccer team, which culminated last week with the City Council putting the initiative on the November 2018 ballot instead of a special election sooner.
Formal confirmation from the NASL could come as early as Monday. The team is planning an introductory news conference in July.
“We are soccer specific,” said Bob Watkins, a local businessman and San Diego State alum who is serving as the club’s president. “We want to develop soccer through this professional opportunity. We are not in the real estate development business and want to use soccer as a ploy to get a real estate project going.
“I don’t mean that as a negative on MLS. We didn’t want to get into the fray or be painted with the same brush of either helping or not helping the MLS project. We don’t want to be the heroes on white horses. We just want to say: ‘We stayed away from downtown, we stayed away from Qualcomm. We want a clean slate going forward with a team in North County.’”
Watkins said they opted against the South Bay because it is too close to the Tijuana Xolos, which regularly draw several thousand fans from this side of the border. And they stayed away Mission Valley and the city center in case an MLS team moves here.
North County, they reasoned, is a soccer-mad community underserved with professional or Division I collegiate sports.
“We kept coming back to North County being a pretty good place,” said Watkins, whose group is scouting locations in both coastal and inland areas. “It’s got the demographics, it’s got the ethnic diversity, it’s got the Soccer Moms and the kids and the infrastructure. It’s all there.”
That’s not where the novel stadium ideas end. The plan is not to construct a traditional venue by pouring a concrete foundation and building up, but to tap into the growing industry of “modular” steel facilities that are fabricated elsewhere, shipped in segments, then assembled in a matter of months. They’re less expensive and less permanent, able to be moved or expanded to meet a tenant’s needs.
Populous, which designed Petco Park and is working with the NASL club, conceived an 18,000-seat covered rugby stadium in Christchurch, the city on New Zealand’s South Island that had the team’s previous home damaged by an earthquake. It cost $22 million and took less than 100 days to build.
Watkins envisions a 10,000-seat stadium (expandable to 15,000) would cost $10 million to $15 million and be financed privately. It would take three to four months to erect on as little as four acres, with completion as early as August 2018.
“It will have all the accoutrements of a stadium in terms of concessions, stores, seating, electronics,” Watkins said. “It will be very attractive. We’re doing it first class. This won’t be a rinky-dink stadium. It’s a new concept for soccer in the United States, a fresh concept.”
In the meantime, the yet-to-be-named San Diego team will play at USD’s Torero Stadium, which was expanded to about 6,000 seats in 2001 by the WUSA, the women’s pro soccer league that folded after three years. The NASL season begins in late March and runs through November.
That the NASL would have a 2017 season was no guarantee after the league ran into financial problems and, according to several reports, nearly folded. But U.S. Soccer conferred provisional Division II status in January, and the league took over ownership of its floundering Jacksonville franchise, giving it eight teams for this year.
The San Diego expansion is part of push west. The San Francisco Deltas are new this season, and an Orange County team was announced last month that will begin play next year at 10,000-seat Titan Stadium on the campus of Cal State Fullerton. That team is owned by Pete Capriotti and is expected to be coached by SDSU and former U.S. national team star Eric Wynalda.
The NASL shares a name but is otherwise unaffiliated with the famed North American Soccer League of the 1970s and ’80s that was best known for Pele and New York Cosmos. It also included a San Diego franchise for eight years, one as the Jaws and the final seven as the Sockers before the club established its championship identity in the indoor game.
The current NASL began in 2011, selling itself a viable alternative to MLS and its single-entity, salary-cap system. The NASL, like most global soccer leagues, has no salary cap, meaning teams can spend whatever they want on players and keep transfer fees from selling them.
Technically, NASL and the United Soccer League share the second-division status, although the NASL appears to play at a slightly higher level. Other than exhibitions, the only time teams from the two leagues meet is in the annual U.S. Open Cup; the NASL is 3-1 against the USL this year and 9-3 over the last two.
The NASL has also managed to knock off the MLS four times in the last two U.S. Open Cups, including Miami FC’s 3-1 win earlier this month at Orlando FC. Miami FC hosts MLS expansion team Atlanta United on Wednesday for a spot in the quarterfinals.Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ("Charter") is the section of the Constitution of Canada that lists what the Charter calls "fundamental freedoms" theoretically applying to everyone in Canada, regardless of whether they are a Canadian citizen, or an individual or corporation.[1] These freedoms can be held against actions of all levels of government and are enforceable by the courts. The fundamental freedoms are freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of belief, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.
Section 1 of the Charter permits Parliament or the provincial legislatures to enact laws that place certain kinds of limited restrictions on the freedoms listed under section 2. Additionally, these freedoms can be temporarily invalidated by section 33, the "notwithstanding clause", of the Charter.
As a part of the Charter and of the larger Constitution Act, 1982, section 2 took legal effect on April 17, 1982. However, many of its rights have roots in Canada in the 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights (although this law was of limited effectiveness), and in traditions under a theorized Implied Bill of Rights. Many of these exemptions, such as freedom of expression, have also been at the centre of federalistic disputes.
Text [ edit ]
Under the heading of "Fundamental Freedoms" the section states:
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a) freedom of conscience and religion; (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association.
Freedom of religion [ edit ]
Background [ edit ]
According to Beverley McLachlin, freedom of religion in Canada may have originated as early as 1759, when French Canadian Roman Catholics were allowed rights of worship by their British conquerors; this was later reconfirmed in 1774 in the Quebec Act. Later the Constitution Act, 1867 provided for denominational school rights[2] (these are reaffirmed by section 29 of the Charter). Discussions of church-state relations also took place in the Guibord case of 1874. In 1955, the Supreme Court ruled in Chaput v Romain,[3] regarding Jehovah's Witnesses, |
There is no need to repeat this. I would like to share a few less trivial commands that might make it easier for you to perform certain tasks. I needed to run a couple of non-trivial commands from the command line recently. And this brought back some memories when I had opportunities to be more hands-on. Like any industry, IT has its own tricks of trade. As we got accustomed to GUI (more on the Windows side than *nix) the art of using command line was getting less relevant and less utilised. Having said that, if you manage larger environments than automation is a must and executing scripts and various commands at scale becomes a necessary skill. In this blog post I decided to share a few interesting and useful commands that I've learnt over the years managing Windows environments. The Internet is full of "Top X cool commands every administrator should know" articles containing some fairly basic recommendations. There is no need to repeat this. I would like to share a few less trivial commands that might make it easier for you to perform certain tasks.
Display Wireless network password in clear text
netsh wlan show profile name= MyWiFiNetwork key=clear
The key=clear parameter gives us an ability to extract a WiFi password from any WiFi network (profile) stored on your computer.
Extract a list of Domain Admin users in the organisation
net group "Domain Admins" /Domain
By default the "Authenticated Users" group has Read access - any authenticated user in the organisation can execute this command to identify which users belong to which group. In the example about I used the Domains Admins group. This type of information is useful for the attackers - it gives them the "juicy targets" - which users to target (phishing, brute forcing etc) to get the domain admin privileges.
Get a list of all users in the domain
net user /Domain
Get computer's IP address
ipconfig|find "IPv4"
This can be done in multiple different ways. Here I wanted to demonstrate the "piping" trick, where a vertical pipe character is used to combine 2 commands. And the trick is that the (standard) output of the first command is used ("piped into") by the second command. In our case the "ipconfig" command displays a lot of information but we use the "find" command to only display lines containing the "IPv4" - this gives us an IP v4 address of the computer.
In addition we can use another trick and push this information straight into the clipboard by piping the output of the "find" command into "clip"
ipconfig|find "IPv4"|clip
Display useful Wireless Network Connection information (WLAN)
netsh wlan show interfaces
netsh is a VERY powerful and useful command. Here we are using it to display information about all existing wireless network interfaces on our computer. This information is very handy when troubleshooting various network related issues.
We can also extract information about the wired interfaces - just replace "wlan" with "lan" in the command: netsh lan show interfaces
Display WiFi SSID
netsh wlan show interfaces|findstr "[^B]SSID"
It's great when commands like the one above dump a lot of useful information. But sometimes you just need this one piece - especially if you are running a batch file and want to identify a specific value. The previous example shows lots of different things including the SSID (wireless network name). If we just need to extract the SSID we can pipe the output into the "findstr" command. I decided to use "findstr" instead of a simpler "find" because it supports regular expressions. The first command displays both SSID and BSSID and I wanted to remove BSSID from the final result.
Get a MAC address
The netsh command that we used above to show interfaces' info can also be used to get the MAC addresses for each interface (disguised as a "Physical Address" in the output). But there is also a simpler command to do this:
getmac
Display system information
The "systeminfo" command contains tons of useful operating system configuration details. Run it without specifying any parameters first to see the variety of data it can provide you. Sometimes it might be beneficial to store all of that information in a file (e.g. to be imported into the centralised repository later on). For that purpose I would recommend changing the output to the CSV format. This will make import much easier:
systeminfo /FO CSV > c:\temp\sysinfo.csv
Using environment variables
Environment variables have been around since the MS DOS days. Just run the SET command to display them all in the console window. Each environment variable can be referenced by its name surrounded by the percent symbols.
echo %OS%
echo %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%
Energy report (Officially: Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report)
powercfg energy -output c:\temp\energy-report.html
This is probably one of a less known commands. If you have never seen a report produced by this command - give it a go a see what kind of information it can give you. It is incredibly useful for troubleshooting any power, sleep, hibernation related issues.
On-Screen Keyboard
osk
As simple as that. It will bring a virtual keyboard on the screen - just in case you want to type with your mouse ;)
Bring up a User Accounts dialog
control userpasswords2
The new user accounts dialog window looks too fancy and less convenient to me (btw, you can access it via "control userpasswords"). But if you prefer the old style dialog then it's still there. You can bring it up by running "control userpasswords2" - even on Windows 10.
User, Group and Privileges Information
whoami /all
Without the "/all" switch whomai just returns the current logged in user name. With the addition of the "/all" switch you can see a lot more useful information including all groups this account is the member of (including UUIDs) and all privileges assigned to this account (things like SeIncreaseQuotaPrivilege, SeSystemtimePrivilege etc)
WMI
Now let's explore the power of WMI. WMI is an incredibly powerful way of interrogating various system parameters. I want to share a few useful examples with you just to demonstrate what's possible. We will use the wmic utility that comes standard on every version of Windows that was released after Windows XP.
Get motherboard manufacturer
for /f "tokens=9 delims= " %F in ('wmic baseboard^|more +1') do @echo %~F
Here we are extracting the 9th token (tokens in our case are space separated), which happens to be the motherboard manufacturer. Note: If a value contains spaces then they are treated as separate tokens by this method.
Using the FOR command to split a string into tokens is a generic way of handling strings from the command line.
I also wanted to demo the "more +n" trick. "more +1" means "skip the 1st line". The output consists of 2 rows - the table header and the row containing the actual values. We need this to skip the 1st (header) line in the output.
Get physical memory size
wmic computersystem get TotalPhysicalMemory | more +1
wmic memphysical get MaxCapacity | more +1
We see that we have roughly 32GB of RAM available - this includes the 16GB of physical RAM plus the size of the swap file.
Get a list of all applications that run automatically when a user logs into the system
wmic startup
Get version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer
wmic product get name,version | find "Adobe Acrobat Reader"
I hope you were able found a couple of useful commands. What are your favourite commands? Please share them in the comments section below.
Keywords: windows command line, command line tricks, useful commands, wmic, devops, sysadmin, systems engineering, microsoft windows
Gives you a long list of all user accounts in the domains. Again, might be useful for the attackers - gives them another piece of a puzzle.It will display MAC addresses of all network interfaces that are present in the system.See how each variable can be referenced in any other command:My only advice is try using environment variables everywhere you can instead of hard-coding certain values in your scripts.We will extract this information from theWMI class. To make it more interesting I will add a few additional command line techniques that you might find useful:There is a more elegant way to extract values in wmic. And I will demonstrate it in the next example.This gives us total physical memory installed in our system in bytes (we have 16GB in the example above).We can also get max memory capacity (commit charge)Not everyone wants to accept this simple truth, but that doesn’t make it any less real: hackers outpace security advancements. When it comes to both online security and real-world security, hackers have already devised 10 new tools by the time security researchers come up with an effective way to block one old tool. As a result, no one is ever truly safe — and a new device recently shown off by a well-known security researcher is yet another example of just how vulnerable we really are.
DON’T MISS: Why do I still use Android?
Online and offline security expert Samy Kamkar took to Defcon 2015 to show off a tiny device he calls “Rolljam.” The device is as shockingly simple as it is devious and brilliant, and it can be used to break into just about any car. Worse yet, it can even be used to break into a target’s home.
Rolljam is a tiny series of circuit boards with three in-built radios, Wired reports. It works by using two of the radios to jam the wireless signal sent out by a car’s keyless entry remote, while the third radio reads the code that was transmitted by the remote, which is then stored on the device.
Keyless entry devices use a system of rolling codes to prevent hackers from stealing them wirelessly and reusing them at will. Once a code is used a single time, it cannot be used again — and therein lies the brilliance of the Rolljam device.
Since the device blocks the signal from a car’s key fob while it is being transmitted, the unique code never reaches the owner’s car. The next time he or she presses the unlock button, a new code will be transmitted and it will successfully unlock the car. But that first code was never actually used, so the Rolljam can then transmit it at a later time and it will successfully unlock the target car.
Kamkar’s device was used to successfully unlock cars made by Nissan, Cadillac, Ford, Toyota, Lotus, Volkswagen and Chrysler, and it also worked perfectly with a number of garage door openers, potentially giving the user access to a target’s home.
“This is throwing the gauntlet down and saying, ‘here’s proof this is a problem,’” says Kamkar. “My own car is fully susceptible to this attack. I don’t think that’s right when we know this is solvable.” As Kamkar noted, systems like two-factor authentication use codes that automatically expire in a matter of seconds, and the same concept would render Rolljam completely ineffective.Wagyu cattle are an example of a breed raised primarily for beef.
Beef as part of a meal with potatoes and spinach.
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle, particularly skeletal muscle. Humans have been eating beef since prehistoric times.[1] Beef is a source of high-quality protein and nutrients.[2]
Beef skeletal muscle meat can be used as is by merely cutting into certain parts roasts, short ribs or steak (filet mignon, sirloin steak, rump steak, rib steak, rib eye steak, hanger steak, etc.), while other cuts are processed (corned beef or beef jerky). Trimmings, on the other hand, are usually mixed with meat from older, leaner (therefore tougher) cattle, are ground, minced or used in sausages. The blood is used in some varieties called blood sausage. Other parts that are eaten include other muscles and offal, such as the oxtail, liver, tongue, tripe from the reticulum or rumen, glands (particularly the pancreas and thymus, referred to as sweetbread), the heart, the brain (although forbidden where there is a danger of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, commonly referred to as mad cow disease), the kidneys, and the tender testicles of the bull (known in the United States as calf fries, prairie oysters, or Rocky Mountain oysters). Some intestines are cooked and eaten as is[3], but are more often cleaned and used as natural sausage casings. The bones are used for making beef stock.
Beef from steers and heifers is similar.[4] Depending on economics, the number of heifers kept for breeding varies. The meat from older bulls, because it is usually tougher, is frequently used for mince (known as ground beef in the United States). Cattle raised for beef may be allowed to roam free on grasslands, or may be confined at some stage in pens as part of a large feeding operation called a feedlot (or concentrated animal feeding operation), where they are usually fed a ration of grain, protein, roughage and a vitamin/mineral preblend.
Beef is the third most widely consumed meat in the world, accounting for about 25% of meat production worldwide, after pork and poultry at 38% and 30% respectively.[5] In absolute numbers, the United States, Brazil, and the People's Republic of China are the world's three largest consumers of beef; Uruguay, however, has the highest beef and veal consumption per capita, followed by Argentina and Brazil. According to the data from OECD, the average Uruguayan ate over 42 kg (93 lb) of beef or veal in 2014, representing the highest beef/veal consumption per capita in the world. In comparison, the average American consumed only about 24 kg (53 lb) beef or veal in the same year, while African countries, such as Mozambique, Ghana, and Nigeria, consumed the least beef or veal per capita.
In 2015, the world's largest exporters of beef were India, Brazil and Australia.[6][7] Beef production is also important to the economies of Uruguay, Canada, Paraguay, Mexico, Argentina, Belarus and Nicaragua.
Etymology [ edit ]
The word beef is from the Latin bōs,[8] in contrast to cow which is from Middle English cou (both words have the same Indo-European root *gʷou-).[9] After the Norman Conquest, the French-speaking nobles who ruled England naturally used French words to refer to the meats they were served. Thus, various Anglo-Saxon words were used for the animal (such as nēat, or cu for adult females) by the peasants, but the meat was called boef (ox) (Modern French bœuf) by the French nobles — who did not often deal with the live animal — when it was served to them. This is one example of the common English dichotomy between the words for animals (with largely Germanic origins) and their meat (with Romanic origins) that is also found in such English word-pairs as pig/pork, deer/venison, sheep/mutton and chicken/poultry (also the less common goat/chevon).[10] Beef is cognate with bovine through the Late Latin bovīnus.[11]
History [ edit ]
People have eaten the flesh of bovines from prehistoric times; some of the earliest known cave paintings, such as those of Lascaux, show aurochs in hunting scenes. People domesticated cattle around 8000 BC to provide ready access to beef, milk, and leather.[12] Most cattle originated in the Old World, with the exception of bison hybrids, which originated in the Americas. Examples include the Wagyū from Japan, Ankole-Watusi from Egypt, and longhorn Zebu from the Indian subcontinent.[13]
It is unknown exactly when people started cooking beef. Cattle were widely used across the Old World as draft animals (oxen), for milk, or specifically for human consumption. With the mechanization of farming, some breeds were specifically bred to increase meat yield, resulting in Chianina and Charolais cattle, or to improve the texture of meat, giving rise to the Murray Grey, Angus, and Wagyū. Some breeds have been selected for both meat and milk production, such as the Brown Swiss (Braunvieh).
In the United States, the growth of the beef business was largely due to expansion in the Southwest. Upon the acquisition of grasslands through the Mexican–American War of 1848, and later the expulsion of the Plains Indians from this region and the Midwest, the American livestock industry began, starting primarily with the taming of wild longhorn cattle. Chicago and New York City were the first to benefit from these developments in their stockyards and in their meat markets.[14]
Farming of beef cattle [ edit ]
Beef cattle are raised and fed using a variety of methods, including feedlots, free range, ranching, backgrounding and Intensive animal farming.
Cuts [ edit ]
Beef is first divided into primal cuts, pieces of meat initially butchering. These are basic sections from which steaks and other subdivisions are cut. The term "primal cut" is quite different from "prime cut", used to characterize cuts considered to be of higher quality. Since the animal's legs and neck muscles do the most work, they are the toughest; the meat becomes more tender as distance from hoof and horn increases. Different countries and cuisines have different cuts and names, and sometimes use the same name for a different cut; for example, the cut described as "brisket" in the United States is from a significantly different part of the carcass than British brisket.
Special beef designations [ edit ]
Breed- and origin-based designations [ edit ]
Beef rump steak on grill pan, cooked to medium rare.
Certified Angus Beef (CAB) in Canada and the United States is a specification-based, branded-beef program which was founded in 1978 by Angus cattle producers to increase demand for their breed of cattle, by promoting the impression that Angus cattle have consistent, high-quality beef with superior taste. The brand is owned by the American Angus Association and its 35,000 rancher members. The terms Angus Beef or Black Angus Beef are loosely and commonly misused or confused with CAB; this is especially common in the food service industry. The brand or name Certified Angus Beef cannot be legally used by an establishment that is not licensed to do so. In the UK the equivalent is Aberdeen Angus, marketed as higher quality and associated with stricter animal welfare rules. Notable for the herd being free of BSE during the BSE epidemic in the UK. Similar schemes are used elsewhere as in Certified Angus Beef in Ireland. [15]
or are loosely and commonly misused or confused with CAB; this is especially common in the food service industry. The brand or name Certified Angus Beef cannot be legally used by an establishment that is not licensed to do so. In the UK the equivalent is Aberdeen Angus, marketed as higher quality and associated with stricter animal welfare rules. Notable for the herd being free of BSE during the BSE epidemic in the UK. Similar schemes are used elsewhere as in Certified Angus Beef in Ireland. Certified Hereford Beef is beef certified to have come from Hereford cattle.
Kobe beef is pure Tajima-gyu breed bull that was born, raised, and slaughtered solely within the Hyogo prefecture. Very limited amounts of Kobe are exported. [16]
The EU recognizes the following Protected Designation of Origin beef brands:[17]
Process-based designations [ edit ]
Some certifications are based upon the way the cattle are treated, fed and/or slaughtered.
Grass-fed beef cattle have been raised exclusively on forage. Grain-fed beef cattle are raised primarily on forage, but are "finished" in a feedlot.
Halal beef has been certified to have been processed in a prescribed manner in accordance with Muslim dietary laws. [18]
Kosher beef has been certified to have been processed in a prescribed manner in accordance with Jewish dietary laws.
Organic beef is produced without added hormones, pesticides, or other chemicals, though requirements for labeling it organic vary widely.
Output-based standards [ edit ]
Some standards are based upon the inspected quality of the meat after slaughter.
Beef grading [ edit ]
Countries regulate the marketing and sale of beef by observing criteria post-slaughter and classifying the observed quality of the meat. This classification, sometimes optional, can suggest a market demand for a particular animal's attributes and therefore the price owed to the producer.
Aging and tenderization [ edit ]
To improve tenderness of beef, it is often aged (i.e., stored refrigerated) to allow endogenous proteolytic enzymes to weaken structural and myofibrillar proteins. Wet aging is accomplished using vacuum packaging to reduce spoilage and yield loss. Dry aging involves hanging primals (usually ribs or loins) in humidity-controlled coolers. Outer surfaces dry out and can support growth of molds (and spoilage bacteria, if too humid), resulting in trim and evaporative losses.
Evaporation concentrates the remaining proteins and increases flavor intensity; the molds can contribute a nut-like flavor. After two to three days there are significant effects. The majority of the tenderizing effect occurs in the first 10 days. Boxed beef, stored and distributed in vacuum packaging, is, in effect, wet aged during distribution. Premium steakhouses dry age for 21 to 28 days or wet age up to 45 days for maximum effect on flavor and tenderness.
Meat from less tender cuts or older cattle can be mechanically tenderized by forcing small, sharp blades through the cuts to disrupt the proteins. Also, solutions of exogenous proteolytic enzymes (papain, bromelin or ficin) can be injected to augment the endogenous enzymes. Similarly, solutions of salt and sodium phosphates can be injected to soften and swell the myofibrillar proteins. This improves juiciness and tenderness. Salt can improve the flavor, but phosphate can contribute a soapy flavor.
Cooking and preparation [ edit ]
Cooked ground beef.
These methods are applicable to all types of meat and some other foodstuffs.
Dry heat [ edit ]
Roast beef cooked under high heat.
Method Description Grilling is cooking the beef over or under a high radiant heat source, generally in excess of 340 °C (650 °F). This leads to searing of the surface of the beef, which creates a flavorsome crust. In Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany and The Netherlands, grilling, particularly over charcoal, is sometimes known as barbecuing, often shortened to "BBQ". When cooked over charcoal, this method can also be called charbroiling. Barbecue refers to a technique of cooking that involves cooking meat for long periods of time at low temperatures with smoke from a wood fire. Broiling is a term used in North America. It is similar to grilling, but with the heat source always above the meat. Elsewhere this is considered a way of grilling. Griddle Meat may be cooked on a hot metal griddle. A little oil or fat may be added to inhibit sticking; the dividing line when the method becomes shallow frying is not well-defined. Roasting is a way of cooking meat in a hot oven, producing roast beef. Liquid is not usually added; the beef may be basted by fat on the top, or by spooning hot fat from the oven pan over the top. A gravy may be made from the cooking juices, after skimming off excess fat. Roasting is suitable for thicker pieces of meat; the other methods listed are usually for steaks and similar cuts.
Internal temperature [ edit ]
Beef can be cooked to various degrees, from very rare to well done. The degree of cooking corresponds to the temperature in the approximate center of the meat, which can be measured with a meat thermometer. Beef can be cooked using the sous-vide method, which cooks the entire steak to the same temperature, but when cooked using a method such as broiling or roasting it is typically cooked such that it has a "bulls eye" of doneness, with the least done (coolest) at the center and the most done (warmest) at the outside.
Frying [ edit ]
Meat can be cooked in boiling oil, typically by shallow frying, although deep frying may be used, often for meat enrobed with breadcrumbs as in milanesas. Larger pieces such as steaks may be cooked this way, or meat may be cut smaller as in stir frying, typically an Asian way of cooking: cooking oil with flavorings such as garlic, ginger and onions is put in a very hot wok. Then small pieces of meat are added, followed by ingredients which cook more quickly, such as mixed vegetables. The dish is ready when the ingredients are 'just cooked'.
Moist heat [ edit ]
Moist heat cooking methods include braising, pot roasting, stewing and sous-vide. These techniques are often used for cuts of beef that are tougher, as these longer, lower-temperature cooking methods have time to dissolve connecting tissue which otherwise makes meat remain tough after cooking.
Stewing or simmering
simmering meat, whole or cut into bite-size pieces, in a water-based liquid with flavorings. This technique may be used as part of pressure cooking.
cooking meats, in a covered container, with small amounts of liquids (usually seasoned or flavored). Unlike stewing, braised meat is not fully immersed in liquid, and usually is browned before the oven step.
Sous-vide, French for "under vacuum", is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time—72 hours is not unknown—at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for other types of cooking. The intention is to maintain the integrity of ingredients and achieve very precise control of cooking. Although water is used in the method, only moisture in or added to the food bags is in contact with the food.
Beef roasted with vinegar and sliced with spiced paste, often called "cold beef".
Meat has usually been cooked in water which is just simmering, such as in stewing; higher temperatures make meat tougher by causing the proteins to contract. Since thermostatic temperature control became available, cooking at temperatures well below boiling, 52 °C (126 °F) (sous-vide) to 90 °C (194 °F) (slow cooking), for prolonged periods has become possible; this is just hot enough to convert the tough collagen in connective tissue into gelatin through hydrolysis, with minimal toughening.
With the adequate combination of temperature and cooking time, pathogens, such as bacteria will be killed, and pasteurization can be achieved. Because browning (Maillard reactions) can only occur at higher temperatures (above the boiling point of water), these moist techniques do not develop the flavors associated with browning. Meat will often undergo searing in a very hot pan, grilling or browning with a torch before moist cooking (though sometimes after).
Thermostatically controlled methods, such as sous-vide, can also prevent overcooking by bringing the meat to the exact degree of doneness desired, and holding it at that temperature indefinitely. The combination of precise temperature control and long cooking duration makes it possible to be assured that pasteurization has been achieved, both on the surface and the interior of even very thick cuts of meat, which can not be assured with most other cooking techniques. (Although extremely long-duration cooking can break down the texture of the meat to an undesirable degree.)
Beef can be cooked quickly at the table through several techniques. In hot pot cooking, such as shabu-shabu, very thinly sliced meat is cooked by the diners at the table by immersing it in a heated pot of water or stock with vegetables. In fondue bourguignonne, diners dip small pieces of beef into a pot of hot oil at the table. Both techniques typically feature accompanying flavorful sauces to complement the meat.
Raw beef [ edit ]
A raw sliced beef.
Steak tartare is a French dish made from finely chopped or ground (minced) raw meat (often beef). More accurately, it is scraped so as not to let even the slightest of the sinew fat get into the scraped meat. It is often served with onions, capers, seasonings such as fresh ground pepper and Worcestershire sauce, and sometimes raw egg yolk.
The Belgian or Dutch dish filet américain is also made of finely chopped ground beef, though it is seasoned differently, and either eaten as a main dish or can be used as a dressing for a sandwich. Kibbeh nayyeh is a similar Lebanese and Syrian dish. And in Ethiopia, a ground raw meat dish called tire siga or kitfo is eaten (upon availability).
Carpaccio of beef is a thin slice of raw beef dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning. Often, the beef is partially frozen before slicing to allow very thin slices to be cut.
Yukhoe is a variety of hoe, raw dishes in Korean cuisine which is usually made from raw ground beef seasoned with various spices or sauces. The beef part used for yukhoe is tender rump steak. For the seasoning, soy sauce, sugar, salt, sesame oil, green onion, and ground garlic, sesame seed, black pepper and juice of bae (Korean pear) are used. The beef is mostly topped with the yolk of a raw egg.
Cured, smoked, and dried beef [ edit ]
Bresaola is an air-dried, salted beef that has been aged about two to three months until it becomes hard and a dark red, almost purple, colour. It is lean, has a sweet, musty smell and is tender. It originated in Valtellina, a valley in the Alps of northern Italy's Lombardy region. Bündnerfleisch is a similar product from neighbouring Switzerland. Chipped beef is an American industrially produced air-dried beef product, described by one of its manufacturers as being "similar to bresaola, but not as tasty."[19]
Beef jerky is dried, salted, smoked beef popular in the United States.
Biltong is a cured, salted, air dried beef popular in South Africa.
Pastrami is often made from beef; raw beef is salted, then partly dried and seasoned with various herbs and spices, and smoked.
Corned beef is a cut of beef cured or pickled in a seasoned brine. The corn in corned beef refers to the grains of coarse salts (known as corns) used to cure it. The term corned beef can denote different styles of brine-cured beef, depending on the region. Some, like American-style corned beef, are highly seasoned and often considered delicatessen fare.
Spiced beef is a cured and salted joint of round, topside, or silverside, traditionally served at Christmas in Ireland. It is a form of salt beef, cured with spices and saltpetre, intended to be boiled or broiled in Guinness or a similar stout, and then optionally roasted for a period after.[20] There are various other recipes for pickled beef. Sauerbraten is a German variant.
Religious prohibitions [ edit ]
A pamphlet protesting against the practice of cow slaughter.
Most Indic religions do not appreciate killing cattle and eating beef. However, they do not consider the cow to be a god.[21] Bovines have a sacred status in India especially the cow, from the idealization due to their provision of sustenance for families. Bovines are generally considered to be integral to the landscape. In Hinduism, the entire cosmic creation is considered to be sacred and are venerated like celestial bodies such as sun, moon to fig trees and rivers like Ganga river, Saraswati river, etc.[22]
India as a developing country, many of its rural area economies depend upon cattle farming, hence they have been revered in the society.[23][24] From Vedic period, the role of cattle, especially cows, as a source of milk, and dairy products, and their relative importance in transport services and farming like ploughing, row planting, ridging, and weeding made people to revere the importance of cow in their daily lives, and this rose with the advent of Jainism and Gupta period.[25] In medieval India, Maharaja Ranjit Singh issued proclamation on stopping cow slaughter as it is a sentimental issue. Lack of secular tolerance and caste politics has also given birth to Hindu right-wing vigilante cow protection groups. Conflicts over cow slaughter often have sparked religious riots that have led to loss of human life and in an 1893 riot alone, more than 100 people were killed for the cause.[26] A. N. Bose in Social and Rural Economy of Northern India says any taboo or the cow worship itself is a relatively recent development in India. The sacred white Cow is considered as the abode of crores of 33 type Hindu Deities. Products of Cow's milk like curd, butter, cheese, milk sweets are sold commercially and used in religious rituals.
For religious reasons the ancient Egyptian priests also refrained from consuming beef. Buddhists and Sikhs are also against wrongful slaughtering of animals but they don't have a wrongful eating doctrine.[27] In the Indigenous American tradition a white buffalo calf is considered sacred, they call it Pte Ska Win (White Buffalo Calf Woman).
During the season of Lent, Orthodox Christians and Catholics give up all meat and poultry (as well as dairy products and eggs) as a religious act. Observant Jews[28] and Muslims may not eat any meat or poultry which has not been slaughtered and treated in conformance with religious laws.
Legal prohibition [ edit ]
India [ edit ]
India is one of the biggest exporters of buffalo meat. Though some states of India impose various types of prohibition on beef prompted by religious aspects that are fueled by Caste and Religion based Politics.[29][30][31][32][33] Hindu religious scripts[which?] do not condemn[citation needed] consumption of beef and experts concur. However certain Hindu castes and sects continue to avoid beef from their diets.[34][35] Article 48 of the Constitution of India mandates the state may take steps for preserving and improving the bovine breeds, and prohibit the slaughter, of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle. Article 47 of the Constitution of India provides states must raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health as among its primary duties, based on this a reasonableness in slaughter of common cattle was instituted, if the animals ceased to be capable of breeding, providing milk, or serving as draught animals. The overall mismanagement of India's common cattle is dubbed in academic fields as "India's bovine burden."[36][37] In 2017 as a part of Hindutva movement, a rule against the slaughter of cattle and the eating of beef was signed into law by presidential assent as a modified version of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The original act, however, did permit the humane slaughter of animals for use as food.[38][39]
Existing meat export policy in India prohibits the export of beef (meat of cow, oxen and calf). Bone-in meat, a carcass, or half carcass of buffalo is also prohibited from export. Only the boneless meat of buffalo, meat of goat and sheep and birds is permitted for export.[40][41] In 2017, India sought a total "beef ban" and Australian market analysts predicted that this would create market opportunities for leather traders and meat producers there and elsewhere. Their prediction estimated a twenty percent shortage of beef and a thirteen percent shortage of leather in the world market.[42]
Cuba [ edit ]
In 2003, Cuba banned cow slaughter due to severe shortage of milk and milk products.[43]
Nutrition and health [ edit ]
Beef is a source of complete protein and it is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of Niacin, Vitamin B12, iron and zinc.[44] Red meat is the most significant dietary source of carnitine and, like any other meat (pork, fish, veal, lamb etc.), is a source of creatine. Creatine is converted to creatinine during cooking.[45]
Health concerns [ edit ]
Cancer
Excessive consumption of red processed meat is known to increase the risk of bowel cancer and some other cancers.[46][47][48]
Cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease
The Harvard School of Public Health recommends consumers eat red meat sparingly as it has high levels of undesirable saturated fat.[49] This recommendation is not without controversy, though. Another study from The Harvard School of Public Health appearing in Circulation (journal) found "Consumption of processed meats, but not red meats, is associated with higher incidence of coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus."[50]
This finding tended to confirm an earlier meta-analysis of the nutritional effects of saturated fat in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which found "[P]rospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease. More data are needed to elucidate whether cardiovascular disease risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat."[51]
Dioxins
Some cattle raised in the United States feed on pastures fertilized with sewage sludge. Elevated dioxins may be present in meat from these cattle.[52]
Recalls [ edit ]
Ground beef has been subject to recalls in the United States, due to Escherichia coli (E. coli) contamination:
January 2011, One Great Burger expands recall. [53]
February 2011, American Food Service, a Pico Rivera, Calif. establishment, is recalling approximately 3,170 pounds (1,440 kg) of fresh ground beef patties and other bulk packages of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. [54]
O157:H7. March 2011, 14,000 pounds (6,400 kg) beef recalled by Creekstone Farms Premium Beef due to E. coli concerns. [55]
concerns. April 2011, National Beef Packaging recalled more than 60,000 pounds (27,000 kg) of ground beef due to E. coli contamination. [56]
contamination. May 2011, Irish Hills Meat Company of Michigan, a Tipton, Mich., establishment is recalling approximately 900 pounds (410 kg) of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. [57]
O157:H7. September 2011, Tyson Fresh Meats recalled 131,100 pounds (59,500 kg) of ground beef due to E. coli contamination. [58]
contamination. December 2011, Tyson Fresh Meats recalled 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of ground beef |
speaks to the importance of these types of marketing campaigns. When done authentically, standing for inclusivity will spark a groundswell of support."Following last week’s release of the Android 8.1 Developer Preview, new functionality is still being uncovered. Yesterday, one possible feature emerged, suggesting that Android was making a critical change to Factory Reset Protection. However, Google has confirmed to us that this is not the case and that a bug is to blame.
Introduced with Android Lollipop, Factory Reset Protection is a measure designed to prevent nefarious parties from wiping and flashing stolen devices. At first boot, the new owner would have to sign-in with the Google account previously associated with that phone or tablet.
Yesterday morning, a Pixel 2 XL user running Android 8.1 documented forgetting their recently set screen lock pattern. Having no other remedy, the user factory reset the device in hopes of using their Google account credentials to regain access.
However, once on the “Verify your account” page noting that the “device was reset,” this user reported only having the ability to enter the forgotten Pattern. The expected option of being able to “sign in with a Google Account” was absent. At the time, some speculated that was a new security measure by Google to further deter device theft.
However, that is not the case. Google has confirmed to us that Developer Preview 1 of Android 8.1 has a bug relating to lockscreen patterns. Users in a similar scenario that set a PIN or password would be able to bypass Factory Reset Protection with their Google account.
According to Google, the bug will be resolved in the next developer preview that is scheduled to come later in the month.
The user in this case was fortunately able to get Google to replace the device via an RMA, but this incident does serve as a reminder that bugs are expected in any Developer Preview.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:Rising Premier League stars Jordon Ibe, James Wilson, Eric Dier and Calum Chambers headline England's Under-21 men's national team that will take on the U.S. Under-23 national team in a friendly on September 3 in England.
The U.S. will be using the match as preparation for Olympic qualifying, which commences October 1. The Americans were drawn with Canada, Panama and Cuba in their qualifying group. The U.S. will also play against Qatar in England on Sept. 8. Both friendlies will be rematches of contests during this past June's Toulon Tournament in France. The U.S. beat England 2-1 and Qatar 1-0 en route to a third-place finish.
The likes of Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw and John Stones are not part of England's team despite being age-eligible. They're expected to be part of Roy Hodgson's senior squad for European Championship qualifiers against San Marino and Switzerland during the same international fixture window, according to The Guardian.
Here's the side that will face the USA:
GOALKEEPERS: Angus Gunn (Manchester City), Jordan Pickford (Preston North End), Christian Walton (Bury)
DEFENDERS: Calum Chambers (Arsenal), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Brendan Galloway (Everton), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Kortney Hause (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Dominic Iorfa (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Jack Stephens (Middlesbrough), Matt Targett (Southampton)
MIDFIELDERS: Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea), Jake Forster-Caskey (Brighton & Hove Albion), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton)
FORWARDS: Chuba Akpom (Hull City), Jordon Ibe (Liverpool), Solly March (Brighton & Hove Albion), Nathan Redmond (Norwich City), Duncan Watmore (Sunderland), James Wilson (Manchester United), Cauley Woodrow (Fulham)Summary
Makes: 4 Servings
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 10 - 20 minutes
Total: 15 - 25 minutes
Ingredients
900 g freshly picked potatoes
1 spring of fresh mint
1/2 tsp salt
30 g butter
2 tbsp finely chopped dill
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Wash the potatoes and then scrub or scrape off the skins. Rinse the potatoes.
2. Place the larger potatoes over the base of a saucepan and pop the smaller ones on top. Pour in enough boiling water to not quite cover them, add some salt and the sprig of mint.
3. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer gently for between 10 and 20 minutes. The cooking time depends on the variety and size. Test them with a skewer as they must be tender but still firm — overcooking really does spoil them.
4. Drain the potatoes and add the butter, chopped dill and a little pepper to the pan and then return the potatoes to the pan. Put the lid back on the pan and swirl the pan around to get each potato thoroughly coated.
5. Remove the lid, savour the delicious aroma and then sprinkle with a little rock salt before serving dishing them up.
This recipe was orginally published on food writer John Duxbury's website Swedish FoodThe Visegrád group of countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — are calling for dramatic reforms to the functioning of the European Union (EU) and its institutions.
The Visegrád group (V4) leaders produced a joint statement ahead of the summit of 27 EU Member States which the United Kingdom is not attending. Seeking to find unity among the remaining nations after the Brexit referendum result, EurActiv.com reports the group is calling for the creation of “a genuine Union of trust”.
The reformist statement from the four Prime Ministers of the V4 reads:
The genuine concerns of our citizens need to be better reflected. National parliaments have to be heard. The institutions of the European Union need to stick to their missions and mandates. Trust also needs to be fostered among member states, starting with overcoming the artificial and unnecessary dividing lines we have seen emerging in past few months.
Foreign ministers from the Czech Republic and of Poland had already assigned “responsibility” for last week’s referendum result to the EU institutions, and even called for the resignation of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Nevertheless, Bohuslav Sobotka — the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, the country holding the rotating presidency of the V4 — made it clear the group is not pushing for President Juncker’s departure. He told the Prague Daily Monitor personal battles should be avoided at the moment, adding:
“I would be glad if the European Commission helped seek an EU compromise more intensively and tried to solve possible discrepancies between the EU member states more.
“I would also like the Commission to more respect the European Council’s decisions.”
Mr. Sobotka was reportedly referring to the situation during the migrant crisis where individual EU member states agreed on one position, but the Commission insisted on pushing through obligatory migrant quotas.
One area where V4 opinion sits at odds with the mainstream view of EU member states is over Brexit negotiations. They want to see the European Council, under Donald Tusk’s presidency, leading the negotiations which other member states want to see led by President Juncker’s commission.
Support for Mr. Tusk from the V4 is not, however, universal. Politico reports that Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, said he bore “direct responsibility” for Brexit. Mr. Kaczyński blamed the former Polish Prime Minister, a domestic political enemy, for the negotiations with the UK that he believes failed to offer enough concessions for David Cameron to win last week’s referendum.
On Polish television yesterday, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski called Mr. Tusk a “third league politician” who “didn’t exist” during the Brexit crisis.China unveiled the Dongfeng 26, an intermediate-range ballistic missile long hidden from the public, in a military parade Wednesday commemorating the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II. Several other Dongfeng missiles were also shown publicly for the first time in the parade, but the DF-26, nicknamed the "Guam Killer," has sparked the most interest.
With a range of 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers, or 1,800 to 2,500 miles, the DF-26 has the capability to reach U.S. bases on Guam, Popular Mechanic reported. Displayed atop a new Transport Erector Launcher, which itself grabbed attention when it was first spotted in mid-August, the DF-26 could be equipped with an anti-ship ballistic missile warhead.
China's new ballistic missile: Dong Feng 26. Range 4000 km. pic.twitter.com/UEu596wRCV — Tal Inbar (@inbarspace) August 26, 2015
Also featured in the military parade was the Dongfeng 21-D "carrier-killer" missile, the Financial Times reported. DF 21-D is a predecessor to the DF-26 and a medium-range ballistic missile whose development Beijing confirmed in 2011 but which has remained hidden from the public since then. Shao Yongling, a colonel from the People's Liberation Army Second Artillery Command College, said that the DF-21D demonstrated "China's greater confidence in its military strength," according to the Global Times. The DF-21 could potentially travel up to 10 times the speed of sound, Western defense experts told the Financial Times.
“This is the missile that really does potentially encroach on U.S. capability to deploy military power close to Chinese shores. It significantly raises the risks and costs,” Ashley Townshend, a research fellow at the U.S. Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, said.
Live: Dongfeng-21D: China’s anti-ship ballistic missile known as “carrier killer” pic.twitter.com/Yqy9VZSwrC — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) September 3, 2015
Also on display at the Victory Day parade were several other Dongfeng missiles of varying ranges, about 12,000 troops and 500 armored vehicles, along with other armaments, drones and missiles, City A.M. reported.
China has been upgrading its military capabilities and modernizing its weapons as part of broader efforts to maintain its status as the dominant country in the Asia-Pacific region, aggravating relations with its neighbors in the process. Not only has it been developing new armaments, but China has also built islands in the South China Sea -- exacerbating tensions with the Philippines -- and launched oil drilling operations off the coast of Vietnam in 2014.At any given moment, you have somewhere between 10 trillion and 100 trillion microorganisms inhabiting your gut — that’s more microbes in your bowels than there are cells in your body. If that isn’t impressive enough, consider that collectively these microbes have about 150 times as many genes as your own genome. Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly which microbes make up the human microbiome, but it’s estimated to contain more than 1,000 species and 7,000 distinct strains of bacteria. Your gut is never alone.
It’s also not working in isolation. What’s becoming more and more clear is that the microbes in the gut are crucial for the brain and mental health. Ted Dinan is an expert in this field, and he became so almost by accident. It was the early 2000s, and he’d recently taken a position at University College Cork, a place that he said was “known for its heavy-hitting microbiologists.” Some of these microbiologists were talking about a type of bacteria they described as “probiotic” — conferring some kind of health benefit. As a psychiatrist, Dinan thought it would be interesting to see what happened when he fed these probiotics to some rats he was studying in an experimental model of mental health. Lo and behold, rats given the probiotics expressed fewer signs of anxiety and depression. Dinan and his colleagues would go on to coin the term “psychobiotics” for microbes that can benefit the brain or behavior.
It’s the fourth (and final!) day of this week’s series on gut science. We’ve written about whether probiotics work, whether gut science is biased and why we’re so obsessed with constipation, and we’ve made a video about what poop can tell us about our health.
The idea that our intestinal tracts shape our mental states is hardly new. Medicine has a long history of blaming our guts for psychological disorders. In the early 1800s, an Army surgeon named William Beaumont became a pioneer in gastrointestinal physiology by studying gastric secretions, which he noted seemed to change in step with one’s moods. By the early 1900s, physicians and scientists had come to view the colon as the gateway to a wide array of mental illnesses and thought that microbes in the intestinal system might contribute to “fatigue, melancholia and the neuroses.”
The latest research shows that the digestive tract and the central nervous system maintain a complex two-way line of communication via the “gut-brain axis.” Studies where researchers manipulated the gut bacteria in mice have shown that these microbes influence how the brain develops, particularly the regions that influence the stress response and conditions related to stress, such as anxiety and depression, said Jane Foster, a neuroscientist at McMaster University. One recently published study found that the microbiome influences the regulation of genes related to myelin (a material that forms a sheath around nerves) in the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain implicated in numerous psychiatric disorders, including depression and schizophrenia. The finding suggests a potential mechanism by which gut microbes could be involved in these conditions.
Bacteria in your intestines might also send chemical messages to your brain. Some strains of gut bacteria can secrete neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and tryptophan. The enteric nervous system lining the digestive tract contains millions of neurons that can respond to these neurotransmitters and send signals up to the brain.
In one study, Dinan and his colleagues fed mice probiotics similar to those found in yogurt. Mice given the microbes behaved less anxiously and were more likely to venture into the open, exposed parts of a maze. They also had higher levels of GABA, which can be involved in anxiety and depression. These effects on the brain seem to involve signaling through the vagus nerve, which anatomically connects the guts and the brain, Dinan said. “When we severed the vagus nerve in animals, we got no impact from the bug at all,” he said, referring to the probiotic. In another study, another team of researchers transplanted microbes from the guts of one strain of mice to another and found that the second group displayed behavioral traits of the mice from which they’d received the microbes. Mice that had previously been hesitant to wander were more interested in exploring after their guts were exposed to microbiota of mice who were less inhibited.
Animal studies like these seem exciting, but at the moment, they’re about all we have, and the scientific literature is riddled with examples of mouse models that don’t end up applying to humans. A systematic review published in October looked at psychobiotic research on people and concluded, “There is very limited evidence for the efficacy of probiotic interventions in psychological outcomes.” Most of the studies done on humans so far have looked at differences in the microbial composition of healthy people versus those with a particular condition. “That’s what’s necessary before you can start to consider the mechanisms,” Foster said, but these studies don’t prove causality. Dinan’s group recently submitted a study for publication suggesting that a particular strain of probiotic seemed to help soothe anxiety in people, but it’s just a single study, and Dinan said he’s “very reluctant” to overstate the evidence so far.
This absence of evidence isn’t proof that psychobiotics don’t work in humans — instead, it reflects the fact that the gut-brain axis is a complicated system that’s hard to study. For instance, figuring out which organisms in the gut are important is a crucial step in understanding the system, but sampling them is hard, said Jonathan Eisen, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis. If altering the gut’s microbes can change behavior, which microbes are most important, and what does it take to tip the scales toward the right ones? We simply don’t have good answers yet.
There’s little doubt that changing your diet changes the microbiome in your gut. “What’s debatable is whether or not you can guide your microbiome in a direction that will have benefits,” Eisen said. Research has shown that people with certain health characteristics or disease have particular microbes, but that doesn’t tell us with any certainty that those microbes have any causative relationship with those traits. As author Ed Yong wrote a few years back, there is no “normal” or “healthy” microbiome that one should aim for. “The microbiome is complex, varied, ever changing and context-dependent.”
“Too many large-scale, spurious claims are being made,” Dinan said, mostly by people with something to sell. Although we have “very good data” from animal studies, he said, there’s nothing that could be described as solid clinical data linking the gut microbiome to depression or anxiety in people. This hasn’t stopped people from making outrageous microbiome-related promises. Eisen regularly calls out unscientific claims on his blog by awarding them “Overselling the Microbiome” awards. One award debunked the idea that antibiotics are “extinguishing” our microbiomes, and another called out the claim that changing your gut bacteria can prevent a stroke.
Eisen probably hasn’t given out his last “Overselling” award. Microbiome research is hot right now — the National Institute of Mental Health has awarded $3.7 million in grants for 2015 and 2016 to study the microbiome’s role in mental health, the U.S. Office of Naval Research is also funding research on the issue, and a European project called MyNewGut is investigating the gut-brain connection. It’s clear that scientists are on to something interesting, but some patience is in order.
Biomedicine, after all, has a history of grandiose expectations about what new lines of study might yield. When the Human Genome Project was launched more than 25 years ago, it was widely hoped that it would lead to cures for many genetic diseases. That hasn’t happened, at least not on a large scale. After the genome, the epigenome — the chemical modifications that influence how genes function — became the hot new thing. Now the microbiome has taken on the same aura of expectation. But before we assume it will explain everything, we’d be wise to remember that biology is rarely as simple as we want it to be.We’re all really into talking about Ello, the new “anti-Facebook” social network that both confuses and excites us. There are plenty of Ello conversations to be had, about the huge LGBTQ community it’s welcomed, about how maybe it’s not all that perfect (VC funding alert!), about how to use the damn thing…
But what we haven’t been able to talk about are numbers. Until now: RJmetrics decided to took all of Ello’s publicly available information (which is… all its information) and created a sample size of about 160,000 users. And from there, we’re getting initial look at Ello activity and performance.
If you want the deep dive, the entire report is embedded below.
Either way, here are a few highlights from the research:
Though sign-ups are tapering off, Ello is still seeing an impressive amount of new users, and activity is very high.
Ello’s current activity isn’t that different from what the early days looked like over on Twitter. In fact, they look better than the early activity of Jelly, once-touted as a “hot new app of the moment.”
Still, there’s some passive usership going on: 36 percent of users have never posted; 18 percent have posted once.
Perhaps most inspiring, Ello’s early numbers are holding well against Instagram’s.
So what does Tristan Handy, the author of the report, actually think of Ello? Like, as a user? “I do like Ello, a lot actually. And maybe I’m the target market. I used Friendster and Myspace when they both started out, and had a Facebook account as soon as it was opened up to non-edu email domains,” he tells me via email. “I really don’t use Facebook anymore—it’s become to productized. Too many viral triggers, notifications, ads. It’s so clear that they’re designing an addictive human behavior (and doing an amazing job of it); I just don’t relish being a part of that any more. I don’t think I’m alone.
“Ello feels like social networking before social networking became a multi-hundred-billion-dollar industry, and I liked that. We’ll see whether it stays true to those roots.”
H/T RJMetrics | Screenshot via ElloWritten by Nastassia Baroni on June 12, 2015
Canadian musician, songwriter and producer Devin Townsend is heading back to Australia for a run of tour dates this October.
The Devin Townsend Project 2015 Australian tour will visit Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and comes a year after Townsend himself visited Australia for a series of guitar clinics, offering up his skills to teach others how they can be almost as musically diverse as he is.
Fans can expect a career defining set from the muso, featuring songs from across his expansive catalogue – and with more than 30 albums under his belt, including his latest double-album Z, he has plenty of solid material to draw on.
Heading along on the tour will be Maryland progressive metal act Periphery, who’ll be showcasing their recently released double album Juggernaut: Alpha and Omega.
Check out tour dates and ticket information below.
UPDATE 27/07/15: Melbourne fans have reacted first and the Sunday 25th October show at 170 Russell is now completely sold out. Both artists have now agreed to perform a second and final Melbourne show on Monday 26th October at 170 Russell.
Tickets go on sale Thursday 30th July, 9am AEST. Limited tickets remain for Brisbane and Sydney shows. See updated details below.
Gallery: Devin Townsend Project, Ne Obliviscaris – Palace Theatre, Melbourne 13/10/13
DevinTownsendProject-01 DevinTownsendProject-02 DevinTownsendProject-03 DevinTownsendProject-04 DevinTownsendProject-05 DevinTownsendProject-06 DevinTownsendProject-07 DevinTownsendProject-08 DevinTownsendProject-09 DevinTownsendProject-10 DevinTownsendProject-11 DevinTownsendProject-12 DevinTownsendProject-13 DevinTownsendProject-14 DevinTownsendProject-15 DevinTownsendProject-16 DevinTownsendProject-17 DevinTownsendProject-18 DevinTownsendProject-19 DevinTownsendProject-20 DevinTownsendProject-21 DevinTownsendProject-22 DevinTownsendProject-23 DevinTownsendProject-24 DevinTownsendProject-25 DevinTownsendProject-26 DevinTownsendProject-27 DevinTownsendProject-28 DevinTownsendProject-29 NeObliviscaris-01 NeObliviscaris-02 NeObliviscaris-03 NeObliviscaris-04 NeObliviscaris-05 NeObliviscaris-06 NeObliviscaris-07 NeObliviscaris-08 NeObliviscaris-09
Devin Townsend Project Australian Tour Dates
With Periphery
Tickets on sale 9am Friday 19th June
Thursday, 22nd October
Max Watts, Brisbane (18+)
Tickets: Oztix / Max Watts / Eventopia
Saturday, 24th October
Roundhouse, Sydney (Licensed All Ages)
Tickets: Ticketek
Sunday, 25th October – SOLD OUT
170 Russell, Melbourne, (18+)
Tickets: Eventopia / Oztix / 170russell
Monday, 26th October – NEW SHOW
170 Russell, Melbourne, (18+)
Tickets: Eventopia / Oztix / 170russellexisting on earth at any one moment; one day is coming and the other day is going. So you can see the problem in trying to tell all the Christians covering the earth at any one instant of time the exact day or hour of our Lord's return. However, this does not preclude or prevent the faithful from knowing the year, the month, and the week of the Lord's return.
REASON #2
Joe Civeli of Pensacola, Florida, gave us the following information regarding the word “knoweth”: To be tt er un de rs ta nd wh at Je su s sa id in Ma tt. 24 :3 6 an d Ma rk 13 :3 2 wh en he us ed th e wo rd “knoweth,”reference to the Greek language where a single word can have several meanings, a word must be used in a sentence in order to determine its meaning. In Greek, however, a meaning of a word can be determined without knowing the context of a sentence because each meaning of a given word is indicated by a different spelling. Take, for example, the word “love”: in English language, it must be used in separate sentences to convey the feeling of unselfish love, tender affectionate love, kindness love, or romantic sexual love. In the Greek language, the word “agape” is used to described unselfish love, with “philio” denotes tender affectionate love, “philanthropia”, kindness love, and “eros”, romantic sexual love. The Greek had eight words to express the various uses of the verb “to know”. Two of these forms - “ginosko” and “oida” are used by Jesus in Matthew 24, 25, and Mark 13 and throughout the New Testament. The word “ginosko”, according to
Strong's Concordance,
#1097, and
The Companion Bible
, appendix 132, means
to understand, to be sure of, and to have unconditional and objective knowledge
. The used of this form of the verb means that the information can be obtain and understood; you can have complete knowledge. In essence, the information or knowledge is either available and understandable, or it is not. Had Jesus used this form, there would have been no doubt that no one could know “of that time, not even the angels, or Jesus.” However, Jesus did not used “ginosko”, He used “oida”. The word “oida” (spelled “eido” in
Strong's Concordance
#1492 and “oida” in both
The Companion Bible
and
Young's Analytical Concordance
) is similar to “ginosko” in that it means “to understand, to have knowledge, etc,” but only when used in certain past tenses. When used in other tenses, as done by Jesus in Matt. 24, 25, and Mark 13, its meaning is obtained from “optimai”. This word according to
Strong's Concordance
#3700, means
to understand intuitively
– knowledge obtained without effort. Usage of “oida” in other than certain past tenses refers only to how knowledge is obtained, not the degree of understanding as with “ginosko”. The positive used of “oida – to know” means the information or knowledge is understood intuitively,
being obvious to the observer
. The negative used of “oida – cannot know” does not mean that the information or knowledge is not obvious, easily seen, or understood by intuition. The negative used of “oida” in no way implies that the information or knowledge is unknowable or unattainable;
it does m ean that it tak es an effort
, investigation, or study in order to uncover and understand it.
In other words, it is there to obtain
. It can be seen in the following verses that Jesus made a clear distinction between “knowing” the signs of the return, and “knowing” when He is to return: Matt. 24:32 (ginosko)... Know that summer is near Matt. 24:33 (ginosko)... Know that it is near Matt. 24:43 (ginosko)... Know this, if the good man Mark 13:28 (ginosko)... Know that summer is near Mark 13:29 (ginosko)... You will know the time is near Matt. 24:36 (oida)... Of that day and hour knoweth no man Matt. 24:42 (oida)... You won't know when your Lord will return Matt. 24:43 (oida)... If the good man had known Matt. 25:13 (oida)... You kn ow neither the day nor the hour when he com es Mark 13:32 (oida)... Of that day and hour knoweth no man Mark 13:33 (oida)... You don't know when the master of the house is coming Where Jesus used the “ginosko”form of “to know” in the verse above, He was indicating that the knowledge would be available and that they would have complete understanding. In the other verses where Jesus used “oida”, He was indicating that the knowledge would not come instinctively,
but would require some effort to perceive and understand it.Would you sign a contract that says, "Any term can be changed at any time for any reason, including no reason"? Anyone who uses a credit card already has.
Such are the absurd terms of the consumer credit-card industry, which is poised to be the next big crisis (after housing) that banks have aided and abetted in US households.
Americans have now racked up nearly $1 trillion in credit-card debt. As housing equity shrinks and costs rise, agencies such as Moody's report swelling numbers of accounts with balances three or more payments past due. Reinforced by abusive industry practices, the plastic safety net is becoming a permanent cage.
But here's the good news: If you've ever been steamed by surprise fees on your credit-card statement or had your interest rate cranked up without warning, the Federal Reserve Board wants to help you. The Fed? That oracular secret society whose chairmen say Yoda-like things about interest rates? Well, actually, yes.
Ever since its remarkable "oversight" of junk lending led to the mortgage melt-down, the Fed seems determined not to let credit-card defaults drive the American banking system any closer to Third World standards.
There's plenty to reform. During the housing bubble, credit-card vendors inflated interest rates – even as the Fed slashed them – and found increasingly sneaky ways to usher their customers into perpetually indebted servitude. Such as:
•Raising rates as high as 32 percent on existing balances, with no notice, even when they've always been paid on time.
•Compressing the time between statement mailings and due dates.
•Charging interest on debt already repaid.
•Posting on-time payments after their due date – and then charging late fees.
•Neglecting to disclose how much interest and time it will take to pay off a balance with minimum payments (if ever).
Banks in the card game are raising rates and fees to limit their losses on mortgage loans they made. This is doubly ironic, since their delusional lending and exotic mortgage cocktails gave the housing bubble its irrational effervescence to begin with. So now millions of American households are being dragged under even further.
This year, card companies will break all records for late fees, over-limit charges, and other penalties, pulling in more than $19 billion. Not to mention extra charges for paying by mail or by phone (try $14.99). Credit card is the only industry where customers pay extra to be allowed to pay. Where agreements can be changed without notice. Where nearly half of industry revenues come from penalty fees.
You can't just dismiss these predatory practices as a tax on stupidity. Borrower beware? A quaint notion, when bankers play misleading and retroactively abusive games with other people's lives.
Competition? Five card vendors control nearly 80 percent of the market. State regulation? Enforcement has been rendered toothless. Recourse to the courts? This industry, given mandatory binding arbitration, is shielded from any class action. Meanwhile, the average mailbox is stuffed with 24 credit card offers each year. I'm looking at one from First Premier Bank, at an attractive 9.9 percent rate, whose fine print cost in first year fees and interest is $256. For a $250 credit line. Provided I pay on time.
Enter the Fed. Randall Kroszner, a Chicago economist hotly averse to regulation, is pushing to regulate the most misleading and predatory practices. The card vendors will tie this up in court, in an endless argument about jurisdiction. That's why legislation is needed, to make new rules stick – and why every e-mail or phone call to Congress will be another good reason to fix this.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D) of New York recently got the House lined up for a floor vote. Similar bills have floated and died before. The Senate "may" hold hearings in September. Got debt? Before you get your next statement – or right now, if you're online – contact your senator at www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and share your own credit-card horror story. If you want the card companies to play fair, your senator needs to hear from you.
Banks should manage risk by reflecting it in their rates and credit limits up front – not through the back door, with sneaky fees and phantom interest rates. It's time for card vendors to let consumers work down debt, on terms that make it possible to do so.
• Mark Lange is a journalist and former presidential speechwriter.News from BRICUP Catherine Hall withdraws from Dan David Prize Jonathan Rosenhead Professor Catherine Hall of University College London, the widely respected cultural historian, has withdrawn her acceptance of the Dan David Prize. Her name was included in the list of prize-winners announced in February. These prizes are awarded annually and presented at Tel Aviv University in an elaborate ceremony, due to take place this year on May 22nd. It is one of the most prestigious awards made in Israel, with the prizes often presented by Israel’s President. It is certainly the biggest award in financial terms, with $1million for each of 3 prizes (though it is common for each prize to be divided between a number of recipients – as they are this year).
According to the Jerusalem Post, the prize was awarded to Catherine Hall for her ‘impact on social history, as a pioneer in gender history, race and slavery. While active in the women’s liberation movement, her work focused on women’s history in the 1970s.’ http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Social-historians-sociologists-and-nanoscientists-awarded-Dan-David-prize-444683. Catherine Hall’s work has indeed made a significant contribution to these areas. She, along with her late husband, renowned cultural studies theorist Stuart Hall, have been leading figures on the intellectual left since the 1970s.. Her recent major AHRC/ESRC funded projects on the structures and legacies of British-Caribbean slave ownership are politically and academically ground-breaking as well as prestigious. Catherine Hall reconsidered her decision to accept the prize after consulting widely. In mid-March she notified the Dan David organisation that she was withdrawing. They did not at first remove her name and photograph from their website, but have eventually done so. She communicated the following to BRICUP: My statement is that I have withdrawn from the prize – this was an independent political choice, undertaken after many discussions with those who are deeply involved with the politics of Israel-Palestine, but with differing views as to how best to act. We might have hoped for a statement more supportive of the BRICUP and PACBI principle of boycott. Nevertheless the BDS movement, and especially its academic wing, is delighted that such a high profile breach of the academic boycott will not be taking place. Given that Dan David Prize winners are always promoted in headlines in Israeli newspapers, in effect as evidence that Israel retains international credibility and respect, this is another defeat in Israel’s battle against BDS. One can perhaps infer that, in some sense, academic boycott is on course to becoming the new norm - the default position that only those with a committed ideological position, to the State of Israel, or to the precedence of academic interchange above all other principles, will reject. Other Prize-winners There are three Dan David prizes each year in categories concerned respectively with the Past, the Present, and the Future. Catherine Hall’s prize, as befits a historian was in the first of these. Two other British researchers feature in the current year’s list. They are: Professor Sir Anthony (Tony) Atkinson, of both LSE and Nuffield College Oxford. An economist and econometrician, he is a leading international scholar on poverty and inequality. Tony Atkinson is noted for his concern with issues of social justice. It is therefore particularly sad that he has been unwilling to respect the call of Palestinian civil society for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
Professor Sir John Pendry, a physicist working at Imperial College. More on the Dan David Prize (and why it should be boycotted) The Dan David Prizes have been awarded annually since 2001. Their founder, Dan David, died in 2011 – he was an Israel-based businessman and philanthropist who made his money initially from photo-booths, before diversifying. The Prizes are overseen by a mixed bag of senior academics (university Presidents and the like) and businessmen (yes men) from Israel, the United States and France. And also Henry Kissinger. The Chair of the Prize Board is Professor Joseph Klafter, President of Tel Aviv University. So the degree is intimately linked to this Israeli academic institution, which is linked in turn to a dazzling array of services to the Israeli state including in its most oppressive modes. TAU has particularly intense connections with the Israeli military. The cover story of its Winter Review 2008/9 is an account of the 64 projects for the military that were then ongoing. The timing of this Review is interesting – just around the time of the Cast Lead assault on Gaza which caused 1400 Palestinian deaths. In July 2014, in the middle of Operation Protective Edge which killed another 2200 Palestinians in Gaza, the university’s President Klafter expressed his “appreciation” for students who went to serve in the army and said “Tel Aviv University has contributed and still contributes greatly to national security.” He announced that the university would be providing students called up to serve in Gaza with one year’s free tuition. Still more recently in May last year the University announced that it was awarding all its honorary |
who apparently asked him if “black lives matter.”
He was knocked unconscious, and his wallet was stolen.
Since then, a Good Samaritan has created a GoFundMe page to help replace the $400 Marquez reportedly lost.
“I find this to be an outrage and absolutely disgusting situation our country is facing today,” wrote Danny Amoruccio, who started the campaign.
“The least we can do as Americans is help him, as he helped to keep [the] U.S. safe.”
But that original goal of $400 was quickly surpassed – now reaching more than $13,000. People who gave donations both big and small wrote to thank the Iraq veteran for his service.
Marquez later thanked his contributors on Fox and Friends, saying that he hopes to track down the cab driver who took him home for no charge after the attack.
The excess money will be used to "take care of his burdens" and then donated to charity, Amoruccio told Fox 5.
Watch Marquez's full interview, above.
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MUST-SEE: Vets Clash Over Trump's Comments About Bush & IraqSAN FRANCISCO — Controlling the future of the smartphone was the defining technology battle of the last decade. Now, technology companies are betting that the next 10 years and beyond will be spent battling for control of the self-driving automobile.
On Friday, Lyft, the ride-hailing company, announced that it was developing its own self-driving technology, marking yet another company’s gamble that the future of transportation will be marked by self-driving cars.
Lyft is marking the occasion with the opening of a new self-driving-research facility in Palo Alto, Calif., and plans to heavily recruit new engineering and technical people for the facility after it opens in the coming weeks.
“We aren’t thinking of our self-driving division as a side project. It’s core to our business,” said Luc Vincent, vice president of autonomous technology at Lyft. “That’s why 10 percent of our engineers are already focused on developing self-driving technology — and we’ll continue to grow that team in the months ahead.”MWC16 Mark Zuckerberg says he'll find other ways to deliver connectivity to rural Indians, after his Free Basics program was rebuffed in India. But the program will press on in the other 37 countries.
Free Basics was just one of Facebook's Internet.org initiatives, he stressed, which intended to bring the 4.1 billion unconnected people online. These include a British-designed and -built solar-powered plane, Aquila, laser-accelerated backhaul, as well as more conventional Wi-Fi programs.
"Every country is different," Zuckerberg said in a wide-ranging but gentle keynote interview at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Some 19 million people have connected for the first time worldwide in 38 countries, thanks to Free Basics, with one million of those in India. A million is a drop in the ocean compared to the number of Indians accessing the full internet for the first time – that was about 100 million in 2015.
But he stressed the conversion rate: around half converted from Free Basic's politically incorrect (according to net neutrality activists, anyway) Ceefax-esque pages to full-fat internet within a month.
"That's a pretty good first step," said Zuck. "The ruling in India says there's no differential pricing even for basic services. That's disappointing and a major step back in India," but it hasn't affected Basics in other countries, where it is due to be targeted by net neutrality activists, he added.
"In India we're going to focus on different programs. We want to work with all the partners."
Zuckerberg did sound a bit miffed that Facebook's "good intentions" hadn't been taken at face value, particularly since it had suspended its usual data-harvesting, ad-driven business model for Basics. Free Basics was going to be ad-free, and would be "until other people are making money."
European operators have grumbled long enough about OTT players to get a sympathetic hearing from the protectionist European Commission. Action has been promised.
"If you're saying that app developers should have the same rules as operators building physical towers and networks is where you lose me. Our relationship with customers is very different. You shouldn't add rules to app developers."
Zuckerberg says the relationship was "less antagonistic and more symbiotic" than people might think.
Perhaps he'd missed Friday's news. Hutchison's Three network has said it will start blocking ads at network level, if customers want, and other operators are keen to follow suit. The blocking technology not only denudes web pages, but also disconnects app developers from their ad servers. Alas, the WiReD editor interviewing Zuck had missed the news too, so he wasn't probed.
Zuckerberg was however quizzed on why he didn't use a nonprofit vehicle for the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative, leading to the charge that it was a massive tax dodge. That's because sometimes you need to invest in companies to achieve the goals, he said.
The solar-powered plane, designed and built in Bristol, can be seen here.
For areas like remote Amazon rainforest, Zuckerberg argues that this is far more cost effective than traditional telco mobile infrastructure. It spreads data connectivity over a 50km radius and can be aloft for 90 days, operating at between 60,000 and 90,000 feet. That's probably out of range even for one of Access Now's missiles. ®Image: Shutterstock
A Filmmaker reader recently emailed me with a simple question. After going to film school, making some shorts and working conspicuously within his means, he’s now written a script purely from the imagination — not censoring himself by thinking of things like money and production requirements. The resulting project, I take it, is too big for his usual DIY methods. He asked, “What do I do now?”
A tough question, not knowing the filmmaker very well and not having read the script. There are easier-said-than-done answers: “Find a producer! Get an agent!” But just sending out a bunch of PDFs, sitting back and hoping someone else will make your movie (or tell you why they won’t) is only one approach. For those who want to be more proactive, here are 15 things that can be done starting now. (If you’re a GTD junkie, consider these all possible “next steps.”) Keep in mind that this list, which is by no means inclusive, was written with a first-time writer/director in mind, someone who may necessarily be working outside the system to get his or her film made.
1. Proofread your script. Do it yourself, and then have an eagle-eyed friend do it again. Seriously.
2. Get it out for feedback from people you trust. Be patient. It can take people a while to read things. Patiently follow up, and after they do read it, encourage them to give you honest advice. Ask them specific questions about what works for them and what doesn’t. Consider putting together a reading and then soliciting feedback after — both in a Q&A session and through follow-up emails. (I actually hate going to readings, but admit that they can sometimes be helpful.) And, if you’re hoping for industry finance, get it covered. All studios and most production companies hire readers to do coverage — a synopsis, comments, and grid rankings of its various elements (concept, characters, etc.). You can hire these people too. Just ask a contact at a company who their best reader is and if that person would be willing to take on a freelance assignment. And then pay that person to do private coverage for you. For a relatively small amount of money you’ll learn how a more marketplace-attuned person will view their script without risking a pass from a company you may be interested in.
3. Rewrite the script based on the feedback you receive. For your readers, did the story work? Did the characters track emotionally as they progressed through the script? Was the dialogue fresh? Were there formatting or exposition issues that threw people out of the story? Did you write characters actors will want to play? I can’t tell you how many scripts I read that are really just first drafts. It’s clear their writers haven’t drilled down, identified their scripts’ weaknesses, and worked to fix them. Recognize that writing is a skill, and rewriting is a related but separate one. You need to do both.
4. Be social. Friends + family + Kickstarter + grants is the model for many low-budget films today. And in order for your crowdfunding to be effective, you’ll need a social footprint. Whether it’s a Facebook page, a standalone website, a Tumblr account or a Twitter account — or all four — it will help to have a base of followers to seed your news and funding requests to. Start with at least one of the above now and begin refining your “social voice” and attracting followers.
5. Hire the right person to schedule and budget the script. Take particular note of the third and fourth words of the preceding sentence. Whatever you imagine the budget to be, hire a line producer or UPM familiar with that budget range and, if it’s a seven or eight-figure budget, one that’s acceptable to the completion bond company you’ll ultimately need. If you don’t know how to identify this person, ask a producer you do know or even a bond company for a recommendation. If you think your film will be made on a micro budget, hire someone who has actually made a film for that budget. And if you do the latter, don’t just say thanks once you get the budget back. Sit down with that person and find out what you need to do and what connections you’ll have to make to reel in the people and gear budgeted for at below-market rates.
6. If you don’t know someone who can budget it or can’t afford to hire someone, learn to budget it yourself. Two books I can recommend are Film and Video Budgets and Maureen Ryan’s Producer to Producer (not strictly a budgeting book, but with budgets and much useful information).
7. Rewrite the script based on the budget and schedule you receive. Is there a 1/8″ page scene that drives the budget up significantly —— and that you don’t really need? Are the project’s budgetary needs, the marketplace, and the final budget number in alignment? If you’re directing this script, is it appropriately scaled for what you’ll be able to command as attached talent?
8. Make a cast list and/or try to attach a casting director. You may need to raise funds — or commit some of your own — to pay a casting director a retainer or consultancy fee. If you can’t afford that, look for a casting associate or assistant at one of the established casting agencies and see if you can entice them to take on your project — with, you hope, the mentorship of their bosses. If your script is really good, you might be able to get the latter for little or even no money,
9. If you are going the new or non-actor route, find those people. Start doing open calls, work with local casting directors on street casting, and embed yourself in the communities where you’ll find these people.
10. Get it to producers. Or produce it yourself, or maybe find someone young and hungry who wants to be a producer and get to work developing him/her. If you look at the early careers of virtually every successful independent producer you’ll note the beginning project on which some director took a chance on them. For little or no pay, the director got a dedicated person not juggling ten thousand other projects — someone excited to be making a movie. Don’t just to look to the established people; find the up-and-comers. (Alternately, look to established producers who, if they can’t commit fully, can executive produce with someone they approve working as the formal producer.)
11. Start looking for money on your own — don’t wait for someone to do it for you. Finding money is a job like any other. Yes, it can be tough without the social connections. But the only way to start is by building an investment package and then pounding the pavement, asking everyone you know if they or someone they know might be interested in investing in a film. Look for people who might want to support you or who are inspired by the subject of your movie. And when people say no, as many will do, don’t end the conversation without getting from them a lead on someone else to approach. If you think you’ll do a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, decide when to launch. Should you do it now, so you’ll have some money raised to cover development or perhaps even entice a producer? Or later, when you’ll need it in post. If you want to do it early, start putting that crowdfunding campaign together. (Check out this essential post by Zak Forsman on how he made his campaign a success.)
12. Make what’s known as a “mood reel.” I used to dismiss these, but they are increasingly in vogue these days. They can be called other things — “visual look books,” for example — and are short reels of scenes from other films (or perhaps your own test footage) edited to suggest the tone of your movie. In Britain, the funding agencies are beginning to fund these as part of development grants. For an example, check out the one on Ryan Koo’s Kickstarter page.
13. Assemble collaborators. You can’t make a film on your own. Can you get a great d.p. attached, or a fantastic editor? You may not have a name, but you might be able to get to someone who does, and their presence will both add value to your project as well as provide you with the talent you need by your side.
14. Submit it to a development lab, professional support program or a contest. The Sundance Labs, the IFP Emerging Narrative Program, the Film Independent Labs, Tribeca’s All Access Program — there are filmmaker support mechanisms out there that can help you refine your vision, connect with the industry, or both. As an example of how this process can lead to a film being financed, read this old article of mine, “Everyone She Knew,” about how Miranda July endured multiple rejections from the Sundance Labs before finally getting in and then moving her debut feature into production. (Sometimes this process leads to you not directing your film, but that can be okay. Here’s Marc Maurino on his journey after attending IFP Emerging Narrative.) Or, submit your script to a contest, like the Nicholl Fellowships. I produced a film once that received its funding after the director submitted it to a screenwriting contest and one of the judges took a liking to it and climbed on board as producer and financier.
15. If you’re not getting traction on any of the above, ask yourself why. What’s not working? Why aren’t people falling in love with it? And then, put the script down for a month. When those 30 days are over, reread it, think about how to make it better, and get to work.
If any of the above is helpful and you’d like to read more responses to reader questions on the blog, send your own questions about filmmaking to scott@filmmakermagazine.com. If I can’t give you an answer, I’ll get it to someone who can and post the response here.Wyoming Capitol. (Amy Richards/TSM via KGAB)
The Wyoming Senate Judiciary committee voted almost unanimously to reject a bill that would require doctors to provide inaccurate medical information to women seeking abortion care and counsel them on alternatives to having the procedure. It also rejected a forced 24-hour waiting period before terminating a pregnancy.
The Committee voted 4-to-1 to reject an “informed consent bill” that would have forced those who wanted an abortion to be given medically inaccurate information about risks and complications, abortion alternatives and ultrasounds, and force women to wait 24 hours after first being seen to have the procedure. Bill sponsor Senator Leslie Nutting dubbed it a “pro-women” bill, arguing that women are “too young” to know what an abortion is and what they will be doing unless someone explains it in great detail to them and forces them to wait and rethink their decisions.
“A majority of the women (getting an abortion) are under the age of 25 years old, and some are younger than that,” she told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “So it’s a group that really needs information. This is information is needed by the woman so she can have a real choice because real choice demands knowledge.”
This makes the second abortion-related bill rejected by Wyoming committees. A “heartbeat” ban was killed in a House committee earlier in the week.
Get the facts, direct to your inbox. Subscribe to our daily or weekly digest. SUBSCRIBEThe US Army’s plan to wrap new technologies and commercial off the shelf (COTS) improvements into the M4A1 rifle has apparently been canned. The program, called M4A1+, was originally intended to upgrade the M4A1 fleet with new COTS rails, back up sights, flash hiders, triggers, and other improvements, but it seems the service will push forward with the basic 22-year-old M4A1 design for now. ArmyTimes reports:
“The Army issues market surveys all the time to assess if there’s any new technologies that it might want to look at. In this instance, there weren’t,” Picatinny Arsenal spokesman Pete Rowland in an email. “Case-closed for now.” The M4A1+ market survey requested solutions that included an extended Picatinny rail (to both allow a shooting technique with a straightened forward elbow and more accessory-attachment options), as well as a floating barrel to enhance accuracy. Other improvements sought were: a flash suppressor; a brownish color for new parts to help camouflage; removable iron sights; and an optional sniper-style single-stage trigger specifically for squad marksmen. The upgrades were to “seamlessly integrate with the current M4A1 Carbine … without negatively impacting or affecting the performance or operation.” At the time Lt. Col. Terry Russell, project manager for individual weapons at Picatinny Arsenal, said the Army was “very confident that these already do exist, or that (companies) can develop them for us in short order.” But the offerings apparently did not add enough value for the Army to pull the trigger.
The M4A1 offers substantial improvement over the basic M4, including fully automatic selector setting, ambidextrous selector levers, and a much heavier barrel contour originally created to support extended fully automatic fire from SOCOM reconnaissance teams. While the M4A1+ improvements could have augmented the rifle’s configuration slightly, taken altogether they represent only a very modest possible improvement over the existing M4A1. The biggest possible improvements would have been the change to a low profile gas block, and a longer, lighter rail (possibly even utilizing a negative footprint mounting system like Keymod) than the somewhat small, heavy, and antiquated KAC RAS 1913 rail. It seems likely to me that in the future the Army will pursue these developments regardless of the M4A1+ program’s cancellation, that is provided that the service moves quickly enough that such improvements can arrive before the replacement of the M4 with something new.China’s political system, economic reform, and the governance of water quality in Pearl River
August 5th, 2014
André Silveira, University of Cambridge, UK
China’s economic reform and opening up process initiated in 1978 has supported a more decentralized style of governing public affairs, including environmental protection and water resources management. Throughout the 1980s important administrative and fiscal responsibilities were devolved to regional and local governments, which gradually took over decisions regarding trade, foreign investment, land use, budgetary and extra-budgetary revenues and expenditures.1
Although China is a unitary state with an authoritarian political regime, several authors have suggested that the Chinese State behaves as a federal political system.2,3,4 The dynamics of central-local relations and the measure of local autonomy provided by autonomous financial means and regulatory capacity seems to provide support for a behavioural interpretation of the Chinese political system.
A key aspect of the power of local governments relates to land use management responsibilities. Land use rights became saleable items after the 1988 Constitutional amendment, after which land use rights “assignment” was added to the exclusive prerogatives of local authorities. This has become an increasingly significant source of revenue for local governments and officials and has encouraged greater competition amongst provinces and municipalities for financial, human and natural resources. New opportunities for enrichment and career development have represented robust incentives for local government cadres and decision-makers to use newly acquired powers to further advance economic growth along with their personal careers.
These developments have resulted in increasing competition between vertical and horizontal lines of authority within the Chinese bureaucratic system. In practice, lower levels of government hold considerable autonomy and de facto economic power to act (or avoid action) when they deem necessary to counterweight central political directives. Local governments may choose how policies and laws are implemented, depending on available financial resources and local development priorities. Local leaders, however, often consider environmental protection policies and laws to be an obstacle.
Overall, the process of economic reform entailed structural change to central-local relations and the exercise of power by local governments. This has brought challenges to collective action efforts when addressing environmental degradation, which typically requires coordinated action amongst different administrative sectors and amongst affected jurisdictions.
Significant efforts continue to be made to mitigate serious deterioration of the environment and its social consequences. China is often credited with having put in place an adequate set of laws and regulations for water management and protection. However, two critical problems remain: lack of coordination between relevant water laws and incomplete enforcement of laws and regulations.
As far as water quality management system is concerned, institutional structures are considered to be excessively fragmented. Responsibilities over water quality management are shared between several administrative sectors, with emphasis on two ministerial agencies, namely water resources and environmental protection. The two ministries operate two partially redundant water quality monitoring systems with no systematic sharing of data.
In respect to water management at a catchment scale, each local government seeks to attain its own objectives, having no obligation to consider the downstream effects of its actions. River Basin Water Resource Commissions (WRC) are seen as powerless in the face of this challenge given that they do not constitute a platform gathering representatives of all interested parties in the management and use of the river system. In fact, WRCs are regional agencies of the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) and only one of the several interested parties.
While the Water Law recognizes the legal status of WRCs, and assigns them responsibilities in regard to the main stem of rivers flowing across provincial boundaries, it does not specify how their powers relate to those of provincial governments and their agencies. In respect of water quality management, WRCs may monitor water quality but have no recognised authority in respect to pollution prevention and control work.
Such challenges are illustrated through the case of the Pearl River Basin, where in 2009 more than 15 percent of the monitored water bodies registered extremely poor water quality and could not be used as sources of drinking water. There is great variety in the range and intensity of anthropogenic pressures, related to considerable disparities in economic development across the basin. In 2005, the differences in GDP per capita among the provinces in the basin were extreme, from an average of circa 25,000 USD in Hong Kong and Macau, which are located in the delta, to 617 USD in one of the provinces in the upper reaches.
Empirical findings illustrate problems of fragmentation amongst water institutional structures at national and catchment scale,5 and provide evidence that this fragmentation has a detrimental effect in the institutional capacity of the governance system to respond to water quality degradation, both in respect to pollution accidents and to slower processes of deterioration caused by human activity.6 Security of drinking water sources remains a crucial target of the government but institutional structures in place are unlikely to deliver on this important political objective without institutional change and strong cross-sectoral collaboration mechanisms.
References:
Chien, S.-S. (2010). “Economic Freedom and Political Control in Post-Mao China: A Perspective of Upward Accountability and Asymmetric Decentralization.” Asian Journal of Political Science 18(1): 69-89. Montinola, G., Y. Qian,, and R. Weingast, (1995). “Federalism, Chinese Style: The Political Basis for Economic Success in China.” World Politics 48(1): 50-81. Zheng, Y. (2006). “Explaining the Sources of de facto Federalism in Reform China: Intergovernmental Decentralization, Globalization, and Central – Local Relations.” Japanese Journal of Political Science 7(02): 101-126. Weingast, B. R. (2009). “Second generation fiscal federalism: the implications of fiscal incentives.” Journal of Urban Economics 65: 279-293. Song, X., W.Ravesteijn, B. Frostell and R. Wennersten (2010). “Managing water resources for sustainable development: the case of integrated river basin management in China.” Water Science and Technology 61(2). Silveira, A. (2014) China’s Political System, Economic Reform and the Governance of Water Quality: the case of the Pearl River Basin. In Connell, D., D. Garrick, G. Anderson, and J. Pittock. (eds.) Federal Rivers: managing water in multi-layered management systems. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham
This article is published as part of the GWF’s Federal Rivers Research Hub – an online research hub dedicated to looking at water governance in federal systems. An edited volume which expands on the contents of these articles and provides a more in depth analysis of federal water issues can be found here. This includes the full chapter on the Pearl River written by André Silveira. André is a PhD student in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. He holds a diploma in Political Science and International Relations, and an MA in European Integration Studies on which he focused on EU-China cooperation in environmental affairs. His PhD project is concerned with the evolution of institutions guiding water quality governance in large cross-jurisdictional river systems, with China’s Pearl River Basin and Europe´s Rhine River Basin as case studies. He has assisted the coordination of the “EU-China River Basin Governance Research Network” and was involved in the policy dialogue component of the “EU-China River Basin Management Programme” as rapporteur.
The views expressed in this article belong to the individual authors and do not represent the views of the Global Water Forum, the UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance, UNESCO, the Australian National University, or any of the institutions to which the authors are associated. Please see the Global Water Forum terms and conditions here.Ceasefires gave way to violence in the Outer Damascus city of Zabadani and the Idlib countryside’s Shiite-majority villages of al-Fuaa and Kafariya on Saturday after a second temporary truce between regime and rebel forces in the towns collapsed due to the failure of negotiations between Ahrar a-Sham rebels and an Iranian delegation in Turkey.
Talks between the same parties earlier this month failed after rebels refused Iranian conditions to evacuate encircled rebels from Zabadani.
However, information leaked by an Ahrar a-Sham source to Syria Direct’s Ammar Hamou indicates that although Iranian negotiators agreed to rebel demands in the most recent round of talks, it was the Syrian regime’s refusal to implement the agreement that led to the collapse of the ceasefire and caused “problems between Iranian negotiators and the regime.”
“It seems that Iran wants [to rescue] its sect in Kafariya and al-Fuaa, and the regime wants to abandon them.”
Q. Media sources have reported that negotiations were between Ahrar a-Sham and an Iranian delegation, not a delegation representing the Syrian regime. Is that true?
Yes, Ahrar a-Sham met with Iran to negotiate without their consulting the Bashar al-Assad regime or the leadership of its military operations.
Q. What were the points of the negotiations and why did the truce fail once again?
There are several points that it is not possible to mention, but one of them was Ahrar a-Sham’s request that the regime release 1500 female detainees.
The Iranians approved our request, but the Syrian regime refused it, which led to the emergence of problems between Iranian negotiators and the regime.
It seems that Iran wants [to rescue] its sect in Kafariya and al-Fuaa, and the regime wants to abandon of them.
Q. How did the truce end?
After the regime refused to implement what we agreed upon with the Iranian delegation, it bombarded Zabadani, breaking the truce. In response, we targeted al-Fuaa.Look, school buses are hell.
You build up the courage to finally try out that Old Navy Tech Vest at school, and the other kids on the bus are your first round of critics. And they are a tough crowd. Not only does Jeremy immediately knock your fashion sense, but he takes your lunch money and sits next to your crush, Carol.
Suddenly you realize that your new duds aren't the answer to your popularity problems, and it's going to be a long ride to school. You ruined my shot, Jeremy. YOU RUINED IT.
Anyway, it's important to note the hellish experience children sustain on the bus, because one mom in Memphis, Tennessee, is super upset about what's going on outside a school bus.
Robyn Wilkins snapped a photo of the bus, which features brake lights shaped as stars -- or, in her view, Satanic pentagrams -- and sent it to local reporters to get the Jesus Christ back in those flashing lights.
"Anyone who fears a God, if not God and Jesus Christ, should be outraged," she told WMC Action News. "If you can't put a cross on there, you cannot put a pentagram on it."
FATHER PROTECT THEM NOW. SHIELD THY SHEEP RFSCNGUGHURGVHKTGHDKUNHSTNSVHGN FARN KOR BAELZEBUB.
Durham School Services and the local school district wouldn't comment on the purpose of pentagram-shaped brake lights. Still, it's highly unlikely that the school district is trying to incorporate Satan into its transportation. To be sure, the pentagram is a sacred symbol to some Satanists, but other faiths use it as well, Raw Story reports.
Heck, even a local Wiccan scoffed at the outrage -- which, we should remind you, consists of one parent calling their local news station.* As economy grows, forced evictions rise
* Lack of documents cause of land disputes
* EU concerned; duty-free deal may be withdrawn on some produce
By Prak Chan Thul
PHNOM PENH, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Kong Song’s farmland was his family’s livelihood for three decades until the bulldozers moved in and tore down his home in rural Cambodia to make way for a multimillion dollar foreign-led business.
His family was one of 253 forcibly evicted five years ago in southern Koh Kong province to accommodate a $90.6 million sugar project by a firm lured by duty-free exports to the European Union that were designed to help the world’s poorest countries.
This is the flip side of a foreign investment boom in which the rich and powerful cash in at the expense of what rights groups estimate is about 30,000 Cambodians forcibly evicted from their homes a year.
The evictions and so-called “land grabs” have angered donors, putting at stake hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid as well as a trade scheme that gives Cambodian produce tariff-free access to the European Union.
Kong Song is fighting back. He and his neighbours have filed a lawsuit against the Koh Kong Sugar Industry Ltd, a joint venture with Thailand’s Khon Kaen Sugar and Taiwan’s Vewong Corporation. But, as with most legal challenges against Cambodia’s business elite, it has gone nowhere.
“We’re demanding that Cambodia’s development is development for all, not the kind that makes its people shed tears,” Kong Song said during a visit to the capital Phnom Penh.
Neither Koh Kong Sugar nor Khon Kaen Sugar responded to interview requests when contacted by Reuters.
Kong Song’s story is common in Cambodia. He survived the 1975-1979 “Year Zero” revolution by the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime and rebuilt his life, cultivating a small plot of land in the countryside.
But land ownership was abolished under the brutal regime and most legal documents were destroyed, leaving Kong Song and millions of Cambodians without title deeds.
That leaves him and others in a legal grey-zone, particularly during a wave of development led by politically connected businesses and foreign firms, mostly from China, that line up to buy up disputed land to start agriculture, mining or real estate projects.
International donors and lenders such as the World Bank have criticised the government and threatened to halt loans until a solution is found. The government’s response has been to cancel its annual meeting with donors, citing global economic uncertainty and Western countries “mired in crisis”.
ALARMING TREND
The trend has raised questions about whether Cambodia should be entitled to an initiative by the European Union, which allows 48 of the world’s poorest nations to export any produce other than weapons to EU states, without paying tariffs.
Foreign firms have capitalised on the deal, known as the Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative, and many more are showing interest in Cambodia, including sugar, rice and rubber exporters from neighbouring Thailand.
The subsequent foreign investment has created thousands of jobs, especially in garment manufacturing, which employs 300,000 of Cambodia’s 13.4 million people and is the third-largest revenue source for its fledgling $11 billion economy.
It has also elevated Europe as a crucial export destination. The EU was Cambodia’s second-largest export market last year after the United States, generating some 930 million euros ($1.3 billion) up 29 percent from 2009.
The most-recent EU data shows the revenue generated in the first five months of this year is already double that of the whole of 2010. Rice exports are expected to swell further after doubling to 40,000 tonnes in 2010 from the previous year.
The EU’s Charge d’Affaires in Cambodia, Rafael Dochao Moreno, said tax incentives had made the country an attractive destination for investment and said the EU was “seriously concerned” about land disputes and evictions.
“Thousands of families have been expelled from their land. We want the government to take the necessary steps to avoid this kind of eviction especially when they are done by force and with violence,” he said.
Cambodia’s government needed to conduct proper consultations before granting future economic land concessions, he said, adding that certain projects could have privileges withdrawn if found to have been involved in unlawful evictions.
“There are indeed provisions... outlining the procedure of temporary withdrawal of certain products originating in a country benefiting from the EBA,” he said.
Such penalties could undermine Cambodia’s efforts to position itself as one of Asia’s most-promising frontier markets and instead highlight its struggle to tame corruption.
Alexandra Herbel, head of the French-Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, said Western companies looking to do business in Cambodia were keen to “invest correctly” and most would avoid projects associated with disputed land or evictions.
Cambodian Commerce Secretary of State Mao Thura said steps should be taken to ensure EBA privileges were not withdrawn, but he declined to provide specifics.
“The people who benefit from the EBA are a few million,” Mao Thura said during a recent forum on the EBA. “We’re not just talking only about the garment sector, millions of our people are farmers.” (Editing by Martin Petty and Jason Szep)Steven Spielberg is coming home and he’s bringing his newly rechristened company to the studio that made him the most famous director in movies.
Universal Pictures and Amblin Partners, a new company announced today by DreamWorks Studios, Participant Media, Reliance Entertainment and Entertainment One (eOne), will enter into a multi-year partnership in which Universal will market and distribute films its produces domestically and in select international territories. The companies did not provide details on the size of their investment.
The DreamWorks name is not being retired, according to sources close to the companies. Films will still be released under that banner. The name change was undertaken to signal the company’s move into a wider range of genres beyond the prestige films it is most commonly associated with making.
Under terms of the agreement, Universal Pictures and Focus Features will handle distribution and marketing for approximately four to seven Amblin Partners films each year. The first film in the partnership, “The Girl on the Train,” a thriller with Emily Blunt and Rebecca Ferguson, will be released in October 2016.
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Spielberg came of age at Universal, with the company backing “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List,” “E.T.,” and several of his best-loved films. Though DreamWorks’ films are distributed by Disney, he maintains his office on Universal’s Burbank lot.
“The same magnet that pulled me to Universal when I first wanted to make movies is bringing me home again to this new exciting relationship,” Spielberg said in a statement. “It is my hope that we can make some more beautiful music together.”
There are other attractions. NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer, for instance, is a friend and former agent.
“The longevity of my personal and professional relationship makes this especially rewarding and we are proud to continue our association with Steven and the quality films he produces,” Meyer said in a statement.
Though the name has now changed, the years have been difficult ones for the company Spielberg launched two decades ago with fellow moguls Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. There have been sales and spin-offs, but the major issues has been one of shifting tastes by the movie-going public, exacerbated by a series of disappointing films and lack of direction. While he remains one of Hollywood’s top directors, Spielberg has told associates that he feels DreamWorks movies have not been a high priority for a Disney operation that is busy releasing a string of blockbusters from its Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm units. Next summer’s Spielberg-directed “The BFG” will be the final DreamWorks picture released by Disney.
The company needs to reinvigorate its strategic direction under CEO Michael Wright, who succeeded Stacey Snider when she left for a top film position at Twentieth Century Fox.
Signalling the challenges confronting the entire independent film universe, even the involvement of Spielberg and his gold-plated name, did not make it easy for DreamWorks to lure new investment. The urgency for a fresh beginning was underscored by a string of box office flops including “Need for Speed,” “The Fifth Estate” and “Delivery Man.”
In EntertainmentOne, DreamWorks gets a partner with a broad international distribution network in film, television and music. The Toronto-based operation boasts a library of more than 40,000 film and television titles, 4 |
course you do. You know that it’s never dropped below 25 million credits on the GTN. You also know that the double-bladed version goes for about 15 million at its lowest. Most of the time, those two hilts run for about 35 and 20 million respectively. Granted, credits are a bit easier to come by now. But even if I had enough max-level characters, 35 million credits means that I would have to run 6 of them through every single heroic quest.
Of course, there are certainly other, possibly faster, ways of making that kind of money, but heroics are a consistent thing that everyone can do. It’s a good litmus test for earning money in game. Maybe you should use that to gauge how much you are going to charge for something or how rare to make an item. Ask yourself, “How many heroics would I have to run in order to purchase this item?”
At any rate, you knew that this was going to be a popular item because Kylo Ren is awesome, and you showed us your hand by advertising this specific item before the pack launched. So what did you do in the packs? Instead of letting this item drop like nearly every other item in the past, you made it an extremely rare drop. In fact, it’s so rare among the players in my circle that I’ve only heard of it dropping from the Grand Chance Cube, which we will talk about more later. This, of course, guaranteed sales of Cartel Packs and guaranteed the extreme frustration of many players who bought multiple crates of packs (an approximate $50 value each).
About that Grand Chance Cube: I’d like to quote a statement that you made on the official forums: “[Adding the Grand Chance Cubes] allows us to place more emphasis on the Silver and Gold items in each pack, as we are no longer building new Bronze items. Now, in place of Bronze items you will receive a Grand Chance Cube.” I don’t want to pick nits, but if you just replace the Bronze items with the Grand Chance Cubes, you are not adding more emphasis on the Silver and Gold items. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: You actually adding emphasis to your Grand Change Cube, which is full of items that people could have already received in past packs. So in reality, the cubes don’t contain “the rarest of Cartel Market selections.” They contain laziness.
Hopefully, you can see the players’ perspective on these items. Hopefully you can see my perspective here. And I hope, most of all, that you do something about it before the frustration of even your most adoring fans becomes resentment.
Sincerely,
Larry EverettA top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander, who was accused of killing eight Amarnath Yatra pilgrims earlier this year, was gunned down by security forces in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Naugam region today.
Abu Ismail, who was in his 30s, had been a part of the Lashkar's active team for the last seven years. He had activated the overground operatives of the Lashkar in the Valley to carry out the Amarnath attack.
On July 10, Lashkar terrorists had attacked a bus carrying pilgrims in Batengo area of the Srinagar-Jammu highway, leaving eight pilgrims dead.
The probe into the Amarnath attack shows that the terrorists wanted to take some of the pilgrims hostages. A reconnaissance of the route was conducted for three days.
Ismail had virtually taken over the LeT operational command from Abu Dujana and was seen more active in organising the network of the overground workers.
The July 10 attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims took place despite specific intelligence input on June 25 that terrorists may target pilgrims.
On July 10, terrorists had first fired at two police posts before fleeing and then opening fire at the bus that was carrying a group of pilgrims returning from the Amarnath Yatra.
The bus was not officially registered with the Amarnath Shrine Board and was without police escort.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti while condemning the attack had said that Kashmiris' heads hang in shame.
The Amarnath terror attack was the worst since 2000 when 30 Amarnath pilgrims were killed after terrorists attacked a base camp in Pahalgam.
ALSO READ:
Amarnath Yatra attack: Terrorists acted out of desperation, early assessment shows
When 30 Amarnath pilgrims were killed in terror attack 17 years ago
WATCH VIDEO | Lashkar terrorist Abu Ismail, who plotted Amarnath Yatra attack, killed in Naugam encounterUkip hopes release of benefactor’s tax cheque will end speculation about financial affairs of former Tory donor
A former Tory donor who pledged £1m to Ukip, only to face criticisms for basing his business interests in tax havens, has released evidence that he paid £1.86m in British tax this year.
Arron Banks, a businessman from Bristol, claimed on the day of David Cameron’s conference speech that he had once given £250,000 to the Tories but would now give £1m to Ukip instead.
The Tories said they could not find a record of his donations, saying they could only locate a £25,000 gift. He then faced questions because some of his businesses appear to be based in the low-tax jurisdictions of Gibraltar and the Isle of Man.
But Banks’s public relations chief, Bridget Rowe, a former Sunday Mirror editor, released a copy of a cheque sent by Banks to HM Revenue & Customs for £1.865m in February this year.
The cheque supplied by Banks as proof he paid tax in Britain this year. Photograph: Arron Banks
Ukip hopes that the document will help to quell questions about Banks’s tax affairs since he emerged as one of Britain’s most generous political donors on Wednesday.
His money will be used to fund the general election campaign as Ukip threatens to destabilise the three main Westminster parties.
Companies House records, which are supposed to show a comprehensive record of past and present interests of a director, appear to show that Banks has set up 37 different companies using slight variations of his name.
Using the name Aron Fraser Andrew Banks, he was a director of Eclipse Insurance Services but resigned in 1995, records show.
Arron Banks is registered as a secretary of African Compass Trading, which appears to be still trading.
The same company is also registered as having a director called Arron Andrew Fraser Banks who is also still involved in another firm, Vavista Ltd.
Under the name Arron Fraser Andrew Banks he is registered as a former director or former secretary of 34 different companies, but has resigned from all of them.
The first, third and fourth names, according to Companies House records, use the same date of birth but register different lists of companies.
A spokesman for Banks said that he declined to answer questions over his Companies House entries as well as other matters and preferred instead to “correct [the Guardian’s] mistakes in court”.
Banks appeared to come from nowhere last week when a press release from the anti-federalist party announced that a major Tory donor had defected, following the defections of the MPs Mark Reckless and Douglas Carswell.
The businessman who had made his fortune from insurance announced a tenfold increase in his planned donation to Ukip – to £1m – after William Hague told the BBC he had not heard of him.
Ukip claimed that he had given £250,000 to the Tories. But from Electoral Commission records, he gave £5,000 under the name Arron F Banks in May 2009 to Thornbury and Vale Conservative Association; and a second payment of £20,000 to Northavon Conservative Association in January 2007.
A Ukip source said that he had also loaned £75,417 to Thornbury and Yate Conservative party through his former company Panacea Finance in September 2007. This loan was registered on the Electoral Commission’s website and has to be paid back in 2022.
However, Companies House records show that Banks resigned from the company in September 2005, two years before the loan was granted. This raises questions over whether he was controlling the firm at the time, or whether he was using the firm as a “proxy donor”.
Banks’s office declined to send a further explanation of how else he had paid the Tories any money.
The Conservatives have also said they can find no record to substantiate Banks’s claim that he was a Tory party official in Basingstoke.
Again, Banks declined to comment.
Interest in Banks increased when it emerged that his Facebook page included photographs of him holding a shotgun and sitting in a red sports car.
Banks, 48, says he is worth about £100m. Friends say that he has a controlling interest in a former De Beers diamond mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and another licence to mine in Lesotho.
He met the media before a black-tie fundraising dinner for a Belize children’s hospital on Wednesday night. One of the dinner guests was Kim Simplis-Barrow, the wife of the Belize prime minister, Dean Barrow.
Rock Services Ltd, of which Banks is a director, had a turnover of £19.7m last year and paid corporation tax of £12,000. The company deducted £19.6m in “administrative expenses”.
The main activity appears to be “recharge of goods and services” with Southern Rock Insurance Company – a part of the group of companies that is based in Gibraltar. Southern Rock Insurance states on its website that it underwrite policies for the customers of GoSkippy.com, which is run by Banks. Because it is based in Gibraltar, there is little information available on it.
Rock Services and Southern Rock Insurance’s ultimate holding company is Rock Holdings Ltd, a company based on the Isle of Man.
Banks dismissed questions about his decision to base some of his firms in the low-tax jurisdictions.
Asked if his companies paid full corporation tax, he said: “I paid over £2.5m of income tax last year so I’m not going to get knocked on that one, thank you very much. I really resented that, by the way. My insurance business, like a lot of them, is based in Gibraltar but I’ve got UK businesses as well that deal with customers and pay tax like everyone else.”
Charlie Elphicke, a Conservative MP and former tax lawyer, said: ‘Everyone knows that companies in tax havens like Gibraltar and Bermuda are often used to help minimise tax. This evidence raises serious questions about Mr Banks’s conduct and consistency of identity.”ZURICH (Reuters) - A majority of Swiss voters are against proposals to place strict limits on immigration that will be put to a national vote next month, a closely-watched survey showed on Friday.
Fifty-eight percent of Swiss voters are opposed to the initiative, according to a poll conducted by Berne-based research institute gfs.bern, while some 35 percent support it.
These figures, the most reliable published so far, follow an online poll on Tuesday by free Swiss daily newspaper 20 Minuten which showed a narrow majority set to back the initiative.
The vote will be held on Nov. 30, almost 10 months after Switzerland narrowly backed proposals to reintroduce immigration quotas.
The initiative launched by environmentalist group Ecopop seeks to cap the number of new immigrants at just 0.2 percent of the resident population, equivalent to about 16,000 people per year. It would also earmark 10 percent of Switzerland’s overseas development aid budget for family planning.
Immigration into Switzerland has been high in recent decades and foreigners account for nearly a quarter of the country’s 8 million population.
Opponents of the Ecopop initiative say a vote in favor would sound the death knell for Switzerland’s bilateral accords with the EU, which govern trade, agriculture and economic and technological co-operation among other things.
The study, carried out in partnership with Swiss broadcaster SRG, found the most popular argument against the initiative was that it was not compatible with bilateral agreements.
Seven percent of those polled were undecided or gave no answer on how they planned to vote.
The Ecopop camp says there is too much pressure on land and natural resources in Switzerland, tapping into growing concern among residents frustrated by rising rents and crowded public transport.
The Swiss government has said the initiative is not the right way to achieve environmental goals and would damage the economy.
The same gfs.bern poll also showed a proposal to prohibit the Swiss National Bank from selling any of its gold reserves falls short of the support it needs to pass into law.Share. Uniting form and function Uniting form and function
Recently, Corsair launched its Corsair Gaming line of products: a separate ship within the company’s armada, complete with aggressive new logo. But while this branding change is more of a centralization of their gaming peripherals (headsets, mice, mouse pads, and keyboards) than a complete overhaul of their product offerings, Corsair’s also released some new items to prove that the brand’s no-nonsense design ethos wasn’t tossed overboard during this branding change.
One of these is the K70 RGB keyboard, a variant of their wildly popular 104-key mechanical keyboard. It’s roughly the same mechanical keyboard Corsair released last year, with a nice weight, superb build quality, and sleek metallic finish, and comes with the choice of blue, brown, or red Cherry MX switches. What distinguishes it from its plainer sibling, however, is its customizable LED lights. Users can control the lighting scheme of the keyboard in a highly detailed way, be it the color of individual keys or the lighting effects that sweep (or don’t sweep) over the keyboard.
Tailoring the K70’s lighting to your taste isn’t a simple matter, though. No matter how you want to trick out your K70 RGB, you’ve got your work cut out for you. The board itself might be plug and play, but getting your money’s worth from the lighting software takes some heavy lifting. It took me thirty minutes to get the numpad, WASD, number keys, and the rest of the board glowing in different colors. Just getting the board to slowly transition between colors took fifteen minutes.
You can make groups of keys easily, thanks to the click and drag interface, but juggling these groups can be a headache. Switching between multiple schemes or programming them to launch with specific programs means working through some dense menus. Everything is divvied up between four menus—profiles, actions, lighting, and settings—and you must comb through each of them before you can really get anything done. (Thankfully, the essential features of a gaming keyboard, like disabling alt-tab or the Windows key, are simply a matter of checking a box.)
However, if you can muster the patience and dedicate your time, you can get some awesome results. Lighting effects can actually function as timers, so once you’ve fired off an attack, you can program the key to glow again once the cooldown period has passed. Your DPI adjustment switch can glow with varying intensity, reflecting just how fast your mouse will be moving. And if you’d like to use the board for more technical tasks, you can build a scheme that highlights special keys you need for programs like Photoshop or Avid.
Whether or not the lighting features are for you, there are of course all the features that made me love the K70 enough to give it a place within my home. It’s easy to clean, as its keys sit high above the faceplate, giving crumbs and dust nowhere to hide. You can basically tilt this thing to one side and dump any errant bits right out. And if that’s still not enough, a few blasts of duster will quickly have it looking as clean as the day you brought it home. There’s also a removable wrist rest, another essential feature that makes the K70 that much nicer to use.
And of course, the K70’s dedicated media keys round out the experience. The tension on the volume wheel has been upped slightly to reduce overscrolling, but it’s essentially the same keys as on the non-RGB K70 that allow you to easily program for control over your music or video playback. Any board in this price range without dedicated controls like this is basically incomplete.
The only thing missing is USB passthrough, which was available with the regular K70. Presumably, this was removed so that the K70 RGB model would get enough power for its LEDs, but if this feature is important to you, you'll continually notice its absence.The future of the electric car is a matter of much conjecture. Last week at the SAE World Convention in Detroit, Kevin Layden, director of electrification programs and engineering for Ford, told the press his company has no plans to join the electric car range race. Instead, it will introduce a new Focus Electric with 100 miles of range this fall. The Focus Electric currently has 76 miles of range.
“I think right now with the launch of the Focus Electric at 100 miles, it is going to satisfy a big chunk of the population,” said Layden. “It’s going to be really affordable and a step up from where we are now.” Less range means the car can use a battery pack that is smaller, lighter, and less costly.
Last week, a survey by National Renewable Energy Laboratory was released that says most people thinking about the purchase of an electric car consider range and price the two most important factors. Most said they would like a car with 300 miles of range that costs less than $30,000. No such car exists at present, of course. More range costs more money. A lower purchase price means less range. There is no way to reconcile those two competing factors.
This is a remarkable statement coming just a few weeks after the stupendously successful launch of the Tesla Model 3. Tesla now has more than 400,000 reservations for its new car and that number continues to rise. Chevrolet says its Bolt will have “at least” 200 miles of range and will be in showrooms before the end of this year.
During the SAE conference, several speakers said a range of at least 200 miles is needed to alleviate consumers’ range anxiety about battery-powered cars. From a driver’s perspective, maximum possible range is not the issue. What matters is how far they can go and still have a comfortable reserve so they don’t have to worry about being stopped on the side of the road with a depleted battery.
In general, drivers only plan to make use of a about 2/3 of a battery’s maximum capacity, whatever it may be. If a car has 100 miles range, the driver starts worrying about range at about 65 miles or so. If a car has 300 miles if range, anxiety levels rise at around the 200 mile mark. It’s just human nature. There are lots of people driving conventional cars who start thinking about getting gas when the gas gauge gets below half. Very few drive around with less than a quarter of a tank of gas.
Last December, Ford said it would spend $4.5 billion to rejuvenate its electrified vehicle lineup. If its plans for the Focus Electric are an indication of how it looks at the market for electric cars, it will be content to be the bargain basement brand. That may be good for moving a lot of product but not necessarily good for generating a lot of revenue.
Ford, like FiatChrysler, does not seem to be all in on the electric car future the way Tesla Motors is. Which strategy makes the best business case won’t be known for 5 to 10 years. But Ford seems to be positioning itself to get left behind as the market transitions to the electric car era.
Source: Automotive NewsThis fits your.
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NO SCRATCH FOR COOKWARES: Our BPA and FDA approved silicone is safe for coated, non-stick cookware and perfect for use with hot foods. The silicone is also stain/odor resistant, so it is very easy to clean and long useImage caption Posters such as these ones in south Belfast might not be displayed in Lagan Valley during the forthcoming election campaign
There is confusion over whether agreement has been reached by assembly candidates in Lagan Valley on banning election posters in the constituency ahead of the election in March.
On Friday UUP MLA Robbie Butler posted a 'joint statement' from the DUP, UUP, SDLP and Alliance on Facebook.
It said that each party had signed up to a voluntary ban during their respective campaigns.
It was also posted by the DUP's Paul Givan and SDLP councillor Pat Catney.
However on Friday evening, spokespersons for the SDLP and the Alliance Party said no final agreement has yet been reached.
'Minimise disruption'
The so-called joint statement read: "As political parties in Lagan Valley, we recognise the desire from the public to minimise disruption during this election campaign and believe this is the right step to take.
"Engagement with the electorate will be focused on the door step."
Image caption Successful candidates in the 2016 assembly election
According to the statement, the agreement is in place until 18:00 GMT on 1 March, at which point candidates may place a limited number of posters outside each polling station.
Current MLAs in the constituency, which takes in Lisburn and Banbridge, include Paul Givan, Edwin Poots and Brenda Hale of the DUP, Jenny Palmer and Robbie Butler of the UUP and the Alliance Party's Trevor Lunn.
The statement said that no posters will be placed on main or arterial roads unless directly outside a polling station, adding that it does not extend to billboard or mobile advertising.
"If this agreement is broken by one party, it is no longer valid," the statement added.
The spokesman appealed to other parties campaigning in Lagan Valley to follow the lead being given by the agreement.
A Northern Ireland-wide ban was proposed by Ulster Unionist chair Lord Empey last year.
At the time, the idea was dismissed by the DUP as "a stunt".House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Screen Capture)
(CNSNews.com) -- Three weeks ago, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it dishonors God to pull out of the Paris Accord on climate change, but today she did not say it dishonors God to abort a baby with a beating heart.
At Pelosi's press briefing on Thursday, CNSNews.com asked Pelosi if her understanding of what dishonors God extends to aborting a baby with a beating heart as well as pulling out of the Paris Accord;
CNSNews.com: "Three weeks ago you said we need to be'responsible stewards' of 'God's creation.'"
Pelosi: Yes.
CNSNews.com: "And that it dishonors God to pull out of the Paris Accord."
Pelosi: "Yes."
CNSnews.com: "The Heartbeat Protection Act would prohibit aborting a baby with a heartbeat. Does it dishonor God to abort a baby with a beating heart?"
Pelosi did not answer the question directly but said: “I don’t—obviously you want to get into that discussion. What I say is: I completely respect a woman’s right to choose. I am a mother of five children, nine grandchildren. But my five grandchildren--my five children were born within exactly six years of each other. When my baby came home from the hospital, when we brought her home our oldest child was turning--I thought she might be here, she’s not allowed in the room, I guess--turning six that week.
Pelosi continued: “I come from a very strong Italian Catholic family and many of my friends and family members do not share my view. But it is my view that it is up to a woman to have her own right to choose the size and timing of her family. God gives us a free will and holds us responsible and accountable for our actions."
During a June 2 press conference, Pelosi explained why she thought the Trump administration’s decision to exit the Paris Climate Accord did dishonor God.
During her remarks, Pelosi said: “The Pope wrote, ‘The climate is a common good belonging to all and meant for all.’ The Bible tells us to minister to the needs of God's creation as an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us and that is just what we're doing by walking away from this accord."
Pelosi continued: “The question I have for Donald Trump as a mother and a grandmother of five--and a grandmother of nine -- how is he ever going to explain to his grandchildren what he did to the air they breathe?“Assuming they breathe air. And I have to assume that is the case, we all do, right?”Attention Jessica Jones fans!
Krysten Ritter and Mike Colter have been added to the guest lists of the Wizard World Comic Cons in St. Louis and Madison in April. David Tennant has already been announced as a guest alongside his former Doctor Who co-star Billie Piper and will be appearing on Saturday only for both shows.
Guests at the show will now have a fantastic opportunity to rub shoulders with two Marvel superheroes and one nefarious supervillain as Wizard World offer some very special photo opportunities featuring the Jessica Jones cast.
Jessica Jones photo opportunities are now on sale
For more information visit the show sites below:
Wizard World St. Louis
1st - 3rd April
America's Center Convention Complex
Visit the show page here
Buy photo opportunities here
Available:
David Tennant, Krysten Ritter & Mike Colter Triple Photo Op
David Tennant & Krysten Ritter Dual Photo Op
Wizard World Madison
8th - 10th April
Alliant Energy Center
Visit the show page here
Buy photo opportunities here
Available:
David Tennant, Krysten Ritter & Mike Colter Triple Photo Op
David Tennant & Krysten Ritter Dual Photo Op
David Tennant and Billie Piper Dual VIP packages are still available through the website link as are a limited number of David Tennant solo VIP tickets. For more information see the relevant show pages above.Some 14-year-old girls ask their dads for an iPhone. Some want earrings. Others want to go to parties where the adult supervision ranges from less-than-ideal to nonexistent.
All Haley Hall wanted was a 17-inch steel sword -- to swallow.
For weeks, the bright-eyed, 5-foot-5 Georgia girl had been slipping away from the rest of the family, to unlock the centuries-old secrets of tilting your head back, opening wide, and putting a lethal weapon down your throat.
She began practicing with a wire hanger and spoon -- as many sideshow greats have done -- learning to relax her gag reflex.
But being able to push a hanger to the deepest reaches of her esophagus wasn't necessarily the hard part. She still had to tell Mom and Dad.
"My father knew something was going on," she told HuffPost Weird News. "I typically don't lock myself in my room for hours in a night."
But Jeff Hall and his wife encourage their daughters in a range of activities. Haley is a black belt in karate, shoots guns and bows, and rides dirt bikes with her sisters, college-bound Rebecca, 17, and Maggie, 11.
To Jeff, Haley was simply combining her love for physical challenges with her greatest passion -- theater.
"I was pleased that she came and told me what she was doing rather than go off on her own, so I was happy," says Jeff, a general contractor in Covington. "I had taken some pre-med classes, so I know the human anatomy can accommodate a sword, if it's done right.
"I joked that she just had a bad case of middle child syndrome and really needed to stand out," says Jeff. But as a guy who throws knives and tomahawks from time to time, he might know from where his daughter's ambitions come.
"I'm lucky," Haley says. "My mom is very supportive, too. She's worried for me at first, but she knows that I'm careful."
Now, not long past her 15th birthday, Haley is recognized by Sword Swallowers Association International as its youngest female member (the next youngest is 21). Her first public performance came at Berry College in Georgia a few weeks ago, and her family is pressing for Guinness World Record certification.
Her biggest gig yet came this weekend at the Seminar Of Sideshow Arts in Tampa before a smattering of the country's most renowned fire-eaters, knife-throwers and human blockheads.
The Tampa area has long been the heart of the circus and sideshow community. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus makes its winter home in nearby Sarasota, and that is where you will find Clown College.
On the outskirts of Tampa, you'll find Gibsonton, a town affectionately known as "Freaktown U.S.A." for being the longtime home of carnies and sideshow performers. Outside homes, you'll find dilapidated midway games and rides, parked for the winter.
This town's most famous residents once included performers who were known on stage as "Priscilla the Monkey Girl" and "Lobster Boy."
In the 1950s, Al Tomaini, a hulking 7-foot-11-inch giant, served as Gibsonton's police chief. He and his wife, Jeanie “The Half Girl," operated a diner. Jeanie, a woman born without legs, was typically perched on a stool near the cash register. Before settling down in Florida, they toured the country in the 1930s as “The World’s Strangest Married Couple."
Though Gibsonton's sideshow community has greatly diminished, a stone monument stands at the edge of town dedicated to Tomaini, topped with a cast of his size-27 shoe.
It was in this area that Haley was professionally reborn this weekend as "The Amazing Pandora," standing beside some of today's top sideshow performers, including Insectavora, a tattoo-faced fire-eating, pain-proof woman, who hammers nails up her nose and paints with a brush jammed up one nostril.
Circus impresario Ward Hall (no relation to Haley) came up to the girl before the Saturday night performance to wish her luck. The 83-year-old sideshow operator and ventriloquist serenaded her with "I Want To Be Loved By You" and other kitschy Betty Boop songs, to welcome and calm her before the show.
"It's all about concentration and showmanship," Hall, a father figure in the industry, said.
And then the artist now known as "Pandora" took the stage, accompanied by two other sword swallowers. They hoisted their blades, and, as they say in the business, it was "Down the hatch, without a scratch," amid cheers and applause.
PHOTO: (Story Continues Below)
"Haley impressed me. She has a lot of poise for her age," said Tim O'Brien, spokesman for Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
"If she stays with it, she will be the face of American sword swallowing in the future... or should I say, 'The throat of American Sword Swallowing.'"
O'Brien and SSAI president Dan Meyer invited Haley to the St. Augustine Odditorium in Florida on Feb. 22 to celebrate World Sword Swallower's Day, an event celebrated at Ripley's museums throughout the world.
Like any 15-year-old, Haley thinks a lot about what she wants to be when she grows up. Sword-swallowing is just a part of what she wants to achieve as a performer. She sees herself as an actress. She loves everything from vampire movies to vintage Marylin Monroe flicks and anything with Jennifer Lawrence.
"When I started doing this, my friends didn't know what to say. They thought it was cool and terrifying at the same time," she says.
Her father also felt under a bit of scrutiny. "I had people go, 'Gosh, I can't believe you let her do that.' But I don't lose any sleep over that," Jeff Hall says.
Haley is homeschooled, but she goes once a week to a homeschool group. "When the principal found out, she came up and asked her to be in the talent show," Jeff said.
While other kids were playing piano and guitar, Haley became something of a sensation -- and had her first taste of stardom. "There wasn't a chair left in the auditorium that day," Jeff said.
In the months to come, Haley plans to perform at the same Renaissance fair where one of the vendors a year ago reluctantly sold her the sword with which she now performs. She is already adding to her act. For Christmas, she asked for, and received, a straitjacket, from which she has learned to escape. She also picks locks and can get out of handcuffs.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
March 22, 2016, 12:35 AM GMT / Updated March 22, 2016, 1:04 AM GMT By Maggie Fox
Fewer Americans say they believe in God or pray regularly — yet more people believe in an afterlife nonetheless, a new study finds.
It’s a generational thing, with millennials the least likely generation to say they’re religious or to take the Bible literally, the team at San Diego State University, Florida Atlantic University and Case Western Reserve University found.
“In recent years, fewer Americans prayed, believed in God, took the Bible literally, attended religious services, identified as religious, affiliated with a religion, or had confidence in religious institutions,” the team wrote in the journal Sage Open.
"The large declines in religious practice among young adults are also further evidence that millennials are the least religious generation in memory, and possibly in American history,” said psychologist Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, who led the study.
"The large declines in religious practice among young adults are also further evidence that millennials are the least religious generation in memory, and possibly in American history"
The team looked at the General Social Survey, in which up to 58,000 people are interviewed annually about a variety of factors, including religion.
They answered questions such as: “What is your religious preference? Is it Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, some other religion, or no religion” and “Do you believe there is a life after death?”
They found big changes since the 1970s and 1980s.
“In the late 1980s, only 13 percent of U.S. adults expressed serious doubts about the existence of God (choosing one of the less certain response choices such as ‘I don’t believe in God,’ ‘I don’t know whether there is a God and I don’t believe there is any way to find out,’ or ‘I don’t believe in a personal God, but do believe in a Higher Power of some kind,’” the team wrote.
“Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 30 percent had serious doubts by 2014, more than twice as many as in the late 1980s (12 percent).”
Fewer also believe the Bible is the actual word of God.
"It was interesting that fewer people participated in religion or prayed but more believed in an afterlife."
“In 1984, 14 percent of Americans believed the Bible ‘is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by men’ rather than the word of God; by 2014, 22 percent of Americans believed this, a 57 percent increase,” they wrote.
In 1998, 49 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds said they were moderately or very religious in 1998. By 2014 this had dropped to 38 percent.
And while 15 percent of adults said they were “not religious at all” in 1998, 20 percent did in 2014.
Yet 80 percent of Americans said they believe in an afterlife in 2014, up from 73 percent in 1972-74.
"It was interesting that fewer people participated in religion or prayed but more believed in an afterlife," Twenge said. "It might be part of a growing entitlement mentality - thinking you can get something for nothing."On Sunday, May 27th, the 2018 Indy 500 will take place on ABC. The actual race begins just after 12:00 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN3, but coverage will start early in the morning. One of the most popular auto races of all time, it’s sure to see millions of Americans tuning in to watch. But with a growing segment of the population cutting the cord, many are looking to find an Indy 500 live stream on the internet rather than watch through a cable provider. With that in mind, here’s a quick overview of how you can watch the Indy 500 online.
This year will be the 102nd running of the legendary Indy 500 race. This is a day you truly won’t want to miss. And luckily, it’s now possible to enjoy an Indy 500 live stream, even without a cable TV subscription! These are your best options:
YouTube TV is the Best Choice to Watch Indy 500 Live StreamCLOSE Associated Press writer Eric Tucker says the results of any inquiry into whether or not Trump Tower was wiretapped may never be known because of the secretive nature of the intelligence gathering process. (March 6) AP
Jensen (Photo: Cagle Cartoon Syndicate)
Trump said, “wiretap.”
The national media laughed, headlines blazed, “without evidence,” and CNN flatly denied it could have happened.
Then, some former intelligence agents explained to any journalist willing to listen that while “wiretap” is the wrong word, it did happen.
They know this through friendships and contacts they have maintained in the various intelligence agencies.
Larry Johnson, who retired from the CIA and the State Department, keeps his hand “in the business” by consulting individuals, governments and deep-pocketed global businesses on avoiding and responding to terrorism and money-laundering, described what went on for my listeners.
Partisans in the intelligence communities aren’t necessarily conservative, liberal, Republican or Democrat. Their goal is to maintain the intel communities’ power.
Obama’s National Intelligence Director James Clapper and other partisans tried twice and failed to gain FISA warrants to surveil (not “wiretap”) the Trump campaign.
They did not want Trump to win, Johnson says, because he is against arming Syrian jihadis, whether or not they are “friendly” at any particular moment.
Johnson says Hillary was “all in” for arming them, advocating in |
of considering, and we do all the time [and] wherever we felt like we could make our team better in the grand scheme things, we’ve tried to do that. So far, it’s been kind of quiet from a fan’s standpoint, and I’m sorry to say that.”
According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Packers, Bengals and 49ers are the only teams that haven’t signed a player who appeared on the field for another team last season. However, that will change when the 49ers make it official with guard Zane Beadles, who has reportedly agreed to terms.
NFL Free Agency All of ESPN.com's coverage of NFL free agency. • Tracker: Grades, destinations for every free agent • Free-agency blog
Last year, the Packers were the only team that didn’t sign a free agent from another team. Yes, they signed defensive end Ray Drew earlier this month, but his biggest accomplishment in the NFL to date was a stint on the Browns’ practice squad last season.
It would appear that coach Mike McCarthy’s statement at the combine last month that “we might shock you this year” in free agency may end up unfulfilled.
“It’s interesting that people keep score,” Thompson said. “It’s still on-going. There are still surprises down the road I’m sure. I hope they’re good surprises as opposed to bad. But yeah, you have to kind of wait this thing out and see how it goes. We feel pretty good where we are in terms of getting some of our guys back.”
Thompson admitted that B.J. Raji’s decision to walk away from football this season caught him by surprise as it did just about everyone else in the organization, but he said otherwise the free-agent process has been "good."
“I don’t think anybody saw it coming; I don’t think he saw it coming,” Thompson said. “We will respect him and have respected him a long time based on his character and his ability to be a good teammate, but as Mike as pointed out time and time again over the years, family is more important than a football game. Family is life, and your relationships with your people, so we respect the fact that he’s doing something. We’re disappointed that we’re not going to have him with us on the football field.”
Packers president Mark Murphy backed Thompson’s approach when asked about it here Sunday when he said, “We’re not going to overspend for players.”
As for the Packers’ lone free-agent visit, Cook remains unsigned more than a week after he came to Green Bay.
“I wouldn’t care to comment on it other than,” Thompson said and then paused. “I wouldn’t care to comment on it.”
Maybe he’s still “considering” it.Tourists trapped by armed men in medieval building in the city of Karak after shootouts with police killed at least nine people
Jordanian security forces killed at least four gunmen after an operation to free tourists trapped inside a medieval castle in the city of Karak, where armed men had taken shelter following a series of shootouts with police that killed at least nine people.
A Canadian woman, three other civilians and five police officers were killed during running battles between the assailants and security forces as the gunmen retreated to the city’s famous crusader-era castle.
At least 29 people were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries, sources have said.
A statement from security officials said large amounts of weapons had been seized during the operation to storm the castle.
Police in the mountainous city of Karak had earlier freed 10 people, including foreign tourists, but it appeared some were still in the city’s famous crusader-era castle when the security forces stormed it.
Jordan has suffered less than many of its neighbours from recent destabilising violence in the region. A former government minister from Karak city, Sameeh Maaytah, said there were signs Islamist militants may be behind the attack but the government steered away from saying this.
“The operation is continuing, it has not ended and the criminals are still inside the castle … This was a group that was plotting certain operations inside Jordan,” Maaytah told pan-Arab news channel al-Hadath.
Police said the gunmen had arrived in Karak from the desert town of Qatraneh nearly 18 miles north-east of Karak, a desert outpost known for smuggling, where many tribal residents are heavily armed.
As night fell, the operation to arrest the gunmen in the castle was continuing. There was no immediate claim of responsibility or suggestion from Jordanian security officials of who might be involved or why.
A police statement said that “a number of outlaws who committed ugly crimes this afternoon” had been killed and that security forces were combing the crusader castle for more gunmen.
The day’s events, some captured dramatically on video posted to social media, began when a Jordanian police patrol was called to a report of a house fire in the town of Qatraneh, according to a statement issued by Jordan’s public security directorate.
The officers responding to the call came under fire from inside the house, the statement said, with two police officers wounded and the assailants fleeing in a car. The attack in Qatraneh, however, would turn out to be only the first in a series, with gunmen opening fire on a security patrol in the city of Karak itself, causing no injuries.
Armed men also opened fire on a police station in Karak castle, wounding members of the security forces. After that five or six armed men escaped into the sprawling tourist site, a poorly lit labyrinth, which is partly underground.
Describing the start of the attacks, an official statement carried by the Petra state news agency said: “As soon as they reached [Qatraneh], unknown gunmen who were inside the house opened fire on the patrol, wounding a policeman, and then fled by car.”
At the same time, gunmen holed up in the castle opened fire on the Karak police station, “wounding several policemen and passersby” who were rushed to hospital, the statement added.
“Police and security forces have surrounded the castle and its vicinity and launched an operation to hunt down the gunmen,” the statement said, adding that the search was still under way. A senior security source said some people were trapped in a lower floor of the castle when the gunmen took shelter there, but denied media reports that they were being held as hostages.
“There are no hostages. But some people who were on a lower floor were afraid of leaving as the gunmen traded fire with the security forces,” said the source, who did not wish to be identified.
Video footage posted online by witnesses claiming to be in Karak showed people running in the street and police taking cover behind vehicles near a police station amid the sound of shooting.
Karak, a mountainous city of around 170,000 people, is a popular tourist destination, with the ruins of its fortified town and castle sitting 900 metres above sea level.
While Jordan has been left relatively unscathed both by the aftermath of the Arab spring and by the rise of Islamic State, a number of recent security incidents have raised concern about the kingdom.
The shootings were the latest in a series of attacks that have challenged the pro-western kingdom’s claim to be an oasis of calm in a region threatened by Islamic extremists.
The killing of the Canadian tourist could further hurt Jordan’s embattled tourism sector, which has declined sharply since the Islamic State group seized large parts of neighbouring Syria and Iraq two years ago.
Hundreds of Jordanians have fought alongside Isis militants in Iraq and Syria and several thousand more support the extremist group in the kingdom.
In November 2015, a Jordanian police captain opened fire in an international police training facility, killing two Americans and three others. The government portrayed the police captain as troubled. Others suggested the motivation was related to Isis.
In the latest incident last month three US special forces soldiers, members of a training mission in Jordan, were killed after being shot at the gates of their base in the south of the country in an incident that has not fully been explained.
Jordan is among a few Arab states that have taken part in a US-led air campaign against Isis militants holding territory in Syria. But many Jordanians oppose their country’s involvement, saying it has caused violent deaths of fellow Muslims and raised security threats inside Jordan.
Officials worry about radical Islam’s growing profile in Jordan and support in impoverished areas for militant groups.About Us
ISU Surplus (formerly Asset Recovery) is designed to first redistribute university assets to other departments, state funded entities or tax supported organizations throughout the State of Iowa. After those avenues of disposal have been explored, all remaining materials are made available for sale to the general public. Items are sold either through the warehouse or through bids.
ISU Equipment/Excess Property Disposal Policy
Upcoming Closings
None scheduled
Sale Days & Times
Departmental Sale Hours* Tuesdays 10:00am - 12:00pm Public Sale Hours Wednesdays 9:00am - 3:00pm
*Tuesday sales or transfers are designed to give departments and state funded entities first option at acquiring surplus materials for their departments. These sales are for departmental or state use only and nothing can be purchased for personal use.
There are occasions when the warehouse is closed due to holidays. Please call 515-294-7300 or check out our Facebook page for current information on sale days.San Jose police get hefty recruiting boon from New York City trip
SAN JOSE — A recruiting sojourn to New York City last week quickly proved to be fruitful for the San Jose Police Department, with over 150 applicants who have cleared initial hurdles to join the rebuilding police force.
Police Chief Eddie Garcia himself joined the trip, helping make the sales pitch personally to nearly 200 prospective officers who attended a recruiting fair at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
The SJPD recruiting unit, led by Lt. Heather Randol, oversaw the effort as scores of aspiring officers completed an entry-level 1.5-mile run and written exam. As of Friday, 158 of the New York applicants were still in the running, and if the typical 50-60 percent washout rate stands firm, the department could send as many as 94 prospects through the grueling backgrounding process.
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All told, the trip marked one of the most successful out-of-state recruiting trips in the department’s history, and welcome news to a department trying to dig itself out of a staffing hole over the past decade that saw the department shrink by a third from nearly 1,400 to under 1,000 amid political turmoil over pension reform. SJPD is currently authorized to field 1,109 officers.
“Having the chief there sends a message that we care about hiring the best to wear the San Jose patch,” Randol said.
It’s a marked contrast from a year ago, when the department endured criticism over a pricey recruiting trip to Hawaii that yielded just a smattering of eventual officers and was later deemed an unwise expenditure by Mayor Sam Liccardo, highlighted in a San Jose Inside report. It remains a sore spot with Randol’s unit.
But a lot has happened since that May 2016 island excursion: namely, the city and police union agreed on a contract installing pay raises and stabilizing benefits that ended years of acrimony that helped drive out officers. It has made for a more receptive audience for Randol and her team, who in the past were routinely passed by when it came down to the numbers being offered by other law-enforcement agencies.
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“The contract and salary now make us competitive,” Randol said.
Randol also notes that the New York recruiting crop was weighted in that many were criminal-justice students. But she has seen upticks in and around the Bay Area, where their recruiting focus ultimately lies.
The New York trip adds to a rebuilding effort that has shown swift promise over the past year, with robust academy classes becoming a bit more of the norm. But Randol notes that with expected retirements, many more reinforcements will be needed.
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“It’s clear that because of these large academy sizes, the department is rebuilding,” she said. “But we can’t relax. There’s so much ground to make up. We’re not sitting back just yet, but we’re very hopeful.”
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View more on The Mercury News'Granny Pods' Keep Elderly Close, At Safe Distance
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy N2Care Courtesy N2Care
Of all the elderly people he's visited, the Rev. Kenneth Dupin remembers a woman named Katie in particular.
Katie had a houseful of treasured memorabilia, and she loved to regale him with stories of Washington high society in the 1950s. But after she was moved to a nursing home, "she started crying," Dupin says. "I went over to her, and she pulled me down to where I could hear her, and she said, 'Please take me home.'"
She never did go back home, but after she died, her memory stayed with Dupin. He tells NPR's Audie Cornish that it got him wondering if there was a way to keep people like Katie out of nursing homes and closer to their families. His idea might seem strange, but "granny pods" are catching on.
The granny pod's real name is the MEDCottage, and it's basically a mini mobile home that rents for about $2,000 a month. You park one in the backyard, hook it up to your water and electricity, and it becomes a free-standing spare room for Grandma and Grandpa.
The concept is catching on all over the country, but nowhere more so than Virginia, where the state government has eased zoning restrictions on these high-tech hideaways, which go on the market early next year.
The MEDCottage is homey on the outside, with taupe vinyl siding and white trim around French doors. Inside, it looks like a nice hotel suite, complete with kitchen and bathroom -- and security cameras.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy N2Care Courtesy N2Care
"This is something that we call 'Feet Sweep,'" Dupin says as he shows off a floor-mounted camera. It monitors only about 12 inches off the floor, or high enough to see a person's feet -- but if that person fell, you'd see them lying on the floor.
Dupin says falls are one of the main reasons people end up in nursing homes, so the MEDCottage's technology could help them stay independent longer. The cottage also has safety lighting along the floors, a lift that can carry an immobile resident to the bathroom, and monitoring systems that let you check on Grandma's temperature, heart rate and whether she's taken her medicine.
It might seem a little odd, parking your loved one in a shed in the backyard, but Dupin says the MEDCottage is designed with Americans' independent nature in mind. "That space there provides a level of independence that is very important to Americans," he says.
"Really -- this is one of those studies that we really can never publicly say -- but we don't want them in our house," Dupin says. "Nor do they want to be in our house."
Still, having the family nearby and maybe having grandchildren running in and out of the cottage could potentially improve an elderly person's quality of life.
While Dupin says his parents probably won't end up in a granny pod, it's definitely something he sees in his own future. "As I'm thinking about my life, I'll probably be in one of the backyards of one of my kids," he says.When VRFocus has previously reported on facial tracking technology what’s usually employed are a set of cameras that record facial movements, such as the recent Kickstarter campaign for Veeso. Today a Brighton, UK-based startup Emteq has revealed a newly developed facial tracking tech that reads the electrical signals created by muscle movement.
Called Faceteq, the technology uses a range of biometric sensor techniques including electromyography (EMG), electrooculography (EOG), heart rate and more all built into the faceplate of virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs), such as Oculus Rift, tracking the electrical current generated by users.
One of the main benefits of this type of system over camera-based designs is that it’s more compact, it also registers movements in eye, forehead and cheek muscles that are underneath a VR headset.
Face tracking technology could be an important part of VR future as it enables a digital avatar to mirror or respond to a user’s change in expression or mood, greatly benefiting immersion.
Graeme Cox, the Chief Executive, co-founder of Emteq and serial tech entrepreneur, said in a statement: “Our machine learning combined with facial sensor technologies represents a significant leap forward in functionality and form for developers looking to introduce human expression and mood into a digital environment.
“Imagine playing an immersive role playing game where you need to emotionally engage with a character to progress. With our technology, that is possible – it literally enables your computer to know when you are having a bad day or when you are tired.
“In addition, integrating our facial interface into a VR headset is simple and unobtrusive, improving the practical form of the device by completely eliminating the need for burdensome face tracking cameras.”
Still currently in development VRFocus will continue to follow the progress of Faceteq, reporting back with any further updates.FDA Regulates the Safety of Packaged Ice
En español (Spanish)
The average American buys four bags of packaged ice each year, 80 percent of it between Memorial and Labor Day1. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates packaged ice in interstate commerce as a food, just like other foods.
And like other foods, packaged ice must be produced according to FDA’s regulation for Current Good Manufacturing Practices in Manufacturing, Packing, or Holding Human Food. This means that ice manufacturers must produce, hold, and transport ice in clean and sanitary conditions, monitor the cleanliness and hygiene of employees, use properly cleaned and maintained equipment, and use water that is safe and sanitary.
When FDA investigators inspect packaged ice manufacturing plants, they look at such things as:
Whether the plumbing in the facility prevents contamination of the ice water supply or stored ice,
Whether the water supply is safe and sanitary (e.g., water that meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards for drinking water), and
Whether the manufacturing facility and grounds are maintained in sanitary condition.
Ice Labeling Packaged ice labels must meet FDA food labeling requirements. The labels must list the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor of the ice. The labels must also list the net quantity of contents of the product. Because ice is a single ingredient food, packaged ice does not need listing of ingredients. In addition, ice does not require a nutrition facts label, unless the package has a nutrient content claim (such as low in sodium). But ice labeled as being from a specific source, such as spring water or artesian well water, must be truthfully labeled and not misleading; in other words, it must really be from that source. The source water must meet all the requirements for such types of source water, as described in FDA regulations.
It can be shaved, cubed, nuggeted, and crushed. It can be made from tap water, from spring water, or from purified water. But no matter the shape or the source, ice is considered a food by FDA.
FDA does not inspect small packaged ice producers, like retail stores, that make and package ice directly for the consumer and only for intrastate sales. FDA also does not inspect food service establishments that make ice for direct use (e.g., for drinks or cooling food). However, retail food stores and food service establishments are subject to regulation by State and local authorities. Also, the FDA Food Code, on which most state and local food regulations are modeled, contains provisions related to the safe and sanitary production and handling of ice.
Tips for Consumers
Handle ice with clean, non-breakable utensils, such as tongs or an ice scoop.
Avoid touching ice with dirty hands or glasses.
Store ice in clean containers that are safe for storing food.
Everyone can practice safe food handling by following these four simple steps:Ajay Ratra played 12 ODIs for India Andrew Cornaga / © Photosport
Ajay Ratra, the former India wicketkeeper, has decided to call time on his 16-year playing career. Ratra last played a first-class game in 2013 for Tripura.
Ratra, who made his international debut in 2002, played six Tests and 12 ODIs for India. His maiden Test century against West Indies in Trinidad - an unbeaten 115 - made him the fifth-youngest Indian player and the youngest wicketkeeper to score a Test hundred. He played 99 first-class matches, scoring 4029 runs at an average of 30.29, which included eight hundreds and a double-century. He also played in 89 List A games, scoring 1381 runs at 22.63.
Ratra is the second Indian player to retire in the space of two days, following Hrishikesh Kanitkar's retirement on Wednesday.
"Both Hrishikesh and Ajay were hardworking cricketers and thorough professionals," Anurag Thakur, BCCI secretary, said. "I have no doubt that they will display the same qualities in their chosen vocations."
Ratra was part of the Indian U-19 team that won the Youth World Cup in early 2000, and the following season, he captained them to victory against England.
"On behalf of the BCCI, I congratulate both Hrishikesh and Ajay for memorable careers, and wish them all the best for the future," Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the board, said.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.A schoolboy has been questioned by anti-terrorism police because he wore a "Free Palestine" badge to school.
Rahmaan Mohammadi's teachers at Challney High School for Boys in Luton referred him to police under Prevent - the controversial government anti-radicalisation programme, which critics have claimed is heavy-handed, discriminatory and ineffective.
As well as wearing pro-Palestine badges and wristbands, Mohammadi was in possession of a leaflet advocating Palestinian rights by pressure group Friends of al-Aqsa. He had also asked for permission to fundraise for children affected by the Israeli occupation.
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.
Friends of al-Aqsa is a non-profit NGO which defends the human rights of Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. The group's supporters are currently boycotting the Co-op, after the company's banking arm shut down the Friends of al-Aqsa account "without explanation".
State of Palestine: Dozens protest killing of naked, mentally ill man by Egyptian forces Bedfordshire police visited Mohammadi's home with a folder of information about the schoolboy, and spoke with him and his parents. They concluded that he was not at risk and no further action was taken.
Mohammadi described his experiences at a meeting of campaign group Students Not Suspects at Goldsmiths University in London. He alleged that police warned him not to talk about Palestine in school, and further claimed that staff members had approached his 14-year-old brother and pressured him to to tell Rahmaan to "stop being radical".
Last year, hundreds of academics signed an open letter in the Independent criticising the "chilling effect" of the Prevent strategy on free speech and political dissent in the UK.
The £40m programme has been plagued with problems since its inception 12 years ago. Critics say it has fostered an atmosphere of Islamophobic paranoia which is more likely to fuel radicalisation than prevent it.
Internal police statistics obtained via a Freedom of Information request suggest only 20% of people referred to Prevent are assessed as at risk of radicalisation.
Prevent also came under fire last year for exending its legal obligation of surveillance into nursery schools, since which time children as young as three have been referred under the programme.
Bedfordshire Police told the Sunday Times: "The officers spoke to the boy and were satisfied that he was not at risk and he was given advice and support."
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.
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May 26, 2016, 12:53 PM GMT / Updated May 26, 2016, 12:53 PM GMT By Reuters
A bill to end sales taxes on tampons and sanitary napkins received final approval from New York lawmakers on Wednesday and is headed to the governor, who voiced strong support of the legislation.
Several other states have already enacted such exemptions as a movement builds against a tax that critics say unjustly targets women.
The New York State Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed the bill, which exempts feminine hygiene products like sanitary napkins, tampons, and panty liners from the state's sales and compensating use tax. The State Assembly previously approved the measure.
Read More: Tampon Taxes Are Triggering Protests Around the World
"Repealing this regressive and unfair tax on women is a matter of social and economic justice," Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement on Wednesday. "I look forward to signing it into law."
The bill's supporters argued that menstrual products should be treated like other necessities, including healthcare items and medicines, which are already exempt from the taxes.
"There are many issues that simply transcend politics and a unanimous vote in both houses tells you that this is certainly one of them," the bill's sponsor, Republican state Senator Susan Serino said in a statement.
"Moving this legislation forward is a win for consumers and it’s a win for women who have largely shouldered the burden of the tax for generations," she added.
Read More: Chicago City Council Knocks Down Sales Tax on Tampons
Five other states — Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Jersey — already exempt feminine hygiene products from sales taxes.
Ten states, including California, are considering legislation to do so as well.Pacific Beach is the wrong place not to use a crosswalk.
The neighborhood accounted for nearly one in five jaywalking tickets written by San Diego police since January 2011, according to data obtained by Data Watch under the California Public Records Act.
A single street, Garnet Avenue, made up the bulk of citations issued in the area. A police department spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on the city’s approach to jaywalking enforcement, or the preponderance of tickets written along the popular bar-hopping drag.
» Interactive map: Where tickets were written
A host of boozy intersections in North Park and the Gaslamp Quarter — particularly along 30th Street and 5th Avenue — accounted for a similarly high share of the more than 4,200 tickets handed to pedestrians over the past five years.
Records show the average ticket recipient in those areas was a little younger than those found in the rest of the city, where the typical accused jaywalker was a white male, just north of 35 years old.
Tickets written in Pacific Beach and North Park also tended to be issued later in the day, and later in the week, than those written downtown. Citywide, the most common time to receive a ticket was 11 p.m. on a Thursday. Fifth Avenue, Kettner Boulevard, West Broadway and C and B streets were the most ticketed roadways downtown.
Black pedestrians made up a disproportionately high share of citywide citation recipients, picking up 16 percent of tickets despite representing 7 percent of the city’s population.
Whites accounted for slightly more than their fair share of tickets, while Asians and Hispanics received fewer tickets than their share of the population would suggest.
Most of those ticketed were dinged for failing to use a crosswalk or jumping into a crosswalk too late. Pedestrians are not allowed to start crossing a roadway if a traffic signal instructs them to wait, even if there’s plenty of time remaining on “the countdown.”
More than 100 of the pedestrians ticketed for jaywalking also received citations for a range of alleged offenses, including obstructing traffic, resisting arrest, possessing marijuana and violating open container laws.
Nearly three dozen individuals were cited more than once since 2011. Two received separate citations in a 15-minute period, each within two blocks of where they were first ticketed.
It’s not clear how much courts collected in fines associated with such offenses. A spokeswoman said the San Diego County Superior Court does not keep data on cash collected from jaywalking defendants, who face a maximum fine of around $200.
Attorney Elizabeth Aronson said the base fine for jaywalking actually starts at $20, but rises rapidly as state and local authorities tack on “penalty assessments” meant to fund municipal programs.
Aronson, a longtime traffic court lawyer, is often able to get those fines suspended, though she said some courts aren’t as lenient as they used to be.
The DMV is not supposed to find out about non-traffic infractions like jaywalking, but Aronson said that hasn’t stopped court debt collectors from contacting motor vehicle officials. That means accused jaywalkers who can’t afford to pay their fine could eventually see their driver’s license suspended, an outcome she said can prove especially devastating to the city’s working poor.
Besides, Aronson said, it’s not at all clear that ticketing jaywalkers does much to encourage pedestrian safety.
“Frankly, I’ve never seen it change the behavior of a mass of people,” she added.
City auditors in September offered similarly mixed reviews of police jaywalking enforcement efforts, which they said weren’t always targeted in the places where they were most needed.
“SDPD does not generally use data to determine where to conduct targeted pedestrian safety enforcement operations and what traffic violations to focus on during those enforcements,” the audit said. “As a result, SDPD’s targeted pedestrian safety enforcement operations may not be directed towards the locations at which additional enforcement is most needed and for the violations that have caused pedestrian collisions in those locations.”
Auditors counted 270 people who had died on San Diego streets over the past 15 years. They said 66 pedestrians lost their lives over a three-year period between 2013 and 2015 — the deadliest stretch since 2001, according to the auditors’ report.
City Council members last year adopted a plan to eliminate all pedestrian-related traffic deaths in the city by 2025. That same year, police conducted two dozen targeted enforcement efforts for bicycle and pedestrian safety.
Jaywalking tickets are actually down from their peak in 2012. That year, there were 1,065 tickets citywide. Last year, there were 515.
Jaywalking rules
Under California law, pedestrians can generally cross anywhere along a street without being guilty of jaywalking, with a few notable exceptions:A U-TURN by David Cameron on accepting more unaccompanied child refugees has been welcomed by the Scottish Refugee Council.
The Prime Minister moved to head off a damaging Tory backbench revolt, signalling that the Government will now accept an additional number of unaccompanied refugee children fleeing the conflict in Syria. He announced ministers would no longer seek to overturn a Lords amendment requiring the UK to re-settle a “specified” number of children amid warnings it faced defeat if it went to a vote in the Commons.
Gary Christie, head of policy and communications at Scottish Refugee Council, said: “We welcome the Government’s change of heart about making sure Britain welcomes refugee children. It’s a step in the right direction to ensure David Cameron is on the right side of history when we look back at this refugee crisis.”
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Cameron gave no indication as to how many children who had succeeded in reaching Europe would now be admitted, although officials indicated the numbers would run to “more than tens”.
While Cameron said ministers were holding talks with local authorities and the charity Save the Children about what assistance they could offer, he stressed he would not take any steps which would encourage more people to make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.
But with no exact figures, campaigners who had been pressing the Government to take up to 3,000 children from camps such as the notorious Jungle in Calais reacted cautiously to the announcement.
Labour peer Lord Dubs – a former child refugee who fled from the Nazis and who tabled the Lords amendment – said it would ease the plight of some children.
“I trust the Prime Minister will be true to his word and move swiftly to ensure the Home Office works closely with local authorities to find foster families to give these young people a stable and secure home,” he said.
Cameron’s U-turn on refugees was driven by pressure from – among others – the SNP. But you wouldn’t have known it from the BBC News at Six last night.
The Prime Minister announced the Government’s change in policy in response to a question from Angus Robertson. It was the second week in a row the SNP’s Westminster leader had pushed the Government on the issue.
But when Laura Kuessenburg, the BBC’s political editor, was telling us what had prompted the shift, she said: “It was a victory for those who had been pushing the Prime Minister for months: Labour, Tories, Lib Dems, campaigners.”
They then showed footage of Labour’s Yvette Cooper from LAST week’s PMQs. Robertson, of course, was conspicuous by his absence.Aileen Burger loads an oral syringe with cannabis-infused oil used to treat her 4-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who suffers from severe epilepsy, at their home in Colorado Springs, Colo. Kentucky has approved such treatment. (Photo11: Brennan Linsley, AP)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Kentuckian Rita Wooton has tearfully shared the story of son Eli's frequent seizures — and the promise of marijuana oil to treat it — with dozens of people, ranging from doctors to journalists to legislators.
Earlier this year, her story helped pers
uade the Kentucky General Assembly to unanimously — and somewhat speedily — pass a bill approving the first medicinal use of marijuana in Kentucky.
But now doctors and researchers are saying it could take years to begin trials treating epileptic children such as Eli with marijuana oil.
"We're really, really heartbroken," Wooten said. "It's just really sad that everyone put that much time and effort and energy into it and now it's going absolutely nowhere. For people like us and Eli, who have intractable epilepsy, seizures that are nearly impossible to even control or get a handle on, our hope is gone."
STORY: Families move to secure medical marijuana for kids
STORY: Marijuana oil bill passes Ky. Senate
Some of issues stalling the trials are the availability of marijuana oil, the possible need for approval from the Food and Drug Administration and the cost of studiesthat preliminary estimates say could be $10,000 per participant.
Still, doctors hoping to conduct the trials are optimistic.
"I am extremely excited about it," University of Louisville Dr. Karen Skjei, who specializes in pediatric epilepsy, said, citing anecdotal reports of the medicine reducing seizures where traditional medications, diets and surgery can't. Supporters say the oil, administered under the tongue, can provide relief to children who have severe cases of epilepsy. The oil contains low amounts of THC, the perception-altering ingredient in marijuana.
"I suspect that it probably won't live up 100 percent to the hype," Skjei said, but for some, "it could be a life-changing experience.... (F)or these kids who have no other options, we have to remain optimistic."
The new law allows trials of marijuana oil at the Universities of Louisville and Kentucky medical schools or through FDA trials.
Winning legislative approval for the bill is "just the initial part of the puzzle," saidDr. Christopher Shafer, who specializes in adult epilepsy.
Shafer and Skjei said there will be no problem finding participants for the trial they are working to develop at the University of Louisville. Shafer said three of the five patients he saw in one day last week wanted to try the medication.
"Dr Skjei and I want this for our patients, probably, almost as badly as the patients want it themselves," Shafer said. "And it's really discouraging for us to be not be able to tell them that we have it available.... It's going to take some time."
A University of Kentucky spokesman expressed the same concerns.
"While there is certainly interest in this initiative, there are significant issues that remain to be addressed," spokesman Jay Blanton said. "Additional research, the securing of funding and support, as well as support from the appropriate regulatory body, all would be required before a trial could be conducted. That process could likely take months, if not years."
Details of the Louisville trial are still being determined, but researchers say it would involve several phases, including one where doctors would give half of the patients the oil and the other half a placebo before switching.
The final phase of the study would be another year where all the patients get the oil.
The new state law doesn't specify age limits on patients but testimony before the legislature focused almost exclusively on young children because severe seizures in children are so much worse than in adults, Skjei said.
Children "can be so incredibly debilitated by their seizures.... and sometimes these kids don't even make it into adulthood.... We are seeing the sickest of the sickest on the pediatric front lines that the possibility of something to help these children is just incredible," she said.
Currently, marijuana oil isn't being manufactured in Kentucky, and there are numerous hurdles to consider when shipping it across state lines.
Discussions are ongoing with pharmaceutical companies and others about possibly setting up a Kentucky dispensary, Skjei said.
"As of right now, there's really nowhere to get it," she said.
Then there's the issue of the FDA.
Skjei said she and Shafer hope the FDA would accept existing data related to multiple sclerosis and other disorders regarding the safety of marijuana oil that would clear the way for the advanced trials Louisville is considering. Skjei said trials could be done without the FDA approval, but doctors would have to have the oil.
Lastly, there's the cost, which Skjei said is dependent on the study's structure, timing of phases and number of subjects. If the study had 60 patients, Skjei said, "then that's an awful lot of money right there."
"I feel their desperation," Shafer said,.
Skjei said, "I still have patients that are talking about moving to Colorado," where marijuana is legal, "because they understand it's going to be a while before this is up and running,"
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1lksNqEAs 2014 winds down and we look toward the new year, we wanted to take a moment to |
ese is made from the curds), and the other 2 percent is quickly consumed by lactic-acid bacteria in the act of fermentation.
I cannot figure out why, but the atmosphere in America today rewards this sort of self-deception. Fear and suspicion of food have nearly become the norm. Civil dinners have become impossible, and with them, the sense of festivity and exchange. We are as pitiable as the poor bushmen of the Kalahari who perish in large numbers during the droughts that afflict them every two or three years because they consider only about a quarter of the 223 animal species that inhabit their world to be edible.
People should be ashamed of the irrational food phobias that keep them from sharing food with each other. Instead, they have become proud and arrogant and aggressively misinformed. But not me. When I donned the heavy mantle of food critic, I sketched out a six-step program to rid myself of all puissant and crippling likes and dislikes.
Step One was to list my food phobias, which ranged from mild to psychotic. They included dill, kimchi (the national pickle of Korea), swordfish, miso, mocha, chutney, raw sea urchins, cinnamon, California chardonnay, falafel (those hard, dry, fried little balls of chickpea flour unaccountably enjoyed in Middle Eastern countries), chickpeas generally, cranberries, kidneys, okra, millet, coffee ice cream, refried beans, and most forms of yogurt.
I was also convinced that Greek cuisine was an oxymoron. Nations are like people. Some are good at cooking, while others have a talent for music or baseball or manufacturing VCRs. The Greeks are really good at both pre-Socratic philosophy and white sculpture. They have not been good cooks since the fifth century B.C., when Siracusa in Sicily was the gastronomic capital of the world. Typical of the Greeks’ modern cuisine are feta cheese and retsina wine. Any country that pickles its national cheese in brine and adulterates its national wine with pine pitch should order dinner at the local Chinese place and save its energies for other things. The British go to Greece for the food, which says volumes to me. You would probably think twice before buying a Russian or Algerian television set. I had thought for 10 years before buying my last Greek meal.
This had to stop.
Step Two was to immerse myself for several weeks in the scientific literature on human food selection. Did you know that babies who are breast-fed will later have less trouble with novel foods than those who are given formula? The reason is found in the variety of flavors that make their way into breast milk from the mother’s diet and prepare the infant for the culinary surprises that will follow weaning.
Food phobias can be extinguished in five or six ways, of which I considered only brain surgery, medication, and mere exposure. Bilateral lesions made in the basolateral region of the amygdala seem to do the trick in rats and, I think, monkeys—eliminating old aversions, preventing the formation of new ones, and increasing the animals’ acceptance of novel foods. But the literature does not report whether this brain operation also diminishes the ability of these phobia-free animals to, say, watch the entire Republican Convention on C-SPAN, or get an external CD-ROM changer to work under Windows 95, key skills I might even value over becoming phobia-free. I am kidding, of course—nobody can do these things.
Administration of the drug chlordiazepoxide also seems to work. According to an old PDR, this is nothing but Librium, the once-popular tranquilizer also bottled as “Reposans” and “Sereen.” But the label warns you about nausea, depression, and heavy machinery. I just said no.
Bribery does not work. Children who are offered more playtime for eating spinach may temporarily comply. Those who are offered Milky Way bars in return for eating spinach quickly learn to value Milky Way bars.
Step Three was to choose my weapon. Exposure was the only answer. Researchers have found that eating moderate amounts of a novel or hated food at moderate intervals is nearly guaranteed to work. The reason is that omnivores are born with neophobia, a fear of new foods that accompanies our biological need to explore for them—an ambivalence that protects us from unbridled banqueting. Most parents give up trying out novel foods on their weanlings after two or three attempts, and then complain to the pediatrician; this may be the most frequent cause of finicky eaters, of omnivores manqués. Most babies will accept nearly anything after eight or 10 tries.
Step Four: I immediately made eight or 10 reservations at Korean restaurants, purchased eight or 10 anchovies, searched the Zagat guide for eight or 10 restaurants with the names “Parthenon” or “Olympia” (which I believe are required by statute for Greek restaurants), and brought a pot of water to the boil for cooking eight or 10 chickpeas.
Idedicated the next six months to this effort, and by the time I had finished, nearly every food aversion (along with every positive preference that had kept me from exploring freely) was gone. Now I yearn for miso and am a noted connoisseur of anchovies. Try to find those packed in salt rather than in oil.
Step Five, the final exam and graduation ceremony. I was in Paris, France—a city that my professional duties frequently compel me to visit. I was trying a nice new restaurant, and when the waiter brought the menu, I found myself in a state unlike any I had ever attained—call it Zen-like if you wish. Everything on the menu, every appetizer, hot and cold, every salad, every fish, every bird, and every meat was terrifically alluring, but none more than any other. I had absolutely no way of choosing. Though blissful at the prospect of eating, I was completely unable to order dinner. I was reminded of the medieval church parable of the ass equidistant between two bales of hay, who, because animals lack free will, starves to death. A man, supposedly, would not.
The Catholic Church was dead wrong. I would have starved—if my companion had not saved the day by ordering for both of us. I believe I had a composed salad with slivers of foie gras, a perfect sole meunière, and sweetbreads. Everything was delicious.
Step Six: learning humility. Just because you have become a perfect omnivore does not mean that you must flaunt it. Intoxicated with my accomplishment, I began to misbehave, especially at dinner parties. When seated next to an especially finicky eater, I would amuse myself by going straight for the jugular. Sometimes I began slyly by staring at the food left on her plate and then inquiring about her allergies; sometimes I launched a direct assault by asking how long she had had a fear of bread. And then I would sit back and sagely listen to a neurotic jumble of excuses and explanations: the advice from her personal trainer, her intolerance to wheat gluten, a pathetic faith in Dean Ornish, the exquisite–even painful–sensitivity of her taste buds, hints of childhood abuse.
While it is perfectly all right—even charitable—to practice this kind of tough love on those of one’s dinner-party neighbors who are less omnivorous than oneself, the perfect omnivore must always keep in mind that it is an absolute necessity to get invited back.As fans suspected after Charles Dance got all coy about it, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have confirmed that season five of Game Of Thrones will contain flashbacks. Here’s what they said during an event in Spain:
“Making the first season, we set a rule: No prophecies, dreams, or flashbacks. We already failed the first two, and this season we broke the third. So yes, this season will finally have flashbacks.”
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Considering a flashback plays a big role in a coming storyline for a major character (cue smug nod from book readers), perhaps this was inevitable. But it does present some exciting opportunities for the many actors Westeros’ trigger-happy creator has sent to the unemployment line—a Taxicab Confessions-style retelling of the erotic exploits of Oberyn Martell? Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon cavorting through the countryside, disembowling foes and singing bawdy songs? Joffrey getting slapped for a solid 10 minutes? Oh wait, that already exists.
[via Vulture]Brenton Sanderson and Kane Cornes expect Patrick Dangerfield to leave the Crows
Kane Cornes nominates the deal to get Dangerfield to Geelong
• Who's on the move? Check out the status of 2015's free agents
TWO SOUTH Australian football legends believe this will be Patrick Dangerfield's last season in an Adelaide guernsey.
Former Crows coach and 200-gamer Brenton Sanderson and cross-town rival Kane Cornes believe the likelihood of the 25-year-old staying with the Crows is decreasing with each passing day.
The two-time All Australian midfielder is the biggest free agency target of the off-season and has been constantly linked with Geelong, near his home town of Moggs Creek.
Sanderson told Channel Seven he believed the club would struggle to retain Dangerfield.
Dangerfield won't be rushed into contract call
"Every week that we go on, it looks less and less likely that he's going to stay," he said.
The former Crows boss coached Dangerfield for three seasons, with a reported player revolt behind his axing at the end of last season.
But Sanderson, who played the majority of his career with the Cats, showed no ill-feeling by backing Dangerfield's form in 2015.
"He's having a fantastic season and winning plenty of the footy," he said.
"It won't be affecting him... Paddy's got the sort of personality that he'll be able to park that, particularly on match day."
Cornes, a premiership winner with Adelaide's arch rivals Port Adelaide, went further and predicted the manner of his departure.
"I thought he was going to stay two weeks ago, but I've changed," he told the Chennel Nine.
"I think Adelaide will match the offer but he'll end up at Geelong.
"They'll trade... (Steven) Motlop and a first-round pick."
Cornes' former Power teammate Jay Schulz is out of contract at season's end.
Schulz has already switched clubs once in his career, moving from Richmond, and Cornes urged him to sign a new deal to improve his form.
"It's affecting Schulzy, his form in the last month hasn't been great," he said.
Cornes said Schultz was now 30 and unlikely to make another club switch and would remain with the Power.
• Remember last season's Trade Period? Take the quiz at the NAB AFL Trade HubRIP Pebble… The wearable maker that pioneered wrist-based notifications before Apple and many others waded into the smartwatch space has confirmed it’s closing its doors as an independent entity.
Late last month rumors emerged that Fitbit was set to acquire Pebble — with our sources telling us the price-tag was between $34 million and $40M, a figure they said “barely” covered the startup’s debts. Although the company avoided an explicit confirmation of the rumor by tweeting a shrug emoji until now.
Today Pebble’s CEO Eric Migicovsky has published a blog with official confirmation of the acquisition and details of what will happen to Pebble products. The post does not confirm the acquisition price, however.
“We have made the tough decision to shut down the company and no longer manufacture Pebble devices,” he writes. “While dissolving Pebble as you know today is difficult, I am happy to announce that many members of Team Pebble will be joining the Fitbit family to continue their work on wearable software platforms.”
“It’s a bittersweet day, but I want to extend my biggest thanks to the Pebble community,” he adds.
Migicovsky goes on to note that while Pebble devices will continue to work “as normal” — and asserts there will be “no immediate changes” to the user experience “at this time” — he does also warn that “Pebble functionality or service quality may be reduced in the future”.
As for Migicovsky himself, he is moving on to the Y Combinator accelerator program, which recently lost its head of hardware, a source told us. That echoes an earlier report from Bloomberg which noted the same.
So really it sounds like it’s only a matter of time before Pebble wrist-wear reaches the end of the functionality road — with whatever lifespan left now up to Fitbit to determine.
Warranty support for Pebble devices has already been withdrawn, according to the blog post. While the Pebble 2, which only started shipping earlier this month, has now been canceled — with no more orders being accepted or fulfilled.
Kickstarter backers whose rewards have not yet been fulfilled are slated to get a full refund within 4-8 weeks as a chargeback to their credit cards. Anyone who returned a Pebble device before December 7 will also get a refund, according to the post.
In terms of what exactly Fitbit is acquiring, Migicovsky writes that “many” Pebble staff will be joining Fitbit to work on wearable software platforms.
The focus of the acquisition looks firmly to be software. “The arrangements were finalized today for Fitbit to acquire our technology, software, and other intellectual property (IP),” says Migicovsky.
“The team joining Fitbit will help the company accelerate development of the tools and resources devs need to enhance future Fitbit products with experiences that can take wearables to new heights of utility and appeal,” he adds.
On another post on the its developer blog, Pebble says: “The Pebble SDK, CloudPebble, mobile apps, developer portal, appstore, timeline API, dictation service, messaging service, and firmware will all continue to operate without interruption. Further down the road, we’ll be working to phase out cloud services, providing the ability for the community to take over, where possible.”
The post goes on to urge the Pebble dev community to stick around and get involved in the forthcoming Fitbit wearable “experiences” that Pebble devs will now be working on.
According to Crunchbase, Pebble had raised $15.38M since being founded back in 2009, with a large chunk of its funding coming via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform.
Pebble winding down is, inevitably, a high-profile disappointment for crowdfunding — whose platforms hold out the promise of a leg up for small innovators, yet have fewer solutions for longer term business sustainability in the face of more powerful market forces.People who mix tabs and spaces, naturally, will find that their programs do not run. Alas, we haven't found a way to give them an electric shock as from a cattle prod remotely. (Though if somebody finds out a way to do this, I will be pleased to add this option to the PEP.)
Everybody agrees that mixing tabs and spaces is a bad idea. Some people want more than this. I propose that we let people define whatever Python behaviour they want, so it will only run the way they like it, and will not run the way they don't like it. We will do this with a command line switch. Programs that aren't formatted the way the programmer wants things will raise IndentationError.
Python-list@python.org (a.k.a. comp.lang.python) is periodically awash with discussions about tabs and spaces. This is inevitable, given that indentation is syntactically significant in Python. This has never solved anything, and just makes various people frustrated and angry. Eventually they start saying rude things to each other which is sad for all of us. And it is also sad that they are wasting their valuable time which they could spend creating something with Python. Moreover, for the Python community as a whole, from a public relations point of view, this is quite unfortunate. The people who aren't posting about tabs and spaces, are, (unsurprisingly) invisible, while the people who are posting make the rest of us look somewhat foolish.
The problem is that there is no polite way to say 'Stop wasting your valuable time and mine.' People who are already in the middle of a flame war are not well disposed to believe that you are acting out of compassion for them, and quite rightly insist that their own time is their own to do with as they please. They are stuck like flies in treacle in this wretched argument, and it is self-evident that they cannot disengage or they would have already done so.
But today I had to spend time cleaning my keyboard because the 'n' key is sticking. So, in addition to feeling compassion for these people, I am pretty annoyed. I figure if I make this PEP, we can then ask Guido to quickly reject it, and then when this argument next starts up again, we can say 'Guido isn't changing things to suit the tab-haters or the only-tabbers, so this conversation is a waste of time.' Then everybody can quietly believe that a) they are correct and b) other people are fools and c) they are undeniably fortunate to not have to share a lab with idiots, (which is something the arguers could do _now_, but apparently have forgotten).
And python-list can go back to worrying if it is too smug, rather than whether it is too hostile for newcomers. Possibly somebody could get around to explaining to me what is the difference between __getattr__ and __getattribute__ in non-Classic classes in 2.2, a question I have foolishly posted in the middle of the current tab thread. I would like to know the answer to that question.
This proposal, if accepted, will probably mean a heck of a lot of work for somebody. But since I don't want it accepted, I don't care.Joseph L. Sax, a legal scholar who helped shape environmental law in the United States and fuel the environmental movement by establishing the doctrine that natural resources are a public trust requiring protection, died on Sunday at his home in San Francisco. He was 78.
The cause was complications of a series of strokes, his daughter Katherine Dennett said.
In 1970, as Americans were becoming increasingly alarmed about pollution, Professor Sax emerged as one of the most prominent of a new breed of lawyers focusing exclusively on the environment.
That year, amid concerns about smog and contaminated waterways, 20 million Americans were mobilized to participate in Earth Day, and President Richard M. Nixon signed the Clean Air Act and legislation creating the Environmental Protection Agency, a year after the Council on Environmental Quality was created in the executive branch.
In his signal achievement, Professor Sax reached back to ancient Roman law to formulate a far-reaching legal doctrine that recognizes the air, seas and other natural resources as a public trust that must be protected from private encroachment.AMD’s game-smoothing FreeSync monitors launched a full year after Nvidia’s rival G-Sync displays, but they’ve been coming fast and furious ever since. Late Thursday, the company revealed that its technology surpassed not one, but two major milestones with the launch of the 27-inch Y27f ($400 on Amazon) earlier this month. This curved, 144Hz 1080p display is both Lenovo’s first-ever FreeSync display, as well as the 101st FreeSync display released overall.
FreeSync and G-Sync monitors synchronize the refresh rate of your graphics card with your display. That eliminates stutter and tearing, resulting in gameplay so buttery smooth that you’ll never be able to use a traditional non-variable refresh rate monitor again. Both technologies are utterly superb.
Mentioned in this article Lenovo Y27f 27-Inch FHD LED-Lit 16:9 Curved Widescreen Gaming Monitor with FreeSync (65BFGCC1US) $380.00 See it on Amazon
But each kills stutter from different angles. G-Sync forces monitor makers to bake a hardware module inside their displays. AMD’s FreeSync is a software-based solution that piggybacks on the royalty-free, industry-standard spec known as DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync. G-Sync’s dedicated hardware offers more universal refresh range support, but inside of standard gameplay frame rate ranges, both solutions perform all but identically.
Building around open standard software has helped FreeSync monitors flourish, however. While existing G-Sync monitors are fairly limited in number and start at $380 thanks to the extra hardware, there’s a range of FreeSync monitors available for every possible display niche you can think of—and prices start at just $110 on Amazon for a 22-inch 1080p FreeSync monitor.
The story behind the story: There’s a nasty anti-consumer downside to this display technology war between AMD and Nvidia: The lack of cross-compatibility. The benefits of FreeSync displays only work with Radeon graphics cards while G-Sync’s charms are restricted to GeForce cards. With many gamers buying monitors far less frequently than graphics cards, the threat of brand lock-in is real. Here’s hoping AMD and Nvidia cast aside their difference to rally around a single standard at some point in the future—but don’t hold your breath.
Update, August 27, 2016: AMD Vice President Roy Taylor left a note in this article's comments section to note that FreeSync is based on industry-wide standards, and that Nvidia could adopt it if it chose to do so. Scroll down to see his full comment below.Sometimes, playing in Hex PvE is not about winning, but instead about sending a clear message to your ever-patient AI opponent. I and KingGabriel offer some thoughts on the latest PVE spoiler.
Drag to the Depths is a high-cost board clear in Sapphire, and while its immediate effect is symmetrical and affects both players like an Extinction, it throws all the affected troops into YOUR deck, and turns them all into free-draw-plays like an Angel of Dawn. Whether you’ll see any of these troops is up to chance and your deck’s draw power, but by the time you pay Drag to the Depths, you might have some powerful troops hiding in the depths of your deck that will just pop out and help regardless of their cost and threshold.
However, Drag to the Depth’s 7 cost means that most troops one would draw and play for free, would normally be playable at cost, and if low-power troops are drawn, it may actually be mucking up one’s normal deck tempo. Using lots of draw power to keep drawing into and past any dragged troops is one way to recover board presence after playing it. Fortunately, Drag to the Depths sports a couple of equipment to make playing Drag a better deal for you.
The Seafaring Gloves grants you a charge for every troop that is put into your deck with Drag to the Depths. Fueling charge powers after the board clear is powerful, especially for classes such as Mages, where that turns into a toolbox full of spells. Warriors can Battle for damage and other effects, and with Chapter II, Mercenaries will be bringing all sorts of powers to the table to make use of these charges.
Drag to the Depths’s head-slot equipment, Victim’s Memento, adds “Then, draw a card” to every troop that is put into your deck, which turns the downside of the Dragged troops into all upside. And it is this equipment, enabling potential of drawn Dragged troops, that brings us to a deck idea.
The object of this deck idea is not to win, but to strike abject terror into the heart of your unfeeling AI opponent. Because spiders.
Vennen Mage – Level 9+
Deck Cost: Moderate
3x Hatchery Priest (Gloves)
3x Exarch of the Egg
3x Runeweb Infiltrator (Feet)
3x Nazhk Webguard
3x Vilefang Emerite
3x Zilth (Weapon, Chest)
3x Brood Baron
2x Psychic Torment
3x Kill
3x Oracle Song
2x Lanupaw’s Sight
3x Azure Fang Decree
2x Drag to the Depths (Head)
8x Blood Shard
8x Sapphire Shard
4x Shard of Cunning
4x Zin’xith Silk
Vennen have one of the best shard grids for playing the Sapphire Legendary at our current max level, and the Mage class lends itself to utilizing the charges from Seafaring Gloves. However, for this deck, I’ll leave the gloves off in favor for Hatchery Priest’s Nursery Handlers, for an extra Spiderling with every Spiderling Egg that hatches.
You may notice that this looks a lot like a typical Spiderling Vennen deck, and that would be correct. You could win without ever playing Drag to the Depths, but as I said earlier, it’s not about winning.
Get a lot of Spiderlings. Play Drag to the Depths. Watch your opponent draw chain Spiderling Eggs, and watch yourself draw chain Spiderlings.
Cackle with glee at your combo in action, because this is what PvE is all about.
KingGabriel offers some insight to the card as well:
When considering Drag to the Depths’s main effect it might seem a bit under-powered apart from the fact it opens up more board clear options—however, I think a key thing to note is its main effect has a ton of potential late game. when longer battles in dungeons/raids start appearing.
I really do not see it being used in Frost Ring Arena given its high cost. It would be a fun card to use, but ultimately not effective.
In this regard, it has heavy late game potential, especially with draw heavy decks—I see cards like Forbidden Tomeseeker becoming quite a bit more useful in drawn out battles.
This will also allow you to use AI/boss troops without any threshold/resource etc. requirement; the effectiveness of this varies from encounter to encounter but its benefit should not be ignored; being able to play Wiktor’s cards against him offers some overdue revenge that some players may desire.
When it comes to the equipment, the charge gain is a lot stronger for some classes than others. Mages have a wide choice of abilities being re-useable for their charge power and clerics have a lot of late game draw built in that can be augmented pretty decently with the charges gained here.
The head equipment seems a bit of overkill though, but in a heavily draw focused deck it might have some benefits over other cards in the same equipment slot.
Ranger does not presently have as much use for the charge gain, but warriors can use it to clean up the board and stall an opponent’s recovery by making them discard random cards from their hand. I see this having most use in a mage draw/charge focused control deck.
Bear in mind there are a lot of ways to augment actions and making this a quick action could make it even more of a powerful counter—holding high cost cards in hand does not mess up your curve as much if you compensate by larger hand size, non-shards that have resource/threshold elements, cards that allow you to reduce the cost of cards (e.g. War Drums), cards that allow you to play cards for free (e.g. Indigo Dreamwalker), or cards that can trigger effects while still in your deck.
Like this: Like Loading...In Reddit's continuing effort to weed out spammers, it has taken another not-quite traditional step: email verification.
Okay, so it sounds perfectly traditional, but the site has gone and taken it one step further - email verification that is completely voluntary.
Earlier this month, the social news and bookmarking site announced that it was going to be drafting its users in a form of crowdsourced spam filtering. This next step, it says, could make "the spammers' job dramatically harder".
From Reddit engineer Mike Schiraldi's blog post:
First and foremost, nobody has to verify their email address. If you're paranoid about this sort of thing and would rather jump off a cliff than tell reddit your email address, you'll still be able to log in, vote, post crazy comments, submit links to bunker supplies and tinfoil hat designs, and everything else that you're used to. In fact, we think (and hope) that normal, non-spammy users won't even notice any change. The only ones who should have a problem are people who submit one crummy link after another, as often as the site will let them. We're going to start limiting them to a certain number of crummy links per hour (and per day, per week, etc).
Schiraldi goes on to explain that "crummy" links are ones that are flagged as spam, fail to pass "deputy moderation" (that crowdsourced spam filtering me mentioned above) and links with more downvotes than upvotes.
So, if you surpass the number of crummy links allowed, all you need to do is verify your email address and "you'll be granted a lot more leeway."
It's interesting to see these attempts at slight twists on traditional spam filtering because, as Schiraldi notes in the beginning of his blog post, "there are plenty of occasions when reddit users wish to remain anonymous" and "it's a fine line to walk, crushing spammers without hurting [their] community."
The IAmA is a perfect example. The name is a multipurpose anacronym, where someone says "I am a" but it also means "Ask Me Anything". Without anonymity, this massively popular section of Reddit would be far less interesting, if not impossible.
Copyright 2010 ReadWriteWeb. All Rights Reserved.NEW YORK — A new role-playing game aiming to bring fans of the science fiction TV series "Firefly" back into the space western universe is counting down to a big launch in 2015, nearly 12 years after the show went off the air.
Quantum Mechanix (QMx) and Spark Plug Games will launch "Firefly Online" next year and showed off the"Firefly Online Cortex" — a portal users can access to set up an identity in the game before it event begins — Thursday (Oct. 9) during a panel here at New York Comic Con. They also unveiled the first glimpse of how "Firefly Online" will look in a gameplay sneak peak.
"As future citizens of this vast solar frontier, you are entitled to set yourself up on the Cortex, free of charge," QMx representatives wrote in a description of the Cortex online. "The Cortex is the interplanetary communications network that will allow you access to all kinds of helpful advice, to trade your goods (legit and otherwise), and find whatever employ that's suitable for someone of your … reputation."
"Firefly Online" allows each player to act as the captain of a ship, making decisions and hiring a crew. Within the context of the game, the recruited crews actually "remember" the way the captain treats them, and based on that information, they might be more or less willing to cooperate with future commands.
The minds behind "Firefly Online" also managed to get all of the actors from the Joss Whedon TV show to come back and lend their voices to the game. Mal (played by Nathan Fillion) and Inara (played by Morena Baccarin) even have a love story in the game, like they did in the TV show.
The game's creators are also going to roll out a series of interviews with the cast on their memories of "Firefly" and their thoughts on the new game. The panel previewed Baccarin's interview for the Comic Con crowd.
"When I was first offered the part, I was just ecstatic to be working on a series that Joss Whedon was involved in," Baccarin said during her interview. "That was the thing that attracted me to the project.
"I remember the feeling of loving everybody and having so much fun and constantly laughing," Baccarin added of her memories on set. "We were always goofing around and playing practical jokes on each other. I remember things here and there, but it's mostly just the general sense of loving the experience."
"Firefly Online" is set for release in Spring 2015. To learn more about the game, visit: https://keepflying.com.
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Arizona is poised to lead the nation in increasing rights for fathers this year.
State lawmakers are considering a bill to make Arizona the first state in the nation to grant equal custody to the fathers of children born out of wedlock. Currently, the mother is automatically granted custody and the father must establish paternity and then go to court to seek parenting time.
Lawmakers, fathers and advocates are also pushing legislation for stricter reporting requirements by the parent with a child to tell the other parent and the court whenever they plan to move, as well as make it easier for parents to get back into court and revise their parenting-time agreements.
These measures come on top of successful efforts in recent years to begin to modernize legal terminology by changing child custody to parenting time, improve the balance of parenting time for both parents and forbid the courts from giving one parent preference based on the parent's or child's gender.
"We really want to make things right for the kids," said Mike Espinoza, a divorced father of three boys who has been working with lawmakers for several years. Espinoza, who has fought to get more parenting time with his kids, said his ongoing legislative effort is about helping kids get equal time with both parents without having to go through bitter court battles.
Sen. Rick Murphy, R-Peoria, who is sponsoring Senate Bill 1202, which grants equal custody to unmarried fathers, said: "Mothers and fathers both need to be starting off on the same level playing field.
"It's fundamentally wrong for one parent to be at a disadvantage going in."
He said for him, this legislation is about helping both parents take responsibility for their children. "People need to be responsible when they have children," he said.
The bill passed committee with a 6-3 party-line vote. The Democrats and a couple of the Republicans voiced concerns that the bill may have unintended consequences, such as creating a challenge for school officials to determine whom they can release a child to or making it too easy for an absentee parent to suddenly show up and claim custody. The bill needs a vote of the full Senate before moving on to the House.
Murphy dismissed concerns that the bill would open the door for an absentee father to suddenly show up at school and claim custody of his child.
"That already can happen every day with mothers," he said. As mothers legally have automatic custody of a newborn, they can take back a child they might have previously handed over to the child's father.
Brent Miller, a father of four who has been working with lawmakers for several years, said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the bill levels the playing field.
"Only fathers currently have to go to court to file for custody, parenting time, visitation," he said. "We want to make sure every Arizonan has an equal opportunity to gain parenting time."
The bill is meant to address situations in which the biological mother and father are not married or in a relationship at the time of a child's birth.
Former state lawmaker Debra Brimhall Pearson is involved with an organization that helps single moms but said she felt compelled to support the legislative efforts to improve fathers' rights. She testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of the bill.
She said times have changed; dads are now equal partners who change diapers. And state law needs to change with them, she said.
"There has been an increased awareness that we aren't still in the 18th century Dark Ages," she said. "Prejudice and discrimination has been addressed on almost every step but this one."
She said statistics show that children are less likely to get into trouble when they have a father present.
"This is a society issue," she said. "And anything we can do that influences more father time should be mandatory."
The Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence opposes the bill, and some of the others proposing to address custody issues during the legislative session.
"We are supportive of any non-abusive parent being part of their child's life," Deputy Director Jessye Johnson said. "But when we look at these bills, we come from the perspective of how can this harm or hurt survivors of domestic violence. And some of these bills have a tendency to leave survivors vulnerable."
Johnson said it is common for abusers to use the court system as a control method, forcing a victim back into court.
She said the concern over SB 1202 is the benefit it could have for an absentee parent.
"We have concern about a parent who has been absent who, just by being a biological parent, would have equal access to a child," she said.
Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, who voted against the bill in committee, said: "I appreciate the intent, but I can envision a lot of unintended consequences where someone who has not been involved in a child's life... decides to intervene."
Proposed legislation
Out of wedlock: Senate Bill 1202 would grant the father of a child born out of wedlock equal custody rights if the father's name is on the birth certificate or both parents acknowledge paternity.
Terminology: SB 1091 would continue prior efforts to update state statute by replacing the word "custody" with "parenting time."
Court orders: SB 1071 would allow parents with a court order issued between 2008 and 2013 to ask a judge to modify that order based on the allegation that it doesn't comply with a new law requiring judges to support "substantial, frequent, meaningful and continuing contact."
Moving: SB 1072 would increase the requirements for a parent to notify both the court and the noncustodial parent of plans to move with a child and the reasons for that move.
Hearings: SB 1073 would require the court to hold a hearing for any requested temporary order for parenting time or legal decision-making authority within 60 days.If this is your first time visiting National Terror Alert you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. The National terror Alert feed features breaking news, alerts and bulletins on demand and it's free of charge..
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Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said his country isn’t adding to its nuclear arsenal and doesn’t have to disclose the location of its weapons to the U.S.
Pakistan is “not adding to our stockpile as such,” Zardari said today on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “Why do we need more?”
Asked whether Pakistan would tell U.S. intelligence officials where all its nuclear weapons are located, to allow for a joint strategy to keep them secure, Zardari said Pakistan is a sovereign country.The B.C. government has released a plan to help some of the most difficult patients to support, those with both a mental illness and a severe drug addiction.
Health Minister Terry Lake announced the $20 million program that includes a new psychiatric assessment and stabilization unit at Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital.
Lake said the program also includes the creation of outreach teams |
, he didn't allow a hit until one out into the 5th inning. Things started to come apart a bit after that.
How did he look? Let's start with the Alec Hansen of the first four innings:
Fastball: mostly 93-96, touched 97 once, but also a couple lower than the primary range. Has a little cut-like action, which surprised me in that band.
Curveball: Hansen's strongest offspeed pitch comes in at 77 to 81. It's got enough loop to it that it can be spotted early and there is some signalling, but it usually showed nice shape and quite a bit of drop.
Change-up: Had a broader band from 82 to 87, doesn't move a ton but has a slight fade and the speed differential works well. Delivery doesn't change so it's not obviously telegraphed, though review of the video shows there is some very slight arm slowing with it.
Slider: Rarely offered in the first few frames - I had one at 84 and one at 85. Had some nice snap to it though.
Here are some full at-bat videos from the early innings:
Second inning strikeout...
Second inning weak groundout, including Hansen fielding it...
Hansen told me that his change-up was his strongest current pitch, pointing out that he didn't think anyone had hit it yet. To wit, this quote from Zaleski about the change:
We challenged Alec in instructs to improve his change-up and credit to him, he put the work in and improved. He had some starts where we made him go fastball-change-up and helped him get the feel for it. He came back into ST with a tremendous feel for it and pretty happy with the velo on it. It's not 89-90 like it could be, but more around 83-86. As long he keeps his delivery tempo the same, I think hitters are going to have a lot of trouble squaring up.
That combo was plenty to keep Asheville's lineup stymied. But starting a bit in the 4th, then much more in the 5th and 6th, he began to tire and his pitches changed noticeably. This isn't a surprise as he adjusts to the rigors of full season ball and long innings - in fact it is quite common at this level. But here is what he looked like in innings 5 and 6:
Fastball ran more 91-93, touched 94 a couple times, and the movement wasn't as profound
Curveball was left up more often, and he started using it less
Change-up didn't change in character, but because the fastball dropped the velo diff was less pronounced
He started using the slider more, in the 81-84 range, and it was his most effective pitch in those later frames
Here are some videos from the later innings:
Fifth inning, ends in flyout:
Sixth inning, ends in groundout
There was a telling moment in the 5th inning. While in a jam, for the first time in the game we saw Hansen shake off catcher Seby Zavala (and he did it twice for one pitch). He delivered a slider for a strikeout to end the threat. I asked Alec about that moment, and he had this to say:
On 3-2, right? Yeah I remember that. I used to throw my slider a lot more than my curveball. But I feel like my curveball plays better, and I can throw it for a strike more often, so I think it’s a better pitch than my slider. But my curveball’s not always there – my feel for it – and my slider I’ve usually got a pretty good feel for. So I just felt more comfortable going to the slider then, than the curve.
Zaleski added further color when we interviewed him:
He held his curveball through the first three and it was dominant. He lost feel for it right around half-way through the fourth and its something that I talked to him and Seby (Zavala) about, if you notice that pitch is starting to go, its not something you want to throw in a big situation.
The tiring in later innings is something to keep in mind, but it's not a big worry. The biggest issue we saw was with the running game. Hansen is very slow to the plate, and his pick-off move could charitably be called a "show me" offering. As a result, runners have been going at will in his last few starts. In his last three contests, he's allowed 15 stolen bases in 15.2 innings with no one caught. Watching a game where this happened six times, it was clear that Zavala had no chance on most of the runners. As an illustration, Zavala has thrown out just 1 of 20 attempted base stealers while working with Hansen, but nailed 7 of 16 with every other pitcher he's caught.
I asked Hansen about the running game, and this was his response:
It’s not something we just blow off of course. I see that guys are stealing on me all the time. But right now, mostly, it’s just trying to tackle one thing at a time. I’m trying to get all my pitches down, throw a lot of strikes. Just focus on myself right now, and attacking hitters rather than the running game. Once I’ve completed those things that I'm working on right now, then I’ll focus more on the running game.
So he's aware, they are talking about it, but it just isn't a priority for him right now. The White Sox are clearly focused on getting Hansen right as a thrower first, which makes sense (though in the meantime, I hope Alec takes Seby out for dinner at some point). As a positive indicator of his ability to make those adjustments later, he does show good athleticism (especially for his frame) when fielding the position.
Overall View
Alec Hansen is a project, but one that has already reached some key milestones. This is not a pitcher likely to rush up the system like, for example, Dane Dunning. The 22-year old 2nd rounder needs to build up endurance, modify his delivery from the stretch, and do some work to attenuate the running game.
The talent is undeniable. His fastball is already plus, he throws strikes and repeats his delivery well, and all his offspeeds show major league potential. It's not crazy to say his ceiling is a number 2 starter, and that he's got a reasonable shot at sticking in the middle of a rotation in the majors. A high leverage reliever floor is pretty solid at this point. Just don't expect him in the next couple years.
Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box on the right-side bar (or at the bottom, if on a mobile device) and click the "create subscription" button. Our list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.Can I get a hell yes for Rick George? The Colorado athletic director today announced that two new beer gardens will debut on Saturday night on the west side of the stadium. The Buffalo Beer Garden presented by Hazel's will be open near the buffalo statue at the southwest plaza and the Balch Beer Garden will be open inside Balch Fieldhouse two hours before kickoff.
Both beer and wine will be sold (to anyone over 21 of course) in the gardens and will not be allowed in the seating sections of the stadium.
This is the first time that fans in the regular seating areas of the stadium will be allowed to purchase alcohol since 1996 when the Buffs joined the Big 12 conference.
Like the idea and want to show you appreciation (and encourage more) to Rick George for implementing the change? AllBuffs has a great way to do so.A high school principal in Pennsylvania has suspended nearly half of the student population after an alarming number of unexcused absences.
About 500 students at Harrisburg High School have received suspension notices as the school's principal has begun cracking down on the issue of unexcused absences among students.
According to PennLive, at least 100 of the students issued suspension notices have served one-day suspensions following Principal Lisa Love's effort to crackdown on the problem.
Love says that students are coming to school, but are not showing up to class.
The principal spoke about the issue during a meeting between school officials and parents.
"The problem I've noticed here as principal is that students are coming to school but they are not going to classes when they get here," Love said. "Many parents send their kids to school and they're thinking they're going to class. I needed to reach out because of the enormous number not going to class."
Rather than showing up to class, many students have taken to spending time in the hallways, bathrooms, gymnasiums, and other areas of the school. Love said that she wanted to do something "radical" in order to let students know that this is not okay.
"If you're not in class, all you're here to do then is to wreak havoc upon the school and disrupt the work that we are trying to do here. And that's to focus on student achievement," the principal said.
School officials spoke with reporters in an informal news conference prior to meeting with parents. Officials explained that the school has new expectations for its students, as the school has struggled with a low graduation rate and poor test scores for some time, according to Fox News.
Assistant Principal Keith Edmonds says that the school issued notices for excessive absences for students who have missed at least 35 classes in the marking period of 45 days, or nine weeks. Missing 35 classes is equal to a week of unexcused absences, as students are scheduled for seven classes each day.
Edmonds says that when news of the suspensions began to spread, parents started showing up at the school to provide documentation for absences in order to help their children avoid the penalty.
"This was a hard decision for me to make," Love said. "But I had to get the attention of the community to let them know that we are here. And we're about to do some wonderful things for students and the community and we want this to be a school that everyone is proud of. And this was probably the eye opener we needed to make that happen."In the past 72 hours, the presumptive Republican nominee has given corporate America whiplash with abrupt shifts on the minimum wage and taxes on the wealthy (he is now in favor of raising both). But such surprising reversals shouldn’t be a surprise at all. They are the essence of who Donald Trump is.
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump has repeatedly proclaimed that America and its leaders are too predictable. As he told The Washington Post’s editorial board: “We’re totally predictable. And predictable is bad.” Trump has promised to change that. In his foreign policy address last month, for example, he said in regard to the fight against ISIS, “We, as a nation, need to be more unpredictable.”
During an interview with Bill O’Reilly back in January, Trump was asked whether, as president, he might bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. Again, Trump responded with what’s becoming one of his favorite words. “Bill, I’m gonna do what’s right,” he said. “I want to be unpredictable.”
There can often be a great advantage to doing the unexpected in politics. In the 1980 New Hampshire primary, Ronald Reagan bucked the rules at a debate in Nashua, and when the moderator challenged him by attempting to turn off his microphone, Reagan – whose campaign was financing the debate – memorably shot back: “I am paying for this microphone!” This unpredictable move led to thunderous applause and Reagan, of course, went on to win the New Hampshire primary and later the general election.
Unpredictability can also sometimes come in handy in sports, in business or in war. Nobody was expecting the New England Patriots’ onside kick in Super Bowl 49. General Douglas MacArthur kept the Japanese guessing by leapfrogging Pacific islands in World War II. Surprise can on occasion provide a decisive edge and prove to be the difference between victory and defeat.
Unpredictability as a “philosophy”
But there’s a profound difference between unpredictability as a tactic, and unpredictability as a philosophy of governance and leadership. “I keep a lot of balls in the air,” Trump wrote in his book, The Art of the Deal. “I never get too attached to one deal or one approach.” When it comes to a prospective Donald Trump presidency, that viewpoint – the closest thing Mr. Trump has to an ideology — presents a major, and worrisome, problem for the nation he has a shot at leading.
Consider, for example, how a President Trump’s “unpredictability doctrine” will affect his political allies. Across the country today many elected Republicans already are approaching the prospect of a Trump-led ticket with trepidation. A number are struggling to find some accord with his such positions as a ban on Muslims entering the United States, building a wall to keep out Mexicans, and administering something “worse than waterboarding” to terrorists. Once announced, a normal presidential candidate would be expected to stick with those positions and worry about paying a price for abandoning them.
Flip flopping on core positions
Already, Trump appears to be tripping over his own pronouncements, recently calling his proposed ban on Muslims “only a suggestion” that “hasn’t been called for yet,” despite his own announcement in December that “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” What does this recent walk-back mean?
Trump may well be moderating his positions as a primary election becomes a general, as plenty of politicians have done. That would be a welcome sign. But with his expressed preference for being unpredictable in his policymaking, it’s simply impossible to tell for sure. And as a result, it will be harder for a Trump administration to build a governing coalition, since his own party will have every reason not to trust that its own standard bearer will stick with the positions he’s championed, and that many have paid a price to accept.
Democrats won’t trust his negotiations
Similarly, how will President Trump negotiate with his Democratic opposition when he has already telegraphed that he may surprise them at any moment? Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi might spend weeks hammering out an agreement on taxes or entitlements only to have Trump announce at a press conference – or, more likely, in a Tweet – that he’s abandoned his stated position altogether. With a proudly unpredictable Trump, Congressional Democrats will question whether any presidential overture might quickly disintegrate into a political trap. Why take the risk?
Dangerous and destabilizing globally
Perhaps most problematic, Mr. Trump has especially advocated “unpredictability” as a main tenet of his foreign policy. “Why do we have to always tell our enemies what our plans are?” he asked. He apparently feels that same about our allies – as when he, most unexpectedly, labeled most of the nations participating in NATO as financial deadbeats.
By Trump’s own admission, he could reach out to China one day, turn against Beijing the next, offer a surprising overture to Syria a few days later, and then cut off all support to NATO by the weekend. Those are unpredictable moves, yes. They could also be dangerous and destabilizing.
He’s even held open the possibility of using a nuclear weapon against ISIS. Does he mean that, or is this part of a strategy to keep them guessing? Whatever he truly thinks today, will he change his mind tomorrow? Who knows?
Implicit in the role of Chief Executive – and Commander-in-Chief – is the basic principle of trust. The holder of the office needs to hold the trust of fellow elected officials, of foreign leaders, and above all, the trust of the American people. The President of the United States must be a trustworthy actor who behaves rationally – even, dare we say it, predictably.
Trump has made clear repeatedly that he can’t be counted on to mean the things he says, or do the things he’s promised, or act in the way in which he is expected to behave as leader of the most powerful nation on Earth. With Trump, acting in a surprising and inconsistent way isn’t tactical. It’s definitional. If enough of the American people accept this and come out to vote for him anyway, at whose feet besides our own will lie the blame for the predictable chaos that ensues?
Unpredictability may be fun for a television show. Under the right circumstances it can work on the battlefield. It may even work in a boardroom, on occasion, or in a football game. But it’s not the way to run an already great America to which the rest of the world looks for leadership and stability.
Mark L. Alderman served on the Kerry for President and Obama for America National Finance Committees and the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, and is currently Chairman of Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies.
Howard Schweitzer served as Chief Operating Officer of the TARP in the George W. Bush and Obama Administrations and General Counsel of the Export-Import Bank of the United States and is currently the Managing Partner of Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies in Washington DC.About halfway through Wisconsin’s preseason camp, coaches noticed something wrong with quarterback Joel Stave, which was — he could no longer throw a simple pass. He could uncork a 40-yard bomb, no problem, but time and again, he would short-hop a basic 10-yard pass in drills. Stave had suffered a shoulder injury in last January’s Capital One Bowl that slowed him in the spring, but this wasn’t that. Whether they knew it yet or not, his is an unfortunate case of what baseball players and golfers know as the Yips.
Stave had looked fine as recently as the Badgers’ Aug. 18 scrimmage and figured to retain the starting job he’d held for 19 games, but now, with their opener against LSU looming less than two weeks away, there was virtually no chance he’d be ready to play. But coach Gary Andersen was not about to let LSU know that. He would not even confirm an Aug. 22 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that he’d named former safety Tanner McEvoy the starter. Thus, fans watching at home were baffled why Andersen didn’t turn to Stave with McEvoy struggling through a horrific 8-of-24, 50-yard performance last Saturday.
But a few attentive spectators in the Reliant Stadium stands and press box knew something was up. They couldn’t help notice Stave bouncing basic warm-up passes before the game. By early this week Andersen had no choice but to announce that Stave was being “shut down” for the foreseeable future; however, in a confusing sequence of events Tuesday, the school misleadingly announced at first that Stave was injured. Andersen was trying to save the quarterback from embarrassment. After practice that evening, though, Stave went before reporters and described his predicament.
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“I’ll be throwing it good, throwing it good and then all of a sudden I feel like I hang on to it too long,” he said. “One will sail, one will slip and then you start thinking, ‘Oh, I’ve got to hang on to it longer.’
“…On some level I’m kind of a perfectionist. And I think a lot of quarterbacks are. This game is so incredibly important to me that when I maybe miss a throw, miss something like that, then I start to think OK, well what can I do to fix it? Sometimes I maybe tend to overthink things.”
Eileen Canney Linnehan knows exactly what Stave is experiencing. A former Big Ten Pitcher of the Year at Northwestern, Linnehan played her entire career unable to make a basic overhand throw to first base. Opposing teams would purposely bunt at her knowing they’d likely beat her underhand toss to the base. “I got the Yips when I was 13,” said Linnehan, now an assistant coach at UIC. “Even to this day, I probably wouldn’t be able to throw [to first.]”
At last January’s World Softball Coaches Convention in Connecticut, Linnehan delivered a presentation entitled “The Yips: When Mind Matters.” In it, she shared the results of a survey she’d conducted on the subject. Among 93 high school and college coaches, only 10 of them had not coached a player with the Yips. Collectively they’d coached 364 such athletes.
In other words, Stave’s condition is a very real thing.
“It’s an event or series of traumatic events that results in a mental block or performance anxiety,” said Linnehan, whose own issues began after a coach yelled at her about an error. “The mental block results in the loss of motor skills in what used to be an easily achievable event.”
The way Linnehan describes the defining traits of someone with Yips, they eerily mirror many of Stave’s own comments. It seems less a surprise that he has it than the fact we don’t hear about this sort of thing more often with quarterbacks.
“I’ve had coaches tell me it’s such an easy thing to fix because it’s such an easy throw, but the easier throws are harder to fix because the person wants to be perfect,” said Linnehan. “Pitchers get it because they have the ball every time and they want to control the situation. It’s the same with quarterbacks. I’m sure he’s hearing, ‘Oh, he can’t handle the pressure, he’s choking,’ and all of that could potentially make it worse. Choking is just kind of on the surface. It happens once in a while, but if it happens more consistently it becomes the Yips category.”
Andersen and Stave have not speculated as to a possible trigger, but the most likely causes would be either the bowl injury or the pressure of fighting McEvoy for the job. “It’s not a lack of preparation or anything like that,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting back to feeling comfortable and feeling like the ball’s coming out the way it should.”
As of Tuesday, it didn’t sound like Stave or his coaches had any handle on how to deal with his predicament. “We’ve just got to get him back where he needs to be,” said Andersen. “I just am going to continue to prepare like I always have,” said Stave.
In reality, the first step to overcoming the Yips, said Linnehan, is to admit you have it, and then to feel comfortable talking about it with your teammates.
“It’s an extremely lonely feeling, like you’re letting everyone down,” she said. “The best way for me to manage it was to admit [to the team] that I was struggling with it. Then I knew my teammates still wanted me on their team and I was still worthy of being their teammate.
“It’s a very scary thing to be dealing with. As much as he can, just let it go. He has to be OK with it and accept that I might overthrow the ball, I might not be perfect. People that don’t have the Yips also have that fear, but they don’t let it sink as deep. If you’re OK with it, it helps you get thick skin.”
Which he’s certainly going to need now that the word is out to opposing fans and incoming pass-rushers. What Stave is going through sounds far more excruciating than a shoulder injury, and yet the macho football culture is likely to be far less sympathetic.
Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. He covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. His new book, “The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the College Football Playoff,” is now available on Amazon. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel. Send emails and Mailbag questions to Stewart.Mandel@fox.com.Two of the most-hyped technologies of 2013 merged this week with the introduction of GlassPay, a Google Glass app that lets you pay with Bitcoins.
The app, from RedBottle Design, lets consumers scan a UPC of a product in store, assemble a virtual shopping cart and then complete payment with Bitcoins. After that, they can leave the store without waiting on the checkout line.
In its pitch to retailers, RedBottle explained that the app will let them service more customers more quickly and more easily track the sales of in-store items. Using Bitcoins, rather than a credit card, will also mean no extra transaction fees.
However, as CoinDesk notes, such an app might also increase shoplifting. British website WatchMyWallet surveyed about 5,000 customers earlier this year and found 30% admitted to stealing when using self-service checkouts.
The app is expected to hit the Play marketplace and Glass Boutique in the second quarter of 2014.
Image: MashableFor the first time, schools in the District, Maryland and many other states would share a common vision for what students should learn every year in English and math under a proposal released Wednesday that marked a major step toward voluntary national standards.
But Virginia schools would stand apart.
The emergence of what advocates call "common core standards," in a proposal from the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, is rapidly splitting state education leaders. Many embrace the initiative as an improvement over homegrown standards that vary in rigor and quality from state to state. In their view, the nation cannot compete with other global economic powers unless schools can agree on how and when to teach such subjects as algebra.
But some -- probably a minority at this point -- say that their state standards are good enough and that replacing them would force a needless and costly overhaul of curriculum, instruction and testing. Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has voiced this argument repeatedly in recent days to explain why the state dropped out of a federal grant competition that had encouraged the common standards movement.
As a result, Virginia's 1.3 million students will probably stick with the state's Standards of Learning in coming years, while about 75,000 students in the District and 840,000 in Maryland will follow the common core.
The governors association and school officers council released the final of five drafts of the common standards Wednesday at a high school in Georgia, with statements of support from Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D). American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten drew a sports analogy in her argument for common standards: "Can you imagine in football if one team got to make a first down after seven yards," she asked, while other teams had to move the ball 10?
The document was developed by educators and academics, drawing on experts from testmakers ACT and the College Board, as well as other organizations. It was circulated repeatedly among states for comment and revision. The federal government played no role in drafting the document, but critics say the Obama administration leaned too heavily on states to participate.
One expert said Virginia is placing too much faith in its math standards. "They're nowhere near as sophisticated and demanding as the common core standards," said William Schmidt, a professor of statistics and education at Michigan State University who helped develop the proposed math standards. Schmidt said Virginia's math standards are not as focused as the common core and leave gaps, such as the study of slope in linear equations in seventh and eighth grades.
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said the state's standards work in tandem with detailed curriculum frameworks that guide instruction. He said that the state will review the common core proposal and that officials remain open to revising Virginia's standards in spots. But he said: "Virginia's entire accountability and support system is built on the Standards of Learning. Removing this foundation and replacing it with the common core would disrupt instruction in every school in the commonwealth."
The proposed standards, at http:/ / www.corestandards.org, lay out skills and knowledge students should learn from kindergarten through 12th grade. Final revisions, experts said, beefed up algebra expectations for eighth grade and clarified goals for increasing the complexity of reading texts as children grow older. Experts also added references to learning about odd and even numbers and included examples for reading and writing in certain career situations. But for the most part, the standards tracked a draft made public in March.
They now move to states and the District for adoption. The Maryland State Board of Education has endorsed them and expects formal adoption soon. So does the District. D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee was one of 55 urban education leaders to sign a statement of support for the common core standards organized by the Council of the Great City Schools.
Kentucky in February became the first state to adopt the new standards. Hawaii followed suit last week, and West Virginia is moving in the same direction. The National Association of State Boards of Education, based in Arlington County, projects that a majority of states will adopt the standards by year's end. Massachusetts, with highly regarded standards, expects to decide next month whether to approve the common core. Its action will be closely watched. "We're not taking this decision lightly," said Mitchell Chester, the state's education commissioner.
Texas and Alaska have declined to participate.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement that the standards were "developed by the states, for the states," stressing that the initiative was not led by the federal government. "These standards will help teachers, students and parents know what is needed for students to succeed in college and careers, and will enable states, school districts and teachers to more effectively collaborate to accelerate learning and close achievement gaps nationwide," Duncan said.Can’t decide between a luxury sedan or sport-ute? Cadillac is here to help with its new Book service. Rather than buying or leasing a specific vehicle, Book by Cadillac offers a subscription to a fleet of top-of-the-line luxury automobile – something like Netflix for cars.
Say, for example, you want a performance sedan (like a CTS-V) during the summer months, but a crossover (like the XT5) for the winter. Book by Cadillac can make that happen. Drive a CT6 sedan most of the time, but want an Escalade for a family ski vacation? No problem.
Just sign up and book (see what they did there?) the car you want on the app, and a white-glove concierge will drop off your new wheels at your home or office (or anywhere you specify) and pick up the one you’re returning.
You won’t have to worry about being stuck with a lower-end vehicle, because the service only supplies Cadillac’s top-level models – the XT5, Escalade, CT6, and V Series performance models – all in Platinum trim. Plus you don’t have to deal with the costs and hassles of maintenance, depreciation, and registration. Cadillac takes care of all of that for you.
Of course all of this comes at a cost: $1,500 per month, to be exact. Consider, by comparison, that after a payment of $9,845 due at signing, even a $88,790 CT6 3.0 Twin-Turbo Platinum costs $966 per month to lease on a 48-month term, for a total of $1,171/month amortized, albeit keep in mind, that’s without any negotiation. But then you’re stuck with the same car for four years, instead of getting to switch it up when you want. Now if Cadillac only had a new XLR (or threw a Corvette into the mix) it might be the perfect option for those with the means.
Cadillac will initially launch the subscription program in the New York metro area, with plans to debut in other markets soon.
For more information on how to join, check out Cadillac’s dedicated page at BOOKByCadillac.
VideoFacebook added a new donation feature on Monday that allows users to contribute cash to non-profits directly through the platform.
Facebook partnered with 18 different non-profits during the initial rollout of the feature, including the Boys & Girls Club of America, Livestrong Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund.
Users can donate using an embedded "Donate Now" button on each partnering non-profit's Brand Page. The button allows users to donate in preset amounts of $10, $25, $100 or $250, using a credit card, debit card or PayPal.
If a user comes across a non-profit's post in his News Feed, he can donate using the same button embedded on the post. This button also gives donors the option to manually enter a preferred donation amount so they are not restricted to the preset amounts listed above.
For now, only the 18 partner non-profits can elicit donations on Facebook, but the company "hope[s] to open it up in the coming weeks" to other non-profit partners, according to a spokesperson. There is no plan to add partners that are not non-profits.
Facebook first tested this feature in November when users were able to donate to Red Cross via Facebook following the deadly Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on the amount of money raised through the campaign, but in that instance, users were able to donate straight from a notification at the top of their News Feeds.
Monday's feature was rolled out on the Facebook's web version to all users in the United States Monday. There is no set timetable for its available on mobile, but a Facebook spokesperson called mobile integration a "priority."
Image: Thierry Charlier/AFP/Getty ImagesAtlanta’s origins are unique in that we were planted like a seed. We did not spring up around a geographical feature like a deep water port. In 1837, the Georgia General Assembly edited the Western & Atlantic Railroad’s charter, allowing that the “terminus” of its railroad could be up to eight miles from the Chattahoochee. In 1842, a good spot was found, and surveyors planted a seed, in the form of a stone post, in the ground to mark it.
We still have that post. We keep it under a parking deck in an abandoned office building. But its current resting place is not the geographical center of Atlanta. So where was that? The Atlanta Banana decided to find out.
The historical marker that goes with the post gives us a clue:
The original terminus was between the present Forsyth and Magnolia Streets.
Well, all right, but if you look at a modern map of the city, that’s pretty vague. To be fair to the marker, it’s from 1958 and a lot has changed since then. Here are Magnolia and Forsyth marked on a modern Google map of Atlanta.
As you can see, there’s a pretty wide area there. There are some railroads which give us a bit of a clue, but the Georgia Dome and Phillips Arena occupy a lot of that space. Thankfully, there’s such a thing as the Wikimedia, which contains Old Maps of Atlanta. There we find this map from 1853, which shows a black shape which seems like a pretty good clue as to where the geographical epicenter might once have been.
The problem with that map is that though Forsyth is marked, Magnolia St. isn’t. It’s pretty different from a modern map. Here’s our Google map with the 1853 map overlaid.
It’s tough to tell how right this is, firstly because your correspondent is neither a cartographer nor a historian. Secondly, there is some discrepancy between the proportions of the 1853 map and Google’s satellite-based representation of the city.
A map from 1911, however, does have Magnolia on it, and it helps narrow our search area down a bit.
There’s some guesswork involved here, but the middle of the empty triangle in the 1911 map seems to be where the original Terminus was. So what’s there? Well, if you’re a Falcons fan, you might already know. It’s the area — which is not to use words like “wasteland” — known as The Gulch.
Here’s a panorama of the Gulch, taken last night.
There’s also a vine of the same view here.
Now, you may say to yourself, as we do, “Well it kinda sucks that the historic epicenter of Atlanta is, to use the Wikipedia’s editor’s term, ‘unbuilt.'” But there’s good news. As our friends at Curbed have noted, a current plan for the site, called the Atlanta Multi-Modal Passenger Terminal (MMPT), will “blow your mind.” Sadly, the slick GDOT video has been removed from Vimeo, but there’s also a somewhat less slick looking GDOT web site with some information. The ATL Urbanist also has some thoughts about the future of the Gulch.
We love the MMPT idea on a lot of levels, but most of all because that location is where everything that is Atlanta began. What better place to plant a new seed of Atlanta development? We would love it. But there’s a way we could love it even more.
We implore you, the State of Georgia, Georgia Department of Transportation, Governor Deal, and Kasim Reed. Please, please rescue the Zero Mile Post from underneath the parking deck at 90 Central. Return it to its rightful spot, or as close as we can get it. It’s amazing that we have such an artifact at all, but to have the artifact and leave it out of redevelopment plans of its original site would be absurd.
Let’s make the Gulch into something of which we can all be proud, with a stone jewel returned to its rightful place: the Terminus.
Sources:
Perry Buffington and Kim Underwood, “Archival Atlanta, Forgotten Facts and Well-Kept Secrets from Our City’s Past,” (1996)
Webb Garrison, “The Legacy of Atlanta, a Short History,” (1987)
James Michael Russel, “Atlanta 1847-1890,” (1988)
The National Park Service’s Zero Mile Post Information
Wikipedia’s History of AtlantaResearchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have found that when they deplete a smoker's self control, smoking a cigarette may restore self-control.
The study, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, exposed a test group and a control group -- totaling 132 nicotine dependent smokers -- to an emotional video depicting environmental damage. One group in the study expressed their natural emotional reactions (no depletion of self-control) while the second group suppressed their responses (self-control depletion). Half of the participants in each group were subsequently allowed to smoke a cigarette. Everyone then was asked to complete a frustrating task that required self-control.
"Our goal was to study whether tobacco smoking affects an individual's self-control resources," said lead author Bryan W. Heckman, M.A., a graduate student at the Moffitt Tobacco Research and Intervention Program and the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida. "We hypothesized that participants who underwent a self-control depletion task would demonstrate less persistence on behavioral tasks requiring self-control as compared to those with self-control intact, when neither group was allowed to smoke. However, we also hypothesized that we would not find this performance decrement among participants who were permitted to smoke."
The investigators' hypotheses were supported.
"We found that smoking did have a restorative effect on an individual's depleted self-control resources," said Heckman. "Moreover, smoking restored self-control, in part, by improving smokers' positive mood."
According to the researchers, evidence is mounting to suggest that self-control is a limited resource that acts like |
it is only the limitations of surgical techniques, not the amount of viable tissue remaining, that determines the outcome,” McGrath explained.
The Glasgow team, led by Professor Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez, will also be developing sections of “off the shelf” 3D printed bone, which would then be shipped worldwide for a local surgeon to cut and shape to their patient’s specific needs. This type of synthesized bone would be created using the same process, but using shapes and sizes that fit the most common blast injuries. Special packaging is in development that would ensure the bone tissue remains viable for up to three weeks.
The project will initially focus on smaller pieces of bone, but the amount of bone that can be grafted into a blast injury survivor is theoretically unlimited. If successful, the groundbreaking technology will vastly improve the available options for surgeons working with blast injuries, enabling much easier reconstruction of limbs and repair of skull injuries.
The funding package will be officially confirmed on Friday. The project is set to begin in January, with an initial study planned within the next five years.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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Alvaro wrote at 12/23/2016 8:39:26 PM:The amazing Mr. Bobby Charlton! This is a game change that will drive us to a fully limb reconstruction.Show full PR text
More Than 1,600 GameStop Stores Now Carry Android Tablets
Experience a new way to game this holiday weekend
GRAPEVINE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 25, 2012-- GameStop (NYSE: GME), the world's largest multichannel retailer of video games, now carries a selection of Android™ tablets in more than 1,600 U.S. stores, just in time for the holiday weekend. With models like the Acer Iconia Tab A200 (only $299.99 through June 2), ASUS TF300T ($399.99) and Toshiba Excite 10 ($449.99), consumers are sure to find a tablet that's ideal for gaming and more. To find a store near you, visit www.GameStop.com/gs/landing/events/tablets.
Android tablets purchased at GameStop come loaded with valuable extras including a hand-picked selection of free games, like Sonic CD and Riptide, the Kongregate Arcade gaming app and a free issue of Game Informer Digital. As with all products sold by GameStop, these items can be purchased with trades of games, consoles and even an old iPod®, iPhone® or iPad®. Customers wishing to purchase online can take advantage of free shipping on select tablets. Visit www.GameStop.com and search "tablets" for complete details.JANUARY 2019 UPDATE: Wow, I first wrote this post in 2015 after having quite a bit of difficulty buying a specific combination of watch/band back when Apple seemingly offered every possible combo available at time of purchase. Every combo except the one I wanted, that is. Three and a half years later, it’s still one of the most popular posts on this site. (Even more popular than my latest Tesla post!) Here’s the thing, though: Apple has now completely changed up how they offer the Apple Watch — fewer options at time of purchase. I suppose this is to help Apple simplify inventory tracking issues. My buying advice: If you really want a specific watch/band combo that isn’t offered as a default option, go to an Apple Store and ask a specialist if they can do a swap at time of purchase for the particular band you want. The way the newest Apple Watches are packaged, the band is in a separate box from the watch itself, so if you get a nice specialist on a good day, she may be able to accommodate your request, so you don’t feel like you have to buy an extra band. (Make sure to pick a band that’s the same price as the one that ships with the watch. Good luck!)
Anyways, now back to 2015 me….
Okay, this post is for the Apple junkies out there. If all you know about the Apple Watch is that it exists, this post probably isn’t for you.
So much has been said about the Apple Watch, I didn’t think I’d have anything new to offer by the time I got mine. Well, I was wrong. Apple offers a wide variety of watch sizes, colors, and band choices. But there’s one combination they really don’t want you buy, and I think I figured out know why.
The Apple Watch Sport (the least expensive model) comes in five flavors, seen above. I have simple tastes. I didn’t want anything too ostentatious. A Sport with a black band was fine with me. The problem: The black band only comes with a “space grey” (read: black) Apple Watch Sport seen below.
In total, Apple offers ten Sport models to choose from online, but none of them pair the “silver aluminum” (read: “white-ish”) casing with a black band.
If you want the white-ish “silver aluminum” Sport watch, your choices for bands are white, blue, red, and green. No black.
The black-on-black look is apparently very popular with early Apple Watch buyers, but it wasn’t for me. This watch will probably one day be my wife’s, and she wouldn’t really go for that. I told the Apple Watch specialist at my neighborhood Apple Store I wished I could get a white Sport with a black band and he told me about Apple’s official band replacement program. “No problem,” he said. “Once your watch arrives you can just swap out the band for a black one.”
Even though Apple offers free, unlimited in-store try-ons, they don’t have every combination available for you to see on your wrist (there are simply too many combinations). Apple set up the program to alleviate buyer’s remorse if the band you ordered online didn’t look and feel the way you thought it would. The specialist said that was an option for me and I was more than happy to take advantage of it.
Yesterday my watch arrived. White face with a white band. My first thought was that it was actually pretty striking, even though it was the most basic model available. But I had my heart set on the black strap, so to the Apple Store I went. I told them I wanted to swap out the white band for a black one. I was their first in-store band swap, and they were happy to make it happen. The specialist went to the back, got the new band, then started processing the transaction on her handheld device.
But there was a problem. She got a weird error message. She went to retrieve to a manager.
The manager then told me he’d try to get the swap to go through.
But he couldn’t get it to work, either.
The problem: Turns out the black band isn’t in the same “class” as the other bands that come with the Sport models.
It’s the same price. Same material. Just a different color. What?
A little more investigation revealed this isn’t a glitch. It’s very intentional. The fine print in Apple’s band swapping program is that you’re limited to only swapping for other bands that you could’ve bought at the time of purchase. A black band wasn’t an option for my white Sport watch at my time of purchase, therefore it’s not eligible.
Here’s where it gets interesting, though: If you ordered the more expensive stainless steel Apple Watch (non-sport model), which is available to order with either a white or black sport band, you could swap a white for a black one, no problem.
Unlike the Sport model, the more expensive sterling silver Apple Watch can be built-order with either a black or white sport band.
If you buy the stainless steel Apple Watch, the white and black sport bands are in the same class.
But if you ordered the Sport model, all of a sudden, those same two bands are now in a different class.
So if you really want a black band for your white Apple Watch Sport, your only choice is to pony up $50 to get one as an additional accessory.
The only possible explanation for this is that Apple really prefer owners of the silver aluminum Sport watch to not use it with a black sport band. But why?
Well, I paid the additional $50 for the sporty black band. Here it is below on my silver aluminum Sport model. (FYI: Individual bands only went on sale in Apple retail stores within the last couple weeks. For all I know, since Apple doesn’t make easy to get this combination, this is the first such pairing.)
And you know what? I actually found myself preferring the white band that originally came with the watch. You can’t tell from the photos, but the black band on the silver aluminum watch has a very ’80s Casio vibe. The issue isn’t too much black, since the Space Grey sport watch looks really good with the black band. The issue is that there isn’t enough silver aluminum. It’s just boring to look at, especially with the screen off (which it will be 95% of the time).
The silver aluminum casing with the black sport band looks a bit cheap in person, especially compared to all the other options Apple offers. It has a very “plastic-y” feel to it. I think that’s why Apple offers the space grey Sport model and only pairs it with the black band. Space Grey/Black is a more interesting combination Silver Aluminum/Black.
As for the white band that came with my white Sport watch, it was far less ostentatious than I was expecting. I wound up returning the black band and keeping the white one — and doing so gladly.
So why doesn’t Apple want you to get a white Apple Watch Sport with a black band?
One possible answer: Because they think it’ll be a popular option and want to get an addition $50 out of many users.
But the more likely answer: Because it’s just not that pretty.
If you’ve got a better explanation, I’m all ears.
Either way, it’s pretty clear Apple has made an official decision to discourage that combo’s availability at launch.
Edited to add:
ps – if you got here from Reddit, thanks for reading this far! But please be kind… this is all in good fun!Midpoint Music Festival just announced that CHROMEO will be Thursday's headliner! Two weeks ago, they announced the first batch of artists set to play Cincinnati September 25-27 HERE. Here is the full list of artists announced so far:
Before you dive in, ENTER HERE TO WIN A PAIR OF 3-DAY PASSES!
The Afghan Whigs
CHROMEO
Panda Bear
Real Estate
The Raveonettes
Sun Kil Moon
Tycho
Deafheaven
St. Paul & the Broken Bones
The Cave Singers
July Talk
Mutual Benefit
Gardens & Villa
Rubblebucket
Barrence Whitfield & the Savages
Ex Hex
EMA
Speedy Ortiz
Milagres
Ex-Cult
Landlady
Low Cut Connie
The Tontons
Cheerleader
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+ MANY MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!
Tickets are on-sale now ($69 for 3-day pass / $179 for VIP). Buy now & you can sleep easy knowing you helped support our local music community (and saved a bit of money by purchasing early - prices go up on 9/1/14)! Click here for tickets.
Stay tuned as we bring you many more artists in the coming weeks. Oh, and ENTER HERE TO WIN A PAIR OF 3-DAY PASSES! Let that be your currency to us to say thanks for all the sweet info.Florida's offense remained a problem in a lopsided loss to Missouri, but what's becoming equally clear is that the Gators have major, major issues on defense too.
A unit that used to be counted on as a perennial Top 10 unit isn't even close to that level right now.
After giving up 45 points and 455 yards to Missouri, Florida is now approaching some historical low marks defensively.
The Gators are allowing opponents to score 28.4 points per game. If the season ended today, that would be the worst scoring average allowed since 1946, when Florida gave up 29.3 points per game.
Florida's also now surrendering 372.1 yards per game, which would be the worst since allowing 384.0 yards per game in 1971.
Missouri was the second straight team to put up 21 on Florida with plenty of time remaining before halftime. After Georgia scored 21 in just the first half of the first quarter a week ago, Missouri notched 28 in the first 26 minutes.
"We couldn't get stops on the football field," coach Randy Shannon said. "That affected our young guys in the secondary. They threw a lot of deep passes on us. Earlier this season the guys were doing a great job, but those (Missouri) guys did a great job attacking the secondary in the passing game, got some easy plays, got some momentum that way."
The problem was that it wasn't just the secondary that was at fault.
Florida was dominated up front all game, failing to record a sack or quarterback hurry despite Missouri passing 21 times. The Gators also failed to get a single tackle for a loss.
Sure, injuries have taken their toll on the Gators, as several youngsters were forced into bigger roles on Saturday.
But just as evident is the overall dropoff in both depth and talent that's a direct result of Florida's lackluster recruiting in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 classes under Jim McElwain.
It's no surprise that Florida's most productive young players have also been the highest-rated ones, mostly in the secondary. The depth and talent at linebacker, where most of McElwain's commitments were three-star prospects, is noticeably lacking. David Reese simply doesn't have top-end SEC speed, Vosean Joseph can hit but seems to struggle with other aspects of the game and there aren't enough quality players to push those two for real playing time.
That's what a new coach will be working with.
The rebuild might be tougher on defense than on offense. Players after the game were at a loss for words on why things went so sideways Saturday.
"We just, I don't know. I want to say we weren't attacking as a defense," linebacker Vosean Joseph said on the post-game radio show. "The big plays really killed us, but as a defense we've just got to come back together, watch the film and try to get better."
The film, though, isn't pretty.
It's simple, really. The Gators just don't have the players they used to on defense. And it may take some time to fully restock the cupboard there.
---------------
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Contact Thomas Goldkamp by 247Sports' personal messaging system or on Twitter at @ThomasGoldkamp.The war Microsoft should have won
Microsoft had many things in its favor to become the dominant mobile OS, but a number of issues, many home-grown, saw it lose its early start to Google and Apple.
Christian Hernandez Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 16, 2016
In 2012, Vanity Fair published a long story on Microsoft under Ballmer and the “lost decade.” I’ve re-read it many times and a quote keeps jumping at me:
“You look at the Windows Phone and you can’t help but wonder, How did Microsoft squander the lead they had with the Windows CE devices? They had a great lead, they were years ahead. And they completely blew it. And they completely blew it because of the bureaucracy.” Ed McCahill
The quote speaks to me specifically because I joined Microsoft’s Windows Mobile team as an intern in 2002 and then full time in 2003 and at that time I really felt we had a chance to be one of the leaders in the upcoming evolution of mobile phones into internet-connected computing devices.
For those of you that might only remember the smartphone race as a Android vs iOS battle it is worth providing a brief summary of where we came from:
Our joint evolution towards smartphones started with Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). Apple famously had the ill-fated Newton. Palm was the first mass-market mobile PDA. Microsoft soon launched PocketPC based on its WindowsCE code base. Symbian (made by European mobile OS company, Psion) in partnership with Nokia pushed the envelope and integrated PDA functionality with the launch of the 9210 Communicator in 2001 (important to note that Nokia had launched a mobile phone with an OS as early as 1996, the Communicator 9000, considered by many as the first “smartphone” and the 9110 in ’98 both running on GEOS).
Nokia 9110 Communicator
So in 1999, when Bill Gates announced the Smartphone initiative based on the WinCE kernel, the OS world was already messy. But one could argue Microsoft had a number of things going for it to win this fight:
A solid and stable embedded OS code base with WinCE and a growing PDA platform in PocketPC which integrated familiar apps and user experience from the deskptop
A relationship with chip manufacturers and OEMs which should allow it to copy the model of the Wintel era onto smartphones where Microsoft provided the OS, reference designs and marketing dollars and OEMs built the hardware and took it to market
A well managed and broad set of application developers who lived and died by Microsoft and would surely support its new shift towards a mobile platform. This also included Microsoft’s own apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, MSN Messenger, Internet Explorer and XBox assets.
A lot of money in the bank to buy customers and market share
So where did it go wrong and how did Microsoft lose the chance to become the leading mobile OS? [NB: In between 2002–2006, I was a measly post-MBA Level-60something member of the Windows Mobile team. These insights are simply my views from having been in the trenches from Microsoft, from having been in the mobile internet space since the early days of WAP and also from having been part of Google’s mobile efforts a few years later. I am sure much more strategic and thoughtful discussions happened in the Boardroom of Building 117]
Microsoft was fighting a battle on too many fronts: As the graph below shows, the early mobile OS wars were not only between Nokia and Microsoft but also between Palm and Canadian pager-turned-drug RIM/Blackberry. Nokia/Symbian owned the relationship (and majority of dumbphone and smartphone market share) with operators outside of the US. Palm had a cult following in the PDA space and entered the connected device with the Treo. RIM played a brilliant strategy of seeding its crackberries to banking MDs where it became a must-have device for aspirational i-bankers. To fight all these battles Windows Mobile had too be too many things to too many people. A PDA replacement as good as Palm, a phone that worked as well as Nokia phone, a connected device that synced with email as well as RIM. In the end it was too much too jam into a small box.
Mobile OEMs were not the guys Microsoft was used to pushing around: HP, Dell, IBM were all willing co-conspirators in the Wintel cartel. But none of them had a major role in the mobile ecosystem. In the early 00’s the key mobile players were different players Nokia, Siemens, SonyEricsson, Samsung…
Having seen the marginalization of the hardware makers in the PC world many of them were hesitant to partner with Microsoft which is why Microsoft was forced to launch its first generation of smartphones with unknown “ODM” HTC. [NB: my job at Microsoft in 2003 was to partner with Samsung and Motorola, the first Tier 1 phone manufacturers, on launching the first branded smartphones, the MPx200 and the i700 in partnership with Motorola and operators around the world. Neither would be a huge initial success]. SonyEricsson would not agree to do a Windows Mobile device until many years later and Nokia…well we know how the burning platform worked out a decade and a half later.
Motorola MPx200 launched with AT&T in September 15, 2003
Enterprise, consumer, enterprise, consumer : The single biggest driver to the failure of Windows Mobile to take off, was its key asset: Microsoft. In 2000 Microsoft hired Juha Christensen from Psion (the maker of Symbian) and his call to arms by the time I joined the team was to make the smartphone battle a “two-horse race” between Nokia/Symbian vs Microsoft. This strategy, by default, meant a large phone volume play, and therefore a consumer-centric offering. This meant putting Microsoft’s consumer assets (MSN Messenger, internet explorer, XBox) front and center. But Windows Mobile was a small business inside of Microsoft, and the cash cow still lay with Office and server products. RIM’s Blackberry Enterprise Server was slowing down upgrades to new versions of Exchange and the edict was given to Kill RIM (err sorry after the DOJ case, Microsoft employees were no longer allowed to say “kill”… “RIM-compete” was the right DOJ-approved title for the strategy). And so the focus of the small division flipped to a more narrow shipment volume of prosumer/enterprise-centric devices with Outlook and productivity as its core. The consumer/enterprise flip-flop would happen a few more times in the years to come. Juha left in the summer of 2003 and the two-horse race changed from Nokia vs Microsoft (consumer) to RIM vs Microsoft (enterprise).
: The single biggest driver to the failure of Windows Mobile to take off, was its key asset: Microsoft. In 2000 Microsoft hired Juha Christensen from Psion (the maker of Symbian) and his call to arms by the time I joined the team was to make the smartphone battle a “two-horse race” between Nokia/Symbian vs Microsoft. This strategy, by default, meant a large phone volume play, and therefore a consumer-centric offering. This meant putting Microsoft’s consumer assets (MSN Messenger, internet explorer, XBox) front and center. But Windows Mobile was a small business inside of Microsoft, and the cash cow still lay with Office and server products. RIM’s Blackberry Enterprise Server was slowing down upgrades to new versions of Exchange and the edict was given to Kill RIM (err sorry after the DOJ case, Microsoft employees were no longer allowed to say “kill”… “RIM-compete” was the right DOJ-approved title for the strategy). And so the focus of the small division flipped to a more narrow shipment volume of prosumer/enterprise-centric devices with Outlook and productivity as its core. The consumer/enterprise flip-flop would happen a few more times in the years to come. Juha left in the summer of 2003 and the two-horse race changed from Nokia vs Microsoft (consumer) to RIM vs Microsoft (enterprise). Consumers drove the purchase decision : The Windows logo sold PCs. Ergo the windows logo (and all the familiarity that it implied) must also be able to sell phones… but it turns out that consumers didn’t yet care what OS the phone was running. Consumer just wanted their sexy RAZR flip-phones, or 8 mega-pixel Nokia camera phones, or low-cost LG phones. It was still, at that point, just a phone and the primary function was still primarily making a phone call (something some of the early Windows Mobile devices weren’t always that good at… and yes there was a way to CTRL-ALT+Del a WinMo device).
: The Windows logo sold PCs. Ergo the windows logo (and all the familiarity that it implied) must also be able to sell phones… but it turns out that consumers didn’t yet care what OS the phone was running. Consumer just wanted their sexy RAZR flip-phones, or 8 mega-pixel Nokia camera phones, or low-cost LG phones. It was still, at that point, just a phone and the primary function was still primarily making a phone call (something some of the early Windows Mobile devices weren’t always that good at… and yes there was a way to CTRL-ALT+Del a WinMo device). One-handed versus two-handed, keyboard vs touch screen : The PocketPC PDAs had been two handed-devices with stylus as inputs. The vision for Smartphone was always for it to be a one-handed device. It was actually pretty good as a inbox triage tool with one hand… But market feedback was puzzling. PocketPC was planned to be phased out to focus on Smartphone, but two-handed input as a consumer choice was still driving sales. As the iPhone and Android devices would prove soon-enough, consumers were willing to accept two handed input if it provided for richer features and bigger screens. Microsoft, given RIM-compete as an edict, focused on keyboards over touchscreen.
: The PocketPC PDAs had been two handed-devices with stylus as inputs. The vision for Smartphone was always for it to be a one-handed device. It was actually pretty good as a inbox triage tool with one hand… But market feedback was puzzling. PocketPC was planned to be phased out to focus on Smartphone, but two-handed input as a consumer choice was still driving sales. As the iPhone and Android devices would prove soon-enough, consumers were willing to accept two handed input if it provided for richer features and bigger screens. Microsoft, given RIM-compete as an edict, focused on keyboards over touchscreen. The business model looked back not forward : Microsoft had made gobsmacks of money selling licenses of Windows to OEMs. It was the Coca-Cola syrup of the tech world. Surely the same model should work on mobile: Charge OEMs a fee for the Windows license, let them take care of factories in Taiwan. But in the mobile world, the power dynamics and customer expectations were different. Operators were still subsidizing phones for consumers and the power lay with the operator more than the OEM (or the OS maker). A $10 Windows Mobile license had a massive impact on the Bill of Materials (BOM) and therefore the wholesale value of the phone. As the new Treasurer of the WinMo group once said to me “We’re thinking about it the wrong way. We need to move from one time license fee payments and move towards recurring revenues from services”…If only his voice had been heard [Xiaomi is using this same strategy aggressively pricing phone but focusing on long term value of services]. Apple upended the old model by launching a device consumers drooled over and were willing to pay $500 for (unsubsidized!). Android changed it even more by making an OS that was richer and more open than WinMo completely free. The old Microsoft business model was never innovated upon. Other innovated around Microsoft.
: Microsoft had made gobsmacks of money selling licenses of Windows to OEMs. It was the Coca-Cola syrup of the tech world. Surely the same model should work on mobile: Charge OEMs a fee for the Windows license, let them take care of factories in Taiwan. But in the mobile world, the power dynamics and customer expectations were different. Operators were still subsidizing phones for consumers and the power lay with the operator more than the OEM (or the OS maker). A $10 Windows Mobile license had a massive impact on the Bill of Materials (BOM) and therefore the wholesale value of the phone. As the new Treasurer of the WinMo group once said to me “We’re thinking about it the wrong way. We need to move from one time license fee payments and move towards recurring revenues from services”…If only his voice had been heard [Xiaomi is using this same strategy aggressively pricing phone but focusing on long term value of services]. Apple upended the old model by launching a device consumers drooled over and were willing to pay $500 for (unsubsidized!). Android changed it even more by making an OS that was richer and more open than WinMo completely free. The old Microsoft business model was never innovated upon. Other innovated around Microsoft. The “web” was not the “web”: The final nails in the WinMo coffin came in 2007 and 2008 when Apple launched the iPhone and Google launched Android. And it was not about the design of the iPhone or the amazing hinge Andy Rubin built for the Android G1, but more philosophically about what type of web consumers wanted on their mobile device. Microsoft, RIM and Nokia had all built ways to compress and reformat the web into smaller screens. These phone and OS makers seemed to believe they had the right to determine what the web should look like on a mobile device. Android’s vision had always been to have a full rich-HTML web experience on a mobile device (very googley) and both the iPhone and Android platforms launched with webkit browsers and full HTML support. And consumers voted with their thumbs…They wanted the “web” to be the web. [NB: This notion of the mobile web was the core issue of the partnerships I would be tasked with cementing between Google and Nokia and RIM a few years later, but that’s for a story for a future post. Short version: Google was right.]
So in hindsight, the prediction that Bill Gates made in 1999 on the disruptive force that mobile would have was correct. And the bet Microsoft made on a mobile OS had a high likelihood of succeeding. But at it’s height, Microsoft never got above 15% of the Mobile OS market, and as Benedict Evans has pointed out it is now clear that Google and Apple won the mobile war.
Having been in the front lines of the early day of the war many years ago, I have had time to reflect on the various mistakes that I saw inside of Microsoft and then of Microsoft from the outside, and have come to the conclusion that it wasn’t one single error but a number of them that took away a prize that, thinking about the lay of the land in 2000–2005, could have rightfully been Microsoft’s…
And it would be disingenuous to end this post without a link to the infamous video of Ballmer laughing at the iPhone when it launched… “It doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard…” “Right now we’re selling millions and millions phones a year and Apple is selling zero…” “I like our strategy…I like it a lot!” A few years and billions spent buying Nokia later not sure it was as funny. This reflective Charlie Rose interview in 2014 is also worth a watch.
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Christian Hernandez is the co-founder and Managing Partner of White Star Capital, an early-stage Venture Capital fund backing exceptional entrepreneurs with global ambitions. www.whitestarvc.comFor those few who are still holding out hope that CM Punk will return to WWE, you might want to grab a box of tissues. They are never, ever, ever, getting back together.
The breakup was more or less mutual, but not amicable. WWE actually fired Punk — on his wedding day, the wrestler revealed to Colt Cabana on his “Art of Wrestling” podcast on Thursday, but that was after Punk, whose real name is Phil Brooks, walked out on the company unexpectedly in January. If only this two hours of stories (which includes language NSFW) was for a story line …
Sadly for everyone involved, this is real life and, according to CM Punk, WWE and certain wrestlers ignored several of his real-life health problems when being booked for matches and story lines. He brought up a few specific examples, including one in which it appears WWE cleared Punk to compete without him actually seeing a doctor. Importantly, Punk also named names in the uncensored discussion with Cabana, a fellow professional wrestler and friend of Punk’s.
“I remember when I was supposed to go back to Birmingham and get cleared before I came back to wrestle from my elbow,” Punk said, adding the thought he’d just be going back to cut a few promos, or dialogue bits, rather than wrestle. “Then [WWE head of road agents/producers] Michael Hayes comes up to me and goes, ‘All right, you’re working so and so,’ and I was like, ‘No, I’m not.’ … And he goes, ‘No, I just checked and they said you’re cleared.’ I was like, ‘I haven’t even gone to Birmingham to see Dr. [James] Andrews yet, what do you mean I’m cleared?’ I talked to Dr. [Chris] Amann and Dr. Amann was like, ‘I called him [Dr. Andrews] and I told him how you were and he said okay and he cleared you.’ I was like what kind of witch doctory bull … is that?”
Punk also slammed WWE’s concussion policy, saying the initial test is “bull-[expletive].” He passed after getting hurt in November 2013, when he says he clearly should’ve failed. He says he chose to continue to perform because he was the WWE champion at the time.
“WWE doesn’t do anything to protect the wrestlers, they do things to protect themselves. … They don’t let everybody know that they’re doing all these fantastic things for concussions for ‘the boys,’ ” Punk says, referring to professional wrestlers. “They do it so it looks good on them in the public.”
Punk compares WWE’s situation with that of the NFL, and says it’s the NFL Players’ Association that goaded concussions protocol changes, not the league, through the multibillion-dollar concussion settlement that the union helped negotiate.
“Vince doesn’t want to do that so they put all these things in place [that allow WWE to say,] ‘Oh look, we’re doing all this, we’re doing all that.’ ”
But perhaps the most damning story Punk told about WWE’s health and wellness policy was about the time the company allegedly gave him bad antibiotics, which led a cyst in his back to become a life-threatening MRSA staph infection. Deadspin summarizes it pretty well:
Starting at around 1:13:00 in the video, Punk says the WWE’s traveling doctor [Dr. Amann] neglected a growth on his back that eventually became very painful. The doctor, he says, would only prescribe generic antibiotics that only caused more issues. Near 1:30:00, Punk says he visited a doctor in Tampa who told him that the cyst was in fact a full-blown staph infection, and that he would need to be hospitalized immediately.
Punk also didn’t let some his former in-ring foes off easy, especially Ryback, who he calls a “steroid guy” and a negligent performer with little respect for others.
“That took 20 years off my [expletive] life,” Punk says of having to work with Ryback, whom he basically calls unqualified to wrestle in the WWE ring. “There was one time he kicked me in the stomach as hard as he could and he broke my ribs, right at the tail end. I never got an apology for that. A real piece of work, that guy.”
Punk also describes a time when Ryback was supposed to gorilla-press him onto a table. He missed and threw him on the concrete instead.
Ryback, who is enjoying a resurgence in WWE today, took no time to respond to Punk on Twitter. He later deleted the series of tweets, but the quotes live on, thanks to CageSideSeats.com.
“For the record if I quit for being fragile and insecure I would make up excuses too. Things didn’t go my way for a long time and I kept going day in and out. Slander is a powerful thing and to state complete made up nonsense for no reason shows his insecurities. I will continue to bust my [behind] study matches every chance I get, cut promos when driving and push myself for hours on end even when hurt. Thank you,” @Ryback22 said in three separate, now-deleted tweets.
Brian “Road Dogg” James, a former superstar who now works backstage for WWE, also responded to the podcast via replying to fans on Twitter, mostly stating there is always another side to the story. Unfortunately, James also said the other side, presumably the WWE’s, would not be told.
@DeanyAmbroseWWE a business relationship is between 2 or more people, you've now heard 1 side of the story. You'll never hear the other — Brian G. James (@WWERoadDogg) November 27, 2014
WWE did issue a response to Punk’s accusations, via Yahoo! Sports, but the company did not address any of the accusations specifically.
“WWE takes the health and wellness of its talent very seriously and has a comprehensive Talent Wellness Program that is led by one of the most well-respected physicians in the country, Dr. Joseph Maroon,” the company simply said. WWE did not mention Dr. Amann, who was at the center of many of Punk’s stories.It happens. Sometimes printed manga titles become no longer available: they go “out of print.” And as part of our massive digital-first lineup expansion, we’ve been bringing a lot of those titles back—as digital “rescues” so they can be discovered by new generations of manga fans.
Whether it was Tsutomu Nihei's cyberpunk trendsetter NOiSE or Tomoko Ninomiya's all-time classical-music tearjerker Nodame Cantabile or Kouji Seo's Fuuka predecessor Suzuka, we haven't just been resurrecting long out-of-print titles but in many cases finally completing those series so they could at last be read in their entirety in English. But there was always one series out there that we especially wanted to bring back …
As part of our ongoing celebration of the conclusion to Fairy Tail and all things Hiro Mashima, on October 3 Kodansha Comics will be releasing in one fell swoop the entire 35-volume run of Mashima’s original fantasy-action breakout hit, Rave Master. Originally one of the bestselling titles published by Tokyopop, Rave Master has been out of print for almost a decade, but now all 35 volumes are back and available for preorder at all of our digital retail partners: BookWalker, comiXology, Crunchyroll, Google Play, iBooks, Kindle, Kobo, and nook.
We're also running a special promotional preorder price—more than 40% off cover price—for every volume!
So, for those of you crying over the end of Fairy Tail, there's a whole other world of Mashima waiting for you … back where it all started! And you can read the preview of Chapter 1 right here:Here comes the last “Coming Soon” of April! It is Golden Week next week so I guess we will be really busy in these 2 weeks for all the figure news and events. X(
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According to the draft anti-superstition bill, practices like astrological predictions, black magic and witchcraft were to be banned and made punishable. Practices and beliefs that create disharmony in society and promote discrimination like Made Snana (making people roll on leftover food) or the Ajalu system (making people eat human excreta, nails, hair etc, as is done in the case of Koragas, a Dalit community in Udupi and Mangalore districts) were to be abolished. The practice of barring sections of people, including menstruating women, from entering houses of worship or living areas were included in the list of practices to be purged in the draft bill.What we are dealing with in detail I am not professionally qualified to discuss (I'm not Sarah Palin, I know my limits.) But what we are dealing with in the grand scheme of things seems pretty simple. The US has been living beyond its means. The US has been spending and borrowing as if its economy were fiscally secure; and the demand for more and more from below combined with signals of total laxity from the top has led to a massive over-reach in terms of personal and public debt. In the end, gravity and reality count, whatever the Bush-Cheney propagandists want to insist.
Like the invasion of Iraq, for which the US is still paying; like the massive Bush tax cuts, which were never matched by cuts in spending but combined with massive increases in spending; the home-ownership-as-speculation bubble eventually hit the reality this country's leadership has for so long denied.
Greenspan says what is obvious: that we cannot afford McCain's continued tax cuts and minimal spending restraints. We cannot afford Obama's spending plans either - but at least he isn't proposing to increase the debt. Neither candidate has been behaving with the gravity this crisis demands. But McCain's trivial, deceptive, distracting tactics have been by far the worse.
I wonder if Rick Davis could tell us again whether he thinks this election should be about personalities, not issues.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Under a new program called Lunar Catalyst, U.S. space agency NASA will provide free technical expertise, equipment, facilities and software to help selected companies develop lunar landers, officials said on Monday.
Tourists take pictures of a NASA sign at the Kennedy Space Center visitors complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida April 14, 2010. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
“The intent of this initiative is to stimulate and help commercialization,” Jason Crusan, who oversees NASA’s advanced exploration programs, said during a conference call with prospective bidders on Monday.
Development of commercial lunar landers would join a growing list of space transportation services that have attracted interest from U.S. companies, including Boeing Co and Alliant Techsystems Inc.
NASA already has turned over cargo deliveries to the International Space Station to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Orbital Sciences Corp. The companies hold NASA flight services contracts worth a combined $3.5 billion.
NASA wants a balanced approach in which its contributions will help accelerate the development of industry projects, Crusan said during a follow-on conference call with reporters.
“If a team came in and wanted everything from NASA and (wanted) us to build the landing service for them, that’s not really much of a partnership.”
NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) also is looking to buy rides commercially for its astronauts. At least three firms, SpaceX, Boeing and privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp, are in the running for NASA funding to help get their spaceships ready for test flights before the end of 2017.
Companies interested in Lunar Catalyst have until March 17 to submit business plans and proposals to NASA, which could decide to purchase hardware or services at a future date, Crusan said.
The agency, for example, is developing a mission to mine water on the moon and intends to partner with Canada and other countries to develop a rover and a lander. If those plans fall through, however, NASA could look to buy the equipment from, or partner with, U.S. companies, Crusan said.
NASA already has contracts to buy lunar science and technical data from several teams competing in the $30 million Google X Prize competition to land and operate a privately owned vehicle on the moon before the end of 2015.Wesley Snipes' head, Clay Donahue Fontenot's body and acting. News came out today that Wesley Snipes, the one-time action hero who has crashed and burned repeatedly over the last decade, only to hold on to his career by a fingernail through the success of the Blade films, has decided to sue the producers of Blade: Trinity for upwards of $5m. The crimes he alleges: that the screenplay, director, and cast were foisted upon him without his knowledge or approval, that he was harassed and defamed because of his race, and that he is still owed part of his fee some $3m. Well, I dont know about the financial issues, but I can clue you in on the rest of this sordid story, because I spent two days on the Blade: Trinity set on behalf of Spin Magazine, and the Wesley Snipes that I witnessed was very different from the Wesley Snipes portrayed in his lawsuit. What I saw was not a put-upon actor just trying to make things work. What I saw was a drug-affected, moody, uncooperative piece of garbage, masquerading as an actor while all around him tried to cover for his shitty attitude. In fact, Snipes was so uncooperative that Spin ended up killing my story. And so I kept Snipes goings on private until now. This is the story of the real Wesley Snipes. Dateline: Vancouver. Im called out of bed, breaking a long and healthy dream that involved myself, Natalie Portman, and a condo in desperate need of plumbing repairs. If youve ever watched a German porno from the 70s, you know that I really didnt want to be woken up, but the caller ID said Spin, and seeing that word on my telephone display is the equivalent of Bruce Wayne spotting the Bat-Signal shining againsat the clouds outside his window. I have a job to do. Time to jump in to action.
The job seemed simple enough the production of Blade: Trinity was in town, shooting on the McBarge docked in North Vancouver. The McBarge is awesome considered the worlds largest McDonalds during Expo 86, it has since become a permanent fixture on the Vancouver waterline, rusted and odd-looking, worth more as a film set than it could ever be as scrap metal. Id always wondered what it would look like inside, but little did I know that it had become a vampires lair, where cool weapons are created and Natasha Lyonne was about to be murdered.
So I show up to the set and deal with a very helpful publicist. This is worth mentioning because, having done my fair share of set visits in the past, Im used to being told, Youve got an hour, who do you need to talk to, not, Stay as long as you want. Isnt this cool? Look at all these neat toys. Sure, you can touch it. Go on... touch the funky longbow. You know you wanna.
My helpful publicist showed me all over the set, introduced me to everybody, from walk-on actors to leads, producers and director. She gave me time with everybody, with no limits to access at all. As long as the person wasnt needed in front of the camera, I could talk to them for as long as I wanted. And that I did director David Goyer, co-leads Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds, co-stars Parker Posey, Patton Oswalt, Triple H, Callum Keith Rennie, producers Lynn Harris and Peter Frankfurt I was starting to run low on tape when Wesley Snipes assistant told the publicist, No, Wesleys in a mood. Hes in the zone. You dont wanna be interviewing him right now. Maybe tomorrow.
Okay, no problem, I thought. Ill hang around for a while, and maybe Wesley will soon be out of the zone.
As it turned out, I didnt have to wait long. Three takes later and, with his close-ups done, Snipes went back to his trailer for the afternoon. The only problem was, though Snipes considered himself finished, his character was still needed in the scene. In fact, he was still a part of many scenes being shot that afternoon, but the rules were clear if the camera wasnt in Wesleys face, then Wesley would not be on set.
Now, Ive seen a lot of actors do their thing during a film shoot, and they vary in how much of themselves they'll give to the scene. The great ones will be there, even if they dont have a line, just to help their fellow actors out. Ive seen actors turn up to set just so they could speak through a telephone to another actor on camera during a scene. Ive seen actors stand for fifteen minutes while lighting crews dealt with tricky sunlight, or grab a light themselves and help a PA moving heavy equipment. Ive seen actors stand off camera to give their compadres the perfect eyeline, and watched in awe as others even acted off camera, just to help the scene along. Others still lose a ton of weight, or gain weight, or endure hours and hours of heavy make-up.
But Wesley Snipes? Not only was he not prepared to help his fellow actors during their close-ups, but if the shot involved anything less than a front-on close-up, he called for a stand-in to do the acting for him. What does that mean? It means Wesley Snipes stand-in was in more of Blade: Trinity than Snipes himself was.
Now, action stars often have a stand-in around to handle stunts, fight sequences, anything that involves the likelihood of danger, and thats okay. We accept that as film fans, but here I was, watching the final scene of the movie being set up, with elaborate camera moves, cranes, extras, stuntmen, effects and explosions and at the end of it all the camera zooms in on Wesley Snipes Blade character, dying next to a monstrous demon only, thats not Snipes youre looking at in the climactic shot of the film. Its a guy called Clay Donahue Fontenot.
See, Wesley didnt feel that he needed to be a part of the shot, so he sent in the clones. Were going to have to CGI Wesley on to Clay's body in post, said director David Goyer, barely masking his frustration that the star of his film an Executive Producer of the project, no less preferred to sit barely fifty feet away in his smoke-filled trailer, rather than turn up for the most important shot of the movie.
But that had been the story of Wesley Snipes involvement in Blade: Trinity from the start. What I was told by crew members on set was that Snipes had made it clear he wasnt happy with the original choice of director for the film, so screenwriter David Goyer had been brought in to take over. But Snipes wasnt happy with that either, it seemed. The producers stood firm, however, and told Wesley to deal with it. Wesley responded by refusing to show up for work unless it was absolutely necessary.
And fair enough that goyer would be left in place. I mean, he might not have a lot of directing experience, but he has had some, and his screenplays for the previous two Blade films had done huge business, keeping Snipes in food at a time when his career had been rocked by bad choice after horrible choice. Once Hollywoods most sought after black actor, Snipes was now a parody of his former self, his choices proving as sloppy and ill-thought as just about any actor you could name.
So this, the third Blade film, should have been something he put every ounce of effort possible into. He should have given it his all. He should have exploded onto the screen. Instead, he retired to the Winnebago and enjoyed Vancouver's most famous export... which let's just say is illegal in the US unless you've got glaucoma.
As a means of trying to make up for the fact that Snipes wasnt going to do any press for the film, the publicist offered me some face time with his stunt double, who was also handling the stunt coordination for the film. I politely turned her down, eliciting a response from her of, Yeah, thats what the other journalists said too, which told me in no uncertain terms that Snipes had pulled this stunt on every other member of the press who had showed up to talk to him. In fact, subsequent investigation on this topic seems to indicate that the only interview Snipes did throughout the shoot was with Wizard Magazine, the comic book collectors bible, and that was on the first day of proceedings.
So I began to wander the set and talk to other people about their star. I talked to some of the grips, who spoke of how whenever the door to Snipes trailer was opened, a plume of thick, ganja-smelling smoke would emerge. I talked to make-up people who spoke of how they could barely do their job because Snipes wouldnt sit for them for the length of time they needed. I spoke to the producers, both whom claimed Snipes was a 'great actor to work with', but went on in lengthy detail about everyone else on the shoot and how they were just incredible. Jessica Biel, shes just amazing Ryan Reynolds hysterical! Great guy! Oh, Wesley? Yeah, hes a professional. Hes definitely a professional
Taped to the side of the camera monitors was another giveaway as to what the crew thought of their star an article from a tabloid magazine, telling how an extra on the set, a member of a biker gang in his spare time, had actually walked up to Snipes and threatened him with violence if he didnt stop being an asshole to everyone. That seemed odd to me, that the director and producers would allow their star to be talked of in such a way, and would put such an article in such a prominent position, but by that point in time, Snipes attitude was not something anyone on the crew had the slightest intention of hiding.
Hes a dick, I was told by a crew member who asked to remain anonymous, due to her executive position with the film. Hes the star of this fucking movie, its the only thing hes got going for him in his career, and he treats us all like idiots. Even his own co-stars! He doesnt talk to them face to face, instead he has his assistant do it. He refers to Ryan Reynolds as that cracker tell that cracker to get out of my eyeline, and tell that cracker to get his lines right. He refers to Jessica Biel as that girl. Honestly, Ive never seen anything like this in a decade in production, and if it weren't for the fact that everyone is working so hard to make up for his crap, I probably would have walked, first week.
According to Variety, in his lawsuit Snipes alleges that, in contrast to the first two Blade films, in which efforts were made to select a multiracial cast and crew, [the] defendants intentionally hired only white people, leading to feelings of isolation and exclusion by Snipes. Now, it might be true that there werent many black production workers on the film compared to what Snipes might be used to, considering it was shot in Vancouver Canada, with a mostly local crew. But during the time I was on set, I saw many more black people around than I have ever seen working on a film in this part of the world, which I still recall had caused me to think at the time that the production must have brought many of their own people up north to work on the film. In fact, an African American stand up comedian who makes his home in Vancouver nowadays has a routine he does where he extolls the virtues of living in Canada as a black man because, "if any shit goes down in this city, they know it wasn't me. 'Was the suspect black? No? Well, get the hell away from my front door and let me finish watching Canadian Idol, motherfucker!"
Variety continues, [Snipes] also claims that Goyer made racially motivated statements about Snipes being unprofessional and difficult to work with, and that Goyer refused to discipline a crew member who wore a racially discriminatory T-shirt on the set. The T-shirt incident is not news to me Id heard about it on set as one of the multitude of stories crew members shared about Wesleys behavior. Man, that was so freaky, said a member of the camera department. This guy was wearing a shirt, I cant even remember what it said, but it was something you buy at The Gap or something, you know? It was so not racist. But Snipes flips out, starts yelling at the guy, fuck this, fuck that, storms off the set. Goyer was like, what the fuck? So Snipes sends out his PA with word that he wants the guy in the T-shirt fired, and Goyer says no way. Snipes didnt come out of his trailer for two days after that.
A member of the publicity department, normally the department least likely to tell a journalist anything but the rosiest of rosy pictures, was similarly open when it came to Snipes and his work ethic. You know, its normally a pain to work with people with a big ego. But when you can only get the guy on set for an hour a day, and we have to deal with the fact that he has red eyes and he wont talk and hes had us waiting for an hour when he finally shows up, its really not easy for any of us to do our jobs. I shouldnt say that, I'm supposed to give you the company line, but its true, and Im really sick of covering for him.
Ryan Reynolds stayed professional when asked about Snipes, but he was hardly effusive with praise. Wesleys intense, man. Yeah, hes intense. Hes all method nshit. I dunno. We dont talk much, but hes a heck of a presence. Jessica Biel dittoed; Hes a very intense guy. Always in character. At least, I think hes always in character. What if thats really him?, which prompted Reynolds to add, Yeah, those are his real teeth, you know.
Co-star Parker Posey had not a lot to say about Snipes, with the exception of this: I came here to do something fun and stupid and big budget and I dont normally get to do that kind of thing. Dont have the boobs for it, you know? So Im just showing up, saying my lines, having fun with it. And Wesley isnt.
The second day I spent on set was a lot easier than the first. The shoot was wrapping up, everyone seemed happy to get out of Dodge, and the anti-Snipes feelings had bubbled into open discourse with anyone who would listen. I would hear the same stories over and over, about Wesley calling people cracker, turning up for work stoned off his gourd, refusing to interact with anyone but his personal assistant, even refusing to say his lines in anything but the most rote fashion. The make-up people had basically given up on Snipes altogether and he was now wearing his sunglasses everywhere he went. The stunt double was on set full time, acting in place of Snipes for just about every scene. Hed done most of the fight scenes by this point, and much of the spoken stuff whenever it was from behind or there was movement involved, and he was totally prepared for the fact that his first starring role in a film would end up with someone elses face over his own. Im really interested to see what it looks like when they do it. If they can pull that off, then maybe therell be a time when we dont need actors anymore, right?
Surprisingly, Snipes wasnt the only headcase on set during this film. Natasha Lyonne, who has been involved in run-ins with the law, dalliances with drugs, and her own celebrated fall from stardom, was so erratic that the publicist on set asked if I might prefer to interview her via email. As a favor, I agreed, but I would soon learn that my questions had to be emailed ahead of time, vetted by her lawyer (!), and would then come back to me shortly thereafter. Now, Im not one to cede to that kind of request normally, but I was interested in just how far Lyonnes people would go to protect her from further hurting her rep, so I played along. Despite three separate emails over the course of a month assuring me that Natasha would get to the answers shortly, they never arrived. But hey, if Lyonne is having a rough time staying clean and sane, then so be it. Shes a bit player in this deal, not a star that the entire franchise is hinging upon.
I came away from my time on the set of Blade: Trinity absolutely disgusted with Wesley Snipes, and amazed that despite the constant negativity that was thrust upon one and all by the'star' of the show, that the rest of the cast and crew seemed to be in great spirits, and working really hard to put out the best film possible. In the end, the reviews were mixed, mostly leaning towards the negative. Personally, I considered it to be a fun flick, with plenty of humor and a ton of awesome over the top hammy-ness from one P. Posey. But anyone who watched that film, whether they liked it or hated it, has to agree that the one uniting factor that blew throughout was the performance (or lack of it) from Wesley
Of course, Snipes has always had an inflated opinion of himself; he publicly bitched that John Singleton should have cast him in the title role of the updated version of Shaft, instead of Samuel L. Jackson, which Snipes claimed would have doubled the $60m box office. He was also once quoted as saying, "Lot of the scripts I've been in with other non-white actors haven't been great. Lot of non-white actors ain't all that great. But this lawsuit is so without basis as to almost be considered amusing.
Snipes claims, according to Variety, that it was Goyers fault the movie didnt turn out well, citing reviews describing Goyer as a disastrous choice and calling the film a bloody mess.
Reviews like these?
The Blade movies, which have allowed the star to coast for several years on box office insurance, demand only that the 42-year-old actor stay pumped up and ready for kung-fu action. But the only emotion that his character, a glowering half-human half-vampire hunter of the undead, is able to muster in the third installment is a sense of mild irritation at having to go through the hassle. -- Stephen Holden, New York Times
Snipes doesn't act he never delivers more than one simple sentence at a time as much as pose and swagger. Thankfully, he's off-screen for extended periods. New York Post
Stranger still, the guy we're all supposed to be excited about - Blade, played by Wesley Snipes -- does less than ever in this movie. His detached demeanor comes off like your mom yelling at you for the umpteenth time about your messy room: "Just how many times do I have to come in here and kill all these vampires?" -- Bill Muller, Arizona Republic
"Goyer... who wrote the previous installments, displays a keen eye for casting in his directing debut." -- James Verniere, Boston Herald
"Blade:Trinity gives us front row seats to watch the end of Wesley's career" -- Willie Waffle, Wafflemovies.com
"If Blade himself can't carry a movie with his own name on it, then perhaps the time has come to hang up the stakes for good." -- Rob Vaux, Flipside Movie Emporium
"[Goyer] achieves an equitable balance between grim gore and sneaky humor." -- Gene Seymour, Newsday
Its no secret that Snipes has had tax problems for several years, and with the aftermath of Blade: Trinity looking like it will send his career deep into the toilet, its perhaps no surprise that the actor is looking for a way to justify his situation. That he would do it with a lawsuit, however, alleging racism from a man who worked with him over three films, two of which were among Snipes most successful ever, is nothing short of disgraceful, especially when Snipes himself exhibited an abundance of racism on the set himself.
But perhaps the most revealing line of Wesleys lawsuit goes right to the heart of why hes doing what hes doing. Snipes claims that because he was employed by a Swiss loan-out company and the movie was filmed in Canada, he should have been exempt from tax liability. But New Line withheld income taxes and failed to cooperate in obtaining a tax indemnity from the Canadian government. Read: Wesley doesnt want to pay his taxes. Scumbag.
In the end, my Spin story was never published, and the reason why was made plain by my editor: "It's a Wesley Snipes film... who cares?"
A judge and jury, perhaps? link directly to this feature at http://efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=1451
printer-friendly format originally published on 04/22/05 08:08:06
last updated on 04/23/05 00:39:35Image via afriLeaks
Riding on the coattails of accusations that the international community has ignored African woes comes afriLeaks - a whistleblowing website dedicated to exposing corruption and abuses of power across Africa.
The website, hosted at afrileaks.org, claims the ability for regular citizens to "blow the whistle" on corruption in Africa, with the tagline "securely share information with Africa's finest journalists." This is bolstered by a network of 19 regional African newspapers and activist organizations, who dig through completely anonymous, user-submitted documents, removing jokes and false claims and highlighting the ones which expose corruption.
Upon entering afrileaks.org, users are prompted to "blow the whistle" and submit any tips or documents they have. As an added emphasis on security, and to prevent possible backlash towards any African citizens who blow the whistle, afriLeaks suggests using Tor to submit any reports. Users are then taken to a screen which allows them to select multiple receivers for their reports - newspapers like South Africa's Mail & Guardian, The Zimbabwean, and Mozambique's Verdade.
The site's foundation seems directly inspired by Wikileaks, which gained notoriety in mid-2010 after leaking thousands of confidential documents regarding the United States' involvement in Afghanistan. But despite this information, afriLeaks maintains its differences.
afriLeaks isn’t like Wikileaks. Wikileaks publishes the information it receives directly. afriLeaks, on the other hand, is a highly secure mailbox connecting investigative media houses to whistleblowers. Documents shared on afriLeaks form the beginning of a journalistic inquiry, instead of being shared directly on the web.
In an article titled "Calling all whistleblowers: AfriLeaks offers a secure platform," South Africa's Mail & Guardian cites Edward Snowden and the 2013 NSA leaks as a major factor for afriLeaks' inception.
"In the post-Snowden world in which we live, with government and corporate surveillance a reality," said the paper, "it has become critically important for journalists and whistleblowers to take every precaution to ensure their digital safety."
The project only officially launched yesterday, so some kinks are still being worked out - including insuring that every organization receiving the leaks has a valid PGP key, and working on bolstering site security even more so whistleblowers never have the face the uncomfortable situation of being persecuted for their actions.
Source: the Mail & Guardian via BBCAntonin Scalia, for various reasons, is not the left's favorite Supreme Court justice. But in a spate of rulings in this term, Scalia has come down on the same side as some of the more liberal justices on the Court -- those cases related to Fourth Amendment issues, particularly involving warrantless searches conducted using advanced technological methods.
The most recent example of this is the 5-4 decision that came down on Monday, in which the Court upheld a Maryland law allowing police officers to take DNA samples of arrestees without a warrant, for the purposes of investigating crimes unrelated to the arrest. Scalia dissented with an opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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"Today’s judgment will, to be sure, have the beneficial effect of solving more crimes," Scalia wrote in his dissent. "Then again, so would the taking of DNA samples from anyone who flies on an airplane (surely the Transportation Security Administration needs to know the 'identity' of the flying public), applies for a driver’s license, or attends a public school. Perhaps the construction of such a genetic panopticon is wise. But I doubt that the proud men who wrote the charter of our liberties would have been so eager to open their mouths for royal inspection."
This ideological breakdown is not as unusual as one might think when it comes to Fourth Amendment issues. The phenomenon, which was noted on the Volokh Conspiracy by Orin Kerr of George Washington University Law School, as well as at the Wall Street Journal, also finds Justice Stephen Breyer, usually a reliably liberal vote on the Court, siding with its more conservative members.
In one case from March, for instance, in a 5-4 vote, the Court, in an opinion written by Scalia, held that a police officer's use of a drug-sniffing dog in the area surrounding a home constitutes a Fourth Amendment "search" and so generally requires a warrant. Kagan, Sotomayor, Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas all joined the opinion. In another case from February, the Court ruled 6-3 that police can't detain someone once he or she has left the immediate vicinity of a premises that is about to be searched. Breyer, Thomas and Samuel Alito were in the dissent.
One case from January 2012 found the Court ruling unanimously that police need a warrant to attach a GPS tracker on a suspect's vehicle, though the Court split on the reasoning. “We hold that the government’s installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ‘search,’ ” Scalia wrote in the majority opinion, and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Thomas and Sotomayor.
Justin Levitt, an associate professor of constitutional law and criminal procedure at Loyola Law School in California, told Salon that he'd be wary of describing Scalia as liberal on Fourth Amendment issues, and is not surprised that Scalia has been ruling this way in recent cases involving the protection of an individual's body and home.
"It's not uniform. He doesn't have a very expansive view of the Fourth Amendment across the board," Levitt said. But Scalia's reasoning is mostly consistent with the doctrine of originalism, though "it's exceedingly hard to tell how the framers would see the use of DNA."
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Levitt added that for Scalia, "it's a question of, 'does it invade the privacy of the home, and would the framers have required a warrant.'"
In a way, it's not surprising that Scalia's "originalist" interpretation of the Constitution would make him concerned about the use of technological advances to invade citizens' privacy in new ways. These types of invasions, after all, were not around in the 18th century when the Fourth Amendment was ratified, and to Scalia that makes them unconstitutiona l.
Kerr, of George Washington Law, also theorized that the voting patterns of recent Fourth Amendment rulings could relate to how each justice likes to decide Fourth Amendment cases: Either by clear, hard rules (Scalia), or by the balancing of the government's interest in law enforcement against the suspect's civil liberties (Breyer):In Born to Be Blue, Ethan Hawke plays singer and trumpet player Chet Baker, known to many as the “James Dean of Jazz.” In I Saw the Light, another musically-oriented biographical drama out now, Tom Hiddleston plays country music icon Hank Williams. But Hawke thinks perhaps the actors should have swapped places. Whereas he plays the guitar and grew up with a father who collected the sheet music of Hank Williams songs, Hiddleston plays the trumpet and grew up with a mother who cooked to the sounds of Chet Baker. “I really should have been cast in your part,” Hawke told Hiddleston, “and you should have been cast in mine.”
Put the two men in a room and you’re all but guaranteed to get a duet. Within moments of meeting in TIME’s studios, the pair launched into a spiritual rendition of the song from which Hiddleston’s film takes its name, then seamlessly segued into a huskily Baker-esque performance of “My Funny Valentine.” But it was in their discussion of the preparation behind those tunes that the actors found the most similar notes.
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Though their movies diverge in form—the unconventional Blue takes liberties with the facts of Baker’s life whereas Light hews closer to the traditional biopic formula—they faced similar challenges in learning to sing and play like the legends they portray. “When you’re playing a cop, you don’t really have to arrest somebody, you don’t really have to shoot somebody,” says Hawke. “But when you play a musician, you have to play.” And it’s not sufficient to simply open your mouth and sing, says Hiddleston. “You have to transmit the power of the song of an icon.”
It’s a tall order, and the pressure is not dissimilar, says Hawke, to that which accompanies the performance of a Shakespearean soliloquy. “People come see Macbeth, they have an expectation that they’re going to be blown away. So if you’re anything short of that then you stink. And if I’m going to go see Hank Williams play, you better blow me away,” he joked—though he repeatedly emphasized that Hiddleston did just that.
The actors both felt that another year (or ten) would have helped them in their parallel quests to scratch the surface of the musical abilities of the musicians they play. But verisimilitude only goes so far. “What you don’t want to do is imitate,” says Hawke. “You want to find, how the hell do I relate to this person? If you get into imitation then you’re not really listening.” Hiddleston agrees. “It becomes an act of interpretation. You’re always interpreting other people’s truth.”
Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com and Arpita Aneja at arpita.aneja@time.com.Bald Eagle Shirt - Bald Eagle T-Shirts
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Animal Shirts - PO Box 197 - Morrow, Ohio 45152At just 20 years old, little was expected this tournament of world #47 Jelena Ostapenko, but the Latvian woman rose up to the occasion and stunned Simona Halep 4-6 6-4 6-3, overcoming a rash of unforced errors, and some early nerves to defeat the much higher ranked, and more accomplished Romanian woman who was contesting her second career Grand Slam final. The Riga native, who has never won a WTA title, and prior to this tournament had never been beyond the third round of a slam, played like she had nothing to lose, aggressively forcing Halep to counter what at times were scintillating shots.
Her streaky ball striking resulted in a 53 to 54 winner to unforced error count (compared to Halep’s defensively minded 8/10 split), and despite a lower first serve |
call to implement the death penalty for terrorists, satirically announcing that the houses of the settlers responsible for the arson would not be demolished by Israel.
The response of Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem to the Duma arson was unequivocal regarding who is to blame: “[This event] was only a matter of time. It is due to the authorities’ policy of not enforcing the law against Israelis who attack Palestinians and their property.” Such immunity only encourages settler violence, the statement continues, before warning that another incident of this nature is on the horizon.
Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the State of Palestine, issued a statement in the same vein: “We hold the Israeli Government fully responsible for [last night’s events]. This is a direct consequence of decades of impunity given by the Israeli government to settler terrorism.” Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas has said that he will turn to the International Criminal Court to investigate the arson.
The US Department of State issued a strongly-worded statement Friday afternoon, condemning the “vicious terrorist attack in the Palestinian village of Douma.” The statement also extended condolences to the Dawabsha family and called on all sides to “maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions.”
Since 2004, around 11,000 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians have been recorded, according to the statement from the State of Palestine. Hundreds of “price tag” attacks occur each year, the majority of which go largely unreported and involve, inter alia, arson, looting, defacement, destruction of olive trees and other acts of vandalism, as well as physical attacks on Palestinians.
The scale of such attacks indicates the extent to which settler violence is part of the culture of the West Bank and not merely an issue of “bad apples.” The Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of municipal councils of West Bank settlements, posted a statement this morning that “[t]his is not the way of the residents of Judea and Samaria”; however, such condemnations are incredibly rare given the consistent nature of assaults by Israeli settlers.
The indictment rate for such crimes is also extremely low: Israeli human rights NGO Yesh Din has reported that a survey of Samaria and Judea District Police files investigating attacks against Palestinians and/or their property by Israeli civilians showed that between 2005 and 2014, only 7.4 percent of such cases ended with indictments. Furthermore, since the establishment of the Nationalistic Crimes Unit, tasked with investigating such crimes, the performance of the Israel Police’s SJ District has actually worsened.Automation will take millions of jobs away. But will it happen anytime soon?
Robert Smith Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 4, 2017
The Industrial Revolution had shown that the process of changing from one way to a new way of making things is never easy. The slow changes introduced by the owners of steel factories, textile mills, and other factories were however quickly recognized by the workers. New machines and technologies had profound effects on their employment situation. Workers tried to resist the changes by going on strike, working slower than normally, and even by destroying the new equipment. With new technology, the need for human inputs decreased, forcing workers to change professions or to move to towns where the latest technology hadn’t been introduced, yet.
New technologies made a lot of jobs redundant but at the same time created new ones. Extra amounts of steel, textiles had to be sold, delivered and marketed to a growing number of customers as better, faster production methods lowered prices thus boosting the demand. Those willing to up-skill got jobs that were less physically straining and better paid.
Early effects on labor force were not good. Higher unemployment forced many back into poverty. This is true today when workers who are laid off can’t find any similar jobs or can’t find any jobs at all or whenever they can it is usually a slow and painful process. And moving somewhere else might not be possible. When a big employer moves jobs to a cheaper location or replaces most workforce with automated solutions, employees are sometimes left to themselves. Social services have limited resource, retraining those who lost their jobs takes a long time, depending on profession, not to mention the cost.
Investment in automation and other innovative developments is projected to grow, reducing employment in the areas affected. Main reason for automating tasks is to increase efficiency or lower the productions costs, or both. However, in countries with relatively low labor costs, it might be more profitable to use human capital than advanced and expensive machines. This is especially true when a technology is relatively new, not mature enough, and new versions of it are expensive and hard to implement.
Advanced technologies such as AI will push many people out of their jobs. The number of sectors and positions that will get affected by it (or will benefit from it as some may say) is set to increase. From farming to customer services sector, automation will cause major changes.
Growing share of world’s population might have to forget about working the same job or even working in the same sector their entire lives.
Changes have come to the world but with them opportunities and hope have. New, better jobs have emerged, freelancing opportunities have appeared that were simply not available 10–20 years ago. Firms are getting more flexible, offering a better work-life balance that allows squeezing in activities we wouldn’t have normally the time for. Some employees are able to work remotely, helping cope with other responsibilities such as raising children, studying, caring for family members.
At the same time, easier jobs are harder to come by. Even basic positions require more training due to more sophisticated equipment and software used in the workplace.
What is more, there are jobs that used to be done by employees but now are being completed by customers. Politico talks about ATMs replacing bank tellers, self-checkouts replacing shop staff, interactive websites replacing travel agents and insurance sellers.
It is still up for discussion if we’ll see self-driving taxis, delivery trucks, and drones in regular use. Sushi bars can be automated these days, so do baristas’ jobs, and a robot might soon make your order of French fries, too. But, one thing is to make a robot that offers a certain service and another thing is to make customers like that, go there and pay for it. Habits and customs change slowly.
Robert Smith is a freelance writer and journalist. You can find him here.The Joint Space Operations Center informed satellite operators on Wednesday that a possible breakup of the NOAA 16 satellite was detected.
The debris event was identified at 8:16 UTC in an orbit of 841 by 857 Kilometers. No data on the number and orbits of the debris was available in the immediate aftermath of the event, but the debris were added to conjunction assessment screenings to provide information to satellite operators of possible close approaches between debris and active satellites.
As of 18:30 UTC, 19 pieces of debris were detected in close proximity to the NOAA 16 satellite. None of the identified objects posed an immediate threat to active satellites. There were no indications that a collision was the cause of the breakup.
NOAA 16 was built by Lockheed Martin as part of the fifth generation of the Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites that deliver an uninterrupted flow of global environmental information for operational applications including meteorology. Weighing in at 2,230 Kilograms, the NOAA 16 satellite hosted five instruments comprised of an Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, a High Resolution Infrared Sounder, an Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, a Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Radiometer and a Space Environment Monitor plus Search and Rescue Tracking Systems.
As the second in the fifth generation of POES satellites, NOAA 16 was launched on September 21, 2000 from Vandenberg Air Force Base atop a Titan-II rocket. Entering orbit, the satellite completed a six-month commissioning phase and was declared operational in March 2001 starting out in an 870-Kilometer Sun Synchronous Orbit. Due to an issue with the antenna system of the satellite, NOAA 16 deactivated its Automatic Picture Transmission function and relied on High Resolution Picture Transmission for realtime imagery downlink.
The satellite handed primary duties off to NOAA 18 in 2005 and entered a backup position in which it continued delivering data. On June 6, 2014 the signal from the satellite was lost after a major spacecraft anomaly. NOAA 16 was officially decommissioned on June 9 after it was determined that recovery of the mission was not possible. Over the course of its 13-year service life, NOAA 16 made 70,655 orbits around Earth, surpassing its three-year design life by a decade. No details on nature of the onboard anomaly were given.
Three NOAA satellites in the afternoon orbit are still operational including two 5th generation POES launched in 2005 and 2009 and the Suomi NPP satellite orbited in 2011 to bridge a gap to the inauguration of the next-generation Joint Polar Satellite System in 2017. The early morning and mid-morning segments of the orbit are covered by the U.S. Air Force and Europe’s meteorological satellite operator EUMETSAT.
Debris events involving NOAA satellites are not unprecedented. The NOAA 8 satellite launched in 1983 suffered an onboard failure in December of 1985 leading to the release of six pieces of debris into orbits between 750 and 850 Kilometers. The suspected cause of the debris event was an overcharge of the battery resulting in a minor explosion of the battery. All six debris re-entered within a period of three years.
Two pieces of debris liberated from the NOAA 6 satellite in 1992 and 1995 and NOAA 7 suffered two debris events in 1993 and 1997 releasing two and three objects, respectively.
Satellites of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program are similar in construction and are known to be susceptible to battery explosions. In February 2015, the DMSP-F13 spacecraft exploded in orbit after a sudden temperature spike within the electrical power system. 43 pieces of debris were initially tracked and the satellite suffered an unrecoverable loss of attitude control. The number of debris increased to over 100 and studies showed that several thousand smaller debris that can not be tracked from the ground may have been generated by the explosion.
Engineers studied the DMSP-F13 explosion and concluded that a compromised wiring harness inside a battery charger was responsible and that six other DMSP satellites were using the same faulty part and could suffer the same fate. The risk of the debris to other missions was classed as low, however, the growing number of space debris and active satellites will lead to an unavoidable increase in conjunctions and collisions in the coming years.A court ruling in Manhattan today represents one more incremental step in the drawn-out battle between transit regulators, established interests, and companies that hope to change the way the taxi industry works. Technically, it was the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) that won today. But it's also a triumph for Uber, Hailo, and similar startups that hope to bring hail-by-smartphone taxi service despite fierce opposition from established members of the city's complex transit industry.
The suit alleged that the city's plan to test out e-hail apps would blur the legal distinction between taxis and livery services (also known as black cars). The group cited seven causes of action including allegations that the TLC had violated its own rules for pilot programs, a claim that e-hail apps will have a discriminatory effect on the elderly, and a claim that the program violates city rules because it did not perform an environmental impact study. Today, Judge Carol Huff dismissed these charges one by one, mostly on technicalities. As for the claim of elderly discrimination, Judge Huff said, "there is no clear evidence that the program will have a potential disparate impact on the elderly."
The group cited seven causes of action
Taxi service apps have run into opposition from regulators and local car service companies in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and others. New York City initially barred Uber and its competitors from launching an e-hail service, which would allow customers to call a street cab on the spot. Then in December, the TLC approved a year-long "pilot program" that would test out a few apps in a limited area in order to ensure smooth integration with existing payment systems and regulations.
The pilot program was expected to roll out in mid-March when a lawsuit was filed in the New York Supreme Court by the Black Car Assistance Corporation, The Livery Round Table, and other members of the industry. With the exception of Arthur Harris, an elderly person who does not own a smartphone, the judge noted that petitioners all have financial interests in businesses that operate car services in New York. Later, City Council members Ydanis Rodriguez and Elizabeth Crowley also supported the lawsuit.
"The market will ultimately decide which apps rise or fall"
"This decision is a victory for all the riders who want to decide for themselves what technologies and services they want to use," TLC commissioner David Yassky said in a statement. "The market will ultimately decide which apps rise or fall and we have an obligation to give the riding public that choice." New York City Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo added, "The TLC must be able to pilot new technology like e-hail apps to stay on the cutting edge of industry and to best serve the public."
New York City has proved to be a challenging market for Uber and its competitors, which include Hailo, GetTaxi, and others. Today's court ruling all but ensures that the pilot program will proceed and entrenched interests will have to adapt. Still, this is a fight that will be fought over and over in other cities as taxi startups expand.What does an NBA head coaching candidate look like in 2013?
A few new trends have emerged in the coaching ranks, namely the Rise of the Video Kids (see Spoelstra, Erik; Vogel, Frank), but most hires in the NBA follow a well-trodden path. Owners and executives love a track record of success and will pay top dollar for a big name. NBA assistants with winning pedigrees are still popular, as are former NBA players who look the part. In general, guys whose career numbers are visible on Basketball Reference are preferable to those who never suited up in the NBA, while college coaches are viewed with a jaundiced eye.
Some of these biases make sense on the surface, but general managers and owners are often driven by their aversion to risk. By and large, a head coaching hire ranks behind only free agency and the draft as a primary factor when measuring a front office’s competence. The easiest way to pass this test is to hire a winner. The second easiest is to hire someone who seems like a winner and, if he loses, remind ownership and the public of that pedigree. There’s a reason we see certain names pop up on short lists each time there’s a coaching vacancy -- there’s comfort in familiarity. That sentiment becomes stronger when a dark horse like Mike Dunlap doesn’t succeed in Charlotte.
It’s difficult to assess whether the league as a whole is doing a good job of hiring coaches. There are only 1,230 wins to go around each season, so even if we could identify the 30 most capable NBA head coaches in some foolproof, empirical way, about half of them would lose more games than they’d win -- and some of them would lose a whole bunch. There’s no simple way to look at someone and know for certain whether they can thrive as an NBA head coach.
A survey of several league execs, players and other team personnel about what makes a quality hire revealed a few common themes:
It’s all about the buy-in: Game management, preparation and the whiteboard arts are all indispensable qualities for an NBA head coach, but the ability to earn the faith of a superstar and key rotation players is qualification No. 1. “You can always find a graybeard or a grinder who can come up with coverages,” says an NBA front office exec. “But what most teams are looking for now is someone who knows how to build a culture and get the stars to buy in.”
Risk is in the eye of the beholder: What constitutes a safe or risky hire? Ask a dozen execs and you’ll get two dozen answers. For many, coaches from the college ranks represent a considerable risk, and the NBA coaching trail is littered with big-name NCAA coaches with winning pedigrees who flamed out at the next level. Others cite career assistants as high-risk. “You never really know how much of an assistant’s success is based on who his head coach is, and how much of it is real,” one NBA exec says.
Not every fit is a great fit: NBA organizations aren’t one-size-fits-all. They each have a unique character that starts with ownership and management. Some teams project a buttoned-up corporate culture, while others have that foozball-in-the-employee-lounge, open floor plan feel. A coaching candidate who might thrive in one situation won’t necessarily be the right fit in another. Roster, market and ownership are all major variables when measuring fit.
Money is (almost) always an issue: With each passing season, the NBA inducts more owners who come from a “new economy” background, a place where every expenditure is examined for value and efficiency. In this world, wins are measured by the dollar, so spending $4 million per year for a coach if you feel similar results can be achieved with a coach at $1.2 million doesn’t add up.
As we head into the thick of hiring season, here are seven candidates regarded as capable future NBA head coaches. None of the seven have previously held the head job in the NBA -- and some aren’t necessarily the safest choices by conventional measures -- but each would bring an intriguing set of skills and attributes to the job:
David Fizdale, Miami Heat assistant coach
Give Erik Spoelstra the slightest opening and he’ll gush about the impact Fizdale has had as a stabilizing force, teacher and communicator in the circus environment that’s enveloped the Heat over the past three seasons. Fizdale has been instrumental in the evolution of LeBron James’ post game, as well as the feeding and caring of the Heat’s superstar core. When there are new schemes to be implemented or skills to be refined, Fizdale takes it upon himself to make sure the work gets done.
There are a dozens of assistants in the NBA who are certified basketball brainiacs, but few of them have Fizdale’s combination of acumen and capacity to relate to NBA players, despite having never played in the league.
“[Fizdale] grew up hard and fought to get to where he is,” says another NBA power broker. “It’s given him an ability to connect because he understands where a lot of these guys came from.”
Like Spoelstra, Fizdale is an alumnus of the Heat’s video room during the 1990s. He also cut his teeth in the player development realm at Tim Grgurich’s venerable big man camp and as an assistant with Golden State and Atlanta. There’s a broad consensus that the question isn’t if, but when Fizdale will be tapped for a lead job.
David Joerger, Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach
Not long ago, success as a head coach in the Continental Basketball Association was a reliable predictor of success in the NBA. Phil Jackson, George Karl and Flip Saunders, among others, all came up through the minor leagues before landing on an NBA bench. So did Joerger, who won five championships in seven seasons as a head coach in the IBA, CBA and D-League -- all before turning 35 years old.
“He loves the craft,” says an NBA general manager. “Look what he’s done with [the Memphis] defense. He’s got Thibodeau’s thing for defense, but he’s a lot more likable than Thibs.”
When Lionel Hollins delegated the Memphis’ defensive game plan to Joerger, the Grizzlies were the league’s 24th-ranked defense. In the three seasons since, they’ve finished ninth, then seventh and now second in defensive efficiency, and they did it with Zach Randolph at power forward and an unusually small point guard in Mike Conley. It’s rare that NBA players cite their assistants by name, but Tony Allen routinely praises Joerger’s defensive blueprint as an essential ingredient in the Grizz’s success.
Joerger loves to problem-solve and grapple with game theory, and he has an appreciation of analytics. He knows which NBA point guards, in descending order, reject screens most frequently and understands how to impart that information to players. Most of all, Joerger has an acute awareness of what each player on the roster can and can't do. Randolph won't be asked to perform Joakim Noah tasks, and a unit's collective shortcomings are priced into coverage schemes.
Every NBA team these days wants to patent a defensive system, and those in search of an architect have a natural candidate in Joerger.
Fred Hoiberg, Iowa State head coach
Every once in a while, the name of a prominent college coach will circulate as potential NBA material. The communicative and well-tailored Jay Wright was the trendy choice back in 2009 after Villanova’s Final Four run.
Yet for the most part, college coaches have been seen as untouchable by most NBA front offices after a procession of high-profile failures over the past two decades. Are the principles of college ball not transferable to the pro level, or is the under-performance of college coaches a function of the general disposition of the men in question and the rosters they inherited?
Whatever the case, Hoiberg would have all the bases covered. Unlike most of the coaches from the college ranks who dabbled in the NBA, Hoiberg played 10 seasons in the league and has an intimate knowledge of the rhythms and demands of NBA life. After his retirement, he served in the Minnesota Timberwolves front office and was passed over for the top job in basketball operations when David Kahn was hired in 2009. Hoiberg endured a season in the Kahn administration before leaving to coach at Iowa State, where he has effectively rebuilt a flailing program into a tourney team.
“He’s a worker bee who has proven he can coach,” says one NBA exec. “If [Rick Adelman] decides to retire, he’d be the perfect fit in Minnesota. He has a track record there. He could coach Rick’s team, and even coach Rick’s philosophy.”
In retrospect, striking out on his own to gain valuable experience coaching his alma mater was probably a blessing for Hoiberg. But after a while, recruiting gets old and there’s a lot of goodwill for him among NBA decision-makers who see him as a young coach with a bright future.
Steve Kerr, TNT analyst
Would you rather evaluate talent or put it to use? Manage the expectations of a moody owner or a dynamic player? Construct a message for a coach, or just be the coach?
Kerr’s three-year stint as general manager of the Phoenix Suns proved that, with most NBA franchises, the easiest way to have an impact on the floor is not as an executive but as a head coach. Many insiders feel that when Kerr is ready to jump back in, it will be on the sidelines. He’d likely want a major say in personnel decisions and would look to avoid many of the trappings encountered in Phoenix, but if the right gig came along, he’d strongly consider the challenge.
“Steve speaks and thinks the game and has a lot of institutional knowledge,” an NBA executive says. “He sees the value of 1-through-12 and would understand how to manage delicate personalities in the locker room. After [Phoenix Suns owner Robert] Sarver, it would be a vacation.”
Personality management is more vocation than vacation in the NBA, but Kerr has a shadowbox full of rings. It’s probably not in his nature to plunk them down on a table a la Pat Riley, but a championship pedigree commands respect. Combine that with Kerr’s even disposition and silver tongue, and a convincing profile of an NBA head coach emerges.
Alex Jensen, Canton Charge head coach
Jensen was the near-unanimous answer to the question, “Who’s the most likely future NBA head coach currently in the D-League?”
The 36-year-old Jensen just finished his second winning season as the head coach in Canton, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ owned-and-operated affiliate, but he’s best known in basketball circles as the late Rick Majerus’ star protegee. Jensen played for Majerus at the University of Utah in the mid-90s and was the starting forward on the Utes team that lost the 1998 title game to Kentucky. After bumping around the Turkish league -- with a few stops in between in Japan, Spain and the CBA -- Jensen reunited with Majerus, joining his staff at Saint Louis for four seasons.
Jensen has preached Majerus’ doctrine in Canton, where the ball must be shared and players must defend. He’s taken Majerus’ motion offense and peppered it with some of the basic high ball-screens and pin-downs that dominate NBA offenses.
“[Jensen] is cerebral and smart,” an NBA coach says. “He already had a great feel for the game, then he soaked up everything Rick [Majerus] taught him.”
D-League players have been getting call-ups and making key contributions at the NBA level. It’s just a matter of time before we see an NBA team dig into the D-League ranks for a head coach.
Robert Pack, Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach
Had Vinny Del Negro not been granted a reprieve by Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling in March 2012, Pack would have been a playoff head coach last season as Del Negro’s replacement, despite only three seasons of service as an NBA assistant.
Pack raised his profile as a hard-nosed but fair instructor, the guy on staff unafraid to get in a player’s face and tell him when he’s disrespecting the game. The Clippers’ roster is a tough audience of veterans and young supernovas, but Pack quickly earned credibility as someone who offered coaching and an honest ear.
Pack brings a floor general’s approach to the game, and can claim Darren Collison and Eric Bledsoe as young point guards who flourished under his direction. Chris Paul has conveyed his respect for Pack’s expertise and manner.
The short résumé might give some potential employers pause, but pair him with a seasoned assistant steeped in game preparation and Pack figures to be a quick study. The Clippers were ready to hand him the keys to the family wagon during a playoff run. A young team looking to invest in the future could afford him the time to grow, as Orlando has with Jacque Vaughn.
David Blatt, Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach
If basketball is an American game gone global, then Blatt is its quintessential ambassador. Raised near Boston, he has spent the last two decades establishing himself as one of Europe’s premier coaches, currently with Maccabi and during the 2012 Olympics with the Russian national team.
It’s been a few years since the persistent chatter about an NBA team -- Toronto the most popular hypothetical -- hiring a head coach out of Europe. Whenever that line of inquiry is resuscitated, Blatt is the most oft-mentioned name, along with Ettore Messina (formerly of Mike Brown’s staff in Los Angeles) and Sergio Scariolo (head coach at Milano, and the Spanish national team that’s won gold at the last two FIBA EuroBasket championships).
Blatt’s American upbringing and playing career at Princeton under Pete Carril make him a logical trailblazer should an NBA team want to take the plunge. Blatt wouldn’t likely be lured by an assistant’s spot on the bench nor by a consultant’s title similar to Messina’s with the Lakers.
“[Blatt] would want some authorship of the roster and a seat at the table,” says a member of an NBA front office who keeps a close watch on Europe. “Mike D’Antoni is the analog.”
D’Antoni was the last real import, and no NBA team has expressed public interest in a coaching candidate from Europe recently. Still, the prospect of a mind like Blatt’s taking the reins of an NBA team is a fascinating thought exercise. Given Blatt's body of work, characterizing such a hire a risk would be silly.BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled to Dubai, senior members of her party said on Saturday, a day after she failed to show up for a negligence ruling in which she faced up to 10 years in prison.
Puea Thai Party sources said Yingluck left Thailand last week and flew via Singapore to Dubai where her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for corruption, has a home.
“We heard that she went to Cambodia and then Singapore from where she flew to Dubai. She has arrived safely and is there now,” said a senior member of the Puea Thai Party who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Deputy national police chief General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul said police had no record of Yingluck, 50, leaving the country and were following developments closely.
A Reuters reporter was stopped by security at the exclusive Emirates Hills community in Dubai, where Thaksin has a home.
A Thaksin spokesperson in Dubai did not respond to attempts by Reuters to contact Thaksin.
Police estimate that up to 3,000 supporters had gathered outside the court in Bangkok on Friday where Yingluck was due to hear a verdict in a negligence trial against her involving a rice buying policy of her administration.
But Yingluck did not show up at the appointed hour and the court quickly issued a statement saying she had cited an ear problem as the reason for her no-show.
The court rejected the excuse and moved the verdict reading to September 27. It later issued an arrest warrant for Yingluck.
Immigration police said they would arrest Yingluck on the spot if she is found.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the government “should not comment” on Yingluck’s case and her whereabouts.
Related Coverage Yingluck's flight provides Thai junta welcome way out
“It’s a matter for police to proceed with the arrest warrant,” Wissanu told reporters, adding that her whereabouts “will be clear soon”.
National police spokesman Dechnarong Suticharnbancha said on Saturday police were still investigating reports that Yingluck had either fled to Singapore or Dubai and said police had no new information on the matter.
Winthai Suvaree, a spokesman for the junta or National Council for Peace and Order, said there had been no security meeting to address Yingluck’s disappearance.
“You must understand that the border is long … What we know about Yingluck’s escape is only what is being reported by the media,” he added.
NOT SURPRISED
Overthrown in 2014, Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. Her former commerce minister was jailed in a related case for 42 years on Friday.
Political parties led or backed by the Shinawatras have dominated Thai politics, winning every general election since 2001.
The Shinawatras have been accused of corruption and nepotism by the Bangkok-based establishment who loath Thaksin. The family command huge support in the poorer, rural north and northeast.
The rice buying scheme, a flagship policy of Yingluck’s administration, proved popular with rural voters but the military government says it incurred $8 billion in losses.
Yingluck pleaded innocent to the charges against her and said she was the victim of political persecution.
The military government has used sweeping powers to silence critics, including supporters of the Shinawatras, since 2014.
FILE PHOTO: Ousted former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra greets supporters as she arrives at the Supreme Court in Bangkok, Thailand, August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File photo
The mood in the northeast, a Shinawatra stronghold, was somber on Saturday. Leaders of the red-shirt United Front For Democracy there said they weren’t surprised Yingluck fled.
“Most people I know feel glad that Yingluck has left the country,” said one red shirt leader, who declined to be named for safety reasons.
“For now there will be less activity from the red shirts because of military suppression.”Here’s the dirty truth I’ve discovered during my last year as a freelancer: not all clients are rock stars.
Truth be told, there’s even been a few along the way that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. Unfortunately, when I was first getting started as a freelancer, I didn’t always know how to spot bad clients until it was too late. So, the purpose of this series is to help budding freelancers identify clients who will be less-than-pleasant to work for. Learning to spot “red flag” clients early helps prevent unnecessary stress.
In the first part of this series, I covered some over-arching client personality traits that are dead giveaways that something is broken on their end. I’d encourage you to check it out if you haven’t already, it’s a great introduction to six big-picture things that every freelancer should learn to look out for.
But let’s move on to part two now, shall we? It’s true, sometimes little things will bug developers just as much as the big stuff. Heck, sometimes the small things seem even worse. So, here’s my list of the seven most common, and specific, red flags that have popped up throughout my last year as a freelancer.
Red Flag #1 – Tasks marked “urgent” AKA “I needed this done yesterday.”
Okay, was your corporate website hacked and now routing to porn sites? I agree, that’s urgent and I’ll help you get that fixed that right away. But for just about anything else, bugger off. Seriously, please stop sending requests that require a time machine to complete. Your developer isn’t Marty McFly, I’m sorry.
I’ve literally had clients ask me to complete their full website development project, A to Z, by the time the sun goes down. I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but requests like these aren’t going to happen, ever.
Requests like this scream poor time management on the client’s end and if you end up taking on a project like this, you can rest assured it’ll be high-pressure with low reward. #ThanksButNoThanks
Other times clients mark their project as “urgent” yet still expect to pay the standard rate… Say what?
Think about ordering from Amazon — if you want overnight delivery, you pay more, right? Well, the same concept applies here. I wasn’t expecting your urgent project, so now I’ve got to push other clients back in order to to bump you to the front of the line. Express delivery = higher rates. That’s just how it is.
Red Flag #2 – Blaming the exchange rate.
Developers are not bankers. I’m sorry, but we don’t have those fancy up-to-the-second tickers like they do at the bank or the airport to compare the relative value of your local currency against ours.
Clients who blame the exchange rate then try to negotiate a better deal are being petty.
If money is really an issue, then you should figure out your maximum budget then compile a list of your wants vs needs. As a developer, I’m happy to work through your task list one-by-one for as long as your budget allows. But, I’m not going to do huge favors solely based on the current exchange rate.
Red Flag #3 – Touting your non-profit status.
If you’re a non-profit business, that’s great! But, most of us are for-profit developers. Our heart strings will not be tugged by your tales of community stewardship. We’re not trying to sound like a bunch of heartless monsters, but we can’t set a precedent of providing favorable treatment based on circumstance.
Once per year I’ll personally take on a pro-bono project for one legitimate non-profit organization, but that’s by far the exception to the rule. I can’t donate my time to every group that approaches me, so please do us both a favor and stop including your non-profit sob story as the opening line of your project brief.
Red Flag #4 – Attempting to negotiate.
Negotiate once, shame on you. Negotiate after I warn you that I don’t negotiate, and I’m out.
Often times when you’re hiring, or purchasing from the best in the business there won’t be any room for negotiation. Don’t believe me? Head on down to your local Ferrari dealership and try breaking the ice with their salesman by attempting to negotiate the price. How’d that go for you, did they laugh you off the lot?
Now, I’d like to think you’ll have a more pleasant experience with a developer than a used car salesman, but still, please stop trying to haggle with us. Again, it comes back to creating your needs vs wants list.
Simply put, if you want to reduce the price, you need to reduce the workload.
We’re in business to put a smile on your face from the work we do, not the discounts we hand out.
Red Flag #5 – Posting the same task multiple times.
Developers are smart. You’re going to have a hard time pulling one over on them, especially when they’re working so closely together.
That isn’t supposed to be a cocky statement either. I’m saying that any attempts to game the system and start a lowest-bid war by posting the same task multiple times on the same network isn’t going to work.
Post your task once, if the estimate isn’t aligned with your expectations then let’s figure out why.
Red Flag #6 – Not knowing your passwords.
In the first part of this series I mentioned that we developers dislike lazy clients (red-flag #3).
But not knowing your passwords takes lazy to another level. C’mon now, this seems like common sense, you’re going to need to know your passwords in order for your developer to get started working.
When we ask for your login information and you say “try this” we’re instantly less excited about you.
99% of the time, passwords prefaced with “try this” don’t work, and neither will the next couple you send either. Great, so now we’ve both wasted our time and you still need to reset your password anyways.
If you can’t spend 30 seconds testing your own logins before sending them to us, we’re moving on.
Red Flag #7 – Not accepting an experts advice.
This is just the nature of any client/contractor job in any field. But still, some clients think they know better than the experts whom they’re trying to hire to solve their problems.
It’s perfectly fine to have an opinion, but you’re consulting with experts for a reason. Many developers on Codeable, all of whom are among the top 2% in their field, reject clients with a “my way or the highway” mentality. To be blunt, we’re only interested in your money if you’re interested in best practices.
Just because you can pay for it doesn’t mean we’re going to build it for you. Our reputation is on the line with every project and we believe in providing quality work above all else, every single time.
So there you have it. An extensive, but never totally complete, list of ways you can set yourself apart and establish yourself as a great client |
: Our immediate goal is to stop the hunting. When I was finishing my research in northern Patagonia, more than half of the records for that dissertation work came from dead cats. That’s more than 20 dead cats, a huge number for a low-density species.
Part of our mitigation program in Chile and Argentina includes training guard dogs to keep predators away from goat herds in the [mountain] communities. That way the small cats won’t get killed along with the mountain lions, which are the real livestock predators. We want to expand that program as quickly as possible.
Another part of that program brings artists to schools where they help children paint murals that show the Andean cat and his important place in the landscape. In these isolated areas, the schools are a gathering place for the community, so everyone sees these conservation messages.
We also need pure research at the population genetics level. It may sound boring, but I have a strong suspicion there may be two subspecies of Andean cats, and we need to know [whether that is true or not] to adjust our conservation actions.
Next year, we also want to start a monitoring network in protected areas. This was my main project in previous fieldwork. If this is well applied, the Andean cat becomes part of the action plan for protected areas. That works as a conservation tool because it helps detect sudden changes in population trends.
And of course, there is Jacobo. We need to keep following him. He was released in a very remote site, in a park that straddles Bolivia and Chile. When we went to the field to look for [radio collar] signals in October, November, and December, there was a far away signal once, and then never again. We are trying to arrange an overflight to look for him one more time before the radio battery dies.
Even though it’s disappointing not to know exactly where he is, it’s a good thing that Jacobo moved away from his release site, looking for a proper place to make his own territory. He is out there somewhere and, because every individual matters, we know we did the best thing possible by releasing him.
Jacobo is a lot more than just another cat for us; he’s a symbol of the Andes. Like a living being needs a soul, the soul of the Andes is represented by Jacobo.
For more on the topic:
Lucherini M, Palacios R, Villalba L, Iverson E. (2012) A new Strategic Plan for the conservation of the Andean cat. Oryx. Vol. 46, pp. 16-17.
Novaro AJ, Walker S, Palacios R, et al. (2010) Endangered Andean cat distribution beyond the Andes in Patagonia. Cat News. Vol. 53, pp. 8-10.
Villalba L, Lucherini M, Walker S, Lagos N, Cossios D, Bennett M, Huaranca J. 2016. Leopardus jacobita. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T15452A50657407.
Walker S, Funes M, Heidel L, Palacios R. (2014) The Endangered Andean cat and fracking in Patagonia. Oryx. Vol. 48, pp. 14-15.A serviceman of the 175th Signals and Control Brigade of the Southern Military District with SPR-2M Rtut-BM system in the background
One of InformNapalm’s focus areas is discovery and identification of special equipment used by the Russian Army in the Donbas: communications, electronic reconnaissance, and electronic warfare systems. Over more than two years of the community’s volunteers’ activities, they have detected a number of different systems, including the latest types, which are in service exclusively with the Russian Army. This report is dedicated not only to the fact of discovery of an electronic warfare system Rtut-BM, but also to the selfie-loving Russian servicemen, who exposed that piece of special equipment in addition to the fact of their illegal ‘Ukrainian mission’.
The identified persons are servicemen of the 175th Signals and Control Brigade of the Southern Military District (military unit 01957) based in the town of Aksay, Rostov Oblast. The base includes a control and communications unit, as well as several so-called camp-divisions.
The 175th Brigade is tasked with ensuring communications between the senior command and the headquarters of the Southern Military District, and the functioning of various control systems, both stationary and mobile. The unit has the latest specialized satcom equipment. The personnel are actively involved in the adoption of newest equipment and combat training, including taking part in large-scale training exercises Caucasus-2016.
Now, let us introduce the subjects:
Dmitriy Kartashov, date of birth May 20, 1993 – Russian contract serviceman from the 175th Brigade. Noticed in Ukraine.
In the photo a football goal can be seen in the distance in the field located across the road from military unit 01957. The place is marked on the map.
Note the photo of the Russian servicemen with EW systems in the background. The outlines of the cab are typical for all RB-341V Leer-3 EW systems. Snapshots of this equipment are easy to find on the net: it was seen in Syria, and many times in the occupied Donbas.
Roman Roshko (currently using the alias ‘Roman Romanenko’ in his social network profiles) – a Russian contract serviceman from the 175th Brigade. Date of birth June 11, 1995. At the very least, noticed on the border with Ukraine.
Ivan Remizov – a serviceman of a reconnaissance unit of the 18th Motorized Rifle Brigade (military unit 27777 based in Khankala and Kalynovskaya in Chechnya), part of the 58th Army of the Southern Military District.Born in Volgograd in 1975. In April, 2016, being nostalgic for the so-called ‘Ukrainian mission’, he posted some pictures. Read more about him in a related report published on June 5, 2016.
But we should go back to Dmitry Kartashov, who could not resist the temptation to make a selfie using as the background Russian military equipment located in the occupied part of the Donbas, although he cowardly hid his face under a balaclava.
For comparison, here are two photos of the Russian military criminal’s face:
A serviceman of the 175th with SPR-2M Rtut-BM system in the background, standing on Ukrainian land
Note: SPR-2M Rtut-BM is a modern electronic warfare system designed to reduce the impact of artillery rounds on friendly troops and armored vehicles by influencing the operation of radio controlled proximity fuses. SPR-2 is able to cause premature explosion at a safe height or switch the fuse into contact mode. The main areas of use are advance troops, command posts, concentrations of troops and missile launchers. Also, Rtut-BM can be used to protect moving objects at pontoon bridge crossings. For more details about the first discovery of a Rtut-BM system in the Donbas, read the related report published on August 17, 2016.
Terrain analysis (we would like to thank Twitter user @5urpher for his help with geolocation) confirms that the photo was taken in the area near a small coalmine next to the village of Elizavetivka in Antratsitovskiy district – within the part of Luhansk Oblast occupied by Russia.
This report was prepared by Vidal Sorokin & Victory Krm
Translated by Mc Joy
Edited by Max AlgininPresident Trump might risk "nuclear war" with North Korea in order "to build up his popularity," a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said he fears.
"What I fear is, he sort of got a political bump he got a political bump from the Syria air strike [and] the mother of all bombs strike in Afghanistan," Rep. David Ciciline, D-R.I., told MSNBC's Ali Velshi on Friday. "And we don't want the president to be making decisions where he just sort of thinks more bombs are the way to build up his popularity, but rather they're making decisions based on the national security interests of the United States and the long-term safety and security of the American people."
Ciciline, who as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee is tasked with presenting "a sharp contrast to House Republicans' special interest-first agenda," evinced skepticism of Trump's recent foreign policy moves throughout the interview. He emphasized, for instance, that the Syria strike "didn't even do much damage" and avoided a direct endorsement of the attack. He suggested as well that the deployment of an aircraft carrier group to the region "as a show of force" is inadvisable, compared to diplomatic efforts to bring the regime to heel.
"A preemptive strike, if it were to happen, is likely to ignite a very serious conflict, a war, and maybe even a nuclear war," Ciciline said. "It would expose American troops on the [Korean] peninsula to tremendous danger... The appropriate course is to really to reduce the rhetoric and try to de-escalate this and continue to use all the levers of diplomatic-economic power to try to achieve the right results here."
Read more on WashingtonExaminer.comShare. But which storyline is it connected to? But which storyline is it connected to?
Though Captain America: Civil War keeps the relationship between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes at the heart of its story while balancing its ensemble cast, the film still couldn't fit in every story beat the Russo brothers had in mind.
Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed Civil War and are also on board for the next two Avengers films, recently spoke to IGN about the sheer challenge of balancing the film's expansive cast and story. Some things had to be cut in the process, and in particular one extracted scene had its roots in the characters' coming book history.
"There is a scene that is a cut scene. It's a small piece of the fight at Leipzig where there's a very fun interaction between Cap and Bucky, and it kind of hints at a favorite storyline in the books," Anthony Russo said. "I won't go into the detail about it, but there's a little tease in that scene that is pretty fun."
Exit Theatre Mode
The Russos didn't elaborate on what the story being referenced is, and that's because they cannot yet say whether it wont factor into their future plans.
"It's a comic book story, and I can't say whether or not it's going to factor in to the movies," Anthony Russo said when asked for specifics about the scene.
The Russos did speak to IGN at length about the process of making Civil War. The two also discussed their work so far on the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War and its now untitled sequel, including how the films set the stage for certain beginnings and endings within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Exit Theatre Mode
The Infinity War writers Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely, who also scripted Captain America: Civil War, offered an update on the progress of the Avengers two films' scripts.
Captain America: Civil War will arrive on on Digital HD, Digital 3D and Disney Movies Anywhere on September 2 and on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD and On-Demand on September 13.
Additional reporting by IGN Entertainment Editor Terri Schwartz.
Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush.When Julianne Harnish stopped into Flipburger, she saw something troubling. Rather, it was what she didn't see at the Halifax burger joint that troubled her.
This painting, which stands more than a metre tall, was stolen on St. Patrick's Day.
For years, one of Harnish's paintings — a colourful, psychedelic rendering of a chameleon perched atop a bottle — could be found on a wall of the downtown restaurant.
Now it was gone.
"I've never had anything stolen from me before," said Harnish.
"It feels like a violation."
When the daycare worker and artist saw her creation was no longer hanging in the restaurant, she emailed Flipburger to see if they had taken it down or sold it.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
Harnish said employees believe the painting was stolen around St. Patrick's Day.
Halifax Regional Police are investigating the theft.
Painting more than a metre tall
Harnish does not individually price her paintings, instead choosing to negotiate prices with a prospective buyer.
When asked to ballpark how much the stolen piece was worth, Harnish said the last painting she sold was priced at $800.
Harnish's painting hung inside Flipburger's Argyle Street location for several years in downtown Halifax.
Not only is the painting expensive but at more than a metre tall, it's also quite large. That's only added to the mystery of exactly how it was taken without anyone noticing.
"If somebody walked out with it, it would be very obvious," said Harnish.
Displaying art 'has its risks'
Harnish said displaying artwork in restaurants or cafés is an easier way to get the public to see her art, rather than displaying it in an art gallery.
"I'm not a very well-known artist, I have a full-time job... I don't really have a presence in galleries right now."
Harnish gave the thieves the option to return the painting to Flipburger, but the person brought it to her directly and in person.
Displaying in restaurants or cafés "has its risks... but I decided it was worth it to prevent the painting from collecting dust in my apartment," she added.
Harnish said there was a small sign next to the painting with her contact information if someone wanted to buy it, but she noticed the note was missing during a previous visit to the restaurant.
She said she doesn't hold Flipburger responsible for the theft.
"The staff work there really hard and it's not their job to make sure my property doesn't get taken."
Feeling hopeful
Harnish admitted the theft has shaken her trust when displaying her art in restaurants but feels hopeful the painting will be returned.
"There's more people who are upset that it was stolen and there's only one person who stole it," she said.
Harnish has received hundreds of shares on her Facebook post where she shared details about the stolen artwork.
She has also been posting other drawings and comics on Facebook, chronicling her mission to locate the stolen piece.
Harnish says she uses comics like this one to help her poke fun at unfortunate circumstances.
"I think my best chance of getting it back is just letting people know and hopefully the person who took it will see."
Harnish said the painting can be returned to Flipburger if found.Joe Biden is in no hurry to stop serving his country, but there is one thing he's excited to regain shortly after his term is up: the chance to get back behind the wheel. Specifically the wheel of his 1967 Corvette.
Appearing in a special preview of the upcoming season of "Jay Leno's Garage," Vice President Biden is able to secure permission from the Secret Service to drive his four-speed Stingray. That's a gift not often bestowed upon a sitting VP, who is normally restricted from driving until at least six months after he leaves office.
"I owe you big," Biden tells Leno, moments before pulling a massive burnout at a secure Washington D.C. training facility. "You realize this is only the third time I've gotten to drive this in seven years?"Donate
The Turkish Army has already lost at least 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks during their offensive on terrorists’ positions near the Syrian city of al-Bab.
According to the recent report of the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the Saudi Armed Forces have lost about 20 Abrams М1A2S tanks in Yemen, the Zone Militaire information website reported. In its turn, the Turkish Army, which has been conducting the so-called Euphrates Shield operation in the north of Syria since August 2016, has faced with the same problem with the German-made Leopard 2A4 tanks.
So, according to information from social networks, the Turkish Forces have lost at least 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks during their offensive on terrorists’ positions near al-Bab city. The losses were confirmed by the Die Welt newspaper, which wrote about the tank, manufactured by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann company and considered ‘invincible’ before.
The tank (practically of all variants of its modification) was sold to 18 countries, including Turkey, which bought 354 tanks from the Bundeswehr. All the purchased tanks were upgraded by the ASELSAN company in 2005.
But it is obviously that the tank was not designed for fighting in urban areas, despite the fact that at the time of its passing into service German engineers were looking for a compromise between its defense, weapons and maneuverability on the battlefield. As a result, the emphasis was placed on the frontal armor, but suddenly the Leopard 2 has demonstrated its vulnerable points on its sides and on the rear side of its tower. And terrorists showed a good knowledge of these weakened zones, which they targeted with the Russian Kornet-E anti-tank guided missile launcher. However, ‘fighting in urban areas’ is too ‘loud’ word for describing the situation near al-Bab. What would happen with these tanks if they operated in Aleppo or Mosul, where we can see fighting in real urban areas?
In addition, unlike the later modifications, the Turkish Leopard 2 tanks do not have an explosive-reactive armor that reduces negative effects of hitting with ammunition.
Another reason of the losses is also a lack of experience among Turkish crews, as well as a lack of a normal doctrine of tanks’ usage in urban areas.
In any case, this may explain, at least partially, difficulties of Turkish troops and Ankara-backed militant groups during the battle against terrorists near al-Bab city.
DonateJon Henley is travelling through Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece to hear the human stories behind the European debt crisis. On the sunny Iberian peninsula there is a feeling that as bad as things are, they're not yet as awful as they will become
Spain and Portugal: 'the worst will be next year. Then it will really hit'
It's not obvious, that's the first thing. Maybe it's because of the weather: Spain and Portugal are enjoying an Indian summer of quite improbable splendour, with clear, powder-blue skies, hot as June. As Juan Darriba put it in Seville: "It's hard to be down when you're blessed with this."
Partly, too, it's the fact that here so much of life is on the street. "We can't stay indoors," said Encarnacion Codeseda, in Huelva. "It's impossible for us. We have to be out. It's the way we are. And once you're out, well, you see friends. You're cheerful."
Some of it is down to pride. And because, as bad as things are, they could be worse. "The worst will be next year," predicted Ana Lobo, in Lisbon. "Now, it's almost still summer. In January, when it's cold and dark, electricity, public transport, bread, will go up. Taxes too, a lot. And pensions and benefits will be cut. Then it'll really hit."
Whatever the explanation, it is not immediately apparent, on a trip through the Iberian peninsula this past week, that the worst economic crisis since the second world war has got a grip. Cafe terraces are well occupied. Some shops might be boarded up but many are open and doing business. Life continues.
As always in such times people are doing fine – until one day, suddenly, they're not, any more. Then there's no shortage of stories.
Luis Alves, a 30-year-old freelance graphic artist in Lisbon, survives only because he works for clients outside Portugal. "The market here has died. Banks aren't lending. Everything, economically and politically, is blocked." Of all his social circle, he said, only two had proper job contracts.
Elsewhere, people speak of friends holding down two, even three part-time jobs. There is resentment, too, at the fragility of what little work is available: a system in Portugal known as recibos verdes, or green receipts, entails workers – hundreds of thousands now – being hired on temporary contracts which bring no social security or holidays.
In Seville Darriba, also 30, has two diplomas, in international trade and industrial safety, but beyond stints at a Citroën plant and the docks in Galicia, he has only ever worked as a waiter. "Even then they cheat you. They declare only half or a third of the hours you work so they don't have to pay full social security. It means if you're out of work you can't claim benefits because you haven't paid enough in."
Many predict an exodus. In Huelva, where 45% of all under-25s are without a job, Dani Martin, a trainee chef, is barely 20 but already resigned to leaving. "I won't find work round here," he said. He had worked in a cafe this summer but takings at Huelva's bars were down a third and the owner refused to pay him. "I've worked abroad before and I'll have to leave Huelva, probably Spain, to find a proper job."
The crunch is hardest, pensioners readily volunteer, for younger generations who grew up on cheap, seemingly limitless credit, with the impression that Spain's and Portugal's comparatively low wages (Portugal's minimum wage is less than €500, or £438, a month) did not necessarily mean an obstacle to smart cars or spanking new villas.
Those who remember the Portugal of the past take a more sanguine view. "We grew up in a different age," said Helena Martins, in Loule, on the Algarve. "Portugal was poor then. We know how to live simply. Lots of older people around here, especially in the countryside, still grow some of their own food. We shop sparingly and live on little. The young ones aren't the same. They don't know how to live within their means."
According to Martins, apartments in the town centre are being repossessed and sold at auctions now taking place almost weekly: "Flats that a few years ago would have cost €130,000 are selling for less than a third of that. People who have money are going to do very well out of this. I know a man came from Switzerland specially for one auction here."
But there is real hardship. Lisbon's Banco Alimentar, or food bank, the largest in Europe, distributes 12,000 tonnes of food a year to about 250 local charities, helping to feed up to 160,000 people last year. The number has been rising sharply over the past two years, said José Almeida, a retired mining engineer who helps run it. Those asking for food, he said, "are not the ones you'd usually expect". He added: "Couples who both had good jobs, and a high standard of living … then one's made redundant and they can't keep up the cars, the mortgage, the school. They turn to charity." Last year lawyers, engineers, even a judge sought help, he said.
So who do people blame? There's anger, plainly, at the banks.
"They threw money at people," said Martins. "They gave the impression it was Christmas every day."
In Spain, the property developers, financial institutions and politicians who fuelled the country's wild property boom, come in for a beating. There is resentment, too, at a state apparatus seen as over-large, inflexible, outdated and too hung up on paperwork, the last a constant complaint.
"There seems to be," said Renny Jackson, an English teacher, "an almost complete mismatch between much of what the state does and what people actually need. To be legally self-employed in Spain costs €250 a month, more than a third of what I earn. So many people are driven to the black economy."
Politicians of all hues are beyond redemption. "So much waste, so much corruption," said Javier Dale, a Spanish journalist. "Every election, millions and millions are wasted in towns around Spain because new town councils call a halt to expensive projects already started by their predecessors and start new ones of their own."
Elected leaders in both countries, people say, failed dismally to react to the global processes of the past decade (globalisation, and trade with east Europe, and Asia) that undercut Spain and Portugal's economic advantage in Europe – low wages. Too much EU money rather than being invested productively went on vast vanity projects.
"We have two motorways connecting Lisbon to Porto, but zero investment in technology," said Manuel Lourenco, a Portuguese businessman, "We have a lot of sports facilities, but we did not spend on education. We have a huge increase in the service sector, but we've destroyed our manufacturing sector. Nothing can be done now – the money was spent."
It is the recognition of the need for "an entirely new way, a properly participative way, of doing politics", and, in Alves's words, "a system that works for the good of all of the people, not just the profit of some", that is helping the growth of the region's Indignados movement. But there's a feeling, too, certainly in Spain, that it is not entirely the government's fault.
Darriba said: "In the north of Europe. I think people understand that if they don't pay their taxes then the health service, education, everything will suffer, for everyone. Here, I don't know. You see all this waste, this uselessness, and you think, why should I give my money to that? So here, you know, if you don't pay all your taxes, you're a clever guy. And I think there are a lot of clever guys in Spain."Also see: US Government Asks Native Hawaiians to Legitimize Occupation With Vote
Many people are unaware of the unique history of the United States’ occupation of Hawai’i. (Image: Hawaii map via Shutterstock)In 2001, the late Russell Means of the Oglala Sioux nation visited Hawaiʻi where he shared his grandfather’s words regarding the impact federal recognition has had on indigenous peoples.
“Grandson, all of this land someday will not be yours. That’s the reality of federal recognition. Someday, none of this will be yours. Welcome to America.”
His prophetic words particularly ring true today.
In the summer of 2014, the U.S. Department of the Interior or DOI held a series of 15 public hearings throughout the Hawaiian islands to discuss the reestablishment of a “formal government-to-government relationship between the United States and the Native Hawaiian community.” By and large, the U.S. government is persuading the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) to accept a process by which they will be federally recognized as Indigenous Peoples in the U.S.
Throughout the hearings, thousands of Native Hawaiian’s lamented the same cry; that they oppose the U.S. government being involved in Native Hawaiian nationhood.
“No, the DOI should not involve itself whatsoever in a reorganization of any sort of Hawaiian people’s government”, declared Mana Movement organizer ʻIlima Long in her testimony to the DOI.
Each hearing saw a larger crowd than the previous, nearly all-sending a unified message that Hawaiʻi remains an independent nation under international law and federal recognition would undermine their sovereignty.
“The law of nations tells me that we are the Kanakas, the only people that have a legal right to conduct our affairs. No other entity, whether state or federal government has that authority”, explained Isaac Kaiu when addressing the department.
Mothers, fathers, grandparents and grandchildren expressed the pain that their families and ancestors have experienced since the U.S. overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom 122 years ago. This moment reignited a collective conversation around nationhood and independence.
“Uncle Joe” Tassil told Intercontinental Cry that the islands would still resemble paradise if Hawaiians were in control.
“If our ancestors made this rock look like paradise for people that wanted to come from all over the planet, why does it look and smell like hell today? Because we are not in charge. Had we been in charge this would still be paradise.”
One year after the DOI visit to the islands, roughly 95,000 Native Hawaiians that had allegedly enrolled in the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission received an election notice from Na’i Aupuni, a non-profit corporation run by six individuals. These individuals were selected to serve as directors by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs or OHA; a semi-autonomous department of the state that maintains a controversial reputation in the Hawaiian community. Na’i Aupuni is independent of, but funded by OHA. Its purpose was to facilitate the process for nation re-building by electing 40 delegates to participate in the ‘Aha or convention, where they would determine the best approach to self- governance. After a month long election, on Dec 1, 2015, voters were expected to have elected 40 Native Hawaiian delegates who would convene and form a governance document to be ratified by participating Native Hawaiians.
On Nov. 27, 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy blocked the counting of votes after six people challenged the election, including Keli’i Akina, the president of the Grassroots Institute of Hawaiʻi. The high court approved the injunction that forbids Na’i Aupuni to count the votes until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivers its ruling. As a result of the temporary halt, Na’i Aupuni has extended its voting deadline to Dec. 21, 2015.
An online poll conducted by the Honolulu Star Advertiser newspaper asked whether the DOI should “keep open the process for federal recognition of Native Hawaiians,” 67 percent of participants said “no”. Many Hawaiians did not vote in the election because they question the lack of wide community involvement in the process, and believe it to be rigged. Longtime Native Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte has called it “a fake pathway to nationhood and its disillusioned vision of sovereignty”.
The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission enrolled 95,000 Indigenous Hawaiian names. However, as noted in a recent Indian Country Today article by Dr. Randall Akee and Dr. Noelani Arista, the certified list contains duplicate names and names of deceased individuals, as well as signatures that were transferred from previous state-controlled lists of Native Hawaiians onto the roll without the consent of those individuals. Only 18 percent of all Native Hawaiians are registered to the Roll Commission. Should federal recognition pass, the remaining 80 percent who have not enrolled will have relinquished, many unknowingly, their rights and the rights of their children and descendants as legally recognized Native Hawaiians. They are exempt from voting, and excluded from receiving monetary benefits and land rights.
There are also members of the community who believe federal recognition is the most viable approach to ensure the health and prosperity of the future generations of indigenous Hawaiians.
When vice-chair of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, Na’alehu Anthony addressed the DOI, he explained his motivation in seeking federal recognition.
“I was thinking about this very room about 25 years ago, I was like 12 or 13 years old, packed with Hawaiians, packed, same conversation going on today. My tutu (grandmother), my mom, now me. The reason I’m here today is because I no like just leave this for my son. I like move forward.”
If the courts declare to proceed with the Na’i Aupuni process, it could significantly impact the future of Hawaiʻi. To ensure that history not repeat itself, the Native Hawaiian community and U.S. government must critically examine the vestiges of their past, so they can uncover the pono or righteous pathway towards self-determination.
Overthrow
Many people are unaware of the unique history of the United States’ occupation of Hawaiʻi. Similar to Indigenous Peoples of the continental United States, Native Hawaiians also carry a horrifying past and present. However, what differentiates Hawaiʻi is that there was a time when many international bodies such as France, Great Britain, Belgium, Austria- Hungary, Japan, Russia, and the United States, among other states, recognized the Hawaiian Kingdom through treaties.
In 1893, an attempted coup d’etat backed by the U.S. marines overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom government, establishing an illegal and self-ascribed “Republic of Hawaii”. Despite mass opposition and local resistance, the islands were seized by the United States five years later for strategic military use during the Spanish-American War. In 1897, 90 percent of Hawaiian nationals during that time signed what became known as the Kū’e Petitions opposing and effectively stopping legal annexation through a treaty between the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the U.S. Even then-President Grover Cleveland called the overthrow a “substantial wrong” and “an act of war” and vowed to restore the Hawaiian Kingdom, but was thwarted by an imperialist U.S. Congress. Hawaiʻi remained a U.S. “territory” for another 60 years. On Aug. 21, 1959 Hawaiʻi was pronounced the 50th state of the United States of America.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton issued an apology to the Native Hawaiian people in the form of a joint resolution passed in Congress called the Apology Resolution, and advocated for reconciliation efforts between Native Hawaiians and the U.S. government. He admitted to the fact that Hawaiians did not relinquish their inherent sovereignty or national lands, but stopped shy of admitting guilt in the violation of international law and circumvention of the rights of citizens of another country – the Hawaiian Kingdom.
“One of the primary principles of reconciliation should be that the terms of reconciliation must be made by those who have been injured, not by the party who facilitated harm”, stated ʻIlima Long.
But can there ever be true reconciliation without the full restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom?
For the last 17 years, Dr. Keanu Sai, a retired Army captain and PhD of Political Science has publicly testified on the unlawful occupation of Hawaiʻi at international courts across the globe. According to Dr. Sai, there was never a treaty of annexation between Hawaiʻi and the U.S. If the United States cannot demonstrate proof of an existing treaty, Hawaiʻi remains a sovereign state.
“Hawaiʻi’s status as an independent state has never been legally extinguished and thus continues to exist, as affirmed in the Permanent Court of Arbitration and many lawyers and scholars of international law”, states UCLA President’s Postdoctoral Fellow Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar.
Dr. Sai refers to this rule of international law as the “presumption of continuity”. After reviewing Dr. Sai’s overwhelming evidence, the United Nations General Assembly has also accepted his complaint.
With the understanding that Native Hawaiians and Native Americans endured a vastly different history of U.S. colonization and occupation, Hawaiʻi’s future could look strikingly similar to the life of many Native American tribes today.
The U.S. Federal Register writes its own rendition of U.S. relations with federally recognized tribes.
“The Federal government’s relationship with these tribes is guided by a trust responsibility – a long-standing, paramount commitment to protect their unique rights and ensure their well-being, while respecting their tribal sovereignty.”
Shannon Rivers, an Akimel O’otham delegate for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues explains his version, as he highlights the trials many federally recognized native tribes currently face.
“Some people might argue that under the federal system, this U.S. government system works better for us. But what we’ve seen over the last several decades is that extreme poverty still exists in many of our communities; alcoholism, drug addiction, violence to our women and children, high levels of imprisonment of our native people. So the question is does this system really work and has it worked? My answer would be no.”
There are 566 federally recognized tribes in the United States and more than 200 tribes that are not federally recognized. Countless of these tribes have not escaped dismal treatment by the U.S. government. One-in-four Native Americans and Alaskan Natives live in poverty. Native nations continue to suffer from limited resources, poor education and healthcare, mass incarceration, and violations of their land, cultural and religious rights. One of the most devastating realities for Native Americans is that they suffer some of the highest rates of suicide in the nation. Among Native Americans, forty percent of suicide deaths are between the ages of 15-24.
Corporate Takeover
Is federal recognition enough to prevent multinational corporations from exploiting the land and natural resources of indigenous peoples?
Diné or more commonly known as Navajo nation is the second largest federally recognized tribe in the United States. The tribe has a 42 percent unemployment rate, 86 percent of the nation lack a natural gas service, and close to half of the population over twenty-five live below the federal poverty line. Even the USDA declared a major lack of accessibility to fresh produce and fruit on the 27,000 mile reservation that spans three states; Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
Among these disheartening statistics, the Diné people have been forcefully relocated off of their traditional homelands for the extraction of coal; revered by the tribe as the liver of Mother Earth. While the Diné nation subsidizes electricity for much of the Southwest, and gains revenue for large energy companies such as Peabody Energy, 38 percent of its people live without running water or electricity. Along with coal mining, the tribe also withstood the excavation of uranium. The removal of coal and uranium has depleted the Diné aquifer, as well as created radioactive waste that has had adverse health effects on the people and their livestock.
Corporate robbery of indigenous resources in exchange for poisoned water, lands and communities is not an issue exclusive to federally recognized tribes. The same story currently exists in Hawai’i.
The corporate profiteering on the Diné reservation is reminiscent of Hawai’i’s ongoing battle with large biotech chemical corporations who are treating the world’s most isolated island chain as a guinea pig for biotech chemical engineering. Like the Diné experienced with resource mining, Native Hawaiians are facing the negative impact biotech chemical testing is having on the people and biodiversity of their land. Most Native Hawaiians on both sides of the Na’i Aupuni debate are against the heavy presence of biotech companies on the islands, and support an organic local food system instead. But despite the Diné nation being federally recognized, they remain unable to evict the energy companies from their lands.
Rivers understands how the struggles of federally recognized communities and the indigenous people of Hawai’i overlap.
“If you look collectively across indigenous nations the loss of land, the loss of resources are major factors of colonization and forced assimilation into a society that we did not understand. It was based on capitalist and colonial systems.”
The prolonged legacy of these systems has undermined indigenous ways of life and sovereignty. Across borders, federally recognized or not, capitalism |
through the learning that only study can bring. Without this education, the most courageous and most audacious man is only a puppet manipulated by the régime. According to circumstances, the régime pulls the strings that regulate his behaviour: patriotism, blind anti-communism, the fascist menace, legalism, the unity of the army, etc. Through a permanent one-way propaganda, to which everybody is subjected to from childhood, the régime, in its many aspects, has progressively intoxicated the French people. All the nations under democratic rule are at this point. Any critical intelligence, any personal thinking is destroyed. It is sufficient for the keywords to be pronounced to trigger the conditioned reflexes and suppress any reasoning.
Spontaneity allows the conditioned reflexes to remain. It leads only to revolts, so easy to defuse or to divert with a few superficial concessions, a few bones to chew on, or a few changes of scenery. And so it was many times with the French Algerians, the army, and the “nationals.”
In the face of mortal danger, it is possible to set up a defensive front. The Resistance at the end of the last war and the OAS are examples. The issue of the fight was a question of life or death; the physical struggle against the physical force of the visible adversary can be total, without pity. Supposing that the revolt triumphs, as soon as the peril is averted, the front explodes into multiple clans, and the mass of partisans, having no more reason to fight, returns to its familiar tasks, demobilises, and entrusts the city that had been saved to those who had lost it in the first place.
France and Europe must accomplish their nationalist revolution in order to survive. Superficial changes will not strike what is evil. Nothing will be done until the germs of the régime are extirpated to the last root. For this, it is necessary to destroy its political organisation, overthrow its idols and its dogmas, eliminate its official and secret masters, show the people how much it had been deceived, exploited, soiled. Then, reconstruction. Not on paper constructions, but on a young and revolutionary élite, imbued with a new conception of the world. Can the action that must impose this revolution be conceived without the direction of a revolutionary doctrine? Certainly not. How can you oppose an adversary that is armed with a well-tested dialectic, rich with long experience, powerfully organised, without ideology, without method?
NO REVOLUTIONARY DOCTRINE, NO REVOLUTION!
Even when it assumes military forms, the revolutionary struggle is above all psychological. How to conduct it, how to convert and inspire new partisans, without a clear definition of the new ideology, without doctrine? A doctrine understood, not as an group of abstractions, but as a rudder for thought and action.
Maintaining the moral offensive of its own partisans, communicating its convictions to waverers, are two indispensable conditions for the development of Nationalism. It has been proved that in action or in prison, when demoralisation is close by, when the adversary seems to triumph, the educated militants, whose coherent thought supports their faith, have superior powers of resistance.
A new doctrinal development is the only answer to the infinite division of activists. There is no doubt about the unifying value of action. It is obvious. But this unification cannot be durable and useful without ideological unification around a sound doctrine. The editor of France-Observateur, the functionary of the SFIO, the communist, all have the same ideology in common: Marxism. Their doctrinal reference is therefore the same, their conception of the world is similar. The words they use have the same meaning. They belong to the same family. Despite their profound divisions in action, they all concurrently impose the same ideology. It is not so in the national opposition. The activists do not recognise any common ancestors. Some are fascistic, others are Maurrasians, others are Integrists, and all these categories contain many variants. Their only unity is negative: anti-communism, anti-Gaullism. They do not understand each other. The words that they use—revolution, counter-revolution, nationalism, Europe, etc.—have different, indeed opposite meanings. How can they not oppose each other? How can they have the same ideology? Revolutionary unity is impossible without unity of doctrine.
The works of Marx are immense, unreadable, and obscure. A Lenin was needed to extract a clear body of doctrine and to transform this enormous hotchpotch into an effective weapon of political war. Nationalism has behind it its collective Marx, just as obscure and unsuitable as the companion of Engels could be for the Russia of 1903. It is imperative to create a collective Lenin.
Nationalism is the heir to an infinitely rich body of thought, but it is too diverse, incomplete, and vitiated with archaism. The time has come to make a synthesis and to add the attributes, the qualifying statements, imposed by the arrival of new problems. For example, a documented study on High Finance, or on the Doctrines of Nationalism, would constitute excellent approaches to answering this need.
The causes that precipitated, at the end of the nineteenth century, the birth of Nationalism as a political ideology (and not simply the awakening of the national consciousness in a narrow sense) have not varied much from that time. Nationalism was born from the critique of the liberal society of the nineteenth century. Later on, it was opposed to Marxism, the illegitimate child of liberalism.
Coming after the counter-Encyclopédistes, after the Positivists, after Taine and Renan, of whose teaching a part remains in Nationalism, Drumont and Barrès have outlined the permanent characters of this ideology, to which Charles Maurras, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Robert Brasillach, Alexis Carrel, and many others in Europe gave the collaboration of their own genius. Founded on a heroic conception of life, Nationalism, which is a return to the sources of popular community, intends to create new social relationships on a community base and to build a political order on the hierarchy of merit and value. Stripped from the narrow envelope imposed by an era, Nationalism has become a new political philosophy. European in its conceptions and its perspectives, it brings a universal solution to the problems posed to mankind by the technical revolution.
NATIONALIST PERSPECTIVES
The passivity of public opinion and the cowardice of traditional élites in the face of the events of Algeria have opened the eyes of all the men capable of reflection. Often at the price of painful revisions, of rupture with their past convictions, they regroup around a new definition of Nationalism. This is not the place to attempt a doctrinal test. Studies and confrontations will be necessary. It is, however, possible to outline the fundamental propositions.
CRITIQUE OF LIBERALISM AND MARXISM
Liberalism could charm, for a time, by its appearance of generosity. Reality has dissipated this dream. This dead idea is today the camouflage of the hypocritical dictatorship of international capitalism encompassing all Western democracies.
The capitalist oligarchy was born at the end of the eighteenth century. The liberal ideas spread in that era in France were used to justify the combined interests of the high aristocracy and the rich against the authority of the central power that for a long time had kept them in check. This struggle of the large interests against the popular power (in this case the French monarchy) is found consistently over the ages. In organised societies, once the institutional envelope of monarchical or republican forms that hide realities has been stripped, one can discern two principal types of power: the first one is based on the people so as to contain the large interests, feudal or financial, the second is in the hands of the large interests so as to exploit the people. The first one identifies with the popular community and becomes the servant of its destiny, the second subjects the popular community for the sole satisfaction of its appetite.
Modern democracies, which belong to the second type, followed the evolution of capitalism, of which they were only the political emanation. Capitalism having lost its personal and national form to become financial and stateless, the democracies came under the control of the international financial groups. The few differences that remain between the latter cease as soon as the threat of a popular awakening appears. If the lies and the ruses in which they have become masters prove to be insufficient, they employ the more deadly weapons, the more violent restraints. They have never recoiled in front of genocide, atomic bombings, concentration camps, torture, and psychological rape.
The capitalist oligarchy is indifferent to the fate of national communities. Its goal is to satisfy an insatiable will to power through the economic domination of the world. Mankind and its civilisations are sacrificed for its purely materialistic designs, which parallel those of the Marxists. For the technocrats as well as the communists, man is an economic animal endowed with two functions: produce and consume. What cannot be measured by a slide rule is classed as superfluous. The superfluous must submit to the essential: economic output. Individualist tendencies, which are an inconvenience for the edification and the application of plans, must disappear. In the materialist societies, there is only room for the perfectly docile, homogenous, and standardised masses.
Those who do not accept the conditioning of minds and the castration of the masses have to wear the label of “fascists.” To doubt the sincerity of the masters of opinion in a democracy or to challenge the contradictions of the “line” in a communist régime, refusing to compare the culture of the West to the prehistoric wailing of negritude or the morbid decomposition of a certain modernism, despising the “universal conscience,” smiling when one talks of the right of peoples to self-determination, are the proofs of a suspicious and rebellious spirit. Rebellion leads to physical elimination in a communist régime and to social elimination in a liberal régime. Thus, the one and the other destroy creative individualism and popular roots, the very essence of mankind and its community. They commit humanity to a dead end, to the worst kind of regression.
The history of mankind is one long effort to liberate itself from the laws of matter. Religion, art, science, and ethical rules are all conquests of the spirit and of the human will. The permanence of these victories has given birth to civilisations. Arbitrary creations of the sensibility, of the intelligence, and of the energy of peoples, civilisations develop and mature for as long as they maintain their creative power. The peoples who gave them birth lose the strength to defend themselves against external assaults when their original virtues and their vital energy disappear, and in turn their civilisation follows into annihilation or decadence.
Such is the logical result of the exploitation of mankind by the caste of technocrats or by the “new ruling class.” These two forces come from the same philosophy.
Liberalism and Marxism have taken different paths which have brought them to oppose each other but which lead to the same result: the subjection of peoples first misled by the democratic myths. Democracy is the new opium of peoples.
A VIRILE HUMANISM
The European peoples have built a unique civilisation in history. Its creative power, despite the millennia, has not diminished. Those who are its declared enemies implicitly recognise its universality. Between the traditional East submissive to metaphysical rules and the new materialist societies, European civilisation synthesises spiritual aspirations and material necessities. Even when the uniformity of the mass is proclaimed as an ideal everywhere in the world, it exalts the individualism of the strong, the triumph of human quality over mediocrity.
It summarises within itself the equilibrium to be established as a solution to the upheavals created by the technical revolution in the life of mankind. Founded on the values of the individual and the community, this new harmony can be defined as a virile humanism.
A new table of values, this virile humanism rejects the false laws of numbers and seeks to submit the power of technique and of the economy to the civilising will of the European man. He will find again, on a familiar ground, within his lineage and in the original culture of his own people, a world to his measure. He will discover the meaning of his life in the accomplishment of his own destiny, in the fidelity to a way of life founded on the European ethic of honour.
The ethic of honour is opposed to the slave morality of liberal or Marxist materialism. It affirms that life is a battle. It exalts the value of sacrifice. It believes in the power of the will over events. It bases the relationship between men of the same community on loyalty and solidarity. It confers on work an importance independent of profit. It recovers the sense of the true dignity of mankind, not granted but conquered by permanent effort. It develops in the European man the consciousness of his responsibilities in relation to the humanity of which he is the natural organiser.
A LIVING ORDER
The legitimacy of a power cannot be summarised as the observation of eminently variable written laws or to the consent of the masses obtained by the psychological pressure of propaganda. A power is legitimate which observes the rights of the Nation, its unwritten laws revealed by history.
A power is illegitimate which departs from the national destiny and destroys the national realities. Then legitimacy belongs to those who struggle to restore the rights of the Nation. A lucid minority, they form the revolutionary élite on which the future rests.
The world does not yield to a system, but to a will. It is not the system that you must look for, but the will. Of course, the very structure of the State must be conceptualised around some guiding principles: authority, continuity, the power of design are combined in a collegial form; this one must draw on a hierarchical corps of political cadres, assisted by a true popular representation of the professions and the regional communities qualified to deliberate on their own problems. But it is especially important to forge the men on whom the community and the future of civilisation will rest.
It is neither electronic equipment nor the scientists that will decide the fate of humanity. The immense problems presented by the new technical developments demand a political élite called by vocation, endowed with an iron will at the service of a clear consciousness of its historical mission. This overwhelming responsibility will justifiably demand more from them than from other men.
Five percent of individuals, the sociologists admit, are profoundly perverted, crazy, vicious. At the other extreme, one can observe the same proportion of men who possess, naturally and in a developed way, particular qualities of energy and self-sacrifice that predispose them to serve the community and to lead it. The democracies that install the reign of fraud and money are, in large part, dominated by the first. The Nationalist revolution will have to eliminate the former and impose the latter.
The selection and the education, from youth, of this élite of men will be among the primary preoccupations of the new society. Their formation will stimulate the vigour of their character, develop their spirit of sacrifice, and will open their intelligence to the intellectual disciplines. Maintained in their original purity, not only by their commitment of honour, but also by a strict and particular rule, they will form a living order constantly renewed over time, but always similar in its spirit. Thus, the power of financiers will be replaced by that of believers and of combatants.
AN ORGANIC ECONOMY
The economy is not an end in itself. It is an element in the life of societies, among the principal ones, but only one element. It is not the source or the explanation of the evolution of humanity. It is an agent or a consequence. It is in the psychology of peoples, their energy, and their political virtues that one finds the explanation of history.
The economy must be subjected to the political will. Let this disappear—as is characteristic of liberal régimes—and unchecked economic forces drag society towards anarchy.
Also, the immense problem of the economy is naturally part of the Nationalist revolution. It would be to revert to the mortal errors of the “nationals” to deny its importance or to get rid of it by a miracle word also subject to confusion and to dispute, such as “corporatism,” for example.
Capitalism has created an artificial world where mankind is maladjusted. In other respects, the popular community is exploited by a narrow caste that monopolises all power and aspires to international supremacy. Finally, capitalism hides under a debauch of new words an anachronistic conception where the economy carries all the consequences. These criticisms apply word for word to communism.
The solution to the maladjustment of mankind in a world that is not made for him is, as we have seen, a political problem. Technical and economic development does not find in itself its own justification; this is dependent on its utilisation. The new State will subject the economy to its designs, to make it a tool of a new European spring. Creating civilised values, forging the weapons of the necessary power, elevating the quality of the people, will then be its goals.
It is in a total transformation of the structure of the company (we speak only of the company that financial capitalism has assimilated, not the small family company which must be preserved and where there is no problem) and the general organisation of the economy that the means reside to destroy the exorbitant power of the technocratic caste, to suppress the exploitation of the workers, to establish a real justice, to find again true economy and healthy functioning.
In a capitalist régime as in a communist régime, the company is the exclusive property of the financiers in the former and the State in the latter. For the wage earners, be they managers or simple workers, the results are the same: they are robbed, the wealth produced by their work is absorbed by capital.
This privileged position gives to capital all the powers of the company: direction, management, even when they are external and aim before everything else to make a financial profit, sometimes to the detriment of production and of the enterprise itself.
The famous words of Proudhon find their full meaning here: “Property Is Theft!” To abolish appropriation is the just solution that will give birth to the community enterprise. Capital will then take its just place as an element of production, side by side with work. The one and the other will participate, with a power proportionate to their importance in the enterprise, in the appointment of management, in its economic management, and in the distribution of real profits.
This revolution in the enterprise will fit in a new organisation of the economy having for its base the professions and the regional geographic framework. To do away with the parasites and the power of financiers, it will create a group of intermediary bodies. These new structures, capable of being easily integrated into Europe, can find no better definition than that of “organic economy.”
A YOUNG EUROPE
The American and Soviet victory in 1945 has put an end to the conflicts of European Nations. The menace of adversaries and the common dangers, an obvious solidarity of fate in good and bad days, and similar interests have developed the sentiment of unity.
This sentiment is confirmed by reasoning. Unity is indispensable to the future of European Nations. They have lost the supremacy of numbers; united, they would recover that of civilisation, of creative genius, of organising power, and of economic power. Divided, their territories are doomed to be invaded and their armies to defeat; united, they would constitute an invincible force.
Isolated, they will become satellites, with the certainty of falling, as some have already done, under Soviet domination. European civilisation will come under systematic attack and it will be the final end of the evolution of humanity. United, they will have, on the contrary, the means of imposing and of ensuring their civilising mission.
Unity does not mean the continuation of financial and political organisms instituted after the war. Their purpose is to extend the international power of the technocracy that controls all its mechanisms, and to preserve the political and economic privileges that are hidden behind the advertisements of democracy. These institutions bring today, on a European scale, the vices and the words generated by the régime in each Nation, and multiply them. In the name of Europe, the development of these institutions accelerates its decline.
Unity does not mean levelling. Standardisation and cosmopolitanism would destroy Europe. Its unity will be built around the national realities that each people intend to defend: historical community, original culture, attachment to the soil. To want to limit Europe to either Latin or Germanic influence would be to maintain its division, even develop a new hostility. But above all, it would deny the European reality realised by Rome and by the mediaeval era in the fusion of its two currents, Continental and Mediterranean.
To imagine Europe under the hegemony of one Nation would be to renew a bloody dream of which history bears recent scars. The diversity of languages and of origins is not an obstacle. Many States are multilingual and the Roman Empire, which built up the first European unity with regard to the peoples assembled and their cultures, had Emperors born in Rome as well as in Gaul, in Elyria, and in Spain.
Europe ’s boundaries do not stop at the artificial limit of the Iron Curtain imposed by the victors of 1945. It includes the totality of European nations and peoples. Thinking of unity is, in the first place, to think of the liberation of all the captive nations from the Ukraine to Germany. The destiny of Europe is in the East: breaking the chains, overthrowing the Soviet tyranny, driving back the Asiatic tide.
Out of the European continental bloc, the peoples and the States that belong to its civilisation form the West. Europe is its soul. Its complete solidarity will assert itself, notably with the Western centres of Africa. These positions are the bases for a new organisation of the African continent, whose fate is tied to that of Europe.
In the construction of Europe, the underdeveloped peoples will find an example and solutions to their own difficulties. It is not beggary that they need, but organisation. Europe possesses an incomparable corps of cadres specialising in overseas matters. No other power could compete with the organisational talent of these cadres shouldered by the awakened European dynamism. They will take these people out of misery and anarchy and bring them back to the West.
It will not be economic treaties that will unify Europe, but the adherence of its peoples to Nationalism. The obstacles that appear insurmountable are due to the democratic structures. Once the régime is swept out, these false problems will disappear by themselves. It is therefore obvious that without revolution no European unity is possible.
The success of the revolution in one Nation of Europe—and France is the only one to possess all the necessary conditions—will allow a rapid extension to the other Nations. The unity of two Nations independent of the régime will develop such a force of seduction and dynamism that the old system, the Iron Curtain, and the frontiers will collapse. The first step of unity will be political and will create a single collegial State in an evolutionary form. The other steps, military and economic, will follow. The Nationalist movements of Europe will be the agents of this unity and the core of the future living European order.
Thus the Young Europe, founded on the same civilisation, the same space, and the same destiny, will be the active centre of the West and of the world order. The youth of Europe will have new cathedrals to construct and a new empire to build.
ORGANISATION AND ACTION
The struggle conducted around the events in Algeria has shown that the “nationals” can contribute to create a favourable situation. But the demonstration is equally clear (without going back to events prior to the Second World War) of their total impotence to transform a popular revolt into a revolution. The embryonic nationalist organisation, despite the efforts of the militants, did not keep pace with the spontaneous revolt. Thus, the “national” conceptions prevailed, and the new resistance engaged under favourable political conditions after April 22, 1961, with an abundance of partisans and means, sank into ridicule and dishonour.
However, this period of clandestine struggle and repression has forged revolutionary combatants, mostly young, and the circumstances of the collapse have educated a good number of partisans who placed confidence in “national” methods. This is why Nationalism will find tomorrow the militants and the cadres that it lacked in the past.
French youth will be marked for years by the last fights conducted for the defence of the integrity of the national territory in Algeria. Its best elements participated actively. They risked all, torture, prison, death. The condemnation of terrorist methods does not apply to those who courageously executed orders and who are examples, but to the chiefs who decided to use these harmful methods. The revolt of the Youth against a senile and hostile society is a reality.
Nobody foresaw either the Poujadist tidal wave of 1955 or the peasant revolts of 1961. Despite refrigerators and televisions, men, by the hundreds of thousands, went into the streets. The malfeasance of the régime will create in the future new popular explosions. Disorganised, these revolts will collapse like previous ones. All the action must therefore aim to introduce the yeast into the dough.
The work of organisation, of penetration, of popular education, is always slow. It must be remembered that all the revolutionaries of the twentieth century had to fight a long time before they triumphed: Lenin close to thirty years, Hitler thirteen, Mao Zedong thirty-three... In the difficulties of the struggle, the masses acquire a revolutionary consciousness, new cadres emerge, the organisation is broken in and is reinforced.
The development of the revolutionary action is never progressive and harmonious. Similar to a broken line, it is made up of partial successes, of setbacks, of recoveries, of new falls, of apparent stagnations. All the revolutionary movements have known catastrophic reverses when victory seemed to be within reach: the Bolsheviks in 1905, the National Socialists in 1923, the Chinese Communists in 1927 and 1931. Their success was due to their ability to analyse the causes of these setbacks, to draw the lessons, to correct themselves, and to adapt to the new conditions of the struggle. The Bolsheviks abandoned exclusive illegality in order to explore legal and illegal opportunities. The National Socialists rejected the insurrectional path in order to undertake the legal conquest of power. Mao Zedong left the urban proletariat and directed himself towards guerrilla campaigns. Revolutionary action, like war, obeys imperative laws. The Nationalists must search for them in the light of their own experience and adapt them to the new situation.
NOTABLES OR MILITANTS
For a Man or an Idea?
The voter, the simple partisan, follows the heading on posters, a well-known name, the saviour of the day. The “nationals” like that facility. Passive herds, they expect everything from the miracle man. Even the small groups have their idol. The inevitable disappearance of the great man leaves the naïve embittered and discouraged. The Nationalist does not need followers but militants who are defined in relation to a doctrine, not in relation to a man. He does not fight for a pseudo-saviour, for the saviour is found in himself. Those who assume the direction of the struggle can disappear or make mistakes, the value of the cause is not tainted by this, they are replaced. The militants sacrifice themselves for their ideas, not for a man.
The organisation must be a community of militants, not a personal property. It will be managed by officials who will only be temporary spokesmen for Nationalism. The officials will direct the action of the militants, as they will have been proven to be the best qualified to serve the Organisation, without which they would be nobody.
Bluff and Effectiveness
The enormous sums of money collected for the cause of French Algeria were absorbed by the notables and the politicians to whom they were entrusted. Some pamphlets, some conferences, some travel, some posters pretended to justify their use. With these colossal means the notables did nothing.
During this time, militants were developing a coherent activity with ridiculous means coming only from their personal contributions. They held public meetings, covered the country with inscriptions, made posters by hand, realised spectacular actions with little money, used Roneos from one end of France to the other. They did a lot with nothing. That is characteristic of the militant.
The Notables and the Rank and File
For the notables who direct the “nationals,” militants are an inferior class. They are only the rank and file to be used for political struggles. They are part of the electoral material. They are the pawns of the perennial plots. Their self-sacrifice serves as a steppingstone for the ambitions of careerists. If the affairs turn out badly, the militants are coolly abandoned.
The Nationalist Organisation will push aside the notables. Its members and its leaders will be militants coming, not from the electoral laboratories or the hotbed of plots, but from combat: the nights of billposting, the public speeches, the blows, the stormy meetings, the printing of leaflets at night on a Roneo and their distribution at dawn, the arrests, the interrogations, the brutalities, the prisons, the trials, the disappointments, the insults, the indifference, the setbacks... Here, it will be the most tenacious, the most devoted, the most conscious who will be first, here is formed the revolutionary élite.
UNION OF “NATIONALS” OR ORGANISATION OF REVOLUTIONARIES
The Camouflaged Enemies
A number of politicians, civilian or military, for a long time turned to Algeria as a springboard for their ambitions. Men of the régime by interest and by formation, they remained the sworn enemies of the revolution. They were even more suited to combat it, for they seemed to be partisans for it. The Gaullists, until May 13, certain members of parliament, certain leaders thereafter, are the illustrations of the infiltration of the revolt by the régime.
One of the plotters of May 13, Léon Delbecque, shamelessly explained this method: “I was the organiser of May 13,” he declared on July 6, 1958, at the conference of the Social Republicans. “In the offices I occupied, I was solicited to participate in plots often directed against the Republic and the republican régime, plots the police knew of but were unable to stop. I managed to be at the right place at the right time, to divert towards General de Gaulle the uprising which was to occur.”
The directorate of the OAS was full of such individuals who “managed to be at the right place at the right time” to commit the revolt to a dead end. If the Secret Army could have dethroned de Gaulle, the same ones would have enabled the régime to traverse this crisis without mishap, as on May 13.
They are skilful at using the confusion born of apparently similar goals. They know that the “nationals,” without political education, succumb to the union blackmail and have a culpable penchant for the supposedly repentant adversary.
To accept their game would be to fall into their hands. It would be to become their accomplice to be quiet and not reveal them to the entire people. No union with the men of the régime! They must be denounced with the utmost vigour. At this price, the masses will cease to be misled, the partisans will lose their natural naïveté and will become educated militants.
Zero plus Zero
Zero plus zero always equals zero. The addition of mythomaniacs, plotters, nostalgics, careerists, and “nationals” will never yield a coherent force. Preserving the hope of uniting the incapable is to persevere in error. The few elements of value are paralysed by the cranks that surround them. Popular opinion is not mistaken here. Also, they do considerable harm to Nationalism, with which they are frequently confused. They make the healthy elements run away and prevent any recruitment of quality.
With them, union is out of the question. It is necessary, on the contrary, to proclaim the fundamental differences that separate them from Nationalism. The cranks must be pitilessly pushed aside. On this condition, it will be possible to attract new elements, effective partisans.
Unions and Committees of Agreement
Even the OAS, with its dynamic action, with its single direction, its enormous means, and an essential common objective, did not succeed in federating in Metropolitan France the partisans of French Algeria. How can one think that this pious dream, as old as the national opposition, can be realised in the future with infinitely less valid conditions?
The unions and the fronts have only one goal: benefiting those who organise or control them. The Popular Front favoured the communists, as the national grouping served Soustelle. The other participants were the dupes.
Proposed by the notables, the unions and committees of agreement more often than not have an electoral goal. They procure at a low price billposters and teams of stewards; they are excellent siphons of money. When the electoral period is closed, the union is put to sleep to await a new occasion to exploit the unalterable credulity of the “nationals.”
With the first serious difficulty, for example, a decision to be taken on a controversial event, the front explodes and everybody retakes his liberty. The dream has ended. The political fight, just like a war, demands manoeuvre: dissimulation, retreat, attack. It necessitates a total discipline and a single direction capable of taking initiative instantaneously, engaging all its forces. The heterogeneous composition and the diversity of the conceptions of its leaders prohibit the unions from applying these laws; they are thus devoted to opportunism and disintegration.
How can it be imagined that an incoherent herd, dominated by blabbermouths, careerists, and weirdoes, undermined by the quarrels of clans and individuals, is capable of struggle against the superior organised force of the régime? It is true that this is not a goal of the “national” notables. This form of action is definitively condemned by experience. The tactics of the front cannot be envisaged without a powerful Nationalist organisation capable of imparting its élan and imposing its political line.
