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: Bell City Brewing Co. – Hielo de Fuego Lager Silver: Old Flame Brewing Co. – All ‘Ale’ The Ginger Bronze: Louis Cifer Brew Works – Thai P.A. Coconut Lemongrass Pale Ale Farmhouse Blonde Gold: New Limburg Brewing Company – Belgian Blond Silver: The Collingwood Brewery – Collingwood Saison Bronze: The Collingwood Brewery – 1854 Anniversary Ale Farmhouse Dark Gold: Stack Brewing – Les Portes de l’Enfer Silver: Tooth and Nail Brewing Company – Sustenance Bronze: Redline Brewhouse – Biere de Garde Lagered Ale Gold: Mill Street Brewery – Portage Ale Silver: Sleeman – Sleeman Cream Ale Bronze: Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co. – Lug Tread British Pale Ale Gold: Lowertown Brewery – Lowertown Pale Ale Silver: The Collingwood Brewery – Fireside ESB Bronze: High Park Brewery – Across The Pond American Pale Ale Gold: Sleeping Giant Brewing Co. – Beaver Duck APA Silver: 5 Paddles Brewing Co. – In Your Face Bronze: Tooth and Nail Brewing Company – Solo Mission British India Pale Ale Gold: Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery – Hoptical Illusion Silver: Elora Brewing Company – Lady Friend IPA Bronze: Arch Brewing Co. – Dinner Jacket American India Pale Ale Gold: Stone City Ales – Uncharted IPA Silver: Great Lakes Brewery – ROBOHOP Bronze: Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery – Juicy Ass Dark IPA Gold: Big Rig Brewery – Release The Hounds Silver: Rainhard Brewing Co. – Nosbeeratu Bronze: Wellington Brewery – Terrestrial India Brown Ale Amber Ale Gold: Clocktower Brewpub – Clocktower Red Silver: Bell City Brewing Co. – Eureka Bronze: Henderson Brewing Co. – Henderson’s Best Dark Ale Gold: Brock Street Brewing Co. – Brock Street Irish Red Silver: Boshkung Brewing Co. – Black Rock Dark Ale Bronze: Outlaw Brew Co. – Bandit Dark Ale Porter Gold: Collective Arts Brewing – Stranger Than Fiction Silver: Clifford Brewing Co. – Clifford Porter Bronze: Bobcaygeon Brewing Company – Porter Stout Gold: Rainhard Brewing Co. – Sweetback’s Milk Stout Silver: Woodhouse Brewing Co. – Woodhouse Stout Bronze: StoneHammer Brewing – StoneHammer Oatmeal Coffee Stout Imperial Stout Gold: Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery – Invictus Silver: 5 Paddles Brewing Co. – Midnight Paddler Bronze: Sawdust City Brewing Co. – LDV 2015 Flavoured Porter / Stout Gold: Redline Brewhouse — Leather Interior Silver: Sawdust City Brewing Co. — Blood of Cthulhu Bronze: MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Co. — Wild Stout Fruit Beer Gold: Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery – 12 Minutes to Destiny Silver: Amsterdam Brewery – Framboise Bronze: Wellington Brewery — Against the Currant Vegetable Beer Gold: Wellington Brewery — Rhubarb Saison Silver: Kilannan Brewing Company — Cucumber Kolsh Bronze: Bayside Brewing Co. — Harvest Pumpkin Barrel Aged Whisky Gold: Great Lakes Brewery – Imperial Solstice Stout Silver: Cameron’s Brewing Co. — Deviator Doppelbock Bronze: Calabogie Brewing Co. — Simon Phoenix Barrel Aged Rum Gold: Cameron’s Brewing Co. – Obsidian Imperial Porter Silver: Not Awarded Bronze: Not Awarded Barrel Aged Red Wine Gold: Amsterdam Brewery — Vicar’s Vice Silver: 5 Paddles Brewing Co. — Sunset Paddler Bronze: Side Launch Brewing Company — Side Launch Dunkelbach Barrel Aged White Wine Gold: Amsterdam Brewery — Superstition Silver: Amsterdam Brewery — Maverick and Gose Bronze: Junction Craft Brewing — Barrel Aged E S B Rauchbier Gold: Garden Brewers — Piperales Silver: Mill Street Brewery — Rauchbier Bronze: Royal City Brewing Co. — Bamberg Rauchbier Peat Smoked Scotch Ale Gold: Big Rig Brewery — Tartan Pants Scotch Ale Silver: Barnstormer Brewing Co. – Smok’n Skywriter Bronze: Not Awarded Belgian Style Quadrupel Gold: Railway City Brewing Co. — The Strong Man Silver: Tooth and Nail Brewing Company — Truce Bronze: Not Awarded Belgian Style Tripel Gold: Side Launch Brewing Company — Side Launch Huronic Tripel Silver: New Limburg Brewing Company — Tripel Bronze: 5 Paddles Brewing Co. — Kingdom Sweet Kingdom Scotch Ale Gold: Niagara College Teaching Brewery — Beer 101 Strong Silver: MacLean’s Ales Inc. — Armchair Scotch Ale Bronze: Walkerville Brewery — Walkerville Brewery Scotch Ale Barley Wine Gold: Granite Brewery — Gin Lane Silver: Wellington Brewery — Yuletide Barley Wine Bronze: Cameron’s Brewing Co. — Cameron’s Barley Wine Newcomer of the Year Brock Street Brewing Company Best of Show Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery — Hoptical IllusionLOS ANGELES—Longtime fans of the 1975 cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show reported this week that after 30 years of religiously attending midnight showings of the film, they no longer have the energy to put on red wigs, bras, and lipstick and yell things at a movie screen until two in the morning. Describing the never-ending ritual of gathering together with fellow fans and re-watching the camp musical comedy as "tiring" and "frankly, a little pathetic," thousands of once-obsessed Rocky Horror fans across the country made it known that their enthusiasm for the whole cult following in general was beginning to wane. Advertisement "I'm just exhausted," said Los Angeles attorney Chris Bendel, 51, who has viewed the film with dozens of other mainly middle-aged audience members on an estimated 246 separate occasions. "Sure, there was a time when the idea of standing up in my seat and singing along with 'Dammit Janet' seemed like the greatest thing in the world, but now the mere thought of having to do it all again next week actually fills me with dread. I am a grown man. What am I doing?" "The last screening I went to I sat there the entire time thinking, 'This movie isn't even that great and I kind of feel like an asshole,'" Bendel added. Citing hours of missed sleep, thousands of dollars wasted on props and costumes, and an overall leveling out of whatever crazed, youthful energy got them so obsessed in the first place, the entire extended fan base of the film has called for a rethinking of the midnight-screening premise itself. Advertisement "Would it kill them to play it three or four times a year instead of every single week?" asked Tom McDougal, 47, who claimed that after a long day at work, staying up all night with 40 near-strangers dressed as sweet transvestites was "not exactly thrilling" anymore. "How about maybe doing a matinee every once in a while? Jesus Christ, I fell asleep last week during 'Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me.'" In addition, numerous Rocky Horror enthusiasts stated this week that the dozens of audience-participation rituals invented for the screenings over the years had long ago lost their magic, and were now simply a chore. Fan Deborah Wright, 39, announced that she will no longer be going to Shop 'n Save to pick up a loaf of bread in order to make toast to throw at the screen when the line "A toast!" is spoken. And Chicago-area computer programmer Rob Levin told reporters he was tired of bringing bags of rice, hot dogs, and toilet paper to local screenings, citing the fact that he is a 47-year-old man with a wife and child. Advertisement "I actually go out and spend money on supplies for this thing," Levin said. "Supplies. For a movie. How idiotic is that?" Rocky Horror fan club president Sal Piro addressed concerns at a press conference Monday, saying that he shared fans' growing lack of interest, and that the film itself was to blame. "Look, for decades there wasn't a bigger Rocky Horror nut on the planet than me," Piro said. "But my tastes have changed over time, and I've got to be honest with myself: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is actually a pretty irritating movie, and the music, while admittedly catchy on first listen, really starts to grate over time. And dressing up like Dr. Frank-N-Furter or Riff Raff and prancing around like an over-caffeinated teenager doesn't make the movie any better, it just compounds everything that is already annoying about it." Advertisement "So really, this whole thing has been a colossal waste of time," Piro continued. "And now it appears as though the better part of my life is over, so, there you go. There's your fucking 'time warp' right there.Al Qaeda's ageing leaders, mostly holed up along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, are increasingly seen as stale, tired and ineffectual (Repeats Sept 7 story withno changes in text) By Hameedullah Khan and Saud Mehsud PESHAWAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, Sept 7 (Reuters) - I slamic State pamphlets and flags have appeared in parts of Pakistan and India, alongside signs that the ultra-radical group is inspiring militants even in the strongholds of the Taliban and al Qaeda. A splinter group of Pakistan's Taliban insurgents, Jamat-ul Ahrar, has already declared its support for the well-funded and ruthless Islamic State fighters, who have captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in a drive to set up a self-declared caliphate. "IS (Islamic State) is an Islamic Jihadi organisation working for the implementation of the Islamic system and creation of the Caliphate," Jamat-ul Ahrar's leader and a prominent Taliban figure, Ehsanullah Ehsan, told Reuters by telephone. "We respect them. If they ask us for help, we will look into it and decide." Islamist militants of various hues already hold sway across restive and impoverished areas of South Asia, but Islamic State, with its rapid capture of territory, beheadings and mass executions, is starting to draw a measure of support among younger fighters in the region. Al Qaeda's ageing leaders, mostly holed up in the lawless region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, are increasingly seen as stale, tired and ineffectual on hardcore jihadi social media forums and Twitter accounts that incubate potential militant recruits. Security experts say Islamic State's increasing lure may have prompted al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri to announce the establishment of an Indian franchise to raise the flag of jihad across South Asia, home to more than 400 million Muslims. PAMPHLETS, CAR STICKERS Seeking to boost its influence in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, a local cell with allegiance to Islamic State has been distributing pamphlets in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and eastern Afghanistan in the past few weeks, residents said. The 12-page booklet called "Fatah" (Victory), published in the Pashto and Dari languages of Afghanistan, was being mainly distributed in Afghan refugee camps on the outskirts of Peshawar. The pamphlet's logo features an AK-47 assault rifle and calls on local residents to support the militant group. Cars with IS stickers have also been spotted around Peshawar. Sameeulah Hanifi, a prayer leader in a Peshawar neighbourhood populated mainly by Afghans, said the pamphlets were being distributed by a little-known local group called Islami Khalifat, an outspoken Islamic State supporter. "I know some people who received copies of this material either from friends or were given at mosques by unidentified IS workers," he told Reuters. A Pakistani security official said the pamphlets came from Afghanistan's neighbouring Kunar province where a group of Taliban fighters was spotted distributing them. "We came across them 22 days ago and we are aware of their presence here," said the official. "Pakistani security agencies are working on the Pakistan-Afghan border and have arrested a number of Taliban fighters and recovered CDs, maps, literature in Persian, Pashto and Dari." "We will not permit them to work in our country and anyone who is involved in this will be crushed by the government." RECRUITMENT IN INDIA Signs of Islamic State's influence are also being seen in Kashmir, the region claimed by both India and Pakistan and the scene of a decades-long battle by militants against Indian rule. Security officials in Indian-held Kashmir say they have been trying to find out the level of support for the Arab group after IS flags and banners appeared in the summer. Intelligence and police sources in New Delhi and Kashmir said the flags were first seen on June 27 in a part of the state capital Srinagar, and then in July when India's only Muslim-majority region was marking Islam's most holy day, Eid al-Fitr. Some IS graffiti also appeared on walls of buildings in Srinagar. A police officer said youngsters carrying Islamic State flags at anti-India rallies had been identified but no arrests had been made. Another officer who questions people detained in protests against Indian rule, many of them teenagers, said most were only focused on winning independence from India. "The majority of them have no religious bent of mind," he said. "Some of them, less than 1 percent, of course are religious and radicalised and end up joining militant ranks. They are influenced by al Qaeda, Taliban, Islamic State." Islamic State is also trying to lure Muslims in mainland India, who make up the world's third-biggest Islamic population but who have largely stayed away from foreign battlefields despite repeated calls from al Qaeda. In mid-July, an IS recruitment video surfaced online with subtitles in the Indian languages of Hindi, Tamil and Urdu in which a self-declared Canadian fighter, dressed in war fatigues and flanked by a gun and a black flag, urged Muslims to enlist in global jihad. That came out just weeks after four families in a Mumbai suburb reported to the police that their sons had gone missing, with one leaving behind a note about fighting to defend Islam. It soon turned out that the men had joined a pilgrimage to Baghdad. They later broke off from the tour group and never returned. Indian intelligence believe the men ended up in Mosul, the Iraqi city captured by Islamic State in June, and that one of them may have died in a bomb blast. Last week, the Times of India newspaper said four young men, including two engineering college students, were arrested in the eastern city of Calcutta as they tried to make their way to neighbouring Bangladesh to join a recruiter for Islamic State based there. "It's not just these four, but our investigations have found that there could be more youngsters who are in touch with IS handlers and this is a bit of a scary proportion," the newspaper quoted a senior officer as saying. A top official at India's Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi told Reuters: "The problem is we know so little about this network or who is acting on their behalf here. "We know roughly where the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Indian Mujahideen (organisations backed by Pakistan) support groups are, where they make contacts. But this is a different challenge. Youth getting radicalised in their homes on the Internet, in chatrooms and through Facebook are not easy to track." (Reporting by Asim Tanveer, Hameed Ullah, Saud Mehsud and Maria Golovnina,; Additional reporting by Fayaz Bukhari in SRINAGAR, Writing and additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani in KABUL and NEW DELHI; Editing by Maria Golovnina and Raju Gopalakrishnan) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.Food Stamp Cuts Leave Rural Areas, And Their Grocers, Reeling Al Behrman/AP One recent evening, some shoppers at the Countryside Market in Belvidere, Ill., were loading up on staples, like milk and eggs. Others, like Meghan Collins, were trying to plan Thanksgiving on a newly tightened budget. "My work has been cut," says Collins. "I'm working half the hours I used to work. So yeah, I'm making half of what I made last year." That could be bad news for stores like Countryside, which are already bracing for the ripple effect from the recent $5 billion reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. It's the first Thanksgiving since a temporary increase in those benefits expired on Nov. 1, affecting some 47 million Americans. Countryside manager Craig Schultz says that in a community still grappling with high unemployment, many of his customers rely on the food assistance program to get by. Countryside is not sure yet just how much the reduction in benefits has cut into their bottom line. But over time, the store says sales might fall between 5 and 10 percent. While that plays out, Schultz wonders if they will sell fewer turkeys this year: "Hopefully not, because I have a whole freezer full of 'em." To make things a little more affordable, the store has cut some of its prices. Lots of grocers in Illinois may share Schultz's concerns about reduced spending given that some 16 percent of state residents use SNAP benefits; that's 2 percentage points above the national average. The recent cuts in federal benefits may be felt most in rural areas. That's because data gathered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the SNAP program, in 2010 shows a widening gap in participation levels between rural and urban areas. Rural residents are using more aid while city residents are using less. John Anderson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, says it's too early to forecast how much of a pinch food retailers might feel in the coming days. But he says there is real concern out there. "In many rural areas around the country, we do have, proportionately, maybe higher participation in the SNAP program," Anderson says. "And a lot of that gets spent locally, obviously, because that's where it can be spent, in those local grocery stores." Anderson says a couple of things might happen. Recipients could end up spending less on food and cut out portions of their holiday meal. "The other thing we may see is a change in the kind of things people buy," he says. "Maybe there are some substitutions they can make to make those [food] dollars go further." For example, a trip to the barber shop or shoe store might be sacrificed to provide a Thanksgiving dessert instead. John Elliot is a regional spokesman for Kroger, the nation's largest grocery store chain. He says they're monitoring spending patterns in various states. But he says they do believe people affected by the situation will do all they can to put as much food on the table as possible. "What I think they'll likely do is cut discretionary spending first. And I realize for many households, they may not have a lot of discretionary funds," says Elliot. "But they'll still have to reshuffle priorities. And I suspect that purchases for food will continue to be a priority."Looks like it’s that time of the year again. As we near the launch of FinFET based offerings from both IHVs – the rumor mill is in full tilt. A recent report form DigiTimes is claiming that AMD will be launching its Polaris GPUs in June. The Polaris architecture will be manufactured on Globalfoundries or Samsung’s 14nm FinFET processes and is equipped with its fourth-generation GCN architecture, and support for HDMI 2.0a and DisplayPort 1.3. AMD launching Polaris series of GPUs in June – targeting the ‘minimum VR spec’ price level of $349 This leak ties in well because we saw atleast one Polaris board pass RRA certification recently – indicating that everything about the GPU has been finalized and is ready for full scale production and shipping. We also saw many Arctic Islands codenamed samples surfacing on the Zauba database including Baffin XT and Weston PRO.. Baffin XT is a name that we are very familiar with by now. This is clearly a flagship GPU of sorts yet it is shown to be listed with only a 4GB memory channel. Assuming the card is only using 4GB of memory, this can be either HBM or GDDR5X (GDDR5 would have been clearly mentioned as such). In either case, we are looking at almost twice the bandwidth of the previous generation product (remember, Baffin =/= Fiji Successor). Its highly likely that one of these chips are infact the Polaris GPU AMD’s Polaris architecture is built on the 14nm FinFET node and will offer a huge leap in performance per watt over the last generation. The raw leap gained just by jumping the node (from 28nm) is roughly 2 times, although AMD is throwing around the word “2.5 times” a lot, which shouldn’t be that hard to achieve with IPC gains. Polaris architecture will initially be divided into Polaris 10 and Polaris 11 – one of which will be big Polaris and one, small. AMD has also previously revealed that the Polaris GPUs will target the ‘minimum VR spec’ at affordable price levels below the $349. We have also previously heard reports that atleast one of the Polaris GPUs will be around 232mm². According to the information we have about the 14nm LPP process, and based on transistor density increase, a 232mm² GPU would be roughly equivalent to a 464mm² 28nm processor – at the same TDP levels. Since we already know that AMD is going to be focusing not just on performance but power efficiency as well – this number could be be much higher. We can however safely say that this die is more than capable of meeting the ‘minimum VR spec that AMD promises. The shift to 14nm becomes highly significant in this aspect. Not only does the die shrink allow for more transistors to be placed on the same surface area, it increases economies of scale – lowering cost. But the maturity of the process (14nm LPP has a 20nm backbone) would allow good yields and more volume to be shipped. AMD hopes to exercise this advantage by lowering the cost of “minimum spec VR” to a point below the $349 mark – making VR available to everyone and increasing the Total Available Market for VR. If AMD is able to succesfully get out Polaris GPUs in June, it will allow it to compliment sales of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headset since the graphics card will allow more people with less budget to be able to successfully engage VR content.April showers bring… classic 90’s icons? Eddie Brock’s Venom! Scarlet Spider! Even a classic x-men team-up! Read on, true believers – another month of comics fantasy is being teased for the very first time! Get ready for some old characters, prepare for a few new arcs, and salute Spider-Woman – we’re gonna miss ya, Jessica. BEN REILLY: THE SCARLET SPIDER #1 PETER DAVID (W) • MARK BAGLEY (A/C) VARIANT COVER BY GREG LAND VARIANT COVER BY TOM LYLE VARIANT COVER BY J. SCOTT CAMPBELL ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER One of the most controversial characters in comics has returned — and the controversy has only BEGUN! In the aftermath of THE CL ONE CONSPIRACY, Ben has a new take on life…and he’s not the same Scarlet Spider he was before. Come witness what will be the most talked about comic of the year! controversial characters in comics has returned — and the controversy has only BEGUN! In the aftermath of THE CL, Ben has a new take on life…and he’s not the same Scarlet Spider he was before. Come witness what will be the most talked about comic of the year! 32 PGS./Rated T+ … $3.99 CHAMPIONS #7 MARK WAID (W) • HUMBERTO RAMOS (A/C) RESURRXION VARIANT COVER BY MARCO CHECCHETTO THROWDOWN WITH THE FREELANCERS! 32 PGS./Rated T+ … $3.99 AVENGERS #6 MARK WAID (W) • MIKE DEL MUNDO (A) Cover by ALEX ROSS “Kang War VI” concludes! The rules of time are fluid — and when reality re-forms around the Avengers, not everything (or everyone) will necessarily be in the same place it was left! 32 PGS./Rated T+ … $3.99 BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (w) • SARA PICHELLI (a) COVER BY PATRICK BROWN RESURRXION VARIANT COVER BY ELIZABETH TORQUE Coming out of the crossover with SPIDER-GWEN, Miles’ life is turned upside down. Rio Morales, Miles’s mother, is faced with a world she doesn’t know or understand. WHAT WILL SHE DO NOW?! 32 PGS./Rated T … $3.99 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #26 DAN SLOTT (w) • STUART IMMONEN (a) COVER BY ALEX ROSS RESURRXION VARIANT COVER BY KRIS ANKA “THE OSBORN IDENTITY” CONTINUES! Silver Sable comes back into Spider-Man’s life — but isn’t she DEAD?! Norman Osborn has worked his way into a position of power in Symkaria, and any incursion by Spider-Man will be seen as an act of war. Will Spider-Man risk international infamy to take down his most dangerous foe? 32 PGS./Rated T … $3.99 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS #6 GERRY CONWAY (w) • RYAN STEGMAN (a/C) RESURRXION VARIANT COVER BY ED McGUINNESS And now…the X-Men! Annie just received an invitation to attend Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Guest-Starring Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Professor X! 32 PGS./Rated T+ … $3.99 JASON LATOUR (w) • ROBBI RODRIGUEZ (a/C) RESURRXION VARIANT COVER BY CLAYTON CRAIN A NEW STORY ARC BEGINS! Matt Murdock, crime kingpin of NY and leader of The Hand, sends Spider-Gwen on a mission that hits WAY too close to home. This mission will introduce one of the biggest new characters in the Gweniverse and set Gwen on the path to her scariest villain yet! new characters in the Gweniverse and set Gwen on the path to her scariest villain yet! 32 PGS./Rated T … $3.99 SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING PRELUDE #2 (of 2) WILL CORONA PILGRIM (w) • TODD NAUCK (a) SPIDEY VS. THE AVENGERS! SPIDER-MAN finds himself in over his head with his first super hero battle with IRON MAN…against CAPTAIN AMERICA and his team! But will the outcome unite the AVENGERS…or tear them apart for good? Get your spider-senses tingling for SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING with the epic conclusion to this two-part adaptation of the wall-crawler’s first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe! 32 PGS./Rated T … $3.99 VENOM #6 MIKE COSTA (w) • GERARDO SANDOVAL (a/C) CLASSIC VARIANT COVER BY TODD MCFARLANE RESURRXION VARIANT COVER BY DAN MORA ‘NUFF SAID! 32 PGS./Rated T+ … $3.99 SPIDER-MAN 2099 #22 PETER DAVID (w) • WILL SLINEY (a) Cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA With the help of Sonny Frisco, the Iron Man of 2099, Miguel’s developed a plan to prevent the disaster that leaves the future in ruins. If all goes well, Spidey’s crusade against The Fist will finally come to an end. Unfortunately, the entire plan hinges on Electro’s cooperation…and Miguel and Sonny are in for a shock! 32 PGS./Rated T … $3.99 SILK #19 ROBBIE THOMPSON (w) • TANA FORD (a) Cover by HELEN CHEN Cindy Moon’s been saving New York for the better part of a year now, and the rest of the superhuman community has taken notice. Including Bobbi Morse, a.k.a. Mockingbird, who’s arrived at Cindy Moon’s doorstep with an interesting proposition: SILK…AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D.?! 32 PGS./Rated T … $3.99 KINGPIN #3 MATTHEW ROSENBERG (W) • BEN TORRES (A) Cover by JEFF DEKAL VARIANT COVER BY MIKE PERKINS BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW! WILSON FISK. People love him. Kids look up to him. His generosity and kindness make him a model citizen. This is the spin…but DAREDEVIL doesn’t buy it. As SARAH DEWEY tries to separate fact from fiction while on assignment to pen Fisk’s biography, will an OLD ENEMY’S plan to snuff out Fisk change the narrative? 32 PGS./Rated T+ … $3.99 JOSHUA CORIN (W) SCOTT KOBLISH (A) Cover by REILLY BROWN POSTER VARIANT BY ROD REIS RESURRXION VARIANT COVER BY MIKE ALLRED ’TIL DEATH DO US… Part 4 (of 6) Spidey and Deadpool look for help in the least likely of places. 32 PGS./Rated T+ … $3.99 CHAMPIONS VOL. 1: CHANGE THE WORLD TPB Writ ten by MARK WAID Penciled by HUMBERTO RAMOS Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS One of the great team names in Marvel history returns, in incredible new fashion! After the fallout of CIVIL WAR II, Ms. Marvel, Nova and Spider-Man quit the Avengers and strike out on their own! Along with Viv Vision and the Totally Awesome Hulk, these young heroes are determined to change the world their own way — and they’re only the beginning! It starts as an idea. It becomes an ideal. But what happens when it turns into a movement — one so big even the Hulk can’t stop it? Will one of the greatest X-Men of all forge a new future by their side? Will the Unbelievable Gwenpool be friend or foe? It’s a super-team book for a new generation! team names in Marvel history returns, in incredible new fashion! After the fallout of CIVIL WAR II, Ms. Marvel, Nova and Spider-Man quit the Avengers and strike out on their own! Along with Viv Vision and the Totally Awesome Hulk, these young heroes are determined to change the world their own way — and they’re only the beginning! It starts as an idea. It becomes an ideal. But what happens when it turns into a movement — the Hulk can’t stop it? Will X-Men of all forge a new future by their side? Will the Unbelievable Gwenpool be friend or foe? It’s a super-team book for a new generation! Collecting CHAMPIONS (2016) #1-5. 120 PGS./Rated T+ … $15.99 SPIDER-MAN/SPIDER-GWEN: SITTING IN A TREE TPB Writ ten by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS & JASON LATOUR BENDIS & JASON LATOUR Penciled by SARA PICHELLI & ROBBI RODRIGUEZ Cover by SARA PICHELLI K-I-S-S-I-N-G! That’s just one of the things that makes this a very modern Marvel team-up, as the two most sensational web- spinners of the 21st century cross paths — and lock lips! Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy are two young heroes from different Earths, but what threat could unite the Spider-Man and Spider-Woman of the new generation? The answer will rock both their worlds! Not for the first time, Miles will find himself in another universe — and he’s in pursuit of some one he holds dear. But will that description soon apply to Gwen? Or, as the stakes are raised, will this spider-crossed pair see teen romance give way to arachnid animosity? First comes love, then comes much worse, then comes chaos in the Multiverse! that makes this a very modern Marvel team-up, as the spinners of the paths — and lock lips! Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy are different Earths, but what threat could unite the Spider-Man and Spider-Woman of the new generation? The answer will rock both their worlds! Not for the first time, Miles will find himself in another universe — and he’s in pursuit of some. But will that description soon apply to Gwen? Or, as the stakes are raised, will this spider-crossed pair see teen romance give way to arachnid animosity? First comes love, then comes much worse, then comes chaos in the Multiverse! Collecting SPIDER-MAN (2016) #12 -14 and SPIDER-GWEN (2015B) #16-18. #16-18. 136 PGS./Rated T … $17.99 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: WORLDWIDE VOL. 5 TPB Writ ten by DAN SLOTT, CHRISTOS GAGE, JAMES ASMUS, WAYNE BRADY & MORE , CHRISTOS GAGE, JAMES ASMUS, WAYNE BRADY & MORE Penciled by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI, CORY T. SMITH & MORE Cover by ALEX ROSS Death is no more as THE CL ONE CONSPIRACY rocks the wall-crawler’s world! And if things weren’t bad enough for the Amazing Spider-Man, now Doctor Octopus has returned from the grave! How is he back? And what does he have to do with the Jackal? Another shocking return means big trouble for…the Scarlet Spider?! Where has Kaine been since the events of SPIDER-VERSE, and what role will he play in the Jackal’s twisted plan? And while we’re asking questions, what brought about the Jackal’s radical rebrand — and what could draw a resurrected Gwen Stacy to his side? Plus: The globe-trotting Spider-Man heads to Mexico City, Cloak and Dagger head into action in Shanghai, and star of stage and screen Wayne Brady tries his hand at comics! wall-crawler’s world! And if things weren’t bad enough for the Amazing Spider-Man, now Doctor Octopus has returned from the grave! How is he back? And what does he have to do with the Jackal? Another shocking return means big trouble for…the Scarlet Spider?! Where has Kaine been since the events of SPIDER-VERSE, and what role will he play in the Jackal’s twisted plan? And while we’re asking questions, what brought about the Jackal’s radical rebrand — and what could draw a resurrected Gwen Stacy to his side? Plus: The globe-trotting Spider-Man heads to Mexico City, Cloak and Dagger head into action in Shanghai, and star of stage and screen Wayne Brady tries his hand at comics! Collecting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2015) #20 -24 and ANNUAL (2016) #1. (2016) #1. 144 PGS./Rated T … $17.99 SPIDER-MAN BY TODD DEZAGO & MIKE WIERINGO TPB Writ ten by TODD DEZAGO, MIKE WIERINGO & RICHARD CASE , MIKE WIERINGO & RICHARD CASE Penciled by MIKE WIERINGO, LUKE ROSS, JOSH HOOD, RICHARD CASE, JASON ARMSTRONG & TODD NAUCK Cover by MIKE WIERINGO A sensational saga starring several Spider-Men! Ben Reilly (remember him?) has taken up the webs, but he’s about to be taken down by…the Looter?! And if he can get out of that one, he’ll face the sting of Swarm! But when revelations rock Ben’s world, he’ll make way for the one, true Spider-Man: Peter Parker! Peter takes on a Daily Bugle assignment in the Savage Land, where you might expect him to bump into Ka-Zar — but what’s the Hulk doing there? With the real Prowler out of action, some one muscles in on his act — and gets caught between Spidey and the Vulture! The Trapster and Living Pharaoh return, Doctor Strange lends a mystical hand, and we flash back to the days of a studious young boy, his Uncle Ben…and the Marvel Monsters! his act — and gets caught between Spidey and the Vulture! The Trapster and Living Pharaoh return, Doctor Strange lends a mystical hand, and we flash back to the days of a studious young boy, his Uncle Ben…and the Marvel Monsters! Collecting SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN (1996) #7 -24 and #-1. #-1. 456 PGS./Rated T … $39.99 SPIDER-MAN: THE LIFELINE TABLET SAGA TPB Writ ten by STAN LEE & FABIAN NICIEZA & FABIAN NICIEZA Penciled by JOHN ROMITA SR., JIM MOONEY, JOHN BUSCEMA & STEVE RUDE Cover by STEVE RUDE Relive a Spidey epic decades in the telling! It all begins with a classic struggle over a petrified tablet said to hold the secret to eternal life! It’s a priceless relic that a lot of dangerous folks want to get their hands on — like the Kingpin of Crime, the Shocker, Man Mountain Marko and Maggia boss Silvermane! Others are drawn into the fray — including Quicksilver
bringing in a motivational speaker. They didn’t do a thorough background check. They promoted his evening event on the host school’s website: And they ended up with a couple of preachers instead. Gibbons didn’t tell the school district the entire truth. He used his advertised talent to push his religious beliefs onto unsuspecting children and their parents. His group got paid $12,000 in taxpayer money for praising Jesus to public school students and their parents… and afterwards, Gibbons pretended that he had no idea what all the controversy was all about! “I hate to think that anybody would come away from any of our events feeling misled or feeling like they didn’t feel good about what happened there,” Gibbons said. He knew exactly what he was doing. Much like Christian rapper B-SHOC, Gibbons does whatever he needs to do to get invited to public schools. As soon as that door opens, he finds a way to preach to those kids using whatever deceptive practices he can, in this case, handing out flyers promoting his evening meeting without giving any indication it would be a conversion scheme. To be clear, the problem wasn’t Gibbons’ in-school assemblies. The problem was that Gibbons illegally handed out flyers to students promoting his nighttime religious gathering — and no one thought to stop him. If he was promoting Islam instead of Christianity, this would be a national news story. Instead, it’s being ignored. What’s worse is that the administrators are treating this like it was no big deal: … the school district said if they were to invite the group back, they would need to take a second look at what happened before making a decision. Here’s a better solution: GET YOUR MONEY BACK! They duped you! They wasted your community’s time! You could be held liable in a lawsuit! (And you can bet the Freedom From Religion Foundation is already on this.) We owe a debt of gratitude to the people who took this story to the local press. It doesn’t matter that only one person or a small group of people complained — what the Christians did was wrong, and they need to be punished for it or they won’t stop. (Thanks to @wills4223 for the link)Nothing should threaten the integrity of the one Union that really keeps Scotland in business, writes Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson. In my former life as a journalist, I well remember the ritual of EU negotiations. Deadlines would be set. Deadlines would be missed. And just when watchers were predicting collapse, a deal would emerge in the Brussels dawn and everyone would stagger up to waiting cameras to declare they had scored a major victory. The whole tortuous process would inevitably start again, on a different issue in a few months’ time. A poster calling for no hard border between North and South on the road between Newry and Dundalk. (Picture: AFP/Getty) Judging by events this week, it’s clear that as we prepare for the biggest negotiation of all – to leave the EU – we should buckle up for more of the same. Yet experience tells me to remain optimistic that – despite the bumps in the road – the UK and EU teams will be able to reach an agreement in the coming days over the terms of our exit, in order to move onto the key issue of our future trading relationship. For me, over the last 48 hours, there have been two key issues that I want to stress. The first is that, as we prepare to leave the European Union, Scotland’s best interests are served by being part of a border-free United Kingdom. We trade four times more with the rest of the UK than we do with the entire European Union. Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson. Picture: AFP My view is therefore that, whatever happens with Brexit, we should do nothing that damages the integrity of the one Union that really does keep Scotland in business. A markedly separate deal for Northern Ireland – perhaps with membership of the single market – could have unravelled the entire United Kingdom; indeed, the alacrity with which Nicola Sturgeon spotted a political opportunity on Tuesday only served to demonstrate as much. READ MORE: David Davis says Brexit claims about Northern Ireland deal are a ‘falsehood’ That is why I made clear to the Prime Minister yesterday that neither I nor the 13 Scottish Conservative MPs at Westminster could support such an arrangement. It was why I was pleased to see David Davis and fellow UK Ministers reiterate this was not what was going to happen. Naturally, the SNP will want to argue that, in doing so, I am blocking some sort of unspecified ‘special deal’ for Scotland. That is because, as far as they are concerned, a border at Berwick is a price worth paying for being different. I disagree. Standing up for Scotland takes many forms. Protecting our border-free access with our biggest market – the rest of the UK – is a fairly significant one. We should do nothing to imperil that. But there is, of course, a much wider issue – and that is the shape of our future relationship with the European Union. And, as someone who supported Remain in the referendum, the second issue for me this week is about maximising all possible free trade with the rest of the European Union. READ MORE: DUP had role in collapse of Brexit deal – but what role? The case of Northern Ireland highlights the need to maintain that free trade. For those communities on either side of the border, it isn’t just an abstract ideal, it is about the living standards of all and economic survival of many. But just as it is vital for them, so – I would argue – it is important for all of us too. That is why I have also said that, if we are to have regulatory alignment in certain areas in order to maintain a frictionless border on the island of Ireland, then that should apply for all the rest of the UK too. Not because we are being forced into it but again, because it is in our interests to do so. For all the drama of the last few days, this vision of a Britain broadly aligned with the European Union is something the Prime Minister herself set out in her Florence speech earlier this autumn. Speaking directly to fellow EU nations, she declared: “We share the same set of fundamental beliefs: a belief in free trade, rigorous and fair competition, strong consumer rights, and that trying to beat other countries’ industries by unfairly subsiding one’s own is a serious mistake.” We shared a “commitment to high regulatory standards”, she added. People, she went on, “do not want shoddy goods, shoddy services, a poor environment or exploitative working practices and I can never imagine them thinking those things to be acceptable”. Brexit will not change these facts. As the Prime Minister made clear, the shared beliefs that have underpinned 40 years of shared EU membership, and which Britain helped write into a rule book, will continue. Again, not because we are being forced to do so but because, as the Prime Minister has acknowledged, it is what serves us best. This is why I believe we should give the Prime Minister’s ambition for a comprehensive free-trade agreement with the European Union a chance. Because it’s in agreeing that trade agreement that, I hope, many of the questions raised by Dublin in recent days will be answered. Britain is leaving the European Union: we are not leaving Europe. That has been a mantra that both Brexiteers and Remainers have been able to recite since the fractious vote on June 23 last year. So while there will undoubtedly be more late nights, more spats, and more frantic copy for journalists, let’s not talk ourselves into a crisis. Britain has had quite enough of that for a lifetime in the last couple of years. Instead let’s focus on what the right way forward: Scotland, still within one United Kingdom, rooted at the centre of Europe. Ruth Davidson is MSP for Edinburgh Central and leader of the Scottish ConservativesreBOOKed is a simple way to share your library with your friends, colleagues, club members, family, and others. Do people spend time in your home looking through your book collection? Do you enjoy loaning out your favorite books to your friends so they can enjoy them, too? Do you have trouble finding books required for school requirements because they are always checked out from your library? With reBOOKed, you can put your books onto bookshelves, share those bookshelves with specific circles of people, and let everyone know if they are available to borrow, to buy, or just to give away. Getting Started Welcome to reBOOKed! We are thrilled to have you with us! To get started sharing books with your friends, family, and neighbors, follow the steps below. Read the FAQ for more details. Register. This should be obvious, but we want to be thorough. You can either register via Facebook by clicking the big blue button or use the reBOOKed username/password system. Enter books. When you register, reBOOKed automatically creates a bookshelf for you to store your books in. You wouldn't want to be a freeloader and just sponge off of your friends' libraries, would you? Join a circle or two. Circles are where you share your books with your friends. Start sharing! That's it. You're up and running and can search for books and share the ones that you own. Enjoy!Speeding drivers on WA's Forrest Highway unlikely to get ticket despite new cameras Posted West Australian police are unlikely to have the power to issue speeding infringements using results from new point-to-point cameras when the technology is installed on the main road between Perth and Bunbury. Police do not yet have the legislative power to lay charges using results from the cameras, just months ahead of a trial of the technology on Forrest Highway. The $1.5 million trial will be the state's first use of point-to-point cameras, which measure a driver's average speed between two different locations. The technology is already widely used in other states, particularly in regional areas. Legislation has been prepared Attorney-General Michael Mischin told a budget estimates hearing legislation would soon be introduced to Parliament giving police the power to charge drivers with speeding using point-to-point cameras. But legislation typically takes at least several months to progress through Parliament, which is also on the verge of breaking for the six-week winter recess. "Potentially you could charge someone with a hoon offence or a dangerous or reckless driving offence with that information, but what you can't do is charge people with speeding until you get a change in the legislation," Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan told the hearing. "It certainly could be used, in conjunction with other evidence, to prove a case of reckless, dangerous driving, or careless driving, but not speeding." Labor's road safety spokeswoman Michelle Roberts said the Government had been talking about using point-to-point cameras for five years, and the process had taken far too long. "The Barnett Government's delay here has already cost lives, we know that the evidence is there from road safety evidence that this technology saves lives," Ms Roberts said. "It is incompetence of the highest order." Senior police told the hearing there were not yet any estimates on revenue that could be generated from the cameras once they have the power to use them for speeding infringements. But Mr Mischin said that was one of the reasons for the trial. "The point of it would be to establish whether it is worth the effort down the track," Mr Mischin said. Police said if the cameras were rolled out more broadly, they were likely to be in regional areas. Topics: police, law-crime-and-justice, perth-6000, bunbury-6230From a quarter to half of Earth's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on April 25. An international team of 32 authors from 24 institutions in eight countries led the effort, which involved using satellite data from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer instruments to help determine the leaf area index, or amount of leaf cover, over the planet's vegetated regions. The greening represents an increase in leaves on plants and trees equivalent in area to two times the continental United States. Green leaves use energy from sunlight through photosynthesis to chemically combine carbon dioxide drawn in from the air with water and nutrients tapped from the ground to produce sugars, which are the main source of food, fiber and fuel for life on Earth. Studies have shown that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide increase photosynthesis, spurring plant growth. However, carbon dioxide fertilization isn't the only cause of increased plant growth--nitrogen, land cover change and climate change by way of global temperature, precipitation and sunlight changes all contribute to the greening effect. To determine the extent of carbon dioxide's contribution, researchers ran the data for carbon dioxide and each of the other variables in isolation through several computer models that mimic the plant growth observed in the satellite data. Results showed that carbon dioxide fertilization explains 70 percent of the greening effect, said co-author Ranga Myneni, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University. "The second most important driver is nitrogen, at 9 percent. So we see what an outsized role CO 2 plays in this process." About 85 percent of Earth's ice-free lands is covered by vegetation. The area covered by all the green leaves on Earth is equal to, on average, 32 percent of Earth's total surface area -- oceans, lands and permanent ice sheets combined. The extent of the greening over the past 35 years "has the ability to fundamentally change the cycling of water and carbon in the climate system," said lead author Zaichun Zhu, a researcher from Peking University, China, who did the first half of this study with Myneni as a visiting scholar at Boston University. Every year, about half of the 10 billion tons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere from human activities remains temporarily stored, in about equal parts, in the oceans and plants. "While our study did not address the connection between greening and carbon storage in plants, other studies have reported an increasing carbon sink on land since the 1980s, which is entirely consistent with the idea of a greening Earth," said co-author Shilong Piao of the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University. While rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the air can be beneficial for plants, it is also the chief culprit of climate change. The gas, which traps heat in Earth's atmosphere, has been increasing since the industrial age due to the burning of oil, gas, coal and wood for energy and is continuing to reach concentrations not seen in at least 500,000 years. The impacts of climate change include global warming, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and sea ice as well as more severe weather events. The beneficial impacts of carbon dioxide on plants may also be limited, said co-author Dr. Philippe Ciais, associate director of the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, Gif-suv-Yvette, France. "Studies have shown that plants acclimatize, or adjust, to rising carbon dioxide concentration and the fertilization effect diminishes over time." "While the detection of greening is based on data, the attribution to various drivers is based on models," said co-author Josep Canadell of the Oceans and Atmosphere Division in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Canberra, Australia. Canadell added that while the models represent the best possible simulation of Earth system components, they are continually being improved.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. 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. 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! 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. When you allow 71 sacks on the season -- an average of almost four a game -- and have only three games where a running back rushed for more than 100 yards, there is considerable work to be done. While there is a grocery list of items this team needs to improve if they don't want to be forced to hand over the keys to their locker-room -- like we were forced to do in 2006 -- there is nearly provincial consensus this overhaul needs to begin with the offensive line, and all things associated with the 300-pounders. As we all know though, just because you belong somewhere doesn't mean you are going to be there, so with just over six months until next season kicks off, the "belonging here" work should be happening in earnest. ‘YOU Belong Here,” is what the Winnipeg Football Club decreed as their slogan, four days ago, for the 103rd Grey Cup they will be hosting. While it’s always nice to hear rationale to support the decision thousands of us make to stick around for yet another inhospitable winter, most of us are hoping it’s an early message to the roster of 2015 as a goal to be in the championship game at Investors Group Field. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/12/2014 (1540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/12/2014 (1540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. ‘YOU Belong Here," is what the Winnipeg Football Club decreed as their slogan, four days ago, for the 103rd Grey Cup they will be hosting. While it’s always nice to hear rationale to support the decision thousands of us make to stick around for yet another inhospitable winter, most of us are hoping it’s an early message to the roster of 2015 as a goal to be in the championship game at Investors Group Field. As we all know though, just because you belong somewhere doesn't mean you are going to be there, so with just over six months until next season kicks off, the "belonging here" work should be happening in earnest. While there is a grocery list of items this team needs to improve if they don't want to be forced to hand over the keys to their locker-room — like we were forced to do in 2006 — there is nearly provincial consensus this overhaul needs to begin with the offensive line, and all things associated with the 300-pounders. When you allow 71 sacks on the season — an average of almost four a game — and have only three games where a running back rushed for more than 100 yards, there is considerable work to be done. The most daunting aspect of this pending overhaul is the team started three "internationals" on the line for nine of its games this season. If you look at the two strongest offensive lines in the CFL — Saskatchewan and Calgary — they each started, for the majority of games, only one international. If the thinking in the CFL is — on average — the American player is superior to his Canadian brethren, well then you can see just how far this group has to go. Most teams try to stuff as many Canadian starters as possible on the offensive line, so they can use their internationals at possibly higher-impacting skill positions. If this football club started three internationals on their offensive line, yet still got bottom-of-the-barrel production from them, well, you can see how far and long the road is ahead. The trickle-down effect of burning internationals on the offensive line instead of say, at receiver or defensive tackle, further exacerbates the problem. The Bombers literally robbed Peter to pay Paul in 2014 and still didn't get the production they needed. While overcoming injury concerns to Patrick Neufeld — who just signed a new deal — and evolving through growing pains with rookie draft pick Matthias Goossen should produce at least a third national starter on the offensive line next year, it isn't just about the quantity of Canadian starters in Winnipeg, it's a concern of quality and durability, too. Even with the second pick in the 2015 draft sure to be a future big-and-tall shopper, and probably another one with the next pick, you still cannot hang your hat on these youngsters coming into the starting lineup and being difference-makers from the get-go. No, if the team truly wants a shot at belonging here next November, not only will they have to get lucky with their draft — and with the health of Neufeld and progression of Goossen — but they will have to lie, beg, cheat, steal and hope for one of the projected quality-Canadian linemen to make it to free agency, and then sign him. Last year this team won quarterback Drew Willy by losing Zach Collaros and Henry Burris, but the odds of that happening again in this year's free-agency sweepstakes are remote. Not to be forgotten in this spotlight on earth movers, should be the scheme, co-ordination and coaching these players are receiving. While 2014's unit may have given up the most sacks in the CFL, no one would be surprised to learn they probably also moved the pocket the least, and threw the ball a ton without changing many launch points and protections during the course of the year. For some reason or another, we may belong here in this bizarrely likable tundra, but if this team wants to contend to belong in the Grey Cup next year, the most dramatic of changes must come in this one area. Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press. Twitter: @DougBrown97by Harry Browne Originally published July 4, 2003 Unfortunately, July 4th has become a day of deceit. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declared its independence from Great Britain. Thirteen years later, after a difficult war to secure that independence, the new country was open for business. It was truly unique â€” the first nation in all of history in which the individual was considered more important than the government, and the government was tied down by a written Constitution. It was the one nation where you could live your life secure in the knowledge that no one would ask for your papers, where you weren’t identified by a number, and where the government wouldn’t extort a percentage of your income as the price of holding a job. And so each year July 4th has been a commemoration of the freest country in history. False Celebration But the America that’s celebrated no longer exists. The holiday oratory deceitfully describes America as though it were the unique land of liberty that once was. Politicians thank the Almighty for conferring the blessings of liberty on a country that no longer enjoys those blessings. The original freedom and security have disappeared â€” even though the oratory lingers on. What made America unique is now gone, and we are much the same as Germany, France, England, or Spain, with: confiscatory taxes, a Constitution and Bill of Rights that are symbolic only â€” merely documents used to justify governmental actions that are in fact prohibited by those documents, business regulated by the state in the most minute detail, no limits on what Congress or the President might decide to do. Yes, there are some freedoms left, but nothing like the America that was â€” and nothing that you can’t find in a few dozen other countries. The Empire Gone, too, is the sense of peace and security that once reigned throughout the land. America â€” bound by two huge oceans and two friendly neighbors â€” was subject to none of the never-ending wars and destruction that plagued Europe and Asia. Now, however, everyone’s business is America’s business. Our Presidents consider themselves the rulers of the world â€” deciding who may govern any country on earth and sending Americans to die enforcing those decisions. Whereas America was once an inspiration to the entire world â€” its very existence was proof that peace and liberty really were possible â€” Americans now live in fear of the rest of the world and the rest of the world lives in fear of America. The Future Because the education of our children was turned over to government in the 19th century, generations of Americans have been taught that freedom means taxes, regulations, civic duty, and responsibility for the whole world. They have no conception of the better life that could exist in a society in which government doesn’t manage health care, education, welfare, and business â€” and in which individuals are free to plot their own destinies. Human beings are born with the desire to make their own decisions and control their own lives. But in most countries government and social pressures work to teach people to expect very little autonomy. Fortunately, in America a remnant has kept alive the ideas of liberty, peace, and self-respect â€” passing the concepts on from generation to generation. And so today millions of Americans know that the present system isn’t the right system â€” that human beings aren’t born to serve the state and police the world. Millions more would be receptive upon being shown that it’s possible to have better lives than what they’re living now. Both groups need encouragement to quit supporting those who are taking freedom away from them. You and I may not have the money and influence to change America by ourselves, but we can keep spreading the word â€” describing a better society in which individuals are truly free and government is in chains (instead of the opposite). And someday we may reach the people who do have the money and influence to persuade tens of millions of Americans to change our country for the better. I don’t know that it’s going to happen, but I do know it’s possible. I know that the urge to live one’s own life is as basic in human beings as the will to live and the desire to procreate. If we keep plugging away, we may eventually tap into that urge and rally the forces necessary to restore the real America. And then the 4th of July will be worth celebrating again. Harry Browne (RIP 1933-2006), the author of Why Government Doesn’t Work and many other books, was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000,Â a co-founder of DownsizeDC, and the Director of Public Policy for the American Liberty Foundation.Â See his website.A teacher in Ohio was suspended without pay for allegedly making racially insensitive remarks. The Fairfield City Schools Board of Education suspended Gil Voigt, who has been a teacher at Fairfield Freshman School for 13 years, said Board President Dan Murray. It is the first step in the process of terminating the teacher, he said. Superintendent Paul Otten said the incident took place earlier this month when an African-American student expressed an ambition to be president. Voigt allegedly replied, “We don’t need another black president.” “He was talking to some students and said some things that were racially insensitive. We take diversity in our school district very seriously with tolerance of people who are different. We just felt this teacher had crossed the line,” Murray said. Otten said Voigt had been reprimanded for racially insensitive remarks in the past. A report prepared by Assistant Superintendent Roger Martin lists four instances of discipline: A verbal warning in April 2008 for an “inappropriate racial comment,” another in November 2008 for “improper use of school technology” and a third in December 2013 for “inappropriate comments to students.” He also received a written warning last month for “failure to use adopted curriculum.” The report also notes “All evaluations have been satisfactory.” “Obviously we’re very disheartened to have this situation with any of our staff members,” Otten said. “It’s not something we’re proud of, and it’s something we must not tolerate.” Voigt taught seven years in North Carolina, two years in Florida and six years at Cincinnati public before joining Fairfield. He received a continuing contract in 2002, and his 2013-2014 contract stipulated a $73,566 salary. He could not be reached for comment. Voigt has the right to appeal the decision before the school board within 10 days of notification, Otten said. Treasurer Nancy Lane and the district’s Law Director John Clemmons are drafting an official notification to the teacher.Every year our family purchases 12 lovely pastured chickens from a local farm. Chickens that have enjoyed the great outdoors to their hearts content makes the most nutritious bird. Only 12 chickens? Yes, I use one chicken each month and make it stretch for at least four or more meals for our family of four. It is a great frugal way to get the most value and nutrition by purchasing them whole. You get all bones which make fabulous broth! Here I am today to share our method of preparing multiple meals from one chicken at one time. Roasted Chicken The first step is to thaw the whole chicken and prepare it into a scrumptious roast while a batch of mashed potatoes, gravy, and a side salad! Ingredients: 1 large chicken (4-6 pounds) 2 Tablespoons softened butter or coconut oil 2 Tablespoons melted butter, coconut oil, or olive oil 2-3 garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon parsley, oregano, or basil (or combination) sea salt and pepper Rosemary Directions: 1. Wash and pat dry the exterior and interior of your chicken. Remove any giblets that may be in the cavity and set aside for your broth. 2. Combine the 2 Tablespoon butter with garlic and parsley/oregano/basil seasonings. Carefully peel back the skin at the back of the neck and rub the butter seasoning mix all around the meat, between the skin and meat. This will give the meat a wonderful moist texture. You can skip this step if you are in a hurry and the meat will still be fabulous with just the outside oil and seasoning! 3. Place chicken in a roasting pan, dutch/french oven, or any oven safe pan you may have. Preferably the more fitted the container the better for keeping all the juices together. Place the chicken breast side down into the pan. 4. Cover chicken with half the melted butter/oil and season with salt, pepper, and rosemary as desired. 5. Place uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour. 6. After 1 hour, rotate the chicken and sprinkle on the remaining butter/oil and season as desired and return to oven for an additional 1 hour. 7. Chicken is done when the legs pull away from the body of the chicken and if you cut in between the leg and body and the juice runs clear. 8. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving. We slice up this chicken and serve with this yummy gravy: Chicken drippings 1 Tablespoon arrowroot powder 1/2 cup dry white wine salt and pepper to taste 1. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and whisk together till smooth and thickened. Season to taste. We don’t eat a lot of meat at any given meal, but make it stretch further by eating more vegetables. As you can see in the photo, I serve the roast chicken over mashed potatoes with a side of broccoli and squash. This really helps to get the most amount of meals from one chicken. After we have this fabulous chicken for dinner, I place the entirety of the remaining chicken in the fridge overnight. In the morning I prepare the following two dishes at once, because it saves time and energy. Sometime the next day, de-bone the chicken and remove all the chicken meat and place in a separate bowl. Set aside two cups of meat for Chicken & Dumplings, and two cups of meat for Chicken Curry or another dish of your choice. These can be placed in a half gallon jar in the fridge till ready for use. Any additional meat is used for chicken sandwiches to send with hubby for lunches. Chicken Stock Bones from 1 whole chicken Gizzards or feet (optional) 1/2 cup white vinegar 12-16 cups filtered water 1/2 onion, chopped in half 2-4 carrot peelings 2 celery sticks and tops 1 bunch parsley (or 1 Tablespoon or so dried parsley) Homemade chicken stock is full of healing properties. 1. Place all the bones in a large stock pot. Leave a small portion of the chicken on the bone if you desire to make a chicken soup. Add the reserved giblets, chicken feet, or any additional bones you may have reserved. 2. Fill the pot with approximately 12-16 cups of filtered water. 3. Add white vinegar and allow the mixture to sit for 30 minutes. Vinegar is necessary to draw out the minerals, particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium, into the broth. During this time, you want to prepare your vegetable additions. 4. You can use any older looking vegetables, carrot peels, onion peels, celery tops, potato peels, etc. I love making stock because nothing goes to waste! Many times I will store a bag of peelings in the freezer from other dishes that can be thrown in for the stock. I will actually peel my ingredients for my next recipe, a double batch of Chicken & Dumplings, and use the peelings for my stock. I use approximately 4 carrot peelings, 1/2 onion (cut into wedges), 2 celery tops and 1 celery stalk cut in half, and 2 potato peelings. There is no need for perfection here. I use what I have on hand and it all goes in. 5. After adding the vegetables, bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and let it cook for 12-24 hours. 6. About 10 minutes before finishing the stock, add 1 bunch of parsley. 7. After it has cooked, cool completely. Then drain the broth from the vegetables and bones. I will discard the vegetables and remove any additional meat on the bones for a chicken soup or other purpose before discarding the bones. I will freeze half of the stock by placing in a large gallon size freezer bag. This will be used for soup for another meal. The remaining stock I will use for soup within the week – Garden Chowder or Zuppa Tuscana are regular delicious soups at our house! Chicken & Dumplings In the picture above, you see all the chopped veggies that I prepare for my Chicken & Dumplings dish. I have just peeled them all for my stock and use the remaining vegetable chopped nicely for this dish. I use the reserved two cups of chopped chicken for this recipe. I can then prepare this right away or cover and place in fridge for the evening meal. I can easily make a double batch of Chicken & Dumplings in two separate 8 x 8 pans and freeze one for another busy day. Chicken Curry With the additional 2 cups of reserved chopped chicken meat, I will often make Chicken Curry - another delicious and nutritious meal. Another favorite would be Chicken Enchiladas that could also be made with this meat. Finally, any remaining meat makes some fabulous lunches for my husband throughout the week. Roasted chicken sandwiches with mayo, dijon mustard, cheese, pickles, lettuce and any other toppings make a full satisfying sandwich! So my whole chicken has made 1 roast, 1 batch of chicken stock (enough for at least 2 soups), 2 main dishes, and enough for a few additional chicken sandwiches for lunch! I would say we used everything possible on that chicken! How do you use your chicken?As far back as I can remember, my Uncle David has always sent me a box of trash on my birthday. To be fair, it’s not so much “trash” as it is items that might be leftover from a garage sale. You might then take these items to a charity, where they’d kindly be denied. They’d become trash when you stop by a dumpster on the way home. Last year’s box contained a genie lamp, an ‘88 class ring, and inflatable globe. The box from the year before that contained a Hustler DVD, self-tanner, and cake knife. And the box from the year before that contained a CD of Timeless Jewish Songs, and my favorite, a masturbating monkey pin. Basically, it works like this – throughout the year, anything Uncle David has handpicked, hoarded, or considered throwing into the trash ends up in the box. Mostly the last one. This past week, two overpacked cardboard boxes arrived at my doorstep, both addressed to “Alex Mann, Esq.” (I’m not a lawyer.) My birthday is soon, so I knew what they were. I drag the boxes into my apartment, tear them open, and lay out the items. The first thing I notice is there are considerably more items than previous years – almost 100, compared to the usual 20-30. This took some serious scavenging and packing. With all that free time, I consider telling Uncle David he needs to find a hobby, but then realize he already has one. The second thing I notice is the item on the top left. It’s the biggest, heaviest thing Uncle David has ever sent me. The note on it reads, “I can honestly say this is the most unique and unexpected gift of all time
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Janeczko, Matthew (2014): “Faced with Death, even a Mouse Bites”: Social and Religious Motivations behind Terrorism in Chechnya. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 25(2), 428-456. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2014.903975 Kay, Aaron C.; Eibach, Richard P. (2013, September): Compensatory Control and its Implications for Ideological Extremism. Journal of Social Issues, 69(3), 564-585. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12029 Kiefer, Maximilian et al. (2016-2017, Winter): Westliche Jugendliche im Bann des Islamischen Staates – Radikalisierende Inhalte der IS-Propaganda am Beispiel der Onlinemagazine Dabiq und Rumiyah. Journal for Deradicalization, 9, 126-184. URL: http://journals.sfu.ca/jd/index.php/jd/article/view/75 Klein, Kristen M.; Kruglanski, Arie W. (2013, September): Commitment and Extremism: A Goal Systemic Analysis. Journal of Social Issues, 69(3), 419-435. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12022 Kluch, Sofia Pinero; Vaux, Alan (2017): Culture and Terrorism: The Role of Cultural Factors in Worldwide Terrorism (1970-2013). Terrorism and Political Violence, 29(2), 323-341. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2015.1038523 Kobrin, Nancy Hartevelt (2016, October): Nobody Born a Terrorist, but Early Childhood Matters: Explaining the Jihadis’ Lack of Empathy. Perspectives on Terrorism, 10(5), 108-111. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/546 Koehler, Daniel (2014-2015, Winter): The Radical Online: Individual Radicalization Processes and the Role of the Internet. Journal for Deradicalization, 1, 116-134. URL: http://journals.sfu.ca/jd/index.php/jd/article/view/8 Koos, Carlo (2016, February): Does Violence Pay? The Effect of Ethnic Rebellion on Overcoming Political Deprivation. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 33(1), 3-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0738894214559670 Korstanje, Maximiliano E. (2015): Conflictive Touring: The Roots of Terrorism. International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism, 5(2), 53-67. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCWT.2015040104 Korstanje, Maximiliano E. (2017): The Roots of Terror: The Lesser Evil Doctrine under Criticism. In: Maximiliano E. Korstanje (Ed.): Threat Mitigation and Detection of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism Activities. Hershey: IGI Global, 254-270. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-1938-6.ch011 Krieger, Tim; Meierrieks, Daniel (2015, January): The Rise of Capitalism and the Roots of Anti-American Terrorism. Journal of Peace Research, 52(1), 46-61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343314552940 Krueger, Alan B.; Laitin, David D. (2008): Kto Kogo? A Cross-Country Study of the Origins and Targets of Terrorism. In: Philip Keefer; Norman Loayza (Eds.): Terrorism, Economic Development, and Political Openness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 148-173. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511754388 Kruglanski, Arie W. (2014, October 28): Psychology not Theology: Overcoming ISIS’ Secret Appeal. E-International Relations. URL: http://www.e-ir.info/2014/10/28/psychology-not-theology-overcoming-isis-secret-appeal Kruglanski, Arie W.; Orehek, Edward (2011): The Role of the Quest for Personal Significance in Motivating Terrorism. In: Joseph P. Forgas; Arie W. Kruglanski; Kipling D. Williams (Eds.): The Psychology of Social Conflict and Aggression. (The Sydney Symposium of Social Psychology). New York: Psychology Press, 153-166. URL: http://public.psych.iastate.edu/caa/classes/487Readings/KruglanskiOrehek2011.pdf Kruglanski, Arie W. et al. (2009, June): Fully Committed: Suicide Bombers’ Motivation and the Quest for Personal Significance. Political Psychology, 30(3), 331-357. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00698.x Kruglanski, Arie W. et al. (2013, October): Terrorism - A (Self) Love Story: Redirecting the Significance Quest Can End Violence. American Psychologist, 68(7), 559-575. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032615 Kruglanski, Arie W. et al. (2016): What a Difference Two Years Make: Patterns of Radicalization in a Philippine Jail. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 9(1-3), 13-36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17467586.2016.1198042 Kruglanski, Arie W. et al. (2017, April): To the Fringe and Back: Violent Extremism and the Psychology of Deviance. American Psychologist, 72(3), 217-230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000091 URL: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Arie_Kruglanski/publication/311583109_To_the_fringe_and_back_Violent_extremism_and_the_psychology_of_deviance/links/58ea7ebaaca2729d8cd599f2/To-the-fringe-and-back-Violent-extremism-and-the-psychology-of-deviance.pdf Kuhn, Patrick M.; Weidmann, Nils B. (2015, September): Unequal we Fight: Between- and Within-Group Inequality and Ethnic Civil War. Political Science Research and Methods, 3(3), 543-568. 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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X13003609 Leimbach, Katharina (2017, Summer): Die (De-)Konstruktion eines extremistischen Weltbildes: Eine Mixed-Methods Analyse von Al-Qaidas Online Magazin “Inspire”. Journal for Deradicalization, 11, 148-218. URL: http://journals.sfu.ca/jd/index.php/jd/article/view/104 Leman, Johan (2016, March): The History, Motivations, Framing and Processes of Belgian Jihadism: The Molenbeek Case. In: Hedwig Giusto (Ed.): Daesh and the Terrorist Threat: From the Middle East to Europe. [e-Book]. Brussels; Rome: Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS); Fondazione Italianieuropei, 126-134. URL: http://www.feps-europe.eu/en/publications/details/376 Leroy, Didier (2016, October): Daesh-Linked Activities and Motivations in Belgium. In: Beatrice Gorawantschy et al. (Eds.): Countering Daesh Extremism: European and Asian Responses. (KAS Panorama: Insights into Asian and European Affairs, 02/2016). Singapore: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS); International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), 177-188. URL: http://www.kas.de/politikdialog-asien/en/publications/46739 Levin, Rachel; Asal, Victor (2017): Do Different Definitions of Terrorism Alter its Causal Story? In: Michael Stohl; Richard Burchill; Scott Englund (Eds.): Constructions of Terrorism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Research and Policy. Oakland: University of California Press, 151-162. Lia, Brynjar (2016, Winter): Jihadism in the Arab World after 2011: Explaining its Expansion. Middle East Policy, 23(4), 74-91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.12234 URL: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brynjar_Lia/publication/311438943_Jihadism_in_the_Arab_World_after_2011_Explaining_Its_Expansion/links/58466b9b08ae2d217569da72.pdf Lia, Brynjar; Nesser, Petter (2016, December): Jihadism in Norway: A Typology of Militant Networks in a Peripheral European Country. Perspectives on Terrorism, 10(6), 121-134. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/563 Lindekilde, Lasse; Bertelsen, Preben; Stohl, Michael (2016): Who Goes, why, and with what Effects: The Problem of Foreign Fighters from Europe. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 27(5), 858-877. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2016.1208285 Linebarger, Christopher (2015): Civil War Diffusion and the Emergence of Militant Groups, 1960-2001. International Interactions, 41(3), 583-600. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2015.984809 Littler, Mark (2017): Rethinking Democracy and Terrorism: A Quantitative Analysis of Attitudes to Democratic Politics and Support for Terrorism in the UK. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 9(1), 52-61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19434472.2016.1245211 Lo, Mbaye Bashir (2016, February): The West’s Freedom Problem and the Root of Islamic Militancy. Small Wars Journal, 2/2016. URL: http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-west%E2%80%99s-freedom-problem-and-the-root-of-islamic-militancy Lopez, François (2016, February): If Publicity is the Oxygen of Terrorism – Why Do Terrorists Kill Journalists? Perspectives on Terrorism, 10(1), 65-77. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/490 Lutz, Brenda J.; Lutz, James M. (2015, October): Globalisation and Terrorism in the Middle East. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(5), 27-46. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/459 Lutz, James M.; Lutz, Brenda J. (2017, April): The Ambiguous Effect of Population Size on the Prevalence of Terrorism. Perspectives on Terrorism, 11(2), 49-57. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/595 Lyall, Gavin (2017, June): Who are the British Jihadists? Identifying Salient Biographical Factors in the Radicalisation Process. Perspectives on Terrorism, 11(3), 62-70. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/609 Lyall, Jason; Blair, Graeme; Imai, Kosuke (2013, November): Explaining Support for Combatants during Wartime: A Survey Experiment in Afghanistan. American Political Science Review, 107(4), 679-705. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055413000403 URL: http://imai.princeton.edu/research/files/afghan.pdf Magdy, Walid; Darwish, Kareem; Weber, Ingmar (2016, February): #FailedRevolutions: Using Twitter to Study the Antecedents of ISIS Support. First Monday, 21(2). URL: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6372 Malečková, Jitka (2006): Terrorists and the Societies from which they Come. In: Jeff Victoroff (Ed.): Tangled Roots: Social and Psychological Factors in the Genesis of Terrorism. (NATO Security through Science Series – E: Human and Societal Dynamics, Vol. 11). Amsterdam: IOS Press, 147-161. Malet, David (2015): Foreign Fighter Mobilization and Persistence in a Global Context. Terrorism and Political Violence, 27(3), 454-473. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2015.1032151 Malik, Muhammad Sohail Anwar et al. (2015): Identification of Risk Factors Generating Terrorism in Pakistan. Terrorism and Political Violence, 27(3), 537-556. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2013.820184 Malik, Zahra; Zaman, Khalid (2013, November-December): Macroeconomic Consequences of Terrorism in Pakistan. Journal of Policy Modeling, 35(6), 1103-1123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpolmod.2013.08.002 Malthaner, Stefan; Lindekilde, Lasse (2017): Analyzing Pathways of Lone-Actor Radicalization: A Relational Approach. In: Michael Stohl; Richard Burchill; Scott Englund (Eds.): Constructions of Terrorism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Research and Policy. Oakland: University of California Press, 163-180. Malthaner, Stefan; Waldmann, Peter (2014): The Radical Milieu: Conceptualizing the Supportive Social Environment of Terrorist Groups. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 37(12), 979-998. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2014.962441 Maras, Marie-Helen (2014): Motivations of Terrorists and the Psychology of Terrorism. In: The CRC Press Terrorism Reader. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 13-26. Martin, Gus (2016): Beginnings: The Causes of Terrorism. In: Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues. (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 46-74. Martin, Gus (2017): Causes of Terrorist Violence. In: Essentials of Terrorism: Concepts and Controversies. (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 42-62. Martin, Susanne; Perliger, Arie (2012, October): Turning to and from Terror: Deciphering the Conditions under which Political Groups Choose Violent and Nonviolent Tactics. Perspectives on Terrorism, 6(4-5), 21-45. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/215 Mashuri, Ali; Akhrani, Lusy Asa; Zaduqisti, Esti (2016, February): You Are the Real Terrorist and we Are Just your Puppet: Using Individual and Group Factors to Explain Indonesian Muslims’ Attributions of Causes of Terrorism. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 12(1), 68-98. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i1.1001 McAllister, Bradley; Schmid, Alex P. (2011): Theories of Terrorism. In: Alex P. Schmid (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research. (Routledge Handbooks). Abingdon: Routledge, 201-271. McCarthy, Andrew C. (2014): Does Islam Play a Unique Role in Modern Religious Terrorism? YES: Islam Has a Unique Impact on Modern Terrorism. In: Stuart Gottlieb (Ed.): Debating Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Conflicting Perspectives on Causes, Contexts, and Responses. (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: CQ Press, 104-117. McCauley, Clark (2016, August): What Comes after ISIS? A Peace Proposal. Perspectives on Terrorism, 10(4), 64-68. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/528 McCauley, Clark (2017, April): Toward a Psychology of Humiliation in Asymmetric Conflict. American Psychologist, 72(3), 255-265. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000063 URL: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-amp0000063.pdf McCauley, Clark; Moskalenko, Sophia (2008): Mechanisms of Political Radicalization: Pathways toward Terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 20(3), 415-433. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546550802073367 McCauley, Clark; Moskalenko, Sophia (2017, April): Understanding Political Radicalization: The Two-Pyramids Model. American Psychologist, 72(3), 205-216. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000062 URL: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/psych_pubs/60 McGilloway, Angela; Ghosh, Priyo; Bhui, Kamaldeep (2015): A Systematic Review of Pathways to and Processes Associated with Radicalization and Extremism amongst Muslims in Western Societies. International Review of Psychiatry, 27(1), 39-50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2014.992008 McGrath, Stephen; Gill, Paul (2014, August): An Exploratory Study on the Impact of Electoral Participation upon a Terrorist Group’s Use of Violence in a Given Year. Perspectives on Terrorism, 8(4), 27-35. URL: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/358 McGregor, Ian; Prentice, Mike; Nash, Kyle (2013, September): Anxious Uncertainty and Reactive Approach Motivation (RAM) for Religious, Idealistic, and Lifestyle Extremes. Journal of Social Issues, 69(3), 537-563. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12028 McIntyre, Anthony (2016): The Motivation of the Irish Rebel and Resistance to the Label “Terrorist”. In: Marie Breen-Smyth (Ed.): The Ashgate Research Companion to Political Violence. Abingdon: Routledge, 169-184. (Original work published 2012) Meloy, J. Reid; Pollard, Jeffrey W. (2017, April): Lone-Actor Terrorism and Impulsivity. Journal of Forensic Sciences. Advance Online Publication. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.13500 Michaels, Jay L. (2017): Social Forces Sustaining the Israeli-Palestinian Tensions: A Dynamical Psychology Perspective. International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 11, Article #04. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4119/
a method of painting in watercolours, using thick pigments mixed with gum to give rich effects similar to medieval illuminations. He also developed a novel drawing technique in pen-and-ink. His first published illustration was "The Maids of Elfen-Mere" (1855), for a poem by his friend William Allingham, and he contributed two illustrations to Edward Moxon's 1857 edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Poems and illustrations for works by his sister Christina Rossetti.[16] His visions of Arthurian romance and medieval design also inspired William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones.[17] Neither Burne-Jones nor Morris knew Rossetti, but were much influenced by his works, and met him by recruiting him as a contributor to their Oxford and Cambridge Magazine which Morris founded in 1856 to promote his ideas about art and poetry.[18][19] In February 1857, Rossetti wrote to William Bell Scott: Two young men, projectors of the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, have recently come up to town from Oxford, and are now very intimate friends of mine. Their names are Morris and Jones. They have turned artists instead of taking up any other career to which the university generally leads, and both are men of real genius. Jones's designs are marvels of finish and imaginative detail, unequalled by anything unless perhaps Albert Dürer's finest works.[18] That summer Morris and Rossetti visited Oxford and finding the Oxford Union debating-hall under construction, pursued a commission to paint the upper walls with scenes from Le Morte d'Arthur and to decorate the roof between the open timbers. Seven artists were recruited, among them Valentine Prinsep and Arthur Hughes,[20] and the work was hastily begun. The frescoes, done too soon and too fast, began to fade at once and now are barely decipherable. Rossetti recruited two sisters, Bessie and Jane Burden, as models for the Oxford Union murals, and Jane became Morris's wife in 1859.[21] Book Arts [ edit ] Literature was integrated into the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's artistic practice from the beginning (including that of Rossetti), with many paintings making direct literary references. For example, John Everett Millais' early work, Isabella (1849), depicts an episode from John Keats' Isabella, or, the Pot of Basil (1818). Rossetti was particularly critical of the gaudy ornamentation of Victorian gift books and sought to refine bindings and illustrations to align with the principles of the Aesthetic Movement.[22] Rossetti's key bindings were designed between 1861 and 1871.[23] He collaborated as a designer/illustrator with his sister, poet Christina Rossetti, on the first edition of Goblin Market (1862) and The Prince's Progress (1866). One of Rossetti's most prominent contributions to illustration was the collaborative book, Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (published by Edward Moxon in 1857 and known colloquially as the 'Moxon Tennyson'). Moxon envisioned Royal Academicians as the illustrators for the ambitious project, but this vision was quickly disrupted once Millais, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, became involved in the project.[24] Millais recruited William Holman Hunt and Rossetti for the project, and the involvement of these artists reshaped the entire production of the book. In reference to the Pre-Raphaelite illustrations, Laurence Housman wrote "[...] The illustrations of the Pre-Raphaelites were personal and intellectual readings of the poems to which they belonged, not merely echoes in line of the words of the text."[25] The Pre-Raphaelites’ visualization of Tennyson’s poems indicated the range of possibilities in interpreting written works, as did their unique approach to visualizing narrative on the canvas.[24] Pre-Raphaelite illustrations do not simply refer to the text in which they appear; rather, they are part of a bigger program of art: the book as a whole. Rossetti’s philosophy about the role of illustration was revealed in an 1855 letter to poet William Allingham, when he wrote, in reference to his work on the Moxon Tennyson: "I have not begun even designing for them yet, but fancy I shall try the Vision of Sin, and Palace of Art etc.—those where one can allegorize on one’s own hook, without killing for oneself and everyone a distinct idea of the poet’s."[26] This passage makes apparent Rossetti’s desire not to just support the poet’s narrative, but to create an allegorical illustration that functions separately from the text as well. In this respect, Pre-Raphaelite illustrations go beyond depicting an episode from a poem, but rather function like subject paintings within a text. Illustration is not subservient to text and vice versa. Careful and conscientious craftsmanship is practiced in every aspect of production, and each element, though qualifiedly artistic in its own right, contributes to a unified art object (the book). Religious influence on works [ edit ] England began to see a revival of religious beliefs and practices starting in 1833 and moving onward to about 1845.[27] The Oxford Movement, also known as the Tractarian Movement, had recently begun a push toward the restoration of Christian traditions that had been lost in the Church.[28] Rossetti and his family had been attending Christ Church, Albany Street since 1843. His brother, William Michael Rossetti recorded that services had begun changing in the church since the start of the "High Anglican movement". Rev. William Dodsworth was responsible for these changes, including the addition of the Catholic practice of placing flowers and candles by the altar. Rossetti and his family, along with two of his colleagues (one of which cofounded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) had also attended St. Andrew's on Wells Street, a High Anglican church. It is noted that the Anglo-Catholic revival very much affected Rossetti in the late 1840s and early 1850s. The spiritual expressions of his painting The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, finished in 1849, are evident of this claim. The painting's altar is decorated very similarly to that of a Catholic altar, proving his familiarity with the Anglo-Catholic revival. The subject of the painting, the Blessed Virgin, is sewing a red cloth, a significant part of the Oxford Movement that emphasized the embroidering of altar cloths by women.[29] Oxford Reformers identified two major aspects to their movement, that "the end of all religion must be communion with God," and "that the Church was divinely instituted for the very purpose of bringing about this consummation."[30] From the beginning of the Brotherhood's formation in 1848, their pieces of art included subjects of noble or religious disposition. Their aim was to communicate a message of "moral reform" through the style of their works, exhibiting a "truth to nature".[31] Specifically in Rossetti's "Hand and Soul," written in 1849, he displays his main character Chiaro as an artist with spiritual inclinations. In the text, Chiaro's spirit appears before him in the form of a woman who instructs him to "set thine hand and thy soul to serve man with God."[32] The Rossetti Archive defines this text as "Rossetti's way of constellating his commitments to art, religious devotion, and a thoroughly secular historicism."[33] Likewise, in "The Blessed Damozel," written between 1847 and 1870, Rossetti uses biblical language such as "From the gold bar of Heaven" to describe the Damozel looking down to Earth from Heaven.[34] Here we see a connection between body and soul, mortal and supernatural, a common theme in Rossetti's works. In "Ave" (1847), Mary awaits the day that she will meet her son in Heaven, uniting the earthly with the heavenly. The text highlights a strong element in Anglican Marian theology that describes Mary's body and soul having been assumed into Heaven.[29] A new direction [ edit ] Bocca Baciata (1859) signalled a new direction on Rossetti's work. (Model: Fanny Cornforth) (1859) signalled a new direction on Rossetti's work. (Model: Fanny Cornforth) Around 1860, Rossetti returned to oil painting, abandoning the dense medieval compositions of the 1850s in favour of powerful close-up images of women in flat pictorial spaces characterised by dense colour. These paintings became a major influence on the development of the European Symbolist movement.[35] In them, Rossetti's depiction of women became almost obsessively stylised. He portrayed his new lover Fanny Cornforth as the epitome of physical eroticism, whilst Jane Burden, the wife of his business partner William Morris, was glamorised as an ethereal goddess. "As in Rossetti's previous reforms, the new kind of subject appeared in the context of a wholesale reconfiguration of the practice of painting, from the most basic level of materials and techniques up to the most abstract or conceptual level of the meanings and ideas that can be embodied in visual form."[35] These new works were based not on medievalism, but on the Italian High Renaissance artists of Venice, Titian and Veronese.[35][36] In 1861, Rossetti became a founding partner in the decorative arts firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. with Morris, Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, Philip Webb, Charles Faulkner and Peter Paul Marshall.[19] Rossetti contributed designs for stained glass and other decorative objects. Rossetti's wife, Elizabeth Siddal, died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862, shortly after giving birth to a stillborn child. Rossetti became increasingly depressed, and on the death of his beloved Lizzie, buried the bulk of his unpublished poems with her at Highgate Cemetery, though he later had them dug up. He idealised her image as Dante's Beatrice in a number of paintings, such as Beata Beatrix.[37] Cheyne Walk years [ edit ] After the death of his wife, Rossetti leased a Tudor House at 16, Cheyne Walk, in Chelsea, where he lived for 20 years surrounded by extravagant furnishings and a parade of exotic birds and animals.[38] Rossetti was fascinated with wombats, asking friends to meet him at the "Wombat's Lair" at the London Zoo in Regent's Park, and spending hours there. In September 1869, he acquired the first of two pet wombats, which he named "Top". It was brought to the dinner table and allowed to sleep in the large centrepiece during meals. Rossetti's fascination with exotic animals continued throughout his life, culminating in the purchase of a llama and a toucan, which he dressed in a cowboy hat and was trained to ride the llama round the dining-table for his amusement.[39] Rossetti maintained Fanny Cornforth (described delicately by William Allington as Rossetti's "housekeeper")[40] in her own establishment nearby in Chelsea, and painted many voluptuous images of her between 1863 and 1865.[41] In 1865, he discovered auburn-haired Alexa Wilding, a dressmaker and would-be actress who was engaged to model for him on a full-time basis and sat for Veronica Veronese, The Blessed Damozel, A Sea–Spell, and other paintings.[42][43] She sat for more of his finished works than any other model, but comparatively little is known about her due to the lack of any romantic connection with Rossetti. He spotted her one evening in the Strand in 1865 and was immediately struck by her beauty. She agreed to sit for him the following day, but failed to arrive. He spotted her again weeks later, jumped from the cab he was in and persuaded her to go straight to his studio. He paid her a weekly fee to sit for him exclusively, afraid that other artists might employ her.[44] They shared a lasting bond; after Rossetti's death Wilding was said to have travelled regularly to place a wreath on his grave.[45] Jane Morris, whom Rossetti had used as a model for the Oxford Union murals he painted with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones in 1857, also sat for him during these years, she "consumed and obsessed him in paint, poetry, and life".[42] Jane Morris was also photographed by John Robert Parsons, whose photographs were painted by Rossetti. In 1869, Morris and Rossetti rented a country house, Kelmscott Manor at Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, as a summer home, but it became a retreat for Rossetti and Morris to have a long-lasting and complicated liaison. They spent summers there with the Morris's children, while Morris travelled to Iceland in 1871 and 1873.[46] During these years, Rossetti was prevailed upon by friends, in particular Charles Augustus Howell, to exhume his poems from his wife's grave which he did, collating and publishing them in 1870 in the volume Poems by D. G. Rossetti. They created controversy when they were attacked as the epitome of the "fleshly school of poetry". Their eroticism and sensuality caused offence. One poem, "Nuptial Sleep", described a couple falling asleep after sex. It was part of Rossetti's sonnet sequence The House of Life, a complex series of poems tracing the physical and spiritual development of an intimate relationship. Rossetti described the sonnet form as a "moment's monument", implying that it sought to contain the feelings of a fleeting moment, and reflect on their meaning. The House of Life was a series of interacting monuments to these moments – an elaborate whole made from a mosaic of intensely described fragments. It was Rossetti's most substantial literary achievement. The collection included some translations, including his "Ballad Of Dead Ladies", an 1869 translation of François Villon's poem "Ballade des dames du temps jadis". (The word "yesteryear" is credited to Rossetti as a neologism used for the first time in this translation.) In 1881, Rossetti published a second volume of poems, Ballads and Sonnets, which included the remaining sonnets from The House of Life sequence. Decline and death [ edit ] The savage reaction of critics to Rossetti's first collection of poetry contributed to a mental breakdown in June 1872, and although he joined Jane Morris at Kelmscott that September, he "spent his days in a haze of chloral and whisky".[49] The next summer he was much improved, and both Alexa Wilding and Jane sat for him at Kelmscott, where he created a soulful series of dream-like portraits.[49] In 1874, Morris reorganised his decorative arts firm, cutting Rossetti out of the business, and the polite fiction that both men were in residence with Jane at Kelmscott could not be maintained. Rossetti abruptly left Kelmscott in July 1874 and never returned. Toward the end of his life, he sank into a morbid state, darkened by his drug addiction to chloral hydrate and increasing mental instability. He spent his last years as a recluse at Cheyne Walk. On Easter Sunday, 1882, he died at the country house of a friend, where he had gone in a vain attempt to recover his health, which had been destroyed by chloral as his wife's had been destroyed by laudanum. He died of Bright's Disease, a disease of the kidneys from which he had been suffering for some time. He had been housebound for some years on account of paralysis of the legs, though his chloral addiction is believed to have been a means of alleviating pain from a botched hydrocele removal. He had been suffering from alcohol psychosis for some time brought on by the excessive amounts of whisky he used to drown out the bitter taste of the chloral hydrate. He is buried in the churchyard of All Saints at Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, England.[50] The grave of Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the churchyard of All Saints, Birchington-on-Sea Collections and critical assessment [ edit ] Tate Britain, Birmingham, Manchester, Salford Museum and Art Galleries and Wightwick Manor National Trust, all contain large collections of Rossetti's work; Salford was bequeathed a number of works following the death of L. S. Lowry in 1976. Lowry was president of the Newcastle-based 'Rossetti Society', which was founded in 1966.[51] Lowry's private collection of works was chiefly built around Rossetti's paintings and sketches of Lizzie Siddal and Jane Morris, and notable pieces included Pandora, Proserpine and a drawing of Annie Miller. Blue plaque at 16 Cheyne Walk In an interview with Mervyn Levy, Lowry explained his fascination with the Rossetti women in relation to his own work: "I don't like his women at all, but they fascinate me, like a snake. That's why I always buy Rossetti whenever I can. His women are really rather horrible. It's like a friend of mine who says he hates my work, although it fascinates him."[52] The friend Lowry referred to was businessman Monty Bloom, to whom he also explained his obsession with Rossetti's portraits: "They are not real women.[...] They are dreams.[...] He used them for something in his mind caused by the death of his wife. I may be quite wrong there, but significantly they all came after the death of his wife."[52] The popularity, frequent reproduction, and general availability of Rossetti's later paintings of women have led to this association with "a morbid and languorous sensuality".[53] His small-scale early works and drawings are less well known, but it is in these that his originality, technical inventiveness, and significance in the movement away from Academic tradition can best be seen.[54] As Roger Fry wrote in 1916, "Rossetti more than any other artist since Blake may be hailed as a forerunner of the new ideas" in English Art.[55] Media [ edit ] Film Rossetti was played by Oliver Reed in Ken Russell's television film Dante's Inferno (1967). The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood has been the subject of two BBC period dramas. The first, The Love School, (1975) features Ben Kingsley as Rossetti. The second was Desperate Romantics, in which Rossetti is played by Aidan Turner. It was broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday, 21 July 2009.[56] Television Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) appears in an episode of Cheers as Dante Gabriel Rossetti for his Hallowe'en costume. His wife Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane appears as Rosetti's sister, Christina. Their son Frederick is dressed as Spiderman.[57] Influence [ edit ] Rossetti's poem "The Blessed Damozel" was the inspiration for Claude Debussy's cantata La Damoiselle élue (1888). John Ireland (1879–1962) set to music as one of his Three Songs (1926), Rossetti's poem "The One Hope" from Poems (1870). In 1904 Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) created his song cycle The House of Life from six poems by Rossetti. One song in that cycle, Silent Noon, is one of Vaughan Williams's best known and most frequently performed songs. In 1904, Phoebe Anna Traquair painted The Awakening, inspired by a sonnet from Rosetti's The House of Life.[58] Selected works [ edit ] Books [ edit ] The Early Italian Poets (a translation), 1861; republished as Dante and His Circle, 1874 (a translation), 1861; republished as, 1874 Poems, 1870; revised and reissued as Poems. A New Edition, 1881 , 1870; revised and reissued as, 1881 Ballads and Sonnets, 1881 , 1881 The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 2 volumes, 1886 (posthumous) , 2 volumes, 1886 (posthumous) Ballads and Narrative Poems, 1893 (posthumous) , 1893 (posthumous) Sonnets and Lyrical Poems, 1894 (posthumous) , 1894 (posthumous) The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1911 (posthumous) [59] , 1911 (posthumous) Poems and Translations 1850-1870, Together with the Prose Story 'Hand and Soul', Oxford University Press, 1913 Double works [ edit ] "Rossetti divided his attention between painting and poetry for the rest of his life" - Poetry Foundation[4] Aspecta Medusa (1865 October – 1868) (1865 October – 1868) Astarte Syriaca (for a Picture; 1877 January–February; 1875–1877) (for a Picture; 1877 January–February; 1875–1877) Beatrice, her Damozels, and Love (1865?) (1865?) Beauty and the Bird (1855; 1858 June 25) (1855; 1858 June 25) The Blessed Damozel (1847–1870; 1871–1881) (1847–1870; 1871–1881) Bocca Baciata (1859–1860) (1859–1860) Body's Beauty (1864–1869; 1866) (1864–1869; 1866) The Bride's Prelude [1848–1870 (circa)] [1848–1870 (circa)] Cassandra (for a drawing; September 1869; 1860–1861, 1867, 1869) (for a drawing; September 1869; 1860–1861, 1867, 1869) Dante's Dream on the Day of the Death of Beatrice: 9 June 1290 (1875 [?], 1856) (1875 [?], 1856) Dante Alighieri. “Sestina. Of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni.” (1848 [?], 1861, 1874) (1848 [?], 1861, 1874) Dante at Verona [1848–1850; 1852 (circa)] [1848–1850; 1852 (circa)] The Day-Dream (for a picture; 1878–1880, 1880 September) (for a picture; 1878–1880, 1880 September) Death of A Wombat (1869 November 6) (1869 November 6) Eden Bower [1863–1864 (circa) or 1869 (circa)] [1863–1864 (circa) or 1869 (circa)] Fazio's Mistress (1863; 1873) (1863; 1873) Fiammetta [for a picture; 1878 (circa) 1878] [for a picture; 1878 (circa) 1878] “Found” (for a picture; 1854; 1881 February) (for a picture; 1854; 1881 February) Francesca Da Rimini. Dante (1855; 1862 September) (1855; 1862 September) Guido Cavalcanti. “Ballata. He reveals, in a Dialogue, his increasing love for Mandetta.” (1861) (1861) Hand and Soul (1849) (1849) Hero's Lamp (1875) (1875) Introductory Sonnet ("A Sonnet is a moment's monument"; 1880) ("A Sonnet is a moment's monument"; 1880) Joan of Arc [1879 (unfinished), 1863, 1882] [1879 (unfinished), 1863, 1882] La Bella Mano (for a picture; 1875) (for a picture; 1875) La Pia. Dante (1868–1880) (1868–1880) Lisa ed Elviro (1843) (1843) Love's Greeting (1850, 1861, 1864) (1850, 1861, 1864) Mary's Girlhood [for a picture; 1848 (sonnet I), 1849 (sonnet II)] [for a picture; 1848 (sonnet I), 1849 (sonnet II)] Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee (for a drawing; 1853–1859; 1869) (for a drawing; 1853–1859; 1869) Michael Scott's Wooing (for a drawing; 1853, 1869–1871, 1875–1876) (for a drawing; 1853, 1869–1871, 1875–1876) Mnemosyne (1880) (1880) Old and New Art [group of 3 poems; 1849 (text); 1857 (picture, circa)] [group of 3 poems; 1849 (text); 1857 (picture, circa)] On William Morris (1871 September) (1871 September) Pandora (for a picture; 1869; 1868–1871) (for a picture; 1869; 1868–1871) Parody on “Uncle Ned” (1852) (1852) Parted Love! [1869 September – 1869 November (circa)] [1869 September – 1869 November (circa)] The Passover in the Holy Family (for a drawing; 1849–1856; 1869 September) (for a drawing; 1849–1856; 1869 September) Perlascura. Twelve Coins for One Queen (1878) (1878) The Portrait (1869) (1869) Proserpine (1872; 1871–1882) (1872; 1871–1882) The Question (for a design; 1875, 1882) (for a design; 1875, 1882) “Retro me, Sathana!” (1847, 1848) (1847, 1848) The Return of Tibullus to Delia (1853–1855, 1867) (1853–1855, 1867) A Sea-Spell (for a Picture; 1870, 1877) (for a Picture; 1870, 1877) The Seed of David (for a picture; 1864) (for a picture; 1864) Silence. For a Design (1870, 1877) (1870, 1877) Sister Helen [1851–1852; 1870 (circa)] [1851–1852; 1870 (circa)] Sorrentino (1843) (1843) Soul's Beauty (1866; 1864–1870) (1866; 1864–1870) St. Agnes of Intercession (1850; 1860) (1850; 1860) Troy Town (1863–1864; 1869–1870) (1863–1864; 1869–1870) Venus Verticordia (for a picture; 1868 January 16; 1863–1869) (for a picture; 1868 January 16; 1863–1869) William and Marie. A Ballad (1841)[60] Paintings [ edit ] Drawings [ edit ] La Belle Dame sans Merci (1848), pen and sepia with some pencil Drawing of Elizabeth Siddal reading (1854) Hamlet and Ophelia (1858), pen and ink drawing Drawing of Annie Miller (1860) Portrait of Marie Spartali Stillman (1869) Drawing of Fanny Cornforth, graphite on paper (1869) The Roseleaf (Portrait of Jane Morris; 1870), graphite on wove paper Woodcut illustrations [ edit ] The Maids of Elphen-Mere, Rossetti's first published woodcut illustration (1855) King Arthur and the Weeping Queens, one of two illustrations by Rossetti for Edward Moxon's illustrated edition of Tennyson's Poems (1857) Golden Head by Golden Head, illustration for Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862) Decorative arts [ edit ] Sir Tristram and la Belle Ysoude drink the potion, stained-glass panel by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., design by Rossetti (1862–63) Caricatures and sketches [ edit ] Death of a Wombat (1869) William Morris reading to Jane Morris while she takes the waters at Bad Ems (1869) Mrs. Morris and the Wombat (1869) See also [ edit ] References [ edit ]ST. LOUIS, Mich. – Jim Hall was mowing the town’s baseball diamond when he felt a little bump underneath him. “And there it was, a dead robin,” he said. Just last week, he found another one. “Something is going on here,” said Hall, who has lived in this mid-Michigan town of 7,000 for 50 years. Two dead birds may not seem like much. But for this town, it’s a worrisome legacy left behind by a chemical plant-turned-Superfund site. After residents complained for years about dead birds in their yards, 22 American robins, six European starlings and one bluebird were collected for testing. The results, revealed last week: The neighborhood’s songbirds are being poisoned by DDT, a pesticide that was banned in the United States more than 40 years ago. Lethal concentrations were found in the birds’ brains, as well as in the worms they eat. “I’ve never seen anything like it. When people told me about it I didn’t believe it. And then we ran these tests. These are some of the highest-ever recorded levels in wild birds,” said Matt Zwiernik, a Michigan State University assistant professor of environmental toxicology who led the testing. The birds’ brains contained concentrations of DDE, a breakdown product of DDT, from 155 to 1,043 parts per million, with an average of 552. “Thirty in the brain is the threshold for acute death,” Zwiernik said. “All the birds exceeded that by at least two- or three-fold, and many by much more than that.” Twelve of the 29 birds had brain lesions or liver abnormalities. The culprit is a toxic mess left behind by Velsicol Chemical Corp., formerly Michigan Chemical, which manufactured pesticides until 1963, a year after Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring exposed the hazards of DDT, especially for birds. Populations of bald eagles and other birds crashed when DDT thinned their eggs, killing their embryos. The pesticide, known for accumulating in food webs and persisting for decades in soil and river sediment, was banned in the United States in 1972. The nine-block neighborhood has become a real-life example of Carson’s “Fable for Tomorrow” in Silent Spring. “It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh,” Carson wrote. Velsicol is infamous for one of the worst chemical disasters in U.S. history: In 1973 a flame retardant compound they manufactured – polybrominated biphenyls, or PBBs – was mixed up with a cattle feed supplement, which led to widespread contamination in Michigan. Thousands of cattle and other livestock were poisoned, about 500 farms were quarantined and people across Michigan were exposed to a chemical linked to cancer, reproduction problems and endocrine disruption. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took control of the site in 1982 and the plant was demolished in the mid-1990s, leaving behind three Superfund sites in the 3.5-square mile town. EPA officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the poisoned birds and the Superfund cleanup. Of most concern is the 54-acre site that once contained Velsicol’s main plant, which backs up to the neighborhood where residents have found dead birds on their lawns. “When he [Zwiernik] tells people about what we have going on here, people say ‘Really? That’s a 1960s problem,’ ” said Ed Lorenz, a professor at nearby Alma College and vice chair of the Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force, which represents the community. Hall is the chair of the task force. While there is a long-term health study for residents who had been exposed to PBBs, no one is monitoring their exposure to DDT or looking for possible human health effects. Elsewhere, traces of the pesticide have been linked in some human studies to reproductive problems, including reduced fertility and altered sperm counts. “There’s definitely concern about the plant, the plant site, health and the environment,” said St. Louis City Manager Robert McConkie. “But we’ve learned to live with it.” The town's median household income is 43 percent lower than the state's. About 22 percent of its families live below the poverty line. The birds apparently have been poisoned by eating worms living in contaminated soil near the old chemical plant. No studies have been conducted to see whether the DDT has contaminated any vegetables or fruits grown in yards. Jane Keon, secretary of the task force, said the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality ignored their complaints about dead birds for years. But Dan Rockafellow, the state agency’s project manager for the site, said it took time to collect enough bird samples to test. SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts “People would tell us they found dead birds all the time, but birds disappear quickly. Cats, raccoons, other animals get to them,” Rockafellow said. “They weren’t just lying around everywhere.” Keon said that for two decades the EPA stayed only on the plant site, “as if the chain link fence would hold in the chemicals or something.” State officials didn’t start testing people’s yards until 2006, when they found several yards highly contaminated with DDT and PBBs. EPA contractors now are cleaning up 59 yards. (One homeowner refused the cleanup.) Next year the agency plans on adding another 37 yards outside of the nine-block area. Most of the contamination is in the top six inches of the soil, probably from the chemicals drifting over from the plant, Rockafellow said. However, some yards have DDT and PBBs deeper in the soil, which could be due to Velsicol’s offer of free fill dirt to their neighbors decades ago. The cleanup is driven by ecological risk, not risk to the homeowners, Rockafellow said. “This is because of the dead robins.” When asked why it took so long to address the contaminated yards, Rockafellow said it came down to “knowing where the chemicals were. Once we did we fenced those areas off.” Those areas were cleaned up in the fall of 2012, he said, and that spurred “aggressive sampling in the neighborhood.” Now the neighborhood is buzzing with trucks and workers. Clad in construction helmets and orange vests, workers contracted by the EPA tear up yards, remove dirt, fill it back in and lay new sod. It isn’t the first time St. Louis wildlife has been contaminated. The Pine River’s contaminated sediment has resulted in a no-consumption advisory for all species of its fish. From 1998 to 2006, most of the Superfund site’s cleanup money – about $100 million – went toward cleaning up the river. After polluted mud was dredged up, preliminary testing has shown that DDT levels are declining in bass and carp downstream of the site, Rockafellow said. However, DDT and PBBs remain in the river’s sediment and soil, he said. In addition, traces of a chemical that is a byproduct of DDT manufacturing, pCBSA, have been found in the city’s water system, so new water mains will tap into a nearby town’s water supply. “Our first priority was water and the second priority is now getting the lawns cleaned up,” Rockafellow said. The bird testing by the Michigan State researcher was largely unfunded, except for a small amount from the community task force. Zwiernik said the EPA and state need to determine if the cleanup actually stops birds from dropping dead. “They have to have some kind of future monitoring program to test the remediation effort’s success. We’ve had a difficult time to get regulators to listen to that,” he said. While birds in the rest of the region aren’t at risk, “the robins’ population in the nine-block area is decimated year over year," he said. Residents of the neighborhood go about their business of watering flowers and walking their dogs. “It’s sad because a lot of people here are losing some beautiful trees,” Keon said. She pointed to a large Victorian home with new, patchy sod. “The owner of that home said this was going to be his retirement home,” Keon said. For Hall, leaving St. Louis is not an option. Pollution or not, this is home. “It’s a nice place to raise your family, great community, people love and take care of each other,” Hall said. “If I ran away, I’d be running away from my responsibility to leave this place better for the next generation.”Mexican and South American drug cartels and their broader networks are entirely dependent on an ability to get their product onto US soil. And if there's one thing that these organizations are good at, it's changing their operating methods in order to stay one step ahead of the game. As the United States, Mexico, and Colombia intensified their war on drugs throughout the late 1990s and the 2000s, the cartels had
on the club’s inconsistent starting rotation and an offense that was too dependent on the home run. But when you take a deeper look at this past season, the Orioles’ defense was remarkably subpar in comparison to its usual lofty standards. Defense has been a staple of the Orioles’ success under manager Buck Showalter, but advanced metrics show that the collective team defense this past season was toward the bottom of the American League. Defensive runs saved is a statistic used by The Fielding Bible to gauge how many runs a player saves or allows in comparison to the average defender at his position. Averaging out every player on a team at every position gives a team’s runs saved total. The Orioles’ defensive runs saved total was minus-9, which ranked 11th of 15 in the AL. The top three teams in the AL in runs saved – the Kansas City Royals (51), Houston Astros (37) and Toronto Blue Jays (20) – were all playoff teams. The Texas Rangers ranked ninth in the AL with one defensive run saved and the wild-card winning New York Yankees were an outlier, making the postseason despite recording minus-40 runs saved, the second-to-worst total in the AL. Last season, the Orioles led the AL with 57 runs saved on their way to a division title and trip to the ALCS. That's a decrease of 66 defensive runs saved between this year's team and last year's club. In 2014, the Orioles were the best of just six teams in the AL that posted positive runs saved totals. The Orioles were also the only team to post positive runs saved totals at eight of the nine positions (Pitchers were a minus-2), highlighted by a plus-15 out of the first base position. This season, Orioles pitchers – which are rated by their own defense as well as stolen bases allowed – posted a minus-11 runs saved, tied for the second worst mark in the AL at that position. The right field position, where 11 different players made starts, was a minus-8. Second basemen posted a minus-7 runs saved total, which was surprising even though starter Jonathan Schoop missed 2 ½ months with a right knee injury. Not surprisingly, third base was the Orioles’ best fielding position with a plus-10. That’s where Manny Machado made all but six starts this season. One interesting caveat: One factor that isn’t taken into the team run saved total is shifts, but runs saved by shift defenses are computed. And the Orioles saved a league-high 29 runs through shifts, meaning that while the fielders themselves might not have played well this season as a team, the shifts the Orioles employed were very successful. eencina@baltsun.com twitter.com/EddieInTheYardIn an op-ed published this morning in USA Today, University of California President Janet Napolitano announced that UC will establish the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement in Washington, D.C., as part of a concerted educational, research and advocacy effort centered on the First Amendment’s critical importance to American democracy. In her op-ed, Napolitano writes that America’s colleges and universities are “uniquely suited” to take on the many valid and urgent questions about free speech raised by recent events on campuses across the nation. She writes, “The time has come to explore in a thoughtful, deliberative way the state of free speech at our nation’s colleges and universities, students’ once and future relationship with the First Amendment, and what tomorrow holds for engaging people in our democracy … Cognizant of both the enduring constitutional principles of free speech and the nature of our changing times, the center and its roster of fellows will focus on addressing whether and how students’ relationship to the First Amendment has fundamentally shifted from the 1960s — and how to restore trust in the value and importance of free speech among students and society at large.” UC Berkeley School of Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman will serve as co-chairs of the center’s advisory board. Also on the board are former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer; John King, president and CEO of The Education Trust and former U.S. secretary of education; Anne Kornblut, director of strategic communications at Facebook; Avi Oved, student at UCLA School of Law; New York Times columnist Bret Stephens; Geoffrey R. Stone, professor at the University of Chicago Law School; and Washington Post columnist George Will, among others.What Is A Cup And Handle? A cup and handle price pattern on bar charts is a technical indicator that resembles a cup and handle where the cup is in the shape of a "U" and the handle has a slight downward drift. The right-hand side of the pattern typically has low trading volume, and may be as short as seven weeks or as long as 65 weeks. 1:15 What's a Cup and Handle? Key Takeaways A cup and handle price pattern on bar charts resembles a cup and handle where the cup is in the shape of a "U" and the handle has a slight downward drift. A cup and handle is considered a bullish continuation pattern and is used to identify buying opportunities. Traders should place a stop buy order slightly above the upper trend line of the handle. What Does A Cup And Handle Tell You? American technician William J. O'Neil defined the cup and handle (C&H) pattern in his 1988 classic, "How to Make Money in Stocks," adding technical requirements through a series of articles published in Investor’s Business Daily, which he founded in 1984. O'Neil included time frame measurements for each component, as well as a detailed description of the rounded lows that give the pattern its unique tea cup appearance. As a stock forming this pattern tests old highs, it is likely to incur selling pressure from investors who previously bought at those levels; selling pressure is likely to make price consolidate with a tendency toward a downtrend trend for a period of four days to four weeks, before advancing higher. A cup and handle is considered a bullish continuation pattern and is used to identify buying opportunities. It is worth considering the following when detecting cup and handle patterns: Length - Generally, cups with longer and more "U" shaped bottoms provide a stronger signal. Avoid cups with a sharp "V" bottoms. Depth - Ideally, the cup should not be overly deep. Avoid handles that are overly deep also, as handles should form in the top half of the cup pattern. Volume - Volume should decrease as prices decline and remain lower than average in the base of the bowl; it should then increase when the stock begins to make its move higher, back up to test the previous high. A retest of previous resistance is not required to touch or come within several ticks of the old high; however, the further the top of the handle is away from the highs, the more significant the breakout needs to be. Example Of How To Use The Cup And Handle The image below depicts a classic cup and handle formation. Place a stop buy order slightly above the upper trend line of the handle. Order execution should only occur if the price breaks the pattern’s resistance. Traders may experience excess slippage and enter a false breakout using an aggressive entry. Alternatively, wait for the price to close above the upper trend line of the handle, subsequently place a limit order slightly below the pattern’s breakout level, attempting to get an execution if the price retraces. There is a risk of missing the trade if the price continues to advance and does not pull back. A profit target is determined by measuring the distance between the bottom of the cup and the pattern’s breakout level, and extending that distance upward from the breakout. For example, if the distance between the bottom of the cup and handle breakout level is 20 points, a profit target is placed 20 points above the pattern's handle. Stop loss orders may be placed either below the handle or below the cup depending on the trader’s risk tolerance and market volatility. Now let's consider a real-world historical example using Wynn Resorts, Limited (WYNN), which went public on the Nasdaq exchange near $13 in October 2002 and rose to $154 five years later. The subsequent decline ended within two points of the initial public offering (IPO) price, far exceeding O'Neil's requirement for a shallow cup high in the prior trend. The subsequent recovery wave reached the prior high in 2011, nearly 10 years after the first print. The handle follows the classic pullback expectation, finding support at the 50% retracement in a rounded shape, and returns to the high for a second time 14 months later. The stock broke out in October 2013 and added 90 points in the following five months. Limitations Of The Cup And HandleOn December 17th, Nayoung of WINGS and Yang Song E got together to record a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love.” The two are seated comfortably around a piano with Nayoung in charge of vocals and Yang Song E accompanying. They are also dressed cozily in patterned sweaters, giving viewers a familiar and happy feeling from the get go. Nayoung’s smooth vibrato and steady mid-range vocals give the song a mature and melancholy tone. Not only does Yang Song E’s piano accompaniment provide the track with a deeper sense of emotion, her light harmonies fill the surrounding sound with color. String accompaniments that join in also give the rendition life. As mentioned in the caption, the two ladies’ cover is inspired by vocalist Adele’s version of the song as they encourage listeners to check out that version as well. Check out their amazing rendition here: They also showed fans their great chemistry with a fun and short dance to Pitbull’s “Celebration”:Yuri Lyamin with N.R. Jenzen-Jones In recent days, opposition groups within Syria have been documented in possession of Serbian-made arms and munitions. M62P8 120 mm high explosive (HE) mortar projectiles and an M02 Coyote 12.7 x 108 mm heavy machine gun have been identified. Whilst a number of weapons manufactured in the former Yugoslavia have been documented in Syria, these two items of Serbian origin have only recently been sighted. A video posted to YouTube on 12 February 2016 by the group Jabhat Ansar al-Din shows the emplacement, loading, and firing of a 120 mm mortar near Quneitra, in southwest Syria. Cyrillic inscriptions visible on the mortar projectiles and packaging indicate that the rounds being fired are M62P3 120 mm high explosive (HE) projectiles, produced in the Former Yugoslavia (at Soko Vit d.o.o., in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina). These are still produced by Pretis d.d. in BiH, and are exported from former Yugoslav states. The M62P3 projectile has a maximum range of some 6050 metres, and delivers a 2.25 kg charge of TNT. On 16 February 2016, images posted to a Syrian rebel fighter’s Facebook account show a Serbian M02 Coyote 12.7 x 108 mm heavy machine gun. The Coyote is a copy of the Soviet NSV and is produced by Zastava Arms, in Kragujevac. It is differentially identified from the NSV by a number of cosmetic differences, most notably the distinctive stock, pistol grip, and tripod. The rivet pattern is substantially the same as the NSV. The M02 is manufactured and offered for export in two versions, one chambered for 12.7 x 108 mm (as seen here) and another in.50 Browning (12.7 x 99 mm). Technical Specifications M62P8 120 mm HE mortar projectile Overall length (with fuze): 606 mm (max.) Overall weight: 12.60 kg Explosive weight: 2.45 kg Minimum range: 255 m Maximum range: 6500 m Lethal radius: 20 m *when fired from M75 mortar with 1500 mm barrel M02 Coyote heavy machine gun Overall length: 1970 mm Barrel length: 1100 mm Weight: 48.8 kg Tripod mount weight: 24.0 kg Effective range: 1500 m Rate of fire: 700 rpm H/t to @bm21_grad, who spotted the Coyote machine gun. Remember, all arms and munitions are dangerous. Treat all firearms as if they are loaded, and all munitions as if they are live, until you have personally confirmed otherwise. If you do not have specialist knowledge, never assume that arms or munitions are safe to handle until they have been inspected by a subject matter specialist. You should not approach, handle, move, operate, or modify arms and munitions unless explicitly trained to do so. If you encounter any unexploded ordnance (UXO) or explosive remnants of war (ERW), always remember the ‘ARMS’ acronym: AVOID the area RECORD all relevant information MARK the area to warn others SEEK assistance from the relevant authoritiesVictor Moses has been indispensable to Chelsea this season. The Nigerian has been a revolution since Antonio Conte converted him to a right wing-back as part of the switch to 3-4-3 that won the Blues the Premier League. But if Chelsea want to replicate their success this year, and add to it, they will surely need to strengthen in the 26-year-old’s role this summer. Why do Chelsea need to buy? It doesn’t feel like Conte built for three at the back with wing-backs last summer. He prepared for all of preseason using four at the back with full-backs in a more reserved role. And his squad seemed to be engineered towards that – Branislav Ivanović was the right back with Ola Aina the back up option. Moses seemed to be an option further forward as a winger. But since the switch, the former Wigan Athletic has held down the role as his own, and no-one else has come close. Pedro has played there in the cup, but looks far better further forward, while César Azpilicueta played there against Manchester United at Old Trafford, but the Blues looked a lot shakier without the Spaniard in the back three and lost 2-0. So if Moses picks up an injury or a suspension, there is no cover. And what’s more, against Arsenal in the FA Cup final, he looked considerably shaky defensively before he was sent off. Bringing in some competition would be needed with the Blues hoping to compete in Europe next season for sure – it’s unlikely Moses would be able to play every minute of the four competitions Conte’s side will be competing in. So who should they target? We’ve had a look at three players who could definitely do a job at right wing-back at Stamford Bridge next season. Aleix Vidal Aleix Vidal’s Barcelona career has been full of more downs than ups since his signing was announced in June 2015. Converted from a winger to a right-back during his time at Sevilla, he was seen as the long-term replacement to Dani Alves. Alongside fellow summer signing Arda Turan, the Spaniard couldn’t play for his new club until January 2016 due to Barcelona’s transfer embargo. But even after making his debut, he struggled to break into the first team and displace Alves, with Sergi Roberto and even Douglas named ahead of him as the season came to a close. After Alves’ departure in the summer of 2016, Vidal would have hoped he could prove himself as Barça’s first-choice right back. But Roberto was favoured by Luis Enrique at the start of the 2016/17 campaign, and in February, as Vidal started to finally prove himself for the Blaugrana, a dislocated ankle ruled him until the last game of the season, the Copa del Rey win over Alavés. And with Héctor Bellerín thought to be a Barcelona transfer target and Roberto impressing towards the end of the season, he could be allowed to leave and end what’s been a nightmare in Catalonia. With his attacking prowess and defensive capability, he could be the perfect man for Conte’s system, and back in February, he was linked with a summer move to Stamford Bridge by AS. Kyle Walker Tottenham's selling habits Are Tottenham Hotspur a selling club? Posted by Football Whispers on Monday, March 27, 2017 Signing Kyle Walker would of course be highly unlikely. There is next to no chance of Tottenham Hotspur selling to the only club that finished above them in the Premier League in the 2016/17 season. And Chelsea already know that Daniel Levy doesn’t like selling to Chelsea from Luka Modrić’s failed attempt to push a move from White Hart Lane to Stamford Bridge back in 2011. But Metro claims he is a Chelsea transfer target, but they’ll face competition from Manchester City and Manchester United. The England full-back has reportedly decided to leave Tottenham and towards of the end of the season, he found himself behind Kieran Trippier in the pecking order for Mauricio Pochettino’s side. He has experience of playing in a similar system to Chelsea, regularly playing as a right wing-back as Tottenham played with three at the back on numerous occasions, so a move to Stamford Bridge to play the same position wouldn’t cause him many problems. With Walker named in the 2016/17 PFA Premier League Team of the Year, there is no doubt that the Blues would snap your hands off if you offered them to him. Elseid Hysaj Back in January, Elseid Hysaj fuelled talk of Chelsea and Arsenal transfer rumours. “Chelsea and Arsenal? We are happy to hear his name being linked to these big clubs, let’s see what happens this summer,” his agent Mario Giuffredi said at the time. “At the moment, Hysaj is fully concentrated on Napoli and he wants to finish off this season on a high. “For me the January transfer market does not exist, all the big moves happen during the summer transfer window. “Once the season begins, coaches want to have concentrated players.” The 23-year-old has a lot of experience under his belt already, with 29 international caps for Albania and three seasons a first team regular in Serie A behind him, for Empoli and current side Napoli. He tends to play at right-back but has taken on a left-back role at times. His tackling can be a little reckless – he picked up eight yellow cards in the 2016/17 Serie A season, but loves getting forward to support team-mate José Callejón on the right flank. Conte will undoubtedly know him from his time in Italy, and if he did arrive at Stamford Bridge, he’d hope to replicate Marcos Alonso’s success in arriving from Serie A and becoming one of the best wing-backs in the Premier League. How do they compare? We’ve had a look at the league statistics from the 2016/17 season of the quartet. You do have to take into account that Moses, Walker and Hysaj all played 33+ league games, whereas Vidal played just six. And that may be something the Blues take into account if they were considering signing him too – do you want to buy someone who has only played 15 league games in two seasons? Out of the quartet, Chelsea’s Nigerian has the most goals last season – three. Vidal did managed two in his six games though, while Walker and Hysaj failed to score. In terms of chances created per 90 minutes, the Spurs man came out on top – making 1.3, while none of the other three made more than one. Walker also won the most tackles per 90 minutes – 1.76. Vidal won the fewest – 0.95 – but the Barcelona man did average the most interceptions per 90 minutes, with 1.7. Moses made the most successful take ons per 90 minutes, with 1.91 per game, but it was Hysaj who had the best rate of take on success, with 70.91 per cent. Whether Chelsea decide to buy – or are indeed able to buy – any of the three is yet unclear, but what appears to be clear is that they need to strengthen at right wing-back if they want to compete on more than one front next season.‘I figure she should take care of herself, put herself in a deep freeze, and in a year or two in all likelihood they’ll develop a pill that’ll clear this up simple as a common cold. Already, you know, some of these cortisones; but the doctor tells us they don’t know but what the side effects may be worse. You know: the big C. My figuring is, take the chance, they’re just about ready to lick cancer anyway and with these transplants pretty soon they can replace your whole insides.” —Mr. Angstrom Sr. in John Updike’s Rabbit Redux (1971). ROAD TO REMISSION? The author in front of his apartment building, on Columbia Road in Washington, D.C. Updike’s novel was set in what might be called the optimistic years of the Nixon administration: the time of the Apollo mission and the birth of that all-American can-do expression that begins: “If we can put a man on the moon … ” In January 1971, Senators Kennedy and Javits sponsored the “Conquest of Cancer Act,” and by December of that year Richard Nixon had signed something like it into law, along with huge federal appropriations. The talk was all of a “War on Cancer.” Four decades later, those other glorious “wars,” on poverty and drugs and terror, combine to mock such rhetoric, and, as often as I am encouraged to “battle” my own tumor, I can’t shake the feeling that it is the cancer that is making war on me. The dread with which it is discussed—“the big C”—is still almost superstitious. So is the ever whispered hope of a new treatment or cure. In her famous essay on Hollywood, Pauline Kael described it as a place where you could die of encouragement. That may still be true of Tinseltown; in Tumortown you sometimes feel that you may expire from sheer advice. A lot of it comes free and unsolicited. I must, without delay, begin ingesting the granulated essence of the peach pit (or is it the apricot?), a sovereign remedy known to ancient civilizations but now covered up by greedy modern doctors. Another correspondent urges heaping doses of testosterone supplements, perhaps as a morale booster. Or I must find ways of opening certain chakras and putting myself in an appropriately receptive mental state. Macrobiotic or vegan diets will be all I require for nourishment during this experience. And don’t laugh at poor old Mr. Angstrom above: somebody has written to me from a famous university to suggest that I have myself cryonically or cryogenically frozen against the day when the magic bullet, or whatever it is, has been devised. (When I failed to reply to this, I got a second missive, suggesting that I freeze at least my brain so that its cortex could be appreciated by posterity. Well, I mean to say, gosh, thanks awfully.) As against all that, I did get a kind note from a Cheyenne-Arapaho friend of mine, saying that everyone she knew who had resorted to tribal remedies had died almost immediately, and suggesting that if I was offered any Native American medicines I should “move as fast as possible in the opposite direction.” Some advice can actually be taken. Even in the world of sanity and modernity, though, it often cannot. Extremely well-informed people also get in touch to insist that there is really only one doctor, or only one clinic. These physicians and facilities are as far apart as Cleveland and Kyoto. Even if I had possession of my own aircraft, I would never be able to assure myself that I had tried everyone, let alone everything. The citizens of Tumortown are forever assailed with cures, and rumors of cures. I actually did take myself to one grand palazzo of a clinic in the richer part of the stricken city, which I will not name because all I got from it was a long and dull exposition of what I already knew plus (while lying on one of the fabled establishment’s examination tables) a bugbite that briefly doubled the size of my left hand: completely surplus even to my pre-cancerous requirements but a real irritation to someone with a chemically corroded immune system. IN TUMORTOWN YOU SOMETIMES FEEL THAT YOU MAY EXPIRE FROM SHEER ADVICE. Still and all, this is both an exhilarating and a melancholy time to have a cancer like mine. Exhilarating, because my calm and scholarly oncologist, Dr. Frederick Smith, can design a chemo-cocktail that has already shrunk some of my secondary tumors, and can “tweak” said cocktail to minimize certain nasty side effects. That wouldn’t have been possible when Updike was writing his book or when Nixon was proclaiming his “war.” But melancholy too, because new peaks of medicine are rising and new treatments beginning to be glimpsed, and they have probably come too late for me. For example, I was encouraged to learn of a new “immunotherapy protocol,” evolved by Drs. Steven Rosenberg and Nicholas Restifo at the National Cancer Institute. Actually, the word “encouraged” is an understatement. I was hugely excited. It is now possible to remove T cells from the blood, subject them to a process of genetic engineering, and then re-inject them to attack the malignancy. “Some of this may sound like space-age medicine,” wrote Dr. Restifo, as if he, too, had been rereading Updike, “but we have treated well over 100 patients with gene-engineered T cells, and have treated over 20 patients with the exact approach that I am suggesting may be applicable to your case.” There was a catch, and it involved a “match.” My tumor had to express a protein called NY-ESO-1, and my immune cells had to have a particular molecule named HLA-A2. Given this pairing, the immune system could be charged up to resist the tumor. The odds looked good, in that half of those with European or Caucasian genes do have that very molecule. And my tumor when analyzed did have the protein! But my immune cells declined to identify as sufficiently “Caucasian.” Other similar trials are under review by the F.D.A., but I am in a bit of a hurry, and I can’t forget the feeling of flatness that I experienced when I received the news. Best perhaps to get these false hopes behind one quickly: it was in the same week that I was told that I didn’t have the necessary mutations in my tumor to qualify for any other of the “targeted” cancer therapies currently on offer. A night or so later I was e-mailed by perhaps 50 friends because 60 Minutes had run a segment about the “tissue engineering,” by way of stem cells, of a man with a cancerous esophagus. He had effectively been medically enabled to “grow” a new one. I excitedly contacted my friend Dr. Francis Collins, father of genome-based treatment, who gently but firmly told me that my cancer has spread too far beyond my esophagus to be treatable by such a means. Analyzing the blues that I developed during that lousy seven days, I discovered that I felt cheated as well as disappointed. “Until you have done something for humanity,” wrote the great American educator Horace Mann, “you should be ashamed to die.” I would have happily offered myself as an experimental subject for new drugs or new surgeries, partly of course in the hope that they might salvage me, but also on the Mann principle. And I didn’t even qualify for the adventure. So I have to trudge on with the chemo routine, augmented if it proves worthwhile by radiation and perhaps the much-discussed CyberKnife for a surgical intervention: both of these things near-miraculous when compared with the recent past. There is an even longer shot that I do propose to attempt even though its likely efficacy lies at the outer limits of probability. I am going to try to have my entire DNA “sequenced,” along with the genome of my tumor. Francis Collins was typically sober in his evaluation of the usefulness of this. If the two sequencings could be performed, he wrote to me, “it could be clearly determined what mutations were present in the cancer that is causing it to grow. The potential for discovering mutations in the cancer cells that could lead to a new therapeutic idea is uncertain—this is at the very frontier of cancer research right now.” Partly for that reason, as he advised me, the cost of having it done is also very steep at the moment. But to judge by my correspondence, practically everybody in this country has either had cancer or has a friend or relative who has been a victim of it. So perhaps I will be able to contribute a little bit to enlarging the knowledge that will help future generations.Hilary Noack admits it can be rare to see even one woman working at an auto body repair shop. But she says there are enough women interested in auto repair that she is getting ready to open a garage operated by an all-women team. "Throughout my years working, meeting more and more women in the trade... I thought it would be a really interesting and cool idea to have a shop that was [run by] all females," she told CBC News. "I haven't really come across any other shops that do auto body that have been strictly all females," she said. The 29-year-old graduate of Centennial College's auto body repair apprenticeship program created an Indiegogo campaign in late January to crowdfund Ink&Iron to fruition. To date, about $3,300 of the $20,000 target has been raised. It closes March 10. The funding would help cover first and last month's rent of a space and materials such as primer, paint and sheet metal as well as advertising. But she and her small team already own a number of the tools and equipment. Noack said she chose the crowdfunding route to gauge reaction. "It's a really neat way to see how your idea will be received by the public," she said. "I've connected with so many different people in the industry so it kind of helps build your business before you've even started." Response to the venture is largely positive, she said. "Part of the reaction I've had is, you know, 'I would bring my car there.'" Noack is not fazed by some criticism of the all-women garage. "I'm not opposed to having guys in there. I think it's more of the focus on being female-owned and operated." The concept of an auto body shop owned and run by women is not entirely new. Jessica Gilbank opened Ms. Lube in Little Italy but the venture has since closed. She appeared on CBC's Dragons' Den and became tangled in legal issues with Mr. Lube. Noack's vision for the shop she hopes to operate in the city's west-end is a focus on restoration and custom work. "That's always been a passion of mine," she said. In fact, her foray into the industry started with a 1970 Oldsmobile she bought at the age of 17. "I wanted to learn how to fix it so I went down to the local body shop and I asked them if I could do a co-op," Noack said. "I started out as a co-op and right after that I kind of transitioned into my apprenticeship and I've been doing it ever since." But even more so, Noack said she wants to encourage and provide training to young women who have an interest in the auto body industry but are skeptical they can break in. "I have girls come up to me and tell me, 'I wish I could do what you do.' I always tell them, there's no reason why you can't," she said. "I love to share what I've learned and I love to see people, their skills grow so I hope to be able to train a lot of technicians in the future." Noack said she hopes to "break the stereotypes that it is a male-dominated industry because women can do it just as well as men."I realized the other day that I had been quietly unfriended on Facebook and I could not help but think how much better things were 50 years ago, when a relationship went south and you knew why. Let me give you an example of how the people in my family unfriended someone when I was growing up in the Catskills: It is summer and my favorite city cousin, whom we shall call Ravishing Rachel because of the delicacy of the situation, is in the mountains with a boyfriend. My mother gets a call that one of her brothers, Rachel’s father, has had a fatal heart attack. She is naturally distraught and, after calling a few motels, finally tracks down her niece and breaks it to her. “Ravishing, you tramp!” I hear her holler. “Your father is dead and you killed him.” See how much better that was than Facebook? No confusion, no wondering why or when it happened. Yes, yes, I know what you are thinking: My mother was obviously the Emily Post of the Catskills, how many of us could hope to attain her command of language, her diplomacy and tact? It is amazing, you are thinking, that Jackie Kennedy didn’t ditch Letitia Baldrige and hire my mother to be her social secretary at the White House. And I would have to give you that. In my mother, one found a moral clarity that I think can only be compared to John Wayne, who unfriended people by shooting them dead. Consider the grace with which my mother unfriended Cousin Marvin when he appeared on a summer day at our house: “Marvin, I plain can’t stand you and nobody in the family can stand you. Stay at a motel.” But why stop with my mother’s generation? Advertisement Continue reading the main story My grandmother Gussie, who conversed primarily in Yiddish and was so hazy about American customs that she understood Halloween to be a national holiday in which you give the children money, was a genius at terminating relationships. When someone, say Cousin Marvin, who just seemed to have one problem after another, got a divorce, a scandalous event at the time, my grandmother took out a pair of nail scissors and removed the face of Marvin’s ex-wife from the family photos, leaving for some reason the hair – well, Marvin’s wife did have very nice hair. She did the same thing with someone’s prom photos, after he had broken up with the girl. I kept expecting to see it in The National Enquirer: “Upstate Boy Takes Faceless Girl to Prom.”In which author Sarah Kuhn joins us to talk about Asian-American and Asian-British representation in superhero comics; Psylocke is the literal embodiment of British imperialism; Jubilee speaks for us all; representation isn’t a Boolean state; Wolverine fails at pop culture references; and somewhere there’s probably a really dark alternate universe where Betsy teamed up with Jamie instead of Brian. X-PLAINED: Crimson Dawn Sarah Kuhn Uncanny X-Men #256-258 A proactive approach to career advancement Matsuo Tsurayaba The Mandarin A highly symbolic dream sequence A controversial transformation Kwannon What badass looked like in 1990 Several varyingly successful Batman references Rose Wu A fairly novel approach to hallucination Some high-quality invective Psylocke as a villain NEXT WEEK: What (almost) everyone else is up to! You can find the visual companion to this episode on our blog! Find us on iTunes or Stitcher! Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here! We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.) Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original! Share this: Email Reddit Twitter Tumblr Facebook PinterestAt first I thought this Stormglass weather predicting instrument was a joke, reminding me of that old weather device that featured a picture of a donkey whose tail was made of yarn. Its deadpan instructions told us "if tail is wagging, the weather is windy; if tail is frozen, weather is cold; if tail is smoking, weather is hot." Well, this device is not that. It's a bottle full of magic liquid that's said to be able to actually forecast the weather. The liquid has certain properties that create various types of crystals that correspond with approaching weather. For instance, if the liquid takes on a milky appearance, it will soon rain. If the liquid's clear, that predicts nice weather ahead, and fern-shaped crystals predict windy weather. Advertisement Its makers say it was "discovered hundreds of years ago by the early alchemists," but we're at a loss to figure out how this $110 tube of goo works, if it does at all. If it doesn't, at least it can be a fascinating conversation piece, and also amaze you with its growth of various weird-looking crystals.[Weather in a Bottle, via Weather Snob]A scene from Grand Theft Auto IV If you are a fan of the new Grand Theft Auto video game, I have just the neighborhood for you. The setting of GTA IV, Liberty City, is an amped-up version of the New York metro area. If you want a slice of the real thing, however, I’d recommend Chicago’s South Side. The last time I visited Chicago, I stopped by 59th Street, near Washington Park (and only a few short blocks from the picturesque University of Chicago). Two of the local gangs were fighting each other in full view for control of a prime sales spot, a hotel. For a monthly fee, the proprietor had promised to allow one gang to turn the place into a bordello—drugs, prostitution, stolen merchandise. For the gangs, winning meant more than simply getting rid of their enemy. Neither controlled the area surrounding the hotel. Anyone bringing drugs (or women, or guns, etc.) to the hotel would have to run the gantlet formed by other enemy gangs, who would be at the ready to shoot down the transporter. There is nothing funny about this situation. The residents of this neighborhood are living a nightmare. Their elected political officials have offered little help, and the police don’t answer their calls to stop the gang wars. So you guessed it: Their only hope is to pay yet another crack-dealing gang to intervene and keep the peace between the warring outfits. To put it bluntly, they can rely on street justice by turning an enemy into an ally, or they can sit, suffer, and hope for the best. I thought of
1975. In 1981, President Reagan nominated him to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. The Senate confirmed him and he held that position for 12 years until Bill Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno, asked for his resignation.[19] Sessions's office filed civil rights charges in the 1981 killing of Michael Donald, a young African-American man who was murdered in Mobile, Alabama by a pair of Ku Klux Klan members.[20][21] Sessions's office did not prosecute the case, but both men were arrested and convicted.[22] In 1985, Sessions prosecuted three African American community organizers in the Black Belt of Alabama, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s former aide Albert Turner, for voter fraud, alleging tampering with 14 absentee ballots. The prosecution stirred charges of selective prosecution of black voter registration. The defendants, known as the Marion Three, were acquitted of all charges by a jury after three hours of deliberation. Historian Wayne Flynt told The Washington Post he regarded concerns about tactics employed in the 1984 election and by Turner in particular as legitimate, but also noted Sessions had no history of advocating for black voter rights before 1984.[23][24] Interviewed in 2009, Sessions said he remained convinced that he did the right thing, but admitted he "failed to make the case".[25] Failed nomination to the district court [ edit ] In 1986, Reagan nominated Sessions to be a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.[26] Sessions's judicial nomination was recommended and actively backed by Republican Alabama Senator Jeremiah Denton.[27] A substantial majority of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates nominees to the federal bench, rated Sessions "qualified", with a minority voting that Sessions was "not qualified".[28] His nomination was opposed by the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and People for the American Way.[24] At Sessions's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, four Department of Justice lawyers who had worked with Sessions testified that he made racially offensive remarks. One of those lawyers, J. Gerald Hebert, testified that Sessions had referred to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as "un-American" and "Communist-inspired" (Sessions said he was referring to their support of the Sandinistas[29]) and that they did more harm than good by trying to force civil rights "down the throats of people".[30] Hebert, a civil rights lawyer,[31] said that he did not consider Sessions a racist, and that Sessions "has a tendency sometimes to just say something, and I believe these comments were along that vein".[32] Hebert also said that Sessions had called a white civil rights attorney "maybe" a "disgrace to his race". Sessions said he did not recall making that remark and he did not believe it.[29] Thomas Figures, a black Assistant U.S. Attorney, testified that Sessions said he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "OK until I found out they smoked pot". Sessions later said that the comment was not serious, but did apologize for it, saying that he considered the Klan to be "a force for hatred and bigotry".[33] Barry Kowalski, a prosecutor in the civil rights division, also heard the remark and testified that prosecutors working such a gruesome case sometimes "resort to operating room humor and that is what I considered it to be". Another DOJ lawyer, Albert Glenn, said, "It never occurred to me that there was any seriousness to it."[34][29][32][33] Figures testified that on one occasion, when the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division sent the office instructions to investigate a case that Sessions had tried to close, Figures and Sessions "had a very spirited discussion regarding how the Hodge case should then be handled; in the course of that argument, Mr. Sessions threw the file on a table, and remarked, 'I wish I could decline on all of them'", by which Figures said Sessions meant civil rights cases generally. Kowalski, however, testified that he believed "[Sessions] was eager to see that justice was done in the area of criminal civil rights prosecutions."[34] Figures also said that Sessions had called him "boy", which Sessions denied. Figures testified that two assistant prosecutors had also heard Sessions, including current federal judge Ginny Granade. Granade denied this.[26][35] He also testified that "Mr. Sessions admonished me to 'be careful what you say to white folks'." Sessions denied this.[36] In 1992, Figures was charged with attempting to bribe a witness by offering $50,000 to a convicted drug dealer who was to testify against his client. Figures claimed the charge was retaliation for his role in blocking the Sessions nomination. Sessions denied this, saying that he recused himself from the case. Figures was ultimately acquitted.[37][38][39] Hebert, Kowalski and Daniel Bell, deputy chief of the criminal section in the Civil Rights Division, testified that they considered Sessions to have been more welcoming to the work of the Civil Rights Division than many other Southern U.S. Attorneys at the time.[29][32] Sessions has always defended his civil rights record, saying that "when I was [a U.S. Attorney], I signed 10 pleadings attacking segregation or the remnants of segregation, where we as part of the Department of Justice, we sought desegregation remedies".[40] Critics later argued that Sessions had exaggerated his involvement in civil rights cases. Michigan Law professor Samuel Bagenstos, reviewing Sessions's claims, argued that "[a]ll this shows is that Sessions didn't completely refuse to participate in or have his name on pleadings in cases that the civil rights division brought during his tenure... These four cases are awfully weak evidence of Sessions's supposed commitment to civil rights."[41] Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose the nomination. In her letter, she wrote that "Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters."[42] On June 5, 1986, the Committee voted 10–8 against recommending the nomination to the Senate floor, with Republican Senators Charles Mathias of Maryland and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania voting with the Democrats. It then split 9–9 on a vote to send Sessions's nomination to the Senate floor with no recommendation, this time with Specter in support. A majority was required for the nomination to proceed.[43] The pivotal votes against Sessions came from his home state's Democratic Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama. Although Heflin had previously backed Sessions, he began to oppose Sessions after hearing testimony, concluding that there were "reasonable doubts" over Sessions's ability to be "fair and impartial". The nomination was withdrawn on July 31, 1986.[28] Sessions became only the second nominee to the federal judiciary in 48 years whose nomination was killed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.[33] He was quoted then as saying that the Senate on occasion had been insensitive to the rights and reputation of nominees.[44] A law clerk from the U.S. District Court in Mobile who had worked with Sessions later acknowledged the confirmation controversy, but stated that he observed Sessions as "a lawyer of the highest ethical and intellectual standards".[45] When Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania left the GOP to join the Democratic Party on April 28, 2009, Sessions was selected to be the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. At that time, Specter said that his vote against Sessions's nomination was a mistake, because he had "since found that Sen. Sessions is egalitarian".[46] Alabama Attorney General (1995–1997) [ edit ] Sessions was elected Attorney General of Alabama in November 1994, unseating incumbent Democrat Jimmy Evans with 57% of the vote. The harsh criticism he had received from Senator Edward Kennedy, who called him a "throw-back to a shameful era" and a "disgrace", was considered to have won him the support of Alabama conservatives. As Attorney General, Sessions led the state's defense of a school funding model which was ultimately found to be unconstitutional because of disparities between rich, mostly white, and poor, mostly black, schools.[47][48][49] U.S. Senate (1997–2017) [ edit ] Official photo of Sessions as Senator (2004) In 1996, Sessions won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, after a runoff, and then defeated Democrat Roger Bedford 53%–46% in the November general election.[15] He succeeded Howell Heflin, who had retired after 18 years in the Senate. That same year, the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Alliance sued the state of Alabama after the Alabama Legislature attempted to deny funding to student organizations that advocated on behalf of homosexuality at public universities.[50] As Attorney General of Alabama, Sessions defended the state, arguing that funding should not be provided to student groups that advocated unlawful behavior, including the breaking of sodomy and sexual misconduct laws.[51] Sessions also argued that "the State of Alabama will experience irreparable harm by funding a conference and activities in violation of state law". A U.S. District court ultimately ruled the law unconstitutional in Gay Lesbian Bisexual Alliance v. Sessions, 917 F. Supp. 1548 (1996).[50] In 2002, Sessions won reelection by defeating Democratic State Auditor Susan Parker. In 2008, Sessions defeated Democratic State Senator Vivian Davis Figures (sister-in-law of Thomas Figures, the Assistant U.S. Attorney who testified at Sessions's judicial confirmation hearing) to win a third term. Sessions received 63 percent of the vote to Figures's 37 percent. Sessions successfully sought a fourth term in 2014.[52] In 2014, Sessions was uncontested in the Republican primary and was only opposed in the general election by write-in Democratic candidate Victor Sanchez Williams.[53][54][55][56] Sessions was only the second freshman Republican senator from Alabama since Reconstruction and gave Alabama two Republican senators, a first since Reconstruction. In 2002, he became the first Republican reelected to the Senate from Alabama since Reconstruction (given that his colleague Richard Shelby, who won reelection as a Republican in 1998, had previously run as a Democrat, switching parties in 1994).[55] Sessions was the ranking Republican member on the Senate Budget Committee,[57] a former ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. He also served on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Campaign donors [ edit ] According to the Center for Responsive Politics, between 1995 and 2016, Sessions's largest donors came from the legal, retired, health, real estate, and insurance industries.[58] From 1995 to 2016, the corporations employing donors who gave the most to his campaign were the Southern Company utility firm, Balch & Bingham law firm, Drummond Company coal mining firm, Collazo Enterprises, and Vulcan Materials.[59] Committee assignments [ edit ] 2016 presidential election [ edit ] Sessions speaking at a campaign event for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on August 31, 2016 Sessions was an early supporter of the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, and was a major policy adviser to the Trump campaign, especially in regard to immigration and national security.[61] He was also on the short list to become Trump's running mate, a position that ultimately went to Mike Pence. Uncorroborated Russian communications intercepted by U.S. Intelligence agencies discuss Ambassador Sergey Kislyak meeting privately with Sessions at the Mayflower Hotel during a Trump campaign event in April 2016.[62] Sessions donned a "Make America Great Again" cap at a Trump rally in August 2015, and Stephen Miller, Sessions's longtime-communications director, joined the Trump campaign.[63] On February 28, 2016, Sessions officially endorsed Donald Trump for president. Sessions's and Rudy Giuliani's appearance was a staple at Trump campaign rallies.[64] The Trump campaign considered Sessions for the position of running mate, and Sessions was widely seen as a potential Cabinet secretary in a Trump administration.[61] Transition [ edit ] Sessions being sworn in at his confirmation hearing on January 10, 2017 During the transition, Sessions played a large role in appointments and policy preparation relative to space, NASA and related facilities in Alabama,[65] while Peter Thiel advocated for private spaceflight.[66] Attorney General of the United States (2017–2018) [ edit ] Nomination [ edit ] President-elect Trump announced on November 18, 2016, that he would nominate Sessions to be Attorney General of the United States.[67] Trump would later state in an August 22, 2018 interview with Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt that the only reason he nominated Sessions was because Sessions was an original supporter during his presidential campaign.[68] The nomination engendered support and opposition from various groups and individuals. He was introduced by Senator Susan Collins from Maine who said, "He's a decent individual with a strong commitment to the rule of law. He's a leader of integrity. I think the attacks against him are not well founded and are unfair."[69] More than 1,400 law school professors wrote a letter urging the Senate to reject the nomination.[70][71] A group of black pastors rallied in support of Sessions in advance of his confirmation hearing,[72] and his nomination was supported by Gerald A. Reynolds, an African-American former chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.[71] Six NAACP activists, including NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, were arrested at a January 2017 sit-in protesting the nomination.[73][74] On January 10, 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on his nomination began[75] and were interrupted by protesters.[76][77] The committee approved his nomination February 1 on an 11 to 9 party-line vote.[78] The nomination then went to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.[79] The vote on Sessions was delayed until after the vote on Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos, because his confirmation – and subsequent resignation from the Senate – would create a temporary vacancy, which otherwise would have jeopardized DeVos's narrow confirmation.[80] On February 7, 2017, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stopped Senator Elizabeth Warren from reading statements opposing Sessions's nomination as federal judge that had been made by Ted Kennedy and Coretta Scott King. Warren was then officially rebuked per Senate Rule XIX on a party-line vote for "impugning a fellow senator's character".[81] A few hours later Senator Jeff Merkley read without interruption the same letter by King that Warren had attempted to read.[82][83] On February 8, 2017, Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General by a vote of 52 to 47.[84][85] Tenure [ edit ] Sessions is sworn in as Attorney General by Vice President Mike Pence On March 10, 2017, Sessions oversaw the firing of 46 United States Attorneys, leaving only his acting Deputy Dana Boente and nominated Deputy Rod Rosenstein in place after Trump declined their resignations.[86] On April 10, 2017, Sessions disbanded the National Commission on Forensic Science and ended the department's review of the forensic accuracy in closed cases.[87] Sessions imposed a hiring freeze on most of the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division and U.S. Attorneys' offices, and a total freeze on the Department's Fraud Section.[88] On April 24, 2017, Sessions traveled to an ethics lawyers conference to assure them the department would continue prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, regardless of Trump's comments that it is a "horrible law" and "the world is laughing at us".[88] On May 9, 2017, Sessions delivered a memo to the President recommending Trump fire FBI Director James Comey, attaching a memo by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein which called the Director's behavior indefensible. Trump fired Comey that day.[89] In March 2017, Sessions had recused himself from investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Comey was leading the investigations prior to his dismissal.[90][91] On June 5, 2017, Sessions issued a memo preventing the Justice Department's future lawsuit settlements from including funding for third-parties, such as had been included for the cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Volkswagen emissions scandal.[92] In a November 2017 overview of his tenure in the Washington Post, Sessions was described as having made "dramatic and controversial changes [which] reflect his nationalist ideology and hard-line views."[93] On December 21, 2017, Sessions rescinded 200 pages of guidance documents. Some of those 25 guidance documents had included warnings not to impose excessive fees on the poor, not to ship some guns across state lines, and to encourage accommodation of the developmentally disabled.[94] Sessions's recessions were criticized by the United States Commission on Civil Rights and prompted a lawsuit by the City Attorney of San Francisco.[95][96] In 2018, Sessions shuttered the Justice Department's Office for Access to Justice, which had focused on legal aid.[97] On November 7, 2018 Sessions resigned at President Trump's behest. It has been reported that his letter of resignation had also been submitted on a prior occasion.[7][98] Controversies about Russia [ edit ] "Attorney General Sessions Statement on Recusal", U.S. Department of Justice (March 2, 2017) Senator Franken questioning Sessions During Sessions's Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on January 10, Senator Al Franken asked him what he would do as Attorney General "if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign". Franken was referring to a news report alleging that Russia had compromising material on Trump, and that Trump surrogates were in contact with the Russian government. Sessions replied that he was "not aware of any of those activities" and said "I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have—did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it."[99][100] A week later, in his responses to written questions presented by Senator Patrick Leahy, Sessions stated that he had not been "in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election".[101][102] On March 1, 2017, reports surfaced that Sessions had contact with Russian government officials during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, even though during his confirmation hearings he denied he had any discussions with representatives of the Russian government.[103] News reports revealed that Sessions had spoken twice with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.[103][104] The first communication took place after a Heritage Foundation event at the 2016 Republican National Convention attended by several ambassadors, including Kislyak who spoke with Sessions. The second interaction took place on September 8, 2016, when they met in Sessions's office;[105] Sessions said they discussed Ukraine and terrorism.[106] Sessions released a statement on March 1, 2017, saying "I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false."[107][108][109] U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said: "There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer. He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign – not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee... Last year, the Senator had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian, German and Russian ambassadors."[107][108][110] Upon the revelation that Sessions had met several times with the Russian ambassador, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called for Sessions to recuse himself from any investigations into the connections between Russia and the Trump campaign.[111] Several Democratic members of Congress called on Sessions to resign his post as United States Attorney General.[112][113] Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Elijah Cummings and Senator Al Franken accused Sessions of having lied under oath at his confirmation hearing.[114][115][116] On March 20, 2017, FBI Director James Comey testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee that since July 2016, the FBI has been conducting a counter-intelligence investigation to assess the extent of Russia's interference into the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump associates played a role in Russia's efforts.[117] In May 2017 the Justice Department reported that Sessions had failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials during the presidential campaign in 2016, when he applied for his security clearance. Sessions's staff had been advised by the FBI that meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities did not need to be disclosed.[118][119][120] On June 13, 2017, Sessions testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee after canceling testimonies before the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.[121][122][123] Sessions rejected reports he had met with Russian Ambassador Kislyak during Trump's April 2016 speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., testifying that he did not remember any "brief interaction" he may have had with the ambassador.[124] Accused of "stonewalling" by Senator Ron Wyden, Sessions discussed the executive privilege power, and said that he was refusing to answer questions about his conversations with Trump because "I am protecting the President's right to assert it if he chooses."[125][126] He was being advised by his personal lawyer Charles J. Cooper.[127] In July 2017, The Washington Post reported that Kislyak, in communications intercepted by U.S. intelligence, had told his superiors in Moscow that his conversations with Sessions had concerned Trump's campaign as well as "Trump's positions on Russia-related issues".[128] Previously, after initially denying having met with Kisylak at all, Sessions had repeatedly asserted that in his meetings with the Russian ambassador he never discussed the campaign and only met with him in his capacity as a U.S. senator.[128][129] The Department of Justice responded by saying that Sessions stands by his testimony that he "never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election".[130] In March 2016, one of Trump's foreign policy advisors named George Papadopoulos suggested that he could use personal connections to arrange a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Sessions rejected the proposed meeting, according to information provided to CNN by a person in attendance.[131] This raised questions on the truthfulness of Sessions's testimony and whether Sessions committed perjury during his testimony.[132][133] Furthermore, on the same day, testimony given by Carter Page to the House intelligence committee contradicted Sessions's previous statements by stating that he had told Sessions about plans to visit Russia during the campaign.[134][135] Beginning in March 2017, Senators asked the FBI to conduct a criminal perjury investigation into Sessions.[136] Deputy Director Andrew McCabe then assigned FBI agents to investigate.[137] According to Sessions's personal lawyer, the investigation concluded without charges being brought.[137] On March 16, 2018, Sessions fired McCabe hours before the Deputy Director would have qualified for a government pension, citing McCabe's lack of candor to the Department's Inspector General.[138] Recusal from election investigation, and relationship with Trump [ edit ] The idea that Sessions might have to recuse himself from the Russia investigation was raised almost as soon as he took office. Trump was concerned about the implications of such a recusal, reportedly telling aides that he needed a loyalist overseeing the investigation.[139] In early March he told White House Counsel Don McGahn to urge Sessions to retain oversight of the investigation, but Sessions told McGahn he intended to follow the advice of Justice Department lawyers.[140] On March 2, 2017, Sessions announced that he would recuse himself from any investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, or any other matters related to the 2016 presidential election.[141] He had been advised to do so by career Justice Department personnel, citing concerns about impartiality given his prominent role in the Trump election campaign.[139] That same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sessions's contacts with Russians had been investigated, but it was not clear whether the investigation was ongoing.[142] Sessions said during a televised interview that the recusal was not an admission of any wrongdoing.[143] On June 8, 2017, James Comey, who had been dismissed as FBI Director a month earlier, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had expected Sessions to recuse himself from the Russia investigation two weeks before he did so, for classified reasons that made Sessions's continued engagement in the investigation "problematic".[144] Attorney General Sessions Statement on Recusal A few days after he announced his recusal, Sessions traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. Sessions wanted to talk about implementing Trump's proposed travel ban, but instead Trump berated him for recusing himself and asked him to reverse his recusal. Sessions refused.[145] The meeting is reportedly under investigation by the special counsel.[139] Trump reportedly urged him to reverse the recusal on at least three additional occasions during 2017.[140] In May 2017, Sessions offered to resign after receiving criticism from Trump, but Trump did not accept the resignation.[146] For the rest of Sessions's tenure Trump continued to be furious with him for his recusal, blaming it for the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel by Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.[147] Trump publicly attacked Sessions multiple times via Twitter and in public comments, saying he regretted choosing him as attorney general and that he never would have done so if he had known Sessions was going to recuse himself from the investigation.[148][149] According to Bob Woodward's book Fear: Trump in the White House, Trump called Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded" and described him as a "dumb southerner".[150][151] Trump denied ever using "these terms on anyone", although earlier tape recordings show that he has done so repeatedly.[151] In addition to criticizing him, Trump often used Twitter to suggest things he thought Sessions should do or to criticize Justice Department actions.[152] According to Senator Jeff Flake, "the president has been pushing [Sessions] very openly to go after the president's enemies and lay off his friends," adding "And so far, Jeff Sessions, bless his heart, has resisted and maintained that the judiciary needs to be independent."[153] Trump demanded that Sessions investigate Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and various employees of the FBI and Justice Department. In August 2018 he said that Sessions should "stop" the Mueller investigation. He later tweeted that "Our A.G. is scared stiff and Missing in Action."[152] In an August interview Trump complained that Jeff Sessions "never took control of the Justice Department," to which Sessions in a rare response said "While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.... I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in."[154] On September 3, 2018 Trump complained on Twitter that "investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time." Many lawmakers, including Republican senators, said Trump's remark was inappropriate, and a spokesperson for House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Justice Department "should always remain apolitical".[155] Trump often hinted he wanted to fire Sessions, perhaps after the November 2018 elections. Sessions told associates he did not intend to resign,[155] but on November 7, 2018, he submitted a letter of resignation to Chief of Staff John Kelly at President Trump's request. Criminal justice [ edit ] On April 3, 2017, Sessions announced that he was going to review consent decrees in which local law enforcement agencies had agreed to Department oversight.[156] U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar then denied Sessions's request to delay a new consent decree with the Baltimore Police Department.[157] On May 12, 2017, Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to begin seeking the greatest criminal charges possible.[158] The new guidelines rescinded a memo by Attorney General Eric Holder that had sought to reduce mass incarceration by avoiding mandatory sentencing.[2] On July 19, 2017, Sessions signed an order reviving federally adopted civil asset forfeiture, which allows local law enforcement to bypass state limitations on seizing the property of those suspected but not charged of crimes.[3][4] On December 22, 2017, Sessions rescinded guidelines intended to warn local courts against imposing excessive fines and fees on poor defendants.[159] Sessions has brought prominence to prosecutions of the MS-13 gang.[160] In February 2018, Sessions sent a public letter to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) opposing the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman's bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act bill.[161] Sessions opposed White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner's support for the reforms until Kushner reportedly agreed to focus instead on improving prison conditions.[161] On March 20, 2018, Sessions signed a memo instructing federal prosecutors to seek capital punishment on major drug dealers.[162][163] Asylum and illegal immigration [ edit ] On March 27, 2017, Sessions told reporters that sanctuary cities failing to comply with policies of the Trump administration would lose federal funding, and cited the shooting of Kathryn Steinle as an example of an illegal immigrant committing a heinous crime.[5] On April 11, 2017, Sessions issued a memo for federal attorneys to consider prosecuting anyone harboring an illegal immigrant. On the same day, while at an entry border port in Nogales, Arizona, Sessions insisted the new administration would implement policies against those continuing "to seek improper and illegal entry into this country".[164] On April 21, nine sanctuary cities were sent letters by the Justice Department giving them a deadline of June 30 to provide an explanation of how their policies were not in violation of the law, and Sessions hours later warned "enough is enough" in San Diego amid his tour of the U.S.-Mexico border.[165] Two days later, Sessions said that reducing false tax credits given to "mostly Mexicans" could pay for the U.S.-Mexico border and it would be paid for "one way or the other".[166] Sessions meets with Department of Justice and DHS personnel in El Paso, Texas, April 2017 Sessions attempted to block funding to sanctuary cities. Sessions also threatened to criminally prosecute uncooperative local officials.[167] Federal judges in Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia have rejected Sessions's efforts.[168][169] On March 6, 2018, Sessions sued the state of California in federal district court, alleging that the state's laws regarding prisoner release, workplace inspection, and detention site inspection are preempted by the federal government's immigration policy.[170][171][172] In June 2018, Sessions gave a speech in which he cited the Bible to justify his new policy of separating detained children from their families when they are caught illegally crossing the border, declaring that people should "obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order".[173] Christian leaders strongly disagreed with the policy, with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo calling it "immoral", Reverend Franklin Graham calling it "disgraceful", and Bishop Kenneth Carter of Session's own church (the United Methodist Church) calling it "unnecessarily cruel". Bible scholar and professor Matthew Schlimm said that history was being repeated as Sessions had taken the quote "completely out of context" just like how slave traders and Nazis had misused the Bible before.[174] On June 11, 2018, Sessions reversed a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals granting a battered woman asylum and announced that victims of domestic abuse or gang violence will no longer qualify for asylum in the United States. He stated that "[t]he mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes – such as domestic violence or gang violence – or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim."[175][176] Domestic violence victims had been eligible for asylum since 2014.[177] According to The New Yorker, legal experts estimated that "Sessions had single-handedly dismantled between sixty and seventy per cent of asylum jurisprudence from the previous three decades."[178] In April 2017, while on a radio talk show, Sessions said that he was "amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power".[179] This was in reference to Derrick Watson, a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii, blocking an executive order by President Donald Trump. After receiving criticism for the remark,[180] Sessions said there is nothing he "would want to phrase differently" and that he "wasn't criticizing the judge or the island".[180] Marijuana [ edit ] In a May 2017 letter, Sessions personally asked congressional leaders to repeal the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment so that the Justice Department could prosecute providers of medical marijuana.[6] The Rohrabacher–Farr amendment is a 2014 measure that bars the Justice Department from using federal funds to prevent states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana."[6] Sessions wrote in the letter that "I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime."[6] John Hudak of the Brookings Institution criticized the letter, stating that it was a "scare tactic" that "should make everyone openly question whether candidate Trump's rhetoric and the White House's words on his support for medical marijuana was actually a lie to the American public on an issue that garners broad, bipartisan support."[6] On January 4, 2018, Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum, which had prevented federal prosecutors from bringing charges against state legalized marijuana use.[181] Unite the Right rally violence and civil rights investigation [ edit ] Sessions called the fatal vehicle-ramming attack at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia an act of domestic terrorism, and began a civil rights investigation into the attack to determine if it will be tried in court as a hate crime.[182] Sessions said "You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America."[183] Gender identity [ edit ] In a "Dear Colleague" letter issued February 22, 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Education withdrew and rescinded the 2016 "Dear Colleague" letter issued jointly by the same organizations.[184] The earlier "Dear Colleague" letter, issued on May 13, 2016, had established that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 allows access to sex-segregated facilities (such as restrooms) corresponding to a student's gender identity.[185] The 2017 letter argued that the 2016 letter lacked "extensive legal analysis", did not "explain how the position is consistent with the express language of Title IX", and it had not undergone "any formal public process."[184] Sessions issued a statement which said "Congress, state legislatures, and local governments are in a position to adopt appropriate policies or laws addressing this issue."[186] On October 4, 2017, Sessions released a Department of Justice (DoJ) memo interpreting Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, stating that Title VII "is ordinarily defined to mean biologically male or female," but it "does not prohibit discrimination based on gender identity per se."[187] The memo was written to withdraw an earlier DoJ memorandum issued by Eric Holder on December 15, 2014, which aligned the DoJ with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on interpreting Title VII to include gender identity or transgender status as a protected class. At that time, DoJ had already stopped opposing claims of discrimination brought by federal transgender employees.[188] Devin O'Malley, representing the DoJ, stated "the last administration abandoned that fundamental principle [that the Department of Justice cannot expand the law beyond what Congress has provided], which necessitated today's action." Sharon McGowan, a lawyer with Lambda Legal who previously served in the Civil Rights division of DoJ, rejected that argument, saying "this memo [issued by Sessions] is not actually a reflection of the law as it is — it's a reflection of what the DOJ wishes the law were" and "[t]he Justice Department is actually getting back in the business of making anti-transgender law in court."[189] Turkey's sanctions against Sessions [ edit ] On August 1, 2018, the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on top Turkish government officials who were involved in the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson,[190] who was arrested in October 2016, several months after a failed coup attempt in Turkey.[191] Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the freezing of Jeff Sessions's assets in Turkey in retaliation for U.S. sanctions.[192] Resignation [ edit ] Sessions's resignation letter On November 7, 2018 – the day after the 2018 midterm elections – Jeff Sessions resigned as Attorney General at the president's request.[193][194][195] Policy positions [ edit ] During his tenure, Sessions was considered one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate.[196][197] Immigration [ edit ] U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions addressing voters in 2011 Sessions was an opponent of legal and illegal immigration during his time in Congress.[198][199] He opposed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and the bi-partisan Gang of Eight's Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. He said that a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants undermines the rule of law, that the inflow of guest workers and immigrants depresses wages and raises unemployment for United States citizens, and that current immigration policy expands an underclass dependent on the welfare state. In a May 2006 floor speech, he said, "Fundamentally, almost no one coming from the Dominican Republic to the United States is coming because they have a skill that would benefit us and that would indicate their likely success in our society."[200][201] He is a supporter of E-Verify, the federal database that allows businesses to electronically verify the immigration status of potential new hires,[202]