Monolithic and Disciplined Organisation
The work of the last few years was accomplished by small teams, even by isolated militants. This hard core was composed of veritable militants, educated, reliable, competent. With tiny means, but with tenacity and imagination, they were the authors of all the partial successes recorded in the struggle.
The proof is here that five militants are more valuable than fifty weirdoes. The quality of combatants is, by far, preferable to their quantity. It is around a small and effective team that the masses will assemble, not the reverse.
That the revolutionary movements are effective minorities evidently does not mean that all minority groups are likewise revolutionary. It is a too easy excuse for the mediocrity of some. The effective minorities are not sterile sects, they are in direct contact with the people.
Destined to fight, the Nationalist Organisation must be one, monolithic, and hierarchical. It will be formed by the grouping of all the militants won over to Nationalism, devoted and disciplined. Their age, no more than their milieu, is of no importance. Be they students or peasants, workers or technicians, these militants will be in all milieus the propagandists and the organisers of the revolution.
Depending on the circumstances, their action will be apparent or not. Its aspects will enable them to ensure the generalised penetration of the Nationalist Organisation, up to and including the mechanisms of the régime.
PLOTS OR POPULAR ACTION
Behind the Times
The example of the Gaullist plots, the systematic terrorism of the FLN or of the IRA in Ireland, has appealed to a number of “nationals.” It is easier to copy the past than to imagine the future. Anachronism in politics, as in the military field, ensures defeat; one cannot conduct trench warfare in the age of tanks.
Certain images have caused great damage in the past. The Spanish Civil War, the national insurrection of 1936 around the army. May 13 and the military pseudo-revolt. The appeal to the soldiers, so dear to the “nationals.” The French army is one of the components of the régime; its chiefs have been carefully chosen for their self-interested submission, its cadres are, in majority, simple functionaries, but not the army with a capital A. That will only be good for helping the enterprise of patching up the régime.
It is through lack of self-confidence and rejection of effort that the “nationals” have discharged their responsibilities on the blind hope of imaginary military plots. It is intellectual cowardice, a false excuse to escape from the patient and difficult tasks of the militants.
A Thousand Revolutionary Cadres
Popular consent, no more than street action, is not sufficient to assure the success of the revolution in a technically developed society. There is no power without the control, from the interior, of the technical mechanisms that ensure the functioning of a modern State. The extreme complexity of the High Administration, its covert power, and its colonisation by the caste of technocrats make it a world apart, impenetrable, and all-powerful. Only the presence in these mechanisms of revolutionary cadres, even in very small numbers, will allow it to be neutralised and to yield to the nationalist will. Certain public services of vital interest for the functioning of the country, infiltrated by the technocrats and the communists, are within the same framework of concerns.
In the open, as the standard-bearer of Nationalism, the political movement itself will have the task of publicly speaking to the people and winning them over. It will utilise, according to the necessities of the hour, all the legal means of propaganda and action. Built on a hierarchical corps of cadres and educated militants, organised on a cellular basis, both territorial and professional, it will appeal for widespread support.
In overt or covert liaison with the political movement, the “bases” will be progressively organised. As explained above, the purpose of the “bases” is to handle and control a specific milieu by way of social as well as political action, the adversaries being eliminated and the neutrals absorbed. This work will give birth to diverse associations adapted to the selected milieus. It will rest entirely on the Nationalist cadres, specialised and capable of looking after the organisation.
Penetrating the mechanisms of the State, the political movement and popular bases will be the principal branches of the Nationalist Organisation. They will be built on a corps of cadres, hierarchical, specialised, present in all the social organisations, connected to a centralised direction of collegial form. The organisation will thus be capable of orchestrating the same campaign throughout the country and in all its aspects. It will be able to manoeuvre with discipline and promptness in the battle. Cadres and militants in the people will be like the yeast in the dough. A thousand élite revolutionary cadres will give victory to Nationalism.
ON THE SCALE OF THE WEST
An Exterior Lung
During |
a day; and if after a year and a day he can find pledges he may leave prison; but if not, he shall abjure the realm of England.
[11] Any archbishop, bishop, earl or baron whatever who passes through our forest shall be allowed to take one or two beasts under the supervision of the forester, if he is to hand; but if not, let him have the horn blown, lest he seem to be doing it furtively.
[12] Every free man may henceforth without being prosecuted make in his wood or in land he has in the forest a mill, a preserve, a pond, a marl-pit, a ditch, or arable outside the covert in arable land, on condition that it does not harm any neighbour.
[13] Every free man shall have the eyries of hawks, sparrowhawks, falcons, eagles and herons in his woods, and likewise honey found in his woods.
[14] No forester henceforth who is not a forester-in-fee rendering us a farm for his bailiwick may exact any chiminage’ in his bailiwick; but a forester-in-fee rendering us a farm for his bailiwick may exact chiminage, namely for a cart for half a year 2d and for the other half year 2d, and for a horse with a load for half a year 1/2d and for the other half year 1/2d, and only from those who come from outside his bailiwick as merchants with his permission into his bailiwick to buy wood, timber, bark, or charcoal and take them elsewhere to sell where they wish; and from no other cart or load shall any chiminage be exacted, and chiminage shall only be exacted in places where it used to be exacted of old and ought to have been exacted. Those, on the other hand, who carry wood, bark, or charcoal on their backs for sale, although they get their living by it, shall not in future pay chiminage. In respect of the woods of others no chiminage shall be given to our foresters beyond [that given] in respect of our own2 woods.3
[15] All who from the time of king Henry our grandfather up to our first coronation have been outlawed for a forest offence only shall be released from their outlawry without legal proceedings and shall find reliable pledges that they will not do wrong to us in the future in respect of our forest.
[16] No castellan or other person may hold forest pleas either of the vert or the venison but each forester-in-fee shall attach forest pleas of both the vert and the venison and present them to the verderers of the districts and when they have been enrolled and closed under the seals of the verderers they shall be presented to the head forester when he arrives in those parts to hold forest pleas and be determined before him.
[17] These liberties concerning the forests we have granted to everybody, saving to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, and other persons, ecclesiastical and secular, Templars and Hospitallers, the liberties and free customs, in forests and outside, in warrens and other things, which they had previously. All these aforesaid customs and liberties which we have granted to be observed in our kingdom as far as it pertains to us towards our men, all of our kingdom, clerks as well as laymen, shall observe as far as it pertains to them towards their men. Because we have not yet a seal we have had the present charter sealed with the seals of our venerable father the lord Gualo cardinal priest of St Martin, legate of the apostolic see, and William Marshal earl of Pembroke, ruler of us and of our kingdom. Witness the aforenamed and many others. Given by the hands of the aforesaid lord, the legate, and of William Marshal at St Paul’s, London, on the sixth day of November in the second year of our reign.
Footnotes
Back to Home PageUNITED NATIONS: Nearly 100 allegations of sexual exploitation across 69 countries were received by the UN against its peacekeepers last year with no Indian personnel involved in any wrongdoing, according to the world body's new report.Most number of peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse in 2015 were from Congo, Morocco, South Africa, Cameroon, Rwanda and Tanzania, the UN said in its latest report on special measures to protect people from crimes of sexual abuse and exploitation.There were 99 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse uncovered by the United Nations in 2015, the report said. No Indians were among the peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse."I'm ashamed to call myself a peacekeeper on some of these days when I see cases like this," UN under secretary-general for field support Atul Khare told reporters here referring to the pregnancy of a 13-year old girl as he presented the findings of the report."What we need to do is not detract from the good work which is done by hundreds of thousands of peacekeepers. We need to find these culprits who bring a bad name to peacekeeping, who actually create problems within the country in which they find themselves, and most importantly who destroy young innocent lives. And we need to punish them in a certain manner that nobody else in the future will ever think of doing that," he said.India has strongly condemned the cases of sexual exploitation carried out by peacekeepers and stressed that it has a zero tolerance policy towards such conduct.India has 7,798 peacekeepers in 10 UN missions across the world.India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had told a session of the United Nations Special Committee for Peacekeeping Operations last month that "my delegation is appalled by the recent cases of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) which have surfaced in some of the UN Peacekeeping Operations.""My delegation strongly condemns these unpardonable acts when the protector becomes the perpetrator. We have a zero tolerance policy on SEA cases and would like that there is zero tolerance on such issues across the UN too," he had said.Last December, secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had pledged to urgently review recommendations made by an independent panel which found that the UN did not act with the "speed, care or sensitivity required" when it uncovered information about crimes committed against children by soldiers - not under UN command - sent to the Central African Republic (CAR) to protect civilians.Meanwhile, new allegations of sexual abuse have continued to emerge against UN peacekeepers Central African Republic, with the UN Mission there, known by its French acronym MINUSCA, recently reporting seven new possible victims in the town of Bambari.There have not been too many “out-of-place” alligator reports during the summer of 2014, yet. But here’s one from, where else, but Wisconsin, to break the silence.
Know of any others that I might have missed during my recent absences?
On Sunday morning, July 20, 2014, a 4-foot-long alligator was caught in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.
A team of sheriff’s deputies and Sheboygan police officers captured the crocodilian in a ditch near the Sheboygan River after a brief search that started in the 2700 block of Indiana Ave. in the city of Sheboygan.
The sheriff’s office received a call around 10:30 a.m. Sunday of an alligator sighting in that block, east of S. Taylor Drive. It was taken into custody soon after that.
Photographs courtesy of the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Office.
Thanks to Richard HeidenBy PTI
UNITED NATIONS: Indian peacekeepers stationed in a South Sudanese town have been praised for providing lifesaving medical assistance to a woman who collapsed near a UN base.
An 18-year-old internally displaced woman who lives in the Protection of Civilian site at Melut was returning from a nearby market when she collapsed and fell unconscious.
The peacekeepers at the sentry gate immediately rushed to bring her into the base, a report on the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) website said.
It added that an ambulance to transport the severely ill woman to a local hospital was unavailable at the time so the Indian peacekeeping medical team provided her with immediate treatment at the hospital within the base.
The woman is now recovering well and has been moved to another hospital for further care.
UNMISS head David Shearer praised the Indian battalion for its quick response in helping the woman and for the "quality of care they were able to provide in such a remote and dangerous environment," the report added.
India, which is among the largest troop contributors to UN peacekeeping missions, has a total of 7,665 troops, police and military experts stationed in the South Sudanese mission.WASHINGTON – The publication that announced a boycott of Donald Trump campaign news, then covered it only in its entertainment section before finally looking for any way to trash him with invectives that would put MSNBC to shame, became the first to publish a political obituary on the flailing campaign of Hillary Clinton.
Titled “Why Hillary Lost: A Premature Obit” and written by the Huffington Post’s “global editorial director” Howard Fineman, formerly Newsweek’s chief political correspondent, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau chief, begins: “On the high, crenelated ramparts of Castle Clinton, a chill breeze is stirring – a faint but gnawing sense that the White Walkers are coming, wearing ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’ baseball caps on their skinless noggins.”
“Partners in Crime: The Clintons’ Scheme to Monetize the White House for Personal Profit” is available at the WND Superstore!
It marked another bad week for Mrs. Clinton, who took to blaming her opponent for ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota over the weekend.
“If Donald Trump does sack the fortress, no one who lost the battle will want to admit it was Hillary Clinton’s fault,” Fineman writes. “It will have had nothing to do with, say, ‘transparency’ or calling bearded villagers ‘deplorables’ or the Iraq War vote or the simple fact that middle-of-the-road Clintonism ran out of gas as a public philosophy. No, other individuals, groups and forces will have to be blamed. In fact, they already are, pre-emptively. If Trump wins, we’re all going to be too busy moving to Canada to read the postmortems (or write them), so we offer them to you now:”
Among the amusing blame-game excuses the more-progressive-than-thou Fineman cites:
“THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING: Actually, they arrived long ago and got into her phone,” the Huffington Post muses.
“BERNIE SANDERS: Remember when people worried that running unopposed in the primary would hurt Clinton?” Fineman asks rhetorically. “It’s going to be an endless wail about how Sanders should have withdrawn sooner.”
“BILL CLINTON: You know how this will go down: Best campaigner of all time and he couldn’t close the sale. He lost his mojo.”
“OBAMA PEOPLE: If they could delete all of David Axelrod’s tweets, they would.”
“JAMES COMEY: He might as well have indicted her for real, like he did in the court of public opinion. Extremely careless.”
“DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ AND THE DNC: Her Soviet-style approach to boosting Clinton was something that Hillary’s campaign was happy to countenance. But the former DNC chair should have left room for dissent rather than let it bottle up.”
Some of the other reasons from the 68-year-old Fineman could not be published in a family news site.
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The founder of the Huffington Post, Ariana Huffington, recently retired from the site, which, after buying massive amounts of traffic and building up its revenues to $146 million at its peak and a partnership with AOL, failed to turn a profit.Two bills were introduced in Congress last week that, if passed, would end America’s decades-long marijuana prohibition and make the plant legal at the federal level, Huffington Post is reporting.
Neither of the proposed marijuana legalization bills would force the 50 states (or actually, the 46 states that haven’t already done so) to legalize pot, but rather, would set up a federal policy of regulating it for those states that choose to legalize.
Currently, recreational marijuana is legal in four states (Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska), as well as the District of Columbia — and medical marijuana is legal in 23 states, according to Governing. However, marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.
The two proposed bills would guarantee that any state that legalizes pot could do so without interference from the federal government. Currently, the federal government “allows” legal recreational pot, and legal medical pot, inasmuch as it has promised not to interfere in those states’ legal pot trades, and Congress has not allocated any money in the current budget for such interference.
The first of the two proposed marijuana legalization bills comes from Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado). The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act would completely remove marijuana from the government’s list of controlled substances, and subject it to the same federal regulations currently governing alcohol, according to Counter Current News.
The second is the Marijuana Tax Revenue Act, introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon). Blumenauer’s bill would place a federal excise tax on federally-regulated marijuana.
Polis issued a statement Friday explaining why he believes the time has come to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana at the federal level.
“It is time for us to replace the failed prohibition with a regulatory system that works and let states and municipalities decide for themselves if they want, or don’t want, to have legal marijuana within their borders.”
Whether either of the two proposed marijuana legalization bills will become law remains to be seen. Time columnist Ryan Teague Beckwith is not hopeful.
“Like similar bills introduced by Polis and former Reps. Barney Frank and Ron Paul, [neither bill is] going anywhere in Washington any time soon. [Marijuana legalization] remains a non-starter on Capitol Hill.”
The Daily Caller‘s Jonah Bennett notes that two similar bills were rejected during Congress’ last session. However, times have changed since then.
“Notably, though, the Obama administration has warmed up to marijuana in the past few months, and last year, the Republican-dominated Congress decided to defund the Drug Enforcement Administration from cracking down on state medical marijuana.”
Do you think it’s time to legalize marijuana at the federal level? Share your thoughts in the comments below.Farmers have always depended on both honeybees and native bees to pollinate crops. As honeybees die en masse, wild bees are needed more than ever—but they, too, are disappearing. In the late 1800s naturalist Charles Robertson traveled around Carlinville, Ill., by horse and buggy, meticulously recording which bees visited which flowers. In 2009 and 2010 ecologist Laura A. Burkle, now at Montana State University, and her colleagues repeated some of Robertson's studies. The dense network of plant-pollinator relationships Robertson originally documented had deteriorated. Less than half as many interactions occurred in 2009 and 2010 as in the 1800s. Ironically, ever expanding croplands have most likely killed off local populations of native bees by depriving them of natural habitat and exposing them to toxic pesticides. And climate change has thrown off the bees' timing by shifting bloom cycles. But life is resilient: in 121 instances, Burkle observed bees attending flowers they had not pollinated in the past.
Graphic by Moritz Stefaner, Illustration by Jillian Walters (bees); SOURCE: “PLANT-POLLINATOR INTERACTIONS OVER 120 YEARS: LOSS OF SPECIES,CO-OCCURRENCE, AND FUNCTION,” BY LAURA A. BURKLE, JOHN C. MARLIN AND TIFFANY M. KNIGHT, IN SCIENCE, VOL. 339; MARCH 29, 2013
>> More In This Article: Hive and Seek: Domestic Honeybees Keep Disappearing, but Are Their Wild Cousins in Trouble, Too? [Slide Show]A Michigan man facing multiple felony weapons charges argued that police violated his God-given rights by searching his home and confiscating several weapons.
Philip Zapata argued Tuesday in court that he was not bound by state laws, reported Monroe News, citing legal theories promoted by the sovereign citizen movement.
“Your laws are violating my rights,” Zapata said. “My rights don’t come from the Constitution. My rights come from the creator.”
Police executed a search warrant Feb. 6 at Zapata’s Erie Township home, where officers said they found a rifle in the bathroom, a 9 mm handgun behind a trap door in a wall, and a shotgun behind a freezer.
The 36-year-old Zapata is a convicted felon, which bars him from legally owning firearms.
“I have a right to protect my family no matter what,” argued Zapata, who is representing himself in the case. “It’s a survival tool; it’s a recreational tool. You could call it whatever you want.”
Zapata has challenged virtually every element in the case – including his own name and the descriptive term for his home.
He challenged the use of his name, which was printed in capital letters on legal documents, and he claimed the building police identified as his residence was, in fact, his “family storage unit.”
Zapata referred to his name as a “dead entity,” which suggests he adheres to the sovereign citizen belief that the U.S. government is a corporation, not a government.
Sovereign citizens believe the U.S. departed from the common law system at some point and imposed admiralty law, which governs the sea and international commerce.
Adherents disagree when exactly this took place – either with the passage of the 14th Amendment, the 1913 passage of the Federal Reserve Act, or the 1933 abandonment of the gold standard – but most agree the law afterward viewed individual citizens as corporate property, slaves, or even animals.
“Is it illegal in this country to own private property?” Zapata said. “I didn’t give it up voluntarily. It was robbed from me.”
Each firearms count carries a possible five-year prison term, if Zapata is convicted.
He was also charged with felony firearms possession and marijuana possession.
A judge ordered Zapata, who remains free on $5,000 bond, to stand trial later this year.Download and Print Manual Here
Since the rise of the Trump regime to power there has been a dramatic rise in bigoted violence in cities across the United States. Dangerous hate groups and white supremacist gangs have been emboldened to organize in more public and intimidating ways than ever before. In the 1990’s in cities such as Portland Oregon white supremacist gangs spread terror throughout the city with ruthless tactics and reckless abandon. This was only stopped by communities and neighbors coming together to get each others backs. Furthermore, ICE raids, police violence targeting communities of color and harassment and violence against women, LGBTQIA+ communities have exploded in the month since the rise of the Trump regime.
Anti-Racist Neighborhood Watch Quick Start Manual is an initiative created by the Portland Assembly and the Pacific Northwest Antifacsist Workers Collective as a way to generalize and broaden anti racist work in our communities in Portland and across the country. It is the hope that this packet can be used as an entrance-way to start addressing these issues by new comers to the movement and veterans alike. It is a suggested model on how to get organized in your communities with some tangible tools to get started right away.
Imagine ARNW chapters in neighborhoods, cities and towns across the country, getting each others backs and taking a proactive stand against bigoted activity at every level. In order to stop the rise of the extreme right we must come together as neighbors as never before. As opposed to relying on empty rhetoric of politicians looking to win political points, building real community and neighborhood power is essential in creating actual sanctuary cities were targeted communities are safe and can seek refuge from both state sponsored and grassroots right-wing violence.
This packet is not just intended for people in Portland. The tools offered here can be utilized for individuals looking to make a difference in their communities wherever they are. While this packet emphasizes building strong relationships with local established antifa chapters and other community groups, we recognize that this might not always be the case where you are at. If so hopefully the tools offered here will give you the ideas and motivation to begin taking a risk and developing this much needed conflict infrastructure our communities across the country so direly need; however, it is suggested to those interested in creating an ARNW chapter that they do research on friendly community groups or already established activist organizations that may be interested in assisting with your efforts.
Wherever you are if you are interested in starting a chapter. Please contact:
The Portland Assembly at portlandassembly@protonmail.com
Or
The Pacific Northwest Antifascist Workers Collective at pnwantifascist@protonmail.com
Link to the manual here.It was some sort of giant, mottled egg. There it levitated, floating in pitch darkness, with a V-shaped crack at the base. An unholy yellow-green gas spilled out brightly from this crevice, looking like something you wouldn’t want to inhale, on this or any other planet. Below it, there was a floor of sorts, a latticed grill made of some unhealthy-looking, bonelike material, and a little of that same poisonous light reared up at the back.
The title – A L I E N – announced itself in stark, white-on-black Arial typeface, with an unusual amount of space between the letters. And the tagline, matter-of-factly punctuated and lower-case between egg and floor, was the stuff of genius: “In space no one can hear you scream.”
It was an image that spoke instantly of some unimaginable terror. In 1979, a year after this writer’s birth, it’s hard to estimate the mysterious impact this marketing campaign must have had. After all, Alien wasn’t a known property: it was based on no book, a remake of nothing, a perfectly original science fiction concept with a whole host of surprises to spring on its audience. What was this thing?
Ingeniously, the poster managed to convey an unforgettably potent flavour of the film’s atmosphere, while cleaving to a design – even an egg design – quite distinct from any of the horrors it was about to inflict.
Alien is celebrating its 35th anniversary today (October 7 2014). There are few more iconic posters in the history of movie marketing. I tracked down an original copy years ago, which adorned a series of bedsit walls at school and university; if I was ever forced at gunpoint to select the greatest film poster of all time, it would probably be this one.
For years, I was under the erroneous impression it was the work of one of the titans of poster art, Bill Gold – the man behind Casablanca, A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry and many others. Indeed, Gold was hired, but his trippy concepts – including this image of space spilling out from the eyes of a screaming man – didn’t make the final campaign.
Instead, Twentieth Century Fox turned to the graphic design firm Frankfurt Gips Balkind (now Bemis Balkind). Two of the named partners, Steve Frankfurt and Philip Gips, have tended to share credit for this particular design, along with this equally astonishing one for Rosemary’s Baby – a pram on a craggy ridge, with Mia Farrow’s face lying behind in ghostly green repose.
The images they conjured give each film a certain permanent aura, imprinting a stamp on it, as surely as a well-chosen shop sign, album cover or book jacket. In the case of Alien, that ghastly egg was seminal and apt: there’s never been a finer way to hatch a franchise.
The Blu-ray disc of Alien is released this weekAnn M. Starrs is president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) Social conservatives opposed to women's health, rights and autonomy now control the White House, both houses of Congress and, at the state level, most governors' houses and legislatures. Even as these policymakers continue their assault on abortion rights, they are also poised to enact policy that will undercut US women's access to family planning services.
The groundwork for this onslaught against high-quality, affordable contraceptive care is being laid in Congress and the Trump administration. It will be broad-based and has the potential to leave many US women worse off than they are today, according to research published by the Guttmacher Institute. Full or partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act in particular would leave millions of women entirely without health insurance, while tens of millions more would see their insurance's contraceptive coverage severely degraded. Care for millions more is at risk from attacks on publicly funded family planning programs and providers, particularly Planned Parenthood, that are critical for low-income women, women of color and the uninsured
It's the details that really matter here. The proportion of women of reproductive age (15-44) who were uninsured has dropped by more than a third over the first two full years of ACA implementation, driven both by states' expansions of Medicaid eligibility and gains in affordable private insurance. As efforts by congressional Republicans to repeal or otherwise scale back the ACA continue, it is unclear to what extent these gains in insurance coverage will be preserved. But the ACA has not only helped millions finally afford health insurance, it has also enhanced the quality of coverage for many others, including those who obtain insurance through their employers.
Yet one of the ACA's most critical such advances for women, the contraceptive coverage guarantee, may soon be gutted. The guarantee requires most private insurance plans to cover 18 distinct contraceptive methods without out-of-pocket costs, such as copays or deductibles.
This helps ensure women can choose the contraceptive method that works best for them, including IUDs and implants that often have high upfront costs. Some 55 million US women are currently covered by the ACA's birth control benefit and for them, the policy has led to a steep decline in out-of-pocket costs for IUDs, the pill and other popular methods, saving women and families $1.4 billion in 2013 alone. But Tom Price, the new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has been openly hostile to this policy and the Trump administration could revoke or undermine it at any time.
Members of Congress and others often argue that making birth control pills available over the counter could replace the ACA's birth control benefit. While moving the pill to over-the-counter status has merit if it complements other efforts to make birth control accessible, it is utterly inadequate if done as a substitute for them. It fails to give women the choice of a broad range of birth control methods, and would increase costs for women who currently get their birth control without out-of-pocket costs. Plus, it will likely be years before any version of the pill makes it through the regulatory process necessary to become available over the counter.
Once the White House and conservative members of Congress have their way, women who lose insurance coverage, or who once again face steep out-of-pocket costs for birth control, may well turn to the nation's network of publicly supported family planning providers for low- or no-cost care. But this essential safety net is already strained to the breaking point, even without an influx of new clients.
The need for publicly funded contraceptive care increased by 5% between 2010 and 2014, rising most among those with the lowest incomes, and among Hispanic and black women. One in four women who need publicly funded care is uninsured. But social conservatives have their sights set on this invaluable source of care, too, vowing to go after programs critical to its existence, such as Title X, as well as many of its most effective providers.
In particular, leading anti-choice groups, like the Susan B. Anthony List and Americans United for Life, along with their allies in Congress, the administration and various state governments, are determined to exclude Planned Parenthood, a vital source of care for many women, from federal funding. These proponents of "defunding" Planned Parenthood argue that other providers, namely health departments and federally qualified health centers, could step up to fill the gap.
Not so. Planned Parenthood health centers consistently perform better than other types of publicly funded family planning providers across a range of key indicators: They are much more likely to offer a full range of birth control methods and same-day insertion of IUDs or implants, and to fill prescriptions for the pill on site. They are also much more likely to routinely handle large caseloads of contraceptive clients, to get women in for appointments in a timely manner, and to offer evening and weekend appointments. And in some communities, Planned Parenthood is the sole source of publicly funded contraceptive care.
In short, it is simply not feasible for other safety net providers that are often already stretched thin to quickly step up and provide timely, high-quality contraceptive care to the many women who might suddenly be unable to obtain care if their local Planned Parenthood has been shut down. And keep in mind that none of this would happen in isolation: Health departments and federally qualified health centers may have to cope not just with the influx of former Planned Parenthood patients, but also those who could lose the insurance they gained under the ACA or who have had their contraceptive coverage gutted.
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The threat to affordable, high-quality health coverage and care, particularly when it comes to contraception, is real and urgent. And it is women — foremost women of color, women who are uninsured, low-income, young or otherwise disadvantaged — who will pay the price.No, nobody has ever called @pvponline names.
Tinker Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 1, 2016
Read it right to left, dummy.
Earlier some nobody I have never heared of before made a public plea for attention, pity and sympathy akin to the digital version of a toddler throwing themselves on the floor screaming and kicking.
Well, they got their sympathy. So, curious, I did some investigation to see if it was warranted, or just childish actions by another supposedly mature adult.
Item number one: “fat”. SURVEY SAYS:
Zero tweets to him in the last three months even using the word. Horseshit.
Item two: stupid. SURVEY SAYS:
I see a known anti-gamergate shitstirrer, someone not calling him stupid but calling the subject stupid…let’s continue.
Well lookie there. Going all the way back to march 5th, there’s no person calling him stupid. So that’s BULLSHIT.
Claim number three: BRAINWASHED. SURVEY SAYS:
Not even a single result in the past two years. BULLSHIT.
And lastly, calling him GAY. SURVEY SAYS:
Nothing.
So, from my expert deduction, this is a manboy crying online for attention while sitting alone at the computer during the weekend.There were many reactions to President Trump deciding to leave the Paris Climate Agreement Thursday having to do with concerns for the environmental impact of the decision, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) actually claimed that the decision “would be a massive step back for racial justice, and an assault on communities of color across the U.S.”
Pulling out of the Paris Agreement would be a massive step back for racial justice, and an assault on communities of color across the U.S. — ACLU National (@ACLU) June 1, 2017
Huh?
The left-leaning organization went on to explain that position tweeting, “Drought, hurricanes and flooding will impact every American— but climate change doesn't affect us all equally.”
“Black and brown people are more likely to live near coal plants, and have higher asthma rates than white Americans do,” they added.
“That disparity is only going to worsen in coming years, and it's why we must #ActOnClimate if we're serious about racial justice,” they concluded.
The tweets drew a variety of reactions with many mocking the ACLU for making the climate issue a race issue without even providing evidence of their claims.
Focus on free speech please. Not partisan SJW nonsense. — Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) June 1, 2017
A bit of a stretch, don't cha think? Probably the dumbest thing I've read today. — James (@Noledad77) June 1, 2017The evolution of biometrics on campus
Focus shifting from high security to convenience, speed
A wide variety of identification and authentication technologies are well entrenched at universities nationwide, and it seems biometrics is starting to make noise on campuses where speed and security are both needed.
Hand geometry readers have been fairly common on campus for years but more recent deployments are leveraging fingerprint and even iris biometrics to link students with transactions. Physical access is the hallmark biometric application but the technology has been gaining popularity in food service and other sectors to expedite transactions.
The social stigma attached to biometrics is also being lifted, as students are becoming more comfortable with the technology, says Brian Adoff, executive vice president at NuVision. The inclusion of a fingerprint scanner on the latest iPhone is just one indication that the younger generation is comfortable with biometrics.
“Administrators have a greater fear of the technology than students,” says Bob Lemley, director of software development at the CBORD Group. “Students are growing up with the technology so they don’t think about it as much as the older generations.”
Georgia Southern University can attest to that fact. The school deployed iris biometrics at its dining hall and only two students out of 5,400 refused to enroll, says Richard Wynn, director of the university’s Eagle Card Program.
The impetus for deploying iris at Georgia Southern was the construction of a new dining hall and the addition of a new meal plan structure, Wynn explains. When the new facility opened in the fall, the meal plans became all access, enabling students to go into the dining hall as many times as they wanted. The previous plan required students purchase a set number of meals per week, and cashiers swiped student IDs to grant or deny access.
“With the new meal plan, Georgia Southern wanted a self-service system for students that would also be hygienic,” Wynn says. Biometrics seemed an obvious solution, specifically the iris modality because students simply look at a specific spot and do not touch anything.
Wynn identified a number of solutions with the desired sub-second response time, but most were too expensive. Readers from Iris ID, however, were in line with campus expectations. It cost the school $35,000 to outfit five lanes in two facilities, where comparable solutions could have cost $40,000 per lane, Wynn says.
Next, Wynn had to figure out how to integrate the iris system with the Blackboard Transact campus card system. After different attempts at a workaround, the school decided to use the Wiegand output from the iris cameras to instruct a physical access door controller to signal a red light or green light.
The next issue Georgia Southern had to conquer was enrolling the students in the system without disrupting current processes, Wynn says. The school issues campus IDs during orientation, distributing as many as 350 cards in just two hours. That time frame was already tight so the iris enrollment had to be squeezed in to an already compressed period.
“After taking photos there’s a 20 to 30 second window while the card is printing and the student is waiting,” Wynn explains. “Now we use that time to enroll them into the iris system before the card falls into the hopper.”
As for using the system on a day-to-day basis, it’s gone well, Wynn says. Students walk up to the camera, look at a spot on the device from a foot or two away and are verified in less than two seconds. Since its deployment in August, the iris system has successfully processed more than 375,000 transactions.
For the most part the system has worked very well with one of the only issues being students with dirty glasses, Wynn says. “Spots on the glasses and strong prescriptions can interfere with authentication,” he adds.
Other campus entities are considering the iris system as well. The student rec center has a fingerprint system for access and is considering a switch so students won’t have to enroll in more than one system. The data center and other high-security facilities are also considering iris for physical access.
Georgia Southern’s ID card already supported prox and mag stripe so why didn’t the school use one of those existing technologies for access to the dining halls instead of adding another technology? The university wanted to tie the identifier to the student rather than simply to the card, Wynn says. “You know it’s that person with the biometric,” he adds.
Boston University goes with fingerprints
At Boston University’s Marciano Commons, fingerprint scanners are used in conjunction with the school’s contactless ID cards. Serving more than 5,000 meals daily, the new location’s six points of entry are controlled by turnstiles that combine the campus card and biometric fingerprint technologies.
University officials say that the inspiration behind the use of biometrics was the prevention of meal plan sharing between students. Boston University uses CBORD’s CS Gold campus card system and HID Global’s iCLASS contactless cards for functions including meal plan management, access control, payments and privilege verification.
The biometric data is stored exclusively on the cards and is never logged in a backend database. The use of the biometric is an opt-in function so students who wish to forgo the fingerprint capture–an uncommon choice thus far–can simply present their card to the cashier at the gate for further verification.
The new turnstiles are simple to operate. Students first present their card to the turnstile reader and are then prompted to present their finger for biometric authentication.
The bioCLASS reader from HID Global then interacts with CS Gold’s access control module to determine that the card’s biometric template matches the presented sample and that the user has enough meals remaining on their plan to complete the transaction. Provided the above conditions are met, the turnstile opens and grants access to the hungry student–a process that takes just seconds.he Conservative leader held an hour of talks with the leader of the group Nurses For Reform (NFR) in his private office in the Commons two weeks ago.
His decision to meet the radical group, which calls the NHS a "dystopian, Soviet-style calamity", will be seen as foolhardy after the painstaking efforts he has made to reassure voters that the NHS is safe in Tory hands.
The meeting risks reigniting the row which exploded four months ago when Mr Cameron was forced to distance himself from a leading Tory MEP who suggested that the NHS was a "mistake".
The Tory leader's meeting with the leader of the group, Helen Evans, is revealed on her internet blog where she claims she was invited by him to present the group's ideas.
Among others, she says, these included "the |
the pair disappeared before police arrived.Arda Turan's opener came after Luis Suarez and Munir El-Haddadi had scored in Sunday's first leg
Arda Turan scored twice and Lionel Messi once as Barcelona earned a 3-0 second-leg victory over Sevilla to win the Spanish Super Cup 5-0 on aggregate.
Turkey midfielder Turan slotted in the first goal at the Nou Camp from Messi's through pass in the 10th minute.
Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo then saved Vicente Iborra's penalty after Samuel Umtiti handled.
Turan chipped in his second shortly after the break, with Messi guiding in a sublime header for the third.
It is the first time Barcelona have won the Spanish Super Cup since 2013.
The two-legged match usually pitches the league champions against the Copa del Rey winners. However, as Luis Enrique's team won both trophies last season, Sevilla took part as Copa del Rey runners-up.
Both sides begin their La Liga season on Saturday, with champions Barcelona at home to Real Betis, while Sevilla, who finished seventh last May, host Espanyol.From left, siblings Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump, Jr., together in Trump Tower in New York in June 2012. (Jennifer S. Altman/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST)
On the 26th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan, Secret Service agents stand guard at the elevator to keep all but a handful of people away from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. But on this spring afternoon, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, breezes right through to Trump’s corner office, not long after his oldest son just left.
“Hi, Jared. Are you all set with the meetings?” Trump said to Kushner, a stack of papers in his hand.
One trademark of the most unconventional campaign in modern history is that members of Trump’s family — who have virtually no political experience — are so deeply involved in his campaign that they often act as gatekeepers and strategists. Their influence was clear this week when Trump decided to fire his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, after his adult children and Kushner met with him on Father’s Day at a Trump golf course in New Jersey.
Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump’s three oldest children are in frequent contact with Republican National Committee officials, who have come to expect at least one of them at campaign meetings. Family members are involved in drafting speeches, messaging and policy, several people familiar with the campaign said.
Family members are often among the closest advisers to any candidate, of course. Kevin Madden, a veteran political operative who advised 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, recalled how Romney’s wife and sons spoke on the candidate’s behalf, adding personal details that others could not. But, he added, “the family members in the Romney campaign deferred to professional staff” in the running of the campaign.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called his sons Don and Eric up on stage during a rally in January. "They're good boys," Trump said after they spoke in support of their father. (Reuters)
Trump, however, has never played by the book. And because his operation is so tiny — about 70 paid staff members compared with Hillary Clinton’s 683 — his family’s impact is even more pronounced.
The campaign’s latest financial filings showed that not only did Trump have a surprisingly small amount of cash on hand — $1.3 million — but he had spent more than $1.1 million in May reimbursing his properties and family members for expenses.
[Trump spent more than $1 million in May reimbursing his companies and family]
Even as they help on the campaign, Trump’s oldest children are also shouldering more day-to-day responsibilities at the Trump Organization, where each is a top executive. Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump — all in their 30s — have offices one floor below their father’s in Trump Tower, the Manhattan landmark that houses both the headquarters of the campaign and the family business.
“Everything we’ve ever done, we’ve done as a family,” Eric Trump, 32, said in an interview this year. “Every project we’ve ever built, we’ve built as a family. ‘The Apprentice’ we did as a family. The golf courses and hotels we do as a family.... We vacation as a family.”
Don Jr., 38, spoke to ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday to explain why Lewandowski was let go. “There does have to be a transition to the general” election and it was “time to move on,” he said.
Don Jr. also fielded questions about the timing of his father’s vice presidential deliberations, poor fundraising numbers and advertising strategy.
1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × 23 well-known people who support Donald Trump View Photos See who supports Donald Trump. Caption See who supports Donald Trump. Paul D. Ryan The House speaker endorsed Trump’s bid for president on June 2. Joshua Roberts/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Lewandowski’s abrupt departure was spurred in part by suspicions within the family that he was trying to sideline Kushner by spreading dirt to the media about him.
In 2005, Kushner’s father, Charles, was convicted in federal court of making illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering. The charges were rooted in a nasty family dispute that involved Charles Kushner hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law in order to get an incriminating sex tape.
Jared Kushner — the 35-year-old chief executive of a huge family real estate company — now sits in campaign meetings with the prosecutor in that case, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who was a U.S. attorney at the time and now advises Trump.
Kushner is as low-key as his father-in-law is boisterous. He avoids making public comments but is widely credited with helping Trump write his well-received March speech to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. In it, Trump used a teleprompter for the first time.
[Trump’s top example of foreign experience: A Scottish golf course losing millions]
Kushner looks younger than his 35 years and is the father of three small children with Ivanka. He comes from an Orthodox Jewish family; Ivanka converted before they married. Kushner also has made a long list of donations to Democrats in New York and New Jersey.
But he is an enthusiastic supporter of Trump and frequently travels with him, including a recent trip to Washington to meet with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s policy team. Kushner, who is also publisher of the New York Observer newspaper, helped connect Trump to former secretary of state Henry Kissinger for foreign affairs advice and to Rupert Murdoch to mend relations with his Fox News Channel.
During a victory speech in Indiana during the primary, Trump praised his son-in-law, telling the crowd: “Honestly, Jared is a very successful real estate person, but I actually think he likes politics more than he likes real estate.... He’s very good at politics.”
In the April encounter in Trump Tower, Kushner deferred questions about Trump to his wife. But he did say that his father-in-law called Ivanka three times a day when she couldn’t join him on the campaign trail because she was about to have a baby.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus speaks to Kushner and the three eldest Trump children regularly in these weeks ahead of the party convention in Cleveland, according to RNC spokesman Sean Spicer. Trump’s family is also expected to play a central role at the event.
Ivanka, 34, who is as controlled as Trump is spontaneous, has urged her father to soften his tone, several people who know the family said. She has tried to avoid commenting on her father’s specific policies publicly and focused her huge social media following on noncontroversial topics such as balancing work and children.
She has also defended her father when critics have called him sexist, saying he always promoted women to top positions and offered her the same chance in the workplace as her brothers.
One person familiar with the campaign operation, who requested anonymity to discuss the Trump family, said the mogul’s children have been involved in part because “for better or worse, the Trump brand is intermingled with the campaign.” He said the children help Trump understand which of his messages are getting across and which are flopping, and that Ivanka was key in him offering support for Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion work, even though many Republicans do not.
In addition to the three oldest children, from his marriage to Ivana Trump, Donald Trump has a 22-year-old daughter, Tiffany, from his second marriage, to Marla Maples, and a 10-year-old son, Barron, with current wife, Melania Trump.
“Good kids. Good relationships,” Trump said, when asked about his children in a recent interview. He said that relationships tightened when they were old enough to start working with him. People often get the wrong idea of who he really is, Trump said, “but people do think I have been a good father.”
Jay Goldberg, a top New York lawyer who advised Trump for 15 years until 2005, said Trump is “very loyal to his children” and is lucky that “they are monumentally smart.”
Goldberg said his own work with Trump waned when the children, though then only in their 20s, had strong ideas and the backing of their father about how to expand the family business. Trump’s core business was real estate holdings and they wanted to expand, selling the Trump name to other hoteliers in franchise deals as well as marketing Trump merchandise ranging from furniture to fragrances.
“They were interested in franchising, I was not,” said Goldberg. “I didn’t like the suits and cuff-links and shirts.”
At a time when Trump is under attack even by many within his own party, several who know him say a man who has always valued family loyalty is drawing them even closer.
“We’re naturally protective of our father. I think we also have a unique ability — a lifetime of trust with him,” Eric Trump said in an interview on Tuesday. “We have 11 years of being executives within his organization.... He’s learned to trust us. The one thing that I can tell you is Ivanka, Don and I will be by his side. ”
Dan Zak and Alice Crites contributed to this report.High-speed rail concept would include the Lehigh Valley
Here in the land of the Pennsylvania Railroad and steam-powered passenger trains that could exceed 110 mph by the 1890s, we seem to be headed for third-world status when it comes to rail transportation infrastructure.
When it comes to high-speed railroads, much of the world is passing America by. Even countries like South Korea and Turkey have moved ahead of us.
Through the first half of the 20th century, the Pennsylvania Railroad was America's largest line and its symbol was the keystone, which became the state symbol, and remains so today. Maybe they can use it as a tombstone when they bury the last of our locomotives, steam or otherwise.
Not everyone is that gloomy. When I Googled "high speed rail map" on Monday, the first four items to pop up featured a concept by some guy named Alfred Twu, a prominent San Francisco Bay area graphic artist and mass transit advocate.
That, said Michael Duck, one of the young whippersnappers I consult at The Morning Call if I get stumped by computers or the Internet, means Twu's map may be "going viral" when it comes to high-speed rail discussions. (Duck is a community manager for the paper's online desk.)
Going viral does not mean Twu has influenza; it means he is very popular.
Like, whatever. The thing I found most fascinating about Twu, and his grand map of where high-speed passenger rail service is likely to be routed in America, was his focus on eastern Pennsylvania as a key part of a main coast-to-coast line, if we ever catch up to countries like South Korea.
The principal route starts in Boston, goes through New York City, and thence to Pennsylvania and points west, including Chicago and Los Angeles. Lesser routes serve less significant areas like Dallas, Miami and Portland (Maine or Oregon).
In an article he wrote last week, Twu said he developed that map after working on California's proposed high-speed rail line (approved in a 2008 ballot question) and after studying "the economic and environmental benefits of fast trains."
When I talked to him by phone this week, he said he grew up in Union County, N.J, just off Route 22, and is familiar with the Lehigh Valley. "The response to my map this week," he said, "went above and beyond my wildest expectations, sparking vigorous political discussions. … I am more convinced than ever that there's public support and demand for a true high speed rail network."
That's great, but I'm the provincial type and I asked Twu which parts of eastern Pennsylvania his concept had in mind.
He replied that the line would run through Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, but another "line going north from Philly through Allentown to upstate New York [not shown on the large version of his map] represents restoration of regular-speed train service and a later phase of medium to high-speed service."
If that sounds like a pipe dream, consider that work on the California high-speed line he pushed is set to begin by July. It has cleared court challenges and completion for the whole San Francisco to Los Angeles shebang is anticipated in 15 years at a cost of $69 billion, to be raised in part with bond issues. (Contrary to my views on spending splurges finagled by certain politicians, some bond issues are legitimate.)In today's press briefing, Jay Carney was asked about the number of Obamacare premium payments that have been made. In other words, the total number of people actually, factually covered, not including window shoppers and unpaid accounts.
"We dispute their numbers. We don't have hard, concrete numbers, but we dispute them," the press secretary reasonably explained.
The question followed a report from the House Energy Committee on how many enrollees had actually paid for their chosen Obamacare plans. The report stated, “as of April 15, 2014, only 67 percent of individuals and families that had selected a health plan in the federally facilitated marketplace had paid their first month’s premium and therefore completed the enrollment process.” Just one quarter of those who had paid into the system were young people aged 18 to 34 – the group the Obama administration most requires to sign up in order to provide solvency to the failing system. The bulk of those who signed up came from the 35-64 age group.
Carney says this is not data that is traditionally shared with government and emphasizes that the data is coming from "profit-making" companies. Chuck Todd was asking specifically about how many people included in the White House's own reported numbers as successful Obamacare enrollees - the number 8 million that is being touted and bragged about every day - aren't actually covered by insurance at this time, and whether that might change their success line by up to or in excess of one million people.
Carney's answer is that he doesn't know, but also no. They don't have the answer, but they dispute the answer anyone else might have. That's like having your cake and denying it, too.Announcing the One Nation of Gamers Overwatch Invitational
Ben Goldhaber Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 19, 2016
It’s going down.
The best teams in the beta face off for the biggest prize pool yet. Double elimination. Every. Match. Broadcasted.
NOTE: prize pool has been increased to $3,000 thanks to our newest sponsor, Infiniscene!
Been sitting on this for a while, so I gotta be admit, feels damn good to finally put this in writing.
I’ve been working behind the scenes for some months to organize the next chapter to the FishStix Overwatch Invitational which took place all the way back in November. As with the first Invitational, the goal from inception was to push the boundaries for what’s been done in the scene — to organize something fresh, unlike anything else thus far. And, with the help of One Nation of Gamers, GEICO Gaming, and the Video Game Voters Network, we may have done just that.
We want to show just how competitive and exciting Overwatch can be at a high level. We want to make the best possible show for the community.
With further ado…
Let’s get to the details
Invited teams
North America:
EnVyUs
Cloud9
Luminosity Gaming
Life of Hanzo
Europe:
IDDQD
Reunited.GG
#FlatEarth
Melty
Tournament format
8 team invitational (4 NA / 4 EU).
Double elimination bracket.
Round 1–4 (bo3) → WB/LB finals (bo5) → grand finals (bo5)
Day 1: play thru ‘till WB/LB finals.
Day 2: WB/LB finals & grand finals.
Brackets
Live brackets will be updated on GosuGamers.
Rules/scoring
Payload and Capture Point maps will be decided by traditional Stopwatch rules — after taking turns attacking and defending, the quicker time set or the furthest progression wins the point.
If both teams get stuck on the same objective soon then the map will be counted as a tie, and no points awarded to either team.
A win on a Control map counts as a point.
NO hero limit. 6 D.vas all day, if you want.
Map selection process
Use OWDraft.com to select maps — higher seed picks first. Loser picks next.
Bo3 up until WB/LB finals
Bo5 for WB/LB and Grand Final. Grand final bracket can be reset by LB.
Servers
Higher seed picks first. Loser picks next.
Prize pool
$3,000 USD base (subject to change to do additional sponsorships or community support)
$1500 $900 $600
Broadcast logistics
Dates: April 9th-10th from 10am PDT — 6pm PDT
Channel: twitch.tv/onenationofgamers
Shoutcasters: FishStix & AskJoshy
Secondary EN channels / Foreign language channels:
English: Hex & ZP at twitch.tv/gosugamers
English: Jason Kaplan & ToD at twitch.tv/esl_overwatch
French: twitch.tv/esl_alphacast
Credits
None of this would be possible without these folks…
Lynnea “Shayed” Tabatha Rose — lead admin
Daniel “Imagine” Tompos — stream producer
Markus “Mysca” Gur — graphics designer
Deric Ortiz — One Nation of Gamers
Phew. Glad to finally get this out there. If you have any questions you probably already know how to get ahold of me. In the mean time, why don’t you go watch the FishStix Invitational 1? It was pretty sweet, and I’m almost over 10k views on YT. ;)The camp, in Mehedeby, south of Gävle, was set up with permission from the land owner and is now home to several hundred berry pickers, most of whom are from Bulgaria.
The attack is believed to have been carried out by nearby residents, with local youths being the likely suspects, according to police.
“That's correct. But there wasn't any actual fighting and no one was hurt,” said Peter Jonsson of the Uppland police to the TT news agency.
“When we arrived there was no one left. And the lack of a common language made it hard to find out exactly what had happened. There is information that suggests someone was hit by a rock, but we didn't find anyone that was injured,” Jonsson said.
The incident comes amid growing concerns about the berry picker settlement, prompting meetings with locals with police warning that they “don't want the situation to get any worse”.
Police have also increased the security level surrounding the camp.
However, Lynn Lindström, of the Mehedeby property owners association explains that the berry pickers have been causing problems for the residents.
“Local residents come to us with complaints and are very upset. We have to do something about it,” she said.
“They have fires, wind protection, cars and kids. It's incredible. You'd have to see it to believe it. We can't get to our bathing area because they are using the area to wash their cars, clothes, and to defecate.
“Of course, the whole thing is a shame but the situation is intolerable.”
According to police, several reports have been made by local residents claiming that things have been disappearing from their gardens.
The Expressen newspaper reported that petrol had been siphoned from cars and rubbish bins being ransacked.
However, police deny that there has been a proven increase in vandalism or criminal activity.
“But as far as I know, no one has been identified. It's more a feeling that people have, that they believe they are berry pickers, but that's not enough. No actual person is suspected. In these cases, you have to catch someone red handed," said Christer Nordström of the Uppsala police to TT.
“Many people don't want to leave their gardens and this is an issue that needs to be addressed. It's complicated because we have this freedom – it's closer to being a political issue."
TT/The Local/og
twitter.com/thelocalsweden~ Rank Updates ~
Mandolore100 : I would like to introduce to you all the newest admin on MCME! I believe he’s been mentioned in previous times, but I would like to reiterate that here. Mando has been promoted to Head Guide on the server. This takes many of the guide-specific responsibilities away from Dyno and better aids in the guide management process! Give Mando a congrats if you haven’t already! Not every day we get another admin....
BWOT : The new Chief Editor of The Times, BWOT, has recently been promoted from Foreman to Designer! You know what that means! Stop asking him for jobs and let him sit in AFK in peace! Jokes aside, BWOT has done an amazing amount of work on the revisal of The Times and deserves a big congrats!
Jesia : One of our most recent promotions is Jesia, from Artist to Designer. Jesia creates some of the best halls in Moria and I implore you to check them out! Congrats to Jesia on your new string of responsibilities!
Arkengard : That’s right folks! I’m back in the Guide cult. After a two year hiatus, I’m happy to say I’ve found my way back to MCME and have earned back my position amongst the guides. If you have any queries or questions, I’m always more than happy to answer!
Miiil : Give a warm welcome back to your friendliest enforcer! They too took a hiatus from MCME but I think we can all agree we’re happy to have Miiil back and keeping the streets thug-free! Congratulate Miiil whenever you get the chance!
Dav3ck : Dave was promoted to foreman for a short while but due to personal concerns has stepped down from the position. We’ll miss having your tasks to keep us all busy and look forward to your continued presence on MCME!
Howdy folks! Arkengard here with some rank updates. It’s been awhile since our last edition of The Times, so this section will be a little bit longer than it usually is! Make sure you congratulate all of our newest promotions!: I would like to introduce to you all the newest admin on MCME! I believe he’s been mentioned in previous times, but I would like to reiterate that here. Mando has been promoted to Head Guide on the server. This takes many of the guide-specific responsibilities away from Dyno and better aids in the guide management process! Give Mando a congrats if you haven’t already! Not every day we get another admin....: The new Chief Editor of The Times, BWOT, has recently been promoted from Foreman to Designer! You know what that means! Stop asking him for jobs and let him sit in AFK in peace! Jokes aside, BWOT has done an amazing amount of work on the revisal of The Times and deserves a big congrats!: One of our most recent promotions is Jesia, from Artist to Designer. Jesia creates some of the best halls in Moria and I implore you to check them out! Congrats to Jesia on your new string of responsibilities!: That’s right folks! I’m back in the Guide cult. After a two year hiatus, I’m happy to say I’ve found my way back to MCME and have earned back my position amongst the guides. If you have any queries or questions, I’m always more than happy to answer!: Give a warm welcome back to your friendliest enforcer! They too took a hiatus from MCME but I think we can all agree we’re happy to have Miiil back and keeping the streets thug-free! Congratulate Miiil whenever you get the chance!: Dave was promoted to foreman for a short while but due to personal concerns has stepped down from the position. We’ll miss having your tasks to keep us all busy and look forward to your continued presence on MCME!
~ Interviews ~
In these new editions, we are going to introduce an interview section. The member interviewed has to be commoner+ and will be chosen “randomly.” We hope you glean some inspiration from these and maybe even get to know some of your fellow members better!
I found MCME back in June of 2014. I learned of its existence through a video I saw (I can't remember which though)
Question 2: What was your experience like as a droog?
It was scary at first... The community felt much more different in 2014 than it does now. Nevertheless, I was amazed by the creations the server had at the time. I got commoner in a month and 1 year and 3 months later I was artist. To be fair I was still kind of a droog even as artist because I had no idea what to do... (I resigned 1 month after being accepted.)
Question 3: What made you want to become a foreman?
Well after I applied and got accepted (the second time) in april this year, I felt that I could help out more by running jobs. Remembering how helpless I felt as a commoner and how I wasn’t able to build made me think it'd be a good way to help adventurers and commoners to potentially become the future artists on MCME.
Question 4: What is your favorite thing about being foreman?
Well I don't think I've really got one favourite thing about being foreman... But if I'd have to choose I'd probably say gaining experience much faster and being trusted on projects more than when I was artist. That being said I still have a lot to learn and sometimes it'd be better to trust some artists more than me.
Question 5: Where is your favorite place on MCME?
I'd have to say Andrast (when it will be finished). Seeing what Jacen and Matt have achieved over there is just amazing. Also loving the new textures they're (or were) working on. Even when you hear Jacen talk about the terrain you can see how much effort he puts in it.
Question 6: Who is your favorite character in LOTR or the Hobbit?
Well I last read the books about 6 years ago... I've been trying to remember by the help of TI's audiobook readings, but I do miss them fairly often so my memory of the story is pretty bad. But from what I can remember, Tom Bombadil is a pretty interesting.
Special thanks to Bart for giving a great interview! Look out for other community members in later editions of The Times! character and I do have a book with some songs and tales about him so if I had to choose I'd choose him.
~ Winners of “The Week” ~
Congratulations to these two. They did a great job and I hope you congratulate them and vote for commoner if they are not already.
MEDIA OF THE WEEK:
Introducing Media of the Week! Our first winner of this category is
The image doesn’t show any missing chunks and excellently captures the beauty of the world without too much additional flair! Good job Daumer! For those attempting to win Media of the Week, simply upload screenshots containing anything appropriately pertinent to MCME. If it is entertaining, interesting, or simply beautiful, it may have a chance at winning Media of the Week! Good luck! And congrats again to
THEME-BUILD OF THE WEEK:
Introducing Media of the Week! Our first winner of this category is @Daumer with their breath-taking screenshot of Halifirien and a beacon along the White Mountains.The image doesn’t show any missing chunks and excellently captures the beauty of the world without too much additional flair! Good job Daumer!For those attempting to win Media of the Week, simply upload screenshots containing anything appropriately pertinent to MCME. If it is entertaining, interesting, or simply beautiful, it may have a chance at winning Media of the Week! Good luck! And congrats again to @Daumer
This weeks Theme-Build of the Week goes to one of our favorite commoner, @Darktemplier66! Give him a huge round of applause for his beautiful recreation of the tower Mindo Eldalieva!
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This skyscraper has intricate detail from top to bottom and even contains a stairway all the way up. Check it out and be sure to always design the best theme build you can for a chance to win Theme-Build of the Week! Question 1: How did you find MCME?I found MCME back in June of 2014. I learned of its existence through a video I saw (I can't remember which though)Question 2: What was your experience like as a droog?It was scary at first... The community felt much more different in 2014 than it does now. Nevertheless, I was amazed by the creations the server had at the time. I got commoner in a month and 1 year and 3 months later I was artist. To be fair I was still kind of a droog even as artist because I had no idea what to do... (I resigned 1 month after being accepted.)Question 3: What made you want to become a foreman?Well after I applied and got accepted (the second time) in april this year, I felt that I could help out more by running jobs. Remembering how helpless I felt as a commoner and how I wasn’t able to build made me think it'd be a good way to help adventurers and commoners to potentially become the future artists on MCME.Question 4: What is your favorite thing about being foreman?Well I don't think I've really got one favourite thing about being foreman... But if I'd have to choose I'd probably say gaining experience much faster and being trusted on projects more than when I was artist. That being said I still have a lot to learn and sometimes it'd be better to trust some artists more than me.Question 5: Where is your favorite place on MCME?I'd have to say Andrast (when it will be finished). Seeing what Jacen and Matt have achieved over there is just amazing. Also loving the new textures they're (or were) working on. Even when you hear Jacen talk about the terrain you can see how much effort he puts in it.Question 6: Who is your favorite character in LOTR or the Hobbit?Well I last read the books about 6 years ago... I've been trying to remember by the help of TI's audiobook readings, but I do miss them fairly often so my memory of the story is pretty bad. But from what I can remember, Tom Bombadil is a pretty interesting.Special thanks to Bart for giving a great interview! Look out for other community members in later editions of The Times! character and I do have a book with some songs and tales about him so if I had to choose I'd choose him.Congratulations to these two. They did a great job and I hope you congratulate them and vote for commoner if they are not already.This weeks Theme-Build of the Week goes to one of our favorite commoner, @Darktemplier66! Give him a huge round of applause for his beautiful recreation of the tower Mindo Eldalieva!screenshot by @Merlinc01 on 12/3/2017This skyscraper has intricate detail from top to bottom and even contains a stairway all the way up. Check it out and be sure to always design the best theme build you can for a chance to win Theme-Build of the Week!
~ Upcoming ~
MineCraft Update
If you haven’t seen this already, here is Finrod’s summary of the supposed updates coming out soon:
“Snapshot 17w47b: So, I fired up a debug world, displaying all possible blockstates, and compared it with the debug world of 1.12.2 and found some interesting things most youtube videos did not cover:
- It may now be possible to get the snowed Grass, snowed Dirt, snowed Coarse Dirt and snowed Podzol block without actual snow on top.
- The NOTEBLOCK now uses blockstates instead of NBT data. The noteblock now has 3 tags: note = [0.. 24], instrument = {harp, base drum, snare, hat, bass, flute, bell, guitar, chime, xylophone}, powered = {true, false}, this yields 25 * 10 * 2 = 500, or 499 additional full blocks.
- Half beds for all bed types should now be accessible
- It may now be possible to get stable corner stairs without any other stairs connecting to them.
- 5 new pairs of slabs and 5 new sets of buttons and most importantly 5 complete new sets of trapdoors
- MUSHROOM_BLOCKS: The tags have been changed. Now there are three blocks, red_mushroom_block, brown_mushroom_block and mushroom_stem. Each of them has 6 true/false tags which yields a total of 3 * (2^6) = 192, or 166 new full blocks.
- Mob heads (Skeleton, Wither skeleton, zombie, steve, creeper, dragon) now each have an own ID, but it may not change anything for us.”
Themed Build
Theme: Dome of Stars
Resource Pack: Gondor
Duration: A few more days! It looks like the next theme build is going to be The Cottage of Lost Play so be prepared for that!
MCME Audiobook
The Audiobook, hosted by
If you haven’t seen this already, here is Finrod’s summary of the supposed updates coming out soon:“Snapshot 17w47b: So, I fired up a debug world, displaying all possible blockstates, and compared it with the debug world of 1.12.2 and found some interesting things most youtube videos did not cover:- It may now be possible to get the snowed Grass, snowed Dirt, snowed Coarse Dirt and snowed Podzol block without actual snow on top.- The NOTEBLOCK now uses blockstates instead of NBT data. The noteblock now has 3 tags: note = [0.. 24], instrument = {harp, base drum, snare, hat, bass, flute, bell, guitar, chime, xylophone}, powered = {true, false}, this yields 25 * 10 * 2 = 500, or 499 additional full blocks.- Half beds for all bed types should now be accessible- It may now be possible to get stable corner stairs without any other stairs connecting to them.- 5 new pairs of slabs and 5 new sets of buttons and most importantly 5 complete new sets of trapdoors- MUSHROOM_BLOCKS: The tags have been changed. Now there are three blocks, red_mushroom_block, brown_mushroom_block and mushroom_stem. Each of them has 6 true/false tags which yields a total of 3 * (2^6) = 192, or 166 new full blocks.- Mob heads (Skeleton, Wither skeleton, zombie, steve, creeper, dragon) now each have an own ID, but it may not change anything for us.”Theme: Dome of StarsResource Pack: GondorDuration: A few more days! It looks like the next theme build is going to be The Cottage of Lost Play so be prepared for that!The Audiobook, hosted by @TI_020601 is taking place regularly on Saturday evenings, 8:20pm GMT, unless announced otherwise in this thread: The New Audio Book
~ Lore of the Week ~
Bard the Bowman
Character in the Hobbit
Bard or Bard the Bowman also known as Bard the First, was a man of Laketown, slayer of the Dragon, Smaug, and founder, first king of the New Kingdom of Dale. He was succeeded as King of Dale by his son, Bain.
In TA 2941, when Smaug emerged from the Lonely Mountain and attacked Laketown, Bard, as captain of a company of town archers, was encouraging the archers and urging the town Master to order them to fight to the last arrow. Bard fired his Black Arrow and struck the hollow by Smaug's left breast and the dragon fell from the sky, landing on Laketown and destroying it.
He rebuilt the ruined town and in TA 2944, he became King of Dale. Bard maintained good relations with the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain and trade flowed freely up and down the River Running. People came to settle in Dale from miles around and the land that had been withered by Smaug became bountiful once more.
Southfarthing
Region of the Shire
A rural, fertile, and slightly warmer area of the Shire, the Southfarthing is the site of the towns Gamwich (original home of the Gamgee family), Cotton, and Longbottom, and much of the Pipe-weed production
The Southfarthing was also the source of the Old Winyards wine. It was also the home of the Sackville-Baggins and thus was the first area in the Shire to fall under the control of Lotho Sackville-Baggins, during the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age
~ More Media ~
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screenshot by @Miiil on 11/28/2017
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screenshot by @Merlinc on 10/18/2017
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screenshot by @Smaug_Niphredli on 11/21/2017 screenshot by @barteldvn on 10/08/2017screenshot by @Merlinc on 10/18/2017screenshot by @mattlego on 10/08/2017screenshot by @Lindolas on 10/07/2017screenshot by |
, RESOURCES, AND STRATEGIC ADVANTAGES SOUGHT AFTER FOR YEARS.
Go to the bottom of this page for a rolling transcript of the entire speech (with some typos). Another fun line:
DURING THE NEXT DECADE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL BECOME POORER AND LESS FREE, WHILE THEY BECOME MORE DEPENDENT ON THE GOVERNMENT FOR ECONOMIC SECURITY.
And then:
I HAVE NO TIMETABLE FOR THESE PREDICTIONS, BUT JUST IN CASE KEEP THEM AROUND AND LOOK AT THEM IN FIVE TO 10 YEARS.
Ten years out, the only thing wrong with these predictions is that he wasn't pessimistic enough.
I'm sure that many of those in the chamber on that day and also those watching the speech on C-SPAN, asked themselves "Who is this nutty naysayer?"
Turns out he wasn't so nutty after all. And he didn't say quite enough nays.
Imagine if he had gotten up there and predicted, "The U.S. will invade Iraq with no plan whatsoever for policing a hostile populace afterward."
They might have sent the men in white suits for him.
Nobody could be that dumb.
Alas, Bush was.
It's amazing how much Ron got right.
As to what he got wrong, we don't have the draft yet.
But just give President Obamney some time.CLOSE The OMB Director outlined President Donald Trump's budget "blueprint," which will be submitted to Congress. Mick Mulvaney described the budget as a "true America first budget." (Feb. 27) AP
The U.S.-Mexico border is pictured in Hidalgo, Texas. (Photo11: John Moore, Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s first budget provides more than $4.5 billion in new spending to fight illegal immigration — not just by building a wall along the southern border but by adding more than 1,700 border officers, prosecutors and judges.
Beginning work on the wall comes with the biggest outlay — $2.6 billion — followed by $1.5 billion for expanded detention, transportation and removal of illegal immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security estimates the wall will cost $21 billion.
The largest staffing increases would be 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and 500 new Border Patrol agents — all at a cost of $314 million. In executive orders issued five days after his inauguration, Trump called for adding 10,000 immigration officers and 5,000 border agents.
Overall, the Department of Homeland Security would receive a $2.8 billion, or 7%, increase compared to the current year budget.
Other immigration-related additions in the budget proposal include:
$80 million to hire 75 new immigration judges to handle removal proceedings.
Hiring 60 additional border enforcement prosecutors and 40 deputy U.S. marshals to catch and transport criminal aliens.
Hiring 20 new attorneys to obtain land needed to secure the southwest border and another 20 attorneys and staff to handle immigration litigation.
$15 million to begin implementation of mandatory nationwide use of the E-verify Program, which allows businesses to determine the legal status of new workers.
More coverage:
Trump's first budget uses dramatic cuts to fund military buildup
62 agencies and programs Trump wants to eliminate
On immigration, Trump's budget calls for far more than a wall
Trump proposes to hike TSA fee on airline tickets
Trump's NASA budget preserves Mars mission, cuts Earth science, asteroid trip, education
The budget also calls for spending $171 million to add short-term detention space to hold federal detainees, including criminal aliens, awaiting trial and sentencing.
Of course, like the rest of the Trump budget, this is simply his administration's vision for spending, and Congress will ultimately decide the fiscal 2018 budget.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2npKCBlIt’s not very hard to make a vegan jerky recipe, as you will read here. There are many easy methods to make vegan jerky without a dehydrator or anything fancy, you just need to have a bit of patience. You can make vegan jerky from tempeh, tofu, mushrooms – you name it. It is crucial to dehydrate your ingredients and then just spice it. We also have some great BBQ vegan sauces that will make your mind blow when you eat your jerky. I personally love to always have jerky in my kitchen because I love snacks and this is great way to replace my usual snacks like almonds, peanuts, or crackers. It’s spicy too! So here are 6 delicious vegan jerky recipes (I have recently added one more as bonus- it’s great, last recipe on list!)
Shiitake Mushrooms Vegan Jerky
Ingredients :
8 oz shiitake mushrooms
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp allspice
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp agave syrup
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp liquid smoke
2 oz vital wheat gluten
1 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp molasses
olive oil spray
Directions :
Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Gently clean the mushroom caps with a damp cloth. In a food processor, combine the mushrooms, garlic powder, allspice, cayenne, black pepper, and agave syrup. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, and liquid smoke. Process until soft and mushy. Add the vital wheat gluten and process until it begins to form a dough. You should be able to form it into a ball, without it sticking to your hands. Roll the dough into a rectangle, and roll until very thin and flat. Using a very sharp knife, slice the jerky into 2″ strips. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, and spray the top side lightly with olive oil. Bake for 35 minutes. Flip the strips over. Spray the top side lightly with olive oil again, and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow the jerky to cool before eating.
Eggplant Jerky
Ingredients :
2 medium sized Japanese eggplant
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp agave syrup
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
Directions :
Wash and slice eggplant 1/4 inch thick, leaving skin on. Mix remaining ingredients together in a small bowl. Dip eggplant in marinade and set aside, making sure both sides are coated. In a dehydrator or in an oven, dehydrate on 125 degrees for 3 hrs. If texture is not chewy enough at that point, leave for additional time, checking every 5 minutes.
Tofu Jerky
Ingredients :
Tofu
Vinegar, either malt or apple cider
Liquid smoke
Hot Sauce
Soy Sauce
Honey
Some veggie Oil
Garlic Salt
Salt and Pepper
Directions :
First step is to drain the tofu. Drain the tofu by wrapping the block of tofu in a clean cloth or paper towel, then placing it on a clean plate with another clean plate on top. Add some weight on top of the plate, such as a bag of flour or a couple canned goods. This will force the water out of the tofu, and keep your vegan jerky from being soggy. Let it sit like this for at least one hour, but up to overnight. Cut the tofu into thin strips, then place them in a large zip-loc bag. Add all the remaining ingredients. Close the bag and shake gently to coat the tofu in the marinade. Leave it in the fridge overnight. Preheat the oven to 200. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and arrange tofu in a single layer. Bake for 2 1/2 hours to dehydrate. Cool before serving.
”Oatmeal” Jerky
Ingredients:
1 packet instant oatmeal (single-serving size)
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup Teriyaki sauce
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb soy protein
Directions :
Mix apple juice and oatmeal together. Add all remaining ingredients, except the soy protein and combine. Set aside for 15 minutes. Add the soy protein and mix well. Turn mixture into a blender or food processor and process until a dough forms. Roll dough out on a flat surface to 1/4″ thickness. Cut the dough into strip. Use a dehydrator to dehydrate the jerky strips for 3-4 hours, or bake in the over for 2 1/2 hours at 200 degrees.
Sriracha Tofu Jerky
Ingredients:
½ lb. extra firm tofu
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
½ tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp sriracha, or hot sauce of choice
¼ tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
Directions :
Drain your tofu and pat dry. See previous tofu jerky recipe above for directions on how to properly drain the tofu, if you have not done this before. Cut the tofu into very thin slices – ¼” thickness. Mix all remaining ingredients together in a small bowl. Brush the marinade over both sides of the tofu slices. Arrange tofu in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 200 degrees for 2 1/2 hours, or until tough. Allow to cool before serving – it will become tougher and more jerky-like in consistency as it cools.
Mellow Mushroom Jerky
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp five-spice powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 portobello mushrooms, cleaned and sliced into 1/4″ pieces
sesame seeds, for garnish
Directions :
In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients except mushrooms and sesame seeds. In a gallon size zip-loc bag, combine the mushrooms and marinade mixture. Toss gently so that the mushrooms get coated with the marinade on all sides. Refrigerate overnight. Remove the mushroom strips from the marinade and arrange in a single layer in a dehydrator. Dehydrate until dry at 145ºF for 5 to 6 hours. Alternatively, the mushrooms can be baked on a parchment lined baking sheet in the over for 2-3 hours. Cooking times may vary due to the thickness of the slices or brand of dehydrator.This item has been removed from the community because it violates Steam Community & Content Guidelines. It is only visible to you. If you believe your item has been removed by mistake, please contact Steam Support
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Caption This was my only view while alive, dead, switching from cam to cam... this was all I could see of the new map. :-/ Save Cancel
Created by humbug52
Last Online 55 days ago File Size Posted Size 0.422 MB Feb 7, 2017 @ 6:43pm 1920 x 1080 5 Unique Visitors 0 Current Favorites0 Controversial Facebook post costs Marion man position on county board
MARION COUNTY, Fla. - A controversial post on Facebook cost a volunteer his seat on a Marion County advisory board.
Marcel "Butch" Verrando came under fire for posting a message on the Marion County Political Forum Facebook page.
In the post, Verrando wrote, "The only time a black guy applied for work, it was because they were on probation and had to have a real job."
After learning about the post, Marion County commissioners removed him from the Industrial Development Authority Board.
"We don't condone it as a commission, we don't allow our staff to talk that way, and we're not going to have it," commission chair Stan McClain said.
Verrando was a volunteer on the board and not a county employee.
Channel 9's Myrt Price asked McClain about Verrando's right to free speech.
"If he is not representing us on our board, then he has a right to free speech, and we would support that. But as a member of our advisory, these remarks he made were unacceptable," McClain said.
Price learned it's not the first time that Verrando's choice of words have gotten him in trouble with the community.
Last year Verrando allegedly said a U. S. military veteran who has post-traumatic stress disorder, saying the man's service as a military firefighter was not as worthy of recognition as those in combat.
Following that comment, he resigned from the Fire Advisory Board.
Price was told that after looking at Verrando's latest comment and previous comments, they felt they had no choice but to remove him from the board.New Delhi: It was the summer of 1995. “Papa, it is Hizbul Mujahideen,” said a panicking Juhi handing over the phone to her father Sultan Shahin. It was a death threat to Shahin, who had written in a national daily, countering Hizbul’s call that the war against India was validated by Quran.
For Shahin, it was one of the numerous encounters with extremists. “I invite such people to discuss the differences over tea. I tell them please intimate me before you kill me so that there is no collateral damage,” says Shain, laughingly.
He is serious about sorting out differences though. In 2008, Shahin launched newageislam.com— a website to prompt Muslims to ‘rethink’ Islam and challenge the petro-dollar funded Wahabi ideology.
More than one lakh readers visit the site every day and the electronic newsletter reaches out to around 2.5 lakh people.
Earlier this month, Delhi High Court ruled that a Muslim girl could marry as per her choice at the age of 15 if she attained puberty. New Age Islam published articles highlighting two aspects to this judgment: Muslim girl can marry as per her own choice, is a welcome step; allowing the girl to get married at the age of 15 years may not be a good idea.
New Age Islam hosts news articles and columns on a gamut of political and theological issues which hardly find space in the mainstream media and which are seldom debated even among liberal or enlightened Muslims. The idea, says Shahin, is it to provide an alternative to the opinions propagated by clerics who seem to have hijacked Islam.
“Take any contemporary issue regarding Islam. You will find that by and large, the only view point circulated will be that of Mullaas. Why can't an educated person, who has not attended a madrasa and has a private job, speak on behalf of the community? On the website, we allow an open debate on matters. All schools of thought can have their say on,” says Shahin.
"Islam, in the New Age avatar, is pluralistic, inclusive and cohesive. It promotes belief with reasoning."
Recently, New Age Islam hosted debates on the politics around Salman Rushdie’s India visit, Madrasas and Right to Education, the practice of female circumcision in Bohra community and Islamophobia. Debates concerning Islam, conducted on different forums across the world also find a place on the site along with articles from Urdu press in India and Pakistan.
On the website, Niyaaz Fatehpuri, editor of Urdu periodical Nigaar is featured as a better personality than Mumbai based televangelist Dr Zakir Naik because the former is considered rational and the latter as someone who promotes Islam’s supremacy over other religions.
Roughly, 50 percent of the readers of New Age Islam are based in India. Rest are spread across Pakistan, the Gulf, United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
However, Shahin is aware of the fact a website has its limitations and it may not transform ideologies. “Debates cannot influence people with vested interests. But it can certainly help one who is seeking answers and has an open mind,” he says, referring to the urban Muslim professionals, majority of whom end up getting exposed to Wahabi literature on the Internet, while seeking alternatives to traditional Islamic practices of their forefathers.
Ironically, Shahin grew up among the very people whom he lambastes now. Son of a Maulvi, Shahin spent his childhood in Aurangabad where he gave tuitions and worked in local Urdu dailies. In 1972 he joined Radiance — the weekly magazine of Jamaat-e-Islami, in Delhi. This was followed by a seven years long stint with the weekly called Asian Times in London where Shahin got exposed to divergent Islamic views prevalent in the West. “That was early 1980s. This preacher called Omar Bakri used to propagate radical Islam. He had a great influence on youth. He was a phenomenon in London at that time. He used to openly recruit youngsters for jihad,” recalls the 60-year-old. “Lately, these radicals have attracted followers in the East."
In 2005, Shahin shifted base to Suriname, South America where his wife Pragya (Yes, she is a Non- Muslim) got posted as Indian cultural attaché. As a house husband, Shahin launched New Age Islam while in Suriname.
The website is run by a team of nine, including Shahin, from a flat in East Delhi’s Patparganj area on a shoestring budget.
Before and after the launch of New Age Islam, Shahin has rubbed the fanatics in the wrong way more than once. He says he has received death threats twice on the website in the form of comments. On various occasions, clerics told him the website is his short-cut to hell. Opponents, who are often in majority, have silenced him during various talks and conferences. His lecture in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, was cut short and he drew flak from various quarters. “I was asked to remain quiet if I were to return home. I realise that radicals in India don’t open their cards. There is hardly any scope for argument.”
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.Tenno,
We’ve received reports that a suspicious being has been spotted in Missions across the Solar System.
A mysterious figure has been lurking in the shadows, watching Tenno as they proceed through Missions. Security cameras have caught this figure trailing Tenno on Jupiter, Eris and Europa -- with reports of new locations being added by the hour.
It is unknown whether this figure is a threat. It has been exhibiting the strange behavior of re-stocking lockers, crates and storage containers with Health and Credits once Tenno have cleared the area. For the meantime, it is requested that you stay alert and report any strange behavior near storage containers.
Beware and proceed with caution, Tenno. The Stocker is among us.
*Update! We have just received a clear image of The Stocker:This week, tens of thousands of gay people will converge on New York City for Pride Week, and tens of thousands of residents will come out to play as well. Some of us will indulge in clubbing and dancing, and some of us will bond over our ineptitude at both. Some of us will be in drag and some of us will roll our eyes at drag. We will rehash arguments so old that they’ve become a Pride Week staple; for instance, is the parade a joyous expression of liberation, or a counterproductive freak show dominated by needy exhibitionists and gawking news cameras? Other debates will be more freshly minted: Is President Obama’s procrastinatory approach to gay-rights issues an all-out betrayal, or just pragmatic incrementalism? We’ll have a good, long, energizing intra-family bull session about same-sex marriage and the New York State Senate, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Project Runway and Adam Lambert.
And at some point, a group of gay men in their forties or fifties will find themselves occupying the same bar or park or restaurant or subway car or patch of pavement as a group of gay men in their twenties. We will look at them. They will look at us. We will realize that we have absolutely nothing to say to one another.
And the gay generation gap will widen.
You hear the tone of brusque dismissiveness in private conversations, often fueled by a couple of drinks, and you see the irritation become combustible when it’s protected by Internet anonymity. On the well-trafficked chat site DataLounge, a self-described repository of gay gossip, news, and pointless bitchery, there’s no topic, from politics to locker-room etiquette to the proper locations for wearing cargo pants and flip-flops, that cannot quickly devolve into What are you, 17?What are you, some Stonewall-era relic? sniping. And some not entirely dissimilar rhetoric is showing up in loftier media. In April, a 25-year-old right-of-center gay journalist argued in a Washington Post op-ed that many gay-rights groups are starting to outlive their purpose, and chided older activists for being stuck in a mind-set that sees the plight of gay people as one of perpetual struggle their life’s work depends on the notion that we are always and everywhere oppressed. The scathing message-board replies pounded him at least as hard for his age as for his politics. You twentysomething gays seem to think being out equals acceptance Don’t be so quick to dissolve the organizations that made it possible for you to be so naïve, wrote one reader. Another, blunter response: Forgive me for not falling all over myself to do exactly what an inexperienced 25-year-old decrees Don’t waltz in and start barking orders, little boy.
Public infighting is a big minority-group tabooit’s called taking your business out in the street. And it may seem strange to note this phenomenon at a juncture that, largely because of the fight for gay marriage, has been marked by impressive solidarity. But let’s have a look. Here’s the awful stuff, the deeply unfair (but maybe a little true) things that many middle-aged gay men say about their younger counterparts: They’re shallow. They’re silly. They reek of entitlement. They haven’t had to work for anything and therefore aren’t interested in anything that takes work. They’re profoundly ungrateful for the political and social gains we spent our own youth striving to obtain for them. They’re so sexually careless that you’d think a deadly worldwide epidemic was just an abstraction. They think old-fashioned What do we want! When do we want it! activism is icky and noisy. They toss around terms like post-gay without caring how hard we fought just to get all the way to gay.
And here’s the awful stuff they throw back at usat 45, I write the word us from the graying side of the dividea completely vicious slander (except that some of us are a little like this): We’re terminally depressed. We’re horrible scolds. We gas on about AIDS the way our parents or grandparents couldn’t stop talking about World War II. We act like we invented political action, and think the only way to accomplish something is by expressions of fury. We say we want change, but really what we want is to get off on our own victimhood. We’re made uncomfortable, or even jealous, by their easygoing confidence. We’re grim, prim, strident, self-ghettoizing, doctrinaire bores who think that if you’re not gloomy, you’re not worth taking seriously. Also, we’re probably cruising them.
To some extent, a generation gap in any subgroup with a history of struggle is good news, because it’s a sign of arrival. If you have to spend every minute fighting against social opprobrium, religious hatred, and governmental indifference, taking the time to grumble about generational issues would be a ridiculously off-mission luxury; there are no ageists in foxholes. But today, with the tide of history and public opinion finally (albeit fitfully) moving our way, we can afford to step back and exercise the same disrespect for our elders (or our juniors) as heterosexuals do. That’s progress, of a kind.We’re bad at blogging. We admit it. A friend (tip of the hat to @mttalxndrgrrtt) recently advised us to write more – this is us taking that advice to heart.
The State of the Game posts will be posted weekly and lay out where the game stands, what we’re working on, or anything else that’s on our mind. Please let us know if you’d like to hear about anything specifically.
Our Current Focus
Users! And more users! We currently have about 400 active players (about 2100 signups). For new users coming in they can often have problems finding a game. We secretly (evil laugh here) changed our algorithm for matchmaking the other day to broaden this criteria a bit – however – it’s still a population problem, and one we’re working hard to address.
Along these lines, we’ve found that we don’t do a great job of getting people to signup. Once they do however, most people really seem to enjoy things. To address this we are working on:
A trailer showcasing the basic gameplay and tone.
Sound effects to assist with the first impression and polish.
Voice over for the trailer to help establish tone and guide users along the tutorial in a more vibrant fashion.
All of these efforts are largely being done by friends, or other talented people we’ve managed to snag. This means Ken and I can continue working on features, bugs, customer support, etc. Once these are in place we can push our marketing efforts a little harder – and hopefully find a bigger audience.
What’s Upcoming?
Over the past week or so we’ve been super busy with in-game support, minor bug fixes, and consuming turkey for Canadian thanksgiving. Here are some things that will be deployed in the next week:
Number of cards remaining in your deck is now visible in-game
Holy Water bugs with Hypnotic Watch bugs addressed
Fresh Start has been fixed
Login “remember me” functionality addressed
League promotions / demotions can no longer occur on a loss/win respectively.
Plus a bunch more smaller tickets that we’ll get done over the next few days. Finally, here are some more interesting higher priority things which may make it in if time permits:
Friends and public player profiles.
Auto-cancellation of quick match when you leave site.
Improved quick match functionality (perhaps a chess-clock like system, with auto end-turn, details pending).
Balance Problems
We get a lot of questions, comments about balance. Here are some common requests that we will likely address soon:
Aggronium is a wee bit too good (currently Aggronium wins ~63% of its games).
Shellinium is wee bit too bad (currently loses 65% of its games).
Party Animal is a little over powered.
Not sure when/if or how we’ll address these – but I thought it would be interesting to list out these common concerns.
More Words!
I wanted to say that so far the game is going really well. People seem to be having a really good time. Ken and I are working our butts off to make the game better. We really appreciate all the feedback, support, and advice everyone has given us. We’ll continue to work to try to grow this into something amazing.
If you could help us by telling your friends, giving us a review in the Chrome App Store, or just helping us get the word out – we would love you long time.
More words next wednesday – keep brawling’.This 2015 file photo posted on the Twitter page of Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, shows al-Nusra fighters in Idlib province where the United States has begun to strike the group’s leadership. (AP)
President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to find and kill the leaders of an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria that the administration had largely ignored until now and that has been at the vanguard of the fight against the Syrian government, U.S. officials said.
The decision to deploy more drones and intelligence assets against the militant group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra reflects Obama’s concern that it is turning parts of Syria into a new base of operations for al-Qaeda on Europe’s southern doorstep, the officials said.
The move underlines the extent to which Obama has come to prioritize the counterterrorism mission in Syria over efforts to pressure President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, as al-Nusra is among the most effective forces battling the Syrian government.
[Amid a world of problems, Trump’s policy prescriptions remain opaque]
That shift is likely to accelerate once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has said he will be even more aggressive in going after militants than Obama, a stance that could lead to the expansion of the campaign against al-Nusra, possibly in direct cooperation with Moscow. The group now calls itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham — or Front for the Conquest of Syria — and says it has broken with al-Qaeda, an assertion discounted by U.S. officials.
President Obama arrives at the 71st annual U.N. General Assembly in New York, on Sept. 20, 2016. (Peter Foley/Via Bloomberg)
The United States has conducted sporadic strikes in the past against veteran al-Qaeda members who migrated to northwestern Syria from Afghanistan and Pakistan to join al-Nusra and whom U.S. officials suspected of plotting against the United States and its allies.
Obama’s new order gives the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, wider authority and additional intelligence-collection resources to go after al-Nusra’s broader leadership, not just al-Qaeda veterans or those directly involved in external plotting.
The White House and State Department led the charge within the Obama administration for prioritizing action against the group. Pentagon leaders were reluctant at first to pull resources away from the fight against the Islamic State.
But aides say Obama grew frustrated that more wasn’t being done by the Pentagon and the intelligence community to kill al-Nusra leaders given the warnings he had received from top counterterrorism officials about the gathering threat they posed.
In the president’s Daily Brief, the most highly classified intelligence report produced by U.S. spy agencies, Obama was repeatedly told over the summer that the group was allowing al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan to create in northwest Syria the largest haven for the network since it was scattered after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Officials also warned Obama that al-Nusra could try to fill the void as its rival, the Islamic State, lost ground.
Lisa Monaco, Obama’s White House homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, said Obama’s decision “prioritized our fight against al-Qaeda in Syria, including through targeting their leaders and operatives, some of whom are legacy al-Qaeda members.”
“We have made clear to all parties in Syria that we will not allow al-Qaeda to grow its capacity to attack the U.S., our allies, and our interests,” she said in a statement. “We will continue to take action to deny these terrorists any safe haven in Syria.”
In this 2013 photo, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, rebels from al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra sit on a truck full of ammunition at Taftanaz air base, that was captured by the rebels, in Idlib province, northern Syria. (Edlib News Network/AP)
To support the expanded push against al-Nusra, the White House pressed the Pentagon to deploy additional armed drones and intelligence-collection assets in the airspace over northwestern Syria, an area that had been sparsely covered by the United States until now because of its proximity to advanced Russian air-defense systems and aircraft.
[Who will Trump be as commander in chief?]
A bitterly divided Obama administration had tried over the summer to cut a deal with Moscow on a joint U.S.-Russian air campaign against al-Nusra, in exchange for a Russian commitment to ground Syrian government warplanes and to allow more humanitarian supplies into besieged areas. But the negotiations broke down in acrimony, with Moscow accusing the United States of failing to separate al-Nusra from more moderate rebel groups and Washington accusing the Russians of war crimes in Aleppo.
Armed drones controlled by JSOC stepped up operations in September, according to military officials.
Drone strikes by the U.S. military under the program began in October and have so far killed at least four high-value targets, including al-Nusra’s senior external planner. The Pentagon has disclosed two of the strikes so far. One of the most significant strikes — targeting a gathering of al-Nusra leaders on Nov. 2 — has yet to be disclosed, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operations.
So far, Russian air-defense systems and aircraft haven’t interfered with stepped-up U.S. operations against al-Nusra. Officials attributed Moscow’s acquiescence to the limited number of U.S. aircraft involved in the missions and to Russia’s interest in letting Washington combat one of the Assad regime’s most potent enemies within the insurgency. U.S. officials said they provided notifications to the Russians before the al-Nusra strikes to avoid misunderstandings.
Officials said the expanded al-Nusra campaign was similar to those that Obama has directed against al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.
While al-Qaeda’s central leadership in Pakistan has been decimated, the United States now faces more threats involving more extremists from more places than at any time since 9/11, Nicholas J. Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told a Senate committee in September.
The push into the province of Idlib and other parts of northwestern Syria coincides with Pentagon-backed offensives in and around Islamic State strongholds in eastern Syria and in Iraq, which have attracted the majority of U.S. military resources and public attention.
White House officials had considered launching a more systematic campaign to destroy al-Nusra from top to bottom, much like the Pentagon’s approach to the Islamic State. But that option was rejected as too resource-intensive. Many of al-Nusra’s fighters are Syrians who joined the group because of its ample supply of weapons and cash, and its commitment to defeating Assad, not to plot against the West.
Officials said the strikes on leadership targets were meant to send a message to more-moderate rebel units, including those backed by the CIA, to distance themselves from the al-Qaeda affiliate. At critical moments during the five-year-old civil war, moderate rebel units have fought alongside al-Nusra in ground operations against Assad’s forces. In fact, U.S. officials credit those rebel campaigns in the spring of 2015 with putting so much pressure on the Syrian government that Russia and Iran decided to double down militarily in support of Assad.
U.S. officials who opposed the decision to go after al-Nusra’s wider leadership warned that the United States would effectively be doing the Assad government's bidding by weakening a group on the front line of the counter-
Assad fight. The strikes, these officials warned, could backfire on the United States by bolstering the group’s standing, helping it attract more recruits and resources.
Officials who supported the shift said the Obama administration could no longer tolerate what one of them described as “a deal with the devil,” whereby the United States largely held its fire against al-Nusra because the group was popular with Syrians in rebel-controlled areas and furthered the U.S. goal of putting military pressure on Assad. Russia had accused the United States of sheltering al-Nusra, a charge repeated Thursday in Moscow by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“The president doesn’t want this group to be what inherits the country if Assad ever does fall,” a senior U.S. official said. “This cannot be the viable Syrian opposition. It’s al-Qaeda.”
Officials said the administration’s hope is that more-moderate rebel factions will be able to gain ground as both the Islamic State and al-Nusra come under increased military pressure.
A growing number of White House and State Department officials, however, have privately voiced doubts about the wisdom of applying U.S. military power, even covertly, to pressure Assad to step aside, particularly since Russia’s military intervention in Syria last year.
U.S. intelligence officials say they aren’t sure what Trump’s approach to U.S.-backed rebel units will be once he gets briefed on the extent of the covert CIA program. Trump has voiced strong skepticism about arming Syrian rebels in the past, suggesting that U.S. intelligence agencies don’t have enough knowledge about rebel intentions to pick reliable allies.
[Intelligence community is already feeling a sense of dread about Trump]
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and other Pentagon leaders initially resisted the idea of devoting more Pentagon surveillance aircraft and armed drones against al-Nusra. In White House Situation Room meetings, Carter and other top Pentagon officials argued that the military’s resources were needed to combat the Islamic State and that it would be difficult to operate in the airspace given Russia’s military presence, officials said.
While Obama, White House national security adviser Susan E. Rice, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and special presidential envoy Brett McGurk agreed with Carter on the need to keep the focus on the Islamic State, they favored shifting resources to try to prevent al-Nusra from becoming a bigger threat down the road.
A senior defense official said additional drone assets were assigned to the JSOC mission. Carter also made clear that the Pentagon’s goal would be to hit al-Nusra leadership targets, not take strikes to try to separate the moderate rebels from al-Nusra, officials said.
“If we wake up in five years from now, and Islamic State is dead but al-Qaeda in Syria has the equivalent of [the tribal areas of Pakistan] in northwest Syria, then we’ve got a problem,” a second senior U.S. official said.
Read more:
Syria’s Jabhat al-Nusra splits from al-Qaeda and changes its name
Is al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria no longer a ‘sideshow’?
Tracking the Islamic State’s rise1 of 2 2 of 2
Did you know that Amanda Fucking Palmer is in town?
She's speaking at Vancouver's TED conference today (March 19) as part of an All-Stars session. But since you didn't pay the $7,500 TED2014 ticket price, you won't be there.
Lucky for you, the crowd-sourcing cabaret-punk singer-songwriter has announced she's putting on an all-ages "ninja gig" tonight, and admission is by donation.
Here's the deets for the short-notice show from Palmer's blog:
TED, if you know much about it, is super fucking organized, and there’s very little realtime cross-over with the people here in TED-land and the population of Vancouver.
let us crush the fence. i tweeted a few days ago and the historic VOGUE |
earing that Hassim will kill him after he gets what he wants, Aladdin refuses to hand over the lamp and Hassim closes the cave trapping Aladdin. Unwittingly Aladdin rubs the lamp and releases a powerful genie who can grant any wish. Aladdin makes a wish to return to his home. After his safe return, Aladdin's mother disregards the lamp and Aladdin keeps it hidden and remains silent about it.
Four years later, Aladdin is captivated by the Sultan's daughter Layla and sneaks into the bathing house to see her. Aladdin escapes the guards and returns home to tell his mother his wish to marry the princess. Next day, Aladdin's mother presents a sack of jewels he obtained from the cave before the sultan. The sultan's conniving vizier (who has plans to marry the princess himself) convinces the sultan that his daughter is worth more than the jewels and that Aladdin should bring bigger riches and many servants. With the aid of the lamp, Aladdin accomplishes this. The sultan allows Aladdin to marry Layla and Aladdin has the genie build a palace by the city for the married couple to live in peacefully.
Hassim hears about Aladdin's success with the lamp from the medicine woman Fatima. Hassim travels to Aladdin's palace. With Aladdin out on a hunt, Hassim tricks Layla into swapping the genie's lamp for a new one and makes a wish for the palace and princess to be transported to Marrakesh. Hearing about his daughter's disappearance, the sultan has Aladdin arrested. Before Aladdin can be sentenced, Fatima (who did not get her end of the bargain with Hassim) approaches and reveals the whereabouts of Layla. With his mother in sultan's custody and one month to put things right, Aladdin travels to Marrakesh, sneaks into his palace and swipes the lamp from a sleeping Hassim. With the lamp back in his possession, Aladdin wishes his wife and palace to be returned to his homeland.
Hassim notices Aladdin's liberation and swears revenge. He kills Fatima and uses her clothes to disguise himself as her, then beckons the princess to have Aladdin wish for the egg of the fabled Roc to bring them good luck. The genie is not able to grant this wish as the Roc is superior to him and reveals that Fatima is actually Hassim. Aladdin feigns illness to bring Hassim right where he wants him. Aladdin and Hassim duel, ending up with Hassim tripping on his robe and accidentally killing himself. Aladdin and the princess then live happily ever after without the fear of anyone stealing the lamp again.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Aladdin was produced by Golden Films and the American Film Investment Corporation, it was distributed to DVD in 2002 by GoodTimes Entertainment, as part of their "Collectible Classics" line.
Shortly after its appearance as a VHS by GoodTimes, the Disney Company brought an unfair competition and infringement lawsuit, claiming that the GoodTimes packaging deliberately imitated the style of the images used by Disney to promote its own Aladdin theatrical film (starring Robin Williams), thereby deceiving consumers into thinking they were buying the Disney film (which had not yet been issued on VHS). However, a federal court dismissed the suit on the grounds that Aladdin was a public domain work and the GoodTimes packaging (with an enormous, mustached, genie with gold or orange coloring) was sufficiently distinct from the Disney images (with an enormous, non-mustached, blue genie).[1][2]As Dallas Stars training camp fast approaches there's a concern growing over the fact there has been no news or updates on the ongoing contract negotiations with restricted free agents Brenden Dillon and Cody Eakin. There has been nary a whisper of any sort of offers or counter offers or even any sort of hint of if there's any sort of strife surrounding the negotiations, like we've seen with P.K. Subban or Adam Larsson, which can be seen as a good or bad thing.
On Thursday, Mike Heika held his first true chat of the new season and updated us on the status of the non-updates coming in regards to the negotiations:
The lines of communication are open, but there has been no progress. Because this isn't an arbitration, you can use all of the comparables you want, but they only provide structure, they don't provide any push toward a contract. This is a negotiation, and I think both sides will use pressure points in a negotiation. Dillon and Eakin are hoping they will be missed if the contracts are not done by Sept. 19 and the Stars are hoping some youngsters will step up and maybe put pressure on Dillon and Eakin. This happened with Jamie Benn a couple of years back, and it's just part of the business.
As we've discussed ad nauseum over the summer, the only negotiating tactic at both players' disposal is to hold out during training camp; when they aren't there next week in Fort Worth, it's important to remember that this is just the business side of the game playing itself out and not some sort of overarching statement by either player.
There's no doubting just how important both players will be to the team next season -- Eakin as the third-line center and Dillon as a top four defenseman -- but there's also the fact that the team will be able to take advantage of their predetermined absence to give more playing time to younger players fighting for a spot in the NHL.
Radek Faksa, Scott Glennie and even Travis Morin could take advantage of that open spot during preseason games to help solidify their spot in the depth chart, while any number of the young defensemen clawing at the NHL will be glad for the extra minutes in camp and the games. It's a situation that is unfortunate in regards to their absence but -- as long as they are eventually signed -- not a scenario that is entirely detrimental to the Stars.
And that's where the staring contest comes into play. The players are using a hold out as a negotiation tactic to "force" the Stars to need them to return as soon as possible as they see just how needed they actually are; on the flip side, the Stars will try and show that one of the younger players could certainly step up and fill in their absence and they won't be as missed as the players think they will be.
As far as what contract terms are likely, it still seems as if both Eakin and Dillon are caught in the middle of a few different comparables and situations. Eakin likely wants to get paid as a young top-six forward with two-way ability, such as Zack Kassian or Alex Killorn -- while the Stars now see him as a young third-line center after the addition of Jason Spezza.
There's also the four-year, $8 million contract given to Antoine Roussel and how Eakin likely feels he deserves the same or more.
For Dillon, it's even tougher given his skill set and career so far in the NHL. I've shamelessly stolen these numbers gathered by BigG44 at HF Boards, which are good comparables to show for Dillon:
Dillon Tanev Orlov de Haan Brodie Barrie 2014-2015 Games 80 64 54 51 81 64 Goals 6 6 3 3 4 13 Assists 11 11 8 13 27 25 Points 17 17 11 16 31 38 PPG 0.21 0.27 0.2 0.31 0.38 0.59 PIM 86 8 19 30 20 20 PPG 0 0 0 1 1 4 SHG 2 1 0 0 0 0 GWG 1 2 0 1 2 5 Shots 97 65 59 71 104 101 TOI 21:05 (3rd) 20:44 (5th) 19:35 (4th) 21:01 (3rd) 24:03 (2nd) 18:32 (5th) SH TOI 2:23 (3rd) 3:00 (2nd) 0:22 (8th) 1:38 (5th) 1:57 (3rd) 0:05 (8th) PP TOI 0:07 (6th) 0:12 (6th) 0:13 (4th) 1:15 (4th) 1:46 (4th) 2:47 (1st) Hits 168 25 75 114 58 50 BS 149 136 62 104 130 57 Career Totals Games 129 156 119 52 185 106 Goals 9 8 6 3 8 15 Assists 16 19 25 13 51 36 Points 25 27 31 16 59 51 PPG 0.19 0.17 0.26 0.31 0.32 0.48 Contract Term N/A 1 2 3 2 2 Salary N/A $2 $2 $1.97 $2.13 $2.60
Dillon is obviously the more physical and "defensive" of this group, while capable of still producing offensively. It's unlikely Dillon will get paid as much as Barrie, except if the Stars are looking for a longer-term contract, and it's clear that right around $2 million per year is what fits Dillon best.
Just over a week until the Stars are in Fort Worth for training camp, but it's unlikely for either of Eakin or Dillon to be there. And that's...okay.
For now.A macaque monkey sat in front of a computer. A yellow square—the target—appeared in the periphery on the left side of the screen. After a few milliseconds of delay, a second target appeared on the right. The question was: Which target would the monkey look at first? So far so routine as neuroscience experiments go, but the next step was unusual. By non-invasively directing bursts of inaudible acoustic energy at a specific visual area of the brain, a team of scientists steered the animal’s responses. If they focused on the left side of the brain, the monkey looked to the right more often. If they focused on the right side, the monkey looked to the left more often.
The results of the experiment, which were presented last week at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting, marked the first time that focused ultrasound was safely and effectively used in a nonhuman primate to alter brain activity rather than destroy tissue. A second study, in sheep, had similar results. “The finding paves the way to noninvasive stimulation of specific brain regions in humans,” says Jan Kubanek, a neural engineer at Stanford University School of Medicine and lead author of the macaque study. The technology might ultimately be used to diagnose or treat neurological diseases and disorders like Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, addiction and depression. Other scientists are optimistic. “The idea that, with a very carefully designed dose, you could actually deliver [focused ultrasound] and stimulate the brain in the place you want and modulate a circuit rather than damage it, is a really important proof of principle,” said Helen Mayberg, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine, who was not involved with the study.
Ultrasound has long been used for imaging. When sound waves above the level that humans can hear (more than 20,000 hertz) are aimed at the body, some of the energy bounces back creating a picture of internal bodily structures. Focused ultrasound, or FUS, raises the energy level to accomplish other ends. Like using a magnifying glass to focus beams of light on a single point and burn a leaf, FUS concentrates as many as 1,000 sound waves on a specific target with precision and accuracy.
First approved by the Federal Drug Administration in 2004 as a treatment for uterine fibroids, focused ultrasound has gained an increasing variety of potential uses, generating excitement among many doctors. “There are 18 ways, or mechanisms of action, by which focused ultrasound affects tissue. That fact creates the opportunity to treat a whole variety of medical disorders,” says Neal Kassell, MD, former co-chair of neurosurgery at the University of Virginia and founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, which seeks to speed the development and adoption of the technology.
A decade ago, FUS was being investigated as a treatment for three diseases or disorders. Today that number stands at more than 90. Thus far, however, it has only been used in humans to target and destroy tissue with heat. In addition to uterine fibroids, it is approved for four other therapeutic uses in the United States. Prostate cancer was added to the list in 2015, although some urologists have been lukewarm about its use, emphasizing in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2016 that the long-term efficacy is not yet proven. In the brain, the FDA approved its use as an ablation treatment (removing tissue) for essential tremor in 2016. (In Europe, it’s more widely used.)
Howard Eisenberg, professor and chief of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, participated in the clinical studies of FUS as an ablative treatment for essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease, targeting different brain areas for each disorder. He has found that patients like the technology because it’s less invasive than deep brain stimulation, which requires surgery to implant an electrode. “It’s not surgery really,” says Eisenberg. In addition, because FUS is so precise, says Eisenberg, “you can sculpt the lesion, you might make three ablations all close to each other.”
Comparatively speaking, neuromodulation, which entails altering electrical and chemical signaling in brain circuits, requires lower doses of energy that are delivered as intermittent pulses, and is relatively far down the list of possible uses for FUS in the brain. “It’s a frontier approach,” says Eisenberg, who is more excited about using FUS to open the blood brain barrier for drug delivery But if the technique can be perfected as a method of brain stimulation it will open a new range of possibilities. It can be aimed more precisely—on the order of millimeters rather than centimeters—than transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). And it can go deeper into the brain. “I think the first opportunity is on the diagnostic side,” said Kubanek. “Disease circuitry might be variable across patients. If we can specifically stimulate regions deep in the brain and measure the reduction of tremor, that would [tell us that region is] involved in that behavior.” The next step would be to apply focused ultrasound as a method of brain stimulation for a variety of mental health and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s.
Like Kubanek, Seung-Schik Yoo, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and director of the neuromodulation lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, demonstrated successful brain stimulation using FUS at the Society for Neuroscience meeting. In sheep, Yoo and his colleagues showed that FUS could both excite and inhibit brain activity without apparent harm. But Yoo’s primary aim was to develop a wearable transcranial FUS system. His team created a small apparatus weighing only a quarter of a pound that could be worn by the sheep, whose cranial structure is similar to humans. The system consisted of a focused ultrasound transducer to generate the signal, an optical tracker and an applicator to hold the transducer over the head via an implanted pedestal. (In humans, they plan to do away with the need for implantation.) The group also developed a computer algorithm capable of predicting the intensity and location of the acoustic focus, which Yoo likened to an area the size of a large piece of orzo pasta.
“The tools themselves are really changing the face of what’s possible,” Mayberg says. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could tune [brain circuitry] with ultrasound and don’t have to open the brain?” she says. That would avoid surgery and the need for periodically changing batteries. “You could wear a device like the sheep,” she adds. “We can start to dream about some innovations that are based on exquisite neuroscience.”Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says he would prefer the Republican nominee face Hillary Clinton in the general election over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
When asked Thursday on the John Gibson Show which candidate he thought would be easier to run against, Priebus said, "Probably Hillary Clinton, it's a tough call, but I always like the known commodity."
The RNC chairman, noting Clinton's slide in the polls, said Sanders was on the rise.
"The deal with Hillary is she is stuck in a ditch and people are lining behind her like drones, at least as of recently," he said. "And now they're looking at these numbers, they're not moving, she's not liked, and people are saying, 'well now what are we gonna do?' So they're looking around her and they're looking at Bernie Sanders, who's now ahead of her in New Hampshire and tied with her in Iowa, and they're kind of stuck."
"It's a tough call, but I guess I would take Hillary," he added. "Although, I do think the sort of wild, socialistic, liberal Bernie Sanders would be fairly easy to beat as well."
Priebus added that he thought Vice President Joe Biden would have been a much tougher candidate for Democrats.
"Joe Biden would have been far better for the Democrats, he's much more difficult because he's likable — at least most the time — and he doesn't have the baggage that Hillary has," he said. "Who knows what the FBI is going to do."Run Your Own Videogame Studio In Publisher Dream
By Ishaan. April 29, 2013. 10:20am
Publisher Dream, the Nintendo DSiWare game where you run a videogame development studio, is slated for release in Europe this week and in the U.S. the next. Here’s a trailer for the game, courtesy of developer Circle Entertainment, with details below it:
In a discussion with Siliconera back in December, Circle Entertainment’s CEO, Chris Chau, described Publisher Dream as a game that expresses both how fun and stressful game development can be. You’ll have to manage your studio’s financial resources, meet deadlines, keep an eye on your staff’s stress levels, and gradually expand your studio over a period of time.
You can read more about Publisher Dream and all that it involves in our previous report of the game.Alternate titles: What Comes Next?, LessWrong is Dead, Long Live LessWrong!
You've seen the articles and comments about the decline of LessWrong. Why pay attention to this one? Because this time, I've talked to Nate at MIRI and Matt at Trike Apps about development for LW, and they're willing to make changes and fund them. (I've even found a developer willing to work on the LW codebase.) I've also talked to many of the prominent posters who've left about the decline of LW, and pointed out that the coordination problem could be deliberately solved if everyone decided to come back at once. Everyone that responded expressed displeasure that LW had faded and interest in a coordinated return, and often had some material that they thought they could prepare and have ready.
But before we leap into action, let's review the problem.
The people still on the LW site are not a representative sample of anything. With the exception of a few people like Stuart Armstrong, they’re some kind of pack of unquiet spirits who have moved in to haunt it after it got abandoned by the founding community members. At this point it’s pretty much diaspora all the way down.
--Yvain on his Tumblr.
One of the problems is that people who control the LW website are running it in pure maintenance mode. LW was put out to pasture -- there have been no changes to functionality in ages.
--Lumifer
LW's strongest, most dedicated writers all seem to have moved on to other projects or venues, as has the better part of its commentariat. In some ways, this is a good thing. There is now, for example, a wider rationalist blogosphere, including interesting people who were previously put off by idiosyncrasies of Less Wrong. In other ways, it's less good; LW is no longer a focal point for this sort of material. I'm not sure if such a focal point exists any more.
--sixes_and_sevens
This dwindling content can be seen most clearly in the "Top Contributors, 30 Days" display. At the time I write this there are only seven posters with > 100 karma in the past 30 days, and it only takes 58 to appear on the list of 15. Perhaps the question should not be whether the content of LW should be reorganised, but whether LW is fulfilling its desired purpose any longer. As nearly all the core people who worked the hardest to use this site to promote rationality are no longer contributing here, I wonder if this goal is still being achieved by LW itself. Is it still worth reading? Still worth commenting here?
--qsz
LW does seem dying and mainly useful for its old content. Any suggestions for a LW 2.0?
--signal
So let's talk suggestions for a LW 2.0. But just because we can restart LW doesn't mean we should restart LW. It's worth doing some goal factoring first (see Sacha Chua's explanation and links here). Before getting into my summary, I'll note that The Craft and the Community Sequence remains prescient and well worth reading for thinking about these issues. And before we can get into what our goals and plans are, let's talk some about:
What went wrong (or horribly right):
So why did LessWrong fade? One short version is that LW was a booster rocket, designed to get its payload to a higher altitude then discarded. This is what I mean by what went horribly right--MIRI now has a strong funding base and as much publicity as it wants. Instead of writing material to build support and get more funding, Eliezer (and a research team!) can do actual work. Similarly, at some point in one's personal growth it is necessary to not just read about growing. We should expect people who aren't habitual forum-posters to 'grow out' of heavy reading and posting on LW.
Another short version is that there was only so much to say about rationality (in 2012, at least), and once it was said, it wasn't clear what to say next. Whether something is on topic for LW and whether it belongs in Main, Discussion, or an Open Thread is unclear and so less and less content is created, and so less and less people visit, leading to even less content. The easiest example of friction is whether or not 'effective altruism' is a core LW topic; this comment by iceman expresses the problem better than I could.
Relatedly, while rationality is the Common Interest of Many Causes, in that many different causes all potentially benefit from someone coming to LessWrong and adopting its worldview and thought patterns, LessWrong seems flavored enough by MIRI and Eliezer in particular that we mostly see the Many Causes free riding instead of contributing to the upkeep of LW (in terms of content, not hosting funds). Even CFAR, the most closely related of the Many Causes to LessWrong's stated mission, mostly overlaps with LW instead of supporting it. (To be clear, this is a decision I endorse; CFAR has benefited from not being tied to the idiosyncrasies of LessWrong. CFAR staff are also some of the most frequent contributors left of the founding community members.)
I should elaborate that by Many Causes I explicitly mean a broader tent than Effective Altruism. Anyone who is sympathetic to the Neo-Enlightenment Eliezer talks about in Common Interest of Many Causes strikes me as enough of a fellow traveler, regardless of whether or not they have found something to protect or whether or not that something to protect is the kind of thing Givewell would consider altruistic or a top priority.
What roles LW served, and what could do it better:
First, some roles that LW (the website) doesn't or can't serve:
Getting direct work done. Open-sourcing things is powerful, but it remains true that money is the unit of caring. When people really want something done, they have an institution with an office and employees that get the thing done. Direct work on any of the Many Causes is going to be done by people working directly on that task, not by posts on an internet forum.
Physical interaction with like-minded people. You can organize a meetup on LW, but you can't attend one.
Practical rationality training. The Sequences are great at giving people a philosophical foundation, but they can only do so much. There's a reason why CFAR has workshops instead of writing articles and books.
Now let's step through several roles that LW has historically had:
Focal Point / News Organization
Welcoming Committee / Rationality Materials
Meetup Organizer / Social Club
You are encouraged to spend five minutes thinking about what you would do to fulfill any of those roles if LW suddenly disappeared, or how you would modify LW to better serve those roles, or if there's a role missing from the list.
Focal Point / News Organization
If your values and interests are similar to a community's, the main benefit you get out of the community and the community gets out of you have to do with correlating your attention. If something of interest to me happens, be it a blog post or a book or an event or a fundraiser, I won't know unless it enters one of my news streams. Given the high degree of shared interests between supporters of the Many Causes or by virtue of social ties to the community, treating the community's attention as a shared resource makes great sense. (Every promoted post since Julia Galef's in April seems like an example of this sort of thing to me.) For example, MIRI's Winter Fundraiser is going on now. But there are Many Causes, not one cause, and as much as possible the ability to direct shared attention should respect that.
Many people in the community also have interesting thoughts, which they typically post to their blog (or twitter or tumblr or...). Aggregating those into one location reduces the total attention cost of keeping up with the community. (This is especially important if one wants to maintain people who are time-limited because they are working hard on their Important Project!) The experience of SSC seems to suggest that it's way better for authors to have control over their branding. I suspect much of the mainstream attention that Scott's received is because he's posting to a one-man blog, and thus can be linked to much more safely than linking to LW.
So compared to when most things were either posted or crossposted to LW, it seems like we currently spend too little attention on aggregating and unifying content spread across many different places. If most of the action is happening offsite, and all that needs to be done is link to it, Reddit seems like the clear low-cost winner. Or perhaps it makes sense to try to do something like an online magazine, with an actual editor. (See Viliam's discussion of the censor role in an online community.) I note that FLI is hiring a news website editor (but they're likely more x-risk focused than I'm imagining).
If we were going to modify LW to serve this role better, multiple reddits seems like the obvious suggestion here (and a potentially interesting innovation may be tag reddits, where categories are not exclusive). "Main" and "Discussion" do not at all capture the splits in what the audience wants to pay attention to. Integrated commenting across multiple sites, if possible, seems like it might be a huge win but may be technically very difficult (or require everyone to agree on a platform like Disqus).
Welcoming Committee / Rationality Materials
Someone is interested in learning more about thinking better; probably they have tons of confusion about philosophy, how the world works, and their own goals and psychology. Someone mentions this LessWrong place, or links them particular articles, or they read HPMoR and follow the links in the Author's Notes.
But then they realize just how long Rationality: From AI to Zombies is, or they don't understand a particular part. Without social reinforcement that it's interesting and without other people to ask questions of, they likely won't get all that far or as much out of it as they could have.
And then there's all the other things that someone picks up by being part of a community--who the various people are, what they're working on, what options are out there.
It seems to me that the the optimal software for something like this is perhaps more like Wikipedia or Stack Overflow than it is like Reddit. If we're building a giant tree of rationality-related concepts and skills, it doesn't quite make sense to have individual blog posts written by individual authors, instead of community-maintained wiki pages with explanations and links.
Meetup Organizer / Social Club
You can't do the physical meeting up online, but you can alert people to meetups near them. At time of writing, according to the map on the front page, one of the five closest meetups to me (in Austin, Texas) is in Brussels.
Part of that is groups moving to other communication channels to organize meetups. In Austin, for example, the email list is a much more reliable way to contact people--especially since many of them don't regularly check LW! But the lost advertising potential seems significant, and something like the EA Hub seems like a better solution.
There's also a role to be played in colocating rationalists, either through helping form group houses and shared apartments or moving subsidies / loans. It's not clear it's efficient for more people to move to the Bay Area relative to secondary or tertiary hubs, but it does seem likely that we should put resources towards growing the physical community.
There's also a much longer conversation that could be had about effectively employing more social technology to develop and strengthen the community, but I get the sense that most of those organizations, be they formal institutions or churches or families or mastermind groups or taskforces, are categorically unlike online forums, and the community they will be developing and strengthening will not be "LessWrong readers" so much as "meatspace rationalists." So I'll ignore this for now as off topic, except to note that I am very interested in this subject and you should contact me if also interested.
Why not have that and LW?
So far, I've talked about things that would serve various roles better than LW, though perhaps not at the same time. One could easily imagine them existing side by side: it's not like Scott Alexander needed to shut down his Yvain account to start posting at SSC, he just made the alternative and started posting to it. Similarly, a reddit for the rationalist diaspora already exists (though it doesn't see much use yet), as do two (well, one and a half) for SSC.
The trouble is the people who have noticed that people have left, but not where they're going, and the links to LessWrong over all the old material. If LessWrong is a ghost town that's being haunted by a pack of unquiet spirits, well, better to be upfront about that than give people the wrong impression about what rationalists are like.
TL;DR
I think we should either develop a plan that makes LW fully functional at the three roles mentioned above (and any others that are raised), or we should close down posting and commenting on LW (while maintaining it as an archive). The shutdown could either happen at the end of December, or March 5th to correspond to the opening of LW, but the most important factor is that there be replacements to point people to. It seems likely we should leave open the LW wiki (and probably make the LW landing page point to a wiki page, so it can be maintained and updated to point to prominent parts of the diaspora). The Meetups functionality should probably be augmented or replaced (either static links to dynamic objects, like Facebook groups, or with functionality that makes it easier on the organizers, like recurring meetups).
(I wrote that as an 'or', but at present I lean heavily towards the 'archive LW and embrace the diaspora' position.)Everton have yet to lose in six European games against German opponents
Everton's first Europa League appearance since 2010
Coleman, Baines and Mirallas all score
Rodriguez own goal put Toffees ahead
Everton marked their Europa League return with a dominant victory over Germans Wolfsburg at Goodison Park.
The Toffees, back in the tournament for the first time since 2010, controlled much of the game as a Ricardo Rodriguez own goal and a Seamus Coleman header gave them a 2-0 half-time lead.
Leighton Baines put the game beyond Wolfsburg with a second-half penalty.
Kevin Mirallas drilled in a late fourth for Everton before Rodriguez grabbed a consolation with a curled free-kick.
The win puts Everton top of Group H and was just reward for manager Roberto Martinez, who underlined his intention to take the competition seriously by naming a strong side, after calling it "the perfect next step" for the club.
The Toffees narrowly missed out on the Champions League last season as they finished fifth in the Premier League, but with their participation in this season's Europa League ending a four-year absence, Martinez has expressed a determination to go as far as possible.
Everton's attacking display on Thursday will certainly give him confidence of progressing from a group that also contains French side Lille and Russians FK Krasnodar.
Match facts Everton had seven shots on target and scored four goals Wolfsburg are without a win in five European away matches (D2 L3) Roberto Martinez's side have yet to lose in six European games against German opponents (W3 D3) The German side had 27 shots on goal, with 13 of those on target
Martinez had opted not to rest any of his first-team regulars for the visit of Wolfsburg, naming the same side that defeated West Brom 2-0 in the Premier League on Saturday.
Romelu Lukaku got his first of the campaign in that game and the striker spearheaded an exciting, attacking quartet that also included Aiden McGeady, Naismith and Mirallas.
They have all contributed to Everton's impressive statistic of having scored at least two goals in every game this season, and it was of little surprise they each played significant roles in the goals against Wolfsburg.
Naismith was the first to make a telling contribution, forcing the opener with Everton's first attack. After winning possession, Naismith ran into the area to receive a Baines pass before stabbing a shot at goal. Rodriguez tried to clear, but the ball cannoned off goalkeeper Diego Benaglio, and hit the Wolfsburg full-back again before ending up in his own net.
That was Everton's first goal in Europe at Goodison Park since beating Sporting Lisbon 2-1 in February 2010, and it had the buoyant home crowd hungry for more.
Former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner came off the bench for Wolfsburg, but was unable to score
Everton duly attempted to deliver, with full-backs Baines and Coleman becoming more adventurous as Wolfsburg offered little going forward, and their attacking instincts resulted in the home side's second goal on the stroke of half-time.
Mirallas's drive was weakly pushed into the path of Baines, who had followed the shot into the area, and he knocked the ball across goal for Coleman to nod in.
Wolfsburg boss Dieter Hecking introduced Germany midfielder Aaron Hunt for the start of the second half, but within seconds of the restart Everton went further ahead. This time, Robin Knoche's foul on McGeady was deemed to have occurred inside the area, and Baines confidently despatched the resulting penalty.
The goal effectively ended Wolfsburg's hopes of returning to Germany with anything to show but, with nothing to lose, they embarked on a spell of dominance.
For a good 30 minutes they enjoyed the lion's share of possession and attempts on goal, as Tim Howard produced saves from Luiz Gustavo's opportunistic shot and Rodriguez's well-struck free-kick.
Former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner was introduced after the hour, with Wolfsburg boss Hecking sensing a possible goal, but instead it was Everton who grabbed a fourth. Mirallas peeled away from defenders to run on to substitute Samuel Eto'o's through ball and he coolly slotted in at Benaglio's near post.
There was still time for Wolfsburg to get the consolation their 27 shots on goal deserved, Rodriguez making some amends for his early own goal with a curling free-kick.
Everton boss Roberto Martinez: "The atmosphere was perfect for us to start a very good performance.
"I thought there were two very good sides. On the night the scoreline probably doesn't reflect the difference between the two sides.
"We scored at the right times. Our work-rate was magnificent. We had to defend and we did that really well but every time we went forward we had a clinical touch about us."
Wolfsburg boss Dieter Hecking: "It's obviously not the start we'd hoped for. We were lacking in certain areas, both in terms of finishing and defensive work.
"We should have gone into half-time a goal down and we got hit with a second just before the break. Straight after the restart, 3-0 down and the game is lost.
"We really weren't smart enough and showed a certain naivety."
Wolfsburg have gone eight European matches without a clean sheet
Everton have reached the knockout phase in both of their previous Uefa Cup and Europa League campaigns
Leighton Baines scored his first goal of the season for Everton from the penalty spot
Kevin Mirallas has scored in each of Everton's last three matchesA federal district court on Thursday upheld a Connecticut gun control law that expanded the state’s assault weapons ban, created a dangerous weapon offender registry and formed new rules for buying ammunition, the Hartford Courant reported.
“The court concludes that the legislation is constitutional,” Judge Alfred Covello wrote in the decision. “While the act burdens the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights, it is substantially related to the important governmental interest of public safety and crime control.”
The law was passed and signed by Gov. Dannel Malloy last year in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and went into effect at the beginning of 2014.
A group of gun owners challenged the law, claiming that it violated the Second Amendment. Covello, a Republican appointee, rebutted their claims and said that the law was meant to provide for public safety.
“Obviously, the court cannot foretell how successful the legislation will be in preventing crime,” he wrote. “Nevertheless, for the purposes of the court’s inquiry here, Connecticut, in passing the legislation, has drawn reasonable inferences from substantial evidence.”President Donald Trump |
died of old age.
His descendant should know Americans' contempt, somehow.
To: Pharmboy
Waxhaws led to the phrase "Tarleton's quarter", which meant no quarter at all. Tarleton heard the phrase from U.S troops at the Cowpens, when Daniel Morgan kicked the sh*t out of Tarleton, and his legion in about 20 minutes.
by 9 posted onby PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
To: exit82; Pharmboy
An exception to the usual legal rules should apply to "Bloody Ban's" heirs. You'd think they'd want to make amends for the butcher. BTW, I very recently toured the Cowpens battlefield, where we got in some licks of our own, and the Americans treated the British prisoners humanely, despite calls for "Tarleton's Quarter."
To: Pharmboy
6.5 million is chump change compared to the billions in fraud in the aftermath of Katrina. These flags need to be in the Smithsonian or State museums.
To: Pharmboy
We pay HOW MANY BILLIONS a year for welfare and medical care and housing and education for people who aren't even citizens and who aren't here legally-yet we can't find the where-with-all to procure these historical flags?
To: glock rocks
Check this out...
by 13 posted onby tubebender (Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.)
To: Liberty Valance; TalBlack
Absolutely. These are treasures which should be displayed for all to see...esp. the citizens of VA, SC and NC.
by 14 posted onby Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must)
To: colorado tanker
I'm more a student of the Civil War, but I am reading more about the Revolutionary War--hope to see Cowpens someday.
by 15 posted onby exit82 (If Democrats can lead, then I'm Chuck Norris.)
To: exit82; All
Interesting you say that. Mark Mayo Boatner was a civil war expert who authored a Dictionary of the Civil War. Friends began to encourage him to do something similar for the RevWar and he then wrote the Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (1994). He discusses the issue of the isolated pursuits of RevWar enthusiasts and those who favor the study of The War Between the States. Amazon has Boatner's books...the Encyclopedia is well worth the 20 bucks.
by 16 posted onby Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must)
To: Pharmboy
Thanks for the info,Pharmboy.
The courage and determination of the generation of Americans that fought for independence increasingly intrigues me.
by 17 posted onby exit82 (If Democrats can lead, then I'm Chuck Norris.)
To: Pharmboy
I love your historical threads... thank you!
by 18 posted onby nutmeg ("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton 6/28/04)
To: nutmeg
You are most welcome, and thank you for your kind words. Your Obdt. Svt.
P_____y
by 19 posted onby Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must)
To: RaceBannon; scoopscandal; 2Trievers; LoneGOPinCT; Rodney King; sorrisi; MrSparkys; monafelice;...
Connecticut ping!...A fourth silk flag from a Connecticut cavalry regiment - and the earliest surviving American flag with a field of 13 red and white stripes - also will be up for auction. It was captured by Tarleton a year earlier during an engagement at Bedford/Pound Ridge, N.Y......The Connecticut flag, to be sold separately, is expected to bring $1.5 million to $3.5 million... Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
by 20 posted onby nutmeg ("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton 6/28/04)
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FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John RobinsonSeries of electronic devices by Google
For other uses, see Nexus
Google Nexus is a line of consumer electronic devices that run the Android operating system. Google manages the design, development, marketing, and support of these devices, but some development and all manufacturing are carried out by partnering with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The line has also included tablets and streaming media players, though neither type of device is currently available. The most recent tablet was the Nexus 9 (made with HTC), and the most recent streaming media player the Nexus Player (made with Asus).
Devices in the Nexus line[2] were considered Google's flagship Android products. They contain little to no manufacturer or wireless carrier modifications to Android (such as custom user interfaces[3]), although devices sold through carriers may be SIM locked and may bear some extra branding. Nexus 6 devices sold through AT&T, for example, are SIM locked and feature a custom boot splash screen and a logo on the back of the device, despite having otherwise identical hardware to the unlocked variant.[citation needed] The Verizon Galaxy Nexus featured a Verizon logo on the back and received software updates at a slower pace than the unlocked variant, though it featured different hardware to accommodate Verizon's CDMA network. All Nexus devices feature an unlockable bootloader[4] to allow further development and end-user modification.[5] Nexus devices are often among the first Android devices to receive updates to the operating system.[6][7][8]
With the expansion of the Google Pixel product line in late 2016, Google stated that they "don’t want to close a door completely, but there is no plan right now to do more Nexus devices."[9] In 2017 Google partnered with HMD Global in making new Nokia phones, which have been considered by some as a revival of Nexus.[10][11][12][13]
Devices [ edit ]
Phones [ edit ]
Nexus One [ edit ]
Nexus One
The Nexus One was manufactured by HTC and released in January 2010 as the first Nexus phone. It was released with Android 2.1 Eclair, and was updated in May 2010 to be the first phone with Android 2.2 Froyo. It was further updated to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It was announced that Google would cease support for the Nexus One, whose graphics processing unit (GPU) is poor at rendering the new 2D acceleration engine of the UI in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Nexus S and newer models have hardware designed to handle the new rendering. It was the only Nexus device to have card storage expandability (SD).
Display: 3.7" display with 800×480 pixel resolution
CPU: 1 GHz Qualcomm Scorpion
Storage: 512 MB (expandable)
RAM: 512 MB
GPU: Adreno 200
Camera: 5 MP rear camera
Nexus S [ edit ]
Nexus S
The Nexus S, manufactured by Samsung, was released in December 2010 to coincide with the release of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. In December 2011 it was updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, with most variations later being updatable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in July 2012.[14] The device's support was ended after 4.1 Jelly Bean and no longer receives updates from Google.
Display: 4.0" display with 800×480 pixel resolution
Chipset: Hummingbird
CPU: 1 GHz single-core ARM Cortex-A8
Storage: 16 GB (Partitioned: 1 GB internal storage and 15 GB USB storage)
RAM: 512 MB
GPU: PowerVR SGX540
Battery: 1500 mAH (replaceable)
Galaxy Nexus [ edit ]
Galaxy Nexus
The Galaxy Nexus, manufactured by Samsung, was released in November 2011 (GSM version, US version released on December 15, 2011) to coincide with the release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The device support was ended after 4.3 Jelly Bean and no longer receives updates from Google. This device is known in Brazil as Galaxy X due to a trademark on the "Nexus" brand.[15] It is also the last Nexus device to have a removable battery.
Display: 4.65" HD Super AMOLED display with 1280×720 pixel resolution
CPU: 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9
Storage: 16 or 32 GB
RAM: 1 GB
Nexus 4 [ edit ]
Nexus 4
The Nexus 4 smartphone, also known as the LG Nexus 4 or LG Mako, was released in November 2012 and manufactured by LG. It was the first Android device that used Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update version. Nexus 4 is the first Nexus device to have wireless charging capabilities. It was updated to Android 4.3 in June 2013 and to Android 4.4 in November 2013. It can run Android 5.1 as of April 2015.[16] The Nexus 4 has the following characteristics:
Display: 4.7" Corning Gorilla Glass 2, True HD IPS Plus capacitive touchscreen, 768×1280 pixel resolution, 16M colors
CPU: Quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064
Storage: 8 or 16 GB
RAM: 2 GB
GPU: Adreno 320
Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 2100 mAh battery, wireless charging
Camera: 8 MP rear camera with 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, and LED flash; 1.3 MP front camera
Nexus 5 [ edit ]
Nexus 5
The Nexus 5 smartphone, again manufactured by LG, was scheduled for sale on October 31, 2013 for US$349 at the Google Play store. It was the first device to run Android 4.4 KitKat. The Nexus 5 will not receive an official Android 7.0 Nougat update,[17] meaning that Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow is the last officially supported Android version for the device. The Nexus 5 has the following characteristics:[18]
Display: 4.95" Corning Gorilla Glass 3, IPS LCD touchscreen, 1080×1920 pixel resolution (1080p)
Processor: 2.26 GHz Krait 400 quad-core processor on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC
Storage: 16 or 32 GB
RAM: 2 GB
GPU: Adreno 330
Battery: 2,300 mAh lithium polymer, wireless charging
Cameras: 8 MP rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS); 1.3 MP front camera
Connectivity: 4G LTE, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
Colors: Black, White, or Red
Nexus 6 [ edit ]
Nexus 6
The Nexus 6 is a smartphone developed by Motorola, originally running Android 5.0 Lollipop (upgradeable to Android 7.1.1 Nougat[19]). It was first announced on October 15, 2014 along with the Nexus 9 and the Nexus Player.[20][21]
Display: 5.96" Quad HD AMOLED PenTile (RGBG) display with 1440×2560 pixel resolution (493 ppi)
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 - Quad-core 2.7 GHz
Modem: Qualcomm MDM9625M
Storage: 32 or 64 GB
RAM: 3 GB
GPU: Adreno 420
Battery: 3220 mAh with Turbo Charging technology, non-removable, wired charging
Cameras: 13 MP rear camera with f/2.0 lens featuring OIS; 2 MP front camera
Speakers: Dual front facing stereo
Colors: Midnight Blue and Cloud White
Nexus 5X [ edit ]
Nexus 5X
The Nexus 5X is a smartphone developed by LG originally running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It was first announced on September 29, 2015, along with the Nexus 6P and several other Google devices (such as the Pixel C tablet).[22]
Display: 5.2" FHD LCD display with 1080×1920 pixel resolution (423ppi)
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 - Hexa-core 1.8 GHz
Storage: 16 or 32 GB
RAM: 2 GB LPDDR3
GPU: Adreno 418
Battery: 2700 mAh with rapid charging, non-removable
Cameras: 12.3 MP rear camera with f/2.0 lens and IR laser-assisted autofocus; [23] 5 MP front camera with f/2.0 lens
5 MP front camera with f/2.0 lens Speakers: Single front-facing speaker
Colors: Carbon (black), Quartz (white), and Ice (mint)
Nexus 6P [ edit ]
Nexus 6P
The Nexus 6P is a smartphone developed by Huawei originally running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It was first announced on September 29, 2015 along with the Nexus 5X and several other Google devices (such as the Pixel C tablet).[24]
Display: 5.7" WQHD AMOLED display with 1440×2560 pixel resolution (518ppi)
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 - Octa-core 4 × 1.95 GHz, 4 × 1.55 GHz
Storage: 32, 64, or 128 GB
RAM: 3 GB LPDDR4
GPU: Adreno 430
Battery: 3450 mAh with rapid charging, non-removable
Cameras: 12.3 MP rear camera with f/2.0 lens and IR laser-assisted autofocus; [23] 8 MP front camera with f/2.0 lens
8 MP front camera with f/2.0 lens Speakers: Dual front-facing stereo
Colors: Aluminum, Graphite, Frost, or Gold[25][26]
Tablets [ edit ]
Nexus 7 [ edit ]
First generation [ edit ]
Nexus 7 (2012)
On June 27, 2012, at its I/O 2012 keynote presentation, Google introduced the Nexus 7, a 7-inch tablet computer developed with and manufactured by Asus. Released in July 2012, it was the first device to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The latest Android version supported by Google for the device is Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.
Display: 7" display with 1280×800 pixel resolution
SoC: Nvidia Tegra 3
CPU: 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9
Storage: 8, 16, or 32 GB
RAM: 1 GB
GPU: ULP GeForce
Battery: 4325 mAh (non-removable)
Second generation [ edit ]
Nexus 7 (2013)
On July 24, 2013, at Google's "Breakfast with Sundar Pichai" press conference, Pichai introduced the second generation Nexus 7, again co-developed with Asus. Keeping with Google Nexus tradition, it was simultaneously released with the latest version, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. It was made available on July 26, 2013 at select retailers and on the Google Play store in the United States.[27] On November 20, 2013, it was available from the Google Play stores in Hong Kong and India. On the same day, the Nexus Wireless Charger was made available in the United States and Canada.[28] In December 2015, Google released Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow for the device.[29] The Nexus 7 (2013) will not receive an official Android 7.0 Nougat update,[17] meaning that Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow is the last officially supported Android version for the tablet.
Display: 7.02" display with 1920×1200 pixel resolution
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4Pro
CPU: 1.51 GHz quad-core Krait 300
Storage: 16 or 32 GB
RAM: 2 GB
GPU: 400 MHz quad-core Adreno 320
Battery: 4325 mAh (non-removable)
Nexus 10 [ edit ]
Nexus 10
The Nexus 10, a 10.1-inch tablet manufactured by Samsung, was revealed in late October 2012 by the Exif data of photos taken by Google executive, Vic Gundotra,[30] along with the leaks of its manual and a comprehensive series of photos. The leaked photos revealed a design similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, with a 10.1-inch 2560×1600 display, 16 or 32 GB of storage, Android 4.2, and a dual-core 1.7 GHz Exynos 5 processor. The Nexus 10 was expected to be unveiled officially during a Google press event on October 29, 2012, but the event was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.[31][32] The Nexus 10 would not receive any official updates beyond Android 5.1.1.
Display: 10.1" Corning Gorilla Glass 2 with 2560×1600 pixel resolution
CPU: 1.7 GHz dual-core Cortex-A15
Chipset: Samsung Exynos 5250
Storage: 16 or 32 GB
RAM: 2 GB
GPU: Mali-T604 MP4
Nexus 9 [ edit ]
Nexus 9
The Nexus 9 is an 8.9-inch tablet running Android 5.0 Lollipop, developed in collaboration between Google and HTC. It was first announced on October 15, 2014 along with the Nexus 6 and the Nexus Player.[20]
Display: 8.9" Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with 2048×1536 pixel resolution
CPU: 2.3 GHz dual-core 64-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 "Denver"
Chipset: Nvidia Tegra K1
Storage: 16 or 32 GB
RAM: 2 GB
Dual front-facing speakers featuring HTC BoomSound
Digital media players [ edit ]
Nexus Q [ edit ]
The Nexus Q is a discontinued digital media player that ran Android and integrated with Google Play, to sell at US$299 in the United States.
After complaints about a lack of features for the price, the Nexus Q was shelved indefinitely; Google said it needed time to make the product "even better".[33] The Nexus Q was unofficially replaced by the Chromecast, and further by the Nexus Player.
Storage: 16 GB
RAM: 1 GB
Nexus Player [ edit ]
The Nexus Player is a streaming media player created in collaboration between Google and Asus. It is the first device running Android TV. It was first announced on October 15, 2014 along with the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9.[20] On May 24, 2016, Google discontinued sales of the Nexus Player,.[34] In March 2018, Google confirmed that the Nexus Player would not receive the upcoming version of Android, Android P, and that security updates had also ended for the device.[35]
1.8 GHz quad-core Intel Atom processor
802.11ac 2x2 (MIMO)
HDMI out
Remote control (with 2 AAA batteries)
Gamepad (Purchased separately)[36]
Philip K. Dick estate claim [ edit ]
Upon the announcement of the first Nexus device, the Nexus One, the estate of science fiction author Philip K. Dick claimed that the Nexus One name capitalized on intellectual property from Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and that the choice of name was a direct reference to the Nexus-6 series of androids in the novel.[37]
See also [ edit ]A Zimbabwean woman displays the new $100,000 Zimbabwean dollar bill. Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images
After a brutal decade-plus, the Zimbabwean dollar is being put to rest. The country’s central bank on Thursday announced as of Monday, June 15th the country will be dropping the local currency, which through severe economic mismanagement under President Robert Mugabe had not only become unusable, but a global punch line.
The exchange program set up by the central bank for holders of the local currency shows how far the beleaguered Zim dollar has fallen. For anything up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars the bank will offer $5 in return. After that $1 will be paid for every 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars. Bills printed before 2009 are slightly more valuable and can be exchanged at a rate of $1 to 250 trillion Zimbabwe dollars.
The spiraling hyperinflation of the 2000’s pushed the country to effectively abandon the local currency in 2009 for state business. Harare began using a basket of currencies, including the U.S. dollar and the South African rand, to curb inflation and restore faith in the banking system. The recent move by the government will bring day-to-day monetary transactions into the same multi-currency system. At its lowest point in 2009, hyperinflation had so decimated the currency that the largest denomination note was a whopping $100 trillion. It was not enough for bus fare at the time. Inflation during that period topped out at 500 billion percent. “At the height of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis in 2008, Zimbabweans had to carry plastic bags bulging with bank notes to buy basic goods like bread and milk,” Reuters notes.World Fantasy Awards
2014 Lifetime Achievement Awards
The convention is pleased to announce that Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented to:
Ellen Datlow
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
World Fantasy Awards Presentation
The Awards will be presented at the World Fantasy Convention Banquet on Sunday afternoon, November 9. Tickets for the Banquet will be available for purchase in July. Tickets are strictly limited and sold on a first-come basis.
The Awards presentation will follow the Banquet and will be open to all Attending members of the convention.
Shortly after the Awards presentation, attending judges will discuss their process and decisions.
The Jury
The Award winners have been selected by our jurists: Andy Duncan, Kij Johnson, Oliver Johnson, John Klima, and Liz Williams.
2014 Nominees and Honorees
The following have been nominated for 2014 World Fantasy Awards.
Those honored with the award are in bold type.
Novel
Sofia Samatar
A Stranger in Olondria (Small Beer Press)
A Stranger in Olondria (Small Beer Press) Richard Bowes, Dust Devil on a Quiet Street (Lethe Press)
Marie Brennan, A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent (Tor Books)
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (William Morrow/Headline)
Helene Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni (Harper/Blue Door)
Gene Wolfe, The Land Across (Tor Books)
Novella
Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages
"Wakulla Springs" (Tor.com, 10/13)
"Wakulla Springs" (Tor.com, 10/13) Caitlín R. Kiernan Black Helicopters (Subterranean Press)
KJ Parker "The Sun and I" (Subterranean magazine, Summer 2013)
Veronica Schanoes "Burning Girls" (Tor.com, 6/13)
Catherynne M. Valente, Six-Gun Snow White (Subterranean Press)
Short Fiction
Caitlín R. Kiernan
"The Prayer of Ninety Cats" (Subterranean magazine, Spring 2013)
"The Prayer of Ninety Cats" (Subterranean magazine, Spring 2013) Thomas Olde Heuvelt, "The Ink Readers of Doi Saket" (Tor.com, 4/13)
Yoon Ha Lee, "Effigy Nights" (Clarkesworld, 1/13)
Sofia Samatar, "Selkie Stories Are for Losers" (Strange Horizons, 1/13)
Rachel Swirsky, "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" (Apex Magazine, 3/13)
Anthology
George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds.
Dangerous Women (Tor Books/Voyager UK)
Dangerous Women (Tor Books/Voyager UK) Kate Bernheimer, ed., xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths (Penguin Books)
Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds. Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy (Tor Books)
Stephen Jones, ed. Flotsam Fantastique: The Souvenir Book of World Fantasy Convention 2013 (Smith & Jones/PS Publishing)
Jonathan Oliver, ed., End of the Road: An Anthology of Original Short Stories (Solaris Books)
Jonathan Strahan, ed., Fearsome Journeys: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy (Solaris Books)
Collection
Caitlín R. Kiernan
The Ape's Wife and Other Stories (Subterranean Press)
The Ape's Wife and Other Stories (Subterranean Press) Nathan Ballingrud, North American Lake Monsters: Stories (Small Beer Press)
Laird Barron, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories (Night Shade Books)
Reggie Oliver, Flowers of the Sea (Tartarus Press)
Rachel Swirsky, How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future (Subterranean Press)
Artist
Charles Vess
Galen Dara
Zelda Devon
Julie Dillon
John Picacio
Special Award - Professional
Irene Gallo
for art direction of Tor.com
for art direction of Tor.com William K. Schafer
for Subterranean Press
for Subterranean Press John Joseph Adams, for magazine and anthology editing
Ginjer Buchanan, for editing at Ace Books
Jeff VanderMeer & Jeremy Zerfoss, for Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction (Abrams Image)
Jerad Walters, for Centipede Press
Special Award - Non-ProfessionalLong Beach city officials announced today that the master lease of the iconic Queen Mary has been formally transferred to the real estate investment and development firm Urban Commons. During the course of a 66-year master lease, the Los Angeles-based company will restore the historic ship to its glory days and develop a retail, dining and entertainment district on surrounding properties.
Urban Commons intends to complete the project in phases over the next several years, beginning immediately with upgrades to the Queen Mary. The renovations, which are scheduled for completion by mid-2017, will add modern details to the guest rooms and restaurant spaces of the former ocean liner. The ship will remain open to tourists and hotel guests during the course of construction.
In the second phase of the project, Urban Commons intends to construct a retail, dining and entertainment center on 45 acres of oceanfront land adjacent to the ship. However, precise details about the proposed complex have not been announced.
Popular events at the Queen Mary, such as the annual Harbor and CHILL events, are expected to continue. Urban Concepts also plans to work with Carnival Cruise Lines to improve the adjacent cruise terminal.Thank you to all of my extremely awesome and supportive backers!
WHAT IS ALIBI?
Imagine the cast of Who's Line Is It Anyway? playing Cards Against Humanity on the set of Judge Judy. That's Alibi. Check out some of the awesome gameplay footage below!
Alibi began as a school project that I later transformed into a self-directed co-op at Northeastern University.
WHY KICKSTARTER?
The end goal is to get Alibi on retail shelves. The first step is to raise enough funds to print 500 Alibi decks - enough for all of you, my supportive backers, and enough for promotional copies to exhibit in retail stores.
Complete funding of this project will be used as evidence of this game's success in the gaming community. This data will prove invaluable in making for a strong sales pitch to companies as to why they should invest in putting this game on their shelves. This is why I need your help to make Alibi a reality!
Now, on to the game itself.
HOW TO PLAY:
One player is The Prosecutor; they are the judge, jury, and executioner. They are also the scorekeeper. The Prosecutor's job is to interrogate each suspect and dissect their alibis to determine who is most guilty. The remaining players are the suspects. The suspects are trying to make sure they don't have the most points of guilt at the end of the game. The player with the most points of guilt loses, the others win.
The following video contains language inappropriate for children.
Alibi is designed to be played by 3-5 players, one of whom plays as the Prosecutor. First, the Prosecutor picks a crime that was committed. Perhaps it was a murder? Or maybe someone stole his/her newspaper that morning? The Prosecutor then shuffles up the deck and deals out the opening hands. At the beginning of the game each player starts off with 3 cards. The game operates around a 24-hour clock and is played in rounds, starting with Round 1 at 11:00 (11 am). Round 2 is 12:00 (12 pm), Round 3 is 13:00 (1 pm), Round 4 is 14:00 (2 pm) and so on.
At the beginning of their turn each player draws a card, plus any additional cards earned from Divine Alibis.
The Prosecutor asks the first suspect, the player to his/her left, for their alibi of where they were at 11:00 (11 am). The suspect then draws a card and chooses which Alibi to play for the Prosecutor. This process goes clockwise until each suspect has given an Alibi for that hour. Each round is a new hour, so that Round 2 is at 12:00. The first suspect also rotates clockwise each turn, so that player one starts Round 1, player two starts Round 2, and so on. Players must end each round with 3 cards in their hand and must draw/discard accordingly. When there are no more cards in the deck players no longer discard.
There are two types of cards, Alibis and Slams.
Alibi Cards are played by the suspects to formulate an innocent, believable story for the Prosecutor. When the Prosecutor asks where a suspect was, that suspect plays an Alibi card which states where they were, what they were doing, and who they saw. There are three different Alibi cards:
Typical Alibis (Blue) - A Typical Alibi could be the truth or a lie, but that's up to the Prosecutor to decide. It may conflict with other alibis and has no other effect.
- A Typical Alibi could be the truth or a lie, but that's up to the Prosecutor to decide. It may conflict with other alibis and has no other effect. Divine Alibis (Orange) - Divine Alibis grant the player +1 card draw at their next upkeep. They have no more influence or power than Typical Alibis.
- Divine Alibis grant the player +1 card draw at their next upkeep. They have no more influence or power than Typical Alibis. Trump Alibis (Green) - Trump Alibis are 100% true Alibis. The Prosecutor can issue a point of guilt to any player whose Alibi conflicts with a Trump Alibi that turn. Trump Alibis are only Trump if played at the time indicated on the bottom of the card; if played at any other time they are Typical Alibis.
Slam Cards can be played at any point in the game, regardless of whose turn it is. In addition to their individual card effects all Slams also grant an immediate +1 card draw. Players can only play one Slam each turn and up to 3 Slams per round. The Witness Statement Slams cannot be played when a Trump Alibi is in play, and only one Witness Statement may be played per round. Witness Statements are Trumped by conflicting Trump Alibis and the player of the Witness Statement is issue a Point of Guilt.
There may be Conflicting Information in the Alibis played on any given turn. It is up to the discretion of the Prosecutor to determine who receives points of guilt, unless an Alibi was Trumped. Multiple players may receive a point of guilt on a turn.
If two or more players play Alibis with the same location on the same turn, it is considered a Corroborated Story, even if they didn’t see the same witnesses. If a Trump Alibi is played against a corroborated story, all corroborators earn two Points of Guilt. Trump Alibis cannot be a part of a corroborated story, and will Trump other Alibis at the same location.
It is the job of the Prosecutor to question suspicious Alibis and Conflicting Information, though players are encouraged to argue the validity of their Alibi. If an Alibi doesn't "fit" in a suspect's story the Prosecutor should ask the suspect to elaborate. If the suspect cannot come up with a satisfactory explanation, the Prosecutor can issue them a point of guilt. Points of Guilt can also be issued retrospectively in the event that an Alibi seems suspicious, but there is not enough information to issue a Point of Guilt.
The Prosecutor ends the game once any player runs out of cards, and the deck is empty. The player with the most points loses. Ties are allowed in which case all tied players are deemed Partners In Losing.
New Stretch Goals!
Alibi uses PrintNinja!
WANT TO FOLLOW THE CAMPAIGN?
In addition to regular backer updates you can also follow Alibi by clicking any of the links below!
QUESTIONS? FEEDBACK?
I'm here to listen to what you have to say! Because I'm working on this project FULL-TIME you should expect a response within 24 hours!‘Dateline’, a show on Australian television station SBS One, broadcast a report on Tuesday night called ‘The Survivor’s Guide to Gaza’. The segment was based on a week-long visit to the Gaza Strip by correspondent Brett Mason and producer Will West.
Dateline has published, in full, a response they received from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli state body that manages the day to day civilian affairs of the military occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
COGAT’s statement – poorly written and sometimes barely comprehensible – is an instructive read in what it distorts, and omits, with regards to the ongoing, internationally-condemned Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The response begins by stating that “despite of Hamas’ terror regime that calls clearly for the destruction of the State of Israel, we promote extensive civil policy towards the Gazan residents.” But Israel is an occupying power; it has obligations towards the occupied civilian population, regardless of the actions or views of Hamas or any other political factions.
The standard with which to evaluate COGAT’s so-called “civil policy” is not ‘goodwill’ or ‘generosity’, but Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law. In fact, of course, this ‘civil policy’ is rather less than civil. Let’s put some of COGAT’s statistics into context.
“Over 1000 crossings are registered every day at the Erez Crossing for medical treatments, business affairs, conferences and more.”
This sounds impressive – but before the Second Intifada broke out, about 26,000 labourers alone crossed via Erez daily. In May 2016, there were less than 15,000 exits of Palestinians via Erez; the monthly average January-September 2000 was more than half a million.
The vast majority of the 1.8 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, excluding traders with longer-term permits and medical patients and their companions, are still barred from travelling to the West Bank for the purpose of work, study, or to see relatives (other than “exceptional humanitarian” cases).
“Every day, over 850 trucks loaded with medical supply, construction materials, food and so on into Gaza. As of today, over 2 million tons of goods enter Gaza since the beginning of 2016.”
These are not donations by Israeli authorities; they are goods and materials purchased by the United Nations, NGOs, and businesses in the Gaza Strip. While the amount of goods entering Gaza in 2016 to date is certainly an improvement on recent years, it is still below pre-blockade figures.
The more important point is that the spike in the number of trucks entering Gaza is the result of the monitored entry of construction materials into the Gaza Strip, mostly designated for repairing the massive damage to buildings and infrastructure caused by Operation Protective Edge.
In other words, most of what enters Gaza is construction materials to repair the destruction wrought by Israeli offensives, or humanitarian aid to offset the economic consequences of blockade.
“All sorts of goods enter Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. Following credible information, Hamas exploits those goods for terror purposes. The entry of dual use material, which may be used for terror purposes, requires the examination of the security forces.”
According to Israeli NGO Gisha, Israel maintains an “extensive” list of ‘dual-use’ items, including items “whose use is overwhelmingly civilian and critical for civilian life.”
Last year, the Israeli authorities added items to the list of dual-use materials, including uninterrupted power supply (UPS) components (vital given the grave shortages of electricity supply), x-ray machines, and fiberglass (used to repair fishing boats).
In August 2015, COGAT reduced the thickness of permissible wood, as well as adding wood glue and lacquer to the list, a decision that “had a very negative impact on…temporary housing solutions” for displaced Palestinians, in the words of the UN.
“Many international officials, including the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, have expressed their impression by the progress of the reconstruction [since 2014].”
According to COGAT, “over 100,000 houses are in different stages of the reconstruction process”, citing a “UN assessment.” The statement adds: “Israel allows the entry of construction materials in accordance with the demand and the need.”
What COGAT omitted – and they must know the figures, given that they clearly read UN publications – is |
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2008
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Issue 1: 2008 年 9 月 13 日 第一期Elephants feel empathy. Sea lions keen over the bodies of their loved ones. And new research suggests that yet another species mourns its dead: the spotted dolphin.
Scientists have long observed dolphin rituals around death that suggest they don’t like to leave their dead companions behind, reports Mary Bates for Wired. Now, a new study adds the Atlantic spotted dolphin to that list.
A group of Portuguese marine biologists studied two separate instances in which adult dolphins were recorded using their heads and backs to buoy up a calf who had recently died. Upon examining carcasses from those events and those of two other recently-dead calves, the biologists concluded that spotted dolphin adults tend to hold on to their dead young for about 30 minutes before giving them up to the ocean.
That’s consistent with grieving, study lead Filipe Alves told Bates. He believes the behavior is tied to the complex generational connections that are common in ocean mammals:
Species that live in a matrilineal system, such as killer whales and elephants; species that live in pods of related individuals, such as pilot whales whose pods can comprise up to four generations of animals—when they spend a lifetime together, sometimes 60 years or more, yes, I believe they can grieve.
Alves and his colleagues stop short of using the word “grief” in their study, preferring to classify the dolphins’ ritual as “nurturant behavior.” The term covers a wide variety of animal activities such as social grooming, exchanging gifts, even adopting an animal from another species.
So do dolphins feel sad about their dead loved ones or not? While it’s not certain which feelings drive the spotted dolphin’s need to stay with its dead young, the ritual could be construed as mourning. And the existence of a post-mortem ritual is another item on a long list of things humans and dolphins share.View West Hollywood road closures in a larger map
Up to 200 protesters were waiting for President Obama across from the House of Blues on Monday afternoon, shouting slogans and waving placards on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.
The protesters were representing a number of causes including pro-immigration, antiwar and for preserving Social Security and Medicare benefits, said Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Some of the signs read "U.S.-NATO Out of Afghanistan," "Be a Man, Not a Mouse" and "Hands Off Social Security."
Whitmore said deputies were monitoring the demonstration, which he described as peaceful.
Obama was planning to attend a fundraising event at the House of Blues, as well as the Fig & Rose restaurant on Melrose Place near North La Cienega Boulevard.
Law enforcement officials have said a "hard closure" will remain in effect on San Vicente Boulevard, which will be closed between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue from 6 a.m. Monday to noon Tuesday.
Other streets will be closed depending on the route taken by Obama. These include: Sunset Boulevard from Doheny Drive to Sweetzer Avenue, Santa Monica Boulevard from Doheny to La Cienega Boulevard and La Cienega from Sunset to Rosewood Avenue.
Motorists hoping for shortcuts will be disappointed. Shutdowns will be in effect on Olive Drive from Sunset to Santa Monica Boulevard, on Holloway Drive from Sunset to La Cienega, on Fountain Avenue from La Cienega to Sweetzer Avenue, and on De Longpre Avenue from Fountain Avenue to Flores Street.
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Officer's attorney blames Kelly Thomas for deadly altercation
-- Andrew Blankstein (twitter.com/anblanx) and Robert J. Lopez (twitter.com/LAJourno)representative [1] Jefferson was defeated by [2] being the most senior [3] In 2009 he was tried in Virginia on corruption charges.[4] On August 5, 2009, he was found guilty of 11 of the 16 corruption counts.[5] Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years on November 13, 2009, the longest sentence ever handed down to a congressman for bribery.[6] The corruption case against then Louisiana William J. Jefferson started on a suspicion of bribery. The FBI raided his Congressional offices in May 2006, but he was re-elected later that year. On June 4, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on sixteen charges related to corruption.Jefferson was defeated by Republican Joseph Cao on December 6, 2008,being the most senior Democrat to lose re-election that year.In 2009 he was tried in Virginia on corruption charges.On August 5, 2009, he was found guilty of 11 of the 16 corruption counts.Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years on November 13, 2009, the longest sentence ever handed down to a congressman for bribery.
Corruption investigation [ edit ]
[8] Jefferson told an investor, Lori Mody, who was wearing a wire, that he would need to give Nigerian Vice President [9] On 30 July 2005, Jefferson was videotaped by the FBI receiving $100,000 worth of $100 bills in a leather briefcase at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington, Virginia.Jefferson told an investor, Lori Mody, who was wearing a wire, that he would need to give Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar $500,000 "as a motivating factor" to make sure they obtained contracts for iGate and Mody's company in Nigeria.
A few days later, on 3 August 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home in Northeast Washington and, as noted in an 83-page affidavit filed to support a subsequent raid on his Congressional office, "found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers". Serial numbers found on the currency in the freezer matched serial numbers of funds given by the FBI to their informant.
The affidavit used to support these raids alleged:
The FBI videotaped Jefferson receiving a stock certificate from Mody for a company set up in Nigeria to promote iGate's technology. Jefferson predicted the deal would generate $200 million annually after five years.
Jefferson told Mody that he wanted a similar financial stake in the business in Ghana.
Jefferson sought $10 million in financing from Mody to take over iGate and install "confidants" on the new board. In two payments, Mody wired $89,225 to the ANJ Group LLC, a company controlled by Jefferson's family.
Jefferson lent $4,800 of the money Mody gave him to an unnamed congressional aide. Another $4,900 was given back to the FBI by one of Jefferson's attorneys.
The FBI claims it has uncovered "at least seven other schemes in which Jefferson sought things of value in return for his official acts".
Former aides' guilty pleas [ edit ]
[12] On May 26, he was sentenced to eight years.[13] In January 2006, Brett M. Pfeffer, a former aide to Jefferson, implicated him in a corruption scheme involving an Internet company being set up in Nigeria. Pfeffer was president of an investment company in McLean, Virginia. In return for political support for the deal, Jefferson had legal work directed toward the Jefferson family's operations. It was also said that a daughter of Jefferson was put on retainer of the Virginia investment company to the tune of $5,000 a month. Jefferson is said to have arranged for his family a 5-percent to 7-percent ownership stake in the Nigerian internet company. On January 11, 2006, in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, Pfeffer pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting bribery of a public official.On May 26, he was sentenced to eight years.
[14] On September 8, Jackson was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months in jail.[15] On May 3, 2006, during a plea hearing in U.S. District Court, Vernon Jackson, 53, CEO of Louisville, Kentucky -based iGate Inc., pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official and conspiracy to bribe a public official. According to the Associated Press, "court documents make clear that Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) is the accused congressman, without naming him". Jackson's plea bargain requires his cooperation in the ongoing investigation against the congressman he admits bribing. The total amount of the bribes is between $400,000 and $1 million, according to court documents of the Jackson proceeding.On September 8, Jackson was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months in jail.
Congressional office raid [ edit ]
[19] Representative On May 25, President Bush stepped in, taking the extraordinary step of "directing the Department of Justice to seal all the materials recovered from Congressman Jefferson's office for the next 45 days and not to allow access to anyone involved in the investigation".Representative James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, began to hold hearings – called "Reckless Justice: Did the Saturday Night Raid of Congress Trample the Constitution?" – on the "profoundly disturbing" questions that Sensenbrenner said the Justice Department's actions raised.
[20] The FBI, in answering Jefferson's complaint of the raid, attached an FBI agent's affidavit claiming that the raid was necessary because, while the FBI was searching Jefferson's home in August, Jefferson tried to "surreptitiously remove" documents.
[21] An ABC News poll released 1 June 2006 found 86% of Americans supported the FBI's right to search congressional offices when they obtain a warrant.
"The existing broad protections of the Speech or Debate Clause – absolute immunity from prosecution or suit for legislative acts and freedom from being 'questioned' about those acts (including privilege from the testimonial act of producing documents in response to a subpoena) – satisfy the fundamental purpose of the Clause to protect the independence of the legislature. The Court declines to extend those protections further, holding that the Speech or Debate Clause does not shield Members of Congress from the execution of valid search warrants. Congressman Jefferson's interpretation of the Speech or Debate privilege would have the effect of converting every congressional office into a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime. Such a result is not supported by the Constitution or judicial precedent and will not be adopted here. See Williamson v. United States, 28 S. Ct. at 167 ('[T]he laws of this country allow no place or employment as a sanctuary for crime.') (quotation omitted).[24]
[25] On March 31, 2008, the [26] Later, however, in that same month, a three-judge appellate panel unanimously overruled Hogan's decision and affirmed that the Department of Justice could not review Jefferson's files until Jefferson had seen what files were taken and which of those pertained to his work as a legislator. The appellate court directed that Hogan, the judge who originally authorized the controversial search and seizure, should ascertain whether Jefferson's claims of legislative privilege extended to specific seized files that the lawmaker might cite.On March 31, 2008, the United States Supreme Court denied further review.
Removal of committee membership [ edit ]
[ who? ] have reported that the vote was passed as a result of Democrats who were determined to make an election-year point about ethics.[ citation needed ] The full House, the only group with the power actually to remove Jefferson, then stripped him of his seat on the committee on June 16 in a voice vote without debate. Jefferson had offered to step aside temporarily if the Democratic caucus established a rule concerning cases like his and if his seat went to Rep. [29] On June 15, 2006, House Democrats voted to strip Jefferson of his committee assignment while the federal bribery investigation continued. The intra-party vote passed 99 to 58. Somehave reported that the vote was passed as a result of Democrats who were determined to make an election-year point about ethics.The full House, the only group with the power actually to remove Jefferson, then stripped him of his seat on the committee on June 16 in a voice vote without debate. Jefferson had offered to step aside temporarily if the Democratic caucus established a rule concerning cases like his and if his seat went to Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA). This offer was rejected by House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Indictment, trial, conviction, and sentencing [ edit ]
Photo of cash found in Jefferson's freezer in the August 2005 raid was shown to jurors on 8 July 2009
[30] The FBI has denied working with Jefferson. On June 4, 2007 Jefferson was indicted on 16 charges of corruption by a federal grand jury. On June 8, 2007, Jefferson pleaded not guilty to the charges. After the hearing, Jefferson said, "I am absolutely innocent of the charges that have been leveled against me. I'm going to fight my heart out to clear my name." He further explained: "The $90,000 was the FBI's money. The FBI gave it to me as part of its plan — part of their plan — that I would give it to the Nigerian vice president, but I did not do that. When all the facts are understood, I trust that I will be vindicated."The FBI has denied working with Jefferson.
Times-Picayune column on March 19, 2009, Jefferson's supporters have been attempting to rehabilitate Jefferson by sending thousands of e-mails attacking Cao, Concurrently, according to Stephanie Grace, in acolumn on March 19, 2009, Jefferson's supporters have been attempting to rehabilitate Jefferson by sending thousands of e-mails attacking Cao, U.S. Senator David Vitter, radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, and other Republicans but that still
Jefferson's quest for acquittal is the challenge of a lifetime. And no matter how many e-mails his remaining "friends" send out, vindication in the eyes of the voters will be even tougher.[38]
Times-Picayune columnist On April 12, 2009,columnist James Gill cited the emergence of a group styling itself "Friends of Congressman William J. Jefferson" and opined that the group should change its name to "Friends of ex-Congressman William J. Jefferson"; Gill, reporting Jefferson's argument that 14 of the 16 felony counts against him should be thrown out as not statutorily definable as bribery, concluded that
Beating 14 counts would be a great coup for any defendant, but the joy must be somewhat diminished for one who is facing 16.[39]
[40] "Spirited Appreciation Celebration with Acknowledgment, Music, Dance and Fellowship" was the "Friends" official description of the "Celebration of Service" program, which went on as scheduled.[41] Within days after the "Celebration of Service" Gill published an allegation that long-time associates of Jefferson had orchestrated the [42] Gill had taken note that on May 14, 2009 the "Friends" planned to stage a "Celebration of Service" for Jefferson, with Jefferson's trial to begin 2 weeks later."Spirited Appreciation Celebration with Acknowledgment, Music, Dance and Fellowship" was the "Friends" official description of the "Celebration of Service" program, which went on as scheduled.Within days after the "Celebration of Service" Gill published an allegation that long-time associates of Jefferson had orchestrated the New Orleans e-mail controversy as a means to embarrass and weaken Democrat Stacy Head, who had in 2006 defeated Jefferson protégée Renée Gill Pratt (the sexual partner of William's brother Mose Jefferson) and in 2008 had endorsed Republican Joseph Cao's successful attempt to unseat Jefferson.
[43] About the same time, developments surrounding Gill Pratt's decision to go on an unpaid leave of absence from her administrative job at [44] On June 7, two days before the trial opening, the Times-Picayune published a lengthy analysis of the allegations and supposed participants.[45] On May 27, after a contentious hearing with defense attorney Robert Trout and prosecutor Mark Lytle, Judge T. S. Ellis III delayed the trial opening until June 9.About the same time, developments surrounding Gill Pratt's decision to go on an unpaid leave of absence from her administrative job at Southern University at New Orleans prompted columnist Stephanie Grace to surmise that Jefferson was losing his clout at the New Orleans institution, where his wife Andrea Green Jefferson is also an administrator.On June 7, two days before the trial opening, thepublished a lengthy analysis of the allegations and supposed participants.
Times-Picayune, had concentrated on jury selection.[46] The challenge before them was not reduced by a couple of events in the 2 weeks before the trial date. First, Angela Coleman (daughter of Betty Jefferson and thus the former congressman's niece), told a federal court that she could not afford to continue hiring lawyer John Fuller; the court assigned public defender Virginia Schlueter to the case, which concerns Coleman's alleged involvement in misappropriation (of more than $600,000 in state and federal grant funding) by [47] Second, a transcript of tapes of a 2005 dinner conversation between William J. Jefferson and Virginia businesswoman and prosecution witness Lori Mody obtained by the Times-Picayune turned out to be so clear as to include observations of their dessert preferences and even "stomach grumbling" sounds.[48] For various reasons the prosecution decided not to call Mody to testify in person but merely to rely on the taped conversations[49]—a decision perceived by many as weakening the prosecution's case.[50] In the weeks before the trial Jefferson's lawyers, as described by the, had concentrated on jury selection.The challenge before them was not reduced by a couple of events in the 2 weeks before the trial date. First, Angela Coleman (daughter of Betty Jefferson and thus the former congressman's niece), told a federal court that she could not afford to continue hiring lawyer John Fullerthe court assigned public defender Virginia Schlueter to the case, which concerns Coleman's alleged involvement in misappropriation (of more than $600,000 in state and federal grant funding) by Betty Jefferson Mose Jefferson, and Renée Gill Pratt Second, a transcript of tapes of a 2005 dinner conversation between William J. Jefferson and Virginia businesswoman and prosecution witness Lori Mody obtained by theturned out to be so clear as to include observations of their dessert preferences and even "stomach grumbling" sounds.For various reasons the prosecution decided not to call Mody to testify in person but merely to rely on the taped conversations—a decision perceived by many as weakening the prosecution's case.
[51] Jury selection began the same day.[4] Extent and accuracy of prior knowledge of the case were major concerns in selection of jurors. By June 14, 2009, twelve jurors (eight women, four men) had been selected from a pool of more than a hundred potential jurors.[52] On June 9, 2009, prosecutors in William Jefferson's corruption trial released a 152-page list of trial exhibits including a list of Jefferson's daughters and the elite colleges they attended, asserting that his daughters and the colleges they attended were the beneficiaries of bribes paid to ANJ Group in exchange for Jefferson's assistance in securing contracts for American companies in western Africa.Jury selection began the same day.Extent and accuracy of prior knowledge of the case were major concerns in selection of jurors. By June 14, 2009, twelve jurors (eight women, four men) had been selected from a pool of more than a hundred potential jurors.
[53] On June 24, 2009, iGate CEO Vernon Jackson, testifying in the court, alleged that in 2002 he felt coerced into continuing to be involved in the Nigerian deal with William J. Jefferson because an attempt by then-chancellor Joseph Bouie to remove Jefferson's wife, Andrea Jefferson, as vice chancellor for academic affairs at SUNO for reasons involving nepotism instead resulted in the removal of Bouie.
[54] On July 7, 2009, a federal jury was shown a video of Jefferson accepting a suitcase filled with $100,000 in cash outside a northern Virginia hotel. In the video, it was reported that Jefferson seemed wary of accepting the money in public. The FBI recorded the exchange from four different angles, and all were shown to the jury.
[55] On August 6, 2009, Jefferson went back to court for forfeiture proceedings. His defense argued that much of the money the government wished to seize was from legitimate business enterprise and his "passion for Africa". Jefferson and family was held liable to forfeit more than $470,000 of this bribe money paid to sham companies under the family's control. The jury also found ANJ Group could be required to surrender millions of shares of stock in a Kentucky technology company and a Nigerian telecommunications venture. The $470,000 included $21,353 which the former congressman's brother, Mose, received in bribe payments and which was ultimately used to help pay off Andrea Jefferson's credit-card debt, and helped pay for Jelani Jefferson's Harvard Law School tuition.[56] On August 5, 2009, Jefferson was convicted on 11 of the 16 corruption charges against him.On August 6, 2009, Jefferson went back to court for forfeiture proceedings. His defense argued that much of the money the government wished to seize was from legitimate business enterprise and his "passion for Africa". Jefferson and family was held liable to forfeit more than $470,000 of this bribe money paid to sham companies under the family's control. The jury also found ANJ Group could be required to surrender millions of shares of stock in a Kentucky technology company and a Nigerian telecommunications venture. The $470,000 included $21,353 which the former congressman's brother, Mose, received in bribe payments and which was ultimately used to help pay off Andrea Jefferson's credit-card debt, and helped pay for Jelani Jefferson's Harvard Law School tuition.
Times-Picayune reported that William J. Jefferson and his attorneys had requested that he be retried.[57] On August 30, 2009, thereported that William J. Jefferson and his attorneys had requested that he be retried.
Times-Picayune estimated that the claimed debts totaled between $1 million and $10 million.[58] In August 2009, after his conviction, William J. Jefferson and his wife, Andrea Jefferson applied for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Theestimated that the claimed debts totaled between $1 million and $10 million.
[59] On September 21, 2009, Federal Judge T.S. Ellis III denied Jefferson's request for a new trial.
[60] In October 2009, the Louisiana Supreme Court placed Jefferson on interim suspension from the practice of law.
[6] On November 13, 2009, Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years for bribery, the longest sentence ever handed down to a congressman for bribery.
[61] On March 26, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the conviction on ten of the eleven charges, reversing one conviction involving a phone call because the case for that charge was tried in the wrong part of the United States. On November 26, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Jefferson's petition for certiorari, making the convictions final. He is scheduled for release on August 30, 2023.
[62] On May 1, 2015, the Louisiana Supreme Court permanently disbarred Jefferson based on his behavior "us[ing] his congressional office for fraudulent and illegal activities by soliciting bribes in exchange for official acts." This behavior closely matched Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XIX, Appendix E, Guideline 7, which suggests that permanent disbarment may be appropriate when there is "[m]alfeasance in office which results in a felony conviction, and which involves fraud."THE harrowing fate of North Korea’s failed athletes has been laid bare by a senior defector who fled Kim’s Kingdom.
GETTY TERRIFIED: A defector said you could see in the athletes' eyes that they are scared
Kim Hyeong-soo, who escaped the secretive state in 2009, said it was true that athletes who failed to perform faced the gulag. In fact, he claimed, even the coaches were punished, with several months of hard labour the typical sentence handed down by the regime. The revelations come after North Korea’s man in Europe, Alejandro Cao de Benos, told Daily Star Online that they were rewarded with luxuries and new houses.
MICHAEL HAVIS FREE AT LAST: Senior North Korean defector Kim Hyeong-soo
“You can see it in their eyes. They're not playing for pride; it's about fear” Kim Hyeong-soo And while Mr Kim said this was true of those who took the top prize for North Korea, he said the rewards were far less appealing for those who lost. He said: "If they had a gold medal of course they would receive a huge benefit like a car, a new apartment in Pyongyang and extra rice. "But if they have a bad result the athletes and the coach can actually be sent for hard labour for several months." Mr Kim, who worked at North Korea’s mysterious Longevity Institute, also accused the regime of spreading lies about bad performances.
Inside North Korea: The pictures Kim Jong-un doesn't want you to see Since 2008, photographer Eric Lafforgue ventured to North Korea six times. Thanks to digital memory cards, he was able to save photos that was forbidden to take inside the segregated state 1 / 62 Eric Lafforgue/Exclusivepix Medi Taking pictures in the DMZ is easy, but if you come too close to the soldiers, they stop you
Giving the example of North Korea’s famous 1966 World Cup squad, he described how Pyongyang explained away their quarter final loss to Portugal. The team were blamed for partying the night before and then locked up – defector Kang Chol-hwan even claimed to have seen one of the squad in the Yodok gulag. Mr Kim said: "They have secretaries or government officials that go with them to these international events… and so if they lose they will actually fabricate a story. "Like they’ll say they went to a nightclub before the match and therefore that's why they had a poor performance. So they’re criticised and punished for that.Adam FergusonVII for TIME Dig that Afghan culture A police officer stands guard at the Mes Aynak excavation
Many in Afghanistan hold that the country's future lies underground, in vast mineral deposits with the potential to boost the country's economy for decades. Nowhere is that more true than Mes Aynak. The ancient mine, 30 km south of Kabul in Logar province, is believed to be the world's second largest untapped copper source. According to Afghanistan's Mining Ministry, the site is worth tens of billions of dollars at today's prices. Extracting the metal could deliver thousands of jobs and $1.2 billion in revenue a year to a country in desperate need as international assistance dries up ahead of the planned U.S. and NATO withdrawal in 2014.
Copper, however, is not the only treasure at Mes Aynak. Archaeologists are also excavating an ancient Buddhist temple complex located on top of the deposits. It has so far yielded manuscripts, Buddha statues and stunning ancient architecture. The discovery rivals Machu Picchu in terms of historic import, says Philippe Marquis, a French archaeologist overseeing the project, and could also rewrite the history of Buddhism and the Silk Road. (See "Why Afghanistan Is Far from Hopeless.")
In a reversal of the theory that religious centers grew up alongside but separate from commercial activity, Marquis and his team suspect that in Mes Aynak, religious leaders may have actually directed copper mining and refining and used the monastery network to trade the metal as far away as Japan and Korea. "People always talk about the Silk Road," says Marquis. "What if it was the Copper Road or the Buddhist Road that established trade across the region?"
The clock, however, is ticking. The Chinese-government-backed China Metallurgical Group Corp., which successfully bid on the mine in 2007, wanted to start mining in '09. The work will destroy the temple complex, so the group agreed to a three-year pause for a basic excavation. The short window is emblematic of the difficult compromises that must |
UN and independent human rights groups, perhaps give the comments unique weight at a key moment.
And as Engelhardt, taking a slightly broader view of U.S. imperialism and its flailing attempt to maintain military dominance and power projection, summarized:Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Monday that it produced its first oil from the Lucias offshore oil field in the Gulf of Mexico with project leader Anadarko Petroleum Corp a nd four other partners.
The field, which produced its first oil on Friday, is expected to produce about 80,000 barrels of oil a day and 450 million cubic meters (12.7 million cubic meters) of natural gas a day when fully operational, according to Anadarko's website.
That would give Petrobras, which owns 11.5 percent of the project, about 9,000 barrels of oil a day and 52 million cubic meters a day of gas when fully operational, according to Thomson Reuters calculations.
Anadarko is the operator and owns 23.8 percent of Lucias, which is located 380 km (238 miles) southwest of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
(E) with 8.5 percent.
The other partners are Freeport-McMoRan Inc with 25.1 percent, ExxonMobil Corp with 23.3 percent, Inpex Corp, Japan's biggest oil developer, with 7.8 percent and Italy's ENI SpA with 8.5 percent.
(Reporting by Jeb Blount; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)Serious Eats' Culinary Ambassadors check in from time to time with reports on food fare in their homeland or countries of residence. Here's the latest! (Find out more about CA or join here!) —The Mgmt.
More Breakfast Everything you need to make the most important meal of the day delicious.
Perhaps the most iconic breakfast in Taiwan is 燒餅油條 (shao1 bing3 you2 tiao2) combined with soy milk. The first being the brilliant combination of a baked pocket of dough and a fried cruller prepared in ammonia bicarbonate (yum), and the latter being, well, milk from soybeans.
In the case of shao bing and you tiao, what seems stupid simple is actually quite delicious. The fried cruller is crisp and airy, and, if fresh, hot enough to scald your lips. While it's mostly devoid of flavor, there's an ever so subtle saltiness, that, when combined with the outer shao bing, works wonderfully well. The shao bing itself is also no more than a plain baked shell, but the delightfully light and layered texture of this savory pastry is the perfect carrier for the salty "oil stick." Dotted with sesames, the combination sandwich possesses quite a splendid fragrance as well.
Breakfast soy milk is drastically different from what Western tastes think of. Rather than "silk" from a carton, traditional soy milk is devoid of sweetness, and actually has more a nutty aroma. Served both hot or cold, savory (with scallions, fried cruller, pork floss, and egg) or sweet, breakfast isn't really complete without an accompanying bowl of this stuff.
I've eaten this more often than I'd care to admit, but most of the time I went to 7-Eleven and grabbed onigiri and carton milk tea. The above is probably more traditional for the older generation, but convenience-store breakfast is more mainstream for younger folks.
—Nicholas Chen (MyInnerFatty.com)
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.The Deputy leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, has reiterated she will not be paying her water charges, but she has registered her details with Irish Water.
Ms McDonald says she is in a position where she could pay, but she has seen an increasing number of people who cannot, and she intends to stand in solidarity with them.
Irish Water says 835,000 homes still have not registered with them, ahead of tonight's midnight deadline.
Deputy Mary Lou McDonald believes a huge proportion of people can't or won't pay.
She said: "I could pay this charge, however I have seen in increasing numbers, not least in my own constituency, people who simply cannot pay this charge.
"they feel extremely angry, but also extremley fearful, and I took a decisoin many months ago to stand in solidarity with them."× Oak Harbor man accused of impersonating police officer for 25 years
OAK HARBOR, Wash. — A 69-year-old Oak Harbor man is accused of having posed as a police officer for 25 years.
And if he did, many people are wondering, what did he do with the powers he simply assumed?
Oak Harbor police say that for at least two and a half decades, Jim Bailey, 69, pretended to be a police officer.
“To be able to do that for 25 years and get away with it is kind of surprising, but, yeah, it’s completely wrong,” said Oak Harbor resident Mark Belcher.
Police said Bailey’s life as a cop imposter came to an end Aug. 6. He saw a man and a woman fighting on the street in Oak Harbor and intervened.
“He had held down the male or pulled him aside and directed the other individual to call the police and say that an officer needs assistance,” Police Chief Ed Green said Thursday.
That call — officer needs assistance — is a serious matter and officers responded quickly. When they arrived, there was no officer — only the couple and Jim Bailey.
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After a month-long investigation, Bailey was arrested and police found he had been posing as an officer, or a retired officer. They say he even placed ads in newspapers offering his professional services all over the state and everyone believed he was actually an officer.
"He was listed as an officer doing certain trainings and things, so there became some concern that he was acting as an officer, maybe obtaining information that he shouldn't be obtaining, maybe obtaining information that we need," Green said.
"Twenty-five years, I mean, that's a really long time and for no one to even realize for that long a time is actually kind of terrifying in a way. Cause who else is out there doing it?"asked resident Jennifer McIntosh.
Bailey was actually an Oak Harbor reserve officer for three years in the late 1980s. He resigned to go to the police academy, but never graduated.
"We take this profession very seriously," Green said. "We work significantly hard to get into this profession, a lot of pride and a lot of integrity in what we do and I don't need someone coming along and portraying to be somebody they aren't."
Resident Ed Rose said, "Shouldn't be allowed to be on the street. Should be in jail."
Now police want to know if any citizens had "official interaction" with Bailey or if any agency may have been conned into paying for his services. If so, Oak Harbor police want to hear from you.
Impersonating an officer can be a misdemeanor or a felony. The decision is up to the Island County prosecutor.Observing that democratic accountability is very strong in India, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan says ‘we may have a long way to go’. (Reuters)
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Friday said strong governments may not “move in the right direction”, and need rule of law and democratic accountability to keep them on the right path.
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Addressing the DD Kosambi Ideas Festival in Goa on Friday, Rajan pointed out that Hitler too provided Germany with an extremely effective administration — the trains ran on time, as did the trains during Emergency in India in 1975-77. “His was a strong government, but Hitler took Germany efficiently and determinedly on a path to ruin, overriding the rule of law and dispensing with elections,” he said.
While rule of law prevents the tyranny of the majority that can arise in a democracy, democratic accountability ensures the government responds to the wishes of the mass of the citizenry, allowing emerging groups to gain influence through political negotiation and competition with others.
According to Rajan, ‘free markets’ can be considered as a fourth pillar in addition to those suggested by political scientist Francis Fukuyama — a strong government, rule of law and democratic accountability — for liberal market democracies. The bedrock on which all four pillars stand is a broadly equitable distribution of economic capabilities among the citizenry, he said.
While free markets and democracy create a level playing field, there is a key difference. “Democracy treats individuals equally, with every adult getting one vote. The free enterprise system, by contrast, empowers consumers based on how much income they get and property they own,” Rajan explained.
Rajan said the median voter rationally agrees to protect the property of the rich and to tax them moderately when they are seen as efficient managers, creators of jobs and prosperity that all benefit from. However, if the rich are seen as idle or crooked — as having simply inherited or, worse, gained their wealth nefariously — the voter should be willing to vote for tough regulations and punitive taxes on them.
Citing Fukuyama, Rajan said, India was strongest as far as democratic accountability was concerned. It also adhered broadly to the rule of law. “But where it arguably may have a long way to go, as Fukuyama emphasised, is in the capacity of the government (and by this I mean regulators like the RBI also) to deliver governance and public services,” Rajan said.
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The RBI governor, however, added that areas of excellence were strewn throughout central and state governments such as building of the New Delhi Metro, the reach of the public distribution system in Tamil Nadu, or the speed of the rollout of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. “But such capabilities have to permeate every tehsil in every state,” he pointed out.
CLICK TO READ FULL TEXTThunderbolt Season 2 episode one (5th episode in the series) is now available to watch and to celebrate I decided to start my blog off with an interview with the director of both season 1 and 2. The interview was included in the December Sky Blu-ray box set along with many others that I will get to eventually. Without further ado, the interview!
Matsuo Kou
Director
Storyboard
The keywords were lightning and water
— What was your impression was of the manga?
Matsuo: When I was working on Gundam Reconguista in G, producer Ogata (Naohiro) talked with me about Thunderbolt. Gundam Thunderbolt would be a story unlike any of the One Year War OVAs to date and the polar opposite of G-Reco. I remember being genuinely perplexed. It was a difficult subject matter as well, what with characters dying one after another. I had the impression that it would become an incredibly dark story.
— What were some decisions you made as the director?
Matsuo: Lightning and water. I was impressed by the manga’s idea to have lightning in space created by electrical discharge from the debris. In ancient times, lightning meant the arrival of rain or water, and it was possible to see the promise of an abundant harvest. If I could overlap the tears — the water — that those first settlers shed, into the situation of those living in the Universal Century, it would give more meaning to the anime. That’s why there was the scene with Carla and Daryl having a conversation near the hallway mini tomato planter, and why Daryl’s tears came out one droplet after the next — because water was our key word.
— Speaking of which, Claudia’s room in the 1st episode had a small greenhouse, and then there was the scene with Carla in the 2nd episode.
Matsuo: Putting plants inside the ship was something director Tomino Yoshiyuki started with Zeta Gundam. Without that kind of stuff, it’s difficult to keep sane, and that is something I understand. The cut with Carla and the tomatoes was a difficult cut because it was her doing something completely unrelated while she talked, but it brought out the feeling that these people are living in the Universal Century.
— From the start, was it decided that there would be four episodes at 15-minutes each?
Matsuo: We decided the whole thing would run an hour long and the episode breaks would be dependent on the flow of the story. With the manga’s turning points in mind, we decided on splitting it into four episodes. The quality we proposed, with the schedule we had, and episodes at fifteen minutes each, it was a boatload of work.
— The final scene with Daryl and Io facing off brought the whole story to a close.
Matsuo: Really? When I was thinking about where to cut off the story, that was the only place I could think of. The conclusion is the most important part of a story, so I anticipate the ending even in the beginning. For Thunderbolt, when I thought about how to end this arc, I could only imagine the scene where Daryl’s true nature is revealed.
— Daryl’s true nature?
Matsuo: Yes. Daryl is a kind-hearted person. He even feels sorry for Carla, who took his hand but inside of him sleeps the mad drive to settle his score with Io. That is the concluding point. If that much is understandable, then the meaning and plot were able to get across. The story, from the 1st episode to the 4th, was a process strung together to slowly reveal Daryl’s true nature.
— So Daryl was a like a connection between the past and present. What about Io?
Matsuo: I first thought of digging deeper into Io, but when I tried drawing him, I realized that Io is a person who isn’t bound by his past. When his fellow pilots entered the Thunderbolt zone, they were unable to shoot in the direction of Side Four’s ruins. Even though it was now a war-devastated area, it was still the place they used to call home. Io, however, was able to shoot. Even with the other pilots asking “Are you telling us to attack our own home?!” That’s how much he’s cut out his past, and that’s something I wanted to highlight. By showing this kind of Io, we could fix his position in the story. And finally, we could draw Daryl — who clutches onto his past more than Io disregards his — and his descent to becoming more and more like Io.
— What did you think about the mech scenes?
Matsuo: They weren’t all that different from other Gundam series I’ve worked on. The Thunderbolt mobile suits had a unique extra arm attached that required some thought on how to best utilize. I knew the arm was going to be used in the 4th episode during a battle, so I put in cuts like the Zaku’s arm automatically clearing away debris, in the 1st episode. I wanted to try and capture all the different uses and capabilities that were possible. I also wanted to take full advantage of the skills of our mechanical directors, Naka Morifumi and Nakatani Seiichi.
— Teraoka Iwao wrote the storyboard for the 2nd episode, and Katoki Hajime wrote for the 3rd episode. Both of these men specialize in mechanical animation.
Matsuo: We talked about the general direction to head in, and I left the rest to them. Teraoka has written storyboards for countless works and understood what I liked to include since he worked with me on Valvrave the Liberator. As for Kataoki, after we had our meeting about the screenplay he didn’t need much explanation from me.
— The character designer, Takaya Hirotoshi, used tablets a lot to draw out the expression of the characters.
Matsuo: From the beginning, Takaya said he wanted to use tablets. Using tablets for this kind of work is rather tedious, but if the animation director wants to do it, then you have to comply (laughs). We tested four different ways to add in shadows and make the shapes look appropriate. We decided on drawing the narrow, color separating, lines with the tablet. While testing, we tried a style similar to director Kawajiri Yoshiaki’s [Wicked City & Ninja Scroll] style of ‘color separating lines that just barely show.’
— Will this change the way animation is made if using tablets to draw high content images becomes a norm?
Matsuo: When we used the tablets, we tried as much as possible to limit it to scenes that weren’t so detailed and, instead, to expressions or the emotion displayed in the characters’ eyes like in cuts when they’re in battle. This was a simple design, so if their expression changed, or they moved their head just a little, you could still connect the performance. That’s the most efficient way to use it. Using a lot of the tablet for fine movements will make the scene very noisy, and that will remain in the viewers’ memory instead of important things like what the characters are saying. That’s why we kept tablet use to a minimum with movement. For this film, we used a method that brought back the feel of cel animation, where you only apply filters to certain sections of the scene. In anime from the later half of the 80s, killing time by filling in the the darkest part with beta wasn’t all that uncommon (laughs).
— How did you feel about putting all four episodes together as December Sky?
Matsuo: Until we tried putting it together I was worried.
— Why is that?
Matsuo: I first felt it when we were doing the dubbing, that the people that watched this as a full-length movie wouldn’t have anywhere to rest while viewing. Looking at the runtime, I was fully aware it could be a very exhausting film. However, if you compare it to the theatrical releases the screen people will watch on is probably much smaller, like their computers, so I was able to wrap my head around the idea. We assimilated the episodes, and honestly, it was perplexing how we made it large screen friendly.
— Is that so?
Matsuo: During editing, we extended a number of cuts by a bit. It was only a bit, like adding in 12 frames (0.5 seconds) to a scene, but by adding in just those frames here and there, a break appeared.
— You also changed the music, correct?
Matsuo: That’s correct. We had created music to play during 15-minute segments, but now it was necessary to play songs over an hour long segment meaning we had to reposition things. In the end, the overall number of songs decreased. But once that was recreated I was able to see it, I was able to see how this movie would be seen on the big screen. Up until then, I had been worried.
— The atmosphere of this work is due in large part to Kikuchi Seki’s music.
Matsuo: Yes, it is. Free jazz and oldies, Io and Daryl, he does such a perfect job of defining the characters I think the music would accomplish this even without the animation. Before the music was written, I drew up the storyboards, but when we had our meeting, and I heard the concept songs tempo, I felt that the music and anime were sure to be a perfect fit for each other.
— How did you decide on the title December Sky?
Matsuo: One of the reasons was that the end of the One Year War was in December. On the other hand, lightning is something that usually occurs between summer and fall, not winter. So it essentially was “the war’s end in December, but lightning still falls from the sky,” I thought an uncomfortable title would be better.
AdvertisementsAmerica's Most Patriotic Squirrel S ugar B ush S quirrel ® 'The Military Hero Who Lives with Mice but Fights with Men' Superhero to Our Troops Everywhere
Happy holidays to all of our troops from Sugar Bush Squirrel!
SNN Squirrel News Network Sugar Bush Squirrel guards one of the size 10 shoes that was hurled at President Bush in Iraq. Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia TV, threw the shoes at President Bush while yelling, "This is a farewell kiss, Dog." Sugar Bush Squirrel, on guard duty yelled back while holding up her weapon, "Kiss this, al-Zeidi!"
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight. The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream. The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near. Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child. "What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.. To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times. No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of'Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am. I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home. I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall." " So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son." Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
Veterans Day is in November...but remember to thank them all year long because our veterans are the reason we live in a free country today. Never forget!!! Click here to remind yourselves why we are in the Middle East hunting down the terrorists Every Month Should Be Military Appreciation Month!!! Sugar Bush Squirrel is a military hero who is working to keep our country free while helping to free Iraq. Sugar Bush Squirrel is boosting the morale of our military troops & allied coalition forces around the world by posing for humorous & sentient photos in military clothing with guns, tanks, planes and helicopters while wearing helmets, camouflage caps and a turban. Watch for more of her military shots in the near future as they shoot around the globe for freedom...
"Pray for our troops and all of our allied coalition forces around the world. Don't come back at me with some smart remark about prayer...I don't care 'to whom' you pray... JUST DO IT," says Sugar Bush Squirrel!
Military Cards Do you have someone in the military & you'd like a unique card to send them and to write them a note? This is the solution... Customize your own variety box of Sugar Bush Squirrel R Military Notecards Pick 8 or more cards to make your own variety boxed set. Through Paypal, just click the'shopping cart' by each card you want and review and revise your order by clicking the 'view cart' at the bottom of the list. Pay easily with paypal!!! Another way to put together your box is to make a list of which cards you would like in your variety box and send that list along with a personal check, money order or cashier's check. Email us at SugarBushSquirrel@hotmail.com for payment address and information Your total would be $1.00 per card plus $5.75 S & H inside the continental US. (8 card minimum) Outside of the USA, your total would be $1.00 per card plus $12.75 S & H from the USA to other countries. Each notecard is 4 1/4 X 5 1/2, with envelopes. Card & envelope color is white. They have the photo & sentiment on the glossy front and all of the cards are blank matte on the inside for you to use to write your own personal message. You can choose different cards or a box where all of the cards are alike. Any Combination!!! They will be boxed in a white stationery card box with a clear viewable lid and decorated with a gold or silver band and small matching decor inside the box. Remember that a boxed set consists of at least 8 cards and up to as many as you would like. When it exceeds the amount a box will hold they will be put into a second box. The Military Notecards are only $1.00 each and shipping & handling is only $5.75 (inside the continental US). Shipping and Handling for all other countries is $12.75. Be sure to check back often as we will be adding additional Military Notecards quite frequently. Companies, wishing to put Sugar Bush Squirrel R Cards in their place of business, please contact us at SugarBushSquirrel@hotmail.com for details. *****************************************************************
Semper Fur
Military Police
Undercover Searching for Osama bin Laden
Air Force... Up in the Air For Us
U. S. Coast Guard
Chopper Pilot
Red Cross Nurse
Aviator
Tank Attack Team
Between Iraq and a Hard Place
The Machine Gun's Ready, Sir!
The Fur, The Proud, The Marines
Anchors Aweigh
Sailor
Jumps from the Jeep
Waitin' for the Enemy
Prays for the Troops
Outside of the USA, you must click this button when finished ordering to add the extra postage from the USA to other countries. Orders cannot be shipped without this extra postage added. Click only once for 1-2 boxes of cards. For more than 2 boxes, please email me for a total.
Have questions, problems ordering cards, suggestions? Click on the email sign on the right or the Eagle below to send me your email. Thanks!
~~NIGHT WATCH~~ A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. "Your son is here," she said to the old man.
She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened. Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.
The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength.
Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile. He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.
Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.
Along towards dawn, the old man died.
The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited. Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.
"Who was that man?" he asked.
The nurse was startled, "He was your father" she answered.
"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life."
"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"
"I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn't here. When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed."
As always, this Marine fulfilled a duty. God bless our troops! The next time someone needs you...be there. Stay.
You'll be glad you did.
"Read these comments from my buddy Ben Stein. I agree with him 100%!" Sugar Bush Squirrel Missed Tributes
By Ben Stein
Published 3/6/2006 2:08:21 AM Now for a few humble thoughts about the Oscars. I did not see every second of it, but my wife did, and she joins me in noting that there was not one word of tribute, not one breath, to our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan or to their families or their widows or orphans. There were pitifully dishonest calls for peace -- as if the people we are fighting were interested in any peace for us but the peace of the grave. But not one word for the hundreds of thousands who have served and are serving, not one prayer or moment of silence for the dead and maimed. Basically, the sad truth is that Hollywood does not think of itself as part of America, and so, to Hollywood, the war to save freedom from Islamic terrorists is happening to someone else. It does not concern them except insofar as it offers occasion to mock or criticize George Bush. They live in dreamland and cannot be gracious enough to thank the men and women who pay with their lives for the stars' ability to live in dreamland. This is shameful. The idea that it is brave to stand up for gays in Hollywood, to stand up against Joe McCarthy in Hollywood (fifty years after his death), to say that rich white people are bad, that oil companies are evil -- this is nonsense. All of these are mainstream ideas in Hollywood, always have been, always will be. For the people who made movies denouncing Big Oil, worshiping gays, mocking the rich to think of themselves as brave -- this is pathetic, childish narcissism. The brave guy in Hollywood will be the one who says that this is a fabulously great country where we treat gays, blacks, and everyone else as equal. The courageous writer in Hollywood will be the one who says the oil companies do their best in a very hostile world to bring us energy cheaply and efficiently and with a minimum of corruption. The producer who really has guts will be the one who says that Wall Street, despite its flaws, has done the best job of democratizing wealth ever in the history of mankind. No doubt the men and women who came to the Oscars in gowns that cost more than an Army Sergeant makes in a year, in limousines with champagne in the back seat, think they are working class heroes to attack America -- which has made it all possible for them. They are not. They would be heroes if they said that Moslem extremists are the worst threat to human decency since Hitler and Stalin. But someone might yell at them or even attack them with a knife if they said that, so they never will. Hollywood is above all about self: self-congratulation, self-promotion, and above all, self-protection. This is human and basic, but let's not kid ourselves. There is no greatness there in the Kodak theater. The greatness is on patrol in Kirkuk. The greatness lies unable to sleep worrying about her man in Mosul. The greatness sleeps at Arlington National Cemetery and lies waiting for death in VA Hospitals. God help us that we have sunk so low as to confuse foolish and petty boasting with the real courage that keeps this nation and the many fools in it alive and flourishing on national TV.
Sugar Bush Squirrel Volunteers as a Red Cross Nurse
"The machine gun's ready, Sir!" Tank Attack Team
Chopper Pilot in Iraq Goes Undercover to Help
Search for Osama bin Laden
Still hunting for Osama Waitin' for the enemy
***************************************************** OK, you asked for it, so here it is... Sugar Bush Squirrel is on standby & ready, here in Boca Raton, Florida, in her hazmat suit and gas mask, in case we have another anthrax attack or dirty bomb...
Click on one of the links below and watch a moving video that supports our troops. (Here are multiple links to a really moving PPS video, in case one or the other of them doesn't work for you.)
"If I die Before You Wake."
"If I die Before You Wake."
Sugar Bush Squirrel has added some Military Pages for all of you out there who've requested it...just click on the corresponding animations below to go to these new pages: Black Hawk Helicopter... go to Military Photo Page Army Tank..... go to Military Humor Page Osprey..... go to Military Funny Photos and Oops Page Tom Cats.... send photos for Military Photo Page AWAC.... send things for the Military Humor Page Army soldier.... send photos for Oops and Funny Page
Freedom Isn't Free
I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease..
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.
I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.
- Author Unknown
Enjoy Your Freedom & God Bless Our Troops
While you're at it, check this out and WAKE UP, AMERICA!!! Click here: http://patriotfiles.org/civilizationcalls.htm
Sugar Bush Squirrel says, "Wake up, America, and read this!" > US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this action is so necessary.
AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this
sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism.
America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued. In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 198 |
who does. A man who describes himself as a member of “the new right” and an enemy of feminism — but notably does not cop to being racist — is paired with a young, black feminist.
After meeting in an empty warehouse, each pair performs a team-building exercise of sorts: building a bar. Blissfully unaware that their partners hold beliefs they think are insane (some correctly), they form a friendly bond. Once the bars are completed, their views are revealed to one another and they’re given the choice to GTFO or talk it out over a nice, frosty Heineken. And what do you know, they all stay.
The “new right” dude even says “smash the patriarchy” and the transphobe refers to the trans woman as “a girl.” So much progress in such a short time! The tagline: “Heineken: open your world.”
Liberal bloggers wasted no time in proclaiming this “the antidote to that Pepsi Kendall Jenner ad.” “Heineken’s new ad gets totally political, and it’s surprisingly great,” crowed Upworthy. “Heineken shows Pepsi the right way to make a politically charged ad,” proclaimed Mashable, seeming to forget that there isn’t one.
Some will rightly be offended by the idea that the trans woman and the (presumably) cis woman, respectively, were asked to have friendly conversations with men who refused to acknowledge their basic human rights … at least, not until they drank Heineken’s magical anti-bigotry elixir.
Of course, politics are not just a matter of individual enlightenment or lack thereof. They’re about underlying social forces, which means empathy and dialogue can only take us so far, as can bonds forged before you knew someone’s political views. (Ask anyone whose family was torn apart by the 2016 election.)
This ad doesn’t exist to solve the world’s problems, but to make you buy a product by causing you to associate whatever warm fuzzies it elicits in you with its particular brand of carbonated yeast water. Have you learned nothing from Mad Men? That this ad was deemed “good” by most people just means it does a better job than other ads of hiding that fact.
At least the Pepsi ad prompted people to join together in mockery of its clumsy attempts at co-opting resistance movements. If you hated the Pepsi ad but liked this one, what you are basically saying is, “I want to be pandered to more effectively.”
Like all companies, Heineken is an amoral entity that treats human beings as expendable assets who exist purely to have their labor power exploited for the purposes of enriching its shareholders.
Not because it is evil, but because it is incentivized to do so by our current economic system. Despite what “green” or “woke” brands may tell you, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
That vague progressivism is now a better way to sell beer than, say, hot chicks in bikinis, is a reflection of shifting societal attitudes for which Heineken can take no credit. If focus groups said they’d sell more beer by bringing back the hot chicks, they’d run all the red lights on the way to the Playboy mansion. It’s advertising’s raison d’être.
The one thing I will grant Heineken is that alcohol lowers people’s inhibitions, which could lead to civil conversation about hot button issues. But unfortunately, given the realities of the world in which we live, such a booze-drenched meeting of the minds is just as likely to end in a fist fight.Regardless of the fact that I’ve been to “The Land of Smiles” many times before, the nightmarishly long flight from the midwestern United States (18–21 hours) is always the most unpleasant part of my experience. Perhaps the only unpleasant part. Well, that and the occasional misunderstandings that can be chalked up to cultural differences. There’s a common saying in Thailand — ไม่เป็นไร. Some pronounce it “Mai Pen Rai”, others “Mai Pen Lai”. There’s this thing with “L”s and “R”s in the Thai language that I haven’t been able to completely understand. Mostly because I suck at languages. My four-year old speaks better Thai than me. Anyway, it means “don’t worry about it” or “no problem,” which expresses the national sentiment perfectly. In my experience, Thais are very much laid back, happy, and optimistic people. As a visiting foreigner (also known as a “farang”) you should attempt to adopt this way of life as well. I’m still working on that myself. But it really helps you manage day-to-day life. For example, take the following experience I had at a beachside restaurant on Kho Samed. This exchange is not exaggerated, nor is it unique:
Asks server about several different shake flavors on the menu, none of them are available.
Orders the one shake available — pineapple.
Server returns with a shake.
server: Banana shake?
me: Uh, I ordered a pineapple shake.
server: Yes, pineapple. This is a pineapple shake.
Shake tastes like neither pineapple nor banana. Another server returns.
me: This shake doesn’t taste anything like pineapple.
server: We don’t have pineapple shakes.
Ah yes, mai pen lai your frustrations away! It really does work. But honestly, is this sort of thing worth getting frustrated about? Is this how we should spend our lives, getting angry about drink mishaps? And that leads to why I enjoy visiting Thailand, and why I miss the country terribly when I leave. In addition to the awesome weather (especially compared to the god-awful shit weather I’m used to back in Wisconsin) Thais really get it. People are important. Not to say that Thais don’t like things. Of course they do — just like everyone else. But I always feel this overwhelming sense of community, especially in the less touristy areas, such as the Northeast where I spent most of my time during a three-month trip that ended in March of 2016. So that’s why I’m going to focus a good portion of this article on how I spent 2+ of my 3 month stay pushing ones and zeros across continents. Because that’s what’s really important in life, right?
I think some lessons can be learned from my experience working remotely from such a faraway location. And my most recent trip was not the only occasion that involved remote work, though it was certainly the longest. Back in 2008–2009, I worked remotely from Thailand for about 7 weeks. At that time, I was working on a one-man-project for Avid. And this time, I was employed by Widen, developing a web-based project on a several-person team. I was the only remote member, save for a work-from-home day here or there for others. I came to realize that working on a team project while residing 13 time zones away in an area with spotty mobile (and even wired) internet service was much, much different than anything I had ever experienced before. I laughed, I cried, I hurled (don’t drink the water). But most importantly, I came away with a degree of empathy for remote team members that is hard to otherwise acquire.
So, why exactly did I do this? First off, my wife and I wanted to enroll our (at the time 3-year old) son in Thai preschool. We felt it would help him to learn the language and culture. My wife is from the northeast area of Thailand, also known as Isaan. She was looking forward to spending an extended period of time with her very large extended family. And me, well, I just needed a change of scene. I always came back from Thailand with a fresh new outlook, and figured this could perhaps have a positive effect on my work. Maybe it could even reverse my increasingly cynical outlook. But also, I had a feeling that this experience was going to be different enough from previous trips, and maybe I’d come back with some useful wisdom to share with others.
One of many co-working spaces I visited in Chiang Mai, which is considered to be one of the top places to work remotely in the world.
The benefits of working from home back in the states were already well known to me. Good things include:
Less distractions. At least distractions are easier to control. Unless you count packs of rabid dogs, passing elephants, and karaoke bars that shake the walls of your residence until morning. Well, I don’t. That’s part of Thailand’s charm that I find so enthralling. Sure, you can head to the office and grab an empty room to work without distractions, until someone finds you, or needs to use the room. And, sorry, but it’s kind of awkward to move my laptop into a meeting room. Why do I have a desk anyway? When you’re remote, it feels natural to work whenever and wherever. Communication happens on your terms, and interruptions seem to be easier to avoid. More freedom to see the fam. When I drive to work, I see my son for about 30 seconds before he gets on the bus for preschool. And when I return at 6:30pm, I see him for another 45 minutes before he heads to bed. So yea, 45 minutes a day, tops. When I’m remote, I get to see my son hop off the bus at 11:30am. I get to take a break and read him a book. I get to talk to my wife at lunch not via text messaging. I can even work from Chicago and hang out with my parents or sisters after work. And while in Thailand, I get to spend time with my in-laws, even if I don’t understand most of what they say. Working in a comfortable location and being able to switch locations is compelling. If I’m stuck in an office, my choices are my desk, or that one room with the beanbag chair. Or maybe the one with the kegerator. Because the dull hum of a fridge does wonders for my productivity. In all fairness, it’s hard to care after partaking in a few beers from said fridge. My point is, I have many more options outside of HQ. I can work at a coffee shop, or my basement, or the passenger seat of a car while my wife dodges dogs, samlaws, weaving motorbikes, and meth-fueled truck drivers on the Thai countryside. I can even work from the middle of a field, so sprawling that I lose my sense of direction. Or perhaps the table of a roadside restaurant (a full meal + a soda for a couple dollars). The choices are endless, and the freedom and flexibility is refreshing. No lost time traveling — unless I want to travel. My commute from Johnson Creek, WI to Madison is nothing to write home about — 30 minutes of open road with little to no traffic, many people have it much worse. But then there’s also the 3o minutes on the return trip. That is an hour wasted in transit. An hour is an hour. Oh, what I could do with that extra hour. When I’m remote, I’m already at the office. And Widen makes this even easier by giving me one of these. My Verizon hotspot doesn’t work so well in Thailand, but who cares? Data is dirt-cheap, so I can tether to my phone from a table next to the street in front of my wife’s cousin’s house. And every establishment seems to have WiFi, so I’m able to roam from shop to shop. I can work from almost anywhere, even far outside of the big city.
I could never get this sort of “perspective” back home. Only in Pattaya!
There are even more benefits when working from a faraway location. Such as:
New perspective(s). There’s something different about debugging a web app from the back of a pickup truck next to a group of people cutting papayas with machetes as the truck careens over bumps and swerves across lanes of traffic. It makes you think about shit. Being surrounded by individuals completely different from yourself in every conceivable way, this gives you perspective. It makes you realize that there is more to the world than your own sanitized and choreographed daily routine. Perhaps this makes you a more well-rounded person, and certainly this has some effect on your career. When you move from a 1 Gbps synchronous internet pipe with 20ms latency to 1 Mbps down and god-knows-what up with 300ms+ latency, you start to realize that the extra 200 KB for that badass parallax effect may not be a great idea after all. Even less distractions, since most communication is not realtime. This gives you the opportunity to respond to messages on your own terms, at your own pace. If you hate meetings (like me), guess what? You’ll miss ’em all with a time difference of 13 hours. Yes, this can be bad, but this is the “good things” section, remember? We’ll cover doom and gloom shortly. Until then, take respite in this short-lived win. You don’t have the constant dinging of your inbox when it’s 3am at the home office. Now you can focus on actually getting something done, right after your hour-long $10 Thai massage.
For each good thing, there is a matching bad thing. Occasionally working from home gave me glimpses of the potential perils of remote work. Working remotely for three straight months fully exposed and magnified each and every one:
Disconnected from in-office employees. This breeds frustration, lots of frustration. Instead of a team member, you’re more of a consultant. All interactions with other employees are scheduled and filtered. I’m not exactly a social butterfly myself, but even I felt like an outsider after the first few weeks. The coldness only increased with time. It’s tough to feel sorry for someone working in a tropical paradise while you’re stuck battling the snowpocalypse. And this can be a big problem with long-term remote working arrangements. There’s very little empathy from the in-office employees. They simply can’t relate unless they’ve been on the other end. Constantly behind everyone else in terms of “what’s going on”. At Widen, our teams are grouped together in “pods”. Three or four desks facing each other. And while pods do occasionally communicate via Slack, it’s only natural to start an actual conversation with the rest of the team. You know, like with your voice box and such. Even for us introverts (INTJ) it’s only natural to resort to hallway conversations when sorting out a critical issue or working through details of a planned product feature. It’s a quick way to get everyone on the same page, except for the remote employees. They have to find out that the planned implementation has changed the hard way. It seems like a game of 20 questions is required before necessary information can be extracted from the in-office employees. And often, the remote employee may not even know that something has changed, because no one documented the agreed-upon pivot. I speak from experience, being both a victim and a perpetrator myself. And the lack of information isn’t limited to project work. When you’re remote, you lose out on all of the hallway conversations. I remember only hearing about an employee’s planned departure quite a while after it was announced. An extra generous Christmas bonus, given to all employees, was also a bit of knowledge that I acquired only by accident. Constantly being behind the rest of the office, and your team, is frustrating and demoralizing. This, as I learned, was another downside to long-term remote work in an otherwise centrally located company. Text is not enough to communicate, but video discussions can be awkward and inconvenient. It’s now almost 2017 and we still haven’t figured out video conferencing. Self-driving electric cars? Check. All the knowledge in the world throughout all of history accessible via a device that fits in your hand? Check. Getting two $3,000 laptops with HD cameras to communicate via video over a pristine internet connection? Not even close. We’re decades away from the technology needed to solve this problem apparently, because I have never been in a meeting where half the goddamn hour wasn’t spent screwing with Goto Meeting, or Google Hangouts, or (insert one of the other 10 million video conferencing services, none of which actually work). Can you hear me? No, obviously not. Restart the computer. Now everyone in the room can’t hear me. Can someone do something about that feedback? I can’t see your screen. Wait how do you share your screen? Hmm, that didn’t work. Oh, now I can’t hear you again. Can everyone speak louder please?! Sigh. All of this fiddling with technology slows down the meeting and frustrates everyone. Honestly, one-to-one communication via phone or Slack calls seems to work well enough. But group conferences? Good luck. Sense of being a burden to everyone in the office. Thanks to you, all meetings you are invited to must include a hangout, which requires prep time, and as we already discussed, video conferences never go smoothly. Don’t get me started on that one again. Also, extra effort is required of in-office employees to communicate with you. More documentation is required. Again, word-of-mouth or hallway conversations cause problems, so we can’t rely on those alone. All of these little (or sometimes big) inconveniences build up, and suddenly you seem like the problem. If you would just come into the office, life would be easier for the rest of the team. Well, wouldn’t it? The relationship becomes adversarial, or so it seems. I can remember feeling bad about enjoying my time working from Thailand. You shouldn’t feel like a bad person for exercising your right to work from home (provided your employer has already given you this opportunity). But you’re only human.
This sometimes felt like my internet connection, narrow and unstable.
Just as there are even more benefits when working from a faraway location, this arrangement also introduces unique problems. For example:In December 2015, in an oft overlooked corner of the globe, the Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia (F.S.M.) introduced a resolution* signifying the intent to end the Compact of Free Association with the United States of America in 2018. The two sides were in the process of discussing a potential renewal of the Compact when it expires in 2023.
While the rest of the world watches events in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, the People’s Republic of China is positioning itself to be in the driver’s seat in an area of key strategic interest to the United States. If Washington fails to act in a timely manner to renew the sometimes troubled Compact relationship, it will inadvertently drive the Micronesians into the arms of China and simultaneously leave a gaping hole in strategic access.
A Compact History: A Lesson in Complex Co-Dependency
The Compact of Free Association is a little known element of the complex web of relationships that spans the global interests of the United States of America. At the end of World War II, the United Nations established relationships between recently liberated Japanese Imperial holdings and the winning parties. As a result, the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) were established by UN mandate (Security Council Resolution 21 signed July 18, 1947) and United States assumed responsibility for oversight. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the U.S. developed and implemented the current civil code and mechanisms that are the basis of governance in the F.S.M. today. Beginning in the mid-1960s, moves towards autonomy in the region led to the establishment of the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas, Republic of Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia.
The Federated States of Micronesia consists of four districts: Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, and Yap. All the districts consists of multiple islands and atoll groupings that represent in excess of 2,600,000 square kilometers of land and territorial waters with a population slightly more than 100,000 citizens located strategically in the western portion of the North Pacific Ocean east of the Republic of the Philippines and north of Papua New Guinea. Historically, these islands were called the Caroline Islands and they experienced some of the fiercest fighting of the Pacific Campaign during World War II.
Figure 1: Map of Federated States of Micronesia (www.fsmgov.org)
As a key feature of the Compact, the United States provides for the defense of F.S.M. This allows F.S.M. to free up important resources while maintaining a small constabulary force consisting of a small paramilitary force in the Division of Maritime Surveillance. As members of the Compact, Micronesians can freely join the U.S. military without permanent residency or citizenship. The agreement allows the U.S. to maintain strategic access to Lines of Communication that extend into the East China and South China Sea and beyond, waters that account for a majority of the trade and energy commodities transiting through Asia. With approximately one-third of global trade and nearly 50 percent of energy commerce passing through the region, it’s understandable why U.S. security interests maintain visibility on F.S.M.
Administration of the islands has been a source of tension between the local Micronesian people and the U.S. government since the establishment of the TTPI in 1947. The U.S. military (as administered by the U.S. Navy from Guam from 1947-1951) used many of the atolls in the region for open nuclear weapons testing, resulting in many diseases (cancer, birth abnormalities, and diabetes). In addition to the long-term health implications, continued resentment in the local populace remains below the surface.
The Department of the Interior is the current U.S. government agency that manages the Compact relationship with F.S.M. through the mechanisms of the Joint Economic Management Committee (JEMCO). JEMCO’s purpose is to “strengthen management and accountability with regard to the assistance provided under the Compact, as amended, and to promote the effective use of funding provided thereunder.” The JEMCO relationship provides for joint oversight of the Compact, but is viewed as being overly favorable towards the U.S. side of the relationship. The Compact agreement allows free movement of F.S.M. citizens to the rest of the U.S. with legal non-immigrant status. The majority of Micronesians migrate to Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. The associated costs with the arrangement weigh heavily on already limited budgets in the destination states and countries. The U.S. Congress has authorized increased funding in the budget over the last few fiscal years to address these impacts.
Both sides of the Compact relationship agree that there are economic, education, and healthcare concerns in F.S.M. It is solving those concerns where disagreement takes place, with Micronesians accusing the U.S. government of mismanagement and being too slow with development aid. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs in Honolulu also recognizes the unique set of challenges to F.S.M. and its neighbors and recently provided recommendations to Congressional leaders on how to address the concerns: “1) Addressing Freely Associated States (FAS) Out Migration 2) Improved coordination of Current Federal Programs and Funds 3) Establishment of Micronesian One-Stop Service Centers and 4) Establishing a Federal Interagency Group on Compact Impact Aid.”
Ending the Compact: Say What?
Although the Compact of Free Association with the Federated States of Micronesia is scheduled to expire in 2023, the process for renegotiating the relationship with the United States has been ongoing throughout the agreement’s history. The most recent amendment to the agreement took place in 2003 with the passing of Public Law 108-188 by the 108th U.S. Congress. This highlights the ability to periodically go back and address policy and implementation concerns. The move to end the Compact in 2018 is not only five years early, it disrupts the funding of programs that are mandated through a 15-year provision cycle. In the current amended agreement, annual mandatory financial assistance is scheduled to end in 2023 and be replaced with a general trust fund. The Trust Fund was established and continues to report annually in accordance with the amended 2003 Compact.
Ending the Compact in 2018 impacts F.S.M. more than it does the U.S. For one thing, Micronesians currently living abroad will lose their immigration status and face a potential loss of federal benefits already being provided. In F.S.M.s view, the ending of the Compact provides an opportunity to redefine the relationship with the U.S. and set things on a more equal footing, replacing the existing junior-senior partner relationship with one between two independent sovereign nations. The most serious impact from the U.S. standpoint is in the provision of security and defense for F.S.M. If that is not provided by the United States, who then would be the guarantor of Micronesian security? This is where the People’s Republic of China enters the picture.
China’s Growing Influence and the Second Island Chain Strategy
At a time when news on the South China Sea disputes and the tensions in the East China Sea dominates the 24 hour news cycle, the growing Chinese influence in the Pacific islands seems to go generally unnoticed. However, Beijing’s growing presence has become of significant concern to many nations, including the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. The influence is generally low key, taking the form of a “soft power” approach that provides economic and developmental aid with “no strings attached.” As the investment and aid eclipses that provided by the U.S. and others in the region, Chinese influence carries more weight, including in foreign policy decisions, such as negotiations over the Compact of Free Association with F.S.M. Through numerous large-scale infrastructure investments (many of which are of questionable quality), small-scale programs and organizations, as well as the construction of Official Residences, the Chinese have demonstrated “a stark (difference) as the U.S. clearly and openly begun a process of decreased funding…leading to the end of the major bilateral agreement between it and the FSM.” Although concerns such as these were highlighted almost 10 years ago, Chinese investment is more noticeable now than ever. Overseas Developmental Assistance (ODA) from China has increased steadily since 2003, from minimal amounts to an officially reported total of $28 million. Anecdotal information estimates that the actual figure could be as much as three to four times higher. Reports of numerous trips by F.S.M. Congressional leaders to China only exacerbate the perceptions of influence and a reluctance to engage the U.S.
Despite the relatively benign view of investment by the Chinese in F.S.M., the issues of maritime security and strategic access provide more cause for concern. With the ending of the Compact, the U.S. could potentially lose free access to the strategic lines of communication that connect the Pacific Ocean to the vital traffic of the East and South China Seas. Yet, there’s more in the context of China’s grand strategy involving the Second Island Chain and methods to stop intervention (called “counter-intervention” in Chinese military literature) in defending China’s maritime periphery. The Second Island Chain refers to a element of China’s strategy that involves maintaining its maritime security interests in a tiered perspective.
Figure 2: Island Chains as depicted in 2012 US DoD China Military Report
Figure 3: Island Chains as depicted in 2012 People’s Liberation Army-Navy Report
Possession of portions of the Second Island Chain allows China to become “springboards against foreign force projection.” Restricting access to these regions, such as F.S.M., supports Chinese military and national strategy goals. In the regional view of security, when tied to the Island Chain concepts, F.S.M. fits neatly into a number of jigsaw puzzle pieces that are falling into place for China in securing its national interests.
Security Implications: Why the US and Others Should Care…
While the time and attention of policymakers is focused rightly on the events taking shape in the East China Sea and South China Sea, there is another significant security issue that requires a focused effort from U.S. national decision makers. If F.S.M. were to gracefully fall into the long-term sphere of Chinese influence, the ramifications would be tremendous. Some will look at this issue as if the Micronesians are artfully coercing the United States into a sweeter long-term deal. However, if we understate the implications, then the U.S. will face a shift in regional security that leaves nearby Guam at risk and other key allies in the region with much more to think about regarding the relationships with the U.S.
In the case of other national interests in the region, just as China views itself being encircled, imagine the Philippines’ perception with strategic access potentially being cut off to its immediate west, eventual reintegration of Taiwan into mainland China to its north, and strategic access restricted to a newly changed situation directly to its east. Encircled? Yes.
The same dilemma will face other actors in the region such as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, South Korea, and all the way to India and Europe. Limited strategic access for trade, resources, and military response will be made even more difficult by forcing interested countries to use longer lines of communication that add days and weeks that will be reflected in higher costs for material goods.
The Compact of Free Association needs more time and attention before the agreement terminates in 2018. The U.S. needs to prioritize efforts to ensure that security interests long term are not adversely impacted.
Lieutenant Colonel Tom Matelski is a U.S. Army War College Fellow at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army, the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
*Corrected. The resolution has only been introduced, and has not yet passed.Jameel McGee (left) and Andrew Collins (right) pose for a photo after having been reunited in friendship while working in a café run by Mosaic Christian Community Development Center. (CBS Evening News Screenshot)
One aspect of Christianity is so amazing, that it impresses even the CBS Evening News.
Quick, name the practice that most sets Christianity apart from the non-Christian world. Respect for human life? Not really. Religions such as Jainism have, if anything, an even more uncompromising prohibition against harming any living things.
Sexual morality? Again, there are religions—Orthodox Judaism and Islam immediately come to mind—that place an even higher premium on sexual purity than Christianity. If you doubt this, ask yourself when was the last time you saw a Christian woman in a burqa.
The answer to this question is forgiveness. No other belief system has the equivalent of forgiving your brother seventy times seven, i.e., every time—much less commands you to love your enemies, and bless those who persecute you.
The radical nature of Christian forgiveness is so startling, so overwhelming, that it made the CBS Evening News.
The story began in 2005 in the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan. On that day, Jameel McGee was, in his words, “minding his own business,” when he was stopped by a policeman, Andrew Collins. The encounter did not go well for McGee. Collins accused him of selling drugs and arrested him. At the time, McGee insisted that the charges were “all made up.” As CBS noted, “Of course, a lot of accused men make that claim,” and the outcome in McGee’s case was pretty much the same as in other such cases: He wound up serving four years in prison.
In McGee’s words, “I lost everything.”
Making matters infinitely worse was that McGee was telling the truth: He was in fact an innocent man.
We know this because the policeman, Collins, was subsequently “caught, and served a year and a half for falsifying many police reports, planting drugs and stealing.” Among the falsified police reports was the one concerning Jameel McGee.
While exoneration is sweet, it doesn’t make up for the four years spent behind bars. As McGee told CBS, “My only goal was to seek him when I got home and to hurt him.”
He appeared to have gotten his chance when both McGee and Collins ended up working at a café run by Mosaic Christian Community Development Center. As CBS put it, the “bad cop and the wrongfully accused man had no choice but to have it out.”
And that brings me back to what I said about Christianity’s unique emphasis on forgiveness. Collins told McGee “Honestly, I have no explanation, all I can do is say I'm sorry.” McGee’s response, “That was pretty much what I needed to hear.”
But McGee did not stop there: He befriended the man who wronged him, so much so that he eventually told Collins that he loved him. As Collins tells the tale, “I just started weeping because he doesn’t owe me that. I don’t deserve that.”
Thankfully, forgiveness and the healing it brings in its wake, has nothing to do with “deserve.” As McGee, a Christian, understood, we forgive one another because, as Paul told both the Ephesians and the Colossians, God in Christ has forgiven us.
The power of forgiveness transcends personal relationships. Think of the reaction to the Amish forgiving the man who killed ten young girls back in 2007. There was a power at work there that even the most hardened skeptic could not deny.
Today, McGee and Collins share their story with others. At least one person seems to have taken its message to heart. The CBS reporter ended with the following question: “If these two guys from the coffee shop can set aside their bitter grounds, what's our excuse?”
The answer, especially for the Christian, is “none.”
Eric Metaxas is the host of the “Eric Metaxas Show,” a co-host of “BreakPoint” radio and a New York Times #1 best-selling author whose works have been translated into more than twenty languages.With guest host Jane Clayson.
Florida State comes down hard after a fraternity death. We’ll look at the ongoing problems with Greek life.
The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house is seen near Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla., (Joseph Reedy/AP)
On Friday, yet another fraternity pledge death. This time at Florida State University. Excessive drinking and sexual assault. Blackouts and hazing. Death. This is college today, with binge drinking the norm and dangerous consequences the reality. There will be more headlines. More outcry. But when the shock and the sadness fade, it will be back to the boozy same old. Until the next headline. Can anything be done to stop the madness? This hour, On Point: Binge drinking on college campuses.
Guests:
Karl Etters, breaking news reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. (@KarlEtters)
Katherine Mangan, senior writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education. (@KatherineMangan)
Toben Nelson, professor in the Alcohol Epidemiology Program at the University of Minnesota.
From Tom's Reading List:
Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee Police Department Releases Initial Report Into FSU Pledge's Death — "Tallahassee Police Tuesday released eight pages of its initial investigative reports into Pi Kappa Phi pledge Andrew Coffey’s death due to high interest in the case. Officers arrived within 14 minutes of the initial report Friday of Coffey being unresponsive at a house on Buena Vista Drive. Neighbors in the area said there was a party at the home the night before."
Chronicle Of Higher Education: Colleges Confront The Perils Of Frats — "Alcohol, hazing, and secrecy are a dangerous combination. How are colleges trying to limit the risks?"
Washington Post: Florida State Suspends Fraternities, Sororities In Wake Of Pledge's Death — "All fraternities and sororities at Florida State University have been suspended indefinitely, the school’s president announced Monday. The interim suspension was effective immediately, according to a news release on the school’s website. The decision comes after the death of a pledge and, separately, the drug-related criminal charge of a fraternity member."
Newsweek: Toxic Drinking Culture Led To The Penn State Fraternity Death — "Fraternity members insist they can take care of themselves. The evidence suggests that this is not true and it is not reasonable to expect these young people to appropriately manage alcohol at their events."A new study by a nonprofit science organization says oil and gas drilling in Texas is linked to pollution and earthquakes.
The Houston Chronicle reports that The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas study found drilling in shale pollutes the air, erodes soil and contaminates water. The disposal of millions of gallons of wastewater causes earthquakes.
The group began its analysis of the environmental and social impacts of drilling and hydraulic fracturing two years ago. It created a task force of attorneys, geologists, seismologists and engineers, including representatives from oil companies and an environmental group.
The study also found fracking is spreading rapidly across Texas. Fracking is where a high-pressured concoction of water, sand and chemicals is used to free oil and gas from dense shale rock.Some families are learning of a special surprise just in time for the holidays. The layaway Santas are at it again this year, walking into K-Mart in south Fargo and paying off thousands of dollars worth of layaway items.
K-Mart manager Nick Bosh says someone came to the store on Monday and paid for $3,000 worth of kids’ presents. Bosh is now contacting the families to let them know the good news.
"The families come in, they're overwhelmed with the generosity portrayed this Christmas season," Bosh said.
This is the fourth year in a row secret Santas have helped out families holding items at the K-Mart on South University. Bosh says several other people have come in to pay off smaller amounts through the holiday season, as well.As the Blue Jays enter the final 71 games of the regular season, they boast the best starting rotation in the American League, battling the Indians as best in that category. In addition, the once-dormant offence is heating to 2015 proportions. What could possibly go wrong?
The Blue Jays' Drew Hutchison has been called up for two spot starts to give Marco Estrada and his bad back a break. But is Hutchison really the answer as a sixth starter as the Jays begin the season's second half? ( Steve Russell / Toronto Star )
For one, there may be a giant wall waiting to stop the Jays’ starting rotation in its tracks, a barrier that would make Donald Trump proud. Yes, the Jays’ starting five has been incredibly consistent. Marcus Stroman, Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ, Aaron Sanchez and R.A. Dickey have made 89 of 91 starts. Drew Hutchison made the other two, both of which were carefully planned timeouts for Estrada and his sometimes wonky back. It seems impossible the same five starters can keep up that ironman pace, judging by recent history. From 2010-15, the Jays averaged just 126 games started from their top |
casting shadow. We want it to appear as coming from the sun. So we look at the skymap and approximatly localized the sun at (-10, 20, 30). Then we tune shadow parameters to fit our tastes. You can find more details in “Casting Shadow” post. Those parameters can be tricky to tune. It helps if you make the shaddow camera visible. You can do so with.shadowCameraVisible(true).
1 2 3 4 tQuery.createDirectionalLight().addTo(world).position(-10, 20, 30).color(0xffffff).intensity(4).castShadow(true).shadowDarkness(0.8).shadowMap(512*2,512*2).shadowCamera(10, -10, 20, -20, 0.1, 50);
The Ground
Now we add the ground. A car needs a ground to stand on :) For that, we got a little helper tquery.grassground.js. This is just building a THREE.Plane and mapping a grass texture into it. It does the job for a simple and fast ground. We have seen something similar with tquery.checkerboard.js in “tQuery Plugin for Doom Characters” post.
1 2 3 4 5 var ground = tQuery.createGrassGround({ textureUrl : '../../grassground/images/grasslight-big.jpg', textureRepeatX : 30, textureRepeatY : 30, }).addTo(world).receiveShadow(true).scaleBy(100);
The Car
First we instanciate a tQuery.Car object with tQuery.createCar(). It will load the models, then material will be setup. tQuery.Car handles the displacement of the car too. You can make the car turn, go forward and backward, using car.controls(). you can even switch on/off the lights with.flareVisible()
1 var car = tQuery.createCar();
Then we had the car model in our world scene. Important if you want to see it :)
1 world.add(car.model())
Now we got the car on the scene, this is all good. But we need the camera to follow this car. We create a camera controls specific to mimic the usual camera in car game. The camera is placed a bit behind the car and looks forward. The faster you go, the further you look. This is always nice to see what is coming at you :)
1 tQuery.Car.createCameraControls(car, world);
Car Controls
Now we hook the controls to the car. This determines how the player will control the car. It can be controlled by the keyboard, so users press arrows on keyboard and the car moves. It can be controlled by the device orientation. We already talked device orientation in game in this post.
1 2 3 var hasTouchEvent = "ontouchstart" in window; if( hasTouchEvent ) car.hookDeviceOrientation(); else car.hookKeyboard();
Now maybe you wonder “why this devices orientation”? I ported tQuery to IOS. So since tQuery r49.1, it is possible to run tquery on your iphones or ipads. It is possible to render with canvas 2D in the regular browser. Even possible to render WebGL using WebGL Browser by Ben Vanik.
The Road
In a scene, it is cool to create a goal, something for the user to do. A road seems like a perfect goal for a car :) First we create the material we gonna use. This is a lambert with a reflection. You put a cube texture in the envMap parameter and you got your reflection :) Here again, we use tquery.skymap.js to create the cube texture.
1 2 3 4 5 var material = new THREE.MeshLambertMaterial({ ambient : 0x444444, color : 0x666666, envMap : tQuery.createCubeTexture('skybox') });
Now we add the arches. In fact, they are torus which are half in the ground, so the visible part looks like an arche. We put 5 of them along the Z axis. They are all aligned to give a kindof road..castShadow(true) make the 3D object as casting shadow. Always a nice trick to enhance realism.
1 2 3 4 for(var i = 0; i < 5; i++){ tQuery.createTorus(1.25-0.25, 0.25, 8, 6*4, material).addTo(world).castShadow(true).translateZ( 2 + i * 5 ); }
And we are DONE! We got a nice looking car, driving on grass with a sun set. It is controlled by keyboard and the camera controls is suitable for a game. Not bad for 40 lines of javascript.
Conclusion
In this post, i walked you thru a example of tQuery.car.js. It builds a rather cool scene in 40lines of js. It seems a nice base for a game. Like the two previous walk through, we got very short code. I like this, it makes it easier to understand and learn. WebGL for All!! :)
That’s all folks! have fun.UPDATE:
"I ain't been laughing that much over the past few days," Mr. Harvey said. "They’re kinda beating me up on the internet right now for no reason. But, you know, that's life, ain't it?"
Here's how to blatantly shit on Asian men on nationally syndicated television. Thank you, Steve Harvey. The tiresome comedian/host kicked off Friday's edition of thewith a segment highlighting and mocking a bunch of goofy, useless self-help books. Weird titles like... and, ahem,Yes, this is an actual book, written by somebody named Adam Quan and available on Amazon. Longtime readers will remember that we all laughed at it and rolled our eyes way back in 2004 The book is moronic, and deserving of all the ridicule it has received over the years. But Harvey doesn't devote too much time making fun of the book. Instead, he sets his sights broadly on Asian men and gleefully mocks the seemingly outrageous notion that anyone, white or otherwise, would want to go out with an Asian men."That's one page too!" Harvey says. "'Excuse me, do you like Asian men?''Thank you.' How to Date a Black Woman: A Practical Guide [for] Asian Men. Same thing. 'You like Asian men?'It's an uncomfortably long bit in which he's literally hunched over laughing at his own idiotic jokes.Note the extremely unfortunate quick cut to the Asian woman laughing along in the audience.In the next segment, "Ask Steve," Harvey takes questions from the studio audience. Guess who's first up? It's that Asian woman! Well, that's awkward. Harvey stammers and feigns being flabbergasted, having to face this Asian woman with the mic immediately after dragging the men of her entire race. Harvey plays it sheepishly apologetic, though it's fairly apparent he's also doing it for laughs.Her name is Leah and she doesn't really have a question. It turns out that she is Filipina, and has some advice for Harvey regarding his upcoming trip to the Philippines to host the Miss Universe Pageant. She talks him through some Filipino rituals for good luck, in consideration of the disastrous job he did while hosting last year's pageant. (Seriously, they asked him back?) See, Steve can't be racist! He just did this whole shitty bit about Asian men, then let this nice Asian lady speak and even pretended to be sorry about the whole thing.And there you go. That's how a TV host can shamelessly shit on Asian man on national television, and get an entire room of people to laugh along with you. You're a real class act, Steve Harvey.(Thanks, Jennifer.)A spokesman for thehas issued a predictably non-apologetic non-apology:Meanwhile, on Friday, Harvey made headlines after meeting with, for some fucking reason, Donald Trump. Why anyone would choose to meet with Steve Harvey, of all people, to discuss federal policy seems beyond reason, but this is Donald Trump, so it makes perfect sense. After the meeting, while speaking with the press, Harvey did mention the controversy over his comments about Asian men:"For no reason"? Get the fuck out of here.The home screen sets Android apart from other mobile platforms, and it's an excellent marker to judge Android's state and evolution. Folders have gotten more advanced (and far more fashionable) in the last two years. Live wallpapers are starting to experience a bit of a revival. Most importantly, launchers themselves have evolved and been refined, with gestures becoming a far more normalized and integral part of the experience. While many launchers have begun to add gestures to launch the app drawer and other specific actions, gestures have been at the core of the Action Launcher experience for years, and they help make it one of the most intuitive and customizable launchers on the platform.
Action Launcher's evolution
Action Launcher has been around for almost five years now, and in that time it has undergone a few significant evolutions. Almost three years ago, developer Chris Lacy completely re-imagined Action Launcher into Action Launcher 3, which made angry waves among Android users, as it required them to buy a fresh Plus version to unlock the paid features again. Then this summer, Action Launcher dropped the 3 to become Action Launcher again. Action Launcher's features have evolved and been refined over the years to better imitate Google's vision of the home screen, while still offering up the customization and gesture-based UI that its users can quite quickly become addicted to. It's no secret that Action Launcher has a following that's almost as fervent as fellow market veteran Nova Launcher, including our own Modern Dad Phil Nickinson, and it's because Action Launcher is easy to get your home screen exactly the way you want and then keep it that way. Hidden treasures
Action Launcher allows you to lay out your home screens with a desktop grid and padding to your liking, but the true magic comes in when we start getting crazy with gesture features. Enable the Quickdrawer for a vertical app list that you can swipe in from the left edge of the screen. Enable Quickpage to get an extra page of widgets and app shortcut space you can summon from the right. Then we have Covers and Shutters. Covers and Shutters enable Action Launcher to hide unsightly folders and widgets in plain sight by hiding them under normal-looking app shortcuts. Covers make folders practically invisible, setting the first app in the folder as both the folder icon and the tap action for the folder, while swiping up on the new icon will open the folder. Shutters allow you to swipe up or down on an app shortcut on your home screen or Quickpage and open a folder-like window containing a widget from that app. These tools allow you to nest Shutters inside Covers and hide both elements inside a clean-looking home screen. Once you get used to them, it's pretty hard to go back to anything else. One of the most prominent — and customizable — tentpoles of Action Launcher is its persistent search bar, called the Quickbar. Action Launcher goes beyond the boring one-function search bars most launchers use and allows you to add extra functionality, such as shortcuts to your favorite apps and the Quickdrawer. Action Launcher recently added the ability to colorize the icons in your Quickbar to be more vibrant and better match your themes. You can dock your Quickbar at the top of the screen, or at the bottom of the dock in the Pixel 2 style. Tenacious delight
Once you get the launcher set up the way you want, Action Launcher has a few features to make theming an existing home screen layout a breeze. Quicktheme allows Action Launcher to pull colors for its various elements from the set wallpaper, and from some wallpaper apps like Muzei. This means that changing themes can be as easy as just changing a wallpaper, as the launcher colors will automatically adjust. The most you'll have to do is perhaps switch color types and change icon packs. The only downfall here is that Action Launcher sometimes misses the desired colors in a particularly vibrant wallpaper, or in most live wallpapers. Action Launcher has adapted quite admirably over the years, quickly implementing Pixel folders last year and both the dock searchbar, notification previews and At A Glance widgets from this year's Pixel 2 home screen. Action Launcher has even made the Pixel setup the default for the launcher, allowing new users to get to a Google-esque look without having to set everything up from scratch.The other week I crossed the international border from the Netherlands into the Belgian village of Baarle-Hertog. I continued walking in a straight line. A few minutes later I walked out of the other side of Baarle-Hertog, back into the Dutch village of Baarle-Nassau.
Baarle-Hertog is an enclave, a chunk of Belgium completely surrounded by the Netherlands. The main Dutch-Belgian border lies nearly 5 km to the south of here.
Baarle isn't a simple enclave either. It is a cluster of twenty-two different Belgian land parcels inside the Netherlands. And inside two of the larger Belgian enclaves are seven Dutch counter-enclaves (an enclave within another enclave). Pockets of the Netherlands nested inside Belgium, nestled inside the Netherlands.
It is one of the world's more complex international borders.
The border cuts through Baarle indiscriminately, crossing streets, dividing roads and slicing through buildings. In the centre it's marked on the pavement as a dashed line, turning into a series of metal discs in the roadway. Elsewhere, such as in fields, industrial estates, and gardens, there is no physical marking. Just the occasional oddity, such as a warehouse with two doors, one each side of the border.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
While walking along the pavement of Kapelstraat I crossed five international borders in 200 metres, from Netherlands to Belgium to the Netherlands to Belgium to the Netherlands to Belgium. The border wiggles out into the middle of the road before cutting back through parcels of land. If I had walked along the other side of the road I wouldn't have crossed the border at all. Cars driving along the road face oncoming traffic driving under the traffic laws of another country, sometimes with a different speed limit.
Standing in an industrial estate its surprisingly tricky to work out which country I am in. The border line on Google maps seems unreliable, while in the centre of town it deviates from the one marked on the ground. The map above, from Wikimedia Commons, seems to be the most commonly referred to online, but it was created by an unknown person and doesn't cite the original source of its coordinates. Perhaps I need some kind of "Which Country Am I In Right Now" app.
Even homes are bisected by the border, cleaving them into two countries. A flag on the house number indicates which country it is in; its nationality is determined by the location of the front door. Which also decides where taxes are paid. Some houses apparently swap the location of their front doors between countries to benefit from the most favourable taxes, but I couldn't see any buildings where this was obviously the case.
When the border passes through a front door instead the building's interior is divided precisely along the mapped border. A living room might be in Baarle-Hertog with a kitchen in Baarle-Nassau; a family home where children can sleep in different country from their parents. A border-straddling house has two addresses, one in Belgium and the other in the Netherlands.
A letter sent from the Belgian half of a house to the Dutch side, posted into a Baarle-Hertog post box would be transported by van to Turnhout, then to Brussels, flown by plane to Amsterdam, then by truck via Tilburg, back to Baarle-Nassau. Apparently.
The location of a house decides if it has access to Dutch or Belgian utility companies. Electricity from Eandis in Baarle-Hertog or from TenneT in Baarle-Nassau. Cable TV and internet from Telenet in Hertog, but from a range or providers in Nassau. Telephone service from Belgacom in one, KPN in the other. Even refuse is collected separately for both villages. Some services are shared however, the Dutch companies Brabant and Enexis provide the water and gas supplies respectively in both villages.
Both Dutch and Belgian mobile phone signals are available throughout Baarle. Radio signals travelling through the air pay no attention to national borders. Though I'm unsure if the Dutch and Belgian phone providers share the same physical cell towers, or if there are separate masts in Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog.
When it comes to infrastructure, this border is less of a solid line and more of a gradient.
I’d heard stories of restaurants and bars straddling the border, with different closing times on each side. At last orders patrons would slide over to the other half of the establishment and carry on drinking. But walking around I couldn’t find a single pub that still straddled the border.
There are fewer hijinks these days, now that we have the EU and various Benelux agreements. The only establishments visibly making the most of the differing regulations are the handful of Belgian firework shops, who unlike the Dutch can sell fireworks all year round.
What struck me when walking around Baarle is how mundane it all was. Sure, jumping back and forth across the dotted line of the border is initially fun but the novelty wares off quickly. The town just works. It’s much like any other European town. There are no checkpoints for example, residents can move freely. The Baarle border doesn't seem to be much of a problem, unlike enclaves elsewhere in the world.
Finding the village’s oddities, the buildings divided in two takes quite a bit of walking around. The border tends to follow roads and go around buildings & gardens. Or rather, the current buildings land were constructed around the border, as the border existed first. Sort of.
The strange perimeter originates from 1198, the result of a series of diplomatic land swaps between the Lord of Breda and the Duke of Brabant. Quite a normal situation throughout Europe in feudal times. Elsewhere in Europe these parcels were consolidated over the years and borders rationalised, a process that Baarle somehow avoided.
When the present border between the Netherlands and Belgium was drawn up in the Treaty of Maastricht (the 1843 one, not the 1992 remake) the issue of Baarle’s complex border was put aside. A few maps of the area were attached to the treaty for reference, but in the meantime “The status quo shall be maintained both with regard to the villages of Baarle-Nassau (Netherlands) and Baerle-Duc (Belgium) and with regard to the ways crossing them”. Working out the details would be come later.
In 1995, 152 years after the original treaty, the Netherlands and Belgium finally agreed on the position of the border. The agreement doesn’t form a new treaty, as the 1843 treaty remains unfinished with regards to Baarle. It's merely a procès-verbal, a minor addition. And not only did the survey clarify the exact border positions, it finally settled the nationality of enclave H22, a parcel that until then belonged to neither country, increasing the size of Belgium by 2,632 square metres.
This procès-verbal also dispenses with the previous formality of erecting posts to indicate the position of the agreed Dutch-Belgian border. The 959 different points were deemed both too expensive and too impractical to construct. The current markings in the village are purely decorative rather than administrative. Likewise the minutes does not contain the traditional geographic descriptions of the boundary.
Now the official border “has been established in a precise manner in the Belgian and Dutch national coordinate systems”.
Not that I could find a copy of the coordinates. The outlines of enclaves H1-H22, and N1-N8 are given in the lengthily titled “Convention fixant les limites entre le Royaume de Belgique et le Royaume des Pays-Bas, signée à Maestricht le 8 août 1843. Procès-verbal de délimitation de la frontière des enclaves de la commune de Baarle-Duc, situées sur le territoire de la commune de Baarle-Nassau et des enclaves de la commune de Baarle-Nassau, situées sur le territoire de la commune de Baarle-Duc, signé à Baarle le 31 octobre 1995”.
But there does not appear to be an online copy of the Dutch version. There is a Belgian copy online, but it does not include the actual table of geographic positions due to ‘technical reasons’.
Maybe it doesn’t really matter which country I’m in while wandering around Baarle. The governing municipalities of Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog work closely together from offices metres apart. They frequently sit in joint sessions, with their decisions binding in both jurisdictions. Today even the two police forces share the same police station.
Which would have been handy back in 1991, when Dutch police searched the premises of a Dutch bank accused of laundering drug trade profits only to find the bank’s premises straddling the border. Featuring a front desk in the Netherlands but a vault in Belgium.
Following the case the bank collapsed, and its premises were converted into a villa. The same address found itself in the news again in 2008, when the body of Katrina Khaniak was discovered hidden in a dumpster there. A surveyor had to determine if she had been found in the Netherlands or Belgium.
Perhaps the seemingly sleepy villages of Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau should have their own spin-off series of The Bridge.
Thanks to @mseckington and @vruba for help finding the text of the Treaty of Maastricht. You might enjoy Kars Alfrink's 2011 dConstruct talk which mentions Baarle and Tom Scott's visit to Baarle. And the post title is blates stolen from China Miéville's The City and The City.Story highlights Prime minister orders "multiple, speedy and sure" plans to stop Fukushima leaks
"We have to deal with this at a national level," Abe says
Plant operator TEPCO has proposed freezing the ground around the site
The plant was the site of the worst nuclear accident since 1986
Japan's prime minister Thursday ordered his government to find "multiple, speedy and sure" ways to stop the spread of radioactive groundwater around the meltdown-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, including freezing the surrounding ground.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's directive comes two weeks after the Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that contaminated water was leaching into the Pacific Ocean from the plant, the site of the worst nuclear accident in a quarter-century.
"This is not an issue where we can let TEPCO take complete responsibility," Abe said at a meeting at the government's nuclear disaster response headquarters. "We have to deal with this at a national level."
Abe said he has told Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry to "provide multiple, speedy and sure solutions to this issue."
TEPCO has proposed setting up a subterranean barrier around the plant by freezing the ground around it, preventing groundwater from leaking into the damaged plant and carrying radioactive particles with it as it seeps out.
"The public has a strong concern over the contaminated water problem, and this is an urgent issue to solve," Abe said. "We will not leave it only to TEPCO, but will lay out firm measures."
Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: Canada – Deadly train derailment: At least 38 people were killed and 37 are still missing in the small town of Lac Megantic, Quebec, where a At least 38 people were killed and 37 are still missing in the small town of Lac Megantic, Quebec, where a runaway train exploded in the downtown district on Saturday, July 6, 2013. Police suspect that some of the victims were vaporized in the explosion. Look back at some of the worst industrial disasters in modern history: Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: Louisiana – Louisiana chemical plant explosion: A June 13 explosion at a A June 13 explosion at a chemical plant in Louisiana killed one person and forced authorities to ask people as far as 2 miles away to stay inside to avoid exposure to potentially deadly fumes. At least 75 people were injured in the blast. Hide Caption 2 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: China – China poultry plant fire: A fire which broke out in a A fire which broke out in a poultry plant in northeast China on June 3 killed at least 119 people and injured another 54. Hide Caption 3 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: Bangladesh – Garment factory collapse: More than 1,000 people died More than 1,000 people died in the May 10 collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Savar, Bangladesh, making it one of the world's worst industrial disasters. Hide Caption 4 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: Texas – West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion: 35 people died in 35 people died in a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, on April 17. Included among the dead were 10 first responders who were trying to put out a fire at the plant before the explosion. Hide Caption 5 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: Japan – Fukushima nuclear plant: In March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused a tsunami that killed nearly 16,000 people in northeast Japan and In March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused a tsunami that killed nearly 16,000 people in northeast Japan and damaged backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Though all three reactors were successfully shut down, the cooling systems failed causing a nuclear meltdown and radiation leaks. The disaster was the second worst nuclear accident in history. Hide Caption 6 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: India – Bhopal chemical leak: In December 1984, almost 4,000 people died in the immediate aftermath of the leak of methyl isocyanate from a chemical plant in Bhopal, India. More than 10,000 other deaths have been blamed on related illnesses, with adverse health effects reported in hundreds of thousands of survivors. Found guilty in 2010 of negligence over the disaster: Union Carbide India Limited, which was the now-defunct subsidiary of the U.S. chemical company; the subsidiary's head; and six of his colleagues. Hide Caption 7 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: Soviet Union – Chernobyl: The initial death toll was 32, from the 1986 explosion in the core of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. But the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates the total number of deaths from contamination will reach about 4,000. The disaster sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over hundreds of thousands of square miles of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The radioactive effects of the explosion were about 400 times more potent than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. Hide Caption 8 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: Canada – Halifax Harbor explosion: In December 1917, the French ammunition ship Mont Blanc and the chartered Belgian steamer Imo collided in Halifax Harbor in Nova Scotia, causing a massive explosion. Officials put the death toll at 1,950. Hide Caption 9 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: China – Benxihu/Honkeiko Colliery explosion: Guinness World Records lists the April 26, 1942, coal dust explosion at the Benxihu/Honkeiko Colliery in Benxi, China, as the world's worst coal mining disaster. It says the blast at the facility killed 1,549 people. Hide Caption 10 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: Massachusetts – Boston Molasses Disaster: In January 1919, a tank containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses ruptured in Boston, causing a 15-foot high wall of molasses to pummel houses and leave 21 people dead and 150 injured. Hide Caption 11 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: New York – Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster: In March 1911, a fire broke out at a factory in Greenwich Village, New York, as employees were leaving for the day. Most of the exits were locked with chains and the fire escape had collapsed; 146 people died in the fire. Hide Caption 12 of 13 Photos: Photos: Industrial disasters through history Worst industrial disasters: France – Courrieres mining disaster: On March 10, 1906, 1,099 people died and hundreds more were injured in an explosion at the Courrieres mine in northern France, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The encyclopedia said smoke and toxic gas had been detected at the site days before the explosion but work had continued. Hide Caption 13 of 13
JUST WATCHED Fukushima two years later Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Fukushima two years later 03:00
JUST WATCHED Nuclear fallout leads to 'ghost town' Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Nuclear fallout leads to 'ghost town' 03:19
That will mean a still-undetermined amount of direct government spending to aid the ailing utility, Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, told reporters. Building a frozen wall around the plant is "unprecedented," he said.
"To build such a wall, the government should take the lead to promote this kind of project," Suga said. "We have to provide the support to do so."
The plan to freeze the ground presents significant technical challenges. It could involve plunging thousands of tubes carrying a powerful coolant liquid deep into the ground surrounding the stricken reactor buildings.
The technology has been used before in the construction of tunnels, but never on the massive scale that the Fukushima plant would require.
TEPCO, the country's largest utility, has been grappling with water issues ever since the Fukushima Daiichi plant was hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated eastern Japan. Scientists who monitor radiation levels offshore have pointed to persistent high readings as evidence of an ongoing leak for more than a year, but the utility did not publicly admit the problem until late July.
Vast stands of storage tanks have grown up around the plant as TEPCO tries to manage the hundreds of tons of water involved every day, and the company has built an underground barrier to prevent contaminated groundwater from reaching the sea. But it remains a difficult problem, Masayuki Ono, TEPCO's acting nuclear power chief, said earlier this week
"It's a present reality that the contaminated water is seeping out to the bay without us being able to control it," Ono said.
TEPCO is also pumping hundreds of tons of water a day into the plant to cool the crippled reactors two and a half years later, though most of that fluid is recycled.
The 2011 tsunami swamped the plant, located 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, and knocked out power to cooling systems for the three reactors that were operating at the time. The result was the second-worst nuclear accident in history, trailing only the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, in the former Soviet Union.
Meltdowns and hydrogen explosions spewed radioactive particles across many of the surrounding towns, complicating an already historic disaster. Though no deaths have been directly attributed to the accident, tens of thousands of people from towns as far as 25 miles away have been displaced by the disaster.
In July, TEPCO disclosed that water from test wells around the reactor buildings showed concentrations of radioactive tritium in one well as high as 500,000 bequerels -- a unit of radioactive intensity -- per liter of water. By comparison, Japan's maximum safe level of radioactivity in drinking water for adults is 300 bequerels per liter.
Another reactor byproduct, strontium-90, has been showing up in increasing concentrations as well, said Ken Buesseler, a marine radiochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the United States. Strontium-90 mimics calcium in the body, seeking out bone in animal life.
Buesseler said the amount of radioactive material leaking from the plant now is a small fraction -- about one ten-thousandth -- of what poured out of the plant in the weeks following the meltdowns. But while TEPCO's admission was not news to scientists, "What's less clear to me is how much this has changed in the last month," he said. "And I think that's part of the urgency."
Michael Friedlander, a former nuclear plant operator and engineer, told CNN on Tuesday that the current problem may leave TEPCO and the Japanese government with two choices sure to stoke further public anger: "You can either dump it in the ocean, or you can evaporate it."
"At the end of the day, collecting 400 tons of water every single day is not a sustainable solution," he said.
Federal officials allowed the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst American nuclear accident, to let contaminated water evaporate, Friedlander said -- but TMI was nowhere near the scale of the Fukushima disaster.
"We're in uncharted territory here," he said.Author: Marshall Schott
Tommy, from House of Pendragon Brewing Co., recently asked me if I’d be interested in testing out a new hop called Perle Cross, I guess his supplier sent him an 8 oz sample and he wanted to get an idea of the characteristics this hop imparts in a beer before using it on the commercial scale. I jumped at the opportunity.
Prior to using them, I hit the interwebs in search of any information I could find about Perle Cross. I found essentially nothing, not even on the Hop Union website. I asked around a bit and initially received no leads. Finally, someone informed me they’d once had a Perle Cross single hop beer made by Odell Brewing Co. called Criss Cross Pale Ale. The reviews of that beer weren’t terribly helpful, with most folks commenting more on the whole beer as opposed to the hop character. I kept digging and was eventually pointed to a tweet by Sam Tierney:
Perle Cross was like a Sazzer-type noble hop with the intensity of Galaxy or Citra.
Okay, so intensely spicy and “noble” with some floral and earthy qualities to boot? It was difficult for me to integrate the word “intense” with “noble” into a cohesive picture, it just felt incongruous, which made this project all the more interesting and fun. I began to ponder my options. Should I use a small dose in a Bohemian Pilsner, or perhaps copy what Odell did and use a moderate charge in an American Pale Ale? No, I wanted to get the true character of this hop, the essence of Perle Cross to punch me in the face. I talked with Tommy and we settled on using all 8 oz in an IPA, the recipe of which was:
Batch Size: 11 gallons
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.010
ABV: 7.4%
SRM: 6.6
IBU: 48
19.5 lbs US 2-row
3.0 lbs Gambrinus Munich 10L Malt
1.25 lbs Gambrinus Honey Malt
~27 IBU Magnum @ 60 min
50g Perle Cross @ 10 min
50g Perle Cross @ 5 min
70g Perle Cross @ flameout w/ 15 min steep
60g Perle Cross @ dry hop (3 days)
WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast
Mash 152˚F for 60 min
Boil for 60 min, chill to 65˚F, pitch yeast starter and ferment at 66˚F for 3 days, ramp to 72˚F
Most of the Perle Cross was saved for later additions and dry hop in order to preserve as much flavor and aroma as possible. Upon opening the mylar bag, the pungency became very evident. Many of the more popular hops sort of smell the same in pellet form, though there are a select few that are very identifiable (e.g., Amarillo, Apollo, EKG). This hop fit solidly in this category, emitting a rather intensely resinous aroma. This made me hopeful the beer would be equally as pungent.
I made the 10 gallons, split them between 2 fermentors for an exBEERiment (carboy vs. bucket), and pitched the yeast. When I checked the beers during active fermentation, the smell emanating from the chamber was quite strong, though I fully accept this perception was potentially biased by expectation.
In line with Sam’s description, the Perle Cross IPA had that rich resinous character of a beer hopped with heaps of Citra or Galaxy, though the flavor and aroma was uniquely spicy with some earthy notes. One unwitting taster actually asked if I had added any spices to the brew. My experience drinking this beer can best be described as somewhat bewildered, as it had all the qualities of a standard IPA with a very noticeable and perhaps unexpected noble-esque hop character. Was it bad? Not at all, all 10 gallons were consumed without complaint, but I’m not sure this is a hop that works terribly well on its own, at least for an IPA. I do think it’d work well blended with more citrus/melon type hops in hoppier beers, as it seems to impart a nice mid-palate fullness. I also think this might be really interesting in smaller doses in some German style lagers. Finally, the unctuous spiciness of Perle Cross may meld very well with some Belgian yeast strains.
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. No information is provided to alert them to the fact that this is an experimental, untested vaccine.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A local health service in WA contacted public health to report reactions in six out of nine children who had received the flu vaccine the day before. One child was hospitalised.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
A public health nurse contacted the Communicable Disease Control Directorate (CDCD, WA), telling them of flu vaccine reactions and one child who was hospitalised. Authorities reassured this nurse that “reactions are common” and asked her to report to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
An immunologist working at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) contacted the Telethon Institute (the organisation being paid by pharmaceutical manufacturers to conduct a trial on flu vaccination in children) with concerns that their own child was experiencing a reaction to the Fluvax vaccine.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
A senior nurse emailed CDCD to inform them of a number of calls from parents reporting vomiting and fever after receipt of flu vaccines.
Ashley Jade Epapara, her twin sister and her older brother received their flu shots from a local doctor. That night, all three became ill.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Reports received from the nursing staff at PMH that children were presenting to the emergency department “unwell” after receiving the flu vaccine.
Bunbury hospital called the CDCD to report that an adult had presented to their emergency department suffering a suspected reaction to the flu vaccine.
CDCD emailed the Central Immunisation Clinic (CIC) at the WA Department of Health to confirm that they had heard of some children who were experiencing high fevers, pain and vomiting leading to hospitalisation after flu vaccinations.
Ashley Jade Epapara was found dead in her bed at 6.30 on the morning after receiving the vaccine. Her twin sister and older brother who also received the shot are ill.
Channel 10 News runs the following report at 5:00 PM:
Possible swine flu vaccination death – toddler dies in Brisbane The Brisbane 5pm Channel 10 TV News – Friday 9th April 2010 reported Mt Gravatt police are investigating the sudden death of a 2 year old toddler. The death occurred a day after the girl and most of her family had been immunised with the Swine Flu vaccination. The Queensland Health Minister (Paul Lucas) said that no-one should avoid Swine Flu vaccinations.
Samantha Keegan, A/Manager (Corporate) QLD Health, sent the following email to other QLD Health Officials:
Channel 10 have rung saying they have been informed by a very reliable source a 2-year old has died following some kind of flu vaccination. Sounds a bit suspect as they said QPS is ‘aware’ – Police media know nothing.
Kerry White, Senior Public Affairs Advisor to QLD Health sent the following email to the Commonwealth Health Media Unit as well as to various officials with QLD Health:
Gday all, just to let you know (UNOFFICIAL) a two year old had died at Mt Gravatt, a Brisbane suburb, with “no suspicious circumstances”, we have had a TV inquiry already who says police suggested the only thing different in their lives recently was swine flu vaccination. Police seem to have left this as a possibility for post mortem investigation. That is all we have at the moment, nothing official yet. Awaiting more detail. Please advise total number of vaccinations in Australia, adverse events, any deaths attributed? And global?
Samantha Keegan, A/Manager (Corporate) with QLD Health wrote the following email:
Had a call from Channel 10 about a story they wanted to do on a two-year-old girl who died at Mt Gravatt this morning. The QAS was called and police attended. There were no suspicious circumstances. However, someone involved (think it was a police officer) told the journalise the death may have been linked with a flu vaccination given to the child 24 hours before its death, and an autopsy will be performed Monday to rule it out. I have spoken to police media who followed up with the area to make sure no further statements of the nature were made and spoke to CH 10 News Editor about the unlikeliness of a link and the possible panic such a story could cause. He has agreed to drop the story at this stage. No other media have called.
Email from Kerry White to Neil, Media Unit, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing
Gday Neil, a police office apparently made some comment to a Channel 10 reporter abt a possible vacc connection. Samantha has spoken to police media and got them to put a stopper on that talk, and to Channel 10 who have agreed to go no further, not run anything.
Email from Neil to Kerry White:
Thanks Kerry, and thanks Samantha for setting the coppers straight. The irony is that I provided a one-hour briefing to reps of all State and Territory Premiers and Police media units about pandemic flu in Adelaide only last week. Part of that presentation included my thoughts on how people in authority (ie. Doctors in my case) can totally undermine health programs by making silly comments about perceived safety issues.
Email from Neil to Kerry White:
Much appreciate the heads up. Please keep me posted on this one. I’m keen to hear if this blows up. Certainly has the potential to seriously undermine the confidence in the program and I’d like to jump on it before it does blow up (if possible).
Email from Kerry White to Dr Russ Schedlich, State Health Incident Controller, Pandemic H1N1 2009:
…In QLD it seems on the latest info I can find that we have had 199 adverse events (33 hospitalised) reported from 717,167 immunisations administered. (AVN note: 717,167 vaccines may have been distributed but there is no information on how many of those were actually administered.).
To be continued tomorrow, May 23, 2014…click to enlarge Maumee Bay Brewing Co./FB
Maumee Bay Brewing Co. tapped some Alegae Bloom last night in a special event meant to highlight the threat against the health of Lake Erie — the growing algae blooms that have taken down Toledo's water supply in the past."This was an extremely experimental batch that won't last beyond [Nov. 30]," the brewery wrote on Facebook yesterday. "But, we will be scaling up to do a larger batch. We'll keep people posted on here."That Lake Erie/Maumee River color is derived from powdered green tea and kiwi, as the Washington Post reports — which sounds delicious.The brewery's water source is the same for the rest of the city of Toledo: Lake Erie. And that makes the new ale all the more important to the brewery's cause.We'll note, too, that Toledo and the Maumee Bay area make for a fine weekend getaway for us Clevelanders. You'd do well to stop in at the brewery for a pint if you pass through anytime soon.Earlier this year, Maumee Bay brewed "Fake Juice" to attack the president's mindless "fake news" war on the free press.And, elsewhere, Little Fish Brewing Co., in Athens, brewed a beer last winter called No Frackin' Wayne, which raised awareness of the natural gas drilling auctions in Wayne National Forest.0 5 robberies in 5 days: APD increases midtown patrols
ATLANTA - Atlanta police have increased patrols after five robberies in five days in the Midtown area.
One victim told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri two young men came up and pointed guns at his head as he walked on 6th Street at Juniper to his car parked nearby.
"These people knew exactly what they were doing," said the man, named Ali.
He said he had just left dinner when he heard two men running up behind him.
"I thought they were going to keep running past me. When they didn't run past me, I turned around and I just see two barrels of two weapons staring at my head," he said.
An Army veteran who served in Iraq, Ali noticed one of the men had a real gun, the other was carrying a BB gun, which he grabbed.
"We struggled a little bit," Ali said. "That's when his buddy hit me over the head right here."
He suffered a concussion along with scrapes and bruises from where the man hit him with the gun over the head. Ali said they took his car keys, cellphone and wallet before running off. He then saw another victim coming toward him bloody and injured.
Police believed the same men robbed that person on Juniper Street, breaking his nose and chipping his tooth when he fought back.
"Maybe a minute or two before me, because I saw them running and I thought maybe they were running from somebody,” Ali said.
According to incident reports, two men matching the same description and carrying a silver handgun robbed two men early Saturday on Myrtle Street and two others Monday on Juniper Street.
A fifth person was robbed on Juniper Street when a man forced his way into his building and demanded cash.
Atlanta Police said they have increased patrols and are working with Midtown Blue, Midtown Ponce Security Alliance as well as their new Beltline Path Force to address the crimes.Republicans Holding Special Session Today to Pass Sweeping Anti-Gay Legislation
Led by Republican House Speaker Tim Moore (photo), and Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, the president of the Senate, lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly will meet today to pass a bill that will ban all LGBT protection ordinances throughout the state. The unprecedented move is a direct response to the Charlotte City Council's lawful passage of an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance last month. That law, which would have gone into effect April 1, riled conservatives by allowing transgender residents to use public restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.
The proposed bill is broad. Not only does it void LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances throughout the state, it attacks transgender citizens by revoking their right to use public restrooms based on gender identity. It also mandates that only the General Assembly is allowed to regulate public accommodations, such as restrooms.
WATCH: Benham Brothers Headline Protest Calling For Special Legislative Session To Kill Charlotte NDO
But it goes even further, mandating that only the General Assembly can regulate employment discrimination ordinances - another assault directed at LGBT citizens.
The bill is entitled, "An Act to Provide for Single Sex Multiple Occupancy Bathroom and Changing Facilities in Schools and Public Agencies and to Create Statewide Consistency in Regulation of Employment and Public Accommodations." According to WNCN, it will require "that multi-occupancy bathrooms be limited to just one gender, using anatomy and birth certificates as a guide."
It "allows school districts to use single occupancy bathrooms to make accommodations for students in special circumstances," but it's unclear what those special circumstances are.
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who threatened "immediate state legislative intervention" if Charlotte passed a nondiscrimination bill, is expected to sign the legislation.
Today's special session will cost taxpayers $42,000.
If the move by Republican lawmakers sounds patriarchal, it is. It violates the civil rights of North Carolina's LGBT citizens, but it also violates the rights of local cities and towns to create laws to protect their citizens. And, it violates the will of the people, who, according to polls, don't believe lawmakers should pass the bill.
"Only 25% of voters in the state think the General Assembly should override Charlotte's recently passed anti-discrimination ordinance, compared to 51% who think Charlotte should have the right to pass its own laws without interference from on high," Public Policy Polling reports. "There's actually bipartisan consensus on the issue with Democrats (58/17), independents (48/21), and Republicans (45/38) alike believing Charlotte's new law should be left alone by the General Assembly."
UPDATE:
Equality North Carolina posted this tweet:
UPDATE II:
Listen Live Now: North Carolina Lawmakers Vote on Bill to Void All LGBT Nondiscrimination Ordinances
Stay with NCRM throughout the day as we publish the latest news on this legislation. And please follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
EARLIER:
Franklin Graham Just Went Berserk Over Tonight's Charlotte LGBT Nondiscrimination Vote
Benham Brothers: Passage Of Charlotte LGBT Protections Bill Will Allow Us To Become WNBA Stars
North Carolina GOP Speaker Vows To Nullify Charlotte's 'Radical' New LGBT Nondiscrimination Bill
Image: Screenshot via Carolina Business Review/YouTube
See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected]Neurodiversity received a profile boost with the recent publication of US writer Steve Silberman's Neurotribes. He argues that people with differently wired brains have always existed – some of them geniuses because of their autism, not despite it – and details how diagnostic criteria have expanded. The rate of autism has risen from 1-in-2000 in the 1970s, to 1-in-68 this decade. Meanwhile, the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) was founded in North America in 2006, to promote neurodiversity and give Autistic people a voice in discussions about autism. Its slogan is “nothing about us, without us”.
“Don't try to cure me. Try to understand me.”
Another major US advocacy group, Autism Speaks (AS), has come in for sustained vitriol over its campaigning. “Autism Speaks wants you to hate Autistic people by demonizing autism as a fate worse than death,” reads a YouTube comment posted on one of its documentaries. “They tell you it steals your children and ruins marriages. How do you think it feels to be Autistic and hear that?” Another comment: “Don't try to cure me. Try to understand me.” Neurodiversity activism is not like that in Australia. There's no local equivalent of AS. Mainstream autism organisations have toned down their rhetoric from that seen six years ago in a fundraising advertisement from Autism Awareness Australia (AAA), which darkly warned that “30,000 Australian kids have been kidnapped – by autism”. Local ASAN head Katharine Annear, diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in her 20s, calls the ad part of a “shock, horror” approach that makes Australians fear autism. The 42-year-old, who speaks via Skype from her Adelaide home, is a part-time lecturer at Flinders University who also works in the disability field. She has swept-over hair, dyed different colours, and exhibits slight weariness from decades of campaigning.
Katharine Annear
A wooden box was built to lock up distressed clients at a Victorian day care centre run by Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), reported The Age. A 10-year-old boy was caged in a Canberra public school in March, according to the ABC. And The Sydney Morning Herald reported a 16-year-old boy was found chained to his bed in Sydney's Blacktown in November. Other spaces used to seclude children with disabilities were listed by disability advocate Julie Phillips, in an August 2015 submission to the Senate Education and Employment Reference Committees. They included a locked cupboard, outdoor pens and a disused schoolroom otherwise used for junk. One Special Developmental School, the submission alleged, had placed children in a room, the size of a disabled toilet, with wooden walls and no windows. It was bolted from the outside.
"If you were non-verbal, a young child, and in grief and pain all day, wouldn't you be violent?"
Annear says sensory challenges can be suddenly overwhelming. Frustration with not being able to communicate can lead to challenging behaviour. Leong poses the question: if you were non-verbal, a young child, and in grief and pain all day, wouldn't you be violent? ASAN-AUNZ, which has 170 members, engages in systemic advocacy – submissions to the NDIS, for example, on how to include Autistic voices in services – and social media campaigning. Annear says new Facebook groups run by other Australians form almost daily. Melbourne has a growing media and arts scene for younger people who are less interested in the local ASAN affiliate's patient coalition-building. Monash University student Julia Pillai is founder of the Great Minds Don't Think Alike podcast, which discusses neurodiversity from the view of neurodiverse people.
"People say they 'understand' why a parent would chain up their son."
“We are stereotyped and objectified [in the media],” she says.”We tend to be either put in the gutter, such as when people say they 'understand' why a parent would chain up their son when they went out, or on a pedestal – insert genius-savant trope here.” That kind of binary thinking isn't helped by the description of autism as low- or high-functioning. In his book, Silberman quotes British psychiatrist Lorna Wing: “The spectrum shades imperceptibly into eccentric normality.” Joel Wilson, 29, from Perth, says, “I function well at some things and horribly at others. I know Autistics who are pre-verbal – don't speak – but, through accessible technologies, have university degrees.” Within the Autistic community, there are differences over how to protest everyday indignities. Wilson was called a “scab” after he wouldn't ridicule Aspect online for its day-centre wooden box. But he asks, “If a large organisation is shut down, then what happens to the [many] Autistics they support?” And there is a gulf between self-advocates and mainstream autism organisations, often formed and led by parents. “I haven't had a positive interaction with any of them,” says Ashley Waite, a Melbourne Greens candidate who was diagnosed Autistic in her 20s.
“It's a ridiculous notion that we're doing something evil to these children."
AAA's CEO Nicole Rogerson, who calls AAA a “parent group”, admires the move to self-advocacy. She worries, though, that neurodiversity might obscure “very real challenges”. Some Autistic people can't speak for themselves and need others to advocate on their behalf, she says. Others need skills to reach their best potential. “It's a ridiculous notion [that] we're doing something evil to these children,” she adds. “We love them to death.” She has been criticised for not condemning the mother of the Blacktown teenager chained to his bed. But she stresses, “It's never OK to abuse a child. Ever.” “Of course, I'm a mum, and I'm going to look at it through a mum's perspective. We need to support the family. That boy only has his mum. Demonising her online is not okay.” ASAN's Annear recognises there is often a lack of services, but says, “If you feel you can't parent your child for whatever reason, we do live in a society where you can relinquish them. You don't have to abuse and neglect them.” There are common goals. Annear shares Rogerson's concern that not all people on the spectrum are thriving. Much has been written of how some Autistics can flourish in professions such as engineering and IT. Annear worries about the person with an IQ of 160 and no independent living skills, who pees in a jar because they can't face leaving their room. Tony Langdon agrees many Autistics need help with challenges which can also include communication, sensory issues, self care and mental health. “I'm not against treatment,” he says, “but treatments should be to improve the person's quality of life, not to make them look 'normal' to society.” In Neurotribes, Silberman wrote of young Autistic twin boys being given electric shocks in a California-based experiment in 1965 if they didn't obey the researcher. Cattle prods were widely used that decade, in an attempt to stop a child's Autistic mannerisms, such as rocking backwards and forwards.
Dawn-joy Leong talks about her "different way of thinking"The same group of researchers that published a paper last February detailing how their team hacked into and recovered data from a group of supposedly secure laptops have now released the source code to the programs they used in their "cold boot" experiment. Such software could be useful to any law enforcement agency looking to take advantage of the group's research, as well as to any security vendor attempting to plug the hole.
We covered the initial announcement of the exploit in some detail back in February, but I'll summarize it here. Contrary to popular belief, the data stored within a computer's RAM chips is not immediately lost when the system powers down, but instead fades slowly over a period of seconds. This dissipation period can be substantially extended by cooling the DIMMs—repeatedly spraying the DIMMs with inverted cans of air resulted in just one percent of data degrading after 10 minutes.
The team demonstrated that it was possible to remove a DIMM from one computer, transport it to a second unit, boot that unit using a specially designed microkernel, and then dump all data on the RAM chip to physical disk. The amount of bad (decayed) data depended on both the time a DIMM spent unpowered and the temperature at which it was kept, but the group was able to successfully reconstruct 128-bit AES encryption keys within seconds, even if 10 percent of the key had already decayed out of memory.
The team's paper (PDF) notes several ways the danger from this type of attack might be mitigated, but there appears to be no simple remedy at this time. The nature of the attack requires physical access to the system in question, but the growing popularity of laptops makes this less of an issue than it might be otherwise. Once physical access has been obtained, the hack itself can be performed in mere minutes.SAN JOSE — That one had to hurt.
A gutsy group of Maple Leafs were looking good for at least a point on Tuesday night at the SAP Centre to start a three-game trip.
That didn’t happen.
Tomas Hertl scored the winning goal for the San Jose Sharks at 18:36 of the third period, beating Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen on the short side.
The Leafs lost 3-1, with the third goal coming by Joe Pavelski into an empty net.
Patrick Marleau drew three Leafs to him — defencemen Jake Gardiner and Matt Hunwick and forward Mitch Marner — before feeding Hertl for the winner.
Gardiner especially couldn’t have been more weak on the play.
“We had three people back and they had two and we did not sort it out and they shot it in our net,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “That part is disappointing when you are that close.
“When you hang on like we did, and you give yourself a chance, you have to find a way to get a point for sure. I just think we could have had more guys (playing with more effort).”
Leafs newcomer Brian Boyle, who arrived at the team hotel at 1 p.m., took the game’s opening draw with linemates Matt Martin (who played in his 500th NHL game) and Josh Leivo.
Acquired on Monday in a trade with Tampa Bay, Boyle played 12 minutes 33 seconds in his Leafs debut, won eight of 17 draws he took and had one shot on goal.
“It’s a lot easier meeting the guys, seeing the guys,” Boyle said. “For about 24 hours, you’re on an island, it seems like. You’re not part of quite anything yet.
“It’s a new experience for me, it is difficult, it really is, to be honest. You talk yourself into how exciting it is to be a part of this organization, it speaks for itself, it’s phenomenal, but at the same time it’s difficult.
“But again, we are more than in the thick of the playoff race than I was a day ago, which is really exciting for me.”
Told that former teammate Ryan Callahan tweeted the Leafs were getting “one hell of a teammate,” Boyle said: “I think the league and hockey players in general, we’re cut from a different cloth. It’s really a privilege to be in this league. As young players we learned from older players who really are strong character guys, they bring you in and make you feel comfortable. Cally is a really good example of what it means to be a teammate. You want to be a positive influence.”
Before a crowd of 17,515, Andersen, who was stellar, finished with 34 saves. Martin Jones made 20 stops for San Jose.
The Leafs, who fell to 1-8-2 in their past 11 games against San Jose, remain in the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 69 points.
Auston Matthews scored his 31st goal in the second period during a Leafs power play — one that he drew, naturally, when he burst to the net and was hooked by Justin Braun — after taking a pass from Leivo.
About 29 of Matthews’ goals have been high-light reel material, give or take one or two, and this one was no different. Once the puck was on Matthews’ stick, it was gone just as fast, rocketing to the top corner over Jones’ catching glove at 6:41.
The goal not only tied Matthews with the Winnipeg Jets’ Patrik Laine for the most among NHL rookies in 2016-17, but it put Matthews three behind Wendel Clark’s team freshman record of 34.
With his explosive ways, Matthews could tie the record during this trip, which includes games in Los Angeles on Thursday and Anaheim on Friday.
With 12 game-opening goals, Matthews has the most for the Leafs since Mats Sundin had 12 in 2002-03. Dave Andreychuk’s 14 in 1993-94 is the team record.
The challenge for the Leafs will be leaving the loss behind, knowing they were less than two minutes from gaining at least one crucial point.
“It’s tough when you are that close and it gets decided that late without getting a point,” Andersen said. “It’s not fun. We have to play 60 minutes to beat these kind of teams.”
Joe Thornton recorded his 999th NHL assist on Pavelski’s goal. Just 12 players have recorded 1,000 assists in the NHL.
tkoshan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/koshtorontosunImage copyright AFP Image caption Mexican police worked to secure the area after the gunfight
Police officers came under attack in a two-hour gunfight in the Mexican city of Acapulco, officials say.
Several gunmen attacked a hotel where officers stay, in the tourist area Las Playas on Sunday evening.
Dozens of people had to shelter in shops while shooting continued, until after 23:00 local time (04:00 GMT).
One suspected gunman was killed when police returned fire. Officers then chased other gunmen through the streets before securing the area.
At the same time, a separate group of gunmen attacked a federal police base in the city.
Mexico's federal authorities have called an emergency meeting with the local authorities to discuss the incident.
Guerrero state Governor Hector Astudillo Flores told Imagen radio that the gang members were taking revenge for the arrest of their leader, last Friday.
Freddy del Valle Berdel, known as "The Donkey," is the presumed leader of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel in Acapulco.
"We have information that this is a retaliation for his detention. It was the federal police who arrested him and the attack was against federal police officers," said Mr Astudillo.
Some universities in Acapulco have cancelled classes for Monday but local media (link in Spanish) report that according to education authorities, schools will still be open.
The US department of state has warned American consular staff not to travel to Acapulco, saying that Guerrero was the most violent state in Mexico in 2015.
Tens of thousands of people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico in the past decade.A/N: So, uh... wow. Been a long time. I'm still not done with BoB, believe it or not, but I got kind of impatient with my original plan of 'waiting until it's all finished before posting again,' so fuck it, let's get this train rolling again. To everyone that waited patiently for the next chapter (after such a shitty cliffhanger, no less), you have my most heartfelt thank you. Your enjoyment of my story really does help keep me driven to continue, and I appreciate that a lot of you would periodically check in with me to see how I was doing. It means a lot, believe me.
As some of you have found out when you asked me, I got hit with a lot of (good) things all at once right around the time that my little hiatus started: moved into a new condo, got a dog, and work ramped up in a big way. On top of having my writing time slashed due to these factors, I quickly realized that the BoB had grown into a complex monster that wasn't as straight-forward as I had originally thought. Balancing 3, sometimes 4 sub-arcs in a single chapter and making sure they all get satisfactory resolutions? Not so easy.
The good news (at least I think it's good news) is that this chapter and the next two are double in size compared to what I usually put out, so at least there's some meaty content for you to sink your teeth into after waiting for so long. And honestly? Despite the complexity and how long it took to get this done, I'm pretty happy with what I've made. I had a lot of fun writing these chapters, and I think they do a good job of twisting XCOM into one of RWBY's craziest set-pieces to date. After BoB is completed, updates will likely remain slower than what I used to produce, but hopefully the storyline will have simplified a bit, and we won't have these ridiculous gaps between chapters like you've had to deal with for the last half of a year. At the very least, I've got content that will last for the next month and a half, so that should give me enough time to wrap up BoB and move on to the next stage of Remnant Unknown.
Without further ado... enjoy.
At Bradford's words, the arena erupted into a flurry of activity.
"You forgot this, bud."
Jaune looked up to see MacAuley press a familiar backpack into his chest, and cracked a grin. "You know, I was actually feeling pretty naked without it. Coco's minigun is fun and all, but there's something special about your first LMG, you know?"
"New contacts inbound." Ruby remarked.
"Nnnnno-no worries, friend!" Penny chirped, "We'll ANiiIIHILate them toGETHER."
"Okay, she's really starting to creep me out now." Bradford muttered. "Shen, get that jamming signal out as soon as you can."
"So long as you find my daughter with equal diligence." The elderly engineer quipped as his Albatross pilot suited him up for his flight.
"You know I will, Doctor. Keep him safe, Eightball." The pilot gave Bradford a wordless salute before returning to her charge.
"We could use some help out here." Yang called out on the comms, "We're trying our best with Ten and the kiddos to keep the civilians safe, but there's a lot of Grimm coming out of the woodwork."
Bradford sighed. "Any good news?"
Ten-Five answered. "Yes, sir. CFVY just cleared out with the last of their civilians a minute ago, as did the professors on the south end, and are working to establish a safe perimeter at the city dropzone. We're consolidating our efforts on the docks held by ABRN and SSSN."
Bradford turned to the jump-jet operatives running gear checks in the arena. "Icarus, get to the docks and support the evacuation. The sooner we get those civilians out of here, the sooner we can get off this damn rock."
Crescent Rose accentuated the urgency of his order as Ruby opened up on another wave of Griffons flying in to attack the group. Several of Annette's operatives aimed skyward to join in with a fusillade while the rest moved towards the northern and eastern exits to support Strike Ten, Blake, Yang, and the freshman huntsmen teams.
"Engineers, on me."
MacAuley took stock as the other four Icarus Engineers that reported to his side. Altinsoy, Mtambe, Samuelson, and Senchin, all of whom were close friends with the Irishman from their days of keeping the anthill running before they enlisted for field duty. MacAuley couldn't think of anyone he trusted more with a spanner or a torch while the world went to hell around them.
MacAuley keyed his mic. "Vahlen, it's Mac. I'm headed to you with a group of guys and gals that are ready to un-fuck whatever it is your new worm buddy is doing."
"Any help is welcome, Sergeant, but be advised: I've been allowed access to Amity's video feeds -to watch and despair at everything going wrong, I presume- and I can confirm that there are still mechs running loose in the stadium's hallways. The maintenance and security hallways have armed patrols, and it seems as though the infection hasn't altered their behavior to seek out and attack targets."
"Yeah, the targets come to them." Beagle supplied with a hint of sarcasm, "We've seen three Atlas techs get gunned down on the feeds so far. Guess they missed the memo about the murderbots."
"Albatross teams are ready to go, Central." Eightball reported, "We can begin delivery of the fairground and tower teams on your order."
"Order given." Bradford answered, "Deliver your packages, then assist with civilian rescue operations as you see fit. Insertion teams: you all have incredibly important objectives. See to it that you accomplish them with expedience."
"Understood, sir." Weiss said, rapier brandished and ready.
"You got it boss!" Nora saluted.
"We'll keep Dr. Shen safe." Pyrrha affirmed.
The away teams left with their Icarus escort while the engineering team did one final equipment check before their push to rendezvous with Vahlen. Bradford turned his attention back to the center of the arena in time to see Ruby duck under a swipe from Penny with a squeak.
"Be careful, Penny! We're on the same side, remember?"
"Are we?" Penny asked with a glance at Ruby, "Because it look looks like you're getting in my way."
That caused Ruby to stop aiming at the nearest Griffon and gawk in surprise. "Penny? What are you talking abo-?"
"Slacking on the job?" Penny asked, slicing a Griffon out of the sky, "Incompetence. Distinct evidence of collusion with XCOM," Slice, "An entity with an unknown agenda that has repeatedly acted against General Ironwood's authority as head of security?" Slice, slice, stab, "Insubordination."
Ruby hefted her scythe and adopted a cautious stance as she watched Penny continue to kill Griffons with ruthless precision while offering uncharacteristically direct threats. And how did she learn that information about XCOM?
"Working with other Valean teams to create a mass-panic event with the goal of crippling Atlas's reputation and military strength?" Penny cleaved two more birds out of the air before refocusing her array of swords against Ruby "Insurrection."
Crescent Rose fired with a bang and propelled Ruby out of harm's way. She had no idea where Penny was getting her information from, but they either didn't understand the situation with XCOM, or they didn't care. Was this why all of the Knights had suddenly turned against XCOM and the huntsmen? Was there someone in control of their communications that had the ability to mark Ruby and her friends as Public Enemy Number One? The young huntress zipped around the arena, dodging Penny and Griffons alike as she tried to figure out what was happening and how to stop it.
A volley of Gauss weaponsfire erupted from the edge of the arena, and Penny stumbled forward when several of the high-velocity rounds slammed into her back.
"As if I needed more evidence of your deceit." Penny said with a laugh. She turned her back on Ruby and spun her tethered swords around to deflect the rest of the onslaught with her wall of flashing blades. Once XCOM's loaded ammo seemed to run dry, Ruby watched in shock as Penny formed her swords into the familiar shape of an energy cannon.
"Uhhhh, Cap?"
MacAuley's nervous voice snapped Ruby out of her slack-jawed stupor, and she bolted forward towards the haywire mech. The two collided a split second before the beam discharged. Neon green lanced in an arc across the stadium amid radioed yelps and expletives from the surprised XCOM team A section of the stadium collapsed in the wake of the wide gash Penny tore open with ease, sending concrete, rebar, plastic, and even bodies tumbling down towards the arena. The beam passed through the lighting rig overhead before Penny's energy expired, causing the stadium lights to come crashing down and cast the combatants in shadow.
"Even without Sectopods, we're still dealing with goddamn Doom Cannons." The Irishman complained.
"Engineering team, clear out of here." Bradford ordered, "We need you to help Vahlen keep this rock in the air. If you're toast, then so is everyone else."
"… Yes sir."
Ruby backstepped and ducked under another set of swipes from Penny, and she watched MacAuley's team safely leave from the corner of her eye. The only ones remaining were Penny, Bradford, and herself. Penny was still working to take down any Grimm that came close, which meant that she wasn't bringing her full force down upon Ruby just yet. Even so, Ruby had no plan for dealing with her rogue friend. What if it turned out that there was no option beyond… deactivation? Even if she was different from the Penny that Ruby had grown closer to and fought side-by-side with over the last few months, she still had the optimistic voice and naive outlook on life that Ruby and her friends knew all too well. If it came down to it, could she pull the trigger and put her friend down?
"Alright, Captain, we need to find a way out of this mess."
Right. She didn't have to do this alone. If anyone could find a solution on the fly, it would be Bradford.
"Let's get our lifeline back on the horn, shall we?" Bradford asked. "Penny? You there, kiddo?"
"Absolutely, Central! How may I be of service?" Penny's voice crackled over the comms.
"I'm right here, Bradford." The other Penny called out, and Ruby shuddered at the malicious undertone in her words. That was something she'd never heard from Penny before. "I was going to deal with your non-compliant officer here first, but I'll be happy to change my priorities if you would prefer a more immediate termination |
quarterback Trevor Knight.
After the game, Holgorsen is photographed crowd surfing after doing a Lambeau leap into the Milan Puskar crowd.
Social media explodes.
WVU cruises past Kansas the following week but the Mountaineers are upset by Texas Tech to end their strong start to the season as Lubbock, Texas proves unkind, yet again, to Holgorsen's squad. The back-and-forth battle ends with both teams scoring at least 60 points, making it easily the most entertaining game of the season. Holgorsen and Kliff Kingsbury call each other an “offensive genius” during their postgame comments and defenders on both teams are told to go to bed without supper.
Holgorsen’s squad rebounds with three straight wins against Baylor, Oklahoma State and TCU. The state of Texas is unkind for the second straight trip as the Mountaineers drop a game against Texas. WVU goes on to win its last two regular-season games over Kansas State and Iowa State. Holgorsen is named Big 12 coach of the year and Trickett earns All-Big 12 first team honors ahead of Bryce Petty.
WVU’s Cotton Bowl win against Georgia ends a stellar 11-2 campaign. During the postgame news conference, it is announced Holgorsen has signed a contract extension and the WVU coach credits the Mountaineers’ master plan for updating their facilities as the driving force. “Our guys know how important we are now,” he claims.
WORST CASE
Alabama takes its Sugar Bowl frustration out on the Mountaineers with a 20-point win against WVU to open the season. Trickett doesn’t reward Holgorsen’s confidence in him, throwing two interceptions and losing two fumbles in the loss. But Holgorsen feels like he has nowhere else to turn, thus sticks with the senior.
After a win against Towson, the Mountaineers drop back-to-back games against Maryland and Oklahoma before a home win against Kansas and an upset road win at Texas Tech. With Baylor looming the following week, the Mountaineers have some momentum and confidence heading into their battle with the Bears.
But Holgorsen receives an email early in the week from his Red Bull distributor notifying him that his weekly shipment has been postponed and shipments have been indefinitely suspended due to “transportation issues." Holgorsen’s weekly routine is completely thrown out of whack thanks to this development, and the result is a 30-point Baylor win in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Holgorsen’s shipments resume the following week after the distributor says "transportation issues have been cleared up." It’s discovered later that the distributor, which Holgorsen had been using for several years and is based in Texas, was a Baylor fan and simply decided not to contribute to a potential BU loss, thus withholding the energy drink shipment.
The entire ordeal sparks a four-game losing streak as losses to Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas and Kansas State force Holgorsen to resign, effective at the end of the season. The Mountaineers, wanting to send him out with a win, earn their final win of the year with a victory at Iowa State. WVU finishes 4-8.
Two weeks after the season ends, Holgorsen announces he has accepted a position with Kingsbury’s Red Raiders. At his introductory news conference, the song “Reunited” by Peaches & Herb is playing as Holgorsen enters the room and takes a seat with a big smile. He promptly announces he has purchased his own Red Bull distributor and that "Life is good.”For other uses, see The Patriot
The Patriot is a 2000 American epic historical fiction war film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Robert Rodat, and starring Mel Gibson, Chris Cooper, Heath Ledger, and Jason Isaacs. The film mainly takes place in rural Berkeley County, South Carolina, and depicts the story of an American Colonist, nominally loyal to the British Crown, who is swept into the American Revolutionary War when his family is threatened. Benjamin Martin is a composite figure the scriptwriter claims is based on four factual figures from the American Revolutionary War: Andrew Pickens, Francis Marion, Daniel Morgan, and Thomas Sumter.
The film takes place during the events of the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War but attracted controversy over its fictional portrayal of historical British figures and atrocities. Professor Mark Glancy, teacher of film history at Queen Mary, University of London has said: "It's horrendously inaccurate and attributes crimes committed by the Nazis in the 1940s to the British in the 1770s."[3] While it is clear that the actions of then-Colonel Banastre Tarleton were certainly despicable, they were nowhere near the atrocities in the film, especially with the infamous "Burning church" scene, of which there is no historical or written record. Australian film critic David Edwards asserts that "this fictional story is set around actual events, but it is not a history of what America was, or even an image of what it has become—it's a dream of what it should be....The Patriot is a grand epic full of action and emotion....But it's also surprisingly insightful in its evaluation of the American ideal—if not the reality."[4] While, as critic Roger Ebert states, "None of it has much to do with the historical reality of the Revolutionary War".[5]
Plot [ edit ]
During the American Revolution in 1776, Benjamin Martin, a veteran of the French and Indian War and a widower with seven children, is called to Charleston to vote in the South Carolina General Assembly on a levy supporting the Continental Army. Fearing war against Great Britain, Benjamin abstains; the vote is nonetheless passed and, against his father's wishes, Benjamin's eldest son Gabriel joins the Continentals.
Two years later, Charleston falls to the British and a wounded Gabriel returns home carrying dispatches. The Martins care for both British and American wounded from a nearby battle, before British Dragoons, led by Colonel William Tavington, arrive, capture Gabriel with the intention of hanging him as a spy, and take captive the African American free men and women who work Benjamin's land. When Benjamin's second son Thomas tries to free Gabriel, he is shot and killed by Tavington, who then orders the Martins' house burned, and wounded Americans executed. After the British leave, Benjamin gives his next two eldest sons rifles, and they ambush the British unit escorting the captive Gabriel. Benjamin skillfully, yet brutally, kills many soldiers with his tomahawk. A British survivor tells Tavington of the attack, earning Benjamin the moniker of the "Ghost". Gabriel decides to rejoin the Continentals and Benjamin soon follows, leaving the younger children in the care of Benjamin's sister-in-law, Charlotte. On their way to the Continental Army's camp, they witness the southern Continental Army under General Horatio Gates engaging the British Army. Benjamin recognizes the foolishness of the action; sure enough, the Continentals are decisively routed.
Benjamin meets his former commanding officer, Colonel Harry Burwell, who makes him colonel of the local colonial militia due to his combat experience and also places Gabriel under Benjamin's command. Benjamin is tasked with keeping Lord Cornwallis's regiments pinned south through guerrilla warfare. French Major Jean Villeneuve helps train the militia and promises more French aid.
Gabriel asks why Villeneuve and others often mention Benjamin's role in something called "Fort Wilderness." Benjamin, having been hesitant to answer the question up to now, finally tells his son the story. Benjamin had been fighting in the British Army in a previous war when he and several other soldiers discovered a French atrocity at a fort that Benjamin and his comrades had been trying to reinforce. In a tectonic rage, Benjamin and his comrades caught up with the French at Fort Wilderness, where Benjamin and his unit literally cut the defending French soldiers apart slowly. Benjamin reveals that he has been haunted by guilt ever since.
Benjamin's militia harass British supply lines, even capturing some of Cornwallis' personal effects and his two Great Danes, and burn half the bridges and ferries leading to Charleston. Lord Cornwallis blames Tavington for creating this reaction with his brutal tactics. However, irritated at the lack of progress, and insulted by Benjamin's clever ploy to free some of the captured militia, Cornwallis reluctantly allows Tavington to stop Benjamin by any means necessary.
With the reluctant aid of the Loyalist Captain Wilkins, Tavington learns the identities of some militia members and proceeds to attack their families and burn their homes. Benjamin's family flees Charlotte's plantation as it is burned to live in a Gullah settlement with former black slaves. There, Gabriel marries his betrothed Anne. Tavington's brigade rides into the town that supplies the militia. He assembles all the townspeople, including Anne, into the church, promising freedom in exchange for the whereabouts of the rebels. However, after the location is given, the doors are barricaded, trapping the people as Tavington orders the church to be burned, killing everyone inside. After discovering the tragedy, Gabriel and several others race to attack Tavington's encampment. In the ensuing battle, Gabriel shoots Tavington, but Tavington mortally wounds Gabriel before fleeing. Benjamin arrives soon thereafter, only to have another of his sons die in his arms.
Benjamin mourns and wavers in his commitment to continue battling, but is resolved when reminded of his son's dedication to the cause by finding an American flag he repaired personally. Martin's militia, along with a larger Continental Army regiment, confronts Cornwallis' regiment in a decisive battle at the Battle of Cowpens. The British appear to have the upper hand until Benjamin rallies the troops forward against their lines and Tavington rushes to personally target him. The two duel and Tavington gains the upper hand, delivering several wounds to Benjamin. A beaten Benjamin slumps to his knees, and Tavington prepares to deliver the coup de grâce. At the last second, however, Benjamin dodges the attack and stabs Tavington to death, avenging his sons' deaths. The battle is a Continental victory, and Cornwallis sounds the retreat.
After many eventual retreats, Cornwallis is besieged at Yorktown, Virginia where he surrenders to the surrounding Continental Army and the long-awaited French naval force. After the conflict ends, Benjamin returns with his family and discovers his militia men rebuilding his homestead in their new nation.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Script [ edit ]
Screenwriter Robert Rodat wrote seventeen drafts of the script before there was an acceptable one. In an early version, Anne is pregnant with Gabriel's child when she dies in the burning church. Rodat wrote the script with Gibson in mind for Benjamin Martin, and gave the Martin character six children to signal this preference to studio executives. After the birth of Gibson's seventh child, the script was changed so that Martin had seven children. Like the character William Wallace, which Gibson portrayed in Braveheart five years earlier, Martin is a man seeking to live his life in peace until revenge drives him to lead a cause against a national enemy after the life of an innocent family member is taken.
Casting [ edit ]
Joshua Jackson, Elijah Wood, Jake Gyllenhaal and Brad Renfro were considered to play Gabriel Martin. The producers and director narrowed their choices for this role to Ryan Phillippe and Heath Ledger, with the latter chosen because the director thought he possessed "exuberant youth".
Filming [ edit ]
The film's German director Emmerich said "these were characters I could relate to, and they were engaged in a conflict that had a significant outcome—the creation of the first modern democratic government."[6]
The film was shot entirely on location in South Carolina, including Charleston, Rock Hill—for many of the battle scenes, and Lowrys—for the farm of Benjamin Martin, as well as nearby Fort Lawn.[7] Other scenes were filmed at Mansfield Plantation, an antebellum rice plantation in Georgetown, Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Cistern Yard on the campus of College of Charleston, and Hightower Hall and Homestead House at Brattonsville, South Carolina, along with the grounds of the Brattonsville Plantation in McConnells, South Carolina.[8] Producer Mark Gordon said the production team "tried their best to be as authentic as possible" because "the backdrop was serious history," giving attention to details in period dress.[6] Producer Dean Devlin and the film's costume designers examined actual Revolutionary War uniforms at the Smithsonian Institution prior to shooting.[6]
Music [ edit ]
The musical score for The Patriot was composed by John Williams and was nominated for an Academy Award.[9] David Arnold, who composed the scores to Emmerich's Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla, created a demo for The Patriot that was ultimately rejected. As a result, Arnold never returned to compose for any of Emmerich's subsequent films and was replaced by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wanker.
Reception [ edit ]
Critical response [ edit ]
The Patriot received mildly favorable reviews from critics. The film scored a "Fresh" rating of 61% rating among all critics on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 134 reviews and with an average rating of 6.1/10, which notes that it "can be entertaining to watch, but it relies too much on formula and melodrama."[10][11] The Patriot is one of two Emmerich films to ever be given a "fresh" rating from that website (the other is Independence Day). Rotten Tomatoes also notes that, "While his hero is conscience-stricken about killing, Emmerich sure enjoys serving it up in generous helpings.[12] " On Metacritic, the film earned a rating of 63 out of 100, based on reviews from 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell gave the film a generally negative review, although he praised its casting and called Mel Gibson "an astonishing actor", particularly for his "on-screen comfort and expansiveness". He said the film is a "gruesome hybrid, a mix of sentimentality and brutality".[13] Jamie Malanowski, also writing in The New York Times, said The Patriot "will prove to many a satisfying way to spend a summer evening. It's got big battles and wrenching hand-to-hand combat, a courageous but conflicted hero and a dastardly and totally guilt-free villain, thrills, tenderness, sorrow, rage and a little bit of kissing".[14] The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Sound.
Controversy [ edit ]
A highly positive review was purportedly written by a critic named David Manning, who was credited to The Ridgefield Press, a small Connecticut weekly news publication. During an investigation into Manning's quotes, Newsweek reporter John Horn discovered that the newspaper had never heard of him.[15] The story emerged at around the same time as an announcement that Sony had used employees posing as moviegoers in television commercials to praise the film. These occurrences, in tandem, raised questions and controversy about ethics in movie marketing practices.
On June 10, 2001, the episode of Le Show, host Harry Shearer conducted an in-studio interview with Manning, whose "review" of the film was positive. The voice of Manning was provided by a computer voice synthesizer.[16]
On August 3, 2005, Sony made an out-of-court settlement and agreed to refund $5 each to dissatisfied customers who saw this and four other films in American theatres, as a result of Manning's reviews.[17]
Box office [ edit ]
The Patriot opened in 3,061 venues at #2 with $22,413,710 domestically in its opening weekend, falling slightly short of expectations (predictions had the film opening #1 with roughly $25 million ahead). The film opened behind Warner Bros The Perfect Storm, which opened at #1 with $41,325,042.[18] The film closed on October 16, 2000 with $113,330,342 domestically, which barely recouped its budget of $110 million. It was successful overseas grossing $101,964,000 with a grand total of $215,294,342.[2]
Accolades [ edit ]
The Patriot was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Sound (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Lee Orloff), Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score.[19] It also received several guild awards, including the American Society of Cinematographers award to Caleb Deschanel for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography[20] and the Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Award for Best Period Makeup and Best Period Hair Styling.[21]
Historical authenticity [ edit ]
During development, Emmerich and his team consulted with experts at the Smithsonian Institution on set, props, and costumes; advisor Rex Ellis even recommended the Gullah village as an appropriate place for Martin's family to hide.[22] In addition, screenwriter Robert Rodat read through many journals and letters of colonists as part of his preparation for writing the screen play.[23]
Producer Mark Gordon said that in making the film, "while we were telling a fictional story, the backdrop was serious history".[6] Some of the resulting characters and events thus were composites of real characters and events that were designed to serve the fictional narrative without losing the historical flavor. Rodat said of Gibson's character: "Benjamin Martin is a composite character made up of Thomas Sumter, Daniel Morgan, Andrew Pickens, and Francis Marion, and a few bits and pieces from a number of other characters."[6] Rodat also indicated that the fictional Colonel William Tavington is "loosely based on Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who was particularly known for his brutal acts".[6]
While some events, such as Tarleton's pursuit of Francis Marion and his fellow irregular soldiers who escaped by disappearing into the swamps of South Carolina, were loosely based on history,[24] and others were adapted, such as the final battle in the film which combined elements of the Battles of Cowpens and Battle of Guilford Court House, most of the plot events in the film are pure fiction.
Criticism of Benjamin Martin as based on Francis Marion [ edit ]
The film was harshly criticized in the British press in part because of its connection to Francis Marion, a militia leader in South Carolina known as the "Swamp Fox". After the release of The Patriot, the British newspaper The Guardian denounced Marion as "a serial rapist who hunted Red Indians for fun.[25] Historian Christopher Hibbert said of Marion:
The truth is that people like Marion committed atrocities as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the British.[26]
The Patriot does not depict the American character Benjamin Martin as innocent of atrocities; a key plot point revolves around the character's guilt over acts he engaged in, such as torturing, killing, and mutilating prisoners during the French and Indian War, while not mentioning his crimes against fellow colonists during the Revolutionary War. In Hibbert's book Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes, written before The Patriot was released, Hibbert included no criticism of Marion. Conservative radio host Michael Graham rejected Hibbert's criticism of Marion in a commentary published in National Review:
Was Francis Marion a slave owner? Was he a determined and dangerous warrior? Did he commit acts in an 18th century war that we would consider atrocious in the current world of peace and political correctness? As another great American film hero might say: 'You're damn right.' "That's what made him a hero, 200 years ago and today."[27]
Graham also refers to what he describes as "the unchallenged work of South Carolina's premier historian" Dr. Walter Edgar, who claimed in his 1998 South Carolina: A History that Marion's partisans were "a ragged band of both black and white volunteers".[27]
Amy Crawford, in Smithsonian magazine, stated that modern historians such as William Gilmore Simms and Hugh Rankin have written accurate biographies of Marion, including Simms' The Life of Francis Marion.[28] The introduction to the 2007 edition of Simms' book was written by Sean Busick, a professor of American history at Athens State University in Alabama, who wrote:
Marion deserves to be remembered as one of the heroes of the War for Independence....Francis Marion was a man of his times: he owned slaves, and he fought in a brutal campaign against the Cherokee Indians...Marion's experience in the French and Indian War prepared him for more admirable service.[28]
During pre-production, the producers debated on whether Martin would own slaves, ultimately deciding not to make him a slave owner. This decision received criticism from Spike Lee, who in a letter to The Hollywood Reporter accused the film's portrayal of slavery as being "a complete whitewashing of history".[29] Lee wrote that after he and his wife went to see the film, "we both came out of the theatre fuming. For three hours The Patriot dodged around, skirted about or completely ignored slavery." Gibson himself remarked: "I think I would have made him a slave holder. Not to seems kind of a cop-out."[30]
Criticism of Tavington as based on Tarleton [ edit ]
After release, several British voices criticized the film for its depiction of the film's villain Tavington and defended the historical character of Banastre Tarleton. Ben Fenton, commenting in the Daily Telegraph, wrote:
There is no evidence that Tarleton, called 'Bloody Ban' or 'The Butcher' in rebel pamphlets, ever broke the rules of war and certainly did not ever shoot a child in cold blood.[31]
Although Tarleton gained the reputation among Americans as a butcher for his involvement in the Waxhaw massacre in South Carolina, he was a hero in Liverpool, England. Liverpool City Council, led by Mayor Edwin Clein, called for a public apology for what they viewed as the film's "character assassination" of Tarleton.[32]
What happened during the Battle of The Waxhaws, known to the Americans as the Buford Massacre or as the Waxhaw massacre, is the subject of debate. According to an American field surgeon named Robert Brownfield who witnessed the events, the Continental Army Col. Buford raised a white flag of surrender, "expecting the usual treatment sanctioned by civilized warfare". While Buford was calling for quarter, Tarleton's horse was struck by a musket ball and fell. This gave the Loyalist cavalrymen the impression that the Continentals had shot at their commander while asking for mercy. Enraged, the Loyalist troops charged at the Virginians. According to Brownfield, the Loyalists attacked, carrying out "indiscriminate carnage never surpassed by the most ruthless atrocities of the most barbarous savages".
In Tarleton's own account, he stated that his horse had been shot from under him during the initial charge in which he was knocked out for several minutes and that his men, thinking him dead, engaged in "a vindictive asperity not easily restrained".[33]
Tarleton's role in the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas is examined by Ben Rubin who shows that historically, while the actual events of the Battle of the Waxhaws were presented differently according to which side was recounting them, the story of Tarleton's atrocities at Waxhaws and on other occasions became a rallying cry, particularly at the Battle of King's Mountain.[34] The tales of Tarleton's atrocities were a part of standard U.S. accounts of the war and were described by Washington Irving and by Christopher Ward in his 1952 history, The War of the Revolution, where Tarleton is described as "cold-hearted, vindictive, and utterly ruthless. He wrote his name in letters of blood all across the history of the war in the South."[35] Not until Anthony Scotti's 2002 book, Brutal Virtue: The Myth and Reality of Banastre Tarleton, were Tarleton's actions fully reexamined. Scotti challenged the factual accounts of atrocities and stressed the "propaganda value that such stories held for the Americas both during and after the war".[36] Scotti's book, however, did not come out until two years after The Patriot. Screenwriters consulting American works to build the character Tavington based on Tarleton would have commonly found descriptions of him as barbaric and accounts of his name being used for recruiting and motivation during the Revolutionary War itself.[37]
Whereas Tavington is depicted as aristocratic but penniless, Tarleton came from a wealthy Liverpool merchant family. Tarleton did not die in battle or from impalement, as Tavington did in the film. Tarleton died on January 16, 1833, in Leintwardine, Herefordshire, England, at the age of 78, nearly 50 years after the war ended. He outlived Col. Francis Marion who died in 1795, by 38 years. Before his death, Tarleton had achieved the military rank of General, equal to that held by the overall British Commanders during the American Revolution, and became a baronet and a member of the British Parliament.
Depiction of atrocities in the Revolutionary War [ edit ]
The Patriot was criticized for misrepresenting atrocities during the Revolutionary War, including the killing of prisoners of war and wounded soldiers and burning a church filled with townsfolk. While atrocities occurred during the war, the most striking of the film's depictions of British atrocities—the burning of a church full of unarmed colonial civilians—had virtually no factual basis nor parallel in the American or European 18th century wars, with the exception of the Massacre at Lucs-sur-Boulogne in 1794, which was a purely French affair with no connection to British troops nor the American Revolution. The New York Post film critic Jonathan Foreman was one of several focusing on this distortion in the film and wrote the following in an article at Salon.com:
The Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter, a historian of the era, said: "Any image of the American Revolution which represents you Brits as Nazis and us as gentle folk is almost certainly wrong. It was a very bitter war, a total war, and that is something that I am afraid has been lost to history....[T]he presence of the Loyalists (colonists who did not want to join the fight for independence from Britain) meant that the War of Independence was a conflict of complex loyalties."[39] The historian Richard F. Snow, editor of American Heritage magazine, said of the church-burning scene: "Of course it never happened—if it had do you think Americans would have forgotten it? It could have kept us out of World War I."[40][41]
The concept of patriotism [ edit ]
Slate columnist Michael Lind criticized the identification of the leading character's actions with patriotism. Specifically, Lind stated that "this movie is deeply subversive patriotism. Indeed, patriotism is a concept that neither the screenwriter...nor the director...seems to understand". He further wrote that "the message of The Patriot is that country is an abstraction, family is everything. It should have been called The Family Man".[42]
In contrast, historian Ben Rubin argues that because the American Revolution was a conflict that as often pitted neighbor against neighbor—Whigs (advocates of Revolution) against Tories (loyalists to Britain)—as it pitted nascent Americans against the British, many people stayed neutral until goaded into taking a stand in reaction to perceived atrocities.[43] From this perspective, Benjamin Martin's joining of the militia becomes, according to commentator Jon Roland, a deep patriotism that "shows them being called up, not as an act of an official, but by private persons aware of a common threat...[reacting to a] militia duty to defend one another".[44]
Homages [ edit ]
In the film, Gibson's character asks, "Why should I trade one tyrant three thousand miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away?" "They Call me a brainless Tory," said (Doctor) Reverend Mather Byles while watching three thousand Sons of Liberty parading the streets of Boston, "but tell me my young friend, which is better, to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away or three thousand tyrants not a mile away".[45]
Paul Revere And The World He Lived In by Ester Forbes Riverside Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 1942
by Ester Forbes Riverside Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 1942 The Patriot: The Official Companion by Suzanne Fritz and Rachel Aberly
by Suzanne Fritz and Rachel Aberly The Patriot: A Novel by Stephen Molstad
Home media [ edit ]
The Patriot was released on DVD on October 24, 2000, a Blu-Ray release followed on July 3, 2007.[46] The Patriot was later released on 4K UHD Blu-Ray on May 22, 2018.[47]Irish emigrants who have made it in the United States, especially in Boston, have a tradition of helping their compatriots make the same journey.
In a similar vein, Carlow- headquartered technology company Netwatch is offering free office space in its Boston facility to three Irish companies that want to make the leap across the Atlantic.
David Walsh, the chief executive of Netwatch, which is investing heavily to add to its bank of 400 US clients, says his company benefited from similar help from Fergal Broder’s Lotus Networks, when it made the move to the US a few years back.
“We want to pay it forward,” he told me this week.
Netwatch, which offers web-based CCTV monitoring services, recently moved to new offices in Boston, leaving it with plenty of spare capacity. It is prepared to offer free office space to up to three Irish companies for one year.
Walsh has assembled a mini-committee to hear pitches, comprising himself, former Stockbyte millionaire Jerry Kennelly, One4all founder Michael Dawson, Broder and Eirgen Pharma co-founder Tom Brennan.
Interested companies should apply at launchspace.ie by the end of the month.
In the meantime, Walsh believes Netwatch is on track to hit its target of €100 million in annual revenue by 2020. It’ll obviously need to raise a few bob to fund an expansion.
“We’re talking to the Irish Stock Exchange and Enterprise Ireland about how to get IPO ready,” he said, while emphasising that it was just one of the options open to the company. It could also take on a strategic partner to raise funds.
“We’re currently talking to financial advisers about how much we might need to raise and when,” he said.
The company is also looking to expand its product range, for example by developing technology to accurately measure retail footfall in real time.
Netwatch this space.The Earth's climate has changed. After nearly two centuries of fossil fuel-burning, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have reached 400 parts per million, especially boosted by the seemingly ever-accelerating amount of combustion in the last few decades according to the World Meteorological Organization. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 0.04 percent may not seem like much but it is enough to have already raised average global temperatures by a full degree Celsius, according to the U.K.'s Met Office, with more warming on the way as the greenhouse gas lingers invisibly in the atmosphere, trapping heat, or mixing into the ocean, rendering its waters more acidic.
In fact, the world has not seen CO2 concentrations this high in at least hundreds of thousands of years. Roughly 35 billion metric tons of CO2 are spewed into the atmosphere annually—and rising. The waters of the global ocean have become 30 percent more acidic in the last few decades and the world has not been this warm in thousands of years. This year is likely to be the hottest one since record keeping began, thanks to an El Nino weather pattern that’s taking place in addition to global warming. The top 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1998, which was the year of the last major El Nino.
Worse, farming, forest-clearing and other activities have contributed to emissions of other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, the latter more commonly known as laughing gas, which is no laughing matter in the atmosphere.
Globally averaged CO 2, CH 4, and N 2 O mole fraction (a) and its growth rate (b) from 1984 to 2014. Differences in successive annual means are shown as shaded columns in (b). Courtesy of WMO
Yet there are signs of hope as well. The U.S. is burning less coal; Europe, and even China have begun to use less of this dirtiest of fossil fuels. And although India and the rest of Asia are building hundreds of coal-fired power plants, there are also plans for more electricity derived from the sun in India, wind in China and hot rocks in Indonesia. In fact, renewables are growing fast all over the world, helping keep more CO2 out of the air. Half of the world's electricity could come from less climate polluting sources by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency's latest World Energy Outlook report. The electric output of renewables alone in 2040 may match the electric output of fossil fuel-fired power plants in China, the European Union and the U.S. today.
Already, China, the European Union, and U.S.—the world's largest polluters, together responsible for more than half of global pollution—have agreed to limit future greenhouse gas emissions. Compared with 1997 when the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change was agreed on or 2009 when another effort to craft a global deal collapsed in Copenhagen, the prospects for a global effort to combat climate change have never been better. When climate negotiations get under way in Paris later this month, there is a real chance for a comprehensive set of actions from more than 190 nations around the world, all to restrain global warming.
There are yet more signs of hope, like the fact that cities, states, provinces and even nations have started to put a price on CO2 pollution in a bid to cut back its use. We also now live in a world where an infrastructure project like the Keystone XL Pipeline to connect Alberta's tar sands with Texas's heavy oil refineries can be rejected because of its perceived impact on climate change. In other words, what once seemed impossible—stopping a fossil fuel project in a world that derives nearly 90 percent of its energy from fossil fuels—has become not only possible, but reality.
There is still a long way to go, as that 90 percent figure implies. The gap between what nations have promised—reductions of as much as 11 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases by 2030—and what is needed to avoid adding another degree C to the global average temperature—an additional reduction of at least seven billion metric tons of CO2e by 2030—remains large. There are thousands of fossil fuel-fired power plants, more than a billion petroleum-powered vehicles and all the attendant infrastructure to service them, whether oil pipelines, roads or coal mines. We may need technologies like CO2 capture and storage, even if only to deal with the climate-`changing pollution from natural gas-fired power plants or the cement kilns and steel foundries needed to build wind turbines or nuclear reactors.
In fact, we have burned through so much of the world's roughly one trillion metric tons of carbon budget that we will either need a time machine to travel back and change course or methods to draw CO2 back out of the atmosphere, whether through an outbreak of verdure and biochar, phytoplankton blooms and burials, artificial trees or, most likely, all of the above methods—and more.
We have entered what might be called the Anthropocene thermal maximum, an era of global warming driven by one species penchant for burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests. Right now in 2015 may be the last time anyone breathes air with average CO2 concentrations below 400 ppm, as this number marches seemingly inexorably upward. But we don't have to keep adding to that number forever.No basketball fan wants to see a highly competitive, back-and-forth game decided by a late foul call. That's what happened in Friday's late-afternoon NCAA tournament first-round matchup between (8) Arkansas and (9) Seton Hall when a flagrant one was assessed on Pirates forward Desi Rodriguez with about 17 seconds remaining in the second half.
With Arkansas up one point and pushing the ball up against a full-court press, Jaylen Barford was delivered the ball and was pushed in the back with two hands by a trailing Rodriguez, causing Barford to trip over Rodriguez's foot as he fell forward and lost his balance. The call on the floor was originally a common foul, but was upgraded to a flagrant one after further review. Arkansas was sent to the line for free throws and maintained possession afterward, allowing the Razorbacks to seal a 77-71 victory.
Was it an unfortunate ending to a good game? Yes.
But was it an incorrect call? From the NCAA men's basketball rulebook, Rule 4; Section 15; Article 2.c.2:
A flagrant 1 personal foul is a personal foul that
is deemed excessive in nature and/or unnecessary, but is not based solely
on the severity of the act. Examples include, but are not limited to:
1. Causing excessive contact with an opponent;
2. Contact that is not a legitimate attempt to play the ball or player,
specifically designed to stop or keep the clock from starting;
3. Pushing or holding a player from behind to prevent a score;
4. Fouling a player clearly away from the ball who is not directly
involved with the play, specifically designed to stop or keep the clock
from starting; and
5. Contact with a player making a throw-in.
6. Illegal contact caused by swinging of an elbow that is deemed
excessive or unnecessary but does not rise to the level of a flagrant 2
personal foul (pg. 47)
There's a couple key points in this excerpt that justify Friday's call, even if it appeared Rodriguez had no ill intent. First, the rule dictates that a player must make a "legitimate attempt to play the ball or player." Second, it states there can't be any "pushing or holding" to prevent a score.
To repeat: The word "intentional" does not appear in the rulebook. You may intentionally foul someone. You may not two-hand shove the back. — Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) March 17, 2017
For further context, here's NCAA national coordinator of men's basketball officiating J.D. Collins' take. He was with the TNT crew to break down the play:Raheem Sterling says his game was being stifled under former Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini, while he now feels "much more free" working with Pep Guardiola.
Sterling, 21, has been in impressive form for City under Pellegrini's successor Guardiola this season, having scored five goals and registered six assists in nine appearances so far.
The England international's form has been |
fourth accident at the intersection of Excelsior Boulevard and Woodland Road in the past three years, according to Minnetonka police. But Wayne Heideman said that in two decades living at the corner, it's the worst accident he and his wife have seen.
"We have the most dangerous spot in the whole city," he said.
Kian was returning from Richfield after dinner with an aunt, a drive he had made several times, said his cousin, Gholam Kian of Minneapolis. Kian, a software engineer who emigrated from Iran in the early 1980s and graduated from the University of Minnesota, was "a fine man, very caring," his cousin said. "He spent a lot of time with my kids."
The officer, Daniel P. Aschenbrener, 28, who was wearing a seat belt, was briefly hospitalized.
Heideman and his wife say motorists often go through red lights and exceed the 30-mile-per-hour speed limit on Woodland Road and 40 mph limit on Excelsior.
"The intersection has been bad a long time," Mary Heideman said of other crashes, including fatal accidents. But "we've never had something like this."
When they heard the crash, they rushed outside to see Aschenbrener trying to revive Kian, who was lying in a neighbor's yard. The car nicked the corner of that home, where Barbara and Jim Yasger live.
Unanswered questions
Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske said there's a high likelihood Kian would've survived if he had his seat belt on because most of the damage to the car was on the passenger side.
"There was virtually no intrusion on the driver's side," he said.
Kian was northbound on Woodland before the crash. Aschenbrener was heading west on Excelsior with his emergency lights and siren activated, answering a call about a 17-year-old threatening his family and searching for a weapon to possibly harm himself.
Investigators are determining the speeds of the vehicles, whether alcohol was a factor and what the status of the traffic signals were at the time of the accident, Roeske said.
However, all vehicles in the vicinity are required to "yield the right of way" to the squad car, he added.
Another officer responded to the initial call, and Aschenbrener was put on paid administrative leave until the investigation ends, Minnetonka Police Chief Mark Raquet said.
Court records show that Kian's Minnesota driving record includes numerous tickets dating to the 1990s and as recently as 2007, when he was cited for failing to yield to a motor vehicle. He also had been ticketed many times for speeding and failing to observe a traffic signal.
Still, Gholam Kian was disturbed after visiting the crash scene.
"I don't know how it's possible to have this kind of collision," he said. "It was very difficult for me to [see] how the trooper didn't go behind him."
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482 Kelly Smith • 612-673-4141With only a few days left until its premiere, “MIXNINE” has shared some more photos from its agency tour!
The YG Entertainment and JTBC survival show will feature trainees and idols competing for a spot in the finalist groups, with either a female or male nine-member group debuting at the end.
“MIXNINE” has now shared photos from days 14 to 15 of their tour of over 60 agencies, which include glimpses of performances by trainees as well as members of groups including KNK, VARSITY, Icia, and more.
The “MIXNINE” visit to NH Media (home to U-KISS and LABOUM) featured performances by Kim Dong Hyun, Lee Ha Bit, Cho Han Gook, Yoo Seung Hyun, Jang Sung Kyu, Lee Geon, Jang Yun Ho, and Choi Won Seok.
The agency tour stop at The Entertainment Pascal featured an introduction to Im So Young, Go Young Heun, Park Ga Eun, and Han Yoo Na.
Girl group Icia showed what they can do at the “MIXNINE” visit to their agency DAM Entertainment. Photos show Kang Ye Ri, Kim Sol, Kim Hyo Kyung, and Lee Bo Ra performing for the visitors.
Male trainees Kwon Hyuk, Kim Min Suk, and Yoon Dae Hyuk also introduced themselves through performances at the agency tour.
KNK’s agency YNB Entertainment was also part of the agency tour, during which all five members performed for the visitors from “MIXNINE.” Photos were shared of Jeong Inseong, Park Seungjun, Oh Heejun, Kim Jihun, and Kim Youjin.
Another visit on the “MIXNINE” tour was to Jungle Entertainment, where they met girl group 4TEN’s Jung Hye Ji, Park Hye Jin, and Kwak Heeo, as well as Seo Ji Soo.
The guys of VARSITY were also part of the stop, and photos show members Kang Min Seok (Xiweol), Jin Jun Woo (Bullet), Manny, Jung Seung Bo, Deung Bin (Jaebin), Cho Da Won, Kim Jun Hoe (Kid), Qiū Báo Hàn (Damon), Jang Yun Ho, Wang Xinwi (Xin), Jin Seung Wook (Riho), and Anthony.
Next up are photos from DK Entertainment, featuring trainees Choi Ji Sun, Kim Hyun Jung, Park Young Bi, and Kim Min Kyung.
“MIXNINE” also saw performances by trainees without agencies including Kim Dae Hwi and Heo Jung Yoon, as well as Vine Entertainment’s Seo Eun Kyo.
“Produce 101 Season 2” trainee Yoon Yong Bin from Banana Entertanment also performed for “MIXNINE,” as well as Star Road’s Kim Min Soo.
KQ Entertainment is the home to artists including boy group Block B. The agency’s “MIXNINE” visit included performances by trainees Kim Hong Joong, Song Min Ki, Park Sung Hwa, Kang Yeo Sang, Choi Jong Ho, Jung Yoon Ho, Choi San, Jung Woo Young, and Park Ji Yeon.
“MIXNINE” is set to premiere on October 29 on JTBC, and the show has so far shared performances videos of 79 trainees.Git’s man-pages state that it’s a stupid content tracker. It’s probably the most used version control system in the world. Which is very strange, since it doesn’t describe itself as being a source control system. And in fact, you can use git to track any type of content. You can create a Git NoSQL database for example.
The reason why it says stupid in the man-pages is that it makes no assumptions about what content you store in it. The underlying git model is rather basic. In this post I want to explore the possibilities of using git as a NoSQL database (a key-value store). You could use the file system as a data store and then use git add and git commit to save your files:
# saving a document echo '{"id": 1, "name": "kenneth"}' > 1.json git add 1.json git commit -m "added a file" # reading a document git show master:1.json => {"id": 1, "name": "kenneth"}
That works, but you’re now using the file system as a database: paths are the keys, values are whatever you store in them. There are a few disadvantages:
We need to write all our data to disk before we can save them into git
We’re saving data multiple times
File storage is not deduplicated and we lose the benefit git provides us for automatic data deduplication
If we want to work on multiple branches at the same time, we need multiple checked out directories
What we want rather is a bare repository, one where none of the files exist in the file system, but only in the git database. Let’s have a look at git’s data model and the plumbing commands to make this work.
Git as a NoSQL database
Git is a* content-addressable file system*. This means that it’s a simple key-value store. Whenever you insert content into it, it will give you back a key to retrieve that content later.
Let’s create some content:
#Initialize a repository mkdir MyRepo cd MyRepo git init # Save some content echo {"id": 1, "name": "kenneth"} | git hash-object -w --stdin da95f8264a0ffe3df10e94eed6371ea83aee9a4d
Hash-object is a git plumbing command which takes content, stores is it in the database and returns the key
The –w switch tells it to store the content, otherwise it would just calculate the hash. the –-stdin switch tells git to read the content from the input, instead of from a file.
The key it returns is a sha-1 based on the content. If you run the above commands on your machine, you’ll see it returns the exact same sha-1. Now that we have some content in the database, we can read it back:
git cat-file -p da95f8264a0ffe3df10e94eed6371ea83aee9a4d {"id": 1, "name": "kenneth"}
Git Blobs
We now have a key-value store with one object, a blob:
There’s only one problem: we can’t update this, because if we update the content, the key will change. That would mean that for every version of our file, we’d have to remember a different key. What we want instead, is to specify our own key which we can use to track the versions.
Git Trees
Trees solve two problems:
the need to remember the hashes of our objects and its version
the possibility to storing groups of files.
The best way to think about a tree is like a folder in the file system. To create a tree you have to follow two steps:
# Create and populate a staging area git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644 da95f8264a0ffe3df10e94eed6371ea83aee9a4d 1.json # write the tree git write-tree d6916d3e27baa9ef2742c2ba09696f22e41011a1
This also gives you back a sha. Now we can read back that tree:
git cat-file -p d6916d3e27baa9ef2742c2ba09696f22e41011a1 100644 blob da95f8264a0ffe3df10e94eed6371ea83aee9a4d 1.json
At this point our object database looks as follows:
To modify the file, we follow the same steps:
# Add a blob echo {"id": 1, "name": "kenneth truyers"} | git hash-object -w --stdin 42d0d209ecf70a96666f5a4c8ed97f3fd2b75dda # Create and populate a staging area git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644 42d0d209ecf70a96666f5a4c8ed97f3fd2b75dda 1.json # Write the tree git write-tree 2c59068b29c38db26eda42def74b7142de392212
That leaves us with the following situation:
We now have two trees that represent the different states of our files. That doesn’t help much, since we still need to remember the sha-1 values of the trees to get to our content.
Git Commits
One level up, we get to commits. A commit holds 5 pieces of key information:
Author of the commit Date it was created Why it was created (message) A single tree object it points to One or more previous commits (for now we’ll only consider commits with only a single parent, commits with multiple parents are merge commits).
Let’s commit the above trees:
# Commit the first tree (without a parent) echo "commit 1st version" | git commit-tree d6916d3 05c1cec5685bbb84e806886dba0de5e2f120ab2a # Commit the second tree with the first commit as a parent echo "Commit 2nd version" | git commit-tree 2c59068 -p 05c1cec5 9918e46dfc4241f0782265285970a7c16bf499e4
This leaves us with the following state:
Now we have built up a complete history of our file. You could open the repository with any git client and you’ll see how 1.json is being tracked correctly. To demonstrate that, this is the output of running git log:
git log --stat 9918e46 9918e46dfc4241f0782265285970a7c16bf499e4 "Commit 2nd version" 1.json | 1 + 1 file changed, 1 insertions(+) 05c1cec5685bbb84e806886dba0de5e2f120ab2a "Commit 1st version" 1.json | 1 + 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
And to get the content of the file at the last commit:
git show 9918e46:1.json {"id": 1, "name": "kenneth truyers"}
We’re still not there though, because we have to remember the hash of the last commit. Up until now, all objects we have created are part of git’s *object database. *One characteristic of that database is that it stores only immutable objects. Once you write a blob, a tree or a commit, you can never modify it without changing the key. You can also not delete them (at least not directly, the git gc command does delete objects that are dangling).
Git References
Yet another level up, are Git references. References are not a part of the object database, they are part of the reference database and are mutable. There are different types of references such as branches, tags and remotes. They are similar in nature with a few minor differences. For the moment, let’s just consider branches. A branch is a pointer to a commit. To create a branch we can write the hash of the commit to the file system:
echo 05c1cec5685bbb84e806886dba0de5e2f120ab2a >.git/refs/heads/master
We now have a branch master, pointing at our first commit. To move the branch, we issue the following command:
git update-ref refs/heads/master 9918e46
This leaves us with the following graph:
And finally, we’re now able to read the current state of our file:
git show master:1.json {"id": 1, "name": "kenneth truyers"}
The above command will keep working, even if we add newer versions of our file and subsequent trees and commits as long as we move the branch pointer to the latest commit.
All of the above seems rather complex for a simple key-value store. We can however abstract these things so that client applications only have to specify the branch and a key. I’ll come back to that in a different post though. For now, I want to discuss the potential advantages and drawbacks of using git as a NoSQL database.
Data efficiency
Git is very efficient when it comes to storing data. As mentioned before, blobs with the same content are stored only once because of how the hash is calculated. You can try this out by adding a whole bunch of files with the same content into an empty git repository and then checking the size of the.git folder versus the size on disk. You’ll notice that the.git folder is quite a bit smaller.
But it doesn’t stop there, git does the same for trees. If you change a file in a sub tree, git will only create a new sub tree and just reference the other trees that weren’t affected. The following example shows a commit pointing at a hierarchy with two sub folders:
Now if I want to replace the blob 4658ea84, git will only replace those items that are changed and keep those that haven’t as a reference. After replacing the blob with a different file and committing the changes the graph looks as follows (new objects are marked in red):
As you can see, git only replaced the necessary items and referenced the already existing items.
Although git is very efficient in how it references existing data, if every small modification would result in a complete copy, we would still get a huge repository after a while. To mitigate this, there’s an automatic garbage collection process. When git gc runs, it will look at your blobs. Where it can it will remove the blobs and instead store a single copy of the base data, together with the delta for each version of the blob. This way, git can still retrieve each unique version of the blob, but doesn’t need to store the data multiple times.
Versioning
You get a fully versioned system for free. With that versioning also comes the advantage of not deleting data, ever. I’ve seen examples like this in SQL databases:
id | name | deleted 1 | kenneth | 1
That’s OK for a simple record like this, but that’s usually not the whole story. Data might have dependencies on other data (whether they’re foreign keys or not is an implementation detail) and when you want to restore it, chances are you can’t do it in isolation. With git, it’s simply a matter of pointing your branch to a different commit to get back to the correct state on a database level, not a record level.
Another practice I have seen is this:
id | street | lastUpdate 1 | town rd | 20161012
This practice is even less useful: you know it was updated, but there’s no information on what was actually updated and what the previous value was. Whenever you update data, you’re actually deleting data and inserting new one. The old data is lost forever. With git, you can run git log on any file and see what changed, who changed it, when and why.
Git tooling
Git has a rich toolset which you can use to explore and manipulate your data. Most of them focus on code, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them with other data. The following is a non-exhaustive overview of tools that I can come up with of the top of my mind.
Within the basic git commands, you can:
Use git diff to find the exact changes between two commits / branches / tags / …
Use git bisect to find out when something stopped working because of a change in the data
Use git hooks to get automatic change notifications and build full-text indices, update caches, publish data, …
Revert, branch, merge, …
And then there are external tools:
You can use Git clients to visualize your data and explore it
You can use pull requests, such as the ones on GitHub, to inspect data changes before they are merged
Gitinspector: statistical analysis on git repositories
Any tool that works with git, works with your database.
NoSQL
Because it’s a key-value store, you get the usual advantages of a NoSQL store such as a schema-less database. You can store any content you want, it doesn’t even have to be JSON.
Connectivity
Git can work in a partitioned network. You can put everything on a USB stick, save data when you’re not connected to a network and then push and merge it when you get back online. It’s the same advantage we regularly use when developing code, but it could be a life saver for certain use cases.
Transactions
In the above examples, we committed every change to a file. You don’t necessarily have to do that, you can also commit various changes as a single commit. That would make it easy to roll back the changes atomically later.
Long lived transactions are also possible: you can create a branch, commit several changes to it and then merge it (or discard it).
Backups and replication
With traditional databases, there’s usually a bit of hassle to create a schedule for full backups and incremental backups. Since git already stores the entire history, there will never be a need to do full backups. Furthermore, a backup is simply executing git push. And those pushes can go anywhere, GitHub, BitBucket or a self-hosted git-server.
Replication is equally simple. By using git hooks, you can set up a trigger to run git push after every commit. Example:
git remote add replica git@replica.server.com:app.git cat.git/hooks/post-commit #!/bin/sh git push replica
This is fantastic! We should all use Git as a database from now on!
Hold on! There are a few disadvantages as well:
Querying
You can query by key … and that’s about it. The only piece of good news here is that you can structure your data in folders in such a way that you can easily get content by prefix, but that’s about it. Any other query is off limits, unless you want to do a full recursive search. The only option here is to build indices specifically for querying. You can do this on a scheduled basis if staleness is of no concern or you can use git hooks to update indices as soon as a commit happens.
Concurrency
As long as we’re writing blobs there’s no issue with concurrency. The problem occurs when we start writing commits and updating branches. The following graph illustrates the problem when two processes concurrently try to create a commit:
In the above case you can see that when the second process modifies the copy of the tree with its changes, it’s actually working on an outdated tree. When it commits the tree it will lose the changes that the first process made.
The same story applies to moving branch heads. Between the time you commit and update the branch head, another commit might get in. You could potentially update the branch head to the wrong commit.
The only way to counter this is by locking any writes between reading a copy of the current tree and updating the head of the branch.
Speed
We all know git to be fast. But that’s in the context of creating branches. When it comes to commits per second it’s actually not that fast, because you’re writing to disk all the time. We don’t notice it, because usually we don’t do many commits per second when writing code (at least I don’t). After running some tests on my local machines I got into a limit of about 110 commits/second.
Brandon Keepers showed some results in a video a few years ago and he got to about 90 commits / second which seems in line of what hardware advances may have brought.
110 commits/second is enough for a lot of applications, but not for all of them. It’s also a theoretical maximum on my local development machines, with lots of resources. There are various factors that can affect the speed:
Tree sizes
In general, you should prefer to use lots of subdirectories instead of putting all documents in the same directory. This will keep the write speed as close to the maximum as possible. The reason for that is that every time you create a new commit, you have to copy the tree, make a change to it and then save the modified tree. Although you might think that affects size as well, that’s actually not the case because running git gc will make sure to save it as a delta instead of as two different trees. Let’s take a look at an example:
In the first case, we have 10.000 blobs stored in the root directory. When we add a file we copy the tree that contains 10.000 items, add one and save it. This could be a potentially lengthy operation, because of the size of the tree.
In the second case we have 4 levels of trees, with each 10 sub trees and 10 blobs at the last level (10 * 10 * 10 * 10 = 10.000 files):
In this case, if we want to add a blob, we don’t need to copy the entire hierarchy, we just need to copy the branch that leads to the blob. The following image shows the trees that had to be copied and amended:
So, by using sub folder, instead of having to copy 1 tree with 10.000 entries, we can now copy 5 trees with 10 entries, which is quite a bit faster. The more your data grows, the more you’ll want to use sub folders.
Combining values into transactions
If you need to do more than 100 commits/second, chances are you don’t need to be able to roll them back on an individual basis. In that case, instead of committing every change, you could commit several changes in one commit. You can write blobs concurrently, so you could potentially write 1000s of files concurrently to disk and then do 1 commit to save them into the repository. This has drawbacks, but if you want raw speed, this is the way to go.
The way to solve this is to add a different backend to git that doesn’t immediately flush its contents to disk, but writes to an in-memory database first and then asynchronously flushes it to disk. Implementing this is not that easy though. When I was testing this solution using libgit2sharp to connect to a repository, I tried using a Voron-backend (which is available as open-source, as well as a variant that uses ElasticSearch). That improved speed quite a bit, but you lose the benefit of being able to inspect your data with any standard git tool.
Merging
Another potentially pain point is when you are merging data from different branches. As long as there are no merge conflicts, it’s actually a rather pleasant experience, as it enables a lot of nice scenarios:
Modify data that needs approval before it can go “live”
Run tests on live data that you need to revert
Work in isolation before merging data
Essentially, you get all the fun with branches you get in development, but on a different level. The problem is when there IS a merge conflict. Merging data can be rather difficult because you won’t always be able to make out how to handle these conflicts.
One potential strategy is to just store the merge conflict as is when you’re writing data and then when you read, present the user with the diff so they can choose which one is correct. Nonetheless, it can be a difficult task to manage this correctly.
Conclusion
Git can work as a NoSQL database very well in some circumstances. It has its place and time, but I think it’s particularly useful in the following cases:
You have hierarchic data (because of its inherent hierarchical nature)
You need to be able to work in disconnected environments
You need an approval mechanism for your data (aka you need branching and merging)
In other cases, it’s not a good fit:
You need extremely fast write performance
You need complex querying (although you can solve that by indexing through commit hooks)
You have an enormous set of data (write speed would slow down even further)
So, there you go, that’s how you can use git as a NoSQL database. Let me know your thoughts!In case you missed the first half of today’s Monday Night Football game that is actually being played on a Thursday night and instead are only tuning in to watch Jimmy Clausen take on the Jaguars’ second-team defense, you didn’t miss all that much.
The Jaguars kicked a few field goals, Blake Bortles looked good — but still won’t play in the regular season this year — and the Bears’ offense is still pretty darn potent.
Also, Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall are still good together.
While the offensive line deserves most of the credit for that touchdown, Trent Dilfer was pretty enthralled with Cutler’s play.
Cutler has worked extremely hard on the "details" of his game. Platform is much stronger in pocket and feet are tied to eyes best I've seen — Trent Dilfer (@TDESPN) August 15, 2014
Great pass pro by Bears O_line,but Jay's base stayed wide and compact which allowed him to stay in strong passing posture & quick flick ball — Trent Dilfer (@TDESPN) August 15, 2014
Jay Cutler is officially Trent Dilfer approved. I’m sure that’s a dream come true.
[content_block id=134239]Police in Calumet City are searching for this man. Anyone with information is asked to call 708-868-2500.
One of two masked men who attempted to rob a Calumet City pawnshop Monday morning was shot and wounded when a customer grabbed the offender's gun.The armed robbery who was shot was in his 20s and remains hospitalized. A second would-be robber escaped before police arrived.The shooting happened at about 11 a.m. at the EZ Pawn. There were three employees and one customer in the store at the time. The man who was shot tried to get the employees and customer into a back room when the customer reached for his gun and shot him in the chest."The weapon was in sight of him, close to his head, being pointed at his head. He grabbed it, they wrestled to ground fired off struck suspect," said Tom DiFiore, Calumet City's assistant police chief.The store remained close on Monday after the shooting. The owners declined comment.The employees were able to get out, leaving the customer on his own wrestling with the robber, police said.The struggle between the two lasted four minutes. The entire incident was captured on surveillance video.Police said the customer is in his late 50s and is a veteran."Heroic. It's good to see that that happened, unfortunately, someone was shot, don't want to see that, but at least we have an offender in custody because of it," DiFiore said.The second offender who fled left behind a mask that police found on a neighbor's bush.In the meantime, Monday's attempted robbery is the third time EZ Pawn has been targeted in the past couple years."They need to get a buzzer doors and bullet proof windows to protect their store," said local resident Sonya Williams.Police are still searching for the second suspect, who remains at large. Police are asking anyone who may have seen him to call the Calumet City tip line: 708-868-2500.The women join a growing list of accusers alleging sexual misconduct by the former judge, who is seeking to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions
Two more women have come forward to accuse Roy Moore of sexual assault, with one claiming the controversial Alabama Senate candidate gave her a forceful kiss that scared her when she was around 18 and another saying Moore groped her buttocks in his law office in 1991, when she was 28.
Roy Moore complains he is being 'harassed' by media Read more
They join a growing list of women who have alleged sexual misconduct by Moore, a former judge seeking to fill the Alabama Senate seat vacated by the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions. The controversy has roiled the Senate race one month before the state’s special election, with top Republicans in Washington calling on the embattled candidate to drop out of the race.
The scandal began when the Washington Post reported that Leigh Corfman said that when she was 14 in 1979, Moore kissed and touched her and made her touch his crotch. Beverly Young Nelson then came forward to claim Moore physically attacked her in a car when she was 16, grabbing her breasts and trying to force her head down on to his crotch.
A Washington Post report published late on Wednesday detailed the accounts of Becky Gray and Gena Richardson, who in the late 1970s worked at the same mall from which Moore was rumored to have been banned after local talk that he had been bothering young women there.
Richardson told the Post she was a senior in high school when Moore first approached her at the Gadsden Mall in the fall of 1977, just before or after her 18th birthday. Moore, then around 30 years old, asked for her phone number and the name of her school.
Richardson said when she declined to give Moore her number, he called her school days later and asked to speak with her – prompting her to be pulled from her trigonometry class to take the call from the principal’s office.
Richardson told the Post she accepted a date with Moore because she was initially flattered. But during their encounter, he drove her to an empty parking lot and tried to forcefully kiss her.
“I never wanted to see him again,” Richardson, now 58 and a community college teacher, said.
Gray, who also had not yet spoken publicly, said she was 22 and working at the mall when she was approached by Moore.
“I’d always say no, I’m dating someone, no, I’m in a relationship,” Gray, now 62, recalled.
“I thought he was old at that time. Anyone over 22 was just old.” Gray added that Moore would linger and she complained about him to her manager.
The new allegations in the Post came just hours after another new accuser told Al.com that Moore groped her behind while she was in his law office in 1991. “He didn’t pinch it; he grabbed it,” she said.
The woman, Tina Johnson, said she was 28 at the time, in Moore’s office with her mother on legal business.
“He kept commenting on my looks, telling me how pretty I was, how nice I looked,” Johnson said. “He was saying that my eyes were beautiful.”
Johnson said Moore even asked questions about her young daughters, including if they were as pretty as she was, and grabbed her buttocks as she was leaving.
In the same piece, Kelly Harrison Thorp said Moore asked her out when she was 17, saying: “I go out with girls your age all the time.”
Moore’s campaign did not address the new allegations, but has vehemently denied the claims made by his other accusers.
On Wednesday, a defiant Moore was joined by his lawyer, Phillip Jauregui, and his campaign chairman, Bill Armistead, at a press conference in Birmingham, which sought to discredit Moore’s accusers. Jauregui specifically challenged the account of Beverly Young Nelson, a 56-year-old Alabama resident who on Monday alleged that Moore had sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old.
He also issued an open letter that said: “I adamantly deny the allegations of Leigh Corfman and Beverly Nelson, did not date underage girls, and have taken steps to begin a civil action for defamation.”
The press conference occurred as Alabama’s state Republican party gathered its steering committee for an emergency meeting on possible alternative paths forward. Party officials are reportedly weighing a write-in campaign, an approach that has also been advocated by the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
On Tuesday, McConnell publicly stated his view that Sessions, who remains broadly popular in his home state, should mount a write-in campaign if he is willing to part ways with his position as attorney general. Republican leaders have even floated the possibility that they will move to expel Moore from the Senate if he wins the election despite the allegations, even as a new poll found him now trailing his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones by 12 points amid the scandal.
Roy Moore fights for family values. Do those involve assaulting 14-year-olds? | Arwa Mahdawi Read more
Moore’s refusal to bow out of the race, despite the insistence of a growing chorus of Republican lawmakers that he do so, has escalated pressure on Donald Trump to weigh in on the matter.
But the president, who returned to Washington this week following a 12-day tour of Asia, ignored questions at the White House on Wednesday when asked by reporters if Moore should quit or if Trump believed his accusers. Trump also declined to comment on the allegations during his Asia visit, telling reporters he had been focused on his trip.
Ivanka Trump became the first White House official to condemn Moore on Wednesday, telling the Associated Press: “There’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children.
“I’ve yet to see a valid explanation [from Moore] and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts,” Trump’s daughter and senior adviser said.
Ivanka did not, however, call on Moore to exit the race.From: Adam Jackson To: Development discussions related to Fedora Subject: Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?] Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:58:45 -0500 > Linux is about choice. If I could only have one thing this year, it would be to eliminate that meme from the collective consciousness. It is a disease. It strangles the mind and ensures you can never change anything ever because someone somewhere has OCD'd their environment exactly how they like it and how dare you change it on them you're so mean and next time I have friends over for Buffy night you're not invited mom he's sitting on my side again. As a consumer, yes, you have lots of choices in which Linux you use. This does not mean Linux is in any sense _about_ choice, any more than because there are so many kinds of cars you can buy that cars are about choice. The complaints up-thread about juju and pulse are entirely valid, but the solution is not to try to deliver two things at once. If you try to deliver both at once you have to also deliver a way of switching between the two. Now you have three moving parts instead of one, which means the failure rate has gone up by a factor of _six_ (three parts, and three interactions). We have essentially already posited that we have insufficient developer effort to have 100%-complete features at ship time, so asking them to take on six times the failure rate when they're already overburdened is just madness. Alternatively, we could say that we're integrating features too rapidly, but you do that at the expense of goal 1, to be the showcase for the latest and greatest in free software. Software is hard. The way to fix it is to fix it, not sweep it under the rug. There is a legitimate discussion to be had about where and how we draw the line for feature inclusion, about how we increase and formalize our testing efforts, and about how we develop and deploy spike solutions for corner-case problems like the one device class that juju happens to do worse than the old stack. But the chain of logic from "Linux is about choice" to "ship everything and let the user chose how they want their sound to not work" starts with fallacy and ends with disaster. - ajaxFrance: Storming the Tunnel
from Calais Migrant Solidarity
(UPDATE ON ARRESTS SUNDAY EVENING: Police held 23 of the people captured. At least 18 of them have now been released, we are awaiting news of the remaining five.)
Last night after midnight over 200 people without papers broke through the vicious razor wire fences and invaded the channel tunnel, trying to make it to England. According to the authorities, some made it 10 miles in |
/NtKaMcQFTr67neVaAOUMwNrL8Vg/dzSmbYJBI+uxfcHeTDFzAdEjwKHwjW+6SBy 0ATxoLCZgCsldUHsRDiOsZzIbQR5qf1b/bd/cKJIQ9WFzred3s/i+lpmPtrEvlHLm/yq ENuQA9/Uh0WvDdwuMkvueha3AY6LW4lgDSDWDLHjPaUXsW+qcXh729BO6AqJiGM+8neX aMrw== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.202.202.129 with SMTP id a123mr9776636oig.118.1436186748390; Mon, 06 Jul 2015 05:45:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.76.160.39 with HTTP; Mon, 6 Jul 2015 05:45:48 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <29C5FEEE-54B4-41F7-BCEF-12E7A261F635@starbucks.com> References: <29C5FEEE-54B4-41F7-BCEF-12E7A261F635@starbucks.com> Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 08:45:48 -0400 Message-ID: <CALk44aCzYYsOMrcSOSMFE_eAxuKVDGzhY=dSse6uR-hnP+jjcQ@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Fwd: For your consideration... From: Cheryl Mills <cheryl.mills@gmail.com> To: "Jake.Sullivan@gmail.com" <Jake.Sullivan@gmail.com>, John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com>, Huma Abedin <huma@hrcoffice.com>, Robby Mook <robbymook@gmail.com>, Jennifer Palmieri <jennifer.m.palmieri@gmail.com> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=001a1134e0e8f81275051a3448cb --001a1134e0e8f81275051a3448cb Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 confidential fysa ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Howard Schultz <HSchultz@starbucks.com> Date: Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 8:39 AM Subject: For your consideration... To: Cheryl Mills <cheryl.mills@gmail.com> Good morning Cheryl, For what it's worth some respectful thoughts for consideration... From the outside looking in, I see an old style start to the campaign that feels stale with very few signs of the kind of freshness and transparency that the American people (especially millennials) will need to trust and ultimately elect HRC as President. It's also becoming very apparent and concerning that the media is not on her side. This will get only worse and not bode well for her as time goes on. She desperately needs the people on her side. And, although it's early, the imprinting process has begun... And, I don't like how it feels. Her inner circle and the powers to be, need to reject the status quo, and understand how brands (and she is a brand) in the world we now live in are built. It requires a vision for the future that is steeped in truth and authenticity and builds an enduring emotional connection with the voters. The rules of engagement for running for President have dramatically changed, accept it. Substance absolutely matters, but so does the form it takes. The campaign feels "yesterday." It's too packaged and prescribed. The American people are longing for truth and someone to believe in. Reboot the look of it all and the overriding message before its to late. The answer is not in the polls, it's in her heart and her conscience. When she begins to truly trust herself and find her inner voice, and has the courage and conviction to share it with the world, things will change and change rapidly. Encourage her to be herself. And, to embrace her core purpose and reason for being. That's the lens it all needs to go through. It's not politics as usual. Especially as it relates to technology and social media, but that's a whole another story. I'm not a politician and certainly not a pollster. Just one person with one vote, who cares deeply about the country and the dire need for authentic leadership. Thank you. Sincerely, Howard --001a1134e0e8f81275051a3448cb Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <div dir=3D"ltr">confidential fysa<br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">----------= Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class=3D"gmail_sendername">Howard= Schultz</b> <span dir=3D"ltr"><<a href=3D"mailto:HSchultz@starbucks.com= ">HSchultz@starbucks.com</a>></span><br>Date: Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 8:39 A= M<br>Subject: For your consideration...<br>To: Cheryl Mills <<a href=3D"= mailto:cheryl.mills@gmail.com">cheryl.mills@gmail.com</a>><br><br><br>Go= od morning Cheryl,<br> <br> For what it's worth some respectful thoughts for consideration...<br> <br> From the outside looking in, I see an old style start to the campaign that = feels stale with very few signs of the kind of freshness and transparency t= hat the American people (especially millennials) will need to trust and ult= imately elect HRC as President.<br> It's also becoming very apparent and concerning that the media is not o= n her side. This will get only worse and not bode well for her as time goes= on.<br> <br> She desperately needs the people on her side. And, although it's early,= the imprinting process has begun... And, I don't like how it feels.<br= > <br> Her inner circle and the powers to be, need to reject the status quo, and u= nderstand how brands (and she is a brand) in the world we now live in are b= uilt. It requires a vision for the future that is steeped in truth and auth= enticity and builds an enduring emotional connection with the voters.<br> <br> The rules of engagement for running for President have dramatically changed=, accept it.<br> Substance absolutely matters, but so does the form it takes. The campaign f= eels "yesterday." It's too packaged and prescribed. The Ameri= can people are longing for truth and someone to believe in.<br> <br> Reboot the look of it all and the overriding message before its to late. Th= e answer is not in the polls, it's in her heart and her conscience. Whe= n she begins to truly trust herself and find her inner voice, and has the c= ourage and conviction to share it with the world, things will change and ch= ange rapidly.<br> <br> Encourage her to be herself. And, to embrace her core purpose and reason fo= r being. That's the lens it all needs to go through.<br> It's not politics as usual. Especially as it relates to technology and = social media, but that's a whole another story.<br> <br> I'm not a politician and certainly not a pollster. Just one person with= one vote, who cares deeply about the country and the dire need for authent= ic leadership.<br> Thank you.<br> <br> Sincerely,<br> Howard<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> </div><br></div> --001a1134e0e8f81275051a3448cb--Kenny Britt's first season hasn't gone as well as expected. Corey Coleman is again on the mend after suffering another broken hand. Neither helped their cases last weekend in Houston.
Both Britt and Coleman were sent home Sunday after missing curfew the night before Cleveland's eventual loss to Houston, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reported Saturday on Good Morning Football Weekend. Neither Coleman or Britt were going to play in the game due to injuries.
Even with both sidelined, coach Hue Jackson wasn't lowering his standard for two receivers who broke curfew. The two were sent home Sunday morning, missing the game, and have since had talks with Cleveland's coaching staff after the incident and apologized, Garafolo reported.
The minor blemish is just the latest knock on Britt, who has fallen well below expectations after signing a four-year, $32.5 million deal with the Browns in March. The veteran has gone from touchdown-catching end zone tower as a member of the Los Angeles Rams to lackadaisical, pass-dropping veteran in Cleveland. Fresh off a career year of 68 catches, 1,002 yards and five touchdowns, Britt has just eight receptions for 121 yards and one touchdown in four games with Cleveland.
With each and every Sunday struggle, Britt reminds the team's jaded fanbase more of a recent disappointment at the position. Dwayne Bowe signed a two-year deal with $9 million guaranteed in 2015 and caught just five passes in his time as a Brown before he was unceremoniously released in March of 2016.
With Cleveland struggling offensively and Britt doing very little to alleviate the problems, Browns fans are already turning toward the familiar assertions of highway robbery that once hovered over Bowe like an ever-present neon sign and even followed Andre Rison -- whose 1995 free-agent additon and subsequent flame-out contributed to the original franchise's move to Baltimore and still burns fans along the shore of Lake Erie -- out of town.
Coleman has a longer leash, despite being a former first-round pick who has shown flashes but also spent plenty of time in the trainer's room. The diminutive-but-explosive wideout remains the team's best hope at the position, which has seen its fair share of massive potential equal minimal or unreliable results (Josh Gordon, non-2007 Braylon Edwards, for example).
Of Cleveland's three most notables receivers of late, only one -- Rashard Higgins -- was on the team entering training camp. The other two -- Kasen Williams and Bryce Treggs -- were with other teams and became in-season signings that have mildly paid off on a team otherwise devoid of talent at the position.
Above all, the team's best prospect staying out past curfew with its supposed veteran leader is simply not a good look. It seems as though Jackson sensed this immediately and attempted to prevent it from happening again by being heavy-handed in sending them home. Whether any of it matters beyond 2017 is yet to be determined.Fall semester is coming to a close and with that thousands of incredible educators get to wrap up their courses and start planning for the next ones. We are really proud that CartoDB has been a part of many of those courses and will be a bigger part of many more next semester. That is why we thought it was time to start digging into the challenges of teaching with maps in the classroom.
To help us better understand the uses, needs, and challenges of teaching with CartoDB, we threw the first Educator’s Night here at our Brooklyn offices. The first half of the evening we spent hearing from three amazing educators from around NYC. The second half of the evening we spent in breakout groups documenting needed resources and technologies for the future of map based education. Here is a short report of what we found.
What external technologies do educators use with CartoDB
It was interesting to hear the educators exchanging use-cases and lesson ideas throughout the night. In those exchanges, we heard a lot about what technologies educators were using in addition to CartoDB. Those included GitHub for hosting pages that use CartoDB.js, PiratePad for collaborative note taking, Bootstrap for larger web development projects, and PasteBin for sharing code, SQL, and CartoCSS examples. Sounds a lot like the things we use around the office!
What data excites students
For new instructors, one question that is interesting to ask is, what data do students like to explore? We threw the question out there and heard back a variety of responses. Social media and quantified self data were two clear winners. We also heard requests for sports data and hyperlocal data. Thematic datasets like global crises data came up, too. Of the top of our head, we were able to name a few resources already: CartoDB’s own Twitter Connector, OpenPaths and Moves for students collecting their own movement histories, GDELT and our own for global crises events.
While we can’t solve all of, we are going to look into how we can contribute to solutions for each. We currently make Twitter data available to Enterprise accounts, but in the future we will be offering free student access in some cases. Quantified self is harder, but we are going to keep our eyes open for more solutions. For now, resources such as OpenPaths and Moves allow students to collect their own secure data and make maps easily on CartoDB. For crises data, we are continuously trying to improve our Common Data or GDELT project has a very comprehensive dataset of information; we’d also like to loop in some patterns with other open source services like Ushahidi’s CrisisNET, or other streaming sources of crisis information.
Above. Choropleth created by a student student in Amanda Hickman’s Journalism and Data Visualization class.
What things are missing
We are enhancing our software every day by adding new resources, features, and improved usability. At the Educator’s Night we got some really interesting feedback about features to add to our roadmap. A few that we really liked included a SQL playground, vetted data packages, and modular tutorials. We are going to work on all of these areas in the near future. Modular tutorials is something we have already begun to look into more deeply and will be spending time in the coming month to make it happen. The idea of a SQL playground we just love!
Who is using CartoDB
Tough question! There was a time at CartoDB when we knew every user on the platform. That time has long past. But at least at the Educator’s Night, it was amazing to see the diversity of courses that incorporate CartoDB, from GIS to History, Data Journalism to Design. There were conversations with librarians and with high school teachers. It was so inspiring and we are very excited that this community joined us to talk about their visions for education.
We think 2015 is going to be a serious year of mapping. Throughout the year, we are going to work hard to make mapping tools easier for students and easier for educators. If you are using CartoDB in the classroom, get in touch with us at support@cartodb.com and let us know what you are up to. We are always interested in how we can make the experience better. Also don’t forget, students and educators can always take advantage of our free upgrades.
Thanks to everyone involved!
And thanks to Andy B. for sharing a great physics-related map that would be a rich example to recreate in a classroom!
Stay tuned to our blog for the full write-up about the above map next week.
Happy mapping!Rosario Dawson, the actor and celebrity surrogate for Bernie Sanders, was among dozens of people arrested on Capitol Hill on Friday after a week of pro-democracy demonstrations at the heart of the US government.
The actor was briefly detained for processing by police in Washington and will be required to pay a $50 fine, but does not face a court appearance or imprisonment. More than 800 people have been arrested for staging sit-ins on the steps of Congress during five days of protests by a movement known as Democracy Spring.
Wearing an American flag, a black jacket with Sanders’ image and various Sanders badges, Dawson said afterwards that US Capitol police gave her multiple warnings before making the arrest, perhaps because they realised the publicity it would generate. “I wanted personally to be in solidarity with the other folks who put themselves on the line and really just to bring attention to this because I think that’s just vitally important,” she explained.
“The police were really great with us, really lovely. I have to say that is not the case for so many people: Dreamers, Black Lives Matter activists, so many people are not seeing this kind of courageousness... I hope that officers across the nation can take heed of that and recognise that the peaceful protests that are going around the nation should also be treated in the same way as we are being treated today.”
Democracy Spring argues that elections are dominated by special interests and the activists are pushing for Congress to drop laws that would make it more difficult to vote and overturn supreme court decisions such Citizens United, which they say enhanced the role of big money in politics. Although the campaign echoes some of the themes articulated by Sanders and Donald Trump, it claims to be bipartisan with conservatives marching alongside Black Lives Matters members.
Dawson, who has made numerous stump speeches for Sanders, said: “We’re putting ourselves on the line for what a lot of people across America and I think across the planet really want to be able to see happen in America, which is one person, one vote, and to really take the money out of politics so that we can have fair elections where... we can have true options for our leadership, which we have not been able to see.”
Kai Newkirk, campaign director of Democracy Spring, was arrested at the same time and, walking back to applauding supporters, commented: “We’re not free until we get our democracy back.”
He continued: “It’s historic in terms of the number of people arrested here, sending a message that the American people are fed up with this corruption and inequality in our democracy and we’re demanding that Congress do something to end it now. And if they don’t, we’re going to continue to come back and send a message that those who defend this corrupt status quo will pay a political price. The American people are not going to accept this any more.
“The vast majority of the American people agree with us across the political spectrum. We’re bringing their voice here into the Capitol and Congress is refusing to listen and instead of that is sending people to jail day after day. That’s a scandal, that’s an outrage, and it’s a story that needs to be told.”
Democracy Spring’s activities have included a 140-mile march from Philadelphia to Washington involving people from 33 states. On Friday, 12 protesters handcuffed themselves to scaffolding inside the Capitol rotunda and were arrested. They said in unison: “We the people demand a democracy free from the corruption influence of big money and voter suppression. We demand a democracy where every vote is counted and every voice is heard.”