stronger recovery. The Obama administration has tried to have it both ways—devoting lots of political energy to the debt and deficit problem, not so much to the larger ailment of economic weakness. I think we are witnessing the hangover from thirty years of conservative idolatry—the political worship of so-called free markets and deregulation. Democrats are infected too—either afraid to propose aggressive measures or ignorant of what is possible in crisis. The bean counters are still in the saddle. They may be dislodged only if the country is driven into another bloody recession. Where is big government when we need it?A much simpler version when it comes to comparing to the Sagittarian series, but still never the less holds up it's charm very well. The game wins a lot out of the charm and the music- plus the rather simple art style that gives it quite a nice perspective that most other games wouldn't go for. As stated earlier, the music is good for one that loops around constantly: and it feels like it fits the theme that the Sagittarian series have been going for quite a while now: so no shame in doing it, and no shame in not stopping. For the gameplay elements, it's really as simple as it gets: click the option that sounds the best to you, and hope you don't get dead-ed by the undead or any other threat. The characters feel quite different from each other and not like the usual zombie-invasion/apocalypse stereotypes that we're often used to seeing on this site when it comes to these form of games, but are generally your average dudes that you'd expect to find: with of course dicks and idiots included. One thing however that does kinda set me off is when it's one of those fifty-fifty style of gameplay. You know, like "Huh. Two paths- one gets me dead-ed, one doesn't. There's no evidence of which does what, and the picture doesn't really aid me in understanding what's going on. YOLO." Like in the beginning when you peek out the window to see your bud covered in blood. I didn't see any of that shiz in his mouth, or any bite marks on him on the picture: so don't punish me so extremely with death when I look, check him out: don't see anything and let him in. Another thing is the unseen threat- or just the outright stupidity death. When you go out to catch Todd's car and it's obviously banged up to hell: how come when your character looks at a horde of them and it clearly states- They look pretty sick - his options are all but to do with yelling at them, getting their attention or PUNCHING UNDEAD KIDS. This guy just had a home busted into by a friend who nearly banged him up- and he goes out to punching a zombie kids. Other than that- for it being so short, it receives a 4/5- mainly because of some of the issues when it came to the pure-guessing game, some very minor mispelling and lastly just that it was overall a lot shorter than most of the other Sagittarian games.It can be tough to start a new open source project. You have an awesome idea in your head, but it takes work to turn it into a productive, healthy, engaging community. Sadly (as seems to be the case in practically anything), the same mistakes are made over and over again by new projects. Here are some of the most common mistakes open source projects make and my recommendations for avoiding them. 1. Chatting instead of shipping Of the thousands of open source projects that kick off, too many get stuck at the outset because of a bunch of discussions on a Slack channel, mailing list, issue, or elsewhere. The discussions bounce around the house, and the scope often grows more and more lavish to incorporate the many, sundry ideas and considerations. An early open source principle—"release early, release often"—serves us well. Instead of trying to solve all the challenges, write code, put it in a repo, and start accepting pull requests. Your project will evolve, adapt, and improve more quickly when focused on code. 2. Trying to ship a perfect first release Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, once famously said, "If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." This is especially true in new open source projects. It can be tempting to try to make your first release, or even your 1.0, as perfect as possible. Here's the thing: Most people are not going to notice your first release, so it really doesn't need to be perfect. People notice, consume, and participate in open source projects as they evolve. Start shipping, get feedback, make improvements, and ship those improvements. This is how you build growth. 3. Trying to build a perfect infrastructure One common pattern I see in new open source projects is that they want to ensure the infrastructure—the website, collaboration platforms (e.g. GitHub/GitLab), continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), and everything else—is as perfect as possible. This can result in having a decent chunk of code ready to ship that the project founders are uneasy about releasing because they fear the other, less-up-to-par bits of infrastructure seem a little hokey. A classic example is the website. Some projects will hold off shipping until a full-featured, well-designed website is in place. Don't do this. Focus on putting enough infrastructure in place to be able to collaborate to build software. Ship your software, raise awareness—this will build growth in your community. As you build growth, you'll get more hands on deck to help perfect your infrastructure. 4. Not enforcing the code of conduct In recent years, issues with diversity and inclusion have bubbled to the surface. Naturally, we want to ensure our communities are diverse and inclusive. Regardless of this being the right thing to do, diverse communities simply deliver better results. Many communities kick off without considering what kind of conduct they want to see. For many, it's a given that the community should be happy, fun, engaging, and inclusive. Some projects formalize this by putting a code of conduct in place and posting it on their website. This is not enough. The way you enforce good conduct is to ensure that the project's leaders live and breathe good conduct. Always nip incidents of negative conduct in the bud. Don't just try to ignore bad behavior, as it can fester. Likewise, don't humiliate people if they put in a wrong foot. Often a friendly, private few words asking people to be more respectful can resolve the problem. 5. Losing focus I know, I know, now it is starting to sound like work, right? Seriously though, while one of the major pleasures of open source is the unlimited creative potential, many projects struggle or shut down because they spread themselves and their focus too thin. Don't try to be all things to all people. As your project picks up steam, there are going to be a million requests from enthusiastic users. Stay focused on your goals, yet always encourage people to join the project and expand its focus and potential. Importantly though, while "patches welcome!" is a common response to the wish list, don't just look for patches, look for maintainers. The last thing you want to do is maintain technical debt for other people's work. 6. Having too many discussions in too many places We are surrounded by a multitude of communication platforms such as Slack, Mattermost, mailing lists, IRC, forums, issues, video conferencing, and more. It can be tempting to have a presence in all these places to ensure you get everyone involved. This is a mistake. As I discussed in Much ado about communication, there are different types of communication channels, which I broadly break into structured and unstructured channels. I recommend the following guidelines: All bugs and technical discussions live in GitHub/GitLab issues Have a general "community clubhouse" on a forum powered by Discourse Have a real-time chat channel where people can have quick and informal discussions Each channel serves a different purpose, and not all are essential. Issues are the most important, followed by the others. Again, stay focused and keep discussions fairly central, and this will build momentum. 7. Taking yourself too seriously Finally, this is all supposed to be fun. Too many projects take themselves a little too seriously. Always focus on having fun, building great relationships among community members, and making each other laugh. The fabric of open source is built on engaged, innovative community members with a creative flair for putting new ideas into action. Always maintain this nimble and creative spirit. It will help your project thrive. Good luck, and if you have other ideas and recommendations for mistakes new projects should avoid, please share them in the comments.Intro About Denver Mandatory Requirements: Secondary (Non-Mandatory Requirements): Special Thanks: Terms of Usage: ESM or ESP? ESP Errors? Future Plans: Some Stuff: FOR FAST ACCESS USE THE DOOR IN THE GOODSPRINGS GRAVEYARD!!! BFM Denver stands for, in Doom Terms, Big F#cking Mod "Denver," and you will need to forgive my lack of flare but page design is not in my skill set. :3Denver is a total redesign, of the original Denver, as requested for manufacture byRobert Helms. It does not contain any of the original story or quests from hisoriginal Denver mod, but the city has been totally revamped and expanded inorder to be used as a mod resource quest hub.Included in this redesign are three world cells built by JCDenton2012. This includes theBroncos Stadium, Elitch Gardens Theme Park, and Denver City Center. If you weretake all of these cells and add them together they would collectively have thesame traversable and exploreable surface area as half of DLC The Pitt.Denver,the abandoned ruins of the former great metropolis are a slowly decaying ruin,submerged beneath the shifting sands of the American Mid-West. The city issurrounded by extreme radioactive sandstorms which prevent most people fromventuring into its borders. Once inside, the skyscrapers and wind barriersprovide enough of a bulwark against the radioactive storms that people cansurvive in refuge… for a while. The storms; however, overpower the city during the night causing the streets to whiteout into darkness.SpeedyResourceKit: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39551/ NewVegasESMDeadmoneyESMLonesomeRoadESMHonestHeartsESMOldWorldBluesESMTalon Company Assets: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/35087/Devinpatterson: For the pipe mesh used on the waterslidesRobert Helms: For nudging me into remaking the cityYou are free to use this mod however you want. It is a resource after-all. That having been said, list me in your credits. That is all.Mostpeople… are going to want to use the ESM to make their own mods. The ESP is aresource for expanding or merging Denver into other mods. 99% of all peopleshould probably download the ESM and not the ESP.TheNavmeshing and LOD were confirmed in the ESM but not the ESP, mainly becausethe GECK is evil. For those wanting to merge Denver ESP into other mods beweary of the navmeshing errors because you will need to tediously manuallycorrect them before merging, otherwise the GECK will auto-delete anyproblematic triangles beyond number 2000. There is nothing wrong with thesetriangles because while making the ESM their errors vanished. It’s just theGECK being evil…Take a nap. LOL. In all seriousness, the job is done, on to other projects.I did a partial LOD excluding a few objects. If possible I would be interested in fixing that plus the ESP navmeshing errors for another updated release. Otherwise... this is good enough for people to use in their own work... the ESM that is.The staff of Sanrio's Show By Rock!! television anime announced on Wednesday the cast of the series. Excluding Retoree, all members of Plasmagica and ShinganCrimsonZ leader Crow will be returning from the mobile game and animated promotional video: Eri Inagawa (Pac-World) as Cyan, the gothic lolita kitty and leader of Plasmagica Sumire Uesaka (Hozuki no Reitetsu, Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!) as Chuchu, the honor student bunny Manami Numakura (The [email protected], Shirobako) as Retoree, the net geek dog Ayane Sakura (Dream Eater Merry, Love Lab) as Moa, the alien sheep (?) Kishô Taniyama ( Attack on Titan, The Unlimited - Hyōbu Kyōsuke, Junjō Romantica ) as Crow, the guitarist and vocalist Kouki Uchiyama (Soul Eater Not!, Nisekoi) as Aeon, the guitarist Tetsuya Kakihara (Fairy Tail, Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live) as Yaiba, the bassist Yoshimasa Hosoya (One Week Friends, Terraformars) as Rom, the drummer Megumi Han (Hunter × Hunter, Terror in Resonance) as Tsurezurenaru Ayatsuri Mugenan leader and drummer Daru Dayu Eriko Matsui (Engaged to the Unidentified, Girl Friend BETA) as bassist A Saori Hayami (MM!, Bakuman.) as guitarist and vocalist Un Mamoru Miyano (Valvrave the Liberator, Steins;Gate) as Shū☆zō (seen center in the image above), the guitarist and vocalist for Trichronika Ryota Ohsaka (Denkigai no Honya-san, Nagi no Asakura) as Kai (seen right), the drummer Ayumu Murase (Wolf Girl & Black Prince, Haikyu!!) as Riku (seen left), the bassist. Jun'ichi Yanagida, Mitsuhiro Ichiki, and Teruyuki Tanzawa played Aeon, Yaiba, and Rom in the mobile game. Eri Kitamura originally played Retoree in the game as well as the promotional video. In addition, a promotional video unveiling the fourth band that will be featured in the anime, Trichronika, is streaming: Text: I was waiting for you.☆ Text: Crossing millions of dream galaxies... Text: We will bring a sparkle to you.☆ The video also notes that plans for a Show By Rock!! manga are underway, and that the TV anime will premiere in April 2015. The anime Show By Rock!! adapts Sanrio's mobile phone rhythm game of the same name. Sanrio began distributing the game developed by Geeks for iOS and Android in 2012. The game is free to play, but has in-game items that can be purchased. Sanrio describes the story of the original game on its website: Metropolis of music, MIDICITY. A kitty girl wearing gothic lolita clothing named Cyan is scouted by Maple Arisugawa, the president of a music agency. From there, she meets Chuchu (a pun off of the sound that rabbits make) the honor student rabbit girl, a net geek dog girl named Retoree (from "Retriever"), and an alien sheep (?) girl named Moa. Together, they form the band named "Plasmagica," and aim for the top of the world. However, the path there is long and tough, and keeping in high spirits is important. By battling against other strange bands, Plasmagica slowly grows toward a top-grade band. In the end, they'll be a band that becomes the driving force of MIDICITY's music industry... Maybe? Gonna be a music millionaire! Source: Moca News Images © 2012, 2014 Sanrio Co.,LTD., SHOWBYROCK!! Production CommitteeSergio Aguero trained with Manchester City on Thursday just two weeks after breaking his rib in a car crash in Amsterdam Sergio Aguero trained with Manchester City on Thursday just two weeks after breaking his rib in a car crash in Amsterdam Sergio Aguero says he is "ready" having completed full training with Manchester City on Thursday just two weeks after breaking his rib in a car crash. The 29-year-old Argentine was in involved in the accident in Amsterdam on his day off last month when he had been attending a music concert, and had initially been ruled out for a month. But after taking part in light training back at City earlier this week, Aguero posted pictures of himself back in action with the message "I am ready". Vuelta a los entrenamientos y preparado😀!! Back to training. I am ready💪! pic.twitter.com/ThauwGxq7f — Sergio Kun Aguero (@aguerosergiokun) October 12, 2017 Following criticism over his decision to go abroad in the days building up to City's important fixture against Chelsea, Aguero defended his actions and revealed he could return to the first team against Stoke City this weekend at the Etihad. "I still do not know if I am going to play on Saturday," Aguero told TyC Sports. "I trained normally, but without the group." Simon Jordan and Danny Mills discuss whether any fault lies with Sergio Aguero for being involved in the accident in Amsterdam Simon Jordan and Danny Mills discuss whether any fault lies with Sergio Aguero for being involved in the accident in Amsterdam Aguero added: "When a player has a free day at Manchester City, most of the players go to London, others to Italy, some to Spain. "I was lucky that I know the agent of Maluma [a Colombian singer], he invited me and I went. I had almost two days off and going to the airport was when I had that accident. "Then one thinks 'why did I [go]?', but it's difficult to imagine that something like that could happen."Mathematical genius Shakuntala Devi, nicknamed as “human computer”, was known for her ability to make complex mental calculations. She found a slot in the Guiness Book of World Record for her outstanding ability. Born in 1929 in a poor family in Bangalore, Shakuntala Devi dropped out of school because her father, a circus worker, could not afford the monthly school fee of Rs 2. She grew up in a slum and at a very young age, her mathematical abilities were recognized by her father. There is an interesting anecdote about how he recognized it. At the age of 3, when she started playing cards with her father, he was surprised to find that she was winning all the games against him everyday. Suspecting some foul play, he began his investigation during which he realized that she was memorizing all the card numbers and their sequence as the game progressed in the initial rounds and with her memory power, she was able to predict the sequence of cards in the subsequent rounds in the same game and thus wait to pick cards strategically to help her win. Her father taught her mathematical operations like multiplication, division & square root and took her to his circus to demonstrate her quick calculation abilities & memory power to the crowds. As the word about her skills spread, she started doing road shows as well across the city. At the age of 6, she gave her first major show at Mysore University and there was no turning back after that. In her early 20s, she toured Europe and Americas extensively to demonstrate her skills. In 1977, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she calculated the 23rd root of a 201-digit number. It had taken four minutes for a professor to write the problem on the board, and it took more than a minute for a Univac computer to figure out the answer. Shakuntala Devi got it in 50 seconds. Here is a newspaper excerpt of the same: On June 18, 1980, the Human computer, Shakuntala Devi demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds. This event is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records. With the ability to calculate the cube root of 61,629,875, and the seventh root of 170,859,375 without writing it down or using a calculator, Shakuntala Devi’s abilities were studied by Arthur Jensen, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1988. Jensen wrote in his report that the calculation was done and answers given even before he wrote the answer in his notebook. The findings were published in the academic journal Intelligence in 1990. In April 2013, Shakuntala Devi passed away in a hospital in Bangalore from complications of the heart and kidneys at the age of 83. Devi wrote a number of books with titles like Fun with Numbers and Puzzles to Puzzle You.Increasing vision is increasingly expensive. – R. A. Janek (actually Michael Crichton) For the last year or so, it seems like almost every new lens release has been accompanied by sticker shock. The manufacturers are businessmen and they know when we’ve been salivating at the promise of a new wonder lens. They know we”ll be willing to (at least some of us) pay a ridiculous amount to put that slightly better lens in front of our camera. Somewhat lost in the hundreds of Internet threads about whether this-or-that awesome lens is worth its ridiculous price, though, there are some good bargains to be had. In fact, right now there may be more excellent lens bargains available than at any time I can recall. But let’s define real bargains for a minute. A bargain is NOT finding a $2,500 lens for $1,500. That is a scam and doesn’t happen in the real world. A bargain is finding a lens that does nearly as well as the best possible lens, or does some things every bit as well as the best possible lens, at a fraction of the cost. In some cases, you can get a good bargain even if you limit yourself to the three-zooms-to-cover-every-boring-possible-focal-length kit. For others, getting a great bargain means leaving your comfort zone a bit; perhaps changing lenses more frequently, or correcting some distortion in post-processing. Doing this, though, especially if you are taking the first timid steps away from the “three zooms” approach, may be the best thing that can happen to your photography. Bargains for Nikon Nikon is prime bargain-shopper territory this year, folks. It seems there’s a perfect storm for Nikon shooters. Nikon has released a number or really good, reasonably priced lenses. Third-party developers have added some, too. As if this wasn’t enough, Nikon is exhibiting many of the signs of a business with inventory control or projection problems — discounting things right and left. While the first two factors probably won’t change in the near future, this third one probably will, so some of the Nikon bargains may be temporary. That being said, the recent price drops have kept a few things from being listed in my bargains. The Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8, for example, would have made the list when it was $1,300 and the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 was $1,900. But with the Nikon currently available at $1,660 it doesn’t make my “costs 60% of the best lens” bargain definition. I’ll also mention there aren’t any DX bargains listed largely because, while DX zooms are (usually) less expensive than FX alternatives, there are often several to choose from at roughly the same price. Nikon AF 80-200mm f/2.8D ED Price: $1,099 As good as the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR II? Nope. Vibration control? Nope. Require cameras with built-in focus motor? Yep. But if you are using this focal length to shoot action, which a lot of people are, then the vibration control is less important because you require shorter shutter speeds. The image quality is better than third party zooms in this focal length (in the center it’s just about as good as the 70-200 VR II). If you don’t need VR, then here’s the classic bargain: 90% of the lens at less than 50% of the price. Here’s another way to look at it: A Nikon 70-200mm VR II and Nikon D600 combo will set you back $4,394. The Nikon D800 and Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 – only $3,896. Which one do you think gives the best images? Tokina AT-X 16-28mm f/2.8 Price: $749 As good as the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8? Nope. Corners soft at f/2.8? Yep. Flare like nobody’s business with the sun in the field? Sure does. Not to mention it’s matched up against the best wide-angle zoom ever made in the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8. But it has excellent resolution for an f/2.8 full-frame wide angle and even the corners are sharp at f/4. And you can buy something nice with the $1,200 you’d save compared to the 14-24mm f/2.8 Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Price: $899 Here’s a superb bargain example. It’s sharper than the Nikon 35mm f/1.4 G, Zeiss ZF 35mm f/1.4 or Zeiss 35mm f/2, and significantly less expensive. There seem to be some autofocus issues on the D800, though, so D800 owners may need to be happy using center point AF only. Then again, it certainly autofocuses better than the Zeiss lenses. Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 AF-S G Price: $459 I’m not a fan of the 60mm focal length for macro work. But here’s an exceptionally sharp lens, very small and easy to add to your bag that is really inexpensive given the recent price reductions. Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Price: $420 It’s manual focus, but at 14mm focus is basically ‘everything I can’t touch is usually in focus’ so that’s not critical. (Manual focus is the reason I didn’t include longer Rokinon lenses as bargains.) It has a lot of barrel distortion, but everything else at this focal length has some. Not as much, but some. But it’s amazingly sharp. Better than the Nikon 14mm f/2.8 prime (which is way dated) and 1/3rd of the price. I will note, this is held together inside with plastic, glue, and small screws. You won’t be using it for years. But the price of a new one is less than the price of a repair on a 14-24 f/2.8. Nikon f/1.8 G Primes Nikon 85mm f/1.8 AF-S G – $370 Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF-S G – $217 Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF-S G – $220 The Trinity of Nikon f/1.8 G primes. All are as sharp as their far more expensive f/1.4 big brothers. All three together cost about $800, half of what a Nikon 35mm f/1.4 G costs. Want to shoot world-class Nikon for under $3,000? Get a D7100 and these 3 primes and you’re set. That’s actually a bit less than, say, a Fuji X-Pro1 and 3 prime lenses. While it didn’t quite make my ultimate bargain list, the Nikon 28mm f/1.8 G at $600 is excellent, too. If you shoot full-frame you can still get 3 superb f/1.8 primes for $1,100. That’s less than the cost of the 24-70 f/2.8 zoom and each has clearly better IQ than the zoom. Bargains for Canon Canon seems to have better inventory control lately, making their markdowns a bit less dramatic. Or perhaps Canon shooters have been using their disposable income on lenses instead of cameras, keeping the demand high. There are still some good bargains to be had in the Canon world, though. Canon 70-200mm f/4L Price: $674 You can focus on the lack of image stabilization and the f/4 aperture rather than f/2.8. But it’s sharper than the f/4 IS version and about half the price. This is one of the ‘starter’ L quality lenses I recommend to everyone. You give up some compromises for this bargain, but in decent light it can create images as good as anything in this focal range. Tie: Tokina AT-X 16-28 f/2.8 & Canon 17-40 f/4 Price: $749 & $699, respectively Either is right around half the price of a Canon 16-35 f/2.8L lens. The 17-40 gives up a stop for that money, but is probably a bit sharper than the 16-35 and certainly is more flare resistant. It’s also drop-dead reliable; we rarely see one break. The Tokina is just as sharp and gives you f/2.8, but you won’t be putting any filters in front of it, and it flares if the sun is anywhere in the image. Certainly, though, either provides 80% of the capability for half the money, which is my definition of a good buy. Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Price: $899 Not quite as great a bargain for Canon shooters as for Nikon shooters since the Canon 35mm f/1.4 is a bit cheaper than the Nikon. But the Sigma is still a sharper lens for about 70% of the price. Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Price: $379 This one (or these three if you want to go by different brand badges) is an even better bargain for Canon shooters than for Nikon – it’s cheaper in Canon mount and the Canon 14mm f/2.8 is nearly $2,000 – higher than the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 zoom. If you can live with the distortion it’s definitely the cheapest way to go really wide. Canon 40mm f/2.8 Pancake Price: $149 It’s so small and inexpensive I use it as my lens cap. It gives excellent image quality, particularly in the center. If you prefer wider aperture you might consider the slightly less expensive 50mm f/1.8, but the 40mm is quicker to focus, doesn’t have that annoying buzzing motor, and is half the size. Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro Price: $499 It’s not quite as good as the Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS as far as image quality, but it’s close. Personally, this is one where I’d pay the difference because I really need the IS, but many people do not. For them, this original version is barely more than half the price and an excellent lens. I doubt it will remain available for a lot longer, though. Canon 85mm f/1.8 Price: $359 Another excellent prime lens that can be had for a tiny fraction of what the Canon 85 f/1.2 or f/1.4 lenses cost. If you can give up the half stop of light and a bit of bokeh creaminess, you can save a lot of money and space in your bag with this one. Canon 200mm f/2.8L Mk II Price: $759 It’s sharper and a lot smaller than a 70-200 f/2.8 lens at half the price. I mention this one because there are a lot of sports shooters who could tape their 70-200mm lens at 200mm – every shot is taken there. This lens makes a lot of sense for them. Bargains for Micro 4/3 There’s a bit less room for bargain hunting in m4/3, which isn’t surprising given fewer lenses and manufacturers. There’s a big group of top-level primes and zooms for around $1,000, another group at $600-$800, and then a lot of zooms at around $500. There are a couple of lenses that meet my ‘60% of the price’ bargain criteria, though. Sigma 30mm EX DN f/2.8 Price: $149 Superb image quality and a rock-bottom price make this a must buy. It’s not a true wide-aperture prime, being f/2.8, but it’s sharp wide open. Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Price: $199 As above, and while it’s not quite as inexpensive, it’s still a bargain. There are some other lenses, like the Panasonic pancakes and Olympus 45mm f/1.8 that have good prices, although I’m not sure they’re screaming bargains. Bargains for NEX Looking for high-quality, low-price NEX lenses is a fairly quick task, but right now there’s one bargain that may top anything else for any other system. Sigma 30mm f/2.8 & 19mm f/2.8 Price: $199, total Basically, unless you already have both of these, buy the package. Even if you have one, buy the package and sell the other one. That’s Probably Not All If you think I missed a bargain or two, feel free to add a comment. But remember the criteria aren’t just cheap lenses; it’s excellent lenses at a fraction of the price of similar quality lenses. Roger Cicala Lensrentals.com March, 2013Three weeks ago, a California professor was ambling across her campus when she saw a teenager holding up a political sign she didn't like. What happened next reveals a larger problem: the steady assault on free speech at universities. Associate professor Mireille Miller-Young and a group of her political allies marched over, confronted the kid and demanded that she remove her sign. When the youngster refused, Miller-Young ripped it out of her hands, took it to her office and cut it up. When the professor was asked if there had been a struggle, she said, no, "I'm stronger so I was able to take the poster.'" A professor stopping speech because she's "stronger"? What's going on here, and why does it matter? American democracy is built upon free speech and free assembly, including the right to express views others might abhor. America's universities should vigorously defend that essential freedom and pass it on to the next generation. If you disagree with someone, put up your own signs. Explain your own views. Say why others are wrong. What you cannot do — what you must not do — is shout down anyone or overpower them, as Miller-Young did. The only exception is when speech poses an immediate danger to specific people, such as a Klansman burning a cross at a civil rights worker's home. That conveys a deadly threat. Except for these rare cases, the answer to "bad speech" is always "more speech." To see that value affirmed here in Chicago, just walk into the Tribune's inspiring entryway. Col. Robert McCormick covered its walls with quotations defending free speech and its corollary, a free press. Those are bedrock values in a liberal democracy like ours. Alas, Miller-Young never learned those values. She has a lot of company in the faculty lounge. Violations of free speech happen all the time on campus, usually without much attention or any push-back from administrators. When former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke at the University of Chicago a few years ago, his opponents objected vehemently. Some demonstrated across the street, which is perfectly fine. That's what "more speech" means. But some Palestinian activists infiltrated the lecture hall and stood up repeatedly to disrupt the talk. That's shameful, and the university did nothing. The same thing happened this year at Brown University when a former New York City police commissioner tried to speak about stop-and-frisk laws. Some students called him a racist and stomped and shouted to prevent him from speaking. They succeeded. Last year, at one of the country's leading colleges, Swarthmore, some radical environmentalists took over a university investment meeting and prevented others from speaking. They wanted the school to sell its stock in an energy company. Swarthmore's president and dean of students were actually present — and did nothing. That shouldn't be a surprise since the college's own speech code is a direct assault on free speech. The school proudly announces that it will remove any signs with "uncivil expression." Who decides what's "uncivil"? Why high-ranking school officials do, of course. They also define "harassment" as any unwelcome conduct. So, if you happen to think something is unwelcome — anything at all — then you've been harassed. There is more free speech on a Saturday morning cartoon show. The same intolerance seeps into classrooms, usually from activist professors who know exactly what's right and insist you parrot their views. Students are wary, naturally, of disagreeing with the authorities who grade them, especially if those professors are rigid ideologues. Smart students simply avoid those professors or feign agreement. Just imagine you are lucky enough to get into one of Miller-Young's classes in her specialty, "feminism, queer theory and pornography." What would happen if you spoke up in class and, say, opposed her views on abortion or gay marriage? That's only a hypothetical, of course. No one in his or her right mind would do it. Yet good seminars thrive on thoughtful differences. If you disagree with a position, whether it's the professor's or another student's, explain why and ask for a reasoned response. Universities should encourage this kind of discourse — and demand accountability from teachers who quash dissent. Fortunately, Miller-Young's school does provide a place for dissent. The University of California at Santa Barbara has set aside a small area as a "free speech zone." That's where the teenager was holding the sign. Yep. They have a little leper's colony for free speech. Why isn't the whole university a place for free speech? It's California, not Crimea. Universities should be citadels of open debate
ritualistic promotion, practice and celebration of both heterosexual and homosexual immorality and promiscuity have been carefully whitewashed – yet wholeheartedly embraced – by the cults of radical feminism, militant “gay rights” and “comprehensive sex education.” And, the pantheistic worship of “mother earth” has been substituted – in name only – for radical environmentalism.” NOTE: Read Matt Barber’s full analysis on this: Today’s Baal worshipersPolice still investigating why officer Vanessa Miller shot Ryan Keith Bolinger through the rolled-up window of her patrol car A veteran police officer shot and killed an unarmed man this week in Des Moines, Iowa, after firing through the rolled-up window of her patrol car. Police say the man, identified as 28-year-old Ryan Keith Bolinger, “walked with purpose” toward officer Vanessa Miller’s vehicle when she fired the fatal shot. According to police, the incident began on Tuesday night when Bolinger pulled up his Lincoln sedan to a Des Moines police patrol car helping to make an unrelated traffic stop of another vehicle. Bolinger was allegedly so close to the pullover that the officer inside could not open his door. In a press conference on Wednesday, Des Moines police sergeant Jason Halifax said Bolinger then got out of his car and began “dancing in the street or making unusual movements in the street”. Halifax said that Bolinger then got back into his vehicle and led police on a low-speed chase before making a U-turn, giving officers an opportunity to block his path with their patrol cars. It was at this point, Halifax said, that Bolinger got out of his Lincoln and rushed toward the officer’s vehicle. Officer Miller, a seven-year veteran, fired one shot at Bolinger’s torso, who died on the scene. No weapons were found on or near Bolinger’s body. Halifax told the Guardian on Thursday that it was not Bolinger’s rapid movement toward the patrol car by itself that prompted officer Miller to fire. But he would not elaborate on the specific reason, citing the ongoing investigation. “She obviously felt something,” Halifax said, “and it involved what she was perceiving at the time, but that will be up to the grand jury to hear next.” Neither officer Miller or any of the other officers involved were wearing a body camera. The investigation is still pending, as are results of a toxicology report. A phone number listed for Bolinger’s family was disconnected.Iron Man 3 just landed in second place on the opening weekend box office record list. Who’s it behind? The Avengers. Common thread? Robert Downey Jr? Hmm.., I mean he is pretty awesome so good guess but lets see the bigger picture first. After Avengers and Iron Man 3 the top five are finished off with the final Harry Potter, Dark Knight Rises, and finally the Dark Knight. That’s four movies out of the top five that are comic book movies. I think it’s fair to say comic books and their movies are here to stay. Who do we have to thank for all this? The answer, Blade. For the unaware Blade was an unassuming movie that came out in 1998. At this point Batman had run it’s course leaving only the memory of terrible one liners by Arnold Schwarzenegger and a distaste for comic book movies in general. At the time, one wouldn’t think a movie starring Wesley Snipes, Kris Kistofferson, and Stephen Dorff would be the remedy. but in retrospect it was exactly what the doctor ordered. It was no record breaking weekend, but Blade did make a decent chunk of change – around $70mm to be exact and went on to become a VHS/DVD hit as well. I was too young to see Blade in the theaters, but since my father and actually my whole family were completely ignorant to any of the “weird” and “geeky” things I was into, I was able to rent it on one of our weekend trips to Blockbuster without any issues. I remember sitting and watching Blade one Friday night. My siblings were somewhere (I was 14, so if they weren’t home it meant they didn’t exist in my small world for however many hours), and my mom was… somewhere too(again 14). My dad was cooking us dinner and told me I could watch my movie then. Which at the time sounded like a nice treat for him to give me, but in retrospect I realize he was just trying to avoid watching it himself. Now, if you haven’t seen Blade before, here’s my sales pitch – watch the first 10 minutes of the movie; if you’re not hooked immediately and if you don’t wonder “where the fuck has this movie been my whole life?” Then turn it off. This movie is not the movie for you. Blade comes out swinging and is unabashedly “Blade” from opening credits to the very end. The opening scene shows a guy hanging with a girl that’s way too hot for him, leading him through a meat packing warehouse to a club, that if it was real, was also too cool for him. Even he can sense that his dopey hat and style doesn’t belong, but not for the reasons he probably thinking. There’s house music playing and a party being had, that for me at 14, looked cooler than anything I would ever attend in my life (which may or may not still hold true). Then it starts to rain blood in the club, from the fire sprinklers. The regular dopey citizen guy begins to realize he’s in too deep in something he does not want to be in. He turns to run but just gets met with a face full of fangs, falls to the floor and back pedals and runs into the only thing left not covered in blood. BLADE. From here Blade played by Wesley Snipes puts on one of the best ass kickings I’ve ever seen in a movie. All the while never getting a single drop of blood on his all black outfit (this is a running theme in the movie series). The fight culminates with him giving a shit-eating grin and throwing some sort of boomerang weapon that decapitates multiple vampires in one flight and him catching it on the other end. THIS IS BLADE. Again turn it off at this point if you don’t think you’ve just witnessed the second coming. The movie goes on actually with a really good story line and an even better lore to follow Blade around, or as the vamps call him the “Day Walker”. The whole movie is bad ass incarnate. From great one liners by Kristofferson who plays the father figure and mentor to Blade; “Catch you fuckers at a bad time?”, to absurd fighting scenes that makes someone as impressionable as me simply want to be the “Day Walker”. The movie officially blows my mind in the final scene. After watching about 70 minutes of Wesley Snipes shoot, chop, slice and dice a large amount of foes, you find him “trapped” with no weapons. What’s he going to do? Well, after dining down on some doctor chick he saved earlier in the movie (he’s weak at this point and even though he’s sworn off blood, he needs it, and man does he go to town. He sucks that blood like a 10 year old crushing a Capri Sun after playing outside). He then jumps down in the fray with seemingly no weapons and just his vest. The bad guy’s right hand man comes at him, while wearing the sunglasses Blade had don the whole movie (again its a running theme), and to his surprise and the viewers surprise Blade pulls some form of rip cord out of his vest and decapitates the chump all the while sticking the dismount by catching his shades; and then the beat drops. Movie ends with Blade killing a ton more vampires leaving only him and Deacon Frost, played by Stephen Dorff. Unsurprisingly he defeats him, but not before saying the best catch phrase ever, that even Robert Downey Jr. in all his charm can’t best. And with reports of the franchise getting rebooted it may ring true again for all other comic book movies that, “Some mother fuckers always trying to ice skate up hill.” So this is me thanking the movie Blade, and everyone that was involved. Blade came at the perfect time for me, and essentially etched my fate in stone of looking forward to every comic book movie to come out after. Now 15 years later, they dominate the box office. Sure some fail (cough, cough Green Lantern), but for the most part, a lot of them exceed most expectations. And although Batman is my favorite comic book hero, and the comic gods shined down on me with Batman Begins coming out on my actual birthday (I swear it was a sign), Blade still shouldn’t go unpunished for the great deed it did for all our benefit. It brought grittiness to the screen and showed that super heroes can be heroic and flawed all at the same time. Wesley Snipes’ Blade made the old Superman an unwanted commodity in his perfection. People wanted more edge and more darkness, and they got it. Dark Knight still may be tied as my favorite movie of all time and is probably the best comic book movie ever (debatable), but Blade will always be in my shuffling movie playlist. And without a doubt, it made the comic book movie industry a massive bank roll, or as Blade would put it, they’re “…not exactly the march of dimes.” anymore. It’s in this fray of fighting that Blade at one point rips out a dude’s jugular and gains a split second of advantage on the next guy by throwing it in his face. +1 for orginality, +1,000 for bad assery. About Matt Cargile Matt Cargile is the Editor in Chief of Rookerville.com. He also works in finance, but refuses to read any news printed on pink paper. He is a child at heart with adult means. His childhood dream was to either become a magician or the leader of the next great empire and somehow both these things make complete sense. He's contradictory in nature, but is always consistent. Share this: Twitter Facebook Tumblr Pinterest Print Email Like this: Like Loading... CommentsThe Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq has called the Turkish military operation against Kurds on the border in with Turkey genocide. Meanwhile, a growing number of world states are viewing Turkey as a rogue state, a NATO member growing more militant each day. The looming question is, “How far will NATO and the European contingent allow Erdogan’s government to go before reining him in?” Kurds in a Gaza-like Prison Using fear as a weapon, the current Turkey regime has leveled an inhumane campaign against Kurds in southeast Turkey since 2015. With the excuse militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had run amok in the region, Turkish forces impose curfews and randomly kill innocent civilians in this region, all in the name of combating supposed insurgents. The facts speak for themselves however, what Erdogan’s government is doing to Kurds is a copycat Gaza operation. If I did not know better, I’d say the Turks are operating from an Tel Aviv genocide playbook. The Turkish General Staff claims some 1,000 plus Kurdish militants have been killed in operations in the region, but only dead civilians clog the cemeteries there now. Historically, the PKK has been fighting for independence in this region since 1984, seeking cultural and political self determination for Kurds in Turkey and northern Iraq. Several truces have taken place in between Ankara and the PKK leadership, but all have failed so far. A recent joint declaration by the PKK and nice other organizations has called for the overthrow of Erdogan’s government, and capitalism in general. Thus, NATO and the EU now consider the group terrorists, even though the United Nations does not. So given the “alignments” indicated, and the dying civilians all around, one has to wonder if NATO and key EU nations are not advocating the Turkish methods. The Turkish Mob As is the case in every critical foreign relations mess we face today, finger pointing and misdirect are the propaganda weapons of the factions and vested interests. For years now the United States and her allies have labeled the PKK terrorists or worse. In 2009 Barack Obama’s administration tagged the head of the organization, Murat Karayılan, and high-ranking members Ali Riza Altun and Zübeyir Aydar as drug traffickers. Meanwhile, incidents like the now famous Susurluk scandal have revealed Ankara’s role in the proliferation of drugs in the region, and worldwide. This affair essentially showed that Turkey was trying to eradicate the PKK, not in order to stop drug trade, but instead to take over their operations. In mafia-like fashion, key officials in the Turkish hierarchy vied for the dirty drug money guerillas depended on for weapons and food. In the end Turkish officials were assassinated, Iranian spies provided the “cloak and dagger” element and the region appeared for all intents and purposes, like a Turkish version of a Chicago gangland of the 1930’s. But Turkey’s gangs raked in even more than Al Capone’s denizens did. Gambling, drugs, and money laundering by Turkish mobsters accounted for nearly $4 billion US by 1996. And for those investigating these misdeeds, suspicious car accidents became a fad. The Enemy of My Friend Since 2014 the PKK has taken up arms against ISIL. In fact, the guerilla forces forces helped “tens of thousands of Yazidis escape an encircled Mount Sinjar, when IS threatened them with virtually assure extinction. While the US coalition was flying “pretend” air missions overhead, Kurds on the ground were killing the world’s greatest jihad enemy by the hundreds. And all the while the PKK leadership was begging Ankara to join in to destroy ISIL. As we know now, their efforts fell on deaf ears for a reason. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and by proxy the US and others were in fact helping ISIL to destabilize Assad. This is irrefutable, but now a NATO member is performing genocide right before our eyes. Back home in America the people are fed a mishmash of fragmented information. The same holds true in London, Brussels, and the European capitals too. ISIL slays dozens in Paris, and the world pains Eiffel Towers on their Facebook profiles in sympathy, when in reality France plays a crucial role in this human travesty of justice. Germany and the other EU players are in this, thick as thieves. It’s a mess of biblical proportions, the under the table deals wreaking of innocent blood, lies, deceit, and payoffs of one kind or other. The energy giants are the harbingers, their agents complicit in a corrupted system that smashes freedom lovers and fighters, while aiding and abetting hired killers for gold. The PKK canvasses the deserts of northern Iraq and eastern Syria slaying ISIL terrorists, and Turkey’s air forces strafe and bomb the PKK and Kurdish civilians. And the US condones a NATO friend killing a Turkish enemy, all the while empowering ISIL. Remember those hundreds of oil trucks Russia’s air forces destroyed? No such black market oil caravans were EVER mentioned by US Central Command, not until Putin televised their destruction. The White House of Barack Obama has been a world and an American catastrophe. Freedom fighters have become terrorists, and terrorists freedom fighters throughout this dark regime. Since winning the Nobel Peace Prize, this president has presided over more death, killing, and chaos policy than any leader since LBJ during the Vietnam era. More governments have either toppled or are teetering in our world, than at any time since World War II. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden made a statement back in January that calling the PKK “a terrorist group plain and simple,” saying “what they continue to do is absolutely outrageous.” You’ll remember Biden’s statements before the Raja in Kiev, Ukraine. Citing the words of the legendary Thomas Paine, this psychopath and corporate lackey who helped usher Nazis into the Ukraine, compared the lie of Maidan square to the American Revolution just last December. Meanwhile his son Hunter had already taken up his position with the energy mafia there in war torn Ukraine. Yes, the enemy of the world energy mafia, is the enemy of anyone in the circle of Washington power now. Kurds Thrown Under the Obama Bus Naturally the news and “evidence” from Reuters today Turkish jets bombed Kurds over an alleged PKK bombing, it sides with the NATO imperative. A police source is enough for Reuters to offer Americans the right “headline” for Erdogan. Make no mistake, this is what is going on in our world. Turkish militants, PKK militants, Kurdish militants – killed, killed, killed, killed – Yahoo and Google News parrot this for the last several weeks now. Characteristically, the Reuters news contains nothing about the PKK or YPG denyingresponsibility for the recent bombings in Ankara. Amid all this chaos, the US has just authorized the sale of nearly $1 billion dollars worth of so-called “smart bombs” to Turkey, so the killing can be more precise. This is America’s solution to collateral damage, helping General Dynamics make millions, while assisting rogue NATO states in eradicating the mob enemies. So the Kurds, the enemies of America’s enemies, are terrorists by Washington definition. But just last week the Obama administration still could not decide to formally declare the Islamic State atrocities against Christians and other religious groups as “genocide”! You read that correctly. Secretary of State, John Kerry has a deadline to report to the US Congress on whether or not ISIL butchering Kurds Yezidis and other groups can be called “genocide”. In a tangle of legal mumbojumbo, Washington lawmakers and the Obama leadership seem more concerned with protecting ISIL terrorists from world tribunals, than with eradicating their terror from the face of the Earth. So there you have it in a nut shell, the Kurds now thrown under the Obama bus in the name of cover-ups. James Carden of The Nation spells it out for us. The Kurdish national motto, “The Kurds Have No Friends,” shows us the Kurdish people as disposable pawns, just like Ukrainians, Georgians, and Libyans too. Erdogan’s genocide is the bugle call, a free Kurdistan ideal has been abandoned. Phil Butler Tags: genocide; Kurdistan; Middle East; NATO; TurkeyOn Sunday, Netflix announced plans to make a second season of “13 Reasons Why,” the new and popular television series about a 17-year-old girl who commits suicide and leaves behind 13 audio tapes explaining what — and who — led her to do it. For fans, many of whom read the Jay Asher novel on which it was based, more “13 Reasons” makes perfect sense; teenagers have tweeted more about the show than any other program this year. For educators, however, it only intensifies a variety of concerns. Since “13 Reasons Why” debuted March 31, hundreds of school districts across the country have sent letters home advising parents that their kids may be watching a show that some mental health experts argue glamorizes suicide. Due to the graphic depictions of suicide, rape, bullying, slut shaming and drunk driving, the National Assn. of School Psychologists has recommended “that vulnerable youth, especially those who have any degree of suicidal ideation,” do not view the series. Some teenagers and parents affected by mental illness have gone as far as to petition Netflix to remove the series from the streaming site altogether. Netflix, meanwhile, has responded by adding an additional graphic content warning before the series’ first episode. The streaming site has also pointed viewers to a website — 13reasonswhy.info — that offers crisis information. And its creator, Brian Yorkey, tread lightly when asked about the controversy: “I have tremendous respect for everyone’s point of view,” he told The Times recently. “I always believe talking about things is better than silence.” We reached out to U.S. educators to get their thoughts. With so many teenagers creating memes and tweeting about the series, we wanted to find out how the show was actually being discussed IRL — in the classrooms and hallways of schools across America. Some feared that the show might inspire copycat suicides; others feel the show is just the latest YA to incite unnecessary concern, as did “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” “The Fault in Our Stars” and even “Harry Potter.” Note: Some sources asked that their employers not be named because their supervisors had not granted them permission to speak on behalf of the schools. Katherine Langford (as Hannah Baker) is teased in her school's hallways in a scene from "13 Reasons Why." (Netflix / Beth Dubber) Guidance counselor at a K-12 charter school in Phoenix Ruby Alvarado Hernandez A graduate of the school where Hernandez works started a petition on Change.org urging Netflix to remove “13 Reasons Why” from its platform. Hernandez added her name to more than 2,300 signatures in order, she said, to help others to become more aware of the “potential repercussions” from the show. “Students have been asking me, ‘Have you seen this?’ Some kids thought the premise was stupid, like, ‘That’s ridiculous. Why wouldn’t she have asked somebody for help? Why didn’t anyone help her?’ And then I heard others saying, ‘It was just so hard to see some of those things. It really affected me.’ “Now kids are joking about being really stressed about school, saying, ‘Miss, wait until you get my tape.’ Of course, we take that seriously. They’ll say ‘I’d never do that. I’m just kidding around,’ those type of things. But they have to recognize that there are kids who are in the middle of dealing with depression, and they have to be conscious with their words. “So I’ll say, ‘Listen, I know you think everyone knows you’re joking, but that might be a trigger you’re setting off for someone else.’” Principal at Highland Middle School in Highland, Ill. Erick Baer In April, Baer sent a letter home to the parents of the 670 students who attend his school noting that many of the kids were watching “13 Reasons Why,” which he described as an “intense” series that explores suicide, depression, bullying, drug/alcohol use and rape. He also wrote that over the past three years, “more and more students are exhibiting signs of depression and suicidal thoughts.” “I didn’t really paint ‘13 Reasons Why’ in a good light or a bad light. I’ve had some kids say they watched it with their parents, and that led to some good discussions about how to help people who are feeling that way. I can see it being a lesson, if parents know the content of it and talk openly with their kids. “The target is high school, but it’s edgy, so middle schoolers want to watch it — and they don’t have the same maturity level. At the middle school level, we see kids that are exhibiting depression or suicidal tendencies. I’m old school. I wasn’t exposed to the same things that kids have access to with their phones. Most of the bullying or depression, in my day, came from kids saying things. Now it’s all through a text message with no feeling. “I don’t want to be the principal that says, ‘Oh, they’re just trying to get attention,’ and they go home and do something. I would never be able to live with myself. That’s why I sent that email out — to inform parents. If you don’t care what your kids are watching, you can open this email and delete it. But I made the attempt to inform them about it, and I can sleep better at night.” Superintendent of Palm Beach County Schools in Palm Beach, Fla. Robert M. Avossa Before he began overseeing the 200,000 kids who attend Palm Beach County’s 187 schools, Avossa was a superintendent in affluent Fulton County, Ga. During his tenure in Georgia, he witnessed a highly concentrated level of suicides and consulted with Madeline Levine, the author of “Price of Privilege,” which explores how teenagers from wealthy families may suffer from extreme psychological problems. “We’ve had a very tightly clustered group of issues come up where [at least a dozen] students reported self-mutilation, self-cutting and suicidal ideations. The counselors asked those students, ‘Where did you get this idea from? What happened? We haven’t seen you in the office before.’ And the thing the students had in common was that they had been watching ‘13 Reasons Why.’ “My experience in Georgia taught me that I was obligated to tell the parents, ‘Hey, we’re seeing a spike in this.’ These kids are way too young to be watching this series — and binge watching it, which is even worse. A typical adult may be able to do that, because they’re able to understand that this is something they’re just watching on TV. But a 13-, 14-year-old kid just can’t process that. It’s rated MA, and we have young kids watching this — that’s really the concern here. “The part that scared me was the whole revenge thing — ‘I’m gonna show you,’ and sort of glamorizing this idea that there’s revenge that takes place by giving these tapes out and making others feel bad about your demise.” Seventh-grade literature and language arts teacher at Lake Zurich Middle School South in Lake Zurich, Ill. Jack VanNoord On a recent Thursday night, VanNoord was flipping through Netflix when he saw a new show called “13 Reasons Why.” He started watching at 7 p.m. and quickly got sucked in; by 5:30 a.m., he’d finished the entire series. While he obviously found the show compelling, he also found it problematic, and wrote an op-ed about his issues with the show that was picked up by the Chicago Tribune. “There are obviously positive messages that come out of the show: Don’t be a bully. Reach out to those you feel are hurting. But there’s also an inadvertent, unintended message: the potential positive outcomes of your suicide. You can make people who hurt you hurt. You can take the responsibility for your death and parse it out and lay it at the feet of other people. You can be memorialized. Your voice can be heard in death when it’s not heard in life. So I wanted to write about the question of whether or not those positives inadvertently overshadow the negatives. “I was just talking to a colleague of mine today who teaches 8th grade. She overheard some students talking about my column. I could tell she was being coy, so I said, ‘They didn’t have super favorable things to say about it?’ She said, ‘No, they kind of disagree with you.’ “This is also last week’s news to them. All the adults are getting caught up and I think the kids see it as a bit of an overreaction, like, ‘Gee, guys, it’s a TV show.’ “In my writing class, I used my column to teach as a piece of writing — showing my original piece and then the edits it went through in the Tribune. We invited a counselor to sit in the classroom to make sure no one was triggered or wrestling with the material. “It didn’t really generate a lot of discussion in the class. It kind of reminds me of the sex ed talk. ‘OK, gee, Dad.’ Eye roll. ‘I’m not gonna go out and get pregnant because I saw a movie!’” The "13 Reasons Why" cast, producers and mental health professionals discuss scenes dealing with difficult issues, including bullying, depression and sexual assault. Freshman/senior English teacher at Analy High School in Sebastopol Elizabeth Deichler “13 Reasons Why” was filmed, in large part, at the school where Deichler teaches. Jay Asher came to speak to the student body and gave out hundreds of free books. As a result, Deichler decided to incorporate the book into her 9th grade curriculum last fall. “Because the book talks about bullying and trying to fit in, it felt like a very freshman book to me. Early on, before we started reading it in class, I sent a letter to parents saying ‘I’m going to be teaching this book which deals with teen suicide, heavy bullying and date rape if you have any concerns.’ Only one parent responded. And before each new assignment, I’d tell the kids — ‘Just know, this chapter deals with rape,’ or whatever topic to prep them. “So when the show came out, all the students wanted to watch it. I watched it, too, but after the first episode I couldn’t get through the rest of the series. They had altered characters so much that it didn’t feel like the same themes were being presented. We ended up watching the first episode in class to critique it, and a lot of my students who had read the book didn’t care for it. They said [protagonist] Hannah seemed meaner, like she blamed everyone else. Most of it was shot in our main building, so the kids were very excited, like, ‘Hey, I know that classroom or locker.’ They enjoyed that aspect of it. “There have been some conversations with people in my department wondering if showing someone actually commit suicide will be a catalyst for this kind of thing happening among the students. As an English teacher, I have kids do creative writing every week, and after the show came out I had kids who created a few darker pieces. They’d say, ‘I just want you to know, I watched the show.’ “And I had to give those to a counselor. If the student has any sort of words that make it seem like there’s something better in death — like being at peace, or ‘I’ll be traveling beyond,’ then I know I have to give it to someone. But then the counselor talks to the kid and the kid doesn’t want to write things like that anymore. It’s really difficult, but it’s my obligation.” Superintendent of Lexington Public Schools in Lexington, Mass. Mary Czajkowski There have been two student suicides in the past year in Czajkowski’s school district. So when local parents voiced concern to her about “13 Reasons Why,” she decided to consult with mental health experts about the series. Ultimately, she decided to write a letter to parents on May 1, “strongly advising” them not to let their children watch the show. “I have Netflix, so it popped up on my screen. It was disturbing that there wasn’t a whole lot of support or resources surrounding the series. I think about the student who might be watching that up in their room on their iPad or Chromebook and feeling depressed and then having no one to speak with about it. So I wanted to open a dialogue around what is causing stress for kids. “You had students talking about it and parents talking about it, so I think it was important for me to take a position. Other superintendents were doing the same. I’ve received positive feedback from parents thanking me for making them aware of the show. There have been mixed reactions from students. I think they try to avoid the topic with me, although I have had some say to me, ‘It’s not a big deal. It’s really kind of stupid.’ It’s been mixed, but in this day and age, we have to be proactive and take positions.” Dylan Minnette (playing Clay Jensen) listen to the tapes of deceased character Hannah Baker on "13 Reasons Why." (Netflix / Beth Dubber) English and psychology teacher at Plainwell High School in Plainwell, Mich. Chase Mielke Over spring break, Mielke and his wife watched “13 Reasons Why” and finished the series feeling unsettled. So he decided to write a blog post on WeAreTeachers, an online community for educators, encouraging fellow teachers to discuss the show with their students. “A lot of kids who had seen it were really focusing on the positive message — ‘I realize that even the little things I do can affect people and I think I’m more conscious of my behavior now.’ But when I would follow up, asking them what they could do as a positive action, a lot of them said they weren’t sure and wish they knew. So we actually decided to host an event that any kid at the school could attend. We used the show as leverage, having kids share what was your takeaway from it, what impacted you, what do you think was missing, what would you do if you noticed someone was depressed. “The thing, I think, that concerned us most from the series was that most kids are already relatively reluctant to share anything with adults. And the series made adults look oblivious, or antagonistic. So we shared as much information as we could, and said, ‘You don’t have to talk to a teacher. You can contact a peer. And these are the signs when immediate attention is needed and you should call the police.’ “The event was not that well-attended. It coincided with testing season. I’d polled my classes — I teach four — and about 90 out of 120 students had seen the show. That’s the double-edged sword — people are talking about it, so there’s curiosity. A lot of them have said to me, ‘I don’t know if I should watch it,’ and if I’m aware of their challenges or depression, I’ll say, ‘It’s definitely not worth it. You shouldn’t subject yourself to this. It’s not a good outlook.’” Principal at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto Dr. Denise Herrmann Over the last seven years, there have been 10 teen suicides in Palo Alto — a rate four to five times higher than the national average. In 2015 alone, four students at Gunn took their lives — so when “13 Reasons Why” was released, Herrmann was prepared. “The show aired right as we were heading out to our spring break, and I knew many of the students were going to binge-watch it — and that it would be quite the hot topic when they returned. So we did a good job of informing students before break that this was airing and that some of them who use counselors at school would be relying solely on parents during that time. In general, our students really do not roll their eyes and say ‘it’s just a TV show’ when talking about mental health issues because we’re a school that has experienced suicide. We don’t take it lightly. It is a television drama, so there are some parts that were inaccurate in terms of legally and socially how a school should respond — but there’s no judgment there, because every school is different in terms of how you respond to a tragedy. Yes, we have had experience with this, but we weren’t reliving it. I would never endorse banning students from watching the show. We have been working very hard on trying to reduce the stigma of any kind of adolescent mental health issue. If we in any way say that the show is not OK to talk about, that might inadvertently be sending a message that it’s not OK to talk about feeling sad or suicide. The timing of the release is very interesting because there’s a lot of stress right now. It came out right before students were receiving their college acceptance letters and doing AP testing, so there’s in general a heightened sense of anxiety on high school campuses across the nation. So it’s not surprising to me that students might be finding comfort, almost, in it.” Has “13 Reasons Why” had an effect on your school, kids or community? What do you think of the controversy? Tell us below in the comments, on Facebook or email me: amy.kaufman@latimes.com Read more about “13 Reasons Why”: The stars and creator of '13 Reasons Why' talk about the show's success and the backlash '13 Reasons Why' is getting a second season. Here's what to expect '13 Reasons Why' is Netflix's newest must-see series UPDATES: 5:45 p.m.: This story was updated to add reaction from the principal of Henry M. Gunn High School. The first version of this story was published at 9:30 a.m.The Vatican has abruptly cancelled a controversial stem-cell conference that was set to be attended by the Pope next month. The Third International Congress on Responsible Stem Cell Research, scheduled for 25–28 April, was to focus on clinical applications of adult and reprogrammed stem cells. But a number of the invited speakers, including Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco, and keynote speaker George Daley, a stem-cell scientist at Children's Hospital Boston in Massachusetts, are involved in research using human embryonic stem cells, which the Catholic Church considers unethical. The previous two congresses had also included scientists who worked on such cells, without generating much controversy. KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features Father Scott Borgman, secretary of the Church's Pontifical Academy for Life, one of the conference organizers, says that logistical, organizational and financial factors forced the cancellation, which was announced on 23 March. The academy weighs in on bioethical and theological issues that are relevant to Church teachings. The Catholic News Agency, an independent news service based in Englewood, Colorado, quoted an unnamed academy member who called the cancellation an “enormous relief to many members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who felt that the presence on its program of so many speakers, including the keynote speaker, committed to embryonic stem cell research, was a betrayal of the mission of the Academy and a public scandal”. “I think the only interpretation is that we are being censored. It is very disappointing that they are unwilling to hear the truth,” says Trounson. He had hoped to provide a “balanced perspective” on the potential clinical applications of stem cells, both adult and embryonic. Meanwhile, some European scientists, who had called for a boycott because they believed the conference unfairly maligned embryonic stem cell research, cheered its cancellation. Mixed messages Daley says that he took his invitation as an indication that the conference would be open to discussion of all aspects of stem-cell research. “There are many areas of fundamental agreement about stem-cell research, such as the need to prove the safety and effectiveness of stem-cell medicines through legitimate clinical trials before allowing direct marketing to patients,” he adds. Borgman says that the academy asked speakers to limit their discussions to adult stem cells. However, Daley says he was asked not to make embryonic stem cells the focus of his talk, but he planned to discuss them for historical context. Christine Mummery, a stem-cell scientist at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, called the cancellation “good news”. She and a number of other European scientists declined invitations to the conference and encouraged their colleagues in the United States to follow suit. "The title [Congress on Responsible Stem Cell Research] was what put me off, and I thought this isn't an open discussion at all; this is going to be all about proponents for adult stem cells, and the people working with embryonic stem cells will be the bad guys," she says. Daley says that although he and other attendees received requests to boycott the conference, “our collective feeling was it was better to engage in discussion rather than avoid it”. Monsignor Jacques Suaudeau, Officer for Studies at the Pontifical Academy for Life, called the cancellation a “sad event” in an e-mail to Nature, and said that attendees would soon receive an official explanation. “I cannot speak until the letter
writes to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi demanding formation of a new state in Darjeeling. The same year, Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) is floated by Subash Ghisingh. 1986: GNLF launches violent agitation for Gorkhaland. The violence claims 1,200 lives. 1988: Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council accord is signed between GNLF, the Left Front government headed by Jyoti Basu and the Centre. 1992: Nepali language included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. 2005: MoU signed by the Centre, Left Front government and Ghisingh for special status to the Hills under 6th Schedule status to the Constitution. 2007: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha floated by Bimal Gurung. 2008: Subash Ghisingh ousted from the Hills. Starts living in Jalpaiguri town. 2010: All India Gorkha League leader Madan Tamang murdered in Darjeeling. He supported creation of Gorkhaland but was opposed to Bimal Gurung. 2011: Three GJM supporters die in police firing at Sipchu (Dooars). Violent agitation starts. The Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) is formed in the same year. 2012: The first GTA elections take place and GJM sweeps. 2015: Bimal Gurung, chief executive of GTA, charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and rioting with deadly weapons in the Madan Tamang murder case. 2017: Fresh agitation starts in the Hills during Mamata Banerjee’s visit. This time the GJM says making Bengali mandatory in schools is unacceptable. (Compilation: Tanmay Chatterjee) GNLF launches violent agitation for Gorkhaland. The violence claims 1,200 lives.Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council accord is signed between GNLF, the Left Front government headed by Jyoti Basu and the Centre.Nepali language included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.MoU signed by the Centre, Left Front government and Ghisingh for special status to the Hills under 6th Schedule status to the Constitution.Gorkha Janmukti Morcha floated by Bimal Gurung.Subash Ghisingh ousted from the Hills. Starts living in Jalpaiguri town.All India Gorkha League leader Madan Tamang murdered in Darjeeling. He supported creation of Gorkhaland but was opposed to Bimal Gurung.Three GJM supporters die in police firing at Sipchu (Dooars). Violent agitation starts. The Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) is formed in the same year.The first GTA elections take place and GJM sweeps.Bimal Gurung, chief executive of GTA, charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and rioting with deadly weapons in the Madan Tamang murder case.Fresh agitation starts in the Hills during Mamata Banerjee’s visit. This time the GJM says making Bengali mandatory in schools is unacceptable. With the hills suddenly ablaze, even his rivals have begun to fall in line. Neeraj Zimba, the spokesman of Ghising’s GNLF, has expressed readiness to agitate for separate Gorkhaland under Gurung’s leadership. “We are ready to work under the collective leadership and don’t mind if Bimal Gurung leads the alliance,” Zimba said after a joint meeting of several parties last week. Most parties with a strong footprint in the hills participated in the meeting. Dr Harka Bahadur Chettri, leader of the pro-Gorkhaland Jan Andolan Party which boycotted the meeting, also lent support to the Gorkhaland cause. Chettri has demanded that Gurung’s GJM extract a pledge from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for a separate state. The BJP has twice won the Darjeeling parliamentary seat with support from the GJM. Ironically, Gurung finds himself on a strong wicket while on the run. The imposition of Bengali – a misplaced fear since the government has since clarified that it is optional and not compulsory – has allowed him fresh political ammunition. If he is arrested, he will acquire a brighter halo. First Published: Jun 16, 2017 19:55 ISTDigg del.icio.us Newsvine Reddit Facebook HONG KONG The Chinese government has launched a campaign to limit the number of hours teenagers spend online playing games. Under new rules that took effect Monday, Chinese Internet gaming companies must install a program that requires users to enter their ID card numbers. After three hours, players under 18 are prompted to stop and "do suitable physical exercise." If they continue, the software slashes by half any points earned in the game. All points are wiped out if players stay on more than five hours. The program is part of a government campaign to combat Internet gaming addiction, "clean up the Internet environment" and "promote civilized Internet use," according to guidelines issued by China's General Administration of Press and Publication. About 10% of China's more than 30 million Internet gamers were underage as of the end of 2006, according to the Chinese newspaper National Business Daily. The government guidelines don't flat-out denounce the popular pastime, saying "measured gaming is good for the brain, but gaming addiction hurts the body." The explanation says the three-hour cutoff is based on the time it takes to play the strategy chess game Go. Gaming companies Shanghai-based The9 — which runs the popular "World of Warcraft" online game in China — and Shenzhen-based Tencent both said Tuesday they have started using the screening software. The9 spokesman James Zhao said he doesn't expect the new restrictions to affect business because most of The9's users are adults. "World of Warcraft," from Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment, is the world's most popular online game and has more than 3.5 million subscribers in China. Tencent said in a statement it's too early to tell if the screening will hurt its sales. The South China Morning Post quoted a spokesman as saying youngsters can beat the new screening program by using false identities. "It's hard to tell online if the player is a teenager or an adult. Many of them can register for the game using someone else's ID or even a fake ID," Song Yang told the newspaper. Both companies voiced support for the new government measures. The online gaming industry "will develop in a healthy, harmonious direction" because of the monitoring system, Zhao said. President Hu Jintao ordered regulators in January to promote a "healthy online culture" to protect the government's stability, according to state media. Though China's communist government promotes Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material considered obscene or politically subversive. Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Share this story: Digg del.icio.us Newsvine Reddit Facebook Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.The United States women’s national team (USWNT) defeated Switzerland, 4-0, in the first of two international friendlies with the 15th-ranked team. The match, touted as the start of a new cycle, featured a roster that left some veterans like Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Ali Krieger at home in favor of calling up 11 uncapped players. USWNT Head Coach Jill Ellis claimed this was to give new players a look at the international level in preparation for the 2019 Women's World Cup while working within the roster-size restrictions. It would be one such new call-up, the 2016 NWSL Most Valuable Player and Golden Boot Award winner Lynn Williams of the NWSL Champions, the Western New York Flash, that made the biggest impression for the night. In just 51 seconds on the field, Williams found herself with the ball on a breakaway to go 1v1 with Swiss goalkeeper GaëlleThalmann, and, as she had done so many times for her club team, Williams easily slotted the ball past Thalmann for the USWNT’s game-winning goal. With the goal Williams becomes the 20th player in USWNT history to score in her first cap. Although all of the new call-ups who dressed for the match would eventually see the field, the most experimentation came from Ellis’s starting XI. Ellis abandoned her preferred 4-5-1 formation for a 3-5-2 in which she shuffled experienced national teamers into new positions. Allie Long, who is usually listed as a defensive midfielder, was pushed back to play defense between Becky Sauerbrunn and Emily Sonnett on the back line. Tobin Heath and Short were moved to the wings, while Carli Lloyd played up top at forward, suggesting that the USWNT would switch to more of a 2-6-2 when in possession. Switzerland came out pressing hard to start, firing off a shot at starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher in the opening minutes of the match. The USWNT would immediately retaliate as Naeher threw the ball to Crystal Dunn who was running down the right flank. Dunn drove the ball towards goal for a 1v1 with Thalmann, but her shot was easily stopped. Lindsey Horan had two solid opportunities on goal in the first 10 minutes of the game, but failed to put either away. The first came off a Tobin Heath corner kick in which Horan was able to head the ball towards the goal, only to have it sail just over the crossbar. Minutes later, Dunn passed the ball to Horan in the center of the box, who dribbled around a couple of defenders to get a look on goal. Her shot surprised the Swiss back line, and Thalmann had to make a diving save to prevent Horan from putting the U.S. on the board. A bad turnover by Emily Sonnett nearly resulted in a goal for Switzerland in the 30th minute. Naeher was passed back the ball and opted to pass it to Sonnett rather than send a long ball over the field. Sonnett attempted to pass to ball to a teammate, but the pass was intercepted by Eseosa Aigbogun and resulted in a shot on goal. Naeher took to the air to punch the Aigbogun’s shot over the crossbar, but it was Switzerland’s best shot on goal up to that point. Although the USWNT seemed to dominate possession in the first half, there were too many missed opportunities to consider it even a moral victory. Too often players would move the ball in or near the box, only to find themselves alone with no teammates making runs or fighting into space to give them options, resulting in turnovers. When playing against a team that’s strong on defense like Switzerland (or dare we mention, Sweden), a single player cannot do it alone, regardless of her speed or footwork. After a minute of stoppage time was added to the first half, both teams went into the locker rooms scoreless. In the two teams’ previous meeting, the match was scoreless at the half, only to see the USWNT score three goals in the second half to win the game, 3-0. In need of more power in the attack in hopes of a similar result, Ellis made a couple of substitutions at the half. Lynn Williams subbed in at the half for Lindsey Horan and immediately made a last impression by scoring the game-winning goal. Crystal Dunn and Tobin Heath combined for the USWNT’s second goal in the 61st minute. Dunn fired a shot off, only to have it deflected off a Swiss defender. Dunn collected the deflection and passed it to Heath who put a shot in just past Thalmann to double the U.S.’s lead, 2-0. Christen Press got in on the scoring action just minutes later after Kelley O’Hara made a run from the right side of the box into the middle. Instead of taking a shot though, O’Hara passed the ball off to Press, who put a shot past Thalmann to put the U.S. up 3-0. On her very first touch of the night, Sam Mewis, who had just subbed in for Andi Sullivan, got her head on the end of a Christen Press cross to score the USWNT’s fourth unanswered goal of the night. Despite two minutes of stoppage time being added to the second half, Mewis’s goal would be the last of the night, and the game ended in a 4-0 win for the USWNT. The game started out shakily for the USWNT, likely the result of a new formation, players in new positions and new faces on the pitch. However, the second half saw the USWNT come out with the confidence that fans are used to seeing, and a scoreline to match. It also saw all of the new call-ups who dressed for tonight’s match see playing time as Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars) and Andi Sullivan (Stanford) were in the starting lineup, and Williams, Abby Dahlkemper (Western New York Flash) and Ashley Hatch (BYU) came into the second half. Probably most enjoyable for fans to watch was Lynn Williams, whose speed made it nearly impossible for the Swiss defenders to keep up with. Her constant smile indicated that she was having fun out on the pitch, something that has been missing from the USWNT at times this year. Although one can rarely predict Jill Ellis’s next roster decisions, Williams’ performance tonight might just be enough to earn her another call into camp next month.Despite launching a comprehensive review of street checks, the province did not request data from Ontario’s police services that could demonstrate the efficacy of the controversial practice. But while some Ontario police forces say they would voluntarily provide information demonstrating how street checks reduce crime, others say it is logistically difficult to track every instance of the tool leading to arrests, charges, the discovery of drugs or weapons, and more. Desmond Cole speaks at a carding consultation meeting at the Toronto Reference Library on Sept. 1, 2015. ( Cole Burston / Toronto Star ) Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Yasir Naqvi, talks with Peel residents at a public meeting on police street checks in Brampton. ( San Grewal / Toronto Star ) The lack of statistics to back up the police claim that street checks — commonly known as “carding” — solve crime and keep communities safe has become a central issue in the impassioned debate, which rages as the provincial government undertakes a review to establish new regulations. At a public meeting in downtown Toronto earlier this week, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi and Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders were asked how they can call the practice effective and necessary without statistics to back it up. Naqvi said one of the challenges of the review had been that, legally, the province could not compel police services to hand over carding data. Part of their review now includes determining ways to require police to provide such information. Article Continued Below But the ministry did not ask any police force to voluntarily provide data on street checks to help inform the current review. Jonathan Rose, Naqvi’s director of communications, said that the ministry did not need the information to know that changes must be made to how street checks are conducted in Ontario. “Based on the countless negative personal experiences, the community’s concerns over such arbitrary and random stops, and the publicly available police statistics and reports... it wasn’t necessary to request and wait for additional data to know that this was an issue that required the province’s intervention,” Rose said in an email. “Our focus was on taking action to ensure people’s rights were protected,” he said. Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government announced in June that it would conduct a review of carding, which involves police stopping, questioning and documenting people who are not suspected of a crime. The practice has been criticized as discriminatory — as racial profiling by another name — for years in Toronto. A series of Star investigations has shown carding disproportionately affects black, and to a lesser extent, brown men. Anger about the practice is shared in other cities across Ontario, with critics airing their concerns at recent public meetings in London, Ottawa and Peel. Naqvi has Frepeatedly said he is working to eradicate arbitrary, random stops “that do not have a clear policing purpose, and which are done solely for the purpose of collecting personal information.” At Toronto’s meeting, freelance journalist and carding critic Desmond Cole expressed exasperation at not knowing whether carding was worth the pain and frustration it causes the many people who feel targeted and arbitrarily stopped by police. Referring to wording in the province’s discussion document online, Cole said that carding as a necessary and valuable tool “sounds really nice.” “(But) where is the data? Where is the evidence that this is a necessary tool?” he said. Article Continued Below The Star asked GTA police services if they would voluntarily provide carding data to the province. Forces in cities where the province held public meetings on street checks this summer — London, Ont., Brampton, Thunder Bay and Ottawa — were also polled. Mark Pugash, spokesperson for Toronto police, would not directly answer whether the force would hand over data to prove the efficacy of the practice, but said he has been told the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police “will ensure the ministry has an understanding of the value of the practice.” Police services in Halton and Thunder Bay said they would provide information requested by the province, though Thunder Bay, where a public consultation was held late last month, does not practice street checks. “As far as any consultation with the ministry, we always co-operate and provide input to any consultation when asked,” said Chris Adams, an executive officer with the Thunder Bay Police Service. “We are always willing to support the province’s efforts as they will aid in enhancing the framework surrounding this issue,” said Sgt. Chantal Corner, spokesperson for Halton Regional Police Service, which has conducted street checks for decades. Ottawa police responded to the Star’s questions saying they provided the province with its first report on carding, completed in July. While the report highlighted examples of street checks that led to arrests and charges, it did not calculate the percentage of stops that ultimately played a part in solving crime. Several of the police forces polled by the Star pointed to the difficulties involved in tracking and gathering data to show the efficacy of carding. Peel Regional Police said it would “welcome any opportunity” to share successful examples of street checks, but that it does not routinely track statistical data to link street checks to a specific arrest. London, Ont., police Chief John Pare said officers make use of a function in police records management system to record information about a person, vehicle or location “that may be of interest for law enforcement purposes and public safety.” “While the information is stored in our record management system, it is not organized or tracked in such a manner” that would simply translate into data, Pare said. “The information is used by investigators on a case-by-case basis,” he said, including homicides, sexual assaults, drugs, robberies, property offences and frauds. York Regional Police does not engage in carding, according to spokesperson Const. Andy Pattenden. But York officers do use a function of the force’s records management system, Pattenden said, to gather information and intelligence by documenting interactions such as traffic stops where only warnings are issued, calls regarding suspicious people or vehicles, or noise complaints where no charge is laid. In those circumstances, the information is recorded but not tracked in a way that would allow police to link the information to arrests or charges, Pattenden said.The country's mortgage brokers are taking aim at Jim Flaherty. The Finance Minister's moves to slow down Canada's housing market have gone too far and are putting the economy at risk, the national mortgage brokers' association argues in a report to be released Monday. The report says that many of this country's economists and real estate associations are being overly optimistic, and don't appreciate how significantly Mr. Flaherty's latest round of changes, which came into effect during the summer, will affect the resale housing market. Story continues below advertisement In June, Mr. Flaherty changed the rules for mortgage insurance, making it harder to qualify – and therefore harder for some people to borrow the money to buy a home. The key change was to limit the amortization on insured mortgages to 25 years; anyone who wants to take longer than that to pay off a house will have to make a down payment of at least 20 per cent of the price of the home. The new rules also deny mortgage insurance on homes of $1-million or more. Some economists are saying the recent slowdown in housing sales in many markets is because of the changes. But the report by the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP) argues that the real impact has not been felt yet, and it will take time for it to trickle through the market. "The changes to the mortgage insurance criteria are unnecessarily jeopardizing the health of Canada's housing markets and the broader economy," says the report, which is the group's annual look at the state of the housing market. It was written by CAAMP chief economist Will Dunning, and notes that the opinions he expresses are his own "and are strongly felt." Mr. Flaherty has tightened mortgage insurance rules four times in four years in an effort to stem the growth of consumer debt and house prices. His fear has been that Canadians are taking on too much debt in the form of mortgages, and that the market – especially certain pockets, such as Toronto's condo market and Vancouver – was heating up too quickly. His aim has been to help the market find a "soft landing" and prevent a crash. He has suggested that he believes the changes are having their intended impact. Mortgage brokers were among those who challenged the wisdom of the latest changes when Mr. Flaherty announced them, and have argued that he should consider reversing some of the rules. The CAAMP report suggests that more than 16 per cent of the high-ratio borrowers (that is, those with a down payment of less than 20 per cent) who obtained a mortgage in 2010 would no longer qualify if they had sought that same mortgage under today's rules. A survey conducted for CAAMP suggests that 55 per cent of home sales are financed with a high-ratio mortgage. "If 16.9 per cent of potential high-ratio buyers are removed from the market, this would reduce total home sales by about 9 per cent," the report says. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement During the period from August to October, the sales rate for existing homes was 7.8-per-cent lower than in the previous year, it says. "The analysis concludes that the impacts will become larger: reduced activity at entry levels means that move-up activity will also be gradually impacted, because potential move-up buyers will find it more difficult to sell their current homes." It will also take "quite some time" for housing starts to show the consequences of the rule changes, Mr. Dunning writes. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is forecasting housing starts to be at 213,700 this year and then fall to 193,600 in 2013. Mr. Dunning forecasts that they will fall further, to 170,000, in 2014. "The revised mortgage insurance criteria, by creating a policy-induced housing market downturn, which is likely to be deeper and longer-lasting than is generally expected, is unnecessarily raising economic risks in Canada," the report argues.There’s no shortage of people preaching the importance of good code. Indeed, many make a career of it. The resources available are equally endless, but lately I’ve been wondering how to extract the essence of building high-quality systems into a shorter, more concise narrative. This is actually something I’ve thought about for a while, but I’m just now starting to formulate some ideas into a blog post. The ideas aren’t fully developed, but my hope is to flesh them out further in the future. You can talk about design patterns, abstraction, encapsulation, and cohesion until you’re blue in the face, but what is the essence of good code? Like any other engineering discipline, quality control is a huge part of building software. This isn’t just ensuring that it “works”—it’s ensuring it works under the complete range of operating conditions, ensuring it’s usable, ensuring it’s maintainable, ensuring it performs well, and ensuring a number of other characteristics. Verifying it “works” is just a small part of a much larger picture. Anybody can write code that works, but there’s more to it than that. Software is more malleable than most other things. Not only does it require longevity, it requires giving in to that malleability. If it doesn’t, you end up with something that’s brittle and broken. Because of this, it’s vital we test for correctness and measure for quality. SCRAP for Quality Quality is a very subjective thing. How can one possibly measure it? Code complexity and static analysis tooling come to mind, and these are deservedly valued, but it really just scratches the surface. How do we narrow an immensely broad topic like “quality” into a set of tangible, quantifiable goals? This is really the crux of the problem, but we can start by identifying a sort of checklist or guidelines for writing software. This breaks that larger problem into smaller, more digestible pieces. The checklist I’ve come up with is called SCRAP, an acronym defined below. It’s unlikely to be comprehensive, but I think it covers most, if not all, of the key areas. Scalability Plan for growth Complexity Plan for humans Resiliency Plan for failure API Plan for integration Performance Plan for execution Each of these items is itself a blog post, so this is only a brief explanation. There is definitely overlap between some of these facets, and there are also multiple dimensions to some. Scalability is a plan for growth—in code, in organization, in architecture, and in workload. Without it, you reach a point where your system falls over, whether it’s because of a growing userbase, a growing codebase, or any number of other reasons. It’s also worth pointing out that without the ‘S’, all you have is CRAP. This also helps illustrate some of the overlap between these areas of focus as it leads into Complexity, which is a plan for humans. Scalability is about technology scale and demand scale, but it’s also about people scale. As your team grows or as your company grows, how do you manage that growth at the code level? Planning for people doesn’t just mean managing growth, it also means managing complexity. If code is overly complex, it’s difficult to maintain, it’s difficult to extend, and it’s difficult to fix. If systems are overly complex, they’re difficult to deploy, difficult to manage, and difficult to monitor. Plan for humans, not machines. Resiliency is a strategy for fault tolerance. It’s a plan for failure. What happens when you crash? What happens when a service you depend on crashes? What happens when the database is unavailable? What happens when the network is unreliable? Systems of all kind need to be designed with the expectation of failure. If you’re not thinking about failure at the code level, you’re not thinking about it enough. One thing you should be noticing is that “people” is a cross-cutting concern. After all, it’s people who design the systems, and it’s people who write the code. While API is a plan for integration, it’s people who integrate the pieces. This is about making your API a first-class citizen. It doesn’t matter if it’s an internal API, a library API, or a RESTful API. It doesn’t matter if it’s for first parties or third parties. As a programmer, your API is your user interface. It needs to be clean. It needs to be sensible. It needs to be well-documented. If those integration points aren’t properly thought out, the integration will be more difficult than it needs to be. The last item on the checklist is Performance. I originally defined this as a plan for speed, but I realized there’s a lot more to performance than doing things fast. It’s about doing things well, which is why I call Performance a plan for execution. Again, this has some overlap with Resiliency and Scalability, but it’s also about measurement. It’s about benchmarking and profiling. It’s about testing at scale and under failure because testing in a vacuum doesn’t mean much. It’s about optimization. This brings about the oft-asked question: how do I know when and where to optimize? While premature optimization might be the root of all evil, it’s not a universal law. Optimize along the critical path and outward from there only as necessary. The further you get from that critical path, the more wasted effort it’s going to end up being. It depreciates quickly, so don’t lose sight of your optimization ROI. This will enable you to ship quickly and ship quality code. But once you ship, you’re not done measuring! It’s more important than ever that you continue to measure in production. Use performance and usage-pattern data to drive intelligent decisions and intelligent iteration. The payoff is that this doesn’t just apply to code decisions, it applies to all decisions. This is where the real value of measuring comes through. Decisions that aren’t backed by data aren’t decisions, they’re impulses. Don’t be impulsive, be empirical. Going Forward There is work to be done with respect to quantifying the items on this checklist. However, I strongly suspect even just thinking about them, formally or informally, will improve the overall quality of your code by an equally-unmeasurable order of magnitude. If your code doesn’t pass this checklist, it’s tech debt. Sometimes that’s okay, but remember that tech debt has compounding interest. If you don’t pay it off, you will eventually go bankrupt. It’s not about being a 10x developer. It’s about being a 1x developer who writes 10x code. By that I mean the quality of your code is far more important than its quantity. Quality will outlast and outperform quantity. These guidelines tend to have a ripple effect. Legacy code often breeds legacy-like code. Instilling these rules in your developer culture helps to make engineers cognizant of when they should break the mold, introduce new patterns, or improve existing ones. Bad code begets bad code, and bad code is the atrophy of good developers. Share this: Pocket Twitter LinkedIn Google Reddit FacebookWhen the FBI arrested alleged Silk Road boss Ross William Ulbricht and took his site down, they seized the site's assets which were primarily the currency of choice on the anonymous online drug bazaar: Bitcoins. A whole lot of Bitcoins. In the criminal complaint against Ulbricht, the FBI said that the Silk Road had total sales of over 9.5 million Bitcoins, collecting a revenue of 600,000 of the digital coin. (Given the current price -- $140/Bitcoin -- that's $1.2 billion in sales and $80 million in commissions.) The FBI initially seized over 26,000 Bitcoins. I asked the FBI spokesperson what the plan is for those cryptocoins. "We will download the Bitcoin and store them," she said. "We will hold them until the judicial process is over." Then what? "This is kind of new to us," she said. "We will probably just liquidate them." In other words, the government is hoping the price of Bitcoin stays high for the Bit-fire sale to come once Ulbricht's trial is over. Good news for them: the price dropped about 11% when the Silk Road sack first happened but has since recovered. After all, as the criminal complaint notes, "Bitcoins are not illegal in and of themselves and have known legitimate uses." The spokesperson says the approximately 26,000 Bitcoins seized are just the ones that were held in Silk Road accounts. In other words, it's Silk Road users' Bitcoin. The FBI has not been able to get to Ulbricht's personal Bitcoin yet. "That's like another $80 million worth," she said, explaining that it was held separately and is encrypted. If that is indeed what he's holding, that's close to 600,000 Bitcoin all together or about 5% of all Bitcoin currently in existence. (Update 10-25: The FBI says it's seized 144,000 Bitcoins, or about $28 million, that it believes belong to Ross Ulbricht.) Thanks to the transparency of the Bitcoin block chain, you can actually see that the FBI Bit-seizure has already happened. Reddit has located what looks to be the FBI's Bitcoin wallet; there's an influx of 27,000 Bitcoins into it starting on Wednesday, October 2. Someone has helpfully edited the blockchain information for the wallet so that its name is "Silkroad Seized Coins." Now members of Reddit are starting to use the wallet as an email address, sending it tiny amounts of Bitcoins along with public messages, which can be read here. "hey computer geek, who control this address," writes one FBI "tipper." "'Ross Ulbricht' is not the bad guy, you are a bad guy. Please open your eyes, dont be brainwashed, and think your self!!!" I asked the spokesperson if users of Silk Road could try to recover the Bitcoins in their now-seized accounts. She laughed. "There is not likely to be restitution in this case," she said. "If they're knowingly buying something illegal, they can't get their money back." Hat tip: Andy Greenberg, @jerrybrito and @SamuelPatt on FBI's Bitcoin walletMozilla engineering manager Benjamin Smedberg has asked developers to stop nightly builds for Firefox versions optimized to run on 64-bit versions of Windows. A developer thread posted on the Google Groups mozilla.dev.planning discussion board, titled "Turning off win64 builds" by Smedberg proposed the move. Claiming that 64-bit Firefox is a "constant source of misunderstanding and frustration," the engineer wrote that the builds often crash, many plugins are not available in 64-bit versions, and hangs are more common due to a lack of coding which causes plugins to function incorrectly. In addition, Smedberg argues that this causes users to feel "second class," and crash reports between 32-bit and 64-bit versions are difficult to distinguish between for the stability team. Users can still run 32-bit Firefox on 64-bit Windows. Although originally willing to shelve the idea for a time if it proved controversial, Smedberg later, well, shelved that idea: Thank you to everyone who participated in this thread. Given the existing information, I have decided to proceed with disabling windows 64-bit nightly and hourly builds. Please let us consider this discussion closed unless there is critical new information which needs to be presented. The engineer then posted a thread titled "Disable windows 64 builds" on Bugzilla, asking developers to "stop building windows [sic] 64 builds and tests." These include the order to stop building Windows 64-bit nightly builds and repatriate existing Windows 64-bit nightly users onto Windows 32-bit builds using a custom update. In order to stave off argument, even though one participant suggested that 50 percent of nightly testers were using the system, perhaps as an official 64-bit version of Firefox for Windows has never been released, Smedberg said it was "not the place to argue about this decision, which has already been made."A detail from El Greco’s A View of Toledo, late 16th century. Public Domain In 1449 rebels in Toledo, Spain, published an edict you’ve probably never heard of, but whose effects still resonate today. It was the first set of discriminatory laws based on race. You probably know about the widespread mistreatment of Jews in Spain, even if your first thought when someone says “Spanish Inquisition” is a Monty Python sketch. But Spanish and Portuguese antisemitism isn’t just a historical artifact. According to historians like David Brion Davis, the Spanish categorization and treatment of Jews “provided the final seedbed for Christian Negrophobic racism,” and “gave rise to a more general concern over ‘purity of blood’—limpieza de sangre in Spanish—and thus to an early conception of biological race.” The discrimination against Spanish Jews peaked decades earlier, in 1391, when a fanatical priest incited anti-Jewish mobs with the slogan “convert or die.” A third to a half of the Spanish Jews—the largest community in Europe at the time—were converted to Christianity, the greatest mass conversion in modern Jewish history. Francisco de Goya’s The Inquisition Tribunal, produced between 1812 and 1819. Public Domain Some “conversos” became enormously successful, a success that fostered widespread resentment against these “New Christians”. During a period of political instability in 15th century Castile, conversos, as supporters of the kings, became scapegoats for weak rulers. In some cities physical battles broke out between “Old Christians” and “New Christians” (converted Jews). The most important of these conflicts took place in Toledo, and began as a tax revolt. On January 25, 1449, Alvaro de Luna, a favorite of King Juan II, demanded from Toledo a loan of one million maravedis. The townspeople actively resisted payment, and a mob quickly obtained control of the city gates. A local official, Pero Sarmiento, joined the rebellion. On taking control of the city, he announced he was compelled to act by “the need to remove Alvaro de Luna from the Court.” Alvaro de Luna, c. 1430. Public Domain Their relative wealth made conversos a tempting target. Sarmiento and his followers used the revolt as a pretext to confiscate their targets’ belongings. Sarmiento ordered converso leaders arrested and tortured until they admitted to conspiring with de Luna against the city government. Up to this point, all accusations had been political. But in order to justify the looting, Sarmiento’s followers floated rumors that conversos were still secretly practicing the Jewish faith and were working against the Church. Sarmiento formed an inquisition to punish conversos. On June 5, 1449, Sarmiento issued the Sentencia-Estatuto, the first set of racial exclusion laws in modern history. It barred conversos, regardless of whether they were sincere Christians, from holding private or public office or receiving land from the church benefices unless they could prove four generations of Christian affiliation. The Sentencia introduced race into Spain. Conversos, it claimed, came from the “perverse lineage of the Jews,” and thus brought the “same harms, evils and wars which the Jews, the enemies of our Holy Catholic faith, have always brought.” The anti-Semitism expert Leon Poliakov deemed this “the first example in history of legalized racism.” It also constituted the first anti-Semitic restrictions—discrimination based on a
intellectual crisis (confusion is widespread), a moral crisis. We should be grateful for any "soldier" who enters the arena and is offering his services to the King. We should be grateful for any written or oral testimony that help people who find their way back to the fold. As St. Paul writes, we have different gifts, different talents, and use them for God's glory (Romans 12:6-8). 1. “Revolution” or Development of Doctrine? However, no “soldier” in the service of the Church is ever called to be a “revolutionary”. As previously mentioned, Dietrich von Hildebrand was conscious that he had shed light on one very important truth that had often been obscured, not in Catholic doctrine, but in Catholic practice. He would call it—referring to his revered Cardinal Newman—a possible development of doctrine, but never a “revolution.” There is no revolution in the Catholic Church. Divine revelation ended with the death of the Apostles. The mission of the Church is to spread the Divine Message, and to clarify and re-clarify it over the years. Christopher West is fond of quoting George Weigel’s provocative statement that John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is a “theological time bomb.” But what does that mean? Does it mean that “Christians must complete what the sexual revolution began,” as West told Nightline? Even the highly influential Weigel himself, to his credit, wrote in a foreword to one of Christopher West’s books: “A sex-saturated culture imagines that the sexual revolution has been liberating. The opposite is the truth.” (Theology of the Body Explained, 2003, p. XVI). Words such as "revolution” and similar bombastic expressions are appealing—but irresponsible. Inflated words and phrases are like a psychological massage—used throughout the ages by people who know the power of words. Most people live in such a state of spiritual and intellectual somnolence that such expressions might be useful to shake them out of their lethargy. But they are misleading. As stated, there is no revolution in the Church: the one great tsunami was the Incarnation. 2. The Calamity of Discipleship The purpose of this paper was to compare Dietrich von Hildebrand's approach to the "intimate sphere", and that of Christopher West. Let me be clear and state that West—to my knowledge-- has never explicitly claimed to be a disciple of Dietrich von Hildebrand; nevertheless, I know from his personal testimony that West has a deep appreciation for the work of my husband, and I know he has publicly praised it. The question is whether West can therefore, in any real sense, at least by implication, be considered my husband’s disciple. For the many reasons outlined in this essay, I don’t believe he can. Let us leave aside the incontestable fact that Christopher West has great oratorical talent, and does much good. I am sure that he wants to work for God’s glory. God can use any "tool" that He pleases to bring souls back to him. The point I would like to emphasize is that Dietrich von Hildebrand's approach is widely different from the one of Christopher West, and that therefore it would be misleading to call West a disciple of my husband. To be a disciple is not an easy task: a superficial knowledge of the history of philosophy teaches us that innumerable thinkers consider themselves to be disciples of Aristotle, but whether "the master of those who know" (to quote Dante) would give the prize to any of them (that is, whether Averroes, Avicenna, St. Thomas Aquinas or Siger of Brabant deserve this honor) is something we shall find out in another world, when the question will have lost all interest. Kant repudiated Fichte who claimed to be his disciple. The latter in turn refused to recognize Schelling as a valid interpreter of his message. Kierkegaard wrote "to have a disciple is the worst of calamities". It does happen that people call themselves (or act as if they are) “disciples” of a great thinker when in fact they can, on some issues, seriously deviate from their mentor’s views. Whether Christopher West, however well-intentioned, is a true disciple of John Paul II is at least questionable-- as are many aspects of his presentations. The question must be asked: Why is it that John Paul II’s presentation of the Theology of the Body was never seriously challenged, whereas Christopher West’s interpretation of it has unleashed enormous controversy? Could it be that West has misrepresented it in fundamental respects, and worse, employed his own offensive language and “pop culture” ideas to vulgarize it? Noli Me Tangere Here, I would like to reflect on an incident in the life of the Little Flower, St Therese of Lisieux. When a student grabbed her as she was stepping out of the train, she responded as a proper female should. She recommended herself to the Holy Virgin, and looked at him so severely that he immediately let her loose (Deposition of her sister Genevieve). Would West ridicule this great saint for being a “prude”? If he did, he would be wrong, for St. Therese’s response was thoroughly Catholic, and the only right one: she was responding with noli me tangere [Don’t touch me]. This attitude has nothing to do with an unhealthy fear of the body, or bodily contact, but a very healthy modesty and self-respect. This "noli me tangere" is a key expression regarding the mystery of the supernatural. This is why, Dietrich von Hildebrand, who came from a privileged cultural and artistic background, and had been acquainted with holy paintings since his earliest youth, would never have made remarks about the size of the Holy Virgin’s bosom, as West has, repeating with praise an exhortation for Catholics to “rediscover” Mary’s “abundant breasts” (Crisis magazine, March, 2002) To Dietrich’s mind, this would be an act of irreverence. Her breasts were sacred and the response to the sacred is awe and not a critical approach to the size of "the blessed breasts that sucked thee". True religious art has always understood this. Blessed by an exceptional artistic background, Dietrich was, from his earliest youth, trained to appreciate works of art according to their artistic perfection. One of the requirements of sacred art is that the artist succeeds in creating, through visible means, an atmosphere of sacredness. When Mary is represented, the crucial element is that the image inspires in the viewer a feeling of reverence; whether she is painted with “abundant breasts” is totally irrelevant—otherwise, most other icons would have to be discarded. It suffices for the faithful believer to be inspired by a work of art; he or she should never be titillated by it. 2. Differences of Christopher West From Dietrich von Hildebrand As Dietrich von Hildebrand's wife, I can state the following, as a matter of summary, regarding the differences between my husband and Christopher West: 1. My husband would not refer to the Theology of the Body as “a revolution”: Dietrich knew that revolutions aim at destroying the past, and starting anew. An authentic development of doctrine, however, is something completely different: it takes from our sacred deposit of faith, and helps it blossom into a flower, but it does not invent, or contradict it. When the Theology of the Body is presented as a radical revolution, and twisted into something John Paul II never intended, Catholics should immediately stop, and pull back, and ask themselves: “What am I being fed?” One cannot be too cautious about protecting one’s soul. But, to the extent the Theology of the Body might be "a development of doctrine,” Dietrich would have welcomed it—provided such a claim remained faithful to John Paul’s original intent, and was made in a reverent and orthodox way. Each age in the Church sheds particular light on some facets of the divine message, and the Theology of the Body, properly interpreted, and consistent with historic Catholic teaching, can be seen as an example of that. But Dietrich would never have regarded it as a radical “innovation.” 2. In contrast to the loose language used by Christopher West, Dietrich von Hildebrand carefully chose the words he used when referring to the mysteries of our faith, or to things that are intimate and sacred. Words such as "crap" and "crapola" would jar his spiritual hearing. He knew, as did Kierkegaard, that “vulgarity is always popular,” but nonetheless never resorted to it, for, as St. Francis de Sales wrote: “Our words are a faithful index to the state of our souls.” (Introduction to the Devout Life, part III, chapter 26). When referring to mysteries (such as the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Eucharist) Dietrich’s choice of words invited his listeners to a trembling reverence and adoration. Christopher West's aforementioned remarks, in contrast,-- however well intended-- about the "bloodied membrane" that the Holy Virgin ejected after Christ's birth would strike Dietrich as close to blasphemy. Were he with us today, Dietrich would have surely quoted the Holy Office’s warning to West: “Theological works are being published in which the delicate question of Mary’s virginity ‘in partu’ is treated with a deplorable crudeness of expression and, what is more serious, in flagrant contradiction to the doctrinal tradition of the Church and to the sense of respect the faithful have.” (From the Holy Office monitum, July, 1960, reprinted in A Short Treatise on the Virgin Mary by Rene Laurentin, AMI Press, 1991,, pp. 318-329) In closing, let me repeat that I do not wish to take away any good Christopher West has accomplished, only caution him and his followers about errors I believe he has committed, and which my husband, whom Pope Pius XII called a “twentieth century Doctor of the Church,” would, I am certain, have been the first to point out. With his many talents, Christopher West has much to offer the Church; but I believe he will only fulfill his potential if he presents the Theology of the Body according to the traditions of our Church-- reverently, with humility—and liberate himself from the wayward “enthusiasms” of our time. Postscript: Earlier this year, and after this paper was begun, Christopher West announced that he would be taking a six-month sabbatical from his usual work. It is my sincere and prayerful hope that he will use this valuable time, of “personal and professional renewal,” to consider the many concerns that have been raised about his work-- and thereby “renew” his approach as well. I submit this reflection on the philosophy of Dietrich von Hildebrand in the hopes that it redirects Christopher West’s thinking. I further remind the reader that the West website continues to offer West’s programs, including courses for youth in public settings. My husband has written extensively on sex education in the schools, standing firmly behind the great encyclical, Christian Education for Youth, by Pope Pius XI, 1929. There, His Holiness roundly condemns sex education classes. Dietrich von Hildebrand’s booklet, Sex Education: The Basic Issues, can be read and ordered at the Veil of Innocence website, www.veilofinnocence.org. Acknowledgements: This article (for which mistakes, inaccuracies and imperfections I carry full responsibility for) is in fact a work of collaboration with several thinkers I admire and respect. Let me mention, among others, Father Brian Mullady, OP; Fr. Angelo Mary Geiger, F.I., Fr. Anthony Mastroeni and James Likoudis. They have read the manuscript. Their comments and criticisms have been highly appreciated and most helpful. Dawn Eden also deserves notable mention: her in-depth knowledge of the work of Christopher West has been crucial to me. Through her scholarship, I made the acquaintance of several texts I had not read. I owe her a special thanks. Last, but not least, this article was truly done in collaboration with my friend, William Doino. His knowledge of history, his intelligence, and endless patience with the changes I kept introducing, was of such value to me, that I do not hesitate to say that without him, this manuscript never would have been published. Thank you to all these dear friends. May it all be ad majorem Dei gloriam. Alice von Hildebrand.SANTA CLARA – Veteran left tackle Joe Staley is the most-accomplished player remaining on the 49ers. As he and his family took their usual bye-week getaway to Tahoe, he said he was not apprehensive about where he would be traveling upon his return to work. After all, his name had been mentioned in speculation with the NFL trade deadline approaching. “I didn’t think too much about it,” said Staley, 32. “I wasn’t worried about all of that stuff. I’m old and the team is struggling -- old in football years. So I think that’s probably going to happen every trade deadline. “I wasn’t concerned about it. That’s the nature of the NFL. You’re never 100-percent in control of where you’re playing and what you’re doing, anyway. I didn’t think I was leaving.” Staley, who has been selected to five consecutive Pro Bowls, continues to play at a high level. In the offseason he said he had no desire to take part in a rebuilding process. But the 49ers are not even halfway through the season and their hopes for the playoffs have all but vanished. The 49ers (1-6) are on a six-game losing streak and, seemingly, becoming less competitve with every game. “We can’t go into the second half of the season going, ‘Oh, man, this season didn’t work out.’ We’re 1-6. We have nine games left. Anything can happen,” Staley said “You take it one game at a time and put the best film of yourself you can out there. You try to do your best in practice and in games. And that’s what we have to focus on. “We have to focus on doing our job. What does our job ask of us on this particular play? And executing it the best that we can. And that’s what you can do. That’s what you can do to build toward the future.” Staley has experienced the playoffs three times in his 10-year career, including the near-miss of losing Super Bowl XLVII to the Baltimore Ravens. As he watched the Cubs win the World Series on Wednesday night, the spectacle of seeing the players and fans celebrate wildly evoked the emotions of a lost opportunity. “Watching the World Series, the first thing I said to Carrie, my wife, was like, ‘God, I wish we would have won that Super Bowl because I want to experience what those guys are experiencing right there,’” Staley said. “That’s the most pure sense of joy that you can have besides your kid being born. I just want to be able to experience that. That’s what drives me. Nothing else besides that.” Does he still think it’s possible for him to play on a Super Bowl winner? His answer: “Yeah. I’m never going to give up, man.”Since the great recession the job market has taken a big hit. One of the age groups having a particularly tough time with the unemployment rate are college students and recent college graduates. Their unique combination of naivete, desperation and eagerness for a real job creates a perfect storm for unscrupulous “employers” to target them. Many of these so called employers are actually looking to fill commission only sales jobs. They typically involve telemarketing or door-to-door sales. They expect their recruits to pound pavement for upwards of 12 hours a day, sometimes in dangerous neighborhoods. They usually aren’t even selling a product people want and encourage the use of high pressure sales tactics to close the deal. Some companies sell services such as telecommunications, investments and insurance. Others sell products such as vacuums, meat, office supplies and magazines. Sadly, these are the most reputable of the scam artists. More insidious companies have all the above characteristics and add an alternate means of profit by way of recruiting. They encourage you to recruit other people to do the same job you signed up for in exchange for a cut of the sales from those under you. This is a modern day (and borderline illegal) version of a Ponzi, or pyramid scheme. Another common (friendlier) name for this type of operation is multi-level-marketing program or MLM for short. There are some legitimate MLM programs but many are not. The worst of the worst in this industry combine the above two business models and add insult to injury by charging all recruits a fee to either sign up for their program or buy useless materials for it. The other companies were just wasting your time and gas, these guys actually charge you money to be duped. They fear Google Since the majority of the web has moved to a powerful, omniscient search engine, many fly-by-night companies are finding it harder to dupe prospective salesmen to do their bidding. Inexperienced job seekers who would have been fodder a decade ago are quickly wising up to scam artists by Googling the name of their company and finding pages of warnings about their tactics. Just like bacteria evolves and mutates to resist antibiotics, these snake oil salesmen are adapting to the post Google era. Fortunately, I’ve written you a prescription for the latest strain. The following are signs your job offer (or the job you are thinking of applying to) is a scam: 1. They contacted you first How often do comic book collectors get approached by super models and asked on a date? If you have a bare-bones resume on Monster and companies are contacting you first, you should be suspicious right off the bat. While the economy has improved a little bit it is still largely an employers market. If your resume lists your last job as Taco Bell and companies are contacting you first, be wary. 2. The person who contacted you is a President, Vice President, District Manager, etc. Again, unless you’re a former Fortune 500 executive this should be a huge red flag. If a reputable company does contact you first, the highest ranking person will probably be some type of manager or a human resources recruiter. It would be extremely rare for anyone at an executive level or above to contact an entry level employee. A District Manager may sound more believable, but the word manager is often used to loosely describe a block in a pyramid (scheme), which brings us to our next sign: 3. The position you are being offered is an “entry level” management or marketing position Entry level management positions don’t exist. In fact the phrase itself is an oxymoron. No company, not even McDonald’s is going to make you any kind of manager unless you already have experience. By definition, experience as a prerequisite would make the position non entry level. You might think that because you have a college degree in management that you can somehow bypass experience and get an entry level position. I am here to tell you that you cannot. I would know, I have a management degree. The only exception to this are internship programs. They are normally only offered by large companies and have little to no pay. They also do not make you a manager immediately. They require you to shadow a manager so you can gain experience. 4. They have a wide variety of open positions If any company has dozens of positions available (under a wide variety of job titles) this is another red flag. The economy is far from fully recovered, and even if it was it would be very rare for a company to be rapidly recruiting at all levels. Companies recruit when they have vacancy. Usually, a position opens up when someone is promoted or discharged. If you see positions available for clerk, manager, district manager and executive all for the same company then double check the address for the business; it should end with Twilight Zone. On what planet is a company recruiting an entire hierarchy of workers at once? Not ours, that doesn’t make sense. What they’ve done is renamed the same job a dozen times to attract as many keyword searching job seekers as possible. 5. They promote quickly They promote quickly because technically you receive your first promotion when you find someone of equal or lower intelligence to join the company “under” you. If they promise you will be a manager or “director” or any other word that implies you run something after a short period of time, it usually implies you will be handling other recruits and profiting off their backs. The main way schemes like this fail is when the company runs out of gullible people to recruit. This leaves the lowest level managers with no income, or worse a loss (if they paid to join). 6. You can’t find anything about them on Google, or they have multiple names Since Google quickly reveals testimonials from past victims, predatory companies have to change their names constantly. Even a company that’s never done business with anyone should have half a dozen Google listings from business directory sites who added them simply because they registered a business in their county or state. If you can’t find ANYTHING on Google (other than their own website), chances are that the company is very new. Multiple names could indicate past troubles with the law, employees or customers. Be sure to thoroughly vet each name you come across on Google as well as the BBB and other official websites. 7. You have no idea what the company actually does “Scamshop Inc. is a fast growing company in the heart of Bakersfield. We specialize in a unique customer to representative experience by ensuring maximum efficiency across all channels. Our vast array of products and services allow us to serve a wide variety of consumers in the area.” Wow, sign me up! That sounds totally legitimate, I can hardly fasten my tie I’m so excited! That’s how they’re hoping you’ll respond at least. If you notice, that quote says a whole lot of nothing. It might as well start with Lorem Ipsum because you’re going to glean about the same amount of information. I recently researched a company like this in my area. Not only did they have a horribly ambiguous mission statement like that on their website but they were too lazy to change it on all their other partner sites. If you’re going to build multiple pyramids at least change the hieroglyphs! The fact is these companies don’t really do ANYTHING other than sell products no one wants or aggressively recruit more people to expand their hollow empire. No customer, if they even have any, will ever visit their website. In fact, they probably won’t even tell customers the company name for fear of bad reviews. The entire purpose of their website is to be a facade to job seekers. This is especially evident if: 8. The company website (or brochure) talks mostly about its employees If you look at any reputable companies website it is 99% designed for the customer and there is a tiny little link at the bottom titled “Careers”. The typical Sleazecorp website will have a picture of a group of young adults sporting forced smiles and wearing cheap, ill-fitting suits. It will preach the gospels of Sleazecorp and how wonderful it is to work there. Very often they will have Facebook style party pictures of outings and other events. They might even have a few pictures of someone holding a large, novelty sized check. These are all meant to brainwash you. Think about it logically, why would a company waste the most valuable real estate of its website showing pictures of its cult members? I think that question just answered itself. 9. The interview is actually a group interview This isn’t an interview, it’s an induction ceremony. Whatever you do, do not drink any Kool Aid passed around. In all seriousness, they conduct group interviews for two reasons: 1. They know a good percentage of people are halfway intelligent and will leave right away. 2. They know most of the remaining people are also intelligent and are waiting until the end to leave to be polite. Since fleecing job seekers into these organizations is very difficult, recruiters cannot afford to waste an interview slot on one potential candidate. 10. The interview feels more like a sales pitch than an interview A normal interview should focus on the interviewer asking job related questions in an attempt to measure your knowledge, skills and abilities and rank them according to the ones required for the job. They may spend a little bit of time discussing the companies benefits and culture, but the majority of the interview is spent getting to know you and evaluating you. Interviews at predatory companies often feel more like a sales pitch; they focus on selling you on working there (usually because it is commission only, or a fee is required to start work). The old saying “if it seems to good to be true, it probably is” is very relevant in these situations. In this economy and any economy short of the next bubble it is largely an employers market. The recruiter simply does not enter the interview trying to win the candidate over, they have many candidates to choose from. This would be akin to the super model trying to convince the comic book collector to date her; it just isn’t going to happen. Other warning signs Just because a company shares a name with a bigger name company does not mean you can overlook the signs above. Many times large corporations will lend their name out to smaller divisions with very little oversight of their operations. There is also nothing to stop a person from starting a company with a similar sounding name to a reputable one. Some companies will rent a suite or office inside a busy, prestigious office building. One of the companies I researched in my area was actually renting a suite inside a well known bank. I can see why that might have misled many otherwise seasoned job applicants. Sales isn’t all that bad You can actually make decent money from selling products for other companies on commission provided you are a talented salesmen and offer a product people want. If you really want to sell for a living you might be humored to find out that you can nab a similar contract to what most of these fly-by-night companies have with vendors. The only difference is you will pocket the entire commission. (By Watchdog editor) All photography on this page courtesy freedigitalphotos.net Artists for each picture listed below in order: stuart miles imagerymajestic stockimages jscreationzs ambro jscreationzs africa stockimagesThe New England Patriots’ game of undrafted free-agent musical chairs rages on. The Patriots released undrafted free-agent safety Jeremy Deering and fifth-year wide receiver Greg Orton and signed undrafted free-agent defensive tackle LT Tuipulotu and second-year safety Dax Swanson on Thursday, the team announced. Deering, a Rutgers product, was signed by the Patriots just six days ago. Orton, who mimicked Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas before the Patriots’ playoff loss in the AFC Championship Game, was signed to the practice squad on Dec. 31. Tuipulotu ran a 5.07-second 40-yard dash at Utah’s pro day in March at 6-foot-1, 298 pounds. He registered 1.5 sacks and 42 tackles for the Utes in 2013. Swanson was signed by the Indianapolis Colts out of Sam Houston State last year after going undrafted. He also spent time on the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad before being released May 12. The second-year defensive back, who transferred from Toledo after his freshman season, ran a 4.48-second 40-yard dash at last year’s NFL Scouting Combine at 5-foot-10, 186 pounds. He intercepted 14 passes in three years with the Bearkats.Malcolm Turnbull has defended sticking to a same-sex marriage plebiscite he opposed by saying cabinet government requires compromise and the public likes the idea. During Turnbull’s appearance on the ABC’s Q&A, one questioner said it was an insult for her to be asked to vote for her gay son and nephew to be equal with their siblings. The woman said the A$160 million funding for the plebiscite would be better spent on addressing depression, alcoholism, drugs and suicide prevention. “Why are you not amending the law within the Marriage Act? It is a parliamentary process. We elect representatives into parliament,” she said, exhorting Turnbull to show leadership. Turnbull replied: “You make a powerful point very eloquently. From a legal and constitutional point of view, you’re right. Parliament could amend the Marriage Act without the support, without the consultation, of a plebiscite.” But the commitment was made when Tony Abbott was prime minister, Turnbull said; it was an agreement reached in the Coalition partyroom. When the woman interjected that he was the prime minister, Turnbull said: “I am the prime minister but I’m not the dictator. Some people like the idea of prime ministers that ignore their colleagues. I don’t agree with that. I’m a strong believer in traditional cabinet government. And that means compromise. "That means listening to your colleagues. That means being the first among equals and respecting the views of those in your cabinet and in your party room that you may not agree with.” In an earlier response he said the plebiscite “was not my idea. I’m a traditionalist. I’m a Liberal and in parliamentary terms a conservative. So my preference was to have it dealt with by a free vote in the parliament”. Two-thirds of Australians thought the plebiscite “a fantastic idea”, he said. He rejected the argument – coming from Bill Shorten among others – that a plebiscite would bring out homophobia. “I have great faith in the decency and the fundamental common sense of Australians. I believe it will be a very civilised discussion. I think if there are people that make outrageous or extreme comments they will only undo their own cause.” He said that assuming he won the election, the plebiscite would be held as soon as practicable, he would be encouraging people to vote yes and “I’m confident it will be carried”. Suffering from a heavy cold, Turnbull fielded questions on issues ranging from tax, NBN and health to abortion and suicide; they included one via video from a refugee on Manus Island. Earlier on Monday ALP campaign spokeswoman Penny Wong dodged questions on what attitude a Labor opposition would take to legislation to set up the plebiscite. Labor strongly opposes a plebiscite, saying if it won government it would quickly bring forward a bill to legalise same-sex marriage. Wong said the Liberals were trying to get attention away from Turnbull’s capitulation by talking about “what happens after the election on a bill they haven’t even drafted”.The Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche franchises are currently owned by his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, to satisfy NFL ownership restrictions that forbid a team owner from owning teams in other markets. [3] Ann is the daughter of Walmart co-founder James "Bud" Walton. Kroenke grew up in Mora, Missouri, an unincorporated community with a population of approximately two dozen, where his father owned Mora Lumber Company. [4] [5] His first job was sweeping the floor at his father's lumber yard. By age 10 he was keeping the company's books. In a September 2011 interview with The Telegraph newspaper, Kroenke said he was lucky — both while growing up and later in life — to be surrounded by family and friends who saw the value of attaining a good education, which he said contributed to his success. At Cole Camp (Missouri) High School, he played baseball, basketball and ran track. [6] In August 2017, he came under fire for launching a new outdoor sports television channel that was unveiled in the United Kingdom and will show regular hunting programmes that includes killing elephants, lions, and other vulnerable African species. [12] Kroenke is a major owner of working ranches, owning a total of 848,631 acres. The Land Report magazine ranked him as the United States' ninth-largest landowner in 2015. [9] [10] Among notable purchases is his February 2016 acquisition of the famous Waggoner Ranch in Texas, the largest ranch within one fenceline. [11] In 2006, Kroenke, in partnership with the money manager Charles Banks, acquired the a winery in Napa Valley known as Screaming Eagle. In April 2009, Banks stated he was no longer personally involved with Screaming Eagle, leaving Kroenke as the sole proprietor. [8] He is also the chairman of THF Realty, an independent real estate development company that specializes in suburban development. He founded this corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1991. In 2016, THF's portfolio was valued at more than $2 billion, including more than 100 projects totaling 20 million square feet, primarily in retail shopping centers. [7] Kroenke married Ann Walton, a Walmart heiress, in 1974. He founded the Kroenke Group in 1983, a real estate development firm that has built shopping centers and apartment buildings. He has developed many of his plazas near Walmart stores. [5] Kroenke Sports and Entertainment Founded in 1999, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment owns Pepsi Center in Denver, home of the Nuggets and Avalanche, and co-owns Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, home of the Rapids. Both venues were built by his development company. In 2004, Kroenke launched his own competitor to FSN Rocky Mountain (now known as AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain), Altitude, a new regional sports network which became the official broadcaster for both of Kroenke's teams on launch. Kroenke also established TicketHorse, a ticket company that provides in-house sales for all of his teams. Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche In 2000, Kroenke became full owner of both the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets and the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche, purchasing the teams from Charlie Lyons's Ascent Entertainment Group. Colorado Crush In 2002, Kroenke partnered with Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and former Bronco quarterback John Elway to become part-owner of the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush. Colorado Mammoth and Colorado Rapids Kroenke continued to grow his sports empire in 2004 when he purchased the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids from Phil Anschutz. St. Louis Rams On April 13, 1995, Stan Kroenke helped Georgia Frontiere move the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams from Anaheim to St. Louis by purchasing a 30% share of the team.[13] In 2010, Kroenke exercised his right of first refusal to buy the remaining interest in the Rams from the estate of late owner Georgia Frontiere.[14] On August 25, 2010, he became full owner of the Rams by unanimous consent of the NFL. To gain approval from NFL owners, Kroenke agreed to turn over control of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche to his son, Josh, by the end of 2010, and he had to give up his majority stake in both teams in December 2014. The NFL does not allow its owners to hold majority control of major league teams in other NFL markets.[15] On October 7, 2015, the NFL approved transfer of his ownership stake of the Avalanche and Nuggets to his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke.[16] Stadium issues In April 2010, as he was trying to gain full ownership of the team, and knowing of an escape clause in the Rams lease at the Edward Jones Dome, Stan Kroenke said: "I'm going to attempt to do everything that I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis."[17] In February 2013, the Rams and the City of St. Louis went to arbitration over a clause in the Rams’ lease that stated the Rams current stadium must be in the top tier of NFL Stadiums. The arbitrators agreed with the Rams, giving the Rams the ability to break their original lease and assume a year-to-year lease agreement.[18] Saying that he was willing to work with Missouri officials and to give the governor a "complete understanding" of the stadium situation, on November 30, 2015, Stan Kroenke met with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon at Rams Park in Earth City, Missouri.[19] Los Angeles Rams St. Louis Rams relocation to Los Angeles On January 5, 2015, it was announced that the Kroenke Group was teaming up with Stockbridge Capital Group to build a 70,000-seat NFL stadium and venue in Inglewood, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, threatening the Rams' future in St. Louis. In response, St. Louis countered with National Car Rental Field, a proposed open-air stadium in the north riverfront in downtown St. Louis with the hope of the Rams staying in St. Louis.[20] At the NFL relocation presentation, Kroenke stated that St. Louis was no longer a viable market for the NFL, and was best served by only two teams. Kroenke also questioned the financial future of the team.[21] NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also stated that St. Louis funding did not meet the criteria set by the NFL.[22] St. Louis officials countered that Kroenke was misrepresenting the city and defended that St. Louis was being misrepresented at the owners’ meetings.[23] The Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers had also been unhappy with old stadiums (O.co Coliseum in Oakland and Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, respectively) lacking updated amenities, and had been proposing a stadium in Carson, California (another suburb of Los Angeles) in competition with Kroenke's Inglewood proposal. In 2017, the Chargers announced that they would move to Los Angeles for the 2017 season, with the intention of initially playing games in Carson, but then moving into Kroenke's Inglewood Stadium, pending completion. The Raiders subsequently announced a move to Las Vegas, Nevada. On January 4, 2016, all three teams applied for relocation to Los Angeles for the 2016 NFL season.[24] The following day, the Rams and Stan Kroenke released their proposal for relocation. Some of the Rams' conclusions were disputed by the Mayor of St. Louis Francis Slay (in a letter to Roger Goodell),[25] the St. Louis Regional Chamber,[26] and Forbes.[27] However, some say that staying in St. Louis was ultimately a bad deal for the city and the city is better off with them leaving.[28] On January 12, 2016, the NFL approved the Rams' application to relocate from St. Louis back to Los Angeles with a 30-2 vote and Kroenke was praised by other NFL owners afterwards.[29][30] On April 12, 2017 it was reported that the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority filed a 52-page lawsuit against