Many demonstrators are sleeping in churches and obtained a permit to set up a nearby tent outside Union Station, where on Friday a bicycle, compost bin and numerous chairs and political placards were spread ad hoc on the grass. Volunteers kept an eye on people’s bags, a handwritten cardboard sign pointed to lost property, and apples, carrots and other food were available for breakfast or people fresh from jail. One man played guitar while another, with a beard and long hair, sat at a laptop bearing the sticker “Billionaires can’t buy Bernie” running off a noisy power generator.
Christopher Reed, 22, from Morgantown, West Virginia, was among around 400 people arrested on Monday, some of whom were held in jail or a warehouse until after midnight. “I have never felt more like an American than I did that day on the steps, risking arrest so I could make a statement,” he said. “We are planting the seeds of a movement.”
Most demonstrators reported that police had treated them respectfully and some had even expressed support for their cause. Adrian Griffin, 19, a dishwasher from Fayetteville, Arkansas, said: “If you cooperate with the police, they are very professional. They’re not your friend but they’re not your enemy either.”
US Capitol police said on Friday they arrested 12 individuals in the Capitol rotunda and around 130 on the east front plaza for “unlawful demonstration activity”. Eva Malecki, a spokesperson, said: “The demonstrations have been orderly and respectful.”Because Of Course “Drag Race” Queens Are “Pokémon Go” Characters
Pokémon Go is the summer’s biggest craze, so it was only a matter of time before gay fans began to merge the LGBT community and Pokémon together:
Now the RuPaul’s Drag Race fandom has jumped on the bandwagon and reimagined their favorite queens in the Pokémon world. First artist MAGAM has drawn the show’s queens as a new breed of Pokémon based on some of their most iconic looks:
World of Wonder’s Jake Thompson even paired the Drag Race queens with their Pokémon spirit animal, and the results are pretty on point:
Jake Thompson/World of Wonder
Jake Thompson/World of Wonder
Jake Thompson/World of Wonder
Jake Thompson/World of Wonder
Jake Thompson/World of Wonder
Jake Thompson/World of Wonder
Jake Thompson/World of Wonder
Jake Thompson/World of Wonder
They’re even reimagining the queens as Trainers!
Presenting Rupaul's Best Pokemon Master Race Generation 8 Elite 3! #rpdr #rpdrfanart #naomismalls #kimchi #bobthedragqueen #pokemonrealness A photo posted by Kirsten Brenner (@semehammer) on Jul 5, 2016 at 8:40pm PDT
Now how do we petition to get “Death Drop” added as an attack in Pokémon Sun and Moon?
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 2 debuts August 25 at 8pm on Logo.BOSTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is rushing to fix a bug in its widely used Internet Explorer web browser after a computer security firm disclosed the flaw over the weekend, saying hackers have already exploited it in attacks on some U.S. companies.
The Microsoft logo is seen at their offices in Bucharest March 20, 2013. REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel
PCs running Windows XP will not receive any updates fixing that bug when they are released, however, because Microsoft stopped supporting the 13-year-old operating system earlier this month. Security firms estimate that between 15 and 25 percent of the world’s PCs still run Windows XP.
Microsoft disclosed on Saturday its plans to fix the bug in an advisory to its customers posted on its security website, which it said is present in Internet Explorer versions 6 to 11. Those versions dominate desktop browsing, accounting for 55 percent of the PC browser market, according to tech research firm NetMarketShare.
Cybersecurity software maker FireEye Inc said that a sophisticated group of hackers have been exploiting the bug in a campaign dubbed “Operation Clandestine Fox.”
FireEye, whose Mandiant division helps companies respond to cyber attacks, declined to name specific victims or identify the group of hackers, saying that an investigation into the matter is still active.
“It’s a campaign of targeted attacks seemingly against U.S.-based firms, currently tied to defense and financial sectors,” FireEye spokesman Vitor De Souza said via email. “It’s unclear what the motives of this attack group are, at this point. It appears to be broad-spectrum intel gathering.”
He declined to elaborate, though he said one way to protect against them would be to switch to another browser.
Microsoft said in the advisory that the vulnerability could allow a hacker to take complete control of an affected system, then do things such as viewing changing, or deleting data, installing malicious programs, or creating accounts that would give hackers full user rights.
FireEye and Microsoft have not provided much information about the security flaw or the approach that hackers could use to figure out how to exploit it, said Aviv Raff, chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm Seculert.
Yet other groups of hackers are now racing to learn more about it so they can launch similar attacks before Microsoft prepares a security update, Raff said.
“Microsoft should move fast,” he said. “This will snowball.”
Still, he cautioned that Windows XP users will not benefit from that update since Microsoft has just halted support for that product.
The software maker said in a statement to Reuters that it advises Windows XP users to upgrade to one of two most recently versions of its operating system, Windows 7 or 8.A Florida man named Edmund Allen was arrested and charged with grand theft after he was accused of stealing the cash that Girl Scouts had collected from cookie sales outside a local grocery store.
Mr. Allen, 22, allegedly swiped the jar’s $400 in cash from a Publix grocery in St. Augustine, United Press International reported.
Police found him and apprehended him two days later — in a shed, smoking suspected marijuana with another man, also 22. Police also say he may have spent the Girl Scouts’ money already, UPI reported.
“The monies in this case cannot be recovered due to the actions of the arrested individual,” Sheriff David Shoar told the local WJXT.
Local businesses and law enforcement agencies have rallied to help the troop recover its cash.
“I am pleased that the collective law enforcement community made a donation through our local lodge, and I am honored to make a personal donation to this group of girls, who are making a difference in our community,” Sheriff Shoar said in the UPI report.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, seen here during a TV show on May 22, 2014, has been acquitted of charges of having sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power (AFP Photo/Tiziana Fabi)
Milan (AFP) - An Italian appeals court on Friday cleared Silvio Berlusconi of having sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power in a surprise ruling that will strengthen the former prime minister on the political scene.
"The defendant is acquitted," presiding judge Enrico Tranfa said, requesting silence after gasps from the courtroom.
The effectively scraps Berlusconi's seven-year sentence and lifelong ban from holding public office.
The judge said there was "no crime" on the abuse of power charge and that Berlusconi's actions "did not constitute a crime" on the prostitution one, promising to publish a detailed explanation within the three-month legal limit.
His lawyer Franco Coppi said the judge may have recognised the defence argument that Berlusconi did not know the girl in question was only 17 years old at the time.
"I am moved," the 77-year-old Berlusconi was quoted as saying in a tweet sent out by his Forza Italia party.
"Only those who have been close to me in these years know how much I suffered for an unjust accusation," he said, condemning "media aggression, gossip and slander".
Berlusconi, who has repeatedly accused prosecutors and judges of being biased against him, went on to praise magistrates, saying: "The majority of Italian magistrates does its work quietly, with admirable balance and rigour".
Berlusconi was not present at the hearing in Milan as he is doing his once-a-week community service at a centre for Alzheimer's patients for a separate tax fraud conviction linked to his business empire, Mediaset.
He left the centre at Cesano Boscone near Milan following the ruling without making any comment, while a lone supporter held up a sign reading: "Justice is served".
Prosecutors had asked the judges to uphold the suspended sentence against Berlusconi for paying for sex with an exotic dancer called Karima El-Mahroug, who is now better known by her stage name as "Ruby the Heart Stealer".
Berlusconi had also been convicted of pressuring the police while he was still prime minister to release the Moroccan-born dancer from custody when she was arrested for theft -- apparently out of concern that she could reveal their liaison.
- 'More united' -
He said he only made the call because he thought she was then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's niece.
Prosecutors, who had relied on telephone wiretaps and statements made and then denied by El-Mahroug, could now apply to the supreme court to review the ruling.
The ruling will have political repercussions.
Berlusconi's Forza Italia party had been riven by internal divisions since a ruling against him would have opened the possibility of the ageing playboy being excluded from the political scene entirely.
"This ruling will bring people together. We will be calmer working in future and be more united between ourselves and with all of the centre-right," Lucio Malan, a Forza Italia senator, told the SkyTG24 news channel.
Berlusconi is not in the clear from legal woes just yet as he is currently on trial for allegedly bribing a senator with 3.0 million euros ($4.0 million) in 2006 to join his party and destabilise a centre-left government.
In another case, prosecutors have requested that he face trial on suspicion of paying off a pimp to provide false testimony in an investigation on prostitutes who attended parties at his residences in Milan and Rome.
Berlusconi is also being investigated for allegedly paying off witnesses -- young women who attended his soirees -- to provide false testimony in the Ruby trial.
The charges in that case have not yet been formally levied.
The legal saga also has political ramifications for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi since his centre-left government is relying on votes from Berlusconi's centre-right opposition coalition to pass through key constitutional reforms.
Italian media have reported that Berlusconi may be sticking to a pact with Renzi on the reforms, including an overhaul of the electoral law, in the hope of receiving an amnesty.For women in rural parts of the vast state of Texas, obtaining needed abortion services just became much more of a challenge than it already was even before parts of the state’s omnibus anti-abortion law, HB 2, went into effect.
Last week, Planned Parenthood, alongside other abortion providers in Texas, appealed to the Supreme Court to block key provisions of HB 2, including the requirement that doctors obtain local hospital-admitting privileges. US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who is assigned to handle emergency cases in the Fifth Circuit, has ordered the state to respond to the appeal by Nov. 12.
That same day, the Supreme Court also declined without comment to hear another hotly contested case in Oklahoma appealing a state law effectively banning doctors from providing two drugs commonly used to induce early-term abortions.
On Oct. 28, Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel struck down the admitting privilege mandate of the Texas law as unconstitutional. But the district court in Austin partly upheld another measure requiring doctors to use a certain Food and Drug Administration protocol in drug-induced abortions, which some doctors have criticized as outdated.
But the Texas attorney general’s office sought an emergency stay, and on Halloween night a panel of judges with a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law could go into effect. Scalia will decide whether to reverse the Fifth Circuit after the appeals court considers a longer appeal of the case in January.
HB 2 bans all abortions after 20 weeks, requires physicians to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of any abortion facility, and requires all abortions to be performed in ambulatory surgical centers by Sept. 1, 2014, which would require doctors to administer in person the drugs that induce abortion.
Since some portions of the law have gone into effect, as many as 15 abortion clinics in Texas have had to close their doors, and many more are expected to shut down if Scalia upholds the law.
“What we saw after the Fifth Circuit overturned the injunction was just what was predicted, the closing of anywhere from 13 to 15 clinics in the state of Texas, including in many counties who have now lost all providers within that area,” said Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas. “Women are now struggling to get appointments at the remaining providers, struggling to get together the money to get to the providers, and we’re really worried about what’s going to happen to women who are unable to access safe, legal abortion here.”
The new law passed after three special sessions this summer in the Texas House and after Senator Wendy Davis, a Democrat from Fort Worth, and thousands of Texans originally thwarted Texas Republicans’ plans to pass the bill with an 11-hour filibuster and sprawling protests inside and outside the Capitol rotunda. Davis is now running for Texas governor, and so is Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot, who filed the appeal of Yeakel’s ruling to the Fifth Circuit.
“Greg Abbot is pandering to the minority that thinks abortion should be completely inaccessible to women, and his actions in pushing for this emergency stay demonstrate that the kind of governor he would be, how harmful he would be to women in the state of Texas,” Busby told Truthout.
And as clinics across the state begin to close, grass-roots organizers hope to step in to help disadvantaged women in rural areas seeking abortion services. The decentralized activist group RiseUp Texas was very present in the Texas Capitol this summer amid the protests during the special legislative sessions when the law was being debated originally. The group organized a civil disobedience action in which five people were arrested for disrupting legislative proceedings.
The group is a coalition of organizations and individuals working in coordinated groups through Occupy-style general assemblies. One of its working groups is focusing of defending the remaining clinics in Texas as well as fundraising to assist in transporting women from rural areas to obtain abortion services in urban areas, where doctors are more likely to have hospital-admitting privileges.
“We continue to have a really strong core of organizers who are focused on making sure the conversation happens around the communities that are most affected by this kind of legislation, the marginalized communities that are most affected by health care and the legislation in general, and making sure that those voices really, really get heard,” RiseUp Texas spokesperson Rockie Gonzalez told Truthout.
Gonzalez said the group is working closely with the Austin-based nonprofit Lilith Fund, which provides financial assistance and counseling to low-income women seeking abortion services across the state, to get clearance from the organization to become a potential transportation provider. Gonzalez said the Lilith Fund plans to gather information about transportation needs as part of its application process and in the future will work with activists who want to volunteer to provide transportation to women in rural areas to the remaining clinics in Texas’ major cities.
It’s a vital need for disadvantaged women in the largest state in the nation, and a need that could become essential if Scalia decides to uphold HB 2, which abortion advocates have said will close down all but five clinics in the state.
“We’re constantly making sure that when we get into dialogue with people about reproductive justice that it’s not this dichotomy of abortion rights or not, or if abortion is good or bad, or wrong or right, but that we’re talking about body rights and body autonomy and that body autonomy is an issue that affects, again, largely marginalized communities and people of color. So we’re strategizing around those concepts,” Gonzalez said. “Our real goal is to get outside of the urban centers and do support and solidarity for folks who are outside of urban privilege.”
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Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.Another Monday... another #twitch stream finished with succes.
I had a poll on twitter as every week. this week the TIE interceptor from Starwars and Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit were.. TIEd
I decide to make the TIE afterall.
First appearing the Movie StarWars episode 6: return of the Jedi, the TIE interceptor is a vessel with 4 wingtip mounted laser cannons in addition to the 2 chin mounted cannons.. It has Two Ion Engine which gives it a high maneuverability. it is a far better craft in dogfight compared to the Original TIE fighter and equally matched with the X-wing. its also slightly faster that the A-wing.
During my stream I first blocked out the ship and work my way up all the parts.
It was not hard to find reference imagery for this model since it's a iconic ship known since the 80's. a lot of people have modeled it in one way or another 🙂
As usual I got to spent some time on the greebles... something I actually really like to do...I paid attention tho not to get lost again in some detailing that would not be seen
Let me know what you think and make sure to join me next time I stream :
Till next weekBy combining many individual images in the ESO archive, this new image shows NGC 1316 and its smaller neighbor NGC 1317.
This new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows two contrasting galaxies: NGC 1316, and its smaller neighbor NGC 1317. These two are quite close to each other in space, but they have very different histories. The small spiral NGC 1317 has led an uneventful life, but NGC 1316 has engulfed several other galaxies in its violent history and shows the battle scars.
Several clues in the structure of NGC 1316 reveal that its past was turbulent. For instance, it has some unusual dust lanes [1] embedded within a much larger envelope of stars, and a population of unusually small globular star clusters. These suggest that it may have already swallowed a dust-rich spiral galaxy about three billion years ago.
Also seen around the galaxy are very faint tidal tails — wisps and shells of stars that have been torn from their original locations and flung into intergalactic space. These features are produced by complex gravitational effects on the orbits of stars when another galaxy comes too close. All of these signs point to a violent past during which NGC 1316 annexed other galaxies and suggest that the disruptive behavior is continuing.
This pan video gives a close look at a new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. It shows a pair of contrasting galaxies: NGC 1316, and its smaller companion NGC 1317 (right). NGC 1317 seems to be relatively unperturbed and has a clear spiral structure. But its larger neighbour bears the scars of several past violent events when it has swallowed other galaxies. Credit: ESO
NGC 1316 is located about 60 million light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Fornax (The Furnace). It also bears the name Fornax A, reflecting the fact that it is the brightest source of radio emission in the constellation — and in fact the fourth brightest radio source in the entire sky [2]. This radio emission is driven by material falling into the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy and has probably been provided with extra fuel by the interactions with other galaxies.
This very detailed new image from the MPG/ESO 2 |
, but given AMD’s 5 TFLOPs minimum, this puts the boost clock at no lower than 1.08GHz.
On the memory side the card will be shipping with 8GB of GDDR5 attached to a 256-bit bus. Clockspeeds have not been disclosed, but the consumer counterpart to this card, Radeon RX 480, used 8Gbps chips, so I’d expect at least 7 for the workstation card. I am a bit surprised that AMD opted to go with just 8GB of memory here – Polaris 10 should be able to support 16GB – but given the price goal and the target market, it makes sense.
On the TDP front I’m still waiting for AMD to post the full specifications of the card. But it’s a very safe bet it’s a 150W card given the GPU configuration and the fact that its predecessor hit the same power target. Speaking of which, like W7100 before it, this is a single slot, full profile card. AMD has once again given the card 4 DisplayPort outputs, this time capable of the newest DisplayPort 1.4 standard.
WX 5100
The second of the new WX trio is the WX 5100. Also based on the Polaris 10 GPU, this card opts for a lower balance of price, performance, and power consumption. This replaces the Bonaire based W5100, and comes with 1792 SPs (28 CUs) enabled, and a clockspeed that will be at least 1.2GHz. Compared to its predecessor it should be massively faster as AMD has more than doubled the number of SPs, not to mention the clockspeed boost.
Attached to the GPU will be 8GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit bus. Like the RX 7100 AMD has not disclosed memory frequencies here, though I’m going to be surprised if it’s as high as its bigger sibling since it needs to be a cheaper and lower power card. On that note TDPs are not available either; W5100 was a 75W card, but given the use of a mostly enabled Polaris 10, I’m not sure that’ll be the case here. RX 5100 is essentially a second-tier to 7100, which is something that did not exist in the previous FirePro generation.
In terms of build we’re looking at a card that takes a cue from its predecessor, utilizing a single wide, full profile, but overall relatively short card design. AMD is aiming for continuity with the previous generation in their card designs, so WX 5100 should be a drop-in replacement in that respect.
WX 4100
Last but not least we have the WX 4100. This replaces the W4300 as the low performance member of the workstation card family. As you might expect from such a description, this is based on AMD’s forthcoming Polaris 11 GPU, which so far we haven’t seen yet, but we’re told is aggressively power optimized. In terms of underlying hardware we’re looking at a fully enabled Polaris 11 GPU, with 1024 SPs (16 CUs), clocked at no less than 975MHz boost. Relative to its predecessor it should deliver a good performance boost, with 33% more SPs and a modest clockspeed bump.
With regards to memory, we’re looking at 4GB of GDDR5 attached via a 128-bit bus. Memory clockspeeds have not been disclosed. For that matter neither has TDP, but given that this is a Polaris 11 card meant to replace the W4300, it’s a very safe bet that this is a sub-75W card.
For design we’re looking at the only low profile member of the new WX family. The card utilizes a single wide cooler design and is outfit with mini-DisplayPorts in order to get 4 of them on a single low profile card.
Polaris Architecture & Card Availability
While the immediate performance and power efficiency gains afforded by AMD’s Polaris architecture are going to be the biggest piece of news here, Polaris brings other new functionality to the table as well. For the professional graphics market and FirePro/Radeon Pro users, these should be some very welcome changes.
When it comes to the display controller, Polaris represents a big step up from AMD’s prior generation architectures. DisplayPort 1.4 is now supported, which means that these cards can be used to drive 5K monitors via a single port, allowing up to 4 of such monitors to be driven per card. Meanwhile this also brings full and formal support for HDR and its many requirements (e.g. HDR metadata), which should be a boon for media users, especially now that HDR monitors are hitting the market. And though it’s not directly exposed on the new WX cards since all of them use DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0b is also supported, which again for media users should be useful for when they need to work specifically with HDMI displays/TVs via an adapter.
Along those lines, Polaris also introduces AMD’s new video encode and decode block. This marks the first time that HEVC decode and encode have been available on a FirePro workstation card, This once again is another media-centric feature in the pro graphics workspace, as it allows for much better (and faster) support for HEVC content, including of course HDR content.
Finally, getting back to AMD’s Radeon Pro reformation, among the other changes AMD has announced is that they have significantly extended the warranty period for these new Radeon Pro WX cards. Whereas the older FirePro cards had a 3 year warranty, these new cards come with a 10 year warranty. Looking at the fine print in AMD’s announcement, this is compared of a 3 year warranty plus a 7 year extended warranty. I suspect this means that support after 3 years is more limited (e.g. possibly only hardware support and critical security fixes), but we’ll see what AMD has to say. But to put this in perspective, if you went back 10 years from now, this would mean AMD would still be supporting their ancient DX9-era R500-based FireGL 7300.Raja Koduri quipped that he’s never heard of anyone using a workstation card for 10 years, and I don’t doubt he’s right.
Wrapping things up, the new Radeon Pro WX series cards will be released in Q4 of this year. AMD has not announced pricing at this time beyond the fact that the entire lineup will be under $1000. Pricing will be released closer to launch, though as AMD themselves have noted, most of their sales are via preconfigured OEM workstations, so the bulk of their customers will never buy a card directly to begin with. In any case, AMD’s regular OEM partners such as HP have already announced their support, so we should be seeing WX-equipped workstations show up in Q4 as well.Britain's creative industries are under threat from EU plans to impose a digital single market that will put an end to the way they sell films, television or music in individual European countries.
Rights holders and distributors typically charge different rates for downloads and streaming services depending on demand in each nation. They vary the timing of releases to maximise their returns.
But now Brussels officials are to introduce rules that will mean all European citizens will be able to buy online services from any country.
At present providers block foreign internet addresses, which, as well as complying with the current copyright system, means they are able to tailor their services and pricing for different national markets.
In a speech last week, however, Ardrus Ansip, the European Commissioner in charge of digital single market plans, said he would seek to outlaw such “geo-blocking”.
The Estonian now faces a growing backlash from the British media industry, which has also been angered by the UK Government’s support for the plan.
Alice Enders, an economist at Enders Analysis, said: “This is empire building. It’s a long-standing ambition of the European Commission to take control of copyright, but there is just no real evidence of cross-border demand. Who is this for? It’s a disaster.
“Britain has a very mature and well developed media market where companies can make a good return compared with most other European countries.”
It is understood that the BBC is also monitoring the development of the digital single market proposals with concern. It blocks overseas viewers from accessing the iPlayer partly to make sure it can commercially exploit its programmes abroad and partly to avoid protests from licence fee payers who might resent paying to entertain other nations.
Mr Ansip and his supporters argue that insisting services are available everywhere in the EU will lead to more choice for consumers and better opportunities for new digital media business to grow quickly.
Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, irritated senior figures in the creative sector earlier this year by claiming that the EU’s plans would boost the UK and eurozone economies by more than £260bn a year. While the Government is willing to battle Brussels for Britain’s banking sector, it seemed to “sell us down the river”, said one music industry chief.
This weekend a government spokesman appeared to back away from stopping media companies from approaching different countries with tailored offers.
He said: “People who pay to use digital services should be able to use them wherever they travel in the EU – so someone with UK subscription to a video streaming service shouldn’t be blocked from using it when on holiday in Spain.
“But this does not mean that people outside the UK should be able to access the iPlayer or other on-demand services for free.”A minimum wage is a legal minimum for workers. It means workers are guaranteed a certain hourly wage – helping to reduce relative poverty. However, a minimum wage could have potential disadvantages – in particular, there is the risk of creating unemployment as firms cannot afford to employ workers.
“It has always been a mystery to me to understand why a youngster is better off unemployed at $1.60 an hour than employed at $1.25.” – Milton Friedman (1966) “Minimum Wage Rates” Newsweek
1. Unemployment. If labour markets are competitive, a minimum wage could cause unemployment because firms will demand less labour, and higher wages may encourage more workers to supply their labour.
Diagram of Minimum Wage
In the above diagram, the NMW (Wtu) has caused a fall in employment of Q1-Q2.
The level of real wage unemployment at NMW is Q3-Q2
Firms in labour-intensive industries will be most affected. For example, hairdressers and cleaning companies will see a proportionately more significant increase in their wage bill.
Milton Friedman, a free market economist was critical of minimum wages. In 1966, he wrote a critique of the minimum wage
“Congress has just acted to increase unemployment. It did so by raising the legal minimum-wage rate from $1.25 to $1.60 an hour, effective in 1968, and extending its coverage. The result will be and must be to add to the ranks of the unemployed.” Milton Friedman (1966) “Minimum Wage Rates” Newsweek
2. Firms may become uncompetitive. In some cases, a higher minimum wage could push up costs causing a firm to go out of business because they may not be able to afford wage costs. This might be a particular problem if the firm is competing in a global market and higher wage costs make them uncompetitive compared to low-wage cost countries. For example, a higher minimum wage may encourage firms to manufacture clothes in China or Taiwan where labour is cheaper than the UK.
3. Cost-push inflation. A minimum wage can cause cost-push inflation. This is because firms face an increase in costs which are likely to be passed on to consumers. This is even more likely if wage differentials are maintained.
4. Black market. A minimum wage may increase the number of people working on the black market so firms can avoid paying the legal minimum.
5. Poorest don’t benefit. A limitation of the minimum wage is that it doesn’t increase the incomes of the lowest income groups. This is because the poorest have to rely on benefits and are therefore not affected by minimum wages.
6. Limited impact on relative poverty. Many who benefit from the minimum wage are second income earners, and therefore the household is unlikely to be below the poverty line. A household with a single income earner just above the minimum wage is likely to be relatively poorer. But they will not benefit from the minimum wage.
See also: Advantages of Minimum Wages
Evaluation of Minimum Wages
The effect of a min wage on unemployment is uncertain, the structure of the labour market is very important. E.g. if the labour market is a monopsony, a minimum wage may not cause unemployment.
Empirical evidence from the US and the UK suggests that a moderate increase in the minimum wage doesn’t cause a fall in employment. Therefore the key question is how high the minimum wage can rise before causing unemployment.
The impact of the minimum wage on wage differential is important. For example, skilled workers just above the minimum wage may feel they deserve more. Therefore, an increase in the minimum wage may lead to wage increases for all pay grades. However, increasing the minimum wage tends to have limited impacts on wage differentials.
There may be a good case for a regional minimum wage because actual wages tend to be lower in the north than the south. In London, very few workers benefit from the minimum wage, and in this region, the minimum wage could increase.
Related.- The plummeting number of priestly vocations in the Catholic Church in Germany is raising questions about the roots of the problem, and whether the situation has been manufactured to promote non-priestly ministry.
According to figures published by the German bishops' conference, never before have so few priests been ordained in the Church in Germany: a total of 58 men became priests in the country in 2015.
Within the last decade, the number of ordinations has dropped by half: In 2005, a total of 122 diocesan priests were ordained. And five decades ago, in 1965, the number was 500.
Whilst there were almost 20,000 Catholic priests in Germany in 1990, today their number has dropped to 14,000. And this drastic decline is set to continue, judging by the figures: last year also marked the first time in history that the number of new seminarians dropped to double digits. Only 96 new students were registered in 2015. At the same time, 309 priests passed away, and 19 left the priesthood.
One Catholic commentator, Alexander Kissler of Cicero magazine, claimed that "crocodile tears are being shed in the dioceses. There is talk about changed conditions, crises of public perception, cycles of religiosity, the loss of obligation. Some contritely beat their chests and pull out dated scandals."
A deliberate lack of priests?
However, this is just a smoke-screen, Kissler implies in an article published Aug. 18: "Indeed, the lack of priests is deliberate. Priests are in the way of the new Church of Participation". The author points to the fact that the German bishops have mostly responded to the crisis twofold: By inviting foreign priests to work for them, and by abandoning the traditional parish structure in favor of larger "pastoral areas", which take different names in different dioceses.
This "pastoral reform", Kissler claims – in a trenchant polemic drawing on the idiosyncratic rhetoric of diocesan documents and workshops – is ultimately aimed at creating a quasi-democratic, participatory type of Church. He points to the visits of German diocesan staff to the Pastoral Institute Bukal ng Tipan, and taking back their own particular interpretation of the Filipino institute's official motto of "journeying with people towards a participatory church in the world".
Irrespective of whether one agrees with Kissler's assertion that priests and their role are deliberately being de-emphasized, behind the alarming numbers a bigger story is at play, whose fault lines run all the way back to the Second Vatican Council and the ideas and interpretations of the generation of priests and theologians of that era.
It is the story of a Church undergoing radical change, and whether this change is simply a response to the new realities of a declining Catholicism, or in fact implemented systematically over the last few decades in order to change the reality of Catholicism.
As one foreign priest currently serving in a South German "pastoral unit" who wished to remain anonymous told CNA, contact with the parishioners is diminished and fragmented. He rotates between several parish churches in the unit to say Mass, whilst other "pastoral workers" teach, engage in youth activities, or perform other apostolates.
Furthermore, making contact is not always easy in the first place, he said. "People want to be private", he told CNA, and seem reluctant to interact with the priest outside of his "sacramental function". Unlike in his homeland, where parishioners ask him to mediate in family conflicts, seek his advice on personal matters, and invite him over for dinner, he notes that German people prefer not to have him take an interest in their private lives.
Looking at the bigger picture
For the foreign priest – and many other observers – the answer in dealing with the vocation catastrophe is in looking at the bigger picture of how the faith is faring in Germany, and in Western Europe in general.
Indeed, whilst Church tax income and overall number of employees of the Church in Germany is at a historically high level, it is not only the priesthood that is in dire straits.
Figures released July 15 by the German bishops' conference show a dramatic overall decline of all aspects of the faith except material wealth.
With more than 23.7 million members in Germany, Catholicism today is still the largest single religious group in the country, comprising 29 percent of the population. Yet people are leaving the Church in droves: in 2015, a total of 181,925 people departed. By comparison, 2,685 people became Catholic, and 6,474 reverted to Catholicism. What is more, average church attendance is down from 18.6 percent in 1995 to 10.4 percent in 2015.
For journalist Matthias Drobinski, who writes for the Munich liberal broadsheet Süddeutsche Zeitung, one key problem is celibacy – as well as the fact that only men can be priests.
“Prominent theologians” are “now demanding to allow women, mature married men [viri probati] to be ordained as priests, or to permit lay people to preside over the celebration of the eucharist,” he wrote in an article for the Süddeutsche Aug. 17.
Drobinski also quotes the well-known Viennese professor of pastoral theology, Fr. Paul Michael Zulehner: "It would be possible to have people with community experience elected, educated and ordained", to ensure that the Church can provide the Eucharist to its people.
At 76 years of age, Fr. Zulehner is not a young revolutionary. His – and similar – reflections and demands have heavily influenced people and policies in German dioceses, right down to the parish level – to the extent that already, in both urban and rural areas across Germany today, one rarely encounters the once-typical scenario of a parish priest looking after his parish.
A future of "pastoral teams and units"
Instead, one increasingly finds "pastoral teams" looking after "pastoral units". The nomenclature differs from diocese to diocese: whilst there are "pastoral units" in the Archdiocese of Freiburg im Brieisgau, they are called "parish associations" in Munich and Freising, and "cooperative units" are considered to be the future in the Diocese of Essen.
In all cases, the pastoral teams assigned to these "units" are not just priests, but consist of a mix of paid women and men, most of them theologically educated, who take on different roles. Several dioceses educate, train, and pay "community specialists" and/or "pastoral assistants", for instance, in addition to deacons and priests.
In several German dioceses today, it is not uncommon to have a female pastoral specialist, dressed in a white alb, conducting a Catholic funeral, and even giving the homily during Mass in diocesan Churches, even if that may be frowned upon officially.
Given this reality on the ground in German dioceses, demands for women to be ordained as deacons are not just common-place, but considered reasonable among Catholics in the Church's employ; not to mention for theologians – with tacit or open support of many a German bishop – to demand further "reforms" along the lines that both Drobinski and Kissler describe, albeit from different points of view. Indeed, while Drobinski implicitly argues for the changes to continue, the latter polemically asks whether this is all an attempt "to re-catholicize Luther, or the lutherization of the Church?"
All eyes on Rome
Rhetorical point-scoring aside, the debate over how to tackle the manifold crisis of Catholicism in Germany will not just take place in Germany proper: the "ordinary faithful", as much as theologians and bishops, are looking to Rome.
As Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising commented the July figures: “We need a ‘sophisticated pastoral practice’ that does justice to the diverse life-worlds of people and convincingly passes on the hope of the faith. The conclusion of last year’s synod of bishops and the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia by Pope Francis are important signposts.”
“Pope Francis gives us courage,” the president of the German bishops' conference continued, “when he tells us that the way of the future Church is the way of a ‘synodal church.’ That means: All faithful are called upon, laypeople and priests! Together we will continue to give convincingly witness to our Faith and the Gospel."SOUTH DAYTONA — At a time when police agencies around the country are training their troops to de-escalate confrontations with suspects rather than resort to deadly force, a rookie South Daytona officer did what came naturally when he arrested a mentally ill man.
For Officer John Bellanti — on the job only five months — speaking with and calming down suspect Terrence Dixon last month after police said Dixon tried to snap the neck of a leasing agent at his apartment complex was just a "normal conversation."
"I just talked to him like I talk to everybody else," the 26-year-old Bellanti said at South Daytona police headquarters. "I just treat people the way I would like to be treated."
It worked.
Charged with attempted murder, police say the 22-year-old Dixon tried to snap the neck of a leasing agent at the Marcell Garden Apartments on Feb. 8. Dixon walked into the leasing office that afternoon and told another employee that he wanted to kill someone. The employee called 9-1-1 and began explaining the situation to a sheriff's dispatcher.
Dixon became irritated with the dispatcher's questions to the employee and he began screaming and grabbed the other woman who worked in the leasing office, an arrest report states. He tried to stab her with his apartment key and when he realized that would not work, he yanked her by the hair and began thrashing her back and forth in an attempt to snap her neck, police said.
The other employee jumped on Dixon's back and began pummeling him with her fists, the report states. He let the woman go and then trashed the office, breaking flower pots, taking pictures down and throwing papers off desks, the report states.
I just treat people the way I would like to be treated. -Officer John Bellanti When Bellanti and Sgt. Anthony Carfagno arrived on scene, Dixon was outside the office in the parking lot. The suspect threatened the sergeant, telling him he would break his legs and kill him, the report states. Then Bellanti stepped forward and began talking to Dixon.
The two men discussed college and other small talk. Bellanti spoke in a friendly tone, but was not condescending. When Dixon attempted to stand up, announcing that he was going to take the other officer's Taser, Bellanti remained calm and told Dixon to keep talking to him.
Dixon sat down and the two men kept chatting. When it came time to handcuff Dixon, the suspect stood up and put his hand behind his back. Bellanti told him he would not make the cuffs tight and as he was putting them on Dixon, asked the suspect twice if he was alright. Even after Dixon was handcuffed, Bellanti kept conversing with the suspect about vitamins and whey protein.
Police Chief Ron Wright said Bellanti's handling of the call was "impressive."
"I told John that I was very proud of him," Wright said. "It was just very impressive for me that a young officer was able to calm down this extremely violent individual."
Wright agreed that the actions taken by Bellanti were an example of de-escalation at its best. The chief said he plans to have de-escalation training for his officers.
"That's one of my goals," the chief said. "I want to make sure that we do whatever is the latest and greatest de-escalation tactics."
The first police department in the area to use de-escalation tactics was Daytona Beach police under former chief Mike Chitwood, who is now sheriff of Volusia County. In 2015, Chitwood was one of 15 police chiefs around the country and the only one from Florida, chosen to attend a de-escalation training seminar in Scotland. The invitation came from the Police Executive Research Forum, a law-enforcement think tank in Washington, D.C.
As sheriff, Chitwood also promised that his deputies would be trained in de-escalation tactics and that as a result, both his deputies and the suspects they come in contact with, would go home safe — or to jail in the case of the suspect — every day.
Bellanti said he is on board with de-escalation training; but for the policeman who is also in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, talking to people from all walks of life is something he said he learned in the military.
"I was a rifleman, basic infantry, and you're surrounded by people all the time, your brothers and sisters," Bellanti said. "You get to know people from different backgrounds. It's just being exposed to different people and how to talk to them."
As for his chat with Dixon, Bellanti downplayed it: "The conversation itself was just a normal conversation I would have with somebody. It was just a different kind of situation."
Dixon, who is being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $55,000 bail, was charged with attempted first-degree murder and criminal mischief.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect reference to when the incident involving Terrence Dixon happened.The Liberal government has rejected a European consortium’s offer to provide Canada with a fleet of new warships, which industry officials said could have saved Canadian taxpayers as much as $32 billion.
Postmedia reported last week that the French and Italian governments made the Canadian government a proposal on behalf of their shipbuilders, Fincantieri of Italy and Naval Group of France, offering Canada 15 of the consortium’s FREMM frigates at a fixed price of roughly $30 billion. The offer came in lieu of a bid from the consortium to win the design for the $62-billion Canadian Surface Combatant program, intended to provide the Canadian navy with the core of its future surface combat fleet.
To be clear, any proposals submitted outside of the established competitive process will not be considered
But the Canadian government announced Tuesday it was rejecting the pitch. “The submission of an unsolicited proposal at the final hour undermines the fair and competitive nature of this procurement suggesting a sole source contracting arrangement,” Public Services and Procurement Canada said in a statement. “Acceptance of such a proposal would break faith with the bidders who invested time and effort to participate in the competitive process, put at risk the Government’s ability to properly equip the Royal Canadian Navy and would establish a harmful precedent for future competitive procurements.
“To be clear, any proposals submitted outside of the established competitive process will not be considered,” the statement said.
The Fincantieri-Naval Group’s gambit was always seen as risky, as federal bureaucrats were expected to fight the proposal. But sources close to the European companies said they felt they didn’t have anything to lose. They alleged the Canadian competition is skewed to favour a bid by Lockheed Martin Canada and the British firm BAE which would see Canada buying the Type 26 frigate BAE is building for Britain’s navy.
The Canadian government had originally asked for only bids featuring proven ship designs. It changed those parameters last year to allow a bid from BAE, though the Type 26 was at the time still on the drawing board.
Both Public Services and Procurement Canada and Halifax’s Irving Shipbuilding, which the government has named prime contractor on the CSC project, have denied allegations of favoritism.
Industry sources, however, told Postmedia that two other European shipbuilders also decided against submitting bids on the Canadian program because of concerns over the fairness of the process.
PSPC has declined to say how many bids were received for the CSC project by the Nov. 30 deadline. Besides the Lockheed-BAE group, only two other companies have publicly acknowledged bidding.
Fincantieri and Naval Group had hoped their offer might sway the Liberals, as it eliminated much of the risk in such a large procurement by offering a proven warship design at a fixed price. The consortium had proposed building the ships at Irving’s Halifax yards, as well as using Canadian technology on board the ships and transferring some technology to Canadian firms so they could be involved in future sales of FREMM vessels on the international market.
But the Canadian government dismissed the consortium’s claim of cost savings. “With respect to suggestions that significant savings could be realized through this alternative process, this is far from evident,” PSPC’s statement said.
Officials from Fincantieri and Naval Group were not available for comment Tuesday.
The Italian, French, Moroccan and Egyptian navies currently operate FREMM frigates; Australia is considering buying them for its new fleet, and they are seen as serious contenders in the competition to outfit the U.S. Navy with modern frigates.
The cost of the CSC program has steadily increased. Originally set at $26 billion, the Department of National Defence later estimated its price tag at $40 billion. Then in June, Parliamentary budget officer Jean-Denis Fréchette estimated its cost at $61.82 billion. He also warned that inflation will cost taxpayers an extra $3 billion for every year beyond 2018 the awarding of the contract is delayed.
• Email: dpugliese@postmedia.com | Twitter: davidpuglieseSix Corners Bank of America Building Under Contract View Full Caption
PORTAGE PARK — Bank of America is preparing to sell its huge branch in the heart of the Six Corners Shopping District, according to the office of Ald. John Arena (45th).
The 140,000-square-foot triangular property at the corner of Milwaukee and Cicero avenues and Irving Park Road is under contract to be sold and redeveloped, said Owen Brugh, Arena's chief of staff.
Diane Wagner, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, declined to discuss ongoing and incomplete real estate transactions and would not confirm the banking giant had a reached a deal to sell the 75,000-square-foot building at 4747 W. Irving Park Road and parking lot at 3928-52 N. Milwaukee Ave.
However, Bank of America plans to end its operations at its current location and move to a smaller branch at 4737 W. Irving Park Road in the fall, Wagner said. The new branch will open 30 days before the current one closes, Wagner said.
At a Feb. 13 meeting of the Six Corners Business Association, Arena said several large parcels at Six Corners "were turning over" as part of a years-long effort to revitalize the former retail district, which once drew nearly as many shoppers as the Loop.
"The conversations are happening," Arena said.
Any redevelopment of the site would include a provision to allow Bank of America to lease back a part of it for a smaller branch, Arena said, declining to reveal any more details about the redevelopment until the contract had been finalized.
The alderman is eager to have that parcel redeveloped in a way that fits the neighborhood and complements the existing redevelopment efforts on north Milwaukee Avenue, Brugh said.
Arena has said redevelopment efforts at Six Corners would be guided by a year-old master plan commissioned by the city that identifies this property as large enough for "significant new development."
The master plan recommends a four-to-five-story building on the site, to match the height of the Sears store across Irving Park Road and the Klee Building, which is diagonally across Cicero Avenue.
There should be 24,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor of that building and between 50 and 75 residential units on the floors above, according to the master plan.
In addition, the development should include a 7,300-square-foot courtyard to allow a public gathering space as well new streets to chop up the massive city blocks into more walkable chunks.
The master plan also endorses efforts by Arena to turn Six Corners into an arts and culture mecca that would draw people from all over the city with the promise of a show and dinner.Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason is using game film from his former Stanford defenses to teach his current players. (Photo: Mark Humphrey / AP)
Vanderbilt defensive lineman Adam Butler has become an expert on Stanford’s 2013 defense.
He knows their strengths and their weaknesses. Mention that Stanford was ranked somewhere in the top 5 nationally in rush defense that season, and he’ll quickly clarify for you.
“Actually, I believe they were ranked No. 3 against the run that year,” Butler said. “But a couple of years ago I don’t think I would’ve ever known something like that.”
Butler, like some of his Vanderbilt defensive teammates, has spent time in the offseason watching old game film from Stanford, which Commodores head coach Derek Mason directed as defensive coordinator there two years ago.
Mason is taking over as defensive play-caller this season, and film from his successful Stanford defenses provides a good model for his current players.
Safety Oren Burks said he even watches more 2013 Stanford film of individual players than 2014 Vanderbilt film.
“(Stanford film) is just a better example of how we want to play,” Burks said. “I can’t even explain how helpful it is to me. I watch a lot of our (2014) games to see our opponents because we’re playing a lot of them this year. But just to watch it for how our defense works, I watch more Stanford film than us.”
Mason served as Stanford’s defensive coordinator from 2011 to 2013. During that stretch, the Cardinal ranked in the top 5 nationally in rush defense all three seasons, in the top 10 in fewest points allowed twice, in the top 5 in sacks twice and in the top 10 in tackles-for-loss twice.
Vanderbilt’s defense last season had a few bright spots, especially in close losses to Kentucky (17-7), Missouri (24-14) and Tennessee (24-17). But the overall product didn’t impress, and defensive coordinator David Kotulski, a former Stanford assistant, was fired by Mason.
Since then, Vanderbilt players have been shown more film from Mason’s past Stanford defenses, especially to reinforce individual techniques taught on the practice field.
Buy Photo Vanderbilt defensive lineman Jay Woods (74) and safety Oren Burks (20) are key parts of the 2015 defense. (Photo: File / The Tennessean)
“We watched some film on the technicalities of his (Stanford) defense,” Butler said. “I like it because you can get a feel for how (Mason) wants us to fit in the scheme and why it’s important that we fit a certain way at our position.”
Success at Stanford played a big part in Mason being a prime candidate for his first head coaching job at Vanderbilt. But he said those accomplishments had as much to do with talented players understanding their roles as it did complicated schemes.
“The secret sauce had to be more about our guys,” Mason said. “A scheme is a scheme. Everybody’s got schemes. Players make schemes come alive. Our guys were detailed. They understood the situation. They played smart, and they never beat themselves. That’s what we’re trying to get our guys here to understand.”
CLOSE Vanderbilt football coach Derek Mason previews Saturday's closed scrimmage during practice on Friday Aug. 14, 2015 in Nashville, Tenn. Adam Sparks / The Tennessean
Burks doesn’t know Stanford’s players by name very well, but he knows their numbers.
“I watch No. 8 a lot because he has great range at safety, and I want to play like him,” said Burks, unknowingly referring to former Stanford safety Jordan Richards, an All-Pac 10 player, team captain and current New England Patriots rookie.
“I love visual keys because I’m a visual guy. I don’t even have my TV set up. I just pull up my iPad and watch it.”
Butler said the best time to see some old Stanford clips is immediately after practice and positional meetings. That’s when drills and instruction are fresh on his mind.
“I’ll just go over what (defensive line) coach (Frank) Maile was telling me and then I try to convert that to some of the (Stanford) D-linemen I see doing the same things,” Butler said. “I take my notes with me and compare Stanford to me, and it helps a lot.”
Reach Adam Sparks at 615-259-8010 and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Sports newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Top and trending sports headlines you need to know for your busy day. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-342-8237. Delivery: Daily Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Sports Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
VANDERBILT’S DORE JAM
When: Sunday (2-4 p.m.)
Where: Vanderbilt indoor facility
What: Free fan event to kick off football season. Includes autographs, photos, free posters, inflatables, games, free hot dogs and drinks while supplies last.
Extra: Unveiling of Vanderbilt’s new uniforms and helmets
Parking: Vanderbilt Medical Center surface lots across Natchez Trace from the Vanderbilt Track & Field ComplexRoyal Dutch Shell Plc announced Monday that it will cease exploration activities off the Alaskan coast for the “foreseeable future” following disappointing results from a well in the Chukchi Sea. The company has so far spent more than $7 billion on Arctic offshore development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
“Shell continues to see important exploration potential in the basin, and the area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the U.S.,” Marvin Odum, director of Shell Upstream Americas, said, in a statement released Monday. “However |
other emails from people interested in collaborations and promotions with my line of tee’s.
Furthermore,that day I also received some favorable social media mentions from BlogTO as well as a local Hip Hop radio station and a handful of other locals.
Costs & Sales
I have broken down my total costs below for this 24 hour business. My fixed costs amounted to a staggering $24. My variable costs were $13 per shirt to print each. My revenues for the first 24 hours of business were $347.71 for a total profit (in the first 24 hours) of $210.71
Total Costs:
$16 – Font for Typography (Fixed Cost)
$8 – T-Shirt Mockup Template (Fixed Cost)
$104 – 8 x $13 for t-shirts and printing (Variable costs)
____________________________
$137 Total Costs
Total Revenue In The First 24 Hours:
$347.71
Admittedly, after the spike in sales from the initial media coverage, sales dropped. In fact, since that first 24 hour sales period, I’ve only made a few hundred more dollars, however, I have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and everything is 100% automated. I have not, and I have no need to login to anything for sales and orders to be taken care of.
Going Forward
Since my initial email that sparked my initial sales I haven’t done anything else for marketing. That one blog post continues to deliver a small trickle of sales each week. Most of my time now is spent on my new project, Finch Goods Co. so I have almost no time left for this project. However, when I do get some time, I am going to focus on SEO around some keywords I uncovered that I believe have potential to deliver a steady stream of high quality traffic for people looking for localized Toronto t-shirts. Again, I want to keep this project as automated as possible so SEO is going to be the biggest opportunity to achieving that.
Why You Should Start An Online T-Shirt Business Right Now
T-Shirt entrepreneurs get a bad rep (I’m looking at you reddit) however, I believe t-shirt businesses play an important part of the online entrepreneurship ecosystem. They are in many respects, a modern day lemonade stand (no pun intended), they are can be started quickly and with no money.
The biggest problem I find among online entrepreneurs is:
They don’t know what to sell online – They spend months and months looking for a product, before giving up. If they do find a great product and start their first business, they have no idea how properly market their product and business to drive traffic and convert that traffic to sales thus a great product or idea is squandered.
Starting a t-shirt business helps with both of those factors. First, if you’re struggling to find a product to sell, you will automatically have a product, t-shirts (these printer/dropshippers also usually offer other products as well, like canvas prints, mugs etc.). Second, an online t-shirt business gives you a way to start understanding online marketing, before you sink some real time and money into a more serious business.
Remember, and never forget, you’ll learn 100x more from actually starting a business, than you ever will from just consuming articles, blogs, books and podcasts. There is no substitution for real world experience of building traffic and learning to convert it.
How To Start An Online T-Shirt Business Right Now
The 3 Pillars of Success
Before starting your own online dropship t-shirt business, there are three important things to consider:
Niche: Choosing a niche is absolutely vital for success in the over-saturated t-shirt industry.
Choosing a niche is absolutely vital for success in the over-saturated t-shirt industry. Design: No one will buy your shirts if the designs don’t look good. This doesn’t mean you need to have complex images though and it doesn’t mean it has to cost a lot.
No one will buy your shirts if the designs don’t look good. This doesn’t mean you need to have complex images though and it doesn’t mean it has to cost a lot. Quality: This includes the quality of the t-shirts themselves as well as the printing.
Choosing Your Ecommerce Platform
There are plenty of options available for your actual selling platform. Platforms like Teespring have become popular lately, however, options like this aren’t good if you’re trying to learn more about digital marketing and branding. Going with a platform like Teespring means your product ideas live on the Teespring platform and doesn’t give you the option for your own branding, deep analytics or conversion optimization.
If you’re serious about building a brand or learning more about digital marketing & optimization and strategy, you need to go with a more customizable option. I can’t recommend Shopify enough. Not only is Shopify one of the easiest platforms to get started with but it’s app store is the most robust and has a host of integrated t-shirt printers and dropshippers.
Choosing a Printers/Dropshipper
There are a few considerations when choosing a printer/dropshipping partner for your new online t-shirt business. These considerations include the t-shirts they have available to print on, t-shirt/print pricing, shipping pricing and quality of t-shirt prints.
Check out the following Shopify printer/dropshipper apps:
Choosing A T-Shirt
If using a printer/dropshipping like I did, you t-shirt selection (type/style/quality) will partially depend on what you printing/shipping partner have chosen to stock. Most will provide a range of shirts to cover several levels of quality and price points.
USA made American Apparel is largely considered the best quality however if comes with a much steeper price point which will significantly cut into your margins. For my 24 hours business, I went with a medium quality/price t-shirt style/brand.
You can choose to order a few samples before deciding on your t-shirt but I would recommend you check out this review guide on the most popular t-shirts for printing to get started.
Mocking Up Your Designs
There are literally hundreds of t-shirt mock-up templates available online, both free and paid. Here’s a list of 50 free templates, or if you want to use the same one I did, just go to Creative Market and search for “Realistic-T-Shirt-Templates”. It should be the first one.
Step-By-Step Video
Followup Learnings And Resource Roundup:
If you are too lazy to read everything above, I have rounded up all the resources below that you can use to build your own online t-shirt store, fast!
Start by reading this (I wrote it):
Take these courses. They are cheap and should help:
Build your store with:
Choose a t-shirt printer/dropshipper:
To choose a t-shirt blank, check out this T-Shirt quality reviews guide:
Inspiration for t-shirt designs can be found here:
If you need to hire a designer, try these services:
Or, be lazy and buy some designs from here:
You may also want to check out general graphic design marketplaces but keep in mind if you plan to sell your t-shirts, you’ll need to purchase a commercial license.
Mock up templates for your shirt designs can be found here:
Another great options for tasks like this is to enlist help from someone on Fiverr for $5. Just search for t-shirt mockups.
Conclusion
There you have it. A new business born in 24 hours with only $24. All in all, I had fun building it. The challenge of building a fully automated business in 24 hours was pretty exciting and the fact I was able to generate over $300 in sales in the first day was well beyond my expectations.
Granted, this business will never make me rich and margins are generally slim however, as I pointed out before, I firmly believe a t-shirt business has it’s purpose, even if that purpose is just practicing for something bigger.
Now it’s your turn. If you’ve been thinking of starting an online business but have been stuck in the “I don’t know what to sell” stage for more than a few months, I am challenging you to build a a t-shirt business, for no reason other than to start. Start building something, start marketing something, start converting something. Start.
Go!It looks like an ordinary bicycle wheel with an oversized center. But packed inside that unassuming hub is a veritable Swiss army knife’s worth of electronic gadgets and novel functions.
The new wheel, developed by researchers at MIT, can store energy every time the rider puts on the brakes, and then give that power back to provide a boost when going uphill or to add a burst of speed in traffic. But there are also a variety of extra functions hidden within the hub of this new wheel, which is designed to be easily interchangeable with any standard bicycle’s rear wheel.
By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user’s iPhone, which can be mounted on the handlebars, the wheel can monitor the bicycle’s speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as picking up data on pollution in the air, and even the proximity of the rider’s friends. The resulting data can both help the individual rider — for example, by providing feedback on fitness goals — and help the city (if the user opts to share the information) by building up a database of air quality, popular biking routes or areas of traffic congestion.
All of the generating, power assisting, sensing and communications equipment fits inside a plastic housing in the hub of the wheel, connected to the standard rim by a novel system of spokes. Dubbed the Copenhagen Wheel, it was developed by Carlo Ratti, associate professor of the practice in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) and director of the SENSEable City Laboratory, and his team.
The whole generating and power-assisting system can be controlled through the pedals, requiring no switches or dials. Pedal backwards, and the regenerative braking is engaged, helping to recharge the system’s batteries; pedal fast, and you get the extra boost of power. “Everything is controlled by your feet,” Ratti explains.
In addition, “The wheel, thanks to the energy it harvests, becomes something that helps you keep track of your fitness,” he says, by recording the mileage that you travel. That information could also be shared, for example, with employers, who might get credits for the avoided pollution for employees who commute by bike. It also contains sensors that can monitor levels of carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, temperature, humidity and noise, and a GPS that can track position.
There are a variety of bicycles on the market now that can provide an electrical boost, but Ratti says his team’s is different because of its extra functions, modern design and ease of use. The city of Copenhagen, site of the UN Conference on Climate Change, has been a sponsor of the research (along with the Italian company Ducati, and the Italian environment ministry), and the city has already placed an initial order for some of the innovative bicycle wheels, to be used by city workers.
The system was demonstrated in Copenhagen on Dec. 15 for the benefit of conference attendees, and for a gathering of 400 city mayors from around the world.
‘Biking 2.0’
Assaf Biderman, associate director of the SENSEable City Lab, says that Copenhagen makes a perfect testbed for the system because of its heavy bicycle usage. “It’s a city with 500,000 people and 600,000 bicycles,” he says. “This device can change your experience of riding, and change your experience of the city.” Moreover, data about the daily routes bicyclists use could help city planners determine where more bike paths are needed, and fine-grained data on pollution might help officials pinpoint its sources.
“Over the past few years we have seen a kind of ‘biking renaissance,’ which started in Copenhagen and is now transforming the urban experience in many cities from Paris to Barcelona or Montreal,” says Ratti. “We could also call it a ‘Biking 2.0’ revolution, whereby cheap electronics allow us to augment bikes and convert them into a more flexible, on-demand system.“
Ritt Bjerregaard, the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, says the wheel may well help her city achieve its goal of getting half of its citizens to bike to work or school every day. “For us, this project is part of the answer to how can we make using a bike even more attractive,“ she says.
But some experts are more circumspect. Rob Sadowsky, executive director of the Active Transportation Alliance, a Chicago-based organization that promotes increased use of bicycles in urban areas, says that some elements of the Copenhagen Wheel — the ability to track and post on social networks, for instance — differentiate it from other add-on devices already on the market. However, he questions whether electric bikes and related technologies can boost the number of cyclists on the roads.
“While electric bikes have a role to play, in communities such as Chicago, I'd say that it would very minimal,” he says.
Christine Outram, a research fellow in DUSP who has been working on the project, explains that the two-way link to a user’s iPhone, which can be mounted to the handlebars, can also be used to control some functions, as well as to display information.
The extra functions could provide a wealth of data to help the city analyze a number of environmental factors. Outram says that at present, the whole city of Copenhagen has just three sensors monitoring pollution, all mounted on tops of buildings. If the new bicycle wheel becomes widely adopted, there could be thousands of sensors all over the city at street level. “Now, through a small amount of technology, we could have an incredible amount of information,” she says.
Ratti says the team expects to have the wheel in production by the end of next year. The retail price has not yet been determined. Though the prototypes cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each because of all the research involved, their analysis shows that a regular production model can be “competitive with existing electric bicycles,” he says.
“We’re showing that biking can really help some of today’s problems in cities — congestion, pollution, climate change,” says Ratti. For the bicycle user, there’s another advantage to the embedded electronics: security. Because of its built-in Bluetooth connection to the user’s cellphone, the wheel can be set so that the bicycle will only function if the user’s cellphone is within range. “The bicycle will recognize the presence of the phone and unlock,” Ratti explains. “When you leave, it locks,” without requiring any specific action by the user.A long line of pirate hunters
The destroyer Bainbridge is named after an early American naval officer who struck fear in the hearts of Barbary Coast predators.
After service against French forces in the West Indies during what was called the "Quasi-War," the Navy in 1800 handed Bainbridge the command of a converted merchant ship, the George Washington. He was told to deliver tribute -- a bribe, in effect -- to the dey of Algiers in return for safe passage. This was essentially piracy on a state scale. These days, the Somali pirates take a ship and ask for ransom. Back then, we just paid rulers in advance to safeguard our merchant fleets from the Barbary pirates who operated off the coast of North Africa.
Born in Princeton, N.J., in 1774, Commodore Bainbridge joined the Navy in 1798. It was a time when Congress and President John Adams wrestled over how to deal not only with the combined threats of England and France, the military superpowers of the time, but also with bands of pirates who preyed on the rapidly expanding shipping of a youthful nation without much of a sea force.
William Bainbridge, the naval officer for whom the ship is named, would be pleased. Bainbridge played an important role cleaning out a similar nest of corsairs who plagued shipping off African coastlines two centuries ago.
Earlier this week, sharpshooters on the fantail of the U.S. Navy destroyer Bainbridge picked off three pirates with single bullets to the head, freeing a hostage merchant marine captain. Two days later, the Bainbridge sailed to the aid of another American merchant ship attacked by pirates.
The Barbary pirate states presented a maritime problem not unlike what we see on the lawless Somali coast today. As Ian Toll points out in "Six Frigates," his fine book on the early days of the U.S. Navy, the Barbary corsairs in the Mediterranean were also close to major shipping lanes, had myriad places to hide and presented few good targets for retaliation.
When Thomas Jefferson became president, he was loath to launch an expensive, large-scale military operation against these rogue states. But he also understood that the system of bribes and tributes was unworkable. In 1801, Jefferson decided to send a squadron to protect American shipping. If they observed that Tripoli, in particular, was, as Toll recounts, "waging war against the United States," the officers had the green light to bludgeon the city and its pirates into submission. Bainbridge was part of the squadron, first as captain of the warship Essex and, after 1803, as commander of the heavy frigate Philadelphia.
Frigates were the workhorses of the U.S. Navy in that period. They were fast and versatile floating batteries of wood, some with 50 cannons or more. They could outrun the largest British battleships of the day, yet they were still powerful enough to bombard cities and fight multi-ship battles.
Although he commanded one of the strongest U.S. warships of the day, there's no doubt that if Bainbridge woke up like Rip Van Winkle today, he would view his namesake ship, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, with amazement. He would marvel at its size and capabilities, right down to the ample fresh water and maggot-free food served on board to officers and enlisted men alike. Bainbridge, who had a reputation as a strident disciplinarian, also would be surprised to learn that he could no longer use flogging and other forms of physical punishment to keep sailors in order.
Bainbridge's command started out well. He captured the Mirboka, one of the larger Barbary ships, and freed the American brig Celia from the pirates. But as he chased another pirate ship near Tripoli, he ran the Philadelphia aground on an uncharted reef. Bainbridge, the ship and his crew were captured. A daring raid led by Lt. Stephen Decatur burned the Philadelphia to keep the pirates from using what could have been an incredibly strong military asset against the U.S. Navy. Bainbridge and his crew remained captives for 19 months until they were freed for a $60,000 ransom and Tripoli's promise of free trade routes.
Losing one of America's most important ships didn't have a lasting effect on Bainbridge's career. During the War of 1812, he commanded the Constitution, the most storied frigate in the U.S. Navy.
Under Bainbridge, the ship captured the British frigate Java. It was one of several victories by the Constitution that sent shock waves across the Atlantic by helping demonstrate that, on a single-ship basis, the U.S. Navy was among the best in the world. Such losses forced the British to use an entire fleet just to keep the handful of U.S. frigates from destroying British shipping.On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015
Report: WSJ published Romney adviser op-eds without disclosing ties
The Wall Street Journal has published op-eds from several writers who serve as advisers to Mitt Romney’s campaign without disclosing their ties to the presidential race, according to liberal media watchdog organization Media Matters.
The group found that the Journal published 20 pieces from a number of Romney advisers — John Bolton, Max Boot, Lee Casey, Paula Dobriansky, Mary Ann Glendon, Glenn Hubbard, Paul Peterson, David Rivkin Jr. and Martin West — but did not always inform readers of each writer's connection to the Republican nominee.
(Also on POLITICO: Noonan: Romney running 'incompetent' campaign)
“In several instances, the Journal failed to disclose an op-ed writer's connection despite its own news section reporting that the writer is advising Romney. With respect to one writer, the Journal disclosed his ties to the campaign in an initial op-ed but failed to do so in subsequent op-eds,” the Media Matters report states. “With regard to another, the paper failed to disclose the campaign ties in an initial op-ed but did do so in later pieces. The seven remaining writers have not had their Romney connections disclosed in any of their op-eds following the publication of those ties, according to Media Matters' review.”
The Wall Street Journal has yet to respond to a request for comment.British actor Sam Kelly, best known for his roles in Allo Allo and Porridge, has died at the age of 70.
The Manchester-born star's agent Lynda Ronan said Kelly died peacefully after a long illness "bravely fought".
She said: "He does not leave any family but a host of friends who were his chosen family."
Former Doctor Who Colin Baker paid tribute on Twitter to his colleague from drama school, describing Kelly as a "lovely, funny, talented chap".
"Cannot believe that lovely Sam Kelly has died," he added. "So sad".
Baker studied alongside Kelly at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the 1960s.
Kelly's agent described his death as great loss to his friends "and the profession".
Director Mike Leigh, who worked with him nine times, told BBC Radio 5 live that he was the "most loveable guy".
He said that although he was very funny, he was a great character actor and had a marvellous singing voice which was put to good use when he played the Wizard of Oz in the West End musical Wicked.
"He was very versatile indeed but above all, he was just a really great guy," he added.
A tribute also came from Quadrophenia film actor Phil Davis, who said on Twitter: "So sad to hear that Sam Kelly has died, a wonderful actor, a proper gent and one of the funniest men I ever had the pleasure of working with."
Kelly played prisoner Bunny Warren in the BBC's Porridge between 1974 and 1978 and Nazi captain Hans Geering in the first four series of 'Allo 'Allo between 1982 and 1987. His other roles include the ITV sitcom Barbara and On the Up, in which he appeared alongside Dennis Waterman and Joan Sims.
Image caption Kelly starred alongside Ronnie Barker in Porridge
Image caption He played Ralph in Grown Ups which was directed by Mike Leigh
Image caption He also featured in the sitcom On the Up in the 1990s
Image copyright Old Vic Productions/PA Image caption In 2004, Kelly appeared as the emperor in Aladdin at the Old Vic, alongside Sir Ian McKellen as pantomime dame Widow Twankey
Image caption Kelly made an appearance in EastEnders in the same year
Another part saw him play Hitler in 1993 prisoner of war TV comedy drama Stalag Luft, alongside Stephen Fry and Nicholas Lyndhurst.
Paying tribute on Twitter, Fry tweeted: "Very saddened to hear about Sam Kelly's death. He played a splendid Hitler".
'Famous line'
Kelly also had a distinguished theatrical career which saw him take on roles at the National Theatre and Old Vic. But in February he withdrew from his part in Wicked owing to ill health.
Aaron Brown, editor of the British Comedy Guide website, said Kelly would be "forever be remembered as a favourite character by fans of 'Allo 'Allo, not least for his half-hearted 'tler' salute, and delivery of the 'drug in the jug' tongue-twister from the series two Christmas special - the sitcom's most famous single line".
The success of the show brought Kelly to the attention of millions of people around the world but he was a versatile and brilliant comedy performer and leaves behind a wide body of work, he added.
Natalie Anderson, who appears in TV soap Emmerdale, tweeted: "Totally devastated to hear of the sad news of my friend and 'Wizard' Sam Kelly's passing!!! A truly wonderful and incredible gentleman!"
And writing on Twitter before he was about to go on stage in the West End stage show Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Robert Lindsay said he would dedicate the performance to Kelly.
He said: "Feel so depressed about the amazing Sam Kelly's passing how do we manage a second comic musical tonight? we dedicate it to him RIP".
Sherlock actor Mark Gatiss tweeted: "Desperately sad news that the wonderful Sam Kelly has left us. Such a funny, talented man and one of the good guys. RIP Bunny Warren".Roubaix Lille Métropole have announced its rider Daan Myngheer has died from a heart attack the 22-year-old suffered on stage 1 of the Criterium International. Related Articles Myngheer suffers heart attack during Criterium International
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Myngheer lost contact with the peloton in the final 25km of the stage with medical staff quickly making contact with the Belgian. He suffered a heart attack in the ambulance, which was transporting him to the Ajaccio, and was placed on life support. Myngheer was then placed into an induced coma at the hospital.
The team made the announcement of his passing via its Facebook page, saying that Myngheer had passed away late Monday-night. Myngheer has donated his vital organs, according to the team.
"It is with great emotion that we announce the death of Daan. He lost his last race after struggling as a great champion," the statement said. "He died this Monday, March 28 at 7:08 p.m. in the presence of his parents, his sister Fleur and his partner Emely, in the hospital of Ajaccio."
"All our thoughts, sincere will to parents, his sister Fleur, Emely, as well as to the whole family."
"Rest in Peace Champion."
According to a report in Tuesday's L'Equipe, Myngheer had suffered a heart problem in a Belgian amateur race in 2014 but tests revealed no heart anomalies. He underwent tests in both Belgium and France during the winter to obtain his 2016 professional racing licence.
French police in Ajaccio have opened an investigation into Myngheer's death and questioned his teammates.
Myngheer's death is the second of the Easter weekend after Wanty-Groupe Gobert's Antoine Demoitié died from his injuries having been hit by a race motorcycle at Gent-Wevelgem.
The Belgian had turned professional with Team Verandas Willems in 2015, moving to French Roubaix Lille Métropole Continental team this season. He rode the 2015 Richmond World Championships with the U23 Belgian team, finishing 64th.
Cyclingnews extends its condolence to the friends, family and teammates of Daan Myngheer.This woman is complaining the election is rigged. What a disgraceful thing to say! Oh, sorry, my mistake, she's a Democrat.
I'm just back in America and getting up to speed on how things stand this election year. Herewith, a handful of observations:
~In 2012, Mitt Romney was worried about Russia, and Barack Obama sneered that "the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back".
Four years later, it's the Democrats who are running around shrieking about Russian "interference" in the US election. As one reader wrote to me:
The chronic and systemic political corruption of Obama/Clinton Democrat minions that have been covered up by elite Democrats, their partisan media and complicit Department of Justice's FBI, could only be exposed by foreign cyber hackers.
The 1980s are again calling to ask for their foreign policy back. But this time the roles are reversed. We're now the guys with the closed, secretive, paranoid elite desperate to prevent the truth getting out to the wider world. In the Soviet Union, the apparatchiks of the one-party state warned you not to listen to the BBC on short-wave under the bed covers at night. In America, CNN's Chris Cuomo warns you that it's "illegal" for you to read those Wikileaks emails. So just leave it to credentialed media wallahs like him to let you know if there's anything in them of any interest. Which, judging from the networks' coverage, there isn't.
So, as Chris Cuomo sees it, the same FBI whose officials were leaned on not to investigate Hillary for illegally keeping classified emails on a server housed in some guy's toilet in Colorado should instead investigate you for reading emails about her illegal emails. This is what a supposedly free press has been reduced to in order to drag Hillary across the finish line.
~It is still somewhat jaw-dropping (and not in the Monica sense) that the campaign to return the Clintons to the White House is now running on how terribly the other guy treats women. Introducing Hillary in New Hampshire today, Michelle Obama gave a speech on Trump as a sexual predator and then hailed Hillary as someone who's had "more exposure to the presidency" than any other candidate. Be that as it may, she had rather less exposure from the President than innumerable other women during the Clinton years. Paula Jones got considerably more, and without asking for it. But Mrs Clinton stands there and demands "dignity for women" - and nobody laughs.
~You gotta love the massed ranks of the media huffin' an' a-puffin' about how disgraceful Trump's remarks about "rigged" elections are. As I said on yesterday's John Oakley Show, America runs, at best, the most incompetent and, at worst, the dirtiest elections in the developed world. Ballot-wise, there's no such thing as a "presidential election"; there are instead a gazillion county elections with multiple voting methods of uncertain reliability. That's why, as I've said for many years, Republicans have to win "beyond the margin of lawyer" - because otherwise the Democrats will discover an extra 3,000 votes in a dumpster round the back of DNC HQ and then find a friendly judge with impressive powers of divining the true meaning of lightly dimpled chads. This doesn't happen in Canada, Britain, Australia, France, Denmark, etc. As I wrote three presidential elections ago:
What happens on Election Day is that the Democrats lose and then decide it was because of "unusually long lines" in "minority neighborhoods." What "minority neighborhoods" means is electoral districts run by Democrats: in Ohio in 2004 as in Florida in 2000, the "problems" all occur in counties where the Dems run the system. Sometimes, as in King County, Washington, they get lucky and find enough votes from the "disenfranchised" accidentally filed in the icebox at Democratic headquarters. But in Ohio, George W. Bush managed to win not just beyond the margin of error but beyond the margin of lawyer. If there had been anything to sue and re-sue and re-re-sue over, you can bet those 5,000 shysters the Kerry campaign flew in would do it. Instead, Mrs. Boxer and Mr. Conyers and Co. are using a kind of parliamentary privilege to taint Mr. Bush's victory without the flimsiest pretext.
But unlike Trump nobody accused them of undermining the integrity of American democracy. Whether he's right on Mexican rapists and Muslim immigration is a matter of opinion. But the crappiness of US electoral integrity is surely beyond dispute. Don't take my word for it, ask the Democrats. Even without a Republican in sight, their elections are the usual overflowing toilet of corruption:
[Democrat candidate] Dixon, who received more than 46,000 votes during the primary, narrowly lost to [Democrat candidate] Pugh. The former mayor has questioned the legitimacy of that result, citing hundreds of irregularities that were uncovered by a state review. The Dixon campaign also has accused the Pugh campaign of paying poor people for votes by offering food and jobs. "This is the first time in the history of the state of Maryland that an election was decertified," Dixon said. "There were questions in 71 precincts. There were provisional ballots that were thrown out. Judges allowed independent voters to vote during the primary." Dixon told listeners she is "not a sore loser," but that state officials reviewing the city's election "literally threw up their hands because it was such a total mess." She suggested that boxes full of votes for her and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders weren't counted... The Pugh campaign has denied any wrongdoing.
Is Ms Dixon also undermining faith in the integrity of American elections? Don't be silly, she's a Democrat.
[UPDATE: Reader Michael Mullinix adds:
Candidate Dixon is the former Baltimore Mayor who resigned after pleading guilty to stealing gift cards intended for poor Charm City citizens.
As I said, this is an intra-Democrat fight. As Bernie Sanders discovered, Dems can't run a clean election, even with no Republicans to screw over.]
~Also on yesterday's Oakley show, I pointed out that Donald Trump is in the unusual position of running against both the Democrat and Republican parties. That is literally true. The National Republican Congressional Committee has a new ad out praising Representative Bob Dold (R - Illinois) for his opposition to the party's presidential candidate:
"Dold is an independent voice who stood up to Donald Trump months ago," the narrator in the ad says. The ad then shows a clip of Dold declaring, on CNN, "I think Donald Trump has disqualified himself."
So the party machine is funding attacks on its own voters' choice of presidential candidate. The Beltway notion that, once Trump is defeated, the GOP can resume business as usual in service of the donor class seems unlikely to me.
~There are arguments across the airwaves today about whether the race is "tightening". Maybe. I certainly don't believe we're in for a Hillary landslide. But, as you listen to reporters on the ground in, say, "the swing state of North Carolina", you can't help noticing that almost all the so-called "swing states" used to be Republican states. Indeed, some reliably red states are passing through the "swing state" stage via the express lane and moving straight to blue-state status in a couple of electoral cycles - Virginia, for example.
The #NeverTrumpers blame this on the weakness of the candidate. But I'd say it's basic demographic arithmetic. As I wrote back in February:
These three electoral maps - 1988, 2000, 2012 - are a portrait of remorseless Republican decline... What about another 12 years? In Arizona, a majority of grade-schoolers are Hispanic: Are you entirely confident AuH2O country will still be red a decade hence? In 2010, seventy per cent of births at Dallas General Hospital were "anchor babies": If the GOP loses Texas' 38 electoral votes, there is no conceivable math that on the Rove turnout-model model gets them to the magic 270 - or anywhere near it.
I'm on record from September predicting a Trump victory. But, if he doesn't, don't pin your hopes on 2020, when half the purple states will be blue and another handful of red states will be purpling. As I put it eight months ago:
The GOP has done a grand job of screwing itself out of electoral viability.
~Thank you for your kind (and even your unkind) words about my impending television extravaganza, The Mark Steyn Show. It will be a nightly show (and entirely commercial-free), keeping an eye on the big picture but with room for some lighter divertissements along the way: man cannot live on looming civilizational collapse alone. For more about the show, and Michelle Malkin's new venture (which is part of the same low-rate introductory package), see here.Part of the Truthout Series Planet or Profit
(Photo: Paul Symes)
“Commercial overexploitation of the world’s fish stocks is severe,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said back in 2012. “Many species have been hunted to fractions of their original populations. More than half of global fisheries are exhausted, and a further third are depleted.”
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 85 percent of global fish stocks are “overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion.”
To see more stories like this, visit “Planet or Profit?”
Yet despite these alarms having been sounded loud and clear, life in the oceans is continuing to deteriorate at an ominously rapid pace.
Total Collapse?
Fisheries for the most sought-after species of fish have already collapsed.
The populations of all large predator fish in the oceans have declined by 90 percent in the 50 years since modern industrial fishing became widespread around the world, according to a shocking paper by scientists with Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, published in Nature in 2003.
“We are losing species every day without ever knowing about them. Sometimes humans can be like a plague to the environment.”
Three years after the paper’s publication, the same scientists, along with colleagues from across the world, published an even more startling paper that predicted a total collapse of all fish that are currently caught commercially by 2048.
Many scientists, like Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia, have estimated that the total fish catch for the planet peaked back in the mid-1980s, and has been declining ever since.
Most scientists studying the issue agree that the three primary causes of the crisis are overfishing, plastic pollution and anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD).
But several, like Dr. Simon Boxall, an associate professor of oceanography with the University of Southampton, singled out overfishing as the largest culprit.
“The big problem is that we are overfishing,” Boxall told Truthout. “The [fisheries] management isn’t working, and is in fact causing just as much destruction [as] if there was no management in the first place.”
Dr. Maria Salta, a biological oceanographer and lecturer in environmental microbiology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, echoed this dire outlook on the state of the oceans.
“For shrimpers, 80 percent of everything caught is bycatch and thrown back for dead. It is a mode of mass marine extinction.”
“It is clear that if we continue like this, in a few years time, there is not going to be much left,” she told Truthout, speaking about the impacts of ACD, pollution and overfishing. “We are losing species every day without ever knowing about them. Sometimes humans can be like a plague to the environment.”
Fishing operations have expanded to, quite literally, every corner of the ocean over the last 100 years, due to |
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"I was terrified but functional," Kleinpaste said. "If he had not had enough sense of mind to call me... she would've died."
Bailey had undergone a tubal ligation and did not know she was pregnant.
"I knew something was off," Bailey said. "I started feeling really light-headed and I started sweating. Next thing you know I'm on the floor."
Jackson had been absorbed in playing with his tablet and eating breakfast when he saw his mother fall. His infant sister, Sophia, cried from her high chair as their mother lay unconscious on the floor. Unlike most 5-year-olds in his situation, he knew exactly what to do.
"[Jackson] had the presence of mind to remember something that we went over a year ago... 'Call Daddy, call Nana, call 911,'" Bailey said. "He's very helpful, very alert, but for him to look up [from his tablet]... that is miraculous in itself."
Though he didn't get to the 911 call, Jackson managed to alert his father and grandmother in time for Kleinpaste to call an ambulance.
>> Join the conversation at Facebook.com/columbusdispatch and connect with us on Twitter @DispatchAlerts
Bailey was rushed to the hospital, where she learned she was seven weeks into an ectopic pregnancy; a fertilized egg had taken root and grown in her fallopian tube until it ruptured. She was bleeding internally, losing nearly two liters of blood.
More than that, she said, "I lost a baby, and not just that I almost died. It's been hard.
"I don't want him to think about the negative aspect of it," she said of Jackson. "I want him to understand... he's an amazing little boy."
On Sunday, Jackson was publicly honored by the Worthington Fire Department for his life-saving actions.
The firefighters held a special recognition ceremony at the fire station. They presented Jackson with a "Hero of the Day" award signed by the firefighters, a silver token with the insignia of the department and a cake.
In addition, Jackson, his parents and the firefighters all took a picture together at the station. The department is having the picture put on a plaque and sending it to the family, Bailey said.
"What the fire department did to put a positive spin on such a bad situation," Bailey said, "I would rather [Jackson] remember that."
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kbeard@dispatch.com
@QKayKBy Andrew Coffman Smith
Germany's plans to cut carbon emissions by 80% of its 1990 levels by 2050 is going to cost roughly €1.1 trillion and will require 290 GW of renewable electric sources while a 90% reduction is going to require 540 GW, a new report has found.
The Nov. 5 report by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Systems confirms the findings of a previous 2013 study on the country's ambitious Energiewende policy, which simultaneously seeks to achieve 80% of renewable electricity sources by 2050.
Renewable sources in Germany increased from 12.3 GW in 2000 to 85 GW in 2013 and supplied 27.4% of its electric mix in 2014, according to a separate Nov. 10 report compiled by the International Renewable Energy Agency and commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Figures released by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries in December 2014, show that onshore wind supplied 32.5% of renewable generation for 2014 followed by biomass at 27.2%, solar PV at 22.4% and hydro at 13.2%
In comparison to the United States, a 2012 report by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that it is going to require a total capacity of 920 GW of renewable sources for the U.S. to achieve a mix of 80% renewable generation by 2050. According to the NREL's 2014 Renewable Energy Data Book, the U.S. had more than 179 GW of renewable electricity capacity in 2014, which constituted 15.5% of total installed capacity. Nearly half of that capacity is hydropower, but roughly one third is wind and 6% is solar.
Deputy director of the Fraunhofer Institute and the report's author, Professor Hans-Martin Henning, said in a press release, that the most cost-effective scenario for Germany's energy transition to achieve the 80% reductions is going to cost around 27% higher than it would to maintain the current generation mix.
However, Henning said, if the price for fossil fuels increase 3% annually then the total cost for the energy transition will cost virtually the same as it would to maintain the current generation mix and would additionally reduce CO2 emissions by 85%.
All scenarios in the Fraunhofer Institute study, titled "Was Kostet die Energiewende?," show an increase in production and consumption of electricity, as well as the need for coal and nuclear substitutes such as natural gas or synthetic fuels produced by hydrogen, methane and renewables.
According to the various scenarios studied by the Fraunhofer Institute, wind and photovoltaic solar will play a key role alongside a mix of fossil, biomass, synthetic fuels and natural gas with solar and electric heat pumps providing heat for buildings. The report also said Germany's Energiewende requires a high degree of flexibility for generation and application of new technologies in the field of buildings and transportation.
Already, Germany in the next 7 years is scheduled to retire roughly 14,057 MW of conventional generation as it phases out nuclear by 2022 and puts its lignite-fired plants on standby until shutting them down for good by 2019. On Oct. 14, Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved a draft law to ensure Germany's utilities are held liable for the €47.6 billion costs of shutting down and decommissioning the nuclear plants. The move by Merkel seeks to stop utilities such as E.ON SE from including nuclear assets in plans to spin off its conventional generation assets.Tottenham playmaker Christian Eriksen (left) rifles in a shot to put his side in front against Southampton
Christian Eriksen scores second goal of season
Mane misses glorious Southampton chance
Tottenham's first league win since 24 August
Southampton suffer second league loss of season
Tottenham beat Southampton to end a run of four league games without a victory and give manager Mauricio Pochettino a win against his former club.
The home side went in front when Christian Eriksen latched on to a Nacer Chadli lay-off and arrowed in a shot.
Chadli almost added to the lead only for his shot to come back off the post.
Media playback is not supported on this device Pochettino'still loves' Saints
Southampton increased the urgency in search of an equaliser but saw Sadio Mane fail to convert a Ryan Bertrand cross when he shot wide from six yards.
The visitors had also gone close when midfielder Victor Wanyama had a shot excellently saved by Hugo Lloris.
The defeat ended Southampton's run of six straight wins in all competitions at the hands of the man who led them to an impressive eighth last season, although they remain in the Premier League's top four.
Spurs hoodoo over Southampton Tottenham have won their last five Premier League games against Southampton. Spurs won 3-2 in both games against Southampton last season.
For Pochettino, the win not only eased the strain on him as Spurs moved up to sixth in the Premier League, but provided evidence his players are coming to terms with his coaching methods.
He had instilled a high-energy and high-pressing style of play as he impressed during his tenure at Southampton, although the Argentine had struggled to implement a similar style at White Hart Lane.
However, against Southampton there was a desire and application from the home side with signs of progress.
Tottenham went close early on when a Jan Vertonghen header was cleared off the line by Bertrand, and Erik Lamela and Eriksen had long-range efforts saved before the Spurs pressure told.
Media playback is not supported on this device Mane should have scored - Koeman
Emmanuel Adebayor cut in from the right and passed to Chadli, who laid the ball off to Eriksen to drill in a low shot from the edge of the area.
It was only the fifth goal Southampton had conceded so far this season and they would have gone 2-0 down but for the woodwork. Chadli raced clear at the end of a Spurs counter-attack but his angled shot came back off the post.
The visitors may have started the season strongly but struggled to create chances. They did go close when a low Graziano Pelle cross found Mane at the far post but his shot was deflected wide by Kyle Naughton.
The full-back was forced off later after he was caught just above the ankle by a reckless Bertrand boot as the two challenged for a tackle.
Tottenham had kept the visitors at arm's length for most of the game and, after Wanyama's shot was saved and Mane's late effort, they secured their third league win of the campaign.
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino:
"It was an important win. It was a very tough game. Southampton have unbelievable players.
"I arrived three months ago - it is. It is always difficult to put together a different philosophy in such a short time. It is important to build something for the long term.
"All the players did a great job and did their best. We deserved the three points."
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman:
"It was difficult. We knew before the game that they are a strong team.
"They had good moments but in the second half, little-by-little, we had some dominance. It is all about scoring goals and they did that better than us.
"Maybe that [Sadio Mane's miss] was the biggest chance of the game. It was great cross from Ryan Bertrand and he had to score but was unlucky. I am happy with the performance."
Mauricio Pochettino coached Southampton for 54 Premier League games with 19 wins, 18 draws and 17 losses
Christian Eriksen (three) has scored more Premier League goals against Southampton than any other team
Tottenham right-back Kyle Naughton went off injured after 32 minutes following a challenge with Ryan Bertrand
Sadio Mane (right) missed Southampton's best chance as his side failed to score for the first time in seven gamesWhen you're interested in learning a new technology, sometimes the best way is to watch it in action—or at the very least, to have someone explain it one-on-one. Unfortunately, we don't all have a personal technology coach for every new thing out there, so we turn to the next best thing: a great video.
With that in mind, if you're interested in Docker (and these days, who isn't?), here are five great videos to get you started with the basics you should know.
First up, if you've only got five minutes (well, technically seven and a half), watch this. At Opensource.com's lightning talk series last fall, Docker contributor Vincent Batts of Red Hat gave a great overview of what Docker is, what containers are, and how these technologies are changing the way system administrators and developers are working together to deploy applications in a modern datacenter.
Now, you understand the concept, so let's take a slightly deeper dive. Docker founder and CTO Solomon Hykes takes you beyond the basics of containers and into how Docker works, what problems it solves, and some real-world demos.
Next up, Docker's Jérôme Petazzoni takes you through Docker for developers. In this hour long video, Petazzoni goes through the Docker development workflow, in which applications are composed of simple, independent pieces which live inside of containers, separate and (mostly) secured from the operating system beneath them.
For applications developed as many different pieces working together, which need to be able to scale quickly and communicate with other application parts, orchestration is key. In this video, watch Red Hat's Arun Gupta show you how to package applications (in this case, written in Java) in Docker and orchestrate them using Kubernetes, an open source project from Google built for container orchestration.
Got it? Great. Now let's dive deeper into the deep blue. This video is actually a collection (can we call that a container?) of eleven tutorials which take you through a number of real-world scenarios for deploying applications with Docker, from simple examples like Wordpress, to a number of security tests to database backup.
That's it. What did I miss? Let me know in the comments!Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton holds a 9 percentage point lead over Republican Donald Trump among likely voters in Virginia (45%-36%), according to The Roanoke College Poll. Libertarian Gary Johnson trails with 7 percent of likely voters, while Independent Evan McMullin and Green Party candidate Jill Stein each garner 1 percent. Ten percent of likely voters remain undecided. In a two-way matchup, Clinton's lead extends to 13 points (51%-38%). Clinton led by 7 percentage points in the September Roanoke College Poll (44%-37%).
The Roanoke College Poll interviewed 814 likely voters in Virginia between October 2 and October 6 and has a margin of error of +3.4 percent. The poll was conducted after the first presidential debate and prior to both the second debate and the release of the videotape of Donald Trump making vulgar comments about women.
Voters remain interested in campaign and still dislike the major candidates
Nearly two-thirds of likely voters (62%) said they were very interested in the campaign (30% were somewhat interested), while much of the support for each major party candidate is solid (76% of Clinton voters and 68% of Trump supporters say it is not at all likely they will switch their votes; 6% of Clinton supporters say it is very or somewhat likely compared to 15% of Trump backers). That obviously does not bode well for Trump in light of recent events.
Both candidates are still viewed unfavorably by voters. Clinton's favorable ratings (39% favorable; 48% unfavorable) and those of Trump (29% favorable; 57% unfavorable) are statistically unchanged from a month ago. Vice-presidential candidate and Virginia U.S. Senator Tim Kaine is viewed favorably by a plurality (48%) of respondents. Republican VP candidate Mike Pence has a favorable rating of 34 percent, but one-third (32%) still don't know enough about him to have an opinion.
First debate favored Clinton, but barely moved the needle
Respondents who watched the first debate generally felt that Clinton displayed a better knowledge of facts and policies (66%-17%), appeared more presidential (66%-24%), was more likable (56%-28%), and they judged her as more authentic and honest in her responses (46%-42%). One-in-four (26%) said the debate made them more likely to vote for Clinton, and an almost equal number (25%) said it made them less likely to vote for Trump. Still, the majority said the debate made no difference in their likelihood of voting for either Trump (68%) or Clinton (62%).
Clinton still leads among ideological moderates (50%-26%) and is now tied with Trump among Independents (35%-35%). Clinton claims the support of 91 percent of Democrats, while Trump has fallen below 8-in-10 Republicans (76%). Eleven percent of Republicans are undecided compared to only 4 percent of Democrats. Most (64%) of those who are undecided claim they are not leaning toward any candidate. Trump claims 15 percent of those who are leaning toward voting for a particular candidate, while McMullin takes 13 percent. Clinton has the support of just 5 percent of those leaning voters.
Issues...do they matter?
As is typical, economic issues were thought to be most important by a plurality of voters (30%). Several other issues were mentioned as most important to voters, including health care (8%), terrorism (7%), character/honesty (7%), and immigration (6%).
Clinton was thought to be capable of better handling a variety of issues, including the economy (47%-46%), terrorism (50%-42%), health care (55%-34%), race relations (64%-22%), immigration (50%-42%), and foreign policy (60%-29%), but voters think Trump would better handle firearms policy (46%-42%). Trump (12% very honest; 36% somewhat honest) was marginally viewed as more honest than Clinton (11% very honest; 35% somewhat honest), but 71 percent said Clinton is qualified to be president (40% very qualified; 31% somewhat qualified), compared to 41% who said Trump is qualified (11% very qualified; 30% somewhat qualified).
Clinton was also seen as having a temperament that is fitting for president (74%), compared to 34 percent for Trump. A majority of respondents said she at least somewhat understands the problems of people like them (57%), while 40 percent said the same about Trump. All of those results are within the margin of error from last month when we asked the same questions.
President Obama; direction of the country
A majority (57%) of likely voters think the country is on the wrong track, while 37 percent think it is headed in the right direction. Job approval for President Barack Obama is at 50 percent, with 40 percent disapproval, and a majority (54%) have a favorable view of Obama, while 36 percent hold an unfavorable view.
Analysis
"Hillary Clinton's lead appears steady," said Dr. Harry Wilson, director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research. "Donald Trump is still unable to consolidate support among Republicans, and it is difficult to see how recent events help him in that regard. Even if he brings those reluctant Republicans 'back home,' he still needs to expand his support among Independents and moderates. Those are both tall tasks."
"The race in Virginia changed very little as a result of the first debate, despite the fact that voters thought Clinton performed better in several areas."
Methodology
Interviewing for The Roanoke College Poll was conducted by The Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in Salem, Va. between October 2 and October 6, 2016. A total of 814 likely voters in Virginia were interviewed. Telephone interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The random digit dial sample was obtained from ASDE Survey Sampler and includes both Virginia landline and cell phone exchanges so that all cell phone and residential landline telephone numbers, including unlisted numbers from Virginia exchanges, had a known chance of inclusion. Cell phones constituted 31 percent of the completed interviews.
Questions answered by the entire sample of 814 likely voters are subject to a sampling error of plus or minus approximately 3.4 percent at the 95 percent level of confidence. This means that in 95 out of 100 samples like the one used here, the results obtained should be no more than 3.4 percentage points above or below the figure that would be obtained by interviewing all likely voters in Virginia who have a home telephone or a cell phone. Where the results of subgroups are reported, the sampling error is higher.
Quotas were used to ensure that different regions of the Commonwealth were proportionately represented. The data were statistically weighted for gender, race, age, region and political party. Weighting was done to match the demographic groups' representation in the 2012 Virginia exit poll. The margin of error was not adjusted for design effects due to weighting.
A copy of the questionnaire and all toplines may be found here.The decision by his Human Resource Development Minister to cut out German from Indian schools created perhaps the only hiccup for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday.
Merkel, who met the Indian Prime Minister on the sidelines of the G20 summit, asked Modi to look into having a system where schoolchildren could learn German. The request, coming just days after it was decided to replace German with Sanskrit in Kendriya Vidyalaya schools, resulted in the Indian Prime Minister assuring Merkel that her concerns would be addressed.
In the last six years, the number of Indian students going to Germany for higher studies has risen by 114 percent. Germany is one of the top destinations for Indian students, particularly those studying engineering, science and technology, for affordable higher education and possible employment. Proficiency in German language is an asset that these students pursue while in school itself.
But the Human Resources Minister, Smriti Irani, wants them to learn Sanskrit. Who gave you the permission to learn German? Stop it, and learn Sanskrit at once -- is her diktat.
With her decision, while chairing the 99th meeting of the Board of Governors of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan on 13 November, she has thrown a spanner in the works for thousands of school kids aspiring for a better future. From now on, no Kendriya Vidyalaya will teach German. Instead, children will have to opt for a glorious Sanskrit.
The reason cited is a three language policy - Hindi, English and Sanskrit or a modern Indian language. Since the decision comes in the middle of a school year, it’s a double whammy for the kids - they have to stop their favourite German and opt for Sanskrit. With other subjects already burdening them, this is an unnecessary stress that our HRD minister has imposed on them. If they still want to study German, they can do it as a hobby language.
In a globalised world of education and opportunities, this is a patently retrograde step. All over the world, kids are encouraged to learn foreign languages that will expand their future possibilities. For instance, there has been an increase of more than 26 percent of foreigners who took the Chinese Proficiency Test, China’s equivalent of TOEFL over the last few years.
Thousands of students in the US and Western Europe are now learning Chinese to expand their opportunities to collaborate with and work in China, that too when it’s considered to be one of the most for non-native speakers. Similarly kids in the US learn Spanish and kids in China learn Hindi.
The issue is not about which language, Chinese or German, but about the freedom to learn and explore opportunities. Learning a foreign language, besides an Indian language and English, is very common in schools across India. French has been a favourite for years and in the recent years, other languages such as German and Spanish have become standard options. Besides the school classes, hundreds of students also flock to places such as the Goethe Institute, Alliance Francaise and private tutors for their language training.
Perhaps Smriti Irani hasn’t visited any of these places and is not aware of the foreign language craze children have. What she should also realise is that it is not a recreational activity, but a desperate attempt to improve one’s educational and professional possibilities. Indian undergraduate (nearly 50 percent of them engineering graduates) choose Germany as their fifth favourite destination because of the opportunities.
The issue is not of German, French or Mandarin, but of avenues of higher education and better life. By nixing the German option, the minister has foreclosed the opportunities of about 70000 students in about 500 Kendriya Vidyalaya.
Now, the question of Sanskrit. What do the children gain by learning Sanskrit? Is it a medium of useful higher learning anywhere - perhaps other than some Vedic studies and astrology? The Pattali Makkal Katchi in Tamil Nadu has rightly raised the issue and it is likely to assume more political colour because “vadamozhi” (northern language) is a political imposition for the state. The three language policy is about Hindi, English and an Indian language. Why Sanskrit and why not Tamil or Telugu?
The three language policy itself is flawed. Why should children in non-Hindi states compulsorily learn Hindi? This has been a question that politicians and people in states such as Tamil Nadu have been asking. Let learning languages be voluntary.
By her decision, Smriti Irani has put the students of Kendriya Vidyalaya at a tremendous disadvantage. They have been forced to stop their favourite foreign language while children of other schools - both national and state boards - can continue to learn German, French or Spanish and explore larger possibilities of education and work later in life. Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya have to now learn Sanskrit and wonder what to do with their proficiency of the language, if at all they gain some.
Going by the suddenness and the complete lack of debate on the issue, the decision smacks of ideology. In the wake of a separate ministry for Yoga and Ayurveda, and resurgent claims of ancient Indians inventing modern science, emphasis on Sanskrit in schools in not surprising. One can only hope that the same wisdom is not extended to CBSE schools.
Perhaps people who made fun of the minister for her “Yale degree”, which turned out to be a certificate for a course of a few days, are justified now. Education and learning are so central to the progress of a nation. Playing politics with it is an unpardonable mistake.
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.Between releasing a remix of their first album, supporting fellow rockers on a national tour and preparing for a pretty extensive tour themselves, Sydney post rock band sleepmakeswaves have certainly been kicking goals in 2013. Guitarist Kid took some time out to speak with us about what the band has in store for the rest of the year.
So 2013 started off with a bang; a tour with 65daysofstatic, releasing a remix album of your first album and also headlining at Rock the Bay down in Melbourne. How did that busy first three months go for the band?
Considering 2012 was so full of activity for sleepmakeswaves, the first three months of 2013 was all about keeping the momentum and kicking goals. The tour with 65daysofstatic was incredible. We had hung out with the guys briefly in Belgium last year at Dunk!Festival when we played together. They played perhaps one of the most energetic and inspiring live shows we had ever seen and we all knew instantly that they would go down a treat in Australia. Combined with sharing time on the road during their Australian tour and remixing each other’s songs has created a bond between the bands from opposite ends of the world. They’re kind of like our older musical siblings who are setting the benchmark for where we hope to be in a couple of years.
We were stoked with how the remix album turned out. We were so lucky to have some of our favourite bands and artists from all corners of the earth remix our original tracks with their own interpretations. No rules or prerequisites were placed on the artistic direction of the tracks, we just handed them all the raw tracks from the studio and basically said “do whatever works for you”. I think it’s really refreshing to have a big mix of genres on the album and some of us believe the remixes ended up better than the originals!
Rock the Bay was a great opportunity to play to a crowd of people who may not necessarily be found at a sleepmakeswaves show. We were a little nervous at how we would be received in the Gershwin room, but all I remember was a sea of happy faces, extremely hot stage lights and the PA system sounding louder than I can ever remember – all good things. Plus we were in good company with our mates Sleep Parade and The Beards capping off the night.
Since then, we haven't seen or heard much from you guys. What have you been up to?
Hiding away in studios working on our next album! With all the touring craziness of last year and the beginning of this year we needed to lock out some time to write the next sleepmakeswaves release. We also needed a bit of time to do normal stuff like sleep, eat properly, pay our bills, wash our clothes, work a day job, get haircuts etc. There’s lots of very exciting international news on the horizon too but we have to keep tight-lipped about it at this stage! Watch this space I guess…
From the new material you trialled live on the 65daysofstatic tour, it seemed the evolution of the band's sound had headed in a darker, edgier and deeply rhythmical direction. How are the new songs sounding, now that you've had some dedicated time in the studio? What kind of evolution has the band's sound undergone from the first album?
The shift into more complex rhythmical ideas definitely comes from our new drummer Tim Adderley. We have been really keen to get his song writing ideas into the sleepmakeswaves sound, so this upcoming tour is a great chance to bring all these new ideas into the forefront with a live audience. The time we spent in the studio working on pre-production has let us develop these new ideas further and they perhaps always will be an evolving work-in-progress. Even some of our older stuff is being re-jigged to incorporate some of the new grooves and hooks which Tim has brought into the band. Comparing our latest material to the first album there is still great crossover in the “sleepmakeswaves sound” but the best way to put it is that this time around they are designed to be played live and loud.
This will be your first album with your current drummer Tim. How would you describe the style and drumming influence he's contributed to the writing process and band's sound evolution?
As I mentioned above, Tim has definitely inspired a shift in song writing style for the entire band. Not to discredit our previous drummer Will at all. They are both very different drummers with different strengths. I think Tim had one of the hardest jobs joining the band as he had to learn and replicate the style in which Will used to play and try to keep up with the speed and intricacy which Will naturally brought to the table on our EPs. Tim stepped up to the plate and has done a stellar job filling his shoes and it’s probably a relief for him to now be performing songs which he has written all the drum parts for. You’re now truly hearing the Tim Adderley experience in sleepmakeswaves. Also he’s not only a badass drummer but has a knack for composing interesting guitar melodies, bass and synth lines too.
After some fairly hectic touring schedules, is it nice just to sit down in one place, have some time and just write music?
Yes! But we are never sitting down for long. Our manager keeps us on our toes, there’s always something to progress with and work on for the greater good of the band. We’re also learning how to be productive on the road too, there’s a whole lot of time spent travelling where we can be working instead of eating snacks and playing video games.
I've also heard talk of a dual-band live documentary with a certain West Australian band...
That would be our friends Tangled Thoughts of Leaving. During our 65daysofstatic tour we managed to meet up with them at their studio. We jammed out an improvised set of music combining the two bands and a film crew recorded us. I haven’t seen the footage yet but it was heaps of fun. Even if it never gets released it was a great experience to jam with our mates from the other end of the country.
Speaking of live, you're just about to head off on an Australian tour again. Are you guys getting tired of being cooped in that studio?
There’s definitely an ever-swelling urge in our stomachs to be on stage. The worst is when you go to watch someone else’s gig and get all inspired, it makes that anxiety even greater. Our natural habitat is the stage and it’s where we can really let our hair down so expect a pretty explosive set of shows coming your way.
It'll be halfway through the year soon, do you have any contenders for Album of the Year so far?
There’s too much good stuff to list in this interview, but let’s start with Sigur Ros – Kveikur. Kanye West – Yeezus. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest. The National – Trouble Will Find Me. We’re especially looking forward to new releases from Karnivool and 65daysofstatic too. It’s going to be a good year.
On a more personal note, as a musician who are your heroes and influences?
My parents are my heroes, they are awesome. As for musical heroes and influences more often they are people we meet on tour, people in bands who have done it tougher and harder than you, people who put everything on the line to pursue what they love. They could be local musos who only play at the pub down the road or a well road-worn international touring act. Musical inspiration comes from when I see someone giving the best possible performance they can with all their heart and energy be it metal, indie, rock, pop or hip hop.
2012 was a huge year for the band. An American tour including SXSW, a European tour with a dunk! Festival headliner spot, nominated for an ARIA, supporting Karnivool on their Australian tour and also supporting some pretty amazing international bands. Looking back on it, how was it all personally for you?
Last year was a massive turning point for the band, at the start of the year we all sat down and unanimously agreed that this is what we want to do as a career and that it will involve a huge amount of sacrifice and adjustment to our social lives, our professional lives and our finances. But if we wanted to move sleepmakeswaves from being a glorified hobby into a serious project, we had to see how far we could take the music. It really was a “are you in or out?” kind of moment. Looking back on the past 18 months I don’t regret a second of it. The sheer amount we have learnt and developed as a band and as people has been invaluable. Especially all the great friendships we continue to make along the way. It has been very hard but very rewarding work all around.
After this tour finishes up, is there anything else on the radar for sleepmakeswaves in the rest of 2013?
There’s always many blips on the sleepmakeswaves radar! The focus at the moment is delivering a great show at every venue on this Australian tour, and then it will be back into album pre-production mode and some big announcements coming up for the second half of 2013… That’s all I’m allowed to tell you for now… otherwise I’ll be severely beaten with the naughty-stick!
Thanks for your time, all the best with the tour and writing!
Always a pleasure!
--------------------------
sleepmakeswaves Australian Tour Dates:
Friday 21 June - Anu Bar, Canberra ACT
Saturday 22 June - Town Hall, Wollongong NSW
Friday 28 June - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Saturday 29 June - Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Saturday 6 July - Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 7 July - Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Thursday 11 July - Macquarie Hotel, Port Macquarie NSW
Friday 12 July - Tempo Hotel, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 13 July - The Northern, Byron Bay NSW
Thursday 18 July - Mojo's Bar, Fremantle WA
Friday 19 July - Amplifier, Perth WA
Saturday 20 July - Crown & Anchor, Adelaide SA
Sunday 21 July - Crown & Anchor, Adelaide SA
Friday 26 July - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW1. The slump
Goaltending is a position shrouded in mysticism by its very nature. The position is so specialized — and has been for years — that it recently led Ken Hitchcock, a man widely agreed to be a Smart Hockey Guy by the Nerds and the Game-Watchers alike, to say the following:
Hitch: “When I listen to the goalie coach & goalies I have no idea what they’re talking about. All I know is the puck doesn’t go in the net” — Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) November 30, 2015
This is mostly true of the Blues right now. They’re allowing 2.5 goals per game since mid-November, which isn’t bad or good, but Jake Allen has a.926 save percentage for the season so there’s not a lot about which Hitchcock can really complain.
This is wholly untrue for the Toronto Maple Leafs. James Reimer is playing out of his mind, but Jonathan Bernier is now considered far and wide to be broken in some way. Among the people who feel he is broken? Jonathan Bernier.
There’s good reason for this. He has an.888 overall save percentage so far this year, and that’s a deeply bad number for someone who has played nine games. What that number also is, though, is “exceptionally far outside his career norms.” Bernier entered the season with a career.916 save percentage in all situations, and that’s on 5,000-plus shots. We had every reason to believe, therefore, that the sample was large enough to tell a story about what Bernier is, and that story said he was a pretty good goaltender.
So what went wrong?
2. Examining past performance
The “mysticism” part of the goaltending experience necessarily lends itself to pseudo-psychological and lingo-filled explanations, which may or may not get at the heart of the issue. Among the ideas floated, as compiled by nice boy James Mirtle, about why Bernier apparently stinks now:
He’s had a heavier workload the last two seasons than at any other point in his career, and the defense in front of him was horrible, so now it’s wearing on him.
He’s coming off two injuries in a relatively short period of time (January and earlier this year).
He’s really sad about how mean Lou Lamoriello was during arbitration.
He’s “very casual about his movements. No reads at all. Very sloppy,” according to a former NHL goalie.
He’s getting actual competition from Reimer.
He’s not very big.
He’s got a new goalie coach.
Are any of these an issue? It’s tough to say. Can’t dismiss any of them, especially because so many are conveniently unprovable. But also you can’t say, “His reads used to be good but now they are bad.” I don’t know if they are! Ken Hitchcock doesn’t know if they are!
The only difference is the pucks are now going in as opposed to not-doing that before. Have a look, then, at what Bernier has done over the course of his career, and how the recent slump stacks up.
You’ll notice that his career save percentage in all situations cleaves pretty closely to his 5-on-5 save percentage. Makes sense that it would, but it’s taken a much bigger hit in the past nine games or so than ESsv%, due largely to Bernier’s inability to stop a puck at a decent rate on the PK.
3. Other slumps
What’s interesting, though, is that it’s not like this slump is unprecedented. In the last season or so, it’s happened twice. In his last 10 appearances with the Leafs, he’s.891 overall, and.900 at full strength. From Jan. 2 to Feb. 3, 2015, |
50 different news websites, from around the world. This is a huge shift. As little as 15 years ago I read one newspaper a day and perhaps a magazine or two a week.
Readers therefore can't actually afford a yearly subscription to the many dozens of mastheads we might want to read in a year.
A payment per article might be affordable. But consumers tend to hate being nickel-and-dimed and, as discussed, making everything free is the dominant strategy.
So news organisations try to charge their loyal customers and give things away to non-loyal ones. This inversion of a traditional customer loyalty program is doubtless non-optimal from a revenue perspective.
The odd and unstable situation caused by the market's flux has permitted a revolution in media dominance. Corporate-funded news websites like this one have long existed, as have other entities not asked to make a profit, like – some argue - The Australian, The Guardian, various blogs, the ABC and The Conversation. What's different now is that these sites are rising in importance.
The existence of these types of outlets is good for media diversity but their current pre-eminence is not necessarily ideal. Free market, for-profit news has always been the leader. Can it be again?
THE CALL FOR A CLEARING-HOUSE
What the news market needs is a coordinating force to overcome the marginal price problem described above.
Luckily, there is precedent. The internet has had similar effects on supply and demand for other types of goods and those other industries reactions light up a path.
The music industry has Spotify and the moving pictures industry has Netflix.
In each case users pay money to a central company which makes deals with content makers to distribute content very conveniently. Consumers pay once and can access everything.
It's a buffet model rather than a la carte. The news industry is slowly thinking about doing likewise.
There are at least three new entities who pitch or have pitched themselves as the “Spotify for News."
They are (or were):
Blendle, a Dutch Start-up; Inkl, an Australian start-up; and Flud, a US start-up which died in 2013.
Each proposes a single interface with one easy payment, through which readers could access news from everywhere
These are all good ideas. What they lack is clout.
Why would I join Inkl to get free news when I can already get free news?
The coordinating force in this market needs sway. It needs to be able to entice readers to pay for news and simultaneously entice publishers to raise/tighten their paywalls.
As it happens, there exist two giant entities that have exactly that kind of sway.
Facebook and Twitter.
Either of these could end up being the Newscorp of the next century. The first step might be taking over Inkl or Blendl.
Imagine Twitter sets up a service called Twitter Freedom. Users pay a monthly fee and the promise Twitter makes is they can click links freely without ever hitting a paywall.
No more bouncing off the paywall at the Financial Times and the Economist. Fees collected by Twitter would be shared between Twitter and the destination of those clicks.
The papers might be happy three times over – more readers, more revenue, and the ability to tighten the exemption to their existing paywalls even tighter.
The news consumer would be happy too. They don't have to worry about micro-payments. They just pay once a month. And the experience is like being at a buffet. Have as much as you want and nobody ever reaches out and slaps you on the wrist, saying you've eaten too much.
The long-run success of the enterprise would depend on being able to ratchet up the proportion of the internet news content that was behind a paywall.
Facebook and Twitter would encourage news and content providers to erect paywalls in order to potentially collect revenue via their subscription programs, which would encourage people to join the subscription programs.
This graph – with purely hypothetical numbers – illustrates the principle.18 years after entering the game, Tech can add "Platinum-selling artist" to his résumé.
Tech N9ne has released 11 albums over the past 18 years, and in the process has generated millions in sales, merch and touring revenue, but prior to this month, he could never add "Platinum-selling artist" to his lengthy résumé.
That all changed on June 20, 2017, however, when "Caribou Lou," an ode to one of the Strange Music head honcho's signature cocktails (a mixture of Bacardi 151 rum, pineapple juice and Malibu rum), was certified Platinum by the RIAA.
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Released on November 7, 2006, as a part of his fifth studio album, Everready (The Religion), the Rune Rask and Troo.L.S.-produced "Caribou Lou" is now the third certification in total for Tech, following "Hood Go Crazy" (Gold) and "Fragile" (Gold).
According to a press release, in addition to earning his first Platinum certification, Tech N9ne's music recently crossed the one billion stream threshold on Pandora Radio, an accomplishment that is incredible for any artist, let alone an independent rapper.
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit WebsiteSo recently a federal court ruling made it legal for officers to shoot dogs in homes for moving or barking. Yes, you read that right. If an officer is called to a home or enters with a warrant they are allowed to kill your dog for basically acting like a dog.
The case came after a family filed charges against the Battle Creek, Michigan police department for killing their two dogs in 2013, one almost immediately after entering the home and the other minutes later after it had retreated to the basement. Police were called to the home looking for a suspected gang member and drug activity.
Here’s a quick recap of the events of the evening:
According to the lawsuit, Officer Christof Klein testified that when he entered the house, a large, brown pit bull jumped off the couch, aggressively barked at the officers and lunged at him. Officer Klein stated that the first pit bull “had only moved a few inches” between the time when he entered the residence and when he shot her, but he considered the movement to be a “lunge.” Another officer stated that “the amount of time between the door coming open and the shot was extremely small… maybe a second or less.”
Klein stated that after he fire the shot, the dog “moved away from the officers and towards the kitchen, then down the stairs and into the basement.” A smaller, white pit bull had also gone down into the basement. As the officers were descending the stairs to clear the basement, they noted that the first pit bull was at the bottom of the stairs. Klein testified that the first pit bull obstructed the path to the basement, and that he did not feel the officers could safely clear the basement with those dogs down there.
When the officers were halfway down the stairs, the first dog, who was at the bottom of the staircase, turned towards them and started barking again. From the staircase, Officer Klein fired two fatal rounds at the first pit bull.
Klein testified that after he shot and killed the first dog, he noticed the second dog standing about halfway across the basement. The second dog was not moving towards the officers when they discovered her in the basement, but rather she was “just standing there… barking…”.
Klein fired two rounds at the second dog. After being shot by Officer Klein, the second dog ran to the back corner of the basement. Then a second officer shot her because she was “moving” out of the corner and in his direction, the lawsuit states. The wounded pit bull ran behind the furnace in the back corner of the basement. A third officer noted that “[there] was blood coming out of numerous holes in the dog, and... [he] didn’t want to see it suffer” so he shot her again, to “put her out of her misery.”
It's a brutal story to have to read, much less having participated in. Now, the take-away from this is not that every officer who comes into your home will automatically shoot your dog, but now there is a legal precedent for it if they do. One can only hope that each individual officer would be able to make a less reactive decision in the moment but they do need to be able to protect themselves and typically have a very small amount of time to do so.
This is also a divisive issue when thinking about how the citizenry is treated when they confront animals of the police force. As most people know, when the police use dogs in their day-to-day activities, primarily in the case of a manhunt, if a person is seen punching or kicking a dog to defend themselves from an actual attack they will be charged with assaulting a police officer. This is a huge double-standard. On the one side we have a civilian literally being attacked by an animal, which only knows to keep going until the owner gets there, and on the other hand we have officers allowed to shoot a civilian animal for barking from across the room.
I think what bothers most people about this particular story, however, are the events that transpired in the basement after the initial shooting. Would it have been possible to allow a member of the family to restrain the dogs before going down? Does that go against police protocol for their own safety? Should police protocol maybe be tweaked in the opposite direction from what this federal court ultimately decided on? I lean towards all three but at the end of the day, the effective current legal standing is that an officer in your home can essentially be a death sentence for your dog if they aren’t restrained and well hidden somewhere else in the home beforehand.A Florida woman was shot in the back by her 4-year-old son who was in the backseat of her pickup truck in Putnam County. The bullet went through her back and out the front of her torso, according to Jacksonville.com.
Less than a day earlier, a Facebook post, which appears to be that of the victim, talked of letting a 4-year-old boy shoot targets.
Great plan, Mom.
Jamie Gilt, 31, told a deputy after he spotted her driving erratically that her 4-year-old son accidentally shot her while he was sitting in the back seat.
The child was not harmed during the incident. Well, at least not physically.
“She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back,” Capt. Joseph Wells said.
“There was a booster seat in the back of the vehicle, but however the boy was not strapped in when the deputy got to them,” Wells said.
Jacksonville.com reports:
A public Facebook account for a woman named Jamie Gilt who lives in Jacksonville and is from Palatka features various pictures of horses and pro-gun messages. Another Facebook page is called “Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense.”
We looked at the Facebook page and it’s full of crazy. One meme reads, “The more I learn about my government, the more I love my guns!”
Here’s another meme she has posted. Spot the irony.
“Thanks. All of ours know how to shoot too. Even my 4-year-old gets jacked up to target shoot the.22,” Gilt wrote in response to a comment on Facebook.
Geezus, this woman is crazy.
Wait for it.
Under another post, she wrote:
Some do have guns. I think they all should if they can legally possess one. Luckily for some of them, sometimes there are concealed carriers around when this happens and they are able to save their lives. I can promise though, if someone breaks into my house, or tries to harm me or my family pretty much anywhere, they will be shot and most likely killed. It’s my right to protect my life. Not sit around and wait for someone to come pack up my body or take me to the hospital after I’ve been beaten and raped.
Well, she did get to the hospital after all, didn’t she?
It looks like she was shot with a clean gun at least. Whew!
https://twitter.com/jamiegilt/status/559131886807576577
Wells said the gun found in the pickup truck after Tuesday’s shooting was a.45-caliber handgun.
Gilt was taken to a hospital where she is listed in stable condition and the boy is in the custody of family members, police said.
Wells said the Department of Children and Families has been contacted but the shooting is being investigated as accidental.
“We’re satisfied that this is not a criminal shooting,” Wells said.
Welp, that lets the 4-year-old off the hook and the dumb gun owner, too.
He said no charges have been filed yet but authorities will work with the State Attorney’s Office to determine if Gilt will be charged depending on how the investigation pans out as to how the boy obtained the weapon.
Gilt is a Ted Cruz supporter. A pastor who prayed with Cruz on Saturday, was shot in the back on Sunday.
Damn. Well we hope both anti-gun sense victims feel better soon. We feel really bad for the kid. The mother, not so much. Meh. Sorry, not sorry.
Image. Facebook.During an official visit to London, Jean-Yves Le Drian suggested that France had an open-ended commitment to defend Mali from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
A French expeditionary force deployed in the country in January to recapture Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal – the three main cities in northern Mali – from AQIM and its allies.
At first, 2,500 soldiers were deployed on Operation Serval and Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister, promised on Jan 30 that they would leave "quickly".
Since then, the number of French troops in Mali has risen to almost 4,000 while the timetable for their departure has been revised. On current plans, half will leave by the end of July, when Mali holds a presidential election.
But Mr Le Drian said that a combat force would stay to prevent any "revival of terrorism". He added: "This is the reason why France will remain with roughly 1,000 troops on Malian territory for an undetermined period of time to carry out counter-terrorism operations if necessary."
Britain has deployed transport and surveillance aircraft to help the French in Mali. Mr Le Drian commended the "swiftness" of Britain's "logistical support and intelligence support", noting that it began on the second day of Operation Serval and "it hasn't stopped since".
The announcement came as Valerie Trierweiler, the French first lady, began a 48-hour tour of Mali, with a visit to Gao.
France's aim is to hand over responsibility for Mali's security to an African force of up to 11,000 men.
While Operation Serval has broken AQIM's grip on the population centres of northern Mali, the group has resorted to suicide attacks and guerrilla warfare in the central Sahara. During seven days from 2 – 9 May, France carried out a dozen air strikes in Mali with Mirage and Rafale jets.Total level: 2363 90 90 95 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 99 90 90 99 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 ---- - 350 - - -----
There are a number of quests with post-quest rewards. These rewards are not directly given on completion of the quest, but must instead be unlocked by doing something after the quest. Doing this often requires skill requirements that the quest itself did not. These are often not mentioned on the update page and are found by players.
Contents show]
Quests
Birthright of the Dwarves
Requirements:
95 Mining (boosts do work)
After Birthright of the Dwarves, players with with level 81 to 95 can mine the ancient ruins north of Keldagrim Library to obtain pieces of the Azdaran document and up to 250,000 mining experience in chunks of 20,000 to 33,000. Once all of the ruins are mined, the Azdaran document is added to a players inventory.
Rewards:
The Blood Pact
Requirements:
300 quest points
After The Blood Pact, players gain access to the lowest levels of Lumbridge Catacombs. Inside, players can find six demon statuettes on pillars around the dungeon, which may then be sold to Xenia (or Ilona after Heart of Stone). Attempting to take the statuettes causes the nearby monsters to attack players, but they are fairly weak and defeating them is not required to take it. The sole exception to this is the final statuette which is guarded by Dragith Nurn; he must be defeated in order to claim it.
Additionally, players with at least 300 quest points may speak to Xenia (or Ilona after Heart of Stone) to receive a helmet of trials.
Rewards:
Bringing Home the Bacon
Requirements:
After completion of Bringing Home the Bacon, players may upgrade the pig creation machine from the quest to gain a small portion of and experience and access to stronger pig familiars. The machine can be upgraded twice, but doing so requires certain levels in Construction, Crafting and Summoning. Boosts cannot be used.
Rewards:
1,100 experience
experience 1,100 experience
experience Access to level 84 summoning familiars
Broken Home
Requirements:
At least level 90 in every skill
After the initial completion of Broken Home, players may replay the quest to obtain a number of bonuses. These include lamps worth experience in a skill of the player's choice, a pet, and a level 85 ring. See Broken Home#Rewards for more information.
Rewards:
Buyers and Cellars - From Tiny Acorns
Requirements:
None
After completing the first caper, the quest journal will say that "Urist had a nice monocle." To steal it, talk to Urist. Choose the dialogue option, "Is that your talisman by your foot there?" He will bend down and you will automatically steal his Craftsman's monocle.
The monocle is only useful when crafting clockwork items in your POH. Wearing it while doing this allows you to craft items 2 levels earlier than normal, but this effect does not apply when crafting any other item.
Cabin Fever
Requirements:
None.
Speak to Bill Teach to receive your portion of loot: 10,000.
Rewards:
10,000
Carnillean Rising
Requirements:
After Carnillean Rising, players may speak to Claus the chef to be tasked with defeating the Cave wolf matriarch again for the players choice of herblore supplies.
Additionally, every 50 quest points obtained, players may find Philipe Carnillean somewhere in RuneScape to obtain a lamp worth experience in the skill of the player's choice; see Philipe Carnillean#Adventures of his own for more information.
After talking to Philipe Carnillean post Carnillean Rising when you have at least 200 quest points and have met him in 3 locations prior you will receive the Rover companion pet by talking to Henryeta Carnillean.
Rewards:
The Chosen Commander
Requirements:
None
After The Chosen Commander, players may receive a Goblin cower shield by talking to General Wartface and General Bentnoze in the Goblin Village. It can be exchanged for 1,000 bonus experience in Attack, Defence or Constitution.
Rewards:
Crocodile Tears
Requirements:
After Crocodile Tears, players with at least level 80 can return to the Crondis's pyramid via Portmaster Kags in Menaphos and swim through an underwater tunnel within to receive 20,000 Constitution experience, and access a secret treasure room, which contains a Crondis mask and Nekhakha.
Rewards:
Deadliest Catch
Requirements:
After Deadliest Catch, players may hunt the Thalassus again up to ten more times by speaking to Jones. Each time it is found, a large helping of experience is awarded. The difficulty increases with each run, adding in new challenges such as restricting the energy for 'The Guns' (and thus limiting how far you can move).
Difficulty Experience Mistakes Limited energy Compass orientation 1/10 2,510 5 No No changes. 2/10 2,990 Yes 3/10 3,470 4/10 3,950 3 5/10 4,430 6/10 4,910 7/10 5,380 8/10 5,860 Wind changes compass orientation. 9/10 6,340 10/10 6,820 2 Total 46,660
Rewards:
46,660 experience
Dealing with Scabaras
Requirements:
None
After completion of Dealing with Scabaras, if players speak to Simon Templeton and ask him about the job he mentioned during the quest, he will send them to speak with the Guardian Mummy from Pyramid Plunder on his behalf. After players speak to the Mummy and then return to Simon, he will offer to reward players despite their failure. He rewards players by allowing them to trade him noted treasure from Pyramid Plunder for coins from now on, with the exception of gold artefacts.
Additionally, players who completely fill the scabaras research book that was obtained during the quest may speak to Lead archaeologist Abigail to receive 10,000. See Scabarites Notes for more information.
Rewards:
10,000
Ability to trade noted artefacts to Simon Templeton for coins.
The Death of Chivalry
Requirements:
After The Death of Chivalry, a large number of extra rewards may be obtained.
Rewards:
Death Plateau
Requirements:
After Death Plateau, players may complete supply runs by speaking to Denulth. He gives players supplies, which must be delivered to the Ambush Commander in the area overlooking Death Plateau where The Map was fought. Each time a player makes a delivery, three reward lamps 180 experience each are awarded. This task can be repeated five times.
Each delivery has a combat level requirement. The first trip requires a combat level of 10, the second trip a combat level of 12, the third trip a combat level of 14, the fourth level 16 and the fifth level 18.
Rewards:
15 reward lamps, worth a total of 2,700 experience
Diamond in the Rough
Requirements:
80 Mining (boosts do work)
After Diamond in the Rough, players with at least level 80 can return to the Kalphite Nursery (north-west of the Kalphite Hive, fairy ring BIQ) and mine a fissure in the room below the quicksand to receive 20,000 Mining experience (this is affected by bonus experience) and access a secret treasure room, which contains a Scabaras mask and Was. Boosts can be used to meet the mining requirement.
Rewards:
The Dig Site
Talk to the Archaeological expert once you have either 75 Attack, Magic or Ranged, or 91 Constitution. He will hand you the Codex Ultimatus, which when read, unlocks 3 ancient threshold abilities - Blood Tendrils (75 Attack), Shadow Tendrils (75 Ranged) and Smoke Tendrils (75 Magic), and one ultimate ability – Ice Asylum (91 Constitution).
After the quest speak to Marfet or Torrcs on the first floor of Varrock Museum who tell you how to re-obtain teddy. You need to pickpocket the female student, north-west of the Dig Site.
Dishonour among Thieves
Requirements:
At least level 90 in all skills.
During and after Dishonour among Thieves, a number of chests may be opened for rewards in areas related to the quest.
After the quest, three more chests can be searched within Zamorak's hideout, each possessing a skill requirement to open.
The first chest requires at least level 50 in all skills, and awards an XP lamp (tier 1).
The second chest requires at least level 70 in all skills, and awards an XP lamp (tier 2).
The third chest requires at least level 90 in all skills, and awards an XP lamp (tier 3).
Rewards:
Do No Evil
Requirements:
After Do No Evil, players with at least level 80 can enter a cavern on the cliff to the south of the Monkey colony to receive 20,000 Agility experience and access to a secret treasure room, which contains an Apmeken mask and an ankh.
Additionally, with Ava's alerter, players may find an elite clue scroll by digging in an area where the chicken starts bwucking. This may be in one of Meiyerditch, the Iceberg, Isafdar or Lunar Isle; see the Ava's alerter page for more information.
Rewards:
Fairy Tale III - Orks Rift
Requirements:
During and after Fairy Tale III - Orks Rift, a number of additional rewards can be found around the new fairy rings unlocked by the quest.
Rewards:
Fate of the Gods
Requirements:
After Fate of the Gods, a large number of additional rewards become available.
Rewards:
The Feud
Requirements:
None
After The Feud, players may speak to Ali the Barman in Pollnivneach and tell him that Traitorous Ali's drink was poisoned during the quest to receive a free beer.
Rewards:
Glorious Memories
Requirements:
During Glorious Memories, players acquire an unfinished astral rune. After the quest, if players bring it to Baba Yaga on Lunar Isle, she will tell them a story and give them a prophecy tablet and a lamp worth 2,500 experience in any skill above level 35. The tablet may then be given to Historian Minas at Varrock Museum to receive 10 Kudos.
Rewards:
The Golem
Requirements:
None
During or after The Golem, players may extract gems from the throne in Thammaron's Throne Room to receive a collection of cut gems.
Rewards:
2 Rubies
2 Emeralds
2 Sapphires.
Gunnar's Ground
Requirements:
90 Crafting (boosts do work)
After Gunnar's Ground, a number of crafting challenges can be attempted for experience by speaking to Dororan in his house to the west of Varrock. He will ask you to engrave something on a piece of jewellery three times (he will provide the jewellery), each requiring a certain crafting level. These award a total of 32,000 crafting experience.
Rewards:
32,000 experience
Heart of Stone
Requirements:
After Heart of Stone, if players speak to Azzanadra with both Temple at Senntisten and Fate of the Gods complete and tell him what they discovered about the Elder Gods, they will receive a medium experience lamp. Returning to him after a bit of time has passed also prompts him to give you the Blank observation.
Rewards:
King of the Dwarves
Requirements:
During or after King of the Dwarves, if players return to the Barendir troll tunnels, and have at least level 90, they may actually pick up the Big rock from the quest and put it in their inventory.
Rewards:
Big rock with 'Lift' emote.
Love Story
Requirements:
None
A number of additional rewards can be obtained after completing Love Story.
Rewards:
Making History
Requirements:
None
After completion of Making History, players may use the Enchanted Key to find a number of hidden rewards all over Gielinor. See Enchanted Key#Making History for a detailed guide.
Rewards:
291,191 worth of items.
Meeting History
Requirements:
Having found all the items with the Enchanted Key after Making History
After completion of Meeting History, if players have found all the Enchanted Key items from Making History, then players may use it again to find even more hidden rewards. See Enchanted Key#Meeting History for a detailed guide.
Rewards:
66,840 worth of items.
The Mighty Fall
Requirements:
None
After The Mighty Fall, players may speak to My Arm on the Troll Stronghold to unlock the God Wars Dungeon teleport spell. Additionally, they may collect Bandos chronicles around Yu'Biusk to fill the Bandos's Memories book, see the Bandos chronicle article for more information.
Rewards:
Missing, Presumed Death
Requirements:
After Missing, Presumed Death, players may return to the Empyrean Citadel and talk to the Statue of Death to receive some additional rewards. Boosts cannot be used to meet any of the requirements.
Rewards:
Monkey Madness
By speaking to King Narnode and Daero after the quest, you can obtain a total of 110,000 experience, with the choice to focus 35,000 experience each in your chosen pair between either Strength and Constitution or Attack and Defence, and 20,000 experience each in the other pair.
Rewards:
35,000 experience, 35,000 experience, 20,000 experience, 20,000 experience OR 20,000 experience, 20,000 experience, 35,000 experience, 35,000 experience
Myths of the White Lands
Requirements:
During and after Myths of the White Lands, while exploring the caverns in the Land of Snow, some carvings may be found on the walls, which award experience in Woodcutting, Agility and Crafting if the relevant requirements are met.
Rewards:
2,000 experience in room 2 (if minimum level of 30 Crafting is fulfilled)
experience in room 2 (if minimum level of 30 Crafting is fulfilled) 10,000 experience in room 4 (if minimum level of 55 Agility is fulfilled)
experience in room 4 (if minimum level of 55 Agility is fulfilled) 20,000 experience in room 7 (if minimum level of 80 Woodcutting is fulfilled)
One of a Kind
Requirements:
During and after One of a Kind, if players rotate all four Mysterious statues instead of merely the required two, they will receive 10,000 bonus experience in a skill of choice. Additionally, after both this quest and Ritual of the Mahjarrat are completed, if players return to the Submerged statue on Entrana, they will gain a further 25,000 bonus experience.
Also you can cleanse the murals in Adamant dragon dungeon (for 10,000 experience) and Mount Firewake (for 80,000 experience) with your Dragonkin Primer. Cleaning each mural requires a fully charged Dragonfire Shield, and will discharge all 50 charges. Attacking multiple steel and iron dragons in Brimhaven Dungeon (near the Adamant dragon dungeon entrance) makes for a fast way to charge the shield.
Rewards:
10,000 experience in a skill of choice
25,000 experience in a skill of choice
90,000 experience
One Piercing Note
Requirements:
After One Piercing Note, players unlock the ability to obtain a Holy Cithara. To receive a detailed explanation of how to do this, click on the link.
Rewards:
Our Man in the North
Requirements:
After Our Man in the North, players with at least level 80 can go to the backside of the Het statue at the Duel Arena and access a secret treasure room, which contains a Het mask and Heka.
Rewards:
Plague's End
Requirements:
After Plague's End, a number of experience lamps may be obtained within Prifddinas.
Rewards:
Ritual of the Mahjarrat
Requirements:
None
After Ritual of the Mahjarrat, players may return to the Mahjarrat Ritual Site and speak to Arrav to the south of Ghorrock to put his soul to rest, awarding 3,000 Prayer experience.
Rewards:
3,000 experience
River of Blood
Requirements:
None
After River of Blood, players may talk with Vanescula Drakan on top of Castle Drakan to unlock the ability to create blood essences. Players can also speak with Veliaf Hurtz after additionally having completed In Memory of the Myreque to have appear on the top of Castle Drakan as well to unlock additional dialogue with him and the others present there.
Rewards:
Ability to create blood essences
Rune Memories
Requirements:
After Rune Memories, two additional rewards become available in the Wizards' Tower.
If players speak to Archmage Sedridor with 99 and 99, they will receive the "Archmage" title.
and 99, they will receive the "Archmage" title. If players speak to the lesser demon with at least 50 and 50, they can gain 10,000 experience in either Magic or Prayer by either giving or refusing to give him blood, respectively.
Rewards
Archmage title
10,000 experience (offer a drop of blood) OR 10,000 experience (refuse).
Shades of Mort'ton
Requirements:
None
After Shades of Mort'ton, players can take Diary of Herbi Flax to the Apothecary in Varrock who will exchange the book for 335 experience. This can only be done once.
Rewards:
335 experience (this is affected by bonus experience)
Shilo Village
Requirements:
None
After Shilo Village, a number of the items obtained during the quest may be taken and sold to Yanni Salika in Shilo Village for varying numbers of coins.
Note that with the exception of the bone key, these items are otherwise useless after the quest. If you want them back, the bone key and beads of the dead may be bought back from Yanni for a slightly inflated price.
Rewards:
2,000
Smoking Kills
Requirements:
After completion of Smoking Kills, the Pollnivneach Slayer Dungeon becomes available for exploration. In addition to Mighty banshees and Aberrant spectres, it contains four other slayer monsters, but they are guarded by a stronger boss monster that must first be defeated to gain access to them. Defeating them awards 1,000 experience each, for a total of 4,000 experience. Make sure to bring a mirror shield for the Basilisk Boss, and leaf-bladed melee weapons or broad bolts/arrows for the Mightiest turoth and Kurask overlord. Additionally, it may be wise to fight the Basilisk boss last or bring restore potions, as its special attack will still drain combat stats 1-3 levels every round of attack even with a mirror shield equipped.
Rewards:
Song from the Depths
Requirements:
After Song from the Depths, if players return to the cave from the quest, some additional rewards can be obtained inside. The rewards can be obtained by following these directions:
Once inside, swim through the acid pool (requires 50 ) and go through the only door, on your east.
) and go through the only door, on your east. In the next cave, go west
In the next cave, go south
In the next cave, go east
In the next cave, go north
Read the northern Ancient writings for 5,000 experience
experience Swim through the acid pool (requires 80 and read the second wall for the remaining 25,000 experience.
Rewards:
30,000 experience
Spirit of Summer
Requirements:
After Spirit of Summer, additional portals to the Spirit Realm may be found all over the Wilderness. Entering them with Jennica's ring for the first time awards experience in a specific skill, but only if a skill requirement is met. If it is not met the first time players enter a portal, they may come back at a later date to claim it.
Rewards:
15,000 experience
experience 15,000 experience
experience 11,250 experience
Summer's End
Requirements:
After Summer's End, even more additional portals to the Spirit Realm may be found in Wilderness. Like the Spirit of Summer portals, entering them with Jennica's ring for the first time awards experience in a specific skill, but only if a skill requirement is met. If it is not met the first time players enter a portal, they may come back at a later date to claim it.
Additionally, if players lock the prison door in the Spirit Realm version of the Rogues' Castle it will unlock the door in the real world and free the imprisoned rogue. When players talk to him, he will be freed, and advises them to meet him in Varrock. After this, he may be found in the house behind the archery shop, and will buy unenchanted jewellery for a modest price.
Rewards:
15,000 experience
experience 15,000 experience
experience 7,500 experience
experience 7,500 experience
experience 7,500 experience
experience Ability to sell unenchanted jewellery to the rogue
Swept Away
Requirements:
After Swept Away, other witches around RuneScape will give additional rewards to members who have the Broomstick in their inventory after the quest completed. One witch gives the broom an ability to teleport, and another four give out Magic experience, requiring Magic levels ranging from 33 to 93.
Rewards:
Ability to operate the broomstick to fly to the Sorceress's Garden.
34,503 experience
While Guthix Sleeps
Requirements:
After completion of While Guthix Sleeps, players may return to Movario's base underneath the Khazard Battlefield and loot it. A room containing 100 fire runes, 100 death runes, 100 coal and 100 magic logs can be accessed from a door in the final chamber of the base. Since they are not in noted form, players must either take multiple trips or use a pack yak or magic notepaper. Unlike during the quest, only the weight puzzle must be completed in order to reach it, which functions identically to how it did in the quest, see Movario's base for more detailed information.
Additionally, if players bring the strange key teeth and strange key loop to the Ancient Cavern and uses either on a Mithril dragon, they will obtain a Dragonkin key. This can then be used to open the mithril door on the north-western section of the first floor of the cavern. Inside, players will find a large orb and three dragon heads. If players use fire wave on each head, the orb will alight and the forge found next to Kuradal will fill up with lava. Players may then use it in conjunction with a blast fusion hammer to smith dragon platebodies and switch the combat style of the dragonfire shield.
Rewards:
Within the Light
Requirements:
None
After Within the Light, players may speak to Eluned in Isafdar with a charged crystal teleport seed in their inventory to give it the ability to teleport to a safe area in front of the Temple of Light, in addition to its original teleport.
Rewards:
The World Wakes
Requirements:
After completion of The World Wakes, players may return Guthix's resting place to complete a number of activities for various rewards.
Rewards:
Zogre Flesh Eaters
Requirements:
None
During Zogre Flesh Eaters, a black prism is obtained. During or after the quest, it may be sold to either Zavistic Rarve in the Wizard's Guild for 2,000 or to Yanni Salika in Shilo Village for 5,000.
Additionally, players may take a Relicym's balm (3) or (4 |
greatest merit, however, corresponds to its shortcomings. Uniting the diverse pieces of biographical information to form a coherent image of Benjamin’s intellectual persona can only go smoothly once his incompatible facets become assimilated to today’s narrative patterns. The biography’s narrative thrust is achieved through of a series of psychologizations and historicizations, which involuntarily echo today’s reading cultures and their retromanic desire to gain full accessibility to the past. Instead of posing the question of presentation as its main challenge, this biography begins ready to tell a chronological story by establishing a causal nexus among various moments of his life.
Ironically, the historicist method of telling a “sequence of events like the beads of a rosary” is applied to Benjamin himself, the fierce critic of historicism. In fairness to the authors, refraining from avant-garde techniques like montage might have been the preferable mode of presentation simply because it avoids mimicry of Benjamin’s own literary technique (at least as deployed in the Arcades Project). But what this choice leaves unanswered is how it is that bits of his biographical data can be arranged in a way that appears factually coherent, when “everything factual is already theory,” as Benjamin quoted Goethe. The authors write as if they have found the “neutral” ground within a force field charged with tensions, the point of indifference from where Benjamin’s life and thought can be told.
Despite its merits, this biography’s mode of presentation suffers the fate of every historicist enterprise: it does too much and too little. Too much because there are simply not enough details, facts, letters, and eye-witness accounts to fill in the gaps of information. Given Benjamin’s fragmented oeuvre, his scattered production, the disappearance or total loss of much of his personal property and intellectual production (not to mention the still-unsolved mystery of his lost heavy briefcase on his final journey), even the most meticulous reconstruction has to rely on speculations, insinuations and the construction of fictitious causalities. Too little because the construction of the image of Benjamin’s life first requires the destruction of the clichés and commonplace views which his friends circulated after his death.
Paradoxically, it is precisely the authors’ painstaking effort to balance the presented views of Benjamin’s contemporaries with other accounts and to create an unbiased image that turns into its opposite. Who is the Benjamin that we see through the panoramic widescreen optics of a historicist chronology? A man who remains at all times the man who dies his tragic death in Port Bou in September 1940. In this teleological view, even Benjamin’s various meditations on suicide – the modernist trope – become anticipations of his own final death, part of a suicidal inclination of his entire personality. This kind of biographical plausibilization sidesteps the unbearable arbitrariness of his death – his last journey could have literally taken a different course.
A historicist view of the past, as Benjamin’s “Theses On the Concept of History” relentlessly remind us, is tantamount to taking the victor’s perspective – the perspective of those who have victoriously survived and shaped history. In other words, the “neutral” backdrop of an seemingly unbiased historicist view is biased itself, and it conceals its inscription and investment in its object. In a book review, Benjamin wrote: “What is at stake is not to present literary works in the context of their age, but to present the age that recognizes them – our age – in the age during which they arose.” De-mythologizing Benjamin’s life can only succeed if we perceive the time of his life as such a literary work, a text in which the gaze of our age is inscribed. The inevitable question is: what does Benjamin’s life tell us about our age? Rather than historicizing Benjamin’s life only in the context of its age, the task is to organize the presented material by a prismatic optics, which recognizes itself as intended in the biographical image and, while constructing it, reflects its own time in it. Yet how to construct such a prism, providing a different narrative perspective, neither historicist nor mythologizing, is yet to be revealed.
After hundreds pages of this biography, the reader is left with an image of Benjamin she probably knew before: the Janus-faced Benjamin who led a personal life marked by close yet contradictory friendships, an ill-fated marriage, and unlucky love relationships. His love life has been subject to speculation in the past and the authors reproduce the image of Benjamin’s contemporaries according to which he was for the most part the losing third of a love triangle
be it with Jula Radt-Cohn, Asja Lacis, Gretel Karplus, Inge Buchholz, or Anna Maria Blaupot ten Cate and their respective partners
. The meticulous reconstruction of these love triangles is among the book’s most original sections and succeeds in making legible a certain psychological pattern of Benjamin’s personality. But the reconstruction of his erotic adventures is flawed by anachronistic conclusions which reflect the morals of our time rather than shed light on the nature of his inclination to put himself – deliberately or not – into libidinously charged force fields beyond the classic heterosexual couple. The narrative style of the book symptomatically misses the precarious constellations of past anti-bourgeois life forms, which exceed in their outmodedness today’s horizon of standardized couple relationships and their exceptional “rendezvous.” As a result, Benjamin’s inclination for love triangles is depicted as an external cause for his precarious and ill-fated sexual relations, as if the fragility and imbalance of these relations were not their internal obstacle and, at the same time, exactly their source of pleasure.
If biographies can be gates to the lives of different times, their beauty and relevance consist in interweaving the threads of life and work in a way that both can illuminate each other without ever becoming identical. The presentation of this non-identical unity, however, is equally threatened by historicist biographicizing (externalization) and atemporal dehistoricizing (internalization). How can we construct an internal web of cross-references within a work and link it to biographical circumstances in a non-deterministic manner, without sealing a work off from its historical and political context? This question is most crucial in the case of Benjamin’s political thought. There is a long tradition in Benjamin scholarship of separating his philosophical thinking from his political positions, the latter of which are mostly presented as mere rhetoric without reaching the kernel of his thought. To this extent, Jennings’ and Eiland’s biography represent the most refined example of this mainstream view – despite all their precious discoveries and precise reconstruction of his peculiar kind of Marxism.
Introducing Benjamin’s famous essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” and lucidly presenting its key arguments, the authors inform the reader that “the insistent political rhetoric of the opening and closing sections of the essay, which seek to discriminate fascism’s aestheticization of politics from Communism’s politicization of art, needs to be seen in the larger historical context of a Europe on the verge of war.” The contrast between an under-complex historicization (“the larger historical context”) and a sound presentation of Benjamin’s very complex argument on technology, perception and art is striking. This is even more surprising since the authors continue to carefully reconstruct Benjamin’s failed attempts to defend the politically explicit (that is: communist, Marxist, and anti-fascist) agenda of his essay against the internal censorship of the editors of Max Horkheimer’s Journal for Social Research. The treatment of the Work of Art essay is symptomatic of the entire book: even in its finest sections (and the presentation of this essay is one its most compelling parts), the book remains blind to the inherently political nature of Benjamin’s thought.
The unity of Benjamin’s philosophical and political thought can be traced back to his pre-Marxist writings, particularly in his 1921 essay on the “Critique of Violence”. In this essay he invokes the term “divine violence” – a term that designates both a paradoxically non-violent (or non-alloyed, “pure”) violence and a tautologically violent (“waltende”) violence. Divine violence remains inaccessible to human attempts to define it in advance or monopolize it; however, under certain circumstances, it might be embodied by human agency. Despite all instructive philological information, in its short introduction to this essay the biography fails to grasp the non-identical correspondence of Benjamin’s theological and political thinking. Missing his strategic deployment of the term, the authors suggest that, “Benjamin was not yet in a position fully to reconcile his political and his theological ideas.”
But in fact Benjamin never reconciled his political and theological ideas. Instead, he drew on the irreconcilable discrepancy of politics and theology to seal off his political concepts from both political theology and the conformist language of political professionals. In the same spirit, in “Critique of Violence” he invokes divine violence as problematic, yet inaccessible limit-concept to put forward his revolutionary anarchist politics of “pure means,” the unconditional purpose of which (why he calls it pure means, in contrast to means conditioned by a means-end-calculus) is the “depositing” (Entsetzung) of the law and the destruction of state power without establishing a new one. The displaced language of theology here neither refers to an apocalyptic intrusion of some divine power nor functions as a theological legitimization of profane politics. It introduces a non-instrumental language, which proves to be useless for the dialectics of “mythic violence,” that is, the self-deconstructing, yet irresolvable contradiction between the violent preservation of an existing law and the violent establishment of a new law. Against this flawed dialectics, Benjamin calls for “revolutionary violence, the highest manifestation of pure violence by man.”
With Benjamin we enter an elliptically shaped intellectual cosmos that puts itself into force fields of irreconcilable extremes, not to rest there but to make these force fields productive without balancing or annulling their dialectical tensions. Benjamin thinks theologically and politically at the same time without conflating these two realms. He never sought a reconciliation of their tense relation but maintained their asymmetric polarity, which also organized the structure of his last reflections in “On the Concept of History”. The precarious existence of his critical life was not merely the result of external historical crises (capitalism, fascism, Stalinism) and internal psychological dispositions but also of his paradoxical, yet deliberate strategy of radicalizing these tensions up to their point of turning or reversal. The motto of his life and work can be summed up as “always radical, never consistent.” The same goes for his incompatible circles of friends (among them Ernst Bloch, Hannah Arendt, Gershom Scholem, Theodor W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Asja Lacis, Florens Christian Rang, Siegfried Kracauer, Franz Hessel, and Alfred Sohn-Rethel). Assuming that Benjamin ever strove for some middle way between these extremes is to turn his intellectual biography into the story of a failed synthesis.
In the no-man’s-land of extreme tensions, there is no solid ground, no already established position on which one could rely. The task of finding the right balance, the “neutral” zone of indifference in the midst of these unstable force fields appears to be a hopeless endeavor. His critical life poses a challenge to any form of biographicizing narration. But equally, Benjamin’s own theoretical writing entails some hints of how the modern chronicler must proceed. First, you must rid yourself of the historicist empathy with your object of inquiry. You have to question your established patterns of historical understanding by aiming at a new narrative style that seeks to distance itself from its object without taking the God’s-eye perspective of historicism.
If Benjamin’s life is not the story of a man who dies at the age of 48, we have to question the temporal form of causal chains and to resist assimilating Benjamin’s non-contemporaneousness with our time. In search of Benjamin’s lost time we need to find a de-naturalizing principle to organize the massive data with which today’s scholarship provides us. These highly condensed concepts are needed to parse the wealth of biographical information beyond journalistic plausibility. As Benjamin wrote in the Arcades Project: “All historical knowledge can be represented in the image of balanced scales, one tray of which is weighted with what has been and the other with knowledge of what is present. Whereas on the first the facts assembled can never be too humble or too numerous, on the second there can be only a few heavy, massive weights.”Build a bridge
Showing support is something everyone can do. That will not be enough to heal these wounds and make our streets safer. Doug Baldwin is working with members of the Seahawks and city officials to create a task force called Build a Bridge. Their goal is to go beyond symbolic gestures and find tangible action that can be taken. Baldwin offered this as the mission for the task force:
Build a Bridge Task Force Mission
To gain as much knowledge from both sides as possible. Find the right questions to ask and to build a bridge to heal our communities and regain the trust of those tasked with protecting the communities.
This process is just beginning. As tangible opportunities for citizen action surface, this page will be updated with how you can help.
"Why wouldn’t you (speak out)? You’re a human being. You watch that video of that man who has his hands raised up, and he’s walking back to his car. Now I don’t know all the context, but know that man has a family, and I can’t help but put myself in that situation. The man had his hands up. My father’s a police officer, and he’s told me numerous times about his training and how they’ve gone through what they call verbal judo, which is essentially them trying to deescalate the situation. From what I understand and from what he’s told me and his experience in homeland security is that that method of training is not consistent throughout the entirety of the United States, and that’s an issue… As a human being, I can’t help but sit up here and tell you how I feel and let you know that it’s not OK." - Doug BaldwinPacific Crest Trail Snow Conditions - Feb 25, 2019
Below you will find detailed and current snow conditions for the entire Pacific Crest Trail. Types of information include current/average snow amount for date, current snow coverage, minimum/average/maximum amount for April 1st and an elevation profile so you can contrast snow conditions with elevation. Snow condtions are presented in graph and tabular format.
Snow pack vs trail snow. Snow pack aggregates values from relative few physical sensors/hand measurements located over an entire mountain range, then displays that daily aggregate over time. This is not ideal for hikers as hikers are concerned with a very specific area (the trail). Trail snow takes a single modeled value at thousands of specific locations along the trail on the current date. This is ideal for hikers as they can see snow conditions on or near the trail uninfluenced by conditions miles away at wildly different elevations. This stark example shows snow pack vs trail snow at the most critical time of the year.
2/25/2019 - Kennedy Mdw to Echo Lake - 394.7 miles - Well above average, %169
Covered by snow: 100.0%, No snow: 0.0%, Above average: 96.6%, Below average: 0.3%, About average: 3.2%,
(Average coverage for June 1st is 41%, June 16th is 22%)
Section detail: Kennedy Meadows to Echo Lake.
2/25/2019 - JMT, Crabtree to Tuolumne - 181.8 miles - Well above average, %173
Covered by snow: 100.0%, No snow: 0.0%, Above average: 96.7%, Below average: 0.0%, About average: 3.3%,
Here are some temporal graphs using modeled snow data, NOT snow pack. PCT SWE from Kennedy Meadow to Echo Lake, JMT SWE from Crabtree Mdw to Tuolumne Mdw, PCT Coverage from Kennedy Meadow to Echo Lake, JMT Coverage from Crabtree Meadow to Tuolumne Meadow
Entering the sierra early may or may not be a good idea. It depends on you and your skills. Here are things to consider before entering the sierra early.
Data originates from SNODAS modeled data and NOHRSC/NSIDC.
NEW! Check out the shiny, new Interactive Snow Graph
Click image for larger version or this Large Full Detail Image - Chart updates every 3 or 4 days from Nov 1 to Jul 28.
Sierra Entry Indicator - The SEI is to help you determine what snow conditons are like north of Kennedy Meadow. This looks at hundreds of locations between Kennedy Meadow and Reds Meadow (210 miles) and gets the percent of average snow conditions. The SEI updates from Nov 1 to Apr 1. Last Update: Feb 25, 2019. Trail snow, not snow pack, is %134 of average. (for entertainment purposes only)
April 1st historical links: 2004 :: 2005 :: 2006 :: 2007 :: 2008 :: 2009 :: 2010 :: 2011 :: 2012 :: 2013 :: 2014 :: 2015 :: 2016 :: 2017 :: 2018
Google Trail Map with Snow Overlays: Snow Water Equivalent :: Snow Depth :: Snow Coverage :: 24 Hour Snow Precip :: 24 Hour Non-Snow Precip :: 24 Hour Snow Melt :: 24 Hour Avg Snow Pack Temp :: Snow Density :: 24 Hour SWE Change :: 24 Hour Snow Surface Sublimation :: 24 Hour Blowing Snow Surface Sublimation
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Geek for hire. Like this web site? My developer/Linux admin skills are available for projects, gigs, part-time, full-time. Resume available on request from pubres@postholer.comMANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May’s bid to reassert her dwindling authority was marred on Wednesday by a calamitous keynote speech interrupted by repeated coughing fits, a prankster and even letters of her slogan falling off the stage.
May had wanted to use the Conservative Party’s annual conference to bring her divided party together and pitch herself as the only person able to deliver Brexit and keep opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn out of power.
She started by apologising for her botched bet on a snap June election which stripped her party of its majority in parliament, then pitched a revitalised “British Dream” for which she proposed fixing broken markets and uniting the country.
But her flow was interrupted by British comedian Simon Brodkin, who handed her a P45 letter, a document given to employees when they leave their job. The document had been “signed” by the comedian using the name of her ambitious Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Then May began a coughing fit and was repeatedly forced to take drinks of water, even coughing into her glass, and was proffered a lozenge from her finance minister, Philip Hammond.
While she was speaking, several letters fell off the slogans behind her on the stage. Some Twitter users seized on images of the missing letters to poke fun at the Conservatives: one said their glue was even failing to hold the party together.
The 61-year-old May won standing ovations for pressing on with the hour-long address, in which she took a more personal tone - saying she did not mind being called the “Ice Maiden” and describing her “great sadness” at not having children.
Her speech sought to offer party activists a renewal of Conservative values while making new promises to a younger generation and those “just about managing”.
“This is a Conservatism I believe in, a Conservatism of fairness and justice and opportunity for all, a Conservatism that keeps the British dream alive for a new generation,” she told the cheering crowd.
“That’s what I’m in this for,” she said, in a phrase she repeated at least eight times. “That’s what we must all be in this for.”
May, who was warmly embraced by her husband on stage after she had finished speaking, later poked fun at her coughing fit by tweeting an image of cough lozenges and medicine laid beside a paper copy of the address and her prime ministerial briefcase.
Brexit minister David Davis told Reuters it had been “a very good speech, it hit all the issues people care about”. Other cabinet ministers also applauded May.
Many in the audience said her coughing fit and the sudden appearance by the comedian had helped to win them over.
“Actually, if all that stuff hadn’t happened, it would have just been another kind of wooden presentation,” said Pippa Smith, a 26-year-old party member from London. “It was a good speech, but I think actually it did her a favour.”
Opponents were less kind.
Nigel Farage, the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, said May was so useless that if she remained as leader then Labour’s Corbyn would soon be in power.
Labour lawmaker Seema Malhotra said: “It just couldn’t get worse than this. What a disaster. It’s a shambles, not a government.”
But there are few obvious successors yet visible besides Johnson, who is unpopular with some Conservative lawmakers. Some activists fear that a divisive leadership contest would pave the way for an election that Corbyn’s Labour could win.
A member of the audience hands a P45 form (termination of employment tax form) to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May as she addresses the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble
MAY DIMINISHED
The conference in the northern English city of Manchester was a sombre affair, light on policy and heavy on self-doubt. Despite coming second in the June election, the opposition Labour Party’s annual meeting a week earlier was celebratory.
After Labour’s assault on some elements of capitalism, the backbone of Conservative policy, May sought to make the case for free markets and fiscal prudence.
“The free market - and the values of freedom, equality, rights, responsibilities, and the rule of law that lie at its heart - remains the greatest agent of collective human progress ever created,” she told members.
“Because there has rarely been a time when the choice of futures for Britain is so stark. The difference between the parties is so clear.”
She tried to compete with Labour on its pledges to voters, offering 2 billion pounds to build cheaper houses, proposing a cap on what she called “rip-off” energy prices and to ease the burden of student debt.
Labour leader Corbyn said May had simply taken a few Labour policies and watered them down.
Business leaders reacted warily to May’s plan for more government intervention in power and housing markets, and said big unanswered questions about Brexit would drag on the economy.
But most party members said that, rather than policy, they wanted to see a return of May’s confidence, crushed in the June election, when she earned the nickname “Maybot” for repeating catchphrases.
“We did not get the victory we wanted because our national campaign fell short,” she told members. “I hold my hands up for that. I take responsibility. I led the campaign. And I am sorry.”
Slideshow (7 Images)
But she also told her party to unite, as divisions over Brexit have come to the fore with a challenge by her foreign minister, Boris Johnson.
The run-up to May’s speech was again overshadowed by Johnson, who once more dominated the airwaves after stunning some party members at the conference by saying Libya could become a new Dubai if it could “clear the dead bodies away”.
“Let us shape up and give the country the government it needs,” May said.
“For, beyond this hall, beyond the gossip pages of the newspapers, and beyond the streets, corridors and meeting rooms of Westminster, life continues – the daily lives of ordinary working people go on. And they must be our focus today.”A- A+
By Ellie Krieger Special to The Washington Post
Not too long ago, hummus seemed exotic to many Americans. Now, it is practically an everyday food. In light of that, it seems baba ghanoush is ready for its close-up.
This dip/spread offers much the same appeal as hummus: It is rich and creamy, with sumptuously earthy Middle Eastern flavors, and it is made with healthful, plant-based ingredients. But because it is less common (for now!) it brings an element of surprise to the table, whether served as part of a mezze spread, in a pita sandwich or as a dip with vegetables and chips.
I get as much of a kick out of making as I do eating it because it involves cooking whole, uncut eggplant over an open flame, a technique that somehow seems radical but is incredibly easy. You just place the eggplant directly on the grates of a gas stovetop, on a grill or under a broiler with either an electric or gas heating element. The idea is to sear the eggplant until its skin is charred and blistered all around, which ultimately imbues the dip with a mouthwatering smokiness.
Once the eggplant is charred, you roast it until it is collapsed and soft inside, then let it cool and scoop out the meat. Although you discard the skin, the smoky flavor from the charring permeates throughout, and, as you scoop, some flecks of char make their way into the mix to delicious effect.
After a brief whir in the food processor, the eggplant is mixed with a mash of garlic and salt (turned into a paste, so the garlic flavor is evenly distributed throughout the dip), tahini, lemon juice and parsley. It makes a dip so delicious, I know you will agree it’s time hummus shared the spotlight.
— Ellie Krieger writes a healthful-eating column for Local Living and a weekly Nourish recipe for Food. She is a registered dietitian, nutritionist and author and hosts public television’s “Ellie’s Real Good Food.” Her most recent cookbook is “You Have It Made: Delicious, Healthy, Do-Ahead Meals.”
15811509Theatre transcript (spoilers)
DAY ONE BACHELOR: So, it's all about trickery to you? Wherever have you come from? CHANGELING: No, no... I detest trickery. But if we ourselves are to suffer deception, our hands are no longer tied. Where ARE we? HARUSPEX: Well, a muscular contraction is there. Means we're already inside of him. THIS must be one of the ventricles, right here. CHANGELING: What a silly place... it's stuffed! So it's not real for now? I don't think it has started, yet. BACHELOR: Does it matter what it's made of? It's definitely struggling. We need to perform sectio transversalis*. Cut the wall. There's no other way out. What else is there to do? CHANGELING: I KNOW what to do. Those who favor hard logic and direct action are bound to be misguided. Only a miracle can set us free without us having to destroy something. And I can DO miracles. Just let me. BACHELOR: Will you please be quiet? You're a liar and a thief. Who is going to believe you when you keep lying to yourself? The truth is my shepherd. Whatever happens, I WILL find answers, and justice will be restored. I will perform the operation. Medicum morbo adhibere**. HARUSPEX: Don't you go all bossy on me clever cloaks... You will act justly, but your justice will blind you and become his demise. This calls for the gentle hand of a surgeon. Step aside, both of you. CHANGELING: Your gentle hands are used to killing, not giving life. You will inevitably do harm. As for brainy, he has no regard for casualties at all. Neither of you knows compassion. BACHELOR: Yes, it seems unlikely that we'll get along well, but there's only one truth. HARUSPEX: Any choice is right as long as it's willed. That's the truth of the matter. CHANGELING: Only the heart will show you the right choice. Stop thinking about yourselves, think of the sick. He's in pain. I can't see it yet, but I can feel it. BACHELOR: It's not even a trap... it's a grave. Sub ipsum fumus sumus***. Can't say I hold a soft spot for it. HARUSPEX: I can see that. You're full of hate. Stuffed or not, it's breathing. I can heal it. It can be healed, rather than killed. CHANGELING: You mean you won't become a killer? But you will! Mark my word, that's exactly what will happen. But I can avoid it. BACHELOR: No... we won't ever get along. I suggest we be on our way. The sooner the better. CHANGELING: Off we go then? HARUSPEX: Let's go. The clock is ticking... * Transverse section: A cross section obtained by slicing, actually or through imaging techniques, the body or any part of the body structure, in a horizontal plane, a plane that intersects the longitudinal axis at a right angle. ** Disease is handled by medicine. *** We cloud our own judgment.Pro-independence supporters take part in a rally in Edinburgh, Scotland September 22, 2012. REUTERS/David Moir
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s government has opened a new front in its campaign to convince Scottish voters to reject independence, using irony and Lego toys to try to get its message across, but not all Scots are amused.
In postings on social media site Buzzfeed and an official website, the government listed 12 things Scots could buy with the extra 1,400 pounds ($2,300) a year it said they would have if they voted to stay part of the United Kingdom.
The first suggestion was a beach holiday outside Scotland.
Each option is illustrated with the Danish children’s toy Lego, ranging from a Lego woman sunning herself on a beach to a hair salon made out of Lego blocks.
The latter advised Scots that with 1,400 pounds they could “Go for one haircut a month for over 3 and half years... you can go for significantly more if you’re a man!”
Not all Scottish voters saw humour in the proposals. “How bloody dare they treat us all like imbeciles? How anyone can vote ‘no’ (to independence) is completely beyond me,” said Twitter user Elizabeth Stanley.
Other suggestions on the government website included travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow 127 times by bus, taking two friends to watch Aberdeen’s football team play all season - complete with meat pies and beef tea - and paying for a year’s worth of household utility bills.
Scots vote on Sept. 18 on whether to end their 307-year union with the United Kingdom. Scottish nationalists say independence could benefit each Scot to the tune of 1,000 pounds a year.
* For the full list of what Britain's government suggests Scots could do with 1,400 pounds, see: hereLarry King | Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Larry King on going digital, and CNN's strategy
This interview originally appeared in our Media Pro daily newsletter.
CAPITAL: What did you think of this year’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner? Were you able to see some of the clips?
Story Continued Below
KING: I sure did, I saw quite a bit of them. I think the writing was very good. Usually they hire outside comedy writers [for the President’s speech], and whoever did him was brilliant.
CAPITAL: How are you liking the Ora.tv programs? You have “Politicking,” which covers politics, and “Larry King Now,” which seems a little broader.
KING: I am enjoying it a lot for a couple of reasons, one: there are no suits involved, it is very much my own gig. Carlos Slim is my partner but he doesn't interfere. We have a great staff, we have good executive producers, but there is nowhere near the tension or pressure that sometimes builds up at an all-news network, where everything is last minute and has to happen now, and often things are wrong.
I was at CNN 26 years, it is a long time, and now I do a half hour four days a week. It is very relaxed, a very informal setting. I am still doing the same thing, the who, what, where and why. The one thing I do miss is an immediate, big breaking story. With regard to the Hulu situation with “Larry King Now,” we really can’t go live, so if a big story breaks I can do stuff on it two days later. I miss being live, which I did all my life, and I miss the big story, though I will tell you, I am glad I am not at CNN now with this missing plane. Because that has been turned into the most absurd news story. It was a great news story and then it went absurd.
CAPITAL: It obviously boosted their ratings.
KING: Well, it boosted it for a while, but then it evens out. The problem is that, as they now face, with anybody covering a news story, if they call a news conference in Kuala Lampur, they have to cover it, because they are committed to it. But now it is absurd, you know? ‘Breaking Supposition.’
The funny thing about it is that in all this time, which I guess is approaching six weeks, the only thing we know is that it made a left turn. We don’t know anything else, so I have learned nothing, and all that coverage has led to nothing. So while it gave them better ratings, they weren’t doing what I consider great news work, which is letting the audience determine what is news. In that same period of time they had landslides in Washington, they had the ferry boat in South Korea, they had Ukraine, they had the G.M. recall with 13 people killed, and they are leading with the missing plane.
CAPITAL: I was at their upfront presentation a couple of weeks ago, and there was a big push for shows like Anthony Bourdain and Mike Rowe, shows like what you would see on Discovery or Travel Channel. The idea is, when there isn't breaking news, you put these on and they do well, but it seems like there has just been a lot of breaking news.
KING: I love CNN, they are nice people, Time Warner was a wonderful company to work for, they treated me very well, and I did a lot for them. But I think they are in a quandary. They have Fox News, which is basically the Republican Party, they have MSNBC news which is part of the left, and they are in the middle, and the middle doesn’t look all the time in today’s news picture. I am not a programmer, but when you run a special one night and then another special another night and then Wednesday night might be breaking news and then Thursday night I don't know who the host is. People are creatures of habit, you want appointment viewing. You made an appointment to watch “Larry King Live.”
CAPITAL: Jeff Zucker, at CNN’s upfront, said that the prime-time talk show format is dead [Ed. note: Zucker’s exact quote was "We believe that genre is no longer viable.”]. I am assuming you disagree with that?
KING: Well, he also said that Jay Leno would work at 10 o’clock. Nothing is dead. I like Jeff a lot personally, but the biggest mistake you can make in media is to say anything is dead. 10 years ago they said reality is dead, sit-coms are dead, murder mysteries are dead, two-hour shows are dead, you need to do half-hours, now half-hours are dead. If you have a good show, it will work. Any good products will work. Nothing is dead, everything is new.
CAPITAL: Do you find it more challenging to book guests [on ora.tv]?
KING: We have built a pretty good reputation over all these years. Joe Biden is an old friend, and he keeps telling me, ‘oh, I will do this very soon,’ whereas when we were in Washington at CNN we got him rather easily. All the big Hollywood and media figures, we get them. Denzel Washington, everyone. We get public figures, authors; we get Senators, Congresswomen, Congressmen. I think the only thing we haven’t walked into yet is the White House.
CAPITAL: That would be a great get though.
KING: Well, we had four million eyeballs in March, I am very proud of it. It is a whole new world, the Internet is such a diverse thing, and there is so much on it. The good part is that there is so much information, the bad part is there is a lot of wrong information, and everyone is a journalist.
CAPITAL: So I guess you would say things are going well.
KING: Life begins at 80, I still have my stamina, I still keep my interests and I still love my work. I am in New York this week, interviewing a lot of the Broadway show people, Neil Patrick Harris, Denzel Washington, TONY Nominees. I am also interviewing Jon Huntsman for the “Politicking” show, I am going on the “Today” show, I am going on Seth Meyers’ show, I’m going on Howard Stern. The fact is you can still be around, you can still contribute and you can still be relevant. I love being in the hunt, in the mix. 57 years ago I was asking questions, and today I am asking questions, it is just the method of delivery that is different.Assange is forcing us to rethink our assumptions about how much protection the ordinary person needs from the truth. He is arguing that the democratic project was founded on the principles of transparency and trust but has been overtaken by a culture of secrecy and spin. Assange has formed the view that the powerful institutions that guide our destiny will not change unless they are forced to change. He is playing what he calls ''the forced move'' in chess, when there is no other move left to make. Assange is committed to closing the gap between what our leaders say and what they mean by holding up a mirror and saying, ''this is what you look like in private''. Let me make it clear where my sympathies and prejudices lie. I voted to commit Australian troops to Afghanistan. I supported the ''Bush doctrine'' of pre-emptive defence. I was disappointed Condoleezza Rice did not run for the Republican nomination to be president and I think Dick Cheney is a great man. But I support Julian Assange, I am ashamed of the treatment he has received from our government and I don't want the Australian right to abandon him the way the ALP and the American |
- it's personality and temperament," and added, "I once directed Clara Bow. She was mad and crazy but what a personality!"[15]
Innovations [ edit ]
Wings led to several firsts in filmmaking including newly invented camera mounts that could be secured to plane fuselages and motor-driven cameras to shoot actors while flying as the cameramen ducked out of frame in their cockpits. Star Richard Arlen had some flying experience but co-star Buddy Rogers had to learn to fly for the film, as stunt pilots could not be used during close-up shots. Towers up to a hundred feet tall were used to shoot low-flying planes and battle action on the ground.[14]
During the filming of Beggars of Life, a silent film starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks, sound was added to Beery's introductory scene at the behest of Paramount Studio. Wellman reportedly hung a microphone from a broom so Beery could walk and talk within the scene, avoiding the static shot required for early sound shoots.[14]
Awards [ edit ]
Wellman won a single Academy Award, for the story of A Star Is Born. He was nominated as best director three times, for A Star Is Born, Battleground and The High and Mighty, for which he was also nominated by the Directors Guild of America as best director. In 1973, the DGA honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Wellman also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6125 Hollywood Blvd.[16]
Legacy [ edit ]
Several filmmakers have examined Wellman's career. Richard Schickel devoted an episode of his PBS series The Men Who Made the Movies to Wellman in 1973,[17] and in 1996, Todd Robinson made the feature-length documentary Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick.[18]
Wings and The Story of G.I. Joe are preserved in the Academy Film Archive.[19]
Family [ edit ]
Wellman revealed near the end of his life that he had married a French woman named Renee during his time in The Lafayette Flying Corps. She was killed in a bombing raid during the war.[14] He was married four times in the U.S.:
Helene Chadwick: married (1918–1923) separated after a month; later divorced
Margery Chapin (daughter of Frederic Chapin): married (1925–1926); together for a short time; adopted Robert Emmett Tansey's daughter, Gloria.
Marjorie Crawford: married (1930–1933) divorced
Dorothy "Dottie" Coonan: married (March 20, 1934–1975); until his death; they had seven children - four daughters, three sons.[20]
Dorothy starred in Wellman's 1933 film Wild Boys of The Road and had seven children with Wellman,[1] including actors Michael Wellman, William Wellman Jr., Maggie Wellman, and Cissy Wellman. His daughter Kathleen "Kitty" Wellman married actor James Franciscus, although they later divorced. His first daughter is Patty Wellman, and he had a third son, Tim Wellman.
William Wellman, Jr. wrote two books about his father, The Man And His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture (2006), and Wild Bill Wellman - Hollywood Rebel (2015). Wellman Jr. has been a guest-host on Turner Classic Movies to introduce films made by his father.
William Wellman died in 1975 of leukemia. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea.[21] His widow, Dorothy Wellman, died on September 16, 2009, in Brentwood, California, at the age of 95.[1]
Selected filmography [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes
BibliographyNo clean getaway: Suspect arrested as he bathes Suspected intruder arrested as he bathes at home he's accused of breaking into
TYLER — A 25-year-old man suspected of breaking into an East Texas house is jailed after police found him taking a bath in the house.
The incident happened about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday northwest of Tyler.
Police Sgt. Matthew Smyser said a resident called to report that a man had kicked in the front door of the house. While en route, officers were told the resident had left the house but the intruder remained inside.
Officers entered the house to find a man had stripped and was taking a bath. After a brief struggle, the man was arrested and booked into the Smith County Jail.
Larry Ticey is jailed on a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge punishable upon conviction by up to one year in jail.The Cleveland Cavaliers may have inched ahead of the Houston Rockets as a facilitator in a potential trade that would send Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers, sources said Wednesday.
One source familiar with the talks, though, cautioned not to make too much of that shift just yet.
The Cavaliers would land Lakers center Andrew Bynum for a package of draft picks and veteran power forward Anderson Varejao, according to one league source. The Lakers would receive Howard for Bynum. Orlando would get Varejao and draft picks. The source said this was merely the framework of a deal being discussed.
Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant was in Las Vegas watching summer-league action but made an unplanned return to Cleveland, sources say, and is not expected to return. In the frenzy of anticipating if, when and where Howard might be dealt, such otherwise innocuous events have been enough to inspire massive speculation that a deal is near.
The Lakers have engaged both the Rockets and Cavaliers in their attempt to land Howard, sources say, because those two teams have both interest in acquiring Bynum, and have the requisite salary-cap room to accept larger player salaries than they send out in a deal.I’ve been thinking about his dish for a very long time and finally got the chance to make it. Worth the wait. The bacon is made from chicken skin that I slowly crisped up in the oven with a sprinkle of paprika and pepper. Once it was crisped through, I brushed it with sorghum and sprinkled it with a smoked sea salt to really give it that smoky bacon flavor. Sorghum isn’t as sweet as honey and has a distinct deep flavor that is difficult to explain. The best I can do is that it’s not like molasses. That sucked, sorry. It adds just the perfect amount of sweetness to the chicken skin and helps the salt really stick to it. The inspiration for the “bacon” came from an episode of Mind of a Chef with Sean Brock and Erik Anderson (They made hot chicken). Chef Anderson also made a wonder bread cream of sorts which is also on my list of things I must try.
The oatmeal is cooked slowly with a bit of milk, sage and garlic. Later, a sharp white cheddar is mixed in. I season it heavily with salt and pepper to really hit you with the “savory oatmeal” over the head. I finish the whole dish with a drizzle of olive oil and a white balsamic vinegar to brighten the dish. I think it’s perfect. I had left over oatmeal so there may be some fried (savory) oatmeal cakes on the blog soon. Right!??! Maybe genius. Maybe even a bottom layer to an eggs benny? Who knows. the possibilities are just endless.
“BACON” ‘N’ EGGS OATMEAL
4 SERVINGS
4 large pieces chicken skin
paprika
fresh black pepper
sorghum
smoked sea salt
3 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup milk
3 sage leaves
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and fresh black pepper
1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup shredded sharp white cheddar, plus more for garnish
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh black pepper
4 poached or fried eggs
olive oil
white balsamic vinegarFlyers' Brayden Schenn in action during an NHL hockey game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. (Photo: AP)
Brayden Schenn circled around the ice Wednesday morning at practice when his coach approached him.
Bench boss Craig Berube gave Schenn an appreciated demotion – if there ever were such a thing – Tuesday night. The 23-year-old forward went from top-line left wing to third-line center. The middle of the ice is where Schenn would prefer to be.
"Yup. Straight-up answer. Yes," Schenn said. "I feel comfortable, feel natural. I guess you're around the puck a little more. I felt good the two periods playing center (Tuesday) night."
Berube wanted to make sure Schenn was feeling good about his new role after predominantly being the top-line left wing for much of the season.
"Brayden's played in the middle before, played the middle most of his life," Berube said. "He feels comfortable there and I've got no problem putting him there."
Schenn, Jake Voracek and center Claude Giroux had no shots in the first period. With Michael Raffl replacing Schenn, the line had seven shots on net in the final two stanzas.
"I think (Raffl) got us going (Tuesday)," Voracek said. "I'm not saying it was Schenner's fault, but we didn't play well enough together. That's why we got split up. I think Brayden got going well (afterward)."
Schenn eventually had three shots and was 3-for-4 on faceoffs. The Flyers have been looking to get the line going and Berube even admitted he's thought about breaking up Giroux and Voracek, one of the league's most dynamic duos this season. Schenn has been one of many Flyers who have a history at center to be moved to the wing in hopes of getting a line with more offensive punch.
"I obviously enjoy playing with Jake and G," Schenn said. "Those guys are unbelievable to play with, but at the same time, it's maybe a good thing. You go back to the middle, get the confidence back. Actually I wouldn't say that. The confidence isn't gone, but to go back to the middle and a more natural position, maybe feel the puck a little bit more and get my game back a little bit."
Meanwhile Raffl goes back to the wing, where the Flyers had originally scouted him in Sweden. When they found him playing overseas, he was on the wing, not fully aware that for the first 18 years of his live he played the pivot.
"I was small and tiny," the Austrian said. "Then I had to play against the grown-ups and they would push me around in my own end. They put me on wing and ever since then, I've always played wing. Even in Sweden I never played center."
There's generally more skating at the center position, but fewer battles along the boards. It allows the centerman more room to skate and make plays with the puck. The two other guys on the top line have that last part covered.
"When I can play wing with G and Jake, that's a nice thing," Raffl said. "If I play center, I play center. I don't mind it really.
"I'll center G and Jake if they want me to," Raffl joked, motioning to his left with his thumb, "Hey G…slide over, bud."
Um…the Flyers won't be asking Raffl to replace one of the game's best centers anytime soon. The new role for the second-year pro is simple.
"Go to the net," Berube said. "That's it. Go to the net."
•Schultz gets 2-year extension: Nick Schultz has worked himself from a seventh defenseman to a top-pair blueliner in 55 games. The Flyers rewarded the 32 year old with a two-year extension worth $4.5 million.
Schultz, a former second-round pick of the Minnesota Wild, came to the Flyers having already played 880 NHL games. He signed a one-year, $1.25 million deal in July, has been arguably the Flyers' most consistent defenseman this season and it has nothing to do with his 13 points.
With the Flyers, Schultz is averaging 19:08 of ice time per game, his highest average since 2011-12 when he split time with the Wild and Edmonton Oilers. With Schultz under contract, the Flyers have committed $64.454 million in cap space to 19 players with next year's salary cap expected to be roughly $73 million.
•Empty netters: Ray Emery will get the start for the Flyers against the lowly Sabres. He is 13-6-1 in 21 games against Buffalo with a 2.93 goals-against average and.908 save percentage. … Starting goalie Steve Mason, recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, spent a half hour on the ice working on stickhandling with goalie coach Jeff Reese before the team practiced. Mason skated Tuesday with no pads. … Buffalo has a league-worst 5-20-2 road record.The new carbon tax is inherently unfair. It penalizes efficient energy users the same as heavy energy users. When you use energy efficiently, increasing the price does not make your usage more efficient.
Like income taxes, carbon taxes must be progressive, because it is fairer. I understand why the government implemented a flat carbon tax. Creating a tiered structure is far more work and politically dangerous. The people that are most affected are people with large homes and big cars. In other words those who provide the political parties with the majority of their donations.
There is a more equitable and effective way to tax energy usage. Look at what Santa Fe, NM, did during its severe water crisis. It left water rates the same for what it considered a responsible amount of water usage and charged four times the rate for any usage above that amount. It resulted in an immediate 30-per-cent reduction in water usage. A spectacular result.
Not to fight climate change (which Ontario is totally impotent to alter) but to pad government “resource tools” and fulfil a promise of finally balancing a budget before the next election.
The price of gasoline no longer is tied to the price of a barrel of oil, which means it is going up not due to crude prices but due to government mismanagement of resources.
The cost of electricity has doubled under the Liberal’s watch. Yet, reliability has stagnated (if not gotten worse).
So typical of the Liberal brand over these past 10 to 15 years: Give a little into the left pocket while taking a lot out of the right pocket.
I read with interest Rob Ferguson’s article that began, “Ontario residents will notice more money in one pocket and less in another as electricity tax rebates and new carbon fees for natural gas and gasoline take effect in 2017.”
Unfortunately the small hydro rebates Premier Kathleen Wynne is doling out, as she finds herself at 13 per cent in the polls largely because her green energy program has made electricity in Ontario the highest-priced in North America, pales in comparison to what Ontarians will be shelling out due to her new “revenue tool:” the job- and economy-hurting carbon tax.
From driving to work to earn money to pay more in taxes, to heating homes, to buying food that has to be transported, Ontarians are going to be paying much more for everything.
There seems no limit to how far Wynne will go pushing her green ideology, no matter the harm it does.
Larry Comeau, Ottawa
“Ontario businesses are already losing jobs to neighbouring jurisdictions, and we’ve seen a lot of capital and job flight to jurisdictions in neighbouring areas,” said Nathan MacDonald, policy and communications manager for the Ajax-Pickering Board of Trade.
Please give details as to who’s leaving and where they’ve gone?
Environment Minister Glen Murray said the province’s Climate Change Action Plan has broad support from business and “will reduce greenhouse gas pollution at the lowest possible cost to families and businesses.”
Again, please give details as to what businesses are supporting the Climate Change Action Plan?
Leo Ryan, Barrie, Ont.
I recently invested in a gas stove in order to escape from the atrocious cost of hydro inflicted upon us by the premier of Ontario. Little did I know that the cost of natural gas was to increase, thus negating my decision to make this purchase.
Welcome to Kathleen Wynne’s cap and trade fiasco.
Am I to believe that my contribution will force me to use less gas to keep warm? Or is this increased price simply a tax to enrich the coffers at Queen’s Park? I am unlikely to freeze myself, so it must simply be another tax grab.
That is not what the people of Ontario need at this time and it is likely the main reason for the loss of manufacturing jobs, with more to come.
This is not a good time to be a consumer in Ontario and it is unfortunate that we have to wait more than a year to get rid of these people who have not served us well.
Al Truscott, Collingwood, Ont.
A swing and a miss on climate for Patrick Brown, Paul Wells, Jan. 4
By persistently describing cap-and-trade as “not very much” added to a household, the Star has failed to remind readers that the largest and least-efficient industries are exempted, so cap-and-trade is a licence to continue polluting.
Those industries that participate in buying and selling credits can keep the profits or off-load the costs of buying credits.
But most importantly, cap-and-trade is taxing home heating oil, diesel and aviation fuel. Natural gas as energy or feedstock for hundreds of consumer products is taxed. Every raw material transported to a manufacturer is taxed, and taxed again when finished goods are delivered.
Every one of the $8 billion will come from consumer discretionary spending at a cost to the economy. And then, given their pathetic history in spending, what will the Liberals do with the money?
Curious that Wells accuses Brown of blowing and sucking at the same time. Maybe with what Wynne’s sucking out of the economy, she can give us all an electric car we can drive when the wind blows.
Mike McLean, Oakville
Paul Wells is both right and wrong with respect to Patrick Brown’s position on carbon pricing.
Wells is correct that Brown is trying to suck and blow on carbon taxes. While he opposes the Wynne government’s cap and trade, he is silly enough to advocate for a “revenue-neutral” carbon tax for Ontario taxpayers. If Brown is planning to rebate most or all of the carbon tax to taxpayers, why bother imposing it?
In addition, unless he is also planning to rebate the cost of carbon taxes to Ontario business, then we will see a mass shift of investment dollars away from Ontario to Trump’s low-corporate-tax, no-carbon-tax business environment south of the border.
Wells is also right in saying that Brown has lost a large section of the Tory base by supporting a carbon tax, but wrong in thinking that a large portion of those voters will return to the PC fold.
As a longtime supporter of the provincial Tories, I have cancelled my party membership and will now vote, and work for, the Ontario Libertarian Party in the next provincial election.
The Libertarian Party is the only Ontario political party that is calling for the repeal of any carbon-pricing scheme. If Brown continues to support a price on carbon, he may very well be kissing goodbye to any chance of forming government.
Curt Shalapata, Oshawa
Don Mustill in his Jan. 2 letter tells us that trying to go green is ideological and will cost us money. What he is really saying is this generation caused the problem but is unwilling to pay more now for a better future for our kids.
I can guarantee you global warming will cost us trillions and our kids and grandkids will pay. People in poor countries will be paying with their lives.
Windmills will get better, cap-and-trade has proven to help but the point of having gas cost more is to make you drive less or get a smaller car/house. Given that most of you live nowhere near where you work, drive a fuel-inefficient car, have built such big houses that technological advances in energy efficiency are offset by size, buy bottled water when it is free out of your tap, etc.
No, Mr. Mustill, our own stupidity and selfishness has made your wallet smaller.
Scotty Robinson, TorontoEvery member of the Ann Arbor City Council who
now has, politically speaking, a target on his or her back. Sabra Sanzotta, who filed recall petition paperwork this week
, said she's only getting started, and she and other deer advocates are taking steps to initiate recall efforts in other wards. Sanzotta, leader of a group called Save the Deer Ann Arbor, said they're planning to file petitions to recall every council member up for re-election in 2016 over what they consider an unnecessary deer slaughter and an appalling use of violence. That includes Sumi Kailasapathy in the 1st Ward, Westphal in the 2nd Ward, Julie Grand in the 3rd Ward, Graydon Krapohl in the 4th Ward, and Chuck Warpehoski in the 5th Ward. All of them voted for the deer cull last month. Sanzotta said in a statement the group wants to replace the existing council with a more representative, data-driven, humane team of leaders. "For those council members who can't be recalled, their re-election campaigns will be much more difficult next year, as this group of deer-friendly residents is now standing up and united to restore Ann Arbor's image and reputation as a progressive, non-violent, tolerant, educated democracy," she said. The City Council
in favor of hiring sharpshooters to kill 100 deer in city parks this winter, a move opposed by Sanzotta and other animal rights advocates who argue there's no justification for a cull. Mayor Christopher Taylor was the lone dissenting vote, citing a lack of community consensus on the issue. Other council members acknowledged they were making a controversial decision that was bound to upset some residents, but they believe it's necessary to bring the deer population down and restore balance to the ecosystem. Residents in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of deer have been complaining in recent years about increasing damage to their landscaping and gardens. Council members also are concerned about damage to the city's natural areas, and the risk of deer-car crashes and Lyme disease. An aerial survey earlier this year counted 168 deer in areas in and around the city of Ann Arbor. Per state law, council members who just started new two-year terms in November cannot be subject to a recall until after six months into their terms. That means petitions can't be filed at this time against Sabra Briere in the 1st Ward, Jane Lumm in the 2nd Ward or Jack Eaton in the 4th Ward. Two other members who just joined council -- Zachary Ackerman in the 3rd Ward and Chip Smith in the 5th Ward -- weren't on council for the deer cull vote. The county's Election Commission plans to meet on Dec. 17 to determine whether the recall petition language targeting Westphal is of sufficient clarity and factuality to allow Sanzotta to proceed with collecting signatures. Sanzotta would need to collect at least 1,791 signatures from registered 2nd Ward voters within 60 days to force a special May runoff election ahead of the August primary, in which Westphal already will be up for re-election. As a 2nd Ward resident, Sanzotta cannot personally file recall petitions against council members in other wards, so she'll be relying on allies in other parts of the city to step forward and file recall petitions against their council members. Sanzotta said her group has been meeting weekly and they will be deciding this coming Sunday who will be filing the petitions in the different wards. If they get clearance from the Election Commission to proceed and if they're successful in collecting enough signatures in each ward, there would be a special runoff election in May and each council member being targeted -- all Democrats -- would appear on the ballot as the Democratic candidate in his or her ward. In each ward, there would be an opportunity for one Republican Party nominee and any independent candidates to step forward to challenge the incumbent for a chance to finish out his or her current term ending in November. With or without a recall, the normal 2016 election cycle will continue with a primary in August and a general election in November for the next two-year term starting in November, and council members being targeted plan to seek re-election then. Sanzotta said she doesn't have any candidates lined up to challenge any of the council members being targeted for recall. "That's step two," she said. "We'll work on that if we even get to the point where the recall petition language is approved." Council members being targeted said on Thursday they consider a recall part of the democratic process and it's anybody's right to challenge them. "On the other hand, I'm already up for re-election in 2016," Warpehoski said. "I don't see any cull-related votes coming up between now and the time when the election would take place, so I don't see how this is going to help advance their agenda." Though it's caused a lot of controversy, Warpehoski said he still believes the council's 10-1 vote in favor of culling deer was the right one from an ecological standpoint. If he's removed from office for standing up for ecological diversity in the city's natural areas, he said, he'll leave with a clean conscience. Westphal offered similar remarks regarding ecological balance. He also said he respects the democratic process. "That being said, in my experience, recalls tend to be used when there's some kind of extreme behavior problem, not necessarily a consensus vote on a small budget item," he said of the $35,000 deer cull contract. "So, the inference that 10 out of 11 council members are unfit to serve, well, I suppose I disagree." Westphal said other communities have kicked the can down the road to avoid controversy when faced with the question of culling deer. "But that's not why I ran for council," he said. "I'm not serving to avoid hard decisions. I'm serving to reflect the will of my constituents." Westphal and Grand both observed that council members serve relatively short terms, so they'd prefer to see the normal election process play out. Grand said it seems "a little redundant" to force a special May runoff election ahead of the already scheduled August primary and November general election. "So, I think this is more about their own messaging than about us as individual candidates," she said. Commenting on the deer cull vote, she added: "It was a decision we made 10-1 based on a year-long process that included significant public input, that included looking very seriously into nonlethal methods and best practices, and listening to staff recommendations... and the outcome was almost unanimous." Grand said she'll defend her position on culling deer and compete in a special May runoff election if it comes to that, but she thinks there are more productive ways to have that conversation and better ways to be focusing energy. In addition to making recall threats, Sanzotta, who moved to Ann Arbor this summer, is threatening to bring a lawsuit against the city to stop the cull. She has started a GoFundMe.com webpage to raise funds for legal costs. As of Thursday afternoon, the fundraising page had 666 shares on social media and had raised $2,510, with a goal of $20,000. Save the Deer is planning to work with attorney Catherine Wolfe to bring forward litigation and has retained a wildlife specialist with specific experience in animal law, according to the group's fundraising page. "We will challenge the process that led to the decision by City Council, and ensure that it was done according to all applicable procedural law, and we will challenge the validity of their conclusions, using verifiable facts from experts," the page states. Sanzotta said between 60 and 100 people have been showing up to the group's weekly meetings. She declined to disclose where they're being held. "It seems to be the group is more organized, there are more volunteers, and financial resources are being put together," she said. In a statement released on Thursday, Sanzotta accused council members of ignoring experts who have documented success with deer fertility control programs. "They pursue their plans to squander taxpayer money on a lethal plan that has only been proven ineffective at reducing the deer population, while putting the human residents in peril from stray bullets and bolting, bloody deer," she said. "But now the grass roots movement has grown dramatically -- against sharpshooters in our parks at night, to let facts and data prevail, and to find a more humane way of dealing with the deer that share our parks and forests."
Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com.Following heavy rains in the catchment area, Tansa lake, one of the six major lakes which supply water to Mumbai, started overflowing this morning, officials said. Tansa lake accounts for nearly 12 per cent of the city's water supply.
"The Tansa lake started overflowing at 11am. Overflowing of this lake is a good sign for the future," said Ramesh Bamble, chief hydraulic engineer of the BMC.
However, he clarified that Mumbai may still have to wait for a few weeks before the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) revokes its decision of imposing 10 per cent water cut in the city."There is still time left before we revoke the water cuts imposed on the citizens. There are important lakes like Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarna that are yet to be filled completely. Only once they reach a certain level, can we think of taking back our decision of imposing water cuts," Bamble added.
A senior civic official said that unless the lake level reaches 12 lakh MLD, the decision to revoke the 10 per cent water cut will not be taken.
Earlier, a significant amount of rainfall in the catchment areas had led to the Modak Sagar dam and the Tulsi lake to overflow, which prompted the MCGM authorities to bring the water cuts down to 10 per cent from 20 per cent.So far, water in the lakes that supply water to the city is 10.26 lakh million litres as compared to 11.83 lakh million litres in the same period.Light announces the L16, a 52-megapixel ‘DSLR-killer’ that fits in your pocket
Over the past six months we’ve taken an inside look at and shared in-depth interviews with the brilliant minds behind Light, a photography startup looking to ‘reimagine photography’ with a unique multi-module point-and-shoot camera its founders call an ‘SLR-killer’.
Today, Light has announced the L16, its first real-world product that was first teased in prototype renderings shared with us in April of 2015.
As the renderings showed and our interviews explained, the L16 packs in sixteen 13-megapixel camera modules at three different focal lengths – 35mm (5), 70mm (5) and 150mm (6) – for a total of 52-megapixels. Each of these modules captures an individual image, which is then stitched together via software to yield a photo that Light claims is equal to the quality of a DSLR with a large lens attached.
The device itself would be fairly understated if it weren’t for the sixteen cameras staring down any subject in its path. Besides the camera array, a small flash and a textured front grip, the front of the camera is devoid of any buttons or screens. On top, two buttons control the power and shutter, while a five-inch touchscreen on the back gives you access to all of the settings and controls.
The announcement of the L16 comes as a slight surprise, considering Light never explicitly mentioned any plans to build its own camera. However, it does line up with the Fall/Q4 announcement Light CEO Dave Grannan foreshadowed in our latest interview. This could prove to be an interesting move consideringLight signed an agreement in April 2015 with Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn to license out its multi-module technology for future smartphone devices.
Although not mentioned on the L16 microsite, it seems Light also has a proprietary post-processing software in the works. As you can see in the screenshot above (from the below video), it looks to offer a very minimal control scheme with a focus on speed and simplicity.
Light has officially opened up pre-orders for the L16, which will set you back $200 for an immediate deposit and a remaining $1,100 (and applicable taxes) when it ships in ‘late summer 2016’. Snagging one after November 6th will bump the price up by $400, so reserve yours now if you want to be one of the first people to take the tech for a spin.Update : 1005ET: The carnage across cyrptocurrencies has escalated with Bitcoin back to a $13K handle, Ethereum back below $700, and Bitcoin Cash below $2,600...
Bitcoin is now almost $6,000 off its record high...
For those who are keeping track...
$0000 - $1000: 1789 days
$1000- $2000: 1271 days
$2000- $3000: 23 days
$3000- $4000: 62 days
$4000- $5000: 61 days
$5000- $6000: 8 days
$6000- $7000: 13 days
$7000- $8000: 14 days
$8000- $9000: 9 days
$9000-$10000: 2 days
$10000-$11000: 1 day
$11000-$12000: 6 days
$12000-$13000: 17 hours
$13000-$14000: 4 hours
$14000-$15000: 10 hours
$15000-$16000: 5 hours
$16000-$17000: 2 hours
$17000-$18000: 10 minutes
$18000-$19000: 3 minutes
$19666-$14000: 4 days
ETH and BCH in trouble too...
In fact almost the entire crypto space is collapsing with Ripple the only gainer for now...
There continues to be no obvious catalyst for the run.
Volume is heavy in futures tonight too...
The question is - which happens first - Bitcoin $10,000 or Gold $1,300?
* * *
After an exuberant few days following Coinbase's adoption of Bitcoin Cash, the forked currency has collapsed back below $3,000...
For the 4th night in the last 5, someone has started slamming Bitcoin at around 8pmET, pushing the biggest cryptocurrency back below $15,000 for the first time in two weeks...
Catalysts for the drop are unclear other than systematic selling pressure as Asia opens. There was chatter about the lack of security in South Korean local exchanges, but it is unlikely that is the cause for now.
Since CME launched its futures contract, Bitcoin has been under pressure and renowned market watcher Peter Schiff is pretty clear where he thinks this ends up...
As CoinTelegraph reports, speaking to RT this week, renowned analyst Peter Schiff, credited for predicting the 2008 housing market collapse, issued a foreboding warning to investors buying Bitcoin at current prices.
Even with a shaky week, Bitcoin is hovering around the $15,000 mark, after a two-month bull run that saw the price rise by more than 200 percent.
Schiff says those trying to ride the bubble are too late:
“People who got it years ago, even people who got it at the beginning of the year have the opportunity to cash out and make a lot of money. But people who are buying it at these prices or higher prices are going to lose practically everything.”
The old adage, “buy on the rumor and sell on the news,” seems to be the perfect way to sum up Schiff’s sentiments on the current attitude of green investors trying to make a quick buck out of Bitcoin:
“These currencies are going to trade to zero or pretty close to it when the bubble pops. Right now, the only reason why people are buying Bitcoin is because the price is going up. When it turns around, they are not going to sell it for the same reason."
He also voiced by now common criticism of Bitcoin Core’s transaction functionality, noting the low speed and high cost of transactions on the network:
“There is no value in Bitcoin, you can’t use it as money. It’s too slow, too expensive and too vulnerable.”
Still with gold's recent weakness, we are sure Peter has more than a small ax to grind on this one.Sony first opened — and quickly closed — preorders for its PlayStation VR headset back in March, but now people in the US have one more chance to preorder the PlayStation 4-compatible virtual reality device. The company is opening a new wave of preorders at 7 AM PT (10 AM ET) on June 30th, it announced today, with a limited number of devices available through Gamestop's online store.
Previously both the PlayStation VR Launch bundle ($499, packaged with the PlayStation Camera and Move controllers) and the core pack ($399, just the headset) were made available for preorder, but it's not clear whether people who preorder from Gamestop in a few hours will be able to choose between the two options. Sony has confirmed this will be the last chance for you to lock in a preorder for its VR headset, though, with everyone else having to wait until the product actually arrives on shelves on October 13th.
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March 2, 2017, 8:11 PM GMT / Source: TODAY By Scott Stump
Anyone who thinks Republicans and Democrats can't get along needs only to look at the friendship between George W. Bush and Michelle Obama.
The former Republican president has opened up about his wise-cracking relationship with the former Democratic first lady, which was captured in a sweet photo from the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in September.
George W. Bush got a sweet hug from Michelle Obama at the opening ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on Sept. 24 in Washington, D.C. ZACH GIBSON / AFP/Getty Images
"I'm kind of a needler, and she handles it pretty well,'' Bush told Ellen DeGeneres on her show Wednesday. "(The friendship) surprised everybody. That's what's so weird about society today, (the surprise) that people on opposite sides of the political spectrum can actually like each other."
RELATED: George W. Bush gets candid about whether presidential impressions bothered him
Their shared sense of humor helped them hit it off despite being on opposite sides of the political spectrum. The two have often been seated next to one another at official events like the opening of the African American |
on radio, stage, and film prior to his role in The Dukes of Hazzard. Boss Hogg is one of only two characters to appear in every episode of the TV series, the other being Uncle Jesse Duke.
The other main characters of the show include local mechanic Cooter Davenport (Ben Jones), who in early episodes was portrayed as a wild, unshaven rebel, often breaking or treading on the edge of the law, before settling down to become the Duke family's best friend (he is often referred to as an "honorary Duke") and owns the local garage; and Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer), an honest but naive young deputy who, despite his friendship with the Dukes (and his crush on Daisy), is reluctantly forced to take part in Hogg and Rosco's crooked schemes. In the third and fourth seasons, when Enos leaves for his own show, he is replaced by Deputy Cletus Hogg (Rick Hurst), Boss's cousin, who is slightly more wily than Enos but still a somewhat reluctant player in Hogg's plots.
Owing to their fundamentally good natures, the Dukes often wind up helping Boss Hogg out of trouble, albeit grudgingly. More than once Hogg is targeted by former associates who are either seeking revenge or have double crossed him after a scheme has unraveled in one way or another. Sheriff Coltrane also finds himself targeted in some instances. On such occasions, Bo and Luke usually have to rescue their adversaries as an inevitable precursor to defeating the bad guys; in other instances, the Dukes join forces with Hogg and Coltrane to tackle bigger threats to Hazzard or one of their respective parties. These instances became more frequent as the show progressed, and later seasons saw a number of stories where the Dukes and Hogg (and Coltrane) temporarily work together.
Production [ edit ]
The series was developed from the 1975 film Moonrunners. Created by Gy Waldron in collaboration with ex-moonshiner Jerry Rushing, this movie shares many identical and very similar names and concepts with the subsequent TV series. Although itself essentially a comedy, this original movie was much cruder and edgier than the family-friendly TV series that would evolve from it.
In 1977, Waldron was approached by Warner Bros. with the idea of developing Moonrunners into a television series. Waldron reworked various elements from Moonrunners, and from it was devised what would become The Dukes of Hazzard. Production began in October 1978 with the original intention of only nine episodes being produced as mid-season filler. The first five episodes were filmed in Covington and Conyers, Georgia and surrounding areas, including some location work in nearby Atlanta. After completing production on the fifth episode, "High Octane", the cast and crew broke for Christmas break, expecting to return in several weeks' time to complete the ordered run of episodes. In the meantime, executives at Warner Bros. were impressed by the rough preview cuts of the completed episodes and saw potential in developing the show into a full-running series; part of this plan was to move production from Georgia to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, primarily to simplify production as well as develop a larger workshop to service the large number of automobiles needed for the series.
Rushing appeared as shady used car dealer Ace Parker in the third episode produced, "Repo Men" (the fourth to be broadcast). Rushing believed this to be the start of a recurring role, in return for which he would supply creative ideas from his experiences: many of the Dukes (and thus Moonrunners) characters and situations were derived from Rushing's experiences as a youth, and much of the character of Bo Duke he states to be based on him. However, "Repo Men" would turn out to be the character's only appearance in the entire show's run, leading to a legal dispute in the following years over the rights to characters and concepts between Rushing and Warner Bros., although he remained on good terms with cast and crew and in recent years has made appearances at several fan conventions.
By the end of the first (half) season, the family-friendly tone of The Dukes of Hazzard was mostly in place. When the show returned for a second season in Fall 1979 (its first full season), with a few further minor tweaks, the show quickly found its footing as a family-friendly comedy-adventure series. By the third season, starting in Fall 1980, the template was well set in place for that which would be widely associated with the show.
As well as its regular car chases, jumps and stunts, The Dukes of Hazzard relied on character familiarity, with each character effectively serving the same role within a typical episode, and with Deputy Cletus replacing Deputy Enos in Seasons 3 and 4, and Coy and Vance Duke temporarily replacing Bo and Luke (due to a salary dispute) for most of Season 5, being the only major cast changes through the show's run (Ben Jones and James Best both left temporarily during the second season due to different disputes with producers, but both returned within a few episodes). Of the characters, only Uncle Jesse and Boss Hogg appeared in all 145 episodes; Daisy appears in all but one, the third season's "To Catch a Duke". The General Lee also appears in all but one (the early first-season episode "Mary Kaye's Baby", the fourth to be produced and the third broadcast).
It was largely filmed in Hidden Valley in Thousand Oaks, California, with scenes also shot at nearby Lake Sherwood and also at Paramount Ranch in nearby Agoura Hills.[1]
Cast and characters [ edit ]
The Dukes of Hazzard (from left): (bottom) John Schneider, Tom Wopat, Catherine Bach, Denver Pyle, Peggy Rea; (top) Ben Jones, Sorrell Booke, James Best, Sonny Shroyer Cast of):John Schneider, Tom Wopat, Catherine Bach, Denver Pyle, Peggy Rea;Ben Jones, Sorrell Booke, James Best, Sonny Shroyer
Main characters [ edit ]
The pilot episode was to include a barber modeled after Floyd Lawson on The Andy Griffith Show as a regular character, but was eliminated when the final draft of the pilot's script was written and before the show was cast.
When John Schneider auditioned for the role of Bo Duke, he came to the audition in a dilapidated pickup truck, sporting a week-long beard growth, wearing overalls and a white T-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in a sleeve collar, and carrying a can of beer, trying to look the part. At the audition, Schneider drank the beer and said he was from Snellville. The producers bought his "Good Ol' Boy" act and Schneider was hired on the spot.
Recurring characters [ edit ]
Character Actor Info Lulu Coltrane Hogg Peggy Rea Boss Hogg's wife, Hughie Hogg's aunt, and Rosco's sister. Lulu constantly challenged her husband for authority and rallied for the equality of women in Hazzard, and was one of the few people in Hazzard whom Boss was actually intimidated by, though he genuinely loved and cared for her. Although much mentioned, Lulu only appeared once during the first season (in the episode "Repo Men") and once during the second season ("The Rustlers"), before her appearances gradually increased over the third season. By the fourth season, she was a frequently-seen recurring character. Initially in her single first and second season appearances, she was portrayed to be rather spoiled and selfish; as her appearances increased, the character evolved into being more caring and kind — often to the contrast of Boss, and which on occasion proved to be his downfall or Achilles' heel. Although Boss is a nemesis to the Dukes, Lulu is best friends with Daisy. Myrtle / Mabel Tillingham Lindsay Bloom Mabel is Hogg's cousin who runs the Hazzard Phone Company, who often sneak listens to calls and lets Hogg know what's going on. Her name mysteriously changed from Myrtle to Mabel midway through the second season. Longstreet B. Davenport Ernie Lively (credited as Ernie W. Brown) L.B. was Cooter's cousin who filled for Cooter when he was away from the garage in several second-season episodes (in reality, this was to cover for Ben Jones' absence, after a disagreement with producers as to whether Cooter should have a beard or not). L.B. appeared in the episodes "Follow that Still", "Duke of Duke" "The Runaway", before Jones returned to the series; the episode "Grannie Annie" also features another temporary Cooter replacement, Mickey Jones as B.B. Davenport. Ernie Lively also played a different character named "Dobro Doolan", a friend of Bo and Luke, in the first episode of the series, "One Armed Bandits" (where he was credited as Ernie Brown), and as a guard called Clyde in the later sixth-season episode "The Ransom of Hazzard County". With Cooter's temporary absence, it was never fully explained why one of his relations was suddenly running the garage in his place; and in a similar vein to Coy and Vance in the fifth season, both of these cousins of Cooter were very much clones of the original character, and were never mentioned before or after their temporary spells replacing the original character. Hughie Hogg Jeff Altman Boss Hogg's young nephew, said to be as crooked as — maybe even more crooked than — Hogg. Dressed in an all-white suit just like his Uncle Boss, Hughie drove or was chauffeured around in a white VW Beetle with bull horns on the hood, similar to Boss Hogg's Cadillac. Typically, Boss Hogg would call in Hughie once per season to come up with a particularly dastardly scheme to get rid of the Dukes. Hughie's seemingly flawless plots would always end up in disaster, and Boss Hogg would end up throwing him out of Hazzard at the end of the episode. Despite this, Hogg would always give Hughie "one last chance" on his next appearance. On some later appearances, Hughie would worm is way back into Hazzard by coming up with a scheme and then persuading Hogg to go along with it, often by bribery. The character of Hughie was first introduced in the episode "Uncle Boss", produced as the second episode of the second season but not broadcast until the third season (for unknown reasons, and just several episodes prior to "The Return of Hughie Hogg"). By that time, Hughie had already been seen as Temporary Sheriff in the second-season episode "Arrest Jesse Duke" in which he appeared in a secondary role, written in at the last minute to cover Sheriff Rosco's absence during James Best's temporary boycott of the show. He acted somewhat out of character of his usual conniving self in the episode, due to being given most of Rosco's lines. Like the two Hazzard County deputies, Hughie has eyes for Daisy Duke, but his feelings are merely of a selfish lustful nature; Daisy despises Hughie, and thus the only reason that she'll ever appear to return Hughie's interest is merely to charm him into relaxing his guard or lure him away from a certain area till other townspeople can prepare to act against him, thus preventing him from subjecting Hazzard County to additional corruption. Wayne / Norris Roger Torrey One of Hughie's loyal duo of henchman. Played by the same actor but with different names on different occasions. Floyd / Barclay Pat Studstill The other of Hughie's duo of henchman. He and Norris were both bigger than Bo and Luke, but nonetheless struggled in fights against them. Again played by the same actor, but with different names on different occasions. Emery Potter Charlie Dell Emery Potter is the part-time Hazzard County registrar and chief teller of the Hazzard Bank. Emery is a meek, soft-spoken man with a low tolerance for anything exciting. He is a friend of the Dukes, and sometimes falls under Hogg's crooked schemes simply because he is too timid to stand up for himself. First seen in the second-season episode "People's Choice", the character made several return appearances across the seasons. He has also served as Temporary Deputy on occasion. Dr. Henry "Doc" Petticord Patrick Cranshaw Hazzard County's ancient, long-serving physician. Miz (Emma) Tisdale Nedra Volz The postmistress of the Hazzard Post Office, Miz Tisdale ("Emma" to Jesse Duke) was an elderly woman who drove a motorcycle and had a huge crush on Uncle Jesse because they knew each-other long ago. She was also a reporter for the Hazzard Gazzette. Sheriff Edward Thomas "Big Ed" Little Don Pedro Colley The hulking sheriff of neighboring Chickasaw County, who drove a 1975 Plymouth Fury patrol car, and the only recurring character in the series played by a black actor. Sheriff Little had an angry tendency to punch and kick fenders and doors off cars he wrecked. He was also not afraid to pull out his trusty 12-gauge shotgun and open fire. He is also a left hander police officer. The ill-tempered sheriff hated Bo, Luke, Daisy, Coy, Vance, Uncle Jesse, and Cooter immensely and they were well aware that Bo and Luke were not allowed to enter his county. Sheriff Little was constantly irritated by the bumbling performance of Sheriff Coltrane and the crookedness of Hogg, although he thought highly of deputy Enos; Little was strict, by-the-book, and a competent law officer, everything that Sheriff Rosco was not (although he too had little luck in capturing Bo and Luke). He had a wife named Rachel and also a daughter. Before Sheriff Little was introduced, in the third-season episode "My Son, Bo Hogg", several first and second-season episodes saw several similar tough-as-nails Sheriffs from adjoining counties. Mr. Rhuebottom John Wheeler A local store owner, seen occasionally from the fourth-season episode "Pin the Tail on the Dukes" onwards. (The Rhuebottom General Store shopfront is seen as early as the first-season episode "Luke's Love Story") Dr. "Doc" Appleby Elmore Vincent, later Parley Baer Elderly successor to Doc Petticord. Played by Elmore Vincent on the character's first appearance, in the fourth-season episode "Dear Diary", before Parley Baer took over the role in subsequent appearances. Elton Ritchie Montgomery A disc jockey on the local WHOGG radio station, seen in the sixth-season episode "Enos's Last Chance" and the late seventh-season episode "Strange Visitor To Hazzard", and referred to along with the radio station in several other episodes. Other than actor M. C. Gainey (who played Sheriff Rosco in the 2005 movie version and had previously played a villain in the fourth-season episode "Bad Day in Hazzard"), Ritchie Montgomery is the only actor to appear in both episode(s) of the TV series and the 2005 movie (where he plays the small role of a State Trooper). Montgomery mentions this in a feature on DVD versions of the movie.
Notable guest appearances [ edit ]
Throughout its network television run, The Dukes of Hazzard had a consistent mix of up-and-comers and established stars make guest appearances.
Others [ edit ]
NASCAR driver Terry Labonte makes a brief, uncredited appearance as a crewman in the episode Undercover Dukes Part 1. The race cars supplied for both part 1 and part 2 of Undercover Dukes were supplied by Labonte's race owner, Billy Hagan. However, the emblems of the sponsors of the cars (at that time Labonte was sponsored by Budweiser) were covered to avoid paying royalties.
The celebrity speed trap [ edit ]
During the show's second season, the show's writers began flirting with the idea of incorporating a "celebrity speed trap" into some of the episodes, as a means to feature top country stars of the day performing their hits. On its first couple of instances, the "Speed Trap" was featured early in the story, but for most of the cases, it was featured in the last few minutes of an episode, often used when the main story was running too short to fill episode time.
The "celebrity speed trap" feature was essentially similar: Aware that a big-name country star was passing through the area, Boss Hogg would order Rosco to lower the speed limit on a particular road to an unreasonable level (using a reversible sign, with one speed limit on one side and another, far lower, on the back), so that the targeted singer would be in violation of the posted limit. The singer would be required to give a free performance at the Boar's Nest in exchange for having their citations forgiven; the performer would then perform one of their best-known hits or other popular country music standard, while the Dukes, Boss, Rosco, Enos, Cletus, Cooter, and other patrons whooped and hollered in enjoyment of the performance. More often than not, the performer would give a sarcastic parting shot to Boss and Rosco.
Singers who were featured in the "speed trap" segments were:
Honorable Mentions: Mickey Gilley, Loretta Lynn
Gilley's and Lynn's appearances were not solely for the celebrity speed trap. After performing a concert in Hazzard, Gilley was nabbed while leaving and forced to do a second show to nullify his citation. Lynn was kidnapped by criminals wanting to break into the music business. Loretta Lynn was the very first country music guest star on the show in 1979 and had an entire show titled "Find Loretta Lynn".
Note: Janie Fricke was the only guest country star who did not perform a song, celebrity speed trap or otherwise. She played an accomplice to a robber in an episode who hid money in the dashboard of the car that was to become the General Lee.
Casting of Coy and Vance [ edit ]
Christopher Mayer and Byron Cherry as Vance and Coy Duke, respectively
The Dukes of Hazzard was consistently among the top-rated television series (at one point, ranking second only to Dallas, which immediately followed the show on CBS' Friday night schedule). With that success came huge profits in merchandising, with a wide array of Dukes of Hazzard toys and products being licensed and becoming big sellers. However, over the course of the show's fourth season, series stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider became increasingly concerned about a contract dispute over their salaries and merchandising royalties owed to them over the high sales of Dukes products. Neither were being paid what was owed to them[citation needed] and this became very frustrating to the duo. As a result, in the spring of 1982, as filming was due to begin on the fifth season, Wopat and Schneider did not report to the set in protest over the matter. Catherine Bach also considered walking out due to similar concerns, but Wopat and Schneider convinced her to stay, insisting that if she left then there might not be a show to come back to, and that settling the issue was up to them.[5]
Production was pushed back by a few weeks as fairly similar looking replacements were subsequently, hastily hired: Byron Cherry as Coy Duke and Christopher Mayer as Vance Duke. Bo and Luke were said to have gone to race on the NASCAR circuit; how they managed to do this, bearing in mind the terms of their probation, was never explained. Cherry and Mayer were originally contracted at just ten episodes as stand-ins, still with hope that a settlement might be reached with Wopat and Schneider[6] (in total, they made 19 episodes including 1 with Bo and Luke). Some scripts for Coy and Vance were originally written for Bo and Luke but with their names quite literally crossed out and Coy and Vance penned in.[5]
The new Dukes — previously-unmentioned nephews of Uncle Jesse, who were said to have left the farm in 1976, before the show had started — were unpopular with the great majority of viewers, and the ratings immediately sank. Much of the criticism was that Coy and Vance were nothing but direct clones of Bo and Luke, with Coy a direct "carbon copy" replacement for Bo and Vance for Luke, with little variation in character. This was something that even show creator Gy Waldron has said was wrong,[7] and that he insisted, unsuccessfully, that audiences would not accept direct character clones and the two replacements should be taken in a different direction characterwise, but was overridden by producers. Waldron also commented that if Bach too had walked, the show would have most probably been cancelled. It was reported that prior to filming, Cherry and Mayer were given Bo and Luke episodes to watch, to study and learn to emulate them, although Cherry has said in interviews that he doesn't recall this ever happening.
Hit hard by the significant drop in ratings, Warner Bros. renegotiated with Wopat and Schneider, and eventually a settlement was reached, and the original Duke boys returned to the series in early 1983, four episodes from the conclusion of the fifth season. Initially, part of the press release announcing Wopat and Schneider's return suggested that Cherry and Mayer would remain as part of the cast (though presumably in a reduced role),[8] but it was quickly realized that "four Duke boys" would not work within the context of the series, and due to the huge unpopularity associated with their time on the show, they were quickly written out of the same episode in which Bo and Luke returned.
Return of Bo and Luke [ edit ]
Although Coy and Vance were never popular with the majority, a few viewers were disappointed by their departure episode, "Welcome Back, Bo 'N' Luke", which was for the most part a standard episode, with the return of Bo and Luke and the departure of Coy and Vance tacked onto the beginning (Bo and Luke return from their NASCAR tour just as Coy and Vance leave Hazzard to tend to a sick relative). Even a few viewers commented that they were disappointed by this, and that they would have liked to have seen both pairs of Duke boys team up to tackle a particularly dastardly plot by Boss Hogg before Coy and Vance's departure, but as it turned out, Coy and Vance had little dialogue and were gone by the first commercial break, never to be seen or mentioned again.[9]
While the return of Bo and Luke was welcomed by ardent and casual viewers alike, and as a result ratings recovered slightly, the show never completely regained its former popularity. One of Wopat and Schneider's disputes even before they left was what they considered to be increasingly weak and formulaic scripts and episode plots.[10] With Wopat and Schneider's return, the producers agreed to try a wider scope of storylines.[11] However, although it continued for two more seasons, the show never fully returned to its former glory. Many cast members[who?] decried the miniature car effects newly incorporated to depict increasingly absurd General Lee and patrol car stunts (which had previously been performed with real cars by stunt drivers). The miniature car effects were intended as a budget saving measure (to save the cost of repairing or replacing damaged vehicles) and to help compete visually with KITT from the NBC series Knight Rider.[citation needed] In February 1985, The Dukes of Hazzard ended its run after seven seasons.
Vehicles [ edit ]
The General Lee (Dodge Charger) [ edit ]
The General Lee Charger
The General Lee on public display
The General Lee was based on a 1969 Dodge Charger[12] owned by Bo and Luke (the series used mostly 1969 Chargers in the beginning; later on, they also modified 1968 Chargers to look like 1969s by installing 1969-model taillamps, taillamp panels, and grilles). It was orange with a Confederate battle flag painted on the roof, the words "GENERAL LEE" over each door, and the number "01" on each door. In the original five Georgia-filmed episodes, a Confederate flag along with a checkered racing flag in a criss-cross pattern could be seen behind the rear window; this was removed when it was felt that this extra detail did not show up enough on-screen to warrant the already very tight time constraints of preparing and repairing each example of the car. The name refers to the American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The television show was based on the movie Moonrunners, in turn based on actual moonshine runners who used a 1958 Chrysler named Traveler, after General Lee's horse (with a slight spelling change). Traveler was originally intended to be the name of the Duke boys' stock car too, until producers agreed that General Lee had more punch to it.
Since it was built as a race car, the doors were welded shut. Through the history of the show, an estimated 309 Chargers were used; 17 are still known to exist in various states of repair. A replica was owned by John Schneider, known as "Bo's General Lee". In 2008, Schneider sold "Bo's General Lee" at the Barrett-Jackson automobile auction for $230,000. An eBay auction which garnered a bid of $9,900,500 for the car was never finalized, with the purported bidder claiming his account had been hacked.[13] The underside of the hood has the signatures of the cast from the 1997 TV movie. Schneider has also restored over 20 other General Lees to date. In 2008, a replica of the General Lee fetched a high bid of $450,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auto auction, indicating the significant interest in the car as a cultural icon. In 2012, the "General Lee 1", the first car used in filming the series, was purchased at auction by golfer Bubba Watson for $110,000. The car had been scrapped after being wrecked during the famous opening jump shoot, and was later discovered in a junk-yard by the president of the North American General Lee fan club.[14] In 2015, following a wave of sentiment against confederate symbolism in the wake of shootings in Charleston, SC, (relating to photos where the attacker had posed with the Confederate flag), Bubba Watson announced that he would remove the Confederate Flag from the roof of General Lee 1 and repaint it with the US National Flag.[15]
The show also used 1968 Chargers (which shared the same sheet metal) by pop-riveting the "I" piece to the center of the 68's grille, as well as cutting out the tail lights, and also pop-riveted the 69' lenses in place, and removing the round side marker lights. These Chargers performed many record-breaking jumps throughout the show, almost all of them resulting in a completely destroyed car. No 1970 Chargers were used, as backdating them proved to be too time consuming.
The Duke boys added a custom air horn to the General Lee that played the first twelve notes of the song Dixie. The Dixie horn was not originally planned, until a Georgia local hot rod racer drove by and sounded his car's Dixie horn. The producers immediately rushed after him asking where he had bought the horn. Warner Bros. purchased several Chargers for stunts, as they generally destroyed at least one or two cars per episode. By the end of the show's sixth season, the Chargers were becoming harder to find, and more expensive. In addition, the television series Knight Rider began to rival the General Lee's stunts. As such, the producers used 1:8 scale miniatures, filmed by Jack Sessums' crew, or recycled stock jump footage — the latter being a practice that had been in place to an extent since the second season, and had increased as the seasons passed.
Some of the 01 and Confederate flag motifs were initially hand painted, but as production sped up, these were replaced with vinyl decals for quick application (and removal), as needed.
During the first five episodes of the show that were filmed in Georgia, the cars involved with filming were given to the crew at H&H body shop near the filming location. At this shop, the men worked day and night to prepare the wrecked cars for the next day while still running their body shop during the day. Time was of the essence, and the men that worked at this shop worked hard hours to get the cars prepared for the show.
The third episode "Mary Kaye's Baby" is the only one in which the General Lee does not appear. Instead, the Dukes drove around in a blue 1975 Plymouth Fury borrowed from Cooter that Luke later destroyed by shooting an arrow at the car, whose trunk had been leaking due to the moonshine stowed in the back.
The Duke boys' CB handle was (jointly) "Lost Sheep". Originally when the show was conceived, their handle was to be "General Lee" to match their vehicle, but this was only ever used on-screen on one occasion, in the second episode, "Daisy's Song", when Cooter calls Bo and Luke over the CB by this handle, although they were actually driving Daisy's Plymouth Roadrunner (see below) at the time. As it became obvious that the "General Lee" handle would be out of place when the Duke boys were in another vehicle, the "Lost Sheep" handle was devised (with Uncle Jesse being "Shepherd" and Daisy being "Bo Peep").
Hazzard police cars (AMC Matador, Dodge Polara, Dodge Monaco, Plymouth Fury) [ edit ]
1970's era Plymouth Fury similar to the ones used in the series
The 1975 AMC Matador[16] was one of many different Hazzard County police cars used on the series, mostly in the first season; they had light bars and working radios. A 1972 Dodge Polara[17] and a 1974 Dodge Monaco[18] were used during the pilot episode "One Armed Bandits", these were also seen in the show's title sequence. From the second season, the 1977 Dodge Monaco[19] was mostly used. From mid-season four the similar looking 1978 Plymouth Fury[20] was used instead. The Matadors and Furies were former Los Angeles Police Department vehicles, while the Monacos were former California Highway Patrol units.
Plymouth Road Runner [ edit ]
A 1974 Plymouth Road Runner[21] (yellow with a black stripe) was Daisy Duke's car in the first five episodes of the first season. For the last episodes of the first season a similarly painted 1971 model with a matching "Road Runner" stripe was used. In the second season Bo and Luke send it off a cliff in "The Runaway". Another identical Plymouth 1971 model car appeared in the background a few more episodes along with the Jeep CJ-7 until it was finally dropped altogether.
Jeep CJ-7 [ edit ]
Dixie was the name given to Daisy Duke's white 1980 Jeep CJ-7 "Golden Eagle" which had a golden eagle emblem on the hood and the name "Dixie" on the sides. Like other vehicles in the show, there was actually more than one Jeep used throughout the series. Sometimes it would have an automatic transmission, and other times it would be a manual. The design of the roll cage also varied across the seasons. When the Jeep was introduced at the end of the second season's "The Runaway", it was seen to have doors and a slightly different paint job, but, bar one appearance in the next produced episode, "Arrest Jesse Duke" (actually broadcast before "The Runaway", causing a continuity error), thereafter the doors were removed and the paint job was made all-white, with "Dixie" painted on the sides of the hood. These Jeeps were leased to the producers of the show by American Motors Corporation in exchange for a brief mention in the closing credits of the show.
Ford F-100 pickup truck [ edit ]
Uncle Jesse's truck was a white Ford pickup truck, most commonly a Sixth generation (1973–1977) F100 Styleside.[22] However, in the earliest episodes it had a Flareside bed, and varied between F100 and F250 models throughout the show's run. Bo, Luke and Daisy also drove Jesse's truck on occasion.
Cadillac Coupe de Ville [ edit ]
A white 1970 Cadillac De Ville convertible was used as Boss Hogg's car, notably with large bull horns as a hood ornament. In early seasons, Hogg was almost always driven by a chauffeur, who was normally nameless and had little or no dialogue, but identified on occasion as being called "Alex"; and played by several different uncredited actors, including stuntman Gary Baxley. This chauffeur would often be dressed in a red plaid shirt and deep brown or black Stetson hat, but on occasion would be an older man, sometimes dressed in more typical chauffeur attire.
Hogg is first seen to drive for himself in the second season opener "Days of Shine and Roses", where he and Jesse challenge each other to one last moonshine race. From the fourth season onward, except for a couple of brief reappearances of the chauffeur (during the fourth season), Hogg drove himself around in his Cadillac (or occasionally driven by Rosco and, in the series' finale, by Uncle Jesse) and frequently challenged others by invoking his driving expertise from his days as a ridge-runner. Unlike other vehicles in the series, Boss Hogg's Cadillac is typically treated with kid gloves. The car is almost always seen with its convertible top down, with the top only being seen in two episodes, "Daisy's Song" (the chauffeur was called "Eddie" in this episode), the second to be produced and broadcast, and briefly in the second-season episode "Witness for the Persecution", when Cooter is returning it to the Court House after repairs.
Ford Custom 500 [ edit ]
A Green and blacked out 1971 Ford Custom 500 sedan named Black Tilly was used by Uncle Jesse to make moonshine runs.
Theme song [ edit ]
The theme song "The Good Ol' Boys" was written and performed by Waylon Jennings. He was also "The Balladeer" (as credited), and served as narrator of the show. However, the version released as a single is not the same version that was used in the show's opening credits; the single version has a repeat of the chorus and an instrumental to pad out the length, uses a different instrumental mix that emphasizes the bass, and replaces the last verse with an inside joke about how the TV show producers "keep on showing (Jennings's) hands and not (his) face on TV".
In 1980, the song reached #1 on the American Country chart and peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100.[23]
Broadcast history [ edit ]
Syndication [ edit ]
Soon before the series ended its original run on CBS, The Dukes of Hazzard went into off-network syndication. Although not as widely run as it was back in the 1980s and the years since, reruns of the program do continue to air in various parts of the United States.
Notably, television stations that aired the show in syndication include KCOP Los Angeles, WGN-TV Chicago, KBHK San Francisco, WKBD Detroit, WTAF/WTXF Philadelphia, KTXL Sacramento, WVTV Milwaukee, KMSP Minneapolis–Saint Paul, among others.
Nationwide, the show also aired on ABC Family (2000–2001, 2004) and CMT (2005–2007, 2010–2012, 2014–15) and TV Land (2015); TV Land dropped the show in the wake of protests and controversy surrounding the display of the Confederate flag.[25]
The Nashville Network bought The Dukes of Hazzard from Warner Bros. in 1997 for well over $10 million; not only did it improve the network's ratings, the show was also popular among younger viewers, a demographic TNN had a notorious difficulty in drawing; The Dukes of Hazzard has run either on TNN or sister network CMT ever since.[26]
Nielsen ratings [ edit ]
Episode list [ edit ]
The show ran for seven seasons and a total of 145 episodes. Many of the episodes followed a similar structure "out-of-town crooks pull a robbery or commit a crime or scandal, Duke boys blamed, spend the rest of the hour clearing their names, the General Lee flies and the squad cars crash".[36]
TV movies [ edit ]
There were two made-for-TV reunion movies that aired on CBS, The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! (1997) and The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood (2000).
Films [ edit ]
Also made were The Dukes of Hazzard in 2005 and a direct-to-video prequel The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning in 2007.[38]. These films were in the buddy comedy road film in tone than compared to how the original TV series itself was an action-comedy.
Home media [ edit ]
DVD [ edit ]
Warner Home Video has released all seven seasons of The Dukes of Hazzard on DVD in Regions 1 and 2. The two TV-movies that followed the series were released on DVD in Region 1 on June 10, 2008 and in Region 4 on June 4, 2014.[39] In Region 4, Warner has released only the first six seasons on DVD and the two TV movies. The Complete Series & 2 unrated feature films box set was released on DVD in Region 1 on November 14, 2017.[40]
DVD Name Ep # Release dates Region 1 Region 2 Region 4 The Complete 1st Season 13 June 1, 2004 August 15, 2005 August 17, 2005 The Complete 2nd Season 23 January 25, 2005 September 26, 2005 August 17, 2005 The Complete 3rd Season 23 May 31, 2005 November 21, 2005 March 1, 2006 The Complete 4th Season 27[41] August 2, 2005 February 13, 2006 March 1, 2006 The Complete 5th Season 22 December 13, 2005 April 10, 2006 August 9, 2006 The Complete 6th Season 22 May 30, 2006 July 24, 2006 August 9, 2006 The Complete 7th Season 17 December 5, 2006 September 22, 2008 N/A Two Movie Collection 2 June 10, 2008 N/A June 4, 2014 The Complete Series
& Two unrated feature films box set
147 November 14, 2017 N/A N/A
Streaming [ edit ]
The TV series was also made available for streaming and download through a variety of services |
the 47th over to move to his highest ODI score of 58 before eventually holing out to long-on in the 49th.
Leask, playing his first ODI since August 2016, stuck to old-school slogging at the other end, clearing the front leg to heave both medium pacers over the leg side boundary. He too finished with a career-best unbeaten 59 off 38 balls. Ngarava also had a career day, but in the wrong direction, ending up with 1 for 96 in 10 overs, the second-worst ODI figures by a Zimbabwean.
Zimbabwe's reply kept the 500-odd home fans mostly silent in the early part of their 318 chase as Hamilton Masakadza hit two monstrous sixes over long-on, one of which resulted in a ball change. But for the first of several times in the chase, Zimbabwe climbed up the top rope and readied themselves for the finishing move only to slip and fall off the turnbuckle.
Masakadza was run-out for 38 when he responded to Solomon Mire's tight call for a single off Leask, who ran towards short midwicket on his followthrough and relayed the throw to Cross. Craig Ervine was beaten for pace an over later by Chris Sole as a top-edged pull swirled before coming down to Cross.
Con de Lange entered in the 18th over and struck five balls later, the first of what would be a maiden five-for in Scotland colors, when Mire's top-edged sweep carried to Safyaan Sharif at deep square leg to make it 97 for 3. Another run-out came moments before the umpires took players off for thickening showers as Berrington's spectacular diving stop at backward point created confusion between Williams and Sikandar Raza, with the latter ultimately short of the relay to Cross.
The teams sat for 100 minutes before skies cleared and play resumed with Zimbabwe 107 for 4 in 21.3 overs, though set a new target of 299 in 43 overs. Williams made up for his role in Raza's run-out by producing a series of reverse sweeps for boundaries off de Lange. He brought up his half-century off 49 balls with a boundary. He would go on to make 70 before Berrington dislodged him thanks to a sharp catch by Cross standing up to Berrington's medium pace. In the same over, Berrington could have had another if not for a tough drop on a return chance to reprieve Malcolm Waller on 8.
While de Lange burrowed through Zimbabwe's middle and lower order at one end, Waller seized on the early evening cross-breeze to launch five sixes. Scotland's nerves showed in the 38th over when a four and six off by Waller off Sole was followed by a no-ball, with the ensuing free hit smashed for another four. Fifteen had come off three legal deliveries, with Zimbabwe dragging the equation down to 59 off 33. However, they were eight down and Waller began turning down singles in order to protect the tail.
With 38 needed off the last three overs, De Lange was brought back again only to be hit for another six down the ground by Waller. But three balls later another slog sweep held up in the wind for Sole to claim Waller at deep square leg for 92 off 62, though it was not without controversy as Scotland took a dramatic "heel" turn of their own. Video footage of the catch appeared to show that Sole's right foot was on the rope when he completed the catch before quickly dragging it back inside play.
For Zimbabwe fans, it will bring back bad memories of the disputed catch taken by John Mooney on the boundary to dismiss Williams on 96 in the 2015 World Cup, a match Ireland eventually won by five runs.
Zimbabwe initially protested and Waller stayed at the wicket for nearly a minute before reluctantly walking off. De Lange had five, Zimbabwe were down on the mat for good. Sharif then came back to claim the final wicket to clinch a famous Scotland win.Our political analyst finds many in Madison and Milwaukee are embracing bikes over cars.
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Tom Klein, 28, of Madison, and his wife recently flew to Washington, D.C., as tourists. But they didn’t use a cab, bus or subway to see landmarks. After landing at Reagan National Airport, they walked a few blocks and rented Capitol Bike Share bicycles.
We then took those bikes into the city, making stops along the way to check out things that interested us,” Klein said last week.
The Kleins are also going carless, selling their 2009 Saab that has 38,000 miles.
Sure, Tom Klein’s life-by-bicycle is part of his job; he’s Dane County coordinator for the Wisconsin Bike Federation. But there are signs it may be a trend.
Carl Schroedl, 23, also of Madison, commutes by bike 13 miles round-trip to his information technology job.
Schroedel is such a life-by-biker that he personally built his own bike before touring Spain, so he could fix anything that broke on that Europe tour. And, he went to a wedding in Dodgeville, which the Internet says is about 50 miles from Madison, by bike.
A New York Times column in June that found a decline of the “car culture” nationally prompted this question: Is it happening in Wisconsin?
In a WisconsinEye Newsmakers show, Klein, Schroedl and Rob Kennedy, a UW-Madison transportation planner whose family of four adults rarely uses its minivan, listed many are many reasons why more Wisconsin residents are going carless.
They said vehicles are costly to buy, maintain, park and operate; AAA Wisconsin estimated last week that gas cost a statewide average of $3.65 per gallon. Wisconsin’s two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, have seen return-to-downtown renaissances that invite more residents to go carless. Kennedy sees more and more of coworkers commuting by bus. Instead of being derided for their carless lifestyles, Klein, Schroedl and Kennedy say they are increasingly being asked for advice on how to live that way.
Personal anecdotes from three Madison professionals are interesting, but some statistics also suggest a “car culture” decline in Cheesheadland:
The number of Wisconsin 16-year-olds who have their driver’s license dropped 20% between 2002 and 2012. Maybe, “getting my license” is not the rite of passage to freedom and adulthood that it was for generations.
Wisconsin Department of Transportation figures show that the number of cars, SUVs, light trucks registered in the two last years grew by only 0.01% – one-tenth of 1%. That lagged the growth in Wisconsin’s population in that period.
WisDOT also reports that the total number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) miles in Wisconsin peaked in 2004. VMT dropped 1.4% between 2010 and 2011.
Fuel consumption statewide peaked in the 2003-04 budget year, and has fallen in six of the last nine years.
If there is a “car culture” decline in Wisconsin, it raises major questions about how the state will pay to build and maintain highways — including rebuilding the Zoo Freeway and Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee, and widening the I-90/39 corridor between Madison and Illinois — and rebuilding the Minnesota-Wisconsin bridge in Stillwater.
Carless drivers like Klein and Schroedl balk at paying to upgrade Interstate highways their bikes can’t use, for example.
This year, instead of raising taxes or delaying major highway construction plans, Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators kept state highway spending on track by borrowing $1 billion.
Craig Thompson, executive director of the Transportation Development Association, the special-interest umbrella of transportation groups, thinks no trend has emerged yet.
“It is too soon to tell,” said Thompson.
“There is always a dip in vehicle miles traveled, both for business and personal uses, when the economy slows,” Thompson added. “Younger people have been hit particularly hard by the Great Recession. It will be a while before we have any statistically reliable information beyond anecdotal stories.”
Thompson cited a recent Reason Foundation column by Bob Poole, who noted that more workers telecommute now and young adults drive less if they can’t find a job and move back home.
“The just-so story about Millennials losing interest in driving appears to be mostly an artifact of the recession’s severe impact on younger people – not a fundamental change in their choices of where to live or how to travel,” Poole said.
Steven Walters is a senior producer for the nonprofit public affairs channel WisconsinEye. This column reflects his personal perspective. Email stevenscwalters@gmail.comSummary: Exposing depressed adolescents to positive and negative words elicited different effects in specific brain regions depending on the sex of the subject, a new Frontiers in Psychiatry study reports.
Source: Frontiers.
New findings suggest that adolescent girls and boys might experience depression differently and that sex-specific treatments could be beneficial for adolescents.
When researchers in the UK exposed depressed adolescents to happy or sad words and imaged their brains, they found that depression has different effects on the brain activity of male and female patients in certain brain regions. The findings suggest that adolescent girls and boys might experience depression differently and that sex-specific treatments could be beneficial for adolescents.
Men and women appear to suffer from depression differently, and this is particularly striking in adolescents. By 15 years of age, girls are twice as likely to suffer from depression as boys. There are various possible reasons for this, including body image issues, hormonal fluctuations and genetic factors, where girls are more at risk of inheriting depression. However, differences between the sexes don’t just involve the risk of experiencing depression, but also how the disorder manifests and its consequences.
“Men are more liable to suffer from persistent depression, whereas in women depression tends to be more episodic,” explains Jie-Yu Chuang, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, and an author on the study, which was recently published in Frontiers in Psychiatry. “Compared with women, depressed men are also more likely to suffer serious consequences from their depression, such as substance abuse and suicide.” Despite this, so far, most researchers have focused on depression in women, likely because it is more common.
This motivated Chuang and her colleagues to carry out this latest study to find differences between depressed men and women. They recruited adolescent volunteers for the study, who were aged between 11 and 18 years. This included 82 female and 24 male patients who suffered from depression, and 24 female and 10 male healthy volunteers. The researchers imaged the adolescents’ brains using magnetic resonance imaging, while flashing happy, sad or neutral words on a screen in a specific order.
The volunteers pressed a button when certain types of words appeared and did not press the button when others appeared, and the researchers measured their brain activity throughout the experiment. When the researchers flashed certain combinations of words on the screen, they noticed that depression affects brain activity differently between boys and girls in brain regions such as the supramarginal gyrus and posterior cingulate.
So, what do these results mean? “Our finding suggests that early in adolescence, depression might affect the brain differently between boys and girls,” explains Chuang. “Sex-specific treatment and prevention strategies for depression should be considered early in adolescence. Hopefully, these early interventions could alter the disease trajectory before things get worse.”
The brain regions highlighted in the study have been previously linked to depression, but further work is needed to understand why they are affected differently in depressed boys, and if this is related to how boys experience and handle depression.
Because depression is more common in girls, the researchers were not able to recruit as many boys in this study, and future experiments should compare similar numbers of girls and boys for more representative results. Chuang and her colleagues would like to explore this phenomenon further. “I think it would be great to conduct a large longitudinal study addressing sex differences in depression from adolescence to adulthood.”
About this neuroscience research article
Funding: Funding provided by Medical Research Council, NHS Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme, Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Source: Melissa Cochrane – Frontiers
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to the researchers/Frontiers.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Adolescent Major Depressive Disorder: Neuroimaging Evidence of Sex Difference during an Affective Go/No-Go Task” by Jie-Yu Chuang, Cindy C. Hagan, Graham K. Murray, Julia M. E. Graham, Cinly Ooi, Roger Tait, Rosemary J. Holt, Rebecca Elliott, Adrienne O. van Nieuwenhuizen, Edward T. Bullmore, Belinda R. Lennox, Barbara J. Sahakian, Ian M. Goodyer, and John Suckling in Frontiers in Psychiatry. Published online July 11 2017 doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00119
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Abstract
Adolescent Major Depressive Disorder: Neuroimaging Evidence of Sex Difference during an Affective Go/No-Go Task
Compared to female major depressive disorder (MDD), male MDD often receives less attention. However, research is warranted since there are significant sex differences in the clinical presentation of MDD and a higher rate of suicide in depressed men. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study with a large sample addressing putative sex differences in MDD during adolescence, a period when one of the most robust findings in psychiatric epidemiology emerges; that females are twice as likely to suffer from MDD than males. Twenty-four depressed and 10 healthy male adolescents, together with 82 depressed and 24 healthy female adolescents, aged 11–18 years, undertook an affective go/no-go task during fMRI acquisition. In response to sad relative to neutral distractors, significant sex differences (in the supramarginal gyrus) and group-by-sex interactions (in the supramarginal gyrus and the posterior cingulate cortex) were found. Furthermore, in contrast to the healthy male adolescents, depressed male adolescents showed decreased activation in the cerebellum with a significant group-by-age interaction in connectivity. Future research may consider altered developmental trajectories and the possible implications of sex-specific treatment and prevention strategies for MDD.
“Adolescent Major Depressive Disorder: Neuroimaging Evidence of Sex Difference during an Affective Go/No-Go Task” by Jie-Yu Chuang, Cindy C. Hagan, Graham K. Murray, Julia M. E. Graham, Cinly Ooi, Roger Tait, Rosemary J. Holt, Rebecca Elliott, Adrienne O. van Nieuwenhuizen, Edward T. Bullmore, Belinda R. Lennox, Barbara J. Sahakian, Ian M. Goodyer, and John Suckling in Frontiers in Psychiatry. Published online July 11 2017 doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00119
Feel free to share this Neuroscience News.To anyone who’s closely followed the 2016 election, it’s no surprise that Libertarian Party Vice Presidential nominee, Bill Weld, has a long lasting relationship with Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the first Libertarian Townhall on CNN, Weld described his bond with Clinton as being “life long.” He’s also maintained that he believes there was no criminal intent on Hillary’s part in her ongoing email scandal, and Libertarian Party presidential nominee, Gary Johnson, once called Hillary Clinton “a wonderful public servant.”
It’s now being reported by Carl Bernstein, who says “I know Bill Weld and I know how much he despises Donald Trump,” that he thinks the Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate is considering dropping out of the race and perhaps getting behind Hillary Clinton, in an effort to stop Trump. In an interview with CNN, Bernstein said, “I think that Bill Weld is thinking about dropping out of this race if it looks like he and Gary Johnson might get Donald Trump elected. Right now we have to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. And I think he might do it. He might campaign for her.”
Watch the interview here:
Could Libertarian VP candidate renounce his candidacy? “Bill Weld does not want to be Ralph Nader.” – @carlbernstein https://t.co/TzGOzMcM2z — CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) September 17, 2016
Carl Bernstein reports that Bill Weld is considering dropping out if he thinks Johnson-Weld will help elect Trump. #JohnsonWeld2016 — Sheldon Richman (@SheldonRichman) September 18, 2016
UPDATE: Weld’s media team released a statement saying he will not be dropping out of the race.CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court sentenced Mohamed Badie, leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and 13 other senior members of the group to death for inciting chaos and violence, and gave a life term to a U.S.-Egyptian citizen for ties to the Brotherhood.
Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie listens to lawyers as he sits behind bars during his trial with ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and other leaders of the brotherhood at a court in the police academy on the outskirts of Cairo December 14, 2014. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih
The men were among thousands of people detained after freely elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was toppled in 2013 by the military under Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is now president.
Sisi describes the Brotherhood as a major security threat. The group says it is committed to peaceful activism and had nothing to do with Islamist militant violence in Egypt since Mursi’s fall following mass protests against his rule.
Egypt’s mass trials of Brotherhood members and people accused of links to the group, as well as its tough crackdown on Islamist and liberal opposition alike, have drawn international criticism of its judicial system and human rights record.
The sentences, pronounced at a televised court session on Saturday, can be appealed before Egypt’s highest civilian court in a process that could take years to reach a final verdict.
U.S.-Egyptian citizen Mohamed Soltan was sentenced to life in jail for supporting the veteran Islamist movement and transmitting false news. He is the son of Brotherhood preacher Salah Soltan, who was among those sentenced to death.
The White House condemned the sentencing, calling for Soltan’s immediate release and citing concerns for his health. It added that he would continue to receive U.S. diplomatic support “until he can return safely to the United States.”
Mohamed Abdel-Mawgod, one of the defense lawyers, also condemned the verdicts. “The court did not differentiate between the defendants and put them all in the same basket,” he told reporters at the courthouse. None of the defendants were present during the hearing.
Badie is the Brotherhood’s General Guide and has already been sentenced to several death and life sentences. His deputy Khairat El-Shater was given a life sentence on Saturday.
“OPERATIONS ROOM” TRIAL
Rights groups say Egypt, where a popular uprising toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and started years of political turmoil, is now cracking down on all dissent. Sisi says stability is needed to revive the shattered economy.
Rights advocates have criticized a U.S. decision to end a freeze on military aid to Cairo, saying Washington is putting human rights on the back burner. The United States has said the decision to end the freeze was in the interest of national security.
Mohamed Soltan, 27, arrested in August 2013, had been on hunger strike while in prison.
“He deserves the punishment because of the money and instructions from the Brotherhood which were found with him, and for spreading chaos and horror in society,” presiding Judge Mohamed Nagi Shehata told reporters.
Sara Mohamed, a relative of the Soltan family, said they would appeal the verdict. “It was a farce trial of the first class... None of the defendants attended the session,” she told Reuters by phone.
A website calling for Mohamed Soltan’s release says he was not a member of the Brotherhood, describing him as a U.S.-educated peace activist who was involved in youth events and charities. The website shows pictures of him lying emaciated on a stretcher while in detention.
Slideshow (2 Images)
Saturday’s case was known in local media as “The Rabaa Operations Room” trial. This is in reference to a sit-in at Rabaa square in 2013 in which hundreds of people protesting at the overthrow of Mursi were killed when security forces tried to clear the area by force.
Cairo has defended its actions, saying it had given protesters the opportunity to leave peacefully and that armed elements within the Brotherhood initiated the violence.
Saturday’s session sentenced 51 people. Those who were not sentenced to death were given a life sentence. The long list of charges included leading and funding an outlawed group, overturning the constitution and planning to spread chaos, a court source said.A fin whale that became stranded Wednesday morning in the shallow waters of Jersey Cove in Cape Breton has been towed out to sea.
Workers with the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture and the Marine Animal Response Society surrounded the whale with pontoons in an effort to usher it out to sea.
Andrew Reid, co-ordinator of the Marine Animal Response Society, told CBC News that staff were able to escort the whale out of the bay when it slipped past the pontoons and began swimming back toward Jersey Cove.
They chased the whale in a boat and managed to persuade it to head back out to sea, said Reid.
A local municipal councillor said the animal was spotted early Wednesday morning.
Reid earlier suspected it might be a minke whale, but said upon closer inspection that it was likely a young fin whale, about 10 metres long.
Reid said the whale may have come in close to shore to feed and then become trapped by the ebbing tide. He said that in shallow water it's difficult for these creatures to navigate using sonar. They often get confused and are unable to make their way back out to open water.Australian Court Says Genes Are Patentable
from the sweat-of-the-brow? dept
There is no doubt that naturally occurring DNA and RNA as they exist inside the cells of the human body cannot be the subject of a valid patent. However, the disputed claims do not cover naturally occurring DNA and RNA as they exist inside such cells. The disputed claims extend only to naturally occurring DNA and RNA which have been extracted from cells obtained from the human body and purged of other biological materials with which they were associated.
While the US Supreme Court will soon be weighing in on whether or not genes are patentable in the Myriad Genetics case, we've also been following a similar case in Australia. There, a bunch of cancer patients took Myriad to court, arguing that the patent on BRCA1 is invalid (this same gene is part of the US case). Unfortunately, the court has decided that genes are, in fact, patentable if they've been isolated. This is always the key point of contention with gene patent supporters. They claim that it's the fact that they can separate the gene that makes their work patentable. In some ways this is an odd sort of "sweat of the brow" argument for patents -- and here, the judge is buying the argument completely. He says that patenting genes in the human body would be a problem... but isolating them magically makes it a different story.This still seems ridiculous to me. If others figure out how to get an isolated gene as well, why should that be subject to a patent? Hopefully this is not a preview of the US Supreme Court's upcoming ruling.
Filed Under: australia, brca1, breast cancer, cancer, genes, patents
Companies: myriad, myriad geneticsA federal judge in New York refused on Monday to endorse a $285 million consent agreement with the SEC that would have allowed Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., to avoid any admission of wrongdoing in a deceptive securities transaction that earned Citigroup $160 million in profits while investors lost $700 million.
Under terms of the proposed agreement, Citigroup was not required to admit or deny any illegal conduct alleged in a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint, and the firm would pay what the judge termed “only very modest penalties.”
“If the allegations of the complaint are true, this is a very good deal for Citigroup; and, even if they are untrue, it is a mild and modest cost of doing business,” US District Judge Jed Rakoff wrote in a 15-page opinion.
“It is harder to discern from the limited information before the court what the SEC is getting from this settlement other than a quick headline,” he said.
“By the SEC’s own account, Citigroup is a recidivist, and yet, in terms of deterrence, the $95 million civil penalty that the Consent Judgment proposes is pocket change to any entity as large as Citigroup,” the judge said.
Instead of accepting the agreement between Citigroup and the SEC, Judge Rakoff told both sides to be prepared to go to trial on July 16.
SEC officials defended the proposed settlement, saying the government was unlikely to obtain more if it took Citigroup to court. The SEC enforcement director, Robert Khuzami, said the settlement helped free up investigative resources for other cases, according to the Associated Press.
At issue in the case was a 2007 effort by Citigroup to create and market a billion-dollar fund of problematic mortgage-backed securities just as the nation’s housing bubble was about to burst. The arrangement allowed Citigroup to dump assets of questionable quality on misinformed investors.
Citigroup told prospective investors that the fund’s assets had been hand-picked by an independent investment adviser, when, in fact, Citigroup used the fund to jettison $500 million in risky assets.
In addition, unknown to the investors, Citigroup had also taken a short position on those same assets, counting on the securities losing their value. When they did, Citigroup realized net profits of $160 million in addition to $34 million in fees it charged to set up the investment. In contrast, the investors lost everything – more than $700 million.
The SEC undertook a four-year investigation. The SEC announced the settlement agreement Oct. 19. It called for Citigroup to pay $285 million. That amount included a $95 million fine, and disgorgement of the $160 million in profits and $30 million in interest.
The agreement asked the court to order Citigroup to refrain from future violations of specific provisions of the securities laws, and to adopt a series of internal policing measures.
The proposed agreement does not require the SEC to use any of its recovered funds to compensate defrauded investors. In addition, the agreement undercuts efforts by the investors to recover their losses by suing Citigroup, according to the judge.
“The combination of charging Citigroup only with negligence and then permitting Citigroup to settle without either admitting or denying the allegations deals a double blow to any assistance the defrauded investors might seek to derive from the SEC litigation [by filing a private lawsuit],” Rakoff said.
Private investors may not sue on claims of negligence and since Citigroup is not required to admit wrongdoing, the settlement may not be used as evidence to support a civil lawsuit by investors.
In most cases, judges routinely approve proposed settlement agreements involving government regulatory agencies. Not Judge Rakoff.
The judge complained in his order that he had been provided no facts upon which to render an independent judgment about the agreement since Citigroup was not required under the agreement to admit any wrongdoing.
“The court concludes, regretfully, that the proposed Consent Judgment is neither fair, nor reasonable, nor adequate, or in the public interest,” Rakoff said.
“This is because it does not provide the court with a sufficient evidentiary basis to know whether the requested relief is justified under any of these standards.”
The judge added: “The court, and the public, need some knowledge of what the underlying facts are: for otherwise, the court becomes a mere handmaiden to a settlement privately negotiated on the basis of unknown facts, while the public is deprived of ever knowing the truth in a matter of obvious public importance.”In 1440, a popular Lollard priest, Richard Wyche, was burned at the stake in London for heresy. An ad-hoc shrine sprang up at the place of execution and, in an attempt to excite greater devotion, the vicar of All Hallows in Barking mixed spices with the ashes that remained from the burning. The sweet smell this produced – the odour of sanctity – confirmed Wyche’s virtue. The London authorities struck back by turning the site into a dunghill: the stench of ordure was what should characterise the heretic. These smells might have been counterfeit, but they are indicative of a way of thinking about sensory perception that is quite unlike ours. To medieval people, moral and spiritual connotations were an integral part of the process of sensation.
On the face of it, studying the senses in the medieval past should be a straightforward matter. Our bodies are ostensibly the same: there can have been little physiological evolution in the intervening period – and medieval men and women must therefore have been just like us. That, however, is to ignore an important aspect of perception: the way that we understand how the senses work is culturally determined. My experience when I look at something today is fundamentally different from how the people of the later Middle Ages saw it. Anthropologists such as David Howes and Constance Classen in Ways of Sensing: Understanding the Senses in Society (2014), and Howes in his edited volume The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses (1991) have demonstrated that different societies have different approaches to perception, and even different ways of sensing – and that is no less true for societies in the past.
What has changed? The post-Enlightenment scientific world has a closed model of perception: the subject’s sense organs receive information, which is passed to the brain where it is interpreted. In the medieval world, perception was a more open process, where much might pass not only between perceived and perceiver, but also the other way round, from the perceiver to the object or individual who was the focus of perception. This was a two-way process, at the very least. Sitting at my desk today, I can feel that it is hard and smooth; it might also be warm or cold to my touch. If I had sat here 600 years ago, my senses might have transmitted to the desk physical, moral and spiritual qualities, and it might have passed others to me: if this was a place that had been used by a holy or evil person, those qualities might reside in the desk. This was not the one-way transmission of ‘information’ that one anticipates today, but something much broader, and, in the highly moral world of the Middle Ages, the transfer of these broader qualities was of immense significance.
All the senses operated by a form of touch, by direct contact. Sight, in the early Middle Ages, following Neoplatonic ideas, reworked by St Augustine, was considered to operate by a process known as extramission: a ray went out from the eye to the object and then returned to the eye. In the later Middle Ages, a view of the process based on intromission prevailed: what was seen resulted solely from light coming from the object. It passed through the air to the eye through a process known as the multiplication of species. These were images or representations of the original that brought the object and the eye together. One might imagine it much like a stick of Brighton rock: an image would appear in a cross-section taken at any point. These rays brought the perceiver and the perceived into direct physical contact.
Much as I do not need to understand theoretical physics to believe that the world operates in a particular way, ordinary men and women of the Middle Ages did not need to grasp the detail of scholastic theories of perception and cognition. Yet there were close links between these theories and popular beliefs about the senses, and some striking aspects emerge from a consideration of perception in action. Holiness and evil, for example, were physical qualities that might pass by touch. Simply to look upon an object could bring advantage. In this way, the elevation of the host during Mass brought people benefit from seeing the consecrated bread; relics might be displayed in monstrances to the same end. Bad things could also be transmitted through sight: this was how the evil eye operated. Touch could bring a spiritual and a legal force. Pilgrims clustered at the burial places of saints – some tombs were even designed with apertures to allow visitors to climb inside, to get even closer to the holy. Swearing oaths while touching holy books guaranteed the truth of a jury’s verdict, its veredictum or ‘true saying’. Touch brought much more than cognition and symbolism. Transmitting moral and physical qualities was an essential part of sensation.
We can see these qualities with other senses, too. Sound could be good or bad. It was the voice of the angel Gabriel that brought the Holy Spirit (and pregnancy) to the Virgin Mary, and illuminations show it passing into her body through her ear. Heresy passed by sound. One did not have to understand it to be infected, to hear evil sound was sufficient to pass the contagion. That’s why medieval listings of the senses sometimes include a sixth sense: speech. This might seem odd but to medieval people, speech was a part of the ‘senses of the mouth’: taste was the incoming aspect, speech – above all, an ethical act – the outgoing part.
Traces of the moral characterisation of perception can still be found in present-day language and lore. One might talk about a good or an evil smell, or of ‘stinking sin’. And this reminds us that, although the scientific model of perception is a closed one, not everyone today sees the world in this way. Other beliefs run in parallel, and many have roots in the medieval past. What is the power of crystals, or of aromatherapy? Do ‘home-made’ foods bring with them more than the expertise of the cook, but part of the individual themselves?
Medieval people were in fact unlike us in so very many ways: their senses brought them into direct contact with others, with the material world and the supernatural. And the consequences of that direct contact, through sight, hearing, smell, taste and, above all, touch, were an essential part of their lives. To medieval Londoners, the odours of Wyche’s execution site were confirmation of his moral qualities – whether for good or evil – qualities that they might themselves imbue on visiting the shrine.DIII Men’s Regional Preview 2016: Atlantic Coast
The AC will be the most competitive DIII Regional of 2016.
Every year at the end of the college regular season, the final USAU rankings are released and along with it, the final bid allocation. Every year, there’s one region that is left with the short end of the stick by the good ol’ USAU rankings algorithm. This year, that region is the Atlantic Coast, finishing with only two bids despite having three teams in the top thirteen. Unfortunately, that will happen every year with a 16-team field; strength bids will always be hard to come by. This two-bid situation creates what should be the most competitive regional tournament in the country. Eight teams will converge on Elon University’s campus this weekend for what should be a terrific weekend of competition. Let’s take a look at each team:
The Bid Winners
Richmond Spidermonkeys
Ranking: #4 Ultiworld, #3 USAU
Regular Season Record: 19-3
Tournaments: Bring The Huckus 6, Layout Pigout, DIII Easterns
If you asked anybody how Richmond’s season would go, not many people would have predicted this. After graduating a senior class who led the team to three regional championship game appearances and two trips to DIII Nationals, this was supposed to be a rebuilding season for the Spidermonkeys. Nobody told them that.
Richmond had a wildly successful regular season, highlighted by a dominant 7-0 performance at Layout Pigout that featured two wins over Brandeis and a win over Franciscan. “We gained a lot of confidence from the way we played that weekend,” said senior captain Dennis Maclaine. “Our offense had their best tournament as they learned how to play together and how to trust each other.”
Richmond’s offense is indeed a beautiful thing to watch. They run a vertical stack, anchored by their Callahan nominee Henry Babcock. Babcock is a tall handler with precise throws from an array of release points. His height and length allow him to break his mark in a variety of ways, and his ability to hit both sides of the field consistently give Richmond’s cutters the freedom to cut wherever they can get open, rather than worrying about where they can be thrown to.
Although Babcock spends most of his time on the O-line, Richmond’s D-line often operates with the same efficiency. They roll out seven players every point that will play hard man defense, and simply don’t give up easy scores. Any throw that lacks precision will be eaten up by a nearby Spidermonkey defender, and D-line staples Maclaine and Justin Keller will punish opposing O-lines after a turn. This defense rattles off breaks with a ruthless efficiency; watch the second half of their championship game at Layout Pigout against Brandeis, where Richmond’s stifling handler defense and offensive efficiency from the D-line resulted in a 9-2 half for the comeback win.
Babcock missed Conferences due to a back injury, but according to team leadership, he should be back and healthy at regionals. Despite Babcock’s absence, Richmond went 4-0 with Joey Cullison and freshman handler Chris Selwood stepping up to play big roles in Babcock’s absence. “We played really tough competition during the conference championships, and to come away with four wins without our best player gives us a lot of confidence,” said Maclaine.
This team has the talent and confidence to find themselves again in a game to keep the bid to nationals they earned for the region. This year, don’t expect them to let that bid slip away.
UNC Asheville Bulldogs
Ranking: #10 Ultiworld, #5 USAU
Regular Season Record: 13-7
Tournaments: Queen City Tune Up, Hundred Acre Wood, College Southerns
Last year was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Bulldogs. They graduated several key |
savaged Rumsfeld for pulling a Woodward in his memoir by playing fast and loose with reality. He posted his review at the Best Defense (as in, you know, a good offense), the war fightin’ blog of former Washington Post reporter and bestselling author Tom Ricks. Small world down there in Washington!
It’s enough to make you nostalgic for... well, I have no idea what.
Meanwhile, present Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, officially preparing to fade away later this year, hit the news as well. His much-hinted-at retirement now seems like the Titanic looming on the military-industrial horizon. (Take note, New York publishers and literary agents: Gates wrote a memoir the last time he faded away as CIA Director. That was back in the Neolithic Age of the elder Bush. It came out in 1996 and was titled From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War. Still, chalk that effort up to another century and start preparing the contracts for Into the Shadows, The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Two More Presidents and How They Didn’t Win Much of Anything.)
To be exact, Gates made news by going to West Point to speak to the cadets in what was plugged as the first of a number of “farewell” addresses. (The second came a week later at the Air Force Academy.) In the process, he made the headlines for quoting -- somewhat oddly -- General Douglas (the original fader) MacArthur.
Now, give Gates credit. The man has superb speechwriters who channel both his obvious intelligence and his sometimes-mordant sense of humor. (Hint for Hillary: When he leaves the scene, you should grab any wordsmiths he lets loose. It would help if you laced some self-deprecating humor, however borrowed, into those statements of yours that blank [fill in the country, tyrant, or protest movement] must do what you say and then that you just repeat when whoever or whatever predictably doesn’t...)
Examined Heads
...Oh sorry, I dozed off. What was I saying?
Something about old soldiers?
Anyway, here was the eye-popping quote that everyone picked up and highlighted from Gates’s address: “But in my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.”
“Have his head examined”: strong words indeed, not to say strong advice for his successor! As quoted, it did sound like a late-in-term awakening on America’s wars. After all, the Secretary of Defense had to know that it would be the money paragraph, the one reporters would carry off, in a speech significantly about other matters.
Quoted by itself, it also had to seem like a mix of a mea culpa, a j’accuse aimed at his former boss, President George W. Bush, and his predecessor Rumsfeld, and a never-again statement about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan he’s been overseeing since 2006 and, in the case of Afghanistan, expanding since 2008.
Those four words from MacArthur seem to tell the only tale worth telling. Supreme Commander, southwest Pacific area, during World War II, “emperor” of occupied Japan, and commander of United Nations forces in the Korean War until cashiered by President Harry Truman, MacArthur later urged President John F. Kennedy not to get involved in a “land war on mainland Asia” -- that is, in Vietnam.
As Christian Science Monitor reporter Brad Knickerbocker typically wrote, Gates’s “recollection of Gen. MacArthur’s famous warning -- given to President John F. Kennedy in 1961 as the U.S. buildup in Vietnam was beginning -- was a sober message for the young men and women about to become the next generation of U.S. military commanders.” Gates, in other words, was citing a “famous” example of how MacArthur used his hard-won experience in a terrible, stalemated war in Asia to try to stop another disastrous war a decade later. A flattering analogy, one might say.
There's only one problem: it just wasn’t so. MacArthur’s “famous warning” came not in 1961, but in 1950. As Michael D. Pearlman explains in his book Truman & MacArthur: Politics, Policy, and the Hunger for Honor and Renown, MacArthur made that comment soon after North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. He believed they were only conducting a “reconnaissance-in-force.” On June 26th, 1950, MacArthur, writes Pearlman, “was ‘astonished’ to receive directions to resist the invader. ‘I don’t believe it. I can’t understand it.’ John Foster Dulles, who favored a prompt military response, recorded him saying that anyone thinking of throwing American forces into the breech ‘ought to have his head examined.’”
MacArthur’s urge, then, was prospective, not retrospective -- a gut reaction that has, in the last decades, Gates’s decades, been notably absent in Washington. There’s no way of knowing whether this was clear to Gates or his speechwriter, but under the circumstances it was an odder phrase to quote than the reporters covering his address imagined, for it highlighted an essential problem with Gates and the rest of Washington’s global wrecking crew. For them, the idea of going in has seldom been an alien one. It’s going in the wrong way that bothers them -- and the problem (as Gates essentially admitted in his speech) is that you only know it’s the wrong way afterwards.
That striking quote of his, read in the context of his full speech, leaves a somewhat different taste behind. Even the assumed prohibition against future Iraq- and Afghan-style wars is more cryptic than you might imagine. The best Gates can do is this: “The odds of repeating another Afghanistan or Iraq -- invading, pacifying, and administering a large third world country -- may be low.” Low, but not evidently nil in a world where all options always remain “on the table.”
Of course, his real focus at West Point was on quite a different kind of conflict. He was there, in a sense, on a business trip to the future as the deliverer of prospective bad news to the future officers of the U.S. Army. Their leaders, he wanted to tell them, were about to lose an intra-service struggle for the fruits of the still-growing but increasingly embattled Pentagon budget in economically fierce times.
In terms of future funding, and so future war-fighting, their service, he was there to tell them, was not well positioned. “The Army,” he said, “also must confront the reality that the most plausible, high-end scenarios for the U.S. military are primarily naval and air engagements -- whether in Asia, the Persian Gulf, or elsewhere.”
(Note to journalists in a collapsing industry: it’s not often that a long-gone beat comes back, but that’s the case here. In the 1950s, the services fought bitterly for shares of a far more limited military budget. In fact, for a funds-starved Army in the early 1960s, Vietnam was, in budgetary terms, its breakout moment. Now, budgetary war in Washington, missing-in-action for decades, is back, so the Secretary of Defense insisted.)
At West Point, but not at the Air Force Academy, think of Gates, then, as the Grim Reaper of military careers, telling the cadets that their future wouldn’t be in giant, never-to-be-used tank forces and that he was worried about just how they would indeed be employed. As if to emphasize his point, on the very same day, another fading warrior, retiring Army Chief of Staff General George W. Casey, Jr., was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, even though dreaming of a future “sipping Coronas [and] watching sunsets on the beach in Scituate [Massachusetts].” There, he was to give his own valedictory to the Association of the U.S. Army and the “Defense Industry,” while making a most un-Gatesian plea for that same pot of gold.
Wielding an infamous Vietnam-era phrase, the general worried that unnamed government types already “think they see the light at the end of the Afghanistan tunnel” and so were clamoring to cut the Army’s budget, even though the U.S. remains in an “era of persistent conflict.” He then issued this warning:
“A Nation weary of war, struggling to get its domestic economy going again, looks to cash in on a ‘Peace Dividend’ and drastically cut back on defense. But, we've seen time and again that a ‘Peace Dividend’ is, at best, a mirage and, at worst, a danger to the long-term security of our Country, our allies and our interests... [W]e simply cannot afford to dismantle this incredible Army that we have so painstakingly built over the past decade.”
“We Have Never Once Gotten It Right”
Let’s assume that, after so many years overseeing the Afghan War, Gates may, in fact, be a somewhat chastened man. Perhaps there is evidence of this in his carefully articulated reluctance (as well as that of Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen) to do the American thing and throw the U.S. military at any problem -- in this case, a no-fly-zone over Libya. It’s certainly evidence that General Casey and the Secretary of Defense agree on one thing: they are dealing with a “stressed and tired” force. After two wars in a single decade, with a Global War on Terror thrown in, the thought of launching yet another campaign “in another country in the Middle East” might well leave any Secretary of Defense feeling sour.
Of course, given the twin disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan, who on Earth would want to repeat them? Gates does seem, however provisionally, to be sidelining the recent Holy Grail of the U.S. Army and its key commander, General David Petraeus: counterinsurgency, or COIN. If there are to be no more major land wars in Asia, then evidently U.S. soldiers won’t be spending much time “protecting the people” and “nation-building” either.
However briefly, Gates offered the cadets a glimpse of a different war-fighting future (one that sounded eerily reminiscent of Donald Rumsfeld’s once bright and shiny vision of a faster-than-lightning, “net-centric” Army lite). “The strategic rationale for swift-moving expeditionary forces, be they Army or Marines, airborne infantry or special operations,” Gates said, “is self-evident given the likelihood of counterterrorism, rapid reaction, disaster response, or stability or security force assistance missions.”
In other words, instead of “shock and awe,” “regime change,” and long-term occupations, he now imagines “counterterror” as well as air force and naval operations against “terrorists, insurgents, militia groups, rogue states, or emerging powers” that would be so decisive and effective as to “to prevent festering problems from growing into full-blown crises which require costly -- and controversial -- large-scale American military intervention.”
It sounds brilliantly un-Afghan, doesn’t it?
In other words, Gates seems to have a better idea of how, in the future, to go in. What his speech lacked was any suggestion, no less analysis, of how to get out of the war that remains, for the months to come, his responsibility.
Recently, journalist Dexter Filkins wrote a review of Bing West’s new book, The Wrong War, in the New York Times. As much as anything else, it offered a devastating portrait of counterinsurgency (“a new kind of religion”) in Afghanistan as a failed faith. Filkins, who covered both Iraq and Afghanistan for the Times, concludes that counterinsurgency has failed big time in the Afghan context, creating only a “vast culture of dependency: Americans are fighting and dying, while the Afghans by and large stand by and do nothing to help them.” Gates may well agree.
Filkins also seems unconvinced that slipping more COINs in the Afghan slot machine will improve the situation significantly. (“[N]othing short of a miracle will give [Americans] much in return.”) For all we know, Gates may agree with this, too.
Here’s the catch: nearly 10 years into our second Afghan War, Filkins simply can’t seem to imagine a way out of the failed effort, or much else but more of the same. It’s there that the discussion simply ends for him, as it does for the Secretary of Defense, as it does, generally speaking, for Washington.
Gates himself is now preparing to depart (some might say jump ship) with his war still at a boil. At West Point, he had advice galore for the next Secretary of Defense, and yet it’s striking that his speech avoided a serious look at Afghanistan and how to end his war. He was perfectly willing to offer the cadets a window into the future on a range of subjects -- on almost anything, in fact, but that war.
When it came to his primary responsibility, however, all he offered was this fragment of a sentence, a reference assumedly to American contingency-based drawdown plans to remove “combat troops,” but not tens of thousands of trainers and other forces by the end of 2014: “...after large U.S. combat units are substantially drawn down in Afghanistan...” (In his subsequent address to the Air Force Academy, he denied that anything he said at West Point was an attack on "the wisdom of our involvement in Afghanistan.")
The Secretary of Defense was clear on one thing: it's a joke to imagine that you can predict the future trajectory of war, American-style. “And I must tell you,” he said in his second most quotable set of lines, “when it comes to predicting the nature and location of our next military engagements, since Vietnam, our record has been perfect. We have never once gotten it right, from the Mayaguez to Grenada, Panama, Somalia, the Balkans, Haiti, Kuwait, Iraq, and more -- we had no idea a year before any of these missions that we would be so engaged.”
And yet he still dreams of those future “swift-moving expeditionary forces” heading towards places which will surely maintain that “perfect record.”
Of course, it’s worth remembering that not everybody got everything wrong. In response to most of those wars, there were antiwar movements, large or small, that said: wrong place, wrong time, wrong idea, get out. And not all of this happened retrospectively either. In the specific case of Iraq, for instance, an enormous antiwar movement preceded the war and offered this piece of clear advice in no uncertain terms: don’t do it!
That movement was right. The war-makers were wrong. Yet no one from that movement is taken seriously in the mainstream media or in Washington to this day.
Here’s something important to remember: Vietnam did not start out as “Vietnam,” nor Iraq as “Iraq,” nor Afghanistan as “Afghanistan.” The fabulous dreams of doing it right always precede the horrific wars and, time after time, those in power never seem to feel MacArthur’s urge not to do it. Somehow, they never imagine that, sooner or later, disaster and blowback will be in the offing, though based on recent history that’s the only reasonable prediction to make in such circumstances.
Almost a decade after we invaded Afghanistan and “triumphed,” our latest “wise men” -- in Washington and in the media -- are still at a loss. The inability to win or be reasonably successful over so many years has, by now, penetrated almost, but not quite, never quite, to the core, leaving them bereft of solutions, except for continuing without serious hope. And when it comes to this, too, for those who remember Vietnam, there’s nothing new under the sun.
Unexamined Heads
The problem isn’t that no one can predict the next war. It’s that so many heads in Washington go unexamined. As a result, our leaders are desperately behind the learning curve of Americans generally.
Perhaps this is the moment to offer a simple future lesson for the Secretary of Defense -- if not the one who will leave office in 2011 with the Afghan War still roaring along, then the next one -- and here it is: it doesn’t really matter whether you go in big with tanks and counterinsurgency-style nation-building on the brain or small with a counterterror-lite footprint backed by air power.
The issue Gates, like his peers, still focuses on is how to go in better. The issue that needs to be focused on isn’t the “how to” but the going in.
The lesson that Washington still seems incapable of drawing from its endless experience of such wars in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is this: don’t go in, because the Age of Intervention is over.
It really doesn’t matter whether ours is “the finest military in the world,” as Gates assured the cadets, or "the finest fighting force that the world has ever known" as our presidents have taken to saying. It doesn’t matter that the U.S. Army is battle-hardened and that it has years of counterinsurgency experience under its belt. It doesn’t matter whether we favor the Navy and the Air Force over the Army in our future wars. What matters is going to war. What matters is the illusion that military power is our key problem-solver, our go-to position of choice.
It’s time, once and for all, to lock the gates. It’s time to use the U.S. military only in the genuine defense of this country.
It doesn’t seem like the hardest lesson in human history to grasp, but it has been: don’t go in. This isn’t a utopian’s recipe, but a realist’s. You just have to remind yourself that your intervention will never turn out the way you fantasize or plan, no matter what your fantasies or plans may be.
Let me say it one more time because I know no one’s listening: don’t do it.
Afterward, write your 832-page books, enjoy your honors, duke it out with journalists, but when you’re Secretary of Defense, your job is to defend America against the urge to intervene. Intervention doesn’t work. Not in the long run, often not in the short one either. Not these days. Not at all.
Your job is somehow, in a Washington that can’t imagine such a thing, to turn ever again into never again.
Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. His latest book is The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s (Haymarket Books). To listen to a TomCast audio version of this post, read by Ralph Pochoda, click here or download it to your iPod, here.
[Note of thanks to: Jim Peck for helping spark this one, Ralph Pochoda for reading the TomCast audio version so sonorously, and the indispensible Christopher Holmes for applying his remarkable proofreading eye not just to this piece but to every TomDispatch piece. A deep bow to all three. In addition, for those of you eager to keep up on American war and fast-moving events in the Middle East, be sure to check out three sites that I find invaluable and visit daily: Juan Cole’s Informed Comment website, Paul Woodward’s War in Context website, and of course Antiwar.com.]
Copyright 2011 Tom EngelhardtCLOSE DHS Chief John Kelly says no military force will be used for mass deportations. Veuer's Nick Cardona (@nickcardona93) tells us why that might go against something his boss said earlier in the day. Buzz60
Derrick Taylor, Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisor of fugitive operations for deportation, gives a briefing to his team about suspects before a pre-dawn raid in Santa Ana, Calif., on Jan. 17, 2007. (Photo: Mark Avery, AP)
Former immigration enforcement chiefs are questioning the legality of President Trump's plan to ramp up a program that allows federal agents to quickly deport suspected undocumented immigrants without appearing before a judge.
"Expedited removals" have been in force for 20 years but have only been used against people caught within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border and who are alleged to have entered the country within the previous two weeks.
Now, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has ordered an expansion of the program to apply nationwide and for anyone who entered the country within the previous two years.
That expansion threatens the constitutional rights of undocumented immigrants who may get mistakenly deported, warned John Sandweg, who headed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under President Obama.
"The Supreme Court has consistently held that even undocumented immigrants are entitled to due process," he said.
Sandweg added that expedited removals have been a valuable tool for immigration agents working near the border when they are dealing with clear-cut cases of illegal entry.
Julie Myers Wood, who headed ICE under President George W. Bush, agreed. She said her team considered expanding expedited removals, but decided against it because of legal concerns. She said other aspects of Trump's tougher immigration enforcement plan also may run afoul of the law.
"Many of these authorities have never been used that way," Wood said. "The administration is really testing the parameters of what's acceptable. There is some litigation risk there."
Read more:
Trump laid out his planon Jan. 25, and Kelly issued orders for implementing it Tuesday.
Congress created "expedited removals" in 1996. It allows federal agents to interview each subject to determine if the person should be deported. The agent reviews any documents the person has to establish how long they've been in the country.
If the undocumented immigrant claims fear of persecution or torture if returned to their home country, the agent is supposed to turn them over to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to determine if the detainee has a "credible fear" and should be allowed to apply for political asylum.
CLOSE The Department of Homeland Security has begun rolling out President Donald Trump's plans for a wider crackdown on people coming into the United States illegally. Here they are. USA TODAY NETWORK
The law allows for removal of undocumented immigrants who entered the country within the previous two years. But the Clinton administration limited its use to people caught at ports of entry who had arrived in the previous 14 days. The Bush administration expanded that to people caught within 100 miles of the border, and President Obama maintained that guideline.
Kelly's order said an expansion is necessary because immigration courts are so backlogged it can take up to five years to deport people brought before a judge, creating a "national security vulnerability."
Critics say that approach will rush undocumented immigrants through a process they barely understand without the right to an attorney and few options to appeal their deportation.
CLOSE President Trump assured CPAC crowds that he is keeping his campaign promise to get "bad people" out of the U.S. USA TODAY NETWORK
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent commission created by Congress, concluded in a 2016 report that those fears are well grounded. Researchers observed expedited removal proceedings in several states and found that immigration officers frequently skipped legally required steps, which it called an "alarming" trend.
In some cases, agents failed to fully advise detainees of their rights and did not let them review documents they were forced to sign. The commission also found that some agents disregarded immigrants' political asylum claims.
In one case, a man from El Salvador showed an immigration agent a letter from a police officer in his hometown saying he had been threatened by gang members. But the report found that the agent simply kept the letter, which was not used to determine if he should be allowed to seek asylum.
That's why Sandweg and Wood both said it's important for ICE to provide updated training to provide clear guidance on the kinds of documents agents can use to establish how long a person has been in the country. In a statement, ICE said all new deportation officers already undergo a 20-week training course that includes training on expedited removals.
It's unclear how many people could be deported immediately under Trump's plan. The Pew Research Center estimates that 1.5 million undocumented immigrants have been in the U.S. for fewer than five years, but it does not have data on those in the country fewer than two years.
Homeland Security has not yet formally expanded the expedited removal process. It must first publish its new plan in the Federal Register.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2lDfnPqTwo weeks ago, in the aftermath of the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide, Bob Costas went on national television and said some sensible things about guns, and lots of people—some of them on this very site—responded with all the predictable idiot lowing. This was bad enough, but the true measure of how fucked up we are as a country about guns came four days later. Costas was appearing on Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor as part of his damage-control Stations of the Cross. Here was the exchange:
O'REILLY: So first up, how do you feel about the right to bear arms? COSTAS: Obviously, Americans have a right to bear arms. I'm not looking to repeal the Second Amendment.
"Obviously," he said, even though the Second Amendment has nothing to do with private ownership of guns. No, really. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with private ownership of guns, a fact that's been effectively obscured by 40 years of academic vandalism and bamboozling pseudo-history conducted under the auspices of the NRA. Adam Lanza was not a well-regulated militia. Jovan Belcher did not bear arms against Kasandra Perkins and then himself. Their right to carry a Glock or a Sig Sauer rifle is not enshrined in the country's most sacred text.
Costas should've known better, but it's hard to blame him when even historians have thrown up their hands and let bad scholarship pass into the bloodstream. That "obviously" was bought with millions and millions of the NRA's dollars. It is the signal triumph of the gun culture Costas was decrying.
You're going to hear a lot more in the coming days about our gun culture and the Second Amendment, but the terms of the debate will have already been set—and methodically impoverished—by the work of many hired bullshitters. "Obviously," Costas said. That's how fucked up we are about guns. The leftmost margin of our current national gun conversation had been established by a man who was now capitulating on the very meaning of the Bill of Rights.A year of threats from the House had thousands of government scientists expecting cuts as deep as 20 percent by those determined to drown government in the bathwater. But at the last minute, in December’s final budget, Senate Democrats were able to bring the science and energy research funding levels much closer to the Obama administration budget requests. In FY2012 appropriations – passed after initial House Republican tantrums to prevent a wage-earners’ payroll tax holiday within it – “Big Government” science escaped the hits Republican lawmakers had threatened.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Science got a small increase to $4.889 billion, below the Obama administration’s request for $5.4 billion, but a slight increase of $46 million. ARPA-E got $275 million, half the administration’s request of $550 million [PDF], but an increase over its 2011 level of $180 million, and much higher than the Republican House bill that sought to cut ARPA-E funding to $100 million (which would have been just one quarter of the $400 million that the Democratic House had initially funded the program at in 2009).
Researchers had expected 6 percent cuts in funding earlier this year. “We won’t have to shut down our facilities,” Eric Isaacs, director of Argonne National Laboratory told Science Insider in April when a compromise was hammered out. “We may have to adjust how we operate them, but we won’t have to shut them down.”
Any advanced civilization requires taxpayer-funded science at the government level, because the challenges are too complex to be solved by any one company. At the government level, scientists can focus on the deep level of pure research that eventually creates the breakthroughs that benefit many industries at once. Private investors need marketable results much faster. This is why Bill Gates and GE’s Jeff Immelt recommended funding ARPA-E at $1 billion this year.
A good illustration of why we should not reduce funding for government science is the research being done at Argonne National Laboratory on reducing the energy needed by millions of different catalysts.
The reason that finding more efficient catalysts is essential, is that catalysts reduce the energy that it takes to convert one thing into another. Making things out of other things is one of the marks of an advanced civilization. But we are entering the 21st century carbon-constrained age in which we must do more with less energy.
Catalysts speed up chemical reactions by reducing the amount of energy you need to turn one thing into another. We need to turn a lot of materials into other ones, and we need to cut the energy we use to do it as well. Reducing the energy intensity of production is essential to future manufacturing.
For example, with the catalysts we use now to make alkenes out of ethane and propane – that we use to make plastic – this process uses 3 percent of all the energy used in the U.S. each year. As oil declines, devising new materials to make new kinds of plastics will be necessary, and we need to do the research now to find the most energy-efficient catalysts to make these new materials.
It is difficult to do advanced research in material catalysts unless you can get down to the atomic level to see what is happening during a reaction. Big scientific facilities like Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source are needed, which no one company could afford.
Potential configurations for new catalysts can run to thousands of combinations. Argonne’s Blue Gene/P supercomputer is able to speed up finding new catalysts by unlocking the complicated configuration of math, physics and chemistry needed to do a better job.
Developing clean energy itself benefits from catalyst searches done at Argonne. Government scientists have made progress in finding a better, more energy efficient catalyst to break down cellulose for fuel out of waste biomass like switchgrass and tree waste, and this month made a breakthrough in making a better catalyst for hydrogen.
But with vastly more funding from the fossil fuel industry in 2012, due to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, Democrats will likely lose the Senate in 2012 to proxies for the richest industry on the planet, similar to the new House members elected in 2010. So while the Democratic Senate was able to prevent the anti-science House bills from becoming law in 2011, we will likely not have that protection in the future.
It is essential for our future prosperity that Republican voters begin to understand the civilization-level risks that their congressional choices expose us to in a much more globally competitive 21st century.
The “Big Government” that they are instructed to drown in the bathtub is not some imagined wasteful bureaucracy, but includes pure research that private companies cannot afford to do, that is the foundation of our advanced civilization. In the middle of the 20th century, when we had much higher levels of taxation and correspondingly higher levels of funding, public science led to 130 Nobel Prizes and breakthroughs like vaccinations and the internet browser.
Some examples of breakthroughs by government scientists that we have covered at EarthTechling include key research into lithium-air batteries, a boost for solar power from luminescent concentrators and the development of new EV batteries for the auto industry.Eating fish and seafood with higher levels of mercury may be linked to a higher risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 69th Annual Meeting in Boston, April 22 to 28, 2017. However, fish and seafood consumption as a regular part of the diet was not associated with ALS.
"For most people, eating fish is part of a healthy diet," said study author Elijah Stommel, MD, PhD, of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. "But questions remain about the possible impact of mercury in fish."
While the exact cause of ALS is unknown, some previous studies have suggested mercury to be a risk factor for the disease. In the United States, the primary source of exposure to mercury is through eating fish contaminated with the neurotoxic metal.
Often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS is a progressive neurological disease that takes away the ability of nerve cells to interact with the body's muscles. Early symptoms of the disease can include muscle twitching and weakness in a limb. It typically develops into complete paralysis of the body, including the muscles needed to speak, eat and breathe. There is no cure for ALS, and eventually the disease is fatal.
For the study, researchers surveyed 518 people, 294 of whom had ALS, and 224 of whom didn't, on how much fish and seafood they ate. Participants reported the types of fish they ate, and whether they were purchased from stores or caught when they were fishing.
Researchers estimated the annual exposure to mercury by looking up the average mercury levels in the types of fish and the frequency that the participants reported eating them. Swordfish and shark are examples of fish that are considered high in mercury, while salmon and sardines typically have lower levels. Researchers also measured the levels of mercury found in toenail samples from participants with ALS and compared those levels to people without ALS.
The study found that among participants who ate fish and seafood regularly, those in the top 25 percent for estimated annual mercury intake were at double the risk for ALS compared to those with lower levels. A total of 61 percent of people with ALS were in the top 25 percent of estimated mercury intake, compared to 44 percent of people who did not have ALS. They also found that higher mercury levels measured in toenail clippings were associated with an increased risk of ALS. Those in the top 25 percent of mercury levels, based on fish-related intake or toenail clippings, were at a two-fold higher risk of ALS. These findings need to be replicated in additional studies.
The authors emphasize that this study does not negate the fact that eating fish provides many health benefits. However, the study suggests that the public may want to choose species that are known to have a lower mercury content, and avoid consuming fish caught in waters where mercury contamination is well-recognized. More research is needed before fish-consumption guidelines for neurodegenerative illness can be made.
Currently, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) health recommendations for women of childbearing age and children are to eat two to three weekly meals of species such as salmon or sardines that have low mercury, but are also high in nutrients such as potentially beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. The FDA recommends avoiding fish with the highest mercury levels, such as shark and swordfish. Check for waterbody-specific fish advisories when consuming fish caught by family or friends.As doubts re-emerge about the strength of economic recovery in the U.S., a new global workforce study by Towers Watson reveals that 63% of U.S. employees are not fully engaged in their work and struggling to cope when sufficient support is not provided.
The research suggests employees are finding it difficult to sustain the kind of positive connection to their companies that yields consistent productivity – the result of nearly a decade of pressure to do more with less and respond to the challenges of global competition, ever-evolving technology and the ongoing need for strict cost management.
“When workers are not fully engaged, it leads to greater performance risk for employers,” said Julie Gebauer, managing director, talent and rewards, Towers Watson. “It makes companies more vulnerable to lower productivity, higher inefficiency, weaker customer service and greater rates of absenteeism and turnover. Without attention and interventions aimed at improving on-the-job support for employees and creating a sense of attachment to the organization, this trend could worsen – and directly affect business outcomes.”
The study breaks new ground in understanding and measuring what contributes to sustained employee engagement in the workplace today, and demonstrates the strength of the relationship between “sustainable engagement” and specific financial outcomes for employers, according to Towers Watson.
“This is an important wake-up call for U.S. companies if they hope to sustain their growth,” said Laura Sejen, global practice leader, rewards, Towers Watson. “When we looked at sustainable engagement scores among 50 global companies in a related piece of research and examined their one-year operating margins, we saw dramatic evidence of the impact of sustainable engagement on performance. The companies with high sustainable engagement had operating margins almost three times those of organizations with a largely disengaged workforce. That fact alone creates a compelling case for change.”
The Towers Watson study uses a specific set of questions to measure and classify respondents as to their level of sustainable engagement. Overall, the study showed that only 37% of U.S. workers are highly engaged in a sustainable way, meaning they scored high on all three elements of sustainable engagement.
Just over one-quarter (27%) are classified as unsupported, meaning they display traditional engagement, but lack the enablement and/or energy required for sustainable engagement. Thirteen percent are detached, meaning they feel enabled and/or energized but are not willing to go the extra mile. And almost one-quarter (23%) are completely disengaged, with less favorable scores for all three aspects of sustainable engagement.
Other key findings include:In effect, the bacteria have a genetic code of six letters rather than four, perhaps allowing them to make novel proteins that could function in a completely different way from those created naturally.
“If you have a language that has a certain number of letters, you want to add letters so you can write more words and tell more stories,” said Floyd E. Romesberg, a chemist at Scripps who led the work.
Image Floyd Romesberg, a chemist, led the work at the Scripps Research Institute in California. Credit Scripps Research Institute
Dr. Romesberg dismissed concern that novel organisms would run amok and cause harm, saying the technique was safe because the synthetic nucleotides were fed to the bacteria. Should the bacteria escape into the environment or enter someone’s body, they would not be able to obtain the needed synthetic material and would either die or revert to using only natural DNA.
“This could never infect something,” he said. That is one reason the company he co-founded, Synthorx, is looking at using the technique to grow viruses or bacteria to be used as live vaccines. Once in the bloodstream, they would conceivably induce an immune response but not be able to reproduce.
One possible use of an expanded genetic alphabet is to allow cells to make new types of proteins.
Combinations of three nucleotides in DNA specify particular amino acids, which are strung together to make proteins. The cell, following those instructions, strings amino acids together to form proteins. With rare exceptions, living things use only 20 amino acids.
But there are many amino acids that could possibly be used in proteins, potentially adding new functions. Ambrx, a San Diego company that has filed to go public, is incorporating novel amino acids into certain proteins that are used as drugs in an effort to make the drugs more potent in killing |
ian David Ludwig notes that there's been a lot of research linking sugar-sweetened beverages to obesity, but a surprising lack of data comparing the health effects of reduced-fat milk to whole milk.
Ludwig argues that we should question what we've been taught about drinking that recommended three cups a day and that lower-fat milk is really no better than full-fat milk. Low-fat milk, he argues, doesn't fill you up as much and people end gaining weight by drinking more of it or reaching for that extra chocolate-chip cookie. Though he says the worst culprits, especially for children, are the sweetened varieties like chocolate milk, which of course most kids prefer.
"The substitution of sweetened reduced-fat milk for unsweetened whole milk — which lowers saturated fat by 3 g but increases sugar by 13 g per cup — clearly undermines diet quality, especially in a population with excessive sugar consumption," says Ludwig.
Evidently, drinking milk in general is not even as good for our bones as we thought. Ludwig points out that bone fracture rates tend to be lower in countries that do not consume milk, compared with those that do — while there are many other sources of calcium.
However, people probably shouldn't be too quick to be deleting dairy from their diets just yet. The Globe and Mail presented the study to its in-house dietitian Leslie Beck, who pointed out that the sugar in plain milk — 11 grams of sugar in a tiny carton of fat-free milk — is naturally occurring lactose and should not be cause for alarm.
Besides, says Beck, it's a lot easier to get kids to drink milk for their daily calcium needs than it is for them to eat up their collard greens, and parents should be a lot more worried about the real junk food kids are eatings these days.
The Harvard study's findings also shouldn't come as too much a shocker. For ages, the anti-dairy movement, back by nutritionists, vegans and vocal Hollywood A-listers like Gywneth Paltrow alike, has been saying that sure milk is nature's perfect food...if you're a calf.
Also on HuffPostPro-Obamacare NFL launches war on Second Amendment
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
December 3, 2013
The National Football League once again revealed itself to be little more than an establishment political tool when it declined to run a Super Bowl ad submitted by rifle manufacturer Daniel Defense.
The company’s “offensive” ad depicts a former marine arriving home to greet his wife and child, accompanied by a voice over stating, “no one has the right to tell me how to defend them.”
The ad supposedly violates the NFL’s advertising guidelines, which bar ads featuring “firearms, ammunition or other weapons,” even though the ad doesn’t actually show any of the above, aside from an illustration of their popular DDM4 rifle featured below Daniel Defense’s logo.
The NFL’s firearm ad restrictions, in full, state:
Firearms, ammunition or other weapons; however, stores that sell firearms and ammunitions (e.g., outdoor stores and camping stores) will be permitted, provided they sell other products and the ads do not mention firearms, ammunition or other weapons.
“According to these guidelines,” writes Guns & Ammo, “Daniel Defense’s Super Bowl commercial does not violate NFL policy for two reasons:
• Daniel Defense has a brick-and-mortar store, where they sell products other than firearms such as apparel.
• The commercial itself does not mention firearms, ammunition or weaponry.”
When Daniel Defense received notice their advertisement violated NFL policies, which it clearly didn’t, the company attempted to rectify the situation by conceding to alter their logo instead to feature an American flag in the rifle illustration’s place “and/or the words ‘Shall not be infringed,’” according to Guns & Ammo. “The NFL replied with another non-negotiable denial.”
It certainly comes as no surprise that the nation’s beloved sporting franchise – most notable for consuming vast amounts of Americans’ time, money and cognitive processes through the bombardment of innumerable matches, needless merchandise and unimportant stats– is once again being used as a propaganda tool to downplay the value of self defense, gun ownership and the nuclear family.
As gun rights activist Colion Noir pointed out in his excellent video, there is an almost incomprehensible double standard regarding what the NFL allows on its bread and circus broadcasts, and what it deems inappropriate.
While the NFL has no problem airing anti-gun or racist rants from the likes of sportscaster Bob Costas, and no problem urging compliance with Obamacare or promoting Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns campaign, or airing violent video game ads or ads to join the military or halftime shows littered with half-naked women idolizing a commercial representation of the Illuminati, it ludicrously chooses to take a stand against an ad depicting wholesome, manly behavior, such as instinctually wanting to protect one’s family.
The NFL was also used as a political tool last year when it allowed sports commentator Bob Costas to spew anti-gun rhetoric during Sunday Night Football.
The is just the latest example of the golden calf that is the NFL selling Americans on the notion that the natural right to self defense is “offensive.” More and more it has proven itself to be a soviet-style political tool useful only in propagandizing Americans, in addition to distracting the masses from real pressing issues.
If folks can’t rid themselves of the illusion of freedom the NFL has constructed by either boycotting it or altogether ignoring it, is there really any hope for America?As many as six AAP MLAs, out of a total of 20, favour that Mr Kahira should resign as Leader of the Opposition.
Chandigarh: The politician-drug mafia nexus that topped the agenda of all parties ahead of Punjab Assembly elections early this year has once again stirred up the state’s politics.
The AAP which had launched a tirade against the ruling Akali Dal during the polls now finds itself in an embarrassing situation after an arrest warrant was issued against its state president Sukhpal Singh Khaira, in a case related to Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The naming of Mr Khaira in the drug smuggling case has divided the new outfit with one section asking Mr Kahira to resign on moral grounds and, the other, standing by his side.
The arrest warrants were issued against Mr Khaira by the additional district and sessions judge, Fazilka, while sentencing nine people to imprisonment in the trans-border heroin smuggling racket which surfaced in 2015. The warrants were later stayed by the Punjab and Haryana high court.
As many as six AAP MLAs, out of a total of 20, favour that Mr Kahira should resign as Leader of the Opposition.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition Sarvjit Kaur Manuke and Talwandi Sabo legislator Baljinder Kaur are among those who have asked him to put in his papers "keeping with the party's political ethos".
Four others, including AAP's deputy state convener Aman Arora, have raised the demand in party forums. However, the other MLAs want all party leaders and workers to back Mr Khaira, claiming that he is being targeted because he has been confronting the Congress and the Akalis on several issues.
Mr Khaira has courageously fought off criticism, saying that the AAP leaders screaming for his resignation played a nefarious role, with the ruling Congress, in a conspiracy to malign him.
"These opportunists are weakening the party. After the court issued summons, all my opponents joined hands, but I did not expect some of my colleagues in the AAP to get greedy or play in the hands of rival parties. It is a case of vendetta. Instead of protecting me, they are conniving with the opponents," he said.
The fresh crisis has added to AAP’s problems at a time when the party is witnessing exodus of leaders and recovering from a humiliating defeat in the recent Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-poll in which the AAP candidate couldn't save his security deposit.
On the other hand, the AAP's beta noire and Akali leader Bikramjit Singh Majithia, who was the target of its allegations on politician-drug mafia nexus, has got a clean chit of sorts in all matters. Now, Mr Majithia has got an opportunity to hit back on the AAP and demand action against Mr Khaira.
Recently, 40 Congress MLAs demanded fresh action against Mr Majathia. However, chief minister Amrinder Singh said, "I personally feel Mr Majithia is involved in drug trade but cannot act without evidence." Senior party leaders said the chief minister believes that he should not be seen as doing "vendetta politics" if Mr Majithia is arrested without concrete evidence and gets relief from court.Long Beach Car Locksmith
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Save our Long Beach Car Locksmith 24 hour phone # for a rainy day (562) 242-2060Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption As Sebastian Usher reports, the situation in Yemen is confused
Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen's capital Sanaa have shelled the president's home, shattering a ceasefire.
President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi was reported to be inside the house but an official insisted he was safe.
The UN Security Council condemned the attack and urged the rebels to respect the country's legitimate leaders.
But rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi accused Yemen's leaders of corruption and said the country was at a "defining" moment.
The attack on Mr Hadi's home came after the rebels entered the presidential palace in another part of the city following a brief clash with guards.
Yemen, a key US ally in the fight against al-Qaeda in the region, has been beset by unrest for months.
Houthi militias, who are seeking greater autonomy for their home province, overran Sanaa in September after moving out of their northern stronghold.
However, the capital's presidential buildings have so far remained outside their control.
President 'fine'
Information Minister Nadia al-Sakkaf said on Twitter the president's home had come under heavy shelling from armed forces positioned on rooftops nearby.
An unnamed Yemeni government official told Reuters news agency: "The president is inside and he is fine." Another official said two people had been killed in the fighting.
Shelling died down after about half an hour, witnesses said.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The rebels have set up checkpoints in Sanaa
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The rebel leader's speech was broadcast live
Image copyright Reuters Image caption President Hadi has been under pressure for months
In a live televised address, the rebel leader accused President Hadi and others of putting their interests ahead of the people's.
"What happened was that they [the political leadership] sank deep into corruption and tyranny," he said.
"The nation has started moving towards a tragic situation and complete collapse. The situation has worsened on all fronts - political, economic and security - on a large scale."
Mr Houthi said the government had encouraged the spread of al-Qaeda.
The ceasefire that broke down on Tuesday had been agreed just one day earlier after hours of fierce clashes in the city between the presidential guard and the rebels.
Under an agreement with President Hadi, the Houthis - who abducted presidential chief of staff Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak on Saturday - pledged to withdraw from the capital once a new unity government was formed.
UN appeal
Image copyright AFP Image caption Houthi rebels in Sanaa on Tuesday
In a statement adopted by all 15 members, the UN Security Council said President Hadi was "the legitimate authority".
It urged "all parties and political actors in Yemen" to stand with him and the government to "keep the country on track to stability and security".
The UN special envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, had told members via video link that the Houthis had persuaded other military units not to fight them, a diplomat at the closed-door session told Reuters.
The Houthis, who adhere to a branch of Shia Islam known as Zaidism, have staged periodic uprisings since 2004 in an effort to win greater autonomy for their northern heartland of Saada province.
They consolidated their control over Saada during the 2011 uprising that forced long-time President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
Since July the rebels have inflicted defeats on tribal and militia groups backed by the leading Sunni Islamist party, Islah, and battled jihadist militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has vowed to defend the country's Sunni community.
Opponents allege that the rebels ultimately hope to reinstall the Zaidi imamate, which ruled North Yemen for almost 1,000 years until 1962.I have done a post like this before, but that was based on an animated gif that someone else made. This time, I commissioned someone to make an animation out of my personal favorite breathing exercise to help stop your anxiety. It’s called 4-7-8 breathing and it goes like this…
Please feel free to save/share/steal this image if you need it.
I write about this exercise in my book as a prefect “go to” breathing exercise for several reasons. First off, it isn’t an obvious breathing technique. You can do this on the train or in the middle of class and no one will even notice. The other is that focusing on the specific numbers and trying to “follow the rules” of the exercise can be really helpful for those who get anxious without specific instructions. Now, as you continue to breathe along here, I want to talk a bit about breathing for relaxation and how you can make this exercise work for you. If you have anxiety, stress, or even panic attacks, keep reading.
Anxiety cannot physically hurt you. You hear that? You are not in true danger. However, your brain makes it feel as if you are in danger. That’s because your asshole of a brain is jumpstarting your fight or flight response and throwing your sympathetic nervous system into a tizzy. As a result, you can feel like you are short of breath, like your heart is pounding, and like the whole world is closing in around you. Deep breathing is a way to hack your brain into relaxation by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which comes in and clean up the mess that your fight or flight response leaves behind. This process is called the relaxation response.
Now here’s the thing: the modern human animal is kinda shitty at relaxing. Therefore, we need to practice relaxation as a skill. The battle with anxiety or stress is often a high intensity situation. You don’t want to try to rely on skills that you have not had very much practice with when that pressure is on, right? Think of it this way: would you stand up in front of a crowd and give a speech that you’ve never practiced? Of course not. So let’s talk about how to practice relaxation in a way that will make you ready to kick anxiety’s ass at a moment’s notice.
As with any other skill, this will take some training. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you should be practicing your deep breathing when you are not already experiencing strong anxiety. Our bodies are great at associating things together and if you only engage in deep breathing when you are already stressed, you can accidentally cause your body to actually expect stress from deep breathing. Instead, you want to spend about 10 minutes, three times per week, engaging in deep breathing and teaching your body how to go through the relaxation process.
So carve out three spots in your busy life to spend a few minutes engaging in 4-7-8 breathing or any other exercise that works well for you. Focus on the sensations that occur within your body as you breathe. Notice what it feels like when that internal switch flips and you shift into the wonderful cascade of relaxation. And that’s it! Once you successfully achieve that relaxation or the time limit has passed, call it quits for the day. If you keep training this, I promise that you will not regret it. That means that the next time you have a panic attack or a really busy day at work, you will not be left defenseless and instead you will have a well trained skill at your disposal to bring you down a few notches and get you back into the game.
Here are a few more popular blog posts on anxiety that you might want to check out:
You can also sign up for my newsletter and get a free guided relaxation!
What to learn more about how to battle that beast called anxiety?
Hardcore Self Help: F**k Anxiety is for those of us that find the prospect of reading a traditional self help book to be way too boring. How are you supposed to make positive change in your life if the book itself feels like a chore? This book is definitely not a chore.
In Hardcore Self Help: F**k Anxiety, I talk to you like a friend. There is a lot of swearing and humor along with loads of helpful and actionable information. You learn about anxiety and how to find the weapons within yourself to slay it for good.
Kindle | Paperback | Audiobook1 of 15 View Caption
Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Defense attorney Scott C. Williams talks to members of the media after his trial Thursday Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Defense attorney Scott C. Williams talks to members of the media after his trial Thursday Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Defense attorney Scott C. Williams talks to members of the media after his trial Thursday Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Former Utah Attorney General John Swallow and his wife Suzanne leave the courtroom after h Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Former Utah Attorney General John Swallow in court, Wednesday, March 1, 2017. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Former Utah Attorney General John Swallow tears up as he watches the jury be dismissed Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Former Utah Attorney General John Swallow, his wife Suzanne Swallow and defense attorney C Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune John Swallow listens as his attorneys discuss how to correct an error in the jury instruction Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune John Swallow listens as members of his defense team, Cara Tangaro, Scott Williams and Brad An Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Prosecutor Chou Chou Collins gestures toward former Utah Attorney General John Swallow du Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune John Swallow listens as members of his defense team, discuss how to correct an error in the j Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune John Swallow listens as members of his defense team, Cara Tangaro, Scott Williams and Brad An Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune John Swallow listens as Cara Tangaro and Scott Williams discuss how to correct an error in th Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Defense attorney Scott Williams finalized his closing remarks by asking former Utah Attor Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune John Swallow listens as members of his defense team, Cara Tangaro, Scott Williams and Brad AnSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Oprah Winfrey’s new reality TV star has a history of homophobia.
John Gray, a Christian pastor from Houston, Texas, has been given an eight-episode documentary series by the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) called ‘The Book of John’, which will follow his life as a preacher and family man.
The decision is likely to anger LGBT rights campaigners, however, due to a series of anti-gay positions taken by Gray in the past.
Gray tweeted in 2013 that “homosexuality is no different from fornication, adultery, lying or any other sin”.
In 2012 he attacked gay judge Tonya Parker for refusing to perform marriages until gay marriage was legal in Texas, writing: “Gay judge n TX refuses2 do weddings until there’s marriage equality. Let a straight or Christian judge try the opposite-they’d fire them.”
And in 2011 he responded to the news that CNN was due to air a programme about school bullying by saying “it better not just be about gay kids”.
Oprah’s decision to grant Gray his own show will surprise many of her LGBT fans, who have long admired her history of promoting LGBT voices.
In 1997 Oprah famously interviewed comedian Ellen DeGeneres about her decision to come out as a lesbian.
And more recently Oprah interviewed trans advocate Janet Mock about her identity and what it means to be “othered” in society.
In one episode of ‘The Book of John’, Gray helps a couple to overcome infidelity. In another he counsels a victim of the 2016 Louisiana floods.
Oprah made headlines last month when she revealed that she is thinking about running for US President.
Winfrey, a Hillary Clinton supporter, spoke with financier David Rubenstein in an interview for his Bloomberg Television show, which aired last month.
Winfrey said: “I never considered the question even a possibility,” when asked whether she might consider a run, adding that she had always thought the job would require far more experience than she had.
But she changed her mind when billionaire property magnate Donald Trump, who had never been elected to any level of office before November, became the 45th US president.
“It’s clear you don’t need government experience to be elected president of the United States,” she said.Kahsar Hameed is comforted by co-worker and chief steward James Nickle.
Kevin Van Paassen for The Globe and Mail
For 31 years, John Petti was a janitor at a Goodwill outlet in Scarborough. Now, bewildered, jobless and left with just 11 boxes of Kraft Dinner in his North York apartment, he is struggling to understand the thrift store's sudden demise.
Looking at piles of newly donated goods sitting untouched in motley heaps outside Goodwill's locked doors at the Progress Avenue location, Mr. Petti wonders how a business model with a well-established brand relying on free donations could suddenly run out of cash and go belly up.
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"The maddening thing is, every single day, people are donating," he said. "They come out in a freaking rainstorm and drop off donations."
Mr. Petti joined dozens of out-of-work Goodwill employees in the parking lot on Wednesday to demand their paycheques and call for the resignation of chief executive officer Keiko Nakamura. Some had showed up to work on Sunday to find shuttered stores and no explanation.
Coursing through their expressions of fear and anger is a deep sense of betrayal and confusion over how this could happen. "In my world, if you give me something for free, and I sell it, I'm going to have money in my pocket," Goodwill truck driver and union steward James Nickle said. "It's pretty simple."
Sadly, for the 430 mostly low-wage employees put out of work, the fall of Goodwill's Toronto operation was anything but simple.
While the organization's closing was abrupt, a Globe and Mail analysis of Goodwill's operations shows that its decline was long in the making. The group's financial woes stretch back well over a decade, and the charity weathered a string of major and minor crises for years as it attempted to find a solid financial footing.
Goodwill's failure is a story of numerous poor management decisions set against the backdrop of an increasingly competitive retail environment for second-hand goods. Coming together, the two factors were a fatal combination.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Michael Eubanks: Chair. Chief information officer at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, previously worked at technology company One Inc. and at Canadian Tire Corp. Michael Levitt: Vice-chair. Executive director of Humber River Family Health Team and consultant to non-profit organizations. Mark Trachuk: Treasurer. Partner at law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, practises corporate and securities law. Yazdi Bharucha: Director of Centric Health Corp. and Genesis Land Development Corp., retired chief financial officer of Canadian Apartment Properties REIT. Jim Curran: Former CBC radio traffic reporter. Christine Hart: Former Ontario cabinet minister, lawyer, president of Accord/hart & Associates Inc., which provides mediation and alternative dispute resolution services. Amy Hosotsuji: Event planner and youth co-ordinator at the Grassroots Youth Collaborative, which supports youth-led festivals and events in Toronto. Kelly Juhasz: Managing director of Knowledge Transfer Company Inc., which advises firms on digital strategy and designs training tools. Amin Remtulla: Chief information officer at Trillium Gift of Life Network, an Ontario government agency co-ordinating organ donations. David Wai: Director of plan design and policy at the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan Implementation Secretariat. Alex Kjorven: Head of applied innovation practice at Purpose Capital, which advises investors with a social impact mandate.
While Ms. Nakamura has offered minimal public comment about the financial issues that sunk the organization – and would not agree to be interviewed for this article – it is clear that the charity has operated on the brink for years.
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Court records in legal disputes illustrate how long Goodwill has struggled to make ends meet. In 2006, for example, the charity's lender cancelled its line of credit because of financial concerns, which prompted the organization to distribute credit cards to executives in order to make key payments and provide petty cash.
Ms. Nakamura's predecessor, former Deloitte human resources consultant Ken Connelly, ran Goodwill for more than a decade before retiring in 2011. The organization was always financially up against the wall and, by its nature, difficult to manage, he said.
Heaps of goods were left outside the Richmond Street Goodwill after the closure of all 16 Toronto-region stores was announced.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Among its challenges, Goodwill has a mandate to employ people with disabilities, immigrants, people with criminal records and the chronically unemployed.
"It's like the people who Goodwill serves, it's a marginalized community," said Mr. Connelly, 75, who now writes poetry. "Most of the employees have come through a program of some sort, and it is unionized … so you're always negotiating. And it's just a very tough environment for everyone connected to it."
The combination of a union and Ontario's move to increase the minimum wage, which Mr. Connelly supports, did make it harder to meet the payroll. Wages were Goodwill's single biggest annual expense, at around $17-million, close to two-thirds of its revenue.
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Plus, Mr. Connelly said, new competitors in the second-hand clothes market were emerging.
In addition, the 2008 financial crisis hit the charity, and the city's poor whom it serves, very hard, he said.
But even before the financial crisis, Goodwill was struggling. It made a series of bold moves meant to shore up its future, but kept ending up further behind. In 2005, it sold off its Jarvis Street flagship store, which had stood for 70 years, to developers. Goodwill earned $14-million, but it was soon eaten up paying off debts, buying new equipment, paying severance to laid-off workers, setting up new stores and facilities and subsidizing ongoing losses.
Around the same time, Goodwill Toronto thought that it could fix its problems by bringing in consultants from a successful Goodwill branch in the United States, signing an 11-year deal for help from Goodwill Manasota Inc. of Bradenton, Fla. But the help did not come cheap.
Trainers were sent north from Florida to work with Toronto's staff to find ways to maximize revenue. However, according to Goodwill Toronto's financial statements, by 2008, with the financial crisis biting, Toronto had to cancel the deal. Mr. Connelly said he felt that the trainers had taught his organization all they could.
But Goodwill Toronto was left with a $160,263 (U.S.) bill it couldn't pay. It agreed to make $1,000-a-week instalments until its financial health improved.
In an interview, current Goodwill Manasota vice-president Veronica Brandon Miller said she was unaware of the details of the Toronto contract, or why it was cancelled. But she said her organization does its best to help struggling Goodwill stores.
"A lot of people don't understand … there's a whole process to make sure that you are gaining the most revenue from [each] donation," she said. "And that's what we do."
Some of the items found piled on the sidewalk outside the Goodwill store and drop off location at 60 Overlea Blvd.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Goodwill Toronto had also fallen way behind on the $1,300 (U.S.) a month in dues it must pay to Goodwill Industries International Inc., the organization based in Rockville, Md., that serves as an umbrella for independently operated Goodwills across the United States and Canada.
In 2009, according to its financial statements, Goodwill Toronto agreed to pay Goodwill Industries International $136,811 in back payments, spread out in monthly instalments scheduled until 2017. This week, a spokeswoman for the international group said her organization had sent a representative to Canada to look into the sudden collapse of the Toronto-based chapter.
Mr. Connelly said that, despite all Goodwill's many problems, the shuttering of the organization on his successor's watch came as a shock. He is hopeful that it will reopen, not just for the staff, but for the many customers who live in poverty and not only shop at the store but also feel like part of a community there.
"When they go into one of the downtown stores or an upscale store, they don't feel welcome, they are basically told to get out," he said. "Whereas when they go to a Goodwill store, they feel at home."
Keiko Nakamura, Toronto Community Housing’s Chief Executive Officer (L) and David Mitchell, Chair of Toronto Community Housing’s Board of Directors attend a press conference to announce the company’s response to the report made public by Toronto auditor-general Jeff Griffiths in Toronto, February 28, 2011
Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
In 2011, Mr. Connelly retired and was replaced by Ms. Nakamura, who had been fired as CEO of Toronto Community Housing Corp., the massive city agency that oversees its 58,000 units of public housing. She was asked to leave TCHC in March, 2011, after an audit report uncovered lavish staff spending and sloppy procurement practices.
Controversial crises The abrupt shutdown this week of Goodwill’s Toronto operations is not Keiko Nakamura’s first brush with crisis. Before her 2011 appointment as chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries of Toronto, Eastern, Central and Northern Ontario, Ms. Nakamura was the controversial head of Toronto Community Housing Corp. (TCHC), the city agency that oversees 58,000 units of public housing with an annual budget of more than $600-million. Ms. Nakamura was fired in March, 2011, after a city audit report revealed evidence of lavish staff spending and poor procurement practices at TCHC, including millions spent on improperly sole-sourced contracts. The auditor listed numerous examples of improper spending, including $53,500 for a staff party, $40,000 for a Christmas party, $1,925 for manicures and $1,000 for chocolates from Holt Renfrew. The spending occurred between January, 2009, and June, 2010, and Ms. Nakamura argued that she was not CEO over the full period and had introduced policies to rein in improper spending after she became head of the organization. But former mayor Rob Ford’s administration insisted on her ouster, arguing that she was part of the management team in place during the period in question. She joined TCHC in 2005 as chief operating officer before becoming CEO on an interim basis in 2009 and permanently in 2010. Before joining TCHC, she was Toronto’s director of facilities services, and previously worked for 10 years in the health-care sector at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
Ms. Nakamura's background was in the public sector, and she had no experience running a retail-store chain. At Goodwill, she was overseen by a volunteer board that also lacked significant retail-management backgrounds, many of its members coming from other parts of the business or charitable world. They resigned en masse last Friday and have declined to speak, leaving many questions about their handling of the crisis.
By all accounts, Ms. Nakamura hit the ground running. Her first priority was to develop a strategy to turn around the organization, including a "real estate consolidation" plan that ultimately saw Goodwill close at least five store locations under her tenure.
She also launched a strategy to cut overhead costs, and replaced some top officials. In 2012, she fired the long-time chief operating officer, Vijay Goutam, after alleging that he used a Goodwill credit card for $27,000 in cash withdrawals or advances "to benefit him personally," according to court documents filed in a wrongful-dismissal suit.
At first, Mr. Goutam, who received a salary of $156,550, agreed to pay the money back and was allowed to stay on, on probation. In the court documents, he denies any wrongdoing, saying that in previous years, once expense receipts were reconciled, he would cover any "overage" for cash spent without receipts.
But he was let go after allegations emerged that he had then "pressured" a subordinate to lend him $9,000, which Mr. Goutam also denies in the documents. He sued in 2013, but the two sides reached a settlement.
Through his lawyer, Mr. Goutam declined to comment for this story.
The CEO changeover came as Goodwill was in the midst of making one of its biggest financial decisions in years: the sale of its only significant remaining real estate asset. After the selloff of its Jarvis Street location, it had retained a nearby parcel of land on Richmond Street, where it once had a garage to repair its fleet of trucks. It had turned this property into a donation centre and, in 2006, had taken out a $980,000 mortgage on it.
In 2011, Goodwill got an offer from condo developer Brad Lamb for the site for $4.2-million. But a legal dispute threw the deal into question, after it emerged that an adjacent property owner had actually purchased a right of first refusal on the property from the original owners who had sold it to Goodwill in 1987.
Mr. Lamb did not get the land. It was sold to Goodwill's neighbour, and the charity continued to rent from the new owners and operate its donation centre until this week.
The proceeds from the 2011 sale came at a critical time. Without the cash, Goodwill would have suffered a $2.4-million loss that year. The money was supposed to go into a reserve fund, but it ended subsidizing the organization's losses in the next few years.
A period of relative calm followed. According to the 2012 financial numbers, sales grew and costs fell. Yet the company's auditors still attached their standard warning to the 2012 financial statements, signed in May, 2013, warning that Goodwill faced risks "that cast significant doubt about the organization's ability to continue as a going concern."
That warning was a major barrier that kept Goodwill from being able to borrow more money from banks. But the new management team was optimistic that the auditor's alert would soon disappear.
"While the organization has endured problems in the past, the financial results in 2012 are a positive trend and represent an ongoing commitment by management to return Goodwill to operational stability as a going concern," the charity said in its 2012 financial statements.
However, competition continued to grow stiffer, not only from long-standing thrift-store charities such as the Salvation Army and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, but especially from a growing number of for-profit retailers moving into the second-hand |
Eddie Howe and his squad – including new signings Asmir Begovic, Jermain Defoe and Nathan Aké – can achieve this season
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 11th (NB: this is not necessarily Ben Fisher’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 9th
Odds to win the league (via Oddschecker): 750-1
Two months before the end of last season Eddie Howe posed a couple of rhetorical questions deep inside the underbelly of Dean Court. Bournemouth had just beaten West Ham United 3-2 to end an unforgiving nine-match winless run.
“When you are tested and doubted, how strong can you be?” Howe asked. “How good a leader can you be in the bad times just as much as the good times? How you come through a spell like this is a really big test for a leader.”
Back for pre-season but no real break: how footballers’ summers changed | Stuart James Read more
Howe passed with flying colours, leading the club to an unprecedented ninth-place finish, overseeing only two defeats in the final 12 matches. Bournemouth have made relatively light work of exceeding expectations since promotion to the Premier League in 2015, reaping the rewards of Howe’s thirst to improve and evolve.
Last season, for example, the club introduced innovative orange glasses to players, to be worn for two hours before going to bed. The spectacles help reduce blue light – emitted from mobile phones or tablets – that suppresses the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin. “It is something we are trying to make sure the players are fresh, or fresher than our opponents, going into games,” Howe said in February. “That is an example of the detail we are trying to attain in each area.”
This summer the club took the groundsman, Daniel Gonzalez, on their pre-season training camp to Marbella, to ensure they – quite literally – had every blade of grass covered. Asmir Begovic, one of four summer signings, has described Howe’s work ethic as “second to none”. The goalkeeper said: “It rubs off on the whole group – I haven’t seen many managers work as hard as him. His attention to detail is huge. He does not leave any stone unturned.”
Howe’s hunger to broaden his horizons has taken him across Europe, with the 39-year-old watching Real Sociedad in May, after previous trips to Athletic Bilbao, Fiorentina and Empoli. It is testament to Howe, his staff and squad that there is a quiet, sky’s-the-limit optimism about what Bournemouth can achieve in their third season in the top flight.
Off the pitch significant progress has been made with regards to building a new stadium for the 2020-21 season after identifying their preferred site within Kings Park. Meanwhile their summer transfer business points to a reluctance to stand still.
They have improved the spine of the team with the arrivals of Begovic, Jermain Defoe and Nathan Aké, who joined for a club record £20m. All three are not only quality additions but healthy personalities who have given a fillip to team-mates and supporters. Like many of the club’s coaching and playing staff, each has an affinity with the club.
Defoe, who scored 15 goals for Sunderland last season, has spoken with excitement and warmth about rejoining the club where he famously scored in 10 consecutive league games as a teenager. Begovic, too, had a loan spell with Bournemouth – when he dislodged the current goalkeeping coach Neil Moss from the lineup – and returns as a safe pair of hands for the foreseeable future. As for Aké, his stellar performances on loan whet the club’s appetite to bring him back on a permanent basis. Beyond that Connor Mahoney arrives with a bounce from Blackburn Rovers.
However, promising as the recruitment has been, Howe has always emphasised the importance of retaining his best players. No player has left for a so-called bigger fish – and why would they want to? Only those on the periphery, such as Lewis Grabban and Marc Wilson, have been told they can depart.
The defenders Steve Cook and Adam Smith and midfielders Dan Gosling and Harry Arter have signed new four-year deals in the close season. Cook excelled in the heart of defence last season, playing every minute in the Premier League, with Howe saying the former Brighton defender has “really grown” and “come on huge amounts”.
The defence, though, has long been a sticky point, with the manager conceding his backline had rightly taken flak last season. The return of Aké will, however, see the mature young Dutchman rekindle a partnership with Cook that was blossoming nicely before Chelsea recalled Aké in January. Where that leaves the captain, Simon Francis, who has had joy at centre-back and right-back over the past two years, remains to be seen.
The calming presence of Begovic seems a shrewd upgrade on Artur Boruc, who may count himself a little unfortunate to lose his spot as the No1 goalkeeper after a very good season. Adam Federici and Aaron Ramsdale, the impressive England Under-19 international, ensure strength in depth in that position.
In Joshua King Bournemouth have a striker brimming with confidence after 16 goals and a marvellous finish to last season. Howe has said numerous times he feels the former Manchester United forward “can be anything he wants to be”. Only six teams scored more than Bournemouth’s 55 league goals last season.
If King can strike up a partnership with the 34-year-old Defoe – who still harbours hopes of playing for England in Russia next year – it could prove a devastating combination. Add into the mix Lys Mousset, Benik Afobe and Callum Wilson, who is fighting back from a second cruciate ligament injury, and Bournemouth are unlikely to be short of goals. Max Gradel, the subject of interest from Toulouse among others, appears rejuvenated after a positive pre-season. Mousset, the 21-year-old former Le Havre striker, remains the most exciting alternative.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Bournemouth striker Joshua King ‘can be anything he wants to be’, according to Eddie Howe. Photograph: Steven Paston/PA
“He has all the attributes to be a really good performer for us,” Howe said. “He has got an eye for goal, he is very strong, he is very quick. Technically he has got all the ingredients. We needed to work on his fitness and his ability to endure the high pace of the Premier League, and he looks in a lot better shape this season.”
Bournemouth have ample midfield options, too, with Jack Wilshere’s exit likely to fashion greater opportunities for Lewis Cook, the England Under-20 captain who lifted the World Cup in South Korea. Meanwhile Andrew Surman, Arter and Gosling have another year of priceless Premier League experience. Bournemouth have form for hurting teams in wide areas but Jordon Ibe will be among those striving for greater consistency.
The team begin at West Bromwich Albion, against a familiar – and friendly – foe in their former manager Tony Pulis, before hosting Watford and Manchester City. Whatever happens, as is always the case with Bournemouth, it promises to be fun.Story highlights A 22-year-old soldier dies during an artillery exercise
Two others seriously injured and five more suffer minor injuries
Incident under investigation
A 22-year-old Army paratrooper died during a live-fire training exercise at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Friday, according to the 82nd Airborne Division.
Pfc. James Groth of Washington state was a cannon crew member taking part in the exercise using artillery and live ammunition, said public information officer Sgt. First Class Teresa Coble.
Groth was pronounced dead on arrival at Womack Army Medical Center.
The incident involved a towed M777 howitzer, according to the Army.
Two soldiers were seriously injured. One was in critical but stable condition at Duke University Medical Center, and the another was in serious but stable condition, the airborne division said in a statement.
Five others were treated for minor injuries and released.
More details of the incident were not released due to an ongoing investigation.
Groth enlisted in 2012. After basic combat training, he joined the 18th Fires Brigade's 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Bragg.South Korea spy agency admits secret plan to influence 2012 election result
August 7, 2017 by Ian Allen
An internal investigation has found that the intelligence agency of South Korea tried to steer the result of the 2012 presidential election in favor of the conservative candidate, and placed liberal politicians under surveillance in the run-up to the election. South Korea’s intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has fallen into disrepute in recent years, after it was found to have secretly sided with conservative political candidates for public office.
In 2015, the NIS’ former director, Won Sei-hoon, was jailed for directing his staff to use social media to spread negative views of liberal politicians. He is now facing a second trial, after his conviction was overturned on appeal. Mr. Won headed the NIS from 2008 to 2013, during the administration of conservative President Lee Myung-bak. During the 2012 presidential elections, Won ordered a group of NIS officers to “flood the Internet” with messages accusing liberal political candidates of being “North Korean sympathizers”. One of those candidates, Moon Jae-in, of the left-of-center Democratic Party of Korea, is now the country’s president. Mr. Moon succeeded his main right-wing rival, Park Geun-hye, who resigned in March of this year following a series of financial scandals. She is now facing charges of bribery, abuse of power, leaking government secrets, and corruption.
An internal inquiry has now found that the NIS tried to manipulate the outcome of the 2012 presidential election with 30 dedicated teams of officers —some of whom were hired specifically for that purpose. A number of teams were in charge of creating fake social media accounts and using them to post negative views of Mr. Moon and positive views of his conservative rival, Mrs. Park. Other teams were tasked with creating the false impression that South Korea’s rival, North Korea, was supportive of Mr. Moon’s candidacy. The probe also found that the NIS launched similar —though on smaller scale— efforts to influence the outcome of parliamentary elections in 2011 and 2012. Additionally, the NIS placed a number of opposition politicians under surveillance.
Since his ascendance to power last spring, Mr. Moon has pledged that the NIS will be reformed and that it will stay out of domestic politics. In June of this year, Mr. Moon announced that the domestic intelligence wing of the NIS would be dissolved.
► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 07 August 2017 | Permalink
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Many leaders feel India has dropped the issue of Madhesi rights in Nepal’s constitutional scheme and reverted its diplomatic focus on ‘appeasing Kathmandu’
After losing goodwill of the hill communities in Nepal, India’s popularity now seems to be eroding even in the Madhes region — the plains of Nepal that border India.
Leaders and activists from the Tarai — the region of southern Nepal running parallel to the lower ranges of the Himalayas — have told ThePrint that they are “deeply disappointed” with India for having “dropped” the issue of Madhesi rights in Nepal’s constitutional scheme and reverted its diplomatic focus on “appeasing Kathmandu”. This, they warned, has weakened the Madhes movement for now but could cause long-term radicalisation, hurting Indian security interests.
Back in 2015, after the Nepali constitution was promulgated, Madhesis organised a six-month long mass movement claiming that the statute eroded their political representation and gerrymandered federal provinces in a way which would deprive them of self-rule.
India took a strong position advocating that the political discontent be addressed. It — many in Nepal believe — even tacitly backed a border blockade, disrupting essential supplies. All of this generated resentment in Kathmandu valley and the hills, and allowed the then prime minister K. P. Oli to take a stridently ultra nationalist line.
Two years later, a lot has changed. Madhesi leaders now say that India has told them to accept the constitutional framework and participate in upcoming local elections. An amendment to address their concerns failed in the Nepali parliament last month; yet the Rashtriya Janata Party, an umbrella of Madhesi groups, decided to enter the electoral fray, after claiming it would not do so.
Amresh Singh, a Madhesi MP of the ruling Nepali Congress, says: “There is a perception among the Madhesi leaders and the people that India has dropped the Madhes agenda and is now siding with the hill elite.”
“New Delhi’s strategy is to maintain good relations with the ruling class and Madhesis are not part of that. Madhesi cause at this point is a struggle and not part of the power centre. In the political, constitutional and development agenda, the Tarai doesn’t fit anywhere,” Singh says.
Publicly, PM Narendra Modi urged Nepal — at a joint press appearance with PM Sher Bahadur Deuba — to take all sections of society together and address aspirations of all citizens. Yet, suspicions of an Indian U-turn persist. Singh insisted, “Delhi is worried that if it antagonises the ruling class, it might yield to greater Chinese influence. Whatever India is saying publicly is Madhes’ favour is mere lip service.”
Anil Jha, a former minister and a senior leader of the Rashtriya Janta Party told ThePrint, “In the current situation, Madhes is on nobody’s priority list. Our development and concerns have been dropped. During PM Deuba’s visit, PM Modi had said aspirations of all sections should be taken into account but how serious India is about this, only time will tell.”
Another leader of the RJP, sounding bitter, said on condition of anonymity: “Madhesis are deeply disappointed with India. If we had our way, we would not keep any relations with India at all. There is no need to. But what can we do; we have no option. We are tied emotionally, culturally, geographically, politically and can never be anti-Indian. But India has left us weaker than ever before.”
The sense of betrayal extends to Madhesi civil society. Tula Narayan Sah, a prominent Tarai analyst, says, “In 2008, India mediated an agreement between Kathmandu and Madhes on political representation and federalism — to enable elections for a Constituent Assembly. It was India’s role as the guarantor of that agreement to ensure it happened. But now, when the time came to implement it, India turned back. Instead, to meet Kathmandu’s desire of holding local elections, it has told Madhesi parties to drop their demands.”
Even as Delhi-Kathmandu ties have been restored in recent months, Delhi’s ties with Nepal’s Tarai have clearly dipped. And given its location right across the open border, this may well pose a challenge for India.
New Delhi, however, continues to back the Madhesi cause in its public positions. In his address during PM Deuba’s visit last week, Modi said that under Deuba’s leadership, while taking “all sections of society together and continuing the process of talking to all sections, and addressing and accommodating aspirations of all Nepali citizens”, the constitution will be successfully implemented. This clearly indicated that the Indian government was asking Kathmandu to accommodate Madhesi concerns.
Want to hear experts engage over the big issues of the day? We bring you Talk Point.
Show Full ArticleMálaga Málaga Granada Granada 2 2 FT Game Details GameCast
Lineups and Stats
Malaga remain bottom of the Primera Division after surrendering two late goals to draw 2-2 with fellow strugglers Granada in an exciting Andalusian derby.
Brazilian forward Charles headed home a cross from Miguel Torres to give the hosts the lead on the stroke of half-time, and Pablo Fornals struck on the rebound to double their advantage after 57 minutes, just moments after Fernando Tissone had been dismissed for picking up a second yellow card.
Javi Gracia's side coped well despite playing with one player fewer and looked to be heading for a first win in four games which would have taken them out of the relegation zone.
But the visitors, who have been the victim of some late crucial goals themselves this season, still had a bit of fight left in them and finally made their numerical advantage count.
Substitute Youssef El Arabi headed in a cross from Dimitri Foulquier on 83 minutes to make for an exciting finale and just two minutes later Ruben Rochina nodded Cristiano Biraghi's ball from the left past Carlos Kameni to level the match.
Former Granada midfielder Recio had a chance to restore Malaga's lead late on but shot straight at goalkeeper Andres Fernandez from inside the area. And Rochina squandered an opportunity to grab all three points for the visitors in injury time, sending the ball well over the bar, and his side remain one point above the relegation zone, in 16th.Social Services Minister Scott Morrison has given the clearest signal yet the government will tighten the assets test for people on a part-pension and drop plans to index pensions at a slower rate.
But Labor leader Bill Shorten said the government should keep its pre-election promise not to touch pensions and "stop breaking promises", while the ALP released modelling it said demonstrated pensioners would be worse off under the tighter asset test.
The 2014–15 budget set out a plan to change indexation arrangements for the aged, disability support and veterans' pensions, carer payments and the single parenting payment designed to save $449 million over five years.
The change would have seen those payments grow more slowly, over time, in line with inflation, rather than in line with CPI or the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index and then "benchmarked" against Male Total Average Weekly Earnings.Continuing the redrawing of the Top 7 most favourite fusions of Narugon Ball Fusions.
5th place -
, the fusion between Buu and Obito.
In this picture about to launch a
Time-Space Genocide Assault,
he holds the power of Six Paths by making himself the jinchuuriki of the Juubi.
Buubito has a troubled mind. He has a very serious personality, rarely smiling. His complex of superiority makes everything else look like worms to him. He nourishes a profound hate for the world and gets pleasure only by destroying everything contained in that world.
Quotes:
“You hope to defeat me? There’s no such thing as hope in this world… I’ll smash you and enjoy it.”
“With the power of the Six Paths, you witness the most powerful Djinn of all time, past, present and future. You can no longer measure me by the standards you are used to, scum.”
Poster link if you're interested: www.redbubble.com/people/jmbfa…
I hope you like it__Buu and Obito do not belong to me, only this concept.Beau Willimon and R.J. Cutler are our guests this week.
Show produced by Katherine Caperton.
Original Air Date: March 9, 2013 on SiriusXM “POTUS” Channel 124.
Polioptics airs regularly on POTUS on Saturdays at 6 am, 12 noon and 6 pm.
Follow us on Twitter @Polioptics
Listen to the show by clicking on the bar above.
Show also available for download on Apple iTunes by clicking here
Show of hands: Have you finished watching the 13 episodes of the first season of Netflix’s House of Cards?
Spoiler alert: in my hour-long conversation with House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon, we tried to focus on the inspiration for the show, the television business transaction that brought it to life and the creative process that went into producing the first 13 episodes, veering away, as best we could, from spoilers that might tarnish your viewing pleasure. That said, I can’t declare with certainty that “Chapter 1” of our conversation, which debuts this week on PoliOptics, is entirely sterilized for key plot points. Caveat emptor. Listener beware.
If you haven’t yet streamed this intoxicating brew of writing, directing, acting, production design and score, here’s the trailer for the show to wet your whistle.
Much has been written about House of Cards already, and I could wax on about so many aspects of the show but, frankly, I wouldn’t do it justice, and my analysis would pale against the pantheon of great television writers and armchair critics within the Beltway who’ve already weighed in.
But one thing you should do, before watching the first episode, is consume a few minutes of the clip below featuring Ian Richardson in the BBC original from 1990. You can feel the pain in Francis Urquhart’s visage as he is rebuffed by the Prime Minister and his aide at #10 Downing Street. While Willimon’s Francis Underwood lives and schemes in an entirely different universe, that common thread of disappointment carries over from Richardson to Kevin Spacey.
“Chapter 2” of our conversation will air next week, allowing you time, if you haven’t already done so, to sign up for Netflix’s free first month offer and binge on the feast as, apparently, so many already have, me included.
One note on the Netflix viewing experience: viewers of an older generation might hesitate before plunging into this new form of high quality television delivery. I’m telling you, jump in, the water’s fine.
First of all, watching House of Cards on your iPads using the Netflix app and good headphones makes for great a television experience on its own. But if you’re like me and have, within the last 12 months or so, bought a new LCD TV equipped with “SmartTV” from one of the big box stores, it’s time to give that SmartTV feature a spin. It couldn’t be easier. When you sign up for Hulu or Netflix and register for one of the services, the viewing options display with intuitive magnificence and the image quality of the programming is hardly distinguishable from the fare served up from the cable carrier. For me, the reality of cord-cutting is on the near horizon.
* * *
From the unreal to the real, Shakespearean themes drawn from Othello, Hamlet & Macbeth are similarly at play in R.J. Cutler’s The World According to Dick Cheney.
The difference between the worlds of Francis Underwood and Dick Cheney is, of course, that with a television show you can simply move from watching House of Cards on Netflix to Girls on HBO and the body count remains a fictitious number: one (two, if you count the girl who died while texting about whether the Peachoid looked like a part of female anatomy). The human toll from the eight years in which Richard B. Cheney served as our vice president is both very real and higher by a large arithmetic equation.
Could the toll have been even higher had Cheney not acted in the manner in which he did? That is an argument for others to make, including Cheney himself in Cutler’s film. Counterarguments — like the ones offered up in recent days by Maureen Dowd and Howard Fineman — are sure to emerge as more people see the product of R.J.’s 20 hours of conversation with Cheney, boiled down to an arresting 110 minutes in the documentary set to premiere on Showtime on March 15. Here’s a sample:
For the PoliOptician, though, another question is why would Cheney have consented to Cutler as his interlocutor in the first place. We haven’t heard yet from Cheney, and Cutler was cryptic in his conversation with me. Patience, he implied, paid off. But we don’t know what will become of the footage left on the cutting room floor.
My guess is that, like the late Robert McNamara, who sat down with Errol Morris for The Fog of War, Cheney is conscious of his own mortality, eager to tell his side of the story and not fearful of the verdict that his critics will render.
In R.J.s film, we see Cheney completing the circle of life, from his challenging and formative experiences in Wyoming, Yale and the University of Wisconsin, to returning to Wyoming, at the film’s end, for his fist day of fly-fishing following his heart transplant surgery. He seems entirely content on his inflatable boat, the river rushing around him, the final act of a life lived on the world stage, even if the drama was in many ways a Shakespearean tragedy. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.NewsAbortion, Catholic Church
June 15, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The bishop of the Spanish diocese of Getafe, Joaquín María López de Andújar, last Saturday baptized eleven babies “rescued from abortion” thanks to the work of the John Paul II Rescuers (Rescatadores Juan Pablo II) and the crisis pregnancy organization A Better Future (Más Futuro).
The John Paul II Rescuers seek to convince women going into abortion clinics to keep their unborn children, and A Better Future provides housing, education, and Catholic religious instruction for those who are in crisis pregnancies, and also counsels women traumatized by past abortions. They currently care for 350 women, ranging from 13 to 42 years old. Over 1,000 unborn children have been saved by the groups since their inception.
One of the women whose child was baptized, whose name is Alicia, is a beautiful young girl who “in the beginning didn’t want to know anything” the John Paul II Rescuers had to say to her at the abortion clinic, and appeared to be very determined to have an abortion, according to a member of the rescue team quoted by the diocese. However, she had a second thought and returned to them to take one of their pamphlets. She would later say that the reason that she decided to accept the information was that “people who, in cold or heat, without charging anything and tiring themselves by staying so many hours there, couldn’t do anything bad.”
She is now a regular attendee of the classes provided by A Better Future. “Today, it surprises us how much she likes to come to the association. She hasn’t missed a single class. She’s happy,” said the volunteer.
Another young woman, Nuria, was depressed and under heavy pressure to abort after she was raped and became pregnant. She responded to the John Paul II Rescuers, who say that she has learned much in her catechism classes and “today she is beginning to smile – she sees us and immediately she smiles.”
A third woman, Dislandy, was stopped by rescuers outside of an abortion facility, and explained to her that the child was her own and was “unrepeatable, unique.” She slowly calmed down and decided to keep her child. She “is so grateful that she wants to tell the whole world: ‘Please, don’t do it, I would have aborted my daughter Natalia. I can’t conceive of my life without her,’” according to the organization.
Bishop López de Andújar also baptized groups of rescued babies from the same group in 2015 and 2013.(CNN) -- An Al-Jazeera cameraman was killed in an apparent ambush near Benghazi, Libya, becoming the first journalist killed in the country since the start of the civil war, the network reported Saturday.
Ali Hassan al Jaber was returning to Benghazi, an opposition stronghold in the east, from a nearby town where he had reported on an opposition protest when "unknown fighters opened fire on a car he and his colleagues were traveling in," Al-Jazeera reported on its English-language website.
The cameraman and another person were wounded. Al Jaber was rushed to a hospital, but did not survive, the network said.
"Al-Jazeera condemns the cowardly crime, which comes as part of the Libyan regime's malicious campaign targeting Al-Jazeera and its staff," the network reported.
A civil war has broken out between forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and a tenacious opposition movement.
Since the start of the revolt last month, the government has kept a close eye on journalists. Reporters in Tripoli have been given minders and, in some cases, prevented from covering protests.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday it has documented more than 40 attacks on the media in Libya since February. They include 25 detentions, four assaults, two attacks on news facilities, the jamming of transmissions, and the interruption of internet service, the New York-based advocacy group said.
Several journalists have also reported the confiscation of their equipment, it added.
Friday, CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson and his crew were detained in Tajura, Libya, east of Tripoli, by forces loyal to Gadhafi. They were released, though their cabdriver was not.
"We are free to go anywhere, any time, talk to who we want, when we want. That's what Moammar Gadhafi's son told me, that's what Libya told the U.N. We already knew it was all lies -- look at any number of our colleagues arrested, detained, in some cases, beaten -- but today it came home to us personally," Robertson wrote.
Wadah Khanfar, director-general of Al-Jazeera, said the network "will not remain silent" and vowed to hold those responsible for al Jaber's death to account, Al-Jazeera reported.
Al Jaber, a Qatari national, was born in 1955 and studied cinematography in Cairo, the network said.The triarchic theory of intelligence was formulated by Robert Sternberg in the 1980s. The theory attempts to understand the human intelligence in terms of distinct components rather than a single ability.
The tri-archic theory by Sternberg categorized intelligence into three different aspects.
Componential – Analytic skills
Experiential – Creativity
Practical – Contextual skills
Before Sternberg, general intelligence was the idea that dominated most of the intelligence theories. However, Sternberg believed intelligence to be a much more complex subject matter, which lead him to propose a theory dealing with the cognitive approach to intelligence theory rather than a behavioristic view point. He believed that a person’s adaptation to the changing environment and his contribution of knowledge in shaping the world around them had a significant importance in determining their intelligence.
Sternberg also argued that intelligent tests were wrong to ignore creativity, and there are always other important characteristics like cognitive processes, performance components, planning and decision making skills, and so on.
Key functions in different aspects of Tri-archic theory of Intelligence.
Key functions in each aspects of intelligence Componential Experiential Practical Analyze Create Apply Critique Invent Use Judge Discover Put into practice Compare/Contrast Imagine if… Implement Evaluate Suppose that Employ Assess Predict Render Practical
Componential – Analytical Intelligence
Analytical Intelligence can also be referred to as being book smart. This form of intelligence is more in terms with the traditional definitions of IQ and academic achievement. It’s also called componential intelligence. Because of its analytical nature, the person with high analytical intelligence is good at problem solving. These people are generally more able to see the solutions not normally seen, because of their abstract thinking and evaluation skills. Analyzing someone’s analytical intelligence can be done by few general questions like
How good are you at analyzing technical problems?
What’s your history of scoring in standardized tests?
Example:
Emma always scores high on standardized tests. It’s because of her ability to evaluate and analyze materials using abstract thinking in order to achieve solutions.
Experiential – Creative Intelligence
The ability to invent new ideas and solutions when dealing with new situations is regarded as creative intelligence. It’s also referred as experiential intelligence. This form of intelligence is associated with using existing knowledge and skills in order to deal with new problems or situations. Analyzing someone’s creative intelligence level can be done by few general questions like
How quickly can they solve a new problem?
Will they automatically resort to applying new skill in order to deal with the situation?
Creative intelligence can be further divided into two categories.
Novelty : This concerns the ability of a person to deal with the problem for the first time.
This concerns the ability of a person to deal with the problem for the first time. Automation : This concerns the ability of a person to automatically perform the repeated tasks.
Example:
James Bond is a person high in creative intelligence because of his ability to use his knowledge and skills to deal with new problems every time.
Practical – Contextual Intelligence
In simple words, practical intelligence can be defined as street-smart. The ability of a person to adapt in an environment or change it accordingly to best suit the personal needs is dubbed as practical intelligence. Another way to understand such type of intelligence is as common sense. Dealing with the everyday tasks in the best possible manner shows the person’s intelligence. Analyzing someone’s practical intelligence level can be done by few general questions like
Would the person be taken advantage of easily?
Do they adjust well to the world around them?
Are they comfortable with the daily adventures?
A person, who is street-smart, or high on practical intelligence, is more able to cope with concrete situations.
Example:
Johnny is considering buying a second hand motorbike. A salesman, being salesman, would obviously try to con the buyer, but Johnny is already prepared with price comparisons and has made up his mind to say no to unnecessary extras.
Critical Evaluation
The major criticism about the Triarchic theory of intelligence has been regarding its unempirical nature. Psychologist Linda Gottfredson argued that it’s not accurate to assume traditional IQ tests do not measure practical intelligences. Researches have shown people with high IQ to have reached higher in their career, have higher income. Also, traditional analytical intelligence also showed correlation with staying alive and out of jail, which is generally categorized as practical intelligence or street smarts.The sinking of the Titanic continues to fascinate a surprising number of people. Soon, the first full-size replica of the ocean liner will allow delighted tourists to relive the ill-fated ship's maiden voyage, right down to the crash.
The Unsinkable Titanic theme park measures nearly 883 feet long by 93 feet wide, and sits on the bank of the Qijiang River smack in China's landlocked Sichuan Province. The ship will boast a ballroom, observation deck and first-class cabins, all fitted with historically accurate fixtures. The kitchen will serve up the same European fare passengers enjoyed. And, in a morbid twist, it will simulate the experience of being aboard the ship at the moment it crashed into that iceberg, just in case you forgot the Titanic wasn't all fun.
The $160 million project is the centerpiece of the Romandisea resort, which also will feature a Venetian wedding chapel and "the world's largest artificial indoor sky and seaside beach." Qixing Energy Group chairman Su Shaojun says the company spent years purchasing fragments of the Titanic’s blueprints and hired Hollywood production designer Curtis Schnell to accurately reproduce it. Construction kicked off in December.
Previous attempts to build a full-on replica proved as disastrous as the ship's voyage. In 1998, a South African businessman Sarel Gous announced plans to build Titanic II, but eventually scrapped the idea. Australian businessman Clive Palmer announced his own full-scale Titanic II five years ago, but the project stalled. But as this colorful aerial snapped by photographer Zhang Zhi shows, Unsinkable Titanic is coming along swimmingly, with more than 1,000 workers building the hull at Wuchang shipyard in Wuhan.
When complete, visitors will pay $435 a night to spend the night in an economy class rooms on a ship that faithfully reproduces everything passengers experienced aboard Titanic. Except the unpleasant bit at the end.Ron Galella/WireImage via Getty Images Donald and Ivana Trump fought a very public battle over the terms of their divorce.
In the summer of 1990, at the height of his bitter divorce from his first wife, Donald Trump was carrying on a very public extramarital affair with a former beauty queen, Marla Maples.
As part of the couple’s divorce proceedings, Ivana Trump’s lawyers asked him under oath about his dealings with other women and whether he had been faithful to his wife.
Instead of answering, Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Over the course of five depositions that summer, he was asked approximately 100 questions related to marital infidelity. He pleaded the Fifth on 97 of them.
“Donald preaches about his devotion to the Second Amendment, but it was the Fifth Amendment that was his favorite when he was deposed in the divorce with Ivana,” wrote biographer Wayne Barrett in his 1992 book, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth. A New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement report later verified Barrett’s reporting on those depositions, which are still sealed.
For Trump, taking the Fifth seemed to work out well. He later bragged that he managed to settle the divorce without giving his first wife a penny more than required by the prenuptial agreement.
Now, with less than six weeks to go until Election Day, Trump is again focused on questions of marital infidelity and invoking Fifth Amendment rights. Only this time, the GOP presidential nominee has cast himself as the judge.
And everything looks different. Inside the moral and ethical bubble that Trump has created for himself, taking the Fifth 97 times is a savvy move, and powerful men aren’t constrained by marital vows. Outside that bubble, the Fifth Amendment is apparently used only by criminals, and adultery is a sin to be blamed on both spouses.
Ron Galella/WireImage via Getty Images Trump and Marla Maples were themselves married in 1993 and divorced in 1999.
Following Trump’s disappointing debate performance Monday night, he said he deserved credit for not attacking his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, over her husband’s infidelity. His advisers and campaign surrogates fanned out across the airwaves to make the same case.
Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Trump was “polite and a gentleman” because he did not follow through on his threat to seat Gennifer Flowers, a former girlfriend of Bill Clinton, in the front row at the debate.
Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s closest advisers, said Hillary Clinton was “too stupid to be president” if she hadn’t realized all along that Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, was telling the truth. As mayor of New York, Giuliani carried on his own very public extramarital affair, which cast a shadow over his administration.
Trump even holds Hillary Clinton, who has maintained her marriage for 41 years, partly to blame for her husband’s misdeeds. “She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful,” he said in May.
As for the Bill of Rights, Trump has focused in recent weeks on the fact that one of Clinton’s former staffers and two outside computer experts pleaded the Fifth during |
North Korea did not take too kindly to Seoul’s words that they were going to close down.”
A North Korean employee works in a factory of a South Korean company at the Joint Industrial Park in Kaesong industrial zone, a few miles inside North Korea from the heavily fortified border December 19, 2013. Credit: REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
South Korea’s government alleges that the money North Korea earns from Kaesong was going to fund its nuclear weapon program and long range missile tests. “These have been very hot issues over the past month here in Seoul,” says Strother, “and South Korea says this will deprive the Kim Jung Un regime of having the resources to carry out these nuclear programs.”
More than 50,000 North Koreans work in the cluster of 124 South Korean-owned factories. They don’t produce shiny Samsung smartphones or new Hyundai cars, instead it’s mostly cheap, low tech stuff, like clothes, shoes, kitchen utensils and wristwatches. Still, Kaesong was a rare source of cash for North Korea. Since it opened in 2004, the Kaesong complex has generated about $90 million annually in wages paid directly to Pyongyang’s state agency that manages the zone.
More important perhaps than the jobs and the cash was the symbolism of the joint North-South economic zone. It was originally part of a "sunshine" policy to let the light shine on North Korea so that it would open up, says Strother. He says there’s little evidence to show that it worked, but “it was seen as helping to loosen the mind control that the Pyongyang government has over its citizens and workers... so it was the last bastion of hope here on the Korean peninsula that there could be better days ahead for the two nations.”
For now, it seems that a more conservative South Korean government is taking a tougher line. In response to the North’s nuclear tests, South Korea is looking to cut off any sort of ties with Pyongyang.
So, for now, the factories are closed for business.A truck boarded with malaria prevention equipment passing the Unification Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi, in May 2011. [JOONGANG ILBO]
The number of people in Korea infected with malaria jumped by more than 80 percent from 2013 to 2015, with experts suggesting this may be a consequence of terminating the joint antimalarial project between the South and the North.The type of malaria most commonly found in Asia is caused by the parasite Plasmodium vivax, which is carried by the female Anopheles mosquito. Symptoms of the disease may include fever, breathing problems, seizures, coma and possibly death.South and North Korea began the joint project to combat malaria in 2008. Gyeonggi, which is more prone to malaria than other regions due to its proximity to the North, agreed with the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation to provide the North with equipment such as mosquito nets.The two also agreed to take measures to combat malaria every year from June to September, when mosquitoes are most active.The region carried out the project with the Korean Sharing Movement, a Seoul-based nonprofit organization that provides aid to people in the North.Korea had been supporting the World Health Organization’s antimalarial project in the North, but the joint project proved far more successful; the number of people infected with malaria in Gyeonggi in 2007 was 1,007, whereas after the initiation of the joint project, that number dropped to 490 by 2008, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control.The Gyeonggi Provincial Government continued the joint antimalarial project by investing some 2.1 billion won ($1.79 million) until the end of 2011. As a result, the number of malaria patients in the region fell that year to 382.Despite the sinking of the Cheonan warship in March 2010, the bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island by North Korea in November of that year and the May 24 sanctions on the North that followed, the joint project to combat malaria continued until 2012, when support for the project ended. The number of malaria patients since 2012 has been steadily increasing.The number of people infected with malaria in Gyeonggi was down from 257 in 2012 to 228 in 2013, but the following year it was up to 311 and by 2015 it had reached 417, an 82.9 percent increase in just two years.The number of Anopheles mosquitoes in the 12 northwestern parts of Gyeonggi has fallen by about 75 percent from 2012 to 2015. Experts therefore believe that the increase in the number of people with malaria is due to insufficient antimalarial efforts by the North.“The number of mosquitoes transmitting the parasite that causes malaria increased in North Korea due to its lack of antimalarial efforts,” said an expert who spoke on condition of anonymity, “and those mosquitoes come down to the South.”The Gyeonggi office and other civil organizations agreed with the Academy of Medical Science in North Korea to resume the joint antimalarial project in 2015, but the plan was overshadowed by the hostile atmosphere between the two nations following the North’s fourth nuclear test and multiple missile tests since.The late Park Jae-won, professor at Gachon University’s medical campus and an expert who used to advise the WHO on malaria issues, once said before he died, “It’s important to manage North Korea to prevent the spread of malaria, and it’s crucial to supply the North with the materials it needs to do this.”“Although a proper epidemiologic study hasn’t been conducted yet,” said an official from the Gyeonggi office, “we believe that ending the joint project has caused the rise in the number of malaria patients.”Lee Young-jae of the Korean Sharing Movement said, “North and South Korea’s joint measure to combat malaria has to begin again as soon as possible.”BY KIM MIN-WOOK, SHIN SOO-YEON [shin.sooyeon@joongang.co.kr]Buy Photo Students Luis Del Moral (back), 15, of Sycamore, and Connor Jones (front), 19, of Williamstown, Ky., grieve after a scheduled training session on a bench outside of Japanese Karate-Do Dojo in Symmes Twp. Saturday. Del Moral, a student of fallen police officer and Sensei Sonny Kim for 10 years, and Jones a student of Kim's for 15 years, honored their mentor by attending his scheduled workout Saturday morning. (Photo: Sam Greene, The Enquirer/Sam Greene)Buy Photo
The call came in at 9:03 a.m. Friday – an urgent description of a belligerent man with a gun.
Seven minutes later, a second call followed, and after that, the normally peaceful intersection of Roe Street and Whetsel Avenue in Madisonville descended into chaos.
When it was over, Cincinnati Police Officer Sonny Kim – a decorated and well-liked cop of 27 years – was dead. The father of three wasn't supposed to be on duty Friday, but he'd been tapped to work overtime in a city that's combating an uptick in crime.
Also killed was 21-year-old suspect Trepierre Hummons, who police said made those 911 calls on himself while pretending to be a simple bystander. He wanted to die at an officer's hand, Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said, and had even texted friends about his plan.
Hummons left what appears to be a farewell message on his public Facebook page that read: "I love every last one of y'all to whoever has been in my life... you're the real mvp." The time stamp on the message was 8:55 a.m.
While the events leading up to Kim and Hummons' deadly meeting Friday are still being sorted, the aftermath is clear: Kim became the first Cincinnati officer killed in the line of duty since 2000, and Hummons, the 29th civilian killed by an officer since then.
The incident left a usually quiet neighborhood – one dotted with churches and filled with children who feel safe playing in their front yards – on edge.
It left friends of Hummons confused and angry, yelling at officers at the scene and condemning police on social media.
And it left a police department in mourning for a decorated officer that Blackwell called "one of our best."
"We lost a brother today," Blackwell said. "Our hearts are broken."
CLOSE Cincinati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell remembers fallen Cincinati Police Officer Sonny Kim. The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong
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Ominous warnings, then a gunfight
Trepierre Hummons (Photo: Provided)
The seeds of the confrontation may have been planted just after midnight Friday, about nine hours before the shooting started. Police say that's when a woman filed a sex offense report against Hummons.
Hummons' mother would later tell police her son was having trouble with his girlfriend and wasn't behaving like himself. Early that morning, he'd sent an ominous text message to friends: "I really love you and thank you for all you've ever done for me."
Hummons was no stranger to police. He spent three months in juvenile detention four years ago, when he was 17, after robbing a man's home at gunpoint and then stealing his car. His adult record included numerous traffic tickets and a disorderly conduct charge.
Police said he also was a member of the Clutch Gang, which operates in Madisonville.
His mother, though, just wanted to find her son. She went looking for him sometime before 9 a.m. and found him in the street, shortly before Kim arrived.
As Hummons approached Kim, police say, Hummons' mother stood between the two men and told Kim, "I'll take him home." Then her son drew his gun. And Kim - who was wearing an armored vest - drew his.
A map of where the shooting occurred. (Photo: Mike Nyerges)
Hummons shot Kim multiple times and, soon after, wrestled away the officer's Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun, police say. He then began shooting at a probation officer who had stopped to assist on his way to work.
Another police officer, Tom Sandmann, came under fire as soon as he arrived on the scene. While Hummons' mother tried to help the dying Kim in the street, her son turned Kim's gun on Sandmann and began firing, police say.
Sandmann took cover behind his car, returned fire and fatally wounded Hummons.
Then came the frantic radio calls.
"Attention all cars and departments," the dispatcher said. "Officer down."
From South Korea to Cincinnati
Officer Sonny Kim (Photo: Provided)
Kim, 48, was a South Korea-born immigrant who came to the United States in 1973. Raised in Chicago, he moved to Cincinnati in 1986, Blackwell said.
Two years later, he joined the city police force, where he earned 22 commendations over the years and was praised in 2012 by the U.S. Department of Justice for his service.
He had another love, too: karate. In March 2014, he dovetailed his two passions during an interview with the online karate magazine The Shotokan Way.
"As a police trainer, we have a saying which is: 'You will perform how you train,'" Kim told the magazine. "The point I want to make is you must also train your karate under pressure, consistently and physically hard, to have a better chance to overcome and survive under duress."
But as seriously as he took his training, his friends on the force said Kim was best known as a fun guy.
"He was always joking around," said Cincinnati Police Sgt. Stephen Hoerst. "We were just at the range with him the other day. Afterward, you have to clean your gun and he was joking around like, 'I'll buy your lunch if you clean my gun.'"
His fellow officers called him Bruce Lee, but with a caveat: "Bruce Lee is all serious, and he was a complete cut-up," Hoerst said.
On Friday, though, those who knew him, and many who didn't, remembered Kim as a hero.
"If you want to kill yourself, do it, but you can't take one of our men with you," Mayor John Cranley said. "There is a deep injustice when people believe they can shoot at police officers.
"I pray for God's help to restore justice and to bring peace to the Kim family."
Shooting shatters neighborhood peace
When Jen Walters heard the noise, she couldn't quite place it.
Pop, pop, pop.
She thought maybe the mid-morning noise was construction work. Surely, it couldn't be gunfire. Neighborhood children were playing outside, and Walters' dog Scout and her nine chickens were puttering about her yard.
But then she heard sirens, and another round of pop, pop, pop. This time, Walters heard 10, maybe 20, in succession – followed by the panicked cries of children as they ran to a nearby apartment building for cover.
She watched as officers swarmed the scene, as ambulances arrived and as she and her neighbors were ordered to stay inside the homes.
"The officers who got here were crying," she said, her voice shaking.
Hummons' friends and family said they were stunned, too. Nadia Everage, Hummons' 22-year-old sister, said the allegations she's hearing don't jibe with the brother she knows.
"This whole incident, I'm in disbelief," said Everage.
Officers mourn fallen brother
Officers fought to save Kim's life on the street before he and Hummons were transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
There, dozens of police officers gathered outside in a steady rain. They hugged and comforted one another as they kept a somber vigil.
By noon, word that Kim had died was starting to spread, which Blackwell confirmed at a news conference a half-hour later.
"CPD lost one of its best today," he said. "We lost a brother, but right now my heart is broken more for his sons, who lost a father, and his wife, who lost a husband."
City Manager Harry Black said the city would honor Kim.
"This is a stark reminder that all jobs are not created equal," said Black, adding that police officers "have the courage and conviction to do what many of us might not be prepared to do – that is, to sacrifice their lives if necessary."
That hero's treatment began with the officers outside of the hospital. Even after Kim's death was announced, they stood together in the rain.
An ambulance pulled up to the hospital at about 1:15 p.m., nearly four hours after the shooting. Kim's body was loaded inside, and the officers snapped a silent salute.
Emotions were still raw hours later, when police gathered for a vigil outside District 2 police headquarters. About 200 people showed up, and some questioned whether the vigil should be for both Kim's family and Hummons' family.
In the end, religious leaders offered prayers for both.
Enquirer reporters: Henry Molski, Kevin Grasha, Emilie Eaton, Fatima Hussein, Jeanne Houck, Carrie Blackmore Smith, Cameron Knight
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1LjyoPtSen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) appeared on Fox News Sunday, showing why he is a force to be reckoned with, in 2016 and beyond:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) (James Crisp/Associated Press)
To begin with, his reserved demeanor, less intense and less cloying than the average pol, sets him apart. This may strike some (women voters, perhaps, most of all) as cool or remote; however, we learned from President Obama than restraint and reserve have a certain appeal these days, especially with younger voters wary of the glad-handing, used-car salesmen type of politicians.
He is also rhetorically clever. In discussing drones, he insists that he’s really concerned with the use of drones on Americans at home. Who could quibble with that? It is only at the tail end when he concedes, “Where I agree with Sen. [Lindsey] Graham, if you have a grenade launcher on your shoulder, by all means, and you’re firing at Americans, you don’t need due process. But if you are sitting in a cafe in Paris or Yemen, there should be a process where a judge decides your guilt, or a jury.” And what if you are an enemy combatant sleeping in a hide-away? The issue is the president’s constitutional power to direct war operations in which Americans have taken up arms against their country. Paul seems to have a different understanding, but he puts it in terms that are alluring for a less sophisticated audience.
Nevertheless, when he says that he favors a less “aggressive” foreign policy, he will rankle many voters. Is that what our troops have been doing — waging a war of “aggression”?
When it comes to domestic policy he is exceptionally adept at debunking the president’s rhetoric:
WALLACE: All right. Let’s turn to the president’s agenda. What’s wrong with the idea the president laid out in the State of the Union that, yes, at this time particularly when we have a weak recovery, we need to spend more money? He calls it investment on education, on infrastructure, on research, especially when Mr. Obama says, if you make cuts in other places we won’t add — his words — a dime to the deficit. PAUL: Yes, he said that about 20 times in the last four years. Meanwhile, he added $6 trillion to the debt. I think it’s really disingenuous. He said in his speech he reduced the debt by $2 trillion. Well, he added $6 trillion and that means because he didn’t add $8 trillion, he’s reduced it by $2 trillion? That’s absurd. He listed about 50 new programs and says they’re not going to cost you anything. We’re going to squeeze the money out of the rich. The problem is, is whenever he tries to squeeze more money out of the economy, he is slowing it down. We slowed down in the fourth quarter, and it’s not because government spending is going down. Government spending is still going at pace. We still have plenty of government spending. In fact, we spent more the fourth quarter last year than the third quarter and we spent more than the previous year. We’ve never had a real cut in spending in recent history. So I think he’s just — he’s flat-out wrong.
That’s effective stuff. Also effective is his appeal to seniors (“If you are a senior citizen trying to save money, when your savings is sapped and you get no cost of living increase”) Less effective is his focus on inflation (which is now nearly non-existent). On immigration, as he said, he’s moved a long way. And he also makes an appeal not to incarcerate non-violent drug users.
All of this, one can imagine, will open up the party’s appeal. Paul is also smart enough not to sound hysterical or defensive about opposition. Unlike the tea party crowd and some right wing bloggers in orbit about Karl Rove’s efforts to find electable Republicans, Paul says simply, “Well, you know, elections are a free marketplace and everybody has a right to participate in primary elections. What I would say is primary elections need not be selected by the party. In my case, and also in Sen. Rubio’s case, the party chose someone else. In Sen. Rubio’s case, they chose someone who is now a Democrat. So, it wasn’t really a very good choice. So, I would say is, let’s have healthy primaries, and if people want to contribute on all sides, let people make voluntary contributions and we’ll see which way it goes. But I think competitive primaries, you end up getting a good candidate, typically.”
Paul’s national security views remain a concern for many voters. But the mix of issues — on immigration, drug crimes, and fiscal sobriety — in what he calls a libertarian-conservative viewpoint — will certainly shake up the party. (Unclear is how gay marriage will fit into all this.) Paul is definitely not your run-of-the-mill Republican; how far that will take him remains to be seen.[Update] Adobe now updated it's advisory and confirmed that version 16.0.0.296 fixes the o-day vulnerability (CVE-2015-0311). [2][3]
Adobe apparently just released Flash version 16.0.0.296. There is nothing on Adobe's website if this is a patch. As a matter of fact, Adobe still lists 16.0.0.287 as the most recent version [1]. You can download 16.0.0.296 if you manually check for updates using Flash.
This article will be updates as we learn more. I have NO IDEA if this new version fixes the current vulnerability, but given that this is a surprise weekend release, chances are that it was released in response to the vulnerability. Apply this update at your own risk.
Thanks to Christopher for noticing!
[1] http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
[2] http://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsa15-01.html
[3] http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt/?p=1160
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Johannes B. Ullrich, Ph.D.
STI|Twitter|LinkedIn
I will be teaching next: Intrusion Detection In-Depth - SANS Madrid March 2019Rodrigo Duterte said miners have "considerably neglected" their duty to protect the environment.
© Thomson Reuters 2017
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said he wanted to stop exporting mineral resources and might close the mining sector completely and tax miners "to death" if damage to the environment persisted."The protection of the environment must be made a priority ahead of mining and all other activities that adversely affect one way or another," Duterte said in his State of the Nation address, his second since assuming power in June last year. "This policy is non-negotiable."The Philippines is the world's biggest supplier of nickel ore and also among the top producers of copper and gold. However, the sector contributes less than 1 percent to the country's economy, based on data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.The country's miners have been under fire by Duterte's government for alleged violations that include building mines in prohibited areas like watersheds.Duterte said miners have "considerably neglected" their duty to protect the environment and to repair damage done by mining."You have to come up with a substitute, either spend to restore the virginity of the source or I will tax you to death," he said.Duterte also said he wanted all mineral resources extracted from the country to be processed domestically before being exported."I call on our industrialists, investors, commercial barons to put up factories and manufacturing establishments right here in the Philippines to process our raw materials into finished products," he said.Previous governments in the Philippines called for more domestic processing of raw minerals but the country's Congress has not enacted appropriate laws.The Philippines became the world's top nickel ore exporter after Indonesia banned exports of unprocessed ore in 2014, a move meant to spur the development of higher value smelting industries.The country has four mineral processing plants, two for gold and two for nickel. But most of its metallic mineral output is shipped abroad unprocessed."If possible, we shall put a stop to the extraction and exportation of our mineral resources...for processing abroad and importing them back to the Philippines in the form of consumer goods at prices twice or thrice the value of the raw materials," Duterte said.To encourage smelting investments, the government needs to provide incentives to investors and subsidize power costs, which are high in the Philippines, mining industry executives have said.Duterte's first appointment as Environment Minister, Regina Lopez, was dismissed in May by the Philippine Congress but she led a 10-month crackdown on the industry, highlighted by the closure and suspension of 26 of the country's 41 mines. She also imposed a ban on open-pit mining and demanded a bigger government share in mining revenues, but her orders are now under review, according to a senior official of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.I’m not sure why ASP.NET MVC was shipped without a file input type for forms. Maybe it’ll come in MVC 2.0 or 3.0. Meanwhile, I created one. I spent two or three hours trying to figure out how to go from Object to IDictionary<String, Object> to follow the same ASP.NET MVC style where you have methods like:
TextBox(HtmlHelper, String, Object, IDictionary); TextBox(HtmlHelper, String, Object, Object);
which are essentially the same. The last argument is a dictionary of extra HTML attributes, like style=”float: left;”. The good thing about accepting Object Is that you can call it this way:
Html.TextBox("email", new { style="float: left;" })
which is very handy for forms. The bad thing is that it is a pain in the ass to do that hocus pocus in C# using reflection. Thankfully ASP.NET MVC is open source. I downloaded the source and after 15 minutes I got it working nicely (and without manually using reflection). Use the source Luke!
In a recent episode of Hansel Minutes podcast someone argued what was the value of releasing the code of ASP.NET MVC at all. Well, this is the value. You help developers, you build a better developing community.
Without further ado, here’s the code:
public static class HtmlHelperExtensions { /// <summary> /// Returns a file input element by using the specified HTML helper and the name of the form field. /// </summary> /// <param name="htmlHelper">The HTML helper instance that this method extends.</param> /// <param name="name">The name of the form field and the <see cref="member">System.Web.Mvc.ViewDataDictionary</see> key that is used to look up the validation errors.</param> /// <returns>An input element that has its type attribute set to "file".</returns> public static string FileBox(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string name) { return htmlHelper.FileBox(name, (object)null); } /// <summary> /// Returns a file input element by using the specified HTML helper, the name of the form field, and the HTML attributes. /// </summary> /// <param name="htmlHelper">The HTML helper instance that this method extends.</param> /// <param name="name">The name of the form field and the <see cref="member">System.Web.Mvc.ViewDataDictionary</see> key that is used to look up the validation errors.</param> /// <param name="htmlAttributes">An object that contains the HTML attributes for the element. The attributes are retrieved through reflection by examining the properties of the object. The object is typically created by using object initializer syntax.</param> /// <returns>An input element that has its type attribute set to "file".</returns> public static string FileBox(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string name, object htmlAttributes) { return htmlHelper.FileBox(name, new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes)); } /// <summary> /// Returns a file input element by using the specified HTML helper, the name of the form field, and the HTML attributes. /// </summary> /// <param name="htmlHelper">The HTML helper instance that this method extends.</param> /// <param name="name">The name of the form field and the <see cref="member">System.Web.Mvc.ViewDataDictionary</see> key that is used to look up the validation errors.</param> /// <param name="htmlAttributes">An object that contains the HTML attributes for the element. The attributes are retrieved through reflection by examining the properties of the object. The object is typically created by using object initializer syntax.</param> /// <returns>An input element that has its type attribute set to "file".</returns> public static string FileBox(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string name, IDictionary<String, Object> htmlAttributes) { var tagBuilder = new TagBuilder("input"); tagBuilder.MergeAttributes(htmlAttributes); tagBuilder.MergeAttribute("type", "file", true); tagBuilder.MergeAttribute("name", name, true); tagBuilder.GenerateId(name); ModelState modelState; if (htmlHelper.ViewData.ModelState.TryGetValue(name, out modelState)) { if (modelState.Errors.Count > 0) { tagBuilder.AddCssClass(HtmlHelper.ValidationInputCssClassName); } } return tagBuilder.ToString(TagRenderMode.SelfClosing); } }
Reviewed by Daniel Magliola. Thank you!
AdvertisementsImage copyright other Image caption Adam Rushton's mother remembers him as an active but mischievous boy
In the past 10 years, 80 people aged 21 and under have killed themselves in prison - the government has set up a review to find out why so many young people die in custody. One mother explains what it is like to have a child die behind bars.
"Three days before his seventh birthday, we picked Adam up and all his worldly goods - which wasn't very much - and brought him home," says Annette Rushton. "He seemed happy quickly to be here."
Adam's new home was in Welshpool in Powys, with his adopted parents, Annette and husband David. It was a completely different environment from his early childhood experiences.
He had been taken into care, along with his baby brothers, after their biological mother struggled to cope and there had been concerns for the children's welfare.
Although only a child himself, Adam had been looking after his twin brothers.
Find out more Dead Behind Bars was broadcast on Thursday 24 April at 21:00 on BBC Three and will be repeated at 00:30 on Friday 25 April Catch up on BBC iPlayer Further information and support
"They would be hungry and there might be Weetabix in the house, but there'd be no milk. He would go outside and wander up and down the streets and look for somebody's milk on the doorstep," says Mrs Rushton.
"So we soon came to realise that from a very early age, the only way Adam could survive was by taking things."
Mrs Rushton remembers Adam as an active and mischievous boy.
"He would have periods of bad behaviour, most often when he'd had a particularly nice day," she says.
"You'd go to the seaside, or you'd go and do something with [him], and then you'd come home and his behaviour would deteriorate.
"The only way we could ever really understand it, or explain it, was that this child didn't think he deserved to have anything nice, or to do anything nice. As if he believed, 'I don't deserve this, I'm bad.'
"He couldn't believe that he was lovable."
Image copyright other Image caption Annette Rushton remembers her son Adam as "always on the go"
At 12, Adam was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and began attending a specialist boarding school, but was suspended after aggressive behaviour towards another pupil and then asked not to return.
"He went back to feeling, 'I'm just a load of rubbish, aren't I? What's the point? I might as well just do what I want to do'," says Mrs Rushton.
By the age of 16, Adam was living away from home in a hostel in Newtown, but began getting into trouble for minor crimes, such as shoplifting, and served 10 short prison sentences.
Image copyright Other Image caption Annette Rushton says her son's behaviour could be challenging at times
In 2009, in the run-up to his last spell in prison, his behaviour became unrecognisable to those who knew him.
"His life became extremely chaotic, worse than I'd ever seen in the past," says Eli Smith, who worked at the hostel where Adam lived.
Adam's friend, Luke Day, noticed a change in his physical appearance too.
"His eyes were sunken in over the few days because he wasn't getting the sleep, and I don't imagine he was eating either," says Mr Day.
After being caught stealing a mobile phone, Adam was remanded in custody again.
"His behaviour in the holding cell at court was very worrying for the solicitor. He smeared faeces all over the cell wall," says Mrs Rushton.
She says the psychiatric nurse who assessed her son made a recommendation in his report that if he was sent back to prison he could be in danger of taking his own life.
"That psychiatric report didn't go with him, and when it was faxed to the prison the following day, our information is that it was filed, that nobody even read it, nobody joined anything up," says Mrs Rushton.
Adam was sent to Brinsford, a young offenders institution near Wolverhampton, and on 22 October 2009 took his own life. He was 20 years old.
During the inquest into Adam's death, it was discovered that another young man had killed himself in the same cell, and in the same way, weeks before.
Brinsford Young Offenders Institution accepted all of the 11 recommendations made by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman's report into Adam's death, including a recommendation to improve reception procedures.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "Adam Rushton's death was a tragedy and our sympathies are with his family.
"We have addressed all the recommendations made by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman following the investigation into the death and the points raised by the coroner following the inquest.
"Prison staff work with some very troubled and challenging individuals and care for them professionally and effectively every day. When a death occurs it affects everyone in the prison and we are committed to do everything possible to prevent such tragedies occurring."
Image copyright Other Image caption Adam Rushton always enjoyed playing the guitar
According to statistics published by the Ministry of Justice, in 2013 there were 74 deaths in custody that were self-inflicted.
In February, the Ministry of Justice announced it would be establishing an independent review into self-inflicted deaths in custody of 18-24 year olds.
When I used to visit prison, I would look around the room and I would see 30 or 40 Adams Annette Rushton
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said: "Although there are already comprehensive investigations into individual deaths we recognise there is benefit at this time in collating lessons that may be system-wide."
Casework analysis by the charity Inquest suggests a large majority of young people who die in prison are diagnosed with ADHD, special educational needs and other disorders.
Mrs Rushton would like to see extra support for these young adults.
"When I used to visit prison, I would look around the room and I would see 30 or 40 Adams, all with the same look in their eyes, all with the same expressions on their faces.
"Yes, they deserve to be punished, but there should be something a bit more for them."
Dead Behind Bars was broadcast on Thursday 24 April at 21:00 on BBC Three and will be repeated at 00:30 on Friday 25 April. Or catch up on BBC iPlayerAs any PC enthusiast knows, it's been infuriatingly difficult to purchase a midrange graphics card over the past few months. The insane demand for cryptocurrency mining power has swept up every GeForce GTX 1060, Radeon RX 570, and Radeon RX 580 that Nvidia and AMD can turn out, and the black hole of demand has even warped GeForce GTX 1070 prices. Time after time this year, we've crossed our fingers hoping that one event or another in the cryptocurrency world would be the one to make midrange graphics card prices sane again, but those hopes have been repeatedly dashed.
Recent regulatory changes in China have shut down cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, though, and that move appears to have been the needle sharp enough to finally hole the Bitcoin and Ethereum balloons. (Ed. postscript: turns out a difficulty bomb for Ethereum isn't helping, either.) After some deep plunges from their peaks this year, both currencies seem to have found a new level, albeit at prices far below their record highs.
Whether this is a long-lasting plateau can perhaps be gauged by current prices of the two graphics cards we recommend for midrange builders: the Radeon RX 580 8GB and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. Recall that the GTX 1060 6GB carries a suggested price of $259.99, while the Radeon RX 580 8GB was meant to go for $229 and up. Until recently, though, the EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SC that we like exceeded $300 at retail, and Radeon RX 580 8GB cards have commanded $400 or more. It's impossible to recommend those cards for gamers when a GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 offers far better performance for not much more money. Folks without the scratch for a GTX 1080 have been shut out of the graphics card market for months, though, and that sucks.
As of this week, though, it seems that prices for midrange cards are on a road back to regularity. On the GTX 1060 6GB front, Newegg has one card in stock for its suggested price, and our EVGA favorite is just $15 more.
Radeon RX 580 8GB cards are not much more expensive. You can get this nice-looking dual-fan Asus model for $289.99, and similar versions from MSI, Gigabyte, and Aorus are all $309.99. Yes, $60 to $80 over AMD's suggested pricing for those cards is still a big ask, but at least they're in the same ballpark as competitive Nvidia products. We're still waiting for the taming of RX 570 prices, though. Those cards are impossible to recommend for the $260 or so they're commanding right now.
The slight easing of tensions may be extending to AMD's higher-end cards, too. Although Newegg still isn't selling standalone Radeon RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64 cards yet, the Radeon Black Pack versions of both cards are not far off their official prices. One can actually pick up an MSI RX Vega 56 Black Pack for the suggested $499.99 right now, and the RX Vega 64 Black Pack from Sapphire is $619.99 (or $20 over AMD's suggested price for the combo). Whether those are good values in light of the fact that you can still pick up a GTX 1080 for $500 to $550 is debatable, but they are at least not pants-on-head stupid.
All told, we can only hope that graphics card prices continue to cool off. Once again, we've got our fingers crossed. If you need a midrange card today, though, now is the best time to buy one that we've seen in months.Share
Update: Whatsapp has spoken to AllThingsD. Whatsapp’s Head of Business Development Neeraj Aroratold has said that Whatsapp “is not holding sales talks with Google” and the company declined to provide additional comment.
Messaging app WhatsApp is in the negotiating phase over prices with Google in what could be Google’s next billion dollar acquisition, according to |
surveyed, 27 percent strongly favor or somewhat favor adding two regular-season games and dropping two preseason games. When the group is narrowed to those identifying themselves as NFL fans, support for the change rises to a total of 45 percent -- yet only 18 percent who strongly favor it.
And that's despite data that shows football clearly is king: 41 percent of everyone surveyed called it their favorite sport to watch, more than tripling the 13 percent who chose baseball. Basketball was nearly as popular as baseball, with 12 percent.
The NFL says its data shows fans like the idea of expanding the regular season. But Steven Keller, a 43-year-old from Crystal Lake, Ill., was among the 9 percent of football fans in the AP-Knowledge Networks survey who strongly oppose an 18-game schedule.
"There's plenty enough football as it is," Keller said. "Eighteen games is too many for the players.... Those guys get beat up."
Two players for the Pittsburgh Steelers -- who face the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl on Sunday -- were vocal this week in their opposition to changing the current schedule format.
"No player wants to play 18 games," receiver Hines Ward said. "You're not thinking about the players' safety if you're trying to add two more games."
Linebacker James Harrison echoed that sentiment, saying: "You talk about adding two games, it's going to be a far cry to get a guy through a whole season healthy."
Among football fans, nearly four in 10 think the game has gotten more dangerous over the past five years.
Yet 31 percent of fans, and more than half of all the people polled, said they have heard nothing at all about the labor dispute between NFL owners and players, whose collective bargaining agreement expires in early March. There will be a formal bargaining session in the Dallas area on Saturday.
If a new deal can't be reached in time, owners could lock out the players, and it's possible next season could be affected.
"I am afraid," Steelers safety Ryan Clark said, "that games will be missed."
About three-quarters of those surveyed don't sympathize with either the NFL or players in the labor dispute. But those who were willing to choose sides were twice as likely to back the union over the owners.
"A work stoppage is not going to help anyone," said Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy, who was a vice president of the union in the 1980s while playing for the Washington Redskins. "I also realize when you get into a work stoppage situation, I think the fans don't like either side. It's kind of a pox on both sides. They just want to see football."
In other poll findings released Thursday:
• 72 percent of all those surveyed -- and 64 percent of NFL fans -- think players' salaries are too high;
• 59 percent of fans think the NFL is doing the right amount to prevent concussions;
• 53 percent of men who were surveyed, and 34 percent of women, consider themselves NFL fans;
• about a third of NFL fans say their interest in pro football has increased over the last five years.
The AP-Knowledge Networks Poll on football was conducted Jan. 21-26. It involved online interviews with 1,125 adults, including 482 who consider themselves fans of professional football. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points for all adults, 5.5 percentage points for football fans.
Respondents to the survey were first selected randomly using phone or mail survey methods. People selected who didn't otherwise have access to the Internet were provided with the ability to access it at no cost to them.“Nationals at 10” Opening Weekend
Visit the Newseum on Saturday, Aug. 1 for a full day of ballpark fun to celebrate the opening of “Nationals at 10: Baseball Makes News.” Decorate baseball keepsakes, play fun games and enter our Nationals Family Day sweepstakes for a chance to win two tickets to an upcoming home game.
Adult and senior Newseum tickets will be just $10 all weekend! Plus, take advantage of Newseum’s Summer Fun Deal where kids 18 and younger visit free through Labor Day. Come with the whole family and enjoy festivities that include:
106.7 The Fan
See a live broadcast with Bill Rohland.
Indoor Batting Practice
9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Take a swing in the Great Hall of News.
Nationals Sweepstakes
9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Enter for a chance to win two tickets to the Nationals vs. Padres game on Tues., Aug. 25!
“Nationals at 10” Gallery Talks
11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., Get “inside baseball” with Newseum exhibit writers and learn about the creation of “Nationals at 10.”
Loud and Proud
12 p.m. to 4 p.m., Visit The Ink Tank, a pop-up shop where you can use your freedom of expression to decorate baseball keepsakes, including foam mitts and visors.
Sports Front-Page Frenzy
1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., Race across a giant gameboard as you identify elements of a front page using sports milestones.
Inside Media: Covering the Nationals With The Washington Post
2:30 p.m., Take a look back at the team’s 10-year history with sports writer James Wagner.
Cap off the afternoon with delicious ballpark refreshments, available for purchase in the Newseum Food Section.
Special Game Discount for Newseum Visitors
The Nationals will offer fans who visit “Nationals at 10” a special discount of up to 25 percent on select game tickets purchased online. The discount is available beginning July 31, based on availability. Look for details on your Newseum ticket receipt.
All Nationals Family Day activities are free with Newseum admission. Supplies are limited and activities are on a first come-first served basis. Family Day activities are available on Saturday, Aug. 1. Discount adult and senior tickets are available on Saturday, Aug. 1 and Sunday, Aug. 2 and can be purchased for same-day visits at the Newseum admissions desk. Adult and senior tickets are $10 plus tax. Summer Fun Deal tickets are available to visitors 18 and younger. Up to four youth admitted for free with each paid adult or senior admission, or Press Pass membership.
Assistance (e.g., ASL interpretation, assistive listening, description) for programs/tours can be arranged with at least seven business days’ notice. Please contact AccessUs at AccessUs@newseum.org or by calling 202/292-6453.PM says UK cannot stand aside and let other countries carry the burden – and asks in Commons: ‘If not now, when?’
David Cameron has urged MPs to back UK airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria, saying that the terrorist organisation is using the sanctuary of northern Syria to launch plots with deadly intent against the British people.
In a statement to the Commons the prime minister asked: “If not now, when?” Cameron said the UK could not afford to stand aside from the fight and it was morally unacceptable to leave the US, France and other allies to carry the burden.
In a written response to the foreign affairs committee published before he addressed MPs, the prime minister says: “The threats to our interests and to our people are such that we cannot afford to stand aside and not to act.
“Throughout Britain’s history we have been called on time and again to make the hardest of decisions in defence of our citizens and our country. Today one of the greatest threats we face to our security is the threat from Isil [Isis].”
Cameron says: “The longer Isil is allowed to grow in Syria, the greater the threat it will pose. It is wrong for the United Kingdom to subcontract its security to other countries, and to expect the aircrews of other nations to carry the burdens and the risks of striking Isil in Syria to stop terrorism here in Britain.”
He says all seven terror plots in the UK this year have been directed by Isis or inspired by the group’s propaganda.
Full text of David Cameron's memorandum on Syria airstrikes Read more
He claims the terror group has an external operations group dedicated to causing mass casualty attacks around the world. He insists the strikes against Isis will be part of a comprehensive political and diplomatic plan to deny the group space and create the circumstances for an end to the civil war in Syria.
The aim, he says, must be to close down ungoverned space.
Cameron’s case was set out in a 36-page memorandum to the foreign affairs select committee, before he made his Commons statement on Thursday.
Cameron said he would not call a vote in the Commons on airstrikes in Syria until he was sure there was a clear majority in favour of action as defeat would be a “publicity coup” for Isis. He told MPs that Britain must judge whether inaction in Syria carried greater risks than action.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, did not immediately make clear whether he would tell his MPs to back military action in a Commons vote. A shadow cabinet meeting to discuss the issue was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Corbyn warned of “unintended consequences” if Britain got involved in military action in Syria in the same way it had in Iraq and Afghanistan, and urged the prime minister to make clear whether he was ruling out the use of UK forces on the ground.
The Scottish National party’s leader in Westminster, Angus Robertson, said his party’s MPs would not vote for airstrikes in Syria unless they were convinced that there was effective ground support and a fully costed plan for postwar reconstruction.
But the chairman of the foreign affairs committee – which earlier this month released a report urging caution over Syria – said he was now ready to back military action. Crispin Blunt said: “It is now my personal view that, on balance, the country would be best served by this house supporting his judgments that the UK should play a full role in the coalition, to best support and shape the politics, thus enabling the earliest military and eventual ideological defeat of Isil.”
Map Territory held by Isis in Syria
Cameron told MPs: “The reason for acting is the very direct threat that Isil poses to our country and our way of life.
“They have already taken the lives of British hostages and inspired the worst terrorist attack against British people since 7/7 on the beaches of Tunisia.”
Cameron said seven attacks over the past year had been linked to Isis or inspired by its propaganda.
“I am in no doubt that it is in our national interest to stop them. And stopping them means taking action in Syria, because it is Raqqa that is their headquarters,” he said.
Cameron's case for Syria airstrikes is highly contentious Read more
He added: “We shouldn’t be content with outsourcing our security to our allies. If we won’t act now, when our friend and ally France has been struck in this way, then our friends and allies can be forgiven for asking: if not now, when?”
Cameron’s reply also acknowledges that airstrikes have their limits and that ground troops would be necessary to defeat Isis.
“Airstrikes can degrade Isil and arrest its advance, but they alone cannot defeat Isil. We need partners on the ground to do that and we need a political solution to the Syria conflict,” the prime minister says in the memorandum.
Cameron’s foreword refers to the need for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to stand aside. He says: “An orderly political transition in Syria would preserve Syrian state structures but deliver a new Syrian government, which is able to meet the needs of the Syrian people, and with which the international community could cooperate fully against Isil, as we do with the government of Iraq.
“But that is not possible for as long as Assad remains in power without any timetable for his departure, and for as long as his security forces murder, torture, gas and bomb his own people.”
He claims Isis “poses a significant threat to the stability of the region, including to the security of Jordan, one of the UK’s key allies. Isil’s offshoots and affiliates are spreading instability and conflict in Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen and Nigeria.
“In the Middle East, they are seeking to establish their vision of a caliphate across Iraq and Syria, forcing people in those areas to yield to their rule or face torture or death. They have beheaded aid workers, organised systematic rape, enslaved Yazidi women and thrown gay people off buildings. All these atrocities belong to the dark ages.”
In the memorandum Cameron also addresses those, including many in his own party, who say the government should abandon its opposition to Assad’s regime as the lesser of two evils and so focus on the threat posed by Isis.
The prime minister states: ”But this misunderstands the causes of the problem; and would make matters worse. By inflicting brutal attacks against his own people, Assad has in fact acted as one of Isil’s greatest recruiting sergeants. We therefore need a political transition in Syria to a government that the international community can work with against Isil, as we already do with the government of Iraq.”
He also claims there has been diplomatic progress to a wider peace through the Vienna talks process, which has brought together all the key players in the region. “We can now see, through the Vienna process, involving all the key players, a possible pathway – however rocky and uncertain – to a political resolution of the war in Syria,” he asserts.
Setting out the military contribution the UK can make, he says Isis cannot be negotiated away, and insists there are moderate forces on the ground with which the British air force can ally. He rules out UK ground troops, saying it would inflame the conflict, but says an orderly political transition is not possible without Assad.
He states: “Although the situation on the ground is complex, our assessment is that there are about 70,000 Syrian opposition fighters on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups.”
He says: “With coalition air support, Iraqi forces have halted Isil’s advance and recovered 30% of the territory it had captured in Iraq. Only this month, Sinjar was liberated after last year’s Isil rout and mass killing of Yazidis, with the help of vital RAF and other partners’ air support for Kurdish peshmerga forces on the ground. Together with the RAF’s Reaper drones, RAF Tornadoes have flown more than 1,600 missions over Iraq and carried out over 360 airstrikes.”Astronomers say features of comet landed on by spacecraft in November, such as black crust and icy lakes, suggest living micro-organisms beneath surface
The comet landed on by the spacecraft Philae could well be home to an abundance of alien microbial life, according to leading astronomers.
Features of the comet, named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, such as its organic-rich black crust, are most likely explained by the presence of living organisms beneath an icy surface, the scientists have said.
Rosetta, the European spacecraft orbiting the comet, is also said to have picked up strange clusters of organic material that resemble viral particles.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A photo illustration of the Rosetta probe and Philae lander above the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, during November’s historic landing. Photograph: ESA/ESA via Getty Images
The European Space Agency pulled off a sensational feat of engineering and captured the imagination of space-travel enthusiasts across the world when Philae landed on the comet in November. Since then, the lander has undergone a period of hibernation from which it awoke in June, having recharged its solar panels.
Neither Rosetta nor Philae are equipped to search for direct evidence of life after a proposal to include this in the mission was allegedly laughed out of court. Maverick astronomer and astrobiologist Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe, who was involved in the mission planning 15 years ago, believes people should be more open to the possibility of alien life.
Wickramasinghe said: “Five hundred years ago it was a struggle to have people accept that the Earth was not the centre of the universe. After that revolution our thinking has remained Earth-centred in relation to life and biology. It’s deeply ingrained in our scientific culture and it will take a lot of evidence to kick it over.”
Prof Wickramasinghe’s views are regarded as several steps outside the scientific mainstream. He has previously suggested that the SARS virus arrived to Earth from space and that airborne spores that caused rainfall in Kerala to turn a reddish hue had an extraterrestrial origin.
He and colleague Dr Max Wallis, from the University of Cardiff, believe 67P and other comets like it could provide homes for living microbes similar to the “extremophiles” that inhabit the most inhospitable regions of the Earth.
Comets may have helped to sow the seeds of life on Earth and possibly other planets such as Mars, they argue.
The scientists have carried out computer simulations that suggest microbes could inhabit watery regions of the comet. Organisms containing anti-freeze salts could be active at temperatures as low as -40C, their research shows.
The comet has a black hydrocarbon crust overlaying ice, smooth icy “seas” and flat-bottomed craters containing lakes of re-frozen water overlain with organic debris.
Wickramasinghe said data coming from the comet seems to point to “micro-organisms being involved in the formation of the icy structures, the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very dark surface”.
“These are not easily explained in terms of prebiotic chemistry. The dark material is being constantly replenished as it is boiled off by heat from the sun. Something must be doing that at a fairly prolific rate.”
The astronomers present their case for life on 67P at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales.Over the last few weeks, free agency has died down and former Eagles safety Kurt Coleman has been the "Belle of the Ball." The Ohio State product has visited the Jets, Colts and Vikings over the last two weeks and left Minnesota without a deal despite an offer being made, according to ESPN's Ben Goessling. Coleman is "weighing his options," per Goessling.
While you may be literally laughing out loud, it should be noted that Coleman is a quality special teams player and has plenty of experience in his four seasons in the NFL. Since being selected with the 244th overall pick in 2010, Coleman has played his entire career with the Eagles. He has played in 59 games and has 29 career starts with totals of 221 tackles, seven interceptions and two forced fumbles. However, he rarely played on defense last season under new defensive coordinator Billy Davis.
Coleman was likely offered something close to the minimum and may be holding out for a multiple year deal or higher pay. Plenty around BGN wondered if Coleman would ever play again in the league, given his shortcomings with size, speed and strength. However, it seems he has at least a small market.
While you may not have enjoyed seeing him on the field on defense, Coleman is a good character guy, who always seemed to have appreciated being a member of the Eagles. We wish him luck in his future endeavors.As we all know, there’s nothing better The Kids These Days™ love more than swinging from the balls of bands who peaked when they were still in their diapers. Various 90’s and early 2000’s punk bands etc. have seen a surprising upturn in jockage by Tumblr kiddies and pop punk fans alike, but one band I always see absent from these types of people is The Offspring. This perplexes me beyond belief, since these guys are absolutely prime fodder for experiencing a surge in popularity. It’s no secret that me and Chad Sexington fucking love The Offspring so today I’m about to tell you just why these guys deserve your eternal respect and adoration.
Noodles rocking the “Silver fox Ben Stiller” look, while Dexter looks like he just stepped out of Guy Fieri’s wardrobe.
The Offspring pretty much personified fun jams when it came to the mid-90’s punk scene. I’d almost call them proto-Americanpiecore, if they weren’t way too good for that tag. Their first album is pretty crap to be honest, just your generic So-Cal hardcore with third rate Descendents riffs and the kind of musicianship that the average Punknews reader would cream themselves over. Thankfully they got a lot better around 1992 when they released their follow-up Ignition, which kinda sounds like what would happen if Punk In Drublic and Nevermind had a baby but that baby was like “Fuck scene politics, I just want to drink beer, smash bishes and hang out with my friends at a skate park.” Then the baby left home and made more money than his parents because he didn’t give a shit about integrity and wanted to get paid.
Dexter Holland probably looks back on his white guy dreads the same way Jason Butler will look back on his beard in 15 years.
Their breakthrough album was 1994’s Smash and it’s pretty great. Not as good as their later albums but still pretty sweet. It has a bunch of great osngs on it like “Self Esteem”, “Come Out and Play” and a crapton of other jams. Half the songs sound like Pennywise but with this ugly grunge production running underneath, which hasn’t aged well at all (think Seaweed/Jawbreaker, *barf*). However this was a necessary roadblock that the band had to overcome in order to go from “mediocre” to “actually pretty fucking good.” They did the opposite of most bands nowadays by going from making by-the-numbers hardcore to funny as fuck Bro Punk and then heading in a poppier direction as their career went on, which is hilarious from a modern perspective. More bands nowadays need to follow their lead instead of doing the opposite.
Too bad every EZ Dork under the sun didn’t know how to “keep ’em separated”, The Offspring saw the future and it was bleak
In ’95 they got sued by some bitchass claiming they ripped the riff of “Come Out And Play” off some shitty song by dinosaur punk band Agent Orange, when in reality they just used an extremely common scale that multiple bands have used over time. I mean srsly? A past-their-prime oldfag band suing a young, successful band because they managed to turn a profit? I guess they were just pissed because they couldn’t make a living out of playing crusty basements year after year while The Offspring were actually successful businessmen who knew how to cut ties with the scene and make hella bank in the process, lmao.
That fucking bassline at 2:47 is literal perfection, omg
While Smash and the follow-up Ixnay On The Hombre were quite amazing, it wouldn’t be until their 1998 album Americana which they truly achieved mainstream fame. This was the one that had “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” on it plus a shitton of other solid pop jams. My favourite song on it was always “Walla Walla” because the combination of Dexter’s hilariously nasal voice and Noodle’s hard-hitting riffs always struck a chord with me. They just had the perfect chemistry together, with just the right amount of accessibility to attract a pop audience and enough heaviness to keep the Warped Tour crowd happy. The Offspring were at their best at striking a delicate balance between pop and punk and good god did they ever succeed in that regard.
this shit just makes me want to dig out my Sega Dreamcast and play some Crazy Taxi, srsly
In the mid-to-late 90’s, they were inescapable as far as mainstream Pop Punk bands were. Their songs were all over the teen movies of the day and they had multiple hits on MTV and radio. Along with Green Day, The Offspring pretty much shot punk into the mainstream around that time. I’d say they were one of the saving graces when it came to the cesspool that was So-Cal punk, inspiring countless bro-friendly bands to pick up guitars and kick out some sick jams as opposed to shaving their heads into mohawks and marrying Brody Dalle. Dexter Holland and Noodles probably smashed more bishes in the space of 4 years, than the members of Citizen probably ever will in their entire lives.
This is basically the Growing Pains video by Neck Deep, except it was actually made during the 90’s and is 100x less cringier
What I love about The Offspring was that they had a no-bullshit philosophy when it came to writing songs. Play some hard and fast riffs? No problem? Have a pop song in the middle of your punk album? You got it. Have a song talking about how much scene politics suck on your major label debut, while simultaneously parodying No Fun Clubbers? Absolutely (inb4 some stangry nerd tells me Jawbreaker did it first). When you think about it, The Offspring were pretty much NOFX just with less pseudo-political posturing and more songs about beer drinking and causing riots at football games (also no ska sections, lol). Personally my favourite album they ever put out was their 2000 album Conspiracy Of One Because that was pretty much the point where they’d grown to write great Pop Punk jams, while still keeping enough of the Skate Punk influences to satisfy their Smash-era fans. Of course their old fan base from the first two albums had more or less fucked off by this point, but those nerds don’t deserve to hear such amazing jams as “Want You Bad” or “One Fine Day.”
Even though this kind of sounds like Foo Fighters, it’s still better than whatever sadboi shit you probably jerk off 2 while browsing Tumblr in your spare time.
Hell, even their newer output isn’t all that bad. Days Go By was their way of basically saying “We’re all old and stuff now so here’s some shit that’ll piss off our fans just for the hell of it”. I non-ironically love the shit out of this song. Could you imagine if a band like The Story So Far or The Wonder Years released this song? They’d lose all their fans in the space of a night. The Offspring could’ve easily just remade Smash over and over again for their entire career but they didn’t, they chose to evolve their sound and I can totally respect that. They’re a bunch of solid dudes and I back them hard. The world needs more chill guys like them, instead of stangry dorks concerned with label politics or how many breakdowns + synth you can cram into a single song.
What do you think? Should The Offspring join the ranks of ‘tru punx’ luminaries or simply remain a relic of the 90’s? Did Guy Fieri totally get the idea for his haircut from Dexter Holland? Is “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy” the worst song ever written? Let us know in the comments below.News: First Team
The duration is unchanged (until 2020) and the player’s salary and buy-out clause are increased
SD Eibar and the Argentinian player Gonzalo Escalante have reached agreement for the improvement of the contract that links both parties until June 2020.
The duration of the contract is similar to the one signed in January of this year but both the amount received by the player and the amount of the buy-out clause have increased.
The Club decided to offer this improvement to Escalalnte having become aware of the interest of other clubs that were prepared to pay the amount of the previous buy-out clause in order to secure the services of the Argentine midfielder.
Gonzalo Escalante (Bella Vista, Argentina–1993) came to Eibar during the last pre-season, on-loan from the Italian side Catania and the Club exercised the player’s purchase clause in January of this year.
In his first season in La Liga, Escalante has played 34 games, starting in 32 of them and has scored three goals.Merkel's Christian Democrats have already lost control of two states to the Social Democrats this year [GALLO/GETTY]
Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition could suffer another blow at the polls in a regional election in Germany's poorest state, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The German chancellor's Christian Democrats (CDU) have been junior coalition partners to the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in the sparsely populated state on the Baltic shore.
However, Sunday's key regional vote could see the CDU knocked out and replaced by the Left party or even by Germany's resurgent Green Party.
The CDU has slumped in national polls and already been punished in five regional elections this year, losing control of two states to the SPD this year, in part due to general discontent over Merkel and her hesitant leadership during the eurozone debt crisis.
Merkel's coalition partners, the Free Democrats, are also struggling and could lose all their seats in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's state assembly.
Opinion polls in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern put the SPD at about 37 per cent, well above their 30.2 per cent in 2006 with the CDU polling about 27 per cent, down from 28.8 in 2006. The Left are on 17 per cent after 16.8 per cent five years ago.
Greens riding high
The Greens, riding high in national polls in the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster, are expected to win nine per cent after 3.4 per cent in 2006.
If the Greens clear the five per cent hurdle in the state for the first time, the environmental party will have seats in all 16 states for the first time.
A poor result for the CDU and being ejected from the government in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern would be a personal setback for Merkel two years ahead of federal elections.
The chancellor, whose parliamentary constituency is in the region, campaigned heavily there with nine public appearances.
The region, home to 1.6 million, has long been one of Germany's most economically depressed with unemployment levels at 12 per cent, more than triple the jobless rate in more prosperous southern Germany.
Wages in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are the lowest in Germany and even below European Union averages, while the population has shrunk since reunification as the region's East German-era industries collapsed.
Those economic conditions have helped the far-right NPD, which could win seats in the assembly again after winning 7.3 per cent in 2006.
Another election defeat for the CDU could cause further nervousness among backbenchers in the Berlin parliament worried about their job security.
Merkel's coalition faces a difficult vote on the eurozone bailout on September 29 and there are already
fears that not enough coalition deputies will back Merkel.Bribery and corruption have been rife in Egypt, where a traffic policeman can look past a violation if a crumpled bill finds its way into his pocket (AFP Photo/KHALED DESOUKI)
Cairo (AFP) - When Egyptian real estate developer Hassan tried building an apartment block without paying bribes, officials stalled the project, going so far as to suggest there were ancient relics beneath the lot.
Hassan buckled and found a middleman to disperse the bribes.
Bribery and corruption have been rife in Egypt, where a traffic policeman can look past a violation if a crumpled bill finds its way into his pocket.
The government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has decided to crack down, with each month bringing news of stings ensnaring a corrupt official.
Corruption "breaks people's morale, and gives them a feeling that there is no hope," Sisi has said.
It was one of the main causes of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.
But critics say that despite the crackdown, more work has to be done to fight corruption.
"The only thing that changed is the faces" said Hassan, a pseudonym.
Since 2015, the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) has prosecuted several high-profile cases, including an agriculture minister forced to resign and later sentenced to 10 years for taking bribes.
In January, a senior judge hanged himself in custody a day after his arrest for alleged corruption.
- Crossing the line -
"The ACA's efforts were very fruitful and there is a noticeable decline in corruption incidents" reported in the media and in government statements, said Walaa Gad al-Karim, Partners for Transparency's general manager.
The ACA declined several interview requests.
Analysts including Gad al-Karim say high profile stings alone cannot end corruption.
A legal overhaul is needed, they say, including guarantees of freedom of information, protections for whistle blowers and autonomy for agencies tasked with battling corruption.
"There is a very strong anti-corruption political discourse as the president is always talking about fighting corruption, but we need this to be translated into legislation faster," said Gad al-Karim.
Egypt scored 34 on Transparency International's 2016 Corruption Perception Index, dropping two points from the previous year. A score of zero is highly corrupt while 100 is very clean.
The decline was partly because of "restrictions on civil society and public scrutiny over corruption," said Kinda Hattar, TI's regional advisor for the Middle East and North Africa.
Hisham Geneina, the former head of the Central Auditing Authority (CAA), has become a cautionary tale for officials who are too outspoken on corruption.
He was fired and then sentenced to jail after publicising a study based on 2012-2015 reports that calculated the cost of corruption at about 600 billion pounds (about $33 billion).
It was reduced to a suspended sentence on appeal.
"Geneina crossed an important red line, which stipulates that the independence provided to the CAA has always been conditional on the confidentiality of their data," said Osama Diab, an anti-corruption researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
A July 2015 decree in which Sisi gave himself the right to sack oversight institutions' heads and members, "adds to their direct subordination to the executive authority," the EIPR said in a 2016 report.
- Cost of corruption -
Corruption costs the country a lot of money, and occasionally lives.
Losses to state coffers from selling state land at below-market prices translate into losses in state services, said Gad al-Karim.
"Egypt is known for buildings that collapse on its residents where buildings weren't done in accordance with proper specifications," said Hattar.
The low salaries of civil servants and policemen contribute to the phenomenon.
Many of Egypt's civil servants make 1,200 pounds monthly, the public sector's minimum wage.
The average low ranking policeman, the sort Egyptians are more likely to interact with on a daily basis, makes less than 3,000 pounds, an officer told AFP, although Egyptian media has reported higher salaries for them.
"Three quarters of my colleagues have problems in their homes because their wives believe the media," said the officer, who requested anonymity.
When Danya, also a pseudonym, was pulled over with an expired driving licence, and paid a 500-pound fine, a police officer told her: "If you had paid the policeman back there 50 pounds you wouldn't have had to pay the 500".
Hassan said he would pay higher fees to compensate underpaid officials, "if this money will actually go to the government."CubaCel Cuba Mobile topup bonus with bitcoin, psc
From 12 Sep 2016 00:00 To 16 Sep 2016 23:59 (GMT-4)Promotion:Operator:Country:Denominations:Denominations(local): CUC 20 - 50Terms and Conditions: - For every top up between 20 CUC and 50 CUC, customers will receive an additional 30 CUC credit to be applied to the promotional balance.- The promotion will run from Monday September 12th, 2016 00:01 Cuba time to Friday September 16th, 2016 23:59 Cuba time.- The promotional balance may be used for all services available to prepaid users like domestic and international calls, SMS, MMS, including SMS entumovil and Data (Nauta).- Once the promotional balance is used any charges for calls or SMS will be deducted from the main balance.- The promotional bonus must be used before October 31st, 2016 at 23:59 Cuba time. Any balance remaining at this time will be removed from the promotional balance. Please note that previously credited promotional balance will keep the same expiration for when it was credited, it will not be combinable with this promotion.- Main balance will keep same validity as previous promotions (330 days from recharge date).- The balance transfer service is not available with promotional bonus.- If promotional amount is not enough to complete a call or to send a SMS, main balance will be deducted.- Customers will receive a SMS a few days before the expiration date of extra bonus.- Customers can check their balance via USSD (*222#) for free.- Final Topup price that customers pay will not exceed $ 5.00 USD above the face value.- Also note receivers in Cuba will see the refilled amount separately from top up made. Receivers must read the check balance message until the endDAMMAM (Saudi Arabia): India U-19 football team will look to end their AFC Championship Qualifiers with a win as they face bottom-placed Turkmenistan in their last group match on Wednesday.Head coach Luis Norton de Matos praised his players for the good show in their drawn game against Yemen but said they will have to be more clinical in front of opposition goal against Turkmenistan."Turkmenistan are an aggressive side and they have lost both their matches so far. They will be playing for a win for their pride and we will be doing the same. We will be playing for a win and looking to end the qualifiers on a positive note," de Matos said."It was a good performance against Yemen and it could have been perfect if we had won. We have to take our chances in the final third and score goals. We had three to four clear goal-scoring opportunities against Yemen and if we could have taken them we would have won. We need to buckle up and be clinical in front of goal," he added.Asked about his strategy against Yemen, he said, "We wanted to dominate in the midfield and we were able to achieve that. We were also able to create goal scoring opportunities for our forwards. In defence, we stayed strong and played as a single unit which helped us to keep Yemen at bay."He said India need to believe in the process of developing players."We are building a team for the future and if you look, against Yemen, nine U-17 players played and dominated at certain spells of the game. Imagine the potential that this team will have in the next two years. There is a long way to go, but we need to believe that results will not be visible immediately but will take some time to show."Thousands Of Cats Destined For Vietnamese Tables Are Buried Instead
Enlarge this image toggle caption AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images
Vietnamese authorities have buried thousands of cats, many of them apparently still alive |
parent language of these three families, referred to as Proto-Germanic, is not attested but may be reconstructed from evidence within the families, such as provided by Old English texts.
Old English itself has three dialects: West Saxon, Kentish, and Anglian. West Saxon was the language of Alfred the Great (871-901) and therefore achieved the greatest prominence; accordingly, the chief Old English texts have survived in this dialect. In the course of time, Old English underwent various changes such as the loss of final syllables, which also led to simplification of the morphology. Upon the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, numerous words came to be adopted from French and, subsequently, also from Latin.
For a reconstruction of the parent language of Old English, called Proto-Germanic, see Winfred Lehmann's book on this subject. For a sketch of the evolution of the Germanic and other Indo-European language families, with links to online maps showing homeland areas, see IE Maps. For access to our online version of Bosworth and Toller's dictionary of Old English, see An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.
Alphabet and Pronunciation
The alphabet used to write our Old English texts was adopted from Latin, which was introduced by Christian missionaries. Unfortunately, for the beginning student, spelling was never fully standardized: instead the alphabet, with continental values (sounds), was used by scribal monks to spell words "phonetically" with the result that each dialect, with its different sounds, was rendered differently -- and inconsistently, over time, due to dialectal evolution and/or scribal differences. King Alfred did attempt to regularize spelling in the 9th century, but by the 11th century continued changes in pronunciation once again exerted their disruptive effects on spelling. In modern transcriptions such as ours, editors often add diacritics to signal vowel pronunciation, though seldom more than macrons (long marks).
Anglo-Saxon scribes added two consonants to the Latin alphabet to render the th sounds: first the runic thorn (þ), and later eth (ð). However, there was never a consistent distinction between them as their modern IPA equivalents might suggest: different instances of the same word might use þ in one place and ð in another. We follow the practices of our sources in our textual transcriptions, but our dictionary forms tend to standardize on either þ or ð -- mostly the latter, though it depends on the word. To help reduce confusion, we sort these letters indistinguishably, after T; the reader should not infer any particular difference. Another added letter was the ligature ash (æ), used to represent the broad vowel sound now rendered by 'a' in, e.g., the word fast. A letter wynn was also added, to represent the English w sound, but it looks so much like thorn that modern transcriptions replace it with the more familiar 'w' to eliminate confusion.
The nature of non-standardized Anglo-Saxon spelling does offer compensation: no letters were "silent" (i.e., all were pronounced), and phonetic spelling helps identify and track dialectal differences through time. While the latter is not always relevant to the beginning student, it is nevertheless important to philologists and others interested in dialects and the evolution of the early English language.
Vocabulary
At first glance, Old English texts may look decidedly strange to a modern English speaker: many Old English words are no longer used in modern English, and the inflectional structure was far more rich than is true of its modern descendant. However, with small spelling differences and sometimes minor meaning changes, many of the most common words in Old and modern English are the same. For example, over 50 percent of the thousand most common words in Old English survive today -- and more than 75 percent of the top hundred. Conversely, more than 80 percent of the thousand most common words in modern English come from Old English. A few "teaser" examples appear below; our Master Glossary or Base-Form Dictionary may be scanned for examples drawn from our texts, and any modern English dictionary that includes etymologies will provide hundreds or thousands more.
Nouns: cynn 'kin', hand, god, man(n), word.
Pronouns: hē, ic 'I', mē, self, wē.
Verbs: beran 'bear', cuman 'come', dyde 'did', sittan'sit', wæs 'was'.
Adjectives: fæst 'fast', gōd 'good', hālig 'holy', rīce 'rich', wīd 'wide'.
Adverbs: ær 'ere', alle 'all', nū 'now', tō 'too', ðǣr 'there'.
Prepositions: æfter 'after', for, in, on, under.
Articles: ðæt 'that', ðis 'this'.
Conjunctions: and, gif 'if'.
Sentence Structure
In theory, Old English was a "synthetic" language, meaning inflectional endings signalled grammatical structure and word order was rather free, as for example in Latin; modern English, by contrast, is an "analytic" language, meaning word order is much more constrained (e.g., with clauses typically in Subject-Verb-Object order). But in practice, actual word order in Old English prose is not too often very different from that of modern English, with the chief differences being the positions of verbs (which might be moved, e.g., to the end of a clause for emphasis) and occasionally prepositions (which might become "postpositions"). In Old English verse, most bets are off: word order becomes much more free, and word inflections & meaning become even more important for deducing syntax. The same may be said, however, of modern English poetry, but in these lessons we tend to translate Old English poetry as prose. Altogether, once a modern English reader has mastered the common vocabulary and inflectional endings of Old English, the barriers to text comprehension are substantially reduced.
Word Forms
As we will see, Old English words were much inflected. Over time, most of this apparatus was lost and English became the analytic language we recognize today, but to read early English texts one must master the conjugations of verbs and the declensions of nouns, etc. Yet these inflectional systems had already been reduced by the time Old English was first being written, long after it had parted ways with its Proto-Germanic ancestor. The observation that matters "could have been worse" should serve as consolation to any modern English student who views conjugation and declension with trepidation.
Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns
These categories of Old English words are declined according to case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, or sometimes instrumental), number (singular, plural, or [for pronouns] dual meaning 'two'), and gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter: inherent in nouns, but inherited by adjectives and pronouns from the nouns they associate with). In addition, some adjectives are inflected to distinguish comparative and superlative uses.
Adjectives and regular nouns are either "strong" or "weak" in declension. In addition, irregular nouns belong to classes that reflect their earlier Germanic or even Indo-European roots; these classes, or more to the point their progenitors, will not be stressed in our lessons, but descriptions are found in the handbooks.
Pronouns are typically suppletive in their declension, meaning inflectional rules do not account for many forms so each form must be memorized (as is true of modern English I/me, you, he/she/it/his/her, etc). Tables will be provided. Similarly, a few nouns and adjectives are "indeclinable" and, again, some or all forms must be memorized.
Verbs
Old English verbs are conjugated according to person (1st, 2nd, or 3rd), number (singular or plural), tense (present or past/preterite), mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive or perhaps optative), etc.
Most verbs are either "strong" or "weak" in conjugation; there are seven classes of strong verbs and three classes of weak verbs. A few other verbs, including modals (e.g. for 'can','must'), belong to a special category called "preterit-present," where different rules apply, and yet others (e.g. for 'be', 'do', 'go') are "anomalous," meaning each form must be memorized (as is true of modern English am/are/is, do/did, go/went, etc).
Other parts of speech
The numerals may be declined, albeit with fewer distinct forms than is normal for adjectives, and those for 'two' and 'three' may show gender. Other parts of speech are not inflected, except for some adverbs with comparative and superlative forms.
Related Language Courses at UT
Most but not all language courses taught at The University of Texas concern modern languages; however, courses in Old and Middle English, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, are taught in the Department of English (link opens in a new browser window). Other online language courses for college credit are offered through the University Extension (new window).
West Germanic Resources Elsewhere
Our Web Links page includes pointers to West Germanic resources elsewhere.Update 5/9/2015: For the latest news about the book, go to its official website at www.inmemorytribute.com.
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Update 1/6/2015: Submissions have now closed. You can follow the anthology’s progress at welikethemshort.blogspot.com, and if you’ve sent us something, we will be in touch by June 7.
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In memory of Sir Terry Pratchett, we are putting together an anthology of short stories to raise money for one of his favourite charities. If you are an author (or suspect you have the makings of one!) and are one of the millions of readers out there who has been touched in some way by the writings of Sir Terry, then read on.
We have reached out to Alzheimer’s Research UK, offering to put together a fan tribute anthology on the theme of Memory. The book will be dedicated to Sir Terry Pratchett, with all proceedings going to the charity. They were thrilled and have offered their support.
If you’re up to the challenge, here are the details:
Short Story Guidelines
The story should follow the theme of Memory
The story should be between 3,000 and 8,000 words
Humorous writing is preferred, given the nature of Sir Terry’s work
The genre can be any flavour of fiction that tickles your fancy.
Submission Rules
Send your initial submission to WeLikeThemShort (at) gmail (dot) com between April 25 and May 31. One submission is permitted per author. If your submission is accepted, we will contact you and ask for your complete story text, with a deadline of June 30. Your initial submission should include:
A brief author biography
A short synopsis (no more than two lines) of what you will write about, with estimated word count (eg 3k-4k words; 7k-8k words)
word count (eg 3k-4k words; 7k-8k words) A writing sample: up to 500 words of your original published or unpublished work.
Legal Terms and Payment
All profits will go towards Alzheimer’s Research UK
Authors are not expected to contribute to the publishing costs
Authors will receive an eBook of the full anthology, and may purchase up to four printed copies of the book at cost price (plus shipping)
The costs of final editing and artwork will be covered by the organisers. Note that final short stories are expected to be in a suitably publish-ready state, and the organisers reserve the right to dismiss or return works if they do not meet this requirement
Authors retain the right to be recognised as creators of their work
Authors do not have to be residents of the UK—the organisers certainly aren’t!
Who We Are
Your humble anthology orchestrators are Sorin Suciu, author of The Scriptlings, and Laura May, author of Pickles and Ponies.St Petersburg has been hit by a bomb blast on its metro, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens more.
A Kyrgyz-born Russian has been named as a suspect behind the explosion in the city centre on Monday, though his motives are not yet clear. The attack on Russia's second city is the first major terror attack in the country since two suicide bombers killed 32 at a train station in Volgograd in 2013.
What happened?
A home-made bomb, believed to have been a shrapnel-filled briefcase, was exploded at 2.20pm local time on St Petersburg’s Metro, at Sennya Square, a busy intersection station where three of the city’s five subway lines meet. A second unexploded bomb was discovered shortly afterwards.
President Vladimir Putin, who was in the city at the time, said that all causes, including terrorism, were being investigated. A spokesman for the GKNB security service identified the suspect as Akbarzhon Jalilov, born in the city of Osh in 1995. He provided no other details, but authorities are exploring the possibility that it was a suicide bomb.
Kyrgyzstan, a predominantly Muslim Central Asian nation of six million, is Russia's close political ally and hosts a Russian military airbase.
The Foreign Office (FCO) website warns Britons in St Petersburg to take extra care and follow the advice of the local authorities. It adds that all metro stations in the city are currently closed.
The city’s airport, Pulkovo, said it is operating as normal.
Where is St Petersburg?
The city formerly known as Leningrad was described by its founder, Peter the Great, as Russia’s “window to Europe”, owing to its north-western position overlooking the Gulf of Finland.
Once Russia’s capital, St Petersburg has a population of 7.5million and is popular with tourists for its wealth of baroque and neoclassical buildings, rich history and the Hermitage, one of the world’s largest museums. It is considered the country’s most liberal, progressive city and has a bustling nightlife and cultural scene.
Around 150,000 Britons visit Russia each year, according to the FCO.
St Petersburg's Winter Palace, which houses the Hermitage Credit: Roman Evgenev/Roman Evgenev
Has Russia suffered terror attacks in the past?
St Petersburg was the destination of Metrojet Flight 9268 blown up over the Sinai peninsula in Egypt in October, 2015, after departing from Sharm el Sheikh. The attack, claimed by the so-called Islamic State, killed all 217 passengers and seven crew onboard.
The last major attack on Russian soil was in 2013 in Volgograd, when jihadist suicide bombers from Islamist and separatist group the Caucasus Emirate blew themselves up a day apart, first at the train station and next on a bus. It followed a similar attack two months earlier in the city.
In 2011 the same group bombed the arrival hall of Moscow’s international Domodedovo airport, killing 37 people and injuring scores more.
The Moscow Metro was hit in 2010 by the Caucasus Emirate who ordered two female suicide bombers to blow themselves up at two stations during a morning rush hour. Forty people died.
The capital’s subway system was attacked twice in 2004 by a group called Muslim Socity No 3, the first in February with 41 deaths near Avtozavodskaya station, the second months later in August outside Rizhskaya station, claiming 10 lives.
Perhaps the better-known attacks include the Belsan school siege in 2004, carried out by Chechen separatists, when more than 1,100 children and teachers were taken hostage in the region in North Ossetia. The eventual storming of the building ended the siege with the death of some 334 hostages.
The Moscow theatre siege ended with security forces storming the building Credit: 2003 AFP/AFP
The Moscow theatre crisis in 2002 was similar. Chechen rebels took 850 people hostage at the Dubrovka Theatre in a siege that lasted three days before special forces stormed the building. All the militants were killed and 133 hostages.
What does the Foreign Office say?
The FCO says nothing specifically about travel to St Petersburg and Moscow and advises that the majority of Russia, from the western fringes of Europe to the far eastern shores, is safe.
However, it advises against all travel to some south-western regions, including Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. It also advises against all travel to within 10km of the southern border with Ukraine, with whom Russia is engaged in a territorial dispute over Crimea.
The FCO advises against all travel to within 10km of the border with the Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk Oblasts.
against all but essential travel to within 10km of the border with the Ukrainian Kharkiv Oblast.
The FCO advises against all travel to Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan and the districts of Budyonnovsky, Levokumsky, Neftekumsky, Stepnovsky and Kursky in Stavropol Krai.
against all but essential travel to North Ossetia, Karachai-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria (including the Elbrus area).
What does it say about terrorism?
“There is a high threat from terrorism,” it says. “The main terrorist threat in Russia comes from Islamist and rebel groups in the North Caucasus, but attacks aren’t limited to this region. Previous attacks have seen large numbers of casualties.
“Although there’s no indication that British nationals or interests have been specific targets, attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners. You should be vigilant in all public places, including major transport hubs, tourist sites and crowded areas – particularly where access isn’t controlled (eg open-air events and markets). Previous attacks have targeted transport infrastructure. Further attacks are likely, and could take place anywhere in Russia.
The world mapped according to terror threat
“In the North Caucasus, while the number of casualties from ongoing violence has reduced in recent years, there continue to be frequent attacks and skirmishes between rebel groups and Russian forces in the republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.”
It also warns of kidnapping in the North Caucasus region, with westerners “particularly vulnerable”.
Can I cancel my trip?
You can, but you will have to pay any extra costs you incur. Travel companies are not obliged to offer free cancellation or repatriation unless the FCO advises against travel - though some might make exceptions for specific incidents or destinations. It is worth checking with the company you booked with.
Will my travel insurance cover any losses if I don’t travel?
Not usually. Travel insurance normally excludes costs associated with such instability including terrorist action.All about the most remote ocean point on Earth
Text by Jonno Turner
Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez
What's in a name? The most remote point in the ocean lies in the South Pacific Ocean and is known as ‘Point Nemo’, or the ‘Pole of Inaccessibility’.
It's not named after stripey cartoon fish. In fact, the name 'Nemo' comes from Captain Nemo, a character in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea — not the film Finding Nemo.
Don't expect to find a gift shop. You see, Point Nemo isn't an actual 'point' as there's no land there — it's simply a spot in the ocean that happens to be 2,688 kilometres (or 1,450 nm) from the nearest land.
And even that land isn't exactly welcoming. It's called Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands to the north, and it's a non-inhabited, C-shaped strip of land with a diameter stretching hardly two kilometres. So by the time you get there, you might wish you hadn't bothered.
Don't forget to look up! If you pass Point Nemo at the right time of day, you'll be closer to the astronauts in the International Space Station some 400km up in space, than any other humans on earth.
In Latin, 'nemo' translates as 'no man' - which pretty much sums up how bleak this part of the world is!
Back to the 90s. In 1992, a Croatian-Canadian survey engineer called Hrvoje Lukatela used a geospatial computer program to find Point Nemo. He figured that because the Earth is three-dimensional, its most remote ocean point must sit the same distance away from three nearest coastlines.
Make sure you pack your map. Point Nemo is based at 48°52.6′ south, 123°23.6′ west. You know, in case you fancy a visit.She also appeared on Broadway and worked often in regional theater.
Barbara Tarbuck, the busy actress who played Lady Jane Jacks on General Hospital for more than a decade and recently appeared on American Horror Story, has died. She was 74.
Tarbuck died Monday at her home in Los Angeles of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, her daughter, Jennifer Lane Connolly, told The Hollywood Reporter. Connolly is a producer on the recent documentary A Classy Broad, about the pioneering Hollywood producer Marcia Nasatir.
Tarbuck portrayed Ingo Rademacher's (Jax Jacks) mother on ABC's General Hospital from 1996 until 2010, and on Ryan Murphy's FX series American Horror Story: Asylum, she was Jessica Lange's compassionate Mother Superior Claudia in five episodes during the second season.
In the 1980s, Tarbuck portrayed another nun, Sister Allegra, on the NBC daytime serial Santa Barbara, and she had a recurring role as Dr. Randall on the CBS primetime soap Falcon Crest.
The actress also appeared on such television shows as The Waltons, Dallas, Police Squad!, M*A*S*H, Cagney & Lacey, The Golden Girls, Judging Amy, Star Trek: Enterprise, NYPD Blue, Nip/Tuck and Glee (two other Murphy series) and Mad Men.
Her film résumé included parts in Big Trouble (1986), directed by John Cassavetes; John Hughes' Curly Sue (1991); The Tie That Binds (1995); and Walking Tall (2004).
On Broadway, Tarbuck appeared in the original production of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, which debuted in 1983, and she worked often in regional theater. She most recently wrote and starred in the L.A. play Stopping By, about a 74-year-old woman who takes her husband's ashes to Burning Man.
Tarbuck also taught acting at UCLA for years.
Born in Detroit, Tarbuck performed on the WWJ-AM children's radio show Storyland starting at age 9 and learned from veteran actors who had worked on The Lone Ranger, The Shadow and The Green Hornet.
She studied acting at Wayne State University and graduated in 1963. After receiving her master's from the University of Michigan, she was the lead actress at Indiana University in its inaugural theater touring company season.
Tarbuck was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art then moved to New York to launch her professional career.
In addition to her daughter, survivors include son-in-law Samuel Chawinga and grandsons Cianan and Cuinn Chawinga.The main goal of the 2045 Initiative, as stated on site, is "to create technologies enabling the transfer of an individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society".
The 2045 Initiative is a nonprofit organization that develops a network and community of researchers in the field of life extension. [1] [2] It was founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The 2045 Initiative has a roadmap for developing cybernetic immortality. [3] The Initiative has the goal for an avatar controlled by a "brain-computer" interface to be developed between 2015 and 2020, between 2020 and 2025 creating an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, between 2030 and 2035 creating a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the means to transfer it into an artificial carrier, and by 2045 create a new era for humanity with holographic bodies. [3]
One of the featured life-extension projects is to design an artificial humanoid body (called an "avatar") and an advanced brain–computer interface system. On the biological side, a life support system will be developed for hosting a human brain inside the avatar and maintaining it alive and functional. A later phase of the project will research into the creation of an artificial brain into which the original individual consciousness may be transferred.
Avatar A Edit
A robotic copy of a human body remotely capable of interpreting commands directly from the mind, and sending information back to the mind in a form that can be interpreted via brain–computer interface. It is estimated to be popularized in or before 2020.
Avatar B Edit
An avatar in which a human brain is transplanted at the end of one's life. Avatar B has an autonomous system providing life support for the brain and allowing it interaction with the environment, possibly mounted into an existing Avatar A Chassis. Deadline of this phase is year 2025.
Avatar C Edit
An avatar with an artificial brain to which a human personality is transferred for emulation at the end of one's life. The first successful attempt to upload one's personality to a computer is estimated to happen around 2035.
Avatar D Edit
A hologram- or diagram-like avatar. This is the ultimate goal of this project but is optional since, assuming either the upload is involuntary or all humans chose to upload, biological diseases are prevented in the previous phase, and it is far away from current technological achievement and our understanding on physics.Smile, Smile, Smile Head to limp head, the sunk-eyed wounded scanned
Yesterday's Mail; the casualties (typed small)
And (large) Vast Booty from our Latest Haul.
Also, they read of Cheap Homes, not yet planned;
For, said the paper, "When this war is done
The men's first instinct will be making homes.
Meanwhile their foremost need is aerodromes,
It being certain war has just begun.
Peace would do wrong to our undying dead, --
The sons we offered might regret they died
If we got nothing lasting in their stead.
We must be solidly indemnified.
Though all be worthy Victory which all bought,
We rulers sitting in this ancient spot
Would wrong our very selves if we forgot
The greatest glory will be theirs who fought,
Who kept this nation in integrity."
Nation? -- The half-limbed readers did not chafe
But smiled at one another curiously
Like secret men who know their secret safe.
This is the thing they know and never speak,
That England one by one had fled to France
(Not many elsewhere now save under France).
Pictures of these broad smiles appear each week,
And people in whose voice real feeling rings
Say: How they smile! They're happy now, poor things.
23rd September 1918.Flint Residents Sue EPA For $722 Million
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
Around 1,700 residents of Flint, MI, are suing the federal government for what they see as mismanagement of the lead contamination crisis in the city.
The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status as they proceed.
“The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Michigan, asserted that the U.S. EPA failed to warn them of the dangers of the toxic water or take steps to ensure that state and local authorities were addressing the crisis. The plaintiffs seek $722 million in damages,” Reuters reported.
The 30-page lawsuit said, per Reuters: “This case involves a major failure on all levels of government to protect the health and safety of the public. Local, state and federal agencies and employees, working individually and at times in concert with each other, mismanaged this environmental catastrophe.”
The lawsuit argues that “despite notice of the danger as early as October 2014, the EPA failed to take the mandatory steps to determine that Michigan and Flint authorities were not taking appropriate action to protect the public from toxic water,” according to Michigan Radio.
A separate class-action lawsuit over the Flint crisis was dismissed last week.
“The lawsuit was filed in 2015 against Gov. Rick Snyder, the city of Flint and other state and city officials involved in making the decision to use water from the corrosive Flint River, which caused high lead levels in the water municipal water system,” The Detroit News reported.
U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara dismissed the case, saying that allowing “claims to proceed would circumvent the Safe Drinking Water Act,” according to The Detroit News.
Flint’s water crisis has sparked “many lawsuits filed against local, state and federal officials, as well as private contractors,” according to Michigan Radio.
For instance, last year, cases of Legionnaires’ disease in the city “prompted a $100 million class-action lawsuit against McLaren Flint hospital, where many of Legionnaires’ cases were reported, and several state employees,” The Detroit News reported.
To read more about the Flint lead crisis visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.
Image credit: "Rumble Press," 3D_Judges_Gavel © 2013, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/PS4 Jailbreaking (with OrbisOS 0day) Reck Nov 30th, 2013 260,806 Never 260,806Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 3.36 KB ______ _ _____ | ___ \ | | | _ | | |_/ / ___ ___ | | __ ____ | |/' | _ __ | / / _ \ / __| | |/ / |_ / | /| | | '__| | |\ \ | __/ | (__ | < / / \ |_/ / | | 2011-present \_| \_| \___| \___| |_|\_\ /___| \___/ |_| twitter.com/Reckz0r "Buy an Apple, Microsoft, LG, Samsung, Nintendo..but don't buy a Sony." - George Hotz ------------------------------------------ I have been away for a while, so my question to you is; did you miss me? I am aware that ya'll were all thirsty for a cup of a fine Reckz0r release, so here I am...with a fine fuckin' glass of a RECKZ0R release, yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! (did that sound sarcastic?) Before I get off started ridiculing Sony, I'd like to pay homage to Sir George Hotz, who looked into the eyes of Sony and made them ejaculate as they bowed down in fear. Very artistic of you, Geohotz. Now that, George Hotz has resigned from engaging in all types of sexual activities with an computer, and as all fans of PlayStation are crying for the comeback of GeoHotz..I'd let you all know, you don't need that lil fuckin' faggot. You really don't. Well, alright....LET'S GET STARTED ALREADY! As you all know, PS4 runs Orbis OS, that is highly based on FreeBSD (which is a opensource operating system), and as the PS4 is closely identical to a PC, I guess you all knew that PS4 and the Xbox One will probably end up getting pwned soon, and now..its time. NOTE: I did not find this vulnerability within PS4, nor did I write the exploit, while I was browsing thru an Brazilian console-hacking forum known as condinh0 (I am sure you all know this if you hang out at TOR). A person named x-s4nd3r released the devkit of PS4, as well as the exploit within 5 days of PS4 release. Although most of you don't know how to apply that jailbreak on the PS4, I am making this tutorial to sort this shit out for you. -EXPLOIT DETAILS- OS: Orbis Console: PlayStation 4 Type: Privilege Escalation/Buffer Overflow (allows to run assigned code) Created on: 25 November 2013 -AUTHOR- Name: x-s4nd3r URL: http://twitter.com/xs4nd3r (feel free to get him v&) FILES: PS4 DevKit: https://depositfiles.com/files/deitivkle Jailbreak Package (exploit): https://depositfiles.com/files/xwurigoq ***IMPORTANT***** - You need the DAY ONE Update to jailbreak the PS4, otherwise these files will be considered unrecognizable. GUIDE: 1. Create a folder on your USB storage device. This is where you'll put the exploit. 2. Create a "SANDERPS4" folder. Inside that folder, create another folder named "EXP." 3. Extract the PSORBISEXP.PUP file from the package, and save it in the EXP folder. 4. Make sure your PlayStation 4 is turned off. 5. Connect the USB storage device to your PlayStation 4, and press the power button for at least 7 seconds. The PlayStation 4 will start in Safe Mode. 6. Select "Update System Software." 7. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the jailbreak. 8. If your PlayStation 4 doesn't recognize the jailbreaking file, make sure that the folder and file names are correct. 9. Voila! JAILBROKEN! --------------------------- You now have the ability to run unassigned/assigned code and pirated games on your PS4, but do NOT go online, if you do go online, your console will be immediately banned. Have fun piratin'
RAW Paste Data
______ _ _____ | ___ \ | | | _ | | |_/ / ___ ___ | | __ ____ | |/' | _ __ | / / _ \ / __| | |/ / |_ / | /| | | '__| | |\ \ | __/ | (__ | < / / \ |_/ / | | 2011-present \_| \_| \___| \___| |_|\_\ /___| \___/ |_| twitter.com/Reckz0r "Buy an Apple, Microsoft, LG, Samsung, Nintendo..but don't buy a Sony." - George Hotz ------------------------------------------ I have been away for a while, so my question to you is; did you miss me? I am aware that ya'll were all thirsty for a cup of a fine Reckz0r release, so here I am...with a fine fuckin' glass of a RECKZ0R release, yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! (did that sound sarcastic?) Before I get off started ridiculing Sony, I'd like to pay homage to Sir George Hotz, who looked into the eyes of Sony and made them ejaculate as they bowed down in fear. Very artistic of you, Geohotz. Now that, George Hotz has resigned from engaging in all types of sexual activities with an computer, and as all fans of PlayStation are crying for the comeback of GeoHotz..I'd let you all know, you don't need that lil fuckin' faggot. You really don't. Well, alright....LET'S GET STARTED ALREADY! As you all know, PS4 runs Orbis OS, that is highly based on FreeBSD (which is a opensource operating system), and as the PS4 is closely identical to a PC, I guess you all knew that PS4 and the Xbox One will probably end up getting pwned soon, and now..its time. NOTE: I did not find this vulnerability within PS4, nor did I write the exploit, while I was browsing thru an Brazilian console-hacking forum known as condinh0 (I am sure you all know this if you hang out at TOR). A person named x-s4nd3r released the devkit of PS4, as well as the exploit within 5 days of PS4 release. Although most of you don't know how to apply that jailbreak on the PS4, I am making this tutorial to sort this shit out for you. -EXPLOIT DETAILS- OS: Orbis Console: PlayStation 4 Type: Privilege Escalation/Buffer Overflow (allows to run assigned code) Created on: 25 November 2013 -AUTHOR- Name: x-s4nd3r URL: http://twitter.com/xs4nd3r (feel free to get him v&) FILES: PS4 DevKit: https://depositfiles.com/files/deitivkle Jailbreak Package (exploit): https://depositfiles.com/files/xwurigoq ***IMPORTANT***** - You need the DAY ONE Update to jailbreak the PS4, otherwise these files will be considered unrecognizable. GUIDE: 1. Create a folder on your USB storage device. This is where you'll put the exploit. 2. Create a "SANDERPS4" folder. Inside that folder, create another folder named "EXP." 3. Extract the PSORBISEXP.PUP file from the package, and save it in the EXP folder. 4. Make sure your PlayStation 4 is turned off. 5. Connect the USB storage device to your PlayStation 4, and press the power button for at least 7 seconds. The PlayStation 4 will start in Safe Mode. 6. Select "Update System Software." 7. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the jailbreak. 8. If your PlayStation 4 doesn't recognize the jailbreaking file, make sure that the folder and file names are correct. 9. Voila! JAILBROKEN! --------------------------- You now have the ability to run unassigned/assigned code and pirated games on your PS4, but do NOT go online, if you do go online, your console will be immediately banned. Have fun piratin'by
Believe it or not – there are other things to do up in Green Bay besides go to a Packers game.
And there are other reasons to drive down towards Appleton besides shopping at the Fox River Mall.
Our two communities really aren’t that far away. For most of us – a half hour drive north or south on Highway 41 takes us to a new place with new things to do, new food to eat and new people to meet.
So why don’t we take |
consistently and constantly – Wooster Street Social Club was surely the place to be last Saturday night.
This event was merely the launch, so don’t be too bummed if you missed out. The exhibit will run at the WSSC studio ‘til January 12th, 2012 – where all pieces are listed for sale. As for the tattooing – that gig runs indefinitely. Email the guys and gals at Wooster Street Social Club to submit an application for your freshy new tat today: [email protected]
For information regarding the VAR magazine launch party, email us at: [email protected]Fear of Europe
Few entities inspire as much fear as Europe. Whether it’s the two World Wars, the Holocaust, or colonialism, the bad rap has generally been justified. Add the current economic crisis to the list, and it’s hard to imagine the anxiety ever going away.
Once again, it appears, the continent is on the verge of imploding. Predictable doesn’t even begin to describe the situation.
On the surface, it’s enough to make you sympathize with rightists who want to limit “outside” influence on Switzerland. Asking Swiss to approve a constitutional amendment that would require the government to seek voter approval of treaties with foreign governments (the goal is to halt creeping EU accession) the AUNS initiative is typically paranoid and nationalist in its orientation.
Urging voters to reject the initiative (Swiss are due to vote on it on June 17) this Zurich poster is a surprising relief from what Switzerland has become best-known for abroad: Racist and Islamophobic billboard adverts, stoking fear of migrants. In place of the usual missiles-as-minarets-imagery, we get a young woman bearing a staff, weighed down by a rock-like object.
Indeed, the effort is noteworthy not just politically, but also in terms of its information distribution strategy. [See the collection of downloadable posters in French, German and Italian.] Still, considering how many Swiss recently told pollsters that it was a blessing to not be a member of the EU, efforts like this may do little to prevent the AUNS initiative from passing.
Photograph courtesy of Jennifer CrakowMany homicides end with the killer running off into the cover of night, and would-be witnesses telling police they didn't see or hear a thing.
Then there's the case of Laratio Lorenzo Dantzler.
When Dantzler, 34, killed two men in broad daylight on Wickham Avenue near 14th Street on Jan. 14, 2016, three pieces of evidence — video surveillance footage, a neighbor's 911 call and a recording from a police officer's body camera — combined to give a clear picture of the crime.
A private investigator working for the Newport News shipyard's workers compensation insurance firm — looking for evidence that a shipyard worker was faking a disability claim — just happened to be down the block.
That investigator, Jason Gilliam, heard a minivan crash into a parked pickup truck. From inside his work vehicle, he then turned his high-tech video camera toward the ensuing commotion, zooming in and panning from side to side as needed.
That footage, which began rolling just after 11:02 a.m., captures a robbery in progress, with two men holding another man at gunpoint outside the crashed van, while another victim remained in the vehicle. All four men are back in the van by 11:04 a.m.
One of the robbers then gets out of the van and scurries away. Then, at 11:05 a.m., one of the men — later determined to be Dantzler — leans into the vehicle, appears to shoot into it, then runs away holding a black handgun.
Police investigators say he fired a total of 13 rounds into two pinned men, Ca'dre Antwoine Gray, 38, of Norfolk, and Quinton Antonio Kelly, 30, of Newport News, killing them both.
CAPTION The driver of a tow truck was killed when his vehicle collided with a tree on Warwick Boulevard in Newport News, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2019. The driver of a tow truck was killed when his vehicle collided with a tree on Warwick Boulevard in Newport News, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2019. CAPTION The driver of a tow truck was killed when his vehicle collided with a tree on Warwick Boulevard in Newport News, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2019. The driver of a tow truck was killed when his vehicle collided with a tree on Warwick Boulevard in Newport News, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2019. CAPTION A shooting and three-vehicle crash on Big Bethel Road in Hampton early Monday left two people injured, according to Hampton police. A shooting and three-vehicle crash on Big Bethel Road in Hampton early Monday left two people injured, according to Hampton police. CAPTION Newport News police work the scene of an accident at the corner of Jefferson Ave. and Habersham Dr. caused by suspects fleeing a traffic stop. One, possibly armed, suspect was being searched for in the woods near Walmart. Newport News police work the scene of an accident at the corner of Jefferson Ave. and Habersham Dr. caused by suspects fleeing a traffic stop. One, possibly armed, suspect was being searched for in the woods near Walmart. CAPTION Hampton police investigate the scene of an early morning homicide at a store on the corner of Shell Road and Hampton Roads Avenue Wednesday January 16, 2019. Hampton police investigate the scene of an early morning homicide at a store on the corner of Shell Road and Hampton Roads Avenue Wednesday January 16, 2019. CAPTION Hampton police officers investigate the scene of a shooting in the 1100 block of Rowe Street Wednesday evening January 9, 2019. Hampton police officers investigate the scene of a shooting in the 1100 block of Rowe Street Wednesday evening January 9, 2019.
As police responded to the scene, Gilliam told arriving officers, "I have the whole thing on tape."
Morever, after the van crashed minutes earlier and one of the man was being held at gunpoint outside of the vehicle, a nearby resident looking out her window called 911, giving the emergency dispatcher a live play-by-play of events.
"Oh, I hear gunshots!," she shouted a few minutes into the call, crying and getting increasingly emotional.
She managed to give a good description of both men who fled, and where they were headed. But she said through tears that she no longer saw anyone moving in the gray van. "He shot everybody in the car," she told the dispatcher.
That woman's descriptions and sobs — and the silent video from the private investigator — made for a powerful combination in court.
Then there was the body camera footage from one of the responding Newport News officers, Master Police Officer Jamie Acree. (Body cameras are devices that record events while mounted to an officer's uniform or glasses).
The camera rolled as Acree raced to the crash — speeding up her police car when the call was upgraded to a shooting. It captured radio traffic from officers trying to create a police perimeter near a "fence line" at Stuart Gardens as they searched for the two armed men. The camera also rolled as Acree encountered Dantzler.
According to trial testimony, another Newport News police officer, Sgt. Brendan Bartley, first saw and confronted Dantzler in front of a residence on Roanoke Avenue, near Stuart Gardens.
Acree's body camera captures her hopping out of her police car and facing Dantzler in a tense standoff behind that building.
"Drop gun! Drop gun! Do it! Do it now!" she screamed loudly, before firing a single shot from about 40 yards away. "Drop it! Get on the ground! Get your hands off the gun! Take your hands off the gun!"
Dantzler — who wasn't always completely viewable on that footage — was hit once by the bullet from Acree's gun, having already been struck twice by bullets fired by Bartley in the front of that building.
Both officers testified at trial that Dantzler had refused orders to drop a gun before they fired.
Dantzler, with two guns found near him while he was being handcuffed, was hit twice in the abdomen and once in the shoulder. But none of the shots were fatal, and he was released from the hospital four days later.
A police detective was able to use all of the video footage to confirm Dantzler's identity through his probation officer. Gun specialists linked a 9-mm handgun found near Dantzler to both killings, while another expert testified that Dantzler's DNA matched DNA found on that gun.
After a three-day trial in Newport News Circuit Court, a 12-member jury deliberated for just over an hour before finding Dantzler, of Newport News, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Gray and Kelly.
The jury then recommended Dantzler get two life sentences for those murders. They also said he should get 65 years on 12 attempted robbery, abduction and gun charges, and fined him $300,000 for good measure. Circuit Court Judge Timothy S. Fisher immediately imposed that sentence.
The case's lead investigator, Newport News Master Police Officer Richard Espinoza, said that of about 200 homicide cases he's handled in his career, this was the strongest one he's had in terms of the evidence.
Though he's had other cases in which business surveillance systems captured crimes, he said, "This was the first time I ever had someone who just happened to be on the block, doing something totally different, then turning toward the crime and capturing it on tape."
"It's very powerful evidence, and it's very compelling evidence," Espinoza said. "It's undeniable. Who watches a video and doesn't believe what they're seeing? It's not circumstantial. There's no ambiguity. You're watching it."
Even Dantzler's defense lawyer, Joshua Goff, acknowledged that the evidence was a lot to overcome.
"Sometimes things are caught on surveillance footage, and sometimes you have 911 callers who see things, but to have a 911 caller who is narrating a play-by-play and also have it captured on video is really kind of extraordinary," Goff said. "It proved to be very compelling evidence for the commonwealth."
Joseph L. Giacalone, a retired New York Police Department sergeant who once ran the cold case unit for the department's Bronx division, says video footage is now one of the very first things detectives seek after a crime.There might not be anything baseball fans love more than the promise of improving young players. Just watching a player come up through the system and produce is exciting enough, but it fits in perfectly with the optimistic nature of spring training to know that with more experience in the big leagues, they'll become even more valuable.
There's a ceiling to just how good 99 percent of players are going to be, though, with the other small percentage filling out the ranks of baseball's all-time greats, and the promise of youth isn't enough to separate them: Sometimes players are as good as they'll ever be.
Take Giancarlo Stanton. When the Miami Marlins began to sell off nearly everything of value on the roster, 29 other clubs and their fans jointly salivated over the idea of bringing in a 23-year-old who had just slugged over.600 to lead the majors. The thing is, though, how much better can someone who can do that already get? The next step is to essentially become Barry Bonds, and while that could very well be in the cards, history tells us that it's far more likely that Stanton is maybe as good as he'll ever be already. That, of course, is not a bad thing, when what you are already is Stanton.
We can use projections to give us an idea of the chances players like Stanton have of getting even better. PECOTA, the forecasting system of Baseball Prospectus, doesn't just spit out projected batting lines. It also details the percent chance of a player improving on their expected performances, as well as the chance of a breakout season or a collapse in their production. Using that, we can get an idea of what a long-running projection system thinks of the chances of players like Stanton, as well as other young phenoms like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Jason Heyward have of getting even better.
PECOTA's "Improve" is simple enough to understand. It measures the chance of improving, with the baseline set at 50 percent. Why 50? Think of it as a simple yes or no, with 50 percent going either way, as to whether a given player will improve. So, what we're looking for with this foursome, are Improve scores that shoot well past the 50 percent mark.
As for our young hero Stanton, his improve chance for 2013 came out at 59 percent. PECOTA sees room for growth, but it's not about to hit you over the head with the obviousness of it, instead just giving Stanton a little more potential for it than your typical player. PECOTA mostly sees him replicating his 2012 season, just with a lower batting average, but that's just his most likely projection. Take heart, though, Stanton fans: PECOTA projects him to be the sixth-best hitter in baseball just by being Giancarlo Stanton again, so really, you're just being greedy.
Look to Mike Trout, though, who is two years younger than Stanton, and you get a different story. Trout gets a 69 percent improve rate, but it's not necessarily assuming that 2012 is his baseline, either. Trout's projection for 2013 is "just".287/.354/.469, a far cry from last season's.326/.399/.564. There are a few obvious items that make this projection understandable: Trout owned a.383 batting average on balls in play last year, and hasn't succeeded in the majors long enough for PECOTA to justify projecting that kind of insanity for him, and his minor-league numbers, at present, suggest he has less power than he showed in 2012.
Now, it could turn out that Trout will post higher than average BABIP -- his career minor-league BABIP is.358 -- and that the aging process helped him out in terms of power. There just hasn't been enough to guarantee that yet, though, so while Trout's upper level projections are likely akin to last year's dominance, his mid-range one is scaled back a bit. The improvement chance is based on what a player has done in their career, though, and Trout has hit.306/.379/.532 over parts of two years, so PECOTA is still giving him plenty of love and a chance at getting even better.
Then there's Jason Heyward, who is right around Stanton in terms of improvement, at just 60. This is a little cloudier than the others, as Heyward has missed time with injury and played through pain, and it's adversely affected his performance. He's hit just.261/.352/.447 in his career after his down 2011 campaign, and PECOTA expects more of the same in 2013. Heyward is a player who might improve more than PECOTA gives him credit for, given his past has been a bit more difficult than Stanton's or Trout's. The meteoric rise of those two make it difficult to realize just how impressive Heyward's three-year run has been, but his OPS+ for ages 20 through 22 ranks 26th all-time, minimum 1,500 plate appearances. He's doing all right for himself.
Last, we've got Harper, who is the youngest of the bunch as well as the most likely to improve. PECOTA pegs him for an 83 percent chance of improving, tops among Major League Baseball regulars, while comparing him at age 20 to the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Justin Upton, and now, given last year, Mike Trout. PECOTA is projecting a similar campaign to 2012's, with a slightly lower batting average, but part of that is likely just due to Harper's age and lack of experience.
Harper has roughly a season's worth of minor-league numbers to go with his one year in the majors, and while he's been great for his age, he hasn't blown the levels away without that context. That's expected considering he'll just be 20 this year, but it's the primary reason for PECOTA's perceived pessimism. As the player most likely to improve in all of MLB, from a place that many wish they already were, there's plenty of respect here from PECOTA.You might not believe in astrology or certain facets of behavioral science, and that's fine! But statistical evidence shows that a strikingly large number of serial killers were born in the month of November. And, hey, look, it's November right now!
A study published by researcher Jan Ruis back in 2006 explores the phenomenon in depth. The study uses statistical and behavioral analysis to understand the wisdom of certain astrologers as they pertain to serial killer behavior. The conclusion? "[B]ased on the two datasets, some of the claims of astrologers cannot be rejected."
But the most easily identifiable data-point that comes from the analysis is simply that most mass murderers are born in November. Here's a more succinct summary of the data from UberFacts: "Seventeen serial killers were born in November, compared with an average of nine for other months, out of a total of more than 100 in the study. Those born in November are most likely to believe they get a raw deal. A 2005 study found that they grow up to be the most pessimistic."
Sure, we can point to the stars to figure out why this happens — but ultimately no one really knows.
The good news is that Bjork and P. Diddy were also born in November. So don't worry about this too much if you're going to pop out a baby this month. There's a chance they'll turn out just fine.
[Photo: Pexels]Color:Black | Size:50-65 Gallon
Showcase your aquarium atop the durable Aquatic Fundamentals 50/65 Gallon Upright Aquarium Stand. This quality tank stand is ideal for supporting rectangular tanks whether it holds 50 or 65 gallons. The finish and contemporary design are sure to suit any style of decor in your home. Made of dense fiberboard and covered in an attractive melamine laminate, the solid top design of this stand supports every inch of your aquarium unlike many other "lip-only" stands that only support corners. The strong design lets you use this aquatic furniture safely with a variety of tanks and other pet habitats. The front of the stand is covered to conceal any essential but necessary equipment such as filters and pumps. You can easily reach the accessories through the center panel door. The back of the stand is open except for a single support brace; this lets you conveniently route chords or tubes from the aquarium inside the stand without cutting away panels. Stand only, tank not included.© IVW
Neues Jahr, alte Hiobsbotschaft: Die Auflagenzahlen befinden sich weiterhin überwiegend in einem rasanten Abwärtstrend. Viele können schon froh sein, wenn das Minus nicht zweistellig ausfiel. Übel erwischt hat es u.a. "Focus", "Bravo", "Computer Bild"
20.01.2014 - 17:09 Uhr von Uwe Mantel 20.01.2014 - 17:09 Uhr
Seite 1 von 2
Am Montag legte die IVW die Auflagenzahlen für Zeitungen und Zeitschriften im vierten Quartal vor - und das Jahr 2013 bot ein Ende mit Schrecken. Unter den 15 Titeln mit der höchsten Auflage gab es gerade mal einen Gewinner - und das war, der der schon in den letzten Jahren stets als Positivbeispiel herhalten musste: Die "Landlust". Auch scheint das zuletzt atemberaubende Auflagenwachstum inzwischen aber an seine Grenzen zu stoßen, mehr als ein kleines Plus von 0,7 Prozent war nicht mehr drin. Ansonsten finden sich aber nur Verlierer unter den Top 15.
Ganz vorne ist da unter anderem mal wieder die "Bild"-Zeitung dabei, deren Auflage um 8,2 Prozent abrutschte. Die "Bild am Sonntag" verkaufte 7,5 Prozent weniger Exemplare. Ganz oben in der Liste findet sich übrigens nun nicht mehr die "Bild", sondern "TV 14" - die Zahlen einer täglichen Zeitung und einer 14-täglichen Programmzeitschrift sind aber natürlich kaum miteinander zu vergleichen. "TV 14" hält sich aber in jedem Fall auch für das Programmie-Segment genommen sehr wacker und muss nur ein Mini-Minus verkraften. Andere hat es da stärker erwischt. "TV Spielfilm" verliert knapp 8 Prozent ihrer Auflage, "Hörzu" über sechs Prozent, "TV Movie" offiziell 5,5 Prozent - wenn man die Auflagenkosmetik herausrechnet in harten Kategorien aber ebenfalls über sechs Prozent. Stark zulegen konnten hingegen die Billigheimer wie "TV Piccolino" oder "TV!top".
Die 15 auflagenstärksten, am Kiosk erhältlichen Titel
Verkaufte
4/2013 Verkaufte
4/2012 +/-
absolut
+/-
in Prozent
TV 14
2.419.131 2.426.109 -6.978 -0,3 % Bild
2.313.377 2.521.054 -207.677 -8,2 % TV Digital
1.869.069 1.929.683 -60.614 -3,1 % TV Movie
1.249.245 1.322.558 -73.313 -5,5 % Bild Am Sonntag Gesamt
1.189.060 1.286.032 -96.972 -7,5 % Hörzu
1.182.937 1.270.786 -87.849 -6,9 % TV Direkt
1.178.493 1.192.410 -13.917 -1,2 % Landlust - Die Schönsten Sei
1.066.876 1.059.484 +7.392 +0,7 % TV Spielfilm
1.001.459 1.087.188 -85.729 -7,9 % Auf Einen Blick
981.258 1.040.457 -59.199 -5,7 % Bild Der Frau
882.798 905.522 -22.724 -2,5 % Der Spiegel
842.322 890.874 -48.552 -5,4 % Freizeit Revue
788.592 854.880 -66.288 -7,8 % Stern
772.955 788.621 -15.666 -2,0 % TV hören Und Sehen
688.199 727.226 -39.027 -5,4 %
Bei den großen aktuellen Magazinen ist das Bild überaus trist. Besonders der "Focus" scheint langsam in den freien Fall überzugehen. Das offizielle Auflagenminus liegt schon bei satten 9,7 Prozent auf knapp 510.000 verkaufte Exemplare. Doch betrachtet man nur die harten Auflagenbestandteile, dann liegt das Minus sogar bei 17,6 Prozent. Am Kiosk fand der "Focus" gar weniger als 75.000 Käufer, ein bedrohliches Minus von fast 30 Prozent im Vergleich zum Vorjahr.
Bei der Konkurrenz gibt's keinerlei Grund zur Schadenfreude, dort sieht es nämlich ebenfalls alles andere als rosig aus: "Der Spiegel" verlor 5,4 Prozent seiner Auflage und 6,2 Prozent in den harten Kategorien, der "Stern" zwar offiziell nur 2,0 Prozent, in den harten Kategorien Einzelverkauf und Auflage allerdings 10,7 Prozent. Auch dem Ableger "View" erging es mit einem Minus von rund 11 Prozent nicht besser. Stark unter Druck ist auch "Neon", das in der harten Auflage ebenfalls 11 Prozent im Minus liegt.
Unter den Zeitungen litt nicht nur die "Bild": In den harten Auflagenkategorien konnte einzig das "Handelsblatt" ein kleines Auflagenplus von 0,6 Prozent vorweisen. Weil man jede Menge heiße Luft aus der Auflage heraus ließ, sackte die offizielle Auflage allerdings um 16,8 Prozent ab. Schlimmer als es ist sieht das Minus auch bei der "Welt" aus, deren verkaufte Auflage um 11,5 Prozent absackte, in den harten Kategorien aber nur um 4,5 Prozent. Die "taz" hingegen weist zwar offiziell eine um 2,7 Prozent gestiegene Auflage aus, verlor in den harten Kategorien aber 3,3 Prozent ihrer Käufer.
Auf Seite 2: Die größten Gewinner und Verlierer
TeilenMechanics of Honey Bee Mating
When a virgin queen flies to a site where thousands of male honey bees may be waiting, she mates with several males in flight. A male drone will mount the queen and insert his endophallus, ejaculating semen. After ejaculation, a male honey bee pulls away from the queen, though his endophallus is ripped from his body, remaining attached to the newly fertilized queen.
The next male honey bee to mate with the queen will remove the previous endophallus and eventually lose his own after ejaculation. Male honey bees are only able to mate seven to 10 times during a mating flight, and after mating, a drone dies quickly, as his abdomen rips open when his endophallus is removed. Even drones that survive the mating flight are ejected from their nests, as they have served their sole purpose by mating.
Virgin queens mate early in their lives and only attend one mating flight. After several matings during this flight, a queen stores up to 100 million sperm within her oviducts. However, only five to six million are stored within the queen's spermatheca. The queen uses only a few of these sperm at a time in order to fertilize eggs throughout her life. If a queen runs out of sperm in her lifetime, new generations of queens will mate and produce their own colonies.
Honey bee queens control the sex of their offspring: as eggs pass through the ovary into the oviduct, a queen can determine whether a particular egg is fertilized or not. Unfertilized eggs become drone honey bees, while fertilized eggs develop into female workers and queens. Female workers do not mate, but they can lay infertile eggs, which in turn become male honey bees.
Queens lay their eggs in structural oval-shaped cells, which stick to the nest ceiling. Worker honey bees fill these cells with royal jelly to prevent larvae from falling. Soon-to-be workers are fed royal jelly during the first two days, while future queens are given royal jelly throughout the entire larval period. The development of each member of a colony differs depending on caste: male honey bees need 24 days for proper growth from eggs to adult, while workers need 21 days and queens require only 16.KOLKATA: Kolkata was ambushed by a Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind rally on Saturday afternoon, putting lakhs of commuters through six hours of agony and forcing President Pranab Mukherjee’s route to be changed. At least 11 policemen — including three IPS officers — were injured in brickbatting and 13 police vehicles damaged. Journalists were attacked for “intruding on the space meant for rallyists” — which was Red Road, the city’s VIP thoroughfare.Taken by surprise, police simply stood by and let some 2 lakh Jamiat supporters run amok in the heart of Kolkata. Even bylanes in south and central Kolkata were clogged. For hours, police had no control over a 3sqkm area besieged by the rallyists. When the cops did try to restore order, they came under attack. News crews were roughed up, too, and a van of 24Ghanta damaged.The administration has taken a battering when it was yet to recover from the bruising battle over BJP’s Amit Shah rally on Sunday. Jamiat leaders wanted to hold the meeting on the Brigade grounds (Maidan) but when Army denied permission, they brazenly took over the city. And no, they did not have permission from the fire department either although the government made such a huge issue of it for the BJP rally.The rallyists parked buses and trucks on the Maidan, in violation of the high court-imposed ban, and even parked outside Fort William, forcing Army to deploy Military Police. The “historic” gathering at the Sahid Minar grounds spilled over to the adjoining roads — Bentinck Street, JL Nehru Road, Red Road and Mayo Road — choking the business district and having a ripple effect from north to south. The 3,000-odd cops deployed turned out to be woefully inadequate for a gathering of such strength and such aggressiveness. DC-central D P Singh suffered a head injury that needed three stitches. Joint CP-traffic Supratim Sarkar and DC-south Murli Dhar Sharma, too, were injured as the mob pelted stones and turned Jamiat flagstaffs into lathis.Jamiat leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury blamed police for the violence. “There was tension when police drove a car through the rally. The (police) action and combative reaction of a section of rallyists are both unwarranted. We have been holding rallies for years. This never happened. I suspect some outsiders sneaked into our rally to discredit us. They need to be punished,” he said.The rallyists started streaming into the city from across Bengal since dawn, but police intelligence failed to gauge the crowd count. “We had informed police that we expected about 1-1.5 lakh people. That’s why we wanted to hold the rally at Brigade grounds. The gathering on Saturday turned out to be even bigger,” said Chowdhury. Many rallyists were already angry at being denied their chosen venue. Pushing and jostling led to frayed tempers. Reports of a rallyist being hit by a vehicle stoked anger. “The vehicle sped away and police did not try to stop it,” said some Jamiat supporters from Basirhat. This triggered a blockade of Red Road and Mayo Road. “When police tried to remove the blockade, trouble erupted,” said joint CP-HQ Rajeev Mishra.The mob first attacked a vehicle carrying the joint CP-intelligence at Red Road crossing. For a while it was a free-for-all as the mob went on the rampage. People caught in the traffic snarl blamed police’s unpreparedness. “By the time senior officers stepped in to control the situation, it had already gone out of hand,” said an officer who manned the control room for some time. Several people missed trains and flights. Merchant chambers cancelled meetings and ambulances were stuck in bumper-to-bumper jams.By 12.30pm, vehicles bound for Howrah and Sealdah and south-bound traffic was stuck. “It was a nightmare for me and my daughter. We had to catch the Rajdhani at Sealdah (departure 4.50pm) and reached Race Course by 2.15pm, much ahead of time. But we got stuck in the jam. Around 3pm, I got off the taxi and had to carry our two-year-old granddaughter as my daughter and husband pulled the luggage. It is 4.10pm now and we have merely crossed KC Das crossing. I am not sure if we can make it,” said Oindrella Sinha of New Alipore.Till late evening, cops were huddled in a meeting at Lalbazar HQ trying to ascertain where they went wrong despite top IPS officers leading the forces. The embarrassed cops have decided to strike back and have filed two FIRs with 11 serious charges. “We are analyzing CCTV footage and our own videography and will start picking up those who instigated the violence,” said an officer.Destroying property is a crime. That’s true if the culprit is a single vandal, or a group of people involved in rioting. However, peaceful protesting is a protected right under the First Amendment. Maybe.
A Republican Washington state senator who supported Donald Trump is proposing a bill that would slap an “economic terrorism” label on protest activities already prohibited by law and dramatically intensify their penalties.
Those activities earning a “terrorism” label go way beyond the kind of violence you might expect.
The proposed bill would allow police to charge protesters who “block transportation and commerce, cause property damage, threaten jobs and put public safety at risk” with a class C felony.
Blocking traffic is a tactic often used to bring attention to protests. Currently, protesters who are arrested are charged with a misdemeanor and released, but a felony charge would bring significant fines and jail or probation. It can also result in at least temporary loss of voting rights and limit rights of association.
Terms like “threaten jobs and put public safety at risk” provide for an extremely wide interpretation. If protesters march past a store, are they “blocking commerce”? Is marching in any street potentially putting public safety at risk?Cartoon Network’s Michael Ouweleen on designing for children Michael Ouweleen joined Cartoon Network back when it had just 50 employees, and now holds the position of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim senior vice president executive creative director. He heads up the in-house ad agency at Cartoon Network, dubbed its Creative Group, and has helped the brand become one of the biggest channels in the US – it claims to reach 100 million American homes. Ouweleen was also responsible for co-creating the series Harvey Birdman in Attorney at Law for Cartoon Network’s sister channel Adult Swim. The peculiar series uses Hanna-Barbera-created characters, which star as staff in the Sebben & Sebben law firm. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues. His latest project is the interactive kids’ site Mixels.com, a partnership with Lego. We spoke to him about designing for an ever-sophisticated children’s’ market; the challenges faced by traditional animation studios in the face of youthful internet start-ups and how wannabe-cartoonists should go about starting their careers.
Michael Ouweleen
Design Week: How did you start out in design?
Michael Ouweleen: I won my first job by answering eight questions in a full-page ad in the New York Times. J.Walter Thompson was running a Write if You Want Work competition and I won a job.
DW: What influences you?
MO: You have to be curious about everything going on. New music, new design, new fashion, new, new, new. What helps me with this is that I have three sons that are into all the same stuff that I am, so all of our conversations at home are about art and culture and gaming and music and cosmology and technology and philosophy and—it’s amazing. I’m not kidding. Then, you also have to be sure to be rooted in fundamentals and traditions of design and culture, so that you aren’t swept away in the nanosecond trending of today’s culture.
DW: How would you describe the look and feel of your work for ad creative on Cartoon Network?
MO: Hopefully smart and funny. This network could have easily been all noise and tilted type and loud sound effects, what people think of when they generically think of ‘cartoon’ or ‘kids’. We’ve tried to, over the past 17 years, let the creative excellence of the actual cartoons and characters inform the network, and make smart, surprising work.
DW: And your work on Adult Swim?
MO: I did the first three or four years of creative directing for Adult Swim and back then the charge was to create separation from Cartoon Network. Which we did by putting old people in swimming pools on the screen. I’m now working more directly on Adult Swim than I have since those days, and I think there’s such a great tone of voice with the brand overall, the immediacy and transparency of what we now call Twitter was what Adult Swim was doing ten years earlier. That’s the overall brand promise of Adult Swim now, talking to the audience like humans. I’m doing everything I can to help grow that.
DW: Can you tell me more about your role on Harvey Birdman?
MO: I was actually co-creator, co-executive producer. Erik [Richter] and I came up with maybe four ideas for shows that the network could do as a follow up to Space Ghost Coast to Coast. They sat around for years, until Adult Swim got green-lit. Suddenly, there was a need to brand a new block and create content for it. So I was creative directing the branding and trying to build a show at the same time. We had lots of false starts getting that show into a pattern of production, which was frustrating, and I always had a full-time day job during it. It was a small writing staff, me and Erik and some people around the network that would help out for fun. We oversaw every aspect of it creatively. And again, this was in addition to whatever other job I was doing at the time— creative director, or towards the end, overseeing development and programming for Cartoon Network. It was an amazing experience. Working with great show unit talent and an incredible cast (Gary Cole, Stephen Colbert, Peter McNicol, John Michael Higgins, Mo LaMarche).
DW: How did the partnership with Lego come about for Mixels?
MO: Our chief content officer, Rob Sorcher and Tramm Wigzell (a vice president of development) were visiting Lego in Billund, saw these little creatures sitting around and said ‘Oh wow! We should do something with these guys!’ And in very short order, with Lego, they constructed a whole new way for a property to be developed— shorts, a game, toys, etc. My group jumped in to help design the overall brand look for the property and help create marketing materials that tied all the wide-ranging elements (2D animation, a 3D game, toy packaging, some consumer products) together.
DW: How have what children expect from television changed in the last 20 years?
MO: They’ve grown up with several networks trying to cater to their taste. They’ve grown up with content being available to them at any time in any place. They have grown up seeing |
our has also been apprehended by the police.“The incident took place on April 10, when Ramesh Chandra, who was a Sergeant in the Air Force was strangled to death by his 28-year-old wife Sudha Chandra with the help of her juvenile paramour,” said a police official.It was the day of polling in the national capital and the Air Force official was at home and had been drinking since morning. When he was heavily drunk, Sudha Chandra called her paramour who then strangled him to death.Chandra then took him to a hospital in nearby Subrato Park area and told doctors that her husband collapsed after complaining of chest pain. Ramesh Chandra was declared brought dead by doctors who then also informed police.As a police team reached the spot, they smelt a rat in the entire story and sent the body for postmortem.“The concocted story blew up when the postmortem report, which was out on May 4 revealed that he died due to asphyxia following which a case of murder was registered and investigation was taken up,” the official said.During interrogation, the needle of suspicion pointed toward Sudha Chandra. She was finally arrested on Friday after she confessed to her crime during questioning. Following her disclosure, her juvenile paramour was also apprehended and has been sent to juvenile home.Ramesh Chandra lived with his wife and their four-year-old daughter at a government quarter provided by Air Force in Subrato Park area located in Delhi Cantt area of South West Delhi.03. 12. 2015
По статистике, в Новоржевском районе Псковской области умирают в три раза чаще, чем рождаются, а население сокращается на 6% ежегодно, — 23 смерти на тысячу человек. О том, как живет самый вымирающий район России, — в репортаже Марии Тарнавской
Есть в России город Луга
Петербургского округа;
Хуже не было б сего
Городишки на примете,
Если б не было на свете
Новоржева моего А. С. Пушкин «Маша, мне кажется, тебе вот этот вот гроб подойдет. Он, конечно, дороже остальных, но смотри, какой хорошенький! А хочешь, полежи в нем?! В следующий раз, когда в гробу окажешься, тебе все равно будет, атласный он или вот как твой, дубовый. Хоть будешь знать, удобно там или нет». Отвернувшись от стойки с венками, Нина Ефимовна, жизнерадостный продавец новоржевского ЗАО «Военно-мемориальная компания», перебирает на столе бумажки и ворчит, что даже в бытность ее директором совхоза писанины было много меньше, а жизнь была много лучше. «Кто ж знал, что все так получится? И люди были, и работа, и дефицитная колбаса настоящая, вкусная. А теперь что? Народ уезжает, кто не уехал — умирают, кто не умер — не живут, а выживают. А колбаса хоть и есть всегда, но противная и колом в горле стоит». Умирают у нас как везде – нормальноТвитнуть эту цитату Перед началом Второй Мировой в Новоржеве было около четырех тысяч жителей, встречать победителей в 1945 вышли двести двадцать человек. После бомбежек от городской застройки осталось несколько краснокирпичных корпусов маленького завода и пара десятков деревянных домов. В пятидесятых, когда в город, наконец, вернулись люди, главную улицу застроили двухэтажными зданиями. Все остальное — частный сектор. Центральное отопление сложно назвать центральным, его нет почти ни у кого, и даже в квартирах вместо батарей стоят печи. У всех жителей есть свой огород, даже у тех, кто живет в квартирах, во дворах коробки с землей для выращивания самого необходимого: картошки, морковки, лука. Инфраструктура города с заявленным в три с половиной тысячи человек населением, в целом, сводится к следующим пунктам: вокзал, рынок, школа, детский сад, ДК, библиотека, детская школа искусств, канцтовары, магазин одежды, бытовая техника, книжный, столовая, бар, кафе «Колобок», «Пятерочка», «Магнит» и пять погребальных контор.
Кладбище в Новоржеве Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
«Умирают у нас как везде — нормально, — рассказывает смотрительница кладбища Анна Сергеевна, симпатичная молодая женщина, незамужняя мать троих детей. — Бывает, в день хороним двоих, бывает, неделю не хороним никого. Правда, есть еще деревенские кладбища. Старики умирают, — это понятно, но много и молодежи: наркоманов, алкоголиков, тех, кого убили наркоманы и алкоголики, или просто людей, которым жить надоело». В десяти минутах ходьбы от кладбища — рынок. Еду тут продают только в сезон, дачникам, в остальное время это бессмысленно, у каждого свое хозяйство с более-менее одинаковым ассортиментом. Немногочисленные столы ломятся от дешевой обуви и одежды, но их почти не берут, средняя зарплата новоржевцев, которым повезло с работой, — девять тысяч рублей. У фуры с коврами, прибывшей из Беларуси, долго переминается крупный серьезный мужчина, не может решить, взять ковер с портретом Сергия Радонежского или с портретом Путина. Продавец, искренне желая помочь, интересуется: «А для какой цели? Путина можно и на пол кинуть, а Сергия надо только на стену!» Мужчина демонстративно отодвигает с шеи махровый шарф, — на груди висит значок «Единой России». Под навесом с земли торгуют клюквой и калиной смешливые старушки. Самая энергичная говорит: «Ты, доча, не вовремя. К нам летом надо, тогда ой как у нас красиво. Приезжай в июне, я тебе медведя в лесу покажу. А сейчас в Питер возвращайся, а то удавишься от тоски». Что особенно бросается в глаза в Новоржеве, — это отсутствие мужчин. «А чему тут удивляться? — медитативно протирая вилки и ложки в вечно пустой столовой, объясняет мне красивая пышногрудая брюнетка. — Работы для мужиков тут нет, они уезжают на заработки в Псков или в Питер, и не возвращаются. На неделе соседи не могли заснуть из-за странного тявканья, оказалось, что в одной из комнат поселилась лисаТвитнуть эту цитату Две трети наших баб — одинокие, разведенки или вдовы. Замужем, хоть за каким, — уже, считай, счастливая. Лишь бы не пил». Мужчинам в Новоржеве, и правда, приходится тяжело. Фактически для них тут есть два предприятия: бывший завод «Объектив», который сейчас выпускает кабель, и ООО «Технопроект», где делают детали для газовых автоколонок. В общей сложности на этих производствах занято не больше ста человек. Остальные валят лес, пилят дрова, на которые в городе без отопления всегда есть спрос, делают что-то по мелочи или просто отсиживаются по домам. Почему-то даже строить часовню при въезде в город позвали не своих, а приезжих из Брянска. Брянские строители живут в гостинице «Гостиница» посреди улицы Германа. Это одно из тех зданий, где есть батареи, но они еле теплые, и строители спят чуть ли не в ватниках. «Бедные они, я им даже из дома одеяла принесла, — говорит мне Люба, единственный работник гостиницы. — А вы не бойтесь, будете жить в «люксе», это в жилом доме напротив, личная квартира начальника нашего ЖКХ, сдает он ее так. Там печь стоит, дров хватает, не замерзнете». Идем заселяться в «люкс». Разбитые окна двух из четырех квартир первого этажа криво заколочены досками. На прошлой неделе соседи не могли заснуть из-за странного тявканья, оказалось, что в одной из комнат поселилась лиса. На чердаке над «люксом» кто-то скребется, версий три: голуби, коты или крысы. Люба неуверенно ставит на котов.
Выставка вязаных вещей в доме культуры в Новоржеве Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
В местном Доме Культуры гостей прямо у порога встречает администратор Михаил, участник народного ансамбля «Новоржевские скобари». Он необыкновенно дружелюбен и, кажется, рад любому общению. На втором этаже проходит выставка работ клуба «Затейница», и по дороге туда Михаил рассказывает, что район с каждым годом хиреет из-за неправильной политики администрации, которая длится десятилетиями. Вдруг, безо всякого предупреждения, обведя широким жестом комнату, наполненную вязаными салфетками, Михаил начинает вкрадчиво декламировать: «Наш городок, как и другие, немало видел бед, побед. И пусть в истории России он будет, как они, воспет. Еще с времен Екатерины раскинулся он средь озер. Через вершины и равнины глядится на родной простор. И вспоминает дни былые, с высот окрестных глядя вдаль. Как в капле в нем — судьба России, ее надежда и печаль». На столике рядом с книгой отзывов лежат большие пухлые тетради, заполненные стихами Михаила. Одна из них — личные посвящения. Кажется, Михаил нашел слова для каждого жителя города. Благодаря Михаилу выясняется, что ситуация с городской властью в Новоржеве парадоксальная: народные выборы прошли еще в сентябре, в результате кандидатов на пост главы города все равно осталось шестеро, в перспективе они и составят городской совет. Но сейчас они должны решить между собой, кто будет главным, и никак не могут договориться. Но не потому что занять этот почетный пост хотят все, а потому что не хочет никто. Народ относится к этому с пониманием: «Наивная ты девчушка, — с отеческим добрым прищуром объясняет мне шофер, дипломированный философ Василий. — Ясное дело, никто не хочет мэром становиться. Денег-то у города совсем нет, а это значит, что с одной стороны, вопросы решить не получится, а с другой, воровать нечего. Самоубийственная должность, козел отпущения». О том же говорит и директор художественно-краеведческого музея Марина Михайловна, чудная энергичная женщина с очевидным партийным прошлым. Ее музей сгорел еще четыре года назад, и бюджетных средств на восстановление нашлось очень мало, но Марина Михайловна шаг за шагом делает ремонт на собственные деньги, работая частным гидом и издавая книги по истории края.
Заброшенный дом в Новоржеве Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
«Конечно, район умирает, — наши люди не могут себе позволить рожать детей, — вот и демографический кризис. Наша перепись населения — это мертвые души: люди давно сбежали, а прописка осталась. А бегут почему? Работы нет. Надо развивать туризм. Наконец-то руководство это поняло, недавно меня попросили подготовить доклад о богатстве края». По вечерам в Новоржеве неуютно. Но есть два злачных места, куда можно пойти, если дома сидеть неохота. Я вам не мать Тереза — в третий раз покупать презервативыТвитнуть эту цитату В маленьком кафе «Колобок», которое работает с девяти вечера до трех часов утра, за соседним с моим столиком собирается компания из пяти женщин. У одной из них, очевидно, день рождения, поэтому на столе стоит букет роз, подарочный набор «Невской косметики», две бутылки шампанского, две бутылки водки, бутыль пива и тарелка с орешками. Женщины одеты в самое лучшее — полупрозрачное, декольтированное, с люрексом и оборками. Веселятся как умеют, исполняют довольно откровенные танцы, кажется, скорее от отчаяния, чем из куража. Потом валятся за стол, выпивают и начинают обсуждать Колю. Из громких разговоров очевидно, что Коля — общий мужчина трех из пяти. Одна жалуется, что Коля не может починить стул, другая хвалит за то, что взял себя в руки и съездил по объявлению о работе в соседние Пушкинские горы, третья вздыхает, что Колю на работу не взяли. «А, да, я что хотела обсудить, — вдруг начинает заводиться одна из колиных женщин. — Я вам не мать Тереза — в третий раз покупать презервативы. Я не знаю, чем вы там занимаетесь, что у вас все улетает вот так, но ко мне Коля все время приходит без гондонов. Короче, был договор, покупаем по очереди. Да, Лен, Оль, был?! Я чеки сохранила, — вернете деньги, короче».
Танцы в кафе Колобок Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
Альтернативное «Колобку» ночное заведение — местная дискотека «Кафе-бар». Это довольно большой ангар без окон, со сценой, стробоскопами и невероятно громкой музыкой. Песни русские, про любовь и страдания. Кроме меня за столиками группами и по одиночке в основном сидят женщины разных возрастов. Посреди зала под «Ты ушел, а я осталась, сердце надвое сломалось» пляшет бабка в пуховом платке и валенках. В баре все продается не рюмками и бокалами, а бутылками, к которым выдают пластиковую посуду. «А смысл возиться с граммами? У нас тут народ отдыхает как надо, — говорит девушка за стойкой. — Людей больше всего в пятницу, но вообще всю неделю кто-то есть, с пяти до семи утра особенно, — перед работой заходят зарядиться. А открыты мы почти до полудня». На улице в курилке фотографируется компания симпатичных студентов. Самый бойкий из них, красавчик и шутник, обнимает разомлевшую девушку и, пытаясь сделать селфи поэффектнее, доверительно рассказывает мне: «Дома, конечно, хорошо, — харч и уютно. Батя — начальник пожарки, так что бойцом можно устроиться на раз, но смысл? Пятнадцать тысяч в месяц? Для Новоржева это запредел, конечно, и богатство, но такой жизни мне не надо. Я в Пскове отучусь, а потом дальше поеду». «Скучаешь?» — бросает он ей. Женщина неопределенно пожимает плечами. «Со мной пойдешь? У меня руки сильные!»Твитнуть эту цитату Из кафе-бара выходит очень пьяный человек с лицом убийцы. Он садится рядом со мной на скамейку. Пытается сфокусировать на мне оценивающий взгляд, но быстро переводит его на грустную нетрезвую покачивающуюся женщину со скамейки напротив. «Скучаешь?» — бросает он ей. Женщина неопределенно пожимает плечами. «Со мной пойдешь?» Она поджимает губы, но так, что непонятно, — пойдет или нет. «У меня руки сильные!» — мужчина выставляет между собой и женщиной мясистые кулаки со сбитыми костяшками. Женщина рассматривает их с интересом, но продолжает молчать. «Я ими соседа восемь лет назад задушил тут, за углом, на Рабоче-Крестьянской. Вот, откинулся вчера. Пойдем, а?» Утром бесцельно еду кататься по Новоржевскому району. Здесь одновременно и очень красиво, и чрезвычайно безотрадно. Над озерами поднимается туман, вдоль разбитых проселочных дорог через заросли борщевика бегают косули и кабаны, в каждой второй деревне возводится церковь, при том, что каждая третья напоминает Чернобыль: брошенные дома, насквозь проросшие сорной травой, скрипящие на ветру остовы колодезных журавлей, завалившиеся заборы, — настоящая балабановщина.
Борщевик Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
Встречаются и совсем мертвые деревни, и те, в которых остались один-два-три жителя. Все охотно делятся со мной своими горестями и радостями. В деревне Батково восьмидесятичетырехлетняя старушка жалуется, что автобусы отменили, и ей приходится идти на остановку за десять километров, если надо в город. Древняя бабулька из Лжуна гордится тем, что смогла заработать несколько тысяч, сдавая в пункт приема яблоки по два рубля за килограмм. В Дублинькове живет баба Шура, узница концлагерей, про которую однажды зимой все забыли, и старуха до поздней весны топила в котелке снег и грызла старые коренья. Она сидит в покосившейся избе под образами и овальной надгробной плашкой со своим портретом, — заказала давно, чтобы уж была. На эмали — совсем молодая баба Шура, дата рождения — 1922 год, и пробел. «Поскорей бы на тот свет, никому мы не нужны», — спокойно говорит она. Дед из Залога чуть не плачет, что никак не может пережить смерть своего маленького хозяйства: сначала из-за птичьего гриппа вышло постановление уничтожить всех куриц, потом из-за коровьего бешенства запретили коров, а страх перед африканской чумой унес жизни сотен свиней по всему району. Восстановить поголовье при нынешних ценах нереально. К тому же по новым нормам Россельхознадзора у каждой свиньи должна быть отдельная комната с электричеством и горячей водой, а так шикарно в районе устроились далеко не все люди.
В доме бабы Шуры Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
Вслед за «Скорой помощью» еду на вызов в деревню Гривино. Пока фельдшер приводит в чувство одну старушку, другие собираются вокруг меня с разговорами. Выясняется, что на весь Новоржевский район есть всего четыре кареты «Скорой», работают посменно. Дозвониться по 03 можно, только если бригада на месте, они и снимут трубку. Проверяю, звоню, — к телефону действительно никто не подходит. Бабушки продолжают давить фактами. По первому звонку «Скорая» не срывается, долго расспрашивают, что и как болит, часто дают рекомендации по телефону, — выезжать на все вызовы не хватает бензина. Больница есть в Новоржеве, но, как и все здесь, — это филиал, прикрепленный к более богатым соседним районам, так что денег нет, и из врачей есть только терапевт. Если, не дай бог, у кого-нибудь случается инфаркт или инсульт, везут в больницу города Острова. Но почти никогда не довозят, — и далеко, и дороги в таком состоянии, что убивают больных в буквальном смысле слова.
Рыбак на озере Алтун Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
Удивительно, но в деревнях встречаются молодые семьи, которые приехали в район из больших городов и хотят, чтобы их дети росли здесь, на природе. Соня и Юра построили большой красивый дом в Лябине пять лет назад, — сбежали из Петербурга, подальше от суеты и политики, родили сына. И в итоге оказались главными диссидентами района. «В 2010 году здесь было ровно то, о чем мы мечтали: маленький провинциальный район с тихим симпатичным центром. Все, что нужно: врачи, детское образование, транспорт, — худо-бедно, но все было. А потом началось укрупнение: вместо восьми волостей с самостоятельными бюджетами сделали три, денег на них стали выделять в три раза меньше. Этого можно было избежать, но у власти стоят марионетки, им как сказали голосовать, так они и проголосовали, а глава района Пашков подписал документы. Все идет к тому, что Новоржевский район просто разорвут на части и присоединят их к соседним. Люди у нас тут прекрасные, но не понимают, что бороться можно и нужно». Соня в сентябре была избрана жителями волостным депутатом. Супруги из Петербурга — одни из немногих в районе людей, кто пытается изменить ситуацию к лучшему и открыто выступает против местной власти.
Новоржев Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
Разговор с главой районной администрации Михаилом Александровичем Пашковым напоминает одновременно и пинг-понг, и игру в наперстки. — А почему в «Скорую» не дозвониться и врачей нет? — Чушь это все. Все есть, и дозвониться можно. А к врачам, если надо, можно и в Остров, и в Бежаницы поехать, автобусы ходят регулярно. — Автобусы отменяют, людям не уехать никуда. — Так а чего ехать? Пускай дома сидят. Шучу. А если серьезно, посчитай: вот одной бабушке захотелось поехать к другой бабушке, и что, ради нее одной запускать автобус? Бензин там, плата шоферу, автопарку это в убыток. — Дороги у вас плохие, по весне, говорят, до некоторых деревень не добраться. — Кто говорит? Нормальные у нас дороги! — В Вехне свалка огромная, не уберут никак. — А что, я сам должен прийти с лопатой ее убирать? Ты скажи, я пойду. Я работы не боюсь. — Сельское хозяйство загибается. Борщевик повсюду растет. — Да чушь полная, мы наоборот на подъеме сейчас. Ты за борщевик заходила? Там поля рабочие. Мы третий год плюсуем молоко. — Работы нет. — Да полно работы! Кто хочет, тот найдет. Мне это нравится, начинают ныть «нет работы», а сами валяются дома пьяные. Не найти двух рукастых мужиков, чтобы бабкам прилавки на рынке сделали.
Дети экопоселения Дублиньково Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
— Молодежи некуда ходить, не за что зацепиться. — Это как это? Да у нас четыре хоккейных команды! Наши дети в конкурсах участвуют, в концертах, — это просто сказка, что они делают. Ни в одном районе такого нет. — По статистике получается, что у вас людей умирает больше, чем где бы то ни было. — А у меня другая статистика. Да, у нас пожилое население. Да, есть большая группа риска, те, кому за семьдесят пять. Ну вот они и умирают. Ты в соседние области поезжай, там все гораздо хуже. В воскресенье в ДК открывается сезон театрализованным представлением «Секрет вечной молодости». К трем часам дня в зале собираются около восьмидесяти человек, мужчин — не больше десяти. На сцену выбегают Солоха и Черт, которые никак не могут пожениться. В перерывах между диалогами на сцену выходят творческие коллективы и отдельные исполнители. «Новоржевские скобари» в кокошниках и кирзовых сапогах поют народные песни. Четыре трогательные десятиклассницы из чтецкой группы «Эдельвейс» драматически читают какие-то очень серьезные стихи, похоже, их сочинил Михаил. Потом на сцену выходит местная звезда Виктор Шавкун, печальный высокий человек, похожий на отставного полковника. Пока он поет, все женщины в зале улыбаются, ахают и мерно покачивают головами. Затем одна за другой с десяток дам разных возрастов поют песни про нелегкую бабью долю.
За кулисам представления «Секрет вечной молодости» Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТДSometimes, the best way to illustrate a complicated philosophical concept is by framing it as a story or situation. Here are nine such thought experiments with downright disturbing implications.
Top image: Isaac Gutiérrez Pascual; published with permission.
1. Prisoner’s Dilemma
This is the classic game theory problem in which a suspect is confronted with a rather difficult decision: Stay silent or confess to the crime. Trouble is, the suspect doesn’t know how their accomplice will respond.
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Here’s the Prisoner’s Dilemma in a nutshell, via the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Tanya and Cinque have been arrested for robbing the Hibernia Savings Bank and placed in separate isolation cells. Both care much more about their personal freedom than about the welfare of their accomplice. A clever prosecutor makes the following offer to each. “You may choose to confess or remain silent. If you confess and your accomplice remains silent I will drop all charges against you and use your testimony to ensure that your accomplice does serious time. Likewise, if your accomplice confesses while you remain silent, they will go free while you do the time. If you both confess I get two convictions, but I'll see to it that you both get early parole. If you both remain silent, I'll have to settle for token sentences on firearms possession charges. If you wish to confess, you must leave a note with the jailer before my return tomorrow morning.”
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This thought experiment is troubling because it teaches us that we don’t always make the “right” decisions when confronted with insufficient information and when other self-interested decision-making agents are thrown into the mix. The “dilemma” is that each suspect is better off confessing than staying silent — but the most ideal outcome would have been mutual silence.
This has implications to everything from the coordination of international cooperation (including the prevention of nuclear war) through to our potential contact and communication with extraterrestrial intelligences (i.e. despite the fact that all interstellar civilizations would benefit from cooperation, it would likely be more prudent to take the dominant strategy of unleashing self-replicating berserker probes against everyone else before they do it).
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2. Mary the Colorblind Neuroscientist
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Sometimes referred to as the Inverted Spectrum Problem or the Knowledge Argument, this thought experiment is meant to stimulate discussions against a purely physicalist view of the universe, namely the suggestion that the universe, including mental processes, is entirely physical. This thought experiment tries to show that there are indeed non-physical properties — and attainable knowledge — that can only be learned through conscious experience.
The originator of the concept, Frank Jackson, explains it this way:
Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence ‘The sky is blue’...What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not?
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Put another way, Mary knows everything there is to know about color except for one crucial thing: She’s never actually experienced color consciously. Her first experience of color was something that she couldn’t possibly have anticipated; there’s a world of difference between academically knowing something versus having actual experience of that thing.
This thought experiment teaches us that there will always be more to our perception of reality, including consciousness itself, than objective observation. It essentially shows us that we don’t know what we don’t know. The thought experiment also gives us hope for the future; should we augment our sensory capabilities and find ways to expand conscious awareness, we could open up entirely new avenues of psychological and subjective exploration.
3. The Beetle in the Box
This one’s also known as the Private Language Argument and it’s somewhat similar to Mary the Neuroscientist. In Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, he proposed a thought experiment that challenged the way we look at introspection and how it informs the language we use to describe sensations.
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For the thought experiment, Wittgenstein asks us to imagine a group of individuals, each of whom has a box containing something called a “beetle.” No one can see into anyone else’s box. Everyone is asked to describe their beetle — but each person only knows their own beetle. But each person can only talk about their own beetle, as there might be different things in each person’s box. Consequently, Wittgenstein says the subsequent descriptions cannot have a part in the “language game.” Over time, people will talk about what is in their boxes, but the word “beetle” simply ends up meaning “that thing that is in a person’s box.”
Why is this bizarre thought experiment disturbing? The mental experiment points out that the beetle is like our minds, and that we can’t know exactly what it is like in another individual’s mind. We can’t know exactly what other people are experiencing, or the uniqueness of their perspective. It’s an issue that’s very much related to the so-called hard problem of consciousness and the phenomenon of qualia.
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4. The Chinese Room
Philosopher John Searle asks us to imagine someone who knows only English, and they’re sitting alone in a room following English instructions for manipulating strings of Chinese characters. So, for those outside of the room, it appears that the person inside the room understands Chinese.
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(Credit: Elysium)
The argument is supposed to show that, while advanced computers may appear to understand and converse in natural language, they are not capable of understanding language. This is because computers are strictly limited to the exchange of symbolic strings. The Chinese Room was meant to be a killer argument against artificial intelligence, but it’s a rather simplistic view of AI and where it’s likely headed, including the advent of generalized, learning intelligence, (AGI) and the potential for artificial consciousness.
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That said, Searle is right in his suggestion that there is the potential for an AI to act and behave as if there’s conscious awareness and understanding. This is problematic because it may be convincing to us humans that true comprehension is going on where there is none. We best be careful, therefore, around seemingly “smart” machine minds.
5. The Experience Machine
Philosopher Robert Nozick’s Experience Machine is a strong hint that we should probably just plug ourselves into a kind of hedonistic version of The Matrix.
From his book, Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974):
Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life experiences?...Of course, while in the tank you won't know that you're there; you'll think that it's all actually happening...Would you plug in?"
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The basic idea, here, is that we have very good reasons to plug ourselves into such a machine. Because we live in a universe with no apparent purpose, and because our lives are often characterized by less-than-ideal conditions, like toil and suffering, we have no good reason to not opt for something substantially better — even if it is “artificial.” But what about human dignity? And the satisfaction of our “true” desires? Noz |
. For all of these reasons, in hair terms, I can only question whose role Erik Lamela could possibly supplant going forward for Spurs this season.
Luckily, I know as much about good grooming as I do football, so against everything I just said his hair will probably turn out to be hugely important and influential for Spurs going forward this season.
Kevin McCauley: I think that Erik Lamela needs to change his hair role to truly succeed in our system. What we're lacking is a Marek Hamsik-style mohawk. If Lamela can adopt some of Hamsik's style in his hair game, we could have a real gem.
The Sleeper's Sleep: The loss of Scotty Parker / David Bentley sweeping side-parts has me worried.
Uncle Menno: You all are forgetting that Lamela's hair is ostensibly replacing Bale's hair in the lineup. No one player's coif can possibly be expected to replace that amount of hair product. I think we all need to temper our expectations of Lamela's hair, at least initially. We need to ensure that as a fan base we're allowing adequate time for Lamela's hair to grow.
MCofA: I like statistics as much as the next guy, but without context statistics are nothing. While my colleagues discuss the hair, I want to focus on the cheekbones. No coiffure exists in a vacuum, it must be attached to a face and bring out the underlying characteristics of that face. Lamela's near-perfect bone structure gives him a classically angular visage, drawing focus to his deep-set, soulful eyes and distinct cheekbones. A haircut which extends from only the top of his skull, like the barely-faux hawk he has sported in the past, risks drawing attention away from the bone structure or worse, unbalancing his previously symmetrical appearance. I think it is notable that 90% of Lamela's SiBoT in Serie A (**) have been produced in games where Lamela's stylist allowed a little bit of volume to the coif on the sides of his head, creating a more traditional side-sweep cut in the style of a Paul Wesley. His potential is nearly boundless, but he will need a manager who can explain that within the complex demands a high-pressing, vertical-passing system, you need a haircut that works within the context of your facial structure.
**Source: Whoscoredandhowwastheirhair.com
Bryan A.: I think when you have the opportunity to add a young head of hair, such as Lamela's to your squad you have to do it. Sure the price is a bit high, but Lamela's hair has shown a lot more potential than say Adam Maher or Jordy Clasie. At this point Spurs have a lot of money to spend, and Lamela's hair could potentially be a superstar.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that Erik Lamela is 21. His hair still has plenty of time to grow into its potential. While Tottenham have a lot of classically-coifed players, Lamela's 'do is much more forward thinking. This is the kind of hairstyle that Spurs need if they're going to score with young fans. I know that we may not see the benefit that his hair adds to the club right now, but it's definitely one for the future.
Lennon's Eyebrow: I think it's important that we don't neglect his incredible follicular diversity. We all know that Lamela has incredible natural hair, but with the right grooming its potential is boundless. He's only 21 and he's already shown an impressive array of versatility in his styling choices. With product or without, spiked or laying flat, shaved sides or a classy part, he clearly has the adaptability to fit into whatever gap the team's overall style is missing. His hair's god-given gifts are impressive, but his real strength is in his phenomenal ability to style it in so many different ways.
Skipjack: Guys the important thing to remember is that he's only 21. He has incredible potential for growth here. Not just in terms of fullness or length, but in regards to style and substance. He already has a fantastic follical foundation to further his future on. Look at some of his colleagues like Mario Balotelli, whose hair changes his hair style like a pair of socks or Al Sharraway, who's hair could double as a balloon genocide machine or a runway for hotwheels. Lamela's almost, but not quite, blow out already shows more maturity. Perhaps more importantly it shows confidence. His hair will not only bring a swagger to Spurs but the kind of rigidity and spine we need to compete against well coiffed teams like Arsenal and Chelsea. And with a front line of Soldado and Townsend, Lamela will add some much needed flair to our folical front line.
theroosevelts: With Gareth Bale Leaving and Erik Lamalalala coming in it is important to examine what we have lost and what we have replaced it with. Gareth Bale the once stunning live action version of Jimmy Neutron has gone to seed folically speaking these last months. His current do is awful enough that one might think he the younger version of the blue haired announcer guy from the Hunger games. And in his place we bring in the youthful gentleman with ha fauxhawk that even the canceling of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy couldn't kill. It is a solid if unspectacular start to his Spurs career. It aims high but ultimately misses the mark (hi Pav!). It is his next hair style that will really make or break his Tottenham career.The 2009 Denver Broncos season was their 40th season in the NFL and 50th season overall. The Broncos started 6–0, but lost 8 of their next 10 games after coming off bye week. They matched their 8–8 regular season record from 2008 and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season. The Broncos welcomed many new defensive players signed during free agency, including veteran Eagles safety Brian Dawkins. This was their first season without head coach Mike Shanahan since 1995, as he was fired on December 30, 2008. On January 12, 2009, Denver hired former New England Patriots' offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as their new head coach. At the time of his hiring, McDaniels was the youngest head coach in any of the four major North American professional sports and the fifth-youngest NFL head coach ever, though less than a week later the Tampa Bay Buccaneers named the even-younger Raheem Morris as their head coach.
According to the 2012 Football Outsiders Almanac, the 2009 Broncos had the second-largest improvement in defensive efficiency from the previous season.[1]
Roster changes [ edit ]
Free agents [ edit ]
Signings [ edit ]
TE Adam Bergen – Future contract
QB Kyle Orton
Departures [ edit ]
Jay Cutler controversy [ edit ]
After head coach Josh McDaniels was hired, rumors eventually surfaced that there was a three-way trade involving McDaniels' former team, the New England Patriots, and a third potential team (Detroit Lions or Tampa Bay Buccaneers) that would have sent quarterback Jay Cutler to the Lions or Buccaneers and the Broncos would receive Matt Cassel, who worked with McDaniels during the previous season, from the Patriots. After the trade talks surfaced, Cutler was angered and infuriated by the rumors because he didn't think he was going to be traded, and he refused to talk with either McDaniels or general manager Brian Xanders after both had denied the rumors.[2]
Several teams became interested in trading for Cutler after it was apparent he was upset about this situation, though McDaniels had stated, "We are not trading Jay Cutler-Period." McDaniels insisted that Cutler is their quarterback.[3]
On March 11, 2009, Cutler and McDaniels agreed to meet for the first time since the incident. After having a conference call between them, sources said that the two sides drifted further apart, although the team refused to comment.[4] Cutler eventually requested to be traded some time afterward, feeling that the "trust" between the organization and himself were all but gone, and missed one of Denver's voluntary training camps.[citation needed]
On April 2, the Broncos traded Cutler, along with one of their two fifth-round selections (No. 140 overall) in the 2009 NFL Draft, to the Chicago Bears in exchange for quarterback Kyle Orton, the Bears' first- (No. 18 overall) and third (No. 84th overall) picks in 2009, and their 2010 first-round selection.[5]
On June 12, the Broncos named Orton as their starting quarterback. This ended speculation of a competition between Orton and Chris Simms.
Draft [ edit ]
Schedule [ edit ]
Preseason [ edit ]
Regular season [ edit ]
Note: Intra-division games are in bold text.
Game summaries [ edit ]
Week 1: at Cincinnati Bengals [ edit ]
The game began with little action. Denver and Cincinnati both traded possessions to begin the game. However, on the Bengals' second possession they were able to drive deep into Denver territory, reaching the 11-yard line before setting up for a short field goal. However, the field goal snap was fumbled. After the flubbed field goal, both teams entered a period of offensive ineptness – Denver had four consecutive one-and-done drives, while Cincinnati was forced to punt, then had a promising drive end with a Carson Palmer interception after Denver cornerback Champ Bailey tipped the ball into the air and Wesley Woodyard recovered the interception. Denver was finally able to put together a drive at the end of the first half that finished with a Matt Prater 48-yard field goal as time ran out. Despite being out-gained in all offensive indicators, Denver took a 3–0 lead into halftime due to Cincinnati mistakes, including the fumbled field goal, interception, and multiple dropped passes.
During the third quarter, neither team was able to sustain an offensive drive – Cincinnati punted 3 times, while Denver punted 2 times. However, Denver's defense showed improvement, including one Cincinnati drive that ended after two consecutive sacks of Carson Palmer. Denver was able to put together another field goal drive at the end of the third quarter, with Matt Prater this time kicking a 50-yard field goal to put the Broncos on top 6–0.
The fourth quarter continued in much the same vein. Denver made it into field goal range again before a 5-yard penalty and 7-yard sack forced them to punt it away again. However, Cincinnati was able to put together their first sustained drive of the entire game during the second half of the quarter – the Bengals gained 90 yards on 11 plays over 5:40. This culminated with a 1-yard Cedric Benson touchdown run that avoided a Bengals shutout and put them on top for the first time.
Denver regained control of the ball at their own 13-yard line with 38 seconds remaining. After an incomplete pass, Kyle Orton attempted a pass to Brandon Marshall with 28 seconds remaining. The ball was tipped into the air by Bengals defensive back Leon Hall and into the hands of Denver wide receiver Brandon Stokley, who then took it untouched 87 yards to the end zone with 11 seconds remaining. Records showed that this was the longest play from scrimmage in NFL history with less than 1 minute remaining in the game. The play was referred to by some as "The Immaculate Deflection" after The Immaculate Reception. Denver took a 12–7 lead but failed a two-point conversion. A desperation hail mary pass by Carson Palmer was intercepted in the end zone with 5 seconds to play by Denver tight end Tony Scheffler.
Week 2: vs. Cleveland Browns [ edit ]
Week Two: Cleveland Browns at Denver Broncos – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Browns 6 0 0 0 6 Broncos 7 3 3 14 27 at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado Date : September 20
: September 20 Game time : 2:15 p.m. MDT
: 2:15 p.m. MDT Game weather : 82 °F (28 °C), partly cloudy
: 82 °F (28 °C), partly cloudy Game attendance : 73,931
: 73,931 Referee : Pete Morelli
: Pete Morelli TV announcers (CBS) : Bill Macatee and Steve Beuerlein
: Bill Macatee and Steve Beuerlein Gamebook
Coming off their last-second victory over the Bengals, the Broncos would play their Week 2 home opener against the Cleveland Browns. In the first quarter, Denver would trail early as Browns kicker Phil Dawson got a 22-yard field goal. Afterwards, the Broncos took the lead as quarterback Kyle Orton completed a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tony Scheffler. Cleveland would creep close as Dawson made a 47-yard field goal, but Denver would answer as kicker Matt Prater got a 23-yard field goal in the second quarter and a 38-yard field goal in the third quarter. In the fourth, the Broncos pulled away as fullback Peyton Hillis got a 2-yard touchdown run and running back Correll Buckhalter got a 45-yard touchdown run.
With the win, Denver improved to 2–0.
Week 3: at Oakland Raiders [ edit ]
Week Three: Denver Broncos at Oakland Raiders – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Broncos 10 3 7 3 23 Raiders 0 3 0 0 3 at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California Date : September 27
: September 27 Game time : 2:15 p.m. MDT/1:15 p.m. PDT
: 2:15 p.m. MDT/1:15 p.m. PDT Game weather : 81 °F (27 °C), sunny
: 81 °F (27 °C), sunny Game attendance : 45,602
: 45,602 Referee : Ed Hochuli
: Ed Hochuli TV announcers (CBS) : Ian Eagle and Rich Gannon
: Ian Eagle and Rich Gannon Gamebook
After Oakland began the game with a 3-and-out, Denver sustained a long drive deep into Oakland territory. However, the Raiders orchestrated a successful goal-line stand, forcing Denver to turn the ball over on downs after a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line was stopped. Two plays later, however, Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell was intercepted by Denver safety Renaldo Hill after throwing from his own end zone. The Broncos then drove 23 yards in 6 plays, scoring on a 2-yard Kyle Orton pass to Brandon Marshall. The next Raiders drive lasted just 3 plays after Russell was intercepted again, this time by Broncos cornerback Andre Goodman. This led to a 48-yard field goal by Broncos kicker Matt Prater, giving them a 10–0 lead going into the 2nd quarter.
Oakland's first drive of the second quarter was also their most successful. They went 56 yards in over 8 minutes, leading to a 48-yard Sebastian Janikowski field goal. Denver then drove 76 yards, although Oakland again held Denver out of the end zone, leading to a 21-yard Prater field goal and giving the Broncos a 13–3 lead going into halftime. Denver then opened the half with another scoring drive, this time going 80 yards in 8 plays and scoring on a 7-yard run by rookie running back Knowshon Moreno. It was the first touchdown of Moreno's NFL career. Oakland was forced to punt on their next drive. However, on Denver's first play from scrimmage, running back Correll Buckhalter fumbled the ball at their own 16-yard line, giving Oakland the ball in Denver territory for just the 3rd time on the day. However, 2 plays later, Raiders running back Darren McFadden fumbled the ball for the second time on the day (the first time was recovered by Oakland), giving Denver the ball back at their own 11. They then drove 88 yards in 16 plays and over 8 minutes, although the Raiders again held them out of the end zone, leading to a Prater 24-yard field goal.
The Broncos won the game primarily on the strength of their running game and the defense. Correll Buckhalter ran 14 times for 108 yards, while rookie Knowshown Moreno ran 21 times for 90 yards. Overall, the Broncos had 215 yards rushing on the day. The defense held the Raiders to just 137 total yards and 9 first downs, caused 2 interceptions and 1 fumble, and also sacked JaMarcus Russell 3 times, 2 of them by star defensive end Elvis Dumervil (who had 4 in the previous game against the Cleveland Browns). Russell had just 61 yards passing on 21 attempts with 2 interceptions, giving him a quarterback rating of 22.6. Kyle Orton had 157 yards passing on 23 attempts with 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions, giving him a respectable 92.1 rating.
With the win, Denver improved to 3–0.
Week 4: vs. Dallas Cowboys [ edit ]
Week Four: Dallas Cowboys at Denver Broncos – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Cowboys 10 0 0 0 10 Broncos 0 7 0 10 17 at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado Date : October 4
: October 4 Game time : 2:15 p.m. MDT
: 2:15 p.m. MDT Game weather : 55 °F (13 °C), partly cloudy
: 55 °F (13 °C), partly cloudy Game attendance : 76,440
: 76,440 Referee : Walt Anderson
: Walt Anderson TV announcers (Fox) : Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Pam Oliver
: Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Pam Oliver Gamebook
Coming off their divisional road win over the Raiders, the Broncos went home for a Week 4 interconference duel with the Dallas Cowboys. Denver would struggle out of the gates in the first quarter, as Cowboys kicker Nick Folk got a 49-yard field goal and running back Marion Barber would acquire a 1-yard touchdown run. The Broncos would start to gain some momentum in the second quarter with quarterback Kyle Orton's 9-yard touchdown pass to rookie running back Knowshon Moreno. After a scoreless third quarter, Denver would take command of the game in the fourth quarter. The Broncos would get a 28-yard field goal from kicker Matt Prater, followed by Orton's 51-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Afterwards, the defense would manage to hold off a late Dallas drive that actually made it to their 1-yard line.
With the win, the Broncos would acquire their first 4–0 start since 2003.
Week 5: vs. New England Patriots [ edit ]
Week Five: New England Patriots at Denver Broncos – Game summary 1 2 3 4 OT Total Patriots 10 7 0 0 0 17 Broncos 0 7 3 7 3 20 at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado Date : October 11
: October 11 Game time : 2:15 p.m. MDT
: 2:15 p.m. MDT Game weather : 30 °F (−1 °C), cloudy
: 30 °F (−1 °C), cloudy Game attendance : 76,011
: 76,011 Referee : Carl Cheffers
: Carl Cheffers TV announcers (CBS) : Jim Nantz and Phil Simms
: Jim Nantz and Phil Simms Gamebook
Coming off of a home win against the Cowboys, the Broncos stayed at home, donned their throwback uniforms, and prepared for a Week 5 AFL Legacy game with the New England Patriots. This would mark the highly anticipated match-up between Denver head coach Josh McDaniels and New England's head coach Bill Belichick.
The Broncos would trail in the first quarter as Patriots quarterback Tom Brady hooked up with wide receiver Wes Welker on an 8-yard touchdown pass, followed by kicker Stephen Gostkowski getting a 53-yard field goal. Denver would answer in the second quarter as quarterback Kyle Orton connected with wide receiver Brandon Marshall on an 11-yard touchdown pass, but New England would close out the half with Brady's 7-yard touchdown pass to tight end Benjamin Watson.
The Broncos would tie the game in the second half as kicker Matt Prater nailed a 24-yard field goal in the third quarter, followed by Orton finding Marshall again on an 11-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. In overtime, Denver won possession and never relinquished possession as Prater booted the game-winning 41-yard field goal.
With the win, the Broncos improved to 5–0 for the first time since the team's Super Bowl run of 1998.
Week 6: at San Diego Chargers [ edit ]
Coming off an impressive home win over the Patriots, the Broncos flew to Qualcomm Stadium, donned their throwbacks again, and played a Week 6 AFL Legacy game with the San Diego Chargers on Monday night. Even though the Chargers kicked off the first quarter with a 20-yard field goal from kicker Nate Kaeding, the Broncos immediately struck back with wide receiver Eddie Royal returned the kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown. San Diego would then close out the opening period with quarterback Philip Rivers hooking up with wide receiver Vincent Jackson on a 3-yard touchdown pass. Denver would take the lead in the second quarter with kicker Matt Prater making a 34-yard field goal, followed by Royal returning a punt 71 yards for a touchdown. Afterwards, the Chargers closed out the half with Kaeding nailing a 44-yard field goal and running back Darren Sproles returning a punt 77 yards for a touchdown.
Even though San Diego increased their lead in the third quarter with Kaeding's 50-yard field goal, the Broncos regained it with quarterback Kyle Orton completing a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tony Scheffler. In the fourth quarter, Denver closed out the game with Prater's 29-yard field goal and Orton's 5-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Brandon Stokley.
With the win, the Broncos went into their bye week at 6–0, which is the franchise's best start since their Super Bowl season of 1998.
Week 8: at Baltimore Ravens [ edit ]
Week Eight: Denver Broncos at Baltimore Ravens – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Broncos 0 0 7 0 7 Ravens 3 3 10 14 30 at M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland Date : November 1
: November 1 Game time : 1:00 p.m. EST/11:00 a.m. MST
: 1:00 p.m. EST/11:00 a.m. MST Game weather : 56 °F (13 °C), showers
: 56 °F (13 °C), showers Game attendance : 71,132
: 71,132 Referee : Walt Coleman
: Walt Coleman TV announcers (CBS) : Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf
: Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf Gamebook
Coming off their bye week, the Broncos flew to M&T Bank Stadium for a Week 8 duel with the Baltimore Ravens. Denver would trail in the first quarter as Ravens kicker Steven Hauschka nailed a 43-yard field goal in the first quarter, followed by a 35-yard field goal in the second quarter. In the third quarter, the Broncos' deficit immediately climbed as cornerback Lardarius Webb returned the second half's opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. Denver would answer with a 1-yard touchdown run from rookie running back Knowshon Moreno, Baltimore came right back with Haushchka booting a 31-yard field goal. Afterwards, the Ravens would pull away in the fourth quarter with quarterback Joe Flacco's 20-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Derrick Mason and running back Ray Rice getting a 7-yard touchdown run.
With the loss, the Broncos fell to 6–1.
Week 9: vs. Pittsburgh Steelers [ edit ]
Week Nine: Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Steelers 0 7 7 14 28 Broncos 3 0 7 0 10 at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado Date : November 9
: November 9 Game time : 6:30 p.m. MST
: 6:30 p.m. MST Game weather : 55 °F (13 °C), mostly clear
: 55 °F (13 °C), mostly clear Game attendance : 76,716
: 76,716 Referee : Don Carey
: Don Carey TV announcers (ESPN) : Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, Jon Gruden and Suzy Kolber
: Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, Jon Gruden and Suzy Kolber Gamebook
American Nordic combined skier Johnny Spillane at the game between the Steelers and the Broncos.
Hoping to rebound from their road loss to the Ravens, the Broncos went home for a Week 9 Monday night duel with the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Denver would begin the first quarter with kicker Matt Prater making a 40-yard field goal, yet the Steelers responded in the second quarter with safety Tyrone Carter returning an interception 48 yards for a touchdown.
The Broncos would regain the lead in the third quarter as defensive end Kenny Peterson forced a fumble during his sack of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. It allowed rookie linebacker Robert Ayers to return the fumble 54 yards for a touchdown. However, Pittsburgh came right back with Roethlisberger's 3-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Hines Ward. Afterwards, the Steelers would pull away in the fourth quarter as Roethlisberger completed a 25-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Mike Wallace and a 3-yard touchdown pass to Ward.
Making an appearance during the game was American Nordic combined skier Johnny Spillane, a Steamboat Springs, Colorado native, who would go on to win three silver medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver three months later.
With the loss, Denver fell to 6–2.
Week 10: at Washington Redskins [ edit ]
Week Ten: Denver Broncos at Washington Redskins – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Broncos 14 3 0 0 17 Redskins 7 7 0 13 27 at FedExField, Landover, Maryland Date : November 15
: November 15 Game time : 1:00 p.m. EST/11:00 a.m. MST
: 1:00 p.m. EST/11:00 a.m. MST Game weather : 70 °F (21 °C), sunny
: 70 °F (21 °C), sunny Game attendance : 85,247
: 85,247 Referee : Pete Morelli
: Pete Morelli TV announcers (CBS) : Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf
: Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf Gamebook
Trying to snap a two-game losing streak, the Broncos flew to FedExField for a Week 10 interconference duel with the Washington Redskins. In the first quarter, Denver struck first as quarterback Kyle Orton found wide receiver Brandon Marshall on a 40-yard touchdown pass. The Redskins would respond as quarterback Jason Campbell completed a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Todd Yoder, yet the Broncos would answer with Orton going right back to Marshall again on a 75-yard touchdown pass. Washington would tie the game again in the second quarter with a trick play as punter Hunter Smith completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to fullback Mike Sellers. Denver would close out the half with a 24-yard field goal from kicker Matt Prater but on the previous play Orton (11/18 for 193 yards, 2 TDs) left the game with an ankle injury. This injury would prove costly not only in this game but the next for the Broncos. Chris Simms replaced Orton at quarterback but was unable to get anything going on offense for the Broncos, going a dismal 3/21 for 13 yards with 1 INT. After a scoreless third quarter, the Redskins would take the lead in the fourth quarter with a 1-yard touchdown run from running back Ladell Betts and a 35-yard field goal from kicker Shaun Suisham.
With their third-straight loss, the Broncos fell to 6–3.
Week 11: vs. San Diego Chargers [ edit ]
Week Eleven: San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Chargers 7 6 7 12 32 Broncos 0 0 3 0 3 at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado Date : November 22
: November 22 Game time : 2:15 p.m. MST
: 2:15 p.m. MST Game weather : 51 °F (11 °C), sunny
: 51 °F (11 °C), sunny Game attendance : 74,707
: 74,707 Referee : Ron Winter
: Ron Winter TV announcers (CBS) : Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts
: Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts Gamebook
In the first half, the Chargers got off to a great start when QB Philip Rivers got a 2-yard touchdown pass to WR Legedu Naanee. Then kicker Nate Kaeding hit a 28 and a 47-yard field goal. In the third quarter the Broncos scored their only points of the game when kicker Matt Prater got a 23-yard field goal, yet the Chargers replied and started to rally with RB LaDainian Tomlinson getting a 1-yard touchdown run, and in the fourth quarter Kaeding making a 28 then a 19-yard field goal, and finally FB Mike Tolbert ran 8 yards to the end zone for a touchdown (With PAT kick blocked).
With the fourth straight loss, the Broncos fell to a 6–4 record as the Chargers improved to a 7–3 record and took the divisional lead.
Week 12: vs. New York Giants [ edit ]
Thanksgiving Day game
Week Twelve: New York Giants at Denver Broncos – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Giants 0 0 6 0 6 Broncos 3 13 0 10 26 at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado Date : November 26
: November 26 Game time : 6:20 p.m. MST
: 6:20 p.m. MST Game weather : 57 °F (14 °C), mostly clear
: 57 °F (14 °C), mostly clear Game attendance : 74,896
: 74,896 Referee : Tony Corrente
: Tony Corrente TV announcers (NFLN) : Bob Papa and Matt Millen
: Bob Papa and Matt Millen Gamebook
Trying to avoid a five-game losing streak, the Broncos went home for a Week 12 Interconference Duel against the New York Giants.
In the first quarter the Broncos got on the board with kicker Matt Prater making a 26-yard field goal and then a 32-yard field goal in the second quarter. The Broncos kept on top with RB Knowshon Moreno making a 1-yard touchdown run. After that Matt Prater made a 47-yard field goal to end the half. In the third quarter the Giants replied with kicker Lawrence Tynes nailing a 39 then a 52-yard field goal. In the fourth quarter Denver increased their lead with QB Kyle Orton making a 17-yard touchdown pass to WR Brandon Stokley, and Prater making a 24-yard field goal.
With the win, the Broncos improved to 7–4.
Week 13: at Kansas City Chiefs [ edit ]
Week Thirteen: Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Broncos 7 7 20 10 44 Chiefs 0 6 0 7 13 at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri Date : December 6
: December 6 Game time : 12:00 p.m. CST/11:00 a.m. MST
: 12:00 p.m. CST/11:00 a.m. MST Game weather : 37 °F (3 °C), overcast
: 37 °F (3 °C), overcast Game attendance : 68,912
: 68,912 Referee : Jeff Triplette
: Jeff Triplette TV announcers (CBS) : Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts
: Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts Gamebook
Week 14: at Indianapolis Colts [ edit ]
Week Fourteen: Denver Broncos at Indianapolis Colts – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Broncos 0 7 0 9 16 Colts 14 7 0 7 28 at Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana Date : December 13
: December 13 Game time : 1:00 p.m. EST/11:00 a.m. MST
: 1:00 p.m. EST/11:00 a.m. MST Game weather : Played indoors (retractable roof closed)
: Played indoors (retractable roof closed) Game attendance : 67,248
: 67,248 Referee : Bill Leavy
: Bill Leavy TV announcers (CBS) : Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts
: Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts Gamebook
Coming off a two-game winning streak, the Broncos headed to Lucas Oil Stadium to play the undefeated Colts. In the first half, the Colts jumped out to a 21–0 lead. Denver finally scored when Kyle Orton found Brandon Marshall in the end zone going to the locker rooms trailing 21–7. For most of the second half, the Colts offense sputtered. In a long drive, Orton found Marshall for his second touchdown, however, the two-point conversion was no good, making the score 21–16. Then the Colts offense got things going late in the fourth. After a long drive, Manning found Dallas Clark in the end zone for his third touchdown of the day, putting the Colts on top 28–16 with under three minutes left in the game. On a long fourth down, Orton found Marshall who lateraled the ball to a lineman who was tackled short of the first down. With the win, the Colts broke an NFL record with 23 straight wins. Though despite the loss, Broncos WR Brandon Marshall had a record of his own with 21 catches beating Terrell Owens' record.
Week 15: vs. Oakland Raiders [ edit ]
Week Fifteen: Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Raiders 0 13 0 7 20 Broncos 6 0 10 3 19 at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado Date : December 20
: December 20 Game time : 2:05 p.m. MST
: 2:05 p.m. MST Game weather : 57 °F (14 °C), sunny
: 57 °F (14 °C), sunny Game attendance : 74,502
: 74,502 Referee : Alberto Riveron
: Alberto Riveron TV announcers (CBS) : Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker
: Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker Gamebook
Week 16: at Philadelphia Eagles [ edit ]
Week Sixteen: Denver Broncos at Philadelphia Eagles – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Broncos 0 7 17 3 27 Eagles 10 10 7 3 30 at Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Date : December 27
: December 27 Game time : 4:15 p.m. EST/2:15 p.m. MST
: 4:15 p.m. EST/2:15 p.m. MST Game weather : 45 °F (7 °C), sunny
: 45 °F (7 °C), sunny Game attendance : 69,144
: 69,144 Referee : Mike Carey
: Mike Carey TV announcers (CBS) : Jim Nantz and Phil Simms
: Jim Nantz and Phil Simms Gamebook
Week 17: vs. Kansas City Chiefs [ edit ]
Week Seventeen: Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos – Game summary 1 2 3 4 Total Chiefs 7 3 17 17 44 Broncos 0 10 14 0 24 at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado Date : January 3, 2010
: January 3, 2010 Game time : 2:15 p.m. MST
: 2:15 p.m. MST Game weather : 36 °F (2 °C), mostly cloudy
: 36 °F (2 °C), mostly cloudy Game attendance : 73,725
: 73,725 Referee : Scott Green
: Scott Green TV announcers (CBS) : Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts
: Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts Gamebook
Going into week 17, Denver could have made the playoffs if they won in these scenarios-
1) A New York Jets loss and either a loss by the Baltimore Ravens or the Pittsburgh Steelers OR
2) A New York Jets loss and a win by the Houston Texans OR
3)A Baltimore Ravens loss and a Pittsburgh Steelers loss or a Houston Texans win.
Also, Denver could have made the playoffs even with a loss to Kansas City in these scenarios-
1) Losses by Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Houston, and the Jacksonville Jaguars OR
2) Losses by Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Houston, and New York OR
3) Losses by Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Jacksonville, and New York OR
4) Losses by Pittsburgh, Houston, Jacksonville, and New York OR
5) Losses by New York, Baltimore, Houston, Jacksonville, and the Miami Dolphins
In the days prior to the game, Coach Josh McDaniels got into an injury-related dispute with receiver Brandon Marshall and deactivated Marshall.
In the game, Chiefs' running back Jamaal Charles had a franchise record 259 yards rushing yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns (Including runs of 52 and 56 yards). Kyle Orton, who had thrown only 9 interceptions all year, threw 3: 2 to Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson, both returned for scores, and another in the end zone to Brandon Flowers. Orton did finish with a career-high 431 yards through the air on 32/56 passing. Jabar Gaffney, replacing the inactive Brandon Marshall, had a career-high 14 receptions for 213 yards.
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Should USB be considered an album? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.�Luongo, who made 23 saves in a 2-1 overtime victory against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, admitted to doubts of his own about how he might be affected by the first serious injury of a career that is in its 18th NHL season, worries that didn't go away completely until Saturday, his final preseason game. But he never questioned his ability to continue playing at a high level into his late 30s. If anything, Luongo feels he is getting better, calling last season his best despite tearing his hip labrum in early March.
VANCOUVER -- The Florida Panthers' Roberto Luongo knows there are questions about his status as a 37-year-old No. 1 goaltender coming off hip surgery in May, and also realizes the questions didn't die down after the Panthers signed unrestricted free agent goalie James Reimer to a five-year contract July 1.
He had 35 wins, the most he's had in a season since 2010-11, and he had a 2.35 goals-against average,.922 save percentage and four shutouts in 62 games.
"Technically it was definitely the best I've ever played, there is no doubt about that," Luongo said. "I felt I was more in control than ever as far as not ending up on my back or my stomach as much especially."
Video: NJD@FLA: Luongo robs Greene with a great glove save
If anecdotal evidence from Luongo and opinions from opposing goaltender coaches who say last season was his best isn't enough, the numbers show Luongo is bucking the trend of goalies declining past the age of 30.
Luongo had a.937 even-strength save percentage last season that matches his career best from 2003-04, when he was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. And it's an improvement from the.932 even-strength save percentage he had in 2014-15. And his numbers since being traded back to the Panthers from the Vancouver Canucks on March 4, 2014 include a.935 save percentage at even strength and a.922 in all situations, well above a.919 career save percentage that ranks seventh all-time among goaltenders to play at least 250 games.
"It's just work and trying to be the best at your craft," Luongo said. "Even though I am 37 and a lot of people don't look at me as being one of the top goalies in the League anymore, for me that passion is still there and wanting to be the best is still there. I work to improve my game every day, and the day I feel I don't need to do that anymore will probably be the day I retire."
Luongo doesn't see that day coming anytime soon, even if he was worried about his surgically repaired hip throughout an intense summer of rehabilitation.
"Right now I don't feel anything on the ice so that's great," Luongo said. "The thing for me is just feeling as good as I was before the injury. That was my worry, as far as being able to get back to the same level of play as before considering my age. I didn't know what to expect to be honest with you. This is the first time I have had anything bad like this. So I was a little nervous going into the last preseason game about how I would feel. But once it all came together and I started playing I felt really good and in control for 99 percent of the game. Even my brother, after watching the highlights, said it was the best he has seen me as far as control wise."
That would be younger brother Leo Luongo, who was hired as Florida's goaltender development coach this summer after three seasons working with Lugano in Switzerland. He is one of several coaches keeping Roberto ahead of the curve technically. The list includes Colorado Avalanche goalie coach Francois Allaire, who Luongo worked with extensively during the NHL work stoppage in 2012-13, and Ian Clark, who coached Luongo during his first stint in Florida and with the Vancouver Canucks, and privately at times during the summer. It was Clark that taught Luongo the reverse-VH post-integration tactic that Luongo has called key to his late-career improvements.
Current Panthers goaltending coach Robb Tallas also has played a big role since Luongo's return to Florida. They have worked together five days a week starting in August each summer since before the start of the 2014-15 season, something Luongo thinks is critical to his success.
"Back when I played in Vancouver a lot of times I was just running my own practices in Florida in the summer," said Luongo, who kept a house in Florida during his time in Vancouver. "I couldn't have somebody there all the time, but over the last few years I have been working with Robbie every day. It's such a benefit to have him there in the summer time as you try to get ready for the season. That's actually the most important time. That's when you can add things to your game or work on things you don't have time to during the season to develop or improve. To have him there from early August all the way through training camp is a huge benefit to me."
For Luongo, it's always been about finding anything he thinks can help him on the ice, and then working as hard, if not harder, than any other goalie in the NHL to implement it.
"It's not just one thing from one person," Luongo said. "Everyone has added a piece to the puzzle."
That includes his new goaltending partner. Others might have seen Reimer's arrival as a sign that the Panthers believed an aging Luongo, coming off hip surgery, might be on the decline. But Luongo said he was part of the process that brought Reimer to Florida, and welcomes the chance to get more rest amid a condensed schedule this season. He's also looking forward to picking the brain of Reimer, who like Luongo actively searches out new techniques and tactics.
"I enjoy working with James too," Luongo said. "He's very technical and I enjoy that. I enjoy working with a guy who is technical and you can bounce ideas off each other and stuff like that."
For Luongo, that has been one of the keys to improving with age, something he is confident can continue even after surgery.Looking for photography services in Australia? Customers willing to pay via bitcoin to Seagull Photography in Waitara, New South Wales, which is just outside of Sydney, can get a bargain.
Anyone in need of a photographer that pays 1 BTC to the studio will receive an AU$400 voucher. Based on the current bitcoin price in Australian dollars, that’s a 50% discount for using bitcoin.
And it is cumbersome Australian banking processes that influenced Seagull’s decision to promote bitcoin, says Mohammad Soltani, who helps his wife Azam Vahabzadeh with the technical side of the photography studio.
“It takes one full business day to receive the payment from another bank which is effectively three calendar days if the payment is done on Friday. As a business we think that this is not acceptable,” Soltani told CoinDesk.
In Australia, people use bank transfers to make payments. And moving money from one bank to another is what causes this delay, Soltani says. “Eighty percent of our customers transferred from a different bank which took a day or more”.
“As a photography business, we were ready to accept bitcoin but we were not sure if any of the clients will be interested in paying by bitcoin, so we just decided to do this promotion and find out,” says Soltani.
Since photography by its nature is not structured with a high volume of people coming through the door, Soltani thinks that similar businesses should try accepting bitcoin.
“My advice is to add bitcoin to the list of your acceptable payment methods. Photography businesses are not like a retail store and don’t deal with lots of customers. So it’s easy to handle the overhead caused by accepting new payment methods,” he said.
There are other incentive-based concepts being tried by businesses to encourage bitcoin spending. Coinbase, for example, has a program whereby if a bitcoin enthusiast sends a new user 1 BTC and they end up buying or selling at least one bitcoin, each gets $5.
Although he believes in its potential, Soltani isn’t sure that Australians are fully convinced bitcoin will take off yet.
“From what I have seen, only about 20% become believers and are ready to bet on the future of bitcoin, and the rest think that some day the US government will intervene and ban bitcoin, so they see it as too risky at this stage,” he said.
Still he sees this effort as a way to legitimize the decentralized virtual currency.
“We just hope that this little drop will make some ripples and will spread to other Aussie businesses.”
Here are the complete details of Seagull Photography’s bitcoin offer.
What do you think about giving special incentives for customers paying in bitcoin? Do you know of other businesses offering special deals for bitcoin spenders? Let us know in the comments.Donetsk: Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine staged swearing in ceremonies for their leaders on Tuesday after votes dismissed as a farce by Kiev, which says they violated terms of a peace plan to end a war that has killed more than 4,000 people.
Warning of the threat of new offensive by Moscow-backed rebels, Ukraine's leader said newly-formed army units would be sent to defend a string of eastern cities.
NATO's highest ranking officer, a U.S. general, said conditions were now in place to create a "frozen conflict", a term the West uses to describe rebel regions carved out of other ex-Soviet states that Moscow protects with its troops.
The inauguration ceremonies in east Ukraine took place even as tens of thousands of people marched in Moscow for "Unity Day", a nationalist holiday celebrating a 17th century battle, revived under President Vladimir Putin to replace the Soviet-era celebration of the Bolshevik revolution. Ukraine featured heavily in speeches for the occasion.
Most fighting has halted in the war in eastern Ukraine since September, when Kiev agreed to a truce after its forces were pushed back by what it and Western countries say was an incursion by armored columns of Russian troops.
But the frontline remains dangerous and tense, with both sides complaining of shooting nearly every day. Artillery from the direction of the wreckage of Donetsk's international airport, still under government control, thudded during the rebel leader's inauguration in the city.
Moscow says the election of Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky as leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics", which jointly call themselves "new Russia", means that Kiev should now negotiate with them directly.
Kiev has always rejected this, describing the rebels as Russian-backed "terrorists" or "bandits", with no legitimacy.
The worry for the West is that Moscow, which has already annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, will now also exert control over eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbass region in perpetuity, as it has done for two decades in parts of Moldova and Georgia that broke away when the Soviet Union collapsed.
"I'm concerned that the conditions are there that could create � a frozen conflict," said U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, the highest-ranking NATO officer, said in Washington.
Russia's border with east Ukraine had softened to the point of becoming completely porous, while the line inside Ukraine between government and rebel territory had hardened, he said.
President Petro Poroshenko met his security chiefs and told them he remained committed to a peaceful solution to the conflict, even though he said a peace plan and truce agreed in Minsk in September had been violated by Russia and the rebels.
Kiev says the Minsk agreements provided only for the election of local officials in the east under Ukrainian law, and not for separatist ballots to install leaders of breakaway entities who seek close association or even union with Russia.
Kiev and the West also say Moscow is continuing to provide military support for the rebels.
A foreign ministry spokesman said 100 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the ceasefire came into force. Kiev's military spokesman said there had been more shooting incidents recently and NATO's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said in Brussels that Russian troops were moving closer to the border with Ukraine while Russia continued to train the rebels.
BALLOONS AND COSSACKS
In Donetsk, an industrial city which had a million people before the war, 38-year-old former coal mine electrician Zakharchenko was sworn in as head of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic".
One of the few top guerrilla commanders in eastern Ukraine who comes from Donetsk rather than Russia, Zakharchenko has led the separatists since August when he took over from a Russian. He was elected on Sunday, along with Plotnitsky in neighboring Luhansk, in votes that Kiev and the West denounced as illegal.
At the ceremony in a Donetsk drama theater, Zakharchenko swore to "honestly serve the interests of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic".
Balloons floated onto the stage while Cossacks in scarlet and black uniforms and dancers in traditional peasant garb shared the theater with Zakharchenko's honor guard of heavily-armed fighters, some with Russian flag patches on their arms.
A Russian parliamentarian, Alexei Zhuravlyov, told the audience the elections "were democratic and clean which many countries could envy, including Western ones".
Before the ceremony, another separatist figure, Andrei Purgin, said: "We are starting history with this inauguration and what happens today will be repeated. We are laying down the traditions of the Republic."
"SPIRITUAL UPSURGE" Putin has pressed on with Russia's campaign in Ukraine despite U.S. and European economic sanctions.
"Dear friends, this year we have had to face difficult challenges. And as has happened more than once in our history, our people responded by consolidating and with a moral and spiritual upsurge," Putin told a Unity Day gala, alluding to the conflict without mentioning sanctions or Ukraine directly.
"The desire for justice, for truth has always been honored in Russia. And threats will not force us to abandon our values and ideals."
At an open air concert in Moscow following the parade, politicians called on Putin to recognize the results of the rebel elections. Putin has yet to do so, although Moscow said it would before the votes were held.
Since the truce brought by the Minsk agreements, which Russia signed along with Ukraine and rebel leaders, Putin appears to have set course for a long-term face-off that will leave the Donbass internationally recognized as part of Ukraine but beyond Kiev's control.
Russia has used such tactics to hobble the aspirations for Western integration of Moldova and Georgia, where breakaway enclaves have enjoyed Russian protection since the early 1990s.
When Georgia tried to retake a separatist enclave in 2008, Moscow swiftly invaded to protect it. An official from that region, South Ossetia, spoke at Zakharchenko's inauguration.
In recent weeks, Russia and Ukraine reached an interim agreement on gas supplies, allowing them to resume the most important part of their economic relations and make the status quo more stable, without resolving the separatist conflict.
But Kiev still has wider ambitions for improved trade ties with the West, including eventual membership in the EU, which will be harder to achieve as long as nearly 10 percent of its population and a larger slice of its industrial output is in territory controlled by armed men who profess loyalty to Russia.
The rebels in eastern Ukraine rose up in April after Moscow seized the Crimea peninsula following the overthrow of a pro-Russian president in Kiev. More than 4,000 people have been killed in months of fighting since, including 298 aboard a Malaysian airliner shot down over rebel territory in July.
From June through August Ukrainian forces were on the offensive, but the momentum rapidly swung back after what the West says was a ground assault by the Russian military.
Moscow officially denies its troops operate in eastern Ukraine, although many have died there.
After a Ukrainian parliamentary election on Oct. 26 that saw parties sympathetic to Moscow all but wiped out, Poroshenko is now fully supported by a pro-Western power structure determined to stop the break-up of the country. He may come under pressure to take a firmer line.
Poroshenko said on Tuesday he wanted parliament to scrap a law offering "special status" to eastern regions, which would have given Donetsk and Luhansk limited rights to run their own affairs and shield separatist fighters from prosecution.
He would propose a new law to provide a "special economic zone" for the region and set a new date for hoped-for Ukrainian-run local elections, originally planned for early December.While some New York-area television shows resumed filming today after Hurricane Sandy battered the east coast Monday, it could be a harder road to recovery for ABC’s 666 Park Avenue.
The show’s set, which is located at Cine Magic Riverfront Studios in Brooklyn, overlooking the New York City skyline, suffered severe damages after water flooded the building Monday night.
“I went to check them out on the night of the storm at 10 p.m. and they were under 6 feet of water — the entire complex,” says Peter Kapsalis, owner of Cine Magic Riverfront Studios. “It wasn’t in very good shape.”
The water, which has since receded, did varied damage to sets, he adds, but some could possibly be salvaged. “The Daylight Studio, which carried some of the smaller sets and was a little closer to the water [was] completely demolished,” Kapsalis says. “The main sets stayed in place even with the water rushing in [but] everything is extensively damaged.”
EW is told that productions for all shows made by Warner Bros., which also produces the horror drama, are up and running. However, WB could not immediately comment on new filming schedules or any reports of damages. Kapsalis, meanwhile, claimed that it could be around three weeks until shooting resumed in the studio, but options — like on-location shooting within New York City or relocation of sets to Cine Magic’s SoHo location — are currently being explored.
Above all, Kapsalis lauded the tenacity of the production team and executives at Warner Bros., saying their efforts would hopefully put the estimated 200 people who work at Cine Magic Riverfront back to work soon. “Warner Bros. has been a godsend — I don’t know how to say it. They’ve been very helpful and trying to put the show first, which as a result, is helping us a lot,” he says. “[The entertainment business is] one of the strengths of New York’s economy and for it to take a hit, it will affect New York greatly.”
Meanwhile, over at Steiner Studios, home to CW’s upcoming teen drama The Carrie Diaries, Douglas C. Steiner tells EW in a statement: “We made it through the hurricane unscathed. We have all power, were not flooded and will be re-opened for our productions tomorrow.”
Silvercup Studios in Long Island City also escaped with no damage, according to Stuart Suna, who co-owns the studio with brother Alan.
30 Rock, Elementary, Person of Interest, and Zero Hour all had cast and/or crew on set today, Suna said, as did Gossip Girl, which has wrapped filming and is in the process of wrapping production.
“I always thought that the industry — and the New York attitude — [was] very resilient,” says Suna, who says he feels “very fortunate” to have been unaffected. “We come back whether it’s a hurricane, blizzards, or, sadly, 9/11. Gov. Cuomo said it best that New Yorkers are a tough breed and that they come together in times of crisis and rebuild New York bigger and stronger.”
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TV production in New York stays dark, but late shows go on
Broadway shows to resume on WednesdayMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Trains entered each end of the tunnel ahead of a flamboyant opening ceremony
The world's longest and deepest rail tunnel has officially opened in Switzerland, after almost two decades of construction work.
The 57km (35-mile) twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel will provide a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe.
Switzerland says it will revolutionise European freight transport.
Goods currently carried on the route by a million lorries a year will go by train instead.
The tunnel has overtaken Japan's 53.9km Seikan rail tunnel as the longest in the world and pushed the 50.5km Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France into third place.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Gotthard tunnel runs 2.3 km under the mountain at its deepest point
In a speech to guests in Erstfeld, near the northern entrance to the tunnel, Swiss Federal President Johann Schneider-Ammann said it was a "giant step for Switzerland but equally for our neighbours and the rest of the continent".
A live relay carried a speech from the southern end of the tunnel, in Bodio, by the Swiss federal transport minister, Doris Leuthard.
Afterwards two trains set off in opposite directions through the tunnel, each carrying hundreds of guests who had won tickets in a draw, and the new route was formally open.
A lavish show then got under way for the assembled guests in Erstfeld, with dancers, acrobats, singers and musicians celebrating Alpine culture and history.
Image copyright EPA Image caption The opening show was put together by leading German theatre director Volker Hesse
European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern also attended the day's events.
Mr Hollande, who took part with others in a follow-up trip through the tunnel on a train, emerged on the southern side to give a speech in which he compared the Gotthard to the Channel Tunnel.
Recalling the great Franco-British project, which was completed in 1994, he said: "Nobody could have imagined that one day you would be able to travel from England to France in that way."
"Since then we are more united than ever and I hope the British will remember that when the day comes," he added, to laughter and applause from the audience in the Swiss village of Pollegio.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption VIP tunnel excursion (clockwise from left): Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Swiss Federal President Johann Schneider-Ammann, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande
The UK holds a referendum on 23 June on whether or not to remain in the EU.
The French leader went on to praise European aspirations, including the free movement of people and goods.
The presence of high-level guests at the opening shows that the new tunnel is about more than protecting the Alpine environment, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reports.
Europe's goods, whether Italian wine for the Netherlands or German cars for Greece, have to cross the Alps. Now they will able to do so more quickly, more safely, and more cheaply, our correspondent says.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Imogen Foulkes: "It's going very, very fast - and that you can sense"
The project, which cost more than $12bn (£8.3bn) to build, was endorsed by Swiss voters in a referendum in 1992. Voters then backed a proposal from environmental groups to move all freight travelling through Switzerland from road to rail two years later.
The completed tunnel travels up to 2.3 km below the surface of the mountains above and through rock that reaches temperatures of 46C.
Engineers had to dig and blast through 73 different kinds of rock, some as hard as granite and others as soft as sugar. More than 28m tonnes of rock was excavated, which was then broken down to help make the concrete used to build the tunnel.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Religious figures attended a blessing inside the tunnel on Wednesday
Image copyright Reuters Image caption A statue of St Barbara, patron saint of miners, stands inside the new tunnel
Image copyright EPA Image caption About 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains will go through the tunnel every day
Now the completed tunnel, delivered on time and within budget, will create a mainline rail connection between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Genoa in Italy.
When full services begin in December, the journey time for travellers between Zurich and Milan will be reduced by an hour to two hours and 40 minutes.
The tunnel's course is flat and straight instead of winding up through the mountains like the old rail tunnel and a road tunnel opened in 1980.
About 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains will pass through the tunnel each day in a journey taking as little as 17 minutes.
The tunnel is being financed by value-added and fuel taxes, road charges on heavy vehicles and state loans that are due to be repaid within a decade.
Swiss bank Credit Suisse has said its economic benefits will include the easier movement of goods and increased tourism.
Nine workers died in accidents while the tunnel was under construction.
Four were Germans, three Italians, and one each came from South Africa and Austria, according to German news agency dpa. They are commemorated by a plaque near the northern end of the tunnel, Swiss media report.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A business owner who used two vulnerable men like "slaves" has been jailed for 14 years.
Cardiff Crown Court heard Patrick Joseph Connors, 59, forced Scottish man Michael John Hughes to work for his family business for more than 20 years – paying him as little as £5 a day for back-breaking work.
Jurors were told Mr Hughes was beaten "all the time" if he did not do as he was told and was made to live in appalling conditions.
A second man, whose identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons, was kidnapped four times after his attempts to escape failed.
Read more: Man treated like a'slave' after being forced to work for 26 years said family'stole his life'
(Image: Wales News Service Ltd.)
The 41-year-old has been diagnosed with brittle bone disease osteoporosis after years of malnutrition.
Connors, of Rumney, Cardiff, was convicted with his son Patrick Dean Connors and nephew William Connors of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.
Patrick Dean Connors was handed a six and a half-year prison sentence, while William Connors was jailed for four years.
Patrick Joseph Connors' son-in-law Lee Christopher Carbis, 34, of Trowbridge, was cleared of the compulsory labour charge against Mr Hughes but found guilty of kidnapping Mr K.
He was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
(Image: Wales News Service Ltd.)
'They were completely controlled through intimidation, threats, and violence' An insight into the investigation that brought jail terms for family who forced men to work
Judge Neil Bidder QC said the trio, who operated a tarmacking business based at a farm in Rumney, treated their victims as little more than objects.
He said: "All the offences which you, Patrick Joseph Connors, have been convicted of are examples of conduct designed to keep two vulnerable men in what can only be described as modern-day slavery – in the case of Michael John Hughes, for 26 years.
"By the end of that time he had been completely conditioned to being used by you.
"Both he and the other victim were selected for their vulnerability. Both were required to do heavy manual labour for very long hours, seven days a week, for very low pay – well below the minimum wage."
Read more: Welsh anti-slavery chief says new victims will now emerge from the shadows after family were jailed
(Image: Wales News Service Ltd.)
Listen to the statements of the two men belowPiercy Ravenstone 1824
Thoughts on the Funding System and its Effects
Source:History of Economic Thought;
Piercy Ravenstone (Dates unknown) Little is known about Ravenstone. According to Max Beer: 'He signed himself "Piercy Ravenstone", but it is very doubtful whether this was his real name; it is rather probable that it is a pseudonym. Of his life nothing has been ascertained.... essentially a Tory Democrat, but without any ulterior motives, without any other end to serve than what he considered justice and national welfare.' A History of British Socialism.
Marx describes this pamphlet as "A most remarkable work" in Theories of Surplus Value, Chapter XXI
The events of the last hundred years, the changes they have wrought in the mode of existence of every nation of Europe, and the complexity they have introduced into all the relations of society, have given to the science of political economy an importance to which it could never before pretend. As the classes into which nations are divided have been multiplied, as the space allotted to the motions of each individual have been more circumscribed, their different interests have brought men more frequently into collision, and it has required no small share of skill to state and regulate the pretensions of each. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, however much it may be matter of regret, that in discussions so intricate and often so perplexed. the true principles should be lost sight of on which society is formed, and which alone, by the general happiness they produce, can make amends for its laws and restrictions, and the abridgment of natural freedom that it necessarily brings in its train.
Among all the relations of society, what may be called it. financial relations are almost the last to attract attention. It is only in a high state of civilization, when the idle classes have become numerous and powerful, that men occupy themselves with the best means of increasing and distributing a nation's wealth. Private interest is the great stimulus to improvement. The public good is seldom much thought of till it can be turned into the stream of individual advantage. It is never pursued with so much eagerness as when it can be made a pretext for jobs, when corruption can be sanctioned by its name.
In a country where land is the only property, and its rents and the profits which arise from their expenditure the only source of revenue, as there can he no mystery, as there is no room for contrivance, men are not very solicitous to inquire into the causes of the wealth of nations, nor into the best manner of disposing of their savings. As they see that all the productions of the earth are of a perishable nature, and have no value but what they derive from consumption, as they perceive that the only use of manufactures is to increase comforts, and to offer a more compendious and more refined mean of expenditure; they do not comprehend how it is possible for accumulation to take place. Where there is no fund in which savings can be laid up, to save seems in reality to waste. What is not consumed can only he thrown away. True wisdom, they think, and they think rightly, can only consist in well-regulated enjoyment: their industry can never be well employed but when it adds to their comforts.
Such is necessarily the state of every people who have created no public debt: such was the condition of all the nations of Europe before their governments had thought of the ingenious expedient of mortgaging the public revenues. They lived carelessly from day to day, enjoying the good whilst they had it, and opposing nothing to extraordinary difficulties when they came but extraordinary privations. The calls of the public, the necessities of a war, only put down for a time the extravagance of private luxury. The servants and retainers of the gentry were converted into soldiers, and the nobleman when he harnessed on his armour broke up every thing that was expensive in his establishment. A war caused no new expense, it only gave another direction to what already took place. The gentry were a militia always bound to obey the call of the nation: their estates were their stipend, which they spent as they pleased when not required for the service of the country, to whom they paid their rent by assuring to it security.
The funding system. by creating a new and undefinable species of property, which neither held of the land nor yet of the industry of the country, which had no local existence, no tangible being, not only overthrew the whole scheme of society, but gave a new turn to men's ideas. No bounds could be assigned to a nation's wealth when new fortunes might be created without taking away from those that already existed. The power of accumulation bestowed on individuals appeared to be conferred on the whole community. Where wealth grew with so much rapidity, there seemed no difficulty in anticipating its growth, and supplying the wants of to-day by the means of to-morrow. The scheme could not but be agreeable to all the stirring spirits to whom it opened the road to fortune. Others without any views of interest were led away by the charm of words. The borrowing from posterity, as it was called, was so happy an expression, it was so full of vagueness and uncertainty, that it could not but generate confusion, and give birth to a thousand absurdities in reasoning. When men had once persuaded themselves that they could spend immediately what was only to exist hereafter, they could have no difficulty in believing that they might save what had already ceased to exist. One false consequence led to another. Though they were usually adventurers who grew rich by these revolutions of fortune, yet as men saw capital every where fastening on industry to share in the produce of its labour, they concluded that it was capital gave all its activity to industry. Though they saw fortunes raised during wars, which were again dissipated in time of peace, they chose, in deference to the common sense of mankind, but in defiance of their own principles, to consider war as a destroyer of capital, which could only be accumulated by the arts of peace.
These reasonings proceeding from false premises, as they could not fail to involve in a labyrinth of perplexities all those who had no other guide than common sense, soon raised political economy to the rank of a science. From that moment, as might be expected, every day added to the darkness with which it was surrounded, every new treatise only sunk it deeper in obscurity. They who though uninitiated in its mysteries have been accustomed to watch the progress of science, cannot but be aware how readily learned men in their inquiries content themselves with words, and what a natural abhorrence they have of whatever bears the stamp of common sense. As their chief object is to distinguish themselves from the great herd of men who are busied with things, they delight in abstractions, they choose words for their province. Certain cabalistical terms are introduced into the sciences, which are to silence all inquiries. It is not expected that the adept should understand them, it is enough that he can repeat them. No useful invention owes its birth to science; it seems the business of learned men to disguise under hard names, and to render obscure the simple discoveries of genius.
Political economy, as it was peculiarly obnoxious to its baleful influence, was not likely to escape unhurt from this tendency to jargon, which science has heaped up to encumber all the avenues to knowledge. There is something in the nature of the abstract sciences that stops pretenders on the threshold. The very terms of the mathematics are repulsive; signs tangents and co-efficients are quite appalling to those who have never used their minds to steady application. The catechism of chemistry is not more enticing; as it cannot be acquired without a considerable effort of memory, it sets at defiance all desultory studies. Poetry is secured by other safeguards. Its popular character, which has rescued it from mystery, and the ridicule which follows on any unsuccessful attempt, deters the sober and the timid, and leave it to the unheeded pursuit of the rash and the successful cultivation of those who really feel the impulse of genius. Political economy has none of these securities against the inroads of ignorance and pretension. It seems to treat of the every-day occurrences of life; its terms are in common use; its language is that which is familiar in the world. The man who has spent all his days in getting and spending money easily fancies himself competent to decide on the nature of wealth and its consumption. He seems to be only generalizing his own experience, and embodying his own reflections. In an age of literary pretension, where every man is obliged, at least in appearance, to know something, political economy has accordingly become the study of all those who felt themselves unequal to other pursuits. It was the peaceful province of acrostic land where they whose courage cowered before higher enterprise might yet hope to acquire a comfortable renown. No fiery dragons were placed to guard its treasuresno fearful monsters rendered dangerous their approach; there was nothing in the adventure to dishearten the most recreant knight.
The wonderful has irresistible charms for ignorance. Narrow minds cannot conceive the simplicity of true knowledge; nothing seems to them worth knowing that is not strange and mysterious. They have no taste for the simple processes of nature, they cannot relish them till they are seasoned and disguised hy the hard words of science. Like the Bourgeois gentilhomme, they cannot persuade themselves that men's every-day talk is prose; that art is but the handmaid of Nature to follow and imitate her works, not to suggest them. The less they comprehend of doctrines, the more they are in opposition to generally-received notions, the more in their eyes they bear the stamp of genius. Learned words with them sanctify the greatest absurdities ; they readily yield their assent to propositions, when veiled under the garb of science, which in their natural state would stagger their belief.
Hence into political economy, which is essentially a science of calculation which treats of visible and tangible objects, which is principally conversant with facts, have been introduced, all the refinements and all the subtleties of metaphysics. The broad processes of nature have been lost sight of under the cobwebs of sophistry. Discussions have been pursued with all the eagerness of the most angry polemics, hardly less absurd than those which once made it a question, whether the mendicant friars had a property or only a usufruct in the food they ate. He was the greatest authority, his fame was most widely spread, who dealt most largely in distinctions without a difference. The narrow views which such limited intellects would necessarily take of their subject, has not tended a little to create confusion. They generalized too fast. As children in their first attempts to classify their ideas, call every man they meet papa, so they erected the results of their individual experience into general laws. Because a thing was, they thought it could not be otherwise. The anomalies which in every country are created by the artificial regulations of men, they confounded with the great principles which govern and uphold the world. The abuses of society were to them as sacred as its primary and fundamental institutions. As they judged of the wisdom of nature by what to them seemed wisdom in the municipal regulations by which they were surrounded, they made her responsible for the follies and crimes of men. Political economy thus treated became perverted in all her principles. She was made the close ally of self-interest and corruption ; it was in the armory of her terms that tyranny and oppression found their dead. heat weapons. She |
ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. A shutdown, similar to the one Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Trump endorses Cornyn for reelection as O'Rourke mulls challenge MORE (R-Texas) helped force over ObamaCare repeal in 2013, would overshadow any year-end GOP victory on tax reform. And it would confirm what many pundits have been saying in Washington all year: Republicans can’t govern.
“I think a shutdown is very unlikely,” one House Democrat told The Hill on Tuesday. Republicans “need a win badly and this would be bad for them.”
“Paul Ryan isn’t dumb.”
The Democrat was “unsure if Pelosi plays chicken” with Republicans over DACA and risks a government shutdown. “I don’t think she’s decided yet.”
Pelosi’s top deputy, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer Steny Hamilton HoyerHouse to vote on background check bills next week Why Omar’s views are dangerous On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE (D-Md.), said his party is pushing hard to get a DACA fix done this year. But he stopped short of demanding it, saying he’s skeptical it’ll happen before 2018 “given the president’s comments and given Mr. Ryan’s reluctance” to bring legislation to the floor.
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t do anything. But I’m not very confident they’re going to put it on the floor,” Hoyer told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.
But if Ryan tries to push through a spending package next month without addressing the immigration issue, he won’t just lose Democrats. He’ll also lose some Republicans such as Rep. Carlos Curbelo Carlos Luis CurbeloEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Dems think they're beating Trump in emergency declaration battle Trump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile' during 2016 presidential campaign MORE (Fla.).
The Cuban-American lawmaker from Miami, a Democratic target in next year’s election, said Tuesday he would not vote to fund the government past Dec. 31 until the fate of the Dreamers is permanently resolved.
“We cannot allow their future to continue to be questioned into the new year,” Curbelo said. “Lives and livelihoods are on the line, and time is running out. We can and should get this done.”
One escape hatch for Congress would be to punt the spending fight into early 2018, either with a one-month continuing resolution (CR) or perhaps a three-month CR that would fund the government at current levels and align with the March 5 deadline for the expiration of DACA.
“Never underestimate the ability of Washington to kick the can down the road,” said one Republican Appropriations Committee source. “A CR is eminently more likely than a shutdown and would pave the way for focus on tax reform.”
That idea is favored by key conservatives, including Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows Mark Randall MeadowsFive takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's Morning Report — Presented by the American Academy of HIV Medicine — Trump, Congress prepare for new border wall fight Winners and losers in the border security deal MORE (R-N.C.), who’s frequently warned that rushed bipartisan spending deals right before Christmas never end well for conservatives.
“I would vote for a short-term CR that allows us more time to work with the Senate with a Jan. 15 expiration date,” Meadows, a Trump ally, told The Hill. “Certainly a CR coming due in January is much more preferable than an expiration date a few days before Christmas.”
Another Trump ally, Rep. Kevin Cramer Kevin John CramerSenators highlight threat from invasive species Overnight Defense: Top general wasn't consulted on Syria withdrawal | Senate passes bill breaking with Trump on Syria | What to watch for in State of the Union | US, South Korea reach deal on troop costs GOP senators think Trump would win vote on emergency declaration MORE (R-N.D.), agreed.
“The crunch of the holidays can cause hasty decisions,” said Cramer, adding that the three-month spending deal Trump struck with Schumer and Pelosi in September was bad for Republicans. “We need to regain high ground. Let’s get taxes done right and regain momentum.”
House GOP appropriators, however, aren’t throwing in the towel just yet. Earlier this fall, they passed all 12 appropriations bills out of committee and on the House floor, and appropriators feel they have momentum now to pass a funding package that will keep the government’s lights on through the 2018 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
“A CR is a tool for the minority party, and they want to use it to stop the president’s agenda,” said Rep. Tom Graves John (Tom) Thomas GravesHouse passes border deal, setting up Trump to declare emergency Lawmakers introduce bill to fund government, prevent shutdown The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by the American Academy of HIV Medicine - Next 24 hours critical for stalled funding talks MORE (R-Ga.), who’s known as an Appropriations cardinal because he chairs one of the panel’s subcommittees.
“The House did its job, the Senate needs to do theirs,” Graves said. “They can tackle more than one task at a time.”
Mike Lillis and Jordan Fabian contributed to this report, which was updated on Nov. 29 at 10:34 a.m.OBJECTIVES:
GEBR-7b, a potential phosphodiesterase 4D inhibitor, has been shown to have memory-enhancing effects in rodents. However, it is still unknown whether GEBR-7b also has the antidepressant-like effects in rats. Herein, we examined the potential of GEBR-7b to attenuate depression-like behaviors in the rat model of depression induced by chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). Next, we also investigated the alterations of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), protein kinase A (PKA) catalytic subunit (PKAca), cAMP response element-binding (CREB), and glutamate transporter 1 (GLT1) levels produced by GEBR-7b in the rats model of depression.
METHODS:
Effects of GEBR-7b on CUS (35 days)-induced depression-like behaviors were examined by measuring immobility time in the forced swimming test (FST). Hippocampal cAMP levels were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, whereas PKAca, phosphorylation of CREB (pCREB), CREB, and GLT1 in the hippocampus of rats were subjected to Western blot analysis.
RESULTS:
CUS exposure caused a depression-like behavior evidenced by the increased immobility time in FST. Depression-like behavior induced by CUS was accompanied by a significant increased GLT, decreased cAMP, PKAca, pCREB activities in hippocampus. However, repeated GEBR-7b administration significantly reversed CUS-induced depression-like behavior and changes of cAMP/PKA/CREB/GLT1 signaling. No alteration was observed in locomotor activity in open field test.
CONCLUSION:
These findings indicate that GEBR-7b reversed the depression-like behaviors induced by CUS in rats, which is at least in part mediated by modulating cAMP, PKAca, pCREB, and GLT1 levels in the hippocampus of rats, supporting its neuroprotective potential against behavioral and biochemical dysfunctions induced by CUS.2 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
President-elect Trump is hyping the PR stunt of saving 1,000 jobs in Indiana, by giving Carrier a package of tax cuts and incentives, but it is nothing compared to the 1.2 million jobs that President Obama saved with the auto bailout.
Trump tweeted:
Big day on Thursday for Indiana and the great workers of that wonderful state.We will keep our companies and jobs in the U.S. Thanks Carrier — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016
It is a great PR move for Trump. The problem is that his stunt with Carrier is a drop in the bucket compared to what Obama accomplished. Kevin Drum at Mother Jones pointed out, “Compared to Carrier’s 1,000 jobs, Obama’s auto bailout saved something like 250,000 jobs at GM and Chrysler, and 1-2 million total jobs throughout the entire automotive supply chain.” Trump and Pence kept Carrier in Indiana the old fashioned way.
They bribed them with tax cuts and incentives:
Deal terms to keep Carrier jobs in Indiana include new inducements from state. Deal spear headed by former Indiana Gov Pence. — David Faber (@davidfaber) November 30, 2016
There is also a math problem that Trump doesn’t want to face. While 1,000 jobs will be staying in the US, at least 1,100 jobs will be moving to Mexico.
Obama saved 1.2 million jobs. Trump is at (-100). The president-elect will get loads of publicity out of his Indiana appearance, and that is what this is all about. President Obama has lamented the fact that he hasn’t effectively gotten the message to voters about his accomplishments.
Donald Trump is going to be the complete opposite. As President Of The United States, Trump is going to continue to sell his every move as the biggest, most earth-shaking development in presidential history. Prepare for four years of endless hype that will never match the substance.
As Paul Krugman pointed out:
If Trump did a Carrier-style deal every week for the next 4 years, he could bring back 4% of the manufacturing jobs lost since 2000. — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 30, 2016
It is all a scam. Trump makes a big production out of saving 1,000 jobs in Indiana, while behind closed doors, he is preparing to raise the workers’ taxes to pay for a massive tax cut for the rich.
Just remember that what Donald Trump is pretending to do, President Obama already did 1.2 million times over.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Keynote speaker at von Braun Symposium says NASA needs to 'try new strategies', Huntsville Times
"[Wayne] Hale outlined a mixed bag of NASA successes in wake of the Apollo moon missions, noting that the agency has languished for almost 40 years as different visions for NASA have died amid a lack of funding. The current Space Launch System - a heavy lift rocket under development at Huntsville's Marshall Flight Center intended for deep space exploration - could soon fade away like other programs, such as Constellation in 2009. "The current plan is fragile in the political and financial maelstrom that is Washington," Hale said. "Planning to fly large rockets once every three or four years does not make a viable program. It is not sustainable. "Continuing to develop programs in the same old ways, from my observations, will certainly lead to cancellation as government budgets are stretched thin. It is time to try new strategies."
Keith's note: Wayne Hale just posted this comment: "It was not my intention to imply that SLS/Orion should be cancelled. Far from it. The entire purpose of my speech was a call to action for the community - government and industry - to initiate the kind of revolutionary change in management systems and financial resources that will be necessary for any new space efforts to succeed. No program will succeed these days - large rockets or small rockets, moon or mars or asteroids - without radical improvements in management techniques. We will have to be as innovative in management and finance as we are in engineering."
I am a little confused. If Hale's comments are reported accurately in the original article, then he said "Planning to fly large rockets once every three or four years does not make a viable program. It is not sustainable." This is exactly what SLS program plans to do. If this approach is not "viable" or "sustainable" wouldn't the prudent course of action be to cancel the program? The only alternative would be to fly the SLS more often (I guess) but there is not going to be the money to do that. Not even close. So... (again if Hale was quoted accurately) cancellation would be the only course of action to take - if one agreed with what Hale said. Or is a program that is not "viable" or "sustainable" worthy of continued funding?
As for Hale's NASAWatch posting, how is a change in management systems going to make SLS any better if it only launches "every three or four years"? Good management is not going to make a badly planned program any better -- other than to make it more efficient in being badly planned, I suppose.Frontier Developments continues to refine its Beta for the upcoming virtual reality (VR) compatible space simulation title, Elite: Dangerous, ahead of the title’s full launch later this year. Today sees the developer launch yet another update for the experience, bringing with it a number of new tweaks to refine the experience.
Beta 2.05 will mainly focus on improving Elite: Dangerous‘ loading times. According to the developer, loading in hyperspace, starting the videogame up and coming out of supercruise should all be reduced. These appear to be the only improvements made as the developer doesn’t mention any additional features in its Twitter post revealing the incoming patch. The update is expected to go live at 11:50 BST today for all Beta players.
Elite: Dangerous features full support for the Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD). Players will sit in the cockpit of a space craft and pilot it around a number of different areas of space, taking part in multiplayer battles and more. The title is yet to receive a solid release date on PC. VRFocus will continue to follow the title’s progress as it heads towards launch, reporting back with any further updates.No team in the NFL has a record worse than the Lions’ 1-6 mark, but that doesn’t mean Detroit is packing it in for the season. Speaking today in London, general manager Martin Mayhew told reporters, including Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, that his club won’t go into rebuilding mode at next week’s trade deadline.
“We’re going to be probably more buyers than sellers and we’ve had some dialogue already about some guys around the league,” Mayhew said. “So we’re actively looking at those situations.”
Given the Lions’ record, Mayhew’s comments don’t make a ton of sense. Detroit would have to win just about all of its remaining games to contend for a playoff spot, so the GM insisting that the team is a buyer, rather than a seller, suggests he’s under some pressure to win now. For what it’s worth, Birkett notes that Mayhew “sounded like a man fighting to keep his job” during his conversation with the media.
According to Birkett, Mayhew also addressed the recent coaching changes on the offensive side of the ball, suggesting that former offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and the two offensive line coaches that were let go shouldn’t shoulder all the responsibility for the Lions’ poor season.
“Everybody’s involved in what has happened thus far this season, especially myself,” Mayhew said. “I’m responsible for our football operations, so it is on me what has happened this season. So it certainly is not those three guys (that were fired) are not the problem, they’re not the sole problem. There’s a lot of things we need to do to get better.”
Mayhew, who looked to his watch for effect today when he said that he’s “the GM right now,” has a history of being active on the trade market. In a league that typically doesn’t see many deadline deals, Mayhew has completed three in the last seven years. The Lions GM has also consummated eight trades so far in 2015, so we’ll see if he adds to that total by next Tuesday.A herd of 16 feral goats has been causing havoc in the small New Zealand town of Blackball by roaming through the streets and eating their way through backyard gardens. Screen capture/Radio New Zealand/YouTube
BLACKBALL, New Zealand, March 4 (UPI) -- A herd of goats has begun roaming the streets of a small New Zealand town, causing havoc throughout the area.
The 330 residents of the small town of Blackball have reported that the herd of 16 goats hide at night and destroy gardens during the day.
"They just come through and wreck everyone's garden," Murray Malloch of Grey District Council animal control told the New Zealand Herald. "They eat it and then move on to another one. Everyone said they're lovely goats though."
Malloch told Radio New Zealand that locals have become sick of the goats, but he is waiting for someone to claim ownership of the animals before taking actions to have them removed.
The goats have lived in the area for several years and are believed to be the product of several escaped pets breeding together.
"I spoke to several people and they said 'Yes we did have goats Murray, but we lost them' and I presume that they're part of this mob," he said.
Malloch said a local man has offered to hunt the goats for their meat, and if the goats remain unclaimed they'll unfortunately be killed.
"Either someone has to put their hand up or I'll put it in the hands of a couple of local guys that are shooters. If they come on to their properties they'll eliminate them -- they'll shoot them," he said.A cat with the genetic deformity radial hypoplaisia or radial aplaysia while resting, showing twisted forelimbs
A squitten is a cat with a genetic deformity which causes a partial formation or complete absence of the radius bone making it resemble a squirrel. These cats should be kept indoors and seen to by specialist veterinarians as long term management of the condition is essential for quality of life in these cats [1] It is an example of a cat body type genetic mutation. The word is a portmanteau of squirrel and kitten.
The term kangaroo cat is also, rarely, used; this derives from a 1953 specimen known as the Stalingrad Kangaroo Cat.[2]
Characteristics [ edit ]
A squitten with foreleg micromelia sitting in upright posture, showing short forelimbs
The term squitten is generally used to refer to cats with the condition radial hypoplasia (underdeveloped radius bones) or foreleg micromelia (small forelegs) and related conditions known as radial aplasia (absent radius bones), radial agenesis (failure of radius bones to form) that produces stunted forelegs. The mutation sometimes occurs in the random-breeding population, particularly in inbred populations where recessive genes may be exhibited. Such cats have also been called twisty cats; In the late 1990s, several were deliberately bred at Karma Farms, a horse farm and cattery in Marshall, Texas,[3][4] resulting in a public outcry against the operators of the farm.
Radial hypoplasia is related to one form of polydactyly, sometimes called patty feet or hamburger feet by cat lovers to distinguish them from thumb cat polydactyls. Ordinary mitten cat polydactyls are not affected.[5][6]
Cats with radial hypoplasia or similar mutations often sit on their rump with their forelegs unable to touch the floor; this gives them a resemblance to a squirrel or kangaroo. This raises special care considerations for owners of affected cats. Kittens may be unable to knead effectively with their short forelegs; kneading is required to stimulate milk flow in the mother. The short or twisted forelegs cause mobility problems and such cats may adapt by using their hindlegs in a hopping gait.
A corresponding condition affecting the hind legs is called femoral hypoplasia and has only been reported three times in cats.[7]
Typical characteristics of a squitten are short forelegs, with a short radius and ulna which may be twisted or absent, extra front toes, and normal-length hind legs.
See also [ edit ]Intelligence levels are falling in advanced industrial countries across Europe, according to new research, which cites Scandinavia and the UK as key examples of places that have seen declines in recent decades.
The new study, “Does the rot start at the top?”, argues that the IQ gains of the 20th century have faltered, with declines observed in developed countries since the mid-1990s.
Researcher Michael Shayer, who co-authored the report, told Euronews that since 1995 a “large social force has been interfering with children’s development of thinking, getting larger each year.”
This “social force” includes the development of technology, such as game consoles and smartphones, which have altered the way that children communicate with each other, he explained.
“Take 14-year-olds in Britain. What 25% could do back in 1994, now only 5% can do,” he added, citing maths and science tests.
Like the UK, the study found that IQ levels in Scandinavian countries, which had been on the rise for decades, were now in decline.
Finland, Norway and Denmark have all experienced an average loss of 0.23 IQ points per year since the mid-1990s.
While these losses may seem small, the report’s authors say they suggest a significant long-term effect.
“When projected over a generation (30 years), Finland would lose 7.49 points of overall IQ, Denmark 6.48 points, and Norway 6.50 points”, the report notes.
While Sweden lacks data for recent years, the researchers believe it is following the same trend as its neighbours due to similar patterns of development.
“It seems that the factors that caused the IQ boost have lost the power," co-author James Flynn told Swedish magazine Forskning & Framsteg.
Shayer and Flynn believe the results point to a wider global trend, with other advanced industrial societies such as Germany and the Netherlands also showing signs of stagnation.Bloodfeud
RULES
Something to keep in mind
While we're waiting for the new version I have thought of a quick new way to play df with you're friends - soon to be enemies.In keeping with the naming convention of Bloodline, let's call itthat's exciting. Now this can be done in person or over the internet, of course in person being the more preferable choice. The basics are as follows.2 players take control of 2 separate forts, (1 each).The first player to have a fortress crumble on their watch is the loser.At the end of each year players switch forts and take control of the other player's fort. The idea is to put your fort in a position where it's likely to fall without losing yourself. It's important that you STOP playing when the year changes, no lever pulling or door opening once it's spring. So if you're going to have a flood of magma flow through your fortress to kill your dwarves, it has to be set loose before the year changes, but not too early or you will end up having the fort fall during your turn.If your opponent loses while in control of your fort they lose, the same is true in reverse.If both players lose during a turn it's a draw, (you're just too devious for each other).If you accidentally lose during your first turn, (you're traps are a bit too good), then you lose, so be careful.This way of playing df is probably not as well suited for more experienced players; I wouldn't be surprised if some of you were able to; in your first turn, kill all but one of your dwarves, have him standing on a one tile wide pillar of stone 20z levels tall, the bottom of which is a moat of magma and the top open to the sky where zombie birds are swooping down at him from.So it may be better for more experienced players to reduce turn length to prevent such elaborate traps.For a bit of a mix up, you can try using http://www.fungie.info/bell/# to give you a random time to change control; so you may have to let your trap loose as soon as it's constructed, and just hope control changes before you lose. The shorter the periods for the random tone the more hectic the game will be; so I advise setting it short, 2 minutes earliest and 10 minutes latest. Perhaps shortening the maximum length over time until you get to about 2 minutes and 5 minutes. With that 2 minutes of grace period to try to make the fort worse for your opponents next turn. Of course when using a timer instead of going off of the seasons the honour rule will apply; no pausing after setting your trap in motion and just waiting for the turn to change. Because of this, it would probably be best to only use a timer when playing in person, and only with someone that you trust - for now., and tell me what you think about Bloodfeud! Any rule suggestions are much appreciated. Also, if you know any other random timers please let me know, that's the only one I could find. Also not entirely sure if this is the right place for a post like this.Post your stories below, but delegate one person to post both sides of the story to make it easier to follow.Marine Corps veteran Charlie Linville on Thursday became the first combat amputee to reach the top of Mount Everest’s 29,035-foot summit. While on tour in Afghanistan in 2011, a buried IED exploded on Linville. After more than a dozen surgeries on his foot, he decided to have his entire leg surgically amputated in 2013. The Heroes Project, which helps injured veterans climb mountains, heard Linville’s story and recruited him to the nonprofit. Tim Medvetz, a former Hells Angel biker who runs the organization, said: “Out of all of the military branches, he enlists in the Marine Corps. Then he gets out of boot camp and decides, ‘I’m going to start defusing bombs, one of the most dangerous jobs in the Marine Corps.’ Then he tells the doctor, ‘Cut my leg off.’… I’m like—that’s the guy. That’s the guy.” Linville, of Boise, Idaho, said of his climb: “I was looking for something to completely change myself and really get rid of the demons that were created from war.”Correction: In 2006, New Zealand’s Mark Ingliss became the first person with amputated legs to scale Mount Everest, followed by India’s Arunima Sinha on a single prosthetic leg in 2013. A previous version of this report incorrectly said Charlie Linville was first.CLOSE SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Jarrett Bell breaks down the state of the playoff picture. USA TODAY Sports
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (7) picks up a first down in the first quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at Heinz Field. (Photo: Philip G. Pavely, USA TODAY Sports)
PITTSBURGH – They needed a play, so they looked to the man who has made them all season long.
Facing a two-point deficit in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers again fed receiver Antonio Brown. His 34-yard catch against single coverage put Pittsburgh in field goal position.
Kicker Chris Boswell drained the game-winning 36-yard attempt that set up the 39-38 victory. A strip sack by linebacker T.J. Watt on the game’s final play sealed it.
With it, the Steelers (11-2) won their eighth game in a row, clinched the AFC North and maintained their hold of the conference’s top seed. Their focus, however, must now shift elsewhere, and quickly.
Awaiting them next is the nemesis New England Patriots (10-2), who play the Miami Dolphins on the road Monday night. The battle, which will also be here at Heinz Field, could determine home-field advantage throughout the postseason. It could be a preview of the AFC Championship Game.
“This is the game everyone has been waiting to see,” Steelers safety Mike Mitchell said. “We’re going to show up and fight. Obviously it’s got a lot of history to it. I’ve been thinking about this game since we lost it last year. Very much look forward to playing them. Tom Brady is the G.O.A.T. I tip my hat to him. He is the G.O.A.T.
“And for us to be the champs, we have to beat the champs.”
The problem for Pittsburgh is that to beat the defending Super Bowl champions and end a recent history of losing to New England, the group will need to play a lot better than it did against the Ravens.
After falling behind on a pair of Le'Veon Bell touchdowns, Baltimore started its surge. The Ravens, not counting a kickoff return that ended the first half, scored on their following five possessions in a row.
Spanning from the 9:07 mark in the second quarter through the 12:16 mark in the fourth, Baltimore outscored Pittsburgh 31-6.
After scoring on their first four possessions, the Steelers ran only 11 plays on their next three drives, gaining just 21 yards and punting every time.
Pittsburgh tackled poorly, gave up 5.8 yards per carry and got their only sack on Flacco on the last play of the game.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt told USA TODAY Sports. “But we got it done. We know what’s at stake next week. And we know that the pressure is not going to be easy. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and pick each other up.”
More: Steelers wear cleats honoring injured teammate
More: NFL playoff picture after Week 14
More: 40 things we learned in Week 14 of the 2017 NFL season
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger completed 44 of 66 passes – setting single-game career highs for both marks – for 506 yards and two touchdowns. Bell scored three total touchdowns and gained 155 yards from scrimmage. Brown caught 11 passes for 213 yards.
Said Roethlisberger of all the yards: “We needed every one of them.”
That leads to the big question now confronting the Steelers, who have won their last three on game-winning field goals. Can they afford to fall behind against the Patriots?
Crazy as it might sound, the Steelers feel it doesn’t matter.
“We can win a shootout against anybody,” Bell said. “Our offense has a lot of playmakers. We have one of the best players in the league in Antonio Brown, making plays on the outside. We have an offensive line doing what they do upfront. I make my plays here and there. I feel like we can score points whenever we need to.
“We scored 39 today not playing our best. So, yeah, I think we can win a shootout against anybody.”
The celebration for the division title, however, will be short-lived.
Including the playoffs, Brady is 10-2 against Pittsburgh. Most recent are a pair of defeats last season: one in Week 9 and the other in the AFC title game.
The next is for supremacy in the AFC.
“Man, I feel like we’ve been able to beat every team in the NFL, but the Patriots,” Mitchell continued. “That’s what it has been. And now, we need to knock them off and prove it to ourselves that we know we can do it. And do it.”
Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes.
PHOTOS: Best of NFL Week 14Nearly 400 years ago, the chief minister to King Louis XIII established l’Académie Française, a council whose aims were to prevent “impurity” from sullying the French language. The Académie operates to this day as a coven of cloak wearers who preside over matters of linguistic importance: A recent decision had them lowering their shields against the scourge of Anglophone terms like “email” and “chicken nuggets.”
France’s stuffiness about its mother tongue is one of the reasons why pop music with English lyrics became standard for the country’s native bands since the dawn of the rock’n’roll era—it represented the rebellious antithesis of traditional chanson française. “For my generation of musicians, this idea emerged that it was old-fashioned to write in French and that you were aligning yourself with the pompous, middle-class 30-something crowd,” says 36-year-old Agnès Gayraud, singer of Parisian minimalist pop act La Féline. “If you sang in French, either you were simple or preachy—totally uncool, basically, nothing to do with the radical possibilities of rock that you imagined when you were a teenager.”
But times have changed, and La Féline are now among those who are rebelling against the rebellion by spearheading the unlikely rehabilitation of French as the language of pop within France. “These days, it’s almost tacky to sing in English,” Gayraud suggests. “It means sacrificing your creative desires for the promise of an international career—which, as we know, only happens for a select few acts, and rarely the most credible ones.”
This new generation has crystallized around a loose collective, more mood than movement, called La Souterraine. It translates literally as “the underground,” but it’s also named after a village of 5,000 people in Creuse, an underpopulated, economically isolated region in central France. Benjamin Caschera and Laurent Bajon founded La Souterraine in 2013, and although they’re keen to avoid defining the organization, it’s something akin to a non-profit record label: They release all their music—most notably a regular series of compilations—as free downloads. They have no business plan, no trademarks, no rigorous ideology; they chose the domain name souterraine.biz as an ironic nod to their lack of commercial motivation.James Segeyaro's recent plight has shifted gears and produced another high profile scalp following news Jamie Soward has been dropped to the Intrust Super Premiership.
Soward, who spoke to the media on Tuesday prior to news of his demotion, said Segeyaro and pretty much everyone bar skipper Matt Moylan had a shaky footing in the team following two disappointing losses to the Titans and the Storm.
The veteran playmaker will play at Pepper Stadium on Saturday afternoon instead of heading to Brookvale Oval for Sunday afternoon's NRL Telstra Premiership clash against the Sea Eagles.
Bryce Cartwright has been named at five-eighth to partner rookie Nathan Cleary with Moses Leota now set to make his NRL debut from the interchange bench.
"If you're not winning and you don't perform - we're all under the gun. Me included," Soward said on Tuesday afternoon.
"There's no excuses here. We have a lot of depth now and we have a lot of young guys coming through and Chicko (Segeyaro) accepted that."
Draw Widget - Round 14 - Sea Eagles vs Panthers
It's now news Soward himself will have to accept, with Segeyaro expected to overcome a groin injury in time to partner him in the Panthers' reserve grade side.
Soward was under no illusions over his own disappointing showing in Melbourne in the Panthers' eventual 24-6 loss to the Storm.
"We went down there and started well but we were very disappointed by how we finished. We had chances there and I didn't really perform to the game plan that the coach wanted," he admitted.
"I probably let us down there especially with the young halves. It's disappointing. The buck stops with me so I now have to move on."
Cleary's NRL debut in Melbourne excited Soward however, who was otherwise buoyed by the 18-year-old's debut after he made a whopping 38 tackles.
"[Cleary] wasn't thrown into the deep end. If you're ready, you're ready. He played outstanding on Saturday night," Soward said.
"He's a quiet kid but he runs the ball well. Obviously his defence is pretty good. He's only 18 too. He's an up-and-comer so it's nice to have him and Te Maire (Martin) as the young kids coming up, playing grade and getting a chance."Monday night on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” host Anderson Cooper tried to pin Idaho Republican Rep. Raul Labrador down on several issues regarding the Republican shutdown of the federal government. When Labrador accused the journalist of sandbagging him, Cooper was quick to remind the congressman that he wasn’t on a partisan network that would lob softball questions at him all day.
“Congressman, you and many House Republicans have been saying that the Democrats have refused to negotiate,” said Cooper. “But the Democrats did back and the Senate passed a clean continuing resolution with the levels of funding for government agencies that Republicans wanted — not that Democrats wanted, $988 billion.”
“Harry Reid,” he continued, “said that [Speaker of the House Rep. John] Boehner (R-OH) promised he wouldn’t attach demands to the Senate funding bill if it was brought in at the Republican level. Wasn’t that a negotiation?”
Labrador said that $988 billion is not actually an accurate number, that this was the sequester level of 2013, whereas his caucus is now discussing funding for 2014.
“Did Harry Reid lie?” asked Cooper.
Labrador ignored the question at first, then said that he wasn’t present at the negotiations between Reid and Boehner, which he said may or may not have happened.
Cooper argued that Obamacare has been passed, it’s the law of the land, ratified by Congress and the Supreme Court and two presidential elections. Labrador countered that he and other tea partiers were not yet elected when the law was passed.
“So you’re nullifying two presidential elections and you’re nullifying the vote of Congress because you don’t like it,” Cooper said, “and I get that and your district is placed well.”
“Your argument is that the House of Representatives doesn’t matter,” said Labrador. He accused Cooper of siding with the Democrats, saying that “just because you don’t like that the House of Representatives is Republican,” you can’t tell us when to vote on continuing resolutions.
“Look, I don’t have a stake in this,” Cooper said. “This is the way it works in journalism. When you’re not on Fox News, you get contentious interviews. When you’re not on MSNBC and a liberal, you get contentious interviews.”
“My job is to ask you questions,” he went on. “Just as my next guest who is a Democrat, I’m going to ask the same kind of questions and push back on their positions. That’s what a journalist does.”
Watch the video, embedded below via YouTube:At least three Labor senators will vote against the legalisation of same-sex marriage, but have backed down over religious exemptions to allow the bill a smooth passage through the Parliament.
South Australia's Don Farrell, Tasmania's Helen Polley and Queensland's Chris Ketter – all linked to the conservative shop assistants' union – have signalled their intention to vote against marriage equality in coming days.
Jacinta Collins, another "shoppies" veteran from Victoria, will effectively abstain by pairing her "no" vote with "yes |
of the season vs. Idaho (Nov. 18), finishing with 11 points, a career high-matching 16 rebounds and three blocks … Scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds in a win over St. Bonaventure (Nov. 21) … Added another double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds vs. Pepperdine (Nov. 22) … Totaled 10 rebounds vs. Central Michigan (Nov. 23) … Scored 13 points in a win over Central Arkansas (Nov. 29) … Totaled 15 points and eight rebounds in a win over Tulsa (Dec. 3) … Finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds vs. Central Arkansas (Dec. 10) … Grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked four shots at Oral Roberts (Dec. 19) … Scored a career-high 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting at Florida (Dec. 21) … Scored 11 points in a win over ULM (Dec. 31) … Scored 15 points and blocked three shots at Appalachian State (Jan. 7) … Scored 10 points at Coastal Carolina (Jan. 9), but suffered a toe injury that kept him out of the next five games … Totaled 11 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in his second game back from injury (Feb. 6) … Grabbed eight rebounds and blocked five shots – the most since Michael Javes blocked five shots at Arkansas State on Jan. 14, 2012 – at Texas State (Feb. 11) … Blocked four shots and totaled eight rebounds at UT Arlington (Feb. 13) … Scored 12 points vs. Georgia State (Feb. 25).
2015-16 (As a Junior): Played in all 35 games with 34 starts in 2015-16 … Averaged 7.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game … Finished the season shooting 48.8 percent from the floor, 36.4 percent from 3 and 64.0 percent from the foul line … His 39 blocked shots are tied for 10th on Little Rock’s all-time single-season list … Scored in double figures 13 times on the year … Grabbed 10 or more rebounds twice and totaled five-plus boards 19 times … Blocked multiple shots in 12 games … Hit multiple 3-pointers in three games … Totaled 11 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in Little Rock’s season opener vs. Central Baptist (Nov. 14) … Scored eight points and blocked two shots vs. East Carolina in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational (Nov. 26) … Scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting vs. Central Arkansas (Dec. 1) … Totaled eight points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots in a win at DePaul (Dec. 12) … Grabbed eight boards and handed out four assists vs. Northern Arizona (Dec. 20) … Totaled nine points, six rebounds and two blocks at South Alabama (Dec. 30) … Finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and two blocks vs. Louisiana (Jan. 7) … Scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds vs. ULM (Jan. 9) … Made 2 of 3 shots from 3 while scoring 12 points and grabbing six boards vs. Appalachian State (Jan. 14) … Went 2 of 2 from 3-point range and scored 13 points at Texas State (Jan. 21) … Blocked two shots and pulled down seven rebounds vs. Georgia Southern (Jan. 28) … Totaled 11 rebounds vs. Georgia State (Jan. 30) … Totaled eight points, nine rebounds and three blocks vs. South Alabama (Feb. 6) … Scored 10 points and blocked two shots at ULM (Feb. 11) … Posted his first double-double with 11 points and 16 rebounds (Feb. 18) … The 16 rebounds were the most by a Little Rock player since Rashad Jones-Jennings in 2007 … Scored 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting vs. UT Arlington (Feb. 25) … Went 2 of 2 from 3-point range and scored 12 points vs. Arkansas State (March 1) … Scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting vs. Louisiana in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Tournament (March 12) … Scored a season-high 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Little Rock’s win over Purdue in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament (March 17) … Scored 10 points vs. Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament Second Round (March 19).
At Howard College: Played two seasons under head coach Scott Raines at Howard College where he was named the Western Junior College Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year and Honorable Mention All-WJCAC in 2015 … Helped lead Howard to a 24-8 overall record and a 13-3 mark in conference play in 2014-15 … Blocked 51 shots and nearly averaged a double-double, finishing the year with averages of 9.4 points and 9.5 rebounds in 23.2 minutes per game … Shot 51.5 percent from the floor and 68.9 percent from the foul line … Posted nine double-doubles on the season, highlighted by a 22-point, 14-rebound, two-block effort against Phoenix College … Racked up 15 double-figure rebounding games in 2014-15 … Also posted 15 double-figure scoring efforts on the year … Ranked 16th nationally in defensive boards (210), 20th in total rebounds (305) and 27th in rebounds per game.
Personal: Born June 29, 1994 in Peje, Kosovo … Parents are Gezim and Burbuqe Shoshi … Has one brother, Rinor … Majoring in finance.Article
Agent de Marco Verratti, Donato Di Campli est en grand danger et devrait être remplacé sous peu selon la presse du jour. Le milieu italien voudrait également prolonger au PSG selon L'Equipe et le club fait du départ du représentant une des conditions.
Après des semaines de doute, l'avenir de Marco Verratti commence à s'éclaircir et il sent bon pour le PSG, à tous les niveaux. Selon L'Equipe, le joueur de 24 ans actuellement sous contrat jusqu'en juin 2021 souhaiterait désormais prolonger avec le PSG. Après avoir présenté ses excuses à la reprise de l'entraînement suite aux divers événements de l'été liés au Barça, il est donc désormais pleinement concentré sur le club parisien qui ne souhaite pas du tout le lâcher.
Mais Paris a mis une condition à cette prolongation probablement assortie d'une large revalorisation : le joueur doit se séparer de Donato Di Campli, son agent de toujours, qui insupporte le club parisien depuis des années. Après avoir hésité, Verratti aurait accepté cette condition et il pourrait ainsi rejoindre Mino Raiola, connu pour être l'agent d'Ibrahimovic, Matuidi ou encore Maxwell parmi les joueurs passés au PSG. En Italie, Alfredo Pedulla, pas vraiment considéré comme la meilleure source transalpine, évoquait dès hier cette rumeur d'une séparation avec Di Campli, là aussi pour rejoindre Raiola.
Pendant ce temps-là, en Espagne, Mundo Deportivo continue d'affirmer que Di Campli pourrait rencontrer de nouveau le Barça lors de la tournée d'été américaine des Catalans. Le joueur serait toujours décidé à rejoindre Barcelone et l'agent est dans l'attente d'une nouvelle offensive après l'échec des précédentes. Di Campli irait notamment en Floride en marge des matches amicaux du PSG, le Barça jouant au même endroit à cette période. Mais si Verratti se sépare de Di Campli, ce scénario devient complètement caduque...The TL;DR of FIG 3.0
Michael Cullum Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 5, 2016
FIG 3.0 is a huge rewrite of the bylaws, structure and process of the FIG and you can read the full draft here. In the meantime, here is an attempt to explain it in a less than 3 minute read with three diagrams.
The current structure of the FIG; The PSR Core Team being the formally defined people involved in a spec.
Current problems
Everyone has equal say on FIG PSRs, no matter their expertise or their project’s relevance in the PSR’s problem space There are lots of clever awesome people involved in the FIG who are not project representatives Member projects find it difficult to engage in everything going on in the FIG There is an ongoing question if the FIG produces PSRs for member projects or for the wider community; especially when the wider community pays it so much attention due to its de-facto status as ‘the php standards body’.
Splitting up of responsibilities; old to new structure
What’s changing: Structure
The structure of the FIG is changing and will be comprised of these four elements:
PSR Working Groups
Doing what: Actually working on the spec. They also have the main vote on if the spec is ready for approval, essentially the technical sign-off part of the current acceptance vote.
Who: Consists of the Editor (Can be anyone just as per the status quo), core committee representative (sponsor) representatives from member projects with relevance and problem space experts
Doing what: Actually working on the spec. They also have the main vote on if the spec is ready for approval, essentially the technical sign-off part of the current acceptance vote. Who: Consists of the Editor (Can be anyone just as per the status quo), core committee representative (sponsor) representatives from member projects with relevance and problem space experts Core Committee
Doing what: They hold the entrance votes and final acceptance vote. These votes are to see if the FIG wants to consider this problem for a PSR, and to have oversight of Working Groups and make sure working groups have all relevant stakeholders have their interests represented within them. Their final acceptance vote is on the quality of the spec, ensuring consistency throughout the FIG, ensuring it meets the FIG’s overall direction and aims, making sure stakeholders interests were represented, and the competence of the working group.
Who: 12 people who are elected by the member projects and active PHP FIG contributors
Doing what: They hold the entrance votes and final acceptance vote. These votes are to see if the FIG wants to consider this problem for a PSR, and to have oversight of Working Groups and make sure working groups have all relevant stakeholders have their interests represented within them. Their final acceptance vote is on the quality of the spec, ensuring consistency throughout the FIG, ensuring it meets the FIG’s overall direction and aims, making sure stakeholders interests were represented, and the competence of the working group. Who: 12 people who are elected by the member projects and active PHP FIG contributors Member Projects
Doing what: Continuing to act as a base for the FIG’s relevance in the PHP ecosystem, promoting activities of the FIG, having a vote in Secretary/CC elections and the way the FIG is run, having a guaranteed place on any Working Groups relevant to their project.
Who: Current member projects and new member projects, which can be any project with a significant stake in the FIG’s activities, but not necessarily a PHP library.
Doing what: Continuing to act as a base for the FIG’s relevance in the PHP ecosystem, promoting activities of the FIG, having a vote in Secretary/CC elections and the way the FIG is run, having a guaranteed place on any Working Groups relevant to their project. Who: Current member projects and new member projects, which can be any project with a significant stake in the FIG’s activities, but not necessarily a PHP library. Secretaries
Doing what: Exactly the same as present
Who: Same as present, Core Committee Members, Project Representatives and PSR Editors hold votes.
What’s changing: Workflow
As a result of these changes to the structure, the workflow changes a bit to ensure the working group, those with relevance to the spec, vote on the technical details of the spec, instead of the whole FIG.
Old and new FIG workflow
Mission Statement
We’ve also developed a mission statement, which is important, so I’ll put it here without comment:
The PHP Framework Interoperability Group (PHP-FIG) aims to advance the PHP ecosystem and promote good standards by bringing together projects and people to collaborate. It develops and publicises standards, informed by real-world experience as well as research and experimentation by itself and others, to form PHP Standard Recommendations (PSRs).
Other things have changed too e.g. votes have change a bit too (for a CC vote to pass votes they require a 2/3 majority and quorums for member project votes have been removed) but you’ll have to read the full bylaw changes for all the details.
Feedback and comments are most welcome on our mailing list topic here.
If you have any questions, please direct them to the mailing list here or have a chat with myself (MichaelC) or Larry (Crell) in #phpfig on irc.freenode.net.MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Gubernatorial candidate Chris Holbrook was arrested for exercising his 1st Amendment rights while in a public park. He and some supporters were peacefully gathering signatures to achieve ballot access — a fundamental political freedom — but police insisted that he needed a permit and placed him in shackles.
Chris Holbrook, who is running for governor of Minnesota on the Libertarian Party ticket, has 2 weeks to gather 2,000 signatures in order to appear on the ballot. This is a requirement of all minor parties in state-wide races in Minnesota. Holbrook’s deadline is June 3rd.
“This is exactly why I’m running for Governor as a Libertarian. Police shouldn’t be harassing citizens while they’re engaged in protected political activity,” said Chris Holbrook.
One May 29th, with less than 5 days to go, Mr. Holbrook and some of his supporters gathered at Lake Calhoun to enjoy the scenery and to peacefully ask for people to sign their petitions. Lake Calhoun is a public park, and talking to fellow citizens is a matter of freedom of speech and assembly.
Holbrook and three volunteers were approached by a group of police officers. One Minneapolis Police Officer immediately took exception to the fact that the Libertarians were recording him as he tried to chase them away.
“You guys need to contact the park board and get a permit,” said the hot-headed officer on video. “You can’t promote, you can’t do any of that stuff without a permit.”
“We can’t stand in the park, wearing a yellow shirt, talking to people about liberty?” asked Holbrook.
“Why don’t you put your phone away,” the cop impatiently sneered. “You’re recording me, I don’t want you to do that… Either you give me your ID or you put your phone away.”
The enforcers did not back down. As Holbrook explains in the caption of his video: “At the end of this video he tells me he does not want to be videotaped so I simultaneously stop as he lurches towards me, grabs me, wrenches my wrist and the phone out of it, he takes my phone, and cuffs me without any physical resistance.”
Mr. Holbrook was painfully cuffed and placed in the back of a police car. He is seeking medical attention for injuries sustained during the arrest. Video is available here.
“There’s no free speech in public spaces?” asked one of Holbrook’s friends. “Is this a no-free-speech zone?”
Mr. Holbrook was taken away by police and charged with advertising without a license, a misdemeanor offense. Petitioning is not considered advertising and is a protected activity under Minnesota and Minneapolis ordinances, the Libertarian Party contends on its website.
“Minor parties already have such a disadvantage in Minnesota just getting on the ballot. When you have the police arresting you while you are legally gathering signatures for ballot access, that makes it almost impossible,” says Cara Schulz, LPMN Executive Board member.
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Libertarian Party of Minnesota | FacebookMINSK, Belarus (AP) — In a sign of growing friction between the two ex-Soviet neighbors, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko criticized Russia Friday for cutting oil supplies, ordered his interior minister to press charges against Russia’s top food safety official and firmly refused to host a Russian air base.
In a live news conference that lasted about 7½ hours, Lukashenko alleged that the latest trade restrictions imposed by Moscow had been spurned by its concern about Belarus’ efforts to improve its ties with the West.
In more than two decades in power, Lukashenko has relied on economic and political support of Russia, skillfully exploiting its security concerns and casting Belarus as an indispensable ally.
The EU and the U.S. recently have rolled back the sanctions they had imposed on Belarus over Lukashenko’s iron-fist rule, following relatively smoother elections and the release of political prisoners.
At the same time, Russia-Belarus ties have soured.
Belarus has refused to accept the price Russia has charged for natural gas. Russia has estimated Belarus’ debt at $550 million and responded by halving the volume of oil supplied to its western neighbor. Cheap Russian oil used by Belarus’ refineries have been a major source of income for the nation of 10 million.
Lukashenko accused Russia Friday of using energy as a weapon to force Belarus into submission.
“We will do without the Russian oil,” he said. “If we have independence on one scale, and oil on another, they are incomparable.”
Ties also have been strained over Belarus’ food exports. Russia has accused Belarus of becoming a conduit for contraband food to bypass a Russian embargo on most Western food introduced in retaliation to the U.S. and the EU sanctions on Russia over its action in Ukraine.
In response, Russia has introduced restrictions on imports of Belarusian food, citing sanitary reasons.
Lukashenko vented his anger at Russia’s top food safety official, Sergei Dankvert, ordering his interior minister to press charges against him for “damaging the state.”
The Kremlin responded to the outburst with indignation, with the press office saying Dankvert is doing his job. The Kremlin also listed massive loans given to Belarus and billions of dollars that it lost in taxes Belarus was exempt from paying for importing Russian oil.
Other tensions also flared up.
Russia’s main domestic security agency has established controls on the border with Belarus in response to its decision to abolish visas for short-term travelers from 80 nations, including the U.S. and the EU. Until now, the neighbors had no border controls.
Lukashenko fumed at the move, describing it as “political attack.”
“Russia has become concerned that Belarus will go away, that Lukashenko has turned to the West,” the Belarusian leader said.
For years, Moscow has pushed Lukashenko to host a Russian air base, and he answered Friday with a categorical “No,” casting it as part of the Kremlin pressure on Belarus.
“What’s the purpose of such a base from the military viewpoint?” he said. “We don’t need it here. The base and the planes they want to put here is a demonstration.”
He argued that the base would have little meaning as the two nations already maintain close military cooperation.
In an indication of just how bad the current Russian-Belarusian spat has gone, Lukashenko assured his country that “there will be no war.”
“No one will occupy us, no one will send in troops,” he said. “We will protect ourselves and our independence.”
___
Nataliya Vasilyeva and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.Last week, we noted that David Lane, the secretive and radical Religious Right activist who is organizing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s upcoming “The Response” prayer rally, is also behind an effort to get 1,000 pastors to run for political office.
Lane is seeking to transform America through the election of hundreds of right-wing pastors who share his Christian Nationalist agenda and, to that end, has organized a training session to take place the day before Jindal’s prayer rally called “Issachar Training: Men and Women of Issachar,” which will feature advice for pastors on how to run for office from Jindal, Sen. James Lankford, and others:
Dear Pastor,
Please prayerfully consider being my guest at a pastors’ briefing hosted by my friends at the American Renewal Project. We are going to discuss the importance of raising up the next generation of leaders in America who understand these challenging times and know what to do about them. There is a great need for the kind of leaders we read about in the Old Testament, “The Men of Issachar” (1 Chronicles 12:32). We need such men and women of wisdom today who will accept the challenge to restore our Judeo-Christian heritage in America.
On January 23, 2015, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pastors will be given an exclusive opportunity to explore the Call to Serve. I ask you to spend time in prayer seeking the Lord’s guidance for the role He has for you to play in protecting Religious Liberty in our nation. As we make an appeal for leaders of faith to rise up and engage America in the public square with Biblical values, we are trusting you will hear God’s call on your life for this mission.
Our goal is to educate, and encourage leaders by informing them and inspiring them of their Biblical, historical roots, and to step out in courage to join us in this journey of faith. The call is not to take our nation back, but to get back to God. The time has come for pastors to lead the way and reset the course of American governance.
I hope you will join us for an evening of information and inspiration as we all work together in the mission of bringing America back to God. A formal invitation is coming to you. Let me encourage you to register online by means of the link provided in the invitation, as soon as you receive it.
Blessings,
Governor Bobby Jindal
Schedule
3:00-4:00PM Dr. Bruce K. Waltke: Proverbs and Politics
4:00-4:30PM Governor Bobby Jindal (LA): Spiritual State of the Union
4:30-5:00PM Senator James Lankford (OK): A Call to Serve
5:00-5:45PM Dave Hageman: How To Recruit and What To Look For
5:45-6:15PM Steve Michael: First Steps In Running For Office
6:15-6:45PM Dave Hageman: Campaign Mechanics 101
6:45-7:00PM Q&A From Session
7:00-8:00PM Break for dinner
8:00-8:15PM CA Assemblywoman Shannon Grove Messaging Your Race
8:15-9:00PM Dr. Bruce K. Waltke: Proverbs and Politics
9:00-9:15PM Setting up your finance committee
9:15-9:30PM Pastor Rob McCoy: A Pastor’s Experience As A Candidate
9:30-10:00PM Senator James Lankford (OK): A Call to ActionThe state of Alabama shut down Saturday as both the Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers held their annual spring games and drew the nation's top-two attendance figures. Auburn came up just 4,000 fans short of capacity at Jordan-Hare Stadium, counting a program-record 83,401 fans in attendance. Alabama was only a fraction behind, seating 78,315 for its spring game.
The announced attendance figures for every spring game played through April 20:
Team Claimed attendance Auburn 83401 Alabama 78315 Tennessee 61076 Nebraska 60174 Arkansas 51088 Kentucky 50831 Texas 46000 Texas A&M 45212 Georgia 45113 Ohio State 37643 South Carolina 35218 Louisville 33000 Notre Dame 31652 Clemson 30000 Virginia Tech 30000 Oklahoma 29200 LSU 28000 Ole Miss 28000 Penn State 28000 Florida State 27500 N.C. State 27500 Michigan State 22500 Mississippi State 21000 Missouri 18384 Michigan 18000 Texas Tech 16116 USC 15284 Iowa State 15000 North Carolina 15000 Oklahoma State 15000 Vanderbilt 14000 Wisconsin 12050 BYU 12000 Colorado 10244 Boise State 9146 Utah 8633 Washington State 8340 Maryland 8200 West Virginia 8000 Washington 7000 Western Kentucky 6500 Purdue 6427 Arizona State 6300 East Carolina 6294 Cal 5831 Louisiana Tech 5700 Duke 5213 Georgia Tech 5000 Middle Tennessee 5000 Nevada 5000 Texas State 4608 USF 4606 Stanford 4350 Wake Forest 4200 Arizona 4095 Syracuse 3822 Pitt 3642 Temple 3530 Baylor 3500 UConn 3200 Colorado State 3000 Utah State 3000 UTEP 2581 UTSA 2506 South Alabama 2281 Illinois 2100 UNLV 2100 Western Michigan 2045 Cincinnati 2000 Southern Miss 2000 Georgia State 1800 Tulsa 1200 Team Claimed attendance
Elsewhere Saturday, Tennessee posted the third-highest attendance figure this April by packing 61,076 into Neyland Stadium, the second best in school history. Arkansas brought in 51,088 for Bret Bielema's unofficial unveiling. Of the six spring games to draw more than 50,000 attendees, five have been in the SEC.
Virginia Tech drew approximately 30,000 fans Saturday, among the top ACC attendance figures to date. Notre Dame, a de facto ACC member, barely bested them with 31,652 in attendance.
Nebraska remains by far the king of Big Ten spring attendance. Despite snow flurries, Penn State drew 28,000 for Bill O'Brien's second spring game in charge of the Nittany Lions. Michigan State brought in 22,500, besting Michigan by 4,500. Wisconsin brought in a paltry 12,050 in cold, blustery weather conditions.
More from SB Nation:
• April 20 spring game coverage
• Ole Miss wins (?) recruiting wars
• Kentucky, football state: SB Nation visits the Cardinals and Wildcats
• Jadeveon Clowney scores impromptu touchdown
• National recruiting coverage
• Today’s college football news headlines“Friends and Lovers”
by Donny’s Boy
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Synopsis: A series of mini-stories exploring various pony ships. Because shipping is magic.
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“Mutual Assured Destruction”
(RariDash)
It was Tuesday, and Tuesday invariably meant three things. Tuesday meant spa day. Tuesday meant library day. And Tuesday meant a long, slow burn that would eventually end in an explosion.
That particular Tuesday evening, the pegasus flew quickly and silently through the moonless sky, thankful for the cover of clouds and the resulting darkness. She reached her destination in record time and, after one last glance around, crept up to the front door. The door was unlocked, as she knew it would be. The door was always unlocked on Tuesdays. Without bothering to knock, she nudged the door open and stepped into the boutique.
It was as dark inside as it was outside, but she could hear soft hoofsteps approaching. A moment later, there was a pair of lips on hers, hard, insistent, urgent. Rainbow Dash met the kiss with every ounce as much urgency, and she shoved the unicorn backwards.
They landed on the little chaise longue that Rarity liked so much, with the pegasus on top, pinning Rarity with the full weight of her body even as their kiss continued unbroken. Desperate heat tore through Dash like the winds of a tornado as Rarity’s hooves began running through the feathers of her spread wings. When Rainbow responded by nipping the unicorn’s ear, Rarity moaned in a voice that was low and deep and nothing at all like the voice she allowed herself to use in public.
=====================================================================
For the briefest moment, she was confused when she awoke to a pair of bright blue eyes. Her first thought was of Pinkie Pie, because sometimes she slept over at Sugar Cube Corner after an evening of partying particularly hard, but she didn’t feel hung over as she usually would when waking up at the bakery. Then, she abruptly recognized just where she was.
It wasn’t Sugar Cube Corner.
“You fell asleep last night,” the unicorn murmured softly.
There had been wine. That much, she remembered. Good wine, too, imported directly from some fancy vineyard located in Canterlot. Not that Rainbow Dash knew much about wine--and, besides, after the first several glasses, she couldn’t really taste anything anyways. But she’d liked the wine. She remembered liking the wine.
Just one glass of wine, Rarity had suggested. Just one glass of wine, shared as a thank you gesture, for all the help Dash had given that afternoon on Rarity’s latest project. The dress had been created for a pegasus, Rarity had explained, and the designer had wanted to ensure it would fit perfectly. It had to fit perfectly, she’d explained, eyes serious and intense.
There had been something else in the unicorn’s eyes, too, something that Rainbow couldn’t quite remember now. Something sad, perhaps. That was how it had all started, probably. Rarity had probably looked sad, and Rainbow had probably stayed past the end of that first glass of wine in order to help cheer up her friend. But Rainbow couldn’t remember if there had been a particular reason why Rarity might have looked sad.
In the present moment, in the harsh light of morning, Rarity didn’t look sad. The unicorn’s face was perfectly blank and utterly devoid of any identifiable emotion whatsoever, in fact, as she stared hard at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus realized that she was still lying in the unicorn’s huge, plush bed, and she flushed in embarrassment.
“Sorry! Um, sorry. Didn’t mean to fall asleep.” She leapt out of the bed, stumbling, awkward, her wings already snapping out in preparation of imminent flight. “I’ll just, uh, just get out of your mane here. Thanks again for the wine--it was good stuff.”
Rarity just sat there and watched, silent and aloof. As there really wasn’t anything else to be said, Dash turned around and took to the air, rocketing through an open window in the boutique. She didn’t look back.
=====================================================================
Sometimes, you just wanted to stop having to be so perfectly loyal all the time.
I shouldn’t be doing this, thought Dash, even as she buried her face deeper in Rarity’s mane. I’m not in love with her. She rubbed her cheek lightly against the unicorn’s horn, and it was a gesture of tender affection more than anything else. In the dark, she couldn’t see the pony beneath her, and it was all too easy to play pretend. To pretend that this horn belonged to somepony else, somepony too brilliant and too intimidating and too unreachable to ever be touched like this.
She remembered. Despite trying not to, despite trying to lose herself in the roar of the blood pumping through her veins like a raging flood, she remembered.
====================================================================
She’d asked if they could meet for lunch, just the two of them, and like the fool she was, Rainbow Dash had thought it was a date. The pegasus didn’t dress up or anything like that, but she did shower that morning and she did take the time to actually run a brush through her mane and tail.
They’d ordered daffodil sandwiches. Dash didn’t know why she remembered that, but she did. The sandwiches were good, and so was the company. For a bit, they indulged in a bit of idle chit-chat about the continuing adventures of Daring-Do. Rainbow grinned as they tentatively stepped onto this newly-discovered common ground, as both their eyes lit up while they traded speculations as to who the adventurous hero’s next villain might be, as they argued cheerfully over which book was the best in the series. It was simple, and it was silly. And it was perfect.
Then, the mood suddenly shifted, and a hush fell over their little table.
“Rainbow, there’s something I have to tell you. It’s why I asked you to have lunch with me, actually.”
Rainbow Dash felt her pulse quicken.
“I kinda … I kinda have a crush on somepony. Oh, wow, this is harder than I thought. Um, I have a crush on...”
She dared not move or speak.
“ … a crush on … on Fluttershy. Whew! You don’t know how good it feels to just finally say it.”
The pegasus blinked, very slowly, very deliberately, and tried to remember how to breathe.
“Do you, uh, do you think I have a chance, Rainbow?” Her violet eyes were painfully earnest, almost naive. So piercing, so scarily intelligent, so … so trusting. “You’re her oldest friend, I mean, so I figured if anypony would know …”
Dash could’ve lied. Should’ve lied, maybe. But that would have been selfish, more selfish than even Dash usually was. Besides, it wouldn’t have been something a good friend would do. And despite occasional appearances to the contrary, Rainbow Dash was a good friend.
“I dunno if she likes you likes you, but she thinks you’re pretty awesome,” the pegasus admitted. Her voice sounded like gravel to her own ears. “You should … you should totally ask her out. Totally.”
===================================================================
Sometimes, you just wanted to stop having to be so perfectly generous all the time.
I shouldn’t be doing this, thought Rarity, even as the pegasus’ teeth scraped roughly against her neck, drawing a gasp of pleasure from somewhere deep inside her. I’m not in love with her. But this felt too good, too necessary, for her to dwell on that thought for too terribly long. It was self-indulgent, perhaps, but she always had been a pony who believed in indulgences.
She lifted her chin, to allow her lover easier access, and continued running her hooves along Dash’s wings. As she concentrated on the feel of those strange, silky feathers under her hooves, she allowed her thoughts to drift to fond remembrances of other wings, wings as delicate and beautiful and majestic as the sun.
====================================================================
“For me? This is … for me?”
“Well, of course!” Rarity laughed easily, a high, tinkling laugh. “You do want to look good for your big date tonight, don’t you, darling?”
The pegasus ran a gentle hoof along the hem of the elegant teal dress on the mannequin, seemingly in a daze. When she finally looked up, a tremulous smile was spreading across her face.
“Oh, thank you, Rarity! Thank you so, so much.” Her eyes shone with gratitude, wide and sincere, and the unicorn felt a bittersweet pang in her chest.
Rarity had never known anyone who was as thankful as was the pegasus who now stood before her. Who so deeply and consistently appreciated all that she was given. The unicorn didn’t give all that she did in order to receive any thanks, of course, but she had to admit that she cherished the thanks she did receive--especially the thanks she received from this, her dearest and most beloved friend.
At Rarity’s urging, the pegasus changed into her new garment so that the designer could exclaim over how it looked on her and, once dressed, she did a bashful twirl. The dress’ long skirt flared out in a most enchanting way, and the blue-tinged greens in the dress perfectly matched the eyes of the dress’ new owner, just as Rarity had intended. And the sunlight streaming from the boutique windows lent both the dress and the pegasus a lovely, almost ethereal glow.
“So, um, how do I look? Is it … do I look okay?” She sounded nervous, even more nervous than she did usually, and was lightly pawing at the ground with a hoof.
Rarity’s smile never faltered, never slipped. After all, a lady never held her mask so far away that she couldn’t quickly raise it to her face when the need arose. “You look absolutely beautiful,” the unicorn replied, very quietly.
Her voice shook only a little.
====================================================================
It was a terrible idea, all of this, and it had been from the very start. But, sometimes, you just wanted to take something for yourself. Sometimes, you just wanted to lay down your burdens for a few precious minutes, and sometimes you just wanted to be selfish for a change. Even if you knew that you’d have to pay dearly for it later.
Because all those costs wouldn’t come until tomorrow. Tomorrow they would wake up sick and ashamed and with their chests as aching and empty as they had been the day before. Tomorrow they would part without a word and without a single glance back, with unspoken promises that they’d never repeat this again, promises they both knew they would never be able to keep.
But tonight? Tonight they had each other and, hidden from sight of the rest of the world, they abandoned all of the complications of their daytime lives and embraced the simple pleasures of the nighttime. Tonight, they self-destructed in ecstasy. Tonight, they self-destructed in agony.
---
Author’s Notes: Very loosely inspired by, and written while listening to, “Tear You Apart” by She Wants Revenge. (The song is very NSFW, by the way, if you’re interested in looking it up.)
Rewrite 2/7: Hopefully this addresses some of the issues that this piece had.What is the procedure to get an auto title loan in Texas – How to apply online and get approved
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' Market opens every Saturday morning and Wednesday evening, April through October on 13th Street next to Central Park. The market was started in 1986 by regional farmers.[112]
Sister cities Edit
In popular culture Edit
See also Edit
References Edit
Further reading EditSEATTLE -- Pokemon Go may be the most popular game in America right now, and just about everyone, from businesses to police, is paying attention.
In Washington, many businesses are trying to capitalize on the popularity and their convenient location.
Drip City is one of many shops that coincidentally have a Pokestop outside their front door, meaning gamers flock to the area in search of items and Pokemon.
"We're always quick to say hey guys come on inside and grab a cup of coffee," Drip City barista Nicole Ross said. "You can reach the stop from here."
Ross says they've seen an influx in customers the past few days from folks who want to sit by the window and toss "pokeballs" at the creatures on their cellphone screen. They plan to "drop a lure," bringing Pokemon to the area, during happy hour this week.
They're not alone. Pacific Supply on Capitol Hill is offering a 10 percent discount to anyone who mentions Pokemon at the cashier. Many others are hitting social media to tell customers they have Pokemon in the area.
Law enforcement is also taking notice. Many departments taking to twitter, warning gamers not to trespass during their search for Pokemon, or drive and catch.
Bellevue Police also confirmed received three separate 911 calls Sunday around 11:30 p.m. after neighbors heard screaming in Downtown Park. When officers arrived, they discovered more than 100 people playing Pokemon Go. The park closed at 11 p.m., so the gamers were warned, but not ticked, according to Bellevue Police.A court has heard how just two weeks after formally adopting her with his husband, a gay fitness instructor brutally murdered his 18-month-old daughter he called “Satan in a babygrow”.
Matthew Scully-Hicks, who had given up work to stay at home with the two children of he and his company director husband, is accused of inflicting fatal injuries on baby Elsie after weeks of abuse.
The toddler, who was taken away within days of birth from her drug user mother, died in Cardiff’s University Hospital Wales with “catastrophic head injuries”, days after the defendant called emergency services to report that Elsie was “floppy and weak”.
The jury heard how messages sent by Scully-Hicks, who is accused of breaking his adoptive daughter’s ribs, leg, and ankle, and fracturing her skull, suggested he was “struggling to cope” with looking after the toddler and her adoptive sibling.
The defendant wrote that Elsie was having a “proper diva strop, which is annoying” just 11 days after Elsie was placed with him and his husband in September 2015, in a message echoed the following day, when he accused the baby of having had “another diva strop at teatime”.
Alleging that he was “going through hell with Elsie”, the 31-year-old also wrote: “Mealtimes and bedtimes are like my worst nightmare at the minute …She’s been up there screaming for 10 minutes non stop she’s just stopped but I doubt that’s the last I’ll hear tonight.”
Kids Need A Mum And A Dad – Breitbart http://t.co/LHwUCDy5Mc pic.twitter.com/tLmPeIvkXn — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 7, 2015
Cardiff Crown Court heard how Scully-Hicks, who has no previous convictions, and husband Craig applied to adopt after their marriage in Portugal.
According to the Daily Mail, neighbours heard Scully-Hicks shouting ‘shut up you little f***ing brat”, on an occasion that the child was heard crying.
James Bevan, whose mother Susan lived in the joining semi-detached house to the couple, told the court that neighbours would hear loud music play alongside cries of, “Shut up you silly little c***”, shouted by the defendant.
Prosecutor Paul Lewis QC said: “Within two weeks of Elsie’s formal adoption by the couple, we allege that the defendant had inflicted fatal injuries upon her.
“We allege that his actions were the tragic culmination of a course of violent conduct on his part towards a defenceless child – an infant that he should have loved and protected – but whom he instead assaulted, abused and ultimately murdered.”Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant suffered a ruptured achilles tendon in Saturday's loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and will miss the remainder of the 2015 season.
Durant was carted off the field in the second quarter and returned to the sideline in the second half with a walking cast around his left ankle.
The 32-year-old, who was playing his first game since suffering an elbow injury last September, completed 13 of 18 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns before exiting.
He suffered the injury on a non-contact play after throwing an incomplete pass late in the second quarter. Kevin Glenn replaced Durant at quarterback.
His fellow CFLers took to Twitter to express their best wishes to the veteran.
@dariandurant just landed and heard the news. Wishing you the best man. — Mike Reilly (@Rikester13) June 28, 2015
Prayers up for @Rikester13 and @dariandurant, 2 of our league's best. Wishing a speedy recovery to both. #CFL — Travis Lulay (@TravisLulay) June 28, 2015
Hope Durant is ok, hopefully something less than Achilles.. Guy soldiered back from last year. @CFL — Bo Levi Mitchell (@BoLeviMitchell) June 28, 2015
Not a good day for CFL qbs, sheesh. Prayers up for @dariandurant and @Rikester13. — Jason Vega (@VegaJason) June 28, 2015
Sucks to see DD gone for the yr.I love competing against the best, keep ur head up homie @dariandurant — Nik Lewis (@nikel18) June 28, 2015
@dariandurant I hope it's not that serious man! One of our leagues best players we need you on the field! — Jovon Johnson (@Mr_Consistent_2) June 28, 2015SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Monday it had told the United States it will cut the only channel of communication between them, at the United Nations in New York, after Washington blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un last week for human rights abuses.
All matters related to the United States, including the handling of U.S. citizens detained by Pyongyang, will be conducted under its “wartime law,” its official KCNA news agency said.
The move was the latest escalation of tension with the isolated nuclear-armed country, which earlier on Monday threatened a “physical response” after the United States and South Korea said they would deploy the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.
North Korea said last week it was planning its toughest response to what it deemed a U.S. “declaration of war” after Washington announced sanctions on Kim Jong Un.
A U.S.-based North Korea monitoring project, 38 North, said on Monday that satellite images from July 7, a day after the sanctions announcement, showed a high level of activity at North Korea’s nuclear test site, but it is unclear whether this was for maintenance or preparation for a fifth nuclear test.
“As the United States will not accept our demand for the immediate withdrawal of the sanctions measure, we will be taking corresponding actions in steps,” KCNA said on Monday.
“As the first step, we have notified that the New York contact channel that has been the only existing channel of contact will be completely severed,” it said.
“The Republic will handle all matters arising between us and the United States from now on under our wartime laws, and the matters of Americans detained are no exception to this.”
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment specifically on the North Korean statement but said such rhetoric “obviously is not doing anything to ease tensions.”
Two Americans are currently known to be detained in North Korea. Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was sentenced in March to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan and Korean-American Kim Dong Chul is serving a 10-year sentence for espionage, according to North Korean state media.
Kirby repeated a call for North Korea to release the Americans from “improper and unjust detention” and stressed the need for it to adhere to its Vienna Convention commitment to allow consular access.
North Korea has previously indicated that wartime laws would mean detainees will not be released on humanitarian grounds.
‘BARGAINING CHIPS’
This could delay release of the Americans, giving North Korea one of its last bits of leverage in negotiations with the United States, said T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA’s international advocacy director.
“The tension is at one of the highest levels now, and one of the areas they have control over is with the detainees,” Kumar said. “They will use them as bargaining chips to get some advantages.”
Kumar said he did not think the prisoners would be affected in other significant ways.
North Korea and the United States remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Washington sided with South Korea, ended only with a truce.
The so-called New York channel, via North Korea’s mission to the United Nations, has been an intermittent point of contact between North Korea and the United States, which do not have diplomatic relations.
It has been used in the past to exchange messages and to hold discussions, including over detainees held by North Korea. However, the release of past U.S. detainees has generally come only after visits to Pyongyang by high-profile U.S. leaders, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Warmbier’s mother, Cynthia, declined to comment when reached by telephone on Monday.
Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea's top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo March 16, 2016. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo/File Photo
Simon Park, senior minister at the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Centreville, Virginia, who worked with Kim Dong Chul for several years, said he was concerned for him, and for his wife and their two children who are living in China.
“He is currently on a hard labor sentence and whether this will change or not, we are not sure,” Park said, adding that he last spoke with Kim shortly before his imprisonment.
“All we can do is pray for his family,” Park said.
‘DECLARATION OF WAR’
On Saturday, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine, but it appeared to have failed after launch.
The United States and South Korea said on Friday the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system would be used to counter North Korea’s growing nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.
The announcement was the latest move by the allies against North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test this year and launched a long-range rocket, resulting in tough new U.N. sanctions.
“There will be physical response measures from us as soon as the location and time that the invasionary tool for U.S. world supremacy, THAAD, will be brought into South Korea are confirmed,” North Korea’s military said early on Monday.
“It is the unwavering will of our army to deal a ruthless retaliatory strike and turn (South Korea) into a sea of fire and a pile of ashes the moment we have an order to carry it out,” it said in a statement carried by KCNA.
North Korea frequently threatens to attack South Korea and U.S. interests in Asia and the Pacific.
South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun warned North Korea not to take “rash and foolish action” or it would face “decisive and strong punishment from our military.”
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The move to deploy THAAD also drew a swift and sharp protest from China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday that THAAD exceeded the Korean peninsula’s security needs and suggested there was a “conspiracy behind this move.”
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Monday THAAD was purely aimed at countering the threat from North Korea.
A South Korean Defence Ministry official said selection of a site for THAAD could come “within weeks,” and the allies were working to have it operational by the end of 2017.SXSW Interactive 2013
2012: Year of the GLI.TC/H
What happens when accidents become the building blocks of the art-making process?
Glitches point toward new ways of seeing the world, an echo or document of the technology, politics and humans that co-produce them. Both Phillip Stearns' "Year Of the Glitch" and James Bridle's "New Aesthetic" blogs yearn for a newer 'New Media', one made of the mediums themselves, just as Marshall McLuhan would have wanted.
In a technical sense a glitch is the unexpected result of a malfunction, but glitch art looks at the most beautiful of these. Much like serendipity, exquisite tech-surprises often tug at our deeper understandings, and throughout history they form the basis of creative innovation. Intentional glitch-makers celebrate the magelijk in the machine; they chart unexpected beauty amongst chaotic landscapes.
This collaborative presentation program highlights artists who create beautiful problems by corrupting data, hacking signals, manipulating the medium, challenging the display.11 years ago
Bill Clinton said former president George H.W. Bush will help fix damage done to America's reputation by his son, George W. Bush.
ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America's reputation by the current president — Bush's son, George W. Bush.
"Well, the first thing she intends to do, because you can do this without passing a bill, the first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again," Clinton said in response to a question from a supporter about what his wife's "number one priority" would be as president.
A spokesman for the George H.W. Bush was not immediately available to comment on whether the former president would chip in some diplomatic help after his son leaves office next year.
Clinton and the elder Bush, rivals in the 1992 presidential election, have grown chummy in recent years, often traveling and appearing at public events together. In 2005, they started a charity to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
UPDATE: The Republican National Committee issued this statement in response to Clinton's comments:
"In 2009, a Republican president will be working with our friends and allies abroad to continue to keep our nation safe," said RNC spokesman Danny Diaz. "The American people expect our leaders — both current and former — to present serious solutions to the very real challenges confronting our nation."
– CNN South Carolina Producer Peter HambyThe CBS host on his start in comedy, how Bill O’Reilly inspired his ‘Colbert Report’ character, David Letterman’s gracious handoff of ‘The Late Show’ and its comeback from a year-one fizzle: “I’ve allowed myself to become a pure performer.”
Just under two years ago, Stephen Colbert debuted as host of CBS’ The Late Show. And it hasn’t even been a year since sluggish ratings, an Emmy snub and a lack of buzz prompted some to begin writing off the onetime Comedy Central star whose Colbert Report had previously picked up two Emmys for variety series. His Late Show was so challenged that there even were whispers he’d be asked to swap time slots with James Corden.
What a difference a year — and a presidential election — can make. The Late Show (not NBC’s The Tonight Show) finished the season atop the late-night ratings for the first time in 22 years; The Late Show (not The Tonight Show) earned a series nom; and Colbert (not Corden) is set to host the Sept. 17 Emmy Awards, where The Late Show is also nominated for directing and writing (though both his series and Showtime election night special fell to the likes of Corden and Samantha Bee at the Creative Arts Emmys over the weekend).
In a wide-ranging August interview, Colbert kept his telecast plans close to the vest. But he spoke frankly about how he discovered comedy, the path that led him to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and Colbert Report (and a character modeled on Bill O’Reilly, “a well-intentioned, poorly-informed, high-status idiot”), that rocky first year on The Late Show (“I lost my mind!”) and the joy of becoming “pure performer.”
Below is an edited version of that conversation, which you can also hear in full here:
You grew up in a large, observant Catholic family. How do you think you were shaped by that?
What is the role of religion in the life of the Colbert family? Where to begin? What is the role of marble in the shape of a statue? It was so important. On a certain pedestrian level, we went to church every Sunday, but we also said our prayers. Prayers every night. Prayers all the time. Offering it up to God, if there was something wrong, if you had some trouble. Well, Mom would say, “Offer it up. Offer it up. Whatever you’re suffering through right now.” She would say, “There’s another jewel in your crown, when you get to heaven.” Because we all have crowns when we get to heaven. We’d all say, “Oh, come on, that crown’s going to be so heavy when I get up there!” My mom made Halloween costumes of the saints, whatever your saint is — like Saint Stephen would wear rags and carry a stone because he was stoned to death. It was sort of infused in every aspect of our lives. My father was an intellectual. A real one, I believe. His idea of fun was reading French humanist philosophers, like Jacques Maritain. Christian humanists. Faith was just enormous. My father and two of my brothers died [in a plane crash] when I was younger, and that brought home the needs of the faith. The faith served my mother and myself and my family in a profound way because you’re faced with this enormous suffering.
How do you think you were changed by that tragedy?
I have said to myself more than once, “Gosh, I hope I live long enough to figure out what that did to me.” It’s almost like that event created a labyrinth in my mind, in which I could hide when I was younger. No one could find me if I went into the labyrinth of that experience, but I was also lost in there. Comedy was a relief. Every night for years, I played either George Carlin’s Class Clown or Bill Cosby’s Very Funny Fellow or Bill Cosby’s Wonderfulness or David Frye’s Richard Nixon: A Fantasy, Steve Martin’s Wild and Crazy Guy, Let’s Get Small... Comedy albums were the greatest drug. Religion is the opiate of the masses? Religion’s got nothing on comedy in terms of its opiate abilities. Comedy was my opiate. Comedy became… not my religion, but certainly, I heard a vocation there, like I wanted to be part of that. I wanted, in a way, without consciously knowing it, I wanted to be the person who made everybody feel better, and I saw comedy as a way to do it.
You started doing comedy professionally as part of Chicago’s Second City and later on the sketch show Exit 57, then The Dana Carvey Show, then a stint on Good Morning America, of all places. How did that happen — and how did that lead you to The Daily Show?
Somebody from ABC calls me and says “Hey, somebody from Good Morning America is going from the entertainment division to the news division,” because GMA had been entertainment. They said, “As we were metaphorically sort of handing over the keys, before we locked the door between the two divisions, somebody from news said, ‘Hey, is there anybody in entertainment who kind of looks straight, but could probably look like a reporter that we send out to do comedy pieces?’ And somebody said, ‘Stephen Colbert!’” I went over there, and they didn’t want me to be funny. They didn’t really want me to be funny. I did two pieces, and then they shot down 25 pitches in a row. But they had to pay me, so I was very grateful because I could make rent.
While I was doing that, I got a call from my agent saying, “Do you want to go meet with The Daily Show? People are looking for correspondents.” I was like, “This is my career now? Now I’m a reporter?” I didn’t know anything about The Daily Show. This was before the first anniversary with Craig Kilborn. I watched it the night before I went. I didn’t like it. But I went over there and said I just loved it. I thought it was fantastic. The people there said, “Hey, so, you were a member of the Second City?” Yeah. “And you like, wrote and produced a TV show, a sketch show?” Yeah. “You were on The Dana Carvey Show?” Yeah. “And you’ve written for Saturday Night Live?” Yeah. “And now you’re a reporter for ABC News?” I go, “Yeah.” They were like, “You’re genetically engineered to do this job!” So I get the gig and I did that for a while, off and on. They weren’t thrilled with me.
You were also doing Strangers With Candy.
The third season of Strangers, I really wasn’t around there at The Daily Show, because it was really intensive and Paul Dinello and I were writing every word and breaking every story for Strangers. During that period, this guy named Jon Stewart took over The Daily Show. I knew Jon around from Short Attention Span Theater. My wife knew Jon, which was strange. When he got the gig, she was like, “What’s Jon Leibowitz doing up there?” She knew him back when he first came up to New York. His roommate dated her roommate or something like that, so he’s this quiet guy in the corner drinking an Amstel Light all the time. “He’s not funny. What’s going on?” So she knew him before I did. When I came back for the 2000 campaign, I remember the first day I really came back to the Jon show — I didn’t do much his first year — we hit it off immediately. I could feel that he was injecting the show with purpose. He invited us to put our own thoughts, to put our own feelings, to put our own editorial position in what we were doing. We weren’t widgets to him. We were creative partners. I realized immediately that I had kind of stumbled into the best possible job on TV, in the second greatest campaign of all time. We thought, at the time, “How could it possibly be stranger than this?”
So Indecision 2000 — was that the first introduction of the character Stephen Colbert?
In the ’90s, but specifically after 9/11, in the early aughts, punditry became this tremendous cash cow, because the nation’s whipped up into an emotional froth as it well should be, and punditry harvests emotion for profit. The folks at The Daily Show — I remember [co-creator] Madeleine Smithberg saying to me, like, “We want to do something that’s pundit-based and we think it should be you.” And so we started doing a commercial called “The Colbert Report” within The Daily Show. It was just an ad for a show that didn’t exist, called The Colbert Report, and I was “Stephen Colbert.” “Some people give you the truth, some people give you opinion, well, he’ll give you neither!” I forgot it was, something like, “It’s the no-fact zone!” That was when we first came up with the “no-fact zone,” and “Colbert: It’s French… bitch.”
And Bill O’Reilly was your primary model for the character?
Oh yeah, well he’s the king! If you’re going to model punditry, there were other people, like Aaron Brown; in a way, Anderson Cooper, bright as a shiny new penny; Aaron Brown, who would kind of like mull over the news and just have his moment of somewhat Ed Murrow-esque reflection on the day, but a little bit also adjunct professor of poetry; but there was no denying O’Reilly. The number of words that could come out of that man’s mouth, and with seeming sincerity — I’ve never been able to figure out if O’Reilly meant what he said — over the years I have different levels of belief.
What were your personal feelings about this guy?
O’Reilly? I mean, I watched him professionally. I don’t think I would’ve watched him for pleasure. I watched him professionally, he was a model [for the character]. He just seemed like a bully. I don’t like bullies. I was bullied. Like a lot of people in comedy, I was bullied when I was younger, so he just seemed like a lot of bullies I knew growing up. It’s incredibly enjoyable to inhabit that skin, because then you just give yourself over. It’s sort of easy to improvise that person because you are giving into your appetites, including your appetite to always be right, which is one of the greatest appetites. I really enjoyed him, because I really do think he’s a well intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot, which was my model.
So how did it become a show?
I really liked where [The Daily Show was] going with Jon, but I wanted to leave because there’s only so much I could do. Jon was always going to be the guy with the ball, and well he should be. There’s no greater runner. He’s the master, but I knew I could only do so much for him. It was a beautiful note, but only one note that I could do for him in his chorus of correspondents, and he wanted to do something with me. First, we pitched a show to NBC, which they bought the pilot idea — it would’ve been a good old sitcom — and then we didn’t make the pilot. Then Comedy Central said, “Do you want to do a spinoff show of The Daily Show?” Jon and I talked about it and we said, well, “What about The Colbert Report?” We literally met for 45 minutes and — I have this page still on my Microsoft Word — and that page is just a scattering of words, but you look at it and go, “Oh yeah, that’s The Colbert Report.”
And the thesis was there from the start — truthiness, calling people out for their bullshit.
To be the bullshit. That was it. Everybody can smell bullshit. Our attempt was to manifest the turd. I am the turd in the punch bowl of our public discourse. That’s what I was trying to be. The thing we used to say is, “If you see something in politics or in entertainment or in the media, the closer it looks like me, the less you should trust it.”
You and Jon, separately and together, as much as you guys often like to downplay it, really became a primary source for a lot of people who maybe don’t consume traditional news media. When along the line did you realize that was the relationship a lot of people had with you and did it add a sense of responsibility on top of being funny?
I don’t want to speak for Jon, but I never heard him downplay, or I wouldn’t want to downplay, if people said they were informed by the work that I did. I think what I would say — and I think I’ve heard Jon say the same thing — is that we’re not downplaying where people got their information, but that’s not our intention. The information is there so that we can do the jokes on this information that’s very interesting to us. You can’t do these kinds of shows — The Late Show or the shows that I did before — without caring. Without giving a damn what you’re talking about. I mean, you can, but boy, that’ll get to pretty grinding work if you don’t have some emotional attachment to it. We’re running our jokes off of something that people care about and that is given a status of importance because it’s in the news. If people say that we influence them, that’s fine. I can’t dictate how people feel and what people get from the work that I did. I would only say that’s not the intention. Our intention or my intention and my responsibility always remains the same. It’s to tell jokes.
So it’s April 2014 and David Letterman announces he’s going to retire. How soon did you think, “I’m interested in this”?
Well, the very first thing I said to my agent [James “Baby Doll” Dixon] when I found out that they were making some overtures — it wasn’t a certain thing — was, “Baby Doll,” I said, “Baby Doll, the last thing I ever thought I’d do next is something harder.” And he said, “This won’t be harder! It’ll be easier. It’ll be easier, because you don’t have to do the character or anything like that.” Well. God bless him, he was wrong. It is a harder job. It is a harder job. But, as I said, I was wondering if they’d ever ask me. It was not my ambition, because I thought, I have always been something of a selective taste. I’m an acquired taste. That’s why cable seemed right for me. Do they really want to take a risk on me? On CBS? Because they know they’re higher, right? And Les [Moonves, CBS chief] was like, “No, this is what we want. We want to do something different.” My sister Mary was in town, and I was like, “Listen, I’ve got this thing, it’s all happening very fast, it’s possible.” And she just smiled. And I went, “Ugh! If I end up getting this gig, and this thing ends up being successful, somebody at CBS should send you flowers. I’m taking it because you just smiled.”
How was the handoff? Was Dave friendly, helpful, whatever?
He was so nice. Dave had always been really nice to me when I would come over. I was lucky enough to come on his show 10 times. A nice round number. Oh God, I always loved coming on! I’d go home and watch the show and just watch Dave’s face, to see, if he was really interested in what I was saying? Did I really make him laugh? That was a huge joy, if you could make Dave, for real, laugh. Really surprise him with a story. That was the greatest feeling in the world. So he’d always been really nice to me, and as soon as I got the gig and it was announced, he called me up. Actually, my assistant just found the transcript of our conversation. As soon as I got off, I wrote down everything that we said to each other so that I could remember it, and she found it the other day. Shortly before he left, I said, “Can I come talk to you?” And he’s like, “Sure.” I came over and I met him in one of these offices on this floor, and just had a couple bottles of water, and we sat there and talked and I asked him a ton of questions. He was extremely gracious about it. At one point, I said, “Do you mind me asking you all these questions?” And he said, “Nobody’s ever asked me these questions before.” And I said, “Really, never?” And he said, “Who would know to ask and who’d care what the answer is?” I was asking things about how to play this space and what his decisions have been — literally, “Why’d you put your desk there? Where do you put your producers? How do you deal with the balcony as opposed to the floor?” I’ve always thought that must be hard to deal with two separate audiences like that, because this theater is split up in a very interesting way, as I’ve discovered. “Where do you hide from your producers when you don’t want to be found?” That made him laugh. He was like, “I’ve got a great place for you and told me it later.” I haven’t used it yet.
You didn’t want a Late Show showrunner at first.
Absolutely. Why would I need a showrunner? I ran my old show. I’ll run the new one.
So eventually what made you recognize the need?
I lost my mind! What are you talking about? I couldn’t sleep at night, because A) clearly, aesthetically, or in terms of having an editorial intention, the show was not coalescing. People didn’t know what they were going to get. They didn’t know what it was about, because neither did I. I’d thrown out the baby with the bathwater in trying to be my character. I also threw out, kind of, my interests, which led to the character, which was politics, or just what happened today? What is the conversation that’s happening today?
What were you doing instead?
I don’t know. Very light, small stories. Maybe one big story, but we weren’t telling it in a story form. Just a couple of jokes and then we’d move on. Whereas, what we really are, as my exec Tom keeps reminding me, “Well, we’re storytellers!” We can’t just do one joke. We want to tell the story to the audience of why we even wanted to tell one joke about this thing, or why it’s interesting. It might be something that is the conversation. But also, we came to this realization that we’re not there at the old show because, I don’t know, we were often not doing the story that Jon did that night. We were doing other stories or stories with a little bit of a longer build to them, like more long-read kind of stories. We had to inform the audience a lot. We were breaking news to the audience unintentionally. Here we learned that that’s not the job. Really, what works in one of these shows — at least, in my experience — is I’m going to talk to you about the thing you’ve already been talking about today and we’re going to give you our take on this thing that everybody’s been talking about, to give you some context, and maybe calm you down about it. That took a long time for for us to figure out, and we didn’t have the time or the space to figure that out until Chris Licht came on. Until I had an honest-to-God showrunner.
April 2016, you now have a showrunner, so you can focus more on the comedy?
Purely. Our deal was, he said, “Any moment you’re not thinking about comedy, I’ve failed.” And I said, “Let’s shake on it. You want the job?” You can boil down a two-hour conversation to that sentence. It’s a deal.
Last year, you were not an Emmy nominee; this year you’re an Emmy nominee, your primary competition has flipped and people can’t seem to get enough of it. How are you different?
I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of things that have changed. I have an even deeper respect for Kimmel and Fallon and Conan and the people who came before us. I always respected their comedy, but I really respect them professionally. I didn’t know what they were doing until I got here. I’m in awe of a guy like Dave, doing 32 years, or Kimmel — what is Kimmel, now, 17 years? 15 years. Like that. I’ve always been friends with those guys. In late night now, people get disappointed that there isn’t a feud, but now I actually have a deeper respect for all of them than I did before. I’ve learned to trust my staff, because, being a control freak is mild form of distrust, if you know what I mean. Doing the live shows — we’ve done 17 or so over the past year — made me trust the staff and goddamnit, they’ve just killed it. They’ve done a fantastic job. I so admire what they’ve achieved and how the show now is far more bottom up, how they bring the ideas. I’m so grateful for the work that they’ve done. I’ve allowed myself to become sort of a pure performer now. I don’t try to produce the show in my head. People ask me, what’s going to happen today? I say, I just work here. I’ve been able to let go of the reins of control to — I don’t know if I can say to a large degree, that’s for someone else to say — but for me, it feels like an enormous degree. I walk into a meeting and Chris might say to me, “You’re not part of this meeting.” I go, “OK, I’ll leave,” which I think was a shock to people, because there was no meeting I was not in before. For years, for a decade. Letting go and just enjoying being on stage with the audience. That’s kind of where I realized why I took this job. I wanted to change as a performer. I wanted to change what my responsibilities were on a daily basis. I just wanted to go out there and do jokes for people. They might be about things, like I said, people think aren’t significant, but I want to go out there and do jokes for people. I want to go out there and be interested in my guest. The last two years has allowed me to do that. I could not do that for that first year. Chris gave us the space to do it, and then me trusting my staff allowed me to let go and just be the guy on stage. That’s the only way I could reveal myself, I could be myself for the audience.
And are you enjoying it more?
Oh, I love it! I love this job. I couldn’t love it more. This feels, right now, like the first year of the old gig. There’s a sense of excitement, and I hope, I hope that is throughout the whole building, that people feel like they’ve created something new, that wasn’t here a year ago and they paid their dues in that first year. It was hard on everybody. It’s just as hard if no one’s watching.At one point in time, most teenagers believe that their parents are keeping secrets from them. But for the kids on |
After a couple of hours, we saw a light through the trees, realized that we were right back where we started, and we laughed ourselves silly.
Abbie would get serious later on, though, ebbed on by his sense of justice and fueled by the tab of White Lightning that we had each ingested. While The Who were performing, he went up on stage with the intention of informing the audience that John Sinclair, manager of the MC5 and leader of the White Panther Party, was serving ten years in prison for the possession of two joints; that this was really the politics behind the music.
Before Abbie could get his message across, Pete Townshend transformed his guitar into a tennis racket and smashed him on the head with a swift backhand. Townshend had assumed that Abbie was just another crazed fan. When The Who played at Fillmore East the previous week, a plainclothes cop rushed on stage and tried to grab the mike. He intended to warn the audience that there was a fire next door and the theater had to be cleared, but he was able to do so only after Townshend kneed him in the balls.
Now he shouted at Abbie, "Get the fuck off my stage!" To the audience: "The next person that walks across the stage is gonna get killed." The audience laughed. "You can laugh, but I mean it!"
I inadvertently ended up with a political mission of my own at Woodstock. For a while, I was hanging around the Press Tent, which later turned into the Hospital For Bad Trips. A reporter from the New York Daily News asked me, "How do you spell braless?" I replied, "Without a hyphen." He pointed out two men with cameras who were from the Criminal Intelligence Division of the Army.
And a freelance writer who knew someone with a source in the White House told me how the Nixon administration had assigned the Rand Corporation think tank to develop a game plan for suspending the 1972 election in case of disruption. I decided to mention this at every meeting I attended, every interview I did, every campus I spoke at and every radio show that I was a guest on.
In 1970, the story was officially denied by Attorney General John Mitchell. He warned that whoever started that rumor ought to be "punished." I wrote to him and confessed, but he never answered my letter. Actually, investigative journalist Ron Rosenbaum was able to trace the "rumor" back and discovered that I was the fifth level down from the original White House source. I believed it to be true, and even rented a tiny one-room apartment I could escape to when martial law was declared. It had a fireplace so that if the power went off I could cook brown rice.
My favorite moment at the festival was Jimi Hendrix's startling rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." His guitar wailing of our national anthem brought me to tears. It was a wordless version of what I interpreted to mean, "It's not that we hate America, it's that we feel the American dream has been betrayed, and we will live our alternative." My least favorite moment was when I discovered that my new yellow leather fringe jacket had been stolen from the Movement City tent.
The '60s were coming to an end, and the quality of co-option would not be strained. "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" became a slogan for the Bank of America, and also for Total breakfast cereal. Tampax advertised its tampon as "Something over 30 you can trust."
Hippies became freaks. Negroes became blacks. Girls became women. Richard Alpert became Baba Ram Dass. Hugh Romney became Wavy Gravy, and his wife became Jahanarah. Yippie organizer Keith Lampe became Ponderosa Pine, and his girlfriend became Olive Tree. My sister Marge became Thais. San Francisco Oracle editor Allen Cohen became Siddartha and moved to a commune where everybody called him Sid. They thought his name was Sid Arthur.
But the seeds that were planted then continue to blossom now. And the spirit of Woodstock continues to be celebrated at such events as the Rainbow Gathering, Burning Man, Earthdance, the Oregon County Fair, the Starwood Neo-Pagan Festival, Pete Seeger's Clearwater Festival, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, and yes, the electronic magic montage of musicians and singers around the globe performing "Stand By Me" on YouTube.Well Folks,
I have finally seen this controversial movie. I say controversial because Spike Lee is boycotting this film & I have heard so many mixed opinions regarding this film AND it has an slave as it’s main character, Tarantino-style. I respect Spike Lee tremendously, but I’m in no way afraid of criticizing his criticism. It is absolutely unfounded and he hasn’t even seen the film! (According to recent news reports that I have seen). Rather than give you all my probably long-winded diatribe of a review regarding “Django Unchained” I’m going to share with you the wonderful, erudite opinion of Steven Barnes. Steven Barnes (www.dangerwordfilm.com) is the author of Lions’ Blood & the sequel, Zulu Heart. Ironically, Stevens’ novels’ answer the question, “What if black people enslaved white people?” to put it simply. I have gotten to know Steven Barnes via social media to a large degree & I have grown to, trust his opinions – very much. Here is his review of the film, “D’Jango Unchained”, which I happen to agree with!
From Steven Barnes:
This, the ninth film directed by Quentin Tarantino, and a doozy. In order to discuss this, I have to look at it from two different positions: as a movie separate from cultural context, and then, as a cultural artifact.
In a pure sense, Tarantino is a mash-up artist of humongous scholarship and skill. He doesn’t make movies about reality, he makes movies about the movies we love, making meta-commentary on the myths we devour and the images that shape our perceptions, especially of the shadow worlds of crime and violence. In PULP FICTION he demonstrated an ability to twist time lines to create moments of tension (remember Butch and his girlfriend on the motorcycle? I thought for sure Jules would jump out and “pop” them…but no, he’d already left the business, if you look at the sequence. Wow.) as well as pull all kinds of bizarre subtexts up to the text level, and give us maps of the inner worlds of these low-lifes that we’d never seen before. A stunning movie, that somehow created a context in which things I’d never imagine could be enjoyable became hysterically funny. (Ving Rhames and the hillbilly. I’m just sayin’…)
While DEATH PROOF was nothing other than a C-movie romp, KILL BILL 1 and 2 had an emotional line and impact that I’d never seen coming, and made me start to think about him differently. But it was still about movies, not human reality. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS was fascinatingly misunderstood by many. It wasn’t a movie about WW2, but rather a movie about movies about WW2. A hybrid of an art-house film about a Jew seeking vengeance, and a bad WW2 “men on a mission” romp with terrible acting as part of the image system. And the two worlds slowly wound together, getting closer and closer until in one memorable scene, you actually watch Christopher Waltz and Brad Pitt engage in a Bad Acting Contest across a table, and I was in geek heaven. But over under and around the fun, there was something else going on, a righteous indignation that cinematic sins had never been addressed in the Tarantino fashion–bloody vengeance for payback of extraordinary evil.
I think he basically asked himself “If I were a Jew, what would I want to see in a movie?” And being the kinda guy he is, that meant watching Jews wreaking havoc on the Nazi High Command. And if it didn’t happen in the real world, by God it was going to happen in his. Whatever one thinks of I.B. as a movie, it was audacious as hell, and not quite like anything else I’d seen.
We’ll get back to that. DJANGO UNCHAINED is a mash-up of several different genres or films, chief among them the Spaghetti “revenge” western, Blaxploitation, and the “slave plantation” film. Basically, Django is a slave trained as a bounty hunter by a German dentist (you have to see it) who seeks to rescue his wife–who has been sold onto a Mississippi plantation. Pretty straight through-line, in some ways a story we’ve seen a thousand times before. It is played out with verve, beautiful cinematography, some hysterical comedy, and wonderful performances up and down the line (especially when you realize that these people are pieces of movies, not real people.) If I were an alien from another planet, watching film without any human tribal filters, and Django was slotted into the festival I’d consider it fun, bloody, and better by far than most of the movies it copies. I might put it in the top ten Spaghetti westerns I’ve ever seen, just on that count.
But there’s a bigger issue here. And that is that if you compare films about slavery from the slaves’ POV with films about, say, the civil war, or about slavery treating slaves as humans rather than animals, you’ll see the extraordinary level of avoidance of this most deeply poisonous aspect of American history. Human history, really, but contrasted with our national myth, it is extraordinary. For an institution that lasted 250 years, followed by another 100 years of Jim Crow and segregation (which was still alive and well in my youth) to have been documented in dramatic form so infrequently (compare the 5 years of the Civil War. Compare films made about the Holocaust. Hell, compare films about Jewish oppression in Biblical times) suggests a level of avoidance, aversion, guilt and fear that distort the national discourse to this day. You don’t depict the rape, torture, and murder necessary to keep a people in bondage. You just don’t.
And dear God, you don’t even imply that there is an unpaid debt in blood. At the end of “Roots,” you had the absurd sight of Chicken George refusing to whip the overseer who had tormented his family for decades, a “that would make us no better than him” absurdity on the level of Batman refusing to kill the Joker, even though everyone knows Joker will simply escape Arkham Asylum and kill again. Period. We all know that’s an artifact of the Comics Code, and the need to preserve a neat-o villain, but has nothing to do with the real world.
And we all understood that Chicken George’s action was pure Hollywood Don’t Scare The White Folks stuff. Black people aren’t like us, the image said. They wouldn’t want the kind of revenge we ourselves would seek out.
The problem is that we’re not different. And therein lies a real, real problem. No payback. No vengeance against the perpetrators. Oh, that’s great for the spiritually minded, but a quick glance at world cinema suggests that vengeance is understood just fine by a large enough percentage of the human race to make the omission glaring. That is what happens when one group can control the images used to depict another group. There is no humanity. You don’t get the “full spectrum” of human response. You have very low level thugs and sacrificial “buddies” (any Dirty Harry film), and extraordinarily high level (Morgan Freeman can play God), but not the simple arc of growing up, becoming an adult, finding and satisfying sexual needs with honor, falling in love, raising AND PROTECTING family, growing old. The precise arc of human life which is most common, most often presented in film all over the world…the “what will my life be, Daddy?” question, the “how do I become an adult?” question that all world literature answers for its people…
This simply doesn’t exist in mainstream cinema. I’ve often commented about the lack of simple human sexuality in successful films with black protagonists (zero percent compared to about 22% for white protagonists in films that earn over 100 million domestic–the basic standard of “success”), but there are other gaps, and among them the lack of payback, something so deeply held as a part of American mythology that in such movies as “The Gunfight At O.K. Corral” (which I was just watching last night) it was totally understood that clean-cut Burt Lancaster would throw his lifetime of legal service out the window to avenge a family slight. “He killed my brother.” And that motivation–you mess with my family, I’ll mess with yours–is understood as more than the Code of the West. It is part of every world culture you can find, anywhere.
And blacks in America…well, they kinda got messed with. And I think Tarantino, watching Westerns, realized that black cowboys weren’t represented at 1% of their actual statistical existence. They were barely represented in Civil War movies–except in a film like “Glory” where they got vengeance, but had to die at the end for the “sin” of daring to demand to be treated like men. And the cinema audiences bought it, and the Academy rewarded the performances…it was as close to a moment of pure humanity as we could get, in that sense. Other films about slavery and its after-effects tip-toed around the horror, from “Amistad” (which was about people on their WAY to slavery), “Beloved” (about people already freed from slavery), “Lincoln” (slaves off stage), “Gone With The Wind” (the most powerful image creator in the entire sub-genre, in which slaves apparently just loved being slaves), “Mandingo” (in which slaves were exotic animals) and so forth.
Oddly, one of the very best major films on the subject was the comedy “Skin Game” with James Garner and Lou Gossett (about two con artists, one white and one black)…and it is no mistake that almost half of “Django” deals with a deadly con game. But the basic question at the core of “Django” is a geek cinephiles’s question: what would have happened if John Shaft, or Superfly, or Dolomite, or John Slaughter had been born a slave? And what if he had awakened to his true nature? In other words, what if the Avenging Hero as we understand him: the Rambos, James Bonds, Dirty Harrys, Martin Riggs–the human being who, armed with righteous rage and purpose can (in Shane Black’s phrase) “Touch the myth” and become that irresistible force of nature necessary to bring balance to the universe?
And who would be crazy enough to make such a film? A mash-up of “Skin Game,” “Mandingo,” “Gone With The Wind,” “Shaft,” and the titular “Django.” Gee, I wonder.
Tarantino has done something here that just makes me shake my head. I can barely believe it exists, and man oh man, is it in your face. Django starts as a slave, and ends as a mythic hero, the kind we’ve seen countless thousands of times on the screen. Except…we haven’t. We’ve barely seen anything like this on screen, ever. At least for a generation. Remember: when “Shaft” was remade, they neutered him. We get angelic too-perfect Denzel and Will and Morgan, but no simple testosterone-driven male “thinking animals.” You can say all you want about whether these images are important, but I can promise you the audience thinks they are. In fact, I don’t think you can point to a single week in the history of cinema where where wasn’t at least one such image playing in theaters. I submit to you that there is a hunger for them that is incalculably large, and consistent throughout all eras and most cultures–in fact ANY culture that has successfully survived contact with other, aggressive cultures. Don’t have that energy? You get wiped the @#$$ out.
“Django” intends to correct that. It is a big, messy, sprawling, indulgent, violent revenge fantasy that DARES you to disapprove of the target of its violence: slavers. Watch the reactions people have, and you’ll very clearly see who empathizes with slaves and abolitionists…and who empathizes with the owners and abusers. Oh my Gawd, the blogosphere has been buzzing with hate, fear, and hysterical joy. This movie plays with cultural images and forbidden archetypes in a way only the most successful filmmakers in the world could manage, or possibly get away with.
It is FAR from perfect. I could make a considerable list of things I wish he’d done differently, or better, and yeah, it could have been trimmed by at least ten minutes. But that it exists at all is astounding. A simple story of a man seeking to rescue his wife from monsters. We’ve seen it countless times. Except this man is black, and the monstrosity underpins the single most persistent and attractive mythology in American history, as measured by GWTW’s adjusted box office.
Viewed through this lens, it is hard to feel anything other than a kind of awe that this thing exists. There are maybe five filmmakers in the world who could have done it, and the other four didn’t want to. A black director would probably have been too close to the subject–he actually would have to have been BETTER than Tarantino to pull this off–all the technical skills, and the writing skills, but sufficiently disconnected to maintain emotional distance…but simultaneously channel a volcano of emotions.
Hard to find.
I don’t know how “good” DJANGO is. I think it is totally of a piece with the rest of Tarantino’s oeuvre, but in an odd way more personal than most of his output. The man obviously grew up around black people, and simultaneously has a slight…remove…from the typical flow of human emotions. Is a bit of an “outsider” enough that he sees the human experience through a lens, and therefore doesn’t fully associate with either side of this madness. That’s apparently what it took to wrap his head around four hundred years of bullshit and come up with something like this.
Flawed? You bet. Unique? You bet. Was I hypnotized? You bet. Will I see it again? Ya think?
One of the best films of 2012, easily. But boy oh boy, is it not for every taste. Violent as hell, but not a fraction as violent as the institution it deconstructs. As a simple revenge fable, a romance, western, a Tarantino mash-up or a revisionist history that will…ummm…appeal to certain quadrants of the population and utterly appall others, DJANGO UNCHAINED is simply smashing entertainment. Excessive, overlong, self-indulgent…and masterful. A B+ at dead minimum. And in the right mood, virtually singular.
Steven Barnes
www.diamondhour.com
AdvertisementsDuring the election campaign, John Tory often referred to London, England’s Crossrail project, as a comparison to his SmartTrack plan. The 118-km, 40-station project runs on existing heavy rail tracks outside central London and in a 42-kilometre tunnel through the central city. Tory and his team pointed to how that project, like theirs, serves multiple commercial centres in the greater city area, how it used existing rail infrastructure, how it would be delivered on an ambitious timeline.
Martin Buck of London's Crossrail line describes how the mammoth project got done during a Toronto visit. ( CHRIS SO / TORONTO STAR )
So when we found out that Martin Buck, the commercial director of Crossrail, was in town for a convention, we at the Star invited him in to explain how his line might — and might not — compare to the one Tory now has a mandate to move forward on. Crossrail will represent a 10 per cent increase in capacity to what Buck calls a “mature” transit network that already includes 402 kilometres of Underground subway track and 125 kilometres of commuter rail on its “Overground” network, a system that is at or near capacity. Which means that at launch, the trains will run every 2.5 minutes in each direction, versus every 15 minutes in Tory’s SmartTrack plan. The vehicles will also have monstrously high capacity. Buck told us of the need to construct stations that cost almost $1 billion Canadian because they’ll be 250 metres long to accommodate the trains. Tory, by contrast, is proposing SmartTrack use a kind of train smaller than existing GO trains and smaller than our subway trains.
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Buck says the plan for Crossrail emerged not in a political campaign, but in studies commissioned and passed along since the 1970s or 1980s by transit planners. The project finally came up for formal proposal in the form of legislation in 2005, when it was widely embraced by local politicians, including the then-mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and then his successor, Boris Johnson. It is projected to be finished in 2018 — 13 years after that initial formal process was begun and decades after the initial rough plans were drawn up. But it is in the use of what Buck calls “innovative” financing — in contrast to Tory’s proposal — that we might most hope to learn from London’s example. Of the £14.8-billion ($26.8 billion Cdn) budget, a little less than half is being paid by the city of London. The city is raising its contribution in a few ways. Buck told us the business case to do so came in part from the potential £5 billion in land value uplift they project could come from the project and the total of £40 billion-plus in economic benefits the line is expected to deliver. In borrowing with the expectation of future economic value increases, this sounds a bit like Tory’s Tax Increment Financing plan. But that’s where the comparison stops. Because in London they see the projected economic improvements as a justification to raise taxes now, not as a source of magical funding.
In 2010, London began levying a 2 per cent annual premium on the property taxes paid by businesses across the Greater London Area, with the revenue earmarked for Crossrail. This measure, which had vocal support from the London First business lobby group, will generate about £4 billion. In addition, the mayor will levy a one-time infrastructure fee on various neighbourhood ratepayers (residences and businesses alike) of between £20 and £100 when the project is completed, adding a further £300 million.
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The city is borrowing against the future earnings from both of these sources of revenue, so that they have the capital upfront to spend on construction. The difference between that and Tory’s plan is significant. Tory has promised to borrow against expected taxes from future developments that may or may not appear, in order to promise that no existing taxpayers need to pay anything to build his line. In contrast, the people and businesses of London are already paying increased taxes for the Crossrail and will continue to do so in the future through tax increases already announced. That, unsurprisingly, is very similar to how we in Toronto wound up agreeing to pay for the Scarborough subway extension, with a 1.6 per cent property tax increase already being phased in. It is the responsible way to pay for transit. It does appear that in the broad strokes, our newly elected mayor has taken some inspiration from Crossrail. But as the SmartTrack plan moves from campaign proposal to actual plan, it’s likely he’ll need to learn from their financial teachings as well. The people of Toronto, resolutely promised a massive transit plan built with no tax increases, may find that a bitter lesson to have to learn. Edward Keenan writes on city issues ekeenan@thestar.ca. Follow: @thekeenanwire
Read more about:“Mr. Chairman, I am against all foreign aid, especially to places like Hawaii and Alaska,” says Senator Fussmussen from the floor of a cartoon Senate in 1962. In the visitors’ gallery, Russian agents Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale are deciding whether to use their secret “Goof Gas” gun to turn the Congress stupid, as they did to all the rocket scientists and professors in the last episode of “Bullwinkle.”
Another senator wants to raise taxes on everyone under the age of 67. He, of course, is 68. Yet a third stands up to demand, “We’ve got to get the government out of government!” The Pottsylvanian spies decide their weapon is unnecessary: Congress is already ignorant, corrupt and feckless.
Hahahahaha. Oh, Washington.
That joke was a wheeze half a century ago, a cornball classic that demonstrates the essential charm of the “Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends,” the cartoon show that originally aired between 1959 and 1964 about a moose and a squirrel navigating Cold War politics.
Last month, we lost the great June Foray, the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel and many others. Her passing gave me pause to reflect on how important the show was during my formative years and how far-reaching is its influence on satire today. “Bullwinkle” was, like so many of the really good cartoons, technically before my time (I was born the year it ended). My sister and I caught it in syndication as part of our regular weekend cartoon lineup of Looney Tunes, “Jonny Quest,” and “The Jetsons,” from elementary through high school.
It wasn’t that Bullwinkle the character was especially compelling. He was an affable doofus with a loyal heart, if limited brainpower. Rocky was the more intelligent straight man: a less hostile Abbott to Bullwinkle’s more secure Costello. They were earnest do-gooders who took every obviously shady setup at face value. Their enemies were far cleverer, better resourced, and infinitely more cunning, but Rocky and Bullwinkle always prevailed. Always. For absolutely no good reason. It was a sendup of every Horatio Alger, Tom Swift, plucky-American-hero-wins-against-all-odds story ever made.
What we didn’t know in the ‘70s, when we were watching, that this was pretty subversive stuff for a children’s program made at the height of the Cold War. Watching this dumb moose and his rodent pal continually prevail against well-funded human saboteurs gave me pause to consider, even as a kid, that perhaps it is a silly idea to believe that just because we’re the good guys we should always expect to win.
The animation was stiff but sweet, the puns plentiful and painful. The show poked fun at radio, television, and movie tropes, and took playful aim at Cold War spycraft. Part of the fun was that Bullwinkle wasn’t a regular cartoon, but an animated half-hour variety show. And “variety shows” used to be so much of a Thing that I am stunned there is no niche cable network devoted to them today.
Every episode of “The Bullwinkle Show” featured two cliffhanger segments in the adventures of Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel, pitted against master spies Boris and Natasha, all narrated breathlessly by erstwhile radio star William Conrad. Between each serial installment were stand-alone features, including “Peabody’s Improbable History,” wherein Mr. Peabody, a genius dog and his pet boy, Sherman, travel through time to make terrible puns; “Fractured Fairy Tales,” updated twists on Grimm Brothers classics; “Dudley Do-Right,” a parody of silent melodramas starring a cleft-chinned Canadian Mountie; and “Aesop & Son,” modernized versions of Aesop’s fables as told by Charlie Ruggles, star of silent and classic films. Other features included “Bullwinkle’s Corner,” an over-enunciated poetry reading, and “Mr. Know-It-All,” in which Bullwinkle tries and fails to teach us something.
The Variety Show format enabled three things. First, its gloss of adult sophistication completely undercut by silliness was incredibly attractive to me and my sister. Secondly, it got us to delight in the work of a revolving cast of top-notch, old school voice actors who’d grown up in radio and knew how to sell a line. June Foray, for example, is the common thread that weaves together the everyman fast-talkers of Warner Brothers films (she voiced Granny and Witch Hazel for Looney Tunes), the pop culture and political satire of Stan Freberg, and the Cold War kiddie fare of “Bullwinkle” (as Rocky, Nell Fenwick, Natasha, and more).
“Fractured Fairy Tales” were narrated by veteran actor Edward Everett Horton, a Warner Bros. stable favorite, and featured Daws Butler (Elroy Jetson), a Stan Freberg comedy show veteran, along with Paul Frees and June Foray. Before giving voice to Dudley Do-Right’s nemesis Snidely Whiplash, Hans Conried was better known as Captain Hook in Disney’s “Peter Pan,” as well as for his years’ long yeoman’s work on radio mystery shows, “I Love Lucy,” and “Burns and Allen.”
Finally, the show’s format and depth of talent connected my sister and me to a world of comedy that was well before our time, but helped us navigate what came afterwards. Apart from Sesame Street and the Electric Company (whose cast was a gift to future Broadway lovers) the cartoon landscape during the 1970s was bleak. I don’t know what happened during the Summer of Love to cause formerly respectable shops like Hanna-Barbera to go from “Jonny Quest” to “Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels,” but it can’t have been pretty. In those grim years when cable was not yet available to the common man and one had physically to get up to change the channel (or make one’s sister do it), we relied on three networks, a local PBS affiliate, and a couple of random UHF stations for our home entertainment. By setting the contemporary junk fare right up against reruns of infinitely better material, regular television gave my sister and me a great education in quality satire, voice recognition, and genius parody.
There was also the added benefit of our mother’s healthy collection of comedy albums—Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, Nichols & May, and Woody Allen—all of which are of the same era as “Bullwinkle” and feature some of the same performers. My parents and these comedians belong to the so-called “Silent” Generation—that cohort born between 1925 and 1945—too young to be the Greatest and too old to be Boomers. Born during times of economic insecurity, this group came of age during the McCarthy Era and is marked, understandably, by a desire not to rock the boat too much. While they weren’t as culturally radical as the Boomers of the ’60s, the artists and cultural provocateurs of the Silent Generation loved to take a whack at the Eisenhower status quo, not to mention psychoanalysis and the Bomb.
Because we loved these old records and shows, my sister and I ended up singing along with Tom Lehrer about German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (about whom we knew nothing), did the Vatican Rag and the Masochism Tango (ditto).
And so, through Bullwinkle, we were granted access to nearly a century’s worth of comedy and satire, three generations of backhanded patriotism tempered with gentle skepticism going back to vaudeville, a sort of atavistic psychic tool chest for navigating strange and scary times.
Bullwinkle was there when PBS pre-empted all programming to air the Watergate hearings in the summer I was eight, my last before sleepaway camp. At P.S. 19, we were still having bomb drills and the Cold War was still very much on, as was a hot war in Vietnam, but there was no recognition of these facts in the “Archies” or “Hong Kong Fooey.” Bullwinkle’s immunizing effect continues today. Had we only dreck like “Land of the Lost,” would we be prepared to contemplate Russian cyber-bots interfering in our presidential elections?
Bullwinkle’s playful critique lives on today in “Spongebob” and “The Simpsons,” shows whose creators openly acknowledge their debts. (Spongebob’s Squidward’s voice is Ned Sparks; Plankton is Walter Brennan. All the male Simpsons have Bullwinkle & Rocky’s middle initial “J.”) These shows are a loving critique of the ways American ideals and American reality are often out of whack. And it’s a good thing, because suddenly the original great theme of Bullwinkle—fear of nuclear annihilation—is back.
Beth Daniels writes a classic movie blog and watches entirely too much television. She wrote this for Zócalo Public Square.Ikonika's second album is inspired by a lifetime of living near airports. Have a listen and let us know if you think it flies
Ikonika's second album is inspired by her time living near Heathrow, a place where she feels like she could "teleport" to different cities. "The album is dreamy at times, in the clouds," she says. "It's pressurised but not cluttered. It's not supposed to be distracting."
Whereas Sara Abdel-Hamid's 2010 debut album Contact, Want, Love, Have turned heads with its ability to twist dubstep into fascinating new shapes, Aerotropolis heads off into areas that leap free of any pigeonholing.
"I think there was an effort to stop using certain sounds," she admits. "I avoided certain paths. I tried to engulf everything after dubstep and made a decision to go for style – my style – and progress in that way."
Influenced by Latin freestyle ("my guilty pleasure"), early house and Technicolor 80s pop, we reckon it sounds vibrant, playful and inventive. But what do you think? Have a listen using the widget below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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On the Greek Island of Lesvos there is a World Heritage Site which includes hundreds of petrified trees and countless other fossils. Many of these petrified trees are found standing upright with root systems intact. A variety of tree species have been identified including a species similar to the giant sequoia trees found today in California. Of the many large petrified trees identified on Lesvos one has a stump with a circumference of 45 feet and many others are more than 20 feet in circumference. Some of these trees were likely more than 300 feet tall when alive. We see here the preservation of a very impressive subtropical forest on what today is an island that is characterized mostly by desert and scrub-land habitats.
I only recently learned of this fossil forest from an advertisement looking for a student to continue work on reconstructing the biota of the region from new fossil collections. What caused me to look a bit further at this fossil forest was the observation that there are successive layers of forests and their associated ecosystems preserved on this island. This reminded me of another famous site at Yellowstone National Park – specimen ridge – where successive forests are preserved stacked on top of each other.
These preserved fossil forests stand as clear beacons of a time long ago when forests filled with plant and animals formed an ecosystem that was destroyed by catastrophic events. But these catastrophes were not the global flood as young-earth creationists (YECS) wish to believe. Rather they were destroyed by volcanic eruptions.
YECs have struggled to explain how the presence of ash-preserved standing trees in Yellowstone within their young-earth timeline, but nonetheless assert these forests must have been preserved in a global-flood.
The Lesvos island petrified trees present the same challenges to the YEC timeline but it struck me that these fossils give us an even clearly example of the emptiness of the YEC flood geology model to explain the abundant evidence of Earth’s ancient history. This small island is composed almost solely of volcanic material including sediments derived from eroded volcanic material. That volcanic history included many successive pyroclastic flows and explosive ashfall event as evident in the layers of ash and debris flow sediments found in vertical profiles across the island.
The evidence found in the rocks on this island tell us that between volcanic episodes weathered ash layers supported the growth of large forest ecosystems including very large sequoia trees. Several times these forests grew on the sides of, or in valleys among, volcanoes and were subsequently covered by large ashfall or pyroclastic flows. All of the petrified trees are found in thick layers of volcanic material which is an excellent preserver of organic material.
Here are the three important observations that every YEC needs to know about and account for:
The fossilized trees and entire preserved ecosystems are found only in volcanic material not in sediments from a watery flood
The trees and other plants preserved here are similar to species that exist today and thus are a relatively modern ecosystem which YECs generally consider to be the result of speciation after the Flood and hence should be considered by YECs a post-flood ecosystem.
The largest sequoia-like trees could have been more than 1000 years old when they died and there are large trees in multiple preserved layers which means trees of this age grew and died at different times.
This island is not covered by any discernible global flood sedimentary deposits but rather protrudes out of thousands of feet of sedimentary rock in the Mediterranean basin. In the YEC model of Earth’s history such geological formations were formed after the vast majority of the sedimentary rock was deposited and the lack of non-volcanic sedimentary rock suggests that the layers of volcanic material were formed above the water’s surface and hence in a post-flood world.
But if this is the case these forests must have grown and been preserved by events following a global flood which is said to have occurred only 4350 years ago. The massive size of some of the trees suggests a thousand years or more to develop the forest before it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. And then another forest with very old trees grew once again before being destroyed.
The climate today could not support the types of plants that are found petrified on this island. Consider that Theophrastus first described fossil trees here around 300 BC and the island at the time was much as it is now with a dry Mediterranean climate.
(Update: Please see the second comment in the feedback section that throws this claim that Theophrastus described the fossil trees in doubt. I obtained that information from the UNESCO website – link below – but it appears to be in error. Nevertheless, this islands was observed in its present condition at least by 300 BC)
How can the YEC squeeze the origin and life of these fossil forests into their compressed timeline? There is no historical records of volcanic activity on this island and so all volcan |
of hatching, conservationists remove the eggs and transfer them to special incubators in order to keep a closer eye on them. Like other reptiles the temperatures the eggs experience during incubation determine the genders of the hatchlings. Tuataras don’t reach sexual maturity until their teens, and can live till at least 91 years, but are thought to be able to live till over 100 years. Adequate research concerning the tuatara lifespan is hard to carry out considering they generally live longer than we do!
There are a number of wildlife parks and sanctuaries around New Zealand that hold and work on breeding tuatara. A few include the Auckland Zoo, Rainbow Springs, and Zealandia Wildlife Sanctuary.
AdvertisementsThe cult of the uniform also bespeaks a wounded empire’s need to reassert its masculinity in the wake of 9/11. “Dead or alive,” “bring it on,” “either you’re with us or you’re against us”: the tenor of official rhetoric in the ensuing years embodied a kind of desperate machismo. The war in Iraq, that catharsis of violence, expressed the same emotional dynamic. We’d been hit in the head with a rock; like a neighborhood bully, we grabbed the first person we could get our hands on and beat him senseless. Mission accomplished: we were strong again, or so we imagined, and the uniform — as George W. Bush understood when he swaggered across the deck of the Abraham Lincoln in a flight suit — was the symbol of that strength. The soldier is the way we want to see ourselves: stoic, powerful, focused, devoted.
This helps explain why the souring of the wars failed to tarnish the military’s reputation. There seems little doubt that our armed forces today are more professional, and at the small-unit level, at least, more effective, than they were in Vietnam. Still, Iraq descended into stalemate, and Afghanistan gives little hope, 10 years on, of ever being anything else. Does the fault lie with our civilian leadership alone, or with our client states? Do “our brave young men and women fulfill every mission we ask them to,” as the catechism goes? These are not rhetorical questions; these are the real questions that we haven’t been willing to ask ourselves. At the very least, our generals ought surely to come in for some criticism — as they did, when it was appropriate, in other wars. And yet the cult of the uniform has immunized them from blame, and inoculates the rest of us from thought.
There are other questions. Has the military really ceased to be the big, bumbling bureaucracy it was always taken to be? And if it is supremely efficient now, is that because there’s something uniquely effective about its command structure and values — a frequent implication these days — or rather because we’ve given it a blank check? Is America the world’s cop, as we like to say, or is our military something more like an imperial police force? (When it comes to places like Darfur or Ivory Coast, which are not felt to threaten national security interests, we leave the dirty work to someone else.)
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It seems extremely unlikely anything like My Lai has taken place in Iraq or Afghanistan, but there have been some terrible crimes: the abuses at Abu Ghraib ; the premeditated gang rape of a 14-year-old girl in Mahmudiya, Iraq, and the murder of her family; the executions of Afghan civilians by the self-described “kill team” from the 5th Stryker Brigade. Only the first has been widely discussed, likely because there were pictures. How many more of these have there been? Maybe none, maybe a significant number: until we ask — until we want to ask — we’ll never know.
As the national narrative shifts from the war on terror to the specter of decline, the uniform performs another psychic function. The military is can-do, the one institution — certainly the one public institution — that still appears to work. The schools, the highways, the post office; Amtrak, FEMA, NASA and the T.S.A. — not to mention the banks, the newspapers, the health care system, and above all, Congress: nothing seems to function anymore, except the armed forces. They’re like our national football team — and undisputed champs, to boot — the one remaining sign of American greatness.
The term most characteristically employed, when the cult of the uniform is celebrated, is “heroes.” Perhaps no word in public life of late has been more thoroughly debased by overuse. Soldiers are “heroes”; firefighters are “heroes”; police officers are “heroes” — all of them, not the special few who undoubtedly deserve the term. So unthinking has the platitude become that someone referred to national park rangers on public radio recently as “heroes” — reflexively, in passing — presumably since they wear uniforms, as well. Stephen Colbert picked up on this phenomenon long ago, which is why he slyly refers to his viewers — and now, to the donors to his Super PAC — by the same term.
“HEROES,” like “support our troops,” was also deployed early, in Iraq. Within a couple of weeks, we were treated to the manufactured heroism of Jessica D. Lynch, the young supply clerk who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital a few days after her capture by enemy forces (both events turning out to be far less cinematic than initially put out) and who finally felt compelled to speak out against her own use as an instrument of propaganda. In the case of Pat Tillman, the former professional football player who died the following year in Afghanistan by friendly fire, not in an ambush as originally claimed, it was left to his family to expose the lies with which the Army surrounded him. The irony is that our soldiers are the last people who are likely to call themselves heroes and are apparently very uncomfortable with this kind of talk. The military understands itself as a group endeavor. As the West Point professor Elizabeth D. Samet recently noted, service members feel uneasy when strangers approach them to — as the well-meaning but oddly impersonal ritual goes — thank them for their service, thereby turning them into paradoxically anonymous celebrities. It was wrong to demonize our service members in Vietnam; to canonize them now is wrong as well. Both distortions make us forget that what they are are human beings.
What is heroism? What kind of psychological purpose does the concept serve? Heroism is bravery and selflessness, but more than that, it is triumphant action, and in particular, morally unambiguous action. In most of life — and certainly in public life — there is scarcely such a thing on either count. Politics is a muddle of moral and practical compromise. Victories are almost always partial, ambiguous and subject to reversal. Heroism belongs to the realm of fantasy — the comic book, the action movie — or to delimited and often artificial spheres of action, like space exploration or sports.
The Marine who saves his buddies in a firefight, the cop who rescues a child from a well — the challenges they face are clear and simple and isolated from the human mess. Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot who successfully landed an airliner in the Hudson River, was, everyone agreed, a hero. But note how frequently the element of salvation or rescue comes up when we talk about heroism. It was a beautiful coincidence that Captain Sullenberger’s moment came just five days before the last presidential inauguration, for heroism and rescue were the subtext of Barack Obama ’s campaign, especially for his legions of young believers. He was the one we’d been waiting for; you could almost imagine the “S” on his chest, underneath the suit. (Once in office, of course, he descended into the muddle, and showed himself a mortal after all.) Heroes are daddies: larger-than-life figures, unimpeachably powerful and good, who save us from evil and hurt.
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“America needs heroes,” it is sometimes said, a phrase that’s often uttered in a wistful tone, almost cooingly, as if we were talking about a lonely child. But do we really “need heroes”? We need leaders, who marshal us to the muddle. We need role models, who show us how to deal with it. But what we really need are citizens, who refuse to infantilize themselves with talk of heroes and put their shoulders to the public wheel instead. The political scientist Jonathan Weiler sees the cult of the uniform as a kind of citizenship-by-proxy. Soldiers and cops and firefighters, he argues, embody a notion of public service to which the rest of us are now no more than spectators. What we really need, in other words, is a swift kick in the pants.The most common voluntary activity is not eating, drinking alcohol, or taking drugs. It is not socializing with friends, participating in sports, or relaxing with the family. While people sometimes describe sex as their most pleasurable act, time-management studies find that the average American adult devotes just four minutes per day to sex.
Our main leisure activity is, by a long shot, participating in experiences that we know are not real. When we are free to do whatever we want, we retreat to the imagination—to worlds created by others, as with books, movies, video games, and television (over four hours a day for the average American), or to worlds we ourselves create, as when daydreaming and fantasizing. …
This is a strange way for an animal to spend its days. Surely we would be better off pursuing more adaptive activities—eating and drinking and fornicating, establishing relationships, building shelter, and teaching our children. Instead, 2-year-olds pretend to be lions, graduate students stay up all night playing video games, young parents hide from their offspring to read novels, and many men spend more time viewing Internet pornography than interacting with real women. …
One solution to this puzzle is that the pleasures of the imagination exist because they hijack mental systems that have evolved for real-world pleasure. We enjoy imaginative experiences because at some level we don’t distinguish them from real ones. …
Just as artificial sweeteners can be sweeter than sugar, unreal events can be more moving than real ones. There are three reasons for this. First, fictional people tend to be wittier and more clever than friends and family, and their adventures are usually much more interesting. I have contact with the lives of people around me, but this is a small slice of humanity, and perhaps not the most interesting slice. My real world doesn’t include an emotionally wounded cop tracking down a serial killer, a hooker with a heart of gold, or a wisecracking vampire. As best I know, none of my friends has killed his father and married his mother. But I can meet all of those people in imaginary worlds.
Second, life just creeps along, with long spans where nothing much happens. The O.J. Simpson trial lasted months, and much of it was deadly dull. Stories solve this problem—as the critic Clive James once put it, “Fiction is life with the dull bits left out.” This is one reason why Friends is more interesting than your friends.
Finally, the technologies of the imagination provide stimulation of a sort that is impossible to get in the real world. A novel can span birth to death and can show you how the person behaves in situations that you could never otherwise observe. In reality you can never truly know what a person is thinking; in a story, the writer can tell you. (more)
Yes modern stories and art are more enticing than were those of our distant forager ancestors. But their stories and art also occupied much of their time, especially when food was plentiful. It seems rather implausible that this was only because “imagination … hijack[s] mental systems that have evolved for real-world pleasure.” Surely our foragers would have evolved a resistance to such imagination, if it in fact wasted valuable time. I’m pretty confident that since foragers had stories and art, then stories and art must have served, and still serve, important functions.
Modern humans often prefer to believe that the activities which they most treasure have no evolutionary function – that they were accidents. This attitude helps them stay blind to those functions, awareness of which would make their treasured activities seem less noble.
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loading...DHI Group—formerly known as Dice Holdings Incorporated prior to this April—announced plans this morning to sell the combination of Slashdot and SourceForge. The announcement was made as part of DHI’s 2Q15 financial results, which were mostly positive, with DHI showing an increase in revenue over the same period last year (totaling $65.8 million) and a net income of $5.7 million.
The telling quote comes under the section titled "Planned Sale of Slashdot Media," wherein the company states the following (emphasis added):
The Company acquired Slashdot Media in 2012 both to provide the Dice business with broader reach into Slashdot's user community base and to extend the Dice business outside North America by engaging with SourceForge's significant international technology user community. The Company, however, has not successfully leveraged the Slashdot user base to further Dice's digital recruitment business; and with the acquisition of The IT Job Board and success of Open Web, the anticipated value to the Company of the SourceForge traffic outside North America has not materialized. The Company now plans to divest the business, as it does not fit within the Company's strategic initiatives and believes the Slashdot Media business will have the opportunity to improve its financial performance under different ownership.
The report goes on to note that in spite of what the report calls "an incredibly loyal and passionate following of tech professionals," Slashdot and SourceForge aren't core to DHI’s business, and DHI has partnered with KeyBanc Capital Markets to advise DHI on the sale. There is no buyer lined up yet.
The report also says that Slashdot Media (the aggregate of Slashdot and SourceForge) made $1.7 million in revenue for the second quarter and that it’s estimated Slashdot Media will pull somewhere between $15 million and $16 million in revenue for fiscal 2015.
It’s too early to tell what exactly this means for Slashdot, which is one of the oldest technology news aggregation sites still in operation. Founded in 1997, Slashdot is one of those parts of the Web that simply feels like it has always been there. After its acquisition by DHI/Dice.com in 2012, site management attempted to freshen up its staid interface and layout with a new "beta" interface; the site’s user-base famously hated the change, and after slogging along for almost a year, the "beta" interface was retired without being implemented.
More recently, SourceForge has been accused of a whole lot of bad behavior with injecting malware into some of the open source projects it hosts. Although SourceForge representatives explained that they only intended to modify "abandoned" projects and publicly denied any wrongdoing, it was difficult to square that statement with its apparent tampering with the download packages of well-known and clearly-not-abandoned projects like image editor GIMP and network scanning tool nmap.The astonishing allegations, if true—that Russian intelligence sought and obtained “kompromat” on President-elect Trump—may yet turn into a scandal of unprecedented magnitude. And that, presumably, would constitute a fatal blow for the Trump presidency.
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But what if it’s just more mischief from the intelligence community? What if it’s a setup, an attempt to bring down the president-elect? That was certainly the goal of the “ops research” that culminated in the unflattering allegations. It was financed first by Republicans in the primary and then by Democrats in the general election. It may also be the intension of the elites who run the intelligence agencies.
John Brennan, the outgoing director of the CIA, could not contain his insubordination. He told Fox News, “I don’t think he [Trump] has a full understanding of Russian capabilities and the actions they are taking on the world.” Trump, of course, not a man to walk away from a fight, referenced Brennan’s remarks and countered on Twitter, “…Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?” Was Trump now accusing Brennan of leaking the stories about misconduct in Russia?
There is only one thing we know for certain about this whole sordid imbroglio—the intelligence community is not supposed to interfere with the orderly transfer of power in the U.S. political system.
So why, then, after 240 years of democracy, have the intelligence agencies inserted themselves into the election and the transition? Why did the FBI try to influence its outcome, and why did the IC release unsubstantiated assertions about the president-elect, attacking the legitimacy of the electoral process and his electoral victory?
Let’s start with the FBI, which is both a law enforcement and an intelligence agency. In an unprecedented intervention, its director, James Comey, lobbed a bombshell into the 2016 election, tarnishing the image of 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, and quite possibly denying her victory. This is, of course, old news, even though no one yet understands why Comey wrote inflammatory letters to Congress in the first place. And why did he attempt to damage Clinton when the real target of the intelligence community is Trump? An investigation, just launched by the Justice Department, may provide some answers.
Comey’s arrogance pales compared to Act II, a full court press by the leaders of the intelligence agencies, both civilian and military, to destroy 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. Just imagine it. The setting is Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, NSA Director Mike Rogers, and James Clapper, director of national intelligence—all confronting the president-elect over compromising material—allegedly collected when he was in Russia by the Russian intelligence services.
So how could this possibly happen? In an act of political defiance, the spymasters appended a two-page memo to the top-secret report ordered by President Obama on Russian hacking of the election. The memo summarized the “ops research” conducted by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele, who is now in hiding. It referenced the compromising material. But even more important, the appendix implicated members of the Trump campaign team in a conspiracy with Russian intelligence officials. Together, they sought to hack the computers of the Democratic National Committee, and to release derogatory material timed to damage the Clinton campaign.
The intelligence community could have controlled the top secret report, providing it only to the president and the president elect. But they chose, instead, to give copies, including the incendiary appendix, to the leadership in Congress as well. It was a reversal of roles: the intelligence agencies blabbed while the Washington press corps, which had known about the allegations for weeks or longer, remained silent. When the appendix was predictably leaked, it raged like wildfire into the media and in political circles across the globe. The Trump juggernaut staggered.
Clapper’s claim that he is "profoundly dismayed" by the leak is simply not credible. What did he think Congress would do with such politically explosive material? Let’s be clear, they have thrown a monkey wrench into the political machinery of the republic. As a result, Trump’s presidency will be plagued by innuendo and unsubstantiated allegations in the months ahead that could take much longer to go away.
This is much more than the stuff of spy novels.
It is a telling intrusion on the political coherence and continuity of the republic without precedent. It is an extraordinary arrogance of power, pure and simple, born in a culture of secrecy, which elected political authorities have been unable to resist. Since 9/11 the intelligence community has gained broad new powers. They have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to swell their ranks, build up secret intelligence infrastructure, implement expansive new surveillance programs, and insinuate their influence throughout the government. Their silent coup d’état has suddenly and unexpectedly burst onto the political stage.
So much for Obama’s attempts to promote a smooth transition—inviting the president-elect in the White House, and instructing his subordinates to cooperate with his transition team. Both he and Trump have been upstaged by the political machinations of an intelligence community that has forgotten the limits of its power in the context of democracy.”
William W. Keller worked as a security analyst for the U.S. Congress for 10 years, as executive director of the Center for International Studies at MIT and as professor and director of security centers at the Universities of Pittsburgh and Georgia. He is the author and editor of seven books and has written extensively about the FBI, defense technology, the intelligence community, and the arms trade. His latest book is "Democracy Betrayed: The Rise of the Surveillance Security State," from Counterpoint Press.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.President Trump is setting aside the more important work of his presidency to focus on a spat that raises serious conflict of interest questions — namely, the fact that his daughter's fashion brand was dumped by Nordstrom's.
After taking to Twitter on Wednesday to complain that Ivanka Trump had been "treated so unfairly" by Nordstrom's when they decided to stop selling her products, Team Trump sent White House counsel Kellyanne Conway to "Fox & Friends" on Thursday morning. Conway encouraged Fox viewers — some of Trump's biggest fans — to help pad her bottom line.
Advertisement:
Prior to Conway's appearance, Norm Eisen, the former ethics czar for President Barack Obama, said that the Trump team's determination to hawk Ivanka's products — and punish Nordstrom for no longer selling them was a violation of the law.
"This is a shot across the bow to everybody who is doing business with Trump or his family," Eisen told the Associated Press. "It's warning them: Don't withdraw their business." Government ethics expert Kathleen Clark, who is a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, had a similar observation. "The implicit threat was that he will use whatever authority he has to retaliate against Nordstrom, or anyone who crosses his interest," Clark told the Associated Press.
She added that while Trump has a right to tweet from his personal account, it was ethically questionable to use his official Twitter account to retweet his attack against the retailer.
Larry Noble, who is the general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, believes that Conway's endorsement may have been illegal.
As of Wednesday, Neiman Marcus stopped carrying Ivanka Trump's merchandise while T. J. Maxx and Marshalls stopped featuring her products and discarded her signage.paul frankenstein's flickr
Yesterday, a woman was fatally struck by a train at Astor Place. The 55-year-old woman, whose name hasn't been released yet, was struck by a northbound 6 train just after 4 p.m. Saturday. Initial reports indicated she may have jumped, but according to witnesses, she was struck after she leaned over the platform: "She turned to look for the train and was hit literally right in the face by it," witness Giancarlo Vinciguerra told us. "The impact was enough to spin her body into the side of the moving train which finally knocked her down, and her leg was then also hit by the side of the train."
Vinciguerra, who described the woman as either Asian or Hispanic, said other people at the station came to her aid immediately: "She was just laying there until another passenger who I presumed was medically trained took her pulse, rolled her over and tilted her head back I guess to make sure her air passage was not obstructed." Those other passengers included Crystal Mojica's sister, a nurse, and a doctor who was there: "[The doctor] proceeded to give her CPR, but the woman's face was so badly disfigured [and] covered in blood that it was not possible to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," Mojica told the News.
Paramedics took the woman to Beth Israel Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. "The sound that was made when the train hit her was loud enough to have everyone around us turn to see what happened, most of us thought she was dead on impact and I was pretty surprised to see them try CPR, knowing they wouldn't try without getting some vital signs," Vinciguerra added. "It was very sad and I was hoping to hear of some sort of miracle."Year 2 is Dave Dombrowski’s chance to show off his creativity. Year 1 was paint-by-numbers.
Last offseason, the Red Sox’ plan was clear cut: Find a starter, reliever and backup outfielder. The president of baseball operations signed David Price to a record contract, traded four prospects for closer Craig Kimbrel and signed outfielder Chris Young. The team got better.
This winter it’s not so simple. The Red Sox’ obvious needs are in the bullpen and at designated hitter. But they also are deep and flexible, meaning if Dombrowski wants to look for interesting ways to upgrade his roster, he certainly can.
In that spirit, here are five Red Sox players who could be expendable this offseason:
• Jackie Bradley Jr., 26, CF
This is no knock against Bradley, who had an All-Star season and still has four years left of team control, though he’s up for arbitration this offseason and should make at least $3 million. It’s a testament to the Red Sox’ depth in center field.
Few can roam center as well as Bradley, but the Sox have two other center fielders in their outfield in Mookie Betts, who just won a Gold Glove in right, and Andrew Benintendi, a natural center fielder who was converted to left field last season.
Dexter Fowler and Ian Desmond are the top two free agent center fielders, but more than two teams need one. The White Sox are one, and they reportedly inquired about Bradley for Chris Sale in July. The Oakland A’s are another. And though they typically trade players in their first year of arbitration, not acquire them, they could use the dynamic playmaker Bradley, who wouldn’t be just a piece in Oakland but a star.
• Blake Swihart, 24, C
Swihart is back behind the plate in winter ball as he prepares to enter spring training as a catcher. But the Red Sox also have Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez.
Members of the organization have long been split about Swihart’s best position. There is no debate about his impressive offensive ability, however.
The White Sox are in need of a catcher and might finally go for a rebuild. Maybe David Robertson, with two years left with $25 million owed to him, could be a trade target as the new Red Sox set-up man. The Atlanta Braves and Detroit Tigers, among others, also need backstops.
• Travis Shaw, 26, 1B/3B
Shaw still has a chip on his shoulder. A dominant offensive performer for two months in 2016, his bat disappeared for the rest of the season. He knows he’s capable of better. Other teams who watched his sweet swing and smooth glove in April and May surely know that, too.
Teams in need of third basemen this winter don’t have many options in free agency, with Justin Turner and Luis Valbuena the two best options. The Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers are in need. Shaw grew up at Dodger Stadium when his dad, Jeff, pitched for them.
• Clay Buchholz, 32, RHP
Most teams could use more starters, especially when the market is as thin as it is this offseason. And if the Red Sox want to free up salary to pursue another front-line starter or upgrade at another position, Buchholz’ $13.5 million might be the first place to start.
He’s a free agent after this season, so depending on the new CBA rules, he could be a qualifying offer candidate if he has a strong year. The chance at getting a draft pick might be small, so that is one reason not to trade him.
• Drew Pomeranz, 28, LHP
Trading Pomeranz makes sense only if the Red Sox have their eyes on an upgrade in the rotation. He had a breakout 2016 season and while he struggled in the American League, with a 4.59 ERA after his trade from San Diego, he remains a quality left-handed starter with two years left of team control.
The Red Sox are in good shape if they open the season with Pomeranz as the No. 3 or No. 4 starter. If they can find a way to upgrade, even better.
A Big Papi sighting
Few players can tease their fans like David Ortiz.
In May, he had the ultimate tease when he told Yahoo! Sports he was hoping the Red Sox didn’t make the decision to retire difficult by offering him $25 million to play again in 2017. He had a team option for $16 million.
Dombrowski didn’t take the bait, telling the Herald earlier this month that he didn’t believe it was his responsibility to try and change Ortiz’ mind.
“It’s not even making it a hard decision — it’s respect,” Dombrowski said. “If you tell me something, that’s what you believe and I have to respect what you say. And so we respect what he says.”
Maybe Dombrowski should reconsider, especially after the 40-year-old icon dropped another hint last week in a letter published in the Players Tribune, admitting he’s already gone back to Fenway Park to work out since the season ended.
“Everybody was gone,” Ortiz wrote. “It was just me and my trainer alone in the gym at Fenway. I started working out and I got tired so fast. The fastest I’ve ever gotten tired. I was dying.
“All of a sudden, the president of the Red Sox came in and saw me working out. He was like, ‘See, this is the stuff that scares me, David.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, I just don’t want to be sitting at home doing nothing.’ ”
Dombrowski then asked him, “Do you have something to tell me, David?”
“No, no, no,” Ortiz said. “I’m retired. I swear.”
Prime offerings?
Good news for Amazon Prime members who travel during the baseball season and want to catch the Red Sox on NESN while away from the home market: Amazon is looking into streaming live sports, including MLB games, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, who is also on the MLB competitions committee, said on CNBC last week that he was not concerned that MLB could become oversaturated.
“I think you want to be ubiquitous, don’t you?” Werner said on CNBC. “You want to sell rifles to cowboys and indians, right? We want to be on cable. We want to be on the mobile phone, on satellite. I think you want to be everywhere.”
Hot start for Hazen
It’s not often the Arizona Diamondbacks make a trade and receive positive feedback from industry insiders, but that’s exactly what happened on Thanksgiving eve.
Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen, the former Red Sox GM, late Wednesday night worked a trade with the Seattle Mariners, netting right-hander Taijuan Walker, 24, and shortstop Ketel Marte, 21, while selling high on former All-Star shortstop Jean Segura.
“Young, controllable pitching is hard to find,” Hazen told the Arizona Republic.
Walker is the prize, despite being an unfinished product with a career 4.18 ERA.
There are five pitchers in MLB history to throw as many as 350 innings with a strikeout rate of 8.1-per-nine-innings and a strikeout-to-walk rate of 3.25 before turning 24 years old: Roger Clemens, Mark Prior, Madison Bumgarner, Jose Fernandez and Walker.
Hazen’s tenure in Arizona is off to quite the start.While European countries are being lectured about their failure to take in enough refugees, Saudi Arabia – which has taken in precisely zero migrants – has 100,000 air conditioned tents that can house over 3 million people sitting empty.
The sprawling network of high quality tents are located in the city of Mina, spreading across a 20 square km valley, and are only used for 5 days of the year by Hajj pilgrims. As the website Amusing Planet reports, “For the rest of the year, Mina remains pretty much deserted.”
The tents, which measure 8 meters by 8 meters, were permanently constructed by the Saudi government in the 1990’s and were upgraded in 1997 to be fire proof. They are divided into camps which include kitchen and bathroom facilities.
The tents could provide shelter for almost all of the 4 million Syrian refugees that have been displaced by the country’s civil war, which was partly exacerbated by Saudi Arabia’s role in funding and arming jihadist groups.
However, as the Washington Post reports, wealthy Gulf Arab nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and others have taken in precisely zero Syrian refugees. Although Saudi Arabia claims it has taken in 500,000 Syrians since 2011, rights groups point out that these people are not allowed to register as migrants. Many of them are also legal immigrants who moved there for work. In comparison, Lebanon has accepted 1.3 million refugees – more than a quarter of its population.
While it refuses to take in any more refugees, Saudi Arabia has offered to build 200 mosques for the 500,000 migrants a year expected to pour into Germany.
Saudis argue that the tents in Mina are needed to host the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, but given that the Arabic concept of Ummah is supposed to offer protection to all Muslims under one brotherhood, surely an alternative location could be found so that Mina can be repurposed to house desperate families fleeing war and ISIS persecution?
While Europe is being burdened by potentially millions of people who don’t share the same culture or religion as the host population, Gulf Arab states refuse to pull their weight, resolving only to throw money at the problem.
The likelihood of the Saudis inviting Syrian refugees to stay in Mina is virtually zero, but the thousands of empty tents serve as a physical representation of the hypocrisy shared by wealthy Gulf Arab states when it comes to helping with the crisis.
Photos credit: Akram Abahre.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
BUCKFAST has been linked to almost 7000 crimes in Scotland over the last three years, police figures have revealed.
The tonic wine is mentioned six times a day in crime reports compiled by officers across the country.
Offences involving the drink made by Benedictine monks in Devon include attempted murder, assaults with weapons and sexual attacks.
Buckfast distributors J Chandler & Co have denied the product is to blame for thugs’ actions.
The new figures show that in the old Strathclyde Police area, Buckfast was mentioned in 6496 reports over the last three years.
That was a rise of almost 1000 from the previous three years and the true toll could be higher as multiple offences can be included in one crime report.
In Fife, there were 175 reports which mentioned Buckfast over the three years, 30 involving a weapon.
Tayside dealt with 150 crimes, Central Scotland had 92 and there were 40 in Lothian and Borders.
There were 22 incidents in Grampian and 21 in Dumfries and Galloway, while Northern couldn’t provide a figure.
Other crimes linked to the drink include shoplifting, housebreaking and culpable and reckless conduct.
Yesterday, MSPs said the statistics reinforced demands for action on alcohol-related violence.
Coatbridge has been dubbed Scotland’s Buckie capital and the town’s Labour MSP Elaine Smith called for a ban on high-caffeine drinks such as Buckfast.
She said: “It has been proven that the mixture of caffeine and alcohol is an explosive one which causes increased anxiety and aggression.
“When the Alcohol Bill went through Parliament, Labour attempted to legally limit the amount of caffeine in alcohol to 150mg per litre. This was unfortunately voted down by the SNP.
“It is time the Scottish Government looked again at tackling this problem.”
Alison McInnes MSP, the Scottish Lib Dems’ justice spokeswoman, said: “A bottle of tonic wine might be cheap but these figures show Scotland pays a high price for the problems that excessive drinking can cause in our communities.
“We have already seen moves towards minimum pricing that will help reduce problem drinking.
“But ministers must continue to work with retailers and police to ensure alcohol is sold responsibly.”
A regular bottle of Buckfast contains 281mg of caffeine – the equivalent of eight cans of Coke – and is 15 per cent alcohol.
Phil Hanlon, professor of public health at Glasgow University, told how mixing excessive amounts of alcohol and caffeine can have disastrous results.
He said: “Caffeine is an issue which involves accidents, taking risks you wouldn’t otherwise take and getting involved in violence or aggression. You get disinhibited with alcohol and if you add a central nervous system stimulant such as caffeine to that, it can make the likelihood of you getting involved in a misadventure while under the influence greater.”
J Chandler & Co insisted their drink had been unfairly persecuted.
Spokesman Stewart Wilson said: “Simply because Buckfast is mentioned in a crime report does not mean the drink was responsible for the crime.
“It is an individual’s choice to go out and commit a crime and it is nothing to do with Buckfast.
“We feel we are unfairly singled out, whereas various other brands of alcohol which are connected with crime are not.
“I would imagine the number of crime reports where Buckfast is mentioned is minimal when you compare it to the total number of crimes committed.”
In February, J Chandler & Co launched legal action accusing Strathclyde Police of discrimination after the force attached anti-crime labels to bottles.
The labels allow police to trace bottles back to the shop, to identify anyone selling to underage drinkers or detect crime suspects.
Police Chief Superintendent Bob Hamilton said |
Syracuse alike. In 265 BC, Hiero II, former general of Pyrrhus and the new tyrant of Syracuse, took action against them. Faced with a vastly superior force, the Mamertines divided into two factions, one advocating surrender to Carthage, the other preferring to seek aid from Rome. As a result, embassies were sent to both cities.
While the Roman Senate debated the best course of action, the Carthaginians eagerly agreed to send a garrison to Messana. A Carthaginian garrison was admitted to the city, and a Carthaginian fleet sailed into the Messanan harbour. However, soon afterwards they began negotiating with Hiero. Alarmed, the Mamertines sent another embassy to Rome asking them to expel the Carthaginians.
Hiero's intervention had placed Carthage's military forces directly across the narrow channel of water that separated Sicily from Italy. Moreover, the presence of the Carthaginian fleet gave them effective control over this channel, the Strait of Messina, and demonstrated a clear and present danger to nearby Rome and her interests. The Roman senate was unable to decide on a course of action and referred the matter to the people, who voted to intervene.
The Roman attack on the Carthaginian forces at Messana triggered the first of the Punic Wars. Over the course of the next century, these three major conflicts between Rome and Carthage would determine the course of Western civilization. The wars included a Carthaginian invasion led by Hannibal, which nearly prevented the rise of the Roman Empire. Eventual victory by Rome was a turning point which meant that the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean would pass to the modern world via Southern Europe instead of Northwest Africa.
Shortly after the First Punic War, Carthage faced a major mercenary revolt which changed the internal political landscape of Carthage (bringing the Barcid family to prominence), and affected Carthage's international standing, as Rome used the events of the war to base a claim by which it seized Sardinia and Corsica.
The emergence of the Roman Republic led to sustained rivalry with the more anciently established Carthage for dominion of the western Mediterranean. As early as 509 BC. Carthage and Rome had entered into treaty status, chiefly regarding trading areas; later in 348, another similar treaty was made between Carthage, Tyre, Utica, and Rome; a third Romano-Punic treaty in 280 regarded wars against the Greek invader Pyrrhus.[119][120][121] Yet eventually their opposing interests led to disagreement, suspicion, and conflict.
The First Punic War (264–241) started in a dispute over Messina, a city in eastern Sicily. "Probably both sides miscalculated the reaction of the other. The war... escalated beyond anyone's expectations.... Begun over one town in Sicily [it] became a struggle for the whole island."[122] The conflict developed into a naval war in which the Romans learned how to fight at sea and then decisively defeated the Punic fleet. Carthage lost Sicily (all of its former western portion) and paid a huge indemnity. Evidently Carthage had not then been ready to wage war against an equal power.[123][124]
Following the defeat of Carthage, their mercenaries revolted against them, which threatened the survival of the Punic social order. Yet Carthage endured, under their opposing leaders Hanno II the Great, and Hamilcar Barca. During this crisis at Carthage, Rome refused to aid the rebels (underpaid mercenaries and dissident Berbers), but later occupied Sardinia.[125][126]
Second Punic War [ edit ]
As to the Second Punic War (218–201), the ancient Greek historian Polybius gives three causes: the anger of Hamilcar Barca (father of Hannibal) whose army in Sicily the Romans did not defeat in the first war; the Roman seizure of Sardinia during the Mercenary revolt; and, creation by the Barcid military family of a new Punic power base in Hispania.[127][128][129][130] Nonetheless, the immediate cause was a dispute concerning Saguntum (near modern Valencia) in Hispania. After prevailing there, Hannibal Barca set out northward, eventually leading his armies over the Alps into Italy.[131][132]
At first Hannibal ("grace of Baal") won great military victories against Rome on its own territory, at Trasimeno (217), and at Cannae (216), which came close to destroying Rome's ability to wage war. But the majority of Rome's Italian allies remained loyal; Rome drew on all her resources and managed to rebuild her military strength. For many years Hannibal enjoyed the support of those cities who defected from Rome, including Capua south of Rome and Tarentum in the far south; Hannibal remained on campaign there, maintaining his army and posing an existential threat to Rome and her remaining Italian allies. Yet the passage of years appeared to forestall Hannibal's chances, although for a while Rome's fate appeared to hang in the balance.[133]
Meanwhile, Hispania remained throughout the year 211 the domain of armies under Hannibal's three brothers: Hasdrubal, Mago, and Hanno, and also the Punic leader Hasdrubal Gisco. Yet Roman forces soon began to contest Carthage for its control. In 207 an overland attempt by his brother Hasdrubal to reinforce Hannibal in Italy failed. Rome became encouraged. By 206, the fortunes of war in Hispania had turned against Carthage; the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio (later Africanus, 236–183) had decisively defeated Punic power in the peninsula.[134]
In 204 Roman armies under Scipio landed at Utica near Carthage, which forced Hannibal's return to Africa. One Numidian king, Syphax, supported Carthage; however, Syphax met an early defeat. Rome found an old ally in another Berber king of Numidia, the scrambling Masinissa, who would soon grow in power and fame. Decisively, he chose to fight with Rome against Carthage. At the Battle of Zama in 202 the Roman general Scipio Africanus, with Masinissa commanding Numidian cavalry on his right wing, defeated Hannibal Barca, ending the long war.[135][136][137] Carthage lost all of its trading cities and silver mines in Hispania, and its other possessions in the western Mediterranean; also lost: Carthage's political influence over the Berber Kingdoms (Numidia and Mauretania), which became independent Roman allies. Masinissa, traditional king of the Numidian Massyli, was restored to an enlarged realm. Carthage, reduced to its immediate surroundings, its actions restricted by treaty, was required to pay a very large indemnity to Rome over fifty years.[138][139][140][141]
Yet Carthage soon revived under the reforms initiated by Hannibal and, free of defence burdens, prospered as never before. In 191 Carthage offered to pay off early the indemnity due Rome, causing alarm in the anti-Punic faction there. Then the corrupt and rigid oligarchy in Carthage joined with this Roman faction to terminate Hannibal's reforms; eventually Hannibal was forced to flee the city. Many Romans continued to nurse a hot, across-the-board opposition to Carthage.[142] The anti-Punic faction was led by the conservative, anti-Hellenic politician Cato (234–149, Consul 195, censor 184) who, before the last Punic war, at every occasion in the Senate at Rome had proclaimed, Delenda est Carthago! "Carthage must be blotted out!".[143][144]
Yet the Roman military hero of the Second Punic War, Scipio Africanus (236–183, Consul 205, 194) favoured a generous policy toward Hannibal. Later Scipio's son-in-law Scipio Nasica (183–132; Consul 162, 155) supported the cause of Carthage.[145] Indeed, the pro-Hellenic Scipio circle at Rome, which included Scipio Aemilianus (185–129) and Polybius (203–120) the Greek historian, welcomed and embraced the Berber Publius Terentius Afer (195–159). Terence was born in Carthage yet in Rome he had mastered the Latin language well and became a celebrated Roman playwright.[146][147][148] Also the Roman comedy entitled Poenulus ("The Carthaginian") of circa 190 by the popular dramatist Plautus (c.250–184) had featured an extended family from Carthage who in Greece triumphed over the nefarious schemes of a leno, a Roman slaver.[149][150]
There were likewise citizens of Carthage, who increasingly accepted the cultural influence of the Hellenic world. For example, Hasdrubal a son of Carthage (also known as Cleitomachus) became a student of Greek philosophy and travelled to join the Platonic Academy at Athens. Several decades later Hasdrubal himself became its leader, the scholarch (129–110).[151] Hasdrubal may be said to have followed in the footsteps of a Phoenician trader from Cyprus, Zeno of Citium (335–265), who earlier in Athens had founded another, the Stoic, school of philosophy.[152] Despite the above Roman peace faction and such multiple, cultural and artistic interactions between Rome and Carthage within the context of the Mediterranean world, again war came.
Third Punic War [ edit ]
The Third Punic War (149–146) began following armed conflict between Carthage and the Numidian king Masinissa (r.204–148), who for decades had been attacking and provoking the city. Carthage eventually responded, yet by prosecuting this defensive war the city had broken its treaty with Rome. Hence when challenged by Rome Carthage surrendered to Rome's superior strength. The war faction in control at Rome, however, was determined to undo Carthage; cleverly hiding its true aims while talks proceeded (wherein Carthage gave up significant military resources), Rome eventually presented Carthage with an ultimatum: either evacuate the city which would then be destroyed; or war. Roman armies landed in Africa and began to lay siege to the magnificent city of Carthage, which rejected further negotiations. The end came: Carthage was destroyed; its surviving citizens enslaved.[153][154][155]
In the aftermath, the region (much of modern Tunisia) was annexed by the Roman Republic as the new Province of Africa. The city of Carthage was eventually rebuilt by the Romans under Julius Caesar, beginning in 46 BCE. It later became capital of Africa Province and a leading city of the Empire. The entire province, Berber and Punic with a large Latin and multinational influx, then experienced a centuries-long renaissance. Long after the fall of Rome, the re-built city of Carthage would be again undone.[156]
The fall of Carthage [ edit ]
The fall of Carthage was at the end of the third Punic War in 146 BC. In spite of the initial devastating Roman naval losses at the beginning of the series of conflicts and Rome's recovery from the brink of defeat after the terror of a 15-year occupation of much of Italy by Hannibal, the end of the series of wars resulted in the end of Carthaginian power and the complete destruction of the city by Scipio Aemilianus. The Romans pulled the Phoenician warships out into the harbour and burned them before the city, and went from house to house, slaughtering and enslaving the people. The city was set ablaze, and in this way was razed with only ruins and rubble to field the aftermath.
Roman Carthage [ edit ]
Since the 19th century, some historians have written that the city of Carthage was salted to ensure that no crops could be grown there, but there is no ancient evidence for this.[157]
When Carthage fell, its nearby rival Utica, a Roman ally, was made capital of the region and replaced Carthage as the leading centre of Punic trade and leadership. It had the advantageous position of being situated on the Lake of Tunis and the outlet of the Medjerda River, Tunisia's only river that flowed all year long. However, grain cultivation in the Tunisian mountains caused large amounts of silt to erode into the river. This silt was accumulated in the harbour until it was made useless, and Rome was forced to rebuild Carthage.
A new city of Carthage was built on the same land, and by the 1st century AD it had grown to the second largest city in the western half of the Roman Empire, with a peak population of 500,000. It was the centre of the Roman province of Africa, which was a major "breadbasket" of the empire. Carthage briefly became the capital of a usurper, Domitius Alexander, in 308–311 AD.
Carthage also became a centre of early Christianity. Tertullian rhetorically addressed the Roman governor with the fact that the Christians of Carthage that just yesterday were few in number, now "have filled every place among you —cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palaces, senate, forum; we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods." (Apologeticus written at Carthage, c. 197).
Roman villas, Carthage
In the first of a string of rather poorly reported Councils of Carthage a few years later, no fewer than 70 bishops attended. Tertullian later broke with the mainstream that was represented more and more by the bishop of Rome, but a more serious rift among Christians was the Donatist controversy, which Augustine of Hippo spent much time and parchment arguing against. In 397 at the Council of Carthage, the Biblical canon for the Western Church was confirmed.
Antonine baths ruins, from the Roman period
The Vandals under their king Genseric crossed to Africa in 429,[158] either as a request of Bonifacius, a Roman general and the governor of the Diocese of Africa,[159] or as migrants in search of safety. They subsequently fought against the Roman forces there and by 435 had defeated the Roman forces in Africa and established the Vandal Kingdom. After a failed attempt to recapture the city in the 5th century, the Byzantines finally subdued the Vandals in the 6th century. Using Gaiseric's grandson's disposal by a distant cousin, Gelimer, as either a valid justification or pretext, the Byzantines dispatched an army to conquer the Vandal kingdom. On Sunday, 15 October 533, the Byzantine general Belisarius, accompanied by his wife Antonina, made his formal entry into Carthage, sparing it a sack and a massacre.
During the emperor Maurice's reign, Carthage was made into an Exarchate, as was Ravenna in Italy. These two exarchates were the western bulwarks of Byzantium, all that remained of its power in the west. In the early 7th century, it was the Exarch of Carthage Heraclius, who overthrew Emperor Phocas.
The Byzantine Exarchate was not, however, able to withstand the Arab conquerors of the 7th century. The first Arab assault on the Exarchate of Carthage was initiated from Egypt without much success in 647. A more protracted campaign lasted from 670 to 683. In 698, the Exarchate of Africa was finally overrun by Hassan Ibn al Numan and a force of 40,000 men. The population was displaced to the neighbouring town of Tunis which in turn vastly eclipsed Carthage as the major regional centre. Carthage's materials were used to supply the expansion of Tunis.[160] The destruction of the Exarchate of Africa marked a permanent end to the Byzantine Empire's influence in the region.
Modern Carthage [ edit ]
The modern Carthage is a suburb of Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia, situated at the site of the ancient capital of the Carthaginian empire. Carthage was little more than an agricultural village for nine hundred years until the middle of the 20th century; since then it has grown rapidly as an upscale coastal suburb.[161][162] In 2004 it had a population of 15,922 according to the national census,[163] and an estimated population of 21,276 in January 2013.[164]
In February 1985, Ugo Vetere, the mayor of Rome, and Chedly Klibi, the mayor of Carthage, signed a symbolic treaty "officially" ending the conflict between their cities, which had been supposedly extended by the lack of a peace treaty for more than 2,100 years.[165] Carthage is a tourist attraction. The Carthage Palace (the Tunisian presidential palace), is located in the city.[166]
The modern Carthage, beyond its residential vocation, seems to be invested with an affirmed political role. The geographical configuration of Carthage, as an old peninsula, save Carthage, of Tunis' inconveniences and embarrassments and increase its attractiveness as a residency place toward the elites.[167] If Carthage is not the capital, it tends to be the political pole, a " place of emblematic power " according to Sophie Bessis,[168] leaving to Tunis the economic and administrative roles.
Sources [ edit ]
Some ancient translations of Punic texts into Greek and Latin as well as inscriptions on monuments and buildings discovered in Northwest Africa survive.[169] However, the majority of available primary source material about Carthaginian civilization was written by Greek and Roman historians, such as Livy, Polybius, Appian, Cornelius Nepos, Silius Italicus, Plutarch, Dio Cassius and Herodotus. These authors came from cultures nearly always in competition and often in conflict, with Carthage. The Greeks contested with Carthage for Sicily,[170] and the Romans fought the Punic Wars against Carthage.[171] Inevitably, the accounts of Carthage written by outsiders include significant bias. Recent excavation of ancient Carthaginian sites has brought much more primary material to light. Some of the finds contradict or confirm aspects of the traditional picture of Carthage, but much of the material is still ambiguous.
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Image caption Lord Hamilton and Lord Cullen have expressed concern about the plan
Two former heads of the judiciary in Scotland have spoken out against plans to abolish the general requirement for corroboration in criminal cases.
Lord Hamilton said the need for evidence to come from at least two sources was an "essential element" of the Scottish system.
In a separate interview, Lord Cullen said it could be a "safeguard against wrongful conviction".
Scottish government ministers want to end the requirement for corroboration.
Proposals to drop it are among a series of reforms contained in the Scottish government's Criminal Justice Bill.
Ministers believe more rape, sexual offence and domestic abuse cases would be heard in court if the current need for two different and independent sources of evidence was removed.
Scotland has its own distinct legal system which includes protections for suspects which differ from those elsewhere in the UK What is corroboration?
Scotland's top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, thinks that corroboration is denying access to justice to victims of crimes committed in private.
"In the past two years, 170 cases of rape have had no proceedings taken in them because of insufficient evidence, which in many instances is a lack of corroboration," Mr Mulholland said.
Lords Hamilton and Cullen - who have each served as Scotland's top judge - suggested that this issue could be addressed by more limited reforms.
Lord Cullen told the BBC consideration might be given to a system which would give a trial judge the power to suspend the need for corroboration in certain cases.
Image caption Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland says victims are being denied justice
Ministers have made clear they intend to press ahead with ending the requirement in principle.
'Quite dangerous'
Lords Hamilton and Cullen fear this could increase the likelihood of miscarriages of justice.
"There is a serious risk that that would be so," said Lord Hamilton.
"They should retain corroboration as an essential element of our criminal jurisdiction in Scotland," he said.
Lord Cullen added: "It's very important that (corroboration) is there and always has been for centuries as a safeguard against wrongful conviction."
Both men accepted that it was hard to prove that corroboration provided this protection. They said their experience on the bench had convinced them that it did.
The only other surviving former Lord President, Lord Hope of Craighead, has also said he would be "very sad" to see the safeguard go.
He said the change seemed "very far-reaching and, potentially, quite dangerous".
Image caption Lord Carloway proposed the changes to corroboration
The judges were echoing the concerns expressed by the man who currently occupies Scotland's highest judicial office.
The Lord President and Lord Justice General, Lord Gill, told Holyrood's justice committee that all but one of Scotland's high court judges opposed abolition.
The exception was Scotland's second most senior judge, Lord Carloway, who proposed the change.
Scotland is the only jurisdiction in the world to have a general requirement for corroboration.
The Scottish government's justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, is a strong supporter of removing it.
"I listen respectfully to the judiciary and to the legal profession," he said.
"But I also have to take on board the views of those who have been suffering in silence behind closed doors, behind closed curtains where they are not, and have not been, getting access to justice."
Wrongful convictions
Victim Support Scotland, Rape Crisis and Scottish Women's Aid all support change, as do Police Scotland and the Crown Office.
The SNP convener of Holyrood's justice committee, Christine Grahame, has expressed reservations but the government should have the majority it needs to change the law.
The justice secretary has made clear that he is willing to make other changes to help guard against wrongful convictions.
He is proposing to raise the majority required for a 15-person jury to secure a conviction from eight to 10.
Lord Hamilton thinks the majority should be raised to 12 if corroboration is removed.
He also thinks judges would need to revise the circumstances in which they warned juries about the evidence that had been presented to them.
Lord Hamilton made his comments in what he said was his first television interview in more than 40 years as a lawyer.
He retired as Scotland's top judge in 2012 having succeeded Lord Cullen as Lord President and Lord Justice General in 2005.
Lord Hope was Lord President between 1989 and 1996.Although it’s only officially available on Microsoft’s latest Lumia devices, it is already running on 7 percent of Windows phone, according to the latest data from AdDuplex. In fact, it is the only Windows release that increased its share in the last month.
Windows 10 comes pre-installed on the new Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, but preview builds are also available on a range of other Windows phones. Given that Windows 10’s share is already at 7 percent, it seems a lot of users have upgraded early to those preview builds.
Meanwhile, Windows Phone 7’s share fell 0.6 percent over the past month, Windows Phone 8’s share fell 0.3 percent, and Windows Phone 8.1’s share fell 0.4 percent. However, the latter still commands the largest share by far, with 78.9 percent of the Windows phone market.
Windows 10’s share will likely eclipse that relatively quickly as soon as it starts rolling out to more devices next month, but Microsoft will be more interested in whether it can steal share from Android and iOS, which hold 96.7 percent of smartphone marketshare worldwide, according to the latest figures from IDC.Sites that publish fake or hyperpartisan news are almost completely reliant on Facebook for their readership, according to data collected by the marketing analytics firm Jumpshot.
The company found that several of these sites get over 70% of their desktop-device traffic from Facebook referrals. By contrast, established news sites, like the New York Times, get less than 30% of their desktop traffic from the social network. Jumpshot collected data from over 20 fake, hyperpartisan, and established news sites between September and November.