currency will arrive in Cambodia within the coming weeks, and the capital will be home to two bitcoin ATMs. On March 1, Tran submitted what he described as a “long-held weight off his chest” – a six-page proposal to the New York-based Bitcoin Foundation outlining all the ways the virtual currency could help his country. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” Tran, who has his own stock of bitcoins, said. The proposal, the first documented effort to introduce bitcoin to the local market, hopes to land one of the foundation’s annual grants, which rewards applicants with funding in the form of bitcoin. He’s asking for $100,000 worth. Using the examples of garment-sector demonstrations in January, when military police shot dead at least four workers, opposition protests in July over national election results, and Cambodia’s repeat appearance on polls showing it as one of the world’s most corrupt countries, the proposal argues that the timing is right for Cambodians to embrace the world of digital currency and e-commerce services such as PayPal. Bitcoin is the world’s most commonly used digital currency, with about 11 million currently in circulation, according to the latest estimates. One bitcoin is currently worth about $638. Individuals can purchase the so-called crypto-currency online through a bitcoin exchange, by feeding cash into a bitcoin ATM, or by setting up an open-source software account and trading money for bitcoin with another person. It can be stored in a variety of different ways, and passed from user to user over the internet in exchange for anything from a book on Amazon.com to a car. As a result, bitcoin trades successfully bypass the need for a third party, such as a bank, and subsequently eliminate hefty banking fees, transaction times and interest on purchases. Bitcoin transactions, meanwhile, attract fees of less than 40 cents. In other parts of the world, namely Japan, Britain and the US, cafe owners and retail outlets are increasingly offering bitcoin as a legitimate form of point-of-sale payment. Bitcoin users can buy something as simple as a cafe latte by scanning a vendor’s QR code, which is then read by a mobile device that is actively connected to the consumer’s bitcoin wallet, or account. A publicly visible bitcoin ledger allows all users with the appropriate software installed on their computers to track the sender and receiver of any bitcoin transaction. For individuals, this does not necessarily mean transparency, since users can adopt clandestine names and remain anonymous. Businesses, however, if accepting the digital currency as a formal means of payment, would need to attribute their bitcoin account to the business name or to a connecting bank account, making all business-related transactions almost entirely traceable. This feature, according to Tran, could be the key to exposing Cambodia’s corruption and bribery woes. “Cambodia stands as the 15th most corrupt nation in the world,” the proposal states, citing Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, which was published in December last year. “Bitcoin’s public ledger, which is visible to everyone and allows you to trace a coin from its creation, through all its transfers of ownership, to its final destination, almost makes it impossible for businesses to take bribes or engage in corrupt activities,” Tran stated. The Cambodian Federation of Employers and Business Associations this week reported that 58 per cent of Cambodian businesses interviewed in a survey never refused paying a bribe. In the proposal, Tran did not address how bitcoin could stop businesses from continuing to use bribes simply by using cash in addition to bitcoin. Tran wrote that there were also many other benefits. “There is no need for a central authority, an overarching regulator, a bank or anything, because each bitcoin is unique, cannot be duplicated and if it is transferred anywhere, it can be seen by everyone,” Tran said. “Yes, e-commerce, or online money transfer methods like PayPal, which is not currently accepted here in Cambodia, are not widely understood yet. [But] I think with Cambodia’s young population, about 50 per cent of people are aged under 25 years, bitcoin definitely has a market here.” Tran admits that there are risks associated with the new form of currency, especially in the wake of Mt. Gox, the Japan-based bitcoin exchange that filed for bankruptcy last month after hackers allegedly stole about 750,000 bitcoins ($480 million). “This is all brand new. It’s kind of like a Wild West situation where there is a lot of money to be made and as a result lots of criminals and scammers are out to get it. There are still people stealing cash, aren’t there?” he said. On February 23, soon after the hacking and prior to filing for bankruptcy, Mt. Gox vacated its three elected board seats at the Bitcoin Foundation. Soon, the world woke up to headlines about bitcoin. On February 26, police in Singapore found the body of Autumn Radtke, the founder of bitcoin exchange First Meta, Police are reportedly treating it as a suicide. Afighter Gym owner Chan Reach (centre) and Ki Chong Tran (far right) poses with local fighters for a photo at the gym in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district. PHOTO SUPPLIED Earlier this month, US magazine Newsweek published a widely challenged article claiming to have tracked down bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto. The bitcoin concept was first created in 2009 by a single, or number of developers using the name Satoshi Nakamoto to launch the first account. The proposal from Cambodia hasn’t generated any attention just yet, however it might soon with its distinctly local twist. Tran is requesting $100,000 in bitcoin to set up infrastructure in Phnom Penh for users, but also to promote the digital currency through mixed martial arts (MMA) and Khmer kickboxing competitions. He breaks the cost down as follows: $10,000 of bitcoin will go toward sponsoring six local MMA and kickboxing fighters; $5,000 would go toward setting up an informative website; $15,000 would go toward the purchase, shipping and maintenance of two Lamansu brand bitcoin ATMs; and $60,000 would go toward paying the salaries of two staff hired to maintain the infrastructure. Chan Reach is the founder and head trainer at Afighter Gym in Chamkarmon district, where Tran, also a co-owner in the gym, hopes to launch his bitcoin venture. Reach isn’t a bitcoin convert like Tran, but he senses an opportunity amid otherwise tough times. “We have no income whatsoever and we use whatever money we can gather up to feed our fighters and pay the rent,” he said in an email yesterday. “I don’t really know much about bitcoin and it took me a while to understand it. But after Tran explained it to me I think it’s great! I would use it definitely. If there was more information publicly available, I’m sure more Cambodians would use it as well.” However, not all are as enthusiastic and Tran and his kickboxing co-investor. In Channy, CEO of Cambodia’s biggest bank, Acleda, said that he isn’t familiar with bitcoin. Grant Knuckey, CEO of ANZ Royal Bank, said bitcoin hasn’t been discussed among Cambodia’s biggest financial institutions, and he doesn’t see a market here given the nascent state of electronic payments. “Globally, it’s far too early to say. I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand, and in fact I’d go as far as to say that perhaps bitcoin is laying bare the illusion of fiat currencies and making people think about the question ‘what is money?’,” Knuckey said. Fiat currencies are issued “by decree” and are backed by governments. “I’m not overly excited at this point, but it is interesting to observe for now,” Knuckey said. National Bank of Cambodia director general Chea Serey did not return phone calls seeking comment. Central banks in other countries, though, have come out against the virtual currency. China, Russia, Vietnam and Indonesia have banned bitcoin, while Singapore is regulating it, according to reports. Many governments don’t recognise bitcoin as a currency. Adam Wyatt, chief operating officer and lead analyst at Colorado-based financial research firm Digital Currency Research Llc, said everyday use of bitcoin remains relatively low, even in the US, with uptake from vendors of point-of-sale services still at a snails-pace. “Point-of-sale solutions are needed and many exciting companies are being built right now to address these needs,” he said. Wyatt said setting up a bitcoin account in Cambodia would be easy, with only a little overhead, such as an internet connection. “Low transaction costs and fast confirmation times make it great for all markets. Also, the fact that no bank account is required to store or use bitcoin means millions of unbanked people in emerging markets can access the international online marketplace immediately,” he said. Tran remains optimistic about his plan. He is supposed to hear back from the Bitcoin Foundation sometime in April. “Here’s hoping,” he said.Swedish prosecutors have dropped a sexual assault investigation against Julian Assange because the time limit on the case had expired. Some of the allegations against the WikiLeaks founder have reached their statute of limitations after five years. Under Swedish law, if a suspect is not questioned before the deadline expires, they can no longer be tried for the alleged crimes. Mr Assange has been holed up at Ecuador's London embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition. Two of the four allegations against him are reaching their statute of limitations after five years. The accusations involve one count of sexual assault and another of unlawful coercion. A separate allegation of sexual molestation will run out on 18 August. The 44-year-old Australian can still however be prosecuted for the more serious claim of rape. That carries a ten-year statute of limitations and expires in 2020. Mr Assange denies the allegations against him, brought by two Swedish women, and insists the sexual encounters were consensual. Mr Assange said he was "extremely disappointed" with today's announcement. He said: "There was no need for any of this. I am an innocent man. I haven't even been charged." "From the beginning I offered simple solutions. Come to the embassy to take my statement or promise not to send me to the United States. "This Swedish official refused both. She even refused a written statement. Now she has managed to avoid hearing my side of the story entirely. "This is beyond incompetence. I am strong but the cost to my family is unacceptable. "Even though I have been improperly treated, I would like to thank the many people in Sweden and the UK who have been very understanding of the wrong which has been done to me and my family." Despite repeated attempts, prosecutors have been unable to gain access to Ecuador's embassy. They initially insisted Mr Assange return to Sweden for interrogation. He rejected that option on fears Stockholm could deliver him to US authorities, who may try him for leaking nearly 750,000 classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010. In a U-turn in March, prosecutors agreed to Mr Assange's compromise offer to question him inside the London mission. However, they say they have yet to see their request approved by Ecuador because of procedural issues. Attorneys for Mr Assange say suspicions that Ecuador is using delaying tactics are unfounded. "The (Swedish) request came in late and is being processed by Ecuador, which will certainly approve it after following its own procedures," Mr Assange's Swedish lawyer Per Samuelsson said earlier this month. Claes Borgstrom, a lawyer for one of the two women accusing Mr Assange of having assaulted them in 2010, said his client was trying to come to terms with the likelihood that the case will never be tried. "She has always been ready to stand by her accusations and wanted to bring the case to court. But at the same time a weight has been lifted. This has been dragging on for five years and she wants to go back to her normal life," he told the daily Dagens Nyheter. Mr Assange has compared living inside the embassy to life on a space station. His 4.6m by 4m room is divided into an office and a living area. He has a treadmill, shower, microwave and sun lamp and spends most of his day at his computer. He is subject to a European arrest warrant and Britain has vowed to detain him if he sets foot outside the embassy, which is under constant police surveillance. Meanwhile, Britain has said that it would make a formal protest to Ecuador over its decision to provide asylum to Assange in its London embassy. British Foreign Office said in a statement: "Ecuador must recognise that its decision to harbour Mr Assange more than three years ago has prevented the proper course of justice".ENLARGE Photo: Getty Images. By Michael Bloomberg and Michael Bloomberg The Wall Street Journal CANCEL BiographyMichael Bloomberg and Charles Koch May 12, 2016 6:48 p.m. ET 352 COMMENTS During college commencement season, it is traditional for speakers to offer words of advice to the graduating class. But this year the two of us—who don’t see eye to eye on every issue—believe that the most urgent advice we can offer is actually to college presidents, boards, administrators and faculty. Our advice is this: Stop stifling free speech and coddling intolerance for controversial ideas, which are crucial to a college education—as well as to human happiness and progress. Across America, college campuses are increasingly sanctioning so-called “safe spaces,” “speech codes,” “trigger warnings,” “microaggressions” and the withdrawal of invitations to controversial speakers. By doing so, colleges are creating a climate of intellectual conformity that discourages open inquiry, debate and true learning. Students and professors who dare challenge this climate, or who accidentally run afoul of it, can face derision, contempt, ostracism—and sometimes even official sanctions. The examples are legion. The University of California considers statements such as “America is the land of opportunity” and “everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough” to be microaggressions that faculty should avoid. The roll of disinvited campus speakers in recent years continues to grow, with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education identifying 18 attempts to intimidate speakers so far this year, 11 of which have been successful. The list includes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who is scheduled to give the commencement address at Scripps College this weekend. Student protests have vilified her as a “genocide enabler” and 28 professors have signed a letter stating they will refuse to attend. Colleges are increasingly shielding students from any idea that could cause discomfort or offense. Yet without the freedom to offend, freedom of expression, as author Salman Rushdie once observed, “ceases to exist.” And as Frederick Douglass said in 1860: “To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.” When a professor last year decided to write online about the trend toward intolerance on campuses, he did so under a pseudonym out of fear of a backlash. “The student-teacher dynamic,” he wrote, “has been reenvisioned along a line that’s simultaneously consumerist and hyper-protective, giving each and every student the ability to claim Grievous Harm in nearly any circumstance, after any affront.” We believe that this new dynamic, which is doing a terrible disservice to students, threatens not only the future of higher education, but also the very fabric of a free and democratic society. The purpose of a college education isn’t to reaffirm students’ beliefs, it is to challenge, expand and refine them—and to send students into the world with minds that are open and questioning, not closed and self-righteous. This helps young people discover their talents and prepare them for citizenship in a diverse, pluralistic democratic society. American society is not always a comfortable place to be; the college campus shouldn’t be, either. Education is also supposed to give students the tools they need to contribute to human progress. Through open inquiry and a respectful exchange of ideas, students can discover new ways to help others improve their lives. The importance of such inquiry is obvious in science. Thanks to the freedom to make and test hypotheses, we have discovered that the Earth is round, how gravity works, the theory of relativity, and many other monumental scientific achievements. The ability to challenge the status quo leads to unimaginable innovations, advances in material well-being and deeper understandings of the natural world. But this principle doesn’t just apply to biology, chemistry, physics and other scientific fields. Whether in economics, morality, politics or any other realm of study, progress has always depended upon human beings having the courage to challenge prevailing traditions and beliefs. Many ideas that the majority of Americans now hold dear—including that all people should have equal rights, women deserve the right to vote, and gays and lesbians should be free to marry whom they choose—were once unpopular minority views that many found offensive. They are now widely accepted because people were free to engage in a robust dialogue with their fellow citizens. We fear that such dialogue is now disappearing on college campuses. As it fades, it will make material and social progress that much harder to achieve. It will also create graduates who are unwilling to tolerate differing opinions—a crisis for a free society. An unwillingness to listen to those with differing opinions is already a serious problem in America’s civic discourse. Unless colleges reverse course, that problem will worsen in the years ahead, with profoundly negative consequences. Administrators and faculty must do more to encourage a marketplace of ideas where individuals need not fear reprisal, harassment or intimidation for airing controversial opinions. These members of campus leadership would be wise to look at the University of Chicago’s Statement on Principles of Free Expression, which paraphrases the wise words of the university’s former president, Robert M. Hutchins: “without a vibrant commitment to free and open inquiry, a university ceases to be a university.” The continued march of justice and progress depends on free speech, open minds and rational discourse. Colleges and universities—and those who hold their degrees—have helped lead the way for most of this nation’s history. The well-being of future generations of Americans depends on the preservation of that great legacy. Mr. Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg LP, was mayor of New York City from 2002-13. Mr. Koch is the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries Inc.For the first time in seventeen years, the U.S. government has shut down over a budgetary dispute. Not surprisingly, with both sides refusing to move from irreconcilable positions, metaphors of trench warfare are being used freely. But this dispute is more reminiscent of the ‘Phoney War’ of 1939 and 1940. The real conflict will come on or a little before October 17, when the U.S. government runs out of expedients to avoid issuing new debt. At this point, it will be necessary either to raise the ceiling on government debt or to risk unknown and potentially catastrophic consequences. But why is the debt ceiling much more important than a shutdown of the government? The shutdown is damaging, to be sure, but it is confined to ‘nonessential’ functions, with the term ‘essential’ being defined fairly broadly. If a shutdown were sustained for a month or more, the consequences would be severe, but the arrival of the debt deadline will render this question moot (unless, the Republicans decide to raise the debt ceiling but persist with their demands on the continuing funding resolution). The risks associated with a failure to raise the debt ceiling may be seen by considering the worst-case scenario: a formal default on U.S. government debt. This is highly unlikely. Until recently, however, it was inconceivable. The near-miss on the debt ceiling vote in 2011 led Standard & Poor's to downgrade U.S. government debt from AAA to AA+, saying in effect that default was a possibility. A failure to raise the ceiling, even for a few days, would almost certainly lead to further downgrades from S&P. The other ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch, would need to do likewise. If default is possible, what would it entail? Even a short-lived default would throw global financial markets into chaos. Most directly, it would mean that the defaulted securities could not be delivered as collateral for financial transactions. Although, presumably, the default would apply only to Treasury securities with payments falling due in October, markets aren’t set up to distinguish between good and bad Treasuries, so they would be thrown into chaos. In addition, Credit Default Swaps on U.S. bonds would be triggered, with unpredictable consequences. Current estimates suggest that the U.S. CDS markets is relatively small: ‘only’ around $23 billion, but with other financial markets facing a rush for liquidity, that could be enough to bring down financial institutions on the wrong side of these trades. To sum up, in the words of Cardiff Garcia of the Financial Times “an actual debt ceiling breach is essentially Armageddon.” If the deadline for a debt-ceiling increase is passed, such a possibility becomes real. And, every time the possibility arises, the likelihood of the real thing becomes larger. Any resolution of the current crisis that leaves the way open for similar standoffs in future will ensure further downgrades of U.S. government debt and undermine financial systems based on the assumption that Treasury bonds are riskless assets. Since a default on U.S. government debt would be utterly disastrous, it seems unlikely that it would actually happen, at least this time. Once the current expedients are exhausted, President Obama would have two options available. The first would be to repudiate other legal obligations, such as Social Security payments, in order to provide funds to service debt. This would almost certainly cause severe economic damage, as well as a potential legal and constitutional crisis. Given a decision not to make legally obligatory payments, the President would be operating outside the law and therefore effectively unconstrained in choosing which payments to withhold. He could, for example, stop payments to districts with Republican representatives. The second possibility is to disregard the debt ceiling, most likely by declaring the relevant sections of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 to be unconstitutional (an alternative scheme involves directing the Treasury to mint a platinum coin of arbitrary value, but this seems too ridiculous to be considered seriously). Such a declaration would certainly be subject to legal challenge, but the courts might well decide to steer clear. More importantly, it would be open to the Republican House to go back to the option of refusing to pass a budget or continuing resolution. Even with all these risks, Obama seems likely to stand his ground. Any concession, even the smallest, will legitimate the idea that the threat of default is a legitimate weapon of party politics, to be used in support of any strongly held policy objective. Sooner or later, this idea will lead to disaster. The potential benefits of an outright win for the President are huge, and not merely in partisan political terms. If the default risk represented by the debt ceiling is removed once and for all, confidence in U.S. assets will increase substantially. The underlying budgetary position of the United States is much better than is commonly supposed and could be improved further in the event of a return to the regular budget process that has been in limbo for the past fifteen years. There are plenty of reasons for the Republicans to back down. Thanks to the continuing sequester, they have achieved much of what they set out to do in cutting public expenditure, while conceding hardly anything in increased revenues. The big risk they face is that their intransigence may cost them control of the House of Representatives in 2014 or, more plausibly, in 2016. John Quiggin is a professor of economics at the University of Queensland, Australia and an adjunct professor in agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland, College Park. Image: Flickr/ Sh4rp_i. CC BY 2.0.Gone are the days when one could get away by posting anything on social media. As social media is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives, people are becoming more aware of the way lies are spread through the use of pictures and videos on the platform. Piyush Goyal, MoS for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines tweeted a photo about Government of India's Street Lighting National Programme. The tweet mentioned how around 50,000 km of Indian roads have been illuminated by using LED lights under the programme. The tweet though had one problem, the picture used in the tweet was that of Russia. The well lit streets that you see in the photograph is not India but Russia. Soon, the tweet caught the attention of social media users and people started pointing out the blunder. Great work sir. But a small request when it's already done, pls use real photos. This is decade old used by many manufacturers & countries https://t.co/LY5BoQCG5A - SM Hoax Slayer (@SMHoaxSlayer) August 20, 2017 After replacing LED lights in Canada, now BJP has replaced LED Lights in Russia. Massive respect for BJP and @PiyushGoyal pic.twitter.com/XyemXjrIVZ - Joy (@Joydas) August 20, 2017 Minister Piyush Goyal, deleted the tweet on realising the mistake and replaced it with an image of the Indian streets. He also posted a tweet about the power of social media saying that "social media helps illuminate facts". Govt. has illuminated 50,000 KM of Indian roads by retrofitting 30 lakh conventional street lights with LED lights. pic.twitter.com/awvQjmCPUg - Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) August 21, 2017 Thanks to many who pointed issues with earlier image. While we illuminate streets, social media helps illuminate facts, helping us improve. - Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) August 21, 2017 This is not the first time, BJP has used false photographs during it's social media promotions. Union Minister Babul Supriyo tweeted a representational photo of a bus stop in Rajkot saying that the bus stop has been inaugurated. Similarly, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, shared a photograph from the Gujarat riots in 2002 as a photograph from the recent West Bengal violence. FYI \|\| How fake photos became a part of the BJP's social media narrative \|\|Now that the first round of indictments in the Trump-Russia collusion investigation has been issued, Americans find themselves again wondering just how far Donald Trump will go to stay in power. If the noose begins to tighten, what will he do? What will his supporters do? At least as early as Trump’s first troubling decision to encourage violence against protesters at his rallies, and certainly since his call to “Second Amendment people” to rise up and fight against a future President Hillary Clinton’s imaginary effort to confiscate firearms, Trump’s presence on the scene has intensified the threat of deadly violence in American politics. Trump, through the very end of last year’s campaign, played coy with the idea that he might not “accept” the results of the election. In a column this past spring, in which I imagined a world where Trump lost the Electoral vote as well as the popular vote, I wrote that “armed standoffs and brawls in Washington and other major cities led to mass arrests” prior to Clinton’s inauguration. In our stranger-than-fiction reality, the question has always been just how far Trump might be willing to go in order to hold onto power. But even if Trump himself were not willing to incite violence on his way out the door, others might do so on their own. Would there be isolated acts of terrorism by self-styled patriots, or perhaps worse? That is indeed possible, but if people do resort to violence to keep Trump in power, they would be engaging in a citizen uprising that might well bring an end to America’s constitutional democracy rather than protecting our freedoms. In a recent pair of columns, the first on Dorf on Law and the other here on Verdict, I noted that the Second Amendment is—contrary to the assumptions of both conservatives and liberals—simply not relevant to the current gun debate. A Trump supporter poses with a gun while attending a rally for Trump on July 18, 2016 in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. Spencer Platt/Getty By that I meant that, like all constitutional provisions, the Second Amendment lies in the background as an outer limit on what can be done, just as (for example) the Fifth and Sixteenth amendments place limits on the “takings” and taxation powers, respectively. Just as a safety requirement for a consumer good is generally not a taking and a decision to raise the top marginal income tax rate does not violate the Sixteenth Amendment, even the most aggressive gun control efforts that are currently on offer at the federal level come nowhere close to violating any reasonable interpretation of the Second Amendment (including under the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which I discuss below). My point was that, although I certainly understand why partisans would be quick to wrap themselves in the Constitution whenever they can, the rest of us should not go along with the scam. When, for example, a politician waves a gun around and says, “I believe in the Second Amendment,” people like me can respond, “So do we, but it simply does not mean what you think it means.” The political debate, then, should be about the wisdom of various proposals, all of which are well within the Constitution’s constraints. Reasonable people can reach different conclusions based on evidence and logic, but these are policy disputes, not line-drawing exercises in constitutional jurisprudence. In the process of making my arguments, I noted that even the Supreme Court’s ill-reasoned majority decision in Heller did not provide succor to those who think that every gun regulation is a violation of the Second Amendment. Justice Scalia’s opinion states: “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.” He and his four colleagues in the majority then offer an incomplete list of limits that easily pass constitutional muster. But does that not mean that the government will exploit those exceptions? No, it means that the large amount of space provided by the Constitution will, as it always does, allow the democratic process to play out. Even though Scalia specifically notes that bans on carrying concealed weapons have always been considered well within the limits of the Second Amendment, more than a dozen states allow concealed carrying of weapons without a permit (and other states allow it with a permit). Again, one need not support gun control to find all of this unremarkable. The relevant question is what the people will decide through democratic means. The courts are there to enforce the Constitution, but they obviously need to act only when the Constitution has been violated. A “People’s Insurrection”? I also noted that the Supreme Court has never accepted the “citizen uprising theory” of the Second Amendment. That theory, also known as the insurrectionist view, holds that the founders included the gun-related amendment in the Bill of Rights to prevent the federal government from running roughshod over the people. Again, the Supreme Court has not credited that theory. In an important column several years ago, Michael Dorf noted that there actually was “a pretty good historical case to be made for the insurrectionist theory of the Second Amendment”—but he then made clear that that case had been made irrelevant by subsequent developments (including the law in 1903 that placed state militias under joint federal/state control). As Dorf also noted, Scalia’s majority opinion in Heller definitively rejects the insurrectionist view (which Dorf accurately described as preposterous), with Scalia writing that “it may be true that no amount of small arms could be useful against modern-day bombers and tanks.” Moreover, Scalia was not merely making a reluctant nod to reality, instead noting that “our standing army is the pride of our Nation.” One of the mixed blessings of writing columns about controversial political issues is the feedback from readers and responses from commentators. Usually, the negative responses to my columns include putting the word “professor” in scare quotes to indicate disdain for the idea that someone as clueless as I am could be taken seriously. A reader of my most recent Verdict column, after indulging in the standard professor bashing, took issue with the point on which both Scalia and Dorf agree, which is that the insurrectionist view is simply unrealistic. Referring to would-be insurrectionists, I had written : “How they think they would win against the weaponry of the modern military is anyone’s guess.” The response from my insurrectionist reader was that people like me should not assume that the US armed forces will fight against the insurrectionists. The services draw recruits disproportionately from Trump-friendly precincts, which (my reader insinuated) means that those men and women might choose to fight with the insurrectionists rather than against them. Let us leave aside for a moment the clear implication that large numbers of our soldiers, sailors, flyers, and Marines would be willing to engage in mutiny and treason. What is the implication of this argument for the Second Amendment? Perhaps more importantly, what would this mean if Donald Trump called on people to violently resist his impeachment (or they chose to do so on their own)? The Circular Logic of the Insurrectionist View This version of the insurrectionist argument, then, is that the inferiority of non-military weapons is not a problem for people who might rise up against the government, because they have what amounts to sleeper cells inside the US military. When push comes to shove, we are apparently meant to believe, the military will side with “the Second Amendment people.” Even if that were true, however, that is still not an argument against gun control. Indeed, it is not even an argument against outright gun bans and confiscations, if such things were to become a political possibility. If the military will turn its weapons on the liberal politicians to prevent them from becoming despotic, then we do not need an armed citizenry to do that job. There are some rather elaborate scenarios in which one could imagine a schism within the military, with a few units siding with armed insurrectionists (and taking superior weapons with them as they join the rebellion) and fighting against the rest of the US armed forces. Maybe the idea is that groups of citizen-soldiers bearing non-military arms will be able to join together with rebelling soldiers, combining arsenals and recruits in sufficient number to defeat the would-be oppressors. Again, however, we are talking about a military armed with vastly superior weapons, including Scalia’s “modern-day bombers and tanks.” Those elaborate scenarios, such as the one that I described in the paragraph above, would have to be elaborate indeed for the insurrectionists to have a chance at winning because of the firearms that civilians possess. And even if one could conceive of a military betrayal that was not large enough to win on its own but could just barely prevail only with the help of armed citizens, that is exactly the kind of scenario that would involve maximum loss of lives. Telling would-be despots that there is the possibility of a mutiny with huge casualties among both military and civilians could certainly suggest quite a different response than, “OK, then I guess we won’t become tyrants.” All of this discussion up to this point has taken as a given that the people’s elected politicians will, at some point, become so willing to exploit their power that they will have to be stopped by citizen-patriots who are true to the spirit of the Constitution. The leading example of politicians exploiting their power, however, is the parade of horribles that results in people’s guns being confiscated by the government. In other words, the reason that people need guns (in this view) is to prevent the government from taking their guns. But the Trump situation raises a different possibility. What if Trump is impeached and convicted, but he refuses to leave office? Will his Secret Service agents remain loyal to their oaths under the Constitution, or will they swear personal loyalty to Trump? If the latter, will units of the military be willing to fight Trump’s loyalists and remove the former president from the White House, by force if necessary? I have no doubt that there are people serving in the military who would be unhappy if Trump were forced out of office. Even in pro-Trump military communities, however, his popularity was never overwhelming and has fallen off significantly since his election. These increasingly bizarre scenarios, in any event, are driven not merely by people being for or against Trump. These are stories of violent uprisings, with tens or hundreds of thousands of active military members violating their oaths and being willing to shoot at their former brothers and sisters in arms (and the citizens that they are sworn to protect). On the other hand, it is certainly much easier to imagine small protests by Trump-loyalists that could lead to real violence. As I wrote in my most recent Verdict column, however, that possibility cannot become a reason for Congress to refuse to do its duty under the Impeachment Clause. In the end, if the insurrectionist view necessarily assumes that the US military will en masse desert their posts and refuse to do their duty, then that is neither an argument against gun control nor a reason to allow the possibility of pro-Trump violence to dictate political choices.The interior of SubTropolis SubTropolis is a 55,000,000-square-foot (5,100,000 m2), 1,100-acre (4.5 km2) manmade cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, that is claimed to be the world's largest underground storage facility. Developed by late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt via Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development, Inc., it has trademarked the phrase World's Largest Underground Business Complex. Dug into the Bethany Falls limestone mine, SubTropolis is, in places, 160 feet (49 m) beneath the surface. It has a grid of 16 ft (4.9 m) high, 40 ft (12 m) wide tunnels separated by 25 ft (7.6 m) square limestone pillars created by the room and pillar method of hard rock mining. The complex contains almost 7 miles (11 km) of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track. Currently, more than 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m2) is occupied and 8,000,000 square feet (740,000 m2) are available for future expansion. The mine naturally maintains temperatures between 65 and 70 °F (18 and 21 °C) year-round. The United States Postal Service and the United States Environmental Protection Agency lease spaces within SubTropolis, the United States Postal Service for its collectible stamp operations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their Region-7 Training and Logistics Center.[1] On the north edge of the complex Hunt developed the Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun amusement park complex. Hunt's extensive business dealings in Clay County contributed to the Chiefs having their NFL Training Camp at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri until 1991. Other facilities like SubTropolis exist although not on the same scale, such as the abandoned mine in Butler, Pennsylvania used by Corbis and the US Federal Government for secure storage. As the room and pillar mining method is used to extract limestone throughout the Midwest, many companies are looking at ways to utilize the hundreds of millions of square feet created in this manner for everything from mushroom farming to crude oil stockpiling. Tenants [ edit ] SubTropolis is used by around 55 businesses and organizations,[2] including: LightEdge Solutions [3] Cerner Grantham University NextPage Vanguard
” laws that encourage police to pressure landlords to evict tenants who repeatedly call 911 over domestic abuse, further dissuading victims from seeking help. But abuse at home is far worse for the wife or girlfriend of a cop. Who will she call—911? What if a coworker or friend of her husband responds? Police officers are trained in the use of physical force and know how to hurt someone without leaving a trace. They have guns and often bring them home. And if a cop’s wife runs, where will she hide? He usually knows where the women’s shelters are. Some shelter staff admit they are powerless to protect an abused police spouse. Her abuser may have training and tools to track her web use, phone calls and travels to find out if she is researching how to get help or, if she has fled, where she went. In the rare case where the woman works up the nerve to complain, the police department and justice system often victimize her again. She must take on the infamous blue wall of silence—the strict unwritten code of cops protecting each other in investigations. The police have a name for it—extending “professional courtesy.” In the words of Anthony Bouza, a one-time commander in the New York Police Department and former police chief of Minneapolis, “The Mafia never enforced its code of blood-sworn omerta with the ferocity, efficacy and enthusiasm the police bring to the Blue Code of Silence.” It all adds up to the police having a de facto licence to abuse their spouses and children. And it’s a worldwide phenomenon that police families struggle with everywhere from Montreal to Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, the U.K., Australia and South Africa. The torrent of abuse is virtually unknown to the public, but without realizing it, we all pay a steep price. Domestic violence is the single most common reason the public contacts the police in the U.S., accounting for up to 50 percent of all calls in some areas. Yet, a battered woman who calls 911 may have a two-in-five chance of an abuser coming to her door. Official investigations have found law enforcement departments that tolerate abuse in police homes also mishandle violence against women in other homes. Abusive cops are also more prone to other forms of misconduct on the job—such as brutality against civilians and violence against fellow officers. We all pay as taxpayers when governments have to settle multi-million-dollar lawsuits with victims of police abuse or negligence. Police domestic violence also has close connections to a host of other problems—police killings of African Americans, sexual harassment of female drivers at traffic stops and women cops, and even more broadly, issues like growing social inequality and subjugation of Native Americans. And police officers themselves are victims, too. Even though our society calls cops heroes, we give them little support to cope with the pressure of police work. A big part of the job is to wield power to control other people. As a result, policing attracts people who are good at controlling others or may have a craving for that kind of power—and then trains them to use their power better. Control is also the main driver of domestic violence. Is it a surprise then that so many cops are violent at home? Support the Ms. Magazine Prison and Domestic Violence Shelter Program today and show women fleeing domestic violence that they’re not alone. Susanna Hope (a pseudonym for security and privacy reasons) is a Canadian professional writer who was married for over 20 years to a police officer. She has two sons and two grandchildren. Alex Roslin is an award-winning Canadian journalist who was president of the board of the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting. His investigative and writing awards include three Canadian Association of Journalists prizes for investigative reporting, a gold prize in the National Magazine Awards and nine nominations for CAJ awards and NMAs. 1.9k SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Reddit Tumblr Digg Linkedin Stumbleupon Mail Print EPN Rat Tailed Spud, Scepter, Baton, Mace, Colbert County, Alabama, With Coa $17000.0 Museum 1861 Military Civil War Us Army 18th Ny Infantry Band Conductor Baton $7500.0 Ferrari Factory 60th Anniversary Relay Baton #5/500 $5499.0 Ferrari Factory 60th Anniversary Relay Baton #103/500 Spectacular $4999.0 Original Repousse "toussaint Baton Fatra" Unchained Slave Haitian Primitive Art $2500.0Ragnarok Odyssey, Orgarhythm headed stateside More game localizations for PlayStation Vita. It’s certainly a good week for Japanese game fans. Following yesterday’s confirmation of Persona 4 Golden in North America, XSEED announced during a San Francisco press event this evening that it will localize PlayStation Vita action RPG Ragnarok Odyssey and music strategy game Orgarhythm in North America. Ragnarok Odyssey, developed by Game Arts, is an action game similar to Capcom’s Monster Hunter series, and features “action-heavy” melee combat against large-scale enemies. It launched in Japan this February. Orgarhythm, developed by Takeshi Hirai-headed studio Neilo (he programmed Shenmue), is a rhythm-based combat game consisting of twelve different maps. Players use a combination of touchscreen controls and music gameplay as a God-like character to command a group of elemental minions. It will feature both competitive and co-op multiplayer modes. The game has yet to launch in Japan. Thanks, GamesRadar.In 2012, St. Louis County in Missouri used a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to buy a refrigerated trailer that can hold more than 20 human bodies. The trailer was intended for use after a terrorist attack or natural disaster, and the county is fortunate that the money spent to buy it was wasted. Until now, when the compressor in the already-full morgue went out. Why was the morgue full? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch explains that an increase in drug overdose deaths have the county morgue operating at its limits, and the medical examiner thinks that she may have to find a permanent place to stash the trailer and keep it running as extra space for when there’s more than two dozen people in the morgue. Like in the rest of the country, illegal imports of fentanyl and other powerful synthetic opioids have made an existing nationwide heroin problem worse. In 2016, the St. Louis County medical examiner dealt with twice as many fatal overdoses as in 2010. “It used to be, every few days there would be a drug overdose,” the medical examiner told the Post-Dispatch. She’s been working there since the mid-’70s. “Now almost every day, now maybe half of the deaths are drug overdoses.” The increase in deaths that have to be investigated means a shortage of forensic pathologists across the country. Different municipalities are finding their own ways to deal with this. When someone’s death is clearly due to a drug overdose, the office of the medical examiner doesn’t perform a full autopsy: They perform toxicology tests and an external exam, but the office doesn’t have the staff to perform autopsies on everyone.The windows are open, and you’re wearing your favorite red dress. The scent of perfume lingers on your skin as the wind kisses your cheek. A record spins, cooing softly. Lana Del Rey plays in the background, a patron saint of glamour and sadness who just gets it. You go to your record player, staring longingly at the red heart-shaped vinyl before flipping it over. Is this a fantasy? Well, yes, but it can also be a reality. Because Lana Del Rey’s “Love/ Lust For Life” has been pressed into a red heart vinyl, and we need it ASAP. Urban Outfitters If you need this Lana Del Rey collectible in your life, then you’ll have to hurry. The vinyl, which features “Love” on one side and “Lust For Life” on the other, can be bought at Urban Outfitters ($20.98) — but it’s limited to 5,000 copies, so there’s no time to waste. If this is your sad girl fantasy, then make a move, and make it fast. Since Lana is pretty much Queen of Vinyl — Born to Die was the top-selling U.S. album in 2012, and in 2014, both Born to Die and Ultraviolence were in the Top 10 — then you know this won’t be in stock for long. Urban Outfitters Whether or not you actually own a record player, this record is just #aesthetic in general. We love the old school, vintage kitsch vibe it possesses. If you don’t have a way to play it, you could always hang it on your wall for the vibes. Or simply wait until September, when you can get Lust for Life on cassette. Sounds like a win-win to us.Starting this week, Dell's 240,000 square-foot Oklahoma City campus will be powered by 100-percent wind energy, boosting the company's green power use by 35 percent nationwide and by 20 percent globally. But the PC maker says it has set its sights on a far more ambitious goal -- to become the 'greenest' technology company on the planet! The Oklahoma City facility is gearing up to its part in a partnership with Oklahoma Gas and Electric company that aims to prevent 5,100 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year. By 2015 Dell expects to cut its worldwide operations' emissions by 40 percent. This will be achieved via on-site renewable-energy generation, purchasing renewable energy certificates, and further collaboration with local utilities. "Integrating green power into our operations wherever and whenever possible is a key environmental and business strategy," said Dane Parker, director of environment, health and safety at Dell. "It's critical that our industry take a leadership role in the transition to a green economy. Aggressive energy efficiency and renewable-power targets are essential."The Huguenots of Spitalfields The wooden spools that you see hanging in the streets of Spitalfields indicate houses where Huguenots once resided. These symbols were put there in 1985, commemorating the tercentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes which brought the Huguenots to London and introduced the word ‘refugee’ to the English language. Inspired by the Huguenots of Spitalfields Festival, I set out in search of what other visual evidence remains of the many thousands that once passed through these narrow streets and Dr Robin Gwynn, author of The Huguenots of London, explained to me how they came here. “Spitalfields was the most concentrated Huguenot settlement in England, there was nowhere else in 1700 where you would expect to hear French spoken in the street. If you compare Spitalfields with Westminster, it was the gentry that stayed in Westminster and the working folk who came to Spitalfields – there was a significant class difference. And whereas half the churches in Westminster followed the French style of worship, in Spitalfields they were not interested in holding services in English. The Huguenots were religious refugees, all they needed to do to stop the persecution in France was to sign a piece of paper that acknowledged the errors of John Calvin and turn up at church each Sunday. Yet if they tried to leave they were subject to Draconian punishments. It was not a planned immigration, it was about getting out when you could. And, because their skills were in their hands, weavers could leave whereas those whose livelihood was tied up in property or land couldn’t go. Those who left couldn’t choose where they were going, it was wherever the ship happened to be bound – whether Dover or Falmouth. Turning up on the South Coast, they would head for a place where there were other French people to gain employment. Many sought a place where they could set their conscience at rest, because they may have been forced to take communion in France and needed to atone. The best-known church was “L’Eglise Protestant” in Threadneedle St in the City of London, it dealt with the first wave of refugees by building an annexe, “L’Eglise de l’Hôpital,” in Brick Lane on the corner of Fournier St. This opened in 1743, sixty years after a temporary wooden shack was first built there. There were at least nine other Huguenot Chapels in Spitalfields by then, yet they needed this huge church – it was an indicator of how large the French community was. I don’t think you could have built a French Church of that size anywhere else in Britain at that time.The church was run by elders who made sure the religious and the secular sides tied up so, if you arrived at the church in Threadneedle St, they would send you over to Spitalfields and find you work. It was such a big migration, estimated now at between twenty to twenty-five thousand, that among the population in the South East more than 90% have Huguenot ancestors.“ Sundial in Fournier St recording the date of the building of the Huguenot Church. Brick Lane Mosque was originally built in 1743 as a Huguenot Church, “L’Eglise de l’Hôpital,” replacing an earlier wooden chapel on the same site, and constructed with capacious vaults which could be rented out to brewers or vintners to subsidise running costs. Water head from 1725 at 27 Fournier St with the initials of Pierre Bourdain, a wealthy Huguenot weaver who became Headborough and had the house built for him. The Hanbury Hall in Hanbury St was built in 1719 as a Huguenot Church, standing back from the road behind a courtyard with a pump. The building was extended in 1864 and is now the church hall for Christ Church, Spitalfields. Coat of arms in the Hanbury Hall dating from 1740, when “La Patente” Church moved into the building, signifying the patent originally granted by James II. In Artillery Lane, one of London oldest shop fronts, occupied from 1720 by Nicholas Jourdain, Huguenot Silk Mercer and Director of the French Hospital. Memorial in Christ Church. Memorial in Christ Church. At Dennis Severs’ House in Folgate St. Graffiti in French recently uncovered in a weavers’ loft in Elder St Former Huguenot residence in Elder St. The Fleur de Lis was adopted as the symbol of the Huguenots. Sandys Row Synagogue was originally built by the Huguenots as “L’Eglise de l’Artillerie” in 1766. Sandys Row Photograph copyright © Jeremy Freedman You may also like to take a look at Huguenot Portraits Stanley Rondeau, Huguenot Remembering Jean Rondeau the HuguenotShares Pinterest reddit This is an introduction to my new Muay Thai for MMA series. This is a subject I’m personally interested in and I’ve been meaning to write some in-depth articles about the topic. I’ve trained ‘pure’ MMA for a number of years and while I never competed at a professional level in the sport, I used to compete and do well in the amateur circuit. I’ve also trained and fought Muay Thai up here in Thailand for a number of years, so I feel I have a good perspective of Muay Thai, both from the MMA perspective and from a pure Muay Thai perspective. As a purist in Muay Thai, but one who has also spent time (on the dark side as some Nak Muay would call it) training and competing in MMA, I’ve noticed that while some of Muay Thai’s techniques are represented in MMA world, there is still a LOT of effective Muay Thai weapons that are still underutilized or completely unused in MMA. This, more often than not, is because many MMA fighters do not have enough traditional Muay Thai training (and Muay Thai fights) to confidently apply these techniques against a resisting opponent. But just because you don’t see Muay Thai techniques used in MMA doesn’t mean they can’t work. The Thais, after all, have been utilizing them for nearly a century of ring combat. This series is an attempt to address that shortcoming and introduce to readers some Muay Thai techniques that CAN work effectively in MMA. For other Muay Thai techniques that do make an appearance in MMA, a case will be made for how applying the proper technique (i.e. do the technique more like Thai’s do) can improve the effectiveness of those strikes in MMA matches under certain circumstances. This upcoming series will consist of six articles: Muay Thai for MMA: Introduction (Part 1) Muay Thai vs MMA: The Differences (Part 2) Muay Thai For MMA: Effective Elbow Strikes for MMA (Part 3) Muay Thai For MMA: Landing the Low Kick (Part 4) Muay Thai for MMA: (Real) Thai Clinch Strategies (Part 5) Muay Thai for MMA: Knee Strikes That Work (Part 6) The Popularity of Muay Thai in MMA Muay Thai is the popular choice when it comes to choosing a striking art to MMA because it delivers a huge quantity of striking tools that can be exploited in MMA matches with devastating results. Quite simply, by training Muay Thai over other striking arts for MMA, you get the best ‘bang’ for your buck time-wise by learning how to utilize ALL 8 limbs as weapons in MMA matches. Compare this to a standup art like boxing (which I personally love) and rather than just learn how to punch, you learn how to punch, kick, knee, and elbow — and clinch to boot! Muay Thai’s huge bag of deadly tricks work in standup situations; they’ve been working for centuries for the Thai’s, being tested and improved over and over through countless full contact fights. Muay Thai strikes Work Because They’ve Been Tested…on Thousands of People in thousands of real fights…over centuries Thai Boxing delivers an arsenal that works simply because the stuff that doesn’t deliver results in full contact standup fights has been effectively filtered out of the sport over the many long years Muay Thai has been practiced. Unlike many of the other Martial Arts, Muay Thai is in essence a fighting art MEANT to be used in real fights. If you come train in Thailand, the Thai people often don’t understand that foreigners want to train Muay Thai just for the passion and health benefits it brings to the table. Why? Because Thai’s train Muay Thai is to FIGHT in the rings of Thailand. To train Muay Thai is to fight Muay Thai. Muay Thai Techniques in the Cage Over the (brief) history of Mixed Martial arts we have seen different Muay Thai techniques used by MMA fighters — some more successfully than others. The ‘Thai Clinch/Plum’ (which in fact is NOT the Thai clinch but only one small aspect of the proper Thai clinch game) Elbow Strikes Knees Low Kicks Body Kicks These are all techniques that regularly make appearances in high level MMA fights. As such, each article in this Muay Thai for MMA series will examine ONE of these categories and explore how to BEST implement the different types of strikes in the context of MMA. Not All Muay Thai is The Same If you examine the ‘Muay Thai techniques’ used in MMA (specifically during fights) you’ll see the techniques are often quite different than you see pulled off in pure Muay Thai matches. To those who do not train strict Muay Thai, those differences may not be so obvious. An elbow or a knee or clinch are all ‘Muay Thai’ right? In fact, no. This is not the case. Just because you throw and elbow or a knee or put both hands behind someone’s neck does NOT mean you are doing Muay Thai. It’s not just about what techniques you perform but HOW you perform them. It’s the HOW you perform the techniques, combined with the perfect timing, that deliver the results. Proper technique and perfect timing are two areas that Thai’s learn to master. Both require years of training Muay Thai AND lots of experience fighting. Muay Thai in MMA Doesn’t Look the Same as Muay Thai in Pure Muay Fights There’s solid reasoning as to why the Muay Thai moves pulled off in MMA fights doesn’t (often) look like the Muay Thai you see pulled off in, well, Muay Thai matches. Fighters May Lack Muay Thai Experience MMA fighters typically don’t have the understanding to apply the whole range of Muay Thai techniques in MMA fights because they lack the breadth of experience training and competing under Muay Thai rules that Nak Muay (Muay Thai fighters) have. This can make a difference in HOW you perform the technique and what techniques you are capable (or even know about) of pulling off in a fight. You can’t really compare someone (a typical MMA fighter) who spends two to three sessions a week working on Muay Thai techniques (often from a Muay Thai coach of suspect qualifications who himself has not lived, trained or fought in Thailand) and has zero Muay Thai fights to someone who trains ONLY Muay Thai for 10-20 years straight, 6 days a week, 5-6 hours a day and regularly fights Muay Thai bouts once a month. The typical MMA fighter is at most just touching the surface level of Muay Thai in their MMA training while the Thai’s fully and completely master the art. There IS going to be a very big difference in the level of technique and timing between someone who has NO Muay Thai fights or a handful of them and someone who has had 200-300 fights. As some who has been training up in Thailand full time for a couple years, I can personally verify it takes YEARS of hard training every single day, and many many fights before you actually get decent at Muay Thai. Unless you have that experience and level of practice, it’s hard to pull of the full range of Muay Thai techniques in a fight, be relaxed, and look effortless while you do it. The Thai’s who actually master the sport start training when they are kids and by the time they are in their early teens can have somewhere south of a hundred fights already! Most MMA fights have had 10-20 fights, which is a drop in the bucket compared to Thai boxers. Let me tell you the number of MMA guys coming down to Thai boxing camps in Thailand only to have to completely re-learn EVERY single technique from zero is very high. It happened to me too when I first came. I thought I knew Muay Thai but I quickly found out the variety of Muay Thai I learned during my MMA training was so bastardized it didn’t actually resemble what the Thai’s taught! MMA fighters need to master MORE than just a standup art to actually get anywhere in the MMA world, they simply can’t devote the time required to Muay Thai to become competent in the sport. The ones who are (and there are very very very few in the MMA world who are) have their background in Muay Thai rather than using it as supplemental training. Still, there’s a LOT MMA fighters need to learn from Muay Thai — they are leaving a lot still on the table that can be brought into the MMA world. Some fighters like Jone Jones are introducing ‘new’ techniques to MMA fights that people are unfamiliar with. Or at least attempting them (and granted, the man is able to actually land a good number of them). But if you watch Muay Thai fights in Thailand, you see many of these ‘new’ techniques are regularly used in Muay Thai. Technique Adjustments Muay Thai techniques often need to be adjusted to work effectively for MMA fights. The same techniques work for the same positional situations, but the TIMING of when you can apply those techniques (safely) are (sometimes) different between Muay Thai fights and MMA fights. You can’t simply walk into an MMA fight as a Nak Muay and fight like you do in Muay Thai. You will absolutely lose by getting taken to the ground unless you get lucky. The stance, the movement, and many of the strikes do not lend themselves well to the pace and nature of MMA. But this is an area that’s fertile for improvement for MMA guys. Just because a Muay Thai technique is not often used in MMA does NOT mean it can’t be used. It’s just a matter of timing, of knowing WHEN you should and shouldn’t use it. There is often room for a lot of improvement in the way MMA guys do perform Muay Thai technique which can add more speed and power to the strikes. Different Muay Thai Styles Fighters who do bring a Muay Thai background to MMA might come from one of the different schools of Muay Thai: Traditional, Dutch, or Brazilian. These styles have a different fight philosophy and look quite a bit different at times. Brazilian Muay Thai (Chute Boxe) The most popular style of Muay Thai that appears in MMA. Fighters like Jose Aldo, Anderson Silver, Wanderli Silva, Shogun,and Thiago Alves are all examples of UFC fighters who come from the Brazilian Muay Thai school. This style emphasizes a lot of leg kicks and lots of hands (especially hooks), lots of clinch style knees and lots of pressure. Clinch is not technical as in Thai style and in the context of MMA, it’s used to throw knees to the face. Compared to Traditional Muay Thai, it looks very wild; but this same wildness makes it effective in MMA. Look at Jose Aldo and Thiago Alves for examples of Chute Boxing / Brazilian Muay Thai style used in the UFC. Dutch Muay Thai A style of Muay Thai that incorporates strong boxing with a lot of flurries, footwork, and brutal leg kicks. Very common is a hand combo followed by a leg kick. The Dutch style modifies leg strikes so the the shin is turned in more while the fighter is leans to the side to maximize the chopping force. Dutch Muay Thai is utilized by some strikers in MMA. Look at the legend Ramon Dekkers for a very aggressive, hand-heavy Dutch Muay Thai style: Traditional Muay Thai (Thailand Style) The pure style of Muay Thai as practiced by the Thais and one that incorporates all 8 limbs (elbows, kicks, punches, knees). Emphasis is placed on generating as much power as possible with each strike by torquing the hips. Each kick is with hip torque; Elbows utilize hip torque to add more power to the strike; Knees are thrown with the hips thrust forward. Punches are thrown in simple 1-2 or 1-2-3 combos with the intent to KO but boxing is not emphasized as much as kicking (punches are not scored in matches). Elbows and knees are thrown from various angles and positions (and regularly utilized). Clinch work is highly developed to the point of complete mastery. Movement and defense usually consists of standing, blocking strikes with shins or gloves and trading with your opponent with little in the way of defensive moment. Traditional Muay Thai rarely makes an appearance in MMA because many of the movements need to be modified to work in MMA matches. Look at the a typical style Muay Thai fight: Here’s Cosmo Alexandre, one of the best traditional Muay Thai boxers who has turned to MMA fighting a pure Muay Thai match. Here is Cosmo fighting an MMA match using some Muay Thai. Notice he’s modified his stance, the way he moves and even his strikes for MMA: In our next article, we will look at the specific differences between Muay Thai and MMA Standup. Be sure to read our follow up article, Muay Thai vs MMA: The Differences. If you guys are missing all those image breakdowns I normally give in my articles to clarify points, fear not, the next article is packed with illustrations! 2477HALIFAX - Justice Minister Peter MacKay says the government will introduce its new prostitution legislation well ahead of a December deadline. Speaking in Halifax, MacKay said Ottawa has already started to draft the legislation, but more consultations must happen with police and provincial governments. He wouldn't say when the bill would be introduced, but vowed that it would be "well before" the one-year time frame it was given. The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country's anti-prostitution laws late last year, ruling that laws banning street soliciting, living on the avails and keeping a brothel are unconstitutional. But the court gave the government a year to come up with a new legislative umbrella before the ruling comes in force. That means the current laws will remain in the Criminal Code until December. MacKay said the new legislation will continue to protect women from violence and sexual abuse.Do you like word games? Join over 40 million players and try Ruzzle - the fastest word game on the planet! - Top 10 word game in 145 countries - Over 40 million players - Play with your friends or challenge a random opponent Ruzzle is a free, fun and fast-paced word game. Challenge your friends or random players to find as many words as possible in two minutes. You create words from a given set of letters just by swiping your finger across the screen. Create long words and collect points and bonuses to win. Nice audio and animations make it even more fun to play. Games are played in three rounds, each one when it suits you. Get going as soon as you have two minutes to spare! Ruzzle Premium has a wide range of cool premium features, such as loads of statistics, rankings and more. Choose Ruzzle Premium to remove ads and enjoy premium features. Challenge yourself and your friends in Ruzzle! Ruzzle is played in fourteen languages: English French German Spanish Italian Danish Norwegian Dutch Swedish Brazilian Portuguese Turkish Greek Russian Learn more and check ranking lists at www.ruzzle-game.com Tune in at www.facebook.com/ruzzlegame and twitter.com/ruzzlegameSANTA ANA – A 56-year-old man slashed his throat Wednesday with a razor blade – moments after jurors found him guilty of sexually assaulting a teenager in Huntington Beach. Jeffrey Scott Jones, who was out of custody on bail during the trial, cut his throat in C-28 on the courtroom’s eighth floor just after the verdict had been read, authorities said. UPDATE: How did man who slit his throat sneak razor blade into court? Sheriffs review video footage Deputies rendered first aid and Jones, who was uncooperative, had to be handcuffed, sheriff’s Lt. Mark Stichter said. Jones was transported by paramedics to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries, said Capt. Larry Kurtz of the Orange County Fire Authority. He remained under guard Wednesday afternoon by deputies. The Sheriff’s Department is investigating how Jones managed to bring a razor through a security checkpoint at the court building, Stichter said. Ed Welbourn, who is Jones’ attorney, said he was stunned by the incident. “It was totally unexpected and very unfortunate,” he said. Welbourn said a courtroom clerk had just finished reading the jury’s guilty verdict when Jones suddenly cut himself with a standard razor blade. “I didn’t see it happen, my attention was on the jury, but from what people tell me he had a blade somewhere in his clothing and he pulled it out when the verdicts were read,” he said. Welbourn said Jones’ head hit the table and blood began pouring out of his neck. Courtroom bailiffs rushed to him and called for medical aid. He said his client didn’t show any previous signs of mental distress during the trial: “He was confident in his innocence.” Jones, a Huntington Beach resident, previously taught Advanced Placement English at Libra Academy in Huntington Park. He sexually assaulted a girl between Sept. 1, 2012 and April 30, 2013, prosecutors said. The Register is not specifying her relationship with Jones to avoid identifying a sexual assault victim. Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown had told jurors that a sexual-assault test performed on the girl turned up Jones’ DNA. Since the abuse was reported, the girl has been in youth homes, juvenile hall and has lived on the streets, and at one point was arrested for stealing a bike while attempting to run away, the prosecutor added. The county is offering counseling services available to court employees and jurors who may have witnessed the incident, said Gwen Vieau, spokeswoman for Orange County Superior Court. For his conviction, Jones faces a maximum sentence of 68 years to life when he is sentenced on Nov. 4. Contact the writer: 714-796-7767 sschwebke@scng.com Twitter: @thechalkoutlineAs we told you the other day, liberals are fantasizing over the use of the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office. But can’t Trump just, you know, name a new cabinet? Attn. 25th amendment junkies: if cabinet members circulate notice of impairment can a President fire them,then claim they're not in cabinet? — Jeff Greenfield (@greenfield64) October 12, 2017 “Yep” says elections guru Larry Sabato: Yep. One of the holes in 25. https://t.co/ZF4M7rhc4g — Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) October 12, 2017 Maybe we can focus on what Trump did get done this week, eh? This week in reality: Trump ended CPP, stopped illegal subsidies, enacted market-based health insurance reforms, declined to certify Iran — Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 13, 2017 deal, got out of UNESCO over anti-Semitism, Pakistan freed hostages, Goodell backed down on anthem fight. — Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 13, 2017 But nah: This week in media narrative: chaos, 25th amendment, end is near. Fascinating to observe. — Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 13, 2017 Never change, libs, never change: This sick man has no interest in the safety or well being of American citizens. He must be removed from office via the 25th Amendment TODAY pic.twitter.com/iYD9zMKzu3 — Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 12, 2017 STOP GRANDSTANDING AND PUSH FOR THE 25TH AMENDMENT https://t.co/Lbgti689Rw — Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 12, 2017 *** Related:Few teams have the type of success with undrafted free agents like the Los Angeles Chargers. In fact, at least one has made the final 53-man roster for 20 straight years, which is the longest active streak in the NFL. The past two years have seen four of them make it out of training camp. So, who will be the next to follow in the footsteps of Antonio Gates, Malcom Floyd, Kris Dielman, Jahleel Addae, Tyrell Williams and more? With the 2017 NFL Draft officially in the books, the Bolts have agreed to terms with the following 15 college free agents: TE Sean Culkin – Missouri A massive 6-6, 245-pound tight end, Culkin caught 24 passes as a senior a year ago for Mizzou. Overall, he totaled 61 catches for 601 yards and a pair of TDs over 48 games for the Tigers. C Dillon Deboer – Florida Atlantic The versatile Deboer saw time at tackle, guard and center during his career at Florida Atlantic. As a result, he was voted the team’s Offensive MVP while also being named to the Conference USA Honorable Mention Team. CB Michael Davis – BYU The Glendale, CA native boasts impressive size with a 6-2, 196-pound frame. He started seven games last season for the Cougars, notching 23 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. RB Austin Ekeler – Western State Ekeler’s breakout year came two years ago in 2015, when he led Division II and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in all-purpose yards per game with 203.9 and scoring as a junior. LB Nigel Harris – South Florida The 6-0, 225-pounder posted a career-high 78 tackles and team-leading 9.5 tackles for loss last year for the Bulls. Overall, he totaled 232 tackles, 27 tackles for loss, eight forced fumbles, 5.5 sacks and three interceptions over his four years at South Florida. QB Eli Jenkins – Jacksonville State A 6-2, 210-pound dual-threat quarterback, Jenkins completed 155 of 311 passes last year for 2,107 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also carried the rock 175 times for 984 yards and another 13 touchdowns. Jenkins’ longest completion last season went for 76 yards while his longest run also went for 76. K Younghoe Koo – Georgia Southern Koo became the school’s first FBS All-American, earning third-team honors from Phil Steele. He was a first-team All-Sun Belt pick, ranking second in the country last year in field goal percentage as he connected on 19 of 20 attempts. Overall, Koo set a new school record for career field goal percentage as he connected on 31 of 35 attempts (88.6%). LB Mike Moore – Kansas State Praised for his non-stop motor, Moore appeared in 49 career games for the Wildcats with 16 straight starts to end his career. A feel good story, he underwent a procedure to remove a brain tumor after his first game of 2014 that allowed him to continue his football career. He is fresh off a season in which he ranked second on the team with 75 tackles, including four tackles for loss and three fumble recoveries. LB James Onwualu – Notre Dame A highly regarded playmaker and team captain for the Fighting Irish, the 6-1, 232-pounder was a former wide receiver who made the switch to defense following his freshman year. He set career-highs last season with 76 tackles and 11.5 tackles for loss while also chipping in with three sacks. WR Andre Patton – Rutgers A big 6-3, 210-pound target, Patton caught 33 passes for 460 yards last season as a senior for the Scarlet Knights. His five receiving scores led the team and ranked ninth in the Big Ten. He leaves Rutgers with 90 catches for 1,164 yards and 10 touchdowns in 44 career games. WR Artavis Scott – Clemson First round pick Mike Williams’ bookend at Clemson is joining him in Los Angeles. Scott burst onto the scene in 2014 as a Freshman All-American, catching 76 balls his first season for 965 yards and eight touchdowns. He followed that up with a monster season in 2015, earning first-team All-ACC honors as he caught 93 passes for 901 yards and six touchdowns. Scott played a key role in Clemson’s national championship team last year, hauling in 76 passes for 614 yards and five
occupied shops and offices in Gaza's city centre. Israel – including its Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – has blamed Hamas for the high rate of civilian deaths, insisting Hamas has turned Gazans into "human shields" or suggesting that Palestinians themselves are somehow responsible for not fleeing when the Israeli army has ordered them to. Gaza's residents have a different explanation for why they have fled – and why they haven't. The Gaza Strip is a densely populated enclave – around 1.6 million people in 146 square miles, sealed by both an Egyptian and Israeli blockade. Israel has now ordered some 43% of the territory to be evacuated. The schools that have opened to receive those fleeing are already overcrowded – and many Palestinians in Gaza can recall how in the 2008-09 conflict, even those schools could not guarantee safety. In the first days of the conflict, the Hamas-run ministry of interior issued a statement urging people near the border – who had been told in Israeli leaflet-drops, text messages and phone calls to evacuate – that they should remain in their homes, dismissing the messages as "psychological warfare". In the past week, the Guardian has seen large numbers of people fleeing different neighbourhoods – including Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Shujai'iya, Zeitoun and Maghazy – and no evidence that Hamas had compelled them to stay.. These crowds have joined the ranks of some 102,000 displaced who, according to the UN's figures, have swollen by some 500% in the last five days. The decision whether or not to flee is, in reality, a very difficult and complex process of weighing up often competing safety considerations. "Where you live, you know who your neighbours are and they know you," said one middle class Gaza resident who recently evacuated and asked not to be named. "You know if someone is Hamas or Islamic jihad, if your building might be a target or if there is someone you suspect is an Israeli collaborator in the building, which might make it safer during an Israeli attack. I'm staying with relatives. The first thing I asked before I moved my family is who the neighbours are." Others explained their reluctance to flee their homes with their conviction that nowhere in Gaza is currently safe. Sami Abu Arar has moved with his extended family to a car shop in the centre of Gaza City; a crowd of men were camped in the little office opening onto the street, the women were out of sight upstairs. A hundred metres away, a group of journalists was waiting for a building that had received a warning shot from an Israeli shell to be hit. Another family occupied the barber's shop next door, women and children crowded into the tiny space. "I came from Zeitoun [in the south of Gaza City] three days ago with 30 of our family," Abu Arar explained. "My father owns this place. We came here to stay with our relatives. It's still not safe even here. There are strikes everywhere and you don't know if you'll end up living next to a wanted person who the Israelis want to kill." Asked why he has not gone to one of the UN schools, he responded with a dismissive tutt. "There's no room and nowhere to sleep – they're all full. But if the tanks come in any closer we'll go to one of the schools." A few hundred metres away on Omar Mukhtar Street – in the very centre of Gaza – the body of Inas Derbas hung from a section of concertinaed concrete still clinging to the side of a 10-storey tower block – the Salam Building. She had been living on the fifth floor with 101 other people. The bomb that killed her and six members of her family had sheared an entire side of the block's top five stories clear off. Someone, somehow, had managed to reach her body and cover it with two blankets, one purple and one white. One of her relatives, Mohammed Hussein, stood in the crowd below the block as pieces of concrete continued to tumble down. "They were two families," he said. "They fled from Beit Lahia five days ago because of the fighting there." First they had gone to Shujai'iya – the scene of the heaviest bombardment of the conflict so far, resulting in the highest single death toll. "They stayed there until it was too dangerous, then they came here and rented an apartment." If they had thought they had reached safety – in a place where nowhere is truly safe – they were fatally mistaken.Although the early sequels to Dr No quickly billed themselves as ‘bigger’ than past adventures, nothing quite topped Lewis Gilbert’s three contributions in terms of scale. With new, exclusive interviews with the director himself and legendary production designer Ken Adam, this issue reflects on the grandeur of You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker – what the MI6 Confidential team have cheekily dubbed in-house as the ‘monorail trilogy’. As well as an exhaustive twenty-page production history of the trilogy, we celebrate the life and work of the late Richard Kiel, who played the enigmatic but lovable Jaws in both Spy andMoonraker. Making it ‘big’ really is a theme for this issue! Featured in this issue: The Monorail Trilogy – The Bond films of Lewis Gilbert – The Bond films of Lewis Gilbert You Only Live Twice – From volcano lairs to villainous vixens – From volcano lairs to villainous vixens The Spy Who Loved Me – Nobody does it better than Cubby Broccoli – Nobody does it better than Cubby Broccoli Moonraker – Taking James Bond further than ever before – Taking James Bond further than ever before Supertankers & Space Stations – Sir Ken Adam reflects on designing Bond – Sir Ken Adam reflects on designing Bond Remembering Richard – A tribute to the late, great Jaws actor – A tribute to the late, great Jaws actor Ian & Roald – Fleming’s connection with the author/screenwriter, Roald Dahl – Fleming’s connection with the author/screenwriter, Roald Dahl The Bond Connection – The spy-fi posters of Robert McGinnis Issue #30 is now shipping around the world. To order online, visit www.mi6confidential.com.Having the game slow down is a natural part of player progression from Year 1 to Year 2. For one inside linebacker, the process is hopefully complete by Year 3. That hasn't necessarily been the case for Manti Te'o. The Chargers' second-round pick from 2013 has yet to make it a complete season in the NFL thanks to a pair of foot fractures. He's been relegated to the sidelines while he attempts to keep a steep learning curve on pace. And yet, Te'o doesn't seem concerned. In fact, entering his third training camp, he feels better than ever. "Oh, way faster," Te'o told The Union-Tribune when asked how he's seeing the game. "I can't tell you how much different it is. It feels so comfortable out there, to finally be out there and just play ball." His progress this year will be crucial considering the fact that rookie inside linebacker Denzel Perryman will also be in the mix. San Diego needed upgrades across the board on defense, but especially in its linebacking corps. If the game is indeed slowing down for the former Notre Dame star, defensive coordinator John Pagano will have far less to worry about in 2015. The latest Around The NFL Podcast features the triumphant return of Dan Hanzus and discusses the biggest mysteries heading into training camp.Intel may have made a big splash this week announcing it's going to focus on the mobile market, but its rival in the space says the chip maker has an uphill climb ahead of it. James Bruce, lead mobile strategist for ARM Limited, said in an interview that this isn't the first time Intel has said it's setting its sights on the mobile market. So for now, he's not too worried about Intel's plans. "I think the mobile market is incredibly exciting," said Bruce. "I'd be more surprised if companies did not want to play in the mobile market.... If you look historically, they've been talking about the mobile market for quite some time now. There's been a lot of talk, but I'm waiting very much to see a device ship." During Intel's financial analyst meeting on Monday, CEO Paul Otellini said he is refocusing the company, moving its "center" from PC processors to chips for the burgeoning mobile market. That means Intel will be trying to get a footing in a lucrative market that encompasses smartphones, tablets and netbooks. It also means Intel is putting its considerable might and financial muscle to battle ARM chips, which dominate the mobile market. Actually, dominate might be an understatement. According to Bruce, ARM chips make up a whopping 95% of the cell phone and smartphone market. If you add tablets like Apple's iPad 2 into the mix, ARM would still hold about the same percentage of the mobile market, he added. "At the moment, there are no smartphones shipping with the Atom processor," said Bruce. "Looking at handsets today, [Intel] is not a competitor because there's nothing shipping with it." Intel would like to change that, though. And analysts have said over the past several days that they suspect Intel will be unveiling new mobile chips within a year to 18 months. Bruce said that what matters is seeing something go into production. "I'm sure there are going to be handsets shipping at some point in the future with Atom processors," he acknowledged. "To be honest, from our perspective, proof is really very much in production."103 SHARES Health authorities in New York, Michigan and Minnesota are waiting for the results of tests for elevated levels of chemicals and metals in people who eat lots of Great Lakes fish. Blood and urine from volunteers were tested for PCBs, pesticides, mercury, lead and cadmium, according to the New York Department of Community Health. Each state focused on a community. Michigan tested anglers along the Detroit River and Saginaw Bay. Minnesota tested the Ojibwe tribe near Lake Superior. New York tested licensed anglers and Burmese refugees and immigrants along the Buffalo River, Niagara River, Eighteenmile Creek and the Rochester Embayment on Lake Ontario, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which facilitated the project. These populations were chosen because of their heavy dependence on fish for food, said Phil DeFoe, biomonitoring project manager for the Ojibwe tribe. The three-state program is part of an attempt by the federally-funded Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to find out how chemical and metal levels in people who eat lots of fish compare to the national average. “Nothing has ever been done as far as I know with tribes and levels of environmental contaminants and this was an opportunity for both entities to do something and get baseline data,” DeFoe said. “Since we are so dependent on our environment for fish and hunting, this will be extremely useful.” While all of the results are not back, increased levels of mercury have been already found in Michigan participants. “The average blood mercury levels in our participants that eat a lot of fish are about three times the average published in the National Health and Nutrition survey of the Center for Disease Control,” said Linda Dykema, Michigan’s director of environmental health. Those who volunteered in Michigan’s study were mostly males. But if women of childbearing age have similar numbers, there could be cause for concern for children they give birth to, Dykema said. The news isn’t all bad. Mercury and lead in Minnesota fisheaters were lower than the U.S. and Canadian averages, DeFoe said. DeFoe said he believes the different results could be due to some major differences in sizes of the lakes tested and the closer proximity of lakes tested in Michigan to industrial communities where pollution is more likely. “We tested the lake that had the highest levels of fish consumption,” DeFoe said. “If that lake would have been the St. Louis River, those are the people who would have shown higher levels of contaminants. Most people are educated and know which lakes are safer to get their fish from.” To participate in Michigan’s study you had to be 18 years or older and eat more than two meals of fish from the Great Lakes each month, Dykema said. Participants averaged 11 meals of fish per month. Testing began for all three states in January 2013. The Minnesota Health Department tested 491 members of the Ojibwa tribe. It was the only study in which the tribe owned the data and was in charge of how the research was done, DeFoe said. In New York, participants had to be 18 and older, have a New York State fishing license and eat fish caught in the Great Lakes. What started in 2010 as a three-year project got repeatedly pushed back and has now become a five-year project, Dykema said. “We started our fieldwork in the Spring 2013,” Dykema said. “We do not have all of the data back from the laboratories yet.” The New York Department of Community Health tested 600 anglers between February and October of 2013, said Jeffrey Hammond, the agency’s public affairs officer. The results will be available in late 2014 or early 2015. “The first step is to let participants know what their levels of each thing are and how they compare to the national average,” Dykema said. There is no official level of these contaminants that makes a person sick, she said. The department would counsel people on how to make better choices on fish consumption. In New York, the levels of chemicals and metals in each person will be grouped together to help determine how the health department will modify fish consumption advisories and what policies they will come up with to reduce levels of these contaminants in the Great Lakes, according to the health department’s handout. The latest advisories on fish consumption in New York can be found on the state Department of Environmental Conservation website. The Ojibwa tribe in Minnesota has similar plans. “The biggest thing for us is coming up with an action plan and educating our members,” DeFoe said. “All we have to go on is our blood levels and our biggest message right now is to eat fish but safely and abide by the health department and tribe fish advisories.”America’s multiracial population is growing three times faster than its overall population, and is likely to be young and proud of its heritage, according to Pew Research Center's latest study released Thursday. The study, conducted online between Feb. 6 and April 6, 2015, estimates that 6.9 percent of the population of the United States is of mixed-race heritage. "And when we look at the number of babies being born that are multiracial and the rise in interracial marriage, we can see that not only is it continuing to grow but the growth could accelerate in the future," Kim Parker, Pew social trends research director, told the Associated Press (AP). Although the majority of the multiracial population describes itself as being proud of its background and feels that its racial heritage makes it more culturally sensitive, it has also been subjected to racial slurs or jokes, the study found. However, those of mixed American-Indian and white heritage, who make up half of the mixed-race population of the U.S., were subjected to racism less often than other mixed-race groups. They were also significantly more likely to be conservative Republicans than other multiracial people. The study indicates that the population of this group is likely to decrease as the majority of mixed-race children born in 2012 and 2013 were either biracial black and white, or white and Asian. Pew says that 36 percent of mixed-race children born in 2012 were biracial black and white, and 24 percent were biracial white and Asian, compared to only 12 percent biracial white and American-Indian children. The multiracial population of America is also significantly younger than the rest of the country, with almost half (46 percent) below the age of 18, compared to only 23 percent of the overall U.S. population. In 1970, among babies living with two parents, only 1 percent had parents with different racial backgrounds. This number rose to 10 percent in 2013. Although the proportion of people choosing to identify themselves as multiracial is growing, the Pew report finds that racial identity can be fluid for some people over the course of their lives. Thirty percent of multiracial adults said they did not think of themselves as multiracial at some point in their lives. A 2014 study, published in the journal Cell, found that as many as six million Americans who identify as white have black racial heritage and an additional five million self-identified whites have American-Indian ancestry. “Being multiracial is not just a sum of the races in your family tree," Parker told the AP. "It's also part of experiences and upbringing and it also can be fluid and change over the life course or when an individual is in a certain set of circumstances."Image caption Mrs Robinson's family said she became frightened and cried when they tried to leave the home A care assistant has been jailed for the "sickening" mistreatment of an 89-year-old woman whose family recorded the abuse on a hidden camera. Emma Bryan, 29, hit and shook Ivy Robinson and verbally abused her at Oakfoss House Residential Care Home in Pontefract, Leeds Crown Court heard. Bryan, of Harewood Avenue, Pontefract, was jailed for four months. Colleague Katherine Wallis, 45, was given a 12-month community order after also admitting neglect. The care home's owner said after the hearing it was "devastated" to learn of the ill-treatment and had immediately contacted police. Words cannot express how sorry I am to the resident and family involved Gaynor Saunders, Denestar Limited Bryan admitted five counts of wilful neglect or ill-treatment while Wallis, of Rhyl Street, Featherstone, admitted one count of the same offence. The court heard the pair dragged Mrs Robinson across her bedroom floor which made her scream in pain before Wallis threatened her with violence. The elderly woman's family captured the five days of abuse in November last year on a CCTV camera concealed in an alarm clock after they noticed she was bruised and traumatised. Richard Butters, prosecuting, said Bryan was filmed swearing at Mrs Robinson and calling her a "horrible old lady". The footage also revealed she had failed to give Mrs Robinson her medicine properly and showed her striking her before swearing at her again. The judge described Bryan and Wallis's actions as "unforgivable and unacceptable neglect and ill-treatment". Following the sentencing, Mrs Robinson's daughter and son-in-law, Angela and Simon Wood, said: "To see what Mum was subjected to sickened and horrified us, this will never leave our memories; moreover we feel as though we have let Mum down. 'Abhorrent' behaviour "The decision to install the CCTV came as a last resort and was a culmination of various incidents over a period of months that could not be explained by staff at Oakfoss. "The final trigger was when Mum became agitated and frightened when it came time for us to leave on an evening. "She would cry and ask us not to leave. No one knows how long this abuse and neglect had been going on for." The couple said Mrs Robinson may be moved out of Oakfoss House, dependent on a medical assessment, and they were considering taking legal action against the home's owner, Denestar Limited. Gaynor Saunders, the company's managing director, said: "Providing our residents with excellent care and quality of life is my number one priority. "I was devastated to learn that two long-standing, experienced employees who'd been given extensive training in caring for and safeguarding elderly and vulnerable people had behaved in such an abhorrent way. "I immediately notified the police, social services and the Care Quality Commission and have worked closely with them to ensure the former employees involved face the severest of consequences for their actions. "Words cannot express how sorry I am, to the resident and family involved, that they have suffered at the hands of people who ignored their duty to provide care and show kindness and respect to someone who was entitled to expect this."A must-read Los Angeles Times story by Neela Banerjee demonstrates that – once again – the Obama administration put the kibosh on a key Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) groundwater contamination, this time in Dimock, Pennsylvania. Though EPA said Dimock’s water wasn’t contaminated by fracking in a 2012 election year desk statement, internal documents obtained by LA Times reporter Neela Banerjee show regional EPA staff members saying the exact opposite among friends. “In an internal EPA PowerPoint presentation…staff members warned their superiors that several wells had been contaminated with methane and substances such as manganese and arsenic, most likely because of local natural gas production,” writes Banerjee. “The presentation, based on data collected over 4 1/2 years at 11 wells around Dimock, concluded that ‘methane and other gases released during drilling (including air from the drilling) apparently cause significant damage to the water quality.’ The presentation also concluded that ‘methane is at significantly higher concentrations in the aquifers after gas drilling and perhaps as a result of fracking [hydraulic fracturing] and other gas well work,” Banerjee further explained. It’s essentially a repeat of Steve Lipsky’s water contamination by Range Resources in late-2010 in Weatherford, Texas. In that case, EPA conducted a taxpayer funded study, determined Range had contaminated his water, sued Range – and then proceeded todrop the suit and censor the study in March 2012. EPA also recently kicked the can down the road on a high-profile fracking groundwater contamination study in Pavillion, Wyoming, originally set to come out in 2014. That release is now expected in 2016, another election year. Just days after EPA’s decision, aDuke University study again linked fracking to groundwater contamination in theMarcellus Shale. “We don’t know what’s going on, but certainly the fact that there’s been such a distinct withdrawal from three high-profile cases raises questions about whether the EPA is caving to pressure from industry or antagonistic members of Congress,” Kate Sinding of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) told the LA Times. Ed Rendell and Friends At Work Again? Located in the heart of the Marcellus Shale basin, Dimock was featured prominently in both “Gasland” documentaries, as well as in “FrackNation,” the industry-funded filmcreated to counter Josh Fox’s films, produced and directed by climate change deniersPhelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. In the case of “FrackNation,” McAleer used EPA’s desk statement for propaganda purposes. He portrayed Craig and Julie Sautner – whose water was contaminated by Cabot Oil and Gas – as “crying wolf” for expressing anger that EPA privately told them their water was contaminated, then publicly stated that it wasn’t. The Sautners aren’t alone in their frustration, however, and they’re in good company. “What’s surprising is to see this data set and then to see EPA walk away from Dimock,” Robert Jackson, co-author of the June 2013 Duke study that included Dimock water samples, told the LA Times. “The issue here is, why wasn’t EPA interested in following up on this to understand it better?” Jackson raises the million dollar question: Who from the industry pressured USEPA to censor the actual results of the Dimock study? In Steve Lipsky’s case it was former head of the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell. Rendell – tied to the shale gas industry via Ballard Spahr LLP law firm and venture capital firms Element Partners and Greenhill & Co. – privately lobbied EPA to shut down its study and lawsuit centered on Lipsky’s groundwater contaminated by the Pennsylvania-headquartered Range Resources. His lobbying proved successful, likely in part due to three of his former aides now working as industry lobbyists. [cont’d.] One of those lobbyists is K. Scott Roy, Rendell’s former “top advisor.” Roy not only lobbies for Range Resources, but also sits on the Executive Board of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. Prior to serving in the Rendell administration and becoming a fracking lobbyist, Roy worked in the office of former PA Republican Governor Tom Ridge, who went on to serve as “strategic advisor” to the Marcellus Shale Coalition in 2012. Did Roy contact his old boss Ed Rendell and request the Obama Administration step away from the Dimock study? That’s a question for a follow-up investigation. Dereliction of Duty, or Par For The Course? By law, the EPA is tasked to investigate groundwater contamination cases and punish violators of the law with criminal sentences. Instead, the industry has run roughshod over communities nationwide, letting polluters go free with no EPA accountability. “Our federal government has a responsibility to protect the citizens in communities that are suffering consequences from fracking and to give them the full facts,” wrote the NRDC’s Kate Sinding in a blog post. [cont’d.] “It owes it to the American people to fully and fairly investigate every case that can help to answer some of the vexing scientific questions as to whether, and if so how, fracking and related activities contaminate drinking water. Sadly, EPA’s recent pattern of activity suggests neither has been happening.” In the military, dereliction of duty is a serious crime, but for upper-level EPA staffers, it seems to just be business as usual. Photo by William Avery Hudson under Creative Commons licenseWell, that escalated quickly. Barely five months removed from his role as Air Force Chief of Staff, retired Gen. Mark Welsh has reportedly accepted a board membership with Northrop-Grumman, the nation’s third largest defense contractor. There he’ll fatten his personal holdings by hocking galactically priced gadgets for a company that grosses nearly $30B in annual weapon sales. How will he be successful? Easy. By employing his personal influence with basically every general officer and senior civilian in the Air Force. After all, he promoted most of them. By calling upon personal and professional loyalty to secure meetings, generate conversations, and basically weasel his way into the daily discourse of the service he led. This is precisely why he was hired. He’s a professional salesman already, having successfully slung bureaucratic bullshit for decades. If he can do that, surely he can get Grumman an extra 5% return on already overpriced technology. Whether the nation needs the technology, whether it is the best technology, and whether it actually works as advertised … these questions are irrelevant. The military-industrial complex doesn’t operate on rational measurements. It operates on influence, which is why a star-wearing bullshit artist like Mark Welsh is the ultimate prize. Some of you are asking “how is this legal?” And you should be. It makes no sense that a member of the joint chiefs can retire and walk right back through the revolving door in less than six months. But sadly, federal law doesn’t prohibit what Welsh is doing. 41 USC Sec. 2101-2107, also known as the Procurement Integrity Act, intends to prohibit undue influence of just this sort, barring certain retired defense employees from receiving compensation from contractors for at least one year after leaving DoD. But the letter of the law only bars those who personally made procurement decisions. It leaves the door ajar for those who shaped, influenced, set the conditions for, and manufactured procurement decisions, but didn’t actually sign them with a blue or black pen. The door being ajar, plenty of generals are more than willing to coat themselves in enough slippery slime to glide right on through. But in a sense, legality is the lesser inquiry. We should be asking “is this ethical?” Clearly it isn’t. But then again, Mark Welsh never gave a toss for ethics. He gave the service “top marks” for ethics amid a gross display of decisional filthiness that broke the confidence of Congress in the Air Force’s ability to police sexual assault. Airmen continue to pay the price for that. He protected and promoted fighter pilot cronies who demonstrated toxicity and lawlessness. The likes of James Post, Brian Hastings, and Robin Rand all ascended in stature under Welsh’s guiding hand despite his direct knowledge they’d behaved unethically and often illegally. From his Chief of Staff bully pulpit, he encouraged the trampling of individual rights, telling wing commanders airmen had no expectation of privacy at any time on any communication medium. The icing on this unethical shitcake was his blatant lie about morale before the Senate Armed Services Committee … an acid-dripping whopper for which the service’s sycophantic E-9 mafia rewarded him with pro forma regalia amid a mercilessly punctuated and crocodile-tear-laden goodbye. This served as evidence of the organizational sickness that metastasized during Welsh’s neglectful tenure. We’ve since learned that he never reviewed his own morale survey, conveniently misplacing it in the bureaucratic shuffle … and that he was simply repeating string-doll talking points from four years previous. Most telling, Welsh led the charge to falsely frame the A-10 in an effort to free up more grimy cash for the F-35. When he sat in judgment for this in the Senate, he must have already realized none of what was happening mattered … because he’d certainly be invited to at least one corporate board immediately after retirement. Welsh successfully auditioned for this new job, and is now being richly rewarded. This just reinforces everything negative airmen believe about general officers. That they make decisions with post-retirement jobs in mind. That they care more about the defense business than the Air Force’s mission and people. That they themselves have been captured by the defense industry and its massive, relentless influence operation. But most damningly, that generals are insincere politicians and not to be trusted. All those years, Mark Welsh repeated talking points about knowing the story behind every airman and being willing to die for those wearing the same uniform. But time and again, when the chips were down, he did what was best for Lockheed, Boeing, and Northrop rather than what was best for his own flock. His pitiful tenure as CSAF, chased by his hiring as a defense lobbyist, underscores that what’s best for big defense business is not always or even usually in the best interest of airmen or the squadrons they comprise. The Mark Welsh Air Force is a crumpled, smoldering heap. The one thing it has left to give is money. Entered Northrop-Grumman and its newest board member. Congress will never fix the larger problem illustrated here. But it can and should innovate a solution to this particular problem by passing a law prohibiting Mark Welsh from participating in any contract upon which he coordinated as CSAF. This should include the $80B B-21 program, which he hot-walked through Congress during his time in the seat. Of course, Congress won’t do this. It’ll simply and silently congratulate a fellow politician on managing to cash in on decades of loyalty … to the defense industry.Imagine having to choose between putting food on the table or buying necessary medication. Research suggests this is the case for one in 10 Canadians who can’t afford to fill their prescriptions. Canada is the only country with universal health care that does not also have universal drug coverage. Even for those who do have private or public drug coverage, there are discrepancies in what and who is covered from province to province. Canadians also pay more for drugs than citizens in almost any other Western nation. These are just a few of the arguments that have reignited calls for a national pharmacare program. It is not a new concept, but one that is gaining traction as leaders are turning over every stone to “bend the cost curve” in health care downward. In a recently published study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), health economists and researchers concluded a universal drug program could actually save Canadians billions of dollars. Great savings are achieved by pooling provincial and territorial needs and resources to increase buying power, eliminate duplication and establish a platform for collaboration and cost-sharing. If health-care leaders are looking for proof that provinces and territories can do more together than they can on their own when it comes to the provision of life-saving and enhancing drug therapies, they need look no further than the blood system they created close to 20 years ago. Many are aware that since its creation in 1998, Canadian Blood Services has been in the business of collecting, processing and distributing blood components in all provinces and territories outside Quebec. But few realize we have also been running a national formulary of biological drugs, providing universal and equitable access to plasma-derived medicine at no cost to patients for nearly two decades Our organization has sole responsibility for managing a national portfolio of plasma-derived products and their synthetic alternatives worth about $500 million a year. These life-saving pharmaceuticals are used to treat people with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders, patients with inherited and acquired immune disorders, burn and trauma victims, and many others. A national, scalable, cost-shared infrastructure and logistics network ensures the right product get to the right patient, at the right time. Our approach to managing this drug portfolio is based on best practices in public tendering. This means we provide a competitive, transparent mechanism to achieve best pricing. In fact, governments are benefiting from Canadian Blood Services’ success in negotiating an estimated $600 million in savings over five years through 2018 — a testament to the value of pan-Canadian buying power and proof of concept of one of the arguments in the CMAJ study. Some detractors of tendering suggest it can put supply at risk by placing all the purchaser’s eggs in that one proverbial basket. However, in our process, we avoid single-sourcing whenever possible, not only to encourage competitive pricing, but to ensure security of supply. Carrying multiple brands of a product, purchasing them in smaller, diverse lots, and negotiating a dedicated and guaranteed “safety stock” are all measures we take to mitigate risks to supply disruption. We have also focused on product choice by incorporating stakeholder (physician and patient) input where appropriate in our tendering processes. Through our medical directors, we provide expert advice when a physician has a patient-based issue that could benefit from an additional specialist perspective — added value for patients and health systems. We also independently qualify new suppliers and audit them periodically, adding another layer of vigilance and product safety for patients. We are often aware early on of supplier issues in bringing products to market or maintaining adequate Canadian supplies, which helps to mitigate the risk of shortages. Because of our governance structure, once a plasma-derived drug is accepted in our portfolio, it becomes available in all jurisdictions. This practice effectively reduces geographic or financial barriers to care, and is consistent with the principles of universal access informing the Canada Health Act and medicare. Equitable access also encourages consistency of practice, and fosters pan-Canadian dialogue on best practices for optimal product utilization. Canadian Blood Services collaborates with health-system leaders, including governments, transfusion medicine physicians and others, to help ensure appropriate utilization and to further control costs. By offering our experience, we are not proposing Canadian Blood Services should bulk-purchase other drugs or that our model is a “cookie cutter” solution to apply to national pharmacare, in part or in whole. Rather, we are suggesting there are important lessons from our 17 years’ experience that can be leveraged, and that a national drug program is not only possible — it is already being done, with significant benefits to patients and health system funders. A system that ensures no Canadian patient is left unable to afford life-saving medication, while at the same time driving down system costs, is not only good politics, it’s good policy. National Post Dr. Graham Sher is CEO of Canadian Blood Services.Words have consequences. I know that because one of my tweets asking "when Sam Bacile would be arrested" drew wide attention on Wednesday. OUR VIEW: Attacks require careful response My initial tweet about Bacile, the person said to be responsible for the film mocking the prophet Mohammed, was not because I am against the First Amendment. My tweets reflected my exasperation that as a religion professor, it is difficult to teach the facts when movies such as Bacile's Innocence of Muslims are taken as both truth and propaganda, and used against innocent Americans. If there is anyone who values free speech, it is a tenured professor! So why did I tweet that Bacile should be in jail? The "free speech" in Bacile's film is not about expressing a personal opinion about Islam. It denigrates the religion by depicting the faith's founder in several ludicrous and historically inaccurate scenes to incite and inflame viewers. Even the film's actors say they were duped. Bacile's movie is not the first to denigrate a religious figure, nor will it be the last. The Last Temptation of Christ was protested vigorously. The difference is that Bacile indirectly and inadvertently inflamed people half a world away, resulting in the deaths of U.S. Embassy personnel. Rate the debate Bacile's movie does not excuse the rioting in Libya and Egypt, or the murder of Americans. That is deplorable. Unfortunately, people like Bacile and Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who provoked international controversy by burning copies of the Quran, have a tremendous impact on religious tolerance and U.S. foreign policy. USATODAY OPINION About Editorials/Debate Opinions expressed in USA TODAY's editorials are decided by its Editorial Board, a demographically and ideologically diverse group that is separate from USA TODAY's news staff. Most editorials are accompanied by an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature that allows readers to reach conclusions based on both sides of an argument rather than just the Editorial Board's point of view. Case in point: Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Jones on Wednesday to ask him to stop promoting Bacile's film. Clearly, the military considers the film a serious threat to national security. If the military takes it seriously, there should be consequences for putting American lives at risk. While the First Amendment right to free expression is important, it is also important to remember that other countries and cultures do not have to understand or respect our right. My condolences and prayers go out to the families of the U.S. Embassy employees killed in Libya. Anthea Butler is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania.The Trump administration on Wednesday announced new proposed rules for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare—and while they "don't amount to sweeping changes," the tweaks are predicted to raise costs for consumers while benefiting insurance companies and further undermining the critical healthcare law. A proposal from the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) "would change the rules for insurers that sell coverage through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges or directly to individuals," as the Huffington Post explained. Among other things, HHS seeks to "dramatically" shorten the 2018 open enrollment period and tighten enrollment eligibility "to deter people from waiting to sign up for insurance until they get sick or otherwise need health services," CNBC reported. The Washington Post added that "the changes would eliminate federal reviews of whether health plans in the ACA marketplaces have enough doctors and other
Clippers finished tied for 4th in defensive efficiency last season, in no small part due to the second unit’s surprising competency on that end. Both Aldrich and Josh Smith were excellent rim protectors and defensive anchors (although Smith struggled with everything else). Marreese Speights is many things. He’s a beautiful and complicated human being. But he’s not a rim protector, nor is he the man you want in the middle on defense. Let other teams put him into pick-and-roll situations with Jamal Crawford and the results won’t be pretty. Austin Rivers, Brandon Bass, and Wesley Johnson are all average to above-average defenders, but they can only cover for so much. The Clippers will probably still finish with a top-10 defense overall on the strength of their starters, but it’s hard to see them matching last year’s mark. The Clippers may also struggle with rebounding again. Under Doc, they’ve mostly forsaken the offensive glass in favor of tougher transition defense, but last year they struggled at getting defensive boards too (finishing a putrid 28th in DREB%). Some of that will improve with more Blake and less smallball in the starting lineup, but again it’s the bench that might be their weakness. Doc played a lot of small bench lineups last year with three-guard lineups and Wes Johnson at the 4, something we’ll likely see a lot of this year too. Unless they play a lot of two-big lineups with Bass and Speights, that’ll lead to continued issues with allowing second-chance opportunities. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten the Clippers’ most-glaring and well-known weakness: the lack of a good-to-very-good two-way wing player. While Mbah a Moute is a borderline elite defender who stifled guys anywhere from C.J. McCollum to LaMarcus Aldridge last year, his offensive game is equally abysmal. He’s an even worse offensive player than either Tony Allen or Andre Roberson; Allen at least has some ballhandling skills, and Roberson is an off-ball threat cutting to the rim for easy alley-oops. LRMAM is a fine option in the regular season, but he’ll get schemed off the floor easily in the playoffs unless he’s a smallball 4 coming off the bench. Wes Johnson blossomed last year as a help defender, but his on-ball defense doesn’t match up — and the latter is far more important when the best teams in the West start Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard at the 3. He doesn’t offer much offensively apart from being a good shooter from the corners. Alan Anderson might crack the rotation, but he’ll be 34 by the time the season starts, coming off a litany of injuries last year in Washington (where he was only healthy for 13 games). He’s smaller and probably worse defensively than the other aforemtioned SF options. He’s not more than an average outside shooter either, although he has slightly more off-the-bounce game than LRMAM and Johnson. The paucity of reliable wing options isn’t a fatal flaw for competing with non-Warriors teams, but it does set a hard ceiling for them at the Western Conference Finals (but to be fair, Golden State would probably still be favored even if the Clippers had Paul George starting at 3). 4. What are the goals for this team? The biggest goal for the Clippers during the season will be finally cracking the second-round seal and making the WCF. And while they’ve fallen short the past few years, apart from Golden State the West is wide open for the Clippers this season. Did they get demonstrably better this offseason? Maybe not (unless you count returning a healthy Blake Griffin). But they didn’t need to. Durant leaving OKC took the Thunder out of the title picture, and the Spurs are bound to regress with roster turnover and an aging core around Kawhi. San Antonio is the only real competition for 2nd-best in the West, and the Clippers match up very favorably with them. Los Angeles has never finished with a top-2 seed before, and they learned firsthand in 2014 and 2015 how important having home-court advantage in the second round is. If they bounce back to another 56+ win season, the 2 seed is a very real possibility. The Clippers might finally be able to escape the ignoble distinction of being perhaps the best team ever to never make a Conference Finals. If they get that far they shouldn’t be expected to beat Golden State, but being able to take them to 6 or even 7 games would make for an extremely successful season. More importantly, putting up a fight against the Warriors would go miles towards keeping Paul, Griffin, and Redick this offseason. That’s the biggest goal the Clippers have this year — keeping together the core responsible for dragging this formerly sadsack organization into relevancy and contention. 5. Who are the most overrated and underrated players on this team? Jamal Crawford is currently the most overrated player on the Clippers. Although savvier fans are aware that he’s a flawed player well into his waning days at age 36, many still don’t realize how inefficient he is offensively and how poor he is defensively. That’s clear from the fact that he somehow won a record third Sixth Man of the Year award last season (I love Jamal, but obviously other players deserved it more than he did). Whether he can transition into a smaller, lower-usage role this season could make or break the Clippers bench. As for underrated, in years past I might have gone with J.J. Redick. But a lot of ink was spilled last season about his impact on the floor and his value to the Clippers, as he led the league in 3P% and had his third straight career year in L.A. The other choice would have been DeAndre Jordan, whose offensive contributions are still criminally overlooked in some circles in favor of haranguing him over his free throws and wondering why he hasn’t tried shooting it underhand (as if that method has yielded results for anyone for anyone other than Rick Barry, one of the league’s all-time great shooters and one of its all-time great pricks). But Jordan was FIRST TEAM ALL-NBA last season, and should benefit from the Team USA effect this year after a great summer in Rio, where he started in the knockout rounds and was America’s best player in the semifinal victory over Spain. The Clippers’ most underrated player right now is Austin Rivers. Even after his incredibly gutsy performance in Game 6 against the Blazers, many fans still think he’s only on the team due to nepotism (a tired and incorrect narrative). He’s the youngest player in the rotation, and the only one we can expect significant improvement from this season (I ranked him #5 in my Clippers player rankings for this season). He became a legitimately good perimeter defender last season, shot 40% from three after Christmas on 3.1 attempts per game, and showed an ability to get to the rim and finish at a high percentage. At age 24, he’s still on an upward trajectory, and could become the Clippers’ best bench player as soon as this season. I expect to see a lot more of him at the 3 in crunchtime this year. 6. Can the Clippers finally avoid a slow start this season? Under Doc Rivers, the Clippers have always ended the season strong, peaking in March and April going into the playoffs. They haven’t started the same way the last two seasons, looking lethargic and morose in plodding commencements to the ‘15 and ‘16 seasons. Last year was a new low point, as they dropped seven of nine in ugly fashion after a remarkably uninspiring 4-0 start. But they at least had the excuses of major roster turnover and lack of cohesion, justifications that won’t hold weight this year. The opening schedule this year isn’t a killer, but there aren’t many cupcakes early on and very few chances for the team to catch its breath in November and December. 7. Whither to, Brice Johnson? When the Clippers took Johnson with the 25th pick this year, many expected him to crack the rotation as a rookie, including his coach. But Doc Rivers didn’t anticipate both Speights and Brandon Bass being available at the minimum this summer, and suddenly Johnson became buried on the bench like Reggie Bullock and C.J. Wilcox before him. Now Johnson will probably spend more of his rookie year in the D-League than in the NBA, alongside fellow rookie Diamond Stone. Here’s hoping he gets a few meaningful minutes here and there — he brings a tantalizing combination of skill and athleticism and could develop into a really good rotation player within a few seasons if given the chance to spread his wings. Prediction: After years of heartache and pain, the Clippers finally break through. They tie the franchise record set in 2014 with a 57-25 record, good enough for the 2nd seed this year, before winning their first-round series decisively and beating the Spurs in the second round. Although they’re no match for Golden State, they push the Warriors to six games, giving them their toughest challenge of the postseason. Buoyed by a successful year, both Chris Paul and Blake Griffin opt out next summer and re-sign max contracts with the Clippers. And they all live happily ever after. Further Reading For more Clippers takes, follow our staff on Twitter — Editor-in-Chief Lucas Hann, Robert Flom, and Taylor Smith are all great follows. Also check out Rob’s recent opus on the power of narrative in the NBA. Our ongoing player preview series began last week and continues today with a breakdown of Mo Speights from our resident humorist Matt Heller. I also recently power ranked the entire roster — click here for Parts One (#15-#11), Two (#10-#6), and Three (#5-#1). And you can always learn something from our Film Room series. Here’s the most recent installment, from Caden Kinard. Stick with us today for full coverage of Clippers Media Day. Keep up with all of our work by following us on Twitter or Facebook.FILE- In this Oct. 10, 2016, file photo, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray speaks at a celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day in Seattle, Wash. On Thursday, April 6, 2017, Murray was sued by a man who claimed Murray abused him 30 years ago when he was a teenager. Murray's personal spokesman, Jeff Reading, said in a statement that the allegations are false, politically motivated and that Murray would fight them. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Friday that sex abuse allegations made against him are "simply not true," and that he won't resign and will continue seeking re-election. "To be on the receiving end of such untrue allegations is very painful for me," Murray said at a brief appearance where he delivered a short statement. "These allegations dating back to a period of more than 30 years are simply not true... I will continue to be mayor." He did not take questions from reporters. A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses Murray, who is finishing his first term, of sexually molesting a teenage high-school dropout in the 1980s. In interviews with The Seattle Times, two other men claim he abused them. Murray was elected mayor in 2013 after a long career in the Legislature, where he led efforts to legalize gay marriage in the state. As mayor he pushed to increase the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour and address the homelessness crisis in Seattle. In the lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court, a 46-year-old man, identified only by the initials, D.H., said Murray "raped and molested him" over several years, beginning in 1986 — when he was 15 and addicted to crack cocaine and when Murray was in his early 30s. The man said he met Murray on a city bus, and Murray invited him back to his apartment, propositioning him for sex and haggling over the price. Murray paid him $10 to $20 for each of at least 50 encounters over the next four to five years, the lawsuit said. On Friday, Lincoln Beauregard, the lawyer representing D.H., sent a letter to the mayor's attorney, offering to make D.H. available for a video deposition as soon as next week. "D.H. is anxious to respond to your public allegations of wrongful motive," Beauregard wrote. Beauregard said they want to depose Murray in May. The Times also reported (http://bit.ly/2oOAwXY ) that two other men said they knew Murray when they lived in a Portland, Oregon, center for troubled children. Jeff Simpson and Lloyd Anderson accused Murray of abusing them in the 1980s and paying them for sex and said they'd be willing to testify about it, the Times said. The Times said one of them talked with a social worker and detective at the time. Multnomah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Don Rees told The Associated Press an entry in an old case-tracking system shows the office rejected a third-degree sodomy case against Murray in 1984. Sgt. Pete Simpson of the Portland Police Bureau said the department has found no records linking either man to Murray. Before his political career, Murray — one of seven children in an Irish Catholic family — considered the priesthood. He spent a year at a seminary in 1976 before studying sociology at the University of Portland, a private Catholic institution, according to news profiles. Having sex with a child under 16 — the age of legal consent in Washington in 1986 and today — constitutes rape of a child under state law. The statute of limitations on any crime would have expired long ago. ___ Associated Press writers Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington, Steven DuBois and Kristena Hansen in Portland, Oregon, and Phuong Le in Seattle contributed to this report.In his radio talk show today, Bill O’Reilly blew up at some of his usual recent targets, like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. But he also notably excoriated President Bush and his fellow conservative radio hosts, guys with whom most people assume O’Reilly identifies. The entire tape is after the jump, but here are his best lines: • “Most talk radio is conservative-dominated, ideologue, Kool-Aid–drinking idiots.” • “It’s Clinton’s fault? Clinton hasn’t been in office in eight years. It’s Bush’s fault!” • “These [conservative talk] idiots are misleading you, they’re lying to you.” • “Walk away from these liars, these right-wing liars. They’re not looking out for you.” • “Barney Frank … disgusting. Pointing fingers. It’s you, you big fat toad!” • “If they were in this room right now, I’d hit them, Dodd and Frank.” We might have just shed a tear. Bill O’Reilly: This Is Bush’s Fault [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]This is one of ten pieces I did for the new Star Wars Essential Guide to Warfare. I had a blast working on it and I'm excited that I am able to contribute to the Star Wars universe.I will be posting them in the order of sequence as it appears in the book. Hope you guys enjoy them!An aerial panoramic view of the famous Battle of Grassy Plains in Ep 1. It was very tedious to paint hordes of Gungans and Battle Droids plus I had to make sense of the troop formations but it all turned out well in the end.Copyright of Lucasfilm Ltd.Published by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.You can get the book here >> [link]Get the biggest Manchester City 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 Manchester City are in the hunt for Monaco midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia, according to his agent. The 22-year-old rising French star is one of Europe's hottest young properties, and has been watched by all of the top clubs. “The player appeals to a lot of clubs around Europe,” said his agent Jonathan Benbaron. “In addition to interest from Inter, there’s also Juventus, Manchester City and Real Madrid. A lot of teams have contacted us, but I can’t reveal how far along the various talks are. “Will he leave this summer? Everything is possible in football.” Six ft two ins Kondogbia can also play as a central defender and at left back, and has earned three caps for his country.When Dr. Eriko Onishi came to the United States from her home country of Japan, she ended up with culture shock on the number of opioids being prescribed. Onishi got her medical training in Japan and spent about a year there practicing medicine before coming to the United States. She was used to that country’s strict attitudes around opioid painkillers like Vicodin or Oxycontin, which are generally only prescribed in cases where a patient is in severe pain, as with cancer. In Japan, opioids for acute pain aren’t typically covered by insurance. When Onishi started practicing family medicine in Oregon, she was shocked to see patients getting opioids for injuries as minor as toothaches and sprained ankles. And she started seeing a disturbing trend among her own patients: people constantly requesting opioids for pain. “It’s the patient begging you to ‘give me the opioid,’” Onishi said. Onishi started wondering about a question at the heart of the American opioid crisis: Why is the United States such an outlier when it comes to dependence on powerful, addictive painkillers? After all, people in other countries also break bones, have surgery, and suffer from back pain and arthritis. But the United States stands out for the sheer amount of opioids like Vicodin and Oxycontin it consumes, fueling a deadly drug epidemic. With just 4 percent of the world’s population, the US accounts for about 27 percent of the world’s drug overdose deaths. The federal government estimated 8.5 million Americans, about 3 percent of the population, misused opioid painkillers in 2015, and 2.5 million were addicted to either painkillers or heroin. More than 33,000 people died that year from overdoses. The European Union’s entire population exceeds that of the United States, but it has a fraction of the opioid use. Out of the approximately 507 million people living in the EU in 2014, 1.3 million — or 0.4 percent — were considered high-risk opioid users. That same year, officials recorded 6,800 drug overdose deaths in the EU; opioids were to blame in about 80 percent of those deaths. There are no corresponding statistics for Japan, but if you compare the United States to the entire continent of Asia, you see a similar picture. In 2015, 52,400 Americans died from drug overdoses, while about 62,000 people in Asia did. Part of the difference is cultural: American and Japanese doctors view pain differently. Part of it is regulatory: In Europe, opioids are much more tightly regulated. The American opioid epidemic is what you get when you pair a culture that values treating pain at all costs with a regulatory environment that makes dangerous and addictive drugs relatively easy to obtain. Opioid use in the US blows other countries away When you compare United Nations data on the top 25 countries that consume the most opioids, the United States is far and away at the top of the list. The standard daily dose per million people in the United States is 50,000 doses of opioids. That’s every day. International data shows that despite making up 4.4 percent of the global population, the US gobbles up a disproportionate amount of the world’s opioid supply; about 30 percent of the total. And Americans use almost all of the entire world supply of certain opioids, including a full 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone supply. Drug consumption in the United States can’t be easily blamed on something simple, like an aging population with more pain. In fact, some European countries and Japan have older populations than the United States and still use fewer opioids than we do. Instead, the answer has to do much more of a focus in the United States on perfecting someone’s life, and a lot less willingness on the part of both patients and doctors to accept the existence of pain. “A bit of this is cultural expectations about how fixable is life,” said Stanford psychiatry professor and addiction researcher Keith Humphreys. “America is still young and thinks life can be perfected.” Japan is skeptical of opioids for acute pain In Oregon, Onishi studied doctors in the United States and Japan to find out more about why many American patients expected opioids to be prescribed even for smaller injuries. She found the American doctors who responded were far more likely to prescribe opioids than their Japanese counterparts. About 50 percent of the 461 Japanese doctors Onishi surveyed said they prescribed opioids for patients with acute pain, versus a full 97 percent of the 198 American doctors who participated in her study. Japanese doctors were slightly more willing to prescribe opioids for chronic pain, about 64 percent versus 91 percent of US doctors. The US and Japan have vastly different cultural views when it comes to treating pain, especially acute pain after an injury, according to Onishi. Many people in the country also worry about the potential of getting addicted. Japan was so reluctant to prescribe opioids that in 2007, rather than asking why Americans prescribe so many painkillers, the New York Times asked why Japanese doctors prescribed so few. The answers ranged from prevailing attitudes that pain was something to be endured to concerns about morphine — both its addictive properties and its traditional use to ease pain, especially in end-of-life care. “People hate morphine because they think, ‘As soon as the doctor injected morphine, my father died,’” neurosurgeon Dr. Fumikazu Takeda told the New York Times in 2007. Meanwhile, in the United States, doctors started making the case in the late 1990s that pain needed to be treated aggressively. This shift in attitude was fed by drug manufacturers like Purdue Pharma, which were trying to increase sales for extended-release narcotics like OxyContin. Prescription opioid sales nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2014, even though Americans didn’t report a huge change in the amounts of pain they felt. Doctors in Japan have started to come around to the idea of prescribing opioids for people with severe, chronic pain, such as cancer patients, but not for more everyday acute pains like broken bones. Another barrier to getting opioids for acute pain: Japanese insurers simply won’t cover it. “Unless you need surgery, you don’t get opioids,” Onishi said. “The culture and the insurance make a big, big difference.” Notably, Onishi’s survey also revealed doubts among American doctors about overprescribing. Out of the American doctors Onishi surveyed, 95 percent said they believed opioids were being relied on too often, whereas just 6 percent of Japanese respondents had the same reservations. In her own practice, Onishi is trying to have open conversations about prescribing with her patients, pushing back when some request opioids and exploring alternative ways to treat their pain. She said she’s trying to open up a dialogue so that patients understand “we’re not the bad guys.” Western Europe regulates opioids more tightly In Europe, the way patients and doctors view pain isn’t that different from attitudes toward pain in North America, according to Canadian researcher Dr. Benedikt Fischer. But Europe still has much lower rates of opioid prescription. Germany, the country that consumes the most opioids in Europe, prescribes pills at about half the rate of the US. A few years ago, Fischer and a team of researchers at the University of Toronto set to explain the difference between opioid prescribing in North America and Western Europe. They found that pharmaceutical regulation (or lack thereof) plays a large role in how opioids are advertised, sold and prescribed in the US and Europe. “In North America, health is much more of an industry than in Europe,” Fischer said. “Europe is generally much more regulated. That’s not universally the case, but in regards to medicine and health care, that’s probably more often the case than not.” Western Europe is actually starting to catch up to the United States for rates of opioid prescribing, Fischer said. (Europe’s opioid problem has largely been restricted to heroin, although there are signs of prescription painkillers and synthetic fentanyl becoming a problem.) But the two are very different when it comes to how the government regulates opioids, controlling where and how pharmaceutical companies are able to advertise, and also the setting where doctors can prescribe opioids. One of the biggest differences is how centralized this regulation is across Europe, including limitations on how much doctors can prescribe and cost coverage. Comparatively, regulation in the United States usually happens on a case-by-case basis, with individual states running prescription drug monitoring programs where individual doctors upload information. In Europe, opioids are generally dispensed by specialists, not primary care doctors. As in Japan, they are more frequently used when patients are in severe pain from a disease like cancer. They are also prescribed mostly in hospital settings, rather than in community-based clinics. There is also a strict ban on pharmaceutical companies advertising directly to patients in Europe. Contrast that to the United States, where primary doctors write half of the nationwide prescriptions for opioid pain relievers, according to the CDC. At the root of these differences in prescribing practices are even bigger differences among health care systems. For instance, nearly all European countries have national health systems where doctors are salaried, and don’t get paid depending on how much medical care they give, or how many pharmaceutical drugs they prescribe. There’s much more private competition and fee-for-service medicine in both the US and Canada. Fischer compared opioid prescribing rates in Ontario, Canada to those in Germany, and found that in Germany, just 4.5 percent of the total population reported using prescription opioids. In just one Canadian province, 20 percent of the population reported using them. The rate is higher in the US, with about 38 percent of the population being prescribed opioids. As the American health care system has grown, it’s gradually pushed out smaller private practices in favor of large health care systems that are part of larger health networks and hospitals. That all feeds into what addiction specialist Dr. Anna Lembke has named the “Toyotazation of medicine,” because it’s like an assembly line: When you go into the doctor’s office for an appointment, your doctor is rushed and only able to spend a few minutes with you before rushing off to see another patient. “Nobody pays us for talking to people, we don’t value that,” Lembke said. Pain is complex and multi-faceted, and it can be cause by different things, including an injury, chronic pain due to nerve damage, or maybe even psychological pain from a traumatic event. If doctors had more time, they could spend time talking to patients, getting to the root of the problem, and refer patients to physical therapy for back pain that won’t go away, or to a mental health therapist to work through anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. But often, there’s not enough time for those in-depth conversations to take place in a primary care office. “In the absence of time having hard conversations, you just prescribe an opioid,” Lembke said.Devin Kelley’s domestic assault conviction should have prevented him from owning guns, but record was never entered into database Over the course of nearly a year, Devin Kelley, the alleged Sutherland Springs church shooter, repeatedly hit, kicked and choked his wife. He allegedly threatened her multiple times with loaded and unloaded firearms. And he pleaded guilty to hitting their stepson, a young child, so hard that the blows put his life in danger, according to legal documents. In 2012, Kelley, an airman at the Holloman air force base in New Mexico, was convicted by a court martial on two charges of domestic assault and sentenced to a year of confinement. The domestic violence convictions were serious enough that, according to an air force spokesperson, he should have been prohibited from buying or owning firearms. Google and YouTube spread false claims Texas shooting suspect had leftwing ties Read more But the Holloman Air Force base office of special investigations did not enter the record of Kelley’s conviction for brutal domestic abuse into the national background check system that gun sellers use to check whether potential purchasers are allowed to buy a gun, at least according to “initial information”, an air force spokesperson, Ann Stefanek, said in a statement on Monday evening. Kelley left the air force in 2014 with a bad conduct discharge, but Geoffrey Corn, a military law expert at South Texas College of Law, said this alone would not have been enough to bar him from gun ownership. Law enforcement officials said Kelley went on to buy at least four guns, two in Colorado and two in Texas, in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. On Sunday, officials said, Kelley opened fire on a tiny church during morning services, killing 26 people, many of them children, and wounding 20 more as they sat in the pews in a rural Texas town. Officials said there were early indications that the shooting was motivated by a domestic dispute. The youngest murder victim was roughly 18 months old, officials said, the oldest 77. Officials said they recovered a Ruger AR-15-style rifle at the church, and two handguns from the shooter’s car. Stefanek said the air force office of the inspector general and the defence department’s inspector general would conduct a complete review of the Kelley case, as well as a comprehensive review of air force records to determine whether other cases had been reported correctly. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A fire truck in front of the First Baptist Church. Photograph: Larry W. Smith/EPA The air force also requested a broader review of criminal record reporting across the defence department. The department regularly reports dishonourable discharges to the national background check system. A 2016 report from the FBI listed 10,956 active dishonourable discharge records that the defence department had submitted to the national instant criminal background check system (Nics). After high-profile mass shootings in the past decade, the Nics background check database has repeatedly come under scrutiny for faulty reporting, missing records and bad procedures, including after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting and the 2015 white supremacist attack on a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Advocates have led campaigns to correct failures to report the appropriate state mental health records to the background check system. Texas gunman who killed 26'sent threatening texts to mother-in-law' Read more “We don’t have a good system now,” Jeff Flake, a Republican senator who has voted against gun control measures in the past, said in a CNN interview on Monday, already raising concerns about the Nics system. “We need better information sharing, if nothing else.” Asked during a press conference in Seoul if he would consider “extreme vetting” for gun purchases, as he has for immigration, Donald Trump said it would not have prevented the mass shooting in Texas. “If we did what you’re suggesting there would have been no difference three days ago,” he said. “Not going to help.” He praised the actions of a man who lived near the church and used his own gun to fire at the suspected shooter as he fled. “You look at the city with the strongest gun laws, Chicago, and Chicago is a disaster, a total disaster,” Trump said, a claim that has been consistently proven incorrect. During his court martial, Kelley originally faced seven counts of assault, including allegations that he had threatened his wife repeatedly by pointing loaded and unloaded firearms at her, according to legal documents provided by the air force. But air force prosecutors made a deal with Kelley and allowed him to avoid five of the charges, including all of the charges involving firearms, in exchange for him pleading guilty to the first two charges of physically striking his wife and stepson, Stefanek told the Guardian. “They withdrew those charges on the others so they could get the conviction without having to drag the family through court,” she said. Additional reporting by Benjamin Haas in SeoulLast week you saw my top NHL players who wore the number 27 on their backs, this week it is baseball! Keep in mind the guys picked are all players who wore the number for the majority of their careers. Let’s get the ball rolling with our first player! Kevin Brown: Teams: Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, Florida Marlins, San Diego Padres, LA Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Pitcher Numbers: 211 Wins 144 Losses, ERA 3.28, 2397 Strikeouts, 1.22 WHIP Awards: 6-time All-Star, World Series Champion 1997 (Marlins) Kevin Brown for the first half of his career wore # 43 and then # 41 on his back in Texas and Baltimore, but after moving to the Florida Marlins he swiched to #27, and would keep the number for the rest of his career. With the Marlins in1996 Brown finished second in voting for the CY Young award losing to John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves. In 1997 Brown pitched a complete game in game 6 of the National League Championship Series defeating the Atlanta Braves and helping the Marlins on their run to be crowned World Series Champs. From 1995-2001 Brown had at least 10 wins, over 100 strikeouts and a sub 3.00 ERA, every year. Juan Marichal: San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, LA Dodgers, Pitcher Numbers: 243-142 win-loss, 2.89 ERA, 2303 Strikeouts, 1.10 WHIP Awards: 10 time All-Star, 1965 All-Star MVP, Pitched a no-hitter on June 15 1963, number 27 jersey retired by the Giants, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983. Juan Marichal played his first MLB game July 19, 1960 and was the second pitcher to come from the Dominican Republic. He won more games than any pitcher in the 1960’s with 191, however due to differences in voting for the CY Young at that time Marichal was never able to win the award. He finished with over 20 wins in six different seasons, and in three of those six seasons he had over 25 wins. He would strike out 200+ batters four times in his career. From 1963-68 he would never have an era over 3.00 and his lowest ever in a regular season was 2.10. He only wore 27 as a Giant, but that was from 1960-1973, Marichal was truly one of the best pitchers to wear 27. Carlton Fisk: Teams Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Catcher Numbers: 2499 Games, 1276 runs, 2356 Hits, 367 Homeruns, 1330 RBIs, 269 avg Awards: 11x All-Star, Gold Glove (1972) 3x Silver Slugger. 1972 Rookie of the Year, Number 27 Jersey retired with the Boston Red Sox and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000. From 1971-1980 Carlton Fisk wore number 27 while playing for the Boston Red Sox. One of his most iconic moments came late in the 6th game of the 1975 World Series at Fenway Park in Boston, where he hit a ball off of the Cincinnati Reds pitcher Par Darcy. The ball he hit was going down the left field line and seemed to be heading foul. Fisk stood at the plate, jumping and motioning the ball to stay fair. The ball would hit the foul pole for a homerun, winning the game for Boston and forcing game seven. Although the Sox would ultimately lose the series, it is still a treasured memory in Boston. The funny part about this story is that the cameraman was supposed to follow the ball, but because of an apparent rat nearby it had distracted the cameraman and he kept the camera on Fisk. When Fisk retired he held the record for most homeruns by a catcher, but Mike Piazza would later pass him on the list. Scott Rolen: Philadelphia Phillies, St-Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, and Cincinnati Reds. Third Baseman Numbers: 2077 hits, 1211 runs, 316 homeruns, 1287 RBIs, 281 avg Awards: 7x All-Star, 8x Gold Glove Winner, Silver Slugger (2002) NL Rookie of the Year (1997) World Series Champ (2006) Rolen retired after the 2012 season. He was a solid third basemen on any team he played for. He wore the number 27 for 10 years from 2002-12 except for the small stint he had in Toronto. He was a decent player with the Jays, although injured for a good chunk of the time he was in Toronto, but Jays fans will remember that he was traded for slugger Edwin Encarnacion. His longer stints with the Reds, Phillies and Cardinals had him portrayed as an impact player on some very good teams. He had 5 seasons with 100+ RBIs, 10 seasons with 20 homeruns and 3 with 30. Rolen was a solid player with a good glove, making him a very valuable third basemen and player who wore the number 27. James “Catfish” Hunter: Kansas City Athletics, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Pitcher Numbers 224 Wins, 2012 Ks, 3.26 ERA and 181 Complete Games Awards: 8× All-Star, 5× World Series champion, 1974 AL Cy Young Award, Pitched a perfect game on May 8, 1968, Oakland Athletics #27 retired, Baseball Hall of Fame A member of the 3 in a row World Series Champion Oakland Athletics of the Early 70s, and the Back to Back World Series Champions Yankees of the late 70s, Catfish Hunter was a truly great pitcher. Hunter was the fourth (and last) American League Pitcher to win 20 games in five consecutive seasons (1971-1975). However his contribution to the game may be even bigger than his accomplishments on the field. In 1975 Catfish Hunter successfully challenged his contract with the Oakland Athletics over a missed $50,000 insurance payment. Hunter became the sports first “free agent” and went on to be the highest paid player in baseball signing for $3.75 million with the New York Yankees. The event changed the game. Vladimir Guerrero: Montreal Expos, LA Angels, Texas Rangers, and Baltimore Orioles Numbers: 2590 Hits, 1328 Runs, 449 Homeruns, 1496 RBI’s, 318 avg Awards: 9x All-Star, AL MVP (2004), 8x Silver Slugger, 2007 Homerun Derby Winner, 2x 30-30 Club (30 homeruns, 30 stolen bases), hit for the cycle on September 14, 2003 For those who have read any of my articles before you know that Guerrero was
Liberal-National politicians answered "don't know" or "uncertain". "What you're seeing is greater certainty and belief on the part of the Labor Party politicians and more knowledge about the specifics of climate change, whereas for the Liberal-National Party politicians it's greater uncertainty, and that uncertainty is creeping through in terms of being able to respond to specific questions about climate change that tap into the detail of climate change," Dr Fielding said. Only 56 per cent of surveyed politicians trust the world's leading climate science body, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), although nearly 70 per cent said they were greatly influenced by what scientists said. But again, that depended on party affiliation. Ninety-eight per cent of Greens said they were greatly influenced by scientists compared to 85 per cent of Labor politicians, 54 per cent of non-aligned politicians and 44 per cent of Liberal-National politicians. Only 18 per cent of federal politicians responded to the survey. Of the entire survey group, 97 were Labor, 73 Liberal-National, 41 were Greens and the remaining 97 described themselves as non-aligned. Topics: climate-change, government-and-politics, elections, federal-elections, research, australia, qld First postedHPD: Disgruntled worker bulldozes building Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close HPD: Disgruntled worker bulldozes building 1 / 3 Back to Gallery A man drove a bulldozer into the northeast Houston building where he worked, causing more than $1 million in damages, police said. Lynn Benson, 52, was arrested about 9 p.m. Monday after Houston police said he intentionally plowed through the front of Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers, 15500 Eastex Freeway. The bulldozer also broke a water line in the building that flooded the ground floor, damaging computers and office equipment, Houston police said. Company officials said the disgruntled employee caused about $1.5 million in total damages. No injuries were reported, Houston police said. Benson was arrested at the scene and later charged with felony criminal mischief. He remains at the Harris County Jail with bail set at $50,000. mike.glenn@chron.comWhen it comes to being resourceful to overcome challenges, Turks always find a way. They have the humour, quick wittedness, and a soul rebellious enough to make their voice heard. But most importantly they have experience with censorship and bullying intimidation tactics by those in power. On March 20, Facebook was full of numbers posted by Turkish users. The call was for Twitter users to change their DNS settings to 8.8.8.8 - 8.8.4.4 in order to continue having access to the widely used social media site in Turkey, which had been shut down upon Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s orders. Twitter's "crime" was being the platform where audio recordings showing corruption in Erdogan's inner circle were circulating. Electoral fears With a week left before municipal elections in Turkey, Erdogan's decision is not a foolish move politically. Erdogan had come to power in the first place by cleverly playing on Turkish people's sense of pride, and now relies again on the same "us against them" strategy. Although Erdogan has many critics because of his actions of intimidation, he has just as many supporters who get off on his talks that tap into the country's long felt inferiority complex against the West, and at home against the western half of Turkey. One of Erdogan's talents is knowing how to play on the weaknesses of his public. This was exactly the message in a speech delivered one week before the elections: "Twitter, schmitter! We will wipe out all of these… The International community can say this or that. I don't care at all. Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey is." A statement which received cheers from a frenzied audience. In some ways, the fact that Turks are able to find a method to use Twitter, be it through their mobile phones or through changing their DNS servers is somewhat irrelevant. What is most crucial here is the tone and character of Erdogan's message to the Turkish public and the rest of the world. A macho statement, spoken in street slang, referring to the social media site as "Twitter… Mwitter" in a way that is intended to discredit his opponent. What is most crucial here is the tone and character of Erdogan's message to the Turkish public and the rest of the world. A macho statement, spoken in street slang, referring to the social media site as 'Twitter… Mwitter' in a way that is intended to discredit his opponent. Although Erdogan's popularity at present is unknown, we can be confident that at least some are encouraged by his message. Exactly how many will become more clear after the upcoming elections. Standing up to the West? Meanwhile, international media's perspective on the events in Turkey is somewhat naive, suggesting that Erdogan's attempt to stifle use of Twitter is backfiring and focusing too much on the fact that Turks are able to get around the ban. Perhaps today the public can still access Twitter after adjusting their internet settings, but the problem is much deeper than access to a micro blogging website. Who liked Erdogan before will only like him more after what they consider to be a courageous stand up against the West and Turkey's critics. The more the opposition in Turkey and the international community criticise Erdogan, the more he remains in the spotlight and appeals to his followers. The EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule's statement about the ban illustrates exactly the kind of European attitude that Erdogan’s followers have long hated: "The ban on the social platform Twitter.com in Turkey raises grave concerns and casts doubt on Turkey's stated commitment to European values and standards." It seems quite arrogant to suggest that Turkey remains obliged to show any kind of commitment to Europe given that its long attempt to get into the EU has produced nothing more than an endless string of rejections. These EU rejections greatly helped Erdogan gain his popularity in the first place, telling the Turkish people that they do not need America, Europe, nor do they need their modern toys such as Twitter. Fule's statement could have been more effective and in line with Turkish sensitivities, but as expressed it was an example of EU's continuing arrogance and refusal to understand and respect the intricacies of the country's situation and its complex feelings of resentment and inferiority in relation to Europe. Needless to say we must also pay attention to Turkish censorship that is practiced at a deeper level, those that are not out in the open for the whole world to observe and comment upon. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have become synonymous with freedom of speech. They are the vehicles through which we practice democracy. Yet for every individual that freely expresses and disseminates their views through social media there are that many journalists, thinkers and commentators whose opinions and analyses are being suppressed by institutions, newspapers and major networks. A dangerous descent? Right now, one of Turkey's biggest problems is its image in the international world, and Erdogan continues to gain media attention. Perversely, this could mean that his popularity within Turkey is far from waning. Apparently, Erdogan seems to believe there's no such a thing as bad PR. The more Europe and the US react against Turkey, the more it reinforces an "us vs them" mentality that Erdogan has been able to use for his own advantage. What's left for Turks to do is undertake a careful linguistic analysis of Erdogan's tactics and find a way to deconstruct his rhetoric of dichotomy, which has been giving a false sense of power to his followers and generating hostility toward the west and modernity's inventions such as twitter. Although it is desirable for the international community to express criticism in response to any kind of government ban on information wherever it occurs, it is hardly a solution that will spare Turkey from its dangerous descent into which seems to many of us to be a disastrous future for the country. Stories of corruption aside, it has become increasingly necessary for Turkish people to deconstruct Erdogan's language by understanding the intricate strategies of communication he uses. His manner underpins the macho sensibilities of his public playing on the long-lived inferiority complex stemming from European rejections of Turkey. Erdogan's increasingly personalist authoritarian approach should no longer be considered a subject of ridicule but a serious concern for the future of Turkey. Zeynep Zileli Rabanea is a writer and analyst focused on culture, media and communications, currently based in Sao Paulo.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Tom Wagg said it was "amazing" to have found the planet A planet 1,000 light-years away has been found by a schoolboy from Staffordshire. Tom Wagg, 17, a student at Newcastle-under-Lyme School, said he was "hugely excited" by his discovery. He was 15 years old when he spotted the planet while doing work experience at Keele University and it took two years to prove its existence. The planet does not have a name yet and a competition has been launched to find one. Keele University's Professor Coel Hellier said Tom looked through an archive of data for "good planet candidates". He searched through images of the night sky looking for tiny dips in light caused by a planet passing in front of its star. Planet hunting "It was just my third day when I spotted what looked a good candidate, but I had already gone through more than 1,000 sets of data by then," Tom said. "It looks boring, but when you think about what you're actually doing it's amazing really." While Tom hunted for planets, he said many of his friends had been completing very different work experience placements. "They've all been really excited for me," he said. Image copyright David A. Hardy/astroart.org Image caption WASP-142b is 1000 light years away Image copyright NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle Image caption The Kepler telescope is completing a very similar mission, hunting for dips in light as distant planets pass in front of their stars Prof Hellier said follow-up observations had to be carried out by telescopes in Chile to confirm Tom's results. It was then studied by astronomers at the University of Geneva and the University of Liege, to prove that it had the right size and mass to be a planet. Keele University is part of a nationwide collaboration of observatories called the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) and the planet has been given the designation WASP-142b, being the 142nd planet discovered by the group. A competition is now on to name it and Tom said he planned to come up with a suggestion. Analysis Dr David Gregory-Kumar, BBC Midlands Today Tom hasn't seen his planet directly through a telescope. Instead he combed through the data generated by WASP. WASP is a swarm of telescopes that scan the sky several times a night. They build up a picture of how bright each star usually is. But sometimes that brightness dips slightly when a planet passes in between us and the star it is orbiting. What astronomers using WASP then do is comb through the huge amounts of data the telescopes create looking for this tiny change in the brightness of a star. This planet is relatively big, about the size of Jupiter, but astronomers are working hard to find much smaller, more earth-sized planets. One day it may even be possible to find planets and then analyse the composition of their atmosphere. Evidence of water or methane could suggest signs of life, while hydrocarbons might be a sign of pollution and even indicate advanced, industrial, alien life.Shale Gas: The View From Russia By Dmitry Orlov 11 May, 2012 ClubOrlov The official shale gas story goes something like this: recent technological breakthroughs by US energy companies have made it possible to tap an abundant but previously inaccessible source of clean, environmentally friendly natural gas. This has enabled the US to become the world leader in natural gas production, overtaking Russia, and getting ready to end of Russia's gas monopoly in Europe. Moreover, this new shale gas is found in many parts of the world, and will, in due course, enable the majority of the world's countries to achieve independence from traditional gas producers. Consequently, the ability of those countries with the largest natural gas reserves—Russia and Iran—to control the market for natural gas will be reduced, along with their overall geopolitical influence. If this were the case, then we should expect the Kremlin, along with Gazprom, to be quaking in their boots. But are they? Here is what Gazprom's chairman, Alexei Miller, recently told Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Shale gas is a well-organized global PR-campaign. There are many of them: global cooling, biofuels.” He pointed out that the technology for producing gas from shale is many decades old, and suggested the US turned to it out of desperation. He dismissed it as an energy alternative for Europe. Is this just the other's sides propaganda, or could Miller be simply stating the obvious? Let's explore. I will base my exploration on Russian sources, which is why all the numbers are in metric units. If you want to convert to Imperial, 1 m3 = 35 cubic feet, 1 km2 =.38 square miles, 1 tonne = 1.1 short tons). The best-developed shale gas basin is Barnett in Texas, responsible for 70% of all shale gas produced to date. By “developed” I mean drilled and drilled and drilled, and then drilled some more: just in 2006 there were about as many wells drilled into Barnett shale as are currently producing in all of Russia. This is because the average Barnett well yields only around 6.35 million m3 of gas, over its entire lifetime, which corresponds to the average monthly yield of a typical Russian well that continues to produce over a 15-20 year period, meaning that the yield of a typical shale gas well is at least 200 times smaller. This hectic activity cannot stop once a well has been drilled: in order to continue yielding even these meager quantities, the wells have to be regularly subjected to hydraulic fracturing, or "fracked": to produce each thousand m3 of gas, 100 kg of sand and 2 tonnes of water, combined with a proprietary chemical cocktail, have to be pumped into the well at high pressure. Half the water comes back up and has to be processed to remove the chemicals. Yearly fracking requirements for the Barnett basin run around 7.1 million tonnes of sand and 47.2 million tonnes of water, but the real numbers are probably lower, as many wells spend much of the time standing idle. In spite of the frantic drilling/fracking activity, this is all small potatoes by Russian standards. Russia's proven reserves of natural gas amount to 43.3 trillion m3, which is about a third of the world's total. At current consumption rates, that's enough to last 72 years. Russian gas production is constrained by demand, not by supply; it is currently down simply because Eurozone is in the midst of an economic crisis. Meanwhile, US production has surged ahead, for no adequately explored reason, crashing the price and making much of it unprofitable. Let's compare: Gazprom's price at the wellhead runs from US$3 to $50 per thousand m3, depending on the region. Compare that to shale gas in the US, which runs from $80 to $320 per thousand m3. At this price, the US cannot afford to sell shale gas on the European market. Moreover, the overall volume of shale gas being produced in the US, even given the feverish drilling rate of the past couple of years, if cleaned up, liquified, and shipped to Europe in LNG tankers, would not be enough to book up just the LNG terminal in Gdańsk, Poland, which is currently standing idle. It seems that Gazprom has little to worry about. The US, on the other hand, does have plenty to worry about. There has been much talk already about groundwater pollution and other forms of environmental destruction that accompanies the production of shale gas, so I will not address these here. Instead, I will focus on two aspects that are just as important but have received scarcely any attention. First, what is shale gas? Ask this question, and you will be told: “Shut up, it's methane.” But is it really? The composition of shale gas is something of a state secret in the US, but information about the gas produced from the nine Polish shale gas test projects did leak out, and it's not pretty: Polish shale gas turned out to be so high in nitrogen that it does not even burn. Technology exists to clean up gas that is, say, 6% nitrogen, but Polish shale gas is closer to 50% nitrogen, and, given high production costs, low yields, rapid depletion and low wellhead pressure, cleaning it up to bring it up to spec (which is 1% nitrogen) would most likely result in a net waste of energy. Even if shale gas is low enough in nitrogen to burn, the problems do not end there. It may also contain hydrogen sulfide, which is toxic and corrosive and has to be removed before the gas can be stored or injected into a pipeline. It probably contains toluene and other organic solvents—ingredients in the fracking cocktails—which are carcinogenic. Lastly, it may be radioactive. All clays are mildly radioactive, and shale is a sort of heat-treated clay. While Barnett shale is not particularly radioactive, Marcellus shale, which has recently been the focus of frantic drilling activity, is. Thanks to Marcellus shale gas, radioactive radon gas is being delivered directly to your kitchen, via the burners of your stove, or to a power plant smokestack upwind from where you live. This is expected to result in increased lung cancer rates in the coming years. Second, why is shale gas being produced at all? Natural gas prices have fallen through the roof, and are currently around $2 per thousand cubic feet. This works out to around $70 per thousand m3. If shale gas costs from $80 to $320 per thousand m3 to produce, it is unclear how one might make any money with it. But perhaps making money with it is not the point. What if shale gas is just a PR campaign (with horrific environmental side effects)? Going back to what Alexei Miller said, what if the entire point of the exercise was to increase the capitalization of shale gas exploration and production companies? The number one company in shale gas is Chesapeake Energy, the owner of the Barnett basin and a major player in the Marcellus basin. This company almost went bankrupt in 2009, but then managed to claw its way back to profitability in 2010 and 2011 by drilling, and drilling, and drilling, and then drilling some more. Sixty percent of their revenue is from drilling operations. And now there is a scandal involving Chesapeake Energy's (former?) chairman, Aubrey K. McClendon, who apparently awarded himself a stake in each well his company drilled, used them as collateral for billions in loans, and used the loans to bet that natural gas prices will go up (they haven't). In the meantime, natural gas drilling rig count has dropped to a ten-year low. Given that shale gas wells deplete very quickly, it looks like the shale gas boom is over. But now that it's over, what was it, exactly? It appears to have been something like the dot-com bubble: companies with no conceivable way of turning a profit using hype to attract investment and drive up their valuations. Since 2008, various kinds of hype-based market manipulations have become the staple of economic life in the US, and so this is nothing new or different. One interesting question is, What sort of bubble will the US attempt to blow next, if any? There is the Facebook IPO coming up. Facebook is a ridiculous time-waster and, as such, seems a bit overpriced. Are we going to attempt blowing up another dot-com bubble? Another round of subprime mortgages does not seem to be in the works. What's a bubble boy to do? If there are no more bubbles to blow, then it's back to just plain printing money. So this whole shale gas thing didn't work out as planned, did it? But could it have? Had it turned out to be much better in every way, could it have swung geopolitical influence away from Russia and Iran and back toward the US? Alas, no. You see, there is no such thing as a global natural gas market. Yes, there are some LNG tankers sailing about, but that is very much a point-to-point trade. There is a closed North American market, a European market, and another market in the Asia-Pacific region. These markets do not interact. The North American market and the European market could have potentially shared just one producer: Qatar. Qatar once wanted to export LNG to the US, but then decided to export it to Europe instead, generating less of a loss, because European gas prices are substantially higher. And the reason Qatar is dumping natural gas in Europe is because it has gas to dump: its northern gas field is a very “wet” field, with a substantial percentage of natural gas condensate. Qatar's OPEC quota is 36-37 million tonnes of oil per year, but natural gas condensate is not considered to be oil and is not covered by OPEC quotas. Exploiting the condensate loophole allows Qatar to export 65.7 million tonnes: 77% over quota. The LNG is just concomitant production, and Qatar can afford to export LNG to Europe at a loss. This is a juicy bit of trivia, but really something of a footnote: an exception that proves the general case: there is no global natural gas market. There is still, however, a global American disinformation and PR hype market, although this too is changing. The view from Russia is that it is pretty clear what this was all along: American propaganda and financial shenanigns. Nothing to see here, people, keep moving. *** New book from Dmitry With ClubOrlov just over four years old, I am publishing a "best of" book of essays. These are 30 of the most popular articles chosen from the ones that have been published on ClubOrlov. To promote this virtual book, I am going to go on a virtual book tour. If you would like to interview me for your radio show, publication or podcast, please contact me at my first name dot my last name at gmail dot com. Furthermore, if you wish to invite my non-virtual, physical self to appear in person and give a talk, and can pay for my travel from/to Boston, please let me know and we will try to work something out. More about the book Order this book from Amazon. Dmitry Orlov is a Russian engineer and a writer on subjects related to "potential economic, ecological and political decline and collapse in the United States," something he has called “permanent crisis”. Orlov believes collapse will be the result of huge military budgets, government deficits, an unresponsive political system and declining oil production. He blogs at http://cluborlov.blogspot.comSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world A former winner of the Mr Gay UK competition is set to be sworn in as the new Lord Mayor of Manchester. Carl Austin-Behan, now 44, had taken the coveted Mr Gay UK crown back in 2001 while working as an events manager, well before deciding to enter politics. The former pageant winner later built a career as a Labour councillor on Manchester City Council, and was named earlier this year as the Labour group’s choice to be the city’s new ceremonial Lord Mayor. Mr Austin-Behan, who was forced out of the RAF in the 1990s because he is openly gay just years before the military ban was lifted, will be the first openly gay person to take on the role when he is sworn in today. He told the Manchester Evening News: “I thought it was time we had an openly gay lord mayor. We have had different races and cultures doing it – so this is a recognition of the LGBT community. “It’s not a case of saying everyone needs to be like me, but as part of the diversity of Manchester it should be embraced. “I was kicked out of the air force for being gay in 1997. We have come such a long way but there’s still barriers there. “I see this as an opportunity to put it out there that we are all as normal as each other.” The new Lord Mayor tied the knot with his partner Simon last year – after 12 years together. He said: “We have come such a long way but there are still barriers there. I think people don’t understand [trans issues] so well. It’s about awareness and education. We also need to look at HIV. It’s still on the rise and Manchester is one of the worst places. Mr Austin-Behan told the newspaper he will be bringing his own flamboyant twist to the role, adding: “I won’t be wearing the traditional black and grey trousers and I think I only have one white shirt in my wardrobe. “I want people to feel like they can relate to the Lord Mayor.”Focus on the Family's 30-second Super Bowl spot hasn't been released but is known to feature 2007 Heisman Trophy-winning University of Florida QB Tim Tebow expressing thanks that his mother chose not to abort him -- a private family decision that you'd like to think wouldn't be anybody else's business, not to mention irrelevant to the agonizing decision other women face. CBS can't understand why anyone's upset that the network has broken the long-standing ban on Super Bowl advocacy ads for this. -- from Credo Action's campaign to persuade CBS to reject Focus on the Family's pro-choice Super Bowl commercial CBS: Don't air anti-abortion Super Bowl ad The broadcast networks that air the Super Bowl have historically rejected advocacy ads. Yet CBS, which is airing the Super Bowl this year, has accepted an anti-choice ad by the ultra-conservative group Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family's "celebrate life" (read: anti-choice) ad features Heisman Trophy-winning college football star Tim Tebow. And CBS approved this anti-choice ad, even though the network has repeatedly rejected advocacy ads in past years including a 2004 MoveOn.org ad that went after then-President Bush's fiscal irresponsibility and an ad the same year from the United Church of Christ showing them welcoming a gay couple who had been turned away from another church. Sign the petition to CBS insisting they follow their no-advocacy policy and reject the Focus on the Family ad before the Super Bowl on February 7. More recently, on Friday CBS rejected an ad from a gay dating site showing two men discovering a mutual attraction when their hands brush in the potato chip bowl. The actors then pantomime a comical make-out session. But CBS says the ad "is not within the Network's broadcast standards for Super Bowl Sunday." So to recap: CBS wouldn't allow a group to criticize Bush, wouldn't let a religious group promote its own tolerance of LGBT families and considers a light-hearted dating ad out of bounds. But CBS is perfectly happy to allow Focus on the Family to promote its conservative social agenda. We must call CBS out on its hypocrisy and demand that it also reject the Focus on the Family ad. The Super Bowl is America's annual most-watched television event; more than 98 million Americans tuned in last year. And as anyone who's ever been to a Super Bowl party knows, the ads can be even more closely watched than the game, which is why CBS must not unfairly allow anti-choice commercials while rejecting those for other causes. Sign the petition today urging CBS to follow its own anti-advocacy policy, reverse the decision, and deny Focus on the Family's anti-choice ad. (1) It takes literally no thought to discriminate against people or ideas that are outside the box of orthodoxy. When you discriminate reflexively against groups or classes of people other than your own, or against ideas that are different from your own, just because you don't have to think about it doesn't make it not discrimination. After all, that's the level on which most discrimination and bigotry occurs. People don't stop to think, "If I prefer not to offer this person a job, or allow him/her to rent an apartment, or patronize my business establishment, or date my daughter, because of the person's skin color or religion or sexual orientation or political beliefs, that would be bigoted, but dang it all, I'm going to do it anyways." Well, maybe sometimes they do, but by and large that's now the way discrimination and bigotry are accomplished. If your words or actions are discriminatory or bigoted, it doesn't matter whether you planned it that way; it doesn't matter whether you thought about it for weeks or didn't give it a moment's thought -- it's still discriminatory or bigoted. This seems so blindingly obvious that I'm almost embarrassed to have to point it out, but an awful lot of people either have forgotten it or never knew it. When, for example, you discriminate on the basis of, say, race, your action really and truly doesn't have to be accompanied by a sworn affidavit saying, "I sure as s--t hates me them effin' N-words," to qualify as discrimination. (2) There's hardly any price to pay for causing offense to non-orthodox people or ideas, while causing offense to orthodox people or ideas can bring you worlds of unwanted attention and even economic distress. And the defenders of orthodoxy work very hard to make sure that this is as true as they can make it. When the people in charge of accepting or rejecting TV advertising, for example, reject content that will offend only people they see as "dirty fucking hippie" types while accepting content that will offend people who are known to organize dangerously loud and disruptive countermeasures or to actually jeopardize their revenue streams by pressuring customers or advertisers or the like, it's understandable but not OK, ethically or (one hopes) legally. Today's defenders of discrimination and bigotry have become sophisticated enough to claim that they're just protecting everyone's First Amendment rights. But of course usually that's exactly what they're not doing. They're "protecting the rights" of people and ideas they either agree with or are afraid of, while cavalierly dismissing protections for people and ideas they don't agree with or fear. The whole point of the First Amendment is to protect unpopular or non-mainstream ideas. Orthodox ideas don't often need protection. # Poor CBS. The Super Bowl, now just a week away, is supposed to be nothing but a cash-generating bonanza. As the commercial rates go up and up, even in a crappy economy there seems to be no difficulty selling all that time.But when there's so much money on the table, you can be sure there are going to be problems. As you've surely heard, CBS has gotten its balls caught in a bad squeeze over the issue of advertising acceptance and what is or isn't "within the Network's broadcast standards for Super Bowl Sunday," by breaking its own -- and every other network's -- long-standing rule against advocacy advertising on the Super Bowl.What really alarms me here is that we now seem to have enshrined a double standard for "acceptability" at both the corporate and the judicial level: What's "acceptable" in advertising or other decisions involving competing claims for respect isIn case after case, such decisions, whether made by corporations or courts, seem based on the premise that there's one segment of the American public whose rights, not to mention feelings and beliefs, can be trampled on with utter impunity, with hardly even a second though, while there's another segment of the American public whose delicate sensibilities must always be protected.It seems to underlie court decisions as to whose privacy must be protected when it comes to making public personal information about issue-campaign donors. (The privacy rights of crusading bigots get a whole lot of respect, while the efforts of people to secure equal treatment under the law are sneered at.) Or again, the Supreme Court's (predictably 5-4) decision struck down Judge Vaughn Walker's plan to experiment, as permitted by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, with limited video coverage of the trial of the constitutionality of Prop 8 seems to have come down to the need to protect the privacy of God-fearing American bigots who would be taking the stand to defend continued legal institutionalization of their bigotry. Apparently they're willing to testify, but they're afraid of beingdoing so, and once again the delicate sensibilities of safely-in-the-box bigots trumps all other public interests.Whether its private citizens like the CBS censors or legal hoodlums like the Supreme Court majority, there seem to me to be two processes at work, and they're both hateful and unacceptable.As I said, both of these thought processes seem to me repugnant to any concept of fairness and/or decency, and as far as I can see, neither has any foundation or even measure of acceptability in law. They need to be stopped. Labels: Choice, LGBT equality, Prop 8Melito Glor Command, New People’s Army-Southern Tagalog Statement The 3rd of March 2017 marks the 22nd year of environmental plunder under the Mining Act of 1995. Under the act, large-scale, foreign, and destructive mining has spread like wildfire throughout the country. In the Southern Tagalog region, mining corporations have rampantly ravaged the lives of numerous people, particularly small farmers and indigenous people. The Rio Tuba Nickel Mines Corporation and its joint venture, the Coral Bay Nickel Mining Corporation, in Bataraza, Palawan has caused massive environmental damage in Mt. Bulanjao and its surrounding communities. Tremendous water contamination of heavy metals, such as nickel and hexavalent chromium, in the river systems around Mt. Bulanjao has affected numerous communities in the periphery of the mines. It has also caused erosion that has significantly affected the rice paddies and other forms of livelihood of local small farmers and indigenous people’s communities. The company has also illegally encroached in the remaining primary forest areas of Mt. Bulanjao to expand their mining activities. The people, on the other hand, remain silenced due to the company’s use of Philippine Marines and CAFGU (Civillian Armed Forces Geographical Unit) elements as their special security forces. Both companies are affiliated with the controversial Taganito Mining Corporation in Surigao del Norte. The island of Mindoro is also a victim of mining pillage. An example of which is the Intex Mining Corporation in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro. Intex Mines is notorious for occupying Mangyan ancestral lands in the mountain areas of Naujan and exploiting them as a cheap source of labor. The mines have also caused irremediable environmental damage by contaminating river systems and deforesting primary secondary forested areas. On the other hand, along the boundary area of Quezon and Camarines Norte, the VL Mining Company has laid waste on the Mt. Cadig area with their heavy metal mining and quarrying operations while being safeguarded by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Their mining operations have caused flash floods that wash out crops of small farming communities. Let previous mining disasters such as the Marcopper mining disaster in Marinduque, persistent river pollution cause by Atlas Mines in Toledo City, Cebu, and the Rapu-rapu Mine leakage in the province of Albay serve as a reminder of how big a disaster these mines may cause to the environment and especially to the people. Moreover, mining corporations continue to overstep our national sovereignty and patrimony in such that instead of our resources being utilized by the Filipino citizens, they are being used by big bourgeois compradors to rake in profits in the billions. The Mining Act of 1995 is a manifestation of the reactionary government’s connivance with these compradors and their ignorance of the people’s interests. It is in this spirit that the Melito Glor Command New People’s Army – Southern Tagalog calls to oust all large-scale, foreign mining corporations out of the country. It is high time that people unite to intensify the people’s democratic revolution. This is the only way in which we can ensure genuine national industrialization that shall pave the way for a nationalized mining system and to ensure that the people will utilize what is reaped from our land.Trying to squirm out of his 47-percent video mess, Mitt Romney unearthed a 14-year-old video of then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama saying, “I actually believe in redistribution.” But we have come to learn through experience that video coming out of Boston must be viewed with caution. The folks at NBC News’s First Read have done a great service by posting the full context of Obama’s 1998 comments. The future president was speaking at a conference at Loyola University. I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody's got a shot. How do we pool resources at the same time as we decentralize delivery systems in ways that both foster competition, can work in the marketplace, and can foster innovation at the local level and can be tailored to particular communities. Decentralize? Competition? Marketplace? Innovation? I wonder how many people in that audience then wondered if the fella with the funny name was a closet Republican. As David Firestone of the New York Times noted yesterday, this nation “has long redistributed wealth, and that the country expects it to do so.” That’s why, as Stephen Stromberg argued yesterday, this attack by Romney “makes him look even more desperate.”Foreboding winds of change are blowing over the already gale-swept South Pole, threatening to hasten Antarctic melting and worsen flooding around the globe. The Southern Ocean’s legendary winds have been blowing more fiercely and in a more poleward direction since the 1950s. Temperature observations are sparse around the hostile continent, but scientists recently modeled the ocean current knock-on effects of these wind changes, which have been caused by ozone thinning and by the buildup of greenhouse gases. The scientists were blown away by the vicious climate change feedback that they unearthed. The researchers reported that the shifting winds “produce an intense warming” just below the surface of the ocean. The wind changes were found to be heaving warm currents from deeper waters up into a zone where the Antarctic ice sheet is vulnerable to melt and crumble from beneath — the area where towers of ice sit atop submerged ground. “It’s a very simple mechanism that we’re identifying,” said Stephen Griffies, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist who contributed to the modeling research, which was published in Geophysical Research Letters. “You raise the warm water to the depth of the ice shelves through the wind changes.” The 8 inches of sea level rise produced by global warming so far has worsened the tolls of storm surges, including those caused by Hurricane Sandy, and subjected coastal cities to high tide flooding of unprecedented frequency. But the effects of those 8 inches pale when compared with the several feet of additional flooding expected as the century progresses. The world’s biggest reserves of