In total, Jumpshot found that fake and hyperpartisan news sites got 50% of their traffic from Facebook, while the news publishers it looked at relied on Facebook for 20% of their traffic. The analytics firm also found that that fake news was equally popular in both Republican and Democrat states, based on how those states voted in the 2016 presidential election.
Poynter has a rundown of the egregiously false news items published by some of these outlets.
The data suggest that Facebook is a key distributor of fake news—as well as news from legitimate sources. The company’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has pooh-poohed the idea that fake news on his social network influenced the election. This sparked outrage and led to a statement about new initiatives to tackle the problem.
It’s worth noting that many digital-only news publishers get a high proportion of their traffic from Facebook. For instance, web traffic analytics firm SimilarWeb found that 45% of BuzzFeed’s traffic originated from desktop users of Facebook in the first quarter of 2016. Facebook also referred a similar proportion of traffic to Vice.com. Facebook sent 27% of traffic to qz.com, according to SimilarWeb. The analytics firm Parsely found that Facebook accounts for just over 40% (pdf) of all traffic, making it the top referrer, in a sample of 200 publishers over a two-week period in January 2016.
But even though most digital outlets get a large proportion of their traffic from Facebook these days, the new data show that the network has an outsize role, even compared to other digital outlets, in driving traffic to fake news sites.
The only silver lining? Younger consumers of social media seem to be more savvy about it. Jumpshot found that millennials were 16% less likely to click on a fake news item that appeared on Facebook than the rest of the population.Months after the federal government launched a $9-million advertising campaign announcing it wanted more competition and lower prices in the wireless market for consumers, there are fewer competitors and prices have, on average, gone up.
“They had all the trumpet and fanfare. But when it comes time to actually implementing these policies, nothing happens,” NDP MP Glenn Thibeault said.
Industry Canada’s fall advertising blitz on radio, TV, and the internet did help raise the ire of Canadians though. CBC News has learned that, according to a new government-commissioned poll, the most common message gleaned from about 1,400 respondents was that mobile phone users are being gouged and the industry lacks competition.
Rates have gone up and there's going to be no more little guys very soon. - Dann Verner, cellphone user
Many Canadians remain unhappy — as unhappy as the actors in the government TV commercial who look gloomily at cellphone options or their bill.
Only four per cent of respondents in the poll figured out taxpayers paid for the ads. It was clear to cellphone owner Dann Verner who said, “If they had followed through with what they advertised they were going to do, I'd be fine with [the government spending $9 million].”
The actors in the ad call out for “more choice” and “lower prices.” But, months later, the Big 3 wireless companies that dominate the market have raised prices on many plans and big player Telus has bought small player, Public Mobile.
Verner, a devoted Public Mobile customer, must decide by the end of the month if he will move to Telus or another company. But the single father on a fixed income is worried about costs because he says he must buy a new phone and can’t find a plan as economical as his current one.
“It looks like I'll probably have to go without a phone for a month before I can afford to buy a phone,” he said.
Unexpected backlash
Verner feels let down: “I had to watch those ads over and over again saying they were going to give the little guy more of a chance, lower rates, and rates have gone up and there's going to be no more little guys very soon.”
Canada’s two other small carriers, Mobilicity and Wind, are struggling for survival. The Big 3 — Telus, Bell Canada Enterprises, and Rogers — still dominate the market and Telus wants to buy Mobilicity. And there are still no new national players.
“It just continues to show you that the Conservatives don’t really have a plan when it comes to the digital economy, when it comes to telecoms and when it comes to protecting Canadians,” said Thibeault.
However, a spokesman for Industry Canada, Jake Enwright, says the government definitely has a set mission: “Our government’s wireless policy is clear: more competition leads to lower prices and more choices for Canadian consumers,” he said.
Enwright also said Ottawa won’t approve any buy-out where it believes consumers will suffer. A much touted cap on domestic roaming fees announced last year may be law before the fall, he added.
He said the the $9-million advertising campaign was necessary to make sure Canadians are clear on the government’s wireless policy.
There is also a wireless code coming that will require carriers to limit some fees. But if the Big 3 win a current legal battle, the code could only apply to their new customers. Industry Minister James Moore announced today that he plans to intervene in the case.
Now that more regional players have entered the marketplace, Industry Canada recently announced “consumers are the big winners.” But Verner, who said he’s facing higher cellphone bills, doesn’t see it that way.
“That’s not consumers that won big," he said.
"It was the Big 3 that won big again.”The court order allowing Cape Town Advocate Robin Stransham-Ford to commit medically assisted suicide will stand, even though he died hours before the order was handed down, notes a report in The Citizen. Judge Hans Fabricius yesterday turned down an application by the Justice and Health Ministers, the NPA and the Health Professions Council to rescind the order he granted to Stransham-Ford last week. Counsel for the respondents argued that Stransham-Ford had died at 8am on Thursday morning, before Fabricius granted the order. This meant, it was argued, that Stransham-Ford’s rights had fallen away and that the order was moot. Counsel for the HPCSA, Harry van Bergen, argued that Stransham-Ford’s lawyers ‘were shifting the goal posts’ because they were now taking the application beyond the boundaries of the original application.It's a collaboration which should unite the East and West through music but instead it's dividing men and women in Saudi Arabia.
US hip hop artist Nelly and Algerian singer Cheb Khaled are scheduled to perform a concert in Jeddah on 14 December.
But the event is open to men only and although the response has been overwhelmingly positive, some women in the country are angry.
On social media they questioned why they were being excluded from the concert organised by the Saudi privately-owned TV channel MBC Action and supported by Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority.
On Instagram a disappointed post by @kidshop_ksa read: "ليش بس رجال". Which translates to: "Why is it male only?"
Another user made the same observation on Nelly's own Instagram post of the event: "Its so sad that girls are not allowed to be there and see you💔💔💔💔💔💔"
Others suggested that as the rapper had been arrested for marijuana possession in 2015 and accused of sexual assault last month he should not be allowed to perform.
Despite charges for drugs possession, for which he did not serve time in jail, Nelly has always denied the allegations of rape made by a college student and has not been charged.
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Not everyone was enthusiastic about the concert. One Twitter user posted: "God please do not hold us responsible for the actions of the foolish among us. What is even worse are the girls who are demanding to attend."
While another tweeted a preference for Ariana Grande to perform instead.
It is not the first time a major US artist has been invited to perform to a male-only crowd.
In May country music singer Toby Keith appeared in Riyadh during the same weekend that President Trump visited.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Toby Keith performed at a free concert in Riyadh in May with traditional Saudi singer Rabeh Sager
That concert was open just to men aged 21 and over, who were required to dress in traditional Saudi tunics.
Some reports suggested that Keith, whose musical repertoire includes songs like Whiskey Girl and I Love This Bar, was asked to tone down some of the content in a country where alcohol is banned.
It is not clear whether Nelly will be asked to do the same given that his most popular song, Hot in Herre, asks women to remove their clothes.
Traditionally large public events like concerts have been restricted in the Kingdom partly due to its strict morality laws regarding alcohol prohibition, modest clothing and gender segregation.
Most public places including restaurants and cafes have two sections, one for just men and one for families, which are for women and their husbands and families.
Some malls even have women-only floors where men are not allowed to enter. However recently Saudi Arabia has been taking steps to portray itself as a modernising country.
Image copyright General Entertainment Authority Image caption The General Entertainment Authority arranged for its first ever Comic Con in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah in February
Last year Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman backed the establishment of the Kingdom's General Entertainment Authority. It's part of its Vision 2030 plan to expand the economy beyond its reliance on oil.
However, the authority's plans face regular push back. When it organised the recent National Day celebrations both women and men were permitted to attend and mix together. But there was a backlash by Saudi clerics and conservative members of society.
Similar criticism was made when it organised its first Comic Con convention in February.
So perhaps the decision to make it male-only is a compromise which allows entertainment to thrive but avoids resistance by conservative groups.
Additional reporting by Lina Shaikhouni, BBC MonitoringArtificial intelligence (A.I) has fascinated technologists and science fiction writers for decades, but the business world seems to be getting serious about its disruptive potential. Technologies including Deep Blue from IBM, DeepMind from Google or Microsoft’s Chatbots are going beyond press-mentions, and beginning to demonstrate value in solving real world problems.
Last year, the White House released a detailed report on “Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy.” Trends in Artificial Intelligence are being closely watched by business and technology leaders alike, and we have featured some of these several times in recent past, and have included this as the “Top25 Startup Ideas.”
Tech Companies continue their quest to leverage AI and are making major investments the field. Some tech leaders like Eric Schmidt are also sounding the alarm
Discussions on AI focus on talent scarcity and ‘huge salaries’ being offered (link)
Across all sectors, US companies have invested $1.35 billion in AI talent in the past year, according to a new report from Paysa
In a recently published report, consulting and data analysis firm Paysa, announced results from a new study indicating that U.S. companies across all industries are investing $1.35 billion dollars in A.I. talent. The study looked at AI talent hiring trends from April 2017 through September 2017.
The top 20 Highest Paying Companies, by Average Salary for an AI Engineer are as follows:
Uber : $314,746 WalmartLabs : $265,698 Netflix : $264,799 Facebook : $257,846 Salesforce : $248,281 Google : $236,388 Coupang : $234,348 Twitter : $230,639 Splunk : $227,202 Apple : $227,094 Intuit : $221,438 Palo Alto Networks : $219,679 PayPal : $218,262 OpenTable : $215,399 VMware : $211,862 Amazon : $209,762 Unity Technologies : $208,729 Adobe : $207,076 eBay : $203,626 Veritas Technologies : $202,776
About Paysa – Paysa offers personalized career and hiring recommendations plus real-world salary insights for maximizing opportunity, earning potential and value at all stages of an individual’s career. Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology and machine learning algorithms, Paysa analyzes millions of data points including jobs, resumes and compensation information, providing professionals with actionable tools, insights, and research.Malaria spreading to new regions while millions wasted on vaccines that cannot work for more than 2 years [New Article]
By Stephen Leahy
CHICAGO, U.S., Feb 19 (IPS)
Climate change is bringing malaria to regions of Africa where the disease was previously unknown, researchers report from the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago this week.
Interestingly, the Arctic, where climate change is happening fastest, is the best place to study how warming temperatures are affecting infectious disease transmission.
[Note: Diseases are expected to increase in proportion to the decline/degradation of natural environment experts at Harvard said in my 2008 article “Doctor” Nature in Danger — Stephen]
Insect-transmitted diseases, primarily malaria, kill 3,000 people in Africa each day, said Andy Dobson of Princeton University in the United States.
Understanding how global warming is altering temperatures and the ecology and ranges of the malaria-transmitting Anopheles mosquito is crucial to understanding the dynamics of how insect-transmitted diseases like malaria will change, Dobson told IPS.
“Ironically, we’re spending huge amounts of money on trying to develop vaccines for malaria but the best possible vaccine we could make wouldn’t last for longer than two years,” he said.
That’s because the natural lifetime of immunity to malaria is perhaps two years and to eradicate malaria using a vaccine would require vaccinating everyone every year because the malaria parasite evolves quickly, he explained.
Do you find this article interesting? It exists thanks to contributions from readers. Please click here to learn more about Community Supported Journalism.
“We’re not going to be able to do that,” Dobson added.
Instead scientists need to be able to understand and project how and where malaria outbreaks will occur under the altered conditions of climate change. However, there is very little data or research on disease transmission in the field. Rather, the focus has been on developing vaccines and genetic analysis of the malaria parasite and mosquito genome – and that “tells us nothing about transmission |
play (less and less frequently... as the years went by, chess journalism took precedence over chess combat) into the late 1960s. He died peacefully in Moscow in 1983.
I'll end this article with two more puzzles for those that love brutal mates:UPDATE: After additional reporting, WIRED discovered that Jared Kushner’s erroneous voter registration was due to an error on the part of the New York State Board of Elections. This post has been updated on September 30, 2017, to reflect that fact, and it has been corrected to remove any implication that Kushner was at fault for the error. You can read an original cached version of the story here.
Since moving into his White House office months ago, Jared Kushner—senior adviser and son-in-law to the President, savior of the Middle East, and possible person of interest in a federal investigation—has amassed a rather extensive project portfolio. The issues under Kushner's purview include negotiating peace between Israel and Palestine, fixing the opioid crisis, updating technology across the entire federal government, and spearheading criminal justice reform, to name just a few. It seems like a nearly impossible set of challenges for anyone to tackle, and even more so for Kushner. Because, in addition to not having any previous government experience, the former real estate exec has demonstrated repeated difficulty in keeping simple, routine paperwork in order. This includes his own voter registration form. According to records held by the New York State Board of Elections, Jared Corey Kushner was registered as a woman from 2009 until this week.
Nexis
This past July, for instance, CBS reported that Kushner updated a disclosure form necessary to obtain security clearance no fewer than three separate times. Kushner originally filed the form on January 18 with zero names listed under a section that asked about foreign contacts. He later claimed his team had accidentally hit send before he had a chance to fully fill it in, according to The Washington Post the form also got the dates of his graduate degrees incorrect, and even omitted his father-in-law's address. He submitted a supplemental form acknowledging that the original form was incomplete the following day.
The second time Kushner attempted to fix his security clearance form, sometime in May, he added more than 100 calls and meetings with foreign contacts. But soon after, it came to light that he had attended a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who had allegedly offered to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Kushner submitted the security form a third time to include, as he put it, "the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney" on June 21.
How, exactly, Kushner managed to bungle the form multiple times has been the subject of much debate, as well as his own testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. But regardless of the cause, his apparently chronic inability to correctly fill out boxes is troubling coming from the man who's supposed to overhaul the entire United States government.
"Kushner can't even fill out the most basic paperwork without screwing it up, so it's a mystery why anyone thinks he's somehow going to bring peace to the Middle East," says Brad Bainum, a spokesperson for American Bridge, a liberal opposition research hub and the group that first identified Kushner's registration slip-up. "Would anyone but the president's son-in-law still have a West Wing job after repeated disclosure errors and a botched a security clearance form?"
In the case of his voter registration, it appears as though Kushner’s original New York voter registration, which was filled out at the DMV in 2009, listed him as a male. The “M” next to Kushner’s birth date in the scanned copy below indicates gender. Most likely, a subsequent data entry error led to Kushner being listed as a female in the database, according to the New York Board of Elections. It wasn’t until Wednesday, when the mistake was made public, that the board corrected the eight-year-old error.
New York State Board of Elections
Donald Trump has said that three to five million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election—a claim that continues to go unfounded. Later, at the first public hearing for Trump’s voter fraud commission, Trump remarked, “This issue is very important to me because throughout the campaign, and even after, people would come up to me and express their concerns about voter inconsistencies and irregularities which they saw.”
While Trump’s voter fraud commission has yet to provide any evidence of actual voter fraud, Kushner’s mis-entered gender does offer at least one case of an inconsistency. Still, when it comes to whether Kushner's misstated gender constitutes a voter fraud violation, the chances seem nil. "There has to be an intent to give the false information," says Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt. "If he, for some reason, knowingly registered as a woman—for what purpose, I could not guess—that might be described as voter fraud, though it would have negligible effect on the determination of his eligibility, and so wouldn't amount to much anyway."
We reached out to Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state who Trump tapped to be the vice-chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, for comment on Kushner's voting status. We'll update if and when we hear back.Hans Wurm was a printer and woodcutter (“Formschneider”) in Landshut. His first known work is of 1501 the “Chronik und der fürstliche Stamm der Durchlauchtigen Fürsten und Herren Pfalzgrafen bey Rhein und Herzoge in Baiern” (although the analysy of the letters point to the Munich printer Hans Schobser. It may be that Hans Wurm was the publisher of this book). Hans Wurm’s last known book is dated to 1504 “Einberufung der Landsstände nach Landshut” (6). A woodcut of Nuremberg (GMN, Graphische Sammlung 12851/1056c) is dated to 1524 or 1529. It was created by a “Hans Wurm” but used very different letter types.
According to Joseph Heller a man named Hans Wurm lived 1493 in Regensburg and was a clergyman, but this seems to be someone with the same name (5). More probable are the charters in Landshut. They tell us that he was a “Seidennater” (silk embroidery) and registered in 1493 in the guest-house “Silbernagel”. Wurm was married to Margareta, daughter of the “Seidenmaler” (silk painter) Michael Bamberger and therefore connected in a family way with the painter Hans Wertinger (4). He recieved a delivery of twenty centners of brass in June 1514 for emperor Maximilans sepulchral monument designed by the Munich painter Gilg (Egydius) Sesselschreiber (7).
The following is a new transcription and translation done of his book on wrestling. It was written by an author unknown to us. This book was reprinted several times in the beginning of the 16th century. There are some of other versions or similar versions of the text and images found in other manuscripts and printed books on wrestling.
Compare this version with the one by Keith P. Myers made in 2002.
Remark: the formatting of the text is bad and ugly. I know that and maybe I’ll try to overcome the horrible automatic formatting of wordpress someday again.
1.) In Sand Jorgen namen heb an und schaw zum Ersten – Ob der man hoch oder nyder gang das ist des ringens anfang. grübelen Das ist der recht st{and und wag vor dem man} # In Saint George’s name get ready and see at first, if the man is high or low in his stance – that is the beginning of wrestling. small pit That is the correct st[ance and balance in front of the man] => missing text added from the printed version of 1510 and the Goliath (MS Germ.Quart.2020) =>“wag” translated as balance is not fully correct. It’s describing a low stance resembling the optical appearance of scales. 2.) So der man – mit der hant nach dir greifft – so nym das stuck – das haißt – das Zucken. # If the man tries to take hold of your hand, apply the technique that is called “Zucken”.
=> “Zucken” is a not translated fencing term describing a movement of fast redrawing and coming back instantly. 3.) Wan er dich gantz erhebt hat un[d] das du kain hab hab[e]n magst So brauch das stuck das du hie siehst – so mueß er dich lassen Od[er] du prichst ym de[n] arm # If he had lifted you completely and you cannot have any hold on him, so you apply the technique that you see here, therefore he had to let you go or you break his arm. 4.) Wen er sich ganntz aufricht und hindersich strebt – so du yn in den hacken hast – so nym das stuck – das haist der schrag[e]n # If he got himself completely upright and tries to get behind [you], if you got him in the hook, so apply the technique that is called the “Saltire”.
=> “Hacken” is an old word for the heel and part up to the Achilles tendon – probably a term for a hook by the heel or the leg. => “Schragen” is a word for two crossed bars like a saltire. 5.) Das Stuck haist der inwentigs Schlenckhacken – das nym mit voller sterck – So wirfstu yn – mag er dir nicht {ab}wenndn. # This technique is called inside “swinging-hook”. If you apply this with full force he cannot fend it off to be thrown by you.
=> “Schlenck” is a substantive form “schlenkern” – swinging 6.) Wen er dich erhebt hat und will dich zu ruck werffen – So thue so welstu vallen – Und greiff yn nach dem gerecht[e]n schenckel – und stoß in als vo[n] dir. # If he had lifted you and wants to throw you backwards, pretend that you will fall, and take hold of the right upper leg and push him away of you. 7.) Wen er dir den hacken von seine[n] pain wyl ziehen – So nym das stuck – Das haist der rigel. # If he wants to drag the hook away from his leg, so apply the technique called the “locking bolt”.
=> “Riegel” is the locking bolt on the door and a fencing term in wrestling. 8.) Wen du in den hacken laufft – ee wan er sich recht in die wag setzt – So nym das stuck – das haist – der hinder wurff. # If you step into the hook, before he had set himself down into the balance, apply the technique called the “back throw”. 9.) Wen er eng mit seine[n] painen stet – So du yn in dem hacken hast – So nym das stuck – das haist – die fur trettent hufft. # If he his legs stand close together, and you got him in the hook so apply the technique that is called the “bulge hip”.
=> “Vortretend” is has not only the meaning of making a step, but it describes anything that is protuberant, stick out or bulge. Another good translation would be “rising hip” but there is too much interpretation in it. 10.) Wen du ein hufft nymst – und er sich mit dir aufricht – Oder dich aus dem hacken hebt – So nym das stuck – das haist der lest hacken #If you use a hip-technique, and he erects himself or lifts you out of the hook, so apply the technique called “lest hacken”.
=> “lest hacken” may be translated as “fast hook” or as “groin hook”. The former is more from the history of the word “leist” or “lest” as a dialect word for being fast. The word “leist” was used in regards of shoemaker’s tool. 11.) Wen er sich auffricht – So du in in dem hacken hast – So nym das stuck – das haist die halb huft und ist am rechtz kampf stuck. # If he erects himself, while you got him in the hook, so apply the technique called „half hip“ and this is a technique to apply in real fights. 12.) Greifft dich der man Zum erst[e]n an – So nym das stuck – das haist – der abstoß. # If he attacks you first, so apply the technique called the “reject”.
=> “Abstoß” is a term for pushing someone away, in this case back. 13.) Wen er sich aufricht – Oder in die wag setzt – So du yn in dem hacken hast – So nym das stuck – das haist die gabel. #If he erects himself or set himself down into the balance, when you got him in the hook, so apply the technique called the „fork”. 14.) Wen er dir den kopff zugkt – So dy ym in den hacken wilt lauffen – So nym das stuck – Das haist – der ausser hacken. # If he wants to get tou your head, while you want to step into the hook, apply the technique called the “outer hook”. 15.) Greift dich der man – Mit zorn und sterck an – So nym das stuck – Das haist – das ab winden. # If he (attacks) tries to get hold of you with anger and strength, so apply the technique called the “wend-off”. => “Abwinden” is a term for twisting and winding something off from a hold. 16.) Wen er sich weit von dir scheubt so in dem hacken stest – So nym das stuck – das haist die wammaß hufft # If he shoves himself away of you, while you stand in the hook, so apply the technique called the “jacket-hip”.
=> “wammaß hufft“ is „Wams Hüfte“ im modern German. It is the outer wear for the men’s upper body. 17.) Das ist die hufft – In dem ausser[e]m hacken – die nym snell mit sterck. # This is the hip in the outer hook, this do with speed and strength. 18.) Das ist der hinder wurff – yn dem aussern hacken – den nym mit aller sterck. # That is the backward throw in the outer hook, do it with all your strength. 19.) Wen er weit mit den paine[n] stet – So du yn in dem hacken hast – so nym das stuck – das haist die halb hufft # If he has his legs wide apart, and you have him in the hook, so apply the technique called the “half hip”. => “halb hufft” could also be translated as “semi-hip”. 20.) Das ist ain gemains freys stuck das zu bed[e]n seitt[e]n – ain yeder ringer praucht – und get aus der thwirch. # This is a common known technique that works at both sides and every wrestler uses, it starts from the “Quere”.
=> “Twirch” is translated in modern German “Quere” because the only matching thing is a transverse line. 21.) Das ist der Recht ein lauff un[d] stand – yn dem hacken. # That ist he right moving in and stance in the hook. 22.) Das Stuck ist pruch und widerpruch – ym hacken – Und ist ain freyer wurff darin zue nemen. # This technique ist he counter and contra-counter in the hook, and there are throws to apply from it.
Books used for this article:
(1) Wiktenauer, Das Landshuter Ringerbuch (Hans Wurm)
http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Das_Landshuter_Ringerbuch_(Hans_Wurm)
(2) Hye in disem büchlin findt man die recht kunst vnd art des Ringens, mit vil hüpschen stücken vnd figuren, Dar durch sich ein ytlicher wol veben mag, vnd solliches ringen lernen, Straßburg, 1510, BSB-Signatur: 4 Inc.s.a. 1142
(3) Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm (DWB)
(4) Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins für Niederbayern, Bände 129-130, 1930, 2004
(5) Geschichte der holzschneidekunst von den ältesten bis auf die neuesten zeiten: nebst zwei beilagen, enthaltend den ursprung der spielkarten und ein verzeichniss der sämmtlichen xylographischen werke, Joseph Heller, C.F. Kunz, 1823
(6) Georg Rüxner und die Wittelsbacher-Genealogien, Klaus Graf, Archivalia Web-Blog, 8. June 2009, and updates on 30. Dezember 2009, Neues zu Georg Rüxner
(7) Chronik und Stamm der Pfalzgrafen bei Rhein und Herzoge in Bayern 1501 : die älteste gedruckte bayerische Chronik, zugleich der älteste Druck der Stadt Landshut in Bayern, in Facsimiledruck hrsg. mit einer Einleitung (1901), Ebran von Wildenberg, Johann, 15th cent; Leidinger, Georg, 1870
Note: This is a proofread, corrected version. If you have any recommendations, corrections, or annotations that will improve the content on this page, please help me by commenting. Thanks to Olivier Dupuis for proofreading and correcting it. Transcription Rules The transcription is created to make the text readable. So the abbreviations and errors are resolved and marked: [ ] Square Brackets: resolved abbreviation,
{ } Curved Brackets: added missing or corrected words or letters,
( ) Normal Brackets: alternative readings of the same word.
“w” was resolved to “u” if the writing did not change in the text (like “zw” to “zu”). See the Glossary of translated terms for more information.
.Sam Clovis was one of the anonymous campaign officials cited in George Papadopoulos's plea deal. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)
Sam Clovis was always a pretty suspect pick by President Trump to become the chief science adviser at the Agriculture Department — mostly because he's not actually a scientist. His chief qualification for the job seems to be that he was national co-chairman of Trump's 2016 campaign. Democrats have also spotlighted his past comments skeptical of climate change and suggesting that laws protecting LGBT rights could lead to the legalization of pedophilia.
And now we can add another reason his nomination could be a key battle for Democrats — and a dicey proposition for Republicans.
The Washington Post's Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger reported Monday night that Clovis was one of those anonymous campaign officials cited in former Trump aide George Papadopoulos's plea deal. Clovis was the one named as a “campaign supervisor,” and he both praised Papadopoulos's efforts to broker a meeting with the Russians as “great work” and later urged Papadopoulos to make the trip rather than Trump.
“Make the trip, if it is feasible,” Clovis told Papadopoulos.
Clovis's attorney, Victoria Toensing, told The Post that Clovis was only being nice and that he actually opposed the campaign meeting with Russians:
She said Clovis was “being polite” when he encouraged Papadopoulos to meet with Russian officials in August, adding that the campaign had a “strict rule that no person could travel abroad as a representative of the campaign.” Clovis could not stop an American citizen from traveling abroad “in his personal capacity,” she said.... Toensing described Clovis as a “polite gentleman from Iowa” who “would always have been courteous to a person offering to help the campaign.”
Er, okay. So basically, Clovis told someone to do something he opposed and was against campaign rules because he was only being a polite Midwesterner and he couldn't technically prevent him from doing it. (As a Minnesotan, I'll gladly try to use this excuse going forward.)
The strained explanation speaks to just how problematic this could be for Clovis. The campaign and the Trump transition team claimed over and over again that it had no contact with Russians during the campaign. Here we have a former Trump foreign policy aide actively setting up a potential meeting with the Russians, and Clovis giving him the thumbs-up. At one point, Papadopoulos specified that the meeting was requested by the Russian MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), so there was no mistaking who was requesting the meeting.
If nothing else, Clovis is a microcosm of Trump's problems right now. Trump seems to surround himself with people who either aren't terribly qualified for their jobs or haven't been carefully vetted, and many of those decisions have come back to bite him.
The latter was certainly the case when it came to Paul Manafort, his former top campaign aide who was indicted on Monday, and Papadopoulos, whom the White House is now seeking to dismiss as basically a gadfly who campaign aides said nice things to and then disregarded. Trump's affinity for former national security adviser Michael Flynn certainly fits into this category. And the appointments of Ben Carson as housing and urban development secretary and other lower-level appointees have led to plenty of questions about qualifications.
We'll see how the Clovis confirmation process pans out, but his nomination certainly fits a pattern of Trump playing fast and loose — and potentially dealing with the consequences later.Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Liverpool new boy Marko Grujic has received a first senior call-up to the Serbia squad.
The 19-year-old midfielder’s outstanding form for Red Star Belgrade has been recognised ahead of their friendlies against Poland and Estonia.
Liverpool signed Grujic for £5.1million in January before loaning him back to Red Star for the rest of the season.
He has previously represented Serbia at under-21 level and was a member of their squad which won the 2015 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand.
Liverpool trio Simon Mignolet, Christian Benteke and Divock Origi have all been selected by Marc Wilmots for Belgium’s friendly against Portugal.
Wilmots recently warned Benteke that he was in danger of missing out of Euro 2016 this summer unless he forces his way back into Jurgen Klopp's starting line up.
Reds midfielder Emre Can will also be heading off on international duty after Sunday’s Premier League game at Southampton. Can has been called up by Germany for their friendlies against England and Italy.Tony Hayward and Joe Barton: losers of the week
The week doesn't end until close of business tomorrow, but I would like to anoint BP CEO Tony Hayward and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) as the losers of the week. I give BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg a pass for his lost-in-translation "small people" comment. As Mike Barnicle said on "Morning Joe" today, Svanberg did something that has not been done by the chairmen of the bailed-out banks that almost pulled down the global economy: He apologized to the American people --- twice. To President Obama at their closed-door meeting yesterday and then again when he spoke to the press afterward.
Hayward is up there on Capitol Hill being grilled like gulf shrimp today. And it's not going well. This unsympathetic character already ticked people off late last month by whining about wanting his life back. Now Hayward is before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where his slow, lumbering non-answers make him sound like a hungover college student in the back of the lecture hall who's trying mightily to get an insistent professor off his back. He's failing miserably.
Meanwhile, Barton apologized -- apologized! -- to BP for the $20 billion escrow account to compensate gulf residents for their losses. He called it a "shakedown" and a "slush fund." Cue the condemnation. "What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by Barton defending BP. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, between 1989 and 2010, he received $27,350 from BP. Full disclosure: Obama received $77,051 in BP donations over that same period.
Update, 4:40 p.m.: Barton apologized for his apology to BP. “I apologize for using the term ‘shakedown’ with regard to yesterday’s actions at the White House in my opening statement this morning, and I retract my apology to BP. As I told my colleagues yesterday and said again this morning, BP should bear the full financial responsibility for the accident on their lease in the Gulf of Mexico. BP should fully compensate those families and businesses that have been hurt by this accident.” Too late, man. Too late.Their work on Jezebel has made them role models for young women everywhere. After reading their posts to prepare for the interview, I wanted to have a conversation about Hillary and sexism, women's magazines and if they feel any obligation to write about responsibility and safety when they write graphically about their sex lives.
We conducted a pre-interview with Tracie who writes about sex and pop culture for Jezebel under the name "Slut Machine." When you click on "Slut Machine" you are linked to her personal blog that regales her readers with "no detail left behind" accounts of her sexual experiences.
Moe writes about politics and sex as well and combines pop culture with it all and was not available for a pre-interview. Tracie assured us she would be cool with anything we talked about in the feminist, political arena, that she was an expert on China, and that they had been talking a lot about rape lately.
They were emailed a show description with links to past interviews and we were all set.
I don't know if they came to the show drunk, or just ended up drunk by the time they hit the stage, but what I do know is that the discussion that ensued was deeply disturbing to me for a few reasons:
1. Because they had no regard for the people who came that night and paid money to hear them speak.
2. They do not understand the influence they have over the women who read them, nor do they accept any responsibility as role models for young women who are coming of age searching for lifestyles to emulate.
Even as one young woman who attended the show voiced her disappointment on her own blog, when Moe and Tracie commented on the entry, she was so excited that she backpedaled her criticism.
I put this video up to start a discussion, about sexuality, feminism, freedom, power and responsibility. I want those who read and admire their work to ask themselves how they feel about this, and those who are just hearing about them for the first time to do the same. I am no angel and tell a few stories on this tape about my own life that are cringe worthy and so I put myself up for scrutiny here as well.
Words and actions matter, and those of us who are given a forum to share opinion should always be mindful of that, and those of us who are trying to be watchdogs for the truth, should always call out harmful inaccuracies when we see them. I feel a responsibility to hold these young women accountable for the statements they make as they seem sure to keep repeating them.
These are some selected clips. The entire interview is posted on www.shootthemessengernyc.com.
CLIP ONE:
<0--1646768708--hh>0--1646768708--hh>
These Jezebels recommend birth control methods:
Moe: Pulling out always works for me" Tracie: "And I know it's an irresponsible thing to day, but it's (Pulling Out) The Most Fun Way Not To Get Pregnant"
The Jezebels on sex with total strangers:
Tracie: "People are always saying it's not safe to go home with strange men, blah, blah blah, like Mr. Goodbar whatever" Moe: "What's gonna happen?' Lizz You could get raped" Moe: That's happening too, but you live through that." Lizz: "Sometimes you don't" Moe: "That's true if they have weapons."
The Jezebels define the "rapists of our generation"
Tracie: "I live in Williamsburg, there aren't very assertive men there" Moe: "The thing about the rapists of our generation, is that they all use drugs, they all have some sort of drug they use on you, so it's good to feel, and I don't know if this has happed to me or if I just drink too much... Moe: "It's really hard to prosecute them (rapists), so you should try to avoid them at all costs." Tracie: "I once paid someone to rape me once." Tracie: "Well, I didn't pay for it, I had a magazine pay for it Tracie: "I moved here when I was 18 and you think you would encounter more rapists in a big city like this, but, I don't know, I just haven't."
CLIP TWO:
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Moe on sexual regret:
Moe: "I guess, I like, regret being date raped" Moe: "It seems like in terms of bad sexual experiences, that you have, the worst ones are in, always seem to be in countries where sex is not accepted. That is the good thing about New York, I've never has any problems with anyone here." Moe: "I guess third guy, I ever had sex with, date raped me, and I got very mad at him, but I wasn't gonna fucking like turn him in to the police and fucking go through shit.. Lizz interrupts: "Why not, you see that's the problem, why not, I am just curious?" Moe: Because it was a load of trouble and I had better things to do, like drinking more."
Tracie on why she has not been raped
" I think it has to do with the fact that I am like, smart" "I don't hang around with frat guys"
Moe on how she felt about her rapist:
"I always felt very like, safe around this guy even after he date raped me"
Moe on what women can take home from reading their blogsBuffalo's canyon of grain elevators is colossal. They are seemingly impenetrable. And there are a lot of them.
In their heyday, the silos stored millions of bushels of grain inside more than 30 grain elevators. Today, 15 still remain, though just a handful are used.
Now, an idea – and it's just that at the moment – is being floated to turn the cluster of six grain elevators known as Silo City into a national park. It would celebrate the cultural and economic importance of these concrete behemoths, and their invention in Buffalo in 1842 by Joseph Dart and Joseph Dunbar.
The area – also known as "Elevator Alley" – constitutes the densest collection of concrete grain elevators in the world.
"If you want to see great silos, this is one of the few places in the whole world to see them," said Adam Sokol, an architect with offices in Allentown and Los Angeles. He came up with the idea and has drawn conceptual site plans for "Buffalo Grain Elevator National Park."
"The grain elevators in Buffalo are one of a handful of iconic historic resources that are emblematic of the city, are very visible and close to downtown," Sokol said. "They are also an important part of the cultural history of this country."
Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, likes the thought of turning Silo City into a national park.
"It's an exciting idea that should be pursued," Higgins said. "If there are benefits to advancing the celebration of Buffalo's industrial heritage through the creative reuse of the grain elevators, let's do it.
[GALLERY: A Closer Look: Silo City]
"I think the time has come to take this untapped cultural asset to the whole next level," Higgins said.
Sokol points to Lowell, Mass., where some of the nation's first factories were turned into a national park. Visitors, including schoolchildren, see museum installations and interpretive exhibits that explain the importance of the factories in local and national history.
The Mill City Museum in Minneapolis, while operated locally, is another good example, he said. The museum was built in the ruins of what once was the world's largest flour mill on the Mississippi River waterfront.
"There's no reason something like these can’t happen with the Buffalo grain elevators," Sokol said.
Rick Smith, who owns three of the six grain elevators considered part of Silo City, thinks creating a national park there could be ideal.
"I think we're doing a good job being stewards of it now, but they're a community asset, and it's important to get our National Park Service engaged in managing sites of importance," Smith said.
Smith has spoken with Higgins and said it may be a good time to reach out to additional elected representatives, as well.
Smith said people are often unaware of how important grain was in Buffalo's evolution.
"A lot of people think Buffalo is a steel city," Smith said. "But Buffalo had the world's largest grain port, and the grain business gave Buffalo most of its wealth. The steel was owned by out-of-town guys since Day One."
Buffalo produced 29 million sacks of flour a year as late as 1963, more than the next two leading centers combined, he said.
Silo City in the past several years has become a summertime destination for cultural events. Torn Space Theatre does annual large-scale theatrical performances there. Art installations, music and poetry readings also occur inside the silos.
Students from the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning go there to do research. A television travel show compared the grain elevators at Silo City to the pyramids, and the British Broadcasting Company reported on them. Janeane Garofalo fell to her death at Silo City in "The American Side," a movie filmed there in 2013.
Sokol sees a national park complementing what's occurring along nearby streets. Ohio Street, once a desolate industrial road, has seen two new waterfront apartment buildings, park and rowing club enhancements and a new streetscape in the past few years. Ganson Street is now home to Buffalo RiverWorks, a new destination for ice events, entertainment and socializing.
"A national park there works in terms of tourism, in terms of drawing people going to Niagara Falls and in terms of attracting people across the border," Sokol said.
"There’s also an opportunity to stimulate further commercial development of the surrounding area."
Sokol imagines commercial zones, potential pedestrian and vehicular bridges and site improvements for walking and passive recreation.
A national park, Sokol said, could also help activate the stretch of the river from Canalside to Silo City, with waterfront cafes, boating and skating in the winter.
[GALLERY: Proposal for Buffalo Grain Elevator National Park]
As a national park, money could be spent to stabilize the massive structures, including sealing them from water and adding fire safety measures.
There are National Park Service sites in upstate and Western New York, including the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo and the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls.
Silo City, however, is considerably larger than those.
"What exists now is measured in square feet rather than acres," Sokol said. "But the grain elevators are absolutely unique and worthy of preservation, and I do think there is a fit as a national park."
Turning the site into a tourist attraction would also add to the new uses being found for Buffalo's grain elevators.
In 2015 – 100 years after it was built – the Connecting Terminal on the Outer Harbor became the canvas for a nightly industrial light show. And in a matter of weeks, the former GLF grain silo, at RiverWorks, is expected to find new life as a brewery.Energy Secretary Rick Perry stands in front of a dragline excavator shovel while addressing employees of the Jeddo Coal Co. during a tour of the facility in Ebervale near Hazleton, Pa. (Ellen F. O’Connell/Hazleton Standard-Speaker/AP)
Three members of President Trump’s Cabinet attended the meeting of a major mining lobbying group at a Washington hotel owned by the president himself, according to a schedule of the event obtained by The Washington Post.
The National Mining Association drew the high-ranking officials to the fall board of directors meeting it held at Trump International Hotel, just blocks from the White House, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was initially scheduled to attend, but according to the department’s deputy communications director, Russell Newell, he “is traveling and so was unavailable for the meeting.” Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt attended Wednesday in his place.
On Tuesday morning, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross headlined a general session. In the afternoon, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta spoke with NMA members during a lunch sponsored by Jennmar Corp. and Royal Gold, a mining-equipment maker and precious metals company, respectively.
And on Wednesday morning, Energy Secretary Rick Perry spoke at a breakfast sponsored by Komatsu Mining Corp., a mining division of a Japanese conglomerate, posting about his speech on Twitter.
Honored to speak to the National Mining Assn this morning. Our "all of the above" approach to #AmericanEnergy must include everything below! pic.twitter.com/tGIZjnVSiQ — Rick Perry (@SecretaryPerry) October 4, 2017
Top-level Obama administration officials — including Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu — have attended the association’s meetings in the past, NMA spokesman Luke Popovich said.
Beyond that, NMA had “no comment on the board of directors meeting which, like virtually all such gatherings, is a private affair and its business confidential,” Popovich wrote in |
creationists, would have had nothing in common with them politically and very little theologically. (Bryan would have told you that the Bible was "true," but he didn't mean that God created the universe in six literal 24-hour days.) Islamic fundamentalism, the particular bugaboo of Dawkins and Harris, is more recent still, a metaphysical uprising against late modernism and the global force of Western consumer culture.
It would be foolish to deny that fundamentalism is or can be dangerous, but the liberal intelligentsia compulsively exaggerates the danger posed by the likes of Ken Ham or Pat Robertson, who are deemed to be plotting the theocratic overthrow of the republic when in fact they represent a marginalized constituency with little power. Fundamentalists oppose the science of climate change on supposed scriptural grounds, for instance, but on that issue they're just serving as handmaidens to corporate money and power. In much the same way but on a larger scale, conservatives and government apparatchiks interpret the scattered and disparate actions of al-Qaida and its allies as an apocalyptic threat that justifies secret drone wars, unknowable levels of surveillance and the expenditure of countless billions.
Eagleton claims that our “post-theological, post-metaphysical, post-ideological [and] even post-historical era” is reacting with intense anxiety to the rise of a renewed fundamentalism, and the news flash that God isn’t dead after all. But he’s writing from the context of Britain, one of the world’s most thoroughly secularized societies. The American dilemma lies in the fact that we’re not post-anything. The Enlightenment never entirely took hold on this continent, as Thomas Jefferson accurately predicted, and the faithlessness or supermarket spirituality of consumer culture coexists uneasily with intense religious feeling and intense mythological nationalism. If Americans keep fighting the old philosophical battle between faith and reason over and over again, in increasingly silly forms, that reflects an unresolved spiritual contradiction at the core of our national identity. We long to be a shining city on a hill but cannot build it; we long for a mystical synthesis of science and religion but cannot find it.Ulum al-Hadith is a vast ocean of a science. It requires extensive reading and study over many, many years. Here is a suggested curriculum for aspiring students of hadith, consisting of a combination of Arabic and English works. It is based on my own experiences and advice from consulting with scholars, as well as the wonderful Multaqa Ahl al-Hadith forum. This is the sort of guide I wish I had when I began studying. One may not necessarily study all the works in each level but extensive study is absolutely required to attain mastery. Note that each level is predicated on studying parrallel levels in other sciences (especially fiqh and usul al-fiqh).
Elementary
This objective of this stage is to become acquanited with the major features of the hadith literature, nomenclature, sciences, as well as the content of prophetic narrations.
One of the best places to start with regard to the major hadith books is Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature (revised Malaysian edition) by Mustafa al-A’zami followed by Hadith Literature by Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi (ITS edition by Abd al-Hakim Murad). These two English classics introduce one to the main canonical texts, their features, as well as some methodology of hadith scholars. These could be supplemented by The Garden of the Hadith Scholars by al-Dihlawi, though it is not as essential as the former two.
Moving on to nomenclature, Introduction to the Sciences of Hadith by Suhaib Hasan is a brief but popular work, but I much prefer al-Manhal al-Latif by Muhammad b. ‘Alawi al-Maliki followed by Taysir Mustalah al-Hadith by Mahmud al-Tahan with its commentary Islah al-Istilah by Tariq Awad Allah as a preparation for Nukhbat/Nuzhat (more on that to follow).
A really beneficial book, that builds on the above as well as introducing more sciences related to hadith, is A Textbook of Hadith Studies by Hashim Kamali.
By now, one should be ready to dip into the study of the meanings of hadiths, and the obvious place to begin is by memorising al-Arba’un by Imam al-Nawawi, alongside reading its brief but excellent Sharh Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id, which may actually have been written by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. This should be followed by Jami’ al-‘Ulum wa al-Hikam by Ibn Rajab. These two commentaries introduce elements of the hadith scholars’ methodology which will be vital later on. Possibly the best commentary for fiqh discussions is Fath al-Mubin by Ibn Hajar al-Haytami. An unusally thorough English commentary based on a number of contemporary Arabic works is by Jamal al-Din Zarabozo.
Lower Intermediate
The objective of this stage is to deepen one’s knowledge of hadith sciences and nomenclature, as well as widen one’s familiarity with popular and well-known hadiths, as well as understanding their contents’ implications.
An excellent and comprehensive book on hadith literature for this stage is al-Kattani’s al-Risalat al-Mustatrifah, which has an audio commentary by shaykh Hatim al-‘Awni. This should be followed by Akram al-‘Umari’s Buhuth fi Tarikh al-Sunnah.
One must now master Nukhbat al-Fikar and its commentary Nuzhat al-Nazar, both by Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani. The first step to this is with the modern commentary on Nukhbat al-Fikar called Nahj al-Mubtakar by al-Shirbini as well as Hatim al-‘Awni’s audio lessons and transcribed notes (mudhakkirah). This should be accompanied with reference to Tariq b. Awad Allah’s Sharh Nukhbat al-Fikar. Thereafter, Nuzhat al-Nazar (edited by Nur al-Din ‘Itr) should be studied with the excellent audio commentary by Hatim al-‘Awni (with its mudhakkirah) as well as the written commentary by Tariq Awad Allah. Mastering this stage will make all subsequent study much easier.
The next book to study should be ‘Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah’s edition of al-Muwqizah (al-Dhahabi’s abridgement of Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id’s al-Iftirah) with its commentary by Hatim al-‘Awni (originally audio but also transcribed and published) and Abdullah al-Sa’d’s mudhakkirah. It is a brief but excellent book that complements Ibn Hajar’s aforementioned work. Another additional work at this stage that one may reference is Ahmad Shakir’s al-Ba’ith al-Hathith (Sharh Ikhtisar Ulum al-Hadith by Ibn Kathir) with the recorded audio class of Tariq Awad Allah. However, the trio of Nukhbah-Nuzhah-Muwqizah is sufficient for this stage.
Now one can move onto studying and memorising famous narrations in ‘Umdat al-Ahkam by al-Maqdisi alongside reading its outstanding commentary Ihkam al-Ahkam by Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id. This will introduce fiqh al-hadith (an essential skill) as Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id deduces the rulings from each hadith in a masterful way. One may also refer to an easy contemporary sharh such as Taysir al-‘Allam. Those with aspiration may also read the commentaries of Ibn al-‘Attar and Ibn al-Mulaqqin, though Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id is a great summary of what one needs.
Thereafter, memorise and study Bulugh al-Maram by Ibn Hajar with its excellent commentary, Subul al-Salam by al-San’ani, another classic in fiqh al-hadith. Two contemporary commentaries that stand out are Minhat al-‘Allam by Abdullah al-Fawzan and I’lam al-Anam by Nur al-Din ‘Itr. The hadiths found in Umdat al-Ahkam and Bulugh al-Maram are the foundations of legal rulings and one really should memrorise them as they will pop up again and again in one’s future studies.
The final collection to memorise and study is Riyadh al-Salihin by al-Nawawi. The best commentary is Dalil al-Falihin by Ibn ‘Allan, which summarises from classical commentaries such as Fath al-Bari and al-Nawawi’s Sharh Sahih Muslim. A short, but excellent, contemporary sharh is Nuzhat al-Muttaqin by Mustafa Khinn and associates. A good large contemporary commentary is Kunuz Riyadh al-Salihin. Through these three works (i.e. ‘Umdat al-Ahkam, Bulugh al-Maram, and Riyadh al-Salihin), one will have grasped the spirit and essence of the Sunnah.
The most important books to prepare for at this stage are the Sahihayn of al-Bukhari and Muslim. In order to become easily acquainted with the contents of the Sahihayn, Salih al-Shami’s al-Wafi bi-ma fi al-Sahihayn is an excellent choice which some even recommend memorising, though one could otherwise study separately the mukhtasars of al-Zabidi and al-Mundhiri, on al-Bukhari and Muslim respectively. Whilst covering each hadith, refer to Ibn al-Athir’s al-Nihayah fi Gharib al-Hadith for obscure or ambiguous vocabulary and research the general meanings of each hadith, where possible, in al-Munawi’s Faydh al-Qadir and al-Tibi’s Sharh Miskhat al-Masabih. These provide clear and brief commentary on many famous hadiths.
If one decides on studying al-Zabidi’s mukhtasar, al-Tajrid al-Sari, then there are two excellent commentaries, both based on Fath al-Bari: ‘Awn al-Bari by Siddiq Hasan Khan and Manar al-Qari by Hamza Qasim.
Upper Intermediate
The objective of this stage is to begin preparing for the thorough and exhaustive study of the major hadith literature.
An excellent book that covers a wide range of topics related to hadith is the aptly-named Hadith by Jonathan Brown. This should be read alongside Studies in Early Hadith Literature by Mustafa al-A’zami, his 1966 Ph.D thesis at Cambridge, which is available in Arabic too.
As an introduction to the major hadith narrators and critics, whom one needs to know for mastery, as well as the emergence of classical Sunnism, Scott Lucas’ Constructive Critics, his 2002 Ph.D thesis at Chicago, is an outstanding work.
An excellent introduction to how scholars differ in their understanding of the texts of hadith is The Differences of the Imams by Zakariyyah Kandhlawi. This must be followed by the outstanding Athar al-Hadith al-Sharif fi Ikhtilaf al-A’imma al-Fuqaha by Muhammad ‘Awwamah. One may also add to these Shah Wali Allah’s al-Insaf as well as his Hujjat Allah al-Baligha.
Nur al-Din ‘Itr’s book Manhaj al-Naqd, which introduces a wide range of topics, should be covered as a precursor to his edition of Muqaddimah Ibn al-Salah. The importance of mastering this text cannot be stressed enough, as its structure is the basis for a number of subsequent works which can be referenced alongside its study. The audio class of Hatim al-‘Awni is excellent and should be listened to completely for a solid grounding. Tariq Awad Allah has an edition that includes the Nukat of both Ibn Hajar and al-‘Iraqi. Mastery can be assisted by referencing the corresponding relevant sections in Tadrib al-Rawi by al-Suyuti (edited with hashiya by Muhammad ‘Awwamah but also two good editions by al-Faryabi and Tariq Awad Allah) and Fath al-Mughith by al-Sakhawi (edited by ‘Abd al-Karim al-Khudayr). Another book one may add for reference is Tahir al-Jaza’iri’s Tawjih al-Nazar, which my Syrian shaykhs highly recommend.
At this juncture, two contemporary works must be covered which raise questions on nomenclature and other hadith sciences according to the methodology of the earlier scholars. The first is al-Manhaj al-Muqtarah by Hatim al-‘Awni and the second is Tahrir ‘Ulum al-Hadith by Abdullah al-Juday’. These two works are very original and insightful and have proved to be quite controversial. Their conclusions are that more effort needs to be made in ‘ulum al-hadith.
A good introduction to methodological differences between earlier scholars and later ones is Hamza al-Mallibari’s al-Muwazana bayna al-Mutaqaddimin wa al-Muta’akhirin.
As a counterbalance, Dhafar Ahmad al-‘Uthmani’s Qawa’id fi ‘Ulum al-Hadith argues that the classical sciences of hadith are subjective and not absolute, whilst championing Hanafi usul al-hadith. That is to say, classical ‘ulum al-hadith were developed for the most part by hadith scholars influenced by al-Shafi’i and thus implicitly undermined the usul of the Hanafis (and by extension the Malikis). Whilst one may not agree with all of his arguments, it does offer an important different perspective and underlines the subjective nature of the science, which may open it up for further development.
The above should provide a good framework for the study of by al-Risalah by Imam al-Shafi’i, which some have rightly argued is one of (if not the) earliest treatises on hadith methodology, in addition to being incredibly influential in the development of hadith science, in the sense that later hadith scholars took up al-Shafi’i’s arguments and developed them further. Joseph Lowry’s insightful 1999 Pennsylvania Ph.D thesis Early Islamic Legal Theory clarifies al-Shafi’i’s concept of al-Bayan. Tariq b. ‘Awad Allah’s al-Naqd al-Banna further clarifies explains al-Shafi’i’s conditions for accepting murasil from tabi’in.
At this stage one could also add Ma’alim al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah, by shaykh Salih al-Sahmi, who strove in this collection to gather the sahih and hasan individual hadiths, without repetition, from fourteen major hadith sources: (1) al-Bukhari, (2) Muslim, (3) al-Nasa’i, (4) Abu Dawud, (5) al-Tirmidhi, (6) Ibn Majah, (7) al-Darimi, (8) Malik, (9) Ahmad, (10) al-Bayhaqi, (11) Ibn Khuzaymah, (12) Ibn Hibban, (13) al-Hakim, and (14) al-Maqdisi. It contains just under 4,000 hadiths and is an excellent introduction to the textual content of the major hadith collections. Indians tend to prepare for the dawrah al-hadith with the popular Mishkat al-Masabih by al-Tabrizi, which was abridged from al-Baghawi’s Masabih al-Sunnah. However, I think Ma’alim al-Sunnah is a worthy alternative due to its wider sourcing and relatively better selections in terms of soundness.
To really expand one’s understanding of the fiqh of the famous hadiths, an outstanding book is Imam al-Baghawi’s Sharh al-Sunnah. This masterpiece is highly regarded by our contemporary senior researchers (such as Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut and Abdullah al-Turki) due to its balance between hadith and fiqh. It contains just over 4,400 hadiths that are widely circulated among the hadith scholars, with valuable insights and commentary by al-Baghawi. Studying this before the major works will place one at a massive advantage over those who neglect it.
Advanced
The objectives of this stage are reading the major hadith works with commentary and takhrij as well as becoming acquainted with the main features of ‘ilm al-rijal (biographical data), and al-jarh wa al-ta’dil (narrator criticism), as well as responding to criticisms levelled against ‘ulum al-hadith.
A popular work that introduces and addressing the challenges levelled against ‘ulum al-hadith is al-Sunnah wa Makanatiha by Mustafa al-Siba‘i, which responds to some of the objections raised by Orientalists. Alternatively, or additionally, Nur al-Din ‘Itr has al-Sunnah al-Mutahirah wa al-Tahadiyat covering similar ground. ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Mu’allami’s al-Anwar al-Kashifa addresses criticism of narrators, Abu Hurayrah specifically. These should be followed by On Schacht’s Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence by Mustafa al-A’zami, Harald Motzki’s collection of articles in Analysing Muslim Traditions, and The Evolution of a Hadith by Dr. Iftikhar Zaman (his 1991 Ph.D thesis at Chicago).
One should now learn the biographies of the major narrators through al-Mashur min al-Asanid al-Hadith by Adil b. Abd al-Shakur al-Zuraqi, as well as his Tabaqat al-Mukthirin. One should research these major figures in the books of rijal, beginning with Tahrir Taqrib al-Taqrib by Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut and Bashar ‘Awwad Ma’ruf as well as Tariq b. Awad Allah’s Tahdhib Taqrib al-Tahdhib for the summary (both are refinements of Ibn Hajar’s Taqrib al-Tahdhib which inexplicably has mistakes and inconsistencies), then Ibn Hajar’s Tahdhib al-Tahdhib for more detail, and finally al-Mizzi’s Tahdhib al-Kamal. Write all the relevant biographical data down in your own note book and review constantly. You will be seeing a lot of these narrators in your future studies!
The outstanding book to study at this stage is Tarh al-Tathrib fi Sharh al-Taqrib (published by Dar al-Badr/Shuruq) by Wali al-Din al-‘Iraqi (d.826). It is a completion of the commentary of his father, the great mujaddid Zayn al-Din al-‘Iraqi (d.806), on his own work Taqrib al-Asanid. It comments on the hadiths of the strongest narrators according to the structure of a sunan/ahkam work. For whatever reason, the book has been wrongfully overlooked in favour of works likes Nayl al-Awtar by al-Shawkani.
These famous chains should also be checked in Tuhfat al-Ashraf by al-Mizzi to see which hadiths they have produced. These are the figures who will feature prominently in one’s study of the major works, and so getting the gist of their biographies and relationships beforehand gives one a massive advantage later on. One must know how nuanced grading can be and will learn that refraining from rash judgements on chains of hadith without extensive research of each chain and hadith in context is wise and proper.
Takhrij can begin with Mahmud al-Tahan’s popular book Usul al-Takhrij wa Dirasat al-Asanid. ‘Imad ‘Ali Jumu’ah has an excellent chart form of this. This should be followed by Hatim al-‘Awni’s audio class on takhrij as well as its printed transcript (mudhakkirah), al-Takhrij wa Dirasat al-Asanid, which the shaykh highly recommends. To see how takhrij is practically applied, one excellent reference is Badr al-Munir by Ibn al-Mulaqqin (he called himself Ibn al-Nahwi) and it’s abridgement Talkhis al-Habir by his student Ibn Hajar.
All of the previous study should now have prepared one for engaging with the hadith literature. Many scholars recommend commencing with al-Sahihayn but Nur al-Din ‘Itr and Shah Wali Allah argue (convincingly, in my view) that the famous al-Muwatta of Malik should be one’s first major work for, in ‘Itr’s words in Manhaj al-Naqd, it is the ‘easiest in length, shortest in chains, and has a most excellent selection of hadiths.’ Thereafter, one should study the Sahihayn of al-Bukhari and Muslim, beginning with al-Bukhari. Whilst reading these three works, each narrator must be researched extensively in Tahdhib al-Kamal, as they are the pivots upon which the strongest hadiths depend. Do not rely on short works such as Taqrib al-Taqrib for this. It is a beginners book meant only for quick review and the habit of some of the muta’akhirin (even among commentators) of relying on it is frankly poor practice and low aspiration.
Al-Muwatta should be prepared for with Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr’s Muqaddimah al-Tamhid together with Ibn al-Salah’s Wasl al-Balaghat al-Arba’ah fi al-Muwatta’, both of which have been edited and published by ‘Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah in Khams Rasa’il fi ‘Ulum al-Hadith. Also read the three other treatises in the collection as they touch upon essentials of hadith study such as the difference between hadathana and akhbarana. Thereafter read Umar F. Abd-Allah Wymann-Landgraf’s updated 1978 Chicago Ph.D thesis, Malik and Medina, which has valuable insights into the terminologies used by Malik, which really will help in understanding Malik’s intend and methodology. There are many commentaries on al-Muwatta, but the greatest are unquestionably al-Tamhid (more for ‘ulum al-hadith) and al-Istidhkar (more for fiqh), both by Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr. One would do well to also reference al-Baji’s al-Muntaqa (which is easier) and Ibn al-‘Arabi’s al-Masalik. For an abridged summary of the Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr and al-Baji, Sharh al-Zurqani is an excellent place to start. Awjaz al-Masalik by al-Kandahlawi is very clear (although the irrelevant defense of Hanafi views therein is a distraction), but the best modern commentary is by Ibn ‘Ashur’s Kashf al-Mughatta. I still think that Bashar ‘Awwad Ma’ruf’s second edition of al-Muwatta in two volumes is the best one, though Kilal Hasan Ali’s is excellent too.
Ghassan Abdul Jabbar’s Bukhari is an excellent introduction to the man and his work. This should be followed by Scott Lucas’ article The Legal Principles of Muhammad b. Isma’il al-Bukhari and Mohammad Fadel’s article Ibn Hajar’s Hady al-Sari. After this, Jonathan Brown’s The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim, his 2006 Ph.D thesis at Chicago, is an absolutely essential read. It is better than most Arabic books on the Sahihayn.
Sahih al-Bukhari must accompanied by Ibn Hajar’s classic commentary Fath al-Bari, for those with aspiration, or al-Qastallani’s Irshad al-Sari, which is based on Fath al-Bari and al-‘Ayni’s ‘Umdat al-Qari. Ibn Hajar’s introduction to Fath al-Bari contains many fine points of detail and criticism, addressing some of the objections in al-Daraqutni’s al-Ilzimat, which should be read alongside this introduction with the audio commentary of Abdullah al-Sa’d. This will further introduce one, in addition to the previous study of al-Tamyiz, to ‘ilal al-hadith (hidden defects), which is the most difficult aspect of ‘ulum al-hadith. Nur al-Din ‘It’s book on al-Bukhari’s fiqh and chapter headings, al-Imam al-Bukhari wa al-Fiqh al-Tarajim, should also be consulted. One good modern commentary by Anwar Shah al-Kashmiri, Faydh al-Bari, also discusses the fiqh of al-Bukhari’s chapter titles really well, and also objects to Ibn Hajar at times, but Indian Hanafi hadith commentaries tend to be motivated by defending Hanafi fiqh against the Ahl al-Hadith more than trying to understand the methodology of the authors. The best edition to study Sahih al-Bukhari is undoubtedly still al-Sultaniyah in the edition of shaykh Muhammad Zuhayr al-Nasr, followed by the Maknaz al-Islami edition. All other editions (as of 2016), including Dar al-Ta’sil, presently fall short.
Before commencing with Sahih Muslim one should read Hatim al-‘Awni’s Ijma’ al-Muhaddithin, which addresses common misconceptions regarding the conditions of al-Bukhari and Muslim as well as the mu’an’an controversy discussed in Muslim’s Muqaddimah. A controversial thesis, it should be read with Ibrahim al-Lahim’s al-Ittisal wa al-Intiqa.
Thereafter, the Muqaddimah of Imam Muslim and Kitab al-Tamyiz (ed. Mustafa al-A’zami) with the audio of Abdullah al-Sa’d are excellent starting points for preparing to study Sahih Muslim as well as introducing hidden defects (‘ilal).
One must study Sahih Muslim with at least Sharh al-Nawawi, for the fiqh, and al-Kawkab al-Wahhaj by Muhammad al-Amin al-Harari additional benefits in discussing the chains. Fath al-Mulhim by al-‘Uthmani also has some interesting observations and discussions apart from the usual Indian Hanafi defence. One must bear in mind Imam Muslim’s methodoly. He arranges the hadith in each chapter according to degrading levels of strength. Thus, the first one or two hadiths are the basis (asl) of the topic or argument, of which there are 3,145, and the following hadiths are supports (mutaba’at), from a total of 7,748. Most commentaries miss this point too, focusing instead on fiqh of hadiths rather than hadith methodology. Critics have often failed to understand this subtle point and have criticised the mutabi’ hadiths when their main purpose is to support the asl hadiths. A good teacher should be able to point these out and differentiate between them. Another key point to note is that Imam Muslim never wrote chapter headings or titles. He simply gathered the hadiths of a particular issue together in order of strength. Later, commentators wrote chapter headings, which they deduced from the contents of the topical hadiths. Most editions of Sahih Muslim use Imam al-Nawawi’s chapter headings, due to his great standing in both fiqh and hadith. However, one should check earlier and later commentaries to see how different scholars have understood the chapters. Sometimes, chapter headings have misplaced Muslim’s priorities in certain narrations as well as missing the methodological point being made by focusing on the fiqh rather than the method. The best edition of Sahih Muslim is still al-‘Amirah edited by Muhammad Zuhayr al-Nasr. One should also benefit from al-Faryabi’s edition due to its useful footnotes drawing on al-Daraqutni’s criticisms, among others.
Whilst reading the Sahihayn, keep at hand Mustafa Bahuw’s al-Ahadith al-Muntaqadah fi al-Sahihayn. This collects together and evaluates a lot of research into the criticised hadith in al-Sahihayn. It is a valuable reference.
Mastery
At this juncture, before commencing with the major Sunan works, one should know that the objectives of this stage are to master ‘ilal (hidden defects), ‘ilm al-rijal (biographical data), and al-jarh wa al-ta’dil (narrator criticism).
Moving on to narrator criticism (al-jarh wa al-ta’dil), one excellent introduction is al-Raf’ wa al-Takmil by al-Laknawi (edited by ‘Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah). This should be accompanied by Hatim al-Awni’s Khulasat al-Ta’sil with audio and transcript commentary and Dawabit al-Jarh wa al-Ta’dil by ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ‘Abd al-Latif. Abdullah al-Sa’d has three recorded series that are excellent: al-Qawa’id, al-Dawabit, and al-Mubahith fi al-Jarh wa al-Ta’dil. Finally, Ibrahim al-Lahim’s book al-Jarh wa al-Ta’dil, has a good level of coverage of the topic.
Building upon Abdullah al-Sa’d’s audio commentaries upon Muslim’s Tamyiz and al-Daraqutni’s Ilzimat, Hatim al-‘Awni’s book and audio commentary al-Madkhal ila Fahm ‘Ilm al-‘Ilal is a brief, but excellent, step into ‘ilal. This should be followed by Hamza al-Mallibari’s al-Hadith al-Ma’lul and Ali al-Sayyah’s al-Hadith al-Mu’all and al-Manhaj al-‘Ilmi fi Dirasat al-Hadith al-Mu’all. Tariq b. ‘Awad Allah’s al-Irshadat must be studied as an excellent and practical book that bulits on the previous ‘ilal studies by focusing on mistakes that are frequently made in strengthening hadiths with mutaba’at (follow-up) and shawahid (witnessing) narrations.
At this juncture, Shurut al-A’immah al-Khams by al-Hazimi and Shurut al-A’immah al-Sittah by al-Maqdisi, which discuss the conditions each of the Imams (al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Nasa’i, and al-Tirmidhi) stipulated for including hadiths in their collections, should be read and summarised in a chart. Keep referring back to this chart throughout and try to determine whether al-Maqdisi’s and al-Hazimi’s deductions are always precise. Both are found alongside Abu Dawud’s Risalah (see below) in Abd al-Fattah Abu Guddah’s Thalath Rasa’il fi ‘Ilm Mustalah al-Hadith.
When studying the forthcoming sunan works, analyse each chain of transmission independently. It is crucial to remember that each chain needs to be analysed individually and in context, understanding the methodology of the early hadith masters, and referencing ‘Ilal al-Daraqutni, ‘Ilal Ibn Abi Hatim, and ‘Ilal Ibn al-Madini. One should be very careful in grading hadith and should strive to understand rather than innovate new gradings. Check one’s own reseach against that of Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut, Nasr al-Din al-Albani, and Abdullah al-Sa’d’s audio commentaries.
The Sunan of Abu Dawud should be prepared for by reading Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah’s edition of his Risalah ila Ahl Makkah, which some have argued is one of the first treatises on nomenclature and methodology alongside Muslim’s Muqaddimah and al-Shafi’is Risalah. Abdullah al-Sa’d has an excellent audio commentary, focusing on ‘ulum al-hadith, of the opening chapters. Check your own research against his. Also, refer to the gradings and justifications of Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut and Nasr al-Din al-Albani. When these three agree, it should suffice. When they differ, research it extensively. Three commentaries to refer to are Mu’alim al-Sunan by al-Khattabi for a brief overview, ‘Awn al-Ma’bud for some good discussions on the fiqh, and Badhl al-Majhud for more clarification in the chains. The best edition of Sunan Abi Dawud is by Muhammad ‘Awwamah, which has met great aclaim among contemporaries.
The Mujtaba of al-Nasa’i should be introduced with Hatim al-Awni’s Mashayikh al-Nasa’i wa Dhikr al-Mudallisin. Abdullah al-Sa’d has an excellent audio commentary, focusing on ‘ulum al-hadith, of the opening chapters. Check your own research against his. Also, refer to the gradings and justifications of Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut and Nasr al-Din al-Albani. When these three agree, it should suffice. When they differ, research it extensively. The best commentary is Sharh Sunan al-Nasa’i by al-Wallawi, though I also like Sharh al-Shanqiti. The first is very clear and makes life easy for the student. Nevertheless, one must focus on how al-Nasa’i collects chains to teach ‘ilal al-hadith. The best edition of Sunan al-Nasa’i probably is by Dar al-Ta’sil, but Dar al-Ma’rifah’s edition with the hashiyah has been met with the most approval by contemporary scholars.
The Jami’ of al-Tirmidhi should be introduced through Nur al-Din ‘Itr’s al-Imam al-Tirmidhi wa al-Muwazana Bayna Jami`ihi wa Bayn al-Sahihayn, which was his Ph.D thesis at al-Azhar as well as Ibn Rajab’s Sharh ‘Ilal al-Tirmidhi (edited by Nur al-Din ‘Itr) with Hatim al-‘Awni’s audio commentary. This wonderful book helps to understand al-Tirmidhi’s use of tahsin. I would also add that Dr. ‘Adab al-Hamsh’s al-Imam al-Tirmidhi wa Manhajuhu fi Kitabihi al-Jami’ is an excellent study in three volumes. Abdullah al-Sa’d has an excellent audio commentary, focusing on ‘ulum al-hadith, of the opening chapters. Check your own research against his. Also, refer to the gradings and justifications of Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut and Nasr al-Din al-Albani. When these three agree, it should suffice. When they differ, research it extensively. My favourite commentary is Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi by al-Mubarakfuri, through whom my ijazah in al-Tirmidhi goes (the same path as shaykh Ibn ‘Aqil). Another good reference is ‘Aridat al-Ahwadhi by Ibn al-‘Arabi al-Maliki. The best edition of Jami’ al-Tirmidhi is best Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut but ‘Isam Musa Hadi’s edition points out some typos and errors in it. Ahmad Shakir’s edition, though incomplete, has very valuable footnotes. Make sure to reference al-Daraqutni’s Kitab al-‘Ilal, where possible.
The Sunan of Ibn Majah is where where should practically apply all of one’s skills attained through the previous studies for an academic investigation and engagement with Ibn Majah. It should be prefaced with Muhammad al-Nu’mani’s al-Imam Ibn Majah wa Kitabuhu al-Sunan. My own preference is to isolate the zawa’id of Ibn Majah and analyse those chains independently, comparing my results against the research of al-Arna’ut and al-Albani. Don’t rely on al-Busiri due to the weakness of the editions and some zawa’id that appear to be missed or included when not zawa’id. Rather, isolate them using your gained takhrij skills and Tuhfat al-Ahraf. Our count is that there are in fact 1,213 zawa’id hadiths (with repetition) but 1,476 in al-Busiri’s Misbah al-Zujajah. From these, 98 hadiths have a sahih isnad, 113 are sahih with mutaba’at (follow-up hadiths), 219 are sahih with shawahid (witnessing hadiths), 58 have a hasan isnad, 42 are hasan with mutaba’at, 65 are hasan with shawahid, 6 are possibly hasan in sha Allah. The best edition is the second Maknaz edition, published in two volumes in 2016.
By now, one should be well-prepared to read the hadith literature. The next step is yours. Indians like to move on to al-Tahawi’s two books: Sharh Mushkil al-Athar and Sharh Ma’ani al-Athar. Some Arabs move on to the zawa’id of Musnad al-Darimi, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Hibban, and al-Daraqutni. Others prefer to delve into Musnad Ahmad. It took me a while to realise this, even after repeatedly seeing it exhorted to by many hadith masters and jurists of the past, but my preferred step now at this stage is to go on to al-B |
ask, "why are you crying?"By Corporal Marc-André Lévesque, Army Public Affairs, 5 GBMC
Exercise SABRE GLACE (Ex SG), which was conducted from March 20 to 30, 2014, in Resolute Bay, the second northernmost village in Canada, turned out to be quite an adventure. It was the first time a sub-unit had had the opportunity to deploy to the new Canadian Armed Forces Training Centre in the High Arctic.
In all, 113 soldiers, including 75 ““armoured”” soldiers from A Squadron, 12e Régiment blindé du Canada (12e RBC), 12 Rangers from 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, 10 engineers from 52 Squadron, 5 Combat Engineer Regiment, and 16 other personnel from various units (e.g. medical chain and logistics), took part in the training.
Seventy snowmobiles and three BV 206 tracked carriers enabled the troops to travel almost 18,000 km overland. DC-3s and DHC-6 Twin Otters allowed them to cover this vast area of the Far North by air.
After six months of planning and preparation, A Squadron, 12e RBC, were finally headed to the hamlet of Resolute on Cornwallis Island in Nunavut. Their primary purpose was to apply military know-how in the Arctic so as to assert Canadian sovereignty over the North.
Participants carried out presence patrols as well as search and rescue missions in the area around Resolute, where the average temperature in March is minus 40 degrees Celsius. The troops, who had never been to this inhospitable region before, were able to rely on the Rangers’ expertise. The Rangers’ intimate knowledge of the environment and climate was invaluable. Each troop had two or three Rangers in their ranks.
The troops became acclimatized to the terrain and cold on medium-range patrols conducted on snowmobiles or BV 206s. There is little snow, because of the winds that blow across the landscape at up to 90 km/h. Since they were not used to the cold, some members suffered frostbite. Some patrols were paired off to help with polar-bear and seal hunts.
Long-range patrols to the Polaris mine, Gascoyne Inlet and Eureka were carried out by air. Small groups then explored the destinations, except for Eureka, where participants were able to spend some time with the employees of the weather station. They were even able to spend one night. During the patrols, the equipment was carried on large sleds called ““komatics.””
During Ex SG’s indoctrination period, troops were taught local fishing techniques. Holes about seven feet deep were drilled in the ice to allow them to drop their fishing lines.
As one might expect, the members attended a demonstration on how to construct an igloo and helped build snow caves, in which they spent one full night to put their work to the test. Some of them, however, took turns sleeping in the ten-man tent to keep watch. If the need arose, there were there to help those sleeping in the snow caves.
A firing range was also set up to test the capabilities of the C7 (5.56 mm) and the Lee-Enfield rifle (.303) in the Arctic cold. It turned out that they had to be handled quite differently than in a warmer region, since it was so cold that hands could freeze in a few seconds. In those conditions, precision and rate of fire are greatly affected.
The Commander 2 Canadian Division, Brigadier-General Jean-Marc Lanthier, along with the Commanding Officer 12e RBC, Lieutenant-Colonel Pierre Huet, visited the troops during various activities, including a fishing expedition. As fate would have it, Brigadier-General Lanthier caught the biggest fish of the whole exercise!
The support trades also did an incredible job throughout Ex SG. For example, signallers tested their transmission media; medical troops cared for the injured; traffic technicians loaded and unloaded equipment; logistics made sure the troops had the equipment they needed; and mechanics repaired broken-down vehicles. And, of course, we cannot forget the cooks, who helped maintain morale by preparing excellent meals everyday!
At the end of the exercise, the troops had the opportunity to immerse themselves in Inuit folklore, when they listened to traditional chant and played games with the local population, in addition to tasting local food. A glimpse into a completely different world!FERGUSON, Mo. — After months of racially charged unrest over the police killing of a black teenager, activists are making a final push to attract a new generation of voters to the polls on Tuesday in the hopes of changing the face of the predominantly white political leadership in this mostly black city.
The effort has transformed the normally sleepy races for City Council in Ferguson, a community of 21,000 people just outside St. Louis.
“It’s special to me because if this goes, if everybody plans on making the election and doing what we supposed to do, this can be the start of a new tomorrow,” said Latrez Davis, 24, a black man who moved to Ferguson about a month ago and said he planned to vote.
Much is at stake. The Aug. 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, unleashed sometimes violent demonstrations that left parts of Ferguson tattered and charred. Beyond revitalizing these areas, the next Council must select key officials — a city manager, a police chief and a municipal judge — who will be directly responsible for ushering in a new era of law enforcement.NEW YORK (Reuters) - John McAfee, the creator of eponymous antivirus computer software, has settled a lawsuit against Intel Corp (INTC.O) over his right to use his name on other projects after the chipmaker bought his former company.
FILE PHOTO - Computer software pioneer John McAfee speaks with reporters outside his hotel in Miami Beach, Florida December 13, 2012. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan dismissed McAfee’s September 2016 lawsuit and a countersuit by Intel on Wednesday, five days after a settlement agreement was signed.
McAfee said he sued after Intel warned him that using his name, including by renaming his digital gaming and cybersecurity company MGT Capital Investments Inc (MGTI.PK) as “John McAfee Global Technologies Inc,” would infringe its trademarks.
Intel countered by accusing McAfee of trademark infringement and unfair competition, and sought unspecified damages.
Under the settlement, McAfee agreed not to use his name, trademark his name or the phrase “John McAfee Privacy Phone,” or use “John McAfee Global Technologies” in connection with cybersecurity- and security-related products and services.
He retained the right in other contexts to use his name in advertising, promotions and presentations, including with regard to his role at McAfee Associates, which he sold to Intel for $7.7 billion in 2010.
Neither McAfee nor Intel admitted wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, which was amicable, according to court papers.
McAfee’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Intel said the Santa Clara, California-based company was pleased to settle.
Intel spun off its cybersecurity division, now called McAfee LLC, in April, after agreeing to sell a 51 percent stake to private investment firm TPG Capital.
TPG later accepted a minority investment in the business from private equity firm Thoma Bravo.
Intel retained a 49 percent stake in McAfee, which the spinoff valued at $4.2 billion including debt.
John McAfee unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party’s nomination for the U.S. presidency last year.
The case is McAfee et al v Intel Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-06934.In the ashes of the Jallikattu movement, leading trade associations of Tamil Nadu have called for ban of foreign cola drinks, Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
The traditional bull fighting game was a matter of debate after the Supreme Court banned the sport, but back-South no one was ready to abide by the ruling of the honourable court. After all the argument was that the sport was the “mark of their pride”, but it has given rise to another “swadeshi” movement.
Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaippu (TNVSP), a prominent traders association of the state has called for ban of Pepsi and Coca-Cola from March 1, and said it will talk to shopkeepers and dealers to promote homegrown brands such as Patanjali, Kali Mark and Bovonto.
Putting the reason of the ban of the youth, AM Vikrama Raja, president of TNVSP, told IANS, “After the jallikattu movement, we found many youths are not in favour of the two cola brands.”
Already, some of the shopkeepers, restaurant and hotel chain owners have stopped selling and serving the cola drinks.
Raja said that the association will soon start campaigning against the cola makers. TNVSP is a conglomerate of 6,000 traders associations, with 1.5 million members.
The Indian Beverages Association has expressed concerns on the ban, and said it is against the welfare of the farmers and retailers of the state.
This is not the first time Cola majors have faced criticism in the state -- the Madras High Court ruling restrained the cola majors to draw water from the Tamirabarani river for their bottling plants. Seed companies, too, faced criticism over affecting produce of farmers.
Karthikeya Shivasenapathy, researcher, Kangeyam Cattle Research Foundation told a newspaper that “in a drought-hit state like Tamil Nadu” there is little water left for irrigation, and in towns citizens don’t get tap water.
Other trade association have also joined the march against multi-national companies. T Vellaiyan, head of Tamil Nadu Traders Federation said that there might be some impact in the “short-term”, but selling drinks such as badam milk, coconut water and other fruit juices will be beneficial for the economy in the long run.
First Published: Jan 27, 2017 17:28 ISTA bizarre snapshot from Google Maps’ Street View has Reddit users divided.
Reddit user Skilletquesoandchill posted a screenshot from Google, which depicts a person backing out of a driveway in a residential neighborhood with their hand hanging outside the driver’s side window, middle finger to the wind — and yes, it’s uncensored. A few yards to the left, a woman stands, expressionless.
So, what has them divided? Reddit users want to know why the driver is so angry. Is it the woman or the Google camera car driver?
Some people say the enigmatic woman was standing nearby by chance, other’s believe she might have a reason.
“She was probably mad that he didn't sweep the sidewalk after mowing,” wrote one user.
He may be right, as grass clippings can be seen all over — and she’s choosing to stand off the curb.
However, it seems most people believe he has reasons to hate on Google.
“Maybe the woman was just a coincidence and the person in the car just likes to flip off the Google cars for funsies,” wrote another. ”My coworkers waved at a Google car a few months ago, and earlier this week we were looking to see if you could see it on street view. Sadly they were mostly obscured by a tree, lol.”
Surprisingly, one Redditor admitted they’d actually given the bird to a Google driver before:
“I was featured flipping off the Google car in my driveway last year. It only stayed up for a month or two, then Google replaced several frames of that most recent drive-by with frames from a previous drive-by. It took them about 5 months to even process and post the original photos. I was flipping it off mostly because it was doing 45 on my 25MPH street.”
So, how do you vote: the woman or Google driver?
The answer may lie forever, shrouded in bizarre mystery. Keep Austin weird, y’all.No matter how hard you try to drink local, the truth is that most of Chicago’s craft brewers get hops (the plants that provide the bitterness to balance the sweet malt flavor in a brew) from the Pacific Northwest. But hops do grow here—and you can taste the Chicago harvest in these three limited-release beers, available only on tap at the breweries.
Lake Effect’s 45th Ward
45th Ward Pale Ale
Lake Effect Brewing Company
Lake Effect produces this nutty, not-too-bitter ale each fall using hops donated from home gardeners around the brewery’s Northwest Side neighborhood. Growers can bring in their hops fresh or trimmed and dried, and they (and you) can sip the end result by the first week of October. 4727 W. Montrose Ave., Old Irving Park
Penguin Hops American Pale Ale
Revolution Brewing
Chicago’s largest independent brewery teams up annually with the Shedd Aquarium to produce this ale, and proceeds benefit the aquarium’s conservation efforts. The hops are grown on the grounds of the Shedd and harvested by volunteers before being sent to Revolution head brewer Wil Turner. He mixes them with his own homegrown hops and some from the West Coast, resulting in a brew with floral, grapefruit, and pine notes. 3340 N. Kedzie Ave., Avondale
Otis India Pale Ale
Wild Onion Brewery
This medium-bodied IPA is made in the late summer or early fall each year with hops grown on the brewery’s property. The fresh hops are dumped directly into the mash tun (the vessel in which the malt’s starches are converted into sugars) to sit for half an hour to impart flavor and act as a natural filter bed. Several days later, the beer’s ready to pour, delivering a bracing bitterness. 22221 N. Pepper Rd., Lake Barrington
Looking to grow your own? We got tips from Revolution’s head brewer, Wil Turner.
This article appears in the August 2017 issue of Chicago magazine. Subscribe to Chicago magazine.
SharePaul Krugman doesn't think Paul Ryan's budget plan should be taken seriously.
"This is just a fantasy, not a serious policy proposal," Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning Princeton economics professor and New York Times columnist, wrote in a blog post Monday:
Look, Ryan hasn't 'crunched the numbers'; he has just scribbled some stuff down, without checking at all to see if it makes sense. He asserts that he can cut taxes without net loss of revenue by closing unspecified loopholes; he asserts that he can cut discretionary spending to levels not seen since Calvin Coolidge, without saying how; he asserts that he can convert Medicare to a voucher system, with much lower spending than now projected, without even a hint of how this is supposed to work. [...] He's a hard-core conservative, with a voting record as far right as Michelle Bachman's [sic], who has shown no competence at all on the numbers thing.
Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, announced Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, as his running mate on Saturday. Ryan has led the Republican Party's charge to shrink the size of government, including cutting spending on welfare, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, while slashing taxes for the wealthiest.
Krugman wrote in another blog post published on Monday afternoon that Romney chose Ryan in order to dupe the media into making "Ryan's unjustified reputation for honest wonkery...transfer to the ticket as a whole."
Ryan has been praised as a deficit hawk, but his budget proposal would raise $2.2 trillion less in tax revenue over the next 10 years than President Obama's budget, according to the Washington Post's Brad Plumer. To offset that lost revenue, Ryan also has proposed spending $5.3 trillion less over the same time period, but has not specified exact cuts.
Ryan's budget would slash all federal spending -- outside of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- by 70 percent by 2050, perhaps an unrealistic assumption considering that Romney has promised to keep defense spending above those levels, according to Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein.
Ryan also has proposed cutting individual and corporate tax rates and getting rid of taxes on corporate income, capital gains, estates, interest and dividends, according to Bloomberg. Ryan's budget proposal also promised to close tax loopholes, but declined to specify which ones.
Ryan's budget is generous to the wealthiest Americans. Romney, for example, would have paid an effective 0.82 percent tax rate in 2010 under Ryan's budget, thanks to the elimination of the tax on capital gains, the Atlantic's Matthew O'Brien notes.
Check out some of Krugman's best zingers about Paul Ryan below:
PHOTO GALLERY Paul Krugman's Best Zingers Against Paul Ryan
Update: This article has been updated to include Krugman's comments on Ryan in a new blog post on Monday.Media playback is not supported on this device I can still have great Wimbledon despite Queen's exit - Murray
Wimbledon 2017 on the BBC Venue: All England Club Dates: 3-16 July Starts: 11:30 BST Live: Coverage across BBC TV, BBC Radio and BBC Sport website with further coverage on Red Button, Connected TVs and app.
Defending champion Andy Murray has pulled out of his final warm-up match before Wimbledon because of a sore hip.
The world number one, 30, was scheduled to play an exhibition match at Hurlingham Club in London on Friday.
"Sadly I won't be ready to play at the Hurlingham, my hip is still sore and I need to rest it," he said.
The Briton is still expected to begin the defence of his Wimbledon title on Monday, but will be short of practice heading into the Championships.
Murray has only played one grass-court match this year, suffering a shock first-round defeat by world number 90 Jordan Thompson at Queen's.
As defending champion, the Scot is set to open on Centre Court at 13:00 BST on Monday.
Analysis - 'Murray's preparation hindered'
Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent:
Aches and pains are nothing new for Murray, or for any professional tennis player, but the timing is inopportune.
Murray's last practice session was a light one at the All England Club on Tuesday, and although it is possible he might still have one on Friday, he may need to spend another day on the sidelines.
My understanding is that his participation at Wimbledon is not currently in doubt, but his preparation has once again been hindered. This is a season in which injury and illness have caused much frustration.Getty Deutsche Bank's share prices fell straight away
The German lender posted a full year loss of £5.1 billion (€6.8bn) on Thursday - higher than the expected €6.7bn million. With losses of €2.1bn in the fourth quarter of 2015-16, fears of the entire eurozone toppling are becoming an increasing reality. Germany, which has a GDP of $3.4bn is one of the six largest economies in the world and the fate of the eurozone relies heavily on its strong economy. But it is facing the most difficult start to a year in recent memory. Its own industrial production growth has slipped to ZERO per cent and customer confidence has plummeted in a catalogue of disasters for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
We are focused on 2016 and continue to work hard to clear up our legacy issues John Cryan
Much of Deutsche's losses have been down to litigation charges, racking up €1.2bn in the last quarter - which could still increase. This year's litigation charges have reached €5.2bn, compared with €2bn the year before. A reduction in the bank's corporate banking and securities division has been blamed on revenues in the fourth quarter falling 15 per cent year on year to €6.6bn. Mark to market losses in Deutsche's non-core operating unit were also blamed.
PA Angela Merkel is facing the biggest crisis in the history of the EU
The bank took a hit in early trading as its share price dropped 1.5 per cent, despite investors being pre-warned it would be bad news following share prices falling drastically over the last year. Deutsche Bank shares have declined 24 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has declined 36 percent in the last 12 months. Deutsche Bank shares have declined 24 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has declined 36 percent in the last 12 months. Deutsche's fall in grace adds to Germany's seemingly never-ending woes this year, with the country's industrial production growth slipping to zero per cent last week and customer confidence plummeting.
As the biggest economy in the eurozone, with a GDP of $3.4bn, experts have warned if its economy - along with second biggest eurozone economy France - crashes it would trigger a domino effect which would bring the entire currency crashing down causing a detrimental ripple effect on the global economy. Last week, under pressure German chancellor Angela Merkel admitted Germany may fail to balance its books this year as it contends with the costs of letting in more than a million refugees in a bid to relieve the current crisis across Europe. There is concern the eurozone is over-reliant on the economy of the relative powerhouse of Germany. Andy Baldwin, EY’s Global Financial Services Leader, says: “The apparent reliance of the Eurozone on the German economy, bolstered by its strong banking system, is more pronounced than many would expect. "The short term health of economies including France, Italy and Spain, is dependent on the continued growth of the German economy – a major component of which is the further strengthening of its banking sector."
AFP The European project is on the brink of collapse
Investors claims France's economy, which recently entered a'state of emergency' could act as a drag on the overall health of Europe. Only two per cent of investors claim that French banks have the best prospects for growth. Mr Baldwin added: "It is clear that for a sustained return to economic health in Europe, growth needs to be more evenly spread across the continent." In a bid to patch up some of Deutsche Bank's central issues, the lender is now restructuring. At the beginning of the week it revealed bonuses could be slashed by as much as 30 per cent for staff, including investment bankers. And it warned up to 1,000 jobs in London could be at risk if it scaled back its investment banking sector.
Getty Deutsche Bank's London employees are set to be slashed by 1,000
Co-chief executive, John Cryan, said: "In 2015 we made considerable progress on the implementation of our strategy. "The much-needed decisions we took in the second half of the year contributed to a net loss for the fourth quarter and full year."
GETTY The European dream has turned sour for Angela MerkelJim Grant has always offered a good balance between a theoretical understanding of economics and a practical experience in working the markets. Last month, he gave a keynote speech at the Cato Institute about the post-bailout monetary era.
In the speech, he notices an apparent contradiction in markets and public opinion: people who are advocates of markets tend to believe that asset prices are currently over-valued, whereas people who oppose the market system tend to think that company fundamentals are not terribly relevant to asset prices. As Grant says in his speech, “…they distrust the resiliency of the price system.”
For the ordinary person, what the time since the financial crisis has meant is that people who have been able to attach their personal wealth to asset markets have done quite well, whereas people who have been less connected to the monetary spigot have done poorly (as in most laborers who are not bringing in money from a pension of some kind).
This is actually a common historical progress seen in other paper money regimes: enterprise suffers, while paper speculators thrive. This is because of the real process of inflation, which differs from the bureaucratic definition as a ‘general increase in prices’ as defined by a committee at the Federal Reserve.
The disconnect happens for a simple reason: there are choices about how you allocate your funds.
You can buy a stock, or you can buy products and services with that same money. That money is staying in the asset markets. You give your cash to the broker, who handles the exchange, delivering that money to the seller, and taking it as a cut. The money might eventually go into the real economy circuitously, but as more money piles into the asset markets, it tends to stay there, or get recycled into the asset markets after a brief detour into the ‘real’ economy.
In the corporate sense, the companies can do stock buybacks or they can invest into expanding operations by hiring new people, building new facilities, or giving raises to existing employees. In the case of governments, increasingly state governments have to allocate funds into the asset markets to pay past employees, while having to cut payrolls for existing employees. Apple spent $17B last quarter on share buybacks instead of spending that $17B on hiring, as an example.
One market is subsidized in infinite amounts by the Fed, and the other gets the deferred trickle-down, and even then only in certain markets.
We see this sort of time-displaced asset jump in markets like the SF-Bay, where pension money goes into the hands of venture capitalists, and is then deployed into money-losing companies and then into the hands of real estate developers & hipster hackers spending $5,500 a month on rat-infested apartments with water damage. The money gets deployed to the SF-Bay first because the people who manage the assets allocated to them don’t want to fly to the cooler markets, and the entrepreneurs aren’t either, because the point isn’t to allocate capital intelligently into profit-making structures, but to allocate capital from the asset markets into their pockets.
When you reward people for pumping up asset prices as high as possible without regard to the fundamentals, entrepreneurs will do things like fill a company with useless employees because the companies are valued based on technical headcount rather than fundamentals. If you value the company based on a compelling investor story, you get fraudulent stories that are more common to mafia-run pink sheet scams than they are to brand name venture capital firms.
Or, at a larger scale, you’ll get executives who borrow tons of money on the bond market, and then use it to build out sham product lines that never sell, or otherwise just use it to push up the stock, which they then sell, and recycle into some other investment. To people who primarily work in the asset markets, it seems like a boom, because it is, whereas the people who don’t will tend to see it as depression conditions.
If earnings are not a primary determinant of stock prices, then employees who grow earnings will be under-valued compared to how they have been in the past, because what matters most is boosting the stock price instead of the fundamentals that are conventionally supposed to be driving that price.
Because markets seek equilibrium, eventually, the disconnect corrects, with a convergence between the pumped-up asset market and the liquidity-starved market for the underlying assets.
Update
Charles Hughes Smith covers the corporate bond issuance & stock buyback trend.
AdvertisementsWe have studied the effect of extracorporeal ultraviolet blood irradiation on cholesterol metabolism in patients with cardiovascular diseases. We have carried out a comprehensive analysis of the spectral characteristics of blood and plasma, gas-exchange and oximetry parameters, and the results of a complete blood count and chemistry panel before and after UV blood irradiation. We have assessed the changes in concentrations of cholesterols (total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides) in the blood of the patients in response to a five-day course of UV blood irradiation. The changes in the spectral characteristics of blood and plasma, the chemistry panel, the gas composition, and the fractional hemoglobin composition initiated by absorption of UV radiation are used to discuss the molecular mechanisms for the effect of therapeutic doses of UV radiation on blood cholesterols.Skylanders SuperChargers Deals on Amazon This Weekend By Matt Sonnenberg | Categories: News | |
While Black Friday certainly offers many of the best deals on video games, it is often a pain to get out to the stores especially if you're trying to spend time with your family.
Thankfully, you will be able to find many of the same deals you would get in stores, online. My favorite place to shop is Amazon. Here's their Skylanders sale schedule for this weekend:
NOTE: All times is PST. Many deals have early access for Amazon Prime members. Get your free Amazon Prime trial here.
Thursday, November 26th
Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Pack – Wii U @ 5:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers Racing Starter Pack – Nintendo 3DS @ 5:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers Racing Starter Pack – Wii @ 5:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Pack – iPad @ 5:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Pack – PlayStation 3 @ 10:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Pack – PlayStation 4 @ 10:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Pack – Xbox 360 @ 10:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Pack – Xbox One @ 10:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Vehicle Jet Stream Character Pack @ 12:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Vehicle Stealth Stinger Character Pack @ 12:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Vehicle Burn Cycle Character Pack @ 2:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Vehicle Shark Tank Character Pack @ 2:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Vehicle Sea Shadow Character Pack @ 3:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Vehicle Crypt Crusher Character Pack @ 3:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Vehicle Dive Bomber Character Pack @ 4:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Vehicle Sky Slicer Character Pack @ 4:55 PM PT
Friday, November 27th
Saturday, November 28th
Skylanders SuperChargers: Drivers Fiesta Character Pack @ 10:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Drivers High Volt Character Pack @ 10:55 AM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Drivers Shark Shooter Terrafin Character Pack @ 1:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Drivers Stormblade Character Pack @ 1:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Drivers Dive Clops Character Pack @ 2:55 PM PT
Skylanders SuperChargers: Drivers Smash Hit Character Pack @ 2:55 PM PT
The actual sale prices will not be revealed until the sale begins. However, they will typically match the best sale price that you'll be able to find in stores.
If you're interested, you can find the full schedule of Amazon's video game sales here.
Happy Thanksgiving!Getty Creative Under a new law, hairdressers in Illinois are mandated to attend domestic violence and sexual assault training.
Starting in 2017, hairdressers in Illinois will learn how to recognize signs of domestic violence in their clients, as well as where to refer them for support services.
That’s thanks to new legislation, signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) this past August. The law, which appears to be the first legislation of its kind in the nation, will require all licensed beauty professionals to undergo training on domestic violence and sexual assault.
The law amends the Barber, Cosmetology, Esthetics, Hair Braiding, and Nail Technology Act, and mandates that anyone seeking licensure as a barber, cosmetologist, esthetician, hair braider, or nail technician take a one-hour class on domestic violence and sexual assault. Licensed beauty professionals will be required to take the hourlong training every two years to renew their license.
The idea for the legislation came out of a steering committee at Chicago Says No More, a regional group seeking to raise awareness about domestic violence.
Kristie Paskvan, founder of Chicago Says No More, told The Huffington Post that salon workers often develop close relationships with their clients, putting them in a unique position to offer help.
“When someone is essentially grooming you, you build a relationship with them,” she said. “It’s a special relationship. People open up.”
Experts at Chicago Says No More partnered with Cosmetologists Chicago to develop the draft curriculum, she said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 4 women have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner. In 2014, more than 65,000 intimate violence incidents were reported to Illinois law enforcement.
While beauty professionals will learn how to identify signs of domestic violence and how to connect clients to service providers, they won’t be expected to offer counseling and are not legally required to report abuse when it’s disclosed. The law specifies that they can’t be held civilly or criminally liable “for acting in good faith or failing to act on information obtained during the course of employment.”
The goal is not to turn hairdressers into therapists, explained Vickie Smith, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, but to equip them with resources they can share with their clients.
“We don’t want to put people in a place where they feel like they have to respond or help beyond knowing where to refer,” she said.
Smith told HuffPost that she was in favor of the law because, at its core, it gives survivors yet another way to get critical information about help that is available to them.
“The more the public recognizes what domestic violence and sexual assault looks like, the more we are all likely to be able to say, ‘This is not your fault, there is help you can get, you don’t have to live like this,” she said. “It’s a form of prevention.”
Paskvan agreed with Smith, and said she was hopeful the law will have a positive impact on domestic violence survivors across the state.
“The training is not so that someone intervenes, or tells their client what to do ― it’s so they can learn to listen,” she said. “This can save lives.”
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
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Melissa Jeltsen covers domestic violence and other issues related to women’s health, safety and security. Tips? Feedback? Send an email or follow her on Twitter.
______Emma Hyde was sidelined by Jesse Lingard earlier this year
She gave up her career, supported him while an academy nobody and followed him round the country on various loan spells, but the ex-girlfriend of Manchester United's Jesse Lingard has let rip after being kicked into touch.
Emma Hyde was sidelined by the 23-year-old earlier this year during his breakthrough season at Old Trafford, which culminated in scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup Final.
The couple had been together since 2011 after he spotted her in a Manchester nightclub, while he was still an academy trainee making next-to-nothing.
At one point Lingard looked unlikely to make the grade at his boyhood club, having been farmed out on loan to Championship clubs such as Brighton, Birmingham and Derby.
Miss Hyde, 28, dotingly went with him, having quit her job as an assistant manager at a jewellery shop and relinquished her goal of becoming a personal trainer in order to fully support Lingard on his mission to make it big.
According to The Sunday People, she said: 'To think we were going to get married and I thought Jesse was the one.
'I've had the worst time of my life. I can't believe I wasted so many years only for him to dump me when he hit the big time.'
She happily gave up her job and helped him through some injury woes, initially paying the bills and supporting him financially in the knowledge he would one day return the favour.
Miss Hyde, 28, dotingly went with him, having quit her job as an assistant manager at a jewellery shop
The fitness fanatic also relinquished her goal of becoming a personal trainer in order to fully support Lingard
As he started to make a name for himself, the winger showed his gratitude in the form of a Porsche Cayenne and a flat he rented for her, but claims these vanished along with their relationship.
She is now devastated at losing her boyfriend and her luxury assets.
Miss Hyde also claims she is now unable to get into Manchester's top nightclubs if her ex is there.
Miss Hyde, 28, dotingly went with him as Lingard was farmed out on loan to a number of Championship clubs
Lingard's breakthrough season at Manchester United culminated in him scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup Final
A friend added: 'She was the one who supported him for years.
'Jesse stayed at Emma's apartment in Sale, she was an assistant manager at a jewellery shop and paid the bills.Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) said this week that he’s very sorry for telling his constituents that the federal student loan program is a step down a “slippery slope” to Nazi Germany’s Holocaust.
The 86-year-old congressman used the analogy on Wednesday night, speaking to a constituent who asked if he believes the federal government should be issuing student loans. Bartlett replied with a long explanation about how he does not believe the federal government should be involved in any type of education at all, insisting that the Constitution does not authorize it.
Then he added: “[If] you can ignore the Constitution to do something good today, tomorrow you will be ignoring the Constitution to do something bad. You could. There are more people in our, in America today of German ancestry than any other… The Holocaust that occurred in Germany. How in the heck could that happen? And when you start down the wrong road, it can be a very slippery slope.”
In a statement issued by his campaign. Rep. Bartlett said he regretted using “an extreme example” to illustrate why he believes public schools should be closed down. “I should never use something as horrific as the Holocaust to make a political point, and I deeply apologize to anyone I may have offended.”
Bartlett’s opponent, banker John Delaney (D), called the remarks “shockingly inappropriate.” He was leading Bartlett in the polls as early as April, but an August survey by a Democratic super PAC showed Delaney and Bartlett in a statistical tie.
This video was published to YouTube on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012.ST. JOSEPH, Louisiana – On a hot delta day, Roy Bowman fills a gallon jug from an Army green trailer-mounted water tank. All year, Bowman and his neighbors in this crushingly poor, mostly African American town perched on the west bank of the Mississippi River have gotten their water this way.
Brown and gritty, the city’s water had been fouled by deteriorating pipelines and treatment equipment for years; parts of the system were more than a century old. But last year, tests discovered a worse problem: The drinking water was loaded with high concentrations of lead, the same brain-damaging contaminant that poisoned people in Flint, Michigan.
Suddenly, an inconvenience became an emergency. Don’t drink the |
She recounted that he was only sentence to probation for that offense. Then another DUI and more probation, she said.
“Five weeks later, while barely under the legal limit of being drunk, he killed my Dom. He was given a misdemeanor and served just 35 days in jail,” the still-grieving mother told the crowd and all of those watching from across the country.
“I have been talking about illegal immigration since 2012,” she said. “Since the death of my child.”
“Donald Trump is not only my hero, he’s my life-saver.”
“Crooked Hillary [Clinton] always talks about what she will do for illegal aliens and what she will do for refugees, but Donald Trump talks about what he will do for America,” said Durden, to chants of “USA, USA, USA.”
“We need to enforce our existing immigration laws, we need to secure our borders so no other person has to go through this,” she said, speaking of her and the other families’ grief and agony. She urged Trump to build a wall on the southern border, adding: “Americans need to come first.”
Jamiel Shaw was the next parent to recount the horrific and deliberate killing of his son, Jamiel “Jaz” Shaw II. “On March the second, 2008 my life changed in the twinkle of an eye,” said Shaw.
“One minute I’m hearing my son’s voice, ‘Be right home, old man, I’m just around the corner. ‘ Next minute, gunshots and my Jaz was dead.”
Shaw heard the shot that killed his son. “It happened so fast.”
The young man’s mother was serving overseas in the military at the time, said Shaw.
“For two weeks all the politicians supported us and every black politician in L.A. did too,” said Shaw. After they “learned the the illegal alien killer was a gang-banger from Mexico,” Shaw says, “everything changed.”
“Three gun charges and an assault and battery on a police officer and the politicians disappeared.”
He continued, “In 2012 we finally had our day in court.” In court proceedings it was revealed that Shaw II “was murdered because he was black.”
“The coroner testified that while Jaz was on his back, bleeding from a stomach wound,” his hands were up as the second bullet flew through his hands and then his head.
“It was also proved that the gang targeted black men,” said Shaw.
“You would think [President Barack] Obama cared and black lives matters, but no,” he said. “And we all know Hillary [Clinton] is Obama’s third term.”
“Only Trump called me on the phone one day to see how I was doing. Only Trump will stand against terrorists and end illegal immigration.”
Shaw said: “The wall, build the wall.”
“Only [Donald] Trump mentions Americans killed by illegals. Trump will put America first, not crooked Hillary,” added Shaw, who called Trump “sent from God.”
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDianaThree weeks before election day, two Alabama Senate polls released Tuesday illustrated different pictures of the race between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore.
One poll commissioned by Raycom News Network in Alabama had the race in a statistical tie with Moore holding a 2-point lead while a poll released by Moore-friendly Breitbart News showed him with a 6-point lead.
Moore held an 11-point lead in a Raycom poll released the day before The Washington Post published allegations by women who said that, when they were teens, Moore made unwanted sexual and romantic overtures.
Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations.
The Raycom poll, conducted Monday, had Moore with 47 percent of the vote, Jones with 45 percent, 5 percent undecided and 3 percent planning to cast write-in votes. Raycom said 3,000 likely voters were surveyed by Mobile-based Strategy Research and that the poll has a margin of error of 2 percent.
When asked "what do you think about the allegations made against Roy Moore," 45% believe all or some of the allegations; 34% do not believe the allegations; and 21% believe some or all of the allegations, but say it has not changed their vote, according to Raycom.
Among Republicans, 48 percent said they did not believe any of the allegations while another 24 percent said they believe all or some of the allegations but it would not change their vote, Raycom said.
The Breitbart poll, conducted by WT&S Consulting, said it sampled 11,641 likely voters from Nov. 18-20. The poll had Moore at 46.4 percent and Jones at 40.5 percent with 13.1 percent undecided.
The poll had a margin of error of 1.2 percent.
A previous Breitbart poll, also conducted by WT&S Consulting after the allegations, had Moore with an 11-point lead.
WT&S Consulting did work for Moore's campaign during the Republican primary earlier this year. John Wahl, the firm's chief political officer, has worked for previous Moore campaigns as well.
Updated Nov. 22, 2017, at 10:15 a.m. to add the day the Raycom poll was conducted.Matt Capps hasn't pitched in the Major Leagues since 2012, when he was a member of the Minnesota Twins. Since then he's been signed and released by two organizations while dealing with chronic shoulder pain that eventually led to surgery.
Despite all that, Capps isn't done yet. Signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks this past February, he's now pitching with the Triple-A Reno Aces.
"I'm very proud of what I've done at the Major League level, at the Minor League level and the career I've had," said Capps, a burly right-hander who appeared in 444 games and notched 138 saves while pitching for the Pirates, Nationals and Twins. "But I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. It just doesn't feel complete yet. If it is, it is. But on my own I just feel like I have something left to give. I don't know why."
That nagging and not totally identifiable feeling of wanting something more from an endeavor the outside world had long considered over, to the extent it had been considered at all, is why Capps is suiting up for Reno this season.
Reno is like all Triple-A locales: So close and yet so far away. Capps, like all of his teammates, is just a phone call removed from "The Show" and its attendant luxuries. In the meantime, he's playing for comparatively minuscule crowds and not even remotely comparable money while traveling the deceptively vast Pacific Coast League circuit via grueling bus rides and even more grueling commercial flights.
So why would Capps, 32 years old with two kids at home and big league money in the bank, put himself through this? I spoke with him prior to Aug. 8's ballgame at Reno's Greater Nevada Field, and it all came back to that feeling that there was indeed something left to give. So why sell himself short?
"It's there. I feel good -- my body, my shoulder - for the first time since, gosh, early 2012," said Capps, who has a 5.18 ERA over 32 appearances with the Aces. "For this being the first time I've really pitched since 2012, I feel like I'm holding my own and competing fairly well and I'm excited to see what happens at the end of this year. If nothing happens at the end of this year with opportunities, I'm excited to see what doors open for next year, with a full offseason to heal, to collect everything, gather everything back up and see what I can do with a full season after a normal offseason. I haven't had one of those since 2011."
After spending 2012 with Minnesota, Capps signed with Cleveland but only appeared in six games with Triple-A Columbus in 2013 and four with the team's Arizona League affiliate in 2014. He spent 2015 Spring Training with the Braves but was released before appearing in any regular season games at any level. Capps remained in the Atlanta area -- he's a native of nearby Douglasville, Georgia -- where he worked as a volunteer youth coach.
"I enjoy the coaching side and that aspect of the game and giving back, if you will," he said. "So the story is, I was throwing with a couple of kids. One of them is a pitching prospect. He's at Georgia Tech now -- Jonathan Hughes, but we call him John Boy because I'm from the sticks in Georgia. He throws hard, mid-90s, and I was playing catch with him and keeping up with him and, more importantly, waking up the next day and still feeling good -- being able to do it again the next day."
Capps' all-out throwing sessions with "John Boy" -- and a follow-up date with a radar gun to make sure he wasn't deceiving himself -- led to him getting in touch with his agent. He subsequently received an opportunity to play winter ball and did well enough there for the D-backs to, as he puts it, "take a flier on him."
Matt Capps last appeared in the Majors in 2012 with the Minnesota Twins. (Al Behrman/AP)
So here Capps is in Reno, saying he's just happy to be here and looking like he really means it.
"We've got a great group of guys," he said. "It's fun. There's no invincible guy here. Guys are cutting up on each other, having fun. I mean, we've got a group text, 30 guys on it and you never know who's gonna get made fun of or who's gonna get picked on. An easy-going, laid-back group but when the lights go on, guys show up to play. I don't know how to explain it. This is the first time I've spent a whole lot of significant time in Triple-A, so I don't know what it's supposed to be like. But I've certainly enjoyed myself this summer and don't see that changing over the next month before the season ends here."
And while Capps' has his own goals in mind, regarding a career that "doesn't yet feel complete," he also enjoys being a source of support for his younger, less experienced teammates.
"I just try to be me," he said. "I try to be as transparent as I can about everything about me -- my life, my career, what I've done on the field good and what I've done on the field bad. And I'm the same off the field, trying to be open and approachable so that guys know if they have a question or if they want to know what something's like they can ask me. We can talk about it. It can be a conversation. I'm not gonna shy away from my failures and I'll tell you straight up I'd do a few things different if I could."
Namely, don't take anything for granted, and appreciate the moment.
"If I could go back, probably the biggest thing is I'd take more time to sit back and soak it all in, because you never know when your last day is gonna be," he said. "It happens to all of us at some point in time and just a select few are able to go out when they're ready to go out. So when the opportunity does present itself and you get the chance to be there, make sure you appreciate it a little more. If I could go back I'd slow the world down and look at what I was doing and not take it so seriously all the time."
Armed with this hard-won perspective, Capps is determined to enjoy his current, somewhat improbable run as a professional baseball player.
"You take the good with the bad and -- what's the best way to put it? When the bad is too much to where you can't enjoy the good then it's time to do something else. Does that sound right?"Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson has passed away at the age of 83.
He is said to have died peacefully in his sleep at midday today (December 26).
> 'Thunderbirds', 'Captain Scarlet' - Gerry Anderson classics: Watch
Anderson's son Jamie Anderson wrote a tribute to the man who was also behind Captain Scarlet and Stingray, saying on his blog: "I'm very sad to announce the death of my father, Thunderbirds creator, Gerry Anderson.
"He died peacefully in his sleep at midday today (26th December 2012), having suffered with mixed dementia for the past few years. He was 83."
Diagnosed with mixed dementia two years ago, Anderson had moved into a care home in October, after his condition worsened.
The creator leaves three children from former marriages - Joy, Linda and Gerry Junior - as well as further son Jamie and widow Mary.
Digital Spy championed Thunderbirds this year in Tube Talk Gold, describing the show as part of TV's cultural heritage.
Anderson's eight-project Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons has also been heralded as a TV masterpiece by DS.
Watch the famous Thunderbirds opening sequence below:AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Two men are in jail accused of selling marijuana on Craigslist. According to an arrest affidavit, Austin police said they were searching for common terms used to sell narcotics in Austin and came across the following post:
DR 420. Hey Fellow austinites or visitors. I have your 420 needs and all other goodies you can find in the shops in northern cali, the best climates in the country. I'm bringin the dispensary to our town so quit going somewhere sketchy to look. Contact me and know I'm totally legit and laid back. Nugs and other forms of THC. 100% guaranteed on par with the best in town. hmu! [sic]
The officer made email contact with the poster, later identified as Kevin Cunningham, 23, and asked for prices on the drugs. Cunningham said his roommate, Christopher Collinge, 24, would be the person with the pricing information. Cunningham met up with the undercover officer on March 10 and agreed to buy an ounce of marijuana and a quarter ounce of hasish for $800, according to the affidavit.
When the officer met up with Cunngingham and Collinge for the purchase, that's when officers arrested the duo.
Both suspects were arrested and charged with delivery of marijuana, but Cunningham was also charged with possession of a controlled substance.The latest update for the Apple Watch is now available. Apple is pushing out watchOS 3.2 today to bring two key features to its smartwatch: Theater Mode and SiriKit. This is the second addition since Apple released the huge watchOS 3 update back in September 2016.
Theater Mode has been talked about a lot as Apple released betas of watchOS 3.2 over the past few months. It lets you mute sounds and disable the raise-to-wake feature of the watch, meaning its screen won't light up when it senses your wrist turning to check the time. This takes the Apple Watch's current Silent Mode onestep further, essentially eliminating all the lights and sounds the watch would make when triggered by movements or alerts. You'll still receive haptic feedback for incoming notifications (if you have that feature turned on), and you can still view notifications by manually waking the watch's display. Theater Mode can be activated by swiping up from the bottom of the Apple Watch's display and tapping the drama-masks button. Once you turn Theater Mode off, your Apple Watch will go back to your usual settings.
WatchOS 3.2 also brings SiriKit to the Apple Watch, which is a feature previously only available on iOS devices. This expands voice commands to third-party applications, letting you ask Siri on the Watch to do more for you like make a payment, call a car, or send a message. App developers must make extensions using Apple's Intents and Intents UI frameworks. So once third-party developers add those capabilities to their apps, you'll be able to do more with Siri from your Watch.
WatchOS 3.2 is available for all Apple Watch models, but you must have an iPhone running iOS 10 or later to download the updated software. To download the update, go to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and navigate to General and then to Software Update. Your Apple Watch must have at least 50 percent battery to download the software, and it must be placed on its charger and within range of your iPhone.I’m starting to feel left out because I haven’t published a Saturday Night Massacre/Nixon/impeachment take yet. (Seth Masket and I did write this piece on constitutional crisis…) Heavy hitters in the constitutional law world are clearly thinking about the possibility that last week’s events will mark the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. But despite the fact that the i-word has been trotted out, there’s been less said about the two presidents in American history who actually went through the impeachment process, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
This absence isn’t that surprising. The Clinton and Johnson impeachments are widely recognized as bogus — trivial acts of political vengeance. Challenging these distinctions requires heavy normative judgments. I won’t shy away from these, but that’s not the purpose of this post. Instead, this would be a good time to ask why this constitutional mechanism has been employed so sparingly and under such controversial conditions — and what this implies for Trump.
Most of us learn about Johnson’s impeachment as a case of partisan politics run amok. Most of the 11 articles of impeachment dealt with the violation of the Tenure of Office Act, which was probably unconstitutional anyway. An additional article of impeachment charged that Johnson had shown disrespect to Congress by engaging in “utterances, declarations, threats and harangues” that demeaned the office and failed to respect the separation between the branches — that is, giving speeches about his conflicts with Congress. It’s not exactly a charge that resonates with modern audiences, although it does make one wonder what the congressional Republicans who impeached Johnson would make of Donald Trump’s tweets. We’ll never know, but just for the record, I would watch that time-travel sci-fi movie.
Johnson came only one vote away from removal in the Senate. None of the Senate Democrats — Johnson’s erstwhile party before joining the Union ticket in 1864 — voted to remove him, but a few Republicans defected. On a biographical note of my own, I remember learning about the deciding vote — Edmund Ross of Kansas — as a sort of tale in political courage. Ross knew the charges weren’t serious and ultimately sacrificed his own career to vote the right way. In her short book about Johnson, historian Annette Gordon-Reed offers a different view:
In a parliamentary system, when the leader loses the confidence of his or her party and the people, the leader resigns his or her position. The country is not forced to endure failed, and potentially catastrophic, leadership until the clock runs out. Imagine an American president who comes into office with the requisite four-year term. Within the first year or so, it becomes apparent that the president is incompetent. He makes a series of grievous mistakes that harm large numbers of people, sometimes resulting in great loss of life. The citizens in the country turn against him — even an overwhelming majority of the voters who put him in office. The president refuses to change course. What is to be done about such a person?
What Gordon-Reed highlights is that the usual story of Johnson’s impeachment only makes sense if we disregard the context of Reconstruction. Major questions of national rebuilding were at stake, and there was substantial violence against African Americans in the South. Johnson vetoed legislation to address these problems.
There’s no need to belabor the Trump-Johnson comparison, which I’ve made before, but there are lessons here. Even if the worst accusations made by Trump’s critics all turn out to be true, the process by which opponents attempt to remove him from office will be highly political. There is no nonpartisan, apolitical mechanism to evaluate abuses of power and remove a president from office. Our Constitution places this responsibility with the people’s elected representatives (and senators, to be precise). The justification for such a choice is strong. The implications, like the people and our representatives, are also imperfect.
It’s harder to figure out what can be learned from the more recent Clinton case. Amid impeachment talk, the Democrats picked up seats in the 1998 midterms, breaking a decades-long pattern of midterm loss for the president’s party. Votes in the House and the Senate largely fell along party lines, with enough Republican defections to prevent Clinton’s removal.
Importantly, although reaction to Clinton’s behavior was heavily filtered through a partisan lens, the whole incident left a strong sense that the office had been brought down. There was much less space for a debate about what that might mean — for the ambiguity of an office occupied by individuals who were flawed, often deeply so, while holding immense power and symbolic significance. Although they were very different episodes, both the Clinton and Johnson impeachments shared a mix of partisan and personal politics and real substantive questions about presidential politics.
When it comes to applying these lessons to the current situation, I can already hear the outrage from both sides. For Trump critics, the real issue is the abuse of power, evident in the firing of a subordinate charged with investigating the Russia connection, the lies to obscure the motives, and the admission that those were lies. Shouldn’t there be an automatic mechanism for impeachment that goes into effect under certain conditions? Maybe there should be. Thing is, there’s not.
From Trump defenders, I expect that objections will cite the president’s legal authority to fire the FBI director, and accuse critics of merely wanting to go after the president because they disagree with his agenda.
The bigger picture here is the impossibility of disentangling our understandings of power, law, and process from substantive worldviews. The presidency itself is central to this dilemma. When it comes to how presidents use power, sometimes the answer comes down to “the end justifies the means.” The deeper the disagreement on the ends, the more contention there will be about whether the means were appropriate.
I obviously have no idea what’s going to happen next. But amid calls for impeachment, we know that this constitutional mechanism has only been deployed a few times, and that the Senate has never voted to remove a president from office. We know that the two times the process has unfolded in full (Nixon resigned before it could proceed), it has overwhelmingly been understood as a matter of partisan politics.
The Constitution leaves little specific guidance about the relationship between the president and Congress. The institutions can hold each other accountable, but only in certain ways. Accountability in general is one of the more fraught concepts in the Constitution, which ultimately prizes stability and insulation from short-term political forces. As the Gordon-Reed quote above suggests, this can mean that holding politicians accountable for their actions can be a slow and clunky process, just as our lawmaking often is.
Instead, the Constitution implicitly places a great deal of weight on two processes for limiting presidential power. First, the design is supposed to ensure that members of Congress have their own bases of political support — districts or states that give them different incentives than other actors. The nationalization of party politics has eroded this.
The briefly outlined but expansive powers of the executive branch — the one whose duties, by definition, include carrying out the law and bringing the Constitution from paper to life — rest on a different assumption. That assumption was that processes would develop around presidential selection in order to choose someone with appropriate qualifications and broad political appeal. This assumption no longer holds, and the opportunities to protect the Constitution this way have passed.
Where does this leave us? A growing number of critics await the moment that congressional Republicans will put the rule of law above politics. But this is at odds with constitutional logic. The main checks on presidential power are found in politics, not in law. History suggests that impeachment is no exception.Xiaomi further populates its power bank portfolio with Mi Power 2C, the successor to the Mi Power 2 power bank, with improved charging times and even more aggressive pricing.
The new Xiaomi Mi Power 2C comes with a PCB+ABS body with a rough surface for a better grip when held and uses high quality Li-Polymer batteries with a conversion rate of 93%. The Mi Power 2C can charge the Mi 5X 4.3 times, the Mi Mix 2 3.8 times and the iPad Mini 2.5 times. Each output port supports Quick Charge 3.0 and can provide up to 5.1V/3.6A.
It can also be used to charge devices that require low current like the Mi Band (0.025A) and the Mi Bluetooth Headset (0.06A). If you need to charge such a device, you just have to double press the power button to switch to low power mode. Thankfully it’s a 2-way fast charging device, so this means that it can also BE charged using a Quick Charge 3 charger in just 8 hours to full capacity!
As always, Xiaomi includes a bunch of protective measures in the power bank, such as temperature protection, input/output high voltage protection, overcharge and discharge protection, and short circuit protection. The Mi Power 2C is also said to have a 90% retention rate even after 300 charge cycles and should last up to 3 years.
In case you’re looking for such a power bank then you should know that it comes in white color with a price tag of ¥129 (~$20) and you can find it on the official Mi online store and at offline Mi Home stores.Shoe Company New Balance Says US Gov't Basically Offered It A Bribe To Support TPP
from the wow dept
After several years of resistance to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact aimed at making it easier to conduct trade among the United States and 11 other countries, the Boston company had gone quiet last year. New Balance officials say one big reason is that they were told the Department of Defense would give them serious consideration for a contract to outfit recruits with athletic shoes.
But no order has been placed, and New Balance officials say the Pentagon is intentionally delaying any purchase.
New Balance is reviving its fight against the trade deal...
In 2014, the Pentagon relented. With competition among US manufacturers, officials said they were ready to consider domestically made shoes.
LeBretton said a representative for the Obama administration then asked New Balance to accept a compromise version of the trade deal, partly in exchange for a pledge of help getting the Department the Defense to expedite the purchase of US-made shoes.
We've mostly focused on the impact of the TPP and trade deals on the internet (and also on national sovereignty), because that's the kind of stuff that interests us most around here. We've spent a lot less time looking at the more traditional free trade arguments, in part because that's not nearly as controversial, and in part because -- despite claims to the contrary -- there really aren't that many tariff-related barriers that make a big difference any more. It's generally good to reduce such tariffs, and in response you see the typical response from firms based on whether or not they benefit from those reduced tariffs. The "benefits" of free trade tend to be focused on the companies looking to expand into those markets where tariffs are being lowered or abandoned -- and not so much for companies competing against products from those same countries. Frankly, I find arguments that the companies who freak out about trade deals because it will mean more competition against them a bit tiresome, because I tend to believe competition is a good thing for innovation.However, the Boston Globe has quite a story about one such company, the sneaker company New Balance, which was quite worried about how the TPP would increase competition from shoemakers in Vietnam. Again, I find those concerns to be overblown, but the next part of the story is where it gets interesting: New Balance is now claiming that it stopped publicly complaining about the TPP after the US government more or less promised it a big government contract, which never came through:The US government, of course, is insisting the issue of a contract is entirely separate from the TPP, but New Balance said an explicit offer was made. The company notes that while most of the uniform worn by the military is American made, there has always been an exception for sneakers because so few were actually fully made in the US. New Balance apparently decided to change that in hopes of getting a government contract, and the administration more or less said that this would work if New Balance shut up about opposing the TPP:The Globe claims that the Defense Department says the reason that it didn't give New Balance a deal was because its shoes weren't durable or cheap enough, but even if that's true, the very idea that the government more or less tried to buy off the company's opposition to the TPP seemsquestionable.Of course, I wonder, should the TPP get ratifiedshould the Defense Department then agree that it will only buy American made sneakers... one wonders if Vietnamese sneaker makers would then have an ISDS corporate sovereignty case against the US government? After all, it would be harming "future profits" that the Vietnamese sneaker-makers would have been expecting, and a "buy American" rule could clearly be seen as a non-tariff trade barrier to foreign goods, no?
Filed Under: competition, defense department, shoes, sneakers, tariffs, tpp, ustr
Companies: new balanceBy now we have all singled out Indians as sex freaks. After all, Delhi is the rape capital of the world, Indian Army is famous for its sexual assaults on civilians and as it turns out Indian navy too doesn’t lag far behind.
Wife swapping, one-night stands, and threesomes are not just happening in Bollywood but also entering the sex lives of Indian Navy.
Recently the divorced wife of a lieutenant in Indian navy dropped a bombshell on Indian armed forces when she revealed that not only is wife swapping a norm in the Indian navy; it is fast becoming a necessity as only those Indian naval officers liberal enough to share their wives’ get far in their careers.
When the victim, an IIT-Bombay graduate, Sumedha (name changed) quit her Morgan Stanley career to get married, she was shocked to see her dreams shattered within a few months.
Not only did she witness her Navy officer husband in a compromising position with a senior officer’s wife but was told that she too would have to be part of the “wife-swapping evenings” if she wanted her husband to keep his job.
“When I saw my husband with the other lady I started to cry and question my husband. The woman instead shouted at me, slapped me and threatened me with dire consequences if I did not keep quiet,” the 25-year-old said.
“There are parties everyday and the women wear very revealing clothes. Wife-swapping is common here,” she said.
When asked how she could substantiate her allegations, Sumedha said, “I know what I have seen. There has been a complaint filed earlier about wife-swapping in 2011 on INS Dronacharya but the officers involved were posted out and the issue was buried.”
“I was made to bend down and molested, by three of my husband’s colleagues. My husband then threw me out of the house,” she said.
She added that the only time her husband had shown a little remorse was when he first told her that he had to be a part of the “wife-swapping” or else he would lose his job.
“Officers and sailors, all afraid to come to my rescue because they feared being thrown out of the Navy,” she further stated.
It’s a pity that even though Defense minister AK Antony has sought a report from the navy on the allegations and the Indian naval chief too had called for investigation, the culprits remain free and still enjoy all the perks and privileges of being Indian naval officers.
Instead this poor lady who has been victimized already is being labelled as mentally unstable.
Indians need to understand that they need to show respect towards women if the Indian society ever wants to become a prosperous and vibrant one.
Already many international tourists have turned down India as a tourist destination sighting lack of respect for women and sexual attacks on female tourists.
Let’s just pray God guides Indian society towards the right path!Reid: Democrats will use reconciliation to finish health-care reform
Big, encouraging news on health-care reform today: Harry Reid says that Senate Democrats will use the reconciliation process to finish the bill within the next 60 days.
I've noticed some confusion about what this means, so some quick context: Reid is not talking about rewriting the bill or passing the whole thing through reconciliation. He's talking about passing a small package of fixes through reconciliation so that the House and Senate bills come into alignment.
This is actually the sort of situation reconciliation was designed to address, as Brookings' Henry Aaron explains here (pdf). Budget reconciliation is called "reconciliation" because it's supposed to speed the, well, reconciliation of the differences between two budget bills. That's exactly what's left to do with the health-care reform bills, which were indeed part of the 2010 budget and whose passage is expected in the 2011 budget.
Because this is what the process is actually meant to do, it doesn't present the manifold problems of using reconciliation for the entire bill. Things like the insurance market reforms have passed with 60 votes in the Senate and 220 in the House. They're done. What's left are some tweaks to the way the bill spends and raises money (that is to say, tweaks to its budget implications) that are needed to, yes, reconcile the two bills. Reconciliation works for this because reconciliation was designed to do this.
Photo credit: BloombergExplained: Politicians' entitlements rules and why they're under fire
Updated
Health Minister Sussan Ley's decision to step down from cabinet amid an expenses scandal has reignited calls for tougher restrictions on politicians' entitlements.
The Nigerian-born former pilot has faced a public backlash after purchasing a $795,000 luxury apartment while on a taxpayer-funded trip to the Gold Coast.
Despite insisting two separate investigations will prove she broke no rules, Ms Ley has admitted she failed the "pub test".
Labor and South Australian senator Nick Xenophon have already called on the Government to introduce changes to entitlements recommended by the Finance Department last year.
What entitlements are under fire?
Ms Ley's travel arrangements were booked before the sweeping review, which was launched after former speaker Bronwyn Bishop used chartered helicopters to attend party fundraisers.
Ms Bishop resigned in August 2015 after a fierce public backlash for spending more than $5,000 on a flight from Melbourne to Geelong, a mere two-hour drive.
The review, which was instigated by former prime minister Tony Abbott but has not been acted on, found politicians were "undermining public confidence" and called for travel arrangements to present value for money.
Among 36 recommendations, it took issue with family reunion provisions that allow politicians to fly family interstate for holidays while on parliamentary business.
This came after Tony Burke was criticised for a four-day return trip from Sydney to Central Australia in 2015, when he charged taxpayers $2,181 for his own flights and $8,656 for four family members.
The review made it clear charging taxpayers for short helicopter trips was not appropriate and ruled out chauffeured cars, limousines and COMCAR travel for personal business.
It is not uncommon for ministers to step aside while under investigation.
Arthur Sinodinos, who will cover Ms Ley's portfolio, stood aside as assistant treasurer in 2014 amid a corruption inquiry.
The rules as they stand
Under the Parliamentary Entitlements Act 1990, all politicians have their travel within Australia covered if they are on Parliamentary or electorate business — including first class tickets on scheduled commercial services.
If heading overseas, these entitlements can extend to clothing allowances and medical services.
Politicians are also entitled to a travel allowance for overnight stays, with varying rates for different positions and locations.
For example, all politicians can claim $273 for an overnight stay in Canberra but this increases to $498 in Karratha.
Office holders are given larger allowances in some locations, while the Prime Minister is limited to $564 for each overnight stay in a place other than an official establishment or the Prime Minister's home base.
Accommodation and sustenance at official establishments is provided at Government expense.
There is also a limit on the number of overnight stays that politicians can claim — up to 90 for some MPs.
Ministers can also claim the cost of travel for their spouse, if it is in Australia and for official purposes.
All politicians are entitled to a private-plated vehicle to be used for parliamentary, electorate or official business, but can instead choose an additional $19,500 per annum of electorate allowance to meet the costs of transport within and for the service of the electorate.
How much did your local MP spend?
Explore how much your local politician spent from January 1 to July 30 in 2015 with our interactive chart, ordered from the politician with the most expenses claimed to the least.
Some past politicians will also appear, having lodged prior expenses with the Department of Finance during the six-month period.
Topics: federal-government, government-and-politics, australia
First postedThe last of the original Navajo Code Talkers left New Mexico Thursday to be the guest of honor at a U.S. Marines function in Virginia.Chester Nez is the last of the original Navajo Code Talkers, a group from the Navajo nation who helped the U.S. greatly in World War II by coming up with an unbreakable code for Allied soldiers.On Friday, the Marines are dedicating a building in Quantico to the Navajo Code Talkers."I'm very, very happy to be part of this program," Nez said. "I'm so proud to represent the other Code Talkers." VIDEO: Chester Nez says he's proud of Code Talkers
The last of the original Navajo Code Talkers left New Mexico Thursday to be the guest of honor at a U.S. Marines function in Virginia.
Chester Nez is the last of the original Navajo Code Talkers, a group from the Navajo nation who helped the U.S. greatly in World War II by coming up with an unbreakable code for Allied soldiers.
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On Friday, the Marines are dedicating a building in Quantico to the Navajo Code Talkers.
"I'm very, very happy to be part of this program," Nez said. "I'm so proud to represent the other Code Talkers."
VIDEO: Chester Nez says he's proud of Code Talkers
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From Jared Padalecki’s (Sam Winchester) very personal #AlwaysKeepFighting that calls attention to depression and mental illness, to Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) and Misha Collins (Castiel) joining forces to start #YouAreNotAlone that will fund self-help/suicide-prevention hotlines, these men mean to make an impact beyond the small screen. Misha’s ever-growing #gishwhes, a massive annual international scavenger hunt, puts an emphasis on fun and kindness, while raising awareness to build homes in other countries as well as doing good in the world. Perhaps that’s why I hold such an affinity for this show and for these actors. They believe, as I always have, that kindness matters. How can anyone go wrong with that?
Beyond the show are real people, both on air and watching at home. One of the more touching moments of the convention was during Jim Beaver’s talk. A young woman stood in line to ask Jim a question, but when it was her turn, she started to cry. Not out of nerves, but because, as she was finally able to articulate, Jim reminded her so much of the grandfather she’d lost. A sudden silence dropped over the filled theater. We could hear her sobbing, feel her tears, and so could Jim, who, without hesitation, walked down the stairs to hug the young woman. He set his mic aside, but the comforting words he murmured to her didn’t need explaining. He was there for her. As was the Australian woman in the back of the room who shouted, “You’re not alone, sweetheart!” The crowd erupted in applause. Because that’s what SPN, at its heart, is all about. Family. And if you’re a fan, you’re definitely family.
This show also features important and strong (yeah, I know, I’m getting tired of the term, but we need more of them!) female characters (most of whom, as I’ve mentioned before, meet untimely ends). It’s about doing whatever it takes to keep going, come hell (literally), high water or a sky full of falling angels. It’s two female sheriffs not taking any crap from two “boys” who have a difficult time relating to mother figures, having lost theirs at such an early age. If you don’t watch any other scene from this current season, the chicken dinner sex talk is one of the funniest (and touching) ones they’ve done. SPN is about the Winchesters taking in and taking care of kids who wouldn’t have survived without their help. Sam and Dean Winchester might think they’re all alone in the world, but the truth is, they have just about the biggest family around.
Through three days, the emotions ran deep. There’s a camaraderie that occurs when you get a huge number of people together who share the same obsession, and yes, I’ll admit it’s an obsession. We saw some familiar faces in the crowd going back years. This isn’t something that diminishes over time; it intensifies. Why do I keep watching? Because these two guys, Jared and Jensen (Sam and Dean, respectively) love what they do. And they love their fans. On day four, they stood for countless photos, acted out quirky scenes with their fans, signed autographs and stood up on stage for almost the full day. After more than a decade playing the same characters, one might think they’ve tired of these brothers, but they haven’t. If anything, they’ve gotten better. Both Sam and Dean as well as Jared and Jensen are good guys doing good in the world.
So did I learn anything at this con? Well, first I learned my iPhone *ahem* whatever number doesn’t take the greatest pictures. I wish I’d realized sooner to snap photos of the screen instead but … I got the one that counts, LOL. Seriously? I was reminded, as a writer, that the power of story can have lasting effects on those you never even consider. Who would have thought a story about two brothers riding around the country in a 1967 Impala would keep me engaged for over a decade? It has. I can only hope that some of my books resonate as well with readers. I also was reminded that, when all is said and done, kindness does indeed matter. You get out of life what you put into it, and this show, this cast, these people, have a lot of good karma coming their way.
Always keep fighting, boys (and girls).
Happy reading,
Anna J
A geek since birth, USA TODAY bestselling romance author Anna J. Stewart began her life-long obsession with TV and movies in the ’70s with shows like Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman, but Star Wars, Stephen King and Nora Roberts made her want to be a writer. Her latest release is Make Me a Match. Find out more about her and her books at www.authorannastewart.com.WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — “We’re drinking wodka,” Marilyn Manson said, pronouncing the word like he was a fur-hatted Russian cartoon character, and filling a tumbler. Two tumblers: Like any peacocking musician, he knew that a drinking buddy makes for a ready audience.
He loped from the peach-colored kitchen of a borrowed house here — it belongs to his pal Johnny Depp — through the dining room, past a bin of masks and costumes. There was a horse, a longhaired woman, silver faceplates. “This is my Max Ernst stuff; it’s private,” he said. “I get drunk and buy stuff on Amazon.”
Onward to the living room, where he paused to show off a 1927 theremin, then settled into a velvet sofa, clutching his drink with black-polished fingers. He wore buttoned-up black and the dregs of eye makeup, with choppy hair. The room was kept cold, the way he likes it, fitting for a performer known for his graveyard tastes and collection of Nazi-era weaponry.
There was a time, years ago, when being one-on-one with him might have induced a shiver, given his cultivated prince of darkness aura, occasional unhinged behavior and citations for assault and battery. Now, he had just stepped out from a video shoot in another room brightly singing “The Thong Song.” “The ‘Thong Song’ is a strong song,” he said, employing his favorite kind of goofy wordplay. Marilyn Manson, as it happens, really enjoys a pun.Sen. Minority Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrennan fires back at'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview Harry Reid: 'I don't see anything' Trump is doing right MORE (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that he is prepared to leave open the ninth seat on the Supreme Court.
“If the nominee is not bipartisan and mainstream, we absolutely will keep the seat open,” Schumer told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The Supreme Court vacancy has been open since last February, when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away.
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Schumer said he is prepared to fight "tooth and nail" should Trump not choose a mainstream nominee.
Former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE had nominated Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy. The Senate did not take up Garland’s nomination for a vote.
Garland reportedly returned to his job as a federal appeals court judge last week.
Schumer on Sunday also railed against Trump's Cabinet picks, calling his selections "troubling."In an interview, Dr. Goodwin said that Bill Lichtenstein, the program’s producer, knew of his consulting but that neither thought “getting money from drug companies could be an issue.”
“In retrospect, that should have been disclosed,” he said.
But Mr. Lichtenstein said that he was unaware of Dr. Goodwin’s financial ties to drugmakers and that, after an article in the online magazine Slate this year pointed out that guests on his program had undisclosed affiliations with drugmakers, he called Dr. Goodwin “and asked him point-blank if he was receiving funding from pharmaceutical companies, directly or indirectly, and the answer was, ‘No.’ ”
Asked about the contradiction, Dr. Goodwin and Mr. Lichtenstein each stood by their versions of events.
“The fact that he was out on the stump for pharmaceutical companies was not something we were aware of,” Mr. Lichtenstein said in an interview. “It would have violated our agreements.”
Margaret Low Smith, vice president of National Public Radio, said NPR would remove “The Infinite Mind” from its satellite radio service next week, the earliest date possible. Ms. Smith said that had NPR been aware of Dr. Goodwin’s financial interests, it would not have broadcast the program.
Sarah Alspach, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, said, “We continue to believe that healthcare professionals are responsible for making disclosures to their employers and other entities, in this case National Public Radio and its listeners.”
“The Infinite Mind” has won more than 60 journalism awards over 10 years and bills itself as “public radio’s most honored and listened to health and science program.” It has more than one million listeners in more than 300 radio markets. Mr. Lichtenstein said that the last original program was broadcast in October, that reruns have been running since and that “the show is going off the air.”
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The program has received major underwriting from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, both of which have policies requiring grantees to disclose and manage conflicts of interest. Mr. Grassley wrote letters to both agencies asking whether disclosure rules were followed for the grants. Spokesmen for both agencies said they were cooperating with the investigation.
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Mr. Grassley is systematically asking some of the nation’s leading researchers and doctors to provide their conflict-of-interest disclosures, and he is comparing those documents with records of actual payments from drug companies. The records often conflict, sometimes starkly.
In October, Mr. Grassley revealed that Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff of Emory University, an influential psychiatric researcher, earned more than $2.8 million in consulting arrangements with drugmakers from 2000 to 2007, failed to report at least $1.2 million of that income to his university and violated federal research rules. As a result, the National Institutes of Health suspended a $9.3 million research grant to Emory, and Dr. Nemeroff gave up his chairmanship of Emory’s psychiatry department.
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In June, the senator revealed that Dr. Joseph Biederman of Harvard, whose work has fueled an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children, had earned at least $1.6 million from drugmakers from 2000 to 2007, and failed to report most of this income to Harvard.
Mr. Grassley’s investigation demonstrates how deeply pharmaceutical commercial interests reach into academic medicine, and it has shown that universities are all but incapable of policing these arrangements. As a result, almost every major medical school and medical society is reassessing its relationships with makers of drugs and devices.
“We know the drug companies are throwing huge amounts of money at medical researchers, and there’s no clear-cut way to know how much and exactly where,” Mr. Grassley said. “Now it looks like the same thing is happening in journalism.”
Mr. Grassley has proposed legislation that would require drugmakers to disclose all payments of $500 or more to doctors. Eli Lilly and Merck have promised to begin doing so next year.
Dr. Goodwin has written an influential textbook on bipolar disorder and is an adjunct professor at George Washington University. In an interview, he blamed a changing ethical environment for any misunderstandings with Mr. Lichtenstein about his consulting arrangements. “More than 10 years ago, when he and I got involved in this effort, it didn’t occur to me that my doing what every other expert in the field does might be considered a conflict of interest,” Dr. Goodwin said.
He defended the views he expressed in many of his radio programs and said that, because he consulted for so many drugmakers at once, he had no particular bias.
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“These companies compete with each other and cancel each other out,” he said.
Industry critics dismiss that view, saying that experts who consult for drugmakers tend to minimize the value of nondrug or older drug treatments.
In the fine print of a study he wrote in 2003, Dr. Goodwin reported consulting or speaking for nine drugmakers, including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis. Mr. Grassley asked for payment information only from GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Goodwin said that in recent years, GlaxoSmithKline paid him more than other companies.
He said that he had never given marketing lectures for antidepressant medicines like Prozac, so he saw no conflict with a program he hosted in March titled “Prozac Nation: Revisited.” which he introduced by saying, “As you will hear today, there is no credible scientific evidence linking antidepressants to violence or to suicide.”
That same week, Dr. Goodwin earned around $20,000 from GlaxoSmithKline, which for years suppressed studies showing that its antidepressant, Paxil, increased suicidal behaviors.
Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said that although concerns about news media bias were growing, few people believed that journalists took money from those they covered. Disclosures like those surrounding Dr. Goodwin could change that, “so this kind of thing is very damaging,” Mr. Rosenstiel said.Following criticism, U.S.-based online retail giant Amazon stopped sales of a Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant publication online.
A day earlier, an article in online current affairs site The Daily Caller revealed the sale of the magazines, which were available to purchase in paperback form on Amazon sites in the U.S., UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It can be downloaded for free elsewhere.
The magazine, entitled Dabiq, is produced by the group's media arm, called the Al-Hayat Media Center. Al-Hayat is also responsible for the production and distribution of media content including brutal videos showing the beheading and torture of several Western journalists and aid workers.
ISIS uses publications such as Dabiq and social media strategies to recruit Westerners into its ranks.
Amazon's page showing the various issues of the ISIS militant publication with it's sleek and glossy covers. (Photo courtesy: International Business Times)
The latest copy of Dabiq is entitled “They plot and Allah plots,” in a reference the efforts towards Gulf states and Western powers to strike against the group.
The issue, contained an article justifying the militant group’s use of sex slaves, and contained the line: “maybe Michelle Obama’s price [on the sex slave market] won’t even exceed a third of a dinar, and a third of a dinar is too much for her!”
The May issue of the magazine claimed that the group was capable of obtaining a nuclear weapon from “states like Pakistan.”
“The Islamic State has billions of dollars in the bank, so they call on their wilayah [official] in Pakistan to purchase a nuclear device through weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials in the region,” the article read.
Not to blame
Michael Ryan, a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute and former U.S. government official, said that internet giants such as Amazon are not to blame for inadvertently promoting militant propaganda.
“Every ISIS member with a smartphone is potentially a propaganda center able to use Twitter or other apps to put up material almost immediately,” he said.
“The only way one could stop it in real time is to take down the Internet in a country or locale, which is counterproductive in a modern country that depends on the Internet for commerce and public services.”
Abeer al-Najjar, a media studies academic at the UAE-based American University of Sharjah, said that Amazon and other web firms such as Google, Youtube and Twitter, have a responsibility for the content on offer.
“They hold some responsibility in the sense of how to regulate and how to organize,” she told Al Arabiya News “Especially when it comes to values that are commonly agreed upon from international organizations.”
The seller was listed as CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, an Amazon subsidiary that allows members of the public to sell and distribute books. Amazon did not yet respond to a request for comment by Al Arabiya News.
Last Update: Sunday, 7 June 2015 KSA 22:43 - GMT 19:43Angela Nagle is a writer based in Ireland. Her work has appeared in the Irish Times, the Dublin Review of Books, and the Atlantic. Her article “The New Man of 4Chan” for the Baffler was the basis for a book coming out from Zero Books next year tentatively titled “Kill All Normies: The online culture wars from 4chan to Trump.” We discuss her book and research in this episode.
Thanks goes out to our Zero Books Club members. Now is a good time to support Zero Books and left publishing in general and one way to do it is to sign up to be a Zero Books Club member and receive our weekly Inside Zero Books podcast.
Also featured in this episode is an email from a listener following last week's interview with Michael Rectenwald, some thoughts on transgender politics and intersectionality, an excerpt from Norman Mailer's film Maidstone, a quick definition of the word "cuck," and an instrumental version of the Trololo song.HATE GROUP THE Westboro Baptist Church, known for picketing the funerals of dead US soldiers, says that “God Hates Ireland” after yesterday’s historic referendum.
The group reacted to Ireland passing same-sex marriage in predictable fashion, launching an offensive missive against both the country and gay people.
They say that Ireland’s hate speech laws have “eliminated any true gospel preaching” in the country.
They even tweeted their signature “God Hates” sign, but seem confused about the order and orientation of the colours on the Irish flag.
The 39-member church from Topeka, Kansas says that Ireland is led by “dogs” and has become a “cesspool of corruption”.
(This passage contains some language that some people will find offensive).
“While only about 10% of the population of Ireland are fags or dykes, the other 90% are most assuredly their soul-condemning enablers. The old preachers used to say fag-enablers are worse than fags because fag-enablers support the filthy beasts calling themselves gay, and they don’t even have the excuse of being prisoner to a vile lust.
Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Ireland is a land of vile, feces-eaters and anus lickers and those who have pleasure in them – all of whom are abominations to God and headed for Hell. Deal with it!”
Irish people on Twitter, however, were having none of it.By Bill Maher
In a small village near Abbottabad, Pakistan, a teenage girl helped her friend elope with the boy she loved and they all lived happily after. I’m kidding. According to The Washington Post, village elders heard that the girl had helped facilitate a forbidden “love marriage” rather than a traditional, Muslim arranged marriage, and so they dragged the girl out of her house, tied her up and burned her alive in a van as “a lesson for other girls.”
To the Pakistan government’s credit, the men involved in this honor killing were arrested and I’m sure they’ll all be given a stern talking to. But this just goes to show the ongoing struggle between a government trying to establish some protections for women and ingrained Muslim customs that call for death and/or rape when bitches just don’t listen.
“According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 8,694 girls and women have died in so-called honor killings here between 2004 and 2015. Those crimes involved revenge killings for dishonoring a family, village or local custom. About one-fourth of those cases involved the death of a minor. Although most common in remote areas, honor killings still occur in Pakistan even in larger, more progressive cities.”
The Post also notes that recently in Punjab, Pakistan, a man was arrested for beating his seven-month-pregnant wife to death with a club because she frowned on the idea of him taking a second wife, and another man was arrested for throwing acid in his aunt’s face when she refused his proposal to marry her daughter.
Does it make me a bigot to recognize these customs as not just different from ours, but wrong? I’m not saying people here don’t marry their cousins – I’ve been to West Virginia – but when we get mad at our aunts, the most we throw is shade.Despite highlighting the latest NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll on Tuesday’s Today, showing Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump shrinking, the network morning show skipped the most damaging findings for the Democratic candidate. According the survey, 82% of voters thought it was inappropriate for Clinton to use a private e-mail server and 56% said they disagreed with the FBI’s decision not to indict the former Secretary of State.
Rather than cite those stunning statistics during a report on the Clinton campaign, correspondent Andrea Mitchell only briefly noted the poll at the end of the segment, and then only the horse race match-up numbers: “[Bernie] Sanders’s endorsement is a welcome plus for Clinton, especially right now. In our new NBC News/SurveyMonkey online poll, she only has a three-point lead over Donald Trump today.”
Mitchell did reference the e-mail scandal, but failed to reveal the poll results on the issue: “No doubt reflecting the damage from that blistering FBI report on her e-mails.”
On Monday, an ABC News/Washington Post poll recorded similar negative American attitudes toward Clinton’s non-indictment, something which was actually covered on Good Morning America – though only for 18 seconds by news reader Cecilia Vega:
And turning to politics now. A new poll shows most Americans disagree with the Justice Department's decision not to charge Hillary Clinton for using that private e-mail server. 56 percent disapprove but our ABC News/Washington Post poll finds most Americans now say the e-mail scandal will not influence their vote.
Here is a full transcript of Mitchell’s July 12 report on Today, which focused mainly on celebrating Clinton “finally getting Bernie Sanders's endorsement”:I’ve been outside LA for 10 hours and I miss home already.
Yours truly is up in Northern California, or San Jose to be exact, covering tomorrow’s vital U.S. Men’s National Team World Cup Qualifier vs. Honduras (7:30 pm, FS1, UniMas and UDN). Bruce Arena just had a press conference inside Avaya Stadium. (He looks well)
But in the meantime, I still miss home. So after having a laugh with Kevin Baxter, the first thing I did was head to the nearest Starbucks and hop on the laptop to find out what’s been happening.
And that’s when I saw this.
This is what happens when people ask me if i would get a tattoo about LA..Part 1 is done..much more to come....i just love this city!! A post shared by Jelle Van Damme (@jelle_van_damme) on Mar 23, 2017 at 6:02pm PDT
This is what happens when people ask me if i would get a tattoo about LA..Part 1 is done..much more to come....i just love this city!!
First of all, love the tattoo. Can’t go wrong with a classic.
Second of all, there’s more to come? Who knows what we might see next on the big Belgian’s body.A young boy dressed in military fatigue stands looking at a portrait of the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, during a parade in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, Nov. 9, 2014.
Reports from Lebanon say that Hezbollah’s internal security forces have uncovered a high-ranking agent working for Israel’s espionage and intelligence agency.
According to the reports, the agent was in charge of Hezbollah’s external operations, heading its “910” unit. This unit plans and executes operations directed at Israeli targets around the world. The reports, which quote security officials from the militant Islamist group, claim that the agent, identified only as M.S., posed as a businessman, which allowed him to travel freely around the globe.
According to the information that was publicized, M.S. was recruited by the Mossad on one of his trips to a country in Western Asia. He worked for the Mossad for years, helping to foil numerous Hezbollah operations that were planned in retaliation for the assassination of Hezbollah’s military operations commander, Imad Mughniyeh, who was gunned down in Damascus in 2008.
According to the Lebanese reports, M.S. gave his handlers in the Mossad the names of Hezbollah operatives in various countries, as well as disclosing plans for attacks by Hezbollah. The latest disclosure led to the arrest of an operative in Peru, in whose house explosives were found.
The Lebanese website El Nashra reported that this operative was instrumental in providing the information which led to Mughniyeh’s assassination, as well as to the killing of another senior Hezbollah commander, Hassan al-Laqis, in late 2013. Hezbollah sources said that the arrest of M.S. dealt a serious blow to Israel’s intelligence-gathering capabilities in its ongoing battle with the Islamist group over seeking out and destroying information sources – a battle being waged by both sides.Otomycosis is a fungal ear infection,[1] a superficial mycotic infection of the outer ear canal. It is more common in the tropical countries. The infection may be either subacute or acute and is characterized by malodorous discharge, inflammation, pruritus, scaling, and severe discomfort. Suppuration can occur due to superimposed bacterial infection commonly due to pseudomonas species and proteus species. The mycosis results in inflammation, superficial epithelial exfoliation, masses of debris containing hyphae, suppuration, and pain.[2]
Signs and symptoms [ edit ]
The most common finding on ear examination is the presence of greyish white thick debris and heaviness in the ear.
Cause [ edit ]
Most fungal ear infections are caused by Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium and Candida albicans, but exceptions exist.[3][4]
Diagnosis [ edit ]
The fungal mass may appear white, brown or black and has been likened to a wet piece of filter paper. Examined with an Otoscope, A.niger appears as black headed filamentous growth, A.fumigatus as pale blue or green and candida as white or creamy deposit
Treatment [ edit ]
Otomycosis is treated by debridement followed with topical azole antifungals,[3] and symptomatically managed with oral antihistamines.[citation needed] Per a study in Iran 10cc acetic acid 2% plus 90 cc of isopropyl alcohol 70% was effective.[5]“There’s nothing here,” says Farzana Khatoun, surveying the dry expanse of land before her. “We don’t even have enough water to wash up for prayer, do our laundry or wash our dishes.” Khatoun cannot simply turn on a tap and expect water to gush out; her home is not connected to the water pipelines of Karachi, the sixth most water-stressed city in the world.
Karachi – home to more than 20 million people – is currently meeting just 50% of its total water requirement, according to officials from the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB). The city needs 1.1bn gallons of water daily but can only supply 550m gallons per day (MGD). Meanwhile, Karachi’s population growth rate of 4.5% per annum means that nearly a million newcomers – economic migrants, refugees and internally displaced people – enter the city every year, further stressing the already-limited water supply.
The global water crisis in 13 photographs Read more
“Since this government came into power in 2013, we haven’t had water,” says Mofiz Khan, a shopkeeper in Orangi Town, an economically depressed area in westernmost Karachi. Khan has tried different methods to provoke a response: he’s written letters, demonstrated on the streets and waited in long queues for water tankers, at times getting into a fracas with other water-starved residents.
The water crisis is the result of several factors. Scarce water resources persistently fail to meet the massive demand from a burgeoning population. The Hub Dam went dry earlier this year, leaving Karachi with just one water source, the Indus river, which is more than 120km away.
This long transmission route also causes problems – leakages and water thefts account for the loss of almost 30% of the city’s water supply, according to Jawed Shamim, former chief engineer at KWSB. This is exacerbated by the poor performance of outdated and inefficient pumping stations.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kamran Khan in Orangi Town, which is one of worst-affected areas due to its reliance on Hub Dam (no longer supplies water) Photograph: Sabrina Toppa
When the water does reach citizens, distribution inequalities arise; there is no metering system to monitor real use or water waste. A “water tanker mafia” also illegally punctures pipelines and siphons off water to sell at inflated rates on the black market, highlighting other problems linked to chronic corruption, mismanagement and poor governance.
“In many places, such as Korangi, people end up having to buy the water that was intended for their homes,” says journalist Taha Anis, adding that neighbourhoods closer to a supply source tend to receive a greater share of the city’s water reserve. Frustrated by the water paucity and poor quality, almost three-quarters of Karachi residents do not pay their water bills, according to the KWSB.
But the worsening water scarcity has also resulted in civil unrest. This month, Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) protesters smashed clay water pots in front of the chief minister’s home, calling on the government to address the water shortage.
Inhabitants of the impoverished Yousaf Goth neighbourhood have also demonstrated against water losses and power cuts paralysing their area. In response, the chief minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, offered free water tankers to Karachi’s most parched areas.
The three wonders of the ancient world solving modern water problems Read more
With Ramadan – the Islamic month of fasting – and temperatures rising with the onset of a heatwave, residents fear the water scarcity and blistering heat will result in another public health crisis. Last year’s heatwave – also coinciding with Ramadan – claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people with the city’s acute water shortage widely seen as a major culprit.
“Inshallah, when the heatwave comes, no death will occur,” says the Sindh health minister, Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar, whose provincial government has already set up more than 170 rehabilitation centres in the city, including water distribution points to stave off dehydration and heatstroke.
To alleviate the crisis, Karachi’s water board is working on the 25.5bn rupee Karachi-4 (K-4) project, which will provide an additional 650 MGD to the city by drawing water from Keenjhar lake. Expected to start later this month, critics contend that there will be a gap in supply and demand by the time the initial phase is completed in two years. By then, the population will have climbed further, increasing the burden on the available water supply.
KWSB is also seeking to reroute pipelines to decrease leakages, as well as upgrade the city’s main pumping station, Dhabeji, to boost flow across supply lines. A desalination plant has also been suggested, but that brings its own expensive problems.
The water crisis in Pakistan’s largest city is part of a broader trend of water insecurity affecting the entire country. The water shortage is Pakistan’s biggest threat, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry said earlier this year, as most citizens earn their livelihood in the water-dependent agricultural sector. By 2025, it is forecasted that Pakistan – the world’s sixth most populous country – will have depleted its available water supply and that by 2040, the country’s water stress levels will dwarf that of all neighbouring countries in the region.
At last global leaders are really talking about water - we need to seize the day Read more
As with many mega cities in the developing world, the question of whether supply can keep up with the demands of a booming population as well as crises in government management of basic resources remains unanswered. For some Karachiites, just turning on the tap yields an answer.
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter, and have your say on issues around water in development using #H2Oideas.The fact came to light during a training workshop in the capital on "Quality Management and Value Addition in Fish and Shrimp Processing in Bangladesh".
During the workshop, the experts laid stress on devising a policy framework in this direction.
Speaking at the workshop Department of Fisheries Principal Scientific Officer Nitya Ranjan Biswas said, “Bangladesh produces 93 metric tons of waste every year. This huge amount of waste is a burden for our country. We can use only 100 tons of it.”
“We cannot use the rest. However this waste has a huge demand in the international market. A tonne of such waste costs $1,000”, he added, claiming that the wastes have a tremendous potential to bring home foreign reserves.
Fisheries and livestock ministry’s Additional Secretary Anisur Rahman, France’s Ambassador to Bangladesh Sophie Aubert, DoF Director General Syed Arif Azad and former advisor to a caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman were among others who also spoke at the workshop.Amazon Kindle Sold Out: No Estimated Date of Availability
To our recollection, this actually hasn’t happened in quite some time. To be exact, in 2008, when it was the original Kindle. And, even then, Amazon managed to make sure they told customers when the Kindle would be coming back around, or shipping to their doorsteps. Not this time. All Amazon says right now is that the Kindle is temporarily out of stock, and that purchasers will get an email when the eReader gets an estimated delivery date.
So, what does all this mean? Well, in the short-term (which is probably the only real situation, mind you), it means that the Kindle is sold out. There must’ve been some crazy high demand for a mid-Summer shopping spree or something, and Amazon wasn’t able to keep up with production. With that in mind, it probably won’t be long at all before it gets back onto the digital shelves, and everything is right with the world.
Or… It means that there’s a new Kindle coming. If you’ll recall, a Bloomberg report suggested that “people in the know” were saying a new, thinner, sharper displayed Kindle 3 or Kindle “Slim” (that’s a new favorite word, isn’t it?) was coming some time in August. Well, unless our calendars are wrong, August is just right around the corner. Of course, unless it launches on August 1st, this may be too soon to pull the availability of their famous eReader.
There’s no telling which option is actually happening here, as Amazon isn’t coming out and saying anything quite yet. But, if a new Kindle is incoming some time in August, then any day now we should expect some kind of press release. We won’t hold our breath, though. Anyone out there interested in seeing a new Kindle?
[via Amazon; thanks Johannes!]Published Nov 14, 2016
Joint Press Release Press
by Siemens and Mentor Graphics November 14, 2016
Siemens to acquire design automation and industrial software provider Mentor Graphics for $37.25 per share
Mentor Graphics is a pioneer and leader in design automation software ranging from Integrated Circuit (IC) and System-on-Chip (SoC) design to automotive electronics solutions
Siemens becomes unique digital industrial player to offer mechanical, thermal, electrical, electronic and embedded software design capabilities on a single integrated platform
Siemens is further building its Vision 2020 to shape Digital Industrial Enterprise by expanding its unique portfolio for industrial software. Siemens and Mentor Graphics (NASDAQ: MENT) (“Mentor”) today announced that they have entered into a merger agreement under which Siemens will acquire Mentor for $37.25 per share in cash, which represents an enterprise value of $4.5 billion. The offer price represents a 21% premium to Mentor’s closing price on November 11, 2016, the last trading day prior to the announcement. Mentor’s Board of Directors approved and declared advisable the merger agreement, and Mentor’s Board of Directors recommends the approval and adoption of the merger agreement by the holders of shares of Mentor common stock. Mentor shareholder Elliott Management has committed to support the transaction.
This acquisition decisively extends Siemens' leading Digital Enterprise Software portfolio with Mentor’s well established electronics IC and systems design, simulation and manufacturing solutions. These capabilities are essential for today's smart connected products such as autonomous vehicles. The combination provides mechanical, thermal, electronic and embedded software tools which will allow Siemens' customers to further accelerate their innovation, drive production efficiencies and optimize the operation of their products in the field. Now, for the first time, quality, efficiency, flexibility, safety and speed can be optimized across technical domains, throughout the entire lifecycle and for the entire extended enterprise.
“Siemens is acquiring Mentor as part of its Vision 2020 concept to be the Benchmark for the New Industrial Age. It’s a perfect portfolio fit to further expand our digital leadership and set the pace in the industry,” said Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG.
“With Mentor, we’re acquiring an established technology leader with a talented employee base that will allow us to supplement our world-class industrial software portfolio. It will complement our strong offering in mechanics and software with design, test and simulation of electrical and electronic systems,” said Klaus Helmrich, member of the Managing Board of Siemens.
Mentor is headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon, U.S., and has employees in 32 countries worldwide. In its fiscal year ended January 31, 2016, Mentor |
this corresponds to the disasterous 43%. Putting this together shows that the proportion of foreigners killed on a mission is
That is, the proportion of dead among the foreigners is over six times higher than the proportionof dead within the whole army.
To compare this with the proportion for the native population, notice that of the army are Spanish nationals, and that of the dead are Spanish. By the same reasoning as above, we get
for the proportion of Spaniards killed on a mission. That is, the proportion of Spaniards being killed is just 61% of the overall proportion of dead soldiers.
How does the proportion of dead among foreigners compare to that for Spanish nationals? To find out, we take the quotient of the two:
So the proportion of dead among the foreigners is around ten times higher than the proportion of dead among Spaniards.
What does all this tell our prospective soldier about his or her prospects in the Spanish army? If these proportions, or frequencies, are interpreted as probabilities, that is if we take the current situation as a sign of things to come, then our result says that the probability of our foreign soldier dying on a mission is ten times the probability of his Spanish colleague dying on a mission.
In fact, our calculation above is an application of the celebrated Bayes’ theorem (published in 1764). Write for the (unknown) probability of a soldier dying, irrespective of nationality, and for the probability of a soldier picked at random being a foreign national. Then the 43% figure corresponds to the conditional probability of a soldier being foreign given that he or she has been killed - we have
In accordance with our calculation above, Bayes' theorem says that
whereis the conditional probability of dying given that you are foreign. Writingfor the probability of being Spanish and applying Bayes' theorem again, we get the corresponding result
Our calculations are valid for any immigrant soldier, whether on a mission or not, comparing him or herself to any Spanish soldier. But what about a foreign soldier already on a mission, comparing him or herself to fellow Spanish soldiers also on a mission? Our results remain valid if the troops that are sent abroad preserve the distribution of foreigners in the whole army — that is, if 7% of troops abroad are foreigners. In this case our immigrant soldier on the mission is ten times more likely to be killed than a Spaniard on a mission. This enormous difference would have to be explained by local matters related to missions abroad. However, it may be that the percentage is not preserved, and that the difference in odds is explained by a similar difference in the probabilities of being sent abroad. Unfortunately, the percentage of immigrants in missions has not been published so far, so we cannot say which of the two it is.
A revolutionary contribution of mathematics to human culture was the recognition that logic can make reliable quantitative predictions about the unknown future. In a very democratic sense, mathematics offers anyone a mathematical crystal ball to unveil the future from information generated in the past. Our soldier's analysis has revealed the distressing truth that his probability to die in a Spanish mission is ten times higher than that of a Spanish soldier. It seems very unlikely that this fact is mentioned in his contract, or reflected in his salary.
Further reading
If you speak Spanish, you can read coverage of this issue in El País here, here, and here.
Probability theory was born in 1654, in a letter from Blaise Pascal to Pierre de Fermat, as engagingly recounted by Keith Devlin in his book The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth Century Letter that Made the World Modern.
About the author
José-Manuel Rey is Professor of Mathematics at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid.Close
Wikipedia has banned a massive 381 editors after finding that these accounts were created to promote brands in return for being paid by companies.
A blog post by Wikipedia details the fact that it has been investigating for months in an attempt to find and delete the accounts created to create bogus articles to get cash.
The accounts, called "sock puppet" accounts, that were banned by Wikipedia's "CheckUser" team had been active between the months of April and August. However, the nature of the edits that were made suggests that the scam had been continuing for a long time, according to the post.
"During the course of this investigation, evidence has been identified that this group is editing for profit (i.e., that they are paid editors). Only a few of the accounts have made any disclosure related to paid editing, and those which did failed to make complete disclosures," says the post by Wikipedia. "The investigation began in early July. Many functionaries have participated in the investigation and identification of accounts, as well as the review of articles created by the accounts."
The way that it worked is that the accounts would create a draft of an article, populating it with promotional material. They would then contact their victims, the subjects of the article, and ask for a fee in order to publish the article, often posing as established Wikipedia editors. To keep the article from being edited or taken down, the scammers would often request monthly fees of around $30.
Of course, it's important to mention that paid editing is nothing new for Wikipedia. Wikimedia, the owner of Wikipedia, has been trying to stamp it out of practice for years, although in some cases it has tried to work with PR agencies. A number of PR agencies have even signed an agreement to abide by Wikipedia's practices. The real issue for Wikipedia is when the editing is being done in secret.
Wikipedia is currently encouraging users to review and fix articles created by scammers, with the hope that these articles will be fixed in as short an amount of time as possible. Wikipedia also encouraged editors to "be kind to subjects" of the articles, as they, too, were victims of the scam.
Via: Motherboard
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Now that the fall season is in full swing, you know what that means: It’s getting darker earlier, the temperatures are dropping, and few things sound better than being cozied up on the couch playing video games. To that end, we put together a list of five new or upcoming games that haven’t just caught our attention, they’re the definition of must-buys. Now let’s see what we have on the docket.
Killer Instinct
Longtime gamers, especially those fond of fighting games, have a special place in their hearts for the Killer Instinct series. And after nearly 20 years, it’s set to make its return to consoles on Nov. 22 as one of the launch titles for the XBox One. There will be six characters available for battle at first, though more are set to be released through downloadable content down the line.
Fans of the original games will see some familiar faces, including Jago and Glacius, and likely get nostalgia chills setting up ultra combos on their opponents. With many of the core elements of the first two Killer Instincts remaining, the developers worked to expand the experience with some new touches. Like the instinct mode, for example, which allows fighters to adopt super power-ups like ice-plated armor for Glacius.
Grand Theft Auto V
Without question, this isn’t just the biggest game on this list; Grand Theft Auto V is the game of the year. You could even argue that it’s the best game of the past few years as it allows even more freedom to XBox 360 and Playstation 3 owners alike. The locale in this installment is Los Santos, an imagined version of Los Angeles where you can seamlessly play as three different protagonists.
That aspect of the game takes it to another level on its own, but how about the immersive mini games (golf anyone?), scuba diving, the ability to hunt, and so, so much more. As another added bonus, the game is set to include gambling side-quests in planned downloadable content in the near future. But until then, you can always head to Betfair and enjoy its myriad gaming options if gambling’s your thing.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
You would think that a series would grow stale with a lineage like Call of Duty, but that’s simply not the case as long as developer Infinity Ward is in charge. They will unfortunately not be handling the Wii version of the upcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts, but at least the rest of us will be OK, right?
COD Ghosts
As far as the narrative goes, Ghosts takes place a decade or so after the U.S. has been devastated so greatly that it’s not even a superpower. Therefore, you’re not playing as a member of a tactical squad trying to maintain power or take over another country, you’re just trying to survive. Both single and multi-player gaming have been improved in numerous ways, like the 30 added guns, added player dynamics, and the new feature called Squads. Nov. 5 can’t get here soon enough. As for you PS4 and XBox One owners, you can buy the game on Nov. 15 and Nov. 22, respectively.
Batman: Arkham Origins
Batman: Arkham Origins’ predecessor, 2011’s Arkham City, was so unbelievably enjoyable that it would be a crime to leave this game off the list. Speaking of crime, that’s exactly what drives our masked protagonist. He’s much younger in this game and must avoid the bounty placed on his head by a murderous mob boss.
With that in mind, stealth and detective work have a large role in the gameplay that comes with some new gadgets and enemies. Even better is the new travel system that should take the headache out of going from one place to the next thanks to his handy plane, the Batwing. But the best part? They have finally added multiplayer. Praise the gamer gods. Oh yeah, it’s out Oct. 25 on all systems.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Anyone with a penchant for stalking video game baddies and taking them out in silence already has the fourth Assassin’s Creed installment on their radar. They also probably have the release date of Nov. 22 circled and highlighted on their calendar. But if not, here’s the deal: Multi-player will return with some killer new modes; there will be three main locations where you’ll do your dirty work; and the environment will be and feel much more wide open as opposed to the preceding AC games.
Also, because a large portion of ACIV takes place on the water, you’ll also be the captain of a ship named Jackdaw. You’ll be able to upgrade it as you make your way through missions and you can even recruit people to join your crew. The only downside is that your cohorts will not be able to join you on quests or battles.
support@violentgamerreviews.comAn anonymous donor paid $1 million to buy New York Times subscriptions for public school students.
So far, the newspaper’s “sponsor a subscription program” has garnered more than 15,500 donations and provided access to The Times's website for about 1.3 million students, the newspaper said in a statement Thursday.
With the influx of donations, The Times is planning an expansion of the program, including a series of educational webinars on topics ranging from news literacy to the Supreme Court, among other subjects.
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The outreach program comes amid growing tensions between the news media and the Trump administration. The Times has frequently been a target of President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE’s ire, and is often accused by the White House of reporting “fake news.”
Trump has often referred to the newspaper as “failing” and has claimed it has hemorrhaged subscriptions and revenue as a result of critical coverage of his campaign, presidential transition and administration.
But subscriptions to The Times actually doubled in 2016, during Trump’s unconventional and often bombastic campaign.
The newspaper launched its first brand ad campaign in a decade last month, debuting a high-profile ad during the Academy Awards.P78-1 or Solwind was a United States satellite launched aboard an Atlas F rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on February 24, 1979. The satellite operated until it was destroyed in orbit on September 13, 1985 to test the ASM-135 ASAT anti-satellite missile.
Construction and payload [ edit ]
The satellite's Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO) platform included a solar-oriented sail and a rotating wheel section. Ball Aerospace was the primary contractor for design and construction, and provided the attitude control and determination computer programs.[6] The P78-1 carried a gamma-ray spectrometer, a white-light coronagraph, an extreme-ultraviolet imager, an X-ray spectrometer, a high-latitude particle spectrometer, an aerosol monitor, and an X-ray monitor. The X-ray monitor, designated NRL-608 or XMON, was a collaboration between the Naval Research Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The white-light coronagraph and the ultraviolet imager were combined in a single package, designated NRL-401 or SOLWIND, which was built by the Naval Research Laboratory. The coronagraph was the flight spare of the white-light coronagraph on the OSO-7 satellite. The ultraviolet imager used a CCD imager, one of the first uses of a CCD in space.
Discovery of comets [ edit ]
P78-1 was the first satellite in space to discover a comet in general and a sungrazing comet in particular. In total, 9 sungrazing comets, all belonging to the Kreutz group, were discovered on images taken by the Solwind coronagraph:
Designation Discovery date Discoverer[7][8] C/1979 Q1 (SOLWIND) R. Howard, N. Koomen and D. J. Michels C/1981 B1 (SOLWIND) D. J. Michels, N. Sheeley, O. Roberts and F. Harlow C/1981 O1 (SOLWIND) D. J. Michels, R. Seal, R. Chaimson, and W. Funk C/1981 V1 (SOLWIND) D. J. Michels, R. Seal, R. Chaimson, and W. Funk C/1981 W1 (SOLWIND) June 30, 2005 Rainer Kracht C/1983 N2 (SOLWIND) July 19, 2005 Rainer Kracht C/1983 S2 (SOLWIND) R. Howard, M. Koomen, D. Michels, and N. Sheeley C/1984 O2 (SOLWIND) N. R. Sheeley, Jr., R. Howard, M. Koomen, and D. Michels C/1984 Q1 (SOLWIND) July 22, 2005 Rainer Kracht
Apart from these yet another comet C/1984 R1 (SOLWIND) was found by Rainer Kracht on July 23, 2005 in Solwind's images. Its perihelion distance of 0.1051 AU was at least ten times larger than that of the previously found true sungrazers.
Destruction [ edit ]
By 1985, the satellite's batteries were degrading. This caused more and more frequent "under-voltage cutoffs", a condition where the satellite detected a low main bus voltage and automatically shut down all non-vital systems. In addition, the last of the three tape recorders failed in the spring of 1985, so data collection could only occur while the spacecraft was in contact with a ground station.[1] A normal contact lasted only about 15 minutes, so this was a serious impediment. Special arrangements could be made to string several contacts together. As a result of these failures, an ever-increasing amount of time and network resources were spent reconfiguring the satellite for normal operation. Data collection from the few remaining payloads was severely limited. Because of the additional burden on the Air Force Satellite Control Network (e.g., extra support and antenna time at the tracking stations), discussions were already underway to terminate the mission.
This led to the satellite being chosen as a test target for an ASM-135 ASAT anti-satellite missile. The mission was extended for several weeks solely to support the test. During this final phase, the satellite was often allowed to remain in the under-voltage condition for several days at a time.
On September 13, 1985, the satellite was destroyed in orbit at 2043 UTC at with an altitude of 525 kilometres (326 mi)[5] by an ASM-135 ASAT launched from a US Air Force F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft. The test resulted in 285 cataloged pieces of orbital debris. 1 piece of debris remained in orbit to at least May 2004,[9] but had deorbited by 2008.[5]
The test outraged some scientists because although five of P78-1's instruments had failed at the time of the test, two instruments remained in operation, and the satellite was what one solar physicist called "the backbone of coronal research through the last seven years".[10]
Gallery [ edit ]
F-15A Celestial Eagle launching the ASAT missile that destroyed the P78-1
See also [ edit ]By By Kev Hedges Mar 5, 2011 in Travel Southampton - A Spitfire plane has flown over the skies of its birthplace Southampton, in southern England, this morning to mark the 75th anniversary since the world famous aircraft first flew. Today's emotional flight piloted by Carolyn Grace, flew over Southampton for 20 minutes. Mrs Grace, who now owns the aircraft that once flew with 485 Squadron, said, "To be in Southampton for the 75th anniversary of the first flight, to be standing on the ground at the very spot that RJ Mitchell was standing looking at his achievement, it makes my knees go weak. His aircraft represents Britain at its best at a time it was on its knees." reports The Spitfire flown today had been lovingly restored by Mrs Grace's husband, who died in 1988. Hundreds lined the park along side The flight was to honour the 1936 test flight that paved the way for the flying machine to be built in 1944 when it shot down the first German plane on D-Day. It was designed as a short-range interceptor plane by R.J.Mitchell, at his factory based in Southampton. He died in 1937 never having witnessed the world fame the aircraft would embrace.Today's emotional flight piloted by Carolyn Grace, flew over Southampton for 20 minutes. Mrs Grace, who now owns the aircraft that once flew with 485 Squadron, said, "To be in Southampton for the 75th anniversary of the first flight, to be standing on the ground at the very spot that RJ Mitchell was standing looking at his achievement, it makes my knees go weak. His aircraft represents Britain at its best at a time it was on its knees." reports Surrey Herald The Spitfire flown today had been lovingly restored by Mrs Grace's husband, who died in 1988. Hundreds lined the park along side Southampton Water during cold and cloudy conditions awaiting to see a moment of aviation history. More about Spitfire, anniversary flight, Southampton More news from Spitfire anniversary flight Southampton“We have an impostor in our minds.
That voice that unceasingly tells you that “you are not good enough”, that “you are not being good enough”, that “you are less than perfect”, that “you are not loved”, that “you will never be loved”, that “the world is against you”, that “nothing will ever go as you want it to go”, that “everything is bad”, that everything is “chaotic”, …
The same voice exists in everyone else, it is like this collective madness and that collective madness called the “Ego” is the sole reason of all types of catastrophes on our planet.
All types of suffering, all types of pain, everything that is horrible in your world, in the entire world, the only single cause of it is this collective unconsciousness, this collective madness called the “Ego”.
The Ego is, in fact, an impostor, it pretends to be you but it is not you.
The voice in your head is not your voice.
The only way for you to do something good for yourself, something good for our planet, something good for our entire collective is to raise your consciousness, to step up to who you truly are, to kill your ego.
By killing your ego you will automatically, more and more, kill this collective unconsciousness that creates all the suffering, this sense of separation.
The ego is, in fact that, the sense of separation. The sense of having a small self.
“I am this small self, there are the other small selfs and I need to obtain from them, I need to hurt them, they might hurt me.”
This causes so much madness, so much suffering, so many wars.
So …
If you want to be of service, if you want your life to change, if you want the entire world to change you need to step up your game, you need to more and more become aware of your ego.
Kill the impostor in your mind!
Every thought that you are having, every belief, every single thing that the voice in your mind tells you … is wrong, is false.
The voice in your mind is not who you are!
No matter how much the voice in your head tries to pretend and disguise itself as being you, it is not you, … You are the one aware of that voice.
The more you become aware of your thoughts, the more you become aware of the voice in your head, you create a distance, you create a separation between the voice in your head and yourself, your true self.
When you manage to have that separation your true self will shine forth.
Your level of consciousness, the level of love, light, bliss, freedom, happiness, … that you can have and that you can generate for others will become exponentially more, it will grow.
So …
If you want the root of all suffering in yourself, in your life, on this planet, this collective madness to stop, to become less and less powerful you need to take your power back.
Do not place your power on the voice in your head.
More and more, notice the separation between the voice in your head and your true self.
Notice the separation between your thoughts, your beliefs, and your essence, your true essence, your true energy.
You do this by simply observing, when you observe the voice in your head, when you observe your thoughts and you question them …
“Is that true?”
Every thought that you have is, in fact, an option.
You are having the choice to choose that thought or something else, you have that choice!
When you become aware of that choice the ego ceases to have power over you.
The voice in your mind, the impostor in your mind ceases to have power when you realize that you have a choice.
To choose what the voice in your mind tells you or to trust your heart, to trust your true self.
If you have any questions about it, if you have any doubts about it, look at all the wars, all the suffering, all the natural dissasters that are occurring in our planet and realize that it is the ego.
This collective madness is what generates that.
So do you want to trust that impostor in your mind or do you want to trust your heart?
Do you want to trust love or do you want to trust fear?
It is all about this choice, “Love or Fear” at every single moment.
You the choice to make a difference, you have the power to make a difference!
The difference will start in your mind. no one else can change it, only you can change it.
Your world is for you to change do not wait for anyone else to change your world, you are the one who needs to change it.
The choice is at every single moment, “Fear or Love”?
The voice in your head that tells you that you are not good enough or stepping up your game to truly believe in yourself, to truly believe in what your heart inspire you to be, to truly believe in what you are made of, to truly believe in love, truly believe in happiness, freedom, joy to you and to everyone else?
Do you want to trust in separation? Believing that you are separate from everyone else, separate from this planet or do you want to make a difference?
For you to make a difference, for you to really step up your game, for you to literally be of service to the entire planet become aware of the voice in your mind.
Take away the power of that voice by realizing it is not your voice, it has never been your voice.
Those thoughts those beliefs that make you feel bad, that hurt you, that lead you to hurt another, they are not your voice, they are your ego’s voice, the impostor in your mind.
If you truly want to make a difference become aware of who you truly are and more and more, let go of the voice in your mind because it is not your voice, it was never your voice.
Every time you see suffering, every time you see pain, every time you see disaster, go all the other way around …
Focus on love, focus on freedom, focus on happiness, focus on whats good, that’s the only way to create a better world and a better life for you.
You cannot fight fire with fire, you only can fight fire with water, so it is the same thing …
Whenever you see darkness follow the light and don’t mind the darkness.
This is the only way you make a difference for you, for your life, for your family, for your friends and for the entire planet.
Kill the ego and embrace your true self.
Filipe
Coaching page: https://filipemoleiro.com/coaching
Contact for coaching sessions: filipe.moleiro@hotmail.comBy Tamara Lush
Associated Press
TAMPA, Florida — A decorated Florida police officer who killed nine people during a crime spree after he was fired for lying is scheduled to be executed Tuesday night.
Manuel Pardo's attorneys are trying to block his execution, arguing in federal appeals that he is mentally ill, something his trial attorney believed more than two decades ago.
(Florida Dept. of Corrections Image)
"I think that anyone who would get up and ask a jury sentence him to death is insane," lawyer Ronald Gurlanick has said.
Over three months in early 1986, Pardo committed a series of robberies, killing six men and three women. Most of his victims were involved with drugs, officials said, and Pardo contended that he was doing the world a favor by killing them.
Gurlanick thought Pardo was insane and tried to use that as a defense, arguing he couldn't tell right from wrong.
Over Gurlanick's objections, Pardo insisted on testifying, telling jurors that he enjoyed killing people and wished he could have murdered more.
"They're parasites and they're leeches, and they have no right to be alive," he said in court. "Somebody had to kill these people."
In a news conference following his conviction, Pardo said that instead of choosing to model himself after Hitler, he could have idolized Martin Luther King Jr. or John F. Kennedy.
"But they were pacifists," he said. "I'm an activist."
Copyright 2012 Associated Press[yasr_overall_rating]
I’ve seen it once, but I’ll state this right out: this is the best quality Trek film since Star Trek: First Contact. And it comes very close to being the Star Trek film that comes the closest to catching the tone of the original series.
Before I start this review in earnest, I want to remind everyone that this exists.
Look, this is what the original series was. Space Lincoln. Space Romans. Space Nazis. Space Gangsters. Space Greeks. Space Cowboys.
Now don’t get me wrong, the episodes I’ve just mentioned are good for a case of beer with friends on a Friday night and little else. The spinoffs make no mention of them, so they were effectively dropped from canon. And there were no shortage of dramatically affecting and thematically effective around which to make a franchise.
The point I’m trying to make is that this is a series that simply knew how to have fun with itself. And even still, this is the franchise that pioneered silly, hand waving technological solutions so that the characters could go off and resolve the actual conflict between characters.
If you’ve seen the movie, some of this should really be sounding familiar. If not, well, you’ve hit the wall of spoilers. They will be plentiful below.
The cold openings that JJ Trek has been pioneering are very effective. In the absence of an episodic series, they at least nod to the fact that the Enterprise is warping from planet from week to week. And unlike the previous cold open, where the crew make stupid, inexplicable decisions and use stupid, inexplicable contraptions to advance the plot, in this one the conflict actually seems to come from external factors.
While the fact that most Trek aliens are extras with funny bumps on their heads is canonically explained, it can still be relatively tiresome. With the big budget, we can now get creatures and races that actually feel alien. That’s one of the things that I really liked about the big reveal in the beginning of the film; that the intelligent alien race is much smaller than humans.
The film moves on to the Enterprise in deep space, and Beyond moves into the character arcs that will define the film. In it, Kirk is uncertain about his position as captain, but more to the point, is uncertain about his position in life. But instead of the previous two films (Into Darkness had absolutely no excuse on this point), Kirk doesn’t start as a bumbling fool.
Being a year older than his father, he is dealing with an existential crisis, and wondering how he can define his own role in life. It definitely tracks with Kirk plot arcs in previous original series films. The Wrath of Khan deals with his impending mortality; The Search for Spock deals with sacrifices; and in The Undiscovered Country he must grapple with his own bigotry.
The Enterprise returns to Yorktown Station. This is absolutely a masterpiece of production design. It’s the type of staggeringly large, sweepingly complex facility that’s been described in countless science fiction yarns of yore. And yet due to budgetary constraints, objects of this scale and complexity have scarcely been depicted on the big screen.
Upon departing, the crew engage in their various points of exposition.
Uhura and Spock’s relationship appears to be on the rocks. Now this is something in the JJ Trek films that I’ve been profoundly skeptical of. A friend derisively referred to Uhura as “Spock’s Beard” after Trek 09. Many commented on the sexist depiction of her as a nagging girlfriend on a critical mission in Into Darkness. Now maybe this is something that I’ll revise as I continue in the franchise, but in this case, their care for each other really felt genuine. It felt like a part of the plot this time and not shoehorned in.
In a moment that has caused a great deal of discussion in the Trek world was the depiction of Sulu’s family. In this case, I understand and respect both sides of the argument. From the point of view of the filmmakers, they were paying respect to Takei’s legacy and importance in the LGBT community, and adding a great deal of needed representation to the franchise. Further, they felt that adding a new character who was gay would feel heavily shoehorned in. On the other hand, George Takei spent a great deal of time conceiving of Sulu as a character. He went as far as to actively campaign for a Captain Sulu spinoff set aboard the Excelsior after the events of The Undiscovered Country. So on this issue, I’m going to defiantly not take a stand. I understand that both sides on the issue have merit, and both mean well.
Shohreh Aghdashloo appears as Commodore Paris, and I’m immensely joyous that this franchise has already found its spiritual successor to Bruce Greenwood’s Christopher Pike. Star Trek has this recurring problem, where many of the other Admirals and Captains are depicted as incompetent or unsympathetic technocrats, who exist only to impede the crew of the Enterprise. This tactic may be an easy route to take dramatically—after all, who doesn’t like a “fight the system” story—yet for a universe that heralds cooperation, and the capacity of people to come together, it’s just baffling that the authority figures in the wonderful Federation are all just such assholes. The only notable exception to this is in Deep Space Nine with Admiral Ross. Yet here with Admiral Paris, we have someone who is both wise and supportive. I am aware that Aghdashloo, whose voice and acting talents are on par with Morgan Freeman, was inserted in the film via reshoots. I profoundly hope that she is given a greatly expanded role in the next film.
And then we come to Greg Grunberg. If you like Greg Grunberg or his stupid cameos, I’ll shoot you out of the fucking airlock with him. Moving on.
So after some exposition and the Enterprise being sent on a mission to rescue people (yes, this is what they do!) they are attacked by a swarm of ships.
I’m a sucker for space battles, and this one delivers. The only thing to match it in JJ Trek is the Destruction of the Kelvin in Trek 09.
The problem with the end of Trek 09, or the end of Into Darkness, is that it’s just destruction porn with no build or no logical progression. Oh no, they’ve hit this system! Cut to random explosion. Oh no, they’ve hit another system! Cut to another random explosion. And continued on, until finally in a tremendous anticlimax, the ship is miraculously saved.
The key difference in Beyond is that the drama and the tension of the scene actually builds. The destruction of the Enterprise happens in stages that the audience can really visually grasp, as opposed to random explosions and scorch marks on the hull. Named characters actually run through the ship to attempt repairs. And there are stages to their response, including a saucer separation.
It’s exciting stuff.
So the ship is boarded and the MacGuffin is revealed as such.
Enter Krall.
Here’s where I’m going to temporarily deviate from my chronological approach and just talk about his character, his motivations, and the themes of the film.
Producers of the world, you don’t hire a world class talent like Idris Elba and have him be practically mute for most of the film.
Ultimately it is revealed that Krall has been a veteran of the Xindi and Romulan wars, and that after the disillusion of Earth’s military, he was given the command of a Starship.
Now here’s where a giant plot hole takes place. His ship is stranded on this strange planet. He discovers a device to siphon life. But why necessarily does he feel abandoned?
The one actual problem that I’m willing to say that Star Trek Beyond faces is that it totally lacks exposition regarding the villain. On the surface, for the third time in a row, they’re delving into the trope of the bad guy simply wanting revenge on the people or institutions they feel have done them harm.
Though in the grand scheme of things, I feel that Star Trek Beyond actually does enough leg work to pull it, well, beyond its predecessors and into the realm of actually meaning something.
Through the film, lines are tossed here and there that hint to a profound clash of ideas.
The Federation means both pluralism and unity. I can’t emphasize enough, to the core of my soul, just how much these values mean to me as a human being.
In the original series was introduced the philosophy, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. It was a goal to be aspired to, the most logical way to organize a society.
The idea that diversity and unity are complimentary, not contradictory, ideals.
Krall, on the other hand, heavily advocates a kind of Social Darwinism. That conflict and suffering is somehow the source of strength. It’s something that, again, I would have preferred more exposition about.
But that was the theme of the film. Starfleet representing unity through pluralism. Krall representing division and hatred, might makes right. And that ultimately, the former is the stronger.
This was something that, to the core of my bones, I needed to hear in 2016.
So the crew are all separated to various point on the planet. Out of all the JJ Trek films, they all seemed to be fully utilized.
Enter Jaylah. She is the rey of sunlight in this film. Everything I want in a guest character. There is a strength and self sufficiency to her, and yet the she finds a mutual need with the crew. With the unfortunate demise of Anton Yelchin, I hope that they graduate her from the Academy and bring her aboard during the next film as a worthy replacement.
Excitement! Action sequences! Banter! The meat of this film was excellent, and I really don’t feel that I necessarily need to give a blow-by-blow. Until we hit the next point of “controversy” among Trek fans…
The escape sequence. The motorcycle.
My largest piece of trepidation entering this film was thus: Paramount saw the magnificent success of the film Guardians of the Galaxy, and subsequently hired Fast and Furious director Justin Lin. Well, Star Trek is neither Guardians nor Furious. And given that the trailer prominently featured a motorcycle, couples with the Paramount lawsuit against Axanar, I had all but written off the movie.
Frankly, the inclusion of the bike seemed relatively natural given the plot of the film. They find an old Federation starship, okay. Kirk had been established riding a bike two films ago, okay. But most importantly, the sequence is built around him being a loud distraction, and not the actual core of the plan. So without much skepticism or any ire, I’m on board with this as a fun sequence.
As the backstory of the USS Franklin was revealed, I was rather pleased with how they acknowledged the most underrated of Star Trek series, Enterprise. There were some topical inconsistencies, it’s true. But I’ve strived to never be the kind of Trek fan to let that bug me. Moving on.
Okay, so when we hit the destruction of the alien swarm fleet, keep in mind that the joke about the giant green hand attacking the Enterprise was actually a reference to an original episode, right?
In Grad School at USC, I wrote a paper about culture in Star Trek, and why it always seems so outdated by our standards. Now unfortunately that paper was lost to the sands of time, but let me reconstruct some of my arguments here.
At the present moment, we have a generally poor idea of what constitutes the great and enduring culture of our time. Look at two decades ago. In 1994, among the highest grossing films were The Santa Clause and The Flintstones. The Shawshank Redemption was |
to be a pretty cold person not to have been moved by Hillary Clinton’s gracious concession speech late Wednesday morning. It was a speech that very few people imagined she would ever have to deliver. And yet she was able to address the pain she felt while calling for her supporters to fight another day:
I’ve had successes and I’ve had setbacks. Sometimes, really painful ones. Many of you are at the beginning of your professional public and political careers. You will have successes and setbacks, too. This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.
Heartfelt and true as that part of her speech was, it hints at something that might have been one of Clinton’s more critical flaws, more so than any particular policy stance: She has been around. And around. And around. She’s been a central figure in the Democratic Party since 1992. It was supposed to be her turn in 2008, but she lost to Obama. This year was definitely, absolutely, 100 percent her turn.
Maybe now the Democrats will learn what it took the Republicans a few election cycles to learn themselves: Deferring to a person’s “turn” is a terrible strategy for picking a nominee and running a general election campaign.
I’m thinking back to 1996, when the GOP nominated 73-year-old World War II hero Bob Dole to run against the popular incumbent Bill Clinton. By that point Dole had served in the House or Senate for a combined 35 years. It was his turn. Clinton won the Electoral College vote 379–159 and the popular vote by 8 million.
Then came 2008, when 72-year-old Vietnam War hero John McCain, in his fourth Senate term, ran against Obama. It is likely that any Republican would have lost to Obama, but McCain couldn’t even make it close.
And just because conservatives are stubborn and resistant to change, we ran Mitt Romney—who was not a war hero but who was a 2008 runner-up—in 2012. Some of the shine had worn off Obama by that point, thanks to a slow economic recovery and a rocky Obamacare rollout. Romney had a real chance, and yet he couldn’t win over the white working class in the Rust Belt and lost to Obama.
Clinton had certainly earned the right to run—her hard-fought battle against Obama in 2008, her tenures as a senator and secretary of state, and, yes, her time as first lady, all prepared her for this race. And many of her backers and supporters wanted desperately for it to be her turn because, dammit, it was time to have a woman in the Oval Office. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm that she generated by threatening to shatter that glass ceiling was tempered by the fact that she’d failed in 2008, that she’d been dogged by scandal for so long, and that she was, despite her gender, seen as the establishment personified.
If any of our past three presidents had something in common, it was that they generated real enthusiasm. The Boy from Hope was a refreshing antidote to 12 years of Reagan and Bush. Eight years later, laugh if you want, but, yes, Republicans were truly excited about Bush. And of course Obama gave the United States not just an opportunity to make history but a charismatic history-maker to rally around.
Clinton was the most establishment candidate possible when the electorate was looking for someone to buck Washington. You can point to as many stats as you want that show the economy is doing well, that Obama is popular, that there shouldn’t be so much hatred of Washington. And yet voters are motivated by feelings.
The proof is in the turnout. Yes, Hillary Clinton is winning the popular vote, but she will fall far short of Obama’s 65.4 million votes. It may have been her turn, but the enthusiasm just wasn’t there. It certainly wasn’t Donald Trump’s turn, and you know how that story ends.A handful of alternative DNS services offer protection from malware, ransomware and phishing. Providers like OpenDNS and Quad9 can blackhole DNS requests for blocking network traffic associated with botnets, phishing and exploits. These DNS providers promise some level of threat protection, but what do they know? Do they know things? Let's find out!
CryptoAUSTRALIA has compared the threat-blocking performance of ten different DNS providers. Our assessment can reveal that Norton ConnectSafe, SafeDNS and Strongarm have managed to block the largest number of harmful websites.
Comparing DNS Providers
In our previous article, we introduced a range of malware blocking and anti-phishing alternative DNS services. Each of those boasts its anti-malware and anti-phishing features, but how do we know which service is the most effective? To our best knowledge, there are no independent tests measuring the actual performance of these services.
Therefore, CryptoAUSTRALIA is releasing a new utility called DiNgoeS today. This tool can measure and compare the actual threat-blocking performance of ten different DNS providers.
How DiNgoeS Works
Our new tool is straightforward. DiNgoeS downloads a list of domains known for malicious activity from the hpHosts service first. Then it attempts to resolve each domain with every threat-blocking DNS provider. If DiNgoeS finds that a DNS response is blackholed, it considers the blocking action successful.
Once all domains are resolved, DiNgoeS generates a simple report (as shown below). The numbers show how many domains were successfully blocked by each alternative DNS provider.
In addition to the simple summary, DiNgoeS also generates a detailed CSV report of the threat blocking capabilities. The detailed report can be used for further calculations or trend graphs.
Our tool currently supports OpenDNS, Comodo (2x), Norton ConnectSafe, Quad9, Neustar, SafeDNS, Safesurfer, Strongarm and Yandex.DNS. As for threat data, DiNgoeS relies on three hpHosts feeds: exploits (EXP), malware (EMD) and phishing (PSH).
DiNgoeS is now available on GitHub and pull requests are welcome.
Initial Findings
We pulled a fresh list of 500 domains known from malicious activity (EXP, EMD and PSH respectively) on 23 December, and ran DiNgoeS from four different locations (Sydney x2, Frankfurt and N. Virginia). The reason behind the four scans was to iron out the DNS resolution errors (e.g. network congestion, throttling) by taking the average of the four separate results.
Our first results show that Norton ConnectSafe, SafeDNS and Strongarm has managed to prevent the largest number of threats from the ten providers under this assessment.
The highest number of websites was blocked by Norton ConnectSafe. This service was able to stop the largest number of the threats. Interestingly, ConnectSafe excels at blocking browser and OS exploits. As for its anti-phishing and anti-malware capabilities, the service is as effective as the others behind. Note that the total number is a bit exaggerated compared to the rest of the herd, as ConnectSafe was hijacking about 300 domains in the EXP category, even though these domains were already offline.
The runner-ups are SafeDNS and Strongarm. Although they both managed to block the same amount of domains, there is a subtle difference between the two services. While SafeDNS did block a significant number of domains associated with malware activity, Strongarm did perform well with blocking phishing content.
The next in the line is Quad9. This service did manage to block a high-number of malware-related domains. The explanation is probably that the block list of this service is based on the IBM X-Force threat intelligence service. Unfortunately, the DNS service did not seem to block too many exploits and phishing domains this time.
The following services are Neustar Free Recursive DNS and Safesurfer. Both services seem to perform all right in the malware and exploits categories. They did not perform well with phishing. To Safesurfer's defence, it is advertised as an anti-pornography filter, albeit the FAQ claims the service can block malware, phishing and botnet activity as well.
OpenDNS Home performed better-than-average with malware-related domains. Sadly, the exploit-blocking capabilities seem to be inadequate, as OpenDNS managed to block zero domains from the hpHosts EXP feed.
The next two are Comodo SecureDNS and Comodo Shield. They managed to block a fair number of malware-related domains, but they did not block much in the other two categories. Interestingly, the results are quite similar, probably because the same company is operating both of these services.
Finally, the last one on the list is Yandex.DNS. This service has barely managed to block any malicious sites from any of the hpHosts feeds, although Yandex.DNS boasts its malware-blocking capabilities. Maybe the service can block more threats targeting Yandex's primary audience in Russia.
The Small Print
Our assessment is not meant to be comprehensive, unbiased or complete.
Firstly, we relied on threat data from a single provider only: hpHosts, which was an arbitrary choice. If any of the alternative DNS providers happen to source threat data from hpHosts, it probably distorts our results.
Second of all, occasional DNS resolution errors did occur due to intermittent network issues and throttling. As these errors were unpredictable and random, we ran the scans from four different locations (Sydney x2, Frankfurt and North Virginia) and took the average of the results.
We ran the scan on a single day (2017-12-23), so the results might be different if the scans are rerun at a later date.
Despite these limitations, we believe that the assessment gives our readers a general idea about how the different alternative DNS providers perform compared to each other.
The raw CSV reports generated by DiNgoeS, and our calculations are available to download here. Comments are welcome on Twitter or in private.
Summary
A handful of alternative DNS providers provide threat-blocking capabilities. These services could protect laptops, smartphones and other devices from malware, ransomware and phishing by blackholing DNS requests.
As the actual performance of these threat-blocking DNS providers was previously unknown, CryptoAUSTRALIA has developed a new tool for measuring the effectiveness of these services. DiNgoeS, our new command-line tool, can calculate the total number of domains each DNS service manages to block.
Our assessment found that alternative DNS providers, such as Norton ConnectSafe, SafeDNS and Strongarm live up to the expectations, while other services could improve in certain areas.
This article is a revision of our previous report published on 21/12/2017. Due to a bug in DiNgoeS, our Quad9 results were inaccurate. We quickly fixed the bug and re-ran the assessment. We thank the Quad9 engineers for drawing our attention to the issue.
CryptoAUSTRALIA is a not-for-profit organisation running hands-on workshops for privacy concerned-citizens and professionals. Sign up for the newsletter or follow us on Twitter for the latest updates. Image courtesy of Pixabay.Surface Pro, with included digital pen
Microsoft's Windows RT Surface debuted with the launch of Windows 8, but the company kept its lips sealed on when the x86 version of the tablet, dubbed Surface Pro, would launch or what the price would be. The company has narrowed down the former (January) and given specific details on the latter. At launch, the Surface Pro will start at $899 for the 64GB version and $999 for the 128GB edition.Included with the increased price tag (Windows RT Surface starts at $499) are a 10.6" 1920x1080 display, a USB 3.0 port (RT Surface uses USB 2.0), a mini Display Port capable of driving a 2560x1440 display, and a digitizer for pen-based input. The Touch / Type Covers will still be a separate accessory. According to Microsoft's Panos Panay, the general manager of Surface, "And all this in a PC that will weigh less than two pounds and be less than 14 millimeters thick." Surface Pro will also feature support for 10 points of touch, up from Surface's five. RAM is up to 4GB from 2GB, the device will use the 64-bit version of Windows, and feature a larger battery (42 Wh, up from 30).Microsoft's technical specs for the Surface Pro list the thickness at 13.5mm and the weight as 2 lbs. TDP and power restrictions indicate that this will almost certainly be a dual-core device, with HD 4000 graphics. The 1920x1080 10.6" display will have a PPI of 207.8, which is sufficient to push it into Retina-class territory depending on viewing distance.All told, it's a positive set specs, but there are a few caveats to be aware of. After using both Surface and spending time with Samsung's Ativ, I'd caution users that a 2lb tablet can feel like significantly more weight than that thanks to the 16:9 form factor. Try holding a 2lb 16:9 device in one hand, and you end up supporting a substantial amount of weight 11" from your wrist. The good news is that Surface's 10.6" screen may actually help -- larger screens push the far end of the tablet farther away from your hand, and exacerbate the problem.The make/model of the integrated Core i5 is still a very interesting question. Nothing on Intel's current spec sheets is an automatic shoo-in for a tablet form factor. The lowest-power Ivy Bridge chips have a 17W TDP. That's plenty low for an ultra-portable, but still seems high for a tablet. Based on the way Microsoft has refrained from naming a CPU, we're betting that Intel has done some custom work on a ULV design that pushes IVB's power consumption even lower.What's clear is that this tablet will be an unambiguous choice for users who are interested in doing Real Work. We're going to flatly recommend the 128GB version over 64GB unless you know you need very little storage; Windows 8's files, recovery partition, and hibernation/pagefile eat nearly 24GB in aggregate. That puts the base cost of a Surface Pro at $999 + $100 for the keyboard.That may be a bit steep given the state of the economy. At $1100, Surface Pro has some very capable competition from other ultrabook designs. If you plan to be buying a system at this price point in the next few months, what do you see as being more important -- the high-resolution screen and tablet capability, or the ports and generally higher performance of a notebook in the same $1000-$1100 price range?PROSPECT PARK - The borough's Syrian-born mayor is calling for the resignation of a board of education member, claiming the woman made an "Islamophobic remark" as he spoke during a public meeting.
Mayor Mohamed Khairullah claims he was expressing his position on an issue Tuesday during a Prospect Park Board of Education meeting when board member Emma Anderson interrupted.
"This is not Sharia law, this is an orderly session," Anderson is alleged to have said.
Sharia law is a body of Koran-based guidance that points Muslims toward living an Islamic life. The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says Anderson's alleged remark - in the context in which it was made - is offensive.
The council on Wednesday released video from the meeting along with a statement backing up the mayor. On the video a woman is heard making a comment about Sharia law off-camera.
"Bigoted statements like those made by Ms. Anderson are extremely offensive and demonstrate a level of intolerance that should disqualify her from serving on any organization overseeing the education of children," said council Executive Director James Sues.
"We applaud Prospect Park Mayor Khairullah for his courage and leadership in taking a stand against bigotry," Sues said.
Anderson on Wednesday did not deny making the remark, but called the mayor's reaction "fake news."
The "mayor is looking for sympathy, and will not hold any punches no matter how below the belt they may be," Anderson stated in an email to NJ Advance Media.
Anderson said Khairullah has engaged in a tug-of-war with board of education members over control of the board.
"Our mayor resented not being in charge, and tried as hard as possible to cause a riot during the June meetings," Anderson said in a statement.
"On Tuesday, he sent a board member to the hospital after harassing and bullying her, called me racist on social media, and accused another member of trying to move out and'stick it to the town.' And, yes, the three members attacked were women," Anderson said.
Khairullah declined to answer questions about what occurred at the Tuesday board of education meeting and instead released a statement late Wednesday afternoon through the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"Anyone who is capable of using such divisive terms against me is capable of using similarly hostile terms against others in the community," Khairullah said.
"Therefore, I am calling for the immediate resignation of Board Member Emma Anderson and ask that County Superintendent of Schools (Richard H. Davis) and the New Jersey Department of Education investigate the matter fully and take appropriate action based on the results of that investigation."
In 2015, Khairullah made news when he called on on Gov. Chris Christie to apologize for remarks that the United States should not admit any refugees from the Syrian civil war - not even "orphans under age 5."
Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Front squats are more functional. You never are below parallel on the field, so why do it in the weightroom? Closegrip bench transfers better to the field.
These and many more arguments are often put forth by strength coaches to justify their exercise selections with non-strength sport athletes. None of these reasons are wrong, none of them are necessarily right either, so in this piece I want to examine my criteria for exercise selection for athlete to help you make better informed decisions when creating programs for yourself and your athletes.
1. Can the athlete execute sound technique in the movement?
2. Can the athlete produce a significant output in the movement?
3. Does this exercise fit into the primary goal of the athlete’s training program?
Before we discuss each of these points more in depth, let me touch on a problem I often see that relates to all of them. Be wary of coaches/trainers who are a ‘Something Guy’, someone who is dogmatically entrenched in a specific training style or tool, an Olympic lifting guy, Westside guy, Kettlebell guy, powerlifting guy, strongman guy, CrossFit guy, whatever guy. None of these things are inherently bad or incorrect, but when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. A coach needs to equip themselves with multiple sound strategies and modalities to help their athletes. I’m particularly mindful of this issue as it would be simple for me to fall into being a powerlifting guy or strongman guy but doing so would be a disservice to my athletes as they do not compete in powerlifting or strongman and shouldn’t be trained as such.
1. Can the Athlete Execute Sound Technique in the Movement?
Whether it is due to mobility issues, unique leverages or relative weaknesses there are some exercises that certain athletes will not be able to safely perform and if this is the case, no matter how good or ‘functional’ you believe that exercise to be, it is not a good choice for that athlete. I say ‘functional’ because that term is thrown around often but also misunderstood. A football players function is to play football, a sprinters is to sprint, a baseball players is to play baseball, none of these tasks involve a specific type of squat or bench as part of the sporting requirements, so do not come under the idea that an athlete MUST do a certain exercise to succeed.
If mobility or relative weakness issues are holding an athlete back from doing certain movements that will enhance their sporting success, of course you should be working to correct those problems but you must work on these things within the context of the entire program and during the process of this you will most likely need to utilize either different exercises or exercise variations that they can currently execute well.
You also must balance the technical development of a lift and if taking time to learn the technique is a worthwhile endeavor for the athlete. This issue will most often arise with the Olympic lifts.
2. Can the Athlete Produce a Significant Output in the Movement?
A significant output is needed to create stimulus for the training process. If an athlete can’t produce a significant output aka they suck at the exercise, then it will not yield enough stimulus to warrant including in a training program.
Some exercises, good exercises, will not be good for certain athletes because they are just not good at them. Whatever the reason is doesn’t really matter, if the athlete sucks at an exercise, it isn’t worth doing.
Something to consider when choosing your exercises, is that creating too large of an exercise pool will limit your athletes’ ability to gain enough skill in any of the lifts to produce significant outputs. These athletes aren’t competitive lifters and because of that are not highly skilled lifters (even though some of them may be very strong) and because of this will struggle to adapt to too many exercise variations, so choose wisely.
3. Does the Exercise Fit Into the Primary Goal of the Athlete’s Training Program?
Football players play football, basketball players play basketball, MMA fighters fight and so on. Sport practice is king in the athlete’s training program and nothing should interfere with this, only enhance it. Of course at different parts of the year, different things will take priority in the training plan but when sport practice is present, it must be the top priority.
One very important thing to consider in this regard is the amount of stress an exercise imposes on the athlete vs its benefit to their development. Squat, bench, deadlift and Olympic lifting variations are general exercises to the non-strength athlete, meaning that there degree of transfer is relatively low and the transfer differences between variations is also fairly negligible. Because of this, you want to choose low cost exercises that will not fill your athlete’s “cup” without extra benefit to their performance.
For me, this usually means the exclusion of deadlifts in my athlete’s programs. Now of course the deadlift is a good exercise, but for most athletes (except those with a favorable build to it) it will be more taxing than the squat and its variations but will not yield any significant performance benefits for this extra energetic cost.
This is just a jumping off point when considering exercises to use in your athlete’s plans. There isn’t necessarily right or wrong exercises to use with your athletes, just make sure to always consider the real goal of their program, improved athletic performance. Bigger squat and bench numbers may yield that but just always be able to answer the question ‘is this making my athletes better?’ when creating programs for your athletes.
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Chad Wesley Smith is the founder and head physical preparation coach at Juggernaut Training Systems. Chad has a diverse athletic background, winning two national championships in the shot put, setting the American Record in the squat (905 in the 308 class, raw w/ wraps) and most recently winning the 2012 North American Strongman championship, where he earned his pro card. In addition to his athletic exploits, Chad has helped over 50 athletes earn Division 1 athletic scholarships since 2009 and worked with many NFL Players and Olympians. Chad is the author of The Juggernaut Method and The Juggernaut Method 2.0 and The Juggernaut Football Manual.What would represent a good season for Liverpool? After coming so close to the title last year, would not winning the Premier League be a disappointment? Or was last season an over-achievement, and is consolidation in the top four the priority?
It's hard to know what coach Brendan Rodgers really thinks, given the on-message soundbytes in which he specializes (at least he has stopped the pompous utterances that peppered his first season, aside from last February's classic: "My life's work has been trying to show that British players can play").
That either eventuality is an option for Liverpool fans is huge credit to Rodgers, who in two years has revitalized the team and shaken up the Premier League with Liverpool's attacking football, which comes with an English heart. Rodgers has made Liverpool popular again, which was no easy feat given the disastrous ownership of the George Gillett-Tom Hicks era; the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra racism row, Suarez's biting incident with Branislav Ivanovic and subsequent damaging, and blinkered, support from within the club.
So how does Liverpool cope without Suarez? He scored a league-record 31 league goals last season (out of the club's 101) and 23 (out of 71) the season before. In all competitions, 61 goals in 81 games are stunning figures. Impossible to replace, right? Well, that's the point. Liverpool has not tried to replace him; instead, it has brought in players to improve the squad's depth, and competition for places.
Comparisons with Spurs' failed efforts to replace Gareth Bale one year ago have been rubbished by Rodgers, who spoke of his team's "strategy behind what we're doing" in barbed tones. He has a point, as he has not bought seven players all expecting to start. Instead, as Rory Smith points out in FourFourTwo, the better comparison is with Atletico Madrid after it sold Radamel Falcao to Monaco.
Atletico signed David Villa as support for Diego Costa, strengthened the squad, and ended up winning the title. The replacement for Falcao was already there: Costa. In a similar way, perhaps Raheem Sterling, whose game intelligence and eye for goal improved hugely as last season went on, could step up.
Rodgers has sought to improve his defense by signing Dejan Lovren from Southampton (from whom he also signed Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert) and his natural authority has already impressed in pre-season. But £20 million seems a large sum: was Lovren not on the Liverpool radar one year ago, when he cost the Saints an estimated £8.5 million? And were his performances really so good last season as to command such a high fee?
Rodgers still has issues to deal with, notably at fullback, where Javier Manquillo and Alberto Moreno should challenge for starting places, and goalkeeper, where Simon Mignolet did not win universal acclaim with his debut-season performances while the advent of Champions League football will require him to dip into his now-deeper squad.
Rodgers may have switched formations more than any other coach last season, but he rarely rotated the spine of his team. Suarez, not fatigued by midweek European games, played all 33 league matches after his ban expired. The likelihood this season is that Liverpool will be less gung-ho and more controlled, which might mean fewer goals (after all, Liverpool did concede three goals and still didn¹t lose in five games last season).
In all of this, it's easy to forget about one of the major reasons for Liverpool's superb season last year; that all of its rivals, for different reasons, were in transition. Chelsea and Manchester City had coaches in their first year at the club, Arsenal was distracted by speculation over Arsene Wenger's future and Manchester United, well, it had David Moyes in charge. All four teams will be better this season.
The question is, will Liverpool? That remains to be seen, and it's why finishing in the top four again would be just as impressive a return as last year's heroics.You may have woken up to the SHOCK news this morning – although you’re probably still in bed if you’re a lazy BBC hack – that The Sun thinks the licence fee is a waste of money.
Its really quite creepy splash today is a montage of BBC journalists sleeping at their desks in the newsroom.
For anyone with a shred of empathy, this simply shows that working in a 24-hour newsroom is an extremely demanding job. But for The Sun, it screams luxurious laziness and highlights why we shouldn’t be shelling out our hard-earned cash on a public service broadcaster (watch Sky instead!).
The BBC’s Middle East correspondent, Quentin Sommerville, who has been reporting from the streets of Raqqa, the lazy sod, was quick to respond with his own snap of having a snooze, tweeting: “It’s true @TheSun we do sleep on the job. Our work is a bit taxing at times. @BBCNews doesn’t do lazy journalism. How about you?”
It’s true @TheSun we do sleep on the job. Our work is a bit taxing at times. @BBCNews doesn’t do lazy journalism. How about you? pic.twitter.com/5VBjL9zlEl — Quentin Sommerville (@sommervilletv) November 16, 2017
And the press office followed suit with a second burn, citing 2017 Ipsos MORI research into public trust in the UK media (spoiler: the BBC scores higher than The Sun).
Even with our eyes closed, it’s good to know the public trusts BBC News more than the Sun. pic.twitter.com/RBogyQSjVa — BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) November 16, 2017
57 per cent to 0.3 per cent. Tiring work.The world of ebooks is booming. Sales are sky-rocketing. And everyone wants to get their hands on a shiny new reading gadget.
But behind the hype and excitement geared towards consumers, in many ways the ebook market of today is limited by arbitrary (geographical) restrictions and complicated publishing and payout procedures.
For example, the whole business is more American-centric than we maybe would like to believe.
As an independent publisher, “anyone” can sign up and publish through Barnes & Nobles’ – only you have to be American.
Over at Kindle’s Direct Publishing Platform anyone can sign up and publish ebooks but if you’re not a U.S. citizen expect to wait a long time for your royalty-payments (which are only paid out six weeks after having accumulated $100 dollars – through snail-mail checks while Amazon gets their percentages the moment your books are sold.).
These restrictions are just the tip of the ice-berg.
Quintessentially, it feels like a market driven more by the interest of marketplace providers (and their internal quarrels) than the interests of readers and publishers.
What to do?
Going Independent
On the one hand, I couldn’t care less what these big marketplaces do.
On the other hand, if my book is not on Amazon, I’m missing out on a huge readership.
So, what to do?
Ignore “The Man”?
Bend to platform restrictions and swallow the hope that things could be done differently?
Neither.
Instead, I offer my publication in as many formats as possible simultaneously and publish it wherever geo-restrictions allow me to do so.
There’s still a lot of headache-potential in dealing with these platforms and formats individually but after doing it over and over again, I’ve come up with a method which (at least for now) makes the process as painless as possible.
Before we go into the nuts and bolts of it, here’s a general rule:
Publishers want their writings to spread – and readers want to read. The shorter the distance between them, the less friction regarding payments and formats the better.
Therefore since my latest e-publication about blogging, I now release my works parallel on Kindle and as what I’ve come to call the “indie-publishing pack” containing a pdf, mobi and epub version – sold and delivered through my own website.
The following tutorial describes how I handled the formatting jungle without losing (all) my marbles.
From Manuscript To Indie Publishing Pack And Kindle Offshoot
Here are a few simple steps in my current publishing process:
1. Writing The Manuscript in HTML
HTM-what? That sounds rather counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Why HTML? We are writers, not programmers, right?
The first reason is that the Kindle format is basically just a stripped down version of HTML. So if you’re already writing in HTML from the beginning, you won’t have to struggle with conversion, later.
The second reason is the way certain HTML tags transfer styles across document-formats and programs. More about this later.
Q: So I shouldn’t write my manuscript with Microsoft Word?
Although Word (or Open Office Writer) allow you to save as HTML, I wouldn’t recommend it because the way it structures the code is not very clean and can cause problems later:
Q: So what software should I use?
Basically, anything that outputs pure and clean HTML. I’ve used the freeware Kompozer with great success but WriteMonkey does the same and also Scrivener supposedly outputs clean HTML (I still have to test that).
Note: The way a software like Kompozer works is not all that different from Word. You have all the basic formatting options. But I would make sure (at least in the beginning) to leave all the formatting options like colors and fonts alone and only use bold, italic, underline and the different header styles (very important for auto-generating a table of contents, later)
2. Cranking Out Two Different Versions through Calibre
Once you have your document ready in HTML, open Calibre (freeware) and add the file as a new ebook.
Then, click on the convert button.
There are many things to say about the esoteric settings and methods you can choose here.
Here are two things that I use almost every time:
– TABLE OF CONTENTS
As you can see, I have checked the option “force use of auto-generated Table Of Contents” and then selected 3 different HTML header tags for defining the levels.
In simple words, this means that if in my HTML manuscript I used heading 1 <h1> style for Sections or Parts, heading 2 <h2> for chapters or headlines and heading 3 <h3> for sub-headers, Calibre will automatically output a Table Of Contents that people can use to easily navigate on their e-reader.
– STRUCTURE DETECTION
The same principle can be used to automatically insert page-breaks in your document. In my example, there would be a page break before each heading 1 <h1> or heading 2 <h2>.
Once you got everything set up, select MOBI as your output format if you are planning to publish for Kindle and hit convert.
Personally, I convert my manuscripts to MOBI and EPUB to allow people who have other e-reader hardware than the Kindle to enjoy the writing, as well.
3. Building a PDF and going wild with colors and formatting
So far, both the HTML, MOBI and EPUB are without colors, special fonts, headers, footers and all the other gimmicks one might wish to have in an elegantly formatted publication.
Enter, Open Office.
There’s a simple trick that allows us to turn dry black & white HTML manuscripts into beautiful formatting: COPY & PASTE
Yes, that’s right. Here’s how it works:
When you copy all your manuscript out of Kompozer into Open Office, OO automatically takes on the different core styles.
That means if you used heading 1 and heading 2 in your manuscript OO will pre-select these styles automatically in its own environment. You can then modify these styles for the whole document so that each heading 1 will have the same color, font-size, etc.
This is especially great if you often update the manuscript. You can simply edit the basic HTML and when your done copy and paste it again into OO. It will remember your pre-defined styles and you can easily replace hundreds of pages of texts while OO brings back all your formatting.
More info about OO styles, here.
When you’re done, export as PDF.
4. Wrapping It Up And Delivering The Goods
Once we’re through with this process we have a core manuscript + 3 different formats:
PDF: fully colored with special fonts and more
MOBI: ready to be uploaded to Amazon’s Direct Publishing Platform
EPUB: same like MOBI, but more compatible with other kinds of e-reader hardware
And whenever you want to make edits, simply start from the Manuscript and convert/copy paste to OO again.
Questions, suggestions?
Feel free to leave a comment, below!
–
img: Some rights reserved by cubicgarden
Ebooks Beyond Boundaries: How To Publish For People, Not Monopolies Has this been helpful?Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Sebastian Coates admits he may need to leave Liverpool FC in search of regular first-team football.
The Uruguayan centre-back has impressed with his dominant defensive displays during the tour of America but his future remains uncertain.
The Reds spent £20million on Southampton's Dejan Lovren and Coates also finds Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho ahead of him in the pecking order.
LIVE: Liverpool v Manchester United - latest build-up from Miami
The 23-year-old would love to stay and establish himself at Anfield after missing most of last season with a serious knee injury.
However, Coates, who has only made 24 appearances for the Reds since his £5million move from Nacional in 2011, doesn't want to be a peripheral figure.
“The tour has been great for me,” Coates told the ECHO.
“This pre-season is really important as I need to get as many minutes as I can.
“Last season was really difficult. I had a bad injury and after being out for so long it's great to be back fit.
“I try always to give my best and I know I need to improve more on the others years that I've been here.
“The manager is watching me closely, like he is with all the other players, and I need to keep performing well.
“It's good for the club to have signed a player like Lovren and it's good for me to have that kind of competition as you always learn from playing with good players.
“I would like to stay at Liverpool and play but that's not just down to me. It depends on the manager and the club. They will decide what happens.
“After being out for so long, I need to play. If I do stay I want to play more than I did in the other years.”
Coates insists the departure of his fellow countryman and close friend Luis Suarez to Barcelona will have no impact on his own future.
The big centre-back says it was tough for Suarez to cut his ties with Anfield but says he was simply following his dream.
“Just because Luis has gone that doesn't mean that I want to go,” Coates said.
“He's a different player and a different person. I must take care of my own future.
“I spoke to Luis recently and he is enjoying his time in Barcelona. We are still good friends. It's a great club for him. He always wanted to be there.
“I know it was really difficult for Luis to leave Liverpool as he enjoyed his time |
AlanKochYVR, @RaegynHall @wfc2 — Paul S-H (@Subhedgehog) October 16, 2016
Attendance: 2,922
Scoring Summary
8’ – SPR – Kris Tyrpak
32’ – SPR – Kris Tyrpak (Tyler Pasher)
89’ – SPR – Dane Kelly (Tyler Pasher)
Stats
Shots: SPR 12 - VAN 6
Shots on Goal: SPR 5 - VAN 2
Saves: SPR 2 - VAN 2
Corners: SPR 1 - VAN 9
Cautions
83’ – SPR – Nansel Selbol
88’ – SPR – Alex Molano
90’ – VAN – Sem de Wit
90’+2’ – SPR – Nansel Selbol
Ejection
90’+2’ – SPR – Nansel Selbol
Swope Park Rangers
95.Adrian Zendejas; 90.Johnny Grant, 55.Amer Didic, 81.Oumar Ballo, 77.Tyler Pasher; 23.Emmanuel Appiah (92.Alex Molano 85’), 32.Christian Duke ©; 50.Kris Tyrpak (38.Akeil Barrett 69’), 47.Mark Anthony Gonzalez (31.Nansel Selbol 19’), 45.Ayrton (44.Tomas Granitto 71’); 99.Dane Kelly (49.Will Little 90’)
Substitutes not used
28.Zac Lubin, 60.Patrick Wilkinson
Whitecaps FC 2
39.Spencer Richey; 63.Kadin Chung (48.Christopher Diaz 66’), 51.Sem de Wit, 14.Cole Seiler, 62.Deklan Wynne; 65.Matthew Baldisimo (57.Thomas Sanner 80’), 38.Kianz Froese (45.Giuliano Frano 75’); 56.Daniel Haber (49.Fatawu Safiu 54’), 32.Marco Bustos, 46.Brett Levis; 47.Kyle Greig ©
Substitutes not used
24.Marco Carducci, 50.Sahil Sandhu, 73.Joel HarrisonUkraine’s national security service, the SBU, announced Wednesday it detained two suspected Islamic State militants and disrupted their cell in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine near the Russian border, and has remained under control of the Ukrainian government since the recent Russian aggression in the area.
“Two of the Islamic State supporters detained in Kharkiv were Syrian nationals,” Ukrainian SBU spokeswoman Olena Gitlyanska told Agence France Presse.
The Ukrainian SBU claimed the two suspected ISIS terrorists were sent from ISIS’s sanctuary in Syria to use Ukraine as an entry point to Western Europe. The suspected ISIS members were likely trying to enter Western Europe through Ukraine to conduct terrorist attacks. Reports do not indicate which western European country the suspected terrorists were targeting or when they were detained.
“The organizer of this illegal transfer was a citizen of a neighboring country who is living unlawfully in Ukraine and is suspected by law enforcement officials of possible involvement in terrorist activity,” the SBU stated. A senior source told Agence France Presse the individual who assisted the two suspected terrorists in Ukraine was a Russian national. The SBU did not go into further details, citing it’s an ongoing investigation.
Ukrainian SBU Chief Vasyl Hrytsak claimed March 23 a large group of suspected ISIS fighters were Russian nationals. Ukrainain SBU claimed it arrested 25 suspected ISIS fighters of whom nineteen were Russian.
SBU Chief Hrystak speaking to Ukrainian television on March 23 stated, “It means that from Russia or some post Soviet space representatives or followers, members of ISIS are moving over Russian territory”. Chief Hrystak further elaborated that these ISIS followers “use the territory of Ukraine as a transit zone”.
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.Henry: Ibrahimovic back to conquer Premier League with Man United
Thierry Henry believes winning the Premier League title is the motivation that has brought the Swede back to Manchester United.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's burning desire to win the is the reason behind his return to, according to Thierry Henry.
Ibrahimovic – recovering from a serious knee injury – returned to United on Thursday, signing a one-year contract at Old Trafford after he was released when his previous deal expired at the end of June.
Red Devils 15/8 to beat Leicester -2 handicap
The 35-year-old striker scored 28 goals in all competitions as he helped United to EFL Cup and glory in 2016-17, but knee ligament damage cut short his season.
United finished sixth in the Premier League last term and former team-mate Henry believes Ibrahimovic is back to conquer with Jose Mourinho, who has overseen back-to-back 4-0 victories to open the campaign.
"They kept Zlatan, but I think Zlatan takes it as a challenge that he has with himself. I think he wants to do more, and he still didn't win the league," Henry told Sky Sports.
"I know that he wants to win the Premier League, to make England another country that he conquered.
Article continues below
"I'm not surprised, because if I was there [at Man United] I would want to keep a guy like Zlatan in and around the dressing room.
"Having him around [Romelu] Lukaku, having him around Marcus Rashford [is beneficial]. Rashford was talking about it last year, he knows how to get that dressing room together.
"I'm not surprised in a way because we are talking about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the best that has done it in the game, for me."Fixed a client crash related to arrows
Fixed a server crash related to items
Fixed a server crash caused by the Demo taunt kill
Fixed a server crash caused by using the Equalizer
Fixed client ragdoll commands resulting in ragdolls standing around
Restored the missing point_teleport entity
Fixed stats and achievements being tracked while using sv_cheats
Fixed Spies being able to build dispensers
Fixed clients not fixing up inventory items in bad backpack positions
Added a new chat message when players craft an item
Fixed "Bloody Merry" and "Second Eye" achievements being achieved incorrectly
Updated the description of the "Bravehurt" achievement
Fixed Blutsauger attributes
Fixed the Direct Hit having an incorrect short range damage curve (now matches the normal Rocket Launcher curve)
Fixed the Spy's unlockables watches using the wrong consume/recharge rates
Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:Arrive at the Roseville Park ‘n Ride and board the bus to take you up North!
Meet your tour guides for the day, or as we like to call them, your GetKnit Gurus. They’ll keep you entertained during the trip up to Duluth and Two Harbors and make sure you have enough coffee and muffins to prepare you for your 13 hour journey!
Our first brewery of the day is Bent Paddle. A new, state-of-the-art brewery with a behind-the-scenes tour.
You might even get the opportunity to drink beer straight from the fermentor. It doesn’t get any fresher than that!
Up next is Canal Park Brewery. Here we grab a beer-inspired lunch and a flight of their delicious brews – an instagram-worthy opportunity.
If he’s around and time allows, have the Brew Master show you where the magic is made.
You might have time to catch a quick nap during this next leg of the trip. It’s about a 45 minute ride up to Castle Danger Brewery. This small family-owned brewery serves up “Dangerously good ales”.
Castle Danger is right on Lake Superior, so this makes a great group photo opportunity! Or maybe your next Christmas picture? Just ask one of the Gurus to take it!
You’ll want to grab a growler because as soon as you leave you’ll be craving more of their incredible IPA.
The next stop is Lake Superior Brewing. Here we’ll get a quick history lesson from one of the first breweries in the North Shore region and of course, try their tasty brews.
You just never know what you’ll end up taking home… Thanks Lake Superior Brew!
At this point you’ve probably made about 20 new friends or drinking buddies. It’s time to take those new friends and head to Carmody Irish Pub.
“All the brewpubs you’ve been to today–those are my friends. This is real domestic beer. This is an exciting time for Minnesota.” -Eddy from Carmody’s Irish Pub
After an inspiring speech it’s time to head to our final destination, Tycoon’s Ale House and Eatery. Here we’ll get to sip on a Duluth favorite – Fitgers Ales and choose from hand-trimmed pork loin, artichoke-stuffed chicken florentine, stuffed poblano peppers, or classic fish ‘n’ chips.
With full bellies and new friends, it’s time to head back to the cities. This is a day you won’t soon forget! Cheers!
Sound like fun? We’d love to have you join us! Grab your tickets here!A Deutsche Bank logo adorns a wall at the company's headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany June 9, 2015. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) is continuing to cut back the size of its derivatives book, which is not as risky as investors may believe, Chief Risk Officer Stuart Lewis told German weekly paper Welt am Sonntag.
“The risks in our derivatives book are massively overestimated,” Lewis told the paper. He said 46 trillion euros in derivatives exposure at Deutsche appeared large but reflected only the notional value of the contracts, while the bank’s net exposure to derivatives was far lower, at around 41 billion euros.
“The 46 trillion euros figure sounds gigantic, but it is completely misleading. The real risk is far lower,” Lewis said, adding that the level of risk on Deutsche Bank’s books was in line with that seen at other investment banking peers.
“We are trying to make our business less complex and are paring back our derivatives book. Parts of it were transferred into a non-core unit some years ago.”
New banking regulations imposed in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis discourage large bets on risky assets, and have forced Deutsche Bank to drastically cut back the scale of its derivatives exposure.
Derivatives are financial contracts that draw their value from the performance of an underlying asset, index or interest rate. They can be used to hedge risks.
(The story was refiled to correct the figure in third paragraph to trillions instead of billions)Jefferson Park District Cmdr. Bill Looney attributes the uptick in shootings to more drivers carrying guns in their cars. View Full Caption Shutterstock
JEFFERSON PARK — What led to a man being shot at in the 4100 block of North Central Avenue in Portage Park Monday night is still unclear, Jefferson Park District Cmdr. Bill Looney told residents this week.
But the incident had one thing in common with nearly every shooting reported in the Northwest Side district this year, from the Feb. 9 murder of 17-year-old Alvin Stoll to the often undocumented reports of random gunshots, Looney said.
They were almost all perpetrated from behind the wheel.
"In the past, when someone cut you off in traffic, you just gave them the finger," Looney said. "Nowadays, you pull out a gun."
The pattern has led to a sharp uptick in shootings and other crimes compared with this time last year, even as property crimes like robberies and burglaries have been less common, Looney said. Eight people were reported shot in the district during the first two months of 2017, compared to two people shot during the same period last year, according to DNAinfo records.
The drive-by shootings — so far a mix of road rage, domestic disputes and gang disputes — also have driven officers to adapt, Looney said.
"We've been focusing more on traffic, stopping a lot more cars and writing more tickets," Looney said. That's led to 11 gun confiscations in January and February, compared with just two guns confiscated last year, he said.
The district also saw car thefts jump from 47 in January and February 2015 to 70 during the same stretch of 2016 and 70 this year, driven in part by drivers leaving their cars running unattended.Google engineers knew for TWO YEARS that the company's Street View cars were stealing emails and passwords via wi-fi
Google engineer who devised plan shared details with others - including a'senior' manager
Wi-fi cars could 'triangulate' people's positions - and'see' what they were doing
Wi-fi cars were'sucking in' data from ALL open wi-fi networks
Company previously said data was a'mistake'
The engineer behind Google's plot to steal personal information using the company's wi-fi cars shared his plan with others at the company.
Several engineers and at least one senior manager knew that the camera cars of their Street View project were retrieving and storing data from private wi-fi networks, a new report by the Federal Communications Commissions revealed.
The company had previously said that the data harvesting was a'mistake' and vowed that the data would never be used.
Viewer's Choice: A new report claims that Google knew its Street View cars were collecting the personal data of people using unsecured WiFi networks
To the Bottom of It: The Federal Communications Commission completed the report over 17 months
The Los Angeles Times published the report in full, which was the result of a 17-month long investigation by the FCC.
Google voluntarily gave the paper the report that detailed the entire investigation.
The revelation that a single engineer was responsible tallies with Google's defence that senior management did not devise or authorise the plan.
But the revelation that others new about it is a fresh embarrassment for the search giant.
'We decided to voluntarily make the entire document available except for the names of individuals,' a Google spokeswoman said to the Wall Street Journal.
'While we disagree with some of the statements made in the document, we agree with the FCC's conclusion that we did not break the law. We hope that we can now put this matter behind us.'
The report details how between 2007 and 2010, Google Street View cars, which were tasked with photographing streetscapes, also tapped into the browsing histories, text messages and personal emails of people on unsecured WiFi networks.
Denied: The company had previously said that the data harvesting was a'mistake' and vowed that the data would never be used - claims that were debunked in the explosive report
Searching: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, speaks at a conference. Google was fined $25,000 for obstructing the Federal Communications Commission's investigation
The engineer that designed the project said that this information would 'be analyzed offline for use in other initiatives' in the original proposal, as well as told several other Google employees of the data collection capabilities of the program, according to the report.
'We are logging user traffic along with sufficient data to precisely triangulate their position at a given time, along with information about what they were doing,' the engineer wrote.
After German regulators revealed the practice to the world in 2010, Google grounded all its Street View cars, but refused to show authorities what kind of data they had collected, citing user privacy concerns.
The Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, state attorney generals and the FCC collaborated to investigate the issue in the United States.
Google manager's defended their ignorance to the bitter end, saying they had never even read the engineer's proposal and 'preapproved' the idea before it was written.
At the conclusion of the investigation, Google was fined $25,000 for obstructing the inquiry, but was not found guilty of breaking any laws.
Still, technology experts are sounding the alarm about the company's unquenchable thirst for user data.
'This is what happens in the absence of enforcement and the absence of regulation,' Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said to the New York Times.
He also placed some of the blame back on the FCC, for botching the investigation and failing to keep a closer eye on Google's activities.Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2011 July 7
Arp 78: Peculiar Galaxy in Aries
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephen Leshin
Explanation: Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is found within the boundaries of the head strong constellation Aries, some 100 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way galaxy. Also known as NGC 772, the island universe is over 100 thousand light-years across and sports a single prominent outer spiral arm in this detailed cosmic portrait. Its brightest companion galaxy, compact NGC 770, is toward the upper right of the larger spiral. NGC 770's fuzzy, elliptical appearance contrasts nicely with a spiky foreground Milky Way star in matching yellowish hues. Tracking along sweeping dust lanes and lined with young blue star clusters, Arp 78's large spiral arm is likely due to gravitational tidal interactions. Faint streams of material seem to connect Arp 78 with its nearby companion galaxies.Fond of Tigers Return with 'Uninhabit' LP, Premiere Single
Published Sep 20, 2016
Vancouver-based self-described "post-everything" unit Fond of Tigers are set to return with their fourth studio album later this fall. Titled Uninhabit, the new full-length will land on October 7 through Offseason Records The latest offering was captured to tape at Rain City Recorders by Jesse Gander, and features the septet of Stephen Lyons, Morgan McDonald, JP Carter, Dan Gaucher, Skye Brookes, Shanto Acharia and Jesse Zubot (plus some lap steel courtesy of Paul Rigby) coming together to once again tame "the beast" — the affectionate nickname given to the project, which predates any of the members' Cancon collaborations with artists like Dan Mangan, Tanya Tagaq and Destroyer.According to a press release, the record is far from a "mellow" affair, featuring musical moments that range from spookily cinematic ("Heartwarmongering No. 4") to straight-up apocalyptic ("Everything Moves") to "bewildering and intense" ("Cause B").You can peruse the full five-song tracklisting below, then hit play to get your first audio introduction to the new material with the aforementioned "Everything Moves."Uninhabit:1. Heartwarmongering No. 42. Wonder What We're Whispering For3. Uninhabit4. Cause B5. Everything MovesCape Town - Two suspects are set to appear in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court on Monday for allegedly being found with a car hijacked from a Stellenbosch University student who was found murdered on Saturday.
The body of 21-year-old student Hannah Cornelius was discovered early on Saturday along a road outside of Stellenbosch near a popular wine farm.
Western Cape traffic chief Kenny Africa on Sunday said that it appeared three suspects were arrested for murdering and possibly raping Cornelius.
However, police confirmed two arrests and said this was just for being in possession of the hijacked car.
It does not appear they are investigating a case of rape.
Police spokeswoman Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana on Sunday said that Cornelius was driving a blue Volkswagen Citi Golf with a young man in Stellenbosch on Friday.
Three unidentified men had then hijacked them.
The young man, also a student, was injured during the incident, but managed to escape from the car.
He was transported to hospital with serious injuries.
However, it was not immediately clear what had happened to Cornelius after that.
Her body was then found on Saturday at 08:30.
It was not immediately clear what had caused her death, but News24 understands injuries were visible on her body.
'Senseless act'
The two suspects, both in their thirties, were arrested after the car was subsequently used in an armed Robbery in Northpine, between Brackenfell and Kraaifontein.
Stellenbosch University Rector and Vice-Chancellor Wim de Villiers said the perpetrators should be “met with the full extent of the law."CNN’s Rachel Nichols and ESPN’s Michelle Beadle claim they were blocked from obtaining press credentials for last night’s big fight by Mayweather.
The richest fight in boxing history took place in Las Vegas Saturday night, but the two journalists claim the boxer kept them away from doing their jobs — specifically because they have both been critical of his history of domestic abuse.
On Saturday morning, 39-year-old Beadle tweeted:
I, along with @Rachel__Nichols, have been banned from the MGM Grand Arena for the fight tonight by the Mayweather camp. #TheFightGame — Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) May 2, 2015
Then 41-year-old Nichols told her Twitter followers:
No fight for me or @MichelleDBeadle. Mayweather's team told my producer the camp was blocking my credential. https://t.co/JTjjXadPp8 — Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) May 2, 2015
Their claims have sparked outrage on social media, with many calling Mayweather a coward for not letting them do their jobs simply because they reported on his less than savory past.
Mayweather’s publicist, Kelly Swanson, denies that Beadle and Nichols had been banned. The American boxer ultimately beat Manny Pacquiao last night, but some felt it was a hollow victory all around.
Aww so sorry the wife beater won and not the guy who's against marriage equality and birth control – well at least you gave both of them $$$ — USA 🇺🇸 (@SarahThyre) May 3, 2015
Below is one of the interviews that allegedly got the journalists blacklisted.The Giants are still active in the run-up to tonight’s deadline to add players from outside the organization who will be postseason-eligible, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). San Francisco continues to discuss outfielder Alejandro De Aza with the Red Sox, per the report, but is more interested in acquiring an infield option.
A potential match between those clubs on De Aza was reported about a week back by Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. As he explained then, San Francisco felt the asking price was too steep at the time the original discussions occurred, and it was not entirely clear whether talks had continued after the Giants’ acquisition of Marlon Byrd. Of course, unlike Byrd, De Aza is capable of playing center and hits from the left side.
Meanwhile, the Giants were also said to be seeking infield depth and made a run at Chase Utley. It’s unclear precisely what type of player might be pursued at this point, but second baseman Joe Panik remains something of a question mark as he works to return from back issues.[Update 9/1/2016:] H3H3 Productions breaks down and explains how YouTube is targeting videos for demonetization.
[Original article:] If you make money, name and fame publishing anti-Social Justice Warrior content then you’re going to need a new source of revenue. YouTube is cracking down on YouTubers by blocking ad revenue with their updated enforcement for the terms of service regarding video monetization.
Recently, Youtuber Philip DeFranco, a young man with 4.5 million YouTube subscribers and 728,000 followers on Twitter, made a few comments on Twitter revealing that the video below could no longer be monetized by YouTube because it breached their new ad revenue terms of service.
DeFranco wrote…
“Seems like @Youtube will be stripping most of my advertising from now on. Oh well. I’m not going to censor myself. Don’t worry though. I built the show and secondary $$$ sources for this exact reason. You never know when your platform will turn on you. “Producer just got off the phone with Youtube and it wasn’t a mistake. Feels a little bit like getting stabbed in the back after 10 years.”
Seems like @Youtube will be stripping most of my advertising from now on. Oh well. I’m not going to censor myself. pic.twitter.com/a9upZh6eTY — Philip DeFranco (@PhillyD) August 31, 2016
A few hours later DeFranco revealed that due to YouTube’s new enforcement on the terms of service for monetization, controversial or sensitive subjects could no longer be monetized and that they were retroactively removing ads from his videos and stifling his ad revenue…
“Update: At least 12 more of my videos have been hit and I’m nowhere near done. This might be part of the reason. Wow”
This is not a joke.
Over on the official support page relating to “Advertiser-friendly content guidelines” they now list what is no longer considered “advertiser-friendly”. You can view the list below.
Content that is considered “not advertiser-friendly” includes, but is not limited to:
• Sexually suggestive content, including partial nudity and sexual humor
• Violence, including display of serious injury and events related to violent extremism
• Inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity and vulgar language
• Promotion of drugs and regulated substances, including selling, use and abuse of such items
• Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown
Basically just about every major YouTuber – whether that’s discussing video games or pop-culture politics – will likely be affected by this enforcement of the terms of service. This rings especially true for those who monetize videos where they frequently drop ‘F’ bombs or call out Social Justice Warriors.
In fact, if you didn’t see the video above, it was basically about the fact that an SJW tried to get a driver for the cab service Lyft fired because he had a hula dancer figurine on his dashboard. Lauren Southern, from Rebel Media, confirmed that the SJW blow-up over the driver cost him a few days of work before a video exonerated him of the crimes levied at him by the SJW.
Was just contacted by the Annaliese Lyft driver, he was in fact fired for a few days until she sent the video to Lyft which exonerated him. — Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) August 30, 2016
Sadly, calling out this kind of disruptive behavior will net you an ad penalty by YouTube, according to what transpired with Philip DeFranco.
DeFranco was not alone, however. Another provocateur going by the handle of BroTeamPill was also hit with a video removal restriction relating to the recent Crash Override Network leaks that revealed that the anti-abuse organization had members and affiliates who were actually engaging in abuse, harassment, doxxing and sabotage.
THE VIDEO WAS REMOVED BECAUSE IT WAS HARASSMENT AND BULLYING I AM GOING TO DO A 2000 DEGREE BACKFLIP INTO MY ASSHOLE THIS IS PERFECT — Bro Team Pill (@BroTeamPill) August 31, 2016
BroTeamPill had a series of streams where the chat logs were being read aloud for everyone to see and hear. The videos gained widespread popularity amongst certain groups for confirming that the logs vindicate #GamerGate in its original claims where it was stated that members of Crash Override Network were engaged in harassment and doxxing.
The videos, however, are available through Mega. Broteampill posted up a link on Kotaku in Action that allows you to download and view the videos covering the CON leaks.
As for Philip DeFranco and others like him, they’ll need to look toward other means of revenue for their content now that YouTube is cracking down on anti-SJW media and other forms of content that they may deem sensitive or inappropriate for advertisers.
This move fits in line with YouTube, Facebook and Twitter’s recent initiatives to censor what they deem to be online “hate speech” and “harassment”. Back in June, YouTube made an update to the terms of service stating that they would be policing content more harshly.
Also keep in mind that videos that YouTube may repeatedly deem as being in violation of their ad revenue policies may result in the entire channel stripped of monetization rights, as explained on the support page…
“If any of the above describes any portion of your video, then the video may not be approved for monetization. If monetization is approved, your video may not be eligible for all available ad formats. YouTube reserves the right to not monetize a video, as well as suspend monetization features on channels that repeatedly submit videos violating our policies.”
This certainly brings into question whether videos containing violent movie scenes, mature-themed trailers or violent video games like Mortal Kombat X or Hotline Miami will still be eligible for monetization?
I also wonder if this is YouTube’s way of curbing popular content creators like Chris Ray Gun, Sargon of Akkad, ShoeOnHead and others from constantly making anti-SJW videos?
[Update:] According to YouTuber Mr. Repzion, using “Rape” in the title of a video is also grounds for demonetization.
Well youtube just got back to me, don’t ever talk about rape or use the word rape in the title of your videos. pic.twitter.com/Yb4JCZ5Yac — DarthReptile🌐 (@MrRepzion) August 30, 2016
[Update 9/1/2016:] The Young Turks network also appear to have been affected by the change, stating that more than 100 videos from 2016 and 400 videos from 2015 have been affected by YouTube’s new enforcement. Although they don’t specify which videos.
I’m looking at a list of 100+ videos from 2016, and almost 400 videos from 2015, that were de-monetized by @YouTube overnight! #WTF — Aaron Wysocki (@AaronWysocki) September 1, 2016Today there's news from studio on the next volume of Doctor Who - The Third Doctor Adventures...
Today we're pleased to report that recording has wrapped for Katy Manning, Tim Treloar and a talented supporting cast on Doctor Who - The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume 3, with the second story - Andrew Smith's The Storm of the Horofax now in the can. The writer comments:
"It's been such a pleasure to finally get to write for Katy Manning. I'd tackled the Third Doctor before, in 2013's Destiny of the Doctor audio Vengeance of the Stones, but this is the first time I've written a story featuring Jo Grant: she's a companion and a performance I have huge fondness for, having clear memories of all her stories from the 70s. Golden years for the programme, which transformed my appreciation into true fandom. Jo made a strong impression - so likeable, loyal and dependable, and right up there along with Jamie for me as one of the quintessential Doctor Who companions."
"When I wrote for the TV show in 1980, I would often reflect on how eight-year-old me would have been gobsmacked to think of that happening. That same wee me would have been equally surprised and delighted to learn that he would one day, as happened this week, be in a studio listening to Katy speaking his lines for Jo. It's also been a rich delight to hear Tim Treloar bring the Third Doctor to life, and to witness his meticulous technique for doing so."
As producer David Richardson expands: "This set combines an intriguing, traditional Earthbound story with a thrilling ride in outer space with the Daleks. Everything you could want from the Third Doctor Adventures is here - high octane action, jeopardy and a heart-breaking emotional core in the scripts by Andrew Smith and Nick Briggs. And Tim Treloar and Katy Manning are on fine form - making that special partnership live on in the 21st Century".
Doctor Who - The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume 3's release date has moved to August from July, but the set can still be pre-ordered for just £20 on Download and £25 on CD, with the CD purchase unlocking digital access as a Big Finish listeners' exclusive.
Check out our Third Doctor volumes here, including two free download taster episodes, The Havoc of Empires and The Transcendence of Ephros. Watch this space for more information on Volume 3 in coming months.It looks like Kanye West must’ve signed a major contract with Superfly Presents because he’s now confirmed for both Bonnaroo and Outside Lands. Yeezus, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and The Killers round out the top three slots for this year’s Outside Lands, a festival known as much for its killer music line-up as its offerings of food and wine.
It’ll be interesting to see if OSL can top itself after last year’s spectacular. They’ve certainly come up with a similar offering of legend, one-man creative force, and partial throwback act to balance out each evening. Daytime slots seem to offer promising fare from across the spectrum, including Appeal favorites Flume and Lucius.
The seventh Outside Lands will take place August 8-10 at Golden Gate Park. Partial line-up below, with more acts and offerings to be announced later. For more information, head to sfoutsidelands.com.
Kanye West
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
The Killers
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Arctic Monkeys
Tiësto
Death Cab For Cutie
Disclosure
The Flaming Lips
Ray LaMontagne
Spoon
Tedeschi Trucks Band
Atmosphere
Cut Copy
Tegan & Sara
Duck Sauce
Haim
Chromeo
Ben Howard
Lykke Li
Chvrches
Paolo Nutini
Capital Cities
Kacey Musgraves
Local Natives
Jenny Lewis
Grouplove
John Butler Trio
Tycho
The Kooks
SBTRKT
Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers
Boys Noize
Phosphorescent
Run the Jewels (El-P & Killer Mike)
Deer Tick
Holy Ghost!
Warpaint
Flume
Lucius
Typhoon
Dum Dum Girls
The Soul Rebels
Gold Panda
Christopher Owens
Bleachers
Big Freedia
Jagwar Ma
Greensky Bluegrass
Imelda May
Watsky
Nahko and Medicine for the People
Valerie June
Mikal Cronin
Woods
Vance Joy
The Brothers Comatose
Gardens & Villa
Jonathan Wilson
Tumbleweed Wanderers
Givers
Aer
Courtney Barnett
Bear Hands
Finish Ticket
The Districts
RayLand Baxter
Night Terrors of 1927
Trails and Ways
NoconaHa! Lowly peasant. Your burger is topped with Salish Alderwood sea salt and shaved black truffles? That sounds boring.
Sit down, expensive burgers of yore. The "Glamburger" is here to kick your privilege in the face. All fancy burgers have some form of black truffle and a Kobe Wagyu beef patty from Japan -- this one throws in lobster, beluga caviar, venison, a duck egg and an edible gold leaf. And it only costs $1,768!
That's right, kids. A layer of gold on your burger. To eat!
Chris Large, head chef at Honky Tonk in London, teamed up with Groupon to create this monstrosity in celebration of selling its five-millionth food and drink voucher in Britain. He told UPI that he plans to hold a contest to give away a free, 2,618-calorie Glamburger.
"After sourcing the best possible ingredients to create this masterpiece, the winner will certainly have a dinner to remember," Large said.Just like clockwork. here we go with the push back on the New York Times and their reporting on the attack on our consulate in Libya. Fox "news" has got way too much time invested in pushing their misleading and outright lying talking points and fake outrage over their drummed up Benghazi "scandal" and they're not about to let it go now.
This Saturday on Fox's America's News Headquarters, hosts Jamie Colby, Gregg Jarrett and correspondent Catherine Herridge did their best to poo-poo the reporting by the New York Times, citing Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Mike Rogers and his claims that al-Quada was involved.
Expect more like this from Fox for who knows how long to come, because, as our friends over at Media Matters reported: NYTimes Investigation Brings Bad News For Benghazi Hoaxers:AA-side single ‘Dead’ / Enough Nothing’, due November 25th via Ra-Ra Rok Records.
When we heard ‘Dead’, the latest release from Brighton fuzz/sludge trio GANG, we developed a bit of an inkling that they just might have a bit of a penchant for the early stirrings of what become known as grunge once it lumbered out of the Pacific Northwest.
Then, we saw the picture of them above, which bears a striking resemblance to this photograph taken by Charles Peterson of grunge stalwarts Mudhoney and we were certain our inkling was true.
With all that rollicking around Overblown’s brain, we decided the only thing to do was to ask the guys what their essential grunge albums are. Their rather focused list is below. Enjoy it while you listen to ‘Dead’, and some choice cuts from their selections.
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PrevNext 5. Melvins – Gluey Porch Treatments (1987) Their first album. 17 songs in 38 minutes. The sludge bible. The inspiration for the entire NOLA scene (Eyehategod, Crowbar, Down etc.) as well as a huge influence on the Seattle scene. 4. Melvins – Ozma (1989) 16 songs in 39 minutes. Very playful, very dark. What an interesting dichotomy. There’s also a cover of Kiss’ “Love Thing” on the album. 3. Melvins – Bullhead (1991) The ace Japanese alternative metal band ‘Boris’ took their name from the opening track. Really pretty artwork of a fruit basket too |
– and William was outlawed, eventually escaping into exile in France, disguised as a beggar, where he died in 1211.
Matilda’s fate was more gruesome; she and her son were left to starve to death in John’s dungeons (though whether this was at Corfe or Windsor is unclear). Tradition has it, that when their bodies were found, William’s cheeks bore his mother’s bite marks, where she had tried to stay alive following his death.
John’s treatment of the de Braose family did not lead to the submission of his barons, as John had intended, and the remainder of his reign was marred by civil war.
However when Magna Carta was written in 1215, Clause 39 may well have been included with Matilda and her family in mind:
“No man shall be taken, imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.”
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Sources: sussexcastles.com; genie.com; steyningmuseum.org.uk; berkshirehistory.com; England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225 by Robert Bartlett; Oxford Companion to British History Edited by John Cannon; The Story of Britain by Roy Strong; The Plantagenets; the Kings who Made England by Dan Jones; The Life and Times of King John by Maurice Ashley; The Plantagenet Chronicles Edited by Elizabeth Hallam.
Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia
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My book, Heroines of the Medieval World, is now available in hardback in the UK from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK and worldwide from Book Depository. It is also available on Kindle in both the UK and USA and will be available in Hardback from Amazon US from 1 May 2018.
Be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter.
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©2015 Sharon Bennett ConnollyGoing commercial frees NASA for deeper space
The administration's wise commercialization approach echoes an immensely successful path taken by NASA in the past. Consider: At the dawn of the Space Age, all satellites were built and launched by governments. But early on, communications satellites were encouraged to go commercial. The result: a $100 billion-plus spinoff industry that employs thousands of workers to build the satellites, their ground stations, launchers and associated command and control infrastructure. It also launches more satellites annually than any other form of spaceflight. The money saved frees NASA to do other things with its resources.
Fortunately, the Obama administration has proposed a game-changing solution that uses private industry to more cost-effectively take on the more mundane aspects of human transportation to low-Earth orbit, freeing up needed funds to send astronauts to explore deep space.
But equally important, the commercialization of space communications has also generated tens of thousands of direct and indirect private-sector jobs, and a strong innovation cycle that has produced continuous improvement across the industry for more than four decades.
In contrast, nearly 50 years after the first human flights into orbit by Astronaut John Glenn and Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, no commercial human spaceflight yet exists. Few in our parents' generation would have believed this, for at the outset of the Space Age, the commercialization of human transport to low-Earth orbit was widely expected. Remember the Pan Am shuttle in 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Why has the commercialization of human transport to low-Earth orbit been stymied? Are the complexities of Comsats and commercial human transport to low-Earth orbit really so different? Not fundamentally.
Are governments the only entities that can build human spacecraft? No, actually every human spacecraft ever built for NASA was built by private industry.
Is the scope of the investment required for human spaceflight too large for private industry? No — large Comsat constellations cost more than the commercial crew systems envisioned to take astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit.
Of course, there are human lives at stake in space missions with crew, but commercial firms have lives at stake in industries as diverse as trucking, oil exploration, aviation and nuclear power. Why should space travel to destinations closer than most transcontinental airline flights, be considered so different?
In fact, there really is no fundamental reason that human orbital transport to low-Earth orbit must remain the practice only of governments a full half-century after it began.
To the contrary, there are many reasons that the development of private, commercial human spaceflight vehicles in the U.S. is desirable for the nation. These include:
Competition-driven innovation and price pressure that commercial practices foster can only make human spaceflight ever more common and U.S. leadership in this domain ever clearer.
The spin-off development of related commercial companies supporting space tourism, orbital research stations and future applications are pregnant with economic promise for aerospace industry and the United States.A Minneapolis woman who was charged with trespassing during the Occupy Minnesota demonstrations last year will be paid $15,000 by Hennepin County as part of a lawsuit settlement that also changes the county's trespassing appeal policy.
Melissa Lynn Hill was issued a trespass notice Oct. 13 for writing slogans in chalk on the Hennepin County Government Center plaza. The county barred her from the plaza and Government Center property for a year.
Two days later, while serving as a legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild, she was arrested by a deputy sheriff while she was standing on a sidewalk adjacent to the plaza, Hill alleged in a federal lawsuit.
Her attorney, Jordan Kushner, sued Sheriff Rich Stanek, two deputies, a security officer, the county and others associated with the county, alleging that Hill's due process and other constitutional rights were violated.
Under a settlement dated Jan. 20, Hill may go onto Hennepin County property again. Hill agreed not to write in chalk "or otherwise deface county property."
"The county has changed its policy to provide more due process for people who want to challenge decisions that ban them from the county," Kushner said. "Previously if someone had a problem, they could write a letter to the security manager." The new policy allows for a hearing before the director of property services or a designee, Kushner said.
All defendants, including Stanek, were dismissed from the case as part of the settlement, Kushner added.
"I feel I was vindicated," said Hill, 33, a records clerk at a law firm.
"I was arrested on a public sidewalk. This sends a strong message that they can't be misusing their trespass policy to suppress free speech."
Occupy Minnesota protesters have claimed that the county used trespass notices to drive them off the Government Center plaza, which the county denied. The demonstrators set up a small tent village on the plaza, but the county eventually pushed it out, backed up by a federal court decision.
These days, occasional demonstrations begin on the plaza or a skyway near it and head elsewhere in the city.© Scott Roth/Invision/AP Paavo Siljamäki, Jono Grant, and Tony McGuinness of Above & Beyond perform at Madison Square Garden in October.
Above and Beyond DJ Paavo Siljamaki says music will give Sydneysiders a chance to get through a tragic situation.
Siljamaki will be in Sydney to perform on New Year's Eve and in Melbourne to play on New Year's Day with fellow DJs Jono Grant and Tony McGuinness.
In the light of the recent siege in Sydney, in which two innocent people lost their lives, Siljamaki understands it might feel wrong to go to a concert or celebrate the new year.
The DJ experienced the aftermath of the 2005 terrorist attacks in London. He also travelled to Denver, Colorado, with his fellow Above and Beyond DJs to perform just days after a gunman killed 12 people at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado.
"The city was in shock and we were on a plane flying to Denver to play Red Rocks (an open-air amphitheatre) for the first time and I was thinking, is this possibly the wrong time to even have a party? Or is this the time to be quiet and respectful to the situation?" he tells AAP.
However, the DJ says that as they played to 6000 people, it gave their music even more meaning.
"Listening to music together, somehow the lyrics sort of had real depth to them... it just brought it home that music is also here to help people to overcome difficult times and give hope so that we can deal with stuff."
The trio will perform music from their coming album, We Are All We Need, while Down Under.
"People might get scared about these things now but there's such strength in togetherness and sharing stuff," he says.
*Above and Beyond will perform at the Hordern Pavilion on New Year's Eve and at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne on New Year's Day. We Are All We Need is out on January 16 via Anjunabeats /Central Station Records.Fiorina offers bizarre claim that an increase in federal jobs, as opposed to outsourcing, is to blame for demise of middle class
As third party candidates protest exclusion, only a single Oakland TV station provided live coverage...
Ernest A. Canning Byon 9/2/2010, 9:26pm PT
Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning
After months of electoral politics conducted exclusively by way of dueling, 30 second propaganda slots (aka paid-for political ads), incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and her Republican challenger, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina conducted what excluded Green Party candidate Duane Roberts derided as "a sham debate between two multi-millionaires backed by big business interests."
While there is some merit in Roberts' complaint, the debate proved of vital importance, especially since it exposed the extreme views of the lesser known Fiorina on a variety of issues ranging from her opposition to environmental protection, opposition to marital equality for same sex couples, and her outright call to reverse Roe v. Wade. But the most telling aspect was that the debate exposed Fiorina to be an unapologetic proponent of outsourcing and corporate globalization, which, since the passage of NAFTA, has proved to be the bane of the American middle-class.
That made this a debate of manifest importance to the people of California. Yet the corporate media, whose financial interest is served by failing to provide meaningful news coverage, thereby forcing candidates into the paid-for propaganda slots, proved true to form. Live coverage was limited to Cox Communications' Oakland, CA, affiliate, KTVU...
Boxer pounces on Fiorina's opening "jobs creation" gaffe
During her opening statement, Fiorina went beyond touting her credentials as the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard. She said, "I have created jobs." That opened the door not only to Boxer but to both moderator and viewer questions which suggested that it would have been more accurate for Fiorina to say, "I have transferred domestic jobs elsewhere."
Boxer: Jobs are my focus. That’s why I’m working to make California the hub of the new clean energy economy. That’s why I’m working to make sure small business gets access to credit, and that’s why I’m working to stop tax breaks to companies who ship jobs overseas. And when I talk about shipping jobs overseas I’m reminded of my opponent. When she was CEO of Hewlett-Packard, before she was terminated actually, she shipped 30,000 jobs overseas…And through all that pain, what did she do to show any sacrifice? She took $100 million dollars. So that reminds me of Wall Street. That’s what happened on Wall Street: bonuses at the top, pain for everyone else. I want to see the words ‘made in America’ again…
Republican viewer Tom Watson, a retired Hewlett Packard employee asked:
Carly, while you were at H-P you sent thousands of jobs offshore. In defense of your actions you coined the phrase “right shoring.” Also in a keynote speech in 2004, you said, ‘there’s no job that is America’s God-given right, anymore.’ Do you still feel that way? What are your plans to create jobs in California?
Fiorina's Global Jobs Scam
In The Great American Job Scam, Greg LeRoy documents how, over the past fifty years, corporations have obtained massive subsidies, outright gifts of land and property, and enormous tax breaks from city, county, state, and regional governmental entities by enticing bidding wars between them through empty promises of job creation that are most often never fulfilled and which, from a national perspective, do not create jobs but instead merely shift them from one region to another.
Fiorina's response to Watson revealed that she is typical of the millionaire/billionaire class of sociopaths who do not believe they bear any allegiance whatsoever to this nation or to working-class Americans.
This is the 21st Century. Any job can go anywhere. What worries me deeply is that the jobs we lose now may not come back…The truth is that California has higher than average unemployment rate because we are destroying jobs and others are fighting harder for our job…I know precisely why those jobs go, and I’ll tell you why. Because China…gives companies huge tax credits. They help them cut through regulations. They reward R & D. They provide access to credit. That’s what we need to do…To use the power of the federal government to create special economic zones, just as the Chinese have...
While she took care not to mention the principle reason why the billionaire class, starting with NAFTA, have outsourced America's manufacturing base, the reasons she did list --- deregulation, tax credits, "special economic zones" --- typify the demands long made by corporations upon state and local governments in order for those regions to enjoy the "privilege" of private sector jobs.
Perhaps the most telling example Leroy provides entails the instance in which former FL Gov. Jeb Bush provided the Scripps Research Institute with $369 million in state subsidies atop the $667 million given by Palm Beach County to create a new biomedical research facility and 545 new jobs --- "a subsidy of more than $1.9 million" per job.
Another was Sykes Enterprises, Inc., a Tampa-based operator of call centers, which, like a roving band of gypsies, entered small town America, promising jobs if the country bumpkins would just fork over land and incentives, only to run off with the loot. A Sykes vice president was even so bold as to declare: "If a community is inviting Sykes to build a call center, they are expected to deed the land for two call centers to us, and give incentives worth at least $2.5 million."
LeRoy sets forth no less than thirteen small towns which had fallen victim to Sykes’s hit-and-run tactics. Here is one classic example:
The farm town of Milton-Freewater, Oregon, borrowed $2.2 million in 1998 to make a $2.7 million cash grant to Sykes for 400 projected jobs. The city also provided free land, utility services and tax credits, plus $1 million in state funds for road improvements. Businesses just across the state line in Washington even chipped in private funds. The facility eventually employed almost 500 people, but by May 2004 Sykes closed it and terminated the 264 remaining jobs.
Sykes did go on to create workstations, some 10,000 of them in low-wage overseas countries, at the same time it closed and abandoned its facilities and workers in small town U.S.A.
That brings us to the real reason why the titans at the top of the corporate food chain outsource --- the availability of sweatshop labor in China, India, and elsewhere at the slave wage of $2/day, which permits unscrupulous corporations like Wal*Mart to maintain their "always low prices." Those low prices translate into "always huge profits --- $7 billion per year, profits that have placed five members of the Walton family amongst the world’s top ten richest people, with a combined personal worth in excess of $100 billion.
So when Carly Fiorina says that Americans must compete for jobs, she is saying that we should join a race to the bottom in order to secure the "privilege" of private sector employment --- typical of the short-term greed of the billionaire class which ignores that, as they destroyed middle-class jobs and wages, these sociopaths eliminated the ability of the American people to buy their products.
To understand just how twisted this is, one has to go back to the words of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln:
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much higher consideration.
Fiorina is a poster child for the 21st CEO sense of entitlement
We now have the entitlement generation as CEOs. They just plain feel entitled to being wealthy as Croesus with no responsibility, no accountability. They have become literal sociopaths. - William K. Black on Bill Moyers’ Journal
A debate question posed by Randy Shandobill of KTVU triggered an interesting colloquy:
Shandobill: You in the past have said that school teacher should have they pay connected to their performance…When you were at H-P and the Board of Directors forced you to resign in part because of the stock market dropping with regard to H-P, you got a severance of $21 million, so some people might say, Gee, shouldn’t CEOs have the same standard as school teachers? Fiorina: Absolutely they should, and in fact, during my time at Hewlett-Packard I ripped up my employment contract and put my pay up for shareholder vote. Every dollar I earned at Hewlett Packard was voted on by shareholders and every dollar was tied very specifically to performance….In the six years that I managed Hewlett Packard…we doubled the size of the company to $88 billion, we tripled the rate of innovation to eleven patents a day, we quintupled the cash flow, we improved the profitability in every product line… Boxer: I think we are entitled to our opinion but we’re not entitled to our own facts. The facts are there was a $21 million severance check, and my understanding is that it was taken after my opponent was fired. The stock went down more than 50%...
A description provided by Wikipedia bolsters Senator Boxer's account.
In April 2009, the business magazine web site Condé Nast Portfolio listed Fiorina as one of "The 20 Worst American CEOs of All Time", characterizing the HP-Compaq merger as a widely regarded failure, and citing the halving of HP's stock value under Fiorina's tenure.
Caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Fiorina dissembled:
I would remind [Sen. Boxer] as well is that when you lead a business…you sometimes have to make the agonizing choice to lose some jobs to save more and what enrages people in California as they see people making those tough choices…every day and stores shuttering is federal government employees growing at 14 ½%.
Outsourcing Hewlett Packard's high tech manufacturing was no more an "agonizing choice" than Fiorina's decision to accept a $21 million severance package in the wake of her utter failure. It was always about the bottom line --- hers!
Earlier in the "debate" Fiorina linked increases in California unemployment statistics to an increase in federal government employment. This seems bizarre, especially coming from the lips of someone who laid off tens of thousands of Hewlett Packard employees while she outsourced their jobs in search of cheap foreign labor. Does Fiorina not realize that when Californians accept federal employment, that reduces the number of Californians who are unemployed?
Extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will not create new jobs
The "debate" included the following exchange:
Carla Marinucci of the San Francisco Chronicle : You supported tax cuts for business and the wealthiest Americans because they ‘pay for themselves by creating jobs’ but you’ve opposed two recent jobs bills, one a teacher’s jobs bill which would bring 16,000 jobs to California, the other a small business jobs bill which is actually supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. So how do you justify immediate help for the wealthiest Americans but not for average Californians who might be out of a job and listening to this debate tonight? Fiorina: I think we need first to start by describing what the 2001/2003 tax cuts really were….The vast majority of that relief went to middle class Americans, and in fact if those tax cuts are not extended the average California family will pay up to $1,600 more in taxes….The death tax will skyrocket to 55% on January first. We have 88,000 farms in this great state. Most of them family owned…I think in the middle of a terrible recession…with twelve metropolitan areas with unemployment up to 15%...and meanwhile in the last 20 months the federal government spending has increased 10% each year and federal government employees have increased 14 1/2% over the last two years. Boxer:…We had 16,500 teachers plus get pink slips…What’s more important than our children?...My opponent actually called that bill where we saved these teacher’s jobs...a disgrace…I’ll tell you why I don’t think she likes it…because we paid for it by stopping some tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas. So every time you really get past the surface, you see my opponent fighting for the billionaires, for the millionaires, for the companies who ship jobs overseas.
The exchange typifies Republican dissembling on the issue of taxes. As noted by Paul Krugman:
The Obama administration wants to preserve those parts of the original tax cuts that mainly benefit the middle class…Republicans...want to keep the whole thing... According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years... [W]here would this $680 billion go? Nearly all of it would go to the richest 1 percent of Americans..., people with incomes of more than $500,000 a year. But that’s the least of it: the policy center’s estimates say that the majority of the tax cuts would go to the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. [T]he average tax break for those lucky few --- the poorest members of the group have annual incomes of more than $2 million, and the average member makes more than $7 million a year --- would be $3 million over the course of the next decade.
During the debate, Sen. Boxer reminded the audience that the Clinton years produced 23 million new jobs and a surplus. "Then I served for eight years with George W. Bush. I did not support his priorities and his budget. We wound up with a $1.3 trillion deficit after those 8 years and the worst job creation record since Herbert Hoover, one million new jobs compared to 23 million."
Of course, Boxer failed to mention that it was President Clinton who rammed NAFTA through on the fast-track, opening the door to the hemorrhaging of jobs via outsourcing during the Bush years. That said, there is no empirical evidence that tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs. To the contrary, reputable economists like Prof. Alan Blinder, a co-director of Princeton University's Center for Economic Policy Studies, make it clear that they do not.
Fiorini's reference to a so-called "death tax" (right-wing slang for the "inheritance tax") is also quite revealing. The inheritance tax does not kick in for any estate valued at less than $3.5 million. It's purpose is to prevent the rise of the very thing the Founding Fathers fought a revolution to destroy --- a landed aristocracy. As explained by Warren Buffet:
Dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise. Equality of opportunity has been on the decline. A progressive and meaningful estate tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward plutocracy.
Correction: It appears I erred in stating that KTVU was a CBS affiliate; that it is owned by Cox Communications. Mea Culpa!
That error doesn't change the fact that none of the commercial TV stations offered live coverage to the nearly 10 million people who reside in Los Angeles County. As we previously reported, citing a March 11, 2010, study performed by the Norman Lear Center of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, commercial advertising makes up 29% of a typical 30-minute Los Angeles TV "news" broadcast.
The study revealed:
Stories about government actions on topics like education, health care and law enforcement took up...1:12. The majority of this time (0:49) was devoted to government actions taking place at the federal level or in other states.
* * *
Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968).By: Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor
Published: 07/01/2016 09:31 AM EDT on LiveScience
Archaeologists have discovered what may be a skull bone from the revered Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. The bone was hidden inside a model of a stupa, or a Buddhist shrine used for meditation.
The research team found the 1,000-year-old model within a stone chest in a crypt beneath a Buddhist temple in Nanjing, China. Inside the stupa model archaeologists found the remains of Buddhist saints, including a parietal (skull) bone that inscriptions say belonged to the Buddha himself.
The model is made of sandalwood, silver and gold, and is covered with gemstones made of crystal, glass, agate and lapis lazuli, a team of archaeologists reported in an article published in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.
Photo courtesy of Chinese Cultural Relics This model of a stupa, which is used for meditation, was discovered beneath Grand Bao'en Temple in Nanjing, China. The 1,000-year-old stupa is made of sandalwood, silver and gold.
Inscriptions engraved on the stone chest that the model was found in say that it was constructed during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong (A.D. 997-1022), during the Song Dynasty. Also inscribed on the stupa are the names of people who donated money and material to build the model, as well as some of the people who constructed the model. [See Photos of the Model Stupa Holding Buddha Remains]
While the inscriptions say that the skull bone belongs to the Buddha, it is unknown whether it really does come from him. In the journal article, archaeologists didn't speculate on how likely it is. The bone is being treated with great respect and has been interred in the modern-day Qixia Temple by Buddhist monks.
Stone Chest Inscription
Discovered beneath the Grand Bao'en Temple, the stupa model — which is 117 centimeters tall and 45 cm wide (nearly 4 feet by 1.5 feet) — was stored within an iron box, which, in turn, was stored within a stone chest.
An inscription found within the stone chest was written by a man named Deming about 1,000 years ago, saying that he is "the Master of Perfect Enlightenment, Abbot of Chengtian Monastery [and] the Holder of the Purple Robe" (as translated by researchers in the journal article). He tells the story of how the Buddha's parietal bone came to China. [Photos: 1,700-Year-Old Buddhist Sculptures Found in Shrine]
Deming wrote that after the Buddha "entered parinirvana" (a final death that breaks the cycle of death and rebirth), that his body "was cremated near the Hirannavati River" in India. The man who ruled India at the time, King Ashoka (reign 268-232 B.C.), decided to preserve the Buddha's remains, which he "divided into a total of 84,000 shares," Deming wrote. "Our land of China received 19 of them," including the parietal bone, he added.
The parietal bone was kept in a temple that was destroyed about 1,400 years ago during a series of wars, Deming wrote. "The foundation ruins … were scattered in the weeds," Deming wrote. "In this time of turbulence, did no one care for Buddhist affairs?"
Emperor Zhenzong agreed to rebuild the temple and have the Buddha's parietal bone, and the remains of other Buddhist saints, buried in an underground crypt at the temple, according to Deming's inscriptions. They were interred on July 21, 1011 A.D., in "a most solemn and elaborate burial ceremony," Deming wrote.
Deming praised the emperor for rebuilding the temple and burying the Buddha's remains, wishing the emperor a long life, loyal ministers and numerous grandchildren: "May the Heir Apparent and the imperial princes be blessed and prosperous with 10,000 offspring; may Civil and Military Ministers of the Court be loyal and patriotic; may the three armed forces and citizens enjoy a happy and peaceful time …"
Buddha Burial
The parietal bone of the Buddha was buried within an inner casket made of gold, which, in turn, was placed in an outer casket made of silver, according to the archaeologists. The silver casket was then placed inside the model of the stupa.
Photo courtesy of Chinese Cultural Relics A skull bone of the Buddha was found inside this gold casket, which was stored in a silver casket within the stupa model, found in a crypt beneath a Buddhist temple.
The gold and silver caskets were decorated with images of lotus patterns, phoenix birds and gods guarding the caskets with swords. The outer casket also has images of spirits called apsaras that are shown playing musical instruments.
The parietal bone of the Buddha was placed within the gold inner casket along with three crystal bottles and a silver box, all of which contain the remains of other Buddhist saints.
Engraved on the outside of the model are several images of the Buddha, along with scenes depicting stories from the Buddha's life, from his birth to the point when he reached "parinirvana," a death from which the Buddha wasn't reborn — something that freed him from a cycle of death and rebirth, according to the Buddhist religion.
Impact in China
A large team of archaeologists from the Nanjing Municipal Institute of Archaeology excavated the crypt between 2007 and 2010; they were supported by experts from other institutions in China.
Although the excavations received little coverage by Western media outlets, they were covered extensively in China. Chinese media outlets say that, after the parietal bone of the Buddha was removed, Buddhist monks interred the bone and the remains of the other Buddhist saints in Qixia Temple, a Buddhist temple used today. The Buddha's parietal bone and other artifacts from the excavation were later displayed in Hong Kong and Macao.
When the bone traveled to Macao in 2012, the media outlet Xinhua reported that "tens of thousands of Buddhist devotees will pay homage to the sacred relic," and that "more than 140,000 tickets have been sold out by now, according to the [event organizer]."
An article detailing the discoveries was published in Chinese in 2015 in the journal Wenwu, before being translated and published in Chinese Cultural Relics.
Original article on Live Science.
Editor's RecommendationsInvestigators have said a tip-off to a national security hotline led to the raids in Melbourne yesterday, which found alleged improvised explosive devices to be used in an apparent terror plot.
Operation Amberd consisted of nine days of investigation prior to raids in Greenvale, which were conducted jointly by Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Victoria Police officers.
The raids led to the arrest of a 17-year-old male who has been charged. Police allege the teenager planned and prepared for a terrorist attack.
The teen cannot be identified and will face the charges in the Children’s Court.
“We don’t operate on luck – this was a methodical, measured and precise action,” AFP Deputy Commissioner Mike Phelan said.
“Let me tell you, something was going to happen.”
He claimed the intervening action taken by the AFP and Victoria Police had saved lives.
“We can absolutely guarantee we have stopped something.”
The accused was arrested when he left his Greenvale home around 12:30pm yesterday. Police later seized three alleged improvised explosive devices from the raided home and detonated them in a nearby park.
Police established a 300 metre exclusion zone and instructed people to stay within their homes as they completed the detonations.
Forensic crews in Hazmat suits entered the home of the accused earlier today as a part of continuing investigations.
Officers combed through the home, the remains of the detonated devices and other evidence seized during the initial operation.
Mr Phelan said the man’s family were shocked and distraught at their son’s arrest.
“These are extremely serious offences and they did involve the use of improvised explosive devices.
“It is deeply troubling to police that such young people are becoming disaffected in the way in which they are.”
Mr Phelan urged others to report suspicious activity on 1800 123 400.
A 14-year-old was reportedly also targeted in a raid in Sydney, although it is unclear if the operation was linked to the Melbourne arrests.
During the initial raids, heavily armed police approached a cream-coloured house with a loudspeaker and asked for the occupants to come out. Witnesses said the occupants emerged from the home dressed in traditional Islamic attire.
A man emerged first with his hands behind his head. He was placed on the ground before being taken to be secured in nearby parkland. Six women then emerged and were taken in the opposite direction.
Neighbours were in shock as streets were shut down with a heavy police presence.
Witness Katie Galea told 9NEWS the raid had hit "a bit close to home".
The detonations were conducted by specialist officers from the Victoria Police Bomb Response Unit. (AAP) (AAP)
"They had two robots. Police were asking if there was anyone else in the house to come out with their hands up," she said.
"I find it a bit scary... it's hit a bit close to home today."
The raids are not linked to the ongoing investigation to an Islamic State-inspired terror plot planned during Anzac Day events in Melbourne.
Operation Rising saw 200 heavily armed police raid properties in the south-east of Melbourne on April 18.
Neighbours were in shock as streets were shut down with heavy police presence. (9NEWS) ()
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019How to: Publish Events that Conform to.NET Framework Guidelines (C# Programming Guide)
In this article
The following procedure demonstrates how to add events that follow the standard.NET Framework pattern to your classes and structs. All events in the.NET Framework class library are based on the EventHandler delegate, which is defined as follows:
public delegate void EventHandler(object sender, EventArgs e);
Note The.NET Framework 2.0 introduces a generic version of this delegate, EventHandler<TEventArgs>. The following examples show how to use both versions.
Although events in classes that you define can be based on any valid delegate type, even delegates that return a value, it is generally recommended that you base your events on the.NET Framework pattern by using EventHandler, as shown in the following example.
To publish events based on the EventHandler pattern
(Skip this step and go to Step 3a if you do not have to send custom data with your event.) Declare the class for your custom data at a scope that is visible to both your publisher and subscriber classes. Then add the required members to hold your custom event data. In this example, a simple string is returned. public class CustomEventArgs : EventArgs { public CustomEventArgs(string s) { msg = s; } private string msg; public string Message { get { return msg; } } } (Skip this step if you are using the generic version of EventHandler<TEventArgs>.) Declare a delegate in your publishing class. Give it a name that ends with EventHandler. The second parameter specifies your custom EventArgs type. public delegate void CustomEventHandler(object sender, CustomEventArgs a); Declare the event in your publishing class by using one of the following steps. If you have no custom EventArgs class, your Event type will be the non-generic EventHandler delegate. You do not have to declare the delegate because it is already declared in the System namespace that is included when you create your C# project. Add the following code to your publisher class. public event EventHandler RaiseCustomEvent; If you are using the non-generic version of EventHandler and you have a custom class derived from EventArgs, declare your event inside your publishing class and use your delegate from step 2 as the type. public event CustomEventHandler RaiseCustomEvent; If you are using the generic version, you do not need a custom delegate. Instead, in your publishing class, you specify your event type as EventHandler<CustomEventArgs>, substituting the name of your own class between the angle brackets. public event EventHandler<CustomEventArgs> RaiseCustomEvent;
Example
The following example demonstrates the previous steps by using a custom EventArgs class and EventHandler<TEventArgs> as the event type.
namespace DotNetEvents { using System; using System.Collections.Generic; // Define a class to hold custom event info public class CustomEventArgs : EventArgs { public CustomEventArgs(string s) { message = s; } private string message; public string Message { get { return message; } set { message = value; } } } // Class that publishes an event class Publisher { // Declare the event using EventHandler<T> public event EventHandler<CustomEventArgs> RaiseCustomEvent; public void DoSomething() { // Write some code that does something useful here // then raise the event. You can also raise an event // before you execute a block of code. OnRaiseCustomEvent(new CustomEventArgs("Did something")); } // Wrap event invocations inside a protected virtual method // to allow derived classes to override the event invocation behavior protected virtual void OnRaiseCustomEvent(CustomEventArgs e) { // Make a temporary copy of the event to avoid possibility of // a race condition if the last subscriber unsubscribes // immediately after the null check and before the event is raised. EventHandler<CustomEventArgs> handler = RaiseCustomEvent; // Event will be null if there are no subscribers if (handler!= null) { // Format the string to send inside the CustomEventArgs parameter e.Message += $" at {DateTime.Now}"; // Use the () operator to raise the event. handler(this, e); } } } //Class that subscribes to an event class Subscriber { private string id; public Subscriber(string ID, Publisher pub) { id = ID; // Subscribe to the event using C# 2.0 syntax pub.RaiseCustomEvent += HandleCustomEvent; } // Define what actions to take when the event is raised. void HandleCustomEvent(object sender, CustomEventArgs e) { Console.WriteLine(id + " received this message: {0}", e.Message); } } class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Publisher pub = new Publisher(); Subscriber sub1 = new Subscriber("sub1", |
graphic novels and compilations. Paradise is soon to be expanding – with double the space they’ll increase their already ample offerings. Look for them to bring in some top industry names for signings in the near future.
The Beguiling
Next to Honest Ed’s on Markham Street, this shop is one-of-a-kind. The Beguiling puts the focus on compelling storytelling and independent artists, so don’t expect the typical superhero fare. If you like alternative graphic novels and sequential art, this one’s not to be missed. Their sister store, Little Island Comics, is North America’s first dedicated children’s comic store – a perfect place for kids 12-and-under to enjoy a fun and engaging hobby.
Comic Book Lounge & Gallery
At College and Clinton (next to the The Mad Italian in case you crave some gelato with your graphic art) there is a new concept in comic stores. Sharing space with Guerilla Printing, this bright loft space (with couches!) showcases local independent talent alongside the traditional Marvel and DC books. Original art adorns the walls and one can often find an artist-in-residence holding court and taking requests for custom drawings. Get that drawing of Ghost-Batman-in-space that you’ve always wanted!
PS For dedicated fans, shop loyalty transcends mere geography. The force is strong with the nerd community, and some fans have been known to travel for miles every week to get new releases on their home turf. If you’ve got a favourite comic book shop in Toronto that’s not on this list, then let us know!Between 2000 and 2010, Tracy’s population shot up nearly 50%, from 56,929 to 82,922. Longtime residents will tell you the town has changed: Tracy has been flooded by Bay Area residents looking for more affordable housing, businesses looking for new transportation hubs, and new infrastructure that is struggling to keep up with the astronomical growth.
But what many Tracy residents don’t realize is that this is still just the beginning. Depending on who you ask, by 2030 Tracy could be California’s newest tech hub, home to the biggest theme park in California, or something else entirely.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest forces shaping Tracy’s future and try to answer the question: what will Tracy look like in 2030?
Five Factors that Could Transform the City of Tracy by 2030
1. More housing
According to The Tracy Press, home building is back. In 2015, the city issued permits for over 300 apartments and over 160 single family homes, which is more than any previous year since the recession. Another development, called Tracy Hills, which has been in the works since 1993, is finally kicking up dirt once more. The housing development calls for an initial phase of 5,499 homes to be built off of I-580.
“‘This is such a large project,” said Pete Mitracos, Vice Chairman of the Tracy City Council. “If we build it out, it’s almost twice as large as the small-town Tracy that I grew up in.”
Any way you slice it, by 2030 Tracy will be home to a lot more people. You can expect the city to collect more tax revenue for public services like schools and the police department, but increased road congestion is also a real possibility.
2. More higher education
Tracy could become a college town by 2030. Notre Dame de Namur University opened up a Tracy campus in Fall 2015, offering MBA and BS degrees to Tracy residents. As more and more people relocate to Tracy, we expect to see more demand for higher education institutions in town. Who knows, Tracy in 2030 could be the home to its very own California State University.
The President of Notre Dame de Namur (NDNU), Judith Greig, stated that she is “looking forward to continuing to build our association with the Tracy community and expanding our offerings in the future.” Many officials are hoping that the success of the NDNU Tracy campus will show other universities how beneficial a university culture is to the community – and just how many students are willing to attend.
“I think we’ve been able to demonstrate to NDNU how much having a university here means to this community,” said the chair of the Tracy Consortium for Higher Education, Roger Birdsall.
It’s too early to say that another institution will be open, or even announced, by 2030 but the ramifications could be enormous. If Tracy does get another college you can expect high job growth in a variety of industries, more money spent locally, and higher demand for affordable goods and services.
3. More public transit
Tracy has long been hassled for having one of the worst commute times in the country. However, this will get better by 2030, and several projects are already in the works.
First off, BART will finally complete it’s extension to Livermore, which is set to finish in 2026. This means a shorter commute for Tracy residents who want to take BART to the city or elsewhere for work.
The Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) train also has some improvements in the works. By 2018, the train will extend to downtown Modesto, and to downtown Merced by 2022. ACE also plans to increase the number of trains so that there will be more frequent, faster, and safer commute options. The current 3 round trips will be increased to 6 round trips in 2018, and 10 round trips by 2022. Manteca, Modesto, Turlock, and Merced could see ACE train service, as could downtown Tracy.
It should go without saying that better transportation options should have a significant impact on Tracy’s road congestion, housing prices, and quality of life.
4. More jobs
When the Amazon fulfillment center opened its doors in Tracy in 2013, it created over 1,000 new job opportunities. The following year, they added 200 more jobs, and another 800 more in 2015. As the world’s largest online retailer, the Tracy Amazon warehouse is surely going to continue providing more and more jobs through 2030.
But Amazon isn’t the only big player in Tracy. Medline and FedEx Industries plan to become part of the Prologis International Park of Commerce, a 1700-acre facility completed in 2015. Medline, a major medical supply manufacturer, is opening a 1 million square foot facility in early 2016, providing hundreds of jobs. FedEx is planning to open a 467,000 square foot facility in August of 2016, and the Mayor of Tracy, Mike Maciel, sad “this is just the beginning.”
With these major players entering the Tracy scene, we know that Tracy in 2030 has the potential to be the HQ for many of today’s big companies. More jobs in Tracy proper also means less time wasted on long commutes and more time spent enjoying outings with family and friends (what a novel concept!). Residents will also spend more of their money locally, rather than having to drive to the Bay Area for shopping and recreation. As a result, we expect to see an overall increase in job satisfaction and quality of life for Tracy residents.
5. More fun
Been feeling like there’s not enough to do in Tracy? Well, Tracy in 2030 could be the home to the Spirit of California theme park. This park, which is still in the works, is set to be completed by 2024 – and it could topple Disneyland for the title of biggest theme park in the West. The current proposal has plans for a casino, rides, wine tasting center, sports complex, golf course, equestrian center, boat marina, and more.
The Spirit of California could put Tracy on the map as a tourist destination for folks all over the world. This would create new jobs, new infrastructure, and a revitalized Tracy. However, there are many who doubt the feasibility of such a large-scale project. Many believe that Spirit of California is a mere pipe dream, and it has come under fire for seeking money from shareholders. The head of the Building and Industry Association of the Greater Valley, John Beckman, said “my only trepidation is like many of those big, grand ideas – they go a little ways and then don’t go anywhere. If the guy was able to actually build it, it’d be incredible.”
Other Big Changes to Tracy
Based on historical demographic and population data, we expect big things from Tracy in the future. These projections could be affected by several factors, including all of the ones listed above.
Median home value will grow by 2030
Median home value in Tracy is expected to grow by over 20% between 2015 and 2030.
Year Value 2015 $339,396 2020 $357,936 2025 $389,224 2030 $412,566
Tracy will be more diverse by 2030
Estimates show a large increase in residents who identify as Hispanic, mixed race, Asian, and other races by 2030.
2015 2030 Total 85,182 94,140 White 51.4% 47.6% Black 6.9% 5.8% Native American.9%.7% Asian 14.6% 16.1% Pacific Islander.9% 1% Other 17.0% 20.1% Mixed Race 8.2% 9.7% Hispanic 39.4% 48.1%
Population age will shift by 2030
By 2030, Tracy will be home to more people in the 25-34 and 55-74 age groups, but fewer in the 0-24 and 35-54 age groups. These predictions could be drastically affected by the Spirit of California development, as well as changes to educational institutions in Tracy.
2015 2030 0-4 7.7% 6.8% 5-9 8.1% 7.1% 10-14 8.6% 7.1% 15-24 14.9% 10.7% 25-34 13.6% 22.4% 35-44 14.5% 12.5% 45-54 14.5% 10.4% 55-64 9.9% 12.5% 65-74 5.1% 6.8% 75-84 2.2% 2.7% 85+ 0.9% 1%
Household income will grow by 2030
Thanks to demographic shifts and new employment opportunities, Tracy’s average household income is expected to grow by over 30% between 2015 and 2030
2015 2030 <$15,000 7.7% 5.3% $15,000 – $24,9999 5.3% 1.8% $25,000 – $34,999 6.0% 2.2% $35,000 – $49,999 10.9% 7.6% $50,000 – $74,999 16.2% 13.6% $75,000 – $99,000 13.3% 19.1% $100,000 – $149,999 23.5% 17.4% $150,000 – $199,999 10.6% 22.3% $200,000+ 6.6% 12.1%
What Do You Think Tracy Will Look Like in 2030?
Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
Additional sources:
http://www.ci.tracy.ca.us/documents/Demographic_Overview.pdf
http://www.bestplaces.net/economy/city/california/tracy
http://www.bestplaces.net/people/city/california/tracyBOGOTA, Colombia -- A mystery illness has overwhelmed a small town in northern Colombia as scores of teenage girls have been hospitalized with symptoms that parents fear could be an adverse reaction to a popular vaccine against cervical cancer.
Authorities say they still don't know what caused more than 200 girls in El Carmen de Bolivar to come down with symptoms ranging from fainting to numbness in the hands and headaches. Some have hinted that the town of 95,000 near Colombia's Caribbean coast could be experiencing a rare case of mass hysteria.
Parents are on edge, however, because all the girls, ranging in ages from 9 to 16, were injected in recent months with the vaccine Gardasil. On Wednesday, residents marched peacefully to demand a thorough investigation.
Francisco Vega, the town's mayor and a trained physician, told The Associated Press that illnesses first appeared at the end of May and have been steadily increasing since. Over the weekend, 120 girls were rushed to hospitals, collapsing the town's limited medical facilities. None of their symptoms were life-threatening and all have since been released, he said.
Echoing the assurances of national health and toxicology experts, who have traveled to the town to collect blood samples and investigate possible environmental hazards, he said there's no evidence the vaccine, which has undergone extensive testing and regulation globally, is to blame.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria is criticizing hyped coverage by the media for stirring panic, saying concerns about their vaccine, which has been applied to 2.9 million women in Colombia, are baseless.
"On one side we have the weight of scientific evidence and on the other are opinions and moral prejudices," he told W Radio on Wednesday, adding the cervical cancer claims the lives of more than 3,000 women every year in Colombia.
Veronica Trulin, head of communications in Latin America for Merck, said all lots of the vaccine, including the ones sent to Colombia, meet all required quality and safety standards.
"We don't comment on speculation about our products," she said in an email.Editor's note: Leading Women connects you to extraordinary women of our time -- remarkable professionals who have made it to the top in all areas of business, the arts, sport, culture, science and more.
(CNN) -- Imagine a gadget that knows your mind better than you do.
Picture a device that can rank the activities in your life that bring you joy, or interject your typed words with your feelings.
One woman has helped create just that.
Ariel Garten believes that the brain -- with its 100 billion neurons that receive, register, and respond to thoughts and impulses -- has the power to accomplish almost anything, if only its power could be properly harnessed.
Her company InteraXon, which she co-founded with Trevor Coleman, has produced Muse, a lightweight headband that uses electroencephalography (EEG) sensors to monitor your brain activity, transmitting that information to a smartphone, laptop or tablet.
The high-tech headband has been used to pour beer, levitate chairs, or control the lights -- all without the wearer lifting a finger.
And in a world where technology is often blamed for raising stress levels, 35-year-old Garten believes her $300 headband could even help calm us down.
The Canadian -- who has worked as a fashion designer, art gallery director, and psychotherapist -- spoke to CNN about her influences and vision for the future of technology.
CNN: How does Muse help reduce stress?
Ariel Garten: Muse tracks your brain activity. Your brain sends electro-signals just like your heart does, and this headband is like a heart rate monitor.
As it tracks your brain activity, it sends that information to your computer, smartphone or tablet, where you can do exercises that track your brain activity in real time, and give you real time feedback to teach you how to calm and settle your mind.
CNN: Technology is often blamed for making people stressed -- is there a certain irony in also using it to also calm us down?
AG: Technology can definitely be responsible for making people stressed because it pulls at our attention, it distracts us, it increases the number of demands and in some ways decreases our own agency.
We're very interested in inverting that on its head and creating solutions that help you calm yourself; that can help you stay grounded, choose what to focus your attention on, and manage your own mind and your response to the world.
Technology itself is not the evil, it's the way that it's implemented. Technology can have some great solutions for us. Look at all the amazing medical interventions that we have.
CNN: You've suggested Muse could provide medical benefits for children with ADD -- how?
AG: To be clear, Muse is not a medical device, it's a computer product. Exercises using Muse have suggested that they can help people with ADHD, by helping you increase your state of focused attention.
We've had amazing emails -- just recently we had an email from somebody who is 29 years old with ADHD and after just two days of using Muse had noticed a benefit. Three weeks out they sent me an email saying 'this is not a game changer, this is a life changer.'
CNN: Have you had interest in the product from any unexpected places?
AG: We've been contacted by a lot of sports stars and sports celebrities -- people wanting to use it to improve their sports game. We were surprised because we're so used to thinking of it as a cognitive tool.
There's been quite a number of research labs using Muse, and they've been looking at applications in depression, epilepsy, and communications.
And then we've also had a lot of interest from companies interested in integrating our technology into their wellness and development programs. Companies like Google wanting to offer this to their employees to help improve their productivity and their wellness.
CNN: Do you have any reservations about the development of mind-mapping devices?
AG: In InteraXon we believe very strongly that you own all your own data. We have a very strict privacy policy. It's like a heart rate monitor, it's very binary so we can't read your thoughts, we can't read your mind. But we're very much into leading the way on the very responsible use of this technology.
CNN: What inspired you to get involved in this area?
AG: My background is in neuroscience, design and psychotherapy, and I'm very interested in helping people understand their own minds and use their minds more productively in their own life. Our brains get in our way in so many ways.
The things that we think, the feelings that we have, all of these things can be beautiful supports to our life and encourage the lives that we live. But they can also cause all kinds of anxiety, worries, all of these things that hold us back.
Particularly women are a huge inspiration to me because we're so good at holding ourselves back with the thoughts that are in our heads. We're constantly worried about things like 'does this person think this way about me?' or 'have I done well enough?' or 'have I achieved as much as I'm supposed to?'
We have these dialogues within ourselves that can be really debilitating, and you know the answer is 'of course you're good enough,' and 'of course you've done well enough,' and 'of course you can achieve that.' And if you can learn to understand and gain control over your own internal dialogue, you can really learn to sort of undo the shackles that hold you back in your daily life, and your career, and your relationships.
Read: Bobbi Brown's billion dollar idea
Inspire: Nanny's double life as photographer
Learn: Frida Kahlo: Queen of the selfieSARGALI, Iraq (Reuters) - Turkish Kurd militants freed a group of Turkish soldiers and officials they had held in the mountains of northern Iraq for more than a year on Wednesday, the first concrete step in efforts to end their 28-year-old insurgency.
Kurdish demonstrators hold flags with portraits of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg February 16, 2012. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler
The six soldiers, a police officer and a local official looked in good health and wore clean clothes as they were handed to a delegation of Turkish rights activists and pro-Kurdish politicians on the remote Sargali plain.
“Their health is very good and a medical team has examined them,” Baver Dersim, a senior member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, told reporters invited to witness the handover and a small signing ceremony.
“This operation is proof that we don’t want war.”
The release is an initial confidence-building measure in what is shaping up to be the most comprehensive effort yet to end Turkey’s three-decade war with the PKK, a conflict which has killed more than 40,000 people.
Turkish officials began talks last October with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on an island near Istanbul for more than a decade and reviled by most Turks who hold him directly responsible for the bloodshed.
Talks with the group, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union, would have been unthinkable a few years ago, and the openness of the latest process has boosted hopes for peace.
“We need to end the fighting and live like brothers. The Turkish government must make a step towards peace,” said Adil Kurt, a pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) member of parliament among the Turkish delegation.
Under a plan discussed by Ocalan and the Ankara government, the PKK would end hostilities and withdraw its fighters from Turkey as a prelude to disarmament in exchange for greater Kurdish rights, enshrined in the constitution.
A third delegation of pro-Kurdish politicians is scheduled to visit Ocalan on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea in the coming days to give him the responses of PKK leaders in northern Iraq and Europe to his proposed plan.
During that visit Ocalan is expected to make a call for a ceasefire to go into effect from the Kurdish New Year on March 21, and could also call for the withdrawal of PKK militants from Turkish territory.
The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984. Its initial separatist goals have since been moderated to demands for improved Kurdish rights and limited self-rule.
There has been a relative lull in guerrilla violence this year as a result of the peace process. But PKK fighters detonated a bomb under a military vehicle in southeast Turkey on March 4, wounding four soldiers in what the group said was retaliation for Turkish military attacks.
Turkish warplanes have also continued to bomb militant targets in the mountains of northern Iraq where thousands of rebels are based, drawing warnings from the PKK that they are jeopardizing the peace process.BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s state prosecutor said Monday that he would seek charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement against members of Catalonia’s ousted secessionist government, pushing the crisis over the region’s independence declaration into an uncertain new phase.
Chief prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza said he would ask judges for preventive measures against the politicians and the governing body of the Catalan parliament that allowed a vote to declare independence last week. He didn’t specify if those would include their immediate arrest and detention before trial.
The rebellion, sedition and embezzlement charges carry maximum sentences of 30, 15 and six years in prison, respectively. It wasn’t immediately clear when judges would rule on the prosecutors’ request.
Maza didn’t name any of those facing charges, but they include regional leader Carles Puigdemont, his No. 2 Oriol Junqueras and Catalan parliamentary speaker Carme Forcadell.
The announcement came as Catalonia’s civil servants returned to work for the first time since Spain dismissed the separatist regional government and imposed direct control.
In addition to the sedition charges, Spain’s government has said the fired leaders could be charged with usurping others’ functions if they attempt to carry on working.
Puigdemont traveled to Brussels, according to a Spanish government an official who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to be named in media reports. The trip came after Belgian Asylum State Secretary Theo Francken said over the weekend that it would be “not unrealistic” for Puigdemont to request asylum.
The uncertainty over Puigdemont’s whereabouts and his plans continued the game of political cat-and-mouse with which the Catalan leader has tormented the central government.
Also Monday, Puigdemont’s party indicated it is ready to fight in the Dec. 21 early regional election called by the national government, scotching fears the pro-independence parties might boycott the ballot to deny it legitimacy. The center-right PDeCAT party vowed to defeat pro-union political forces in Catalonia.
As dozens of journalists, curious onlookers and bemused tourists gathered in the square outside the Gothic government palace in central Barcelona, residents expressed confusion about who was actually in charge of Catalonia.
“I don’t know — the Catalan government says they are in charge, but the Spanish government says they are,” said Cristina Guillen, an employee in a nearby bag shop. “So I have no idea, really.
“What I really think is that nobody is in charge right now,” she said.
At least one portrait of Puigdemont was still hanging on a wall inside the Catalan government’s Generalitat building.
At least one member of the ousted government defied his dismissal by showing up at work and posting a photo on Twitter from his formal office.
“In the office, exercising the responsibilities entrusted to us by the people of Catalonia,” said Josep Rull, who until last week was the region’s top official in charge of territorial affairs.
Al despatx, exercint les responsabilitats que ens ha encomanat el poble de Catalunya. #seguim pic.twitter.com/npc6vFH0rB — Josep Rull i Andreu 🎗 (@joseprull) October 30, 2017
Two police officers entered and left the building, followed minutes later by Rull, who told reporters and supporters that he would continue carrying out his agenda.
But there were no official events listed on the regional government’s public agenda that is published online daily. Meanwhile, the two separatist parties in the former Catalan governing coalition held separate meetings to decide their next move.
Spanish authorities say deposed officials will be allowed to take their personal belongings from official buildings, but are barred from performing any official duties.
Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said Monday that the government was giving the separatist politicians “a few hours” of time because the goal was “to recover normality in a discreet way and under the principle of minimal intervention” from central authorities.
Catalonia’s regional parliament proclaimed independence from Spain in a secret ballot Friday. The Spanish government dissolved the legislature, fired the government and regional police chief and called a new election for Dec. 21.
Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said Sunday that Puigdemont would be eligible to run in the election, provided he is not imprisoned.
“I don’t know what kind of judicial activity will happen between now and Dec. 21. If he is not put in jail at that time I think he is not ineligible,” Dastis told The Associated Press, speaking before prosecutors announced they were seeking charges.
The vote to secede came after an Oct. 1 referendum in favor of independence that was deemed illegal by Spain’s constitutional court.
Puigdemont has vowed peaceful and “democratic opposition” to his Cabinet’s dismissal, but he hasn’t clarified if that means accepting an early regional election as a way out of the deadlock.
Separatist parties and grassroots groups have spoken of waging a campaign of disobedience to hamper the efforts by central authorities to run the region.
A key factor will be how Catalonia’s estimated 200,000 public workers react to their bosses’ dismissal, and whether any stay away from work in protest.
Secession moves by this wealthy northeastern region of 7.5 million have tipped Spain into its deepest crisis in decades.
On Sunday, hundreds of thousands took part in an anti-independence demonstration in Barcelona, calling for Catalonia to remain in Spain and backing Rajoy’s use of unprecedented constitutional powers to wrest control from the pro-independence regional administration.
Spanish financial markets rose Monday after a poll suggested more Catalans oppose the declaration of independence than support it. The Ibex 35 stock index was up 1.4 percent at 10,338 points, about as much as it had fallen on Friday. Spanish government bonds were also higher.Image caption The reason the plane crashed is not yet clear Image caption The two houses partially collapsed after the crash Image caption The area was cordoned off as emergency services and investigators arrived Image caption Emergency workers recovered four bodies from the crash site previous slide next slide
A former director of technology firm Microsoft has died in a plane crash in the US, his family has confirmed.
Bill Henningsgaard, 54, was on board his own plane with his 17-year-old son Maxwell when the plane came down near Connecticut's Tweed New Haven airport.
Mr Henningsgaard, a Microsoft marketing executive for 14 years, had been travelling to the East Coast to help his son to choose a college.
The plane crashed into two homes, and two children are also feared dead.
The two homes in the town of East Haven caught fire. One witness said a woman was screaming that her children were trapped inside one of them.
A fire official has confirmed that four bodies were recovered from the site overnight.
The plane took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
Mr Henningsgaard worked at Microsoft from 1988 to 2002 before leaving the company to concentrate on philanthropy.
Social Venture Partners, a charitable foundation he helped to set up, paid tribute to him as someone who was "truly all-in for this community, heart, mind and soul".
The plane, a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, crashed at about 11:25 local time (15:25 GMT) on Friday as it approached the airport in rainy weather, say officials.
Tweed's airport manager said the pilot had been speaking to air traffic control, but did not issue any distress calls.
"All we know is that it missed the approach and continued on," said Lori Hoffman-Soares. "There were no distress calls as far as we know."A day before the second presidential debate of 2016, 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 retweeted a Breitbart interview with Juanita Broaddrick, a woman who accused former President Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonInviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 Trump says he never told McCabe his wife was 'a loser' MORE of rape.
EXCLUSIVE — Video Interview: Bill Clinton Accuser Juanita Broaddrick Relives Brutal Rapes:https://t.co/9j7f8VK9Md — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2016
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Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, retweeted Broaddrick on Saturday as she accused Democratic 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 of protecting a “rapist.”
“Her actions are horrific,” she said.
Hillary calls Trump's remarks "horrific" while she lives with and protects a "Rapist". Her actions are horrific. — Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) October 8, 2016
How many times must it be said? Actions speak louder than words. DT said bad things!HRC threatened me after BC raped me. — Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) October 8, 2016
Numerous Republicans have denounced Trump and rescinded their support after a leaked tape revealed the Republican nominee making sexually aggressive comments about women in 2005.
In an apology video late Friday, Trump threatened to go after Bill Clinton’s past in the second debate.Google's Buzz social network stands as one of the company's most high-profile missteps to date, but the search giant is taking the "last step" to put the failed service behind it. Past Buzz users received an email (discovered by Engadget) from Google yesterday saying that it's moving all Buzz data to Google Drive. A pair of archives will appear in all users' Drives: one private, which contains all Buzz data, and one public, which will show data that was previously made public, and is accessible to anyone with the link. Neither of the archives will count towards your Google Drive storage allowance. The shift will take place on July 17th, and any users worried about the transition can head to their Google Profile to delete any posts they don't want transfered.
Announced just two months after Google closed its unsuccessful collaborative messaging / editing platform Wave, Buzz was a social network that plugged into existing sharing tools. Users could share to services like Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, Blogger, and FriendFeed, or choose to "like" an article on platforms like Google Reader, straight from Gmail or their mobile.
In the days following its release, Buzz was caught up in a privacy controversy as confused Gmail users (who had never signed up for Buzz) found their email contact lists were made public, while public Picasa galleries and Google Reader shares were suddenly highlighted to a wider audience than expected. Buzz even sparked a lawsuit that cost Google $8.5 million. Less than two years after its release, Buzz was unceremoniously killed off. A new social network — Google+ — had already taken its place six months earlier.CTV Montreal
The kidnapping of Nicholas Tsouflidis, president of popular local breakfast chain Cora, was not connected to organized crime, police said on Friday.
In a statement, the SQ asked for the public's help tracing any witnesses to the kidnapping. Police believe that the motive for the crime was ransom or extortion.
"At the time of the event, at least two men reportedly arrived at the victim's residence in a blue sedan," they said. "The investigation suggests that the victim was abducted in order to obtain money in return and the kidnapping was not linked to organized crime."
Police say they are hoping someone in the area of Dagenais Blvd and Montee Champagnee in Laval near where he was found might have seen the vehicle, or that maybe someone knows who might have done this. The victim told police he did not know the men.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the SQ at 1-800-659-4264.
While the Surete du Quebec did not identify the kidnapped man, representatives of the chain confirmed it was Tsouflidis on Thursday. The night before at around 10:00 p.m., 44-year-old Tsouflidis was forcibly taken from his Mirabel home and was found, bound by duct tape, 18 kilometres away in Laval.
At around 6 a.m. that day, an unnamed witness phoned in to Montreal radio station 98.5 FM to report that a man, then unidentified, had been kidnapped and found wandering out from a roadside ditch, confused.
“I saw that he was bound with duct tape. He was very happy to see us—he kept repeating ‘I was kidnapped, I was kidnapped,’” the witness told 98.5 FM.
The investigation has been put in the hands of the Surete du Quebec, who said the man was taken to hospital as a preventive measure. They would not confirm the identity of the suspect, and would not shed light on the motive.
Tsouflidis is the youngest son of franchise founder Cora Tsouflidou, who opened the first “Chez Cora” snack bar in 1987. The chain now boasts 50 locations in Quebec, and more than 130 across Canada. Nicholas Tsouflidis took over as president in 2008 after holding numerous positions in the restaurant since its inception.
Lucie Normandin, vice-president of the Cora Group, said in an interview that it will be up to police to determine why Tsouflidis was kidnapped.
"Nicholas is fine," she said in an interview, adding she'd just spoken to him. "Like the news said, he was kidnapped and he was released. Someone found him."
Normandin said she had no idea why he would be kidnapped.
Friends said he is resting at home and too shaken up to speak with reporters.
With files from Sidhartha Banerjee of The Canadian PressI wrote here about President Obama’s plans to redistribute wealth from the suburbs to the cities, as exposed by Stanley Kurtz in his book Spreading The Wealth: How Obama Is Robbing The Suburbs To Pay For the Cites. Stanley returns to this theme in a post about the latest element of the president’s regionalist policy — the July 19 publication of a Department of Housing and Urban Development regulation broadening the obligation of recipients of federal aid to “affirmatively further fair housing.”
As Stanley explains, the apparent purpose of this rule change is to force suburban neighborhoods with no record of housing discrimination to build more public housing targeted to ethnic and racial minorities. Several administration critics have noticed the change and challenged it, even as the mainstream media declines to cover the story.
But, says Stanley, the underlying thrust of the rule change is more revolutionary than forcing racial and ethnic diversity on the suburbs:
The new HUD rule is really about changing the way Americans live. It is part of a broader suite of initiatives designed to block suburban development, press Americans into hyper-dense cities, and force us out of our cars. Government-mandated ethnic and racial diversification plays a role in this scheme, yet the broader goal is forced “economic integration.” The ultimate vision is to make all neighborhoods more or less alike, turning traditional cities into ultra-dense Manhattans, while making suburbs look more like cities do now. In this centrally-planned utopia, steadily increasing numbers will live cheek-by-jowl in “stack and pack” high-rises close to public transportation, while automobiles fall into relative disuse.
To help us understand this vision, Stanley turns to San Francisco and its “Plan Bay Area” program:
Essentially, Plan Bay Area attempts to block the development of any new suburbs, forcing all population growth over the next three decades into the existing “urban footprint” of the region. The plan presses 70-80 percent of all new housing and 66 percent of all business expansion into 150 or so “priority development areas” (PDAs), select neighborhoods near subway stations and other public transportation facilities. This scheme will turn up to a quarter of the region’s existing neighborhoods–many now dotted with San Francisco’s famously picturesque, Victorian-style single-family homes–into mini-Manhattans jammed with high-rises and tiny apartments. The densest PDAs will be many times denser than Manhattan. In effect, by preventing the development of new suburbs, and reducing traditional single-family home development in existing suburbs, Plan Bay Area will squeeze 30 years worth of in-migrating population into a few small urban enclaves, and force most new businesses into the same tight quarters. The result will be a steep increase in the Bay Area’s already out-of-control housing prices |
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It’s rare when President Trump lays bare the contradiction at the heart of his push for tax reform so specifically. But, here you go, in one tweet clocking in at only 108 characters.
Great numbers on Stocks and the Economy. If we get Tax Cuts and Reform, we'll really see some great results! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2017
The economy, Trump says, is doing great! (Or rather, the capital-E Economy.) If Congress approves tax reform (“Tax Reform”), though, then the results will be … great.
This contradiction has been an undercurrent to the administration’s efforts from the get-go. During his September speech in Indiana, where he kicked off his efforts to reform the tax code, the same contradiction was obvious.
“Already, we’re seeing the results of an economic policy that finally puts America first,” he said, referring to the economy as it is currently. “Unemployment is at a 16-year low. Unemployment for African Americans is near its lowest point since the turn of the millennium. It’s really a fantastic thing to see. Wages are rising. Optimism among manufacturers has reached all-time highs. GDP growth last quarter reached 3 percent way ahead of schedule; nobody thought that was going to happen for a long time.”
A bit later, he transitioned.
“America is back on the right track. … But our country and our economy cannot take off like they should unless we dramatically reform America’s outdated, complex and extremely burdensome tax code. It’s a relic. We’ve got to change it. We have to compete — compete with other countries. The current tax system is a colossal barrier standing in the way of America’s economic comeback because it can be far greater than it’s ever been.”
We have our cake. We will also eat that cake.
The most explicit demonstration of this was on jobs and wages. “Unemployment is at a 16-year low” and “wages are rising,” he said. Then, a bit later, when outlining the key goals of the plan: “We will cut taxes on American businesses to restore our competitive edge and create more jobs and higher wages for American workers.”
One can interpret Trump’s argument as his intention to do the good things for which he’s already taking credit, and to do more of them. It’s certainly not a given that Trump deserves all the accolades for the economy, mind you; most Americans still credit former president Barack Obama with the economy’s strength. The stock market boom began in 2009. The country’s seen positive job growth every month since 2010.
Nor is it clear that there’s much space for the unemployment rate to fall further. The Federal Reserve figures that the natural unemployment rate, accounting for things like job movement, is between 4.4 and 5 percent — higher than the rate right now. Thirteen states hit record-low unemployment this year. It’s not clear how much lower the rate can get.
Of course, the tax plan that’s before Congress doesn’t focus directly on increasing wages. The White House has highlighted a study showing that cutting corporate taxes will increase the average household income in the United States, a study that is both (a) contested and (b) takes advantage of the difference between average incomes (inflated by massive incomes) and median incomes (the level at which half of incomes are higher and half lower).
The idea is that by cutting corporate taxes (and otherwise easing the burden for companies), those businesses will then hire more and pay employees higher salaries. As it stands, businesses are already cash-rich, with more liquid assets at their disposal than at any other point in history. When businesses receive an infusion of cash, there’s not much evidence of late that they translate that directly into benefits for employees. At an event this week featuring Trump’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, a roomful of business leaders were asked if they planned to increase capital investment in their companies — that is, to invest in expanding in a way that might help bolster job growth. Few indicated that they were.
Cutting taxes for the middle class would have the indirect result of increasing take-home pay, of course, though this isn’t the GOP’s argument. Instead, the argument is that the tax cuts will be “rocket fuel” for the economy (to use White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s evocative phrase from Thursday) and that wages will rise as businesses grow and employers compete to hire workers. But even that indirect increase in wages from tax cuts seems like it will be short-lived. An analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation released this week indicated that taxes will increase by 2027 for everyone who makes less than $75,000 a year.
Trump wants the tax bill to pass for a few reasons. One is that he needs a political victory, having seen his other major policy efforts die on the vine. Another is that he himself will almost certainly benefit. A third is that he probably believes his rhetoric about spurring the economy.
Yet he also can’t say the economy isn’t doing well, because that reflects poorly on him and, well, because it’s hard to make that case. So he’s stuck in this weird position where he has to celebrate how well he’s doing on the economy and then argue that he needs to do so much more.
So far, that apparent contradiction doesn’t seem to have dissuaded many congressional Republicans from backing his proposal.In the beginning, there was imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels.
And it was good.
Then came the coconut, coffee, vanilla beans, chile peppers, mint, hazelnut, maple syrup, cinnamon, chocolate, cocoa nibs, various nuts and endless amounts of fruit.
Some of it was good.
Some of it was not so good.
And some of it was undrinkable.
When pioneered in the mid-1990s, imperial stout aged in whiskey-soaked charred oak was a gorgeous melding of beer meeting barrel, then blended to perfection: naturally occurring notes of chocolate, char, vanilla, coconut, marshmallow, bourbon and oak.
In recent years, a craft beer industry forever intent on finding the next big thing has drowned its barrel-aged stouts in endless adjuncts, adding flavor upon flavor upon flavor until the original character is lost in a haze of sweetness and spice.
Beer drinkers call them pastry stouts.
Revolution Brewing has had just about enough.
Chicago’s largest brewery not named Goose Island or Lagunitas is releasing a whopping eight beers this winter for its increasingly ambitious Deep Wood Series of barrel-aged beers. Six of them have no adjuncts. The two that do have one adjunct each: coffee and cherry. The relative simplicity is very much by design.
“Honestly, I don’t get excited by putting extra things in beer,” Revolution brewmaster Jim Cibak said. “At a great winery, if they want peach character, they don’t put peach in — they know what grapes will get peach character. As brewers, we’re looking to showcase our barrels.
All eight Deep Wood beers will be released in four-packs of 12-ounce cans and priced at the Revolution taproom at $25, $30 or $35. That maps out to a per-ounce price decrease — yes, decrease — from last year, when just four barrel-aged beers were released, and in 22-ounce bottles. This year’s crop will be released at four separate release parties in November, December and January at Revolution’s taproom (3340 N. Kedzie Ave.).
The beers and their release dates will be:
Nov. 17 and 18
Deth’s Tar (imperial oatmeal stout aged in bourbon barrels; 14.8 percent alcohol; widely available in Revolution’s eight-state distribution network)
Cafe Deth (Deth’s Tar steeped with Dark Matter and Gaslight coffee beans; 14.8 percent; limited distribution)
Deth by Cherries (Deth’s Tar with cherry puree added; 13.1 percent; taproom only)
Dec. 8
Ryeway to Heaven (imperial rye ale aged in rye whiskey barrels; 13 percent; taproom only)
Very Special Old Deth (Deth's Tar aged two years in bourbon barrels; 13.4 percent; limited distribution)
Jan. 12
Straight Jacket (barleywine aged in bourbon barrels; 13.1 percent; limited distribution)
Mineshaft Gap (Straight Jacket aged in Cognac barrels; 14.3 percent; taproom only)
Double Barrel Very Special Old Deth (aged one year in bourbon barrels, one year in Woodford Reserve Double Oaked and Whistle Pig 10-year rye barrels, then blended; 17 percent; taproom only)
(You might want to read all that again.
We’ll wait.
OK.
Moving on.)
Revolution’s Deep Wood Series has morphed in recent years, from mostly porters in 22-ounce bottles to the new motif: mostly stouts in 12-ounce cans. That’s likely to be the case going forward.
The 12-ounce can has been a rare vessel for such high-octane beers, but Revolution sees it as a superior fit, compared with the typical 22-ounce or 750-milliliter bottle. It allows for a single hearty serving or can be an ideal size to split. (For real: Six ounces of 14 percent stout is just about perfect.) A 22-ounce bottle practically demands an occasion unto itself.
But what excites Revolution brewers most is the beer itself, and the complexity derived from the simplicity of aging stout in wood with no other tricks.
The exception are the two stouts featuring coffee and cherry. Revolution sees them as barely a stretch compared with some other stouts showing up these days.
“They’re classic adjuncts for the style — not that out there,” Marty Scott, who manages the barrel program, said. “They have a following. Everyone knows a cherry stout and at least one coffee stout. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Don’t worry. Should you prefer Butterscotch Peppermint Black Licorice Banana Pepper Stout, Revolution is there for you; a lengthy list of single-keg versions of busily flavored beers will be available at each tapping events.
“We’ll have some adjunct-heavy beers for that crowd,” Scott said.
But not too many.
“We’re a little selfish and like to brew what we like to drink,” Cibak said. “We’re not sitting around a table saying, ‘What do you think people will think is cool?’ I have to face my friends and don’t want to be laughed at because I put some weird crap in my beer.”
jbnoel@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @hopnotesHollywood producer and now the center of a sexual assault scandal, Harvey Weinstein, recently pledged $100,000 to Planned Parenthood at their 100th anniversary gala.
Weinstein and his wife attended the abortion giant’s gala in New York City in May and pledged $100,000 dollars to the organization along with countless other celebrities, according to Newsbusters. Tickets to the gala sold for a minimum of $125 and maximum of $100,000.
News of Weinstein’s pledge and alleged support for women’s rights have received heat after the Weinstein Company fired him on Sunday following a New York Times story accusing him of sexual harassment.
Planned Parenthood says Weinstein did not make good on his pledge. “Harvey Weinstein is not and has never been a donor to Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The $100,000 pledge referenced went unfulfilled,” a Planned Parenthood spokesperson told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.
Liberals have professed outrage that women’s rights organizations like Planned Parenthood and Emily’s List would accept pledges or dirty money from Weinstein, especially given the fact that many Hollywood activists were aware of what had been transpiring since 2013.
The New Yorker published a second piece with allegations of sexual assault by three more women, and now audio has been released of Weinstein allegedly harassing one of his victims. Actresses Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow have come forward saying they were also sexually harassed by Weinstein when they were starting their careers in Hollywood.
Actor George Clooney, who worked with Weinstein for 20 years, said he never witnessed the studio head’s history of sexual harassment, but he admitted that he had heard rumors. Clooney said that looking at things now it’s clear that there were warning signs, but he never would have thought that Weinstein was abusing women and then paying them to keep quiet.
Follow Grace on Twitter.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.BTOB’s Yook Sungjae will be a special MC on “M!Countdown”!
“M!Countdown” has confirmed that Yook Sungjae will be a special MC on the March 9 broadcast of the show. He will be hosting with regular MC Key of SHINee that day.
Yook Sungjae has experience hosting a music show by being a MC on “Inkigayo” last year with Kim Yoo Jung and GOT7’s Jackson, so many fans are excited to see him take on the role again.
Meanwhile, BTOB made a comeback on March 6 with their tenth mini-album “Feel’eM” and are getting great feedback with their title song “Movie.”
After their comeback, the singer relayed his thoughts through his agency on March 7, saying, “We will work hard and have more fun during our promotion to give back to our fans who have done so much. I am so proud of our members who have come this far without giving up on music and are very passionate about it. I am really happy and glad that I am a member of BTOB.”
Source (1)The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) warned Sunday that "the Israeli democracy is in danger". The stark warning was noted in an Association report on discrimination in Israel, published on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the UN human rights decree.
The report examined civil rights observations and breaches in Israel and the territories in 2008, and its finding indicate severe detriment to basic human rights, the likes of the right dignity, privacy, healthcare, education and housing.
Sanctioned Bias? Olmert: Discrimination against Arabs deliberate Sharon Roffe-Ofir Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says longtime discrimination against Israeli Arabs seeking public service posts deliberate; PM says that complete absence of Arab employees at Bank of Israel 'terrible' Olmert: Discrimination against Arabs deliberate
The report also warns of new threats of freedom of speech, racism and the erosion of democracy.
According to the team which compiled the report, the problem stems form the lack to true internalization and constitutional anchoring of quality as a value in Israeli society.
Exploring the matter of discrimination, the report states that since the inception of the State of Israel, Israeli Arabs have been subject to discrimination via legislation, the allocation of resources and through the existence of bodies such as the Jewish Agency and Jewish National Fund.
With some 90,000 Arabs living in mixed cities, the differences between the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods is evident is all aspects of life and the fabric of the relations between the Arab and Jews living in these cities is riddled with violence and racism, as seen in the Yom Kippur riots in Akko.
The report goes on to note severe discrimination in the allocation of housing land, saying that while the Arab population had grown seven times over since 1948, about 50% of the land previously owned by Arab has been confiscated. Moreover, while 600 Jewish communities have been established since 1948, no new Arab ones have been formed.
Arabs make up 20% of Israel's population, added the report, but the entirety of the Arab authorities' jurisdiction, comes to only 2.5% of the State.
As for the situation in east Jerusalem, the report states that Israel is adamant to keep a Jewish majority in the city by pushing its Arab residents out. Furthermore, 67% of the Palestinian families living in the area – including 77.2% of children – live under the poverty line; compared to 21% of the Jewish families and 39.1% of Jewish children.
An apartheid State?
The West Bank settlements, continues the report, have created a situation of institutionalized discrimination in the area, which houses two separate populations living under two separate and contrasting judicial systems.
The discrimination noted in the allocation of funds and services in the area, said the report, "is in clear violation of the principle of equality and is very much reminiscent of the apartheid in South Africa."
Settler violence against Arabs has been steadily increasing, and abusing Palestinian property has become the norm. From the onset of 2008, said the report, 430 people were killed in the West Bank by the Israeli security forces and over 1,150 were wounded. Many of the casualties were bystanders no involved in the fighting.
According to the ACRI, Israel is making extensive use of administrative arrests measures against Palestinians: By the end of September 2008, Israel had 599 Palestinians in administrative custody.
Furthermore, the restrictions Israel has places on movement across the West Bank often hinders patients from getting to medical facilities and the closing of the crossing is preventing patients from getting treatment in Israel, even if they have the proper permits.
The reports counted 360 checkpoints and roadblocks across the West Bank, and said that an additional 85 random roadblocks are set up every week.
Bias against women, handicapped
The report next examined discrimination against women in Israel, noting that they are still widely discriminated against in the workplace.
Women still make less money than men in all corporate levels and in nearly every profession. Unemployment rates for woman are significantly higher than those of men, and the women's representation in the Israeli academia is 10% lower that the average in any of the European Union nations.
Women, said the report, are still highly exposed to sexual harassment in the workplace and the law enforcement authorities seem powerless against the phenomenon.
Legislative Measures Ultra-Orthodox, immigrants discriminated by local authorities Zvi Lavi Troubling results from poll conducted by Knesset Research and Information Center pushes MK Ophir Pines to revise anti-discriminatory bill to include Haredim, immigrants on after women, Israeli-Arabs, disabled Ultra-Orthodox, immigrants discriminated by local authorities
As for communal discrimination, the report notes that discrimination between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic populations is virtually nonexistent, with the exception of the ultra-Orthodox school system; however, the socioeconomic gap between the two has grown, which cements the historical notion of discrimination.
The report than tackled discrimination against the handicapped public. Many services remain physically inaccessible to them, and the unemployment rate remains high, compared with the rest of the population.
The socioeconomic state of Israel's handicapped had gravely deteriorated over the past few years, and is now considered the worst among Western nations. The average income of a handicapped person in Israel, said the report, was 70% lower that the average income in the market.
The report further cites that despite progressive labor legislation, employees' rights are still violated, mostly due to lack of enforcement.
The State commitment to an equally-implemented public health system has also lapsed over the years, to the point of having two different caliber healthcare systems – one for the rich and one of the poor.
And what of immigrant assimilation within the Israeli society? The ACRI noted that the wages earned by immigrant from the former Soviet Union is 30% lower than that of Israelis and that the language barrier prompts employer exploitation.
Ethiopian immigrants do not fare better: Their wages are lower than both that of the Soviet Union counterparts and Israelis, and their overall employment rate is 10% lower that that of the entire population. Moreover, 65% of Ethiopian immigrants have active case files with social services.
Ethiopian children have a harder time assimilating in the Israeli school system, added the repot. The community has a 4% dropout rate for students in grades seven to 12; and only 39.14% graduate high school, as opposed to 63.8% of Jewish students.
One step forward, two steps back
Israel, added the report, practices religious coercion, in the sense that it enforces the Orthodox marital decree and does not allow its citizens to marry or divorce in civil procedures.
The ACRI does note one proverbial ray of light in the form of gay rights, saying Israel has a relatively progressing gay rights doctrine compared to other Western counties, and that the Israeli law now allows gay couples the same legal statues as common-law couples.
When in comes to observing freedom of speech and expression, the report a reproaches the Shin Bet for menacing journalists and political activist whose public activities were deems "unacceptable."
Moreover, the threat to cyber free speech has increased over the last two years, following various bills brought before the Knesset. The Israeli Freedom of Information Act is not implemented properly, and the authorities are still hindering access to information.
As for refugee rights, the report said the Israel has yet to formulate a clear refugee policy, and so it has one of the lowest recognitions rates in the Western world.
The ACRI quotes a Refugee Forum report stating that there were 12,500 refugees who sought asylum in Israel in 2008, and that "the ways in which the State has chosen to deal with those seeking asylum varied from disregard and neglect through the odd humanitarian gesture, to taking severe measure of deterrence."An anti-demonetisation rally was planned by the Aam Aadmi Party at Rohtak, where Kejriwal raised doubts about the stated motive of the demonetisation of high value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
While Arvind Kejriwal questioned the demonetisaion move announced on November 8 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a shoe came flying towards the Delhi Chief Minister.
However, the shoe fell short of the stage, Kejriwal was delivering his speech, but it caused a little chaos and panic among the security personnel and Aam Aadmi Party supporters present there.
Policemen went after the shoe-thrower, but Kejriwal appealed to them to let the offender go free. Kejriwal said, "Let him go. He is a Modi Bhakt."
But, the AAP supporters captured and thrashed the shoe-thrower before handing him over to the police.
The accused was later identified as Vikas Kumar of Dadri district. He was taken to the Urban Estate police station.
Later, Arvind Kejriwal took to twitter to lash out at the PM saying that he would continue to expose 'the note ban scam'.An immigrant shouted ‘I want to die for Allah’ as he was escorted away after attacking a police officer with a knife in Italy.
The 31-year-old Guinean man, identified as Saidou Mamoud Diallo, was immobilised and arrested on Monday afternoon [July 17] for attempted murder, Corriere della Sera reports.
According to the paper, Diallo was seen near Central Station in Milan where airport shuttles depart.
An airport shuttle attendant noticed him shouting and asked if he needed something, at which point he pulled out a knife and made threats.
The shuttle crew barricaded themselves in the shuttle bus in fear of Diallo, who was visibly distressed and shaking his knife. The bus occupants then called the police.
When police attended and restrained Diallo, he managed to attack one of the officers in the shoulder. Fortunately the police officer, who was taken to hospital, was wearing a bullet proof vest and only suffered a minor injury.
Investigations revealed that Diallo, who had no identification on him when he was apprehended, had given the authorities four other pseudonyms when stopped in the past for, among others, threatening behaviour and resistance to public officials. He also had an extradition order issued to him on July 4.
Roberto Maroni, president of the Lombardy region, wrote on his Facebook page: “He was subject to an extradition order from the Sondrio Police headquarters, yet he moved in our territory free and undisturbed.
“I express solidarity with the affected officer and all forces of order that guarantee our security and defend us from these crazy criminals every day.”
Silvia Sardone, a Milan City councillor from the centre-right Forza Italia party, said: “An emergency situation has been underestimated for years by the left in this town, which continues to oppose a serious security plan in the area to counteract crime and degradation.”
She accused the left of preferring “the squalor of hundreds of immigrants” to trying to “save this area, entry gate to so many tourists in the city.”
The paper states that the police are not currently treating the incident as a terrorist attack, as there is nothing to suggest Diallo has been radicalised.
The incident is similar to another which took place in the same area in May, when a half Tunisian man attacked a policeman and two soldiers with a kitchen knife.Election 2016 ad tracker: How much are the parties spending?
Updated
The Liberal and Labor parties have spent millions of dollars on advertising during this election — but who spent what, where did they spend it and when?
And did the parties run positive ads to promote their own causes or negative ads to attack their opponents?
Use our ad tracker to find out.
Overall ad spending
The Liberal Party outspent Labor in the major metropolitan TV markets, according to estimates put together by ad analytics company Ebiquity.
Most of the spending was right at the beginning of the campaign — and right at the end. Both parties' spending was relatively low-key in the middle of the campaign.
Ebiquity chief executive Richard Basil-Jones said the high spending in the first few days could not realistically continue throughout an eight-week campaign.
"What we've seen in previous elections, both 2010 and 2013, is a bit of noise at the beginning, then quietly, quietly, still presence there. Then the last two weeks the accelerator flat to the floor," Mr Basil-Jones said.
This has proved to be the pattern of this campaign as well.
The Labor Party spent an estimated $4.7 million on advertising spots on free-to-air television, radio and press — just in the biggest capital cities.
The Liberal Party maintained its reputation as the wealthier party with $6 million spent.
The Greens have spent about $480,000.
Positive versus negative ads
Ebiquity also counts how much the parties are spending to air positive versus negative campaign ads.
The data shows the Liberal Party did not spend money on negative TV advertising spots on television until half way through the campaign.
However, this doesn't take into account the online space.
Mr Basil-Jones said the Liberal Party was sharing a range of negative ads about Labor and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten exclusively through its online and social channels.
Ebiquity does not track how much is spent on social media but keeps a log of all the new campaigns — and social has a smorgasbord of negative advertising from both the Liberal and Labor parties.
Advertising creative Dee Madigan said negative ads worked better to attract people to follow the parties on social media or visit their websites.
"The reason why negative ads are particularly good online is because negative ads drive people to find out more information and positive ads don't tend to," she said.
Where does this data come from?
This data has been provided to the ABC by advertising services company Ebiquity, which monitors free-to-air channels, newspapers, magazines, and radio for their advertising content.
The figures do not count what it costs to make the ads; nor do they count mail-outs, outdoor ads, subscription television, or any of the social media videos the parties are distributing online — including by paying to get them into Australians' feeds.
The up-to-date figures can only be estimated, as the parties negotiate rates just like any other brand advertising a product.
Ebiquity uses computers to track the media and recognise the digital fingerprint of the TV or radio files.
If the computer has heard the ad before, it counts the incident. If it's a new campaign, a person views it and categorises the commercial before filing it in Ebiquity's database.
"If you wanted to find an ad with, literally, Tony Abbott holding a baby, we've written that in. It'll find that ad where Tony Abbott is holding a baby," Mr Basil-Jones said.
The content data is then matched up with estimates of how much the ad spot cost to air.
Topics: federal-election, government-and-politics, federal-government, advertising, political-parties
First postedThe worst of news to start the week with, as a cyclist died after a collision in Lewisham town centre during Monday morning’s rush hour.
The car involved did not stop at the scene of the incident in Loampit Vale, but a man has since has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
This is the stretch of A20 which was originally going to be included as part of a cycle superhighway from Victoria, until route CS5 was cut short to New Cross Gate last November.
At the time, Transport for London said “opportunities to introduce Cycle Superhighway-type infrastructure are limited” – essentially, it didn’t want to tackle the New Cross one-way system and the A20 into Lewisham.
Earlier this month, TfL announced that initial work between the Oval and New Cross Gate will be finished this autumn, with the lanes to be “semi-segregated” during 2014, but also that “various options” were being considered to restore the Lewisham leg of the route as well as links to other areas east of New Cross Gate.
At the time, that looked like a bit of a fobbing-off, but Monday’s tragedy is a reminder of just how important that original idea was.
Hopefully it will also concentrate the minds of local politicians, with the Lewisham Cyclists group complaining that Lewisham Council has been ignoring its attempts to start a dialogue about much-needed improvements. (In Greenwich, such a dialogue does exist, but the council’s leadership isn’t interested.)
The site of the Loampit Vale collision – between the junctions with Thurston Road and Elmira Street – is also on one of south London’s best-known leisure cycling routes – the Waterlink Way, which runs from Deptford to South Norwood.
Incidentally, there’s still no news on what’s happening with CS4, the planned cycle superhighway from London Bridge to Deptford, Greenwich and Woolwich, although Greenwich Council has undertaken some works on the A206 through Greenwich and Woolwich to make cycle paths more prominent.
However, buried in a TfL press release last Friday was news that Greenwich Council had been given £200,000 for “pedestrian and public realm improvements” in Greenwich town centre, billed as a “package of measures to improve air quality including widening and improving the quality of footway linkages in Greenwich Town Centre and smoothing the flow of buses and taxis”. This doesn’t seem like a revival of the shelved pedestrianisation scheme, but what it means for cyclists, walkers and drivers remains to be seen.
Thanks to Clare Griffiths for the picture of the scene from Tuesday afternoon.Sobriety and driver’s license checkpoints in Pomona and Chino resulted in 10 arrests for driving under the influence, 53 citations and 12 vehicles were towed, police said.
The checkpoint in Chino was held in the 11600 block of Central Avenue from 8 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday
A total of 1,094 vehicles passed through the Chino checkpoint, the police department shared on its Facebook account.
Of those screened, seven were arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Chino police said 15 motorists were cited for driving without licenses or with suspended licenses.
An unknown number of motorists were also cited or arrested for carrying a concealed firearm and having outstanding warrants.
In Pomona, officers not only conducted a checkpoint but citywide DUI patrols, the police said in a news release.
The checkpoint was held at Mission Boulevard and Curran Place from 9 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday. Citywide patrols were conducted from 7 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday.
A total of 1,765 vehicles passed through the checkpoint.
Three motorists were arrested on suspicion for driving while under the influence of alcohol. One was arrested for an outstanding warrant and 38 motorists were cited/arrested for driving without a license or for having a suspended/revoked license, the release said.Get the biggest Everton FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Everton left-back Luke Garbutt has revealed Romelu Lukaku's mental block over heading the ball.
The Blues defender, who is on loan at Wigan Athletic, recalled how the Belgium international told him he avoided headers as much as possible due to a childhood injury.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with his friend Alex Mearns for the Football Hour podcast, Garbutt spoke on a range of topics - including his desire to resurrect his Everton career.
The 23-year-old, who has largely been on the bench for the Latics this term, discussed his time at Everton so far, his frustration at not playing and his wider thoughts on various issues.
Discussing Lukaku, Mearns said: "Garbs I wanted you to recall a story you told me once, about one and a half years ago, about big Romelu Lukaku.
"You'd think he wins headers all the time. But I remember you said you put a ball in during training and he didn't head it and I remember you asked him why and he said 'I had an accident when I was a kid and I don't like heading the ball'. Was that true?
Garbutt replied: "At the time he wasn't particularly confident and I don't know if he was ducking out of the way of headers.
"Because he's scored a header this season against Sunderland and has had a couple of good opportunities where he's stuck his head in there; I don't know whether Koeman has said to him he needs to do more in the air or whatever.
"He used to say to me that heading wasn't really his strong point.
"When you look at him you think he'd bully people in the air. You think if you out a good ball in he'd absolutely bury it. It's funny"
Garbutt also discusses his thoughts on what Everton should be aiming for this season.
Asked whether they could be dark horses for the Premier League title, he said: "A more realistic aim is to be hitting around 4th or 5th. I think to be challenging at the top would be hard. One or two injuries and we're a bit suspect.
"Could I come back? That could be an option.
"There's a lot of quality in the league this year. But that big game experience sometimes...last year we played really well in spells and then just dropped off and concede stupid goals.
"This year the manager has cut out those mistakes and we're a lot more solid. Last year we conceded 18 goals from set pieces I think and that's just not good enough. That's not going to win you anything
"On our day we're very good. We've got tougher tests to come which will see if we're challenging for Europe at the top or maybe seventh or eighth but the signs are good for the future.
"Koeman is the right man for the job I think."
Garbutt responds to several other questions about his team-mates and Goodison and other issues in the game
On whether Wayne Rooney will return to Everton?
"If you put him into any team he's going to improve it. Why wouldn't you have him back at Everton?
(Mearns: So I'm looking forward to seeing you playing with him next year)
Garbutt: "Stranger things have happened haven't they?"
On Leighton Baines
"For arguably five or six seasons he was the best left back in Europe, definitely the best in the Premier League.
"It was him and Ashley Cole who was getting on the other side of 30 and Baines was in his pomp. I just love the way he played. How he trained. Everything about him.
"I tried to base my style on him. We have a lot of similarities. He's a great guy with the younger players. It's frustrating because he has kind of stalled my progress in the Everton team a bit but I can't say anything negative about him.
"He was a top player and has had a couple of opportunities to go to massive clubs and they didn't quite work out but in terms of his Everton career he's done really well. I've got nothing negative to say about him."
On his current frustration
"This (loan) is only until January with a view to me playing more. If I'm not playing than obviously I'd love to move on in January
"It is weird. you have to adapt to different changing rooms and personalities. Sometimes I do feel as though I'd love a bit of continuity but in football you're always looking to be playing regularly.
"In that respect I've got a long term contract at Everton so I can try and play regularly at my loan club and hopefully go to Everton and play in their team.
"But if that doesn't work out and I've played well at my loan team then I can get a transfer somewhere else. You're always thinking to yourself 'I need to play football and I'll go anywhere to play."
"It's the only line of work whereby you put a graft in Monday to Friday and don't get really get rewarded on Saturday
"In this industry a lot of the time the manager might have a view and he drops you from the team and you find it very hard to get back in the team.
"Communication is a massive thing at a football club I feel; between the players and the manager there needs to be that communication no matter if you're in the conference or the Premier League.
"I think players will always look up to a manager if he tells you as it is. If you get dropped from a team but he's not telling you why or the things you need to do to get back in that team, you're constantly thinking what am I doing wrong?
"You might not have played well on a Saturday but you don't know. The manager should tell you what you need to improve, what you're doing well. Player management is a big thing."
On John Stones
"When he was telling me how emotional he was when he got the move (to Manchester City) I couldn't be happier for him.
"It's the best move he could have. Playing for the best manager in the world and possibly the biggest super power club in the world It's a great fit for a young payer. Going from Everton, which is a great club, to one of the biggest clubs.
"It's a compliment to how well he's done. In the 18-23 bracket he's probably the Number One centre-back in the world. He's just like a kid day to day; joking and messing about. If you know him as well as I do. It's mad.
On playing five games in Europe for Everton
"To be fair I excelled in my European games - especially the Wolfsburg |
them.
Most organic traffic will first build trust in your brand well before they start a free trial of your product. Moz found that on average, it takes seven-and-a-half visits to their website before someone opts for a free trial of their product.
And guess where these pre-free trial visits take place at Moz’s website?
As per Rand,
Four or five of those are usually to content, not to the sales pages, not to the pricing page or anything that’s in our funnel. And usually two of those touches come from social, a few come from organic search, usually one or two are direct.
If you have a conversion-focused mindset, you might even think that so many website visits are a waste. The sheer numbers increase organic traffic to your conversion funnel.
But guess what happens if a visitor starts his Moz’s free trial after just two or three visits to their website?
Usually such a visitor doesn’t end up getting through Moz’s free trial and forget opting for the paid subscription.
Huh. Didn’t see that coming, did you?
Hence Moz have a clear demarcation between content marketing and their conversion funnel.
Which brings me to another major business impact when you publish high-quality content, build backlinks, consider conversion optimization and perform SEO of your website.
This form of website optimization positively influences your website’s credibility and helps you gain authority in the eyes of Google.
Even when you publish product pages with the goal of conversion optimization, you’ll find that they start ranking on page one of Google for your target keyword, without building any backlinks to that particular page.
Let me share an example in the ecommerce space to illustrate my point.
Look at the result for the keyword “men’s tuxedos” below. Nordstrom’s page is right there at the top. It’s not there because it has the most backlinks or social media shares, but because of Nordstrom’s search engine optimization and overall website authority.
In Rand’s words,
Because Nordstrom is a brand that, on and off the web, has built a remarkable reputation on all of the positive signals around its brand and its website as a whole.
If you’re planning to launch a new eCommerce store, you might be thinking well, that’s them and they are Nordstrom. I don’t have that authority in the industry or money under my belt.
Is it possible for a new eCommerce website owner to compete with the likes of Amazon (doing millions of dollars of sales every month)?
The answer is a qualified yes.
Brian Dean shared his reader Chris Laursen’s study in which he ranked his new eCommerce website in Denmark without writing a single word. His website JustBuyIt.com was in the consumer electronics space.
So, how did he manage to rank his website without writing content?
By finding moved or expired resources in his industry and contacting their webmasters for links to his website’s product and category pages, and focusing on website optimization.
It’s called the Moving Man’s Method by Brian Dean, and it is a key method in search engine optimization. By spending just an hour on outreach, Chris was able to dramatically increase the number of referring websites to JustBuyIt.
These contextually relevant links even gave him a boost in referral traffic and conversion optimization.
You can watch the breakdown of the backlink strategy in the video below by Brian Dean.
If you want to learn more about launching SEO (search engine optimization), website optimization and content marketing campaigns for organic traffic, then you might want to read these two articles.
You should also perform technical SEO (search engine optimization) of your website at this stage to help search engines easily index your website. Refer to my beginner’s guide to getting started with technical SEO.
As you invest time doing SEO (search engine optimization) and content marketing, you’ll start seeing traffic through your website optimization. This means you can shrink your paid advertising budget, both online and offline.
Side note for websites with an ad impression-based business model
You need not go beyond this traffic building stage, because your conversion itself is roping in more traffic, more on-page time and a lower bounce rate.
Just set this as a goal in Google Analytics and keep rolling with more traffic, focusing on website optimization, whilst keeping in mind your conversion funnel.
You should just test your ad placements. My article on overcoming banner blindness is a good place to start when considering conversion optimization and the conversion funnel.
Note: I am not suggesting that you need to wait for 3 months to see the SEO traffic rolling and only then go to stage 2. If possible for you, then devote time to website optimization, SEO, content marketing and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) simultaneously.
There’s no one unique way to do website optimization and online marketing. If you have a considerable advertising budget, then you can craft a landing page, launch an advertising campaign and get leads to your website. This is effective conversion optimization. Just know that inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing.
Stage 2: There’s no SEO without CRO and vice-versa. Can both of you guys just go out for lunch or something?
You’ve already crafted brand-building content, while building authoritative and contextually relevant backlinks. Hopefully you also have a decent sized email list and you’re seeing a smooth traffic surge on your website.
This is pretty much the approach of building reputation with your target audience before launching your business.
But, why did you build traffic on your website using website optimization and SEO (search engine optimization) strategies?
Because you wanted to get conversions via organic traffic. Or, more precisely because you wanted to earn revenue from organic traffic.
You don’t want your website to leak money, do you?
Don’t fall into the trap of considering CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) as an enemy of SEO. Both of them are on the same team howling for your attention.
Although 90% of online experiences start with a search, you cannot dedicate your full marketing budget on gaining the top rank in SERPs.
Ranking for keywords is ultimately a vanity metric. You’ve got to now focus on providing smooth navigation for organic traffic and a superlative experience so that your customer can find what he came for on your website.
Let me share an example from my own business to demonstrate the importance of CRO.
We hired Conversion-Rate-Experts to optimize our homepage at Crazy Egg.
They did a great job by increasing our conversions by 30%.
How did they achieve it?
By converting our concise homepage into a long-form sales letter. The redesigned page was about 20 times as long as the control.
I was happy because you might already know how I bank for long-form content. I assumed that with long marketing copy, we could answer any concerns or objections our organic traffic would have. And so I assumed it would always increase conversions according to the conversion funnel model.
It was all puppies and flowers until…
When you look at the heatmap of that long-form homepage, you’ll find that it isn’t really getting any engagement towards the bottom (pricing).
Comes in Joanna from Copyhackers.
She does a bunch of segmented customer surveys on search engine optimization and develops 4 variations of the homepage to test.
Yes, shorter length pages were also included.
And guess what?
The winning page was a concise one without any fluff and stories. It was 60% shorter in length and it still answered the major concerns and objections of the visitors, and was designed with good consideration of the conversion funnel. A great example of website optimization.
The increase in conversions of organic traffic was 13%.
And my hypothesis on long-form copy working on every single occasion was proven wrong (I’ve written in detail when concise marketing works in this article).
That’s the reason I’ve spent over $252,000 hiring CRO consultants to perform tests on my website. Website traffic alone is an unreliable metric to determine the success of a business.
What’s the point if you get 10000 visitors a day on your website, but they bounce off within a couple of seconds?
You might still be worried that CRO (conversion rate optimization) will mess with your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts and lead to a loss of search engine based organic traffic to your website (which you surely don’t want to see).
Let’s broadly look at the factors that affect a webpage’s ranking ability and explore the ones that a CRO actually needs to test.
CRO will involve making changes to just these three aspects of search engine optimization from the above (unless you engage in something really fishy, your domain/page authority will remain the same and your website will also pass the spam test).
Suppose the CRO guy split-tests and makes changes to your page’s content, user & usage data and your on-page SEO such as keyword usage on search engines.
He finds the sweet combination of these elements that’s most relevant to the search engine users and increases your conversions.
But wait for a second…these changes aren’t just going to increase your conversions.
It’ll increase your conversion optimization, engagement and on-page time because the search engine user is now more interested in your page.
And woot…
You know how these two factors impact your rankings.
If you’re worried that the keyword and on-page usage changes made by a CRO are going to toy with SEO and organic traffic, there is no need to worry.
Additionally I want to give you 2 actionable strategies on how to implement a holistic marketing strategy that people on your SEO and CRO teams can discuss over lunch.
1. Your CRO found the exact frame of mind of a search engine user clicking on your website’s PPC ads to get on your landing pages.
His rigorous tests reveal that your content isn’t currently delivering on the user intent.
What can the SEO do from these insights?
That’s right. You can perform website optimization of your content to include the exact terms used by your audience and deliver on search engine user expectations. This will ensure that he feels comfortable on your website and makes the purchase, using conversion optimization.
Kate Morris shows a good live example of how landing pages insights by CRO from PPC campaigns can suggest changes to on-page SEO.
2. This next one is a classic coming from Brian Dean. He listed it in his SEO Copywriting article for getting traffic.
Let me start by asking you a simple question…do you want to get more clicks on your search results?
Of course you do.
A higher CTR will help you in gaining more traffic (taking into consideration the conversion funnel) for your website and ultimately even better rankings.
I’m sure that you know the snippet that appears in the search results known as the meta description.
Here’s an example to help you differentiate between an optimized and unoptimized one.
It’s a no-brainer which one would get more clicks. Right?
You might also know that using your target keyword is recommended in this search engine description. But, it’s 160 characters of summary text used to attract search engine users to your content.
How do you convince them that you’ve got THE online marketing solutions to your target audience’s problems?
By using proven words and phrases that are known to get search engine clicks.
Where can you find them?
That’s right, in those AdWords ads.
These ads cost a lot to online marketing companies, but are effective in delivering over 300% ROI to them.
You use them because they’re put up after thousands of split-tests to find the exact words that appeal the most to customers and get clicks.
So, embed those words in your meta description to make it more compelling.
Want an example?
Look at the initial listing of Brian Dean’s article on list building.
It ain’t very pretty.
The title tag is getting cut and the meta tag does not make much sense.
Brian looked for Adwords ads on the subject of his article – list building.
He found that all the ads that appeared for the keyword ‘list building’ used either of the words “email list” or “email lists”.
So he added it in his meta description.
And many adword ads also had the words “build” and “grow” in their copy.
So he incorporated this online marketing idea into his meta description as well.
Simple enough to do, right?
And, just like that, Brian had a online marketing listing that was more likely to attract clicks.
There are two tools that might help you in easily executing this strategy.
i. Spyfu.com – Just enter a keyword in this tool. Then scroll to the bottom.
You’ll get all the adwords ads for your entered keyword. Here are the results for ‘keyword research’.
ii. Yoast SEO – If you’re on WordPress, then this powerful plugin will make it really convenient for you to edit your meta description. You can embed keywords from Adword copy hassle free.
Note: You don’t need to worry that Google will get confused when you show different versions of a page to your users to compare users’ behavior (while performing A/B tests). Just make sure that you’re showing the same version of page to users as to the Googlebot (no cloaking).
And use the rel=canonical tag when running A/B tests with different URLs. You can read more tips in this article. Overall you need not worry, because Google encourages you to perform tests. The search giant even offers you its own software – Content Experiments, to perform landing page tests.
Stage 3: Let go of the battle between CRO vs SEO. Focus on delivering an unmatchable user experience to your visitors.
If you really look at your site at its roots, both CRO and SEO (search engine optimization) require you to care about the user. It’s not about feeding the search engine bots. Gaming the search engine algorithm isn’t sustainable and doesn’t work anymore.
5 years ago there were different online marketing factors affecting these two and user experience wasn’t even really in the mix. But, just look at the algorithmic updates Google has rolled out thus far.
Based on these updates, here is how SEO and CRO merge in delivering a superior usability to your customers, and, therefore, conversion optimization.
Speed is an important factor for rankings and slow loading time also hurts your conversions (a second delay is equivalent to a 7% loss in sales).
Serving value-adding and contextually relevant content is essential to get a page ranked in the SERPs. Similarly, to get more conversions, you need to serve a powerful value proposition (which is composed of persuasive and relevant copy ). Only then will the prospects move into your funnel.
Manipulative link building tactics aren’t sustainable now. You now need authoritative backlinks for getting to the top spots. If you build the links that derive maximum conversions, you’ll probably get the highest boost in rankings.
Using a content hierarchy with proper heading tags. A table-of-contents helps with SEO because it delivers on user expectations, but it also forces you to think about your message progression, which also lifts your conversions.
Still don’t think that investing thousands of dollars on user experience is justifiable?
Then watch the video below on the ROI of user experience.
Previously, I had predicted that user experience was the future of SEO. In fact, you can see traces of user experience dominance right now.
Look at the results for the term “online marketing.” My website Quick Sprout is right there at the top spot (above authoritative websites like Forbes and Wikipedia).
Now if you’ll look at the page level metrics, you will find that my guide doesn’t have the highest number of backlinks. Or even Page Authority.
But, it offers a high-quality experience to you, because I spent $40,000 on creating custom graphics and hiring subject-matter experts to write it with me.
Similarly for getting a clean, elegant and simple design that appeals to his target audience, Derek spent a staggering $25,000 for his new blog design. He looked around exclusively for designers who had a great eye and had won awards.
Another example of serving personalized experience to the audience is Pat Flynn. He shifted his massive email subscriber list (over 135,000 subscribers) from Aweber to Infusionsoft to Convertkit.
Why did he suffer through so much migration?
So that he could offer a personalized experience to his subscribers – only serving them the most relevant content, based on their interests.
Don’t play for the short term concentrating on increasing your conversions. If you trick a new visitor to get on an email list with negative messages in a popup, you aren’t going to retain them.
You need to think long-term.
The lifetime customer value of an engaged visitor who is persuaded by your value proposition will be a lot higher than that of someone whom you tricked to get on your email list.
Offering a good experience to your customers will also help you increase your customer loyalty and lead to conversion optimization. Harvard Business Review found that even a 5% increase in customer retention will help you raise your profits by 25%.
That’s why user experience optimization lies at the heart of conversion rate optimization. Start designing your website now, based on these important facets of user experience.
Conclusion
If your website doesn’t have enough traffic, then you need to start at stage 1 by creating killer content, because conversions won’t happen by simply testing your call-to-action button colors, placements, sizes or fonts.
You need to start a dialogue with your customer and create an emotional appeal for your brand. Only by crafting compelling words can you get there. Once your target audience finds you, you need to create a simple conversion path for them. All of this combined is conversion optimization.
What if you have sufficient traffic to run valid A/B tests? Then you can move to the stage 2 that I mentioned in this article. Combining your data from SEO and CRO efforts will help you to achieve higher engagement and sales.
Ultimately it’s all about nailing your target audience’s user intent. It’s about conversion optimization and putting deliberate effort into serving high-quality and semantically relevant content, while providing a delightful experience to your customers.
Remember there is always a way to bring CRO and SEO (search engine optimization) under the same umbrella. Even when your CRO tests and finds a flash-based website would get higher conversions in paid results, you need not worry about it ruining your SEO.
Kate shows you the five actionable steps you can take in such a scenario that will keep your website’s SEO intact and lead to conversion optimization.
By adopting a holistic marketing strategy, you’ll start driving more qualified visitors to your website. Marrying SEO and CRO will trigger a positive reinforcement loop that helps you in achieving your company’s online goals.
After reading this article, hopefully you won’t think in a CRO vs. SEO rivalry mindset.
It’s your turn now. Are you taking user experience into account when designing your digital marketing strategy? Have you got any personal case studies to share where CRO actually helped your website’s SEO (or vice-versa)?We gave Play Store version 5.9 the teardown treatment a few days ago, but it turns out we missed something. The latest release no longer automatically downloads app screenshots when you're not connected to Wi-Fi or LTE.
When on 3G or HSPA+, you will see vertical gray placeholders with download arrows on them in place of screenshots. Tapping them initiates a manual download.
When we tested things out, the arrows didn't go away after returning to LTE. But they did begin to pop up as usual after force closing the app.
This feature reduces the burden your device puts on slower networks. It might also cut back on how much cellular data some users burn through, though by automatically loading on LTE, this isn't the primary purpose.
If you don't have 5.9 yet, you know where you can find it.Melania Trump, the wife of US President Donald Trump, leaving the President's Room of the Senate, at the Capitol on January 20. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool LONDON — Melania Trump, the US first lady, is seeking $150 million (£121.2 million) in damages in a defamation case against Mail Online, claiming the publication has undermined a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to "launch a broad-based commercial brand."
Trump filed a suit against the Mail in September but refiled the case in New York on Monday.
The first lady's suit says she is seeking damages for a false report on the website last August that she worked as an "elite escort" during her time as a model in New York in the 1990s.
Her lawyers argue that the report, which was later retracted, has meant that Trump's "brand has lost significant value, and major business opportunities that were otherwise available to her have been lost and/or significantly impacted."
The case says Trump "had the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as an extremely famous and well-known person, as well as a former professional model, brand spokesperson and successful businesswoman, to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which Plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world."
It adds that "these product categories would have included, among other things, apparel, accessories, shoes, jewellery, cosmetics, hair care, skin care, and fragrance."
Her lawyers conclude that the Mail's report, which spread across social media and blogs, "caused tremendous harm to [Trump's] personal and professional reputation, for which she seeks compensatory and punitive damages of $150 million."
Trump's lawyers are calling for the case to be heard before a jury. Read the full filing, from a New York state court, below:
The first lady also pursued action against a Maryland blogger who also published the false escort story. Trump reached a settlement with the blogger on Thursday, according to Hollywood Reporter senior editor Eriq Gardner.How long are people held in immigration detention?
Federal government data obtained by TRAC indicate that 70 percent of people in immigration detention are held in U.S. immigration detention for 1 month or less; in fact, many people were released the same day they were detained, indicating that ICE did not need to obtain court approval to deport these individuals.
Federal government data obtained by the ILRC indicate that, on average, immigrant prisons and jails are holding people for longer periods of time under the Trump administration than under the Obama administration. In FY 2017, the average length of stay at any one immigrant prison or jail was 34 days, compared to 22 days in FY 2016 and 21 days in FY 2015.
The top 10 immigrant prisons and jails that hold people the longest include:How to Webscrape in R, the RVest and pipeR Way Alex Bresler
If you are like me and love sports, data, and visualization [which will come in the form of GIF's and JPG's today] this post is for you. In this tutorial we will learn how to harness power of R to build a function that gives us access to data from Basketball Reference.
Arm Yourself
In order to partake in this adventure we will need these powerful weapons in your arsenal. First make sure you have R and RStudio installed. Then if you don’t already use Firefox or Chrome pick a browser horse and install it. Finally, launch your chosen browse and install the fantastic SelectorGadget widget. Fire up, crack your knuckles and finish any other pre-game routines, it’s game time.
Party Time
Now that we are ready, we must decide what exactly to explore. Being a huge fan of THE and still being on cloud 9 from our recent beatdown of the despised New York Knickerbockers I’ve decided to explore NBA team data from my favorite NBA data site Basketball Reference.
After some navigation through the links on the home page we find what we want, the Seasons Index page. Let’s look at the 2013-2014 season. Looks like the page is essentially a bunch of tables, fantastic news for data scraping. Let’s try to pull in the Team Stats table. Use the Selector widget and navigate to the bottom of the Team Stats and click such that an orange box surrounds the table. A pop up with the text #team should appear.
Booya, that’s the CSS Selector for the table. With this information we know what is needed to bring this data into R. Navigate back into RStudio, fire up a new R Script file because its data scraping time.
Ready, Aim, Fire
Once in the script we need to load the packages needed to bring us to victory. I am about to start embedding code but before I do here a few quick notes. As a self taught coder I like to code left to right and assign using ->, something for some strange reason, is frowned upon by the authority. Most people code right to left and assign using <- but it’s a free country, and I like to code how I read but you can do it however you like, there is no wrong answer just being able to do things or not.