To: Turn a Hand-Cranked Flashlight Into a Battery Charger (Video)President Trump gets stamina from the fact that he has "perfect genes," his Treasury secretary said Friday. "He's got perfect genes," Steven Mnuchin said at a public interview with the publication Axios, when asked how Trump maintains his stamina with his notoriously lax diet and exercise regimes. On receiving puzzled looks, Mnuchin repeated: "He's got perfect genes. He's got incredible energy, and he's unbelievably healthy." The treasury secretary and former banker added that Trump no longer eats the fast food, especially McDonald's, that he was known for seeking out on the campaign trail. Instead, he enjoys the gourmet food prepared by the White House chef. Later in the interview, when asked about the possibility of changing a piece of U.S. currency, Mnuchin jokingly responded, "I think we should look at putting President Trump on the $1,000 bill," referring to a denomination that does not exist. Asked how Trump has changed on taking office, Mnuchin responded that he has taken on a greater sense of seriousness. "This is not a formal, scheduled president who just has a bunch of people telling him what to do," Mnuchin explained, later saying that "he understands the seriousness of this job, and the responsibility."Bought these? Questioning app help middle-age men see the true meaning of their love of musicals. FACEBOOK QUESTIONING FACEBOOK MEDS FACEBOOK PUBERTYTRAK There's been an ongoing firestorm of protest, of course, over the launch of Facebook Beacon -- a new program that automatically tells Facebook users' friends about what they're up to at partner sites including Fandango and Overstock.com.In response to cries of "No way, Orwell!" from users, Facebook first reluctantly modified the program to make it necessary to formally opt in with each transaction -- and then, in another about-face, let users opt out of Beacon altogether. Speaking of such controversial "behavioral tracking" features, a Facebook VP smugly told The New York Times, "One thing we need to do is give people an opportunity to interact with them. After a while, they fall in love with them."The good news is that Facebook users will have even more opportunities to interact with a whole new crop of Beacon-like programs. An exclusive peek at what Facebook users can look forward to in 2008:Are you a closeted homosexual in a small Southern town? Facebook Questioning will automatically suggest to those friends and colleagues who are able to "read between the lines" that maybe you're "questioning" your sexuality. It does this by comparing Beacon data with thresholds of what's considered "normal" heterosexual behavior by marketers. "The purchase by an unmarried, middle-aged male of more than two movie-musical soundtracks or DVDs per quarter doesn't necessarily mean that he's gay," says a Facebook veep. "But it will raise a rainbow-colored flag within our algorithm and might even help certain in-denial Facebook users with their own voyage of self-discovery. After a while, we believe that our users will fall in love with Facebook Questioning."Thanks to Facebook's new drugstore tracking system, your entire circle can know if you're taking your meds like you're supposed to. "Peer pressure can be incredibly valuable in encouraging Facebook members to maintain healthy lifestyles," says a Facebook veep. "It's also a matter of community safety. For instance, it's reassuring to know that the whack jobs among our user base are up-to-date on their antipsychotics. Meanwhile, I, for one, want to know if my girlfriend is taking her Valtrex. After a while, we believe that our users will fall in love with Facebook Meds."By commingling user-supplied age data with measurements culled directly from users' computers, Facebook can automatically alert friends of its youngest users of that very, very special moment in their lives: when they hit puberty. For example, Facebook can measure minute changes in skin humidity as members use the track pads on their laptops -- so that, for instance, a boy who exhibits signs of sweaty palms when pictures of Miley Cyrus appear on his computer screen can be reasonably assumed to be undergoing hormonal changes. Facebook also monitors members' voice chats and Skype conversations to gauge if their voices are cracking and/or moving up an octave and can analyze webcam streams for signs of acne."Many of us here at Facebook," says a company veep, "only realized that our boyish founder Mark Zuckerberg was hitting puberty when our chief operating officer spotted him in the showers at our company gym this summer and noticed that he was finally growing hair down there. With Facebook PubertyTrak, our COO wouldn't have had to look -- and Mark wouldn't have to endure the awkwardness of a colleague checking out his unit. The onset of puberty doesn't have to be an embarrassment anymore. After a while, we believe that our users will fall in love with Facebook PubertyTrak."~~~After Wisconsin, Demographics Suggest Rougher Terrain For Sanders, Cruz Enlarge this image toggle caption Brennan Linsley/AP Brennan Linsley/AP Donald Trump lost Wisconsin on Tuesday night by double digits (48 percent for Cruz, compared to 35 percent for Trump). By most accounts, it was a bad night for the business-mogul-turned-reality-show-host-turned-politician, who leads the current race for the GOP nomination. But by another measure — demographics — maybe it wasn't that surprising. Nate Cohn at The New York Times' Upshot makes the case that he never expected Trump to get more than 35 percent of the vote, and Trump performed exactly on the mark. In fact, despite all the focus on Trump's provocative abortion comments, exit polls show Trump did no worse among women than men. Campaign rhetoric and ground game may help, but maybe demographics really are destiny? Many Wisconsin Republicans live in the highly educated, wealthy suburbs outside Milwaukee (Waukesha, Ozuakee and Washington counties), kind of akin to the Northern Virginia Rubio Republicans and a host of other suburban collar counties. Those areas were never thought to be demographically friendly Trump terrain. For much of this campaign, Trump's trump card, so to speak, has been white, working-class voters. (The one exception to those demographic expectations was that Cruz actually outperformed Trump among non-college voters in Wisconsin, too.) The other element at play could be regional demographics. Trump has not performed well in the Midwest. He lost Ohio and the caucuses in Kansas, Minnesota and Iowa — and barely edged out a win in Missouri. Perhaps, Trump's brash rhetoric doesn't resonate with Midwestern manners. One interesting takeaway that might suggest his tough talk isn't in line with some GOP voters comes from the Wisconsin exit polls, which show that despite the hard-line immigration ideas from both Cruz and Trump, about 60 percent of Republican primary voters in Wisconsin say they support a pathway to legalization for people who've come into the country illegally. The real story isn't that Trump lost Wisconsin. It's that Cruz did better than expected. He managed to push Ohio Gov. John Kasich out of the way and coalesce the anti-Trump vote around him. But, the next contest is on Trump's home turf — New York, and those demographics favor Trump. What About The Democrats? On the left, demographics are — and have been — equally predictive, if not more so. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won Wisconsin resoundingly, beating Hillary Clinton by more than 13 points. He has won neighboring states with similarly progressive politics — Michigan and Minnesota. And the makeup of the Wisconsin electorate was never in Clinton's favor. Eighty-three percent of Democratic voters in Wisconsin are white. Clinton performs far better in Southern states with large African-American and Latino populations. She also has an edge in urban hubs. In fact, in the Wisconsin primary, the only county she won was Milwaukee County. Across the country, Sanders' strength has come from white voters, young voters and independents (and many of the upcoming contests are closed, meaning only Democrats can vote). Wisconsin was no exception. Exit polls show Sanders won the white vote by about 20 points. But there is one demographic question mark from Wisconsin — women. Throughout this campaign, Clinton has relied on women as a safety net. Exit poll data suggest she's won a majority of women in state after state — even in places like Michigan, where she lost the overall vote to Sanders. In Wisconsin, though, Sanders and Clinton broke even. So maybe demographics aren't always destiny, but they've been a pretty solid predictor in this campaign. And if that's the case, that could mean a harder path ahead for Sanders. After what is likely to be a win for Sanders in the Wyoming caucuses Saturday, take a look at the two biggest battles: -- New York on April 19, where more than 40 percent of residents are black, Asian or Latino. -- Then, it's on to Pennsylvania, a state where more than a third of Democratic primary voters in 2008 were over the age of 60. And that doesn't include New Jersey and Maryland, which also have significant nonwhite populations. So while the current momentum is with Sanders, the demographics in some important places on the road ahead seem to favor Clinton.To start, let’s define an API for an actor. The API allows messages to be sent by "enqueuing work" via one of the Enqueue methods. The "work" takes the form of delegates that either return a result or not. It can also be synchronous or asynchronous, with the intention being that the work is executed on the actor’s thread with any result relayed back to the caller via a returned task object. An actor should ensure that messages passed to it are handled in the order in which they are received, with no two messages being processed at the same time. Essentially, it should appear that an actor has a single dedicated thread processing messages in its queue. In reality, however, a single dedicated thread would be wasteful of resources given that most of the time it would be quiescent. Therefore it is preferable to use a thread from the.NET thread pool when required. To achieve this using the TPL it is necessary that all work passed to Enqueue is scheduled to run as a Task with an implementation of TaskScheduler. Scheduling the task via Task.Factory.StartNew would mean the TaskScheduler instance returned by TaskScheduler.Current would be used. In most circumstances this would be TaskScheduler.Default which schedules tasks in parallel on the.NET thread pool but could be something else entirely. If the simpler Task.Run were used instead, then TaskScheduler.Default would always be used. Thus using either Task.Run or Task.Factory.StartNew would provide no control over when the task were run and thus tasks associated with the same actor could be run in parallel not what we want.Bathe in Luxury and Comfort At Melbourne Bathroom Shop our goal is to transform our customer’s bathrooms into luxurious and stylish spaces where they can relax and cleanse themselves. Our passionate bathroom specialists have gained a strong reputation for turning dreams into reality with our fully-functional and modern bathroom supplies. Whether you are after fittings and fixtures that seamlessly merge with your tiling, vanity mirrors that match your existing decor, or a complete refit and rejuvenation of your bathroom space, we are your first, and best, choice. Premium Products at Affordable Prices With a plethora of expertly designed products available from our showroom the team at Melbourne Bathroom Shop believe that form should not be sacrificed for functionality. Our hand-selected products have been chosen based on their innovative design and contemporary design. Once installed in your bathroom our freestanding baths evoke the highest standards of class, style and prestige. Available in different styles and shapes to suit all personal tastes our freestanding baths enhance the design of Melbourne bathrooms across the city. No matter the size or dimensions of your bathroom space, our freestanding baths will make your bathroom the envy of guests to your home. To learn more about our easy-to-clean and comfortable freestanding baths Melbourne home owners can call our team today.This article is about incorporating functional programming concepts into Ruby code, in a pragmatic way – something I call “functional style.” And when I say pragmatic, what I mean is that the code should still mostly look and feel like idiomatic Ruby. Ruby is not Haskell, and nor should it be. The idea is to work with the grain of the language, not against it. The code should be easy for any Rubyist to understand – hopefully even easier than what you’re accustomed to. So let’s look at avoiding mutation: the benefits, how to do it, the drawbacks, and where it might not be appropriate. Why You Should Avoid Mutation Mutation is a source of bugs. Therefore avoiding mutation will reduce the number of bugs that you introduce. Whenever you change a variable, there is always the possibility that you have broken some other piece of code that relied upon it. Avoiding mutation makes certain types of bugs impossible to introduce. Mutation requires you to spend extra mental energy when reading and writing code. When you write code that changes a variable, you have to analyse all the ways that change could affect other pieces of code. Whenever you read code containing mutations, you have to analyse all the different states that the variable might have, and when those states can change. You can bypass this analysis and reduce the mental effort required by simply avoiding mutation. There is also potential for performance benefits, which we will get to later in this article. In summary, avoiding mutation makes your code easier to read, easier to write, and less buggy. It gives you confidence, and reduces the need for frustrating debugging. I propose that you should avoid mutation wherever possible. It should be the default way to write code, and each deviation should require a good reason. Pretend All Values Are Immutable Pretend that everything is immutable. I say “pretend” because practically everything in Ruby is mutable by default, so trying to enforce immutability everywhere is painful. It’s more pragmatic to accept that Ruby is a highly mutable language, and just use discipline. Despite all the mutability, the Ruby standard library actually makes this fairly easy. Most destructive* methods have non-destructive alternatives. Here are a few examples: * The term “destructive” used here has a specific meaning in FP. Mutation is referred to as a destructive update because it overwrites the previous value. A non-destructive update creates a new value, leaving the old value intact. String#upcase! vs String#upcase vs Hash#[]= vs Hash#merge vs Array#concat vs Array#+ vs Array#shift vs Enumerable#drop(1) The Enumerable mixin is your best friend here, because all of its methods are non-destructive by design. Make sure you know how to use every method in Enumerable, and pay specific attention to the FP Triforce: Enumerable#map, Enumerable#select, and Enumerable#reduce. Example: # # FUNCTIONAL STYLE # def symbolize_keys ( hash ) hash. map { \| key, value \| [ key. to_sym, value ] }. to_h end # # NON-FUNCTIONAL STYLE # def symbolize_keys ( hash ) result = {} hash. each do \| key, value \| # mutating the `result` hash result [ key. to_sym ] = value end result end Don’t Reassign Variables After you’ve created a variable by assigning its initial value, leave it alone. If you said that x = 5, don’t come along later and say that x += 2. Decide on what value x should have, and stick to it. If you need to create a new value based on an existing one, create a new variable for it. Instead of x += 2, you could write new_x = x + 2. Example: # # FUNCTIONAL STYLE # def travelling_expenses_total ( expenses ) expenses. select { \| e \| e. type == :travelling }. map ( & :amount ). reduce ( 0, : + ) end # # NON-FUNCTIONAL STYLE # def travelling_expenses_total ( expenses ) total = 0 expenses. each do \| e \| # reassigning `total` total += e. amount if e. type == :travelling end total end Design Classes To Be Immutable Whenever you need to write a new class, try to make it immutable. Immutable classes all follow a simple pattern: never reassign or mutate instance variables. This usually means that you assign all the instance variables within initialize, and then do not provide any methods that could change them. Example: # # FUNCTIONAL STYLE # class MicroBlogPost attr_reader :title, :body def initialize ( title, body ) @title = title @body = body end def rename ( new_title ) MicroBlogPost. new ( new_title, @body ) end end # example of creation: post = MicroBlogPost. new ( 'Hi', 'This is my first post' ) # example of update: renamed_post = post. rename ( 'First Post' ) # # NON-FUNCTIONAL STYLE # class MicroBlogPost # this defines methods for reassigning instance variables attr_accessor :title, :body end # example of creation: post = MicroBlogPost. new post. title = 'Hi' post. body = 'This is my first post' # example of update: post. title = 'First Post' The functional-style MicroBlogPost class above requires more boilerplate than the other one, but there are gems that help to get rid of that. For an overview of these gems, check out the previous article: A Review Of Immutability In Ruby. Performance Problems Probably the most commonly cited problem of immutability is performance. Non-destructive updates often require a lot of duplication. Duplication takes time to run, consumes extra memory, and makes more objects for the garbage collector to clean up. In theory, this means your app will have worse performance than its mutable counterpart. In practise, however, performance is rarely an issue. Typically you’re only working with small data sets, like an array of 100 immutable objects. On this scale, the performance differences are practically imperceptible. If your app has very strict performance requirements, it’s probably not going to be written in Ruby in the first place. Performance problems can become noticeable with large data sets. Repeatedly duplicating an array with millions of elements will be slow, and create memory pressure. In these situations, you have a few options: Use lazy enumerators to avoid some of the duplication. Usually, if you chained three calls to map on an array, it would create three new arrays. With Enumerator::Lazy, only the final result array would be created. Use a streaming API design. Here is a recipe for terrible performance: read a huge file into memory, non-destructively update each line, and write the results out to a new file. Instead, consider a streaming API that reads, updates, and writes each line, one at a time. This will alleviate the performance problems caused by memory pressure, and the update step inbetween reading and writing can still be written in a functional style. Use persistent data structures. Persistent data structures are immutable collections, like arrays and hash maps, that are specifically designed to have good performance for non-destructive updates. They reduce duplication by sharing state, under the hood. In Ruby, you can get these from the hamster gem. Just use mutable data. Performance can be a perfectly valid reason to use mutable data. This is fairly rare though, so fight the urge to optimise prematurely. Performance Benefits Perhaps counterintuitively, immutability can actually lead to better performance. Mutability has its own source of duplication: defensive copying. Defensive copying has all the performance problems of non-destructive updates, except it’s harder to predict when it will happen. Defensive copying is not necessary for immutable objects. Concurrent access to mutable data usually requires some sort of coordination, such as a mutex or a semaphore. This can cause performance problems relating to locking, which immutable data does not suffer from. This isn’t much of a consideration for MRI because it lacks proper concurrency, but it may be a consideration for JRuby. Last but not least, I believe that writing code with immutability in mind results in simpler code. Simpler code usually means less code, and less code usually means faster code. This a personal opinion of mine, and I know that a lot of people will disagree with me, but I’m also not the only person to think this way. For a real-world example of this, have a look at the consistently good performance of ROM and the dry-rb gems. Where Immutability Is Inappropriate Avoiding mutability is a good default, but it’s not appropriate in all situations. We’ve already covered performance. There are some situations where immutability would cause an unacceptable loss of performance. Sometimes an implementation can be made simpler by using a little bit of mutable state. I’ve found that writing parsers is a good example of this. It’s entirely possible to write parsers that avoid mutability, but in my experience it’s quite a lot simpler to write parsers that consume their input as they run. Consuming input usually means reading from an IO stream or popping tokens off of an array, both of which are mutations. Another situation I’ve found is writing DSLs in Ruby. DSLs are typically a set of statements, where each statement causes some kind of mutation. In the Rails routing DSL, for example, every time you use get, post or resources, new route objects are being created and added to the set of all routes. In situations like these, where a data structure is being built one step at a time, it might be simpler to implement this with mutation. After the data structure has been built, however, you can start treating it as immutable again. Rails routes basically work like this – you build up your routes at boot time, and they remain constant after that. Think of it like a complicated constructor function. One decent way to compare implementations is by the amount of code. If the functionality is equivalent, the implementation with less code is usually better. If you can get a substantial code reduction by using mutable data, then that is a valid reason to do so. Evaluating implementations is way more complicated than just looking at the amount of code in each, but it is a good rule of thumb. Conclusion: It’s All About Discipline Ruby is an extremely flexible language, and that is a double-edged sword. You can use it to write a dream codebase or a maintainability nightmare. Ruby is a sharp tool, and it is up to you, the developer, to use it responsibly. The resulting codebase that you get largely depends upon discipline: the rules that you choose to consistently apply to your code. I like to say that Ruby’s motto is “you can, but don’t.” Avoiding mutability by default is, in my opinion, a rule worth applying. The Ruby Logo is copyright Yukihiro Matsumoto. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5Stone Brewing Co. (Escondido, CA) will expand their Stochasticity Project releases with Hibiscusity Belgian-style Ale. Stone created the Stochasticity Project under the pseudonym Koochevagner (a play on the last name of two founders of the company). Taking the Stone name away, it allowed the brewery some freedom to create as they see fit. For instance, this release, a Belgian inspired beer brewed with hibiscus and orange peel. When the warmth of summer lifts mercury toward the triple digits, many seek refreshment from “lawnmower beers” (aka—the fizzy, yellow, tasteless, cut-rate, industrialized facsimile of Pilsner we have all come to know and revile). In pushing the beer envelope, we aim to advance imbibers’ options for something far beyond run-of-the-mill with this immensely flavorful alternative. As original as the tongue-twisting name we coined far it, this robust Belgian-style ale is brewed with wheat and rendered optimal for summer with the addition of orange peel and hibiscus, bringing forth floral and citrus notes against a brilliant pink hue. Stone Stochasticity Hibiscusity will be available in 22oz bombers, and draft. Style: Belgian-Style Golden Ale (w/ Hibiscus Flower, Orange Peel) Availability: 22oz Bombers Arrival: TBA 8.6% ABVNeoconservatism Is An Omnicidal Death Cult, And It Must Be Stopped Caitlin Johnstone Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 18, 2017 Glenn Greenwald has just published a very important article in The Intercept that I would have everyone in America read if I could. Titled “With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons”, Greenwald’s excellent piece details the frustratingly under-reported way that the leaders of the neoconservative death cult have been realigning with the Democratic party. This pivot back to the party of neoconservatism’s origin is one of the most significant political events of the new millennium, but aside from a handful of sharp political analysts like Greenwald it’s been going largely undiscussed. This is weird, and we need to start talking about it. A lot. Their willful alignment with neoconservatism should be the very first thing anyone ever talks about when discussing the Democratic party. When you hear someone complaining that the Democratic party has no platform besides being anti-Trump, your response should be, “Yeah it does. Their platform is the omnicidal death cult of neoconservatism.” It’s absolutely insane that neoconservatism is still a thing, let alone still a thing that mainstream America tends to regard as a perfectly legitimate set of opinions for a human being to have. As what Dr. Paul Craig Roberts rightly calls “the most dangerous ideology that has ever existed,” neoconservatism has used its nonpartisan bloodlust to work with the Democratic party for the purpose of escalating tensions with Russia on multiple fronts, bringing our species to the brink of what could very well end up being a world war with a nuclear superpower and its allies. This is not okay. Being a neoconservative should receive at least as much vitriolic societal rejection as being a Ku Klux Klan member or a child molester, but neocon pundits are routinely invited on mainstream television outlets to share their depraved perspectives. Check out leading neoconservative Bill Kristol’s response to the aforementioned Intercept article: Okay, leaving aside the fact that this bloodthirsty psychopath is saying neocons “won” a Cold War that neocons have deliberately reignited by fanning the flames of the Russia hysteria and pushing for more escalations, how insane is it that we live in a society where a public figure can just be like, “Yeah, I’m a neocon, I advocate for using military aggression to maintain US hegemony and I think it’s great,” and have that be okay? These people kill children. Neoconservatism means piles upon piles of child corpses. It means devoting the resources of a nation that won’t even provide its citizens with a real healthcare system to widespread warfare and all the death, destruction, chaos, terrorism, rape and suffering that necessarily comes with war. The only way that you can possibly regard neoconservatism as just one more set of political opinions is if you completely compartmentalize away from the reality of everything that it is. This should not happen. The tensions with Russia that these monsters have worked so hard to escalate could blow up at any moment; there are too many moving parts, too many things that could go wrong. The last Cold War brought our species within a hair’s breadth of total annihilation due to our inability to foresee all possible complications which can arise from such a contest, and these depraved death cultists are trying to drag us back into another one. Nothing is worth that. Nothing is worth risking the life of every organism on earth, but they’re risking it all for geopolitical influence. I’ve had a very interesting last 24 hours. My article about Senator John McCain (which I titled “Please Just Fucking Die Already” because the title I really wanted to use seemed a bit crass) has received an amount of attention that I’m not accustomed to, from CNN to USA Today to the Washington Post. I watched Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar talking about me on The View. They called me a “Bernie Sanders person.” It was a trip. Apparently some very low-level Republican with a few hundred Twitter followers went and retweeted my article with an approving caption, and that sort of thing is worthy of coast-to-coast mainstream coverage in today’s America. This has of course brought in a deluge of angry comments, mostly from people whose social media pages are full of Russiagate nonsense, showing where McCain’s current support base comes from. Some call him a war hero, some talk about him like he’s a perfectly fine politician, some defend him as just a normal person whose politics I happen to disagree with. This is insane. This man has actively and enthusiastically pushed for every single act of military aggression that America has engaged in, and some that it hasn’t, throughout his entire career. He makes Hillary “We came, we saw, he died” Clinton look like a dove. When you look at John McCain, the very first thing you see should not be a former presidential candidate, a former POW or an Arizona Senator; the first thing you see should be the piles of human corpses that he has helped to create. This is not a normal kind of person, and I still do sincerely hope that he dies of natural causes before he can do any more harm. Can we change this about ourselves, please? None of us should have to live in a world where pushing for more bombing campaigns at every opportunity is an acceptable agenda for a public figure to have. Neoconservatism is a psychopathic death cult whose relentless hyper-hawkishness is a greater threat to the survival of our species than anything else in the world right now. These people are traitors to humanity, and their ideology needs to be purged from the face of the earth forever. I’m not advocating violence of any kind here, but let’s stop pretending that this is okay. Let’s start calling these people the murderous psychopaths that they are whenever they rear their evil heads and stop respecting and legitimizing them. There should be a massive, massive social stigma around what these people do, so we need to create one. They should be marginalized, not leading us. — — — I’m a 100 percent reader-funded journalist so if you enjoyed this, please consider helping me out by sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following me onTwitter, or throwing some money into my hat on Patreon.There are tough pills to swallow and then there is what happened to the Florida State baseball team in its opening game of the College World Series. FSU, which led nearly the entire game against LSU from the second at-bat through to the bottom of the eighth inning, squandered multiple chances at the plate to pad its lead while showing its true colors in the end, blowing a golden opportunity to advance into the winner’s bracket of the College World Series after a 5-4 loss to the Tigers. What allowed FSU to lead nearly the entire game and what ended up costing them in the end? Let’s take a look: Three up 1. The top of the Florida State order led the Seminoles’ production at the plate. That started from the very beginning as FSU shortstop Taylor Walls led off the game with a walk before third baseman Dylan Busby destroyed a ball to straightaway center for a two-run home run. The next time around, Walls led off the third with a double to right. He was promptly knocked in, again by Busby, who had FSU’s first three RBI. Combined, Walls and Busby were 3-7 with a homer, a double, three walks, three RBI and all four of FSU’s runs, leading by example while showing why they were both top 100 draft picks in this week’s MLB Draft. 2. Part of FSU’s success at the plate can be attributed to the Seminoles knack for getting leadoff batters on base. In all, FSU got its first batter of the inning on base in eight of its nine innings at the plate. That runner, who was Walls in each of these situations, came around to score in each of the three innings in which the Seminoles scored a run. Still, many of these prime chances went wanting and came back to hurt FSU in the end. 3. FSU ace Tyler Holton hardly had his best stuff in FSU’s CWS opener. LSU had him gameplanned about as well as any team I have seen prepare for him this season and it showed as he was hit hard throughout his outing. As aces do, though, he stayed in and battled. He worked into the eighth inning having allowed three runs on six hits to a very talented LSU lineup. Then, due to a mix of poor fielding (which will be discussed below, believe me) and maybe staying in the game a smidge too long, Holton’s outing ended with him in line for the loss. Although not up to his best, Holton hardly deserved to be tagged with the loss. He countered common pitching logic, getting better as the game progressed while Three down 1. FSU’s team fielding percentage of.971 was the lowest of the eight-team field heading into the College World Series. This doesn’t tell the whole story of the Seminoles’ defense this season, though. Of late, FSU’s defense had been much improved, with the Seminoles even putting together a stretch of 56 error-free innings near the end of the regular season. That being said, with the nation watching FSU’s CWS opener in primetime, an all-too-familiar sight occurred as the Seminoles’ defense collapsed. Of LSU’s five runs, two were scored inexplicably from first base. In the first inning, just after Busby staked FSU to a 2-0 lead, catcher Cal Raleigh let a third strike bounce away from him, allowing the batter to take first on a dropped third strike. But that only tells the beginning of this story. Raleigh bobbled the ball so drastically that the runner who started the play at first and was running on the play rounded third and came around to score thanks to Holton not covering home plate. The second and more egregious mistake came in the eighth inning. With a runner on first again and the Seminoles leading 4-3, a single to right was fumbled by right fielder Steven Wells Jr., allowing both runners to move up to second and third. Then, Wells’ throw in was off target and the runner on third took off for home. Busby fielded the ball and threw home in plenty of time to get the out at home, preserving FSU’s lead, but the throw was dropped again by Raleigh, allowing the tying run to score. It’s one of the most ridiculous baseball sequences I have ever seen and it perfectly summarizes FSU baseball in Omaha. Death by a thousand self-inflicted cuts. 2. For as strong as FSU’s offensive showing was in some ways, the Seminoles squandered a number of prime opportunities to pad their lead and really put the pressure on LSU. The Seminoles ended the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings at the plate with a double play. Across the nine innings, FSU was 4-21 with runners on base (.190) and 2-8 (.250) with runners in scoring position. This led to the Seminoles stranding seven runners on base. 3. It’s hard not to view the FSU ninth inning as Mike Martin hitting the panic button. After a leadoff single by Matt Henderson, Martin elected to pinch hit Nick Derr for Wells. Now, Wells is hardly a power bat at the plate, but Derr had struggled mightily since the beginning of the ACC schedule, hitting.140 in conference play (8-57). Perhaps the move was to bunt, but it wasn’t and Derr watched strike three. One out. Then, Martin brought in another pinch hitter, Kyle Cavanaugh for center fielder JC Flowers. Flowers has been a massive slump of late, sure, but it was Cavanaugh’s 21st at-bat of the season. To decide to pinch hit someone who was a non-factor through most of the season facing a one-run deficit in the top of the ninth inning of the College World Series is an highly questionable decision. Cavanaugh struck out and, just like that, FSU had racked up two outs behind batters who were not prepared for the stage they were thrust onto. With the loss, FSU now has the tall task of playing out of the loser’s bracket of an extremely talented field. It begins Monday at 2 PM with an elimination game against Cal State Fullerton. Should FSU win that one, it will have to take down the loser of Monday’s LSU/Oregon State game on Wednesday, and then would have to beat the winner of that winner’s bracket game twice in a row. Yes, this team has done well with its back against the wall this year, but this test will be the toughest the Seminoles have faced all season.Image caption At least 12 people are said to have been killed in attacks in the city this weekend Tennis players have been warned about security ahead of the start of the Mexican Open in the troubled Pacific resort of Acapulco. The professional men's tennis association, the ATP, cautioned against travelling outside hotels. Players were advised to leave the city immediately after being eliminated from the tournament. Mexico's government has assured the ATP that appropriate security measures have been put in place. Several arrests have been made following a recent spate of drug-related violence in the city. A weekend of attacks on taxis in the city left 12 drivers or passengers dead, the Associated Press news agency quotes local police as saying. Dozens of cars have also been burned in recent days but the motives were not clear, AP reported. In January, the bodies of 15 headless men were found outside a shopping centre in the resort. 'A bit scared' Among the players attending the six-day tournament, which opens on Monday, are the defending men's champion, David Ferrer of Spain, who said he had no fears about being there. But David Nalbandian of Argentina said on Saturday he was thinking about withdrawing, adding that he also had a groin injury. "It's a great and enjoyable tournament to play," he said. "But for right now it's a little more difficult because of the security situation. We [players] are a bit scared about this and we're trying to decide what to do." More than 34,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since late 2006.Munmun Mukherjee is a good patient. She lies quiet on the white stone delivery table of the government hospital in Kolkata but for an occasional low moan. Even this is muted, the edge of her voice flattened, as if she knows that she needs to be on her best behaviour. A slim, dusky woman, she looks tidy even in her tired, crumpled nightie. It is late January, and the reluctant Kolkata winter has already slipped away. Deep in the fold of the evening, there is a warm traffic of activity inside the labour room of
waking mom and on to school we went. Later, while we studied the salmon cycle and learned about the native trees of the state, a pale aide entered my 5th grade classroom with a brightly-colored sheet of paper in her hand. My teacher went white. Students were to be informed, it said, that a tragic incident had occurred in the next town over, at a local high school where many of us had attended plays and sporting events. A young man had entered the school with a firearm; several students were believed to be deceased and dozens more were injured. Relatives were being notified, but if the children had questions, the teachers were instructed to be careful in their answers. Oh, I thought. That must be where dad was this morning. Dad was often the first responder at serious situations, so this was nothing new. He was the kind of man you could rely on in an emergency; the kind of man that women who’d survived domestic violence situations trusted implicitly with their stories. Often, when he was missing in the mornings, we knew it was because he was doing something important. But it wasn’t usually this bad. As the day and the week went on, I would do two things—I would turn 11 years old, and I would learn the name Kip Kinkel. Kinkel, just a handful of years older than I was, was a freshman at Thurston High School when he murdered both of his parents in their home and then proceeded to drive to his high school, where he’d been expelled the day before for bringing a handgun. Upon arrival, he would open fire and kill two students and wound 25 others before being tackled while he was reloading. That detail will matter later. Sure enough, my dad was a first responder at the scene of the Kinkel house. If you watch the Frontline documentary about it closely enough, you may see him stringing up police tape in the B-roll. That morning, after murdering his parents, Kinkel entered the cafeteria of the school with a semi-automatic rifle, two pistols, and a hunting knife. He carried, according to reports, 1,127 rounds of ammunition. All things told, Kinkel fired just 50 of those rounds. By comparison, Omar Mateen fired 202 rounds inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. If the lack of an AR as part of Kinkel’s arsinal strikes you as unusual, recall that the assault weapons ban was still very much in effect in 1998 and would not expire for another six years. Kinkel was tackled by a fellow student when he stopped to reload—an opportunity that would not have existed if he had been carrying and using a higher-capacity weapon. Kinkel was apprehended alive and is currently serving a sentence of more than 110 years.The previous posts have dealt with some (relatively) objective demographic measures but with this post I'm moving into some of the more subjective (& thus controversial) psychological data. This week I'm covering data on motivations for training & the relative proportion of individualist & collectivist personality traits (technically referred to as allocentric & idiocentric). Motivations were recorded by having people rank each item in order of importance and individualism/collectivism was measured by a popular 16 item scale (devised by the cross cultural psychologists Triandis & Gelfand). The findings reveal a relatively balanced mix of personality traits amongst the BJJ community but are also lower on the individualism scores than is typical for a US heavy sample. This suggests that being part of the BJJ community pulls people into a more collective mindset. Another interesting result is that the most competitive and individualistic trait is actually the weakest orientation indicating that although BJJ is ultimately a competition between individuals, it is very much still a team sport! This also corresponds with the fact that 'Having Fun' was the No.1 motivation for training. When dealing with the more subjective data its important not only to remember the limitations of the sample (i.e. 727 people, predominately North American males using BJJ/MMA forums) but also to note that psychological scales are often subject to debate/differing interpretations. To help address this when designing the study, I tried to select only well-validated and commonly used psychological scales but even so for all measures reported I'll be including links so those who are interested can take a look at the various scales in greater detail. As usual, if anyone has any further questions about the data (or the scales!) feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly and I'll be happy to provide more information/answer any questions. And finally, sorry for the delay in getting this post up, my supervisor was over visiting Japan so I had a bit of a hectic week!Winnipeg Police confirm they have discovered a body in the Red River, but say it's too early to know if it's Lisa Gibson, the mother of two small children who died after being found injured in their home Wednesday. The body was pulled out of the river by the Alexander Docks, downstream from where police dive teams had been searching for Gibson, 32. Police began looking for Gibson after her infant son and two-year-old daughter were found critically injured in a bathtub in the family's home Wednesday morning. The children were rushed to hospital where they later died. On Thursday, police said they thought Gibson was still alive. But they turned their attention to the Assiniboine River near the family's home Friday after exhaustive searches of parks and the riverbank in the Westwood neighbourhood. Body found by members of provincial kayaking team Police were alerted to the body in the Red River Saturday morning after it was spotted floating there by four members of the provincial kayaking team who were paddling in canoe races. Team members told CBC News it appeared to be a woman's body. The Alexander Docks are just downstream from where the Assiniboine and Red Rivers meet up. Within minutes, dozens of police officers had taped off a wide area along Waterfront Drive. They held a tarp up to shield the scene from prying eyes as the coroner examined the body and wheeled it away. Police spokesman Const. Eric Hofley said police were unable to confirm the gender of the body immediately and likely would not be confirming the person's identity on Saturday.Metro to Operate Special LouFest Shuttles in Forest Park By Matthew Hibbard We’ve made it easy to enjoy the music, festivities and fun of LouFest when it returns to Forest Park on Saturday, September 9 and Sunday, September 10. For $3 round-trip, you can ride special LouFest shuttles from the Forest Park-DeBaliviere MetroLink Station directly to the two-day music festival to avoid traffic congestion, road closures and paying for parking in Forest Park. We’re partnering with Listen Live Entertainment to provide special shuttles to this year’s LouFest music festival. To take advantage of these special shuttles, concert-goers can park at any one of 21 free Metro Park-Ride lots in Missouri and Illinois and purchase their tickets to ride MetroLink to the Forest Park-DeBaliviere MetroLink Station, or ride the #90 Hampton MetroBus route to reach the station. The LouFest Shuttle pick-up and drop-off area will be located near the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Station on the west side of DeBaliviere Avenue. Shuttles operate from 11 a.m. to approximately 11 p.m. on Saturday, September 9, and Sunday, September 10. The LouFest shuttle tickets can only be purchased at the Forest Park-DeBaliviere MetroLink Station on the days of the event. Shuttle tickets are not available for purchase in Forest Park. Regular Metro tickets and passes cannot be used for the LouFest Shuttle, and LouFest Shuttle tickets are not valid fare for regular MetroBus or MetroLink service. World Record-Breaking Sticker Bus In addition to enjoying the concerts, you’ll also have an opportunity to help break a Guinness World Record with stickers. STLStickerSwap purchased a retired MetroBus vehicle, and over the course of the two-day music festival, will attempt to put at least 28,000 unique stickers on the bus, setting a new world record for most unique stickers applied to a vehicle. Everyone attending LouFest is encouraged to stop by and help St. Louis break a world record by placing stickers on the interior and exterior of the bus. The sticker bus can be found near the south entrance of the LouFest grounds. The world record-breaking attempt will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 9, and last until LouFest ends on Sunday, September 10. To plan your trip on Metro to LouFest, download the Metro On The Go App to your mobile device, use the Trip Planner on metrostlouis.org or contact Metro Transit Information at 314-231-2345 or 618-271-2345, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.The Fact via NateRandom comments left on his Instagram:"What pisses me the f*ck off is that you think you can sing Seungri's part better than he can. Why??? You could practice Seungri's part all you want and tone deaf singers like you couldn't even come close to him ㅠㅠ Don't act up""Stop getting all frustrated with GD because of your own inferiority complex""Kwon Jiyong is a precious being to me, just remember that. Don't treat him however you want."1. [+886, -98] Sigh, what's wrong with them. You really have to give it to Big Bang fans for going to the extremes.2. [+866, -53] That comment about Kwon Jiyong being so precious is hilarious ㅋㅋㅋㅋ I burst out laughing ㅋㅋㅋ3. [+750, -54] The reality of Korea's youth ruined by the internet. It's obvious they never got any proper education at home from their parents with their lack of character.4. [+63, -9] Hul... seriously daebak. Is this anything to be leaving hateful comments over..? I honestly feel so bad for Kwanghee. He's been getting hate since Six Man.. why be like this to a kid who's working hard? Attacking him as a person and all..5. [+55, -6] All of them should be sued so they beg for forgiveness and wake up;;;6. [+49, -6] What do you expect from a bunch of people who fangirl over a kid who does marijuana and molly. I guess they all have drug parties together tsk tsk7. [+43, -1] Sad part is that GD and Taeyang don't even know you guys exist8. [+42, -7] Keyboard warriors killing people with their words... scary9. [+37, -3] GD's probably thinking "You fans.. I came on this show to clean up my image.. stop acting like this..."10. [+33, -3] People are so crazy. They have no where else to relieve their stress so they screw over celebrities one by one. Can't be sane.Listen, don’t be scrolling down right now. I need to give you guys some perspective before I drop a top five list on you. Don’t just skip down the page to see who I picked. Not yet. We’re gonna do a deep dive here so you can understand my position better. My man Chris Harris Jr. had a great line when he did his 5 Toughest Receivers list. He said, “At least 80% of interceptions start in bed, or in a recliner.” Chris was talking about how many hours of film study go into making a pick. That’s definitely true when it comes to the secondary, but for me as a linebacker, the game is a little bit different. There’s still a big mental aspect to pass rushing, but my position is more about attacking than reacting. Most of my sacks come from winning that tiny fraction of a second after the ball is snapped. If I don’t anticipate the snap count and get an explosive first step, I don’t really have a chance. The thing is, I don’t get many true one-on-ones with an offensive lineman anymore. I typically get a double team, or even a triple team, with a “chipper” at the line of scrimmage. When it comes to a double team, it almost doesn’t matter who the personnel are. Like, in Madden terms, a guy could be a 70-overall player or a 90 — if he has help, it’s gonna be really tough to get pressure no matter what. When Chris did his article, he used a clip of his interception off Cam Newton in Week 1. So let’s run that clip back and break down how the Panthers were protecting Cam on my side, because it was a good example of what I’m talking about. The first thing you have to watch is the tight end. He’s going to chip me to the outside, just to slow down my release. Then he’ll go out for his route. The tackle won’t even engage me. Look how far back the right tackle slides after the snap. He’s like four yards deep, by Cam’s side, by the time I get around the chipper. He’s just a second line of protection. This is why it is so important to have two good outside pass rushers. I’m fortunate to have DeMarcus Ware — one of the best to ever do it — on the other side. So teams have to pick their poison against us. You can’t overload both sides of the protection without sacrificing your options downfield. If you pick on me and give DeMarcus a clean edge all game long, your QB is gonna be banged up. So how do I still get sacks if I’m facing double teams? Well … Sometimes I’m able to blow past the chipper completely just with pure speed and by anticipating the snap count. Then I get the tackle one-on-one, and he’s going to be on his heels, expecting the chip. At that point, I’ve got two options: I can do a spin move to get inside, or I can get really low and dip around his shoulder on the outside. The problem with dipping around is that the best QBs get the ball out of their hands in three seconds. Those guys aren’t gonna give you four seconds to take the scenic route. Sometimes you’ve gotta find a way to get inside and blow things up quick. This sack on Cam from the Super Bowl is a good example. If you watch that clip once, you’ll probably think, Oh ok, he did a spin move and got to the quarterback. But the spin is really just the last part of it. That sack was about two things: anticipating the snap count and an explosive first step. Anticipating a snap count is kind of like playing that reflex game Hot Hands. Let me break it down for you. Anticipating a snap count is kind of like playing that reflex game Hot Hands (aka Red Hands, aka Slap Jack). You have to develop a sixth sense for the quarterback’s timing. Of course, the QB can always give you a hard count to draw you offside, but if you’re really in tune with the game, you can feel the hard count coming. With young QBs especially, you can sense it. You see them coming up to the line, and something is a little different about their demeanor — maybe their body language is different, or their voice is a little deeper. Some quarterbacks even have a little tell where they lift their heels up right before they call for the snap. But now let me really, really break it down for you. Let’s say I sniff out the count, and my brain says, “Here we go.” That signal still has to get from my brain all the way down to my legs. So I have to get a slight lean forward, and then as soon as the ball is snapped I have to explode in a split second. This reaction doesn’t just come naturally. Whenever I train, I’m always taking my first step off a whistle or a flashing green light or something — and I have to react instantly. So let’s go back to the sack in the Super Bowl. If you freeze-frame the clip right after the snap, you’ll see why I got to the quarterback. You can see that I’m already exploding. The chipper doesn’t have a chance. And as a pass rusher, a few offsides are just the cost of doing business. Five yards? That’s a trade-off I’ll take. If I have the QB worried about executing hard counts, I’ve already got an edge, because now he’s not fully concentrating on his presnap reads. We’re just scratching the surface, but I hope that gives you a better understanding of my position. Because it’s not just me vs. the tackle. There are a lot of variables. So with that said, I’m not just going to do the five toughest tackles I’ve faced. I’m going to show some love to a few positions. Let’s start with the Animal. Toughest Offensive Tackle: Trent Williams The four-time Pro Bowler. The classic Beast. Trent has all the physical tools. But what separates him is that he’s also the most mentally tough guy I’ve ever seen. He has that swag about him that makes him almost more like a defensive player. He loves talking to you. Usually it’s just the defensive guys talking — “I’m on your ass all day, bruh!” But Trent has that defensive mentality on the other side of the ball. Some tackles, they just want to not get beat, but Trent is always in attack mode. The battle at the line of scrimmage is like a 12-round boxing fight. He’s going to get some punches in, and I’m going to get some punches in. What makes a great offensive lineman is the ability to take a shot on the chin and get right back up and not be rattled. If Trent gets beat, he knows it’s part of the game. He doesn’t get passive — he’s right back on your ass the next play. His mind-set is like, “You beat me? Alright, you got lucky on that play. Let’s go.” That’s the confidence you need to be great over four quarters. He’s the toughest guy on the field every single play. Toughest Quarterback: Tom Brady What makes him the best isn’t just his accuracy throwing the ball. His presnap vision is the best I’ve ever seen, bar none. He’s able to predict your play just based off the presnap coverage. You can disguise your look all you want, but he’s still able to move guys around and forecast what’s coming. Brady almost turns the whole game into a seven-on-seven drill because of how fast he’s able to get rid of the ball. His presnap vision is the best I’ve ever seen, bar none. And let’s be honest — he hasn’t always had the best talent in the world around him. But no matter who his receivers are, his presnap adjustments set them up to excel. Let me bring it back to Madden again. Sometimes if you have the right matchups, or check into the right play based on the defense, it doesn’t matter if your receiver is a 70-overall or a 90-overall. Brady will almost always check into the play that allows his first or second reads to get open. The biggest challenge in playing the Patriots is simply getting off the field. You’re never worried about Brady hitting you for 70 yards, but he’ll chip away at you and keep drives alive, which wears you down. So if my whole game is based on an explosive first step, that’s a problem. Getting a consistent first step on a 15-play drive is pretty much impossible. He keeps himself pretty clean, too. It’s very rare to see Brady get popped, but I’ve seen it. As a matter of fact, Elvis Dumervil got him my rookie season. It was one of the few presnap mistakes I’ve ever seen from the Patriots. Brady didn’t shift the protection to counter our blitz, and Elvis came completely free. I was on the other side. I remember watching Elvis bearing down on him like, Daaaaaaaaaamn. There’s no feeling like that free run to the quarterback. Oh my God. Respect to Tom, though. He popped right back up. Toughest Running Back: Chris Ivory I know everybody thinks I’m going to say Adrian Peterson or Marshawn Lynch here, but the thing is, I only played against those guys a few times. And you already know what makes them great anyway, so let me shed some light on a guy who’s under the radar. Chris Ivory is such a punishing back. Honestly, the punishers are the guys who you really hate playing against, because even if they don’t have the blocking, they’re gonna make you hurt. Over the course of 60 minutes, you’ll get to the point where you don’t wanna tackle them anymore. It’s human nature. You don’t want to put yourself in that kind of harm. And Ivory causes harm, bro. He almost never runs out of bounds to preserve himself. He lays his body on the line for his teammates. There’s one play in particular that sticks out to me, and it’s from 2013, when Ivory was on the Jets. I couldn’t find the film, so I’ll diagram it for you: I’m out in pass coverage on the tight end, who runs a deep over. So I get pulled all the way down the field, near the sideline. We’re in Cover 3, so I don’t have any help underneath. Ivory runs a little checkdown route, and everybody’s cleared out. I turn around to see him catching the ball, and I’m all by myself. He’s got the rock in 15 yards of space. Damn. It’s me and Chris. One-on-one. Man, by the time I turn around and get my legs churning, he’s coming at about 20 mph. I’m coming at about five. So I do what every coach tells you to do, from Pop Warner on up to the NFL — I get my head across the ball and meet him shoulder to shoulder. Boom. It was an incredible blow. It was right on the Jets sideline, too. I got up all wobbly, and their whole sideline was yelling to our sideline, “Come get him! He’s out! Yo, he’s done!” At first, I was trying to pass it off like it was nothing, but I couldn’t make it back to the sideline. I took a knee and the trainers helped me up. Luckily, it was just a little issue with my contact. 😉 Toughest Tight End: Rob Gronkowski There’s not a more dominant tight end right now than Gronkowski. But he’s not just dominant as a receiver— he’s the total package. I think his blocking is underrated. This term is almost overused in the media now, but Gronk really is a true game-changer. He’s almost like LeBron James in that his body type and skill set has never been seen before at his position. The NFL has never seen anything like his combination of size, speed and hands. Chris broke down his crazy catch against us from two years ago, but I want you to pay attention to something else. Brady’s throw is perfect, and Gronk’s catch is ridiculous, but you know what? Watch the protection. If it wasn’t for the running back’s chip on me, that play never would’ve happened. I could’ve dipped and taken the edge on the pulling guard. See, there’s so many little things that go into a successful play, which is why I have to show some respect to the last man on my list. Toughest Head Coach: Bill Belichick I like Jack Del Rio, too. He knows us very well, and I have a lot of respect for him. The Raiders presented a lot of challenges when we played them in Oakland this year, but we play them again in Denver at the end of the year, so we’ll see…. But with Belichick, his genius comes from the fact that he always gameplans based on the personnel he has. He’s had Hall of Famers like Randy Moss, and he’s also had guys who you never heard of before, and no matter what, the Patriots are always contenders. Some of the packages we see from the Patriots, I’ve never seen before on a football field. They’ll line Gronk up way out wide at the X receiver position, and the running back will be lined up on Brady’s left side. So in my mind, I’m thinking, Damn, it’s all good. No tight end. No RB chipper in sight. Here we go. Let’s eat. … And then all of a sudden Brady sends Gronk in slow motion back toward me, then the ball is snapped. So I release and Gronk is coming from the outside to chip me, and I don’t even see him coming. I’ve played a lot of football, but there’s still stuff the Patriots do that surprises me. Respect to Belichick, but hey, I think we proved last year that we’ve got some tricks, too. That’s what makes football the best. This game is deeper than it might appear. For every style of football, there’s a counter. (Bonus Shout Out) Toughest Pop Warner Quarterback in DeSoto, Texas: Vernon Frazier Vernon Frazier was cold. This guy was running a 4.6 40 in fifth grade. Everybody else was still running in the fives. It was hell trying to keep up with him. He was the Pop Warner Mike Vick. Shout out to Vernon. Hopefully y’all enjoyed this and you didn’t skip right to the end. We don’t do listicles, bro!If some of the things that are being done in Sweden today weren't demonstrably true, they'd be unbelievable. If they weren't so idiotically tragic, they'd be brilliantly funny. What follows is not a joke. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and his crew have come up with a great new way to improve integration. One word: clowns. A quick reminder: thanks to the astronomical cost of feeding, housing, and clothing immigrants who prefer not to support themselves, and the equally formidable expense of policing those multiculturally enriched, high-crime areas that the authorities haven't already given up on policing, Sweden is bleeding cash – big time. Among the results: major cutbacks in outlays for schooling, health care, and benefits for the elderly. Nonetheless, the Swedish Migration Board has managed to find an unspecified number of kronor – apparently in the millions – to spend on the services of an organization called Clowner utan Gränser. Translation: Clowns without Borders (hereafter CWB). According to an article in the invaluable Friatider website, CWB plans to “'play' its way to better integration.” The Migration Board specifies that the clowns will be used to integrate non-EU immigrants – which in Sweden, of course, mostly means Muslims. After reading Friatider's story, I naturally went straight to CWB's website. Front and center is detailed information about how to contribute money to this thing: “Become a donor and spread laughter every month!” Click on “about us” and you'll find out that CWB was founded in 1996 and operates in a dozen countries, sending clowns into refugee camps and youth prisons. CWB's declared mission is “to meet children in pleasure, play, and joy.” It seeks to create “hope, humanity, and the will to live.” Its vision is “a world filled with play, laughter, and dreams, where all people have the opportunity to develop, express themselves freely, and feel hope even in vulnerable situations.” All its work “is done in our belief that it creates a better world.” Of course it would be terribly cynical to call B.S. on all this. I'm sure it's totally on the level and every bit as wondrous and magical as it sounds – and worth every kronor. Just speaking for myself, however, the last thing I can imagine wanting to see if I were a little kid in a Third World refugee camp or youth prison would be a bunch of guys in clown outfits climbing out of a tiny car, juggling bowling pins, riding unicycles, making balloon animals, and sweeping up spotlights. Not to put too fine a point on it, but is any child ever really entertained by the antics of clowns? I've always had my doubts. All I know is that for as long as I can remember, clowns struck me me as witless, depressing, and vaguely creepy. Their costumes look as if they must be sweaty and smelly. A painted-on smile seems the very opposite of cheery. But hey, maybe that's just me. Also, the whole premise reminds me of the notorious Jerry Lewis movie The Day the Clown Cried (1972), about a clown who entertains Jewish children on a train to Auschwitz and then on their way into the gas chambers. It was never released because it was considered to be in outrageously bad taste. Just sayin'. I did react to one detail on CWB's site. It informs us that the group “is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.” What is that supposed to mean? As it happens, the convention in question is one of those ridiculous international agreements that are at best meaningless and at worst menacing, but that diplomats from countries like Sweden are crazy about. The U.S. is the only nation on earth to have refused to ratify it, one reason being that it can be interpreted as denying basic parental rights. (In the recent case of the critically ill baby Charlie Gard in the U.K., it was reported that the court's refusal to let the parents seek extraordinary treatment for their son was founded, at least in part, on the UN convention.) Needless to say, the fact that the convention has been ratified by every government on earth other than America's mean that it's gotten the stamp of approval from places where children are openly enslaved, prostituted, and put to work in factories. So CWB's pious mention of this hollow document – this empty, worthless specimen of pure technocratic sanctimony – is, for this reader, for what it's worth, something of a red flag. But the main point here, obviously, is that the eagerness of the Swedish Migration Board to bring “play, laughter, and dreams” to Muslim children makes one thing perfectly clear: namely, that – even after all these years, all these immigrants, and all these failed efforts at integration – Swedish authorities still don't know the first damned thing about Islam. Have none of them ever come across the Ayatollah Khomeini's famous pronouncement on the subject of play and laughter? “Allah,” declared Khomeini, “did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.” To reread Khomeini's ukase is to experience, shall we say, an increased curiosity as to the potential results of the Swedish Migration Board's inspired new initiative. What can happen? One imagines a troupe of these clowns dancing and frolicking their way into some no-go zone in Malmö and ending up in a decapitation video. One pictures some burka-clad version of Kathy Griffin posing for the camera, holding up a clown's real head by its fake red hair. Now that's one image that likely would bring a few laughs to some of the humor-deprived denizens of Rosengård or Rinkeby.For the past three years, an attorney has been filing lawsuits in New York state on behalf of four chimpanzees named Tommy, Kiko, Hercules, and Leo. They are intelligent “persons,” he argues, and should not be kept in cages. The large legal and philosophical questions in this case hinge on a bit of grammar. Steven Wise, who is also president of the Florida-based Nonhuman Rights Project, believes that the chimps should have the legal right not to be kept in captivity because they are intelligent and self-aware. In December 2013, he sued on their behalf, arguing in several lawsuits that the chimps were “persons” for legal purposes and therefore could not be confined in cages. He suggested that they be released to an outdoor animal sanctuary. The lawsuits are based on habeas corpus, a legal doctrine that prevents an accuser from imprisoning someone without bringing charges against them in a court of law. Two of the chimps, Tommy and Kiko, were trained to perform in movies and TV shows and are now living in upstate New York. The other two, Hercules and Leo, have been moved around from one research facility to another all their lives, and are now in Louisiana. Two things make this case notable beyond the usual animal advocacy lawsuits. One, it comes at a time when legal rights of nature and broadening definitions of personhood are gaining traction worldwide. In the past few months, rivers in New Zealand and India were given constitutional rights normally reserved for human beings. Meanwhile, a judge in Argentina ruled in November that a chimpanzee named Cecilia had legal rights and ordered her release from a zoo. Second, the large legal and philosophical questions in this case hinge on a bit of grammar. A conjunction, to be precise. This could open the door for other animals to be considered legal persons. For the most part, courts in New York have denied Wise’s petitions and appeals on various technicalities. Only in Tommy’s case did a judge issue a decision based on the merits of the argument. In that case, issued in December 2014, an appeals court in New York’s third judicial department ruled against Wise. The judge cited the definition of personhood in Black’s Law Dictionary, which states that “a person is any being whom the law regards as capable of rights and duties.” The court placed special emphasis on the word “and.” While the chimps’ intelligence might entitle them to “rights,” the court reasoned, they still did not qualify as persons because they “can’t bear any legal duties, submit to societal responsibilities, or be held legally accountable for their actions.” That decision set a precedent, and a Manhattan court relied on it when it denied a subsequent habeas corpus petition for Tommy and Kiko in March. Legal options for the chimps appeared to have run out. But Wise and his team felt something was off about the 2014 decision. “We thought, That can’t be right,” he said. “If a chimp or a small child has to be able to bear duties to have any rights at all, then we can do anything we want to them. If the court is right, it would be very, very bad not to be able to bear duties.” “Being autonomous should be sufficient condition for a chimp to have rights.” So the Nonhuman Rights Project began to look more closely at that definition of personhood in Black’s Law Dictionary. It was based on a single, obscure source: the 10th edition of Sir John Salmond’s Jurisprudence, published in 1947. A volunteer attorney named Spencer Lo contacted the Library of Congress to track down a copy of the text. A few weeks later, the librarians sent Lo a scan of the page in question. Sure enough, Wise’s hunch had been right: Salmond’s definition of personhood said “rights or duties,” not “rights and duties.” On April 6, an attorney with the Nonhuman Rights Project wrote to Bryan Garner, an editor with Black’s Law Dictionary, and flagged the error. Garner wrote back the same day, acknowledged the mistake, and promised to fix it in the next edition. Wise says the implications for his work are enormous. In the short term, he’s hopeful that the change in Black’s Law Dictionary will help reverse the appellate court’s 2014 decision, and the Nonhuman Rights Project has already filed a motion notifying the court of the expected change. There are long-term implications, too. In particular, if the Nonhuman Rights Project is able to get a legal foothold by winning a habeas case on behalf of a chimpanzee, that could open the door for other animals to be considered legal persons, as well. Zoos, circuses, research facilities, and other organizations that keep highly intelligent animals in captivity would all be affected. “Right now, in the state of New York, it’s clear to us that being autonomous should be sufficient condition for a chimp to have rights,” Wise says. “We’re very prepared to show that every chimp in the world should be a person, and likely elephants and whales and dolphins, too.”Genetics Las objeciones técnicas a la idea de que los neandertales se cruzaron con los antepasados de los euroasiáticos han sido superadas, gracias a un método de análisis del genoma descrito en la edición de abril de la revistaLa técnica puede detectar las firmas genéticas de mestizaje con mayor fiabilidad que otros enfoques anteriores y será útil para los estudios evolutivos de otras muestras antiguas o raras de ADN."Nuestro método puede distinguir entre dos hipótesis sutilmente diferentes que podrían explicar las similitudes genéticas compartidas por los neandertales y los humanos modernos de Europa y Asia", explica el coautor del estudio Konrad Lohse, un genetista de poblaciones de la Universidad de Edimburgo (Escocia), en la información de Newswise La primera hipótesis es que los neandertales se cruzaron de vez en cuando con los humanos modernos después de emigrar de África. El escenario alternativo es que los seres humanos que salieron de África evolucionaron de la misma subpoblación ancestral que había dado con anterioridad lugar a los neandertales.Muchos investigadores sostienen que la hipótesis de mestizaje es más probable, porque se ajusta a los patrones genéticos vistos en estudios que compararon los genomas de muchos seres humanos modernos. Pero el nuevo enfoque descarta por completo el escenario alternativo utilizando sólo la información de un genoma de cada uno de estos cuatro tipos: Neandertal, europeo/asiático, africano y chimpancé.Date Event January 1 The History Channel is launched. January 5 All My Children celebrates its 25th anniversary and broadcasts a prime-time special on ABC. January 16 The United Paramount Network (UPN) launches, with a two-hour premiere of Star Trek: Voyager. January 17 The Golf Channel, a TV channel dedicated to the sport of golf, launches. January 24 Live broadcasts of the O. J. Simpson trial begin; as a result, many network soap operas are partially pre-empted, more or less, for nine months. February 1
I want to leave with you is this: make your own book. Design it in Google Docs, Apple Pages, Microsoft Word, or whatever basic software you have. Put together all the lessons you’ve personally learned, and share it with others. Of course we are all students at the end of the day, but I think there is nothing more beautiful than sharing knowledge you’ve picked up along the way. You don’t need to be an “authority”, “expert”, or “professional” to do any of this. I still consider myself an amateur, and I am still learning everyday (and killing old theories I picked up in the past). So make your own photography book, project, and distribute it openly and freely. Push the human race forward with your knowledge, ideas, and creativity. You have no limits. Love, Eric @ CC Coffeeshop in New Orleans, Mon, 3:05pm, with a double-shot of espressoA smart new way to buy stuff Apple Pay is ready to use with your TSB account. The easier, safer and private way to pay. So whether you're picking up a coffee on the way to work, or making a hotel booking by app, all you need is your Apple device to pay for them. That's right, no cards and no PINs required - just look for the Apple Pay symbol in participating stores or in apps. It works with any iPhone 6. Please see our setting up Apple Pay guide to see which other accounts, cards and devices are compatible. How does it work? Making payments in shops Follow these 5 steps to start making in-store purchases with Apple Pay. Look for stores displaying the Apple Pay or contactless symbol Check the transaction amount on the terminal or with the cashier - this won't show up on your device If you're happy, just hold your device close to the shop's contactless reader - Apple Pay will activate automatically Put your finger on the Home button to activate Touch ID on your iPhone or double-click the side button on your Apple Watch And with a subtle vibration and a beep, your transaction's complete Making payments in apps Whenever you want to pay with Apple Pay within an app, select Apple Pay as your payment method and place your finger on Touch ID if your device has it. Done. Where can I use it?An abusive pensioner has been convicted of harassing his neighbours - because their gardens don’t look as good as his. Green-fingered John Bushell, 89, has immaculate hedges, trimmed bushes and a well-kept lawn outside his smart detached home in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear. But he believes his neighbors’ failure to maintain the outside of their houses has affected the value of his £200,000 property. Since buying the house in 1960, irate Mr Bushell has verbally abused his neighbours because their ‘messy’ gardens mean he can’t find a buyer for his home. During a long campaign of abuse, he branded neighbours Marjorie and Ken Mills ‘scumbags’, tipped rubbish into other peoples’ gardens and modified his guttering so rain poured outside their homes. Bushell has breached a restraining order ten times during a two decade reign of terror - and has received five convictions. He has now been convicted again after a tirade got so heated he threatened to burn down Ken's home 'before I die'. Bushell appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates Court on Monday for yet another breach of the restraining order. A house on Mill Crescent in Hebburn, on the same street as Mr Bushell. (SWNS) More [Fed-up neighbour gets court order banning next door's dog from barking at night] [Pensioner's lucky escape after Audi ploughs through home as he napped upstairs] The outside of retired bookmaker Mr Bushell’s house is in perfect condition - with polished statues, a perfectly varnished front door and an intricate white trellis around his windows. District Judge Helen Cousins also urged him to move house when he appeared in court this week. She said: 'Your garden looks very beautiful but you can't behave as you did. You have got previous convictions for doing exactly the same thing. 'The two-year suspended sentence should allow you time to sell your house and spend the rest of your life in peace.' But speaking after the case Bushell said he couldn't sell up - and it was his neighbour's fault. He said: 'I've taken the house off the market. Who is going to buy it when you see the state of the gardens around here?' Bushell harassed neighbours over the state of their gardens in Tyne and Wear. (SWNS) More Another supposedly'messy' garden on Mr Bushell's road in Hebburn. (SWNS) More Story continues“Wholly appropriate” was a phrase that H. R. McMaster, the national-security adviser, used more than half a dozen times in a press briefing on Tuesday morning, in describing what President Donald Trump revealed to Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in an Oval Office meeting last week. The Washington Post, followed by other media organizations, had described the conversation in a way that was wholly dismaying. The various accounts had Trump boasting about his intelligence (perhaps in both senses of the word) and showing off the most sensitive information in the same way that he showed reporters who visited his Trump Tower office the framed magazine covers on his wall, each one bearing a picture of Trump. Worse, the Post reported that the intelligence Trump bragged about came from a Middle Eastern ally that had not given permission to share it, and that might not want the Russians, in particular, to know the sources and methods by which it had learned that information—information which, according to press reports, Trump may have put at risk. (According to further press reports, the ally in question is Israel, raising the possibility that what Trump did was roughly the fun-house-mirror image of what Jonathan Pollard was convicted of doing.) One of the Post’s sources, a former official, called it “all kind of shocking.” Not even Republicans seemed to know what to do with the story when it broke on Monday; many of them, like Senator Bob Corker, repeated worried comments about the need for order in the White House. Others muttered about national security—like Paul Ryan, who sent out a spokesman to say that “protecting our nation’s secrets is paramount,” and then went into hiding. McMaster hadn’t hidden, or not successfully. On Monday afternoon, after first being caught with no answers when he ran into some reporters who were looking for Sean Spicer, McMaster came out with one, saying that the Post story, at least “as reported, is false.” McMaster knew that it was false, he said, “because I was in the room. It didn’t happen.” He said that the Secretary of State and another official were there, too, and that they would back him and the President up. (The other official was Dina Powell, who has moved, in Trumpian short order, from Goldman Sachs to Ivanka Trump’s side to the National Security Council.) McMaster’s denial came after a series of Tuesday-morning tweets from Trump, in which the President said, basically, that he had an “absolute right” to tell the Russians anything he wanted because he was President. His tweets referred to “facts pertaining... to terrorism and airline flight safety.” As a legal matter, Trump is probably right; as President, he gets to declassify information at will. But, as with the firing of James Comey, he made it sound as if his aides—including McMaster, a highly respected general—might have been proffering something less than the full or accurate story. As a rule, Trump doesn’t care whom he humiliates. So, on Tuesday, when McMaster appeared again, at a briefing that had been scheduled to talk about Trump’s first international trip as President, one of the first questions was whether he had any regrets about disparaging the Post’s story. Did he maybe want to take those words back? “No, I stand by my statement that I made yesterday,” McMaster said. “But what I’m saying is really the premise of that article was false, that in any way the President had a conversation that was inappropriate or that resulted in any kind of lapse in national security.” McMaster portrayed Trump as getting tough with Lavrov about Russia’s “behavior,” which had to change, and then pulling him back in with a reminder of how ISIS shot down Russian planes, as if this were the art of the foreign-policy deal. McMaster also dodged the question of whether Trump had mentioned the particular city from which the intelligence emerged—an element that would concern whether sources and methods were compromised—by saying that any reporter in the room could probably come up with a list of cities occupied by ISIS. Perhaps most remarkable, he said that Trump had not known the source of the information that he was conveying to Lavrov. Trump had met with the Russian foreign minister the day after firing the F.B.I. director, James Comey, a move that the President, by his own account, made while mulling over what he regarded as a ridiculous investigation into the connections between his campaign and Russia. A meeting between the President and the Russian foreign minister is not in itself inappropriate, but, considering the timing, it was unwise. “Appropriate” is a useful term, sometimes. It is supposed to convey a sense of standards, as well as legality—of respectable behavior. The corollary is that propriety depends, to an extent, on circumstances, and this was an idea that McMaster leaned on heavily in his recitation of rationalizations for Trump’s behavior at the meeting. What Trump said was “wholly appropriate to that conversation” and, “in the context of the conversation,” “wholly appropriate with what the expectations are of our intelligence partners,” and it is “wholly appropriate for the President to share whatever information he thinks to advance the safety of the American people. That’s what he did.” It was also “wholly appropriate given the purpose of that conversation and the purpose of what the President was trying to achieve”—whatever purpose he might have, it seems, and whatever he might be trying to achieve. McMaster, at the beginning of his press briefing, laid out the itinerary for Trump’s trip—the royal banquet in Saudi Arabia, the dinner that the President and the First Lady will have with the Netanyahus, the meetings with the King of Belgium and the new President of France. Reporters asked whether the meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak and the attendant uproar made McMaster, or anyone else involved in the planning of the trip, more sensitive about the President’s “discretion.” “There are no sensitivities in terms of me,” McMaster said. He tried to return the reporters to what he, personally, considered the “real issue”: leakers. They were the ones endangering national security, McMaster said. It sounded like the coming attractions for the next episode of White House chaos: the bitter hunt for whoever on the inside was talking to the Post. And yet it might be the leakers who are keeping the country safe. Government officials turn to reporters when there is something that strikes them as not right. The events of this week and last have gone to the heart of what it means to work for Donald Trump. The likelihood that one will be publicly humiliated may be the least of it; participation in policies that are not good for this country is a grimmer prospect. And so is the possibility that we might forget what we expect from a President, or from the people who work for him. It might be seen as improper for a member of the intelligence community to meet with a journalist, or out of line for a national-security adviser to publicly break with his boss. But there are times when it is appropriate to do so; there are even moments when it is necessary.Lyft will give free DeLorean rides in New York Lyft is giving free rides in a DeLorean in New York on Wednesday. Lyft is giving free rides in a DeLorean in New York on Wednesday. Photo: Noel Vasquez/Getty Images Photo: Noel Vasquez/Getty Images Image 1 of / 38 Caption Close Lyft will give free DeLorean rides in New York 1 / 38 Back to Gallery Lyft is riding the "Back to the Future II" wave this week with a DeLorean deal in New York City. Lyft users in Manhattan can request a free ride in the iconic car on Wednesday, to celebrate the date (Oct. 21, 2015) Marty McFly visited in the second time-traveling film. The promotion runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day. There's no word on similar rides in San Francisco. "Don't worry — these DeLoreans aren't equipped with Flux Capacitors, so where you're going, we still need roads," the company wrote. To get a DeLorean, users in Manhattan should set their app to McFly Mode. The little black cars transform into vintage ones, while the button at the bottom of the app changes to "Request McFly." The ride is free for up to 15 minutes. Toyota, Pepsi, Nike, Lexus and Universal Pictures are joining in the Back to the Future fun this week. Toyota is debuting its hydrogen-powered 2016 Mirai -- which can travel up to 312 miles on one fill -- on Wednesday. Pepsi will take orders for its limited-release Pepsi Perfect, featured in the film. Ford used YouTube to announce its fake "class exclusive" Flux Capacitor, also out Wednesday. "For recreational use only," the video says. "Interfering in major historical events is illegal and could have unintended consequences for all of humanity."Hundreds of migrants arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos have claimed that they came from a “dissolved” migrant camp in north-west Turkey, and Greek port authorities allege the Turkish coastguard that monitors the Aegean Sea border has “disappeared”. On Friday 200 migrants, mostly originating from Africa, travelled across the Aegean Sea and landed on the eastern Greek island of Lesbos. In addition, the European Union (EU) border agency Frontex picked up 66 migrants off the coast of Chios. On Saturday morning, a further 330 arrived on the both islands. Journalists on Lesbos reported that the majority of the arriving migrants had told authorities that they had been interned in closed and controlled camps in north-west Turkey, and that these camps had been “dissolved” in recent days. It has also been observed by Greek port authorities that the Turkish coastguard, which usually operates in the sea area of the border in the northern Aegean, has “disappeared”. The Greek Ministry of Migration confirmed the increased number of migrants arriving on the islands adding that they are observing the phenomenon closely. The newly-landed migrants also claimed that thousands of Africans who arrived on the coasts of Turkey are looking for a way to pass to the Greek islands. These reports come less than a fortnight after Greek intelligence had disclosed that the Turkish government plans to allow 3,000 migrants to leave their shores every day to head for Greece. The EU-Turkey migrant deal, where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised to stem the flow of migrants from the Middle East and Africa from his country to Europe in exchange for financial support for migrant care, visa-free travel in the Schengen Zone, and accelerated EU membership, is on the verge of collapse following allegations by the Islamist president that the EU has not kept up with its end of the bargain. European leaders deny Erdoğan’s allegations, but many have voiced their concern over the Near Eastern nation’s accession to the bloc due to Turkey’s human rights abuses and the recent crackdown on the media and mass arrests following the failed coup in July. The total number of migrants accommodated on Lesbos and Chios has now reached 11,112, and throughout Greece there are reportedly 62,380 migrants. According to an International Organization for Migration (IOM) report released on Tuesday, over 351,000 migrants crossed into Greece and Italy since the beginning of 2016 compared to 883,393 this time in 2015. But if Turkey has begun to roll back its border security, Greece could see those figures rise again to the level at the height of the migrant crisis. The EU announced on Thursday that member countries could begin returning migrants to Greece in March 2017, in an effort to reinstate the bloc’s Dublin asylum rules whereby migrants must have their asylum request processed in the country in which they first land. In a letter to the EU interior ministers and the EU Commission on Friday, Greek Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas pleaded with the supranational bloc to support them in reducing the population of overcrowded migrant camps on the Aegean islands.Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and the graduate program in space architecture. He is author of “Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax,” and his professional aerospace work has been featured on the History Channel and the Discovery Channel-Canada. Read more of his reports — Click Here Now. Contrary even to former Obama administration Energy Department Undersecretary for Science Steven Koonin’s admission that the climate change debate isn’t settled, there never really was one.Koonin, who now directs New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, wrote a headlined Wall Street Journal Weekend Review story that was entirely right about thing however: “We often hear there is a ‘scientific consensus’ about climate change... But as far as computer models go, there isn’t a useful consensus at the level of detail relevant to assessing human influences.”Dr. Koonin is also correct in noting that the issue isn’t whether or not the climate is changing because “the climate has always changed and always will.” He points out that the main question remains to be about the relative importance of both natural and man-made influences which will effect energy and infrastructure policy decisions.On this score, while he believes that humans can cause serious issues, “they are physically small in relation to the climate system as a whole”, whereas carbon dioxide emissions “directly shift the atmosphere’s natural greenhouse effect by only 1 percent to 2 percent.”Still, there’s even very good reason to think that even this amount of human CO2 influence may be highly exaggerated.He admits that “climate sensitivity," an estimate of warming induced by a hypothetical doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentration, is no different, and no more certain than it was 30 years ago. Meanwhile, global sea levels rose at almost the same rate during the first half of the 20th century as today.At the same time, Earth’s average surface temperature rise of 0.9 degree F over the last quarter of the 20th century has slowed over the past 16 years (many say longer), while human CO2 contributions have continually risen 25 percent. Koonin adds: “Yet the models famously fail to capture this slowing in the temperature rise.” He also observes that models showing Arctic ice melting over the past 20 years forget to note almost equal growth across Antarctica which is “now at a record high.”Incidentally, global temperatures were just as warm, or even warmer, than now from about 1910 to 1945 when atmospheric CO2 levels were lower. And let’s also recognize that no respectable surveys show consensus among experts that global warming since the industrial revolution brought smoke stacks and SUVs onto the scene is either unusual or anything to lose sleep over.So where do the famous “climate debate is settled” and “97 percent of all scientists agree about global warming” (aka climate change) statements come from? They can be traced to an endlessly reported 2009 American Geophysical Union survey consisting of an intentionally brief two question online survey sent to 10,257 Earth scientists by two researchers at the University of Illinois-Chicago, which asked two questions.The first: “When compared with pre-1800s levels, do you think that mean global temperatures have generally risen, fallen, or remained relatively constant?”Few would be expected to dispute this. Thee planet began thawing out of the little ice age in the middle 19th century, predating the Industrial Revolution. (That was the coldest period since the last real ice age ended roughly 10,000 years ago.)The second question: “Do you think human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?” So what constitutes “significant”? Does “changing” include both cooling and warming... and for both “better” and “worse”?Which contributions? Land use? Deforestation? They were also not asked whether they believed the anthropogenic (human-caused) contribution was or might become sufficient to warrant concern or the adoption of stringent government regulatory policies.Of the 3,146 who responded (a 31 percent return rate), only a small subset of just 77 (2.5 percent) were represented in the survey statistic. These are ones who listed “climate science” as their area of expertise and had been successful in getting more than half of their papers recently accepted by peer-reviewed climate science journals.In other words, that “97 percent all scientists” referred to a laughably puny number of 75 of those 77 who answered yes.Get that — of the 3,146 Earth scientists who responded, 98 percent of the cherry-picked 2.5 percent who were counted in the survey agreed that humans have at least some unspecified influence on climate! That’s really a ton of consensus!In his Wall Street Journal article Steven Koonin wisely cautions: “Uncertainty is a prime mover and motivator of science and must be faced head-on. It should not be confined to hushed sidebar conversations at academic conferences.” He concludes that “any serious discussion of the changing climate begin by acknowledging not only scientific certainties but also the uncertainties, especially in projecting the future.”Yes. Only when that happens will the real debate begin. One where Mother Nature will have the final word.Parliamentary entitlements: Cory Bernardi says former single-term PMs should receive fewer perks Updated Newly independent senator Cory Bernardi is urging Parliament to crack down on entitlements for retired prime ministers who have only served a single term. The Federal Government has promised an overhaul of the parliamentary entitlements system and last week announced it would move to immediately scrap the lifetime gold-pass for retired MPs, but not prime ministers. The Senate will be debating the legislation this week and Senator Bernardi is planning to move amendments preventing former prime ministers from accessing the travel entitlement and other perks, in retirement, if they have only served one term. This is Senator Bernardi's first intervention since splitting from the Liberal Party last week and is aimed squarely at picking up on the populist discontent with politics. The conservative senator said the move, which would likely affect former prime ministers Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, was "fair and reasonable", arguing the nation's leaders should be required to serve a minimum amount of time before becoming eligible for generous perks in retirement. "They are happy to take it away from serving MPs, or those who have qualified to travel entitlements or post-parliamentary benefits, but they want to quarantine it for serving prime ministers," he told the ABC. "I think that is [self] serving." He also argued the "revolving door of prime ministers" had not served the country well and his amendment would go some way towards "cleaning up Canberra". "The respect for the office of prime minister has been trashed," he said. "I do not know why anybody who serves for less than four years in the job of prime minister should receive access to a gold pass. "It will stop the Hunger Games, if you will, for people who say, 'look at me, I managed to become prime minister', for 12 months or whatever, before they are turfed out by their own side." Under the current rules, former prime ministers are entitled to a lifetime of free travel in retirement as well as other expenses including car costs, staff, an office and telecommunications. The opaque and confusing parliamentary entitlements system was once again in the spotlight earlier this year after Sussan Ley was forced to resign as health minister following a travel expenses scandal. It prompted the Prime Minister to promise an overhaul of the existing system and set up an independent body to monitor and adjudicate on MPs expenses. Senator Bernardi said if the Government were serious about bringing the system into line with public expectations, then it should do "the full job" and include former prime ministers in its crackdown. Topics: parliament, federal-parliament, government-and-politics, australia First postedA Maryland woman was arrested for allegedly putting the skin she shaved off her feet into her roommates’ milk. After two of her roommates gagged on the milk they were drinking, then realized it contained human skin, Sarah Schrock of Mechanicsville was charged with contaminating food or drink, which is a felony, and with second-degree assault. St. Mary’s County sheriff’s office spokeswoman Cara Grumbles said that Schrock, 56, lives in a rooming house with several other people. On May 1, one of her roommates obtained a peace order against Schrock. The order, similar to a restraining order, did not bar Schrock from the rooming house but did ban her from having contact with that roommate. Grumbles did not know why the roommate originally obtained the peace order. Two days later, Schrock was arrested for breaking the order. She came back to the rooming house that night, and spent most of the next day, May 4, alone in the house. On the evening of May 4, the roommate who had obtained the order against Schrock came home, along with an additional roommate and another person, Grumbles said. They took milk out of the refrigerator and poured it in three glasses to drink with their dinner. Sarah Schrock (St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office) One of the roommates drank some of the milk, and immediately began to gag. The roommate coughed up a substance that seemed to be human skin. The other roommate drank the milk as well, and likewise started gagging and coughed up skin. The third person decided not to drink that third glass of milk. The three poured the remaining milk in a strainer. They were left with something that looked like the skin shavings that Schrock kept in trays in her bedroom, the product of scraping the bottoms of her feet. Schrock has been arrested and released, said Grumbles, who released a police report on the arrest Monday. Grumbles did not know whether Schrock had returned to the same rooming house.The flop house has a long and storied history in skateboarding. Skateboarders, generally speaking, are poor dirtbags, and so cramming seven or eight dudes into a three-bedroom apartment (along with any of the roommates' buddies who happen to be cruising through town on a given night) and living off of ramen, Schaefer, and the collective dissapointment of roughly 14 different parents is a common arrangement in the skate world—one that isn't even typically a source of shame. Every once in a while, when the stars align and the residents of the house are all really good at riding their skateboards and/or filming skateboarding, these houses will release a skate video. A few years back it was 6 Newell Street in San Francisco, and now it's a place simply known as The House. The House There have been a lot of great skate videos coming out lately, but The House Video has to be at the top of the list. It's the kind of film that made me fall in love with skating in the first place because it makes you feel like you live at the house too. By that I mean it doesn't hide the lives the people were living while filming. Along with top-notch skating there are clips of guys getting their asses kicked, breaking TVs in their own house, and blacking out while skating. Most importantly, there are people lighting stuff on fire. Smashing televisions might sound like the wrong reason to get into skating, but it was what I could relate to when I first started. It's skating's ultimate one-two punch—you get to skate, which is the most fun thing ever, and then you get to meet like-minded people and destroy some shit. I spoke to T-Mo, a former house resident, and Aaron Chillen, the video's creator, about the history of the house, day jobs, and beating up a rollerblader. VICE: Can you sum up the history of the "house" in The House Video? What other videos has it been featured in? Tony Miorana [T-Mo]: The compound started about 20 years ago. Phelper was one of the original tenants. It’s been through three generations of skaters. Fuck, probably about 50 different roommates over the years and countless couch surfers. It was in a bunch of old Thrasher videos. How long have you lived at the house? I lived there for about five years, from 2005 to 2010. How did you get down with the 18? Tony Alva got me on! AntiHero is a working class favorite, but you’re the only pro on the team with an actually day job. Is that right? Andy Roy, Albino, Body, Gut, Patlanta… they all got full-time jobs, too. Cardiel’s a DJ for hire. Holler at ‘em! What job are you currently working? I've been working on Alcatraz Island going on a year now. Graveyard shift. Who were your roommates when you lived at The House? Most of the guys in the video were my roommates. You seem to be the ringleader of the Jabrozos [the crew of dudes who live or have lived at The House]. Is that a fair thing to say? Jabrozo is another word for dumbass, so in that sense I’m guilty. But really nobody's running the ship. Can you give us a brief rundown of the people in the video? Let’s see here: We got Chef, who pretty much starred in the fucking thing; Harry and Squirrel are always getting some, whether we're building or skating; Albino is a wrecking ball; then we got East Oakland's heavy hitters Donte Smith and John Stallings shutting it down; Body and Gut are sprinkled in; Ponytail and Acid Alex's part with the circus act music is amazing—fucking click-clack-paddy-wack trick selection; DJ Gaudin, this motherfucker, the boy is good; all the random transients like Bravo, Massimo, Sprackleyard… Everyone in there killed it on and off the board. Good people to waste some time with. Who coffined the rainbow rail? Chef. What is the most fucked up thing in the video? That'd be Chef with the roll-in off the roof into the ramp. He tried it on three separate occasions—multiple attempts each time. Completely blackout—he has no memory of any of it. On the last one he knocked himself out cold. We revived him and sat him on the couch. I told him what happened and he goes, "Fuck you. I didn't do that." Why did the guy in the beginning of the video get head-butted? Fuckin’ Chef again. That was a 30-pack challenge from P-Stone—beat up a rollerblader. Ended up being a nose-break challenge. Priceless. I think now would be a good time to bring up your charity work in Detroit. What’s up with that? Detroit is Joe Brooks’ master plan. He had a guy who bought cheap houses and land through grants. Joe got all these artists together to paint skateboards and Pat Miller from Chiipss Skateshop auctioned them off. He brought us out and let us build whatever we wanted. Local skaters and not-so-local alike would come work and party with us. We started a non-profit 501c3 skatepark company called Gauntlet Skateparks. We're working with Pat Miller to build more spots all over Detroit. Land is cheap and the city is epic! I can't wait to go back. Holler at Chiipss.com if you want to help. We got big plans for the D. OK, back to fun stuff. When I went to Marseilles I was bragging about being on the Beauty and the Beast tour. It didn’t go over like I had hoped, and the French kids told me they were scared of the AntiHero team. Why do you think that is? Because the French are weak! Arrogant fuckers get cracked. I'm just kidding. But seriously: fuck France. What has the overall response to the video been like? I just got back from the Skate Rock tour from Detroit to New Orleans and people had a lot of good things to say. Mike Carroll had a premiere at his house—that’s an honor. The video is highly entertaining. It’s like a car crash and I still like watching it. What is your favorite new video, besides The House Video? Video Days, Fucktards, Sight Unseen, Barfly, Consolidated Number 1, Super Troopers, and I like those Beauty and the Beast videos, too! They should make more. What’s next for the House guys? Well, we got The House Vid DVD coming out, and it comes with a free board. We've been working on the next project out of Squirrel’s zone, The Clubhouse Movie. Same cast, more dumb shit, and maybe a little skating too, just to change it up. Thank you, Tony! VICE: Hello, Aaron. Why don’t you start by telling us who you are and what your history in skate filming is? Aaron Chillen: Skate filming? I grew up in Kansas City, making skate videos with [Ernie] Torres and Peter [Ramondetta]. They kind of got me hooked up with the job at DELUX, so I moved out to San Francisco. When I moved out there I moved into the house where that video took place. That’s basically it. What can you tell me about The House? When I moved in Jason Phares was living there. Jason, T-Mo, and Josh had all moved in about a month or two before I moved to the Bay Area. My plan was to just crash on the couch for a couple months, but then I wound up getting a room. Can you go into a little bit about the history of that house? Last April we had a 20-year anniversary party, so I guess it's been there 20 years. A bunch of people have lived there—I know [Jake] Phelps lived there at some point. There was a lot bigger ramp earlier on, like eight or nine feet. We had a big photo of Cardielle going through the rafters on the wall over there. That was pretty epic. It doesn't look real. T-Mo might know more of the actual history of the spot than I do. What or who is Jebrozo? Jebrozo… I don’t know. I guess it’s just like a shithead. I’m not sure where the actual term came from. I just remember that T-Mo started calling everybody Jebrozos at one point and it stuck. Might have been an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia reference. We were watching that for a while. Julian Stranger was living at the house at one point, right? He was there for about three years. But there’s no footage of him? Why didn’t he make it into The House Video? He’s just more low-key. I have a clip of him working on the ramp, and I figure I'll put it in as a bonus or something. He’s not worried about the spotlight or anything like that. The overall feeling of the video is similar to the first skateboarding videos I saw in 1993. The House Video really feels like Bay Area skating. It isn't goody-two-shoes, like a lot of things you see in skating nowadays—especially the videos. That video is just supposed to sum up the warehouse scene in a little skate video. There’s so much more footage I could go through. I’ve been joking to everyone that I’m going to make a VHS copy that’s three hours long, at least for the people at the house. Ken, Tony, Josh, and I lived there together for at least four or five years. It's a big chunk of our lives. The House Video is like a yearbook from that time. More shred sleds: This Is What a Skate Magazine Should Look Like How to Look Like an Asshole on a Skateboard Watch - Epicly Later'd Beauty and the Beast Featuring T-Mo If you like The House Vid and want to see more, support it by buying some gear at ourlifesocks.comNEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs goofed when it condemned the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for allegedly forcing Hindus living in that country to wear yellow clothes, stop wearing turbans and start following the Shariat.On Monday, the MEA spokesman told newspersons, "We have learnt that the Taliban have issued an order imposing fresh restrictions on Hindus in Afghanistan...We deplore such orders which patently discriminate against minorities. It is evidence further of the backward and unacceptable ideological underpinnings of the Taliban and justifies the action taken in imposing sanctions on the Taliban by the UN."But all the MEA was relying on were unsubstantiated media reports datelined New Delhi - and not Kabul, Peshawar or Islamabad, where the news of such orders should ordinarily have emanated from. Indeed, a Taliban embassy spokesman in Islamabad on Monday denied the reports and expressed surprise that such a claim "is in circulation in India."Though news of this alleged anti-Hindu, anti-Sikh decree has been circulating for more than a year, an Indian news agency reported the yellow clothes for Hindus'' story on Sunday and this report was then picked up by the Star News TV channel. On Monday, another Indian news agency recycled the same claim, this time citing Star News as the source. No such anti-Hindu order was reported by Reuters, AP or AFP, the three news agencies which maintain full-time news bureaus in Kabul.Though the first news agency did not say so, the source of the original report appears to be Masood Khalili, the anti-Taliban Afghan ambassador in New Delhi who made similar allegations in February as well. However, this correspondent - who was in Afghanistan for two weeks in March during the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas - found no substance in the allegation. Sikh and Hindu places of worship were functioning and there were no religious or dress restrictions on the 2000-odd Sikhs and 300 or so Hindus still living in different parts of Afghanistan.Usually, the MEA spokesman makes it a point not to comment on the basis of press reports, waiting instead for word from the nearest Indian embassy in case of statements from foreign governments. In the case of Afghanistan''s Taliban regime, India has no diplomatic mission in Kabul. However, it is surprising that the ministry did not bother to check the veracity of the anti-Hindu report with the Indian embassy in Islamabad - which does maintain informal contacts with the Taliban embassy there - before jumping the gun.It’s been called everything from a FedEx logo rip off, a confused hospital sign, a third-grade project made in MS Paint, and a big
be. So you think you can dismantle and discredit an entire industry just like that? Just because you now have the Internet that kisses your ass, your prejudices, your rage, and your ignorance? No. And it bothers you, that the media is powerful. It can build and destroy tomorrow’s history. It can choose to err and cause havoc, withhold warnings in times of disaster, be silent about laws and policies, ignore the worsening traffic, and not report crime at all just to feign your feeling safe. But the media is indestructible. So you resort to demonizing and demoralizing it thinking by doing so you will break the wolf’s legs and make it a lapdog. “Journalism doesn’t exist in this country anymore,” read a Facebook comment. You’ve even baptized media with a new name — presstitutes, a portmanteau of the words “press” and “prostitutes.” But of course we’ll just shrug these off at crunch time. We don’t have much time to waste to beat the deadlines. But have you ever considered how disadvantaged most media workers are — working long hours, multiple shows a day just to earn a living? In the television industry, most media workers toil under expiring contracts without proper benefits. Yet day in and day out, we press on with our jobs. Jessica Soho was right when she once said, “Anyone who survives the newsroom, can survive anything. I will not wish this job on anyone, not even my worst enemy. It is a thankless job.” [Entry 169, The SubSelfie Blog] About the Author: Ephraim Aguilar is a ukester, a vegetarian and a striving minimalist. Presently, he is an Executive Producer for News TV Live and Balitanghali Weekend and a News Producer for State of the Nation with Jessica Soho. He was also previously a Southern Luzon Correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Journalism 2006, Bicol University. Read more of his articles here. AdvertisementsPlenty of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive news came out of the recent Chinese launch event. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is officially launching in China. As part of a presentation hosted in the country this week, a number of key details about the game’s future were shared. As reported by PCGamesN, the launch event confirmed that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be moved to the Source 2 engine, just like Dota 2 has recently. This move will also bring an overhaul to the game’s UI. The tile-based UI Valve is currently using with Dota 2, called Panorama UI, will make its way to Global Offensive in the transition. The game’s next operation is also due for release this summer. It wasn’t given a name, or really any details, but it’s at least confirmation that more content is coming soon. Valve’s use of machine learning to combat cheaters was also touched upon during the presentation, which could mean it’ll actually be tested in the live game at some point soon. It’s unclear, however, if these features will all be available when the game launches in China on April 18. If they do, the Western version should follow soon after.The 2013 IBJJF Worlds are underway at the Walter Pyramid in the vicinity of Los Angeles, California. The tournament has gotten so large (hovering around a thousand some competitors each year) that it is now a four day production complete with a crystal clear multi-mat live stream available for purchase that rivals anything you'll see on TV. This year's edition features perhaps the biggest collection of Brazilian jiu jitsu grappling talent that has ever assembled. The women's black belt divisions are for sure the best group of competitors I've seen in the last five years. The men's divisions are almost as stacked and feature most of the game's biggest stars looking to add one more gold medal to their war chests. The whites, blues and purples have been going since Thursday and will mostly finish up today. The brown belts start at the end of Friday and continue on Saturday. The black belts start on Saturday and the black belt finals will be contested on Sunday. The fairly accurate schedule is up here: http://www.ibjjf.org/mundial2013schedule.htm The official brackets are available for all belts and age divisions here: http://www.usbjjf.org/bracket_viewer/Bracket.html The IBJJF TV stream can be purchased here: http://ibjjftv.com/ (Price for Friday alone is $12.95, Saturday and Sunday together is $24.95 and all access is $49.95). So lend me your ears/eyes (like Hillary Williams is doing with Oliver Geddes here) and see if my predictions turn out to be as accurate as I think they will be. The men's side has nine weight divisions and the women's has six. We'll start with the men's first. Black belts: Roosterweight: Bruno Malfacine won last year in a referee's decision over Caio Terra in a continuance of their long rivalry. This has been the near default finals for every tournament both has entered and looks to be almost certain to happen again due to favorable bracketing for both. Fabio Passos took Caio to a referee's decision last year, but needs to find another level in his game to truly outgrapple Caio. Bruno has some good grapplers on his side, but no true threats like Fabio Passos to Caio are in his road to the finals. Prediction: Bruno vs. Caio with Bruno winning a points decision in a slow/fast/slow/fast match. Light Featherweight: The reigning champion is Guilherme Mendes, who has been taken to a referee's decision often by Laercio Fernandes in other tournaments. The same seems likely to happen this year with Ary Farias aiming to knock out Carlos Holanda before bowing out to Gui and Laercio seemingly stands alone among truly elite competitors on the other side of the brackets. Prediction: Gui vs. Laercio and another very slow, cautious match that's decided by advantages or referee's decision. Featherweight: Rafael Mendes won last year in a referee's decision over Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles. These two have seemed a step above the very, very good field for years now. I cannot stress how superb their grappling has been over the last several years, as both of them have stormed through very good grapplers, submitting them quickly or dominating them on points en route to razor close final after final. Despite Rafael winning the Pans, I actually thought Cobrinha had the better of the match and think that he's still right there with the younger star. Theodoro Canal and Denilson Pimenta could present semi-final challenges to the near mortal locks for the finals that are Rafa and Cobrinha. Prediction: Cobrinha vs. Rafa in the finals with Cobrinha finally winning a referee's decision after years on the losing side. Lightweight: Leandro Lo won last year and has been on a tear for years. However, Lucas Lepri, Michael Langhi, Vinicius Marinho and Jonathan Torres could present considerable challenges to a perhaps overworked Lo. Lepri and Langhi in particular have displayed terrific form lately and Marinho was very good at the recent Copa Podio as well. The brackets appear to have put Langhi, Lo and Lepri all on the same side, which opens things up for Marinho, JT Torres, Zak Maxwell and Roberto Satoshi as well. If this bracketing holds true, this is going to be a nightmare of a division for Lo to claw through and a big opportunity for someone on the other side to get a top two finish. Prediction: Leandro Lo vs. Vinicius Marinho in the finals with Lo winning a dominant points victory after a night's rest getting through the grueling divisional challenges. Middleweight: Otavio Sousa won last year, but since this division features a much higher level of grappler, I strongly doubt he will repeat. Claudio Calasans is always a threat to be in the finals in any tournament and the same goes for Davi Ramos. Marcelo Mafra was looking very good at the Pans until he let Clark Gracie scramble his way to one of the finest comeback wins in recent memory, so he should be raring to go. Murilo Santana might encounter a bit of difficulty with the gi on, but he should be able to take out one or two contenders as well. Vitor Henrique is a high paced, very tough grappler and could also spoil some dreams. Prediction: The Atos teammates Calasans and Davi Ramos close out after some very tough, grinding matches to win their way to the finals. Medium Heavyweight: The most truly open division in this tournament. There are so many good people in this division that I'm amazed it's happening. This is the kind of division that could fill up a BJJ PPV by itself. Romulo Barral won last year, but he hurt his knee recently and may not be in the finest condition this year. The brackets look to have Braulio Estima, Andre Galvao and Romulo all on the same side (along with Tarsis Humphreys and a few others). On the other side, Abmar Barbosa, Victor Bonfim and Guto Campos look like they can get to the semi-finals and duke it out for the finals berth. I'm going to go out on a limb here and says Braulio takes advantage of a goof by Andre to get to the finals (which probably jinxes Braulio, but hey). Prediction: Braulio vs. Guto Campos in the finals and Guto wins a referee's decision. Heavyweight: Rodolfo Vieira is the current champion and has been grappling extremely well outside his losses to Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida. This year, he has Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro in his side of the brackets, which will pose a test he can likely pass and an easier finals against someone like Nivaldo Oliveira or Lucas Leite of the Checkmat team. Prediction: Rodolfo vs. Lucase Leite with a Rodolfo submission win. Super Heavyweight: This is Alliance's division to win. Last year, Leo Nogueira won and this year I suspect that Alliance will sweep the top three spots with Bernardo Faria, Leo Nogueira and Antonio Peinado. Rafael Lovato Jr. or Joao Assis could get on the podium as well. Prediction: Alliance close out in the finals with Faria and Leo Nog. Edit: Leo Nogueira is likely out with a knee injury. This could open things up for the division a bit. Still picking Faria and Peinado to hit the semifinals and Assis perhaps in the finals against whichever Alliance guy doesn't bow out. Ultra Heavyweight: The reigning superstar of the open division and this weight class is Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida. He won last year and the question is "Who can present a threat to him?" Orlando Sanchez will do his best impersonation of a cast iron immovable object, Alexander Trans will try to deep half his way to points victories and Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu could pull something amazing out of his magic hat if he puts everything together. Igor Silva could finesse and brute his way to a third place finish. The way the brackets are set up, it looks like Buchecha vs. Cavaca in the semi-finals and Trans vs. Cyborg on the other end. Prediction: Buchecha vs. Cyborg and Buchecha wins a dominant points victory by scrambling like a middleweight. The open will almost certainly come down to bracketing, but the early favorites are Buchecha and Rodolfo. A final with the two of them is perhaps what the BJJ world wants to see most, but Andre Galvao, Leo Nogueira and Bernardo Faria could play spoiler here. Women's black belts: Light Featherweight: It's a small bracket with Nyjah Easton having one match before the finals and Sofia Amarante having to dispatch another before facing Miriam Cardoso in the semi-finals on the other side. Sofia could be sternly tested by Miriam, but should get through. Prediction: Sofia Amarante vs. Nyjah Easton, with Sofia winning a points decision. Featherweight: Ana Carolina Vidal vs. Luiza Monteiro in one semi-finals looks likely and Mackenzie Dern vs. Marina Soares in the other. Tough, tough fights to pick, but Luiza's part of the PSPLB Cicero Costha camp that has punched so, so far above its weight in producing world class competitors, that I think she'll possess better endurance to get the points win. Mackenzie's been on a tear and I'm not sure Marina can stand up to her for an entire match without letting her guard slip. Prediction: Luiza Monteiro vs. Mackenzie Dern, with Mackenzie winning a points victory like she did at Copa Podio. Lightweight: Bia Mesquita is the queen of this division and although Tracey Goodell is on her side of the bracket and Fabiana Borges on the other side, I don't think either can prevent her from sweeping them for points wins. Prediction: Bia Mesquita wins on points over everybody she faces because she sweeps super-well. Middleweight: Luanna Alzuguir and Penny Thomas look fated to match once more, although Penny has a tougher route to the finals with Vanessa Oliveira and Ida Hansson in her side. Prediction: Luanna takes Penny's back at some point and threatens a sub as time runs out. Medium Heavyweight: The most stacked women's bracket ever at the Worlds. Six of the eight women have won big tournaments before and three of the six have won them multiple times. Hannette Staack is the best women's competitor not named Gabi Garcia, Leticia Ribeiro or Bia Mesquita, but she may have taken too long off from high level competition. I really like Tammy Griego's spinning, mobile game, but grapplers like Michelle Nicolini and Talita Nogueira could slow her down and force her into their games. Leticia Ribeiro is a legend, but she could be outmuscled by Hannette in a semi-finals. Prediction: Hannette vs. Tammy Griego with Hannette riding out a fierce scramble to clinch the points win. Heavyweight: Gabi Garcia will win two matches by keylock and continue adding to her record-breaking trophy collection. She's a phenomenal grappler and her blend of size, technique and smarts is unmatched by anyone in her division. It's a shame someone like Tong Wen (dominant Chinese judoka in heavier weights) can't be persuaded to do a tournament like this and present a true challenge to Gabi. Prediction: Gabi Garcia keylocks everybody. In the brown belt divisions, watch for the medium heavyweight men's, which may be the most stacked division outside of the black belts. And Keenan Cornelius will still slalom his way through to a gold medal. Luke Rockhold is ticked off after losing to Vitor Belfort recently, so he entered in a tough division in the heavyweight brown belts. It'll be fun to see how he handles the tournament jiu jitsu with his considerable athleticism and wrestling. The Miyao brothers will almost certainly close out at the featherweight brown belts and several other brown belt stars look like they'll showcase how ready they are to step onto the black belt and elite stage in other divisions. On the women's side, watch the brown belt light featherweight and featherweight divisions for some very exciting prospects that could do well on the black belt stage in a year's time. That's it for me and follow along with Bloody Elbow's live play by play on Saturday and Sunday. I'll be doing the mad scramble of Saturday and T.P. Grant has taken Sunday's finals.Los Angeles police shut down streets encompassing a five-square-block area of downtown Monday afternoon after several men were seen on the roof of a hotel with weapons that turned out to be air guns. The incident was reported about 4 p.m. at the Huntington Hotel. The four or five men, who appeared to be young adults, were on top of the building bounded by Spring and Main Streets near 8th Street, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Video shot from a KABC Channel 7 helicopter showed several men on the roof who appeared to be wielding handguns as they walked around on the roof. After a brief time, they disappeared down a stairwell, appearing to stash the weapons inside. Police conducted a search and discovered the air guns. Officers at the scene say several youths with toy air guns were questioned at the residential hotel but were not arrested. "From a technical standpoint, there is no crime," said Lt. Paul Vernon of the LAPD. "But I would classify this as felony stupid. No one should be on the roof of a downtown hotel with handguns -- real or not." [Updated 7:26 p.m.: As officers entered the building, an LAPD sniper had to make a quick decision about whether to pull his trigger, Vernon said. The sniper had his sights fixed on one of the men, who was leaning over the roof with his weapon, which appeared to be a Tec-9 sub-machine gun. But it was not pointed at the officers. "Had he pointed that gun at the officers, he would have lost his life," Vernon said.] -- Robert J. Lopez and Andrew BlanksteinThe result of a match between Russian Bandy Super League teams Vodnik and Baikal-Energy has been annulled after the teams scored 11 and 9 own goals respectively. Bandy, a team winter sport played on ice, doesn’t normally attract much attention, but the match sparked controversy when it emerged that all of the 11 goals against Vodnik were scored by the same player, Oleg Pivovarov - a Vodnik player. All of the 9 goals scored against Baikal-Energy weren’t scored by their rival team either. Although the 'own goals' were scored by various players this time. READ MORE: Most ridiculous own goal ever? Hilarious moment joy turns to despair for Turkish team (VIDEO) The game, the last one before the start of the playoffs, saw both teams aiming to play a weaker opponent in the elimination stage of the tournament. While Baikal-Energy simply needed to lose the game, to avoid meeting a stronger team, Vodnik needed to lose by an eight goal deficit. Most of the spectators left the stands after the first half of the game, as from the very beginning both teams showed little desire to score. Pivovarov scored the game’s first goal on 68 minutes, although it came in the wrong net. “It wasn’t started by us, we didn’t need that at all,” Baikal-Energy coach Evgeny Erakhtin said at the postgame press conference. “We simply wanted to work on the defensive tactics in this game, but when they (Vodnik) started that circus, and started to score own goals - we replied in the same manner. I don’t want to blame (their) players or coaches. I think it was initiated by the management,” he added. Read more “For the first time, I got nothing to say,” Vodnik coach Igor Gapanovich commented. The result has been declared void and the teams will have to face off again at a neutral venue on March 3, following the decision of a Russian Bandy Federation disciplinary committee on Monday. The second session of the committee on Tuesday will also consider the disciplinary measures that will be handed out to the team's coaches and managers. Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov called the incident “a blow to the development of the sport of Russian bandy,” TASS reported. “It’s a very unpleasant story, but we hope for an appropriate reaction from the team's management and the federation.”Integrated Alerts \| Boyajian’s Star Amateur and Professional Earth and Space Based Telescope Alerts All Observations Aggregated to Single Alert System. E-Mail \| Text \| Twitter: @Starlifting \| RSS Sign up here (text message works too, but follow the syntax below and expect ugly html in your text message) Email This is in Beta, however I urge you to sign up so if something is happening, you will get notification of any dip that we are aware of via e-mail or Text Message. If you are using Text messages, please follow this syntax. AT&T: number@txt.att.net T-Mobile: number@tmomail.net Verizon: number@vtext.com Sprint: number@messaging.sprintpcs.com or number@pm.sprint.com Virgin Mobile: number@vmobl.com Tracfone: number@mmst5.tracfone.com Metro PCS: number@mymetropcs.com Boost Mobile: number@myboostmobile.com Cricket: number@sms.mycricket.com Nextel: number@messaging.nextel.com Alltel: number@message.alltel.com Ptel: number@ptel.com Suncom: number@tms.suncom.com Qwest: number@qwestmp.com U.S. Cellular: number@email.uscc.net Worth mentioning that currently it sends in HTML, so it’s possible a text message may “look weird” but it should still deliver. We are working on it to send only text. The alerts you receive (other than the initial thank you for signing up) is if a dip is occurring for the star KIC 8462852 also known as Boyajian’s Star in honor of Dr. Tabetha Boyajian. We collect and alert on AAVSO data directly. Dr. Boyajian’s team will inform us if any space based or professional telescopes she works with detect a dip. The end result is if anyone detects a dip and reports it, we’ll send out an alert. If the source detection of the dip is a space asset, or strong professional telescope you might get an alert for smaller magnitude change than if the detection was reported by AAVSO. This is not an automated process. If we are missing a current dip, please let us know ASAP via twitter by clicking this link That is not the official alert twitter. That’s Roger Wehbe’s personal one. Alerts will not be going out over that account. They will be going out over this one @starlifting What is KIC 8462852? It’s a ‘normal F type’ star in Cygnus, however this star is anything but normal. Something is blocking it’s light or changing it’s light output. It’s not a sphere, offers no infrared excess and has confused everyone since 2009, especially since 2015 when it was made public. This is the original paper and here are other followup papers. There is an active room on Reddit any serious dip most likely will also appear on AAVSO. We’re working on refining this to be more elegant and timely, again this is still in BETA.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Oct. 18, 2014, 11:00 PM GMT / Updated Oct. 18, 2014, 11:00 PM GMT A helicopter landed aboard a cruise ship Saturday to pick up a blood sample from a passenger who may have handled fluids from an Ebola patient, ahead of the Carnival Magic’s planned docking at Galveston, Texas, Sunday. Carnival said Texas health officials requested that a sample be taken from the passenger and tested, but that the ship is still scheduled to arrive Sunday morning. The company said of the passenger, who is in quarantine, that “she’s feeling absolutely fine.” The passenger is a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan was treated for Ebola and died on Oct. 8. Two nurses who treated Duncan at that hospital have since tested positive for the disease. The employee on the cruise ship, who set sail on Oct. 12, did not have “direct contact” with Duncan himself, Carnival has said. Still, amid worries about the disease Mexican officials would not grant the ship clearance to make a scheduled stop at Cozumel on Friday afternoon. IN-DEPTH SOCIAL — Katie Wall and Phil HelselAs someone who has, to put it mildly, not been a fan of Donald Trump (see here and here, for example), I've been pleasantly surprised by many of his picks for cabinet positions. Looking at them I conclude, at least for the present, that they are on average better than Ronald Reagan's picks. Here are what I regard, given my current information, as the best picks, alongside the ones Reagan chose for that position. They are not necessarily in order of strength because I don't know enough to do that. I can think of worse things than being able to choose a school for your kids.Secretary of Education: Betsy DeVos. She, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer article meant to be a hit piece, is "an ardent school choice advocate." The Inquirer adds, sarcastically, "Sorry, kids." Right, because not being able to choose a school is what's really good for kids. Compare that to Terrel Bell, Reagan's choice. Reagan had said during the 1980 campaign that he wanted to get rid of the newly formed Department of Education. But he didn't try hard and his choice of Bell sent a signal that that wasn't about to happen. Secretary of Health and Human Services: Tom Price. Price has pledged to dismantle Obamacare. He even has a plan to do so. It's not particularly to my liking, but just to have a plan going in puts him one up on Richard Schweiker, a "liberal" Republican Senator from Pennsylvania who was Reagan's pick. Schweiker did not attempt any serious deregulation of healthcare. (Although, to his credit, he was a strong opponent of the draft.) Secretary of Labor: Andy Puzder. Puzder has been an outspoken critic of minimum wage increases. If he persuades Trump to hold the line on the current federal $7.25 minimum wage rather than raising it to $10.10 an hour or even higher, he will have helped preserve jobs for at least a few hundred thousand people, mainly young people. Compare that to Reagan's pick of Ray Donovan. I worked for Ray in the Labor Department and found him to be a nice man and an opponent of raising the minimum wage. But he was fairly ineffective. Yes, there was a policy success: Reagan held the minimum wage constant in nominal terms. But that was more Reagan than Donovan. Puzder will have his hands full persuading Trump to keep his hands off. Head of EPA: Scott Pruitt. The EPA is out of control. In a forthcoming review in Regulation, I lay out the problem with its push for higher fuel economy in cars. But it's out of control in other ways too. Pruitt will likely rein in, and even reverse, some of its most extreme excesses. One good sign: he is a global warming skeptic. Maybe he'll also avoid EPA-created environmental disasters like the 2015 Gold King Mine wastewater spill. Reagan's pick was Anne Gorsuch, who did manage to deregulate but, as far as I could tell, didn't do it well. Those are the good picks. There are some that could well be as bad as, or worse than, Reagan's. I have two in mind: Someone who says, "Good people don't smoke marijuana" is not an ideal pick.Attorney General: Jeff Sessions. One of the areas where Obama made some progress was in laying off drug enforcement in states that allow medical marijuana. But Sessions would almost certainly try to reverse that progress. Someone who says, "Good people don't smoke marijuana" is not an ideal pick. (Of course, even if it were true that no good people smoke marijuana – and it's not – that belief would not be a problem if Sessions were willing to tolerate people being bad. But he's an enforcer of (his) morals.) Reagan's pick was William French Smith. Smith federalized a lot of crime and amped up the drug war substantially. He also proposed a national ID card, a proposal that my late Hoover colleague Marty Anderson, then an adviser to Reagan, shot down by speaking out of turn at a Cabinet Council meeting. (See his Revolution: The Reagan Legacy, pp. 275-276.) Sessions could be worse than, better than, or equal to Smith. CIA Director: Mike Pompeo. Pompeo has advocated the death penalty for Edward Snowden. That's bad. On the other hand, Pompeo at least wants to give Snowden due process. That's better than Hillary Clinton's proposal for Julian Assange, which was to murder him with a drone, assuming this report is accurate. Reagan's pick was Bill Casey, who got the United States heavily involved in intervening in Nicaragua. Both Pompeo and Casey were bad picks. It's hard to know who's worse. I haven't covered the whole waterfront. I also haven't backed up the various judgments I've made here about the minimum wage, global warming, CAFE laws on fuel economy, etc. If you want to see my backing for these, do a search on my EconLog posts. This first appeared at the Library of Economics and Liberty.This just in from the new NBA season: The Warriors aren’t going 82-0, the East is still dominated by LeBron James, wherever he’s playing, the Sixers started on the usual losing streak, Demarcus Cousins is still wacko, but in the really big story on action news: How about them Lakers? No, they’re still not going to finish over.500 or make the playoffs … unless this turns into a whole lot bigger story than it is now… but who imagined this after all these years? Something is going right in Lakerdom! Showing how bad things have been, last week’s victory over Phoenix that moved them over.500 was the first time they have fielded a winning team since 2013 when they finished November a heady 9-8. That was under Mike D’Antoni who went 27-55 coaching for his job … which he then walked away from when management wouldn’t guarantee the option year on his contract … instead of tanking the season which would have been the smart-money play if management had thought of it, giving them a shot at Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker or (sigh) Joel Embiid. See? Even when the Lakers won (a little), they lost. Last season they finally tanked — or maybe they were just that bad? — going 17-65 to break their record for worst finish … for the third season in a row … keeping their pick from Philadelphia for one more year and drawing No. 2 to get Brandon Ingram. That should pay dividends in the future but that’s then and this is now. Now for the amazing part: Most of the players who have been part of what has gone right this season — Louis Williams, D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, Nick Young, Larry Nance and Tarik Black — were not only here but in rotation last season. Nick Young? Starting in the same backcourt with Russell? As if anyone saw that coming. Not to cheap-shot Byron Scott, the Old School coach who was stuck with a crumbling Kobe Bryant and inexperienced New School players, but the biggest difference from last season to this can be encapsulated in two words: Luke Walton. It wasn’t hard to figure out the Lakers would go after Luke. I did that last February. It wasn’t clear if he would take the job but the rest was easy: He had gone 39-4 running the Warriors in Coach Steve Kerr’s absence. He was a beloved former Laker. Jeanie Buss was desperate for good p.r.. In the really good part for the Lakers, they didn’t just get a coach but a style of play … and it wasn’t the triangle offense Luke ran under Phil Jackson or the simple, defense-oriented scheme they ran under Scott. Instead, it was like the one D’Antoni ran while Laker fans dreamed of running him out of town on a rail every day he was here. Here’s one for Dr. Jerry Buss. His last call before he passed away was to hire D’Antoni over Jackson, which was wildly unpopular with Laker fans and blamed on his son, Jim, with even Jeanie Buss claiming her brother had done Phil in. Unfortunately for the Lakers, they had multiple bigs in Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard, making them a better fit for Phil’s offense. With Steve Nash’s injuries and Dwight merely passing through with his skepticism of Bryant, it was a steaming mess, and worse for the following two seasons with Kobe playing only 41 of 164 games. Nevertheless, there’s another term you could use for D’Antoni’s small-ball, floor-spacing, high-powered offense: modern basketball. Kerr installed it in Golden State where Walton learned it, a perfect fit with the Warriors’ smallish, high-firepower roster, leading to their 2015 title. The Spurs’ Gregg Popovich put it in for their last run with Tim Duncan winning titles in 2007 and 2014. The Heat did it with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, winning titles in 2011 and 2012. The Cavaliers are doing it now with Bron and Kyrie Irving, winning last spring. The Clippers do it with a bigger unit, spacing the floor with Chris Paul running high pick-and-rolls with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Portland, another feared offensive power, does it with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum running pick-and-rolls with Mason Plumlee. Now the Lakers do it with a roster that doesn’t have much size but does have youth, depth … and, lately, promise. It’s not saying much to point out that better days are ahead if the comparison is to the Lakers’ last three seasons, each worse than the one before. Nevertheless, their two top prospects, Russell and Ingram, are barely starting out. D’Angelo went into Saturday’s game in New Orleans averaging just 15.6 points, shooting 39 percent. The blade-thin Ingram, who’ll need time to grow into professional basketball, was averaging 6.1, shooting 37 percent. It remains to be seen where this young team goes from here. If it’s too soon to count on bringing in free agents as the Laker did in their heyday, it’s more doable when you have a future than it was when Kevin Durant et al., dismissed them out of hand because all they had was a past. Mark Heisler has written an NBA column since 1991 and was honored with the Naismith Hall of Fame’s Curt Gowdy Award in 2006.It isn’t unusual for two teams in today’s MLB to have a common trading partner. The Astros and Phillies have made their fair share of trades over the course of the past decade. Ditto for the Cubs and Orioles. That pales in comparison, though, to the Yankees and the old Kansas City Athletics, who made a whopping sixteen trades between 1955-1960. Nearly sixty players were dealt between the two teams during that period. Bud Daley was not one of them. After 1960, he wasn’t supposed to be. Arnold Johnson owned the A’s and had connections with Yankee co-owners Dan Topping and Del Webb. After Johnson died in 1960, the Athletics would soon be sold to Charlie Finley. After the season, Finley fired General Manager Parke Carroll and replaced him with Frank Lane, the former executive of the White Sox, Cardinals, and Indians. Finley and Lane were depicted in a 1961 Associated Press photograph standing in front of a burning bus which said, “Shuttle Bus to Yankee Stadium.” This symbolized the end of the one-sided trades with Kansas City, the Yankees’ unofficial farm team, and Finley said they were done dealing with New York. Yet there was a problem: Lane was a notorious dealer, and earned the nickname of “Trader” Lane. “I was not in the least bit surprised I got traded,” Daley said. “When I was in Cleveland, Frank Lane traded me from Cleveland [to Baltimore]… and I owned a home in Kansas City at the time, and when he named him [general] manager, I put my house up for sale. I just knew I was going to get traded, and that’s what happened.” Even though he wasn’t surprised he got traded, the former southpaw hurler was shocked he got dealt to the Yankees. These days a player may find out via text message, or Twitter, or perhaps some more traditional method. The story of how Daley found out he’d be headed to New York was non-traditional, to say the least. “We were in Minnesota, and [infielder] Lou Klimchock picked up the phone to make a phone call, and he picked up the phone and who’s on the phone but [Yankees GM] Roy Hamey and Charlie Finley?” Daley said. “Lou listened to the whole thing and and then as soon as they hung up, he called me and said, ‘Bud, you just got traded to the Yankees.'” His Yankee debut was inauspicious. The team lost in a 12-10 match with the Tigers, a team that would win 101 games themselves and still finish eight back of the Yankees for the pennant. Daley only went 1.1 innings, allowing seven runs, six earned, on six hits. Four days later, however, he was right back in Kansas City, this time as a visiting player. “That I was really kind of looking forward to because I was wondering the fans, how they would react,” Daley said. “They didn’t boo me, I don’t think.” His first win in Pinstripes came that day at Municipal Stadium. One more batter and Daley would’ve had a complete game. In 8.2 innings, he struck out six and walked two. Luis Arroyo would get the save to preserve a 5-3 Yankee victory. Of course, when discussing the 1961 Yankees, one cannot omit the M&M Boys of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. That year, Maris hit sixty-one home runs, breaking Babe Ruth’s old record of sixty from 1927. Mantle also chased the record himself, hitting fifty-four. It was the second consecutive year Maris and Mantle would finish one and two in the MVP voting, respectively. Mantle was a lifelong Yankee. Maris, like Daley, played for the Indians and Athletics before coming over to the Bronx. Contrary to the depiction of the reporters, there was no rivalry between Mantle and Maris. “Mickey and Roger, they were really good friends,” said Daley. “I think the writers really wanted to make a big deal out of this where they weren’t friends, but they were, and also, the ball club themselves, I think, they wanted Mickey to break the record, but then when Mickey got hurt in September, boy everybody was rooting for Roger to break
I may stop along the way to a possible bug out location. Then slightly less detailed maps of the areas surrounding that. Finally, I keep a current American road atlas available as a good overall map of the country. Consider keeping the materials for a homemade greenhouse on hand. PVC pipes, PVC fittings, and heavy gauge plastic are all you need to make a basic greenhouse. This type of construction can be flimsy and won’t stand up to strong winds. Stronger materials will be needed if you live in an area that experiences high winds. The ideal temperature for a greenhouse is 80-85 degrees. Make sure you can regulate and monitor the temperatures in your DIY greenhouse. In the springtime, you can start your plants from seeds. Keep them in the greenhouse until there is no more threat of frost. In the winter, plant cold-resistant vegetables like lettuce. For long-term use, I’d suggest something along the lines of the DIY greenhouse kits that Bootstrap Farmer offers. Collect rainwater can make water collection easier. Something as simple as draping a tarp or large trash bag between two lawn chairs can be used to collect rainwater. A more advanced, permanent option, comes in the form of rain barrels. You can buy everything from aesthetically pleasing barrels that would fit naturally into your backyard, all the way to 100 gallon or 250 gallon barrels. I like the portable rain barrels since they can be collapsed and stored until you decide that you need it. Ultimately, all you need is a container that can hold water and some way to catch or divert the rain into that container. Make sure the container doesn’t allow sunlight in if you plan on storing water in it for an extended period of time. This will help keep the growth of algae to a minimum. There are tons of DIY projects out there for when you first get started prepping. Just search on Google for rain barrels. Get it through your head that you cannot defend your home from the front door. If you’re in a position where your home is, or could be in danger, from gangs, looter, marauders, etc. then you need to have security set up away from your house. This is one of the key things that a community provides. Block access to your neighborhood with vehicles, concrete barriers, abatis or other barriers that can stop traffic from entering. Have only one way in and out and set up a checkpoint. Interview everyone that you don’t recognize. You’re asking to get burned out of your house if you think you can hide and wait for them to come to you. Defending your family is one of the main reasons that we get involved with prepping. Keep your home and the surrounding area clear of dead trees and flammable debris. In a post-collapse environment, I believe fires will be a source of many injuries and deaths. Trees, leaves, and debris need to kept at a manageable level. Wood piles should be at least 30 feet from your living area. Make sure trees and branches aren’t touching your chimney. This may not be that much of a problem as you will likely be burning wood for heat/cooking. Use common sense when you are looking at your surroundings. Move flammable materials away from your living area if they could catch it on fire. It’s really that simple but it’s also something that can be easily overlooked when there’s a lot going on. Consider storing some modern adhesives and sealants. Everyone loves duct tape and talks about how you can use it for everything. It’s an excellent product and you should definitely have some on hand but there are other things out there that you preppers should consider. One thing I don’t hear a lot about is storing items like Flex Seal, expanding two-part foam and epoxy. There is any number of prepping situations that I can think of when these would come in handy. Be sure to check shelf lives as most of these products only have a shelf life of 1 or 2 years. The short shelf life definitely doesn’t lend itself to extended storage. I’d be interested to hear from someone who has used these products after that shelf life and see if they still hold up. I have personally used a two-part epoxy that was around 5 years past its advertised shelf life and had no problems. Be aware of the threats posed by a flood. How many times have you watched the news and wondered how can those people be so stupid? Why would they drive through that water? I see it all the time, so I wanted to touch on some guidelines for prepping to deal with floods and crossing flooded areas. If there is a flood warning near your home, move valuables and furniture to the highest floors of the house. Disconnect appliances and do not touch wet electronics. While the electricity in your house normally only causes a painful shock, electronics can have capacitors which allow them to store enough electricity to cause a deadly shock. Flood water is often contaminated with human waste which is the leading cause of deadly waterborne diseases. You should only move across flooded areas if it’s absolutely necessary. Six inches of moving water can knock you down, one foot of moving water is enough to sweep away a vehicle. Eye care is very important during times with limited or no professional medical treatment. Make sure you have several pairs of glasses available with your current prescription and never wear contacts in a post-collapse environment. Try to keep your hands away from your eyes. Touching your eyes when your hands are dirty can lead to many different diseases. Some of them are easily treated with modern medicines, but with limited access to these medications, they could eventually lead to vision impairment or complete blindness. If you don’t wear glasses, consider buying a pair of safety glasses. Adding safety glasses to your prepping supplies should be one of the first things you do when you get started prepping. ConclusionA TAXI DRIVER allegedly bit off part of a man’s thumb after a group of passengers started laughing about his name, a Dublin trial has heard. Lookman Kareem, of Glenvara Park, Knocklyon, Dublin, pleaded not guilty to assault causing harm to Darren O’Connor and of assaulting Noelle Donohue at Rathmines on 22 December, 2013. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today that Mr O’Connor and his girlfriend Ms Donohue were in Dublin city centre for Christmas drinks when they caught a taxi to Rathmines in the early hours of the morning. Two of Ms Donohue’s sisters, Stacey and Helena Donohue, were also in the taxi. Elva Duffy BL, prosecuting told the jury in her opening statement that Stacey Donohue started giggling when she noticed Mr Kareem’s first name on his taxi identification plate and the other passengers joined in. “Look man” is a catchphrase of Stacey Donohue’s, Ms Duffy said. Mr Kareem allegedly became verbally abusive, saying “Shut the f* up, shut the f* up, you Irish”, the court heard. The prosecution alleges Mr Kareem took his identification card down and punched Noelle Donohue in the nose when she tried to grab it to make a note of it. When the group got out of the car, Mr Kareem allegedly hit Noelle Donohue twice, before Mr O’Connor came to her aid, getting into a scuffle with the taxi driver. Mr O’Connor told Ms Duffy Mr Kareem grabbed on to his leg. When he reached down to try and extricate his leg, he said he felt “excruciating pain” in his hand. “The top of my thumb was gone,” he said. “I couldn’t believe the pain. I was just looking for a piece of my thumb on the ground.” Mr O’Connor said he ran to the nearest pub to try and get ice to keep his thumb together, collapsing once on the way. He was taken to St James’s Hospital by ambulance where he underwent surgery the next day. Mr O’Connor told the court he and his friends were not laughing at Mr Kareem’s name, but at the fact that Stacey Donohue regularly starts sentences with the phrase, “Look man…” “We tried to say to [Mr Kareem], ‘We’re not laughing at you’,” Mr O’Connor said. “We were trying to say it was Stacey’s phrase.” Defence barrister Conor McKenna BL put it to Mr O’Connor that he and his friends were abusive to Mr Kareem and that two of the women told him, “This is our f***ing country, we can do what we like”. Mr McKenna alleged Mr O’Connor, along with Noelle Donohue and Helena Donohue dragged Mr Kareem out of the car and assaulted him. “Mr Kareem did not bite your thumb,” he said. Mr O’Connor denied these allegations. The trial continues before Judge Patricia Ryan and a jury of ten women and two men. Comments are closed as the matter is before the courtsA simple plan for improvement. Setting your agenda. Related: The media hall of mirrors. On small work groups. Salvaging America. Levels of agency in society. Related: Time preference and the hippocampus. America’s most egalitarian ZIP code. Reaction and technology. On bikers and exit. Smarts are a scarce natural resource. The new blacklist. Related: The comrades would like to confess. Related:The state and homosexuals still attacking Christian businesses. Hestia site redesigned. Interview with the German identitarian movement. Urbit white paper. Related. The Awl on neoreaction, focusing mainly on Land. Star Wars mythology as political allegory. Economists and political structure. Related: Pre-mercantile economics. ZIRP and youth unemployment. Interesting times. 30,000 infiltrators. Related: Germany expects 1.5M immigrants in 2015. Related: Still think they’re not invaders? Related: Immigration: Gradually, then suddenly. Asymmetrical multiculturalism. America’s market dominant minority. Genes mirror geography, nations, and culture. Related: Study: Genetic diversity leads to social unrest and conflict. Refuting 11 arguments against race. Related: Racism in the Atlantic. Zuckerberg’s $100-million donation to public schooling failed miserably. Social mobility and discount mates. A roadmap for cheap private education. Hitlers everywhere. A Hitler they missed. Sulla is worth admiring. Mixed-race non-religious shooter singled out Christians in a gun-free zone. Muh narrative. Related: Mass murderers profile. Related: The curious case of the Oregon shooter. Women in the military. The wedding: a rebellion against modernity. Book review: True History of the American Revolution. A real rape culture in South Africa. Can’t wait ‘til the feminists get on this. Arab Spring. Related: Insanity in Syria. Related: Russia has a plan in Syria, the US doesn’t. The mind of Mr. Putin. Related: Putin’s tight game. On conspiracy theories and endogenous problems. Opting out of the Benedict Option. A Chinese tale on male culture. On cuckolding. Rise of the soulmate. Peak fake rape. The sound of a rebellious woman. RPing the white knight. Women primarily to blame for collapse of Western civilization. Please ignore women in public. Related: The horrors of sweat-shaming. Gamma humour. The one sentence persuasion course. Mangan has a new book: Muscle Up. 27 ways to be a fag. In SSC news: Steve Johnson capriciously banned at SSC for triggering folks. The camel’s straw is an amusing thread; Steve talks in cold logical arguments and the others erupt in emotional outbursts, and Steve is the one banned. Rationalists are a funny bunch, they seem to have a hard time sticking to their purported beliefs. Related comment: “Why is it that whenever we want to build a functional community, we always find ourselves using the neo’s system instead of the one we claim to believe in?” Related comment: “Scott has decided that NRx is essentially the correct way to see the world but is not willing to pay the social cost required to say so publicly.” Linux SJW fended off. Is Milo the last responsible tech journalist? Related: UN citations. Crime, other than homicide, is more prevalent in Europe than the US. Vox discovers anarcho-tyranny, only decades behind Sam Francis. I don’t believe a word of what I am saying, it doesn’t reflect my current beliefs. The real cause of global warming. Ocala Post shows some spine. Lesbian bishop calls churches to remove crosses, install Muslim prayer space. Trump would revive Operation Wetback. Related: Cracked going full Godwin on Trump. Todd Nickerson, pedophile, writes another article. Medieval fighting guide. H/T: NBS, SDA, Isegoria, Roissy, SCCNEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state may have enough natural gas to spark an energy boom, but it could lack the inspectors needed to ensure drilling won’t foul its other prized resource — water. Home to a portion of the Marcellus shale formation, the country’s richest natural gas deposit, New York is mulling plans to end a year-long moratorium on drilling. The ban was put in place due to concerns that a new extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, contaminates water wells. But the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has only 14 well inspectors to oversee 13,000 wells. With staff and budget constraints, the agency will struggle to keep up with the flood of drilling applications expected from companies keen to develop untapped reserves should the state lift its ban. Neighboring Pennsylvania, whose natural gas production has rocketed in recent years thanks to drilling in its slice of the Marcellus, has 202 workers charged with oil and gas inspections for more than 22,000 wells. Eighty-eight of these staffers specialize in actual well inspection. “Clearly 14 well inspectors is woefully short, they are going to need a lot more,” said Timothy Considine, a professor of energy economics at the University of Wyoming and an advocate for drilling in New York. “The drilling activity in New York could rival Pennsylvania and the requirements for inspections would be pretty significant.” In a draft environmental impact statement this month, the DEC recommended that drilling go ahead with tight regulations, including keeping gas wells away from precious aquifers that supply fresh drinking water for more than 8 million New York City residents and millions more in other cities in the state. If the ban is lifted, the DEC expects an average of 1,600 drilling applications per year over 30 years, with busy years attracting up to 2,500 applications, it said in its report. Leases could be handed out as early as January 2012. Fracking involves blasting shale rock with millions of gallons of chemical-laced water to release natural gas trapped in shale rock. While fracking has unlocked huge reserves of natural gas across the United States, environmentalists say the process contaminates water supplies. Problems of soured water wells or flammable tap water in Pennsylvania have been attributed to methane migration from gas wells due to shoddy casing and cementing, two key areas that well inspectors would check. So far this year 7,000 inspections have taken place in Pennsylvania compared to 2,460 in New York for the whole of 2010. TRAINING, FUNDING Well inspectors take time to train, time the DEC might not have if drilling permits are dished out next year, experts say. “To be an effective inspector takes five years, at least — training, shadowing, participating in seminars,” said Robert Watson, a professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering at Pennsylvania State University, and also an advocate of drilling in New York. “It is important to slow the progress of drilling in order for the inspectors to catch up and learn what is going on,” he said. Inspectors monitor all aspects of well drilling, including enforcing well casing and cementing standards and checking wastewater pits and erosion. Most inspectors need about 10 years of industry experience before they are eligible for hire. The DEC currently has no clear plan for increasing staff, but an advisory panel was set up this month to look into regulatory enforcement and how that can be funded. “Drilling permits will only be issued consistent with DEC’s ability to review and oversee drilling activities and ensure compliance with requirements, regulations and the Environmental Conservation Law,” a DEC spokeswoman said. New York’s small ranks of inspection personnel is not unique. In Colorado, where there is more conventional gas drilling, there are just 15 inspectors for 45,401 active wells. Still, in Texas, home to a number of shale plays, there are 88 inspectors. But the state of New York finances may make staff increases difficult. Last year the DEC lost 131 staff in budget cuts, including one well inspector. Pete Grannis, the DEC Commissioner at the time when the job cuts were being considered, said in a memo that staff cuts would hamper the DEC’s ability to inspect oil and gas wells. One remedy against staffing problems is to have industry pay for it, a method which has helped bolster the inspection ranks in Pennsylvania. In 2010, after an increase in drilling application fees, the Pennsylvania DEP was able to add 68 people to the 134 already working on oil and gas wells. Pennsylvania’s oil and gas program budget is just over $20 million a year, a DEP spokesman said. “We will be looking at mechanisms for making the industry responsible for the costs of funding adequate inspectors,” said Kate Sinding a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council which is looking into the DEC’s draft impact statement. A spokesman for New York state said budget decisions for the DEC will be made after the advisory panel announces its findings.Earlier this week, it came to light that Google-owned IoT firm was shutting down its Revolv smart home hub in May. The move would not only brick those $300 devices and render them useless, but also force users to look for a new gadget that’s compatible with all their home electronics and suitable for their automation needs. Following a major backlash from customers and IoT fans alike, Nest now says it’s working with customers to find a better way to end this troubled relationship. A Nest spokesperson told The Verge: We’ve been working with the small number of Revolv customers on a case-by-case basis since we sent out the first customer notification in February to determine the best resolution, including compensation. The company is urging customers to get in touch with customer support at help@revolv.com. Revolv owners, we're here to help. Please get in touch so we can find the best solution for your needs: help@revolv.com — Nest Support (@nestsupport) April 5, 2016 A full refund would be the least Nest could do to make nice with Revolv owners. Setting up a smart home and configuring all your electronics to work well is no small task, and it’s shocking that the company would think it’d be okay to pull the rug out from under its customers’ feet this way. We’ve contacted Revolv for an update on the situation and will update this post when we hear back.A marijuana chemical known as cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) helps fractures heal faster and even make the bones stronger than they were befo... http://humansarefree.com/2015/08/study-marijuana-helps-heal-broken-bones.html "We found that CBD alone makes bones stronger during healing, enhancing the maturation of the collagenous matrix, which provides the basis for new mineralization of bone tissue," researcher Yankel Gabet said. "After being treated with CBD, the healed bone will be harder to break in the future." Bones contain cannabinoid receptors "We found CBD alone to be sufficiently effective in enhancing fracture healing," Gabet said. "Other studies have also shown CBD to be a safe agent, which leads us to believe we should continue this line of study in clinical trials to assess its usefulness in improving human fracture healing." Medical marijuana benefits "undeniable" "The clinical potential of cannabinoid-related compounds is simply undeniable at this point," Gabet said. "While there is still a lot of work to be done to develop appropriate therapies, it is clear that it is possible to detach a clinical therapy objective from the psychoactivity of cannabis. CBD, the principal agent in our study, is primarily anti-inflammatory and has no psychoactivity." A marijuana chemical known as cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) helps fractures heal faster and even make the bones stronger than they were before, according to a study conducted by researchers from Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University and published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.CBD has no psychotropic effects.The researchers inflicted mild femoral fractures on rats, then injected some of them with CBD, and others with CBD plus tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the ingredient that causes the marijuana high).They then evaluated the healing of the rats, comparing them with rats who had not received any marijuana chemicals.The researchers found that rats injected with CBD had the same effect whether or not it was accompanied by THC.The study supported the same team's prior findings that the body contains receptors that respond to cannabinoid compounds, and that these receptors are not confined to the brain."We only respond to cannabis because we are built with intrinsic compounds and receptors that can also be activated by compounds in the cannabis plant," Gabet said.The prior study found that the skeleton contains cannabinoid receptors that stimulate bone formation and inhibit bone loss. The new study seems to confirm these findings.The study is part of a growing body of research into the medical benefits of marijuana compounds, including CBD. The findings may lead to new research into ways that marijuana could be used to treat osteoporosis or other bone diseases.The list of benefits to medical marijuana continues to grow. It is currently used primarily for chronic pain, to reduce side effects of chemotherapy and to improve appetite in AIDS patients.It has also shown promise in regulating blood sugar and slowing the progression of HIV. It is also being researched as a treatment for multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.Studies have shown that CBD suppresses seizures, stops the mestastasis of many aggressive cancers and may even kill leukemia cells.A 2013 study in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology found that CBD was just as effective as a popular antipsychotic drug in the treatment of schizophrenia and paranoia, but without the dangerous side effects. Other studies have confirmed the effectiveness of CBD as a safe antipsychotic.Although marijuana remains technically illegal under U.S. federal law, it is legal to use CBD for research or for limited medical functions in 17 U.S. states. The medical use of marijuana itself is legal in 23 other states.The federal government still classifies marijuana as having "no currently accepted medical use." Yet even this may be starting to change. The FDA recently approved CBD extracts as an experimental treatment for Dravet syndrome, a rare form of childhood epilepsy. Preliminary clinical trials are now going forward.By David Gutierrez, Natural News \| References: scienceworldreportAreca Backup is an Open Source personal backup solution which is released under the General Public License (GPL) v2. It basically allows you to select a set of files / directories to back-up, choose where and how (as a simple file copy, as a zip archive,...) they will be stored, and configure post-backup actions (like sending backup reports by email or launching custom shell scripts) It has been designed to...... Be as simple as possible to set up : No complex configuration files to edit - Your backup configuration (stored as an XML file) can be edited with Areca's graphical user interface.... Be as versatile as possible : Areca can use advanced backup modes (like "delta backup") or simply produce a basic copy of your source files as a standard directory or zip archive (readable by WinZip or other archivers).... Allow you to interact with your archives : Browse your archives, track and recover a specific version of a file, merge a set of archives into a single one, etc.CGT-CNT-SO: May Day, our struggle continues The CGT, CNT and SO call on all workers, employed or unemployed, students, pensioners and citizens in general to participate in the mobilizations that we have called for May Day, a day that should give continuity to the dynamic of struggle which has been set out on. [Castellano] CGT-CNT-SO: May Day, our struggle continues On May Day 1886 the struggle of the workers was to obtain the 8-hour workday (8 hours of work, 8 hours of culture, 8 hours of rest) and the State's response was repression and murder. Today, 126 years later, the state of exploitation by the leading castes of the workers is no less widespread. May Day is the day for working class dignity, for demanding social justice, for remembrance and tributes to those who fight against exploitation for the emancipation of workers. A day to keep on fighting. This system needs a great many poor people who work in the worst possible conditions and who do all the work in order for the chose few to reap the benefits. The Labour Reforms, the increase in retirement age, pay cuts, short-term employment contracts, cuts in and the dismantling of public services, all make it necessary for every sector of society that is against the social pact to mobilize. Therefore, the CGT, CNT and SO call on all workers, employed or unemployed, students, pensioners and citizens in general to participate in the mobilizations that we have called for May Day, a day that should give continuity to the dynamic of struggle which has been set out on. The actions taken during the General Strike of 29 March lay out the way forward and we must not let up, because they are not letting up on their attacks. We also support the mobilizations which have been called all over the world and throughout the Spanish State for 12 and 15 May. We must keep fighting, we must continue on the streets and in the squares, we need a new General Strike to achieve our goals, because struggle is the only way to take back all that they never wanted to give us and that we had to take with our own hands, all that they are now seeking to steal from us. Long live May Day! Long live the struggle of the working class! Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) Confederación Sindical Solidaridad Obrera (SO)Apple has been leveraging its power within the music industry in an attempt to push music labels to stop licensing freemium tiers offered by Spotify and other streaming music services, according to The Verge. The company has also reportedly offered to pay YouTube's music licensing fee to Universal Music Group if the label stops allowing its songs on the website, a popular destination for music videos.The report claims that U.S. Department of Justice officials are looking into Apple's business practices in relation to its upcoming streaming music service, expected to be a rebranded version of Beats Music that will debut at WWDC next month. "DOJ officials have already interviewed high-ranking music industry executives about Apple’s business habits," the report claims.Apple's much-rumored Beats streaming service would naturally be a more competitive alternative over two of its biggest rivals in Spotify and YouTube if it successfully convinces music labels to force streaming services to ditch their freemium tiers. Apple's service is expected to have lots of exclusive content, and only about one-quarter of Spotify's 60 million customers have paid subscriptions.Apple faces a similar probe from the European Commission over concerns that it's persuading labels to abandon free, ad-supported services such as Spotify in Europe as well. Apple's own Beats streaming service will reportedly not offer a free tier, requiring customers to pay a recurring fee of around $9.99 per month, similar to paid tiers offered by Spotify, Rdio and Google Play Music.Apple's Beats-based streaming music service will reportedly be deeply integrated into iTunes on Mac and the stock Music app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and apps will also be available for Apple TV and Android. Last month, the company seeded iOS 8.4 beta to developers with a redesigned Music app featuring a new MiniPlayer, a redesigned look for "Now Playing," global search capabilities, a streamlined design and more.Media giant Quebecor will be the official private sector partner in Quebec City's $400 million arena project. Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume announced a 25-year partnership with the media conglomerate during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. Labeaume said Quebecor would manage the arena's operations and acquire naming rights for the new arena, with or without the involvement of an NHL franchise. But the amount of the media giant's investment will depend on whether the city can attract a team. The company will contribute $63 million if an NHL franchise signs on, or $33 million in the absence of a professional team. Quebecor will pay the city another $3.15 million annually for the right to manage the building. Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau had already shown interest in participating in the project last January, and praised it at Tuesday's announcement. "We have confidence in the dynamic nature of the national capital, and its population. There is a lot happening here, projects are being realized, and we're happy to be a part of it," he said. Péladeau said he would put all his energy into bringing an NHL franchise back to the provincial capital. Quebec Premier Jean Charest and Labeaume recently announced the province and the city would split the cost of building the arena, but any private investment would be put towards reducing the costs incurred by the city. The federal government has not pledged any financial support for the project.Adulteration is a legal term meaning that a food product fails to meet the legal standards. One form of adulteration is an addition of another substance to a food item in order to increase the quantity of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which may result in the loss of actual quality of food item. These substances may be either available food items or non-food items. Among meat and meat products some of the items used to adulterate are water or ice, carcasses, or carcasses of animals other than the animal meant to be consumed.[1] History [ edit ] Historians have recognized cases of food adulteration in Ancient Rome and the Middle Ages. Contemporary accounts of adulteration date from the 1850s to the present day. Legislative [ edit ] In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), regulates and enforces laws on food safety as well as Food Defense. The FDA provides some technical definitions of adulterated food in various United States laws. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act [ edit ] The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act 1988)[2] provides that food is "adulterated" if it meets any one of the following criteria: (1) it bears or contains any "poisonous or deleterious substance" which may render it injurious to health; (2) it bears or contains any added poisonous or added deleterious substance (other than a pesticide residue, food additive, color additive, or new animal drug, which are covered by separate provisions) that is unsafe; (3) its container is composed, in whole or in part, of any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render the contents injurious to health; or (4) it bears or contains a pesticide chemical residue that is unsafe. (Note: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishes tolerances for pesticide residues in foods, which are enforced by the FDA.) Food also meets the definition of adulteration if: (5) it is, or it bears or contains, an unsafe food additive; (6) it is, or it bears or contains, an unsafe new animal drug; (7) it is, or it bears or contains, an unsafe colour additive; (8) it consists, in whole or in part, of "any filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance" or is otherwise unfit for food; or (9) it has been prepared, packed, or held under unsanitary conditions (insect, rodent, or bird infestation) whereby it may have become contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health. Further, food is considered adulterated if: (10) it has been irradiated and the irradiation processing was not done in conformity with a regulation permitting irradiation of the food in question (the FDA has approved irradiation of a number of foods, including refrigerated or frozen uncooked meat, fresh or frozen uncooked poultry, and seeds for sprouting [21 C.F.R. Part 179].); (11) it contains a dietary ingredient that presents a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury under the conditions of use recommended in labeling (for example, foods or dietary supplements containing aristolochic acids, which have been linked to kidney failure, have been banned.); (12) a valuable constituent has been omitted in whole or in part or replaced with another substance; damage or inferiority has been concealed in any manner; or a substance has been added to increase the product's bulk or weight, reduce its quality or strength, or make it appear of greater value than it is (this is "economic adulteration"); or (13) it is offered for import into the United States and is a food that has previously been refused admission, unless the person reoffering the food establishes that it is in compliance with U.S. law [21 U.S.C. § 342]. Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act [ edit ] The Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957 contain similar provisions[3] for meat and poultry products. [21 U.S.C. § 453(g), 601(m). Poisonous or deleterious substances [ edit ] Generally, if a food contains a poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to health, it is considered to be adulterated. For example, apple cider contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and Brie cheese contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes are adulterated. There are two exceptions to this general rule. First, if the poisonous substance is inherent or naturally occurring and its quantity in the food does not ordinarily render it injurious to health, the food will not be considered adulterated. Thus, a food that contains a natural toxin at very low levels that would not ordinarily be harmful (for instance, small amounts of amygdalin in apricot kernels) is not adulterated. Second, if the poisonous or deleterious substance is unavoidable and is within an established tolerance, regulatory limit, or action level, the food will not be deemed to be adulterated. Tolerances and regulatory limits are thresholds above which a food will be considered adulterated. They are binding on FDA, the food industry, and the courts. Action levels are limits at or above which FDA may regard food as adulterated. They are not binding on FDA. FDA has established numerous action levels (for example, one part per million methylmercury in fish), which are set forth in its booklet Action Levels for Poisonous or Deleterious Substances in Human Food and Animal Feed. If a food contains a poisonous substance in excess of a tolerance, regulatory limit, or action level, mixing it with "clean" food to reduce the level of contamination is not allowed. The deliberate mixing of adulterated food with good food renders the finished product adulterated (FDA, Compliance Policy Guide [CPG § 555.200]). Filth and foreign matter of adulteration [ edit ] Filth and extraneous material include any objectionable substances in foods, such as foreign matter (for example, glass, metal, plastic, wood, stones, sand, cigarette butts), undesirable parts of the raw plant material (such as stems, pits in pitted olives, pieces of shell in canned oysters), and filth (namely, mold, rot, insect and rodent parts, excreta, decomposition). Under a strict reading of the FD&C Act, any amount of filth in a food would render it adulterated. FDA regulations, however, authorize the agency to issue Defect Action Levels (DALs) for natural, unavoidable defects that at low levels do not pose a human health hazard [21 C.F.R. § 110.110]. These DALs are advisory only; they do not have the force of law and do not bind FDA. DALs are set forth in FDA's Compliance Policy Guides and are compiled in the FDA and Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Defect Action Level Handbook. In most cases, DALs are food-specific and defect-specific. For example, the DAL for insect fragments in peanut butter is an average of thirty or more insect fragments per 100 grams (g) [CPG § 570.300]. In the case of hard or sharp foreign objects, the DAL, which is based on the size of the object and the likelihood it will pose a risk of choking or injury, applies to all foods (see CPG § 555.425). A food is adulterated if it omits a valuable constituent or substitutes another substance, in whole or in part, for a valuable constituent (for instance, olive oil diluted with tea tree oil); conceals damage or inferiority in any manner (such as fresh fruit with food coloring on its surface to conceal defects); or any substance has been added to it or packed with it to increase its bulk or weight, reduce its quality or strength, or make it appear bigger or of greater value than it is (for example, scallops to which water has been added to make them heavier). Microbiological contamination and adulteration of food [ edit ] The fact that a food is contaminated with pathogens (harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, or protozoa) may, or may not, render it adulterated. Generally, for ready-to-eat foods, the presence of pathogens will render the food adulterated. For example, the presence of Salmonella on fresh fruits or vegetables or in ready-to-eat meat or poultry products (such as luncheon meats) will render those products adulterated. For meat and poultry products, which are regulated by USDA, the rules are more complicated. Ready-to-eat meat and poultry products contaminated with pathogens, such as Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes, are adulterated. (Note that hotdogs are considered ready-to-eat products.) For raw meat or poultry products, the presence of pathogens will not always render a product adulterated (because raw meat and poultry products are intended to be cooked, and proper cooking should kill pathogens). Raw poultry contaminated with Salmonella is not adulterated. However, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has ruled that raw meat or poultry products contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 are adulterated. This is because normal cooking methods may not reduce E. coli O157:H7 below infectious levels. E. coli O157:H7 is the only pathogen that is considered an adulterant when present in raw meat or poultry products.[citation needed] Enforcement actions [ edit ] If a food is adulterated, FDA and FSIS have a broad array of enforcement tools.They are of various types. These include seizing and condemning the product, detaining imported product, en
independent in sentencing the case.' Even though the families blame the Australian Federal Police for the son's fate, Mike Phelan, who led the Australian probe into the Bali Nine, said: 'I think it's a tragedy that we've got young lives that are potentially facing the death penalty, but I believe it was a successful operation and, you know, taking eight kilograms of heroin, which is a very significant amount of heroin, off the streets is a significant operation.' Sukumaran admitted on the ABC program: 'I was stupid. I didn't really think through the consequences or anything. Somebody asked me to do something and I just sort of did it because they were my friends and I trusted them and I believed in them. 'Look, you know, I think every criminal, what rushes to their mind, they're not gonna get busted, full stop,' said Andrew Chan. But a final clear warning from Mr Phelan.Long denigrated as vestigial or useless, the appendix now appears to have a reason to be – as a "safe house" for the beneficial bacteria living in the human gut. Drawing upon a series of observations and experiments, Duke University Medical Center investigators postulate that the beneficial bacteria in the appendix that aid digestion can ride out a bout of diarrhea that completely evacuates the intestines and emerge afterwards to repopulate the gut. "While there is no smoking gun, the abundance of circumstantial evidence makes a strong case for the role of the appendix as a place where the good bacteria can live safe and undisturbed until they are needed," said William Parker, Ph.D., assistant professor of experimental surgery, who conducted the analysis in collaboration with R. Randal Bollinger, M.D., Ph.D., Duke professor emeritus in general surgery. The appendix is a slender two- to four-inch pouch located near the juncture of the large and small intestines. While its exact function in humans has been debated by physicians, it is known that there is immune system tissue in the appendix. The gut is populated with different microbes that help the digestive system break down the foods we eat. In return, the gut provides nourishment and safety to the bacteria. Parker now believes that the immune system cells found in the appendix are there to protect, rather than harm, the good bacteria. For the past ten years, Parker has been studying the interplay of these bacteria in the bowels, and in the process has documented the existence in the bowel of what is known as a biofilm. This thin and delicate layer is an amalgamation of microbes, mucous and immune system molecules living together atop of the lining the intestines. "Our studies have indicated that the immune system protects and nourishes the colonies of microbes living in the biofilm," Parkers explained. "By protecting these good microbes, the harmful microbes have no place to locate. We have also shown that biofilms are most pronounced in the appendix and their prevalence decreases moving away from it." This new function of the appendix might be envisioned if conditions in the absence of modern health care and sanitation are considered, Parker said. "Diseases causing severe diarrhea are endemic in countries without modern health and sanitation practices, which often results in the entire contents of the bowels, including the biofilms, being flushed from the body," Parker said. He added that the appendix's location and position is such that it is expected to be relatively difficult for anything to enter it as the contents of the bowels are emptied. "Once the bowel contents have left the body, the good bacteria hidden away in the appendix can emerge and repopulate the lining of the intestine before more harmful bacteria can take up residence," Parker continued. "In industrialized societies with modern medical care and sanitation practices, the maintenance of a reserve of beneficial bacteria may not be necessary. This is consistent with the observation that removing the appendix in modern societies has no discernable negative effects." Several decades ago, scientists suggested that people in industrialized societies might have such a high rate of appendicitis because of the so-called "hygiene hypothesis," Parker said. This hypothesis posits that people in "hygienic" societies have higher rates of allergy and perhaps autoimmune disease because they -- and hence their immune systems -- have not been as challenged during everyday life by the host of parasites or other disease-causing organisms commonly found in the environment. So when these immune systems are challenged, they can over-react. "This over-reactive immune system may lead to the inflammation associated with appendicitis and could lead to the obstruction of the intestines that causes acute appendicitis," Parker said. "Thus, our modern health care and sanitation practices may account not only for the lack of a need for an appendix in our society, but also for much of the problems caused by the appendix in our society." Parker conducted a deductive study because direct examination the appendix's function would be difficult. Other than humans, the only mammals known to have appendices are rabbits, opossums and wombats, and their appendices are markedly different than the human appendix. Parker's overall research into the existence and function of biofilms is supported by the National Institutes of Health. Other Duke members of the team were Andrew Barbas, Errol Bush, and Shu Lin. This theory appears online in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.John Kerry revolts me in ways I thought I would only reserve for members of the Jew hating British establishment. In an astonishing statement conflating the victims of the Boston Marathon bomb with the terrorists who attacked and wounded IDF soldiers including throwing one into the sea after wounding him. From the Seattle Times: In March, Obama extracted an apology for the raid from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that broke the stalemate. Kerry said he understood the anger and frustration of those Turks who lost friends and family in the raid. The former Massachusetts senator said last week’s Boston Marathon bombings made him acutely aware of the emotions involved. “We have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence, when something that happens when you lose people that are near and dear to you,” he said. “It affects the community, it affects the country. But going forward, you know, we have to find the best way to bring people together and undo these tensions and undo these stereotypes and try to make peace.” The Turks who were killed were seen singing songs celebrating the murder of Jews by Muhammad: these songs threaten the same thing to all Jews (not Zionists, Jews). These Turks armed themselves certainly with knives and steel bars and perhaps guns. These Turks were sailing on a ship to break a legal blockade. They were warned repeatedly to turn back. They were part of a flotilla of ships: the other ships surrendered peacefully and nobody was hurt: their ship attacked those sent to enforce the legal blockade with lethal force. And somehow, the Secretary of State for the United States can’t tell the difference between these murderous terroists and Bostonians who went to cheer their family and friends across the finish line of a marathon armed only with enthusiasm and joy. After Kerry’s bid for the presidency failed I met John O’Neil a few times. He was one of the Swift boat veterans who highlighted Kerry’s woeful actions against Vietnam veterans. John O’Neil struck me as a mensch: an impression the main stream media never gave of him. He is a very successful lawyer, educated, well spoken and absolutely charming: the media at the time gave the impression of a knuckle dragging oaf. He was right then and today. It is a disgrace that this man holds high office, largely through the financial power of his wife’s inheritance. From the Seattle Times: In March, Obama extracted an apology for the raid from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that broke the stalemate. Kerry said he understood the anger and frustration of those Turks who lost friends and family in the raid. The former Massachusetts senator said last week’s Boston Marathon bombings made him acutely aware of the emotions involved. “We have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence, when something that happens when you lose people that are near and dear to you,” he said. “It affects the community, it affects the country. But going forward, you know, we have to find the best way to bring people together and undo these tensions and undo these stereotypes and try to make peace.” Aussie Dave adds: John Kerry has responded:(CNN) As the July 4th congressional recess winds down, activists from a coalition of progressive and leftist political groups are ramping up protests against the Senate health care bill. The controversial plan, universally opposed by Democrats and now struggling to secure support from within the GOP, would effectively repeal Obamacare and dramatically restructure federal funding for Medicaid. Ten Senate Republicans, some worried about blowback from potential cuts to popular programs and others arguing the bill doesn't go far enough, have said they will not back the legislation in its current form. Despite growing signs of pessimism on the right, activists spent the extended holiday weekend urging the grassroots to stay engaged, concerned that any lull would provide an opening for Republican leadership to claw back crucial votes. House Speaker Paul Ryan pronounced his chamber's version of the bill dead in late March, setting off premature celebrations in Democratic circles, only to revive and pass it weeks later. On Thursday, protesters plan to stage a round of coordinated sit-ins at the offices of Republican senators in 21 states. Our Revolution, the political organization spun out of Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 Democratic primary campaign, has been promoting the protests in emails to supporters and on its website, where it provides a list of times and locations. Democracy Spring, CREDO, #AllofUs, Democratic Socialists of America, Progressive Democrats of America, and the Working Families Party are among the other groups helping organize the demonstrations. "We do not see this as political theater," Our Revolution's new president, former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, said in an email late Wednesday, "we will continue to sit, stand and fight on until adequate healthcare is available to all." Read MoreWith its eyes set on deep space exploration, NASA will soon begin seeking applications from would-be astronauts. The space agency says it needs to bulk up its depleted roster of astronauts for missions to the International Space Station as well as into cislunar space and beyond. Despite uncertain prospects for the future of NASA’s human exploration program, expect a torrent of applications. The last time NASA solicited applicants four years ago, 6,372 US citizens responded. That was nearly double the average number during the space shuttle era, when typically about 3,500 people would apply each time. From the more than 6,000 applicants, NASA eventually chose four men and four women in 2013. That group has now completed their training and progressed from being ascans (a delightful abbreviation for astronaut candidates that is pronounced just like you hope it is) to joining the ranks of experienced fliers ready for assignment. Ironically, NASA’s astronaut applications are up as its flight opportunities have fallen by about 90 percent. Back in the early 2000s during the peak of the space shuttle program, NASA had more than 150 active astronauts. That’s because the shuttle, with six to seven launches a year, afforded 40 to 50 annual flights into space. But since the shuttle’s retirement in 2011, the number of active-duty astronauts has dwindled to only 47 now as veterans have sensed a lack of opportunities and retired. Currently the only destination for NASA astronauts is the space station, accessible via the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Although the space station accommodates a crew of six, because of commitments to Russia and its other partners, there are only slots for four NASA astronauts a year. Now, however, NASA plans to return to deep space with its Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. “This is an exciting time to be a part of America’s human spaceflight program,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “NASA has taken the next step in the evolution of our nation’s human spaceflight program—and our US astronauts will be at the forefront of these new and challenging space flight missions.” NASA has set a goal of sending humans to Mars by the 2030s, but with its current funding and approach to exploration, it's not clear that will happen. The first human mission in the Orion spacecraft is unlikely before 2023, and that will probably be a lunar flyby. Later in the 2020s, NASA intends to send astronauts to a small boulder stashed in a distant orbit around the moon. Beyond that, NASA has not charted any human missions. NASA has promised the Moon—literally—to astronaut classes before. During a meeting in Houston last week, five-time astronaut John Grunsfeld, for example, recalled how his class of astronauts in 1992 was told they would be the first group to return to the Moon and then set foot on Mars. Other classes in that era were told the same thing. Humans, of course, haven't left low-Earth orbit since 1972, when Apollo 17 returned from a 12-day mission to the Moon. NASA will accept applications from December 14 through mid-February and announce its candidates in 2017. To be considered, candidates must have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics. An advanced degree is desirable. Candidates also must have at least three years of related, progressively responsible professional experience, or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft.Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for TechCrunch The impressive appreciation of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum has finally piqued the interest of big money, but some still have their reservations about whether their crypto-investments will be secure. Who can blame them? Just last week, an unidentified user accidentally deleted the code library required to use recently created digital wallets within Parity, a popular digital-wallet provider, and cryptocurrencies have long been associated with the chasms of the deep, dark web. On Thursday, Coinbase, the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, announced a new platform that might quell the anxieties of big money investors looking to invest in crypto. The platform, called Coinbase Custody, was built specifically to meet the needs of such investors, including hedge funds and family offices, according to a Medium post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. "We are designing Coinbase Custody to meet the needs of institutional clients," Armstrong said in a Medium post highlighting the news. Some of the heightened security features, according to Armstrong include: "Dedicated account representatives and phone support." "Multi-user accounts with separate permissions." "Insurance (in some cases)." The service will charge users a $100,000 startup fee. Armstrong said there will also be a monthly fee based on assets. Coinbase, a unicorn company valued at more than $1 billion, is among the most visible cryptocurrency companies operating in the US. They store $9 billion worth of digital currencies and are backed by financial institutions such as the Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange and Westpac. According to Maxime Boonen, a former interest rate swaps trader at Goldman Sachs who founded B2C2, a bitcoin trading firm, over-the-counter bitcoin trade sizes have increased this year as interest from institutional clients has buoyed. As such, larger million-dollar trades are more common at B2C2 than they were when the company was founded, according to Boonen. At the same time, cryptocurrency hedge funds have been opening up at an eye-popping rate, according to Autonomous NEXT, the fintech analytics firm. At last count, the firm said 126 cryptofunds have opened, managing approximately $2.3 billion.When the President of the United States sends a team of FBI agents to another country to frame someone who is not a U.S. citizen, and does so under the guise of trying to help said country better equip themselves to fight off hackers but gets caught, is that news? Thanks to an interview this week published in Katoikos with Ogmundur Jonasson, the interior minister of Iceland when Obama pulled this stunt, now we have even more proof of how morally bankrupt both Obama and the Democrat party truly are. Why are we just learning about this now? At the time, the mainstream media (otherwise known as the true purveyors of “fake news” in this country), didn’t seem to think that the story was newsworthy. Perhaps you might be wondering what were they did find newsworthy and reported on instead, right? Funny you should ask. The mainstream media was far more interested in pushing their warped narrative of what caused the Arab Spring (“Fake News”), versus what actually happened (find out more about what actually started the Arab Spring HERE), they gave seemingly endless time devoted to the plight of the poor Occupy Wall Street heathens, and who can forget all the lovely stories about Anthony Weiner tweeting out pictures of his manhood to millions of people while serving in Congress just as you were sitting down to dinner every night? It’s not like the “real news’ could have taken a few minutes from any of the time devoted to those stories to cover something as big as the President of the United States sending a team of FBI agents to frame someone for revealing the truth, right? Question: Are we still having this asinine conversation about who the “real” news is, and who the “fake” news is… AND… ARE YOU READY FOR THIS???? Earlier this week, as part of the 2016 NDAA that just passed, “Fake News” Sites Are Now Subject to Treason Investigations… Anyway, in the following video I break down several parts of the interview with Ogmundur Jonasson which can be found in its entirety HERE. I also can’t help but question how sincere Democrats are about this nonsense with Russia having the election by citing several definitive examples of when Democrats showed their total lack of concern for cyber-security. Your News Wire writes: According to Iceland’s former minister of interior, the US sent a “planeload of FBI agents” to Iceland in June 2011 in an attempt to frame WikiLeaks and its co-founder Julian Assange. In an interview with the Katoikos publication, Ogmundur Jonasson who was the interior minister at the time, said the Obama administration implied to Icelandic authorities that they had knowledge of hackers who wanted to destroy software systems in their country and offered help. However, Jonasson became suspicious and refused to cooperate with the agents and asked them to cease their activities. However, Jonasson said he instantly became “suspicious” of the US good intentions, “well aware that a helping hand might easily become a manipulating hand.” Later in the summer 2011, the US “sent a planeload of FBI agents to Iceland seeking our cooperation in what I understood as an operation set up to frame Julian Assange and WikiLeaks,” Jonasson said. Icelanders seemed like a tough nut to crack, though. “Since they had not been authorized by the Icelandic authorities to carry out police work in Iceland and since a crack-down on WikiLeaks was not on my agenda, to say the least, I ordered that all cooperation with them be promptly terminated and I also made it clear that they should cease all activities in Iceland immediately,” the politician said. So the US were told to leave, and moreover, the politician made things quite clear for them. “If I had to take sides with either WikiLeaks or the FBI or CIA, I would have no difficulty in choosing: I would be on the side of WikiLeaks,” he said. Jónasson went on to discuss other whistleblowers like Edward Snowden: the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, debated whether Snowden should have been granted citizenship, but “there hasn’t been political consensus” on the matter. “Iceland is part of NATO and such a decision would be strongly objected to by the US,” Jonasson said. Both whistleblowers have spent several years under protection: Assange has been staying in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for about four years, while Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in 2013, and he is still staying at an undisclosed location there. THE VOICE OF REASON is the pen name of Michael DePinto, a graduate of Capital University Law School, and an attorney in Florida. Having worked in the World Trade Center, along with other family and friends, Michael was baptized by fire into the world of politics on September 11, 2001. Michael’s political journey began with tuning in religiously to whatever the talking heads on television had to say, then Michael became a “Tea-Bagging” activist as his liberal friends on the Left would say, volunteering within the Jacksonville local Tea Party, and most recently Michael was sworn in as an attorney. Today, Michael is a major contributor to www.BeforeItsNews.com, he owns and operates www.thelastgreatstand.com, where Michael provides what is often very ‘colorful’ political commentary, ripe with sarcasm, no doubt the result of Michael’s frustration as he feels we are witnessing the end of the American Empire. The topics Michael most often weighs in on are: Martial Law, FEMA Camps, Jade Helm, Economic Issues, Government Corruption, and Government Conspiracy. SaveSo I am writing this blog entry using the current development snapshot of the Fedora Workstation and using Wayland as my display server. It is an important milestone for the Fedora Workstation, for Wayland and for me personally. There are many things here I am very happy about, first of all this is a major milestone for what in some sense was the first and biggest engineering effort we kicked off under the Fedora Workstation banner, meaning it was an effort we decided to put our weight behind with the vision we have for the Fedora Workstation being the primary motivator for doing it. And it has been a big success in more ways than I expected, I think it is fair to say that the level of engagement and support from the wider community took me by surprise, and I want to state that if it wasn’t for all the incredible effort from the wider community pushing Wayland forward we would not been able to provide something of this quality so soon. The fact that Wayland now runs and works on non-Intel GPUs for this release, that XWayland is fully functional, that libinput is as far along as it is, are all thanks to the wider community. There are more people who have contributed than I can list, but I want to call out Adel Gadllah and Jonas Ådahl, who have contributed many crucial pieces to GNOME Shell, Wayland or libinput. I would also like to specially say thank you to Jasper St.Pierre, because we would not be here today without his tireless effort on porting the GNOME Shell to Wayland. I think anyone who knows Jasper appreciates the amount of effort he puts in and the level of enthusiasm he brings to everything he does. So Jasper recently transferred from Red Hat to Endless Mobile and I am very happy that he will continue to contribute to both the GNOME Shell and Wayland as part of his job at Endless too, as he would be sorely missed both as a developer and as an individual otherwise. Another person I want to call out at this point is of course Kristian Høgsberg, who created Wayland and got it to reach critical mass in terms of mindshare and functionality. Having been around linux for a long time I have seen efforts at replacing the X window system come and go so I know that achieving what Kristian has achieved here is not trivial at all. So a big thank you to Kristian for his incredible work and for his incredible level of persistence allowing Wayland become a reality where so many other projects have failed. Wayland in Fedora Workstation 21 is also an important milestone as it exemplifies the new development philosophy we are embarking on. Fedora has for a long time been known to be a linux distribution where a lot of new pieces become available first. The problem here is that it has also given Fedora bit of a reputation for being not as dependable as some other distributions or operating systems, which has kept a lot of people away from Fedora that I think would be inclined to use it otherwise. So we want to keep being a place where you do get access to new and exciting technologies first, but as you see with the Wayland effort we are now going to go the extra mile to make sure we offer this new technologies in a way that allows you to still use Fedora as your day to day working machine without worrying that these new features will hinder your work. So we will keep Wayland available as a separate non-default session until we feel very confident that our users are not going to be negatively impacted by the switch. Which means we want to fix and polish up the last remaining bits and pieces, make sure that performance is top notch, make sure all input hardware works flawlessly, work with NVidia and AMD to help them make their binary drivers available for Wayland before we make this the new default. An crucial value for us at Red Hat and for the Fedora community is working closely with our upstreams. Which means we always aim at working with our upstream communities to get the features we need or bugfixes we want included in the upstream releases which we then integrate into Fedora (and Red Hat Enterprise Linux). Working closely with the upstream communities enables us to achieve a lot more than we would be able to do on our own. In preparation for Fedora Workstation 21 we have of course done a lot of work on improving the general Fedora desktop experience which has meant a lot of work has gone into GNOME 3.14. And while most of our upstream contributions here has been about code, not all of it is code. A major part of creating a modern and polished desktop experience is making sure that the applications you run conforms to a shared set of interface guidelines, to both bring a unique and polished look to the applications, but also to make using them easier as things like keybindings or work patterns you learn with one application will transfer over to the next. To help accelerate that process for the Fedora Workstation we had Allan Day work with the GNOME community to create am updated set of Human Interface Guidelines for GNOME 3 and thus implicitly for the Fedora Workstation. Another crucial improvement that you will see in Fedora Workstation 21 is on software installation. There has been a range of things in Fedora in regards to software installation that has been suboptimal. On the command line and library level there has been a piece of Fedora that I know a lot of people have disliked, many to such a strong degree that they have kept away from Fedora, namely Yum. Yum for those who doesn’t know it is the tool you used either directly or indirectly to install new software on a Fedora system. Yum used to be very slow and while it has gotten a lot better over the years it was still considered a bit of an eyesore for many. So Aleš Kozumplík and others have worked writing a new set of tools to do the low level software handling over the last few years and I am happy to say that for Fedora Workstation 21 we will be using those tools to greatly improve the software installation and update experience. There is a new commandline tool called dnf that will work with the same command line parameters you know from yum, but will complete its task much quicker than before. The desktop Software installer side Richard Hughes has been working on making the installer use the new libraries developed for dnf, called hawkeye and libsolve, to provide you with a much smoother software installation experience in Fedora Workstation 21. So if you tried the preview we offered of the Software tool in Fedora 20, then I think you will find Software to be a lot more responsive in Fedora Workstation 21. Of course a good software installer is not just about how nice the user interface looks or how quickly it can perform an installation, it is also very much a product of the quality of your installation metadata. Richard Hughes got a blog entry outlining the great progress is being made on providing more and improved metadata, like application descriptions and screenshots, for Fedora Workstation 21. Ryan Lerch has been working with Richard to improve our cover greatly which means the quality of the software listings in Fedora Workstation 21 should be greatly improved over what you saw in Fedora 20. For more details and screenshots Kalev Lember got a great writeup of the state of the Software installer in Fedora Workstation 21. This also highlights one of the advantages of the new Fedora product model where we have one clear desktop product we are targeting, that we can define operating system standards for things like application metadata and apply them to the system as a whole. So for Fedora 22 we expect to make appdata metadata a mandatory part of the application packaging for Fedora, ensuring that any desktop application packaged for Fedora is easily discover able by our users. In the old ‘bucket of parts’ model these things would in practice not happen as there was no clear target that everyone was expected to aim for. There has also been a lot of general user interface polish work happening, both on the toolkit level with a lot of work being done by our UI designers to improve the default desktop theme called Adwaita. And since we want people to run all kinds of applications in Fedora Workstation 21 we are not only doing this for GTK+, but we also have Martin Briza working on bringing Adwaita to Qt for Fedora Workstation. We hope to get the Qt theme packaged soon, but for those interested in taking a look the Adwaita Qt code can be found here. In Fedora Workstation 21 we hope to cover Qt4 applications using the standard Adwaita theme, with wider support planed for Fedora Workstation 22, to cover more Qt versions and also make sure we have full coverage for the Adwaita Dark variant and accessibility versions. There is a chance we will miss the Fedora 21 cutoff date with this theme, but hopefully we can then get it included during the Fedora Workstation 21 lifespan. We also worked on improving the shell animations. Things like animations might seem like their unimportant, but they contribute greatly to the general feeling of polish in the system. The team worked hard on improving these for Fedora Workstation 21, so in GNOME 3.14 you will for instance see that the animations in the shell overview has been greatly improved. Last but not least I want to say that while I am very excited about what we have put together for Fedora Workstation 21 it is just the beginning. Being the first release under the new 3 product strategy a lot of time and effort has gone into re-jigging the whole Fedora development process to cater for having 3 different products instead of one, changing the way the Fedora community organize itself, get contributors on board and re-aligned with the new products and so on and also refocus our internal development teams at Red Hat to start thinking about their development process and goals with contributing to these 3 new products in mind. So my expectation is that as we go towards Fedora Workstation 22 the pace of innovation and progress will only pick up. So great things are ahead and I hope that once Fedora Workstation 21 is released regardless of if you are a long time Fedora users, a lapsed former Fedora users or someone who has never tried Fedora before you will be willing to give it a try and hopefully become as excited about it as we are.In an ideal world, a TV series as enjoyable and immersive as HBO’s Game of Thrones would just run all year round, like EastEnders or anything on Dave. We might get bored of it after a while, but it would at least spare us the now annual meet and greet that is the opening episode of a new series. The problem is simple – even the most committed Thronie will admit that the plethora of similar names and imaginary continents, not to mention thousands of years of pre-history, storylines from previous seasons as well as storylines from the books, can get a little confusing. It turns out that the 10 months we have to wait between series is the perfect amount of time for most people's wizened brains to forget what happened to whom last time round. And so last night’s World Premiere at the Tower of London had a lot of housekeeping to get through. Essentially, this was an exercise in scene setting, the chess pieces being laid out on the board. The opening scene, however, was something genuinely new in that we saw young Cersei, in flashback, being given a Macbeth-style prophecy by a witch (Cersei having always had a bit of the Lady M about her) that all three of her young children would die. I was a little distracted that the witch was being played by Jodhi May, leading me to wonder whether there is a single venerable British actor left who has not appeared in Game of Thrones, and what the Venn diagram crossover with The Bill would look like. But for an episode that was always going to be slightly prosaic to open with a flashback – the first in all of Game of Thrones – was encouragingly bold. Funny pic from #GoTAtlantic premiere of Charles Dance and the very naughty @Markgatiss pic.twitter.com/CYAxKxb34f — Stuart Murphy (@stuartmurphy100) March 19, 2015 Then it was down to business. I didn't have a stopwatch but there were boobs and barbarity, a slit throat lingered on for just longer than most shows ever would, within the first 10 minutes, so all present and correct there. Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) had remained in Meereen, still grappling with theories of government and how to play the philosopher queen. Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Varys (Conleth Hill) popped up in Pentos, just over the Narrow Sea from King’s Landing, and proceeded to bicker delightfully over whether or not to join the inveterate peacemonger Daenerys. (Though Game of Thrones is known for its shock and awe tactics, it tends to temper the melodrama with these kinds of finely crafted two-handers.)0:00 – What’s an average day for the Immortals Head Coach? 0:47 – How did you become the coach of a professional LoL team? 2:21 – What is it like working with Dardoch? 3:44 – What separates IMT from other VC-funded eSports orgs? 5:04 – What’s been different in your second year coachin for IMT? 6:20 – Will Immortals go to Worlds? The flurry of offseason trades between splits in League of Legends eSports has begun with a bang. Immortals have traded star jungler Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett to Counter Logic Gaming in exchange for veteran Jake “Xmithie” Puchero. This roster move came after Immortals missed playoffs by a razor thin margin, tying with Flyquest in match score but losing in game score. Dardoch led the league in Player of the Game awards in the NA LCS Spring Split, carrying several games for the Immortals side. However, the organization decided on a different direction, citing personality clashes as a primary reason for the swap. On March 29, 2017, Immortals Head Coach Robert Yip sat down with HOWLA for an interview spot on the launch broadcast. Yip discussed his career in eSports thus far, as well as how Immortals plans to adjust after a disappointing spring split finish. While the trade was, at least to the public, nonexistent at the time of the interview, Yip mentioned that working with Dardoch was not going to be an overnight fix. “It’s a case of ‘I’m going to work on it every single day; try to get better at it,'” Yip said in regards to Dardoch’s approach to his behavioral tendencies, “At a certain point, he has to take ownership of what he’s doing, and we have to be able to say ‘We did everything we could’ so both parties can actually sleep a little bit better at night.” Yip also mentioned Immortals’ focus on investing in their current players long term, citing a tendency for teams to break up after Worlds as a stigma of the LoL eSports scene. Xmithie’s veteran presence will provide a mentor for rookie AD Carry Cody “Cody Sun” Sun, and should aid roster development due to his wealth of experience both domestically and internationally. Check out our exclusive interview with Révenge here.Blood-testing start-up Theranos took a number of management missteps that led to its most recent tangle with health regulators, business school professors said Thursday on CNBC's "Power Lunch." For several months, federal health regulators have raised concerns about the accuracy of the company's blood-testing technology. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services threatened to impose stiff sanctions on the company — including a ban that could prohibit Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes from owning or running a lab for at least two years. In an interview with CNBC, Theranos spokesperson Brooke Buchanan stressed that the company is actively working to address issues raised by regulators. "Elizabeth Holmes has not been banned from the industry, she hasn't been banned from Theranos and we continue to work hard to address all the concerns that have been raised by CMS," Buchanan said. "We're in constant communication with the regulators."Saturn's Super Chili Bowl Cook-Off Saturn Birmingham is once again hosting a chili cook-off and competition! This year's event will take place on Saturday, February 3rd. If you'd like to enter a team in the competition, it will be $5 per person (4 person maximum). If you'd just like to sample the chili, it is also only $5. Tickets will be available online and at the door. If you want to register a team for the competition, please fill out the form at https://www.dsmithscenes.com/saturn-super-chili-cookoff. This is to ensure we have an accurate count of how many teams to expect. Chili entries will be accepted between 4:00 and 4:45 on Saturday, February 3rd, 2018. Entries do not have to be prepped on site but you need to bring it in a croc pot to keep it warm along with bringing a ladle to serve. Judging will begin shortly after 4:45, and the public sampling time will take place once all the entries have been submitted to the judges. Judging will be based on taste, presentation, and "X Factor". Cash and other prizes will be awarded to the winning teams! Sour cream, crackers, cheese, etc. will be provided for guests but if you wish to bring your own condiments or whatever else to accent your chili, please do so. This is all for fun so we hope a lot of people give it a shot! The more people enter, the more there will be to sample and more money to be won! If you have any questions about event operation, please email david@dsmithimages.com.After news that talks have stalled between Apple and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over the name of the iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, the company has submitted a defense filing in which it attempts to redefine just what is means to put the "4G" label on a product. Responding to the ACCC's claim that the iPad 4G doesn't actually work with Australia's LTE networks, Apple is attempting to further separate "4G" from any particular technology (like LTE), and instead make it purely a "descriptor" of speed. According to The
's disappearance had been an accident and there were no survivors.For Aleppo Residents Under Siege, A Risky Journey To Relative Safety Enlarge this image toggle caption Youssef Karwashan/AFP/Getty Images Youssef Karwashan/AFP/Getty Images In the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, tens of thousands of people have fled a brutal, Russian-backed regime offensive against rebel-held parts of the city. Many have fled deeper into the tightening siege, which started over the summer. Others have sought safety on the government-held side. My conversation with a woman who recently fled the siege begins with her asking how I am. She's safe now, but is still afraid to give her name. She fears for her son — still fighting with the rebels — and for other male relatives who've been detained by the regime for questioning. She'd grown used to living under harsh siege conditions, and never thought she'd flee. "It was all so sudden," she tells me. "We weren't mentally prepared. I used to tell myself I'd rather die in my home than cross to regime areas." But conditions deteriorated quickly with the resumption of airstrikes. She describes two weeks of constant bombardment. Earlier this week, her house was hit and destroyed. Amid the total chaos that ensued in her neighborhood, people running with their children, she and several neighbors made a split-second decision to flee to the regime side of the city. Their group of families braved the front line, dodging the crossfire. Some were shot down along the way. Many cast aside their suitcases and clothing bundles — their last belongings — to run faster. Joshua Landis, a Syria expert and director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says it's no surprise the families joined that mad rush. "The days for the rebels in Aleppo are numbered," he says. "The regime has amassed over 50,000 soldiers from all different militias in the army and so forth. They have overwhelming forces. Estimates are there are 8,000 to 9,000 rebel fighters and probably there's a lot less today. So the situation is untenable for the rebels. They can't get resupplied. It's a matter of time." At the same time, Landis says civilians are afraid of what's in store for them on the regime side. "There is nobody who is your friend in this situation," he says. "The rebels are not your friend — they're using you as a shield. And the regime is not your friend because they've been pounding you. They've seen you as a pawn, or as collateral nuisance." When civilians reach the relative safety of the government side, the Syrian authorities have lists of names. For any civilian fleeing the rebel side, Landis says, "They know this is the beginning of a long scrutiny." And that was true for the woman reached by NPR. As they fled, she told me, she and her husband, along with her sister, brother-in-law and their young children reached a no-man's land where they saw their first government soldiers. They directed the family to a school stadium, and told them to shelter in place. "Every time someone stood up, we'd tell him to sit down because of the snipers," she says. When the sun set, the soldiers directed them onward. Everyone from children to the elderly scaled the school's high walls, trekking over broken glass and rubble. The woman tells me it was the most difficult day of their lives. After hours of walking, they reached an area firmly under army control. Their experience with the soldiers was mixed. "There were good men and bad men," the woman says. "A part of the army were helping people and made them feel welcome. Some soldiers even helped us carry heavy bundles and suitcases. And others literally dug their hands into people's pockets and robbed them." At a shelter in the Jibreen area of Aleppo, they were given blankets and food by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. The care they received, she says, "was exemplary." It was there, surrounded by hundreds of families, that she realized just how many people had fled — from complete strangers to those she'd known her whole life. The Red Crescent, which works under the banner of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said Monday said it registered 4,000 people displaced to Jibreen alone. No one had more than a suitcase. "They fled with their souls and nothing else," the woman tells me. She and her relatives were held in the shelter for two days, while the army scrutinized their IDs. Then they were free to go. But outside, they encountered a maze of checkpoints. She describes officers sorting through piles of IDs, names getting mixed up. And, as many had feared, males got little benefit of the doubt. Her 20-year-old cousin was taken into mandatory army service. He was the only son to care for his disabled father, but with the family documents scattered, they had no immediate way to prove it. Her sister's 43-year-old husband was taken away for questioning. "They told us his name is on a wanted list," she says. "First, they told us he'd be out in a few days. Then they said it could take three or four months." She thinks the army officials simply want bribes. But even if the family can scrape enough money together to pay a bribe, she's not sure when or if her sister's husband will be released. The families had planned to stay in the city, but after their experience, they decided they wouldn't stay a day longer. The group fled Aleppo entirely, to the northern, rebel-held countryside. On the way, they were allowed to pass through army checkpoints and then they reached Kurdish-held territory, where they faced more scrutiny. She says they were almost turned back, but their driver pleaded and paid their way through. Finally they reached where they felt safest — rebel-held territory. Now there, she prays for those left behind — her rebel son and the women and children stuck in the tightening siege. She says, "I just want everyone to make it out of there alive."Scott Higginbotham has been arrested overnight in Brisbane and charged with one count of assaulting police, and one count of being found in a police establishment without a lawful excuse. A police source said that a friend of Higginbotham’s had drawn police attention, before Higginbotham attempted to intervene. “He has tried to play peacemaker after his mate mouthed off and it got out of hand,” the source reportedly said. Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Reddit Email Share The Queensland police service confirmed the charges on Sunday evening. Higginbotham is now due to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on February 21. Queensland police statement on charge against Higginbotham pic.twitter.com/9HUKSinh82 — Jamie Pandaram (@JamiePandaram) February 5, 2017 The ARU released a statement confirming Higginbotham had been arrested on Sunday. Their integrity unit will now conduct and investigation into the matter. The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) is investigating an incident involving Queensland Reds player, Scott Higginbotham in Brisbane on Saturday night. ARU CEO, Bill Pulver said: “The Queensland Rugby Union has today referred a matter to the ARU integrity unit concerning an incident involving Reds player, Scott Higginbotham in Brisbane last night. “The ARU integrity unit has subsequently launched an investigation into the incident today. “As the matter is currently with Queensland Police, no further comment will be made at this time.” 30-year-old Higginbotham has played 32 Test for Australia as a member of the Wallabies, and also made more than a hundred appearances in the Super Rugby competition with the Reds and the Rebels. Advertisement Advertisement After being absent in the competition in 2016 to play with the NEC Green Rockets in Japan, he signed with the Reds to make a return in 2017. “I’ve been a big fan of ‘Higgers’ for a while, actually tried to recruit him out of school,” said Reds coach Nick Stiles when Higginbotham was recruited in October. “It was good to get him in Brisbane City last year. “He got to see how I operate as a coach and the environment that we’ve created there and he really enjoyed it and Queensland is home to him. “He’s still very passionate about being in the reds, he wants to come back and he wants to play for the Wallabies, so he’s extremely motivated.” Higginbotham said in January that he has a goal of returning to Australia’s Test side in 2017. “Who knows,” Higginbotham said. “You never say you’ve given it up. “(But) like a lot of players – Liam Gill included, probably – you come to the understanding that it’s out of your hands. Advertisement Advertisement “I’ll be playing football to the best of my ability and whatever happens from that happens. It’s not my choice in the end.”Some animals hide food to consume later; however, these caches are susceptible to theft by conspecifics and heterospecifics. Caching animals can use protective strategies to minimize sensory cues available to potential pilferers, such as caching in shaded areas and in quiet substrate. Background matching (where object patterning matches the visual background) is commonly seen in prey animals to reduce conspicuousness, and caching animals may also use this tactic to hide caches, for example, by hiding coloured food in a similar coloured substrate. We tested whether California scrub-jays ( Aphelocoma californica ) camouflage their food in this way by offering them caching substrates that either matched or did not match the colour of food available for caching. We also determined whether this caching behaviour was sensitive to social context by allowing the birds to cache when a conspecific potential pilferer could be both heard and seen (acoustic and visual cues present), or unseen (acoustic cues only). When caching events could be both heard and seen by a potential pilferer, birds cached randomly in matching and non-matching substrates. However, they preferentially hid food in the substrate that matched the food colour when only acoustic cues were present. This is a novel cache protection strategy that also appears to be sensitive to social context. We conclude that studies of cache protection strategies should consider the perceptual capabilities of the cacher and potential pilferers. 1. Introduction Many animals hide food to retrieve and eat later [1]. These food caches are susceptible to theft by other animals, but the cacher can reduce the likelihood of theft by using protective strategies such as reducing caching in the presence of others and covering up caching sites to reduce conspicuousness (reviewed in [2]). Some species of corvids such as jays are prolific cachers that employ a variety of additional cache protection behaviours, including caching in shaded areas, caching in quiet substrates and caching food that an observing conspecific has low motivation to steal [3–6]. Most strategies attempt to reduce the number of sensory cues that potential pilferers can use to locate caches. Birds and other caching animals could attempt to minimize other visual cues available for potential pilferers. Many animals conceal themselves from the attention of predators by bearing patterns with coloration that allows them to blend into the visual background, a type of camouflage called background matching [7]. Effective background matching minimizes the visual contrast between an object and the background it is viewed against. Visual contrast can arise due to differences in chromatic (hue and saturation) and achromatic (brightness) aspects of the object and viewing background. By selecting a caching substrate that is visually similar to the food being hidden, animals may reduce the likelihood of a pilferer detecting partially hidden caches or locating caches when rooting through substrate. Social environment may also affect the value of this strategy, for example, if a potential pilferer directly observes caching then there may be limited use in concealing visual contrast when there is already plenty of information about cache location available. We tested whether California scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) attempted to minimize the visual contrast of their cached food by selecting an appropriate caching substrate. Birds were given a coloured food and a choice of two substrates to cache in: one that was of a similar colour to the food (i.e. lower visual contrast) and one of a dissimilar colour (i.e. higher visual contrast) (figure 1a). We also tested whether social context affected caching behaviour, by allowing birds to cache when a conspecific potential thief could be both heard and seen (seen) and when the conspecific could be heard but not seen (unseen). We predicted that birds would only minimize colour contrast when a potential pilferer could not see the caching event, and that they would cache randomly in either substrate when they could be seen. Figure 1. (a) The substrates (left) and cheeses (right) used in the experiment; (b) tetrahedral plot showing the position of cheese (ch) and substrate (subs) colour in avian colour space. Labels at vertices represent the relative stimulation of U (ultraviolet), S (short), M (medium) and L (long) wavelength photoreceptor channels. The ultraviolet channel is represented by the top of the tetrahedron pointing out towards the viewer but is not shown here due to small variance in the amount of UV present in the cheeses and substrates. 2. Material and methods We tested three female and two male California scrub-jays that were all 9 years old. Birds were housed in indoor cages 4 m long by 1 m high by 1 m deep and on a 12 h L : 12 h D cycle. They were fed a maintenance diet supplemented with seeds, fruit and wax worms. All food was removed from the cages 1 h before testing to ensure that it was not available for caching. Trials took place in the focal bird's home cage, where birds could be separated using transparent or opaque cage dividers. In the ‘seen' condition, transparent dividers were used so that the focal bird could see and hear a conspecific in a neighbouring cage. In the ‘unseen' condition, opaque dividers were used so that the focal bird could hear but not see the conspecific. The focal bird was presented with two caching trays 25 × 6 cm that contained a 2 × 8 array of ice cube moulds. Coloured aquarium gravel in five colours (Pettex Roman gravel: Sonic Blue, Lemon Zest, Barbie Pink, Rosso Red and Ivy Green) was used as a caching substrate. We used food dye (PME: pink, blue, yellow, red and green) to approximately colour match batons of cheese (Tesco Value mild cheddar cut into 15 × 5×5 mm batons that weighed approximately 1 g each) to each substrate. They had prior experience of yellow cheese as an occasional component of their maintenance diet, but they had no experience with the other coloured cheeses. We measured the spectral reflectance of each substrate and cheese to confirm that each cheese was closest in avian colourspace to the putative matching substrate (figure 1b; see the electronic supplementary material for full details of colour analysis). Green cheese was more similar to yellow substrate than green substrate so the data from these trials were analysed separately, but all other cheese and substrate matches were appropriately colour matched. In each trial, the focal bird was presented with two trays that each contained a different colour substrate. A food bowl that contained 30 g of cheese that matched the colour of one of the caching substrates was placed 10 cm in front of the two trays. The order of trials (cheese and substrate colours used) and location of each tray relative to the food bowl (left or right) was randomized. The trays and food were left in the cage for 30 min before being removed. The substrates were then sifted to locate any cached items that were weighed to determine the amount of food cached in each substrate. All birds cached in at least one seen and one unseen trial. Owing to husbandry issues the full number of trials testing every combination of substrates could not take place, but every bird was presented with every colour of cheese in each social condition. The proportional weight each bird cached across all trials in each social condition (seen and unseen) was averaged and Wilcoxon's matched pairs signed-rank tests were used to test for differences in the proportion of cheese cached in each condition. To test whether social status affected the amount of cheese cached in the matching substrate, the data were analysed using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) with a binomial (logit) distribution using the lme4 package in R v. 3.3.0 [8,9]. The response variable was the proportion of cheese cached in the matching substrate and we included social status (seen/unseen) as a predictor and individual bird as a random effect. All data are available from [10]. 3. Results Caching rates were low in the seen condition and only took place in nine of 25 trials (36%) compared with 57 of 85 unseen trials (67%). There was no difference between the average weight of food each bird cached in each condition (mean ± s.e.: seen= 5.34 ± 2.0 g, unseen = 5.20 ± 2.6 g; 66 trials, n = 5, Wilcoxon's T = 8, p > 0.5; electronic supplementary material, table S1). In seen trials, birds did not prefer to cache in one substrate colour over another (pseudomedian = 0.016, 95% CI [−0.49, 0.51], Z = 0.27, p = 0.44, r = 0.09; figure 2). In the unseen trials, birds preferentially cached in the matching substrate (pseudomedian = 0.47, 95% CI [0.23, 0.84], Z = 2.02, p = 0.031; figure 2). Approximately, 30% more food was cached in the matching substrate compared with the non-matching substrate in the unseen condition, a medium to large effect (r = 0.64). Overall, birds also cached a higher proportion of cheese in the matching substrate when they were unseen compared to when they were seen, although the effect size was small (GLMM z = 2.12, p = 0.034; r = 0.07; figure 2). In the three trials (all unseen social condition) where green cheese was offered with green and yellow substrates there did not appear to be a large difference in the proportion of cheese cached in matching or non-matching substrates, perhaps due to the perceptual similarity of these colours (mean matching = 0.66 ± 0.17, non-matching = 0.34 ± 0.17; n = 3). Figure 2. Median, 25th and 75th centile of proportion of food cached in matching (grey) and non-matching (white) substrates in seen and unseen conditions. Dotted grey line represents chance (proportion = 0.5), asterisks indicate significant differences between groups. 4. Discussion Scrub-jays preferentially cached food in substrate that matched the colour of their food when a potential pilferer could not see them caching, but they cached randomly in either substrate when they could be seen. Birds cached proportionally more in the matching substrate when unseen owing to (i) caching much less in the non-matching substrate within trials and (ii) caching slightly more compared with the amount cached in the matching substrate when seen. As there is a much higher likelihood of theft when a caching event is observed, concealing visual contrast may be of limited efficacy in these cases. Instead, the cacher can stop or reduce caching [11], increase caching to offset predicted pilfering [12], move caches [13] or re-cache once the observer has left [14]. We did not observe reduced or increased levels of caching and birds did not appear to move caches around often, perhaps because there was limited space for hiding food. However, the focal bird may have cached in either substrate when observed to allow for the possibility of later re-caching into the matching substrate when the conspecific was no longer present [13]. When given the opportunity to cache without being seen, scrub-jays preferentially cached in the substrate that had lower visual contrast. In the wild, scrub-jays cache colourful fruits and berries as well as less colourful nuts and seeds, so colour matching between food and substrate may offer a valuable cache protection strategy. Reducing contrast is likely beneficial because brightly coloured food items can be detected from large distances and birds attend to chromatic contrast when foraging [15,16]. Birds did not choose which caching substrate to use based on familiarity, as their usual caching substrate was beige. The ability to match food to caching substrate without prior experience or training suggests that this is a naturally occurring behaviour that is relatively plastic. Furthermore, the ability to use colour cues during caching is unlikely to be limited to scrub-jays given that magpies (Pica pica) can rapidly learn to discriminate between red and blue food types of differing nutritional value when retrieving caches [17], and many animals use colour cues (including contrast) during foraging [18,19]. The colours used in this study were easily discriminable to the birds, and future work could use substrates with smaller differences between colours to determine how carefully scrub-jays match their caches to substrate colour. Birds appear to prioritize chromatic cues when foraging, as chromatic contrast is used in object discrimination [20] and camouflaged prey generally minimize chromatic contrast [21]. Varying the chromatic and achromatic contrast of food against substrates would confirm that birds preferentially minimize chromatic contrast over achromatic contrast, as we would expect in this context when potential pilferers were other birds. It would be interesting to give scrub-jays experience of mammalian pilferers to determine whether they adjust their caching behaviour in response to the visual system of the potential pilferer. Mammals have dichromatic vision and are more likely to use achromatic contrast when foraging [22], so minimizing this would reduce conspicuousness. There are fewer studies on cache protection strategies in non-avian species, but we might expect that if caching mammals exhibit similar strategies to birds, they would reduce achromatic contrast if conspecifics were the primary pilferers. Our findings demonstrate that visual perception, alongside cognitive abilities such as social intelligence, is important to consider when investigating the evolution of caching strategies. Ethics Ethical approval was given by the UK Home Office (PPL no. 80/2519) and the University of Cambridge ethics committee. Data accessibility Data can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4690015 [10]. Authors' contributions L.A.K. designed and carried out the study, analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. N.S.C. aided in experimental design, provided aviary facilities and commented on the manuscript. All authors gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work. Competing interests We have no competing interests. Funding L.A.K. received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement PIIF-GA-2012-327423. Acknowledgements We are extremely grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their comments that greatly improved the manuscript, and to Ben Longdon for assistance with analysis. Footnotes Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3817831.Baghdad, Iraq - Summer in Iraq has become a season of terror. Five years after pulling itself out of civil war, the country is again mired in a relentless series of bombings, political assassinations and sectarian attacks that have stalled progress many Iraqis hoped they would achieve. This year the holy month of Ramadan - when many Muslims fast in the day and gather in mosques, cafés and markets in the evening - has been marked by almost daily attacks on a widening range of targets. Almost 600 people have been killed so far in July, most of them civilians. This month's toll follows a grim landmark in May when the UN reported at least 963 civilians had been killed and more than 2,000 injured in the biggest monthly casualty toll since 2008. "The war continues," says Brigadier General Saad Mann, the Interior Ministry spokesman, who blames most of the attacks on al-Qaeda. "Their first aim is to kill as many people as possible, the second is to send a sectarian message, and the third is the continuation of what is happening in the region - what is happening in Syria is definitely affecting Iraq." The Iraqi government has closed its borders with Syria in fear that groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, intent on creating a cross-border Islamic state, will shift the fighting into Iraq. In an increasingly sectarian conflict in Syria - pitting the Iranian-backed government against mostly Sunni Muslim Syrian fighters - neighbouring Iraq is seen as fertile ground for a resurgent civil war. Although the carnage and destruction fall far short of previous years, the coordination and resources required to consistently execute such complex attacks point to groups affiliated with al-Qaeda regenerating. "I can't think of any other group that would be able to carry these out," said one Western official familiar with security threats here, who asked to remain anonymous. Many of the attacks have involved suicide bombers - the hallmark of al-Qaeda. Iraqi security officials say they are seeing more evidence of foreign suicide bombers and fighters from North Africa and other Arab countries believed to be coming across the Syrian border. The Islamic State of Iraq, the al-Qaeda umbrella group, has not claimed responsibility for the attacks during Ramadan, but since its bombing of one of the holiest Shia shrines in Samarra in 2006, it has worked to restart civil war. Prison breaks The group has also pledged to break al-Qaeda prisoners out of Iraqi jails. It seems to have made good on its threat with an attack late Sunday on the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and the Taji prison north of the city. The jails were stormed by suicide bombers and gunmen in fighting that killed more than 50 soldiers, guards and inmates, as well as attackers. It took hours for Iraqi army troops and helicopters to quell the rioting at Abu Ghraib. The head of parliament's security says officials have told them 350 prisoners managed to escape - among them four al-Qaeda emirs. In an indication of the disarray of Iraq's security forces, the top army commander of the Abu Ghraib area publicly resigned shortly before the attack on the prison, saying in a posting on his Facebook page Sunday that he was quitting in protest against "random and unprofessional decisions" by the senior chain of command. Security sources confirmed that General Abdul Nasser al-Ghanam, commander of the 17th Army Division, was no longer in his position, but said it was unclear whether he had resigned or had been fired. Although security forces, particularly outside Baghdad, have borne a large part of the brunt of attacks, recent bombings have increasingly taken advantage of Iraqis gathering at night in crowded markets and cafes after breaking the day's fast during Ramadan. Over the weekend, 11 car bombs detonated in Baghdad on a single evening, killing market vendors, shoppers and families trying to escape the heat and electricity cuts at home. "Targeting ministries and directorates in Baghdad has become more difficult," says General Mann. "That is why they have started to target mosques, Husseiniyahs [Shia places of worship], and local markets." He said unlike al-Qaeda attacks several years ago, which used up to a tonne of sophisticated explosives in a single bombing, the most recent bombs are generally made from easily obtainable materials such as fertilizer enhanced with steel ball bearings to inflict a maximum number of casualties. Although few Iraqis mourn the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq after the two governments failed to agree on a new legal arrangement, their departure has left the country with gaps in crucial intelligence gathering capability and analysis that it is still trying to fill. On the ground, security forces at checkpoints are still equipped with explosive detection devices that have proved to be ineffective; the British businessman behind them has been jailed for fraud. Iraqi officials insist the machines work well enough to keep them in operation. Sectarian violence The attacks are against a backdrop of an ongoing political crisis expected to worsen as the country heads into national elections next year. In addition to ongoing Sunni protests - some demanding their own region - Shia parties have been splintering. One of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's newest allies, the Shia group Asab Ahl-al Haq, officially renounced violence against Iraqis to try to enter the political mainstream in a reconciliation process originally overseen by the US and British militaries several years ago. The group's leadership has remained unapologetic for the killing of US soldiers. Many blame political parties for assassinations and other attacks as a way to make up power lost in the ballot box, and to divert attention from the government's lack of services such as clean water and electricity. "The problem is what's happened in the elections," said Ahmed Rushdi, an Iraqi political analyst referring to provincial polls earlier this year. "Some blocs lost support in the elections and it means they need to raise a new flag - nothing is easier than sectarian violence." Some blocs lost support in the elections and it means they need to raise a new flag - nothing is easier than sectarian violence. -Ahmed Rushdi, Iraqi political analyst Thirty-five kilometres north of Baghdad near Baquba in Diyala province, a series of attacks that started with the bombing of a funeral has raised fears that sectarian discord could again be starting. The country was plunged into civil war with the 2006 al-Qaeda bombing of one of the holiest Shia shrines in the largely Sunni city of Samara. The attack sparked retribution by Shia militias. Without a strong police or army, the country descended into civil war. Al-Qaeda has been trying to restart it ever since. In July, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up at a mourning ceremony for a member of a Shia tribe in the town of Muqdadiya. In retaliation dozens of Sunni families were driven out of their homes and a Sunni mosque was attacked. The violence has since eased but has prompted fears that tribal tension could carry sectarian conflict from Diyala to other provinces. "Diyala is not just a single case - Diyala is now the number one problem for the entire society today, and we are all afraid that what happened in Diyalah will happen in other places," says Safia Suhal, an indendent member of parliament and one of the most prominent members of the Tamim tribe. "What we're seeing today in Diyala is militias and certain political groups benefitting from taking sides, either with the Shia or the Sunnis, rather than working seriously on national reconciliation," she says. "Our security forces should act in bringing the killers in front of the courts and justice should take place and nobody should interfere. But that is not happening."A New York judge ruled on Monday that the U.S. government cannot force Apple to provide it access to a locked iPhone as part of a routine drug case in Brooklyn. ADVERTISEMENT The case has been closely watched as Apple simultaneously seeks to oppose a separate court order demanding that it help the FBI unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein found Monday that none of the factors he considered in the New York case “justifies imposing on Apple the obligation to assist the government's investigation against its will.” The Department of Justice has already said it will ask the judge to review the decision. “This phone may contain evidence that will assist us in an active criminal investigation, and we will continue to use the judicial system in our attempt to obtain it,” the Justice Department said in a statement. In both cases, the government has attempted to use an 18th-century law known as the All Writs Act to force Apple to write a piece of software that would disable a key security feature on the phone. The 1789 law allows federal judges to compel others to help the government perform its duties so long as requests are not "unduly burdensome.” While the FBI has insisted in the San Bernardino case that its request is limited to only a single phone, the existence of similar cases across the country — such as the New York one — have weakened that argument. Critics have warned that a decision in favor of the FBI would set a precedent that would allow the FBI to force Apple to unlock any phone it chooses. “I don’t see a limiting principle — if that argument is accepted by the court in this case, won’t it lead district attorneys and other prosecutors around the country to essentially make the same argument in their cases?” Rep. Adam Schiff Adam Bennett SchiffHouse Democrats file legislation to ensure Mueller report released Hannity echoes Bill Maher, invites Schiff to appear on show Curtain rises on 3 days of Cohen drama MORE (D-Calif.) pressed FBI Director Comey during a House Intelligence Committee hearing last week. Orenstein addressed those concerns in his denial. “Nothing in the government's arguments suggests any principled limit on how far a court may go in requiring a person or company to violate the most deeply-rooted values to provide assistance to the government the court deems necessary,” he wrote. Orenstein also obliquely addressed arguments from some critics that the FBI has tried to use the courts to force a policy on encryption that it has been unable to persuade Congress to adopt. Last year, FBI Director James Comey made repeated calls for legislation outlawing unbreakable encryption that were ultimately rebuffed by both lawmakers and the White House — and Comey has publicly admitted it wasn’t a feasible stance. But now some onlookers, including lawmakers, cite that history as evidence the FBI is using court orders to try to force de facto policy changes that it was unable to persuade Congress to legislate. Under the All Writs Act, Orenstein writes, the government has the authority to issue orders that are “agreeable to the usages and principles of law.” But, he writes, “the relief the government seeks is unavailable because Congress has considered legislation that would achieve the same result but has not adopted it.” --This post was updated on Tuesday at 11.32 a.m.These days, those of us who have to work for a living (sigh) get our recompense in the form of cash, but it wasn't always this way. As this approximately 5,000-year-old clay tablet shows, workers in ancient Mesopotamia were actually paid for their toil in daily beer rations – a form of remuneration which seems pretty awesome when you first think about it… and then just keeps on staying awesome the longer you think about it. Dating back to sometime around 3300 BC, the tablet is one of the earliest known examples of human writing, and was uncovered in what was the city of Uruk, in what we now call Iraq. As Alison George at New Scientist explains, the tablet displays a human head eating from a bowl – meaning "ration" – and a conical vessel – meaning "beer". Scratchings across the surface of the tablet denote the amount of beer rations paid to a particular worker, which effectively makes this "the world's oldest known payslip, implying that the concept of worker and employer was familiar 5 millennia ago." The system of writing seen on the tablet is called cuneiform, and it enabled Mesopotamian administrators to keep accounts on who had been paid and what had been traded, as the BBC explains. "What's amazing for me is that this is a society where the economy is in its first stages, there is no currency, no money," Gus O'Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service, told the BBC in 2010. "So how do they get around that? Well, the symbols tell us that they have used beer – beer glorious beer, I think that is absolutely tremendous; there is no liquidity crisis here, they are coming up with a different way of getting around the problem of the absence of a currency and at the same time sorting out how to have a functioning state." Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum in charge of these kinds of cuneiform writings, says the Museum is in possession of about 130,000 of these clay-based communications, of which the beer payslip is just one. "From the outset the writing was done on clay, a most fortunate decision because tablets survive in the ground for millennia even when unbaked," he told the BBC in 2010. "A cascading waterfall of inscriptions has gradually become available, accounting for more than 3,000 years of history. Only a handful was originally intended to survive long-term; the remainder are more or less ephemeral documents that cover many aspects of life in Mesopotamia, state and private – from beer rations to heroic literature with every kind of document in between." But while the ancient clay tablet may represent the oldest known evidence of beer-for-labour, it's not the only time in history humans have stuck upon the arrangement. The custom is also in evidence in Ancient Egypt – where pyramid workers were paid 4 to 5 litres per day – and in the Middle Ages, as Annalee Newitz reports for Ars Technica. Now, if you don't mind, all this talk of beer and hard work has made me just a little bit thirsty.Pardew, the new Palace manager, has made an inquiry for the Spanish defender and is keen to offer him regular football at Selhurst Park. Enrique, 28, has had limited first-team opportunities for the last two seasons under Brendan Rodgers and Palace have identified a left-back as a priority position in the January transfer window. Pardew will also consider Swansea City ’s Neil Taylor as an alternative target but has asked Liverpool if they would be prepared to loan Enrique out for the rest of the season. Enrique, a £5million signing from Newcastle in 2011, has not started a Premier League game under Rodgers since the 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers in October. However, Liverpool are facing a congested fixture list over the next two months as they prepare for a fourth round FA Cup tie, the two-legged Capital One Cup semi-final against Chelsea and their Europa League encounter with Besiktas. The demanding run of games could ensure a chance for Enrique, who has lost his place to Mamadou Sakho, but Pardew will monitor the situation ahead of a possible move in the final week in the window. Pardew has completed his first piece of business since taking over at Palace by signing Arsenal striker Yaya Sanogo on loan. Sanogo, the France under-21 international, has been allowed out by Arsenal to gain league experience and could make his Palace debut against Burnley this weekend. Pardew said: “He’s a young player with tremendous promise, somebody that I have tracked personally and this club has too so that fitted well. “We have given him an opportunity, he needs to play more games and I think he’s ready for that and he proved that at Arsenal. It’s tough to get in their team but he’s closer to the starting action with us
taller than you'd get from the ground and lower than from a helicopter," explains Steve Bennedik, head of technology for Sky News. "These shots have an impact on the eye because they're new to the viewer, although the impact could lessen as viewers get used to it. The drone shot could become part your tools to go along with the helicopter shot, the ground shot or an iPhone shot." Sky deployed drones to cover the Somerset floods and cut the footage with prsenter Kay Burley's live broadcast: "Normally we'd use footage taken earlier that morning. But this time we were able to offer live pictures while Kay was talking. The next stage would be if the presenter was live with the drone taking off next to the presenter and the presenter talked over the images. I can see that as the next step."Five weeks ago Leila Hussein told The Observer the chilling story of how her husband had killed their 17-year-old daughter over her friendship with a British soldier in Basra. Now Leila, who had been in hiding, has been murdered - gunned down in cold blood. Afif Sarhan in Basra and Caroline Davies report on the final act of a brutal tragedy Leila Hussein lived her last few weeks in terror. Moving constantly from safe house to safe house, she dared to stay no longer than four days at each. It was the price she was forced to pay after denouncing and divorcing her husband - the man she witnessed suffocate, stamp on, then stab their young daughter Rand in a brutal 'honour' killing for which he has shown no remorse. Though she feared reprisals for speaking out, she really believed that she would soon be safe. Arrangements were well under way to smuggle her to the Jordanian capital, Amman. In fact, she was on her way to meet the person who would help her escape when a car drew up alongside her and two other women who were walking her to a taxi. Five bullets were fired: three of them hit Leila, 41. She died in hospital after futile attempts to save her. Her death, on 17 May, is the shocking denouement to a tragedy which had its origins in an innocent friendship between her student daughter, Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, and a blond, 22-year-old British soldier known only as Paul. The two had met while Rand, an English student at Basra University, was working as a volunteer helping displaced families and he was distributing water. Although their friendship appears to have involved just brief, snatched conversations over four months, Rand had confided her romantic feelings for Paul to her best friend, Zeinab, 19. She died, still a virgin, four months after she had last seen him when her father, Abdel-Qader Ali, 46, discovered that she had been seen talking 'to the enemy' in public. She had brought shame on his honour, was his defence, and he had to cleanse his family name. Despite openly admitting the murder, he has received no punishment. It was two weeks after Rand's death on 16 March that a grief-stricken Leila, unable to bear living under the same roof as her husband, found the strength to leave him. She had been beaten and had had her arm broken. It was a courageous move. Few women in Iraq would contemplate such a step. Leila told The Observer in April: 'No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq. But I would prefer to be killed than sleep in the same bed as a man who was able to do what he did to his own daughter.' Her words were to prove prescient. Leila turned to the only place she could, a small organisation in Basra campaigning for the rights of women and against 'honour' killings. Almost immediately she began receiving threats - notes calling her a 'prostitute' and saying she deserved to die like her daughter. Even her sons Hassan, 23, and Haydar, 21, whom she claimed aided their father in their sister's killing, disowned her. Meanwhile, her husband, a former government employee, escaped any charges, and even told The Observer that police had congratulated him on what he had done. It is not known who killed Leila. All that is known is that she was staying at the house of 'Mariam', one of the women's rights campaigners, whose identity The Observer has agreed not to reveal. On the morning of 17 May, they were joined by another volunteer worker and set off to meet 'a contact' who was to help Leila travel to Amman, where she would be taken in by an Iraqi family. 'Leila was anxious, but she was also happy at having the chance to leave Iraq,' said Mariam. 'Since the death of her daughter, her own life was at serious risk. And this was a great opportunity for her to leave the country and to fight for Iraqi women's rights. 'She had not been able to sleep the night before. I stayed up talking to her about her plans after she arrived in Amman. I gave her some clothes to take with her and she was packing the only bag she had. She was too excited to sleep.' Mariam said that when she awoke Leila had already prepared breakfast, cleaned her house and even baked a date cake as a thank-you for the help she had been given. After the arrival of 'Faisal', the volunteer (whose identity is also being protected), the three left the house at 10.30am and started walking to the end of the street to get a taxi. They had walked less than 50 metres when they heard a car drive up fast and then gunshots rang out. The attack, said by witnesses to have been carried out by three men, was over in minutes. Leila was hit by three bullets. Mariam was hit in her left arm and Faisal in her left leg. 'I didn't realise I had been shot for a few seconds, because as I heard the gunfire I saw Leila falling to the ground and saw blood pouring from her head,' said Mariam. 'I was so shocked, I didn't immediately feel the pain.' Two men ran from their homes to help. They rushed Leila to hospital and a passing taxi took the other two. But Leila died at 3.20pm, despite several operations to save her. As she lay in her own hospital bed receiving treatment, Mariam said that she heard someone saying that Leila had been shot in the head. But there were other mutterings that were clearly audible. 'I could hear people talking on the corridors and the only thing that they had to say was that Leila was wrong for defending her daughter's mistakes and that her death was God's punishment. 'In that minute I just had complete hatred in my heart for those who had killed her.' Police said the incident was a sectarian attack and that there was nothing to link Leila's death to her family. 'Her ex-husband was not in Basra when it happened. We found out he was visiting relatives in Nassiriya with his two sons,' said Hassan Alaa, a senior officer at the local police station in Basra. 'We believe the target was the women activists, rather than Mrs Hussein, and that she was unlucky to be in that place at that time.' It is plausible. Campaigners for women's' rights are not acceptable to many sections of Iraqi society, especially in Basra where militias have partial control in some districts and impose strict laws on locals, including what clothing they should wear and what religious practice they should follow. Since February 2006, two other activists from the same women's organisation have been killed in the city. One of them was reportedly raped before being shot. The other, the only man working for the non-governmental organisation (NGO), and a father of five who was responsible for the organisation's finances, was shot five months ago. There could be many with a grudge against such organisations. However, Mariam believes Leila was targeted, pointing out she had been hit by three bullets. 'When we were shot, they focused on Leila, not us,' she said. Since the attack the NGO has stopped its work in Basra. 'We daren't answer the phones because we have received so many threats since we gave our support to Leila's case,' said Mariam. 'Most of our members are preparing to leave the city and even Iraq if they can raise the money.' A single mother since her husband was killed for refusing to join a militia, she too intends to move when she can. Faisal, who also survived her injuries, is still suffering post-surgical infection. She preferred not to speak, but her mother, who wished to remain anonymous, said: 'My daughter is very shocked at what happened, and my two grandsons can't stop crying since they saw her in hospital.' Leila's burial was arranged within hours of her death by the husband of one of her cousins and Mariam's father. The Observer visited Rand's father and two brothers at their Basra home, but they refused to talk beyond Hassan proclaiming his father's innocence. When asked if he would be visiting his mother's grave, he shrugged: 'Maybe in the future.' Leila was an orphan, raised by an uncle who died in the Shia uprising against Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s. Hamida Alaa, 68, a friend of the uncle, said: 'The poor woman was killed and now her name and history is buried with her. No one wants to speak about it. She is just one more woman killed in our country who has already been forgotten by the local society.' In the last days of her life, Leila was suffering from the pressure of having gone against her husband. 'She was sleeping with the help of sedatives,' said Mariam. 'She would wake up at night with terrible nightmares, even dreaming of being suffocated as her daughter was. She had been threatened so many times and that's why she was so scared. Her indignation over Rand's death is what led her to her own coffin. Their history ends here. But Leila was a hero. A woman who was strong enough to say no to Iraqi men's bad attitudes. Sadly most Iraqi women do not have the same strength and they will stay in their homes.' Mariam has moved out of her home. But within hours of speaking to The Observer a close friend went to her new address to deliver a message that had been left for her at her front door. It read: 'Death to betrayers of Islam who don't deserve God's forgiveness. Speaking less you will live more.' She believes it was sent by Leila's killers. 'They want this story to be buried with Leila,' she said. 'But I cannot close my eyes to all this.'Karl is watching me from across the courtyard with that intense gaze of his. I blush and look away, and he smirks at me knowingly. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him whisper into his wife's ear and she comes bounding over and pulls me away from the party, to an isolated balcony. I know what she's doing…but I don't stop her. She's making innuendo about the emperor's long reign and I'm just letting her chatter wash over me while I struggle with myself. Is this…well, right? I mean, I'm not offering him mead in my room, I'm just…being friendly. He's not even here. I'm just being social. I'm helping unite the realm! That's what parties are for. But…I also know why he's doing this. And I haven't tried to stop it. What does that say about me? I…I shouldn't. I can't. I go to tell the empress that I really must be going, but she's gone. I didn't even notice her leave. And then I see the silhouette of Karl approaching slowly. I can't help but notice his firm southern border. He's certainly dressed to accentuate - Oh God, he saw me looking. "E-e-emperor! I-I was just, uh, er…" Suddenly he's right in front of me, all four kingdoms of him, towering over me. I must look like an OPM to him. He smells so good. Like…like 100% Moral Authority. Like Content vassals. I want to…No, I can't even think it. I - "Yes? You were just…?" "Erm! Admiring - er, examining the Umayyad advance. I mean, uhm." The smirk grows. My face is more red than Brittania trying to reform Rome. "Yes, the, ah…Umayyad advance. Of course. Perhaps you'd like to study it in more…intimate detail, milady?" "Ah-haha! Oh my! Uhm. Ha!" "Milady, let me recite poetry to you…" Oh, why did I ever take the theological focus? I know I shouldn't think like this, I shouldn't be imagining what I am, but my 13 in Learning…It's…no, I really shouldn't. "Milady, you are somewhere else. What troubles you?" He brushes a hair out of my face. His hands are softer than I thought they might be. And gentle, for one so martial. "I…well…your wife…she…you…the party…uhm" I'm so confused now, his personal diplomacy is just crazy and he's strong and brave and - but I'm chaste and craven and this is all just so confusing and - "What is it, Chancellor?" What? How did he know I wanted - "Sorry, did I say Chancellor? I meant to say Chancellor… …and Designated Regent." "TAKE MY FEALTY I SWEAR FEALTY" We sneak off into the night. "My, what a big, strong claim you have there, my liege. Mind if I push it for you?" "I need you. Please, give it to me." "I want you to say my title." "Please just - " "Say it." "Emperor…Emperor Karl…" "Louder." "Ch-ch-CHARLEMAGNE! Please please please just take my fealty already" "Louder!" "CHARLEMAGNE REX! M-MONTJOIE SAINT DENIS!" "Take it you saucy wench take my vassalization" "Oh god yes yes" "Mmmm yeah that's it I want you to be my High Almoner" "Ohh yeahh I'm losing Chaste" "give me those strong genes ohhhh fuck triple-chin" "Mmmmmm +10% to discover plots oh god" "Oh, yes, yes, take my couched lance charge gggGGGGHHHHHNNnnnhhrrRRAAAHHH" "Yes revoke everything you proud strong tyrant aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHHHhhhhhhAhhhh" % % % Fin % % % NEXT TIME ON THE KARLINGS % "Ohhh that was good…" "Oh Emperor, I was wondering…you are such a big strong blob you completely overpowered me. But I wonder…what if I called my ally to arms? I don't think it would be over so quickly…" "Nonsense. I am Charlemagne. Call your ally to arms." % "I heard you slept with a certain someone in court, Chancellor. Is that how you got your position?" "What? Huscarl? Never heard of him. Nope." "I…didn't say Karl…" % "But Karl! You can't go to war!" "I can and I will. The Saracens will not abide, and neither can I. Deus Vult." "But I'm…Karl…I'm pregnant." "Francia, my dear, I don't give a damn." % "A hashashin! But who..who would gain from this…Karloman! I…I thought you were dead…" "Umayyad, bro?"In less than two weeks, voters head to the polls in midterm elections that seem certain to yield strong Republican gains, if not outright control of the U.S. Senate. Such a political sea change is big news, but a new Media Research Center study finds that, in contrast to their enthusiastic coverage of the 2006 midterms when Democrats made big gains, the Big Three broadcast evening newscasts are all but ignoring this year’s political contests. MRC analysts studied every election story on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from September 1 through October 20 in both 2006 (the midterm election in George W. Bush’s second term) and 2014 (the equivalent election under President Barack Obama). Even in a changing media landscape, Big Three evening newscasts are a principal news source for more than 23 million viewers, beating all of their broadcast and cable competition. Our analysts found that, when Democrats were feeling good about their election prospects eight years ago, the CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and ABC’s World News aired a combined 159 campaign stories (91 full reports and another 68 stories that mentioned the campaign). But during the same time period this year, those same newscasts have offered a paltry 25 stories (16 full reports and 9 mentions), a six-to-one disparity. Amazingly, since September 1 ABC’s newly-renamed World News Tonight has yet to feature a single mention of this year’s campaign, let alone a full story. In contrast, eight years ago ABC’s World News aired 36 stories that discussed that year’s midterm campaign, including a weekly Thursday night feature that then-anchor Charlie Gibson promised would look at the “critical races.” [UPDATE: ABC's World News Tonight finally mentioned the midterm campaign on October 27, 137 days since their last mention on June 11. Through October 27, the three evening newscasts this year ran a total of 35 stories discussing the midterms; the comparable number for 2006 is 209. Details here.] Back then, the elections were a major news topic; this year, a regular viewer of ABC’s evening newscast would have no indication that any were even taking place. CBS and NBC have scarcely been more comprehensive. In 2006, CBS aired a total of 58 evening news stories that discussed the campaign, while NBC Nightly News aired 65 stories. This year, those numbers have fallen to just 14 and 11 as of October 20, declines of 76% and 83%, respectively. In 2006, with Democrats poised to make big gains, the broadcasts eagerly touted their midterm coverage. On the September 20, 2006 NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams hyped how his broadcast was beginning “a special series that will take a close look at some of the most interesting races in these upcoming midterm elections.” This election season, Nightly News did not air its first full report on the election until Sunday, October 12. Except for a single full story on October 14 about the Kentucky Senate race (how the Democratic candidate refused to say if she had voted for President Obama), NBC Nightly News has thus far this fall provided no in-depth coverage of any specific races or candidates — merely short mentions of individual contests. The network blackout of this year’s campaign began long before the Ebola outbreak dominated newscasts after the September 30 diagnosis of Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas. The evening newscasts included just 12 stories about the campaign in September, vs. 13 such stories during the first 20 days of October. And it’s not as if the Ebola story precluded substantial political coverage — in 2006, the networks also found time to cover major stories, including the war in Iraq and North Korea’s first atomic test, without bypassing politics. Eight years ago, there was no escaping the negative news for Republicans. Not only were polls projecting a major swing to the Democrats, but a scandal involving Florida Representative Mark Foley received major attention from all three network evening newscasts. Of the 159 network evening news stories that fall, nearly two-thirds (103, or 65%) conveyed either mainly bad news about Republican candidates, or mainly good news about the Democrats, vs. just seven (4%) conveying the opposite message. (The remainder were either neutral or mixed.) “With scandals, the war, and the President with low approval ratings, this is a very difficult environment for Republicans to run,” CBS’s Gloria Borger opined on the October 17 Evening News. The next night, October 18, NBC Nightly News led their broadcast with poll results that Tim Russert said were making Republicans “very, very nervous,” including a big lead for Democrats in the generic congressional ballot (52% vs. 37% for the GOP). This week, NBC conducted a similar pre-election poll that found a five-point edge (49% to 44%) for Republicans in the generic ballot, comparable to the six-point edge they had going into the 1994 elections in which they seized control of both the House and Senate. But so far, the NBC Nightly News said nothing about this poll or the bad news it contained for Democrats. This fall, estimates from the New York Times and Washington Post (as of October 21) place the odds of a Republican takeover of the Senate at between 66% and 93%, and Democrats have been encumbered by a myriad of Obama administration failures including the botched ObamaCare rollout, the Bowe Berghdahl prisoner exchange, the long delay in confronting ISIS, the Secret Service scandal and the fumbling of the Ebola response. But Democrats have not faced the unrelentingly negative coverage that Republicans confronted eight years ago. From September 1 through October 20, our analysts found ten evening news stories (40%) contained mainly bad news for Democrats or mostly good news for Republicans, while seven (28%) emphasized bad news for Republicans or good news for Democrats. Back on October 5, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza wrote about the “striking” similarities between the two midterm elections: “Like Bush, this is the second midterm election of Obama’s presidency. Like Bush, Obama is not at all popular nationally....Like Republicans in 2006, the fate of Democratic control rests in the hands of a handful of incumbents...who sit in states that, at best, swing between the two parties and, at worst, are firmly Republican at the presidential level.” It wasn’t biased for the networks to sift through polls and predict bad news for Republicans eight years ago. But now that the party labels are reversed, those same networks are showing their bias by giving so much less airtime to the bad political news for Democrats this year.They say that dogs are descendants of wolves – but you would never know that there was any relationship between pups and wolves based on how people treat the two so differently. As a dog, I enjoy all the luxuries of a warm home, tons of treats, snuggles from nearly everyone I meet, and many more awesome things. But, it seems like my wolf cousins aren’t even shown ONE of these kind gestures. Rather, they’re being systematically hunted into extinction. That’s right … EXTINCTION. I just heard the news that there are over 11,571 people in Norway who are registering to hunt 16 wolves. Meaning there could potentially be over 732 people looking to kill one single wolf. In total, there are only about 30 wild wolves left in the country and although they have a designated habitat, it’s not unusual for them to wander out of the protection zone (after all, they’re not exactly told where they can and can’t go). Talk about the odds being forever out of your favor… Advertisement Now, you might be wondering why Norway would even think of allowing this to happen … and sadly, according to a report in The Guardian, “decisions to hand out hunting licenses are made to protect livestock.” That’s right, those 16 wolves are really posing a “dangerous” threat to the thousands of livestock that occupy land in the country. I imagine that to do any real damage, those must be Terminator wolves – but hey, what do I know, I’m just a dog… Wolves are apex predators that play a HUGE role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem. When they hunted wolves into oblivion in Yellowstone National Park, small animal populations grew out of control and overgrazed local shrubbery which eventually lead to soil erosion and other serious problems. It’s called a domino effect for a reason, it all ends with everything collapsing! While livestock might be more “valuable” in the short-term, in the long run, wolves hold the ecosystem together. Advertisement Advertisement So Norway, you can devalue the remaining wolf population, but just think of the actual cost that can result from doing that. If you ask me … not too smart. Green Monsters, if you think this is as ridiculous as I do, share this post! Wolves all over the world desperately need our help. The more people who know about how much we NEED wolves, the more likely that this nonsense will end! Advertisement Lead image source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services/FlickrBernie Sanders: "Are they going to welcome into the Democratic Party the working class in this country and young people, or is it going to be party of the upper middle class and the cocktail crowd and the heavy campaign contributors? Which to a significant degree it is right now." [Obama] called DNC members himself [on behalf of Tom Perez], and had aides including confidante Valerie Jarrett, former political director David Simas and his White House director of political engagement Paulette Aniskoff working members by phone through the votes on Saturday afternoon. Four points: Whatever his other merits, there's no question that Tom Perez is running at the behest of the Obama wing of the party as a counter to Keith Ellison, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. There's also no question, whatever the organizational merits of any of the DNC Chair candidates, that for medium- to low-information voters this is seen as a proxy battle between the Obama-Clinton wing and the Sanders wing of the Party (search here for the phrase "proxy battle"). And there's absolutely no question that one of Sanders' big issues in the primary was (a) the role of money in politics, and (b) the role of money in the way the Party does business. Needless to say, that message resonated with a great many supporters who had no interest in seeing the Party's current leadership continue. That was not only true for all Sanders voters in the primary; it was true for many Sanders supporters who failed to turn out in general election as well. Which means, finally, that if Perez wins this contest, those medium- to low-information voters may well think the Party hasn't changed much after all, and just stay home again in 2018. After all, don't you think that if every Sanders supporter had pulled the lever for Clinton, she'd have won in a landslide instead of lost in a squeaker? Two stark facts have defined the 2016 Democratic primary since the campaign began last spring. The first is the remarkable success of self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders, who appears to be mobilizing far more support from lower-income voters than any other Democratic underdog in a generation. The second fact, evident since the beginning of the campaign but even more visible in recent weeks, is the fierce determination of the Democratic Party elite to nominate Hillary Clinton. With both Sanders and Donald Trump surging in the polls, many observers have framed the 2016 race as one that pits insurgent populist campaigns against consolidated party establishments. It’s easy for this kind of insider versus outsider analysis to become sloppy and conspiratorial. In fact, the contours of “the establishment” are often difficult to define, and a closer examination frequently reveals several different elite factions facing off against each other. Yet there is abundant evidence that the Democratic Party elite has thrown its full weight behind Clinton — and against Sanders — in ways that surpass any other primary campaign in recent history. pic.twitter.com/O8Kq2X6flK Top Clinton fundraiser who whipped votes for Perez says Ellison was blocked to stop the left https://t.co/juxHQxjeoY February 27, 2017 I keep saying to any reporters who plan on writing about Bernie vs Hillary/Obama Wing proxy fight that this was actually a proxy battle between Unity democrats vs. HRC & OFA elitists. Keith had so many establishment Dems and progressives. Unions and even most state party chairs. Perez still won because he had elitists Dems -- the biggest bundlers and political operatives, as well as the president and VP, working on his behalf. Remember, Perez had barely any union endorsements, a couple state Party Chair endorsements, did not have the minority leader of the senate and absolutely NO Sanders supporter endorsements. And he still won by 35 votes. Konst: Aren't conflicts of interest a concern? If you're going to change the culture on the ground, how do you change it without banning these conflicts of interest who want to keep the party bloated? Perez: When you say that someone wants to keep the party bloated, I don't know. The people that I talk to want to build a Democratic Party that works for everyone.... The folks that are running the Unity Commission, there's going to be a lot of different perspectives that are put to bear — that's what we want! Konst (incredulous): Including consultants? Perez: We have a big tent in the Democratic Party.... They Must Be Trying to Fail At this point, one has to conclude that the national Democratic Party has a death wish.... [I]t was incredibly important that the Democratic Party take some steps to indicate that it cared about progressives. Since the election, it hadn’t been doing a very good job of this. (Nancy Pelosi’s insistence that nothing needed to change, and her rebuke to a young leftist, demonstrated the prevailing attitude.) Appointing Keith Ellison to chair the DNC was the perfect opportunity. After all, chairing the DNC is a pretty minor role. It would mostly have been a gesture of friendship and unity, showing that even after the catastrophic mistake of ignoring leftist warnings not to run Clinton, the party was capable of valuing its leftmost members. But no. Instead of granting the tiniest possible concession, the party has decided to affirm precisely what Nancy Pelosi has indicated: democratic socialists and social democrats don’t belong in the party. It’s not for them. What the party does depends on what billionaire donors want it to do. This is politically suicidal. I recently wrote about the recent race for DNC Chair between Sanders-endorsed and CPC co-chair Keith Ellison on the one hand, and Obama- and Clinton-wing-endorsed Tom Perez on the other (see " Field Notes from the Battle Within the Democratic Party "), and concluded the following.Whatever the merits of the two leading candidates, Perez and Ellison, with respect to this position, it could not be more obvious that the Party establishment, including and especially its outgoing, still-popular, eight-year president, reallywanted Perez to win.Why?For whatever combination of reasons, the need of many long-time Party insiders, from the county level up through the national level, for control of the Party is extremely great. This may be in part due to the nature of humans to protect territory, especially long-held territory. The local clique that has always run Cub Pack 257 our of your local church, for example, may resent like hell the influx of a group of new parents who start thinking, "Why are you running things this way?"(And imagine their irritation if those parents discovered that much of their Cub Pack money went into the hands of a "preferred supplier" of equipment who happened to be married to the Assistant Pack Leader?)Of course, organizations don't always end up filled with insiders holding tight to power for its own sake. My local HOA, for example, went in two years from having a self-protective, angry, clique-led insider club to a welcoming, "let's hear from the owners" inclusive leadership group — but only after a series of electoral coups took out the lower-level insiders and finally, the board chair himself (who suddenly discovered a need to move to a penthouse in a different city).But it happens often enough, and it's certainly — and for those with eyes, obviously — happening inside the modern (post-Reagan) Democratic Party. There may be any number of causes, but the result is the same.However it came about — I have a private opinion on the source of this need for dominance — starting with Bill Clinton in the 1990s, when the Democratic Party reshaped itself in response to 12 years of Republican rule, hatred by establishment Democrats directed at those to their left grew fierce. It also became quite noticeable.For example, Matthew Karp recently wrote atI won't comment here about the reasons for this animus, but I will state it as a fact. "Third way," establishment Democrats, by and large, hate "the left." Jesse Jackson and his supporters used to be the incarnation of those "to the left," which explains and accounts perfectly for Bill Clinton's cruel and public Sister Souljah moment Today, Sanders and his supporters are the current incarnation. Establishment Democrats' need to keep control of the Party — to keep the rest of the Party in line and under their thumb — is still clearly one of their guiding principles.Once a leadership elite seeks that degree of control — as linked just above, Chuck Schumer reportedly preferred to see Republican Pat Toomey re-elected to the Senate than let someone as independent as Democrat Joe Sestak into the insider club he's in charge of — the appearance of control is also critical. (It should be noted that Schumer was an early supporter of Ellison's candidacy.)Much of the press commentary about this race, in attempting minimize the split between the Sanders wing and the Obama-Clinton wing, saw either of the choices, Perez and Ellison, as good ones for the Party. For example, concluded prior to the voting, "Ellison would likely serve the party well, and his Muslim faith would serve as clear symbolic counterpoint to the policies of the Trump administration. However, the party should resist the factionalizing between Sanders and Clinton supporters and focus on the candidate who can build the infrastructure, organization, messaging and fundraising networks to make the party more competitive across the 50 states." Nathan Robinson writes much the same in the piece linked near the end. Neither is alone in this view.So if these two candidates were presented as roughly equivalent (note the word "presented"), why did winning DNC Chair matter so much that Barack Obama, personally, whipped for Perez? Two of the three answers are obvious — not only didof the DNC matter to him and his fellow insiders, but thematters as well.Put crudely, a machine boss can't be seen to lose, even when next to nothing is actually lost. To those for whom power matters very very much, they can't evento be losing it.Which bring us to the final point, the third reason Obama-insiders wanted Perez to beat Ellison for this position. It's not just about control. There are real dollars at stake if power within the DNC, the smaller than 500-member insiders club, passes into the "wrong hands."Remember my Cub Scout example above, the one about the "preferred supplier" of equipment being the spouse of a pack leader? What if that "preferred supplier" derived all of his income from dealings with the scouts? How motivated would his pack leader-spouse be to keep complaining parents, all of them, off of her pack committee? The answer is obvious. Very motivated.Nomiki Konst, investigative reporter for TYT Network, who covered the DNC Chair contest closely (see also here ), had this to say via email after the election (my emphasis):"The biggest bundlers and political operatives" means, first, the bag men and women ("bundlers," collectors of the millions that come into Party hands) and, second, those to whom that money goes ("operatives," consultants, pollsters, campaign advisors and very well paid media buyers). "Bundlers and operatives" are, in other words, the suppliers and recipients of what, in a presidential election year, amounts to billions of dollars spent per candidate, and all the political favors big money purchases for its ultimate sources Konst highlighted that problem in a striking interview with Perez just a few days before the election (written up here ):Keeping the party "bloated" means keeping corporate money, hedge fund money and cash from very high wealth individuals (example, Haim Saban ) flowing freelyParty hands so it can just as freely passto the hands of its friends — who in turn help Party insiders stay in power.Few will write the story this way — Konst is one of the exceptions — but following the "flow of funds" explains much of what's behind the fierce determination of Democratic insiders (that is, the 447 women and men who actually vote for DNC Chair) to keep things just as Nancy Pelosi wants — the way they are right now, thank you very much.The miracle is that Ellison got even 200 votes at all, and lost by only 35. Still, despite the support of "unions and most state party chairs," he lost by a significant margin. Ellison gained zero votes from the crowded first round of voting to the two-person second round, while Perez sprinted to a win.What's next for Democrats deserves an essay by itself. But needless to say, an increase in #DemExit is one of the anticipated options, even by several of the delegates Konst interview on the floor at the DNC meeting.A worst-case scenario is painted below. First, consider this from NBC News on whether the public views insiders of either party favorably, (my emphasis): "One sentiment that unites the fractured nation is fury at the establishment in Washington. Fully 86 percent of those surveyed said they believe that a. That includes 88 percent of Republicans and."Then consider how that broad unpopularity of insiders may intersect with this DNC election. Of that, Nathan Robinson, editor at, writes, "By failing to appoint Keith Ellison to chair the DNC, Democrats have written their suicide note."Here's just a taste of the longer piece:As if that wasn't enough, Robinson adds, "Now, progressives in the party are further alienated. Good luck getting them to vote for Democrats.... The progressives needed to receive some kind of gesture. And they have received one: an enormous middle finger." Indeed.Consider these facts:It clearly mattered very much, to Obama, to high Party insiders, and to the support ecosystem around them, that. (Sanders himself is in charge of "outreach" and reports in that capacity to Chuck Schumer.) Even when the role is highly visible but "minor." The DNC Chair does have a modicum of control, unlike those who hold "messaging" roles, but even that much control won't be allowed.Yet all you hear from Democrats, correctly in my view, is "Defeating Trump is Job One." The nation, indeed the world, is at a crossroads — on the climate front, a crossroads of world-historical proportions.Yet there's an obvious disconnect between the Party's rhetoric and its actions. Is control of the Party more important than bringing in the groundswell of popular support needed to defeat the Republicans in all branches of government?And people do notice that disconnect, more now than before. Some might even call it, not a disconnect, but a contradiction. Or hypocrisy. Some, those who
native quinoa variety. Healthy, Delicious and Good for the Planet Pachakuti Foods is launching the first quinoa milk made with carefully selected native quinoa varieties that have a naturally milky flavor and texture. Made from some of the yummiest quinoa in Peru, our quinoa milk is richer and creamier than quinoa milk made from conventional quinoa that is currently on the market. It is 100% vegan, gluten-free, and contains high quality proteins with all the essential amino acids that the body needs. Plus, native quinoa is more sustainable. It thrives over 13,000 feet above sea level with only 100 - 200 mm of rainwater- no need to pump away the world’s scarce water resources. Native quinoa’s ability to adapt to local climates and soils in the Andes means that it doesn’t require conventional fertilizers. With over 3,000 varieties of quinoa adapted to countless local environments and extreme climate conditions, native quinoa can help present and future generations adapt to climate change. Unfortunately, because of quinoa globalization farmers are planting just a few commercial varieties while native quinoa disappears. Since native varieties have little to no commercial value, more and more farmers choose to plant genetically uniform export quinoa in order to provide an income for their families. Our quinoa milk will create a market for rare native quinoa so that farmers are incentivized to keep planting it. This has the potential to protect the world’s genetic resources while creating a great nondairy milk option that health and socially conscious consumers will love. Communal quinoa farms known as Aynokas on the shores of Lake Titicaca Our Goal We want to launch native quinoa milk in the U.S. without a drop of preservatives while keeping all those amazing proteins as fresh as can be- but first we need lab tests, a great packaging design, and nutrition studies. Once we have FDA certification for our recipe formula and labels, we can pitch this product to clients and investors, opening markets for a tasty new nondairy milk that is healthy and sustainable. A conservationist farmer explains colorful native quinoa varieties. Quinoa milk samples in 4 different flavors (from left to right): Chocolate, honey, maca/carob, plain Fair Trade for Struggling Andean Farmers Last year the farmer price of organic quinoa in Peru crashed, falling from a high of $1.80 to about $0.40 - $0.45 per pound. As the quinoa supply increases, middlemen are taking advantage of the market by pushing prices as low as possible. Meanwhile, farmers are often forced to find other meager sources of income to support their families, such as backbreaking labor in illegal gold mines. We believe that farmers deserve better. Cutting intermediaries can increase the income that farmers receive for their quinoa. We work closely with farmers to negotiate a fair price and purchase the quinoa directly. This way, consumers can know exactly where their money is going, and impoverished farming families can earn more income for a better future. Our Model To tap into the huge potential of native quinoa, we select quinoa based on great flavor quality for making value added products, rather than buying quinoa based on uniform appearance the way quinoa wholesalers do. The quinoa that reaches the United States is selected to look good on a supermarket shelf, with the largest possible grain size and little to no color variation. However, this doesn't mean that commercial quinoa is healthier or tastier. In fact, commercial quinoa is often grown on overexploited soils using farming practices that are unsustainable. Our quinoa milk is different because consumers will only see (and taste!) the final product, which means the quinoa’s original appearance doesn’t matter. We test rare local quinoa varieties to make sure we are buying grains that are all natural and have great flavor quality, but they can come in many different shapes, sizes and colors. Native quinoa is sustainable because it grows in harmony with the local environment following an agricultural cycle that has been tested over countless generations. By making value added products, we maximize the native quinoa’s value, allowing us to pay a fair price to farmers while building a successful business. If this model is successful for quinoa milk, there are endless possibilities for making other products using the huge biodiversity that exists in Peru. (Think quinoa pasta, kañiwa energy bars, tarwi milk etc.) Our goal is to use this model to protect dozens or hundreds of native crop varieties in the future. A local farmer cooperative leader in her quinoa fields Launch Plan We have great quinoa milk recipes and a license to sell quinoa milk in Peru. To launch in the US, we need to develop a product using cutting edge cold pressure technology that keeps natural foods fresh and obtain all the necessary documentation to manufacture and pack the product safely. With all that, plus great branding and marketing materials, we will be ready to make samples and promote this product to potential clients and investors. All we need is your support! Your donations will go towards Product development package from a beverage lab, including commercial recipe formula for producing this product on a large scale Nutrition study and creation of a nutrition panel FDA/USDA certifications Other food certifications (Organic, gluten-free, non-GMO) Create a barcode Branding and packaging design Make first samples to send to potential clients Lab testing for food safety purposes. (Challenge testing) Misa quinoa naturally grows in two colors and represents sacred duality in Andean rituals Timeline April - June Product development Obtain certifications Create packaging design June - August Promote product to potential investors and supporters Outreach to organic food stores in the United States August - September Place quinoa orders with farmers for the 2017 harvest. Meet the Team Keywords: quinoa milk, Peru, vegan, non-dairy milk, dairy-free, gluten-free, alternative milk product, sustainable, plant based nutrition, sustainable agriculture, organic, fair trade, permaculture, food, grains, superfood, Andes, health food, biodiversity, agrobiodiversity, social enterprise, environmental services, water conservation, climate change solutions.Submit your review kicelui Member VERIFIED OWNER Joined Dec 2013 Posts 68 Reviews 74 Kudos 11 Overall › Quality › Value First out of the box review PROS Nice Finished pretty plain real wood box. Perfect size. Charges from micro USB. Wattage is set by +1/-1 Watt (no decimals, perfect for me). Fires immediately after wake up. + and - buttons and gravity CONS Not spring loaded 510 pin. Screws on battery cover on a high power device powered by a single battery. Works only with buttonless battery. Ugly "Luxyoun" logo on the screen window. Wattage is set by + First impressions. Very well made pretty little box mod that fire hard. Only the logo is a bit ugly. It works!!! At high wattage (i.e. over 40W), the single battery drain fast and that's a pain to f... ( read full review mrbustrbrown Member VERIFIED OWNER Joined Oct 2014 Posts 21 Reviews 5 Kudos 7 Overall › Quality › Value i got the pretty one...lol PROS pretty wood box real wood fits in hand charges usb CONS not spring loaded pin 1 battery the advertising(luxyoun) on the screen window screws on battery cover,magnet would be better well....it works,looks good and is real wood..i like the overall look,and it fires 150 watts but I rarely go over 30,i got this more for the look,and am happy at this point for the price..wont fire be... ( read full review Woodhead Member VERIFIED OWNER Joined Oct 2014 Posts 0 Reviews 1 Kudos 0 Overall › Quality › Value woody PROS Size Display Charges from micro USB CONS Battery drains fast Screen cover fell off Overall is an okay MOD needs improving but the box is made and looks great in all honesty its more eye candy than practical Soupy30 Member VERIFIED OWNER Joined Oct 2013 Posts 8 Reviews 8 Kudos 3 Overall › Quality › Value A great mod PROS - Beautiful, 100% wood. - Charges with the USB plug. - Step down + booster. - Wattage is set by +1/-1 Watt (no decimals, perfect for me). - Fires immediately after wake up. - I love the buttons, perfe CONS - Screws on the battery door (but it should be easy to replace with magnets) - Wattage is set by +1/-1 Watt (no decimals, some people will hate that) - Chip buzz when it is stepped down below the volt After 24 hours of use, it's my favorite mod. Really looks great (if you love the wood). I have ordered another one today. ;-) I'm impressed with the battery life, way better than on my other mods (ZN... ( read full reviewGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel walks behind Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as leaders arrive for a family photo during the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit just outside Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, July 16, 2016. Damir Sagolj, Reuters ULAN BATOR, Mongolia - Tokyo raised pressure on Beijing at an Asia-Europe summit Saturday to respect an international tribunal's ruling that dismissed its claims to much of the South China Sea. At a retreat outside the Mongolian capital, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the assembled leaders that the rule of law was "a universal principle that the international community must firmly maintain," according to Japan's Jiji Press. "I strongly hope the parties to the dispute comply with the award and lead to a peaceful solution of the dispute in South China Sea," he said. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague on Tuesday ruled that there was no legal basis for Beijing's claims to much of the South China Sea, which are embodied in a "nine-dash line" that dates from 1940s maps and stretches close to other countries' coasts. The case was brought by the Philippines but the ruling has proved a boon to Tokyo, which is embroiled in a separate territorial dispute of its own with Beijing and vies with it for influence across Asia. China boycotted the PCA hearings, saying the court had no jurisdiction, and has reacted furiously, vowing to ignore the ruling and arguing that it misinterprets international law. It also said the subject should not be brought up at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in the Mongolian capital. But despite Chinese objections, the EU also weighed in on the subject, with President Donald Tusk telling reporters that the grouping "will continue to speak out in support of upholding international law", adding that it had "full confidence" in the PCA and its decisions. "It's not so easy to agree with our Chinese partners when it comes to this issue" he said. "Our talks were difficult, tough, but also promising." HYPING UP The comments by Abe and Tusk on Saturday followed a blitz of meetings between the Japanese leader and officials from around the region, including his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, on the summit sidelines as he sought to build consensus on the issue. Both countries have competing claims with Beijing in the strategically vital South China Sea, where tensions have mounted over the Asian giant's construction of artificial islands capable of supporting military operations and its claims on the region's marine resources. The new government in Manila has promised not to "taunt or flaunt" the verdict in the case, which was brought by the previous administration of Benigno Aquino, and its public comments were less forceful than Abe's. According to a Philippine foreign ministry statement, Yasay told him the decision provided "a legal basis to move forward", and Manila was studying it "very carefully". In Abe's meeting with Phuc, the two leaders agreed that the tribunal's ruling should be observed, and Abe offered to increase cooperation on building Vietnam's maritime law enforcement capabilities, Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Yasuhisa Kawamura told AFP. The Japanese prime minister also brought his argument directly to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during a heated 30-minute meeting Friday. Kawamura described the exchange as "frank and candid" and Chinese state media accounts described the Chinese leader telling Abe that Japan should "stop hyping up and interfering" in the dispute. Beijing had hoped to use the ASEM summit -- official theme "Partnership for the Future through Connectivity" -- as an opportunity to showcase its global initiatives, such as the One Belt, One Road program, an ambitious plan to build infrastructure projects across the Eurasian region. China has sought to assert its claims in the South China Sea by building a network of artificial islands capable of supporting military operations, and this week reiterated its right to declare an Air Defense Identification Zone in the area, which would demand civilian flights submit to the authority of its military. While the summit's final communique made no specific mention of the South China Sea, it said that leaders "reaffirmed their commitment" to maritime security and settling disputes according to the UN Convention on the Law of Sea.SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The mystery illness that has killed 27 bald eagles in Utah this month appears to be West Nile Virus, state officials said Tuesday. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said in a statement Tuesday that that laboratory tests done on some of the first birds found indicate they died from West Nile Virus. Since Dec. 1, officials have found the birds in northern and central Utah. All were either dead or were ill and later died during treatment. The eagles displayed similar symptoms, including head tremors, signs of seizures, weakness in legs and feet and a paralysis of the bird's wings. Beyond the 27 that have died, officials said five eagles were being treated at a wildlife rehabilitation center Tuesday. They appeared to be responding well to treatment, officials said. Utah wildlife officials aren't sure how the eagles caught the virus, but they suspect the birds contracted it by eating Eared Grebes that were infected with the virus and died recently. West Nile Virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, usually infects eagles and other birds during warmer months. Mark Hadley, a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources spokesman, said the grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird, start arriving in Utah in October, when mosquitoes are still active. "It's possible that those grebes got bit by mosquitoes after they got here when they arrived in the fall, and it just took a while for them to die." The bald eagles began arriving in November and appeared to have died relatively quickly once they contracted the virus, Hadley said. About 750 to 1,200 bald eagles begin migrating to Utah each November and stay until March, officials said. During those winter months, the eagles get most of their food by eating dead animals, such as grebes. Leslie McFarlane, a wildlife disease coordinator with DWR, said in a statement that there's still a chance a few more eagles could die, but because the migration period for grebes is almost over, it's likely that the risk to eagles will soon drop. The birds do not pose a risk to human health but people should not handle eagles if they find them, wildlife officials said. Hadley said that in the 17 years he's been with DWR, he has never seen this many eagles die off, particularly in such a short period of time. "This is definitely unusual," he said.The lack of a national drug coverage plan is “a glaring gap in Canada’s social architecture,” but fixing the problem could save Canadians billions, a new study argues. Drug costs have skyrocketed in Canada over the past 30 years, with per-capita spending on drugs rising to $795 per year in 2012, from $99 in 1985, says the study from the Mowat Centre, a think tank at the University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy and Governance. That has put pressure on patients because “Canada is the only country with universal health care coverage that excludes coverage for prescription drugs.” About one in 10 Canadians who are prescribed drugs fail to fill the prescription, and the study indicates cost is a major factor in that. “Not being able to cover those costs has consequences, as prescription drugs can improve patient health and reduce costs elsewhere in the health care system (e.g., number of emergency room visits and hospitalizations),” the study says. “Failure to take medication also contributes to a higher patient mortality rate.” The study cites earlier research from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives which estimated the total cost of failing to adhere to prescriptions in Canada at $7 billion to $9 billion per year. It argues Canada could save billions if it enacted a national drug plan, similar to ones found in the U.K. Australia, Germany and elsewhere, where drug costs are 15 to 60 per cent lower than in Canada. These countries’ universal drug plans allow governments to manage drug costs better than Canada can, the study says. To keep costs down, drug plans use such techniques as “reference pricing” (swapping out more expensive drugs for cheaper, similar ones) and issuing competitive tenders for drug supplies. “If, for example, per capita spending on prescription drugs in Canada was reduced to the same level as Germany, Canada would spend $4 billion less per year; if it matched the rates of the United Kingdom or New Zealand, savings would reach $14 billion per year,” the study says. Overall, it estimates a universal pharmacare plan would save up to $11.4 billion a year, with $1 billion of that saved just by no longer duplicating administrative costs in the current “patchwork” system. That patchwork of provincial drug coverage plans is so inconsistent from province to province that it “undermine[s] the principles of the Canada Health Act,” the study authors argue, “in particular, those of universality (covering all people) and portability (transferable coverage between provinces).” The study illustrates just how glaring the differences are from province to province: In 2012, a couple 65 years of age or older with an income of $35,000 and in need of $1,000 worth of prescription drugs per year would have paid the entire cost of these drugs in New Brunswick or Newfoundland and Labrador. By comparison, they would pay two-thirds in Quebec, one-third in Ontario or British Columbia, and nothing at all in the Yukon or Northwest Territories. The Mowat Centre study urges federal and provincial government to “move together towards a publicly-funded, single-payer system for prescription drugs.” But the study acknowledges that a “transformational” change like a national drug plan can be difficult to achieve, and suggests interim measures in the meantime. Chief among these is the creation of a national agency to evaluate medicines and buy drugs in bulk. The Mowat Centre study isn’t the first to suggest Canada could save on drug costs with a national pharmacare plan. A study earlier this year from the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto estimated Canada would save $7.3 billion annually if it instituted a national drug plan and brought drug costs in line with those found in other countries that have universal drug coverage. “For too long, policy makers have assumed that universal pharmacare is an expensive policy for governments – that assumption turns out to be wrong,” study co-author Dr. Danielle Martin said in a statement. “With the money saved from using generic medicines, bulk purchasing, and better approaches to pricing, we can afford to cover medically necessary drugs for all Canadians without increasing taxes.” Also on HuffPost:So, too, have prices. At the auction in 2008, the state-owned enterprises paid $71 a pound, then immediately flipped their first quota from their ivory purchases to factories for up to $530 a pound. Today, raw ivory costs more than $1,300 a pound. Just how much illegal ivory has crept into the country is a matter of dispute, but wildlife organizations say there is not nearly enough legal supply to match the amount officially sold across China. “If you look at the volume on the market, it’s nonsense,” said Mary Rice, executive director of the independent Environmental Investigation Agency, which estimates that up to 90 percent of the ivory in China is illegal. Conservation group investigators say licensed factories often supplement official purchases with smuggled ivory, sometimes by adding illegal pieces to legitimate carvings. One factory owner privately acknowledged that the 330 pounds of legal ivory he acquires annually lasts just one month. The rest, he said, is bought on the black market. To conservationists, the open sale of contraband ivory is just as vexing. At the Chengtian antiques market in Beijing, eight stalls sold unregistered ivory carvings. Fingering a cream-colored Buddha pendant he was selling for about $800, the vendor explained how to hide it from the authorities. “Just wear it around your neck,” he said. “No need for a certificate.” When asked if they were afraid of being arrested, the vendors confided that, much like sellers of pirated DVDs and books, they receive ample warning before the rare police crackdown. “As long as we dare to sell, it’s safe for you to buy,” one woman said. A Cultural Tradition Ivory is etched deeply into the Chinese identity. Popular lore tells of emperors who believed ivory chopsticks would change color upon contact with poisoned food. In Chinese medicine, ivory powder is said to purge toxins from the body and give a luminous complexion. As part of its public relations effort to legitimize the trade, the government in 2006 added ivory carving to its official Intangible Cultural Heritage register, along with traditional opera, kung fu and acupuncture. “Love for ivory is in our blood,” said Wu Shaohua, president of the Shanghai Collectors Association. In a society where Rolexes and Louis Vuitton bags are sometimes bought by the dozen, many Chinese believe that giving a trinket carved from elephant tusk confers the highest honor. “It says this relationship is as precious as ivory,” he said. Mr. Wu said he thinks the prestige and artistry of ivory may outweigh, for enthusiasts, any potential concerns over its provenance.COLUMBUS, OH – While on tour with his EFFEN Vodka in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend, 50 Cent caught up with Power 107.5 to reveal his Top 5 50 Cent songs. After unveiling his somewhat surprising selections, the G-Unit frontman went on to reveal an industry gem he learned from the late Jam Master Jay. “It’s probably not going to be nothing everybody else likes,” 50 said when asked to list his top five songs of his own. “‘A Baltimore Love Thing,’ ‘Ryder Music,’ ‘Like My Style,’ ‘Curtis 187’ [and] ‘What Up Gangsta.’ The biggest lesson I learned from Jam Master Jay when I was working with him was to not fall in love with the music. If it’s what you think it is, great — we need another one. You gotta appreciate it, like it, and then move to the next one.” Elsewhere in the conversation, 50 Cent revealed that he has a remix to his The Kanan Tape single “I’m The Man” on the way with Chris Brown. 50 Cent featured on “I Bet,” a cut off Chris Brown and Tyga’s 2015 collaborative LP, Fan Of A Fan: The Album. 50 Cent’s interview Power 107.5 can be viewed below: For additional 50 Cent coverage, watch the following DX Daily:Baka-Updates wishes you farewell posted by: Baka-Updates Team One day a group of friends by the names of y2klizard, aZn_nUt, Platinum\|Star, and ^_^Teddie thought it would be a great idea if anime fansubs were more easily found in one location. There were already other websites that did this, however the others decided they would only report unlicensed shows. These guys quickly went to work and on July 20th, 2002 Baka-Updates was officially released to the public.The goal of Baka-Updates was always to inform the users of the latest anime releases. Throughout the years, we have noticed the anime culture grow at a steady pace. It grew so much that companies eventually gave notice that viewers outside of Japan wanted to get the content fast and thus new streaming services such as Crunchyroll were born. Shows would be simucasted as soon as one hour after it was broadcasted in Japan. This led to the amount of fansubs decreasing since it was so convenient to view the new releases compared to the traditional methods.As well, the Baka-Updates team continued to grow older. An increase in responsibilities with work and new families meant that we could not commit as much time into maintaining the website. Therefore we have decided it is the right time to shut down.The team at Baka-Updates would like to thank all of our visitors for supporting the site over all these years. Without you, we would never have had the motivation to keep going for this long. We never expected the anime scene to grow up to what it is today and we will continue being a part of it, only in the background this time.The closing of Baka-Updates does not affect our sister site MangaUpdates. It will continue to operate as normal.The Offbeat Bride: Kitten, Fashion Manager Her offbeat partners: Brynn, Computer Programer; Doll, Fashion Designer Date and location of wedding: Codman Estate Lincoln, MA — August 4, 2013 Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Our wedding had to include meaning for all three of us brides in our polyamorous wedding. We didn't want to spend a fortune, but all definitely wanted rings we would cherish forever. We went to Na Hoku and picked out tanzanite rings together. We found all our gowns in the clearance section of David's Bridal, and added our own bursts of personality (read COLOR!) to our traditional, white dresses. We spent several date nights searching the woods for tree branches to use as decorations. Closer to the day of, we spent an entire day painting every branch white and glittery! Some date nights were spent making paper flowers for aisle decor, and on other nights we got matching shoes and Mod Podged our favorite colors onto them for another splash of color. We made our own invitations with an email RSVP to save on paper, stamps, and time. We also designed and made our own programs and bug spray, as the wedding was outdoors and we have a lot of "crunchy" guests. We decided to not have a dinner reception, but rather a selection of fruits and cream due to the number of allergies in our guest list. The guest list itself was another interesting project. With three brides, and Kitten's family being HUGE, we set a firm number based on what we could afford, and each of us invited within 1/3 of that number. Once we had RSVPs in hand, we used the number of declines as an opportunity to invite those we wanted there but did not have room for originally. Tell us about the ceremony: Our entrance music was Emilie Autumn's "On a Day," and our officiants read the following: I'd like to welcome you to a most unusual wedding. In our society today, no wedding is really "normal." Our polyglot nation has blended together so many ideas of what it means to be married, and how one goes about doing it, that there is truly no one true way to structure a marriage ceremony. But even by modern standards, where blended families are the new norm, where ceremonies invoke ancient customs alongside modern creations, where in a seemingly ever-increasing number of states and countries, anyone can marry the person that they love, this is a most unusual wedding. Today we have gathered to witness the union of Brynn, Kitten, and Doll. We are here today to offer them our love and our blessings as they embark on the next phase of their lives together. To some, they represent the "slippery slope" we were warned about. In truth, what they are about to do today is as old as mankind. While modern humans may have invented the word "polyamory," or "many loves," we certainly didn't invent the idea. Multiple adult relationships are as old as we are as a species. Every major culture on the planet has had some form of multiple marriage. Every major religion has allowed it at some point, and some still do. Numerous holy men from the Old Testament had multiple wives. Arjuna, a Hindu hero in the Mahabharata, shares his wife with his brothers, one of whom later marries as well. To modern Pagans, all acts of love are holy to the Goddess. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says that though one person may be overpowered, two can support each other, and a chord of three strands is not quickly broken. Three strands. Today, Brynn, Kitten and Doll will forge their own three-strand chord. This ceremony is very much their creation, a modern blend of the old and the new, to mark the new beginning of their lives together as a family. This was followed by individual vows, a ring exchange, and a sand ceremony. We walked off to a commissioned instrumental version of The Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You," Brynn's romance song of choice. It was a little surprise for her! Our biggest challenge: We come from very mixed backgrounds. Kitten was raised Christian but is now Pagan. Doll is also a Pagan, and Brynn is Agnostic. One huge challenge was creating a ceremony that included all the beliefs of each bride. Kitten is very traditional because of how she was raised. She wanted her father there and a white wedding dress. Doll, not a huge believer in legal marriages, leaned more towards handfasting and bonding. Brynn, married before, had little interest in weddings at all. All these things combined lead to the decisions of a Pagan priest with a one-day justice of the peace license. We also had to work with in the legalities of the state. As being married to more than one person is not yet legal, we had to combine handfasting, legally binding documents, and legal marriage to come to a configuration we all felt equal in. My favorite moment: Doll's Moment: As Kitten and I finished getting into our dresses, it started to rain. It was devastating, and everyone was demanding to postpone or move the ceremony inside. As the pillar we know and love, Kitten flatly told them all "NO, this is happening." The second they walked out from under the tent, the sky cleared up. A smile from the powers that be! Kitten and I held hands as we walked towards the aisle. I don't really recall much now, but the warmth of the sun was nothing next to heat of Kitten's hand holding mine. Kitten's Moment: My father had stopped talking to me for a period of time after I came out as not only gay, but as also dating TWO women. Shortly before the wedding, the bonds were mending, just in time for my father to be hospitalized. There were serious concerns about whether or not he would be able to walk his last daughter down the aisle. So for me to be walked down the aisle and dance with my father, was one of my most meaningful moments. Brynn's Moment: Reading the vows was an emotional intense moment. Few times in my life have I been moved so quickly and easily to tears and felt so much joy and love. That moment will forever be burned in my mind. I loved that I had a beautiful and perfect moment with those whom I have chosen to spend my life. My funniest moment: When we designed our cake, we wanted a burst of rainbow color inside our otherwise traditional cake. As we fed each other a bite, Kitten noticed that Brynn's tongue was BLUE! She started laughing and pointing. We all stuck our tongues out to reveal matching blue tongues! Apparently the mocha frosting inside was dyed blue with food coloring, staining everything it touched! Care to share a few vendor/shopping links? Enough talk — show me the wedding porn! UPDATE SPRING 2014: Where are they now? Expecting a baby!Posted 16 July 2013 - 09:37 AM It's X-Mas in July! Atlas Champion Mech - Now Available in the MechLab! Assault vs the World Patch Notes & Note from the Developers Weapon System Max No-Heat Penalty Alpha Scale Multiplier PPC 2 7.0 ERPPC 2 4.5 ML 6 1.0 LL 2 2.8 AC/20 1 24.0 SSRM 4 1.0 SRM2 4 1.0 SRM4 4 1.0 SRM6 3 1.0 LRM15 2 2.8 Component % Left Arm 15 Right Arm 15 Left Leg 15 Right Leg 15 Left Torso 12 Right Torso 12 Center Torso 16 TOTAL 100 Component % Component % Left Arm 18 {Left Arm} 0 {Right Arm} 0 {Right Arm} 0 Left Leg 18 Left Leg 24 Right Leg 18 Right Leg 24 Left Torso 13.8 Left Torso 15.6 Right Torso 13.8 Right Torso 15.6 Center Torso 18.4 Center Torso 20.8 TOTAL 100 TOTAL 100 It's that time of the year again! Jingle bells are ringing, presents are under the tree, fruit cakes are fresh out of the oven... OH WAIT, THAT'S A JENNER!Join us as the Inner Sphere celebrates X-Mas in July! That's right, we're bringing out the decorations, putting logs on the fire, and hanging lights in our cockpits. From July 19 until Tuesday July 23th 10am PDT, we've unlocked our holiday items in the MechLab for reduced summer prices!Celebrate this holiday summer and decorate your `Mech. Regular & Premium Red and Green colours are 50% off!We wish you a merry summer and happy new `Mech.And if you can't quite reach the top of the tree, the AS7-D-DC is 30% off the MC price:Have we got a great event for you! This weekend - from July 19th at 10am PDT till July 21st at 10am PDT - we're offering 25000in prizes! Awesome, you say? No, I'm not a Stalker, I just knew you liked being the Atlas of your team (you know, holding the entire world up and everything.) Seriously though, the Victors of this tournament will receive 1925for being the top Light, Medium, Heavy, Atlas, Awesome, Highlander, Stalker, and, uh, Victor pilots! Placing 2nd through 5th (AKA 'Not being first, but close) will receive 300To opt-in and for full details, see our tournaments page Open Beta Update #21Upcoming Patch - Tuesday July 16th @ 10AM – 1PM PDTPatch Number: 1.2.231Change LogUPDATEGreetings MechWarriorsTop 10 Awesome things in this patch. #inmyopinionNumber 10. Visual bug Fixes – Bye Bye Flickering terrain! #thatisbetterNumber 9. Performance Improvements! We’ve been hard at work optimizing the code so 12 v 12 won’t hurt your frames as much. #cantwaitfor12vs12Number 8. The Victor is available for C-bills now! Those with mech bays and fat C-bill accounts are recommended to purchase this ‘Mech immediately. #greatmechNumber 7. Victor Customization – Now that you own a Victor, it’s time to customize your mech. I recommend Buccaneer! #lookinggoodNumber 6. The Atlas Champion is on sale. Stacking XP boosts from a Champion ‘Mech and a Premium Account can get you all the XP you need to Elite this mech. #getthosemodulesNumber 5. Jump jet crosshair shake frequency has been reduced. #nomotionsickNumber 4. Testing Ground Map Selection - Finally you can pick which map you're testing your mech in! #choicesNumber 3. Streak SRM Targeting – This is pretty in depth so you may want to Read how it works in the patch notes #hitallthethingsNumber 2. SRM Damage buff – I can figuratively hear you cheering! #brawlingahoyAnd the Number 1 awesome thing in this patch.Heat Scaling – I’m not going to spoil this but go you should read up how it works in the patch notes. #gamechangerThere you have it MechWarriors!See you on the battlefield!Matt NewmanContentNew 'MechsVictor VTR-9K- Tonnage: 80- Engine: 320- Top Speed: 64.8 kph- Max Engine Rating: 385- Torso Movement:- 90 degrees to each side.- 20 degrees up and down.- Arm Movement:- 20 degrees to each side.- 30 degrees up and down.- Armor: 400 (Standard)- Internal Structure: Endo-Steel- Weapons & Equipment:- Left Arm: Medium Pulse Laser x2- Left Torso: SRM 4, CASE- Right Torso: CASE- Right Arm: Gauss Rifle- Hardpoints:- Left Arm: 3 Energy- Left Torso: 2 Missile- Right Torso: 1 AMS- Right Arm: 1 Ballistic- Heat Sinks: 15 Single- Jump Jets: 4 (6 Max)- ECM Capable?: No- Module Slots: 2Victor VTR-9B- Tonnage: 80- Engine: 320- Top Speed: 64.8 kph- Max Engine Rating: 385- Torso Movement:- 90 degrees to each side.- 20 degrees up and down.- Arm Movement:- 10 degrees to each side.- 30 degrees up and down.- Armor: 368 (Standard)- Internal Structure: Standard- Weapons & Equipment:- Left Arm: Medium Laser x2- Left Torso: SRM 4- Right Arm: AC/20- Hardpoints:- Left Arm: 2 Energy- Left Torso: 2 Missile- Right Torso: 1 AMS- Right Arm: 3 Ballistic- Heat Sinks: 15 Single- Jump Jets: 4 (4 Max)- ECM Capable?: No- Module Slots: 2Victor VTR-9S- Tonnage: 80- Engine: 320- Top Speed: 64.8 kph- Max Engine Rating: 385- Torso Movement:- 90 degrees to each side.- 20 degrees up and down.- Arm Movement:- 10 degrees to each side.- 30 degrees up and down.- Armor: 336 (Standard)- Internal Structure: Standard- Weapons & Equipment:- Left Arm: Medium Laser x2- Left Torso: SRM