Next point, there is a new craze hitting R that all the cool kids are using, it’s called piping and it is used with the symbols %>% or %>>%, think of it like the word THEN, I prefer the %>>% syntax from the fantastic pipeR package. Finally anytime you see # it is a comment that the code will skip, please pardon my jibberish but I hope you can understand most of my comments.
Load the Necessary Packages c('rvest','dplyr','pipeR', 'knitr') -> packages # you don't need knitr but I do to make this post #dplyr or pipeR use the install.packages function to install them, install.packages('dplyr') and install.packages('pipeR') #If you don't have rvest do the following - install devtools, install.packages('devtools') #Load devtools using library(devtools) and then install rvest by using install_github('hadley/rvest') lapply(packages, library, character.only = T) #loops through the packages and loads them ## ## Attaching package: 'rvest' ## ## The following object is masked from 'package:utils': ## ## history ## ## ## Attaching package: 'dplyr' ## ## The following object is masked from 'package:stats': ## ## filter ## ## The following objects are masked from 'package:base': ## ## intersect, setdiff, setequal, union ## [[1]] ## [1] "rvest" "stats" "graphics" "grDevices" "utils" "datasets" ## [7] "methods" "base" ## ## [[2]] ## [1] "dplyr" "rvest" "stats" "graphics" "grDevices" "utils" ## [7] "datasets" "methods" "base" ## ## [[3]] ## [1] "pipeR" "dplyr" "rvest" "stats" "graphics" ## [6] "grDevices" "utils" "datasets" "methods" "base" ## ## [[4]] ## [1] "knitr" "pipeR" "dplyr" "rvest" "stats" ## [6] "graphics" "grDevices" "utils" "datasets" "methods" ## [11] "base"
Start Scraping Step 1 lets get the table into R. Since we want scale this to other tables we are going to turn off the headers and see if we can find the row with the column names. In Basketball-References all the stats tables usually start with a column called Rk or rank. It looks like the headers are in the first row [but in some cases its the second]. Let’s extract out that row and place it into a character vector. Next we use that vector to name our Data Frame [what r calls the table with all the data in it]. Since R is a case sensitive language it’s good practice to use lower case headers and we will do that here. Also R hates things likes spaces or characters like % or / in headers so let’s replace any of those with a period. Finally we want to skip the row with the headers and in order to prepare ourselves for the function we will soon write, we want to find the row the headers are in and then take the data from the row after that until the end. 'http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2014.html' -> url '#team' -> css_page url %>>% html %>>% html_nodes(css_page) %>>% html_table(header = F) %>>% data.frame() %>>% tbl_df() -> total_table total_table %>>% filter(X.1 == 'Rk') %>>% as.character -> names 'Rk' %>>% grep(x = total_table$X.1) -> row_of_header #find where rank is names %>>% tolower -> names(total_table) names(total_table) %>>% (gsub('\\%|/','\\.',.)) -> names(total_table) (row_of_header + 1) %>>% (total_table[.:nrow(total_table),]) -> total_table #skip that row and go to the end row and go to the end total_table %>>% head ## Source: local data frame [6 x 26] ## ## rk team g mp fg fga fg. 3p 3pa 3p. 2p ## 1 1 Los Angeles Clippers* 82 19755 3208 6761.474 693 1966.352 2515 ## 2 2 Houston Rockets* 82 19830 3118 6603.472 779 2179.358 2339 ## 3 3 Minnesota Timberwolves 82 19855 3189 7175.444 600 1757.341 2589 ## 4 4 Portland Trail Blazers* 82 19855 3207 7134.450 770 2071.372 2437 ## 5 5 Oklahoma City Thunder* 82 19805 3194 6782.471 664 1839.361 2530 ## 6 6 San Antonio Spurs* 82 19755 3326 6844.486 698 1757.397 2628 ## Variables not shown: 2pa (chr), 2p. (chr), ft (chr), fta (chr), ft. (chr), ## orb (chr), drb (chr), trb (chr), ast (chr), stl (chr), blk (chr), tov ## (chr), pf (chr), pts (chr), pts.g (chr)
Booya It’s In R Now you will see a Data Frame in your workspace called total_table, we already found and replaced the headers but there are still a few more quick data cleaning chores remaining before you have a clean dataset. It looks like there are asterisks at the end of some of the team’s that indicate whether the team made the playoffs, sorry Knicks fans. Let’s add a logical column for teams that made the playoffs and then remove the astericks. Next let’s remove the rank column and get rid of the row with the league averages since that is not an actual team and we can easily recalculate summary statistics when we need them. We Did It, Look at That Clean Data Frame team g mp fg fga fg. 3p 3pa 3p. 2p 2pa 2p. ft fta ft. orb drb trb ast stl blk tov pf pts pts.g playoff_team Los Angeles Clippers 82 19755 3208 6761.474 693 1966.352 2515 4795.525 1741 2384.730 858 2668 3526 2016 703 397 1136 1767 8850 107.9 TRUE Houston Rockets 82 19830 3118 6603.472 779 2179.358 2339 4424.529 1814 2549.712 920 2797 3717 1755 621 461 1323 1676 8829 107.7 TRUE Minnesota Timberwolves 82 19855 3189 7175.444 600 1757.341 2589 5418.478 1790 2301.778 1024 2644 3668 1963 718 297 1142 1504 8768 106.9 FALSE Portland Trail Blazers 82 19855 3207 7134.450 770 2071.372 2437 5063.481 1569 1926.815 1022 2786 3808 1904 454 387 1125 1576 8753 106.7 TRUE Oklahoma City Thunder 82 19805 3194 6782.471 664 1839.361 2530 4943.512 1653 2052.806 887 2781 3668 1794 678 501 1256 1858 8705 106.2 TRUE San Antonio Spurs 82 19755 3326 6844.486 698 1757.397 2628 5087.517 1289 1642.785 762 2786 3548 2064 604 420 1180 1495 8639 105.4 TRUE Phoenix Suns 82 19755 3172 6845.463 765 2055.372 2407 4790.503 1520 2004.758 928 2601 3529 1563 688 374 1258 1798 8629 105.2 FALSE Dallas Mavericks 82 19830 3249 6858.474 721 1877.384 2528 4981.508 1378 1733.795 840 2514 3354 1935 704 356 1110 1636 8597 104.8 TRUE Denver Nuggets 82 19755 3147 7042.447 702 1959.358 2445 5083.481 1563 2154.726 1009 2717 3726 1838 615 459 1305 1890 8559 104.4 FALSE Golden State Warriors 82 19830 3236 7005.462 774 2037.380 2462 4968.496 1303 1731.753 896 2819 3715 1912 642 407 1247 1784 8549 104.3 TRUE Los Angeles Lakers 82 19705 3139 6980.450 774 2032.381 2365 4948.478 1390 1835.757 745 2620 3365 2006 611 446 1239 1627 8442 103.0 FALSE Miami Heat 82 19880 3142 6272.501 665 1829.364 2477 4443.558 1431 1884.760 627 2397 3024 1847 732 367 1212 1596 8380 102.2 TRUE Toronto Raptors 82 19955 2992 6718.445 713 1917.372 2279 4801.475 1608 2055.782 935 2552 3487 1737 577 343 1159 1882 8305 101.3 TRUE Atlanta Hawks 82 19830 3061 6688.458 768 2116.363 2293 4572.502 1392 1782.781 713 2565 3278 2041 680 326 1251 1577 8282 101.0 TRUE Detroit Pistons 82 19780 3182 7124.447 507 1580.321 2675 5544.483 1415 2111.670 1196 2525 3721 1714 687 395 1193 1666 8286 101.0 FALSE Washington Wizards 82 20055 3177 6920.459 647 1704.380 2530 5216.485 1253 1715.731 886 2573 3459 1909 668 377 1204 1675 8254 100.7 TRUE Sacramento Kings 82 19830 3026 6766.447 491 1475.333 2535 5291.479 1698 2237.759 990 2656 3646 1547 587 318 1249 1849 8241 100.5 FALSE New Orleans Pelicans 82 19855 3101 6761.459 486 1303.373 2615 5458.479 1489 1936.769 933 2486 3419 1745 647 523 1129 1857 8177 99.7 FALSE Philadelphia 76ers 82 19855 3108 7150.435 577 1847.312 2531 5303.477 1362 1918.710 949 2556 3505 1791 765 330 1384 1844 8155 99.5 FALSE New York Knicks 82 19855 3027 6739.449 759 2038.372 2268 4701.482 1271 1670.761 870 2437 3307 1641 631 367 1063 1815 8084 98.6 FALSE Brooklyn Nets 82 19880 2931 6391.459 709 1922.369 2222 4469.497 1508 2002.753 721 2407 3128 1714 705 311 1191 1777 8079 98.5 TRUE Cleveland Cavaliers 82 19930 3036 6955.437 584 1640.356 2452 5315.461 1398 1861.751 989 2629 3618 1738 579 304 1163 1640 8054 98.2 FALSE Charlotte Bobcats 82 19905 2976 6730.442 516 1471.351 2460 5259.468 1474 2000.737 776 2724 3500 1778 499 421 1010 1493 7942 96.9 TRUE Indiana Pacers 82 19780 2949 6573.449 550 1542.357 2399 5031.477 1485 1907.779 834 2831 3665 1651 550 446 1237 1675 7933 96.7 TRUE Orlando Magic 82 19955 3022 6784.445 563 1596.353 2459 5188.474 1307 1714.763 794 2654 3448 1726 630 350 1222 1678 7914 96.5 FALSE Boston |
only be done by a $50,000 machine. What amazed me was that they used no assisted vision. No microscopes, magnifying lenses, etc. - workers in the US can do some of what they do, but they need assisted vision. bunnie posits that they do it mostly by feel and muscle memory. It was amazing and beautiful to watch.
We visited PCH International where we saw supplies coming in just in time to be assembled, boxed, tagged and shipped. What used to take companies three months from factory to store, now only took three days -- to anywhere in the world.
We visited the HAXLR8R, a hardware incubator in the middle of the market district run by a pair of French entrepreneurs.
What we experienced was an entire ecosystem. From the bespoke little shop making 50 blinking computer controlled burning man badges to the guy rebuilding a phone while eating a Big Mac to the cleanroom with robots scurrying around delivering parts to rows and rows of SMTs -- the low cost of labor was the driving force to pull most of the world sophisticated manufacturing here, but it was the ecosystem that developed the network of factories and the tradecraft that allows this ecosystem to produce just about anything at any scale.
Just like it is impossible to make another Silicon Valley somewhere else, although everyone tries -- after spending four days in Shenzhen, I'm convinced that it's impossible to reproduce this ecosystem anywhere else. What Marty, Reid, bunnie and I talked a lot about was what could we learn from Shenzhen to help the Boston and Silicon Valley (and more broadly the US) ecosystems and how can we connect more deeply with Shenzhen.
Both Shenzhen and Silicon Valley have a "critical mass" that attracts more and more people, resources and knowledge, but also they are both living ecosystems full of diversity and a work ethic and experience base that any region will have difficulty bootstrapping.
I do believe that other regions have regional advantages - Boston might be able to compete with Silicon Valley on hardware and bioengineering. Latin America and regions of Africa may be able compete with Shenzhen on access to certain resources and markets. However, I believe that Shenzhen, like Silicon Valley, has become such a "complete" ecosystem that we're more likely to be successful building networks to connect with Shenzhen than to compete with it head on.
--
I recently did a TED Talk where I provide a higher level context for my trip to and observations about Shenzhen.Sydney still Australia's biggest and most costly
Updated
A report has confirmed that Sydney remains the most expensive city in Australia to live in.
The Federal Government has today released its annual State of Australian Cities report.
The report from the Department of Infrastructure and Transport shows that a home near central Sydney is worth five time more now that it was in 1986.
A home 50 kilometres from the central business district has doubled in value over the same period.
Almost of half of Sydney's unit dwellers are now families with children.
The report suggests the size of Australian homes might be one reason housing is not more affordable, along with lack of supply.
It shows Australia now has the largest average house size in the world, surpassing even the Unite States.
Between them Sydney and Melbourne have absorbed 40 per cent of Australia's population growth since 2001.
That is despite population growth in Perth, Brisbane and Darwin outstripping both.
The report says Melbourne's population grew by 1.7 per cent to 4.17 million last year, from just over 3.5 million in 2001.
That surpassed Sydney's population growth of 1.1 per cent, jumping from 4.13 million people in 2001 to 4.6 million in 2001.
The report says Newcastle is Australia's seventh largest city with a population of 540,000, while Wollongong came in ninth with 288,000 people.
Growth in both was sluggish though.
Sydney remains the country's most visited destination, both for domestic and international visitors.
Overall the report shows that cities across the country have ageing populations that are working beyond retirement age.
The cities have also increased in temperature, with all two degrees hotter than they were in 1952.
Extreme weather is expected to increase, with severe hailstorms among the dangers for Sydney.
Topics: urban-development-and-planning, sydney-2000
First postedEgyptian Authorities Disappear 3-4 People Daily, Amnesty International Says
Enlarge this image toggle caption Amr Nabil/AP Amr Nabil/AP
Amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent in Egypt, security forces have forcibly disappeared hundreds of people since the beginning of 2015, according to a new report from Amnesty International.
It's an "unprecedented spike," the group says, with an average of three or four people disappeared every day.
"Enforced disappearance has become a key instrument of state policy in Egypt," Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, says in a statement. "Anyone who dares to speak out is at risk, with counter-terrorism being used as an excuse to abduct, interrogate and torture people who challenge the authorities."
The rights group conducted about 70 interviews with former detainees, their friends, relatives, and lawyers. It looks at 17 specific cases, including children who were disappeared.
Amnesty argues these disappearances follow a pattern. Most of the victims are supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, though other government opponents have also been targeted. Typically, agents of the National Security Agency descend on the target's home at night, brandishing automatic weapons. "In no case did the NSA officials produce judicial arrest or search warrants, nor did they tell detainees' families why they were taking their relatives or where to," the report reads.
Then, in the cases documented by Amnesty, the detainees were held "incommunicado, most of the time kept handcuffed and blindfolded." The report goes into graphic detail because in many cases, the victims were tortured:
"Methods of torture reported by victims and witnesses include electric shocks to the body and sensitive areas, such as the genitals, lips and ears; prolonged suspension by the limbs while handcuffed and naked; and sexual abuse, including rape; beatings and threats. Some detainees said they were subjected to the 'grill' – rotation on a bar that was inserted between their tied arms and legs and balanced between two chairs."
Amnesty adds that "prosecutors continue to rely heavily on 'confessions' that security officials obtain from detainees during their enforced disappearance, even when detainees retract them and allege they were coerced through torture."
During the period of enforced disappearance, the detainees would typically be held at NSA offices where the judiciary has no access, according to the report. In many of the cases documented, the Egyptian government would repeatedly deny the individual is in custody.
These 17 cases documented by Amnesty lasted from four days to seven months, and "ended in most cases when the detainee was taken before a prosecutor for questioning."
NPR's Leila Fadel described two of the most horrific cases from the Amnesty report on All Things Considered:
"In one case, a young man, Mazen Mohamed Abdallah – just a teenager, 14 years old – was taken by security forces, disappeared, and repeatedly raped with a wooden stick to extract a confession, according to Amnesty International. Another case, also a 14-year-old, who disappeared for 34 days and was beaten. Given electric shocks all over his body, including his genitalia. And then when he was finally put in front of a prosecutor, he tried to retract that confession and was threatened with more electric shocks if he tried to retract the confession."
As Leila points out, there have been regular disappearances like this in Egypt for more than a year now – and they appear designed to scare government opponents. "The motive, according to Amnesty International, human rights defenders, activists, they all say it's to silence dissent and to scare people into being silent," she says.
The Egyptian government has refused to comment directly on the report. It "basically dismissed it out of hand," which is its standard response to this kind of criticism, Leila reports. In a post on Facebook, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman says Amnesty is "not impartial and motivated by political stances." He accuses the group of relying only on sources that are "hostile to the Egyptian state."
Amnesty calls on international actors to put pressure on Egypt to stop the violations – specifically, the U.S. and the EU, as Leila reports. "The United States gave $1.3 billion in military aid this year, and Amnesty is saying don't give that blindly and unconditionally," Leila says. "What Amnesty is saying is that the U.S. and the European Union and other countries should not turn a blind eye to these types of acts that are increasing under this government."Why Do People Live Further Away from Civilization Gradually?
Lin Ting
One day, I took my three-year-old daughter to go out. After getting on the trolley, we walked to the priority seating area specially reserved for the elderly, infirm, sick, disabled and pregnant. I saw three young people aged over 20 sitting there. One kept his eyes closed, another one was holding a mirror to make up, and the third was playing mobile phone with his head down. Thus, my young daughter could only stand aside and hold the handrail with her hands because there was no empty seat left. However, these three young people pretended that they hadn’t seen my daughter at all, and none of them offered their seats all the way. A few minutes later, I felt someone pull my bag. When I turned back, an old lady who was going to get off showed me to take her seat. Then my daughter and I sat there after saying thanks to her.
This little thing reminds me of some uncivilized phenomena in this society, such as dine and dash, stealing, cheating the old, making trouble after getting drunk, and indecent assault on females in the trolley…. When seeing these bad social behaviors and such corrupt morals and evil trends, I can’t help but fall into a deep meditation: Why do people live further away from civilization gradually? In my imagination, either in courtesy or culture, the advanced country which I lived in is not inferior to any other countries. But now there also exist many uncivilized phenomena. This reminds me of the words of Almighty God, “Perhaps your country currently prospers, but if you allow your people to stray from God, then your country shall find itself increasingly bereft of the blessings of God. The civilization of your country shall be increasingly trampled underfoot….” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) From Almighty God’s words, I understand the reason why the morals of this relatively civilized country decline gradually. It is because the ruler of this country doesn’t worship God, nor does he lead his people to worship God. So they lose the blessings of God, and the phenomena of moral anomie, lack of credibility and the decline of civilization appear. Meanwhile, because man was corrupted by Satan and began to adore money, science and social trends, they became more and more fallen and decadent. People always want to find some excitements to enrich their lives, feeling as if that lifestyle is enjoyable. Slowly, the civilization of this country is becoming worse and worse. Although rulers and sociologists wrack their brains to preserve human civilization and improve human moral standards by various means, it is to no avail. They think that laying down some laws and rules and regulations can restrain people’s words and deeds. However, the facts prove that these laws and rules and regulations that are laid down by man can restrain man for a time, but it can’t bring man life, for it is not the truth. So people can hold this time, but can’t next time. This is the reason why people live further away from civilization gradually.
Almighty God says, “God created this world, He created this mankind, and moreover He was the architect of ancient Greek culture and human civilization. Only God consoles this mankind, and only God cares for this mankind night and day. Human development and progress is inseparable from the sovereignty of God, and the history and future of mankind are inextricable from the designs of God. If you are a true Christian, then you will surely believe that the rise and fall of any country or nation occurs according to the designs of God. God alone knows the fate of a country or nation, and God alone knows the course this mankind is to follow. If mankind wishes to have a good fate, if a country wishes to have a good fate, then man must bow down to God in worship and repent and confess before God, or else the fate and destination of man will unavoidably end in catastrophe.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) From God’s words, I know that it is God who created this world and this mankind, and was the architect of human civilization. Human development and progress and the rise and fall of a nation are all under the sovereignty and arrangement of God. If mankind wishes to have a good fate, man must come before God to worship Him, repent to Him and accept His leading and provision. And then, they can live in God’s blessings. Otherwise, the development of this country will come to a standstill and the country will tread the road to ruin. Because without God’s leading, no matter how many rules and regulations man lays down, they can’t put an end to these uncivilized phenomena. So, only if we come before God to worship Him and live by His word, can these uncivilized phenomena be solved from the root, and can people treat each other with sincerity, help each other, live in harmony and finally live in God’s blessing.
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Read More: God’s Word “God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind”SCOTS actor Peter Capaldi has been immortalised in a new comic strip by a Glasgow artist.
Illustrator Neil Slorance, from Glasgow's South Side, teamed up with his writing partner Colin Bell to pitch a strip to the official Doctor Who comic.
And they couldn't believe it when the team which produce the comic book got in touch to say they liked their work.
It is the latest in a long line of achievements for the pair, who were honoured at the Scottish Comic Awards for their own comic, Dungeon Fun.
Neil said the expanding comic scene in Glasgow means there is a massive demand for graphic novel adventures - busting the myth that comics are reserved for "geeks".
The pair are working on their second strip for Titan Comics, which publishes the Doctor Who merchandise.
Neil, 27, said: "Colin's a big fan of Doctor Who, as am I, so we thought just out of the blue we should try something.
"We both made a comic with the David Tennant Doctor and sent it away, never really thinking much about it.
"And we didn't hear anything for about three months or so. Then they got back out of nowhere and asked if we wanted to work with the Peter Capaldi character."
Neil and Colin, 31, who lives in Bearsden, jumped at the chance and they will continue working on the strip for the next five months.
Neil said: "They basically gave us a free rein. We did rough scripts of what we wanted to do with it, then they had to approve them and get them approved by the BBC, and then get back to us.
"Pretty much everything that we put forward was fine. They were totally on board with it.
"The feedback has been good."
The pair decided to make Peter Capaldi's Doctor humorous instead of "a bit grumpy and serious" as he is portrayed in the television series.
Neil added: "I think we did that pretty well. I'd like to think Peter Capaldi would laugh at it.
"We didn't make him look stupid or anything.
"If I ever meet him I'll give him a copy."
The illustrator hopes the gig will lead to more opportunities - or that Titan will consider keeping the pair on permanently.
Neil added: "Either way I'm just totally chuffed to be doing it."
Neil, who works part-time for the veteran's charity Erskine, says the key to becoming a comic artist is nothing to do with being talented at drawing.
Instead he believes it is down to not putting your pencil down.
He said: "I've been drawing since I was three of four - I think everyone starts drawing at that age. But it's really a case of whether or not you stop.
"I didn't really stop, I just kept going, I kept doodling. I just got more into it as I got older."
Neil says he "cant' really draw" but comic stories can be made with "stick men".
He said: "You don't need an amazing technical style to get humour across as long as you have the expressions right.
"You don't need a lot of talent to tell a story or a joke."
Neil hopes the Dungeon Fun and Doctor Who comics are accessible to everyone.
He said: "The thing with comics is they are a medium and not so much a genre - you could do anything with them.
"I'm a big fan of all ages comics that are not limited to any demographic."
The comic scene in Glasgow is "fantastic", according to Neil.
"It's a big melting pot just now," he said.
"Everyone is getting places now. You only have to look at things like Glasgow Comic-Con - it's blown up from out of nowhere.
"You have all these creative people as well coming out of Glasgow who are doing really well. It's a total hub of comic talent."
Neil, who has been selling comics and drawing commissions and travelogues for about three years, wants to work full-time as a comic artist.
He said: "That's where I see myself in the next five years.
"That would be amazing."
rachel.loxton@eveningtimes.co.ukTed Cruz sharply criticized those protesting the election of Donald Trump as hypocrites who cried foul when Trump suggested he might not accept the results if he didn’t win.
“This is hypocrisy on rank display,” the Texas senator said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning. “All of the folks who jumped on their high horse and were lecturing to President-elect Trump, ‘You’ve got to accept the results of the election’ — look, these are now the idiots protesting in the street, laying their bodies down in front of cars and disrupting traffic.”
“We had an election,” Cruz continued. “The people spoke. Democracy is a powerful, powerful way of choosing. And I think Americans across this country — this is across the line of Republicans, of Democrats, of independents, of libertarians — I think Americans are excited about the opportunity to have an administration that actually protects our rights.”
Since Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton in last week’s presidential election, anti-Trump protests have erupted in cities around the country, some turning violent. In Portland, Ore., on Saturday night, 71 people were arrested after a protest devolved into a riot, police said.
Cruz, whose name has been floated as a potential member of Trump’s administration, met with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City on Tuesday.
“I’m eager to work with the new president in any capacity I can,” Cruz said.
.@tedcruz: I'm eager to work with the new president in whatever capacity I can pic.twitter.com/Oq9fN1zNYb — FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) November 17, 2016
He wasn’t always so eager.
During the Republican primary, Trump frequently referred to Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted,” insulted his wife and suggested that Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. On the eve of the Indiana primary, Cruz unloaded on Trump, calling him a “bully,” a “narcissist,” a “pathological liar” and a “serial philanderer,” among other things. At the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Cruz was booed when he gave a speech while declining to endorse his party’s nominee.
Cruz’s endorsement of Trump didn’t come until September — and it wasn’t exactly full-throated.
“I’ve made the decision that on Election Day I’m going to vote for the Republican nominee,” Cruz said at a GOP phone-banking event in Fort Worth, Texas. “Like a whole lot of voters here in Texas and across the country, this was not an easy decision for me to arrive on.”
Ted Cruz greets members of law enforcement as he leaves Trump Tower on Tuesday. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP) More
Cruz insisted his endorsement had more to do with his commitment to the party, and his opposition to Hillary Clinton, than his support for Trump. He noted that he signed a pledge to support the nominee.
“A year ago, I stood onstage and promised to support the Republican nominee, whoever that was, and I am honoring my word,” Cruz explained in September. “Although I have long had significant concerns with Donald, by any measure, Hillary Clinton would be an absolute disaster as president.”
But on Thursday, the tea party firebrand sounded more like a Trump surrogate, dismissing reports of transition chaos as “complete silliness.”
“Nobody should be surprised that their are media critics trying to throw rocks at the president-elect and the transition team — they don’t want the president to succeed,” Cruz said. “What I saw from the president-elect on down to every person at the transition team was men and women working hard with an enormous task in front of them of putting together a new administration of hopefully talented principals, effective leaders — leaders who will be loyal to the president, and loyal to the agenda that he campaigned on and that we promised the American people.”
_____
Related slideshows:
Tens of thousands protest Trump’s election victory >>>
Donald Trump meets with Obama at the White House and visits the Capitol >>>HARVEY NORMAN 48 Months Interest Free – No Deposit, No Interest with 48 Equal Monthly Payments until February 2023*¹. Minimum financed amount $750. Offer ends 04/03/19. Apply in store/online. Available for in-store and selected online purchases. Approved applicants only. Fees & charges apply. Interest applies if you do not comply with terms and conditions. Full terms: *1. Conditions of 48 Months Interest Free until February 2023: Available to approved GO MasterCard customers on transactions made between 15/02/19 and 04/03/19 where the amount financed is $750 or more. Offer available on purchases from Harvey Norman franchises. Excludes mobile phones, gaming consoles, gift cards, hot water system supply & installation, Octopuss installation services, Microsoft Surface Studio, Apple and Miele products. Excludes brands and other products that are offered for sale under agency agreements with Harvey Norman franchises. Offer available on advertised or ticketed price. Total amount is payable by 48 approximate equal monthly instalments (exact amounts specified in your statement). If there is an outstanding balance after the interest free period ends in February 2023, interest will be charged at 29.49%. This notice is given under the GO MasterCard Conditions of Use, which specify all other conditions for this offer. A $25.00 Establishment Fee applies to new approved applicants. Account Service fee of $5.95 per month applies. Also available to existing CreditLine, Gem Visa and Buyer’s Edge customers. Refer to product websites for conditions, fees and charges. Credit is provided by Latitude Finance Australia (ABN 42 008 583 588). Australian Credit Licence 392145Male lizards and snakes have to make a choice when they mate: which
penis should they use? They have two. One is connected to their right testis,
and one to their left. Now two biologists from the US have found that some
lizards alternate their penises as each is depleted of sperm. In this way,
they maximise their chance of fertilising a female.
Richard Torkaz and Joseph Slowinski of Miami University studied the
lizard Anolis carolinensis. They found that the penis a lizard used depended
on which they used last time they mated, and how long ago they last used
it (Animal Behaviour, vol 40, p 374).
Torkaz and Slowinski believe that such behaviour can be explained by
‘sperm competition’. Recently, zoologists have realised that competition
for a female’s favour does not simply involve fights among males or displays
of bright plumage; it can continue inside the female’s reproductive tract
as sperms compete to be first to the egg.
In response to such sperm competition, males of some species have developed
sperm that forms into a hard plug, blocking the way for the sperm of any
other males. Males of still other species produce a lot of sperm, so that
these outnumber and swamp the opposition.
Advertisement
However, keeping up a high level of sperm production can be a problem.
If successive copulations follow on too quickly from one another, this can
result in the number of sperm in the ejaculate dropping sharply. By alternating
their penises, lizards of A carolinensis may overcome this problem.
Torkaz and Slowinski found that males alternated the use of their right
and left penises only if one copulation followed less than 24 hours after
another. If the interval between copulations was longer, then they used
the same penis.
The biologists carried out an experiment in which they prevented penis
alternation. They did this by taping over one half of a male’s cloacal vent,
through which the penis protrudes when aroused. This stopped the animal
from using the penis on that side.
The biologists found that males which were forced to re-use the same
penis within 24 hours, transferred fewer sperm in the later copulations.
However, the researchers found no such drop in the numbers of sperm when
successive copulations were as long as 72 hours apart. In this situation,
they say, the sperm duct has time to be restocked with sperm.
According to Torkaz and Slowinski, their research demonstrates that
the lizards adjust their behaviour in response to sperm competition, using
their penises alternately to ensure that maximum sperm transfer is kept
up, even if the gap between copulations is short.Dragonlance modules and sourcebooks are modules and sourcebooks printed for the Dragonlance campaign setting in the Dungeons & Dragons style of game. The Dragonlance game project began with Tracy and Laura Hickman, and the idea of a world dominated by dragons. As they drove from Utah to Wisconsin so Tracy could take up a job with TSR in 1981 they discussed this idea.[1] In 1982 Tracy proposed at TSR a series of three modules featuring evil dragons. When this plan reached then head of TSR Gary Gygax it fitted well with an idea he had considered of doing a series of 12 modules each based on one of the official Monster Manual dragons. The project was then developed, under the code name "Project Overlord" to plan the series. The original group included Tracy Hickman, Harold Johnson, Larry Elmore, Carl Smith and Jeff Grubb.[2]
Later in the development process it was decided that a trilogy of fantasy novels would be released with the modules. Originally an external writer was hired, but the design group found themselves more and more disillusioned with his work. At this point it was suggested that Hickman and Margaret Weis, an editor in TSR's book department who had become involved with the project, ought to write the books. They wrote the five chapters over a weekend and were given the job to write the accompanying novels based on that.[1]
Sourcebooks [ edit ]
Dragonlance Adventures
The Atlas of the Dragonlance World
Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign
Boxed sets [ edit ]
Battle Lines [ edit ]
The Sylvan Veil [ edit ]
Rules required : SAGA System or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
: SAGA System or. Author : William W. Connors & Miranda Horner.
: William W. Connors & Miranda Horner. First published : 1999.
: 1999. Description: The Sylvan Veil contains source material about the Silvanesti elves, describing many aspects of their status after the Chaos War. It contains adventure hooks and artifacts, along with various maps. The book deals with Silvanesti, a nation of elves, after a magical shield they had placed over it falls. Aside from the source material, it contains an adventures wherein the heroes go on a quest to save a major elven city.[3]
Rise of the Titans [ edit ]
Rules required : SAGA System or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
: SAGA System or. Author : Richard Dakan.
: Richard Dakan. First published : 2000.
: 2000. Description: Rise of the Titans contains information about the culture of the ogres of the Dragonlance campaign setting, as well as their two main nation of Blode and Kern. It contains information on using ogres as player characters. It also deals with a new ogre race called Titans, huge and intelligent ogres who believe they know how to restore ogre society. The adventure of the book takes the adventuring party into the ogre lands on a rescue mission for elven diplomats that the ogres have kidnapped. Their goal is also to stop the Titans from gaining further power.[4]
Chaos War Adventures [ edit ]
Seeds of Chaos [ edit ]
Rules required : SAGA System or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
: SAGA System or. Author : Douglas Niles.
: Douglas Niles. First published : 1998
: 1998 Description: Seeds of Chaos is adventure that takes place during the Chaos War. It allows players to be either the evil Knights of Takhisis in a siege attempt on Palanthas, a large port city, or defenders of that city. The book also focuses on trying to find a way to fend off Chaos's attacks.[5]
Chaos Spawn [ edit ]
Rules required : SAGA System or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
: SAGA System or. Author : Douglas Niles.
: Douglas Niles. First published : 1999
: 1999 Description: Chaos Spawn pits your heroes against one of Chaos' strongest minions: the Daemonlord. They must race against time to save the city of Maelgoth and its citizens from a terrible fate at the hands of this spawn of Chaos. If it razes Maelgoth, the Lord of Daemons may grow too powerful for anyone to stop—your heroes are Ansalon's last best hope!.[6]
DL - Dragonlance Modules [ edit ]
DLA - Dragonlance Adventures [ edit ]
DLA1: Dragon Dawn [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd Edition
: 2nd Edition Author : Deborah Christian
: Deborah Christian First published : 1990; DLA1 Dragon Dawn was written by Deborah Christian, with a cover by Larry Elmore, and was published by TSR in 1990 as a 64-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder. [7]
: 1990; DLA1 was written by Deborah Christian, with a cover by Larry Elmore, and was published by TSR in 1990 as a 64-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder. Description: Dragon Dawn is the first of an adventure trilogy which begins in the League province of Highvale. This adventure is the first of an epic trilogy beginning in the previously unknown continent of Taladas and ranging out to the Astral plane. Players must track down the dragon killers and warn the conclave of the Othlorx, but those are only the first steps in thwarting a dreadful conspiracy aimed at all of Krynn! In this adventure, the player characters must stop neutral dragons from being killed.[7] The module includes a map of Taladas.[7]
DLA2: Dragon Knight [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd Edition
: 2nd Edition Author : Rick Swan
: Rick Swan First published : 1990
: 1990 Description: Dragon Knight is the second of three modules in an epic DRAGONLANCE series set in Taladas, the previously unknown continent on the opposite side of the planet Krynn. The players assume the roles of dragon hunters to discover the identity of the "master" behind the plan to wipe out the Othlorx (Uninvolved) dragons of Taladas.
DLA3: Dragon's Rest [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd edition
: 2nd edition Author : Rick Swan
: Rick Swan First published : 1990
: 1990 Description: Dragon's Rest is the third and final module in an epic DRAGONLANCE series set in Taladas, the previously unknown continent opposite of Ansalon on the planet Krynn, where the heroes must strive to thwart the extraplanar invasion plans of Erestem, Queen of Evil, also known as Takhisis. Failure means doom for all of Krynn!
DLC - Dragonlance Classics [ edit ]
DLC1: Classics Volume I [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd Edition
: 2nd Edition Author : Hickman, Niles, and Dobson
: Hickman, Niles, and Dobson First published : 1990; DLC1 Dragonlance Saga Classics, Volume 1 was written by the TSR staff and published by TSR in 1990 as a 128-page book. [8]
: 1990; DLC1 was written by the TSR staff and published by TSR in 1990 as a 128-page book. Description: Starting from the Inn of the Last Home in Solace, journey throughout the lands of Ansalon and defy the evil that threatens to overwhelm an entire continent. Explore the lost city of Xak Tsaroth, defeat the mighty Black Dragon Khisanth, and recover the crystal staff of Mishakal. Penetrate the fastness of Pax Tharkas and face the evil Verminaard and the Red Dragon Ember. Can you survive the dangers of Skullcap, hounded by the undead minions of the wizard Fistandantilus? Your journey, should you survive that far, eventually takes you to the subterranean wonders of Thorbardin, the kingdom of the Dwarves. What waits for you there is known only to those who dwell within! Dragonlance Saga Classics, Volume 1 is a compilation of modules DL1 through DL4, revised for the 2nd edition rules.[8]
DLC2: Classics Volume II [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd Edition
: 2nd Edition Author : Grubb, Hickman, and Niles
: Grubb, Hickman, and Niles First published : 1993
: 1993 Description: Relive the excitement of discovering the Stone Dragon and the Tomb of Huma! Join the heroes Silvara, and Theros Ironfeld on their journey into the heart of the highlords' realm, the city of Sanction.
DLC3: Classics Volume III [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd Edition
: 2nd Edition Author : Grubb, Hickman, and Niles
: Grubb, Hickman, and Niles First published : 1994
: 1994 Description: This 128-page book contains the maps, and descriptions that will take the heroes of Legend from the ancient port of Tarsis to the depths of the Blood Sea and, finally, to the corrupt city of Neraka, the heart of the Dark Queen's empire. Can the heroes at last foil Takhisis's evil plans forever? The answer lies within these pages!
DLE - Dragonlance Expansions [ edit ]
DLE1: In Search of Dragons [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd Edition
: 2nd Edition Author : Rick Swan
: Rick Swan First published : 1989; DLE1 In Search of Dragons was written by Rick Swan, with a cover by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR in 1989 as a 64-page booklet, a cardstock sheet, and an outer folder. [8]
: 1989; DLE1 was written by Rick Swan, with a cover by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR in 1989 as a 64-page booklet, a cardstock sheet, and an outer folder. Description: Good, Evil, Neutrality. These three forces exist in a delicate balance crucial to the harmony of all things. Now that harmony is threatened and all of Krynn is in jeopardy. For reasons unknown, the balance among Krynn's good, evil, and neutral dragons is shifting: A deadly affliction is killing off silver dragons, and no one has seen a bronze dragon in months. What's more, the people of Krynn seem to have lost their respect for dragons, hunting them for sport, looting their treasure troves, even training them for use in circuses and sporting events! And as the adventure begins, a strange being named Khardra appears with a fascinating theory—that dragons are merely animals whose presence on Krynn may no longer be necessary! In this AD&D adventure set in the world of the DRAGONLANCE saga, players must discover what is wrong with the good dragons of Krynn. And just who is Khardra, anyway? As they investigate these mysteries, players learn many secrets of dragons. How they use their new-found knowledge determines the fate of their world. In Search of Dragons is a Dragonlance scenario that involves the beginning of a search for the ancestral home of the good dragons.[8] The player characters must find out why Krynn's dragons have lost the respect of Krynn's population and why they have been disappearing.[8]
DLE2: Dragon Magic [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd Edition
: 2nd Edition Author : Rick Swan
: Rick Swan First published : 1989; DLE2 Dragon Magic was written by Rick Swan, with a cover by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR in 1989 as a 64-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder. [8]
: 1989; DLE2 was written by Rick Swan, with a cover by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR in 1989 as a 64-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder. Description: Dragon Magic is a Dragonlance scenario where the player characters take a journey to a cloud city, get sent through a portal to Krynn's moon of Lunitari, and stop the forces of evil from slaying the Celestial Dragon of Neutrality.[8]
DLE3: Dragon Keep [ edit ]
Rules required : AD&D 2nd Edition
: 2nd Edition Author : Rick Swan
: Rick Swan First published : DLE3 Dragon Keep was written by Rick Swan, with a cover by Jack Pennington, and was published by TSR in 1990 as a 64-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder. [8]
: DLE3 was written by Rick Swan, with a cover by Jack Pennington, and was published by TSR in 1990 as a |
you to juggle.
One ball exercise:
You should start with one ball (it can be an orange, apple or any other round object). Stand straight with your feet shoulders width apart. Bend your hands in elbows with your palms upward. Your hands should be parallel to the floor. Take a ball in one hand and throw it from hand to hand about eye level.
Two ball exercise:
Take a ball in each hand. First toss the ball in your right hand and when it reaches the highest point in its arch throw your second ball from your left hand to your right. Catch the first ball with your left hand and then catch the second ball with your right hand. Pause. Do the same exercise, but start with your left hand instead of your right.
When you get more skilled, you’ll be able to do this exercise without a pause.
Three ball exercise:
Take two balls in your right hand and one ball in your left hand. Throw one of the balls from your right hand to your left, and toss the ball in your left hand just as you did in the exercise with the two balls. When this ball reaches its highest point in its arch throw the second ball from your right hand to your left. Now you will have two balls in your left hand and one ball in your right hand.Do the same exercise, except start with your left hand instead of your right.
Now you are ready to juggle. You just need more practice before you can become a professional.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The US military has released footage of air strikes in Syria and Iraq
Heavy fighting has been reported across a key border crossing between Iraq and Syria, where Kurdish forces are battling Islamic State militants.
Iraqi Kurdish troops are said to have recaptured the town of Rabia, but suffered heavy casualties.
Meanwhile, IS fighters have been trying to dislodge Syrian Kurdish forces on the other side of the border.
It comes amid continuing air strikes by a US-led coalition on IS targets both in Syria and Iraq.
Information from Kurdish sources suggests Tuesday's strikes by two British Tornado jets helped the Kurds retake an "important border crossing" at Rabia, says the BBC's Clive Myrie in Irbil, northern Iraq.
These were the first British raids on IS targets.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Clive Myrie reports from northern Iraq where the Peshmerga say they are fighting with weapons that are not up to the job
In other developments:
In Syria, US warplanes carried out 11 air strikes over the last two days, targeting IS positions near Deir al-Zour, Sinjar, Mazra al-Duwud and Aleppo, destroying a number of armed vehicles, artillery pieces and one tank
In Iraq, 11 US raids on Tuesday in the north-west, and near the Mosul Dam and Baghdad destroyed IS armoured and transport vehicles and a checkpoint
At least 20 people were killed in bomb attacks on Shia areas of the Iraqi capital Baghdad; deaths were also reported in similar attacks in the holy Shia city of Karbala
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said 11 million people inside Syria needed urgent aid, warning that without extra funding the "World Food Programme will be forced to end its operations completely within two months".
Image copyright AP Image caption IS militants have seized larges swathes of both Iraq and Syria
Image caption Thousands of Syrian refugees have been pouring through the Turkish border, escaping heavy fighting
In a separate development, Turkish tanks have taken up positions along the border near the Syrian town of Kobane after several shells hit Turkish territory during clashes between IS and Kurdish fighters.
The Turkish government asked parliament to authorise military action against IS in Iraq and Syria, and MPs are expected to discuss the issue on Thursday.
Suicide bombers
Senior Iraqi Kurdish officials said their Peshmerga special forces had made good initial progress during their dawn offensive in Rabia.
The officials said that by nightfall, Rabia was firmly in Kurdish hands, although IS militants continued to hold out in just one building.
Rabia lies about 100km (60 miles) north-west of Mosul - the biggest city controlled by IS.
But the Iraqi Kurdish forces also took heavy casualties - including the loss of a senior commander - when three suicide car bombers blew themselves up among the Kurdish troops.
The bombers are believed to have travelled from IS-controlled areas further east.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in Irbil, says control of the Rabia crossing and cutting IS supply lines are seen as important steps towards an eventual move to regain the town of Sinjar and its nearby mountain.
Militants overran that area in August forcing tens of thousands of civilians from the minority Yazidi community to flee for their lives.
The other side of the border is controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters, who themselves have been coming under attacks from IS.
More than 30 Syrian Kurdish fighters are reported to have been killed as the jihadists took over several villages south of the border crossing.
However, the crossing itself is said to be still under Kurdish control.
IS has recently seized large swathes of territory both Iraq and Syria.
What is Islamic State (IS)?
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption In 60 seconds: What does Islamic State want?Via StockBoardAsset.com,
Last week, I wrote an article titled The Ferguson Effect: Baltimore Millennials’ Worst Nightmare. The Ferguson Effect is a theory where the increased scrutiny of police post 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Trayvon Martin in Florida will lead to higher crime rates.
Baltimore is turning this theory into a reality, as the city descends into chaos before summer start. According to The Baltimore Sun Newspaper, the city has logged in 118 homicides today with the projection of >400 murders for year’s end. It’s so bad here that Baltimore’s Mayor has asked the Federal Government for help in attempt to regain control. Even the police union sounds the alarm of an officer shortage leading to decrease in patrols. All of this is occurring as the Baltimore population declines, nearing a 100-year low, U.S. Census says.
Over the years, I’ve attended countless City Hall hearings, reviewed crime statistics, and toured the top worst zip codes America has to offer. What I’m about to show you is a unique perspective of Baltimore’s worst neighborhoods where homicides are flourishing this year.
The mainstream media dares not to share this with you, because it destroys the gentrification narrative to lure in the millennial generation for city life. Millennials’ are frantically buying real estate <2 miles from this high homicide area. For the sake of the millennials’, let’s hope a spillover in crime does not occur in their neighborhoods. It would be detrimental to home prices.
Without further ado, here is the main event. I’m armed with a drone and an I-phone on a tour down homicide lane, as Baltimore descends into chaos.
* * *You may not have noticed with the focus on Syria, but this week it was announced that the Fire Brigades’ Union members voted by a massive margin (78%) in favour of strike action over the government’s changes to their pensions. Nobody really wants a strike and hopefully the vote will force the Westminster government back to the table to discuss resolving the dispute, not least as the Scottish government appears to be prepared to negotiate.
To many people it may look a bit odd for anyone to be arguing against a retirement age of 60 when many people are now facing having to work until they are 67. However, this isn’t about equalising the pension age. This is a cynical move by the government to cut the pensions’ bill for firefighters by the back door. These are men and women who throughout a number of decades have risked their lives in the line of duty. They need to be fit to do their job and pushing them to continue to the age of 60 potentially puts their safety and the lives of the public at risk.
Firefighters know and the public know that they won’t be as fit as they were at 60. Clearly some firefighters may be up to the physical job of carrying heavy equipment and carrying people out of burning builders at that age but to be honest most of them won’t be. The government knows this. Their own review found that two thirds of firefighters would not be fit enough to do the job at 60.
It is harder to argue the case against any increase in pension contributions when other public and private sector workers have had to increase what they pay. However, increases must be affordable and shouldn’t price firefighters out of their pensions.
The government policy isn’t about firefighters working until they are 60, however, it is simply about firefighters being forced to retire early and losing a part of their pensions close to retirement age. The Westminster government is being cynical and disingenuous. The FBU is right to challenge them on this issue. It is good that our frontbench is pushing for the government to now listen to the firefighters and get back round the table. Now we need the government to get it on this issue as well.
Fiona Twycross AM is Labour Lead on Fire on the London Assembly and Leader of the Labour Group on the London Fire and Emergency Planning AuthorityDoctor said Chad Cross would have died had he not used a $10 snake-bite kit to extract enough deadly venom to enable him to go get help
Chad Cross was hunting for turkey in the woods in Alabama when a venomous pit viper rattlesnake bit him in the lower left leg. Nervous and scared, the Montgomery resident attempted to calm himself and slow his heart rate so as to prevent the quick spreading of the deadly venom throughout his body. He then made a move that saved his life. He pulled out his $10 snake-bite kit. WSFA has the incredible story:
WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.
"Best way I can describe it is someone taking a full swing with a baseball bat and hitting me in my calf," Cross told WSFA.
"I knew I had to calm down and get my heart rate down because the faster my heart was pumping, I knew the faster than venom was going through my system."
Cross opened his Bite & Sting venom extraction kit and read the directions. He's carried it with him on hunting trips for years but never knew how to use it.
He stuck the tip of the extractor over the bite, pushed the plunger down and pulled it up, creating a suction that brought the venom with it. Then he went to get treatment. His on-camera demonstration shows how the skin is sucked up, and thus, the venom is sucked out.
"That's what pulled it all out and I think saved my life," he told WSFA.
The doctor told him as much, saying without using the kit, he would have died before he ever made it to his truck.
Photos are screengrabs from WSFA.Fence designing over the course of few years has evolved from being the simple property separators to something much more than that. Infact it has largely become the part and parcel of interior designing. Modern home owners now a days are giving the fencing part due attention and it is not created with anything that’s available instead is being given the artistic and creative touch.To be precise fence designing has gone more complex, creative and artful made with different material and hues being added depending upon the choice of the user.
Talk about wooden fences and designs; they are definitely not given monotonous touch as one may expect rather more creativeness is being added to make it look all the more visually appealing.
There are companies that take your orders and giving the touch of creativeness and uniqueness come and install them. While fence designs can vary from symmetrical (to look same from both sides) to the ones with different look on both sides.
Here, we have come up with some of the really inspiring wooden fence design ideas for modern home owners to check out and imply if they like. Unlike what one may expect the wooden fences are designed with spectrum of colors and shapes painstakingly created with carved wood
Hit a jump to take a look at some of the really amazing wooden fence designs we have hand-picked for you all to check out.
Add wood slats, shelves and some LED lights and it will look like a modern fence panel.
Fence your garden with a beautiful white picket fence with a matching arbor and gate.
Using Cidar for your fence will help you achieve the above effect.
Kids in your home? How about fencing your backyard with color and chalkboard so that they can draw their imagination.
Time to cover your front yard with this fancy wood fence that gives rustic look to your home straight away.
Add a charm to your backyard with above dark wood fence that looks classic.
A perfect fence design idea for those who like symmetrical design.
A modern house in Melbourne with beautiful abstract wood fence.
How about fencing you bunglow with these awesome piano-style wood fencing?
Add charm to your wood fence with a window box planter having colorful flowers.
Do I really need to say something? If you have front yard with enough space, go for this style.
12. Bricks and Wood
Match your home exterior color with layers of brick sandwiched between dark wood fence.
A beautiful garden surrounded by wood fence gives it natural look.
Front yard never looks so good. Get inspired and create your own fence.
Dark wood fence gives a soothing look to your backyard.
Everything wooden will look good too when you have wooden fence surrounding your backyard.
Aren’t the wooden fence designs that we have pinned above simply superb? Personally, I like them all! What’s your take?Seoul (AFP) - North Korea's global coal exports sunk to zero in April, UN data showed, as China choked off imports from Pyongyang to ramp up pressure on its nuclear-armed neighbour.
China's overall once-vibrant trade with the North, rich with coal and other mining resources, fell in April to a near three-year low after the coal import ban took effect © AFP WANG ZHAO Seoul (AFP) - North Korea's global coal exports sunk to zero in April, UN data showed, as China choked off imports from Pyongyang to ramp up pressure on its nuclear-armed neighbour.
China -- the North's sole major ally and economic lifeline -- announced in February a suspension of coal imports from the North, choking-off a key source of hard currency for Pyongyang, which has rattled the region with an increasingly aggressive weapons programme.
Data recently updated on the United Nations Security Council website showed a sharp fall in coal shipped from the North to one unnamed country, plunging from 1.4 million tonnes, worth $126 million, in January to zero in April.
The data, based on member states' voluntary reports, did not explicitly name China.
But it may assuage the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has leant heavily on Beijing to help rein in Pyongyang.
Tension is high on the Korean peninsula as the North has staged two atomic tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year, showing gradual upgrade in its missile capabilities.
The UN Security Council last Friday unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution imposing new targeted sanctions on a handful of North Korean officials and entities, a move Pyongyang said was "mean".
China supported that decision but has made it clear that a push for talks -- and not more sanctions -- is its priority, calling for a resumption of six-party negotiations that have been dormant since 2009.
Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with Pyongyang, but only if it halts its missile and nuclear tests.
Under UN resolutions North Korea is barred from using nuclear and ballistic missile technology. The North is already under layers of sanctions for past violations of the resolutions.
China's overall once-vibrant trade with the North, rich with coal and other mining resources, fell in April to a near three-year low after the coal import ban took effect.It was only a matter of time: 1,000-packs of beer have finally arrived. Bad news is they aren’t eligible for Amazon Prime Now just yet, so you’ll need to figure out how to get them home. Also, they’re only for sale in Finland. Even still, this is an impressive gimmick:
Karjalan 100-päkki oli menestys, mutta uusi Keisari 1000-PÄKKI on jo tulossa! Ensimmäisille ostajille yksi Keisariämpäri kaupan päälle! #uutuus#keisari#nokianpanimo#olut#tarjous A post shared by Nokian Panimo (@nokianpanimo) on Apr 25, 2017 at 4:01am PDT
The inspiration is partly to show up a rival beer maker. The massive packs of Keisari, which is brewed by Nokian Panimo are said to be a “spontaneous joke” in response to some (now fairly weak-seeming) 100-packs of beer from Karjala there were introduced last month. That said, the availability of these packs is “not a joke,” per Finnish media, and several K-supermarket stores around the country started selling the giant “1,000-päkki” of cans this weekend.
A pack will set you back about €2,150, which is north of two bucks per beer. And you do get something of a bulk discount: To hit a thousand, Keisari had to package five stacks of rows that are 12 beers wide by 18 beers long — for a total of 1,080 cans. That’s an absurd amount of beer, of course, so K-supermarket says it’s going to start breaking pallets that don’t sell by today into more manageably sized packs. You can still, in theory, buy 1,000 beers that way, but somehow the whole endeavor would seem just a little less thrilling.By Sneha May Francis
Latest: A Civil Defence official said: “Building fire has been put out. People can go back in.”
Firefighters received a heroes' welcome once they came out of the building.
The Civil Defence added: "All clear. Building is safe. There is some water in the elevators once that is cleared people can go back in."
One of the higher floors of the 32-storey Regal Tower in Dubai Business Bay caught fire this morning and Civil Defence firefighters are on the scene.
Image courtesy Charbel 'Zakhour
A Dubai Civil Defence spokesperson confirmed the high-rise was on fire, and there were at least five fire trucks at the site tackling the blaze.
The fire started around 9.45am on Wednesday morning, and Dubai Civil Defence officials had managed to bring it under control within an hour.
The entire building has been evacuated and people have assembled in the sand lot in front of the building.
Image courtesy Roops Mailto
“We heard the fire alarm and the smell was unbearable. We rushed out,” said a worker on the 10th floor of the tower.
A building management representative said the fire may have started in the balcony of an office on the 26th floor but Civil Defence officials refused to corroborate the statement. An official said that the cause of the fire will be known after the ongoing investigations are complete.
Black smoke was seen from a high-rise building with residents posting images and videos on social media site.
“I got the call and I rushed upstairs… tried to put out fire. But Civil Defence arrived immediately,” a building security personnel told Emirates 24|7.
“Me and my colleague rushed to the 26th floor. I went asking everyone to evacuate. We switched off building power and elevators,” he said.
The Civil Defence team is still on the site to ensure that the building is safe for people to re-enter.
The tower, owned by Dubai-based developer Tameer, features offices, car parking, and a range of retailers, a cafeteria, and a gymnasium.
Image courtesy Irene Calaguas TorresThis may be a bit of a long shot, but I haven’t had much luck with private inquiries, so here I am. I’m a professional woman in my mid-30s; I’ve got a job I love in publishing, a nice little garden, and I’m in decent enough shape. While on paper I’ve got just about everything, I find myself missing a good wife or husband who’s just down to shoot some hoops with now and then, and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations.
I don’t think this is a big ask, and I’m not too picky! My main criteria are: decent at threes, kind eyes, stays cool when they hit rim, and can hold up their end of a leisurely conversation between shots. I’m sure there’s no shortage of husbands and wives out there who fit that bill, and I look forward to mixing it up with them.
…If you have a reputable husband or wife in mind, would you please let them know in advance that I’m a bit rusty?
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If you think you have a candidate, please don’t hesitate to send them my way. They’re welcome to swing through my freshly paved driveway for a round or two of H.O.R.S.E. I’m also happy to meet up at a local playground or YMCA, and I’ll bring my own regulation-size Spalding, too. Personally, I prefer concrete to hardwood, but it’s not a real sticking point for me.
I do have one request: If you have a reputable husband or wife in mind, would you please let them know in advance that I’m a bit rusty? I don’t want anyone going easy on me, but it’s been a while since I put in work on my fundamentals, and it may just take me a few games to get back into the groove. But when I do, just watch out for my jumper!
My schedule is fairly flexible. These days, my weekends are wide open, and I can duck out early most Thursdays after lunchtime. I’m easily accessible by bus or train, too. In other words, I’m ready to ball at a hat’s drop!
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Thank you in advance for all your help!Is Boston different, or just lucky?
Relations between police and communities have disintegrated in other cities. Violence has erupted following police shootings of black people. Police have been murdered in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La. Last week, the Justice Department painted a scathing portrait of casual bias and police brutality in Baltimore.
Boston has largely escaped the ugliness. Questions over three police shootings in recent years were quickly resolved after officials showed community leaders video footage of the incidents. Commissioner Bill Evans constantly evangelizes for stronger community relations. A July MassINC poll found crazy-high approval ratings for police in the city, with 73 percent of all respondents and 65 percent of African-Americans taking a positive view of police.
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It’s a position every department in the country would love to be in — and which Boston should do nothing whatsoever to endanger.
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Which is why recent developments — driven largely by unions representing the officers of whom Evans is so proud — are so jarring.
First was that over-the-top letter they wrote to Evans and the mayor demanding that officers be given more firepower in the wake of those police murders. Full of us vs. them rhetoric, the union leaders made the claim that President Obama “has basically fanned the flames of police hatred with political rhetoric.”
It’s a ludicrous libel. As if Obama’s recognition that some police shootings are unjustified cancels out his many words of praise and anger and sorrow for the officers gunned down by lunatics. As if empathy for communities who fear the police means you can’t also support police themselves. The choose-a-side invective weakens the bonds so vital to the department’s success.
The head of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association did not return a call. Evans told WGBH radio on Tuesday that union officials regret the harshness of that letter. Spokesman Lieutenant Detective Mike McCarthy said that, while their leaders might have written some incendiary things, “the membership is out there doing the work in the community, and I don’t think there’s any doubt as to where their priorities are.”
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But the question remains: Is this how the union heads and their members really see the world, or is it just posturing ahead of contract negotiations?
Either way, it’s corrosive.
As is police officers’ resistance to other measures that would improve their performance and make them more accountable. This week, we got word that not a single officer has agreed to take part in a mediation program designed to resolve minor public grievances against them. It’s a constructive, progressive way to settle disputes, defusing the smaller conflicts that can lead to bigger ones — and apparently not one police officer is interested in trying it.
Then, on Tuesday, we learned the department will be assigning body cameras to 100 officers. They’ll be ordered to wear them because, after months of delays and union negotiations finally resulted in a voluntary pilot program, zero officers stepped up to wear the cameras.
“Community policing is about trust,” said Matthew Segal, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which first approached the department about cameras two years ago. “There have got to be real, meaningful policies... in place that assure that accountability isn’t just something we talk about.”
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Evans told WGBH he expects the union to challenge the camera directive. Fighting a measure that has been implemented across much of the country risks squandering some of the good faith police have built up in Boston. It also undermines the idea that Boston police are somehow different from others. And it feeds the silly notion that you can’t be both pro-accountability and pro-police.
More accountability means more trust, and that makes everybody safer, including police.
It seems that, even in one of the most progressive departments in the country, some holdouts still don’t get that.
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be reached at yvonne.abraham@globe.com.Supports Xbox Play Anywhere: yours to play on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC at no additional cost Defunct is an indie adventure game with a focus on flow, speed and an engaging world. You are a broken robot that accidentally falls out of a giant cargo ship onto a post-human Earth, now inhabited by robots. You have to get back to your ship before it’s too late! You are equipped with a Gravitize engine. It is used to create a separate gravity around yourself; this is the main source of your speed. Use this in downhills to accelerate. But be careful, using it uphill will slow you down. In addition to this the world is full of different speed boosts such as Enerjuice, which you can pick up and use to go faster.
Show MoreDreams are Creative Workshops
by phil on Saturday Nov 6, 2010 1:17 PM
I noticed in my dream journals that each dream (which is more like a 5-minute vignette) contains 50 or so elements from my waking life. I can always point to something in the dream and say, "Oh, that's because I smelt that chapstick a couple days ago, and it reminded me of Magic: The Gathering" or "Oh, that's because the words my boss said to me when she was mad have been swirling in my mind lately."
Your internal dream-maker is a playwright whose resources are your buffer of interesting incidents from the week. He or she then puts on a show with all these elements colliding with each other. Think of it like an improv skit with audience-participation, where you're the only audience member. The skit follows the same improv rule of "Yes-And" whereby for every place the skit goes, you're supposed to accept it and ask what's next. This makes it extremely fantastical, but also very creative. The skit then becomes like a giant what-if machine, letting your mind speculate on a tremendous number of possibilities for whatever's on your mind.
So your dreams become a place where you can see your social conflicts resolved or you can find the missing piece for your dissertation. And while your memory of the entire skit is erased as you wake up, you still retain a lingering sense of epiphany.
So consider each of the 50 dreams we have a night like 50 creative workshops, whereby your issues are hashed out. This is why we feel a renewed sense of understanding when tackling our problems after a good night's sleep. But only if we choose to begin the day anew.
Comments
Roger von Oech said on November 8, 2010 6:30 PM:
Sounds like you're "Listening to Your Dreams"
http://j.mp/cwp112
Adrienne said on November 10, 2010 1:03 AM:
usually have such a strong connection with my dreams. If I don't remember them, then I feel like I've missed out on some part of my life. And if I do remember, I always think that I could have interacted with them better. I've (as of yet) been very unsuccessful having any type of lucid dreaming experience. Even in a really recent dream of mine, I couldn't figure out the logic of time in the dream (huh.. I've missed a couple of hours and don't know where they went- this doesn't seem right)... and I still didn't realize I was dreaming. I hope to have a better interaction thinking about my dreams and within my dreams.Refresh the page to try again. If the error persists, contact us.
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If we raise more than our target amount, we’ll use it fund more requests and dedicate more time to analysis.
Help fund a national look at how local police departments use fines to fund their everyday operations. Our goal is to raise $5,000, which would let us file requests to agencies in the hundred largest cities in the United States.
One of the findings that came in the aftermath of protests in Ferguson, MO was that the City of Ferguson was increasingly funding its municipal operations with the use of fines, including budgeting 23% of its FY2014 revenue from them.
As the New York Times reported, these fees included $531 for high grass and weeds in a yard, $777 for resisting arrest and $792 for failure to comply with a police officer.
With this project, you can help fund a national look at just where and how fines are used to fund everyday government operations, and help shed light on how many agencies are using fines as a backdoor way to tax their citizens with little oversight, scrutiny, or public participation.
We will be requesting five years with of data on how fines are collected from as many agencies as we can, and then working to analyze the results. The requests will all be filed publicly, so you can follow along on our progress.
We’ll be requesting the following information from agencies:
A copy of any official calculations of revenue coming from court fees and fines between FY 11 and FY 15, or calendar year 2010 and calendar 2014 if your government operates on a calendar year budget cycle.
Accounts Receivable databases that cover fines and fees paid for government services by individuals, rather than businesses. This would include Revenue Journals that cover such payments, as well as other financial statements that cover income from fees and fines.
Any logs of appeals of fines that is kept by this agency, including, if the log has it, outcome of the appeal, payments made, and other fields that are present in such a log.
A copy of contracts with any vendors that help manage the assignment, collection, or management of fees and citation information. This would include contracts with vendors that provide parking ticket software, for example, as well as court fees.
The record layout for any databases that are used to track the assignment, collection, or management of fees, fines and citations. This would just be a copy of the header columns in these databases, and not the information in the databases.
The latter two categories are useful because understanding what software is being used to track fees and fines can give a much greater sense of what is requestable, and opens up the possibilities of then geolocating fines against Zip Codes or even more granular data such as demographics.
Image by Daniel Hoherd via Flickr and is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0The chair of the Equality Maryland Foundation on Wednesday said LGBT youth and other vulnerable people will “have a harder time” in the state if the advocacy group closes its doors.
“Our organization is a part of the safety net to help educate and inform organizations, corporations, police departments, health care workers, teachers about the realities of the LGBT community,” Isabella Firth told the Washington Blade during a telephone interview. “We think that our work is part of the safety net that protects those more [vulnerable groups.]”
Firth spoke with the Blade eight days after she and Stephanie Bernstein, chair of the Equality Maryland board of directors, announced the organization may close later this month because of a budget shortfall.
They noted in their statement that funding “dwindled” after Maryland voters in 2012 upheld the state’s same-sex marriage law and, later, the passage of a transgender rights bill. Firth and Bernstein also announced the financial crisis prompted Equality Maryland to lay off Carrie Evans, who had been the organization’s executive director since November 2011.
Firth told the Blade the organization’s annual budget in recent years ranged between $200,000 and $300,000.
“We have been trending downwards,” she said.
Firth said the board is currently “researching” how much money it needs to raise in order for Equality Maryland to remain open. Firth also noted the organization is accepting donations on its website.
Firth told the Blade the board will meet in the coming weeks to determine the organization’s future.
“We’re in the next phase of the movement,” she said.
Longtime Equality Maryland supporters with whom the Blade spoke this week agreed the organization can still play an important role in the state.
“I feel strongly there needs to be an LGBT watchdog in place in Maryland,” said Larry Jacobs, a former president of the Equality Maryland board of directors. “If that’s not going to be Equality Maryland, who’s it going to be?”
Scott Davenport, another former president of the Equality Maryland board of directors who joined the organization after it and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland filed a marriage lawsuit in 2004, agreed.
“The community needs a voice in Annapolis,” he told the Blade. “They have a proven track record.”
Gay state Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County), who received Equality Maryland’s endorsement last year in his campaign against Gender Rights Maryland Executive Director Dana Beyer in the Democratic primary, said the organization is “a victim of their own success.” The Montgomery County Democrat nevertheless said he feels that Equality Maryland can still play a role in organizing, education and political outreach in Annapolis.
“We should have a conversation about this as a community,” Madaleno told the Blade.
Gay Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin, a longtime Equality Maryland donor who was a member of the search committee that hired Evans, made a similar point.
Slavin pointed out to the Blade that Evans is a former staffer of the Human Rights Campaign, which made significant financial contributions to the 2012 campaign that defended the state’s same-sex marriage law. He questioned why the current Equality Maryland board members did not approach HRC and “tell them the shape they were in.”
“Do people in the movement really want to see Equality Maryland shut down,” asked Slavin. “It just looks bad.”
Love Makes a Family of Connecticut in 2009 dissolved after same-sex couples won marriage rights in the state. Freedom to Marry plans to close in the coming months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled gays and lesbians have the constitutional right to marry throughout the country.
The Equality Maryland supporters with whom the Blade spoke this week dismissed suggestions that former Executive Director Morgan Meneses-Sheets’ 2011 termination played any role in the organization’s current financial crisis.
“I really don’t think that’s true from what I know being involved in the organization,” Jacobs told the Blade, noting that Evans had ties with national LGBT advocacy groups. “If anything she did a better job through the marriage campaign and afterwards.”
Madaleno said that issues surrounding parenting, insurance and name changes for trans Marylanders will continue to “pop up” in Annapolis. He acknowledged these issues from a legislative perspective may not be enough “to sustain a whole organization” like Equality Maryland.
“We’ve accomplished almost everything we want legislatively,” said Madaleno.
Observers have discussed the possibility of Equality Maryland merging with Free State Legal Project and the ACLU of Maryland.
Firth told the Blade that the board has “had discussions with other organizations” but they “didn’t work out.”
She declined further comment when the Blade asked her for specific reasons.Whoops!
Bowing to an outcry from customers, Apple (AAPL) reversed course Friday and said it would stay with a popular green product registry it withdrew from only two weeks ago.
In a letter to customers posted on the company website, Bob Mansfield, Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering, admitted it was a “mistake” to remove its products from EPEAT, a nonprofit rating group backed by many manufacturers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The quick turnaround was a surprise to many. “The company has made very few missteps. This is clearly a misstep,” said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies.
As of Friday, 40 Apple products, including the latest MacBook Pro, were on the group’s registry.
The announcement, which said the Cupertino company had heard from “many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed” by the decision to withdraw, didn’t explain why Apple pulled out of EPEAT in the first place. Apple has often touted its positive ratings from the group, and has in general received praise from environmental groups for its green efforts.
There had been speculation that it was tied to the design of the new MacBook Pros, which have batteries glued to the case and which might violate EPEAT’s standards for recycling. But Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said the batteries are removable using “common tools.”
In addition to triggering protests from customers, Apple’s decision meant that many cities and schools couldn’t buy Apple’s computers because they would not be on their lists of approved vendors.
One of the cities was San Francisco, but Melanie Nutter, director of the city and county Department of the Environment, said Friday, “It’s business as usual.”
Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner, said Apple clearly misjudged the reaction.
“Companies make mistakes,” Baker said. “They underestimate the reaction they’re going to get from the public, especially in an era of tweeting and social networks. The speed with which the news travels and the reaction to it is hugely accelerated. That’s what happened to Apple here.”
Endpoint’s Kay said it might have been a trial balloon by Apple to see if it could get away from an onerous standard.
“Within week or two if reaction is bad,” the company could fix it, he said. “In the end, Apple came out on right side of argument pretty quickly.”
Other computer manufacturers were undoubtedly watching the reaction closely, said Rob Enderle, a tech analyst with the Enderle Group in San Jose.
“It’s very expensive to maintain the certification, and there’s been a question about whether anybody cares, particularly on the consumer side,” Enderle said. “Apple suddenly |
like an avalanche. All percussion and distortion and ghostly echoes signifying something new. The push-pull of 22, A Million’s weakest track is more piece of audio artwork than great song, but that in and of itself is sort of the point of Bon Iver’s New Way.
28. “21 MOON WATER”
Another Vernon archetype is on display with this mellow tune, as the soft-speak cadence of a simple phrase is repeated like a mantra: “The math ahead/ The math behind/ Moon Water.” Throw in some glitchy swirling backing vocals and synths, rinse, repeat.
27. “Flume”
The stuttering acoustic stop-start of Justin Vernon’s first calling card to his Bon Iver project begins simply enough musically, alongside the earnest lyrical intro: “I am my mother’s only one/ That’s enough.” It really was enough; he had us from then on.
26. “Beach Baby”
Second place isn’t always a bad thing. Here, the second best acoustic song on 2009’s underrated Blood Bank EP—coming in behind the titular track and one of the best tunes in Vernon’s songbook—sets quite a scene also with equally beautiful lyricism.
25. “Creature Fear”
Kicking off with more of those pretty “oohs” and “aahs,” this song is more than just a cool title. Fragile a cappella gives way to a bluesy, almost spoken word verse that transforms into a captivating and uplifting chorus. It’s perfect evidence that this guy knows how to build a pretty perfect song.
24. “8 (circle)”
A smothered and screwed-up trumpet might not be the best way to start a song, but Bon Iver doesn’t care about that. The oddball intro, spilled over from the preceding track on 22, A Million (since each Bon Iver album should be played through from start to end), gives way to a strong march of a tune that balances both beauty in vocal and lyric alike. Buttressed by brass and a steady drum thump, it’s another hearty Justin Vernon stew of sounds.
23. “Hinnom”
Reverberating sythns wah-wah their way as a backdrop of one of the coolest sounding tunes on Bon Iver’s self-titled masterpiece. They always come back, like us, to the sounds we heard first here on an LP when Vernon really came into his own.
22. “33 “GOD””
“33 “GOD”” may be the most direct nod and influence of the mutual influence between Vernon and hip-hop’s current auteur Kanye West. It’s the closest thing to a true banger by a bearded indie rock hipster that writes music alone in a winter cabin.
21. “Minnesota WI”
Guitar plucks ring out like chimes. Rapid percussion hits. Then, just like that it’s all churning together until the rug gets musically pulled from underneath it all. Vernon vocally emerges, bathed in that glow of eerie frailty. “Never gonna break, never gonna break.” Please don’t ever.
20. “Blindsided”
It really is amazing how soulful Vernon can make a repetitive acoustic guitar riff. And when he lays down that silky smooth ethereal vocal down on top of it like a pearl on a pillow, it’s all over like on this track from For Emma.
19. “____45____”
Here’s one of the tunes where Vernon really changes the game with 22, A Million. He reapplies that well-tread, near-monastic chanting of one particular phrase. In this case, the layering lines, “I been caught in fire,” gets sliced and diced and accompanied by the same intermixed flute and banjo and twisting pitch blends.
18. “Babys”
Another of the gems off the Blood Bank EP, this furiously precious piano whirlwind of a song is like none other in the Bon Iver bank. That fast-twitch piano playing is interspersed only with some soft crooning to subdue it every so often. No real structure, no problem.
17. “Towers”
The striking kickstart of electric guitar and digital bleeps and bloops sets the stage for an unlikely swoop in of a simple guitar strum, but what comes next is a portrait of songwriting greatness with its swinging simplicity.
16. “Michicant”
Any Bon Iver fan knows the feeling that hits them like those first lines of “Michicant: “I wasn’t afraid/ I was a boy/ I was a tender age.” A lullaby-like tune that even includes the sound of a handlebar bike bell, somehow nothing can evoke innocence like Justin Vernon really digging deep as with this track.
15. “666 t”
It’s the number of the beast, yes, but so much more. If hell sounds like this then heaven’s got it all wrong. “6s hang in the door/ What kind of shit to ignore,” Vernon espouses over a digital-style metronome backbeat. Throw in some record scratches, heavy drums and call-and-response vocal delivery and you have another example of the experimental bulls eye hit by Bon Iver on his most recent release.
14. “Lump Sum”
Most songs don’t sound like a trip through some enchanted shire with a musical Baggins, but maybe more should. Little did we know what wonder was to come after Justin Vernon weaved his way through this acoustic trope full of tuneful tramping on For Emma.
13. “Calgary”
This is where the list starts to really become heavyweight punch after heavyweight punch. One of the crowning jewels of Bon Iver’s Bon Iver, “Calgary” is the musical equivalent of the moon landing—it’s ethereal and beautiful and awe inducing.
12. “Re: Stacks”
More colon use, please Justin. And more songs like this, too. A straightforward strummer, this closer on Bon Iver’s debut from way back in 2007 never gets old, despite it’s brooding, yet deep-reaching simplicity.
11. “22 (OVER SooN)”
Released as the first single about six weeks in advance of the new record, “22 (OVER SooN)” foretold the extreme sonic changes of 22, A Million. From the first twisted loop, the slow, sad acoustic songs from For Emma seemed so ancient, so quaint. “22 (OVER SooN)” announced a new era of Bon Iver, coming, “Soooon…soooon…soooon…”
10. “Blood Bank”
Although this might seem like just another acoustic song from the Bon Iver catalog, the raw emotion proves it’s one of his best. Although Vernon moved away from narrative storytelling in his more recent efforts, the character in “Blood Bank” seem more real as he delivers the lines: “Well, I met you at the blood bank/We were looking at the bags/Wondering if any of the colors/Matched any of the names we knew on the tags/ You said ‘hey look at, that’s yours/Stacked on top of your brother’s/See how they resemble one other/Even in their plastic little covers.”
9. “The Wolves (Act I and II)”
“The Wolves (Act I and II)” might be the pinnacle of Vernon’s early bare-bones approach with Bon Iver. Half the song has almost no music apart from single guitar strums, high falsetto cries, and the first touch of autotune. What at first seemed like an ember of musical adventure has grown into an empire of experimental earnestness.
8. “00000 Million”
This strangely titled tune is a puzzle within a puzzle of a phenomenal tune. Outside the grandiose piano melody and breezy musical and lyrical delivery is the importance of the meaning of those words. After an album full of numeric craziness overload, Vernon rides off into the sunset singing about a place, “Where the days have no numbers.” Well, playing a sample, actually. So apropos.
7. “Perth”
Justin Vernon really knows how to make a guitar sing. The electric riff here is as booming as anything on an already enormous self-titled album. Add to that the big bang musical theory imparted throughout and you have a tune too big to fail.
6. “Wash.”
Oh, that echoing piano chord. “Climb…is all we know,” Vernon bellows over its top and soon you have a song laid out just like the lyric suggests. It’s a majestic ascension of a musical mountain, but one that never strains to surprise and smile on the listener for their presence in the setting.
5. “Skinny Love”
Sometimes, you write a song so good it can be translated into any style of music. Here’s the soulful acoustic hit that introduced everyone in their dorm rooms and passers-by at coffee shops to what was to come.
4. “29 #Strafford APTS”
There’s not one single thing on this song that’s not bewildering, fantastic, pretty, meta, existential, and interesting all wrapped up together. Vernon calls on sidekick S. Carey to help on vocals, which are purposely contorted in all kinds of ways into a cornucopia of sounds.
3. “For Emma”
A true squall of sweet sounds, Vernon’s calling card could be a take on a New Orleans jazz march with its horns and piping drums and chanting string instruments. This titular track from the Bon Iver debut is the artist at his earliest attempt at creating that wall of sound we’ve all come to love.
2. “Beth/Rest”
Inspired by one of Vernon’s songwriting heroes, the incomparable Bruce Hornsby, this is Bon Iver’s version of that great old piano ballad “That’s Just The Way It Is.” The synths here are more modern, lifting the rest of the song on its shoulders along with the sorrowful delivery that makes this a legend within a legendary archive.
1. “Holocene”
The mark of a good song is the memory it makes in an individual—that moment that plays and replays in your brain like a movie clip, always to the same soundtrack. For me, “Holocene” epitomizes that.
When my son was born, he couldn’t sleep for anything until he heard the slow burn of this tune. At less than a year old, I took him with me to see Bon Iver live, excited to share this one song with him and leave. He squirmed on the drive. He cried when we arrived. He fed on a bottle warmed on my car engine when the set started. But as the first notes of “Holocene” rang out, he froze. He smiled. With my baby boy in my arms, I ran into the gates, standing as much at the edge of the seating bowl as on the edge of infinity.
The song itself embodies that sense of looking and longing of that endless horizon. The xylophone’s an icicle melting; the acoustic guitar’s the steady, if still soft ground. Vernon whispers sweet nothings, and the sounds deliver us into the ether, maybe to sweet sleep like my little boy or into some subliminal space only God knows where.Italian Bean Balls & Spaghetti Squash Noodles
I’m on this weird veggie burger/ball lucky testing streak. After months of testing veggie burger and ball recipes to no end, everything is finally clicking into place and the ingredients are binding and syncing and dancing on my taste buds. I would shed a tear of joy if I weren’t too busy stuffing my face in veggie goodness!
I’ve had many requests for a vegan “meat” ball recipe and I thought it was time make some magic happen! It’s actually something I’ve been working on here and there over the past year or two, never quite getting it right, but determined to keep trying. Initially, I was working on a mushroom lentil combo, but I had issues with the lentils drying out too much, producing a stiff and cranky end result. I’m not going to give up on it though; I just had to switch it up for a while lest I go completely mad.
In the meantime, I came up with these Italian bean balls. Considering that we polished them off in less than 2 days, I’d say they were a hit on all fronts. I don’t want to pretend that these taste like traditional meat balls, but they are magnificent in their own right with a great flavour and texture. And to me, that’s what vegan cooking is all about – creating alternatives to traditional fare that taste so damn good who cares that they don’t have meat. That’s always my goal with recipe creation. Options. Enticing veggie-based alternatives.
The hardest part was choosing which bean to use. Navy? Kidney? Pinto? Black? Chickpea? Adzuki? etc. Kidney beans won (so far, anyway). Not to mention, the purple/red skins are quite beautiful all mashed up among the speckled orange and green bits. Have you ever seen such a vibrant batter?
To infuse some Italian flavours into the mix, I added plenty of fresh basil, finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes, dried oregano, and fresh parsley. For some depth of flavour, toasted walnuts really took it all to the next level. I just love the combo of walnuts and tomato (such as in my pesto), they were just made to go together in the same mouthful!
To keep with the light and fresh theme, I served it over a bed of spaghetti squash. It’s #2 on my squash favorite’s list with delicata reigning supreme and butternut claiming third place. This list seems to change every week, but for now those three are in steady rotation in my kitchen. With a sprinkle of pink salt and freshly ground black pepper, the crunchy strands of spaghetti squash are ready to form a fiber-filled base for all your pasta dreams. We felt so energized and light after eating this meal- always appreciated this time of the year when it’s easy to crawl under a blanket and hibernate. Well, we still do that too, but at least we can feel a bit better in the process.
4.6 from 18 reviews fromreviews Italian Bean Balls and Spaghetti Squash Noodles Vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, soy-free By Angela Liddon Delightful Italian bean balls filled with basil, oregano, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes round out this fresh & light meal of spaghetti squash "pasta" and tomato sauce. I bake the bean balls for a good amount of time until golden and quite firm, so they stand up better to the tomato sauce. I suggest roasting the spaghetti squash in advance (and preparing tomato sauce in advance too, if making homemade) and simply reheating it just before serving. I heat the tomato sauce in a pot and once it's hot enough I gently fold in the bean balls to cover in the sauce and then serve it immediately. The bean balls will soften with time, so it's best not to leave them in the sauce for too long. While they don't taste like traditional meat balls, I can assure you these are a flavourful plant-based option with a great texture! Feel free to shape the mixture into burger patties, if that floats your boat. This recipe is adapted from my Thai Sweet Potato Burgers. Yield
18-20 bean balls Prep time
30 Minutes Cook time
35 Minutes Total time
1 Hour, 5 Minutes Ingredients: For the bean balls: 3/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped and toasted
3/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats, processed into a coarse flour
1 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (about 2 large)
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons ground flax + 3 tbsp water, mixed
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional) Directions: Preheat the oven to 350F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Toast the walnuts for 7-9 minutes until fragrant and golden. Meanwhile, add the oats into the food processor and process until finely chopped. You want the texture to be like a coarse flour. Add the grated carrot, chopped parsley, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, walnuts, and oat flour into a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add the drained and rinsed beans into the food processor and process until finely chopped. You want the mixture to be a coarse paste with some beans still intact, but don't completely puree the mixture. Stir the processed beans into the bowl with the vegetables and oat flour. In a mug, whisk together the ground flax and water. Let it sit for only 15-20 seconds, any longer and it will get too thick. Stir into the vegetable bean mixture until fully combined. Stir the oil, oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (if using) into the bowl, adjusting amounts to taste if necessary. Shape the mixture into 18-20 balls (the size of golf-balls), packing each ball tightly between your hands so it holds together well. Place each ball onto the prepared baking sheet an inch or two apart. Bake for 20 minutes, then gently flip the balls and and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden on both sides. After baking, place balls on a cooling rack for 10 minutes to cool slightly. Serve with spaghetti squash or pasta and tomato sauce (either homemade or store-bought). I also sprinkled some of my vegan Parmesan on top. Nutrition Information Serving Size 1 of 20 balls | Calories 70 calories | Total Fat 3.5 grams
Saturated Fat 0 grams | Sodium 85 milligrams | Total Carbohydrates 7 grams
Fiber 3 grams | Sugar 0 grams | Protein 3 grams
* Nutrition data is approximate and is for informational purposes only.
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Stay tuned tomorrow for a special reveal of the Canadian cover of my cookbook!
Let's get social! Follow Angela on Instagram @ohsheglows, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Google+CHICAGO (STMW) — Thousands of households lost power Wednesday night as a severe thunderstorm rolled through the Chicago region, according to ComEd.
As of 9:35 p.m., Com Ed reported 1,539 customers without power in the city, 4,873 in the western suburbs and 6,447 in the southern suburbs. Edison won’t say how quickly it hopes to restore power.
The slow-moving thunderstorm has already dropped two to three inches of rain across the Chicago area, and is causing flash flooding in Chicago and in near suburbs, the National Weather Service said.
Highways, underpasses and other low-lying areas are at risk of flooding from this storm, the weather service said.
A flash flood warning is in effect until 2:30 a.m. Thursday for east-central Cook County and Lake County in Indiana, the National Weather Service said.
A flood advisory is in effect for the rest of Cook County until at least 11:30 p.m., the weather service said.
The storm could bring quarter-sized hail and 60 mph wind gusts, the weather service said.
Some lanes are closed on area expressways because of standing water, including on the Eisenhower Expressway at Damen Avenue, and on the Dan Ryan Expressway at Roosevelt Road, Illinois State Police said.
Traffic is still moving through those areas but may be delayed, police said. No motorists have been reported stranded or hurt.
Meanwhile, Pink Line trains are stopped at the Damen station because of debris on the tracks, causing “significant delays,” on that line, according to the CTA.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)May 2001 was a turning point for Arsenal. They had lost the FA Cup final 2-1 to Liverpool, when the terrifying pace of a young Michael Owen had magnified a weakness in Arsène Wenger’s defence. A week later their season petered out altogether with a 3-2 defeat at Southampton as they succumbed to Matt Le Tissier’s late winner, the final goal at The Dell. Wenger would spend much of the summer prising Sol Campbell from Tottenham as the manager set about rectifying his squad’s flaws and moulding the next Premier League champions. After Southampton, Arsenal would not lose another league match on the road for 17 months, until a 16-year-old from Croxteth spectacularly thumped one in off the bar.
Golden Goal: Gabriel Batistuta for Fiorentina v Arsenal (1999) | Rob Smyth Read more
If you can remember a world where Wenger signed players with the express ambition of winning the league, you may also be able to picture a fresh-faced David Moyes. In March 2002, as Wenger closed in on his first title since 1998, a different sort of transformation was beginning at Goodison Park with the appointment of their highly-regarded new manager. Everton would enjoy a period of remarkable stability and over-achievement under the Glaswegian.
On arrival Moyes had talked passionately about the city of Liverpool, about moving to a place not unlike his home city. “I am joining the people’s football club,” the then 38-year-old proclaimed. “The majority of people you meet on the street are Everton fans.” And perhaps he saw his roots in a teenage Wayne Rooney, a working-class kid he would later describe as “the last of the classic street footballers.”
Moyes certainly saw sheer, unfettered talent. He says it was actually a mesmerising solo performance against Leeds United two weeks after beating Arsenal that truly convinced him Rooney was going right to the very top, as Harry Redknapp would put it, but he also pinpoints an earlier moment when he and his coaching staff first realised they had an exceptional player.
In one of Rooney’s first training sessions with the senior side, the forward picked up the ball close to the byline, stepped away from a defender and flighted a delicious chip into the far corner. “All the staff were watching and you could see them all look up the line at each other,” Moyes remembers. “They all had the same look on their face: Did you see that? Did that really happen? Everyone turned and looked. No one shouted: ‘What a goal!’ Maybe everyone was wondering whether he really meant it. But he did. From that moment we were all thinking: ‘Wow, what a player. What a player we have.’”
Keeping the lid on
Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Moyes was cautious with Wayne Rooney in the striker’s debut season, mainly using him from the bench. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian
On the opening day of the 2002-03 season Everton hosted Tottenham, and Moyes decided to give Rooney his debut from the start. For most it was their first glimpse. The away fans gave him plenty of stick, chanting: “Who are ya?” whenever the stocky teenager touched the ball (It made a mark. Rooney wrote in his first book: “They don’t sing that at me anymore. They just boo and chuck abuse and slag me off instead. Funny that.”)
Moyes kept his wonderkid out of the spotlight in the following weeks, using Rooney mostly as a substitute. He would come on with 20 or 30 minutes to go, play well with an assist here and there, as well as the odd yellow card for a meat-cleaver tackle or insulting the officials – at least Moyes knew he wasn’t shy. Then, on 1 October, Everton played Wrexham away in the League Cup. Rooney came off the bench and scored twice through the goalkeeper’s legs in a 3-0 win to become the then youngest goalscorer in Everton’s history. Rooney had arrived and Moyes couldn’t keep the lid on much longer.
Two and a half weeks later, Arsenal came to Goodison. The champions were top of the table after seven wins and two draws and hadn’t been beaten in 30 league games. This was now a formidable Wenger team in which Freddie Ljungberg buzzed around Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry led the line and Patrick Vieira roamed in front of a rearmoured defence led by Campbell.
The days before, however, had been catastrophic for one Arsenal player. England were playing Macedonia in a Euro 2004 qualifier at St Mary’s, and after 11 minutes the visitors won a corner. Artim Sakiri delivered a devilish inswinger with his left foot. It went flat and hard over the six-yard-box rabble before bending back and homing in on the top of David Seaman’s far post, and rebounding into his net. Looking back it was nigh on unsavable but Seaman was pilloried nonetheless. It probably didn’t help that he’d been bamboozled a few months earlier in similar fashion during the World Cup quarter-final. The press came down hard and it would be his final international game.
Because of the national debate over his England place, Seaman came into the Everton match under great scrutiny – despite Arsenal’s form – so when he flapped at Mark Pembridge’s early corner the Goodison crowd let him know about it. A few moments later they were silenced. David Weir slipped in his own six-yard box making a mess of a clearance, and Ljungberg reacted first to slot into the empty net and give Arsenal a seventh-minute lead.
Everton responded well and were level 15 minutes later when Lee Carsley’s shot clattered a post and fell to Tomasz Radzinski. The forward jinked away from Pascal Cygan before beating Seaman to equalise, and it stayed 1-1 until the break. Arsenal dominated the second half; Wenger brought on Sylvain Wiltord who hit the upright, and Henry and Ljungberg both had clear sights of goal but missed the target. Goodison was getting anxious. After 80 minutes, Moyes turned to Rooney.
His first action was to harass Campbell into giving up the ball. The fans were lifted by his enthusiasm but it was still Arsenal making chances. Another went by, Wiltord firing over the bar. Then, as the clock ticked over 90 minutes, Richard Wright thumped a goalkick downfield and Campbell headed it back to the halfway line. As the ball fell to Thomas Gravesen and he hooked it on, there was no indication of what was to come, that Arsenal’s unbeaten streak would be over in four teenage touches of a football.
‘Fancies his chances …’
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rooney spins towards goal with his second touch as Lauren and Arsenal back off. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
“Rooney. Instant control,” says Clive Tyldesley on the commentary as the forward plucks the ball out of the sky with his first touch, 40 yards out. Aware of Lauren backtracking, he pulls the ball away from goal and uses his second touch to spin himself almost 360 degrees back towards Arsenal’s retreating defence.
Kevin Campbell never gets the memo. Had he known what Rooney had in his mind, Campbell would probably have stood hands on hips ready to ball out the cocky sod for not playing in the senior pro. Instead, Campbell senses an opportunity and bursts into the inside left channel. Just as he reaches the gap between Lauren and Sol Campbell, he glances back over his right shoulder – one fast pass and I’m in – to see a wilfully oblivious Rooney knock the ball a few yards ahead for himself. Campbell can’t hold his run and sprints offside but his surge has pinned Arsenal’s defence back a crucial yard.
Rooney accelerates after his third touch and glances up. For a boy to shoot from here, against the champions, this must be confidence, an instinctive all-consuming surge of self-belief, built by those League Cup goals against Wrexham and hundreds of youth goals; and in the park, on the streets and up against the shutters of the nursery opposite his parents’ house.
Suddenly he slows down, eyes momentarily transfixed on the goal. Sol Campbell and Lauren both realise he is about to attempt something audacious. As Rooney raises his left arm towards the clouds and wraps his right foot across the ball, so does Tyldesley, sounding a smidgen put-out by the insolence of it all: “Fancies his chances …!”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thierry Henry congratulates Rooney at the end of the match. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics
The technique is exquisite. Rooney lands on both feet and in the brief moment the ball takes to curl around Campbell’s outstretched leg and reach the crossbar, he simply watches like the rest of us. Seaman throws up his left hand but Rooney has found the tiniest corridor of certainty, an inch above the goalkeeper’s glove.
There is some universally shared satisfaction about goals that hit the underside of the bar. Perhaps it’s the moment all doubt is emphatically extinguished as a spread-eagled goalkeeper looks back, still hopeful he can scoop the ball to safety, only to see it spring into the net with an extra jolt of power. Goals off the bar don’t only cross the line, they sprint into the endzone and dance all over it.
“Oh, brilliant goal! A brilliant goal!” shrieks Tyldesley as the ball crashes home. As Rooney sprints away what must he be thinking? He is not yet a signed-up professional, still on £75 per week, the work-experience boy strolling into the office, ripping the lid off a USB stick with his teeth and giving a groundbreaking presentation on how to increase productivity by 40%. Maybe he is thinking about how best to celebrate. Do I jump, do I punch the air, do I stand and soak it all up? In the end he does a bit of all three.
On the sideline Moyes gives a hop, skip and jump of his own back to the dugout. The Premier League has a new youngest goalscorer, and he has done it against the champions with nonchalance. “Remember the name: Wayne Rooney!” The 16-year-old who had fancied his chances would go on to render that advice rather redundant.Dallas Stars President and CEO Jim Lites, in conjunction with FOX Sports Southwest Senior Vice President and General Manager Steve Simpson, and Vice President and Market Manager of Cumulus Media, Dallas/Fort Worth Dan Bennett announced today the club's 2017-18 regular-season broadcast schedule. Eighty of the team's 82 regular season contests will be televised locally in high-definition on FOX Sports Southwest with 26 of those scheduled to air on FOX Sports Southwest PLUS.
2017-18 Dallas Stars Broadcast Schedule
FOX Sports Southwest returns for its 25th year broadcasting Stars telecasts, featuring 80 games this season beginning with the season-opener on Friday, Oct. 6 when the Stars host the Vegas Golden Knights at 7:30 p.m. For the second consecutive season, all Stars broadcasts on FOX Sports Southwest will be streamed on FOX Sports GO, the live streaming platform that showcases more than 2,500 FOX Sports events a year. FOX Sports GO is currently available for iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Fire tablets and Fire phones, select Windows devices, and online at FOXSportsGO.com. Fans can download the mobile app for free from the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store and Windows Store.
Stars hockey on FOX Sports Southwest will be covered by Dave Strader, Daryl "Razor" Reaugh, Craig Ludwig, Josh Bogorad, Brent Severyn, Bob Sturm and Julie Dobbs. The network will provide comprehensive coverage including "Stars Live" pregame and postgame shows before and after every game, as well as "Stars Insider", a bi-weekly magazine show.
In addition to the games being televised locally, a total of two Stars games will be broadcast nationally on NBC Sports Network: Sunday, March 11 at Pittsburgh (NBCSN) and Thursday, March 29 at Minnesota (NBCSN).
Sportsradio 1310 and 96.7 FM The Ticket enters its ninth season as the flagship home of Dallas Stars hockey and will broadcast all 82 regular-season games, as well as the team's final home preseason contest on Sept. 26 against the Minnesota Wild. Bruce LeVine and Owen Newkirk will co-host Dallas' pre-game, intermission and post-game radio shows. The all-sports station broadcasts on both 1310 AM and 96.7 FM.
All times and broadcast stations are subject to change.Meet SP One
With a writing career spanning three and a half decades, a distinguished track record as a fine artist and a consistent output of large-scale murals, productions and commercial projects, SP One aka Greg Lamarche, is one of the most recognizable names in New York City graffiti. Growing up in Queens, New York, train yards and lay-ups were SP’s training grounds. He went all city as a writer and published Skills magazine, an important contribution to the documentation of the city’s graffiti history. Most of SP’s fine art collages and paintings are also based on letters, wild jumbles of ideas tumbling all over the canvas. Yet his work follows a strict aesthetic discipline that celebrates the marriage of form and function in the written word, much like the best graffiti does.
How did you develop your handstyle and who were some of your influences?
I started writing graffiti in 1981 when I was going to public school in Queens. At that time everyone was writing graffiti. All of my friends wrote. Life back then evolved around the schoolyard and even as a little kid, before I even knew what graffiti was, I was looking at the walls in the school, and they were bombed. Once I started to pick it up I got my cues from some of the local guys in my neighborhood. Uncle John 178, STOE, DAM, GT, CD3, KU2, SF7, STUN1, HEN10 … I could rattle off fifty names, all of which in some way or form helped shape my handstyle and how I saw handstyles back then. I didn’t really have a mentor, so when I saw things I tried to emulate them until I was able to develop my own style.
My home station was Continental Avenue. Back then it was still the GG train, the first stop on the line. They would pull it out of the lay-up into the station, the guys would sweep it out and it would sit in the station for about 10-15 minutes before it went on its route. So we’d run around the cars and take little tags in the station and look at the names on the inside. The GGs weren’t all colorful and covered in burners like the IRTs. It was throw-ups and silvers, and insides were just completely mopped down. The thing that was cool about the GGs was that they switched up with the Cs. These trains could park in 180th St, they could park out in Far Rockaway, they could park in Queens Boulevard, so you would have handstyles from Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. Unfortunately I didn’t take a lot of photos then, because I was 12, 13 years old, but I remember studying those cars, walking in and out of those trains and seeing all these incredible handstyles.
I saw guys like BAN2 and GMAN, so I did get some influences from the Bronx, but at that time, Brooklyn and Queens were killed by the TKC, TPA and RTW guys and that’s a lot of what I saw when I first really got into it. When I first started writing on trains, these guys were already kings of the lines, of the GGs, the Es and Fs. They could do good pieces, great throw-ups and great tags and I think early on, that’s what I wanted to be able to do. Not that it was so calculated, but I had an understanding that I had to learn how to write my name and then do bubble letters and then go from there.
There was just something about seeing these trains saturated with different names. Almost all of the markers that were used in there were homemade and inks were home-mixed. That also became part of the fun. After school you’re in your room making markers; it became creative on a bunch of levels.
How has your handstyle changed over the years?
My handstyle changed a lot the first ten years I wrote graffiti, but after that it coasted off. Not to say that it hasn’t changed since then, but I got to a place where I liked how the signature looked and so I just kept on trying to perfect it, which I still do to this day. I think I’ve ebbed and flowed a little bit over the years. Sometimes I think about that poster I did for Handselecta [which showed examples of SP’s tags from 30 consecutive years].
Even though there were other styles in between those that I may not have done as much it was interesting to see that progression. To be honest with you, I still think some of the early influences from the TKC, TPA and RTW are still intact in the way I write my name. I’d like to think that I’ve done my own thing with it, but that’s definitely where it came from.
Do you have any favorite markers or other tools?
I don’t mind bullet tips, but I guess I’m more of a chisel tip guy. When I grew up everyone either had a Mini or a Uni or a Pilot in their back pocket. Or a Pentel. Now I listen to myself and I sound nostalgic, but I still love Pentels. I don’t really use Unis or Minis much anymore. I can’t even name all the brands now because there’s so much going on. It’s a little late in the sense that a lot of these new markers don’t really work on the street. The tips get worn down pretty easily, whereas if you were mainly writing on trains, a lot of these new markers would’ve been better.
Writing on trains was great. You have a quart of Marsh in your pocket and a hollowed-out shoe dye bottle. Or even just a piece of felt, and fill up a shampoo bottle, with no cap or anything. Just bring the shampoo bottle, bring the felt, bring ink and set it up right there. You’d be surprised, you can go through a lot of ink in three, four sets of trains. I miss writing on the inside of trains.
For the streets I prefer something small that doesn’t make a mess. I have been carrying around one of these Pentel correction pens and I really hate those things, but someone gave me one and I felt compelled to try and use it. Out of the 15 or so tags I took with it maybe two were good tags and the rest were pretty horrible, but I was trying to get better at it, because I like how these tags fit into |
. They later brought Mehboob, who had suffered burns, to a doctor’s clinic, where their faces were captured on CCTV. Three others, suspected to be their associates and living nearby, are also missing.
Ismail wonders how the charges fit in with what he remembers of the son who avoided quarrels and “wouldn’t hurt a fly”. “Though Mehboob was in demand for his tailoring skills, he would not stitch more than three-four salwar-kameezes a day to ensure he had time for namaz and the Quran,” Ismail says.
He adds that he has had no contact with Mehboob since he fled prison.
***
Zakir Hussain
Zakir had studied up to Class X, learnt a bit of masonry and was starting to get small contracting jobs when police came knocking. His father Badrul, a sand trader, says his son is where he is now because of his repeated brushes with the police. The first time Zakir was arrested was in 2008, when he was 24, for allegedly procuring a fake SIM card and for being a member of SIMI.
When constable Yadav was murdered, Zakir was among those named. He was eventually arrested in 2011 along with the eight others after constable Singh’s death in Ratlam.
His mother says Zakir shifted to Ratlam as he feared for his life in Khandwa. He was attacked once and police refused to register a case, she says.
Within days of Zakir’s arrest, his younger brother Altaf was also arrested. Altaf wasn’t among the seven who fled in October 2013 from Khandwa jail and continues to be lodged there.
Slamming the local media, Badrul says they wrote stories such as that the family “owned 11 properties”. “We own only two small plots, including one bought from money received by my sister,” he says.
A father of six, the 54-year-old says he has come to terms with the fate of both his sons. “As a child I used to pray in temples. Now even Muslims try to maintain distance from us.”
Badrul says he last talked to Zakir before he escaped from prison.
***
AMJAD
Amjad, 25, was among the nine “SIMI activists” held in June 2011. Police then named him for a robbery at a gold finance company in Bhopal in 2010.
His mother, speaking from behind a curtain at their two-room house built on encroached government land, says they didn’t send Amjad to school after Class VIII as they couldn’t afford the fees. Amjad’s parents have five other children. So Amjad first worked as a porter and later as a driver, earning Rs 4,000 a month.
She alleges that the police caught her son from Nandurbar in Maharashtra but the arrest was shown from Jabalpur. “Had he robbed gold, wouldn’t we be better off?” she asks. Amjad’s father Ramjan claims he first heard about SIMI after he was arrested.
After his initial arrest, Amjad was released on bail but later booked for the Ratlam shootout. “They held me at the police station and said that I would be released only if Amjad turned himself in,” Ramjan says of his son’s re-arrest.
Amjad too was a devout Muslim, offering namaz five times a day.
They met last in Khandwa jail, says Ramjan, who is in his late 40s.
***
Aslam Ayub
Aslam, 24, too only studied till Class VIII and worked as a mason till his arrest in June 2011 along with the eight other “SIMI men”. His father Ayub worked as a labourer and later as a driver to take care of his family of six. The family continues to live in Ganesh Talai in a two-room house.
Aslam’s brother Ashfaq was also arrested by the police. Out on bail, he refuses to talk about his arrest or the charges.
Mother Shahroz Bi says police started targeting Muslim youths calling them SIMI members after communal riots eight-nine years ago. Aslam has reportedly told police he began working for SIMI in 2005.
Shahroz says she got to know of Aslam’s arrest two months after he was held. “I have met him four times in jail. Who will disown own child?” she says.
The last time she saw him was just a few weeks before he escaped, says Shahroz.
***
The only one of the five wanted SIMI men not from Khandwa, Aizazuddin alias Riyaz alias John alias Raja alias Rahul, grew up in a Muslim-dominated locality in Kareli, 100 km from Jabalpur. His father Mohammed Azizuddin has nine children.
A senior police officer in Kareli says Aizazuddin was the brightest among his eight siblings. The first-year Arts student probably came in contact with SIMI members in Jabalpur. Kareli and Jabalpur are connected by rail.
Aizazuddin did not figure in any police records before his arrest in June 2011 while one of his brothers was involved in a relatively minor crime.
Most of his siblings and parents have reportedly left Kareli and settled somewhere in Bhopal, according to the police.
In September this year, Faisal and Aizazuddin were among SIMI activists acquitted of a bank robbery bid by a court in Bhopal. The SIMI activists were accused of attempting to rob a Punjab National Bank branch in Jaora, Ratlam district, on April 27, 2010. The complaint had been lodged nearly 20 months later, in December 2011.
***
Some other robbery cases lodged against the SIMI men also stand on wobbly ground now. In the Bhopal Mannapuram Gold Finance case of 2010, in which 12 kg gold and Rs 3 lakh were stolen, the police had earlier arrested some other accused. But after the June 2011 arrests of SIMI members, it said six of its activists had confessed to it. Police also claimed to have recovered some of the gold from a house in Tatanagar, Jamshedpur.
Last month too, the state police alleged SIMI involvement in a bank robbery in Satna. An ATS official confessed that so far they had found no proof.
Bhopal-based advocate Parvez Alam, who represents most SIMI accused, alleges that the state and Central agencies blame the organisation for so many offences because they want the ban on SIMI to remain in force.
The Hindu neighbours of the four SIMI accused in Khandwa’s Ganesh Talai choose not to talk much about the arrests but accuse them of starting communal incidents. “They hardly interacted with the others. They would keep a very low profile while in Ganesh Talai. We came to know of the SIMI connection only after reading news reports about their arrest,” says Santosh Gyani, a BJP activist.
The town also talks about how after one such communal skirmish around six years ago, both the communities had patched up and withdrawn cases. This ensured peace for some time.
Till, that is, the constable was killed.
‘The Sardar’
BY: AAMIR KHAN
Linked to both the Indian Mujahideen as well as SIMI, Abu Faisal alias “doctor” is known as the “sardar of his gang”.
His father Imran Khan runs a small medical shop in a bylane in Andheri, Mumbai, lined with shops selling meat. “Our medical shop used to be elsewhere. In 1992, when communal violence was at its peak, the shop was torched down. The incident left a deep imprint on Faisal’s mind,” says Imran, claiming that even an FIR was registered only after he had paid Rs 500.
Faisal, always a good student, got admission in a homeopathic medicine college in Indore. Imran claims that’s when Faisal changed. “Though he was not part of any suspect group, he was arrested and tortured. People started calling him a terrorist,” Imran says.
While Faisal still managed to give his semester exams, he reportedly could not write the practicals as he was often taken away for questioning. Once the ATS came looking for him and they had to shut shop for 10 days, says Imran.
In a July 2013 chargesheet, the NIA accused Faisal of having participated in a training camp at Wagamaon in Kerala in December 2007, where SIMI members from all over the country participated. Soon after that, Faisal was arrested for the first time.
The Abu Faisal gang is known to have used robberies in the past to finance terrorist activities through links with SIMI and Indian Mujahideen leaders like Haidar Ali alias Abdullah, the main accused in the October 2013 attack on a Narendra Modi rally in Patna. The gang supplied stolen gold ornaments from 2010-11 to Haidar Ali, says an NIA chargesheet on the Ranchi module of the IM. Ali allegedly also sheltered Faisal in Ranchi in October 2013 after he had escaped from Khandwa jail.
Imran says he has no hope of ever seeing his son back home again. “Ab to kaafi saalon se baat bhi nahin hui (Now, it’s been years since we even talked).”
THE CASES
FEB 1, 2014: Four armed men robbed Rs 46 lakh from an SBI branch at Chopaddandi village in Karimnagar, now Telangana, and fled on motorcycles. Based on CCTV footage, police have concluded at least three of the four were SIMI men who escaped from Khandwa jail. Police are now probing if some of that money made its way to Burdwan, where a bomb killed two persons on October 2, and whether SIMI was helping set up a base there.
MAY 1, 2014: One of the missing Abu Faisal gang members was allegedly present at Jolarpet railway station in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, from where the Bangalore-Guwahati Express passed hours before a blast on it at Chennai central station. A software engineer died in the blast. Investigators say the three SIMI men involved in the attack rented a house in Dharwad between December 2013 and March 2014. They later moved to Hospet in Bellary, and were reportedly there till sometime in September.
JULY 10, 2014: A low-intensity blast went off in the parking lot of Faraskhana and Vishrambag police stations (operating from the same premises), located a few feet from Pune’s Dadgusheth temple, leaving five injured. An IED was planted on a stolen motorcycle. Mobile phone trail now allegedly links this blast to the Abu Faisal gang.
September 12, 2014: A low-intensity blast went off in Bijnore at a house from which police later recovered a pistol of 32 bore, a knife, a laptop, a gas cylinder, a large quantity of match boxes and about 10 kg matchsticks. Police said the men were trying to assemble bombs from the matchsticks’ explosives when there was a blast. Abu Faisal gang members were allegedly caught on CCTV footage after they took a colleague injured in the blast to a clinic.
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Investigators say they had taken a house on rent and were living in the town since June. A phone found in Bijnore has reportedly helped police join the dots with other cases.Image copyright AP Image caption There have been several attacks against police officers in Shia villages
Two policemen have been killed in "a terrorist bombing" in Bahrain, the country's interior ministry has said.
Six other officers were injured, one seriously, on the island of Sitrah.
Bahrain has suffered unrest since a 2011 uprising in which the Shia majority demanded reforms from the Sunni-led government.
The latest attack comes just days after Bahraini authorities said they had foiled an arms smuggling plot linked to Iran.
Two Bahrainis were arrested after they admitted receiving a shipment of explosives, automatic weapons and ammunition from Iranian handlers, officials said.
Bahrain's government has previously accused Iran of supporting Shia militants in the kingdom.
It also recalled its ambassador to Tehran on Saturday, over "hostile comments" by Iranian leaders.
The explosion in Sitrah is the latest in a series of blasts that have targeted police in villages with a predominately Shia population.
Roads leading into the town were blocked by officers, as the wounded were taken to hospital.
Iran has always denied interfering in Bahrain, although it acknowledges it does support opposition groups seeking greater political and economic rights for the Shia Muslim community.Iran’s leading clerics and political figures must “take back the authority which they should be exercising on behalf of the people,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference after a nearly four-hour meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at his desert camp outside the capital, Riyadh.
It was an intense day of diplomatic barnstorming by Mrs. Clinton. In public meetings and private talks, she carried her message about the Revolutionary Guards into the heart of the Middle East, trying to win over ambivalent neighbors like Qatar, and fire up Iran’s critics, chiefly Saudi Arabia.
Mrs. Clinton also said that the United States would protect its allies in the gulf from Iranian aggression, a pledge that echoed the notion of a “security umbrella” that she advanced last summer in Asia. She noted that the United States already supplied defensive weapons to several of these countries, and was prepared to bolster its military assistance if needed.
Mrs. Clinton may have made some headway, given the response of the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal. He said Iran risked setting off a nuclear arms race in the region, and expressed worries that the American-led effort to impose new sanctions might not come quickly enough.
“Sanctions are a long-term solution,” he said. “But we see the issue in the shorter term, maybe because we are closer to the threat. So we need an immediate resolution rather than a gradual resolution.”
Prince Saud also appeared to encourage China, the main holdout to sanctions, to back a Security Council resolution. Saudi Arabia’s influence with Beijing is significant, given that it is China’s largest supplier of oil and could offset any retaliatory cutoff of shipments from Iran should Beijing support sanctions.
American officials have prodded Saudi Arabia to reassure China, and while they would not say whether they had been successful, they said they were encouraged by Mrs. Clinton’s meeting with the king.
Photo
As Mrs. Clinton made her rounds, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of the Central Command, arrived here for talks about military cooperation with Saudi Arabia. He is to be followed in a few days by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen.
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“We will always defend our friends and allies, and we will certainly defend countries who are in the Gulf who face the greatest immediate nearby threat from Iran,” Mrs. Clinton said in Doha.
Qatar is one of four Persian Gulf states — along with Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — that have recently acquired additional anti-missile defense systems from the United States, military officials said.
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Pressed by an audience of students, most of them Muslim, at the Doha campus of Carnegie Mellon University, Mrs. Clinton said the United States had no plans to carry out a military strike against Iran.
Still, as the Obama administration moves from diplomacy to pressure, its policy is edging closer to the hard line toward Iran that Mrs. Clinton advocated as a presidential candidate. At times on this trip, her public comments have sounded a lot like her words on the campaign trail.
Asked about the so-called security umbrella, a phrase Mrs. Clinton first used during the Democratic primary and which the White House did not embrace after she mentioned it in Thailand last summer, she said she still believed that it was the best way to counter the Iranian threat.
Iran’s neighbors, she said, have three options. “They can just give in to the threat; or they can seek their own capabilities, including nuclear; or they ally themselves with a country like the United States that is willing to help defend them,” she said. “I think the third is by far the preferable option.”
In singling out the Revolutionary Guards, the administration is also trying to drive a wedge between ordinary Iranians and what it sees as a privileged and corrupt ruling class.
“I think the trend with this greater and greater military lock on leadership decisions should be disturbing to Iranians, as well as to those of us on the outside,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters as she flew from Qatar to Saudi Arabia.
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Last week, the Treasury Department froze the assets within its jurisdiction of four companies controlled by the Revolutionary Guards, as well as of a commander, Gen. Rostam Qasemi, who oversees the guards’ construction and engineering conglomerate, Khatam al-Anbiya.
White House officials have begun what they say will be a “systematic” effort to target holdings of the Revolutionary Guards, which in addition to its nuclear involvement, also has a record of supporting militant Islamist organizations and cracking down on protesters.
Previous Security Council resolutions have designated a handful of senior figures in the Iranian nuclear program, including the man believed to run much of the military research program for the Revolutionary Guards. But the administration’s latest push would name and apply sanctions to an array of companies.
The goal would be to increase the cost for those who do business with Iran so much that they would cut off ties.
But in prodding the clerics and politicians to take action, Mrs. Clinton found herself in the awkward position of celebrating the early days of the Islamic Revolution. Iran today, she said, is “a far cry from the Islamic republic that had elections and different points of view within the leadership circle.”A DEVASTATED husband has told how his wife left him and their nine kids for a toyboy from Gambia.
Andy Hepworth says he is nursing a broken heart while missus Heidi, 44, lives it up with her Facebook lover.
8 Heidi ran off to Gambia to be with Mamadou Jallow
She wants a divorce, saying her future is with Mamadou Jallow, 30.
Andy, 44, said: “It’s a midlife crisis. She started going to the gym, booking sunbeds, getting tattoos and wearing dresses.
“The person she has become is horrible. She was a loving, caring mum. Now it’s like an alien has possessed her body.
“He has brainwashed her. It’s one big fantasy for her and she is following it through step by step.”
North News and Pictures 8 Husband and father Andy Hepworth with one of his nine children
Heidi had never been abroad before she flew to be with Mamadou in West Africa last month.
A neighbour fearing for her three youngest, aged six, nine and 11, alerted their school.
But police found them staying legally with their 29-year-old sister.
Heidi said last night: “I’ve met a young gentleman but it’s not an affair. The marriage had problems. We drifted apart. Can a woman not have a new relationship?”
North News and Pictures 8 Heidi met Mamadou on Facebook and went to West Africa last month
Andy and Heidi met in the 1990s and had been together 23 years.
He said: “She had three children from a previous relationship but I brought them up as mine. We then had six kids of our own.
“Five years ago I moved out but I realised I wanted to go home and she took me straight back.
“We decided to take the next step — and got married.”
North News and Pictures 8 Andy says that Heidi has become a completely different person
The family appeared settled in Hetton-le-Hole, Tyne and Wear.
Ex-delivery driver Andy, who served in the Navy for four years, first noticed a change in Heidi in March.
He said: “She was wearing more make up and dresses which she’d never done before. It just wasn’t her. She was going out all the time with friends and was always on her phone.
Glen Minikin - The Sun 8 Heidi and Andy had been together for 23 years
“She has strange friends on Facebook, men from Africa and Asia.” Andy says she blocked him being a Facebook friend.
But when he asked if there was another man he was told “no”.
He added: “I didn’t think she was messing around with a bloke here, but I did wonder what she was up to.”
Heidi moved out twice in a fortnight after rows. When she was home inbetween Andy claims he found messages from Mamadou on the family computer. He added: “It felt like my heart had been ripped out. I loved her.”
Glen Minikin - The Sun 8 Andy says that Heidi started dressing up more and wearing more make up
Nearly half of Gambia’s two million population live in poverty.
Heidi says Mamadou, who lives in the capital Banjul, is not using her to get a UK passport. She said:
“Andy went off but I still took him back. The marriage came to a natural end. Now I’m very happy. You couldn’t meet a nicer man.”
Andy slammed Heidi for leaving their youngest kids, saying: “A caring mum wouldn’t go off gallivanting around Africa with her new boyfriend.”
Heidi said: “The children haven’t been left to fend for themselves. I’m missing them and video chat every day. It’s hard but they understand. I don’t know if I will move here permanently but I see my future with Mamadou, and my children.
North News and Pictures 8 Heidi says Mamadou is not trying to use her for a UK passport
8 Nearly half of Gambia's two million population live in poverty
Andy added: “We were always a rock solid. But I think it’s over. She’s said and done too much.”
Police said: “There are no concerns for the children. They were left with an appropriate adult.”
Things you didn’t know you could do on Facebook Messenger – from planning your holiday to keeping you conversations secretMore options: Share, Mark as favorite
Below is an updated, slightly revised version of my op-ed last year about this time in Investor’s Business Daily (“Earth Day: Hail Fossil Fuels, Energy Of The Future,” requires subscription):
On Earth Day, according to various advocates, “events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth’s natural environment.” As we observe the event Wednesday of this week, it might be a good time to appreciate the fact that Americans get most of their plentiful, affordable energy directly from the Earth’s “natural environment” in the form of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum).
It’s largely those natural energy sources that fuel our vehicles and airplanes; heat, cool, and light our homes and businesses; and power our nation’s factories, and in the process significantly raise our standard of living. Shouldn’t that be part of “increasing our awareness and appreciation of Earth’s natural environment” — to celebrate Mother Earth’s bountiful natural resources in the form of abundant, low-cost fossil fuels?
The chart above illustrates the importance of the Earth’s hydrocarbon energy treasures to the American economy — in the past, today, and in the future. Over almost a one-hundred year period from 1949 to 2040, fossil fuels have provided, and will continue to provide, the vast majority of our energy by far according to Obama’s Department of Energy. Last year, fossil fuels provided more than 83% of America’s energy consumption, which was nearly unchanged from the 85% fossil fuel share twenty years ago in the early 1990s.
Even more than a quarter of a century from now in 2040, the Department of Energy forecasts that fossil fuels will still be the dominant energy source, providing more than 81% of our energy needs. So, despite President Obama’s dismissal of oil and fossil fuels as “energy sources of the past,” the forecasts from his own Department of Energy tell a much different story of a hydrocarbon-based energy future where fossil fuels serve as the dominant energy source to power our vehicles, heat and light our homes, and fuel the US economy.
Further, President Obama’s energy policy has been primarily to force taxpayers to “invest” in “energy sources of the future” – renewables like solar and wind — instead of expanding production of oil, natural gas and coal. But again, the Department of Energy data tell a much different story. Even after billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for renewable energy, renewables last year provided only 7.1% of America’s energy, which was actually less than the 9.3% share that renewables provided in 1949, more than 60 years ago – that’s not a lot of progress for the politically popular, and very expensive, renewables.
When it comes to solar and wind, those two energy sources combined provided less than 2.2% of America’s energy consumed in 2014 – an almost insignificant amount. Even in 2040, more than a quarter century from now, solar and wind together will account for only about 4.3% of America’s energy, according to government forecasts, and all renewables together (including hydropower) will provide only 9.5% of our nation’s energy – about the same as in 1949 (see chart)!
To further appreciate the Earth’s natural environment on Earth Day, we should celebrate the revolutionary extraction technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling that have allowed us to tap into what were previously inaccessible, natural energy treasures trapped in tight shale rock miles below the Earth’s surface. It’s an important point that those shale resources have been part of the Earth’s “natural environment” for hundreds of thousands of years, but have only become usable natural resources in the last seven years, because of the human resourcefulness that led to breakthroughs in drilling and extraction technologies.
Therefore, the full awareness and appreciation of Earth’s natural environment really only makes sense as a greater appreciation of the human resourcefulness and human ingenuity that have transformed natural resources like sand into computer chips, and oil and gas trapped in shale rock formations miles below the ground into usable energy products.
Mother Nature provides us with an almost infinite abundance of natural resources, but without any “instruction manuals” that tell us how to process those resources into useable products that improve our lives and raise our standard of living. On Earth Day, let’s not forget to celebrate and appreciate the human resources — knowledge, ingenuity, know-how, creativity, “petropreneurship,” and imagination, i.e. the “instruction manuals” – that transform otherwise unusable resources like shale hydrocarbons into energy treasures that will power our economy for generations to come.A press conference in Jackson, Mississippi confirms that both a cop and a murder suspect are dead. The incident occurred after the suspect was brought into police custody for questioning.
A murder suspect shot a police detective who was interviewing him at police headquarters in Mississippi's capital city, then shot himself, state authorities said Friday.
Police had previously not disclosed who fired the shot that killed the suspect, 23-year-old Jeremy Powell. Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said Friday that Powell shot Detective Eric Smith before killing himself.
The state agency took over the investigation from the Jackson Police Department.
The men died in a third-floor room Thursday where Smith was interrogating Powell after his arrest. Powell had been arrested in connection with the stabbing death earlier this week of a 20-year-old Jackson man.
Greg Jenson / The Clarion-Ledger via AP Jackson, Miss. Assistant Chief Lee Vance, center left, comforts Chief Rebecca Coleman, center right, on Thursday after detective Eric Smith was shot and killed inside the Jackson Police Department. A suspect was also killed.
Autopsies were to be performed Friday, said Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart.
City and state officials continued to mourn the death of Smith, a detective who had led the investigation of a number of high-profile murder cases in Mississippi's largest city. Smith, 40, was described as a tall and fit officer who had been with the department since 1995.
Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. and Jackson Police Chief Rebecca Coleman asked for a moment of silence at noon Friday.
"Let us all come together as a city to mourn the loss of this exceptional member of the Jackson Police Department family," Johnson said in a statement. "Though we will never know the full measure of sorrow experienced by the family of Detective Smith, we can let them know that we stand with them during this difficult time."
Gov. Phil Bryant, a former Hinds County sheriff's deputy, also noted Smith's passing at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
This story was originally published onAmerican policymakers and pundits have an unfortunate history of embracing odious foreign political movements that purport to be democratic. During the Cold War, embarrassing episodes included Washington’s support for the Nicaraguan Contras and Jonas Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. The post–Cold War era provides ample evidence that influential Americans have not learned appropriate lessons from those earlier blunders. The Clinton administration made common cause with the Kosovo Liberation Army, which proceeded to commit numerous war crimes during—and following—its successful war of secession against Serbia. Both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations allied with Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress (INC). The INC’s false intelligence regarding Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, which the New York Times and other prominent media outlets reflexively circulated, was one of the major factors that prompted the United States to launch its ill-starred military intervention in Iraq.
There is mounting danger that the Trump administration is flirting with committing a similar blunder—this time in Iran. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was asked explicitly by Rep. Ted Poe whether the United States supported a policy of regime change in Iran when he testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in June 2017. Poe argued that “there are Iranians in exile all over the world. Some are here. And then there’s (sic) Iranians in Iran who don’t support the totalitarian state.” Tillerson replied that the administration’s policy toward Iran was still “under development,” but that Washington would work with “elements inside Iran” to bring about the transition to a new government. In other words, regime change is now official U.S. policy regarding Iran.
That strategy entails numerous problems. An especially troubling one is that the most intense opposition force (inside and especially outside Iran) is the Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK). Although Tillerson did not explicitly mention the MEK, any U.S. promotion of dissidents would almost certainly have to include that faction. More moderate reformists have repeatedly rejected an American embrace, justifiably concerned that such an association would destroy their domestic credibility. Indeed, a significant segment of Iranian moderates endorsed President Hassan Rouhani and were a major factor in his decisive reelection victory over a hard-line opponent in the 2017 election.
The MEK’s history should cause any sensible U.S. administration to stay very, very far away from that organization. The MEK is a weird political cult built around a husband and wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. It has been guilty of numerous terrorist acts and was on the U.S. government’s formal list of terrorist organizations until February 2012. The group did not even originate as an enemy of Iran’s clerical regime. It began long before that regime came to power, and its original orientation seemed strongly Marxist. The MEK was founded in 1965 by leftist Iranian students opposed to the Shah of Iran, who was one of Washington’s major strategic allies. And the United States was very much in the MEK’s crosshairs during its early years. During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the MEK directed terrorist attacks that killed several Americans working in Iran.
The MEK’s worrisome track record has not deterred prominent Americans from endorsing the organization. In the months preceding the State Department’s decision to delist the MEK, dozens of well-known advocates—primarily but not exclusively conservatives—lobbied on behalf of the group. Vocal supporters included former CIA directors R. James Woolsey Jr. and Porter Goss, former FBI director Louis J. Freeh, as well as Tom Ridge and Michael Mukasey, both cabinet secretaries in George W. Bush’s administration. Several members of Congress, including Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, were also prominent advocates. Rohrabacher stated confidently that the MEK seeks “a secular, peaceful, and democratic government.” Other proponents included former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. John McCain. Gingrich has been especially enthusiastic about the MEK over the years, describing it as the vanguard of “a massive worldwide movement for liberty in Iran.” More recently, Gingrich showed up along with former Democratic senator and former vice president nominee Joe Lieberman at a conference in Paris to laud the MEK.
Such enthusiasm has increased since its delisting as a terrorist organization. The House Foreign Affairs Committee even invited Maryam Rajavi to testify at a hearing on strategies for defeating ISIS. The decision to give Rajavi a platform for her broader agenda was not that surprising. Many of the committee’s members (especially GOP members) are staunch advocates of a regime-change strategy toward Iran. The MEK serves the same function for such hawks as Chalabi and the INC did in the prelude to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Americans have reason to be wary when prominent advocates of an extremely hard-line policy toward Iran also want “vigorous support for Iran’s opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran,” as former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton recommends. Given his vocal cheerleading for the MEK in recent years, there is little doubt that he is not referring to the moderate, anti-clerical “Green coalition” inside that country, but to the MEK.
Therein lies the principal danger of Tillerson’s embrace of a regime-change strategy toward Iran. Granted, he referred to U.S. support for peaceful regime change, but the MEK’s American backers show no signs of making that distinction. The MEK has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars cultivating their support, and such gullible (or venal) Americans continue to tout the organization as a genuine democratic movement with strong support inside Iran. The extent of the financial entanglements is deeply troubling. Many prominent American supporters have accepted fees of $15,000 to $30,000 to give speeches to the group. They also have accepted posh, all-expenses-paid trips to attend MEK events in Paris and other locales. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell confirmed in March 2012 that the MEK had paid him a total of $150,000 to $160,000, and it appeared that other “A-list” backers had been rewarded in a similar fashion. Needless to say, accepting such largesse from a highly controversial foreign political organization—and one that was still listed as a terrorist organization at the time—should raise justifiable questions regarding the judgment, if not the ethics, of the recipients.
U.S. opinion leaders are playing a dangerous and morally untethered game by flirting with the likes of the MEK. Daniel Larison, a columnist for the American Conservative, recently highlighted the problem with their approach. “I have marveled at the willingness of numerous former government officials, retired military officers, and elected representatives to embrace the MEK,” he wrote. “There’s no question that they are motivated by their loathing of the Iranian government, but their hostility to the regime has led them to endorse a group that most Iranians loathe.” The last point is not mere speculation. The MEK aided Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran in the 1980s, and even Iranians who detest the clerical regime regard the MEK as a collection of odious traitors.
President Trump should learn from the follies of his predecessors who backed the agendas of foreign groups that purported to be democratic but turned out to be nothing of the sort. There are ample warning signs about the real nature of the MEK. The administration needs to avoid that organization like the plague.
Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a contributing editor at the National Interest, is the author of ten books, the contributing editor of ten books and the author of more than 650 articles on international affairs.
Image: A B-52 prepares for departure as another B-52 arrives. The B-52 is capable of flying 8,800 miles without refueling and can carry a weapons load of up to 70,000 pounds. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Robert Horstman).Three Wisconsin boys who vanished late Sunday and prompted a massive overnight search of bat-infested, abandoned mine tunnels have been found safe, officials said.
Tate Rose and Zachary Heron, both 16, and Samuel Lein, who is 15, spent a harrowing night down in the old iron ore mine, but were none the worse for wear after they were discovered Monday afternoon, according to local reports.
"All three teens were found safe and uninjured, inside the mine," Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt told Fox 11. "They have been released to [their] parents."
The boys were reported missing by their parents around 9:45 p.m. Sunday, touching off an all night search involving nearly 100 firefighters, first responders and canine units from surrounding communities, Schmidt said.
Details about the rescue were not immediately available, but Fox 11 reported the area in which they vanished includes the Iron Ridge Mine, in the Neda Iron District. It is near the town of Hubbard, about 50 miles northwest of Milwaukee.
The abandoned iron mine is not open to the public. Schmidt said the iron ore mines in the area date back more than a century, and their lure of adventure may have pulled in the boys.
"It's very heavily wooded," Schmidt told the radio station. "There are a number of mines from the mid-1800s."
The Neda Mine is owned by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee because of its large bat population. UWM says an estimated 100,000 bats live in the mine, which is among the Midwest's largest winter shelters for hibernating bats.I’m not going to lie, things don’t look the most optimistic for Republicans on a lot of levels. I’m not going to lie to you, I’ll never lie to you. If Democrats play this government shutdown card like we know liberals and Democrats to play any political card, things aren’t going to be so smooth for the Tea Party or the candidates they support.
How do you square it?
I could see Democrats running on a blame Republican platform in 2014 and it being successful. To deny |
security of both UK and Israel. Evil ideology must be defeated
This ethnic rift clearly outlines the camps: The Shiite camp, which includes Iran, the Baghdad government, the Damascus government, Hezbollah, some of the Kurds and the Russians; and rival Sunni camp, which includes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Arabia, most of the Gulf states, al-Qaeda (through the al-Nusra Front, its arm in Syria), the jihadist rebels, some of the Kurds, and at a distance - but still in the same camp - the Islamic State. The West is teaming up with the Sunni axis.
Assad needs ISIS, because it may force the West to support him for lack of any other choice; and ISIS needs Assad, because the Sunnis will then have no choice but to support the Islamic State (Photo: AP)
We are talking about wars within wars, and countless sub-wars. Everyone claims to be acting against ISIS, in order to deceive the Americans, but they are actually waging their own ethnic wars: The Turks are destroying the Kurd PKK underground; the Russians are destroying the Sunni jihadists, who in Western eyes could serve as an alternative to Syrian President Bashar; the Iraqi army (which is already mostly Shiite) is destroying the Sunni forces in Iraq; and the Iranians are happy that the Sunnis are being kept busy in Syria and Iraq, so that they will not reach their territory so fast. The Sunnis themselves are split into hundreds of militias which are hostile to each other.
How can this mess be solved? It's a case of hatred in which no side can give in, because if it does it will be annihilated by the other side. The Sunni jihadists have vowed to infiltrate Lebanon and slaughter all the Shiites there. They plan to saturate the Mediterranean Sea's water with the blood of the Alawites. The war is feeding itself, and it's only expanding. It's a dead end.
The ethnic interests exceed the considerations of the war on ISIS. Who is more dangerous as far as the Saudis are concerned - the Shiites or ISIS? The Shiites of course. And the same applies to Erdogan. So why should they actually fight ISIS?
Assad needs ISIS, because the West may then have to support him for lack of any other choice; and ISIS needs Assad, because the Sunnis will then have no choice but to support the Islamic State. Now, with the $150 billion the Americans are about to release to the Iranians, Russian weapons will flow into the ground even more and the ethnic fire will reach the sky. Iran versus Turkey, Turkey versus Baghdad and Syria. The circles of shock will expand.
And there is the presence of the Islamic State, a magnate for tens of thousands of volunteers which are flowing in from around the world. The jihadist system has created perpetual motion ("perpetuum mobile") with Europe: Thousands of radicals are flowing into Europe from the Middle East, and Europe is sending thousands of volunteers to ISIS. This process can no longer be stopped.
And let's assume that the Islamic State's lands are occupied by the West. So what? Out of 80,000 fighters, 20,000 will be killed, and then the rest will move to Europe to shake it even more?
The locked demons have been released, and the Pandora's box of the dying Arab states will not be closed in our generation. Whether the miserable West likes it or not, it's already irreversible.Although enterprises are in the midst of migrating more machines to Microsoft's Windows 7, the aged Windows XP still accounts for nearly 6-in-10 PCs in corporations, according to a recent report by research firm Forrester.
Windows 7 powered nearly 21% of all business PCs used to reach Forrester's Web site in March, the most recent month for which the firm has data.
While that's more than double the 9.5% logged by Windows 7 a year before, the 10-year-old Windows XP remains the most widely-used enterprise operating system by a wide margin: In March, systems running XP accounted for 59.9% of the 400,000 machines that visited Forrester.com.
Ben Gray, a Forrester analyst who co-authored the report on operating system and browser trends, called Windows 7's adoption "accelerating," but at the same time noted that XP retains a majority.
Windows XP is slated to exit all support -- meaning Microsoft will stop providing security updates, aka patches, for the OS -- in April 2014.
Gray was confident that the bulk of XP systems would be retired by then, replaced by new machines driven by Windows 7. "The majority of firms will move to Windows 7 during the next year as the extended support phase for Windows XP approaches," Gray wrote in the report.
According to Forrester, both XP and Vista lost enterprise share to Windows 7 in the last 12 months, but Vista was particularly hard hit, dropping from 11.3% in April 2010 to just 6.2% in March 2011. In Forrester's tracking, Vista peaked at 14% in November 2009, a month after Windows 7's debut.
"It's no surprise, but firms are abandoning Windows Vista in favor of Windows 7," said Gray.
Vista was aggressively criticized by users shortly after its January 2007 release, and panned by most reviewers and analysts.
The only bright lining in the Vista cloud, Gray added, is that because it and Windows 7 share the same code base, companies that did commit to Vista have found smooth sailing when they upgrade to Windows 7.
Microsoft retains a hegemony in the enterprise -- 87.6% of all corporate computers run one of its operating systems -- but Gray said that some companies were bending to pressure from workers who wanted to use their own machines. The trend has been dubbed by analysts as the "consumerization" of the enterprise.
Tablets, particularly Apple's iPad, have been at the forefront of the consumerization movement, but by Forrester's numbers, the Mac has also benefited, with more than 1-in-10 workers now using a Mac.
From April 2010 to March 2011, Mac OS X climbed from 9.1% to 11%, said Forrester.
"Empowered workers attracted to BYO [bring your own] device programs are quickly coming to expect Mac and iOS support," Gray wrote.
Forrester's operating system usage data in the enterprise shows the same trends as other analysis, including that by Web metrics company Net Applications, which tracks global operating use.
Net Applications pegged Windows XP's usage share in March 2011 at 54.4% and Windows 7's at 24.2%, the former slightly lower than Forrester's, the latter slightly higher. (By May 2011, XP's share had fallen to 52.4%, while Windows 7's had climbed to 25.9%.)
Forrester analyzed the operating systems of 400,000 client computers from 2,500 companies that surfed to its Web site in the last year to come up with its data.
The numbers point to problems that corporate IT staffs must solve, said Gray. "Even with Windows 7 as the dominant corporate OS, IT managers will continue to be challenged by increased device and OS diversity," he wrote.
Windows XP and Vista use in the enterprise have declined in the last 12 months, while Windows 7 and Mac OS X have gained ground. (Data: Forrester Research.)
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.PFF scouting report: Nazair Jones, DI, North Carolina
Name: Nazair Jones
School: North Carolina
Position fit: 3 or 5 technique in a one-gap scheme
Stats to know: Totaled more run stops over three seasons (58) than combined pressures (43).
What he does best:
Excellent instincts, able to identify run concepts by formation.
Able to beat down blocks with his awareness off the snap.
Effective reading the quarterback’s eyes while rushing the passer – had 12 batted passes in three years at UNC.
Good work ethic, pursues screens and runs aggressively from the backside.
Explosive first step, consistently fires off the ball.
Strong upper body, wins first contact with a powerful initial punch.
Stands up blockers attempting to block him in-line on a consistent basis. Uses his length well.
Active hands rushing the passer.
Will suit a team that runs a lot of stunts, better pass rusher when he has some momentum.
Strong tackler, missed only two of 47 attempts in 2016.
Rarely blocked cleanly in the run game.
Biggest concern:
Lacks a variety of pass-rush moves, not particularly athletic leveled off in 2014 and 2015, never took the expected step forward.
Pass-rush production.
Aggressive penetrating style can leave him vulnerable to traps and draws.
Doesn’t always monopolize initial advantage in reps, doesn’t anchor particularly well late in snap, losing leverage.
Not always able to keep his balance attempting to shed.
Regularly came off the field in the nickel.
Rarely dominated with power moves on the interior.
Somewhat vulnerable to cut blocks.
Player comparison: DaQuan Jones, Tennessee Titans
DaQuan Jones has developed into a useful run-stopper for the Titans despite providing little as a pass-rusher. Nazair Jones will likely have to follow a similar path with the hopes that his early-career pass-rushing potential shows up again and he develops at the next level.
Bottom line: An effective run defender, Jones will have to carve out a niche for himself on early downs. He has a great feel for the run game and he uses his length well to keep blockers off his frame, and he can do so from multiple positions along the defensive line. He’s built like an old-school 3-4 defensive end though he can line up and have success at 3-, 4-, or 5-technique. The inability to build upon his disruptive pass-rushing grades in 2014 and 2015 leave some concern about his prospects as a three-down player, but at just 22 years old, he has plenty of room to improve, and he remains a solid mid-round prospect at this stage.Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen at a news conference on December 16 in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images NEW YORK — In the spring of 2014, Mizuho Securities USA's chief economist, Steven Ricchiuto, planted his flag for the projected date of the Federal Reserve's first postcrisis rate hike in mid-2016, further into the future than any of his peers.
And he never budged.
Virtually alone among major Wall Street house economists at the time, Ricchiuto was skeptical of the conventional wisdom that liftoff would happen by the end of 2015. He argued that even a modest rise in rates would slow an economy dogged by inconsistent growth and drive inflation further below the Fed's own target.
Up until December 15, the day before the Fed did ultimately deliver its rate rise, about six months ahead of his forecast, Ricchiuto told Reuters the central bank might surprise investors by not hiking to avoid harming the economy and financial markets.
"I thought they weren't going to do it because cooler heads would prevail at the Fed," he said in an interview this week.
He said the historic rate move on December 16 "was very, very stupid."
While his assessment was blunt, his no-hike view had been shared by former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Nobel Prize laureates in economics Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, and noted bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach.
Ricchiuto's original prediction was closer to the mark than the vast majority of economists at the 22 primary dealers, the big banks allowed to transact directly with the Fed. Most shifted their expectations for the timing of the rise from early in 2015 to later in the year, with some even pushing their bets into 2016, where Ricchiuto had been all along, only to reverse course when the Fed made its intentions obvious.
And he is not ready to ditch his contrarian view.
Ricchiuto, who took over as the bank's top economist in September 2008, just as Lehman Brothers was imploding and the financial crisis erupting, thinks the Fed has just one more rate increase in its near future before it calls it quits and reverses course.
"They will go another 25 basis points and will be stuck there for a long period of time," the 58-year-old said.
Other Wall Street economists reckon Fed Chair Janet Yellen and voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee will raise rates at least twice in 2016, about the same as what futures contracts are predicting. The Fed, by contrast, currently sees four hikes, based on its latest rate forecasts.
Ricchiuto, however, predicted that the Fed would have to backtrack and begin cutting rates, similar to what happened with the European Central Bank in 2011 as it was dealing with the eurozone debt crisis.
Rather than cutting rates to help the eurozone economy, the ECB, led by then-president Jean-Claude Trichet, had raised policy rates twice that year, which later proved to be a mistake that some analysts blamed for prolonging the crisis.
Now with Mario Draghi at the helm of the ECB, the central bank's key policy rates are in negative territory, and it has adopted quantitative easing to combat deflation.
Despite the slowdown in US domestic manufacturing because of sluggish global demand and modest growth in consumer spending, the Fed may raise again in March or April, according to Ricchiuto, who said the Fed had set the bar fairly low to hike rates again.
"Would the data allow for it to happen? I don't know," he said.
(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Frances Kerry)As part of an effort to feed hungry people in East Tennessee, WWE Wrestling star Kane worked as a celebrity server at Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes on Thursday evening.
Glenn "Kane" Jacobs served at the Mooyah location at 7301 Kingston Pike in Knoxville between 5:30 and 9:00 p.m.
Mooyah won a celebrity server thanks to a recent Faith to End Hunger food drive, where Knoxville restaurants collected as many non-perishable food items as possible. During Thursday evening's event, 10 percent of revenue earned was donated to Faith to End Hunger.
"I was actually impressed by what everybody did," Jacobs said. "There were five restaurants around Knoxville that participated. They all did a great job, and I'm just very proud of what everybody did."
Jacobs said he attends these types of charity events because they are a lot of fun for him, but they also hold a deeper meaning for the wrestler.
"I think I'm the typical story you hear from a lot of people, I grew up in a family that didn't have a whole lot, but I never went to bed hungry," Jacobs said. "I never knew what that was like, and I can't imagine what that's like. We're such an affluent society that I don't think hunger should be a problem, especially here in East Tennessee, but unfortunately it is."
Jacobs said he appreciated the large crowd that came out to the restaurant to see him for the event.
"I guess the message is, I think we're all here to make the world a better place," Jacobs said.By Krystal Heath and Steven Crowder
You know those people that invade your personal space? More specifically, you know, as a woman, those reallllllllly creepy old guys that TOTALLY invade your personal space? There’s not a female on the planet who is okay with dudes like that. Looking for a war on women? Let’s start with creepy old guys.
And the award for Creepy McCreepster of the year goes to… Vice President Biden. They don’t make space invaders worse than this guy. Here’s 10 of Joe Biden’s creepiest moments:
1. Grope and change? At a 2013 Christmas party, the Vice President did, uhm, this to the Hill’s White House correspondent Amie Parnes.
2. Also at the 2013 Christmas party (busy night), the VP went for the facial pet of this unnamed woman.
3. During this year’s swearing in, Vice President Biden appeared to completely freak out a 13 year old girl. Senator Coons says his daughter doesn’t find the VP creepy; we find that hard to believe. A picture is worth a thousand words, Senator Coons.
4. Then there’s the Biden eskimo kiss, also from the Senate swearing-in ceremony. EWWWW.
5. The 2009 Little League World Series brought out the side of Biden we all hoped to never see… but regularly do. What teenage guy about to play the biggest game of his young life doesn’t want a good face squeeze from Uncle Joe? And of course, a kiss for the random usher. On the lips.
6. In the latest display of extreme Biden creepiness, he nuzzled the wife of Ashton Carter, the new US Secretary of Defense. (And he did it literally right behind the poor man’s back.)
7. Who says the Vice President isn’t helping our foreign relations? Here he is being a total creeper on Irish President Mary McAleese.
8. I never felt bad for Hillary. Until now.
9. Nothing says congratulations on your Olympic gold medal like a… whatever this move is from the Vice President. We’re sorry, Katie Ledecky. Your gold medal-worthy mad swimming skills deserve so much more than this (like a huge tax!).
10. The infamous biker in Biden’s lap. At a 2012 campaign stop in Seaman, Ohio at Cruisers Diner, this happened. Whyyyyyy?
Joe Biden. Vice Creeper in Chief. See what I did there? Vice…Photo by Honor Kennedy
We are two sisters from San Francisco now living in Berlin and NYC respectively. We love great design- especially when it comes to shoes- and have long lamented the lack of diversity in women's footwear. We are just two individuals of many who crave traditional menswear shoe styles but can never find them in our smaller sizes. We're here to fix this.
From the minute we’re born, we’re assigned a gender and told what we can and can’t be, what we should and shouldn’t wear. As a symptom of this, outdated gender expectations dominate the shopping experience. It’s time for a change.
We often see things framed from a dominantly male perspective (“boyfriend jeans”, “menswear inspired”) that seems limiting and unfair, especially towards women and non-binary folks. Women’s shoes are often either poorly constructed imitations of their “menswear” counterparts or have frilly, frivolous, overly feminizing details.
We believe that style transcends gender lines, and we aim to even the playing field, starting from the ground up: shoes.
Our mission is simply to create top quality, beautiful footwear and make it accessible to all genders and foot sizes.
Photo by Maansi Jain
*Let us know if your shoe size falls outside this range and we'll do our best to accomodate you.
*Update: Now available in black:
If you choose a black upper, you will also be able to choose an all-black sole or keep the same sole as on the Natural color options.
Photos by www.thunderkhat.de
Our factory has 60+ years of experience creating premium quality traditional menswear footwear.
Quality is built into every single detail of our shoes:
We use vegetable tanned leather for the upper AND lining. Many shoes are built to look pretty on the outside, and compromise on the inner details to cut down on costs. We were having none of this, so we made sure that the lining- the part that's closest to your skin- is of the utmost quality. The softness of the lining makes for an especially lovely experience when you slip on the boots.
Many shoes are built to look pretty on the outside, and compromise on the inner details to cut down on costs. We were having none of this, so we made sure that the lining- the part that's closest to your skin- is of the utmost quality. The softness of the lining makes for an especially lovely experience when you slip on the boots. For our ripple-soled boots, we used the best quality outsoles available, from Vibram. There are imitations out there that are much cheaper, but ours will last you much longer than any imitation would.
There are imitations out there that are much cheaper, but ours will last you much longer than any imitation would. For our leather-sole shoes, we use a double layer forefoot for long-lasting wear, plus a stacked leather heel. Many brands (even the most expensive luxury ones!) use other materials like MDF (compressed fiberboard) for their heels which is much cheaper, and can also warp when exposed to the elements.
A discouraging reality of the consumer goods industry is that products are often created for men as a default, and then modified in some way so as to be suitable for women. We consider this'strategy' insulting to all genders and instead recognize and celebrate the diversity in personal aesthetic choices. As a way of evening the playing field, we're offering beautiful, sustainable shoes in the full size range.
Veggie tan develops a rich patina when used and exposed to the elements.
Vegetable tanned leather (or veggie tan, for short) is leather that's produced in the most organic way possible. Its color comes from natural ingredients; ours are colored with tree bark tannins. We're using veggie tan exclusively for our shoes.
What exactly is vegetable tanned leather?
Vegetable-tanned leather is:
Free of the heavy metals found substantially in most commercially-produced leathers.
biodegradable. Not that we'd want you to do this, but- if you bury our leather in the ground, it will be gone after 100 years.
What is vegetable tanned leather NOT?
Veggie tan is not:
cheap. Veggie tan is one of the most expensive leathers because it takes much longer to produce than chrome-tanned leathers (weeks vs days.) For a product that should be heirloom quality, there is no alternative, so we think the extra cost is more than worth it!
vegetarian or vegan. Leather is leather- and ours comes from Portuguese and Spanish cows.
What makes vegetable tanned leather great?
Veggie tan leather is an heirloom quality material: it gets better with age. We love it because it grows with you. Many commercial leathers are finished with plastics and/or paints which covers up the natural beauty of the material. We love seeing the natural properties of veggie tan evolve with time and use.
Our tannery
Our factory is one of three tanneries in Portugal that still produces vegetable tanned leather. Added bonus: they're located mere kilometers from our factory, which is great for several reasons. It means that once our production leathers are complete, they can reach our factory in minutes, enabling production to begin as soon as possible. Short physical distance covered also means a reduced carbon footprint.
Mr Jose, the owner of our factory.
There are a lot of footwear manufacturers out there all over the world and we're confident we're working with one of the best out there: they create gorgeous, high quality footwear for some of the world's best-known luxury brands, and we are beyond thrilled to work with them. We think you're going to admire their craftsmanship just as much as we do.
One of the things that makes our factory unique is their small size- they employ only about 25 people. This means that each production run gets the utmost care and attention.
Photos: www.maansi-jain.com
Photos: www.thunderkhat.de
Model: www.QUEERVANITY.com
We know that buying shoes online can be an inexact art and that different sizes can mean something different across different brands. That's why, pending a successful campaign, we'll be sending our backers instructions for determing key foot measurements. This will help us to figure out which size you are in our shoes. Generally speaking our sizes shouldn't be off your 'normal' size, but this will help us be extra sure.
The general size range runs around 35-48 (European sizing), but if you fall outside of these ranges, then let us know and we're prepared to make you our shoes in your size.
Our first footwear collection is just the start- we've got so many more ideas that we've already started exploring, all with the goal of making the shopping experience a better one for everyone.
Getting to this point has been a monumental effort and would not have been possible without the incredibly generous help of so many people all over the world. We are infinitely grateful!Donald Trump said that the United States needs to increase its nuclear arsenal. But our nuclear stockpiles already have enough power to wipe out all life on earth.
In an interview with Reuters, Donald Trump said he wants to increase America’s nuclear arsenal so that it can be “top of the pack,” because it has fallen behind Russia in its atomic weapons capacity.
Trump said, “I am the first one that would like to see everybody — nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power.”
He added, “It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack.”
This is not the first time Trump has made alarming comments about nuclear weapons. During the presidential campaign, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough quoted an unidentified foreign policy expert who briefed Trump and said he asked three times: If we have nuclear weapons, why can’t we use them?
Trump has also said he would never rule out the use of nuclear weapons to attack ISIS, and in December he tweeted, “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” In the 1980s, Trump floated the idea that along with the Soviet Union, the United States should use its nuclear power to “dominate” countries.
And Trump’s current assessment of America’s nuclear might is completely disconnected from reality, and underplays the power to engage in mass death on a scale never before seen in history that America already possesses.
The United States has 7,100 nuclear warheads, 1,367 of which are currently deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles, bombers, and submarines.
Superficially, Russia has more (7,300 total and 1,796 deployed) but that does not give an accurate representation of the danger.
50 nuclear bombs could kill 200 million people, about 2/3 of the U.S. population.
The entire deployed U.S. arsenal, based on that measure, could kill over 5 billion people (the total world population is currently estimated at 7.4 billion), and that does not take into account the mass destruction, radiation, and starvation that would effectively destroy all life on the planet.
That is why the trend on nuclear weapons, until Trump, has been in arms reduction, not production.
President Obama said that “we have more nuclear weapons than we need,” and signed the New START arms reduction treaty with Russia. This trend towards nuclear reduction has been bipartisan, with former Republican Secretaries of State like Henry Kissinger and George Shultz backing those initiatives.
Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, signed a nuclear reduction treaty with Russia in 2002. Conservative icon Ronald Reagan, working with Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev, signed the first nuclear arms reduction treaty back in 1987.
Trump’s nuclear dreams are not realistic, they are not normal, and they are as dangerous as it gets.No one on the Miami Marlins will ever wear Jose Fernandez’s No. 16 again, owner Jeffrey Loria announced Monday, a day after the star pitcher was killed in a boating accident.
But that will only take effect after Monday night, when Marlins players honored Fernandez by each wearing his jersey number during their game against the Mets, in which he had been scheduled to start.
And second baseman Dee Gordon started the game with an almost unbelievable tribute to his teammate, slamming the third pitch out of the park for a lead-off home run.
Gordon was overcome as he touched home, hugging his teammates as he walked back to the dugout.
Fernandez and two others were found dead on Sunday morning when the boat they were on, which authorities have said appeared to be traveling very fast, crashed on a jetty off Miami Beach.
That day, the Marlins held an emotional press conference where the players and coaching staff fought back tears remembering the 24-year-old ace. The team also painted his No. 16 on the pitcher's mound and placed flowers alongside the rubber.
Fernandez dazzled on the mound for Miami in his brief career and the team will recognize his achievements in Monday's game.
The Marlins canceled Sunday's game against the Braves following Fernandez's death. Barring a need for that contest in the playoff race, Miami will only play 161 games this season.
The Marlins' gesture to have every player don Fernandez's number is reminiscent of the league's annual remembrance of Jackie Robinson. Every season, every player on every team wears his No. 42 for one day in April.
Fernandez will likely go down in history as the last Marlins player to wear No. 16, besides the players wearing it in his memory. While the team has not announced the plan officially, Monday's gesture points in that direction.
The game Monday night also included a moment of silence.
It's the first time in Marlins history that an active player has died. It is a rare event in sports and one that has no playbook. Miami could opt to hold more tributes for Fernandez next season as well, including at the 2017 All-Star Game.A Chicago-based civic organization, known for its efforts at exposing corruption and working for integrity and accountability, has raised serious questions about a U.S. Representative and his personal and professional finances.
In articles for the Better Government Association (BGA) that have appeared recently in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Chicago Sun-Times reporter, Chuck Neubauer, and Sandy Bergo reported on "A Rush of Financial Transactions" involving the activities of Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.
In an article in the Chicago Sun Times, the Better Government Association has raised questions about Rep. Bobby Rush's Rebirth of Englewood Community Development Corp., which was funded with a $1 million grant from SBC to help revive the violence-plagued Chicago South Side neighborhood. A key element of the plan involved the Bobby L. Rush Center for Community Technology. Rush also helped get a $175,000 earmark for the project. Yet more than a decade later there is no technology center and the BGA said "Its unclear what happened to the money."
The BGA also reported that his campaign committee, Citizens for Rush, paid Rush's wife, Carolyn Rush, $404,000 as a consultant, nearly a quarter of all the campaign funds. The committee also has not reported paying any rent or reporting any contributions-in-kind for rent. The committee also gave his Beloved Community Christian Church more than $196,000 since June 2004.
In another article the BGA highlighted how Rush and two non-profits he founded "have repeatedly failed to pay federal, state or local taxes on time." The group stated in 2013, Rush, his wife, the church the Congressman runs and another non-profit operating out of the church had delinquencies of $195,000.A letter from Ucchi to Kotori
To Minami Kotori-sama,
This is my first time writing a letter. I can’t help but feel a bit weird…! Even though I’m sure I won’t be able to write well but I will still write according to my thoughts. Can I write this well……
It was 2010 when we first met!! It’s already been 5 years!! We actually spent so much time together, I’m really surprised! From the start, I’ve been thinking “Minami Kotori… What kind of child would she be like?”
“I’m the one that has to give Kotori a character!” I held that thought in my heart & made a decision. To give Kotori a lot of charm & make her shine etc. That would be my job as a Seiyuu… something like that. To let everyone see that “Out of the 9 members, she wouldn’t lose to anyone & that no one else but me can potray” I wanted to play a Kotori like that. Love Live! requires me to make a lot of appearances & I was very reluctant at first. Won’t I ruin your image? I was very afraid of that. Dancing too. “Can I dance it well?” I was always worrying about that. It was at these moments that you stayed by me & gave me energy.
I’m not fighting a lone battle. There was always “Minami Kotori”, this character, by my side. I will keep fighting. The most important thing is to have confidence! It doesn’t matter if it’s singing or dancing, I’ve got to give it my all to play as you. As a seiyuu, I’ve never had such a happy experience! Just like this, together, shining as one. And the most amazing thing is the “Live” of Love Live!
Really, you can call it the fruit of our labour! As seiyuu, we’re always working hard & moving towards that goal. To be able to meet this role “Minami Kotori”, I’m really happy. If I missed meeting you even by just a little bit, your seiyuu could have been some other person… Now that I think about it, I have to express my gratitude properly for being able to meet you. Also, I’d like to compliment myself for trying my best all this while to portray you… To be able to be Minami Kotori’s seiyuu (This experience) It will be my lifetime’s treasure. What do you think? To have me chosen as your seiyuu, did you feel that this experience is a really happy one too?
If we’re the same, if our feelings are mutual, then I’d be too happy. From here on, I will continue to try my best to not embarrass you! Love Live! has really granted all kinds of wishes. Do you remember? I once said this to everyone at the first event that “One day, (Love Live!) would become something everyone can be proud of!”. From then, I’ve been working really hard together with Kotori. Up until now, we’ve received so much love from so many people. I’m really happy… From here on, let’s let Love Live! get even more recognition from everyone. Let’s carry everyone’s love & keep on fighting!
To the cutest & my most beloved Minami Kotori-sama,
Uchida Aya
Read the rest of the letters here.On Tuesday members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are walking out in what it is be the union's first national day of action since 2014.
Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of action in order to address school funding and to resume negotiations on teacher contracts.
In the NUT’s ballot, 91.7 per cent voted in favour of strike action, with a 24.5 per cent turnout.
It will be the latest in a series of strikes that the union has called to tackle issues that have remained similar for many years.
But in a letter written to Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, on June 28, the NUT highlighted further reasons for striking, stating that the note was a "last appeal" before action was taken.
With strike action set to affect thousands of children across the UK, what reasons have teachers given for the decision?
Haven't we been here before?
Yes and no. In July 2014, NUT members took part in a day of action alongside members of UNISON, UNITE, GMB, PCS and the FBU.
At the time, the NUT cited pay, pensions and workload as three key reasons for walking out. According to the union, pension contribution increases and pay restraint had meant that teachers had seen a 15 per cent fall in the value of their take home pay.
Performance related pay (PRP) was also a key issue, along with the oft-quoted 60 hour working week.
So what's new?
Workload is still an issue, but the NUT focused on funding in their letter to the Education Secretary. Writing in June, Kevin Courtney, the acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, warned that the funding situation in schools could get "progressively worse".
He cited forecasts from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which predicted an 8 per cent cut in funding in real terms over the next few years.
The NUT argues that these funding cuts could have "negative implications" including; an increase in class sizes, fewer subject choices for children, and cuts in support and teaching staff. All of which could affect standards overall.
Anything else?
Yes, the "de-regulation of teacher terms and conditions". In plain English? Following the Government's push to turn all schools into academies, decisions about pay and working conditions are increasingly being made at school level, rather than following a national standard.
The NUT's concern is that there is little evidence that making decisions, for example, on sick pay and maternity leave at school level, leads to higher standards - in fact, the union suggests that this responsibility could distract school leaders from the important business of educating children.
But pay is still an issue?
Pay is definitely still a concern for unions. At the most basic level, the NUT have said that unless pay and working conditions improve, it is unlikely that the teacher recruitment and retention "crisis" will get better at any point soon.
In short, what are the NUT asking for?
In his letter to Nicky Morgan, Mr Courtney outlined three requests to avoid the strike action.Now that Michael Bisping has finally reached the top of the mountain and stands tall as the new UFC middleweight champion, there are a long list of contenders lining up to challenge for the first defense of his title.
Former champions Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman have already called out Bisping with top ranked contenders Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Yoel Romero not far behind while the UFC weighs all the options for the next championship bout at 185 pounds.
But Bisping told FOX Sports on Monday that selfishly he has another option in mind.
Article continues below...
I’ll just go out on a limb and say this right now and people can talk (expletive) all they want, but the fight that I want because he’s almost retired — I want Dan Henderson. I owe Dan Henderson one. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows why. — Michael Bisping
It’s a fight he’s wanted since 2009 and now that he’s the champion, |
in Clinton’s ear.
To be honest, we don’t see any device in this image. (What’s more flesh-like than flesh itself?) But we decided to look at some other images in our wire service archive to see if anything else made her ear look unusual.
When we reached out to Charisma News, an editor suggested that we contact the author of the article. We emailed him the images, but we did not hear back.
Image 1 (Damon Winter/New York Times)
Close-up
Image 2 (Doug Mills/New York Times)
Close-up
Image 3 (Associated Press/David Goldman)
Close-up
Image 4 (Associated Press/David Goldman)
Close-up
In these four close-ups, we see nothing that mirrors what the original Reuters image showed (which, again, didn’t even look like a device to us). We just see a lot of ear flesh.
When we ran these images by Richard Quindry, a Philadelphia-area photographic and Photoshop expert, he said that only image 2 could even potentially show anything -- the narrow white form inside the ear canal. But even saying that that shape is something other than skin would be speculative at best, he said.
Each of the other images -- as well as the original Reuters image -- show "nothing" to support a claim that she used an earpiece, Quindry said.
Our ruling
Internet claims suggested that a debate photograph of Clinton showed her wearing an earpiece. Neither the original photograph presented as evidence nor other enlargements of photographs taken at the debate show anything that looks like an earpiece or a hearing aid. Pants on Fire!Jared Leto was heckled by an audience member during a film festival Q&A, who accused him of 'trans-misogyny' for his portrayal of a transgender character in Dallas Buyers Club
Jared Leto was heckled by an audience member during a Q&A at the Santa Barbara film festival, who accused him of 'trans-misogyny' for his portrayal of a transgender person with Aids in the Oscar-tipped drama Dallas Buyers Club.
"You don't deserve an award for portraying a trans-woman, because you're a man," the woman continued, to which Leto replied: "Because I'm a man, I don't deserve to play that part? So you would hold a role against someone who happened to be gay or lesbian – they can't play a straight part?"
The woman complained that only straight actors ever play transgender characters, and that more trans actors should get the opportunity. Leto responded: "Then you've made sure people that are gay, people that aren't straight, people like the Rayons of the world would never have the opportunity to turn the tables and explore parts of that art," referring to Rayon, his character in Dallas Buyers Club. The audience applauded Leto's comments, and he privately continued the conversation with the woman after the Q&A.
Leto was given a Virtuoso award at the festival for his breakthrough performance, alongside June Squibb, Michael B Jordan and Brie Larson; he has already won a best supporting actor Golden Globe this year, and is tipped to win the Oscar in the same category.
There have been some other public criticisms of Leto's casting. Writing on Salon, Chelsea Hawkins said: "Given that transgender people are invisible in contemporary media, it becomes problematic that Leto is taking the role of a trans person when there are trans actors out there trying to find roles and work … the stories of under-represented, oft-ignored and misunderstood communities may be best told by the people who live those lives." She highlights trans actors such as Laverne Cox from Orange is the New Black and Independent Spirit Award-nominated Harmony Santana, and argues that they need parts like Leto's.
Paris Lees, writing in the Independent, meanwhile said "Rayon isn't a person, she's a function … For truly accurate portrayals of trans people, cast trans actors."
• Tom Shone on Leto's Oscar odds
• This article was amended on 5 February 2014. An earlier version referred to Jaret Leto's role as a transgender Aids victim. The use of "victim" is in contravention of the Guardian's Style guide on the portrayal of people with Aids.The Star Wars universe is bigger than ever, thanks to Disney’s new mandate that everything that gets published is in canon, along with the movies. But if all you’ve done is watch the movies and TV shows, there’s a whole half of the universe you’re missing.
Here are all the new, notable and most interesting characters from all the Star Wars books and comics released so far, including Rebels, Imperials, Jedi, aliens, bounty hunters, and even a few droids. Spoiler warning, obviously—but if you want to know what else is going on in a galaxy far, far away, it’s essential to know about these characters.
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Before A New Hope
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Depa Billaba (Kanan)
She was the Jedi Master to Kanan (star of Star Wars Rebels, back when he was going by Caleb Dume.) Captured by space pirates at an early age, she was rescued by Mace Windu, who not only brought her into the Jedi order, but trained her himself. Eventually she also joined the Jedi High Council, and made background appearances in the Council scenes in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. She was fighting the Separatists on the planet Kaller with Caleb Dune when Order 66 was enacted; she was meditating at the time, which allowed her to receive a Force vision of the danger. She sacrificed herself to the clone soldiers, given Caleb enough time to escape.
Janus Kasmir (Kanan)
A Kalleran criminal and con artist who ran into Kanan, then called Caleb Dume, both before and after Order 66. He had no love for the Jedi or the Separatists— but when he found Caleb hiding in Plateau City, he fed and took in the young Jedi. After hearing a message calling all Jedi to return to Coruscant, Caleb actually stole Janus’ spaceship. When he discovered it was an Imperial trap, Caleb brought the ship back, but Janus banished him. The two later ran across each on Kaller, after Kanan had beat up some criminals Kasmir had intended on fleecing; as punishment, the Kalleran forced Caleb into his crew, telling him to get rid of everything that marked him as Caleb Dume, including his name—and that’s how he became Kanan Jarrus. The two made great partners in stealing and smuggling, skills Kanan continued to utilize later, but to help the Rebellion.
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Isval (Lords of the Sith)
A former Twilek slave who helped lead a rebellion on the planet Ryloth alongside Cham Syndulla (whom you might recognize from Clone Wars, or as the father of Hera on Rebels). She loved Cham and hated the Empire, and gave her life for both causes. She even confronted Darth Vader, sacrificing her life so Cham could continue fighting against the Empire.
Ciena Ree (Lost Stars)
Born on the planet Jelucan, Ciena enthusiastically joined the Empire after it liberated her impoverished planet. She attended the Royal Imperial Academy, receiving top marks and going on the command track. She was assigned to Darth Vader’s flagship Devastator, where she narrowly avoided being killed on the Death Star along with many of her friends and fellow former students. Although she was appalled at what she considered the Rebellion’s act of terrorism, eventually she began to see that the Empire was evil. At first she thought maintaining order was the greatest good, then she hoped to change the Empire for the better from within, but she finally stayed purely because of her vow of service, as Jelucans take their honor very seriously. Ciena was the commander of the crashed Star Destroyer on Jakku, seen early in The Force Awakens.
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Thane Kyrell (Lost Stars)
Thane was Ciena’s childhood friend who also joined the Royal Imperial Academy, following the pilot track. Their childhood friendship blossomed into romance, but while Ciena stayed in command ships among fellow Imperials, Thane flew TIE Fighters to various planets and into various battles, and saw the Empire’s evils first hand. Eventually he deserted, helped by Ciena, who had him declared dead. But Thane’s conscience eventually got the better of him, and he joined the Rebellion, pitting him against his love.
After A New Hope
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Evaan Verlaine (Princess Leia)
A native Alderaanian, Evaan was mentored by Queen Breha growing up, giving her a love of its royal family and the Rebel Alliance it supported. After the Death Star destroyed the planet, she pledged her service to Princess Leia as they searched for other survivors who had been off-planet, while the Empire was hunting them down. She protected Leia as they traveled to Naboo, Sallust and other planets (since the Empire had a bounty on the princess’ head) and together they brought together thousands of Alderaanians. When this group came to together to discuss electing a new leader, Verlaine assumed Leia would take the role; instead, Leia nominated Verlaine.
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Sana Solo (Marvel’s Star Wars)
Born Sana Starros, Sana is most notable for claiming to be Han Solo’s wife. Han Solo claims this is 100% not true. Who is lying? Well, more on that in a bit. We do know for certain, however, that Han has been avoiding Sana for years—which could just as easily be because she’s crazy and dangerous. At any rate, Sana tracked down Han—who was unfortunately hitting on Leia at the time—in the Monsua Nebula, right before the Empire attacked. Sana’s plans to turn Leia in for her bounty, and basically kidnap her husband, were dashed when Han reveals he is also a Rebel, and if the Empire lands he’ll be killed too—forcing Sana take both Han and Leia prisoner while escaping from the Empire until she figures out how to get rid of one and not the other.
Eventually Sana reveals that she and Han were married—but it was part of a scam job the two pulled together. When the deal went sour, Han ran off with Sana’s cut, and she’s been trying to track him down since. After Leia saves Sana from a monster outbreak in Grakkus the Hutt’s arena, Sana and the group part amicably—although there’s no mention as to whether she ever got actually got the money she was looking for.
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Grakkus the Hutt (Marvel’s Star Wars)
He was a Hutt crimelord on Nar Shaddaa—known as the “Smuggler’s Moon,” since it was basically one big criminal underworld. He controlled a legion of bounty hunters and smugglers, indulging in crimes and contract killings all over the galaxy, which funded his passion for collecting Jedi artifacts. When Luke Skywalker visited Nar Shaddaa in the hopes of hiring a pilot to take him to Coruscant, Luke got into a bar fight and was forced to use his lightsaber. One of Grakkus’ operatives pretty much immediately stole the weapon and gave it to the Hutt. It actually worked out kind of all right for Luke; trapped in the Hutt’s massive collection of artifacts, Luke had access to over a dozen of Jedi Holocrons containing recordings of past Jedi masters. Then Grakkus decided Luke would better serve him fighting to the death in the crimelord’s arena. This decision didn’t work out well for anybody.
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Doctor Aphra (Darth Vader)
The “rogue archaeologist” came to Darth Vader’s attention for her technological ability, particularly with droids—she managed to find and reactivate 000 and BT-1, two of the deadliest droids in the galaxy, without being murdered by them. Vader sought her out to help him acquire an army, having fallen out of favor with the Emperor after A New Hope. Aphra took him to Geonosis and commandeered the last remaining droid factory there. Later, after learning the name of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star, Vader sent her on a sensitive mission—find the Naboo doctor who performed the autopsy on Queen Amidala’s corpse, to confirm whether she had still been pregnant when she died. Aphra is young and spunky, and is an odd match for Vader, but the Sith Lord has spared her life on several occasions, while Aphra has also gone out of her way to rescue her new master.
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0-0-0 and BT-1 (Darth Vader)
Like C-3PO, 000 is a protocol droid; like R2-D2, BT-1 looks like an Astromech. Also, they tend to squabble with each other. Other than that, though, they are totally different—because both droids basically want to kill all humans (and frequently ask their master Dr. Aphra for permission to do so). Triple-Zero is programmed for etiquette and torture, which he enjoys quite a bit—he has been known to laugh while setting droids on fire—while BT-1 is an assassin droid, created by the Empire in a program that was shut down immediately after BT-1 killed all his creators and blew up the base it was housed in. They are, without a doubt, the greatest characters in the new Star Wars continuity—not least of which is because of the time they manage to capture Luke Skywalker after painting the normally black 0-0-0 gold, disguising him as C-3PO.
Nakari Kelen (Heir to the Jedi)
One of Luke Skywalker’s new love interests in Disney’s new Star Wars canon. After her mother was jailed for writing a presumably dirty song titled “Darth Vader’s Many Prosthetic Parts,” Kelen joined the Rebel Alliance. Her slugthrower skills got her paired with Luke on a mission to rescue the cryptographer Givin Drusil Bephorin from Imperial clutches. The two fell for each other, and Luke even told her about his burgeoning Force talents. Alas, she was killed in the line of duty.
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Zarro (Chewbacca)
After Chewbacca crash-landed on Andelm-4, he came across a young girl named Zarro, who managed to enlist the Wookiee into helping her free her people from the evil crimelord Jaum. Jaum had enslaved the planet’s inhabitants into mining Andelm beetles and selling them to the Empire (they power blasters, somehow). Chewie and Zarro basically liberate the entire planet themselves—including Zarro’s dad—and even take out a Star Destroyer. But the real reason you need to know Zarro is that she’s the person who’s currently hanging onto Chewbacca’s medal, after the Wookiee gave it to her to remember their adventure by.
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Chanath Cha (Lando)
This female bounty hunter was hired directly by the Emperor when his royal yacht, the Imperials, was stolen. Her mission: To kill the thieves, and destroy the vessel if need be, lest certain items fall into the wrong hands. The emperor gave Cha a ship, use of an Imperial space station and a droid, although the bounty hunter had to take several precautions with them to make sure the Emperor couldn’t have her killed after she had completed her task. When she located the yacht, she entered it and prepared to complete her mission… until she discovered the thieves were Lobot, her former lover, and his companion Lando Calrissian. Chanath eventually reneged on her mission and sided with Lando and Lobot, eventually helping them destroy Palpatine’s yacht.
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Sarco Plank (The Weapon of a Jedi)
A Melitto alien who lived on the planet of Devaron (home of the aliens who look a lot like devils), who lived by scavenging and selling items as well as working as a guide to the planet’s jungles—although he wasn’t above killing his fares and stealing their valuables. Sarco mainly stayed on Devaron as he was convinced that the local, abandoned Jedi Temple of Eedit contained great riches, but he could never get into the temple to retreive them. When Luke Skywalker arrived, eager to search the temple, Sarco volunteered as the hero’s guide; eventually he revealed his plan to Luke, and the two fought. Luke knocked him into a pit inside the temple and left him (there was no treasure). Eventually, somehow Sarco Plank escaped and moved to Jakku, as he’s seen early in The Force Awakens at Niima Outpost, with fellow scavenger Rey. (Making him the only character on this list who appears in Episode VII.)
After Return of the Jedi
Norra Wexley (Aftermath)
After her Rebel husband was dragged off by Imperial troops, Norra Wexley left her young son Temmin in the care of her sister, and joined the Rebel Alliance herself in hopes of finding him (she is unsuccessful). Years later, after the battle of Endor, she returned to her home planet of Akiva to reunite with her son, who in the meantime has become a skilled pilot, inventor and criminal—even stealing a mysterious weapon from a local crimelord. Temmin was bitter his mother abandoned him, but when Norra realized a group of high-level Imperials are having a secret meeting on Akiva, she, Temmin and a group of others banded together to capture them, striking yet another crippling blow against the Empire. Years later, Temmin would be better known as Snap Wexley, the Resistance pilot played by Greg Grunberg in The Force Awakens.
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Sinjir Rath Velus (Aftermath)
An Imperial Loyalty Officer who was at the battle of Endor and deserted following their horrific loss. He hid from the Empire ever since, knowing he’d immediately be executed for treason (or handed to another Imperial loyalty officer), and was getting drunk on Akiva when he heard of the arrival of Star Destroyers. In his attempt to get off planet, he got captured by a local crimelord, and rescued by a bounty hunter and the Wexleys, and then also got caught up in the attempt to capture the high-level Imperials meeting on the planet, using his intimate knowledge of the Empire to break them into the meeting’s location. Sinjir is homosexual, which has proven to be quite controversial among horrible people.
Jas Emari (Aftermath)
A bounty hunter who was at the battle of Endor to assassinate Princess Leia, who only stopped when she realized the battle had shifted to the Rebels’ favor. Later, she came to Akiva to assassinate Arsin Crassus, a rich slaver who funded the Imperials; but when she spied Admiral Sloane, Grand Moff Pandion, former advisor to the Emperor Yupe Tashu, and other major Imperial targets, she decided to take them all out at once—before unfortunately being captured by a local crimelord. She partnered with the Wexleys and Sinjir for their skills, and led the attempt to capture and kill the Imperial leaders.
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Mr. Bones (Aftermath)
A Battle Droid repurposed and reprogrammed by Temmin into becoming his bodyguard, Mr. Bones was actually a terrifying killing machine when need be, and Temmin, who regularly ran afoul of many bad people, often needed him to be. His name came from the bones Temmin decorated the droid with, which frankly just makes him more terrifying. Imagine a battle droid that could move like Darth Maul but also had a habit of creepily humming to itself, and you get the idea.
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Rae Sloane (Aftermath)
The Admiral of the last Super Star Destroyer and the highest ranking officer left in the Imperial Navy after Endor, Sloane took it upon herself to gather the remaining major leaders of the Empire to figure out what direction in a secret meeting upon Akiva. Unfortunately for her, trying to get the many disparate, often power-hungry Imperials to agree on anything proved impossible, and she was forced to abandon the idea—and them, literally, when the New Republic fleet got wind of the meeting and arrived in force. Having served Grand Moff Tarkin, Darth Vader and even the Emperor himself during her long career, she will undoubtedly be a continued force for the New Republic to deal with.
The Operator (Aftermath)
This mysterious person is an unknown high-ranking Imperial officer who gives Admiral Ackbar and the New Republic forces information on Imperial troops, but for unknown reasons. Although Ackbar doesn’t trust him, his information has always been good—including that of the Imperial meeting taking place on Akiva. At the end of the novel Aftermath, it’s revealed that the Operator’s motives are pretty simple: He wants to eliminate his competition for control of the remaining Imperial forces. His identity is as yet unknown.
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Shara Bey and Kes Dameron (Shattered Empire)
The parents of The Force Awakens star Poe Dameron, who likely conceived the eventual Resistance pilot immediately after defeating the Empire during the celebration on Endor. Shara Bay was an elite Rebel pilot who flew Princess Leia to Naboo when she asked them to join the New Republic. The Empire got wind of her journey, it attacked Naboo, and Bey was instrumental in stopping their assault. Meanwhile, Dameron was a member of the Pathfinders, a special strike team led by Han Solo that specialized in rooting out entrenched Imperial forces; they also stopped Operation Cinder, an Imperial plan to destroy several worlds in retaliation for the Emperor’s death. Shortly thereafter, Dameron left the Rebel Alliance, and Bey more reluctantly did the same, relocating to Yavin-IV to raise their son, Poe—and brought along a Force-sensitive tree originally planted at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, gifted to Shara by Luke Skywalker, after they liberated two of the trees from Imperial control.
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The Messenger (Shattered Empire)
A mysterious being tasked with delivering messages from the Emperor. When the Emperor died, he brought the order to enact Operation: Cinder to Captain Lerr Duvat, who began by attacking Naboo (where Leia and Shara Bey happened to be). There’s not much to know about the Messenger yet, but between his obvious importance and his very distinct look, I believe he’ll be showing up in the new canon again soon.
AdvertisementThe Satanic Temple of Seattle (TST) announces its proposal for an “After School Satan Club pilot program” in the Tacoma, Washington public schools.
“We’ve contacted the Tacoma Public Schools District via email and letter announcing our intentions to start an After School Satan Club at Point Defiance Elementary, and have requested their Facility Use application so we may follow the correct procedures in applying,” says the Satanic Temple’s website. “We look forward to providing a fun, educational option for Point Defiance students to learn about science, rationalism, and critical thinking.”
In the FAQ section of its website, the Satanic Temple says, “All After School Satan Clubs are based upon a uniform syllabus that emphasizes a scientific, rationalist, non-superstitious world view.”
The Satanists attack Christianity:
While the twisted Evangelical teachings of The Good News Clubs “robs children of the innocence and enjoyment of childhood, replacing them with a negative self image, preoccupation with sin, fear of Hell, and aversion to critical thinking,” After School Satan Clubs incorporate games, projects, and thinking exercises that help children understand how we know what we know about our world and our universe.
As CNSNews.com reports, the Satanists had originally planned to start their club at Centennial Elementary School in the Mount Vernon School District, but discovered the club would have to meet several hours after the end of the school day due to other activities sponsored by the school district.
“We have our own school activities and that includes our own after-school program,” said Centennial Elementary School Principal Erwin Stroosma. “When that kind of stuff is going on, we don’t allow other organizations to rent the facility.”
“I don’t mind that we made a switch,” said Lilith Starr, who heads the TST chapter. “[The national organization wants] us to go somewhere where we can try to get in as soon as possible.”
The Satanic Temple’s website states Satan Clubs are “operated by local chapters of The Satanic Temple by volunteer members who have been vetted by the Executive Ministry for professionalism, social responsibility, superior communication skills, and lack of criminal history.”
The public information meeting about the Tacoma pilot club is scheduled for Sunday, November 13 in Seattle.
“Come by, meet your local Satanists, and learn more about what we do and how to get involved!” invites the Satanists. “All are welcome. Cookies and soda provided.”What is the value of a veteran team?
It's a compliment that writers often give teams, but those "veteran" or "experienced" groups aren't always the ones that finish the year at the top of the rankings. But there's certainly something to be said for teams that start older players -- perhaps they're less shaken by big moments and bright lights, perhaps not. It's an interesting debate if nothing else.
And Phil Steele is helping us to push that debate along as he just came out with his "Experience Chart" for the 2015 season, which looks at the two deep of every Division I team and then grades them out based on the years of each first- and second-stringer.
"I awarded 3 points for every senior starter (2.5 for every additional senior in the two deep) 2 points for every junior starter (1.5 for every additional junior in the two deep) 1 point for a sophomore starter (0.5 for every additional soph in the two deep) then subtracted 1 point for every frosh starter and.5 for every frosh in the two deep," Steele explained.
So, the long and short of it is: Teams that have older players in the two deep get higher scores than those with younger players in the two deep. So while Oregon sophomore running back Royce Freeman might put up better numbers than plenty of junior or senior running backs across the conference, in this chart, he doesn't score as well as Storm Woods or Daniel Lasco.
Based on Steele's experience rating, here's how the Pac-12 shook out:
8. Utah
22. Cal
56. Arizona
59. Arizona State
75. Colorado, Washington State
87. USC
93. Oregon
99. Oregon State, UCLA
108. Washington
112. Stanford
Though it's not often we see some of those teams in the lower half of any ranking, it makes sense here. Just looking at the losses that some teams had, it's almost a surprise to not see them lower. But, since this takes into account the incoming depth chart, a team like Oregon State, which lost nine defensive starters, could still grade out better than another team just because it's replacing those lost starters with juniors and seniors.
It's not a perfect judgment of experience, but it's a good place to start. And considering two of these teams face off against the most experienced team in the country (Michigan) during the nonconference season, it'll be fun to see exactly how all of this "experience" plays out on the field.'The Bourne Ultimatum' helmer will bring the classic tale of state surveillance and Big Brother to the big screen
Paul Greengrass is looking to bring George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 back to the big screen.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the British director is taking charge of the Sony Pictures project, with Scott Rudin on board to produce with Gina Rosenblum. James Graham, who wrote the book for the Finding Neverland musical, will take on writing duties. With the project still in its early stages, no actors have yet been cast. Deadline first reported the news.
Read more Paul Greengrass Talks Hollywood Anxiety, 'Difficult' Directors, Importance of Strong Guilds
Orwell's tale tells of a world where due to a perpetual war, state surveillance is omnipresent. The novel coined the term "Big Brother" and the themes are an eerie reflection of the modern-day controversy of drones, CCTV, phone hacking and government infringement of privacy laws.
Michael Radford brought the novel to the screen, appropriately enough in 1984, and the film starred John Hurt as Winston Smith.
Greengrass worked with Rudin on the critically acclaimed Captain Philips and will also work together on the Martin Luther King movie Memphis. The two are also circling Agent Storm, the story of a CIA double agent for Sony.
Greengrass will be keeping himself busy with another installment, his third, of the phenomenally successful Bourne franchise, with Matt Damon primed to return.Owners of low-powered scooters i Indiana will need license plates and a state ID starting Jan. 1, 2015. (Photo: Star file photo )
The free ride will soon be over for low-speed scooters in Indiana.
Drivers of moped scooters with engines of 50 cubic centimeters or less will need to buy license plates and take a street sign test at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles beginning next year.
They also will be required to carry a state of Indiana identification card, but can still drive without a license or insurance, unlike owners of more-powerful scooters or motorcycles.
The BMV held a news conference Tuesday to announce the changes to give riders time to prepare.
Police and lawmakers said the new law will make the roads safer because scooter owners who are in accidents will be traceable and held to account.
The scooters are growing in popularity, especially with people who have had their licenses revoked or suspended, such as repeat traffic offenders and drunk drivers.
The bill was authored by state Rep. David Wolkins, R-Warsaw, who has said it provides both accountability for the moped drivers and gives those with suspended licenses a way to get to work. The law was passed earlier this year and goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015.
Michael Tockey, owner of Speed City Cycle in Indianapolis, calls them “liquor cycles.”
“We have people who aren’t allowed to drive a car but are out there driving these cheap, unregistered bikes without insurance and without licenses,” said Tockey, who sells about 100 of the slower-speed scooters a year and would support a tougher law requiring licensing. “I call them disposable bikes because the drivers get in accidents, leave the bikes and walk away from them,” he said.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Chris Bailey said police can ticket low-speed scooter drivers just like any other motorists.
“We can give them tickets for speeding, unsafe lane usage and operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated,” Bailey said.
But he could not immediately provide numbers on how many scooters were in accidents.
State Rep. Milo Smith, R-Columbus, had introduced bills in the past that would have required moped drivers to get motor vehicle licenses, but those efforts failed. He was a co-sponsor of Wolkins’ compromise bill.
“I noticed there were a lot more people driving them on the road and they tended to drive carelessly, weaving in and out of traffic or even riding on sidewalks,” Smith said. “Law enforcement told me of a rise in accidents.”
He said about three-quarters of the states don’t require licensing but most require registration of the vehicles.
The moped scooters can look like more powerful scooters, which require a license to drive, and can be confusing to police trying to determine whether the driver should be licensed.
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The new license plates will be colored differently from other scooters’ license plates and will cost $26.35 a year. The ID card costs $11.50.
BMV spokesman Josh Gillespie said the registration of the slow-speed scooters also will help locate stolen scooters and scooters used in crimes.
The slower-speed scooters cost $500 and aren’t built to go faster than 35 mph but can be modified to go as fast as 60 mph, Tockey said.
The most-popular scooters, like the Vespa, come with engines in the 250cc to 300cc range and can go about 80 mph. Some with engines as large as 700cc can reach speeds of 120 mph.
The new law also will raise the allowed speed on the road for the slower scooters from 30 mph to 35 mph and will prohibit the carrying of passengers.
Because those scooters aren’t currently registered, it is unknown how many are in use in Indiana.
“Now, at least, we’ll know the number we are dealing with,” Smith said, once the new law takes effect.
Call Star reporter John Tuohy at 317 444-6418 and follow on Twitter @john_tuohy.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1wl7Sf1Historical overview Edit
Paragraph 175 was adopted in 1871, shortly after Germany was unified. Beginning in the 1890s, sexual reformers fought against the "disgraceful paragraph",[1] and soon won the support of August Bebel, head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). However, a petition in the Reichstag to abolish Paragraph 175 foundered in 1898.[2] In 1907, a Reichstag Committee decided to broaden the paragraph to make lesbian sexual acts punishable as well, but debates about how to define female sexuality meant the proposal languished and was abandoned.[3] In 1929, another Reichstag Committee decided to repeal Paragraph 175 with the votes of the Social Democrats, the Communist Party (KPD) and the German Democratic Party (DDP); however, the rise of the Nazi Party prevented the implementation of the repeal.[2] Although modified at various times, the paragraph remained part of German law until 1994.[2] In 1935, the Nazis broadened the law so that the courts could pursue any "lewd act" whatsoever, even one involving no physical contact, such as masturbating next to each other.[4] Convictions multiplied by a factor of ten to over 8,000 per year by 1937.[5] Furthermore, the Gestapo could transport suspected offenders to concentration camps without any legal justification at all (even if they had been acquitted or already served their sentence in jail). Thus, over 10,000 homosexual men were forced into concentration camps, where they were identified by the pink triangle. The majority of them died there.[6] While the Nazi persecution of homosexuals is reasonably well known today, far less attention has been given to the continuation of this persecution in post-war Germany.[4] In 1945, after the concentration camps were liberated, some homosexual prisoners were recalled to custody to serve out their two-year sentence under Paragraph 175.[7] In 1950, East Germany abolished Nazi amendments to Paragraph 175, whereas West Germany kept them and even had them confirmed by its Constitutional Court. About 100,000 men were implicated in legal proceedings from 1945 to 1969, and about 50,000 were convicted.[4] Some individuals accused under Paragraph 175 committed suicide. In 1969, the government eased Paragraph 175 by providing for an age of consent of 21.[8] The age of consent was lowered to 18 in 1973, and finally, in 1994, the paragraph was repealed and the age of consent lowered to 14, the same that is in force for heterosexual acts.[8] East Germany had already reformed its more lenient version of the paragraph in 1968, and repealed it in 1988.[8]
Background Edit
German Empire Edit
Table 1: Prosecutions under § 175 (1902–1918)[5] Year Charge Convictions 1902 364 / 393 613 1903 332 / 289 600 1904 348 / 376 570 1905 379 / 381 605 1906 351 / 382 623 1907 404 / 367 612 1908 282 / 399 658 1909 510 / 331 677 1910 560 / 331 732 1911 526 / 342 708 1912 603 / 322 761 1913 512 / 341 698 1914 490 / 263 631 1915 233 / 120 294 1916 278 / 120 318 1917 131 / 70 166 1918 157 / 3 118 Middle column: Homosexuality / Bestiality On January 1, 1872, exactly one year after it had first taken effect, the penal code of the North German Confederation became the penal code of the entire German Empire. By this change, sexual intercourse between men became again a punishable offence in Bavaria as well. Almost verbatim from its Prussian model from 1794, the new Paragraph 175 of the imperial penal code specified: Unnatural fornication, whether between persons of the male sex or of humans with beasts, is punished with imprisonment, with the further punishment of a prompt loss of civil rights.[16] Even in the 1860s, individuals such as Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and Karl Maria Kertbeny had unsuccessfully raised their voices against the Prussian paragraph 143.[2] In the Empire, more organized opposition began with the 1897 founding of the sexual-reformist Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (WhK, Scientific-Humanitarian Committee), an organization of notables rather than a mass movement, which tried to proceed against Paragraph 175 based on the thesis of the innate nature of homosexuality.[17] This case was argued, for example, in an 1897 petition drafted by physician and WhK chairman Magnus Hirschfeld, urging the deletion of Paragraph 175; it gathered 6,000 signatories.[17] One year later, SPD chairman August Bebel brought the petition into the Reichstag, but failed to achieve the desired effect. On the contrary, ten years later the government laid plans to extend Paragraph 175 to women as well. Part of their "Scheme for a German Penal Code" (E 1909) reads: The danger to family life and to youth is the same. The fact that there are more such cases in recent times is reliably testified. It lies therefore in the interest of morality as in that of the general welfare that penal provisions be expanded also to women.[18] Allowing time for the refinement of the draft, it was set to appear before the Reichstag no earlier than 1917. World War I and the defeat of the German Empire consigned it to the dustbin.
Weimar Republic Edit
Table 2: Prosecutions under § 175 (1919–1933)[5] Year Charge Convictions 1919 110 / 10 89 1920 237 / |
A/V receiver (just means I'd have to switch the input not only on the TV but also on my receiver). I'll update the review as I use the TV more, but based on my initial impressions and the few hours I spent with it last night, this TV is an ABSOLUTE STEAL.
Read moreIs the way to watch the Republican debates tonight to set out a bowl of popcorn in the expectation that this conglomeration of candidates will produce truly memorable Comedy Central moments?
As Bill Schneider at Reuters put it, “Is 2016 the year of the Republican clown car?”
Dana Milbank of The Washington Post was quick to answer, “Clown car.” Politico’s Roger Simon said the “clown car has become a clown van.”
Sen. Ted Cruz is frying bacon on a rifle barrel. Sen. Lindsey Graham put his cellphone in a blender. Former Fox News host and ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee is running as the candidate of “Bubbaville.” Gov. Chris Christie is doing a Tony Soprano imitation, but fatter. Gov. Scott Walker claims that it’s God’s plan for him to run for president.
The biggest clown of all has jumped into the lead.
But before we chortle and view it all as fodder for the new host of “The Daily Show,” we should take a longer and deeper look at Republican presidential politics.
In 1980 the very witty Gore Vidal said, “[Ronald] Reagan has no chance of being elected president. It is true that the United States is turning into Paraguay but not at that speed.”
Reagan was elected twice.
By 1988, it was time for a change. The stock market crashed in 1987, “Black Monday,” the largest one day decline, still, in Wall Street history. The savings and loan crisis, the biggest set of bank failures since the Great Depression, was underway. Reagan’s tax cuts were supposed to generate more government revenue, even with the lower rates. Instead, the deficit tripled.
Also, there was Iran-Contra.
Imagine if Barack Obama had been secretly selling missiles to Iran. The evidence against Reagan mounted until he had to go on television and say, “A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.”
That’s astonishing. The president admitted not merely that he preferred to live in his imaginary world but also that he was capable of doing so.
The money from selling arms to Iran was used for another illegal purpose: funding right-wing paramilitaries in Nicaragua.
Pat Moynihan, the highly esteemed Democratic senator from New York, took a look at the contenders for the GOP nomination and said, “If we can’t beat these guys, we need to find another country.”
Yet the Republican, George H.W. Bush, won.
In 1992, however, he lost to Bill Clinton. Clinton won re-election against the very well-respected Bob Dole.
After eight years of peace and prosperity, Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, should have coasted to victory. Ronald Reagan’s son Ron Reagan summed up Gore’s opponent, George W. Bush, this way: “He’s probably the least qualified person ever to be nominated by a major party … What is his accomplishment? That he’s no longer an obnoxious drunk?”Less than a week ago, the Minnesota Timberwolves came to Toronto with the face of the future of Canadian basketball in tow.
Andrew Wiggins—the Vaughan, Ont., native—returned home for the first time as a professional, playing in front of countless friends, family and fans on “Canada Basketball Night” at the Air Canada Centre.
Wiggins was the victim of early foul trouble that evening and the Raptors ultimately won the game, but the night was a success for everyone involved, shining a brilliant spotlight on basketball north side of the border.
Yet before “We The North” and before Wiggins began to turn heads, there was a kid from British Columbia laying the foundation for the success Canadian basketball fans and players are now enjoying.
Steve Nash was a pioneer, and his influence on kids from coast to coast—and around the globe—can’t be overstated.
“He should be a beacon light for how the point guard position should be played for young kids in this country and in the U.S.,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “He means so much to the game, and I know so much to [Canada].”
Nash officially retired from the NBA on Saturday, just days after Wiggins dominated the Canadian headlines (dubbed “He The North”). The announcement came without much preamble, but wasn’t entirely surprising, many knew Nash’s 40-plus-year-old body would never be the same.
Still, it seemed fitting that his departure came on the heels of the rock-star treatment Wiggins had just received. The torch was probably passed long ago, but now it was official.
“I understand that this is still a great hockey country but basketball now has taken on a life of it’s own—especially with the younger generation,” said Casey. “It’s not just the NBA, but high school, junior high, club teams and stuff like that. It has really grown.”
Casey came to Toronto in the summer of 2011, following a season in which the Raptors went 22-60—the club’s third straight on the outside of the playoff picture. The team suffered through two more losing seasons under Casey, but its improvement was noticeable. And now Toronto is three weeks away from advancing to the playoffs for a second straight season with a second straight Atlantic Division title to its credit.
“In my short time here… I have just seen the interest grow—the passion grow,” said Casey. “Just go on television. I remember the commercials were all curling and hockey. Now there are just as many basketball commercials. The game has grown so much. Kids around the city, you see them dribbling a basketball—playing basketball.”
As he gets set to wrap-up his fourth year in Toronto, Casey speaks with pride about the part he plays in the development and progression of the game here in Canada. It’s not just Wiggins or Nash or Vince Carter that deserve credit, it’s the Raptors’ organization as well.
As the lone Canadian franchise, Casey’s team must help promote the sport and encourage the growth of young talent—both on the court and the sidelines.
“I hope we have,” he said of fulfilling that responsibility. “That’s kind of what I talk about all of the time, when I spend time with high school coaches, AAU coaches and college coaches here in the country. I get calls and emails and I try to give what I can to the coaches from around here. It does give me pride to see the game grow and the interest grow.
“It’s not going to stop. It’s something on the rise and it’s going to be big here for a long time.”5.0-inch or 5.2-inch Quad HD (1440 x 2560-pixel) Super AMOLED screen
Exynos 7420 SoC with a 64-bit octa-core CPU and Mali-T760MP6 GPU
3GB or 4GB RAM
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16-megapixel or 20-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front cam
LTE Cat. 10 connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is now said to come in a choice of four different colors: dark blue (as in the Galaxy A series), blue-green, gold, and white, according to SamMobile.The blue-green is a new color option for Samsung, while all others have appeared in one form or another in earlier devices.The dark blue in particular is a color that Samsung has used in the Galaxy A5, and it’s only logical to assume that given the same color choice, chances are high that Samsung is actually using a metal body similar to that of the A6 on its flagship Galaxy S6.Why do we think so? First and foremost, the process of treating aluminum to achieve a certain color is not that simple (you might remember that many companies like Apple in the distant past and Xiaomi most recently have delayed differently colored versions of their phones because of difficulties with the painting process). Given that we have rumors that the S6 will feature the absolute same color as the A5, one can logically assume that Samsung is using a similar coloring technique, and this suggests that it is also using the same aluminum material in the S6. That's great news for lovers of premium design.Recapping all the latest rumors, the Samsung Galaxy S6 shapes up to feature the following specifications:The Galaxy S6 is also expected to feature a touch-based fingerprint sensor.Samsung has recently released a teaser for a device with a curved screen, but we expect that to be a version of the Galaxy S6 and not the flagship itself. The Galaxy S6 Edge could also take the concept of the Galaxy Note Edge with the one curved edge, and double down with curves on both sides of the display.Whatever it is Samsung has in store, it has already set the stage and we’ll learn all about the ‘next big thing’ on March 1st at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.There’s one big event that can trigger an overwhelming sense of dread when you’re installing an OS on a friend or family member’s PC: data loss. It’s bad enough when it happens to your own data, but when it’s someone else’s machine, the feeling can be unbearable.
I know because that’s the situation I found myself in during a recent family reunion in upstate New York. I was attempting to install Ubuntu 16.04 alongside a Windows 7 installation on my mother's laptop. And not thinking (I shamefully admit), I failed to make a backup of her data before I resized her Windows partition. It wasn’t until I tried to boot back into Windows 7 that realized what I had done.
After a mild panic attack and several assurances to her that I could fix it, I found the program that saved my butt: TestDisk. TestDisk has been around for a while, and was even reviewed by PCWorld in 2011. It works like a charm, but does so without the aid of a flashy GUI. It turns out it’s in the official Ubuntu repositories that ship with Ubuntu 16.04. (It’s also available in the Arch Linux Extra repo.)
TestDisk to the rescue
TestDisk’s website says the program is designed “to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software: certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table).” One thing to understand about storage drives is that when you delete a file or partition table, the data is still on the disk. The deletion just removes the pointer to the data, allowing the the OS to write over those blocks. (You can delete the data itself too, but usually this requires deliberate deletion with tools like shred.)
You can use TestDisk as a rescue for Windows or Linux partitions, but you’ll need an Ubuntu live USB drive so you can boot into a separate environment on your PC, and then retrieve the lost files. With Ubuntu running, install TestDisk using the command sudo apt-get install testdisk. You’ll need to run it with administrator privileges: sudo testdisk.
While TestDisk is a console program, its menus and commands are easy to navigate even for people who aren’t command-line wizards.
On the first run, TestDisk will ask if you want to start a new log file. (You probably do.) From there, the program will look for any drives automatically. If no drives are found, you’ll need to specify the block device as an argument to TestDisk, e.g.: sudo testdisk /dev/sda. If you’re unsure about where the drives you’re looking to recover are located, use the command lsblk to get more information.
Once you see the drives, TestDisk will try to automatically detect the partitions, including those that have been deleted. TestDisk will also look for file entries automatically, though damaged or deleted partitions will require a deeper scan. The deeper scan will take some time, since TestDisk will read the entire partition, block by block. Once the scan is done and you see all the files, you can copy the files to backup media (like you, err, I, should
Once your files have been recovered by TestDisk, you can copy them to backup media.
It’s important to note that TestDisk only takes care of software faults in a drive’s data, and will not save you in the event of physical failure. As always, you really should keep a good backup of your data. With a complete and current backup, you’re always free to wipe a drive if anything goes wrong."Harmless as an Enemy, Treacherous as a Friend" by Mark Steyn
Steyn on America
June 13, 2014 https://www.steynonline.com/6417/harmless-as-an-enemy-treacherous-as-a-friend Left: An ISIS jihadist holds up a discarded Iraqi brigadier-general's uniform. Right: An Iraqi brigadier-general's uniform with the brigadier-general still in it. In my weekly appearance on The Hugh Hewitt Show, Hugh and I discussed what he called "two civil wars" - one in the Republican Party, the other in Iraq: HUGH HEWITT: Here is a fun headline from the Mail Online. "They line the streets with the decapitated heads of police and soldiers," Iraqi refugee reveals the horrors of the jihadi takeover as Baghdad vows to fight back. It has a slightly 1975 quality to it, doesn't it, Mark? MARK STEYN: Yes, it does, and as weird as the - I mean, the severed heads are obviously more horrifying, but as telling are just the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of discarded Iraqi army and police uniforms, including some quite high-ranking ones. There's a discarded brigadier general's uniform that was just dumped in the street, where these guys, you know, heard these fellows are coming, and just stripped their clothes off and ran off to blend into the general population. You described it as a civil war. I think that's rather over-dignifying the official Iraqi state's response. It's as if the Iraqi state is simply disintegrating before our eyes. John Hinderaker at Powerline: In the 2012 election, Mitt Romney expressed concern about Russia and said that he thought the Obama administration's precipitous withdrawal from Iraq was a mistake. Obama ridiculed Romney's "Cold War" mentality and claimed the Iraq skedaddle as one of his greatest foreign policy achievements. In 1066 And All That, Sellar & Yeatman characterized the two sides in the English Civil War as "Right but Repulsive" (the Roundheads) and "Wrong but Wromantic" (the Cavaliers). The choice in the 2012 election was Right but Square vs Wrong but Cool. So naturally the latter won. What was it Mitt actually said about the Iraq war? Romney said late last year [in 2011], in a veterans roundtable, "The precipitous withdrawal is unfortunate. It's more than unfortunate, I think it's tragic. It puts at risk many of the victories that were hard won by the men and women who served there." Crazy, huh? And how did Obama respond? "[Romney] said ending the war in Iraq was tragic. I said we'd end that war and we did," Obama said. Well, it's certainly proved tragic for all those headless corpses. And also for those thousands of allied dead, whose sacrifice in a "hard won victory" has been thrown away by a guy who thinks wars "end" when one party decides it doesn't want to play any more. Following yesterday's piece on our approaching helicopters-on-the-roof moment, reader David Armour wrote to me: I was pondering our current situation and wondering if you know of any other countries that have lost two wars in one week? Let's put it this way: Two parties pulled off 9/11 and were responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 people. The perpetrators were al-Qaeda, and their accomplices were the Taliban. The Taliban will be back in charge of Afghanistan very soon. And al-Qaeda, in the shape of its most virulent progeny, are now running large chunks of Iraq and Syria. So the bad guys won, and America lost. Most of the places al-Qaeda and its affiliates have holed up have been Third World dumps: Nobody cares about Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, as long as they're not exporting their pathologies. But Iraq is a prize worth winning: It sits on a big chunk of the world's oil reserves and it's full of state-of-the-art American weaponry. Both the weapons and the money will be used. Hugh Hewitt said it felt like 1975 all over again. Forty years ago, as another American client regime crumbled, the US Ambassador sportingly offered asylum to a former Cambodian prime minister, Prince Sirik Matak. His response is worth quoting: I thank you very sincerely for your letter and for your offer to transport me towards freedom. I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion. As for you and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people which has chosen liberty. You have refused us your protection and we can do nothing about it. You leave us and it is my wish that you and your country will find happiness under the sky. But mark it well that, if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is too bad because we are all born and must die one day. I have only committed the mistake of believing in you, the Americans. So Sirik Matak stayed in Phnom Penh and was murdered by the Khmer Rouge, but so were another 1.7 million people, and in a pile of skulls that high it's hard to remember this or that individual. But there are many in Iraq and Afghanistan who are reflecting, as Sirik Matak did, that they made the mistake of "believing in you, the Americans". Notwithstanding that Joe Biden was bragging in 2010 that the then stable Iraq would be seen as one of the great achievements of the Obama Administration, it's safe to assume that the fall of Baghdad will be smoothly transferred into the Bush column, even though it's five-and-a-half years since he left office - or the length of the Second World War. But, as I said to Hugh, it's not even worth talking about it in those terms. ISIS can't tell Bush from Obama from Cheney from Clinton: The fellows who planned 9/11, for example, were planning it before Al Gore got into his hanging chad problem down in Florida. So they don't think about Bush or Obama. They just hate America. And if you look at it again from the point of view of people who love America, or who made the mistake of getting on the right side of America in both Iraq and Afghanistan, I was on a panel with the great Bernard Lewis a couple of years ago - actually six or seven years ago - and Bernard said that the danger here is that America risks being seen as harmless as an enemy, and treacherous as a friend. And if you're someone who got too close to the Americans in Baghdad, where the most expensive US embassy, the most expensive any embassy on the planet in the history of embassies, is about to fall, if you're someone who got too close to the Americans in Kabul, you're about to learn the truth of Bernard Lewis' dictum. And likewise, if, you know, the other half of that - that America is harmless as an enemy, treacherous as a friend - that applies to Libya, that applies to Egypt, that applies to Syria, that applies to Iraq, that applies to Afghanistan. It's a very dangerous lesson to teach the planet. Not just for our enemies, but for our allies, too. The Brits, Canucks and Aussies have been in these wars at America's side for over a decade. They're not "allies" in the Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin sense, where you all get together and agree on the way forward. They're essentially junior participants in an American war directed on American terms. They went along because they believed it was important to show support for American leadership in the world. As John Howard said a few days after 9/11, "This is no time to be an 80 per cent ally." And the Aussies weren't. But, 13 years later, why would they want to make the same mistake as Sirik Matak of "believing in you, the Americans"? Obama isn't leading from behind, he's leaving from behind: America is departing the world stage. And, if you're in Benghazi or Aleppo or Kandahar - or, come to that, Kiev - why would you believe the Americans over the other fellows? Unlovely and blood-soaked as they are, the other guys mean it; America doesn't. ~You can hear the audio of my conversation with Hugh here, and read the full transcript here. © 2019 Mark Steyn Enterprises (US) Inc. All rights reserved.
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Remember me on this computer/device Forgotten password?Bloody Disgusting readers are the first to enter Entertainment Factory’s Death House by checking out this exclusive teaser trailer from the self-proclaimed “Expendables of horror,” which was filmed in Philadelphia, PA.
The indie production, directed by B Harrison Smith, features the likes of horror fav Kane Hodder (Hatchet, Jason in a handful of Friday the 13th sequels) as well as Barbara Crampton (You’re Next, From Beyond, Re-Animator, We Are Still Here) and Dee Wallace (The Howling, Critters, The Lords of Salem, Cujo, E.T.).
In the film, “Two federal agents fight their way through nine levels of Hell inside a secret prison known as the Death House. A facility-wide prison break turns their flight into a tour of horrors as they push toward the ultimate evil housed in the lowest depths of the earth.”
The below teaser flashes glimpses of a bloody and violent hell, and ends with Crampton screaming in terror.
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Also starring are Tony Todd, Bill Moseley, Michael Berryman, Debbie Rochon, Sid Haig, Gunnar Hansen, Bill Oberst, and a number of other surprises.
Produced by Entertainment Factory’s Rick Finkelstein and Steven Chase, Death House is directed by B Harrison Smith (Camp Dread, Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard, 6 Degrees of Hell, The Fields). Smith wrote the screenplay based on the original story by Texas Chain Saw Massacre legend, the late Gunnar Hansen.
The pic revolves around federal agents Cody Longo (Piranha 3D) and Cortney Palm (Zombeavers, Sushi Girl, Silent Night) fighting their way into the bowels of a federal prison that holds the worst prisoners on earth.
Practical effects are mastered through the wizardry of Roy Knyrim’s SOTA FX (Gods and Monsters, Ed Wood).Public comments confirm reports of furious rows and recriminations between US officials at the way Russia has outplayed US in Syria
A very well sourced article, which has recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal (attached below), shows the extent of the policy disarray in Washington following the US-Russian “cessation of hostilities” agreement.
It seems there has been a massive row.
The heads of the US military and the CIA are clearly furious at the way in which they feel the US has been humiliated, and in a series of angry meetings in the White House they have made their feelings known.
Though they rationalise their anger with talk about how Russia cannot be trusted, and how US allies in the regions like the Turks and the Saudis feel betrayed, that is what it amounts to.
These recriminations have slipped into the open, as shown by the recent angry comments of Mark Toner, the US State Department’s deputy spokesman, who in exceptionally crude and undiplomatic language called on Russia in Syria “to put up or shut up”.
These comments have provoked a stern rebuke from Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s formidable spokeswoman, whilst Alexey Pushkov, the Chairman of the State Duma’s committee for foreign affairs, has twisted the knife by Tweeting that
"A deputy spokesman of the U.S. Department of State has broken down - frayed nerves. In the United States lots of people regard the ceasefire in Syria as a defeat: the papers are indignant and the neoconservatives are shocked.”
The difficulty the US hardliners face is that for all the brave talk of a Plan B they have no realistic alternative to offer.
The Wall Street Journal reports US officials saying that “neither (US Defence Secretary Ash) Carter nor Gen. Dunford had formally submitted recommendations to Mr. Obama” and the suggestions mentioned the article - stepping up arms supplies to the rebels, providing them with battlefield intelligence, or imposing further economic sanctions on Russia - hardly amount to practical recommendations Obama can use.
With much of Europe seething against the sanctions already in place, any idea of cranking the sanctions up further on the issue of Syria (of all things) is - as the article says US officials privately admit - a complete non-starter.
As for arms supplies to the rebels, Russian aircraft in Syria fly too high to be reached by the sort of man portable surface to air missiles (“MANPADS”) the article refers to, whilst the supply of heavier medium or long range surface to air missiles to the rebels that might actually cause problems for Russian aircraft, would be a massively controversial escalation and - for public opinion in the US and Europe - almost certainly an escalation too far.
This is quite apart from the fact that supply of weapons like MANPADS or Javelin anti-tank missiles to the rebels would guarantee they fell into the hands of jihadi terrorists and the Islamic State - something the Western public would never agree to if it found out about it - without - as the article again says US officials admit - necessarily altering the military situation in the rebels’ favour.
As for the suggestion the US provide the rebels with intelligence information, that would almost certainly lead to the Russians withdrawing from their information sharing agreement with the US military, since the Russians would not want to risk information they provided to the US military being shared by the US with the rebels.
Since the US relies on this agreement to co-ordinate its operations in Syria with the Russians, unless the US were prepared to risk a clash with the increasingly strong Russian force in Syria - risking World War III - it would have to cease its operations in Syria in order to avoid a clash with the Russians.
Since that is hardly what the US wants, the option of intelligence sharing with the rebels in any meaningful way is also simply a non-starter.
As the US hardliners undoubtedly know, the only thing that would be certain to change the situation in Syria in the rebels’ favour would be direct NATO military intervention on their behalf, which in order to be effective would have to involve the US itself.
Since that would again risk provoking World War III over an issue where most of the Western public supports Russia, that too is a non-starter.
The one suggestion that has been floated as a possible Plan B - the partition of Syria on sectarian lines - which we will doubtless be hearing much about in the coming weeks - is in reality also completely impractical.
Not only do opinion polls show the overwhelming majority of Syrians - including Sunni Syrians - oppose it, but in the event the Syrian government succeeds in consolidating its control of the populated western coastal region of Syria - where all Syria’s big cities are located - the only territory left in Syria for a Sunni state would be the desert.
Whilst territorially speaking this is a very large area, it is one which is also sparsely populated, is not self-sustaining and which has no access to the sea. A sectarian Sunni state established on this territory would be militarily undefendable and economically completely unviable.
The Syrian government would be determined to regain control of this territory once it had fully re-established and consolidated itself - and it would have international law on its side. With far greater resources at its disposal, and with the backing of Iran and Russia, the Syrian government would have no difficulty reconquering this territory unless the US and NATO were prepared to send ground troops into this territory to defend it.
The idea of planting a permanent US or NATO garrison in western Syria to defend what would be an economically unviable militant jihadi micro pseudo state - in effect the Islamic State under a new name - is a fantasy - as is any idea the US and the West would be prepared to invest the huge sums needed to sustain it.
The US and European public would never agree to such a thing, especially as it would be strongly opposed by Arab opinion, which would be horrified at the sight of the great Western powers once again carving up Arab lands as they did during the colonial era and when Israel was created.
The fact the key regional powers Iran and Iraq would also vigorously oppose such a partition plan, as would the big non-Western powers like China, India and Russia, and that such a plan would almost certainly fail to attract the support of the wider international community or of the United Nations, all but settles the issue.
Though this plan will no doubt find its supporters in the Western media, in reality it does not belong within the world of practical politics.
The reality is the US has no real option but to work with the Russians in Syria, and this in fact is what very grudgingly - and for all the fire and thunder coming from the hardliners - it is doing.
There are however two further points to make about The Wall Street Journal article.
The first is a minor one, which with the US Presidential election pending is now of mainly historical interest.
It is that Obama has gone to ground.
Though the article does not say so, it is clear from its contents that he was not physically present at the meetings in the White House where the hardliners made known their views.
Instead of explaining - and defending - his policy in person to the hardliners, Obama has chosen to hide behind others - in this case his Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been left to take the heat for his boss.
Where Harry Truman famously said the buck stopped with him, Obama makes sure it stops with someone else.
The second point is more important, and it is about the future
It is that the anger the hardliners feel does not promise well, and is absolutely not a cause for rejoicing, and certainly not for gloating. On the contrary, it is a cause for foreboding and for worry about the future.
Far from accepting their defeat, on past experience the hardliners will now be looking for ways to get even with Russia.
The fact they cannot do it in Syria will not hold them back, any more than failure in Vietnam in the 1970s held an earlier generation of US hardliners back.
What happened then was that the hardliners “avenged” the US's defeat in Vietnam by setting Afghanistan on fire - with catastrophic consequences for the whole world including the US.
The fact Afghanistan turned out a disaster will however hardly deter the hardliners of today from acting in the same way. If there is one constant in US foreign policy it is that when it comes to disasters it is the wrong lessons that always get learnt.
Far from being a factor in improving relations between the US and Russia, the fact the US feels humiliated in Syria is going to make relations between the two countries even worse than they already are, and is storing up more problems for the future.
This article was first published by The Wall Street JournalBritish oil giant BP faces safety shortfalls at its operations that could spark serious accidents, according to a leaked internal report published by Greenpeace.
The confidential document alleged BP had weaknesses in the way it manages critical information and incident reporting at its refineries and oil rigs, thereby increasing the risk of accidents, according to Greenpeace.
The environmental campaign group added that two of BP's failures had almost sparked fatal incidents that were together still costing it $180 million (AU$ 240 million) per year.
The leaked study was carried out in August 2015 and was based on interviews with 150 personnel across nine BP sites around the world.
The report found there were around 500 recent incidents, of which 75 were directly linked to poor information.
The list of errors ranges from missing blueprints to wrongly-installed anti-blowout devices.
BP has experienced "repeated near-misses" as a result of those errors, with at least one serious incident at a US oil refinery, the report added.
The group's ability to prevent problems was so weak that there was a real risk of leaks or explosions - and this problem "requires urgent attention", the document stated.
The leaked report also alleged that BP's information management policies are lagging behind major competitors like Chevron, ConocoPhilips, Royal Dutch Shell, and state-owned Malaysian giant Petronas.
The news surfaced one week after BP confirmed a $9-billion investment in a new oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP remains in the spotlight over safety following the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe in the region.
"Nearly seven years have passed since the Deepwater Horizon disaster and BP's sloppy approach to a crucial aspect of safety hasn't changed," Greenpeace UK senior climate advisor Charlie Kronick said.
"For a company that's been trying to drill in some of the world's most fragile environments this is completely unacceptable."
The London-listed energy major however insisted that it was committed to safety.
"BP is committed to safe, reliable and compliant operations," it said in a brief statement. "This particular report focused on potential enhancements to how BP manages engineering data.
"It is not an analysis of any operational incidents, and any suggestion that this report indicates BP is wavering from its safety commitment is wrong."
The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster badly tarnished BP's reputation and cost it a total of $61.6 billion. The company axed thousands of jobs and sold billions of dollars of assets in order to meet the clean-up bill.
In April 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 men off the coast of Louisiana and caused 134 million gallons (507 million litres) of oil to spew into Gulf waters.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019In which we create "instant" image previews in HTML (with a smidgen of Javascript)
After reading a bit of how Facebook makes the transfer of profile images faster for low bandwidth connections and bringing my photo gallery generator up to speed to exhibit my pictures of YAPC::Europe 2015 and Granada (that's a transient link), I thought about reimplementing the "compression" in Perl and some Javascript on the client side to reconstruct the image. I was surprised that a JPEG header is so big (around 500 bytes) and so constant between images. For pages with many images. It seems like a nice latency win to do "compression of repeating data" and send a chunk of preview images with the HTML.
With the help of Imager, it turns this image
into a tiny, tiny preview image like this
and then blows that image up and blurs it in the browser,
so that the user sees the following image until the real
image data has been loaded:
Currently, loading the thumbnails takes 200 HTTP requests and during that time, the users see nothing. Adding "frosted" pre-previews inline in the HTML increases the page size by 250 bytes for each pre-preview and 2k for the HTML but gives an instant rendering of the whole page where the complete information gets loaded afterwards. The page still works without Javascript enabled, which is important to me.
Implementing this was quite straightforward thanks to Imager. I had to build a JPEG frame parser to strip out the unwanted JPEG frames from images and to reorder them so that the header can be patched in the
same position every time. I had to write the Javascript "decoder" which reassembles the fixed header and the image data to a data: inline image again, but all of those were quite simple to do.
The CPAN release is quite rough on the edges and the Javascript can certainly be golfed to be smaller/faster. You will have to keep the Javascript inline, as the main goal of using this technique is to make a page appear to load faster even though not all assets have been loaded yet. Making a separate request for a Javascript file somewhat ruins this idea :-)
Maybe there could be a JPEGmin standard which declares the header as constant and only sends the dimensions and the payload data and some magic bytes to identify JPEGmin files. At least for thumbnails, this could really reduce the amount of data transferred by 50%.
Of course, declaring such a preview JPEGmin standard would ruin the complete idea of sending the image data together with the HTML, as then the latency and size of the HTTP requests for the JPEGmin files dwarfs the payload of the JPEGmin data.
I hope you enjoy the photos and maybe have some ideas on how this could be improved. The Github repo for the module is at https://github.com/Corion/image-jpegminimal, everything is licensed under the same terms as Perl.The 22-year-old Norwegian was stopped in a routine check by Kristiansand customs after arriving on a ferry from Denmark, the Faedrelandsvennen newspaper reported.
After finding a tarantula in the man's bag, customs officials decided to give him a full body search that revealed 14 stockings - one for each snake - taped around his torso, the tabloid said.
Reptile smuggling is not uncommon in Norway, which prohibits people holding many reptile species as pets, but Helge Breilid, the office manager at Kristiansand customs, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that customs officers had been "horrified" by Sunday's catch.
"Customs officers quickly realised the man was smuggling animals, because his whole body was in constant motion," Mr Breilid told VG.
When the man dropped his pants, the officers found 10 cans taped to his legs, each containing a lizard, he said.
The man was still being held by police on Monday, Johann Martin Kile, the Kristiansand police attorney, told VG, adding that he would be released upon agreeing to pay a 12,500 Norwegian crowns (£1,360) fine.
The reptiles were handed over to a security firm until Norwegian authorities decide what to do with them, he said.Nancy Nipples started the Pike Place Market Creamery in Seattle 30 years ago, selling milk, butter, cream and the like to help local independent dairies. |
to go real-time, I think having a basic system that could be shared between games is worth another look. This system should be little more than a list of common effect calls, divorced from flavor, so as to be easily adapted to any genre. The abilities that use those effects would of course be created by each individual GM that decides to use the system.
For instance, one of the effects could be “truth” which means “the question immediately preceding this call must be answered, and truthfully”. A GM writing a noir game might have an ability that says “if you’re pointing a gun at someone within arms reach, you may ask them one question and say “Truth by intimidation”. A GM writing a fairy tale game might have an ability that says that once per game the wizard can ask a question and say “Truth by magic”.
In either situation, the benefit is that a player can react seamlessly in real-time, and the benefit for the two games sharing standardized calls is that players only have to memorize a single set of effects. A half a dozen standard effects is probably plenty, and could cover a majority of the most common special ability effects that are used between players.
Finally, any such system should be open-source, so that it can be freely used and adapted by any GM that desires.
–Shift in Responsibility: This one is pretty easy: We just need to explicitly say in our ruleset that a player is solely responsible for declaring the effects of their abilities, and their target is solely responsible for declaring whether or not it affected them. Something else that might help is to stop giving players index cards with a single ability printed on each one. It will reduce the instinct to always fish out and show your opponent the ability card you’re using (with the side benefit of saving a lot of printing hassle).
– “Asynchronous” Combat: We need to stop modeling combat as a single “round” that requires input from both players, and start modeling it as a series of actions which only requires the input of the acting player.
Theater-style mechanics are often far from real-time and lead to huge “time bubbles” – but they don’t have to. Boffer-style games that remain 100% real-time, do so not just through the use of live combat, but through a set of underlying principles which theater-style one-shots could easily adopt. When a rules system is truly real-time, it’s not only less disruptive to the drama of a scene, it also can heighten that drama by allowing the seamless performance of dramatic actions that would otherwise be impossible. If we get into the mindset that the game need never pause for rules resolution, we may find that a lot of the tension between rules and roleplay disappears.
Brian R. has been theater LARPing for about 6 years and boffer LARPing for about 3 years. He makes up half of the theater LARP writing team called Lovers and Madmen, which ran its first LARP, Redemption: High Noon at the Devil’s Luck in 2010, and has since also written and run Stars of Al-Ashtara and Venezia.The huge, steep mountains loomed over Cinder's army, but she didn't stop or stall for a second. Nothing was going to keep her from wiping that Lich off the face of the planet. The terrain would be easier if she went around the mountains, but that would take several more days, and that was time that she didn't want to waste.
There was something off about them, though. She could tell that something was not quite right. She could hear echoes from miles away, and they sounded suspiciously like voices. She knew that there had to be more traps along the way, but the Lich was a fool if he thought that mere humans were a threat at all anymore. She would beat them off like the insects they were, then crush them under her heel. It would be one of the most enjoyable things she had done.
It was with the utmost confidence that she continued walking up the steep path, hooves starting to clack against the exposed rock. The air was starting to grow cold, and as they got closer to entering the mountain pass, she heard the echoes stop.
Her eyes narrowed, and she stopped walking. The others started to come towards her to ask what was wrong, but she held up a hand to stop them. It took several moments for the huge group to come to a complete stop, but once they did, Cinder turned her head back towards the mountains and listened as closely as she could.
They were still there, but now they were like whispers, barely making their way through the wind and rock of the mountains. It was hard to hear, but it was most definitely there.
She smiled. If they thought that they could stop her, it would be an even greater experience to twist them to her ways.
She started to walk again, now with a new vigor, and the others followed behind. She could hear every single footstep, and cast her eyes up to the cliffs. Somewhere up there, someone had it in their head that they could hurt her. Somewhere up there, there were fools who didn't know how horrible their lives had been all this time. She was going to show them the most wonderful things they could imagine, and they would praise her like a god.
The thought got her smile to widen even further across her face, and she took the first step into the mountain pass.
For a few seconds, it seemed like nothing was going to happen. Then, like a distant clap of thunder, a deep noise started to roll towards them. Her eyes immediately homed in on its source, and she saw what looked like an artillery shell screaming towards them.
Her smile widened, and she laughed. If they thought something so primitive was going to stall her, they must've been more desperate than she had thought. The shell wasn't even going to hit close enough to do any damage. They could certainly stand to work on their aim.
She could see every spiral of the shell in the air, and, more importantly, she could see where it had come from. She didn't have to speak to command her followers to go there and destroy the cannon. Her thoughts were like screaming in their heads, and they couldn't ignore her.
Those of her people who could fly took to the skies, huge wings flapping powerfully, pushing the air away from them as they lifted off the ground. Cinder watched as they took to what narrow space was allowed by the mountains sheer cliffs. Cinder was sure that it wasn't going to be a problem, though. They were all more than agile enough to make do with what space they had.
About twenty of the more capable flyers kept tightly together in the sky, almost within arm's reach of one another, their shouting and laughing echoing out through the mountain for all to hear.
She was sure that they would be able to destroy the gun nest, but she was somewhat surprised by what happened next.
Weapon fire other than artillery started to rip through the mountain pass. It was a rapid, sharp thudding sound, and Cinder could recognize it as the combined fire of rifles. She could see the dust-propelled rounds zip through the sky. Most of them missed, but those that didn't started to do visible damage.
Cinder growled as she saw holes blown through the wings of her followers, and they started to lose height. It seemed that there was more of a trap than she had initially thought. The cramped flying conditions would make anyone flying too vulnerable. Cinder's pace quickened as the nature of the trap became more clear. If they couldn't fly, they would be like sitting ducks for the artillery, even if their accuracy was awful.
The echoes of the rifles in the rocks made it difficult to tell how many people were up there, but it seemed like their position made going after them far more trouble than it was worth. She hated to leave anyone in the dark about what they were missing, but it they were going to be this difficult, then she didn't have a choice. It would take far too much time.
The artillery shell flew over their heads, and slammed into the side of one of the cliffs. It exploded almost immediately, and twisted shrapnel was thrown down towards the group. They all had faster reflexes than a normal human, but it didn't help when there was simply nowhere to go.
The sound of bodies being torn apart was drowned out by the enormous concussive sound of the explosion, but Cinder could see every casualty the thing had caused. Yes, it was a much more devious trap than she had anticipated.
As if to add insult to injury, the rocks of the high cliffs started to crumble down, only causing more damage as they did so, while at the same time serving to seal them in the path that she had chosen.
There was no option other than to push forwards.
She broke into a run, and all of her followers did the same. No cowardly trick was going to stop her. She would join her master, and she would have the world under her hoof. There was nothing else that she could allow to happen.
More shots from artillery cannons rang out from different positions all around, and her eyes flicked to every single one, trying to create a mental map of where each cannon was. If they could find even a single safe spot, it would allow them time to figure some method of approach, if they needed it. The mountains were tall and wide, and Cinder didn't like the prospect of being shot at the whole time they traveled through them.
The demons who had flown up finally hit the ground again, and Cinder saw their wings immediately start to heal the damage they had sustained. They wanted to fly up again, and try to capture those people who had shot them, but it would be a waste of time and effort. She had counted at least five gun batteries so far, and there could easily be more that had simply not fired yet.
More shells careened towards her, and she noticed that they were much more accurate now. Had they intentionally blocked the path? They were getting more and more irritating by the second. Still, the vibrations she felt through the rock that traveled through her body every time a shell exploded was a very pleasant feeling.
The dust-powered explosives were hitting closer still, but she didn't feel threatened by them. The damage one could do to her was almost nothing, even if she was directly hit. Most of the shells hit behind her anyways, and she knew that her demons would be able to dodge them easily, just like she could. She started to slip into a different frame of mind, where her body started to move on its own, and her mind wandered in her own thoughts.
Once she got out of the mountains, what would the next trap be? If it was the undead, she would find it quite a relief to destroy them. It wouldn't be the Lich, there was no way that Naze would simply present himself like that. It would make things too easy. She would destroy him, then her opposition would be gone. The Lich was too intelligent to let himself be killed so easily.
He was going to make it as hard as possible, because he enjoyed being a thorn in her side.
But no, that wasn't even it. The undead couldn't enjoy anything, that was part of their curse, and why she hated them so much. An existence like that was so unimaginably horrible that it turned her stomach to even think about someone doing that to themselves.
A shell landed only a few feet from Cinder, and she snapped back to attention. Fire pushed its way out of the cracks and folds in its metal casing, sending shards out in every direction, and a shockwave of its explosion pushing even the air away from the shell.
A shard about the size of Cinder's arm spun towards her head, but to her, it was like the thing moved in slow motion. Moving out of the way was simple, and she felt every muscle in her body react.
Muscles in her back pulled her shoulder back, dropping down slightly, and her abdomen tightened, bringing her torso forward just a few small inches. The metal whipped past her head, brushing past her hair as it went, before spiraling past and embedding itself in the walls of the stone pass with a loud cracking noise.
Others close by also were able to dodge past most of the shrapnel, except for one demon who had decided to leap one piece. It would have worked, had their not been another piece above the first as well. It collided with the demon's hip, and it dropped behind as it lost its ability to run. Cinder knew it would try to pull the hunk of metal out of its hip, and if it could, catch up with the rest of them.
Cinder's eyes went back in front of her to the winding path that they followed. Perhaps taking the mountain path had been a bad idea, but they were committed now. There was no time to regret, only to act.
Her hooves still hit the ground, but her pace had slowed. The rate at which artillery was being shot had slowed as well, and she didn't know why. It was tempting to unfurl her wings and soar up and look, but that was likely what was expected. The way this trap was set so far, there were likely to be even more dangerous things up there, waiting for her. Maybe the Lich had even provided the humans with something that could actually harm her. It was hard to imagine them cooperating to that degree, but it was by no means impossible.
Roman clutched his hat to his head, eyes wide as Neo practically dragged him forward. He still hadn't processed the situation fully yet, but from what he could understand, someone was shooting mortars at them. Cinder's insane followers ran behind her, but she was ahead quite a way now, almost out of sight.
People had been exploding all around him, and it was only by Neo's perceptive abilities that he was still alive. She was able to tell where the next bomb was going to fall, and guided him away from that place. He was starting to feel like his lungs were ripping out of his chest, but it didn't seem like they would be stopping any time soon.
At least he knew that if he fainted, Neo would probably drag his body to a hole in the wall somewhere, and wait until he woke back up. That was only a half comforting thought, though. Chances were that he wouldn't be able to get out if Neo dragged him into someplace like that. She was a lot more flexible than him, and he was sure that she would find a way to fold him so that he couldn't manage his way out.
She tugged on his arm again, guiding him to the left of the path, pushing and shoving those that she could out of the way. She didn't have quite the presence that Roman did, though, so he had to use his off hand to do even more pushing than she did.
The crowd was certainly thick in the back, as most of the more agile (and mutated) individuals were up towards the front, nearer to Cinder. The things that were still mostly human were left to trail behind in a large mob.
Another shell came careening towards them, and Roman watched as it slammed into the crowd behind and to the right of them. People were blown up into the air from the explosion, and fragments of metal flew in almost every direction.
He didn't keep looking to observe the destruction. He'd already seen enough of that for one day.
Neo glanced over her shoulder at Roman, and when she saw the look on his face, she gave him a sincere smile. She was trying to comfort him, he knew it, but now probably wasn't the time for that. He could think of several better times that she could give him a smile like that. Really, on the list of such times, now was incredibly low.
Neo's ears seemed to perk up again, and she turned back to the way they were running. Roman could tell that she was looking for the next shot, and figured that leaving her to it was the best thing he could do.
Her head changed directions slightly a few times, before she suddenly stopped running, and dug her heels into the ground. Roman's eyes widened as he tried to do the same, but he had too much momentum to simply stop on a dime like that. His feet slid and his body tipped forward, but like she had known exactly what would happen, Neo reached up towards him, turning on her heels as she did, catching him and in the same motion, pulling him to the ground in front of her, where she hugged him tightly.
There wasn't time for Roman to protest before something very near exploded, and he thought he had a fairly good idea of how close Neo had just cut it. A wave of force hit the two, and he felt Neo's body shake as she absorbed the majority of the blast. Even with that extra protection, his ears popped, and he felt his insides rearrange painfully.
Neo's arms stayed around him tightly for what seemed like a few seconds too long, and when he finally started to push against her to free himself, he felt her stubbornly try keep him there. He managed to free his head at least, and looked up to see what it was she was doing.
She had a blank look on her face, and a little trickle of blood was starting to leak out of her nose. Roman's eyes widened as he realized that she might've taken more damage than he originally thought. He shook her shoulder gently, talking to her, even though he knew the sound would be drowned out by the yelling, explosions, and thundering footsteps all around.
"Neo? What are you doing? Come on, we've got to go! Like, right now!"
Her eyes moved towards him, and he noticed that they weren't their normal brown, pink, or white. They were incredibly bloodshot, and didn't seem able to focus.
Roman looked away for a fraction of a second, trying to see where the mortar had gone off.
He didn't have to look nearly as far as he had thought. A crater, still freshly smoking and surrounded by those injured by its blast still trying to run, was at most ten feet away. Jagged pieces of shrapnel poked out of many of them, but other than that it was hard to tell what was injury and what was mutation. A few were spewing blood from various holes, most had the same bloodshot eyes, but beyond that, he couldn't tell.
He quickly grabbed her shoulders again, and turned her so that he could see her back.
The white coat was dirty, with grime and blood spattered across its surface from the run, but Roman didn't see any injuries. A wave of relief washed over him like nothing he had ever felt before, and he even thought he felt a tear come to his eye.
Neo had done her best to guide him, and he couldn't just leave her. She was too hurt to run now, but what kind of injury, he couldn't tell. A concussion, maybe? It would make sense, given the closeness of the blast.
Roman took the handle of his cane, and placed it in his mouth. A nauseating metallic taste filled his mouth, but he ignored it. With both hands, he lifted Neo up off the ground, and put her over his back, made sure that her arms were around his neck, and held them there with one hand, reaching up with the other to take the cane from his mouth.
He felt Neo tighten her grip, both with her arms and with her legs around his waist. It made him happy that she was able to do that, at least.
He started to sprint again, the weariness he had felt before almost totally gone now. A new energy burned in his muscles, and he started fighting his way through the crowd, swinging at anyone who got in the way with his cane.
The disadvantages of going without Neo were immediately obvious. He couldn't tell where the bombs were going to land, and there didn't seem to be any pattern to it. There was barely any time to even look up, as keeping his eyes on the path to make sure that he didn't fall was very important. If he did fall, he knew that the two of them would be trampled by the others.
On the few occasions that he was able to look up, he almost wished he hadn't. The sleek mortars were barely visible, at least with so little time to focus, and just seemed to be silhouettes as they plummeted down towards the ground. Predicting where they were going to land proved to be almost impossible, as judging their height would require more time than Roman had.
The result was that Roman was just as blind as everyone else. To make matters worse, his fatigue was starting to return, slowing his movements.
Then, finally, he saw it. There was a large arch of rock over the path ahead, and it formed a kind of natural canopy that would make hitting anything under it almost impossible. It stretched out to cover a large area, and the space under it almost seemed to be like a cave. It was just what they needed. His grip on Neo tightened, and he poured the last of his energy into his sprint.
His whole torso leaned forward, and all of his weight went into it. His steps became more pounding, and his breath more ragged. He had to get to that shelter. Nothing could stop him.
His jaw tightened as he kept running. A few others started to pass him, bumping into his shoulders, and he quickly lashed out with the cane. Any that got too close received the metal of his cane to their heads, which caused them to stumble and fall behind, likely getting trampled afterwards.
A threatened feeling started to bite at his mind, and he pondered for a second what could possibly be more dangerous than the situation he was in already. He felt Neo's fingers dig into his coat, and thought she might've been trying to communicate something.
On a hunch, he looked up, and his blood froze in his veins.
A mortar was descending towards him, and he could only tell because it was headed directly towards him.
In spite of what his mind knew he should do, his legs stopped. He slid to a halt, barely able to stay upright, but his eyes stayed entirely glued to the explosive. It couldn't end like this. He had always imagined that he would die by being killed by some Huntsmen, or overdosing on one thing or another. Not by becoming a crater in the ground.
Neo seemed extra heavy now, and he remembered that it wasn't just him that would die. Neo would die as well. He couldn't let that happen. She didn't deserve that. Maybe he did, but she didn't.
He couldn't throw her far enough that she would be out of the radius of the explosion, and he couldn't run fast enough to escape.
There was only one thing he could do, and he didn't need to think about how ridiculous it was. There was no chance in hell this was going to work, but he had to try.
He brought his cane up, and closed one eye as the small targeting reticule popped up from the end of the cane. He had to make sure that his shot was the best it could possibly be, because he wasn't going to get a second chance.
He extended his arm as far as he could, and sucked in as much air as he could through his lungs. Sweat was dripping down his face, but his eyes were clear. He could feel his very pupils tightening as they made miniscule adjustments, allowing less of the sunlight in. He would need every advantage he could get.
He aligned the mortar in the crosshairs, then moved the cane slightly down, leading the shot. Safety was so close, he just needed this one thing to work.
His thumb twitched, and the button to fire clicked down. The cane jumped back in his hand, and he tried to straighten it, but he was too distracted watching his shot. The flare soared through the sky, making a high pitched whistling as it went, then, after what seemed like an eternity…
The sudden flash of light hurt Roman's eyes, and he felt like he was on the verge of collapsing. The weight on his back reminded him that there was no time for that, though, and he sprinted again towards the cave.
He had done it. Shrapnel rained down from the sky, but he didn't care anymore. After making a shot like that, how good could his chances of getting hit be?
He felt something in his diaphragm twitching, spasming violently, forcing air out of his lungs, and he assumed that he had pushed himself to the absolute limit. He couldn't run anymore, but it was only a few more steps to the cave.
He placed one foot down, and lifted the next. One foot down, lift the next. One foot down, the other foot down.
He hit the ground hard, and didn't immediately start to move. The crowd had been thinned out by now, so no one immediately started to step on him.
He was in the cave. Only by a few feet, granted, but he had done it. His body still spasmed against his control, but that wasn't going to stop him. Not yet. He thought he could feel his head starting to ring, and his vision swim, but if he was going to pass out, he could make Neo a little more comfortable first.
He half walked, half crawled to one side of the cave, and set his partner down gently against it, in a sitting up position. Her nosebleed had continued, and it looked like he hadn't noticed before, but fluid was leaking from her ears as well. She would heal, though, he knew that. She always healed. There was nothing that she couldn't bounce back from.
He sat down beside her, and put his face in his gloved palms. Just how impossible was the thing he had just done? No sane person would have attempted it, he was sure, but…
His fingers slid over his face, and he realized he was smiling. Not only that, but the spasming in his chest was laughter.
Neo's eyes opened slowly, and when she saw Roman giggling tiredly, she couldn't help but smile herself. She could feel his relief, and that told her all she needed to know.
The weight of Roman's head suddenly touched her shoulder, and she realized that he had passed out. Maybe that was for the best, he needed to rest after what had just happened. And she did too.
She didn't need to sleep, though. She could feel her injuries healing already, blood vessels knitting back together and her concussion healing. Her whole body was bruised, and everything hurt. It would take at least an hour to heal.
She had time to kill, then. She looked around, and started to tell what was happening. The many people who had been ahead of them were all in the cave already, starting back into the things they had been doing before. It was a blessing, at least, that they seemed to be ignoring her and Roman. It wouldn't be good for their recovering if they had to fight off the crazies.
The thing that Neo was most thankful for, other than Roman's heroic efforts, was that her apparent concussion was making sensing things as she normally did almost impossible. Normally this would make her nervous, but with Roman unconscious and unable to help her, not feeling the pressure of Cinder's presence was probably the best thing for her.
She gripped her parasol tightly, just in case someone did happen to take notice of them.
Artillery still pounded outside of the cave, but it seemed more distant now, even though the shells were still falling only a few hundred feet away. The shelter was enough, at least for now. Neo doubted it would last for long. Pebbles and dust were starting to fall gently from the ceiling, and she got the feeling that things much bigger than that were going to follow soon. Roman had stopped a mortar, but a flare wouldn't be able to break solid rock as easily.
While it would be a good time to watch Cinder's followers get smashed into smear marks, it wouldn't be good if Roman was still unconscious. She knew she couldn't carry him fast enough to keep him safe during another run.
Neo folded her arms, and sat on a rock close to Roman. She would keep watch until he woke up, or she needed to wake him up.
Somewhere on the other side of the cave, Cinder started to laugh. Neo didn't know what she was laughing about, but she also thought that it was best if things stayed that way.
She leaned against Roman's shoulder, and let her body continue to fix itself. The rest of the run was not going to be fun, but the alternative was that they get crushed in a cave. She wondered what was going to happen when all of this was over. Cinder was powerful, and Neo could hardly imagine anything actually defeating her, but that's what she and Roman were close to her for. They just had to wait until Naze gave the word to stab her in the back.Derrick White will be the first former Division II player in the NBA since Ben Wallace retired in 2012. After three seasons at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, he transferred to the state’s flagship university in Boulder, where he was first team All-Pac-12 as a senior. White didn’t get much publicity on a mediocre team that wound up losing in the first round of the NIT, but he has impressed decision-makers around the NBA in the predraft process, climbing from no. 50 in the DraftExpress mock in late April to no. 26 in their most recent. The only question now is how much further White could rise.
In an era when versatility on the perimeter is at a premium, White’s well-rounded game would make him a good fit on almost every team in the league. He was a Swiss army knife for the Buffaloes last season, averaging 18.1 points on 50.7 percent shooting, 4.4 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 1.4 blocks a game. He was their leading scorer, assist man, and most efficient 3-point shooter, as well as their best perimeter defender and best shot blocker. The only hole in White’s game is a lack of elite athleticism, and he’s much more athletic than you would expect a former Division II player to be.
"He’s a stud. One of my favorite players in the draft," said an executive for one lottery team.
At 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, the biggest concern about White when projecting him to the next level is that he’s somewhat stuck between positions. He was a point guard for Colorado, but he lacks the burst of the best players at the position in the NBA, and he’s a little undersized to match up with bigger shooting guards like Klay Thompson and Rodney Hood. In that respect, White shares many similarities with C.J. McCollum, another combo guard from a smaller school without elite physical tools.
"The two guys in the NBA I probably watch the most are Damian [Lillard] and C.J. in Portland," White told me in a phone interview last week. "I’m a student of the game. I’m trying to learn what they are doing."
Like Lillard and McCollum, White spent four seasons in college playing on teams where he was by far the most talented player. Every defense he faced was geared up to stop him, and he had to learn how to balance looking for his own shot with setting up his teammates.
"[Playing at a small school] allows teams to see how good you really are," Lillard said in an interview with USA Today in 2012. "It allows them to see how you react to teams putting two guards against you, having to play extra hard because everything is focused on stopping you. I think that really helps and allows (people) to evaluate what you can do with what you’re working with. They’ll see where it translates to having NBA-level guys around you."
Without the benefit of much NBA-caliber talent around White, Colorado coach Tad Boyle built an offense designed to maximize his star’s ability. By the end of their season, the Buffaloes started three 3-point shooters (Xavier Johnson, George King, and Dominique Collier) and one roll man (Wesley Gordon) around White, and then involved their star guard in multiple pick-and-rolls until he either had an open shot or collapsed the defense enough to kick the ball out. It was an effective strategy: According to the tracking numbers at Synergy Sports, White was one of the best pick-and-roll scorers among any of the top NCAA guards in this year’s draft.
White can shoot the ball off the dribble, and he has an innate feel for how to find cracks in the defense and create space for himself to score:
"He’s athletic, he’s a solid shooter, and he’s very good at attacking the rim off the pick-and-roll," one scout told me.
And while most guards with his skill set are score-first players, White always plays with his head up. He can read the floor on the move, and he’s not afraid to give the ball up and make the right pass when the play presents itself to him:
"I played in a lot of pick-and-roll situations at Colorado, and I got comfortable with all the different ways the defense could defend me," said White.
The reason White wound up playing Division II basketball was his body, not his basketball IQ. A late bloomer physically, he didn’t garner much interest from the recruiting services as a 6-foot, 150-pound high school senior, and the only NCAA scholarship offer he received came from UC–Colorado Springs. He sprouted up once he got to campus, growing five inches in the summer before his freshman season of college, and he has been steadily adding weight to his frame ever since.
"There are a lot of good players at the Division II level who got overlooked in high school," White said. "Many of them end up transferring to Division I by the end of their college careers. I think playing at that level really helped me prepare."
For White, most of the difference in competition between the two levels came down not to skill, but to the overall size and speed of Division I players. He redshirted his first season at Boulder, spending a lot of time in the weight room in order to get bigger and stronger. The added strength allowed White to not just survive defensively, but excel, with Synergy rating him as one of the best isolation defenders in the country last season. In this sequence, he fights over a ball screen to recover to Markelle Fultz, the presumptive no. 1 overall pick, and gets his hands straight up to challenge his shot without fouling:
The most anomalous aspect of White’s defensive profile is his ability to block shots. He had the same block rate (4.9 percent) as Bam Adebayo, a power forward projected to go in the first round in this year’s draft, and he blocked more shots per-40 minutes than traditional center prospects like Tony Bradley and Ivan Rabb. Most of his blocks came on the ball, when he timed his contest perfectly and surprised the man he was guarding with his length. V.J. Beachem, a 6-foot-8 swingman from Notre Dame projected to go in the second round in this year’s draft, can rise up and shoot over the top of most NCAA defenders. When he tried that against White, he got his shot sent back at him:
"Shot-blocking is all about timing. The key is just getting yourself in the right position," White told me.
Matching up with bigger perimeter players will play a huge factor in how well White transitions to the NBA. Like almost all players drafted outside the lottery, he will have to fill a specific role at the next level, instead of being given the freedom to dominate the ball like he had at Colorado. The more positions he can guard, the easier it will be for him to earn playing time, and sliding him around the lineup will allow him to stay on the floor without having to match up with some of the speed demons he would face at the point guard position.
White can also play off the ball on offense, where his lack of an elite first step would be less of an issue. Defenses overloaded to get the ball out of his hands in college, but he will be able to play off better players in the NBA, attacking closeouts and taking advantage of defensive rotations. His shooting percentages compare favorably with those of specialists like Luke Kennard, especially when you consider the shot-creation burden that he had to shoulder for his team:
"Kennard has gotten a big boost in NBA circles because he’s considered the best shooter in the draft," said one executive. "White isn’t seen as being in the same category, but he’s not that much worse and he’s a much more versatile player."
White is currently being projected as a late-first-round pick on most mock drafts, but he’s a much better fit with the teams in that range than many of the more traditional big men (Adebayo, Justin Patton, and Ike Anigbogu) expected to go in the middle of the first round. White could immediately fill a role as a floor spacer and a secondary playmaker for frontcourt-heavy teams like the Thunder, Jazz, and Bucks. Teams that don’t need their first-round picks to contribute much right away often like to take gambles on high-upside players, and a fifth-year senior who started his career in Division II doesn’t necessarily fit that bill. However, White will still be only 23 years old on opening night, and he wouldn’t be the first jump-shooting guard from a smaller school to exceed expectations in the NBA.
"Never give up on your dreams, no matter where you are recruited," White said. "If you can play, basketball will find you."On to Why debug builds (and assertions) are important
Ten years ago today, the Mozilla foundation was incorporated. This was a major step forward for the Mozilla project; for the project's first five years or so, it lived within Netscape / AOL / AOL Time Warner. Those first five years were also pretty closely aligned with when I was in college, so although I was quite closely involved with the Mozilla project by the end of that period, I wasn't in the best of positions to observe and understand what was going on.
The Mozilla Foundation gave us an entity with a clear set of goals that fit the values of the Mozilla community. That's far from saying that everyone had the same values, and there's certainly been debate about what Mozilla stands for. But having an organization whose goal is to promote openness and innovation on the Web has given us the chance to move the Web forward and to work on behalf of users in a way that we couldn't before.
Ten years ago today was also the day that AOL laid off or transferred what was left of the team that it paid to work on Mozilla software. It was widely known at least a day or two in advance that the layoffs were coming. The night before the layoffs (a Monday night), I remember working late at the office. I'm not sure what I was working on, but I remember Brendan sending some documents by fax (faxes were ancient even then), I think because they were needed as part of setting up the foundation.
The Mozilla Foundation was set up with substantial support from AOL. I was part of a transition team of employees who were laid off effective |
, testing (or quality assurance) and delivery need to keep pace.
Hence, the rise of DevOps, which manages the entire product lifecycle. But, there are varying levels of DevOps. In this post, we define those levels and share with you our approach. How does your enterprise measure up?
Level 0
At Level 0, there’s no automation whatsoever. Developers in this category build applications manually, then package and store them in a shared location. Deployment is a manual process through production machines. In extreme cases, developers send deployments directly into production machines, sometimes simply overwriting files in a production environment. Rollback, in this case, is manual and often not even possible. Rolling deployments are difficult—nearly impossible. Disaster recovery is also a manual and lengthy process. Self-healing is impossible, as infrastructure is handled manually.
Typical company profile
Typically, non-software development companies would live here. Projects are small and usually delivered by lone contractors. Level 0 is suitable when there is intermittent deployment with minimal need for updates. For all other enterprises, Level 0 is not a great place to be.
Pros
Minimal infrastructure and automation requirements
Cons
Difficult to trace what version is currently deployed
Although it is possible to have processes around manual builds and deployments to have trackability, it’s extremely error-prone
Procedures for deployment are usually outdated and often exist only in the heads of application support or developers
As the number of applications to maintain and deploy grow, this method becomes increasingly difficult to manage
Teams spend most of their time doing manual work. As a result, applications are not properly maintained and releases are infrequent
Scaling is also difficult. More resources are required with each new machine, and each scaling increases the chance of errors
Level 1
Level 1 improves on Level 0. Building and packaging is done automatically by the build server. The artifact produced is easily traceable from where it originated. The build runs unit tests to verify consistency. Artifacts are placed into a shared repository for application support to pick up. Deployments are still carried out manually by application support, following repeatable procedures. However, as with Level 0, rollback is manual and often not possible. Rolling deployments are difficult—nearly impossible. Disaster recovery is also a manual and lengthy process. Self-healing also is impossible, as infrastructure is handled manually.
Typical company profile
Most modern software development is in this category. Level 1 allows developers to quickly build packages and pass them on for application support to deploy. This is suitable for companies that have a low number of products with minimal changes.
Pros
Application builds are repeatable and traceable to their sources
Direct intervention isn’t required. Developers just drop the correct build into a shared location
Consistency checks with unit testing (the build isn’t successful and doesn’t produce artifacts if unit tests are failing)
Allows quick repeatable builds
Cons
Increased infrastructure requirements (requires CI environment)
Requires automation knowledge and automation of builds
Still requires deployment procedures, which may be outdated
Even though builds are repeatable and quick, deployments could still be long and not prone to errors
Scaling complexity is same as Level 0
Level 2
Here, the building, packaging and deploying for all environments is automated. Following deployment, integration tests can verify the build. Code changes automatically trigger builds, unit tests and deployments to the integration environment with the ability to promote builds to successive environments. Infrastructure is not yet automated, however. Machines are prepared manually before builds are set.
In Level 2, rollback is possible by deploying the old version of a build. Rolling updates are difficult to set up and are application-specific. Disaster recovery is manual. It’s also time consuming, as infrastructure needs to be manually rebuilt to a specific state. Self-healing at this stage also is impossible, as infrastructure is handled manually.
Typical company profile
This is where most companies with multiple products and teams are trying to get. Level 2 allows teams to quickly deploy new versions of a product for clients to use. Deployment automation reduces the potential for error. With manual tasks automated, the workload of application support is reduced—they’re no longer a bottleneck. This category is ideal for companies that have multiple teams working on products with frequent, rolling changes.
Pros
Builds and deployments are fully automated. They are repeatable and traceable to the source
No manual intervention from application support or developers is needed, resulting in reduced error rates
Application consistency can be verified by automatically running integration tests with each new build
Quick and repeatable deployments are possible
Cons
Even more infrastructure requirements
All tools must support automation, requiring automation specialists to be highly skilled
Build and deployment maintenance is required
Level 3
Level 3 features full infrastructure automation, builds and deployments. When a deployment is complete, the new required infrastructure is created and a new build is deployed. Tests verify the consistency of a deployment, allowing for green/blue deployments. The rollback is simply switching back to an old infrastructure or rebuilding it from scratch in an automated way. Disaster recovery easily becomes a new deployment that rebuilds infrastructure and redeploys the application. At this level, self-healing is possible as infrastructure is scripted and can be rolled out automatically as soon as any erratic behavior is detected.
Typical company profile
This is where SaaS companies should be. The full automation at Level 3 allows for uninterrupted service and continuous feature improvements.
Pros
Not only are builds and deployments automated, infrastructure setup is as well
No human intervention is required, resulting in fewer mistakes
Together with proper software architecture, Level 3 opens capabilities for fast releases—plus the removal of transitional environments, such as quality assurance, user acceptance testing—after all
Cons
Setup is complex
Highly skilled engineers are required on development, DevOps and app support level
There’s no solution to buy, so the "bed-in" time is substantial until full automation is reached (all errors are polished away)
Maintenance becomes an ongoing, complex task
DevOps: A way to get started
If your organization is looking to take its DevOps to the next level, our approach combines discipline training with collaborative execution. We look at DevOps as a continuous delivery process of getting product to market sooner, at a lower cost, higher quality, etc. We’ve learned through experience that theory alone is not enough. Our approach, at a high level, is:
Select a pilot program that can leverage DevOps (something in the range of $1-5M, so that results can be demonstrated quickly)
Build a beachhead team from two organizations. Essentially a cross-functional, blended team with people from both sides that can work together. Internal teams pick up skills from an external resource while operating within context of a real project versus just theory
Use delivered product as a foundation of DevOps as well as the cultural shift needed to be successful. Advertise engagement across the organization as a metric of success. This helps spread the change management process
This approach works well when there’s support from an SVP and training is facilitated in parallel both top down and bottom up.
Conclusion
The needed level of DevOps prowess differs from organization to organization. With an increasing demand for software that evolves with its users, embracing DevOps can give enterprises a leg up on the competition.Before the Hollywood Foreign Press Association begins handing out its Golden Globes, the research firm Parrot Analytics decided to weigh in with the most in-demand television showrunners based on the popularity of their shows.
The measurement company looked at the various ways U.S. viewers express their demand for television shows — from streaming video to posting on social media, commenting on fan and critic rating sites, and downloading or streaming from illicit online sources. It used its global dataset — roughly 1 billion bits of information a day — to identify which showrunners were the tops in America.
Think of it as “The People’s Choice Awards” meets serious analytics.
The firm narrowed the field to TV professionals who have run three or more major shows, so that results in some obvious omissions — namely Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, or Community’s Dan Harmon. Parrot also limited its analysis to scripted series, so you’ll find no reality TV moguls on the list, either.
Still, the results make for an interesting read.
The Kings and Queens of Comedy
In a shock to absolutely no one, veteran showrunner Chuck Lorre is the king of TV comedy, based on viewer demand for his shows. His popular, long-running CBS show The Big Bang Theory was the seventh most in-demand show in the U.S. in 2017.
Seth MacFarlane came in a close second, thanks to demand for the sci-fi comedy-drama The Orville on Fox, and his animated series Family Guy and American Dad!
Mike Schur (Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine and NBC’s The Good Place) ranked third, ahead of HBO’s Silicon Valley showrunner Mike Judge.
The only female showrunner on the comedy list is Tina Fey, with her Netflix original Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt leading demand for her shows.
most in-demand comedy showrunners Parrot Analytics
Drama Queens (and Kings)
Greg Berlanti, the prolific executive producer of the CW’s slate of DC Comics shows — Supergirl, Arrow and The Flash — not to mention NBC’s Blindspot, emerged as the top showrunner for TV dramas.
The popularity of these superhero titles, especially The Flash, gave Berlanti’s shows twice the viewer demand of the next showrunner, Shonda Rhimes, whose most popular show remains ABC’s long-running drama Grey’s Anatomy.
High-demand for top UK dramas, BBC’s Doctor Who and Sherlock, lifted British writer-producer Steven Moffat to the third most in-demand dramatic showrunner. He bested Ryan Murphy’s portfolio of work for FX, such as American Horror Story and Feud.
One showrunner who could easily have appeared on the comedy list is Jenji Kohan, whose show straddle both genres. The creator of Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black also lands in the top 10 most in-demand drama showrunners.Gareth Southgate says he has “protected” Marcus Rashford by not making the 19-year-old available for the England Under-21s European championships this summer, instead selecting the Manchester United man for the senior squad which plays two games next month.
Southgate has also omitted Theo Walcott, as he did for the internationals in March, as well as captain Wayne Rooney signalling that in the attacking positions at least this is a new era for the England team. Ross Barkley and Daniel Sturridge are both out requiring treatment to injuries and have not been included in the squad to play Scotland in a World Cup qualifier in Glasgow on June 10 and then a friendly against France in Paris three days later.
In the past the Football Association has been keen for players to gain tournament experience in their age-group teams before playing exclusively for the senior side. Harry Kane went to the 2105 Under-21s European championships, having already made his senior England debut, alongside John Stones and Saido Berahino.
Spain, who are also at the tournament in Poland next month, have selected a number of players capped at senior level in a very strong squad. Atletico Madrid’s Saul Niguez; Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio; Denis Suarez of Barcelona; Everton’s Gerard Deulofeu and Inaki Williams of Athletic Bilbao are part of Spain’s Under-21s squad. Manchester Cty’s Leroy Sane is in the Germany Under-21 squad as well as Bayer Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah.PRINCETON, NJ -- A majority of Americans say the U.S. healthcare law that the Supreme Court recently upheld as constitutional will make things better for those who do not have health insurance and for those who get sick. At the same time, Americans say the law will make things worse rather than better for taxpayers, businesses, doctors, and those who currently have health insurance. Americans are about evenly divided on the impact of the law on hospitals and on themselves personally.
Americans' views of the implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), measured in a July 9-12 Gallup poll, are nuanced. Although Americans are fairly evenly split in their views of how the law will affect them personally, they have widely differentiated views of its impact on various other groups and entities in society. The results thus provide support for both proponents of the law, who argue that it will help those in need, and for opponents, who argue that it will place a burden of cost and more bureaucracy on taxpayers and businesses.
While the precise long-term impact of the ACA on the healthcare system per se is unclear at this point, Americans tend to have mixed views of the consequences of the law for hospitals, but tilt toward the view that it will make things worse rather than better for doctors.
Democrats, Republicans Have Mirror-Image Views
The vast gulf in the way Democrats and Republicans look at the law is evident across all eight dimensions tested in this research -- but with relative differences.
Democrats are least sanguine about the impact of the law on businesses and taxpayers, although they still say the law will make each of the eight dimensions better, rather than worse -- most of them by substantial margins. Republicans break even in their views of the law's impact on people who currently do not have health insurance, but say things will be worse rather than better for each of the other seven dimensions tested. Independents show the same mixed pattern as the overall national sample.
The complete pattern of responses by each partisan group is available on Page 2.
Implications
Both sides of the heated and contentious debate over the Affordable Care Act of 2010 can learn something from a review of how the American people see the law's impact on various societal entities. Americans agree with the argument that the ACA will benefit those who don't have health insurance and those who get sick -- presumably because of Americans' recognition that millions of additional people will acquire health insurance when the ACA is fully implemented. On the other hand, the average American agrees with the argument that the ACA is going to cost money, and that taxpayers, businesses, and those who currently have insurance will end up being worse off -- at least financially -- as a result of the law.
Of course, many government programs that are designed to benefit groups in society do so at a cost. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid all basically take money from large numbers of individuals and businesses in society and transfer it to the intended recipient groups. The ACA appears to be perceived in a similar way, but so far without the broad acceptance accorded to these long-standing programs.
Thus, it appears that the proponents of the ACA could profitably acknowledge more directly that the program will cost taxpayers money and could create disturbances for other entities in society, but augment that understanding with the argument that -- like Social Security and Medicare -- the results will be worth it. The opponents of the plan most likely should acknowledge that the program will benefit certain people in society, namely those without insurance and the sick, but that there are other less costly or more efficient ways to deliver those benefits.A Compact, Pistol-Grip Self-Defense Shotgun That's Also NFA-Exempt
Mossberg's 590 Shockwave pump action sports a 14" barrel and a unique "bird's head" pistol grip instead of a full buttstock, making it compact and highly maneuverable - ideal for a personal defense shotgun. And the 590 Shockwave is not subject to the National Firearms Act, so you don't need to go through the hassle of filling out ATF paperwork to acquire a tax stamp - you can see Mossberg's ATF exemption letter right here: http://www.mossberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Shockwave-Letter-from-ATF-3-2-17.pdf (also check your state and local laws).
The Mossberg 590 Shockwave's short barrel and short overall length of only of 26-1/2" make it easy to operate in tight spaces, while still packing the firepower of 5+1 12 gauge shells, either 2-3/4" or 3". The Raptor® bird’s head pistol grip is designed to maximize maneuverability and minimize the impact of felt recoil. The cob-style forearm, with nylon strap to keep your hand in place, gives you excellent control and smooth operation.
Ambidextrous top-mounted safety is easy for any shooter to access
Dual shell extractors
Anti-jam elevator
Twin action bars for non-binding pump operation
Sling swivel point on magazine cap
Open bottom loading port
Built on a lightweight anodized aluminum receiver, the Mossberg 590 Shockwave still offers steel-to-steel lockup between the bolt and barrel, ensuring many years of safe, reliable service.In this post, we will see how the Angular Forms API works and how it can be used to build complex forms. We will go through the following topics:
What is Angular Forms all about
Template Driven Forms, or the Angular 1 way
Reactive Forms, or the new Functional Reactive way
Updating Form Values, How To Reset a Form
Advantages and disadvantages of both form types
Can and should the two be used together?
Which one to choose by default?
Angular Forms - what is it all about?
A large category of frontend applications are very form-intensive, especially in the case of enterprise development. Many of these applications are basically just huge forms, spanning multiple tabs and dialogs and with non-trivial validation business logic.
Every form-intensive application has to provide answers for the following problems:
how to keep track of the global form state
know which parts of the form are valid and which are still invalid
properly displaying error messages to the user so that the user knows what to do to make the form valid
All of these are non-trivial tasks that are similar across applications, and as such could benefit from a framework.
The Angular framework provides us a couple of alternative strategies for handling forms: Let's start with the option that is the closest to Angular 1.
Angular Template Driven Forms
Angular 1 tackles forms via the famous ng-model directive (read more about it in this post).
The instantaneous two-way data binding of ng-model in Angular 1 is really a life-saver as it allows to transparently keep in sync a form with a view model.
Forms built with this directive can only be tested in an end to end test because this requires the presence of a DOM, but still, this mechanism is very useful and simple to understand.
Angular now provides an identical mechanism named also ngModel, that allow us to build what is now called Template-Driven forms.
Note that NgModel includes all of the functionality of its Angular 1 counterpart.
Enabling Template Driven Forms
Unlike the case of AngularJs, ngModel and other form-related directives are not available by default, we need to explicitly import them in our application module:
We can see here that we have enabled Template Driven Forms by adding FormsModule to our application, and bootstrapped the application dynamically.
This is OK for development mode, but you might want to have a look at this post on @NgModule for an alternative bootstrap strategy for production.
With the initial configuration in place, let's now build our first Angular Form.
Our First Template Driven Form
Let's take a look at a form built according to the template driven way:
There is actually quite a lot going on in this simple example. What we have done here is to declare a simple form with two controls: first name and password, both of which are mandatory fields (marked with the required attribute).
The form will trigger the controller method onSubmitTemplateBased on submission, but the submit button is only enabled if both required fields are filled in.
But that is only a small part of what is going on here.
NgModel Validation Functionality
Notice the use of [(ngModel)], this notation emphasizes that the two form controls are bi-directionally bound with a view model variable, named as simply user.
This [(ngModel)] syntax is known as the 'Box of Bananas' syntax :-)
More than that, when the user clicks a required field, the field is shown in red until the user types in something. Angular is actually tracking three form field states for us and applying the following CSS classes to both the form and its controls:
touched or untouched
valid or invalid
pristine or dirty
These CSS state classes are very useful for styling form error states.
Angular is actually tracking the validity state of the whole form as well, using it to enable/disable the submit button. This functionality is actually common to both template-driven and reactive forms.
The logic for all this must be in the controller, right?
Let's take a look at the controller associated with this view to see how all this form logic is implemented:
Not much to see here! We only have a declaration for a view model object user, and an event handler used by ngSubmit.
All the very useful functionality of tracking form errors and registering validators is taken care for us without any special configuration!
How does Angular pull this off then?
The way that this works, is that there is a set of implicitly defined form directives that are being applied to the view. Angular will automatically apply a form-level directive to the form in a transparent way, creating a FormGroup and linking it to the form.
If by some reason you don't want this you can always disable this functionality by adding ngNoForm as a form attribute.
Furthermore, each input will also get applied a directive that will register itself with the control group, and validators are registered if elements like required or maxlength are applied to the input.
The presence of [(ngModel)] will also create a bidirectional binding between the form and the user model, so in the end there is not much more to do at the level of the controller.
This is why this is called template-driven forms, because both validation and binding are all setup in a declarative way at the level of the template.
What if we don't need bi-directional binding, but only field initialization?
Sometimes we just want to create a form and initialize it, but not necessarily do bi-directional binding. We could want to let the user fill in the form and press submit, and only then get the latest value. We can do this by using the plain [ngModel] syntax:
This will allow us to initialize the form by filling in the fields of the user object:
What if we don't need field initialization, can we still get validation?
For example, creation forms don't need initial values, they only need validation. If we want to get only the validation functionality of ngModel without neither the initialization of values or the bi-directional binding, we can do so with the following syntax:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Template Driven Forms
In this simple example we cannot really see it, but keeping the template as the source of all form validation truth is something that can become pretty hard to read rather quickly.
As we add more and more validator tags to a field or when we start adding complex cross-field validations the readability of the form decreases, to the point where it will be harder to hand it off to a web designer.
The upside of this way of handling forms is its simplicity, and it's probably more than enough to build a large range of forms.
On the downside, the form validation logic cannot be unit tested. The only way to test this logic is to run an end to end test with a browser, for example using a headless browser like PhantomJs.
Template Driven Forms from a functional programming point of view
There is nothing wrong with template driven forms, but from a programming technique point of view bi-directional binding is a solution that promotes mutability.
Each form has a state that can be updated by many different interactions and it's up to the application developer to manage that state and prevent it from getting corrupted. This can get hard to do for very large forms and can introduce a category of potential bugs.
Again it's important to realize that this only happens in very large/complex forms. Angular does provide a different alternative for managing forms, so let's go through it.
Reactive Forms (or Model Driven)
A reactive form looks on the surface pretty much like a template driven form. But in order to be able to create this type of forms, we need first to import a different module into our application:
Note that here we imported ReactiveFormsModule instead of FormsModule. This will load the reactive forms directives instead of the template driven directives.
If we find ourselves in a situation where we would happen to need both, then we should import both modules, more on this later.
Our First Reactive Form
Let's take our previous example and re-write it but this time in reactive style:
There are a couple of differences here. First, there is a formGroup directive applied to the whole form, binding it to a controller variable named form.
Notice also that the required validator attribute is not applied to the form controls. This means the validation logic must be somewhere in the controller, where it can be unit tested.
What does the controller look like?
There is a bit more going on in the controller of a Reactive Form, let's take a look at the controller for the form above:
We can see that the form is really just a FormControl, which keeps track of the global validity state. The controls themselves can either be instantiated individually or defined using a simplified array notation using the form builder.
In the array notation, the first element of the array is the initial value of the control, and the remaining elements are the control's validators. In this case both controls are made mandatory via the Validators.required built-in validator.
But what happened to ngModel?
Note that ngModel can still be used with reactive forms. It's just that the form value would be available in two different places: the view model and the FormGroup, which could potentially lead to some confusion.
Due to this reason mixing ngModel with reactive forms is best avoided.
Advantages and disadvantages of Reactive Forms
You are probably wondering what we gained here. On the surface there is already a big gain: We can now unit test the form validation logic.
We can do that just by instantiating the class, setting some values in the form controls and perform assertions against the form global valid state and the validity state of each control.
But this is just one possibility. The FormGroup and
FormControl classes provide an API that allows us to build UIs using a completely different programming style known as Functional Reactive Programming.
Functional Reactive Programming in Angular
This deserves it's own blog post, but the main point is that the form controls and the form itself now provide an Observable-based API. You can think of observables simply as a collection of values over time.
This means that both the controls and the whole form itself can be viewed as a continuous stream of values, that can be subscribed to and processed using commonly used functional primitives.
For example, it's possible to subscribe to the Form stream of values using the Observable API like this:
What we are doing here is taking the stream of form values (that changes each time the user types in an input field), and then apply to it some commonly used functional programming operators: map and filter.
In fact, the form stream provides the whole range of functional operators available in Array and many more.
In this case, we are converting the first name to uppercase using map and taking only the valid form values using filter. This creates a new stream of valid-only values to which we subscribe, by providing a callback that defines how the UI should react to a new valid value.
Advantages of building UIs using Functional Reactive Programming (FRP)
We are not obliged to use FRP techniques with Angular Reactive Forms. Simply using them to make the templates cleaner and allow for component unit testing is already a big plus.
But like its usual in the case of Observable-based APIs, FRP techniques can help easily implement many use cases that would otherwise be rather hard to implement such as:
pre-save the form in the background at each valid state, or even invalid (for example storing the invalid value in a cookie for later use)
typical desktop features like undo/redo
Have a look at this video Introduction to Functional Reactive Programming - Using the Async Pipe - Pitfalls to Avoid, part of the Angular Services and HTTP course for more on Functional Reactive Programming in Angular.
Updating Form Values
We now have APIs available for either updating the whole form, or just a couple of fields. For example, let's create a couple of new buttons on the reactive form above:
We can see here that there are two buttons for updating the form value, one for the partial updates and the other for full updates. This is how the corresponding component methods look like:
We can see that FormGroup provides two API methods for updating form values:
we have patchValue() which partially updates the form. This method does not need to receive values for all fields of the form, which allows for partial updates
which partially updates the form. This method does not need to receive values for all fields of the form, which allows for partial updates there is also setValue(), to which we are passing all the values of the form. In the case of this method, values for all form fields need to be provided, otherwise, we will get an error message saying that certain field values are missing
We might think that we could use these same APIs to reset the form by passing blank values to all fields.
That would not work as intended because the pristine and untouched statuses of the form and its fields would not get reset accordingly. But Angular Final provides an API for this use case.
How To Reset a Form
Notice on the button list above that there is a cancel button that calls a reset() method, which does reset everything back to pristine and untouched:
Let's now see if its possible to mix both form types and if that is advisable.
Reactive vs Template Driven: can they be mixed?
Reactive and Template-Driven under the hood are implemented in the same way: there is a FormGroup for the whole form, and one FormControl instance per each individual control.
If by some reason we would need to, we could mix and match the two ways of building forms, for example:
we can use ngModel to read the data and use FormBuilder for the validations. we don't have to subscribe to the form or use RxJs if we don't wish to.
to read the data and use for the validations. we don't have to subscribe to the form or use RxJs if we don't wish to. We can declare a control in the controller, and then reference it in the template to obtain its validity state
But in general, it's better to choose one of the two ways of doing forms, and using it consistently throughout the application.
Which form type to choose, and why?
Template Driven Forms are maybe for simple forms slightly less verbose, but the difference is not significant. Reactive Forms are actually much more powerful and have a nearly equivalent readability.
Most likely in a large-scale application, we will end up needing the functionality of reactive driven forms for implementing more advanced use cases like for example auto-save.
Everything can be done in both form types, but some things are simpler using reactive forms
It's not this that there is functionality that cannot be implemented with template driven forms. But there is a lot of functionality especially more modern form features like for example auto-save that can be implemented in just a few lines of RxJs.
Which form type to choose?
Are you migrating an Angular 1 application into Angular? That is the ideal scenario for using Template Driven Forms.
Or are you building a new application from scratch? Reactive forms are a good default choice because more complex validation logic is actually simpler to implement using them.
For example, imagine a validation that requires to inspect two fields and compare them: for example a password field and a password confirmation field need to be identical.
With reactive forms, we just need to write a function and plug it into the FormControl. With template driven forms, there is more to it: we need to define a directive and somehow pass it the value of the two fields.
Reactive forms seem great for example for enterprise applications with lots of complex inter-field business validation logic.
As mentioned before, we want to avoid situations where we are using both form types together, as it can get rather confusing. But it's still possible to use both forms together if by some reason we really need to.
Summary
Angular provides with us ways to build forms: Template Driven and Reactive.
The Template Driven approach is very familiar to Angular 1 developers and is ideal for easy migration of Angular 1 applications into Angular.
The Reactive approach removes validation logic from the template, keeping the templates clean of validation logic. But also allows for a whole different way of building UIs that we can optionally use.
This is not an exclusive choice but for a matter of consistency, it's better to choose one of the two approaches and use it everywhere in our application.
If you want to know more about Angular Forms, the podcast of Victor Savkin on Angular Air goes into detail on the two form types and
ngModel.
This blog post gives a high-level overview of how Angular will better enable Functional Reactive Programming techniques.
If you are interested in learning about how to build components in Angular, check also The fundamentals of Angular components.
In case you want to learn Angular Forms in detail, have a look at this Youtube Playlist with samples from our course:
Looking for other Angular Learning Resources?
Check our top 10 list of Angular Resources:
Top 10 Angular Tutorials, Blogs and Podcasts
Other posts on Angular
If you enjoyed this post, these are some other popular posts on my blog:How text selection should work
Recently, Pierre Igot kicked off a thing by linking to an old article by John Gruber about how text selection works in OS X in his own article, Shrinking and expanding selections in Mac OS X, about how this is still handled fairly inconsistently. Sample quote:
Sadly, three years later, things are still a total mess in Mac OS X, even when one keeps the focus exclusively on Apple’s own software applications. If anything, it has become even more complex and confusing.
This leads to Gruber linking to him and to other articles, because Gruber loves to link to articles about Gruber. (Fair enough!) Gruber’s own take seems to be this:
The text selection behavior Pierre Igot is complaining about in the aforelinked piece is exactly the behavior recommended by the HIG: […] In other words, if you create a selection using the mouse and then extend the selection using the keyboard, it doesn’t matter whether you created the selection by (a) dragging left-to-right, (b) dragging right-to-left, or © double-clicking. In all three cases, the selection is unanchored in terms of extending it using the keyboard. I agree with this.
He also links to another piece (mostly) defending the OS X way of doing text selection.
Caught up? OK. Here is what all of these pieces are missing:
(from Engadget)
Text selection in Mac OS X is clearly inferior to text selection in iPhone OS X. The desktop OS need to add in little grabby handles like the mobile OS has. It would be so much clearer if after you highlighted some text and when you pressed shift+← the left selection handle started glowing or being highlighted or whatever. Then when you press shift+← again, it would make total sense for the selection to expand on the left side. It would make the current behavior make visual sense. It would also allow you to grow or shrink a selection with your mouse if you wanted. It would also make the tricky box selects that you can sometimes do by holding down option make more sense. Everything would be better and children would laugh and sing together. Leaving the grabby handles in iPhone OS X only would be a real shame.
I filed this as a request for enhancement in Apple’s bug track some time back. It’s #6703135 for those with the ability to see those kinds of things.Josh Zeitz has taught American history and politics at Cambridge University and Princeton University and is the author of Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image. He is currently writing a book on the making of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Follow him @joshuamzeitz.
100 years and a day before Hillary Clinton will cast her vote in a bid to become the first female president of the United States, Jeannette Rankin, a 36-year-old rancher’s daughter from Missoula, Montana, who had devoted her early career to women’s suffrage and progressive reform causes, voted in her state’s federal and local elections. That night, when all the ballots were counted, she made history, becoming the first woman ever to be elected to Congress. “I may be the first woman member of Congress,” she declared after her landslide victory. “But I won’t be the last.”
No less than Hillary Clinton, another trailblazer, Rankin was deeply controversial in her time. But her career—and the controversy surrounding it—tells us a great deal about what’s changed in the past 100 years, and what hasn’t.
Story Continued Below
For one, first-wave feminists like Rankin did not challenge the idea that there should be separate spheres for men and women; instead they embraced the prevailing orthodoxy and used it to their favor. Like many of her colleagues in the women’s movement, Rankin claimed a role in politics by insisting that women, not men, best knew how to safeguard public health, education and safety.
Ironically, though she fought a much lonelier battle and won a more improbable victory, in some ways, it was easier for Rankin than it is for Clinton today. When she was the only woman to hold elective office at the federal level, she was regarded by some as a “freak.” Few men anticipated a tidal wave of women in politics, which made her less threatening than Clinton—and her gender less a part of the conversation.
Which is not to say that they treated her with kid gloves. Rankin paid dearly for her politics—particularly, her deep-seated pacifism and support for labor rights, but not especially for her sex. What’s more, unlike Hillary Clinton, Rankin’s personal life remained off the table. No one seemed to care that she never married and enjoyed closer, intimate relationships with members of her own sex.
Compare this to today, when Hillary Clinton faces censure for the way she speaks, the frequency with which she smiles, the pant suits that she wears and the way she conducts her personal life. True, campaigns in 2016 make campaigns in 1916 look like garden-party affairs. Ours is a more coarse and bare-knuckle age. But it’s hard to divorce these scorching criticisms of Clinton from gender. 100 years after her first term, the story of Rankin reminds us that it was in some ways easier to be a woman in politics when you were the only one.
***
Rankin was born in 1880 in Missoula, Montana. The eldest of seven siblings, she grew up in relative prosperity. Rankin’s father, a wealthy rancher and real estate prospector, built the first home in Missoula with indoor plumbing and central heat. Her two brothers attended elite universities and, at her parents’ urging, Jeanette studied biology at what is now Montana State University, where she was an indifferent student. After graduating, she taught school for a year but failed to pass the state teacher’s exam, a setback that only strengthened her determination to leave home for greater adventures. “’Go! Go! Go!’” she wrote in her diary. “It makes no difference where just so you go! go! go! Remember at the first opportunity go!’”
So Jeanette went—first |
making affordable energy efficient fans and tube lights freely available to the people.
The Minister directed state-run EESL and the 4 DISCOMs in the state to make 10 crore LED bulbs freely available under UJALA scheme and increase awareness among the common people for the same. Sharma assured Goyal the state power department officers would work in cohesion with the Power Ministry to implement all the decisions taken today within the stipulated time. He informed that the state power department is preparing a roadmap to ensure 24×7 affordable quality power for all rural and urban households by October 2018.
It was also decided in the meeting that the state of UP would sign the “Power for All” document with the Centre by mid-April, 2017. “We have to bring an Urja Kranti in UP and we will work together to achieve it, Goyal stated.
The meeting was attended by Sanjay Agrawal, UP Principal Secretary (Energy) and senior officers of the Ministry of Power, EESL, REC, NTPC, POWERGRID and PFC.The city of Orange may drop its lawsuit against a husband and wife cited for not having enough plants in their frontyard, officials said.
The case against Quan and Angelina Ha could be dropped without fine or penalty, officials said Tuesday hours after the pair was arraigned on charges of violating city ordinances when they removed their lawn to try to save water.
Officials determined the yard met city standards after re-examining the property about noon Tuesday, said Paul Sitkoff, a spokesman for Orange. A city ordinance requires that 40% of a front lawn be landscaped with live plants.
"We had two officials go out there and look at the property, and they did make strides in complying with the ordinance," Sitkoff said.
City officials will meet with the couple later this week to make another assessment, he said.Nowadays, when people ask me what I write about, I say, food, sex, and God. And that just about sums it up. I think your characters find you in the same that your ideas find you. I think they settle on you. Start Writing Fiction focuses on a skill that is central to the writing of all stories, creating characters. Through the course, you'll explore various ideas and take part in exercises to help you develop your own characters. You'll start writing your own stories, learn to read like a writer, and how to edit.
You'll hear from a number of successful authors, including Michele Roberts, Alex Garland, and Louis de Bernieres, as they talk about their own experiences of writing. There seem to be two different types of character. There's the type that just turns up at your shoulder like a ghost and insists on being written. The other kind of character is the sort that you invent more or less from scratch or creator as a composite of various people that you've noticed or come across. You'll see how established authors such as Toni Morrison, Graham Greene, and Kate Atkinson, have written and presented characters in their novels.
By the end of the course, you'll have learned tricks, such as the importance of redrafting and using a journal to generate ideas. And, most important of all, you'll start writing yourself.Red Cross Reporting on the Red Cross
Following Superstorm Sandy, donors gave $312 million to the American Red Cross. How did the aid organization spend that money?
A year and a half after the storm, it's surprisingly difficult to get a detailed answer.
Red Cross officials told ProPublica the organization has spent or committed $291 million on Sandy through the end of February 2014. But the organization has not given a breakdown showing how, where, and when the money was spent.
“The Red Cross is too big and too important to be allowed to be this secretive,” said Doug White, a charity expert who has written extensively on nonprofit finances.
White said such a lack of transparency is common among charities. Like other non-profits, the Red Cross is required to disclose only top-line numbers on its fundraising and spending, which it publishes in an annual report and a standard tax filing.
But the Red Cross stands out both for the scale of its operations and the unique role it plays in domestic disasters.
It is the first call for many people moved by images of a tornado, flood, or fire ravaging a community. The organization is also a strange hybrid: a nonprofit charity, it also has a congressional charter. It gets little money from the federal government but it has an official role doing disaster relief in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. President Obama is its honorary chairman.
In contrast to the Red Cross, there is a wealth of information available about Sandy relief money that has flowed from the federal government to states and towns. (That has allowed for attendant media scrutiny.)
Despite its beloved name, the Red Cross has had a rocky decade and a half.
Allegations of mismanagement of funds and poor performance followed both Sept. 11 and Katrina.
A series of CEOs were forced out — one after Sept. 11, another after Katrina, and a third following an affair with a subordinate. Congress in 2007 imposed a set of governance reforms, including reducing the size of the organization's 50-member board.
Appointed as CEO in 2008, former AT&T executive Gail McGovern has had a longer run than her predecessors and won praise as a competent manager. But the Red Cross faced familiar criticism after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
The Red Cross weathered more criticism almost immediately after Sandy hit in October 2012. As donations poured in, partly on the strength of appeals from Obama and a star-studded televised benefit concert, residents on Staten Island and the Rockaways complained the Red Cross was missing in action.
When it comes to its Sandy spending, the Red Cross gives a dollar-figure breakdown in only the broadest of categories: Food and Shelter, Individual Casework, Housing and Community Assistance, and Relief Items are the four biggest.
The Red Cross also gives raw numbers of services provided in a different set of categories: emergency vehicles activated; relief items distributed; overnight stays in shelters provided; health and mental health contacts provided; meals and snacks served; and workers and volunteers mobilized.
Because the spending isn’t categorized in the same way as the numbers of services provided, one can't calculate, for example, how much it cost for the Red Cross to provide 74,000 overnight shelter stays or what exactly it purchased for the $85 million it spent on individual casework.
Citing its finance tracking system, the Red Cross said it could not match up the categories for us.
“It would be helpful to know where people received assistance and how much, and when,” said Ben Smilowitz, the founder of the Disaster Accountability Project, who has tracked the Red Cross since Hurricane Katrina. “You might actually see that some neighborhoods received more than others in equal need.”
“Aggregate data does not tell you a whole lot,” Smilowitz added. “If the data was open, they would be inviting a lot of scrutiny.”
Red Cross spokeswoman Anne Marie Borrego said the group continually updates its website with stories about how it is spending disaster donations.
“The Red Cross issues regular reports about our spending and programs for disasters such as Sandy,” she said.
Another obstacle to tracking Red Cross spending lies in the phrase “spent or committed.” The Red Cross generally combines the two activities in its totals. The amount that it commits, rather than spends, can be considerable. When the Red Cross “commits” funds, that typically means it has made a decision to grant money to a smaller organization, such as a local soup kitchen. The Red Cross then usually parcels out the money over time. The money hasn’t immediately been put to work helping victims.
Critics argued after Sandy the Red Cross wasn’t spending donor dollars quickly enough. But the way the organization releases figures makes it impossible to judge how fast money has been getting out the door. The Red Cross declined to give a breakdown over time of money spent and committed versus money spent.
Among other new details in response to ProPublica questions:A lot of Haskell applications use monad transformers, which are instances of the type class
class MonadTrans t where lift :: Monad m => m a -> t m a
What this does is allow you do combine the environment provided by several monads, by wrapping them together. For example, the State s monad gives you the ability to operate on state of type s that is automatically threaded through your computation, while the Maybe monad lets you short circuit failure. But if you want both of those effects, then you can combine them by using a monad transformer version of one of the two, such as:
something :: StateT s Maybe a
Here, StateT is defined in the mtl package, and is similar to State except for leaving a place for another monad that sit inside of it. By using monad transformers like this, you can compose the effects from several monads in a piecemeal fashion.'Drugstore Cowboy' author pleads guilty to pharmacy robbery
James Fogle, whose book "'Drugstore Cowboy" told the story of drug users who robbed pharmacies to feed their addiction, pleaded guilty in Seattle on Wednesday to a familiar crime: a pharmacy robbery.
Prosecutors will seek a 16-year prison term for Fogle, now in his 70s.
Fogle became famous beyond police lineups by writing a novel about longtime drug users who robbed pharmacies. Filmmaker Gus Van Sant turned the unpublished novel into a movie by the same name, "Drugstore Cowboy," in 1989, and Fogle's book hit shelves the following year.
Fogle also has spent significant stretches of his adult life in prison, sometimes for committing the sort of crimes he described in his novel.
Police say on May 25, 2010, Fogle and another man were trying to steal prescription drugs from Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, at 15840 Redmond Way. It's about a half mile from the Redmond police headquarters.
Police say minutes after the pharmacy's 9 p.m. closing Tuesday, Fogle and his alleged accomplice -- who in 1986 was convicted of a sex crime -- pushed their way into the pharmacy through a back exit door after Fogle flashed a gun in his waistband.
In addition to a pink bandanna, Fogle had a hood over his head and yellow latex gloves, according to court documents. Police say the accomplice wore a dark ski mask and a dark hooded sweatshirt.
Court documents show the robbers directed employees to the back of the pharmacy where the drugs were stored. One of the employees hit a silent alarm, made her way to doors and attempted to place paper pamphlets to keep it from closing and locking. She saw a woman customer outside and whispered for her to call 911.
The employee then went to the back of the store with the two other employees. One was zip tied and police say the accomplice had another open a secure area of the pharmacy where drugs were stored. The man dumped pills into two plastic trashcans, according to court documents
He then used zip ties to tie the other employees' hands behind their backs, police say.
"A short time later, James Fogle walked out the back door on the north side of the pharmacy carrying a plastic trash can in each hand," Redmond Detective Jeff Howerton wrote in an incident report.
Officers, who responded to the pharmacy in about two minutes, arrested him and determined the weapon was a BB gun modeled after a semiautomatic handgun. The trashcans he was carrying were full of pharmaceuticals, according to court documents.
About 20 seconds after Fogle was arrested, police say his accomplice walked out with the ski mask and dark gloves. He was arrested and officers found a loaded 32-caliber handgun on a shelf about 20 feet from the back door of the pharmacy.
The zip tied women told police "they feared for their lives and that they were concerned that they would be hurt or killed by the suspects," Howerton wrote.
King County court records show Fogle most recently landed in state prison following a conviction in a 2004 drugstore burglary.
Fogle was caught sleeping inside a Kent drugstore during an apparent early morning burglary attempt.
Kent officers called to the area by a silent alarm found Fogle prone on the drugstore floor near an open, emptied narcotics cabinet, according to police reports. Several paper bags had been filled with bottles of pills worth about $10,000 wholesale.
Investigators determined that Fogle, then 68, cut a hole in the store's roof and shimmied inside on a rope. Fogle later told detectives he'd fallen asleep due to a narcoleptic condition.
Speaking with detectives, the self-described drugstore cowboy disingenuously described himself as a methadone user who'd lost his prescription and suggested that a cellmate at Airway Heights Corrections Center gave him the idea to break into the Kent drugstore.
"This person told him that he had gotten a bunch of drugs by cutting through the roof and dropping into it," Kent Detective Robert K. Kaufmann told the court in 2004.
"He had gotten into the pharmacy and made a huge haul of drugs and was on the way out when he fell asleep," the detective continued. "His intent was to steal enough to buy a car and get a place to stay."
Described by police as having tattoos and scars too numerous to list, Fogle has a criminal history dating to 1954, according to court records.
Prior to the 3½-year sentence he received for the 2004 attempted burglary, Fogle had been sentenced to a four-year term in a 2001 Snohomish County burglary and a five-year term in a 1992 Pierce County drug conviction.
All told, he has previously been convicted of 14 felonies.In an amazing display of anti-gay synergy, the AFA’s Bryan Fischer and “A Queer Thing Happened To America” author Michael Brown hosted something of a joint radio program yesterday whereby the two hosts were patched in together while each hosting their respective programs, essentially making each host a guest on the other’s program.
These two leading anti-gay activists came together in this manner in order to discuss Brown’s recent column speculating that Rush Limbaugh is afraid to blame the Penn State child molestation scandal on homosexuality because he is afraid of angering the gay lobby.
Brown gave Right Wing Watch a nice little shout-out around the 21:35 mark, noting that we regularly post their latest anti-gay statements. And then, after Brown had left, Fischer continued to talk about it, saying that Limbaugh has been “compromised” by the homosexual lobby when he had Elton John sing at his wedding:Case studies including horrific stories of abuse were aired during public hearings held by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse from September 2013 to March 2017.
After five years of emotionally exhausting and confronting public hearings, the Commission will hand its report to the Governor-General today.
What you need to know:
Most of the 57 case studies related to particular organisations and institutions, while others looked at broader issues like redress and civil litigation, criminal justice, out-of-home care and the harmful sexual behaviours of children in schools.
Over 400 hearing days, 1,200 witnesses gave evidence.
It was impossible for the Commission to hold hearings into all the institutions raised by survivors in private sessions.
Instead, the Commission chose case studies by looking at how many people had reported abuse in a particular institution or group of institutions; the availability of witnesses and documents; whether the case raised systemic issues; the need to cover a range of institutions and the requirement hearings be held in all states and territories.
The hearings were broadcast live online, giving everyone the chance to follow the Commission's work whether it was sitting in a capital city or regional centre.
Here is a snapshot of just a few of the institutions the Commission investigated:
The Salvation Army
Hundreds of children were sexually abused at Salvation Army boys' homes in Queensland and New South Wales in the 1960s and 70s, the Royal Commission was told.
During case study 5 — one of three case studies conducted into the Salvation Army — the Commission heard details of abuse at the organisation's boys' homes at Indooroopilly and Riverview in Queensland, and Bexley and Goulburn in New South Wales.
Survivor witnesses gave evidence they were dragged from their beds and raped by Salvation Army officers, forced to have sex with other boys in the home and put in cages or paraded around the ground as punishment for minor offences.
"After the lights went out 'round 7:00pm every night, Lieutenant Spratt would come out of the room in the dark so no one would see what he was doing. Whenever I heard his door open, I thought to myself, 'I hope he's not coming to my bed'. "When I heard him go into someone else's bed I felt relieved that he had left me alone for the night … "I tried to explain to the new boys, when the Salvation Army officers were not watching me, to let them do what they wanted to do to you, because if you don't you're going to have to cop something that you don't want." — Survivor witness FP, January 29 2014. Listen to his full story here.
The Commission was told boys at the Bexley home in Sydney's south were "rented out" to strangers who sexually abused them and that a "network of paedophiles" had access boys in their dormitory.
"I was still wearing my shirt, which I kept trying to pull down over my genitals, but he kept pulling my shirt away. I was so upset I grabbed my pants and ran out of the room. I caught a train back to Bexley, and walked back to the home. By the time I arrived it was dark. "Wilson was waiting for me, and he took me to his office. I tried to tell him what had happened, but he just kept saying to me, 'These are good people I sent you out to'. "He then caned me about 18 times, and sent me to bed." — Witness FV, January 30 2014.
Senior Salvation Army officers conceded that in the past, the organisation did not have the policies and processes in place to protect children.
Commissioner James Condon told the Commission the organisation was no longer focused on protecting its reputation, but putting victims first.
Case study 33 looked at how the Salvos handled allegations of abuse in its Southern Territory and specifically at the Eden Park Boys' Home, South Australia; the Box Hill Boys' Home and the Bayswater Boys' Home in Victoria and The Salvation Army Boys' Home (also known as Hollywood Children's Village), at Nedlands, Western Australia.
One survivor witness gave evidence he was sexually abused at least 200 times by older boys and by a Salvation Army officer at the Eden Park Boys' Home.
The Royal Commission concluded that children in those homes felt afraid to report abuse, were powerless to resist the maltreatment, and that nothing was done to stop the staff and officers abusing the children.
In case study 10, the Commission scrutinised how the Salvos handled complaints from abuse survivors in its Eastern Territory between 1989 and 2014.
It heard the Salvation Army had failed to act on abuse complaints, concealed abuse and protected perpetrators, was reluctant to compensate victims or offered them only paltry sums and made some sign deeds of release which prevented them speaking publicly about their abuse.
The Commission heard one Major admitted sexually abusing a girl in 1989 but rose through the ranks of the organisation until his position was terminated in 2014.
The Anglican Church
Sexual abuse in a New South Wales orphanage between the 1940s and 80s, the covering up of abuse complaints in some of the nation's top private schools, and evidence from witnesses who fell victim to a paedophile ring operating in the Church of England Boys' Society (CEBS) were some of the matters considered by the commission in eight hearings into Anglican institutions.
Survivors of the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore NSW told the commission staff, clergy and residents had sexually abused children.
"We had no shoes. We had no clothes. I remember one time I must have sat at a table for about 10 hours as punishment because I wouldn't eat the food that they'd given me. Because if you threw up they would make you eat the vomit. "There was the sexual abuse in the bell tower, and it was a favourite place because it was out of the way, no one would come there." — Witness CK, November 18 2013.
The dioceses of Tasmania, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane were all required to give evidence about their handling of abuse allegations in the CEBS.
"Between the ages of 10 and 14 I was groomed and abused while attending CEBS activities and camps. Initially my abuse occurred at the Parish of The Good Shepherd, Plympton, in South Australia. This abuse involved encouragement by CEBS leaders of sexual activity between boys under the stage in the church hall and on camps. I was also sexually abused in one-on-one contexts by at least one CEBS leader of the parish, and by Robert Brandenburg, the state CEBS commissioner." — Witness Mark King, February 2 2016.
On the handling of abuse complaints in the Anglican diocese of Newcastle, the Royal Commission found systemic issues allowed a group of abusers to operate within the diocese for at least 30 years.
The report found Newcastle diocese Bishops Alfred Holland and Roger Herft showed a distinct lack of leadership, and alleged perpetrators were not called to account.
Some of the nation's top Anglican clergy were also called on by the inquiry to explain their role in handling abuse allegations.
In February 2016, the former Governor General of Australia and Archbishop of Brisbane Peter Hollingworth gave a personal apology to a survivor at the Royal Commission hearings in Hobart.
The victim had given evidence he'd told Dr Hollingworth that John Elliott had sexually abused him but Dr Hollingworth had allowed Elliott to continue as the Rector of Dalby for several years in the 1990s.
"I acknowledge unconditionally that my actions were misguided, wrong and a serious error of judgement and that I genuinely regret that. "The fundamental mistake that I made was failing to understand the long term repercussions that arise from child sexual abuse. In that respect, I failed to make your needs my absolute first priority. "To BYB and your family, I am deeply sorry that I was not sufficiently sensitive to your needs. In particular, I acknowledge that my actions must have heightened your distress and for this I am very sorry." — Peter Hollingworth, February 3 2016.
The former Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, Ian George, also apologised to survivors at the Commission, saying he should have acted earlier in the case of the notorious paedophile Bob Brandenburg.
Child sexual abuse complaints within the Anglican Church
The Royal Commission asked the Anglican Church for data on child sexual abuse complaints received by dioceses between January 1, 1980 and December 31, 2015.
There were 1,082 people alleging incidents of abuse in 1,115 reported complaints made to 22 Anglican Church dioceses.
Of the complaints, 74 per cent involved alleged child sexual abuse that started in the period from 1950 to 1989 inclusive.
The largest proportion of first alleged incidents of abuse (25 per cent) occurred in the 1970s.
Where the gender of people making a complaint was recorded, 75 per cent were male and 25 per cent were female.
The average age of the child victim was 11 for both girls and boys.
The average time between the alleged abuse and the making of a complaint was 29 years.
Of the alleged abusers who were identified, 247 were ordained clergy; 285 were lay people and the status of 37 alleged perpetrators was unknown.
Ninety-four per cent of the alleged abusers were male, and 6 per cent were female.
Anglican dioceses had made total compensation payments of nearly $31 million with an average payment of about $67,000.
By the end of 2016, 500 private session attendees reported that they had been sexually abused as a child in an Anglican Church institution.
Most of those institutions weren't considered in a case study.
The Chair of the Royal Commission has made 84 referrals to police in all states and the Australian Capital Territory in relation to allegations of child sexual abuse involving Anglican Church institutions.
As a result there have been four prosecutions and 23 matters are currently being investigated.
The victim or the accused has died in seven cases and eight matters are pending.
Ultra-orthodox Jewish Yeshivah communities
The covering up of child abuse and the ostracism of victims in the ultra-orthodox Jewish Yeshivah communities in Melbourne and Bondi came under the commission's scrutiny in case study 22.
The commission heard that despite the fact there were several complaints of abuse made against perpetrators such as Shmuel David Cyprys, Rabbi David Kramer and Daniel Hayman, the men continued to be associated with the institutions.
The commission was told Yeshivah College in east St Kilda covered up the crimes of serial child abuser Cyprys, who was employed by the school.
"This discovery physically sickened me. I felt essential responsibility that maybe I should have done more in 2003, so that he could not be around children. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Yeshivah Centre and some of the rabbis were aware of David's penchant for young boys. Despite this, he was still a security guard. This gave David access to kids. "In my opinion, the first thought of the leaders of Yeshivah Centre was to protect Yeshivah and its reputation — not me, or the other children." — Royal Commission witness "AVA", February 2 2015.
Whistleblower Manny Waks and his father Zephaniah Waks gave evidence they'd been bullied and intimidated by the Yeshivah community after going public about the abuse.
"I was in fact contacted by several considered community members, and they said to me that the anti-Semites are having a field day with my testimony and my publicity around this issue, and that if I cared about the community, I'd cease doing that straight away." — Manny Waks, February 2 2015.
The Commission investigated the Jewish concept of "Mesirah" in the hearings.
It heard some Jews believed they were forbidden by Jewish law from informing on another Jew to secular authorities like the police.
"I am appalled by it obviously, because the concept of 'Mesirah' really, you can become a death target. Taken at its literal meaning, you become potentially a target who is legitimate to be murdered, because you've gone and cooperated with the authorities. Now, I've never felt threatened for my life, but it does highlight the severity in which this concept is held." — Manny Waks.
The webcast of the Yeshivah communities drew one of the highest audiences of all the case study hearings and witnesses were no doubt in their closed communities, following proceedings keenly.
"Whatever happens here today is being viewed overseas and it's going to have ramifications overseas. I know that's not your brief but I can assure you that the findings here in relation to this community are going to have hopefully positive ramifications overseas as well. Because the communities are similar, they're tied together and it will not only be the Chabad communities that will be influenced, it will be the wider ultra-orthodox community in the world, especially the USA but Israel as well." — Zephaniah Waks, February 3 2015.
Catholic Church institutions
The shocking extent of child sexual abuse in Australia's Catholic institutions was finally revealed in the Royal Commission hearings.
During 15 public hearings focusing on the Catholic Church, 261 witnesses gave evidence.
"The accounts were depressingly similar. Children were ignored or worse, punished. Allegations were not investigated. Priests and religious (members) were moved. "The parishes or communities to which they were moved knew nothing of their past.
"Documents were not kept or they were destroyed. Secrecy prevailed as did cover ups. Priests and religious (members) were not properly dealt with and outcomes were often not representative of their crimes. Many children suffered and continue as adults to suffer from their experiences in some Catholic institutions." — Senior Counsel Assisting Gail Furness, February 6 2017.
At the request of the Commission, the Catholic Church in Australia collated and provided data on the number of abuse complaints received by the Church.
It is believed the data is the first of its kind to be gathered by the Church anywhere in the world.
It showed that between January 1980 and February 2015, 4,444 people alleged incidents of child sexual abuse made to 93 Catholic Church authorities.
These claims related to over 1,000 separate institutions.
Overall, 7 per cent of priests ministering in Australia between 1950 and 2010 were accused of child sexual abuse.
Of the people who made a claim, 78 per cent were male and 22 per cent were female.
There were 1,880 identified alleged perpetrators, 90 per cent were male and 10 per cent were female.
Counsel assisting described the evidence of survivors of four Christian Brothers institutions in Western Australia as "particularly harrowing".
"The worst experiences of my life were being raped and sexually abused and being physically and mentally assaulted by a number of brothers and priests at Bindoon. Not one, not two, but nine individual sexual perpetrators. I have never been able to get over this. Assault and battery were the norm, right from the start for me. As a child I quickly learnt that telling the truth only served to cause more pain and suffering. The truth was never valid in the eyes of the adults under whose care I was assigned." — Royal Commission witness VV, April 29, 2014.
The handling of abuse complaints in the archdioceses of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra, Maitland-Newcastle, Toowoomba and Rockhampton were all examined by the Commission.
Catholic Schools and the Catholic Education Office's role in the Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Diocese of Toowoomba also came under scrutiny.
The hearings into the Diocese of Ballarat were among the longest held by the inquiry and drew the biggest webcast audience.
The commission concluded that a "catastrophic failure of leadership" saw hundreds of children abused in Victoria's west.
"I was first abused by a priest at St Joey's when I was around five years old. One day, I was cleaning the tile staircase when one of the nuns grabbed me by the ears and said, 'Father wants to cleanse you, twenty-nine'. "I was thrown into one of the horror rooms where I was made to strip off and get into an old-fashioned small bath. A priest gave me a drink. After I finished the drink, I just blacked out. When I came to, I hurt like bloody hell. I was bleeding from the top of my back down to my shins. My genitals and my bottom were the worst and they hurt like they were on fire. "I later discovered I had bite marks on my privates. When I woke up, the priest told me to get out and pushed me out the door where the nun, who had told me to go to the priest, was waiting for me. She was laughing at me and told me to get back to work." — Royal Commission witness Gordon Hill, May 7, 2015.
The Melbourne Archdiocese's redress scheme, the Melbourne Response, and the Towards Healing process, which applies in other Catholic dioceses, were examined in three hearings and were criticised for their lack of independence.
By February 2017, the Royal Commission chairman had referred 309 matters relating to abuse in Catholic Church institutions to police in all states and the ACT.
Twenty-seven prosecutions have begun as a result and 75 cases are being investigated.On this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump raising concerns in the Trump University case over U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage was “one of the worst mistakes Trump has made.”
Gingrich said “This is one of the worst mistakes Trump has made. I think it’s inexcusable. He has every right to criticize a judge and has every right to say certain decisions aren’t right.”
He added, “First of all this judge was born in Indiana. He is an American. Period. When you come to America, you get to become an American and Trump who has grandparents who came to the U.S. should understand this as much as anybody.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNENDon't worry about pissing in your pants at this haunted house -- you won't be wearing any.
Pennsylvania's Shocktoberfest offers a "Naked and Scared" tour that lets visitors show off every goosebump, according to owner Patrick Konopelski.
"It's about vulnerability -- people putting their defenses down and not being protected by anything. It allows us to scare them in ways they have never been scared before," Konopelski told The Huffington Post.
For more than 20 years the haunted attraction in Sinking Spring, Pa., has been scaring the pants off visitors, so it seems only natural for the "scream park" to boost its scary reputation by offering customers a bare-skin tour of is haunted house.
"When we started out we just needed some plastic masks and rubber knives, but over the years our customers wanted more," Konopelski said.
PHOTOS FROM SHOCKTOBERFEST (Story Continues Below)
PHOTO GALLERY Shocktoberfest
From those humble beginnings, Shocktoberfest has grown into multiple attractions, including a haunted hay ride, haunted house, midway games and food. The scares have also grown bigger and better, requiring Konopelski and his team to utilize hydraulics, animatronics and high-tech special effects to create a virtual world of horror for their customers.
The end goal, Konopelski said, has always been to make the scariest haunted house attraction ever built.
"Our haunted house gives the customer an adrenaline rush –- something they perhaps first experienced when they were little kids going through their first haunted house. That rush becomes like a heroin addiction and people will chase that high again and again. It's our job to give it to them."
The "Naked and Scared" tour is intended to take scaring the b'Jesus out of folks to the next level. By putting people in a vulnerable position, i.e. their birthday suit, they will not be protected by anything and can be scared in ways they have never experienced before.
According to Konopelski, his inspiration for the nude tour came to him while watching an episode of the Discovery Channel's show "Naked and Afraid," in which two strangers -- a man and a woman -– have to survive in the wilderness naked for 21 days.
"I was inspired by the show. It was really creepy. So my team and I sat down and started figuring out how we could [implement something similar] and how it could be done safely," he said.
After talking to his lawyer, who said the idea was legal and a "human rights issue," Konopelski and his team convinced town officials to give them the go ahead.
The team decided to offer the special event to consenting adults, at specific times when regular customers were not present in the park. The customers, not the ghouls, are the only naked participants. The team also decided to provide an option of "nude or prude," meaning participants can go on the tour in the buff or in their underwear.
Couples are welcome on the tour, which Konopelski said will be limited to small groups, in order to ensure safety and security.
"It's an upscale experience," he said.
And no worries, Konopelski said, there won't be any hanky panky going on during the tour.
"It has nothing to do with sex. Inappropriate behavior is not allowed. We have controls in place to ensure that will not be the case," he said. "In our industry we create the illusion of a very chaotic environment, when in fact, it's a very safe and secure environment."
Konopelski said he has received feedback about his new tour from all over the world. While some people have been negative about it, he said the majority of those he has heard from have expressed interest in it.
"We're in America. If it's not for you, don't do it. Because you don't agree, does it give you the right to stop someone else from experiencing something they have the right to experience? Keep in mind this is in a controlled environment. [Participants] will never be in view of minors or non-consenting adults," he said.
The naked tour is being held as a test run this year -– an experiment of sorts, Konopelski said, to see how the public responds. If it goes over well, it might be back.
While the idea is certainly unique to lovers of haunted houses, it begs the question as to what's in store next for Shocktoberfest.
"That question has been asked," Konopelski said. "Please, can I please get through this year first? It's the fun and excitement of the business. We all get to be Walt Disney for a month because we create this wonderful thing for people to experience. You'll just have to stay tuned and see what we come up with in 2014."Bogus Security Company Can't Take Criticism, Issues Bogus DMCA Takedowns, Creates Sockpuppet Accounts
from the not-how-it's-done dept
James said he let it go when SCI refused to talk seriously about sharing its cryptography solution, only to hear again this past weekend from SCI’s director of marketing Deirdre “Dee” Murphy on Twitter that his dismissal of their challenge proved he was “obsolete.” Murphy later deleted the tweets, but some of them are saved here.
About an hour and a half after this post went live, SecureChannels CEO Richard Blech (or someone claiming to be him) sent a DMCA notice to Twitter for two of Langton's tweets, complaining that they consisted of "employee pics, company and personnel, posts copyright material, hacks products and posts copyright code from products, using trademarks, targeted harassment, slander to destroy commerce." As for the description of the "original work," Blech blathered: "Cracked an app and placed code online, uses trademarked logos to attack company."
This is a censorious abuse of copyright law to suppress criticism. It is, in essence, an attempt to use copyright law for everything except copyright. That SecureChannels would use copyright law to shield criticism on the basis that its trademarks are being used and because of "slander" is, well, hysterical. This is not a company interested in permitting people to criticize it.
A few weeks ago, Brian Krebs published a fantastic article entitled how not to start an encryption company, which detailed the rather questionable claims of a company called Secure Channels Inc (SCI). The post is long and detailed and suggests strongly that (1) SCI was selling snake oil pretending to be an "unbreakable" security solution and (2) that its top execs |
crop-substitution program that calls for the complete eradication of marijuana and other plants sold illegally.
Toribío residents welcome the prospect of peace, but they say that even if the fighting stops, growing marijuana will remain the best way to feed their families. The local economy has been wrecked, both by the war and by industrial agriculture. Roughly a third of the working-age population doesn’t have a steady job, according to a 2013 government assessment. (Spanish, pdf, pg. 123.) Their chances of getting one are slim, they say, with illiteracy present in 36% of households.
Nicolas Enriquez Though pot farming has not been a boon for Toribío, it’s enough for locals to feed their families.
Nicolas Enriquez A baby sleeps while his parents work in the marijuana field.
As a result, many of them turn to small-scale farming. Legal crops, such as tomato and coffee, don’t provide enough to live on, Sebastian, a 52-year-old farmer, told Enriquez, the photographer. There is no market to sell them in, he added. Most of the roads are in bad shape and rapidly deteriorating, the government assessment says. Pot, says Sebastian, “is still the best option.” With 1,000 plants, a grower can harvest around 60 kg (130 lb) of weed, each of which sells at a profit of 25,000 to 30,000 Colombian pesos ($8 to $10.)
The problem is that economies such as Toribío’s have been distorted by players like the FARC, says Daniel Mauricio Rico, a researcher who has studied crop substitution at the University of Maryland. The guerrillas offered a market for products like marijuana and coca, while blocking public development programs. If the government provided justice and safety, farmers would be able to sell legal crops profitably, without the need for any crop-substitution programs.
For the past few decades, though, such programs have been a big part of the strategy to fight the drug trade. Most of them have failed because the government agencies don’t work together to solve the complexities on the ground, says Rico. For example, an agency might provide seeds for a legal crop, but no help to improve local roads to bring the harvest to market.
Will this time be different?
The agreement (Spanish, pdf) between the government and the FARC on drugs represents a big shift in that approach. The new crop-substitution program promises a comprehensive package of government help to those who agree to stop cultivating coca and marijuana. That includes investment in infrastructure, subsidies and credit to create new industries, better education and health, and even vegetable gardens. The negotiating parties are also vowing to focus on going after big-time drug smugglers and money launderers, not poor peasants.
Nicolas Enriquez Marijuana farming in Toribío is a no-frills operation.
Still, the new plan repeats some of the mistakes of the past, according to some experts. Its goal is still the complete eradication of plants for illegal use. That policy led to Colombia’s militarization and practices such as the aerial spraying of herbicides, says Pedro José Arenas, who coordinates the Observatory of Crops and Producers Declared Illicit, a drug-policy discussion center that focuses on farming communities.
It’s a chicken-and-egg situation: Peasants have to first commit to getting rid of illegal plantations to get government assistance. But without the assistance, it’s hard for them to find an alternative way to make a living and they will be loath to quit growing pot, says Coletta Youngers, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights non-profit.
Nicolas Enriquez Peasants don’t have access to the equipment and infrastructure that would make growing legal crops profitable. Here, a worker tries to lift a weed-laden motorcycle after taking a spill on the dirt road.
The plan is also extremely ambitious; one government adviser who asked not to be identified compared it to a kid’s letter to Santa Claus. It’s unclear whether the government has the ability or the resources to lift entire rural areas out of poverty.
Nicolas Enriquez Children are also enlisted to help out.
Colombian officials have a policy of declining interviews about the peace process in order to protect negotiations, but have said that once the agreements are signed there will be a transition period in which all Colombians will have a say on how they are implemented.
That means the government will work closely with communities to come up with the best methods to replace coca and marijuana. ”We are not going to leave you alone in your business,” said president Juan Manuel Santos during a presentation on the crop-substitution program last September. But illegal plantations will have to be destroyed, whether voluntarily or by force, because they are “the start of the drug trade chain with all its consequences of indolence and corruption,” he added.
Nicolas Enriquez Many in Toribío work at marijuana plantations such as this one. The greenhouses are usually right outside peasant’s homes.
Back in Toribío, locals are starting to feel the government’s presence. Now that the area is somewhat safe, workers from the electric utility have been able to go in to service lines and meter households that hadn’t been paying for their power.
Toribío residents worry that’s the only kind of official intervention they will see. During his stay, several told Enriquez they believe the government is more interested in finding ways to profit from them than helping them out. “Instead of sending help and resources, or holding a meeting with experts to get ideas on how to get this town out of the hole its been for the last 40 years, what they do is add more bills,” Robeiro, a 26-year-old marijuana grower, told him.
Without some tangible alternative to pot, added Robeiro, “there is no peace process.” Peasants southwest of Toribío clashed (Spanish) with the army after government workers showed up to pull out illegal plants in the area last November. One person was killed.
Nicolas Enriquez Farmers have developed cheap and fast methods to grow weed, for example, using cuttings to create new plants, as shown here, instead of collecting and sowing seeds.
Nicolas Enriquez The peasants in Toribío have set a complete production line, including an oven to dry the marijuana harvest.
Nicolas Enriquez Women and children usually do the trim work, which involves cutting the leaves around the marijuana bud.S2 Ep 6.5 Megasode: Making a Murderer's 'Silver Fox', Adnan Syed's PCR Wrap, Bowe's Brain, & The People Vs. O.J. Simpson
Rebecca's dream comes true as she gets the chance to chat with Making a Murderer's breakout press-pool guy Aaron Keller. Well, it would have been her dream come true if Kevin hadn't tagged along.
Anyway, the Crime Writers also talk about how Adnan Syed's PCR hearing wrapped up, dive into reactions about their Bowe Bergdahl Autism speculations, talk about their initial impressions of 'The People v. OJ Simpson' on FX, and tackle yet another compelling Crime of the Week. Plus, a listener clears up a mystery sparked by Toby's misread of one of those Amazon items.
BOOK LAUNCH: Kevin and Rebecca are having a book launch party for their newest title, Dark Heart, on March 3, 2016. They'd like you to join them at Gibson's Bookstore, S Main St, Concord NH at 5:30.
Listen:Albany Distilling Co. launching their rum this Saturday
This Saturday at the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center in Quackenbush Square, The Albany Distilling Company will be launching their rum, called Quackenbush Still House Original Albany Rum. This is their first non-whiskey product to date, and the beginning of their offering of spirits not entirely made of New York State ingredients. The product launch is tied in with an exhibit opening at the Albany Visitors Center with artifacts from the original Quackenbush Still House. Because of some boring legal stuff they unfortunately can’t sell or have tastings of the rum at the distillery, but many local bars and liquor stores will be stocked on March 23rd.
For the interested, you can read more about the creation of their rum on their blog. You can check out more details on the event on facebook.
Also, rum just further reminds me that I can’t wait for Spring. I will be drinking this rum and singing this song for a week straight once this weather gets itself sorted.800 Copies: Meet The World's Most Obsessive Fan Of 'The Velvet Underground and Nico' The seminal record, 50 years old this week, has influenced innumerable artists — and drawn many more crate-diggers' eyes toward its iconic banana.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Christopher Gregory for NPR Christopher Gregory for NPR
The Velvet Underground and Nico, released 50 years ago tomorrow (there is actually some disagreement on the exact date), is the definitive way-ahead-of-its-time album. With a near-peerless collection of songs — nearly all written by frontman Lou Reed — and an iconic, banana-sticker cover designed by band benefactor Andy Warhol, this jarring and innovative collection was initially a cult success at best, with no hit singles and a "peak" of No. 171 on Billboard's albums chart in December 1967. But the world eventually caught up with it, and for the past 30 years it's had perennial placement on best-ever lists, including No. 13 on Rolling Stone's 2012 "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" tally.
It's the first album to truly combine a novelist's gritty realism with equally confrontational rock music, yet it's also a fount of soft, vulnerable songs like "Femme Fatale" and "I'll Be Your Mirror" — songs that are all the more poignant because you can sense, somehow, that the sensitive soul who wrote them is also kind of an asshole.
toggle caption Christopher Gregory for NPR
It has spawned multiple generations of obsessives and influencees. Among the first was a young David Bowie, whose early manager Ken Pitt had art-world connections and met with Warhol and Reed at the former's famous studio The Factory during a November 1966 trip to New York. Pitt returned to London with a test pressing of TheVelvet Underground and Nico that his young charge promptly appropriated in every sense of the word. Upon his rise to fame five years later, Bowie paid back his vast Velvets influence by producing Reed's Transformer; that album's single, "Walk on the Wild Side," jump-started the grumpy bard's solo career and remains his biggest-ever hit. Ensuing generations of The Velvet Underground and Nico's spiritual progeny have included punk pioneer Patti Smith (who covered at least two Velvets songs in her early days), R.E.M. (who covered three songs from the album in their early days) and alt-rock titan Beck (who covered the entire album with some friends in 2009).
Still, it was initially considered a commercial failure, selling approximately 60,000 copies in its first two years — not bad, but no More of The Monkees. This was due partially to a legally induced (more on that shortly) factory recall that removed the album from shelves just as its Warhol-driven publicity was peaking. But that certainly wasn't the only challenge to its commercial prospects; the group's ensuing albums met an even more dismal commercial fate, and a disillusioned Reed left the band in August, 1970. Despite his solo success, The Velvets' catalog gradually slipped out of print over the next few years.
In today's era of ubiquitous ubiquity, of YouTube and eBay and streaming services, it's difficult to convey just how hard it was to find a copy of The Velvet Underground and Nico in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Used-record stores were just beginning to become a thing and even in those shrines to things past a scratched copy often would fetch $30-40 — as things go, this actually added to the band's burgeoning legend.
The Velvets gradually assumed their proper, lofty place in rock history, their oeuvre was reissued in the U.S. in 1984 (although The Velvet Underground and Nico's cover was a single-sleeve reduction of the original gatefold with a printed banana instead of a sticker). Thus another generation of obsessives was spawned. And on and on.
toggle caption Christopher Gregory for NPR
Yet the most atypical obsession of those five decades may be that of veteran music publicist and longtime Velvets fan Mark Satlof, who collects original pressings of the album. He owns more than 800 of them – he's actually not sure exactly how many – which are neatly filed on shelves in his study. They account for an estimated 1 percent of all copies manufactured in the U.S. before March 1969. A first mono pressing, still in its shrink wrap? Check. Promo copies — both the version with the yellow label and the much rarer, white-label edition? Natch. The "Close Cut" 1972 edition with an alternate printing of the banana sticker, without the border? Over there. Original U.K., Canadian and New Zealand editions that don't that doesn't even have a banana on the cover? Yup.... the covers featuring a shirtless Warhol acolyte Eric Emerson in the background of the group photo on the back ("The Torso Cover")... the ones with a sticker pasted over Emerson's photo after he sued ("The Lawsuit Cover")... the ones with his photo airbrushed out ("The Airbrushed Cover")...
(Anyone seeking more detailed info, knock yourself out.).
The all-time rarest version, of which just two copies are known to exist, is an April 1966 acetate containing alternate takes and mixes that was purchased at a New York sidewalk sale in 2002 for 75 cents — and eventually auctioned off for $25,200. Satlof doesn't have one of those; the bulk of his collection is commercial stock copies in varying states of dishevelment. Copies with the banana partially or (usually) completely peeled off, copies with retail stickers or stamps or radio-station letters on them, copies bearing someone's name, copies people have drawn or painted on. A mysterious copy with multiple icepick-sized holes in the cover. Each one has a birthplace and a journey.
Satlof's journey began when he was a student at Columbia University in the 1980s. "A friend of mine had the album and we listened to it late at night in the common room, he recalls. "I listened to it over and over again, watching the record spin but also looking out the window at this panoramic view of New York City — Harlem from Morningside Heights, and east of us was Lexington and 125th Street" — the location of the drug deal in the lyrics of "Waiting for My Man."
toggle caption Christopher Gregory for NPR
"I recall thinking even at the time, 'I will always remember this'." (Asked an obvious question, he admits, "I was definitely in a mind-expanding state.")
Satlof's collection began in earnest in 1987: a $90 autographed copy from "a record dealer in an antiques mall on Canal Street," with a scrawled signature that the seller said was Warhol's, but turned out to be Reed's. Satlof casually picked up more of the albums over the years, paying "$10, $20, like $100 for ones with the full banana." But when eBay launched in 1995, "I was off to the races," he laughs. "You could see the auction winner's screen name on eBay at the time, and I found out later that I was known as 'Mr. Bananas.'"
He stresses that his hobby is due to the brilliance of the music and his love for it. But really: 800 copies?
toggle caption Christopher Gregory for NPR
"Yes, it's obsessive," he laughs, again, well aware. "But — and I say this as someone without an art-history background — in a way each one of these is a piece of Warhol art. And each one has been messed with in some way by a previous owner, which makes each one unique."
Since Reed's death in October 2013, the going rate for the discs has become too steep even for Mr. Bananas. "The prices are insane," he says. "People are asking way, way more than they're worth, and at this point I'm the second- or third-highest bidder on most items."
Indeed, a brief perusal of eBay and Discogs shows an original stereo copy with a pristine sleeve going for more than $4,000; a mono lawsuit edition minus "around 10 percent" of the banana for $2,500; a sticker-less white-label promo copy with "a few scuffs" on the vinyl for $1,700; and — ulp — an item that the seller claims is an official Verve advance pressing of the album, with different mixes from the officially released version (possibly the same as the 1966 acetate?), yours for $22,400.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Christopher Gregory for NPR Christopher Gregory for NPR
But with few exceptions, the single greatest factor in determining the financial value of these albums comes down to one thing: the freshness of the banana. Consequently, one question remains. With over 800 albums at Satlof's disposal, has he ever — to paraphrase the words on the cover — peeled one slowly to see what it felt like? Even just a little?
He's visibly aghast. "No!" he exclaims. "Come on!" Still mortified, he reconsiders slightly. "Maybe I'd [peel] one of the reissues that has the sticker, but not an original." He shudders.
"Never."Opinion piece by Rhyley Douglas: Political and Social Psychologist
One could consider some of this as – ‘An open letter to those a part of the coup against Jeremy Corbyn’. So those in support of Jeremy please pass this on, please share amongst Jeremy’s support and please also share to those against Jeremy.
When it comes down to it, the EU referendum had nothing to do with party politics and even less to do with support or not of Jeremy Corbyn – regardless of what anti-Corbyn MP’s or Blairites or self-interested career politicians or wealthy elite puppets or whatever one wishes to call them – may proclaim.
The EU referendum has happened at a time where levels of inequality, levels of anger and levels of societal problems – following the financial crisis and Tory policy – has culminated in circumstances where the working class have finally woken up and have had the opportunity to voice their frustrations at that which has been forced upon them. It’s taken some time, but the working class are finally beginning to reject the way things are. Unfortunately however, the means available by which the working class had such an opportunity to voice their frustrations, was with a vote to leave the EU.
For those that have read my two previous articles (found here & here) or that are a part of the ‘politically informed’, those outside of the mainstream media oppression – you’ll be well aware that this referendum had nothing to do with what the mainstream camps and commentariat propagated.
Change wasn’t on offer at this referendum, at least not the change which the angry working class leave voters believed it to be
For many ‘ordinary working people’, this referendum was an opportunity to feel as though they were making a statement, that they were demonstrating their desire for change. For many ‘ordinary working people’, this referendum was a vote against the status quo.
A vote to leave was, when it really comes down to it, a vote against the actual problems themselves and not against that which they’ve been manipulated to believe is the cause of these problems – immigration.
This was an opportunity for ‘ordinary working people’ to express their anger at the way things are, they might not realise it yet, but their vote to leave was a vote for Jeremy Corbyn. Their vote was a vote for Jeremy because Jeremy will bring exactly that which leave voters ultimately want to see happen. Jeremy represents the changes which angry leave voters desire. Now is the time to show to ‘them’ that, actually, we’re on the same team. Right now is the perfect opportunity to grow in numbers and in strength to really take the fight to a weak and disunited Tory party.
If there are any sincere individuals which have genuine concerns about Corbyn’s leadership – which I highly doubt there is – what they’re failing to see is the huge opportunity for Labour to present itself to society as the mechanism for change that leave voters are looking for. Especially with the disunity and weakness of the Tory party at present, especially with the increase in political engagement out there that this referendum has produced. Especially with the anger out there at what has happened over the past 40 years, but even more so since the financial crisis and during Tory rule. Especially with the issues which have been raised during the course of this referendum by the Tories and mainstream media themselves within the Leave campaign – the state of the NHS, housing crisis, education shortages, jobs, pay, living standards and so on.
Also, and I believe this to be monumentally critical; the ‘issues’ of the EU and immigration will no longer be a decisive reason as to whom people vote for. At the next election these issues won’t be on the table, the Tories and UKIP won’t be able to suggest to the electorate that Labour are ‘pro-EU’ and ‘pro-immigration’.
To those a part of the coup against Corbyn I say this – You believe (granted amongst other things) that Jeremy’s position and views on the likes of immigration are at odds with the views of ‘ordinary working people’, but that simply doesn’t matter anymore (not to mention that the Tories et al used and abused those issues and instead of pandering to the Tories, mainstream media et al, you could and should have challenged this, you should have backed your party leader and the mandate he has from your party members). The EU referendum result has ended the debate on the EU and immigration, now you have a ginormous opportunity to kick on as a united party and oppose the Tories. The Tories and/or UKIP won’t be able to whip up hysteria about immigration, they won’t be able to blame immigration and they won’t be able to spout propaganda against Labour on this and the ‘issue’ of the EU.
The referendum result has closed the door on debates about immigration and the EU, no longer are they to be used as political weapons. The Tories have plenty more weapons up their sleeves, plenty more things and sections of society to unjustly blame – to deflect attention, cause division and conflict, but arguably their biggest weapons are no longer available, especially to be used against Labour.
Now that the referendum has been decided, it doesn’t matter what Corbyn’s and Labour’s stance perceivably was on the EU and immigration. The decision has been made, the Tories will no longer have the EU and immigration to blame for societal problems – Corbyn and Labour can galvanise the anger out there and now that the EU and immigration are no longer decisive reasons as to whom people vote for – previous views, on what will be historic issues, will no longer be pivotal at the next general election.
Part of me does worry that the reason the Tories wish to drag out Brexit – is to still use immigration as an issue at the next general election. As we’ve seen with other nations, the free movement of people can and usually is a part of trade deals. I wonder whether the Tories and UKIP will claim that Labour wish to include the free movement of people in trade deals if they’re elected, whereas the Tories and UKIP will claim that they’re not going to accept free movement of people? From my understanding, it will take years to negotiate our exit and many more years to negotiate trade deals, so the above could be a possibility, perhaps, I’d love to hear your views on this please? (I’d love to hear all views on the entirety of my thoughts). Could the above be a possibility? If not, then the EU and immigration are done with when it comes to using those ‘issues’ for political gain and for a reason not to vote Labour, as a reason not to support Corbyn.
The working class vote to leave is, actually, in support of Corbyn, some just don’t know it yet. Now is the time to be united and now is the time to oppose the Tories to deliver on that which ‘ordinary working people’ believed they were voting for with a vote to leave.
Leave voters voted for change – change is exactly what Jeremy Corbyn represents – Jeremy Corbyn represents “ordinary working people” and the Parliamentary Labour Party needs to do the same.
Thank you for reading and for sharing, Rhyley.
AdvertisementsCLOSE Police have charged Alix Catherine Tichelman with manslaughter in the heroin overdose death of a Google executive on his yacht. VPC
Undated screen shot of an image of Forrest Timothy Hayes, as viewed on a memorial website. (Photo11: Screen shot from forresthayesmemorial.files.wordpress.com)
SAN FRANCISCO — The Santa Cruz police officer put it simply in announcing the arrest of a call girl accused of killing a Google executive on his yacht last fall with an overdose of heroin.
"It's an amazing case," Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark said at Friday's briefing.
Beyond the surreal circumstances, what's perhaps most amazing is how extremely successful high-tech exec Forrest Timothy Hayes, 51, wound up tangled in the orbit of exotic dancer-turned-prostitute Alix Tichelman, a woman with a thing for the fictitious TV serial killer Dexter and who liked to write poems about drugs.
On the surface, Hayes seems the model Silicon Valley success. Married for 17 years to his wife, Denise, and the father of five children, Hayes started his working life in his native Michigan in the automotive industry before segueing into tech.
Arrest in tech exec death: High-priced call girl arrested after sting
Accused prostitute: Had a passion for 'Dexter' and poetry about heroin
There, his résumé includes polished nameplates such as Sun Microsystems and then Apple, where he was senior director of worldwide operations. That led to a post at Google X, the search engine giant's division that is focused on "moon shot" programs, such as the self-driving car and Google Glass.
None of Hayes' former employers responded to requests for comment from USA TODAY. Google released a statement simply saying: "Our hearts go out to Forrest's family during this difficult time."
Such silence is perhaps not surprising given the shocking circumstances of their onetime employee's tawdry demise. Hayes was found dead Nov. 23 on his boat of a drug overdose after a tryst with Tichelman, whom he solicited via a website, SeekingArrangement.com, whose stated mission is to connect "sugar daddies and sugar babies seeking mutually beneficial relationships and arrangement."
“More than anything else he enjoyed spending time with his family at home and on his boat. His brilliant mind, contagious smile...will be missed.” From a family obituary for Forrest Hayes
Police have accused Tichelman of injecting Hayes with heroin and then not only failing to help him when he went into convulsions, but rather, per security camera footage aboard Hayes' 50-foot yacht Escape, calmly stepping over his body to sip from a glass of wine before drawing the curtains and departing.
That hardly squares with the picture painted in the memorial passage written up by his family, noting that he was "a loving husband and father. More than anything else he enjoyed spending time with his family at home and on his boat. His brilliant mind, contagious smile, and warm embrace will be missed and cherished in memories by his friends and family."
Meanwhile, friends writing remembrances on a memorial website that has since been taken down but was accessed in archive form almost universally recall a caring boss with a deep passion for his family. One Christmas party even featured a few custom cocktails Hayes had dreamed up, including the War Room Special consisting of vodka, mint, lime and cranberry. That sense of mischief extended to occasional high-speed sprints down local Highway 280 in his modified Porsche.
A former Apple colleague wrote that in times when work got tough, Hayes shined, calming his co-workers with a sense of humor and perspective. He added that the only thing that seemed to ruffle Hayes' feathers was his time away from family, which in turn made him sensitive to co-workers with family demands. Another writer recalled the advice Hayes passed on about getting more child care help at home when a second child arrived and threatened to unbalance the family dynamic.
As clear from the remembrances is the sense of Hayes as an exceedingly practical man whose thoughts were almost immediately followed by action. After becoming fed up with his 40-minute commute from Santa Cruz to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, he promptly bought a hybrid Chevy Volt in order to access car pool lanes.
"We all know Forrest, he is a very practical guy, yet impatient to fix the issue," wrote Mahesh Krishnaswamy on the memorial website before it was taken down, comments that were then reprinted in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. "He always came up with fairly simple and elegant solutions — very candid in his opinion, yet reasonable in his judgment and caring with his interactions."
Reasonable judgment is perhaps what Hayes needed most in his final days.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1mgQWTJHow to make OpenGL usage Vulkan like
In a previous blog post we have discussed the usage scenarios of Vulkan and OpenGL. Even if going Vulkan is not an option at the moment, its concepts do show where modern rendering architectures are heading. Literally translating a traditional OpenGL/state-machine based renderer to Vulkan is possible, but most likely ends up in lower performance. Here are some tips that will make a transition to Vulkan smoother and help to improve performance in OpenGL as well, many of which are also known as “AZDO” techniques.
renderer GPU time CPU time [ms] gl ubo range 2.8 5.6 gl ubo nv bindless 1.9 3.3 gl indexed tbo/ssbo multi draw indirect 1.1 0.4 gl ubo nv command list 1.0 0.01
OpenGL rendering statistics from a CAD scene benchmark. The cadscene sample was used to compare different rendering techniques in a scenario where state changes where minimized. The test draws around 44k objects which have only few triangles per object (typical CPU-limited scenario) and is not using hardware instancing. Renderers with the “ubo” tag pass object matrix and material information by binding UBO ranges. The “multi draw indirect” renderer has to use dynamic indexing into larger buffers to access the shader parameters per draw-call, which may not work as well for less simple data. These results show that very fast paths in OpenGL exist. With additional extensions those fast paths can become even more general purpose and similar to Vulkan.
Object Management
Vulkan follows an object-oriented design and we always manipulate objects directly with their handles.
ARB_direct_state_access (DSA), OpenGL 4.5 core, allows direct manipulation of objects (textures, buffers, fbos…) rather than the classic “bind to edit”. Using DSA makes object manipulation cleaner as it doesn’t affect the binding state used for rendering, therefore is also middleware friendly.
Within the rendering hot loop the new set of binding calls is encouraged, as they only affect rendering state: glBindBuffersBase / glBindBuffersRange for UNIFORM, SHADER_STORAGE, ATOMIC_COUNTER, TRANSFORM_FEEDBACK glBindVertexBuffer(s) glBindFramebuffer glBindTextures / glBindTextureUnit glBindBuffer would most likely only be used with the ELEMENT_ARRAY, DRAW_INDIRECT in the rendering loop
“Bind to Edit” can still be beneficial in the hot loop, for example when the same buffer is updated very often by glBufferSubData, or glUniforms for the active program are changed. In this case the “indirection” by passing the object handle, may cause additional work. Some of these functions may also be available under EXT_direct_state_access, the primary difference between ARB and EXT is that ARB requires the use of glCreate”Resource” rather than working from glGen”Resource” object handles.
Resource Management
ARB_buffer_storage (core 4.4) should be preferred over the classic glBufferData, as it gives better usage hints than glBufferData. Ideally the developer uses persistent mapped buffers for all buffers that he expects to for reading or writing access on the CPU. This would allow an identical workflow to Vulkan. We also encourage the use of few but rather large buffers as suggested in the memory management blog post.
(core 4.4) should be preferred over the classic glBufferData, as it gives better usage hints than glBufferData. Ideally the developer uses persistent mapped buffers for all buffers that he expects to for reading or writing access on the CPU. This would allow an identical workflow to Vulkan. We also encourage the use of few but rather large buffers as suggested in the memory management blog post. ARB_texture_storage (core 4.2) provides immutable textures whose definition is complete up-front. The classic glTexImage never “knew” how many mip-maps would actually be specified, often causing lazy allocation. glTextureStorage is the better alternative for the driver.
(core 4.2) provides immutable textures whose definition is complete up-front. The classic glTexImage never “knew” how many mip-maps would actually be specified, often causing lazy allocation. glTextureStorage is the better alternative for the driver. ARB_texture_view (core 4.3) introduced the concept of casting texture formats to different types as long as they have the same texel size. The developer can also use it as view on a sub-resource, for example individual texture layer or mipmap in an array texture. Similar to using larger buffers and sub-allocating from those, a developer could use texture arrays for popular dimensions and re-use individual layers. It is not as flexible as the Vulkan texture memory management, but it can reduce run-time texture creation costs.
Command Buffer / Faster Rendering
Even in a single-threaded scenario Vulkan’s command buffers provide efficient ways to render data: recording a command-buffer is faster than traditional OpenGL commands and command buffers can be re-used. In theory OpenGL’s display lists allow re-use, in practice they are only beneficial for a limited functionality. However, there is still some other ways to speed up rendering in OpenGL.
ARB_multi_draw_indirect (MDI), OpenGL 4.3 core, allows accelerating draw-call submission. Compared to instancing we can draw any sub-range of vertex/index-buffers. To make most use of this feature use the previous encouraged larger buffers for geometry data, as it will allow drawing many geometries at once via MDI. The MDI buffer can also be filled from different threads using persistent mapped memory, whose pointers are passed to threads that don’t need an OpenGL context. The buffer content does not have to be filled every frame, but can be re-used and even manipulated by the GPU directly, for example for level of detail or culling purposes.
NVIDIA provides various extensions to make the hot-loop faster
NV_command_list is the latest extension and comes closest to Vulkan’s command buffers and provides very fast ways to record and submit commands that are most common in the rendering hot-loop. Just like in Vulkan, it is possible to re-use those command-buffers as well.
We encourage you to have a look at the GTC presentation as well as samples on github. The draw-indirect like buffers encode tokens for typical binding state (UBO, VBO, EBO) and draw-calls as well as minor state changes such as front-face or viewport dimensions. Due to its binary nature it is the fastest way to record commands (can also be used threaded) and provides two alternate render modes, either as pre-compiled object, or interpreted data from buffer objects. Due to state inheritance and the ability to stitch sequences from arbitrary buffer addresses, it can actually be faster than Vulkan’s secondary command buffers.
Bindless Rendering the NV_command_list builds on top of previous extensions that improved the rendering hot-loop performance by using native GPU addresses, and therefore avoiding per-object handle lookups and validation. NV_uniform_buffer_unified_memory NV_vertex_buffer_unified_memory NV_shader_buffer_load/store The core OpenGL alternative to “bindless” is “binding less” by using large buffers and array textures and manually managing the sub-allocations. The bindless extensions let the driver still manage the allocations and objects, while avoiding some of the negatives at rendering time.
Multi-Threading
Threaded Validation and Submission is an optimization that NVIDIA’s OpenGL driver may use to off-load work on a dedicated thread. The application thread remains very fast in this scenario, and the OpenGL commands are forwarded for processing to the worker thread. Applications should avoid commands that need synchronization between the treads, such as glGets or map/unmap (prefer persistent mapped, or BufferSubData).
is an optimization that NVIDIA’s OpenGL driver may use to off-load work on a dedicated thread. The application thread remains very fast in this scenario, and the OpenGL commands are forwarded for processing to the worker thread. Applications should avoid commands that need synchronization between the treads, such as glGets or map/unmap (prefer persistent mapped, or BufferSubData). Bindless or Binding Less on NVIDIA drivers will also improve the performance in threaded shared OpenGL contexts. To ensure consistency of objects across the threads, the OpenGL driver has to use locks more conservatively. In Vulkan this is the application’s responsibility. Doing less binds means a reduction of the impact of these locks, with bindless we can further avoid them.
or on NVIDIA drivers will also improve the performance in threaded shared OpenGL contexts. To ensure consistency of objects across the threads, the OpenGL driver has to use locks more conservatively. In Vulkan this is the application’s responsibility. Doing less binds means a reduction of the impact of these locks, with bindless we can further avoid them. Persistent Mapped Buffers (ARB_buffer_storage, core 4.4) allow us to pass buffer pointers to threads for writing and not using OpenGL at all. This is useful for both raw data and commands being encoded for ARB_multi_draw_indirect or NV_command_list buffers.
OpenGL however does not provide many of the other explicit Vulkan features around threading, especially fast submission to the same graphics queue.
Shader Resource/Uniform Binding
OpenGL 4.3 explicit bindings are instructions inside GLSL that allow us to manage our bindings up-front. Vulkan’s bindings are also hard-coded with SPIR-V and Vulkan does not allow querying binding information, so preparing yourself for the management of this is mandatory. Vulkan supports faster bindings and shader changes when the bindings use increasing units. Low binding units should reflect data that is shared for many operations and shaders.
layout (location= 0 ) in vec3 attr_position; layout (binding= 1,std140) uniform objectInfo { mat4 worldMatrix; }; layout (binding= 0 ) uniform samplerCube envCube; layout (binding= 1 ) uniform sampler2D objectLightmap;
ARB_uniform_buffer_object are the de-facto standard now to pass uniforms. Therefore migrate your uniform usage to UBOs, and ideally group uniforms by frequency of change into dedicated uniform blocks to maximize re-use. By using larger buffer and glBindBufferRange with offsets you can improve performance to switch between them. This method is also encouraged |
top of Chotila hillock was welcomed by former Congress MP Kunvarji Bavaliya with a garland. While climbing up Chotila hillock, Gandhi said Namaskar in response to Chamunda maat ki jai by devotees.
10:23 am: Rahul Gandhi has reached Chotila.
10:15 am:
The final day of Congress VP Rahul Gandhi’s Navsarjan Yatra begins from Chotila Temple, after two outstanding days. #NavsarjanWithRahul pic.twitter.com/Dc8m3MAicS — Congress (@INCIndia) September 27, 2017
10:10 am:
10:00 am: Rahul Gandhi has started for Chotila in Surendranagar district.
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9:50 am: Welcome to the live blog where we will bring you all the updates from Rahul Gandhi’s third day of campaign in poll-bound Gujarat.Umar ibn al-Khattab, a companion of the prophet, said:
"One day we were sitting in the company of Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) when there appeared before us a man dressed in pure white clothes, his hair extraordinarily black. There were no signs of travel on him. None amongst us recognized him. At last he sat with the Apostle (peace be upon him). He knelt before him placed his palms on his thighs and said: Muhammad, inform me about Islam.
"The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: Islam implies that you testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, and you establish prayer, pay Zakat, observe the fast of Ramadan, and perform pilgrimage to the (House) if you are solvent enough (to bear the expense of) the journey. He (the inquirer) said: You have told the truth.
"It amazed us that he would put the question and then he would himself verify the truth.
"He (the inquirer) said: Inform me about Iman.
"He (the Holy Prophet) replied: That you affirm your faith in Allah, in His angels, in His Books, in His Apostles, in the Day of Judgment, and you affirm your faith in the Divine Decree about good and evil.
"He (the inquirer) said: You have told the truth. He again said: Inform me about Ihsan.
"He (the Holy Prophet) said: That you worship Allah as if you are seeing Him, for though you don't see Him, He, verily, sees you.
"He (the enquirer) again said: Inform me about the hour (of the Doom).
"He (the Holy Prophet) remarked: One who is asked knows no more than the one who is inquiring (about it).
"He (the inquirer) said: Tell me some of its indications.
"He (the Holy Prophet) said: That the slave-girl will give birth to her mistress and master, that you will find barefooted, destitute goat-herds vying with one another in the construction of magnificent buildings.
"Then he (the inquirer) went on his way but I stayed with him (the Holy Prophet) for a long while. He then, said to me: Umar, do you know who this inquirer was? I replied: Allah and His Apostle knows best. He (the Holy Prophet) remarked: He was Gabriel (the angel). He came to you in order to instruct you in matters of religion."Copyright by KLFY - All rights reserved Photo Courtesy: Marksville Police Department
Copyright by KLFY - All rights reserved Photo Courtesy: Marksville Police Department
MARKSVILLE, La. (KLFY) - A judge has released body camera footage from the officer-involved shooting that left a 6-year-old boy dead and his father critically injured last year in Marksville.
The shooting happened around 9:30 p.m. on November 3, 2015.
The footage released today is from Marksville Police Officer Sgt. Kenneth Parnell, III.
Copyright by KLFY - All rights reserved Chris Few and his son Jeremy Mardis (Photo Courtesy: WAFB)
Copyright by KLFY - All rights reserved Chris Few and his son Jeremy Mardis (Photo Courtesy: WAFB)
Parnell is seen in the video raising his weapon towards the SUV that 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis and his father Christopher Few are in but did not fire his weapon.
At today's hearing, Parnell told the court he did not discharge his gun because he did not fear for his life.
The state submitted the body camera video as evidence in the pretrial hearing Wednesday.
"We introduced physical evidence, we played the tape that the officer took that day. We put on photographs," John Sinquefield said, prosecuting attorney.
"There's no way, even if our conflict did inflict great bodily harm on these individuals, that's not the same as the specific intent to kill, which the state has to prove," Christopher Lacour said, Stafford's attorney.
Mardis died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds, his father, Few survived.
Copyright by KLFY - All rights reserved Derrick Stafford (left), Norris Greenhouse Jr. (right) (Photo Courtesy: Louisiana State Police)
Copyright by KLFY - All rights reserved Derrick Stafford (left), Norris Greenhouse Jr. (right) (Photo Courtesy: Louisiana State Police)
Forensic investigators found 18 bullet casings at the scene. 14 were fired from Derrick Stafford's weapon and four were fired from Norris Greenhouse Jr.'s weapon.
The Associated Press reports, prosecutors showed the tape in court Wednesday to support their claim that one of the deputies, Derrick Stafford, had a pattern of using excessive force — including last November's fatal shooting of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis in Marksville.
Avoyelles Parish investigators initially said marshals were chasing Christopher Few because he was wanted on an outstanding warrant.
WAFB reports the Clerk of Court, the District Attorney's Office, Marksville Police Department and City Court said Few did not find any outstanding warrants. Col. Mike Edmonson, the head of the Louisiana State Police said so far, their investigation shows the same.
Defense attorneys for Stafford and Greenhouse Jr. argue the deputies acted in self-defense and claim Christopher Few used his car as a "deadly weapon" at the time of the shooting.
Judge William Bennett also ruled the two deputies will have separate trials.
Related CoveragePat Robertson Still Silly and Overblown by the Press
by Lewis Loflin
Update 2018. My prediction that Pat Robertson was overblown by the press has proven correct. He has done nothing in 2 decades. L. Loflin
When Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson blamed God and America for the attacks on 9/11, it only proved how silly they really are. This was aired only 48 hours after the attacks on New York and Washington. Ralph Reed already bailed out of the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson finally resigned in December 2001. Pat's failure to get Early elected as governor of Virginia and the shambles of the Gilmore Governorship (Pat claims "some credit" for his election) may have marked the end of Robertson in VA and national politics.
In 2005 Pat Robertson is going more silly than ever, and some are claiming his influence is declining. Is it perhaps the Christian Right in general, that drives the Liberal Left into hysteria, really isn't as powerful as we think? The Christian Coalition is a shell of its former self, Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority is gone, and the Republican Party is as disunited as the Democratic Party. The reality is Pat Robertson's irrationality and paranoia is often shared by his Leftist-Liberal rivals.
It seems that Pat Robertson and the Religious Right, like the irreligious Left, are given more credit than they deserve. Pat has never held public office and the Religious Right in general has gotten very little of their core agenda into law. I also think the mostly Liberal press singles Robertson out to discredit Christianity in general. Even here in a conservative Republican state like Virginia and Pat Robertson's home base, most don't identify with his agenda.
Many of Pat Robertson's "Christian" beliefs have nothing to do with the Bible or Christian anything. If we are to believe the teachings of Jesus, the Christian Right often runs counter to it. They alienate many moderate and liberal Christians. These Pat Robertson types worship an abstract idol in Paul's Gnostic Christ, not the Jesus of the Galilee.
Pat Robertson is clearly a racist and anti-Semitic bigot. He and other Bible-thumpers may support Israel, they do not support Jews or Judaism. To these folks Israel is part of some second-coming of Christ prophecy, despite the fact the Bible proves this failed in the First Century. Pat Robertson is another conspiracy theorist. Pat Robertson often uses terms such as "New World Order" or "New York bankers" etc. often codewords for Jews or the Freemasons.
But if Pat Robertson is a conspiracy theorist, so is the Liberal Left. I tracked the hysteria of the Religious Right during the Clinton years of the 1990s, today the Left is equally hysterical with Bush. What is new, however, is the infiltration of anti-Semitic references. To quote "these media people speaking in their own code language. A case in point is their use of the term 'neoconservative.' Whether they choose to hyphenate the label or not, it's a pejorative code word for 'Jews.' (They) are just trying to support Israel at the USA's expense. This is total nonsense. See Questions on Christian Anti-Semitism by Lewis Loflin.
Pat Robertson has hinted in his books such as The Rising Tide at the armed overthrow of the country to impose a "Christian Nation" as he defines it. This was part of the general Christian Right hysteria of the 1990s (along with Y2K) believing President Clinton was going to turn the country over to the UN and the usual conspiracy theories and end-times Christian nonsense. The rise and peak of militia movements and murderers like Tim McVeigh (Oklahoma City) no doubt influenced by people like Pat Robertson and his 700 Club. See the following: Randy "Ruby Ridge" Weaver in Sullivan County, Willie Martin and Christian Identity on Trial, Militias Take Aim in Virginia, and Tim McVeigh, an Angry Young Man
Today the militia movement is a wreck, most of its leaders dead or in jail. But Pat Robertson and his type just keep on inciting attacks with his conspiracy nonsense on judges and the Supreme Court. (See below.) Also see Ten years after Oklahoma City bombing, militia movements are rudderless and in disarray --- which makes them even deadlier
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed Venezuela's "brave and judicious" vote against the EU-proposed resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors. On this assassination of Hugo Chavez flap, a Christian had this to say:
Pat, God help you soul because of a statement you are making under the name of religion. You are not God and who are you to say that anyone should be assassinated. You men or women in the name of religion who make such statements are not of God. I am a child of God and I know that you opinion should be trying to lead people to God not putting hate in their heart.
I watched the clip on this myself and wondered what all the fuss is about. Pat spoke as a citizen in regards to this mess in Iraq. The press should stop promoting this man to something he is not. Racists such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton can say anything they want attacking whites and Jews, the press is silent. Looking for anything to attack Christians or conservatives in general, the liberal press blows it out of proportion.
Here is what he said from the August 22 2005 broadcast of The 700 Club:
...he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent. You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen.
We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.
The political left went into hysterics over this, then Pat tried to backpedal claiming "take him out" didn't always mean assassination. But here is what the Left forgets and why Pat is right:
(AP June 30, 2005) - Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state medal...The leftist Venezuelan leader also condemned Israel for what he called the "terrorism" and "madness" of its attacks in Lebanon.."Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire," Chavez said. "This (task) must be assumed with strength by the majority of the peoples of the world...The award was to show Iran's gratitude for his "support for Iran's stance on the international scene, especially its opposition to a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency..He is the one who has resisted imperialism for years...
ADL Outrage at Pat Robertson Over Sharon's Illness
Again, who decided Pat represented all Evangelicals? He was involved in a private business venture and represents no church I know of. While his statements are stupid, he is entitled to his stupid opinions. But what about the ADL? According to Don Feder in Falwell, Farrakhan, and the ADL's Selective Outrage,
The Anti-Defamation League ostensibly exists to oppose anti-Semitism. And it does - on occasion - when it isn't too busy bashing evangelicals, fighting Christianity and creating double standards. Despite its reputation, the ADL is not a Jewish organization. There's nothing distinctly Jewish (i.e., grounded in Jewish law) about its operations. It's really just another left-wing group, with a leftist agenda. Politically, it is virtually indistinguishable from the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, or Americans United for the (so-called) Separation of Church and State...
When it comes to exposing anti-Semitism, the ADL is highly selective. While the right is a frequent target, the Left (including Islam) often gets a pass. Minister Louis Farrakhan, fuhrer of the Nation of Islam, is the most influential anti-Semite in America. He makes David Duke look like a member of Hadassah. In October, Farrakhan is having a reprise of his Million Moron March. In a May interview with the Amsterdam News, former President Bill Clinton endorsed the rally (describing it as a "very positive idea"). The ADL decided to simply ignore this aid and comfort to a notorious hate-monger by an ex-president. Its leadership would never countenance criticism of a man beloved of the Jewish establishment.
I believe Feder is correct as we shall see.
Robertson: Judges worse than Al Qaeda
BY DEREK ROSE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Federal judges are a more serious threat to America than Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed yesterday. "Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings," Robertson said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
"I think we have controlled Al Qaeda," the 700 Club host said, but warned of "erosion at home" and said judges were creating a "tyranny of oligarchy." Confronted by Stephanopoulos on his claims that an out-of-control liberal judiciary is the worst threat America has faced in 400 years - worse than Nazi Germany, Japan and the Civil War - Robertson didn't back down. "Yes, I really believe that," he said. "I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together."
Robertson's comments came with a showdown looming in the Senate over seven of President Bush's conservative judicial nominees who have been blocked by Democrat filibusters. Republicans have threatened a "nuclear option" to pass the judges by rewriting Senate rules to stop the filibusters.
Sources told the Daily News that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist lacks the 50 votes he needs, which could be a blow to his presidential hopes. "I don't think Frist has the votes," a GOP aide said. "He's now in his own corner. If he doesn't have the votes, he's really screwed." Robertson echoed that sentiment. "I just don't see him as a future President," Robertson said."Initial jobless claims rose to 4K this week to 558K, compared to a previous revised reading of 554K and a Bloomberg consensus forecast of 543K. This number has been trending to lower, which indicates a slowing improvement for the US labor market. But, claims still remains far from healthy levels, and still indicates significant deterioration for the US payroll data. I do not see this week’s increment as the beginning of a trend, but rather a one-off event on the bumpy road to recovery, however, it will be important to monitor next week’s result to confirm this.
Retail sales unexpectedly fell -0.1%, despite the success of the government’s ‘cash for clunkers program’. The Bloomberg consensus was for an increase of +0.8%. Retail Sales (Ex-autos) fell an even further -0.6% for the month. This weakness is likely derived from the fact that consumers are still scared to spend in light of sustained weakness in the labor market, despite the government’s stimulus package. Based on this, it is unlikely we will see much, if any, improvement to retail sales over the coming months. Furthermore, rising interest rates and energy prices will not help the situation.
M/M Y/Y Retail & food services, total -0.1% -8.3% Total (ex-autos) -0.6% -8.5% Retail Sales -0.1% -9.4% Motor vehicle & parts dealers 2.4% -7.3% Auto & other motor veh. Dealers 2.8% -8.0% Furniture & home furnishings stores -0.9% -12.9% Electronics & appliance stores -1.4% -14.6% Building mat. & garden eq. & supplies dlrs. -2.1% -14.7% Food & beverage stores -0.3% -0.8% Grocery stores -0.3% -1.1% Health & personal care stores 0.7% 4.1% Gasoline stations -2.1% -32.5% Clothing & clothing accessories stores 0.6% -7.6% Sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores -1.9% -6.4% General merchandise stores -0.8% -4.7% Department stores (ex. L.D.) -1.6% -11.5% Nonstore retailers 0.1% -5.2% Food services & drinking places 0.4% 1.0%
Finally, foreclosures rose 7% in July versus June, realizing a32% year over year gain. Foreclosures combined with weakness in the labor market will continue adversely impacting housing sector, preventing it from reaching its full potential despite recent improvements. Regarding the issue the CEO of RealtyTrac, James Saccacio said, “Despite continued efforts by the federal government and state governments to patch together a safety net for distressed homeowners, we’re seeing significant growth in both the initial notices of default and in the bank repossessions.”Art Chaos is No Longer a Paintball Team
We hope all of the players find new teams and have great 2015 seasons with their new homes.
Art Chaos had an amazing run in the PSP in their first and only year in the league. They won 4 events (two in Challengers and two in Champions) and didn't win a single game in the event they lost.
Quote: Originally Posted by Ami Helge Four years ago Art Chaos stepped into the CPL spotlight. They were the team to beat. I was excited and very proud to be sponsoring them and doing what I did best. Forward four years to October 27, 2014. It is with heavy heart that on behalf of the players that I am given the duty to announce that the decision of the owner to close the Art Chaos project. Players have been released to sign with whom they choose. I remain beside Fedorov, Mishka and Clint Moore as personal representive and promoter for collaborative projects with each of the three. Please respect that this is a bit of hard decision for all involved to take in at once. Contact me with questions or other concerns with regards to the three players i represent.
Always remember there is little bit of chaos in art and always will be art in chaos.
Ami Helge, media & pr Art Chaos Moscow Unfortunately, this rumor is true. Art Chaos is done.We hope all of the players find new teams and have great 2015 seasons with their new homes.Art Chaos had an amazing run in the PSP in their first and only year in the league. They won 4 events (two in Challengers and two in Champions) and didn't win a single game in the event they lost.
Your questions are answered in the PbNation FAQ. Ask a Mod.
We deserve better villains.
"I have not seen an automag shot in anger in 10 years." Tom Cole
Most of my current guns. | Pro Player Jersey Sale. | 3rd Party Services. __________________Six months after Donald Trump claimed to have lost “hundreds of friends” in the 9/11 attacks, his campaign continues to ignore a request from The Daily Beast that he name even one.
His silence becomes all the more shameful as we come to the 15th anniversary of the day 2,983 innocents were murdered in downtown Manhattan.
“If he has hundreds of friends, he should be able to tell us about them,” remarked a Port Authority police officer who has felt a duty to learn as much as he can about as many of the victims as possible. “If he can tell us about the hundreds of friends he lost, who they were, what kind of [people] they were, I might have some respect for him.”
The only time anybody can remember Trump being down at the September 11 Memorial and Museum was this April, when he made what seemed more like a campaign stop. Those who escorted him noted that he did not seem to pay particular attention to any of the names around the memorial pools or pictures of the victims displayed in the museum. His own math would say that at least a tenth of these people were his friends.
Trump’s then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, reacted as might be expected of anybody who had lost even one friend. A museum staffer later reported that Lewandowski had seemed greatly moved as he paused before a picture of Brian Kinney, who had been a passenger aboard the ill-fated United Airlines Flight 175. Kinney had been one of Lewandowski’s best friends and had married a young woman named Alison Hardy whom Lewandowski had dated in high school. Lewandowski and Hardy had subsequently become one of the many post-9/11 romances in which shared loss became love. They are now married.
Trump proceeded past the faces with no manifest interest. He breezed by a haunting photo of a woman standing at the edge of the monstrous charred hole that an airliner had punched in the uptown side of the North Tower. That is the same façade that faced Trump’s penthouse apartment four miles uptown.
Along with saying he lost hundreds of friends and that he saw news footage of “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheering the attack (he was the only one to see that footage if so) Trump had spoken of standing at his apartment window and possessing such remarkable eyesight that he could see the jumpers four miles south. The woman in the photo—identified as Edna Cintron, an administrative assistant who had been working there to augment the income of her family flower shop in Harlem—is believed to have become one of those forced by the flames to leap.
To look at that photo of her in her final moments at the abyss is to know that telling lies about her or about those who perished with her are far more heinous lies than such a standard politician’s fib as saying you were always against the Iraq war when you started out saying on The Howard Stern Show that you supported it.
Trump did present the museum on his first and only visit there with his very first recorded charitable donation in connection with 9/11. The check was for $100,000, but it was drawn on his foundation, to which he has not contributed a penny in more than six years. He therefore continued a perfect record of not giving a penny of his own money to the memorial, not even the admission price, which the museum said was waived for him and his entourage, a saving of $24 for the adults, $18 in the case of a senior citizen such as Trump.
Trump then returned to his tower just up Fifth Avenue from Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, where so many 9/11 funerals were held. Trump is not known to have gone to any 9/11 funerals, even though the FDNY lost so many—343 members—that it worried it might not be able to fill services and so asked the public to attend.
The 9/11 funerals at the cathedral a few moments’ amble from Trump’s home included the one for FDNY Captain Terence Hatton, who was married to then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s executive assistant. Giuliani gave a tender eulogy, terming the loss a death in the family and calling Hatton the kind of man he would want his son to become.
“He was what real courage was all about,” Giuliani rightly said.
Anybody who listened to Giuliani that day could not have imagined that he would ever countenance, much less support, someone who sought to elevate himself by telling lies about 9/11.
Let us hope that Giuliani believes that Trump really did lose hundreds of friends on 9/11 and really was able to see jumpers from four miles away and really did see footage of cheering Muslims.
And let us hope that Giuliani is being completely truthful when he seeks to explain why there are no documented donations by Trump in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when Americans gave more than $1.2 billion.
On record, the self-proclaimed billionaire Trump gave less than the impoverished septuagenarian widow who arrived at a Ground Zero checkpoint on West Street with a small bag of ice, saying it was all she had to give the first responders.