reading.) Now, Yan Xu (now of the National Astronomical Observatories of China), Newberg, and colleagues have returned to the 2002 SDSS observations to look at an additional hint of structure that didn’t seem to belong to either of these. The astronomers used stars’ true magnitudes to determine how far away the stars had to be in order to look as faint as they do (and accounting for all the dust between us and them). Oddly, they found four separate structures: two of them the Monoceros and Triangulum Andromeda ones, plus two more lying between us and Monoceros. The closest is about 6,000 light-years out from the Sun, with each subsequent structure lying roughly 6,000 light-years beyond the previous one, almost like evenly spaced lumps. But the lumps aren’t smack in the plane of the disk, all lined up like the swirls in the peppermint. Instead, they are above, then below, then above, then below, like the ripples in corrugated cardboard. The two inner structures actually seem to line up with the Perseus (closer) and Outer Arms, although they’re on the opposite sides of the midplane from those two arms — for example, the closest concentration is “north” of the midplane but the Perseus Arm is slightly “south.” That suggests there’s also a vertical ripple in the Milky Way’s disk, not just one moving outward. The two types of ripples look like the waves a dwarf galaxy would create if it passed through the Milky Way’s disk, according to computer simulations by various teams. For example, Sukanya Chakrabarti (Rochester Institute of Technology) and Leo Blitz (University of California, Berkeley) saw structures like the Monoceros Ring in their simulations in 2009 when checking to see whether a dwarf galaxy encounter might explain why the Milky Way's gas disk looks a bit perturbed. Chakrabarti agrees that the ripples Xu's team found are likely real, but she says it’s hard to know what caused them, at least without more simulation work. The outer two are most likely from a dwarf galaxy encounter, but it’s unclear whether dynamics inside the Milky Way could explain the two closer ones. A satellite galaxy passing through the disk might also explain the substructure within both the Monoceros and Triangulum Andromeda features, Newberg says. And while she doesn’t yet understand the connection between the Milky Way’s spiral arms (which are full of young, massive stars) and these ripples (which aren’t), both could be triggered by a dwarf passing through the galaxy’s disk. If the Monoceros Ring and the Triangulum Andromeda Stream are part of the disk, that would mean that the Milky Way’s pancake is something like 60% larger than we thought it was. Instead of extending nearly 100,000 light-years from one side to the other, it would be more like 160,000 light-years wide, on par with the Andromeda Galaxy, the other large spiral in our Local Group of galaxies. The team has also posted a 20-minute video explaining the findings for the general public, and a 50-minute video with more detail. You can find both at the end of the Rensselaer press release. References: Y. Xu et al. “Rings and Radial Waves in the Disk of the Milky Way.” Astrophysical Journal. March 10, 2015.Brown was born and raised in Athens, Georgia. He was a professional golfer,[1] playing on the Nationwide Tour[4] Later, he turned his interests to music, taking influence from country music and hip hop.[1] Assuming the stage name Colt Ford, he released his debut album, Ride Through the Country, on December 2, 2008, through Average Joes Entertainment, which he cofounded.[5] This album included the singles "No Trash in My Trailer"[6] (a cover of a Mike Dekle song) and "Ride Through the Country" (a duet with John Michael Montgomery), the latter of which did not chart until the week of October 10, 2009, when it debuted at number 57 on Hot Country He also appeared on a rap remix of Montgomery Gentry's late-2008 Number One single "Roll with Me".[7] Ford's debut album also has guest appearances from country singer Jamey Johnson, as well as Bone Crusher and Jermaine Dupri, Adrian Young of No Doubt, and Jeremy Popoff of Lit.[8] The album did not enter the Billboard albums charts until 2009. Ford co-wrote and originally recorded the song "Dirt Road Anthem" for his debut album Ride Through the Country; it was later released by Brantley Gilbert, who co-wrote the song, on his 2010 album Halfway to Heaven,[9] and again by Jason Aldean on his album My Kinda Party, also from 2010.[10] Ford wrote the theme song "Buck 'em" for the Professional Bull Riders association. He also appears as a guest vocalist on the track "Tailgatin'" on Cledus T. Judd's 2009 album Polyrically Uncorrect, a song which Ford wrote with Johnson and Popoff.[11] Ford's second studio album, Chicken & Biscuits, was released in April 2010, following the release of its title track. Ford released a third studio album on May 3, 2011, called Every Chance I Get.[12] The album's lead-off single, "Country Thang", debuted at number 55 for the country chart week ending February 19, 2011. "She Likes to Ride in Trucks", featuring Craig Morgan, served as the album's second single. Ford's fourth album, Declaration of Independence, became his first number 1 album on Top Country Albums. Its first charted single is "Back", a duet with Jake Owen. "Back" is Ford's highest charting single to date, making Top 40 on Hot Country Songs. In 2012, Colt Ford headlined the Declaration Of Independence Tour with supporting acts The Lacs, Lenny Cooper, and JB and the Moonshine Band. In the fall of 2012 Ford announced he would be touring with JJ Lawhorn on the Answer To No One Tour. Colt Ford's fifth studio album, Thanks for Listening, was released on July 1, 2014. "4 Lane Gone" is the first single from his sixth studio album, Love Hope Faith. Ford released a music video for the single on September 11, 2016[13] Love Hope Faith was released on May 5, 2017.[14]Iceland is an anomalous place. First, thanks to the Gulf Stream, it isn’t all that icy. That would be Greenland, named by Erik the Red, the inventor of travel marketing. That’s not to say Iceland doesn’t have weather — I experienced four seasons in 30 minutes on a visit to the Gullfoss waterfall. There is an elemental war going on here: The clouds blot out every bit of light, then the sun stabs through in displays of horrible beauty; the postcard-perfect mountains look impermeable, but up close, it’s clear they’ve been raked by watery claws of snow and rain; the ubiquitous lava fields wrestle with hummocks of grass and moss. advertisement advertisement Depending on your point of view, Iceland was either the last part of Europe to be settled or the first part of North America to see Europeans. It sits on both continents, astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the earth’s plates are gradually pulling apart, making Iceland a bubbling vessel of magma-heated water. Since its settlement by Vikings in AD 874, the country has remained remarkably isolated. The people — all 300,000 of them, roughly the population of Aurora, Colorado — are as homogeneous as the weather and the terrain are not. Iceland is Appalachia with different rocks. Their remoteness, however, seems to have made Icelanders particularly resourceful. Faced with essentially no arable land, they built greenhouse farms to raise cucumbers and tomatoes and even bananas. In the fish-rich but almost uninhabitable north, Icelandic fishermen needed special clothing, which spawned 66° North high-tech outerwear, now sold in 15 countries. Icelanders have even managed to turn their own lack of diversity into an advantage: deCODE Genetics, based in the capital, Reykjavik, has built the largest DNA database of its kind (on a per capita basis) to spot disease-causing mutations and use them to develop biotech drugs. But Iceland’s primary innovation, the one that puts it on the map for some of the world’s largest companies, centers on renewable energy. The country has no coal, no petroleum reserves, and no trees. (The Vikings leveled the timber centuries ago, leading to this bit of local wit: “What do you do if you’re lost in an Icelandic forest? Stand up.”) Rather than continue to import every calorie of fuel, Icelanders figured out how to heat their homes with their copious geothermal supply; before long, they were generating geothermal electricity as well. Today, Iceland imports essentially no coal or oil for heat and power: 70% of its energy is renewable. Reykjavik is at the center of this energy vanguard, filling all of its needs from green sources, either geothermal or hydroelectric. It is here that Iceland’s ambition becomes clear. Having shown that it knows what it takes to move from one fuel source to another, this rocky little outpost is ready for something bigger. “We would like to be the world’s laboratory for exploring a carbon-neutral future,” says Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, the country’s foreign minister and former mayor of Reykjavik. Reykjavik Power, the world’s largest geothermal heating company, and other local firms already export expertise to markets including China and the United States (which is the world’s largest consumer of geothermal power and which hopes to boost that usage exponentially). The next step: Proving that cars can run on something other than gasoline. That they can run, in fact, on hydrogen. Energy Island On my trip to Iceland last November, I became the first person in the world to rent a hydrogen-powered car. That I could do so was testament to the sheer force of will exerted over 30 years by people like Bragi Árnason. A now-retired chemist at the University of Iceland, Árnason started arguing back in the 1970s that hydrogen could power cars. People mocked him, but he weathered the barbs and slowly won converts, including a wisecracking energy physicist named Thorsteinn Sigfusson, who took the hydrogen-fuel concept out of the faculty club and into the market. Sigfusson helped found Icelandic New Energy (INE), a consortium of energy companies, and was its chairman until recently, when he was asked to run the Icelandic Innovation Institute. At 6 feet, 4 inches and weighing something like 300 pounds, Sigfusson is part offensive tackle, part Katie Couric. “I’m a people whisperer,” he says. Which means he likes to suggest ideas to others and then get out of their way, letting them make it happen. His affable nature has made him Iceland’s unofficial ambassador of energy, and he greets groups interested in the country’s green-energy prowess with gigantic air bear hugs. “Welcome, friends,” he intones in his friendly baritone. “Welcome to Energy Island.” During a serious presentation about energy physics, he’ll slip in a playful slide on the diet of an energy society, comparing renewables, oil, and coal to proteins, carbs, and fat. advertisement Sigfusson has done as much as anyone to push hydrogen fuel forward, enough that last year he was named a winner of Russia’s Global Energy Prize, which rivals the Nobel in payout. He has a book coming out this spring called Planet Hydrogen: The Taming of the Proton. Hydrogen is a paradoxical fuel, he says. But since it is the most plentiful substance in the universe and throws off only water when burned, it has been hailed as the answer to earth’s dual fossil-fuel problems: dwindling supply and the ballooning greenhouse effect. So far, though, most hydrogen fuel is still produced either as a by-product of making fossil fuels or by burning them. In other words, it isn’t much greener than oil. Thanks largely to the persistence of Árnason, Sigfusson, and their colleagues, Iceland has begun making clean hydrogen fuel on a proto-commercial scale. As it turns out, that’s a simple enough proposition given one thing: electricity derived from clean sources such as geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, or wind. The Shell station off Reykjavik’s Miklabraut road has been producing hydrogen for almost five years, using green electricity to electrolyze water, splitting off the hydrogen atoms and then storing them at high pressure. It’s a zero-emissions process. So if Iceland can make clean hydrogen (locals pronounce it with a hard G), why can’t the rest of us? The United States produces enough hydrogen to power 34 million cars, according to the Department of Energy, but 95% of it starts as natural gas and then is reformed in a nongreen process using steam and high pressure. (This hydrogen is used largely in refining petroleum and in creating ammonia used in fertilizer.) Since 1999, Daimler, Royal Dutch Shell, and Norsk Hydro, the $31 billion Norwegian aluminum and energy company (it spun off its energy business in 2007), have been trying to replicate the Icelandic model. All three companies are part of INE, which built Shell’s hydrogen station and sparked a 10-city hydrogen bus project funded by the European Union and later expanded to Beijing and Perth, Australia. David Haberman, a longtime investor in hydrogen fuel cells and an early partner in INE, explains that the consortium has already proved three things: Hydrogen is safer than oil or gasoline; people are willing and even eager to use hydrogen to fuel their vehicles; and governments can effectively educate their citizens about an alternative fuel. None of that was clear in 1999. Now the challenge is to roll out this new blueprint to the rest of the world. Iceland’s neighbors are already paying attention. Iceland has been “an important learning project for us,” says Per Øyvind Hjerpaasen, VP of hydrogen at StatoilHydro, which was formed in October 2007, when the Norwegian state oil company, Statoil, bought Norsk Hydro’s energy operations and in effect formed the world’s largest offshore oil-and-gas company. Hjerpaasen says StatoilHydro and others are adapting those lessons as they build HyNor, Norway’s hydrogen highway, a string of five or six hydrogen filling stations on the road along the country’s southern coast. StatoilHydro will use wind and solar power to produce green hydrogen for these stations; it’s also testing a station that uses hydrogen produced from fossil fuels and buries the carbon dioxide — a process that might make hydrogen an option even in places dependent on coal-fired power plants. Once the Oslo station is built, in 2009, the hydrogen highway will go on through Sweden and Denmark to Germany, thanks to a project that’s in the works among the four governments and a dozen major industrial firms, including StatoilHydro. Meanwhile, INE forges ahead. Late last year, it helped the local Hertz to start importing Toyota Priuses, including the one I rented, that had been converted to run on hydrogen. INE will bring up to 40 hydrogen-powered cars to Iceland over the next two years for consumer testing. And in April, it will launch a whale-watching boat that uses hydrogen to run its auxiliary power system, the first time hydrogen has been used aboard a ship. advertisement Hydrogen’s Bill Gates My first trip in the hydrogen Prius — known in the business as an H Prius — was to see one of Sigfusson’s protégés, Hallmar Halldórs, who runs his new company, Icelandic Hydrogen, in a suburb of Reykjavik. I set off during rush hour, my heart racing at every rotary for fear of being the first person to crash a hydrogen car. (They don’t blow up like the Hindenburg in a collision, but at $100,000 a pop, my terror was justified.) It was just a decade ago that hydrogen cars had room for only a driver — the rest was given over to storing the fuel. Today, the only visible difference between my H Prius and the regular version is that the spare tire has to sit in the trunk. After Halldórs checks out my car, he shows off his company. “We have a little work to do,” he says with a grin, ushering me through a door in the machine shop owned by his business partner. Across the threshold, I find myself standing on a recently poured concrete slab — under a rainy Icelandic night sky. The 37-year-old Halldórs — he repaired ship engines before starting his PhD in physics and getting hooked on hydrogen — is well aware of the distance yet to travel. Still, he may just be hydrogen fuel’s Bill Gates, circa 1977: His dream is a refueling station in every garage. He even has a working prototype, adapted from laboratory equipment, which looks like a PC server, only with tubing and a container for water. Right now, it can make about 1.5 kilograms of pressurized hydrogen fuel in a day, good for about two-thirds of the capacity of my Prius’s tanks. Halldórs’s four-person company is pursuing a number of other ideas, including the possibility of small-scale filling stations that generate enough hydrogen to fuel three or four cars a day, about one-twentieth the capacity of the Shell station on the other side of Reykjavik. His partner has built a stainless-steel dispenser prototype. And Halldórs says he has already sold some related technology to two customers abroad, though he won’t name them. Like any good visionary, Halldórs thinks hydrogen fuel is coming fast. In fact, he expects there will be a substantial market by 2015, and not just in Iceland: “We like to say we will make it happen.” advertisement Winning investment and interest from outside the country has been perhaps the biggest hurdle. But there are plenty of others. H cars still need better fuel cells and a network of filling stations at least as extensive as diesel’s. Then there’s the distribution and storage problem: At high pressure, hydrogen simply seeps through the molecules of conventional steel, so traditional trucks and tanks are useless. (Scientists are experimenting with things like composite materials, bonding hydrogen to vehicle frames, or using nanoscale storage devices, to get around this problem.) But as Bill Reinert, national manager in the advanced technologies group for Toyota Motor Sales, points out, hydrogen cars have been seriously researched for only 15 years. It took Toyota more than 10 years just to sell a million copies of the hybrid Prius — and that’s for a car that slides right into today’s fuel infrastructure. Reinert figures the U.S. government spends $16 billion to $20 billion, including subsidies, on ethanol. Toyota alone, he says, spends more on hydrogen research than does the entire U.S. government. Coming to America Hydrogen’s appeal in the quest to replace oil is not simply that there’s so much of it but that it works so well. “Hydrogen fuel cells are the only way to get vehicles that perform like a gasoline vehicle,” says Britta K. Gross, General Motors’ manager of hydrogen and electrical infrastructure commercialization. H cars refuel quickly, and they can match gas-powered cars for range. But — once more for emphasis — there are no emissions. Oil approached $99 a barrel while I was in Iceland. Back home, the news seems full of hydrogen. Honda says it will begin a controlled leasing program this year in Southern California for its FCX Clarity fuel-cell car. GM, desperate to recover its mojo, has rolled out the first phase of Project Driveway, a 100-car pilot in Los Angeles and New York, which will move on to Washington, D.C., and eventually Europe and Asia; select drivers will get a hydrogen-powered SUV, the Equinox, for periods ranging from three months to several years. To fuel those cars, GM, along with Shell Hydrogen and another large energy company it won’t yet identify, is building 10 hydrogen filling stations across the country, including one in the Bronx, not far from Yankee Stadium. While none of the stations will produce its own hydrogen (some will come from a green facility in Niagara, New York), all are seen as part of a proof of concept. Gross says that H cars have become far more than an experiment for GM. While the company plans one more prototype model to succeed the Equinox, it is already gearing up to bring H cars to a dealer near you at a price that won’t leave you gasping. Like Honda, GM has pushed the hydrogen car well past the R&D phase: While it doesn’t quite have a hydrogen-car division, Gross says H cars are now part of GM’s mainstream organization, with an engineering chief, a vehicle line director, and a manufacturing and marketing staff. GM plans to be ready to produce them commercially in 2013. Gross has been to Iceland twice. “It’s absolutely shaped my thinking on how you do this,” she says. She calls the will of the country “eye-opening,” and marvels at its ability to get government and industry focused on the same goal, something the United States has failed to do. The hydrogen economy cannot happen here without such coordination, she says. INE’s general manager, Jón Björn Skúlason, agrees, pointing out that one reason Iceland has made such progress is that his outfit manages every aspect of Iceland’s hydrogen economy, a degree of command and control the United States hasn’t even attempted. Now, says Gross, an ad hoc “H gang” of five automakers (including GM), as well as oil companies, hydrogen merchants, and government officials, have started meeting to talk about how America can follow Iceland’s lead. advertisement Project Driveway’s focus on just three cities, she explains, is a way of proving the possible. “You have to break it apart for anyone who says it’s a $400 billion exercise,” she insists, “or you will never get 1 million vehicles out there. You have to demonstrate what you can do.” Even if hydrogen does end up the long-term replacement for oil, there will be bridge fuels along the way. In fact, the post-oil economy may be a patchwork of local solutions, says Barbara Heydorn, director of the Center of Excellence in Energy at SRI, a California-based research nonprofit. Heydorn points out that localized markets exist even now, Brazil’s sugarcane ethanol being a prime example. Similarly, more than a quarter of the cars in Bangladesh run on natural gas, as do 1.6 million cars in Argentina and almost 500,000 in Italy. “Just as there are regional variations for what cars are available,” she says, “fuel will be one more piece of the puzzle automakers will have to accommodate.” Where, exactly, hydrogen will fit isn’t yet clear. But governments, automakers, and people worldwide are increasingly motivated to figure it out. In Reykjavik, over a horse-meat lunch at the iconic Hotel Holt, Thorsteinn Sigfusson reflects on what he has wrought so far. To him, it’s clear that oil is doomed. “Hydrocarbons are a mishap, a sigh in time,” he says. “We provided the scenario for testing hydrogen. We’ve shown that it is the ultimate fuel. Nobody doubts that now.”90 Day Fiance Season 1 couple Kirlyam and Alan Cox welcomed their first child together, son Liam, in October — and the good fortune continues to fall on the fan-favorite couple as Alan made his way onto The Price Is Right and won The Showcase Showdown! Alan was in the first group of contestants called to “Com on down!” on the show’s last episode of the year, and Alan jubilantly jumped up and down while hugging Kirlyam — both of them wearing matching Price Is Right shirts with show host Drew Carey printed in a very provocative location. Alan kicked things off by bidding on three pairs of Louboutin high heels — which I’m sure Kirlyam was super excited about. Unfortunately, Alan’s bid of $1,570 was a bit too far under the $2,265 retail price and he missed out. (All I could think of at this point is what if that had been Jorge instead of Alan — I bet we could have heard Anfisa’s screams from the audience! LOL) Alan’s bad luck continued until the second half of the show when he got the chance to bid on four Michael Kors smart watches (above) — two for him and two for her. Alan bid $1,200 and won by being just $25 under the actual retail price of $1,225! After winning the bid, Alan jumped and danced some more and then went ALL OUT in front of the bid podiums by showing off his breakdancing skills doing the Worm! Here’s a photo montage and animated gif of Alan’s celebration: Drew, and the crowd, and me LOVED it! (That animated gif is EVERYTHING!) Alan was then given the opportunity to play “Pick A Number” for a chance to win a home gym, complete with a large screen LED TV. All he had to do was fill in the first number of the retail price for the three items with the options of either $4,594, $5,594 or $7,594. Alan guessed $4,594 but the actual retail price was $7,594. WOMP, WOMP… Given that he lost his game, Alan was the first to spin the Big Wheel for a chance to occupy the second spot in The Showcase Showdown. As the Big Wheel spun, Drew asked him “Who do you want to say ‘Hi’ to?” “I want to say ‘Hi” to my wife Kirlyam, [inaudible], my parents, all my sisters, my buddy Kent, and everybody else.” Alan got the unfortunate result of.55 on his first spin, and he elected to spin again. As the Big Wheel was turning for a second time, Alan made a prayer gesture with his hands. The game show gods must have been watching because he got.40, adding up to a very difficult to beat.95! Neither of the other two contestants were able to beat Alan’s.95 and he was off to The Showcase Showdown! OK, here is the very short list of the items included in the showcase that Alan bid on, which was the very last showcase of 2017: Trip for two to Fiji with a six-night stay in a premium ocean-front room at The Pearl Resort. (Includes one massage each) Red Mazda MX-5 Miata convertible!!! Alan’s bid was $34,440 on the two items. I will start with the other finalist, Valerie, who bid $30,777 on her showcase, which included two trips and a Mini Cooper. The actual retail price on hers was $35,342. That’s a difference of only $4,565. That’s pretty close! As I mentioned, Alan bid $34,440 on his showcase and the actual retail price was… $34,911 for a difference of only $471!!! HE WINS! HE WINS!! I’ll let the photos of Alan and Kirlyam tell you how they felt about it: In case the photos weren’t enough, Alan was posting about the episode on social media as it aired, including a lengthy Instagram post explaining that he has been a big fan of The Price Is Right for a LOOOOONG time: I have always been a huge @therealpriceisright fan. I loved watching it with Bob Barker and continued to love it with Drew Carey. It was one of the most fun experiences in my life. I would have been happy just to have been called to “come on down”, but to actually win the showcase showdown was an absolute DREAM! And to top it off I got to share this experience with the love of my life @kirlyam_, my awesome sister Nicole and my best friend Kent (and a woman we met in line that just figured hey I’ll go up too … Hahahaha) thanks to my Mom and Dad for making this all possible by babysitting Liam! Fiji HERE WE COME!! #triptofiji #mazdamiatamx5 More from Alan: Who's watching @therealpriceisright right now? A post shared by Alan (@alandesigned) on Dec 29, 2017 at 9:05am PST #theworm #thepriceisright A post shared by Alan (@alandesigned) on Dec 29, 2017 at 9:28am PST I’m like a lot of fans of the show in that I LOVE this couple, and I could not be happier that they won the trip and the car! I can’t wait to see photos of the two of them (with son Liam in a car seat) cruising around in their new Miata. And I also can’t wait to see photos from their Fiji vacay! Congratulations Alan and Kirlyam! What an amazing 2017, amirite?! You can CLICK HERE to watch the full episode on CBS.com.Fifa president Sepp Blatter has been taking soundings from advisors Fifa will decide whether to release its World Cup corruption report within the next few hours - with president Sepp Blatter holding the key to the outcome. A number of Fifa executives want the entire 430-page report published, but Blatter may limit who is able to vote on the decision to release it. Only a summary has been released so far, angering author Michael Garcia, who claims parts of it are "erroneous". Leading members of football's governing body are currently meeting in Morocco. Blatter has suggested in the past that only those executives who decided, back in December 2010, to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively should be able to vote. Sources close to the Fifa president believe that, as of Thursday night, he was still undecided about what to do. Fifa's executive committee consisted of 22 members in December 2010 but of those original 22, only 13 still remain. It means that 12 members of Fifa's committee, which now consists of 25 people, plus two co-opted members, would not be eligible to vote. Friday's meeting in Marrakesh is expected to conclude around 1200 GMT. Blatter will then speak to the media from around 1300 GMT. American lawyer Michael Garcia cited a "lack of leadership" at the top of football's world governing body when he resigned as Fifa's independent ethics investigator Garcia, an American lawyer, heaped further pressure on Fifa in the run up to this week's two-day meeting in Morocco by resigning as its independent ethics investigator. He claimed the summary of his two-year investigation into allegations of corruption was "incomplete and erroneous". Asked if Garcia's resignation was a new low for world football's governing body, Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce, from Northern Ireland, responded: "I don't think there's any doubt about that." Britain's most senior football official said he has always thought "as much of this report as is legally possible should be put in the public domain". He added: "Until that is done, it's not going to go away. If people have nothing to hide, why are they afraid of something being issued?"Impedimenta: Feeding the Iron Behemoth - Logistics & Supply in Hearts of Iron By Jeff Renaud Hearts of Iron (HoI), has been acclaimed as one of the first World War II PC games of grand strategic scope. It certainly was the first I’d ever played with a deep logistical system alongside robust diplomacy, a detailed technological model, and the opportunity to conduct global theatre-level warfare. Since we’re dealing with a game, however – especially a game as vast in scope as HoI – abstraction is also necessitated where gameplay would otherwise be over-complicated or compromised. So, how well did previous entries in the series deal with logistics and supply, especially in comparison to its latest incarnation, Hearts of Iron IV? To start, it should be noted that Fuel/Oil has always been a separately tracked though integral part of ‘supply’ in HoI – albeit until IV, that is; more later. Otherwise, at the consumer end-point of its ‘supply chain’, the HoI unit – usually a wing, ‘fleet’, or division-sized entity – draws a certain amount of supply/oil/fuel from a national pool. Along the line, many factors impinge upon the exact amount a given unit receives, as well as how much is actually drawn from said pool (the difference being wastage or ‘overhead’, something not contemplated in all games; chiefly II). Foremost among these include infrastructure and distance from a supply head – either a naval port or the capital. Many other situations influence the calculation, such as whether or not a unit is stationary or in combat (and possibly receiving increased supply for offensive manoeuvres), nearby enemy activity – partisan or air/naval interdiction – in addition to the size of the depot. At one time or currently, even more abstract factors further modified a unit’s supply status, i.e. the difficulty setting, ministers, generals, redeploying units, or even new naval/air bases still awaiting deployment (where, pray, are they being ‘held’?). Originally, the game tied Supply to a slider alongside Consumer Goods, Research, and Production; adjusting one of these four systems affected all others unless locked. In HoI II, Industrial Capacity abstractedly determined Transport Capacity, and was severed from other components while still modified by various factors mentioned above, ending up with Effective Supply Efficiency. In III, the sliders returned, now totalling five: Upgrades, Reinforcement, Production, and Consumer Goods (re)joined Supplies. Units ‘requested’ supply from a nation-wide network that had to be traced to a stockpile via a contiguous series of adjacent provinces or sea-zones; once found, supplies would ‘move’ one province/zone per day until they reached the requesting unit. Bottlenecks could form – and would be shown on the Supply mapmode – again due to various causes; more about bottlenecks in a bit. My advice to you, monsieur, is to build more than one ship – les Boches sont à venir! IF ONLY… Back when HoI III players complained enough regarding the ease with which a German player, for example, could invade the U.S.A. through Canada or Mexico,version 1.06c imposed a heavy logistics penalty on invasions far from one’s capital: a rather abstract modifier of -66% to Supply Efficiency. While remaining essentially the same system, IV separates reinforcements – as well as intrinsic equipment – from supplies, and requires a valid supply route with at least 10% efficiency to send replacements. This calculation depends on port size and adequate convoys – more info here – but in any case, imposing the same penalty from III could have meant that overseas invasions might be nearly impossible to reinforce, depending on difficulty and other factors. Fortunately, that did not happen. The main similarity between III and IV is that supplies are automatically convoyed overseas as required (assuming sufficient convoys); in the opinion of many players a very acceptable abstraction avoiding lots of micro-management. Additionally, supply capacity is tied to infrastructure in IV, but the main contrast is how the latter provides Local Supply to given areas of the map – usually two or more ‘states’; more about Local Supply later. Some further abstraction occurred where infrastructure is now averaged for each area, although now a depot’s capacity limits supply throughput; a small port will be very restrictive, a capital worth many VP (which add Supply Points) not much. Though still a rather esoteric – and mostly hidden – calculation, tooltips on the Supply mapmode (F4) can help identify bottlenecks (the big red arrow will be a clue!), which can then be theoretically corrected, e.g., by increasing port capacity and/or infrastructure. Players whom have heretofore argued that the system ought to be more realistic, in that the actual supply situation should take precedence instead of levying an arbitrary stacking penalty or ‘distance’ modifier, as did HoI III, appear to have mostly gotten their wish, in some ways at least. The next questions are: 1) Does the AI understand it? 2) Does it actually work? According to this thread, opinions are mixed (on v1.1). I think only time will answer both queries, and more playtesting than I can do on my own prior to this article’s deadline. For now, I loaded a (1.2) game as Japan that I had been playing as Germany, just to check out the AI’s Chinese-Japanese War supply situation in a low-infrastructure environ. I didn’t see much that concerned me: In only one area the Japanese were undersupplied and in danger of being overrun. A couple of months later they launched an invasion behind the Chinese lines and seemed to be correcting the situation, but when I went back a month after that, they had been ousted from that beachhead. Yet, a few more months on, the PRC capitulated; China about a year later. What are we to make of this? Concerning, but not out of the ordinary. TAKE NOTE, PATTON/ROMMEL WANNABE! As Patch 1.2 just released as this article went ‘to press’, it’s difficult to say definitively, especially since more will change with future patches and rumoured DLC. I can advise, however, that HoI IV players need be cognisant of the overall supply situation; current out of supply penalties are harsh. The wiki and various tutorials such as this short one and another, that also covers naval units and invasions, might help. It especially behoves players of island nations such as Japan and the U.K. to learn that trying to stuff 30 or 40 – or even far less – mechanised divisions into Africa or China before the infrastructure is in place to support them is likely to get them nowhere fast. Also note that I said before; planning to build improvements while attacking – or just prior – is almost as risky, since infrastructure and ports can be slower builds than you may want your troops to move. This becomes a key strategy (or tactic; take your pick) for HoI IV players: Seizing enemy ports used for invasions will almost immediately cripple his supply effort (as mentioned in the linked tutorial videos). Not only ports, however; taking control of straits/canals will choke off supply as well, albeit do recall that VPs provide some Local Supply (and opinion is divided on
introspectively about our mission,” Stelljes said. “Although we’re fully certified police officers and we have a tremendous amount of talent here with seasoned officers, our focus is a little different on what we do every day in our schools and working with students with special needs. We’re focused on prevention, education, mentoring, guidance and developing relationships with students and staff so those students can be successful.” The White House and Congress have announced plans to review the 1033 Program. Amid scrutiny by civil liberties groups and media outlets, several school districts have pledged to return equipment purchased through the program. Even without the guns, Cook said schools police are constantly “working to ensure they’re prepared for the worst-case scenario and hoping for the best.” “They decided it wasn’t going to be a good thing for our district, but I’m confident we’ll still be able to keep our students safe,” Cook said. ——— ©2014 the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) Distributed by MCT Information ServicesCassava is a tropical root vegetable and staple crop for millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it’s tricky to handle: Once the root is removed from the ground, it spoils within one to three days, so farmers must get it to processing centers as soon as possible after harvesting it. If they don’t, the crop goes to waste. A simple way to prolong cassava’s shelf life could help farmers avoid that waste and sell their crop beyond their local region. Paula Hammond, MIT professor of chemical engineering, and other scientists are now working on an innovative way to help them do that, using nanotechnology — technology that controls material at a molecular or atomic scale. Their idea is to design a plastic storage bag lined with nanoparticles that would react with oxygen, preventing the roots’ oxygen-induced rotting. “That would enable farmers to harvest and store and process at times convenient to them,” says Hammond, who traveled to Kenya and Ghana last summer with an international group of scientists to meet with farmers and come up with new ways to improve agricultural efficiency. It may seem odd to send Hammond, a chemical engineer who focuses on nanotechnology, into rural Africa to help farmers. But that’s exactly the point, says Todd Barker, a partner for the Meridian Institute, which organized the trip with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Organizers were looking for scientists who specialize in fields not traditionally involved in international development. And they wanted people who knew little or nothing about agriculture, says Barker. “We wanted to get them to look at these particular problems in Africa with a fresh set of eyes.” ‘An important problem’ After the Meridian Institute identified three agricultural chains where farmers needed help — cassava, dairy and maize (corn), Barker enlisted Jeffrey Carbeck PhD ’96, a chemical engineer and entrepreneur, to identify scientists who would fit in with the mission. “I was looking for people who had a deep technical background but had shown they could apply it in multiple areas,” says Carbeck, who knew Hammond from their graduate school days at MIT. Carbeck thought that Hammond, an expert in designing polymers for drug delivery, sensors and energy, would fit perfectly. Hammond, in turn, was intrigued by the idea. “It sounded like such an important problem, and I had never been to Africa. This was a chance to see it from a very unique perspective,” she says. Equipped with Land Rovers and digital video cameras, the group of a dozen scientists from around the world traveled to farms throughout the two African nations, talking with farmers to find out the biggest obstacles they face. For Hammond, the trip was enlightening. “These working families have very immediate problems and have neither the resources, nor perhaps the voice, to express them to groups of elite scientists, and that’s what this allowed them to do,” she says. “These are really exciting problems outside the realm of what we might normally encounter in academia.” The team found that dairy farmers have a similar problem to cassava farmers — getting their milk to processing centers before it spoils. Most farms don’t have their own refrigeration facilities, so the farmers have to carry their milk in plastic jugs, usually on foot or bicycle, to the nearest cooling center. If the cooling centers are far from the farm, the farmers might make only one trip a day, so any milk produced after that trip is in danger of spoiling before the next day’s trip. Milk that goes bad is rejected at the center and dumped out. To avoid that waste, Hammond and other scientists in the group came up with the idea to design a milk container with a nanopatterned, antimicrobial coating that would preserve milk longer than a plain plastic jug. The African dairy farmers are also interested in a way to easily test their cows to see if they’re pregnant or in heat. Cows must be bred and produce calves in order to produce milk, but if a cow runs dry, it’s difficult to tell whether it’s due to lack of pregnancy or a common udder infection known as mastitis. There is no simple test for cow pregnancy as there is for humans, but scientists who went on the trip came up with the idea to adapt existing nanopatterned paper sensors to detect bovine pregnancy. The Gates Foundation originally planned to allocate funding for two or three ideas that came out of the trip, but there were so many (more than 200, later consolidated into 22 concepts), that the foundation is encouraging the scientists to pursue as many as possible. The Meridian Institute will initially focus on diagnostic tools for mastitis, the new milk container, tick-borne disease and other livestock diseases, safety tests for milk, a modified plastic tank for maize storage, and a new way to dry cassava. The Meridian Institute is now working on starting up a foundation that would serve as an “incubator” to help develop, test and bring these ideas to commercialization, according to Barker. “The major challenge now is to make sure the ideas that came out of the trip reach the farmers in Africa,” he says. In The World is a column that explores the ways members of the MIT community are developing technology — from the appropriately simple to the cutting edge — to help meet the needs of communities around the planet, especially those in the developing world. If you have suggestions for future columns, please e-mail newsoffice@mit.edu.Share. Freddy vs. Jason vs. Predator vs. The Babadook Freddy vs. Jason vs. Predator vs. The Babadook Ed Boon, director of Mortal Kombat X and Injustice 2, has said he'd be open to the idea of making a fighting game with a cast of horror movie characters. The last two Mortal Kombat games have included guest characters from the Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Alien, Predator and Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises, and Game Informer asked Boon whether NetherRealm Studios might take the next logical step and build a whole game around horror icons. "Yes, yes! You know, as we've been accumulating them, that idea has been coming up more and more frequently," he explained. "You brought it up and a few other people have brought it up like 'why don't you do a horror movie fighting game?' Maybe one day we'll do it." Exit Theatre Mode In the meantime, Boon has been discussing DC superhero sequel Injustice 2's'more aggressive' DLC plan, which appears to include upping the number of DLC characters from Mortal Kombat X's eight. That could well include more out-of-universe guests, going by his comments to GI. While Boon acknowledges that "there's a certain amount of people who think that when they see a guest character that it took the slot of a DC character that they wanted to have", he also points out that the first Injustice's most-downloaded DLC character was it's sole non-DC inclusion, Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. He follows up by saying, "Alien and Predator in Mortal Kombat X were the most downloaded of those, so I would be surprised if we didn't do any of that [in Injustice 2]." But before any of that, we have the core Injustice 2 to play - based on our E3 preview, it'll feel like very familiar fun. Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and he wants the It from It Follows, just a constantly transforming, slowly shambling reminder of your naughty times. Follow him on Twitter.Armed protest at Alamo ends quietly During this rally in 2013, Texans showed up carrying rifles, shotguns and antique firearms to protest a city ordinance limiting where gun owners can take their weapons. During this rally in 2013, Texans showed up carrying rifles, shotguns and antique firearms to protest a city ordinance limiting where gun owners can take their weapons. Photo: Express-News File Photo Photo: Express-News File Photo Image 1 of / 55 Caption Close Armed protest at Alamo ends quietly 1 / 55 Back to Gallery SAN ANTONIO — Gun enthusiasts gathered at the Alamo Saturday to rally for the right to openly carry firearms, without state and local restrictions that are now in place. Demonstrators, many carrying rifles, shotguns or 19th-century pistols, cheered speakers who urged them to hold tight to their firearms, as their protected Constitutional right. Featured speaker Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a candidate for lieutenant governor whose General Land Office oversees the Alamo, approved the use of the Alamo grounds for the event. Until 2011 the Alamo was overseen by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which limited demonstrations at one of the state's most recognized landmarks. Police Chief William McManus said this week that police would oversee the protest, which he expected to be peaceful. Live coverage updates: Update 3:05 p.m. Police have threatened to cite remaining protesters who are armed for a violation of city ordinance that bans weapons in city parks. Police did not enforce the ordinance during the demonstration, but told a small group of armed protesters who declined to leave they would be cited if they stayed. “How do you even sleep at night,” one protester asked an officer during a five-minute standoff that gained the attention of a small crowd. The protester labeled the police “tyrants with badges.” Update: 2:54 p.m. A handful of protesters that remained at the Alamo after the event ended Saturday were told to leave or be cited by police. Express-News reporters are monitoring. Update: 2 p.m. The rallying crowd began to disperse and trail out of Travis Park by around 2 p.m. Saturday. The protest ended quietly, after about four hours of impassioned speeches about the right to bear arms and protecting the Second Amendment against government interference. Organizers expected 1,000 people to join in. Police estimated that at its fullest, the protest drew between 450 and 500 people. Update: 1:25 p.m. Protesters arrived at Travis Park to continue their rally, including an “open mic” session with a bullhorn. The park is named for Alamo defender William Barrett Travis and was once used as a gathering place for Confederate soldiers. The park on East Travis Street features a statue donated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, standing at its center. Update: 1:15 p.m. Chanting “live free or die!” protesters marched toward Travis Park to continue their demonstration. Hundreds packed the sidewalks leading from the Alamo to the park, where an “open mic” session is planned. Bicycle cops trailed alongside the crowd while they moved off the Alamo grounds. Update: 12:45 p.m. Protesters at the Alamo are next expected to gather at Travis Park for an “open mic” session, organizers said. The group was set to start marching to the park at around 12:30 p.m. Around that time, there were still hundreds assembled at the Alamo, where speeches continued. Four members of the Australian Women's National Soccer team, in town for a friendly match Sunday, wandered through the crowd wide-eyed. “Only in America,” said midfielder Heather Garriock. "It's surreal. You only see this in the movies. Meanwhile, on stage, speakers continued to attack what they said were efforts to infringe on Americans' rights, Second Amendment and otherwise. “I support every one of them,” said B. Thomas, 27, who came from Missouri City near Houston. “We all sing the same song.” Update: 12:20 p.m. More than a dozen police officers patroled the crowd at the Alamo, Saturday. Chief William McManus was among them. He did not make public remarks but did have an exchange with national gun enthusiast Alex Jones that drew a small crowd. The radio show host and famed conspiracy theorist walked away from the chief and back into the crowd after a few minutes. Update: 11:35 a.m. Three members of the National Charro Federation are on Alamo Street protesting the hundreds of people standing on the plaza where Mission Indians are buried. “These people that love the Second Amendment, that are law-abiding citizens who respect this country's laws, they should not be trampling on a Native American cemetery,” said Ronald Rocha, 72, a descendant of Mission Indians. Update: 11:15 a.m. A couple dozen people were gathered near South Alamo and Sixth streets for a grassroots anti-gun demonstration put on Saturday morning by a group called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Organizers said the would will draw a“line in the sandbox” to oppose “open carry extremists.” Update: 10:55 a.m. In stark contrast to Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson's tempered rhetoric, firebrand TV and radio host Alex Jones brought his message of anti-globalization to the stage. To applause and cheers, Jones blew out his voice as he warned the crowd that “globalists” are trying to take away their firearms. “They're not misguided liberals,” Jones said, “They're authoritarians who are arming to the teeth to take away our liberties.” Update: 10:45 a.m. Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a candidate for lieutenant governor who helped author the state's concealed carry law, compared Saturday's rally to the famous battle at Gonzalez that sparked the Texas revolution. “The Mexican army came to Gonzalez to take away the cannon the townspeople had to defend themselves and they said, 'no, come and take it,'” Patterson told the crowd that has swollen to several hundred. Patterson asked attendees not to blame police for what he called restrictive laws that infringe on citizens' rights. “Any anger you have, focus it on the lawmakers,” he said. Patterson asked attendees to make room for people trying to visit the Alamo. He also asked them not to openly carry their weapons in the shrine. Austin Libertarian TV host Alex Jones is on the stage now. Update: 10:40 a.m. A grassroots anti-gun demonstration by a group called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, is set to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at 609 S. Alamo St. with music, games, food and information about gun safety. Organizers said they will draw a“line in the sandbox” to oppose “open carry extremists.” “As mothers, we have an obligation to push back on the bullying and intimidation tactics of the aggressive carry movement,” organizers said in a press release this week. Upate: 10:15 a.m. The rally started with remarks from organizers. “We aren't here to start a war today,” one said, addressing a steadily growing crowd. “We are here to show that an armed society is a polite society.” Organizer CJ Grisham, an Army master sergeant who was arrested in Temple for carrying a rifle and whose trial last week ended in a mistrial, asked attendees to keep flags blocking the chambers of their guns. “If the SWAT team comes down and starts surrounding us with tactical gear, it only takes a minute to pull them out,” Grisham said of the orange pieces of plastic most attendees have stuck in the cheers of their guns. “But that's not going to happen.” Grisham called for a change to Texas laws preventing the open carry of modern pistols. Upate: 9:45 a.m. Organizers expect more than 1,000 people to show up Saturday carrying rifles, shotguns and antique firearms to protest a city ordinance that limits where gun owners can take their weapons. As of 9:45 a.m., there were about 300. A heavy police presence was also expected. Two uniformed officers were spotted at the rally at around 10 a.m., shaking hands with demonstrators. Update: 9:30 a.m. More than 100 people, many of them carrying rifles with the slides visibly blocked, have gathered in front of the Alamo for today's open carry demonstration. Gina Holcomb, 47, the wife of a gun rights activist who was arrested earlier this year in Austin for carrying a black powder pistol, said she and her family woke up at 4 a.m. to drive in from Cold Spring. “We've got chamber flags in,” she said, pointing to the orange piece of plastic that prevents her AR-15 from firing. “We're showing you can have a peaceful demonstration with citizens with guns.” LeeAnna Hopson, 35, is in town from Orlando, Fla., for a convention and was jogging by the Alamo this morning. “Someone warned me people were going to be coming carrying weapons today, otherwise I would have run the other way.” Update: 9 a.m. Most of those to arrive early at the Alamo were organizers, among a couple dozen people that started gathering before 10 a.m. Demonstrator Robert Gustafson, 56, came with his AR-15 rifle, unloaded with a straw blocking the slide. “This is part of a bigger battle for individual rights,” Gustafson said. “There's something about being a gun owner that says, 'I can take care of myself.'” Police Chief Wiliam McManus said in an interview earlier this week that officers would ensure “that people do not become alarmed.” Texas law limits carrying of concealed handguns to licensed owners but allows open carrying of rifles if not done in a “manner calculated to alarm.” “Our goal is not to infringe on anybody's rights in anything that we do,” he said. “Our goal is actually to protect those rights. But when rights, perceived or otherwise, conflict with the laws, that's where police will intervene.” MySA will be at the rally throughout the day providing updates.I haven’t really written that much on here lately mainly because I have been extremely busy over the past month. My changes from the hormones have continued along their accelerated path and I can’t see them slowing down any time soon. The past month must have been the time the hormones started attacking my face and getting rid of all the maleness. My face appears much more round than it used to be and the skin complexion on my cheeks is just amazing now. I have been experiencing constant breast growth from when I started. They are growing at a rate of nearly a whole cup size each month. The picture above doesn’t show it off that much, but from measurements, I am now a B cup. As soon as my holidays started on the 22nd of December, I started doing a lot of things related to my transition. On the first day, I went to the registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and handed in my legal name change form. Just before I left, I sent in an email to all of my work colleagues coming out and explaining the situation coming forward; that I would return in the new year with my legal name changed to Michelle. The week before Christmas, I saw my mother for the first time since starting transition. This didn’t really go to well with her visibly avoiding commenting on my appearance and constantly using my old name. By the time Christmas came, I told her that I had gone to legally change my name and she finally started using my new name when she referred to me. Also on Christmas Day was the first time I had seen my father since he even knew about my status. He hadn’t commented at all since he found out (he added me on Facebook which has many links to here). I didn’t know what to expect. While I was there, he didn’t use either my old or new name at all. The only indication that he approved was that my presents were labelled “To: Michelle.” On Thursday last week, I received my new name change certificate in the mail. My name is now officially Michelle Rachel Allen. The problem now is getting everything changed over to that new name. Last Friday, my friend Kit took me shopping for some women’s clothing. I got plenty of new clothes and she was very understanding of what I would be comfortable in at the moment. I also got some makeup, which I haven’t really started to use yet. Finally, today I was woken up by a phone call from the office of Dr Russel Date. After waiting nearly four months for a call back, I now have an appointment to see him in early March.DUP MLA Jim Wells said his family are not particularly close as he explained how he was unaware for so long he had multiple family members who are recipients under the RHI scheme. The DUP MLA revealed on Friday, five days before the list of RHI recipients is due to be made public, that he has a brother, two cousins and the spouse of another cousin who had installed wood pellet boilers under the RHI scheme. During an interview on BBC Radio Ulster today (Monday, January 23) Mr Wells said he did not know his brother was on the scheme until Friday because he “assumed” he was using solar panels instead. He also said he has not set foot on any of his cousin’s farms in a long time and that the family are not that close as he fielded questions on the TalkBack programme over how he only came to be aware they were recipients on the RHI scheme on Friday, despite the controversy surrounding the scheme in recent months. Mr Wells, asked by presenter William Crawley whether it was a case of getting his “damage limitation in early”, said: “The moment that I became aware that my family were involved, totally legitimately, that is when I decided to go public. I sent the press release to every conceivable press outlet in Northern Ireland to let anybody know.” He continued: “My relatives have done nothing wrong. I have no interest whatsoever in any of the farms. I was the eldest son, I could have taken over the farm, I didn’t. I went into politics and, therefore, the farm has been in my brother’s hands for 42 years and I am perfectly content with that.” Asked whether he had “demonstrated a stunning lack of curiosity” for failing to ask whether any of his poultry farming family members were claimants on the RHI scheme, Mr Wells said he had more pressing issues on his mind, referring to his wife’s long-running struggle with serious illness. He said: “I have other things going on in my life. They have been widely broadcast. I have to say, over this past few weeks, my priorities have not been to go round my relatives and ask questions about RHI. Unfortunately, I have much more difficult and personal issues to worry about, but you’re right. I should have asked. I should have enquired. I didn’t and that was wrong.” Asked whether his was a “close family”, Mr Wells said: “No, we are not. I am not in and out of farmyards. We keep in contact - we might meet at weddings or funerals - but this is not the type of family we are in. There are no difficulties in the family but obviously I have gone down a totally different route than the rest of the family.” Asked when he was told they were recipients on the RHI scheme, Mr Wells said: “I think around noon on Friday, roughly.” Pressed on the issue, Mr Wells said: “In one of the farms, I have never been on it in my life. Another one I hadn’t been on in 20 years. The third one I have been on it once in the last decade. The only one that I’m directly visiting is my brother’s and it has solar panels and that is what I felt was heating the chicken shed. The solar panels are on the chicken shed but, no, he changed to RHI like almost every other chicken producer working for that company did. Asked why he had “never once asked” members of his family whether they were on the RHI scheme, Mr Wells said: “I accept that does sound strange but the solar panels are there for everyone to see and I just assumed, wrongly assumed, that was what was heating the shed. I had no idea what my cousins were doing whatsoever but I accept that I should have asked.”Donald Trump’s victory confounded elite pollsters, journalists, politicians, academic experts and captains of industry. They all wrote him off as a fading gasbag. By every conventional barometer, he should have lost big time. His own party largely abandoned him. Former Republican presidents and primary rivals refused to endorse him. Donors bailed on him. His campaign staff was ridiculed as amateurish. Trump became the worst nightmare of the establishment, both Democratic and Republican. But unnoticed during the last month of the campaigning was a growing realization among Americans that the supposedly sober and judicious Hillary Clinton was irreparably disconnected. On the eve of the election, Clinton packed her rallies with celebrities. Sometimes the result was bizarre, as, for example, when Jay Z managed to use both the N-word and F-word in the would-be president’s presence. Millions were unimpressed. The so-called deplorables, irredeemables and clingers of America certainly did not think the stump performances of Lady Gaga, Beyoncé or Miley Cyrus resonated themes of amenity or probity. It used to be that Democrats abhorred the role of big money in politics. But Clinton outspent Trump 3-1 and raised more than a billion dollars. The plutocracy — Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the great American gilded fortunes of Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Facebook and Google — were not just Clinton supporters but often strident ones. The old idea of a liberal populist underdog had morphed into a haughty moneybag, with a huge staff, lots of opposition researchers and internal pollsters, surfeits of questionable cash donations, and politically correct endorsements that the left used to find plastic and inauthentic. The Trump campaign, meanwhile did everything contrary to the establishment playbook: no big-name endorsers, no ground game, no celebrity entertainers — unless you count Don King — no sophisticated bundlers, no legions of hired-gun political activists and spinners. Trump was accessible. He talked loudly and perhaps too often to the news media; Clinton was secretive and studied, opening up only to pre-screened media toadies. He tweeted promiscuously; she had an entire team to adjudicate each of the permissible 140 characters. Trump waded into crowds. She was surrounded by a phalanx of handlers. A man from Mars would have assumed that the right-wing candidate was the grass-roots populist and his left-wing opponent was a Big Money, Big Media automaton, created by central casting. From the WikiLeaks John Podesta trove, we learned that the proverbial mainstream media was not just biased, but had openly colluded with a campaign in a fashion that even the supposed conspiracists on talk radio or at the Drudge Report could not dream up. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote the Podesta team asking for free research help to denigrate Trump. The widely praised Democratic Party Chairman Donna Brazile leaked debate questions to the Clinton campaign during the primaries — and offered no apologies for her duplicity. Politico’s Glen Thrush at least had the honesty to describe himself as a hack when he sent his reporting to the Podesta group for proofreading. Again, in the old days, all that would have been written off as Nixonian dirty tricks. For weeks, smug pollsters assured voters of a substantial Clinton lead and likely victory at odds of 70% and greater. A few reliable polls with proven records — USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times "Daybreak" and Investor’s Business Daily especially — showed a tight race. So naturally they were written off by the establishment as “outliers.” When some wrote that a sizable minority of Latinos and African Americans in theory might vote for Trump at levels that met or exceeded support for Mitt Romney in 2012, they were derided as unhinged. But was it so hard to imagine that a third-generation Mexican American might fear - more so than the gated residents of Malibu and Santa Monica - the impact of illegal immigration on his neighborhood school or community? Or that an out of work lathe operator was not a big fan of globalization? Or that a sizable minority of African Americans thought the blunt and straight-talking Trump was more genuine than a female Romney? Every hyphenated group now triumphs in their tribal affiliations while deriding "white privilege." Is it surprising that the white working classes without privilege should follow suit and embrace ethnic solidarity? Clinton in the last weeks talked of the electorate as if it was a faceless hyphenated Borg - Latinos this, African Americans that, the gay vote, women voters - without any realization that she was referring to millions of Americans by their appearance rather than their essence as unique individuals. In normal times, all that pandering would have been seen as illiberal. The Clinton message itself was seen as radical and reckless to those who were not so invested in it. Even President Obama's cheerleading could not mask the bleak reality of doubling the debt in eight years to $20 trillion, chronic near-zero interest rates, record labor nonparticipation rates and anemic GDP growth. It was extreme, not moderate, to junk the nation's healthcare system and to ram through Obamacare, whose premises were based on partisanship, untruth and pipe dreams. Yet Clinton's campaign acted as if all that was the new normal when it was in truth radical fringe politics - as millions reminded us on election day.By Mercy Asamba \| Tuesday, Nov 7th 2017 at 09:36 Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru. (Photo: Courtesy) Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru has passed on in a horrific road accident Tuesday morning at Kabati, along Thika-Murang'a road while heading to Nairobi for a talk show. Nyeri County Assembly Speaker John Kaguchia has confirmed that the Governor, his driver and bodyguard suffered serious injuries after the early morning accident and were undergoing treatment. Council of Governors was in the process of airlifting Wahome Gakuru from Thika Level 5 Hospital to Nairobi Hospital. Governor Wahome's body has been taken to Lee funeral home as the other two are admitted to hospital. He was born in 1966. Governor Wahome Gakuru's car involved in road accident. (Photo: Cyrus Ombati/Standard) The former Vision 2030 director garnered 280,037 votes against Samuel Wamathai’s 85,316 to take the seat he missed in 2013. The governor’s technocrat background had put him in good stead to deal with a range of issues in his in-tray, having taken over a government that for the better part of the past five years was almost dysfunctional owing to incessant wrangles between the executive and members of the county assembly (MCAs). Nyeri residents looked up to Gakuru, after a harsh critic of the outgoing administration, for solutions, especially in spurring development and changing the fortunes of the ailing coffee and tea sectors in the county. Dr Gakuru was also a distinguished academician. Between 2001 and 2004 he obtained a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Arizona State University after graduating from Willamette University – Atkinson Graduate School of Management with a Master of Business Administration degree. He also held an MBA from the University of Nairobi earned between 1991 and 1993 after graduating from the same institution with B. Com Honours – Business Administration in 1991 havng had joined theUniversity in 1988. He was a lecturer at the School of Business at the University of Nairobi since 1994 where he taught Ph.D candidates besides running his consultancy. Gakuru the politician was a member of The National Alliance Party from 2013 before moving joining the Jubilee Alliance later same year. He lost the battle for Nyeri governorship in 2013 to Nderitu Gachagua who died in 2017 after a long battle with cancer On Linked In, Dr Gakuru’s profile reads: “I have over 20 years of rich and diverse experience in a variety of business skills ranging from Operations, Marketing, Strategy, Public Policy Design, to Training and Institutional Capacity Building. My experience is also cross sectoral covering the Private Sector, Public, State Corporations and Academia. Additionally, I have considerable top level experience having held several Director level positions. I am currently the Group Operations Director at Bonfide Group, a leading logistics company. I am also a Director at Dhamana Africa, a management consultancy firm. Prior to this, I was the Director of Marketing, Policy and Advocacy at Equity Bank, a leading bank in the region. Before Equity, I served as the first Director of the Kenya Vision 2030 at the Presidency and Cabinet Affairs Office and later at the Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030. I was also the Director, Social Sector Department at the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) and the Head of Strategy Development at the National AIDS Control Council."At night, this mindless army, ranks unbroken by dissent, is moved into action and their pace does not relent. In step, with great precision, these dancers of the night advance against the darkness – how implacable their might! Eyes undulled by moon, their arms and legs akimbo, they walk and live, hoping soon to surface from this limbo. Their minds, anticipating the dawn of the day, shall never know what’s waiting mere insight away – too far, too soon. Senses dimmed in semi-sentience, only wheeling through this plane, only seeing fragmented images prematurely curtailed by the brain, but breathing, living, knowing in some measure at least the soul which roots the matter of both Beauty and the Beast. From what tooth or claw does murder spring, from what flesh and blood does passion? Both cut through the air with the pendulum’s swing in deadly but delicate fashion. And every range of feeling is there in the dream and every logic’s reeling in the force of the scream the senses sting. And though I may be dreaming and reality stalls I only know the meaning of sight and that’s all and that’s nothing. The columns of the night advance, infectiously, their cryptic dance gathers converts to the fold – in time the whole raw world will pace these same steps on into the same bitter end. Somnolent muster now the dancing dead forsake the shelter of their secure beds, awaken to a slumber whose depths they dread, as if the ground they tread would give way beneath the solemn weight of their conception. I’d search the hidden corners of all this world, make reason of the sensory whorl if I only had time, but soon the dream is ended. Tonight, before you lay down to the sweetness of your sleep do you question your surrender to the drop from Lover’s Leap or does the anaesthetic darkness take hold on its very own? Does your body rise in service with not one dissenting groan? These waking dreams of life and death in the mirror are twisted and buckled, lashes flicker, a catch of breath, skin whitening at the knuckles. The army of sleepwalkers shake their limbs and are loose and though I am a talker, I can phrase no excuse not to rise again. In the chorus of the night-time I belong and I, like you, must dance to that moonlight song and in the end I too must pay the cost of this life. If all is lost none is known and how could we lose what we’ve never owned? Oh, I’d search out every knowledge that I could find, unravel all the mysteries of mind, if I only had time, if I only had time, but soon my time is ended. Por la noche, este ejército sin sentido, sin romper filas por el disenso, se mueve a la acción y su ritmo no cede. En el paso, con gran precisión, los bailarines de la noche avance contra la oscuridad – la forma implacable sus fuerzas! Ojos undulled por la luna, los brazos en jarras y las piernas, que caminar y vivir, esperando pronto a la superficie de este limbo. Sus mentes, anticipándose a los albores del día, Nunca sabremos lo que está esperando una visión simple de distancia – Demasiado lejos, demasiado pronto. Sentidos atenuado en semi-sensibilidad, sólo rodar a través de este plano, sólo ver las imágenes fragmentadas prematuramente limitada por el cerebro, pero respirando, viviendo, conocer en cierta medida por lo menos el alma que las raíces de la cuestión tanto de bella y la bestia. Por lo que los dientes o garras hace primavera asesinato, de lo que la carne y la sangre es la pasión? Tanto cortado a través del aire con el swing del péndulo de manera mortal, pero delicado. Y cada gama de sentimientos hay en el sueño y toda lógica de tambaleándose en la fuerza del grito los sentidos picadura. Y aunque puedo estar soñando y puestos de la realidad Sólo sé el sentido de la vista y de que todos los y eso no es nada. Las columnas del anticipo noche, contagiosa, su danza crípticas reúne convierte en la tapa – en tiempo el mundo se entera y cruda ritmo estos mismos pasos en en el final mismo. Somnolienta reunir ahora el baile muertos abandonar el refugio seguro de sus camas, despertar de un sueño cuyo fondo temen, como si el suelo que pisan daría paso bajo el peso solemne de su concepción. Me harías en todos los rincones de este mundo, que debido a la espiral sensorial si yo tuviera el tiempo, pero pronto el sueño se terminó. Esta noche, antes de establecer a la dulzura de su sueño Qué pregunta de su entrega a la caída de Lover’s Leap o si la oscuridad anestesia afianzarse en su propio? ¿Su lugar del cuerpo en el servicio
. “For the first month, she was really unhappy with me,” Tomlinson said. “Everyone wants to hit the ball. That’s the fun stuff. It wasn’t until the first tournament, where she was running the team as a setter, a little sophomore with these seniors out there, that she realized it was a good thing.”A white man is facing charges after going on a racist tirade, physically attacking a black man and repeatedly referring to two other black men as “slave” and “vermin.” A WLS-TV photographer captured William Boucher, 23, on video as he physically and verbally attacked three people after someone spilled coffee on his light-colored suit at a Starbucks in downtown Chicago, according to police. After employees attempted to defuse the situation, the dispute spilled onto the sidewalk outside of the café and escalated. “Shut up, slave! Do not talk to me!” Boucher is heard yelling at a black man in the video. At one point, he lashes out at a second black man, who is also recording him. “Your children are disposable vermin!” he yelled before spitting on him. Witnesses said he also spit on a woman. They nearly get into a physical altercation but others intervene. “Get on all fours right now! Get on all fours! Do not walk off on two legs!” he shouted at the man as he walked away. Though the dispute seems to be over at that point, Boucher punched a random, uninvolved 59-year-old black man as he passed him. The man fell to the ground and bystanders tackled Boucher, holding him down until help arrived. Boucher was arrested and later identified after cops arrived. The injured man was sent to the hospital with an eye injury. Starbucks employees told WLS-TV that Boucher had caused problems in the past, but it never ended in violence. A Starbucks spokeswoman condemned Boucher’s behavior in a statement to CNN. “We have absolutely no tolerance for this type of behavior in our stores, and are grateful to the partners (employees) and customers who stepped in to help until officers arrived,” she said.Global stock markets have extended their heavy losses as concerns escalate about the debt problems facing the US and the eurozone. On Wall Street, the Dow index fell 2.5% as investors worried those problems could hit the global economic recovery. The UK's FTSE ended down 3.4% to 5,069, its lowest close since July 2010. But yields on Spanish and Italian bonds fell sharply after the European Central Bank (ECB) intervened to try to stop the eurozone debt crisis spreading. Bonds are essentially IOUs issued by governments, or companies, to raise cash. Governments issue new bonds to help pay maturing bonds, which is why it is so important that investors continue to buy them - if they do not, governments are unable to pay their outstanding debts. The ECB's announcement that it intended to buy up government bonds saw the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds fall from more than 6% to about 5.2% - an indication that investors think it is less risky to lend Spain money. Yields on Italian bonds fell by a similar amount. Tobias Blattner, a former economist at the ECB, said the central bank's intervention had done little to help the crisis of confidence gripping the share markets. "This reflects the fundamentals that growth is in a very bad situation on both sides of the Atlantic and this is why the ECB's interventions will not change anything," he told the BBC. The FTSE 100's 3.4% fall was a decline of 178 points. It also marked the first time in the index's 27-year history that it has fallen by more than 100 points for four sessions in a row. Share indexes also fell heavily across Europe, with Germany's Dax ending down 5%, while France's Cac lost 4.7%. Analysts suggest that further austerity measures, which will be needed to tackle high levels of debt in the US and some eurozone countries, could stifle their already weak economic recovery. These fears were were also reflected in the price of gold and oil. Gold, which is seen as a safe investment in times of economic uncertainty, jumped to a new record high of $1,697 an ounce. Meanwhile, the price of oil slipped further, reflecting concerns that weak global growth could lead to a fall in demand. US light crude fell 3% to $84.23 a barrel, while Brent crude lost 2.6% to $106.54. Knock-on effects Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption German foreign minister rejects criticism of eurozone leaders' response to the debt crisis Markets were also reacting to Standard & Poor's decision to cut the US's top-notch AAA rating for the first time. Announced after the US markets closed on Friday, the ratings agency cited concerns about the size of the country's budget deficit and the acrimonious and protracted battle in Congress to raise the country's debt ceiling at the eleventh hour. It has graded the US at AA+. The downgrade was heavily criticised by the US administration, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner telling NBC news S&P had shown "terrible judgement" and a "stunning lack of knowledge about basic US fiscal budget maths". Many will see the ECB as taking a serious credit risk in bailing out two financially over-stretched governments and as behaving contrary to the rules of prudent central banking Peston: The ECB's risky strategy But China, which is the world's biggest investor in US debt, has told Washington to address its high levels of debt rather than blaming S&P. An editorial in Monday's China People's Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, called on the US not to "become blind to the great risks that a weak greenback could pose to the world's fragile economic recovery by lifting dollar-denominated commodities prices". "It is time for the US to tighten its belt and solve its structural problems, in order to resume its reputation and restore world confidence," the paper said. According to some analysts, this is unlikely to happen. "We had hoped S&P's action would be a wake-up call [to the US administration]," Mohammed Al-Arian, chief executive of investment giant Pimco, told the BBC World Service. "Instead, what we have seen is more bickering. There is a massive blame game going on in Washington as to who lost America's AAA rating and also a stunning public clash between the US Treasury and S&P. "All this means is the politics is getting worse rather than better." More wobbles? The ECB indicated that it would start buying the bonds of eurozone governments in a statement on Sunday, hoping to instil confidence that some of its biggest economies would not default on their debt obligations. "Thanks to the ECB's intervention, [yields have] collapsed dramatically. I can't remember the last time I saw such a big move down," said Louise Cooper at BGC Partners. The G7 group of developed countries also issued a statement saying its members were "determined to react in a co-ordinated manner" to preserve financial stability. Yet Richard Hunter at broker Hargreaves Lansdown said investors would like to see more being done. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC correspondents around the world assess the impact on the financial markets He said: "The markets are looking for a concrete plan out of Europe and the US in terms of how they are going to deal with their deficits." "Until the market can get comfort on these matters, there is going to be more volatility." On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced plans to balance the country's budget by 2013, a year earlier than planned, while Spain has also promised to speed up cost-saving measures. Yet David Jones, an analyst at financial spread betting firm IG Index, told the BBC that investors would remain unconvinced, despite the various attempts by leaders and international authorities to reassure the markets. "It hasn't changed the feeling that politicians both in Europe and in the US are always a few steps behind where the crisis is," he said. "It is a lack of confidence. Markets still think there is a lot of talk from politicians but not much action. "They are reacting to the crisis rather than putting anything proactive in place. The political issue is a major reason why the markets have been so weak over the past week".(CNSNews.com) -For the first time ever, real federal tax revenues topped $1 trillion in the first four months of the fiscal year--October through January--according to data released Wednesday by the U.S Treasury. Federal tax revenues hit a record $1,046,224,000,000 for fiscal year 2015 through January, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement, but the federal government still ran a $194,209,000,000 deficit during that time. ype="node" title="tax, revenue Each month, the Treasury publishes the government’s “total receipts,” including all revenue from individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, social insurance and retirement taxes (including Social Security and Medicare taxes), unemployment insurance taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and “miscellaneous receipts.” In constant 2014 dollars, the $1,046,224,000,000 that the federal government has collected in October, November and December of 2014 and January of fiscal 2015, is $85,626,000,000 more than the $960,598,000,000 it collected in fiscal 2014 through January. That $960,598,000,000 that the federal government brought in in October through January of fiscal 2014 is now the second-highest-ever federal tax intake through January. In fiscal year 1998, the federal government collected $797,331,210,000 through January in constant 2014 dollars. Since then, real federal revenues in the October through January period have increased by 31.2 percent. Although the federal government has brought in a record of approximately $1,046,224,000,000 in revenue in October through January of this fiscal year, according to the Treasury, it has also spent approximately $1,240,433,000,000, leaving a deficit of approximately $194,209,000,000. The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.No amount of pampering, pillow-fluffing, or photon-showering on airplanes has yet saved corporate jet-setters and global adventurists from the pain of jet lag. But new research published in eLife has sniffed out a potentially potent solution: a drug that would tamper with the master sleep cycle gene to help haggard fliers quickly adjust to time differences. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a gene called Lhx1, which manages the area of our brain that acts like a master clock; it regulates our cyclic circadian rhythms and controls brain receptors that respond to light, keeping us feeling generally on schedule each day. Normally, the brain cells controlled by Lhx1 act in synchrony, which makes them somewhat resistant to changes in light. That inflexibility is why a sudden change in the day-night schedule can lead to jet lag. Researchers found that light-dark cycle cells were less in sync for animals with reduced levels of Lhx1, which led to testing Lhx1’s role in jet lag for mice. (The mice didn’t travel anywhere; the researchers just created an eight-hour shift in the animals’ day-night cycle.) They observed that the mice with less Lhx1 adjusted sooner; their neurons were less in sync, which allowed a faster shift to the new schedule. Finding a drug that cuts back on Lhx1 or a hormone it regulates to treat jet lag could be a big win for drug makers, which have been homing in on treatments for all manner of sleep disorders. While some studies suggest that problems with circadian rhythms can lead to obesity, mental illness and other illnesses, some doctors aren’t comfortable with drugs to treat jet lag and “shift-work disorders.” Previous attempts at stay-awake pills weren’t proven more effective than, say, caffeine. And yet they were possibly more addictive and potentially fatal.On Thursday January 10th the City of Miami Commission will vote on Resolution 12-01491 that if ratified, will disable ULTRA Music Festival from holding a second weekend at the Bayfront Park. It is unclear whether this proposed resolution could stop ULTRA from having 2 weekends, at all in the city of Miami or if it simply stops it from occurring at the Bayfront Park. This resolution was drafted and sponsored by only one Commissioner, Vice Chairman Marc Sarnoff, and thus there is still a large chance that Resolution 12-01491 will not be accepted by the other members. Just to reiterate, it is not quite clear whether this resolution can stop ULTRA from having 2 weekends, or whether it is only preventing it from holding the 2nd weekend at Bayfront Park. Some artists, such as Tommie Sunshine have already voiced their disapproval of the proposition and have made their opinion be known on twitter: For freedom, this is a major issue. We must stand up to this NOW! City of Miami you can’t cancel wknd 2 of @ultramusic. — Tommie Sunshine (@tommiesunshine) January 8, 2013 A petition has also just been created to oppose the resolution, here is the link if you want to sign: Petitioning the City of Miami Commission According to the resolution this is the reason for their desire to shut down the 2nd weekend: Said event will be disruptive to the local business community and area residents due to noise, nuisance behavior by festival goers, and grid locked traffic 69791[1]The icy heights of Kumaon Himalayas have revealed for the first time the presence of the elusive snow leopard, one of the most endangered species on the planet. Uttarakhand forest department officials said the camera trap photograph of the snow leopard was the first documented evidence of the presence of the species in Kumaon region though it is known to prowl the wilds elsewhere in the state. Officials said the latest photograph provided irrefutable proof of the presence of at least 11 snow leopards in the state, one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the country straddling the Himalayas and the Gangetic plains. The wilds of Kumaon are known mainly for their big cat population – both the Royal Bengal Tiger and leopards – documented vividly by British hunter-conservationist Jim Corbett. “It’s the first photographic evidence of the snow leopard’s presence in Kumaon region. Through the evidence, forest department would be able to prepare better conservation strategy for this endangered species,” said Vipul Maurya, who is studying presence of snow leopards in the greater Himalayas. He said the snow leopard was captured in Bageshwar district on June 29 at an altitude of 4,100 meters above sea level. The earlier photographic evidence of snow leopard was found in the Gangotri National Park and Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve since 2010. Both the national parks are located in the Garhwal hills while Bageshwar is in Kumaon region of the state. Officials said that since November 2014, a study is in progress in Sunnderdhunga valley of Bageshwar district. According to Maurya, the Kumaon region is a potential hotspot of high altitude wildlife though not much is known about its bidodiversity. Early this year, a Tibetan wolf was photographed in the region. According to official, the Gangotri and Nanda Devi reserves are potential breeding grounds of snow leopards, found only above altitude of 3000 metres. “We have camera trapped only five individuals but there are more snow leopards in this region. The park is a potential breeding ground for the specie,” said Shravan Kumar, deputy director of GNP. Classified as endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List, Uttarakhand is among five states where snow leopard is found besides Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. First Published: Jul 08, 2015 14:52 ISTGet the biggest Weekly Politics stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email With Signature Living this week announcing its plans to turn the historic Croxteth Hall into a premier hotel and others set to put their own new visions forward - the ECHO took an exclusive look behind the scenes to find out what it is that developers could get their hands on. Signature Living is the first company to have publicly revealed its intention to take over the running of the Grade II* listed building - with some typically quirky ideas including ‘glamping’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel Treehouse’ rooms. Boss Lawrence Kenwright wants to create a hotel and wedding venue that will be a “beacon” for the local community - with a third of the profits heading to the people of Croxteth. With the procurement process now underway and more bids expected soon, we were invited on a tour of the famous building - including the various areas where the public are currently not allowed to go. Based within the beauty of Croxteth Park, the hall was originally built as a country house in about 1575 and has been continually expanded in different styles including Tudor, Georgian and Queen Anne. (Image: Liverpool Echo) The hall is the former home of the Molyneux family, also known as the Earls of Sefton. It was bequeathed to the people of Liverpool when the last Earl died in 1972 - with the city council asked to act as custodians for a building of huge cultural and historic significance. Like many local authorities, Liverpool Council is strapped for cash after seven years of austerity and is having to look at every possible way of saving money. As things stand, the authority is losing more than £1m every year as it tries to manage and maintain Croxteth Hall. (Image: Liverpool Echo) It was announced at the start of the year that the council was looking for a private company to take over the running of the hall - with the explicit request that the heritage and public access of the hall is maintained. And walking around the magnificent building you can see why such a stipulation has been made. (Image: Liverpool Echo) (Image: Liverpool Echo) In the public areas of the hall, beautiful wood panelling and lush red carpets give the hall a real sense of grandeur and the many paintings and portraits of the Molyneux family immediately transport you back in time. We were fortunate enough to be invited behind the scenes to the areas of the hall that most people cannot go. Moving around the winding back corridors and staircases, you can understand why the likes of Lawrence Kenwright believe there is a huge opportunity in Croxteth Hall - the place is vast. (Image: Liverpool Echo) (Image: Liverpool Echo) In total there are more than 200 rooms, with many of these out of use at the moment and in need of some major renovation work. We were shown into the perfectly preserved maids quarters and the historic kitchens, which have regularly been used for television period dramas in the past. An example of how restoration can work in Croxteth Hall is found in the Queen Anne wing - which was badly damaged by a fire in 1952. The wing was largely out of bounds for six decades before a painstaking refurbishment project allowed it to re-open in 2013. The wing now plays regular host to weddings and conferences - an offer that can surely only be enhanced if the right developer and the right investment comes along to take over one of Liverpool’s most important historic buildings. (Image: Liverpool Echo) (Image: Liverpool Echo) Liverpool Council: “We are not selling Croxteth Hall” Cllr Peter Mitchell is the council’s Mayoral Lead for parks and is also a Croxteth Councillor, he has been at pains to state that whoever takes over the running of the Grade II * listed building will not own it and will have to respect its historical significance. He said: “I want to make it absolutely clear, we are not selling off Croxteth Hall, this building will always belong to the people of Liverpool - what we are looking for are partners who are willing to work with us on potential expansion and drawing down income from other sources. (Image: Liverpool Echo) (Image: Liverpool Echo) “There is never going to be a scenario where someone can go bust and we, the people of the city don’t own it. “As part of the procurement, public access to the building is sacrosanct - there cannot be an agreement without that. “The idea of turning this into a country house and hotel, absolutely not.” He added: “This place is part of our DNA and we will not sacrifice it for some opportunistic money people - this is about how we can enhance, protect and make better what we currently have.”Incoming White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Screenshot of White House video) (CNSNews.com) – Incoming White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that there have been more than 60 leaks in the first six months of the Trump administration from the intelligence community – far more than other administrations. Sanders was asked about President Donald Trump’s tweet criticizing the leaks from the intel community after a Washington Post report claimed that an intelligence intercept showed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions talked to the Russian ambassador about the Trump campaign. “That appears to be a confirmation that the attorney general was talking to the Russian ambassador about the campaign,” ABC’s George Stephanopolous said. “I don't think so at all, George. I completely disagree. I think the president's point is that there's a real problem with leaks, whether they're actual leaks or not,” Sanders said. “There's an issue that there are constant stories, sometimes true, sometimes not, that are being leaked out of the intelligence community. “We've had over 60 leaks in the first six months from the intelligence community when the other administrations previous to us were in the single digits after the entire time. This is a real problem. There are people are putting our national security at risk, and I think that is one of the most undertold stories so far in the first six months of this administration,” Sanders said. She said there’s “a ton of focus” on what she calls “Russia fever, which is a total made-up story about the president” to undermine the legitimacy of his election victory. “And we need to focus on these leaks. This is the only illegal thing that has taken place, and it's a real serious problem,” Sanders said.Even if the ads everywhere make you cringe, the back-to-school shopping season is upon us. Here are some great student discounts to help not critically wound your student budget: Students get a 10 per cent discount with a valid student ID here! I kind of want to say, “the discount is super useful when you’re buying clothes for presentations,” but I’m in arts and I don’t dress fancy for presentations. So I probably don’t know what I’m talking about. Although it’s a little further from campus compared to Save-On-Foods and Sasamat, you get a 10 per cent discount here when you show your student card. Bonus: No Frills is one block down! More money saved. The SPC Card is super useful because you get tons of discounts that include food, fashion, sports and travel. However, there is a $10.50 registration fee. Students get 10 per cent off here at this little Italian bistro on Broadway! Students enjoy a 50 per cent discount on all food menu items from Sunday to Thursday after 9 p.m. with a valid student ID! Super useful for catching Pokémon, maybe even do something similar to these dudes. Students get a UBC discount and pay $20 for registration. Greyhound gives students discounts of 10 per cent or more, so you have less of an excuse to not visit your family now. Students pay $21 instead of $25.95! Oooooh, science. Students pay a $27 admission fee instead of the $36 adult admission fee here. Is anyone ready for adulthood? Students pay $18 instead of $24, but go on Tuesday evenings between 5-9 p.m. instead and the entrance fee is by donation. Students pay $32.95 instead of $39.95. It’s maaaaaaybe worth it if you’re doing it for the (Insta)gram. But if you’re only going there for the suspension bridge, Lynn Canyon Park is free, just more crowded. Amazon Prime is one of those things you think you can live without and then you realize you can’t. You can find a lot of stuff on Amazon for much less than in retail stores. Here's a good example as to why Vancouver students might need a subscription: very recently, I decided to spend a long weekend in Whistler attending a yoga festival. I realized I did not have a mat carrier. I found one on Amazon Prime and it arrived in two days, costing half of what most yoga studios charge. Other benefits of Amazon Prime include sometimes cheaper textbooks and finding necessities for cheap. I remember visiting the Telus booth on Imagine Day last year only because they had popcorn. I subsequently signed up for a six-month student package deal there because it was half of what my internet bill was. Laptops and tablets Some manufacturers have student pricing on some laptops. Examples include Dell, Microsoft and Apple. Office 365 is free for all UBC students during the duration of your studies, so you don’t have to buy Microsoft Office — especially if you’re a Mac user. UBC museums All UBC museums and gardens are free to all UBC students! All you have to do is present your student card at the gates.CNN host Brianna Keilar and Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. CNN CNN host Brianna Keilar confronted Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump's campaign manager, in a marathon interview lasting almost a half an hour on Wednesday. The anchor clashed repeatedly with Conway over Trump's response to newly revealed lewd comments, conduct toward women, and the billionaire's ongoing tensions with House Speaker Paul Ryan. Conway repeatedly laid into Clinton for her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. The two sparred over Trump's assertion that as president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to jail Clinton for her use of a private email server. "He's talking about going around the Democratic process, talking about jailing your political opponent is something —," Keilar said. "No he's not. You're taking it literally," Conway replied. "I'm talking about what your candidate is saying, which is more important than what you are saying about this. Which is she has to go to jail," Keilar said. "And? What are you saying?" Conway said. "What Americans want to know why she hasn't been punished at all and why news outlets like this one think it's okay," Conway said. Conway spent much of the interview critiquing CNN's coverage of the presidential race, arguing that her candidate had not received fair coverage on the network. She lamented that voters would not know about Clinton's views on Obamacare "unless you read her website or her book because no one asks her," though Clinton addressed a question about healthcare during the second Democratic debate, among other public forums. And when Keilar asked why Trump continued attacking Ryan, Conway accused CNN of not covering the speech. "Has he finished with all the tweets and the comments about Paul Ryan? Is he now turning off the spigot on that?" Keilar said. "The spigot? Do you know what the theme of the first speech was? Has CNN even covered it? It had a theme," Conway quipped. "I bet you don't, because CNN didn't even cover it." "'Did you attack somebody, did he tweet?' You're doing a disservice to the American people by not telling them exactly everything, fully and fairly," Conway said. "We're not putting words in his mouth," Keilar insisted.Activist Post According to court documents, Adam “Ademo” Mueller, journalist and co-host of nationally syndicated radio talk show Free Talk Live, has been indicted on three counts of felony wiretapping. The charges are a result of a vlog Mueller posted on CopBlock.org about an incident involving alleged police misconduct, which featured recorded interviews of on-duty public officials. Mueller’s report focused on video recorded by a student’s cell phone at Manchester’s West High School, which depicted Officer Darren Murphy slamming a 17-year-old boy into a cafeteria table in October of 2011. Although public officials told the student to delete the video, it ended up in Adam Mueller’s hands instead. The case states that after viewing the footage, Muller called the Manchester Police Department and West High School seeking comment. Muller recorded his interviews with the on-duty public officials, and then included them in a video report on CopBlock.org that publicized the allegedly excessive use of police force at the high school. The story went viral. Several months later, the indictments came: three felony counts of wiretapping. “A public official who is on duty and in a public space has no expectation of privacy, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled on this in Glik vs. Cunniffe,” said Ian Freeman, Free Talk Live co-host. “The person who should face consequences is the officer who threw that poor kid into a table during lunch at the school cafeteria, not the journalist who reported about it.” According to New Hampshire state statues, in order to be guilty of wiretapping another party must have a reasonable expectation that their communications are not subject to interception. Download Your First Issue Free! Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free? Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets Court records indicate that jury selection for Mueller’s trial is scheduled for 9 AM on Monday, August 6th at Manchester Superior Court (docket #216-2011-CR-01055, State V. Adam Mueller). Supporters are anxiously awaiting the trial, which will be one of the first examples of an activist being tried by a fully informed jury in New Hampshire. The state recently passed a new jury nullification law that requires judges to allow defense attorneys to inform jurors of their right to vote their conscience and nullify bad laws via “not guilty” verdicts. “’Free Ademo’ protests are already being planned, and the media will definitely be invited,” Freeman said. “Hundreds of people have called, emailed and shown their support via social media. The video’s gone viral. Jury nullification is a real possibility, and we have an extraordinary opportunity here to send a message to the police that the people of New Hampshire will stand up for their rights.” Survival Solar Battery Charger - Free Today! Free Talk Live is a nationally syndicated talk radio show that is broadcast by 109 affiliate stations, including XM, TuneIn and Stitcher Radio. The show is broadcast live 365 days a year from 7 PM – 10 PM, and averages more than 250,000 podcast downloads each month in addition to its radio listenership. Podcasts of all shows since 2006 are available for free at the show’s archives page. Please visit and support CopBlock.org in their pursuit of genuine justice. You can support this information by voting on Reddit HERE var linkwithin_site_id = 557381; linkwithin_text=’Related Articles:’When life gives you lemons, make lemonade; When PETA complains about the chimp used in your commercial, digitally erase it — kind of. This might be the best Dodge commercial yet. Before and after commercials below. Commercial before PETA's bellyaching The above commercial was created to build buzz for Chrysler's big tent event and features a monkey dressed like a stuntman setting off some lame fireworks. It was a marginally cute advertisement, but someone at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals saw it and complained. We'll let their spokesperson/primatologist explain: Most top ad agencies in the country won't even consider producing an ad featuring a great ape these days given the well-documented abuse that young chimpanzees and orangutans suffer in the entertainment industry. This abuse starts when they are prematurely removed from their mothers and continues when they are trained to perform through savage beatings, denied even the most basic necessities, transported and housed in barren steel cages, and then discarded at seedy roadside zoos around the age of 8, even though they can live into their 60s. You won't find a great-ape trainer without a history of Animal Welfare Act violations and a reputation for dumping animals when they're no longer profitable. After watching a video narrated by Anjelica Huston about the use of great apes in entertainment, savvy ad agencies such as BBDO, Young & Rubicam, Grey Group, Draftfcb, and Saatchi & Saatchi made the compassionate decision not to exploit great apes in future ads. Dodge isn't going to dodge a bullet on this one. It needs to pull the ad - and we've contacted the company asking it to do just that. Dodge, displaying a rare sense of humor and cleverness, created the new advertisement below with what looks like a digitally-erased monkey. It's even more humorous than the original. Commercial after PETA's bellyaching [LA Times]Greek authorities announced on Friday the arrest of four people in Crete, Greece, on charges of attempting to sell a priceless 3,500-year-old statuette of a young man, dated to the mid-Minoan era for the princely sum of one million euros. The 30cm-high bronze statuette is of a young man in worship, his hands folded across his chest, making it a unique find of its type throughout the island of Crete. The figure has long hair, a gold-plated belt and remains of gold leaf on its calves and left knee. At the base is a peg, indicating that it was probably set on a pedestal in an area of worship. Archaeologists at the Lasithi Antiquities Ephorate have dated the statuette to the 16-15 century B.C. The case was cracked as a result of a coordinated police operation that culminated in the arrests of four men, two aged 35 and two aged 41. Police initially stopped one of the 35-year-olds driving a car, in which they found an ancient bronze artifact. The other three men were following behind in two private trucks and were also arrested. The Greek Police inquiry revealed that the suspects had illegal possession of the statuette and two of them had shown this to unknown prospective buyers, while the other two were acting as lookouts along the route. The statuette was handed over to the Antiquities Ephorate and the car was confiscated as evidence, while police are continuing the inquiry. The four suspects were led to the prosecutor. (source: ana-mpa)In the history of humanity it has almost always been the case that no matter how much you have, you want more. This is true for a single person and this is true for an Empire; It’s also true in the microcosm of New Eden. Recently, The Imperium announced plans to install Viceroys into regions across New Eden, with the purpose of collecting taxes from their subjects, in return offering them a small part of the benefits of belonging to the Empire. This has obviously been a controversial decision. The Black Ships Arrival The general idea behind this program is similar to the traditional mafia racket of offering protection to businesses. “That’s a nice POS you have there, it’d be a shame if something were to… happen to it.” The Imperium Viceroy will come contact an alliance or corporation leader, introduce themselves and ask for a “small” protection fee. If the newly approached entity pays their taxes on time they are offered a few services for their loyalty. However, if they refuse, The Imperium sets their house on fire and breaks their legs. It’s just business though, nothing personal. The Imperium response, though not specifically stated yet is easily imagined. If someone doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain, a fraction of the Imperium’s overall power will be tasked with siegeing assets until eradication or taxation is achieved. This could mean anything from an Imperium SIG (Special Interest Group), a specific Corporation/Alliance, or even the Imperium Supercapital fleet being deployed, depending on the expected resistance. Imperializing New Eden The basics of the plan are simple enough, pay the Imperium Viceroy, or risk your alliance assets being destroyed and your space being full of angry foul-mouthed bees for however long it takes to accomplish the task. What is less simple is the reasons why anyone would want to attempt to implement such an audacious system. The official reason given during the first “fireside” chat between line members of The Imperium was that if the vast majority of EVE players viewed us as bad guys already, then we’ll let them be right. In addition to that, the alliance as a whole could always use more SRP ISK. Many of the voices in Mumble asked why we would want to do something that would make so much of the universe recoil in disgust, causing them to draw their pitchforks and torches. The answer to that is simple, it’s the natural progression of an empire of our size. Historically, it’s what you do. It boosts your economy, drives conflict, builds jobs and all-in-all expands your sphere of influence. My personal take on it is a little bit different. I was sitting in on that initial chat, listening to The Mittani explain the plan and ask for suggestions and comments from everyone gathered on mumble. My first reaction was that it was a conceited ill-thought-out plan. However, as I continued listening to the responses of the gathered masses and the real discussion that followed, I began to see the value in the program. There were people that wanted to be the Viceroys, given systems to bring to heel. We started making parallels to Ancient Rome, Medieval Spain and the British Empire. The comparisons felt natural and somewhat accurate. A major power in the world, unable to expand their real borders without being stretched too thin, but not satisfied with the power and the money they already had. “We could visit the ‘savages’, ‘enlighten’ them and show them the true light of the Imperium.” We could visit the ‘savages’, ‘enlighten’ them and show them the true light of the Imperium. In return for our generosity they would gladly pay a small tax. Or better yet, they would throw our Viceroy’s kind words in his face and send his head back to us on a pike, giving us a reason for war. Real war. Megalomania complexes aside, I began to see the program for what it was, or at least, what I thought it was. An interesting way to generate content for The Imperium as a whole. One of the most engaging things to me about EVE is the ability for players to spin their own narratives around their actions. If you allow yourself to buy into the dram
Chief Constable, do you find it a nuisance to have to account for the force's actions to the SPA and to the parliament?" And where we made a mistake - and I've already said it once - we acknowledged that I made a mistake in the language that I used. I shouldn't have used that language Sir Stephen House, Police Scotland chief constable Sir Stephen responded by saying that he "took very seriously" his duty to account to both the SPA and to the Scottish Parliament and said he had written to the SPA following last week's meeting to clarify some of his comments. He added: "I don't see anything wrong with, if you make a mistake, acknowledging you made a mistake and apologising to the body you are accountable for that mistake. That is exactly what I did." Sir Stephen said stop and search was a "complicated matter" and that there were some "training issues" with officers which needed to be addressed. But he said confidence levels in the police remained "high, in the 80s" and that there had not been a drop as a result of the stop-search controversy. The chief constable added: "Of course we don't want the sort of headlines we've had but part of the reason for coming here today is to try and address those headlines and try and set the record straight. "And where we made a mistake - and I've already said it once - we acknowledged that I made a mistake in the language that I used. I shouldn't have used that language." He also said there had been a 32% drop in the volume of stop of searches so far this year compared to the first year of Police Scotland. But he accepted there have been huge communication problems between Police Scotland, its officers and the public. Repeated assurances Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, told the committee that officers were still under the impression that they must fulfil a target for searching members of the public, despite repeated assurances to the contrary by Sir Stephen. Police Scotland has generated controversy since its inception on 1 April 2013, beginning with a public power struggle between Sir Stephen and his civilian watchdog, questions over the force's accountability, misunderstandings and inaccurate figures. There has also been disquiet among some sections of society over armed police, stop and search and the closure of police offices and control rooms.The European origins of economic development William Easterly, Ross Levine Countries have followed widely divergent paths of economic development since European colonisation, with some going on to be among the richest countries in the world today, and others having experienced little economic development over the last few centuries. This column, taken from a recent Vox eBook, uses a new database on the European share of the population during colonisation to examine the historical determinants of colonial European settlement and its relationship with current economic development. Editor's note: This column first appeared as a chapter in the Vox eBook, The Long Economic and Political Shadow of History, Volume 1, available to download here. Countries have followed divergent paths of economic development since European colonisation. Some former colonies, such as the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, and Tanzania, have experienced little economic development over the last few centuries, with current per capita GDP levels of about $2 per day. Others, including Australia, Canada, and the US, are among the richest countries in the world today, with per capita GDP levels of about $140 per day. Others fall along the spectrum between these extremes. To explain these divergent paths, many researchers emphasise that the European share of the population during colonisation shaped national rates of economic growth through several mechanisms. For example, Engerman and Sokoloff (1997) and Acemoglu et al. (2001, 2002) stress that European colonisation had enduring effects on political institutions. They argue that when Europeans encountered natural resources with lucrative international markets and did not find the land, climate, and disease environment suitable for large-scale settlement, only a few Europeans settled and created authoritarian political institutions to extract those resources. The institutions created by Europeans in these ‘extractive colonies’ impeded long-run development. But, when Europeans found land, climate, and disease environments that were suitable for smaller-scale agriculture, they settled, forming ‘settler colonies’ with political institutions that fostered development. Other researchers focus less on what Europeans found and more on what Europeans brought. Engerman and Sokoloff (1997) and Glaeser et al. (2004) argue that Europeans brought human capital and human capital creating institutions that shape long-run economic growth. According to this human capital view, European settlers directly and immediately added human capital skills to the colonies and also had long-run effects on human capital accumulation. These long-run effects emerge because human capital disseminates throughout the population over generations and it takes time to create, expand, and improve schools. Furthermore, this human capital view suggests that having a larger share of Europeans during colonisation could facilitate human capital accumulation across the entire population, both because it would increase interactions among people of European and non-European descent and because it might accelerate expanded access to schools. These views yield two testable implications: (1) the proportion of Europeans during colonisation will be positively related to the democratic political institutions and human capital development that yield higher levels of economic development today; and (2) the proportion of Europeans during colonisation will matter more for economic development than the proportion of the population of European descent today because of (a) the enduring effects of political institutions, and (b) the slow dissemination of human capital and creation of well-functioning schools. Although the political institutions and human capital views emphasise different mechanisms, they provide closely aligned predictions about the impact of colonial European settlement on current economic development. Other researchers, either explicitly or implicitly, highlight additional mechanisms through which European migration had positive or negative effects on development. North (1990) argues that the British brought comparatively strong political and legal institutions, which were more conducive to economic development than the institutions brought by other European nations. Spolaore and Wacziarg (2009) stress that the degree to which the genetic heritage of a colonial population was similar to that of the economies at the technological frontier positively affected the diffusion of technology and thus economic development. Putterman and Weil (2010) and Chanda et al. (2014) emphasise that the experiences with statehood and agriculture of the ancestors of people currently living within countries help to explain cross-country differences in economic success. Comin et al. (2011) find that the ancient technologies of the ancestors of today’s populations help predict current levels of per capita income. In all of these papers, the ancestral nature of a population – which was reshaped by European colonisation – helps account for cross-country differences in economic development today. Although this considerable body of research emphasises the effect of European settlement during colonisation on subsequent rates of economic development, what has been missing in the empirical literature is the key intermediating variable: colonial European settlement. While researchers, including Acemoglu et al. (2001, 2002), have examined the European share of the population in 1900, this is well after the colonial period in several countries, including virtually all of the Western Hemisphere. To the best of our knowledge, researchers have not directly measured colonial European settlement and examined its association with current economic development. In a recent paper, we construct a new database on the European share of the population during colonisation and use it to examine the historical determinants of colonial European settlement and the relation between colonial European settlement and current economic development (Easterly and Levine 2016).1 Although we do not isolate the specific mechanisms linking colonial European settlement with current levels of economic development, as emphasised in each of the individual theories discussed above, we do assess the core empirical predictions emerging from the literature on the relationship between European settlement and economic development: namely that (1) the proportion of Europeans during colonisation is positively related to economic development today; and (2) the proportion of Europeans during colonisation is more important, in accounting for cross-country differences in current economic development, than the proportion of the population of European descent today. We first discover that colonial European settlement is strongly, positively associated with economic development today. As illustrated in Figure 1, countries with a higher share of Europeans in the colonial population tend to have higher levels of GDP per capita today. This relationship holds true, after controlling for many features of the areas and peoples colonised by the Europeans, and for which European country colonised the area. Our results also paint a positive picture of the development impact of minority colonial European settlements, about which the previous literature was ambiguous. We also show that the relationship between economic development today and the proportion of Europeans during colonisation weakens markedly when controlling for either current educational attainment or government quality. This finding is consistent with the view that human capital and political institutions are intermediating mechanisms through which European settlement shaped current economic development. Figure 1 Distribution of colonial European settlement and median current income Note: This figure shows the number of countries classified in groups according to their European shares at colonisation (left axis). The median current income (in logs) for each group is also reported (right axis). Second, we find that the European share of the population during colonisation is more strongly associated with economic development today than the percentage of the population today that is of European descent. This finding is consistent with the view that Europeans brought growth-promoting characteristics – such as institutions, human capital, technology, connections with international markets, and cultural norms – that had enduring effects on economic development. This result de-emphasises the importance of Europeans per se, and instead emphasises the impact of what Europeans brought to economies during the colonial period. To clarify our contribution, it is crucial to emphasise what we do not do. We do not assess the welfare implications of European colonisation. Europeans often cruelly oppressed, enslaved, murdered, and even committed genocide against, indigenous populations, as well as enslaving captives brought from Africa (see Acemoglu and Robinson 2012 for compelling examples). Thus, GDP per capita today does not measure the welfare effects of European colonisation; it only provides a measure of economic activity today, within a particular geographical area. Although there is no question about European oppression and cruelty during colonisation, there are questions about the net effect of European colonisation on economic development today. We have confirmed the strong association between colonial European settlement and comparative economic development. Indeed, we calculate that 40% of all development that has happened outside Europe is associated with this colonial European settlement. Our findings are a suggestive confirmation of the deep historical roots of today’s development outcomes, as well as the importance of the dissemination of institutions, human capital, and technology across borders. References Acemoglu, D, S Johnson and J Robinson (2001), “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation”, American Economic Review, 91 (5): 1369-1401. Acemoglu, D, S Johnson and J Robinson (2002), “Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution”, Quarterly Journal of Economics 117(4): 1231-1294. Acemoglu, D and J Robinson (2012), Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, Crown Publishers: New York. Chanda, A, C J Cook and L Putterman (2014), “Persistence of Fortune: Accounting for Population Movements, There Was No Post-Columbian Reversal”, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 6(3): 1-28. Comin, D, W Easterly, and E Gong (2010), “Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 B.C.?”, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2(3): 65–97. Easterly, W and R Levine (2016), “The European origins of economic development”, Journal of Economic Growth 21(3): 225-257. Engerman, S and K Sokoloff (1997), “Factor Endowments, Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States”, in S Haber (ed.), How Latin America Fell Behind, Stanford: Stanford University Press: 260–304 Glaeser, E, R La Porta, F Lopez-de-Silanes and A Shleifer (2004), “Do Institutions Cause Growth?”, Journal of Economic Growth, 9(3): 271-303. North, D (1990), Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance, UK: Cambridge University Press. Putterman, L and D Weil (2010), “Post-1500 Population Flows and the Long Run Determinants of Economic Growth and Inequality”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125(4): 1627-1682 Spolaore, E and R Wacziarg (2009), “The Diffusion of Development”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124 (2): 469-529. Endnotes 1 The data and programs used to conduct these analyses are available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10887- 016-9130-y.In early February, students at Columbia University found that their name tags had been ripped from their doors at several residence halls. The act of vandalism did not appear to be random: Only students with East Asian names had been affected, according to the Columbia Spectator. But the students whose names were torn down took the insulting act into their own hands with a video titled “Say My Name.” “The video is a way to challenge the stereotypes about the Asian community ― especially Chinese students ― that they are silent and take punches without complaints,” Huhe Yan, a Columbia film student and creator of the video, told The Huffington Post. The short video features nine Chinese students, including Yan, revealing the meaning behind their names. Some students felt that the vandal acted out because of his or her dislike for Chinese people. “If you really dislike people from China, you can express it in an even more explicit way or perhaps foster some meaningful conversation,” Ruiqi Zhong, a student whose name was torn from his door, told the Columbia Spectator. “But ripping off door tags doesn’t make any sense.” The associate dean of multicultural affairs spoke out against the incident in February, citing a “growing climate of xenophobia.” The university’s Asian American Alliance, as well as several other student groups, signed a statement condemning the racial antagonism. Yan made the above video to address the incident and raise awareness on Columbia’s campus specifically, but it quickly went viral nationally. Media organizations like BuzzFeed, Mashable and BBC shared Yan’s video. Yan said that the reaction to the video had been “overwhelmingly positive” and had inspired meaningful conversations on the Columbia campus and online. “I’m very glad that the video has prompted people to discuss and reflect on their identities and how we can combat the larger xenophobic climate out there,” Yan told HuffPost. After the video went viral, three deans from separate undergraduate schools at Columbia reasserted the university’s commitment to being a welcoming campus.Craig McAngus is a lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen I THINK there are broadly two options now for the Scottish Government. Both require a referendum. The issue will be the legal basis of such a referendum.One is that they go for the Edinburgh agreement version two where the UK Government agrees to allow Scotland to have a referendum and that would lead to acts of parliament. I think Nicola Sturgeon has been quite clever in the way that she has framed this because she has laid down the gauntlet and almost dared Westminster to say no. The Scottish Government could also hold a referendum even if the UK Government does not agree to it because she can go to Brussels and say: "We want to stay, we want to remain part of the European Union, our people democratically voted twice to remain and be an independent state within the EU so that is a double mandate, can you help us out in that respect?" Then, it is almost like a unilateral declaration of independence; it is appealing to the EU to be allowed to stay in while the rest of the UK negotiates its exit. I think those are the two realistic options open to the SNP and I do think the Scottish Government would go down the latter route if it felt it necessary. In her speech yesterday, the First Minister was very bold in putting talk of a referendum out there, but she was also quite cautious. She hedged her bets a bit, talked about opening up channels with Brussels and other member states, and being involved in the discussion. If you declare your independence through the channels of the European Union it adds legitimacy and weight to that argument. It is not an isolationist approach, it is an inclusive one. We have to consider whether this referendum will happen. I think it’s very likely to go ahead, but we have to remember that in the manifesto there were two aspects to a referendum being called. The first was a material change in circumstance, and that has happened. The second was continued and sustained support for independence among the Scottish people – and the answer to that, we don’t know. How does Brexit make your average Unionist, who voted no because they felt it was risky to leave the UK, change their views on independence and how important is the EU in the overall calculation in their mind? That is the key issue. Surely the SNP will conduct their own research and polls to see what support for independence is looking like. If it’s looking like a 55 per cent to 45 per cent for independence, it’s game on, I think. Recently I carried a survey of fishermen in the UK who were very Eurosceptic. Would the prospect of being an independent Scotland in the EU be something that fishermen in Scotland would be worried about? Probably, because the majority of them voted no. It is a bold but cautious strategy by Nicola Sturgeon and I think the pro-independence movement will have learned from last time. I believe the Leave vote will strengthen support for independence but will it be enough?As of this morning, at first base, the Pirates had the right-handed Michael Morse, and the right-handed Jason Rogers. As depth, there’s the right-handed Sean Rodriguez, and though the switch-hitting Josh Bell is on the way, he’s got his own stuff to figure out. So for the Pirates, there was an obvious need. They don’t have a lefty-heavy lineup, and last year they about tied for the highest rate of right-handed pitchers seen. The division projects to be righty-heavy again. The Pirates needed an affordable lefty for first. Chris Davis is a lefty for first. But then, I said “affordable.” A week and a half ago, when Eno looked at this situation, he settled upon John Jaso. Now the word is out that the Pirates have signed John Jaso. He’s getting two years, and he’s getting $8 million, and if this isn’t the very most Pirates move, it’s at least in the conversation. It doesn’t get much more Pirates than this. You know how the Pirates operate — they don’t operate at the top of the market. Some would argue they should, but that’s a different conversation. The point is, they don’t. They’re always trolling for potential bargains, and lately things have worked out pretty well for them. We’re observing another Pirates-style offseason. Instead of Mike Leake, they’ve got Jonathon Niese. Instead of Scott Kazmir, they’ve got Ryan Vogelsong. And instead of Chris Davis, or even Adam Lind, they’ve got John Jaso. He’s going to cost less than Jason Motte and Steve Cishek. Usually, the thing about bargains is that there’s a question mark. It’s not that teams haven’t thought about them — it’s that teams prefer a little more certainty for the investment. The question mark for Jaso is his first-base defense. With, say, Lind, you know what you’re getting with the glove. It’s not great, but it’s known. Jaso, not so much. He’s volunteered to be the third catcher, but he probably won’t do that. He’ll get a few innings in the corner outfield, but not very many. Jaso’s going to play first, and he’s barely ever done that. The Pirates refer to it as a calculated risk. It was a calculated risk when the Red Sox put Hanley Ramirez in the outfield. It was a calculated risk when the Pirates tried Pedro Alvarez at first base a year ago. There can be downside to these moves, which makes this a slight gamble. But I don’t think anyone should be worried about catastrophes. Jaso’s background is catching, and catchers who’ve done this before have by and large come away fine. By the numbers, Buster Posey didn’t struggle to adjust to first base. Neither did Victor Martinez. Neither did Joe Mauer. Neither did Mike Napoli, or Jason Phillips, or Stephen Vogt. Neither did Carlos Santana. The Pirates aren’t trying something new — catchers have long moved in the direction of first, and Jaso will have all offseason and spring to grow accustomed to his new responsibilities. Yeah, there will be growing pains. Yeah, Jaso will make the occasional fundamental mistake. But I feel like the actual risk is small. Pedro Alvarez, for whatever reason, just forgot how to catch baseballs. Catching baseballs is half of what Jaso used to do. The uncertainty is the defense. The more certain part is the offense. Again, like Lind, Jaso needs to be strictly platooned, because he can’t do much against lefties. But last year, against righties, he had a 132 wRC+. His three-year righty wRC+ is 130, even with Prince Fielder and Josh Donaldson. His five-year righty wRC+ is 130, even with Michael Brantley and Matt Kemp. Jaso has historically been an above-average hitter when he has the platoon advantage, and with the Pirates’ situation, he should just about only bat with the platoon advantage. Despite the various injuries, Jaso’s kept being productive. And while he still knows how to walk, Jaso has pretty quietly become a more aggressive batter. Here are his year-to-year swing rates against righties, from Brooks Baseball: Jaso’s gone from a little above 35% to a little above 45%. Used to be, he swung at the first pitch 18% of the time; the last two years, he’s swung at the first pitch 32% of the time. He still controls the zone, but he’s become more willing to go after pitches to put in play, and you can see some of the differences in his swing-rate heat maps: Jaso these days swings more often low, and he swings more often at pitches away. So he’s less vulnerable to getting caught looking on pitches away, and though Jaso hasn’t become a markedly better hitter, he hasn’t gotten worse, which is just as important. He’s the sort of productive you don’t notice all that much in the moment, since he doesn’t clobber that many dingers, but Jaso’s good for a quality at-bat, and there’s Morse or Rogers to take over when Jaso might be at a disadvantage. Given how the Pirates work, this is just about a perfect fit. Doesn’t mean it’s a high-upside fit. It’s not. Upside gets money. Low-upside players go cheap, at least as hitters go. Asdrubal Cabrera didn’t cost much. Nori Aoki didn’t cost much. Dioner Navarro didn’t cost much. If you’re okay with a low ceiling, free agency doesn’t have to be a nightmare. The Pirates have shown they’re okay with low ceilings. Because they’re okay with spreading the contributions around, almost as much as they possibly can.Image caption Neil Wilson was ordered to surrender to police by the court A paedophile given a suspended prison term after his victim was described as "predatory" has had his sentence changed and been jailed for two years by the Court of Appeal. Neil Wilson admitted sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl at his former London home and making indecent images. Appeal judges ruled the 12-month suspended term was "unduly lenient". Wilson, 40, now of York, was not in court but later surrendered to police as he had been ordered to. A spokesman for North Yorkshire police said he had "surrendered to police custody" before 18:00 BST - the deadline set by the court. A row broke out shortly after the original case was heard at London's Snaresbrook Court in August when it emerged that prosecuting barrister Robert Colover had labelled the young girl "predatory" and "sexually experienced". Mr Colover was suspended from handling sexual offence cases as a result of his comments. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) described the language as "inappropriate" and later announced that Mr Colover had agreed to resign from from the CPS panel of advocates and will no longer undertake prosecutions involving serious sexual offences or child abuse. A number of complaints about remarks made during sentencing by Judge Nigel Peters, who said he was taking into account how the girl looked and behaved, are being "considered" by the Judicial Conduct and Investigations Office. 'Simply wrong' Attorney General Dominic Grieve referred the original sentence to the Court of Appeal. The Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and two other judges quashed the suspended sentence and ordered Wilson, formerly of Romford in east London, to surrender to police. He said there were "no circumstances whatsoever" that justified departure from the principle that normally an immediate prison sentence should be imposed in such a case. "To reduce punishment on the basis that a person who needed protection was encouraging the commission of an offence is simply wrong." Lord Thomas added: "There were other aggravating factors to this case. First of all the offender must have known, as the judge said, that she was under 16. By his plea he accepted that. "He must have appreciated her vulnerability. The offender plainly preyed on her vulnerability."Kacey Musgraves’ style has been anything but boring at CMAs past. In 2014, she brought giant hair (“I’m from Texas!”) to the red carpet, and had to ditch her stick-on undies at the last moment for a performance with Loretta Lynn. In 2015, she opted for an elegant forest green gown with Old Hollywood hair. And in 2016, she went even more over-the-top in a lavender tulle tiered confection so roomy, she joked to PEOPLE she had room for sweatpants. The star offset the super-sugary, cakelike vibe of her dress with a dark wine lip and slicked-down bun, and with both she bucked two of the biggest CMA trends: sequins and giant hair. (But she did give us flashbacks to Rihanna, Lena Dunham and Jennifer Lawrence in the process.) Get push notifications with news, features and more. Kacey Musgraves arrives at the 50th annual CMA Awards at the Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) Musgraves chatted with PEOPLE on the red carpet about the dress. “This is a custom Christian Siriano, I’m a big fan of his work, I was happy when he wanted to dress me and make me my own thing,” she said, before going on to joke that the skirt afforded her so much room, “I have sweatpants on and Nike sliders under this!” People Special Edition 50 years of the CMA Awards - Cover PEOPLE’s Special Edition 50 Years of the CMA Awards is on sale now online and on newsstands. An extra layer might be reassuring after her 2014 wardrobe malfunction. “We’re not going to have a repeat of that tonight, I learned my lesson that night with the stick-on underwear,” she said, joking she didn’t even know that was a thing before the night it betrayed her. “I don’t know what happened, all I knew was that in two seconds I was underwearless, the curtain opened and it was me and Loretta Lynn. I prayed some prayers in that moment.” Her prayers were answered: She got a gorgeous dress that won’t let her down and the chance to sing Dolly Parton at the CMAs. What did you think of her dress?'The Sounds Of Star Wars,' Now At Fans' Fingertips toggle caption Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM It takes only a few seconds of sound -- a spaceship launching, the familiar clash of lightsabers -- to know that you are positively not in Kansas anymore. These are the sounds of Star Wars -- from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, three-dimensional in a way that envelops you and that has changed the way movie soundtracks get assembled. Now the most celebrated of these sounds have been collected for a new book-and-audio collection, The Sounds of Star Wars, written by J.W. Rinzler and including a foreword by the architect of that audioscape himself: renowned sound designer Ben Burtt. Enlarge this image toggle caption Jason Kempin/Getty Images Jason Kempin/Getty Images Burtt was the man who engineered that soundtrack revolution. Before the Star Wars movies, most sci-fi films relied on electronic sounds. But George Lucas wanted to depart from that direction, Rinzler tells NPR's Liane Hansen. "He wanted his universe to sound real, kind of used -- ordinary, you might say, very natural," the author says. "So his suggestion was, 'Well, don't go to your synthesizers first and generate echoing electronic tones for me, but rather, go out into the real world with your tape recorder and record motors and animals and bring back familiar sounds, which we can modify into something otherworldly.'" The task fell to Burtt, who started in his own apartment, "with the appliances, the blender in the kitchen -- that sort of thing." "And I moved outward into the neighborhood, recording traffic through pipes under the freeway, and kept going until I found myself in the desert recording wild animals -- bears and things -- at a ranch," Burtt tells Liane Hansen. "I collected bits and pieces of sound from everywhere." More from Ben Burtt Hiking in the Poconos? On the beach near the L.A. airport? You'd be surprised where a good listener can find source material for singular sound effects: The Death Star's Laser The Millennium Falcon Darth Vader's breathing is one of the most memorable sounds of the series -- a cue so iconic that it's still being referenced and parodied. (The trailer for the upcoming animated comedy Mars Needs Moms hangs a joke on it.) "The script described Vader as wearing some kind of life-support suit that had machinery to keep him alive," Burtt says. So the designer famously went to a local dive shop to see what he could find. "I just asked if I could go in the back room and record different scuba masks and regulators and things," he recalls. "I just spent an hour or so back there, trying out the different breathing apparatuses that were laying around. And ultimately that -- which was me breathing -- once brought back to the studio where it was slowed down a little bit, became the breathing of Darth Vader." Burtt's biggest challenge, though, was figuring out how to give the astromech droid R2-D2 a voice that didn't feel too robotic. "There wasn't any precedent in movies for a character like a robot that was to be so expressive, but not using words in English or any language," Burtt explains. "And I went to synthesizers at first, but the results sounded too much like a machine, just something cold -- it didn't seem to have a soul." Burtt tried lots of approaches. He "auditioned" plenty of noise-making doodads. After a while, he and Lucas realized that as they'd struggled to define what they wanted to hear, they'd developed a repertoire of funny little bleeping noises -- verbal sounds that were beginning to take on the characteristics of a language. "And suddenly one day I realized, 'Well, why don't we just do something like that?'" Burtt says. "And so I began to make my own sounds." Enlarge this image toggle caption Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM He blended them with noises he synthesized on the keyboard of an ARP synthesizer and "that ended up being the recipe, which was kind of 50 percent electronic and 50 percent human. R2's voice was born." But R2-D2 didn't just need a voice; he needed to be able to scream. For that, the sound was 100 percent Burtt. "I had a room in George Lucas' house where their offices were, but I was down in the basement," he remembers. "When I wanted to record something -- I didn't have a recording booth -- I used to get under a big table down in the room where I worked, with a microphone, and kind of curl up in a corner. And one day, I just made a scream. I just screamed. Maybe there was some stress behind it. That scream, sped up, is used pretty much straight up as R2-D2's scream." Though The Sounds of Star Wars is a gold mine for Star Wars buffs, it's designed to appeal to more casual audiences as well. "This book is meant to appeal to anybody who's interested in cinema or sound," Rinzler says. The idea came from an outfit, Becker and Mayer, that had just published a birdsong book. "They came to us at LucasFilm and said, 'You know, we think the technology is good enough so we could do a Sounds of Star Wars book,'" Rinzler says. "I contacted Ben, who was, I think, justifiably skeptical." Burtt was afraid the explosions wouldn't sound right, but he came around eventually. When they decided to go ahead and do it, he suggested the book include an earphone jack. "So kids can take the book to bed and get under the covers with their headphones and their parents won't know," he says, laughing. Perhaps the most iconic, and most frequently imitated, sound from the Star Wars universe is the sound of the lightsaber. "I think it really was the first sound that I made for Star Wars," Burtt says -- and it was one whose source he stumbled upon almost accidentally. "I was a projectionist at that time at USC cinema, and there was a motor in the projection booth that had a humming sound when it just sat there idling. It had a very musical sound, a nice tone, almost a hypnotic tone. And I thought immediately that would be a good element for the lightsaber, so I recorded that motor. And a few weeks later I had an accident with a broken microphone cable, and the microphone picked up the hum from a nearby television. [It] had kind of a scintillating, angry buzz. Normally you throw that away, thinking it was a mistake, but I saved that picture-tube buzz, and I combined it with the sound of the projection motor, and the two sounds together became the basis for the sputtering hum of the light sabers." The result? A noise that's pretty hard to forget. "The actors in the more recent Star Wars prequels," says Burtt, "found that when they were fighting on the set they were making those sounds verbally -- unconsciously -- 'cause they might have done it as boys, from the original film."Education Sec. Betsy DeVos was physically blocked from entering a middle school in Washington, D.C. on Friday morning by protesters yelling, “Shame!” DeVos, who was attempting to visit Jefferson Middle School, was turned away by protesters in front of the building. A protester holding a Black Lives Matter sign followed DeVos to her car while screaming, “Shame!” repeatedly at her. The protester then tried to block DeVos’ car from leaving: The altercation was captured by ABC 7’s Sam Sweeney: WATCH: Sec. Betsy DeVos physically blocked by protesters from entering DC school--turned away and left. Video: @SweeneyABC pic.twitter.com/RAycuKEVgm — ABC 7 News - WJLA (@ABC7News) February 10, 2017 Before DeVos arrived, protesters reportedly clashed with police: Protesters clash with police and Sec. DeVos security detail ahead of school visit. @ABC7News pic.twitter.com/TKIzq8xwMt — Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) February 10, 2017 Protesters also chanted, “When students are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” Handful of protesters now standing in front of SW DC middle school ahead of visit by Sec. Betsy DeVos pic.twitter.com/uzhuyeXEeE — Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) February 10, 2017 Thank you for supporting MRCTV! As a tax-deductible, charitable organization, we rely on the support of our readers to keep us running! Keep MRCTV going with your gift here!Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. On Tuesday, the Obama administration finalized a new ban on importing several species of giant snakes. The US Fish and Wildlife Service ban deals with four snakes—the Burmese python, the yellow anaconda, and the northern and southern African pythons—that are destroying the Everglades and other regions. The species, which aren’t native to Florida, will be banned for both import and interstate transportation under a century-old law preventing the illegal trade of wildlife, fish, and plants. This comes after the U.S. Geological Survey issued a report in 2009 that outlined the risks these species pose in fragile ecosystems and targeted the pet trade as the main way these snakes are finding their way into places like the Everglades. Some of these snakes can grow to 18 feet long, so it’s not a small snake problem we’re talking about. Basically, what happens is that people think a giant snake would make a great pet, so they buy one. When they get tired of the snake, or can’t feed it, or whatever, they end up releasing them into the wild. Then you have a giant, non-native snake slithering around, eating native rodents and birds, reproducing, and generally screwing with the ecosystem. They’re a particular problem in Florida and other southern states, because they like warm weather and can survive on their own in the wild. (Although you’ll find ’em slithering around in places like Ohio, too.) According to the Department of Interior, most people who already own one of these four species of snakes won’t be affected by the ban, as long as they live in states that allow them. They won’t be able to take the snakes on road trips out of state or sell them across a state border, however. And you definitely won’t be able to take your giant snake on a plane. In a statement announcing the decision, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar noted that there is a growing recognition of the “real and immediate threat”
lyanka of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, are considering an improved offer for 26-year-old Nzonzi. Stoke are awaiting an answer from Xherdan Shaqiri on Thursday about whether he wants to join from Inter Milan although early indications are not good. Stoke have held discussions with Real Madrid about Molina who played in the UEFA Youth League last season and have also spoken to Udinese midfielder Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu. Swansea midfielder Michu is wanted by Deportivo La Coruna and Espanyol but Real Sociedad are unlikely to follow up their initial interest. David Moyes is working with a limited budget at Sociedad and will have to make careful choices over his forward options as more quality players become available later in the summer. Sociedad have agreed loans for 20-year-old Portuguese winger Bruma from Galatasaray and Porto's Mexican centre back Diego Reyes, 22. Swansea's Michu is wanted by Deportivo La Coruna and Espanyol but Real Sociedad are no longer keen Orlando City have been trying to rekindle a deal for Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez but talks may be put on hold as his broken collarbone is assessed. The Mexico international was injured in a friendly on Wednesday night when he collided with Honduras' Brayan Beckeles shortly before half-time and will be out for three to four weeks. Hernadez has plenty of interest but has been impressed by Orlando's persistence. They have been asking about him for four months in the hope of persuading him to make the jump to MLS. Orlando City have been trying to rekindle a deal for Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez recently Orlando have their three Designated Players with Kaka, Carlos Rivas and Bryan Rochez but MLS is considering a new system to court high-profile talent like Chicharito and his Mexico team-mate Giovani Dos Santos who is wanted by LA Galaxy. Chelsea are willing to listen to offers for full back Todd Kane. The 21-year-old, who can play right and left back, has been at Chelsea since the age of seven and graduated to become part of the 2012 FA Youth Cup winning side. He was also part of the Champions League winning squad. Kane has impressed in the Championship and League One with loan spells at Blackburn, Bristol City and Nottingham Forest but his opportunities of breaking into Jose Mourinho's first team are limited. Chelsea are willing to listen to offers for full back Todd Kane (left) after he impressed on a series of loan spells Although still young, he is keen to kick on and play regular competitive football. Kane has one year left on contract and Chelsea, sympathetic to his ambitions, will consider offers after recent enquiries from Championship and League One sides. Chelsea have made enquiries about Stuttgart defender Antonio Rudiger but face competition from Wolfsburg. The 22-year-old has indicated he would prefer to stay in Germany but Wolfsburg have yet to agree to pay Stuttgart's £12.7m asking price. Chelsea are understood to have offered £8m for the Germany international centre back who was a target for West Ham last year. Rudiger's representative and half-brother Sahr Senesie told Kicker: 'I know there's interest from Chelsea and Wolfsburg. Antonio would love to stay in Germany.' Chelsea have made enquiries about Stuttgart defender Antonio Rudiger but face competition from Wolfsburg Hull City have rejected a £2.5m bid from Bristol City for defender Harry Maguire. The 22-year-old was loaned out to Wigan last season after finding opportunities limited while Hull battled relegation. Wolves have rejected a £1.25m bid from Fulham for midfielder Kevin McDonald. The 26-year-old Scot has one year left on contract. Mainz striker Sebastian Polter will undergo a medical on Thursday before signing for QPR in a £1.56m deal. The 24-year-old has finalised personal terms. A former Germany Under 21 international, he has played for Wolfsburg and was on Werder Bremen's books as a teenager. He was loaned to Union Berlin last season however after falling out of favour at Mainz. Mainz striker Sebastian Polter will undergo a medical on Thursday before signing for QPR in a £1.56m deal Eidur Gudjohnsen is in advanced talks with Chinese Super League side Shijiazhuang Ever Bright over a lucrative deal. The 36-year-old is a free agent after failing to agree new terms with Bolton. Gudjohnsen held talks with Wanderers in May but the cash-strapped Championship side have been unable to commit to improved terms after making the popular Iceland striker captain last season. Bolton have handed trials to former Stoke midfielder Wilson Palacios and ex-Crystal Palace and Blackpool striker Stephen Dobbie. The pair will join the club's pre-season tour of Austria. Eidur Gudjohnsen is in advanced talks with Chinese Super League side Shijiazhuang Ever Bright Meanwhile, newly promoted Serie A side Carpi have beaten Bolton, Sheffield Wednesday and QPR to Polish striker Kamil Wilczek, 27. West Ham have expressed an interest in £5m-rated Besiktas midfielder Tolgay Arslan. The 24-year-old scored against Liverpool in the Europa League and was signed by Slaven Bilic from Hamburg for a bargain £350,000. Bilic has asked friend and former Croatia teammate Zvonomir Boban for an opinion on Juventus defender Angelo Ogbonna as they appraise centre back targets. Ogbonna is cheaper than Monaco's Aymen Abdennour and Aleksandar Dragovic of Dynamo Kiev. The latter though can be bought for £10m through the correct agent. Deals for Carl Jenkinson and Alex Song are inching closer. West Ham boss Slaven Bilic is interested in signing £5m-rated Besiktas midfielder Tolgay Arslan (right) Sporting Lisbon have signed 17-year-old Indonesian Martunis. The deal caps a remarkable life story so far as the teenager was one of those left alive by the devastating tsunami that swept Aceh in Indonesia in December 2004. The then eight-year-old boy was found alive stranded on a swampy beach wearing a Portugal No 10 Rui Costa shirt. His mother and siblings had been killed. His story touched the Portuguese and Cristiano Ronaldo paid for the house where Martunis grew up in to be rebuilt for his family. Ronaldo and members of the Portuguese squad kept in touch and Sporting Lisbon invited him to trials. They have now signed him for their Under 19s.Panic swept over New Orleans Saints nation Wednesday when it was announce free-agent acquisition and pass-rushing linebacker Victor Butler was out for the year with a torn ACL he suffered during OTAs after bumping knees with running back Mark Ingram. With Butler out of the picture, the time is now for third-year linebacker Martez Wilson. Wilson has flashed ability over the course of his first two years with the team, racking up four sacks in two years. For Wilson, the switch to a 3-4 scheme will mean a better opportunity to shine because in the old 4-3 he was only on the field in passing situations. Now that the Saints will have an extra linebacker on the field, Wilson will have a chance to see more snaps and use some of his freakish athleticism to get to the quarterback. Wilson himself knows 2013 could be a big year, as he told the media when listing his lofty goals (via NOLA.com’s Nakia Hogan): “My goal this year is at least 10-plus sacks, at least five-plus interceptions and all the other plays just let them come to me,” Wilson said after practice Tuesday before Butler’s torn anterior cruciate ligament became public. “My main goal though is just making big plays period.” The goals are not all that outlandish. With Butler unfortunatley out of the picture, Wilson is the only legitimate threat to win the full-time gig at outside linebacker. He’s now the most experienced and talented overall. His being on the field for the majority of the snaps next season should allow him to put up nice statistics, but more importantly it should allow him to contribute in a positive manner in the new scheme as the team wins games. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan brought over Butler to act as a starter. Now that man is Wilson and Ryan is sure to get every ounce of production out of him. Watch for Wilson to become a household name in 2013. Like Who Dat Dish? Let us know on Twitter @whodatdish or on Facebook.For the artist and art professor, see Richard Conte (artist) Richard Conte (born Nicholas Peter Conte; March 24, 1910 – April 15, 1975) was an American actor.[1] He appeared in more than 100 films[2] from the 1940s through 1970s, including I'll Cry Tomorrow, Ocean's 11, and The Godfather. Early years [ edit ] Richard Conte was born Nicholas Peter Conte on March 24, 1910, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Italian-Americans Julia (Fina), a seamstress, and Pasquale Conte, a barber.[3] He graduated from William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City.[4] Conte worked as a truck driver, messenger, shoe salesman, and singing waiter before starting his acting career. He was discovered by actors Elia Kazan and John Garfield during his job at a Connecticut resort, which led to Conte finding stage work. He eventually earned a scholarship to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City,[5] where he became a standout actor. Conte was a Republican who campaigned for Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.[6] Career [ edit ] Stage [ edit ] He made his film debut under the name Nicholas Conte in Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence (1939) at 20th Century Fox. He made his Broad debut in My Heart's in the Highlands (1939) for the Group Theatre. Also for the Group he was in Clifford Odets' Night Music (1940). He performed in the road company of Golden Boy.[7][8] On Broadway he was in Heavenly Express (1941), and Walk Into My Parlor (1941). He was in a hit in Jason (1942) then was in The Family (1943).[9][10] During World War II, Conte served in the United States Army, but was discharged because of eye trouble.[11] 20th Century Fox [ edit ] In May 1943, Conte signed a long-term contract with 20th Century Fox, changing his name to Richard Conte. His first Fox film was Guadalcanal Diary (1943), where he was billed fourth.[12] He followed it with another war drama, The Purple Heart (1944), directed by Lewis Milestone; he was billed second, beneath Dana Andrews.[13] Conte had a smaller part in Captain Eddie (1945), a biopic about Eddie Rickenbacker, and played an Italian POW in A Bell for Adano (1945). Conte had the star role in another war film for Milestone, A Walk in the Sun (1945), where he was teamed again with Andrews. Stardom [ edit ] Fox promoted Conte to top billing with a film noir, The Spider (1945). Although a "B" film for the studio, it was successful enough to establish Conte in film noir.[14] He had a good support role in Somewhere in the Night (1946) directed by Joseph Mankiewicz then supported James Cagney in a spy film, 13 Rue Madeleine (1946), directed by Henry Hathaway. Fox was borrowed by Enterprise Productions for The Other Love (1947) with Barbara Stanwyck and David Niven. Back at Fox he had an excellent part in Hathaway's crime drama Call Northside 777 (1948), as the prisoner whose innocence is proved by James Stewart.[15] Conte was teamed with Victor Mature in Cry of the City (1948). MGM borrowed him to support Wallace Beery in Big Jack (1949), Berry's final film, then he did another for Mankiewicz at Fox, House of Strangers (1949) with Edward G. Robinson, playing Max Monetti, a lawyer who defends his father (Robinson) against government charges of banking irregularities and goes to prison for jury tampering. Conte was top billed in Thieves' Highway (1949), directed by Jules Dassin, and co-starred with Gene Tierney in Otto Preminger's classic film noir Whirlpool (1949).[16] Universal [ edit ] Conte signed a contract with Universal Pictures, for whom he starred in some crime: The Sleeping City (1950); Hollywood Story (1951), directed by William Castle; and The Raging Tide (1951).[17] After doing a boxing film for United Artists, The Fighter (1952), he returned to Universal for The Raiders (1952). Conte went to Warner Bros to co-star with Anne Baxter and Ann Sothern in The Blue Gardenia (1953) directed by Fritz Lang. Back at Universal Conte supported Alan Ladd in Desert Legion (1953). He made Slaves of Babylon (1953) for Sam Katzman at Columbia. Conte started guest starring on TV shows such as Medallion Theatre, Ford Television Theatre, and General Electric Theater. Bill Broidy [ edit ] In 1953 Conte signed a contract with Bill Broidy to make six films over three years, under which he would be paid 25% of the profits.[18][19] The first was a crime drama, Highway Dragnet (1954), based on a story by Roger Corman and went to England to make Mask of Dust (1954) for Hammer Films director Terence Fisher. He was going to direct The Wolf Pack for Broidy but it was not made.[20] Back in the US Conte did The Big Combo (1955) for Cornel Wilde's own company, replacing Jack Palance;[21] New York Confidential (1955) for producer Edward Small; and The Big Tip Off (1955) for Broidy. Conte went back to England for Little Red Monkey (1955) and over to RKO for Bengazi (1955) and Warners for a Korean War movie Target Zero (1955). Conte broke out B movies with the second lead in I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), an MGM biopic about Lillian Roth starring Susan Hayward. Conte and director Daniel Mann announced they would make Play by Play together but it was not made.[22] Columbia [ edit ] Conte made a series of films for Columbia. He was co-starred with Judy Holliday in Full of Life (1956); played the lead in The Brothers Rico (1957); supported Anthony Perkins and Silvana Mangano in This Angry Age (1957); was one of several names in They Came to Cordura (1959). Television [ edit ] He continued to guest on TV shows like The 20th Century-Fox Hour and The Twilight Zone ("Perchance to Dream") and played the lead in a TV adaptation of The Gambler, the Nun and the Radio (1960). He had his first regular TV role in The Four Just Men (1959–60).[23] Conte supported Frank Sinatra in Ocean's 11 (1961) but then focused on TV: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bus Stop, Naked City, Checkmate, Frontier Circus, The DuPont Show of the Week, The Untouchables, Alcoa Premiere, Going My Way, Kraft Mystery Theater, 77 Sunset Strip, The Reporter, Kraft Suspense Theatre and Arrest and Trial.[8] He had a support role in Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963), Circus World (1964) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) (playing Barabbas) and the lead in The Eyes of Annie Jones (1964) for Robert L. Lippert. After Synanon (1965) he had the lead in Stay Tuned for Terror (1965), shot in Argentina. Conte supported Frank Sinatra in Assault on a Queen (1966) and was one of several stars in Hotel (1967). In 1966, Conte landed a supporting role in the short-lived CBS sitcom, The Jean Arthur Show.[24] He appeared as Lieutenant Dave Santini in two Frank Sinatra crime films, Tony Rome (1967) and Lady in Cement (1968). In between he did a Western in Europe, Sentenza di morte (1968). In 1968 he released his only film as a director, Operation Cross Eagles, in which he also starred. Conte's later performances include The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, The Challengers (1970), and The Name of the Game (1970). The Godfather [ edit ] Conte had one of his most memorable performances in The Godfather (1972) as Don Barzini. He was at one time also considered for the title role, Don Vito Corleone, a role which Marlon Brando eventually filled. The success of the film led to Conte being cast in a series of "mob" roles: Murder Inferno (1973), The Big Family (1973), Pete, Pearl and the Pole (1973), My Brother Anastasia (1973), The Violent Professionals (1973), No Way Out (1973) with Alain Delon, Anna, quel particolare piacere (1973), Shoot First, Die Later (1974) and Violent Rome (1975). He did horror films, Evil Eye (1975), A Diary of a Murderess (1975) and Naked Exorcism (1975). Family [ edit ] Conte was married to actress Ruth Storey,[5] with whom he adopted a son,[25] film editor Mark Conte. They divorced in 1963.[5] He married his second wife, Shirlee Garner, in 1973; they remained married until Conte's death. His grandson was National Football League free safety Chris Conte.. Chris is the son of Mark Conte. Death [ edit ] On April 3, 1975 Conte suffered a massive heart attack and a stroke. He was taken to UCLA Medical Centre where the staff worked for eight hours to keep him alive. He was put in intensive care and died on April 15.[2] He is buried in the Westwood Memorial Park[26] in Los Angeles, California.[27] Awards [ edit ] Year Group Award Result Film/Show 1960 Golden Laurel Top Action Performance Nominated They Came to Cordura (1959) Selected filmography [ edit ] Radio appearances [ edit ] Year Program Episode/source 1946 Readers' Digest Radio Edition Our Lady's Juggler[29] 1946 Suspense "Win, Place and Murder"[30] 1953 Hollywood Star Playhouse Blackout[31]Ever since the 1988 release of "Super Mario Bros. 3," gamers have obsessed over its intricacy, its difficulty, and the fact that it's one of the most fun, memorable video games ever created. In 2007, it was even named alongside such classics as "Zork" and "Tetris" in the Game Canon, a Library of Congress-inspired list of games that ought to be preserved because of their lasting impact and importance to the medium. One big addition to the world of "Super Mario Bros." in this third Nintendo Entertainment System game about the two adventurous plumbers (fourth if you count the original "Mario Bros.," of course) was the creation of the airship levels. The continuous scrolling and the need to move quickly, at times, from one side of the screen to the complete opposite side – all while dodging bullets fired from cannons, of course – made for one of the most challenging video game experiences yet, at that time. Now, Julius von Brunk, of New York, New York – who calls "Super Mario Bros. 3" the "Cadillac of games" – has captured one of the famous airships, complete with Mario and Luigi, in a format most appropriate for video games: Lego blocks (just the latest geeky creation with Legos, mind you). CNN Geek Out spoke to von Brunk about his creation. CNN Geek Out: So what is it about "Super Mario" that captures the imagination, anyway? Von Brunk: When I was 6 years old, the original "Super Mario Bros." game was the first game I had for NES - and since then, I've been true to the franchise up until the era of 3-D Mario games. I still played some of the GameCube titles when they were launched (in fact, Dr. Mario was my chosen Super Smash Bros. Melee fighter), but frankly, nothing can compare to the thrill and replay value of the primary series for NES and SNES! "Super Mario Bros." was an early platform game with dozens of levels, power-ups, enemies and depth, which made it an ideal universe for me to latch-on to and create many tributes to in my artistic media. The series itself is like nothing else the world has seen previously, with so many original themes and elements - from the music to the game synopsis. Sure, at the end of the day, the games boil down to a standard "hero saves the princess" cliche, but it's the deliverance and originality of the worlds and characters which makes it unique on its own; let's not forget the Lewis Carroll-inspired ideas which went into the original game's creation - which of course is an endless stream of imagination in its own respect! CNN Geek Out: And what made you decide to create this airship? Von Brunk: As a child, I was so obsessed with this game, that I began drawing fan art and conceptualizations of building my own real-life version of the Koopa airships. When I realized I was merely a kid with no money - and no engineering savvy, I ultimately scrapped the idea for obvious reasons. Flash forward to my adulthood years, where I have time, money and moderate work space, and behold: a small replica of those airships, but made from more practical means - in other words, the closest thing I could do to actually building a real airship! CNN Geek Out: How much work went into this? Von Brunk: The idea of building a giant airship from Lego first came to me in October 2011 some time when I was at a burlesque show, and zoning out whilst thinking of making a "huge" landmark art piece or diorama - to put my name on the map, so to speak. I first messed around with some of the faux-wood Lego pieces I had to see if it was practical and possible to build an entire ship, then as soon as I calculated building costs and made some primary sketches, I immediately ordered hundreds and hundreds of reddish-brown pieces. Next I built some small mockups and test ships later in November, then went into production with the finalized ship itself throughout December. The ship was "done" and table-ready by January, minus a few details, such as the metal girders, the clear stanchions, the electrical components, the anchor and such. All in the all, the total time spent was basically every weekend from November 2011 – February 2012. And just a little side note: the elaborate method of having the side panels riveted (which resemble logs) and facing sideways - as the ship's floor faces upwards actually took quite a long time to engineer - and when I stayed up all night one Saturday in November, the solution to making the ship's sides actually came to me as I was drunk! By the time I was sober (and awake) the next morning, I discovered a small mockup of the ship's side panel rivet method on my bed, which I apparently completely figured out and built after several beers! CNN Geek Out: How many Lego sculptures have you made? Von Brunk: I've been working with Lego throughout my life as long as I can remember - hence my two Lego mini-figure tattoos (of a Castle forestman and a Space Futuron astronaut)! However, I've only been making refined, serious dioramas/projects since early 2008 some time, when I began using my master collections for online displays and exhibition. Prior to that (in my preteen to adult years), I'd merely build sets, models and mini-figures in the privacy of my bedroom, show them to my friends and family, and then immediately dismantle the projects when I felt like building something else. Those early projects were almost never photographed nor documented. My Tumblr page has most of my best "polished" work since 2008, and leading up to my recent work today. CNN Geek Out: Why do you think Lego sculptures have taken off lately in nerd culture? Von Brunk: In my opinion, the advent of the internet - which includes (but isn't limited to) social media, blogging, digital cameras, and auction websites almost certainly created a large boom in Lego-related art as a medium. Back in my younger days as a builder (the early-mid 1990s), making an MOC (my-own-creation) literally meant using a 35mm camera to get some wing-and-prayer shots of the models you built, only being able to use parts available in stores at the time, getting your mom to develop the photos at the grocery store film-dropoff, submitting them to the Lego Builders' Club magazine, and hoping to get featured. Nowadays, with such technology as reliable cameras, imaging software, Lego fan sites, and LEGO pick-a-brick websites (notably Bricklink.com), builders such as myself have infinite resources and abilities to share our work with the world - in addition to acquiring virtually any specific Lego piece ever manufactured. Based on this, amateur builders and rookies can feel inspired by our work, and subsequently make their own creations to display for feedback and criticism; this alone more than likely caused hope and aspirations to those unaware previously, hence the fandom. I mean, when I was 11, if I wanted a rare piece for custom model, I'd have to hope I'd get a specific model for Christmas and extract the part - nowadays, I can simply log into Bricklink, search for an individual piece (by year, size, color, or type) and order as many available from a vendor! This technology more than opened the doors for aspiring builders and veteran brick-craftsmen alike - comparable in the same sense that YouTube and Facebook have given an edge to indie musicians to whom would have to pass out demo tapes to record managers about 15 years ago. For a more detailed look at von Brunk's work, click here.New York, NY (February 20, 2013) — Triglyceride lipid emulsions rich in an omega-3 fatty acid injected within a few hours of an ischemic stroke can decrease the amount of damaged brain tissue by 50 percent or more in mice, reports a new study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center. The results suggest that the emulsions may be able to reduce some of the long-term neurological and behavioral problems seen in human survivors of neonatal stroke and possibly of adult stroke, as well. The findings were published today in the journal PLoS One. Currently, clot-busting tPA (recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator) is the only treatment shown to improve recovery from ischemic stroke. If administered soon after stroke onset, the drug can restore blood flow to the brain but may not prevent injured, but potentially salvageable, neurons from dying. Drugs with neuroprotective qualities that can prevent the death of brain cells damaged by stroke are needed, but even after 30 years of research and more than 1000 agents tested in animals, no neuroprotectant has been found effective in people. Omega-3 fatty acids may have more potential as neuroprotectants because they affect multiple biochemical processes in the brain that are disturbed by stroke, said the study's senior author, Richard Deckelbaum, MD, director of the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia's College of Physicians & Surgeons. "The findings also may be applicable to other causes of ischemic brain injury in newborns and adults," added co-investigator Vadim S. Ten, MD, PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics from the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia. The effects of the omega-3 fatty acids include increasing the production of natural neuroprotectants in the brain, reducing inflammation and cell death, and activating genes that may protect brain cells. Omega-3 fatty acids also markedly reduce the release of harmful oxidants into the brain after stroke. "In most clinical trials in the past, the compounds tested affected only one pathway. Omega-3 fatty acids, in contrast, are very bioactive molecules that target multiple mechanisms involved in brain death after stroke," Dr. Deckelbaum said. The study revealed that an emulsion containing only DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), but not EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), in a triglyceride molecule reduced the area of dead brain tissue by about 50 percent or more even when administered up to two hours after the stroke. Dr. Deckelbaum noted, "Since mice have a much faster metabolism than humans, longer windows of time for therapeutic effect after stroke are likely in humans." Eight weeks after the stroke, much of the "saved" mouse brain tissue was still healthy, and no toxic effects were detected. Studies are currently under way to test the emulsion in older mice and in mice with different types of stroke. The researchers are also conducting additional studies to identify more precisely how the omega-3 emulsion works and to optimize the emulsion in order to improve functional recovery after stroke. After animal studies on dosages and timing, and if the emulsions continue to show promising results, Dr. Deckelbaum said, clinical trials could begin quickly, as such emulsions have already been shown to be safe in people. Similar emulsions are used in European ICUs for nutrition support, and in the US they have been found to be safe when tested in babies for their nutritive and anti-inflammatory effects. Source: Columbia University Medical CenterSo archaeology IS child’s play! Almost intact carcass of 30,000-year-old woolly mammoth found by 11-year-old boy Young boys are often keen to go off exploring close to where they live, digging around in the hope they'll make an extraordinary discovery. But when one 11-year-old Russian boy decided to explore his local neighborhood, he came across something which hadn't been seen in more than 100 years. The curious youngster uncovered a nearly intact wooly mammoth - which was discovered complete with flesh, bones, fur and layers of fat. Scroll down for video Incredible: An 11-year-old boy uncovered this nearly intact wooly mammoth in north Russia It is believed the remains - which include a tusk - are the right half of the body, weighing in at 500kg. The Moscow News reports it is a male which died about 30,000 years ago at the age of 15. It has remained frozen in permafrost ever since. The boy who made the astonishing discovery has been named as Yevgeny Salinder, ABC News reported. He found the frozen beast in Taymyr, north Russia, where he lives with his family, close to the Sopkarga polar station. Woolly mammoths have been found in the permafrost in Siberia since at least 1929, but this is one of the best preserved, researchers believe. Its tusks, mouth and rib cage are clearly visible. Rare: It is believed the remains - which include a tusk - are the right half of the body, weighing in at 500kg Remains: It is believed to be a male which died about 30,000 years ago at the age of 15 After telling his parents about his incredible find, scientists were able to confirm the discovery. It is believed to be the second best preserved mammoth ever unearthed and the best mammoth discovery since 1901. It has now been named Zhenya after the boy's nickname and will be studied by scientists. Alexei Tikhonov, a mammoth specialist with the Russian Academy of Sciences, told journalists that the last time such a well-preserved mammoth was found in Russia was in 1901, also in the Krasnoyarsk region, but much farther south, according to the statement. The carcass will become an exhibit at the Taimir Regional Studies Museum, but museum staff have agreed to allow scientists from zoological and paleontological institutes in Moscow and St. Petersburg study it first.If tracking one Congress was great, then tracking 51 of them must be even better! This week GovTrack added legislative tracking for the 50 states. You can now find: The new state legislative information is available here through a partnership with LegiNation, Inc. and LegiScan, Inc. Some data is additionally from Open States. Check out LegiNation’s BillTrack50 website for professional (i.e. paid) legislative tracking tools if you’re ready for a step up from GovTrack and need a 50-state-plus-federal solution. State tracking is a beta feature of GovTrack. We’ll be improving it over time in response to feedback from users like you. The full announcement is below: New Open Data Partnership Improves Government Transparency at State and Federal Levels GovTrack and LegiNation trade legislative data and help citizens engage with government DENVER and WASHINGTON –June 18, 2012 – In a significant step toward greater government transparency, two organizations focused on publishing government data have joined forces to present major new comprehensive, user friendly, publicly accessible databases of state and federal bills. LegiNation, creator of the BillTrack50 solution to track state bills will exchange information with open government technology company Civic Impulse, developer of the federal legislative monitoring tool GovTrack. The aim of the data exchange is to provide individuals, advocacy groups, businesses and legislative professionals with access to information to better engage with government. Joshua Tauberer is president of Civic Impulse and the author of Open Government Data: The Book which frames the open government data movement as the application of Big Data to civics. Mr. Tauberer said the partnership with LegiNation creates an important source of government data and presents citizens with the opportunity for increased participation in and influence of government. “Citizens are far more savvy about their government and more interested in participating in it than most people realize. Apathy is a myth. But what they need are better tools to participate effectively and efficiently,” Mr. Tauberer contends. Federal and state bills can be accessed on the www.billtrack50.com and www.govtrack.us websites for free, and a professional version allowing for advanced tracking and sharing is available through BillTrack50. The sites present bill text, status, and summaries in a format easily located by Google-like word search or by using more exact information like legislator names or bill numbers. Tools to stay informed of legislative activity are also provided. Karen Suhaka, president of LegiNationl said the combined data will present a more accurate picture of the political landscape across the country, making it is easier to identify state and federal policy trends. The partners also hope to improve the ability to analyze how ideas spread in government. “People who are frustrated with Congress must look at the possibility of successful engagement at the state level. Making this data available to the public and to cost-conscious legislative professionals encourages everyone, not just moneyed interests, to make their voice heard in government,” Ms. Suhaka said. “Individuals really can engage at the state level and have an impact.” About GovTrack.us GovTrack.us is a tool by Civic Impulse, LLC to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress and state legislatures, promoting and innovating government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology. Launched in 2004 initially as a hobby, GovTrack.us was the first website worldwide whose primary goal was to provide free and comprehensive legislative tracking for everyday citizens and to embrace Web 2.0 and open data. GovTrack.us was a 2006 Webby Award nominee and has been covered in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and it is the data provider for many other websites displaying legislative information. About LegiNation LegiNation, Inc. was founded in 2011 with the goal of making state level legislation more readily available to the professionals who need it, and even more importantly to the public at large. LegiNation is building products and websites that will spark a renaissance in American politics, leveraging the Internet to create the dialog so desperately needed amongst our elected officials, legislative professionals, and everyday citizens. AdvertisementsDocument: SSVC final report Final Report of the School System Viability Committee, Signal Mountain, Tenn., Sept. 27, 2017. View Document Signal Mountain's School System Viability Committee has finally completed its final report for the Signal Mountain Town Council. The 48-page document, currently available to the public through the town's website, details the SSVC's methodology and findings, with most committee members ultimately concluding that a separate school district would be viable so long as the town was able to overcome three obstacles. Those obstacles are: 1, the issue of control of the town's three school buildings, which committee members state will likely have to be resolved through negotiation or litigation between the town and the Hamilton County Department of Education; 2, the inclusion of Walden and the unincorporated area of Hamilton County in the decision-making process, governance and funding obligation for a new district; and 3, the question of how Signal Mountain would be required to contribute to the school district financially — for which the report offers a number of possible approaches. Also included in the document was an addendum written by SSVC member Charles Spencer, the only representative on the committee to vote against approving the final report. In his dissenting report, Spencer argued that there were several risks that the committee had not taken into account. He said his goal was "simply to provide additional areas for our town council to consider." Document: SSVC survey results The School System Viability Committee Quality Survey results. Document: Signal School District budget letter Signal Mountain School District final budget letter. Among his list of potential risks, Spencer included the financial consequences of lawsuits to the town should legal action be required to obtain the school buildings, and the risk of an independent school district having insufficient resources to deal with unforeseen problems that may arise. In regards to the fact-finding process itself, Spencer criticized the committee for not consulting with more professionals, who he said were willing to brief the committee at no cost, as well as for beginning the investigation with a preconceived conclusion as opposed to starting with a "clean slate," which he said could have injected unintentional bias into the study. The six other members of the committee responded to Spencer's dissent with an additional addendum reiterating their adhesion to facts and research while compiling the budget, and defending the final report from Spencer's specific criticisms with additional information about the process and data already in the report. All in all, SSVC Chair John Friedl said