Giuliani told the Republican National Convention that this man who works harder than anybody not to be anonymous and likes to put TRUMP on everything from buildings to steaks to doggie sweaters prefers to go unnamed when he gives to the families of fallen first responders and the victims of terrorism.
“Every time New York City suffered a tragedy, Donald Trump was there to help,” Giuliani said. “He’s not going to like my telling you this, but he did it anonymously.”
Giuliani called Trump a “man with a big heart” and went on, “When police officers were shot, when firefighters were hurt, when people were in trouble, he came forward and he helped, and he asked not to be mentioned. Well, I’m going to break my promise to him. I am going to mention it.”
Giuliani continued, “I am telling you this because I am sick and tired of the defamation of Donald Trump by the media and by the [Hillary] Clinton campaign. This is a good man and America should be sick and tired of their vicious, nasty campaign. You deserve to know this about your next president.”
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Donald Trump reportedly called The Howard Stern Show and pledged to donate $10,000 to the Twin Towers Fund. That is the charity Giuliani set up to benefit the families of first responders who perished on 9/11.
In his contribution this year to the memorial—his only documented 9/11-related donation—Trump used funds from the foundation that bears his name, but none of his own money of late. The same is true of all his other significant charitable donations that are not a failed real estate venture made via a donation into a tax deduction.
Despite his pledge, the Trump Foundation shows no donations at all to the Twin Tower Fund.
Giuliani would have us believe that Trump would make a very public $10,000 pledge on The Howard Stern Show, but ask that any donations he actually made to first responders remain anonymous.
On Sunday, Giuliani is expected to be at Ground Zero for the observance of the 15th anniversary of 9/11, just as he has been present for all the previous anniversaries.
Also expected is another Trump booster, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has attended every anniversary observance while in office. Christie prompted frowns at the 13th anniversary, when he stood laughing at Ground Zero with his then-aide, David Wildstein, two days into the five-day lane shutdown at the George Washington Bridge that led to the present trial in New Jersey federal court.
The frowns turned to grumbles at the 14th anniversary, when Christie sat chatting on his cellphone in his SUV while it blocked two busloads of families of fallen NYPD officers, keeping them from reaching their prearranged arrival point at Ground Zero.
As of Thursday night, Trump was not on the list of those expected to attend. The Port Authority cop who has tried to learn all he can about as many victims as possible and who really does prefer to remain anonymous says that he hopes Trump will stay away as the names of the dead are read once more.
“It would only serve as a distraction from the people and the families that day is about,” the cop said.Jeramey Jannene via Flickr All afternoon we've been writing about this silly, mysterious website, TheWorldsMostExclusive Website.com.
It's a brilliant marketing ploy that had people like Ryan Seacrest tweeting about its exclusivity.
Basically, the site allows levels of access based on how many Twitter followers a user has.
To enter "Room 1," you need to be a verified Twitter user. To enter Room 2, you need to have at least 5,000 followers.
And so on.
Ryan Seacrest made it the furthest this afternoon -- he and his 4,700,000+ Twitter followers made it as far as Room 7 without being stopped.
When we tried, we couldn't even get in the front door. We were automatically redirected to Olive Garden (oh, the shame).
It turns out "The World's Most Exclusive Site" is also the world's easiest to hack.
It took less than 60 seconds for one of our tech-savvy readers to find all of the site's pages without even having to login to Twitter. Here's how: He simply took the initial url, http://theworldsmostexclusivewebsite.com, and added /img/room1.jpg to it.
Viola. Up pops the picture of Room 1. Change the "1" to a "2" and ta-da! Up pops the picture of Room 2.
It's so easy it's ridiculous.
We've pulled together all of the exclusive pictures for you so you don't have to type in the 10 urls. Check out the exclusive photos of the world's most exclusive site >>Open-government advocates have much to celebrate this summer, particularly in California where three EFF-involved efforts have resulted in conclusive victories for the public’s right to know what their government is up to.
In two lawsuits—one before the California Supreme Court and another before a federal judge in San Francisco—the courts rejected outlandish government secrecy claims. Last month, transparency activists and media outlets in California also successfully defeated legislation that would have gutted the state’s transparency laws.
Upheld: Public’s Right to Access Information, Regardless of its Electronic Format
In early July, the California Supreme Court unanimously upheld (pdf) the public’s right to access public records maintained by the government, regardless of the electronic format in which they are stored.
At issue in Sierra Club v. County of Orange, which we blogged about previously here, was Orange County’s GIS-compatible parcel database—a collection of public-property information, formatted for the creation of maps that scientists, journalists and public interest organizations, like Sierra Club, use to present data in new and illuminating ways.
Orange County conceded that the information that comprised the database was public information that must be disclosed in paper format. But county officials balked at disclosure of the digitized information when it was stored in a GIS-compatible format. The county argued that information in the database was “computer software,” and therefore exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act (CPRA).
Our amicus brief argued that the government’s interpretation would have created a treacherous loophole. If otherwise public information could become “computer software,” simply by virtue of being converted into a digital format, then CPRA would essentially be eviscerated in the digital age. California’s highest court recognized as much, rejecting the government’s argument and noting that:
As a practical matter, such an interpretation would tend to make the mandate in [the Public Records Act] that “[t]he agency shall make the information available in any electronic format in which it holds the information" a virtual nullity or, at least, a limited exception rather than a general rule... Accordingly, we believe the better view, based on statutory text and context, is that GIS-formatted databases are not covered by the statutory exclusion of computer software[.]
The decision reaffirms the constitutional right of Californians to access government documents, regardless of the document’s filename extension.
Disclosure Ordered: Government to Disclose Surveillance Equipment Export Applications
American companies seeking to export surveillance equipment to countries with problematic human-rights records will no longer be able to rely on the U.S. government to keep their applications secret.
A federal judge has ordered (pdf) the U.S. Department of Commerce to release all applications for “surreptitious listening equipment” submitted since 2006 in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit EFF filed last summer. This category of regulated technology is used primarily for wiretapping and, in the past, the Commerce Department has allowed companies to ship the equipment to countries such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Syria.
In response to EFF’s suit, the government made a staggering assertion: a law that expired over a decade ago gave the government the authority to hide the records from public scrutiny. While the argument that dead laws are enforceable may seem patently absurd, two federal appellate courts previously had agreed with the government.
But the federal court in San Francisco—where EFF is based—is not bound by those opinions. In a July 12 decision, the federal judge here rejected the government’s attempt to rely on the lapsed statute. The decision requires the government to produce the applications we requested by Aug. 9, 2013. The government has already appealed the decision, but we look forward to continuing the fight for the public’s right to know in the Court of Appeals.
Both cases highlight an important trend: the judiciary is pushing back on extreme secrecy claims made by the executive branches of the government. We’re happy the courts saw the government’s claims for what they really were: bald attempts to shield from the public vital information in the government’s possession.
Vetoed: California Legislature Makes Transparency U-Turn
As the June 29 deadline for passing the state budget approached, the California legislature approved a savings measure that would have made the state’s transparency laws optional for local governments. Lawmakers claimed that the 11th-hour bill would take California off the hook for reimbursing municipalities for complying with the law.
Californians Aware, the First Amendment Coalition, EFF and dozens of media organizations and good-government groups sprung into action, sending letters and publishing editorials demanding Governor Jerry Brown veto the bill. Within days, the legislature reversed course, passed a new measure without the CPRA-gutting language, and the governor vetoed the previous version.From the November 19, 2015, issue of NR
When I arrived in New York City 28 years ago to begin my national radio program, my objective was to have the most-listened-to show in the country. At that time, the national broadcast media included three television networks and CNN. That was it. There were 125 radio stations doing talk radio, and I started on 56 of them. No one had ever succeeded in syndicating a national daytime radio show, and I was predicted to fail, too.
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But I didn’t. What was different about my show was that I was the only conservative voice in national broadcast media. I was it — just as National Review was the only major conservative magazine being published and read.
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I traveled 45 weekends each year for the first two years of my show to solidify my radio-affiliate relationships. Think Donald Trump’s stump appearances, 45 weekends a year in cities all across America. Crowds ranged from 2,500 to 10,000 or more. I made fun of liberals, espoused and explained conservatism, and promoted traditional American values. And audiences ate it up; they had been starved for it.
In 1991, my substitute hosts were offered their own national shows as other syndicators got in on the action. Local-radio stations all over the country switched format to talk and hired conservative hosts.
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Today, there are more than 2,500 stations doing talk radio, the vast majority of which lean conservative. There is Fox News, which debuted in 1997. There is the conservative blogosphere, and there are more conservative websites than you can count. In 1992, I began hosting a national TV show and continued to do so for the next four years. Think The Daily Show, except that I was conservative and did not interview guests. There was nothing like it on TV, just as there was nothing like my radio show.
So this has not been an AM-radio revolution exclusively; it has been a conservative-media revolution. And perhaps its greatest consequence has been the destruction of the Left’s national-media monopoly.
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#share#Here are a few highlights:
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In 1990, one of my dreams came true. William F. Buckley Jr. invited me to his home to attend an editors’ dinner, befriended me, and remained my friend until his death. I loved WFB, and his friendship and support sustain me to this day.
In 1993, while aboard Air Force One, President Clinton called my St. Louis affiliate, KMOX, to complain that I had three hours each day on the radio and that there was no truth-det |
: Nat → f ) (succ 0) Increment 0 in the expression succ 0 and pass the result to (λ f: Nat → f). ( λ f: Nat → f ) 1 Return result. 1
Formally, we can show the small-step semantics of our language in the following way:
Small-step semantics
In this section we’ll take a look at the small-step semantics of the language.
Lets suppose σ is the current state of our program, which keeps what value each individual variable has.
Variables
1) ───────────── (x, σ) → σ(x)
1) simply means that for variable x we return its value kept in the state σ.
Built-in functions
The built-in functions in our language are succ, pred and iszero. Here’s the small-step semantics of succ and pred :
1) t1 → t2 ───────────────── succ t1 → succ t2 2) pred 0 → 0 3) pred succ v → v 4) t1 → t2 ───────────────── pred t1 → pred t2
1) simply means that if expression t1, passed to succ evaluates to t2, succ evaluates to succ t2.
2) we define that the result of pred 0 equals 0 in order to keep the language consistent and disallow negative numbers not only syntactically but also as result of evaluation.
We’re going to define iszero the following way:
1) iszero 0 → true 2) iszero succ v → false 3) t1 → t2 ──────────────────── iszero t1 → iszero t2
This means that iszero applied to 0 returns true (by 1) ). The result of the evaluation of iszero applied to any other number greater than 0 will equal false (by 2) ). If t1 evaluates to t2, then iszero t1 equals the result of the evaluation iszero t2 (by 3) ).
Conditional expressions
Lets take a look at the small-step semantics for the conditional expressions:
1) if true then t2 else t3 → t2 if false then t2 else t3 → t3
If the condition of the conditional expression is true then we return the expression from the then part, otherwise, we return the one from the else part.
2) t1 → v ───────────────────────────────────────────── if t1 then t2 else t3 → if v then t2 else t3
If given expression t1 evaluates to v and this expression is passed as condition of the conditional expression, the evaluation of the conditional expression is equivalent to the evaluation of the conditional expression with v passed as condition.
Abstraction & Application
In this section we’ll explain the function evaluation.
1) (λ x: T → t) v → { x → v } t 2) t1 → v ──────────── t1 t2 → v t2 3) t2 → v ──────────── v1 t2 → t1 v
1) means that if we have the abstraction (λ x: T → t), where T is the type of x, and apply it to v, we need to substitute all the occurrences of x in t with v.
In 2) if t1 evaluates to v, t1 t2 evaluates to v applied to t2.
The semantics of 3) is that if t2 evaluates to v, v1 t2 evaluates to t1 applied to v.
Type System
Although the small-step semantics laws above are quite descriptive and by using them we already can build an evaluator for our programming language, we still can construct some ridiculous programs. For instance the following program is a valid according to the grammar from the “Syntax” section above but is semantically incorrect:
if 1 then true else 2
The condition of the conditional expression is expected to be of type boolean, however, we pass a natural number. Another problem with the snippet is that the result of both branches of the expression should return result with the same type but this is not the case in our example.
In order to handle such invalid programs we can introduce a mechanism of program verification through type checking. This way, we will assign types to the individual constructs and as part of the compilation process, verify if the program is valid according to the “contract signed” with the type annotations.
Notice that the type checking will be performed compile-time. The alternative is to perform runtime type checking, which will not prevent us from distributing invalid programs.
An interesting question is if the type system is sound and complete. If the system is sound it should prevent false negatives (i.e. should reject all invalid programs), however, it may also reject valid programs. In order to make sure the type system prevents false positives, it should also be complete.
Type Rules
Lets define that:
true : Bool false : Bool n : Nat, n ∈ ℕ
Based on the types of our terminals, lets declare the type rules for succ, pred, iszero and the conditional expression:
1) t : Nat ───────────── succ t : Nat 2) t : Nat ───────────── pred t : Nat 3) t : Nat ─────────────── iszero t : Bool 4) t1 : Bool, t2: T, t3: T ─────────────────────────── if t1 then t2 else t3 : T 5) (λ x: T → y): T → Y, u: T, y: Y ──────────────────────────────── (λ x: T → y) u: Y 6) t1: T → Y, t2: T ────────────────── t1 t2: Y
1), 2) and 3) are quite similar. In 1) and 2) we declare that if we have an expression t of type Nat, then both pred t and succ t will be of type Nat. On the other hand, iszero accepts an argument of type Nat and results of type Bool.
4) states that the condition of the conditional expression should be of type Bool and the expressions in the then and else branches should be the of the same type T, where we can think of T as a generic type (placeholder which can be filled with any type, for instance Bool or Nat, even Nat → Bool ).
Rule 5) states that if a function has type T → Y and is applied to argument u of type T then the result of the evaluation will be of type Y.
Finally, 6) states that if we have t1 of type T → Y and t2 of type T then t1 t2 will be of type Y.
It’s interesting to see how the type rules does not explain how to evaluate the individual expressions but only define a set of rules which the expressions should hold.
Developing the Compiler
Now from the formal definition of our programming language lets move to its actual implementation. In this section we will explain how the compiler’s implementation works. Here are the high-level steps of execution:
const program = readFileSync ( fileName, { encoding : 'utf-8' }); const ast = parse ( program ); const diagnostics = Check ( ast ). diagnostics ; if ( diagnostics. length ) { console. error ( red ( diagnostics. join ( '
' ))); process. exit ( 1 ); } if ( compile ) { result = CompileJS ( ast ); console. log ( result ); } else { console. log ( Eval ( ast )); }
In the pseudo code above, we can notice that the program’s compilation & interpretation happen the following way:
Read the file containing our program. Parse the source code and get an abstract syntax tree. Perform type checking with the Check function. In case the type checker has found type errors, report the diagnostics. Either compile to JavaScript or evaluate the program.
It’s lovely to see a functional level of cohesion of the individual components! In the last next four sections we’ll explain steps 2-5.
Lexer & Parser
The implementation of a lexer and parser for this small language will be quite simple. We can use traditional recursive descent parsing algorithm for producing an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST).
For diversity, lets generate the modules for lexical and syntax analysis by using Peg.js grammar.
Here’s the grammar itself:
Program = _ '(' * _ a : Application _ ')'? _ { return a ; } Application = l : ExprAbs r : Application * { if (! r ||! r. length ) { return l ; } else { r = r. pop (); return { type : 'application', left : l, right : r }; } }; Abstraction = _ '(' * _ 'λ' _ id : Identifier ':' t : Type '→' f : Application _ ')'? _ { return { type : 'abstraction', arg : { type : t, id : id }, body : f }; } Expr = IfThen / IsZeroCheck / ArithmeticOperation / Zero / True / False / Identifier / ParanExpression ArithmeticOperation = o : Operator e : Application { return { type : 'arithmetic', operator : o, expression : e }; }; Operator = Succ / Pred IfThen = If expr : Application Then then : Application Else el : Application { return { type : 'conditional_expression', condition : expr, then : then, el : el }; } Type = Nat / Bool _ = [ \ t \ r \ n ] * __ = [ \ t \ r \ n ] + Identifier =! ReservedWord _ id : [ a - z ] + _ { return { name : id. join ( '' ), type : 'identifier' }; } ParanExpression = _ '(' _ expr : Expr _ ')' _ { return expr ; } ReservedWord = If / Then / Else / Pred / Succ / Nat / Bool / IsZero / False Succ = _'succ' _ { return'succ' ; } Nat = _ 'Nat' _ { return 'Nat' ; }...
For simplicity I’ve omitted some implementation details. The entire grammar can be found here.
We’ll take a look at only few grammar rules. If you’re interested in the entire syntax of Peg.js, you can take a look at the official documentation and experiment on the online playground. If you’re interested into some theoretical background, I’d recommend you to find a read for BNF form.
Lets take a look at two interesting nonterminals from the grammar:
Application Nonterminal
Application = l : ExprAbs r : Application * { if (! r ||! r. length ) { return l ; } else { r = r. pop (); return { type : 'application', left : l, right : r }; } };
The application nonterminal ( t t ) from the “Syntax” section above can be expressed with this Peg rule. The semantics behind the rule is that, we can have one expression or abstraction followed by 0 or more other applications.
We name the left nonterminal l ( l:ExprAbs ) and the right one r ( r:Application ), after that, in case of a match, we return an object, which will be used as an AST node, with type abstraction, left and right branches.
Another interesting nonterminal is the abstraction:
Abstraction = _ '('? _ 'λ' _ id : Identifier ':' t : Type '→' f : Application _ ')'? _ { return { type : 'abstraction', arg : { type : t, id : id }, body : f }; }
We can see that it starts with an optional opening parenthesis, after that we have the lambda ( λ ) symbol, followed by the parameter declaration and its type. After that, we have the hard to type arrow ( → ) and the abstraction’s body, which we try to match against the Application rule from above.
For instance, the AST of the program: (λ a: Bool → succ 0) iszero 0, after parsing, will look like:
The root node is the application nonterminal ( t1 t2 ), where t1 equals the abstraction (i.e. λ a: Bool → succ 0 ) and t2 the expression iszero 0.
Developing the Type Checker
Now lets take a look at the type checker. First, lets declare the set of primitive types:
const Types = { Natural : 'Nat', Boolean : 'Bool' };
Function Type
We’ll express the function type using an array of types, for instance ['Bool', 'Nat'] is a function which accepts an argument of type Bool and returns Num. From the following example, we can see that our language supports high-order functions:
( (λ a: Nat → λ b: Nat → succ a) 0 ) succ 0
The outermost function has type Nat → (Nat → Nat), which means that it accepts an argument of type Nat and returns a function of type Nat → Nat.
Type Checking Algorithm and Type Inference
The algorithm for performing type checking will traverse the AST and verify if each individual node has correct type according to the type rules from section “Type System”. Generally speaking, the algorithm will be just a JavaScript translation of the definitions in the “Type Rules” section from above.
Here are the basic rules that we will implement:
Check if the condition of a conditional expression is of type Bool. In order to do that, we need to invoke the algorithm recursively and find out the type of the expression passed as condition of the conditional expression (rule 4) ). Check if both the branches of conditional expression have the same type. Here we need to recursively find the types of both sub-expressions and compare them (rule 4) ). Check if argument passed to a function is of the correct type. In this case we need to find the type of the expression passed as argument to the function and check if it matches with the declaration of the function (rule 5) ). In order to find the type of the function we need to find the type of its body. This is called type inference. Check if the arguments of the built-in functions are of the correct type. The procedure is quite similar to 3. (rules 1), 2) and 3) ). Check if the types of the left and right side of an application match. We need to find the types of both terms recursively, just like for all other cases above. For instance, if we have function of type Nat → Bool, we can only apply it to an argument of type Nat (rule 6) ).
From above we can see that each point includes the word “check”, so it looks like, an important part of the type checking algorithm is the type comparison. Lets peek at its implementation:
Comparing Types
In order to compare two types and see if they are equivalent, we can use the following function:
const typeEq = ( a, b ) => { if ( a instanceof Array && b instanceof Array ) { if ( a. length!== b. length ) { return false ; } else { for ( let i = 0 ; i < a. length ; i += 1 ) { if (! typeEq ( a [ i ], b [ i ])) { return false ; } } return true ; } } else { if ( typeof a ==='string' && typeof b ==='string' ) { return a === b ; } } return false ; };
The function first checks if both types are types of a function (i.e. have more than one type they are composed of). If that’s the case, we compare the types they are composed of one by one by invoking the typeEq function recursively. Otherwise, in case a and b are primitive types, we just compare them by their value ( a === b ).
Type Checking Implementation
Now we’re ready to take a look at the actual implementation of our type checker:
const Check = ( ast, diagnostics ) => { diagnostics = diagnostics || []; // By definition empty AST is correct if (! ast ) { return { diagnostics }; }... // We get the type of identifier from the symbol table } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Identifier ) { return { diagnostics, type : SymbolTable. lookup ( ast. name ) }; // if-then-else block is correct if: // - The condition is of type Boolean. // - Then and else are of the same type. } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Condition ) { if (! ast. then ||! ast. el ||! ast. condition ) { diagnostics. push ( 'No condition of a conditional expression' ); return { diagnostics }; } const c = Check ( ast. condition ); diagnostics = diagnostics. concat ( c. diagnostics ); const conditionType = c. type ; if (! typeEq ( conditionType, Types. Boolean )) { diagnostics. push ( 'Incorrect type of the condition of a conditional expression' ); return { diagnostics }; } const thenBranch = Check ( ast. then ); diagnostics = diagnostics. concat ( thenBranch. diagnostics ); const thenBranchType = thenBranch. type ; const elseBranch = Check ( ast. el ); diagnostics = diagnostics. concat ( elseBranch. diagnostics ); const elseBranchType = elseBranch. type ; if ( typeEq ( thenBranchType, elseBranchType )) { return thenBranch ; } else { diagnostics. push ( 'Incorrect type of then/else branches' ); return { diagnostics }; } // The type of: // e1: T1, e2: T2, e1 e2: T1 } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Application ) { const l = Check ( ast. left ); const leftType = l. type || []; diagnostics = diagnostics. concat ( l. diagnostics ); const r = Check ( ast. right ); const rightType = r. type || []; diagnostics = diagnostics. concat ( r. diagnostics ); if ( leftType. length ) { if (! ast. right || leftType [ 0 ] === rightType ) { return { diagnostics, type : leftType [ 1 ] }; } else { diagnostics. push ( 'Incorrect type of application' ); return { diagnostics }; } } else { return { diagnostics }; } } return { diagnostics }; };
I have stripped some of the code since it’s not crucial for our purpose. If you’re interested in the complete implementation, you can find it here.
An interesting thing to notice is the continuation. We pass the diagnostics array to each invocation of the Check function. When we find a type error, we push a string representing a human readable message corresponding to the error in the array. This way, in the end of the invocation we have the list of all type errors found by the type checking algrithm.
If we go back to the entire compiler’s implementation:
... const ast = parse ( program ); const diagnostics = Check ( ast ). diagnostics ; if ( diagnostics. length ) { console. error ( red ( diagnostics. join ( '
' ))); process. exit ( `1)` ; }...
In case the program that we want to type check is the following:
(λ a: Nat → succ succ 0) iszero true
The diagnostics that the compiler will produce will be as follows:
~/Projects/typed-calc master ❯ node index.js demo/incorrect1.lambda Evaluating "demo/incorrect1.lambda". Incorrect type of IsZero Incorrect type of application
Developing the Interpreter
Once the compiler goes through the phase of type checking there are a few options:
Perform AST transformations in order to produce equivalent but more efficient AST for the purposes of the compiler’s back end.
Skip the transformation phase and directly perform either code generation or evaluation.
In this section we’ll take a look at the interpreter which is going to evaluate our programs based on the AST produced by the parser (syntax analyzer).
Here’s its entire implementation:
const Eval = ast => { // The empty program evaluates to null. if (! ast ) { return null ; } // The literals evaluate to their values. if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Literal ) { return ast. value ; // The variables evaluate to the values // that are bound to them in the SymbolTable. } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Identifier ) { return SymbolTable. lookup ( ast. name ); // if-then-else evaluates to the expression of the // then clause if the condition is true, otherwise // to the value of the else clause. } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Condition ) { if ( Eval ( ast. condition )) { return Eval ( ast. then ); } else { return Eval ( ast. el ); } // The abstraction creates a new context of execution // and registers it's argument in the SymbolTable. } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Abstraction ) { const scope = new Scope (); return x => { scope. add ( ast. arg. id. name, x ); SymbolTable. push ( scope ); return Eval ( ast. body ); }; // IsZero checks if the evaluated value of its // expression equals `0`. } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. IsZero ) { return Eval ( ast. expression ) === 0 ; // The arithmetic operations manipulate the value // of their corresponding expressions: // - `succ` adds 1. // - `pred` subtracts 1. } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Arithmetic ) { const op = ast. operator ; const val = Eval ( ast. expression ); switch ( op ) { case'succ' : return val + 1 ; case 'pred' : return ( val - 1 >= 0 )? val - 1 : val ; } // The application evaluates to: // - Evaluation of the left expression. // - Evaluation of the right expression. // Application of the evaluation of the left expression over // the evaluated right expression. } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Application ) { const l = Eval ( ast. left ); const r = Eval ( ast. right ); return l ( r ); } return true ; };
The code is quite straightforward. It involves pre-order traversal of the produced AST and interpretation of the individual nodes. For instance, in case given node in the tree represents a conditional expression all we need to do is check its condition and return the result we get from the evaluation of its then or else branches, depending on the condition’s value:
if ( Eval ( ast. condition )) { return Eval ( ast. then ); } else { return Eval ( ast. el ); }
Developing a Code Generator
Here’s a list of the languages which compile to JavaScript. Why not create another language?
In fact, the transpilation (code generation) is going to be quite straightforward as well. The entire implementation of our “to JavaScript compiler” is on less than 40 lines of code. The entire transpiler can be found here`.
Let’s take a look at how we are going to translate application, abstraction and conditional expressions to JavaScript:
const CompileJS = ast => {... // Transpile a literal if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Literal ) { return ast. value ; // Transpile identifier } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Identifier ) { return ast. name ; // Transpile a conditional expression } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Condition ) { const targetCondition = CompileJS ( ast. condition ); const targetThen = CompileJS ( ast. then ); const targetElse = CompileJS ( ast. el ); return ` ${ targetCondition }? ${ targetThen } : ${ targetElse } \ n` ; // Transpile an abstraction } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Abstraction ) { return `( ${ ast. arg. id. name } => { return ${ CompileJS ( ast. body ) } })` ; // Transpile an application } else if ( ast. type === ASTNodes. Application ) { const l = CompileJS ( ast. left ); const r = CompileJS ( ast. right ); return ` ${ l } ( ${ r } ) \ n` ; } else { return '' ; } };
Notice that when the current node is a literal (i.e. 0, true or false ) we return its value. In case we transpile a conditional expression, we first transpile its condition, then its then expression, right after that its else expression and finally, the entire conditional expression itself. The result will be a JavaScript ternary operator.
Right after that is the source code for transpilation of a function (or abstraction, the way we call a function in our definitions above). The source code is quite straightforward, we declare the function’s argument based on the argument of our lambda and after that compile function’s body and place it as the return statement.
Finally, we transpile the application. For this purpose, we transpile the left sub-expression of the application which is supposed to be a function and apply it to the right hand side of the application.
Now if we transpile the following program to JavaScript:
( λ x: Nat → (λ y: Nat → x) 0 ) succ ( λ f: Nat → (λ g: Nat → g) 0 ) 0
We will get:
( x => { return ( y => { return x ; })( 0 ); })( ( f => { return ( g => { return g ; })( 0 ); })( 0 ) + 1 );
Conclusion
The purpose of this article was to explain a “full-stack” process of design and development of a programming language. The explained language is an extension of the lambda calculus. On top of the primitives provided by the lambda calculus we added three built-in functions, natural numbers, boolean values, a syntax for conditional expressions and a type system. We provided a formal definition of these primitives in terms of small-step semantics and also defined a type system by using a series of type rules.
It’s interesting how straightforward is the JavaScript implementation which we directly derived from the mathematical definitions. We just “translated the math” into source code. Of course, the process of designing the source code has it’s own portion of creativity involved but the general algorithm is equivalent.
Another interesting observation is how similar are the algorithms for interpretation and type checking. With the type checking algorithm we performed type inference which was quite similar to the actual source code evaluation. Although with our basic type system this similarity still can be noticed, in case of dependent types the boundary between evaluation and type checking becomes even blurrier.
Where to go from here?
A natural direction for further development of the language will be to extend its syntax and type system. In this case, there should be put some effort in improving the language’s ergonomics. There are a few programming languages inspired by the lambda calculus and there are two main “syntactic camps” that they are in. For instance, the LISP-like languages can be distinguished by their intensive use of parentheses. On the other hand, the Haskell-like syntax often looks cleaner and has its own adoptions in languages like Elm.
Another direction for improvement is a better error reporting. With the grammar produced by Peg.js we can easy get the exact position in the program of the individual symbols. This will allow us to throw errors at specific locations which will make debugging much easier.
Will be happy to get your thoughts and observations from the article in the comments section below.Image caption The scheme wants to see local communities get involved in planting trees
A £4.2m scheme to plant one million trees over the next four years has been unveiled by the government.
It will see trees planted in urban areas of England that need them most, in the first government tree-planting campaign since the 1970s.
It aims to reverse declines in the rates in the number of trees being planted in towns and cities.
It will be led by Defra, alongside the Forestry Commission and organisations such as the Woodland Trust.
Trees for Cities and the Tree Council will also be involved in the Big Tree Plant scheme.
Generate pride
The Forestry Commission will provide £1m a year over the next four years, while £200,000 of existing London Tree and Woodland Community Grant money will also be used.
Defra minister Jim Paice said: "Using the enthusiasm of local communities and the knowledge of the groups that know most about trees and their unique benefits, we'll help create neighbourhoods that we can be proud of."
Plant a tree, change the future and the future will thank you for it Griff Rhys Jones, President of Civic Voice
Existing funding is already going to The NHS Forest to plant 65,000 trees across 25 sites in this planting season.
The Tree Council will plant more than 1,000 trees across four sites and Keep Britain Tidy will plant 100,000 trees across 750 sites.
Hilary Allison, policy director for the Woodland Trust said it welcomed the move to encourage people to plant trees.
"We launched our More Trees More Good campaign in June to highlight the need for twice as many native trees and woods for the sake of wildlife and the environment, and have had a fantastic response from schools, community groups, corporate partners and large landowners,"
She said the aim was to change from current levels of planting of around six million trees a year to 20 million a year over the next 50 years, to double woodland cover in the UK.
To do this, the Woodland Trust needed support from people who could help make tree planting a "national habit," she said.
Griff Rhys Jones, president of Civic Voice, an organisation which aims to make places more attractive, enjoyable and distinctive, said: "The Big Tree Plant is a great way for people to get together with their neighbours, civic society and local community groups to plant and care for more trees and improve the local environment for everyone.
"Plant a tree, change the future and the future will thank you for it."If you're the proud owner of a sizeable bitcoin collection, we have some bad news for you: the Australian Taxation Office has announced it will be taxing bitcoin transactions this year. What’s more, the online currency has been taxable since inception, which means you could owe the ATO money from as far back as 2009.
Photo: zcopley
The ATO has urged people who are selling goods and/or services via bitcoin transactions to include the income in their business tax return or account for GST. Here's what the ATO had to say to our sister publication Business Insider Australia:
The tax legislation that applies to conventional commercial transactions also applies to transactions undertaken via the internet or with emerging payment systems. It is most important that people engaged in any type of transaction with Bitcoin or other payment systems keep detailed records and evidence about what trades they make and the source of any assumptions about the value of any transaction in Australian dollars. This will minimise the risk of there being a difference of opinion between a taxpayer and the ATO over the correct valuation and treatment of a transaction for taxation purposes.
We're not exactly sure how the ATO plans to track this — one of the advantages of bitcoin transactions is that they allow for a high level of anonymity. It's probably not something that you'd want to risk however: any discrepancies in tax returns will eventually catch up with you.
If you use bitcoins to occasionally sell things online, we wouldn't be too concerned about any of this. The ATO is chiefly interested in tax cheats who use the online currency to hide taxable income via wallet software. That said, it's always a good idea to keep records and/or receipts of any money you make just in case the taxman comes knocking on your door.
[Via: Business Insider Australia]
See also: What Is Bitcoin And How Can I Use It?Story highlights Boston's two largest newspapers on Monday split their endorsements
The Boston Globe endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich
The Boston Herald endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
Manchester, NH (CNN) Boston's two largest newspapers on Monday split their endorsements between a pair of Republicans running in the establishment lane of the 2016 contest: Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
The Boston Globe announced its support for Kasich and the more conservative Boston Herald threw its support behind Christie. Both papers have large audiences in southern New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state where Kasich and Christie are hoping for strong performances to buoy their candidacies.
The Globe editorial board wrote, "By voting for Kasich, New Hampshire can reward a candidate whose politics have been largely positive -- and rebuke those candidates who have spent their campaign appealing to voters' fears and biases."
At a stop in Manchester earlier in the day, Kasich promised that he would not go negative as the race heated up in New Hampshire.
The Herald wrote Monday that it was endorsing Christie because of his tough attitude, but knocked the divisive tone of other candidates without naming them.Every Friday afternoon, the staff of Xseed Games have a meeting. They sit in a conference room, break out the booze, and talk about video games. They talk about what games might be fun to make, what games might be fun to play, and what sort of strange Japanese titles they should work on next.
It's a much-needed moment of respite for the gang of talented multi-taskers, heroes to any American gamer desperate for someone to drag overlooked Japanese games across the Pacific for us to play, who work long hours translating, marketing, and bringing Eastern games to life in the United States. They have to work hard: there are only nine of them. Nine people. At the entire company.
But while the bigger guys—giant game publishers like EA and Activision—duke it out over who can sell the most millions, Xseed is happy to stay small. They're happy to focus on quirky Japanese games. And they're happy to stick within their niche, even knowing that it won't make them nearly as much money as they might make chasing after shooters and dubstep.
It's not easy. Big retailers want nothing to do with them, passionate fans can be a little bit too passionate, and everyone in the company has to wear multiple hats every day. But Xseed keeps going. And to people who like Japanese games—games like Half-Minute Hero, The Last Story, and Valhalla Knights—Xseed has become one of the most beloved companies on the planet.
Niche of a Niche of a Niche
"How do you pick the games you localize?" I asked Xseed. I was sitting in their conference room, chatting with vice president Ken Berry, editor Jessica Chavez, translator Tom Lipschultz, and marketing manager Jimmy Soga.
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"I would say usually games are found either by somebody contacting us, like the Japanese developer team or publisher contacting us and saying, ‘Hey, we have this title, are you interested in publishing it in North America?'" Berry said, "or us just hearing about a title, whether it be reading about it in Famitsu, or seeing it a trade show, or seeing it covered on the Internet."
"Then we'll take all that feedback, sit down together as a group, and then say 'Okay, here's what I like about the game, and here's what I didn't like about the game,'"
When they're interested in a game, they'll approach the Japanese developers or publishers and ask about the North American rights. If a deal is possible, Xseed will ask for a playable build of the game so the whole team can check it out. Everyone at Xseed will spend a week or so playing the game and filling out internal assessment forms to figure out whether it's good or bad.
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"Then we'll take all that feedback, sit down together as a group, and then say ‘Okay, here's what I like about the game, and here's what I didn't like about the game,'" Berry said. "And then based on that feedback, we'd have to come up with some kind of basic sales estimate—how much we think the title can sell. And then based on that we would have to put in a proposal to the original developer team or publisher in Japan."
Xseed will make a specific offer, pitching an upfront minimum guarantee ("You will definitely make $XXX") and a royalty rate ("You will make X% of every sale") based on how many copies they think the game will move. At this point, that Japanese team might also be taking bids from some of Xseed's competitors—other niche publishers like Nippon Ichi, Atlus, or Aksys might be interested in the game as well. So the bid is very important.
"What if you found a game that you really, really loved, but you just couldn't justify publishing it because you wouldn't sell enough copies?" I asked.
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"That's every single game that Tom likes," Berry said, laughing.
"The one that I really pushed for, actually," Lipschultz said, "was the Hatsune Miku minigame that came in the first expansion pack for Project Diva, called Hello Planet, which I thought would make a great PSP Mini. But yeah. Nobody here really thought that was a great idea."
Hatsune Miku, an auto-tuned android that sings Japanese pop songs, is immensely popular in Japan. It's never quite picked up steam here.
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"Tell him the premise!" Chavez said.
"Well it's a game based on an actual Miku song," Lipschultz said, as Chavez giggled uncontrollably next to him. "Basically it's an 8-bit style platformer that is in like a post-apocalyptic world. World War 3 happened. Humanity's been wiped out. But Miku's like an android that was like awoken automatically after a long sleepcycle. You play as Miku trying to find your master. Eventually you find his grave and, like, die at the side of his grave."
(Chavez still couldn't stop laughing.)
"You get to read all these emails about what happened," Lipschultz said. "And hear about, like, the end of the world. And it's billed as like the last love song of the planet. It's a very sentimental, very sappy sort of game, but it's really genuinely touching, and really fun... I thought it'd be a good choice but I couldn't convince anybody."
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"A niche of a niche of a niche," Chavez said.
Xseed's office is small, cluttered, and full of personality.
So yes, sometimes games are even too smalltime for a small publisher like Xseed. And their biggest regret, Berry said, is that they can't bring over the sequels to games that didn't sell well, like Retro Game Challenge or Half-Minute Hero.
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"I mean, we take so much flack from our fans," he told me, "because they say they bought it and they loved the first one, and why can't we bring over the second one? Well... Half-Minute Hero was probably one of our worst-selling games."
I asked how many copies they sold.
"Just imagine our hypothetical threshold and then cut that by five," Chavez said.
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Berry laughed. "Look on VGChartz and then take like 1/5 of that and that's probably it."
Fleeing Square Enix
Xseed started with an exodus.
It was 2004. Just a year before, two big Japanese companies called Squaresoft and Enix had merged to form one bigger Japanese company called Square Enix. And although the merger had gone smoothly for Square's U.S. offices, some of their big American executives were starting to disagree with their Japanese counterparts on how to grow business in the United States. Eventually, Square Enix U.S.A. president Jun Iwasaki stepped down. So did a few other executives, including business development manager Ken Berry.
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"A couple |
This beautiful post office floating on the turquoise waters of the famous Dal is a magnificent thing to be witnessed by your eyes.
This post office is a heritage post office and it is said to have existed since the British times. After independence it was called as Nehru Park post until 2011 when its name was changed by John Samuel who was the chief Post Master in those times.
This new post office with museum was formally re-inaugurated by Omar Abdullah who was the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir at that time. This inauguration was also done by Sachin Pilot who was the Union Minister for State for Communication and IT.
This post office is a great way for the tourists to send the news of their well being to their family members. Many of them row to the floating house boat to send post cards all around the world. The main attraction of sending the post card from here is that your mail goes with a special a special design that bears the beauty of the Dal Lake as well as Srinagar.
This Post Office, though is tourist friendly and is a great way of keeping in touch with their loved ones but this is not it. This post office that remains a great attraction for the tourists is the main center for the locals that they use to deposit their money in here. They use it to complete their normal work related to post office. In 2014, the floods that hit Srinagar had also posed grave dangers to the post office that had to be rescued by the rescue forces. At that time the house boat was uncontrollably propelled by the storming water and had to be anchored to the highland for keeping it safe from damage.
This is one of the things that no one visiting Srinagar must miss as it not only is a window to the history but is also a heritage that is important for the area.
You may also like to Read :SINGAPORE - Three Russians and an Uzbek have been arrested by police for their suspected involvement in prostitution-related activities.
On Thursday (May 4), officers from Criminal Investigation Department conducted simultaneous raids in the vicinity of Raffles Boulevard, Tanjong Katong Road and Cairnhill Road, resulting in the arrests of the four women who were aged between 26 and 39.
The women allegedly made use of their stay in Singapore on valid work passes to commit prostitution-related offences.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the vice syndicate has been advertising the sexual services of women on at least 10 different online platforms, including Backpage, Skokka and Yelp, claiming to provide high-class escort services from $500 per hour.
Some of the seized items include 13 mobile phones, four laptops, a tablet computer, condoms and related documents. PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
Potential customers could book these services through the mobile phone numbers or email addresses provided on the websites.
During the operation, the police seized 13 mobile phones, four laptops, a tablet computer, condoms and related documents.
One of the women, a 39-year-old, will be charged in court with offences under the Women's Charter on Saturday (May 6). Investigations are ongoing for the other three.
Under the Women's Charter, anyone who knowingly lives entirely, or in part, on the earnings of the prostitution of another person is liable on conviction to up to five years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000.× Police: Man Shoots Wife, Self in Attempted Murder-Suicide in North Hollywood; Both Survive
A man shot his wife and then himself in North Hollywood Wednesday morning in an apparent murder-suicide attempt, according to police, who said both were in stable condition following the incident.
Authorities received a shots fired call reporting a man down and woman screaming at about 6 a.m., Capt. Brian Whitten of the Los Angeles Police Department said.
Officers responded to the scene — which aerial video showed was located in the 11200 block of Hatteras Street — and found two victims with gunshot wounds, according to LAPD Officer Ricardo Hernandez.
One of the victims, a woman, was found in an upstairs bedroom with a single gunshot wound to the upper body, Whitten said.
The woman’s husband, and the suspected shooter, was also found with a gunshot wound to his upper body, according to Whitten,
Video from Sky5 showed what looked like a rifle or shotgun on the ground near an apartment building, but it was unclear whether that was the weapon used in the shooting.
Whitten later confirmed a rifle was found near the husband.
“It appears that there was a domestic dispute and the suspect — who is the male — shot his wife and then shot himself,” Whitten said, describing the incident as an attempted murder-suicide.
Both the husband and wife were hospitalized and listed in stable condition, according to Whitten.
Three children were also found in the location, but they were uninjured, Whitten said.
KTLA’s Irving Last contributed to this story.Karl-Anthony Towns may be 20 years old, but he’s in the midst of the kind of idyllic summer most 12-year-olds picture when they’re asked what adulthood will look like: basketball all day, video games at night, and traveling to faraway lands in between. The Timberwolves PR department probably couldn’t have dreamed up a more wholesome brand spokesperson if it created Towns in a lab. As D’Angelo Russell can tell you, growing up in the NBA spotlight can be a difficult process. But Towns’s youthful adventures in Candy Land don’t seem overly orchestrated. He’s just a big kid, out on summer vacation, who happens to be making the most of his newfound fame.
Here’s KAT’s (patent-pending) Step-by-Step Guide to a Great, PG-Rated Summer:
Step 1
Livestream yourself playing video game Monopoly for two-plus hours at a time.
The NBA season ended for the Wolves on April 13, but Towns used Twitch — a livestreaming service for gamers — to keep his competitive instincts sharp and develop his real estate–prospecting game, all while interacting with fans. He’s filmed three videos since starting his account in May, but by far his most popular was a two-hour livestream of him playing virtual Monopoly (the video has over 50,000 views). It’s oddly mesmerizing to watch — like interacting with a familiar cartoon character who just happens to be 7 feet tall and wears a headset.
Step 2
Appear as a guest on a late-night talk show and win everyone over with your charm and willingness to shoot basketballs across famous streets.
Celebrities — and athletes especially — are often asked to do silly and strange things during public appearances. Towns appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in June and attempted to win $1 million for the fans in attendance by making a shot across Hollywood Boulevard.
Spoiler alert: He missed. But he had fun with it, seemed to give a genuine effort, and he ended up throwing down a dunk to win everyone free corn on the cob (true story).
Step 3
Get nominated for an ESPY, lose graciously, and take a photo with another up-and-coming NBA player at the show.
Step 4
Support your teammates in a public setting while furthering your status as an NBA fashion mogul.
Seeing Towns — rocking a Metallica T-shirt with the sleeves cut off — and new Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau hanging out voluntarily at Las Vegas summer league sent many Minnesota fans into a spiral of optimistic glee, (and triggered subsequent bouts of knocking on every wood surface they could find, lest their unguarded moment of hope curse the franchise to another 12 playoff-less seasons).
Towns has been in attendance for most of Minnesota’s important summer league contests over the past couple of weeks, including Monday night’s 84–82 overtime championship game loss against the Chicago Bulls. During his time in Vegas, Towns has given mature interviews about the state of the team, passed along advice to summer league MVP Tyus Jones, and worn some notable clothing. He may never go full Russell Westbrook, but KAT is definitely not afraid to make a statement with this clothing.
Step 5
Finally, to be sure you’ve covered all your bases, appeal to the youth.
On Monday, Towns sealed his “NBA Good Guy” reputation by appearing on Disney XD’s show Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything. His cameo came on an episode called “The Ringer” (I KNOW, GUYS. I KNOW), where he was recruited by the show’s protagonists to play on their team in a charity basketball game.
He dresses like an old man to hide his identity from the competition (or more likely because it’s always fun to dress up athletes like old people), and his team ends up winning the game while also learning the valuable lessons of friendship, sportsmanship, teamwork, and all of the other Children’s Show Values.Previous Post: Setting Up The Compiler
Next Post: Compiling and Linking WiringPi for GPIO Access
In a previous post I talked about setting up a compiler on the Raspberry Pi and using g++ on the command line. This is all well and good as a small example with one file, but when you (rightly so) have your code broken up into many files, compiling them via the command line is no longer viable.
To get around this problem, programmers using GCC would create files known as “makefiles”.
Makefiles
Makefiles are GCCs way of passing to the compiler what source files need to be compiled and what they should be compiled into. A downside to using makefiles is that the syntax for them can get extremely cryptic and hard to read/understand when your code base grows.
When you start creating makefiles, you are creating what is known as a “build system” for your project. The more code files you have to manage, the more fundamental your build system becomes.
Different platforms/compilers have different ways of managing build systems for C++ projects. For example, the GCC default is with makefiles whereas Windows uses its own Visual Studio project solution files to manage build types. Technically, there are Windows ports of GCC compilers included in software such as MinGW or Cygwin but this isn’t the norm with regards to Windows programming.
This means that if you want to compile your code on multiple platforms you will have to create and maintain multiple build systems for your project.
For these reasons, programmers tend to look elsewhere for managing their build systems. One such tool is CMake
CMake
Note: I just want to make it clear here that CMake does not compile your code! CMake is one level higher than a native build system; infact, it abstracts the underlying build system completely with it’s own syntax and using what it calls “Generators“.
For example, you create your CMake files (described later) as you would your makefiles / Visual Studio files, but you will use a CMake generator to generate your build system files which can range from Makefiles to Visual Studio and Xcode projects. You will then use this generated build system to compile your code. Here is a list of CMake generators readily available.
It’s best to show the process with an example.
CMake Example on Raspberry Pi C ++
Installing CMake
Installing CMake on your Raspberry Pi is made easy by using the apt package manager.
First thing you want to do is SSH into your Pi and at the terminal/command line enter the following
> sudo apt-get install cmake
After a few seconds you should be able to enter the “cmake” command in the terminal and you will see a list of generators available.
Using CMake
For CMake to work, there should be a file named “CMakeLists.txt” in the root directory of your C++ project. In this example, I will have one CMakeLists.txt file and one Hello.cpp file from the previous tutorial.
Your folder structure should look like so:
- Root Folder/ | - CMakeLists.txt | - Hello.cpp
To create the files enter the following command
> touch <filename.ext>
The contents for each file is as follows (notice each CMake command has a comment describing what it is doing)
#include <stdio.h> int main(int argc, char** argv) { printf("Hello, World!
"); return 0; } Hello.cpp
# Minimum CMake version required to generate # our build system cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0) # Name of our Project project(hello) # add_executable creates an executable with # The given name. In our case it is "Hello" # Source files are given as parameters. In our # Case we only have one source file Hello.cpp add_executable(Hello Hello.cpp) CMakeLists.txt
Generating Our Makefiles
Now that we have our CMake file setup with our single source file Hello.cpp, we next need to generate the build system files. CMake will generate quite a lot of files and folders, so it is best not to run the CMake command in the project root directory. Instead we will create a sub folder called “Build” and run the generation in here.
> mkdir Build && cd Build
This will make the directory called “Build” and also change into the directory. This is how your folder structure should look now:
- Root Folder/ | - CMakeLists.txt | - Hello.cpp | - Build/
To run the CMake Generator we need to use the “cmake” command and tell it where the root CMakeLists.txt file is. As we are in a sub directory we will use the parent directory alias “..”. If no generator is specified it will default to the platforms native build system (in the Pi’s case, this will be GCC makefiles)
> cmake..
Once complete you can list the contents of the directory (using the “ls” command) and notice there is now a “MakeFile” present!
Compiling the Code
This bit is easy now that CMake has generated our MakeFile for us!
Simply enter the following into the terminal (make sure you are still in the Build directory)
> make
Provided you copied the code as is above, you should see the line “Built target Hello”. To execute the application enter the following:
./Hello
You should see the line “Hello, World!”
Previous Post: Setting Up The Compiler
Next Post: Compiling and Linking WiringPi for GPIO AccessBEER lovers are now paying more for mainstream lager after supermarkets binned bottles and multi-packs of popular brands to make room for cheaper hipster craft ales.
Kronenbourg, Heineken and Beck's now cost consumers more with average prices surging four per cent in the last year, as UK brewers point the finger at rising imported raw material costs.
Alamy 3 6x275ml multi-packs of Beck's now cost £5 on average, a 14 per cent rise on last year
Heineken drinkers buying booze in supermarkets will feel the pinch with their products experiencing an eight per cent year-on-year price hike.
The average cost of a four pack of 440ml Kronenbourg is now £4.44, up a shocking 11 per cent on last year, while a six pack of 275ml bottles of Beck's has risen to £5 - an inflation-busting 14 per cent price hike.
Sainsbury's recently axed more than 70 popular beer and cider lines in a major overhaul of its booze offering and earlier this year Tesco canned Heineken beers, reducing stocks to just 22 products - down from 53 at the beginning of the year.
Getty Images 3 UK brewers blame the average four per cent price jump on rising costs of imported raw materials
A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: “We have de-listed some lines and also added others, as part of our regular reviews of our ranges to make sure we offer customers great quality and value across all our products.”
Tesco also stripped shelves entirely of brands including Amstel, Birra Moretti, Sol, Tiger Beer and Kingfisher.
Trade magazine The Grocer says shoppers are paying less for up-and-coming craft beer brands, like Brewdog, as retailers reduce mainstream lager and cider in favour of "trendier" premium lines.
Alamy 3 4x440ml Kronenbourg multi-packs now cost 11 per cent more at £4.44
Retail consultant John Butler said: “Imported raw material prices have impacted all the brewers.
"Some have not been to the trade with a cost price increase in four years, instead cutting their own costs.
most popular LEFT FOR DEAD Girl, 10, found 'howling' in stream after boy, 16, 'choked and raped her' 'ROMP' MISS Teacher, 27, 'had sex with boy, 13, in front of other pupil after sick texts' BARMAN'S REVENGE Pub boss hailed a 'legend' for responses to bad TripAdvisor reviews SKINT BRITAIN ‘I spent my £300-a-month Universal Credit money on booze - then lost my kids’ Exclusive LOATHE THY NEIGHBOUR Couple sue property's seller for not warning about neighbour from hell CHEERY TO DREARY Temperatures to plummet by 15C today as SNOW returns with rain and cloud
"But there comes a point where they can take no more.”
According to market analyst Brand View, the average prices the average price for lager, cider and beer are four per cent higher than last year across almost 1,000 high street chains.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368.Free agent defensive tackle Kevin Williams visited the Saints, but his preference remains returning to the Seahawks, Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press writes. Williams, 34, says he wants to play at least one more NFL season.
“I want to go back to Seattle, but this is a business,’’ Williams said. “They’re still evaluating their roster. I guess there’s not that many 12-year veterans that everyone wants. Everyone wants to go younger.”
Williams went on to say that he had a good visit with the Saints but nothing is close yet with New Orleans. The veteran is no stranger to signing late in free agency – last season he signed with the Seahawks on June 12th. The six-time Pro Bowler had a solid season for Seattle in 2014 and became the starting nose tackle after Brandon Mebane was knocked out for the season with a hamstring injury in the ninth game.
Williams graded out as being very slightly below average in 2014, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). He earned a -0.3 overall grade, a slight drop from 2013’s 0.9 mark. In 16 games last season, Williams recorded 38 total tackles with three sacks.Half of all Australians are now able to connect to the NBN. But around 40% of eligible households have chosen not to connect to the network. Our modelling shows that subsidising the NBN is key to encouraging more Australians to connect. This would benefit the economy as a whole, but hurt the government’s plans to privatise the network.
The government is currently counting both on receiving ongoing revenue from the NBN, as well as the proceeds from its eventual privatisation. To achieve both goals, the NBN charges for access to the network.
Switching from a pricing model that charges for access to the network to one that subsidises access will mean the government won’t get a return on its investment.
Read more: The NBN: how a national infrastructure dream fell short
The NBN’s pricing model
The NBN currently charges internet service providers, such as Telstra, for access to the network. The internet service providers then sell the service on to consumers - businesses and households.
Our model tried to find an NBN access price that would generate the greatest benefit to consumers, internet service providers and the network. We set our model in the future - when the NBN has been fully constructed, the cost of construction has been paid, and the government is preparing to privatise it.
In order to maximise the shared economic benefit from the network, we found that the access price has to be less than zero - a subsidy. The network shouldn’t be charging internet service providers to access the network, it should instead pay them to connect.
The internet market in Australia is dominated by four large internet service providers (Telstra, Optus, TPG and Vocus) so we can’t expect the subsidy to be fully passed on. But competition means consumer prices would drop, and the number of customers connecting to the network would increase by as much as 25%. The benefit to the economy as a whole would outweigh the costs, but the cost falls entirely on the NBN, which would have to run at a loss.
The NBN as a public service
We know that regulators want the NBN to benefit the whole economy. This requires more customers to connect to the network. Our model shows that means prices need to be reduced.
This will weigh on the plans to privatise the NBN. There was a similar issue over access to Telstra’s copper network, which was marked by repeated litigation and public wrangling between Telstra and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over access pricing.
Private companies won’t invest in infrastructure such as the NBN unless they can earn a profit in return. In fact, neither Telstra nor its competitors managed to build a fibre network themselves precisely because they couldn’t agree with the ACCC on how much profit they would be allowed to make from it.
But the NBN is financed and currently owned by the government. This means it doesn’t necessarily have to run at a profit.
Our model shows the NBN should be treated like other services the government provides - roads, education and doctors visits. All of these services can theoretically be provided by the private sector but are subsidised because the benefits of broad access outweigh the costs.
Any guarantee of a profitable NBN also means that the benefit to consumers and the economy will be suboptimal. With the nbn Co. due to finish construction and be polished up ready for privatisation in less than four years, it’s time for our politicians and regulators to start transparent conversations with the public, investors and broadband businesses about how many consumers will be connected to Australia’s broadband future.Parts of England with the highest levels of social deprivation and health needs have seen the largest falls in spending power as a result of the Government’s austerity spending cuts, new figures reveal today.
Knowsley council in Merseyside has seen its income per resident fall by more than £400 since 2011, while Liverpool has seen a drop of £390. Both local authorities are ranked among the 10 most deprived areas in terms of health and disability.
In contrast, wealthier areas have seen significantly smaller falls in income, the analysis of government statistics shows. Wokingham had a per-head cut in income of just £2.29 while Elmbridge council in Surrey was just £8.14 worse off. Both are among areas with the least social deprivation.
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Local authorities in England with communities ranked in the top 20 per cent for health deprivation and disability have faced an average reduction in spending power of £205 per head – 12 times the average for places in the bottom 20 per cent. Communities ranked in the top fifth for income deprivation affecting older people saw an average reduction in spending power of £229 per head while the average reduction for places in the bottom fifth was just £39.
Shape Created with Sketch. What Britain thinks of benefits: perception, reality and winning votes Show all 9 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. What Britain thinks of benefits: perception, reality and winning votes 1/9 We think more immigrants claim benefits than they do A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times earlier in January showed that the British public are way off with their estimation of how many immigrants claim jobseekers allowance 2/9 Immigration and benefits Three quarters (76%) of us oppose immigrants being allowed benefits in their first year of residency Getty 3/9 Two thirds of us don't like the system as it is Two thirds (66%) of us think the benefits system is unfit for purpose.. something the Conservatives have saying since they first unveiled the cuts Getty Images 4/9 Benefits Street documentaries don't help Nearly half of us (45%) think people on benefits are portrayed unfairly. In Scotland, 62% think the portrayal of people on benefits is unfair (compared to 45% in the whole of the UK). In London this changes to 40% Channel 4 5/9 Toughen up benefit rules Two-thirds (66%) want tougher rules about who can claim benefits (picture shows James Turner Street in Birmingham, the setting for Channel 4's documentary series 'Benefits Street') Creative Commons/Peter Whatley 6/9 We're wrong on benefit fraud According to a study published by Royal Statistical Society and King's College in July, the public think that £24 of every £100 of benefits is fraudulently claimed. Official estimates are that just 70 pence in every £100 is fraudulent - so the public conception is out by a factor of 34 Dan Kitwood/Getty Images 7/9 We would prefer to make it harder for immigrants to claim benefits A similar poll by YouGov for the Sunday Times in January showed that support for limiting migrants' benefits was widespread 8/9 Poverty and inequality is a big issue for us An Ipsos Mori poll from January showed that poverty and inequality is becoming increasingly important for British people 9/9 Benefits is less of an issue than it has been The same Ipsos Mori poll from January showed that pensions/benefits and social security was by far a more pressing issue for other governments, at least by the British public's perception 1/9 We think more immigrants claim benefits than they do A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times earlier in January showed that the British public are way off with their estimation of how many immigrants claim jobseekers allowance 2/9 Immigration and benefits Three quarters (76%) of us oppose immigrants being allowed benefits in their first year of residency Getty 3/9 Two thirds of us don't like the system as it is Two thirds (66%) of us think the benefits system is unfit for purpose.. something the Conservatives have saying since they first unveiled the cuts Getty Images 4/9 Benefits Street documentaries don't help Nearly half of us (45%) think people on benefits are portrayed unfairly. In Scotland, 62% think the portrayal of people on benefits is unfair (compared to 45% in the whole of the UK). In London this changes to 40% Channel 4 5/9 Toughen up benefit rules Two-thirds (66%) want tougher rules about who can claim benefits (picture shows James Turner Street in Birmingham, the setting for Channel 4's documentary series 'Benefits Street') Creative Commons/Peter Whatley 6/9 We're wrong on benefit fraud According to a study published by Royal Statistical Society and King's College in July, the public think that £24 of every £100 of benefits is fraudulently claimed. Official estimates are that just 70 pence in every £100 is fraudulent - so the public conception is out by a factor of 34 Dan Kitwood/Getty Images 7/9 We would prefer to make it harder for immigrants to claim benefits A similar poll by YouGov for the Sunday Times in January showed that support for limiting migrants' benefits was widespread 8/9 Poverty and inequality is a big issue for us An Ipsos Mori poll from January showed that poverty and inequality is becoming increasingly important for British people 9/9 Benefits is less of an issue than it has been The same Ipsos Mori poll from January showed that pensions/benefits and social security was by far a more pressing issue for other governments, at least by the British public's perception
Labour claimed the reductions were mainly due to government cuts in the revenue support grant.
The Local Government Association, which represents all council regardless of their political make-up, has called for changes to the formula. It believes the total grant will have fallen from £14.5bn in 2010 to £2.2bn by 2020. It is due to publish a report next week calling for an independent body to oversee the allocation of local authority funding.
The LGA chair, David Sparks, said: “Many local authorities are concerned that funding reductions have had a disproportionate effect on the most deprived authorities and protected groups. If services which people rely on are to survive the next few years, it will be vital that government works with councils to ensure adequate funding gets to where it is needed.”
The shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hilary Benn, said it was “irresponsible and unfair” for the Conservatives to have imposed the biggest reductions in local authority budgets on those communities with the highest numbers of older people living in deprived households.
“The A&E crisis in our NHS, driven in part by insufficient social care provision where it is needed, shows that the Tories can’t be trusted with vitally important health and social care services,” he said.
But the former housing minister Kris Hopkins said the Government had been “fair” to all parts of the country. He said “there is no magic money tree” and that Labour should explain where any extra money for councils would come from.
Case study: Knowsley, Merseyside
Knowsley in Merseyside has the unwelcome distinction of being in the top 10 areas of England for both pensioner poverty and health deprivation. Yet despite this, the local council will have to find a further £34m in savings over the next two years.
The cuts come on top of previous savings the authority has had to make worth £60m since 2010. Compared to then, the council now has £1,469 less per household to spend on delivering services.
“Based on the Government’s own figures, our funding will be cut permanently by £172 per household next year, while the average reduction across the whole of England will be just £37 per household,” the council leader Ron Round said. “Knowsley’s funding has been cut more than any other council. We are doing all we can to protect services for residents but we are having to make some difficult decisions about reducing the services we provide as well as our own workforce.”
Among savings considered are reducing opening hours at libraries and cutting back on road maintenance.
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Subscribe now.Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, shows a V-sign for the media in court in Moscow on March 30, 2017. (Photo11: Evgeny Feldman, AP)
MOSCOW — Less than a year before Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks re-election, the biggest protest wave in five years is putting his popularity — and his control over political dissent — to the test.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who announced last year that he would run for president in March 2018, led tens of thousands of protesters into the streets in 80 cities across Russia on March 26. They demanded answers about corruption that Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation had alleged about Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin protege. On Wednesday, Navalny announced another protest scheduled for June 12.
Police cracked down on the protesters, jailed Navalny for 15 days and fined him for organizing an unsanctioned rally. They also raided Navalny’s foundation, confiscating its computers and placing its members under house arrest. More than 1,000 people were arrested across the country, and authorities launched a criminal case into the protests.
Police released the opposition leader Monday, suggesting the Kremlin is walking a fine line between neutralizing political challenges and instigating mass repression.
“Navalny is not dangerous yet politically. But as soon as he crosses a'red line,' then the government won’t play around and will jail him pretty quickly,” said Alexei Chesnakov, a former Kremlin official who heads the Center for Current Policy. “Only the government knows what that'red line' is.... A statement or an action insulting to Putin could be.”
Critics say last month’s protests frightened Putin’s government, which has stifled media and individual expressions that do not treat him positively and tightened oversight of foreign organizations that might be promoting an anti-Putin agenda.
“When thousands turned out to the street protests, we were suddenly surrounded by a whole army of interior troops and the National Guard,” said Yegor Besstuzhev, 18, a history student who took part in the demonstrations. “Just walking down the street, it became clear to me that the government is really afraid of us.”
“Of course they were scared,” said Leonid Volkov, head of Navalny’s campaign staff. "They are trying gain time to see if things settle down."
Opposition supporters with a cutout figure depicting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev participate in an anti-corruption rally in central St. Petersburg, Russia on March 26, 2017. (Photo11: Olga Maltseva, AFP/Getty Images)
Before releasing Navalny, police transferred him from a jail that had attracted a crowd of journalists to one far away. Then he was let him go, a move that suggests the government is afraid Navalny is getting too much publicity, according to Volkov. A poll by the non-profit Levada Center showed public awareness of Navalny was 55% in March, up from 25% in March 2012.
Putin faced a wave of protests before his election to a third presidential term in 2012, when he saw his approval ratings take a nose dive. At the time, the government jailed dozens and adopted laws limiting dissent. More recently, hundreds of bloggers have been prosecuted for posts on social media deemed by authorities to be "extremist."
Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea province and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 triggered a surge in Putin's popularity. Since then, his approval has remained above 80% — it was 81% in a March Gallup poll — despite years of economic stagnation, low oil prices and sanctions imposed by the West over his incursion into Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 12, 2017. (Photo11: Alexei Nikolsky, AP)
Putin has been evasive about re-election plans, but Russians widely assume he will run and win the 2018 election, which analysts describe as being more a referendum on his rule than a competitive race.
Recent events suggest the Kremlin is working hard to bolster Putin's standing. The president postponed an annual call-in show to coincide with his forthcoming campaign. And on Wednesday, the Russian Duma, or parliament, passed a bill setting the election date as March 18, the anniversary of Crimea's annexation.
“I think they are trying to work out how to redraft their whole campaign, given that 2018 was meant to be the electoral coronation and celebration of Putin, and that is now looking less feasible,” said Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian security services and a senior fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague.
A film made by Navalny's foundation about its allegations that Medvedev amassed personal property worth millions — and the protests it sparked — were followed by a 10% drop in Medvedev's approval rating, according to a poll by the Levada Center. The corruption allegations prompted some members of parliament to call for a separate probe of Medvedv, who Putin picked to serve as president from 2008 to 2012 while Putin was prime minister. They subsequently swapped jobs.
Putin told state media Wednesday that he would “not allow” popular revolutions in Russia or in former Soviet republics similar to the "Arab Spring" revolts that toppled leaders in the Middle East several years ago. The same day, parliament introduced a bill allowing police to shoot at protesters. Earlier laws authorized lethal force for Russia’s security services and the newly created National Guard.
Navalny is officially barred from running for office after a conviction on fraud charges that his backers say were politically motivated. The Kremlin considers him to be "a Western puppet,” said Sergei Markov, a pro-Putin analyst and former member of parliament. “The Kremlin would see it as a bad signal to jail him long term. It doesn’t want to send a message that people don’t have a right to protest, as long as those protests don’t turn into mass riots.”
But independent analyst Galeotti said such statements show the Kremlin is in a quandary about how to handle dissent. “This demonstrates that the Kremlin still doesn't have a definite plan about what to do with Navalny,” he said. “They can always find an excuse to arrest him again" for short periods of time "without making him a symbolic martyr."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2pakVVEI just though it would be nice to talk about something other than JV's imminent departure.
Driving the Ball:
- Ranks 11th in the NBA in Team PPG created on drives with 10.8. This puts him above players including; Rose, Westbrook, Lowry, Parker, Wall, and Wade.
- In Points/48 on drives Oladipo ranks 9th with 8.5. Ranking ahead of players like; Lillard, Parker, Irving, Lowry, Wall, and Dragic.
- Oladipo not surprisingly does not fare as well in the FG% on drives. He ranks 32nd with a FG% of 44.9. This puts him in the company of guys like Teague, Westbrook, Jennings, MCW, and Lawson. (Interestingly Trey Burke ranks last out of all 55 players in the NBA with at least 150 drives with a FG% of 35.7.)
- Victor has slightly raised his FG% on drives this year. 44.9% in 14-15 compared to 42.9% in 13-14.
- Ranks 18th in the NBA in Team PPG created on drives with 10.0. Placing him ahead of Rose, Conley, Wall, Rondo, Curry, and Dragic.
- I wasn't willing to count all of the players ahead of him in FG% on drives. Elfrid is shooting 41.4% when he drives the basketball.
- There isn't a stat that shows team FG% on drives by a certain player. But Elfrid accounts for 6 pts/game via assist when driving the ball, compared to 4 pts/game. There are plenty of times where Payton could force a shot, but instead he does something like this He creates essentially a 100% shot with the Vucevic uncontested dunk. Because he assists more than he scores, this leads me to believe that despite Payton shooting 41.4% his drives could lead to more efficient scoring for the Magic.
- Tobias is driving the ball more this year (4.1 drives/game compared to 2.2 last year |
driverless car program has had its share of controversy. In December, Uber moved its cars from San Francisco to Arizona after a standoff with the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Uber had refused to apply for the necessary permit to test autonomous vehicles on public roads, and the DMV revoked the registration of 16 Uber self-driving cars.
Uber conceded and applied for and received the permit earlier this month.
The company also faces a lawsuit from Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) self-driving car unit, Waymo, which accuses Uber of stealing designs for technology critical to autonomous cars known as Lidar. Uber has said Waymo’s claims are false. The lawsuit set in motion what many in the self-driving sector predict will be a closely watched, acrimonious trade secrets battle between the two tech rivals.Recently MSNBC host and former US Congressman from Florida Joe Scarborough said on a late night talk show that he was no longer a Republican. Scarborough admitted that he would be registering as an Independent. This is the same Joe Scarborough who came of age in the constitutional conservative ideological legislative revolution of one Newt Gingrich and his “Contract with America”. Of course, these days there are many folks changing their party affiliations to Independent.
Another former member of the crew that came into being with Speaker Gingrich is current Republican Ohio Governor, John Kasich. He was someone that that as Budget Chairman balanced the federal budget. If you don’t believe it, Governor Kasich will certainly tell you, often. Yet, now, Governor Kasich is all about an expansion of Medicaid, a government run healthcare program intended for those Americans at or below the poverty line. Governor Kasich now wants more largesse from the federal government program that is causing the incessant busting of the federal budget. Medicaid is part of the mandatory spending programs – Social Security, Medicare, and net interest on the debt – that comprise nearly 64% of our budget.
The current Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the keeper of our tax code, is Texas Republican Congressman Kevin Brady, a nice enough fella. However, as part of tax reform, Chairman Brady wants to introduce and create something called the Border Adjustment Tax. This is nothing more than a value added tax (VAT) that will certainly be passed onto the consumer. And if you have paid attention to the VAT in Europe, it has been a massive failure. Why is it that we are seeking to introduce a taxation policy in the United States that has been a complete failure elsewhere?
There is a debate going on in the Republican controlled US Senate reference healthcare reform. But what is rather perplexing is that the latest iteration of the Senate healthcare legislation entails Republicans advocating for maintaining Obamacare taxes on “the rich”. Why are Republicans taking up the progressive socialist mentality of class warfare and wealth redistribution, along with using the tax code as a weapon against a targeted segment of our society? Also, why are there Republican Senators who embrace the idea of Medicaid expansion? In other words, do they truly believe in the expansion of the welfare nanny-state, the dependency society?
Last Thursday, possibly the most disconcerting vote taken in the House of Representatives, was an amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The amendment of which I speak was offered by Missouri Republican Congresswoman Vicki Hartzler, a strong principled constitutional conservative. Rep. Hartzler’s amendment would have blocked federal funding, American taxpayer funding, to transgender troops for hormonal therapy and gender reassignment surgery. Rep. Hartzler’s amendment failed, due to (24) Republicans voting against it, therefore, (24) Republicans voted to support American taxpayer funded hormonal therapy and gender reassignment surgery for individuals suffering from a mental condition termed gender dysphoria. Twenty-four Republicans embraced a belief that the American taxpayer is now financially responsible for the choices of an individual confused about their gender.
What is even more troubling is that reports have stated, and not been refuted, that the Trump administration Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, actually called Rep. Hartzler and requested she withdraw her amendment. So, the official position of the Trump administration is that taxpayer funding of gender dysphoric individuals hormone therapy and reassignment surgery is a position they support. So, what is next, taxpayer funded cosmetic surgery for troops?
We know who the progressive socialists are and what they stand for. Their ideals are wealth redistribution, nationalization of production, expansion of the welfare state, social egalitarianism, and secular humanism. The real question now is, what does it mean to be a Republican?
Republicans asked for control of the House of Representatives, the US Senate, and then the White House…they have them all. Yet, endeavors to reform our tax code and healthcare are bogged down due to Republicans…not Democrats. Silly me, I thought Republicans stood for limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual sovereignty, free market, and strong national defense. What is seems to the eye that understands the spectrum of political philosophy is that Washington DC is controlled by socialists, progressives, and statists. Sadly, true constitutional conservatives are the minority, denigrated, demeaned, and disparaged all because they believe, as I do, in the fundamental governing principles and values of our Constitutional Republic…a lost ideal.
I do not blame the Pelosi’s, Schumer’s, Warren’s, Sanders’, and Obama’s of the progressive socialist left. They tell us who they are, so I will credit them with the courage of their convictions to fundamentally transform our Nation. What I find abjectly disgusting and reprehensible are those masquerading as “Republicans” but have no compunction to actually be what they profess. And next year, these individuals, and the establishment machine created to support them, keep them in power, will send out requests for contributions and ask for volunteers to walk neighborhoods for them. Something tells me, that will be coming to an end.
And I can speak personally to the sting of those who call themselves “Republicans”. In the history of the State of Florida there have only been two Black Republican Members of Congress, Josiah T. Walls 1873-1876, and myself 2011-2013. It was a super-majority of Republicans led by State Senator Don Gaetz who developed a congressional redistricting plan, signed by Governor Rick Scott, that redistricted me out of a Congressional District we had won back to the Republican party in 2010. It was a redistricting plan that the Florida Supreme Court later overturned. Even when voter fraud was known, proven, the Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, all Republicans, did nothing, as the electoral results were accepted by the Secretary of State.
What does it mean to be a Republican? Republicans don’t know, they are too busy acquiescing, compromising, and appeasing those who would never do the same for them. They are fundamentally confused as to who they are, and that for which they stand. The greater population of America are conservative, they believe in faith, family, individual liberty, economic freedom, better education opportunities, working hard to care for themselves, and being a strong and secure Nation.
It doesn’t appear that many Republicans actually believe in the principles of unalienable rights such life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness endowed to us by the Creator. They are just a lighter version of progressive socialists….progressives.Summer is almost here and now is the time to start searching for things to do in Miami with kids for your family vacation. Miami can be a fun filled city for all ages.
Take a look at our top 10 list of activities for kids in Miami.
Miami Beach –No one can go to Miami without a little fun in the sun. The beach is a perfect place to take the kids for a swim or join the inline skaters on the boardwalk and is one of the top things to see in Miami. Miami Seaquarium – Visitors to this marine park won’t only have a fun time, but an educational experience as well. Animal shows will both entertain and teach kids lessons about the marine life in the park. Guests also have the opportunity to swim with dolphins or take an underwater journey with the Sea Trek Reef Encounter. Jungle Island – A favorite among kids and adults. This attraction is one of the more interesting things to do in Miami with kids. Everyone has the chance to get up close and personal during the animal interactions sessions. Check their schedule for the Safari VIP Tours for more one-on-one experiences in designated areas of the park. Miami Art Museum — Explore, learn something new, see guest speakers and create your own art during a day at the MAM. Check their website for schedule and hours. Fairchild Botanical Garden has a mission of exploring, explaining and conserving the world of tropical plants. These gardens are a place for relaxing and you can literally stop to smell the roses. The garden store has seasonal plants sales for purchases to create gardening master pieces at your home. Miami MetroZoo — The ideal pastime for kids and adults. Visit the zoo to see a variety of exotic animals. Gold Coast Railroad Museum – On the grounds of the Metro Zoo, it’s a little different than the other museums in Miami. It celebrates the iconic history of railroading. Kids of all ages can see model trains, tour the rail yard and take a ride on a narrow gauge. The Children’s Museum – Kids of all ages can play, learn, imagine and create through exhibits and educational resources at the museum. Crandon Park Beach – A family day at the beach opens itself to being a great place for picnics, beach volleyball and has a playground for kids. There’s also a carousel and roller rink for their enjoyment. Surprisingly this is one of the things to do in Miami with kids that won’t break your bank. If you’re traveling with older kids, their interest may be sparked by a good ghost story. The staff at the Biltmore Hotel offers a free tour every Sunday and details its ghostly history.
Miami really does have something for everyone. Your entire family will enjoy all the fun things to do in Miami with kids.Feds Back To Seizing Websites Over Claims Of Copyright Infringement
from the motherfucking-eagles dept
“Cracking down on piracy of copyrighted works – including popular apps – is a top priority of the Criminal Division,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Software apps have become an increasingly essential part of our nation’s economy and creative culture, and the Criminal Division is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to protect the creators of these apps and other forms of intellectual property from those who seek to steal it.”
“Criminal copyright laws apply to apps for cell phones and tablets, just as they do to other software, music and writings. These laws protect and encourage the hard work and ingenuity of software developers entering this growing and important part of our economy. We will continue to seize and shut down websites that market pirated apps, and to pursue those responsible for criminal charges if appropriate,” said U.S. Attorney Yates.
“The theft of intellectual property, particularly within the cyber arena, is a growing problem and one that cannot be ignored by the U.S government’s law enforcement community. These thefts cost companies millions of dollars and can even inhibit the development and implementation of new ideas and applications. The FBI, in working with its various corporate and government partners, is not only committed to combating such thefts but is well poised to coordinate with the many jurisdictions that are impacted by such activities,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Lamkin.
While we've written plenty about the US Justice Department and US Homeland Security (via ICE) seizing various websites on questionable legal authority by claiming they were tools used for criminal copyright infringement, a series of pretty massive screwups seemed to have them, at least temporarily, shying away from such seizures around copyright claims. Huge errors like seizing Dajaz1 for over a year and then having to admit they had no evidence and give it back seemed to at least make them a little less cowboyish about the websites they chose to shut down and censor.But, of course, this is the federal government we're talking about, and they sure loved the ability to shut down speech without any sort of adversarial hearing or, you know, due process. So you just knew it wouldn't last. The latest is that the feds have seized three more domains (applanet.net, appbucket.net and snappzmarket.com), claiming that they were "engaged in the illegal distribution of copies of copyrighted Android cell phone apps." Indeed, a quick look at the internet archive certainly suggests that these sites advertised that you could get "paid" apps for free if you joined. But does that warrant a criminal investigation and seizure? Perhaps there are more details, but given the sketchy details of earlier seizures, I'd wonder.But, more to the point, if these sites were really engaged in such things, why wouldn't a civil copyright infringement lawsuit suffice? Why should the government get involved, when it involves completely pulling down a website with no warning, no adversarial hearing and no due process for those accused?The Justice Department seems to indicate that this sort of thing is now a "top priority," because (apparently) they have way too much free time on their hands:One other tidbit of interest. Unlike the previous seizure disasters, this one appears not to have been led by ICE, but directly by the Justice Department (via the FBI). The announcement doesn't name this as a part of "Operation in our Sites" which seems to be a term specific to ICE's controversial program. Either way, they're still certainly using the eagle-heavy "seized" graphic they love to throw around, so, of course, we'd be remiss if we did not remind folks that they can purchase their very own "seized tee," to show what you think of the government's efforts.
Filed Under: android, apps, doj, domains, fbi, seizures, websitesMPW Insider is one of several online communities where the biggest names in business answer timely career and leadership questions. Today’s answer for: What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time? is written by Adena Friedman, President of Nasdaq.
Many women try to advance in their careers by having all the answers; by being the go-to person for information and advice; or by building expertise in a particular field. However, as they progress, gain broader responsibilities, and grow into leadership roles, they realize that their span of control is too vast to be able to know every answer. It is no longer possible to be the go-to person in every situation, and suddenly, they have to be the one who is asking the questions rather than answering them.
So what is one skill that all aspiring leaders should develop? The power to listen. Listen to clients, employees, and peers and stay open to their ideas, feedback, and answers. Doing so is vital to the success of any leader. A leader who listens is one who is malleable and willing to refine her views and actions as she learns new information or hears a better idea.
Listening is also a powerful mentoring tool; being listened to is both fulfilling and motivational. Empowering those around you to be heard and valued makes the difference between a leader who simply instructs and one who inspires. Leading the organization based on what you learn from those you value is what I have found to be both among the more difficult and rewarding parts of becoming a leader.
Read all answers to the MPW Insider question: What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
Why you should be more friendly at work by Mary Civiello, President of Civiello Communications Group.
4 reasons to ditch the ‘corporate mold’ by Kathy Collins, Chief Marketing Officer, H&R Block.
10 tips for survival when you’re the new boss by Debby Hopkins, Chief Innovation Officer at Citi.
Why every new leader should take Lupita Nyong’o’s advice Gloria Larson, President of Bentley University.
Why I’m proud to be gay — at home and at work by Beth Brooke-Marciniak, Global Vice Chair of Public Policy at Ernst & Young.
Why great doers don’t make great leaders by Liz Wiseman, President of Wiseman Group.
3 things you can learn from your worst boss by Lauren Stiller Rikleen, President of Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership.
One CEO’s cheat sheet to the top by Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn.
3 ways to think like a leader by Alyse Nelson, CEO and co-founder of Vital Voices Global Partnership.
What the best bosses can learn from mountain ski guides by Susan Coelius Keplinger, President and COO of Triggit.
The one quality all leaders must have by China Gorman, CEO of Great Place to Work Institute.
3 lessons every new leader should know by Sally Blount, Dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Barbara Bush: 4 tips for aspiring leaders by Barbara Bush, co-founder of Global Health Corps.
Watch more career tips from Fortune’s video team:HUNTINGTON, N.Y. — An estimated 100,000 gay and lesbian service members were issued dishonorable or “undesirable” discharges between World War II and 1993 due to their sexual orientation, losing their military benefits as a result.
Now, less than two years after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the former ban on openly gay service members, at least one U.S. congressman is hoping to right that wrong.
U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) announced legislation Saturday to repeal dishonorable discharges issued to gay service members, and to make sure those veterans get the recognition and benefits they deserve.
Israel announced the legislation in front of the reviewing stand for the Long Island Pride Parade in Huntington, N.Y., and was joined by Robert O. Hawkins Jr., a World War II veteran who was dishonorably discharged because he is gay, reported WCBS-TV.
Hawkins wanted his career to be in the military. “I would have been an admiral by now,” he said. But in 1962, when Hawkins was stationed in Florida, he received an ominous knock at his door. “They said, ‘We have proof you are a homosexual, and you can either resign your commission or face a court martial,’” Hawkins said. “I resigned. I had no choice, really.” Only recently was Hawkins, 75, able to get his discharge changed to honorable.
According to Aaron Belkin, an expert on gays in the U.S. military at the University of California, Los Angeles, prior to 1993, about 100,000 troops were given dishonorable discharges for being gay, which denied them veteran’s benefits, including medical care and a military burial.
Under the more relaxed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which allowed gays to serve as long as they kept their sexual orientation to themselves, about 14,000 troops were forced out, but most were given honorable discharges that allowed them to draw benefits.
Israel’s proposed legislation would change all those dishonorable discharges to honorable, allowing the veterans to receive medical and other benefits.
The repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” officially took effect Sept. 20, 2011.
This Story Filed UnderThe official website for the television anime of Hazuki Takeoka and Tiv's Masamune-kun's Revenge ( Masamune-kun no Revenge ) manga announced additional cast for the anime on Tuesday:
Yui Ogura as Kinue Hayase, Masamune's doting mother who looks like a young girl, but is actually 42 years old. She worries about Masamune becoming thin.
Asuka Ōgame as Chinatsu Hayase, Masamune's second-year middle school younger sister who loves her brother and often goes to his room to meddle.
In addition, the show has cast Mariya Ise as Sonoka Kaneko, Kanae Itō as Kikune Kiba, and Satomi Satou as Mari Mizuno. The three characters are admirers of Aki, idolizing her intelligence and beauty, and often act like her bodyguards.
In addition, the site announced that the AT-X channel will get its own original footage for the ending credits sequence, and an extra program after each episode titled "Honmono no Ojō-sama wa Dare da?! Ojō-sama Kakuzuke Check" (Who is the Real Lady?! Lady Ranking Check). The extra program will feature Aki and the female cast trying different types of gourmet food and judging which is best.
The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX on January 5, and will also air on the AT-X,BS Fuji, Sun TV, and KBS Kyoto channels.
The site previously streamed a promotional video for the anime in October.
The cast includes:
Natsuki Hanae as Masamune Makabe
Ayaka Ohashi as Aki Adagaki
Inori Minase as Yoshino Koiwai
Suzuko Mimori as Neko Fujinomiya
Azusa Tadokoro as Tae Futaba
Saori Hayami as Kojūrō Shuri
Ohashi will perform the anime's opening theme as her character Aki Adagaki. ChouCho ( Hyōka, Girls und Panzer ) will perform the ending theme song. The CD single for the ending theme song is slated to ship on February 15.
Mirai Minato ( Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya ) is directing the series at Silver Link. Michiko Yokote ( Shirobako, ReLIFE, Dagashi Kashi ) is supervising the show's scripts, and is also penning them alongside Kento Shimoyama ( Good Luck Girl!, Servant × Service, Shomin Sample ). Yuki Sawairi ( Yurikuma Arashi, Girl Friend BETA animation director) is designing the characters for animation. Toshiki Kameyama ( KanColle, Kiznaiver ) is in charge of sound direction. Lantis is credited as music producer.
Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed the manga in North America, and it describes the story:
As an overweight child, Makabe Masamune was mercilessly teased and bullied by one particular girl, Adagaki Aki. Determined to one day exact his revenge upon her, Makabe begins a rigorous regimen of self-improvement and personal transformation. Years later, Masamune re-emerges as a new man. Handsome, popular, with perfect grades and good at sports, Masamune-kun transfers to Aki's school, and is unrecognizable to her. Now, Masamune-kun is ready to confront the girl who bullied him so many years ago and humiliate her at last. But will revenge be as sweet as he thought?
Writer Takeoka and female Korean artist Tiv ( Heaven's Memo Pad manga) launched the series in Ichijinsha's Monthly Comic Rex magazine in 2012. Ichijinsha shipped the manga's seventh compiled volume in Japan on June 27. Seven Seas released the manga's second volume in English on September 13.
Source: Comic NatalieEditor’s note: This article was first published in 2014. Although we cannot guarantee all the restaurants mentioned are offering exactly the same dishes, we believe this will provide guidance in estimating calorie counts when eating out.
Editor’s note: This article was first published in 2014. Although we cannot guarantee all the restaurants mentioned are offering exactly the same dishes, we believe this will provide guidance in estimating calorie counts when eating out.
The nation’s largest restaurant chains have made a big deal in recent years about introducing smaller portion sizes. McDonald’s eliminated the Supersize menu, while T.G.I. Fridays and others have introduced small-plate items. Yet the restaurants have also been doing something else, with less fanfare: continuing to add dishes so rich that a single meal often contains a full day’s worth of calories.
Here, we show you what roughly 2,000 calories looks like at some large chains. (Depending on age and gender, most adults should eat between 1,600 and 2,400 calories a day.) Researchers have long understood that people are more likely to finish what’s on their plate than to stop eating because they’ve consumed a given amount of food. It’s “the completion compulsion,” a phrase coined in the 1950s by the psychologist Paul S. Siegel. Combine that compulsion with the rising number of restaurant meals Americans eat and the substance of those meals, and you start to understand why we’ve put on so much weight. But there is some good news: As you’ll see below, it’s not so hard to eat bountifully and stay under 2,000 calories. It’s just hard to do so at most restaurants.Formula 5000 returns in a retailored jacket. The name is ‘Formula Thunder 5000’ and it will indeed be loud. Very loud.
In the 1970s when Formula 1 seasons were shorter and less restrictive, drivers had the opportunity to try themselves in other racing series as well - and they often did. One of the go-to open-wheeler category to try at the time was Formula 5000. F5000 was meant to be a lower-cost, simple alternative to F1 where engineering inferiority was compensated by old-fashioned displacement, creating a muscle/stock car feel for the twisty-turny single-seater scene.
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The concept turned out to be so popular that players such as McLaren, Lotus, Lola, Eagle, March, etc. all wanted in, drawing all the star drivers of Indy-type of racing and the World Champions of Formula 1 at the time. National and international series popped up as mushrooms after a rainy day. Among many others, it gave birth to the Long Beach Grand Prix, but F5000 was nowhere near as popular than in Australia and New-Zealand.
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To this day, there is a strong F5000 historic scene down under, which now will be taken to the next step. A reimagination of the former ‘bad boy’ racing series is also in the cards. ‘Formula Thunder Sports’ - as it is called - has already presented a prototype of a modern rendition of an F5000 car, based on a Formula Nippon chassis.
Publisher-turned vintage F5000 racer and managing director of Formula Thunder Sports, Chris Lambden gives an insight to the project in the making.
After selling my publishing business a few years ago, top of my ‘Bucket List’ was to drive a Formula 5000 car. I did, and in fact, owned and raced one for a couple of years. Craziest, but best thing I ever did. That’s probably what started it. Formula 5000 is very strong in this part of the world, especially New Zealand, which led the way some 15 years ago in restoring and racing the cars from the 1970s. It is still very strong, with the cars appearing at several events each year – some purely historic races, others mixed, where F5000 is a ‘guest’ category. There is nothing more spectacular than a field of F5000 cars at full speed. It’s brilliant.
People here travel big distances to see them running at the big meetings. You can see the cars that were actually raced by Graham McRae, Teddy Pillette, Mario Andretti and so on on show, and actually racing. It’s brilliant, and it hooked me in. Everywhere we went while I had a F5000 car, the sentiment was “this was the best thing ever – what a shame there’s nothing like it now!” Eventually, I started to take it seriously, and started looking at whether [revisiting the concept] might be possible. We looked everywhere for a chassis that had recently ceased production and that might suit our needs. While a handful of second-hand cars would be a start, we also needed to be able to provide additional (new) cars if things progressed well. Ultimately, we were able to come to an arrangement with Swift Engineering in California to acquire the design, moulds, tooling etc for the 2009-13 Formula Nippon chassis. Swift hasn’t built a race car since – they are fully an aeronautical and aerospace company now – but with a number of the engineers still there who were part of this car back then, they were quite pleased that it could be ‘reborn’ in a new guise. So ultimately, there’s no limit to the number of cars we could supply if asked. The car is thus not a Swift – we took on their design – but rather an evolution of the Swift FN design, to suit our needs.
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[The original ‘Formula Nippon’ chassis; Super Formula - as it is now called - switched to turbocharged engines and a Dallara chassis since; image source - Wikipedia]
[Marrying the chassis and the new engine] has turned out to be remarkably straightforward, as the original Nippon car ran a 3.5 litre V8, and our ‘stock-block’ 5-litre Ford Coyote-based option lines up with the original tub engine mount points, although we’ve also needed to use some supplementary mounts. We asked our engine expert (Roger Higgins, InnoV8), to look around at all the possible V8 engine options, and he concluded that this was by far the best option, in providing the sort of power and durability we were looking for at the best price. He adds his own full-race fuel-injection system, a dry sump, the engine mounts, and a few other key things to the base engine, and it’s ready to go. It’ll be ‘sealed’ so that everyone will have the same power (570hp) at their disposal, and it’ll be almost bulletproof. As will the (all-Australian) Holinger six-speed sequential gearbox.
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Australia really only has ‘pathway’ open wheeler categories at present – Formula Ford, Formula 4, etc. – so we set out to create a modern full-on ‘destination’ car for a serious open-wheeler category, that we could perhaps run across a Summer season here (Australia’s main motorsport season spans winter – uniquely). Our criteria were cost, spectacle, limited downforce/big tyres i.e. ‘mechanical grip’ and thus better racing. As it turned out, most of the logical answers came from that F5000 era – the engine, the tyres, the reduced aero… so we thought it’d be fun to ‘acknowledge’ the era by adopting a distinctive-styled air box.
We’re attempting to create a modern, safe car that uses the best philosophies from an era that people agree was perhaps ‘the golden era.’ What we’re doing will, ultimately, be about the drivers – young, and not so young, talented drivers going head-to-head in a modern, safe, but spectacular car that will be a challenge to drive. Since we went public with our project, there has been a great response locally, mainly social media. I think it probably strikes a chord with Australian motorsport fans, who’ve been brought up on V8s, and for whom Formula 5000 was probably the last really good domestic open wheeler category in this part of the world. Motorsport is getting expensive in many areas too, so perhaps our concept (complete ready-to-go cars will cost around AUS$240,000+tax, that’s about US$185,000) will strike a chord. Certainly, if it takes off here, we’ll be open to ‘exporting’ it elsewhere. Our prototype should run in [early June, 2016] or so. The whole thing is very much a ‘project’ at this stage, with ‘chickens and eggs’ going in all directions. For example, we haven’t asked our local ASN (CAMS) for either a formal category name or championship at this stage – we will run the cars under a generic ‘Formula Libre’ category as a means of proving their worth. If it does, well, then we’ll talk again. We do plan to try and run a series of events in this part of the world across our Summer, December to February, when the northern hemisphere is off-season, hopefully attracting people from up there to come and compete – from Scandinavia, perhaps? Whether we can achieve that in time for this coming year’s end will depend upon how soon we can attract a minimum number of interested parties to commit to a car, which we will have to build/supply. I guess the reaction to date, inside a week, has been pretty positive – we’ll see. Our plan was to create something that was exciting, loud, fast, and that requires more driver input – which meant moderate aero, and big tyres. The images we released have a set of F5000 rears on simply for the photoshoot – the proper tyres, when they arrive, will be another couple of inches wider still. That’s what we think the motor racing punter wants.
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Embed from Getty Images(KUTV) In addition to shifting winds, land management was a big talker on Monday as the wildfire down south grew to more than 43,000 acres.
A lot of locals believe the magnitude of the Brian Head Fire could have been prevented.
"It was just really great until we had the bark beetle kill," said Larry Pendleton, who has lived in Brian Head since he was a young boy and who said he has built most of the cabins.
Utah's leaders also had a lot to say Monday morning during a visit to the town of Brian Head.
"When you turn the forest service over to the bird and bunny lovers and the tree huggers and the rock lickers we turned our history over," said Rep. Mike Noel, R-73.
There's no doubt the fire was fueled by dead trees, according to fire officials.
"The fire started 30 years ago," said Paul Cozzens who owns a custom cabinetry shop in town and is also a councilmen for Cedar City.
Cozzens and Pendleton both said the Brian Head Fire was bound to happen eventually.
"Radical environmentalist groups started suing the forest service and preventing the land to be managed the way it should be managed," Cozzens said.
He went on to say the lumber lost in the fire could rebuild all the homes in Cedar City twice.
Both builders believe the blame shouldn't be on one man. Up north, the Sierra Club points the finger at our political leaders.
"When the land management agencies don't have the funding to keep up with that and there's a risk to human habitation, that goes back to Utah's congressional delegation for cutting those budgets year after year," said Mark Clemens of Utah's chapter of the Sierra Club.
Lt. Gov Spencer Cox was also in town Monday.
"There is no question that our inability to manage the forest as it should and could be managed has led to more destruction," he said.
"We've got a president who can make a difference here and a Secretary of Interior and Agriculture," Rep. Noel said, "They are going to fix this problem."
There are many points of view, but right now everyone's main focus is fighting the fire.
"I think we all just have to support each other," Pendleton said. "Pray for each other and when it's all over -- there's no quit in us southern Utah people."“Grant us this day our daily manna.”
-Dante, Purgatorio, Canto XI
The Lord has left us a mystery to contemplate. It is right there in the middle of the “Our Father” when Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Mt. 6:11) This is generally recognized to mean pray for our basic daily necessities. (CCC 2837) This is true. Yet, hidden in the mundane and seemingly redundant word “daily” is the veiled, mysterious Greek word epiousios (επιούσιος). Epiousios is a unique word, sacramental-like in nature, a visible sign of a hidden reality. Epiousios occurs nowhere else in the Greek Bible except in the same Our Father passage in Luke 11:3 and the Apostle’s Didache. In fact, epiousios is not found anywhere else at all in Greek literature. The only recorded reference to epiousios, ever, is Jesus’ prayer.
As the early Church Father and master of the Greek language Origen (d. 254 AD) concludes, epiousios was “invented by the Evangelists.” The millennia have bore out his assertion that epiousios was a new word, a neologism of uncertain etymology. The usual Greek word for “daily,” hemera, is, after all, used elsewhere in the New Testament, but not in this instance. Why did St. Matthew and St. Luke feel compelled to create a new Greek word to accurately reflect the words of Jesus? They most likely had to use a new word to faithfully translate a novel idea or a unique Aramaic word that Jesus used in His prayer. What was Jesus’ new idea? Although there are multiple levels of meanings to epiousios, Jesus is making a clear allusion to the Eucharist. “Our daily bread” is one translation of a word that goes far above our basic needs for sustenance, and invokes our supernatural needs.
St. Jerome translated the Bible in the 4th century from the original Latin, Hebrew and Greek texts to form the Latin Vulgate Bible. When it came to the mysterious word epiousios, St. Jerome hedged his bets. In Luke 11:3, St. Jerome translated epiousios as “daily.” Yet, in Matthew 6:11, he translated epiousios as “supersubstantial.” The root words are: epi, meaning “above” or “super;” and ousia, meaning “being,” “essence,” or “substance.” When they are read together, we come to the possible translations of “super-substantial,” “above-essence,” or, in effect, “supernatural” bread. This translation as supersubstantial is still found today in the Douay-Rheims Bible. Taken literally, our supersubstantial bread is the Eucharist. (CCC 2837) In his commentary on St. Matthew’s gospel, St. Jerome states this directly: “We can also understand supersubstantial bread in another sense as bread that is above all substances and surpasses all creatures.”
St. Jerome also suggests that the Hebrew word for epiousios was the word maar meaning “for tomorrow,” invoking an eschatological interpretation of epiousios. In this sense, we are praying “this day” for our bread “for tomorrow,” or our future bread. We are petitioning God for tomorrow’s future bread today. Pope Benedict reflects on this “petition for an anticipation for the world to come, asking the Lord to give already ‘today’ the future bread, the bread of the new world – Himself.” This again has Eucharistic overtones, as the Catechism states, “the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come.” (CCC 2837)
This eschatological interpretation is also borne out in the parable for the “coming day’s bread,” that Jesus teaches immediately following the Our Father. In Luke 11:5-8, Jesus tells the story of a man, who at “midnight” asks a friend to lend him three loaves of bread, as another friend of his has arrived from |
ensure that any expansion in covert action doesn't prompt Tehran to retaliate and inadvertently trigger a wider conflict.
Yet behind all the media spin rhetoric, the stage is now set:
Special operations forces would have the ability to carry out risky capture-or-kill missions that the CIA may not be able to conduct on its own. A new finding also would ensure that the CIA and military special-operations forces working for the agency have the legal ability under U.S. law to shut down the flow of arms from Iran to allied militia groups. Other officials, including some in Congress, favor a broader secret campaign against Iran to block its support to Syria or to other militant groups elsewhere in the Middle East.
In retrospect, the only thing oil needs in addition to QE3 being launched in 2 weeks is a major military campaign against one of the biggest petroleum countries in the world. It does however, explain why WTI is now inching into $90s territory, and why Brent will soon take out its all time highs.
The full IAEA report can be found here.Looking for news you can trust?
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There are so many problems with John McCain’s idea that we’re going to use offshore drilling to alleviate high gas prices and get us out of our current energy pickle.
First, there isn’t all that much oil to be found in the continental United States and sucking it out of the ground won’t lower prices substantially. Second, there are no ships available to serve new rigs. Third, oil companies currently have leases for some offshore drilling that they aren’t using. Fourth, it will take seven to ten years before we can actually get at the oil off American shores, if we were to start drilling today. Fifth, it presents serious environmental concerns.
It’s an ineffective attempt at a quick fix. In so far as it keeps Americans from thinking about and coming to terms with long-term structural changes that will actually solve the energy crisis, it’s an incredibly damaging idea.
You don’t have to be a Democrat to understand this. Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a Republican, is calling out McCain:
“For anyone to represent that someone drilling off the coast in Florida is going to lower gas prices here or anywhere in this country is disingenuous and a flawed argument,” he said. “Oil drilling could take 10 years before any oil is pulled out of the ground, and there are a large number of leases held by oil companies that are not being exploited now. We can’t say we need more until we’ve exploited those.”
H/T Think Progress.Holland, Netherlands and the Dutch
Posted by James Briggs on March 08, 2004
Recently in The Times Q&A section a question was asked about Netherlands vs Holland as the correct name for that country. The answer said that Holland strictly refers only to two southern provinces. Nederlands is the official name and appears on currency and stamps. Incidenatlly, in spite of this, the locals still shout for Holland at international football matches! Later, a supplementary question was published. Today, that following extra question was answered. I found it interesting and thought I'd share it.
**********************************************
I was interested to read about Holland and the Netherlands (Q&A, February 25), but where do the "Dutch" come from?
In medieval times the Germanic people with whom the ordinary Englishman most frequently came into contact were sailors who lived on the other side of the North Sea. They probably described themselves as "Deutsch", which was later corrupted in English and written as "Dutch".
In contrast, the "Germanic" people with whom the English aristocracy came into contact were the aristocracy of the Holy Roman Empire. The mutual language of communication that they used was Latin, hence the area from which they came was described as "Germania", which later became "Germany".
To this day, notwithstanding the atrocities of 1940-45, the Dutch national anthem has references to the country's Germanic origin - the opening lines of the anthem (written about 1569) being "Wilhelmus van Nassouwe / Ben ik van Duitsen bloed" which translates as: "I am William of Nassau / Of Germanic descent".
Martin Vlietstra, Fleet, Hampshire
From the late Middle Ages to the 16th century, when linguistic distinctions were not sharply defined, the English often
described anyone, speaking a Germanic language as "Doch" or "T(h)eutonicus", heedless of whether the subject hailed from Antwerp, Hamburg or Nuremberg. A survey of aliens in London in 1568 found 5,225 "Dutch parsons" but only a meagre 22 "Garmans".
Once the northern provinces of the Habsburg Low Countries gained their political independence in the early 17th century, it became usual to distinguish between Dutch and German speakers and their cultures. "Dutch" derives from the Middle Dutch duuts or diets which ultimately stem from the old Germanic word theudo meaning "people".
The nomenclature for the Low Countries has long puzzled foreigners, and no wonder. In the early modern period there were perhaps eight different ways of referring to the region, its inhabitants and cultures.
Alastair Duke, SouthamptonApple is having trouble removing porn from iMessage's new GIF search feature. Overnight, Deadspin noticed a highly sexual My Little Pony GIF appearing in searches for the word "butt," but the problem goes well beyond that.
A woman who emailed The Verge this afternoon says her eight-year-old daughter, while trying to send a message to her dad, was presented with "a very explicit image" of "a woman giving oral sex to a well endowed male." Her daughter hadn't searched for anything explicit, just the word "huge."
"I see the image come up like, holy shit, whoa whoa whoa, that's a hardcore porn image," Tassie Bethany, whose daughter discovered the image, tells The Verge by phone. "I grabbed the phone from her immediately. She typed in the word 'huge,' which isn't sexual in any nature. It's just a word, not like butt or anything else."
GIF search is one of the new features built into iMessage in iOS 10. Apple has been prohibiting searches for most sexual terms, but it's a real problem for porn to slip through for an otherwise normal term like "huge."
"That's something that could potentially be pretty traumatizing for a small child."
Other nude images are accessible through searches of misspelled body parts, though we haven't seen anything quite as explicit as what comes up for "huge."
Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment. It took 10 or so hours after Deadspin's initial report for the word "butt" to be banned from iMessage's GIF search; searches for "huge" have already been banned. The GIF feature is powered by Bing; we've also reached out to Microsoft for comment.
Bethany says her daughter is fine — "she had no idea" — but she's concerned about the possibility of other kids being accidentally exposed to porn through what's supposed to be a goofy feature. "My daughter uses it because there's cartoons and fart jokes, that kind of stuff," she said. "That's hardcore porn. People making out she might see on ABC. That's something that could potentially be pretty traumatizing for a small child."LAS VEGAS -- Motion Picture Assn. of America of Chief Executive Chris Dodd touted a strong rebound at the box office this year but said the industry needs to find new ways to stay relevant to younger, "connected consumers."
"We need to make the case -- both to the new, younger, 'connected consumers,' and to others who wonder if the moviegoing experience remains something special, something to be savored and enjoyed, something so innovative and creative that it cannot be duplicated at home no matter how many boxes they have,'' Dodd said in a speech at the CinemaCon trade show here.
Dodd, the former senator from Connecticut, noted that worldwide box office revenues reached a record $32.6 billion last year and that domestic box office revenues are up 17% this year compared with the same period last year.
Still, Dodd noted that the industry faced long-term challenges, including boosting theatrical attendance in the U.S. and Canada, which fell 4% last year.
"One third of the public in the U.S. and Canada no longer goes to the movies," Dodd said. "We need to bring them back. I firmly believe that with our artistic and commercial vision and your stewardship of the great moviegoing tradition, we can do it."
Dodd also renewed his call for finding common ground with the technology industry to curb the theft of intellectual property. The MPAA backed tough laws, nicknamed SOPA and PIPA, to crack down on online piracy, but the bills were defeated by opposition from Google and other tech giants along with a strong public backlash.
"I want to dispense with the conventional wisdom that in order to protect our content we must be at war with the technology industry,'' Dodd said. "In fact, our two industries, content and technology, have far more in common than some have argued."
He added, "If protecting intellectual property results in an uninformed brawl between Hollywood and Silicon Valley, both sides will suffer -- but more importantly, so will millions of Americans who rely on these intellectual property industries for their jobs, and on the consumers whose lives have been enriched by their efforts.
-- Richard Verrier
Photo: MPAA Chief Executive Chris Dodd. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesDublin City Council has granted permission for the demolition and redevelopment of Hawkins House, paving the way for a €50 million office scheme which includes Apollo House.
The council in recent days granted permission to receiver Mazars for the demolition of Apollo House, the 1960s office block on Dublin’s Tara Street which has been occupied by housing activists and homeless people.
The permission now granted to the Office of Public Works will allow a combined development of a new office “quarter”, along with shops, restaurants, a public plaza and a diagonal pedestrian street. However, there will be no apartments in the development which is almost 50m tall.
The government announced plans for the demolition and reconstruction of Hawkins House, the former Department of Health headquarters, in 2007.
Built in 1962 on the site of the former Theatre Royal, it is often cited among the ugliest buildings in the city, as is its slightly younger neighbour Apollo House. It was built in 1969 and until last year leased to the Department of Social Protection
Key sites
The scheme, which takes up almost an entire city block bounded by Poolbeg Street, Tara Street, Townsend Street and Hawkins Street where the new Luas cross-city line is under construction, is one of the first major developments sought under the city council’s 2012 George’s Quay local area plan.
This plan envisages the creation of a new “midtown” for the city south of the Liffey to Pearse Street and from Hawkins Street to Lombard Street.
Three key sites have been identified as having the potential for significant redevelopment: the Hawkins House block on Poolbeg Street, Tara Street station and its surrounds; and the City Quay area from Moss Street to South Street.
Of these, the Hawkins House block will see the most dramatic redevelopment, as unlike the other sites, almost all the buildings dating from the 1960s and 1970s are likely to be demolished.
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Tom O’Brien and Simon Coyle of Mazars, receivers to Cuprum Properties Limited, one of Garrett Kelleher’s development companies, have control of Apollo House and the Long Stone, which, although on Townsend Street backs on to the car park beside Apollo House.
The two other significant buildings on the site, the nine-storey former An Post buildings at College House and the recently closed Screen Cinema, are also likely to be redeveloped in the near future.
The 400 staff at Hawkins House will move to the former Bank of Ireland headquarters on Lower Baggot Street, which is currently being remodelled.Rene Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope.
Google's masthead today shows two figures on either side of a pair of lungs. One of them is a modern doctor with a stethoscope and the other is an antique gentleman holding a sort of tube to his ear.
The tube is actually a stethoscope too, and it was the invention of René Laennec, whose 235th birthday it would have been today.
Laennec was a Breton, a brilliant doctor who was also a devout Christian. Born in 1781, he studied medicine under his uncle and treated soldiers wounded in France's revolutionary wars under Napoleon. Before his death at the age of only 45 he made important discoveries about cirrhosis of the liver, melanoma and tuberculosis, the disease that was to kill him.
His most significant contribution to medicine, though, was the invention of the stethoscope. Before this, doctors used to listen directly to patients' chests by placing an ear against the skin ('immediate auscultation'). This was rather awkward in the case of female patients and when patients were obese it was hard to hear the heart in any case.
Laennec recorded his experience of trying to treat a young woman who was rather plump.
"I recalled a well known acoustic phenomenon: if you place your ear against one end of a wood beam the scratch of a pin at the other end is distinctly audible. It occurred to me that this physical property might serve a useful purpose in the case I was dealing with. I then tightly rolled a sheet of paper, one end of which I placed over the precordium (chest) and my ear to the other. I was surprised and elated to be able to hear the beating of her heart with far greater clearness than I ever had with direct application of my ear. I immediately saw that this might become an indispensable method for studying, not only the beating of the heart, but all movements able of producing sound in the chest cavity."
He spent three years testing different materials and making tubes, eventually settling on a hollow tube of wood 3.5cm in diameter and 25cm long. Wooden stethoscopes were used until the second half of the 19th century, when rubber tubing was introduced. The stethoscope made it possible for doctors to listen to what the heart was actually doing and was a huge step forward for medicine.
But Laennec was respected not just for his skill, but for his faith. In the French biography translated by Sir John Forbes, it says he was "a man of the greatest probity, habitually observant of his religious and social duties. He was a sincere Christian, and a good Catholic, adhering to his religion and his church through good report and bad report."
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His death was that of a Christian. "Supported by the hope of a better life, prepared by the constant practice of virtue, he saw his end approach with composure and resignation. His religious principles, imbibed with his earliest knowledge, were strengthened by the conviction of his maturer reason. He took no pains to conceal them when they were disadvantageous to his worldly interests; and he made no boast of them, when their avowal might have been a title to favour and advancement."
It's common today for people to set science and faith in opposition to each other, as though they are somehow mutually exclusive. Laennec's life and work show that this is far from the case. He was a man of faith whose early life was spent amid fanatical persecution of the Church, the massacres of priests, the destruction of churches and the confiscation of Church property. Tens of thousands of priests were forced to leave the country and those who refused were executed. But Laennec's faith remained firm.That is, even though Trump has spent those two months careening from one outrage to another, even though he’s completely undercut Ryan’s vision for the party, even though he basically keeps daring Ryan and other prominent Republicans to un-endorse him — despite all of this, the G.O.P. still has a solid chance in key Senate battles, and its House majority looks reasonably secure. (It probably helped that the Democratic convention focused on separating Trump from wavering Republicans, rather than lashing him to the party like an anchor.)
So when Trump issued his latest dare on Tuesday, announcing that he was “not quite there yet” when it came to endorsing Ryan in his upcoming primary, you could imagine the speaker gritting his teeth and telling himself that it might still all be worthwhile, that letting Trump consistently humiliate him is just the price that has to be paid to keep the G.O.P.’s share of power in a divided Washington, D.C.
One problem, though, is that it is still only early August. There is no reason to believe that Trump’s conduct will get anything but crazier as the election actually approaches, especially if it appears that he’s guaranteed to lose. It’s very easy to imagine party unity cracking even more than it already has, Trump’s numbers tracing a downward spiral and G.O.P. turnout spiraling downward with them. In which case Ryan would have endured his long humiliation for exactly nothing.
The deeper problem is that Ryan’s reputation, his standing as a public figure, will not recover easily from what’s transpiring in presidential politics right now. Yes, the people of his district will presumably return him to the House even without Trump’s imprimatur, and his colleagues will probably return him to the speakership no matter who wins the White House.
But more than most politicians Ryan has always laid claim to a mix of moral and substantive authority; more than most he has sold himself to the right’s intelligentsia and the centrist media as one of Washington’s men of principle. And both that authority and that brand are being laid waste in this campaign.Bob Costas of NBC Sports announcing in Arizona earlier this year. (Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images)
The Olympics are a torrent of names, stats, narratives, results, commercials, montages and trivia about Kenyan runners and Italian fencers and Slovakian shot putters. It is overwhelming. NBC televised about 172 hours during the 1996 games in Atlanta. In Rio de Janeiro this month — if you count every media platform — the total will be 6,755 hours.
That’s 281 days’ worth of stuff crammed into about two weeks. And 20 million people will tune in each night to see glory and hope and triumph and failure and clamor and drama and Bob.
Bob, at the center of it all. Bob: the steadying force, the moderator of mayhem, the synthesizer of sensory overload.
What about Bob Costas?
He’s here on the Upper West Side in mid-July, and the patio of this hip bistro is too crowded for him. He calls to say so. He sees his questioner scrunched between Sunday brunchers and, you know, we don’t need the noise and distraction. Why don’t we eat next door?
He’s already got a table outdoors at an old-school Italian cafe where the waiters say “grazie.” He’s virtually the only person there, facing Broadway, wearing a navy cap embroidered with “the Spirits of St. Louis,” the basketball team that launched his career as a radio sportscaster in 1974, when he was 22 — the nation’s youngest play-by-play announcer for a pro team.
The former boy wonder, who once looked like he was picking your daughter up for prom, is now a 64-year-old poobah who’s about to anchor his 11th Olympics. For the next 16 days, he is the anchorman of Planet Earth.
“I’m starting to get ‘I’ve been watching you all my life,’ ” Bob says over the horns and brakes on Broadway. “And it used to be I was the irreverent newcomer.”
He’s aged, sure, and yet retains a freshness, like maybe he’s had —
“You know what the answer is?” Bob says. “Lighting. Okay? I’m sitting right here. I have wrinkles, okay? Lighting. Thank you.”
Bob is so considerate of all angles, so careful with every word, that he’d come across as calculating if he weren’t also blunt and talkative. A one-hour brunch with him takes two hours. He chats with the vigor of someone who is put in storage between each Olympiad with no one to talk to about sports and life. He orders an omelette with tomatoes, spinach and a little bit of mozzarella, and then salts the hell out of it. In person, there’s more Long Island in his voice. He is short. His teeth are as orderly as his sentences.
What about Bob, Bob?
“I don’t know that I’m on the 18th, but I’m definitely on the back nine,” he says of his career. “I’m around the 14th or 15th hole. And I hope I’ve birdied a few. Maybe I’ve bogeyed a few.”
(Jawaan Burge/for The Washington Post)
When he was 10, Bob was his father’s driveway correspondent in Commack, N.Y., just off the Long Island Expressway. He was dispatched to the family car to fiddle with the radio dial, hunting for KDKA in Pittsburgh or WBAL in Baltimore, listening for the scores to games that his father had put money on but couldn’t monitor from the television set.
“When the rent is riding on whether Whitey Ford can get Al Kaline out, or Wilt Chamberlain can make two free throws — that’s a little anxiety-provoking,” says Bob, who reported the scores to his father by recapping the action with a flourish. An announcer was born.
Then came Syracuse University and St. Louis, where he maintained a residence until 2011, when he moved full time to New York to be near his grown children. For a couple of decades, Bob occupied people’s living rooms: He did play-by-play for the National Basketball Association and the National Football League and the U.S. Open and the Kentucky Derby and Major League Baseball, he guested on “Larry King Live” and “Today,” practiced longform broadcasting on network news magazines and talk shows on HBO — and he became synonymous with the Olympics, starting with his first appearance in 1988 in Seoul.
“What I’ve learned through the years is that the host of the Olympics needs to be a good generalist,” he says. “So it’s a waste of time to memorize every platform diver from Lithuania. It’s a waste. Of. Time.”
But if a Lithuanian platform diver suddenly becomes a sensation, Bob will seem like he has studied the Baltics all his life. Nimble researchers, just off-screen, will make him seem omniscient.
[The Rio Olympics are ‘troubled.’ But aren’t they always?]
Bob is not omniscient. But he is a quick study and a sports encyclopedia. He is also a bit rebellious, self-deprecating and obnoxiously unflappable. At the Belmont Stakes in 2011, someone threw a can of beer at him, and he caught it one-handed, opened it, chugged some, lobbed it back from the victory stand, and proceeded with his interview of the winning jockey and trainer.
“He’s got that assured — that sort of slow walk,” says NBC’s Mary Carillo, whom Bob coaxed into taking a shot of vodka on live TV in Sochi. “He’s in control.” They toasted his severe eye infection, which had dominated the Olympic news cycle.
“Tomorrow morning I’ll be lying on a curb in Minsk!” quipped Bob, eyes ablaze with germs, as he stamped his glass down, and Carillo couldn’t contain her incredulous laughter.
[The world offers eye tips to NBC’s Bob Costas]
“He’s keenly aware of whatever subject matter is in front of him,” Carillo continues by phone, “and he’s got this incredible retention of facts, of times of day, of moments when it all fell apart, moments when it all coalesced.”
Bob is exacting, direct and doesn’t suffer fools.
Might he also be a jerk?
“I’m pretty outspoken,” says his friend, journalist Buzz Bissinger, “so if he was an a------, I’d tell you.”
Bob is not an a------. He’s more of a traffic cop who speaks with the voice of God. “Your eyes are kind of darting from thing to thing,” he says of his Olympics role, “trying to make sure you understand where Simone Biles is in her rotation.”
It’s tempting to call Bob the Dick Clark of the Olympics — a mannequin wheeled out for an occasion that he now embodies — but that would insult his journalistic credentials.
Bob pushed for coverage of human-rights abuses in Beijing against NBC’s then-owner General Electric, which does plenty of business in China.
He shamed the International Olympic Committee, on air, for refusing to grant Israel a moment of silence on the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre in 2012.
When Ukrainians reached the podium at the Sochi games in 2014, Bob brought up Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imperialism: “No amount of Olympic glory can mask those realities any more than a biathlon gold medal — hard-earned and deeply satisfying as it is — can put out the fires in Kiev.”
During NFL half-time commentaries, Bob has opined on concussions, the Washington Redskins name, and the intersection between gun culture and the murder-suicide involving Kansas City linebacker Jovan Belcher — which triggered sharp blowback from fans who wanted Bob to call the action on the field, not off it.
[Bob Costas speaks out on gun control after Jovan Belcher murder-suicide]
“They should’ve either given me more time or deferred it by a week,” says Bob, who considers his simplistic commentary on guns to be the one big bogey of his career. “Generally I have two minutes.... Here I had a minute. And it would’ve been better to leave it alone rather than go into it for a minute.”
NBC sportscaster Bob Costas in 1993. (AP)
From left, NBC executives David Neal and Dick Ebersol, and hosts Bob Costas and Mary Carillo in July 2004. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Bob can turn an interview into an inquisition. He skewered Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in 2011 (“Are you a pedophile? Are you sexually attracted to underage boys?”) and nearly questioned his way to a physical confrontation with wrestling impresario Vince McMahon in 2001 (“Do you think in some way this type of programming contributes to... the incivility and coarseness that’s generally out there in the culture now?”).
Bruce Cornblatt produced the McMahon segment, for HBO’s “On the Record With Bob Costas,” and was nerve-racked as McMahon, riled up, inched closer and closer to Bob, who was as stoic as ever.
“Everything about television for Bob — no matter what he’s doing — slows down,” says Cornblatt, now a senior producer at the MLB Network, where Bob is a host and announcer. “Great athletes have that happen too: [Time] just slows down,” which allows Bob to be agile and reflexive.
“Later With Bob Costas,” a late-night show that Bob hosted on NBC from 1988 to 1993, was a playground for a generalist. Bob interviewed the likes of Martin Scorsese, Paul McCartney, Camille Paglia, Dan Rather and Van Halen, but he was at his best, according to Cornblatt, opposite “Zorba the Greek” actor Anthony Quinn in 1991. Bob knew that Quinn, then 76, had never spoken publicly about his son, who had drowned 50 years earlier at the age of 2. Bob did not ask Quinn about it directly, but with Olympian finesse, he got his answer anyway.
“There’s a scene in ‘Zorba’ where he’s lying on his back,” Bob said to Quinn, “and looks up at the British guy, who he’s trying to teach the gift of life to — the gift of living life — and he says: ‘When my son Dimitri died and everyone was crying, I danced.’ ”
Quinn, realizing what Bob was doing, blinked and inhaled, folded his arms, looked at the ground. Bob pressed on, delicately.
“ ‘And they thought I was mad,’ ” he continued, quoting Zorba. “ ‘They said: Zorba’s mad. But it was only when I danced that the pain stopped.’ Is that true, for you, in life?”
Quinn, tears in his eyes, had been disarmed by a perfectly worded and executed question.
“You’ve been very nice,” Quinn said. “So I’ll confess to you that I live with the pain of having lost a son. And there’s no greater pain in the world. And you never get over it. And to me, he’s not gone. I imagine him living in San Francisco, being a very successful architect. And I just never accepted death.”
A good journalist can go his whole life without summoning such a quote.
The ability to do so rests in a word that Bob keeps using during this two-hour brunch. He uses it when describing what he loves about St. Louis. He uses it while lamenting the polarized, post-factual world of politics and media, in which everything is noise, in which profound truths can be overtaken by a pink-eye meme. He uses the word to address a question about unfulfilled aspirations. The word is “texture.”
“To me, what you hope for is texture,” he says of his work. “Just take baseball. If someone says ‘Bob’s view of baseball is nostalgic,’ that’s a portion of the truth. If they say, ‘Well I thought he liked baseball, but he’s always talking about the economic disparities or steroids’ — well, that’s part of it, too. You can draw a stick figure. Or you can try to paint a picture that has some shadings, that has some texture to it.”
And so Bob spends the weeks before Rio in an undisclosed location, studying for the Olympics, making sure he knows names, years, weights, distances, personal records, intimate backstories. He’ll make sure he knows about the geography of Rio, the structure of its government, its struggle with sanitation and security and embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff — all so he can deliver that texture he prizes in this glossy, harebrained world.
Jim McKay, who covered 12 Olympics for ABC, was doing spots from the Games into his 80s. NBC has the rights to every Olympics until 2032, when Bob himself will be 80 years old.
Bob says: “I hope I’m alive and coherent in 2032.” He pauses for the wail of an ambulance to pass on Broadway. “So that I can enjoy watching someone else host it.”The Shame of Veteran’s and Memorial Day by Bill Buppert
Publisher’s Note: I published this last November and it certainly rings true for the second holiday during the year when we celebrate the use of war and violence to advance the agenda of the American Federal government around the globe. We are asked to bow our heads in honor of the dead and wounded who gave their service for freedom. Call me a skeptic. Individual citizens have never been in graver danger of being fined, kidnapped, caged, maimed and killed by their own government for the most banal of violations or infractions against the imperial power that has wrapped its tentacles around every living soul in the land of the free. The export of extraterritorial violence does not make a country free, it puts every inhabitant in the hazard as the entire planet has factions enraged, women and children savaged and murdered and entire religious sects chosen for special military attention.
The celebration of Memorial Day should not be about the soldiery, it should be a mass wake and reflection on the untold millions of innocents detained, kidnapped, injured, napalmed, fire-bombed, incinerated, shot, mutilated, tortured and murdered by the barbaric and naked grasping of the American central government for ever-increasing power and control at home and abroad. -BB
“Happy Veterans Day and thank you for your service” or “thanks for protecting our freedom.”
What! I hear this familiar refrain again and again every November. I am appalled whenever this unthinking salutation is proffered.
I am a retired career Army officer and like USMC General Smedley Butler before me, I find these sentiments to be hogwash.
The only service rendered was to the American political power structure in the dishonorable hands of the Democrats or Republicans; the former, despite their protestations to peace, have gotten America involved in WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Starting with the shameful expropriation of the Mexican territory from 1846-48 to the War of Northern Aggression from 1860-65; the United States went into hyper-colonial overdrive in 1893 in the Hawaiian Islands and has not stopped since. The entire history of American arms on Earth has been a shameful and expansionist enterprise culminating in the first ever post-WWII (the Japanese attack on American territories in the Aleutians during the War to Save Josef Stalin and the minor coastal skirmishes in Oregon) attack on American state soil in 2001. I am frankly astonished at the length of time it took for a substantive attack of any kind to be initiated on American soil with the breadth, ferocity and long sordid history of American mischief and mayhem abroad.
The sheer number of military expeditions the US has embarked on over time is breathtaking. One worthy notes there have been 234 military expeditions from 1798-1993. Another posits 159 instances of the use of United States armed forces abroad from October 1945 through December 2006. “This list does not include covert actions and numerous instances of US forces stationed abroad since World War II, in occupation forces, or for participation in mutual security organizations, base agreements, and routine military assistance or training operations.”
Good God, if I were a Martian who landed on Earth ten years ago and found myself attending government schools, to include college, and watching television for any additional cultural education, I would not be aware of any of this. The constant drumbeat emanating from the State is the Orwellian chorus about America making the world safe for freedom and liberty and never using force abroad except in self-defense. The history proves otherwise.
America, next to Rome in the Western world, ranks as one of the world’s most aggressive nation states when one examines the evidence. A country sheltered from the tempestuous and constant warring on the European continent by one ocean and the turbulence in Asia by another ocean yet it simply cannot mind its own business nor resist the temptation to maim and murder abroad for expansion of political power and control whether for mercantilist or colonial aspirations.
One can even see that the brutality practiced by American soldiers abroad is not recent but a long-standing tradition.
Afghanistan, now:
“All told, five soldiers were charged with killing civilians in three separate episodes early last year. Soldiers repeatedly described Sergeant Gibbs as devising “scenarios” in which the unit would fake combat situations by detonating grenades or planting weapons near their victims. They said he even supplied “drop weapons” and grenades to make the victims appear armed. Some soldiers took pictures posing with the dead and took body parts as trophies. Sergeant Gibbs is accused of snipping fingers from victims and later using them to intimidate another soldier.
He also pulled a tooth from one man, saying in court that he had “disassociated” the bodies from being human, that taking the fingers and tooth was like removing antlers from a deer.
Sergeant Gibbs said he that was ashamed of taking the body parts, that he was “trying to be hard, a hard individual.” But he insisted that the people he took them from had posed genuine threats to him and his unit.”
Philippines, then:
“Like many of their officers, American troops also showed incredible callousness toward the Philippine civilian population. A man named Clarence Clowe described the situation as follows in a letter he wrote to Senator Hoar. The methods employed by American troops against civilians in an effort to find insurgent “arms and ammunition” include torture, beating, and outright killing.
At any time I am liable to be called upon to go out and bind and gag helpless prisoners, to strike them in the face, to knock them down when so bound, to bear them away from wife and children, at their very door, who are shrieking pitifully the while, or kneeling and kissing the hands of our officers, imploring mercy from those who seem not to know what it is, and then, with a crowd of soldiers, hold our helpless victim head downward in a tub of water in his own yard, or bind him hand and foot, attaching ropes to head and feet, and then lowering him into the depths of a well of water till life is well-nigh choked out, and the bitterness of a death is tasted, and our poor, gasping victims ask us for the poor boon of being finished off, in mercy to themselves.
All these things have been done at one time or another by our men, generally in cases of trying to obtain information as to the location of arms and ammunition.
Nor can it be said that there is any general repulsion on the part of the enlisted men to taking part in these doings. I regret to have to say that, on the contrary, the majority of soldiers take a keen delight in them, and rush with joy to the making of this latest development of a Roman holiday.[16]
Another soldier, L. F. Adams, with the Washington regiment, described what he saw after the Battle of Manila on February 4-5, 1899:
In the path of the Washington Regiment and Battery D of the Sixth Artillery there were 1,008 dead niggers, and a great many wounded. We burned all their houses. I don’t know how many men, women, and children the Tennessee boys did kill. They would not take any prisoners.[17]
Similarly, Sergeant Howard McFarland of the 43rd Infantry, wrote to the Fairfield Journal of Maine:
I am now stationed in a small town in charge of twenty-five men, and have a territory of twenty miles to patrol…. At the best, this is a very rich country; and we want it. My way of getting it would be to put a regiment into a skirmish line, and blow every nigger into a nigger heaven. On Thursday, March 29, eighteen of my company killed seventy-five nigger bolo men and ten of the nigger gunners. When we find one that is not dead, we have bayonets.[18]
These methods were condoned by some back at home in the U.S., as exemplified by the statement of a Republican Congressman in 1909:
You never hear of any disturbances in Northern Luzon; and the secret of its pacification is, in my opinion, the secret of pacification of the archipelago. They never rebel in northern Luz |
the hall and slowly walked down the aisle toward the podium. While all were on their feet clapping and cheering, they were falling over themselves for a shot at shaking his hand, telling him how great he is, or just for a nod of approval by Bibi. This pandemonium went on for a full four and- a-half minutes until Netanyahu finally took the microphone. It’s doubtful if Julius Caesar or Napoleon ever got this type of reception.
It didn’t take much to get the entire Congress back on their feet cheering and applauding again. All Netanyahu had to do was say simple things like “Thank you for your support for Israel,” or “I know you stand with Israel” and all the brain-dead congress members would go at it again.
Congress applauded Netanyahu 39 times, and 23 of these were standing ovations. In fact, 10:55 of the 40:30 minutes, 27% of the time Netanyahu was at the podium, consisted of Congress applauding and giving standing ovations. That doesn’t count the fawning he received entering and exiting the once-proud chamber.
Netanyahu, who was invited to speak by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), used the opportunity to promote his own political agenda and gain support for the upcoming elections in Israel on March 17 in which he is reportedly lagging behind in the polls. Fear mongering about Iran’s fictional nukes seems to be central in his re-election strategy.
He spent much of his time with his usual rhetoric of condemning Iran as the biggest threat in the Middle East, warning that Iran’s nuclear program must be stopped at all cost and with the usual hysteria about nuclear weapons everyone is more than familiar with by now. He once again neglected to mention Israel’s 300-400 nukes, of course.
The White House was not pleased with Netanyahu’s speech since talks on Iran’s nuclear program are nearing a critical late-March deadline for an outline agreement to be reached. Obama and other Democrats—50 of whom did not attend Netanyahu’s speech—criticized Netanyahu for creating much hysteria without offering any solutions.
The Israeli prime minister’s visit was controversial from the start, because Boehner invited him to speak without even consulting the White House. Obama had announced that he would not meet Netanyahu and said that he did not even watch the speech. He did read the transcript, however, and said he agreed with Bibi that “America’s bond with Israel is unbreakable.”
Israel-firsters like Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) criticized Obama saying, “This administration has been the most hostile U.S. administration to Israel in the history of our country.” That is inaccurate, of course, since regardless of the posturing Obama gives Israel just about everything it wants. “No friend of Israel would boycott a speech by the elected leader of Israel,” Cruz continued, “particularly at a time of enormous peril.”
Netanyahu also emphasized the “enormous peril” the Jews always seem to be facing, since Biblical times. He mentioned the book of Esther and how the evil Persians were out to get the Jews since back then. He saved the Holocaust theatrics for the climax of his speech and even had “Holocaust survivor” Elie Wiesel in the front row, who got a big standing ovation and then another, as Bibi asserted “never again.”
Finally, Netanyahu brought Moses into the narrative by pointing to a plaque of Moses on the wall and told of how Israel and America are somehow one under Moses. He asked God to bless Israel and to bless America.
The mesmerized crowd roared with approval giving the Israeli PM a final standing ovation that again lasted for several minutes.
We’ll know soon enough if Israelis eat up Netanyahu’s propaganda like the U.S. Congress.
Pete Papaherakles is a writer and political cartoonist for AFP.
Readers Need to Protest U.S.-Israeli Relationship
• Time to raise a ruckus over one-sided Mideast policies
By Mark Anderson
Americans who want an objective view of United States policy toward Israel cannot look to Republicans on Capitol Hill. They’re too busy doing deep-knee bends, cheering and hollering hosannas of joy and fealty whenever Israeli Prime Minister “Bibi” Netanyahu utters a word.
It took a group of brave Democrats to finally pierce the propaganda that the “chosen” state of Israel can do no wrong—as evidenced by an eye-opening March 3 press conference led by Kentucky Representative John Allan Yarmuth and several others who did not attend Netanyahu’s speech that day to a joint session of Congress. Yarmuth is descended from Jewish immigrants from Russia and Austria.
This was one of those rare instances where partisan motives were an especially good thing—in that these “Dems” suddenly felt somewhat safe to reveal what could be long-held misgivings about Bibi and his regime, expressed in a more candid fashion than one would expect.
The Dems’ concerns need to be sturdily built upon, however, in any way possible: AMERICAN FREE PRESS readers should ramp up calls to talk radio shows and to CSPAN’s morning shows, and send letters and guest columns to local papers and members of Congress—and purchase more AFP subscriptions by which to spread around relevant articles.
But while most of these “rebel” Democrats were careful to reiterate their unwavering support for the Jewish state in general, they took strong exception with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) using the House as a political platform to showcase blustery “Bibi” just before Israel’s March 17 elections—and to use Bibi’s appearance in an apparent attempt to sabotage Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama’s ongoing talks in Geneva with Iran.
The talks are aimed at convincing Iran not to develop a nuclear weapon. Yet these Democrats went further and blasted Bibi for basically telling America’s elected Congress that war was the only option with Iran, while hinting that Americans would bleed and lead the military action on Israel’s behalf.
Bibi’s tiresome 45-minute cavalcade of saber rattling and pompous platitudes was a bit too much for these Democrats, who were among nearly 60 lawmakers who refused to attend Bibi’s speech, although a couple out of the nine Democrats at Yarmuth’s press conference did attend to critically evaluate what Bibi had to say.
Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, also Jewish, was perhaps the most outspoken, saying: “I think we have to challenge [Bibi’s] assumption that Americans and Iranians will always be enemies,” while noting that Bibi did not utter a word about how his nation would achieve peace with the Palestinians.
While Blumenauer said that Bibi would maintain a state of war with Palestine and expect America to remain on a war footing with Iran, the legislator also stressed that Bibi’s speech was little more than a “campaign commercial” just like his last appearance before Congress in May 2011. That suggests discomfort with Bibi has been festering for at least four years.
Representative Jared William Huffman (D-Calif.) blasted Bibi, saying, “This is a prime minister who’s never seen a war he didn’t want our country to fight.”
Jewish Representative Stephen Ira “Steve” Cohen (D-Tenn.), who described Bibi’s grandstanding as “political theater worthy of an Oscar,” went on to say that the move by Republicans to bring in Bibi and circumvent President Obama “was like putting [Bibi] on an equal level as the president of the United States and the U.S. Congress—that’s why I didn’t attend.” He likened Bibi’s speech to a State of the Union address but with the president replaced by a foreign leader.
Blumenauer and other Democrats at the press conference added that many Jews in Israel feel their nation is on the wrong path.
Blumenauer said that while Bibi frets that Iran will develop its first-ever nuclear weapon and bomb Israel the following morning, “Netanyahu presumably could unleash dozens of nuclear weapons.”
What Blumenauer touched on is that Israel indeed has a formidable nuclear force, but what he did not say is that the arsenal consists of some 400 nuclear weapons, which Israel will not officially admit it possesses. In addition, Iran is party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and allows inspections, while Israel rejects the NPT and will not permit arsenal inspections.
One of the Dems at Yarmuth’s conference who did attend Netanyahu’s grandstanding was Representative Peter Francis Welch (Vt.).
“What I heard from the prime minister is no deal is better than any deal” with Iran, he said. Welch made that observation after professing to be stridently pro-Israel.
Welch seemed especially insulted by Bibi’s anti-Iran remarks because Obama, Welch said, has handed Israel over $20 billion in U.S. taxpayers’ money in general and military aid to Israel since 2009, including at least $10 billion for the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Yet he recalled that Bibi even tried to coax the U.S. into attacking Syria in 2013 when Syria was accused under flimsy evidence of killing its own people with poison gas.
Added Jewish Representative Janice “Jan” Schakowsky (Ill.), “What I heard today is an effort to stampede us into war once again.” (10:45-14:35)
Obama’s reaction to Netanyahu’s speech could be described as “calm counterpoint.” He told reporters he did not have a chance to watch the prime minister’s March 3 speech.
“There was nothing new,” Obama remarked about the transcript of the speech he read. He added that his only goal was to take diplomacy as far as he can, simply to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Obama added that the diplomacy that Netanyahu condemns has prompted Iran to roll back its nuclear program and allow in-depth inspections.
Iranian officials say their program is limited to peaceful commercial energy development, yet Obama claims he’s sure Iran is on a path toward developing weapons.
AFP Roving Editor Mark Anderson is a veteran reporter who covers the annual Bilderberg meetings and is chairman of AFP’s new America First Action Committee, designed to involve AFP readers in focusing intensely on Congress to enact key changes, including monetary reform and a pullback of the warfare state. He and his wife Angie often work together on news projects. Write to Mark at [email protected]Codex Alera Author Jim Butcher Discipline Fantasy Publisher Ace Books Published 2004 - 2009 No. of books 6 Website jim-butcher.com
Codex Alera is a fantasy book series by Jim Butcher. The series chronicles the coming-of-age of a young man named Tavi in the realm of Alera, an empire similar to Rome, on the world of Carna. Every Aleran has some degree of command over elemental forces or spirits called furies, save for Tavi, who is considered unusual for his lack of any. As the aging First Lord struggles to maintain his hold on a realm on the brink of civil war, Tavi must use all of his intelligence to save his family from diverse enemies.
Alera is part of a large continent that is inhabited by the Icemen to the north. They are connected to another large continent held by the Marat via a land bridge, which is the location of the Calderon Valley. The Canim reside across the ocean to the west, staging regular, bloody raids on coastal settlements. A map of the realm, illustrated by fan Priscilla Spencer, was published in First Lord's Fury.
The inspiration for the series came from a bet Butcher was challenged to by a member of the Del Rey Online Writer's Workshop. The challenger bet that Butcher could not write a good story based on a lame idea, and he countered that he could do it using two lame ideas of the challenger's choosing. The "lame" ideas given were "Lost Roman Legion", and "Pokémon".[1]
Books in the series [ edit ]
Furies [ edit ]
Furies are elemental spirits (earth, water, air, fire, metal, and wood) that inhabit all aspects of Alera. Furies can be found as exceedingly small motes anywhere attention is paid, but can aggregate into larger and more volatile beings (either at the behest of a Crafter manifesting their power or as wild, feral Furies). Furies in the wilderness or lands distant from cities are often considered more powerful, and the land more likely to be inhabited by 'feral' furies. The nature of furies as independent beings appears to substantially dependent on both the Alerans cultivation of the land and their willpower. In tamed lands, the furies dissolve into motes that do not act independently, but can be gathered by a crafter into a manifest fury for their uses. Untamed lands however are prone to dangerous manifested furies that will harm anyone on sight unless destroyed or claimed by a Crafter of skill. Those living in these regions generally give their furies names (usually after the geographical landmark they believe their fury is connected to) and treat them as independent entities with quirks and individual talents, which causes their furies to do exactly that, as Crafting is an application of willpower. Crafters are often only limited by what they believe they can and cannot do with their furies. The furies connected to a person can be passed on to another chosen by the crafter after their death, allowing that person to manifest that fury. This implies that Furies' natures are neither as simple as motes gathered with personalities projected onto them by the ignorant, nor fully independent entities that do not change.
Of these, the Great Furies are the greatest and most powerful, representing large scale landmarks such as mountains or weather systems. They are for the most part bound and placated through the efforts of High Lords, and cannot be directly controlled by Alerans except to annoy and provoke them. The Great Furies are used as curses or expressions of awe, a remnant from an age where their existence was common knowledge. Most are not aware of the Great Furies outside of myth, to prevent ambitious or dangerous Crafters from provoking them: A fully roused Great Fury is capable of laying waste to the whole continent.
While Proto-Aleran ruins show no sign of fury-crafting ability amongst humans of the past, the Aleran people at the present day manifest personal furies in their early childhood or adolescent years, and control them with their minds. They are used to aid them in whatever task undertaken from housework to combat. This fury-based magic is accomplished in one of two forms. First, an Aleran may draw from the strength of their fury to increase their own. For example, earth crafters often draw physical might from the ground, through their furies, to allow them to lift loads far too heavy for normal people, while wind crafters can increase their speed and metalcrafters their endurance. The second form of fury-crafting is to "manifest" a fury. This involves the fury taking a visible form, often the shape of an animal, though taking the shape of a human is not unheard of. Manifested furies are necessary for the most powerful forms of fury-crafting, including flight (windcrafting) and healing (watercrafting).
While most Alerans display some type very rudimentary ability in all areas of fury-crafting they are skilled in only one or occasionally two elements and generally cannot rise above the freeman social status. Those who have sufficient skill with one or two fury types may elect to become "Citizens" by displaying that skill in a trial. High Lords and their offspring generally show considerable talent in all areas of fury-crafting well beyond the capabilities of a typical person, indicating that heredity plays some role in fury-crafting. Residents of large cities typically treat furies as generic entities while those in rural areas forge close personal bonds with specific furies usually tied closely to particular natural landmarks. All Alerans of sufficient talent and strength in fury-crafting to be named to the Citizenry are obligated by law to marry someone with similar strength, in the interest of producing children with strong fury-crafting ability.
During "Princeps' Fury", a fully intelligent Fury is introduced as the secret behind much of the First Lord's continent-spanning furycrafting. Named Alera, this fury came to be accidentally, when the First Lord Gaius Primus gathered pieces of stone from across Alera into a moasic map of the land. This allowed Primus to gather information by seeing through the furies of very disparate locations, and effect changes from a great range, but this unique construct allowed these furies to coalesce and form an awareness unlike any before it, a fury that represents the continent itself. This fury can appear as of a women made of metal and precious stones, clothed in mist. Alera aids House Gaius, usually by observing distant events through the local furies that make her up, and can effect enormous changes in the continents climate by guiding the First Lords power to be applied in the correct spots, allowing a First Lord to do things such as break up hurricane systems and push cold climates into otherwise temperate locations. Alera has a very distant and detached personality, the vastness of her awareness causing her to lack particular care for personal attachments; she finds the beings that inhabit Alera to be interesting, but transitory, having existed for millions of years before any civilization upon her. Due to this, Alera will not or cannot directly assault an enemy of the First Lord, and therefore all changes she helps create will effect all peoples equally and without prejudice. Alera nevertheless represents an enormous power in the hands of the House of Gaius due to her information gathering abilities and immense control over the conditions of the continent. Her existence is therefore known only to the First Lords, as any awareness of her abilities could motivate others to construct similar Furies and allow for mass destruction. The greater risk, however, is Alera's implication that any other such Fury would be born completely insane. Whether that is due to Alera's existence interfering, or the process to create them being difficult (and Primus therefore very lucky the first time) is unknown.
Types [ edit ]
Type Description Title Water Used for communicating over large distances, reading emotions, shape shifting, keeping a youthful appearance, and manipulating water; the control this provides over a human body allows for both healing or inflicting of illness or may be used to injure or kill; disrupted by fire. Isana also learned how to extend her finger nails, making a sharp weapon. Manifested water furies out of large bodies of water may attack directly. Healer/ Knight Aqua Earth Used to gain strength, tracking and hunting, manipulate the earth, calm animals, and inspire lust. A manifest earth fury can attack directly and can carry a crafter across ground as if on a raft. Earthcraft is necessary to travel swiftly on fury-crafted roads throughout Alera. Earthcraft is disrupted when contact with the ground is lost. Knight Terra Wood Used in manipulating plants, tracking and for camouflage; used by archers to bend massive bows to allow arrows to fly farther and faster, and to increase the accuracy of arrows. Also used to instantly create wooden tools. Requires nearby wood or plant matter, living or dead, in order to use. Woodcrafting is easily disrupted with metal. Knight Flora Air Used to fly, control the wind, and to increase speed and agility. Also able to bend air into a lens to see farther or into an echo chamber to allow voice communication without the need for watercrafting, however the effective range is much shorter. It can also be used to create cones of silence to ensure private conversations. Strong crafters may be able to bend the air to make objects or people seem invisible or to create lenses of air to focus light into a damaging beam. It can be used to manipulate the weather, including the creation of lightning. One blind windcrafter was said to be able to "see" by sense the currents of air in the room. Windcraft is disrupted by earth, particularly in the form of salt. Knight Aeris Fire Used to control firelight to subliminally manipulate passionate feelings such as joy, anger, and fear; used to create and manipulate flames for either constructive or massively destructive purposes; can be used to create cold by extracting heat from an object; can be used to warm the crafter's own body when faced with cold weather; manifested fire furies may attack directly; the most powerful firecrafters can create white-hot spheres that vaporize anything within them and sear all objects within a large radius; disrupted by water. Knight Ignus Metal Used heavily in swordplay as crafters can change the hardness of metal, allowing them to strike with diamond-hard blades. Combat can be totally in the dark as metalcrafters do not need light to sense nearby metal. Shields can also be made more flexible to absorb a greater amount of impact force than normal. Also used in forging weapons and other precise metal objects, and metalcrafters also have dramatically increased pain tolerance and physical endurance. Although they gain speed, accuracy and deadly ability in combat, metalcrafters do not become physically stronger, nor does metalcraft give them skills they have not learned, and they still require metal weapons/armor to make the most of their abilities. The most deadly swordmasters are those who augment their abilities with earth and wind also. Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera, and Araris Valerian are the only characters to display the ability to manifest a metal fury - the effect being that Sextus and Araris transformed into metal, in an effect reminiscent of Colossus from the X-Men. The process is only skin deep, as the skin inside the mouth remains flesh. It is quite painful, however the metalcraft necessary to accomplish it also provides protection from pain. Disrupted by wood. Knight Ferrous
Watercrafters are not conventionally used in the front lines of battle. In the series, Tavi himself also uses them almost strictly as medical staff that actively tend to the injured. Given the number of casualties during battles, any and all Watercraft specialists are assigned to that position. Outside of healing, strong water crafters are used as spies and assassins.
A group of raw recruits, or "fish," who acquitted themselves remarkably well under Tavi's command, were given the nickname "Knights Pisces". This group was an aerial unit of Knights Aeries.
Races of Carna [ edit ]
Alerans [ edit ]
Alerans are humans, taking their name from the country they inhabit. They are the most developed civilization on Carna, and they exert their influence over all other sentient races through their use of furies. Their far-flung empire spans most of an entire continent, but they are pressed on all sides by hostile enemies. Their government is a feudal monarchy with institutions derived from the Roman Empire. The government is headed by a single patriarchal monarch, the First Lord, who controls the high lords and their territories. The Senate is the political body for the empire, establishing laws and government appropriations. All of the high lords and senators are part of an aristocracy called Citizens, as are lesser lords and nobles. To become a Citizen, an Aleran must either win a duel with a Citizen called the juris macto or be appointed by the First Lord. Citizens are similar in status to Roman Patricians.
Aleran culture is male dominated and allows for people to be bought and sold as slaves. Women's rights are lacking in many respects but a highly influential Dianic League is winning support for more rights. The country is organized into city-states, with each of the major cities ruled by a high lord. The outlying areas of the cities are inhabited by farms, called Steadholts. Each Steadholt is led by a steadholder who rules that area of Alera, under the authority of the local High Lord.
The Aleran military is organized into legions similar to those used by the Romans. Each High Lord is allowed and responsible for maintaining three full legions (containing Knights and foot soldiers called legionnaires) and a contingent of bodyguards (singulares). Each legion has sworn loyalties to their High Lord, which causes issues when conflict arises between the First Lord and a High Lord.
Canim [ edit ]
The Canim are large, anthropomorphic wolf-like creatures and fierce warriors. They are long-lived, with a society organized in a caste-like social hierarchy which is susceptible to political in-fighting. Canim speak a growling barking language more suitable to their muzzles than the mangled Aleran that they attempt. Most Aleran contact with the Canim is through Canim raids along the west coast of Alera. They are capable of sorcery, as revealed in Academ's Fury when the Canim use their influence over the elements to batter the coast of Alera with violent storms and in Cursor's Fury when they shot bolts of concentrated red lightning to hit the officers of the First Aleran legion. The blood of living (or formerly living) intelligent beings is necessary in the use of Canim sorcery, in contrast to the fury-based magic of the Alerans. Their current ambassador to Alera is Varg, who was imprisoned after the events of Academ's Fury. In Cursor's Fury, a large contingent of Canim invade Alera with the intent of creating a permanent colony on the continent. In Captain's Fury, it is revealed that the Canim are invading Alera with such massive forces because their homeland has been invaded by the Vord. In Princep's Fury it is revealed that Canea used to consist of several countries, or ranges as the Canim term them, each of them as big as or bigger than Alera itself. Yet by the time the Canim invasion force returns home only one range, Shuar, remains. Shuar is described as a cold, northern, range with tundra and hardy people. The Shuarans are known for their golden fur and their monumental defense engineering. They had turned the plateau that defined their range into a monstrous fortress, which is the reason they have survived against the vord longer than the others. The Narashans are Canim with mainly Black fur and are called the "tree people" by other Canim, suggesting that they once lived in forests. Their range was south of Shuar. Ambassador Varg is a war-leader of Narash. Most Canim view Alerans as unnatural demons and call them as such. Historically, only the Canim of Narash viewed the Alerans as anything more than vermin to be eventually exterminated.
Four classes in the Canim caste system are described as follows:
The warrior caste consists of the elite warriors. These professional soldiers are the Canim analog of legionnaires. They are taller and stronger than the other castes and much more disciplined. They are issued military standard armor and weapons. Warriors often ride on animals called Tuarg, which are giant bull-like creatures that are very irritable and will eat their rider or trample them if not held in check with Canim discipline. The heads of Canim armies are known as Warmasters.
The Maker caste consists of the farmers and artisans, the Canim equivalent of an Aleran steadholder. In the invasion of Alera, the Maker caste is deployed in raiding parties that attack Aleran travelers and raid steadholts with improvised weapons. They are not very disciplined and pose a threat mainly because of their numbers and sheer Canim strength. By the end of Captain's Fury the Raiders that were a part of the Canim invasion have been trained by Nasuag into a force that approaches the warrior caste in capability.
the Raiders that were a part of the Canim invasion have been trained by Nasuag into a force that approaches the warrior caste in capability. The Ritualist caste consists of the Canim's spellcasters. They gain their power from the blood of intelligent creatures. They have the power to summon red cloud-like creatures with acidic tentacles to guard the sky from flying Alerans. They can also summon fire or acid from the sky and cause devastating damage to their foes. They use their own race's and Aleran blood for power. Originally, their role in Canim society was to grant luck, bless family lines, and grant a plentiful harvest, but by the time of the invasion of Alera, they are vying with the warrior caste for political control of the Canim. They often use the skin or body parts of their enemies as clothing or tools. For example, many ritualists have cloaks made of human leather or helmets made of Vord skulls.
The Hunters are the Canim version of Cursors. They are the spies, scouts, and assassins of the Canim. They use short black lengths of chain, small javelins, and iron bars for throwing. These light weapons allow the hunters to sneak up on people. They are only mentioned in passing in the books until Princeps' Fury, in which they make their first appearance. Unlike cursors, they have no overt authority, remaining as pure covert operatives. They are considered to already be dead, having received their blood song (Canim form of last rites) when they became hunters. The Hunters are usually assigned to a Warmaster. They are most commonly tasked with missions where the letter of the Canim codes of honor must be violated in order to preserve the spirit of the codes. The Hunters justify their role by renouncing their right to their life, removing their obligation to observe the codes. With extreme skills in stealth and assassination, Hunters are able to sneak in and out of the most guarded positions in Canea and Alera. This is often used to the advantage of Warmasters who can cause dissenters or enemies to simply "disappear".
Icemen [ edit ]
Very little is known about the Icemen except that they are a savage enemy of Alera, held at bay along the northern fringes of the empire by the Shieldwall. The expense of maintaining the northern defenses, as well as the slave trade, has caused a political rift between the cities of northern Alera and the cities of southern Alera. The Marat use the hair of female Icemen to make incredibly strong, lightweight ropes that will not freeze and break, even in the coldest of climates. In the Marat language, they are called the Gadrim-ha. Icemen first appear in the prologue of Princeps' Fury where they are described as being apelike creatures, the tallest the size of a legionnare but with broader shoulders and chest. They hurl icicles as javelins. In Princeps' Fury, some light is shed upon their method of communication; they make use of considerable mental powers to share emotions. The use of this ability is also available to watercrafters, as Isana demonstrates during negotiations with the Icemen. She also theorizes that this, in conjunction with some type of firecrafting, is the accidental cause of the conflict between Icemen and Alerans, igniting passions that escalated into war. It is also hinted that they wield some form of control over the weather; their military movements are almost always accompanied by snow storms.
In First Lord's Fury, Tavi announces that Alera will lease the Wall from the Icemen before eventually tearing it down. After the Vord War is concluded, the Icemen become a part of the new racially integrated society of Alera, receiving their own recognized state. An Iceman even attends Tavi and Kitai's wedding, with the aid of a coldstone amulet around its neck.
Marat [ edit ]
The Marat are a silver-haired, pale-skinned people who reside on a continent connected to Alera via a land bridge (where the Calderon Valley is located). The Marat appear in many ways to simply be barbaric humans, but their culture and physiology show several key differences, including night vision and exceptional physical abilities, and are noted to have a much higher body temperature than Alerans. They are an aggressive race who routinely fight one another in small scale conflicts. The Marat bond themselves to another creature (such as a Wolf, Herdbane, Gargant, Horse, Fox, Lion and even in one case an Aleran) and call this creature their Totem (chala), gaining many of the creature's strengths and abilities; for example, the members of the Gargant clan have exceptional strength, while those of the Horse clan are faster than other Marat. They are also known for "partaking" in their fallen enemies, where they eat their adversaries (sometimes alive) in combat to gain their strength. It has not been shown whether this actually improves the physical abilities of a Marat or is merely superstition. When their hordes attacked Alera before Tavi was born, they killed the Princeps Septimus' Legion at the First Battle of Calderon. However, after a series of complicated events, their most powerful clans, the Gargant and the Horse clans, became allies of the Aleran nation and often help them against the other hostile forces in Carna. In Captain's Fury, the Marat are seen supplying the First Aleran legion with scout auxiliaries and are trading with the Alerans at the city of Garrison, with one of their headman offering to act as moderator in negotiations between the Icemen and Aleran representatives. In First Lord's Fury, the Gargant, Herdbane and other Marat clans come to the aid of the Alerans in the defense of their final holdout in the Calderon Valley.
Vord [ edit ]
Little is known about the Vord. They are described repeatedly as an "alien" race, but no one knows where they come from. The Vord are originally found in Alera in the Wax forest, where their Queen slumbered. Events were set into motion by Tavi and Kitai which awakened the queen, and caused the Vord invasion. According to Marat tradition, they are shapeshifters. When they come, they possess members of a sentient race, consuming their souls and transforming them into the Taken. The normal vord scouts (called Keepers) have the appearance of large spiders and see in infrared vision. They feed on a translucent, waxy substance called croach, and resided in dormancy in the Wax Forest before they were awoken by Tavi and Kitai. After the Vord queen was awakened, she began producing members of the Vord warrior form; these vord warriors tend to take on the characteristics of the civilization that they are assaulting, and have colossal reserves of strength. When facing the Alerans, they take on humanoid forms, and emulate the Knights. For example, one type of Warrior Vord has a humanoid body, dragonfly-like wings, and two blade-like arms the same length as a legionnaire's Gladius (the Legion weapon of choice) and thus resemble a Knight Aeris. In another instance, they take on the characteristics of the Canim Warrior caste. While they can be killed by conventional methods, the most effective way to kill a Vord warrior is to burst the large, croach filled bubble on its back. At the start of each Vord uprising, there is a primary queen; this queen rapidly forms a nest, and spawns two additional queens who depart to form separate nests; each queen is capable of creating more queens, although in Princeps' Fury, it is discovered that the primary queen birthed sterile queens in the Canim lands. The Keepers, venomous, spider-like creatures the size of dogs, maintain the croach; without the croach the Vord can not survive, for it acts as both air and food. Keepers take living creatures into the croach and they are slowly dissolved into it. The Vord's main objective appears to be to make all things like itself; in pursuit of this goal, the three queens will each occupy different areas of the places (in Carna) they wish to "infect." After the events in the book Cursor's Fury, the prologue states that the Vord have taken over the savage Canim's homeland. After events in Princeps' Fury, the Vord queen is described as looking like Kitai but greenish; this probably has something to do with the events that happened between Kitai and Tavi when they sought the Blessing Of The Night (a thorny mushroom that heals all wounds, injuries, and ailments similar to an elixir of life) in Calderon many years before, and awoke the creature. After First Lord's Fury the Vord in Alera are left in disarray and are slowly being exterminated, though wild Vord who learned to survive do remain. The Vord in Canea are left as a future threat to the realm, unifying the surviving races against the common enemy.
Extinct races [ edit ]
In Princeps' Fury, a few races that were driven to extinction by the Alerans are mentioned. These include the Children of the Sun (formerly of the Feverthorn jungle), the Malorandim, the Avar, the Yrani, and the Dekh. Nothing is known about them besides the fact that they all once had empires that were powerful enough to challenge Alera at the time; and that the Children of the Sun left a series of ruins in the Feverthorn jungle, as well as an unknown force which has kept Alerans out even centuries after their extinction.
Relation to Rome [ edit ]
Codex Alera takes place during the reign of a Rome-like empire. While the relationship between ancient Rome and the realm of Alera is only alluded to over the course of the series, having been lost to history, Butcher confirmed that the people of Alera are the descendants of the "lost Roman legion" (the Legio IX Hispana) and its camp followers, which had been transported to the continent of Carna—an effective "drop chute for the Bermuda triangle."[2]
The realm's Roman ancestry endures in the hierarchical society; the military structure, fighting style, and weaponry; and the nomenclature of cities, geographical formations, people, and ranks. At least one book survived, as well. In the prologue to First Lord's Fury, the Canim Warmaster Varg is reading a book out of Alera's history, but comments that he does not believe "Julius" could have taught Tavi anything. Like the explorers of Earth, Alerans had a tendency to name the places they discovered and built after places in the world they left behind. The ruined city of Appia, one of the earliest Aleran settlements, most likely refers to the Appian Way, also known as Via Appia, which is one of the earliest and most strategic roads in Ancient Rome. It is in this city that Tavi and Maestro Magnus perform their research into Romanic technology at the beginning of Cursor's Fury. When questioned about the term "Romanic" by Max, Tavi responds, "The people were called Romans...you call something Romanic when it was built by Romans."
Other geographic features named for places in Rome include the River Gaul (from the region approximating present day France and Belgium), the Tiber River (from the main watercourse of the city of Rome), the city of Aquitaine (from the province of Gaul compromising Novempopulania and Gascony), the city of Phrygia (from a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia |
y Simon Pegg.
Groovy Quotes
Christopher Pike: Do you know what a pain you are? You think the rules don’t apply to you. There’s greatness in you, but there’s not an ounce of humility. You think that you can’t make mistakes, but there’s going to come a moment when you realize you’re wrong about that, and you’re going to get yourself and everyone under your command killed.
Kirk: Why would a Starfleet admiral ask a three-hundred-year-old frozen man for help?
Harrison: Because I am better.
Kirk: At what?
Harrison: Everything.
Kirk: See, I told you it would fit!
Spock: I am not sure that qualifies.
Kirk: If Spock were here, and I were there, what would he do?
Bones: He’d let you die.
Kirk: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Spock: An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects.
Kirk: Well, its still a hell of a quote.
Bones: You know, when I dreamed about being stuck on a deserted planet with a gorgeous woman, there was no torpedo.
Sulu: Attention: John Harrison. This is Captain Hikaru Sulu of the USS Enterprise. A shuttle of highly trained officers is on its way to your location. If you do not surrender to them immediately, I will unleash the entire payload of advanced long-range torpedoes currently locked on to your location. You have two minutes to confirm your compliance. Refusal to do so will result in your obliteration. And If you test me, you will fail.
Bones: Mr. Sulu, remind me never to piss you off.
Pike: Are you giving me attitude, Spock?
Spock: I am expressing multiple attitudes simultaneously sir, to which one are you referring?
Pike: That’s a technicality.
Spock: I am Vulcan, sir. We embrace technicalities.
Harrison: My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?
Kirk: Wait, are you guys… are you guys fighting?
Uhura: I’d rather not talk about it, sir.
Kirk: Oh my GOD, what is that even like?
If you liked this movie, try these:
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek (2009)
Sherlock (TV series)
AdvertisementsA Canada Revenue Agency investigation into a "grossly negligent" KPMG tax avoidance scheme involving untold wealthy Canadians has been stalled in court for more than two and a half years, CBC News has learned.
In February 2013, a federal court judge ordered KPMG to turn over a list of (as yet) unidentified multimillionaire clients who placed their fortunes in an Isle of Man tax shelter scheme that the CRA is arguing is a "sham."
The CRA hoped to learn the scope of KPMG's "Offshore Company Structure" in order to identify potential tax cheats, as well as recoup millions in unpaid taxes and penalties.
But KPMG filed a court motion to quash the judge's order. For 30 months, the case known as Minister of National Revenue (MNR) vs KPMG has sat dormant before the court with no signs the top-tier accounting firm has handed over any list of wealthy clients. Neither the government nor KPMG has requested a court date to resolve the outstanding order of Justice Noel.
For tips on this story please email investigations@cbc.ca or call Harvey Cashore at 416-526-4704.
Dennis Howlett, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, says the long delay in the case is troubling.
"My big worry is that it may indicate the government is trying to negotiate an out-of-court settlement -- which would be a real shame, because the danger is that would cover up the whole story of what's going on," Howlett told CBC News.
KPMG alleges CRA 'fishing trip'
Dennis Howlett, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, says the long delay in the Canada Revenue Agency's case against KPMG is troubling. (CBC)
Tax authorities first uncovered KPMG's tax shelter program in the Isle of Man, a self-governing territory in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland, after auditing members of the Cooper family of Victoria, B.C., who invested in excess of $26 million.
According to court documents, the family essentially gave away the money to an arm's-length company that invested it and then "gifted" the proceeds back as non-taxable income.
In court, the CRA says the structure was a deliberate "sham" created to "deceive" federal tax authorities.
But when CRA won a court order in February 2013 to force KPMG to hand over a list of all multi-millionaire clients invested in the same Isle of Man plan, the accounting firm filed a court motion to overturn the judge's ruling.
Now, MNR vs KPMG remains mysteriously stalled.
KPMG had argued in court documents that the judge's court order violates clients' legal protections against "unreasonable search and seizure" under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. KPMG also alleged the CRA is on what amounts to "fishing expeditions" looking for potential tax cheats.
Elio Luongo, Canadian managing partner, tax for KPMG, refused to discuss the case, stating in an email it would be "inappropriate for us to comment on matters that may be before the courts."
"KPMG is committed to treating our clients' private financial affairs as confidential... aspects of this are currently before the courts and accordingly it is inappropriate for us to comment," Kira Froese, KPMG Canada's national manager of communications, told CBC News in an email response to repeated requests for an interview.
KPMG talks behind closed doors
This past spring, after CBC News began asking questions at the Federal Court of Canada, court staff began asking lawyers for KPMG and the Minister of National Revenue about the reasons for the delay.
B.C. resident Marshall Cooper says he was 'drawn into' a KPMG tax-avoidance scheme that saw $26 million of his family's money moved to offshore accounts. There are many more like him, he says. (Facebook)
KPMG lawyer Mahmud Jamal advised the court in letters that "confidential" discussions with the government are taking longer than expected because of the "complexity" of the issues involved. Jamal wrote that the parties hoped to settle the matter without litigation, avoiding "costs and other burdens" on the parties and on the court.
The Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) has also sought intervenor status in the court case, amid concerns issues in the case against KPMG were relevant to other firms and other tax avoidance investigations.
In a statement to CBC News, CPA president Kevin Dancey said there's a principle at stake: confidentiality.
"Taxpayers have the right to obtain independent, confidential tax advice so they can understand and comply with Canada's complex tax laws," he said.
CPA Canada, which represents most accounting firms in Canada, has for years been lobbying the federal government for better protection for clients and to limit the materials that accountants have to provide to tax authorities.
CRA spokesperson Philippe Brideau says that it has no plans to afford accountants the same kind of privilege enjoyed by lawyers and their clients.
"The CRA does not support it," Brideau wrote in a statement to CBC News.
Industry watching case closely
A variety of tax experts have told CBC News major accounting firms in Canada are watching the KPMG case closely, concerned about possible precedents, taxpayer privacy and potential exposure to third-party penalties.
"They're nervous," Howlett told CBC News.
"If the government wins this case or gets the evidence they need to pursue another case against KPMG, then this whole house of cards of sham companies and offshore banking is going to come tumbling down."
CBC News consulted a variety of tax experts who say KPMG Canada could face civil "culpable conduct" penalties if the CRA determines the firm helped wealthy taxpayers concoct an illegitimate offshore scheme to avoid paying Canadian taxes.
Under Canadian law, any third party that helps a taxpayer set up a "sham" tax strategy may itself face penalties of 50 per cent of the taxes avoided. In KPMG's case, those penalties could add up quickly, depending on the number of clients that used the alleged Isle of Man tax avoidance structure.
At least one observer says time is running out if the CRA wants to collect all the monies it may be owed.
Michael Hamersley, a former KPMG U.S. lawyer turned whistleblower, says that if the CRA allegations hold up in court, that would show that the government should have acted more promptly.
"The longer this goes, the smaller the chance to capture the full universe of abuse," Hamersley told CBC News after reviewing documents in the case.
With files from Alexandra Byers
For more on this story, watch the documentary "The Isle of Sham" on The National in the days to come.A gubernatorial candidate in South Carolina said Tuesday evening that she is “proud of the Confederacy” and pledged not to “rewrite history” if elected to office, upsetting the state’s black leaders, The Post and Courier reported. Catherine Templeton, a former two-time state agency head, was answering a question regarding her views on “Southern heritage and Southern defense.” The Confederate battle flag was controversially removed from the Statehouse grounds two years ago after a racially-charged mass shooting killed nine people at a Charleston church. “I don’t think she understands the diversity we have in South Carolina and that we’re not all a bunch of flag-waving yahoos,” said Joe Darby, a presiding elder in the AME church. “When you elevate the Confederacy, you stomp on the memories of those who were subjugated, the slaves. She’s stomping on my ancestors. If she’s proud of her heritage over nine lives, it’s a shame.”Police in Palm Desert responded to a 911 call Monday morning from a man who claimed another motorist was hitting his car with an ax in an apparent case of road rage, authorities said.
The alleged attack happened around 9 a.m. the area of Highway 111 and El Paseo, according to a news release from the Palm Desert Police Department.
The suspect got back into his car and tried to flee.
But the victim followed him, the release stated.
Officers caught up with both parties in the Wal-Mart parking lot off Fred Waring Drive and Highway 111, police said.
James Scott, 51, was arrested at the scene for suspicion of assault with deadly weapon, and felony vandalism, according to the release.
Scott’s passenger, 23-year-old Marcelino Castro, was also arrested for a parole violation.
The victim and his 17-year-old daughter were not injured.
Anyone with any information about this incident was urged to contact Officer Pool with the Palm Desert Police Department at 760-836-1600.PARIS: People with ADHD have slightly smaller brains than those without the condition, according to a study released Thursday which insisted it is a physical disorder and not just bad behaviour.
The largest analysis to date of the brains of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder found “structural differences” and evidence of delayed development compared with non-sufferers, researchers reported.
“The results from our study confirm that people with ADHD have differences in their brain structure and therefore suggest that ADHD is a disorder of the brain,” said the study’s lead author, Martine Hoogman of Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.
“We hope that this will help to reduce stigma that ADHD is ‘just a label’ for difficult children or caused by poor parenting,” she said in a statement.
The results of the study, which involved 1,713 people with ADHD and 1,529 people without the condition, were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
Most often diagnosed in children, ADHD is blamed for severe and repeated bouts of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsiveness that can cause problems at school or home.
The symptoms can persist into adulthood.
The causes remain in dispute, and some specialists say ADHD is nothing but an excuse for using drugs to subdue children with difficult personalities or bad parents.
Drugs for treating ADHD, such as Ritalin, have been blamed for side effects including weight loss or gain, liver damage and suicidal thoughts.
For the latest study, Hoogman and a team analysed the MRI scans of people aged four to 63, suffering from ADHD or not.
– Emotional control –
They measured overall brain volume as well as the size of seven regions thought to be linked to the disorder.
The volume overall was smaller in people diagnosed with ADHD, as were five of the brain regions, the team said.
“These differences are very small — in the range of a few percent — so the unprecedented size of our study was crucial to help identify these,” Hoogman said.
“Similar differences in brain volume are also seen in other psychiatric disorders, especially major depressive disorder.”
The regions affected included the amygdala, which is involved in the regulation of emotion.
Previous studies which associated changes in brain volume with ADHD had been too small to be conclusive, the team said.
The differences observed in their study were most prominent in children, but also present in adults with the condition.
The findings suggest that delays in the development of several brain regions were characteristic of ADHD, the researchers said.
They found no difference between people who were taking or had taken ADHD drugs, and those who had never taken such medications — suggesting that the brain changes were not caused by psychostimulants.
In a comment on the study, Jonathan Posner of Columbia University said it was an “important contribution” to the field of ADHD science.
He said further research was needed to determine the effects of medication on the brains of people with ADHD, and how they develop as people get older. –AFPAfter nine months in business, Poncey-Highland’s Rize Artisan Pizza has closed, reports Tomorrow’s News Today. The restaurant closed up shop for good on Thursday, according to signage posted on the front door.
Rize opened last November, and it was the first restaurant to begin service at the new 675 N. Highland mixed-use development. The pizzeria deployed a fast-casual model and offered pasta, salads, sandwiches, and flat breads, and gelato, in addition to the pies. A replacement for the space has not been announced.
Rize continues to operate a location in Sandy Springs, and a Dunwoody location has been in the works. It’s unclear if plans will change following the Poncey-Highland shutter. Rize has recently seen a shake-up to its corporate structure, per TNT.
675 N. Highland now has one restaurant in open on the premises: Co. The Charleston-based pan-Asian venture made its debut at the development in June.
• Rize Artisan Pizza Has Flatlined in Poncey-Highland [TNT]
• All Shutters [EATL]Quarterback wins: A stat that’s been around for a long while. A stat that’s been deeply flawed for that same amount of time. Nevertheless, quarterbacks are often regarded as a player on his own playing ground. Despite football being a team game by definition, we often consider the quarterback to blame for wins and losses.
The odd part being that an average basketball team has 11 players, baseball has a 25-man active roster and hockey has a 23-man roster. Football has a 53-man roster. It’s the very definition of a team game. All 53 players play a crucial part to the game in one way or another. Yet it’s the quarterback that either takes the glory or takes the shame.
At what point does everyone realize that a quarterback doesn’t win games on his own? You would have thought that moment would have been Super Bowl 50. Peyton Manning was easily the worst player on the field. He still took every bit of the glory for the win.
It’s because we place the quarterback, pitcher, goalie and point guard on a much higher pedestal. These positions are to be the centerpiece of a team. While that may be true, a centerpiece is nothing without a surrounding cast. Somewhere along the way we all forgot that, despite playing team sports growing up.
Nevertheless, this is the way people feel. And I've admittedly been hellbent on proving this theory wrong for years. Today is another chapter of that. Although, I want you to make your own decisions based off the data.
As we’ve heard all week last week and will undoubtedly hear until the summer is complete, Matthew Stafford, not the Lions, but Matthew Stafford is 5-46 against teams with winning records. That’s really something, but is it just unfounded idiocy to say that? I’ll let you decide.
Here’s what I’ve done. I’ve gone back and recorded Stafford’s numbers for every single one of those games. I’ve broken it down into multiple categories. The injury prone years, the Schwartz era, the Caldwell era and the playoffs. We’ll go over the numbers and see just how much Matthew Stafford had to do with all those losses. Let’s jump right in.
The “Injury Prone” years Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Final Score Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Final Score 2009 Saints 16 37 205 0 3 43.24 27.4 27-45 2009 Vikings 18 30 152 1 2 60 56.5 13-27 2009 Vikings 29 51 224 1 0 56.86 74.3 10-27 2009 Packers 20 43 213 1 4 46.51 30.5 12-34 2009 Bengals 11 26 43 1 2 42.31 41 13-23 2010 Bears 11 15 83 0 0 73.33 86.2 14-19 2010 Jets 20 36 240 2 0 55.56 94.7 20-23 2009-2010 Total 125 238 1,260 6 11 53.97 52.65 0-7
There’s no doubt that the Lions lost these games as a team, because they were a horrible team at the time. Let’s not forget that Matthew Stafford inherited the worst team in NFL history.
In the early going, Stafford sure did make a lot of mistakes. Multiple interceptions and unrefined decision-making likely lead to some of these losses. But a defense headlined by Larry Foote might have had something to do with it do. Maybe.
Not much to see here, let’s jump to the Schwartz years.
The Schwartz Years Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Final Score Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Final Score 2011 49ers 28 50 293 2 0 56 86.5 19-25 2011 Falcons 15 32 183 1 0 46.68 75.4 16-23 2011 Packers 32 45 276 1 3 71.1 66.5 15-27 2011 Saints 31 44 408 1 1 70.45 97.5 17-31 2011 Packers 36 59 520 5 2 61.02 103.8 41-45 2012 49ers 19 32 230 1 1 59.38 78.9 19-27 2012 Vikings 30 51 319 0 0 58.82 77.2 13-20 2012 Bears 28 46 263 1 1 60.87 74.8 7-13 2012 Seahawks 34 49 352 3 1 69.39 101.7 28-24 2012 Vikings 28 42 329 3 1 66.67 104.2 24-34 2012 Packers 17 39 266 1 2 43.59 54 20-24 2012 Texans 31 61 441 2 0 50.82 85.8 31-34 2012 Colts 27 46 313 2 1 58.7 84.8 33-35 2012 Packers 27 45 264 1 1 60 74.7 20-27 2012 Falcons 37 56 443 0 1 66.07 82.7 18-31 2012 Bears 24 42 272 3 1 57.14 90.6 24-26 2013 Cardinals 24 36 278 2 0 66.67 108.3 21-25 2013 Packers 25 40 262 1 0 62.5 89.8 9-22 2013 Bengals 28 51 357 3 0 54.9 96.6 24-27 2013 Packers 22 35 330 3 2 62.86 98.5 40-10 2013 Eagles 10 25 151 0 0 40 60.6 20-34 2011-2013 Total 553 926 6,550 36 18 59.22 85.37 2-19
Alright. So at this time, as we know, the Lions are beginning to improve. Matthew Stafford is healthy and playing some great football, but he just can’t seem to beat those good teams. While the Lions defense was better around this time, outside of Ndamukong Suh, there wasn’t much to write home about. Stafford’s receiving crew and running back corps was much the same. Nothing to write home about, but somehow an improvement.
This time Stafford’s stats tell a bit of a different tale. This is the old Stafford. The “he only chucks it down field” Stafford. You can make a case that some of these games were definitely lost by the quarterback. Like the the Thanksgiving massacre against the Packers or the or the ugly winter game in Lambeau when Stafford had the ugliest fumble known to man.
But then there are a lot of other games that you can’t blame Stafford on. Like the Thanksgiving day loss to the Texans. The Lions win that game if Jason Hanson doesn’t miss a field goal. A week later against the Colts, the Lions defense gave up a last second touchdown to lose the game. The Lions defense allowed a backup quarterback to go video game on them in Green Bay. Things like that.
The Caldwell Era Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Final Score Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Final Score 2014 Packers 22 34 246 0 2 64.71 61.6 7-19 2014 Bills 18 31 231 1 1 58.06 78.8 14-17 2014 Cardinals 18 30 183 0 1 60 63.6 6-14 2014 Patriots 18 46 264 0 1 39.3 49.5 9-34 2014 Packers 20 41 217 3 0 48.78 89.2 20-30 2015 Vikings 32 53 286 2 1 60.38 79.6 16-26 2015 Broncos 31 45 282 1 2 68.89 74.5 12-24 2015 Seahawks 24 35 203 0 0 68.57 83.4 10-13 2015 Cardinals 20 32 188 1 3 62.5 50 17-42 2015 Vikings 18 26 256 2 0 69.23 126.4 19-28 2015 Chiefs 22 36 217 1 2 61.11 64.2 10-45 2015 Packers 24 38 242 2 1 63.16 87.8 18-16 2015 Packers 22 35 220 2 0 5.71 102.1 23-27 2016 Titans 22 40 260 1 1 55 72.9 15-16 2016 Packers 28 41 385 3 1 68.29 112.3 27-34 2016 Redskins 18 29 266 1 0 62.07 103.5 20-17 2016 Texans 27 41 240 1 0 65.85 89.5 13-20 2016 Giants 24 39 273 0 1 61.54 71.8 6-17 2016 Cowboys 26 46 260 0 1 56.52 63.7 21-42 2016 Packers 26 41 347 2 1 63.41 96.3 24-31 2014-2016 Total 461 759 5,066 23 19 60.55 79.7 3-18
What sticks out the most here is that the Lions have won against winning teams more under Caldwell. That’s three wins. Save your Lombardi comparisons for later.
As we know, Matthew is a much more polished quarterback these days than he was under Schwartz and Linehan. That shows in the Lions’ ability to come back and win games. Can you honestly say that the Lions lost any of these games because of Stafford?
You can bring up 2015’s horrible outing against the Cardinals. Stafford threw three interceptions and got benched. But you’d then have to explain the defense giving up 42 points like it was easy. Then you’d have to ask what happened a couple weeks later when they allowed the Chiefs to have a 40-burger of their own.
Then there’s the fumble in Seattle, the defense losing to Drew Stanton, the Lions’ inability to find a kicker for a month, bad calls, coaching lapses and so on. Is it possible that the Lions just lose games in weird ways that are beyond anyone’s control? Naahhh.
Playoffs Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Final Score Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Final Score 2011 Saints 28 43 380 3 2 65.12 97 28-45 2014 Cowboys 28 42 323 1 1 66.67 87.7 20-24 2016 Seahawks 18 32 5 0 0 56.25 75.7 6-26 2011-2016 Total 74 117 908 4 3 62.68 86.8 0-3
Everyone’s favorite time of year... until it isn’t. The Lions have had a really fun time in the playoffs. New Orleans’ offensive onslaught in the second half, the picked up flag and lost lead in Dallas and, of course, whatever that was last Sunday against the Seahawks.
All in all, Stafford has played somewhat well during these games. Well enough to keep them in the game in most cases. Drops and a horrible defense were huge issues in these games, but again, three interceptions is bad, too.
Some quick things I noticed
What’s weird is that the Lions have lost 23 of these 51 games by seven points or less since Stafford joined the Lions. Evident enough, in my opinion, that 23 of these games could have gone either way. To me that looks like Stafford is keeping the Lions in these games. Maybe?
Or it’s evidence that the Lions lack killer instinct. You’ve heard that before, I’m sure. While Stafford, or the team will lay well enough to keep the team in the game, it never seems to be enough. They’re never able to stick the dagger in the backs of their opponents, and twist it. Is this a Stafford issue? Or has this long been a coach issue? In my opinion, it’s the latter. As we know, Lions coaches are somehow always impervious to adjustments.
The other thing is that a lot of these losses seem to come against the same teams. The Packers, Texans, Vikings and Cardinals. The Lions just can’t seem to beat these teams. That’s actually proven. All four of these teams have all-time winning records against the Lions.
There’s also the fact that the Lions had a streak of losses in Green Bay and haven't won in the desert since 1993. Only two teams have beaten the Lions more than the Vikings and the Lions just can’t beat the Texans. Nothing special there. They just can’t do it for some reason.
In reality, it could really boil down to the fact that the Lions can’t stop Aaron Rodgers, or couldn’t stop Brett Favre. They always shoot themselves in the foot against the Cardinals. The Lions may be the only team to lose to a Ryan Lindley led team. That’s actually true. If quarterback wins were real, Ryan Lindley’s only win is against the Lions.
The Vikings have always had playmakers that give the Lions defenses fits with Cris Carter, Randy Moss and Adrian Peterson. As for the Texans, there really is no rhyme or reason here. The Lions just fall short every time. Outside of their one win over the Texans in 2004, the Lions have lost every other outing to the Texans by seven points or less; all games blown in the fourth quarter. That goes back to the Lions inability to put games away.
Overall Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate 2009-2016 All 1,213 2,040 13,784 69 51 61.83 85.1
So there it is. That’s Stafford’s all-time stats against winning teams. As you can see, it’s not the horrible train wreck massacre you thought it would be. For fun, here’s everything Stafford has done in his career, minus this stuff.
Stafford stats against non-winning teams Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Record Year Opponent Completions Attempts Yards Touchdowns Interceptions Comp % Rate Record 2009-2016 All 1,495 2,362 17,427 122 60 61.5 86.8 46-12
What do you know? The man’s a legend. 46-12. That’s incredible, but I’m not going to give him all of the glory. Just like I choose not to give the man all of the blame. Whether it’s 46-12, 5-46 or 51-58, that’s the Lions’ record. Not Matthew Stafford’s record. Just like if the Lions win the division, a playoff game or the Super Bowl, the team won those things. Not the quarterback.
But at second glance, it’s worth noting that while the Lions don’t win or lose these games directly based off Stafford’s play, it’s nice to see that Stafford’s play isn’t often affected by the strength of the opposing team. By all accounts, Matthew Stafford gives the Lions great play whether it’s against bad teams, or future Super Bowl winners. That’s a real positive and another layer to Matthew’s game that hasn’t ever been discussed.
Now imagine if the lions put a run game around that, or second half adjustments, or receivers that don’t lead the league in drops and a consistent defense that doesn’t go from historically good to agonizingly mediocre on a monthly basis. Then who knows what this team is capable of? But in my opinion, their quarterback is far from the problem.
What are your thoughts, Lions fans? After taking a look at the numbers and everything I’ve presented, is QB wins a real stat? Are the Lions just bad? Is it a team game? Be sure to leave your comments below.No countdown is currently underway for [a renewed] Russian military intervention [in Syria]. This intervention will probably never be renewed, at least not with the same momentum seen in the months prior to the ever-vacillating truce. As a matter of fact, it seems that only the Russians had counted on this intervention and believe that their achievements were sufficient to successfully embark on a political process in Geneva, which also did not materialize.
Indeed, Russia keeps extending the truce [in Syria], although Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had determined May 25 the expiry date of this truce. However, this is the first time that converging signs indicate a relaunching of part of the Russian military operation — with renewed coordination with the Syrian army — ever since Moscow unilaterally decided to halt the Aleppo operation and impose a truce, even on Damascus, which reluctantly agreed to it. It should be noted that this truce is still stirring tension between Russia and the Syrian regime.
Moreover, a feeling of bitterness prevails within the Syrian army and regime about their loss of an opportunity to achieve a great victory, particularly in Aleppo’s northern countryside, and to upset the balance of power in the Syrian war as a whole.
Despite the major achievements [of the Russian intervention] on the ground in the countrysides of Latakia and in Aleppo’s southern, western and eastern countrysides, [the Syrian regime] failed to wrest control of key cities such as Idlib or Jisr al-Shughur and achieve final victory over the armed factions.
The Russian intervention has indeed failed to achieve the operational goals announced by the Russians themselves in November 2015. The Russians had stressed the imperative need to reach the Turkish-Syrian border, setting the closing of border crossings and supply routes with Turkey as a precondition to any solution. However, the Russians renounced this approach. The Russian truce has allowed armed factions, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to reorganize and rearm their ranks and rebuild most of the infrastructure destroyed by the joint Russo-Syrian operations.
Thus, it can be said that for the first time the military and the diplomatic positions have converged on the need to restrengthen [Russia’s] credibility. This might pave the way for a partial re-adoption of the military option.
Yet this time around the goals of any [renewed Russian] military operation will not be as clear or as ambitious as the previous ones. This time, the military intervention will focus on isolating Jabhat al-Nusra from other armed groups. The Russians will put their Sukhoi fighter jets to the test and bet on direct ground offensives to weaken rather than defeat Syrian armed factions. It should be noted that isolating Jabhat al-Nusra from other armed factions, which is a difficult and complicated objective, would strike a painful blow to those factions since Jabhat al-Nusra’s military and ideological might form the backbone around which those factions unite.
Thus, the positions of the Russian administration’s military and diplomatic wings on the need to return to the battlefront fall in line with the position of Shoigu, which considered that the truce option has proved to be a failure and that a deadline must be given to the armed factions to distance themselves from Jabhat al-Nusra Front. This also seems to be the position of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who stated that “Moscow had not abandoned its decision to attack the armed factions that failed to abide by the truce in Syria.”
In an interview published May 31 in Russia’s daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, Lavrov said that the deadline given by Moscow to the militants was about to expire. He added, “The US asked us to extend the deadline for several days prior to the implementation of the plan we had set in advance, whereby any party that breaches the truce would become a legitimate target, irrespective of whether this party is included on the lists of terrorist organizations or not. The Americans requested us to give them a few additional days to present us with their response, but the extended deadline expires this week.”
The foregoing is an indication that helps explain the decision-making process with regard to Syria. This process is affected by a tug of war taking place between the advisers of President Vladimir Putin. The Russian military support the return to the battlefield, while a large part of Russia’s Foreign Ministry officials and officials overseeing the political process, such as Lavrov and Mikhail Bogdanov, believe that work must continue toward achieving a [political] settlement; in fact, they are banking on President Barack Obama’s desire to defeat the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
Indeed, Russian diplomats are convinced that this is the best [political] settlement that they will get — one that will allow them to maintain a presence in Syria and reach a political solution before the end of the year when President Obama’s administration will be replaced by a new and more hawkish successor.
But Russian diplomats find themselves facing the US administration’s continued refusal of any coordination with the Russians in military operations targeting their mutual foe, IS, whether in Raqqa or northern Syria. The best possible US cooperation the United States offers is a joint US-Russian presence in Syrian airspace.
In that context, US warplanes dominate the sky over regions east of the Euphrates River, while Russian air cover blankets the region west of the river. Moreover, neither during Russia’s military operation nor after the truce went into effect did the Americans stop re-arming militant factions. The United States even supplied these factions with nearly 3,000 tons of weapons, offered them training and organized and coordinated their operations in a bid to wear out the Russians in Syria. It should be noted that this has been a clear Obama policy objective aimed to prevent embarking on any political solution as part of the United States' desire to isolate Russia. Washington, in fact, had even asked Russia not to target Jabhat al-Nusra’s positions.
Lavrov also stated that in one of their numerous telephone calls he asked his US counterpart, John Kerry, to explain why the US-led international coalition stopped targeting the terrorists in Syria, to which Kerry reiterated the same traditional justifications — which according to Lavrov are based on a bizarre [US] vision that terrorist positions are mixed with the positions of good guys who should not be targeted.
It seems that the bickering within the Russian administration on resuming the military intervention in Syria is on the verge of ending while the current US administration is entering its final months in office.
Although the mobilization of armed factions in northern Syria has not undergone any change worth mentioning, Lavrov has |
the rustic homes. The Tudor Cottage style became especially popular in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s.
Other names for the Tudor Cottage style include Cotswold Cottage, Storybook Style, Hansel and Gretel Cottage, English Country Cottage, and Ann Hathaway Cottage.
With roots in the pastoral Cotswold region of England, the picturesque Tudor Cottage style may remind you of a cozy storybook house.
The term Mission style may also describe the Arts & Crafts furniture by Gustav Stickley.
By the 1920s, architects were combining Mission styling with features from other movements. Mission houses often have details from these popular styles:
The earliest Mission style homes were built in California, USA. The style spread eastward, but most Spanish Mission homes are located in the southwestern states. Deeply shaded porches and dark interiors make these homes particularly suited for warmer climates.
Celebrating the architecture of Hispanic settlers, Mission Revival style houses usually have arched dormers and roof parapets. Some resemble old Spanish mission churches with bell towers and elaborate arches.
Shown here is the Mission Revival style Lennox House located on the campus of Colorado College at 1001 N. Nevada Ave. Denver architect Frederick J. Sterner built the house in 1900 for William Lennox, a wealthy businessman. Since being renovated, the 17-room house has become desirable student housing on campus.
Historic mission churches built by Spanish colonists inspired the turn-of-the-century house style known as Mission, Spanish Mission, Mission Revival, or California Mission. Characteristics include
Prairie style houses usually have these features:
In 1936, during the USA depression, Frank Lloyd Wright developed a simplified version of Prairie architecture called Usonian. Wright believed these stripped-down houses represented the democratic ideals of the United States.
Many other architects designed Prairie homes and the style was popularized by pattern books. The popular American Foursquare style, sometimes called the Prairie Box, shared many features with the Prairie style.
The first Prairie houses were usually plaster with wood trim or sided with horizontal board and batten. Later Prairie homes used concrete block. Prairie homes can have many shapes: Square, L-shaped, T-shaped, Y-shaped, and even pinwheel-shaped.
Frank Lloyd Wright believed that rooms in Victorian era homes were boxed-in and confining. He began to design houses with low horizontal lines and open interior spaces. Rooms were often divided by leaded glass panels. Furniture was either built-in or specially designed. These homes were called prairie style after Wright's 1901 Ladies Home Journal plan titled, "A Home in a Prairie Town." Prairie houses were designed to blend in with the flat, prairie landscape.
Frank Lloyd Wright transformed the American home when he began to design "Prairie" style houses with low horizontal lines and open interior spaces.
Creative builders often dressed up the basic foursquare form. Although foursquare houses are always the same square shape, they can have features borrowed from any of these styles:
The American Foursquare, or the Prairie Box, was a post-Victorian style that shared many features with the Prairie architecture pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright. The boxy foursquare shape provided roomy interiors for homes on small city lots. The simple, square shape also made the Foursquare style especially practical for mail order house kits from Sears and other catalog companies.
American Foursquare houses usually have these features:
The Foursquare style, sometimes called the Prairie Box, can be found in nearly every part of the United States.
A Craftsman house is often a Bungalow, but many other styles can have Arts and Crafts, or Craftsman, features.
The name "Craftsman" comes from the title of a popular magazine published by the famous furniture designer, Gustav Stickley, between 1901 and 1916. A true Craftsman house is one that is built according to plans published in Stickley's magazine. But other magazines, pattern books, and mail order house catalogs began to publish plans for houses with Craftsman-like details. Soon the word "Craftsman" came to mean any house that expressed Arts and Crafts ideals, most especially the simple, economical, and extremely popular Bungalow.
During the 1880s, John Ruskin, William Morris, Philip Webb, and other English designers and thinkers launched the Arts and Crafts Movement, which celebrated handicrafts and encouraged the use of simple forms and natural materials. In the United States, two California brothers, Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Green, began to design houses that combined Arts and Crafts ideas with a fascination for the simple wooden architecture of China and Japan.
Arts and Crafts, or Craftsman, houses have many of these features:
From cozy bungalows to sprawling Prairie houses, many American homes were shaped by Craftsman ideas. Find facts below. Want more? See: Craftsman Photo Gallery.
Two California architects, Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene, are often credited with inspiring America to build Bungalows. Their most famous project was the huge Craftsman style Gamble house (1909) in Pasadena, California. However, the Green brothers also published more modest Bungalow plans in many magazines and pattern books.
The first American house to be called a bungalow was designed in 1879 by William Gibbons Preston. Built at Monument Beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the two-story house had the informal air of resort architecture. However, this house was much larger and more elaborate than the homes we think of when we use the term Bungalow.
The Bungalow is an all American housing type, but it has its roots in India. In the province of Bengal, single-family homes were called bangla or bangala. British colonists adapted these one-story thatch-roofed huts to use as summer homes. The space-efficient floor plan of bungalow houses may have also been inspired by army tents and rural English cottages. The idea was to cluster the kitchen, dining area, bedrooms, and bathroom around a central living area.
California Bungalows, Craftsman Bungalows, and Chicago Bungalows are just a few of the many varieties of the popular American Bungalow form.
The word bungalow is often used for any small 20th century home that uses space efficiently. However there are particular features we associate with bungalow architecture in the USA. Find facts below
Pueblo Revival homes may also have these Spanish Influences:
Pueblo homes have many of these features:
Modern day Pueblo homes are often made with concrete blocks or other materials covered with adobe, stucco, plaster, or mortar.
Pueblo Revival houses became popular in the early 1900s, mainly in California and the southwestern United States. During the 1920s, aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss and his partner James Bright introduced their own version of Pueblo Revival architecture to Florida. In the region that is now Miami Springs, Curtiss and Bright built an entire development of thick-walled buildings made of wood frame or concrete block.
Since ancient times, Pueblo Indians built large, multi-family houses, which the Spanish called pueblos (villages). In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Spanish made their own Pueblo homes, but they adapted the style. They formed the adobe into sun-dried building blocks. After stacking the blocks, the Spaniards covered them with protective layers of mud.
Because they are built with adobe, Pueblo homes are sometimes called Adobes. Modern Pueblos are inspired by homes used by Native Americans since ancient times. Pueblo Revival homes imitate the ancient earthen homes of the Pueblo Culture in the American Southwest.
The word eclectic is a term used to describe a style that combines features of many other styles. It is an apt description of this exciting period of population growth in the United States, when America was beginning to visualize in architecture what it means to be a "melting pot" of cultures.
The cottage pictured above is a charming example of a home inspired by the Provincial styles of the French countryside and the French Colonial styles found in the Louisiana area of the United States. Common features include hipped roofs (sometimes in complex arrangements, indicative of advancements in construction methods), stucco siding, and a non-rigid symmetry in design. French Eclectic homes are found throughout the U.S. and most date from the 1920s.
French Eclectic homes combine a variety of influences from the architecture of France.
Twentieth century Monterey Revival is often more Spanish-flavored in the early years (1925-1940) and more Colonial-inspired in the later years (1940-1955).
Also known as Monterey Colonial Revival, this house style is similar to Spanish Colonial Revival, American Colonial Revival, and Mediterranean Revival. The original Monterey Style is an historic blend of New England and Tidewater from the East mixed with Spanish Pueblo found in the West. Distinct characteristics are associated with the house style.
The Monterey Style was born in 19th century California, but its popularity expanded throughout a growing 20th century United States. The simple yet regal design became popular with the less-than-rich but well-to-do class of Americans.
Art Moderne truly reflected the spirit of the early and mid-twentieth century. Expressing excitement over technological advancements, high speed transportation, and innovative new construction techniques, Art Modern design was highlighted at the 1933 World Fair Chicago. For homeowners, Art Moderne were also practical because these simple dwellings were so easy and economical to build. However, the Art Moderne or Streamline Moderne style was also favored for chic homes of the very wealthy.
Art Moderne art, architecture, and fashion became popular just as the more highly decorative Art Deco style was falling out of favor. Many products produced during the 1930s, from architecture to jewelry to kitchen appliances, expressed the new Art Moderne ideals.
The sleek Art Moderne style originated in the Bauhaus movement, which began in Germany. Bauhaus architects wanted to use the principles of classical architecture in their purest form, designing simple, useful structures without ornamentation or excess. Building shapes were based on curves, triangles, and cones. Bauhaus ideas spread worldwide and led to the International Style in the United States.
The terms Art Moderne or Streamline Moderne are often used to describe a variation on Art Deco architecture. As in Art Deco, Art Moderne buildings emphasize simple geometric forms. There are, however, important differences:
Art Moderne houses have many of these features:
The style we know as Art Moderne may also go by these names:
With the sleek appearance of a modern machine, Art Moderne - or, Streamline Moderne - houses expressed the spirit of a technological age.
Source: McAlester, Virginia and Lee. Field Guide to American Houses. New York. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1984.
Minimal Traditional houses have many of these features:
Sometimes called a Minimal Modern style, these cottage homes are more "squat" than the steep-roofed Tudor or Tudor Cottagethat came before it, and more "cramped" than the breezy, open-air Ranch Style that came after. The Minimal Traditional house style expresses a modern tradition with minimal decoration.
Although some may argue that these houses have no "style" whatsoever, this simple design was appropriate for a country recovering from a Great Depression and anticipating World War II.
Because so many Ranch houses were built quickly according to a cookie-cutter formula, the Ranch Style later became known as ordinary and and, at times, slipshod. However, during the late 1950s and 1960s, a few real estate developers re-invented the style, giving the conventional one-story Ranch House a modernist flair. Sophisticated Eichler Homes by California developer Joseph Eichler were imitated across the United States. In Palm Springs, California, the Alexander Construction Company set a new standard for one-story suburban housing with stylish Alexander Homes.
After World War II, real estate developers turned to the simple, economical Ranch Style to meet the housing needs of returning soldiers and their families. The briefly popular Lustron Homes were essentially Ranch houses made of metal. Real estate developers Abraham Levitt and Sons turned to the Ranch Style for their planned community, Levittown, Pennsylvania. See: Ranch House Plans for 1950s America.
The earth-hugging Prairie Style houses pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright and the informal Bungalow styles of the early 20th century paved the way for the popular Ranch Style. Architect Cliff May is credited with building the first Ranch Style house in San Diego, California in 1932.
Although Ranch Style homes are traditionally one-story, Raised Ranch and Split-Level Ranchhomes have several levels of living space. Contemporary Ranch Style homes are often accented with details borrowed from Mediterranean or Colonial styles.
Ranch Style houses have many of these features:
Known as American Ranch, Western Ranch, or California Rambler, Ranch Style houses can be found in nearly every part of the United States.
One-story Ranch Style homes are so simple, some critics say they have no style. But there's more than meets the eye to the classic suburban Ranch Style house.
The Raised Ranch style has been adapted to take on a variety of forms. Neo-Mediterranean, Neo-Colonial, and other contemporary styles are often applied to the simple, practical Raised Ranch shape. Split-level homes may also be described as a variation on the Raised Ranch style. However, a true Raised Ranch has only two levels, while a split-level home has three stories or more.
Raised Ranch style houses have many of these features:
In this variation of the Ranch Style, the home has two stories. The lower story is at ground level or partially submerged below grade. From the main entrance, a full flight of stairs leads to the main living areas on the upper level. Some critics say that Raised Ranch houses are unattractive or ordinary. However, there's no question that this practical style fills a need for space and flexibility.
A traditional Ranch Style house is only one story, but a Raised Ranch raises the roof to provide extra living space.
Split-level design reflects an approach popularized by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright believed that houses with "half floors" would blend naturally with the landscape. Living areas could be separated from private areas by just a few steps, rather than a single long staircase.
Regardless of the floor plan, split-level houses always have three or more levels. The main entrance is usually (although not always) on the center level.
A Split-Level Ranch is a Ranch Style house that is divided into several parts. One section is lowered and one section is raised.
In this variation of the Ranch house style, a Split-Level Ranch has three or more levels.
Orders for some 20,000 Lustron Homes poured in, but by 1950 the Lustron Corporation was bankrupt. Today, well-preserved Lustron homes are scarce. Many have been demolished. Others have been altered as homeowners added drywall walls and new exterior siding.
The first Lustron house was produced in March 1948. Over the next two years, 2,498 Lustron Homes were manufactured. The steel houses were made like cars on conveyor belts in a former aircraft plant in Columbus, Ohio. Flatbed trucks transported the Lustron panels to 36 states, where they were assembled on concrete slabs using nuts and bolts. Assembly took about two weeks. The completed house cost between $7,000 and $10,000, not including the foundation and the lot.
At the end of World War II, the United States didn't have enough housing for the 12-million soldiers returning home. President Harry Truman pressured builders and suppliers to construct affordable housing. Many architects and designers, including Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller, tried to design inexpensive prefab housing that could be built quickly. But one of the most promising ventures was the Lustron Home by businessman and inventor Carl Strandlund. Vowing to mass-produce steel houses at the rate of 100 a day, Strandlund landed $37 million in government loans.
Made of steel coated panels with porcelain enamel, Lustron Homes were manufactured like cars and transported across the USA. Find facts about Lustron Homes below.
Sources: Brochures and articles accessed from totheweb.com/eichler include Sales brochure and floor plans for Eichler Homes, Lexington Avenue, San Mateo Highlands Neighborhood; Sales brochure and floor plans for Eichler Homes, Brandywine, San Mateo Highlands Neighborhood; Sales brochure and floor plans for Eichler Homes, Laurel Hill, San Mateo Highlands Neighborhood; Sales brochure and floor plans for Eichler Homes, Yorktown, San Mateo Highlands Neighborhood; Brochure for Eichler's X-100 Experimental Steel House; House & Home magazine, 1959; and Family Circle magazine
In Palm Springs, California, the Alexander Construction Company also pioneered modernist approaches to suburban housing, building thousands of open, sophisticated Alexander Homes.
Although not comprehensive, this list suggests some of the best places to look for Eichler homes and buildings.
An Eichler House is essentially a one-story Ranch, but Eichler's company reinvented the style, creating a revolutionary new approach to suburban tract housing. Many other builders across the United States imitated the design ideas that Joseph Eichler pioneered.
Eichler House is a term used to describe homes constructed by California real estate developer Joseph Eichler. Between the 1949 and 1974, Joseph Eichler's company, Eichler Homes, constructed about 11,000 houses in California and three houses in New York state.
Fuller's geometric architecture should not be confused with the Monolithic Dome home, which is by definition constructed of one stone piece.
Geodesic Domes are ideal for emergency housing and mobile shelters such as military camps. However, the innovative geodesic shape has been adopted for elegant, upscale housing.
Developed by Buckminster Fuller in 1954, the Geodesic Dome was promoted as the world's strongest, most economical, lightweight structure. The ingenious engineering of the geodesic dome allows it to cover a wide stretch of space without using internal supports. The geodesic dome design was patented in 1965.
During the same time period, California builder Joseph Eichler also pioneered modernist approaches to suburban housing, building thousands of stylish Eichler Homes that were imitated across the USA.
See More Houses built by the Alexander Construction Company:
The Alexander Construction Company gave their homes a variety of roof lines and exterior details, making each home seem unique. But, behind their facades, Alexander Homes shared many similarities.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the George Alexander Construction Company partnered with several architects to develop a unique approach to tract housing. Although the company worked in and near Palm Springs, California, the houses they built were imitated across the United States.
Real estate developers Robert and George Alexander captured the spirit of mid-century modernism, building more than 2,500 tract homes in southern California.
1950s - 1970: A-Frame House Style
Homes Shaped Like Tee-Pees A-Frame house in Canton de Shefford, Quebec, Canada. Photo by Design Pics/David Chapman/Getty Images (cropped)
With a dramatic, sloping roof and cozy living quarters, the A-frame shape became a popular choice for vacation homes.
A-frame houses have many of these features:
Triangular shape
Steeply sloping roof that extends almost to the ground on two sides (sometimes the roof extends all the way to the ground)
Front and rear gables
Deep-set eaves
1½ or 2½ stories
Many large windows on front and rear façades
Small or limited living space (interior lofts are common)
Few vertical wall surfaces
History of the A-frame:
Triangular and tee-pee shaped homes date back to the dawn of time, but several 20th century architects awakened interest in the geometric A-frame form.
In the mid-1930s, Austrian-born architect Rudolph Schindler designed a simple A-frame vacation house in a resort community overlooking Lake Arrowhead in California. Built for Gisela Bennati, Schindler's A-frame Bennati House had an open floor plan with exposed rafters and glass-walled gables.
Fifteen years later, other builders explored the A-frame shape, constructing landmark examples and variations of the form. In 1950, San Francisco designer John Carden Campbell won acclaim for his modernist "Leisure House" made of smooth plywood with all-white interiors. Campbell's A-frame houses spread via do-it-yourself kits and plans.
In 1957, architect Andrew Geller won international attention when the New York Times featured a distinctive A-frame house he built in Amagansett, Long Island, New York.
The A-frame shape peaked in popularity during the 1960s. Enthusiasm waned during 1970s as vacationers opted for condos, or else built much larger homes.
A-frame Pros and Cons:
The A-frame shape with its steep sloping roof provides several benefits:
Heavy snow slides to the ground instead of remaining on top of the house and weighing it down. Space at the top of the house, under the high peak, provides enough room for lofts or storage. Maintenance is minimized because the roof extends all the way to the ground and doesn't need to painted.
On the other hand, the sloped A-frame roof creates a triangular "dead space" at the interior base of the walls on each floor. A-frame houses have limited living space and are usually built as vacation cottages for the mountains or beach.
Related Style:
Swiss Miss
Also See:Brewed with wood-smoked malts, these beers brim with campfire complexity.
Haandbryggeriet Norwegian Wood: Inspired by Norway’s forgotten smoky farmhouse ales, this gruit’s steeped on fruity, woody juniper berries and twigs that accent a wave of campfire smoke.
Epic Smoked & Oaked: Pass around this 10%-ABV barrel-aged, cherrywood-smoked Belgian ale and share the blend of figs, cherry, toffee and pepper.
Bootleggers Wildfire Wheat: This smooth SoCal smoked wheat beer washes back with smoldering grains, hints of orange and a crisp finish.
Listermann Friar Bacon Smoked Bock: Slip this Cincinnati smoked bock into your picnic basket: Its seamless fusion of toasted bread and porky smoke is perfect with a ham sandwich.
Meantime Old Smoked Bock: The London brewery’s new spin on a classic bock infuses toasted bread notes with rich woody smoke.
Cedar Creek Scruffy’s Smoked Alt: Merge two German traditions—beechwood-smoked malt and altbier yeast—and you get this mild, slightly smoky, berry-tinted sipper.
Blind Bat Vlad the Inhaler: This tart take on a Grätzer (a rare style from Grätz, Poland) is puckering but approachable: Oak and grill-like smoke balance lemon and wheat.
Fritz Briem Grodziskie: This Grätzer’s biting sourness, prickly hop bitterness and mellow smoke combine for a highly unusual but incredibly refreshing swallow.
4 Hands Smoked Pigasus: Brewed with smoked malt, rye and maple syrup, this porter expresses winter-warmer flavors like rich chocolate, sweet maple, spicy rye and earthy smoke, but boasts a warmer-weather 6% ABV.
Fort Collins Bambostic Rauchbier: This oak-aged GABF gold medalist (out again in August) is the perfect introduction to smoked beers: Based on traditional beechwood-smoked rauchbiers, it oozes bacony smoke. Watch for more: Bambostic is the first in Ft. Collins’ new limited series that explores the possibilities of wood-smoked malts. Watch for at least three smoky releases per year.World’s 1st Offshore Wind Project To Use 8 MW Turbines Opens In UK
May 17th, 2017 by Joshua S Hill
Wednesday saw the opening of the Burbo Bank Extension Offshore Wind Farm, a 258 megawatt offshore wind project which is the first project so far to make use of the world’s most powerful wind turbines, Vestas 8 MW turbines.
All the way back in February of 2014, Vestas announced that it would partner with Danish wind energy giant DONG Energy to provide its new 8 megawatt (MW) wind turbines to the Burbo Bank Extension. The project is an unusual one, as the original Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm was only 90 MW, made up of 25 much smaller and more conventional 3.6 MW wind turbines. The Extension, therefore, dwarfs the original installation considerably, with 32 of these new 8 MW wind turbines, bringing the total installation up to 348 MW.
DONG Energy installed the first of the 8 MW behemoths back in September of last year, and by November the turbines were already beginning to generate power, with the final turbines installed in December.
On Wednesday, representatives from all companies involved gathered to mark the official opening of the project. The wind farm is a joint venture between DONG Energy (50%) and partners PKA (25%) and KIRKBI A/S, parent company of the LEGO Group (25%). MHI Vestas representatives were also in attendance.
“Burbo Bank Extension showcases the rapid innovation in the offshore wind industry,” said Henrik Poulsen, DONG Energy Chief Executive Officer. “Less than ten years ago at Burbo Bank, we were the first to install Siemens 3.6MW wind turbines and in this short time, the wind turbines have more than doubled in capacity. Pushing innovation in this way reduces the cost of electricity from offshore wind and will help to advance the offshore wind industry across the world.”
“The inauguration of Burbo Bank Extension represents a noteworthy milestone in the history of MHI Vestas and our stakeholders,” added CEO of MHI Vestas, Jens Tommerup. “We are extremely proud to supply 32 of our 8 MW turbines to DONG Energy and help provide renewable energy for more than 230,000 UK homes.”
The completion of the project was also highlighted and praised by RenewableUK, the wind energy trade body for the UK.
“This game-changing project is a testament to the offshore wind industry’s strong commitment to relentless innovation — including the state-of-the-art turbine blades which were designed, tested and made on the Isle of Wight, and the huge transition pieces built in Teesside,” said RenewableUK’s Executive Director Emma Pinchbeck. “It’s great to see a variety of places in the UK benefitting from offshore wind, as the turbines were assembled in Belfast Harbour.
“Today’s turbines are the most efficient ever — driving down the cost of electricity for consumers.”Update: Valentina's Tex Mex BBQ will open its new location on Thursday, January 19; The Violet Taco's debut will follow on Friday, January 20.
---
South Austin, this one's for you. Valentina's Tex Mex BBQ will open its first brick-and-mortar restaurant at 11500 Manchaca Rd.
The food truck began raking in the accolades as soon as it debuted in 2013. While barbecue genius Miguel Vidal's spread includes breakfast, barbecue, and sandwiches, Valentina's is most famous for its brisket taco, one of the top tacos in town — and in Texas.
The move means the end to Valentina's Brodie Lane spot. "We'll be moving our trailer to our brand-new location while we get this building ready to be the brand-new Valentina's Tex Mex BBQ," reads a Facebook post from the team. "Thanks for all the love and support, Austin. We couldn't have done it without you."
However, the space will not stay empty for long. In a corresponding announcement, Valentina's sister food truck, The Violet Taco, revealed plans to relocate from Star Bar to Brodie Lane, filling the taco void with its fun mix of classic and unique creations.
"We can't wait to bring our tacos to South Austin," says the team.
The Violet Taco shuttered on New Year's Day; Valentina's will close up shop soon and move its food truck to Manchaca Road to await the renovations. Violet Taco's reopening and Valentina's relocation are scheduled for late January.
Valentina's isn't the only recent taco truck success story. Veracruz All Natural just opened a brick-and-mortar in Round Rock, while OneTaco debuted a new space in Cedar Park.Player 1.
Select one player Alex Sandro - Juventus de Turin Alex Telles - FC Porto Alisson - Liverpool FC Allan - Napoli Arthur - FC Barcelona Casemiro - Real Madrid David Neres - Ajax Amsterdam Douglas Costa - Juventus de Turin Ederson - Manchester City Fabinho - Liverpool FC Felipe - FC Porto Fernandinho - Manchester City Fernando - Galatasaray Filipe Luís - Atletico Madrid Fred - Manchester United Gabriel Jesus - Manchester City Jemerson - Monaco Lucas Moura - Tottenham Luiz Gustavo - Olympique de Marseille Marcelo - Real Madrid Marquinhos - Paris SG Miranda - Inter Milano Neymar - Paris SG Philippe Coutinho - FC Barcelona Richarlison - Everton Roberto Firmino - Liverpool FC Taison - Shakhtar Donetsk Thiago Silva - Paris SG Willian - Chelsea Willian José - Real SociedadDanial Rinehart in the courtroom (KCTV) (KCTV)
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (CBS/AP) A grim tale of child-murder and molestation is unfolding in a Cass County, Mo. courtroom, where Danial Rinehart faces charges of second-degree murder, incest, statutory rape, and child endangerment.
Rinehart's 20-year-old daughter sobbed uncontrollably on the stand Monday as she told the jury how her father began molesting her at age five and impregnated her four times, the first when she was 14.
The coolers that Rinehart allegedly put two babies' bodies in. (KCTV) KCTV
CBS affiliate KCTV reports that in a video interrogation shown the jury, Rinehart admitted to investigators that he had sex with his daughter and helped deliver their babies, only one of whom is still living. He's accused of contributing to at least one child's death.
In the videotape, Rinehart said his daughter sometimes initiated sex with him. A detective asks him why he thought his daughter wanted to have sex. "By the way she acts," he says. "She would rub my shoulder or my back, and I could just tell."
Crying throughout her testimony, the 20-year-old said her first child died by falling off a couch; another became ill and begged Rinehart to call a doctor, but prosecutors said he contributed to the child's death by not allowing a doctor see the baby; still another child of the alleged incest died in childbirth, said prosecutors
The daughter's second child is the only one still living, now 5, according to KCTV.
Prosecutors said Rinehart and his daughter put the last two babies that died into coolers, sealed them shut and left them at her grandparent's house in the garage.
One of Rinehart's other daughters told police in October 2008 that the family left the property they were living on and moved Gallatin, Mo. She said a few months later, the new tenants on the land in Harrisonville found the dead bodies in the coolers.
The 20-year-old alleged victim of incest said her mother, Linda Rinehart, knew about it and did nothing. She is being charged with child endangerment, says KCTV.Twenty years ago, members of Vancouver's LGBT community celebrated a milestone: for the first time in the history of the city's Pride parade, the chief of police would participate with a contingent of uniformed officers.
At the time, it was heralded as a mark of progress — a sign of approval from one of society's most conservative institutions.
In this report from July 29, 1997, then-CBC reporter Margo Harper marvelled at the contrast between the police as the "upholders of the status quo" and the marchers of the Pride parade as the "cutting edge" of society.
LGBT officers and guards discuss coming out at work. 5:48
Fast-forward twenty years and the subject of police in the Pride parade is a dramatically different conversation.
A new generation of LGBT activists have challenged the presence of uniformed officers in Pride parades across Canada.
These critics argue that the police uniform at the parade is a symbol of an institution that has harmed and continues to harm certain groups.
"When they march in uniform with weapons and vehicles as well, it can be traumatizing or triggering to people who have experienced police violence or their communities have experienced police violence," explained queer activist Cicely-Belle Blain, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Vancouver.
Blain's group is one of the more prominent ones opposed to police in the parade.
Police will march in Vancouver parade
Black Lives Matter Vancouver issued a set of requests earlier in the year to limit police participation in the summer Pride parade.
While the Vancouver Pride Society agreed to some of their requests — including no sirens used during the parade — it stopped short of removing all uniformed police officers from the parade.
Pride societies in other cities, like Calgary, have chosen to welcome police officers but have banned uniforms, official vehicles and floats.
Disappointed by Vancouver's stance, groups including Black Lives Matter Vancouver and Rainbow Refugee are sitting out of the parade.
'We can't close the door'
Velvet Steele, the VPD's LGBT advisor, says police officers deserve to be in the parade.
Steele says the VPD have put in efforts over the years to reach out to the LGBT community and the parade should be inclusive, not exclusive.
"I like to believe that Vancouver is leading by example. We are at the table with them discussing, making things aware to them to what's going on out there in the communities," she said.
"We can't close the door."
From left to right: Velvet Steele, who sits on VPD's LGBTQ advisory panel; VPD's diversity officer Const. Dale Quiring; and Seattle PD officer James Ritter. Over the past years, the VPD has implemented many programs and initiatives for the LGBT community. (Simon Charland-Faucher/CBC)
Sandy Leo Laframboise, an Indigenous trans activist who calls herself "one of the old activists from the 1970s," also supports uniformed police members in the parade.
"Is there a need to improve? Certainly," she said, recalling times when she herself was the subject of police intimidation and violence.
But for her, it's time to move on and allow the police their place in the LGBT community.
"Vancouver Pride is about celebration," she said. "Vancouver police — that's their identity, that's their outfit, that's their job."
'You can never take off your skin'
But Blain says conflating a uniform with an identity like race misses the point.
"I understand that people see it that police commit their lives to their jobs, but ultimately they can take off their uniforms at any time and they can remove themselves from the institution of policing at the end of their job and go out in plain clothes at any time," she said.
"If you're a person of colour, you can never be without that. You can never take off your skin."
Cicely-Belle Blain is the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Vancouver. (Alex Lamic CBC News)
A need to find common ground
Mary-Woo Sims, a queer activist and former chief commissioner of the B.C. Human Rights Commission, says the tension over uniformed police is understandable.
"If you think about the gay and lesbian community and the trans community, our history is full of incidents with the police," Sims said.
"It has not been a pretty picture. We have been bloodied. We have been arrested. Some of us still are."
Mary-Woo Sims says there's a lot more work to do to overcome the differences between members of the LGBT community. (Mikul Media 2014/ Vancouver Pride Society)
Sims says differing opinions on the subject are a reflection of the diversity of the LGBT community and the need to find common ground.
"Let's talk some more," she said. "What are we going to do in the future for better relations?"
With files from Jake Costello and Ethan SawyerGov. Rick Scott (Photo: AP File Photo)
Gov.Rick Scott and the union representing most state employees reached a truce Monday in his losing four-year legal fight to require random drug testing of tens of thousands of state employees.
"We are pleased that the settlement will allow Florida to protect families by ensuring state employees working in the most critical areas of safety and security remain drug-free," said John Tupps, the governor's deputy communications director.
The ACLU said the agreement also resolves an unrelated, but similar, lawsuit in which Scott was stopped from requiring drug tests of welfare applicants. Both testing plans were part of his 2010 campaign for governor and Scott sought to implement them shortly after taking office in 2011.
"Gov. Scott came into office on a campaign that exploited myths and stereotypes about poor people and state workers, and treated them like suspected criminals," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. "This settlement agreement marks the end of that campaign."
In the settlement, the state agreed not to test employees in 1,133 of about 1,400 job classifications in agencies under the governor. Testing would be allowed mainly in "safety sensitive" jobs, in which an employee's errors could jeopardize others.
The courts have long recognized that employees such as as law-enforcement and prison officers can be tested prior to employment, and randomly required to submit to urinalysis on the job. Also, employees who show signs of impairment can be required to take tests, under state programs dating back nearly 30 years.
Among the thousands of employees who will not be subject to tests, under the agreement, are regular clerks, office workers, purchasing agents, project and systems analysts and other office workers.
"Gov. Scott's mandatory, universal urinalysis plan and the arguments he made in court to defend it, rested on the idea that everyone loses their constitutional protections when they choose to serve the people of Florida, regardless of their positions," said Jeannette Wynn, state president of AFSCME Council 79. "The settlement we've reached would significantly scale back that campaign, allowing a more limited testing program to go forward, while protecting the rights and dignity of many of our members who were unlawfully subject to suspicion less searches under the original executive order."
Scott signed the order March 22, 2011, less than three months after taking office. It was immediately challenged in court by AFSCME and ACLU attorneys won in a Miami federal district court and the federal appeals court in Atlanta. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Scott's appeal a year ago.
Aside from legal arguments under the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens' privacy against government searches, plaintiffs in the case argued that there was no evidence that government employees are any more likely to use illegal drugs than are any other citizens. A similar argument was mounted in the successful suit against testing of applicants in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, in which the |
crowded east London night club, leaving two revellers partially blinded and others disfigured.The state's crime watchdog should be "beholden to no-one", according to Labor, which is also seeking to boost the Crime and Corruption Commission's investigative powers.
Three weeks after its first Cabinet meeting, the new Labor government is slowly announcing its intentions to Parliament, promising that a "strong, independent" CCC remains at the top of its priorities.
The CCC will not be a toothless tiger under the new Labor government, according to Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath.
Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said the government would push through with its commitment to restore the crime commission's ability to independently research issues it believed warranted investigation after the previous government's reforms saw the attorney-general needing to approve research before it could go ahead.
Ms D'Ath has also pledged to reinstate the crime watchdog's role in preventing corruption and reconsider the need for those who make a complaint to the CCC to sign a statutory declarations.Jones garnering interest on trade market
MLB.com/blogs Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 16, 2014
By The Fish Pond
MIAMI — The Marlins have yet to officially announce the free agent signing of Michael Morse, but already the club has received calls from teams interested in Garrett Jones.
Morse’s arrival gives the Marlins some flexibility regarding Jones, who suddenly becomes available. Miami may decide to keep Jones, and use him as a left-handed bat off the bench, either at first base or in right field.
But most likely Jones will be dealt, and there are teams who have expressed interest, MLB.com has learned.
Jones is signed for $5 million in 2015, and it doubtful Miami would keep his allocation as a bench player. One reason is Justin Bour gives the club a left-handed hitting first base alternative.
Bour, who showed promise after being called up from Triple-A New Orleans in September, could be used as a lefty bat off the bench. Although Morse will start at first, he has dealt with injuries, and he likely would get periodic days off.
Also defensively, Morse could be a candidate to be replaced in the late innings if Miami has the lead. Bour is solid in the field, and could assume that role.
Morse’s two-year deal, MLB.com has learned, is in the $12 million range.
With Morse being Miami bound, the Marlins have addressed all of their primary offseason needs. They’ve added second baseman Dee Gordon, right-handers Mat Latos and Dan Haren and now Morse.
There is some uncertainty about Haren, because the right-hander is weighing whether to retire. Still, Miami is hopeful he will decide to pitch.
In terms of rounding out their roster, Miami is in the market for a fourth outfielder. They may have those candidates already headed to Spring Training. Non-roster invitees Austin Wates and Gole Gillespie each can play all three outfield spots, and may be the two frontrunners to win the job.
Jeff Baker becomes the primary pinch-hit option.
A lefty reliever may also be added to join Mike Dunn. Keep an eye on Andrew McKirahan, taken in the Rule 5 Draft off the Cubs’ roster. McKirahan will be given a strong look to make the club.
— Joe Frisaro• Polish striker linked to Chelsea and Manchester United • ‘There are no talks with other clubs, and there won’t be any’
Bayern Munich have warned rival clubs not to approach the unsettled Robert Lewandowski, with the Bundesliga champions prepared to seek Fifa sanctions if their message goes unheeded.
The prolific Polish striker has been linked with a transfer window move to Chelsea or Manchester United, amid reports that initial talks over a deal had begun.
Liverpool to seal Mohamed Salah signing from Roma for £35m Read more
Bayern issued a statement to Sky Deutschland to deny the claims, saying: “Robert is under contract at Bayern and only recently renewed his deal until 2021. Bayern Munich waste no thought on a Lewandowski move.
“There are no talks with other clubs, and there won’t be any. If other clubs negotiate with players who are under long-term contracts, they risk Fifa punishment. The agent also confirmed to us that he has not held any contract talks.”
Lewandowski’s agent has criticised Bayern for not helping his client to secure the Bundesliga golden boot. The striker scored 30 goals for the season and needed to score twice against Freiburg in the final game to overhaul Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Agent Maik Barthel revealed the Pole felt the club did not help him to achieve the personal landmark, telling Kicker: “Robert told me that he got no support and that the coach gave no call to help him in the last game to win the top-scorer title. He was disappointed as I have never seen him before. He really hoped that the team would support him proactively.”appears on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated. (Greg Nelson/SI) Kevin Durant appears on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated. (Greg Nelson/SI)
This week's Sports Illustrated cover features Thunder forward Kevin Durant, surrounded by his words that read, at first, like a venting promise.
“I’ve been second my whole life,” Durant tells SI's Lee Jenkins in a profile that will hit newsstands on Thursday. “I was the second-best player in high school. I was the second pick in the draft. I’ve been second in the MVP voting three times. I came in second in the Finals. I’m tired of being second. I’m not going to settle for that. I’m done with it.”
That quote perfectly sums up the inherent frustration involved in operating at the highest of levels in LeBron James' world. Is anything ever good enough when James keeps raising the bar?
But Jenkins' profile reveals a Durant who has fully embraced that frustration as a means to self-improvement. There isn't a hint of "woe is me" whining in Durant's declaration; he's too busy searching for ways to reach the summit.
That process includes first-hand observation of James, a study that has unfolded over multiple years, drifted into the world of advanced statistics and resulted in a friendship, but one that has only fueled their competitive tension.
“That’s my guy,” Durant says. “I looked up to him [James], and now I battle him.”... “I don’t watch a lot of other basketball away from the gym,” Durant says. “But I do look at LeBron’s box score. I want to see how many points, rebounds and assists he had, and how he shot from the field. If he had 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, I can tell you exactly how he did it, what type of shots he made and who he passed to.” Durant and James take flak for their friendship, but it is based on a mutual appreciation of the craft. They aren’t hanging out at the club. They are feverishly one-upping each other from afar. “People see two young black basketball players at the top of their game and think we should clash,” Durant says. “They want the conflict. They want the hate. They forget Bird cried for Magic. A friend was getting on me about this recently, and I said, ‘Calm down. I’m not taking it easy on him. Don’t you know I’m trying to destroy the guy every time I go on the court?’ ”
It's one thing to pay lip service to the shot charts and numbers; it's quite another to employ a personal stat geek and to memorize situational shooting statistics. Durant, we find out, has done both of those things, and more.
Kevin Durant sat in a leather terminal chair next to a practice court and pointed toward the 90-degree- angle at the upper-right corner of the key that represents the elbow. “See that spot,” Durant said. “I used to shoot 38, 39 percent from there off the catch coming around pin-down screens.” He paused for emphasis. “I’m up to 45, 46 percent now.”... Durant has hired his own analytics expert. He tailors workouts to remedy numerical imbalances. He harps on efficiency more than a Prius dealer. To Durant, basketball is an orchard, and every shot an apple. “Let’s say you’ve got 40 apples on your tree,” Durant explains. “I could eat about 30 of them, but I’ve begun limiting myself to 15 or 16. Let’s take the wide-open three and the post-up at the nail. Those are good apples. Let’s throw out the pull-up three in transition and the step-back fadeaway. Those are rotten apples. The three at the top of the circle -- that’s an in-between apple. We only want the very best on the tree.”
The takeaway feeling is that Durant exists these days entirely within the "edge" that elite athletes often talk about, and it's enough to make you wonder how he stays sane, given James' all-encompassing dominance, and whether the mean streak he's shown this season is a negative by-product of all that built-up tension. Jenkins explores, concluding that Durant hasn't fundamentally changed, even if he has evolved.The fallout from the prohibition of Republic’s “Not the Royal Wedding” street party continues. After implying police still had concerns about the proposed event when they did not, a list of “objecting” retailers provided by Camden Council includes businesses who had no clue the event was taking place.
Correspondence from retail landlord Shaftesbury Plc, Covent Garden Community Association and high-end clothing store Rio Beach was the basis for claims that “organisations representing over 140 businesses objected”. But a number of listed “objectors” were unaware of the street party until contacted by journalists. Many such businesses are located away from the proposed venue and neither the council nor trade bodies have carried out a consultation.
Despite police acquiescence to the event, a statement from Camden Council, which is reproduced in full below, still claims there are “a number of public safety concerns”. The council has not “offered” the alternative venue of Lincoln’s Inn Fields but suggested Republic apply for its use (which could carry a potential cost of £3,500 with a minimum fee of £1,500) while making clear that such an application would be subject to the same vetos from locals.
Authorities continue to stand in the way of a well-planned, peaceful and positive event.
Would they prefer republicans had organised a noisy, disruptive protest instead?
Full statement from Camden Council
A Camden Council spokesperson said:
“Camden Council received an application to close Earlham Street from Republic, an organisation who wished to hold a “Not the Royal Wedding Street Party” on 29 April 2011. The application was refused due to objections from Camdenresidents and organisations representing more than 140 local businesses. These groups strongly opposed the event as they felt it would negatively impact on their sales, and they also raised a number of public safety concerns as to how the event would be managed. The council has since been in on-going discussions with Republic to resolve these issues – including offering them the opportunity to apply for their event to be held at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the largest public open space in the Covent Garden area. However, Republic has refused this offer. Camden has a duty to support the best interests of local people in our borough. We did not agree for the event to take place at Earlham Street following strong objection from the local community.”Homeland Security Investigators walk in around the three ancient sculptures, from left to right: the "Calf Bearer', the 'Bull's Head', and the 'Torso', displayed during a press conference and repatriation ceremony at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in New York, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017. The three ancient sculptures, confiscated in New York in the past few months, are being returned to their rightful owners in Lebanon as the Manhattan district attorney forms a new antiquities trafficking unit. They were stolen from a temple during the Lebanese civil war that started in 1975. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) ORG XMIT: NYAK101 less Homeland Security Investigators walk in around the three ancient sculptures, from left to right: the "Calf Bearer', the 'Bull's Head', and the 'Torso', displayed during a press conference and repatriation... more Photo: Andres Kudacki Photo: Andres Kudacki Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Stolen art returning to Lebanon 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
New York
The Manhattan district attorney announced Friday that three ancient sculptures are being returned to their rightful owners in Lebanon as he forms a new antiquities trafficking unit that will track stolen artifacts from around the world.
At a news conference in his office, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. stood by the treasures once owned by private collectors and valued at more than $5 million.
They were excavated from a temple and stolen during the Lebanese civil war that started in 1975 and lasted 15 years. Some were confiscated in New York in the past few months.
A marble torso from about the 4th century B.C., sold by an antiquities dealer, was seized in November. Another marble torso from the 6th century B.C. was recovered in October. And a bull's head from about 360 B.C. was recovered from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it was on loan from a collector.
They're the latest looted artifacts to be returned from New York, considered the U.S. hub of antiquity sales that are fueled by the city's concentration of wealth.
Matthew Bogdanos, who leads the DA's new antiquities trafficking unit, said ancient works found in war-torn lands easily end up in the hands of dealers who are "less than scrupulous" in determining their origin.
Lebanese Consul-General Majdi Ramadan said the Manhattan prosecutor's efforts "will mark the end of a long trail of theft and illicit trading."
Vance said that since 2012, his office has recovered several thousand trafficked antiquities collectively valued at more than $150 million.There is barely any new material in it for us die-hard Providence fans, but this week saw the first collected editions of Moore and Burrows’ Providence. The limited edition hardcover Providence Act 1 costs $19.99. It is limited to 6666 copies.
Facts in the Case of Alan Moore’s Providence already had the cover posted at the miscellaneous Providence covers page. Many Cinema Purgatorio Kickstarter backers have received a special Willard Wheatley variant cover edition for Act 1. That cover is also posted at the miscellaneous covers page.
The collection preserves the issue-by-issue pagination by taking the individual comics’ back cover Lovecraft quotes and placing them on the back of each cover page (though these cover images are now chapter pages.) Page-turn reveals, including the peacock feather seller at the end of the second chapter, remain the way Moore and Burrows engineered them.
The back cover of Act 1 does includes a heretofore unseen Jacen Burrows illustration of the shed where the invisible John-Divine Wheatley resides. On the wall, of course, are the crayon drawings that appear interspersed in issue four’s Commonplace Book back matter.
We have not done a painstakingly detailed comparison, but we did spot one very minor correction in the new edition. In Chapter 1 P15,p1, the word balloon has been shifted upward two stories. We had noted this on our nitpicks page – so, perhaps, someone at Avatar Press read through those? Though they only changed that one nitpick, apparently. Avatar fixed a handful of Joe’s Crossed Plus One Hundred nitpicks when that collected edition came out last year.
How about you, our sharp-eyed readers? Have you spotted any other differences, corrections, revisions in the new collected edition?In some kind of insane bout of mass misogyny, Republicans are hounding out the women voters — including Republicans and independents — who helped them gain control of the House in 2010.
Senator Olympia Snowe, who’s fed up and leaving Congress, told The Washington Post ’s Karen Tumulty that “it feels as if we are going back to another era,” warning that Republicans could drive women into Democratic arms.
Photo
And whose arms would be more welcoming to the sisters than Hillary’s? The woman who has been mocked as “the sex-retary of state” by Rush Limbaugh would know just where to hit back.
There has been fevered speculation about Hillary ascending. Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen suggested in The Wall Street Journal that President Obama should take “the moral high ground” and step aside for his secretary of state. Hillary, they argued sanguinely, could “break the gridlock in Washington.”
It’s an amusing but absurd scenario.
Al Hunt of Bloomberg News wrote this week that Hillary could waltz past Larry Summers into the presidency of the World Bank and that she is the automatic Democratic front-runner for 2016. My colleague Bill Keller suggested that she replace Joe Biden on the ticket in 2012 and demote him to Foggy Bottom: “Vice President Clinton would be a formidable asset in governing as well as campaigning, both as a political calculator and as an emissary to Capitol Hill. She has, to put it mildly, an ability to navigate the world of powerful, problematic men.”
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She wouldn’t, however, be able to navigate past two powerful men who would find her elevation problematic: Obama and Biden. Although chatterers love to chat about the Joe-Hillary switch because she’s so much more compelling — and masterful — than the whole Republican field, it’s not on the radar screen at the White House. It would make the president seem weak, desperate and disloyal and get him a vice president who would pull focus and be a competitor. Besides, before he would go, Biden would handcuff himself to Bo.
The Republican assault on women does, though, provide a glide path to the White House both for Obama in 2012 and Hillary in 2016.
Women have watched a chilling cascade of efforts in Congress and a succession of states to turn women into chattel, to shame them about sex and curb their reproductive rights. They’ve seen the craven response of G.O.P. candidates after Limbaugh branded a law student wanting insurance coverage for birth control pills, commonplace for almost five decades, as a “prostitute” and “slut.”
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American women have suddenly realized that their emancipation in the 21st century is not as secure as they had assumed. On “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, a Republican, had the gall to say this, justifying his support for a bill designed to humiliate women getting abortions by penetrating them with a wand to take a picture: “Every invasive procedure has an informed consent requirement.” What he really meant is that when abortion is an option, informed consent should require an invasive procedure. Along with Rick Santorum ’s Taliban views, Mitt Romney suggested in an interview on Tuesday with a St. Louis TV station that to help balance the federal budget he would eliminate Planned Parenthood funding: “We’re going to get rid of that.”
Women who assumed that electing Obama would lift all minority boats are beginning to think: Maybe he’s not enough. If the desire of these conservative male leaders to yoke women is this close to the surface, if they are perversely driven to debase women even though it could lead to their own political demise, then women may require more than Obama.
If women are so vulnerable, they may need one of their own.
Is she inevitable?Platinum Trophy
Unlock All Trophies 1.1%
Ultra Rare 4.74%
Ultra Rare
Ticking Time Bomb
Complete Mountain Glenn Part 2 with 3:00 minutes or more left on the clock. 15.4%
Rare 23.47%
Uncommon
Go Team RWBY!
Play in an online match with all four team RWBY members present. 25.6%
Rare 35.45%
Uncommon
Going Solo
Complete the campaign in single player 14.1%
Very Rare 20.76%
Uncommon
Keep it 100
Reach 100 hits on the combo counter. 35.6%
Rare 41.35%
Uncommon
Team Player
Execute a Team Attack. 56.7%
Common 65.03%
Common
Field Medic
Revive a teammate after purchasing Quick Revive. 26.0%
Rare 35.65%
Uncommon
Butter and Butter
Do Blake's taunt right after killing the Mutant Deathstalker 7.0%
Very Rare 15.33%
Rare
You da Real MVP
Get Wave MVP five times in a waved encounter. 19.3%
Rare 25.28%
Uncommon
Crazy Science Machine
Get four flawless waves in a waved encounter. 11.3%
Very Rare 17.89%
Rare
Ruby Rose
Complete the campaign using Ruby 15.6%
Rare 23.36%
Uncommon
Blake Belladonna
Complete the campaign using Blake 14.4%
Very Rare 22.22%
Uncommon
Weiss Schnee
Complete the campaign using Weiss 13.0%
Very Rare 20.25%
Uncommon
Yang Xiao Long
Complete the campaign using Yang 13.0%
Very Rare 21.20%
Uncommon
It Belongs in a Museum
Collect 10 artifacts during a single play session. 25.9%
Rare 31.95%
Uncommon
Momentum Shift
Kill a Mutant Beowolf while your Aura is depleted. 26.0%
Rare 31.57%
Uncommon
Unscathed
Complete any level without taking damage. 45.3%
Rare 49.53%
Uncommon
Beacon Graduate
Reach rank 10 with any character. 1.4%
Ultra Rare 5.05%
Very Rare
The Ultimate Ultimate
Kill 10 enemies with a single Ultimate attack 12.3%
Very Rare 17.74%
Rare
Cleverly Disguised Jumping Puzzle
Collect the artifact at the end of the jumping puzzle in Forever Fall. 27.4%
Rare 32.52%
Uncommon
A Little Respec
Refund all of your Ability Points 46.1%
Rare 53.51%
Common
Top Score
Get the highest score in a four player online match on a single level. 18.1%
Rare 27.31%
Uncommon
Mutant Hunter
Get an assist on a Mutant Beowolf 36.2%
Rare 43.81%
Uncommon
Sister Synergy
Do a Team Attack with Ruby and Yang 33.8%
Rare 42.50%
Uncommon
Team DUST
In a four player online game, each player deposits at least one dust crystal. 6.1%
Very Rare 12.54%
Rare
It's Also a Gun
Complete any level by only using ranged attacks. 18.1%
Rare 26.89%
Uncommon
Automated
Kill 35 enemies with turrets during a single horde match. 18.6%
Rare 24.23%
Uncommon
The Old Fashioned Way
Beat any horde map without building a turret. 2.2%
Ultra Rare 7.55%
Very Rare
Turrets Times Ten
Have 10 active turrets at once during a horde match. 24.3%
Rare 30.32%
Uncommon
Horde Master
Win any Horde map with all security nodes at 85% health. 3.8%
Ultra Rare 8.80%
Very Rare
Horde Hero
Beat any Horde map solo. 4.0%
Ultra Rare 10.38%
RareAmigos, comrades, friends, companions, chums, mates, partners and pals; as we continue to bring you a multitude of creative insights and discussion points, we thought you fine folk would appreciate the following list of upcoming poetry competitions, which you may wish to submit your work.
We’ve previously brought you a whole host of writing competitions you can enter this year, and while they were – for the most part – prose-based contests, we wanted to make sure you had all the resources you need to get your poetic musings out there.
Included in the list below are details about deadlines, poetry submission length and direct links to each competition.
If you’d like to add a poetry competition to our list then please feel free to contact us!
The closing date for submissions is 27th May 2016.
An international poetry prize, based in Scotland, open to poets of all shapes and sizes.
The main prize is £1500, with £400 awarded to the runner up, £250 awarded to each the winner of the Scottish Gaelic Prize and the Scots Prize, and eight additional entries will receive prizes of £25 each.
There is a £6.50 entry fee for your first poem. Please see the contest’s website for further information.
The closing date for submissions is 31st May 2016
The Frogmore Press was founded in 1983, since when The Frogmore Papers, its bi-annual magazine, has published hundreds of new, neglected and established writers. For subscription and submission details see the main menu. The Frogmore Poetry Prize has been awarded annually since 1987 and attracts entries from all over the world.
If you’re a fan of old currency, this is the prize for you. The winner of the competition will receive two hundred and fifty guineas and a two year subscription to the Frogmore Papers.
There is an entry fee of £3 per poem. Please see the website for further information.
The closing date for submissions is 31st May 2016
Now in its 10th year, the competition continues to attract writers from many countries and once again the prize this year is open to both English and French Writers.
The prize is open internationally to poets aged 16 years or older.
First prize is £500, second prize is £200 and third prize is £100. Prizes are presented for poems in both French and English languages.
There is an entry fee of £9 for your first poem, and £5 for each subsequent entry.
See the website for more information.
The closing date for submissions is 31st May 2016
Poems may be on any subject or style and must not have been previously published, or posted on a website or blog. Poems posted on members-only writing groups for workshop purposes as part of the creative process are not deemed to have been previously published. Poems must also not be under consideration for publication or accepted for publication elsewhere. Poets of all nationalities living anywhere in the world are eligible to enter.
The winning poet will receive £200, with the next two runners up receiving £100 and £50, respectively. All winning entries will be published in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine.
The entry fee changes depending on the number of poems you enter. It looks like this: £4/1, £7/2, £9/3, £11/4, £12/5, £16/7, £22/10.
The closing date for submissions is 31st May 2016
A big name prize. The Bridport Prize was founded by Bridport Arts Centre in 1973 and has steadily grown in stature and prestige. Right from the start the competition attracted entries from all parts of the UK and from overseas.
The winning poet will receive £5000, with the second prize winner receiving £1000, third prize £500 and ten further runners up receiving £50 each.
There is an entry fee of £9 per entry. Further information about the prize available here.
The closing date for submissions is 13th June 2016
First prize is £2,000, 2nd prize £400, 3rd prize £200, and 17 other finalists each win £25, plus a retreat at the beautiful Cove Park and a mentoring session with The Poetry Review editor. There is also have a special prize for unpublished poets, to make this a brilliant opportunity for both new and experienced writers.
There is an entry fee of £7 for up to three poems.
The closing date for submissions is 15th June 2016
This competition is for London poems. Poems should have a London focus or context – any explicit London connection, past, present or future, is acceptable.
There are five prizes: First prize is £300, second prize is £150, third prize is South Bank Poetry Membership (worth £50), fourth prize is a two year subscription to South Bank Poetry magazine, fifth prize is a one year SBP magazine subscription. Additionally, five commended poets will have their poems published in SBP Issue 24, along with the prize winners. There will be a reading at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden, London. All those included in Issue 24 will be invited to read at the subsequent launch readings at the Poetry Society’s Cafe in The Poetry Place at 22 Betterton Street with extended readings for the prize-winning and commended poets.
There is an entry fee of £4 for the first poem, £3 for the second and £2 for the third and each subsequent poem.
The closing date for submissions is 8th July 2016
The judges would like to read poems written in response to Ravens; The City. These can be found in Ted Hughes’s Collected Poems (Faber & Faber). Poems must be written in English and unpublished elsewhere.
Poets may enter up to three poems, at a fee of £5 per poem.
The winner receives £400, with the two runners up receiving £100 and £50, respectively.
The closing date for submissions is 31st July 2016
The competition is open to anyone aged 16 or over. Poems should be in English, they must not have been previously published, nor be currently submitted for publication or competition elsewhere.
Poems must be the original work of the entrant, they must be typed single spaced on A4 paper and be no longer than 40 lines. See RULES for full details.
There is a maximum length of 40 lines per poem.
First prize is £300, second prize is £125 and third prize is £75.
There is an entry fee of £4 per poem.
The closing date for submissions is 31st July
The Winchester Poetry Prize aims to surprise and delight, and strives to give serious recognition to the winning poets.
First prize is £1000, second prize is £500 and third prize is £250.
There is an entry fee of £5 for the first poem and £4 for subsequent entries.
Please view the rules for more information about this competition.
The closing date for submissions is 31st August 2016
Poets are invited to write a political poem. The theme of this poetry competition is poetry and politics, so in order to enter your poem it must be about any aspect of politics. Your poem can be about international politics or instead be about something political much more closer to home.
So, you can express a vision on world politics, or indeed about a decision made by your local council. For example, you can address politics and religion, or the political aspects of war. The poem can be about civil liberties or threats against them, about social injustices, or even about the politics of the use of certain words or language. The opportunities of this theme are endless.
The judges don’t have to agree with your opinions, but they do want to be touched in some way by your poem, inspired by its imagery and, of course, look for a beautiful use of language.
First prize is £200 and publication. The competition welcomes entries written in English by poets aged over 18. The maximum line length is 50.
There is no entry fee.
The closing date for submissions is 23rd September 2016
The prize is open internationally to new and established writers aged 16 or over.
The winner of the competition will receive £10,000 for the best portfolio of three to five poems (with a maximum combined length of 120 lines).
There is an entry fee of £17.50
The closing date for submissions is 30th September 2016
The competition is open to international submissions to those poets aged over 18 years.
First prize is £200, second prize is £100 and third prize is £50.
There is an entry fee of £5 per poem (with a discounted rate of £3 for students).
The closing date for submissions is 15th December 2016
This competition is open to all poets from across the world. Poetry must be original; but there are no restrictions on any form or style.
The winner will receive US$1,000 and their poetry will be published by Gival Press.
There is a reading fee of US$20.00
AdvertisementsMUMBAI: A 50-year-old man, Chandrakant Gangurde, who was taken off the ventilator at a hospital in Sion on Wednesday after doctors gave him up for dead, sprang a surprise when he suddenly regained consciousness. "The doctor wrongly assumed Gangurde was dead and removed the oxygen supply but he woke up with a start," said a cop. A case has been registered against the doctor. At the time of going to press, the police were taking down the statements of Gangurde's relatives. A 50-year-old man woke up after the doctors declared him dead and removed oxygen supply pipe in the ventilator late on Wednesday. At the time of going to press no arrest were made and the Sion police where taking down statements of the patient Chandrakant Gangurde's family members before deciding the course of action on the doctor for declaring him dead, said the Sion police.Police have registered a case under section of the IPC for 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety) against the doctor. "We have booked the doctor for the act endangering a person's life. Further action will be taken after the probe report from the medical council. The doctor thought that Gangurde was dead and even removed the oxygen supply but all of a sudden he woke up," said.Gangurde was admitted in a private hospital in Sion on December 5. He was kept in the ventilator after condition deteriorated. In the complaint, Gangurde's son Atul said, "The doctor asked us to inform all our relatives that my father has died. He told us that he can't see any sign of movement from my father and stopped the oxygen supply. Minutes later I learnt that my father is still alive."Atul complained the police that the doctor should be booked for taking the casual approach in treating a patient and declaring death without proper check-up.Image copyright AFP Image caption Lord Hill has previously been leader of House of Lords
New European Commissioner Lord Hill has called for a period of calm in the row about David Cameron's refusal to pay a £1.7bn tax-contribution bill to the EU.
In his first broadcast interview since taking the job, he also said the question of the UK's EU membership was a "boil that needs to be lanced".
Mr Cameron has said the UK will not pay the EU surcharge by 1 December.
Treasury sources said Chancellor George Osborne would continue to demand a cut in the size of the bill.
In a meeting with EU finance ministers, Mr Osborne will also press for any payment to be delayed or phased in.
But a final agreement is not expected to be reached, the BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith said.
Last month, David Cameron reacted angrily to the bill presented to the government by the EU for £1.7bn (2.1bn euros).
'Calm the situation'
The surcharge follows an annual review of the economic performance of EU member states since 1995, which showed Britain had done better than previously thought.
Elements of the black economy - such as drugs and prostitution - have been included in the calculations for the first time.
Italy, Greece and Cyprus were also asked to make extra contributions, while France and Germany are set for refunds.
Lord Hill told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It seems to me that this is one of those classic examples you get from time to time, where something that a group of people think are technical matters suddenly, and in this case for perfectly understandable reasons, become highly political.
"The sensible thing now is to try to calm the situation down, and to look at the facts, and to look at a practical solution to the challenges that various member states face."
The former leader of the House of Lords, who was appointed as European Commissioner for financial services on 8 October, said a meeting of finance ministers later this week would go some way to finding that "practical solution".
Losers Additional sum to pay United Kingdom £1,676m Netherlands £506m Italy £268m Greece £70m Cyprus £33m Winners Reduction France £801m Germany £614m Denmark £253m Poland £249m Austria £232m
In his new role, Lord Hill said he was required to act in the interests of all the EU's 28 states, not just promote UK views.
The EU debate in Britain was going through a "lively stage", he said, adding that other countries were having similar debates.
He acknowledged that EU institutions could seem "very remote" to some member states.
Image copyright PA Image caption Mr Cameron said he would not pay the bill by the 1 December deadline
A referendum on EU membership has been promised by the prime minister if the Conservatives win a majority at the next general election.
Speaking on the wider issue of whether the UK should remain in the union, Lord Hill said he hoped the country would decide to do so.
"My view is that on the back of a reform process, Britain would want to choose to stay in the EU," he said.
"Obviously that's a choice for the people of Britain, there's democratic process to go through if we have that referendum. But I think it is good to address that question, I think there is a boil that needs to be lanced."
Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg said leaving the EU would be "absolutely disastrous" for the UK, and said many Conservative MPs favoured an exit "come hell or high water".
At Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Labour leader Ed Miliband accused Mr Cameron of "weasel words" over Europe as he challenged him over his support for EU membership.
Ahead of a summit of northern European leaders, the prime minister of Finland, Alexander Stubb, cast doubt on Mr Cameron's hopes of making changes to the principle of free movement of people.
He told the Financial Times free movement was "holy" and said the appetite for a major treaty change was "quite meagre".
Lord Hill's career(Article Continues |
points. Animisov hit the 20-goal plateau for the second time in his career. Imagine if they develop even further as a trio in 2016-17.
With Shaw and Teravainen gone, there’s a gaping hole in your bottom six if you’re head coach Joel Quenneville. A guy like Schmaltz (more on him later) who boasts potential and creativity is going to thrive under his system if utilized the proper way. Panik opened a lot of eyes towards the late stages of the regular season and in the series versus St. Louis. He’s hard on the puck and is effective off the rush. The 25-year-old doesn’t try to do too much and plays his part, whatever that may be. His extension in the off-season was expected due to his performance and there’s hints of brilliance by slotting him on the third line. Tootoo can provide a spark on the fourth line, but if he’s undisciplined, he’ll find his seat in the press box soon enough.
“Coach Q’s” blender is going to be awfully busy this season.
The Defense
Duncan Keith – Niklas Hjalmarsson
Brian Campbell – Brent Seabrook
Michal Kempny – Trevor van Riemsdyk
Michal Rozsival
Erik Gustafsson
This year’s Blackhawks defense is arguably the best on paper since they won their sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history in 2015. The “big three” blueliners in Chicago remain intact: Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Seabrook. Due to the lack of NHL-caliber right-handed defensemen in the organization, one defensive pairing will have two left-handers on it. Keith, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, is best suited on his dominant side of the rink. At age 33, he’s proved time and time again that his skill level and longevity can be relied on immensely. That would mean the odd man out in this scenario would be the Swede.
Hjalmarsson has been exposed to working on his weak side throughout the duration of his hockey-playing career. This concept has been incorporated into drills and exercises in Europe more so than in North America. There’s no question that Hjalmarsson has the capability to succeed in his half of the ice by breaking out responsibly. The obstacle that will cause him the most trouble will be activating his pinches along the boards in the offensive zone.
Instead of using his strong side to knock pucks down with his stick for a quick cycle, Hjalmarsson will be using his body to stop pucks from exiting the blue line. This creates a dilemma if he fails to transfer the puck from his body to his blade, causing him to be trapped at the dangerous area of the point. However, if anyone on the Blackhawks roster can handle the ensuing task at hand (no pun intended), it’s the 29-year-old from Eksjö.
Campbell will be depended on to chip in offensively and pick his spots appropriately. We’ve seen throughout his NHL career that he knows when to pinch up to spark the rush and can cash in on chances. He’s intelligent and mobile; when you have those attributes firing on all cylinders for him on the back-end, you’re going to be satisfied with his play. The Strathroy, ON native is looking for one last shot at Lord Stanley’s Cup before choosing to hang up the skates for good.
His decision to re-join Chicago was straightforward: He cares more about winning than he does making money. Putting Seabrook on his right is a duo on defense that preaches puck possession. Seabrook has a knack for moving pucks through the neutral zone and hemming opponents in their own zone by keeping pucks alive at the point. Their shots are powerful and seem to get through traffic often, which can raise Chicago’s ranking in the goal category from 9th in the league (where it stood last season).
The third pairing is going to be a revolving one, knowing Quenneville’s patience. Michal Kempny, a 25-year-old Czech defenseman, was signed by Chicago in late May. Standing at 6’0″ and weighing in at 194 pounds, Kempny should instill a physical presence on a team lacking that aspect defensively. He’s a well-rounded player who isn’t flashy in any particular area. He gets the job done, but isn’t going to play hero in the NHL. That’s why he’ll start on the third pairing; Kempny was signed by the Blackhawks to add a sense of security and simplicity. Let’s hope he supplies exactly that, if nothing more.
He fits splendidly on a pair with Trevor van Riemsdyk, who is a bit more offensive-minded. Speaking of “TVR,” he’s going to be held under the microscope very closely by Blackhawks management. He’s shown flashes of potential in high-pressure situations but also has looked lost when the puck is on his stick. Chicago is hoping that he can mature into the right-handed shot they’ve been setting him up to be. If his performance falters or perhaps he gets injured next season, you know Q’s philosophy: Next man up. I’m looking at you, Ville Pokka.
Goaltending
Corey Crawford
Scott Darling
Corey Crawford has many critics, but he likely deserved a Vezina Trophy nomination last year, plain and simple. How he strives to build off of his stellar 35-18-5 record in 2016-17 is going to be something to focus on. The 31-year-old netminder was fourth in wins last year, fifth in save percentage (.924) and the league leader with seven shutouts. He can win at least 40 games next season if he keeps rolling like he has in recent memory.
Against St. Louis in the playoffs, he stole the show during critical moments of the series. When the Blues trailed Chicago 2-1 in Game 3, Crawford was unbeatable in the middle frame. He denied Jori Lehtera then Vladimir Tarasenko twice, all in succession. It was all for naught when the Blues came back and won the contest, but it’s an example of how dominant Crawford was in spurts. When Robby Fabbri bumped into him in Game 4, he went ballistic on the rookie and somehow got his team a power play that resulted in a goal. He’s passionate, determined and as fundamentally sound as he’s ever been in his career.
Remember his porous glove hand that plagued him in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final? Well, those tennis ball exercises must have paid off because he’s much stronger in that regard than he was three years prior. He’s coming out on his crease a bit more, appearing larger to oncoming shooters while taking away areas above his shoulders. His puck-handling is an aspect of his game that he can refine, but if that’s his greatest flaw, then he’s emerged into quite the goaltender.
Scott Darling will get his share of games under his belt while backing up Crawford, but hopes to regain his 2015 form when he practically saved the Blackhawks from elimination in the first round of the postseason against the Nashville Predators. His numbers dipped from a save percentage of.936 to.915 and a record of 9-4 to 12-8-3. Darling seemed even overwhelmed at times in between the pipes. He’s 27-years-old, which means his peak as a goaltender in the NHL is likely a few years away. Watching an experienced backstopper like Crawford day in and day out can only make him better. If Crawford gets hurt next season and Darling’s number is called, he should be well-prepared.
Players to Watch
Marian Hossa
A variety of question marks surround Hossa moving forward with Chicago. He’s 37 years old and displayed signs of time catching up with him last season. Hossa scored only 13 goals in 64 games last season, which was the lowest total in a full season throughout his entire NHL career (he scored 15 goals in 60 games during his rookie year). Hossa’s $5.275 million cap hit isn’t going to look too pretty if he echoes his statistics from last season. Don’t forget, he’s signed through 2020-21.
His knees have been giving him trouble for over four seasons which has attributed to his durability gradually decreasing. That being said, the Slovakian forward is one of the best puck protectors in the league due to his astounding lower body strength. He’s also one of the smartest players in the game today. Hossa may not always end up on the score sheet night in and night out, but he creates turnovers and chances for his team. Quenneville continues to view him as an ideal threat on the shorthanded grouping and on the man advantage, so his ice time won’t (and shouldn’t) diminish in the special teams department.
There’s been speculation Quenneville will bump Hossa down to assume a lesser level of responsibility at even strength. If you do that, there’s not enough firepower in the top six. Let “Big Hoss” loose to start the season and go from there. Hossa’s still got some left in the tank, but how long can he sustain it?
Jonathan Toews
Toews, while employing a terrific shutdown style of defense, needs to appear on the score sheet more. A total of 58 points in 80 games last season isn’t a poor performance by any standard, but the Blackhawks aren’t as deep up front as they once were. Being matched up against the league’s superstars every night doesn’t boost his offensive numbers, either.
Take away the top two lines and the Blackhawks aren’t intimidating anyone down the middle. This allowed opposing defenses to key in on “Captain Serious” all year long in 2015-16, including the postseason. While he racked up over a dozen grade-A opportunities in the opening round against St. Louis, he failed to score a goal in the seven-game series. Every time he crossed the blue line with the puck, it seemed like there were three Blues defenders suffocating him.
Toews’ debut on social media this season has led to only positive publicity, which is good news for the Blackhawks organization. This summer, he’s posted videos on Instagram of his vigorous offseason training regime, solidifying the perception that he is one of the hardest workers in the NHL. Toews has led Chicago to three Stanley Cups and has two Olympic gold medals to his name while representing Canada. He’s a born leader and can motivate an entire locker room without saying a word.
The 28-year-old was less than satisfied with his performance last season and aims to contribute more. His scoring numbers have to increase in 2016-17 if the Blackhawks want to return to hockey glory.
Players on the Rise
Artemi Panarin
When Tarasenko arrived in North America to get set for his rookie season in 2013, he incessantly nagged Blues management about Panarin. They’d played on the same line together, won the World Junior Championship in 2011 together and were best friends (and still are). The St. Louis brass weren’t sold on the forward who was passed over 210 times in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock recalled those conversations last April:
“He talked about him, and everybody looked and said he’s a pretty small guy. We all look a little dumb right now.”
Boy, did they drop the ball on that one. Panarin’s first season in the NHL surpassed expectations by a long shot. His 30 goals were the second-most scored by a rookie in Blackhawks history (Steve Larmer had 43). The Russian winger’s 47 assists tied the franchise record with Larmer and Denis Savard.
Despite his phenomenal season, he holds incredible upside in 2016-17. #72 may be circled on every head coach’s depth chart for 82 games moving forward, but it’s tough to contain him and Kane simultaneously. Give either of these guys open space in the high slot and they are going to bury you. Panarin owns one of the hardest wrist shots on the team; he’s able to release the puck as quick as he receives it. It’s downright lethal. The “Bread Man” can stickhandle in a phone booth and dish out innovative passes, similar to his line mate.
He’s already exhibited indications of ascending into an upper-echelon talent, which will be pivotal to Chicago’s long-term prosperity. As long as he stays healthy, Panarin will be able to avoid the fateful sophomore slump.
Nick Schmaltz
The 20-year-old from Verona, WI couldn’t have raised his stock higher than he did last season. While playing for the North Dakota Fighting Hawks, he amassed 11 goals and 35 assists in 37 games en route to a NCAA national championship. He was drafted 20th overall by the Blackhawks in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft out of the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. After Teravainen and Shaw were traded, Schmaltz’s window for opportunity widened. He signed his entry-level contract with Chicago on June 19th, making his transition to professional hockey official.
If he makes the roster out of training camp with the big league club, Schmaltz could possibly be moved to the wing (like Fabbri was in St. Louis). Schmaltz needs to bulk up at 172 pounds before he handles the rigors of NHL competition down the middle. His compete level is going to get him far in the league as well as his arsenal of dangling maneuvers. Schmaltz is a playmaker with a knack for finding his teammates with exemplary vision. The kid’s got some silky mitts around the net, too. He’s certainly gifted on the offensive side of the puck but needs to grow defensively before he assumes a major role in Chicago.
If he proves his two-way value in camp, Schmaltz can become essential to the Blackhawks success in no time.
Player on the Decline
Viktor Svedberg
Remember when I mentioned that the Blackhawks have an over-abundance of left-handed defenders? The acquisitions of Campbell and Kempny made it clear that Chicago’s depth chart on the backend resembled a logjam. Viktor Svedberg, now 25 years old, was anticipated to join the team full-time after making the cut out of training camp last season.
In his first NHL game, he saw 16:19 of ice-time. For a veteran coach that isn’t too trustful of young defensemen (case in point: Nick Leddy), Quenneville clearly saw something he liked in the towering 6’8″ figure. In 12 of his first 15 games, he played over 15 minutes. Svedberg was sent down to the Rockford IceHogs in November to condition, but he left a solid impression over that span. When the Scuderi experiment fell flat on its face, Svedberg was recalled in the latter half of the season.
In the playoffs, he appeared in the first three games of the tilt with St. Louis. Svedberg played over 12 minutes of the overtime thriller known as Game 1, but logged in a combined total of 11:46 in the following pair of games. Quenneville sent him over the boards only 10 times in Game 3. Svedberg was re-signed for two years in March, which gives him time to tweak his playing style. In junior hockey in Sweden, he set up the offense with his puck-moving ability. With the Blackhawks, he played more conservative and stay-at-home.
It could have been nerves, it could have been the management’s strategy, whatever it was, his play failed to stand out and he might not find his way back into the lineup consistently in 2016-17.
2016-17 Season Prediction
Aside from a lack of timely goal scoring, the Blackhawks biggest weakness last season was their defensive core. When Oduya joined the Stars, it sent Chicago into disarray attempting to find a top-four defenseman who suited their scheme as well as he did. Signing a well-seasoned presence like Campbell is a noticeable upgrade on the second pairing.
Kane is coming off his most decorated regular season performance of his career. While it’ll be difficult to replicate 46 goals and 60 assists, there’s little doubt that he’s the best player in the NHL heading into 2016-17. With Panarin on his wing, that tandem can tear the league up for years to come.
Motte and Schmaltz might not be game breakers the second they make their Blackhawks debut, but there are huge minutes to be eaten up on this team on a daily basis. So why not them? Their tenacity and youthful exuberance is exactly what the Blackhawks need after an early round postseason exit.
This franchise, as of late, is not used to coming up short when contending for a Stanley Cup. When 2015 rolled around, they cemented their legacy as a modern-day dynasty. How will they respond to defeat this time?
Chicago will clinch a spot in the postseason, not that there was any debate otherwise. At the same time, this specific batch of Blackhawks will not advance much further in the rugged Western Conference. Three Central Division foes upgraded this offseason, too. The Stars added Jiri Hudler and Dan Hamhuis. The Nashville Predators acquired P.K. Subban. The Minnesota Wild signed Eric Staal.
Losing Teravainen, Shaw and Ladd up front is going to restrict them offensively. Relying on lesser-experienced players is like playing with fire. But, let’s be honest, the Hawks that hit the ice in October will probably be different than the ones that do so in April. Bowman is no stranger to swapping personnel if it means a crack at a fourth Stanley Cup in eight years, even if it’s a temporary move.
If there’s one thing you should never do when it comes to the Chicago Blackhawks, it’s count them out.
Main Photo:Egyptian Christians with heads shaved held in Benghazi (Photo: Maha Ellawati)
Libyan forces tortured around 100 Egyptian Copts for reportedly trying to convert Muslims. The Egyptian shaved the heads of the Copts, burned them with acid and shocked them.
The Daily News reported:
Around 100 Egyptian Copts have been detained and reportedly tortured by Libya’s Preventive Security forces in Benghazi on charges of illegal immigration.
The detainees are suspected of trying to convert Muslims after being found with Bibles, images of Christ, and the late Pope Shenuda of Egypt’s Coptic Christians. A Libyan security official reported to AFP that none of these items were “for personal use”.
The detained Copts were reportedly tortured by police forces in BouEita prison. Police forces used acid to burn tattooed crosses off their wrists, shaved their heads, and used electricity to torture the detainees whilst they were blindfolded, according to the head of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights Naguib Gabriel.
Gabriel denied that the Egyptians detained had been proselytising in Libya, saying that even if this was true, no law in Libya or Egypt prohibits it.
He added that such cases of torture constitute international crimes committed by the Libyan Government who “abuses the Libyan Revolution”.Over the last few months, as there are more and more reports of sexual harassment and abuse by men in power, we hear the refrain: Believe women.
If we are to believe women, we also must broaden our focus to those who are marginalized — those who are specifically targeted because people won’t believe them. When Roy Moore was district attorney, he reportedly took advantage of his power in law enforcement and targeted people for that very reason.
“He told me, he said, ‘You’re just a child,’ and he said, ‘I am the district attorney of Etowah County and if you tell anyone about this no one will ever believe you,’” Beverly Nelson told the Washington Post about the night Moore, now a Senate candidate in Alabama, allegedly sexually assaulted her.
It’s not just Moore. There is a systemic problem in our criminal justice system, and there have been a multitude of cases of police officers who target marginalized women for sexual violence precisely for that reason.
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According to Andrea Ritchie, author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, police frequently target marginalized people with sexual violence. That includes young women and girls, women of color, transgender women, sex workers, homeless women, women with mental illness, undocumented women, women who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, women with disabilities, and low-income women. Because the perpetrators are so powerful and because the victims are so marginalized, the problem of police violence often feels intractable, experts say.
But the first step toward dealing with this problem is to acknowledge that it is far more pervasive than people would like to think.
A well-established pattern of police sexual misconduct
Moore’s case has gotten a lot of media attention because of his status and because of his bid for a Senate seat. But the problem with police and sexual violence is widespread.
In October, two New York Police Department detectives were for arrested for rape and pleaded not guilty. A teenager, who goes by the name Anna Chambers on social media, said she was pulled over with two male friends, handcuffed by the officers, and placed in an unmarked police van, where she said one officer raped her and both forced their penises in her mouth. The officers claimed it was all consensual sex — even though she said she was in handcuffs the whole time.
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This fall, a Lincoln, Nebraska police officer resigned and was later arrested following an investigation into an alleged sexual assault. Last week, a former Northern California police officer was charged with statutory rape after he said he had sex with a 17 year-old he met through the Explorer program, a career program for high school students. That same week, a peace officer for the New York City Department of Social Services was indicted on charges that he sexually assaulted a woman he detained.
Her intoxicated state … a key reason why the officers allegedly targeted her, was an opening for the defense to poke at her credibility.
Despite the fact that some officers get indicted or are even found guilty of these crimes, it is unlikely that most police officers will face major consequences for their actions, experts on police sexual violence told ThinkProgress. Rape survivors face an uphill battle in holding their rapists accountable in criminal court. What’s more, police are considered far more credible than victims merely because of their status. In 2011, a woman said officers were called to help her because she was very intoxicated, but instead, one officer raped her while another kept watch. They were later acquitted. Her intoxicated state, which was likely a key reason why the officers allegedly targeted her, was an opening for the defense to poke at her credibility.
The huge amounts of discretion given to patrol officers on whom to frisk, whom to question, and whom to ticket, enable police to prey on women — and it is mostly patrol officers perpetrating these crimes. The expanded police presence in schools, for instance, allows officers to use their authority to abuse searches, harass girls in the hallways, and even sexually assault them.
There are no official statistics on the number of rapes and sexual assaults committed by police officers in the United States, and data gathered by federal and state governments on excessive force don’t include sexual violence. But over the years, researchers and journalists have found disturbing patterns in police sexual misconduct and the victims targeted.
In 2002, Samuel Walker and Dawn Irlbeck conducted a study that found that 40 percent of police sexual misconduct cases involved teenagers and 34 percent happened during a traffic stop. A 2003 follow-up found other ways officers exploit young women, like through Police Explorer programs that allow young people to consider a role in law enforcement. The study also highlights cases in which police would sexually assault female high school interns in ride-alongs. Victims of sex-related police crime are typically younger than 18 years old.
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A 2015 Associated Press investigation obtained records from 41 states on police decertification for sexual misconduct from 2009 to 2014, and found that 550 officers were decertified for sexual assault and 440 officers were decertified for other types of sexual offenses, including inappropriate communication with juveniles and possessing child pornography.
A 2015 Buffalo News investigation looked at 700 credible cases throughout the country over the past 10 years and found that, over this period, a case of sexual misconduct by a police officer cropped up every five days. And according to a 2013 study, 41 percent of police sexual violence cases were committed by repeat-offending officers. Researchers said some officers move across jurisdictions and keep their certificate despite their history of sexual violence, in what is known as the “officer shuffle.”
“When a police officer is found to have raped someone, we tend to think it happened on a case-by-case basis and we express shock and outrage, but we don’t see it as part of a larger systemic problem that is part of a continuum of sexual violence,” Ritchie told ThinkProgress.
“The main context in which sexual violence takes place happens in traffic stops and the presence of police officers in schools also facilitates a great deal of sexual violence,” Ritchie said. “Policing of drugs and prostitution and also broken windows policing [facilitates sexual violence] because it gives officers so many points of entry in harassment of women.”
“When there is a prostitution charge, that is something that could result in loss of public housing or being barred from certain kinds of employment or losing your children and even more so when it comes to drug charges, especially those that carry mandatory minimums,” Ritchie added.
Jacqueline Robarge, founder of Power Inside, a human rights and harm reduction organization that serves survivors of gender-based violence, has worked with individuals who have been sexually assaulted and harassed by police officers. Robarge helps them recover from trauma and record their stories. Robarge told ThinkProgress about cases of police raping teenage sex workers, of officers asking a woman to dance for them, and of a cop who returned to an abandoned house where a woman was living to repeatedly assault her. The increasing criminalization of homelessness, the war on drugs, and the police approach on sex work fosters an environment of sexual violence.
“We had a repeat officer who was targeting a woman who was living in an abandoned house. She was quite young and she was afraid to be arrested for fourth degree burglary, because they arrest people sleeping in abandoned houses,” Robarge said. “So he would repeatedly break into this boarded-up abandoned house and abuse her. She was terrified and she had to leave that little semblance of safety that she had cobbled together.”
The woman told Robarge that the cops would say things like “Nobody is going to believe you” and “What are you going to do?”
Officers often enforce gender norms through sexual violence, such as violence against trans women, women who are out “too late,” and queer women and nonbinary people. But on top of targeting those who belong to marginalized groups, police also target women based on court dates and whether or not they are on probation. Daniel Holtzclaw, an Oklahoma City police officer who targeted 13 black women with sexual harassment and violence, employed similar tactics by using outstanding warrants and previous arrests to coerce women. Roger Magana, an officer in Eugene, Oregon who assaulted women over several years, often used the pretext of welfare checks to make visits to women’s homes.
“They use the fact that they can tell who is on probation. If you’re doing a great job on probation, they can see that in the system. They look you up and then they have that power over you as well, and that is very very dangerous,” Robarge said.
Some abusive police officers are so aware of their targets that even when a woman leaves the area for a period of time and returns, officers immediately begin tracking her again, Robarge added.
Why reform is challenging
There are major barriers to starting a national conversation on police sexual violence, let alone addressing a policy change in police departments.
Media reports often tell the stories of police sexual violence as if they are an aberration, Ritchie and Robarge both said, and activist groups don’t always include sexual violence in the larger conversation about police violence, which usually focus on violence against black men. But most of all, Robarge said, no one wants to believe that the people in charge of catching and arresting rapists are rapists themselves.
“He would repeatedly break into this boarded-up abandoned house and abuse her.”
“There is not enough acknowledgement, even with some major cases like Holtzclaw or various officers getting charged all around the country,” Robarge said. “There is still this denial, this cognitive dissonance that our culture has around rape, and they cannot believe a police officer would do something as violent as coercing sex or as assaulting a woman or saying extremely humiliating things just because they can.”
Ritchie said media coverage and activism focusing on police violence often leaves sexual violence out of the discussion. For example, stop and frisk — which allows police to profile people by race, ethnicity, and presumed religion — is called “stop and grope” by young women who have been targeted.
“It isn’t part of the regular conversation,” Ritchie said. “If we’re having a piece about stop and frisk, does that involve the risk of sexual violence? If we’re doing a piece on the war on drugs and policing, are we talking about how it affects sexual violence?”
A culture of police impunity, the fact that there are few women in leadership positions, and the common dismissal of sexual assault as a serious issue are all making it harder to seriously address.
“This mentality that the only thing keeping civilization going is the police feeds into a culture of impunity,” Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, said. “All this police bill of rights stuff is about providing more insulation and less accountability of police. What we need to do is more transparency and oversight and accountability when police unions and a lot of rank-and-file cops are in fact actively pursuing a strategy to further insulate themselves.”
Ritchie researched 36 police departments’ policies on sexual misconduct and found that “more than half had no policy explicitly prohibiting police sexual misconduct against members of the public.” Some departments, like Louisville, Kentucky, even provided an exception to the prohibition of on-duty sexual contact “presumably in the enforcement of sexual offenses,” because officers may be able to claim that they participated in sexual activity to catch sex workers as part of a prostitution sting. But Ritchie said it’s not necessary to engage in sex for an officer to prove the offense. She added that people who have challenged the constitutionality of this behavior have lost in the courts so far, however.
No one wants to believe that the people in charge of catching and arresting rapists are rapists themselves.
Vitale said that although he does not oppose additional training and better policies to address sexual violence, he is skeptical of how much a practice like improved training will help. “It’s not like these officers don’t know that what they’re doing is inappropriate. I think the issue is much more about accountability and reducing the police role that puts them in contact with these populations so much.”
Ritchie said the focus needs to be on changing policies within police departments rather than changing the law. “It’s mostly a gap in prevention and accountability and that’s where we need to focus our attention,” she said. “The law deals with the situation after the fact and then we’re defending on a system where rape victims don’t fare well no matter who their rapists are and it’s certainly a much steeper hill to climb if your rapist is a police officer.”
Meanwhile, police officials who make misogynist and racist statements, as well as statements dismissive of rape, are often promoted. New York Police Captain Peter Rose apologized in January after he dismissed many sexual assaults as not “true stranger rapes.” Rose had said, “Some of them were Tinder, some of them were hookup sites, some of them were actually coworkers. It’s not a trend that we’re too worried about …” In November, The Daily News reported Rose will be promoted to deputy inspector. Similarly, Javier Ortiz, the head of Miami’s police union, was promoted from lieutenant to captain in October despite a history of making racist statements and harassing two women of color who tried to hold police accountable for actions such as speeding and beating a man in handcuffs.
Police unions have often opposed civilian oversight, Vitale and Ritchie said. In 2016, for example, Illinois state representative Litesa Wallace (D) introduced a bill that would allow an independent agency to have jurisdiction over sexual assault cases involving police officers. But The Fraternal Order of Police opposed the bill, a move that led to amendments that exclude Chicago Police Department and Illinois State Police from the independent investigation requirement.
Robarge has been closely watching the aftermath of a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation last year that uncovered a number of abuses in the Baltimore Police Department (BPD).The investigation discovered that the BPD “seriously and systematically under-investigates” sexual assault reports and that police were coercing women, especially sex workers, into sex to avoid arrest. In one sexual assault complaint the DOJ said was mishandled, a prosecutor called the alleged rape survivor a “conniving little whore” and an officer responded, “Lmao! I feel the same.” It also included findings on police sexual violence, like one cop who was repeatedly having sex in his car, according to multiple anonymous tips.
“I want to have faith in reform. At the same time, I am working with women whose lived reality is it will never change,” Robarge said. “… I’ve spoken to retired police officers, and I said it feels like an intractable problem that won’t go away. He was like, ‘It needs to be an entire culture shift.'”
Although the DOJ has made a number of requests in its consent decree — including making it easier for people to make complaints, addressing conflicts of interest in the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), asking that OPR have sufficient resources and staff, and including instructions for a supervisory review of stops and arrests — Robarge isn’t sure it is enough.
“If I were a police officer who had a very chronic problem with sexual abuse and abuse of power in this way and I read the findings and consent decree, would that really make me feel nervous about continuing to do it? I kind of don’t know, I might read it and think no big deal, I’ll get training,” she said.
“The reporting mechanisms don’t really take into account the sexual nature of what is happening,” she added. “If they beef up the civilian review board and the reporting structures and internal review, it is going to be hard to know for sure, that after all of the historic abuse, that women will even trust in reforms.”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.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
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Gramiak sprays some pheromone in nearby bushes. She sprinkles catnip and lays out a handful of dried food.
BRANDON—It's getting near dusk, and Toni Gramiak is down on all fours setting a trap for a cat. The bait is a piece of fried chicken tied to a string.
UPDATE: According to the Brandon and Area Lost Animals Facebook page, Butterscotch the cat was found Saturday morning and has been freed from the trap on its head.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/8/2014 (1662 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 8/8/2014 (1662 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
UPDATE: According to the Brandon and Area Lost Animals Facebook page, Butterscotch the cat was found Saturday morning and has been freed from the trap on its head.
BRANDON—It's getting near dusk, and Toni Gramiak is down on all fours setting a trap for a cat. The bait is a piece of fried chicken tied to a string.
RANDY TURNER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Sandy Brown keeps an eye on a monitor in the hope Butterscotch will pussyfoot right into one of their traps.
"It's KFC tonight," she says.
Gramiak sprays some pheromone in nearby bushes. She sprinkles catnip and lays out a handful of dried food.
The trap is not just for any cat. It's the orange-and-white tabby locals have dubbed "Butterscotch," otherwise known far and wide - with its photo splashed across newspapers and Internet sites across Canada - as the elusive stray with the bird feeder on its head.
"Obviously, he's become famous," Gramiak says. "A cat wearing a hat."
First, some clarification: It's not a bird feeder, it's a bug trap made of plastic. Second, the story behind the hunt for Butterscotch is more than just some cat-and-mouse effort by some unrelenting animal lovers that has now lasted more than two weeks.
In the words of Gramiak |
experimentation,” says Wolfgang Eckhart, the Professor of Historical Medicine at Heidelberg University. “We have to look upon the camps as outposts of pharmacological research. The Nazis wanted to sterilise the population of the east, especially Russian people, but enable them to continue to be useful as workers.” The pain has yet to heal Bayer says the company which exists today has nothing to do with its wartime counterpart. A spokesperson told the BBC: “Between 1925 and 1952, no company named Bayer existed, neither as a subsidiary of IG Farben nor as any other legal entity. Bayer has worked in good faith with the German government to establish a fund to help those who have suffered. The company’s contribution to this fund amounted to more than £40m.” Damaged beyond repair Although it is nearly 60 years since the end of World War II, for survivors like Zoe the consequences of the war are as alive today as they were in January 1945 when the Russian Army liberated Auschwitz. After the war, Zoe married and settled in Scotland. There she underwent several painful operations to repair the damage done to her body. But she has never been able to have children. Now suffering from cancer, she is a remarkably cheerful woman whose home in a quiet suburb is punctuated with laughter from her jokes and tears from her memories. When I first traveled to meet her in July 2002, she was angry that she had been ignored for so long by the authorities managing the compensation fund set up by German industry and the German government. She had campaigned for 28 years but received nothing. “They want us all to die so they won’t have to pay out so much money,” Zoe says. Within weeks of the authorities being contacted by the BBC, Zoe received a cheque for a little over £2,000 from the German compensation fund. “I want to make sure people remember what happened to people like me when I was a child at Auschwitz,” she says. “I was just one of thousands of children treated in this way. But I was one of the very few lucky ones who managed to survive.”
(By Mark Handscomb, BBC Radio 4 reporter for It’s My Story )
BAYER “Aryanized” Jewish Cemetery
Documents show that in 1942 IG Farben´s branch office in Uerdingen, Germany occupies what had been the town’s Jewish cemetery. The forced sale price was way below the actual market value: 100,000 square meter property for 3,000 Reichsmark. After the war the property was passed on to IG Farben´s successor BAYER AG.
The Nazis dissolved the Jewish Community of Uerdingen in 1942. Today all traces of the Jewish cemetery in Uerdingen have been completely obliterated. The city archive indicates that the cemetery was located approximately where the main gate to the BAYER factory currently stands.
The COALITION AGAINST BAYER-DANGERS demands that the company publicly apologize for the defilement of the Uerdingen cemetery and affix a memorial plaque to the main gate of the company´s Uerdingen works.
Hans Frankenthal, former slave worker in IG Farben´s plant in Auschwitz and board member of the Jewish Community: “I was terrified when I learned from this offence against Jewish belief. According to our faith, taking possession of the cemetery without exhuming the bodies is tantamount to defiling the graves.”
BAYER today is living off the fruits of Nazi legalism. On paper everything was legally correct: Julius Israel Kohn from the “Association of Jews in the German Reich” and Bernhard Hoffmann, the representative of IG Farben, signed the sales agreement in a notary´s office, and the copy of this seemingly standard real estate transaction has a stamp from the Krefeld tax office.
At the same time the former culprits are publicly honored in Uerdingen. Fritz ter Meer served on the IG Farben board of directors from 1926 to 1945 and was the head officer directing the operations of the IG Farben factory at Auschwitz. The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal sentenced him to seven years in prison. He was released after serving only four years. Not long after, in 1956, Ter Meer was elevated to the chairman of the supervisory board at BAYER, a position he held for seven years. His grave in Krefeld has a meter-high wreath on it – donated by BAYER in recognition of his services.
Coalition against BAYER-dangers (Germany)
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The SS physician Dr. Hoven testified to this during the Nuremberg Trial: “It should be generally known, and especially in German scientific circles, that the SS did not have notable scientists at its disposal. It is clear that the experiments in the concentration camps with IG preparations only took place in the interests of the IG, which strived by all means to determine the effectiveness of these preparations. They let the SS deal with the – shall I say – dirty work in the concentration camps. It was not the IG’s intention to bring any of this out in the open, but rather to put up a smoke screen around the experiments so that (…) they could keep any profits to themselves. Not the SS but the IG took the initiative for the concentration camp experiments.”The Ritz London is a Grade II listed 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly in London, England. A symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel is one of the world's most prestigious and best known hotels.[1] It is a member of the international consortium, The Leading Hotels of the World.
The hotel was opened by Swiss hotelier César Ritz in May 1906, eight years after he established the Hôtel Ritz Paris. After a weak beginning, the hotel began to gain popularity towards the end of World War I, and became popular with politicians, socialites, writers and actors of the day in particular. David Lloyd George held a number of secret meetings at the Ritz during the latter half of the war, and it was at the Ritz that he made the decision to intervene on behalf of Greece against Turkey. Noël Coward was a notable diner at the Ritz in the 1920s and 1930s.
Owned by the Bracewell-Smith family for a period until 1976, The Ellerman Group of Companies purchased the hotel for £80 million from Trafalgar House in October 1995. They spent eight years and £40 million restoring it to its former grandeur. In 2002, it became the first hotel to receive a Royal warrant from HRH the Prince of Wales for its banquet and catering services.
The exterior is both structurally and visually Franco-American in style with little trace of English architecture, and is heavily influenced by the architectural traditions of Paris. The facade on the Piccadilly side is roughly 231 feet (70 m), 115 feet (35 m) on the Arlington Street side, and 87 feet (27 m) on the Green Park side. At the corners of the pavilion roofs of the Ritz are large green copper lions, the emblem of the hotel. The Ritz has 111 rooms and 23 suites.
The Ritz Club, owned by the owners of the Ritz Hotel since 1998, is a casino in the basement of the hotel, occupying the space which was formerly the Ritz Bar and Grill. It offers roulette, black jack, baccarat, and poker, as well as some slot machines.
The interior was designed mainly by London and Paris based designers in the Louis XVI style, which is consistent throughout. Author Marcus Binney describes the great suite of ground-floor rooms as "one of the all-time masterpieces of hotel architecture" and compares it to a royal palace with its "grand vistas, lofty proportions and sparkling chandeliers".
The Ritz's most widely known facility is the Palm Court, which hosts the famous "Tea at the Ritz". It is an opulently decorated cream-coloured Louis XVI setting, with panelled mirrors in gilt bronze frames. The hotel has six private dining rooms, the Marie Antoinette Suite, with its boiserie, and the rooms within the Grade II* listed William Kent House. The Rivoli Bar, built in the Art Deco style, was designed in 2001 by interior designer Tessa Kennedy, to resemble the bar on the Orient Express.
History [ edit ]
Construction and early history [ edit ]
The Ritz under construction in October 1905
Swiss hotelier César Ritz, the former manager of the Savoy Hotel, opened the hotel on 24 May 1906. It was built on the site which had been the Old White Horse Cellar, which by 1805 was one of the best known coaching inns in England. The financial backers of the Ritz felt that they had secured one of the prime sites in London for their project.[3] They began negotiations in 1901,[4] and completed the transactions for the simultaneous purchase of the leasehold for the Walsingham House Hotel and the adjacent freehold estate of the Bath Hotel for £250,000 in 1902.[3] Demolition of both of the hotels began in 1904.
The building is neoclassical in the Louis XVI manner, built during the Belle Époque to resemble a stylish Parisian block of flats, over arcades that consciously evoked the Rue de Rivoli. Its architects were Charles Mewès, who had previously designed Ritz's Hôtel Ritz Paris, and Arthur Davis, with engineering collaboration by the Swedish engineer Sven Bylander. It was one of the earliest substantial steel frame structures in London, the Savoy Hotel extension of 1903-04 being the first in the capital.[6] Many of the materials used in the construction of the hotel were US-made.[7] The initial fees for suites ranged from 1 1/2 guineas to 3 1/2 guineas.
After opening, a long-running feud between the hotel and Lord Wimbourne, a steel magnate who lived next door at Wimbourne House, lasted for years in a dispute over land. A number of locals were also concerned about the building and the impact it would have on their health.[a]
While the Ritz was still under construction, a series of events highlighted the need for another luxury hotel in London. A 3 June 1905 Daily Mail news story reported it was both Derby Week and the height of the tourist season, making hotel accommodation almost impossible to find. The Savoy had to refuse reservations, while Buckingham Palace turned offices into makeshift hotel rooms for visitors. An estimated 2,500 more persons needing rooms were expected shortly with the coming visit of the King of Spain.
Though the opening of the Savoy had brought about a marked change in how hotels provided services to its guests, Ritz was determined that his London hotel would surpass its competitor in their delivery.[b] The Ritz installed two large lead-lined tanks on its roof to provide a steady stream of hot and cold water. The hotel's bathrooms were all spacious with each having its own heated towel bar. Every bedroom in the hotel was provided with its own working fireplace.
Ritz shunned free-standing wardrobes due to his fear of dust settling on them; instead he built cupboards into the rooms with doors matching the panelling. Ritz's ideas of cleanliness and hygiene prompted him to originally have all bedrooms painted in white and all beds made of brass, not wood, for the same reasons. Anything new or potentially useful was available to the guests of the Ritz.
César Ritz's health had declined after his 1902 collapse at the Carlton, but he was feeling well enough to assume an active role in the plans for the hotel's opening dinner on 24 May 1906. Unlike the opening of the Paris Ritz, which had catered to society, most of those invited to the Ritz, London opening were members of the national and international press. Major British newspapers such as the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and The Daily Telegraph were invited to the dinner along with newspapers which included the Berliner Tageblatt, The Sydney Morning Herald and The New York Times. Ritz's guest list also included the engineer and architects of the structure along with key staff members of the new hotel and their wives.
The hotel was not immensely profitable in its opening years; smaller than many of the new hotels springing up in that period, it was not fashionable initially, and was resented by many of the London elite who considered it vulgar.[c] It took £3628 in 1908, over a thousand pounds less than the previous year, and the hotel lost over £50,000 between 15 May 1906 and 31 July 1908, which led to the replacement of the manager Elles with Theodore Kroell and appointment of Charles Van Gyzelen as manager of the restaurant.[d]
The hotel also suffered a blow upon the death of King Edward in 1910, when 38 planned dinners and functions were cancelled, but began to prosper the following year, made fashionable by the Prince of Wales who regularly dined here. King Edward was particularly fond of the cakes made at the Ritz. The hotel would regularly send him a supply, but this was kept in confidence as the King's chef may not have wanted it known that food he did not prepare was served at Buckingham Palace.[e] Ritz retained control of much of the hotel's operation for many years. He hired world-famous chef Auguste Escoffier to provide cuisine to match the opulence of the hotel's decorations; he placed a special bell in the entryway by which the doorman could notify the staff of the impending arrival of royalty. By 1929 the hotel was still being praised for its architecture; Professor Charles Reilly wrote about the Ritz in Building magazine in 1929, calling it the "finest modern structure" in the street, with "an elegance of general form".
High society [ edit ]
The Palm Court of the Ritz in 1907
Dining Room at the Ritz
On 4 August 1914, Lady Diana Cooper's future husband, Duff Cooper, then a Foreign Office official, dined at the Ritz with the Earl of Essex and his American wife, Adele Capell (née Grant) and Patrick Shaw-Stewart, and later that day announced that World War I had broken out to the party. Before the war began, the German and Austrian embassies both retained tables at the Ritz Restaurant. The hotel suffered during the war, and lost nearly £50,000 in 1915 alone; the ballroom was usually empty and lights went out by 10pm, but rooms were still in demand and the hoteliers believed it to be worth keeping open. Socialites such as Lady Cynthia Asquith, daughter-in-law of H. H. Asquith and Lord Basil Blackwood were documented in her diaries to have dined at the Ritz in the spring of 1916. The following year, she held a lavish dinner party with the likes of Osbert Sitwell, Gilbert Russell and Maud Nelke and Clare Tennant.
In September 1917, a shell exploded in Green Park in close proximity to the Ritz, and according to Lord Ivor Churchill it broke all of the windows to adjacent Wimbourne House. David Lloyd George held a number of secret meetings at the Ritz during the latter half of the war, organised by Sir Basil Zaharoff, and it was at the Ritz that he made the decision to intervene on behalf of Greece against Turkey. The Duke of Marlborough recorded dining at the Ritz; "I lunched at the Ritz. The whole social world goes there, prices being cheap. All women there from M. Paget to the latest tart."
When asked to summarise hotels in London in the early 1920s, Barbara Cartland remarked that "The Ritz stood for stuffiness and standards, the Carlton was for businessman, the Savoy was rather fast, some other ones were frankly scandalous, and the Berkeley, where you could dance all night for ten shillings, was for the young". In 1921, Bonvin, the manager of the Ritz, died, and was replaced with J.S. Walters. Walter was a "tireless salesman" in promoting the hotel, especially in mainland Europe, and flaunted the hotel in the Tatler at a time when it was unpopular to do so. Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma frequented the Ritz from his time as a Sub-Lieutenant onwards, and when his friend Charlie Chaplin arrived in London in September 1921 after a nine-year absence, great crowds gathered at Waterloo station and Chaplin had to be ushered to the hotel by some 40 policemen. He stayed in the first-floor Regal Suite and was photographed throwing carnations to his fans from the Arlington Street balcony.[f]
The Ritz became popular with film stars and executives when staying in London, although the hotel has kept most of the names of many of its luminaries a secret in its records. Douglas Fairbanks was known though to frequent the Ritz in the 1920s, and director Alexander Korda's talent scout held a table at the Ritz in the 1930s. Noël Coward, also a regular diner at the Ritz in the 1920s and 1930s, met with Michael Arlen in the restaurant in 1924 to discuss the urgent problem of generating the funding for his new play, The Vortex. Arlen gave Coward a cheque for $250 without question, and The Vortex would go on to be his first major success. Coward's song, "Children of the Ritz", which featured in the 1932 revue Words and Music was penned while Coward was lunching in the Ritz with Beverley Nichols. Numerous authors began to meet at the Ritz during the same period, and it began to creep into literature itself. In Michael Arlen's 1922 novel Piracy, the hotel was described as a "very stout and solid building in the manner of the old Bastille, originally conceived no doubt with a fearful eye on class prejudice", and R. Firbank had a running gag in his novels about there being "fleas in the Ritz". Later, the hotel appears in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. The narrator Nicholas Jenkins meets poet Mark Members at the Ritz, and the golden nymph in the Palm Court of the hotel is mentioned.
The future Edward VIII, a regular at the hotel in the 1930s, where he honed his dancing skills.
"It had a special atmosphere about it and the Palm Court was always filled before luncheon with'society beauties', debutantes and their boyfriends, and famous actors and actresses—though the latter seldom seemed to actually lunch there. Bejewelled American ladies used to parade up and down the corridor awaiting their guests, The Ritz was more like a club than a hotel; you were bound to see your friends there. To'meet at the Ritz' was the obvious choice. It had the combination of elegance and cosiness. The Ritz had an essentially happy atmosphere which radiated from the staff. All the waiters knew everybody and became personal friends. The Ritz in those days had a courtesy and elegance unlike any other hotels; it was thought of as 'home' in a sense that never applied to anywhere else".— Sir Michael Duff, 3rd Baronet on life at the Ritz as a young man in the 1930s.
William Brownlow, 3rd Baron Lurgan, who succeeded Harry Higgins as chairman of the Ritz upon his death in 1928, was especially keen on attracting American guests to the hotel. He was a close friend of the Earl of Carnavon and his American wife Catherine Wendell, and at times the couple were freely given the entire second floor of the hotel to accommodate guests. Upon the death of Lord Lurgan in 1937, Carnavon was told that he had to begin paying for his staying at the hotel, but was given a "slight reduction for old time's sake". Carnarvon later remarked: "The Ritz has been my London home for over fifty years. I'm very fond of the place. Nobody knows it better". In 1931, the Aga Khan was involved with organising the Round Table Conference at the hotel, which was attended by Mahatma Gandhi and many others. On one occasion Khan took over the Palm Court to hold a meeting with his followers.[g]
In the 1930s, Aletto became the restaurant manager of the Ritz, a "popular and much-mimicked character" according to Montgomery-Massingberd and Watkin. The future Edward VIII and his associates were often seen at the Ritz in the 1930s. In 1932 the Evening Standard observed the Prince performing on the dance floor: "The Prince of Wales never misses an opportunity to raise the stand of his dancing... He danced three tangoes each of which lasted about thirty-five minutes!" [h] In 1934, Edward's brother, the Duke of Kent, married Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark at the Ritz and scaffolding was put up in the garden for the celebration. The Queen Mother would also attend private parties at the Ritz during this period, as did King Boris of Bulgaria and Queen Marie of Romania. At one point, the Ritz hosted four reigning monarchs simultaneously: King Boris, King Farouk of Egypt, Spain's King Alfonso and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.[43] After the romance of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson became public knowledge, both parties could be found at separate tables near the restaurant's door, in case a speedy exit was necessary.[44]
The Ritz suffered from the effects of the General Strike of 1926, subsequently seeing competition from the likes of the Dorchester Hotel and Grosvenor House. The Great Depression brought a sharp decline in business to the hotel, and in the summer of 1931 staff wages were reduced—the chefs, kitchen workers and the directors had a 25% cut in their wages. To increase earnings, in 1935 Fred Cavendish-Bentinck recommended that the hotel commence putting on a Cabaret show. Advertised in the Evening Standard, the programme was an immediate success. In January 1936, Austrian comedian Vic Oliver was one of the entertainers hired to perform at the hotel for two weeks, and Cyril Fletcher appeared in the show for a month the following year. The BBC began broadcasting live performances from the restaurant of the hotel, with pianist Billy Milton and others. It was through the show that the Irving Berlin song "Puttin' On the Ritz" grew in popularity, performed by Joe Kaye's Dance Band.[i] In 1937, James Stephens shortly succeeded Lurgan as director of the Ritz before being replaced by Hans Pfyffer von Altishofen, who had been on the board of the Ritz Hotel Development Company from 1910 and was also the chairman of the Paris Ritz.
World War II [ edit ]
During World War II, the Ritz became integral to political and social life among the elite, and a number of eminent royals, aristocrats and politicians moved into the hotel. Camilla Russell, the wife of writer Christopher Sykes, stated that the Ritz "enjoyed a tremendous vogue during the war and was, even more than ever, much used as a meeting place", and at night was "crowded yet somehow safe". Angela, Countess of Antrim, Syke's sister, remarked that the Ritz was the ideal meeting place for "gathering news of husbands at the wars". Emerald Cunard took up residence in the Ritz for a period, but later moved to the Dorchester. In the summer of 1940, the Albanian royal family, including King Zog I, Queen Geraldine, Crown Prince Leka, the King's six sisters, two nieces, three nephews and others moved into the hotel and were given their own floor, escorted by Chamberlain, the Albanian diplomats from Paris, and numerous bodyguards.[50] Zog brought the royal gold and jewels with him, which were kept in the storeroom of the Ritz before being deposited in the Bank of England.
Due to Zog's concerns about safety during air raids, the ladies' cloakroom was converted into a private shelter for the Albanians. Following an air raid, when a bomb fell between the Ritz and the Berkeley in Piccadilly, shattering glass in the Ritz, most of the Albanian royal family moved to Chelsea, but Zog remained until the spring of 1941 until he was offered Lord Parmoor's house in Buckinghamshire. In total, the Ritz was damaged nine times during bombing raids, and the Restaurant had to be closed twice.
On one occasion during a royal broadcast from the Ritz to the United States, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, King Haakon of Norway and King Christian of Denmark were all staying at the Ritz at the same time. Edvard Beneš would entertain guests at a private luncheon at the hotel several times a week during the war years. In 1942, Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle met in the Marie Antoinette suite of the hotel to discuss operations, Brendan Bracken, who served as an observer and mouthpiece on political society in London, and Anglo-American politician Ronald Tree spent much time at the Ritz, and Tree lived there during the winter of 1940. Laura Long, who would later become Laura Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, the second wife of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough, the architectural writer James Lees-Milne, Harold Acton and writer Norman Douglas were regular diners at the Ritz during wartime.
According to Alastair Forbes and Felix Hope-Nicholson, during World War II, the basement bar at the Ritz was reserved for gay and lesbian guests, while the one upstairs was for heterosexual guests. Hope Nicholson described it as "notoriously queer", and stated that "the Ritz bar became too chic, too popular and above all, too queer for the authorities". Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar, MP Harold Nicolson, Brian Howard, and Pauline Tennant were all regulars at the basement bar.
Post-war years [ edit ]
J. Paul Getty, reputedly the richest man in the world at the time, lived at the Ritz after the war.
The hotel was owned for some thirty years by the Bracewell-Smith family, who also had significant stakes in the nearby Park Lane Hotel. Although the family were quick to earn a profit from the hotel, there was a turbulent period in the years after World War II, with a workers strike in 1946, and the restaurant attracting significant criticism in its quality of cuisine. On one occasion, a group of patrons of the Ritz, known as the "Friends of the Ritz", met with Sir Bracewell Smith in Park Lane Hotel to complain about the standards; Smith himself dined at the Ritz and informed them that it was quite satisfactory.
Several suicides also darkened the reputation of the Ritz in the postwar years, including that of horse trainer Peter Beatty from the sixth floor window in October 1949,[56] and that of French gangster Baron Pierre de Laitre, who strangled love interest Eileen Hill to death in his second floor room in March 1953 when she refused to marry him, before killing himself by stuffing a silk sock down his throat.[j]
Nonetheless the Ritz continued to be a social hub for the aristocracy and attract the world's elite in the 1950s. It was very popular with the wealthy family of Aga Khan, and oil magnate J. Paul Getty, reputedly the richest man in the world at the time, lived at the Ritz after the war. On one occasion a photographer working for Time and Life magazines staged an incident outside the hotel by arranging for the barrowboy to pour coppers onto the pavement as Getty emerged from the hotel and photographed just as he went to pick them up. Shell Oil heiress Olga Deterding lived at hotel for several years, and in one altercation with her lover she threw his trousers out of the window. In 1956 she tired of the high life and spent a period working on Albert Schweitzer's leper colony in French Equatorial Africa. Film stars Rita Hayworth and Tallulah Bankhead were regular guests at the hotel; Hayworth was married to Prince Aly Khan between 1949 and 1953. Another notable resident of the Ritz during this period was Nubar Gulbenkian, an "expansive extrovert" who kept a permanent suite at the Ritz and made exorbitant demands for luxuries and foods, even if out of season.
In January 1959, Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of Congo, stayed at the hotel and met with Sir Edward Adjaye, the Ghanaian High Commissioner in London and others in the restaurant. The event was picketed by Mosleyites, who in concern with human rights issues in Congo at the time, demonstrated outside of the hotel, displaying banners such as "RAPERS OF CHILDREN – GO HOME" and issuing racial epithets. Adjaye was attacked as he left the hotel, although it has been speculated that he was mistaken for Lumumba.
George Criticos served as head porter of the Ritz for 45 years, retiring in 1960 for health reasons; he had been recommended for a job at the Ritz by Sir Basil Zaharoff. In his 1959 book, George of the Ritz, Criticos remembered some of the notable people and events during his years of service. Criticos once acted as an agent to the Aga Kahn at the racetrack, having been given US$45,000 by the monarch to place bets in his name. He was also asked to take the 18-year-old Prince Aly Khan on a monthlong tour of the United States to help the young man forget a failed romance. When Criticos saw an unshaven man in coveralls entering the hotel, he called out to the man to stop him. When the man turned to face Criticos, he recognised him as King Boris of Bulgaria, who was a railroad buff and was returning from driving a special train.[69][70][k]
Later history [ edit ]
Afternoon tea at the Ritz
The Long Gallery
The social scene changed dramatically in London in the 1960s, with Beatlemania and the sexual revolution, and British aristocracy in the capital was not what it had been. By this time the general impeccable standards of the Ritz had fallen. Peregrine Worsthorne noted the change: "Precisely that it was not all Ritzy, in the sense of being conspicuously luxurious...the glitter had long since faded and shabbiness set in. The place was usually empty, kept alive by memories of former glories and a clientele who preferred nostalgia to comfort". Yet celebrities often held parties at the hotel, and the Rolling Stones were guests for many years. British Prime Ministers Harold Wilson, Edward Heath and Harold MacMillan often lunched at the Ritz; Heath would always reserve table 29 in the restaurant.
In the 1970s, the hotel fell into a turbulent period. Terrorist threats from the Irish Republican Army became the chief concern, and bomb scares were not uncommon. The oil crisis in the early 1970s directly affected business and prompted the Bracewell-Smith family to sell their stake to Trafalgar House on 5 April 1976 for £2.75 million.[74] At the time of the sale, the hotel's occupancy rate was just 45 percent; the Ritz Grill Room had been closed and it had lost quite a bit of money in recent times.[43] In 1984, the Ritz brought back its weekly Sunday tea dances which were popular during the 1920s and 1930s.[75] Because of demand, the hotel considered restricting afternoon tea at the Ritz to hotel guests only, as those staying at the Ritz were often unable to get a table. Many Londoners who would have been barred by this restriction voiced disapproval and the Ritz compromised by requiring reservations for afternoon tea at the hotel.[76] Proper attire for tea is a must; the Ritz once refused to admit Mick Jagger for tea because he was not wearing a jacket and tie.[43]
The Barclay twins of The Ellerman Group of Companies purchased the hotel for £80 million from Trafalgar House, in October 1995, through their company Ellerman Investments. They spent eight years and £40 million restoring it to its former grandeur.[l] Two years after the death of Princess Diana, the Prince and Camilla Parker-Bowles made their first public appearance together at the Ritz, as they left a birthday party for Parker-Bowles' sister.[78] The couple returned to the hotel in November 2002 for the Prince's birthday party attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.[79] In 2002, the Ritz became the first hotel to receive the Royal Warrant from his Royal Highness The Prince of Wales for banqueting and catering services.[80] The Ritz acquired the adjoining Wimbourne House in 2005. On 27 January 2007, around 300 people were evacuated to the nearby May Fair Hotel following a fire alarm in the hotel. No one was hurt in the blaze, which started in the basement casino kitchen's extraction vents. The Ritz casino only suffered "minor damage".[81] Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was convalescing at the Ritz when she died following a stroke on 8 April 2013.[82]
There has been criticism because the Ritz has not paid any corporation tax since being taken over by the Barclay twins. The accounts indicate that the profitable hotel uses a series of tax reliefs to reduce its corporation tax to zero. David Barley’s son, Aidan, has stated that the company abides by UK law.[83]
Architecture [ edit ]
Elevation diagram of the Ritz
A typical floor plan in the Ritz
Authors Montgomery-Massingberd and Watkin describe the Ritz as "the product of one of those near miraculous convergences of civilised patron and architects and craftsmen of genius working together in complete harmony both with each other and with the social and architectural fashions of the day. The building has been regarded as a masterpiece from the day it was finished..." Both of the architects, Charles Mewès and Arthur J. Davis, were educated at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the education which they received is clear in the design of the buildings, particularly the Renaissance influence, delivering "an authentic fabric of traditional French classicism". Mewès had previously designed the Hotel Ritz of Paris for Cesar in 1897-8, after which he met Arthur Davis, and began working together preparing designs for the Grand Petit Palais in the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Both architects worked on the plans for the London Ritz in 1904-5.
According to Montgomery-Massingberd and Watkin the exterior is both structurally and visually Franco-American in influence with little trace of English architecture. For them the exterior "represents an evocative confluence of various Parisian architectural traditions"; the Piccadilly arcade echoes the arcaded ground floor in the Place Vendrome and the Rue de Rivoli, the steep mansarded skyline on the Green Park facade echoes Hector Lefuel's work on the Pavillon de Flore of the Louvre, while the tall windows and wall panels of the facades resemble those of Mewès's earlier work on a smaller building made as a home for Jules Ferry on Rue Bayard.
The front of the London Ritz
Excavation for the hotel began by contractors Waring White Building Co. Ltd in June 1904, and it was completed by 1 October 1905, and opened the following May. The building progress was documented each month by The Builder's Journal and Architectural Engineer, and in one edition noted the difficulties of some of the aspects of construction such as hoisting 20-ton 39 feet (12 m) steel joists in a narrow building site. The Architect and Contract Reporter noted that the limited space did not allow for the storage of materials on site. All mortar had to be mixed in the basement and the stone was dressed "on a platform with a watertight roof over the footway".[89] The red-brick foundations of the earlier Walsingham House had to be blasted away to facilitate the foundations of the steel structure in concrete.[m]
The total estimated cost was £345,227. 8s. 1d., with £102,000 going to Messrs Waring and Gillow, £49,000 to French decorators and over £15,000 to the English decorators. John P. Bishop and the Swedish-born Sven Bylander were consultant engineers during the building phase.
The facade on the Piccadilly side is roughly 231 feet (70 m), 115 feet (35 m) on the Arlington Street side, and 87 feet (27 m) on the Green Park side. The irregularity of the site presented initial problems for the builders. Davis dealt with this by "brilliant perspective effects" according to Binney, using curving walls to "cleverly conceal the rapidly diminishing space at the back of the hotel". The purpose of the arcaded front was to provide more space for the bedrooms above. Expensive Norwegian granite is the material on ground floor, with Portland stone above it.
The steel frame of the building was made in Germany and is based on a model made in the early 1880s in Chicago to increase fire resistance.[n] It was erected by Messrs Potts & Co. of Oxford Street. Fireproofing of the walls were conducted by the Columbian Fireproofing Company Ltd. of Pittsburgh and London, with steel-ribbed bars allowing for ventilation, while remaining sound proof and free from vibration.[94] The internal walls consist of "hollow, porous, terra-cotta blocks" covered with plaster, and the hotel's flooring was also made fireproof.[89] At the corners of the pavilion roofs of the Ritz are large green copper lions, the emblem of the hotel.
Interior [ edit ]
Ground floor of the Ritz
The hotel was designed mainly by London and Paris based designers in the Louis XVI style, which is consistent throughout, giving the hotel its "special atmosphere of perfect appropriateness and elegant restraint". Marcus Binney describes the great suite of ground-floor rooms as "one of the all-time masterpieces of hotel architecture" and compares it to a royal palace with its "grand vistas, lofty proportions and sparkling chandeliers". Waring & Gallow were responsible for many of the fine design work of the |
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© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.Dr. Jonathan A. C. Brown is a Director of Research at Yaqeen Institute, and an Associate Professor and Chair of Islamic Civilization at Georgetown University. He is the editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and the Law, and the author of several books including Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy.
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Often the only things people in the West associate with Islam are stoning and hand chopping. These images permeate our culture, from the trailer of hits like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) to straight-to-cable pablum like Escape: Human Cargo (1998) (again, in the trailer… ‘If you can’t live by their rules, you might die by them’). There is no better example of how our society has consistently and profoundly misunderstood Islam and its tradition of law, known as the Shariah. Stoning and hand chopping do feature in the Shariah, but their actual function can only be understood by stepping back and examining how the Shariah conceives of law overall. Only then can we make sense of its severest corporal and capital punishments, known as the Hudud (pronounced Hudood).
The Idea of God’s Law
The Shariah is not a law code, printed and bound in volumes. It’s the idea of God’s law. Like other broad legal concepts like ‘American law’ or ‘international law,’ the Shariah is a unified whole that contains within it tremendous diversity. Just as American law manifests itself as drastically different traffic laws or zoning codes in different states or locales, so too has the Shariah’s application varied greatly across the centuries while still remaining a coherent legal tradition.
The Shariah is drawn from four sources. The first two are believed by Muslims to be revealed by God either directly or indirectly: 1) the revelation of the Qur’an (which itself, contrary to the claim of a prominent Trump supporter, contains relatively little legal material), and 2) the authoritative precedent of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, known as his Sunna (often communicated in reports about the Prophet’s words and deeds, called Hadith). These two sources work in tandem. The Sunna is the lens through which the Qur’an is read, explaining and adding to it.
The second two sources are the products of human effort to understand and channel the revelation of God through the Prophet (peace be on him): 3) the ways that the early Muslim community applied the Qur’an and the Sunna, and 4) the further extension of this tradition of legal reasoning by Muslim scholars in the centuries since. The human effort to mine these sources and construct concrete, applicable rules from the abstraction of the Shariah is known as fiqh. If Shariah is the idea and ideal of God’s law, then fiqh is its earthly—and thus its inevitably fallible and diverse—manifestation.
There’s More to Law than Law and Order
A great irony in the ubiquity of stoning and hand cutting in the popular imagination is that these punishments constitute a minuscule portion of the Shariah. The tradition of law in Islam is the Muslim effort to answer the question ‘What pleases God?’ in any particular situation. As such, unlike what we think of as law in modern states, the Shariah encompasses every sphere of human activity. Most of these areas would never see the inside of a courtroom in a Muslim state let alone in the West (though, oddly, obscure points in Islamic law do sometimes come up in cases on freedom of religion). If we were to look at a typical, comprehensive book of fiqh (well over a dozen volumes, usually), we’d find that the core subjects of the Shariah are the forms of worship in Islam, including prayer (and the rules of ritual purity needed to perform it), fasting, charity tithes, the pilgrimage to Mecca and hunting and slaughter of animals (about 4 volumes out of 12). Only then would we find recognizable areas of the law such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, contracts, property, liability, injuries, etc. Although they are seemingly the only thing most people know about the Shariah, in a typical book of fiqh less than 2% of the book is devoted to the hudud crimes and their punishments.
Criminal Law in Islam and The West
In order to understand Islamic criminal law, we have to make sure we understand what we mean by criminal law in the first place. Most areas of law in the US, Europe and elsewhere are civil law, meaning they deal with people’s rights over and obligations to each other. These include contracts, marriage, property, etc. The government might play a role in adjudicating disputes in these areas through the infrastructure of courts, but these are disputes between private parties over wrongs they do each other.
Crimes are about wrongs done to the public, society or state as a whole, and in most modern states it is the government that acts to bring people who’ve committed them to justice. Of course, wrongs to individuals and wrongs to society can coincide. In old (like, very old) English law, if a man murdered another man in the street, then two wrongs had been done. The murderer had wronged the victim’s family by killing him, and he had also wronged the king by violating his ‘peace,’ or the overall order of his realm (hence our term ‘disturbing the peace’). The murderer was answerable to both aggrieved parties.[1] Centuries (and many, many legal turns) later, we find OJ Simpson on trial for two wrongs: one civil (for wrongful death and the damages this caused the victim’s family), and one criminal (murder) for which he was prosecuted by the state.
As we all recall, OJ was found innocent in his criminal trial but liable (i.e., guilty) in his civil trial. How could this be if the two trials were, in effect, for the same act? Did he commit murder or not? The two trials produced two different results because of different standards for meeting the burden of proof. In civil cases in the US, the jury only has to conclude that the preponderance of evidence indicates that the person is guilty (i.e., over 50% likelihood), while in a criminal trial the jury must be convinced ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’[2] There are different burdens of proof because of the differences in punishments for civil and criminal wrongs. Civil wrongs are punished by compensation. Criminal wrongs are punishable by incarceration or corporal or even capital punishment. In the West, the notion that judges or juries should exercise extra caution in finding someone guilty of a crime comes from canon law (the law of the Catholic Church) in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as does the notion of innocent until proven guilty.[3]
The Shariah has remarkably similar features (actually, I think that Western canon law was influenced a great deal by Islamic law, just as Western philosophy and science were profoundly shaped by Muslim scholars in those fields from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries… but that’s another issue). Muslim jurists didn’t categorize law into civil and criminal law, but these labels are nonetheless useful in trying to understand the hudud. The categories that Muslim jurists used were those of violations of the ‘rights of God’ (ḥuqūq Allāh) as opposed to violations of the ‘rights of God’s servants,’ i.e., human beings (ḥuqūq al-ʿibād). The rights of human beings include the right to physical inviolability (in other words, one can’t be killed or harmed without just cause), the right to dignity, the right to property, the right to family, and the right to religion.
Just as in modern human rights, these rights are not absolute. They can be infringed upon with just cause. But they belong to all human beings regardless of whether they are Muslims or not. If someone breaks your toe, smashes into your car or reneges on a contract they made with you, they owe you compensation because they have violated your rights. They owe this even if they didn’t intend any of these actions since the damage was done and they were the cause. The same applies in American civil law (in both Islamic and American law, an exception would be if you smashed someone’s car because someone else threw you onto it, which was out of your control). Along the same lines, according to the rights of human beings in the Shariah, if someone steals your phone from you, they owe you either the return of your phone or its replacement value. If someone kills your family member accidentally, then your family is owed the compensation value as specified in the Qur’an and the Sunna. In such cases, as taught by the Prophet ﷺ, the job of the judge is to “ensure that all those with rights receive them.”[4]
Violations of the ‘rights of God’ in the Shariah are an important counterpart to crimes in the Western legal tradition. Of course, the ultimate ‘right of God’ upon mankind, as explained by the Prophet ﷺ, is for God to be worshipped without partner, and this right extends to other acts of worship as well, like giving the zakat charity.[5] But, unlike human beings, God is eminently beyond the capacity of any creature to harm. Also unlike human beings, God has “ordained upon Himself mercy” (Qur’an 6:54), and promised that His “mercy encompasses all things” (Qur’an 7:156). This element of God’s vast mercy plays a crucial role in the other rights of God that Muslim jurists have identified, namely the crimes known as the hudud.
What are the Hudud?
The concept of hudud in Islamic criminal law is not found in the Qur’an, though it is referred to in hadiths considered authentic by Muslims.[6] Ḥudūd in Arabic is the plural of ḥadd, meaning limit or boundary. The Qur’an mentions the “limits of God” several times, warning Muslims of the sin of transgressing them and that they should not even approach them (Qur’an 2:187). But nowhere does the phrase appear in the clear context of labeling certain crimes (see Qur’an, 2:229, 4:14, 58:4, 65:1, though 4:14 is followed by a discussion of sexual impropriety).
As the famous scholar Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) noted, definitions for the categories of crimes (and their corresponding punishments) in Islamic law were the products of human reason and not scripture.[7] Early Muslim jurists probably inherited the concept of a category of crimes called hudud from references to it made by the Prophet ﷺ and the early generations of Muslims. Muslim scholars have agreed that the hudud include: adultery/fornication (zinā), consuming intoxicants (shurb al-khamr), accusing someone of fornication (qadhf), some types of theft (sariqa), and armed robbery or banditry (ḥirāba). Muslim schools of law have disagreed on whether three other crimes should be included as well: public apostasy (ridda), sodomy (liwāṭ) and assassination/premeditated murder for purposes of robbery (ghīla).[8]
What is in common among the hudud crimes is that their punishments are specified in the Qur’an or Sunna and that they are considered to be violations of the rights of God.[9] Of course, some of the hudud are also violations of the rights of humans as well. Sariqa (the hudud-level of theft, see below), qadhf (sexual slander) and ḥirāba (armed robbery, banditry) are obviously violations of people’s rights to life, property and/or dignity.
The scriptural commands that specify these hudud punishments are, in summary:
Zinā : The Qur’an commands that men and women who engage in fornication be lashed 100 times (Qur’an 24:2), and hadiths add that if the person is single and has never been married then they should also be exiled for a year. [10] The Hanafi school of law does not accept the additional punishment of exile because it does not deem the hadiths in question strong enough evidence to alter the Qur’anic ruling. It was agreed upon by all the Muslim schools of law that the Qur’anic punishment referred to here was for unmarried people. Married men and women guilty of adultery are punished by stoning, as demonstrated in the Sunna of the Prophet (peace be upon him). [11]
: The Qur’an commands that men and women who engage in fornication be lashed 100 times (Qur’an 24:2), and add that if the person is single and has never been married then they should also be exiled for a year. The Hanafi school of law does not accept the additional punishment of exile because it does not deem the in question strong enough evidence to alter the Qur’anic ruling. It was agreed upon by all the Muslim schools of law that the Qur’anic punishment referred to here was for unmarried people. Married men and women guilty of adultery are punished by stoning, as demonstrated in the of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Sariqa : the Qur’an specifies that the thief, male or female, should have their hand cut off “as a requital for what they have done and as a deterrent ordained by God” (Qur’an 5:38).
Qadhf : The Qur’an commands that anyone who accuses someone of adultery and does not provide four witnesses to the alleged act should be lashed 80 times and should never again have their testimony accepted (Qur’an 24:4).
Shurb al-Khamr : Though the Qur’an prohibits drinking wine ( khamr ) and intoxication, the punishment for drinking comes from the Sunna. The most reliable hadiths state that the Prophet ﷺ would have a person lashed 40 times for intoxication, but the caliphs Umar and Ali subsequently increased this to 80 after consultation with other Companions. [12]
: Though the Qur’an prohibits drinking wine ( ) and intoxication, the punishment for drinking comes from the. The most reliable state that the Prophet ﷺ would have a person lashed 40 times for intoxication, but the caliphs Umar and Ali subsequently increased this to 80 after consultation with other Companions. Ḥirāba : This crime is understood to be set out in the Qur’an’s condemnation of “those who make war on God and His Messenger and seek to spread harm and corruption in the land.” The Qur’an gives it the harshest punishment in Islam: crucifixion and/or amputating hands and feet (Qur’an 5:33). The vast majority of Muslim scholars have held that this verse was revealed after a group of men brutally blinded, maimed and murdered a shepherd and then stole his camels. The Prophet ﷺ ordered the killers punished in exactly the same way.[13] Yet prominent scholars were skeptical of reports that he had actually ordered the murderers’ hands or feet cut off.[14] This disagreement between the punishments ordered by the Qur’an and by the Prophet ﷺ may have been because the Prophet’s order came before the verse was revealed,[15] but the ambiguity is generally understood as illustrating that the ruler/state has discretion in deciding the proper punishment for ḥirāba.[16]
The hudud do not cover what most legal systems would consider the most serious part of criminal law: murder. But this does fall within what we can term Islamic criminal law. Although the Qur’an and Sunna conceptualize murder, accidental killing, as well as physical injuries done to others, as private wrongs against individuals and their families, from the time of the Prophet ﷺ it was the state that oversaw these disputes and carried out punishments. These were violations of the rights of people, but they also touched on the realm of public order and violence, which was the territory of the ruler.[17] Since cases of homicide were brought by the victim’s kin (much like in the West until the nineteenth century), the state (in the person of the judge or governor) would be responsible for bringing cases for victims with no kin, on the basis of the Prophet’s ﷺ saying that “The authority (sulṭān) is the guardian of those who have no guardian.”[18] The state also often took responsibility for compensating victims and their families when the guilty party could not be identified.[19]
God’s Mercy and Applying the Hudud Punishments
Violations of people’s rights have to be restituted because those people have suffered actual damage or loss. God, on the other hand, is not actually harmed by violations of His rights. In the case of the rights of God, it is God’s mercy that defines Islamic legal procedure. Only an adult Muslim of sound mind and who is aware that one of the hudud acts has been prohibited by God and still intentionally engages in it is even theoretically liable for the punishment.[20] In this regard, the hudud crimes differ from violations of the rights of people, such as accidental manslaughter or accidentally damaging someone’s property, where intention is not required and children’s families are liable for the damage they cause.
The central principle in the application of the hudud punishments is maximizing mercy. This was formulated clearly in a hadith attributed to the Prophet ﷺ that was also echoed by prominent Companions, among them his wife Aisha and the Caliphs Umar and Ali. The best-attested version states, “Ward off the hudud from the Muslims as much as you all can, and if you find a way out for the person, then let them go. For it is better for the authority to err in mercy than to err in punishment.”[21] Within a century of the Prophet’s death Muslim scholars had digested this hadith into the crucial legal principle of ‘Ward off the hudud by ambiguities (shubuhāt).’[22]
Some might argue that this doctrine was developed by Muslim jurists in the generation after the life of the Prophet ﷺ to remedy the Qur’an’s harsh punishments. In other words, they inherited a regime of severe punishments and maybe they thought they needed to find some way out of applying them. Or one might argue that the Prophet himself ﷺ preached warding off the hudud if at all possible because he was uncomfortable with the punishments revealed in the Qur’an.
But neither of these theories could be correct. The establishment of a harsh regime of punishments alongside a nearly unreachable standard of proof occurs together within the Qur’an itself. The Qur’an ordains that those who commit adultery should be lashed 100 times, but just one verse later it states that anyone who accuses someone of adultery without four witnesses to the act is punished with 80 lashes for slander.[23] Why would a message seeking to establish an order of law set up harsh punishments but then make them almost impossible to apply? We will discuss this later, but now let’s turn to the ambiguities (shubuhāt) that Muslim jurists elaborated to avoid applying the hudud.
The Muslim jurists who developed the massive and diverse body of fiqh took the Prophet’s command to ward off the hudud very seriously. Some of the procedural safeguards were found in the Qur’an itself, such as the requirement for four witnesses to zinā. A significant number were added in the hadiths. In the most famous case (there are six known instances) of the Prophet ﷺ ordering a man stoned for adultery, the man comes to the Prophet ﷺ and confesses his sin. The Prophet asks him if he is crazy, and when he continues to insist the Prophet ﷺ suggests that perhaps he only kissed the woman.[24] In order to prevent witnesses from assuming sex was occurring when perhaps the couple was just embracing or lying on top of one another, the Prophet ﷺ required the witnesses to testify that they’d seen “his penis enter into her vagina like an eyeliner applier entering into its container.”[25] Because the man who confessed, Māʿiz, insisted on confessing four times to the Prophet ﷺ, the majority of Muslim scholars require all confessions of zinā to be done four times. Anything less cannot be punished by the hudud.[26]
Based on the same case of Māʿiz, jurists agreed that even someone who had confessed to zinā could retract that confession at any point and no longer face the hudud punishment. Finally, even external signs such as pregnancy were not considered proof that zinā had occurred in the opinion of the majority of Muslim scholars. For example, if a woman’s husband had been away for years, he could have been miraculously transported to be with her.[27] Or she could have been raped. The one school that did consider pregnancy determinative proof of zinā (assuming the woman didn’t claim she had been raped) allowed the possibility that a woman could be pregnant for up to five years. Normally in the Shariah such miraculous or fantastic claims would carry no weight in legal matters. But as possible ambiguities to prevent application of the hudud, they were accepted.[28]
This immense allowance for ambiguities in ruling on sexual offenses can be seen most clearly in the Hanafi school of law, which was the official school of the Ottoman Empire. When prostitutes and their clients were caught, they were not tried for zinā due to the (admittedly outlandish) ambiguity that prostitution was structurally similar to marriage; both were exchanges of sexual access for money (in the case of marriage, the groom’s dowry payment).[29] This is not because Muslim scholars had any sympathy for prostitution or a low regard for marriage, but rather because they hunted for any possible ambiguity to avoid implementing the hudud.
In the case of sariqa, the strict definition of the crime laid out by the Sunna explains why I’ve been so reluctant to translate it as theft. Sariqa is only a very specific kind of theft. First, hadiths specify that a thief would only have their hand cut off stealing something over a certain value.[30] In another hadith, as well as in the practice of the Companions, we are told that an accused thief should be prompted two or three times to deny that he stole.[31] In court procedure, what this means is that, even if the thief is caught red-handed, with the usual number of witnesses (two) testifying that they saw him steal, all the thief has to do is claim that the item was his, and enough ambiguity would be established to make hand cutting out of the question.[32] On the basis of an instance in which a man stole a cloak from under a sleeping man’s head, jurists concluded that only something stolen from a secure location (ḥirz), a concept determined by local custom and conditions, merited the hudud punishment.[33] The Prophet ﷺ also exempted acts of misappropriation done blatantly in the open.[34] In the end, the list of requirements that Muslim scholars agreed on to eliminate all ambiguities reaches (see Appendix Requirements for Amputation for Theft from al-Subki). As a result, as described by scholar Rudolph Peters, it is “nearly impossible for a thief or fornicator to be sentenced, unless he wishes to do so and confesses.”[35]
This system of making it virtually impossible to implement the hudud punishments through ambiguities characterized the hudud crimes of intoxication and, to a lesser extent, sexual slander as well. Someone who smells of alcohol would not be liable for the hudud punishment. Even someone who was seen drunk and vomiting up wine was not subject to the hudud punishment according to most Muslim jurists because he could have drunk the wine accidentally.[36] Since Muslim scholars have disagreed a great deal about what constitutes an intoxicant, the approach to applying the hudud punishment has been to follow Imam Shafi’s position that “people are only punished based on certainty.”[37]
Off the Hook? How Non- Hudud Crimes were Punished
Of course, just because an ambiguity was found to avoid the hudud punishment, this did not mean that the alleged wrongdoer was off the hook. Rather, their offense simply dropped from the upper echelon of violations of the rights of God to the violations of the rights of human beings. Such offenses were punished according to taʿzīr, or discretionary punishment set by the judge. So a thief who had been caught red-handed by two, upstanding witnesses (the standard evidentiary bar for crimes) stealing a bar of gold from a safe deposit box could avoid the hudud punishment by simply denying he had done it. He would not have his hand cut off. But there was still sufficient evidence to convict him of theft at the level of ghaṣb, or usurpation (similar to petty larceny or the civil wrong of conversion in common law). An unmarried couple found naked in bed could not be punished for zinā, but they could still be severely disciplined.
A judge or governor could also draw on his authority to maintain public order to punish offenses that fell below the threshold of hudud. For example, someone who stank of wine and was obviously drunk might not be punished at the level of hudud, but he could still be punished below that level.[38] In the case of armed robbery/banditry, if the perpetrators repented and surrendered, then these ambiguities would drop the offense from the hudud range. But they were still liable for the punishments for homicide and non-hudud theft.[39]
Unlike American laws’ different burdens of proof in civil versus criminal cases, the main protection against conviction for a hudud crime was not the burden of proof (though this was almost unachievable in the case of zinā). The escape hatch was more often provided by the nearly endless list of ambiguities that the judge saw as his duty to explore.
The analogy of American criminal versus civil law is still useful since it helps us understand how the accused could be found innocent of an act in one category of law by its standard of evidence and simultaneously found guilty of the same act in another category of law. It was much easier to produce the evidence needed to convince a judge that a perpetrator was guilty of a taʿzīr offense than a hudud one. In the Shafi school of law, for example, someone could be convicted of non-hudud theft based on the testimony of one man and two women. And in the Hanbali school slaves could testify in non-hudud cases.[40] But no major Muslim school of law allowed women or slaves to testify in hudud cases since the more restrictions on who could bear witness the more difficult it was to convict the accused.[41]Since taʿzīr is, at its core, determined at the discretion of the judge, some punishment could be assigned without reference to any fixed standard of proof at all.
Discretionary punishment was historically the primary category of punishment in the Shariah. In some schools of law, jurists developed detailed tables of punishments within their schools of law for what taʿzīr punishments applied to what sorts of offenses. Lashing, the bastinado (smacking the soles of the feet with a cane) and, to a lesser extent, incarceration, have been the main methods of punishment. Although there has been disagreement on the details, the most common position among Muslim jurists is that the upper limit of taʿzīr punishments is that they cannot reach the punishment for the equivalent hudud crime. This was simple in the case of sexual indiscretion or intoxication, for which the hudud crime had a fixed number of lashes. The most that a taʿzīr punishment could be was 99 lashes for sexual crimes or one day less than one year of exile. Theft was a different matter. Petty theft was generally handled by lashing or short jail time, while repeat offenders could be sent to prisons for thieves (see for more on the types of punishments used in Islamic civilization.
One of the most important features of how the hudud crimes were conceptualized in the Sunna and by later jurists was the central role of avoiding tajassus (seeking out offenses done in private) and providing satr (finding excuses for, or turning a blind eye to, private misconduct. These concepts were rooted in the Qur’an, which forbids tajassus (Qur’an 49:12), and the Sunna, where the Prophet ﷺ repeatedly ignores a man trying to confess to having “violated one of the hudud.”[42] “If you seek out a people’s secret or shameful areas,” the Prophet ﷺ warns, “You’ll ruin them.”[43]
The Companions understood this as key to legal procedure. The prominent Companion and governor of Kufa, Ibn Masʿūd, was brought a man “whose beard was dripping with wine,” but Ibn Masʿūd’s only response was, “We have been forbidden to seek out faults. But if he does something openly before us, we would hold him responsible for that.”[44] One reliable report tells that the caliph Umar heard rowdy voices from inside a house in Medina, so he climbed over the wall and found a man with a woman and wine. When he confronted the man, he replied that, while he was indeed committing a sin, Umar had committed three: he had violated the Qur’anic commands against seeking out faults in others (49:12), climbing over the walls of houses (2:189) and entering homes without permission (24:27). Umar admitted his fault and left.
As with other areas of Islamic criminal law, the application of the hudud ultimately fell under the authority of the ruler or state. Although the Prophet ﷺ warned that, once a hudud crime had reached the authority, the trial had to be held, this was meant to emphasize that no one could expect favoritism.[45] The Prophet ﷺ and the early caliphs made it clear that the ruling authority could suspend the hudud punishments entirely if this was necessary, as the Prophet ﷺ ordered for soldiers who stole while out on campaign and as Umar famously ordered for theft in times of famine.[46] As the famous Hanafi jurist al-Kāsānī (d. 1191) wrote, “It is not permissible to carry out the hudud without the probability of some benefit.”[47]
Historical Application of Hudud in Islamic Civilization
The Muslim judges who applied the rules of fiqh also took the command of the Prophet ﷺ to ward off the hudud by ambiguities as a divine command. All indications are that the hudud punishments were very rarely carried out historically. A Scottish doctor working in Aleppo in the mid-1700s observed that there were only six public executions in twenty years. Theft was rare, he observed, and when it occurred it was punished by bastinado.[48] A famous British scholar of Arabic in Egypt in the mid-1800s reported that the hudud punishment for theft had not been inflicted in recent memory.[49] In the roughly five hundred years that the Ottoman Empire ruled Constantinople, records show that only one instance of stoning for adultery took place (contrast this with colonial America/USA, where over fifty people were executed for various sexual crimes between 1608 and 1785).[50]
Jurists’ theories of far-fetched ambiguities found real-life application. A Muslim woman in India in the late 1500s whose husband had died in battle was suddenly found to be pregnant and was accused of fornication. She claimed that her husband had been miraculously brought back to life every Friday night, when he would visit her. Jurists of India’s predominant Hanafi school of law were consulted on the case and replied that it was indeed technically possible for such a miracle to have occurred.[51]
The concept of non-invasiveness (i.e., avoiding tajassus) and covering up faults (satr) also became real practices. Wine drinking, fornication, prostitution, and homosexuality became widespread in medieval Islamic civilization. Yet Muslim scholars could do little more than complain about this.[52] One scholar in Mughal India himself strayed into wanton ways, taking up womanizing and throwing drinking parties. When the market police climbed over the wall of his house to break up one such party he reprimanded them |
out advice - but there was a palpable absence of awe and hero-worship. Not many appeared overwhelmed, not many were open-mouthed.
Those emotions were reserved for those in the stands - the parents - who would have given an arm and a leg to swap places with their kids. The moment Tendulkar finished with the clinic and walked towards the boundary, all hell broke loose. Middle-aged men and women - some executives in their day jobs, others technical whizzes, their hairlines receding, their brows furrowed - were clambering on railings to take a photo. Some pushed and shoved; some tried to take selfies from impossible angles. Through it all they kept shouting his name, as if the louder they uttered it the higher the chances of getting closer.
About five minutes into the chaos, one bespectacled lady, probably in her mid 30s, fed up of trying to jostle her way through the crowd, walked up a few rows in the stands, stood on a bucket chair, put her hands to her chest and - as if her whole life was flashing in front of her in that one instant - looked up to the sky and softly exclaimed, "Ashirwad mil gaya" (I've been blessed).
Blessings received, she packed her handbag and prepared to make her way out.
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is a writer based in the USA
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.HELSINKI -- Paul Stastny of the Colorado Avalanche had two goals and two assists, and Nashville's Craig Smith added five assists to help the United States rout Russia 8-3 on Thursday in the world hockey quarterfinals.
David Moss, Ryan Carter, Nate Thompson, Jacob Trouba, T.J. Oshie and Alex Galchenyuk also scored and John Gibson made 31 saves.
"We felt proud of our accomplishment to beat such a quality opponent," U.S. coach Joe Sacco said. "We capitalized on a lot of our chances with opportunistic play, and we did a very good job defensively, as well as we could against a high power offense. We did it with a lot of discipline."
The Americans will face Switzerland, a 2-1 winner over the Czech Republic in Stockholm, on Saturday in Stockholm. In the other semifinal, Sweden will play Finland.
"We are where we wanted to be coming into this tournament," U.S. forward Stephen Gionta of the Devils said. "We took care of what we had to, and we got some bounces our way, which is always nice.
"I thought we played a pretty solid team game. We tried to clog up everything, take away their speed, and keep the puck in their end. I think our game plan worked."
The eight goals were the most allowed by Russia or the Soviet Union in the worlds or Olympics.
"The team that was more disciplined and better organized won today," Russian coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov said. "We have very good players, but you have to remember that hockey is a team game."
Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Svitov and Alexander Perezhogin scored for Russia. But John Gibson, a 19-year-old fresh out of junior hockey, far outplayed Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, who allowed the first four U.S. goals before being pulled.
Ovechkin has been playing despite a hairline fracture in his left foot sustained during Washington's seven-game playoff loss to the New York Rangers.
In Stockholm, Fredrik Pettersson beat Mike Smith with a slap shot in the fourth round of a shootout to give Sweden a 3-2 victory over Canada.
"It's the worst feeling obviously," Coyotes goalie Smith said. "Every time we put the Canada sweater on you are expected to win. This is tough to take."
Nicklas Danielsson scored twice in regulation for Sweden, and Steven Stamkos of Tampa Bay and Claude Giroux of Philadelphia countered for Canada.
"I'm really happy," Swedish coach Par Marts said. "They are a tough team to beat. We knew we had to play our best game of the tournament. Today everything worked well. I'm happy for Swedish hockey because you have to play for the medals in your home tournament."
Canada lost captain Eric Staal, who was injured in the first period on a knee-on-knee collision with Alex Edler of Vancouver. Carolina's Staal left clutching his right knee and didn't return. Edler was given a major penalty and game misconduct.
"I can't believe we lost," Canadian forward Matt Duchene of Colorado said. "I thought we had the team to do it this year. It just shows you one game, anyone can win. We don't like that penalty shot rule, that's for sure."
In the second quarterfinal in Helsinki, Finland beat Slovakia 4-3. Petri Kontiola scored twice and assisted on Juhamatti Aaltonen's winner, and Antti Raanta made 33 saves.
In Stockholm, Denis Hollenstein and Roman Josi scored for Switzerland.
"It is a real team," Switzerland coach Sean Simpson said. "Whatever happens on the ice, they react to it. It's not easy to play against the Czech Republic.""Microbes equal flavor." Words to live by, especially if your life is David Chang's. The Momofuku/Ssäm Bar/Ko/Má Pêche chef a couple of years ago turned a 200-square-foot room into a culinary lab where he's currently exploring "microbial terroir" by pickling, curing and fermenting whatever he can get his hands on. "We've just been letting stuff rot," says Chang, who, along with collaborator Dan Felder, led a lecture on Thursday at UCLA, part of its Food and Science series. "We're the kings of rotten stuff."
So here are some things rotting in the Momofuku kitchen lab:
Pork: Butabushi -- it's the pork version of katsuobushi, the Japanese dried, smoked, fermented bonito ("a genius ingredient right up there with puff pastry," says Chang). Pork loin is steamed, smoked and "left to rot." The first time he made it, it was "a technicolor weird thing" covered with mold. "I wondered, am I dying as I'm breathing this in?'" But when cut into, it was the same amber as katsuobushi, and just as delicious, according to Chang. The hard part has been replicating it.
Rabbit: Seven- to 21-day dry-aged rabbit. "It's got a really strange funk to it. It smells gnarly."
Chicken: Chickenbushi. Look for the -bushi trend. Chang says Sean Brock at Husk in Charleston, S.C., is making scallopbushi.
Fish: Fish sauce. "The lab -- it smells really funny in there." Salt is added to chopped fish (including the guts) and, again, left to rot. For five months. "The smell is extraordinary."
Legumes and grains: Chang and his team are cultivating koji on grains such as barley and basmati rice by steaming, inoculating and incubating it. The ensuing mold is used to make miso, traditionally made with soybeans. Chang et al. are experimenting with chickpea miso and even pistachio and pine nut miso. "Chickpea miso tastes like parmesan." With the help of a high-speed centrifuge belonging to New York University microbiologists, they can get pistachio, pine nut and chickpea tamari, too.
Fruit: Vinegars. "Balsamic vinegar is crazy to me. Anybody who's been to Modena knows what I'm talking about. I want to make the good stuff, the rotten stuff." So Chang has set out to to make his own vinegars with New York apples (again, it's all about microbes and terroir). "Rotting fruits. I really wish we could capture the smell of this place for you."
Lardo: A side project is sprinkling barley koji powder and salt on lardo to cure it and give it "a funky dry-aged flavor."
ALSO:
All natural: La Chamba black clay pots
First Impression: End of communism at Rivera
Object of Desire: Beef noodle stew
-- Betty Hallock
Photo credit: Betty HallockFollowing revelations by a whistleblower, Transparency International has uncovered tricks for funding projects without going through public procurement procedures. EURACTIV Slovakia reports.
Transparency International has thrown its weight behind a whistleblower, Zuzana Hlávková, who was a member of the team responsible for cultural activities for the Slovak Presidency at the Slovak Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. She has resigned since.
Hlávková joined the team responsible for cultural activities for the Slovak Presidency in July 2015. She resigned from her job in February 2016, after what she describes as being pushed to go along with a dubious selection of event agencies that were to organise expensive events.
One of the events concerned the presentation of the logo of the presidency, and another one the opening concert of the Slovak Presidency. Both events took place in Bratislava.
Press conference or gala event?
In contrast with other presidencies, where the logo is presented at a press conference, a decision was made at the Foreign Affairs Ministry to hold an expensive and high-profile cultural event at the Slovak National Theatre, featuring various artists, and a laser show, hosting members of the government. The event took place just two weeks before the general election, which was held in March 2016.
Slovakia turns unpredictable ahead of its EU presidency The Smer-Social Democrats (Smer-SD) party of Prime Minister Robert Fico lost its majority and will have difficulties forming a coalition government, following elections held on 5 March. The new parliament will be extremely fragmented, with neo-Nazi and protest parties present, leading to speculation about early elections. EURACTIV Slovakia reports.
According to Hlávková, the idea of holding a big event instead of a more modest one, as well as its pre-election timing, came from a newly hired “media advisor” at the ministry, Zuzana Ťapáková, a former executive director of a private Slovak TV channel, and rumoured candidate for the highest post at the Slovak public broadcaster (RTVS), a vacancy to be filled next year and which requires a vote in parliament.
The agency that has been selected for the presidency logo presentation event is the same that took care, among other things, of big party events for the former governing party of Prime Minister Robert Fico SMER-SD, now serving his third term.
As shown by the Transparency International inquiries – with whom Hlávková shared her insight – the ministry was only able to select the agency without a proper public procurement by artificially lowering the budget and paying some costs out of its own budget separately. That way, they could claim to use the so-called “Presidency exemption” from classic public procurement procedures defined in a specially adopted law.
The ministry had vowed not to misuse the exemption.
In July, when asked by EURACTIV.sk about the costs of the logo event, the ministry said the budget was €200,000. In reality, it was around €300,000, Hlávková claims.
Just to compare, the cost for the logo and accompanying design manual, authored by a graphic design student and chosen via a contest, was €4,500.
Similarly, another presidency-related event – the opening concert – was procured in an unusual manner, Hlávková claims.
Meeting with Lajčák
At a certain point, Hlávková refused to go along and filed her resignation. Before that, she approached the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miroslav Lajčák, with a letter, explaining her reasons and asking for a meeting.
Lajcak reassures Brussels ahead of Slovak presidency Miroslav Lajčák, the foreign minister of Slovakia, presented his country’s EU presidency priorities in front of a large Brussels audience today (1 June), in an effort to dispel fears that Bratislava will hijack the platform to promote its own national agenda.
She was first received by the chief of staff at the ministry, who, as she explains, acknowledged “not everything being kosher”, but still legal.
Then Hlávková was able to get a meeting with Lajčák himself.
“He said that he likes my youthful idealism, but that the heart must go hand in hand with reason,” she said.
Asked why the ministry lied to journalists, Lajčák allegedly said that the media are ill-wishing and not objective, and that they only care about the money, not the content.
On the role of the “media advisor” Zuzana Ťapáková, Lajčák allegedly replied she was “sent by the Prime Minister”, so that they (the Ministry) could “somehow use” her know-how.
According to Hlávková’s recollection of the talk, Lajčák also asked whether her decision to quit her job is final. He asked her to come back to any department of her choosing, given her excellent evaluation. She refused.
After that, Hlávková approached Transparency International in Slovakia, which requested that the ministry and other parties involved, provide relevant documents and information, like those linked to the selection process for the event agencies – which they, for the most part, have not shared.
The chief of the Slovak TI office, Gabriel Šípoš, said that there was no doubt that the ministry used funds that “it has hidden from the public”.
A trick used was that the contract was artificially divided so that it conforms with a legal exemption of the public procurement process, while covering the rest of the costs from other sources.
Transparency International also believes that it is highly likely that the ministry broke the law while preparing the opening concert of the Presidency. Transparency International filled a motion with the Supreme Audit Office, the Office for Public Procurement and the Antimonopoly office.
MFA: Everything was done in line with the law
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected all accusations, saying that Hlávková was commenting on issues of which she did not have the full knowledge.
“All of the public procurements are in line with the law,” the official statement reads. It must be added, however, that this is a phrase already being mocked by the public, as it is too often used to avert any allegations of government misconduct in Slovakia.
The official reaction further states that the claims by Hlávková are based on “partial information,” are drawn “out of context” and are mixed with “subjective impressions”.
Concerning Ťapáková, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says she has no executive or decision-making powers.
The accusations are “fabricated and false”, Ťapáková is quoted as saying by the Slovak daily SME. She also said she intended to defend herself “in court” and refused to face more questions from journalists.
“The ministry has asked all relevant authorities to look into all of the presidency public procurements, as it has nothing to hide,” she said.Image: Jon Christian
The Bitcoin ATM in the corner of Harvard-area fast food joint Tasty Burger is looking pretty rough. Its once-bright orange signage is peeling at the bottom, the display is dead, and someone has stuck a chewed piece of gum to the side, like a diacritic under the graffiti tag scrawled on the dusty cabinet in red marker. Most strikingly, the ATM's front access panel has come unlatched, leaving bare circuit boards, a credit card reader, and miscellaneous electronics exposed.
According to a Tasty Burger employee, the kiosk appeared last year and worked for just a few months before falling into disrepair. Its husk has apparently been standing there ever since, like a cenotaph to an otherwise forgotten moment in techno-libertarian hubris.
This much is clear: in happier days, the ATM in Tasty Burger was run by ZenBox, a Santa Monica-based Bitcoin startup that last year claimed to operate the largest network of Bitcoin ATMs in the world.
"We want to saturate the market with ZenBox and to be a recognized brand that is reliable and trusted," said ZenBox CEO Cailen Sullivan last October in an interview with CoinTelegraph, a cryptocurrency news publication.
Zenbox's Andrew Jasco—job position, according to LinkedIn: "Strategic Partnership Genius"—is intensely apologetic about the abandoned ATM, though he admits he's surprised to hear it's still lingering in Tasty Burger.
"I was informed by our operations team that that machine had been moved, so somebody's going to, uh..." he said, trailing off and chuckling ruefully. "Yeah, that's not good."
The derelict ZenBox kiosk seems emblematic of the nascent Bitcoin industry
The most troubling aspect of the bricked ATM, of course, is the possibility that a hacker could walk into Tasty Burger, access its guts and recover customers' personal information. One of Bitcoin's nominal strengths, at least in the public imagination, is its potential for anonymous transactions, but ZenBox's machines, according to the company's website, process credit cards and collect users' palm prints, headshots and scans of government-issued identification.
"I think everything is encrypted," Jasco said. "It's a great concern."
According to a Tasty Burger representative, an associate at the restaurant's real estate management company was responsible for the kiosk. The associate, in turn, said that she was no longer "involved with the BitCoin" but that I should talk to Alex Peterson, of Vis Nova Ventures, an outfit that "owns and operates a growing network of ZenBox Bitcoin kiosks." Peterson said that the Tasty Burger ATM has been out of service since November of last year, and that there are no plans to bring it back online.
"There appears to have been an attempted robbery of the safe in the last couple days," Peterson said. "We incurred no losses but are currently working with management to try to identify the culprit using video surveillance footage."
The kiosk contains no cash, Peterson said.
I eventually reached Sullivan, ZenBox's CEO, who explained that the kiosk in Tasty Burger, unlike other ATMs in the ZenBox network, was built by the Las Vegas-based startup RoboCoin, which provides software and hardware for moving and converting Bitcoin. Last autumn, RoboCoin released a software update that many in the Bitcoin community felt collected too much information about customers. After discussing the situation with Peterson, who owns the Tasty Burger kiosk but contracted with ZenBox to operate it, they agreed to shut down the unit. Sullivan, though, says he was under the impression that the machine had been taken out of public.
Image: Jon Christian
"It was a bit of a shock to get your email, and to hear that our skin was still on the machine, because we hadn't had anything to do with it for many months," Sullivan said.
In a sense, the derelict ZenBox kiosk seems emblematic of the nascent Bitcoin industry, which has been haunted by volatility, high profile catastrophes, and poor followthrough. Mt. Gox, which swelled to become the world's largest Bitcoin exchange during the currency's early years, collapsed after it admitted it had lost a cache of Bitcoins valued at $450 million. Hackers robbed exchange Bitstamp of $5 million worth of coins. Meanwhile, the currency itself is still difficult to get ahold of, falling short of promises that it would become as convenient as credit cards or cash.
As for the ATM at Tasty Burger, Jasco said that now that he's aware of it, he's going to try to have it removed.
"At the end of the day," he said, "the thing probably shouldn't be there, because it's not a very pretty machine to look at."This article is from the archive of our partner.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, Paul Ryan told a touching anecdote of a poor boy who said he didn't want a free lunch at school, but a brown bag one, because "a kid who had a brown paper bag had someone who cared for him." Though Ryan presented this as a modern tale of government dependence and family decline — people don't want "comfort," Ryan said, but "dignity" — the author of the book the story appears to be cribbed from says she met the kid in 1986.
"You know, this reminds me of a story I heard from Eloise Anderson," Ryan said, referring to a member of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's cabinet. He continued:
"She once met a young boy from a very poor family. And every day at school, he would get a free lunch from a government program. He told Eloise, he didn't want a free lunch. He wanted his own lunch, one in a brown paper bag, just like the other kids. He wanted one, he said, because he knew a kid who had a brown paper bag had someone who cared for him. This is what the left does not understand."
But as a Talking Points Memo commenter noticed, the story appears to be cribbed from a 2011 book called An Invisible Thread. Author Laura Schroff says it's the story of her friendship with Maurice. Her website says, "We met on 56th street in Manhattan in 1986, when I was a 35-year-old single, successful ad sales executive, and he was an 11-year-old homeless panhandler." An except of the book:
Wonkette says, "Somebody Is Stealing Children To Put In Paul Ryan Speeches!" The Wire reached out to Anderson for comment; we'll update when we hear back. Update: Anderson tells The Washington Post that she saw an interview with Maurice Mazyck on TV, even though she'd previously told the story as if it happened to her. Her spokesman says she "misspoke."
Before he launched into the brown bag story, Ryan was talking about how Obamacare will "will discourage millions of people from working," causing the economy to shrink. (Maurice's circumstances in 1986, it's worth noting, were somewhat starker than having subsidized health insurance through Obamacare.)Last June 23 Wayne Simmonds was enjoying his offseason at his uncle's cottage on Prince Edward Island before he was set to become a restricted free agent a week later.
Late in the day, he turned on his phone and was flooded with text messages from friends informing him that he'd been part of one of the biggest trades of the summer, heading to Philadelphia along with Brayden Schenn for Mike Richards.
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Richards was obviously the headline, leaving the Flyers after signing a 12-year deal in 2007 and handling the captaincy duties since 2008, as well as the Bobby Clarke comparisons since his rookie season.
Schenn was the top prospect that Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi held on to until the right deal came along.
Simmonds was the wild card.
In his second NHL season Simmonds opened some eyes with not only his hard-nosed style of play, but also the ability to produce when he scored 16 times and netted 40 points for the Kings. Last year, he took a bit of a step back, watching his production drop by 10 points as well as his ice time by over a minute.
But being traded to the Flyers was the tonic that turned things around for the 23-year-old Scarborough, Ontario, native. His style of play encapsulates every aspect of what the Flyers have been about for years. If the Broad Street Bullies were around in 2012, he'd fit right in.
Despite a new team, in a new conference, on the other side of the continent, it didn't take Simmonds long to feel right at home within the locker room and with the Philadelphia faithful.
Story continues
"After I played my first couple exhibition games at home in Philadelphia," said Simmonds after Thursday's morning skate before Philadelphia's 3-2 win over the New York Islanders. "I think we played New York one game [and I] kind of had a little bit of a fracas there with Sean Avery. Ever since then the fans have kind of liked me. They liked the way I played. They liked my style. I think I fit in quite nice here."
Simmonds told Puck Daddy during his sophomore season that the reason for his strong play at the time was maturity and having a better understanding of the NHL. Now, two years later, he's posted career numbers in goals (22), points (41) and shots (170).
What's the explanation this time?
"Confidence," said Simmonds. "I've come in here. Coach [Peter Laviolette] has put me in good situations; situations he thought I could get better at and just contribute to the team. I just tried to work as hard as I can every time I go on the ice and everything's worked out well."
Going from a team in Los Angeles that was led by a lot of youth to the Flyers where it's heavy on the veteran leadership has allowed Simmonds to learn on the job.
"Watching [Jaromir Jagr] and guys like [Scott] Hartnell, there's a lot of things to be learned," said Simmonds. "You've got to be a student of the game. You've got to go out there and turn a blind eye. You've got to watch and see what everyone's doing. I try to pick things up from Hartsy's game and I try to pick things up from guys like Jags and the older forwards on our team. I think it's helped me out tremendously."
Another education that Simmonds has received is how tough the Atlantic Division is. Rivalries that go back decades still exist and there's never any love lost between the five teams.
Entering Saturday, Philadelphia sits third in the division, two points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and six away from the top-seeded New York Rangers. With four of their last 12 remaining games against division rivals, Simmonds already knows what to expect.
"It's a battle. Every night you go out, it doesn't matter who you're playing, every game's going to be a battle," Simmonds said. "It's fun hockey to play.
"Everyone comes out every night, it doesn't matter, any team can beat you in this division."
Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_LeahyCHICAGO, IL - A convicted felon faces a residential burglary charge after police say he was caught entering the front window of a home in Mount Greenwood Friday and found hiding in the bathroom with personal property belonging to the victim.
A 36-year-old man told police that an unknown man, later identified as 29-year-old Deangelo Reed of the 7100 block of South Champlain in Chicago was shown on surveillance footage entering the front window of his residence in the 3000 block of West 111th Street around 11:57 a.m.
Police officers who responded gained entry to the home and found Reed hiding in the bathroom in possession of the victim's personal property, according to Chicago Police Officer Michelle Tannehill.
Reed is a convicted felon, 19th Ward Ald. Matt O'Shea said.
Photo via Chicago Police DepartmentThe winners of the Bocuse d'Or 2013 have been announced: Chef Thibaut Ruggeri and Team France takes the gold. The silver went to Team Denmark which was headed by chef Jeppe Foldager. Team Japan, led by chef Noriyuki Hamada, took bronze. Team USA ranked 7th overall. Stay tuned for a full recap from Eater foreign culinary competition correspondent Gabe Ulla. Below, the full list of finalists.
Best Promotion: Guatemala
Best Poster: Hungary
(See all the Bocuse d'Or 2013 posters here.)
Beat Commis: Kristian Curtis of the UK
Special Prize for the Fish Course: Team Norway
Special Prize for the Meat Course Team UK
Bronze: Team Japan, Chef Noriyuki Hamada
Silver: Team Denmark, Chef Jeppe Foldager
Gold: Team France, Chef Thibaut Ruggeri
· All Bocuse d'Or Coverage on Eater [-E-]WASHINGTON — As a safety demonstration, it was a heart-stopper: A Ford Taurus was seconds away from cruising through an intersection when suddenly a row of red lights pulsed on the lower windshield and a warning blared that another car was approaching fast on the cross street.
Braking quickly, the driver stopped just as the second car, previously unseen behind a large parked truck, barreled through a red light and across the Ford’s path.
The display at a recent transportation conference was a peek into the future of automotive safety: cars that to talk to each other and warn drivers of impending collisions. Later this summer, the government is launching a yearlong, real-world test involving nearly 3,000 cars, trucks and buses using volunteer drivers in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The vehicles will be equipped to continuously communicate over wireless networks, exchanging information on location, direction and speed 10 times a second with other similarly equipped cars within about 1,000 feet. A computer analyzes the information and issues danger warnings to drivers, often before they can see the other vehicle.
On roadways today, the Taurus in the demonstration likely would have been “T-boned” — slammed in the side by the other car. There were more than 7,800 fatal intersection accidents on U.S. highways in 2010.
Called vehicle-to-vehicle communication, or V2V, more advanced versions of the systems can take control of a car to prevent an accident by applying brakes when the driver reacts too slowly to a warning.
V2V “is our next evolutionary step... to make sure the crash never happens in the first place, which is, frankly, the best safety scenario we can all hope for,” said David Strickland, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
V2V technology holds the potential to help in most crashes that aren’t alcohol or drug related, Strickland said. But a lot will depend on how drivers respond to the warnings, and that’s one reason for the Ann Arbor test. Overall, more than 32,000 people were killed in traffic accidents last year.
In addition to warning of cars running red lights or stop signs, “connected cars” can let drivers know if they don’t have time to make a left turn because of oncoming traffic. When driving on a two-lane road, the systems warn when passing is unsafe because of oncoming cars — even vehicles around a curve that the driver can’t see yet.
In a line of heavy traffic, the systems issue an alert if a car several vehicles ahead brakes hard even before the vehicle directly in front brakes. And the systems alert drivers when they’re at risk of rear-ending a slower-moving car.
It’s also possible for connected cars to exchange information with traffic lights, signs and roadways if states and communities decide to equip their transportation infrastructure with similar technology. The information would be relayed to traffic management centers, tipping them off to congestion, accidents or obstructions. If cars are reported to be swerving in one spot on a roadway, for example, that could indicate a large pothole or obstruction. The constant stream of vehicle-to-infrastructure, or V2I, information could give traffic managers a better picture of traffic flows than they have today, enabling better timing of traffic signals to keep cars moving, for example. Correspondingly, cars could receive warnings on traffic tie-ups ahead and rerouting directions.
Professional test driver J.D. Ellis of Cincinnati, Ohio, demonstrates the dashboard warning signal in a Ford Taurus, at an automobile testing area in Oxon Hill, Md. (Susan Walsh/AP)
NHTSA has been working on the technology for the past decade along with eight automakers: Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen.
“We think this is really the future of transportation safety, and it’s going to make a huge difference in the way we live our lives,” said Scott Belcher, president of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, which promotes technology solutions to transportation problems.
The technology is already available, said Rob Strassburger, vice president for safety of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. He said what’s needed is for the government to set standards so that all automakers use compatible technology.
The safety benefits of V2V won’t be fully realized until there is a critical mass of cars on the road that can talk to each other, and just where that point lies isn’t known. By the time the government sets standards and automakers are able to respond, it may be 10 years before the technology is widely available on new cars. It takes about 30 years for a new technology to work its way into the entire population of cars.
Creating consumer demand for the technology could speed up its introduction, Strassburger said. There’s already demand for information on traffic tie-ups and rerouting that drivers can download to their smartphones, he said.
Automakers dislike government mandates requiring them to add technology to cars, but that’s probably what’s needed, said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer group.
“If you have the technology, and the price has gone down so much, use it,” he said. “You aren’t going to get it into the marketplace as fast as you could and save as many lives as you could unless you mandate it.”
Some of the safety technologies for V2V are already available in cars, although they tend to be offered primarily on higher-end models. Lane departure systems, for example, warn drivers when their vehicle unintentionally wanders from its lane, and some can automatically steer the car back. Blind spot systems warn drivers of vehicles in adjacent lanes, and some can also steer away from hazards. Forward collision warning systems alert drivers to impending crashes, and some can automatically brake if the driver doesn’t respond. Adaptive cruise control automatically adjusts vehicle speed to maintain a set distance from the car ahead in the same lane. Adaptive headlights change their aim in conjunction with the steering wheel. Parking sensors and rear-mounted cameras help a driver parallel park without scraping paint, bumping fenders or hitting pedestrians.
A key difference is that most of the current technologies rely on radar or laser sensors to “see” other nearby vehicles. They can’t warn drivers about cars they can’t see, such as the car that ran the red light in the intersection demonstration, or an oncoming car around a curve in the road.
Together, the currently available technologies and the future V2V systems may effectively form a kind of autopilot for the road. Said Strassburger: “The long-term trajectory for these technologies is the vehicle that drives itself — the driverless car.”