– when it comes to the crucial questions of (a) the Koran's divine origin and absolute inerrancy and (b) the proposition that Muhammed was the perfect man. He approves of hijab, and is OK with niqab. While still claiming to oppose the death penalty for gays, he also maintains that when you tolerate homosexuality you “water down Islam” and strip Islam of its “credibility” – so make of that what you will. Routinely, he's responded to events like the Danish cartoon controversy by smoothly shifting the topic from free speech to “responsible speech.” He locates the roots of Islamic terror not in the Koran but in American wars, European imperialism, and Israeli oppression of Palestinians. He says that the chief impediment to Islamic assimilation isn't Islam but Islamophobia – and (as we've seen) smears as Islamophobes all those who dare to tell the truth about Islamic belief and culture. Simply put, he's a cynical whitewasher of Islam – a wolf in sheep's clothing, determined to do his part to erode liberty and normalize sharia in the West, thereby helping to turn one country after another into a theocracy. Most recently, Rana popped up in Aftenposten on December 26 with an op-ed about Donald Trump. In it, Rana recalled with admiration that after 9/11, George W. Bush high-tailed it to a mosque to proclaim that “Islam is peace.” Rana argued that the “respect” shown to Islam by both Bush and his successor, Barack Obama, is one of the reasons why American Muslims are such patriots (!). But, he warned, that may change under Trump, who “demonizes” Islam and whose incoming administration is packed with Muslim-haters – notably Steve Bannon, whose website, Breitbart, he described as “a platform for anti-Semitism and white nationalism” and as having published “known Islamophobes such as Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, and Frank Gaffney.” Rana painted a nightmare picture of a totalitarian Trump-run America defined by anti-Muslim legislation, anti-Muslim hate crime, and anti-Muslim terrorism. (Needless to say, Rana dropped the terrorist attacks in Boston, San Bernardino, Orlando, etc., etc., down the memory hole.) One thing is clear from Rana's piece: Trump has him scared. And with good reason. Because Trump has his number – and Islam's number. Trump, unlike Trine Skei Grande and countless other feckless European politicians, doesn't show up for talks by the likes of Rana and pat them on the head while murmuring sweet nothings about diversity and multiculturalism; he recognizes guys like Rana as existential threats to Western freedom, and he means to do something about them. And Rana's smart enough to know it.$\begingroup$ Here is an elementaryproof which considers $ p(z) $ as a function of $ (x,y) $ where $ z=x+iy $. The only assumptions are that $z^{n}=r $ has a solution for all integer $n$ and real $r$ and that intermediate value theorem holds for continuous real valued functions along any continuous curve on the complex plane. The second assumption can be proved by parametrizing the curve and then using the least upper bound principle for real numbers. Writing $ z= r e^{-i \theta} $ we can find a big enough $r=R$ such that $ Re(p(R,\theta)) $ is positive at $\theta=\frac {2\pi k} {n} + \frac {\phi} {n} $ and negative at $\theta=\frac {2\pi k} {n} + \frac {\pi} {n} + \frac {\phi} {n} $. This is because $Re(p(R,\theta)) $ is dominated by $r^{n}cos(n\theta)$. $\phi$ is the angle of the complex coefficient of $z^{n}$. Now, $ p(z) $ being continous, $ Re(p(z)) $ is also continuous. So the zeros of $ Re(p(z)) $ form a continuous curves on the complex plane. The point is to show that on one such continuous curve there is a point where $ Im(p(z))>0 $ and another point where $ Im(p(z))<0 $. Then on the particular curve $ Re(p(z))=0 $ there must be a point where $ Im(p(z))=0 $. However, this is the solution of $ p(z)=0 $. The proof can be visualized in the following way- The arc $r=R$ between $\theta=\frac {2\pi k} {n} + \frac {\phi} {n}$ and $\theta=\frac {2\pi k} {n} + \frac {\pi} {n} + \frac {\phi} {n} $ is called a even sector for even $k$ and is called a odd sector for odd $k$. Let us start from the even arc with $k=0$. The values of $ Re(p(R,\theta)) $ at the ends of this arc are of opposite sign, so it much be zero somewhere on the curve. The same thing holds if we increase $r \ge R$ continuously. So we get a continuous curve for $ Re(p(z))=0 $ in the sector $\theta \in$ { $0 $, $\frac {\pi} {n}$} for $r\ge R$. Let us call this curve $f(z)$ Now, zeros of a continuous function divide the plane into two disconnected parts. One of the parts is finite in area if the curve is closed. Otherwise both areas are unbounded. Here, since we cannot have $ Re(p(z))=0 $ for $\theta =0 $ and $\theta=\frac {\pi} {n}$ for $r\ge R$, the curve $f(z)$ does not intersect the rays $\theta =0 $ and $\theta=\frac {\pi} {n}$ for $r \ge R$. This means $f(z)$ cannot be closed. Now, $f(z)$ must cross one of the odd arcs. This can be constructed using exhaustion (there are only finite numbers of arcs). If not, there must be another curve satisfying $ Re(p(z))=0 $ and the desired conditions. $Im(p(R,\theta)) $ is dominated by $r^{n}sin(n\theta)$. So, for big enough $r$, $Im(p(r,\theta)) $ is positive somewhere in the even sector and negative somewhere in the odd sector. So $Im(p(z)=0) $ somewhere on the continuous curve $f(z)$. This gives a solution for $p(z)=0$. Additionally, $f(z)$ is not asymptotic to $\theta=\frac {2\pi k} {n} + \frac {\phi} {n}$ or $\theta=\frac {2\pi k} {n} + \frac {\pi} {n} + \frac {\phi} {n}$. This can be proven by using the fact that $Re(z) < \|z\|, \forall z \in \mathbb{C}$. If this was not true, domination of $Im(p(z))$ on $f(z)$ by $r^{n}$ would be problematic since $sin(n \theta)$ might tend towards zero. Finally, for real coefficients, if $z$ a solution, $\overline z$ is also a solution for $p(z)=0$, since $\overline p(z) = p(\overline z)=0$. So for every root found, we can do division algorithm to get another polynomial of degree $n-2$. We know that quartic polynomials are always solvable using radicals. So induction shows that all polynomials with real coefficients are solvable on the complex plane.Almost six million workers in the UK are paid less than the living wage, a study suggests. The data showed a "worrying trend" of part-time, female and young workers being most likely to earn below the figure, researchers found. The living wage, promoted by the Living Wage Foundation, is currently £7.85 an hour and £9.15 in London. It is not compulsory for employers to pay it. The government said it was "determined to move to a higher wage economy". The accountancy firm KPMG said its research showed that the proportion of workers earning less than the living wage had risen for three years in a row. The wage is well above the compulsory national minimum wage, and more than the new national living wage which the government has announced will come into force next April. Living wages: how does it add up? The living wage is an informal benchmark, not a legally enforceable minimum level of pay. It is currently £7.85 and £9.15 in London is an informal benchmark, not a legally enforceable minimum level of pay. It is currently £7.85 and £9.15 in London The national minimum wage is the compulsory minimum level of pay set by the business secretary each year on the advice of the Low Pay Commission. It stands at £6.70 an hour for adults aged 21 and over, and £5.30 for those aged 18 to 20 is the compulsory minimum level of pay set by the business secretary each year on the advice of the Low Pay Commission. It stands at £6.70 an hour for adults aged 21 and over, and £5.30 for those aged 18 to 20 In the last Budget the government announced a new compulsory National Living Wage will come into force from April 2016. It will be paid to workers aged 25 and above. It will be set initially at £7.20 an hour and is intended to exceed £9 an hour by 2020 Image caption Iain Duncan Smith cheered loudly when the Chancellor announced his National Living Wage plan Mike Kelly, of KPMG, said: "With the cost of living still high, the squeeze on household finances remains acute, meaning the reality for many is that they are forced to live hand-to-mouth. "The figures show there is still more to be done if we are to eradicate in-work poverty. For some time it was easy for businesses to hide behind the argument that increased wages hit their bottom line, but there is ample evidence to suggest the opposite, in the shape of higher retention and higher productivity. "It may not be possible for every business, but it is certainly not impossible to explore the feasibility of paying the living wage." A government spokeswoman said the new national living wage would give a direct boost in wages for 2.7m people in the UK, "meaning a full-time worker will earn over £4,800 more by 2020". "Treasury analysis shows women and those based outside London and the South East will be the biggest winners when the new national living wage comes into force," she said. But Labour's business secretary Angela Eagle said things were getting worse, not better, for many families. "We need to see more better-paid, high-skilled jobs which pay a living wage, but these figures show that progress is slipping," she said. "At the same time the Tories are making life harder for those on low and middle incomes as they cut tax credits and hit families with a work penalty. People are working harder than ever, but will rightly feel that the government is working against them."Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr In a bold repudiation of China's demand, Sen. Ted Cruz stood his ground and proved he is sovereign by meeting with Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen on Sunday as she passed through Texas on her way to diplomatic trips to Central America. China had earlier given statements to the media expressing its desire for U.S. officials not to meet with the Taiwan leader. Sen. Cruz also revealed that China's consulate even wrote a "curious letter" asking the Houston congressional delegation not to meet with Tsai. But Cruz dismissed and defied the dictatorial posturing of China. "The People's Republic of China needs to understand that in America, we make decisions about meeting with visitors for ourselves.", Cruz said in released statement. Cruz appears to be following the lead of fellow Republican and his rival for the GOP primary President-elect Donald Trump, who took a congratulatory call from Tsai following his historic victory in the U.S. election, in redefining U.S. relations with Taiwan. China expressed in strong terms its displeasure for the Trump and Tsai phone call and insisted on the "One China" policy agreement with the U.S. Trump firmly answered back and said China can not dictate who he can talk to and which calls to take, and even reminded everyone of U.S. close trade ties with Taiwan, including the highly profitable U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Cruz underscored that his meeting with Tsai is not about China, but about the U.S. relationship with Taiwan whom the senator refers to as an ally " the U.S. is legally bound to defend". And as a broadside to the Asian superpower, Cruz also said that "we will continue to meet with anyone, including the Taiwanese, as we see fit." Governor Greg Abbott joined Cruz in meeting Tsai. Cruz said that he and Tsai discussed arms sales, diplomatic exchanges and economic relations, as well as prospects for increasing trade markets between Texas and Taiwanese markets. For his part, Abbot said he and Tsai talked about agriculture and gas trade, energy, energy and commercial ties between Texas and Taiwan. The leaders also exchanged gifts, with Abbot giving Tsai a clock bearing the Texas State Seal while he received a vase from Tsai. China holds pronounced anger against Tsai because the Taiwanese leader rejected Beijing's continuous declaration that Taiwan is part of China's territory. Beijing also lodged a complaint to the U.S. for the controversial Trump and Tsai brief phone conversation. President Obama scrambled to appease China while Trump took a tougher, defiant stance against the Asian giant even hitting China in a series of strongly-worded tweets.There are plenty of free events across five different sports where you can get close to some of the world's top athletes Marathon Sun 5 Aug 11am-2pm, women; Sun 12 Aug 11am-1.40pm, men The grandest of all free-to-air urban sport, track and field without the need for a track or a field, the marathon has a grand tradition of popular inclusivity. For London 2012 pretty much the entire length of the 26-mile course is open to the public, a circular route that will begin and end on The Mall. The traditional grandstand finish in the Olympic Stadium has therefore been abandoned – along with the chance for London's East End to stage a bit of its own Games on its own non-telegenic streets. Instead the marathon will loop as far east as Tower Bridge, taking in the broad, spectator-friendly boulevards of the Embankment and parts of the City. Note to the usual London marathon crowd: don't come expecting Austin Powers, a man in a diving suit or a three-hour procession of wheezing nano-celebrities. It's just the fast ones this time. Don't blink. Best vantage point The steps of St Paul's. Olympoccupy the City. Walking Sat 4 Aug 5pm-6.30pm, men's 20km; Sat 11 Aug 9am-1.20pm, men's 50km; 5pm-6.45pm, women's 20km Why run when you can walk in the manner of an angry, super-fit, slightly camp person in small satin shorts? The race walk will take place on chunks of the marathon course, with the men doing 20km and 50km, the women restricted to the 20km. With three separate races taking place it is a genuine opportunity to bag some unticketed Olympic gold, albeit at a slightly more leisurely pace and accompanied by a neurotically precise preoccupation with heel-to-ground contact. Best vantage point Ideally the walk would be going down Oxford Street, providing a rare and startling glimpse of people moving above 1.5mph. Failing that, the Embankment is always a spectacular place for a stroll. Road cycling Sat 28 Jul 10am-4.15pm, men's road race Sun 29 Jul 12pm-4.15pm, women's road race Wed 1 Aug 10am-11.30am, women's time trial; 1pm-4.15pm, men's time trial Four separate events to choose from in what is perhaps the premium unticketed event of London 2012. The men's and women's road races are a cycle courier's nightmare: repeated high-speed laps of London's busiest thoroughfares, albeit with the danger of the veering, smudged white van removed. The time trial features staggered starts, so less of the here-they-come-there-they-go that tends to mar most roadside bike spotting. With Mark Cavendish involved in the road race this is the equivalent of getting a chance to watch Wayne Rooney booting a ball about on your local rec. Get there early. Best vantage point The wondrously scenic Box Hill; or, failing that as wristbands will be issued to limit numbers, any Richmond pub with an outside table. Triathlon Sat 4 Aug 9am-11.40am, women Tue 7 Aug 11.30am-2pm, men Outstanding value for no money: three disciplines jammed into the mid-sized hectarage of Hyde Park, with competitors constantly engaged in some form of swim-bike-run, the latter two in lap form. Hyde Park on a sunny day is a kind of urban heaven anyway. Chuck in athletes running 10km in swimming trunks and who could ask for more? Best vantage point The dirt track on the south side for sprint finish possibilities – plus the chance to see Prince Philip riding about in his horse and cart. Sailing 29 July-11 August Some Olympic freebie controversy here, with Locog being criticised by locals for turning Nothe Gardens in Weymouth, the perfect spot to witness Olympic boatiness, into a ticketed area. There are ways round it: a vantage point by Newton's Cove; a free site with a giant screen on Weymouth beach; and of course the piracy option. All you need is a speedboat, some derring-do and the open sea. Fence that, Portland council. Open water swimming Thu 9 Aug 12pm-3pm, women Fri 10 Aug 12pm-3pm, men Another Hyde Park spectacular, with a paid area around the VIP plastic pavilion at the lake's north shore and a large mill-about area on the south bank on which weary Knightsbridge shoppers can take a break and instead enjoy the spectacle of a row of heads bobbing around the lake in slipstream formation and being menaced by geese for 40 minutes before exploding into a last-lap sprint finish. Best vantage point The bridge over the Serpentine; failing that, and dependent on availability, a £10m penthouse at One Hyde Park. Live sites The last resort when all else fails and the prospect of a leaping man in a Team GB jester's hat trampling your picnic hamper seems oddly appealing. Live sites will be city-centre fan zone-type places with big screens, refreshments on sale and assorted people bunking off work to watch the yngling heats. There are 22 of them across the UK from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, ideal for that live BBC "let's see how that sensational bronze medal for Phillips Idowu went down across the country" moment. Torch relay 19 May-26 July The last, last resort for those who want to be warmed, perhaps literally, by the Olympic spirit without having to even watch any sport. For reasons that may perhaps make sense when it happens, the torch is being ferried around every local authority in Britain by "inspirational people". No, not you, Konnie Huq. Actually buying a ticket Believe it or not, there are still some paying opportunities to spectate a home Olympics. Around 1.5m Olympic football tickets went on sale in November and have not sold out, while another tranche of Paralympics tickets went on the market in December.Shortly before opening fire inside a crowded Orlando nightclub, Omar Mateen called 911 and pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State. While law enforcement officials have yet to confirm ties between the 29-year-old and the terrorist organization, FBI agent Ron Hopper told reporters Sunday that Mateen had been on the FBI’s radar since 2013, when coworkers reported him for making “offensive” comments about Islamic extremism. After two interviews, Hopper said, agents could not prove that Mateen was connected to any terrorist groups. The FBI questioned him once more in 2014 about ties to a suicide bomber, but again let him go after determining that their “contact was minimal.” Mateen’s ability to still carry out the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history despite this record highlights the uniquely impenetrable threat of “lone wolves.” Yahoo News talked to terrorism experts about what makes lone wolf attacks so difficult to prevent. Simply put, the answer is that lone wolves are so hard to detect because they’re, well, acting alone. “There are no co-conspirators by definition,” said Michael German, a former FBI agent specializing in domestic terrorism, now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security program. “It is less likely that information about the plot will leak to others, so it could be reported to law enforcement.” Scott Decker, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University, elaborated: “Law enforcement is organized to work through multiple sources of information to identify suspects and understand the characteristics and motivations of crimes, especially violent crimes,” said Decker, who focused his research on the similarities between gangs and terrorist organizations. “The more contacts an individual has, the more sources of information law enforcement has at its disposal,” he said. In the same vein, “The more people involved in an attack, the more likely it is that there will be ‘traces’ of evidence regarding the attack or information that could lead to individuals involved in an attack.” Jeffrey Simon, a visiting lecturer in UCLA’s political science department and author of the book “Lone Wolf Terrorism: Understanding the Growing Threat,” noted that in recent years, lone wolves have shown that while they prefer to work alone, they still like to talk — mostly online. “So many lone wolves, prior to an attack, have published very extremist types of blogs, sometimes indicating that they’re thinking about doing violence,” Simon said. “But often times these postings are right before they perpetrate the attack and it’s too late for the authorities to intercept.” Even when law enforcement is able to detect such signs of potential violence before an attack, Simon points out, free speech complicates the issue. “We don’t know yet how to separate those individuals who may be espousing extremist views or hate type of views from those who are actually going to follow through with an attack,” he said. Filtering through online comments for legitimate threats is just one way that, Decker and Simon argue, the Internet has made lone wolves easier to cultivate and harder to identify. “The Internet has played a central role in the spread of terrorism, particularly individuals in the U.S. who have become radicalized or adopted extremist views,” said Decker, pointing to the use of discussion boards, social media and email by radical Islamic groups as well as right-wing extremist organizations. “The lack of direct contact makes both the prevention and solving of such incidents more difficult,” he said. Decker also noted that, “While much electronic communication (online and via telephone) can be tracked, the controversy between Apple and the FBI regarding the San Bernardino shootings illustrates that identifying such information is not always straightforward.” Simon agreed that “the Internet is really the game-changer in today’s terrorism, especially for the lone wolves,” and said, “ISIS has proven incredibly savvy in using social media and the Internet to spread their ideology, to call for violent attacks.” But German argues that the sort of “leaderless resistance” strategy employed by ISIS and other groups is neither new nor impressive. “It was pioneered by white supremacists in the 1990s and followed by all sorts of other groups since,” German said. “The strategy is a sign of weakness, not of strength.”December 5, 2017 That single change probably kept Hillary Clinton out of jail. That single change probably kept Hillary Clinton out of jail. That single change probably kept Hillary Clinton out of jail. Former FBI counterintelligence expert Peter Strzok, demoted by Robert Mueller following a series of anti-Trump texts to his mistress, was the individual responsible for changing the wording in Director Comey's statement on Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information from "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless." Former FBI counterintelligence expert Peter Strzok, demoted by Robert Mueller following a series of anti-Trump texts to his mistress, was the individual responsible for changing the wording in Director Comey's statement on Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information from "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless." Former FBI counterintelligence expert Peter Strzok, demoted by Robert Mueller following a series of anti-Trump texts to his mistress, was the individual responsible for changing the wording in Director Comey's statement on Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information from "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless." It has also been revealed that Strzok was the FBI agent who interviewed both Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's two top aides. Mills and Abedin made misleading statements to the FBI in that interview but went unpunished. That a demonstrably partisan investigator has been at the center of an investigation that could potentially lead to the impeachment of a president of the United States makes it impossible for Robert Mueller to claim that his investigation is unbiased and independent. First, Strzok giving Clinton a "get out of jail" edit to Comey's statement. Electronic records show Peter Strzok, who led the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server as the No. 2 official in the counterintelligence division, changed Comey's earlier draft language describing Clinton's actions as "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless," the sources said. The drafting process was a team effort, CNN is told, with a handful of people reviewing the language as edits were made, according to another US official familiar with the matter. The shift from "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless," which may appear pedestrian at first glance, reflected a decision by the FBI that could have had potentially significant legal implications, as the federal law governing the mishandling of classified material establishes criminal penalties for "gross negligence." Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, raised questions over why the change was made after receiving documents from the FBI last month, but the identity of who was behind the edit has not been reported until now. CNN has also learned that Strzok was the FBI official who signed the document officially opening an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to sources familiar with the matter. As the No. 2 official in counterintelligence, Strzok was considered to be one of the bureau's top experts on Russia. But the news of Strzok's direct role in the statement that ultimately cleared the former Democratic presidential candidate of criminal wrongdoing, now combined with the fact that he was dismissed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team after exchanging private messages with an FBI lawyer that could be seen as favoring Clinton politically, may give ammunition to those seeking ways to discredit Mueller's Russia investigation. How about some more "ammunition," CNN? The FBI agent who was fired from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation team for sending anti-Donald Trump text messages conducted the interviews with two Hillary Clinton aides accused of giving false statements about what they knew of the former secretary of state’s private email server. Neither of the Clinton associates, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, faced legal consequences for their misleading statements, which they made in interviews last year with former FBI section chief Peter Strzok. At the time, Strzok was the FBI’s top investigator on the fledgling investigation into Russian interference in the presidential campaign. He was appointed to supervise that effort at the end of July 2016, just weeks after the conclusion of the Clinton email probe. CNN reported on Monday that as the FBI’s No. 2 counterintelligence official, Strzok signed the documents that officially opened the collusion inquiry. Mills and Abedin must have been releived when they figured out that the agent interviewing them was a friendly. Summaries of the interviews, known as 302s, were released by the FBI last year. A review of those documents conducted by The Daily Caller shows that Mills and Abedin told Strzok and Laufman that they were not aware of Clinton’s server until after she left the State Department. “Mills did not learn Clinton was using a private server until after Clinton’s [Department of State] tenure,” reads notes from Mills’ May 28, 2016 interview. “Mills stated she was not even sure she knew what a server was at the time.” Abedin also denied knowing about Clinton’s server until leaving the State Department in 2013. “Abedin did not know that Clinton had a private server until about a year and a half ago when it became public knowledge,” the summary of Strzok’s interview with Abedin states. (RELATED: Chaffetz: Cheryl Mills ‘Lied To Everybody’ About Clinton’s Server) But undercutting those denials are email exchanges in which both Mills and Abedin either directly discussed or were involved in discussing Clinton’s server. “hrc email coming back — is server okay?” Mills asked in a Feb. 27, 2010 email to Abedin and Justin Cooper, a longtime aide to Bill Clinton who helped set up the Clinton server. “Ur funny. We are on the same server,” Cooper replied. Mills and Abedin were also involved in an Aug. 30, 2011 exchange in which State Department official Stephen Mull mentioned that Clinton’s “email server is down.” And in a Jan. 9, 2011 email exchange, Cooper told Abedin that Clinton’s server had been malfunctioning because “someone was trying to hack us.” “Had to shut down the server,” wrote Cooper, who told the FBI in his interviews that he discussed Clinton’s server with Abedin in 2009, when it was being set up. In his congressional testimony last year, Comey gave both aides a pass on lying to the FBI: “Having done many investigations myself, there’s always conflicting recollections of facts, some of which are central [to the investigation], some of which are peripheral,” Comey told Jason Chaffetz, a former Utah congressman who served on the committee last year. Chaffetz was not buying Comey’s dismissive response. “I think she lied to everybody,” he said of Mills in an interview on Fox News the night of the Comey hearing. “There’s direct evidence that she actually did know [about the server],” said Chaffetz, who added that Comey’s defense of Mills “makes no sense.” It "makes sense" now. Abedin and Mills lied through their teeth because if they told the truth, they both feared getting caught up in Hillary's legal troubles. They might have gone to jail themselves if Strzok hadn't changed the language in Comey's recommendation.NET Reflector has a special place in the pantheon of NET Development tools. It was first written by Lutz Roeder when the.NET Framework was still in beta, and since then has developed alongside it. So ubiquitous has it become that.NET Developers use its’ name as a verb, as in ‘let’s reflector it’. What they mean is to browse and investigate the assemblies that comprise the code with a tool that is capable of showing what’s there, and how classes, methods, or entire assemblies relate to each other, within the context of the application. Why use.NET Reflector? NET Reflector gives you the means to inspect, analyze, and browse the contents of a.NET component, such as an assembly. It will show you the metadata, IL instructions, resources and XML documentation. This tool can disassemble the instructions into source code in a variety of.NET languages, and translates the other binary information into an intelligible form. It does this through a process called ‘reflection’, which retrieves information about the various classes, methods, and properties included in a particular assembly (hence the name of the tool). Most likely, you’ll need.NET Reflector to track down performance problems and bugs. It is great for browsing classes, and maintaining, or becoming familiar with, code bases. Some of its features include: An Analyzer option, which can be used to find assembly dependencies, and even windows DLL dependencies. A call tree and inheritance-browser, which will pick up documentation or comments, stored in the xml files that are used to drive Intellisense inside Visual Studio. It will then display this information alongside the associated assemblies. Ability to cross-navigate related documentation (xmldoc), searching for specific types, members and references. Ability to convert your source between languages, such as C# and VB! All sorts of questions crop up during development that can be answered with.NET Reflector: What line of code is producing that error message? What uses a particular piece of code, and what code does it, in turn, use? How does a class, method, or entire assembly fit into your application? What are the differences between two versions of the same assembly? What features of the API of some legacy code can you use? How do the various parts of your system interact with each other? When you’re working on a large team-based project,.NET Reflector is often the quickest way of getting a clear insight into how the application is working and where the bugs and weaknesses are. There is a great difference between knowing the public interface of a module and actually seeing what the code does. Once.NET Reflector is combined with add-ins, it can become a tool to facilitate testing and make team-working more effective. There have been many occasions when.NET Reflector has assisted in the recovery of source code after it has been lost. What is in a.NET Assembly? Essentially,.NET Reflector allows you to ‘see’ what is in a.NET assembly. A.NET language compiler will produce binary CIL (MSIL) code, and any resources that are required, in a file called an ‘assembly’. The binary CIL code is written for a theoretical stack-based processor, to make it easy to run assemblies securely on different processors, in any environment supporting the.NET framework. Then, a just-in-time (JIT) compiler will compile this abstracted, language-independent binary code, and optimise it into actual machine ‘native’ code for the target processor, and compile all the resources used. The.NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) supplies at least one JIT compiler for every NET-supported computer architecture, so the same set of CIL can be JIT-compiled and run on different architectures. The CIL includes instructions for loading, storing, initializing, and calling methods on objects, as well as instructions for arithmetic and logical operations, control flow, direct memory access, exception handling, and other operations. It is designed to support polymorphism, inheritance, abstract types, and so on. When a high level language, such as C#, compiles code, it converts it to CIL. The process is reversible but because it is possible for two different high-level syntaxes to produce the same CIL, it may not be exactly the same as the original code. As well as producing CIL, a.NET compiler will also produce metadata. This will contain everything needed for runtime, sufficient for the code to describe itself during execution without needing type libraries or the Interface Definition Language (IDL), and allowing JIT compilation, linking and introspection to work. All the classes and class members that are defined in the assembly, as well as the external classes and class members called from the assembly, are described in the metadata, as are all the class methods. This includes details of its parameters, the return type, and the assembly in which it belongs. When the CLR executes CIL, it checks that the metadata of the called method matches that of the calling method. This metadata is used by the process of reflection, and is read by..NET Reflector. As well as the metadata, the assembly will also contain any required resources such as attributes, custom attributes, images and strings, and will also contain security information. You can browse this information from within reflector, as shown in Figure 1: The whole assembly is put in an extended version of the portable executable (PE) file, used for executables, object code, and DLLs, and which enables the operating system to recognize common language runtime images. The PE file has only one import – mscoree.dll – which then loads the CLR Header and Data sections, and runs the assembly’s just-in-time (JIT) compiler. The PE header’s data directory contains a.NET directory entry, which points to a new header in the file containing everything the operating system needs to run it. .NET Reflector, ILASM and ILDASM Microsoft supplies two tools for investigating assemblies: ILASM, the Microsoft IL Assembler. It will take an ASCIII assembly language source-code file, and produce binary IL (MSIL) code. It adds in all the specified resources to create the assembly. ILDASM, the.NET disassembler. This is part of the.NET framework, and works the other way round. It will produce an ‘assembly’ file from an IL file. This assembly file is very much like a traditional Assembly source code file. They are designed to be complementary, so that the output of one can go into the other to produce an identical file to the original. The ILASM and ILDASM tools are useful, but not sufficient by themselves. Unfortunately, ILDASM is best only with CLI assembly sections, whereas EXE files are in PE format, which ILDASM may not extract correctly. The tool will show method signatures and member variables, but the code will be in.NET byte code. To be able to extract everything you want from a NET assembly, in the language that was used originally to create the assembly, you will need.NET Reflector. This will also allow you to browse and inspect the other resources in the assembly, and even the XML documentation used by the IDE that created the assembly. .NET Reflector, as we’ve said, uses ‘Reflection’ to do its work. Reflection is used to retrieve information about the various classes, methods, and properties included in a particular assembly. Reflection has to determine the interface, structure, enumeration, or delegate of a type at runtime. This process can be used to examine any.NET code, whether a single class or an entire assembly, and.NET Reflector uses this process to make sense of the contents of an assembly. Reflector cannot view itself. It needs to use reflection but, because.NET Reflector needs to work with all versions of the.NET Framework, it uses its own assembly loading infrastructure, which does not rely on the Reflection API. This allows.NET Reflector
they hoped the government will be applying for European Union solidarity funding, set up to respond to natural disasters across the EU, to help affected communities. Peter Box, LGA environment spokesman, said: “Councils have been pulling out all the stops to help businesses and households that have been ravaged by the floods. “This has included taking about 30,000 tonnes of flood-damaged household goods, like furniture and freezer waste, to landfill sites. “As these items are ‘contaminated’ with floodwater, councils cannot recycle them and they have to be taken to landfill sites - which is costing millions. “We are calling on government to allow councils to keep all of this landfill tax.” He also warned councils were having to prepare for the possibility of further severe storms to ensure residents were safe and to protect homes, businesses, road networks and power supplies as much as possible. The UK has been battered by a series of bad weather events this winter, with nine storms severe enough to be named, and December becoming the wettest month in records dating back to 1910.One person was left brain-dead and five others were in serious condition after participating in a drug trial in the northwestern French city of Rennes, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Friday. ADVERTISING Read more “What happened is unprecedented,” Touraine said at a press conference in Rennes, after meeting with the victims’ families. The minister said that the drug had been manufactured by the Portugal-based pharmaceutical group Bial, and was being tested at a facility in Rennes by the research company Biotrial. She also dismissed earlier media reports that the medication, which was meant to treat mood disorders such as anxiety, contained cannabis. Professor Pierre-Gilles Edan, head of the neurology department at the hospital where the sick volunteers were taken, said that aside from the man who was left brain-dead, three of the other victims had suffered symptoms that could lead to a “possibly irreversible handicap.” Edan added that there was no known antidote to the drug. All tests on the drug have since been suspended and study participants called back. Overall, 128 volunteers between the ages of 28 and 49 took part in the trial, but only 90 were actually given the drug. The remaining 38 received a placebo. Touraine specified that the six volunteers who were hospitalised had taken the drug regularly and in high doses. The study was a Phase I clinical trial, in which healthy volunteers take the medication to "evaluate the safety of its use, tolerance and pharmacological profile of the molecule", Touraine said in a statement earlier in the day. Clinical trials typically have three phases to assess a new drug or device for safety and effectiveness. Human participation in such trials and scrutiny by outside watchdogs are essential for getting market authorisation. Touraine said in the statement that she was determined to “shed light” on what happened in the trial, while the Paris prosecutor’s office said that an investigation had been opened into the incident. Cases of early-stage clinical trials going badly wrong are rare but not unheard of. The last drug trial disaster in Europe occurred in 2006, when six healthy volunteers given an experimental drug in London ended up in intensive care. (FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)Founded in 2011, ‘Stripe’ is an American technology company, operating in over 25 countries. The company allows both private individuals and businesses to accept payments over the Internet in many forms. Apart from the payment services, Stripe focuses on providing the technical, fraud prevention, and banking infrastructure required to operate online payment systems. Flooding major headlines, Stripe’s valuation has raised $150 million to fund their expansion operations taking the valuation to a total of $9.2 billion. This cements its status as a major player in the crowded digital payments space, heralding a possible initial public offering. Let’s look into the growth of Stripe and its implications on Bitcoin: What Stripe does? ‘Stripe’ focusses on online payment channels and how various technologies can be leveraged to ease the experience for customers and retailers. Using Stripe, web developers can integrate payment processing into their websites without having to register and maintain a merchant account. For small scale retailers, this offering is a blessing in disguise. Stripe has a two-day waiting period for initial transactions, during which time it profiles the businesses involved. Later it builds a safe shield to protect against potential fraud. Stripe then transfers the funds directly into the bank account linked to the payee. Stripe’s investors and backing: The increase in the rate of online transactions and the higher demographic going ‘cashless’ has made this market viable. Understanding the potentiality of the market, John and Patrick Collison founded Stripe in 2010. The list of investors for Stripe includes: Y Combinator, Peter Thiel, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Redpoint Ventures, Chris Dixon, and Aaron Levie. Stripe’s valuation depends on the fact that more commerce will move to mobile apps even when people are in stores. Hence the company capitalizes on this open market space of mobile and electronic payments. Stripe and Bitcoin payment processing: In March 2014, CEO Patrick Collison announced that Stripe would support bitcoin transactions. Owing to the zero-fee structure of the Bitcoin network, the cryptocurrency immediately became an integral part of the payment app. The current round of funding is aimed at expansion of the company. Wayne Gaybrick, Stripe chief financial officer, said Stripe raised the funds to acquire companies and invest in global expansion. Stripe has acquired three firms and launched in France, Japan, France, Singapore and Spain this year. As Stripe is looking out for cross border transactions with the trail of expansions, this might be positive news for Bitcoin adoption as that would be the fastest and easiest method of payment across borders.Group of highly-reactive chemical elements The alkali metals are a group (column) in the periodic table consisting of the chemical elements lithium (Li), sodium (Na), potassium (K),[note 1] rubidium (Rb), caesium (Cs),[note 2] and francium (Fr). This group lies in the s-block of the periodic table of elements as all alkali metals have their outermost electron in an s-orbital: this shared electron configuration results in their having very similar characteristic properties. Indeed, the alkali metals provide the best example of group trends in properties in the periodic table, with elements exhibiting well-characterised homologous behaviour. The alkali metals are all shiny, soft, highly reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure and readily lose their outermost electron to form cations with charge +1. They can all be cut easily with a knife due to their softness, exposing a shiny surface that tarnishes rapidly in air due to oxidation by atmospheric moisture and oxygen (and in the case of lithium, nitrogen). Because of their high reactivity, they must be stored under oil to prevent reaction with air, and are found naturally only in salts and never as the free elements. Caesium, the fifth alkali metal, is the most reactive of all the metals. In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, the alkali metals comprise the group 1 elements,[note 3] excluding hydrogen (H), which is nominally a group 1 element but not normally considered to be an alkali metal as it rarely exhibits behaviour comparable to that of the alkali metals. All the alkali metals react with water, with the heavier alkali metals reacting more vigorously than the lighter ones. All of the discovered alkali metals occur in nature as their compounds: in order of abundance, sodium is the most abundant, followed by potassium, lithium, rubidium, caesium, and finally francium, which is very rare due to its extremely high radioactivity; francium occurs only in the minutest traces in nature as an intermediate step in some obscure side branches of the natural decay chains. Experiments have been conducted to attempt the synthesis of ununennium (Uue), which is likely to be the next member of the group, but they have all met with failure. However, ununennium may not be an alkali metal due to relativistic effects, which are predicted to have a large influence on the chemical properties of superheavy elements; even if it does turn out to be an alkali metal, it is predicted to have some differences in physical and chemical properties from its lighter homologues. Most alkali metals have many different applications. One of the best-known applications of the pure elements is the use of rubidium and caesium in atomic clocks, of which caesium atomic clocks are the most accurate and precise representation of time. A common application of the compounds of sodium is the sodium-vapour lamp, which emits light very efficiently. Table salt, or sodium chloride, has been used since antiquity. Lithium finds use as a psychiatric medication. Sodium and potassium are also essential elements, having major biological roles as electrolytes, and although the other alkali metals are not essential, they also have various effects on the body, both beneficial and harmful. History [ edit ] Petalite, the lithium mineral from which lithium was first isolated Sodium compounds have been known since ancient times; salt (sodium chloride) has been an important commodity in human activities, as testified by the English word salary, referring to salarium, money paid to Roman soldiers for the purchase of salt.[5] While potash has been used since ancient times, it was not understood for most of its history to be a fundamentally different substance from sodium mineral salts. Georg Ernst Stahl obtained experimental evidence which led him to suggest the fundamental difference of sodium and potassium salts in 1702,[6] and Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau was able to prove this difference in 1736.[7] The exact chemical composition of potassium and sodium compounds, and the status as chemical element of potassium and sodium, was not known then, and thus Antoine Lavoisier did not include either alkali in his list of chemical elements in 1789.[8][9] Pure potassium was first isolated in 1807 in England by Sir Humphry Davy, who derived it from caustic potash (KOH, potassium hydroxide) by the use of electrolysis of the molten salt with the newly invented voltaic pile. Previous attempts at electrolysis of the aqueous salt were unsuccessful due to potassium's extreme reactivity.[10]:68 Potassium was the first metal that was isolated by electrolysis.[11] Later that same year, Davy reported extraction of sodium from the similar substance caustic soda (NaOH, lye) by a similar technique, demonstrating the elements, and thus the salts, to be different.[8][9][12][13] Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner was among the first to notice similarities between what are now known as the alkali metals. Petalite (Li Al Si 4 O 10 ) was discovered in 1800 by the Brazilian chemist José Bonifácio de Andrada in a mine on the island of Utö, Sweden.[14][15][16] However, it was not until 1817 that Johan August Arfwedson, then working in the laboratory of the chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, detected the presence of a new element while analysing petalite ore.[17][18] This new element was noted by him to form compounds similar to those of sodium and potassium, though its carbonate and hydroxide were less soluble in water and more alkaline than the other alkali metals.[19] Berzelius gave the unknown material the name "lithion/lithina", from the Greek word λιθoς (transliterated as lithos, meaning "stone"), to reflect its discovery in a solid mineral, as opposed to potassium, which had been discovered in plant ashes, and sodium, which was known partly for its high abundance in animal blood. He named the metal inside the material "lithium".[20][15][18] Lithium, sodium, and potassium were part of the discovery of periodicity, as they are among a series of triads of elements in the same group that were noted by Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner in 1850 as having similar properties.[21] Lepidolite, the rubidium mineral from which rubidium was first isolated Rubidium and caesium were the first elements to be discovered using the spectroscope, invented in 1859 by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff.[22] The next year, they discovered caesium in the mineral water from Bad Dürkheim, Germany. Their discovery of rubidium came the following year in Heidelberg, Germany, finding it in the mineral lepidolite.[23] The names of rubidium and caesium come from the most prominent lines in their emission spectra: a bright red line for rubidium (from the Latin word rubidus, meaning dark red or bright red), and a sky-blue line for caesium (derived from the Latin word caesius, meaning sky-blue).[24][25] Around 1865 John Newlands produced a series of papers where he listed the elements in order of increasing atomic weight and similar physical and chemical properties that recurred at intervals of eight; he likened such periodicity to the octaves of music, where notes an octave apart have similar musical functions.[26][27] His version put all the alkali metals then known (lithium to caesium), as well as copper, silver, and thallium (which show the +1 oxidation state characteristic of the alkali metals), together into a group. His table placed hydrogen with the halogens.[21] Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic system proposed in 1871 showing hydrogen and the alkali metals as part of his group I, along with copper, silver, and gold After 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev proposed his periodic table placing lithium at the top of a group with sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium, and thallium.[28] Two years later, Mendeleev revised his table, placing hydrogen in group 1 above lithium, and also moving thallium to the boron group. In this 1871 version, copper, silver, and gold were placed twice, once as part of group IB, and once as part of a "group VIII" encompassing today's groups 8 to 11.[29][note 4] After the introduction of the 18-column table, the group IB elements were moved to their current position in the d-block, while alkali metals were left in group IA. Later the group's name was changed to group 1 in 1988.[4] The trivial name "alkali metals" comes from the fact that the hydroxides of the group 1 elements are all strong alkalis when dissolved in water.[30] There were at least four erroneous and incomplete discoveries[31][32][33][34] before Marguerite Perey of the Curie Institute in Paris, France discovered francium in 1939 by purifying a sample of actinium-227, which had been reported to have a decay energy of 220 keV. However, Perey noticed decay particles with an energy level below 80 keV. Perey thought this decay activity might have been caused by a previously unidentified decay product, one that was separated during purification, but emerged again out of the pure actinium-227. Various tests eliminated the possibility of the unknown element being thorium, radium, lead, bismuth, or thallium. The new product exhibited chemical properties of an alkali metal (such as coprecipitating with caesium salts), which led Perey to believe that it was element 87, caused by the alpha decay of actinium-227.[35] Perey then attempted to determine the proportion of beta decay to alpha decay in actinium-227. Her first test put the alpha branching at 0.6%, a figure that she later revised to 1%.[36] 227 89 Ac α (1.38%) → 21.77 y 223 87 Fr β− → 22 min 223 88 Ra α → 11.4 d The next element below francium (eka-francium) in the periodic table would be ununennium (Uue), element 119.[37]:1729–1730 The synthesis of ununennium was first attempted in 1985 by bombarding a target of einsteinium-254 with calcium-48 ions at the superHILAC accelerator at Berkeley, California. No atoms were identified, leading to a limiting yield of 300 nb.[38][39] It is highly unlikely[38] that this reaction will be able to create any atoms of ununennium in the near future, given the extremely difficult task of making sufficient amounts of einsteinium-254, which is favoured for production of ultraheavy elements because of its large mass, relatively long half-life of 270 days, and availability in significant amounts of several micrograms,[40] to make a large enough target to increase the sensitivity of the experiment to the required level; einsteinium has not been found in nature and has only been produced in laboratories, and in quantities smaller than those needed for effective synthesis of superheavy elements. However, given that ununennium is only the first period 8 element on the extended periodic table, it may well be discovered in the near future through other reactions, and indeed an attempt to synthesise it is currently ongoing in Japan.[41] Currently, none of the period 8 elements have been discovered yet, and it is also possible, due to drip instabilities, that only the lower period 8 elements, up to around element 128, are physically possible.[42][43] No attempts at synthesis have been made for any heavier alkali metals: due to their extremely high atomic number, they would require new, more powerful methods and technology to make.[37]:1737–1739 Occurrence [ edit ] In the Solar System [ edit ] [44] Estimated abundances of the chemical elements in the Solar system. Hydrogen and helium are most common, from the Big Bang. The next three elements (lithium, beryllium, and boron ) are rare because they are poorly synthesised in the Big Bang and also in stars. The two general trends in the remaining stellar-produced elements are: (1) an alternation of abundance in elements as they have even or odd atomic numbers, and (2) a general decrease in abundance, as elements become heavier. Iron is especially common because it represents the minimum energy nuclide that can be made by fusion of helium in supernovae. The Oddo–Harkins rule holds that elements with even atomic numbers are more common that those with odd atomic numbers, with the exception of hydrogen. This rule argues that elements with odd atomic numbers have one unpaired proton and are more likely to capture another, thus increasing their atomic number. In elements with even atomic numbers, protons are paired, with each member of the pair offsetting the spin of the other, enhancing stability.[45][46][47] All the alkali metals have odd atomic numbers and they are not as common as the elements with even atomic numbers adjacent to them (the noble gases and the alkaline earth metals) in the Solar System. The heavier alkali metals are also less abundant than the lighter ones as the alkali metals from rubidium onward can only be synthesised in supernovae and not in stellar nucleosynthesis. Lithium is also much less abundant than sodium and potassium as it is poorly synthesised in both Big Bang nucleosynthesis and in stars: the Big Bang could only produce trace quantities of lithium, beryllium and boron due to the absence of a stable nucleus with 5 or 8 nucleons, and stellar nucleosynthesis could only pass this bottleneck by the triple-alpha process, fusing three helium nuclei to form carbon, and skipping over those three elements.[44] On Earth [ edit ] The Earth formed from the same cloud of matter that formed the Sun, but the planets acquired different compositions during the formation and evolution of the solar system. In turn, the natural history of the Earth caused parts of this planet to have differing concentrations of the elements. The mass of the Earth is approximately 5.98×1024 kg. It is composed mostly of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%); with the remaining 1.2% consisting of trace amounts of other elements. Due to planetary differentiation, the core region is believed to be primarily composed of iron (88.8%), with smaller amounts of nickel (5.8%), sulfur (4.5%), and less than 1% trace elements.[48] The alkali metals, due to their high reactivity, do not occur naturally in pure form in nature. They are lithophiles and therefore remain close to the Earth's surface because they combine readily with oxygen and so associate strongly with silica, forming relatively low-density minerals that do not sink down into the Earth's core. Potassium, rubidium and caesium are also incompatible elements due to their large ionic radii.[49] Sodium and potassium are very abundant in earth, both being among the ten most common elements in Earth's crust;[50][51] sodium makes up approximately 2.6% of the Earth's crust measured by weight, making it the sixth most abundant element overall[52] and the most abundant alkali metal. Potassium makes up approximately 1.5% of the Earth's crust and is the seventh most abundant element.[52] Sodium is found in many different minerals, of which the most common is ordinary salt (sodium chloride), which occurs in vast quantities dissolved in seawater. Other solid deposits include halite, amphibole, cryolite, nitratine, and zeolite.[52] Many of these solid deposits occur as a result of ancient seas evaporating, which still occurs now in places such as Utah's Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea.[10]:69 Despite their near-equal abundance in Earth's crust, sodium is far more common than potassium in the ocean, both because potassium's larger size makes its salts less soluble, and because potassium is bound by silicates in soil and what potassium leaches is absorbed far more readily by plant life than sodium.[10]:69 Despite its chemical similarity, lithium typically does not occur together with sodium or potassium due to its smaller size.[10]:69 Due to its relatively low reactivity, it can be found in seawater in large amounts; it is estimated that seawater is approximately 0.14 to 0.25 parts per million (ppm)[53][54] or 25 micromolar.[55] Its diagonal relationship with magnesium often allows it to replace magnesium in ferromagnesium minerals, where its crustal concentration is about 18 ppm, comparable to that of gallium and niobium. Commercially, the most important lithium mineral is spodumene, which occurs in large deposits worldwide.[10]:69 Rubidium is approximately as abundant as zinc and more abundant than copper. It occurs naturally in the minerals leucite, pollucite, carnallite, zinnwaldite, and lepidolite,[56] although none of these contain only rubidium and no other alkali metals.[10]:70 Caesium is more abundant than some commonly known elements, such as antimony, cadmium, tin, and tungsten, but is much less abundant than rubidium.[57] Francium-223, the only naturally occurring isotope of francium,[58][59] is the product of the alpha decay of actinium-227 and can be found in trace amounts in uranium minerals.[60] In a given sample of uranium, there is estimated to be only one francium atom for every 1018 uranium atoms.[61][62] It has been calculated that there is at most 30 g of francium in the earth's crust at any time, due to its extremely short half-life of 22 minutes.[63][64] Properties [ edit ] Physical and chemical [ edit ] The physical and chemical properties of the alkali metals can be readily explained by their having an ns1 valence electron configuration, which results in weak metallic bonding. Hence, all the alkali metals are soft and have low densities,[30] melting[30] and boiling points,[30] as well as heats of sublimation, vaporisation, and dissociation.[10]:74 They all crystallise in the body-centered cubic crystal structure,[10]:73 and have distinctive flame colours because their outer s electron is very easily excited.[10]:75 The ns1 configuration also results in the alkali metals having very large atomic and ionic radii, as well as very high thermal and electrical conductivity.[10]:75 Their chemistry is dominated by the loss of their lone valence electron in the outermost s-orbital to form the +1 oxidation state, due to the ease of ionising this electron and the very high second ionisation energy.[10]:76 Most of the chemistry has been observed only for the first five members of the group. The chemistry of francium is not well established due to its extreme radioactivity;[30] thus, the presentation of its properties here is limited. What little is known about francium shows that it is very close in behaviour to caesium, as expected. The physical properties of francium are even sketchier because the bulk element has never been observed; hence any data that may be found in the literature are certainly speculative extrapolations.[65] The alkali metals are more similar to each other than the elements in any other group are to each other.[30] Indeed, the similarity is so great that it is quite difficult to separate potassium, rubidium, and caesium, due to their similar ionic radii; lithium and sodium are more distinct. For instance, when moving down the table, all known alkali metals show increasing atomic radius,[72] decreasing electronegativity,[72] increasing reactivity,[30] and decreasing melting and boiling points[72] as well as heats of fusion and vaporisation.[10]:75 In general, their densities increase when moving down the table, with the exception that potassium is less dense than sodium.[72] One of the very few properties of the alkali metals that does not display a very smooth trend is their reduction potentials: lithium's value is anomalous, being more negative than the others.[10]:75 This is because the Li+ ion has a very high hydration energy in the gas phase: though the lithium ion disrupts the structure of water significantly, causing a higher change in entropy, this high hydration energy is enough to make the reduction potentials indicate it as being the most electropositive alkali metal, despite the difficulty of ionising it in the gas phase.[10]:75 The stable alkali metals are all silver-coloured metals except for caesium, which has a pale golden tint:[73] it is one of only three metals that are clearly coloured (the other two being copper and gold).[10]:74 Additionally, the heavy alkaline earth metals calcium, strontium, and barium, as well as the divalent lanthanides europium and ytterbium, are pale yellow, though the colour is much less prominent than it is for caesium.[10]:74 Their lustre tarnishes rapidly in air due to oxidation.[30] They all crystallise in the body-centered cubic crystal structure,[10]:73 and have distinctive flame colours because their outer s electron is very easily excited. Indeed, these flame test colours are the most common way of identifying them since all their salts with common ions are soluble.[10]:75 Potassium reacts violently with water at room temperature Caesium reacts explosively with water even at low temperatures All the alkali metals are highly reactive and are never found in elemental forms in nature.[20] Because of this, they are usually stored in mineral oil or kerosene (paraffin oil).[74] They react aggressively with the halogens to form the alkali metal halides, which are white ionic crystalline compounds that are all soluble in water except lithium fluoride (Li F).[30] The alkali metals also react with water to form strongly alkaline hydroxides and thus should be handled with great care. The heavier alkali metals react more vigorously than the lighter ones; for example, when dropped into water, caesium produces a larger explosion than potassium if the same number of moles of each metal is used.[30][75][57] The alkali metals have the lowest first ionisation energies in their respective periods of the periodic table[65] because of their low effective nuclear charge[30] and the ability to attain a noble gas configuration by losing just one electron.[30] Not only do the alkali metals react with water, but also with proton donors like alcohols and phenols, gaseous ammonia, and alkynes, the last demonstrating the phenomenal degree of their reactivity. Their great power as reducing agents makes them very useful in liberating other metals from their oxides or halides.[10]:76 The second ionisation energy of all of the alkali metals is very high[30][65] as it is in a full shell that is also closer to the nucleus;[30] thus, they almost always lose a single electron, forming cations.[10]:28 The alkalides are an exception: they are unstable compounds which contain alkali metals in a −1 oxidation state, which is very unusual as before the discovery of the alkalides, the alkali metals were not expected to be able to form anions and were thought to be able to appear in salts only as cations. The alkalide anions have filled s-subshells, which gives them enough stability to exist. All the stable alkali metals except lithium are known to be able to form alkalides,[76][77][78] and the alkalides have much theoretical interest due to their unusual stoichiometry and low ionisation potentials. Alkalides are chemically similar to the electrides, which are salts with trapped electrons acting as anions.[79] A particularly striking example of an alkalide is "inverse sodium hydride", H+Na− (both ions being complexed), as opposed to the usual sodium hydride, Na+H−:[80] it is unstable in isolation, due to its high energy resulting from the displacement of two electrons from hydrogen to sodium, although several derivatives are predicted to be metastable or stable.[80][81] In aqueous solution, the alkali metal ions form aqua ions of the formula [M(H 2 O) n ]+, where n is the solvation number. Their coordination numbers and shapes agree well with those expected from their ionic radii. In aqueous solution the water molecules directly attached to the metal ion are said to belong to the first coordination sphere, also known as the first, or primary, solvation shell. The bond between a water molecule and the metal ion is a dative covalent bond, with the oxygen atom donating both electrons to the bond. Each coordinated water molecule may be attached by hydrogen bonds to other water molecules. The latter are said to reside in the second coordination sphere. However, for the alkali metal cations, the second coordination sphere is not well-defined as the +1 charge on the cation is not high enough to polarise the water molecules in the primary solvation shell enough for them to form strong hydrogen bonds with those in the second coordination sphere, producing a more stable entity.[82][83]:25 The solvation number for Li+ has been experimentally determined to be 4, forming the tetrahedral [Li(H 2 O) 4 ]+: while solvation numbers of 3 to 6 have been found for lithium aqua ions, solvation numbers less than 4 may be the result of the formation of contact ion pairs, and the higher solvation numbers may be interpreted in terms of water molecules that approach [Li(H 2 O) 4 ]+ through a face of the tetrahedron, though molecular dynamic simulations may indicate the existence of an octahedral hexaaqua ion. There are also probably six water molecules in the primary solvation sphere of the sodium ion, forming the octahedral [Na(H 2 O) 6 ]+ ion.[66][83]:126–127 While it was previously thought that the heavier alkali metals also formed octahedral hexaaqua ions, it has since been found that potassium and rubidium probably form the [K(H 2 O) 8 ]+ and [Rb(H 2 O) 8 ]+ ions, which have the square antiprismatic structure, and that caesium forms the 12-coordinate [Cs(H 2 O) 12 ]+ ion.[84] Lithium [ edit ] The chemistry of lithium shows several differences from that of the rest of the group as the small Li+ cation polarises anions and gives its compounds a more covalent character.[30] Lithium and magnesium have a diagonal relationship due to their similar atomic radii,[30] so that they show some similarities. For example, lithium forms a stable nitride, a property common among all the alkaline earth metals (magnesium's group) but unique among the alkali metals.[85] In addition, among their respective groups, only lithium and magnesium form organometallic compounds with significant covalent character (e.g. LiMe and MgMe 2 ).[86] Lithium fluoride is the only alkali metal halide that is poorly soluble in water,[30] and lithium hydroxide is the only alkali metal hydroxide that is not deliquescent.[30] Conversely, lithium perchlorate and other lithium salts with large anions that cannot be polarised are much more stable than the analogous compounds of the other alkali metals, probably because Li+ has a high solvation energy.[10]:76 This effect also means that most simple lithium salts are commonly encountered in hydrated form, because the anhydrous forms are extremely hygroscopic: this allows salts like lithium chloride and lithium bromide to be used in dehumidifiers and air-conditioners.[10]:76 Francium [ edit ] Francium is also predicted to show some differences due to its high atomic weight, causing its electrons to travel at considerable fractions of the speed of light and thus making relativistic effects more prominent. In contrast to the trend of decreasing electronegativities and ionisation energies of the alkali metals, francium's electronegativity and ionisation energy are predicted to be higher than caesium's due to the relativistic stabilisation of the 7s electrons; also, its atomic radius is expected to be abnormally low. Thus, contrary to expectation, caesium is the most reactive of the alkali metals, not francium.[68][37]:1729[87] All known physical properties of francium also deviate from the clear trends going from lithium to caesium, such as the first ionisation energy, electron affinity, and anion polarisability, though due to the paucity of known data about francium many sources give extrapolated values, ignoring that relativistic effects make the trend from lithium to caesium become inapplicable at francium.[87] Some of the few properties of francium that have been predicted taking relativity into account are the electron affinity (47.2 kJ/mol)[88] and the enthalpy of dissociation of the Fr 2 molecule (42.1 kJ/mol).[89] The CsFr molecule is polarised as Cs+Fr−, showing that the 7s subshell of francium is much more strongly affected by relativistic effects than the 6s subshell of caesium.[87] Additionally, francium superoxide (FrO 2 ) is expected to have significant covalent character, unlike the other alkali metal superoxides, because of bonding contributions from the 6p electrons of francium.[87] Nuclear [ edit ] Primordial isotopes of the alkali metals Z Alkali metal Stable Decays unstable: italics odd–odd isotopes coloured pink 3 lithium 2 — 7 Li 6 Li 11 sodium 1 — 23 Na 19 potassium 2 1 39 K 41 K 40 K 37 rubidium 1 1 85 Rb 87 Rb 55 caesium 1 — 133 Cs 87 francium — — No primordial isotopes ( 223 Fr is a radiogenic nuclide) Radioactive: 40K, 9 years; K, t 1/2 1.25 × 10years; 87Rb, t 1/2 4.9 × 1010 years; 223Fr, t 1/2 22.0 min. All the alkali metals have odd atomic numbers; hence, their isotopes must be either odd–odd (both proton and neutron number are odd) or odd–even (proton number is odd, but neutron number is even). Odd–odd nuclei have even mass numbers, whereas odd–even nuclei have odd mass numbers. Odd–odd primordial nuclides are rare because most odd–odd nuclei are highly unstable with respect to beta decay, because the decay products are even–even, and are therefore more strongly bound, due to nuclear pairing effects.[90] Due to the great rarity of odd–odd nuclei, almost all the primordial isotopes of the alkali metals are odd–even (the exceptions being the light stable isotope lithium-6 and the long-lived radioisotope potassium-40). For a given odd mass number, there can be only a single beta-stable nuclide, since there is not a difference in binding energy between even–odd and odd–even comparable to that between even–even and odd–odd, leaving other nuclides of the same mass number (isobars) free to beta decay toward the lowest-mass nuclide. An effect of the instability of an odd number of either type of nucleons is that odd-numbered elements, such as the alkali metals, tend to have fewer stable isotopes than even-numbered elements. Of the 26 monoisotopic elements that have only a single stable isotope, all but one have an odd atomic number and all but one also have an even number of neutrons. Beryllium is the single exception to both rules, due to its low atomic number.[90] All of the alkali metals except lithium and caesium have at least one naturally occurring radioisotope: sodium-22 and sodium-24 are trace radioisotopes produced cosmogenically,[91] potassium-40 and rubidium-87 have very long half-lives and thus occur naturally,[92] and all isotopes of francium are radioactive.[92] Caesium was also thought to be radioactive in the early 20th century,[93][94] although it has no naturally occurring radioisotopes.[92] (Francium had not been discovered yet at that time
.org>> wrote: Tim Robbins tweeted this out earlier (his twitter feed is pretty anti-HRC) https://twitter.com/TimRobbins1/status/724618825824608258 Yeah, Spicer was tweeting on this, equating it with AZ New report shows RI gov’t opening only a fraction of polling locations: http://www.bustle.com/articles/156771-why-is-rhode-island-closing-its-primary-polls-voters-need-to-check-their-polling-locations Bernie leads Hillary by 4 in the latest poll: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/04/clinton-sanders-close-in-ctpari-trump-headed-for-big-wins.html If she outperforms this polling, the Bernie camp will go nuts and allege misconduct. They’ll probably complain regardless, actually. We might want to get out in front of this one with an inquiry to the RI Gov, even though she’s one of ours. Eric Walker walkere@dnc.org<mailto:walkere@dnc.org> 732-991-1489 @ericmwalker<https://twitter.com/ericmwalker>(An update to the story is below: Tulane cancelled the Michigan camp.) LSU and Tulane will combine to host a football camp this summer in New Orleans, Tulane announced Monday. As a result, Tulane cancelled its scheduled camp with Michigan, which had been scheduled for June 9. The Tulane/LSU camp will take place June 16 at Tulane's Yulman Stadium. Tulane, Michigan to host joint camp in New Orleans June 9 Tulane joins forces with Michigan for a football camp in New Orleans on June 9. "We are very excited to provide an opportunity for prospects from Louisiana and the entire southeast region to compete and be evaluated in front of the Tulane and LSU football staffs," Tulane coach Willie Fritz said. The Green Wave reached out previously to LSU, but the Tigers declined the offer, according to a source. Tulane then partnered with Michigan for the camp that has since been cancelled. "We are excited to partner with Tulane and the great city of New Orleans to protect the state of Louisiana," LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. "We would like to thank Coach Willie Fritz for inviting the LSU Tigers. This will be a great camp for all participants involved." (James Smith contributed to this article.)I couldn't find time to take a look at the location so as far as setting up each rig was concerned, I had to improvise. One thing I could plan for however was the weather and timings for each rig. I kept an eye on the weather looking for clearish skies and once the opportunity popped up, I set out my master plan which was a slight headache, but achievable. I wanted to sync each shot with changes in the music so I jumped into Adobe Premiere and worked out how many frames each shot would be. I wanted a little overlap towards the end of each shot into the next so you could see the kit in action so I added a few frames to the final shot as well. I then worked out timings and as you can see from the picture above, we'd be shooting continuously for nearly 18hrs! Add into this the fact that we had to travel to and from location and rigging time, it would end up being a 28hr shoot - I was going to need some help... The Shoot Luckily I chose winter to shoot this and it was a mild -4C - the perfect weather to be stood around for 18hrs! Pain doesn't really define what we went through as nobody really makes any clothes to be stood around in. At one point, whilst triggering the pixelstick animation for four hours, I could feel my left foot go numb followed by my left leg and then no feeling from the hip down even though I was wearing four pairs of trousers! Regardless of the pain though, I was there for my passion and we struggled on. We'd rigged the kit between 11am and 3pm so it was ready to shoot and I didn't want head torches illuminating the shot later on. The only problem with this was that there was a slow build up of ice on EVERYTHING. I'd rigged Dew Heaters on all nine cameras but that only kept the cameras warm. There were some technical issues with kit a number of times but we managed to overcome them. To help me out (carrrying kit around, rigging and holding my lack-of-sleep insanity at bay) were three camera assistants (Rob Myler, Nathan Waters and Sean Webb) and two runners (Jake Williams and Andy Barham). Rob's been my assistant for a few years now and a big shout out to him for not only helping me prep a huge amount of kit until the early hours, but also for sticking out 28hrs with me! Also big love to Nathan who turned up to load and also keep (nearly) awake for 28hrs ;-) I planned on trying to get some sleep, even if only for 30 minutes or so but this didn't happen as I'd invested a lot of time and energy into this shoot for it not to go how I wanted so fuelled by love, I managed to just about survive for the duration and cold. On a technical level, it was the biggest shoot I've undertaken as far as location shoots go and it was certainly a challenge both physically and in complication! In My (Many) Bag(s) What kind of Kit does it take to create this? 1300Kg of kit! Here's each rig broken down, some off the shelf, some self-built: 1) Static opening shot Canon 5D II, Sigma 12-24mm, 3 Legged Thing Tripod, Intervalometer 2) Rotary Arm (Self Built) Canon 5D II, Samyang 14mm, Rotary Arm, 2x Dynamic Perception Stage R, NMX Controller, 2x 27:1 Stepper Motor 3) Contrazoom Canon 5D II, Canon 16mm, Dynamic Perception Stage 1 Plus, Zenslider Focus, Zenslider Zoom, 15 metres of Track, NMX Controller and 19:1 Stepper Motor 4) Standard track Canon 6D, Canon 24-105mm, Dynamic Perception Stage 0, Emotimo TB3 Black 5) Long Track Canon 5D III, Dynamic Perception Stage 1 Plus, 3x 19:1 Stepper motors, NMX, 15 Metres of track, Ditogear Omnislider + Bitbanger Pixelstick, 1x Magic Arm 6) The Windmill (Self Built) Canon 5D III, Canon 17-40mm, Dynamic Perception Stage R, NMX + Windmill Rig 7) Inclined Track Canon 5D II, Samyang 14mm, Dynamic Perception Stage 0 + NMX Controller, Manfrotto Tripod 8) The Beast Canon 5D III, Samyang 14mm, ABC Speedy 100 Crane, 'Crane Contraption', 1rpm motor, Dynamic Perception MX3 Controller. 9) The End Shot Canon 5D III, Sigma 12-24mm, 3 Legged Thing 'Nigel', Triggertrap Intervalometer app + Cable Misc: 15x 22Ah Sealed Lead Acid Batteries, 4x IDX Endura 95 Batteries, Various Pelican Cases, 9x Dew Heaters and Controllers, 9x Canon 12V to 8V converter, 72 Pags, 100 Wedges, 120Kg of Weights, Food and snacks for five, all of the coffee, a crew airbed and cold van to sleep in. The Result:Now that a majority of Americans—54% and climbing, according to Pew Research—believe that marijuana should be treated like beer, wine and liquor, it’s time to ask: Where does the war on pot go to die? What episode will trigger that final skirmish that kicks over the hollowed-out edifice of marijuana prohibition like the Berlin Wall? What will be the final outrage against common sense and common decency that triggers an Arab Spring for weed in these U.S.? Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia already have medical marijuana (with more to come), and full legalization has gained 13 percentage points in just the past five years. Ironically, whatever ends the war on pot won’t happen in Colorado or Washington, which have already legalized recreational pot and have received vague promises from Attorney General Eric Holder that the feds won’t bust people and businesses who comply with state laws. Colorado is further along in the retail process than Washington (where pot shops won’t open until mid-July), and so far the only problem of note is that the state is raking in 40% more tax revenue than originally projected. Look instead to places such as Round Rock, Texas, where 19-year-old Jacob Lavoro faces a sentence between five and 99 years for allegedly selling a 1.5-lb. slab of hash brownies. Under state law, selling up to five pounds of plain old pot is punishable by no more than two years in the clink and a $10,000 fine. But hash, a concentrated form of pot, is considered a controlled substance, and even the tiny amount in Lavoro’s brownies qualifies him for what amounts to a potential life sentence. Through a convoluted rationale, you see, the law can count all the brownie ingredients—the eggs, butter, flour, cocoa—as hash. Oh well, everything’s bigger in Texas, including the unconscionable mismatch between the crime and the time. If he were only a couple of states away, Lavoro wouldn’t be facing jail, he’d be a successful entrepreneur. That sort of mind-blowing disjuncture is exactly the sort of thing that takes the fight out of the war on pot. Or look to recent comments made by FBI director James Comey, who admitted that he can’t hire the 2,000 cybercrime fighters the bureau needs to protect America because of workplace drug tests. “I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” Comey said. He was upbraided by Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) for providing yet “one more example of leadership in America dismissing the seriousness of marijuana use.” Whatever you can say about Comey, he’s in good company in acknowledging the ubiquity of pot smoking in today’s America. According to the latest government data, 43% of Americans—including the three most recent Presidents—have tried pot at least once. And when asked whether alcohol or marijuana is more harmful to society, fully 63% say booze and just 23% say pot. How much longer can the Jeff Sessionses of the world hold back the tide of public opinion? And, finally, look to California, which passed the nation’s first medical-marijuana ballot initiative way back in 1996 and saw 46.5% vote in favor of recreational pot in a 2010 proposition. In 2011, federal agents raided the operations of business of dispensary owner and medical grower Aaron Sandusky. This came after repeated promises by the Obama Administration that it wouldn’t go after medical-pot providers who were operating within state law. And even though officials from the city of Upland, which had tipped off the feds, later admitted in court that Sandusky was operating properly within state law. Sandusky refused on principle to cop a plea because he thought he was in the right. Tried in federal court, he was unable to offer a defense based on California state law. Sandusky ended up pulling a 10-year sentence. In March of this year, he lost his final appeal. If he’s lucky and stays on good behavior, he’ll be out in 2021. Does anyone think that pot—medical or recreational—will still be illegal by then? As it happens, Sandusky is doing time in Texas’ Big Spring Federal Correctional Institute, which is only a four-hour drive from Jacob Lavoro’s hometown of Round Rock. As Lavoro ponders whatever deal prosecutors might offer him, he’d be smart to visit Sandusky and ask what life behind bars is like. Because while the war on pot is surely in its final stage, there will still be plenty of casualties before peace is declared. MORE: Inside a Christian Pot Shop Contact us at editors@time.com.Cryptocurrency Markets Wipe $200 Billion USD On First Week Of CME Futures Trading December 22nd, 2017, will go down as Crypto Black Friday. At least that is how mainstream media and critics will see it. Cryptocurrency markets tumbled, wiping more than $200 billion USD in less than 24 hours, which constitutes a monumental loss for those who are not used to these markets. What cryptocurrency enthusiasts might label as ‘another day in crypto,’ can generate a completely different reaction from institutional traders. On the first week of CME Bitcoin futures trading, these institutional traders got a taste of how cryptocurrency markets behave. Bitcoin Prices Plummeting Since Sunday Leading up to the CME Bitcoin futures trading hype, the price of the cryptocurrency advanced, touching the $20,000 USD mark on Sunday just before futures trading started. From the moment CME Bitcoin futures were launched, the situation changed, and prices started going down significantly. Bitcoin dipped below $12,000 USD before recovering some ground. The rapid decline triggered CME and CBOE trade halts. CME Bitcoin Futures Traders vs Hodlers CME Bitcoin futures dropped by as much as 15%, highlighting the sharp differences between trading futures contracts and holding the underlying asset itself. CME Bitcoin futures traders can profit from prices going up or down, whereas Bitcoin holders have less tools at their disposal to short the asset and profit when prices go down. Cryptocurrency traders often resort to other cryptocurrencies to bet on lower future Bitcoin prices, which is probably the reason why Bitcoin dominance declined steeply as the prices of other cryptocurrencies rose. Bitcoin dominance is currently below the 45% mark for the first time in months. CME Bitcoin Futures Depend on Exchange Prices As much as cryptocurrency traders depend on other cryptocurrencies to profit when Bitcoin prices drop, they also make the CME Bitcoin futures markets. This is because futures traders get their prices from the trading on 4 different exchanges. This restores some of the strength that real market activity has, reigning in the kind of speculation mainstream markets are known for. Nevertheless, mainstream media and experts will continue to focus on how much Bitcoin prices have fallen recently, recurring to confirmation bias. Bitcoin is as Strong as it Was When It Hit $20,000 USD Bitcoin however, is as strong now as it was on Sunday when it hit the $20,000 USD mark. The only variable that has changed since, is the amount of transactions going through the network, which has slowed it down, highlighting scaling issues once again. Therefore, the focus on the recent fall in prices is misleading. Not only is Bitcoin still up about 1300% from the beginning of the year, but it has also solidified its base after the Bitcoin Cash fork and SegWit approval. As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to evolve, upgrading their capabilities, their core value will remain high. When cryptocurrency markets tumble to $422 billion USD from a peak of almost $647 billion, it is helpful to focus on their $20 billion USD valuation at the beginning of the year.Margaret Hickey of the Mothers and Fathers Matter group reveals why she will be opposing the redefinition of marriage in the upcoming referendum on marriage equality. SUPPORTERS of the redefinition of marriage say the issue is straightforward ‘equality’ for gay people and acceptance in mainstream society. These ‘yes’ supporters define the issue in terms of love. Who could disagree with the right to equality, the freedom to express love in the language and ritual of marriage? If you can persuade the electorate that you are championing love and equality, then your opponents need very good arguments indeed. It must be shown that those arguments are also grounded in love and equality. This cannot be done in soundbites and slogans, but onlyin a mature conversation with the electorate. It does the electorate a great disservice to shut out concerns about unintended consequences of the legislation. These concerns touch on love and equality. It is not scaremongering to point to the consequences in other jurisdictions of redefined marriage and parenthood. We have the privilege of a vote in the matter. If the referendum is passed, we would be the first country in which the public voted for same-sex marriage. The British and French governments legislated for same-sex marriage without an electoral mandate. Germany does not have same-sex marriage, but, like Ireland, legally supports same-sex couples through civil partnership. The polls suggest that more than 25% of the electorate is opposed to redefining marriage. Yet, the ‘No’ perspective has not been receiving coverage proportionate to its support in opinion polls. The Oireachtas and the media are out of step with the electorate, and the Oireachtas is more culpable since our representational system is intended to ensure balance. The lack of fairness in the media shows little of the values of ‘equality’ and ‘diversity’ they are happy to endorse when they are serving interests with which they agree. Opponents of marriage redefinition see the issue in terms of equality and love, too. However, their focus is on children. They do not accept the spin that the referendum is only about extending the right of marriage to a small number of people and that nobody else will be affected. The Family and Relationships Bill (F&R Bill) was rushed through the Oireachtas ahead of the referendum to set clear water between children and family rights, on the one hand, and marriage rights, on the other. It is the article on the family (Article 41) that we are being asked to amend. Marriage is contained within that article, as “the institution upon which the family is founded”. Therefore, the right to marry also includes the right to found a family. For a lesbian couple, this involves a sperm donor. The F&R bill sets out a legal framework for this to happen. It means that the child born in this way will be the child of both ‘intending parents’. The male genetic parent will, in the words of the bill, ‘... not be a parent’. Parenthood is already redefined. If the Constitution is changed, then the bill and the Constitution will dovetail. However, with the Constitution as it now stands, this bill is wide open to challenge. How can a law permit the deliberate denial to a child of a parent and genetic identity, when the Constitution upholds the family as the primary social unit ‘antecedent to law’ and pledges to ‘protect (it) from attack’? Gay parenting is more complicated. In addition to egg donation, which is more ethically problematic, a surrogate is also required. The Government conveniently kept surrogacy out of the F&R bill. While we are told that the reprehensible business of commercial surrogacy will not be allowed, there are concerns around altruistic surrogacy. Look at jurisdictions where this is happening. In the UK, a mother has given birth to the child of her gay son. A retail celebrity, called Mary Portas, is to become the legal parent of her brother’s genetic child, with her lesbian spouse. There is no need to sketch out the identity confusion for children born into such circumstances: your grandmother is also your birth mother and your first-cousins-in-law your genetic half-siblings. Such scenarios will create conflicts of loyalty and bonding. Surrogacy legislation may eventually be brought to government by Leo Varadkar, who, in 2008, speaking of adoption, said “a child’s right to a mother and father comes before the right of two men to have a child or two women to have a child.” Surrogacy and gamete donation cannot be challenged if the Constitution is amended. Not alone that, but since the right to marry and have a family go in tandem, people who seek to become parents in this way will look to the State for help to do so. A number of TDs have proposed that DAHR come within the remit of the public health service. It is true that heterosexual couples may also use surrogacy, but in almost all cases the genetic material is the couples’ own, so the child has its own biological mother and father. Nevertheless, ethical issues around surrogacy don’t change just because of the sexual orientation of the people involved. If this referendum passes, its impact can be guessed. There was a kerfuffle around the fashion designers Dolce and Gabbana, whose mere expression of support for the traditional family sparked off calls for a boycott of their goods. That is ominous. Other straws in the wind include the forced resignation of Brendan Eich, of Mozilla, for expressing similar views to D+G, and the ‘retraining’ ordered for UK magistrate, Richard Page, for saying what Varadkar said in 2008. This amendment, should it pass, will also affect the moral education of children. In the US, children in school are read books with titles like King and King and Dad, Papa and Me, so as to normalise the new family models. This is also now happening in the UK. LGBT Noise, in Ireland, have asked that creches be supplied with similar books here. Very young children just grasp that mothers and fathers come in the singular, unlike aunts and grandparents. Telling them about two-Mom families or two-Dad families will soon lead to questions and answers about the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of donors and surrogates. What of the exclusion many gay people feel because marriage is not open to them? In the context of the current emphasis on cultural diversity and the positive profile gay people enjoy in Ireland, it is hard to see how the denial of family and parenting rights grounded on biological difference can undermine their human dignity. Civil partnership allows gay people to say ‘I do’ and celebrate their commitment in a way that mirrors civil marriage. There are far weightier reasons, grounded on love and equality, for keeping marriage as it is than for changing it. Margaret Hickey is a member of Mothers and Fathers Matter — a national organisation that defends the right of every child to their mother and father and to oppose the redefinition of marriage in the referendum DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THISThe Cubs won their 40th game on Monday. 40! That means many things, two of which are 1) the Cubs are a very good baseball team that is winning games at a very high rate; and 2) it's not the beginning of baseball season anymore. 40 is a nice, round number, and seeing it in the win column earlier this week really hammered home where we are in the baseball season. BABIPs are starting to normalize, players have stopped dressing like Arctic explorers for night games, and it feels not entirely unreasonable to start to talk about the playoffs. Now, it's never too early to talk about the playoffs. Even before the season started, for example, we could tell just by looking at the Cubs that they were probably going to play in October, and the opposite was true of the Phillies. So really what I mean is that we can start talking about how the actual games that have been played this season should impact the preseason predictions. It's not a drastic change—those expectations (and the projections they're based on) carry a little less weight with each game that's played—but in June, they've diminished enough that we can start to talk about the changes that have happened as if they have meaning. With that in mind, an exercise. The FanGraphs playoff odds graphs take all the things I imprecisely described above and distill them into a set of percentages, updated daily, that take into account the past performance of each team and the projection systems' estimates of their future talent level. The below chart describes where the odds in each division stood on Opening Day, and where they stood through Monday's games, with all the stuff in the middle excised. Don't focus too much on the precise locations; these were made with what could generously be called inexpert photo alterations. The Nationals are up a bit, and the Mets are down a corresponding bit. The Marlins are hanging on, but also not far from where they started. The Braves and Phillies are the Braves and Phillies. The aforementioned Cubs were expected to be very good, and they have been. The Cardinals have struggled a bit, and the Pirates have been unable to make up any ground. The Brewers and Reds are the Brewers and Reds. The first ordinal movement comes in the NL West, with the Dodgers and Giants switching in the top spots. But while Arizona technically had a chance at the beginning of the season, this was always going to be a two-horse race, and it is still a two-horse race. The AL East easily features the most movement so far, largely from the Orioles jumping and the Yankees falling. The Red Sox have built on their lead, though, and Toronto is still holding on to the second spot. Like the NL West, the overall feel of this division hasn't changed much, just as a five-team race rather than a two-team race. Nothing has changed in the AL Central, basically. You know about the Twins' terrible, terrible start, and anything interesting about the Royals and projections has already been said several times over. Next slide. With the AL West comes the payoff for this whole exercise, and, in a broader sense, this whole baseball thing: a division in chaos, and unlike the other divisions in chaos, chaos that looks nothing like we expected it to. On Opening Day, the Rangers and A's had nearly identical playoff odds of about 19 percent; today, the Rangers are sitting atop the division, just over 60 percent, while the A's sit at a measly five percent. The only team below Oakland is the team that began the season just above them, the Angels, but the loss of Garrett Richards and Andrelton Simmons have sent their playoff odds tumbling from 26 percent to three percent. In the middle are Seattle and Houston, and while they haven't moved too much in terms of rank, from first and second to third and second, Seattle's the one who has pushed upward, while Houston, the team that played in the ALDS last year, has seen its odds cut nearly in half. This is not to say the other divisions haven't been fun. The whole reason for cutting out the process of getting from Opening Day to these points in the graphs above is to hide the fact that every division is fun. In the AL Central, the White Sox's hot start and recent struggles mean their full playoff odds most closely resemble a mountain, and calling that boring would be insulting to everyone. Similarly, the Nats and Mets haven't moved much because they've been battling each other for the top spot in a repeat of last year, which is, again, lots of fun. The AL West is special, though, because no one saw these battles coming. You would be forgiven for looking at the Rangers' roster, for example, and thinking that they would be very, very bad. I touched on this in an article last week about Yu Darvish's return, noting that at the time, FanGraphs had the Rangers projected for the 20th-most position player WAR. Since then, they've rocketed upward to 19th, and are sitting at 16th in relief pitcher WAR and 15th in starter WAR. And yet, that's the team currently sitting on a 4.5-game lead in the division. Another upside, one that might make people from some areas of the country unhappy with me: the Astros being bad! Not because I hold any personal enmity toward the Astros, but because the narrative structure of their last few years was getting a little too tidy for my liking. Team is terrible; team hires new, enlightened leadership; team gets even more terrible; team becomes good, and climbs linearly upward until winning the World Series precisely on schedule in 2017. That's not fun! Maybe it's fun for some people, but this version of history, where the Astros jump ahead of the curve in 2015 before falling back behind it in the beginning of 2016, leaving them with still the best projected WAR in the division but perhaps in too deep a hole to dig out of, is much more fun to me. It is objectively good when baseball predictions are proven wrong. I am a big fan of projections, and think they're incredible tools that I am eternally grateful to have at my disposal. I also think they live up to their fullest potential when used as yardsticks for our own hubris, as a way for us to marvel at how little we know about this sport. Baseball is never not going to be fun, but the fun is more fun when it's surprising, too. Good thing we have the AL West; may it stay weird until the very last day. ... Henry Druschel is a Contributing Editor at Beyond the Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @henrydruschel.The Israeli company AORA Solar will soon be opening its second solar power station in southern Spain. The thermodynamic solar plant was constructed in the city of Almeria, on the Mediterranean coast, and will be inaugurated on February 7th 2012. The plant is situated in a complex of 2,000 square meters. It is expected to produce 100 Kilo Watt (KW) of electricity for the domestic needs of the region’s population, as well as 170 KW of heat energy as a byproduct, which will be used to power an adjacent desalination facility. Get our weekly newsletter directly in your inbox! Sign up AORA Solar is using concentrated solar power (CSP) and opened its first plant in in 2009 at Kibbutz Samar next to Eilat, in the south of Israel. It is in the exact same architecture and dimensions as the new plant in Almeria. Related Stories: Israel’s First Giant Solar Field To Power Several Towns Israeli Company Brings Light To Third World Countries “100 KW has the potential to produce electricity for 80 homes. This new Solar Plant will show the efficiency of the design of our solar thermodynamic plant outside the country,” said CEO of AORA, Zev Rosenzweig, to the Jerusalem Post. AORA’s plant contains a hybrid system which is able to function using solar energy during daytime and fuel during the night, or with a combination of both sources during cloudy days, for example. Currently, the plant is using diesel, but according to AORA the company aims to switch to natural gas in the future. Each of the plant’s panels can track the motion of the sun along two axes and directs the sun’s light to a tower that rises to the height of 35 meters. In this tower there is a solar receiver that utilizes the sunrays to heat the air to 1,000 degrees Celsius. This thermal energy is then directed into a gas turbine which converts it into electricity.For a few plays, I thought this might be the year. Stanford was rotating quarterbacks and going nowhere on offense. UCLA led 13-6 and had second-and-goal from the 3. Cover that distance, and Stanford’s nine-game series winning streak is in serious jeopardy. And then the Bruins get called for illegal formation. And then they can’t score a touchdown. And then Stanford blocks the field goal. And then the Cardinal goes 80 yards in seven plays. And that was it. Get Pac-12 Conference news in your inbox. Sign up for the Pac-12 Hotline newsletter. From then on, Stanford-UCLA ’17 unfolded like so many of their matchups this decade. The Cardinal was too sharp, too tough, too resourceful. And the Bruins were the opposite of all those things. (For more coverage, check the Bay Area News Group’s Stanford tag page.) Result: Beat UCLA 58-34. Grade: A- Comment: Have to take the quality of competition into account, and UCLA hardly qualifies as a first-class opponent — therefore the -. (The same is true of this week’s opponent, by the way.) * On the quarterbacks: We’ll assume that Keller Chryst has a concussion, or was held out of the second half because of head-trauma concerns. We’ll also assume that he is not available this week. That’s not based on any insight, just a hunch — Stanford will play it ultra conservatively. David Shaw was non-committal on the starter for Arizona State, and there is no benefit to him going public with a decision until he has to (i.e., the first series Saturday afternoon). Hard to imagine that it would be anyone other than K.J. Costello, however. Ryan Burns has had his chances over two seasons, and Stanford needs to know what it has in Costello. He’s almost halfway through his redshirt freshman season, has a junior ahead of him (Chryst) and a touted true freshman behind him (David Mills). Then again, Stanford always seem to have a touted freshman in the pipeline but has produced only two championship-caliber quarterbacks in the past decade, Andrew Luck and Kevin Hogan. Shaw needs to know his options with Chryst and Costello, and therefore with Mills, for the rest of this season and next — and even into 2019. That means playing Costello — and not against the cupcake defenses, either. We saw that scenario play out with Chryst. He took over for Burns last season just as the schedule turned soft and looked good against bad defenses, which skewed the outlook. UCLA’s defense is just as bad as the ones Chryst handled late last season — the Bruins are allowed 50 points per game to teams not named Hawaii. If Arizona State’s defense is better, it’s only marginally better. The Cardinal needs to see Costello against Utah and against Oregon (much improved) and certainly against the Washington schools — and even against Cal — in order to get a firm sense for what it has in Costello. Problem is, that’s all true of Chryst, as well. He wasn’t effective against USC or San Diego State, has started just 10 games and — let’s not forget — missed the offseason because of knee surgery/rehab. Stanford has three quarterbacks (Chryst, Costello, Mills) with big arms and big frames and at least one-and-a-half seasons of eligibility remaining. It needs some answers. * One thought on Bryce Love, because there isn’t much to add: His quickness creates more margin for error for an offensive line still sorting itself out. The blocks don’t have to be perfect, the creases don’t have to be wide — Love can make a little space work for big gains. His style is ideal for Stanford at the moment. Related Articles Weekend Wrap: On ground games, gaffes galore, QBs, TBs, statements, stats and look-backs Pac-12 Networks: Analyzing ratings for football, Olympic sports (Yep, the Hotline has the numbers) Stanford football: Projecting the season, game by game * One noticeable development Saturday: The tight ends were involved in the passing game. That was partly due to UCLA’s (many) shortcomings and partly because Stanford/Costello seemed to make a point of finding Dalton Schultz and Kaden Smith. Just as Love should have 18+ carries per game, the tight ends should have 10-12 targets per game. Add Trent Irwin and JJ Arcega-Whiteside, and that’s a diverse, talent core of playmakers. No reason the Cardinal should be scoring 20 – 24 ppg. Next up: vs. Arizona State The matchup: Not all that different from the UCLA matchup, actually. Neither the Bruins or Sun Devils have effective running games, neither plays much defense — UCLA is 121st nationally in yards-per-play allowed, ASU is 118th — and neither is comfortable playing in tight quarters. Also, both are seemingly in fragile states, with coaches under extreme pressure to win immediately. The Sun Devils showed some backbone in their 37-35 victory over Oregon on Saturday. However … sorry: HOWEVER, they haven’t won a conference road game in two years. Of their eight consecutive losses, seven have come by at least two touchdowns. They are not built to win on the road against reasonably competent opponents. Stanford certainly qualifies as such. The Cardinal is favored by 16. Probably not enough. Definitely not enough. * Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com * Follow me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline * Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.BhamUrbanNewsUK/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET They're arguing now about who let it happen, but happen it did, with entertaining consequences. Somehow Nicholas Webber found himself in an IT class while in jail. He's serving five years for creating a site called GhostMarket, which allowed those interested in creating computer viruses, partaking of stolen IDs and enjoying private credit card data to congregate. He was caught using hacked personal information to buy everything from iPods to luxury hotel stays. One might have thought that an IT class would have been quite dull for him. One might also have thought that inviting him to an IT class might encourage him to enjoy a little mischief. As the Daily Mail reports, mischief did indeed occur. So much so that the computer system at Her Majesty's Prison Isis, South London (the Queen's name adorns so many English prisons) was hacked. The slightly peculiar miscalculation that led to this hacking -- which happened in 2011 -- has come to light because the teacher running the IT class is suing the college that employed him for unfair dismissal. Michael Fox claims that he didn't know Webber was a hacker. The prison banned him. Other prisons were sent a note that his talents were allegedly imperfect. Kensington and Chelsea College subsequently laid him off. A spokesman for the prison told the Mail: "At the time of this incident in 2011 the educational computer system at HMP Isis was a closed network. No access to personal information or wider access to the internet or other prison systems would have been possible." The Mail, however, suggests that a "major panic" ensued. Indeed, Fox told an employment tribunal on Friday: "The perceived problem was there was a tutor who had been excluded by the prison and charged with allowing a hacking expert to hack into the prison's mainframe." Surely someone must have known Webber was a hacker before he went to the IT class. He's sometimes referred to as "a notorious cyber-criminal." If it wasn't Fox, who might it have been? It's not as if Webber could have hacked his way to getting invited to the class, is it? Isis specializes in prisoners under 25. It is situated next to Her Majesty's Prison, Belmarsh. This is described as a maximum security facility. The BBC reports that Isis has been "'bedeviled' with faulty technology."The man waited
sources. Psychic powers have never been proven to exist, much less provide reliable, valid information. Some psychics are careful to claim that their readings are "for entertainment purposes only," tacitly admitting that their information should not be taken seriously. Most, however, are happy to do their work for paying clients and accept no responsibility for the truth of their information. If you consult psychics, the next time you meet with one, ask him or her to promise in writing that what they are telling you is true and accurate. I predict you won't get any takers. Ask yourself why they will take your money but not promise to give you the truth. Benjamin Radford is managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer science magazine, and he has investigated psychics and psychic powers for over a decade. His books can be found on his website.How to make iOS 7 look like iOS 6 (jailbreak needed) Please remember that iOS will probably never go back to being sceuomorphic, it's all flat from here. Please consider getting used to it, so you are prepared for the future :( Updated 19 march: ClassicLockScreen is out + added a bunch of other tweaks. Thanks alot reddit. This page has had 6201 hits! ClassicBadges (BigBoss) ClassicDock (BigBoss) Disable Parallax Effect (BigBoss) iOS 6 Complete for iOS 7 (BigBoss) iOS 6 ClassicBattery (Alkaline) (BigBoss) SixBar (BigBoss) UnlockSound7 (BigBoss) RoundScreenCorners (BigBoss) 7Shaders (repo: http://noeliel.com/repo/) Classic UI Sounds Theme (ZodTTD & MacCity) iFile iOS 6 weather (Celcius/Fahrenheit) iOS 6 stock icons iOS 6 status bar icons iOS 6 non-stock app icons iOS 6 icon shape iOS 6 bold icon labels ClassicBadges Classic UI Sounds Shadows under icon labels. text-shadow: 0 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0,.8);× Mormon LGBT rights group denied entry into parades SALT LAKE CITY — A group of Mormon Church members sympathetic to LGBT rights said it has been denied entry into two of Utah’s biggest parades. In a statement posted on its website, Mormons Building Bridges said its applications to march in the Days of ’47 and Provo’s Freedom Festival parades were rejected without explanation. “Both events are organized by private non-profits with the right to turn down any group for any reason, but the Mormons Building Bridges steering committee is disappointed and confused as to why their proposals – which are supportive of the mission of both organizations — have been rejected,” Mormons Building Bridges said in its statement. “This year the Days of ‘47 theme is “Pioneers — Forging a New Frontier”. MBB seeks to to embody that theme by highlighting the work of community leaders who are forging new frontiers and also happen to be LGBT. Likewise, what better way to support the Freedom Festival’s stated goal of promoting patriotism, than by honoring the service of LGBT veterans who have kept this country free?” In the past, Days of ’47 has said it does not accept entries from advocacy groups. The parade is Utah’s largest, commemorating the entry of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. The Freedom Festival in Provo is a patriotic celebration coinciding with the Fourth of July. Mormons Building Bridges will be marching again in the Utah Pride Parade on June 7 in Salt Lake City.It’s time to play the music that is always in the air! The Muppets and Twin Peaks are two of my pop culture favorites,” Justin DeVine tells Welcome to Twin Peaks. “And the idea of replacing Miss Piggy just came to me one day. That one drawing was pretty well received, so I decided to do more, and it’s been really fun thinking about the various analogous relationships.” andare two of my pop culture favorites,”tells. “And the idea of replacing Laura Palmer withjust came to me one day. That one drawing was pretty well received, so I decided to do more, and it’s been really fun thinking about the various analogous relationships.” The Oakland, California based illustrator has so far created six watercolor and ink pen portraits of Twin Peaks Muppets, but stay tuned for more portraits from Justin in a few weeks. UPDATE 2017: Uncle Deadly as the Woodsman! Who Killed Miss Piggy? Cooper the Frog Log Fozzie The Weirdo from Another Place Dr. Lawrence Teeth Major Garland the Eagle HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN? ERR… MUPPET? Beaker and Janice (the singer from the Electric Mayhem) as deputy Andy Brennan and Lucy Moran “Is there something wrong, young pretty chicken?” Camilla the Chicken as Audrey Horne “There was a FISH…in the PERCOLATOR… and it came BACK TO ME!” Lew Zealand as Pete Martell Henson… Walk with Me! Sweetums as MIKE Sesame Street’s Monsterpiece Theater: “Twin Beaks” And as you probably already know, an official Twin Peaks parody starring some of the Muppets first aired on February 26, 1991 as a segment of Sesame Street episode 2822. In Monsterpiece Theater: Twin Peaks, Agent Cookie investigates why a town is called Twin Beaks, a mystery not even David Finch, Log Bird nor its log can explain. LOG BIRD Let me ask my log. Do you know why this town is called Twin Beaks? THE LOG How should I know? I’m a log! For other Twin Peaks character mashups and recreations, check out 15 Twin Peaks Characters As If They Appeared On The Simpsons Inside The Black Lodge, Twin Peaks Cast As Cartoon Characters, Super Twin Peaks Pixel Art Featuring 76 Characters, and 42 Twin Peaks Action Figures With All The Right Accessories.CINCINNATI – The Charleston Battery, in the midst of their sixth consecutive postseason, rallied past expansion side FC Cincinnati for a 2-1 victory Sunday in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in front of a USL postseason-record crowd of 30,187 on Sunday at Nippert Stadium. The attendance broke the previous mark of 20,886 held by Orlando City SC during the 2013 USL Cup Final at the Citrus Bowl, when Orlando defeated the Charlotte Eagles 7-4. Cincinnati’s home base was in high spirits with Eric Stevenson’s 30-yard tally in the 19th minute, but Charleston responded well as Chris Tsonis found the equalizer in the 40th minute. Then in the 65th minute, Zach Prince’s shot from a Maikel Chang corner kick was deflected by Tyler Polak and into his own net as Charleston took the 2-1 advantage. Prince was credited with the winning score and his Battery will face second-seeded Louisville City FC in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals next weekend. Three Things That Mattered: 1. Charleston’s second-half approach was clear – set pieces and counterattacks. The Battery approached the game as probably any veteran and away side would heading into Nippert Stadium. They gained the lead in the 65th minute off of a corner kick sequence from Maikel Chang that was only partially cleared. Zach Prince fired toward the near right post, which Cincinnati’s Tyler Polak tried to cover. Unfortunately for the host side, his deflection was redirected inside the far left post and past Cincinnati goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt as Charleston took the 2-1 advantage. 2. During the first half, Cincinnati’s defense reached 400 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal, with the previous being a second-half tally to Saint Louis FC’s Patrick Doody on Sept. 5. Whether or not Charleston received that memo, the Battery put an end to that run, thanks to a 40th-minute throw-in from O’Brian Woodbine that reached Chris Tsonis at the edge of the six-yard area. Cincinnati’s defense was unable to mark him, with Austin Berry trying to get a head on the throw and just missing and goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt positioned strangely off of his line but close to Tsonis, who rose and put the ball into the back of the net to tie the score at 1-1. Cincinnati’s scoreless streak officially ended at 404 minutes and made Sunday a brand new match heading into the second half. 3. Though the host side saw its season come to an abrupt halt, it was one peppered with a number of highlight reel moments. Cincinnati’s Eric Stevenson unleashed a 30-yard shot that found the upper right corner in the 19th minute to take the early advantage. It was one of those chances where the Charleston defense was not close enough to make an impact on the play, and Stevenson’s shot was flush. The environment at Nippert was everything Cincinnati wanted, but it was unable to hold onto – or add to – that tally. USLSoccer.com Man of the Match: Maikel Chang, Charleston Battery – The veteran Chang provided the corner kick that led to the go-ahead goal and then helping kill off the game down the stretch. Upcoming Games: FC Cincinnati – End of Season Charleston Battery: Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at No. 2 Louisville City FC - Saturday, Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m. ET, Slugger Field Scoring: 19’ – CIN – Eric Stevenson (Sean Okoli) 40’ – CHS – Chris Tsonis (O’Brian Woodbine) 65’ – CHS – Zach Prince Lineups: CIN: 1-Mitch Hildebrandt; 15-Pat McMahon (18-Omar Mohamed, 84’), 22-Austin Berry (12-Evan Lee, 90’+2), 4-Harrison Delbridge, 3-Tyler Polak (24-Derek Luke, 78’); 6-Kenney Walker; 10-Eric Stevenson, 23-Andrew Wiedeman, 19-Corben Bone (16-Casey Townsend, 74’), 20-Jimmy McLaughlin; 9-Sean Okoli CHS: 1-Alex Tambakis; 11-Griffith, 4-Taylor Mueller, 6-Shawn Ferguson, 7-O’Brian Woodbine; 12-Maikel Chang, 10-Ataulla Guerra, 24-Zach Prince, 19-Dante Marini (15-Emmanuel Adjetey, 74’); 25-Chris Tsonis (8-Neveal Hackshaw, 71’), 9-Romario Williams (16-Heviel Cordoves, 77’)Cambridge leaders reiterated their commitment to protected and pop-up bicycle lanes Monday night. The Cambridge City Council voted to asked the City Manager Louis A. DePasquale to accelerate the planning and installation of two or more protected bike lanes by September, produce a plan by October 2017 for the roll-out of protected bike lanes on all major city thoroughfares, and ensure that the Cambridge Bike Plan recommendations are fully implemented on all road projects. The council also heard from the city's head of traffic and transportation about the effectiveness of pop-up bicycle lanes on Cambridge Street, Massachusetts Avenue, and Battle Street that were implemented last fall. Impact of pop-up bike lanes The council is currently awaiting an official report on the impact of the separated lanes, including crash analysis, bicycle and pedestrian counts, and how to best maintain the lanes. While it generally takes a few years to gather enough information for a crash analysis, Director of Traffic, Parking, and Transportation�Joseph E. Barr said the city would be keeping an eye on the information is gathers �as an early indicator� and will also monitor how safe people feel when using them. �I think we have a strong sense that people find these to be safer and more usable, particularly for the folks of different ages and abilities,� Barr said. �But obviously we want to back that up with statistics as well to the extent that we can." Barr said he expects to see some change in the speed of vehicle on Cambridge Street �because of the slight narrowing of the street� and weaving effect caused by the way the bicycle lanes are laid out. �We want to look at the multi-model operations,� Barr said. Harm or help businesses? Barr said that analyzing the impact the pop-up lanes are having on local businesses is �a little bit harder nut to crack. Barr said that the Community Development Department has done intercept surveys in different parts of the city to get a feel for how customers use businesses impacted by the lanes, including how they get there. It will be more challenging to determine the financial impact the lanes are having on businesses because Cambridge does not have a local sales tax, Barr said. �Many locations that have done those studies do, and so they have direct access to those figures, to be able to look at a fairly objective measure of sales in a specific location� Barr said. Councilor Dennis J. Carlone said that if businesses are negatively impacted by the lanes, there are other things that can be done to assist them. �Studies have also shown that just putting in benches can generate up to 10 percent more in sales,� Carlone said. �It personalizes it.� Vice Mayor Marc McGovern said that while the city should try to mitigate the negative impacts as much as possible, it�s important ensure they city doesn�t lose sight of its original intent. �I think our inclination is, how do we come up with a process where everybody is happy,� McGovern said. �And sometimes we may not end up with reaching the goal we were trying to get to in the first place because we�re trying to make everybody happy." �I fully believe we should mitigate the negative impact as much as we can,� McGovern said. �But I think we have to start these conversations with, �This is where we�re going, this is what we�re doing.' We�re building a network of separated bike lanes, and now let�s have a conversation about how to do that, and how to do that in a way that minimizes the impact.� Councilor Leland Cheung said that he thinks the analysis is good, but that he�d like to see it done after the bike paths are put into place. �I think we�re in a situation where we need to do what needs to be done,� Cheung said.(Gun Confiscation) – In a bid to push more draconian anti-gun legislation, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg claims he can out-spend the NRA. Among those of us who love the second amendment, Mr. Bloomberg’s crimes against constitutional freedom are already outrageous, so this latest statement comes as no surprise. However, it is a prime example of the arrogance of overconfident politicians who have no remorse at trampling on the standards set by our founding fathers. Katie Couric from Yahoo asked Bloomberg about his support for anti-gun legislation. FAX BLAST SPECIAL: Don’t Let The Government Take Your Guns! Protect Your Second Amendment Rights! “You think you can really outspend the NRA and gun manufacturers?” she asked. “Oh, sure,” Bloomberg replied. “I’m not the only funder of this. All of these groups raise money. There are other people who understand. They want their kids to be safe.” It’s fascinating that he actually thinks he can get away with using the safety of our nation’s children as a reason to leave America’s citizens utterly defenseless against threats. http://www.gunconfiscation.com/blogs/entry/Bloomberg-Says-He-Can-Out-Spend-the-NRAFollow me @marlynnweimd Yoga, a modern practice rooted in over 5000 years of ancient Indian texts and traditions, continues to gain popularity in the United States. A new survey conducted by Yoga Alliance and Yoga Journal reports that the number of Americans doing yoga has grown by over 50% in the last four years to over 36 million as of 2016, up from 20.4 million in 2012. In addition, nine out of 10 Americans have heard of yoga, one in three Americans has tried yoga at least once, and more than 15% of Americans have done yoga in the last 6 months. More than a third of Americans say they are very likely to try yoga in the next year. While the majority of yoga practitioners are women (70%), the number of American men doing yoga has more than doubled, going from 4 million in 2012 to 10 million in 2016. The number of American adults over 50 doing yoga has tripled over the last four years to reach 14 million. A look at the benefits all these new yogis can enjoy Three out of four Americans believe that “yoga is good for you,” and medical science backs them up: Yoga has been shown to improve health. Several studies have found that yoga can help improve cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, balance, and overall quality of life — and it can even reduce stress, anxiety, and pain. In addition, people who do yoga are 20% more likely to have a positive image of their own physical and mental health, including a stronger sense of mental clarity, physical fitness, flexibility, and strength. Yoga can usher you towards a healthier lifestyle as well. The survey found that people who do yoga are far more physically active than those who don’t — 75% of yogis participate in sports or other fitness activities. Yoga practitioners are also more likely to “live green” and eat sustainably. This is consistent with results from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey, which found that yoga motivated nearly two-thirds of people to exercise more and 40% of people to eat healthier. Of course, it’s possible that people drawn to yoga may be more likely to be more active already. But yoga has been shown to improve physical and mental health and overall quality of life in those who are new to yoga and are not typically physically active. Even though many people in the West get into yoga for physical fitness and stress relief, their initial motivations can change. While contemporary Western yoga tends to focus on yoga as physical exercise, yoga is actually much broader than physical poses alone and includes a rich history of philosophical and ethical principles, breathing exercises, and meditation. Many yoga teachers integrate lessons on important principles, such as kindness, truthfulness, and self-discipline. Many people stay in yoga for a sense of community, purpose, and self-actualization. Yoga practitioners are also more likely to volunteer — nearly 50% of yoga practitioners report that they donate time to the community. Why some people aren’t jumping on the bandwagon — and what the yoga community can do about it One of the survey’s most interesting results reveals the most common reason people don’t try yoga. Often, people see yoga as exclusive — designed primarily for young women or for those who are already flexible, athletic, or spiritual. This finding can hopefully inspire the yoga community to work on making yoga more accessible and inclusive, regardless of a person’s gender, age, current level of flexibility or fitness, or relationship with spirituality. The fundamental philosophy of yoga encourages being non-judgmental and compassionate to others and ourselves. Yoga is not about perfection or performing a beautiful pose to show other people on Instagram. It’s not a competition of flexibility, nor is it about comparing yourself to the person next to you in yoga class or achieving a challenging pose found on the cover of Yoga Journal. Yoga is about becoming attuned to our individual self — body and mind — and making room for exactly where we are, while letting go of judgment. The more we do yoga, the more we can recognize that even our own states can change day to day, moment to moment. As just one example, in yoga practice, poses can be modified based on your own body, including your degree of flexibility or how you’re feeling that day. While there are alignment guidelines to help keep postures safe, poses can and should be tailored to the individual. You can use props like blocks, chairs, straps, blankets, or even the wall to find a version of the pose that feels right for you. As yoga continues to become more popular in the U.S., we must not lose the true spirit of yoga as one of compassion, awareness, and acceptance. With this message of inclusivity, yoga and its benefits can become more accessible.The Washington Post‘s brash Twitter voice Dave Weigel is urging journalists to avoid the death trap he claims is Fox News’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Wait — shouldn’t political journalists be willing to discuss the media if they expect others to spill their guts on politics? Nope, not according to Weigel. @BuzzFeedBen I'm not kidding. Why keep volunteering for the dunk tank? — Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) May 4, 2017 Weigel’s stern warning came in response to BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith‘s appearance on Carlson’s program Wednesday night in which he was asked to discuss “diversity” in his newsroom. Smith wasn’t phenomenal. There were moments he looked foolish — like the one in which he was asked about a reporter he once employed who goes by the nickname “Baked Alaska.” Business Insider recently ran story on “Baked Alaska” — Tim Gionet — who said he used the word “spirit animal” in the BuzFeed newsroom and was scolded for it. Smith insisted on FNC that the incident never likely happened and that “Baked Alaska” went on to write something derogatory about Jews. On Thursday, Gionet returned the favor and leaked screenshots to Patrick Howley‘s Big League Politics, in the form of an internal BuzzFeed conversation calling for President Trump‘s assassination. Things also grew dicey when Carlson asked Smith how many people on his staff voted for Trump. Smith had no idea, but said he didn’t make it a practice to ask his employees how they voted. He did say he added some diversity to his newsroom by hiring a reporter in Cleveland (as someone who grew up in a nearby town, I can assure you that Cleveland is not some injection of diversity to any newsroom.) While Smith didn’t excel on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” he didn’t bomb either. He wasn’t a deer in the headlights like a certain thug-voiced Washington Post media writer named Erik Wemple, who got so mad at Carlson that he hilariously began calling him “Mister Carlson.” The top of Smith’s segment began on an awkward note with the two men engaging in niceties that exposed a sort of disrespect between them. Smith had a subtle, bitchy tone. Carlson, who thrives on uncomfortable moments, was genuinely puzzled but amused by Smith’s compliment that Carlson had become a “meme.” He introduced Smith’s BuzzFeed as “click-bait kingpin BuzzFeed com.” Behind Carlson, a large screen contained the question, “IS BuzzFeed BIASED?” CARLSON: Hey, Ben, thanks for coming on. SMITH: Thanks for having me, Tucker. Congrats on the show, the book, the meme-ification. CARLSON: [Laughing] I don’t know what that means, but I will accept your congratulations. SMITH: I don’t know what the kingpin thing meant either, so we’re good. The tension between Carlson and Smith is longstanding. In 2010, just eight months after The Daily Caller was co-founded by Carlson, Smith said the pub was “struggling” and therefore attacking outlets like National Review. He has also called The Daily Caller “pathetic.” Carlson hasn’t been a huge fan of Smith. He has called Smith a “fanboy” of the Democrats. And there’s this: “It’s no surprise that a left wing hack like Ben Smith is, once again, being used as a mouthpiece by the DNC,” Carlson told FishbowlDC back in 2012. When asked to expound on his public warning, Weigel obliged. “My own rule for TV has become: I’ll do it if it’s on an issue or story I’ve been covering,” he told The Mirror. “I do a lot less TV than I used to, and don’t miss it. A Tucker booker did call me a few months ago about a segment; IIRC [If I recall correctly] I turned it down for a combo of that reason and because I had concert tickets that night.” And what concert was that? “I think Japandroids,” he replied. I asked Weigel, “If guests know their material, shouldn’t they not fear going on?” He said, “Sure, if guests know the subject and material, go ahead. But as an outside observer, I thought it was weird for Ben to spend his time debating the proposition that there should be newsroom affirmative action for Trump voters.”Worcester Warriors have confirmed that Gary Gold will leave the club at the end of December, with his assistant Alan Solomons stepping up as the Aviva Premiership side's director of rugby. Gold is taking over as the USA's head coach and was initially expected to leave Sixways in the summer. However, his new role will now begin in January and Solomons has agreed a two-and-a-half year deal to replace him. Solomons, 67, arrived at the club in October and has helped them to three wins from their last four matches. Warriors chairman Bill Bolsover said: "We are delighted that we have managed to secure Alan on a long-term contract. "Since he arrived at the club, Alan has been a key influence behind the scenes and has quickly earned the respect of staff and players, who have all spoken very highly of him. "This has been illustrated by the commitment of the players and the fact we have seen a marked improvement in the team's performances. "Our search for a new director of rugby was extensive and we interviewed a number of high quality candidates but Alan stood out as someone who could bring stability to the club and take us forward. "We thank Gary Gold for his hard work and efforts during his year at Sixways and wish him the best of luck with his role at the USA." Solomons said: "I have enjoyed my time at Warriors since day one and it has become clear that the club has masses of potential to be successful in the long-term. "I am hugely excited about being given the opportunity to lead this club and I am looking forward to continuing the hard work to ensure we can build for the future, move up the Premiership table and give the supporters the success they deserve." Gold said: "I would like to thank the club for allowing me to bring my contract to an end at this time to begin my role with the USA in January. "I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Sixways. I feel the club has taken steps forward over the last year and has the foundations to ultimately be successful. I wish all the players and staff the best of luck in the future." Worcester face Saracens next Saturday, followed by a home game against Bath on Jan. 5.Manipulative people are those who disguise their interests as your interests. These people will do their best to manipulate you into believing that their opinions are objective facts. They’ll tell you that the entire office thinks you’re arrogant, crazy, or incompetent. Then... They'll act concerned. They'll offer to help you improve your performance, improve your attitude, and improve your life in general. If you don’t change in exactly the way they want you to change, your life will be ruined. That’s what they want you to believe. The truth is these people don’t want to help you. They want to control you. They want to change you, not to better your life, but to validate their lives and to keep you from outgrowing them. Once you let manipulative people in your life, they can be extremely hard to get rid of. They'll flip flop on issues, act slippery when you try to hold them accountable, and promise help that never comes. Don't put up with passive-aggressive behavior. Have enough confidence in yourself to actively deal with manipulative people as soon as you spot them. Offensive People Hurt Performance A study in the Journal Of Social And Personal Relationships found that ignoring negative people increased the ignorer’s intelligence and productivity. The researchers examined 120 participants who were asked to talk with or ignore people who were instructed to be either friendly or offensive to the participants. The participants didn't know which type of person they would meet. After four minutes of interaction, each participant was given a thought exercise that required good concentration. The participants who ignored the negative people performed better on the thought exercises than the participants who engaged with the negative people. Much better. The researchers concluded that ignoring others during adverse social interactions conserves mental resources. Avoiding negative people is the best strategy. But sometimes... It's not enough. Sometimes a negative person is also sneaky and manipulative. In these cases, you have to apply different strategies. Here are 8 strategies for dealing with manipulative people. 8 Ways To Deal With Manipulators 1. Ignore everything they do and say. When dealing with a manipulative person, the biggest mistake you can make is trying to correct them. By correcting them, you sink deeper into their trap. Manipulative people will use frustration and confusion to bait you into conflict. They want to get you emotional so they can see how you tick. Once they know the things that trigger you, they’ll use them to influence your actions. A better strategy is to ignore them completely. Simply delete them from your life. If you can’t delete them right away, like if they’re a boss, coworker, or family member, agree with what they say and then go do your own thing anyway. 2. Hit their center of gravity. Manipulative people are constantly using their own strategies against you. They'll hold past actions over your head. They’ll become friends with your friends and turn them against you. They’ll dangle some small reward in front of you and make you chase it continuously—every time you get close to it, they’ll pull it away. Turn the tables. If you’re forced to deal with a manipulative person who keeps making your life miserable no matter how hard you try to ignore them, go on the offensive. Find their center or gravity. This center might be the manipulative person’s friend, manager, or subordinate. It might be a high level skill or an advanced understanding of a particular field. It might be a particular resource that they control. Once you find out what their center of gravity is... Make it yours. Create allies with people close to them, recruit people with their skill sets and knowledge base to replace them, or siphon away their prized resource. This will throw them off balance and force them to focus on controlling their career and life, not yours. 3. Trust your judgment. You know what’s best for your life better than anyone else. Too many people go around asking for other people’s opinions about everything. What should I do with my life? What am I good at? Who am I? Stop looking for other people to define you. Define yourself. Trust yourself. What separates winners from losers is not the ability to listen to other people’s beliefs, it’s the ability to listen to one’s own beliefs. Your beliefs are your boundaries. By setting your own beliefs and holding onto them strongly, you prevent manipulative people from affecting your life. 4. Try not to fit in. Keep reinventing yourself. The idea that consistency is somehow virtuous or tied to success is a misconception. Manipulative people want you to be consistent so they can count on you to push their agendas forward. They want you to show up every day at 9am and work for them for minimum wage. They want you to get home on time and clean the house and make them feel good about themselves. Assembly lines are consistent. Consistency is how manipulators keep you in a box. It’s how they control you. The only way to keep from being manipulated is to actively push against all the boundaries that others try to set for you. Stop trying to fit in. Instead... Work to stand out. Work to be different in every possible way and to never stay the same for too long. Personal growth, by definition, requires a lack of consistency. It requires constant change. 5. Stop compromising. Guilt is a useless emotion. But... It’s a powerful tool. Guilt is one of the weapons that manipulative people will use against you. They’ll make you feel guilty for past failures and small mistakes, or they’ll make you feel guilty for being happy and confident. No one should ever feel too good about themselves. That's what they want you to believe. Another weapon manipulators will use against you is doubt. They’ll work to instill a sense of self-doubt within you. Doubt about your abilities and your worth. Manipulators gain power in this state of uncertainty. Their influence becomes stronger when you are uncertain. They have a better chance of getting you to compromise on your values, goals, and self when you're uncertain. The solution is simple... Stop feeling guilty. Stop doubting yourself. When it comes to your own career and life, you don’t owe anyone anything. You deserve to feel good about yourself and to be proud of your accomplishments. Compromising on your happiness is not moral or enlightened. It's self-destruction. 6. Never ask for permission. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. The problem is that we’ve been trained to constantly ask for permission. We're told to wait in line and wait for our turn to talk. We're told to wait a year for a promotion. Most of us are so used to waiting for permission that we sit silently in meetings, afraid to speak out of turn or to even raise our hands. What if you stopped being overly concerned with politeness and making others feel comfortable? Manipulative people want you to feel beholden to some imaginary rule or ideal that says you cannot freely take action without asking them first. The truth is you can take action to move your career forward whenever you want. You can take complete control of your life right now. Without permission. The choice is yours to make. 7. Create a greater sense of purpose. The reason manipulators continue to thrive in this world is because so many people don't know what they're working for. They don't know why they're in their career. They just kind of fell into it. When your life lacks purpose, you’ll believe anything. You’ll do anything. Because nothing really matters. People who lack purpose are just killing time. They don’t know where they’re going or why they’re here. To keep from going crazy, these people work at jobs they don't like and stay busy sending boomerang emails and going to the same pointless meetings. Busyness empowers manipulative people. Manipulators control purposeless people by peddling useless information and activities to them. Like they say... There’s a sucker born every minute. If you’re constantly distracted, constantly consuming useless content, constantly trying to stay busy... You’re the sucker. The only way to escape this fate is to develop a sense of purpose. When you know where you’re going, manipulators can’t hurt you. When you're focused, they can’t distract or misguide you. 8. Take responsibility for yourself. If someone fools you once, shame on them. If someone fools you 10 times, you’re a fool. Stop letting manipulators walk all over you. Stop being a punching bag. No one feels bad for you and you’re only embarrassing yourself. Have enough self-awareness and self-respect to say no to people who treat you poorly. You can’t just float through life blaming other people for your problems. Yes, manipulative people exist. Yes, their actions are wrong. But this doesn’t mean you get a free pass to make mistakes and be used. No one can manipulate you without your permission. You’re responsible for your own successes and failures. If others outthink or out-strategize you—it’s your fault, not theirs. Be accountable. Learn from your mistakes. Don’t keep trusting the same slippery person over and over again. Cut them loose. Delete them from your life. Commit to surrounding yourself with positive and likeminded people who aren’t just going to use you. Now it's your turn. What strategies have you used against manipulative people in the past? Were your strategies successful? Tell me in a comment. I also write for Entrepreneur Magazine: Check out my book of personal and professional advice, Black Hole Focus: How Intelligent People Create A Powerful Purpose For Their Lives.May 13, 2014 10:18 am ET by Luke Brinker Fox News anchor Mike Huckabee urged fans to bombard Houston city officials with opposition to a proposed non-discrimination ordinance, baselessly asserting that the measure would "be unsafe for woman and children." On April 21, Houston Mayor Annise Parker (D) unveiled a non-discrimination proposal, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, skin color, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The ordinance would apply to city employers, housing, city contractors, and private employers with more than 50 employees. According to the Greater Houston Partnership, fewer than seven percent of private employers in the city employed more than 50 people in 2011. Additionally, the measure exempts religious organizations. The modest scope of the proposal didn't stop Huckabee from waging an apoplectic attack on it in the form of a May 10 Facebook post. Calling on Houston-area residents to "support your own Biblical beliefs," he instructed them to contact Parker and city council members in opposition to the proposed ordinance and announced a May 13 rally "on the steps of city hall." The former Arkansas governor and host of Fox's Huckabee wrote that he was opposing the ordinance to uphold "God's definition of human sexuality" and "common moral decency," warning that the measure would make Houston unsafe for women and children: This isn't the first time Huckabee has resorted to hysterical, factually groundless arguments to crusade against basic non-discrimination protections. In 2012, he condemned a proposed non-discrimination ordinance in Kansas by stoking fears about inappropriate bathroom and locker room behavior. Conservatives relied on such fear-mongering in their unsuccessful campaigns against transgender protections in Maryland and California, even though states and localities that have already implemented transgender protections haven't witnessed spikes in sexual assault in restrooms and locker rooms. Such facts notwithstanding, opponents of the Houston ordinance have taken to calling it the "Sexual Predator Protection Act." Huckabee's attack on the ordinance echoes other conservative claims against anti-discrimination measures, including a San Antonio ordinance passed last fall. In both cases, opponents have ignored the measures' explicit religious exemptions to argue that the proposals would imperil religious liberty and overlooked data indicating that anti-LGBT discrimination is bad for businesses and local economies. Just last month, Huckabee made headlines when he declared that he's "not a hater" and "not homophobic," simply a believer in the Bible. As he wages a campaign of malicious smears to combat even proposals with clear religious exemptions, such claims appear increasingly untenable. Previously: Mike Huckabee Denies History Of Anti-LGBT Vitriol Fox's Huckabee And Guest Peddle Myths About Transgender People, Gender Identity Fox's Huckabee To Keynote Event For Anti-Gay Boy Scouts Alternative
surprised. It still looked like soy sauce! Looking at the light black liquid going into the cup, there was a strange, unnerving feeling that we were about to drink something we shouldn’t. The taste was like… everyday orange juice! We must admit, we were a little worried about what this black liquid might taste like. Nervous and concerned that we may end up spraying the contents of our mouths all over the office floor, we tentatively took our first sip: “Thi… this is just everyday orange juice!” This sure looked like soy sauce but the flavour was bitter-sweet orange! We were relieved but then we were a little disappointed at the same time. If only they added a bit of a soy sauce fragrance to it! That would’ve made a huge impact! Oh well, we were just happy the flavour wasn’t salty soy! So…what’s with the packaging? We think this orange juice is dressed up as soy sauce to create a stir when people see you drinking it. Tip: guzzle a bottle of this down at a crowded bus stop just for the shock factor. But drinking it’s quite a fun experience on its own because of the difference between the taste you expect and the taste you get. If you drink it straight from the bottle, every time you look at it and take a sip it messes with your mind. With this drink, you get the molecular gastronomy experience without the price tag. Now we can’t wait to take this crazy drink one step further by filtering it into a colourless liquid! Mind = blown. Photos: RocketNews24 [ Read in Japanese ]Celebrity chef Mario Batali appeared on "The Tonight Show" starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his new book featuring beloved American recipes, and Buffalo's signature beef on weck surprisingly takes center stage. Fallon, who hails from Saugerties, NY, asked for an example of something delicious from upstate New York, and as Batali began to describe the roast beef on kummelweck - vivaciously calling it "beef on a weck" - the host curiously pulled out the sandwich Batali described. What a coincidence! Watch the clip, via the website for "The Tonight Show," here: According to Buffalo's Famous Facebook page, the relatively new Buffalo-themed restaurant in Ditmas Park supplied the sandwich for the show. You can read about the start of Buffalo's Famous here, and then learn more about the eatery's Buffalo authenticity from two expats in NYC. *Related articles: - 100 Things: Eat a beef on weck - Photos of beef on weck for 100 Things - Anderson's: The ultimate comfort food - Dining review at Schwabl's, which features beef on weck Email Ben Tsujimoto, who wishes he were as expressive as Batali, at btsujimoto@buffnews.comChris has made occasional comments on YouTube videos over the years, from his several accounts. Many of them are boring and relate to video games and My Little Pony. Sometimes he gets angry at the trolls. actually thought the video was about him. Yes, he ChristianWChandler: "Hey, Vivian. I'm going to tell you right now that if you were trying to offend me with this "South Park" Parody; You Failed. This is just SOO FUNNY! You ought to know I like "South Park", especially the less dramatic, more comical episodes. ROFL" ChristianWChandler: "Actually, there is ONE more thing you could to just make this a TOPPER of a Comical Scene; I gave him the finger as I left for real, so add a Sit-And-Spin in the silence right before the final insult. ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL" Happy B-day Chris CChanSonichu: "If you meant me, Christian Weston Chandler, my birthday was on FEBRUARY 24." CwcvilleGuardian: "I do not find that commentary funny at all. In fact, I feel pissed off to be ridiculed soo lightly." CwcvilleGuardian: "I would ONLY upgrade to an XL from my 3DS if the XL had the RIGHT Analog Pad, ZR and ZL Buttons featured on it, so I would not have to worry about the additional accessory.PLUS, PLEASE ADD FlipNote Studio onto the freaking eShop; we are Tired of Waiting, and we do not want the 'Memo'." CwcvilleGuardian: "That was Stupid. I hate you and your copycat John K. animation. Sonic is NOT Dead. -:( And I loathe your murderous intent and darkness. You make me vomit from my soul, you mental rapist." [Interestingly enough, this "mental rape" did not deter Chris from adding this video to his list of favorites] CwcvilleGuardian: "It is quite catchy and cute" CwcvilleGuardian: "Truly Neat and Sweet; are there more Lego Friends episodes on YouTube in English?!" CwcvilleGuardian: "Ha Ha! Take THAT, you fart-minded, jerk MALE among ALL fart-minded, jerk Males that make up the Majority of the Worldwide Male Population! -:D "Women Rule, because they are more compassionate, caring and understanding." CwcvilleGuardian: "I enjoyed that, and I would add that the Plastic Molding Machine would not have been there without its controls and schematics designed by my father, General Electric's Robert Franklin Chandler Jr. :)" CwcvilleGuardian: "I REALLY Loathe Internet Trolls and All of their icons, Especially the face from Rage Comics. }:(" CwcvilleGuardian: "I Loathe Trolling-Stupid Cyber-Bullies." CwcvilleGuardian: "Derpy is always soo cute. I like her original voice better; can't believe the original version if Last Roundup is not on iTunes." CwcvilleGuardian: "Ed nut bueno. Me gusta español. :)" CwcvilleGuardian: "I would enjoy seeing more of Jackie; she must have come from a background similar to Jerry, plus, she is a strong character and woman." CwcvilleGuardian: "Zac's head is from 8358, 2003 Off-Roader." CwcvilleGuardian: "Sheesh with the marathons; Bring On Season 3 of the Ponies already, Please!" CwcvilleGuardian: "I'll believe it to be true when the full episode is okay with all of the people, and it is aired in full on the Hub or MLPFIM DVD." CwcvilleGuardian: "Make PS3 Versions NOW!!!" CwcvilleGuardian: "Google 'rock band 3 custom songs ps3'; there are apps for that conversion." CwcvilleGuardian: "Give me a reason to pop back in RB3; I never play HeXBox." CwcvilleGuardian: "I've just reached my 200 Dollar Mark on Extra Life." CwcvilleGuardian (27 November 2013): How about EVERY Pok'emon? Wireless Link to X or Y, upload your BOXES, pick your favorite ones (LEVEL 100s!!!), move their attack set to button combos, and BAM! Sky Uppercut gets immediately countered with Seismic Toss. CwcvilleGuardian (20 April 2014): I would really like to see a battle between MLP's Discord and Seuss' The Grinch. Would Discord instill joy into the Grinch, or would the Grinch grinch Discord? I would watch that over and over. CwcvilleGuardian (30 October 2015): First time watching this video, and I am astounded. I find it ironic that recently, I Actually made an Amiibo with what I consider a face for Autism, then find this video stating that the game may be Autistic too. Autism to be beaten in Smash Bros. I think it is neat. https://www.etsy.com/listing/251029697/custom-mii-amiibo-figure?ref=shop_home_active_11 Main article: Subliminal Frequency Hypnosis CwcvilleGuardian (28 September 2016): That skit works. LOL I'm surprised you haven't done something similar with new Powermaster Optimus Prime, US, since the face under the samurai helmet of his can now be revealed as Orion Pax's face. "Samurai Head". CwcvilleGuardian (28 September 2016): Have you tried putting the helmet onto Nucleon, the Titan Master of Galvatron; see if it fits and make Galvatron reverted to Buckethead? CwcvilleGuardian (31 October 2016): Funny! And True! Trump Would HURT America overkill. Vote Hillary for Smarter and Better, not to mention tax the wealthy and fill the middle and lower class, and everyone else's, pockets. CwcvilleGuardian (9 December 2016): Skylanders should be an Honorable Mention on this list. CwcvilleGuardian (3 August 2018): I watched the video, I appreciate what you were going with, and you came up with fair to good designs for a Sonichu and a Rosechu design.Forget teddy bears. One baby girl has found the ultimate snuggle buddy: Boo the husky dog. Troy Slezak from Huntington Beach, California, filmed his seven-month-old daughter Stella playing with the giant pooch on the living room floor at home. Footage shows the duo rolling around together and even stopping for nose rubs. Best of friends: Troy Slezak from Huntington Beach, California, filmed his seven-month-old daughter Stella playing with the giant pooch on the living room floor at home At one point Stella places one hand by Boo's mouth. But the friendly dog doesn't bite and calmly gives the tot a loving lick back. She even gives Stella a lick on the lips before the two lay down side-by-side. Smiles all around: Footage shows the duo rolling around together and even stopping for nose rubs Caution: At one point Stella places one hand by Boo's mouth - but the friendly dog doesn't bite and calmly gives the tot a loving lick back Personality change: Slezak says the canine is usually'very hyper' but as soon as she sees Stella she is 'calm and careful' Even when her tummy, paws and ears are prodded, Boo the dog remains tranquil. Slezak says the canine is usually'very hyper' but as soon as she sees Stella she is 'calm' and 'careful'. Another video uploaded to YouTube shows the pet and baby up to similar antics. Slezak's Facebook page also features photographs of his two favorite ladies. On a roll: Another video uploaded to YouTube shows the pet and baby up to similar anticsEver since Uber launched to enable users to hail a ride with a mobile app, any number of on-demand and same-day delivery services have emerged. In most cases, those companies end up building out their own logistics infrastructure and hiring their own delivery drivers. But why keep reinventing the wheel if the delivery and routing part of the service isn’t a part of your core competency? That’s the thinking behind Y Combinator-backed Rickshaw, which hopes to enable companies to outsource the logistics layer of the local delivery process in a way that will make same day pickups and drop-offs more efficient for all. Rickshaw was founded by Divya Bhat and Gautam Jayaraman, two MIT grads who have backgrounds in operations research and computer science. They began building Rickshaw, Bhat says, after she considered working on a startup that would require a fleet for deliveries. Rather than building such a fleet just for their own usage, or reaching out to others to rent capacity on their delivery fleets, the Rickshaw founders thought it made more sense for to work on solving the delivery problem for a bunch of different companies. Launched in private beta last summer, Rickshaw has spent the past several months working with a hand-picked group of partners to help them solve their same-day delivery needs. Rickshaw doesn’t do the type of on-demand deliveries you might expect from a company like Postmates or DoorDash, but it handles same-day and next-day pickups and dropoffs for partners. The goal was to create economies of scale by batching deliveries in a way that would group them together based on location. Partners provide delivery details either via spreadshseet, API, or web forms ahead of time, enabling Rickshaw to and route intelligently and heavily increase the number of deliveries that can be made per hour. It narrows delivery windows down to two hours, enabling partners to offer the convenience of a relatively limited window while also providing flexibility in routes for its drivers. Because Rickshaw knows how much volume it can expect on any given day, it provides steady work and guaranteed income for drivers. Its delivery app also works out the best way to navigate deliveries for them. That’s in contrast to a lot of other delivery or on-demand driving gigs out there, where the volume of work and amount they get paid can vary heavily depending on user demand. Until now, Rickshaw has been mostly handpicking partners to work with, but it hopes to open up the floodgates and get other partners on board. “We want to let them preserve their brand, and let customers go to their brand. We let the businesses do their marketing and control the customer experience,” Bhat told me. As more and more businesses want to enable local deliveries without doing it themselves, Rickshaw could provide one new way for them to reach their customers.A robot sitting all alone in a laboratory has been given some mechanized blocks to play with. A passerby would assume the robot was constructing them like a machine from a factory assembly line. The reality is much more curious: The robot is actually learning with each iteration. As each generation comes and goes, the mini-robots it creates also evolve. This isn't science fiction – the research was conducted recently at the University of Cambridge. You can read more about it and inspect some of the more and less successful robot designs in PLoS One. The experimental setup is simple: The robot arm is provided with a selection of blocks that contain a small motor that it can glue together however it sees fit. The little creation can then spring to life and attempt to scuttle across the surface of a table. The robot "mother" observes its progress with a watchful camera-eye, gauging its fitness by how far the robo-child travels within a certain timeframe. The "baby robot" will eventually run out of power, and it's the robot arm's duty to look, learn and adapt so that the next one it builds travels a little further than the last. It dutifully repeats this process without any human intervention. As each generation progresses, the preferential traits are passed on. The fittest baby-bots were kept unchanged into the next generation, while mutations and alterations were introduced in the less fit ones. When watching the video, there is definitely something a little uncomfortable, a little removed from humanity, about the way the robot arm watches stoically while its creation writhes around on the table. There is little doubt that this robot arm improved its designs over time. The researchers performed five experiments that each contained 10 generations. For every generation, there were 10 baby robots (for a total of 100 per experiment). The generation 10 robots had an average speed that was more than twice the average speed of the generation one robots. “Natural selection is basically reproduction, assessment, reproduction, assessment and so on,” explained lead researcher Dr. Fumiya Iida from the University of Cambridge. “That’s essentially what this robot is doing – we can actually watch the improvement and diversification of the species.” Even though there was no DNA involved, this project still has some relevance to evolution. “One of the big questions in biology is how intelligence came about – we’re using robotics to explore this mystery,” said Iida. “We think of robots as performing repetitive tasks, and they’re typically designed for mass production instead of mass customization, but we want to see robots that are capable of innovation and creativity.” This obviously doesn't spell the beginning of the robopocalypse, but robots with a flair for creativity and the ability to improve their fellow robots can feel a little unnerving. However, this artistic license could open a new world of ingenuity in many fields. Robots could be the next stage of quality control, detecting as well as fixing errors in products. They could even be used in the design process, creating amalgamations of parts we can't even imagine. You can watch a clip of the robot creating and testing its handiwork below.Farewell to DirectX? The Xbox 360's Xenos GPU has a less then a tenth of the processing power of a top-end PC GPU, so why don't PC games look ten times better? AMD's head of GPU developer relations, Richard Huddy, says games developers are asking AMD to'make the API go away' Despite what delusional forum chimps might tell you, we all know that the graphics hardware inside today's consoles looks like a meek albino gerbil compared with the healthy tiger you can get in a PC. Compare the GeForce GTX 580's count of 512 stream processors with the weedy 48 units found in the Xbox 360's Xenos GPU, not to mention the ageing GeForce 7-series architecture found inside the PS3.It seems pretty amazing, then, that while PC games often look better than their console equivalents, they still don't beat console graphics into the ground. A part of this is undoubtedly down to the fact that many games are primarily developed for consoles and then ported over to the PC. However, according to AMD, this could potentially change if PC games developers were able to program PC hardware directly at a low-level, rather than having to go through an API, such as DirectX.says AMD's worldwide developer relations manager of its GPU division, Richard Huddy.Huddy says that one of the most common requests he gets from game developers is:Of course, there are many definite pros to using a standard 3D API. It's likely that your game will run on a wide range of hardware, and you'll get easy access to the latest shader technologies without having to muck around with scary low-level code. However, the performance overhead of DirectX, particularly on the PC architecture, is apparently becoming a frustrating concern for games developers speaking to AMD.says Huddy,Hold on, you might be thinking, weren't shaders supposed to enable developers to be more innovative with their graphics anyway? Indeed they were, and the ability to run programs directly on the graphics hardware certainly enables some flexibility, particularly once we got past the fixed-function shaders of DirectX 8. However, with the exception of a few quirky-looking indie titles, there's no denying that many PC games look very much like one another.says Huddy,Why is the REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA registered as a corporation with the Securities Exchange Commission in the USA? When a friend told me that it was, I told them that I didn’t believe them but he told me to Google REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA CIK#: 0000932419. I did and sure enough there it was, a company registered in that name. I sent several e mails to the South African Treasury Department and got no response from them. I wanted to alert them that besides copyright infringements, there may be a corporation out there masquerading as representing the Republic of South Africa. It raised a lot of questions for me. Why would the Securities Exchange Commission register a company in the name of a sovereign country? Who are the shareholders of this corporation? Who are their representatives? It boggles the mind that there is a corporation out there trading in the name of the REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA CIK#: 0000932419. There is a opportunity for widespread corruption and fraud if their representatives are not legitimate.What we talk about when we talk about Pussy Riot has changed, dramatically, in the years since the group first appeared in mainstream U.S. news in 2012. Back then, three members wound up on trial for an act in which they performed the song “Punk Prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, leading to their arrest and charges including “hooliganism.” Up until that point, “Pussy Riot” had remained an anonymous, masked collective, largely focused on radical feminism and using music mostly as an easy means to quickly get a message across. They weren’t really a band, proper, despite how media interpreted their artistic output. Advertisement In the ensuing years, what Americans refer to as “Pussy Riot” has really become the pair of Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova (they even appeared at Fusion’s own Rise Up event last year). And while Pussy Riot was more of a radical art collective before, Alekihina and Tolokonnikova, usually billed under the group’s name, are increasingly doing band-like things together. That’s included appearing at mostly band-populated festivals and now, releasing their first English-language song and music video, “I Can’t Breathe.” Yep, it’s intended to come across in solidarity with Eric Garner, down to imagery of a pack of cigarettes lying on a fresh grave. Advertisement And here’s where we veer into questions over what is appropriate in the act of being an ally. “I Can’t Breathe” certainly intends to come across as a message of solidarity, but it falls short of amplifying the stories of Garner and others like him. Instead, it appears to uncomfortably shift the narrative back onto Alekhina and Tolokonnikova’s own experiences. “We’ve known, on our own skin, what police brutality feels like and we can’t be silent on this issue,” they told Buzzfeed. Advertisement “Illegal violence in the name of the state kills not only its victims, but those who are chosen to carry out these actions,” the group also told Buzzfeed. And indeed, Alekhina and Tolokonnikova have experienced police brutality in their home country — but, to put it bluntly, their experiences just don’t correlate with Garner’s and his peers. Despite their own struggles, it is near impossible for the pair to fully understand the experience of a person of color confronting, daily, systemic racism and policing in the U.S. The song “I Can’t Breathe” brings up important food for thought. Is the celebrity of Alekhina and Tolokonnikova eclipsing the original message of Pussy Riot, the anonymous, radical collective? When someone does reach that level of celebrity, how should they best use their platform to amplify stories of those without that platform? Where do we wind up on a social action road paved with good intentions but marred with missteps in execution? What do you think? Check out the song below. Arielle Castillo is Fusion's culture editor, reporting on arts, music, culture, and subcultures from the streets on up. She's also a connoisseur of weird Florida, weightlifting, and cats.Pokémon Answer Word #44 Grass/Poison Frown #53 Normal From old Iran #65 Psychic Magic word #72 Water/Poison Feeler #75 Rock/Ground Poser #76 Rock/Ground Clay man #82 Electric/Steel Bohr, nuclear, Parson or Weiss #83 Normal/Flying Unlikely #86 Water Pinniped #89 Poison Dirt #91 Water/Ice Monastery #92 Ghost/Poison Frightful #93 Ghost/Poison One who spooks #95 Rock/Ground Banded mineral #96 Psychic Half asleep #97 Psychic 'Sleep' prefix #98 Water Grouchy #101 Electric Anode or cathode #102 Grass/Psychic Carry out #103 Grass/Psychic One who carries out #109 Poison Whooping #110 Poison Breathing hard #113 Normal Hazardous #119 Water Questing #123 Bug/Flying Mower #124 Ice/Psychic Hoodoo #126 Fire Former of igneous rock #127 Bug Hinged claws #128 Normal Between Aries and Gemini Pokémon Answer Word #132 Normal Copy #140 Rock/Water Japanese helmet #151 Psychic Miaow #153 Grass Laurel #171 Water/Electric Light source #182 Grass Fruit tree flower #191 Grass Underwater #201 Psychic Strange #213 Bug/Rock Chortle #281 Psychic More wavy #289 Normal Loosening #300 Normal Moorhen #316 Poison Swallowin' #317 Poison Sink-hole #443 Dragon/Ground Prussian carp #492 Grass Embarrasin' #520 Normal/Flying Peaceful #525 Rock Water-worn stone #532 Fighting Wood for building #533 Fighting Support beam #538 Fighting Hurl #539 Fighting Whack #546 Grass Fluffy #558 Bug/Rock Related to the planet's surface #559 Dark/Fighting Thin #599 Steel Prison #600 Steel Sound of a bell #632 Bug/Steel Current #633 Dark/Dragon Short for prehistoric reptilesThe NCAA tournament field is set, and Yahoo's Tourney Pick 'Em has teamed with Quicken Loans for the first Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge. Chris Paul, Paul George, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony are participating in the Celebrity Bracket Challenge and are submitting their own picks where users can join their individual bracket pools. Paul, George, Bosh and Anthony talked recently with Yahoo Sports about their strategy for NCAA tourney pools and how they would spend $1 billion. If you won the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge with a perfect bracket, what would you do with the money? Paul George: "Of course I'm retiring. I'm going to try to own the Pacers and run [Pacers president] Larry [Bird] up out of his spot. Yeah man, I'm retiring for sure. That's a lot of money to sit on. Of course, I'm going to invest it right and make sure my money works for me, but I'm definitely leaving the game at that point and resting up early." Scroll to continue with content Ad Chris Paul: "Me and my wife actually have joked about it, and even guys in our league talk about, 'If you were to win the lottery, what would you change?' A lot of people say that the first thing they'd do is quit their job. That's not what I would do. I love my job. I'm getting a chance to live my dream now. What I'd actually have happen is my family and people around me, a lot of their lives would change. I'd really get an opportunity to do some of the things in philanthropy that I've always wanted to do. I get to do a lot of different things now, but obviously I'd get to do a lot more." Story continues Chris Bosh: "I'd spend it, give away some to charity and take care of the people I need to take care of. And then I'd go on the best vacation the world has ever seen. I would continue to play. I wouldn't have anything else to do. I love basketball. We all played this game since we were little and we did it for free. I'd continue to play this game for sure." Carmelo Anthony: "I might still want to play just to be playing. I'm going to have the money. But to still be able to do what you do and still have fun doing what you do and still know you got a billion sitting in the bank, that would make life just that much easier." 'Melo, you wouldn't use the $1 billion to buy the New York Knicks? Carmelo Anthony: "Yeah, I am going to need some more investors if I want to try to buy the Knicks." [Sign up for the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge] What advice can you give to someone filling out a bracket? Chris Paul: "You should always do one bracket with your heart. Then you do one bracket with logic. But with this, the billion-dollar bracket, you better do one bracket with logic. If you go with your heart, you're wasting your time." Chris Bosh: "Don't think too much. The more thought, the more kind reasoning you do with yourself about why this team can win. Anything can happen in one game. It makes it really, really difficult to figure out what is going on. I'd say keep your emotions out of it. Just kind of pick at random." Paul George: "You got to watch college basketball. It's different in the NBA guessing who is going to win a game, but in college it's much more strategic. You got to sit down and watch to know who is going to beat who and what matchup is going to be the better matchup or what playing style is going to be better than another playing style. You really have to be a fan of college basketball to be successful in [tournament pools]." Carmelo Anthony: "You have to know which team is which, how the team has been playing throughout the season. Injuries come into play. And you also have to have luck on your side as well." Who is your pick to win the tournament? Paul George: "I'm going to try to get some brownie points for the summer. I am going to roll with Coach K [Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who also coaches USA Basketball's national team]. They got a proven player in Jabari Parker and they have a good system. Coach K always does well in tournament time. It's tough to go against a great coach. Whether they win it or not, Duke often makes it to the very end. It's about limiting minor mistakes. I think Duke has a chance this year." Chris Paul: "I can't tell you that. I can't tell you that. I still got a few things to analyze. There are a billion dollars to talk about here. But I really like Louisville right now because I really like the kid Russ Smith and I like UConn because I'm a big Shabazz Napier fan. You have to have great guard play in the tournament." Chris Bosh: "I'm in the same boat. I don't even know how I'm going to pick this bracket. I'm trying to watch a few of the championship games. I'm still trying to check out who's doing well, who's doing what. You have to be playing well at the right time. That has a big thing to do with it." Carmelo Anthony: "That's a no-brainer. That's a rhetorical question." [He's picking Syracuse.] OK, 'Melo, if you had $1 billion on the line, and you had to choose between your alma mater, Syracuse, and top-ranked Florida, what would you do? Carmelo Anthony: "I'm not going with Florida over Syracuse for a billion. I'm sticking with my boys." Who is your sleeper team? Carmelo Anthony: "Wichita State got a good thing going right now … especially coming off the regular season they had." Paul George: "I don't think there is a sleeper team. But my second option would be Arizona. I'm going to go with the Wildcats as my second option. They got a little bit of everything. They got playmakers. They got scorers. They got guys who make a big impact on both sides of the floor. Nick Johnson and the big kid [Aaron Gordon], the Blake Griffin Jr. I think they got a little bit of everything that will separate them in tournament time." What are you favorite memories of playing in the NCAA tournament? Chris Paul: "There was nothing like it. When we won those first two games my freshman year, you can't wait to get back to class. Everyone is happy. Everybody is rooting for you. You get to miss a couple of days of class so you can go to wherever the next city is early. It's just fun. You know everyone is paying attention. The energy is crazy. I remember a lot of things from my NBA career and I love it, but my sophomore year we were supposed to win an NCAA championship [and lost in the second round]. Believe it or not, it still haunts me." Carmelo Anthony: "Just the preparation that it took. You don't really have that much time to prepare for a team because it's one-and-done. The first two games you play every other day. Then you go back to school for a couple days and try to figure out who you are going to play next. Just the whole run that we had playing against the top seeds. We were the third seed going into the tournament. We lost in the Big East tournament, and at the end of regular season we weren't ranked high. But all the pieces fell into place at the right time for us [to win the 2003 tournament]." 'Melo, how often do people bring up your championship run at Syracuse? Carmelo Anthony: "Everywhere you go. It seems like Syracuse fans and alumni are everywhere. Everywhere you go that kind of is the only thing they want to talk about, that championship run we had there. When I go back to Syracuse, it always feels like it just happened. It's hard to believe that it was 11 years ago. …I was blessed to win two gold medals, but winning the NCAA Tournament, there is no better feeling than that." Chris Bosh's and Paul George's teams at Georgia Tech and Fresno State didn't make the NCAA tournament during their time at college. Chris Bosh: "That is one dream I never got to live. I feel left out. In the [NBA] locker room there is always bragging rights about your school, who is playing where and what is going to happen. Guys kind of reflect on their NCAA runs. When you got [Heat teammates] like Shane Battier and Udonis Haslem, they both went to the Final Four a couple of times. That's a bittersweet thing. I never got to see what all the fuss about. I made the right decision. But that is something that still haunts me today." Paul George: "It really, really bothers me. It's the main reason why you want to go to college and play to get a chance to go up against the top guys and represent for your school. That was one of my biggest goals and something I wish I could've done." Who is the top NBA prospect in college basketball right now? Chris Bosh: "I'm going with the big kid out of Kansas [Joel Embiid]. He's the best prospect. I think him and Jabari Parker. [Embiid's] a big [man], and you always need a big to give you something to build in the league. He's agile, he can block shots and he can rebound. He has a nice touch down low and he can play down there. You can tell when guys are talented. He's pretty good. I just like what a team would be able to do with him." Chris Paul: "For me, it's easy. It's Jabari Parker. I have an AAU team. I get a chance to see these kids when they're 14 and 15 years old. I'm at the Peach Jam. And Jabari, if you could still go to the NBA out of high school, I feel like he would've went. He's talented. He's ready for the next level." Paul George: "My No. 1 pick would probably be Jabari Parker. He is the most polished college player right now, as well as one of the top players with the most upside. It's going to be a win-win for him in the future when he first steps into the league. I like his game. I'm a big fan of Jabari." Carmelo Anthony: "I'm a big Jabari fan, but it also depends on who has the pick at the No. 1 spot. But as far as being ready-ready, I think Jabari is ready. I think the big kid from Kansas [Joel Embiid] has some upside and [Kansas' Andrew] Wiggins has some potential. But as far as being ready to come in and step right in and kind of make an impact, I'd have to go with Jabari, too, especially because of the way he plays. He can play multiple positions. He can put the ball on the floor. He can score. He is in that Duke system, so he has some savvy with him." Which of your current NBA teammates will have the best bracket in an NCAA pool? Chris Paul: "Obviously, me. If not me, Jared Dudley might have a chance, Jamal Crawford. Maybe Blake [Griffin] because he is just lucky like that. Jamal and Jared Dudley follow college basketball a lot like I do." Chris Bosh: "I would probably say Shane Battier because he watches college basketball like a hawk the whole season. He's into numbers and all that stuff. He can probably give you reasons why a team would win a few games. He can definitely give you reasons why each team can win." Carmelo Anthony: "I got to pick somebody who really watches college basketball. Tim Hardaway [Jr.] is fresh out of college. He knows all the players. He knows all the teams. He might come close. He is still kind of in the college mode right now." Paul George: "I'm going to go with David West. D-West has a pretty good knowledge of the game of basketball. I think he would have a good bracket."NEW DELHI: India and the US will ink their new 10-year defence framework on Wednesday to chart out the road ahead for further expansion in bilateral defence ties, ranging from collaboration in maritime security, joint exercises and intelligence-sharing to co-development and co-production of military technologies.The framework will be inked in meeting between defence minister Manohar Parrikar and his visiting US counterpart Ashton Carter on Wednesday evening.Carter is also slated to meet PM Narendra Modi, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and national security advisor Ajit Doval earlier on that day after he arrives in New Delhi from a visit to the Eastern Naval Command in Vizag. But the long-pending deals for 22 Apache attack and 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, together worth around $2.5 billion, will take some more time to be actually signed.With the slow process of approvals in the finance ministry, the helicopter-manufacturer Boeing has now extended the validity of its bids to June 30. As for the new framework to replace the earlier one inked in 2005, it was finalized during the visit of President Barack Obama to India in January.A key new element in it is the incorporation of the " Defence Trade and Technology Initiative " (DTTI), which involves co-development and co-production of military technologies ranging from aircraft carrier launch systems to mini spy drones, as reported by TOI earlier. Carter, incidentally, had spearheaded the entire DTTI mechanism when he was earlier serving as the deputy secretary of defence at Pentagon.Under it, India and the US have agreed to begin with four relatively modest “pathfinder projects” as well as explore development of aircraft carrier technologies and jet engines. The pathfinder products are the Raven mini unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), “roll-on, roll-off” mission modules for C-