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Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the "Join the Conversation" buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.Iraq’s efforts to hold talks and settle its border disputes with Iran and to facilitate its access to the Persian Gulf not only show Baghdad’s close relationship with Tehran, but are regarded as an initiative to increase the costs of attempts by separatists in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.
The new round of meetings of the Iran-Iraq Joint Legal-Technical Committee was held in Baghdad on Sunday, July 23, with top officials and relevant experts from both countries in attendance. The meetings are co-chaired by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari and Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Nizar Khairallah, and will continue until Monday. Delegations from both countries comprising political, legal, military, surveying, and ports and shipping experts are present at the talks.
The negotiations are held on a rotating basis in Tehran and Baghdad. On the agenda is the latest situation of the Arvad Rud (known as Shatt al-Arab by Arabs), the river which lies on the two countries’ common border. Ways of boosting cooperation in order to utilize the waterway to boost economic growth in both countries is also a topic of discussion.
The fresh round of border talks between Iran and Iraq is being held in the wake of the ISIS terrorist group’s defeat amid reports that there are certain elements seeking to hold a referendum for independence of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. This shows the Iraqi central government is determined to safeguard its territorial integrity and is trying to improve its economic situation by easing access to the Persian Gulf waters.
Iraq is not capable of efficiently utilizing its oil reserves because it is a land-locked country and has very limited access to the Persian Gulf. This has triggered border disputes between Iran and Iraq. After all, before Baghdad launched its eight-year war on Iran in the 1980s, former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein tore up the 1975 Algiers Accord between the two countries and tried to occupy Arvand Rud’s bank on Iranian soil.
However, the situation is different now. The Iranian and Iraqi governments have very close and cordial relations and, by the admission of Iraqi officials and people, Iran was the only country to stand by Iraqis (including Arabs, Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis) to help rid the nation of ISIS terrorists. Now after the defeat of terrorists, there are fears that the sweet taste of victory over ISIS might be soured by threats to Iraq’s territorial integrity. Under such circumstances, the Iraqi government seeks to take advantage of its friendly relations with Iran and, through dialogue and diplomacy, draw Iran’s cooperation to help stabilize its territorial integrity. Joint efforts to revive and dredge Arvand Rud will not only give fresh impetus to the transportation of cargo and passengers, but can also facilitate access to the Persian Gulf and to get Iraq connected to the high seas, a great advantage that would make the horizon ahead of Iraq brighter.
In addition to having positive economic effects, and at a time when the hostile policies of the Israeli regime and other enemies of Iraq are targeting the country’s territorial integrity, the beginning of expert talks in order to settle a historic border dispute based on international relations amounts to the consolidation of friendship and strategic alliance between Iran and Iraq. It seems negotiations between Tehran and Baghdad at this juncture in order to revive the geopolitical role of Arvand Rud is a clear and strong message to all by the Iraqi central government. The message is that Baghdad will not succumb to efforts by some elements to separate Kurdistan from Iraq, and that Kurdistan’s separation from Iraq will jeopardize Kurds’ medium-term and long-term interests as well.
If Iraq’s access to the Persian Gulf is facilitated, that will definitely make the situation more difficult for local elements and foreign governments that urge Iraqi Kurds to separate from Iraq. The establishment of a landlocked country under the pretext of seceding from a country with access to the high seas is irrational enough for Iraqi Kurds to rethink their calls for separation.Just over a third of South Koreans, or 34.9 percent of adults, think that China would take North Korea’s side if a second Korean War broke out, according to a recent survey.In a similar poll conducted in 2012 during the Lee Myung-bak administration, 75.9 percent of Koreans surveyed believed China would back Pyongyang in case of another war on the peninsula.Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to arrive in Seoul for a two-day state visit on Thursday. Ahead of his visit, the JoongAng Ilbo and the Asan Institute for Policy Studies conducted a joint survey on South Korean public sentiment on key bilateral |
and climate change to loss of biodiversity are causing the world's forests to change faster than any time since the last ice age 12,000 years ago.
Pamela Matson, dean of the School of Earth Sciences, called CLASlite a game changer. "CLASlite gives conservation groups and people in government who are tasked with protecting our forests the tools they need to demonstrate to decision-makers what is really happening," said Matson, who is also a professor of environmental studies at Stanford.
In Peru, CLASlite revealed that the Amazon has lost approximately 2 million hectares of forest in the past decade. "We managed not only to discover the areas with the highest deforestation rates, but also to quantify them," said Adrián Neyra Palomino, general director of land use regulation in Peru. "The use of this technology, adapted to the conditions of the Peruvian Amazon, resulted in regions of the country taking deforestation into account in their elaboration of ecological and economic zoning, special studies, and land use regulation plans."
Researchers in Papua New Guinea are also recent users. "CLASlite means that there is no excuse for being unaware of what is going on in our tropical forests," said Philip Shearman, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at the University of Papua New Guinea.
Tracking forest changes through time
Scheduled to launch on Dec. 17, CLASlite Classroom is designed for both expert and entry-level users. It includes video-based lessons, guided exercises, a discussion forum and a final exam. By the end of the course, users will be able to use CLASlite to convert satellite images into user-friendly maps and to track forest change through the stages of degradation, deforestation or regrowth. Graduates of the course are issued a free one-year CLASlite license to monitor forests of their own choosing using their own computers.
Before launching the online training, Asner and his team were challenged to travel the world teaching workshops on CLASlite primarily to government, conservation and academic organizations. "By going online, we hope that the number of empowered CLASlite users will soar in the years ahead," he said.
Effective forest stewardship begins with forest monitoring, and enabling people to see for themselves the drastic changes occurring in their forests encourages conservation, Asner said. He has seen firsthand what happens without local engagement in forest management. The forests he studied in Brazil while completing his doctoral dissertation in the 1990s were either intact or selectively logged. But within a decade, they had been converted to soybean farms and cattle ranches. "They were wiped away," he said.
Forests are not only home to countless species of plants and animals, they also play a key role in regulating carbon, the basic element of life. In addition, Asner pointed out their intrinsic value. "Forests provide a sense of deep connection to nature and our sense of origin," he said. "When forests are destroyed, we lose not only their life-preserving qualities but a sense of ourselves as well."
Crash course in Earth science
Conversion of the course materials the team had used for overseas workshops into global web-based materials was a special task coordinated by Elif Tasar, a recent graduate of Stanford's program in Earth Systems. Asner, Tasar and a team of Carnegie scientists and Stanford web developers created the new online training experience.
"What's most exciting is that we not only provide a crash course in Earth science topics and principles, but we also make really clear the thinking that went into creating the CLASlite software," Tasar said. "This makes it transparent."
Feedback from current users of CLASlite, including Shearman and Kimberly Carlson, a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, played a role in the refinement of the online course. Carlson credits CLASlite with enabling scientists to generate the first comprehensive metrics of land cover types cleared for oil palm plantations in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. "We were able to move beyond a simplistic conversation about forests and non-forests, to a more realistic analysis of Kalimantan's extensively logged forests and community agricultural lands converted to oil palm," she said.
Jane Bryan from the School of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania said CLASlite helps save valuable time and resources. "Without the forest cover mapping produced by CLASlite, it would have taken many more years to produce a map documenting the extent of logging in Malaysian Borneo and Brunei," Bryan said. "CLASlite saved a huge amount of time, computer processing and field labor, and represents a major advance in the field of tropical forest monitoring."
"The only way we are going to effectively care for the health of the planet's forests is for people to have good, accurate data on which they can make good decisions," Asner said. "And with CLASlite Classroom, we can now help people do just that."
CLASlite Classroom is a free, open, self-paced course launching today (Dec. 17). For more information and to register for the course, visit the CLASlite course webpage.
CLASlite Classroom was created with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Media Contact
Greg Asner, Carnegie Institution for Science: mobile (650) 380-2828, gpa@carnegiescience.edu
Judith Romero, Stanford Online: mobile (650) 862-2267, judith.romero@stanford.edu
Nancy Peterson, Stanford School of Earth Sciences: mobile (650) 776-2276, npete@stanford.eduHowever, certain other reports suggest that the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) had a meeting this morning where they came to a conclusion that one lighter and one matchbox per passengers were also to be allowed. (PTI)
Delhi Metro, which is known as the lifeline of the nation’s capital reportedly has allowed women to carry knives. According to reports, lighters and matchboxes have also been allowed from the restricted items list for travelling in the Delhi Metro. Financial Express contacted DMRC officials, who confirmed the reports. According to these reports, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) had a meeting this morning where they came to a conclusion that one lighter and one matchbox per passengers were also to be allowed. Certain tools required by labourers who travel daily by metro are also to be allowed. However, the security personnel would examine the tools and register them with the names of the persons carrying them so that they could be traced if and when required.
The decision seems to have been taken in the light of the Bengaluru mass molestation that has once again raised the issue of the safety of women in public spaces. Normally, as per rules, quite a large number of people, who travel by the Delhi metro everyday are checked by the security at the various stations for any of the restricted items such as fireworks and objects that could be used as a potential weapons, guns, swords, flammable and explosive objects and others among the 54 listed items.
#SuperStupid. A deadly weapon doesnt make u safer.
Delhi Metro allows women knives for self-protection https://t.co/UxF2yaFpy7
via @inshorts — Vidushi Khera (@VidushiKhera) January 6, 2017
Great initiative – #Delhi Metro allows women knives for self-protectionhttps://t.co/YYJ9iG3Tpu
-via @inshorts — Soniya Sharma (@soniyasharmahr) January 6, 2017
@jasuja @ndcnn @htTweets Already once a woman managed to take an axe inside Delhi Metro, & tried to harm fellow women passengers!! — SamM (@sammz) January 6, 2017
This decision though brave can also be considered a gamble considering the allowance of potential weapons inside the metros. Although a few people have come in support of the decisoon and applauded it, few others have criticised the decision for being rash.U21 Premier League- Game 14
Arsenal 5 (Akpom 8, 49 (pen), 84) Olsson 30, Ansah 81) West Ham United 3 (Brown 17, 47, Potts 79)
Arsenal U21s began a schedule of eight games in less than a month with an incredible 5-3 victory over West Ham United at London Colney this afternoon. Chuba Akpom, on his return from his loan spell at Coventry City, struck a hat-trick, with Kristoffer Olsson and Zak Ansah, the latter making his first appearance of the season after recovering from injury, also finding the net. Former Arsenal youngster Jordan Brown scored twice for West Ham, and Daniel Potts’ excellent strike looked to have sealed a point for the visitors before Arsenal’s late rally.
This was Arsenal’s first league fixture at this level for more than a month, but, with the majority of the players having been involved in other competitions, there was little sign of any rustiness. Other than Akpom’s return, Steve Gatting made several further changes, with Deyan Iliev replacing Matt Macey in goal, whilst, with Julio Pleguezuelo and Tafari Moore on international duty and Hector Bellerin training with the first-team, Leander Siemann was included at right-back.
Iliev
Siemann-Ajayi-Hayden-Ormonde Ottewill
Olsson-Zelalem
Toral-Eisfeld-Iwobi
Akpom
subs: Kamara (for Zelalem, 72), Ansah (for Iwobi, 72). Not used: Lipman, Jebb, Macey.
Both sides strung together some early passing moves, but it was Arsenal who landed the first punch, with Akpom connecting with Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill’s cross to open the scoring with just eight minutes gone.
The striker has evidently improved as a consequence of his loan spells with Brentford and Coventry City and, although there have been some calls for him to be immediately elevated to the first-team squad, he certainly seemed determined to impress today.
Just moments earlier Akpom had come close after rounding goalkeeper Ginez Guzman, but shot wide. The opening stages were certainly eventful, with West Ham attempting to mount a response instantly through Matthias Fanimo, who shot just wide.
West Ham eventually levelled and it came from a familiar source in Jordan Brown, who elected to leave Arsenal in the summer in favour of a move to the East London club. The goal was of his own making as he worked his way into the penalty area before firing a shot beyond the reach of the stranded Deyan Iliev.
Brown almost doubled his tally just three minutes later but his powerful header struck a post. It was then Arsenal’s turn to attack in this end-to-end game, with Akpom seeing a strike ruled out for offside before Arsenal restored their advantage when Alex Iwobi did well to find Kristoffer Olsson, who scored his first goal at this level this season to put Arsenal 2-1 up.
It could have been 3-1 before the break, but first Jon Toral and then Akpom squandered inviting opportunities. Arsenal were duly punished, with Brown instead making it 2-2 just moments after the re-start when he converted from Blair Turgott’s cross.
This hugely eventful game then took yet another twist, with a penalty being awarded after Akpom was fouled in the area. The striker took it himself and converted emphatically for his eleventh goal of the campaign.
Arsenal looked to take the lead again, with Thomas Eisfeld coming close after incisive link-up play from Eisfeld and Toral. They still had to survive some considerable scares at the other end, however, with Isaac Hayden almost turning the ball into his own net following a cross from Brown.
Akpom seemed intent on getting his hat-trick, but found Guzman in impressive form, with Eisfeld also being denied. Gatting then introduced Glen Kamara and Ansah, but Arsenal’s next chance fell to the wrong man, with Siemann shooting over when well placed.
Once more Arsenal were made to pay, and this time it was Potts who found the net for West Ham, the 19 year old beating Iliev with a superb strike. The goal must have been particularly cherished by Potts, who was stretchered off whilst playing for the Hammers’ first-team at Emirates Stadium last season.
Remarkably, there was even more drama to come and it was rather fitting that Ansah marked his return from injury by scoring what proved to be the decisive goal with a well-angled shot. Akpom then aided his cause for first-team involvement even further by making it 5-3.
For all their frailties at the back, which weren’t helped by the lack of a bonafide defensive-midfielder until Kamara’s introduction, Arsenal were especially effective going forwards, with Toral, Eisfeld and Iwobi all combining to good effect.
Arsenal’s next assignment is at White Hart Lane on Friday night as they take on Tottenham Hotspur, but it will take some time to fully absorb the events of this afternoon.
AdvertisementsFrom a quick glance would you remember these people again?
By Pam Rutherford
Many of us struggle sometimes to put a name to a face, but what if you could recognise someone many years after seeing them for a moment? You know the woman crossing the street. But where from? Ah, she was one of the volunteers staffing the polling station where you voted several years before. You probably saw her for a couple of minutes. Several years ago. Sound like the kind of face you would place immediately? FIND OUT MORE Super Recognisers is on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 25 January from 2100-2130 GMT Or you can listen again here It is for Jennifer. She is a "super recogniser", someone with a significantly above average ability to place a face. In fact, she can almost never forget a face. She first noticed something might be unusual on holiday with her family when she spotted a very minor actor on a plane. Her family were disbelieving but she was proved right. But it really hit home at college that she was different from those around her. "I'd meet so many people in the first few weeks and I'd remember everyone no matter how brief the encounter. I'd then meet them at a party and they wouldn't remember me. I'd think: 'That person is SO fake, I can't believe they're pretending they don't remember me when we met for 30 seconds in the cafeteria three weeks ago.'" Chance meeting It doesn't matter if years have lapsed since seeing them. She describes seeing someone she saw a few times as child, on the subway, now over 20 years older with greying hair and dreadlocks and knowing exactly who she was. "People can get older but their faces look the same to me," says Jennifer. "They don't look different to me whether they're children or adults. I don't know why my mind is able to make the leap." It sounds like a neat party trick, or perhaps something useful in business, but it may mean more than that to scientists. Super recognisers can even spot blurred faces Jennifer's ability may help scientists who are investigating people in the opposite position, those who suffer from the condition prosopagnosia, popularly known as face blindness. Claire, a 49-year-old mother of four, has the condition. She contracted viral encephalitis in May 2004 and as well as severe memory loss she has struggled to recognise faces. "I was discharged home to a family I couldn't recognise, I had to believe they were my family. I had to believe Ed was my husband and tell myself he was the man I loved and that the children were my children." Claire continues to have problems with faces. She still can't pick out which are her children if they're with their friends. But she describes a recent triumph - picking out her husband Ed in a crowd. Yet she still has to use different strategies to recognise friends and family. Even her own reflection can catch her out if it takes her by surprise. Challenging condition Learning to live with the condition and work around it takes effort, and life remains difficult for Claire. "It's not easy trying to re-find myself in what feels like someone else's life and the more sociable I'm becoming, the more challenging the prosopagnosia is. We take all the knowledge and information you get from someone's face for granted. PROSOPAGNOSIA Can be caused by brain injury or illness But many have another variety from birth Brain scan research being done on those with condition
Take the test at faceblind.org "You don't think about it how you'd feel if all that information was whipped off you. I wouldn't wish it on anybody' It may not be the case that there are only three groups of face recognisers, those with prosopagnosia, those who are "normal" and then the super recognisers. Instead, there may be a spectrum of face recognition, says Brad Duchaine, of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience and University College London's prosopagnosia research centre. People like Claire have acquired prosopagnosia from damage to the brain. But there is another kind often less severe is called "developmental" prosopagnosia where someone has had the condition all their life. And the condition is surprisingly common. As many as one in 50 people will be prosopagnosic but often they won't know. And at the other end of the spectrum scientists are beginning to study super recognisers, often establishing contact because of publicity about prosopagnosia. They are just starting to understand the brains of the super recognisers by scanning their neural networks and working out what might be structurally or functionally different about their grey matter. On standard tests of facial recognition, the super recognisers usually get full marks, but even if the faces are severely blurred they still get near to full marks, says recognition expert Prof Richard Russell, of Gettysburg College. Chance encounters are remembered for years "One of the most exciting implications of this work is that while we assume we all see the same things, this work suggests that at least in terms of looking at faces we don't see the same things. "Super recognisers are looking at the world in a different way than other people and it could be that this isn't limited to looking at faces but other aspects of seeing the world. And we think it's going to be a very helpful tool in helping understanding of how the mind and the brain work." While not suffering difficulties, like those with prosopagnosia, the super recognisers sometimes still choose to modify their behaviour. Jennifer admits lying when asked whether she has met people before. Some would find it unsettling that someone remembers their face and name after a momentary encounter many years before. Just walking around in the city can produce a tissue of recognition. "It's not necessarily every single person who's walking by me in a rush of people on the street but if I notice someone then I will remember them. "I really don't have to have an important interaction with people." Significantly, even if the faces have changed considerably they are still recognisable. And certain sectors of society should try to avoid the super recognisers. "I do always tell people that I think I would be the perfect witness for a crime," Jennifer says. Below is a selection of your comments. I wonder if the mechanism for super-recognition is similar to that of photographic memory or that of perfect pitch (the ability to recall the exact pitch of a musical sound). I have perfect pitch, and I too thought I was not unlike anybody else until I was a senior in high school. According to Daniel Leviton's book, This Is Your Brain On Music, only 1 in 40,000 people have perfect pitch. Is there a similar statistic for super-recognizers?
Tom Draughon, Ashland, Wisconsin, US I too have prosopagnosia and for me it is also associated with facial expressions... and weirdest of all with hand gestures and textures. It is an enormous relief to hear I am not alone. I too thought everyone saw the way I do, until my mother slapped me for what she called "being cheeky" and "lying" after I recognised an apparent stranger I'd seen in the local swimming pool... 11 years ago, when I was aged four. It confused me no end. I have given up trying to remember faces AND hands: too time consuming. Yet, it is not, for me, a question of remembering at all - more like instant recall. Now, I'm content to just see and forget - whatever that is.
Eustacia Vye, Invercargill, New Zealand I have heard that both Bill Clinton and George W Bush have the ability to meet a person once and recognize that person years later. I wonder if the ability to recognize faces affects what careers people choose and the other way around. Before I started teaching I was terrible with names and faces. In a few short years I have become quite good at remembering a few hundred new names and faces.
Ben Merritt, Los Angeles I, too, have the facility to remember faces for years having seen someone only briefly. It may be someone I have met or an actor appearing in a film from, say, the 40s and then seeing them again on TV now and being able to recognise them and recall the first instance. As a child, I always thought everyone did this and only realised this was not so when I was 30 and being introduced to a relative I had seen only once before when I was 5. I correctly identified them before their name was given and it was the reaction of family that made me realise I was a little bit different with respect to recall. As Jennifer does, I also pretend it doesn't happen sometimes as some people can be a little uncomfortable with it. My husband is at the other end of the scale. He can meet someone today and fail to recognise them tomorrow. He also has terrible trouble remembering names and putting names to faces. I spend hours describing who is who for him. Once he has met someone several times, it's no problem, but frustrating until their face registers.
Christina, Parkstone I have had loss of facial recognition come upon me as part of migraine aura on a couple of occasions. For the sufferer it is bewildering, especially when you know that you should know the people you are looking at and they look like strangers.
Kate McDonnell, Barnstaple, UK Last year at university, I had a teaching assistant from Switzerland who held a recitation class every Friday. There were at least 40 people in the class, and he was able to look at our faces, say our names and mark us down as present on only the second meeting. There were only two or three individuals he had trouble recalling. It was unbelievable.
Adam, Rochester, NY, United States Not faces, but I am the same with numbers and characters... once someone tells me their telephone number or post code or if I see their registration number plate. I seem to remember it instantly and then maybe years later I can recall the number. It can be quite freaky for them when I suddenly come out with the info.
Mr C, Oxford I am also a super recogniser. When I was a child I thought everyone had this same ability to recognise faces. Eventually, I realised that this was not the case. All through school, and part of the way through college, people considered me weird or creepy because of it. Halfway through college I finally gave up and just started pretending that I didn't recognise faces anymore. Some people can be extremely cruel if you are in any way different than what they believe to be "normal". Now, I just don't pay any attention to faces. I always look away whenever possible.
Lawrence, Saint Simons Island, US Personal experience suggests that I may have a mild form of recognition. Having worked and lived in several countries, I have occasionally seen a face that is immediately recognized as "Jane Doe or Joe Blow" from back in the US - someone with whom I have had many interfacings. I have wondered why and concluded that there must be only so many different combinations and permutations of the way a face can be put together. And since my own experience seems to be biased in favor of "recognizing" women, I suppose there may be a hormonal stimulant somehow involved.
Richard E Hartman, Bandung, West Java I am not gifted with this skill, but my husband Doug is astounding and absolutely never forgets a face. He is a musician and will be speaking to someone at a show and say to them "You were at our show at (so and so bar) in Brooklyn". This conversation will take place two years later in some random location like Kentucky. It is really odd. I always wished that there was a way he could make a career of it.
Stacia, Los Angeles, CA, US I too, have the ability to super recognize. It does get spooky sometimes, however, when you ask someone how they like their new hair style or if they still had a piece of jewellery that you saw the last time you saw them, and they, shocked and slightly creeped out, of course, admit that you haven't seen them for the greater part of a decade. I'm that way with a lot of things. I just remember. Still, as refreshing and usually entertaining a heightened memory can be, sometimes, I wish for the ability to forget.
Andrew Schmeisser, Ames, US I thought it was a bit strange that I always remembered peoples faces and them not recognise mine!, and I too thought people were rude for not acknowledging an "Hello" I made to them when I might have last seen them for an "instant" several years ago. I always seem to recall not only what they look like but also what they were wearing and what hairstyle they had last time we met. I find it hard to explain - its like the image in front of me splits into two, on one side is a memory image of the last time I saw them and on the right side the actual person in front of me and it becomes a task of "spotting the difference" between the two. If I am at an event and see a "face" I recognise I can't relax until I have worked out where and when I recognise them - which has been embarrassing on more than one occasion for either party. I often used to say that I wished I could remember facts and figures in the same way that I remember faces.
Dorian Tompkins, Kettering I think it's definitely a spectrum. I'm mildly prosopagnosic - not as badly as Claire, but I have to rely heavily on clues like hairstyle, and if someone's hair changes dramatically or I'm shown a photo of them with the hair hidden I often can't recognise them. And if I meet someone in the street, out of context, I often have no idea who they are until they mention a name or other identifying detail.
Rachael, Cambridge, UK I'm with Rachel: I have known for years that I'd be a terrible witness for the prosecution. In a line-up I could definitely eliminate many of the candidates, but about the remaining one or two I could only say "these could be the guy, it's the right kind of face, but then so many other people have that kind of face too". Usually when a woman changes her hair colour or style I utterly fail to recognize her, unless I've known her well for a year or more. And several times I've introduced myself to someone at church, only to be told "Yes, we met two weeks ago."
On the other hand I make surprising connections. Very often I notice upon being introduced to someone new that he looks much like so-and-so back in Pennsylvania, even if it's not his whole face but just his eyes, or his smile, or his mannerisms or way of talking. And I seem to recognize minor actors better than others, saying "oh, he was in such-and-such a movie that we saw five years ago...". This sounds like the very opposite of prosopagnosia, but there it is. I suppose that, too, is a clue to how we recognize faces.
Bob Bridges, US I am able to recognise people who I have met in the same way as Jennifer. I recently surprised a lady to whom I said "you're Jane H______" and the last time we met was 41 years ago when were both six and swimming with our families at our school. I've done the same to a couple of opposition hockey players who I haven't seen for 30+ years when we were at school together.
Rob Austen, Bristol I had a stroke a few years ago and ever since, I recognise everybody. It's like deja vu in a way I suppose. I hate walking around places that I know well, and keep my head down so that I don't have to meet people's eyes. My stroke straddled the temporal lobe and the occipital lobe. When I've asked doctors about why I recognise everyone, they shrug their shoulders and say "We don't know enough about how the brain works to give you an answer." Doesn't help that I was only 29 when I had the stroke, (I am 33 now). Apparently, young people don't have strokes, so there isn't a lot of help if you do.
Faye, Milton Keynes It's definitely a spectrum. I wouldn't call myself a "super recogniser", but I hardly ever forget a face. It happens a lot with minor actors with bit parts in films and TV, sometimes years apart. I also instantly place people I haven't seen since kindergarten. To balance things out though, I'm absolutely rubbish with people's names when I first meet them. You could literally say to me "Hi, my name is Mike. What's my name?" And you'd be met with a blank stare.
Acho, Lagos, Nigeria
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version“Nashville” is coming to an end for the second time.
The country music drama will end after its upcoming sixth season on CMT, Variety has learned.
“All of us on ‘Nashville’ are so incredibly grateful to the show’s fans, who convinced CMT to give us a chance to keep telling the story of these remarkable characters,” said series executive producer Marshall Herskovitz. “And we want to return the favor with a final season that celebrates all the joys and passions, twists and turns — and amazing music! — that made ‘Nashville’ such an exciting journey for the last six years.”
“Nashville” is set against the backdrop of the titular city’s music scene and follows the lives of country music superstars as well as the up-and-coming performers and songwriters trying to get ahead in the business. It stars Hayden Panettiere as Juliette Barnes, Clare Bowen as Scarlett O’Connor, Chris Carmack as Will Lexington, Charles Esten as Deacon Claybourne, Kaitlin Doubleday as Jessie Caine, Jonathan Jackson as Avery Barkley, Sam Palladio as Gunnar Scott, Maisy Stella as Daphne Conrad and Lennon Stella as Maddie Conrad. In addition, Season 6 features Rhiannon Giddens as Hallie Jordan and Cameron Scoggins as Zach Welles in recurring roles. Connie Britton previously starred as Rayna Jaymes but left the show during its fifth season.
The series is executive produced by Herskovitz, Ed Zwick, Steve Buchanan, and Callie Khouri, who created the series. The series is produced by Lionsgate and Opry Entertainment. “Nashville” ranks as the highest-rated and most-watched show in CMT’s history, averaging 2.1 million viewers in Nielsen’s Live+7 ratings.
“Nashville” ran on ABC for its first four seasons before being cancelled in 2016. CMT revived the show for a fifth season, with Season 5 kicking off in January 2017.Northern California mom, Sherri Papini, mysteriously vanished in November 2016 while out on an afternoon jog. Three weeks later she was found alive by the side of a highway after flagging down a passerby. Authorities now say that they have surveillance footage of Sherri running after her captors released her.
In a press release, law enforcement indicates the surveillance video is from a church and shows Sherri running up to an Interstate 5 onramp after being dropped off by her abductors, according to the Record Searchlight. The report notes that the video footage “was not immediately available.”
On Wednesday, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office released information about DNA found on Sherri’s body and clothing, noting that it belonged to two people – a man and a woman. The DNA samples did not belong to either Sherri or her husband, Keith Papini.
Sherri, 34 at the time, went missing during an afternoon jog around 2 p.m. near her Redding residence on November 2, 2016. Her husband, Keith Papini, became alarmed when he arrived home from work and no one was there, which he found unusual.
After he learned Sherri had failed to pick up their two children from daycare, he panicked and tracked Sherri’s cell phone with a phone app. Keith found the phone on the side of a rural road not far from the family home.
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Sherri was found on Thanksgiving Day at around 4:30 a.m. on the side of a Yolo County highway about 140 miles from where she was last seen jogging.
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Authorities say when found, Sherri was wearing a dark gray sweatshirt and light gray sweatpants. Her waist was chained and her left wrist was connected to it with a zip tie. Sherri also had “hose clamps around her ankles,” which are thought to be for “pain compliance,” reports the Record Searchlight.
In addition, Sherri’s long hair had been cut to shoulder length, she had been beaten and branded, and had multiple bruises on her body.
Sherri informed authorities her captors kept their faces covered most of the time so she was unable to offer many details about them. She did tell law enforcement they were two Hispanic women with Spanish accents. Sherri said that one was younger with curly hair, thin eyebrows, and pierced ears, and the other was an older female having thick eyebrows and black hair with gray in it, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The Sherri Papini case remains unsolved, thus, anyone with information about her mysterious abduction can call 530-245-6540, or the Major Crimes Unit at 530-245-6135. Tips can also be emailed to mcu@co.shasta.ca.us.
[Featured Image by the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office]The Arizona Cardinals sit in an enviable position, with three running backs who, when healthy, could be starting.
Combining second-year stud David Johnson, the return of Chris Johnson and a healthy Andre Ellington create a stable rotation for coach Bruce Arians. But after David Johnson's explosion down the stretch last season, it's clear he'll be the first back to carry the workload.
"David's earned the right now to be the bell cow," Arians said, via ESPN.com. "Everybody's got to take it from him. But Chris ran for 800 (yards) and probably would have had 1,200 had he stayed healthy. Andre can break the game open."
Chris Johnson's return -- for less money even -- was somewhat a surprise (and a testament to Arians), because it was blatantly clear David Johnson would get a chance to be a three-down back. Just 24, the second-year back has rare skills to be a between-the-tackles runner, speed to get to the edge, vision on the second level and is very good in the passing game. Of his 581 yards, 442 came in the final five games of the 2015 season. He also added 216 receiving yards over that five-game span.
Chris Johnson should be insurance if David gets dinged and Ellington will provide a home run threat.
"It's fun to have those guys back together," Arians said. "Andre's healthy. It'll be a great competition in our backfield this year."
Unless David Johnson stumbles out of the gate or gets injured, expect the competition to be for backup snaps.A subtle but alarming new trend is marrying the most extreme of German political culture with the latest in hipster couture, giving rise to the "Nipster" - or neo-Nazi hipster. The recognizable, easily maligned skinheads and leather coats that so easily defined the far right before are out. Trendy sneakers, canvas bags, even the Guy Fawkes masks favored by the hacker collective Anonymous show the new face of the German far-right movement: a cooler, less-aggressive appeal to youths that largely relies on appropriating symbols of the left.
"This all begins in the mid-2000s, with neo-Nazis copying left-wing movements on how to act in public and dress," Felix Huesmann, a journalist who specializes in German far-right politics and youth movements, told DW.
"They saw that it worked with left-wing subculture and thought it would make them more successful," Huesmann said.
And, indeed, even some of Germany's most prominent far-right factions seem to be changing their look. With membership declining, the National Democratic Party (NPD) must attract discontented youth to compete with the upstart Alternative for Germany, which is sweeping up their discontented parents.
'You're not welcome'
National Democratic Party head Frank Franz (pictured) is a prime Nipster example: This good-looking 37-year-old father describes himself as a "sartorial enthusiast" on Instagram, and the photos he posts show a man with a penchant for well-tailored trousers, pocket squares and trips to the lake.
When he's not reminding immigrants to "stay out - you're not welcome!" on Facebook, the professional graphic designer is trying on bespoke suits.
NPD spokesman Klaus Beier told DW that Franz's look "has been his style for many, many years" and was not a politically motivated PR move. Beier said the NPD wanted its younger members "to preserve their own style."
"Our goals have not changed," Beier said. The NPD is merely trying to "conduct politics in 2015... so of course we are trying to transport our politics to various social portals."
"We have been elected in part by 18- to 24-year-olds," he said. "We want to speak their language."
Another very public Nipster is the Bavarian NPD official Patrick Schröder, who runs a popular weekly nationalist YouTube show called FSN.tv and has been described as the "nice neo-Nazi" by the German press for his reportedly laid-back demeanor and more open attitude toward journalists than many in the far-right scene have.
"This is a political fight," Schröder told a Vocativ news team last year. "We're not trying to be a subculture. As a movement, we should work in that way - that more people become the so-called Nipsters so they can go better into the mainstream."
The journalist Huesmann said many neo |
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On Wednesday, April 20, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case of Birchfield v. North Dakota, an important Fourth Amendment case that should be of interest to everyone who drives a car.
In recent years, the legislatures of some states have criminalized a driver’s choice to assert his constitutional right not to be subject to an unlawful search and seizure. These legislatures have enacted laws which make it a crime for a driver to refuse to consent to searches and seizures via breathalyzer and blood chemical tests after being placed under arrest after a routine traffic stop.
On February 11, 2016, our firm filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, opposing such state laws in North Dakota and Minnesota, and explaining, once again, to the High Court the historic property basis of the Fourth Amendment.
In a recent case decided in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to expand the “exigent circumstances” exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement for DUI arrests, rejecting the government’s theory that every DUI case involved exigent circumstances because in a short time, alcohol passes out of the blood stream.
Certain state legislatures were so displeased with this ruling that they decided to create an end run on the Fourth Amendment. Unable to compel drivers to give blood or breathe into a machine, these states made it a crime for a person to refuse to submit to a police demand to do so. These states justify their laws based on two legal fictions — that driving is a “privilege, not a right,” and that by driving a car that the driver impliedly consents to have his blood and breath searched. In effect, these states give a driver the choice to either surrender his rights or go directly to jail.
Our brief in Birchfield attacked the opinions of the Supreme Courts of Minnesota and North Dakota, which had upheld their respective state statutes on the grounds that a person has no “reasonable expectation of privacy.” On the contrary, we argued, as the Supreme Court made clear in 2012 in United States v. Jones (involving putting a GPS transmitter on the defendant’s Jeep Cherokee), and again in 2013 in Florida v. Jardines (involving bringing a drug sniffing dog to the defendant’s front porch) the Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment first and foremost protects fixed property rights, not evolving privacy expectations.
Historically, the Fourth Amendment first and foremost protected an individual’s right to be secure in his “person” — because a person has a property right in his own body. Unless the government first demonstrates that it has a superior property interest giving it the right to intrude on that bodily property right, the government has no more rights than a common law trespasser.
Based on its “privacy rights” analysis, the Supreme Court of Minnesota came to the bizarre conclusion that the government can do literally anything it wants to a person’s body “incidental” to his being arrested. Not so, our brief argued. At common law, the right to arrest a person gives the government a property interest in his body, which is limited only to safely effectuating the arrest and keeping the person detained. But that is all. That is why the Supreme Court in 2014 in California v. Riley ruled that the government may take a cell phone away from a person arrested, but it may not search the data in the cell phone for incriminating evidence. Likewise, we contend that, although the government may search the person arrested to make sure he does not have weapons or implements of escape, it may not search his breath, blood, or urine for incriminating evidence.
North Dakota not only claimed complete sovereignty over the body of an arrested person, but, by doing so, the state denigrated the right of the people to use an automobile to facilitate full participation in the nation’s economy. In our brief, we argue that the Fourth Amendment’s standard of “reasonableness” is not met by raw appeals to the state’s police power on the nation’s highways, but must be tempered to protect private property rights constitutionally secured to the people.
Our brief was filed on behalf of Downsize DC Foundation, DownsizeDC.org, United States Justice Foundation, Gun Owners Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Inc., Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Institute on the Constitution.
Robert J. Olson and Herbert W. Titus are attorneys with William J. Olson, P.C. of Vienna, Virginia. Email wjo@mindspring.com, visit www.lawandfreedom.com, or follow on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/OlsonLaw.Details Last Updated on Sunday, 27 October 2013 20:37 Written by Arash Javanbakht MD
We might say the first scientist who brought the issue of the Archetypes to the field of the science of psychology was Dr Carl Gustav Jung. He performed very comprehensive studies on the subject of archetypes not only in religious and mythological issues, but also dreams.
Arash Javanbakht MD (Iran)
Dept. of Vice President for Research,
Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
Address: No 180, Banafsheh St, Sajjad Blvd, Mashhad, Iran.
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Introduction
We might say the first scientist who brought the issue of the Archetypes to the field of the science of psychology was Dr Carl Gustav Jung. He performed very comprehensive studies on the subject of archetypes not only in religious and mythological issues, but also dreams. Archetypes are some permanent and very important elements of the man's psyche that can be found in all nations, civilizations, and even primitive tribal societies of all times. According to Jung, archetypes "are not disseminated only by tradition, language, and migration, but...they can re-arise spontaneously, at any time, at any place, and without any outside influence" (1). An archetype is a universal form or predisposition to characterize thoughts or feelings (2), an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way (3). Jung points out that: " 'Archetype' is an explanatory paraphrase of the Platonic eidos. For our purposes this term is apposite and helpful, because it tells us that so far as the collective unconscious contents are concerned we are dealing with archaic or I would say primordial types, that is, with universal images that have existed since the remotest times... The archetype is essentially an unconscious content that is altered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes its colour from the individual consciousness in which it happens to appear" (4). Archetype is not a picture, but rather the tendency to form a picture in typical ways; in the other words, a mental model made visible. (5) An archetype is believed to evoke powerful emotions in the reader or the audience because it awakens a primordial image of the unconscious memory and that is why the myths, legends, or even movies (such as the Star Wars) that are based on the archetypes can attract and arise the attention and feelings of the readers or the audience so much. Jung believed that the unconscious section of man's psyche makes the scenario of a dream, a legend or a myth as a the reflection of the psychic elements and process of growth. According to his idea, the human psyche shows its process of growth and evolution in a visible and understandable shape for the conscious mind in myths and legends.
A very interesting legend that is highly archetypal and symbolic is the legend of The Lord of the Ringsthat is the subject to this article. Through this article I will try to discuss the symbolism of four major archetypes of the Self, Hero, Anima, and Shadow as the elements of the psyche in the legend of The Lord of the Rings very briefly:
Self
Gandalf the Wizard: The whole story begins with the entrance of "Gandalf the gray" as a symbol of the Self that bears a message and tells the truth about the ring. Just as in many other myths, this is the Self which comes for a short period in the beginning and provokes the journey and calls the Heroes for the quest. Then he disappears from the sight of the Heroes and goes to the dungeon of the Saruman who will be talked about as a symbol of the shadowed Self!
Then he comes back and leads the fellowship through their hard journey and has to lead them to the gate of the Moria mines. Here we see he has a crystal on his staff that lights up the dark of Moria as a symbol of the blessed light of the Self that we see in the legends.
A very important part of his story is his confrontation with the monster Balrog in the dark of the Moria mines. It is very interesting to see that his fear and refusal to choose the path of journey through the mines is the fear of the whole psyche for encountering the troubles of the internal journey because the pathway of psychic growth and evolution is through pain and suffering and it bears many dangers and hazards for the totality of the psyche. Dr. Jung in his book Psychology and Alchemy notes the instinctual fear of this journey because of its hazard of disintegration for the whole psyche. (6) He brings an example from the Rosarium Philosophorum that says: "Nonnuli perierunt in opere nostro". There are also other alchemical notes about the severe difficulty of the pathway. (7) But Gandalf finally has to accept the fate.
In the dark of Moria (which can be discussed in more detail in other articles as a part of the psychic journey through the deep darkness of the unconscious [Descent of Jesus, Jonah to the belly of the fish, Joseph to the well, and the journey of Hercules in the dark sea during the night]) (8) (9) (10), through the dark of unconsciousness the fellowship encounters the dark fiery monster of Balrog. Here Gandalf has to fight the creature and he falls down the Abyss, a journey through the Hades or hell, which is needed in the way of growth. Through this falling down deep to the dark of unconsciousness and through struggling with the fire of Balrog, Gandalf grows and the fire purifies him to the "Gandalf the White". This reminds us of the notes of ancient Alchemists about the purifier and cleaner nature of fire (You have to pass through the fire to get purified) and also of the descent of Jesus through hell in the Apostles. King David wrote "For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou has delivered my soul from the lowest hell." (11) It is also written in the Holy Quran of Muslims that "Not one of you but will pass over it (originally: through it [hell]). This is a decree which must be accomplished."(12). Finally Gandalf defeats the Balrog and they fall on the rocks covered by white snow (in the movie) as another sign of the victory of the light forces.
After his purification and growth, Gandalf appears to the Heroes Legolas, Aragon, and Gilmi (I will discuss them later) in the dark and unknown forest of Fangorn (Resurrection of the Christ, exit of the Jonah from the belly of the fish). It is a common happening in myths that the Self appears in places like the forest or seaside that are the symbols of the unconscious. Jung notes a story from Quran that Moses met a wise man from god at the seaside: " Behold, Moses said to his attendant, 'I will not give up until I reach the junction of the two seas or (until) I spend years and years in travel.' But when they reached the Junction, they forgot (about) their Fish, which took its course through the sea (straight) as in a tunnel.,... So they found one of Our servants, on whom We had bestowed Mercy from Ourselves and whom We had taught knowledge from Our own Presence" (13) When the Heroes risk entering the dark of unconsciousness in order to save the other parts of the psyche (lostHobbits) they face the Self.
Another task of Gandalf is to heal the diseased king of Edoras, Theoden that I will discuss as an unrevealed part of the Self, which is still covered by shadow (Poisoned by Sauron).
The other very important appearance of Gandalf the White as the main part of the Self is when the dark forces in the battle of Rohan are defeating the forces of light. As Jung notes, the Self appears and helps the whole psyche in the very difficult and breaking psychic situations, the light comes in the very dark! (14)
A notable point about Gandalf's appearance in that breaking situation of war is that he comes after the forces of light (Aragon, Theoden, Legolas...) decide to go out and fight until death: "For death and glory!" It means in the breaking parts of the psychic evolution, the Self appears and helps when there is no other hope and the conscious (Hero) takes the risk for his life and faces directly the darkness and danger. It shows the need of a conscious decision to face the trouble as a condition for the Self to appear.
Elrond, king of the Elves: He is another symbol of self with the magical nature (He is an Elf). He has more relation to Arwen (to be discussed later) as the symbol of the Anima rather than of consciousness. This fact makes his role - as another layer of the Self -different from the role of Gandalf as having more contact with the conscious part (Heroes).
Theoden, king of Edoras: It is not easy to call him a symbol of the Self, but he has signs that makes me think so. He is the diseased king of Rohan whose brain has been troubled and poisoned by Saruman (A force of darkness). He is standing at the edge between two similar symbols on the two sides: He is a king and has been a good person relater to the enlightened Self (Gandalf) and his brain is diseased by Saruman the Wizard (who will be discussed later as a shadowed Self). Better say, he is a symbol of an unrevealed part of the Self, which is still covered by shadow side. He represents the diseased king of the stories of Alchemists or the sleeping prince in the dark deep of the sea asking for help, saying: "The one who saves me from the Abyss, I will guide him to treasures." Let us suppose that Theoden is a still dark part of the Self that will be cleaned from the effect of Shadow by the light part of the Self (Gandalf) with the help of consciousness (Aragon and others).
We can find some other symbols of the Self in the legend such as the magical sword given to Frodo by Bilbo that alarms Frodo to danger by its blue light during the hazards, or the light of "Earendil" given to Frodo by Galadriel the Elf queen ow which she says: "May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out" which is an exact definition for the Self! Another is the crystal that Gandalf puts on his staff to light up the dark of Moria. As we know it is very common for the Self to appear as lights, gemstones, crystal balls, and magical swords.
Another appearance of the Self is when Arwen (the Elf princess) -holding the wounded Frodo- is flying from the Black Riders (that want to catch Frodo) while she reads a spell and when the river attacks the Black riders.
Finally let us call the evil Saruman (the wizard serving the Sauron) and his crystal ball "Palantir" as the symbols of dark and shadowed Self that are on the other side of the white Self (more later).
Hero
In almost all legends, role of Heroes is very prominent and they are supposed to overcome the forces of darkness (Shadow) by the guidance and help of the Self and by the assistance and help of the Anima. Heroes in this legend reflect the symbolism of the conscious part of the psyche.
Frodo Baggins : Frodo's task as a Hero is very complex in the legend as the ring bearer. He is not as powerful and glorious as the common Heroes of other legends but as Galadriel the Elf says, "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future". Frodo's weaknesses make him very similar to the real Heroes in psychology (the conscious).
Frodo is a Hobbit and Hobbits are in a lower level than the humans and the elves (other parts of the consciousness) since the Hobbits are more fearful and more conservative besides possess less power in comparison. They are shorter than others that will hold them closer to the earth (symbol of the unconscious). Besides, they have pointed ears that position them on the edge of the unconscious in comparison with men, and they never wear shoes and are shorter: they are therefore lower and closer to the more primitive parts of the psyche.
Aragon: He is a human and is much more similar to the Heroes of the legends than Frodo and is more powerful and braver and he is present in all the battlesindicating perhaps the necessity for the action of the conscious psyche in all struggles with the Shadow. His love with Arwen the Elf (as Anima) makes him more similar to a typical Hero. Since he is a human, he doesn't have magical powers or characteristics of the other fellows that are related to the elements of unconscious; he is more linked to reality and owns more real powers. These all let us suppose him as the pure conscious part of the psyche in contrast with Frodo and Legolas who are on the border of the conscious and unconscious. Since he is completely conscious, he is the only one who doesn't kneel in front of the Gandalf the White in the Fangorn forest when he, Gimli the dwarf, and Legolas meet Gandalf the White for the first time.
Legolas the Elf : His being an Elf links him more to the higher levels of consciousness on the border of higher unconscious rather than Frodo who is more connected to the lower levels and more primitive parts of the unconscious (Although both are mainly conscious, but not as much as Aragon).
Legolas's very sharp vision and his Elfish features put him on a border between the consciousness of Aragon and the Self (Gandalf) as a high and enlightened figure of the unconscious; Frodo, on the other hand, is on the border between the conscious (Aragon) and the shadow and more instinctual parts of the psyche. (Legolas never goes wrong, but Frodo sometimes is in hazard of surrendering to the Shadow)
These three Heroes form a comprehensive feature of the Hero with his connections with the dark (shadow) and light (Self).
In this article I am not going to discuss Gilmi the dwarf as another member of the fellowship, one who may be in a lower level than Frodo. (Dwarves are great miners who work in the mines under the ground (unconscious). Since dwarves are short creatures and live and work in the underground mines, it makes me think that they might be related to the Cabires of Goethe's "Faust" that interested Jung in Psychology and Alchemy
Anima
Anima is present in almost all legends and represents the unconscious identity of the man's psyche. Anima is defined as the traces of feminine character hidden in the man's unconscious that is supposed to get rid of the dark of Shadow as a task of the conscious Hero in the process of individuation. The Anima also helps and saves the Hero in many difficulties as we see when Arwen saves Frodo from Black Riders.
In this article I will discuss two symbols of Anima in the legend: Arwen and Galadriel who are both Elves and who represent the unconscious character of the Anima.
Arwen: A beautiful Elf who is in love with Aragon (Hero). This love is a main element of almost all legends and myth as the tendency of the two sides of the man's character to join, as the instinctual affinity of conscious and unconscious identities.
Arwen also takes part in a very severe section of the story when she saves the lower part of the Hero (Frodo) from Black Riders (Shadow) by the help of the Self (Self appears here once as the water of the river that attacks the Black Riders in the shape of white horses when Arwen reads and casts a spell, and again as Elrond the Elf who heals Frodo) while Aragon (totally conscious Hero) is not able to save Frodo from the Riders.
Arwen is an Elf and her mysterious and supernatural features and powers symbolize her links to the unconscious and the Self (She is a symbol of developed Anima which is purified of the effects of Shadow).
Galadriel: An Elf who is the grandmother of Arwen and links her to the deeper layers of the unconscious and maybe to the parts that are called the collective unconscious by Dr. Jung!
She has special features and powers like the ability to reading other's minds and she also has a mirror that shows the future and the past. These features connect her as a symbol of Anima more to the Self than Arwen.
Although she is developed and linked to the Self, she still has to fight and resist against the Shadow in the scene of the story in which she feels a severe tendency towards the evil ring in the hand of Frodo; a test that she passes!
Shadow
There are many creatures on the side of shadow in the legend. Some completely belong to the Shadow side (Like Sauron and the Orcs), and some belong to the other archetypes that are contaminated and corrupted by shadow:
Sauron : Sauron is the deepest part of the Shadow; he is Satan himself. Since Sauron belongs to the deepest parts of unconscious Shadow, he is more and more vague and unknown. Sauron rules all the forces of the dark side but since he is in the deepest of the unconscious, he has no close contact with the conscious and he fights the Heroes with his forces that are in the more superficial layers of the Shadow. It is the deepest evil desire in the legend, which rules other acting elements of the Shadow side that are in more contact with the conscious and interact more with it.
Since it is the deepest part of Shadow (Let me call it collective unconscious Shadow, the Satan of the religion and mythology), the conscious aspects (Aragon, Frodo...) have less direct contact with it in the beginning and middle of the adventure. For before facing Sauron, consciousness has to solve its conflicts with the more superficial levels of the Shadow that are more accessible to the Hero (conscious) like the Orcs, the Watcher serpent at the gate of Moria, etc.
A very prominent presentation of Sauron is his eye that sees almost everything and everywhere (every part of the psyche from the deep of the Shadow side). This reminds me of a verse of the Holy Quran that says: "O children of Adam, let not the devil seduce you,... He surely sees you, he as well as his host, from whence you see them not." (15) Like Satan, Sauron cannot force you, but he can seduce you to do wrong! (Quran: "But he had no authority over them,- except that We might test the man who believes in the Hereafter from him who is in doubt concerning it: and thy Lord doth watch over all things.") (16)
The Nine Ring wraiths : I prefer to put them in the deepest of the Shadow side after Sauron. These "Black Riders" that are also called Nazguls, wear black cloaks (another sign of unconscious Shadow) and are invisible and can only be seen because of their clothing. This feature (their being invisible) makes us believe that they are more unconscious than the Orcs or other Shadow side characters.
Nazguls are the direct soldiers of Sauron and are at the second level after him. They ride black horses or flying dragon-like creatures and do not walk on feet (That shows their more supernatural [unconscious] and forceful identity).
They are on the edge between the material world and supernatural immaterial world. This makes me think they are on a border between the collective unconscious Shadow and the personal Shadow!
Nazguls have a keen sense of smell and extremely poor vision (17) that represents their association with more primitive elements of the psyche.
Saruman : He is a White Wizard who is corrupted by the dark side. Since he is a Wizard, he must belong to the Light side, but he completely serves the dark Sauron. This fact makes his identity more complex to the audience. These contraries helps me conclude that he is a completely Shadowed SELF!
Previously I discussed the situation of Theoden the king of Edoras whose brain was poisoned by the dark side as an unrevealed and diseased part of the Self that needed to get rid of the Shadow. Sauron is also corrupted by the Shadow side, but there is no way back for it; It is a thoroughly Shadowed Self. He may belong to the other dark side of the Self. The destructive dark side of the Self is discussed more by Dr. Jung in Man and his Symbols. (18)
Watcher in the Water : This serpent lives under the water beside the gate of Moria where the dangerous journey through the mines of Moria begins. His being called "The Watcher" reminds me of the verse of the Quran about Satan once more. (15) Although it is part of the Shadow, its presence is needed for the evolutionary growth process because when the fellowship knows about the dangers in Moria, they decide to get back (And stop the process of growth!); But the Watcher serpent blocks their way back and make them escape from it into the Moria and continue their needed adventure. It is hidden in the water of unconscious and the Heroes must not awaken this more superficial layer of the Shadow by troubling the water (Its awakening may result in Alcoholism or extreme sexual activity of the person).
It is interesting that this serpent grabs Frodo who -as I mentioned before- is more linked to the lower and primitive layers of consciousness rather than Aragon and Legolas.
Balrog : I discussed this test of the Self before. It is interesting that this creature isnot able to speak (It is one of the rare pictures of the Shadow side that does not speak). The mute condition relates Balrog to more primitive and basic layers of the unconscious.
Orcs and Uruk-Hai : These are acting soldiers of the Shadow. These creatures are in closer contact with the conscious part of the psyche (the Heroes) in the battles. They have bodies and are more similar to men and Elves than other subtypes of the Shadow I discussed before which puts them at the most superficial layers of the Shadow at its border with the conscious. They even have blood like humans (which is black and reminds os of their being shadowy and unconscious). They are very primitive desires and fears which are bred from the earth of unconscious. Besides, since they are more revealed to consciousness and are more known by it, they are the weakest elements of the Shadow against the power of the Heroes. A Hero can easily kill an Orc or an Uruk-Hai, but the problem about these primitive instincts and fears as parts of the Shadow is their vast number, their populationtens of thousands! It is their number that makes the task of the Hero difficult against them.
Orcs that are made only by Sauron are weaker and also more susceptible to the Light (of the Self and consciousness) that weakens them.
In contrast, the Uruk-Hai that are bred by Saruman are a new generation of Orcs, a result of the companion of the Shadow (Sauron) and the corrupted Self (Saruman). This friendship between Sauron and Saruman in creating the Uruk-Hai makes them more complex and more powerful than the Orcs and also resistant to the Light!
The Uruk-Hai complexity increases when we hear that Saruman says that Uruk-Hai are made out of the Elves taken by the dark powers! They are tortured and ruined Elves fallen in battle with the Shadow and swallowed by the Shadow.
Finally, they are the symbol of the Shadow of darkness (made by Saruman the Wizard) over almost all parts of the psyche such as the Self, the conscious Hero (One of the Uruk-Hai kills Boromir the human who was a partner of the fellowship as a Hero), and the Anima and Animus (the corrupted and evil transformed Elves). The Uruk-Hai may be the equivalent of psychosis!
In this article I tried to discuss very briefly the footsteps of the psychological archetypes in the legend of The Lord of the Rings. Presence of these archetypes in almost all the myths is because they (as important main elements of the psyche) reflect their interaction and growth in the human art and mental products such as stories, myths, and movies. The legend of The Lord of the Rings is a complex and well-prepared story where we can find the reflection of several human psychic archetypes and of the steps of psychic archetypal evolution. A special character of this legend in comparison with many other mythological stories is that Tolkein is not satisfied by creation of just one character for each archetype, and through his legend we meet different characters for different layers of each archetype that makes this legend an exception. We can also find several symbols and faces for psychic situations and complexes through their evolution in the legend.
This article discussed very briefly some of the main archetypes and some other articles and books can be written on the issue of the symbolism of the other archetypes, complexes, and stages of the psychic evolution through the process of "Self Actualization" or individuation in the legend and in the excellent movie of The Lord of the Rings. Several questions must be noted as possessing more detailed symbolism: Sauron, Balrog, Saruman, Bilbo the Hobbit, other Hobbits as the friends of Frodo, Celebron the Elf, Elrond the king of the Elves, Boromir the human who dies as a member of the fellowship (Is he the son of the king that is eaten by the king in the alchemical books?), the Ents, and the very interesting creature Gollum who walks (better say crawls) on the border of consciousness and unconsciousness, and also on the border of the Shadow and the Hero!
Numbers in the legend might also be discussed (that would have been very interesting to Dr. Jung!) such as the number of the members of the Fellowship, the Black Riders, the kings, the humans, elves, and the Hobbits in the fellowship, and etc.
© Arash Javanbakht 2003.
References:
1- Jung, Carl G, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Trans. R. F. C. Hull, 2nd ed. New York: Princeton University Press, 1969, P: 79.
2- Hynan, Michael T., course of Personality theories, Personality Theory 820.407 Se 001 Spring, 2003, Chapter 3, Jungian analysis, University of Wisconsin -Milwaukee.
3- Boeree, George, Introduction to C.G. Jung, Archetypes, 1997
4- Jung, Carl C. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. 2 nd ed. New York: Princeton University Press, 1969, pp: 4-5.
5- According to Goodman and Kemeny in Senge et al. (1994, p. 164)
6- Jung, C.G. (1968). Psychology and Alchemy, 2nd Edition. (Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. Ch IV, Myth of Hero.
7- Allegoriae Super Librum Turbae, Art. Aurif., I, pp. 139ff
8- Acts 3:15; Rom 8:11; I Cor 15:20; cf. Heb 13:20
9- Matthew, Mat. 12:40 (KJV)
10 - Quran, Joseph (Yüsuf), 12: 15
11- Psa. 86:13 KJV
12- Quran, 19:71
13- Quran, 18: 60-65
14- Art, Aurif, II, p.243: "Et invenitur in omni loco et in quolibet tempore et apud omnem rem, cum inquistitio aggravat inquirentem"
15- Quran, 7:27
16- Quran, 34:21
17- http://www.lordoftherings.net/guide/index_ring.html
18- Jung, C.G., et al (1997), Man and His Symbols, Ch 3, Contact with the Self.
{/viewonly}Happy New Year! Here we are again with another epic night to celebrate a successful 2017 and ring in 2018!
NOTE: This is the 2017 list. To see 2018’s events, please click here.
And I have your list of Events, Parties and Dinners to go to on and around New Years Eve. They are listed in no particular order.
There is something for everyone, at every price range. From FREE music at CityPlace and Clematis Street, free Fireworks at Midnight. To a very reasonable party on the 500 block, a Black and White masquerade ball at the waterfront pavilion and plenty of places to enjoy
Information on this list is as accurate as possible at the time of publishing. If you want to make sure you have a spot at ANY of these events please call and RSVP.
If I missed your party, or you need me to update something please email me (awormus@gmail.com) and/or text me at 561 809 8507
Share and tell your friends.
6th Annual Black & White Affair New Years Party at The Box Gallery
Dec 30th, 2017
The Box Gallery
811 Belvedere Road
West Palm Beach, Florida 33405
This year we will be honoring Churchill Rifenburg at The Box Gallery for his lifelong contribution to the arts in Palm Beach.
The reception will be held on Saturday, December 30, 2017 from 7-10 p.m.
The Box Gallery a 4,000 square feet multi-media exhibition space that will serve the art community and art patrons with world class exhibitions, projections, performance art, and installation art. The Box Gallery is located in the heart of the West Palm Beach “Cultural Corridor” just 2 blocks east of I95 exit 69.
Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert in West Palm Beach
Sunday, December 31 at 8 PM
Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401
Salute to Vienna is a Celebration! Escape to Viennas Golden Age! With this extravaganza of beautiful music dazzling costume, and brilliant performances by Europes finest singers-dancers and conductors and take joy in the stories of romance – humor and adventure that will play out before you! Salute to Vienna New Years Concert is a glass of sparkling champagne raised to life itself.
https://www.facebook.com/events/138336810230781/
New Years Eve at Hullabaloo with Electric Red
Dec 31, 2017 at 5 PM to Jan 1, 2018 at 3 AM
Live music by Electric Red. Half off bottles of Opera Prima Cava. $5 Monkey In Paradise cocktails
Full Menu available as well as NYE special menu
$32 Lamb Chops, Roasted Fingerlings, Grilled Asparagus, Demi Glace
$30 Pan Roasted Bronzini, Creamy Risotto, Haricot Vert, Heirloom Tomato Relish, Lemon Burre Blanc
Click here for more information
New Year’s Eve dinner at Avocado Grill
Celebrate the end of 2017 and a fresh start to the New Year at Avocado Grill!
On New Year’s Eve, the restaurant will be open all day. In addition to the always popular Sunday brunch, AG’s daily dinner and vegan menus will be available until 8 p.m. Following regular dinner service, those looking to stay out a bit later have the option of a 5-course feast, including a glass of champagne, for $149 per person.
The first of the five course treat begins with Wahoo Poke featuring fresh mango, cucumber, avocado puree, and radish these late. Course two is rich and flavorful (yet still healthy!), a Corn Coconut Bisque. Course three will be fresh Chilean Sea Bass with roasted maitake, grilled asparagus, parsnip puree and soy emulsion. The fun will be really getting started when the fourth course comes out… a rich Filet Mignon served with shaved Brussel sprouts, crispy potato “gratin,” and fresh truffle jus. Finally, a decadent but refreshing slice of Lemon Olive Oil Cake will top off the delicious meal.
Reservations suggested.
Click here for more information
New Years Eve at Camelot
Sail into 2018 with style
Music by DJ Supreme1 accompanied by Bismarck. Goodie bags, Tito’s ice luge, complimentary champagne toast at midnight!
Click here for more information
New Years Eve at Howley’s
Let us be your first meal of 2018!
Click here for more information
ER Bradley’s New Year’s Eve Playboy Party
ER Bradley’s presents West Palm Beach’s biggest Playboy-style Party to help you ring in the new year!
Meet, greet and get ready for swanky photo-ops to commemorate 2017. Enjoy a delicious Prix Fixe menu starting at 8pm, or sit at the bar for a la carte options.
Reservation highly recommended: (561) 833-3520.
See menu: http://bit.ly/ERBNYE
Click here for more information
NYE 2018 Masquerade Party on the Waterfront in WPB
Come join us for an enchanted evening of music, food and merriment as we ring in 2018 under the West Palm Beach fireworks in the Lake Pavilion.
Here are all the details:
Venue: Lake Pavilion located at 101 S. Flagler Dr. West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Date and Time: 12/31/2017, 8:00 pm-1:00 am
Included: Live DJ playing all your favorite hits from 8:00 pm -1:00 am
Open Bar until 12:45 pm including Beer, Wine, and a selection of liquor for mixed drinks.
8:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Horderves Buffet with Fruits, Cheese and Crudites to enjoy upon arrival
9:00 pm – 10:30 pm – Dinner Buffet is open featuring Carved Beef Tenderloin, Chicken Picata, Pasta with choice of Alfredo Sauce or Bouillabaisse sauce, Dill Carrots, Grilled Vegetables, Wild Rice, Parmesan Potatoes, and a Spring Salad.
10:30 pm – 11:45 pm – Dessert Buffet featuring Key Lime Pie Bites, |
to defend the U.S. border with Mexico, and urged the release of Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, who was released on Tuesday.
Cruz earned 13 standing ovations and repeated chants of “CRUUUUUUZ!” throughout the speech.
“He knows what liberty and freedom are all about,” said Char Close, 60, who drove 60 miles to see the candidate. “He’s also Texan. Texans do things a little differently.”
Follow @MrRJervis on Twitter
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1UJHLs9This article is from the archive of our partner.
Cuba's former president, Fidel Castro, wrote an op-ed in the state-run media today with some very harsh words about the field of American Republican candidates. “The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is — and I mean this seriously — the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been," he writes, according to the New York Times. (Count this as the first time in recent memory a Fidel Castro op-ed has reminded us of a Bret Stephens op-ed.) Of course, he doesn't sound any harsher than the candidates do when they talk about Castro, alternately advocating the regime's overthrow or reassuring us he's headed to Hell when he dies.
Needless to say, Castro's "critique" couldn't really hurt anyone's chances in the Florida primary, home to many Castro opponents. Nor is it likely to show up in President Obama's campaign literature anytime soon, but... there you have it.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.Handguns on display at ABQ Guns in Albuquerque. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg News)
With one stroke of a pen, Gov. Terry Branstad made Iowa one of the friendliest states in America for gun owners.
Branstad, the long-serving Republican governor selected by President Trump to be ambassador to China, signed a bill that many say is the most comprehensive and broadest piece of legislation on gun rights the state has ever seen. House File 517 will, among other things, allow citizens to use deadly force if they believe their lives are threatened; it will also allow them to sue local government officials if they think gun-free zones have violated their Second Amendment rights.
The signing of House File 517 last week marks the end of a decades-long battle for a bill that does more than make incremental changes to the state’s gun laws and will bring Iowa in line with its more gun-friendly neighbors such as Missouri and Wisconsin, said Barry Snell, president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, an advocacy group affiliated with the National Rifle Association.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) signed a bill that many say is the most comprehensive and broadest piece of legislation on gun rights the state has ever seen. (Terry Branstad)
“Without exaggeration, House File 517 is the most monumental and sweeping piece of gun legislation in Iowa’s history,” Snell told The Washington Post. “Never before have we passed a bill in which Iowa’s Second Amendment rights are legally recognized, claimed and protected quite so profoundly as this bill does.”
Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, applauded Branstad’s decision to sign the bill into law. The governor had called the bill “reasonable legislation” that he “could support.”
“It’s a great day for freedom,” Cox said in a statement, noting that Iowa had “joined the nationwide movement to expand law-abiding citizens’ constitutional right to self-protection.”
In response to the bill’s signing, Amber Gustafson, leader of the Iowa chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, delivered a stern warning.
“Make no mistake, the gun violence prevention movement is strong in Iowa, and we aren’t going away,” she said in a statement.
Gustafson was most critical of the bill’s “Stand Your Ground” provision, which says citizens who are not doing anything illegal can lawfully use “reasonable force, including deadly force” if they believe their lives are being threatened. The bill also frees a person who kills an “aggressor” from civil liability if he or she can justify the use of force.
[A congressional bill could allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to own guns]
That provision has raised concerns that the bill would do more to increase gun violence in the state.
State Sen. Nate Boulton (D) said state law already allows Iowans to use deadly force if they are threatened in their homes or places of employment, adding that a Stand Your Ground law could lead some to misunderstand when deadly force may be used.
“I think anytime we are expanding the use of deadly force, we do have to be cautious about that,” Boulton said. “The reality is when you have a gun-violent situation and if someone is killed with gun violence, we’ll leave it to our courts to interpret and apply what the situation was that led to that death.”
Daniel Webster, director of the John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, echoed Boulton in a column published last month in the Des Moines Register. The “Stand Your Ground” policy would only “expand justifications for killing others,” he wrote.
Here's what you need to know about the prevalence of what the FBI calls "active shooter incidents" in the U.S. (Osman Malik and Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
“There is no credible research that indicates deregulation of public carrying of concealed firearms reduces violent crime or curtails mass shootings,” Webster wrote. “The most recent and most rigorous research shows that such policies, if anything, lead to more assaults committed with firearms.”
Another provision that has attracted criticism would essentially prohibit city, county and township officials from creating weapons-free zones by allowing gun-carrying citizens to file lawsuits and claim damages if they think their civil rights have been infringed upon. Critics have raised concerns about how the bill would affect security at places such as city halls and courthouses, many of which are gun-free zones.
Tom Ferguson, executive director of the Iowa County Attorneys Association, said because the bill does not exempt city halls or courthouses, local jurisdictions would face a constant threat of lawsuits and damages.
“The question becomes, ‘Is someone adversely affected if they want to go in there and are not allowed to carry a gun?’ ” Ferguson said.
The Iowa Judicial Branch, which oversees state courts, shares similar concerns. Spokesman Steve Davis said the judicial branch is unsure that the bill “will maintain the status quo on courthouse security.”
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The criticisms, however, did little to dissuade the bill’s avid backers.
HF 517 passed the state Senate 33 to 17 and the House, 57 to 36.
State Rep. Matt Windschitl (R), who led the drafting of the bill, said he has tried for years to make Iowa a Stand Your Ground state, like nearly half of the states in the country.
“This bill has been a work in progress for many years,” Windschitl said. “The driver behind this is to restore Iowans’ individual freedoms and liberties.”
Other provisions include allowing children under 14 to use pistols or revolvers as long as they are supervised by an adult age 21 and older, legalizing concealed-carry at state capitol buildings and grounds, prohibiting the government from confiscating firearms during state emergencies, legalizing short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and making records of permit holders confidential. The bill also would prohibit prosecutors from stacking an additional firearm charge if the weapon has nothing to do with the crime.
Robert Cottrol, an expert on gun laws and a professor at George Washington University, said many of the provisions have been standard practice in most states.
Aside from the Stand Your Ground law, most states with significant rural areas already allow children to possess firearms, Cottrol said. Many states also have enacted laws prohibiting the government from seizing people’s guns during state emergencies, after officials confiscated weapons during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
[In 30 states, a child can still legally own a rifle or shotgun]
This is the first time in years that Republicans gained control of both the House and the Senate in Iowa, and gun rights advocates found an opportunity to catch up with its gun-friendly neighbors by addressing gun-rights issues in one fell swoop, said Snell of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, which is affiliated with the National Rifle Association.
It’s not uncommon for states to pass gun-law revisions in one bill, according to the NRA, a supporter of the bill. Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin have done so in recent years.
“This important legislation will make it easier for law-abiding gun owners to protect and defend themselves, while bringing Iowa’s gun law in line with those of other states,” NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said in a statement. “The reforms of HF 517 are part of a growing movement across all 50 states to strengthen Second Amendment rights and its enactment will be a significant victory for our members and law-abiding gun owners.”
The magazine Guns & Ammo ranks Iowa No. 38 among the best states for gun owners. At the top of the list are Arizona, Vermont, Alaska, Utah, Kentucky, Wyoming, Alabama, Kansas, Missouri and New Hampshire.
That is now likely to change.
The legislation might make Iowa “the leading edge of protecting the civil right” to bear arms, said Randy Barnett, a law professor at Georgetown University.
“When you have a constitutional right, it often requires the legislation to protect that right,” Barnett said. “That’s what Iowa is doing.”
This story, originally posted on April 12, has been updated.
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Gun silencers are hard to buy. Donald Trump Jr. and silencer makers want to change that.It looks like Bowe Bergdahl may become Republicans’ new Benghazi.
President Barack Obama on Saturday proudly announced the release of the only known American prisoner of war in Afghanistan. But the GOP appears determined to turn what seemed like a big win for the White House into a major thorn in the commander-in-chief’s side.
Republicans are piling on Obama for releasing five Taliban militants in exchange for Bergdahl, suggesting the president negotiated with the enemy. They’re also complaining that he did not notify Congress before the swap. Complicating matters are questions about the circumstances under which Bergdahl, now 28, disappeared in 2009 – with some of his former colleagues declaring him a deserter and claiming U.S. soldiers were killed as a result of searching for the Idaho native.
Close video From Benghazi to Bergdahl, the right’s new attack Many on the right have decided to shift the focus of their foreign policy critique of President Obama to the release of Sgt. Bergdahl, but what’s really driving the criticism? Former Rep. Patrick Murphy, a veteran, joins Rev. Sharpton to give his take. share tweet email save Embed
Many of the conservative arguments are, not surprisingly, bogus.
Prisoner swaps, like Bergdahl’s are not new. In fact, President George W. Bush released dozens of men being held captive in CIA prisons during his time in office. In 2011, Israel exchanged 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for one captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
And as msnbc has previously noted, while the five men were released from Gitmo were deemed “high risk” prisoners who could pose a threat to U.S interests, those designations remain somewhat murky. More than 80% of the men behind bars at Guantanamo were later proven to be to have been people sold for bounties instead of being militants. Today, more than 70 of the 149 prisoners at the facility have been given the green light to be released. And just half a dozen –those linked to the 9/11 attacks and a strike the year before against the USS Cole – face charges in military commissions.
But that hasn’t stopped Republicans for seeking political gain. Indeed, one GOP operative is now acknowledging he had helped members of Bergdahl’s unit paint him as a traitor in the press.
The New York Times ran such a story Tuesday, noting the interviews were “arranged by Republican strategists.”
The same soldiers also gave interviews to a number of additional publications, including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the Daily Mail. Richard Grenell, a former national security spokesman for Mitt Romney, was thanked by one of the soldiers for “helping get our platoon’s story out.” Grenell tweeted back that the soldier, Cody Full, was “true American hero.”
Grennell, a Fox News contributor, later confirmed on Twitter that his public relations firm had offered “pro bono services” to the soldiers but disputed the New York Times’ political characterization. Brad Chase, Grenell’s business partner, said Grennell is “NOT a Republican. This isn’t political.” But several reporters told Media Matters that Grenell was personally involved in arranging the interviews.
Still, there’s no sign the GOP will ease up anytime soon. The skewering could very well stretch into 2016.
Several Republicans are calling on congressional committees to hold hearings on the prisoner swap. Former Rep. Allen West wants the House to file an article of impeachment against Obama. And now, some GOPers are asking if Hillary Clinton – the former secretary of state and potential Democratic frontrunner for 2016 – may have been involved.
“I do think Bergdahl is going to be the next Benghazi,” said Jeanne Zaino, a professor of political science at Iona college and of political campaign management at New York University. “That doesn’t mean Benghazi will go away – Republicans will continue on that…but this will last well through the midterm elections and could continue beyond that to the 2016 period,” she added.
For his part, Obama has been playing a lot of defense over the prisoner exchange for Bergdahl, who was being held captive by what’s believed to be the Haqqqani terrorism network since 2009.
“We don’t leave men and women in uniform behind,” he said during a news conference from Poland on Tuesday. “Regardless of the circumstances, we still get an American soldier back if he’s held in captivity. Period.”
Obama added that Bergdahl’s health depended on quick action and that he received assurances from Qatari officials – who mediated the deal—that they would prohibit future travel by the five former detainees for a year. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said the Obama Administration had been consulting with Congress “for years” over potential transfer of detainees in Guantanamo in exchange for Bergdahl and that the swap should “not have been a surprise to any members of Congress.”
Obama’s announcement of Bergdahl’s release comes at a rocky time for the president – and a mere day after Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned following reports that VA hospitals falsified waiting lists.
Some observers are asking whether the Obama Administration may have miscalculated on how Bergdahl’s release would be perceived.
“You have to question how well they thought out these optics,” Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said.
Aas for Clinton, the former secretary of staet delivered a cautious defense of the Bergdahl release during an event in Colorado on Monday night, insisting her former boss had a “tough decision.” She added that details have yet to be uncovered but “this young man, whatever the circumstances, was an American citizen—is an American citizen, was serving in our military.”
Bergdahl’s release could become a headache for Clinton as she contemplates another presidential bid. Already, some GOPers have raised the possibility that Obama may have told her of his plans when the two met for lunch at the White House two days before the announcement.
Still, O’Connell, the GOP strategist, warned Republicans have the potential to shoot themselves in the foot.
“Republicans need to tread lightly on this highly sensitive subject matter,” he said. “Not all the facts are on the table. There are a lot of unanswered questions. What they really need to be doing is pushing for accountability and transparency, otherwise they could go down the wrong rabbit hole and it could blow up in their face.”
Bergdahl is currently receiving medical treatment in Germany. He’s expected to be moved to a military in San Antonio, where he’ll reunite with his family, later this week.LONDON, AUGUST 15 : Human life is unnecessarily complicated and can often become hard and depressing. When a British conceptual designer Thomas Thwaites met with this realisation, he took a break from being human and become a goat instead.
"My goal was to take a holiday from the pain and worry of being a self-conscious being, able to regret the past and worry about the future," the very own words of the man who spend six days as a goat, living and grazing on the Swiss Alps with actual goats.
Thwaites began with observing goats, memorising their behaviour and learning their ways of communicating. He consulted with experts in animal movements, visited behavioural psychologists and neurologists seeking their help to make him think less like a human and more like a goat.
But when you are about to con a herd of goats, just the mental preparation isn't enough. So our guy got himself custom-made prosthetic limbs with hooves that allowed him to move around on all four legs, just like a goat would do. He even considered having an artificial stomach with actual gut bacteria found in goats so that he would be able eat grass like a goat.
Having made the preparations, he took off to the Alps, convinced a goat farmer to let him spend three days with his herd. He went into the herd donning his goat costume and mimicking the goat movements as good as he can. The other goats were initially wary of the strange-looking new member in their herd, but soon acquainted to Thwaites taking him as one among them.
“I looked up and all the other goats were looking at me. Everyone else had stopped chewing and it was in that moment, when I thought, ‘those horns look quite sharp,” Thwaites describes his experience, ”Luckily, I think I made a goat friend. He made a move, and it kind of diffused the situation.”
He left the herd after three days, spending another three days living as a solitary goat. However, he admits that living as a goat wasn't as fun as he had expected. The cold and rainy weather took a toll on his body and going downhill wearing prosthetic was painful. But nevertheless, he achieved what he was looking for—six days of simple life.
“It was an interesting experience,” he said. “I guess, I just think perhaps it would be nicer to live a simpler life.”
Thwaites is to narrate his experience into a book,aptly titled as ‘GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human’. The book is set to be published in 2016, while an exhibit of his work will be launched in London this September.Prologue: Humanity has barely survived a bloody war with the Covenant, an alliance of alien races with one common goal: Find the ancient relics of their Gods and eradicate humanity from the face of the galaxy. Both of which they did well, destroying countless human colony worlds in their genocidal campaign. The United Nations Space Command or UNSC stood as Humanity's best defense, but even they couldn't defeat the Covenant. At least not without the Spartans, super soldiers with a mysterious past. The Human/Covenant war lasted from 2525 to 2553 and did not end without the help of a rouge sect of the covenant called the Covenant Separatists and 23 billion human casualties. Now, 5 years after the war, the largest UNSC vessel known as the Infinity is on her maiden voyage to explore new worlds.
On board the UNSC Infinity a couple of newer Spartan IV's are having a lengthy conversation with Spartan X75, an older Spartan III and a veteran of the Human/Covenant war.
Spartan IV Gabriel Thorne asks, "So you're a Spartan three eh? I thought all of your like died on Reach."
"Most Spartans did die on Reach, including my old team… but I guess I was one of the lucky ones," answers X75. Death did not faze him after his 20+ years of military service, but memories of his team began to get to him.
"How exactly did you get off planet Reach?"
"That's the thing; I didn't get off of Reach."
"Wait WHAT," yells Gabriel puzzled, "Then how are you talking to me?"
"Let me explain. I didn't get off Reach during the initial evac. I had to fend for my myself for a couple months until the UNSC found my distress beacon and saved me."
"So you are telling me that you survived almost a year in a desolate wasteland."
"I'll just tell you how. Reach was a large UNSC military base. It was where I and my fellow Spartans trained at when we were kids. As you know Reach was practically on Earth's doorstep. If Reach fell, humanity fell. My team was dispatched to the city of New Budapest to help evacuate survivors. It would be a tough job to do, it always was, but we complete our tasks. We were Spartans after all. My team consisted of seven Spartans including myself. My right-hand man and team explosives expert was Hos-D34. Steve-D98 was my team's shot gunner and 'tough-guy' Shelly-E01 was team sniper and covenant weapons expert. We also had an Office of Naval Intelligence officer on my team. His name was classified but he went by 'Oni'. And what's a team without a good psychopath? His name was Damian-S66, he didn't speak at all, and would not let go of his assault rifle for the life of him. Our newest recruit went by 'Rook'; I didn't know him to well. Last but not least there was me, team leader and marksman. We were known as Fireteam Odyssey.
We were en route to New Budapest when out of nowhere came a Covenant Banshee. It fired its cannon and sent my team's pelican drop ship hurdling toward the city. We slammed into a building, demolishing everything in our path. To make a bad situation worse my team was deep in enemy territory, our ride was trashed, and we would have to fight our way out. We could not complete our initial mission. I scanned the area with my motion sensor and saw dozens of red blips inbound. We were in for one tough firefight. I told my team to take cover behind the downed pelican and get ready. The doors to the room in front of us began to spark. The metal melted from the white-hot plasma cutter. Blue smoke emitted from the gaping hole and the doors burst open, sending shrapnel in all directions. The covenant troops rushed inside in standard formation, small arthropodic aliens, or grunts in front, and bigger. more menacing elites in back. Both sides began firing, sending hot bolts of plasma and bullets across the room. As most soldiers were trained in the UNSC, if you kill the elites first, then the grunts will scatter, having no leader to guide them. We did just that. I had my Spartans focus fire on the elites in order to take out their energy shields. Then I dispatched them with quick shots to the head, spraying their purple-colored blood all over the walls. The grunts, now without their leaders, began to flee in all directions, even toward our gunfire. Some ran at my troops with their plasma grenades primed in a pointless attempt to avenge their fallen comrades. Not a single survivor was left. We soon rushed into the next room as the previous started to pool with alien blood and methane from the grunts' re-breathers. Their blood-methane mixture smelled foul, like something had been decaying for a month.
In the next room we found no Covenant but something worse. Inside were the plasma scorched bodies of civilians. Men, women, and children alike, a sight all-too familiar in this bloody war. There faces were frozen eternally in fear. My team paid our respects and quickly moved on. I vowed not to let any more people die today.
Outside the partially demolished building were 2 jeep-like vehicles known as warthogs. We ran over to them and started them up. I ordered Damian to man the chain-gun, and he simply nodded. I knew he would enjoy this. We might be able to save those civilians just yet. We started driving through the New Budapest's streets, crowded with bodies and rubble. My coms icon came up on my helmet's heads up display and I quickly answered it.
A marine's voice, distorted through static, began to echo inside my helmet. 'Calling all available UNSC personel to Ithaca Avenue. We need to clear a landing so our evac bird can land. Heavy Covenant infantry is tearing us to shreds.'
I instantly responded, 'this is Spartan team Odyssey replying to your distress call. We are en route to your location.'
'Thank god, I was expecting marines, but Spartans are twenty times better, marking our location now.'
I quickly told Hos and Rook to change course and head to Ithaca Avenue. Our warthog engines roared as we headed to our new destination. Along the way we encountered another Covenant squad. This time there were Elites with spindly, bird-like Jackals instead of grunts. Oni and Damian spin the Warthogs' chain-guns and quickly open fire on the Covenant infantry. Fiery blue bolts of plasma slammed into the windshield, instantaneously melting the glass. A stray shot of plasma hit my armor, which my energy shield easily deflected, but it left a coal color scorch mark on my shoulder. The bullets from the Warthogs' guns tore the alien troops to pieces, covering our Warthogs in blood and body parts. It looked like we might get out of this mess, when in the corner of my eye I see a jackal-sniper fire his beam rifle. In the few seconds that this occurred I turn to see Damian fall off the warthog, a small black ring on the front of his visor. Shelly spots and kills the sniper.
I shouted, 'Damian is down I repeat DAMIAN IS DOWN!' Shelly took over Damian's position as gunner and opened fire on the remaining Covies. Ahead we came up to a road block and were forced to stop. Our Spartan team, now six strong, would have to travel to Ithaca on foot. My team started to sprint along the road, littered with bullet casings and chunks of cars, when our motion sensors read a large red blip coming our way. We rushed into the nearest building. Inside I discover a holographic menu with cash register, which meant it was a restaurant or something of the sort. It made me realize there used to be people who had lives outside of battling the covenant and it motivated me to save them. Outside a Covenant Phantom flew by. It was sending reinforcements to Ithaca. When it had left I motioned my team to exit the restaurant. They all replied with a 'yes sir', except Steve. I turned to see Steve, impaled by a Plasma Energy Sword. Its wielder, once hidden by active camouflage, revealed himself to be an Elite Zealot. Zealots were the equivalent of a UNSC general but a heck of a lot more dangerous. He was covered in ornate gold armor, with curvy light patterns and alien hieroglyphics. He roared, his four jaws split apart to reveal sharp teeth underneath. Rook ran to tackle him to the ground, but the hulking alien swatted him to the side and charged at us. I quickly commanded my team to open fire on the Zealot, showering him in bullets. They did nothing as they bounced off his strong energy shielding. It only angered him and he lunged at Oni. The energy sword barely missed him and cut into the surrounding wall. I motioned Hos to act now and we both rushed to the massive alien beast and wrestled him to the ground. The remaining members do the same as I pulled my combat knife out of its sheath and force it into the monster's neck, killing him.
With that ordeal through, we left our fallen teammate behind and headed to Ithaca. My team hoofed it to the evac site and discovered and a huge battle commencing. Both UNSC Army troops and UNSC marines were being bombarded by the relentless Covenant forces. At this point I was exhausted. We've killed aliens of all sorts by now and all I wanted was a rest. 2 of my teammates, my friends were dead. Reach was going to fall. I wanted to quit right then and there, but I couldn't, I had to save those civilians, I had to make sure my men didn't die in vain. The remainder of my team went down to the UNSC barricade and exchanged shots with the enemy. My team easily picked off the enemy infantry. Our extra firepower gives the UNSC the extra oomph to repel the Covenant, if only for a short time. The evac bird lands in the designated spot and the civilians rush out of cover and into the ship. I manned a machine gun turret to give them covering fire.
A marine yelled over the loud engines, 'Is you're team coming with us?'
' 'No, we'll cover you and make sure you don't get shot down.' I yelled back. Behind me I see the Phantom from earlier drop off a Wraith tank. There was no way the evac shuttle could survive a blast from that. 5 more phantoms drop a company of about 200 covenant troops, all of various species. There was no way the shuttle will survive without our help. I look to my teammates, I couldn't see their faces through their visors, but I know they feel the same.
The marine asked again, 'Are you sure you are not coming with us.' We all nodded our heads, knowing we've sealed our fate. The shuttle door closes and begins to take off. I motioned Hos to grab the rocket launcher from a downed marine. We'll use that to take out the Wraith. Shelly moved to a crow's nest to help snipe any stragglers. Oni and Rook joined me on the front lines as more Covenant moved into our position. The shuttle flied away as we opened fire, bullets and bolts of plasma flew all over the place. Our energy shields allowed us to absorb a couple shots of plasma before doing any real damage. We fought off wave after wave of grunts and elites while Hos fired his rocket launcher at the tank, destroying it. Then the worst happened, I fired the last rounds of my DMR until the rifle's ammo counter reads zero. I looked at Oni and Rook who were using the last of their rounds as well. We had no choice but to use Covenant weaponry. We all grabbed a Plasma rifle, which fired bolts of plasma at a high rate. Now both sides were firing plasma at each other. Our plasma tore through infantry, melting everything in its path.
This firefight lasted about 2 hours until we eventually killed all enemy forces. We did not win without casualties. Oni had been fatally shot in the abdomen and was dying of blood loss. As soon as we were about to leave more Covenant arrived. This time it was the Special Ops elites coming to finish us off. There was no way we could save him. We gave him a plasma pistol and fought with him till his dying breath. The Elites charged at us, swords ablaze and sliced Shelly, killing her instantly. Hos, distracted by the Spec ops troops in front of him was caught off guard and impaled through the back. Rook, who lost an arm to an energy sword, covered me until he too was killed by an Elite.
I was the last Spartan left. All my men were killed almost in the blink of an eye. There was one elite left as well. If I was going to die, I would kill this hinge-head first. I grabbed an energy sword from a fallen elite and ran at him with one last battle cry. The elite did the same. Our swords clashed, and we both looked at each other ferociously. I saw the hate in his small black beady eyes. I then took out my knife and jammed it into the open part of his leg armor. He roared in pain, his mandibles flaring out. As he did this, with one swift motion I swung my sword at his neck, decapitating him. He fell to the ground with a thump, blood gushing from his neck stump. I looked up into the sky and roared. I roared for my Spartans, I roared for those lost on Reach, I roared for the countless lives given to defend humanity from the Covenant on other worlds.
In the sky I saw numerous Covenant cruisers about to glass reach with orbital plasma bombardments. Knowing I need to get to cover soon I ran to the ONI building on the far side of the Ithaca Avenue. The ONI headquarters had a underground section that would protect me from the glassing. Inside and underground I shut all doors to not allow anything in and waited it out. With no food or water I would evidentially die, so I found the cryogenics sect of the building. Knowing it would be a while before anyone found me; I turned on the building's distress beacon and entered the cryotube. The cryotube would keep me in suspended animation until rescue arrived. In my final moments before I froze, I thought of my Spartans, my teammates, my brothers and sisters.
I awoke to see two Marines and an officer looking back at me. One of the marines asked, 'Are you alright Spartan?'
Still a bit disoriented, I answered, 'Y-yeah why are you here? D-did we win?'
The officer spoke this time, his voice stern and confident, 'Reach, no, the war, yes. Come on Spartan I've got some explaining to do.' Captain Del Rio explained to me how the war was won. He told me the Elites learned the truth about their 'Gods' and then separated from the Covenant to help us fight, and eventually, defeat them. He then sent me on board the Infinity, and asked if I wanted to join the Spartan IV program. This was a tough decision. I've been fighting for 20 plus years and I was tired. Then I thought that my Spartans would want me to, and I would do it for them."
"So that's why you are here today," says Gabriel Thorne, "but one quick question, what's that tattoo on your arm."X75 looked at his arm. It had Θυμηθείτε φτάσει inscribed on it.
"It's Greek," answers X75, "It stands for 'REMEMBER REACH'."
Epilogue: The UNSC Infinity crash lands on unknown alien planet known as Requiem after following the Distress call of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn. Inside they find an enemy far, far worse than the Covenant.We're at a particularly interesting time in technology, the Internet, the open source movements, and what accessibility means. We get the ability to be a lot of different people that were not possible before: web designer, cloud architect, open source project manager, open source developer, and more. Working from home is viable with an Internet connection in a way that wasn’t available in the early 1990s. And, when was the last time you looked at the Yellow Pages? (I was on vacation in the Bahamas and was curious. That was it for me.)
Also available now, with the Internet in our pocket at all times, are different ways to express ourselves and communicate. The way my grandparents use text messaging is different from the way that my teenage cousin uses her phone, but if you put their two messages side by side, can you tell who sent which message? I've recieved a text message from an older relative that had the same indecipherable text speak as a text message from my 14 year old cousin—and it wasn't because of autocorrect. I can justify this to myself by reasoning that it’s about learning a technology—that this new technology has no attachment to proper English and that perhaps these two just have the same personal communication style. But, this theory has a lot of holes in it, which I dislike.
It’s true, the ways in which we communicate have become different; I myself have trouble motivating myself to write things that are longer than a haiku in one sitting, and I know I'm not the only one. The valuable thing now is not about being ON all the time, it's about protecting our ability to focus. You can have all of the productivity tools in the world but your writing will be scattered and your communications won't be as clear if you're constantly distracted by the world around you. This is one of the biggest challenges of any generation using these new technologies.
We figured out how to overstimulate ourselves very effectively, and in the end we call it multi-tasking and work. We praise and give raises to the people who can pull it off better than the people who work slowly and methodically on single tasks.
I don't think this is going to be our undoing as a culture, and I certainly don't think we need to get all Pygmalion on everyone about how learning to code is going to fix all of our problems. Learning to code gives you an ability to think through problems, but it certainly doesn't give you focus. The practice of coding as a profession gives you practice in solving puzzles, and it’s very satisfying at the end of the day to be able to point to the ‘things you solved’. Coding as a job also opens other doors, but it’s one piece of a larger puzzle.
And if you’re working on an open source project, you are gaining more experience by working with many different kinds of people in different environments, which is even more valuable when you realize that the community is self-selected and most people are volunteers. They're not being paid by lines of code written for a project, they're doing it because they value the project and their ability to contribute to the community. There are other reasons too, and I don't mean to proscribe everyone's reasons in the same way, but at the end of the day, you're working with people you like on something you believe in. That part isn't going to change.
What will change is that the people who are able to focus and fight being able to do a million things at once will find it easier to keep going. We talk a lot about burnout in our communities and how to work against it—by finding other things in our lives that keep us stable and happy that aren't tied to our work. We ask each other and ourselves things like: How can I be on-call for years at a time? When can I stop saying yes to everything that comes my way?
Do you remember waiting by the phone for someone to call, or even public telephones at all? Changing times and technologies is not about who we're being at work, it's about who we're being in a world that can teach us how to best draw the lines between or blur the lines between our work and home, the casual |
to increase their chances to qualify for the HGC Offline events.
Many of you will already be aware of all of these things. But I'm always concerned when I read comments on Reddit, Twitter or Twitch where people have a very negative attitude towards changes and oftentimes attribute them to the wrong reasons. A lot of changes will happen and I personally believe that it's a good thing. The scene has matured and the teams don't make any of these decisions lightly. Yes, some of the new rosters will fail, but others will succeed and overall I personally am sure that the regions will come out stronger than before! It's going to be an exciting few weeks that lead into 2018 and and an even more exciting HGC 2018! Our first year of HGC has been an amazing adventure and I'm very excited to see what 2018 brings :)
Reply · Report PostNow that Jeff Sessions is Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, you're going to hear a lot of people dig up old accusations that Sessions is a racist. In fact, Now that Jeff Sessions is Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, you're going to hear a lot of people dig up old accusations that Sessions is a racist. In fact, CNN did so last night. However, between the nature of the accusations and Sessions's actual record of desegregating schools and taking on the Klan in Alabama, it strains credulity to believe that he is a racist.
These accusations all center around the bruising judicial nomination process Sessions went through in 1986. Ronald Reagan had tapped Sessions to serve on the federal bench and the Senate judiciary committee ultimately rejected him after they heard testimony that he had supposedly called the ACLU and NAACP "un-American" and "communist-inspired," as well as made racist remarks. The accusations came from Thomas Figures, a black assistant U.S. attorney who worked for Sessions who said Sessions called him "boy" and had made a joke about how he thought the KKK was "O.K. until [he] found out they smoked pot." Another prosecutor, J. Gerald Hebert, said Sessions had called a white lawyer "a disgrace to his race" for representing black clients.
There is no concrete reason to doubt Figures or Herbert. Sessions vehemently denied calling Figures "boy," but he didn't rebut the substance of some of the claims—though he asserted they were taken out of context. It's not exactly inaccurate to point out that the NAACP and ACLU were "communist-inspired." He said thought it absurd to think he would make a pro-KKK joke considering he was prosecuting the Klan at the time he made the remark. And for what it's worth, Figures also directed accusations at a another assistant U.S. Attorney who worked with Figures. That assistant U.S. Attorney also said Figures wasn't telling the truth and defended Sessions's integrity. Ultimately, the charges were no more than hearsay.
However, it's worth noting that Senator Ted Kennedy, on the Senate judiciary committee at the time, seemed heavily invested in tanking Sessions nomination. The next year, Kennedy's crusade was to sink Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court, which has generally been regarded as an shameful smear campaign ever since. The episode upended the comity that had previously existed between the Senate and the White House on Supreme Court nominations—Antonin Scalia was approved to the court 98-0 the year before, the same year that Sessions was filleted by Kennedy and Democrats on the judiciary committee. Perhaps Sessions was a trial run for "Borking."
In 2009, In 2009, Sessions himself told me that "When I got to Washington, there had been an orchestrated campaign to smear my record, and it was executed with great care. And I, frankly, was a babe in the woods and wasn't sufficiently prepared for it." For that reason, when Sessions got to the Senate he has always been more deferential toward nominations than most of his GOP colleagues. For instance, he was one of the only Republican senators to support Eric Holder's nomination for attorney general.
Sessions's actual track record certainly doesn't suggest he's a racist. Quite the opposite, in fact. As a U.S. Attorney he filed several cases to desegregate schools in Alabama. And he also prosecuted the head of the state Klan, Henry Francis Hays, for abducting and killing Michael Donald, a black teenager selected at random. Sessions insisted on the death penalty for Hays. When he was later elected the state Attorney General, Sessions followed through and made sure the Hays executed. The successful prosecution of Hays also led to a $7 million civil judgment against the Klan, effectively breaking the back of the KKK in Alabama.
As a U.S. attorney, he also prosecuted a group of civil rights activists, which included a former aide Martin Luther King Jr., for voter fraud in Perry County, Alabama. The case fell apart, and Sessions bluntly told me he "failed to make the case." This incident has also been used to claim that Sessions is racist—but it shouldn't be. The county has been dogged with accusations of voter fraud for decades. In 2008, state and federal officials As a U.S. attorney, he also prosecuted a group of civil rights activists, which included a former aide Martin Luther King Jr., for voter fraud in Perry County, Alabama. The case fell apart, and Sessions bluntly told me he "failed to make the case." This incident has also been used to claim that Sessions is racist—but it shouldn't be. The county has been dogged with accusations of voter fraud for decades. In 2008, state and federal officials investigated voter fraud in Perry County after "a local citizens group gathered affidavits detailing several cases in which at least one Democratic county official paid citizens for their votes, or encouraged them to vote multiple times." A detailed story in the Tuscaloosa News reported that voting patterns in one Perry County town were also mighty suspicious in 2012: "Uniontown has a population of 1,775, according to the 2010 census but, according to the Perry County board of registrars, has 2,587 registered voters. The total votes cast thereTuesday—1,431—represented a turnout of 55 percent of the number of registered voters and a whopping 80.6 percent of the town's population."Shot can be clearly heard in recordings released as board is due to consider verdicts on three marines charged over murder
A shocking audio recording of the moment an injured Afghan insurgent is shot by a Royal Marine sergeant was released by a military court yesterday.
The pistol shot to the helpless man's chest can be clearly heard – followed by the marine telling the man: "Shuffle off this mortal coil, you cunt," and instructing his fellow marines: "Obviously this doesn't go anywhere, fellas … I've just broken the Geneva convention."
Three marines – who can be identified only as A, B and C – are accused of murdering the man, who had been badly wounded in a helicopter attack, in Helmand in September 2011.
A is alleged to have fired the fatal shot, while B and C are accused of helping and encouraging him. All three deny murder. The board hearing the court martial retired yesterday to consider its verdicts.
The incident was captured on a head camera worn by Marine B. The court refused to release the video after the government argued it would be a gift to terrorist recruiters and could prompt "lone wolves" to carry out revenge attacks against British soldiers or civilians.
But the court agreed that the audio recording should be released. It also said that a few still images taken from the video could be published – but not ones showing the insurgent or the moment he was shot.
During the first audio clip – identified as video clip four during the trial – the marines are roughly dragging the injured insurgent across a field and aiming abuse and laughter at him.
Marine A can be heard allegedly ordering his colleagues to get the man out of sight of a British observation balloon. Marine C is heard suggesting he shoot him in the head. "I'll put one in his head, if you want." But A replies: "That'll be too fucking obvious."
The prosecution alleges that clip five shows that the marines waited until the British helicopter that had injured the man had left the scene. Marine C is heard saying: "Maybe we should pump one in his heart." After the shot is fired, Marine B says that if the shot was heard by anyone they should say it was a warning shot. Speaking on the radio, Marine A says: "He's, er, fully dead now."
The still images give an impression of the area the men were working in. They show the cornfield the man was shot in and the mound he was dragged on to at the side of the field. They also give an idea of how heavily armed and well-equipped the marines were.
Marine A accepts he shot the man in the chest but claims the insurgent was already dead and he was firing into a corpse out of frustration. Marines B and C deny they encouraged or helped A. Marine B conceded he was prepared to cover up what had happened to help a fellow marine. Marine C claimed his remarks about shooting the man were bravado.
The court earlier released a transcript of the video produced by the prosecution.Even to so sensationally talentless a soothsayer as this one, writing hours before the big event, it seems a safe bet that the most dangerous member of the panel got away with it on Question Time last night. But then he always does, doesn't he, that slippery eel Jack Straw?
In a bewitching display of transference, the country awoke yesterday in a frenzy of concern about the perils posed to what passes as British democracy by Nick Griffin, an obnoxious creep, yes, but fundamentally a mirthless joke with the same prospects of affecting public life one iota as Andrew Neil has of being cast as the lead in a Cary Grant biopic.
Meanwhile, this newspaper devoted its front page to news of Mr Straw's latest assault on the kind of democratic principle we once regarded as sovereign, and all too few eyelids will have blinked in alarm. The Injustice Secretary's attempt to win the power to render public inquests public no more, and have them held under such blanket secrecy that even the deceased's family would be excluded, isn't merely a scandal. It is an outrage that would, in a less ovine and apathetic nation, lead to the overturning of ministerial cars and the lobbing through Whitehall windows of Molotovs.
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Unusually, the fact of this one is arguably less offensive than the method. Perhaps it's just being inured to attacks on civil liberties and human rights after a dozen years under a government that cannot glance at them without sending its valet off for the hobnail boots. The list is so long and familiar (right to silence, right to trial by jury, habeas corpus, DNA storage etc, etc) that the tolerance level rises, as it does to arsenic.
This one is certainly poisonous enough. To deny the grieving their right to learn how and why a loved one died, and who was responsible, is as wickedly cynical and self-serving an aim as the reasoning behind it is transparent. The next time a family of heartbroken Brazilians come to town to hear how an unarmed relative was gunned down on the Tube, it would be spiffing for the Government to express deep regret that the demands of "national security" dictate that neither they nor media and public can hear whatever evidential crumbs the Metropolitan Police deigns to flick from its tunic. When next a British serviceperson is killed by American "friendly fire", what a relief to spare the Pentagon the trouble of refusing to assist the inquest in any way. The desire of our ally to evade embarrassment must always trump that of British nationals to win posthumous justice for next of kin. The need to protect the police from impertinent inquiries about homicides will always come a close second to the paramount need to protect spooks and ministers from insolent questioning about security fiascos of the kind that enabled the bombings of July 2005.
This much we have known for a while, so it would be faux naïf to swoon like a crudely propositioned Victorian maiden every time the pattern is confirmed. All one can do is hope, with virtually zero confidence, that David Cameron means it when he promises to reverse this foaming tide of disdain towards the rights of humble subjects.
What startles even this grizzled student of New Labour autocracy is the method Mr Straw deployed, in vain, to get this one on the statute book. Twice before he had tried, and twice been rebuffed. As recently as May, having reintroduced it back in January, he withdrew the measure from the Coroners and Justice Bill, apparently accepting that the political opposition was too fierce.
"It is clear the provisions still do not command the necessary cross-party support," he said. Within six months of that grudging admission, he elected to circumvent that opposition by burying these proposals deep within the Bill, although not deep enough to evade the prying eyes of the Lords, who soundly rejected them. In one sense, there is something pleasingly holistic about this approach. How better to pass law granting unjustifiable secrecy than by stealth? In another sense, so arrogant and blatant violation of democratic principle induces violent nausea.
But then so does that laureate of sneakiness Jack Straw. Barbara Castle, whose Blackburn seat he inherited, once said, without warmth, that she hired him as a special adviser in the mid 1970s for "his guile and low cunning", and the old girl knew her onions there.
His gift for dodging responsibility verges on genius. Time and time again the hand of censure has brushed his collar, and each time he has slipped it and vanished into the night. Over his complicity as Foreign Secretary in the rendition and subsequent torture of terrorist suspects, he escaped by the skin of his teeth. What deniability he had – and his story changed, in the most legalistic of language, after an initial blanket denial – rested entirely on being given the benefit of a gigantic doubt that he never asked the most obvious questions, or turned his deaf ear to the answers if he did. As Martin Bright wrote in the Independent on Sunday, his self-alleged lack of curiosity about the outsourced torture of British nationals is astonishing.
The man's entire career serves as a gruesome paradigm of the poverty and enfeeblement of Westminster politics. The granddaddy of the professional politician, he blazed the trail so well worn now by gliding seamlessly from leftie student activist to legal qualification to unelected adviser to MP to Cabinet member, quietly jettisoning every belief he once professed along the way to speed the journey.
The one thing we can be sure Mr Straw believes in is Mr Straw. His ambition is unquenchable. When his one serious mistake (deflecting transatlantic glory from Mr Tony Blair by cuddling up to Condi Rice) cost him the Foreign Office, he accepted humiliating demotion just to stay in the game. His transfer of allegiance from Blair to Brown, whose leadership "campaign" he managed (and hats off for winning that one), was comical in its fervency. Even now, be sure that he is scheming to position himself as the Jim Hacker compromise candidate should Labour somehow locate the energy required to ditch the PM.
Tragically, there would be worse electoral choices. As viewers doubtless observed on BBC1 last night, he is adept at promoting an image of calmly authoritative blandness, hence his comparative popularity, and a grandmaster of televisual smoothness. He is as slimy as an oil slick, and always quick to move on once he's coated the vulnerable birdies with filthy tar.
An utter disgrace to every high office he has held, Jack Straw has, typically enough, evaded the widespread loathing attracted by Blair, Brown, Mandelson, Campbell and the rest, despite being one of only three ministers to remain in the Cabinet since 1997. In an all-star team containing Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and Zidane, only the more obsessive fan would notice Patrick Vieira unflamboyantly putting in the hard work in defensive midfield.
But viscerally loathed he should be, for the damage he has done us in the cause of personal ambition, and for the damage he hopes to do yet by bringing this pernicious law back to the Commons. Perhaps in time he will be. A painful inquest into the death of New Labour approaches, and whatever Jack Straw's feelings on the matter this one will be held in public.
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Subscribe nowVANCOUVER — A onetime star of the Real Housewives of Vancouver reality show said Friday she is no longer a celebrity, as court proceedings continued in her divorce from a B.C. mining executive.
Jody Claman is on the stand for the third day in B.C. Supreme Court for the trial. Her husband, Eran Friedlander, filed for divorce last year. Ms. Claman has told the court she is $148,000 in debt and has expenses of $50,000 a month.
His lawyer asked Ms. Claman if she considered herself a celebrity, which led to a discussion about Twitter’s “blue check,” meaning her account is that of a verified user.
Ms. Claman said she used to be a celebrity during the show’s 2011-2012 run (it has since been cancelled), but isn’t now.
Mr. Friedlander’s lawyer read back to Ms. Claman her own earlier testimony from May 8, 2014, when Ms. Claman insisted in court she was a celebrity.
“I am a celebrity,” she said in response to a question in May.
She explained Friday that she was a celebrity then, based on her involvement with an NBC show, but since it was cancelled, she has lost her prestigious “blue check.”
“So sometime between May 8, 2014, and today, you ceased to become a celebrity?” she was asked.
“Yes, that’s right,” she said. “I no longer have a blue check, so I no longer am a celebrity.”
Ms. Claman also told court she has made no money this year.
Ms. Claman told court Wednesday under questioning from her lawyer that she needed $50,000 a month to cover mortgages on three properties, one in Whistler, and her living expenses. She said she couldn’t borrow any more against her properties and that she will have to “sell something” to meet her payments.
She also said she needed at least $100,000 to get her catering company, Jody’s Fine Foods, which started in 1992 and closed in 2005, operating again.
Among her monthly expenses was $400 for transportation, which included public transit.
“Do you take the bus?” her lawyer asked.
“Yes, yes I do,” she replied quickly.
She also said she spent $1,200 a month on charitable donations, including those she made to a favourite animal shelter.
“I have to support her [the shelter owner],” she said. “I’d rather not eat.”
She also said she spent $300 on clothing, less than she used to.
“When I did the Housewives of Vancouver, people would want me to wear their clothes, but I like my own style,” she said.
Asked about a psychological assessment, she said she disputed findings of aggression and was “fascinated by the [finding of] narcissism.”
“I don’t even work out,” she said. “I’m really a hippie deep down inside because that’s the way I was raised.”
She said a psychological report found she was “off the charts with my aggression.”
“My husband walked out on me, he left me with no money,” she said.
“Of course I’d be aggressive” to try to protect the well-being of her children, she said. “I’m extremely passionate about my children and their safety.”
Postmedia NewsPhoto from Flickr Commons by Pete Kraynak
By Daniel Mark Carr
We all know that many things are on the rise in China; the economy, the middle class population, the number of foreign TV series, and if the last few days are anything to go by, the temperature! Now add to the list… wait for it, ‘Hymenorrhaphy’. The surgical reconstruction of the hymen.
Earlier this month we reported that China ranked second in countries with most plastic surgery procedures, but it seems youthful looks aren’t all that women are searching for. More and more women are requesting to become ‘born again virgins’ via this procedure to reconstruct the hymen; aptly nicknamed ‘revirginity’.
The aim of the procedure is to cause bleeding during post-nuptial intercourse. The surgery normally lasts no more than half an hour and can cost in the region of 5000RMB. Director of gynecology at Beijing Wuzhou Women’s Hospital, Zhou Hong, said that more and more women are turning to surgery after lying to their fiancés about their sex lives.
Guess “I smashed into a wall while biking” isn’t convincing anybody?
While in some countries hymen reconstruction is illegal, in others, it is available in private clinics and public hospitals; as is the situation in many Muslim countries. In the East, the procedure is becoming more and more common with the appeal of marrying a virgin. In order to rebuild the hymen there are two main methods; either suturing a torn hymen or using a piece of vaginal tissue, complete with its blood supply and create a new hymen.
But while the procedure arguably seems to put women’s rights back some 40 years, doctors argue that it has therapeutic benefits as well – some women reconstruct the hymen as victims of rape or in order to forget abusive relationships.
Anyone interested in the surgery who goes wobbly at the knees at the sight of needles or scalpels needn’t worry. You can buy Chinese-made, artificial hymen together with a gelatin blood capsule in many sex novelty shops.Bassem Hassan Mohammed Wows with Home Win as Smolders Crowned 2017 LGCT Champion
It was a night of sporting jubilation and celebration as Harrie Smolders was officially crowned 2017 Champion and local hero Bassem Hassan Mohammed delivered an emotional home victory in the immense floodlit arena of AL SHAQAB in Qatar.
After 15 exceptional Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix across the world, consistently featuring the best riders and horses pushing sporting excellence to new levels, the final event of the season unfolded with a magical Hollywood ending.
Crowds gathered in Doha to watch the climax of the most challenging show jumping circuit in the world unfold on one of the most spectacular stages for equestrian sport.
Spectators of all ages held their breath as Bassem Hassan Mohammed, riding Gunder, demonstrated nerves of steel in the nine-strong jump off and swept home clear to win the final LGCT Grand Prix of the season – a full two seconds ahead of Janika Sprunger (SUI) on Bacardi VDL and Peder Fredricson (SWE) on H&M Christian K.
“Today we made it,” said Bassem. “It’s been really hard work, I’d like to thank my whole team and my horse, I’m so happy, so proud. It feels very special to make this crowd happy.”
On the night Dutchman Harrie Smolders and his superstar ride Don VHP clocked up four faults in the LGCT Grand Prix. But his supreme performance all season, against the best of the best in show jumping, had already ensured he was 2017 Champions of Champions.
Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, together with children from the AL SHAQAB Riding Academy, presented both the coveted LGCT Championship trophy to Harrie Smoldes and also the winning medal to Qatari rider Bassem Hassan Mohammed. His Excellency Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al Thani was also in attendance along with diplomats from around the world. At one point Her Highness scooped up Bassem’s delighted daughter to the joy of the crowd.
Delighted Harrie, who also won the 2017 Global Champions League as part of team Hamburg Diamonds, said: “After such a long season, I’m very thankful to do the double here. It’s very special, it will not be easy to match this season again in my career. Every time at the right moment I delivered and I must enjoy it right now.”
Before the LGCT Grand Prix began there was intense speculation about which of the top riders would win the remaining podium place in the LGCT overall Championship.
Lorenzo De Luca arrived in Doha in second position, just ahead of Christian Ahlmann (GER), Alberto Zorzi (ITA), Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) and 2013-2014 title holder Scott Brash, the top six on the leader board separated by a mere 15 points.
Smolders couldn’t produce the fairytale finish, just missing out on a jump-off place with an unlucky four faults at the double. And when Fair Light van’t Heike put in an uncharacteristic stop at the Longines treble for Zorzi, his chance of a championship podium finish diminished. Only van der Vleuten remained for the leading championship contenders and he was first out of the blocks in the jump-off.
The shortened track featured two crucial turns and a tempting run down over the final Longines oxer under the packed stands, and the Dutchman riding the spirited stallion VDL Groep Verdi TN set a solid clear of 37.76s. But van der Vleuten exited shaking his head, knowing he’d left the door ajar for his pursuers.
European champion Peder Fredricson (SWE) and H&M Christian K upped the pace whilst remaining well anchored round the pivotal corners and they slipped into the lead in 37.41s.
Setting off in top gear, Janika Sprunger (SUI) and Bacardi VDL pushed all the way round, shaving just a fraction off the Swede’s time to give us another new leader in 37.34s.
The young Kevin Jochems (NED) with the scopey chestnut Alcazar Sitte followed the Swiss rider’s route but ground to a shuddering halt off the bend to the penultimate vertical.
Great applause filled the arena as home rider Bassam Hassan Mohammed and the big striding Gunder powered round. A big push was required to the penultimate fence and he swept home at full pelt and straight into the lead in by a good two-second margin, to the excitement of home supporters.
“I did my round as Jan and Willem said to me — I stuck to my plan and did exactly what we spoke about before I came in the ring and I waited for the best riders after me, but I was lucky that today was my day,” said Bassem. “The plan was just to jump clear and be as fast as I can. My horse is a big horse, maybe not the fastest, but I can turn and he was in good form today. To the double I did eight strides, quicker than the rest, and my big canter has helped me out today.”
Edwina Tops-Alexander (AUS) and California hit a big early vertical then Martin Fuchs (SUI) and Clooney also posted a four-fault round. Tension rippled round the stands as, with only two players left to perform, the Qatari rider was guaranteed a podium place.
Pieter Devos (BEL) revved through the start and Espoir relished the challenge, showing utmost agility through the double, but succumbing to a rail at the penultimate vertical.
It all hinged on last-to-go Kevin Staut (FRA) and Silver Deux De Virton HDC. The speedy Frenchman appeared set for victory, but when the Longines fence fell, the crowd erupted with joy.
“It’s an amazing feeling, it’s come at the right moment. I’m so happy and so proud of this result today,” said Bassem. “Jan made the plan and it has really worked so thank you to Jan and the Qatar Foundation, I’m so happy and so proud.”
Grand Prix of Doha Top 12
Season Final Rankings, Top Ten:A passionate group of Long Beach locals have banded together to throw an event in support of those protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
This Friday, LBC Stands with Standing Rock: The Fight Continues, will offer a space for attendees to learn about and support the ongoing effort of the “water protectors” who continue to stand their ground on the reservation.
Several people close to the cause are slated to speak, including Jay Ponti, Laura Palomares and George Funmaker, an indigenous activist who spoke at a Long Beach City Council meeting in early November calling on the city to reevaluate its relationship with oil, with the rally cry of “you can’t eat money, and you can’t drink oil.”
“The bigger picture is transitioning from fossil fuels, to keep those in the ground and transition to renewable energy[…] not for us but for our children,” he said.
Several local bands and artists are also set to perform and share their skills, including King Kang, whose vocalist Esther Kang helped organize the event, MC Artson of H.O.M.E., a hip hop and holistic lifestyle boutique on The Promenade, Cheyenne Phoenix, a full time student at LBCC and youth activist with the Los Angeles Native Community and El MarRio, an Aboriginal Indigenous Law activist and music maker, among many more.
The event is a local response to a statement released December 4 by the company behind the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, declaring they “remain fully committed to ensuring that this vital project is brought to completion and fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting,” after being denied the permit to complete construction by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The weekend before the statement’s release, a group of 200 protesters gathered in Long Beach in solidarity with Standing Rock, later alluding to the issue being far from over.
“[…]We are all unified by the struggle of water protectors, but also it’s about supporting indigenous sovereignty and telling the native people of this country that we believe that the promises our government made to you[…] should be honored,” said Olivia Trevino, one of the main organizers of the event. “And [with] that, we band with you [in the belief that] this pipeline, does not belong on your ancestral land with the bones of your people.”
Many protesters have gone home since the Army Corps of Engineers announced they would deny the necessary permit for the oil pipeline to be routed under the Missouri River. The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe also asked protesters to return to their homes, according to NPR, as not everyone is equipped to survive a harsh North Dakota winter, said Trevino.
“This movement is important on so many levels,” Trevino continued. “It is a fight to protect mother earth and the future of humanity, […] to prioritize people over profits, to resist environmental racism which makes it okay to pollute the water of marginalized groups, a fight against companies using police as private security and those police using excessive force against peaceful warriors.”
The materials donated and funds raised at the Long Beach event will be sent to the Red Medicine Liberation Camp, to be distributed as the camp sees fit. Those still protesting are “the most hardcore of the hardcore,” said Trevino, and will certainly need all the help they can get to ensure their survival during the coldest months.
Long Beach local and LBC Stands with Standing Rock organizer Carina Clemente traveled to the reservation during Thanksgiving break, and experienced firsthand the nature of the camp. For three days, Clemente focused on grunt work, endured an overnight security shift and helped with mediation and organization, she said. She said no confrontations took place while she was there and the most difficult part was having to leave.
“I had gotten to do so much there and I had gotten to build such good relationships with people in such a short amount of time, I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “It was one of those, I still feel like I can do something productive here, but then it’s the realism of, I have rent to pay.”
Clemente hopes that what attendees will take away from the event is simply more of an education about the issue. She hopes people will leave inspired to, at the least, take a little bit of action, saying, “There’s tons of things that people can do to support Standing Rock that doesn’t involve having to go all the way out there.”
Funds will also be raised for the legal defense fund for Red Fawn, a human rights advocate who was arrested in October during a police raid, remains behind bars and has been called a “political prisoner” of the Standing Rock movement by water protectors anxiously awaiting her release.
“It is a fight for everyone, and we have the indigenous people to thank for taking a brave and determined stand […] and inviting the world to stand with them,” said Trevino. “Standing Rock is everywhere. If we can kill this pipeline it sends a powerful message to the oil industry and to our government that it’s time for big changes in our overall energy system.”
For more information about LBC Stands with Standing Rock, including the list of materials that can be donated, visit the Facebook event page here.
From the Moon is located at 2749 East Anaheim Street.
{FG_GEOMAP [33.7828438,-118.15911030000001] FG_GEOMAP}
Asia Morris is a Long Beach native covering arts and culture for the Long Beach Post. You can reach her @hugelandmass on Twitter and Instagram and at [email protected].Two days after Navy’s stunning 45-20 victory Nov. 7 over then-13th-ranked Memphis, Coach Ken Niumatalolo stood in front of his office window and gestured in the direction of Annapolis Harbor, a smile playing at his lips.
“On a day like today, this is a spectacular view,” he said. “Everything looks great: the boats, the water. I can see all the way to Chesapeake Bay. It’s perfect.
“Of course there are days when I stand here and think, ‘Why do I have to look at all these boats? Why do they make so much noise? Why can’t they all just go away?’ ”
He laughed at his own self-confessed skewed view of the world. These days, the view from Niumatalolo’s office is bright and cheery. The Midshipmen are 8-1, they’re ranked 16th in this week’s College Football Playoff poll and they have a very real chance to be the Group of Five representative in either the Peach Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl.
[Can your team make the College Football Playoff?]
Not bad for a former left-handed backup quarterback who graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1989 and then spent the next 18 years working his way up the coaching ladder. The chance to lead his own team finally came along in late 2007 when Paul Johnson left Navy to take the Georgia Tech job.
Johnson had turned Navy around, taking over after an 0-10 season in 2001 and guiding Navy to five straight bowl games beginning in 2003. In 2007, after Johnson and Navy had ended the Midshipmen’s 43-game losing streak to Notre Dame, Johnson felt it was time to move to a big-time job. The day after Johnson left, Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk named Niumatalolo to succeed him, starting with that year’s Poinsettia Bowl. To say that Niumatalolo had big shoes to fill is a vast understatement.
“Work hard, have great coaches, believe in your kids” was Niumatalolo’s mantra coming in the door, and it hasn’t changed in the eight years since.
Although he played under Johnson at Hawaii and coached under him twice at Navy — first when Johnson was offensive coordinator and then when he became head coach — Niumatalolo’s personality couldn’t be more different from Johnson’s.
Johnson was, to put it mildly, supremely self-confident. When he was negotiating with Vice Adm. John Ryan, then the Naval Academy’s superintendent, to become the head coach, Johnson told Ryan he would need at least $500,000 a year to leave Georgia Southern, where he had won two national titles in the lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision.
Ryan was stunned. “I’m a three-star admiral in the United States Navy,” he told Johnson. “And I don’t make anywhere close to that kind of money.”
“Well, Admiral,” Johnson replied. “I guess you got in the wrong business.”
Niumatalolo would no more say something like that than he would blame one of his players for a loss. He is quiet by nature — though he has a fierce temper at times on the practice field — and he would be perfectly happy to receive no credit for his team’s success. “Just happy for the kids. They deserve this,” he repeats after every Navy win.
After Navy beat Army last December for the 13th straight time, making Niumatalolo the school’s leader in coaching wins, he turned blubbery about 30 seconds into his postgame news conference.
“All of you who know me know I’m just a big crybaby,” he finally said. “I can’t begin to tell you how blessed I feel to coach this team and these kids.”
When Johnson left, there was concern about whether Niumatalolo could keep Navy in the same stratosphere. Quietly — because he knows no other way — Niumatalolo has taken the Mids to places even Johnson never reached.
Which is why the days when Niumatalolo, who turned 50 earlier this year, can continue to duck credit should be in the past. His record is 65-36 going into Saturday’s game at Tulsa. The Midshipmen have played in a bowl and won at least eight games in six of his seven full seasons. This year, they have a real chance to do something extraordinary.
[College football games you need to watch this weekend]
Most of the attention this fall has focused on quarterback Keenan Reynolds, who is not only gifted but, personality-wise, a younger version of Niumatalolo: giving credit to others, putting the team first. While that is a reflection of who Reynolds is, it is also reflective of the program Niumatalolo has built. When Reynolds broke the all-time FBS record for rushing touchdowns Saturday against SMU, Niumatalolo made sure the quarterback’s father was able |
this injection of entrepreneurial wisdom anyway. Since the 1990s, it’s been at the forefront of digital developments. It was the BBC that judged before its commercial rivals that the future lay with the internet, and invested the kind of resources that have made BBC Online a global player. It’s the BBC that is now engaged in a plan to make its entire back-catalogue of programmes available to us at the click of a button. The BBC takes the kind of interest in the long-term that would frighten a wealthy industrialist to death. Meanwhile, we resolutely continue to watch its TV programmes and listen to its radio services in our millions.
Which means only one conclusion. Edmonds and his fellow-travellers on the right don’t really dislike the BBC because it is failing. They dislike it because it works. Under this government, alas, that’s exactly what makes it vulnerable. So as well as laughing at Edmond’s scheme, we need to keep a close eye on where it goes next.Samuel Boivin/Sipa USA via AP Images Jean-Luc Mélenchon gathered about 130000 people in Paris for a large gathering of "La France Insoumise."
Just as the French presidential race appeared to be settling into a comfortable two-person contest, with polls showing Marine Le Pen in a dead heat with Emmanuel Macron in the first round leading to a comfortable (and comforting) Macron victory in the second, the previously moribund left of the Left discovered that what Marx called “the old mole”—popular discontent well-concealed in its underground lair—still has some life left in it.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had been languishing at around 12 or 13 percent in first-round estimates, well behind the front-runners at around 24 percent each, suddenly began rising. He is now at 18 or 19, even with or slightly ahead of the right-wing Republican candidate François Fillon and within striking distance of the front-runners, and thus with a slim but real chance of making it into the May 7 runoff.
Who is Jean-Luc Mélenchon and what accounts for his sudden surge? Born in Morocco in 1951, he first became involved in politics as a high-school student in May ’68. For most of his career he gravitated toward the left wing of the Socialist Party and in the early 2000s served as a junior minister (for vocational education) under Lionel Jospin. Socialist support for a new European Union constitutional treaty in 2005 drove Mélenchon farther toward the party’s left fringe, and in 2008 he concluded that the balance of power among the party’s factions had shifted too far to the right for him to remain a member. He therefore resigned and founded his own Left Party, modeled on Germany’s Die Linke. In the 2012 presidential election he ran in alliance with what remained of the French Communist Party as the candidate of the Left Front. Although pre-election polls showed him close to Marine Le Pen that year, he finished with only 11 percent to Le Pen’s 18.
This year he chose to run again but initially found himself tied for last place among the five top-tier candidates with Benoît Hamon, the surprise Socialist nominee, to whom Mélenchon had been close when both were members of the PS. Hamon, who defeated former prime minister Manuel Valls, the candidate of the party’s right wing, which Mélenchon had staunchly opposed, appealed to the same segment of the electorate as Mélenchon: voters hostile to any compromise with capitalism, suspicious of what they took to be the European Union’s embrace of neoliberalism, highly critical of the Hollande presidency (especially for tis liberalization of labor laws and subservient posture toward Germany), and unimpressed by the independent candidacy of Emmanuel Macron, who had served as minister of the economy under Hollande before launching the En Marche! movement, which is liberal on social issues and neoliberal on economic ones.
As long as both Hamon and Mélenchon remained in the race, drawing approximately equal number of voters from the same pool, there seemed to be no hope for the left of the Left to make it to the second round. But things began to change after the first presidential debate. Although Hamon had delivered, the day before, the speech of his life and one of the best political speeches I have ever heard, his performance in the debate was generally considered lackluster, while most observers agreed that Mélenchon, who is eloquent, erudite, and quick on his feet, beat all four of his top-tier rivals. In the next televised debate, which included not just the top five but all eleven of the candidates who qualified for the race by collecting at least 500 validated signatures of elected officials, Hamon was again passive while Mélenchon turned in a stunning performance, including a memorable exchange in which he caught Marine Le Pen flat-footed on the question of permitting conspicuous religious symbols in public spaces. Le Pen opposes Muslim veils but favors allowing Nativity scenes in city halls on the grounds that these are not religious symbols but simply manifestations of French “tradition.” Mélenchon deftly skewered the flagrant contradiction.
From that point on, his rise has been rapid, and Hamon’s symmetrical fall has been equally precipitous. This shift in voter sentiment has destabilized the race. Macron, who had appeared to be the inevitable choice of voters for whom stopping Le Pen was priority number one, no longer seems inevitable. Some on the left were finding it difficult to vote for Macron. His insistence that he was “neither left nor right” but would take the best ideas from both sides struck many as equivocal if not downright hypocritical. His debate performances seemed somewhat rote and bloodless, while Mélenchon displayed considerable verbal agility. Whereas his fiery invective had alienated voters in 2012, this year he seemed calmer, more mature, and prepared to pose as a sage offering lessons to his less experienced rivals.
Mélenchon is the candidate of leftist nostalgia. He is sympathetic to Russia, arguing that the West has pushed Putin into a more aggressive stance by threatening Russia’s near abroad. He has nothing but good to say about Third-World dictators such as Castro and Chavez. He attacks the EU as an agent of neoliberalism and threatens, as does Le Pen, to withdraw France’s membership unless the treaties are revised in ways to which other members will never all agree (and unanimous consent is required). He will impose a 100 percent income tax on anyone earning over 400,000 euros per year, despite the fact that France’s Constitutional Council ruled Hollande’s 75 percent tax on individuals earning more than one million euros unconstitutional. And he will abolish the Fifth Republic (he says without specifying how), diminishing the importance of the office for which he is running and returning power to the legislature.
Yet despite the unrealism of his program, Mélenchon’s newfound supporters find him more persuasive than Hamon, who foresees a future of zero economic growth and diminished need for work, with the state providing a minimum basic income to those left without jobs. Compared with this utopia, Mélenchon’s nostalgic socialism might seem familiar and perhaps even feasible if the stars were to align correctly (which they won’t, since even if he were to win the presidency, his chances of putting together a legislative majority are nil).
Mélenchon’s surge has called into question the few certitudes that remain in this year of extraordinary political upheaval in France. The early favorites—Juppé, Sarkozy, and Valls—were eliminated in the primaries (which undoubtedly has the parties, or what is left of them, rethinking the wisdom of primaries). The seemingly unstoppable upstart, Macron, has slipped slightly in the polls and seems to have run out of reserves from which he can draw new first-round support. He has captured the soft left—Valls threw his support to Macron several weeks ago (a mixed blessing from Macron’s point of view), the center (François Bayrou chose not to run against him), and much of the Juppéist right. But he cannot seem to crack what remains of the marxisant left, and if Mélenchon succeeds in stealing still more votes from Hamon’s base, he could make it to the second round.
At this point, one can envision a second round pitting any two of the top four candidates against each other. And make no mistake: a Mélenchon-Le Pen face-off would come as a thunderclap from Olympus, a sign that, as Raymond Aron put it four decades ago, “Ce peuple est encore dangéreux.” One might have thought that the French had overcome their romantic attachment to revolution, to the idea that the slate of the past can be wiped clean and everything started anew, but there is an outside chance that the old mole is even now grubbing its way somewhere close to the surface and will spring forth on the night of Sunday, April 23. For some this is a sign of hope, for others an occasion for mounting fear.What happened to the laws of supply and demand? From 2010 to 2013, home prices were 56 percent higher than construction costs, an increase from the 1990s when home prices were 33 percent higher than construction costs; most economists attribute this increase to zoning laws designed to preserve a city’s character and to protect home prices.
In Seattle, there are 40 percent fewer homes on the market than just a year ago, yet this summer, the city council flip-flopped on the mayor’s plan to support more high-density construction after neighborhood associations revolted; even with people marching in the streets for affordable housing, only 37 percent of Seattle homebuyers support denser development.
With Seattle’s racial diversity a centerpiece of the failed plan, the fight to preserve local character has become fraught with uncomfortable implications. In Boulder, Colorado, this fall, the rallying cry of residents who attempted to prevent any zoning changes was, “They’re coming for our neighborhoods.” The maze of NIMBYs (“Not In My Backyard”), pols and community organizations a mayor has to win over to get anything built in San Francisco is so complicated, it’s now a board game.
There are small signs of change. Austin has a new zoning initiative explicitly defined to create a more affordable, integrated city. Seattle just announced $45 million in funding for affordable housing, raised in part from local developers. But this is a far cry from the all-out effort to keep housing costs low that we’d pursue if our priority was the people who need affordable housing, not the ones who already have it. As it stands today, housing is the only consumer good where any price drop is universally viewed by the government as a calamity.
On a national scale, the impact of this mentality is breathtaking. The migration from poor areas to rich areas that defined American history for a century is, according to academics, reversing, a phenomenon the mayor of Oklahoma City has described as the “Wrath of Grapes.”
These same academics note that janitors now earn less in New York after housing costs than in the Deep South. They argue that limits in housing supply are driven by land-use regulations and increase a city’s wealth disparity.
Employers are as sensitive to housing costs as their employees, which is why, when we build more houses, we create more jobs. Google and Facebook are opening campuses across the U.S. because even software engineers can no longer afford San Francisco, where the median home price just topped $1 million. Businesses move jobs across the country or overseas to find places where the same wages can still offer a comfortable life, which begins with a home you can afford.
This is a problem we can solve. It’s hard to improve our schools. It’s hard to redistribute wealth created by the concentration of technological and financial power or to increase middle-class wages. But it might be easier to lower middle-class costs by building more housing.
“Housing is the only consumer good where any price drop is universally viewed by the government as a calamity.” – Glenn Kelman, Redfin CEO
First, federal immigration reform would help. The top new piece of legislation on the lobbying list for the National Association of Homebuilders is immigration reform, to give builders more skilled workers from outside the U.S. How serious is the labor shortage? Builders today are hiring security guards to patrol construction sites, not to safeguard lumber but to prevent recruiters from poaching their people.
We also need federal support for low-income lending; at the moment in 2008 when home prices plummeted, the government essentially outlawed private lending to the working class without adequately funding public programs to fill the gap. The result was nearly a decade of profiteering from cash investors who bought distressed properties for pennies on the dollar, then rented them at above-market rates to folks who couldn’t qualify for a mortgage.
But the heroes in this story will be our cities. It should be clear by now to the mayor of every major city that deregulating new construction is key to preventing inequality, sprawl and job losses. And the time is now. When homes are built in an area, anyone can see that change in this boom-and-bust nation happens unevenly, with things staying the same for decades, then changing almost overnight.
A middle-class-friendly housing policy would be aggressively focused on causing a glut of housing, but current policy instead causes a shortage — of fairly historic proportions — causing our cities to become unaffordable, with lower job growth.
It’s a little scary to imagine how different our neighborhoods will be if we welcome the growth now coming to many American cities. But what will happen if we don’t? Americans will always be protective of where we live, and rightly so. But improving the affordability and diversity of our neighborhoods can enrich their history and character and enrich this nation.Monday had to be a bittersweet day for Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait.
The sweet part was that his perennial loser soccer team, Leicester City Football Club, won the Premier League championship.
Here's the bitter part in Micklethwait's own words:
"For around 20 years, every August I have bet 20 pounds on Leicester City to win their league," Micklethwait, an Englishman, wrote in a column last week. "Last summer, having moved to New York to work for Bloomberg, I missed making my routine bet...but, somewhere deep down, I assumed it was 20 pounds ($29) saved."
Not so much.
On Monday, six days after Micklethwait's column was posted, Leicester cinched the England's Premier League title -- beating 5,000 to 1 odds.
His 20 pounds would have made him 100,000 pounds ($146,730) richer.
A spokesperson for Micklethwait said he declined to speak with CNNMoney.
The team from Leicester, a city in central England about a two hour drive northwest of London, had long odds because it had to contend with perennial soccer powerhouses.
Thank you so much Leicester City. I just won over $2,000 on a $5 bet. pic.twitter.com/yvoJcuQ24i — Petey Pablo (@Petey_Santana) May 2, 2016
Related: Who's the NBA's MVP? If you consider salary, the answer will surprise you
Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have dominated the league -- and they each bring in three times more annual revenue than Leicester, according to data collected by Sky Sports.
As Micklethwait pointed out: "Last year's Premier League winner, Chelsea, spent 215 million pounds assembling its squad, roughly 10 times the cost of Leicester's team."
And when Leicester entered England's Premier League last season, it finished 14th out of 20 teams.
Leicester City. Champions of England. pic.twitter.com/WRwfysTn2N — Leicester City (@LCFC) May 2, 2016
Nonetheless, Leicester has won 22, tied 11, and lost only 3 games this year. And when Tottenham fell out of the running for the Premier title on Monday, Leicester won the crown.
Related: Twitter to live stream Thursday Night Football games
That made reality what Micklethwait said would be the "the most outrageous surprise in modern team sports."The colored version of this:
earthsong9405.deviantart.com/a…
This is a collab between myself and the absolutely wonderful artist, Shadowwolf, who did the breathtaking colors and background! Thank you soooooo much for coloring this for me! C:
Shadowwolf is a fantastic artist, and I'm being very serious when I tell you to go and look at her gallery. Make sure you give her the props she deserves for this piece too on her upload of it; it wouldn't have come out so well without her help! c: So, here's a link to her DA profile:
shadowwolf.deviantart.com/
So as for the image itself, the character featured here is my headcanoned version of Bonniecorn, whom is based off of the one and only Bonnie Zacherle, the original creator of MLP. Also, just to clarify, but I'm not the creator of Bonniecorn's original design. This is my interpretation of the design created by WillisNinety-Six. Said design can be found here:
willisninety-six.deviantart.co…
But yeah. My headcanon version of Bonnie Zacherle's alicorn pony (known as Bonniecorn, Iris, or Iridia. I prefer Iridia) is that she, like Fausticorn, is considered a Goddess in the MLP universe. Where as Fausticorn is the Goddess of Creation, Bonnie here is the Goddess of Origin. As in, she's where it all started; Fausticorn wouldn't have the ability to create without there being the basic concept behind anything. And while Fausticorn's the ruler of the Gods, Bonnie is the one that "created" the gods and goddesses. In that sense, she is the Empress/Queen, where as Faust would be the Princess. Think... Cronus and Zeus, only... you know, they don't try to kill each other. >.>
Like Fausticorn, I didn't give Bonnie tail-feathers because she is, at least in my headcanon, a seraph. She has more pairs of wings than any other alicorn-based god, but she often keeps her appearance to just one or two pairs. Her wings are absolutely large, though, and she'd stand taller than any equine, god or no (although, the gods and goddesses can alter their form into whatever size they want).
The existence of gods and goddesses in the MLP universe is almost universally acknowledged, however whether or not some of the populations believe it is another thing entirely. Regardless of whether or not someone believes it, the gods and goddesses (said gods and goddesses being the Dev Team of MLP:FiM) are worshiped and praised in a religious practice called Faustism. This religion is particularly popular in Equestria, however it contends with other popular religions as well (of which I won't go into right now.)
I may write more later, but for now I think this will do.
As always, feel free to ask any questions if you have any. And again, be sure to visit's gallery and praise her for her hard work on this as well. O:
And as always, thanks a bunch for stopping by! :3Students and academics condemn witch-hunt of anti-Tory protesters
By our reporters
20 November 2010
This week the International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) distributed hundreds of copies of the statement, “Oppose the witch-hunt of student protesters” at three universities in southern England—Southampton, Bournemouth and Winchester.
The statement received a warm response from both academics and students for its principled defence of those being targeted for arrest. The aim of the arrests is intimidation of all those seeking to oppose the government’s austerity measures by criminalising dissent.
The arrest of two 19-year-old men in Yorkshire this week brings the total of those facing criminal prosecution for occupying Conservative Party HQ at Milbank Tower during a November 10 protest against student fees to 61. Operation Malone, with the police trawling through CCTV and news footage has led to the arrest of seven people, on top of the 54 arrests on the day. Twelve of those arrested are under the age of 18. Edward Woollard appeared in court after admitting throwing a fire extinguisher from a seventh floor rooftop during the protest. He only turned 18 last month and is studying for his A-Levels. He is charged with violent disorder.
The police clampdown has also extended to acts of censorship that have major implication for free speech and freedom of the press. On November 15 Scotland Yard forced the closure of an anti-police blog, Fitwatch, on the pretext that it was offering advice to protesters photographed and filmed during the demonstration. Its hosting company complied with a demand from the Metropolitan Police’s public order branch, CO11, which stated that the blog was “being used to undertake criminal activities”.
Students and academics interviewed by the World Socialist Web Site denounced the government and media campaign against students. Maria, an engineering student at Southampton University, said, “I think the vicious media campaign against the student protesters is unjustified. The government is repressing students and their views and they are using the media as a way of doing that.”
Southampton University students Maria and Thomas
In an inflammatory comment, Telegraph columnist Matthew D’Ancona had attacked the protest claiming that most people “will have seen the rioters as spoilt brats who would benefit from a bit of waterboarding.” Maria responded, “I think it is ridiculous even to suggest water-boarding against students, or anyone. The protest was actually peaceful, but there was tiny little minority who caused violence. The media is focussing on that and blowing it out of proportion and considering the use of violent methods against future protests. They are trying to repress us, so that we cannot speak our views.
“I study engineering, but I don’t know specifically what is going to happen in my faculty as a result of these cuts. Everyone supports the protest against higher tuition fees. It affects everyone. Some smaller departments of the university are to be shut down.”
Another student, Thomas, added, “I was thinking they purposely did not have enough police. They were wanting something to go wrong, so next time they can use more brutal methods. I think that’s their intention.”
A medical student at Southampton University, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed her anger over the education cuts. “We have massive problems as medical students,” she said. “We have a five-year degree. So we have additional debts to pay, which are far more substantial than three-year degrees. This is wrong, especially considering the fact that we eventually do an invaluable service.
“I think the media campaign against the students is outrageous. The media’s stance on this incident is not at all helpful to the vast majority of students who very amicably and peacefully wanted justice. It is being exploited.”
Another student was reluctant to give his name, as he had been at the demonstration and could be targeted despite not being directly involved. “Many students went on the protest out of deep anger, because we are not listened to. Plus there is intense hatred towards the Conservatives amongst students.”
He didn’t think the purpose of the protest should have been to pressure government, or merely campaign for lowering fees as the National Union of Students put forward: “At first I did not understand why the media response was so hysterical, but I now realise that it was part of a police campaign to justify further repression.”
Anger was not just limited to students but affected the majority of population. “More protests will come,” he concluded.
A visiting academic to Southampton University said, “I support the students’ protests against education cuts. The scale of the media campaign shows what sort of oppression will come. I will read this statement and visit your web site.”
Bournemouth University student Jazz
Bournemouth University student Jazz, who also took part in the London demonstration, explained, “I thought the demonstration definitely was needed. I feel the media portrayal—they believe all the students had some part in the violent attack on the Tory HQ—is unfair.
“I think there is more to come. This can’t be the last one. People have to stand up against the cuts. The National Union of Students should do more to argue against these cuts. This government is more Tory-based and they do not really represent the working class. I do agree it’s a good idea to have a socialist programme for the working class and students, as you said, to overthrow this government.”
Another Bournemouth student added, “I agree that students have a right to protest. This is a democracy in which we are living. Everyone in the country has a right to protest. The government and the media are tarring every student with the same brush. This is totally unacceptable.”
At Winchester, Students’ Union President Seb Miell and the Students’ Union manager reacted aggressively to our leafleting, claiming that it was illegal and that the NUS was the sole representative of students and any campaigns or protests had to be approved by it. They called university security officials, but retreated after seeing the support campaigners received from students who condemned the undemocratic intervention of the union. One student, who is studying journalism, said the NUS president “has no backbone and will do whatever university management tells him. He is there only for popularity. He does not represent students and does not fight for any students’ concerns.”About the conference
The Australian Mathematical Sciences Student Conference is an annual conference for Australian postgraduate and honours students from the mathematical sciences. The conference aims to bring students together, enable students to communicate their work, facilitate dialogue, and encourage collaboration, all within a friendly and informal atmosphere.
Registration
The registration cost is $30 for AustMS student members and $50 for non-members. To register, click here. Visa/Mastercard is required for online payment. Attendees need to submit talk titles and abstracts via the abstract registration system. The deadline for registration and abstract submission is November 15th, 2015.
Please email any dietary/other requirements after registering to conference@amssc.org.
Financial Support
Students giving a talk at this conference are eligible for the AMSI/AustMS Student Support Scheme, covering up to half of travel, registration and childcare costs. All information, including the funding rules, application deadline and application online form, can be found here. The deadline for financial support applications is November 1st, 2015.
Plenary Speakers
Talk Information
Talks will run for 20 minutes with an additional 5 minutes for questions. Talk titles and abstracts should be submitted via the abstract registration system. The conference booklet is availible here.
Venue
The conference will be held at University of Tasmania (Sandy Bay campus) in the Maths and Physics. A map of the campus can be found here (building 13, AU14).Veteran Irish rockers U2 will reportedly top the lineup of the 2017 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. The band will be among the headliners of next summer’s annual event as part of a tour in support of the 30th anniversary of their landmark LP The Joshua Tree.
Billboard magazine (via Yahoo) reports “U2 will be hitting U.S. stadiums beginning in late spring, followed by a run through Europe.” If Billboard’s sources are correct, Bono and Co. will be making their first appearance at Bonnaroo, which once again is taking place in Manchester, Tennessee on June 8 – 11. U2 will also purportedly hold a two-night stand at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The band teased a “big year” in a video message posted on Facebook in which Bono also confirmed in 2017 the group will issue their new LP entitled Songs Of Experience, the follow-up to 2014’s Songs Of Innocence. Here’s the clip:Northern Ireland doctor: 'I felt absolutely sickened when I read what Milly Dowler went through' BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Londonderry woman Dr Caoimhe McAnena - who insists she rarely takes her harrowing work as a clinical and forensic psychologist home with her - admits she was haunted by her discoveries of what murderer Levi Bellfield did to English teenager Milly Dowler after giving her professional assessment about the killer on television this week. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-doctor-i-felt-absolutely-sickened-when-i-read-what-milly-dowler-went-through-34449175.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article34449174.ece/a2c63/AUTOCROP/h342/2016-02-13_new_16846384_I9.JPG
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Londonderry woman Dr Caoimhe McAnena - who insists she rarely takes her harrowing work as a clinical and forensic psychologist home with her - admits she was haunted by her discoveries of what murderer Levi Bellfield did to English teenager Milly Dowler after giving her professional assessment about the killer on television this week.
The 43-year-old former Thornhill College pupil, now based in London, was approached by ITN to give an independent psychological view of the brutal strangler and sex attacker on screen three nights ago. After reading up on the case, she couldn't erase his evil actions from her mind.
Earlier in the day the family of Bellfield's 13-year-old victim Milly issued a statement responding to the heartless killer's belated but sick confession to police of how he raped and murdered the helpless girl over a nightmarish 14-hour period after kidnapping her on her way home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in 2002.
Bellfield also murdered two other girls in England. Marsha McDonnell (19), whose father Paul McDonnell was originally from Enniskillen, died after being hit over the head with a blunt instrument near her home in Hampton, London, in February 2003. And Amelie Delagrange was a 22-year-old French student visiting the UK. She was found at Twickenham Green in London in August 2004 with serious head injuries and died in hospital the same night.
Police said Bellfield confessed to raping Milly in his flat before driving her to his mother's house, where he assaulted her for a second time. He later tortured and raped her a third time and strangled her the next day.
The killer made his admissions on the condition he could describe what he did only to female officers. Speaking on ITN, Dr McAnena said of his demand: "He's still gaining some sort of sadistic pleasure from that, so his choice of insisting to speak to a female officer might be about his attempts to control women in a sadistic and sexualised way."
Police sources say they conceded to his stipulation to talk only to women officers in a bid to win his confidence, so that he might confess to a string of other murders they suspect he committed.
Dr McAnena never met Bellfield. If she had, she wouldn't have been able to talk about him to ITN, which sought her opinion because she's regarded as being one of the most experienced psychologists in England.
As a forensic clinical psychologist in the NHS, she specialises in the assessment and treatment of high-risk, mentally ill offenders, some with severe personality disorders.
And even though she has come face-to-face with murderers and sex offenders for almost 20 years, she says: "I'm not unshockable. You can't be completely desensitised, and once I read Bellfield's statement in advance of the interview I felt absolutely sickened about what he subjected Milly to. I even told my mum, who was sitting up back home to see me on the news, not to watch the start of the ITN piece because it was so disturbing.
"In my own cases, I usually find ways of processing and dealing with them in work so that I don't take them home with me to my husband and the kids."
Bellfield's cruel depravity reminded many observers of the brutal killings - including that of Ballinderry schoolgirl Jennifer Cardy - which were carried out by Robert Black, who died in Maghaberry Prison last month
"I wasn't aware of him until I saw something about him in the papers this week, but, yes, there were similarities," says Caoimhe.
She adds that killers like Black and Bellfield are the exception rather than the rule: "They are very, very rare. They are so few and far between that it is difficult to see patterns. The vast majority of people in jail for murder and sexual offences are ashamed of what they've done. They're not serial killers and their offences have usually come about as a result of a series of catastrophes in their own lives where they've been victims themselves before then becoming perpetrators. Most of them are motivated to change and never want to do anything like that again, which is not to say they won't, but everyone who works with them is there to help as far as possible to ensure that they don't reoffend."
Caoimhe has been working in London since graduating from the University of Ulster in 1996.
Since 2001 she has been involved in forensic mental health with mentally disordered offenders. "And within that time I have specialised in working with serious violent offenders," says Caoimhe, who grew up in the Pennyburn area of Derry and initially thought about pursuing a career that could hardly be further removed from her current line of work.
"I wanted to be a ballet dancer," she says. "I used to do modern dance and ballet and I appeared in the Derry pantomimes in the Orchard Hall, but my teacher moved back to Belfast and I stopped going to classes at the age of 13. I knew that my dream of becoming a ballerina was a great delusion."
Caoimhe says she fell into psychology after leaving Thornhill to go to the local technical college. "There was an A-level in psychology there, which was quite unusual, and I chose it because it was something new to me. I didn't really know what psychology was but something about it appealed to me."
She progressed to university largely, she admits, because that's what her peers were doing. However, when she transferred from Magee College to Jordanstown the psychology bug really took hold. "I was in love with it," she says. "I wanted to understand everything about people and why they did things, ordinary things."
But as she delved deeper into her subject, Caoimhe became fascinated by clinical psychology, particularly with extreme behaviours. She was hooked, she explains: "Sometimes I wonder if growing up in Northern Ireland in the 70s and 80s had an impact on me, though the Troubles didn't directly or personally affect me," adds Caoimhe, who was born a year and a day after Bloody Sunday. "So I grew up in its shadow. But by the time I was in my teens the worst of the Troubles were happening away from Derry, in Belfast."
At university Caoimhe read a paper in a seminar group about the Serbian conflict. It left a lasting impression. So much so that its name - The Transgenerational Transmission Of Trauma - still trips off her tongue.
"It was about how the old stories that people told kept the wounds alive for generations, and how Slobodan Milosevic had harnessed them to fire people up to do what they did. That really touched a nerve in me about how, in this 500-year-old conflict, people still felt things as acutely as their parents and other ancestors did.
"Obviously it made me think about Northern Ireland, but I never studied it academically."
In her intensive training as a clinical psychologist, Caoimhe completed a three-year doctorate and later joined the Forensic Service, working with women who had previously been placed in mixed-sex wards in specialist units. But four years ago she changed her sphere of work, and now divides her time between working with offenders and lecturing at Goldsmith's University.
Caoimhe admits her job has at times been stressful and emotional. Due to confidentiality, she can't name the prisoners, including murderers, with whom she has come into contact.
One of her roles has been to assess inmates applying to the Parole Board to be released after lengthy spells behind bars.
"I go in and assess whether or not I think it's safe to release them from jails, including high-security prisons like Wakefield and Belmarsh," she explains.
Caoimhe is also called upon regularly by solicitors as an expert witness during trials including murder and serious sexual assault cases, again giving her assessments of defendants in the dock. But she also uses her skills to help prisoners to settle back into the community on their eventual release from jail.
She says: "I run a specialist service for people who are coming out of prison - maybe after a long time - and it can be a very difficult process for them to adjust to living in the community again.
"Very often their old problems will come back - coping with different family dynamics, perhaps drug and alcohol use and relationship issues.
"It can be an existential crisis for them as they think about what life holds for them on the outside.
"We face those challenges with them and every day something takes you by surprise. But it can be rewarding work."
Caoimhe, who is married to a Donegal man and has two children, has toyed with the idea of returning home, tempted by fresh professional challenges in Belfast and the attractions of a new peaceful and vibrant Northern Ireland, but she and her husband have decided to stay where they are, for the moment at least.
However, Caoimhe gets back home as often as she can. And, for relaxation, she still pursues her passion for ballet, attending dance classes. But another of her hobbies isn't quite so refined: "I also do a bit of boxing," she laughs. "I did three rounds this morning with a friend but it's all very light-hearted and low-key because I'm too old to lose any more brain cells."
Meanwhile last night, in a bizarre twist, Bellfield denied confessing to the abduction, rape and murder of Milly Dowler.
His solicitor Julia Cooper has asked Surrey Police to explain their statement that he had confessed, and has requested tapes and notes from her client's meeting with officers.
Belfast TelegraphTo mark the 41st birthday of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who is currently being held as a political prisoner in Russia, human rights activists held a demonstration in Kyiv, Ukraine. Expressing their support for Sentsov and other Crimean political prisoners, they demanded their release, displaying a large banner with the words “Happy Birthday Oleg!” and the slogan “#FreeSentsov.” Hromadske spoke to Sentsov's cousin Nataliya Kaplan for updates on his case and condition. Here's what we found out.
The demonstration in support of Oleg Sentsov. Kyiv, Ukraine, 13/07/2017. Photo credit: hromadske
Three years have passed since Sentsov's arrest in the case of the so-called Crimean terrorists. According to lawyers and human rights activists, this case, in which four Ukrain |
a rich crop of free-agent runners, Martin sits atop the list. One way or another, he's about to make bank.If you had any doubts, Adobe is clearly abandoning Flash with the annoucments of the discontinuance of Flash development on Mobile OS plus the new declaration of the outsourcing of Flex, the Flash Enterprise Development tool, to the Apache Foundation. These actions should dispel any misconceptions. True, Apache is a major enterprise Open Source provider with dozens of important Open Source projects including Ant RSS feeds, Hadoop distributed filesystem, HTTP Server, Struts Java Web Application Framework, and Subversion centralized version control system. But the abruptness of the one-sided proclamation[Apache Foundation has yet to agree to take on Flex], indicates Adobe is in full Hasty Retreat Mode. Now the whole question is how many nifty Adobe babies [innovations] will be thrown out in the Flash-exit plumes?
Is this a Hasty Exit?
Ye Editor thinks so for the following reasons.
There are a few rationals in support of abandoning Flash on mobile OS and leaving Flex as an orphan to the Apache Foundation. First, Flash has and apparently will continue to be along with Java a Verboten development tool on Apple’ systems both Mac and iOS. Second, at anytime, Adobe’s AIR which provide a backdoor entry into iOS [but not yet Mac] for Flash SWF files, could be arbitrarily declared programma non grata and forbidden on iOS and/or Mac. Third, Flash is showing its 14 year age on the design and programming front as it does not provide good models for 3D movement and animation [the z-cordinate problem],clean synchronizations among key elements of time, scene, sound, stage plus the universal threading and multi-core processor mapping mechanisms. Fourth, Adobe and or some other 3rd party[Google Dart or some animation startup??] may have a better animator ready to hit the Web and prempt the older Flash code base. Fifth, Flash has been banned from use on Windows Phone 7.
But in favor of Flash and Flex are the following factors:
1)hardware improvements in processors [think NVidia’s Tegra3 and other QuadCore mobile chips], memory [both processor and SSDisk],, displays and most importantly easily dockable smartphones and tablets will be the winning mobile form factor as seen in Asus Tranformer Prime for tablets and the many dockable smartphones. In short, dockable smartphones and tablets will have mobiles bending/curving back onto and replacing laptops and notebooks in the PC market for all but the most compute intensive tasks. This is a venue where the Flash player excels.
2)the Flash player has become ever faster and uniquely feature capable.
3)the Flash player has become more secure and reliable.
4)the Flash player was falsely indicted and disparaged by Apple’s Steve Jobs as Apple’s own Quicktime had similar performance and reliability problems even though it benefited from Apple APIs denied to Adobe’s Flash Player. Adobe was put in the unenviable position of having to sue for libel and/or anttitrust from a “partner” whose platforms make up as much as 75% of Adobe’s sales.
5)Adobe AIR is highly dependent on Flex and Flash developers and tools.
6)Adobe AIR is the last cross platform development tool that spans all the major and popular operating systems. HTML5 is emphatically not as cross platform nor as performant as AIR/Flash.
The Hazards of Innovation Here is another illustration of the precariousness of technology development. Excellence and continuing great innovation do not always win – cornering a market with no dependencies on other players is even more vital. Sometimes technology innovation succeeds beyond compare. And other times as in the case of Flash, it crashes ignominiously as external “competitive” market forces doom a technology before it reaches full fruition. Flash is a prototypical example along with Opera browser and the Palm PDA among others. Flash for fourteen years since 1997 has been the most innovative delivery container for media on the PC and Web:
1)First in allowing both vector and bitmap image files to be deployed with high fidelity and storage efficiency;
2)First in incorporating both audio and video with great efficiency;
3)First to allow for user programming with JavaScript-like ActionScript;
4)First to allow storing of Font Types and CSS with animations;
5)First to bring OO programming to Flash scripting;
6)Continuing lead in most efficient storage of all animation elements in a cross platform animation/multimedia container.
But Flash has been brought low by Steve Jobs spite and perceived need to not allow cross platform tools in on iOS. Opera has a similar record in bring new innovations in Web browsing while Palm lead early with hardware integration of media consumables in a light, portable and programmable device which easily displacing Apples Newton. But none of these products has “lived long and prospered”. However, even a corner on the PC Market has not been enough to guarantee Microsoft’s animation tool- Silverlight’s survival in the media animation and delivery market. Are innovation markets becoming too disruptive?
So one could argue that if Adobe waited just a half year or so, the market for the Flash Player would turn in Adobe’s favor as Android and other mobile OS take over the tablet and smartphone markets. And for this reason Apple would have to contemplate removing its ban on Flash in both Adobe Mac App Store and on the iOS for its mobile devices. Yes, this would have a second big benefit for Adobe – it would reduce reduce Adobe’s dependence on Apple because a)other vendors would contribute to Adobe’s market share, particularly i
Consequences of Flash/Flex Demise
First and foremost, the Flash/Flex development community in its comments on the announcements feels betrayed by Adobe. See here for comments at the Flex announcement and see here for no more Flash on Mobile OS. The reaction is rangers from anger and disbelief to deep questionning of Adobe’s support for developers. Clearly Adobe has more than a PR problem. But also Adobe has a significant problem with one of it crown development jewels – Adobe AIR.
Now Adobe AIR is important because Adobe AIR is the only viable and performant cross platform development tool that works on the major PC, Mobile and Server operating systems. If you want to write once and deploy on the most popular OS and their associated devices plus customers, Adobe’s AIR is one of the best systems for doing so for the following reasons:
1)it runs on the major OS platforms: Mac and iOS[for now], Linux, Windows, Android, BlackberryX, Nokia MeeGo, etc.
2)it provides all the latest tablet/smartphone operations like touch screen and gestures ready to go on desktop platforms. In contrast HTML5 is in a mess on touch support cross platform.
3)AIR is the only tool that provides cross platform offline as well as online operations.
4)AIR provides robust database access and update mechanisms another area of conflict in HTML5.
5)AIR has a robust set of communication and video interfacing options.
6)AIR provides the key to Adobe’s own survival – presence on many platforms, less dependence on the Apple platform.
7)Businesses are desperate for getting out of the need to develop the same program for multiple platforms. They have hung back from embracing Apple because this means replacing the Windows monopoly with an Apple monopoly. And now Apple means only one set of development tools for the iOS platform – not a good prospect for internal let alone cross platform development. True, security is enhanced because the iOS apps have to go through an approval process; but the downside is how vigilant Apple is on updates. And finally, the great overhang for developers, corporates, and OEMs alike are the many arbitrary rules on Apple app development that can suddenly pop up like mushrooms.
Is there any chance of rescuing AIR? Given that Flash will continue on as the desktop development tool for advanced graphics, 3D modeling, game, and highend “near cross platform” apps, there is at least a smaller market available. However, Adobe and 3rd party.swf software suppliers like Erain, Swishmax, Autodesk and others will have to contend with a declining base of Flash developers that will be moving to HTML5 and other animation software. Will there be enough remaining developers to sustain AIR? Perhaps, if the collapse of the Apple iOS to an equally specialized, premium priced niche as predicted by the first commenter on the fate of Flex proves true, then Apple will no longer be such a dominant player. With a super disruptive technology marketplace [see the sidebar on The Hazards of Innovation]plus the history of Macs versus PCs plus Steve Jobs own recognition that Androids success required a thermonuclear response from Apple, who know what will be the ultimate outcome for AIR and Flash? Only the Shadow knows…Lee Sedol - Hong Chang Sik - ladder game
This is a discussion of the famous game between Lee Sedol and Hong Chang Sik, where Lee played out a broken ladder to force a capture at the other side of the board. The complete game can be found at http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=2872 or http://eidogo.com/#1JsMLqp
A roughly hour-long lecture on the game by Nick Sibicky can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me5UIHoEP9M (Nick Sibicky Go Lecture #205 - The Lee Sedol Ladder Game).
Moves 67 to 74 (B: Lee Sedol W: Hong Chang-sik)
Moves 89 to 97 (B+R at 211) Alex Weldon: Madness. I mean, that's a lot of captures, but wow... whistler? Sorry, i dont really understand this situation!!!! please help me :D DJ: Well, Black played a flamboyant manoeuver, chasing White in a ladder that was not expected to work, just to be able to play in sente in order to capture all the marked White stones in the BR corner! And at the cost of seeing many, many of his stones played in the non-working ladder captured in a series of double atari. JangJirak? Despite the broken ladder, this exchange is a huge loss for W. However W was forced to play this way, which I'll explain below. Scryer: However, as it turned out Lee continued to present Hong with more urgent situations to solve, until finally Hong resigned without ever getting around to taking ANY of Lee's hanging ladder stones.
Variation: W had no options (B: Lee Sedol W: Hong Chang-sik) w6 at b1
continuation of above (B: Lee Sedol W: Hong Chang-sik) JangJirak? Actually, was the surprise move that forced W to play out the exchange. No matter what W does now, W can't avoid a huge loss. W admitted he didn't notice this move and was shocked to see it; otherwise he would have avoided it before. Note the timing of in the previous diagram. Lee played out a few moves of the broken ladder before this foreplanned ambush move, giving W no chance to escape his plan. Lee had read this all out already when he played his first move around the UL corner before this sequence (that is E17), and considering this was a blitz game, it's amazing isn't it? iopq: Well, even though that's a really funky strategy, I don't think this being a blitz game impresses me. People just underestimate the strength of professionals :) That's a given in any game. In chess I saw an endgame position that involved reading to find moves that cause a zugzwang... which I couldn't solve because I couldn't read to find the zugzwang. A professional chess player read it correctly in a blitz game. Of course everyone was impressed... but I just keep finding out professionals just see those positions so much more often that it's not that impressive Alexandros?: That very fact is what makes it impressive. The fact that they have worked and studied enough to see those at a glance. Saying that's not impressive is like saying that an Olympic long jumper isn't impressive because, hey, he jumps all the time. Neuron: I have a question regarding Lee's initial ladder moves before the key move. If I understand correctly, those first ladder moves were played to give W no other choice but to fall in the trap, otherwise white would've just abandoned the top left. However, I wonder why Lee stopped where he did and not further down the ladder. Assuming he was confident in his strategy, quitting the ladder early meant white would've been less punished had he decided to give up the ladder and fix the bottom right. (Hope I'm making sense)
golearner I have a question about the final position of this game. I believe the lower left corner belongs to Black, but I see some dispute (at for example, the web site listed above). Which side wins that race? (Thanks!)
Uberdude It is a seki, which given black's large profit elsewhere is a great result for him.
tijnhet? The dispute seems to be valid. A 9p chinese pro commented on the game that white is dead in the corner, leaving black at about +120 points. Also Al Younggil 8p commented that white is dead. Trying to find the seki with several 4dan players for 45 minutes resulted in nothing but white being dead in the corner unless black made a mistake. So it is, contrary to what Uberdude has said, not a seki.
sigmundur? Can you show how black kills? To me it seems they both have one eye, and discounting the kos black's outer liberties are taken before white's inner ones. Maybe some black must use the kos?
OmnipotentEntity? White has 2 liberties in an eye. One in a ko. And two internal liberties, one of which can be taken in sente (so it doesn't count). Black has 2 liberties in an eye. Two in half eyes (both of which can be taken in sente, but one requires an approach, so only one counts). Two internal liberties, and 3 external liberties. So black is ahead by 2 moves, enough to ignore a forcing move or prevent a seki.
One possibility: White K5, bJ6, wA7, bA2, wB1, bH3, wA5, bC5, wJ1, bH1, wL1, bE2, wE8, bF9, wE8, bF1, wKoThreat, bResponse, wG1, bA6, Black is alive in double ko. White is dead.
Hypothetical white resistance
Hypothetical white resistance continued w6 at w4. White is dead in double ko.“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.” John F. Kennedy
I feel it is important for me to come out of the proverbial closet. I am an unbeliever. I have never been religious even though I grew up in West Texas. I have felt out of place for most of my life. Regardless of my lack of faith, however, I try to be the best person I can be. I am honest to a fault, I try to never judge others, and I believe in standing up to injustice. I have been asked if I worship the devil (no, I don’t believe in him either). I have been asked how I know what is right and wrong–I think I have my parents to thank for that.
Every day I am surprised for the total lack of respect we show each other. From hateful Facebook posts, to conservative “news” articles, and the incessant invocation of God by the GOP Presidential candidates. Last week I read an article entitled, “No, Christianity Should Not ‘Welcome’ or ‘Include’ Your Sinful Lifestyle.” It is completely predictable in its premise—being gay is a sin and you need to mold yourself to our faith or get used to being discriminated against. I can only imagine having that much hate in your heart causes indigestion. This is just one example of weaponizing the Bible. Even though articles like this one are prevalent on the internet, the venomous tone of this piece, urged me to act. I decided that silence is essentially acquiescence to these types of assaults. Although the LGBTQ community seems to be the latest target getting the most heat from Christians, they not the first group to be targeted and they will not be the last.
As a woman, I feel the brunt of the Bible in my everyday life. I have been called a bitch, I have been told not to speak out of turn, and my uterus, along with millions of others, is being held hostage by a group of mostly old, white men. I have experienced pay inequality, misogyny, and sexual harassment. How does this relate to the Bible? I think you will see. Stay tuned.
As a liberal, I see a deluge of the personal religious beliefs of a few being imposed on the rest of us. I see presidents who claim they actually talk to God. I see protesters outside of soldiers’ funerals chanting “God Hates Fags!” And I see rich white men working tirelessly to block any legislation that would provide employment protections for the LGBTQ community, equal pay for women and parental leave.
I’ve had enough. Words are weapons and the words in the Bible have become weapons of mass destruction. They have been twisted to justify (and spread) discrimination, intolerance and subjugation. Thus, I am going to read the Bible. Cover to cover.
I am reading the “Holy Bible: English Standard Version” which you can download for free from Amazon. I am going to give a brief summary of what I read and my general thoughts. If you are offended by satire, this will not be the thread for you. I will be addressing gender issues, cultural issues, and political issues I believe are relevant right now. Finally, I will not do any outside research. I am only discussing the text.
The rules for commenting on this thread will be that no other parts of the Bible that have not been read yet, can be referenced in this discussion. Once we get further into the reading, we can refer back, but we will not refer forward. I plan to post on this topic at least two days per week.
This is my personal journey to understand. I have never read the Bible and I hope you’ll join me.
The first section I will discuss will be Genesis 1-10.
AdvertisementsCheck out the original here. The one and all which had led me to where I am now.
(Desaturated Version)
A return to one of my earlier tributes, of one of the best Zootopia fanfiction series ever. As well as acknowledging one whole year of improvement and progress on my artwork!Check out the original here. The one and all which had led me to where I am now.
Broken Mask Comic by Akiric
byHe whirled on her so suddenly it made his tail hurt when it whipped behind him. His paws raised, and fingers curled with black claws extended to their fullest only inches from her eyes; his lips drawn back from his teeth in a predatory snarl that made his museum performance seem lame by comparison as a vicious sound escaped him that would have made his ancestors proud to call him predator. Even the rain helped, matting his fur so that when his hackles rose on the back of his neck they looked like spikes of bloody fur in the street lights. He poured all of his self-loathing, pain and rage into the sound and he was sure that it would make her jump back, make her rethink ever believing that he was anything but a savage fox.The SWATP involved a comprehensive planning process that included analysis of issues and opportunities, assessment of community values, and identification and prioritization of strategies and actions. An integral part of this process was stakeholder and public engagement which is included in the following phases:
Phase 1 Involved a comprehensive analysis of local transit service and infrastructure, as well as aspects of cycling, walking, driving, and goods movement. In this phase, we gathered perspectives from the community on what’s important and opportunities to improve the current transit and transportation network.
Phase 2 Identified transit service and infrastructure priorities, as well as regional cycling priorities, to make the most of the opportunities identified in Phase 1. In this phase, we proposed changes for more than 40 routes throughout the sub-region and asked for your input to help us understand customer impacts and to identify new ideas, or suggestions. We modified many of the proposals based on public feedback in order to arrive at the recommendations included in the final plan.
Want to review the transportation recommendations? Please see the final report.Image copyright L214 Image caption A series of undercover videos revealed shocking conditions and mistreatment in some of France's 941 abattoirs
Video surveillance in abattoirs is among measures proposed by a French parliamentary inquiry into slaughterhouse conditions.
The commission said it wanted to "shine a light on the 'black boxes'" that made up France's 941 abattoirs.
The inquiry was launched after a series of secretly filmed videos shocked the French public.
The videos showed animals being treated violently, while rules on hygiene and humane killing were ignored.
Nearly 100 people were interviewed by the commission over four months.
Documentary filmmakers, veterinarians, abattoir managers and owners as well as academics were among those who gave evidence to the inquiry.
Mobile abattoirs
Some of the 30 deputies who made up the commission also made surprise visits to four abattoirs to see conditions for themselves.
The undercover videos that prompted the inquiry were released by animal ethics pressure group L214. The inquiry was also said to be studying ways to improve the working conditions of abattoir employees.
The commission delivered its 255-page report on Tuesday and among the 65 recommendations reported by French media were:
Mandatory video monitoring at key sites within abattoirs - though deputies say they are mindful of potential abuses of this tool by employers
Full-time veterinary officers in abattoirs with more than 50 employees to counter "the feeling of virtual impunity with which certain abattoir employees go about their work" and make sure regulations are followed
Modernisation of abattoir equipment
Mobile abattoirs to reduce animal transportation times
Improved employee training
Setting up a national ethics committee
L214 said it welcomed the inquiry, which it said had "given a life to hundreds of thousands of animals that die each day behind the walls of abattoirs in France". It released more video on Tuesday, showing sheep hanging from chains and struggling after their throats had been cut as part of the ritual slaughter of thousands of animals.
The pressure group argued that the commission had limited itself to superficial measures rather than "immediately practicable solutions" such as reducing consumption of meat and animal products.
It also claimed that electric stunning prior to slaughter was unambiguously backed by scientists and veterinarians.
Stunning has been obligatory in the EU since 1979 but most countries make exceptions for religious communities.
Under halal (Islamic) and shechita (Jewish) rules, an animal's throat must be cut quickly with a sharp knife while still conscious.Student Money Survey Results
A survey released by studentmoneysaver.co.uk has found, amongst other things, that 73.8% of students don't believe their maintenance loan is enough to live on and 41% of students have gone without food because of money concerns. The survey has found students are finding it increasingly difficult to afford university, with 28.7% of students saying they've considered dropping out because they can't afford to be there.
Key points:
73.8% of students say their maintenance loan is not enough to live on
41% of students have gone without food because of money concerns
33.3% of students have had to sell possessions in order to make rent, pay bills or buy food
28.7% of students said they h ave considered dropping out because they can’t afford to be there
28.9% of students say they can't afford to put the heating on when it's cold
7% have taken out a payday loan
Of those who had taken out a payday loan, 40% regretted it
74% of students agree or strongly agree with the statement "I am worried about money"
60% disagree or strongly disagree with the statement "I feel financially secure"
21.1% of students say that they had had to do other desperate things for money, other than selling possessions
3.6% said they'd done something illegal for money
50.2% of students say they rely on parents money whilst at uni
Is your maintenance loan enough to live on?
74.8% of the students surveyed received a maintenance loan. Of those who received a loan, 73.8% believed it wasn't enough to live on.
Have you ever considered dropping out of university because you cannot afford to be there?
Over 1/4 of students surveyed said that they had considered dropping out of university because they cannot afford to be there. An anonymous student who considered dropping out said:
"I still haven't made my decision. I am on my placement at the moment and I think that staying on at the company to earn a real wage would be better than going back to uni. I don't know how I will cope.
However I do know that having a degree is important and I don't want to waste the two years I have spent in uni so far."
Have you ever gone without food because of money concerns?
A pretty shocking 41% of students said that they had gone without food because of money concerns. An anonymous second year student said:
"There have been times when I have had little to eat within a week. Mainly because I was too embarrassed and didn't know where to go about it all. But when I found out that the university are able to help with that, they were able to help with food vouchers so I didn't go hungry."
Have you ever had to sell possessions in order to make rent, pay bills or buy food?
33.3% of students have had to sell possessions in order to make rent, pay bills or buy food. The most common items were electronics, such as games consoles, laptops and tablets, as well as clothes.
An anonymous student who sold her chest of drawers, jewellery and exercise machine said:
"The examples I gave above were just last month. I needed the money to pay for petrol and gas and electric. I managed to raise around £200 and just about scraped through the month. It's more difficult for me this year as I am on placement and spend around £250 a month on petrol commuting to my placement.
In the past I have sold an iPad to raise money to pay for bills etc. I live with my boyfriend who is an apprentice so we both have low wages and often paying big bills like water and council tax (we still have to pay it as he earns over the threshold) is difficult."
Other than selling possessions, have you ever had to do anything desperate to get money?
21.1% of students say they have done desperate things for money, other than selling possessions.
Have you ever done anything illegal for money?
Only 3.3% of students said they had done anything illegal for money, despite a lot of financial pressures.
Have you ever taken out a payday loan?
7.7% of the students surveyed said that they have taken out a payday loan. This is much higher than the 2% found by the NUS last year.
If you have taken out a payday loan, did you regret it?
An anonymous student who took out a loan with Wonga and SmartPig said:
"We have taken out a number of Wonga and SmartPig loans. I regret it because I feel like I'm now in a vicious circle that I'll never be able to escape from.
Most of my experiences have been ok, however there was one company that charged me £75 just for applying. It took me 2 weeks to reclaim the money so we really struggled that month. Since payday loan regulations have got tighter I can no longer get Wonga loans, this was a huge problem for us because we were trapped in this circle and couldn't lend any money to pay what we owed, that was when we had to decide to sell some things we own."
Paid work
Students are increasingly working alongside their degree, although 46.5% of students say they don't work.
An anonymous student said:
"I am now in my second year, and i have been given less loan, even though my rent is more this year. Apparently we are expected to have job by the second year. I have applied for many jobs, but have had little success."
Do you rely on money from parents whilst at university?
50% of students rely on money from their parents whilst at university. However some students we interviewed were reluctant to tell their parents about their problems with money:
"I have never told my parents because I worry they would be angry. They always told me to save money for uni and I never did."
Financial worry
Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree I am worried about money 3.3% 8.4% 14.3% 40.5% 33.5% I am worried about getting a job after uni 4.4% 12.6% 11.2% 34.4% 37.4% I feel financially secure 22.8% 37.9% 24.0% 12.8% 2.5% My student accommodation is cold 14.1% 24.8% 24.6% 22.1% 14.4% My student accommodation has mold 22.1% 28.5% 20.3% 16.5% 12.5%
74% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they were worried about money, with only 15.3% agreeing or strongly agreeing that they feel financially secure.
In terms of their living situation 36.5% of students are living in cold student accommodation, and 29% say their accommodation has mold.
When asked whether they could afford to put the heating on when it's cold, 28.9% of students said no, 63.6% of students said yes and 7.5% would prefer not to say.
Student Money Saver's response
"Current students are facing bigger financial challenges than any other generation. They face massive rents whilst they're at university, and looming debt when they leave.
It's clear that the current maintenance loan system is not working. Students receiving the full loan still think it is not enough to live on, and well over a 1/3 of students say they are going hungry because of money concerns. This is despite much more students having part-time jobs on top of their degrees than ever before.
Living costs can be particularly difficult for students in living in London. The extra £2,269 you get for attending a university in the capital is quickly swallowed up by living and transport costs. £8,009 a year for London students is simply not enough.
The government claims that students have not been put off by debts of up to £9,000 a year for their tuition fee loans. If this is the case, then students may not be put off by taking on more debt in order to have raise their maintenance loans so that they can afford to live on them. If this doesn't happen, more students will go hungry, more students will drop out and more students will risk the debt-spiral of taking out payday loans.
Universities could do more to make sure students know what help is available to them. Of the students asked the question "have you ever applied for a hardship loan", 42.5% said "no, but this is because I have never heard of a hardship loan". When students are being targeted by payday lenders, universities need to be even more proactive to make sure students are receiving the right advice from the right people.
- James Felton, Content Editor, Student Money Saver.
"Hearing that students are poor, wouldn't surprise anyone. However, what this survey has shown us, is that the level of poverty is much worse than initially thought.
Students are going without food and heating, as well as becoming desperate and selling possessions, taking out payday loans and seriously considering dropping out to get by.
The fact that there are students living in serious poverty is completely unacceptable. Many parents have been completely left in the dark about this, and would be horrified to find how their children are living."
- Charlotte Burns, Editor, Student Money Saver.
Interview with Rebecca Fitzgibbon, University of Huddersfield student
"Yes I believe this is true that for most students who live away from home that the maintenance loan isn't enough to live on, this is mainly due to the high cost of rent when living in student accommodation, it may be different for those who choose to stay at home. I do receive the full maintenance loan, however most of this is taken away in order to cover rent and food costs and I am left with nothing, as in no spare money to spend on books or other items.
The necklace I sold did have great sentimental value to me as my mum had owned it for many years and passed it on to me. I had to sell this at a jewellers who bought cash for gold, I raised around £180 yet the deposit of the flat was £250. I had to get the remaining amount from family members, who were willing to lend me the money on a short term basis. I felt that I had no choice as I had no other way to raise the money, and it did upset me that I had to sell the necklace. I also had a wardrobe clear out and sold various items on eBay and raised around £60 in total. This was to buy food as I had no money and felt again like I had no choice."
You considered leaving university because of financial concerns. Have you decided to stay? What led you to your decision?
"I have stayed on at university. I have done this as I have to consider my future, for me dropping out is not a choice as my family would be quite disappointed, and I would have no aspirations or aims for the future. I would still be left with a student loan to pay and this would all be for nothing. In order to do this I had to take out a £500 overdraft with the bank to cover food and bills such a my mobile contract. The £500 overdraft is now used to the maximum.
I have often gone without food and will just have a bowl of cereal or toast as opposed to A proper meal. I do this quite often as I usually have limited food amounts. My mum knows about this and will often do a food shop for me sometimes so I have some food to take home. She will also lend me small amounts of money e.g. £20 when needed, which I lay back once I get my student loan, however she cannot do this all of the time as she is on a minimum wage and has bills etc to cover herself. I go home a lot of weekends so I can get a proper meal as my mum always makes sure I am well fed."
Shelley Asquith, running for NUS Vice President, Welfare at the national conference in April said:
"This research shows most students can't meet basic living costs from the standard maintenance package - and it is not at all surprising. Having been a student, and an officer for the last two years, I've seen how much the cost of living crisis is taking effect.
Almost 30% have considered dropping out because of costs. In my first year, I had to do exactly that when I couldn't pay my rent.
I've had students come to me who are using food banks, pay day loans; skipping classes because they can't fund childcare bills.
When the primary concern of students should be about meeting their deadlines, many are having to make a choice between heating and food. Tuition fees are one thing, but the lack of financial support to fund living cots is shutting thousands out of education.
If I'm elected as VP Welfare next year I will prioritise fighting for living grants and for students to have access to state benefits (like Carers' Allowance and Housing Benefit) where necessary. This year I've secured an extra £1million in funding for students at my university, helped to set up a cross-union campaign for funding for FE students and taken the Department for Work and Pensions to court over benefit sanctions (and won). We need co-ordinated action from the student movement on all of these fronts if we are to have an impact on the issues this research shows us are an urgent reality."
Shelley's campaign page can be found here.
Full interview with anonymous 2nd year student
You've said that your maintenance loan isn't enough to live on. Do you think this is true for most students? Do you receive the full loan?
"I receive as much as possible for my loan, but my mum isn't financially able to support me, so its a struggle. I am now in my second year, and i have been given less loan, even though my rent is more this year. Apparently we are expected to have job by the second year. I have applied for many jobs, but have had little success."
You've had to sell your tablet in order to raise money. Do you mind if I ask if that was for rent money, bill payments etc? Did you raise enough?
"I had to sell my tablet when i was waiting for my loan to come through and it was a bit late, so I had no food. it was the only way I could survive."
You've said that you've considered dropping out of uni because of financial concerns. Have you now decided to stay? What led you to this decision?
"My university have been extremely helpful, especially when family matters were taking over things, making me unable to attend. They have given me food vouchers too to help me. Amazing."
You've said that you've gone without food because of money concerns. Has this been a regular occurrence? Do your parents know about your troubles? Do you know who to turn to for help?
"There have been times when I have had little to eat within a week. Mainly because I was too embarrassed and didn't know where to go about it all. But when I found out that the university are able to help with that, they were able to help with food vouchers so i didn't go hungry."
Full interview with anonymous student:
You've said that your maintenance loan isn't enough to live on. Do you think this is true for most students?
"I think it depends, I have some friends at uni who depend entirely on their parents. However, they are definitely the minority, they are the ones with extremely successful parents, rather than just those who earn slightly over the threshold and therefore get nothing. Saying that, I don't think it's fair to go off a parents wage because no matter how much they earn, it doesn't mean they will fund their child."
Do you receive the full loan?
"In my first year I didn't receive the full loan because my finances were difficult to calculate at the time. I am now entitled to and do receive the full loan."
You've answered that you've had to sell a chest of drawers, jewellery, exercise machine etc in order to raise money. Do you mind if I ask if that was for rent money, bill payments etc? Did you raise enough?
"The examples I gave above were just last month. I needed the money to |
to Smurfette. "She had a lot of animation and a lot of personality. And she was lovable and she was a little feisty at times, too. And she loved animals… She felt so real to me because I created her voice. I could feel her emotions. It may sound strange, but it’s true."You know what happens when you leave your car under a tree full of grackles? What your car looks like after a day or two? To hear John Burns tell it, there was a time when the University of Texas campus looked like that.
“It was horrible, and the stench was almost unbearable," Burns says.
Burns is the landscape services manager at UT. He says, back in '80s, about 50 hours a week of work was put towards cleaning up after the birds ― more than a full-time job ― and workers were losing the fight.
"The salt levels were actually getting so high that they were killing the grass and the shrubs.We lost a lot of shrubs.”
He says they tried all kinds of tricks – even rubber snakes, which they planted in trees to scare the birds away.
"We tried a big balloon called a bird's eye, and it had a big eye," he says. "The size of a person's head."
They’d float those around the trees also to scare the birds, but they did nothing. Fake owls – nothing.
They even tried more natural routes – pruning the trees way back to discourage roosting.
"That was not good for the trees," Burns says. "So, we did that not but a few times.”
They played sounds of distressed grackle calls – nothing.
"We tried one product. I think it was called sticky foot," Burns says. "You’d spray the tree, and it’d make it sticky, and that worked, to some degree. But, it’d also made everything underneath the tree sticky. So, that was not...a good thing for us.”
Desperate times called for desperate measures. So, locked and loaded, Burns and the UT Facilities staff took matters into their own hands. He still has a file on it in his office.
The years was 1990, Jon Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory” was burning up the charts, and the UT landscaping crew put in an order for fifteen shotguns.
Burns’ still has a picture of the group of men posing, looking pretty tough.
"We’re all proud that we got our shotguns in hand. We also have a picture of our equipment we always wore – a vest to let people know that we were out there for a reason, not just out there with a shotgun, he laughs."
They divided the campus into fifteen sections. The guns were loaded with blanks, called shell crackers – under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, it’s illegal to kill grackles.
"When we would fire the gun, it’s just like a little 'ping,' and you’d shoot up above the tree and then that louder part is way above the tree," Burns recalls. "So, each man would be posted to his section of campus. As the birds started coming in, we’d shoot, and the shell would go above the trees and explode.”
Then, the birds would fly to another part of campus, where another guy with a gun was waiting.
"So, it was like back and forth and back and forth," Burns says. "And, as the birds would go from one place to another, we’d shoot and, as the birds would fly in, we’d shoot. It was like, if you weren’t shooting, you were hearing someone else shoot."
It was a pretty amazing sound to be in the middle of the city, in the middle of the university and you’re hearing these explosion all over,” he adds.
Of course, there were complications.
UT Police were supposed to notify the Austin Police Department when the shots were planned, but, sometimes signals got crossed. Burns says some officers were more understanding than others. Some members of the crew had guns pulled on them by police "several times."
Then, there were the students.
"We’d try to warn the ones that were near that we were getting ready to do it. But there was always one or two that they’d either hit the ground or take off running," Burns says. "So, we would scare students as well.”
But, for members of UT’s grackle control crew, the important thing was that it worked. They trained the grackles to stay away from campus.
"The first week we used the shotguns, we realized we were going to have a chance," Burns says.
After a few years, the crew had to take out their guns less and less often. Burns says later in the '90s there were more complaints about the guns, but he thinks that’s because the new students didn’t know how bad the thing had been before.
"It's really amazing how well it has worked," he says. "I don’t know what we would do at this point if they came back in as hard as they were since we don’t have the gun option anymore.”
Yes, times have changed. With terrorism and mass shootings always in the news, the university’s not using shotguns to control birds anymore.
Burns says the guns have been sold, but he's held on to a few things from the experience. The file on the "Grackle War," a plaque awarded to him by UT for his service and an abiding hatred for grackles.
“To this day, if there’s some up in a tree, I’ll clap real hard which will scare them," Burns jokes. "It usually hurts my hands, but I’ll still clap. I like to see 'em fly. I've seen the results of them being in an area, and it’s not pretty."
Admiration for grackles seems to be growing in Austin. There's grackle graffiti, grackle T-shirts, even a bar named "the Grackle." These days some people think of the birds as equals to Austin's beloved bridge bats.
But Burns isn't buying it.
"I don’t think anything's ever going to change my opinion of grackles," he laughs.
This is part two of our two-part ATXplained story on grackles. Visit part one here.I also had to make an account to leave a comment on this. i was unaware that socom still had such a following. i like apparently many others would love to see a SUCCESSFUL remake that captured what the original socom games where about. (sidenote: the term nube was definitely created by socom players, glad you said that) every now and then i get a ridiculous craving for that game and last year actually bought a ps2 and all of them just to play them again. i would love to be able to play them online. but i also really loved the the single player mode, it required meticulous planning and patience. so did the online. i would pay like 80 dollars just for a remake and i may be part of a small percent of people who would do that but we do exist. i am shocked there has not be a remastered one yet. virtually the only reason i ever click on playstation store is to check for it. the developers screwed up big time when they took it in the direction of that fps crap (and i play fps all the time, hard core destiny player with countless hours on trials) but when you get down to it i like many others had their love for gaming created solely by playing socom. people in some forums compare rainbow six to socom....it is nothing like socom. no game to date is anything like socom. and i can appreciate the following that cs go has some of my buddies play it but it isnt for me. im not sure what sony has against remastering the old ones at a very minimum im certain they would sell, very well, but now that i know that the socom community still exists i will support it. and dont hate on h hour, the idea was cool but to be honest they should have literally just copied the mechanics and gameplay of the old socoms. and to be fair cs go movement, to this day, does not compete with with even socom 2's movement. it was very smooth all the time and to be honest i dont play a lot of games with mechanics as good as that game still today. and i play a ton of games.How much of a factor is that “time to prepare” thing for Nick Saban?
Well, apparently some “respected players” in Vegas are putting up big-time money on Alabama against Clemson. The Crimson Tide is a consensus 2.5-point favorite over the Tigers, according to Vegas Insider.
Whether those gamblers are taking Alabama to cover, or just grabbing the Tide on the money line — regardless — eight times as much money has been bet on Alabama as has been bet on Clemson.
That’s according to David Payne Purdum, who is a gambling writer for ESPN. Purdum said the money is flowing in heavily on the Crimson Tide.
Alabama and Clemson have met in the national championship game in each of the past two seasons. The Tide won 45-40 the first time around, while the Tigers won 35-31 last season.
Purdum sent out the tweets below on Sunday:
Eight times as much money has been bet on Alabama as has been bet on Clemson @MGMRaceSports. — David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) December 11, 2017Donald Trump wanted boxing promoter Don King — whose support he’s invoked repeatedly to make the case that he’s not racist — to speak at the Republican National Convention this summer, but the Republican establishment forced King off the list because he was once convicted of stomping a man to death.
But now Trump is back in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and, undaunted, he asked King to introduce him at a church there, showing Republicans what they missed when they refused to let him speak at the convention.
During the rambling introduction, King repeatedly said “Negro” — and then the n-word. (As you can see in the video, some of the people behind him found this funnier than others.)
“I told Michael Jackson, if you’re poor, you are a poor Negro — I would use the n-word. If you are rich, you are a rich Negro. If you are intelligent, intellectual, you are an intellectual Negro. If you are a dancing and sliding and gliding” — oops.
When Trump took the stage, he didn’t say anything about King’s remarks.
Obviously it’s very different for King, who is black, to talk this way than it would be for Trump. Still, it’s worth taking a moment to remember how incredibly bizarre this is. Try to imagine King giving this kind of introduction for Mitt Romney, or George W. Bush, or any of the previous Republican nominees.
King, who once managed boxing stars Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, has supported both parties over the years, including Hillary Clinton in 2014. He’s recently made more of a case that black voters should support Republicans, even showing up outside the RNC this summer to back the slogan “All Lives Matter.”
The audience, while it included some African Americans, was predominantly white, according to a pool reporter on the scene — and greeted King’s remarks with applause.Frank Bruni will soon apply the same cutting tone he used in his restaurant reviews to current events as the newest addition to the New York Times opinion page, the paper announced on Monday.
Bruni will be the first openly gay columnist in the paper's 160-year history. He will write a piece every Sunday and one other day of the week on a "big event."
"Frank needs no introduction. If you don’t know his work as a political writer, a foreign correspondent, food critic, magazine writer (I know I must have missed something), then you haven’t been reading The Times for the last almost 16 years," Andrew M. Rosenthal, editor of the Opinion Pages, wrote in an email to the paper's staff.
Also read: Rich on Leaving the Times: 'I Was Incredibly Itchy'
Rosenthal said that Bruni's promotion was part of a large-scale reshuffling of the paper's Sunday Week in Review section. His first column will premiere with the newly conceived section.
The Times' op-ed page was stung recently by the defection of star columnist Frank Rich to New York Magazine. Bob Herbert, a writer for the op-ed page for 20 years, also left the paper last March.
The Times did move to plug the hole, by upping business columnist Joe Nocera to the opinion section last April. Bruni is also presumably being brought on board to inject new life and fresh perspective to a page that had seen remarkably little turnover for the past decade.
In addition to being the paper's chief food critic, Bruni worked in the Times' Washington bureau and was chief of the Times' Rome bureau. He most recently served as a writer at large for the New York Times Magazine.
In addition to his news coverage and restaurant reviews, Bruni has also grabbed attention for writing about his struggles with bulimia and addiction to sleeping pills.
He authored two books, "Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater," about his battles with overeating, and “Ambling into History,” a chronicle of George W. Bush’s presidential campaign.
Prior to coming to the Times, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for his work reporting on a child molester for the Detroit Free Press.It’s happened again, folks: another report translation lost some of the fine details as people chucked the words through Google Translate. Motorola reached out to clarify statements made by Chen Xudong, a senior vice president at Lenovo, regarding the future of Motorola’s budget line.
The report was originally interpreted to mean that all of Motorola’s phones — even budget offerings like the Moto G and Moto E — would have fingerprint scanners in 2016 and beyond, but Motorola says Xudong was only speaking for the phones launching in China. Here’s a statement the company sent to Phandroid today:
Xudong was referring to products specific to the China market. We’ll share more information about our 2016 products at a later time.
And that’s that. It’s important to note that this doesn’t rule out that the same will be true in any other markets, but Motorola and Lenovo aren’t willing to be held to the expectations set forth by the original report right now. Perhaps you guys will give them a convincing argument to make it happen either way, so leave a comment voicing your interest for such a move in the comments ahead.The most detailed simulations to date of how heat flows through Mars's interior are good news for the upcoming lander and will help scientists interpret its data.
When NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander touches down on Mars in November 2018, it will become the planet’s most advanced geophysical monitoring station. From its landing site on the plains of Elysium Planitia, the craft will attempt to probe the inner depths of the planet with its suite of instruments.
InSight’s goal is to reconstruct how rocky planets like Mars—and Earth—form. One of its most important objectives (to be performed with the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe developed at the German Aerospace Center) will be measuring how much heat rises from the planet’s mantle to the surface. This heat, produced by the decay of radiogenic elements, has been building and escaping to the surface since Mars was forged in the early solar system. Knowing the planet’s global average heat flux will help scientists determine the composition and structure of its interior and constrain different models of planet formation.
But to make a truly global measurement, InSight will need some help. It’s not a rover: It will remain stationary, and thus, its heat flux readings will be heavily biased if, for example, it happens to land atop an enormous mantle plume stretching out below the Elysium Mons volcano, roughly 1500 kilometers to the north. To generalize its findings to the rest of the planet, scientists must rely on computer models that simulate how heat flows up through the mantle and crust to the surface.
To that end, Plesa et al. have produced the most detailed simulations to date. They’re the first to use 3-D thermal evolution models with crustal thickness changes across the planet based on gravity and topographical data. These models are combined with an inference of residual radioactivity in the rock of the crust, which also emits heat that makes its way to the surface. Such residual radioactivity wouldn’t be unprecedented: Patches of radioactivity near the Apollo 15 landing site caused surface heat flux readings to be an estimated 2–4 times higher than elsewhere on the Moon.
The models’ results are good news for InSight. The simulations do produce mantle plumes, where the heat flux can be roughly twice as much as the average across the Martian surface and 3 times higher than the coldest points on the surface. However, these plumes are quite narrow. On the basis of their simulations, the authors believe that if a mantle plume exists under Elysium, it probably extends outward for only 800 kilometers, hundreds of kilometers away from InSight’s landing site. Even better, the heat flux at the landing site seems to be similar to the global average.
The study also suggests that variations in the level of radioactivity will not present huge errors in InSight’s readings. Measurements from previous Mars orbiters indicate that radioactive elements are distributed more evenly across Mars’s surface than on the Earth and Moon, and their lateral variations have a much smaller effect on the surface heat flux. Instead, the simulations show that variations in the amount of heat flowing to Mars’s surface seem to be mostly dependent on the thickness of the crust. (Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, doi:10.1002/2016JE005126, 2016)
—Mark Zastrow, Freelance WriterAll Text, Graphics, Animations, Video, and Commentary on this website was created by, and is the intellectual property of m4040@m4040.com. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is punishable by up to a $500,000 fine or 5 years imprisonment for a first offense, and up to a $1,000,000 fine or up to 10 years imprisonment for subsequent offenses under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Requests for use of this material should be forwarded to m4040@m4040.com.
M40's Over-Clocked Glock
WARNING: Please read this disclaimer carefully before proceeding!
Any and all modifications shown on my site were done for my own purposes, and have no guarantees either expressed or implied as to the operability or resulting safety of a pistol upon completion. The representations on my site are presented solely for informational purposes, and should not in any way be construed as my consent or implied consent to imitate the actions shown.
My own work was done carefully and completely, and was thoroughly tested before use. I am a qualified engineer and gunsmith, and I have been working with and shooting Glock (and other) pistols in competition for many years. If you are at all unsure of your competence as a gunsmith, you should stop right now. If you are not completely familiar with the inner workings of the Glock brand of pistols, you should stop right now. Take your pistol to someone who knows what they are doing.
ANY AND ALL TAMPERING WITH THE ORIGINAL DESIGN OF A FIREARM HAS INHERENT DANGERS!
And now... M40's Over-clocked Glock!
This is my G-22 based race gun. I use it for IPSC, plates, pins and other rapid-fire competitive events.
My Modifications
Trigger Modifications
- All appropriate trigger mechanism contact points have been buffed to mirror finish
- Home-made "maritime" type cups for faster lock time (lets air and debris pass, less engagement surface).
- 45 degree grind to catch at rear of firing pin, which minimizes engagement surface (see picture below)
- Large channel milled down length of firing pin (lighter weight = quicker lock time)
- Ghost Rocket connector for optimal engagement angle, minimal contact, and custom fit for minimal over-travel
- Trigger housing drilled and tapped near extractor for 2-56 set screw to remove pre-travel (see picture below)
- Wolff 4 pound firing pin spring (1 pound less than factory - reduces trigger pull by about 1/2 pound)
- Wolff 6 pound Trigger bar spring (one pound heavier than factory, which drops a few more ounces of pull weight)
- **Trigger bar’s firing pin engagement tab has been re-angled to provide minimum travel, yet safe engagement!!!** See Note Below!
Polished Parts 45 degree Firing Pin Over-travel adjust
For more information on the trigger modifications, please see THIS PAGE
All of these combined have given me a 2.5 pound trigger, but far more importantly, it now has about 3mm of travel, full front to full rear. I've had it as low as 2 pounds, but brought it back up to 2.5... there IS such a thing as too light (who'd have thought?). As of now, it breaks easy, crisp and quick, with rapid reset for fast double-taps. Very similar to a well done 1911 trigger. No issues thus far, but see the note below.
**NOTE: Over adjusting the pre-travel can result in a slam-fire condition (very dangerous) due to the trigger bar not lifting high enough to accommodate full engagement. I found it necessary to re-angle the rear tab on the trigger bar in order to safely engage the firing pin while still keeping a minimal trigger pre-travel.
Other Modifications
- Sandpaper tape job on grip, magwell and magazines and slide
- Oversize mag release
- Removed slide lock, heated thumb break to cherry red, and flared outward for faster engagement (see pics).
(I’m left-handed, so the commercial extended slide releases didn’t work well. Mine allows me to reach up and release with the trigger finger)
- Ground frame at backstrap and trigger guard to bring grip area up by about 1/4" (less muzzle climb, faster recovery)
- Flared magwell (faster mag changes)
- +5 mag extensions (140mm IPSC Limited class legal) to bring mags to 20 round capacity.
- Stainless steel captured guide rod for mainspring (stiffer feel, slight weight gain to front, faster slide)
- Reshaped rear sight for minimal surface area (faster acquisition, less chance of "losing" the front sight)
Here you can see the greatly increased surface area provided by the re-angled slide release
There are other mods, but memory fails me at the moment. The main thing I am still working on is the sights. I am in the planning stages of constructing a rapid acquisition sight for action shooting events. The biggest problem with current sight types is that upon bringing the pistol up quickly, you can effectively lose the front sight behind the rear. Although it takes less than a second to find it, those seconds add up when you have an IPSC stage that has 20 targets that must be engaged!
Here are my ideas on what would constitute a decent rapid acquisition sight system!
Feel free to email me with questions, comments, etc
Regards,
M40 ( m4040@m4040.com )
Parting shot...Hiring people is such an organic and human activity, it kills me to see how many companies do it badly. They try to make recruiting a linear, data-driven and analytical process, but that's impossible, because recruiting is all about the energy that flows between and among people.
It has nothing to do with data. It has nothing to do with particles -- like all human activities, it is all about waves!
Recruiting has nothing to do with keyword-searching algorithms. How sad it is to see how my HR profession has devolved!
We can bring the human element back into recruiting and make it the human, organic process it always should have been. Smart companies are doing this already. They've gotten rid of their lumbering, wheezing Applicant Tracking Systems and their pointless personality tests and insulting, scripted interview questions.
They are throwing out their broken recruiting systems and learning to hire people, not bundles of skills and certifications. Their shareholders and customers will be glad they made the shift!
When I hire people, here are ten things I couldn't care less about:Impressive educational credentials
1. Impressive educational credentials
2. Blue-chip employers
3. "Progressively more responsible positions" on a person's resume
4. Tasks and duties
5. GPAs and other forms of externally-conferred recognition
6. Industry experience
7. Employment gaps
8. Your age
9. Your past or present salary
10. Your scores on personality tests
I trust my own experience and my instincts, and I trust my colleagues' instincts too! Why would I care which college a job-seeker went to, or whether they went to college at all? There are lots of other cool things to do with your time apart from going to college, especially these days.
I understand why people are drawn to top-tier universities and blue-chip employers. When we aren't sure where our path lies, often we simply strive to hit other people's marks by being at the top of the class or working for the most-sought-after employers.
When we don't know where we are headed, we might work hard to hit the same milestones everybody else is trying to hit, just to prove we can.
I understand that impulse and I don't hold it against a person, but I want to know, "Why did you go to that Ivy-League school?"
Sometimes the answer is "I wanted to go to that college because they had a program that fascinated me and spoke to me" and sometimes the answer is "I wanted to go to that college because I could get in, and I always want to be the best in everything I do!" It is terrifying to realize how many people simply aim to be The Best, not knowing why or what The Best even means.
I don't care if someone has risen through the ranks in one or two companies, taken twists and turns throughout their career or jumped on and off the conveyor belt. Why would I care? I've been hiring people since the early eighties and I've never found that corporate-ladder-climbing people are any smarter or more resourceful than people who've never set foot in a corporate environment. It may be an inverse correlation, in fact.
There are smart and creative people everywhere. Corporations and institutions stupidly reject highly-qualified applicants every day, because they don't fit the mold. That's bad for them, but good for any leader smart enough to snap up those non-cookie-cutter folks!
I don't care which tasks and duties someone has performed at their past jobs. I want to know something else. I want to know the answer to the question, "What did you leave in your wake at each job you've held?"
I don't care what someone got paid for their work, or whether they got paid at all. Why would that matter? If someone built a fantastic house and you need someone to build you a house, why would it matter whether they got paid to build the first house? That has nothing to do with anything.
I don't care about gold stars like a person's GPA in college or their awards and commendations. We are trained in our society to rely too much on other people's approval, and to seek it out and even long for it. I don't care about industry experience. New industries are springing up everywhere we look. Industry experience is more often a hindrance than a help, especially for organizations who want and need to innovate.
Employment gaps signal to me that a person is not afraid to shift course when it's appropriate. I don't care if someone is a different age than other people in the same job. In my first supervisory role at age 20, I hired a dozen customer service people. Some of them were my age.
One of my co-workers, Sally, was close to retirement when she started working with us. She was a lovely woman who spent all her free time with her horse. We learned about horses from Sally and our customers loved her. What does a person's age have to do with their ability to do a job?
I couldn't care less about your past or present salary. It's irrelevant, just like the stupid questions that hidebound organizations ask job-seekers, including "What's your greatest weakness?" and "Why should we hire you?" I hope that more and more job-seekers get up and walk out of insulting job interviews. When enough job applicants get up and leave, interviewers will get the message.
It's a new day. Only the people who get you, deserve you. Not everyone will get you, and that's OK.
The people who can't see your brilliance are on their path, and you are on yours. Don't waste your precious mojo wondering why someone doesn't get you. There are 7 billion people in the world. Not all of them will resonate at your frequency. Your job is to find the folks who do!
Sometimes it can feel very lonely being yourself in a business world full of clones and zombies, but don't get discouraged. When you pay attention you will see that there are more and more humans in the workplace every day!
Watch on Forbes:Allow Students to Carry Guns on College Campuses? By James P. Tucker Jr. Texas legislators plan to push a law that would permit college students to carry concealed weapons on campus, citing the Virginia Tech incident in 2007 when a disturbed young Asian man shot and killed 32 unarmed fellow students in one morning before committing suicide.
That story was never fully explored regarding the man’s strange background and the true reasons that he mercilessly attacked students. But what is known is that police were woefully tardy in responding and many lives would have been spared if at least some students had been armed, as campus concealed-weapons advocates argue.
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth and Rep. Joe Driver are sponsoring the measure to allow students who meet certain conditions to be armed. Since the Virginia Tech incident, several copycat attackers have been stopped by armed students.
Driver (R-Garland) has filed H.B. 1983, while Wentworth (R-San Antonio) has filed S.B. 1164.
Texas enacted a concealed handgun law in 1995, allowing people 21 and older to carry concealed weapons if they pass a training course and background check. Schools, businesses and churches, if they wish, can set rules banning guns inside their establishments.
On college campuses, guns are banned in buildings, dorms and certain grounds surrounding them. The planned legislation would impact only colleges. Lawmakers in support of allowing students to be armed appear to have a powerful ally in Republican Gov. Rick Perry, though in an election year Perry’s words have to be carefully filtered.
“There are already guns on campus,” Perry told the Associated Press. “All too often they are illegal. I want there to be legal guns on campus. I think it makes sense—and all the data supports—that if law-abiding, well-trained, ‘backgrounded’ individuals have a weapon, then there will be less crime.”
Interest in the issue erupted after a man ran around the University of Texas campus firing wildly on Sept. 28, 2010. Colton Joshua Tooley then ran into a library and shot himself. No one else was injured. But there was a lot of discussion about how much worse it could have been. If more people carried guns, many argue, schools would be safer.
“There are a lot of combat veterans like me, and if we had concealed carry, the threat would be reduced significantly,” said Casey Kelver, 25, a student and Army veteran from Houston who did two tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Instead you’re left to sit there and wait for somebody to come save you.”
Perry’s Democratic opponent for the governor’s seat, Bill White of Houston, says that he supports the state law that lets people with licenses carry concealed handguns. But individual schools should decide whether to allow guns on their premises, he said. White claimed that Perry’s position is “the government ought to coerce campuses to allow concealed handguns on campus.”
Daniel Crocker, a Texas A&M student and board member of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, said it is absurd to have an “invisible line” at the edge of campus, inside of which guns are forbidden. Lawabiding citizens heed the line but criminals do not, he said. “There was one fundamental problem” with the Sept. 28 incident in Austin, Crocker said. “Everyone was depending on the kindness and mercy of a deranged lunatic.”
An increasing number of campuses are allowing guns, Crocker said, but they are not the majority. His group also supports letting students defend themselves against thousands of other crimes that occur on campuses, such as rapes and robberies. AFP editor James P. Tucker Jr. is a veteran journalist who spent many years as a member of the “elite” media in Washington. Since 1975 he has won widespread recognition, here and abroad, for his pursuit of on-the-scene stories reporting the intrigues of global power blocs such as the Bilderberg Group. Tucker is the author of Jim Tucker’s Bilderberg Diary: One Man’s 25-Year Battle to Shine the Light on the World Shadow Government. Bound in an attractive full-color softcover and containing 272 pages—loaded with photos, many never published before—the book recounts Tucker’s experiences over the last quarter century at Bilderberg meetings. $25 from AFP. No charge for S&H in U.S. Subscribe to American Free Press. Online subscriptions: One year of weekly editions—$15 plus you get a BONUS ELECTRONIC BOOK - HIGH PRIESTS OF WAR - By Michael Piper.
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Sign up for our free e-newsletter here - get a free gift just for signing up! (Issue # 43, October 25, 2010)The civil rights office of the federal Department of Education has rightly decided to investigate a complaint filed in September by civil rights groups over the admissions policies of eight highly competitive “specialized” high schools in New York City, among which are Stuyvesant, the Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School.
The investigation into a possible violation of civil rights law is just beginning. The city could be required to revise the admissions policies and could potentially be threatened with the loss of federal education funds if it refuses. The city and state should revisit the admissions process before things get to that point.
The complaint, filed by a coalition of organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, charges the city with illegally screening out qualified black and Latino middle-school students by basing admissions on a single poorly designed test. Supported by influential groups like the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the complaint offers a devastating analysis of the two-and-a-half-hour multiple-choice test, which, among other flaws, fails to reflect the curriculum taught at many middle schools. The test also heavily favors those who can afford extensive tutoring and has not been shown to be a good predictor of student performance in high school.
The complaint further argues that the city could easily adopt less discriminatory measurements, including some combination of tests, teacher recommendations, grades and other nonacademic factors like leadership and community service. This approach is widely used at competitive high schools elsewhere in the country. It would more accurately predict success at the high school level and bring in a more diverse body of students.
The city says its hands are tied by a state law dating to the 1970s that explicitly requires a test-only admissions process at Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Bronx Science. But the complaint says the city extended the requirement to the other five high schools on its own and could alter the policy for those schools at any time it chose.
The Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education has so far taken a conciliatory tone, making clear that, even if it eventually makes a finding of discrimination, it would rather settle the matter than litigate. The notice of investigation stands as an invitation to the city and the state to re-examine a discredited admissions process.I am proud to share that, with your support, EveryLibrary was able to help the Alaska Library Association succeed in having $668,000 restored to the state budget for broadband subsidies to libraries after it was completely cut from the budget. While the Governor restored Alaska Online With Libraries (OWL) at $668,000 and not the original $768,000 we are still thrilled with our result.
That might not sound like email-worthy work, though. Yes, it is a nice victory for libraries in Alaska, but why go out of my way to talk about it? Well, if you are in the Lower 48 and don’t know about Alaska’s budget troubles, their state budget is Three Billion Dollars short. Gas for my car is cheap now, but the shortfall in oil revenue means that massive cuts are being enacted all the way down to the basics. Activating the public for libraries in the face of this budget crisis was hard. Persuading the state legislators to fund anything discretionary is nearly impossible. But we were able to do it with our action platform for libraries and your support.
Sign the petition to ask your representatives to support Public Libraries in the United States and then join our Thunderclap to share it across social media and amplify our voices.
The state budget was written with a 100% cut to funding for broadband through libraries. Our successful partnership with the Alaska Library Association followed a different model of advocacy. Our partnership included AKLA members doing superb work on the policy framework around broadband and telling compelling stories about the impact that library-broadband has around the state. What made it different this time around, and helped us to break through the barriers to caring about libraries and broadband, was that EveryLibrary brought marketing expertise, a suite of digital tools, and used your donations for media buys in order to reach the public across the state.
Our partnership with AKLA activated the public through social media advertising. AKLA’s work as advocates and lobbyists was amplified far beyond their membership. The compelling story of how library broadband is a lifeline in remote rural communities, and how broadband at libraries support for workforce development across the state, reached new an audiences who cared and took action. Even in this deep recession, the legislature and the governor heard and restored the funding.
This was all made possible through EveryLibrary’s donors. Donations of just $5 or $10 a month can help us work with other local library advocacy groups across the country. If we can reach Alaskans in the face of severe cuts and restore a key library service, we can do it in the other 49 states. That’s why we’d like to ask you to help us do this kind of work for other communities too. Take the next step a become a monthly donor today. With your help, we can reach people and change hearts for libraries.
You may donate by check or money order (US Funds only) made out to:
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an authenticator app installed, you’ll see a message to confirm allowing Twitter to be added.
Note: If you already have an authenticator app installed, you’ll see a message to confirm allowing Twitter to be added. You’ll see a Try it now message. Generate a code through the third-party app, enter it, and tap Verify.
Now, through the third-party app, you can view and use codes for login verification.
Once that’s done, you can securely log in anytime by firing up your authentication app and entering the code for Twitter when prompted.
Read next: Apple's plan to support unified apps on iOS and macOS could be a game-changerThe US Internal Revenue Service has asked a federal court to compel digital currency exchange Coinbase to provide it with user records in response to a subpoena.
The tax agency’s fight to obtain records on users between the years 2013 and 2015 has entered a new chapter, coming months after the IRS first sought court approval for its “John Doe” subpoena in November. Since then, both Coinbase and one of its customers, Jeffrey Berns, have filed to intervene in the case in a bid to stop what both parties have blasted as a regulatory overreach.
To date, Coinbase has not provided that data to the government, sparking today’s petition to “enforce the summons”, according to public records.
Coinbase said that it was reviewing the new filing and indicated that it could move to launch further court challenges in light of the subpoena.
The startup told CoinDesk:
“Our legal team is in the process of reviewing the IRS’s motion. We will continue to work with the IRS to assess the government’s willingness to fundamentally reconsider the focus and scope of the summons. If it does not, we anticipate filing opposition papers in court in coming months. We will continue to keep our customers updated as to status.”
First starting in November 2016, the IRS sought court permission to serve a summons to Coinbase to identify potential tax evaders. The IRS began regulating bitcoin as a taxable form of property in 2014, though the agency has faced criticism from within the government regarding its approach to digital currencies.
The original subpoena request was initially approved by a federal judge, and a counter effort, led by Berns, soon followed. A hearing on recent filings is set for 23rd March.
Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Coinbase.
Image via Shutterstock
Stan Higgins contributed reporting.Building an Exchange 2013 DAG in my lab, I was having problems adding a second DAG node. I was getting various errors:
There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper...
Error: This operation returned because the time-out period expired...
And even more in the DAG logs:
Microsoft.Exchange.Cluster.Replay.DagTaskOperationFailedException: A server-side database availability group administrative operation failed. Error: The operation failed. CreateCluster errors may result from incorrectly configured static addresses. Error: An error occurred while attempting a cluster operation. Error: Cluster API '"AddClusterNode() (MaxPercentage=100) failed with 0x5b4. Error: This operation returned because the timeout period expired"' failed. ---> Microsoft.Exchange.Cluster.Replay.AmClusterApiException: An Active Manager operation failed. Error An error occurred while attempting a cluster operation. Error: Cluster API '"AddClusterNode() (MaxPercentage=100) failed with 0x5b4. Error: This operation returned because the timeout period expired"' failed.. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: This operation returned because the timeout period expired
After rebuilding several times did I realize that it could be a result of enabling the failover cluster feature in my template, then cloning it.
Found this on TechNet, here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/2c83bdda-7cd4-4ee3-abeb-82b62199f3e1/teredo-and-clustering
It is not supported to SysPrep / Clone OS images once the Failover Clustering feature has been installed. The NetFT adapter generates it’s MAC address off a hash of the local interface. If you clone post-feature install, the adapters will generate valid errors. You need to SysPrep / Clone, then you can have a script to install the Failover Clustering feature in the Run / Run Once.
The fix was to remove the Failover Cluster feature, re-add it and then re-join the servers to the DAG.
Tags: Clustering, DAG, endpoints, Exchange, Exchange 2013, hash, interface, microsoft, time out, timeout periodSyrian refugee children in Lebanon ((Sam Tarling/For The Washington Post).
A federal district court judge recently ruled that Indiana’s denial of funds to Syrian refugees that are given to refugees from other countries is “national origin” discrimination that probably violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Jacob Gershman of the Wall Street Journal has a helpful summary of the decision:
Indiana unconstitutionally discriminated against Syrian refugees by freezing federal funds that were supposed to help fleeing families resettle in the state, a federal judge has ruled…. U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, in a 35-page ruling, said Indiana’s policy amounted to unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of national origin, a violation of the the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and civil rights law. She granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits Indiana “from taking any actions to interfere with or attempt to deter the resettlement of Syrian refugees by” the private agency.
The full text of the opinion is available here. As Judge Pratt explains, this is actually a fairly straightforward case: “In the end, the State tries to complicate a question that is rather straightforward. It is treating refugees who originate from Syria differently than those from other countries. If this is not national origin discrimination, the Court does not know what is.”
I don’t know either. I predicted that state discrimination against Syrian refugees would be vulnerable to this sort of attack back in November, when states first began to adopt such policies:
State efforts to bar Syrian refugees are likely unconstitutional for another reason: they violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment has long been understood to bar not only racial discrimination, but also discrimination on the basis of religion and national origin. These types of discrimination by state governments are subject to “strict scrutiny” – the most restrictive form of judicial review, which only upholds a discriminatory law if it is “narrowly tailored” to the advancement of a compelling state interest. If a state government tries to bar Syrian refugees or deny them benefits available to similarly situated refugees from other countries, that’s a pretty straightforward case of national origin discrimination. It is pretty much literally treating one group of people differently from another based on the nation they happen to be from. And it is highly unlikely that it can pass the rigorous strict scrutiny standard, especially if – as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie advocates – state discrimination against Syrian refugees is sweeping and categorical, applying even to “5 year old orphans” and others who pretty obviously don’t pose any security risks.
In that same post, I noted that Ted Cruz’s proposal to bar only Muslim Syrians (while accepting Christians and others), is vulnerable to similar objections, because discrimination on the basis of religion is also subject to strict scrutiny. But, to my knowledge, no state has tried to adopt that approach.
I am not convinced by Judge Pratt’s argument that Indiana’s policy would fail even the most minimal “rational basis” scrutiny, as well as strict scrutiny. But since strict scrutiny clearly applies to national origin discrimination, this is ultimately irrelevant.
This ruling is only a preliminary injunction and therefore not a final decision on the merits. But she makes clear that her view is that the plaintiff’s position is likely to prevail. Indeed, that is the whole basis of the ruling.
UPDATE: I put up this post before seeing Eugene Volokh’s post on the same case. I am leaving this one up because it makes some additional points, beyond those offered by Eugene.
UPDATE #2: For those interested, I outlined the moral and strategic case for accepting Syrian refugees in this post, which also summarizes evidence showing that security concerns about them are greatly overblown (though admitting them can never be completely risk-free).SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A new report shows apartment rents in Sacramento are rising faster than anywhere else in the country. While renters are feeling a financial crunch, there are plans afoot to bring prices back down.
For the Densmore family, moving back to Sacramento is a dream come true. They left the city in 1999.
Little Laef will celebrate his fifth birthday this year in his mom’s hometown, but the family has been renting at an upscale midtown apartment building, while searching for the perfect place to buy. And the price is more than they expected.
“But Sacramento’s very up-and-coming right now, and that’s what we see absolutely everywhere,” said Maris Densmore.
One report shows Sacramento had the highest rent growth in the country, beating out Portland, Oakland, Seattle and Salt Lake City. Another report shows the dramatic increases year over year in average monthly rent in Sacramento. The increase in rent in Sacramento comes as San Francisco’s skyrocketing rents begin to decline slightly.
City planners point to Mayor Johnson’s housing plan to put 10,000 new units in the downtown core as one policy that could have an impact on stabilizing rents.
“Sacramento is where I want to be,” she said.
But for now, Sacramento’s rising rents are the welcome mat for this family’s homecoming. They’re paying a premium, but this is the place they want to be.
The new rental rankings come just ahead of a meeting of the city’s planning commission. We’ll find out if they’ll make any changes to the plan later this week.One of two Dallas police officers called to the scene tells Harrison to drop the tool, a command the officers repeat at least four times as Harrison's mom screams, "Jay! Jay! Jay!"
Within 5 seconds of that first command, the 39-year-old schizophrenic man is shot five times -- including twice in the back as he crashes headlong into the home's garage door, just a few feet from his mother.
Video from one officer's body camera fades to black as Harrison's mother wails, "Oh, they killed my son! Oh, they killed my son!" The officers continue to tell Harrison to drop the weapon.
Harrison's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dallas Police Department officers John Rogers and Andrew Hutchins, saying they forewent nonlethal means of defusing the situation, instead choosing to engage "in unlawful vicious attacks" when they and the department were aware of Harrison's condition. The suit also claims the officers violated Harrison's civil rights.
The officers, however, say in affidavits that they were forced to shoot an armed man who they deemed dangerous after he failed to comply with repeated orders to drop a screwdriver.
The incident occurred June 14, and the family filed its lawsuit in November, but the Tuesday release of the video has put the shooting back in the headlines.
'My son, bipolar, schizo'
It begins with Jason Harrison's mother, Shirley Marshall Harrison, answering the door for police and nonchalantly walking out the door.
"Oh, he's just off the chain," she says in the video. "You can hear him, talking about chopping up people."
An officer asks who she's talking about, and she replies, "My son, bipolar, schizo," as Jason Harrison appears in the doorway behind her.
Shirley Marshall Harrison had earlier requested assistance getting her son to the hospital, a fairly routine occurrence, according to the lawsuit.
"The police had been to the Harrison home a hundred times or more without incident, as it was well-known in the home and community that Jason was nonviolent," the suit says.
Though Rogers and Hutchins had Tasers and batons, they quickly drew their firearms when Jason Harrison "had made no threat against either officer," according to the lawsuit.
Whether that last allegation is true is unclear, judging from the video, because the body camera pans away from Jason Harrison for 4 seconds before the officers open fire. Two shots hit Jason Harrison in the chest, another goes through his forearm and into his chest and the two more bullets land in his back, the medical examiner's autopsy report said.
The police incident report says Rogers and Hutchins responded to a "major disturbance" involving a mentally ill person. Jason Harrison not only posed a threat, he "lunged at one officer," it said.
'He refused to comply'
Rogers and Hutchins, who both had about six years of experience at the time of the shooting, according to the incident report, gave similar accounts in their June affidavits.
The pair received a call that a bipolar, schizophrenic man was off his medications, Rogers wrote. His mother said he was being argumentative and needed to go to Parkland Memorial Hospital, he wrote.
Rogers arrived wearing a department-issue body camera that was not working, according to the affidavit.
"I told the suspect to put down the screwdriver so we could talk, but he refused to comply," he said in his affidavit.
After Rogers and Hutchins repeated the command, "the suspect stepped from the doorway and suddenly jabbed the screwdriver at my partner and then seemed to lock onto me and began to move toward me jabbing the screwdriver at me in fast motions," Rogers wrote.
He tried to step away, but a car parked in the driveway blocked his path, he wrote.
"It was at that time that I realized that I was going to die if I didn't stop the threat in front of me and I pulled my service weapon and fired two times in self-defense," Rogers wrote.
Hutchins, who writes that he was wearing a "personally owned" body camera, said in his affidavit that he took Shirley Marshall Harrison's assertion that her son was "off the chain" to mean that he was "acting hostile."
Hutchins also felt Shirley Marshall Harrison walked past him and Rogers "as if to put us between herself and her son," he wrote.
Hutchins' story matches Rogers' account -- which is backed up by the video -- that Jason Harrison was told repeatedly to drop the screwdriver. But Hutchins makes no mention of Jason Harrison "jabbing" the screwdriver at both officers. He writes instead that Jason Harrison "advanced toward Officer Rogers while raising the screwdriver."
"I was in fear for Officer Rogers' life and I was forced to draw my service weapon and fire it at the suspect until he was no longer a threat," Hutchins wrote.
'A good dude'
Neighbors told CNN affiliate WFAA that they knew Jason Harrison was mentally ill but said they never felt threatened.
Deonte Davis, who lives down the street from the Harrisons, described Jason Harrison as "a good dude" who "just don't have it all," but he also told the station he can see where Jason Harrison's behavior might have concerned officers.
"They don't know what he was capable of doing," Davis told WFAA.
Added neighbor Candace Frazier, "Sometimes he'll just spaz out in the middle of the street while he's walking.... He'll be swinging his arms like he's talking to somebody."
At least one affidavit -- that of Dallas officer Jonathon Beamon -- seems to indicate the police had responded to the house in the past. He saw Shirley Marshall Harrison crying on the sidewalk after the shooting and escorted her to his squad car "to have a seat so she could calm down," Beamon wrote in June.
"You remember when you and your partner came and took him to the hospital?" Beamon recalled the mother asking him.
Beamon replied yes, he wrote, and Shirley Marshall Harrison said she only wanted her son to "take his medication because he scares me." She then asked Beamon why the officers killed her son when she had requested their help.
"She then said, 'They could have shot him in the leg,' and I did not reply. The victim's mother then began to cry in the seat," Beamon wrote.
Self-defense claim
The Dallas Police Department and the officers' attorney, former state Assistant Attorney General Chris Livingston, have told media outlets the shooting was an act of self-defense.
Livingston told CNN on Wednesday that Rogers and Hutchins are specially trained and certified to deal with mentally ill people, but that Jason Harrison left them with no options. Asked if the officers could have employed nonlethal force, he said no.
"This is a deadly force encounter. You respond to lethal force with lethal force. A Taser is a less lethal item," he said.
Reached by CNN, the Dallas Police Department said it had completed the investigation into the incident, but declined to comment on the case.
"The investigation has been forwarded to the Dallas County District Attorney's Office for their actions. Therefore, we respectfully decline your interview request," the department said.
A spokeswoman for District Attorney Susan Hawk said the office would have no comment because of the ongoing investigation.
The Harrisons' lawsuit asks for damages, court costs and attorneys' fees.The police at Holy Child Auxilium School in Vasant Vihar, which was allegedly vandalised on Thursday night
The police are investigating a break-in at a convent school in south Delhi's Vasant Vihar last night after initial reports that it was vandalism. Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi's chief minister-designate, condemned the incident at the Holy Child Auxilium School and tweeted this morning that such acts "will not be tolerated."
School officials say the window of the principal's office was broken and around Rs 12,000 was stolen from there. A swarm of police officers was seen in the premises today; all students were sent home and a notice at the gate says, "No classes will be conducted today."
Principal Lucy John said it was theft. "To us it is not a case of vandalism but theft. No religious item was stolen," she said.
Education Minister Smriti Irani, who studied in this school, visited it this afternoon. She reportedly requested Home Minister Rajnath Singh to look into the incident.
Father Dominic Emmanuel, spokesperson of the Delhi Archdiocese, however, linked the incident to recent attacks on churches. "Certain people came at night, broke the CCTV camera, went into the principal's room and ransacked it," he said.Country with western Europe’s worst heroin overdose rate to trial Naloxone spray in Oslo and Bergen, its two most populous cities
Norway is poised to start trials of a nasal spray that reverses the effect of a heroin overdose, in a move that could encourage other countries to follow suit.
Despite its oil wealth, well-funded drug rehabilitation programmes and generous welfare safety net, Norway has western Europe’s worst overdose rate. Campaigners have long been urging the government to approve the rollout of the nasal spray, which administers Naloxone to people who have taken an overdose, in effect acting as a kind of liquid defibrillator.
Now, regulatory approval permitting, the Norwegian trials will offer the kit in Norway’s two most populous cities, Oslo and Bergen, later this year. Philipp Lobmaier, the doctor leading the trials, said that while Naloxone was no silver bullet, he was confident it would cut down the number of ambulance cases. “I hope we will soon be able to show fewer incidents of paramedics being called out for overdoses,” he said.
Britain’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has been saying since 2012 that it would like Naloxone to be available to UK users without prescription. Addicts in Wales and Scotland are given injecting kits on prescription. The nasal spray is considered superior, however, as it is easier for the uninitiated to use and reduces the likelihood of needle pricks spreading hepatitis C or worse.
Since 2002, about 240 people have died each year in Norway from heroin overdoses, more than have died from traffic accidents.
Naloxone counteracts the effect of opioids on the central nervous system. The kits will be available from non-medical environments where users are more likely to feel safe, such as drop-in centres, hostels and Oslo’s safe injecting room. Critically, according to Martin Blindheim, who is drawing up the national overdose strategy for the Norwegian health directorate, friends and families will also be able to obtain kits and be trained to use them. “The most important people will be the mothers,” he said.
In Vestby, just south of Oslo, Wivian Koppang, whose 21-year-old daughter Madeleine died from an overdose three years ago, welcomed the Naloxone trial but said the government was still dragging its feet on other solutions. “It must do more to save our children,” she said. Calls from treatment centres and hospitals in Bergen to allow doctors to prescribe heroin to the most at-risk cases have been flatly rejected. There is also no appetite at national level to have safe injecting rooms in cities outside Oslo.
Last year, Oslo’s injecting centre was renovated to allow users to smoke the drug there as well. But since the new Conservative-led government came into office in October the change in regulations to allow the new smoking booths to be used has been kicked into the long grass.
In a still conservative country, harm reduction strategies are seen by many as inevitable steps towards a fully fledged libertarian drug policy. Like preaching celibacy to tackle teenage pregnancy, abstinence and rehabilitation are regarded as the key. “In the long term we all want rehabilitation,” said Blindheim. “But dead people cannot be rehabilitated.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2014President Donald Trump, who pledged to end the alleged “war on coal” and likes to surround himself with coal miners, may have just ended U.S. coal exports from the West Coast. “In trying to land a blow on the Canadian timber industry,” says Eric de Place, policy director of Seattle, Washington’s Sightline Institute, “Trump may have accidentally knocked out the Western coal industry.”
On Monday, at the urging of the U.S. timber industry, Trump imposed tariffs of up to 24 percent on imports of Canadian softwood lumber. The issue of Canadian lumber imports has been vexed for years, but this latest hardball from Trump—especially at a time when he is threatening to pull the United States out of NAFTA—hit a nerve with Canada. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to stand up for Canada’s lumber industry, warning, “You cannot thicken this border without hurting people on both sides of it.”
Today, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark dropped a bombshell tweet, saying, “It’s time to ban thermal coal from BC ports.” In a letter to Trudeau, she wrote:
For many years, a high volume of U.S. thermal coal has been shipped through BC on its way to Asia. It’s not good for the environment, but friends and trading partners cooperate. So we haven’t pressed the issue with the federal government that regulates the port.
Clearly, the United States is taking a different approach. So, I am writing you today to ban the shipment of thermal coal from BC ports.
Clark goes on to note the success of the Beyond Coal movement in shutting down coal terminals on the U.S. Pacific Coast:
As you may know, over the past five years, every proposed coal export facility on the West Coast of the United States has been rejected or withdrawn, typically as a result of ecological or environmental concerns.... Oregon, Washington, and California have all made significant commitments to eliminate the use of coal as a source of electricity for their citizens. In fact, in August 2016, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed Bill 1279 that banned the provision of any state transportation funding for new coal export terminals.
Due to the lack of U.S. terminals, Clark says, U.S. exports through Canada have been increasing. Last year, she says, 6.2 million tons of U.S. thermal coal moved through the Port of Vancouver, and the number was expected to increase in the future.
Or not. “In the context of how bad off [U.S. mines in the Powder River Basin] are,” says Sightline’s de Place, “this could be what brings them to their knees.” The closure of Canadian ports will be especially damaging to Cloud Peak Energy, which does most of the shipping out of Canada.
In provoking a trade war with our erstwhile friends and neighbors to the north, Donald Trump has started his own War on Coal.The central jail authorities here today sounded an alert after Salim Zarda, one of the accused in Godhra train burning case who was awarded death penalty, jumped the parole. "Salim Yusuf Zarda, who was sentenced to death in Godhra train carnage case, had jumped his 15-day parole which ended on Tuesday. We have sent a written communication to Godhra Deputy Superintendent of Police, asking him to arrest Zarda," a jail official said here.
"Zarda was given parole by the Gujarat High Court on November 3 to attend to some house renovation work. He was supposed to report back yesterday," the official said. Zarda is one of the 31 convicts in the case related to the deaths of 59 people after two coaches of Sabarmati Express were set on fire at Godhra station on February 27, 2002. Zarda along with ten others were given death penalty by the special trial court in March 2011. Their appeals are pending before the High Court.News Release 07-162
World's Smallest Radio Fits in the Palm of the Hand... of an Ant
Single carbon nanotube is fully functional radio, receiving music over standard radio bandwidth
This image, taken by a transmission electron microscope, shows the carbon-nanotube radio.
October 31, 2007
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
Harnessing the electrical and mechanical properties of the carbon nanotube, a team of researchers has crafted a working radio from a single fiber of that material.
Fixed between two electrodes, the vibrating tube successfully performed the four critical roles of a radio--antenna, tunable filter, amplifier and demodulator--to tune in a radio signal generated in the room and play it back through an attached speaker.
Functional across a bandwidth widely used for commercial radio, the tiny device could have applications far beyond novelty, from radio-controlled devices that could flow in the human bloodstream to highly efficient, miniscule, cell phone devices.
Developed at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems, a research team led by Alex Zettl of the University of California at Berkeley announced the findings online on Oct. 31, 2007 (http://pubs.acs.org/journals/nalefd/index.html). The findings are scheduled to be printed in Nano Letters in November.
"This breakthrough is a perfect example of how the unique behavior of matter in the nanoworld enables startling new technologies," says Bruce Kramer, a senior advisor for engineering at NSF and the officer overseeing the center's work. "The key functions of a radio, the quintessential device that heralded the electronic age, have now been radically miniaturized using the mechanical vibration of a single carbon nanotube."
The source content for the first laboratory test of the radio was "Layla," by Derek and the Dominos, followed soon after by "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys.
One of the primary goals for the center is to develop minuscule sensors that can communicate wirelessly, says Zettl. "A key issue is how to integrate individual molecular-scale components together into a system that maintains the nanometer scale. The nanoradio achieves this by having one molecular structure, the nanotube, simultaneously perform all critical functions," he adds.
The new device works in a manner more similar to the vacuum tubes from the 1930s than the transistors found in modern radios. In the new radio, a single carbon fiber a few hundred nanometers (billionths of a meter) long, and only a few molecules thick, stands glued to a negatively charged base of tungsten that acts as a cathode. Roughly one millionth of a meter directly across from the base lies a positively charged piece of copper that acts as an anode.
Power in the form of streaming electrons travels from an attached battery through the cathode, into the nanotube, and across a vacuum to the anode via a field-emission tunneling process.
"The field emission process could be likened to a runner jumping across a ditch; you only make it across if you have enough speed, i.e. energy, to begin with," says Zettl. "So electrons jump the physical gap from cathode to anode when you supply enough energy to the device from the battery."
The stream of electrons along the nanotube changes when a radio wave encoded with information--simply a wave of photons that travels in a controlled manner--washes across the tube and causes it to resonate. This mechanical action is what amplifies and demodulates, or decodes, the radio signal.
Returning to Zettl's runner analogy, the vibrating nanotube is akin to a ditch with a constantly changing width. Just as the runner's chances of making the leap depend on how far the gap is, the chances of electrons making the leap depend on the distance of the nanotube tip from the anode.
"This coupling of the mechanical waving motion of the nanotube to the success rate of electrons jumping the gap is key to the functioning of the radio," says Zettl. "What emerges from the anode is then the information signal, which can be transferred to additional amplifiers and a speaker to reveal the originally encoded music or any other data."
By permanently lengthening or shortening the nanotube, a modification resulting from sending a short-lived larger-than-normal electrical current through the device, the researchers were able to control the frequency of the radio signal that the device could receive.
The researchers believe it would be easy to produce such nanotube radios for receiving signals in the 40-400 megahertz range, a range within which most FM radio broadcasts fall.
The researchers fine tune the nanoradio to a frequency, akin to a channel, by using the electrostatic field between the cathode and anode to tighten or loosen the nanotube, a process the researchers relate to the tightening or loosening of a string on a guitar. According to Zettl, the sensitivity of the nanotube radio can be enhanced by attaching an external antenna or by using an array of nanotubes that maintain the extremely small size.
While the concept of a miniaturized receiver for picking up broadcast music signals has appeal, the technology has the potential to assist in a range of interesting uses.
Adds Bruce Kramer, "The application of a fully functioning radio receiver less than 50 millionths of an inch in length and one millionth of an inch in diameter potentially allows the radio control of almost anything, from a single receiver in a living cell to a vast array embedded in an airplane wing."
The lead author on the study was graduate student Kenny Jensen from Zettl's research group and he was joined on the paper by postdoctoral researcher Jeff Weldon and graduate student Henry Garcia, also members of the Zettl group at the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In addition to support from NSF, the work also received funding from the Department of Energy. The research was supported through NSF award number EEC-0425914.
Additional information about the nanoradio can be found at: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~argon/nanoradio/radio.html
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Joshua A. Chamot, NSF, (703) 292-7730, email: jchamot@nsf.gov
Robert Sanders, University of California, Berkeley, (510) 643-6998, email: rsanders@berkeley.edu
Program Contacts
Bruce M. Kramer, NSF, (703) 292-5348, email: bkramer@nsf.gov
Principal Investigators
Alex Zettl, University of California, Berkeley, (510) 642-4939, email: azettl@berkeley.edu
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2019, its budget is $8.1 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 50,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.
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By Court Lalonde (follow @courtlalonde)
When the Boston Bruins drafted Peter Cehlarik in the third round of the 2013 entry draft, we all probably thought nothing of it. The scouting report on him was high offensive potential, can score but not a sniper, makes his linemates better, and hockey sense was above average. We see scouting reports on players that look very similar that never crack an NHL line-up. Cehlarik made his National Hockey League debut on February 11th, 2017 against the Vancouver Canucks. He was on a line with David Krejci, David Pastrnak and right from the drop of the puck looked like he had played with them all year. Krejci finished that game with two assists, Pastrnak with a goal but Cehlarik was held pointless on the scoresheet.
Cehlarik started the season with the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League and was a key component to his hockey club’s success. In 40 games with Providence, he has 18 goals, 15 assists, 33 points, and a plus-nine rating. Any Providence fan would tell you they’re happy he is up with the big club but misses watching him in Providence. That’s the grind of being a fan of a farm team, you start to connect with a player and then he is gone. If he continues to play well with the big club, the odds are they have seen the last of him in Providence.
He broke out against the hated Montreal Canadiens with two assists, one of those coming on the power play. That was a huge statement game for the Bruins and Cehlarik; he let his team know that he deserved to be in the NHL with his play on the ice. The Bruins made a statement by shutting out the Canadiens, a bitter division rival and coming together as a team to win a hard game at home. That game we got to see his confidence grow every time he had the puck on his stick by not just dumping the puck but skating with it. He was making the players around him better and was complementing both Krejci and Pastrnak by creating scoring chances.
His defensive game could be improved upon, but he is getting better every game. It was painfully obvious against the Anaheim Ducks when he gave away the puck a couple of times. We also could tell by the fact that he lost some ice time. He has averaged about 13:58 minutes a game so far but only played 11:35 against the Ducks. It’s a learning curve for him, but I believe he will get better because he has the intangibles to do so. Bruce Cassidy played him less when the game got tight last night, which is ok because he is learning. He is only 21 and has a lot of growing and maturing to do with his NHL game.
Last night we all thought he had scored his first NHL goal, only to have it called back because the play was ruled offside. It must have been a disappointment to believe you have scored your first goal and then have it taken away from you. It didn’t seem to faze him, he continued to make crisp passes and almost completed a great play over to Pastrnak, but Peter Budaj just got is leg out in time. We all have the feeling that he will score any game now but it sure is nice to watch him play.The biggest threat to Canada's national security is internal. It is the offshoot of an extraordinarily successful -- because it remains largely undetected --- coup that imposed itself on the country with the federal election of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) in 2006, and solidified its impacts with the election of a Conservative majority in 2011.
Author, poet, academic, and former Canadian diplomat Prof. Peter Dale Scott recently disclosed a wikileaks cable indicating that the International Republican Institute (IRI), an off-shoot of the CIA, and a subsidiary of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) helped install Stephen Harper as Canada's Prime Minister. This was the coup.
Point 12 of the cable explains that "In addition to the campaign schools, IRI will be bringing in consultants who specialize in party renovation to discuss case studies of political parties in Germany, Spain, and Canada which successfully carried out the process"
The "party renovation" referenced in the cable is the "renovation" of Canada's indigenous Progressive Conservative Party into a Republican-inspired Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) that is largely subservient to the U.S Empire south of the border.
A similar, but more violent, "renovation" process occurred in 2009 when the democratically-elected government of Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a U.S-orchestrated coup. It is also the same illegal "renovation" that is destabilizing Venezuela today, as the US interferes in the internal politics of that country, in what is often described as a "soft coup".
Dr. Anthony James Hall, Professor of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta Canada, explains the genesis of the Harper Conservative assault on the "Red Tory" traditions of Canada's indigenous conservative party in "Flanagan's Last Stand?" :
"The assault by the Harper-Flanagan juggernaut on the generally friendly orientation of Canadian conservatism towards the state, towards Indigenous peoples, and towards the institutions of Crown sovereignty helped clear aside obstacles to the importation from United States of the Republican Party's jihad on managed capitalism. Flanagan and Harper took charge of the Canadian version of the Reagan Revolution aimed at transforming the social welfare state into the stock market state."
The implications of this conservative "jihad" are a threat to our national security on many levels. Stephen Harper's attacks on Canada's knowledge base are foundational to what can only be described as an endorsement of man-made climate change, which is likely the foremost threat to both humanity and to Canada.
The Fifth Assessment Report of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stresses the urgency to act now to mitigate catastrophic climate change, and yet the Harper government is moving Canada in the opposite direction.
Most recently, the Harper government ratified a bilateral agreement with China, the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA), which all but guarantees further expansion of Canada's Tar Sands, and an expansion of its carbon economy.
Canada's warmongering also bodes poorly for our collective security. The Conservative government has exploited the |
would have required the company to publish an annual study of how its profits may be affected by public climate change policies, following the Paris climate agreement, to limit the global temperature rise to less than 2C (3.6F).
A similar vote at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting, also held on Wednesday, showed 41% support from Chevron investors that cast ballots.
Edward Mason, head of responsible investment for the Church of England, who proposed the resolution, said he was delighted at the “very significant shareholder revolt on climate change”.
“Considering the scale of this vote, we urge Exxon to sit down urgently with its investors to agree the reporting it will provide on the risk that climate change policy poses to its business. Following the Paris agreement, the time for climate risk reporting has well and truly arrived and the investor call for it is clear. It will not go away.”
Mason, who helps manage £6.7bn of assets for the Church Commissioners for England, said it wasn’t just the environment that was at risk, but also the billions of dollars invested in Exxon, if it does not adapt quickly to a changing world. “The financial risks of not acting are very real,” he said.
Exxon had tried to block the resolution from being heard at its meeting, but the US Securities and Exchange Commission regulator ruled that it must include the resolution among Wednesday’s votes.
“Given the significant resources Exxon spent fighting this proposal, such a strong vote is a real rebuke to company management,” said Andrew Logan, director of oil and gas for Ceres, a coalition of sustainable investment groups. “Investors have sent a clear message that meaningful 2 degree stress testing is the new normal, and companies like Exxon and Chevron can no longer act as if nothing has changed.”
Tillerson, who was paid $23.4m last year, also suffered an investor backlash over his current position as both chairman and CEO. Some 38.8% of investors voted for a resolution asking that the company appoint an independent chairman when Tillerson stands down. He is due to retire before his 65th birthday, in March 2017.
Natasha Lamb, director of equity research and shareholder engagement for Arjuna Capital, who proposed one of the motions, said: “While the business plan of extracting as much carbon as possible was a winner last century, it will destroy value this century, and already has.”
The Guardian was banned from reporting from inside the meeting, and instead listened to proceedings via webcast. “We are denying your request because of the Guardian’s lack of objectivity on climate change reporting, demonstrated by its partnership with anti-oil and gas activists and its campaign against companies that provide energy necessary for modern life, including newspapers,” a spokesman said.The “Reed Nissan Pet Rescue Project 90-Day Adopt-a-Thon” officially kicked off its third year with the goal once again to help find 2,000 cats and dogs FURever homes.
Reed Nissan, Reed Nissan Clermont and the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando (PAGO) have come together for the third time to host the 90-Day Adopt-a-Thon in hopes of exceeding their success in 2015. Throughout the 2016 Adopt-a-Thon, adoption fees have been reduced to just $25 for all pets age six months of age.
Fees will be waived for animals adopted at Reed Nissan Clermont (16005 State Road 50) AND at both Pet Alliance shelter locations on December 13! Please note our shelters are open 12pm-6pm and pets will be available at Reed from 4pm-7pm.
Reed Nissan is a longtime supporter of the Pet Alliance and the organization’s two shelters. Currently, the dealership donates a portion of sales from each car sold to PAGO, a pledge that raised more than $100,000 in 2014. Reed Nissan’s donation directly supported projects dedicated to the safety and well-being of the animals, including play yard sun shades—critical for the animals enduring the hot Florida weather.
Last year’s first 90-day Adopt-a-Thon resulted in adoptions of over 2,000 dogs, cats and other pets from October through December. The 2016 Adopt-a-Thon encourages and challenges the central Florida community to adopt a pet in need of a safe and happy FURever home.
“We are ecstatic to be working with our friends at the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando as sponsor of another 90-Day Adopt-a-Thon,” said Aaron Hill, General Manager of Reed Nissan and Reed Nissan Clermont. “Last year our community responded overwhelmingly to the importance of finding families for thousands of pets through their support of this event.”
“Our Reed Nissan associates at both of our stores are excited to help the Pet Alliance find even more FURever homes for these animals in need.”
The Reed Nissan Pet Rescue 90-day Adopt-a-Thon officially kicked off October 1 and will continue through December 31. The dealer encourages the community to visit the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando adoption centers during this 90-day event.
“To see a homeless dog or cat experience his or her ride home from the animal shelter to a new FURever home is the best feeling ever. It’s what we at the Pet Alliance want to see for every single pet,” said Fraily Rodriguez, Vice President of Operations at the Pet Alliance. “We know that together with Reed Nissan, we can help 2,000 pets make their way Home for the Holidays.”
To learn more about the Reed Nissan Pet Rescue Project and see dogs and cats that are currently available for adoption through the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, please visit https://www.friendinreed.com/.
About Reed Nissan
For over 65 years, Floridians have come to respect Reed Nissan’s commitment to excellent customer service which has led to six Circle of Excellence Awards – one of the only large volume dealerships to receive this prestigious honor from Nissan North America. By building relationships with customers and the community, Reed Nissan continues to grow as a family business and as a top Nissan dealership family offering the finest selection, service and value to its customers. Reed Nissan is located at 3776 West Colonial Drive, Orlando and Reed Nissan Clermont is located at 16005 State Road 50, Clermont. www.reednissan.com and www.reednissanclermont.com
About Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando
As the go-to pet experts across Central Florida, the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando does good things for dogs and cats and the people who love them. Formerly the SPCA of Central Florida, the organization’s goal is to provide compassionate and knowledgeable services for pets and to be leaders in innovative animal care and veterinary medicine. Visit www.PetAllianceOrlando.org for more information.Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Thursday that results from the United Kingdom's election are evidence British Prime Minister Theresa May should step down.
“The prime minister called the election because she wanted a mandate,” Corbyn said, according to The Guardian.
“Well the mandate she’s got is lost Conservative [Party] seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence. I would have thought that is enough for her to go, actually.”
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Corbyn added that Thursday’s results show “politics has changed” in the U.K. and voters there are “turning their backs on austerity.”
Exit poll figures from the BBC suggested May’s Conservative Party would lose seats as a result of Thursday’s election, indicating the U.K. may be heading for a hung parliament.
The Conservatives had 330 seats in parliament before the snap election, compared to 229 for Labour, with a party needing 326 for a majority.
Exit polls as of late Thursday night show the Conservatives losing 10 seats, and the Labour Party gaining 22 seats.
The Liberal Democrats rank third with a gain of four seats, while the Scottish National Party lost 14 seats and the Democratic Unionist Party grabbed two.
Election poll results are historically inaccurate in the U.K., and The Guardian noted poll results from the BBC and ITN are often off by double digits in terms of how many seats each party gains or loses.
May was hoping to bolster the Conservative Party’s ranks before beginning the U.K.’s exit from the European Union.Socotra Island in the Indian Ocean - Very unusual July 17, 2009 It is like being on a different planet... These pictures and information are excellent viewing and reading. Socotra Island : you have to see it to believe it. This island simply blows away any notion about what is considered "normal" for a landscape on Earth.
Imagine waking up on the and taking a good look around you. After a yelp of disbelief, you'd be inclined to think you were transported to another planet - or traveled to another era of Earth's history.Socotra Island The second would be closer to the truth for this island, which is part of a group of 4 islands, has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years. Like the Galapagos Islands, this island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic, i.e. found nowhere else on Earth.
The climate is harsh, hot and dry, and yet - the most amazing plant life thrives there. Situated in the Indian Ocean 250 km from Somalia and 340 km from Yemen, the wide sandy beaches rise to limestone plateaus full of caves (some 7 kilometers in length) and mountains up to 1525 meters high.
The name Socotra is derived from a Sanscrit name, meaning "The Island of Bliss "... Is it the beaches? The isolation and quiet? Or the strange and crazy botanical allure? Alien-looking plants: H. P. Lovecraft's secret inspiration? Was the famous Chtulhu myths creator aware of these forbidding mountains with their hauntingly weird flora (think of plant mutations from his "The Color out of Space")? We almost tempted to call Socotra the other "Mountains of Madness" - the trees and plants of this island were preserved thru the long geological isolation, some varieties being 20 million years old... We begin with the dracena cinnibaris or Dragon's Blood Tree, the source of valuable resin for varnishes, dyes, and "cure-all" medicine; also (predictably) used in medieval ritual magic and alchemy.
The branches spread out into the sky and from below appear to hover over the landscape like so many flying saucers... and from above, they have a distinct mushroom look:
There is also the Desert Rose (adenium obesium) which looks like nothing so much as a blooming elephant leg:
Dorstenia gigas - apparently does not require any soil and sinks roots straight into the bare rock:
It also has a distinct personality and likes to smile for the camera:
Somewhat similar to the weird Dorstenia gigas, is this "bucha" vegetable, found as far north as Croatia. I hope it's not pregnant with anything malignant inside this sack. John Wyndham ("The Day of the Triffids") would've loved it:
Also found in Socotra's landscape is the ever-strange and extremely rare Cucumber Tree (dendrosicyos socotranum) - and yes, it's related to what's sitting in a pickle jar in your fridge:
Getting around can be a challenge, as there are almost no roads. Despite the fact that this island has around 40,000 inhabitants, the Yemeni government put in the first roads just 2 years ago - after negotiations with UNESCO, which has declared this island a World Natural Heritage Site. I would prefer a camel ride to what is bound to be a bumpy and slow 4x4 ride... It is a quiet and peaceful enclave in an otherwise troubled world. If you decide to visit there, you can forget about beachfront hotels and restaurants; this island is geared towards eco-tourism and sustaining the local economy and way of life.
This island is a birder's paradise as well, with 140 different species of birds, 10 of which are not found anywhere else in the world. A unique Socotra warbler, sunbird, starling, bunting, sparrow and cisticola are among the ones found here. There are also Socotra Cormorants:
Want to see some fairy-tale (and possibly haunted) shipwrecks? There are diving tours available... Hopefully some IMAX crew will film it in all its glory one day.
To give you a glimpse of Socotra's and Yemen's in general totally unique architecture, check out this place located on the mainland: Al Hajarah, Yemen - Walled city in the mist
Socotra is one of those "lost world" islands (separated from the world six million years ago) where intrepid travelers - particularly those seeking exotic nature and wildlife in a remote tropical setting - can go days on end without rubbing shoulders with that less-than-endangered species: tourists. Known for decades as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean, it's the world's tenth richest island for endemic plant species. And it's the biggest island in the Middle East 125 kilometers in length and 45 kilometers across. Meanwhile the landscape is one of contrasts; for example, it has isolated nature preserves with dazzling wildlife, including 900 species of plants, the famous Dragon's Blood Tree "dracaena cinnabara," some of the rarest birds that exist nowhere else in the world, and picturesque sandy beaches. Continued at:
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/770d67166f675b18?hl=en
HomeDisaster of 2011 caused longest maritime migration ever recorded, with crustaceans, sea slugs and worms riding 4,800 miles on debris
The deadly tsunami that struck north-east Japan in 2011 has carried almost 300 species of sea life thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the United States.
In what experts are calling the longest maritime migration ever recorded, an estimated one million creatures – including crustaceans, sea slugs and sea worms – made the 4,800-mile (7,725km) journey on a flotilla of tsunami debris.
Antarctic sea ice levels hit record low, but experts are not sure why Read more
“This has turned out to be one of the biggest unplanned natural experiments in marine biology – perhaps in history,” said John Chapman, an expert at Oregon State University who co-authored a study of the creatures published this week in the journal Science.
The towering tsunami, triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011, generated five million tonnes of debris from the three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
About 70% sank quickly to the ocean floor, according to experts, but countless buoys, docks, boats and other items with buoyancy were swept out to sea.
Between June 2012 and February this year 289 Japanese species attached to 600 pieces of debris washed up on beaches in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii, as well as in the Canadian province of British Columbia, according to the study.
Some of the creatures – about two-thirds of which had never been seen on the US west coast – reproduced as they drifted eastward.
“The diversity was somewhat jaw-dropping,” said James Carlton, a marine sciences professor at Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. “Molluscs, sea anemones, corals, crabs, just a wide variety of species, really a cross-section of Japanese fauna.”
Although the rate of new arrivals has slowed, researchers were still discovering colonised tsunami wreckage on west coast beaches when their study ended earlier this year.
Only last year – five years after the disaster – a Japanese boat arrived in Oregon with 20 fish native to the western Pacific inside. Some of the fish can be viewed at an aquarium in the state, Carlton said.
The tsunami flotilla is a reminder of the threat that millions of tonnes of plastic pose to the global marine environment.
Most of the creatures found in the US were attached to buoys, boats, crate and other items made from plastic, fibreglass and other materials that do not decompose.
“I didn’t think that most of these coastal organisms could survive at sea for long periods of time,” said Greg Ruiz, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, who co-authored the study.
“But in many ways they just haven’t had much opportunity in the past. Now, plastic can combine with tsunami and storm events to create that opportunity on a large scale.”
Experts say it will be several years before they can say if any of the creatures have colonised on the west coast, which might pose a threat to native marine life.
The creatures are not the only products of the tsunami to have generated interest on the other side of the Pacific. In April 2012 a couple in Alaska found a football belonging to Misaki Murakami, a Japanese teenager who had lost his home in the disaster.
One month later a Harley-Davidson motorcycle lost in the disaster washed up on a Canadian beach 4,000 miles away.About
Our goals
To support a social location-sharing app aimed at connecting people with the help of social network integration. To support a utility tool which enhances current social networking by providing new features with visual and personal interconnectability.
We are crowdfunding to support the servers required to run Connect, as we have created the app already. Your contribution will help make Connect available for as many people as we can distribute it to.
Our idea
Connect was originally an idea conceived to solve a subtle yet important struggle young people face when leaving home to start their new lives. The most social environments in the world exist at colleges and universities, but even modern communication lacks a certain interpersonal and physical aspect, aiming to replace it rather than enhance it. Immediately after, we realised that our idea could be expanded to encourage catchups between old friends and meetups between new acquaintances.
Find your friends at university
Current social networks are remarkably lacking in the location-sharing area. Checking in on Facebook, for example, only shows your location to some of your friends who are currently looking at their news feeds. We're trying to make the most out of existing social networks, not reinventing the wheel.
The uniqueness of our app, Connect, comes from the fact that Connect is a tool designed to facilitate physical meetups and increased social interaction through social media rather than trying to replace it with intangible clicks and texts. Connect, with all its integration, makes it practically effortless to get in touch with contacts and set up meetings - coffees, work, dates, dinners, anything.
The app
At its heart, Connect is a social tool designed to take current social networks and integrate them into an interface with real, interpersonal meaning. Using Connect, it becomes incredibly easy to facilitate meetups, find your way, and discover both exciting new areas and people - all on a single screen in a single app.
See floor plans of attractions you're visiting
Integrating Lists from Facebook and Circles from Google+ makes it fantastically simple to toggle the groups of friends you're currently with. This makes days out, parties, and meetings all so much easier to organise and carry out.
Our features:
Visual location-sharing with contacts allows your mind to absorb all the information you need in a single glance
Static check-in and broadcasting to notify others that you've arrived in a certain place (or to hide yourself for a certain period of time!)
Lists and Circles from existing social networks to help you organise all your different friend groups together
One-click calling, texting, and social media communication from one swipe on the map
Set meeting points and times with friends and get timer notifications (so you don't forget) and directions (so you can find your way). This is a great help for users in unfamiliar areas
Notification when a contact enters your city/town
Social networking features heavily in Connect
Experimental:
Acquaintance meetup: friends of friends who toggle this feature will appear when nearby and can be contacted!
Premium features(?):
None! We think that Connect is really cool so we want to release it to as many people as we can for free. Anyone will be able to use all of our features upon release, and beta testers will be able to give feedback and influence beta development.
Funding and rewards
100% of your funding (gifts aside) goes into server costs and development tools. We consider this a non-profit project and greatly appreciate the support you give us, and to the future users of this app.
As soon as the campaign finishes, rewards will be processed and beta keys for Android should be available by late October/early November. iOS keys should follow soon after.
In the case of overfunding, we will be able to support servers and development on the Windows Phone platform and possibly others. Accessibility is our number one goal and therefore excess funds will go towards achieving it.
Thank you for supporting us!
Credits to:
Holly Mo-Vyse
Ciarán Mitchell
Emily Killgore
Kevin Wang
Jack Speir, Alasdair Revie, Rachael Burrows, Ollie Carruthers, Alice Gray, Beth Hegarty
Lead Sunglasses (Calum Matheson) - original music trackThe U.S. Census Bureau released an interactive, online map pinpointing the vast array of non-English languages spoken in homes across the nation.
In addition to Spanish, the map shows the national distribution of speakers of Arabic, Chinese, French, French Creole, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.
After selecting one of those languages from the menu, users will see a national population density map, with each dot representing from 10 to 100 speakers, depending on the geographic concentration.
Of the 60.6 million people who spoke a language other than English at home in 2011, almost two-thirds (37.6 million) spoke Spanish. This places the U.S. as the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world –not the second one, as it is usually said— after Mexico (117 million), Spain (47.2 million), Colombia (47 million) and Argentina (41 million).
The information, taken from the American Community Survey, includes nation, states and metropolitan areas.
The Census Bureau also released “Language Use in the United States: 2011,” a report that shows the increase of non-English speakers over the past three decades. In this century, the percentage of people speaking a language other than English at home went from 17.9 percent in 2000 to 20.8 percent in 2011.
More than half (58 percent) of U.S. residents 5 and older who speak a language other than English at home say that they also speak English “very well.” Spanish speakers fare in this regard just below the middle of the chart, less well than speakers of German, French, Tagalog, and Arabic, and better than Russian, Korean, and Chinese speakers.
The percentage of people speaking English “less than very well” also grew from 8.1 percent in 2000 to 8.7 percent in 2007, but stayed at that level through 2011.
The percentage speaking Spanish at home grew from 12.0 percent in 2005 to 12.9 percent in 2011. In contrast to the overall trend, however, the percent that spoke Spanish at home but spoke English “less than very well” declined from 5.7 percent to 5.6 percent over the period.
Claudio Iván Remeseira is a New York-based award-winning journalist, writer, and critic. He is the translator of the Spanish-language on-line section of The Nation and editor of Hispanic New York, an online portal and blog on current events and culture. He is the Editor of Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook (Columbia University Press, 2010), an anthology of essays on the city’s Latino, Latin American & Iberian cultural heritage, and winner of the Latino International Book Award in the category of Best Reference Book in English (2011).No Man's Sky is a survival game. There, now you know. The public conversation around Hello Games' unthinkably sprawling, procedurally generated sci-fi whatsit seems to have shifted from "holy crap that's a lot of different planets" to "OK, but what do you actually do?" during the last year, so it's time someone outside of Hello at least attempted to answer that nagging question (so people will finally stop asking it). I recently played around half an hour of No Man's Sky, which turns out to be exactly enough time to just start feeling like you maybe kind of have almost begun to get a handle on the sorts of things that will be occupying your attention in the game, but my initial impression is that your first and most pressing order of business will be to collect a hell of a lot of stuff, and use it to keep yourself alive in a cold, uncaring universe.
Crafting things and installing upgrades is the name of the game, and there's a three-pronged upgrade system split between your weapons, ship, and spacesuit. Those categories ought to be self-explanatory, but for the sake of exhaustive detail, here goes. On the weapons side, you have both a mining beam, which is mostly used for breaking down resources, and a rapid-fire projectile weapon, which is more suited for fightin'. I also crafted something akin to an energy grenade that you can use to blow giant holes in the landscape (and potentially access subterranean areas, if they exist on a given planet), and your upgradable binoculars also fit into this category. Ship upgrades seem to be pretty resource-intensive and I didn't manage to complete any of those in my short demo, but they'll govern your ability to jump between different systems, and presumably other nuts-and-bolts features like fuel capacity, sublight speed, and so on. And the suit will keep you alive and mobile, with components ranging from shields and thermal protection to a jetpack.
From what I played, No Man's Sky's gameplay loop is intensely resource-based. It seems that everything you need to create, recharge, or refuel requires one of numerous types of resources, and that means you'll be turning your mining laser on plants and rock formations to break them down into their component elements, looting abandoned supply crates for other types of elements, hacking or shooting your way into alien factories to claim their stashes, and generally just scrounging everything you can find on your eternal quest to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. The build of the game I saw at E3 last year was using an entirely fake periodic table, but now it's back to using real element names for the more common crafting resources, ones which Hello says already spark some familiarity in most players. So you'll be looking for carbon to turn into rocket fuel, silicon to craft computer chips with, and plutonium to charge up vital suit systems.
Those resources were absolutely everywhere in the planet Hello had selected for us to play on; red plutonium crystal deposits dotted the landscape, any tree could be lasered down into carbon, and so on. To hear Hello's Sean Murray tell it, that'll be the exception to the rule. In our interview, he mentioned the ideal scenario is to have something like nine relatively barren planets for every one lush world bursting with life and resources, in order to create a feeling of genuine discovery when you actually find a place with things that you can use and that isn't actively trying to kill you. It's here where the necessity of stacking the planetary deck for public demonstrations may be working against the game, or at least what I want out of the game. You can't get a sense of the exploration, loneliness, and struggle inherent in advancing through the galaxy when everything you need is laid out right in front of you. But I'm excited at the prospect of jumping from system to system, scanning the biome of each planet I find (which there's an upgrade for) to see what's valuable, and moving on to keep searching. Murray mentioned things like black holes will also manifest and affect your exploration, although he didn't say how, and other astrophysical oddities like binary star systems will also be present. That gets my heart racing. I'm still holding out hope for this to be the Star Trek game I've always wanted, or at least the closest thing to date.
At any rate, all this isn't to make No Man's Sky sound like a mundane resource-management sim; it's still a first-person action game at heart. As usual for this type of open-ended game, the pacing and action are as fast as you want to make them, and juggling that many different resources made for some tough choices even in the short time I played the game. I turned my attention toward crafting my first hyperdrive--which I had the blueprint for but not the resources to make--so I could try to jump to another star system before my session was over. That turned out to be hard to pull off since I was on a frigid planet with a temperature hovering around -160C, which meant my suit's thermal protection was constantly burning energy. It quickly became apparent that you'll face frequent situations where the resources you're pursuing for some long-term goal--the hyperdrive, in this case--may also be needed for your immediate survival, such as charging up that thermal system or restoring your shields when you're being hammered on by the ubiquitous robotic space police. It seems you'll at least learn some unconventional tricks for dealing with harsh environmental hazards that don't deplete your precious resources so quickly. During his presentation, Murray used that energy grenade to blow a hole in the side of a mountain that revealed a big, Minecraft-style underground complex. He darted in there where the temperature was above freezing, giving his suit a chance to chill out.
At one point, I managed to piss off those space cops by trying to shoot my way into an alien installation that I didn't have the tools to breach more quietly. (It's worth pointing out that things like illegal hacking chips and drug-smuggling will also draw their ire, so charging in guns ablaze isn't the only way you'll get into trouble.) You've got a five-point wanted level here similar to the one in Grand Theft Auto: the more you violate space law, the more menacing the robots who show up, from little flying drones to dog-like quadrupeds to mean, towering bipedal walkers. It seems the more you fight the robots, the worse the robots who show up to fight, so you'll probably want to avoid doing anything that raises the authorities' attention as you explore unless you want to hightail it back to your ship and get yourself offworld till your wanted level ticks back down. Since the game intends to be so gigantic and populated by different alien factions, I asked if there's some kind of story justification for why these same-looking robotic police are ubiquitous across the galaxy, and the answer is yes. Hello says it's working with a writer to flesh out a backstory that contextualizes that sort of thing.
Speaking of alien races, the big new feature on the marketing roadmap being shown at the event I went to was interaction with AI characters. Murray's presentation included a quick chat with a space-suited representative of the Korvax, one of the game's races. Interacting with these characters is pretty straightforward: zoom in the camera, pop up a dialogue tree. They may want to trade with you, dispense some information, or just give you a shiny new weapon. The catch is, you initially won't have any idea what that alien is trying to say to you, since learning alien languages is a core mechanic in the game. I only saw one obvious way to learn, by approaching an inscribed stone monolith (though I hope there are others), and it seems you'll generally only learn one word at a time. But that one word might be enough to intuit what a given NPC is trying to ask you, if it's the right word. In another example, when I blew open the doors of an alien factory to raid it for resources, I set off an alarm that brought the robo-cops running. There was a terminal inside I could interact with, and if I'd been able to read what it said, I could have easily shut down the alarm and gotten back to raiding. But since I couldn't read it, I picked the wrong answer and locked the alarm in the "on" position, which made for a rough time.
NPCs will enable trade in the game, in the form of a little robotic market vendor I found on the planet I was exploring, other vendors who hang out on space stations, and so on. Every player will start on a uniquely random planet with no resources to their name, so your first few hours will be spent extracting materials from the environment to build your first hyperdrive and get out into the galaxy (and this will take some players longer than others, depending on the richness of the planet they start on). But Hello says that once you've got your basic gear in place, it would be viable to largely focus on working the markets, buying low and selling high to get the resources you need, rather than scrounging them planet to planet. Only time--and hours with the final game--will tell exactly how much you'll be able to focus on one play style to the exclusion of others, but the potential for player expression here seems significant.
Murray's presentation included an impressive developer-mode demo of warping instantly from an utterly bare, spherical planet to one where the hills followed the uniform curvature of sine waves, on through mathematically more complex worlds until finally reaching a truly naturalistic planet teeming with life. For one, this served as a nice peek behind the curtain at the way the game generates each planet algorithmically from a small amount of data as you approach it. That is, there are no load times in the game not because the engine is streaming in level design as you move around, like in most games, but because the game is amplifying the tiny seed data into more complex structures on the fly with the mystical power of math. Beyond the impressive tech, though, this gave an impression of some of the more exotic things that might be possible in the game. I heard word going around the event there may be things like stargates that link different worlds directly together, though where you'll find something like that or how you might access it, I have no idea.
Although playing No Man's Sky for 30 minutes was just enough time to figure out that I wanted to play a lot more No Man's Sky, it's at least nice to know at this point how the game is designed with respect to recognizable video game genres. Hearing Murray mention The Long Dark, Stranded Deep and Terraria as personal favorites and inspirations made it clear that giving the player the freedom to explore, gather, craft, buy, sell, fight, flee, learn, and survive in this endless galaxy is what the game is all about. Previously, I haven't found a game of this type that's gotten me personally invested, but No Man's Sky is the first one with the breadth and the setting to make me very, very anxious to spend a much longer amount of time with it.Just yesterday, we gave you a quick rundown of Ethereum mining performance on the brand-new Radeon RX Vega 64 and Vega 56 graphics cards (read Dave’s review here ). Our initial testing showed both cards trailing an optimized GeForce GTX 1070 FE, while putting up total system power consumption figures that were a bit on the high side.
Fortunately, just as we were expecting, AMD has released a new beta driver that provides a nice boost to block chain compute performance. The new test driver is aptly named, “Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition Beta for Blockchain Compute”. That sure is a mouthful, but what does it entail? AMD offers the following caveats to consider before installing the driver:
This driver is provided as a beta level support driver which should be considered "as is" and will not be supported with further updates, upgrades or bug fixes
This driver is not intended for graphics or gaming workloads
Optimized performance for Blockchain Compute Workloads
That last point is all we needed to hear before we decided to break out our Ethereum benchmarking rig, so without further ado, here’s what we found:
As you can see, we’re getting some pretty significant gains already (at stock speeds) with this beta driver. We wouldn’t be surprised if there are even further optimizations to be found, once AMD is ready to go with a production driver, but we’ll take what we can get right now. We did have one performance anomaly that we ran into, however. When cranking up the memory speeds, the Vega 56 actually vaulted past the Vega 64, cranking out 36.48 MH/s. That’s not bad for a card that's supposed to retail for $399.
As for power consumption, here’s how things panned out (total system power based on our test system here):
Radeon RX Vega 56 Stock = 288 watts
Radeon RX Vega 56 1900MHz Memory = 290 watts
Radeon RX Vega 64 Stock = 360 watts
Radeon RX Vega 64 2GHz Memory = 361 watts
Another positive attribute of this beta driver release is that card temperatures while mining have decreased across the board. Take the Vega 64 for example; temperature measurements taken on the back of the card dropped from 150 degrees Fahrenheit to 143 degrees. In addition, overall power draw was much more stable and with lower peak draw than we had seen with the previous driver's performance.
We should mention that the instability and crashing, while mining, that we saw with the previous driver used for our Radeon RX Vega review has been resolved with this release. With all things considered, we’re encouraged by AMD’s commitment to mining performance and we look forward to seeing what the future holds – even if we don’t hit that magic 100 MH/s mark.
Hat tip to our buddy Nate at Legit Reviews for the heads-up on the new driver. You can find the new block chain driver, right here.Television and culinary personality Anthony Bourdain says in a new interview that fellow "privileged Eastern liberals" are the reason that 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 was elected.
"The utter contempt with which privileged Eastern liberals such as myself discuss red-state, gun-country, working-class America as ridiculous and morons and rubes is largely responsible for the upswell of rage and contempt and desire to pull down the temple that we’re seeing now," Bourdain told Reason.
Bourdain attributed the large divide during this political season and Trump's win last month on a division between "Eastern liberals" and red-state Americans.
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“When people are afraid and feel that their government has failed them, they do things that seem completely mad and unreasonable to those of who are perhaps under less pressure,” Bourdain said.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in gun-country, God-fearing America,” he continued. “There are a hell of a lot of nice people out there, who are doing what everyone else in this world is trying to do: the best they can to get by, and take care of themselves and the people they love."
"When we deny them their basic humanity and legitimacy of their views |
futuristic. Some weapons have an alternate fire which activates a feature such as launching a grenade or detonating a remote mine. It is possible to dual wield some weapons.
Story Mode [ edit ]
The main story mode of TimeSplitters 2 is divided into ten levels.[2] Each level is in a different time period and contains a series of objectives that must be completed. Some objectives are present at the start of the level, while others are added during play.[3] A few levels have secondary objectives, which are not required to complete unless on the normal or hard difficulty setting. Each level includes a single checkpoint in the middle where the player can restart if they die or fail to complete an objective (with the exception of the last level on any difficulty and the fourth level on easy).[4] For each level, the player must choose from three difficulty levels. These difficulty levels not only change the strength of the enemies, but also increase the length of the level by adding additional objectives; for instance, in both easy and normal levels, there are optional secondary objectives, whereas in the hard levels, all secondary objectives are now primary and must be completed. At the end of every level, a time crystal must be recovered. After it is picked up, a time portal will appear which must be entered in order to complete the level. However, this is sometimes made more difficult by TimeSplitters that teleport to the player's location. In secret places of certain levels, there are cartridges of old school arcade games such as Snake, that can be picked up and played on the player's Temporal Uplink, the device that normally shows the map of the current level.[5]
The game's story mode can be played alone or cooperatively with another player.[6] When playing co-op, in order to balance the game, the two players' health amounts are lowered.
Along with the story mode, there are two single-player modes: an Arcade mode and a Challenge mode where a player is given a scenario and must complete it within certain requirements.[7] The objective ranges from collecting bananas to shooting heads off zombies. After the objective is completed, the game will end, and a medal will be awarded depending on the number of points obtained. Certain medals allow the player to play as new characters in multiplayer or use cheats. Cheats can be turned on in the options menu to activate features such as unlimited ammunition or the ability to shoot paintballs. Free Radical's website implies that there are also controller-activated cheats that have never been released. They say they like to keep things "as impossible as possible."[8]
Multiplayer [ edit ]
Arcade mode is the main multiplayer section of TimeSplitters 2. It can normally be played with up to four players with each player using a division of the television's screen. However, with a System Link, up to sixteen players can participate. System link was not included with the GameCube version.[1] When a player is killed, he or she is respawned at a random location on the map with full health. Weapons, armour, and other items that enhance players' abilities are placed in several preset positions scattered about the map. The objective of the game depends on the mode selected. Four are available at the start: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Bag (a version of Capture the Flag) and BagTag (where a player must survive while in possession of the bag for the longest period of time). There are sixteen game modes in total,[9] but twelve are unavailable until the player beats certain levels of the game.
Several aspects of multiplayer can be customised, such as the weapons, the number of points needed to win, the number of minutes until the end of the game, as well as the music that plays along with the level. There is also a variety of different characters the player can choose to play as, each with their own individual statistics. Some characters are from the Story mode, while there are other more humorous ones such as a dinosaur and an Elvis impersonator. Up to ten computer-controlled bots can be used. Their appearance, difficulty, and team can be customised. The bots can do some acrobatic moves that the player cannot do such as rolls and somersaults.[10]
At the end of each match, the results of the game are shown. This includes the number of points each player or team scored, the weapon the player used most often, as well as awards the player earned. There are nearly 60 awards present in TimeSplitters 2.[11] Players are given them based on what they did in the match. Awards are recorded in each player's profile which also keeps track of a variety of other statistics.
There is also an Arcade League mode in which one player is placed in an Arcade match with pre-set bots and weapons. There are three difficulty levels of Arcade League: Amateur, Honorary, and Elite. Players must beat them in consecutive order. After a player beats an Arcade League level, a medal is awarded.
A MapMaker is also available that can create playable levels. Levels for Story mode can be made as well as levels for Arcade mode.[12] Created Story levels, however, cannot be played co-operatively. Maps are created by selecting and placing different pre-made tiles and rooms onto a grid. Spawn points, weapons, bags, armour, and objectives can then be placed anywhere on the level. There is a bar in the left side of the screen, representing memory, that lowers each time a tile or item is placed. When the bar depletes completely, nothing else can be placed onto the map. However, items can be deleted to increase memory. A theme can be chosen for each map such as Victorian, Industrial, Alien, and Virtual, which changes how the rooms appear.
Only LAN networks are supported, but online play is possible with the use of PCs and third-party networking software.[13]
Plot [ edit ]
TimeSplitters 2 starts off in the year 2401 in the midst of a war between humanity and the TimeSplitters, an alien race bent on the destruction of mankind. However, rather than use brute force to destroy humanity, they are using the special objects called time crystals to travel through time changing the course of history, bringing Earth to ruin.
Two space marines from Earth, Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart, are sent out to a space station overrun by TimeSplitters to retrieve the time crystals. However, when they reach the bridge, they are too late as they see the last few TimeSplitters take the time crystals into various time periods using the time portal. While Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart are preparing the time portal to follow the Timesplitters, they are attacked by another squad of Timesplitters. Corporal Hart decides to stay at the bridge to keep the Timesplitters at bay while Cortez goes into different periods of time to retrieve the time crystals.
Upon arrival at each time period, Cortez takes the form of a person from that particular period of time, similar to Quantum Leap.[14] For example, when Cortez arrives in the Wild West, he takes the form of a bounty hunter. When he arrives in a 24th-century robot factory, he takes the form of a robot.
After Cortez retrieves all of the time crystals, he returns to the space station to rendezvous with Hart. The TimeSplitters outside finally manage to break into the bridge. Corporal Hart is killed in the ensuing battle. Cortez has little time to mourn, as the Timesplitters become relentless to retrieve the Time Crystals from him. Cortez manages to set the station to self-destruct and escape before its destruction. This leads into the events of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.
Development [ edit ]
In February 1999, 15 months before the release of Perfect Dark, several members of Rare that were part of the GoldenEye 007 development team, including Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate, and David Doak, left to form their own company called Free Radical Design. After they developed the first TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2 went into development, trying to create a more fulfilling story mode alongside the Arcade and MapMaker modes. The game was developed over a 23-month period, with around half of that time devoted to creating the opening level.[15]
It was also one of the first multi-platform games to be re-released on both the PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits and Xbox Platinum labels.[16]
The location of the health bar and other gameplay features are reminiscent of GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark.[citation needed] The game engine present in TimeSplitters 2 is also very similar to the one present in GoldenEye 007. They both contain a similar aiming system and both lack the ability to jump.
Releases [ edit ]
There are a few minor differences between the console versions of TimeSplitters 2. For example, the PlayStation 2 version has a smaller playing field for minigames such as Anaconda. This consequently makes high scores on the PlayStation 2 version lower than the Xbox and GameCube versions which both have bigger playing fields for the minigames.
There are four different versions of cover art for the North American release of the game. Some of the versions had a unique tag line for the GameCube and Xbox ports. The GameCube version displayed the quote "Heir apparent to GoldenEye," by Electronic Gaming Monthly.[17] The Xbox version said, "First Halo, now this."[18] Other versions include the Player's Choice edition and the original release without the quotes.
Other release changes include removal of the map editor function and the renaming to Time Splitter: Invaders of the History on the Japanese release of the PlayStation 2 version. In addition, Europe, France, Japan, Korea, and USA each have different box art.[19]
In PSM3, Doak expressed interest in remaking TimeSplitters 2 with HD visuals and online multiplayer.[20]
In an October 2012 interview, Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis said, "We had a “HD” downloadable version of TimeSplitters 2 in development at Free Radical in 2008. I don’t know what happened to that but yes, I’d love to see it released at some point. Maybe it could be the catalyst that is required in order to raise enough interest in TimeSplitters 4 that a publisher might want to fund it."[21]
Homefront: The Revolution, a game developed by Deep Silver Dambuster (the corporate successor to Free Radical Design in accordance with British business transfer law due to the closure of Crytek UK),[22] contains an easter egg featuring two playable levels from the game, accessible via an arcade cabinet located in one of the main game's locations.[23]
The original Xbox version of TimeSplitters 2 is not compatible with Xbox 360 consoles.[24]
Reception [ edit ]
The PlayStation 2 version of TimeSplitters 2 received "universal acclaim", while the GameCube and Xbox versions received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[47][48][49]
In comparison to the first game in the series, GamePro called "TimeSplitters 2 [...] everything the original game was and more" and "outdoes most other PS2 shooters in the process".[37] GameSpot said that the game "may very well be the best split-screen multiplayer-focused first-person shooter ever created."[3] IGN concluded that the game was "clearly the best multiplayer first-person shooter on the PlayStation 2," but commented that it was not story-driven and little empathy was felt for the characters.[2] GameSpy criticized the absence of online play, but complimented the game's "great deathmatching action" and the game's high frame rate. They also said the game is "everything you could possibly want in a sequel."[4] Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine praised it as "easily one of the best first-person shooters out there—on any system", but called its lack of online play "criminal."[44]
The game has also been compared to GoldenEye 007 because of its many similar game elements, shared developers and references to that game,[50] such as both games beginning on a Siberian dam.[42]The release of videos of Planned Parenthood physicians discussing the market for tissue harvested in abortions has produced varied and strong reactions, and has, ironically, given us a reason for hope and an opportunity as a nation.
The tapes have generated a visceral reaction independent of how they were made or whether Planned Parenthood was making a profit. Rather, the widespread revulsion over the tapes arose because they unmasked the fact that, in our public conversation about abortion, we have so muted the humanity of the unborn child that some consider it quite acceptable to speak freely of crushing a child’s skull to preserve valuable body parts and to have that discussion over lunch.
Yet, the outrage expressed by many at the physicians’ callous and flippant attitude toward trafficking in human body parts is evidence that American hearts have not been irreparably hardened by the steady devaluing of human dignity in our society. This awakening of our conscience gives hope that deep within the hearts and souls of Americans there still resides the truth that an unborn child manifestly is a human being, entitled to rights and respect.
This newest evidence about the disregard for the value of human life also offers the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment as a nation to a consistent ethic of life. While commerce in the remains of defenseless children is particularly repulsive, we should be no less appalled by the indifference toward the thousands of people who die daily for lack of decent medical care; who are denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism; who suffer in hunger, joblessness and want; who pay the price of violence in gun-saturated neighborhoods; or who are executed by the state in the name of justice.
The open and generous nature of the American people has the capacity to astonish and push boundaries. We crowdfund, sign petitions, dump buckets of ice on ourselves and embrace new ways of relating to our environment. Can we use our shared outrage at all these affronts to human dignity to unite us and begin a national dialogue on the worth of human life?
If we create a framework for decision-making that is biased toward life, supportive of families and fair to people of all circumstances, our policies, legislation and commercial decisions will be vastly different. We then can begin to take needed actions and reforms that make a difference in the lives of those who are discarded and considered disposable.
The nation’s children, families, poor, workers and senior citizens deserve more than lip service. They deserve more than outrage. They deserve real support, protection and solid action.
And so do we to be true to what is best in us.
Blase Cupich is the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago. He wrote this for the Chicago Tribune.With the European Le Mans Series season about to get underway there has not been a lot of news coming from the Murphy Prototypes camp.
That ended yesterday with a quick visit to the team’s new home, the ELMS-bound LMP2 and LMP3 squad having started a move into the workshops currently occupied by Status GP over the weekend.
With Status GP struggling to get a GP2 programme up and running and having dropped their GP3 programme last season, the team will be consolidating into one of two large workshops on the Silverstone site, leaving the major workshop available for lease.
And with a two-car effort looming, Greg Murphy took the opportunity to obtain new and much more capable and capacious premises.
The team’s Oreca 03-R Nissan and the Ginetta-Nissan LMP3 that is filling the gap until it receives the brand-new Ave-Riley AR2 LMP3 car at Imola were already in situ.
The workshops are just on the outskirts of Silverstone village – three minutes’ drive from the circuit and with several fully equipped bays to accommodate race cars.
The Status GP GP2 cars are still in situ, too, as the thorny task of moving the team’s kit to the adjoining workshop while the Murphy kit is moved in was being undertaken, “The world’s most expensive game of Tetris,” was how one team member described the process.
“I haven’t bought Status GP and I have no immediate plans to move into single-seaters,” said Greg Murphy yesterday. “They are looking to get a GP2 programme together and I would hope that if they do so we can offer support and assistance.”
Murphy Prototypes Team Manager and living racing legend Hugh Chamberlain was, as usual, juggling the tasks of the move, and preparing for next weekend’s Silverstone ELMS opener in the team’s new office space.
“It’s a big step up, the premises are excellent, but the clock is ticking for 10 days time!”
Leaving Hugh to get on with things it was time to get Greg to explain the move:
“It was a case of us having been looking for something bigger and better for a while but obviously with the LMP3 programme now added to our existing LMP2 effort we needed space, and I want to show Tony Ave and his team that we’re an outfit interested in a future role with their plans. This, I hope, sends a very solid message!”
The new premises are indeed impressive, and while it’s never a pleasant thing to see one outfit clearly struggling (Status GP are effectively in a hiatus period at present) it’s good to see a team investing in what they clearly think is a potentially bright future in sportscar racing.
GGA tea party Texas Republican congressman said Friday that it's un-Christian to'make fun of people who are impaired' or 'have special needs' – like Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Speaking at the Value Voters Summit in Washington, an annual gathering of evangelical political activists, Rep. Louie Gohmert said that 'whether you like her or not, Hillary Clinton has made clear she is mentally impaired.'
'This is not somebody you should be making fun of.'
While a hotel ballroom full of conservatives laughed along, Gohmert leveled new questions at Clinton about her health and mental fitness to be president.
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'SHE IS MENTALLY IMPAIRED': Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, a tea party Republican, said Friday at the Value Voters Summit in Washington that it's mean to mock Hillary Clinton because she's not all there in the brains department
'DERANGED CONSPIRACY THEORIES': The Clinton campaign has worked overtime to swat down claims that a 2012 concussion, which left her unable to recall some national security briefings, has impaired her cognitive function enough to disqualify her from being president
'I get the impression that in law school and along the way she's been very, very smart,' he said, 'but I don't know – maybe it was the concussion, the fall, back when she did.'
'Or maybe, who knows? They won't tell us what really is going on with her.'
Gohmert even joked that revelations about Clinton aides smashing her Blackberry email devices with hammers might explain some of what she suggested to the FBI were memory lapses related to a 2012 concussion.
'If I were going to smash cellphones, Blackberrys, I'd use a two-pound sledge. I think that's the most – well, who knows? Maybe somebody got to wailing around, and hit her again.'
'I don't know. But we need to be praying for Hillary Clinton. There's special needs there. There's mental impairment.'
Gohmert raised eyebrows last week during an appearance on 'Fox & Friends' when he said Clinton's 'brain is in a blender.'
On Friday he explained the odd choice of words, which came from a line in a parody song that once played on conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh's program.
'It was to the tune "Try to remember" – and it's Hillary Clinton saying: "I don't remember, my brain's in a blender",' Gohmert recalled.
'I said Hillary's brain is in a blender. But anyway, that was not a proper thing to say, because again I'm making fun of the mentally impaired and that's not right.'
The short parody tune was a send-up of Clinton's five hours of testimony in 1996 before a Senate committee investigating the Whitewater land-deal scandal.
She drew howls from Republicans for telling the lawmakers over and over: 'I can't recall' or 'I don't remember' in response to their questions.
The Clinton campaign this year has tried to shoot down what it calls 'deranged conspiracy theories' related to the former secretary of state's health, accusing Republicans of 'parroting lies' about her mental fitness to be commander-in-chief.
The Texas tea partier played it to the hilt, however, complaining that nuclear negotiations with Iran 'were going on under Secretary Clinton.'
'And she probably doesn't remember. And I give her that.'
Gohmert, a staunch conservative, opened his morning speech at the summit by observing that taking a hard line on policy when Republicans control both houses of Congress is 'a no-brainer.'At a meeting of business leaders at the White House on Tuesday, President Donald Trump claimed that he was already making good on his promise to be “the greatest jobs producer that God ever created.”
“We’ve created over 600,000 jobs already in a very short period of time, and it’s going to really start catching on now, because some of the things that we’ve done are big league and they are catching on,” Trump said.
According to data from his own government, that’s just not true.
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Preliminary statistics released by the U.S. Labor Department show a total of 219,000 jobs were created in February and 98,000 in March. That makes a total of 317,000 new jobs.
Trump only took office on the afternoon of January 20 and so spent jus 11.5 days of that month as the president. Despite this fact, a White House spokesman said that Trump is including the jobs created in the United States in January as well, according to CNN Money.
But even if that’s the case—216,000 jobs were created in January—the total is still only 533,000, some way off Trump’s 600,000 figure.
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Trump has made job creation central to his administration’s agenda, with business and consumer optimism generally on the rise since the Republican defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November 2016 election. Optimism among small and medium-sized businesses, in particular, is at its highest level in more than a decade.
The president has tried to claim credit for jobs created by many U.S. and international companies active in the country since his election. Some of these companies—such as Intel and ExxonMobil— have acknowledged that Trump’s pro-business policies have played a role in their decisions. But many of the programs have been in the works long before Trump even decided to run for the presidency, and several companies have made no reference to the new administration when announcing new jobs.
So far in 2017, the U.S. economy has added an average of 178,000 jobs per month—slightly lower than the 2016 average of 187,000 under the Obama administration. And Trump is currently some way short of his promise to create 25 million jobs in the next decade, or 208,333 per month.
More from NewsweekWell, what an advert for the ‘EPL’ that was, they said.
And so we said, what the Gordon Ramsey is the EPL?
The world’s most elaborately assembled prog rock tribute band, featuring the quite frankly rather fortuitously named Jeff Llama?
Or a really racist drama group?
Whatever, it was a humdinger, that’s fo’ sho’, with flashback Homer Simpson-haired Mauricio Pocchetino’s Tottingham looking the absolute tits for long periods, especially in the first half when Everton struggled to get a look in and the visitors twice knacked the woodwork with long-range efforts.
But them there tables were turned at a rain-sodden Goodison, and it was the home side who took the lead with a bit of a long ball after enjoying the minimum of possession. Surprise starter Tom Cleverley’s diagonal ball into the box on 22 minutes was cushioned expertly by the head of Romelu Lukaku for even surprisier starter Aaron Lennon to chest down and thrap past Hugo Lloris, a man who for some reason you always picture holding up a skull and declaring ‘Alas poor Yorick’.
Yes you do.
Spurs were really good though, and sort of showed that it is actually possible to pass the ball around nicely without having to go full pelt Buckaroo Banzai. Despite what our very own Catalan Colonel Kurtz would have you believe, it does indeed appear that there is a middle ground; that you can be sensible defensively without going ‘maximum Pulis’.
Right on half time Tottenham got the equaliser they deserved when Delle Ali ghosted past Seamus Coleman and chested down a long ball from the back before striking a volley so thunderous that almost nobody even screamed at Tim Howard to fucking fuck off.
The saucy cheers when the American catches a straightforward ball now – let’s face it, he’s not going to catch any others, right kids! – have become positively arl arse. He’d be better served doing the Phil Neville selective deafness though than all that moody gesticulating.
And he wasn’t the only one indulging in a bit of back an forth with the punters. After his third Cruyff turn on the edge of his six-yard box, John Stones made an ‘It’s cool, I’ve got this’ gesture to the crimson-faced tide of the Park End, which could either be viewed as dead funny (it was) or an absolute disgrace (it wasn’t).
The clues are in the brackets.
The whole ‘incident’ was fuck all, although if you listened to Ian ‘Wrighty’ Wright on 606 afterwards – and let’s be honest, why would you? – the Goodison crowd were all but posting shit through the young defender’s letterbox. Ok, you wouldn’t be surprised if someone actually did that when he was still a ‘fucking rat’ during the last transfer window, but this idea that the lumpen tastes of the Everton faithful are going to destroy his natural talent seems a tad fanciful.
‘He could play for any of the big clubs in this country or abroad,’ stated the gold-toothed gobshite.
And he clearly could, but do you think Jose Mourinho, for instance, would be guffawing and waving his hand with a look of ‘Oh John, you’re a right fucking one, you’ if Stones was taking unnecessary risks at the heart of his defence? Especially one that just conceded seven goals at home to Leicester and Stoke?
These are all rhetorical questions, these.
The game swung in Everton’s favour on the hour when Martinez made a couple of spot on substitutions. Muhamed Besic replaced Arouna Kone – no argument there – and Gerard Deulofeu took over from Lennon, to a bizarre chorus of boos. The ex-Spurs man hasn’t played for ages, had barely touched the ball in the second half and, more to the point, who else was meant to make way?
The Ant Hill Mob’s Mo Besic is clearly one frustrated customer, given that his Everton career has simply never got going, and he took some of that anger out on the visitors, steaming into tackles – properly, not those phoney hard-case type he’s been guilty of in the past – and forced a flying save from Lloris with a brilliant dipping volley that would have sent the gaff off the bleedin’ hook had it gone in.
Lukaku, Deulofeu and the ever-improving Ross Barkley made a series of searing breaks in search of a winner but only final balls overcooked worse than a sitcom Christmas turkey and some last-ditch defending kept the scores level.
Martinez spoke of our ‘defensive intensity’ afterwards, presumably played at colossal velocity, but let’s be honest, we still rode our luck at times in that first half. Besic’s sheer fury improved matters though, and the shape of the team looked better with Cleverley on the left instead of Kone. Ramiro Funes Mori also won a load of crucial challenges – he’s that most British of Argentinian defenders – and on Wednesday we’ll certainly need to continue where we left off in that last half hour if we are to go into the second leg of the Toblerone Trophy with a fighting chance of making it to Wembley.
Elsewhere, we’re still waiting to hear more about those Americans who have suddenly taken an interest in us now we stand to come into some dough. We are henceforth referring to them as the ‘Eminem’s Arl Girl Consortium’.
Possibly related, you never know, some weird American Olympics fella, Dr Peter Vint, has been appointed the Everton Academy Director. Every report about this highlights that the US won loads of medals at the London Games when he was in charge. As opposed to all them other years.
No one has any idea of what him getting the job means. It would be dead funny though if a mysteriously muscular under 16s side pissed their league by 15 points though, Michelle Smith-style.
AdvertisementsGerald Herbert/Associated Press
Nick Saban already dominates the football and recruiting scenes in the state of Alabama. Now, provided a lawsuit goes his way, he might be on the verge of adding the luxury-car game to that list.
According to John Huddleston of FOX6 News in Birmingham, Ala., Saban has been subpoenaed in he and a partner's attempt to open a Mercedes-Benz franchise dealership.
Here are the details behind the request:
Saban is not named as a defendant in the suit, which is between Crown Automobile in Hoover and Mercedes-Benz USA. Crown claims that allowing Saban and his business partner to build a new dealership in Irondale will infringe on their market and violate the Alabama Motor Vehicle Franchise Act. The subpoena served to Saban asks that he turn over all correspondence relating to the venture including documents, emails, notes and even text messages.
Per Huddleston, Saban also released a statement through his lawyer, Robert Plott, which said the following:
My partner and I have entered into a letter agreement with Mercedes-Benz to open a new dealership in Irondale. We are honored to join the Mercedes family and are extremely excited about the benefits this dealership will bring to the citizens of Birmingham, Irondale and surrounding areas.
If he complies with the subpoena's request, as Plott suggests he will, Saban will be one court ruling away from opening the dealership in Irondale, Ala.
He is a lifelong Mercedes-Benz enthusiast who has long held interest in opening a car dealership, as noted in a speech he gave this January, according to Joe Schad of ESPN.com:
This would be a dream come true.
According to Jeremy Gray of AL.com, a Baton Rouge Mercedes-Benz dealership owner named Joe Agresti has helped Saban with the purchase and provided some details on the transaction—including the fact that Saban's wife, Terry, will be partners in its ownership.
Agresti also said that the land has been purchased for the dealership in Irondale, but construction on the venue has been delayed until the court proceedings clear up.
He also made clear that, because of Mercedes-Benz policy, the dealership will not be allowed to bear Saban's name despite the ostensible boost in accompanying revenue.
Instead, Saban, who is too busy running his football team to oversee the day-to-day ownership of the business, will spend most of his time making special appearances and shilling the property in commercials.
"You'll get to see his smiling face on TV often," said Agresti, according to Gray's report.
The court proceedings still need to take place before the dealership can be built, though Agresti and Saban both sounded confident about its chances in the statements they have issued.
Courtesy of AL.com, the full contents of Saban's subpoena can be found here.
Follow Brian Leigh on Twitter: @BLeighDATCanonical, the company behind the highly popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, unveiled its Ubuntu Netbook Remix yesterday at the Computex show in Taiwan. The Remix is based on Ubuntu Mobile Edition and is designed specifically for mobile computers with a subnotebook form factor.
The Asus Eee PC completely changed the game for budget mobile computing. Following in the wake of the Eee's success, a number of competing products have emerged with similar features and pricing models. Many of these are offered with some version of the open-source Linux operating system. A customizable Ubuntu-based platform that is designed specifically for such systems could attract considerable interest from hardware makers.
Although the Remix hasn't been released yet in its entirety, the source code is already available for several core components of the unique user interface. We managed to put the pieces together and get a working Netbook Remix desktop environment running on a regular Ubuntu 8.04 system. Unlike the Maemo interface, which uses the lightweight Matchbox window manager, the Remix interface is designed to overlay seamlessly on top of Ubuntu's conventional GNOME desktop environment. The implementation is, overall, quite ingenious in many ways, but there are still places where it feels a bit clunky. The project is clearly early in its development and we will likely see the rough spots even out as it evolves.
Ready to launch
The heart of the Remix user interface is its customized Ubuntu Mobile Edition (UME) Launcher which replaces the desktop and provides access to applications and other important system functionality. A series of application categories are displayed on the left side of the launcher and each category provides access to a set of application icons. Conceptually, it is very similar to the Eee's basic mode interface. The contents of the launcher, like the categories and the applications they contain, are taken directly from GNOME's main menu.
The layout and design of the launcher is effective and it is very easy to use. The large size of the buttons makes it finger-friendly, so it will work well on touch-screen devices. Aesthetically, the launcher has a lot of nice visual flourishes like gradients, translucency, and subtle animations, but those are drowned out by the fecal brown that is typical of Ubuntu artwork. Although the launcher is strong conceptually, the implementation still needs some work. The icons look blurry, the text is too small, and the whole thing is a bit too sluggish and processor-hungry. These mostly seem like kinks that can be worked out, so there are no intractable problems.
A glance at the source code reveals that the launcher is programmed in C and uses Clutter, a highly promising rich graphical interface library designed by OpenedHand that is built with OpenGL and provides a GObject-based API. Clutter is still fairly new but is generating considerable excitement in the GNOME development community because it supplies a lot of much-needed graphics functionality that simply isn't supported natively by GTK+. Several prominent GNOME developers have advocated making Clutter a central piece in the next-generation GTK+ toolkit. Clutter is already being used on the desktop by Ubuntu eye-candy expert Mirco Muller to create Ubuntu's experimental new GDM face browser.
The version control system commit logs indicate that a lot of the programming on the launcher is being done by Neil Patel, a software developer who is well-respected in the Ubuntu community and was recently hired by Canonical. Patel is known for his work on the Avant Window Navigator, a very nice Mac OS X panel clone for Linux that takes advantage of cutting-edge compositing functionality and is currently in vogue among GNOME users.
Switching windows
The other major component of the Remix user interface is its unusual window switcher, which is designed to mimic the look and feel of tabs. Program windows are all permanently maximized. Each window places an icon in the window switcher bar and the active window is highlighted as though it is a selected tab. To the right of the icons, the rest of the space is taken up by a single tab that displays the title of the active window and a close button. This is a lot like the way that the Matchbox window manager works in the Maemo environment, except that the window icons are at the top instead of along the side.
The window switcher implementation in the Remix interface is particularly clever. The black bar at the top of the window is a regular GNOME panel and the window switcher tab bar is a panel applet. The permanently-maximized window state is handled by a program called Maximus that runs silently in the background. The Remix environment is still using the regular old Metacity window manager. Users access the launcher by clicking the Home panel applet, which is the Ubuntu logo in the top left-hand corner. The developers were able to create a completely different windowing experience by repurposing standard GNOME components. It's a good approach, because it gives the user a lot of flexibility and makes it possible to keep the regular GNOME panel system.
Although the windowing model is good for devices with small screens and the implementation is clever, the Maximus program is still a bit of a hack and doesn't really work well in certain corner cases. The most visible place where it breaks down is when testing The GIMP, which uses floating palettes. These get maximized and overlap each other, obscuring the main program content and making it impossible to use. Those kinds of bugs will have to be worked out before the software is ready for widespread adoption.
It's Atomic
The Netbook Remix is more than just a pretty face. The Remix will also provide extensive support for hardware components typically found in subnotebook computers. Canonical has worked closely with Intel through the Moblin initiative to ensure strong support for the Atom processor. Intel hopes that Atom will be used with Linux in a wide variety of contexts including Mobile Internet Devices and even vehicle "infotainment" systems.
"At Intel, we see netbooks as an opportunity to expand basic Internet usage throughout the world through simple and affordable devices for consumers," said Intel software and solutions group vice president Doug Fisher in a statement. "The combination of Ubuntu Netbook Remix with Moblin technologies optimized for the Intel Atom processor will deliver a good Internet and media experience on Intel-based netbooks."
Canonical's mobile strategy
The Netbook Remix is part of Canonical's broader strategy for Ubuntu mobility. The company has also partnered with Nokia to work on an experimental Ubuntu ARM port that will bring the distribution to Nokia's Internet Tablet devices and similar products. According to Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth, portable computing is a high priority for Ubuntu 8.10—codenamed Intrepid Ibex—which is scheduled for release in October.
"Our goal is to deliver a superb user experience while making it simple and cost-effective for device manufacturers to be able to bring their devices to the consumer marketplace," Shuttleworth said in a statement. "Ubuntu has in a very short period transformed the perception of the Linux desktop experience. Many more people will experience Linux for the first time through these devices so working with Canonical, using our UI and leveraging software from the Moblin project is the best way to ensure the netbook experience is a success."
Canonical is positioning itself to take the lead on software in the subnotebook market, but a big piece of the puzzle is still absent: customers. Although Canonical is working closely with Intel on reference designs, there is no word |
.
Last month, the State Council, or China’s cabinet, approved a slew of measures to combat air pollution, including accelerating the installation of pollution control equipment on small, coal-fuelled refineries and curbing the growth of high-energy-consuming industries like steel, cement, aluminum, and glass.
The government has made similar promises over the last decade, but enforcement has often been lacking, especially at the local level.
Chinese cities rank among the most polluted in the world, and smog clouds over eastern China, visible from orbit, are easily found online.
Chinese air pollution is driven by many factors, in particular by the country’s dependence on coal-fired power plants, but particulate pollution has been aggravated by a culture that has passionately embraced the automobile as a symbol of status.
The possible restrictions on new vehicle purchases come at a time when automakers are bracing for another tepid year of growth in a market that has been hit by a slowing economy as well as rising fuel costs.
A Beijing-based auto maker executive said this type of sudden surge in restrictions was nothing new in China but admitted that not all firms were ready to deal with it.
“Some of us are on a factory opening binge.” said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
General Motors said in April it will add four new plants in the next three years in China to bring its production capacity to 5 million vehicles a year.
“There’s huge risk if companies are not adding manufacturing capacity in China in a measured manner,” the executive said.I think that if you are a leader, remaining silent on troubling issues is just plain wrong, even knowing full well from personal experience that taking a stand has public consequences.
By Rabbi Hayim Herring, Ph.D.
If you are a rabbi, cantor, Jewish educator or Jewish professional, these are tough times. If you make a statement about Israel, you risk being accused either of being too hawkish or too dovish. If you speak about President Trump, expect to have extended talks with board members, donors or constituents, who, while ambivalent about the president, may have voted for him. And, if you speak about President Trump’s views on Israel, then you may as well pitch your tent and plan to stay the night because you will have some groups of people who want to express supportive views, and others who demand your resignation on the spot. Having served in many different Rabbinic capacities, I share my beliefs on how and why Jewish leaders, and especially rabbis, are obligated to speak out on issues that are divisive, not because controversy is inherently good, but because these are the times when we’re called upon to use our deeper knowledge and training and speak from a Jewish values perspective. I hope that these three beliefs will help you understand why it is important for Jewish leaders to address significant matters and how they may do so respectfully.
Even if you don’t agree with what they say, you want Jewish leaders to express a point of view based on some aspect of Jewish tradition. Whether you’ve hired the C.E.O. of a Hillel organization, Jewish day school, camp or federation, and especially if you’ve hired a congregational rabbi, you’ve done so because you hope that he or she embodies and expresses Jewish values. Try to remember that even when you vehemently disagree with your leaders’ framing of issues around Jewish values, they are fulfilling their professional mandate and, in the case of most rabbis whom I know, are speaking with a belief in divine purpose. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t accountable for what they say and how they say it. And you are entitled to hear how their Jewish values and training have informed their perspectives. But if you don’t want them to raise matters of significance, then how can you complain that they are “boring” or “don’t say anything important?” Sometimes, we still act surprised when two knowledgeable rabbis can draw the opposite conclusions around a given issue. But even a cursory familiarity with a page of Talmud or a reading of just about any period of Jewish history will tell you that disagreement is normal. In part, the resilience of the Jewish tradition has been in its ability both to foster dissent of thought and encourage consensus of action. That does not mean that every community acts in the same way, but that communities, while acknowledging disagreements, can still mobilize to do important work together. Dissent and differences are beneficial because they broaden our thinking about issues. Our noble opponents shed light on aspects of issues that our blind spots cover. They also remind us that there are many good people in the world who hold different opinions from us, and engaging with them helps us avoid the trap of stereotyping everyone who holds a different view from us as somehow “deplorable.” Maintaining respect for someone with a different opinion is not easy for us. But, it’s also not easy for the person on the other side of the issue. With that acknowledgement, we may agree to work on the 40% of issues around which we have consensus, rather than fight to prove that the other is wrong about the 60% around which there is disagreement.
These three guiding principles are nice theory. But leading is about action, so here is how I am applying these principles as a U.S. citizen, who is a rabbi and an American Zionist. Like many U.S. citizens, while I’ll still love America, I’m not feeling very proud now about the state of government affairs. This is not a new feeling, but one that has intensified since the recent presidential campaign season and election. And like many American Zionists, I’m incredibly frustrated with the leadership of Israel’s majority coalition government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu. I don’t believe in walking away from the things that I love when I am conflicted about them. Rather, in tough times, I believe that caring is more constructive than despairing. I also think that if you are a leader, remaining silent on troubling issues is a just plain wrong, even knowing full well from personal experience that taking a stand has public consequences, just as not taking a stand also has negative private consequences.
So – as a U.S. citizen who has a daily stake in life in America, I have a first amendment right to express my political views, drawing upon my rabbinic training and religious values. It is never acceptable to diminish the dignity of another human being. We all share the same divine image that is of equal and infinite worth, and using terms that are vulgar, misogynistic, derisive of people with disabilities, or stereotyping entire groups of people because of nationality or religion as “other” and therefore by implication as dangerous offends Jewish values.
It is legitimate to have discussion and debate about issues relating to pathways to legal citizenship, and what those requirements should entail. It is legitimate to have discussions about a primary duty of government to protect its citizens. But it is never acceptable to do so in a way that displays callousness in view of the Torah’s commandments to be especially careful about those who are legally vulnerable.
As a U.S. citizen, I will support causes in the United States that align with fundamental democratic values (America as a welcoming home for immigrants who are inspired by our Constitution and committed to live by its laws; an independent media that is unafraid of coercion; racial, gender and economic equality; free and fair elections; respect for all branches of government, etc.). As an American Zionist, I will join with other groups that share those values. I will first seek out groups that do not mix international politics with domestic issues by including statements in their platforms that I judge to undermine Israel’s legitimacy. But as an American citizen, if a cause is too important for me to ignore, I will not automatically rule out collaborating even with groups that have anti-Israel statements in their platforms. If I do collaborate with them, I will call out their one-sided, anti-Israel motives.
As an American Zionist and a rabbinic leader who spends a significant amount of time in Israel, but is not an Israeli citizen, I have the right to express my views about events in Israel, but with caution and humility. On a very limited basis, I have experienced some of the effects of wartime in Israel. I had the experience of running to seek shelter within 90 seconds from incoming rockets targeting civilian areas, and taking off from Ben Gurion Airport on a night when 70 missiles were fired at the airport gave new meaning to the verse from the “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air….”
But that doesn’t mean that I’ll ever know what it means to watch my 18-year old child be inducted mandatorily into the army to defend his or her country or, for that matter, a 30-something year old with a family to be activated for military service because of an enemy attack. I’ve been in Israel during the “knife intifada,” and several terrorist attacks have occurred close to my apartment while I’ve been there, but that doesn’t make me a political or military expert on Israel. Unlike some of my left-leaning and right-leaning friends or politicians who are very certain on their pronouncements about Israel, formed primarily from what they read or want to believe, I realize that debates about pressing issues like Israeli settlements are much more complex. Just spend some time with Israelis, and you’ll hear plenty of robust and diverse political debate about what constitutes a settlement verses a city or suburb, and how necessary some are or aren’t.
In addition to spending increasingly more time in Israel in the future, the way that I’m going to demonstrate my hopes that Israel will live up to its promise of a Jewish, Zionistic and democratic state will be to support Israeli Jewish groups that bolster democracy in Israel. Additionally, as an American Zionist, I will no longer support American Jewish organizations that uncritically back the current U.S. administration when its policies and bigoted rhetoric conflict with my Jewish values. Yes – there’s a lot at stake for Jewish organizations in opposing any U.S. administration. But personally, I feel like I’m selling out my Jewish values if I remain silent when President Trump, or a member of any U.S. political party, makes ad hominin attacks that directly conflict with Jewish values on human dignity and civility.
When it comes to the Jewish community, the rabbinic leadership obligation and, I believe the leadership imperative of any Jewish professional who directs a Jewish organization, is to address significant issues when they conflict with Jewish values and to applaud those that support Jewish values. Addressing critical issues is a bipartisan Jewish leadership principle, one that allows a person to lead with integrity and authenticity. As a member of a faith community, we have the right and I believe the need to express our perspectives on critical issues in our country, recognizing that we are speaking within the context of a secular democracy. We get to contribute to a national conversation, using our authentic voice, but with the recognition that we have some truth to contribute, as others do as well. Along with that obligation, we have the responsibility to speak with empathy for those who do not agree with us, and humility so that we can learn from others. Ultimately, as a U.S., rabbinic American Zionist, I believe that an America that lives up to its highest values is good for America and good for Israel. What do you think? And looking forward to your respectful response – thank you.
Rabbi Hayim Herring, Ph.D., is an author, consultant and nonprofit organizational futurist who holds a doctorate in Organization and Management. A “C-suite” leader, Hayim has worked with over 300 rabbis and congregations of all sizes and denominations throughout North America on issues including assessment, volunteer leadership development, strategic planning, organizational foresight and innovation. His most recent publications are Leading Congregations and Nonprofits in a Connected World: Platforms, People, and Purpose, with Dr. Terri Elton (2016) and, Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today. Creating Vibrant Centers of Jewish (2012).More articles by LSK
Posted in Posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2015 Drkdstryr, LSKMore articles by Drkdstryer Posted in mtg
We all love Magic Online! And one of the best things about Magic Online is that, 4 out of every 5 times, it works exactly like you’d expect, without any bugs to get in the way of your digital card experience. Of course, nobody’s perfect, least of all the vigilant MODO programmers, so we created this quiz as a little tribute to the things that slip between the cracks. We’ve mixed up some real and historic Magic Online glitches with some we just made up, and it’s up to you to figure out which is which!
______________________________
1. Zooming in on a card exiled by a land with hideaway shows an additional basic Swamp.
2. Knight of the Reliquary incorrectly allows the player to sacrifice any permanent when activating its ability.
3. Mishra, Artificer Prodigy will freeze the client when used as a Commander.
4. Fact or Fiction allowed the player casting the spell to arrange the piles, instead of an opponent.
5. Unhallowed Pact incorrectly returns token creatures to the battlefield.
6. If Balance causes a player to sacrifice lands, that player won’t be able to activate abilities of permanents for the rest of that phase.
7. Stomp and Howl unable to select the same target twice if it’s both an artifact and enchantment.
8. You can no longer use both halves of split cards to pay a total of 2 mana for Delve costs.
9. Costs that include a snow mana symbol require an additional snow mana.
10. Magmaw incorrectly allows the player to sacrifice lands or discard cards from their hand to activate its ability.
11. Chandra, Pyromaster’s -7 ability no longer restarts the game when Exquisite Firecraft is the only instant or sorcery exiled this way.
12. The triggered ability on the promo version of Relic Seeker does not function correctly. The non-promo version of this card, however, works as intended.
13. Spellweaver Helix would freeze the game if used to cast a card without a mana cost.
14. Fatespinner’s triggered ability would halt the game after an opponent makes a choice, forcing them to either concede or time out.
15. Daru Spiritualist made you sacrifice Clerics instead of giving them +0/+2.
16. Mogg Assassin’s activated ability no longer restarts the game.
17. When rules text is added to Unhinged lands and then zoomed, the client crashes.
18. In some scenarios, casting Mulch would crash Magic Online.
19. Spellskite incorrectly allows a player to redirect spells or abilities to the Spellskite, even if it’s no longer on the battlefield.
20. Field of Souls incorrectly makes Eldrazi Spawn tokens instead of Spirit tokens.
Want to see how you did? Scroll down!
______________________________
The fake bugs are numbers 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, and 20. All of the rest are real bugs that exist or have existed.
If you scored…
16-20: You are the Magic Online Bugmaster! You should be part of the bug-finding team. I bet they’ll love you!
10-15: You scored slightly better than chance. That means you probably knew at least one bug! Was it the Fact or Fiction one? That’s one’s my favorite.
5-9: You scored worse than chance! That means you probably guessed at random. I don’t think you’re taking this seriously.
0-4: You are fuel for the Magmaw! That’s not related to your performance on the quiz, it’s just a general fact.
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RedditDr Seuss’ book Green Eggs and Ham is built around the urgings of a weird creature, Sam I Am, who insists the narrator eat the food of its title. When the narrator refuses, Sam issues an ever-widening range of appeals – Would you eat them in a box? Would you eat them with a fox? But Sam’s insistence fails to convince an increasingly vehement narrator.
The story provides a light-hearted analogy to the plight of anyone who has tried to persuade another person to abandon an entrenched position – especially a parent’s decision to not vaccinate their child. In fact, psychologists have found that too much urging can result in a backfire effect, with the person becoming more committed to their beliefs.
When herd immunity hangs by a narrow margin, the decisions taken by a small group of parents matter. With too few children vaccinated, a disease such as measles can easily spread. This impacts on the whole community, including those too young to be vaccinated and those who can’t have a vaccine for medical reasons.
While a measles epidemic cannot be solely blamed on people who actively forgo vaccination – waning immunity in adults also contributes – it can be an important factor. We saw this play out in the United Kingdom in the late 2000s, when the now-debunked theory that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism drove immunisation rates down to 80%.
Avoiding a disease tragedy
The most important strategy to prevent the avoidable spread of infectious diseases lies on the supply side, with governments maintaining well-oiled systems. Free, easily accessible, safe and effective vaccines need to get to those who actually want them. It’s a tragedy when parents who want to vaccinate their children can’t do so because of external impediments.
The second strategy is to target those who are hesitant about vaccination. People in this group usually vaccinate but might delay or decline a stigmatised vaccine such as MMR or human papillomavirus (HPV).
Australia could do more to meet the needs of these active information seekers. Just this week, the Academy of Science released a high-end publication The Science of Immunisation: Questions and Answers. It sets out to explain the current situation in immunisation science, including where there is consensus in the scientific community and where uncertainties exist.
The third approach to preventing a disease outbreak is to minimise the proportion of people who refuse vaccines. Even though they represent about 2% of Australian parents, they cluster in certain regions where up to 35% may be unvaccinated. An outbreak of whooping cough or measles in those communities would result in a much more sustained spread.
Flickr/stephanski
Talking with vaccine refusers
One of the most important times to address this problem is when parents are forming or solidifying their views on vaccination – usually during pregnancy or in the child’s first year. At this time, their family doctor or child health nurse has a crucial role in discussing concerns.
These discussions can be challenging for health professionals. With this in mind, I worked with an international group of clinicians and communication scientists to develop a framework for health professionals in communicating about vaccination. We recognised these health professionals posess a good deal of training, experience and skill in communicating – that they already had a collection of communication tools. The trick is often knowing which tools to use and when.
The framework involves a tailored approach and is informed by evidence in the areas of communication science and motivational interviewing. It begins with a spectrum of parental positions: unquestioning acceptance, cautious acceptance, hesitance, delay/selective vaccination, and refusal. The goals and strategies will differ across these positions.
The common theme is listening and acknowledgement, and, as even Dr Seuss himself inferred, this approach is far more likely to produce a positive result than talking at cross-purposes.
AdolfGalland
When mum “Kate”, for example, declares her intention to her doctor to give her baby homoeopathic preparations instead of vaccination, he may immediately try to put her right, knowing homeopathy won’t protect the baby at all. This “righting reflex” is the natural response of health professionals to instinctively leap in and “put right” health-care problems.
With parents such as Kate who are often fixed in their views, the discussion can descend into a game of scientific ping-pong, arguing back and forth about the evidence. These discussions are usually time consuming and are likely to further entrench Kate who, feeling cornered, will defensively rehearse and reinforce her arguments.
In this situation, a better goal would be to build a rapport that may have gains further down the track, including further discussion, partial vaccination and, perhaps eventually, full vaccination. This would be done by acknowledging her concerns, asking permission to discuss, encouraging her to explore the pros and cons of her decision, and eliciting her own possible motivations to protect her baby from diseases such as whooping cough, particularly since her decision to use homeopathy has already demonstrated some desire for active protection.
This approach draws from motivational interviewing that uses a guiding style, rather than a directing style, for discussions where there is ambivalence and resistance to change. The method has shown to be effective for a range of health behaviours.
Our framework also sets out strategies for parents who want to delay or select-out some vaccines, are hesitant, or generally accepting of vaccination. Across all such scenarios, it is more effective if professionals build rapport, accept questions and concerns, and facilitate valid consent by discussing both benefits and risks of vaccination.
In Green Eggs and Ham, it’s not until Sam I Am finally acknowledges, “You do not like them, so you say. Try them try them and you may” that the winds of refusal change. The narrator tries the strange dish and, by book’s end, happily declares his love for it, and his gratitude to Sam.
Seuss showed us that a simple acknowledgement and a more respectful plea is part of the art of gentle persuasion.CLOSE Disturbing video shows what happened in the minutes leading up to the death of Linwood Lambert in 2013. Officers in South Boston, Virginia say they took Lambert to a hospital to get medical help, but things quickly spiraled out of control. VPC
Linwood Lambert and his sister Gwendolyn Smalls. (Photo11: Photo provided by Gwendolyn Smalls)
A hearing in a wrongful death lawsuit for a man who died in police custody begins Thursday in Virginia.
Linwood Lambert, 46, was tased over 20 times in thirty minutes by police the night he died, according to Joe Messa, an attorney for the Lambert family. Lambert's sister, Gwendolyn Smalls, filed the $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against police this summer.
"There is no circumstance under any standard where anyone should be tased the number of times or the length of time that Mr. Lambert was tased," Messa told USA TODAY Network.
New video of the 2013 incident first obtained by MSNBC shows that Lambert was picked up by police at 5 a.m. on May 4. Police had received a noise complaint from the hotel he was staying at in South Boston, Va.
Lambert was acting delusional and complaining about dead bodies in his room, so the three responding officers decided to take him to the emergency room for medical attention, according to police reports obtained by MSNBC.
Police handcuffed Lambert and drove him to the hospital. Video of the incident shows one of the three officers calling ahead to make sure a mental health worker is at the hospital when they arrive.
During the ride, Lambert became agitated and when the car stops at the hospital video shows Lambert using his legs to kick out the windows. In the video, an officer yells, "Quit kicking the window."
The video shows Lambert trying to run away from police and slamming into the emergency room's glass doors.
Officers Tiffany Bratton, Clifton Mann and Travis Clay, then ran to Lambert and began repeatedly tasing him.
Linwood Lambert in a photo provided by his sister Gwendolyn Smalls. (Photo11: Gwendolyn Smalls)
During the incident, Lambert appears subdued on the ground and tells police he used cocaine earlier in the night. As Lambert lies on the ground outside of the hospital, police arrest him for disorderly conduct and destruction of property. Instead of taking him into the hospital to receive care they put him back into the police car.
During the incident Lambert repeatedly asked police to stop. "Why are you trying to kill me man," Lambert said in the video. "Please don't do this to me."
During the ride to the police station, Lambert appears to be unconscious and the officers realize he is in distress. An ambulance is called to take him back to the hospital and he is pronounced dead at 6:23 a.m., according to MSNBC. The medical examiner said Lambert died of "acute cocaine intoxication," CNN reported.
The autopsy concluded that Lambert had "less than 0.01 mg/L" of cocaine in his system, MSNBC reported.
That's a relatively low amount of cocaine, but could still account for an overdose, Lewis S. Nelson, a toxicologist and emergency specialist at NYU Langone medical center, told MSNBC.
"Having a level of 5 mg/L or higher would be more consistent with death due to cocaine intoxication," Nelson told MSNBC.
South Boston Police Chief James Binner filed a response to the civil case denying allegations that Lambert was treated unfairly while in police custody.
"The deployments of Tasers when a subject has become violent, causing damage to property and placing the safety of persons at risk, as was the case with Linwood Lambert Jr., is appropriate and necessary use of force," according to the response.
The case has been under investigation by Halifax County attorney Tracy Quackenbush Martin since 2013, according to Lambert family attorneys.
No one has been charged in Lambert's death.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1NN19oKHBO has released three clips from Season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones.
In the first clip, Cersie Lannister asks her brother/lover, Jamie, if he recalls the first time he saw a dead body. In the second clip, Khaleesi is brought to the Dothraki's stronghold. In the third and final clip, we see Sansa and Theon dashing through a snow-covered forest.
Watch all three clips in the videos below.
Jon Snow is dead. Daenerys meets a strong man. Cersei sees her daughter again.
Season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones, which is titled "The Red Woman," will air Sunday, April 24 on HBO.
Have you seen Dawn of Justice yet? If so, go rate it in the ComicBook.com Movie Database for a chance to win your very own Armored Batman figure!I’ve been informed that an Android 4.2.2 SDK for Telechips TCC892x and the newer TCC893x (TCC8930, TCC8933, TCC8935) dual core SoCs has been leaked on the Internet. The file (v13.03_r1-tcc-android-4.2.2.tar.bz2) is a 2.7GB tarball, and appears to be a full SDK. You can download the file here if you are interested.
After extraction, there’s 6.7 GB of data in the following directories:
40M./libcore 5.8M./docs 31M./ndk 5.0M./gdk 1.2G./frameworks 324K./pdk 95M./development 18M./bionic 544M./kernel 228M./device 106M./hardware 24M./bootable 295M./packages 55M./sdk 151M./cts 2.4G./prebuilts 1.7G./external 40M./dalvik 9.1M./system 108K./libnativehelper 6.9M./build 104K./abi 47M./vendor
The linux kernel is based on Linux 3.1.10, and there are a few config files to choose from with configs forh HDMI TV dongles, micro PCs, STBs, and evaluation boards for TCC8930, TCC8935, TCC8920 and TCC8925.
kernel/arch/arm/configs$ ls tcc* tcc8920st_defconfig tcc8935st_dongle_single_defconfig tcc8925st_dongle_defconfig tcc8935st_upc_defconfig tcc8925st_upc_defconfig tcc8935st_upc_single_defconfig tcc8925st_yj8925t_defconfig tcc8935st_yj8935t_defconfig tcc892x_defconfig tcc8935st_yj8935t_single_defconfig tcc8930st_defconfig tcc893x_defconfig tcc8930st_single_defconfig tcc893x_single_defconfig tcc8935st_dongle_defconfig 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 kernel / arch / arm / configs $ ls tcc * tcc8920st _ defconfig tcc8935st_dongle_single_defconfig tcc8925st_dongle _ defconfig tcc8935st_upc_defconfig tcc8925st_upc _ defconfig tcc8935st_upc_single_defconfig tcc8925st_yj8925t _ defconfig tcc8935st_yj8935t_defconfig tcc892x _ defconfig tcc8935st_yj8935t_single_defconfig tcc8930st _ defconfig tcc893x_defconfig tcc8930st_single _ defconfig tcc893x_single_defconfig tcc8935st_dongle_defconfig
YJ8925T boards supports HDMI and CVBS video output, UPC support HDMI only, and others support HDMI, CVBS, and component outputs.
You’ll also find a few details about the platforms in the bootloader (bootable/bootloader/lk/target/tcc8930st_evm/rules.mk):
#------------------------------------------------------------------ # Define board revision # 0x6230 : STBM /TCC8930 /DDR3 1024MB(32BIT) /None # 0x7300 : YAOJIN /TCC8935 /DDR3 512MB (16BIT) /None # 0x7310 : YAOJIN /TCC8935 /DDR3 1024MB (16BIT) /None # 0x8310 : UPC /TCC8935 /DDR3 1024MB(16BIT) /None # 0x9300 : DONGLE /TCC8935 /DDR3 512MB (16BIT) /None 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 #------------------------------------------------------------------ # Define board revision # 0x6230 : STBM /TCC8930 /DDR3 1024MB(32BIT) /None # 0x7300 : YAOJIN /TCC8935 /DDR3 512MB (16BIT) /None # 0x7310 : YAOJIN /TCC8935 /DDR3 1024MB (16BIT) /None # 0x8310 : UPC /TCC8935 /DDR3 1024MB(16BIT) /None # 0x9300 : DONGLE /TCC8935 /DDR3 512MB (16BIT) /None
There are also several build options for Android:
source build/envsetup.sh 1 source build / envsetup.sh
You can run lunch to find out which Telechips builds are available, and start the build.
lunch... 16. full_m805_892x-eng 17. full_m805_893x-eng 18. full_tcc8920st-eng 19. full_tcc8920-eng 20. full_tcc8930st-eng 21. full_tcc893x-eng 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 lunch... 16. full_m805_892x - eng 17. full_m805_893x - eng 18. full_tcc8920st - eng 19. full_tcc8920 - eng 20. full_tcc8930st - eng 21. full_tcc893x - eng
Run make -j10 to start the build.
full_tcc893x-eng fails to buid, and full_m805_893x-eng as well with the error:
frameworks/base/core/java/com/android/internal/widget/LockPatternUtils.java:1280: error 114: @deprecated tag with no explanatory comment DroidDoc took 137 sec. to write docs to out/target/common/docs/doc-comment-check make: *** [out/target/common/docs/doc-comment-check-timestamp] Error 45 1 2 3 frameworks / base / core / java / com / android / internal / widget / LockPatternUtils.java : 1280 : error 114 : @ deprecated tag with no explanatory comment DroidDoc took 137 sec. to write docs to out / target / common / docs / doc - comment - check make : * * * [ out / target / common / docs / doc - comment - check - timestamp ] Error 45
Following instructions found @ https://community.freescale.com/thread/303944, you can just edit frameworks/base/core/java/com/android/internal/widget/LockPatternUtils.java, and remove line 1280 “* @deprecated”.
The build will go further, but stops with:
Checking API: checkapi-last frameworks/base/api/17.txt:21088: error 9: Removed public constructor SmsMessage() frameworks/base/api/17.txt:21089: error 9: Removed public method android.telephony.gsm.SmsMessage.calculateLength frameworks/base/api/17.txt:21090: error 9: Removed public method android.telephony.gsm.SmsMessage.calculateLength frameworks/base/api/17.txt:21091: error 9: Removed public method android.telephony.gsm.SmsMessage.createFromPdu 1 2 3 4 5 Checking API : checkapi - last frameworks / base / api / 17.txt : 21088 : error 9 : Removed public constructor SmsMessage ( ) frameworks / base / api / 17.txt : 21089 : error 9 : Removed public method android.telephony.gsm.SmsMessage.calculateLength frameworks / base / api / 17.txt : 21090 : error 9 : Removed public method android.telephony.gsm.SmsMessage.calculateLength frameworks / base / api / 17.txt : 21091 : error 9 : Removed public method android.telephony.gsm.SmsMessage.createFromPdu
You can remove the complete “SmsMessage” class in 17.txt, and run make update-api, before carrying on with, and hopefully completing, the build.
Documentation related to Telechips TCC893x SoCs is available in./vendor/telechips/documents/common/pdf/ directory:
You’ll also find tools and binaries in./vendor/telechips/ directory.CLOSE Obama sanctioned Russia over its alleged meddling in the U.S. election, but Trump says he might eventually lift those sanctions. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
In this is a Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016 file photo, the now President-elect Donald Trump welcomes pro-Brexit British politician Nigel Farage, to speak at a campaign rally in Jackson, Miss. (Photo11: Gerald Herbert, AP)
LONDON — President-elect Donald Trump said he will do a trade deal with Britain, to help make the country’s pending departure from the European Union “a great thing.”
Trump told the Times of London that he will meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May soon after his inauguration. The article, Trump’s first U.K. interview since being elected, was published online on Monday.
Britons voted to leave the EU at a referendum in June over issues including high levels of immigration. May has said she will trigger the process of leaving the bloc by March.
“I love the U.K.,” Trump told the Times of London in an interview at Trump Tower in New York.
“We’re gonna work very hard to get it done quickly and done properly. Good for both sides.
“I will be meeting with (May). She’s requesting a meeting and we’ll have a meeting right after I get into the White House and... we’re gonna get something done very quickly.”
Trump told the newspaper that he believed that other nations would also leave the EU amid Europe’s migration crisis. More than a million migrants entered the continent in 2015, while smaller numbers entered last year.
“I think it’s very tough. People, countries want their own identity and the U.K. wanted its own identity,” he said.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson welcomed Trump's remarks.
"It's very good news that the United States of America wants to do a good free trade deal with us and wants to do it very fast and it's great to hear that from President-elect Donald Trump," Johnson told reporters in Brussels, where he is attending an EU foreign ministers' meeting.
He added: "Clearly it'll have to be a deal that's very much in the interests of both sides but I've no doubt that it will be."
Trump said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a “catastrophic mistake” by allowing nearly a million migrants to enter Germany in 2015.
Trump also told the Times of London that he would try and agree deals with Russia including limiting nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions.
“They have sanctions on Russia — let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia. For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part of it,” he said.
He added that Russia’s involvement with Syria was “a very bad thing” that led to a “terrible humanitarian situation.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters in Moscow on Monday that Russia does not raise the issue of sanctions in talks with other nations because it is not up to the country to scrap them.
“Let’s wait until he assumes office before we give assessment to any initiatives,” Peskov said.
Trump also told the Times of London that NATO is "obsolete."
"I took such heat, when I said NATO was obsolete," he said. "It’s obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right."
“A lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States," he added. "With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much."
He added that next Monday, orders will be signed to fortify U.S. borders, potentially including travel restrictions on Europeans and “extreme vetting” for people coming from places known for Islamic extremism.
The British pound fell to a three-month low on Sunday amid reports that May will signal her willingness to leave the EU’s single market — which allows countries to trade with each other without restrictions — in order to gain control of immigration. May’s office said the reports were "speculation."
The pound fell below $1.20 before recovering slightly Monday. It has fallen about 20% against the dollar since the vote for Brexit in June.
May is due to deliver a speech on Brexit on Tuesday.
Read or Share this story |
with discovering benzodiazepines, the main class of tranquilizers.[1]
Background and family [ edit ]
Villa Adriatic where Leo Sternbach spent his childhood in Opatija, Croatia
Sternbach was born on May 7, 1908, in Opatija, to an upper middle class Jewish family. He had a younger brother, Giusi.[2] His father Michael Abracham Sternbach was from Polish city of Przemyśl in Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary), and his mother Piroska (née Cohn) Sternbach was from Orosháza, Hungary. Sternbach's parents met and married in Opatija where they both lived. The family lived in modest conditions, in a rented four-room apartment on the third floor of the "Vila Jadran" (Villa Adriatic), near the pharmacy owned by Sternbach's father. Sternbach attended a private German school in Opatija until it was closed in 1920, and—since he could not speak Italian—continued his schooling in Villach, Graz, and Bielitz. In 1926, Sternbach moved with his family to Krakow, Poland. In the same year, his younger brother died of scarlet fever, at the age of fifteen.[3][4]
Education and career [ edit ]
He received his master's degree in pharmacy in 1929 and his doctoral degree in organic chemistry in 1931 from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. In 1937 he received a scholarship from Feliks Wislicki Foundation. He moved to Wien and then to Zurich where he continued his researches started in Cracow. In Vienna he worked with Wolfgang Joseph Pauli (Sr.) and Sigmund Fränkel; after which he worked with Leopold Ružička at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. When war started he was still in Switzerland. His mother, Hungarian born, survived hidden by Poles. While in Basel on 1 June 1940 he started his career in Hoffmann-La Roche where he worked until 2003. He married Herta Kreuzer. In 1941, he moved to the United States to work at Hoffmann-La Roche in Nutley, New Jersey, thus escaping the Germans.[5]
While working for Hoffmann-La Roche in Nutley, New Jersey, Sternbach did significant work on new drugs. He is credited with the discovery of chlordiazepoxide (Librium), diazepam (Valium), flurazepam (Dalmane), nitrazepam (Mogadon), flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), clonazepam (Klonopin), and trimethaphan (Arfonad). Librium, based on the R0 6-690 compound discovered by Sternbach in 1956, was approved for use in 1960. In 1963, its improved version, Valium, was released and became astonishingly popular: between 1969 and 1982, it was the most prescribed drug in America, with over 2.3 billion doses sold in its peak year of 1978. With Moses Wolf Goldberg, Sternbach also developed "the first commercially applicable" method for synthesizing biotin.[6]
Sternbach held 241 patents, and his discoveries helped to turn Roche into a pharmaceutical industry giant. He did not become wealthy from his discoveries, but he was happy; he treated chemistry as a passion and said, "I always did just what I wanted to do". He was active in his career until the age of 95. Sternbach was a longtime resident of Upper Montclair, New Jersey, from 1943 to 2003. He then moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he died in 2005.[7][8]
Legacy [ edit ]
A book Good chemistry: The life and legacy of Valium inventor Leo Sternbach was published by McGraw-Hill in 2004.
Sternbach's uncle, Leon Sternbach, the brother of Sternbach's father Michael, was a professor of classical philology at Jagiellonian University. He was murdered in 1940 in the Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp as the result of the Nazi action against Polish academic teachers called Sonderaktion Krakau. His killer was Gustav Sorge.
He is present in the New Jersey Inventor's Hall of Fame; and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in February 2005, a few months before his death.[9] Sternbach is a member of the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame.[10]Contents show]
History
Stanley Lieber was once a teacher at Midtown High School. Among his students were Flash Thompson and Peter Parker.[3]
Along with Al Hartley, Stan Lee got his start working on the Patsy and Hedy Entertainment Magazine.[4]
Stan Lee and his then comic collaborator Jack Kirby originally had an agreement with the Fantastic Four that the team would share their adventures with them so that Lee and Kirby could publish factual accounts in their comics. Doctor Doom, setting a trap for Mister Fantastic, forced Kirby and Lee to call Mister Fantastic to their studio to work out a new plot with them. As soon as Doom left with his prisoner, Lee and Kirby warned the other members of the Fantastic Four - which was also a part of Doom's scheme.[5]
Lee and Kirby were refused entrance to the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm.[6] Although he threatened legal action, he apparently reconciled with the team.
Lee also happened to be at the window at one point in time to see and greet a balancing Daredevil. He regretted that Gene Colan was not there to see him too.[7]
Stan, now with moustache and goatee, went to the theater with wife Joan in NYC. The play was not of their liking but Stan found it was short enough to go back home and write the following Spider-Man issue. They then met Daredevil, who was running from rampaging Man-Bull and greeted Stan as "fearless leader". Joan was amazed at seeing a superhero.[2]
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby once observed Scott Summers and Jean Grey kissing on Christmas.[8]
George Pérez and Roy Thomas had trouble with an issue of Fantastic Four - as the Fantastic Four themselves were in outer space, they could not report their findings for Pérez and Thomas to report those and, with the deadlines approaching, Joe Sinnott needed their input to write. They asked Lee for a solution and, when consulting visiting luminary Jack Kirby, the latter suggested they make up a story, something they considered but Lee rejected on principle. The office was then assaulted by the Impossible Man, who wanted to appear in a comic-book, but Lee was against this because Impossible Man comics had received bad criticisms in the past. Impossible Man turned violent, and Pérez and Thomas had to protect Lee from damage. Finally, the Fantastic Four forced Lee to reconsider his position and approve an Impossible Man special issue but, as soon as they all left, Lee took down his promise made under duress.[1]
Writer Marv Wolfman and artist Sal Buscema summoned then-newbie superhero Nova to consider him for a new comic-book series. After trying to meet Lee several time (secretary Beth Bleckley reported that Lee was "spreading the faith" and giving a lecture at LaSalle University), they finally had a chance, but Lee was skeptic at such an inexperienced superhero, delaying that decision for a year and assigning Wolfman to work with artist John Constanza in the title "Midas the Million Dollar Mouse!.[9]
Some time later, Lee was walking the streets of New York City and, along with several other bystanders, approvingly gazed at somersaulting Spider-Man high over them and talked about it with nearby strangers - albeit Lee would rather have seen Vera Valiant.[10]
A version of Stan Lee appeared to the Hulk and went through the story of Bruce's dad's death, using a troupe of actors, before disappearing into nothingness. It is unknown how this version came into being or what it truly was.[11] At that time, visions of Stan appeared in other places, including Stan as a driver to explain a story of Daredevil.[12]
Later, a more worldly Stan attended Karen Page's funeral.[13]
He's an old friend of Ben Grimm, both went out along Jack Kirby when the Future Foundation found a temporary cure for Ben's mutation.[14]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Sensationalism, Self-Promotion, as well espousing the greatness of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Universe.
Abilities
Stan is a talented scripter and editor, and can account surprisingly well for himself in a physical confrontation.
Vocabulary Stan possesses a mastery of vocabulary and alliteration that borders on the super-human.
Notes
Recommended Reading
Discover and Discuss
Search this site for:Here’s one thing that won’t be the same when the Chiefs play their home opener against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 17: the music.
The Chiefs tweeted this on Friday:
We are asking YOU to choose our new touchdown celebration song. Vote now: http://t.co/MZccXpQMAp pic.twitter.com/FF62SP3odv — Kansas City Chiefs (@chiefs) August 21, 2015
Gone, apparently, is a version of “Rock ‘N’ Roll Part 2” by Gary Glitter.
Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Kansas City Star
The choices are:
1. “Hey, Kansas City!” by David George & A Crooked Mile
2. “Song 2” by Blur
3. “Let Me Clear My Throat” by DJ Kool
There’s been no official word on why the change is being made, but it could be because Glitter (real name: Paul Gadd) was sentenced in February to 16 years in prison in England for sexual abuses between 1975 and 1980. All involved underage girls.
In 2006, the NFL reportedly asked teams to stop playing Glitter’s version of the song and the Chiefs switched to a cover version by the Tube Tops.
However, the vice president of business affairs for the American Society of Composers, Artists and Publishers told The Star that year, “If it sounds like Gary Glitter’s song, we would credit Gary Glitter. From our standpoint it makes no difference who the performer is, it’s who the composer and publisher is.”
Voting for the new song opened at noon on Friday and will continue until 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 31.
Chiefs fans were not happy about the news.
@chiefs this is going to backfire pic.twitter.com/dYCF3B2a73 — T.M. Senecaut (@SuchFreshT) August 21, 2015 @chiefs nothing wrong with the current one and hasn't been anything wrong with it for 20 years — Bryan Eck (@twidderBS) August 21, 2015
@chiefs noooooo tradition — Tim Thacker (@texchief07) August 21, 2015 @chiefs The Hey Song preformed by Gary Glitter and nothing else. It's tradition. It's a part of Arrowhead. — Michael Krause (@sourkrause23) August 21, 2015
@chiefs leave it alone. Its Chiefs tradition — Derek Albertson (@AlbertsonDerek) August 21, 2015Why the Rape Whistle?
When we began She’s Against Rape, we considered various options but decided that Rape Whistle was the best solution. Amongst the things we eliminated were Martial arts classes for women, pepper spray and other offensive forms of self defense. We feel that these solutions are of limited use and have the potential to backfire.
The rape whistle cannot backfire since it cannot be used against the victim in any way. There is no time wasted in learning how to use the whistle because it’s simple, unlike learning a martial art which requires training and practice. Even in situations where the whistle is snatched from the victim, it’s difficult to turn it off unless the offender knows the position of the off button (at the back). Another thing that the rape whistle does is that it makes the community accountable. If someone hears the siren and chooses to ignore it, it is different from just turning a blind eye and is much harder on their conscience.Submitted by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,
This report was initially released to PeakProsperity.com's paid subscribers earlier this week. Given the significance of the subject matter and the number of request from our enrolled members to share it more widely, we're making it available to all readers here. For our paying subscribers, who have already read this, please see the new Part 2 companion to this report: How To Prepare For War.
From my perspective, the made-for-public Western news copy regarding Ukraine and Russia is childishly slanted and one-sided. The level of so-called aggression by Russia cannot even remotely be compared to the United States' naked aggression against Iraq – a country that had not attacked the US, threatened the US, or had any WMD program (which even if it did, would still have not constituted a legitimate reason for invasion by another nation under existing international law.)
So there’s a heavy dose of “Do as we say, not as we do” when it comes to US pronouncements of ‘unacceptable aggression’ on the part of Russia. Predictably, Russia is less than pleased -- as in the way they would be if routinely lectured in the press by Captain Hazelwood on the importance of boating safety.
Despite Western claims, it is highly unlikely Russia has yet moved heavy equipment and troop concentrations across the Ukraine border -- because if they had, you’d for sure have seen pictures. Endless pictures of those troops and equipment on TV, morning, noon and night. You haven’t seen any pictures, so none likely exist, which means no Russian army troops or military armaments are yet in Ukraine.
But that has not stopped the US and NATO from accusing Russia of exactly those transgressions in nearly every single announcement and press release.
The latest hawkish salvo by General Breedlove was so over-the-top that Germany expressed public alarm:
Breedlove's Bellicosity: Berlin Alarmed by Aggressive NATO Stance on Ukraine Mar 6, 2015 It was quiet in eastern Ukraine last Wednesday. Indeed, it was another quiet day in an extended stretch of relative calm. The battles between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists had largely stopped and heavy weaponry was being withdrawn. The Minsk cease-fire wasn't holding perfectly, but it was holding. On that same day, General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, stepped before the press in Washington. Putin, the 59-year-old said, had once again "upped the ante" in eastern Ukraine -- with "well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of their most sophisticated air defense, battalions of artillery" having been sent to the Donbass. "What is clear," Breedlove said, "is that right now, it is not getting better. It is getting worse every day." German leaders in Berlin were stunned. They didn't understand what Breedlove was talking about. And it wasn't the first time. Once again, the German government, supported by intelligence gathered by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, did not share the view of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The pattern has become a familiar one. For months, Breedlove has been commenting on Russian activities in eastern Ukraine, speaking of troop advances on the border, the amassing of munitions and alleged columns of Russian tanks. Over and over again, Breedlove's numbers have been significantly higher than those in the possession of America's NATO allies in Europe. As such, he is playing directly into the hands of the hardliners in the US Congress and in NATO. The German government is alarmed. Are the Americans trying to thwart European efforts at mediation led by Chancellor Angela Merkel? Sources in the Chancellery have referred to Breedlove's comments as "dangerous propaganda." Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier even found it necessary recently to bring up Breedlove's comments with NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg. (Source)
Think about how truly and utterly bizarre this all is. It is literally not possible to hide “well over a thousand” combat vehicles from air and satellite surveillance, and everybody who knows anything at all knows this. How can Breedlove make such outlandish claims and expect anybody to think he’s anything other than daft?
What are reasonable intelligence analysts and diplomats in Germany, or anywhere for that matter, to make of any of this?
One uncomfortable pattern that fits is that the US has gotten used to lying overtly to get its way. All reasonable analysts who read the UNSCOM report on Iraq’s defunct WMD program back in 2002 (as I did) knew that Iraq did not have any such program as claimed by Colin Powell, Rumsfeld, Perle, Feith and the rest of the unbalanced individuals who rushed the world to a war of choice. The spin doctors of today will say that “bad intelligence” was to blame, but that too is a lie.
There was no bad intelligence, only bad people who made up false ‘intelligence’ and then foisted it upon the world. And it’s happening again.
To my mind, there’s no other way to interpret Breedlove’s comments; they are just too far outside of the bounds of what is a possible misinterpretation of data. Again, ‘more than a thousand’ pieces of heavy armor cannot be hidden from satellites, especially not in the open, flat country that is eastern Ukraine.
From a bit further in the Der Spiegel article we have this:
The experts contradicted Breedlove's view in almost every respect. There weren't 40,000 soldiers on the border, they believed, rather there were much less than 30,000 and perhaps even fewer than 20,000. Furthermore, most of the military equipment had not been brought to the border for a possible invasion, but had already been there prior to the beginning of the conflict. Furthermore, there was no evidence of logistical preparation for an invasion, such as a field headquarters. Breedlove, though, repeatedly made inexact, contradictory or even flat-out inaccurate statements. On Nov. 18, 2014, he told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that there were "regular Russian army units in eastern Ukraine." One day later, he told the website of the German newsmagazine Stern that they weren't fighting units, but "mostly trainers and advisors." He initially said there were "between 250 and 300" of them, and then "between 300 and 500." For a time, NATO was even saying there were 1,000 of them.
A short word for the phrase “flat out inaccurate statements” is lie. We might as well get used to calling things by their correct terms, it makes things easier to follow and understand.
The reason I bring all this up is because the bellicosity of a small band of war hawks in the US seem to be driving policy for the entire nation. Back in 2002, it was a very small group operating out of the Office of Special Plans from a small corner of the pentagon under the direction of Donald Rumsfeld to generate the false intelligence used to ‘justify’ a truly unnecessary and ill-advised war.
This time it seems to be Vitoria Nuland, General Breedlove, and the usual assemblage of war hawks in the Senate and Congress.
But the risk cannot be denied. 2002 taught us all that the momentum of war can be initiated by obvious lies and a few dedicated people. That same risk is afoot today.
Will it come to pass? For the people of Ukraine it already has. For the people of Syria and Iraq, it already has.
The question is, will this spill over into a wider conflict that involves Europe and the US against Russia and whoever sides with Russia (*cough*cough* I’m looking at you, China).
As I predicted in the fall of 2014, things would continue to escalate before they deescalate. The moves are coming fast and furious now. The US has moved heavy armor into the region, right on Russia’s border:
US sends heavy armour to Baltic states to 'deter' Russia Mar 9, 2015 Riga (AFP) - The United States on Monday delivered more than 100 pieces of military equipment to vulnerable NATO-allied Baltic states in a move designed to provide them with the ability to deter potential Russian threats. The deliveries are intended to "demonstrate resolve to President (Vladimir) Putin and Russia that collectively we can come together," US Major General John R. O'Connor told AFP as he oversaw the delivery of the equipment in the port of Riga. The delivery included Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Scout Humvees as well as support equipment and O'Connor said the armour would stay "for as long as required to deter Russian aggression". The three former Soviet-ruled Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all NATO and European Union members since 2004, have very little military hardware of their own. (Source)
Because the Western press seems unable to understand these things from a neutral perspective, let’s imagine how the US might react if Russia were to move heavy armor into Mexico to help “deter US aggression.”
I think we all know the answer to that: the US would immediately react in a very threatened manner.
It needs to be pointed out that this is precisely the reason that NATO expansion was undertaken so aggressively back in the 1995–2005 period. The potential for military action became much greater than if the foreign affairs of individual countries were managed independently by their own governments. Now, because of the NATO treaty, Europe and the US are obligated to military action if ever and whenever a perceived threat arises against any NATO member.
Of course, the chances of starting a conflict are immeasurably better if you taunt and parade yourself as close as possible to your intended adversary:
U.S. military vehicles paraded 300 yards from the Russian border Feb 24, 2015 MOSCOW — U.S. military combat vehicles paraded Wednesday through an Estonian city that juts into Russia, a symbolic act that highlighted the stakes for both sides amid the worst tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War. The armored personnel carriers and other U.S. Army vehicles that rolled through the streets of Narva, a border city separated by a narrow frontier from Russia, were a dramatic reminder of the new military confrontation in Eastern Europe. The soldiers from the U.S. Army’s Second Cavalry Regiment were taking part in a military parade to mark Estonia’s Independence Day. (Source)
It's obvious that there are factions within the US military establishment that are not just preparing for war with Russia, but actively provoking tensions.
Which makes today’s news out of the EU all the more concerning because it shows a degree of coordination that now spans the Atlantic, and has jumped outside of the usual NATO military alliance and into the civilian bureaucracy of the EU:
Juncker calls for EU army, says would deter Russia Mar 9, 2015 (Reuters) - The European Union needs its own army to face up to Russia and other threats as well as restore the bloc's foreign policy standing around the world, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a German newspaper on Sunday. Arguing that NATO was not enough because not all members of the transatlantic defense alliance are in the EU, Juncker said a common EU army would also send important signals to the world. "A joint EU army would show the world that there would never again be a war between EU countries," Juncker told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "Such an army would also help us to form common foreign and security policies and allow Europe to take on responsibility in the world." German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen welcomed Juncker's proposal: "Our future as Europeans will at some point be with a European army," she told German radio. (Source)
It's telling that Juncker trotted out his proposal and immediately a German defense minister was at the ready to lend support. This means it's a serious proposal, and has already been circulated and vetted.
While we might disagree as to whether a common military would prevent future wars between EU countries, the thing about armies is that once you have one, there’s a tendency to want to use it.
They are very expensive to just have lying about. In times past, no country would think of keeping one assembled after a war because they have a bad habit of needing something to do, and if nothing is available externally, they have been known to turn their power inwards (see: Egyptian military coup. Also: US military industrial complex).
And how has Russia reacted to all this? In an escalate-y, predicable sort of way:
Russian legislator: EU’s common army, if created, to play provocative role MOSCOW, 9 March. /TASS/. The European Union’s common armed forces, if they are ever created, may play a provocative role, first deputy chairman of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Frants Klintsevich, told the media on Sunday. "In the nuclear age extra armies do not provide any additional security. But they surely can play a provocative role," Klintsevich said, adding it was regrettable that such ideas had already met with some support. "One should presume that a European army is seen as an addendum to NATO. And in this kind of situation Western politicians are not shy to accuse Russia of some aggressiveness," Klintsevich said. (Source)
Russia went right for the nuclear trump card, noting that conventional forces do not really have a clearly defined role when nukes are on the table. That is, Russia has said (again!) very clearly that they have nukes, might use them, and do not appreciate being constantly threatened. And yet here we are.
I mean, it was barely a week ago that a Russian military chief said this:
Russia says ready to reciprocate nuclear strike Mar 1, 2015 A Russian military chief says the country's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) are ready to defend the country against any possible “lightning-speed” nuclear strike. “If we have to accomplish a task of repelling a ‘lightning-speed’ nuclear strike, this objective will be attained within a prescribed period,” Andrei Burbin, the SMF Central Command’s chief, was quoted by Russian media as saying on Saturday. He voiced the SMF preparedness to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike “unhesitatingly” if Russia comes under any assault. Referring to the geographic position of Russia’s missile units, the major general said it will protect them from demolition by “any global strike,” adding that 98 percent of the SMF systems would be new in 2020. The comments come against the backdrop of a recent boost in NATO’s military presence near Russia’s borders. In 2014, NATO forces held some 200 military exercises with the Western military block’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg promising that such maneuvers would continue. (Source)
You’d think that with the stakes being so high that there would be obvious diplomatic efforts underway to try and defuse the situation and prevent any accidents from happening. But instead, we see the West consistently accusing Russia of aggressiveness while holding hundreds of military exercises and positioning its NATO equipment closer and closer to Russia’s borders.
Meanwhile Russia is busy saying to the world, Hey look: we still have a bunch of working nukes over here and we think you should keep that in mind.
Conclusion
I fear that I will have to issue an ALERT at some point over this entire matter. Again, an ALERT happens when I come into possession of information that causes me to personally take new or different actions.
I am seriously entertaining preparing for war, and as I’ve written before, the nature of this next war could involve everything from trade battles, to cyber attacks, to financial system assaults, a downing of the US electrical grid, to an actual shooting war -- perhaps one that escalates to a nuclear exchange.
When things are this obviously crazy, anything is possible.
It is my contention that the next shooting war will change the geopolitical landscape permanently and irrevocably for the US and the US dollar’s reserve currency status. Much of the weight carried by the US is because of its dominant military. But a military is only as powerful as its ability to project force; and that requires that you either walk to the conflict via a land bridge or you ship your heavy equipment over the seas.
Light skirmishes can be accomplished via air, but nothing too serious because it’s just not possible to fly in everything you need. Tanks are heavy. So is food and fuel. Ammunition too. Moving a hundred thousand troops requires ships. Of which, clearly, the USA has many.
But ships are no longer useful in the modern world, as France rather embarrassingly proved to the US recently:
US supercarrier ‘sunk’ by French submarine in wargames Mar 6, 2015 The French Ministry of Defence has revealed one of its attack submarines pulled of an astounding upset during recent war-games in the North Atlantic. The Aviationist blog spotted an article on the French defence force’s website — quickly withdrawn — which told how one of their submarines, the “Saphir” tackled the might of the United States’ navy off the coast of Florida. At the core of the surface force was the enormous aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its powerful strike wing of 90 combat aircraft and helicopters. Clustered protectively about it was several advanced cruisers and destroyers, and its own guardian submarine. In one element of the war games, the Saphir was tasked with the role of being the “bad guy”. Its mission: To seek, locate and exterminate the US naval force. The exact details of how it achieved this embarrassing outcome is not known. Somehow, the French submarine must have been able to slip between the defensive sensor patchwork of patrol aircraft, helicopters, warships and submarines to line up a shot on the $13 billion monstrosity. There she lurked as a fictitious political crisis evolved in the world above. On the final day of the exercise, the order finally came. Sink the Theodore Roosevelt. This 30-year-old Saphir proceeded to do. Along with most of the escorting warships. (Source)
Yes, a single 39-year old submarine managed to sneak into the protective ring of an entire aircraft carrier group and go through a mock firing of its entire complement of torpedoes against the entire set of targets.
Oops.
Besides the embarrassment for the US crews involved, this proves an important point: ships are no match for submarines. And there are a lot of submarines out there on both sides. Offensive anti-ship technology in the form of advanced submarine torpedoes, as well as missiles fired from land or aircraft, have advanced by enormous leaps and bounds since WWII.
The US has never faced an adversary with such technology in open warfare. But Russia and China (and even Iran) are stocked to the gills with such weapons.
By provoking Russia, the US risks exposing the fact that it cannot really project power all across the globe anymore because it cannot possibly ship things to and fro with impunity. Once that calculus changes, everything changes -- with King Dollar right at the top of the list.
Whether that comes to pass, I am finding the risk of a major conflict between NATO/EU and Russia to be high and seemingly growing higher with every passing week. Such are the times in which we live.
It leaves me asking if it’s time to begin preparing for war, which means being ready for the worst.
I truly wish that this were not how things were unfolding, but seeing General Breedlove and Victoria Nuland get away unchallenged with their blatant falsehoods is giving me a serious case of déjà vu.
We’ve been here before. And we know that the war hawks seem to get their way, for reasons that remain murky at best. Only this time they have a real, legitimate and dangerous foe in their sights.
In Part 2: How To Prepare For War, we investigate the risks associated with the most likely forms of conflict should things escalate from here: trade war, energy war, financial war, cyberwar, grid-down sabotage, shooting war and nuclear war.
While any of these developments will be grim at best, there are a surprising number of steps you can take today that will reduce your vulnerability to each off these. And in most cases, the investment of material and time will have persisting value even if (hopefully) the current global tensions de-escalate.
But as we often say, the time to prepare for crisis is in advance. Given the risks, why wouldn't you start taking at least a few precautions now?
Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free executive summary, enrollment required for full access)UFC mixed martial arts event in 2015
UFC Fight Night: Namajunas vs. VanZant (also known as UFC Fight Night 80) was a mixed martial arts event held on December 10, 2015, at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.[2]
Background [ edit ]
The event was expected to be headlined by a women's strawweight bout between Paige VanZant and Joanne Calderwood.[3] However on October 28, Calderwood was forced to pull out of the event and was replaced by Rose Namajunas.[4]
The event was the first that the promotion has hosted at the venue and the first of three events in as many days in the Las Vegas Valley. It also marked the first North American card to air live exclusively on their subscription-based digital network, UFC Fight Pass.[2]
A welterweight bout between Sheldon Westcott and Edgar Garcia, originally scheduled for this event was moved to UFC 195.[5]
Lyman Good was expected to face Omari Akhmedov at the event. However, Good was pulled from the bout in late October and was replaced by Sérgio Moraes.[6]
Michael Graves was expected to face Danny Roberts at the event. However, Graves pulled out of the bout on November 30 citing an injury and was replaced by Nathan Coy.[7]
Results [ edit ]
^ An accidental eye poke rendered Casey unable to continue; as the fight had not reached the third round, it was declared a No Contest.
[8]
Bonus Awards [ edit ]
The following fighters were awarded $50,000 bonuses:[9]
Fight of the Night: Jim Miller vs. Michael Chiesa
Performance of the Night: Rose Namajunas and Tim Means
Reported payout [ edit ]
The following is the reported payout to the fighters as reported to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It does not include sponsor money and also does not include the UFC's traditional "fight night" bonuses.[10]
Rose Namajunas: $54,000 (includes $27,000 win bonus) def. Paige VanZant: $40,000
$54,000 (includes $27,000 win bonus) def. Paige VanZant: $40,000 Michael Chiesa: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus) def. Jim Miller: $56,000
$60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus) def. Jim Miller: $56,000 Sage Northcutt: $80,000 (includes $40,000 win bonus) def. Cody Pfister: $12,000
$80,000 (includes $40,000 win bonus) def. Cody Pfister: $12,000 Thiago Santos: $38,000 (includes $19,000 win bonus) def. Elias Theodorou: $20,000
$38,000 (includes $19,000 win bonus) def. Elias Theodorou: $20,000 Tim Means: $54,000 (includes $27,000 win bonus) def. John Howard: $27,000
$54,000 (includes $27,000 win bonus) def. John Howard: $27,000 Sérgio Moraes: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus) def. Omari Akhmedov: $14,000
$28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus) def. Omari Akhmedov: $14,000 Kevin Casey: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus) vs. Antônio Carlos Júnior: $19,000 ^
$28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus) vs. Antônio Carlos Júnior: $19,000 ^ Aljamain Sterling: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus) def. Johnny Eduardo: $14,000
$28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus) def. Johnny Eduardo: $14,000 Santiago Ponzinibbio: $26,000 (includes $13,000 win bonus) def. Andreas Ståhl: $10,000
$26,000 (includes $13,000 win bonus) def. Andreas Ståhl: $10,000 Danny Roberts: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Nathan Coy: $10,000
$20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Nathan Coy: $10,000 Zubaira Tukhugov: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus) def. Phillipe Nover: $14,000
$24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus) def. Phillipe Nover: $14,000 Kailin Curran: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Emily Kagan: $10,000
^ Both fighters earned show money (Casey awarded win Bonus); bout declared No Contest.
See also [ edit ]If you signed up for a chance to play Mass Effect: Andromeda's multiplayer mode early, I have some bad news. BioWare has called off the game's multiplayer technical test ahead of time. It sounds like it just didn't have the resources to run the event when the game is already so close to launching on March 21.
Here's the full explanation from multiplayer producer Fernando Melo.
Sorry we won't have MPTT. I know many were looking forward to it (as were we). Long story but right decision for how close we r to live 1/4March 2, 2017
MEA MP has had the most ext user testing we've ever done. +GameChangers program. And retail console closed alpha earlier in new year. 2/4March 2, 2017
MP very alive :) (& awesome). You'll see more of it soon incl play it at PAX. And still fully avail on EA/Origin Access ahead of launch. 3/4March 2, 2017
Meanwhile, we'll get some more MP info out - let's get the ball rolling... see you all soon in Androm |
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