in his crimes anyway, right? After Seymour leaves, we go to talk with Stella but can’t enter her home unless we’re first invited in—a classic bit of vampire folklore that's also a clever subversion of that dumb RPG trope where everyone’s house is basically public property. Yet again, Jonathan makes use of his vampire persuasion to trick her into welcoming us into her home. Using all the information we know about Seymour, we confront Stella to learn her side of the story. It turns out Stella is just a coward. She knows her son is a monster but also can’t bear the thought of turning him in. It’s a somewhat sympathetic struggle, but then we analyze her blood quality and realize that she is basically a human-sized bag of delicious experience points. Oh well. After luring her into a private area and sucking her dry, Jonathan needs to rest in order to level up and assign his newly siphoned experience points into his various skill trees. After waking up, we head back to the docks to see the impact Stella’s death had on the district. We find it abandoned and in quite a state of disarray. Seymour has taken ownership of the property and doesn’t appear to be handling his mother’s death all that well. What’s more, we find Rufus, the orphan, squatting in a ditch. Now that Stella is dead, Seymour has abandoned him to the streets. He’ll probably die soon. The district itself has taken a small hit to its overall health too and Moreau tells us we’ll feel a subtle change when dealing with the other residents of the docks that’ll grow more apparent if we continue to feed on people. This has been the best insight into Vampyr’s web of quests I’ve seen to date, but it’s still not enough to get a sense of the broader repercussions. What I saw was awesome, but it was also on a small scale. In order for Vampyr to really succeed, it needs to weave those smaller stories both into the larger narrative of each district as well as Jonathan’s own personal arc. Dontnod is tackling a massive obstacle, as RPGs frequently falter when trying to account for every tiny decision we make during their story. Whether or not Stella’s death is just a superficial change to the environment or a deeply impactful change to the district remains to be seen.The historic drought that has persisted for upwards of four years now in the United States' west coast has had a major impact on everything from water supplies to agriculture to fisheries. But in one town in Oregon, the resulting historic low water levels have dredged up history: the remains of a town that was abandoned and sunk beneath a reservoir more than 60 years ago. Related Content An Underwater Museum in Egypt Could Bring Thousands of Sunken Relics Into View Back in 1953, the 200 residents of the tiny town of Old Detroit deserted their homes after Congress approved a nearby dam, which, when finished, would flood the area to create the reservoir now known as the Detroit Lake. Ever since, when the lake’s water level fell, remnants of the town would sometimes rise out of the water. With the lake's water level at a record low this year, when a local sheriff’s deputy drove past the lake in late October to take a look, he discovered the perfectly preserved remains of a 19th century wagon, half-sunk in the mud. “I went on a treasure hunt down along the river, figuring I’d find foundations or something like that,” Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Zahn tells Christena Brooks for the Statesman Journal. “Then I saw a piece of old history right there.” The lack of snowfall last winter caused Detroit Lake’s water levels to drop to the lowest they've been in almost 50 years, approximately 143 feet below capacity. When Zahn decided to poke around in the newly dry lake bed, he discovered the utility wagon alongside an octagonal pit lined with cement that experts still haven’t identified, Brooks reports. “As far as I know, the wagon’s never been seen until this year,” U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Cara Kelly tells Brooks. “This might not have been its original resting place...It could’ve come from anywhere in the town of Detroit or even up the drainage.” While Zahn first spotted the wagon on October 29, he and Kelly decided to keep its location a secret, so as not to attract potential looters and vandals. According to a metal plate attached to the wagon as seen in some of Zahn’s photographs, the wagon was made in 1875 by the Milburn Wagon Company of Toledo, Ohio, which was one of the country’s largest manufacturers of wagons at the time. As Brooks reports, the lake bottom’s low oxygen levels almost perfectly preserved the wagon – ironically, its brief stint on land probably damaged it more than all the decades it spent underwater. Old Detroit isn’t the only town briefly revealed by a historic drought: that same month, a drought in the Mexican state of Chiapas uncovered the ruins of a 450-year-old church. The “Temple of Quechula,” as it is known, was originally built by Dominican monks near a conquistador highway, but was abandoned in the 18th century after a series of plagues struck the region. This year, lake levels dropped so low that locals were able to take tourists out to see the ruins. Even though Oregon’s drought may have uncovered a reminder of Detroit’s history, this year’s dry weather had such a bad effect on the town that Zahn hopes his once-in-a-lifetime experience stays that way. “Hopefully it will be another 40 years before Detroit’s this low again,” Zahn tells Brooks.When we rebuilt the house one thing we decided to add was a small greenhouse. We picked a spot with great sun exposure and a convenient pre-existing wall and built a small glass and granite building. The same architect that designed the house remodel gave it some nice touches too. We added a metal table with automatic watering above it on the taller side, which is where we do most of our reproduction work and left the smaller side for mostly potted plants. In the middle we built a wood walkway between the two doors. The last change we've done is to add some benches to the smaller side and extend the watering system to that side as well. We've been extremely successful at doing all sorts of reproductions using this greenhouse. For example we start all our tomatoes from seed we collect from the previous year's production (that's only possible because we use heirloom varieties from the The Real Seed Catalogue and not the usual hybrids). Last season we had a tomato plant grow out of the ground by chance. We let it ride and it fruited well past the normal season (we ate the last tomatoes in January). After that much success we decided to start planting some tomato plants on the greenhouse ground to get a small but out-of-season crop. We used the low side of the greenhouse and added a watering line on the ground as tomato plants supposedly don't like to be watered from above. That also went well but it was always a small crop. That eventually made us want a much bigger greenhouse to have much more actual production instead of nursery... After shopping around quite a bit we found a local supplier that would build a 14 by 4 meter poly tunnel for a very reasonable price. We decided to set it on the edge of our forest garden in a spot with good sun exposure and that also helped with bringing some immediate wind cover to a somewhat exposed part of the field. The construction was all done in a single day last summer. The builders brought most of the structure pre-built with them and the day's work was mostly assembly. It started early in the morning with the setting of the posts. This was done extremely quickly with a gasoline powered drill. They were pre-prepared metal posts with a cylindrical concrete base that was buried for stability. After all the posts were level and straight the pre-bent arches where slid into place and bolted on. Once that was done they dug two trenches on either side of the structure. This was done by hand and was by far the most grueling part of the job, especially since the sun was high and hot by then.ADVERTISEMENT Marco Rubio has emerged from 15 Republican presidential primary contests with a single measly victory. It's about time for the establishment to find a new savior. Lindsey Graham has some ideas about that. After stating the obvious — there's no path for Rubio short of dirty deeds if he can't win his home state of Florida on March 15 — Graham let it rip on CBS last night. "You know, Ted Cruz is not my favorite by any means. I don't wish him ill […] but we may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump, and I'm not so sure that would work." Graham is not just testing the waters for a Cruz endorsement in his capacity as one of the beltway media's most beloved and entertaining regulars. He's doing it as a top-shelf surrogate for Jeb Bush — the candidate he endorsed after ending his own presidential campaign — and an unrepentant neoconservative. Even his hypothetical rush to Cruz's side is a body blow to Rubio. No candidate in the race offers as clear and comprehensible a break from the Bush legacy on international relations as Ted Cruz. To be sure, Trump has praised Putin and raged — quite effectively — against the President Bush who blew big bucks on near-disaster in Iraq. On the other hand, Trump has completely ignored his one concrete campaign promise to release a list of foreign policy advisors. Who knows — Trump included — what he has in store? Instead, it is Ted Cruz on the Senate Armed Services Committee, with Graham and that other influential interventionist, John McCain, and Ted Cruz whose dose of foreign policy realism best embodies a studious evolution forward from Ronald Reagan's view of the best offense being a good defense. If the likes of Graham, McCain, and Jeb Bush himself believe they can or must make room for Cruz on foreign affairs, that bespeaks a colossal evacuation of the established party's confidence in Rubio's fight against Trump. Rubio not only embodies the establishment's idea of the perfect Republican voter. He has also swallowed — hook, line, and sinker — an insecure version of neoconservatism, somehow convinced it is the baseline for mainstream Republican candidates. The neocon Jedi Council may have good reason to believe that Rubio is neither up to the task of securing the nomination nor of pursuing a rigorous and judicious brand of statecraft, even with help. The world has been waiting for what I've referred to in the past as a defensive or austere application of fundamental neoconservative principles (freedom good, evildoers bad, politics ugly). Rubio's frantic phraseology — nothing matters if we're not safe! — doesn't rise to that challenge. Cruz, by contrast, could find a way to patiently restore the GOP's identity as the sane party on international affairs while steering Republicans away from the third Bush term at home that Rubio offers. Without question, that's a far cry from Jeb's ideal. But shivving Rubio is still at the top of Bushworld's to-do list, and if they can achieve it to Trump's disadvantage without nuking the party, they can be heroes. Cruz peels away more Trump people than Rubio, after all. And though I wound up as wrong as anyone in suggesting early on that Cruz had the best path to the nomination, I was right to note he was poised to ace out Rubio big time. That dynamic is still at work. Cruz's fundamental strength in this weirdest of seasons pierced the veil of confusion last night. He's the best bet to beat Trump, same as he ever was. And for Marco Rubio, that's a heavy albatross to drag home to Florida on primary night.Denis Villeneuve is directing the sci-film that is set in the aftermath of aliens landing on Earth. Michael Stuhlbarg has signed on to star opposite Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in the sci-fi film Story of Your Life. Denis Villeneuve, who helmed the upcoming drug war drama Sicario, is directing. Eric Heisserer wrote the script. Story of Your Life kicks off with aliens landing on Earth. The military then recruits a linguistic expert (Adams) to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat. Stuhlbarg will play the role of Agent Halpern, a CIA agent focusing on international relations relating to the project. The film is being produced by Glen Basner’s FilmNation, David Linde’s Lava Bear Films and 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Levine. Stuhlbarg will next be seen in the Danny Boyle-helmed Steve Jobs biopic Jobs opposite Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet. The Boardwalk Empire alum's credits also include Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine and Martin Scorsese's Hugo. He is repped by ICM Partners and Viking Entertainment.Senior Israeli Cabinet ministers refer to the US-Russia deal on Syria as a strategic failure of the highest level. One minister told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The United States threw Israel under the bus for the second time in a row. The first time was the nuclear agreement with Iran, the second time is now that the United States ignores the fact that Iran is obtaining territorial continuity to the Mediterranean Sea and Israel’s northern border. What is most worrisome is that this time, it was President Donald Trump who threw us to the four winds — though viewed as Israel’s great friend. It turns out that when it comes to actions and not just talk, he didn’t deliver the goods.” Yossi Cohen, the head of the Israeli Mossad, painted a dismal forecast at a meeting of the government Aug. 13. “The region is changing to our detriment,” he told the ministers, noting that Iran has experienced economic growth since the signing of the agreement. According to Cohen, there is a presence in the region not only of Iran and Hezbollah, but also numerous Shiite forces from all over the world that are rushing to the region. This constitutes an expansion trend that must be a cause of concern. On the same evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added fuel to the fire when he said, “I'll give you a summary in one sentence — the Islamic State [IS] is exiting, Iran is coming in. … Our policy is clear: We firmly oppose the military buildup of Iran and its proxies — primarily Hezbollah — in Syria. And we will do whatever it takes to protect Israel's security." While he was talking, a news item was leaked to the media: Netanyahu was promoting a law that would allow him to declare war without authorization of the government or the Cabinet. It is not clear if the Knesset would authorize such a law, but the effect on the region of this publication is crystal clear: An Israeli attack on Iranian or Hezbollah infrastructures in Lebanon or in Syria would mean all-out, open war between the sides. Netanyahu wants to have sole authority to approve such an assault. This is another development in the war of nerves that has been waged in the area for some time. To many international observers, this is reminiscent of Israel’s threat regarding Iranian nuclear activity that led to intensification of the international sanctions imposed on Iran and, ultimately, to the nuclear agreement itself. A high-level Cabinet minister explained on condition of anonymity Israel’s concern. The minister told Al-Monitor, “Ever since the onset of the war in Syria, Hezbollah has become more independent and does not defer automatically to Iranian authority as in the past. This is the direct result of the fact that Hezbollah bore most of the combat burden in Syria, paid the highest blood price and invested its main forces in the struggle. [Iran's Supreme Leader] Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei wants Iranian power on Israel’s border fence and he wants direct Iranian might — without middlemen. In the emerging reality, the [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard Corps will soon have accessibility to environs close to Israel. This has tremendous strategic significance and constitutes a dramatic game changer in the region.” Another minister told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “While Hezbollah does have significant rocket and missile power, most of its capabilities are not precise like those of the Iranians. And precision is the name of the game. Anyone capable of threatening power centers in Israel with precise hits — airports, army bases and strategic targets — will enjoy a real edge in case of war. If the Iranians succeed in attaining a presence in Syria and Lebanon close to Israel’s borders, this means that they directly threaten Israel’s most strategic targets from short range. If we translate this reality into terms used in chess, then I say: They directly threaten our king, while we are far away from their king in Tehran. Israel will not be able to allow such a situation to happen.” Or, as Netanyahu himself said: Israel will do whatever it takes to protect its security. Israel is convinced that Iran fomented the commotion surrounding the metal detector crisis on the Temple Mount in recent weeks. Iran’s goal was to distract Israel and interfere with Israeli efforts to convince the Americans and Russians of the need to distance Iranian influence from Syria and Lebanon, as part of the emerging cease-fire agreement. Israel, for its part, now has embarked on a global public diplomacy blitz on the Iranian threat. Education Minister Naftali Bennett already disseminated a publicity-oriented video clip in English, which explains all the dangers of Iranian expansion in the Middle East. “In essence, Iran is basically establishing a Shiite crescent now that will encompass territorial continuity from the Persian Gulf, via Iraq, Syria and Lebanon,” a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “This is a major Shiite victory that creates a clear and present danger for Israel. The world was horrified by IS, even though the group’s main successes were in creating scary video clips and taking quick control over desert territories. In warding off IS’ tactical dangers, the world is bringing about a strategic failure vis-a-vis the Shiites.” According to Israeli security sources, Iran is transferring Sunni populations from areas being evacuated by IS in Syria, bringing in their stead Shiite populations. The goal is to maintain the territorial continuity that they are trying to create between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. “The Iranians work for the long term with a strategic vision for the future and much patience,” an Israeli intelligence source said on condition of anonymity. “They are unfortunately the only player in the arena today that takes a long-term strategic vision of the future. They are winning big time strategically — at the expense of Israel and of the West that views Iran as a stabilizing force. They [the West] ignore the fact that Iran continues to disseminate terror and revolution in many places in the region.” Against this background, Israel’s disappointment over US policy is increasing. Before the formulation of the cease-fire agreement in southern Syria, three-way meetings were held between Israel and the United States and Russia. Israel transmitted all its demands and worries, backed up by intelligence materials. But at the end of the day, the actual agreement being drawn up does not at all deal with Iranian involvement or penetration. “When we talk with the Russians,” said a high-level Israeli source on condition of anonymity, “they don't understand what we want from them. As far as they are concerned, Iran is a stabilizing element in the region. When we note that Iran announces its desire to destroy Israel over and over, they laugh. Don’t take them seriously, they advise us.” However, Israel does not have high expectations from Russia on the subject. With regard to the United States, it is a different story altogether. As of now, the Trump administration is indifferent to the Iranian issue; its main focus is to achieve a prestigious success for the president: victory over IS. “To achieve that,” said a senior Israeli source on condition of anonymity, “They are willing to allow Iran to reach Israel’s front lines. As far as we are concerned, this is simply a disaster.”"Phew! Made it!" Luigi's post-stage cry is a classic example of Nintendo's economical approach to characterisation. While his brother's celebratory "Oh yeah! Mario time!" is the sign of a man enjoying himself, happy to be bounding through these joyously bright, precision-designed worlds, those three words reveal a humble guy just happy to have made it to the goal pole in one piece. Luigi's no hero: he's just bound by duty, tasked with rescuing the Princess while big bro's away. The trouble with Nintendo's first major experiment in downloadable content - it's dabbled before, but this 80-stage remix is easily its most substantial add-on - is that Mario's absence is too keenly felt. Here, Nintendo has taken the original's levels, trimmed them down significantly and made them much tougher: a fine idea in theory, but one which Luigi's presence often seems to undermine. He's meant to feel different to his brother, a little more skittish and difficult to control. That's a problem, though, when you have stages seemingly made for precision speed-running. Sure, the trails of coins might be a perfect match for the parabola of Luigi's leap, but that extra bit of airtime seems counter-intuitive when you're being asked to race to the finish. The best 2D Mario levels have a consistent rhythm; here it feels like the metronome is skipping a beat every fourth bar. It's telling that a post-game unlockable which allows you to switch to Mario's physics makes things more consistently enjoyable. Until then, you're stuck with a green peg in a red hole. If you weren't fond of the ice stages before, Luigi's slippy inertia will have you inventing several new profanities. New Super Luigi U rarely flows like you feel it should. Stages often feel cramped, with little room for spontaneity or improvisation. Many levels simply widen gaps and narrow platforms while upping the enemy count by orders of magnitude. On occasion this makes for an entertaining challenge, but too often it frustrates for the wrong reasons. Frequently, the level design is simply less interesting. The stage that sees you hopping across the backs of Parabeetles, for example, is a pale shadow of the original, distinguishing itself through difficulty alone. Elsewhere, the 100-second time limit sits uneasily with the desire to dig out a level's secrets - surely one of the most enjoyable elements of recent Mario games. The presence of Star Coins, secret exits and a range of Luigi-themed easter eggs (commonly in the form of pixel art) feels jarring in a game that constantly hurries you along. Often the Star Coins are in plain sight, asking you to perform a tricky series of jumps or to backtrack towards an incoming hazard, emerging with your prize with but a few pixels to spare, and these are among the game's most engaging challenges. But that ticking clock is a constant reminder not to dwell too long exploring a stage's most inviting nooks, lest you run out of time trying to haul the final coin to the exit. That wouldn't be nearly so troublesome if it wasn't for the lack of variety: outside of the towers, most levels are simply a left-to-right race to the finish. New Super Luigi U is not lacking in neat touches, and there's a delicious malice in the placement of enemies and hazards on occasion, but outside one or two highlights - a thrilling Banzai Bill chase, Ice Bros turning giant Fuzzies into frozen platforms - where's the invention? Perhaps that time limit leaves little room for genuinely creative stage design. Perhaps the idea is simply to offer a sterner challenge for expert players, and I expect many will welcome that. Even with that in mind, however, the problems remain. The trails of coins that all but tells you when to jump; the faintly patronising applause at collecting a mere handful in a single leap; the propeller and squirrel suit power-ups: these are not elements aimed at the most highly skilled players. The final boss fight is still a cracker, but the relatively straightforward Koopaling encounters feel slightly out of step with the increase in difficulty elsewhere. The presence of the newly playable Nabbit in two-player mode is even more bizarre. Here is a character invulnerable to enemies, introduced into some of the hardest Mario stages since The Lost Levels. If the idea was to make the game easier for youngsters or those less versed in 2D platformers, why bring him in now? It's particularly baffling when you consider the lack of room to manouevre - the final stages barely have enough places for one player to stand, let alone two or three. Price and availability Wii U eShop: £17.99 Will be released as a standalone game on disc on 26th July - only available during 2013 The short, sharp stages make Nintendo's decision to stick with the same game structure feel decidedly obstinate. The likes of Trials and Super Meat Boy - two much harder, but much fairer games - leaven their fierce challenge with instant restarts, alleviating much of the frustration of failure. Here, as ever, you're kicked back to the world map, forced to wait a few seconds before starting all over again. As the difficulty increases towards the end, most players will feel like they're spending as much time outside levels as in them. These levels are designed for repetition, to be learned, understood and finally mastered, but every time you're unceremoniously chucked out of a level, the more you're discouraged from coming back to perfect it. (Oh, and for the record, Nintendo: asking players if they want to post to Miiverse after their fifth f***-up in a row is not conducive to positive appraisals of a level's qualities.) What's most surprising about New Super Luigi U is that Nintendo has already proven it can transform a game through DLC. New Super Mario Bros. 2's downloadable challenge packs made a slightly lacklustre Mario game that much better, offering smart, creative twists on existing ideas. This, by comparison, just feels like an expansion pack, offering shorter, harder levels and nothing else. It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination: the level design is still a cut above so many of Nintendo's peers. But by the series' consistently high standards, it qualifies as a disappointment. "Phew! Made it!" says Luigi, as he dismounts from the goal pole, a shout borne not of triumph or satisfaction, but of relief. The most damning criticism of New Super Luigi U is how often you'll feel the same way.Inmate Michelle-Lael Norsworthy smiles after a parole hearing at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif. She is locked in a legal battle with The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation over her request for sex reassignment surgery. (Photo: Steve Yeater/AP) The Supreme Court will announce whether it has found a fundamental right to same-sex marriage any day now, dramatically altering the course of gay rights history. But a much lower-profile case that is currently wending its way up through the federal courts could offer the Supreme Court an opportunity for another potentially transformative decision on LGBT rights as soon as next year. The case — about whether the California state prison system should be required to pay for an inmate’s sex reassignment surgery — may change public perceptions about medical care for transgender people at a time when Caitlyn Jenner and other high-profile trans people are lending more visibility to the group. The gay rights movement has been breathtakingly successful at changing public perceptions about gay people in the country in only a few decades, in part because of a well-organized legal campaign to win the right to gay marriage. One successful feature of the campaign: sympathetic plaintiffs. But the transgender movement has always lagged a bit behind. One reason is that while most Americans now say they know a gay person, the vast majority does not know a trans person. That is beginning to change, according to polling by advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign. Twenty-two percent of likely voters now say they know a transgender person, a five percentage point jump from even just one year earlier. And that’s already affecting public perceptions: 44 percent said in January that they viewed trans people favorably, compared to just 26 percent in 2011. A big Supreme Court case could do a lot to boost those numbers by bringing even more awareness of transgender people. The law on transgender issues is something of a Wild West — very few states make clear that the government will recognize a person’s post-transition gender, for example, and some states have explicitly passed laws refusing to acknowledge a trans resident’s gender, even after sex reassignment surgeries. The Supreme Court has declined to wade into case after case affecting transgender people — including job discrimination cases. But this could all change soon. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Court will hear arguments in a case centering around Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, a 51-year-old who is serving time for second-degree murder at Mule Creek State Prison near Sacramento. She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria — the condition of feeling significant discomfort with the gender you were born as — and began taking female hormones in 2000. A physician assigned to her by the prison recommended Norsworthy for sex reassignment surgery, saying that the hormones and therapy were not enough to treat her gender dysphoria. Taking hormones long term could also lead to complications, because Norsworthy has hepatitis C, the physician said. Removing her male genitals would stop the production of male hormones and make taking female hormones unnecessary. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation denied Norsworthy’s claim, arguing that giving her expensive sex reassignment surgery would present security concerns. Male inmates might be more likely to assault her if she stayed in the men’s prison. (Norsworthy has already been raped six times while in prison, according to her lawyers, including a gang rape in 2009 during which she contracted hepatitis C.) Norsworthy sued, saying the prison violated her right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment by denying her the surgery. The prison countered that hormones and therapy are adequate treatment for gender dysphoria, and that failure to provide surgery does not amount to deliberately ignoring her suffering. A lower federal court sided with Norsworthy earlier this year and demanded the prison provide her with the surgery immediately. But the 9th Circuit has temporarily stayed that decision for now, pending its review of the case.The appeals court will hear arguments from both sides on Aug. 13. If the liberal-leaning court sides with Norsworthy, the Supreme Court may be forced to take up the case next year. That’s because a different appeals court, the 1st Circuit, ruled against a Massachusetts inmate’s claim for a sex reassignment surgery earlier this year. However, that inmate, Michelle Kosilek, did not have a condition that made taking female hormones dangerous, which makes Norsworthy’s claim potentially stronger. A split in the appeals courts — where one says sex reassignment surgery is necessary care that prisons must provide and the other says it’s not — may lead the Supreme Court to step in and sort out the conflict.Four NATO ships entered the Black Sea today in a regularly scheduled deployment to enhance NATO solidarity and readiness in the region. The ships are from the Standing NATO Mine Counter-Measures Group TWO (SNMCMG2), one of four NATO fleets that operate on a rotational basis. The NATO commander leading the formation is Captain Giovanni Piegaja of the Italian Navy. His flagship is an Italian Navy frigate, the ITS AVIERE, which is accompanied by the ITS RIMINI, also of the Italian Navy, the TCG AKÇAY of the Turkish Navy and the HMS CHIDDINGFOLD of the Royal Navy (UK). SNMCMG2’s deployment to the Black Sea will include a visit to the port of Burgas, in Bulgaria on 4 July and participation in the Bulgarian Navy led Exercise BREEZE. Later in July the NATO ships will visit Romania, where additional collective training has been organized.The Indian-American community in the US has launched a White House petition to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, days after a bill in this regard was tabled in the US Congress by two powerful lawmakers. "This petition is important to the people of United States of America, India and many other countries which are continuously affected by Pakistan sponsored terrorism," the petition started on Tuesday said. It requires at least 1,00,000 signatures to qualify for a response from the Obama Administration. An initiative of US President Barack Obama, "We the People", the online petition service at the White House website provides a window to American citizens to campaign before the administration on a particular issue. The move comes after Congressman Ted Poe, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, along with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, introduced H R 6069, the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act in the House of Representatives. The bill has been sent to House Foreign Affairs Committee for necessary action. Simultaneously the US India Political Action Committee on Saturday launched a nationwide effort to canvass Indian Americans to get their local legislators' support to HR 6069. "It is time we stop paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is, a state sponsor of terrorism," Congressman Ted Poe said after introducing the bill in the US House of Representatives. "Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of the United States for years.From harboring Osama bin Laden to its cozy relationship with the Haqqani network, there is more than enough evidence to determine whose side Pakistan is on in the War on Terror. And it's not America's," Poe claimed. If passed, the bill will require the US President to issue a report within 90 days of passage detailing whether or not Pakistan has provided support for international terrorism, he said. "Thirty days after that, the Secretary of State must issue a follow-up report containing either a determination that Pakistan is state sponsor of terrorism or a detailed justification as to why Pakistan does not meet the legal criteria for designation," he added. Calling it a untrustworthy ally of America, Poe said for years Pakistan has been aiding and abetting the enemies of the US. "These are not enemies who simply profess to hate us.These are groups and individuals with American blood on their hands," he said in his speech on the House floor. In his remarks in the House, Congressman George Holding said, "Mr Speaker, we must be honest about the evolving terror threat in front of us and confront this challenge with strong leadership and unwavering resolve".LEGO animals have invaded the Bronx Zoo in New York, taking up residence outside the enclosures of their real-life counterparts. The LEGO animals include a tiger, gorilla, giraffe, flamingoes, and even spray toads and fish. The purpose of the project is to engage and educate children (and lets be honest, adults too) about conservation. In addition to grabbing the attention of zoo-goers, each LEGO animal is accompanied by information about the real-life animal it depicts, so the sculptures are both fun and functional. The zoo is also providing LEGO activity stations in a series of classes so that visitors can try their hand at making a LEGO sculpture of their own. However, the activities are only available at certain times, so be sure to check out the zoo’s website before planing a trip. The LEGO animals are on display now and will be at the Bronx Zoo until September 30th. More pictures of the LEGO animals below. (via Bit Rebels)The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 may be over two years of age but it still manages to generate a whole lot of buzz. This phablet is so good that some fans have been called it the best among all of Samsung’s offerings. Well, this could be because the Galaxy Note 4 came with pretty much everything. Usually, a device will get stripped off many enticing features during the development process in bid to save time or cost; but, this did not happen with the Galaxy Note 4. This beloved phablet runs on the fastest processor during its time and sports a stunning QHD display along with a high-quality camera. Samsung’s move in mating the quad-core Snapdragon 805 with 3GB RAM produced one of the most potent devices around. Plus, the Galaxy Note 4 even came equipped with wireless and quick-charging features on top of a fingerprint scanner; this proves that this device was way ahead of its time. If you’re aware, these are typically feature you’d spot on a premium Android device today. Samsung made a device that was ahead of its time. That’s not all – the Galaxy Note 4 also had the S Pen, a stylus that upped the game for the whole Galaxy Note series. The Galaxy Note 4 was also Samsung’s last major device to feature the removable battery feature along with support for microSD card. Considering that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 came with practically everything – plus a little more – do you think that this would guarantee a longer life in the Android arena, even amongst devices like the Pixel duo? We think so; and while the Note 5 and Note 7 have not failed to attract larger flocks of buyers, there are way too many Note 4 owners still sticking to their guns on the device. But therein lies the problem for Samsung – the company needs its customers to move on to newer phones rather than stick to old ones. By being ahead of its time, the Note 4 has actually been affecting Samsung’s bottom line. This is why there hasn’t been a release as disruptive as the 2014 phablet, and why the Note 5 had just been an improvement over its predecessor rather than a considerable overhaul.Tuesday April 22, 2014 BALTIMORE - There was no entourage. Actually, it was just him, one man wearing a camouflage baseball cap and a Carhartt work jacket toting a pretty substantial amount of luggage through the lobby of the hotel on his way to the check-in counter. It was still early in the day on Tuesday, and fight fans had yet to take their autograph and picture hunting positions in the lobby of the hotel ahead of UFC 172. At this point in fight week it was doubtful that anyone gave No. 9 ranked UFC lightweight Jim Miller a second glance as he made his way through the hotel. Once he was spotted by the UFC staff, Miller was led to the conference room the promotion was using for fighter check-in. Miller dropped his bags inside the door, and headed off with site coordinator Burt Watson to get his weight checked. When Miller and Watson returned, the fighter completed his check-in, signed a stack of UFC 172 promotional posters and headed to the hotel room that would be his home for the next several days. That's the thing about fight week; there's a lot of sitting around in a hotel room. Ninety-nine percent of the preparation for the fight is done prior to arriving at the hotel. At the hotel it's eating clean, tracking weight, performing media obligations, getting in some light workouts, hanging out with the fight team (when they arrive) and waiting to fight on Saturday night. Miller has been on this grind for almost ten years, making his professional debut in 2005. After going 11-1 fighting with smaller promotions, he received the call from the UFC in 2008. Miller noted that there is a substantial difference in both fight week and fight preparation between his days on the local circuit and his run with the UFC. Early in his career, Miller spent fight week working as a
unlikely to work a second time round if they fought constantly and were unhappy together, prospects are better for those who had no good reason for breaking up in the first place. So for those who just can’t forget their lost love, the ‘one who got away’ needn’t be gone for good.The Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) said Monday morning that CNN should fire political analyst Roland Martin over comments made on his Twitter page about a Super Bowl ad. In response to the H&M commercial featuring soccer icon David Beckham wearing underwear, Martin wrote on his Twitter page: “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!” GLADD replied back to Martin’s tweet, saying, “@rolandsmartin Advocates of gay bashing have no place at @CNN #SuperBowl #LGBT.” Martin shot back: “@glaad @CNN well you’re clearly out of touch and clueless with what I tweeted. Way to assume, but you’re way off base.” The political pundit wrote on Twitter Monday that he intended his original tweet to be a shot at soccer fans instead of the LGBT community. “I made several cracks about soccer as I do all the time,” he said. “I was not referring to sexuality directly or indirectly regarding the David Beckham ad, and I’m sorry folks took it otherwise. It was meant to be a deliberately over the top and sarcastic crack about soccer; I do not advocate violence of any kind against anyone gay, or not.” GLADD issued a statement Monday morning calling for Martin’s departure from the network. “Martin has a history of anti-LGBT views,” the organization said. “GLAAD is calling on him to be fired, joining many other LGBT activists and bloggers.” CNN has yet to make a statement on the issue.Man, 81, Wearing Red MAGA Hat Assaulted Inside New Jersey Shop Rite, Prosecutors SayProsecutors say an elderly man was assaulted inside a New Jersey supermarket after he was confronted over a "Make America Great Again" hat he was wearing. 3 Dead After LIRR Trains Strike Truck, Manhattan-Bound Train Crashes Into Westbury StationNassau County police say the truck, which was struck by LIRR trains going in both directions, was allegedly attempting to beat the railway crossing gates before they closed. YouTube Put On The Defensive After Doctor Finds Suicide Tips Edited Into Children's Roblox VideoA pediatrician made a disturbing discovery: videos targeting children on YouTube and YouTube Kids that include tips on how to commit suicide. Report: Traces Of Weed Killer Found In Wine, BeerU.S. PIRG says the herbicide glyphosate has been detecting in five wines and 14 popular beers. Actress Selma Blair Opens Up About Battle With Multiple Sclerosis After Inspiring Oscars AppearanceMS is a chronic disease that affects the central nervous system. In Blair's case, one of the first things the public can hear is how it's affecting her voice. New Jersey Man Beats 'Billion-To-One' Odds, Reunites Woman With Her Lost PendantA woman lost her most prized possession, a priceless pendant containing memories of her late son. Just when she thought it was lost forever, a stranger came to the rescue. Jumaane Williams Wins Race For NYC Public AdvocateWilliams defeated 16 other candidates to fill a vacancy created by former Public Advocate Letitia James' victory in the race for New York state attorney general. Gov. Cuomo, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Sign 'Red Flag' Gun Control BillThe Red Flag Bill would prevent people who show signs of being a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing firearms. Jury Finds N.J. Man Guilty Of Strangling 19-Year-Old Sarah SternProsecutors alleged 21-year-old Liam McAtasney killed 19-year-old Sarah Stern inside her Neptune City home in December 2016. Hit-And-Run Driver Fatally Strikes Woman Walking Home From Bus Stop In HempsteadThe victim's family tells CBS2 she had just taken the bus home from her home health aide job, and it was the one day a week her husband didn't pick her up.Hi ladies - The call for talk proposals is open for PyCon 2014 - let's submit proposals and speak! Don't know what to talk about? Don't know how to write a proposal? Let's figure all that out and get you speaking at PyCon! Workshop Agenda We'll start off the evening by discovering our expertise, first by brainstorming then by "interviewing" each other. Then we'll create our topic proposals, by first analyzing other proposals, then writing our own. Then, we'll actually submit our proposals to PyCon (or any conference/user group/public speaking opportunity of your choice)! And lastly we'll celebrate with a little mingling :) The workshop will be led by Celia La, Emily Chen, and Kat Chuang. Timing: Doors will open around 6, the workshop part will start at 6:30 and go until 8:30, and we'll mingle until 9. Food and refreshments will be provided. Note: you will need your laptops for this workshop. Sponsor: Thank you to Chartbeat Studios, who has graciously offered to host this event! "Who should speak at PyCon?" You! "Anyone with any level of Python knowledge is a candidate for a great topic at this conference." (taken straight from their website!) "Why would I want to do this?" Well... lots of reasons • Sharing your specific experience using Python helps to grow the community's knowledge base ("Even if I'm a beginner?" yes!) • Diversity is good - different perspectives are good - we want to see this represented at tech conferences (as both audience learners AND on the stage as knowledge sharers!) • Speaking is one of the best things you can do for your career ;) "I'm not an expert in anything/I wouldn't know what to talk about" That's not true! YOU are an expert on how YOU use Python, and that's valuable to us :) "I've already spoken at tech conferences" Awesome!! Come to support and encourage your fellow women developers, and help us to discover our expertise and write topic proposals :) I don't speak Python, can I come? Absolutely! The exercises we'll be doing are language agnostic, and we'd love to see more women in all aspects of the tech community. Have more questions? Feel free to add it to the comments board below :)Photo by Murray Bowles Blatz performing in 1991. Photo by Murray Bowles Green Day performs at Gilman in 1992. In 1985, a young Tim Armstrong left the East Bay for New York in search of a better punk scene. Later that same year, the future Operation Ivy and Rancid guitarist was shocked to read about a new club being built at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley in an issue of“‘What the fuck am I doing in New York City when a punk rock club is opening up in my neighborhood?’” Armstrong recalled saying. “So right there, for me, everything changed.”This story is one of many from, a sprawling, nearly three-hour film that chronicles the evolution of punk in the Bay Area. The film centers the East Bay’s vibrant DIY punk scene that was anchored by Gilman and influential indie label, Lookout Records — a scene that ultimately led to the global rise of mainstream punk in the mid-Nineties.The brainchild of Green Day,is set to premiere at SF DocFest on May 31 and has secured a deal with distribution company Abramorama for a national theatrical run.The project’s first iterations included a documentary of Green Day’s early days and a chronicle of the influential bands from that era (Neurosis, Rancid, Jawbreaker, Operation Ivy). Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong asked friend and musician Corbett Redford (singer in the satirical folk-punk band, Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits), if he knew anyone that could direct the documentary. Redford suggested himself.“I know the effect this scene had on the world. I remember it. There are people all over the place that still subscribe to it.” Redford said. “Green Day brought East Bay culture to the world.”Members of Green Day and Redford quickly realized the story they wanted to tell went beyond that of a handful of bands. So, Redford took it upon himself to amass interviews from the entire community: Gilman volunteers, zines makers, doormen, scene regulars.“It couldn’t be just about the bands. The experience was created by everyone that was there,” said Kamala Lyn Parks, a former tour booker who worked as a historical consultant on. “It wasn’t just about people who were in bands. The expectation was that you weren’t passive. And there’s a celebration of the people who did other things,” Parks explained.The film’s depiction of the Bay Area’s Eighties punk scene is indiscernible from any punk scene in America. The distinction appears in 1986 with the establishment of Gilman, then formally known as The Gilman Street Project, byfounder Tim Yohannan and a handful of show promoters and hardcore scenesters.Out of Gilman, a new culture of punk emerged that was not defined by suburban angst and its ensuing drugs and violence, but by the desire to create a safe space where racism, sexism, and homophobia were not permitted. A sign at Gilman’s entrance clearly stated those sentiments. The all-ages venue was also intended to be a safe place for younger kids. Although not 100% successful in praxis, the club shifted the values of punk towards thoughtfulness and inclusivity. Shows at the Gilman were about ethos, not genre and kids danced around with goofy smiles and rode tricycles in the pit.“Gilman encouraged more of a sense of community. You could succeed a lot better than if you were nomadic” Parks said.devotes just as much time to the critical bands and pivotal moments of the East Bay’s punk scene as it does to the obscure ones. The film covers weird East Bay bands like Sweet Baby Jesus, Blatz, Yeastie Girlz, and Michael Franti’s first band, The Beatnigs. Lesser known movements like the vibrant queercore scene (notably led by Pansy Division and Tribe 8), Gilman’s quasi-feud with the riot grrrl scene and a DIY play that a young Miranda July put on at Gilman also make it in the film.Through the process of making, Redford travelled the country and worked with musicians he has long admired, from Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna to Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye and Primus’ Larry LaLonde.Most surreal for Redford was working with Iggy Pop, the film’s narrator. “I was so nervous. We talked about cats mostly. Then it was like talking to anybody,” Redford said of their first phone call. “Suddenly, I’m collaborating with Iggy Pop. That’s awesome.”Redford’s wife calls him the “punk whisperer,” referring to the role he was destined for. “Punk tells you, you don’t have to ask for permission to be who you want to be. Just go out and do it,” Redford said.“Keep doing it. Eventually you’ll get better at it. Then maybe when you’re 41, you’ll get to make a movie with all your heroes.”Elsevier and Other Scholarly Publishers Target Content Pirates The scholarly publishing industry has stepped up its attack on copyright-infringing piracy websites in a series of lawsuits filed in the federal courts. In June 2017, Elsevier won a $15 million default judgment against Sci-Hub, an online self-admitted “pirate website” providing access to a claimed 62 million articles, and The Library Genesis Project (LibGen), a similar site claiming access to 52 million scholarly and nonscholarly articles. Elsevier’s success was followed in short order by a lawsuit filed by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and a separate lawsuit filed by four leading academic book publishers against ABCDeBook for infringing on their electronic textbooks. Notwithstanding the judgment and subsequent suits, legal analysts question whether pirate sites such as Sci-Hub and ABCDeBook can be shut down through lawsuits. Other commentators see the sites as providing access to scholarship hidden behind high-priced paywalls. Sci-Hub was formed in September 2011 and unabashedly describes itself as a pirate website with a mission to “fight inequality in knowledge access across the world.” It advocates for the “cancellation of intellectual property, or copyright laws, for scientific and educational resources” and supports the “Open Access movement in science.” The owner and operator of the site is reported to be Alexandra Elbakyan, a resident of Kazakhstan. LibGen’s origins and ownership are less clear. It is reportedly registered in the Bahamas and hosted in the Netherlands. ABCDeBook is reportedly owned by Alex Huang, who is believed to be a resident of Australia. What the Lawsuits Entail Sci-Hub and LibGen reportedly use a variety of means to gain unauthorized access to articles and books, including hacking and other methods of circumventing firewalls, paywalls, and other barriers; the use of unlawfully obtained access credentials to get proxy connections to university and other subscriptions; and spoofing legitimate websites and bypassing their firewalls. ABCDeBook reportedly obtains its materials through a “Free eBook Exchange” program, which encourages customers to submit “any form of textbook materials” to the service in return for discounts on other materials. These submissions are without the authorization of the copyright owners. In June 2015, Elsevier filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against Sci-Hub, LibGen, Elbakyan, and “John Does 1-99.” Between 2015 and 2017, there was no response from any of the defendants or their representatives to the suit or to a preliminary injunction obtained by Elsevier in October 2015. On June 21, 2017, in the absence of any dispute by Sci-Hub or LibGen, the court accepted Elsevier’s assertions of copyright infringement and ordered Sci-Hub and the other parties to pay a judgment of $15 million to Elsevier and to stop the infringing activities. In addition, the court ordered the top-level domain (TLD) registries to transfer ownership of Sci-Hub’s and LibGen’s domains to Elsevier. The ACS lawsuit against Sci-Hub seeks a similar recovery, including damages, the return of any profits from the distribution of ACS articles, and the transfer of registrations. In addition, the ACS suit would seek to prevent Google and other search engines from “facilitating access” to Sci-Hub and similarly require web hosts, ISPs, and domain name registries and registrars to “cease facilitating access” to Sci-Hub content that had been infringed. The Evolution of Piracy in the Digital Age Copyright infringement of this nature has been one of the great epidemics of the digital age, beginning with online bulletin boards and FTP exchanges, but really taking off with the rise of peer-to-peer file sharing in the late 1990s and the overseas pirate websites that emerged shortly thereafter. These early efforts largely targeted music and video content, as there was a strong market for that material; MP3 and other file-compression technologies made the data files manageable sizes; and there was a perception—rightly or wrongly—that the copyright owners were charging too much for legitimate access to their content. Legal challenges, while successful in the courts, have done little to stem the tide. The rise of convenient, reasonably priced music streaming services is seen has having been more effective in reducing—but not eliminating—piracy. Piracy in the publishing industry is a later phenomenon that is attributed to a lower level of perceived commercial interest and the slower development and adoption of the digital subscription model. However, as more and more content moved into the digital environment, it became more likely to be a target of Sci-Hub, LibGen, and other “guerilla OA” websites. In a research paper by Bastian Greshake of Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, an evaluation of Sci-Hub shows that while it contains articles dating back to the 1600s, more than 35% of all downloads are of articles published within the previous 2 years. It notes that this often corresponds with publisher embargo periods, when materials are at their most restricted level of access. In addition, the increasing commercial value of scholarly content in recent years is seen by many as leading to the rise of broad content piracy. Elbakyan reportedly was moved to develop Sci-Hub due to the high cost of papers that she was required to access to complete her university studies. Greshake’s research paper acknowledges that he is a user of Sci-Hub content. Both Elsevier (which Greshake’s research indicates is the most downloaded publisher on Sci-Hub) and ACS have been criticized for the high costs associated with their content. Scholars worldwide have expressed frustration with Elsevier’s pricing and reported hostility to OA publishing. Several thousand research scientists in Finland have pledged to boycott editorial and reviewing requests from Elsevier absent a “fair deal” on pricing. Comments in response to an article about ACS published by Chemical & Engineering News—an ACS publication—are full of praise for Sci-Hub and criticism of the ACS publishing model. Both Elsevier and ACS defend their pricing models as necessary and fair given the expenses associating with developing, editing, and publishing content, and in ACS’s case, the use of publishing revenue to support other activities. What the Future Holds Given that Sci-Hub, LibGen, and ABCDeBook are all in overseas locations outside of the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, it is unlikely that injunctions and damage awards alone will succeed in shutting them down. Unless Elbakyan, Huang, or any of the other owners and businesses come into the U.S. or have assets in the U.S., the courts will be unable to take many steps to force the sites to cease operation. The ACS suit’s request for the authority to stop search, registration, and other support may be of some possible help, but as with music and video piracy, it may be limited at best. The most likely solution is to look at alternate business models—like the music industry did with online streaming—that make piracy less attractive commercially, while still providing a reasonable revenue model for the industry.The New York Post has uncovered a startling consequence of New York City’s ban on cellphones in schools: It's sucking $4.2 million a year from kids' pockets into the coffers of enterprising local businesses. Mobile storage trucks and bodegas located near schools where the rule is enforced are charging $1 per day to store devices for students who can't take their phones to class, according to the report. And the fees are adding up, especially for low-income students. "I cut back on food for the sake of my phone," said Emily Luna, a 17-year old student at a high school in Brooklyn, in an interview with the Post. "I try to cut down on whatever I buy so I have enough to store my phone." The city’s controversial ban on gadgets in schools has incited strong opposition from parents and students since schools started cracking down on cellphones six years ago. Parents have argued that not allowing their children to have cellphones is a safety issue. Students have said that phones can be used as an educational tool and assist with cumbersome commutes. A recent robbery at one gadget storage truck has renewed such criticism. But few local business owners are complaining about the crackdown. “It’s easy money. It’s all cash,” one school-safety source told the Post of the growing numbers of trucks and bodegas used by students to store phones. Such merchants rake in a combined $22,800 a day from students. Vernon Alcoser, a Bronx businessman and former prison guard, is the man credited with creating the first gadget storage trucks. "A friend called me and said her daughter was storing her cellphone in grocery stores and bodegas in the area," Alcoser told Mashable. "[Students] were going away from the direction of the school in order to do that. I thought if we brought storage closer to the schools, it would be a favor to the kids." Alcoser’s company, Pure Loyalty, now has seven trucks in seven boroughs. The trucks, like those of Pure Loyalty’s competitors, park near the 88 school buildings that use metal detectors to confiscate students' cellphones. Some store an average of 500 to 700 gadgets a day, according to Mashable. There are 1,200 school buildings in New York City. But 90 percent of the city's schools don't use metal detectors, and with no real way of keeping phones out, the ban is largely ignored, The New York Times reported. In 2006, the City Council voted to lift the cellphone ban, but Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the bill and subsequently defeated an override of his veto in court. Students say schools that enforce the ban should offer more options. Bronx high schooler Jonathan Lauriano, 18, told the Post he'd spent $500 on cellphone storage at a truck near campus. “They should set up free lock boxes inside [the school] because we can’t all afford to pay a dollar a day," he said. The Department of Education has largely opposed efforts to construct on-site storage facilities for students, arguing that the liability for schools storing thousands of phones and gadgets is too high. Pure Loyalty, for its part, has a $2 million insurance policy that covers just the phones, Mashable reported.Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., got a bit more than she bargained for after a town hall event this weekend. A contributor to Zero Hedge posted video of her being booed as she left the event and another Twitter video showed a black Trump supporter giving the California Democrat a piece of her mind. https://twitter.com/ZeroPointNow/status/879126588742180865 Vessel News’ Josh Caplan posted this video of Waters being told that she’s destroying the black community: Black Trump supporter goes absolutely nuclear on Maxine Waters, accusing the Congresswoman of destroying black communities across the U.S. pic.twitter.com/gLqRm5kMOg — Joshua Dov Caplan (@joshdcaplan) June 25, 2017 Trending: Video of the Day: UCLA Students Sign Petition to put Conservatives in Concentration Camps “People are tired with your hate and your racism! All the jobs went to illegals! You have destroyed the black community! You are a black racist! You hate blacks! All the jobs went to illegals! You gave our jobs to illegals! We want you out,” she said, according to a post at the Gateway Pundit. “Maxine Waters destroyed the black community,” the woman added, blaming Waters and politicians like her for giving jobs to illegal immigrants. “She’s gotta go! She’s paid taxpayer money to discriminate against American citizens, and we’re not going to have it! She’s been in office too long doing NOTHING! She lied to the black community saying she was going to bring us jobs. She gave those jobs to illegal criminals! We want her out! She’s been in office for too long! She’s already showing signs of dementia! She’s a hater!” Reaction was pretty much as expected: Wow this Black Trump supporter is smart and spot on she did her homework! Much respect Ma'am 👏🇺🇸👍🙏🙆 — Eileen (@rayann2320) June 26, 2017 https://twitter.com/ben_watching/status/879123834640773121 https://twitter.com/DarLovesAmerica/status/879159114299056129 https://twitter.com/DarLovesAmerica/status/879158789903183872 Indeed. WOW!!! Was she feelin' the love??? 😂😂😂 #MAGA — FREE JULIAN ASSANGE⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@StaceyMaLaine) June 26, 2017 She probably thought they were all Russians. Cristina Laila also noted: “A journalist on the scene told TGP that Trump supporters were given yellow ‘I.D. bracelets’ so that they could be easily identified which can be seen in this video footage.” Hmmm… Yellow ID bracelets? Something about that sounds vaguely familiar. Where have we heard of yellow ID markers before? More on the town hall event, including videos, can be seen here. Related: If you haven’t checked out and liked our Facebook page, please go here and do so.State-level marijuana law reform won big in this month's elections, with legalization initiatives triumphing convincingly in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, DC. The Florida medical marijuana initiative lost, but only because it had a higher bar of 60% of the popular vote. It ended up with 57%, a clear sign of solid majority support. And don't forget Guam -- the US territory approved medical marijuana with 56% of the vote. The California Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform is laying the groundwork for 2016. (CCPR) Local marijuana reform initiatives also fared well. In Maine, Massachusetts, and Michigan, activists built on earlier successes to win more victories this year, while in New Mexico, voters in Albuquerque and Santa Fe voted in favor of decriminalizing pot possession. All in all, a good year for marijuana law reform, the second good election year in a row. Since 2012, voters in four states and DC have been asked to legalize marijuana. They've now said yes in all of them. And now, eyes to turn to 2016 and beyond. There are excellent prospects for more victories in the West, as well as in the Northeast. And there could be some surprises lurking out there in the middle of the country. California, of course, is the big prize, and efforts are already well underway to ensure that legalization is on the ballot in 2016 -- and that it actually wins this time. Arizona and Nevada are also on the radar, and the Nevada initiative campaign has already turned in twice the number of signatures needed to make the 2016 ballot. In the Northeast, both Maine and Massachusetts are initiative states, and legalization appears headed for the ballot in both. In Rhode Island and Vermont, the push will come in the state legislatures. "Things are clearly headed in the right direction," said Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) communications director Mason Tvert, scanning the post-election terrain. "Even in a midterm where we saw large Republican gains, we also saw large gains for marijuana policy reform. A lot of people would say the turnout was smaller and more conservative, yet we still saw strong majorities approving measures making marijuana legal in various states and cities." MPP will be backing 2016 initiatives in five states, Tvert said, although the Nevada legislature could ease its burden by just approving an initiative rather than punting to the voters. "In Nevada, the petition drive has just wrapped up. At this point, our goal there is to pass the ballot initiative; if the legislature chooses to take an objective look and give it some real consideration, that would be excellent, too," he said. "We also have committees filed to support initiatives in Arizona, California, Maine, and Massachusetts," Tvert said. "In California, we want to begin to raise money to support that effort, but it's pretty early in the process. We expect to see very solid support for such a measure in California, especially running in a presidential election year when support for legalizing marijuana has been growing nationwide. Prop 19 got 47% in 2010; that will be six years ago come 2016." "We have a pretty comprehensive statewide coalition working on this," said Dale Gieringer, executive director of California NORML, which is a key part of that grouping, the California Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform. "The coalition includes us, the Prop 19 people, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, MPP, the Emerald Growers Association, and the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) has been a partner in this, too." A little less than two years out, it's a work in progress, said Gieringer. "Pretty much all the leading groups interested in drug reform are interested in collaborating, but exactly how that will work hasn't been settled yet," he said. Now that four states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana, Gieringer sees some political space for pushing the envelope. "Home cultivation will be in it," he said. "They have that in Oregon and Colorado, and we're going to have it in California. I also want to provide for on-site consumption; we're working to get that instituted here in Oakland. In Colorado, they banned public use, which is one thing if you mean smoking pot on the street, but governments tend to have an expansive view of what constitutes public use, like a public accommodation under the Civil Rights Act. I think we can provide for licensed on-site consumption, at least by local option." And no reason to make what he called "unnecessary concessions." "We have a DUID law, and we don't need to change that," he said. "They didn't do that in Colorado and Oregon, and we don't need to do it. We learned a lesson in Washington -- that lack of an express DUID provision didn't make a difference -- and we're not going to repeat that." Although more than any other group in the coalition, CANORML represents the interests of marijuana consumers, Gieringer said it's not pot smokers or growers who are going to make an initiative victorious. Maybe Missouri's Show Me Cannabis will show us all. "Marijuana users are 12% to 15% of the population here; we really have to depend on more than that," he said. "The users and growers will not determine this campaign. And I'm sure there will be people discontented with however the initiative turns out; there always are. But there aren't that many growers in the state, anyhow. Some growers didn't like Prop 19, but it failed for other reasons. It didn't win in Los Angeles County, and that's not because of the growers." In some states, such as Massachusetts, activists have been piling up marijuana reform victories for years. MassCANN/NORML and the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts have an unbroken record of winning non-binding public policy questions on marijuana reform issues going back seven election cycles. Voters in the Bay State have also signaled their approval of marijuana law reform by passing statewide medical marijuana (2008) and decriminalization initiatives (2012). Now, Bay State Repeal has formed to free the weed in 2016, and it has a pot populist tinge to it. The group wants home cultivation, not just to keep prices down, but "to keep the cops from busting through the door just because there is marijuana growing there" and it wants taxation and regulation, but only "moderate," not "cash-cow taxation or giant licensing fees." In Maine, where MPP has been active, putting successful municipal legalization initiatives on the ballot in Portland and South Portland (but losing one in Lewiston), there could be not one but two legalization initiatives unless differing actors come together. In addition to the MPP effort, a new group, Legalize Maine, is also moving forward with plans for an initiative. As with Bay State Repeal, there is a pot populist tinge. Legalize Maine couches its argument not only in terms of justice and common sense, but also talks about jobs and economic development. And it wants marijuana regulated in a way that "focuses on people instead of large economic interests that seeks to dominate the marijuana industry." Legalization could also pop up in some unexpected places, too. While the major movement organizations already have selected targets for 2016 and have plans well afoot, things could break faster than the big players anticipate, and local activists in some states -- Arkansas and Missouri, for example -- may manage to get initiatives on the ballot without significant outside support. In Missouri, Show Me Cannabis has been undertaking a vigorous and energetic campaign to put an initiative on the ballot in 2016. It submitted its initiative to state officials earlier this month; the first step in getting the measure before the voters. Similar efforts by different groups are also underway next door in Arkansas. Those Ozark-area efforts don't have the backing of big national organization behind them, but that could change. The Drug Policy Alliance's Ethan Nadelmann wants to see the polling. (OSI) "If these initiatives are well-drafted and the polling is strong, we'll help as best we can, but we're not making any financial commitments," said DPA executive director Ethan Nadelmann. "We have a major commitment in California, and we're helping MPP draft initiatives in other states. In Missouri, let's make sure there's a solid draft initiative, and if the polling is there, well, a victory in Missouri would be very compelling." Seeing marijuana legalization creep along the West Coast, make inroads on the East Coast, and maybe even in the Ozarks would make for a very impressive 2016, but some Midwestern activists are looking further down the road. Led by indefatigable Tim Beck, Michigan activists have managed to pass municipal personal legalization initiatives in all the state's largest cities in the past few years. This year, they went eight for 13 with similar initiatives in smaller Michigan communities. Michigan voters also approved marijuana in a statewide initiative in 2008, but, for Beck, getting the state's dispensary situation settled -- not legalization -- is the first order of business. "Although the state legislature is totally controlled by the GOP, we've been working with them, and they've kind of seen the light on a regulated system with a lot of local control, which is big with Republicans," he said. "We have one of the best medical marijuana laws in the country, and it's going to get better with a regulated dispensary system, as well as ingestibles. We won 95-14 in the House, and it's going through the Senate now," he said. "We have over 1.5 million people now living in cities that have decriminalized," Beck said. "And we liberated 140,000 this year -- on the cheap. This has an impact. When we have dispensaries and when we have decriminalization, local officials won't be able to say 'Oh, we don't want marijuana here,' because the voters do." Legalization may not be the first order of business, but it is the ultimate goal, Beck said. "My philosophy has never been that the solution is medical, but straight-out, unadorned legalization, but we're -having to do it on our own," he explained. "Michigan is fly-over country for the big players. It's a large state with a population of more than 10 million, so it's expensive to win a campaign, and it's a bit more conservative than the East or West coasts." That means Michigan needs to be patient. "Our realistic priority for the next couple of years is to work with the legislature," Beck said. "We have a new class of entrepreneurs who have come out of the closet, and we've been able to fund our own lobbyist to the tune of about $150,000. Once we get dispensaries, then we'll turn to decriminalization at the statehouse. We had a decriminalization bill this year, but it was introduced by a Democrat and went nowhere." Beck is also waiting for the opinion polls to move further in the right direction. "There's a weird dichotomy in our polling," the veteran activist explained. "We get well over 60% saying yes to reallocating police resources away from small-time marijuana users, but when it comes to legalization, that number drops dramatically. We might be at 50%; we'll do another poll at year's end, but I don't think much will change. It's hard to demand that anyone open their checkbook when you're only running 50%. We have to just keep going on an incremental basis. Maybe by 2018 or 2020, we'll be ready." While Beck counsels patience, Nadelmann is counseling prudence. And while he is of course happy that all the legalization initiatives passed, he doesn't want people to think it's going to be a walk in the park from here on in. "The downside is a sense of overconfidence, a feeling that marijuana will legalize itself," he said. "That could make it more difficult to fundraise if there's a sense that you can put anything on the ballot and not anticipate serious opposition. There could be a sense in the industry that you can be free riders while the activists raise the money." There are other potential pitfalls. Entrepreneurs trying to push the envelope could push too far, Nadelmann said. "Don't forget the Montana disaster," he warned, referring the wide open medical marijuana expansion there that created a backlash that drove the industry back into the ground. "Don't be short-sighted and greedy, and contribute and support the organizations working on this." And don't forget federal pot prohibition. It's one thing for a handful of states -- or even more -- to legalize marijuana, but as long as federal marijuana prohibition remains on the books, even the legal marijuana states could theoretically face a concerted federal effort to roll back the clock. Using federal marijuana prohibition as a hammer, a hostile Congress and president could wreak havoc with state-level regulation and taxation. (Ironically, a move to do that could result in marijuana being legal to smoke and possess in those states, but not to sell or be taxed or regulated.) But if repealing federal pot prohibition is the Holy Grail, reformers still have a ways to go. "A lot more states are going to have to approve this before it gets to the point where repeal can pass," said Nadelmann. "When you look at medical marijuana and how slowly that moves on Capitol Hill, you see that it wasn't until this year that we actually got something passed, and that was just to stop federal interference in medical marijuana states. I'm more optimistic about winning votes like that next year, to get the federal government out of the way." Congress has not been especially responsive to growing support for marijuana legalization, and there's no reason to expect that to change anytime soon, Nadelmann said. "It's hard to imagine Congress playing any sort of leadership role on this stuff," he explained. Maybe when we have 24 legal marijuana states, not just four of them. That means there's still plenty of work to be done at the state house and the ballot box.Elon Musk just can't stop winning. With SpaceX paving new ground in the aerospace industry and Tesla on the cusp of delivering its highly anticipated Model 3 vehicle, the 45-year-old technology mogul is richer than ever. In the last three months, Musk’s net worth has risen $1.7 billion, according to FORBES’ real-time rankings of the world’s billionaires. He now holds an estimated $15.6 billion fortune. Much of that gain is attributable to Musk’s stake in Tesla, the electric car manufacturer he leads. Company shares are up nearly 30% since March 1. The Palo Alto-based outfit is now America’s most valuable automaker, ahead of legacy brands General Motors and Ford, despite selling roughly a tenth as many cars per year.
estuary, rather than over heavily residential areas, and would be connected to London by new high-speed rail and highway improvements. The suggested location is in the middle of the Thames estuary, about 50 miles east of central London; not only could more aircraft land there, they could do so 24 hours a day. The designers claim that such a new airport could be built in seven years and handle 172 million passengers annually. Heathrow this year will handle about 71.6 million passengers, 31.8 percent of the passengers at all British airports. Gatwick, which is 30 miles south of London and wants a second runway, is about half as busy as Heathrow, followed by Manchester, Stansted and Luton. But there are significant problems involved in expanding any of the other airports close to London, and debate rages over whether competition among Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted might better serve passengers. While an estuary airport seems attractive, the problem is, as ever, money. The cost of this latest proposal is estimated at £47.4 billion, about $77.6 billion, but who knows what it might finally cost, counting new transport links, while an inland expansion of Heathrow has been held back by noise and politics. (Estimates for a third runway at Heathrow are £14 billion to £18 billion, or $22.9 billion to $29.5 billion.) Given the uncertainty, major airlines want to stay at Heathrow, including British Airways, its Oneworld alliance and its major rivals in the Star Alliance, which includes United and Lufthansa, and SkyTeam, which includes Delta Air Lines and Air France.Xiaomi has become one of the most popular smartphone brands in India, and the company’s Redmi Note 4 has now become the best-selling smartphone in the country. Xiaomi has announced that the Redmi Note 4 has already sold 5 million units in India, only six months since its launch. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 features a 5.5-inch full HD 1080p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor, an Adreno 506 GPU, a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 4100mAh battery. RELATED: Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Android 7.0 Nougat Update Rolling Out in India The Redmi Note 4 is available in three variants – one with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage that’s priced at Rs. 9,999, a 3GB/32GB variant with a price tag of Rs. 10,999, and a high-end Rs. 12,999 4GB/64GB variant. (source \| via)Migrants lost at sea for 15 days resort to cannibalism by eating dead passengers to survive A group of refugees who were cast adrift at sea for more than two weeks survived by eating dead passengers, it has emerged. The 33 Dominican migrants were trying to reach Puerto Rico by boat but were cast adrift after their captain became lost. Only four survived the ordeal and admitted they are only alive after eating fellow migrants. The crew were told by their captain not to bring any food or water aboard when they set off from Sanchez on the one-day journey to the U.S territory on October 17. Dominican Gregorio Marizan and three other men survived 15 days at sea by eating their dead shipmates But the captain abandoned ship after two days, admitting they were lost while the boat ran out of fuel, casting the group adrift. The only woman in the group and one of five people to be rescued, died in hospital after they were found near the Turks and Caicos Islands. Speaking from his hospital bed, survivor Gregorio Maria Marizan said the group tried to sustain themselves on rain and seawater. Saulio Marizan recovers in hospital but his brother Emmanuel died during the ordeal Famished and dehydrated, they watched migrant after migrant die, each time waiting 15 to 20 minutes before throwing the body overboard. The survivor said the decision to eat the dead shipmates was not an easy one to take and did so in order to live. 'Imagine, 15 days without food, without water. I'm a sailor, a fisherman - they were all yelling at me to do something,' he said. 'I always try to be prepared, so I had brought my knife along. We hadn't brought food because it was supposed to be a quick trip. 'We had nothing to eat. We had to eat him, to save our own lives. We cut from his leg and chest. We cut little pieces and swallowed them like pills. 'It's like beef, almost the same. At the skin there is like half an inch of yellow fat, then the fibres.' The divorced father-of-three said he and his brothers Saulio, 27, and Emmanuel, 30, were forced to attempt the treacherous crossing in search of a better life. The elder brother Emmanuel didn't survive the journey. Hundreds of Dominicans take to the sea each year in small boats, many of them homemade, trying to reach Puerto Rico through the dangerous Mona Passage. Thanking God for being alive, Marizan said he wanted one of the family to stay alive to tell the story. Dominican Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia said the migrants ate from the corpse of the last person to die. Franklin Paoulino and the group were forced to eat their dead shipmates in order to survive Mr Garcia said the bodies of the other dead were thrown into the sea and the five were rescued by U.S. Coast Guard helicopter on Saturday and taken to a hospital on the island of Providenciales. 'The surviving four are dehydrated and have swollen legs but are expected to recover,' he said after visiting the survivor. In 2004, 36 survivors in a group of 87 migrants drank breast milk, sea water and ate human flesh in desperate acts to survive.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. 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Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? As the partisan fight over the debt ceiling approached the August 2 deadline, President Obama presented Republicans with what, at almost any other time in recent history, would be seen as a conservative’s dream: $4 trillion in spending cuts over ten years, and the offer to restructure core pieces of the Democratic legacy, including Social Security and Medicare. GOP House Speaker John Boehner walked away from the deal not because the cuts weren’t steep enough but because they would be achieved, in part, through tax increases on hedge-fund managers, private jet owners and oil and gas companies. Ad Policy The Republicans have once again shown themselves to be a party, to paraphrase Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent. It is a party that accepts no new taxes, no closing of loopholes, no crackdowns on overseas tax havens and no increase in corporate tax rates, even as the biggest corporations pay little or no taxes on billions in profits. It is a party that embraces savage cuts in the social safety net but then draws a line in the sand to protect the wealthy. To Republicans, shared sacrifice is anathema. Now, as before, the global economy may be their victim. What’s worse is that, rather than being chastised, the GOP has been empowered by an establishment media obsessed with debt and deficits. When Republicans decry tax increases, it is all too rare to hear the media respond with facts or to offer historical perspective. In the 1950s, the corporate sector accounted for an average of 27.6 percent of all federal revenues; in 2010 it was 8.9 percent. And individual tax rates for the richest are now lower than in all but five of the past seventy-nine years. At press time, the GOP had retreated from its insistence on major cuts, instead offering a cynical and circuitous plan that would allow Obama to increase the debt ceiling in three stages while allowing Republicans the symbolic opportunity to vote against it. In the meantime, we are confronted with grim news about a jobs crisis that has spiraled into a genuine emergency, even as it is treated as the “new normal” or a mere inconvenience. President Obama and his team have recently taken to talking about “a unique opportunity to do something big” with regard to the debt ceiling. Little, however, has been said about applying that desire for bigness to job creation. Obama wants to play the role of reasonable adult, urging members of both parties to “eat our peas.” But being reasonable means leading a nation that cries out for relief and reconstruction after months of stalled job growth—not acting like a hostage negotiator. And if lines are being drawn in the sand, the president must draw his as well. Yes, he should demand that the rich pay their fair share, but insisting that they contribute to deficit reduction cannot be our fundamental cause. We must draw our lines on behalf of the jobless, who now spend, on average, forty weeks looking for work. We must draw ours on behalf of the elderly, who cannot afford a smaller Social Security check. We must draw ours for the hundreds of thousands of families who have already lost their Medicaid. President Obama was elected, in part, because he challenged the smallness of our politics. But his actions on the debt negotiations suggest that he has embraced that smallness. This is a time for the president to join the millions across the country who demand solutions for the employment and economic crisis. As Obama himself said, “If not now, when?”ROME (Reuters) - A cat which accompanied her owner across the desert from Sudan to Libya and then on a migrant boat to Italy has been taken into quarantine on the island of Lampedusa after authorities promised to reunite the pair, La Repubblica daily reported on Tuesday. The paper said the black and white cat, named Lola was rescued with her owner by a British patrol boat after evading border controls and migrant traffickers during the months-long journey hidden in a traveling bag. TV footage on La Repubblica’s website showed aid workers calming the distraught owner, identified only as Sama, after she had disembarked and Lola was held back for health reasons. The mayor of Lampedusa Giusy Nicolini and the island’s doctor Pietro Bartolo intervened to save the cat, which would otherwise probably have been thrown into the sea to drown, La Repubblica said. “It’s the first time something like this has happened, the first time a cat has arrived in Lampedusa from the Libyan coast and by law she couldn’t be disembarked for health reasons,” the newspaper quoted Nicolini as saying. “We don’t know if Lola has any diseases which could be contagious but in the end we saved her and found a solution.” The story provided a rare bright moment in the unrelentingly grim Mediterranean migrant crisis, in which thousands, including many young children, have lost their lives trying to cross from North Africa into Europe. La Repubblica said Lola was handed over to a local animal welfare activist who will keep her isolated until a vet can inspect and vaccinate her, while Sama, from Sudan, has been transferred to a migrant reception center on the Sicilian mainland. The paper quoted officials as saying Lola had been Sama’s only comfort during the arduous journey and they promised to bring them together again once the quarantine period was over. “It’s a commitment we have made to Sama and we will respect it,” Nicolini said.This material must not be used for commercial purposes, or in any hospital or medical facility. Failure to comply may result in legal action. Poison Ivy WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: What is poison ivy? Poison ivy is a plant that can cause an itchy, uncomfortable rash on your skin. Poison ivy grows as a shrub or vine in woods, fields, and areas of thick underbrush. It has 3 bright green leaves on each stem that turn red in autumn. What causes a poison ivy rash? A poison ivy rash can occur when the plant oil soaks into your skin. You may get a rash if you touch: Any part of the poison ivy plant: This includes the leaves, stem, vine, roots, flowers, and berries. This includes the leaves, stem, vine, roots, flowers, and berries. Pets with poison ivy on their fur: They can spread poison ivy oil to your skin and to items inside your car and house. They can spread poison ivy oil to your skin and to items inside your car and house. Items with poison ivy oil on them: This includes clothing, shoes, camping or sports equipment, or outdoor tools. This includes clothing, shoes, camping or sports equipment, or outdoor tools. A person with poison ivy oil on him: Poison ivy oil may be on their skin or clothing. What can I do if I have been exposed to poison ivy? If you think you have touched poison ivy, rinse your skin with cool water right away. Then, wash it with soap and water. Rinse your skin well. Do not use hot water because it may cause the oil to spread on your skin. You may also put rubbing alcohol or a solution of 1/2 alcohol and 1/2 water on your skin. This may help your rash to be less severe when it breaks out on your skin. What are the signs and symptoms of a poison ivy rash? A red, swollen, itchy rash that develops within hours to days of exposure to poison ivy A rash that appears in thick patches or thin lines where the plant leaves rubbed against your skin Blisters that may leak clear to yellow liquid, then crust over and become scaly How is a poison ivy rash treated? Antiseptic or drying creams or ointments: Your healthcare provider may recommend medicine to dry out the rash and decrease the itching. These products may be available without a doctor's order. Your healthcare provider may recommend medicine to dry out the rash and decrease the itching. These products may be available without a doctor's order. Steroids: This medicine helps decrease itching and inflammation. It can be given as a cream to apply to your skin or as a pill. This medicine helps decrease itching and inflammation. It can be given as a cream to apply to your skin or as a pill. Antihistamines: This medicine may help decrease itching and help you sleep. It is available without a doctor's order. How can I manage my symptoms? Keep your rash clean and dry: Wash it with soap and water. Gently pat it dry with a clean towel. Wash it with soap and water. Gently pat it dry with a clean towel. Try not to scratch or rub your rash: This can cause your skin to become infected. This can cause your skin to become infected. Use a compress on your rash: Dip a clean washcloth in cool water. Wring it out and place it on your rash. Leave the washcloth on your skin for 15 minutes. Do this at least 3 times per day. Dip a clean washcloth in cool water. Wring it out and place it on your rash. Leave the washcloth on your skin for 15 minutes. Do this at least 3 times per day. Take a cornstarch or oatmeal bath: If your rash is too large to cover with wet washcloths, take 3 or 4 cornstarch baths daily. Mix 1 pound of cornstarch with a little water to make a paste. Add the paste to a tub full of water and mix well. You may also use colloidal oatmeal in the bath water. Use lukewarm water. Avoid hot water because it may cause your itching to increase. Can a poison ivy rash be spread by scratching or touching it? You cannot spread poison ivy by touching your rash or the liquid from your blisters. Poison ivy is spread only if you scratch your skin while it still has oil on it. You may think your rash is spreading because new rashes appear over a number of days. This happens because areas covered by thin skin break out in a rash first. Your face or forearms may develop a rash before thicker areas, such as the palms of your hands. How can I prevent a poison ivy rash? Wear skin protection: Wear long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and gloves. Use a skin block lotion to protect your skin from poison ivy oil. You can find this at a drugstore without a prescription. Wear long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and gloves. Use a skin block lotion to protect your skin from poison ivy oil. You can find this at a drugstore without a prescription. Wash clothing after possible exposure: If you think you have been near a poison ivy plant, wash the clothes you were wearing separately from other clothes. Rinse the washing machine well after you take the clothes out. Scrub boots and shoes with warm, soapy water. Dry clean items and clothing that you cannot wash in water. Poison ivy oil is sticky and can stay on surfaces for a long time. It can cause a new rash even years later. If you think you have been near a poison ivy plant, wash the clothes you were wearing separately from other clothes. Rinse the washing machine well after you take the clothes out. Scrub boots and shoes with warm, soapy water. Dry clean items and clothing that you cannot wash in water. Poison ivy oil is sticky and can stay on surfaces for a long time. It can cause a new rash even years later. Bathe your pet: Use warm water and shampoo on your pet's fur. This will prevent the spread of oil to your skin, car, and home. Wear long sleeves, long pants, and gloves while washing pets or any items that may have oil on them. Use warm water and shampoo on your pet's fur. This will prevent the spread of oil to your skin, car, and home. Wear long sleeves, long pants, and gloves while washing pets or any items that may have oil on them. Reduce exposure to poison ivy: Do not touch plants that look like poison ivy. Keep your yard free of poison ivy. While protecting your skin, remove the plant and the roots. Place them in a plastic bag and seal the bag tightly. Do not touch plants that look like poison ivy. Keep your yard free of poison ivy. While protecting your skin, remove the plant and the roots. Place them in a plastic bag and seal the bag tightly. Do not burn poison ivy plants: This can spread the oil through the air. If you breathe the oil into your lungs, you could have swelling and serious breathing problems. Oil that clings to the fire ash can land on your skin and cause a rash. When should I contact my healthcare provider? You have pus, soft yellow scabs, or tenderness on the rash. The itching gets worse or keeps you awake at night. The rash covers more than 1/4 of your skin or spreads to your eyes, mouth, or genital area. The rash is not better after 2 to 3 weeks. You have tender, swollen glands on the sides of your neck. You have swelling in your arms and legs. You have questions or concerns about your condition or care. When should I seek immediate care or call 911? You have a fever. You have redness, swelling, and tenderness around the rash. You have trouble breathing. Care Agreement You have the right to help plan your care. Learn about your health condition and how it may be treated. Discuss treatment options with your healthcare providers to decide what care you want to receive. You always have the right to refuse treatment. The above information is an educational aid only. It is not intended as medical advice for individual conditions or treatments. Talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist before following any medical regimen to see if it is safe and effective for you. © Copyright IBM Corporation 2018 Information is for End User's use only and may not be sold, redistributed or otherwise used for commercial purposes. All illustrations and images included in CareNotes® are the copyrighted property of A.D.A.M., Inc. or IBM Watson Health Further information Always consult your healthcare provider to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances. Medical DisclaimerDespite official statements to the contrary, Russia will not transfer a shipment of advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, an unnamed senior Russian official has told London’s Sunday Times. According to Sunday’s report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin of the risk such a deal posed to regional stability and Israeli civilians, during a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi earlier this month, leading to the cancelation of the planned sale of six S-300 batteries to Bashar Assad’s regime. In their meeting, Netanyahu reportedly warned Putin that Moscow’s sale of the sophisticated missile defense system to Assad could push the Middle East into war, and argued that the S-300 had no relevance to Assad’s civil-war battles against rebel groups. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Netanyahu and his national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, explained to Putin that planes landing or taking off from Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv would be within the 200-kilometer (125-mile) range of the S-300 system, the report said. “We are very much concerned about this; the large Russian community in Israel is a major factor in our attitude to Israel, and we will not let this happen,” the Russian official told The Sunday Times. In return, the official said, the Russians expected Israel to refrain from carrying out additional air strikes in Syria, like the two the IAF reportedly conducted earlier in May, destroying shipments of advanced Fateh-110 missiles en route via Damascus to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who was present at the Netanyahu-Putin meeting as a translator, on Sunday stopped short of confirming the report and refused to provide further details of the meeting. He said however, that in the wake of the conversation between the two leaders, he had consistently maintained that “it would be wrong to classify the meeting as a failure.” The Ukrainian-born Elkin told Army Radio that Israel’s sizable population of immigrants from former Soviet Union states was “clearly” a factor in Russian policy in the region. He noted, however, that Russian expats in Israel have “not prevented the Russian leadership from taking stands against Israel’s security… [and] supporting Israel’s enemies in the Middle East.” Israeli officials have stated repeatedly over the past few weeks that Israel is not interested in a war with Syria, but will do whatever it takes to prevent the transfer of game-changing and non-conventional weapons from the Assad regime, or from Iran via Syria, to Hezbollah. “The Israeli government has acted responsibly and prudently to ensure the security of Israeli citizens and to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah and [other] terrorist organizations… and we will do so in the future,” Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem last Sunday. “The Middle East is in one of its most sensitive periods in decades, primarily Syria,” the prime minister added. “We are monitoring the changes there closely and are prepared for any scenario.” During a visit to the Atlit naval base last Tuesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that Israel’s policy on Syria was clear: “We do not interfere in the civil war, but we will not allow it to enter our territory.” The Times report on Sunday contradicted earlier statements by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who declared following the Netanyahu-Putin meeting that Moscow would honor existing contracts with its regional ally, including for the air-defense systems. “We’ve already carried out some of the deal,” Lavrov said, “and we will carry the rest of it out in full.” A failure to honor signed contracts, Lavrov added in a television interview, would “harm the credibility” of Russia in other arms-sales contracts. The deal was said to be worth $800 million. Israel, on Sunday, was set to begin a major defense drill preparing for the possibility of a chemical weapons attack on population centers.“as long as ropes unravel fake rolex will travel” As funny as Dean Blunt is, his experimental beats and ironic hip-hop really benefits from the occasional earnest expression. The enigmatic London producer’s last few albums were animated by confusion—and not since 2012’s Black Is Beautiful with Inga Copeland did he make music that felt uncluttered. There is but one song on his Soundcloud now, and it’s a new one called “as long as ropes unravel fake rolex will travel.” As silly as the title is, it’s a refreshingly simple song: relaxing and free of tension, composed of just a well-wrought guitar riff and the sweet, sleepy intonation of a woman cooing. Not much happens in the nearly six minutes of “as long as ropes unravel fake rolex will travel” as it floats lazily from note to note. It is about as close to lullaby as Blunt may ever write. There’s not an ounce of tension or doubt here, and it’s nice to see Blunt offer a song that’s essentially easy listening; for a second, his usual inscrutability dissolves into a contented smile.The case of a stolen food truck in Kissimmee, Florida has been solved. A tip to investigators led them to a backyard where the truck was found -- sitting atop another trailer buried in the ground. Central Florida's News 13 spoke with Kissimmee police, who said the buried truck was from automative and tire store Clay and Sons, and the one atop it was a "food truck-type trailer." A neighbor of the suspect provided more details: "He had this crane and he worked there for about three weeks and just digging and digging and digging," said neighbor Betty Ryan. "He'd be up high over the fence and then I couldn't see him at all." Ryan told WKMG News 6 that the man told her he was digging a fish pond, and Ryan called the city when she worried it would flood her yard. Police said the man was allegedly building a doomsday-type bunker -- with stolen items. The Orlando Sentinel explains just how the trucks factored into that plan: ...the man intended to cut a hole through the bottom of the above-ground trailer that would serve as an entrance to the buried truck. Police believe he used large construction equipment to dig a hole several feet deep to cover the truck, making the top flush with the ground. Wesh 2 News writes that when the food truck was unearthed, pots and pans were still inside. Police spokeswoman Stacie Miller admitted to the press that its within anyone's rights to build a doomsday bunker, but only "as long as it's not out of stolen items." The man's name has not been released because he has not yet been arrested -- officials say the man the man is cooperating -- but if taken into custody he'll be charged with grand theft. Watch CNN's video about the doomsday food truck below:When I was 11 or so, my family made our annual road trip from OKC to Albuquerque to see my grandpa for Thanksgiving. We stopped at a Stucky’s on I-40 for gas and to take a restroom break. While I was in the gas station I saw a special edition of Mad Magazine — a reprint of the very first issue from 1952. I bought it for entertainment for the last leg of the trip. One of the comics in that issue really stuck with me. Created by legendary cartoonist Wally Wood, it’s called “Blobs!” and is set in a distant future where humans have become completely reliant on technology. They no longer walk because they have these little pods to take them around everywhere. Consequently, their bodies have shriveled into small gelatinous blobs while their heads have gotten enormous because of all the “mind work” they do. I remember when I saw Wall-E a few years ago, I wondered if the film’s creators were in fact riffing on this old comic. “Blobs!” is a bit over the top; this was Mad Magazine, after all!. (Try not to take offense about the clubbing bit–it’s meant tongue-in-cheek, and this is 1952 we’re talking about.) We haven’t quite arrived at the future depicted (though we’re getting close to the robot women thing. Google it. It’s weird.). Yet the comic serves as a nice pop-culture jeremiad that illuminates the possible ills of relying too much on technology. As I argued in Semper Virilis, the challenge for the contemporary man is to be a citizen of the modern world, without letting it suffocate and atrophy the best of his physical, primal masculinity and sense of mastery, autonomy, and self-reliance. Even as we develop technological breakthroughs that make our lives more comfortable and easier, we must always seek challenges and do hard things that keep us sharp, virile, and fulfilled! Enjoy.It’s World Toilet Day, which means it’s time to face the fact that 35% of the world’s population—2.5 billion people—lack access to safe, clean toilets. This isn’t just a humanitarian or public health catastrophe. Global businesses should find this alarming, too. That lack of toilets and proper sanitation are draining $260 billion off the global economy each year. The biggest source of economic losses related to toilets is something much more mundane than health care costs or work hours lost due to fecal-borne illness. It’s that people have to spend a long time finding a place to relieve themselves in private. The World Bank estimates that making clean toilets universally available would generate $220 billion in economic benefits (pdf, p.5) each year. Some $114 billion would come from the value of time people don’t spend hunting for toilets. Based on 2010 data. In places without safe, clean toilets, the average person spends at a minimum half an hour a day trying to find a private place to relieve himself, says the World Health Organization. That adds up to 7.6 days a year. It costs India—which in some areas has only 30 or 40 toilets for 29,000 people—around $10.7 billion a year. Of course, the diseases that blossom around cesspits are sapping billions of dollars off the world economy, too. Dirty toilets and poor sanitation cause 88% of global diarrhea cases (pdf, p.16), according to the World Health Organization. Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly You’d be bummed out by this open sewer, too. Some 1.9 million people die from preventable diarrheal diseases, more than HIV/AIDS (though in the poorest countries, the comparative mortality rates are about even). And poor sanitation, as well as a lack of hand-washing facilities, is a major cause of diseases like cholera, which kills between 100,000 and 120,000 people a year. Child mortality rates are particularly grim. Some 800,000 children die each year from diarrhea largely caused by poor sanitation—nearly 2,200 a day. Addressing those problems would slash around $15 billion a year in health care costs, according to the World Bank. Rampant sickness also results in crushing productivity losses. Providing universal safe, clean toilets and water would restore around $12 billion in productivity lost each year due to preventable deaths, reports the World Bank. By adding 12 billion working days a year lost when sick workers take the day off, universal access to clean toilets and water would save up to $8.3 billion a year. The toilet shortage is also making people in poor countries dumber. Each year, 500 million people are infected by whipworms from ingesting fecal matter in soil, water and vegetables. Every incidence of infection shaves an average 3.75 points off someone’s IQ—which adds up to a combined loss of 1.9 billion IQ points each year. What’s more, children would attend 443 million more school days a year if they weren’t constantly afflicted with diarrhea.With the preseason over and after trimming the roster to the 15-man limit, the Miami Heat’s roster has taken shape and, on paper, it looks much more promising than last season’s rendition. There are questions. Spacing is a major issue, and fitting together some great–though suspiciously fitting–parts to build a well-running car is easier said than done. Goran Dragic and Dwyane Wade have yet to get in step in the backcourt, the second unit is explosive offensively but porous defensively and the starting unit is plodding. However, this is a roster whose best quality is basketball know-how. If there’s a team that is going to figure it out, it’s this one. And, if they do, they can be very, very fun to watch. Erik Spoelstra will mess around with plenty of lineups, as he always does, until he finds the chemistry he needs. For now, though, we can take a look at how this depth chart breaks down.The intersection of Higgins and Milwaukee avenues in 1900, where the Wentworth Tavern once stood View Full Caption Northwest Chicago Historical Society CHICAGO — Most neighborhoods' histories can be traced back to a single pioneering outpost — like a farm, a trapping station or a military fort — from which a community began to grow. For Jefferson Park, that place was a tavern. The Northwest Chicago Historical Society tells the full story of the opportunistic barkeep who became the neighborhood's first permanent resident: Around 1830, Elijah Wentworth Sr. was the proprietor of a tavern located on Wolf Point, which is on the west side of the Chicago River near present-day Kinzie Street. His tavern was located near a Native American trail that led northwest. Elijah traveled this trail eight miles northwest to a place called Sand Ridge, just south of the Northern Indian Boundary Line. This Boundary line outlined area ceded by the Fox and Sauk to the United States in 1816, at the Treaty of St. Louis. At this place, he constructed a new tavern. Apparently, Elijah was looking for a new venue where he had more space or could cater to many travelers, trappers and Native Americans. Sand Ridge was a perfect spot for an inn, located near the junction of three well-traveled Native American Trails (current day Milwaukee Avenue, Higgins Avenue, and Northwest Highway). He built a large, 2-story, log tavern, “The Wentworth Tavern,” which later became “The Jefferson Hotel.” His inn was located on the land now occupied by the Jefferson Park Bus Terminal. Elijah Wentworth became the first resident and business owner in what is now the Jefferson Park neighborhood. With the exception of a short stay at Fort Dearborn during the Black Hawk War (1832), Elijah Wentworth continued to operate his inn until he sold the property, tavern and farm to David L. Roberts in the early 1850s. Before he left, others came to join him in the business district. After the City of Chicago incorporated in 1837, the surrounding townships followed suit through 1870. Jefferson Township was created by the Illinois General Assembly in 1861 within Cook County. This empowered the township to better govern the provision of services to its increasingly suburban residents. In the beginning, the township was a large tract of land, bordered by Devon Avenue on the north, Harlem Avenue on the west, Western Avenue to the east and North Avenue to the south. (Norwood Park Township would eventually break away from Jefferson Township taking a small portion of land at its northwest side). The first European settlers in the area wanted the township to be named for President James Monroe. However, they soon learned that another community in Illinois was known as Monroe, so they decided to honor President Thomas Jefferson instead. By 1855, the local area supported 50 buildings. The Township was its own form of government, but it also contained “villages,” like Irving, Dunning and Cragin. Another village, known as "The Town of Jefferson," was centered near Milwaukee and Higgins Avenues. Jefferson was officially incorporated in 1872. DNAinfo is partnering with the Northwest Chicago Historical Society for a new history post each week. All photos are the property of Northwest Chicago Historical Society unless otherwise indicated. For more photos and information, visit the Northwest Chicago Historical Society's Facebook page.Comments from GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum during a June Meet the Press roundtable have gained new context in light of his recent appearance at an Ohio Christian Alliance event, where he said that the U.S. public school system is "stuck in the factory era." During the roundtable, Santorum defends a quote from his best-selling book It Takes a Family, which according to The Hill, reads as follows: “Never before and never again after their years of mass education will any person live and work in such a radically narrow, age-segregated environment,” Santorum wrote. “It’s amazing that so many kids turn out to be fairly normal, considering the weird socialization they get in public schools.” He continues to note that home-schooling, by contrast, allows for children to interact "in a rich and complex way with adults and children of other ages... and in general a lot better socialized than their mass-schooled peers." "Where else in America, outside of school, do kids go to a place where they sit with people basically the same age, same socioeconomic group, and interact for, for a defined period of time?" Santorum says during the roundtable. "That's not what life is like. Life is very different than that." During the discussion, Santorum maintains that parents should be heavily involved in their children's education. "We need to transform public education to reflect more of what the dynamism is in the private sector, and that includes a whole way of infusing parents into the system," he said. "I would say that it's not the federal government's job to overhaul public education. What I would do is talk about how we need to
excluding unmilled cereals)Miscellaneous edible products and preparations Source: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Merchandise trade matrix, exports and imports, annual, 1995-2016. Agriculture See also: Agriculture \| Commodities \| Demographics \| Economics \| Education \| Energy \| Environment \| Exchange Rates \| Food Security \| Foreign Trade \| Healthcare \| Land Use \| Poverty \| Research and Development \| Telecommunication \| Tourism \| Transportation \| Water \| World RankingsThe Christmas decorations are up at the Tossonian family home in Riverside. With one notable exception.Their handmade wooden cutout of the Grinch is missing.Yes, the main character from the Dr. Seuss book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was stolen himself."Something is missing, they stole the best thing," said April Tossonian. "They stole the Grinch!"It happened around 12:10 a.m. Monday, on the 11000 block of Turningbend Way in Riverside.The Tossonians say their outdoor surveillance cameras captured video of a Scion SUV with black rims being driven up the street, then stopping in front of their neighbors' home.The video shows two people getting out of the vehicle, and then stealing the wooden holiday decoration from the front lawn, before running down the street with it."It looked like a female and a male at first," said David Tossonian. "But I'm hearing it's two females is what it looks like."Unfortunately, police departments across the Inland Empire say theft of holiday items, particularly package thefts, is on the rise this month."We respond to two or three calls of package theft a week," said Riverside police detective Rob Olsen.Olsen said packages should be brought inside as soon as possible to prevent theft. He also said surveillance cameras should be placed in such a way as to capture the getaway vehicle, not just the thief walking up to the yard."So that we can see the car coming and going, as opposed to just looking at your front door," said Olsen. "It's really important to see how they got there, and the license plate on a car is very valuable."As for the people who stole the Grinch who stole Christmas?"If they could just bring it by and return it," said David Tossonian. "It is replaceable - but it's hard to replace, it was handmade."Users can choose to have some notifications sent to them by email, RSS, or SMS so they can be informed of course updates without being required to log in to myCourses. Index Tiny Link 1. Use Caution Configuration required to avoid significant message volume If you choose to enable Notifications you must take time to configure them properly to ensure they meet your needs. Misconfiguration can cause a large amount of messages to be sent out. 2. 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The gateway must be a public method where an email can be sent to a user based on their phone number so they will receive it as a text message. 2.3. Customize Notifications At the bottom of the form the Customize Notifications section offers a few additional options. The first checkbox, Include my grade value in notifications from Grades, allows you the option of including your actual grades in messages. You may wish to disable this if this is a privacy concern for a shared mobile device. The remaining options allow you to receive notifications for courses outside of the current academic term or courses that have been made inactive by the instructor. We recommend leaving these options unchecked. If a class is in a future term or it has been made inactive, students will not be able to access the course so notifications will not be useful in those cases. 2.4. Exclude Some Courses Your notification settings allow you to exclude courses you do not wish to receive notifications for. Go to your Notifications settings. You can access your Notification settings through the Notifications link found in your user menu found by clicking on your name on the minibar at the top of most pages, or through the Notifications link found through the action menu on any News tool. Under the Exclude Some Courses heading, click Manage my Course Exclusions. Either browse the list or use the search box to locate the course you wish to disable, and click the Exclude button next to the right of the course title to stop notifications for that course. Repeat this for each course you wish to disable. Click the Close button at the bottom of the Manage Course Exclusions dialog. Click the Save button on the Notifications settings. To enable a course that has been excluded, repeat the steps above but instead of the 'X' to exclude the course a Restore button will be shown to click on. In this example the Search field was used to narrow down the list to courses with 'online' in the title. 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Under Exclude Some Courses, click Manage my Course Exclusions. Click on Restore Excluded Courses. 3. Available Notifications 3.1. Daily Summary (Email only) The daily summary email will include most activity on a course, generally reflecting the information found in the Updates shown on the course home page of courses by default. This option will send you an individual email for each course you are enrolled in, past and present, unless you choose to Exclude Some Courses. You must set up your email contact method to subscribe to a summary of activity. On the Notifications page, change the How often? drop-down list From Never to Daily. Select from the At what time? drop-down lists when you want to receive your daily digest. Click Save. Click Save at the bottom of the page. 3.2. Instant Discussion Notifications (Email Only) Users can receive email notifications for discussion forums, threads, or messages that you want to follow. This option is enabled by default. 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Support can only assist you with getting the RSS feed from myCourses for your use, we are not able to assist with the configuration and use of third-party options to take advantage of the RSS Feed. 3.6. Instant Quiz Notifications (Email, SMS) Quiz notifications will be sent for available quizzes that have not been taken yet, as well as for quizzes that have been taken but which offer unlimited attempts or multiple attempts which have not all been used.Trade wars with China. Arguments over a border wall with Mexico. Strained relations with South Korea. They all might sound like issues for politicians and the CEOs of multinational corporations, but among the Americans who have a vested interest in foreign affairs are a more unlikely group: family farmers in rural Nebraska. Rick and Heidi Hammond and their daughter, Meghan, are one such Nebraskan family. The fifth and sixth generation of a miniature farming dynasty, they raise corn, soybeans and cattle while dealing with the uncertainties of the weather, farming machinery—and national and international politics. Along for ride is journalist Ted Genoways, who recounts the challenges the family has faced since they first arrived in the Cornhusker State in the 1860s in his new book, This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm. “I saw firsthand conversations about what to do at a particular moment on a soybean farm in rural Nebraska that was directly influenced by what was happening at that moment in trading in China,” Genoways says. Before, it was enough that we grew the most abundant and cheapest crops. But now, Genoways says farmers follow everything from trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the debate over NAFTA and immigration from Mexico—to which the Mexican government has suggested it might stop imports of American corn. “There are many influences on who decides to trade with us and certainly right now there’s a great deal of nervousness over what Trump’s volatile relations overseas will mean for sales of grains in particular, but also our meat sales and really all ag products,” Genoways says. This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm "This Blessed Earth" is both a concise exploration of the history of the American small farm and a vivid, nuanced portrait of one family’s fight to preserve their legacy and the life they love. Buy The system in place today means that midsized family-run farms like the Hammonds’ are almost as dependent on the decisions of politicians in Washington, D.C., as they are on the sun and rain in Nebraska. How did we get to the point where agriculture was so closely tied to American geopolitics and global events? Abraham Lincoln, eager to preserve a West free of slavery, signed the Homestead Act in 1862. It granted cheap plots of land to any citizen who had never taken up arms against the federal government and funneled money from the purchase of those lands into schools for agriculture and mechanical arts (known as A&Ms). Lincoln also signed the Pacific Railway Act, providing land grants for railroad companies. Among the young men lured west by the promise of a life of agriculture and freedom was Thomas Barber, Heidi Hammond’s great-great-grandfather and the first of his clan to forge a life on the frontier. But farmers’ yields over the second half the of the 19th century were unpredictable, even as the amount of land overtaken by crops expanded. In 1874, nearly three-fourths of the country’s crops were chewed to nothing by swarming grasshoppers, and then came the Bank Panic of 1893, and then multiple years of drought. If farmers wanted more reliable yields, and the nation a ready source of food, something had to be done. Along came two men who would forever change how and what we grow. First was Henry A. Wallace, an innovator experimenting with corn hybridization. He developed a drought-resistant variety just as the Dust Bowl hit, and for his work was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. Within a decade, the share of America’s corn that came from hybrid seeds had grown from 1 percent to more than 75. From there, Wallace went on to become Roosevelt’s vice president and convinced him to establish a federal grain reserve. In years of high production, the Department of Agriculture would store grain, and release it during lower production years to keep prices down. Then there was famous car manufacturer Henry Ford. After losing $120 million in the early 1930s due to a decline in sales of trucks and tractors, Ford turned to soybeans as a way to “rescue” debt-ridden farmers and engage in a new industry. He promoted soybeans mainly for their chemurgic applications, but also stocked his company commissary with soy milk ice cream and baked goods made of soy flour. Soybeans had better yields than corn in periods of drought, and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the government pushed for even greater yields, since the beans provided a source of edible fat and oil. Between 1943 and 1945 the country’s soybean production went from 78 million bushels to 193 million—and when the war ended, those beans could feed the cattle that Americans were so eager to eat as they had before the war after years of rationing. Wallace’s hybrid varieties came with one setback, however they grew so quickly that they rapidly depleted nitrogen from the soil. Enter Monsanto and other munitions manufacturers like DuPont, whose business had boomed during World War II. When peace was struck, they were starved for customers. Soon these companies were churning out chemical fertilizers and pesticides for use by farmers who in turn grew year after year of surplus grains, using ever more precise hybrid varieties of corn and soybeans. The stage was set for an agricultural system that could be further manipulated by a federal government eager to undercut grain commodities of Communist countries during the Cold War and buy allies with cheap produce. “We’ve really built a system where we’re exporting grains in large numbers in order to have some influence around the world, not just with our friends but also with our enemies, by controlling the food supply,” Genoways says. “What that means is that they’re not only dependent on us for supply, but we’re also dependent on them for demand.” That dependency can mean the survival or failure of a family farm, and family-owned farms still comprise 99 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the United States. As grain prices have fallen over the past five years, more and more farmers are feeling the squeeze, Genoways says—and that’s not even accounting for the fact that in 2015, U.S. agricultural exports were at their lowest value in five years. Little wonder that farmers closely watch foreign markets and the evolving relationship the U.S. has with its trading partners, like China and Mexico. For Genoways, it’s time people realized the complexity of farming in a global system, where choices made by the government will have a direct impact on farmers and the food we eat. He hopes readers will come away from his book with that new appreciation. “What they do is incredibly valuable, and the heritage they represent is valuable, and we’re trying to preserve that way of life and make it sustainable,” Genoways says.Mexico‘s Colima Volcano has sent three eruptions in the space of a few hours, spewing ash and vapour more than a mile into the air. The civil defence office of that western state of Jalisco says the three eruptions occurred Sunday morning. The biggest columns of ash reached 1.25 miles (2 kilometres) in height, and the smallest was just under a mile tall. Video showed a large explosion around 9 p.m. Saturday night (0200 GMT Sunday) with glowing lava, smoke and ash shooting from the volcano in front of a starlit, night sky. READ MORE: Mexico’s ‘Volcano of Fire’ erupts forcing hundreds to be evacuated An earlier explosion sent a large plume of ash and smoke some 2,000 meters (4,921 feet) into the air around 4 p.m. (2200 GMT). Also known as the Volcano of Fire, the 12,533-foot (3,820-meter) volcano is 430 miles (690 kilometres) west of Mexico City. The 3,800 metre volcano has increased in activity since October. The eruptions cap about 10 days of periodic exhalations at the volcano, which is one of Mexico’s most active. READ MORE: Hawaii volcano offers view of rolling, spattering lava According to website volcanodiscovery.com, increased activity at the volcano is due to the growth of a new lava dome. Mexico has more than 3,000 volcanoes, but only 14 are considered active.Size: Very large canoe paddle Recorded: September, 2014 Found: North Branch Antiques, Antrim, NH Circa: 1800s? Made: United States Material: Steel Status: Uknown Thanks to Kitty Mervine for the submission! No one seems to know what this is. It’s an adjustable metal hoop, with a very long handle attached at an angle. One one side is a metal rod with a chain attached to the bottom. There is a good deal of farm equipment at this shop, so it could be related to farming, but there is also a collection of industrial equipment from old factories. Could this be for dragging barrels around? If so, why the chain? What do you think? Don Lacey thinks it’s a crucible shank, and looking at this picture, it seems he might be right!If you're one of many who believe Dennis Rodman, the self-appointed ambassador to North Korea and now Vatican City, really needs to find his way back home, how do you suppose the family he abandoned feels? They haven't seen their "son" in ages, or roughly 57 tattoos ago. "The truth is," said Pat Rich, her slow Midwestern drawl dripping with sadness, "we don't hear from him anymore. And I don't know why. There hadn't been anything that happened between us. We hadn't done anything to him. I've tried to reach out and tell him we still love him, always loved him and for him to come see us. It's like we don't exist anymore. He simply forgot about us. He don't contact us no more." She says there are times when she and her husband James, after all these empty years, will glance outside the window at their narrow driveway and wonder if a car will pull up, and if the doorknob will turn, and if a tall and pierced black man will walk through and brighten the mood and the modest split-level house with his dyed hair and presence. And then this hallucination quickly fades and an elderly white couple are left to themselves, to come to grips with the cold reality: A Hall of Fame player and oddball is not walking through that door. Not now, and at this point, maybe not ever. Here in a post-NBA career laced with strange turns, as one might've predicted, Rodman can trek to a foreign country half a world away and snuggle up to a ruthless and dangerous dictator. He can take another trip to Italy in a self-promotional attempt to gain an audience with a saint. But he can't bring himself to travel a few states away, to a place he once knew before the madness changed his life, and hug a family that famously cared for him in a way no one else has or probably will. "I feel like I lost a son," Pat Rich said. Two, actually. A few years ago her oldest died suddenly at age 48 and the tragedy shattered the tight family. Rodman and the Rich's two boys, Michael and Byrne, were an inseparable threesome once upon a time, and so the family naturally assumed Rodman would finally reconnect during a time of crisis. They spent days trying to contact Rodman before reaching him through his people. He didn't call and didn't show for Michael's funeral. As it turned out, he was busy. He sent word that he had an appearance on Jay Leno. "It hurt my husband dearly," said Pat Rich. "My husband cried that day." Rodman couldn't be reached for comment for this story. A person who identified himself as John at the talent agency that represents Rodman said "there's nothing at all" against the Riches but couldn't offer any explanation for his refusal to speak with them. * * * How the greatest pound-for-pound rebounder in NBA history met and bonded with a conservative family from the tumbleweeds of Oklahoma is one of those fairy tales that ring too wonderfully weird to be true. Once their story became public, it helped sell books and went beyond basketball. Rodman and the Riches were brought to life in a 1998 made-for-TV movie that depicted Rodman, in his time with the Riches, as normal instead of the cartoon character he created for himself during and after his career. He thanked the family profusely in his R-rated autobiography, "Bad As I Wanna Be," which told us more about Madonna's athletic ability than we ever knew and soared to the bestseller list. Even in his induction speech at the Basketball Hall of Fame, he teared up when recalling how much the family meant to him at a critical time in his life, when he had no direction and little hope. When you see Rodman today, a retired star who seems desperate to hang onto whatever shred of celebrity he has left, you almost forget how he was a completely different person before fame hit, and that's where the Riches come into play. As a white family, they took heat from neighbors in Bokchito, Oklahoma (the N-word was thrown their way quite a bit) who never knew of any black people, and even some relatives when their troubled 13-year-old son Byrne brought home a 22-year-old black man and asked if Rodman could stay for dinner. What followed was a study in racial and cultural attitudes, the healing power of love and how sports and fame can cause an unexpected shift in a three-stoplight town. "We had so many wonderful times together and some struggles, and that's why this is so hard for us right now," said James Rich. "We all went through a lot. He was a son to us and we're all sad and wondering what happened. It's like a void in our lives. I don't know where to start." Rodman wasn't some pampered basketball blue-chipper while growing up poor in South Dallas, the son of an Air Force enlistee dad named Philander (whom Rodman reunited with last year after 42 years of estrangement) and a mom named Shirley who had to take odd jobs to make ends meet, especially after Philander abandoned the family. Rodman didn't even play in high school, unlike his two younger sisters. He worked as a janitor. He had a late growth spurt after high school, found his way onto a basketball team at a local community college, flunked out, then migrated to Southeastern Oklahoma State University when a scholarship opened up. While working a camp the summer before he started school in the college town of Durant, about 15 miles from Bokchito, Rodman came across a shy young camper who barely spoke. Drawn together by fate and basketball, Rodman quickly learned why the boy was so withdrawn. A few years earlier, Byrne had accidently shot his best friend Brad while they were using apples for target practice out back on the Rich's 600-acre farm. The boy died three days later and left Byrne in a suspended state of shock. His parents tried everything to trigger recovery and mostly struck out. One day they suggested he attend basketball camp, and he returned home, chatty again, with a stranger in tow. The Dennis Rodman then wasn't the Rodman we saw during a suspension-filled 15-year career. His hair color was natural and demeanor was innocent and child-like. He had some rough edges, Pat Rich recalls, but nothing that would raise any red flags, not even close. At first he spent weekends at the Riches, doing chores and tending to the farm with Byrne and the Riches' other son Michael. Then he stayed there on some school nights. He and Byrne grew tight in a big-brother, little-brother way. When James Rich learned Rodman never knew his own biological father, Rich could relate. He grew up the same way and so the "new father" and "new son" had a unique bond. Rich challenged Rodman repeatedly. When Rodman grew discouraged and homesick, Rich said: "If you go home you'll never make anything of yourself. Stay here, give it a shot and maybe you'll create some opportunities in your life." When Rodman told the family he'd soon be a big man on campus, Rich said, half-joking: "You'll never make the starting five." Rodman did, immediately. Rich told Rodman if he got 25 points or 25 rebounds on a certain night, he'd take him to Pizza Hut, his favorite spot. "That relationship," said Pat Rich, "just grew and grew." Pat always cooked Rodman's favorite meal ("barbeque chicken, corn on the cob and rolls") and allowed him to drive the family car and take a spin on the tractors. Even when he became the best player in NAIA, nobody envisioned he'd win seven rebounding titles and five championships in the NBA; professional basketball wasn't on the radar. Rodman was considered family, nothing more or less, for the three years he stayed, and the subsequent visits in the several years that followed. "I was strict on him like I was with my boys," Pat Rich said. "He couldn't curse in my house. He had a curfew. We went to church every Sunday. He had to show respect. And he did." Then the first hurricane hit: Rodman was drafted by the Pistons and became a major part of a two-time champ. Pat Rich found the response a bit funny in Bokchito. "The people who complained about us having a black man in our house, all of a sudden, wanted his autograph," she said. "Having him in our house wasn't OK until he became famous." The second hurricane was a lot harsher: Rodman took on a new persona, dressed in drag for attention, contemplated suicide, liked his motorcycles and women fast and turned into a controversial icon. The Rodman the Riches knew was dead and buried. This new one, they accepted anyway, but didn't quite know what to make of him. Who did? One of his former Bulls teammates likes to tell this story. Rodman didn't arrive for an important practice one afternoon. Phil Jackson said: go get him. The teammate drove to Rodman's house, which was surprisingly unassuming, located on an ordinary street in the Chicago suburbs. There was no answer at the door, so the teammate pushed it open and found a dozen people in various stages of dress, all sleeping on the floor. Rodman was among them. The place was a mess. "Dennis," the teammate barked. "Get up. Let's go." Rodman staggered to his feet, reached for some shorts and sweats and off they went. People often freaked out whenever he appeared in public. I saw the height of Rodmania first-hand at the team party following his first championship with the Bulls. Rodman stood at the edge of a balcony (with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, a Rodman pal, nearby) overlooking a large dance floor packed with people celebrating the victory. "Watch this," Rodman said. "Mosh pit." Without warning, he jumped some 15 or so feet and caused a crater in the crowd. Security raced and began throwing bodies aside, grabbed Rodman and dragged him back upstairs to safety. "Crazy, I know," said Rodman. *** The separation between Rodman, now 51, and the Riches, according to Pat Rich, was gradual, then sudden. Byrne Rich was a frequent member of Rodman's entourage at first until the invitations stopped coming. Bokchito became Pluto. Once a visitor each off-season, Rodman stopped coming to see the Riches, then stopped calling. Several years ago, or maybe longer, Pat Rich can't remember, Rodman called Byrne out of the blue and asked her son to join him in Las Vegas for a weekend. Byrne, who didn't like how Rodman disappeared from their lives, declined. Pat Rich said the family never depended on Rodman financially, never asked him for much. When Rodman began appearing in the news for the wrong reasons, they began to fear for him, that he'd die young. "I know he got to drinking hard and partying," she said. "I worried just like any parent would." She added: "Dennis is just peculiar in some ways. He's not confrontational. He just doesn't deal with responsibility real well. He'd rather just run away. There are some things he'd rather not face." She doesn't know what to make of the North Korea trip, or Rodman talking up the tyrant Kim Jong Un, or the attempt to see the Pope. She just doesn't understand why he can make time for that -- most likely, there's a financial stake in it for Rodman -- and not the family that knew him before his life became chaotic, the family that helped put him on the right path. "We're getting up in age," she said, "and my husband asked, 'If one of us passed away, would Dennis come to the funeral?' That's how we talk sometimes. I don't know if he cares about us. Deep down, he might. I just think the fame took him away from us, made him drift further from us." The Dennis Rodman who ventured into small town Oklahoma and befriended a white family and lived a quiet and unassuming lifestyle isn't the one who raised eyebrows in Washington by going to North Korea. The trip was wrong in so many ways, and Rodman confirmed as much when he returned and suddenly became an expert on Kim Jong Un and international relations. "Kim told me to pass a message that he said is very important," said Rodman, in one of his stops on a post-trip media blitz. "He said, 'Tell President Obama to call me. Because if we can talk, we can work this out.'" Call. Talk. Work this out. What if Rodman followed that advice? "If he did, we would be ecstatic," said Pat Rich. "But it won't happen. Those days are over."Welcome to the 2015 edition of Top Shelf Prospects. As the summer progresses, I will be featuring each NHL team’s top prospects, following the order of the first round of the 2015 NHL draft (as if there were no traded draft picks) —you can find all the articles here. Because we already published an extensive NHL Draft preview, I will not be reviewing the players who were drafted in 2015, as my reports on them will not have changed — I will, however, link you to those articles. Instead I will focus on prospects that were acquired in past drafts, examining their progress and their chances of making the 2015-16 roster of their respective NHL team. I will also choose one sleeper pick – a player who was either drafted in the fourth round or later, or was an undrafted free agent signing who I pick as a darkhorse to make the NHL. For those wondering, the determining factors for defining who is or isn’t a prospect is typically about 50 NHL games played or being 25 years old. These are not set in stone, and I may make some exceptions depending on the circumstances. In their first season under head coach Barry Trotz, the Washington Capitals showed a new commitment to defensive hockey. The improved defensive game didn’t take away too much from the offensive game though as Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and the rest continued to light up the score sheet. However, their season ended in familiar fashion with a second round playoff loss to the New York Rangers. Over the Off-season, the Capitals said good-bye to Eric Fehr, Joel Ward, and Mike Green who left the team as free agents. They also traded Troy Brouwer, prospect Pheonix Coppley and a draft pick to the St. Louis Blues for T.J. Oshie. In free agency, the Capitals added Justin Williams. They also locked up Braden Holtby long-term for big money. He earned the raise with a season that saw him finish 4th in Vezina Trophy voting. Players Drafted: Ilya Samsonov, Jonas Siegenthaler, Connor Hobbs, Colby Williams Graduated: Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Michael Latta, Nate Schmidt, Washington Capitals Prospects Top Prospect: Madison Bowey, Defence Born Apr 22 1995 — Winnipeg, MAN Height 6.01 — Weight 194 — Shoots Right Drafted by the Washington Capitals in the 2nd Round, 53rd overall at the 2013 NHL Draft Madison Bowey followed up on his huge breakout in 2013-14, with another 60 point season in 2014-15. He was even better, doing it in less games, and taking some time off to be a top defenceman for Team Canada’s World Junior Gold Medal squad. He also helped the Rockets to the WHL title with 19 points in 19 playoff games, and came up with six points in five games at the Memorial Cup. Coming from the defence factory of the Kelowna Rockets, Bowey looks to be the next in a long line of NHL defencemen that the junior program has produced. Bowey’s game is defined by his great skating ability. His mobility is top notch, as he has very good top end speed, and acceleration; both in his forward and backwards skating. He has great pivots, excellent agility and very good edgework which allows him to cover a ton of ground out there. This skating ability allows Bowey to keep the play in front of him, as well to recover when he makes a mistake. Bowey is an excellent puck mover with the ability to rush the puck or to make a strong first pass. He has a cannon of a slap shot from the point, and this can be seen in the 21 goals he scored this season. He needs to learn to keep it low and on net at times though. His passing and vision are decent and he can be a threat as a powerplay quarterback. One thing that really took his game to the next level was increased patience and poise with the puck this year. He seemed to rush plays a lot less, taking the time to find the smart play and move the puck more efficiently with his passing. While the offence has broken out this season, its the combination of that along with Bowey’s defensive abilities that have him as a real top quality prospect. He has high hockey IQ, reads the play very well, and understands how to cut down passing and shooting lanes. Bowey has been willing to play a gritty game as he wins battles along the boards, and is a willing shot blocker, sacrificing himself for the good of the team. He’s raw though, and at times he can be a little bit over-aggressive and get himself out of position, either gambling to create a turnover, or looking for the big hit. These are areas he will need to curb going forward. With Mike Green leaving for Detroit, Bowey will head to Caps camp with a real chance to make the team and step into the role that Green has held for years. That said, he will need to prove he is ready. He is still quite young, and it would not be a surprise to see him have to spend some time in the AHL first. #2 Prospect: Jakub Vrana, Centre/Wing Born Feb 28 1996 — Prague, Czech Rep. Height 5.11 — Weight 185 [180 cm/84 kg] Drafted by Washington Capitals in round 1, 13th overall at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft After being the Capitals first round pick in 2014, Vrana had a solid season in the SHL with 24 points in 44 games. Thats good productions for an 18 year old in a men’s league. He also had three points in five games at the World Juniors, and 11 points in 13 AHL games (
both local and course-wide conditions to drivers. Alternatively, some race tracks employ lights to supplement the primary flag at the start/finish line. Summary [ edit ] While there is no universal system of racing flags across all of motorsports, most series have standardized them, with some flags carrying over between series. For example, the chequered flag is commonly used across all of motorsport to signify the end of a session (practice, qualifying, or race), while the penalty flags differ from series to series. FIA-sanctioned championship flags are the most commonly used internationally (outside of North America) as they cover championships such as Formula 1, the FIA World Endurance Championship and WTCC, and are adopted (and sometimes adapted) by many more motorsport governing bodies across the world such as, for example, the MSA. Uses of flags in major racing leagues Flag FIA-sanctioned championships[2] IndyCar[3] NASCAR[4] Road courses Ovals Road courses Ovals Start of race / end of hazard / safe racing conditions Race (re)starting under caution Local caution Local caution (single) Caution Full-Course Caution (with letter board)[5] Slow zone on track (with SLOW board)[6] Full-Course Caution (twin) No overtaking, slow down to 60 kph. Debris, fluid or animals on track Car is lapped and must give way to faster cars approaching Course partially blocked Approaching car attempting to overtake[7] Stopped car on course Faster cars approaching Slow moving vehicle ahead Final lap Session suspended Practice or Qualifying finished. Disqualification Return to the pits Return to the pits for repairs Penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct Disqualification Session finished / winner Race finished / winner Racing stage finished Caution Status flags [ edit ] Status flags are used to inform all drivers of the general status of the course during a race. In addition, the green, yellow, and red flags described below may be augmented or replaced by lights at various points around the circuit. Green flag [ edit ] The green flag signals a clear track to race on. The solid green flag is usually displayed by the starter to indicate the start of a race. During a race, it is displayed at the end of a caution period or a temporary delay to indicate that the race is restarting. The waving of a green flag is almost universally supplemented with the illumination of green lights (resembling traffic lights) at various intervals around the course, particularly on ovals. If the race is not under caution or delayed, it is said to be under green-flag conditions. However, the flag itself is typically not continuously waved by the starter. No flag displayed at the starter's stand implies safe, green-flag conditions. At all times, however, the green lights remain lit. When shown at a marshalling post, a green flag may indicate the end of a local yellow-flag zone. [2] A separate green flag displayed at the entrance to the pit area indicate that the pits are open. [2] In NASCAR, a green and yellow flag waved at the same time indicates that the race is being started or restarted under caution and laps are being counted. This is sometimes called a "running yellow" and usually occurs when a track is drying after a rain delay. The officials will utilize the cars in the field to facilitate the final drying of the course, but in order to not waste fuel (affecting fuel strategy, etc.), and delay the race further, the laps are counted towards the advertised race distance. [4] In 1980, USAC flagman Duane Sweeney started a tradition at the Indianapolis 500 of waving twin green flags for added visual effect at the start of the race. Green flags waved at restarts were single. [8] Since roughly the 1990s, some races on occasion invite celebrity guests to wave the green flag at the start of the race. Before the use of starting lights in Formula One and most other FIA sanctioned or associated events, the national flag of the country in which a race is occurring, instead of a green flag, was used to signal its start, and still does on occasion in the event of equipment failure. Yellow flag [ edit ] The yellow flag means caution. The solid yellow flag, or caution flag, universally requires drivers to slow down due to a hazard on the track, typically an accident, a stopped car, debris or light rain. However, the procedures for displaying the yellow flag vary for different racing styles and sanctioning bodies. In Formula One racing, a yellow flag displayed at the starter's stand or a marshal station indicates that there is a hazard "downstream" of the station. The manner of display depends on the location of the hazard: A single waved flag denotes a hazard on the racing surface itself. A single stationary flag denotes a hazard near the racing surface. Two flags waved simultaneously denotes a hazard that wholly or partly blocks the racing surface. This informs the driver that there may be marshals on the track and to prepare to stop, if necessary.[2] When shown at a station, drivers are forbidden from overtaking until either the hazard or the next flag station displaying a green flag (signifying the end of a cautionary section) is passed. This flag is shown at the discretion of the marshals manning the station.[2] When the safety car is on the circuit, all flag points will display a'safety car board' (a large white board with "SC" in large black lettering). When flag points are under radio control, this will happen immediately, otherwise, the board is displayed when the safety car comes round for the first time. This is accompanied by a waved yellow flag. Standard yellow flag conditions apply to the whole circuit; notably, overtaking is completely forbidden. When the safety car comes in and the race resumes, a green flag is displayed at the start line, and subsequently at all flag points around the circuit for one lap. Overtaking is not allowed until the cars have passed the start/finish line, or in F1, the safety car line at pit entry.[2] When there are circumstances where double-waved yellow flags are needed yet usage of the safety car is not warranted, then the race will be under a Virtual Safety Car period, during which all flag points will display a 'VSC board' and all light panels on track will display the letters 'VSC' surrounded by a flashing yellow border. Under the VSC procedure, all drivers on the track must reduce their speed and stay above a minimum time set by race officials at least once in each marshalling sector. Overtaking is not permitted unless if another driver enters the pit lane or if a car slows down due to an obvious problem. When deemed safe to end the VSC procedure, teams are notified via the official messaging system 10 to 15 seconds before green flags are waved.[9] Most races in the FIA World Endurance Championship may be under a Full-Course Yellow period upon discretion of the race director when deemed necessary for safety reasons. Once declared, all flag points will display a 'FCY board' and all cars on track must immediately slow down to 80 kph and maintain their distance to the cars in front and behind. Overtaking is forbidden until green flags are waved.[10] The FCY procedure is not used during the 24 Hours of Le Mans due to the circuit's length of 13.626 km. Instead, portions of the track can be divided into Slow Zones, identified by track-side horizontal markings at both beginning and end, and 'Next Slow' boards in the preceding zone. Within the zone, all marshal posts will display double-waved yellow flags and 'SLOW' boards, and all light panels will display the letters 'SZ' surrounded by a flashing yellow border. All cars within the zone must slow down to 80 kph until they are clear of the waved green flag at the end.[11][12] In both NASCAR and IndyCar, a single yellow flag waved from the starter's stand places the race under caution. At this time, a pace car will enter the course and lead the field at a safe, predetermined, reduced speed. On oval tracks, yellow lights universally supplement the primary flag at the start/finish line. These lights usually operate in a flashing manner, in order to quickly gain the attention of the drivers. The field is locked into place at the onset of caution periods and no one is allowed to pass another car without mutual consent (excluding crashed and immobile cars). In some races, though, cars may pass one another on pit road during a caution period. When the starter shows a furled yellow flag, it indicates one lap to green.[4][3] On road course races in IndyCar, a single yellow flag at a marshaling station indicates a "local" yellow, similar to the aforementioned rules in Formula One. In these cases, the pace car does not enter the track, and the caution period is limited only to that particular segment of the track. Green flag racing prevails around the remainder of the course. Twin yellow flags displayed at the starter's stand indicates a "full-course caution", in which the pace car would enter the track and the entire course would be under caution. This might occur for a serious crash or other major hazards. NASCAR has also experimented with "local yellows" on their road course events.[3] In the case of snowmobile racing, the yellow flag is displayed at or before the point of the hazard. When a snowmobile racer crosses the yellow flag, the race will continue, however, the skis and track of the snowmobile must remain on the ground. In snowmobile water cross (racing on open water), the caution flag simply warns the racers that one or more racers have sunk and are in the water, however the race will continue as normal. In horse racing, the yellow flag means that there is a serious incident ahead, the horses must be pulled up and the race must be declared void. Most yellow flags are seen when a horse has suffered a serious injury. Code 60 flag [ edit ] This pink flag orders drivers to slow down to 60 kph and to not overtake until a green flag is waved. As an alternative to the full-course yellow and safety car periods used during other FIA-backed races, the 24H Series uses a series of purple lights and flags to declare a "Code 60" period. Under "Code 60," overtaking is not allowed and all drivers must slow their cars down to a maximum of 60 km/h (37 mph). The race resumes immediately when green flags are waved and green lights are flashing at each marshal post. Yellow flags are still used to indicate local cautions.[13] Safety concerns and the beneficiary in NASCAR [ edit ] The point at which the caution period starts is a topic of controversy in oval racing. Traditionally, the cars were locked into their positions when they crossed the start/finish line, but technological advancements have made it possible to lock them in at the instant that the caution is declared. This has effectively put an end to the "race back to the caution", in which drivers speed up during yellow flag periods to beat the leader to the flag. This practice, while giving lapped drivers a better chance to make their lap back, was at times highly dangerous in that it encouraged drivers to engage in pitched battles with major safety hazards on track. Safety workers were not able to respond to accidents until the cars were under control of the pace car, which markedly slowed their response times to potentially injured drivers. To compensate for the elimination of the race back to the caution, NASCAR and some other motorsports series, both road racing and short oval, have implemented the beneficiary rule, which allows the highest-placed car that is a full lap or more behind the race leader to complete an extra lap during the caution period in order to make up a lap. In some series (Indy Racing League, Champ Car, beginning in 2007, Formula One, and beginning in mid-2009, NASCAR) lapped cars between the pace car and the leader are allowed to move to the rear of the next lap when the signal is given two laps before a restart. In Formula One, all lapped cars between the leaders are permitted to advance one lap. The rule, as enforced in the three open-wheel series, is designed to prevent lapped cars from blocking on ensuing restarts, as to prevent unsportsmanlike blocking when a lapped teammate or friend of one driver attempts to help that driver through impeding the progress of an opponent on the restart. Red and yellow striped flag [ edit ] The "surface flag" indicates a slippery track surface ahead. The red and yellow striped flag, or surface flag is displayed stationary at local flag stations to indicate that track conditions have changed due to substances on the track which could reduce grip or cause a car to lose control. Generally oil, coolant, small pieces of debris or sand are the hazards. It can also be "rocked" back and forth (but not waved) to indicate a small animal on the racing surface. Many organizations will display this flag for only two laps, after which the changed surface is considered to merely be "part of the track". Red flag [ edit ] The red flag signals the suspension of the current session. The solid red flag is displayed when conditions are too dangerous to continue the session. Depending on the series and the circumstances, the cars are typically directed to proceed immediately to pit road, or to stop at a specific spot on the track. In some severe cases the cars might be required to stop immediately where they are. During red flag conditions, repair work in the pits or garage area is typically prohibited, except in non-points paying races. There are numerous hazards that might cause a need to halt or prematurely end a session. Many hazards, such as rain, darkness, a blocked course (due to debris, water, or safety vehicles), a car on fire, or a multi-car crash (especially one that results in serious injuries or one that results in damage to walls, fences or the surface itself which require repairs) might prompt series officials to call for the red flag. Some series use a red flag when a severe accident has occurred or to temporarily stop a race nearing the end of a race. This is usually done when a collision requiring cleanup would otherwise extend the caution period to take longer than the amount of race laps available to finish the race, when a fuel spill occurs on the circuit, or to maximize safety team work. During such a red-flag period, cars are directed to stop in line at a specific point on the track, usually directly opposite to the incident. The red flag may be used to indicate a pre-determined pause in the race, such as in NASCAR's Budweiser Shootout or the Sprint All Star Race. In these cases, the cars are directed to the pit area where some may be worked on to the extent the race rules allow. In the event of a bad start, the yellow and red flags may be displayed together, or a unique diagonally divided red and yellow flag can be displayed, to indicate a restart. Drivers will go back to their starting positions and line up for another start. This is rarely used where computer scoring is involved, and can create much confusion as the drivers attempt to get back in order. In NASCAR, a practice session or a qualifying session is ended with the red and black flags waved together. White flag [ edit ] The white flag signals that a slow moving vehicle ahead in FIA-sanctioned races, or the start of the final lap in NASCAR and INDYCAR. In Formula One, the white flag is waved on the last corner and the pit straight at the end of free practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, indicating to drivers that there are drivers doing practice starts on the pit straight. Drivers are permitted to do one practice start at the end of each free practice session. In all championships which use the FIA International Sporting Code, as well as North American road racing, the white flag indicates the presence of an official car or a competitor moving at below normal speed in the section of track covered by the flag station. In NASCAR, IndyCar, North American motorcycle road racing,[14] and most American forms of motorsports, a waved white flag displayed at the starter's stand indicates the start of the final lap of the race. In MotoGP, a white flag is used to warn riders of rain. In some series, a white flag is shown from all flag stations on the first lap of a practice or qualifying session so competitors will know which stations are manned. Instruction flags [ edit ] Instruction flags are usually used to communicate with one driver at a time. Black flag [ edit ] The black flag indicates a driver is disqualified in an FIA-sanctioned race, or orders a driver to the pits in NASCAR and IndyCar. The solid black flag is used to summon a driver to the pits. It is usually associated with a penalty imposed on the driver for disobeying the rules, but may also be used when a car is suffering a mechanical failure, leaking fluid, exhibiting damage such as loose bodywork, loose hood, dragging bumper, or any other damage that could potentially become a hazard to the driver or other competitors. In some cases, the black flag may be used to call a driver to the pits when their radio is not working. In FIA International-permitted series, the black flag means an immediate disqualification for the driver involved. The car number of the summoned driver is displayed on the finish line. Some sanctioning bodies wave the black flag at all observation posts simultaneously to order all drivers to clear the track after the starter waves the red flag, often in the case of a serious accident. When the black flag is used for disciplinary reasons in most races in North America, a driver is required to return to pit lane for at minimum a drive-through penalty. A driver may be black-flagged for failing to maintain a reasonable minimum speed, even if no apparent damage or mechanical failure is present. In almost all cases, the team is given a chance to make repairs to the car and get it up to an acceptable condition. If the driver still cannot maintain minimum speed in relation to the leaders after repairs, the driver may be required to park for the remainder of the race. For example, NASCAR requires that a driver run at or above 115 percent of the fastest lap time by any driver in the final practice. (This can be converted to an average speed-limit based on the length of the course, which for oval tracks will be close to the actual speed limit at any given time.) IndyCar has a 105 percent rule, most notably used when officials parked Jean Alesi and Simona de Silvestro during the 2012 Indianapolis 500. In the case of snowmobile racing, the black flag comes in three stages to disqualification; the first flag is a warning to a racer, the second flag is a one-lap penalty, and the third is disqualification. In order for a snowmobile racer to receive a black flag, the racer must make contact with intent to inconvenience another racer. During the Coke Zero Suzuka 8 Hours (FIM World Endurance Championship), a black flag waved from the starter's stand designates the start of the race. This race flag, which is black, carries the race sponsor's name on it. Black flag with orange circle [ edit ] This flag is used in FIA-sanctioned races to order a damaged car to the pits for repairs. A mechanical black flag is a black flag with an orange disc in its center indicates that a vehicle is being summoned to the pits due to serious mechanical problems or loose bodywork that presents a risk to other competitors. Per-bend black/white flag [ edit ] This flag is used to indicate unsportsmanlike conduct in FIA-sanctioned races. A diagonally divided black-and-white flag is displayed with a car number to indicate a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. This flag can be displayed if a car tries to intentionally drive another car off the course, or if a driver gets out of his or her car and initiates an altercation with another driver. Some administrators (NASCAR and IndyCar) do not distinguish mechanical problems or unsportsmanlike conduct from rules violations and simply use the solid black flag for all violations. Black flag with white cross [ edit ] In NASCAR and IndyCar, this flag indicates a driver is disqualified. Some leagues use a black flag with a white saltire. This is displayed with a car number if a driver ignores the other black flags for an extended period and also it indicates that that car is no longer being scored. In both NASCAR and IndyCar, the car is not scored again until it pays attention to the black flag by pitting once this flag is displayed. Ignoring the black flag or the black-white cross flag intentionally may result in post-race disciplinary action in addition to disqualification from the race. Fines, probation, suspensions, and other penalties (e.g., points being docked from championship standings) may result, depending upon the severity of the situation. Blue flag [ edit ] The solid blue flag orders backmarkers to give way to faster cars. In NASCAR, this flag orders backmarkers to give way to faster cars. A light blue flag, sometimes with a diagonal yellow, orange, or red stripe, informs a driver that a faster car is approaching and that the driver should move aside to allow one or more faster cars to pass. During a race, this would only be usually shown to a driver who is getting lapped but during practice or qualifying sessions, it could be shown to any driver. In most series, the blue flag is not mandatory—drivers obey it only as a courtesy to their fellow racers. As such, it is often referred to as the "courtesy flag". In other series, drivers get severely penalized for not yielding or for interfering with the leaders, including getting sent to the pits for the rest of the race. In Formula One, if the driver about to be lapped ignores three waved blue flags in a row, he is required to make a drive-through penalty. The blue flag may also be used to warn a driver that another car on the same lap is going to attempt to overtake them. The chequered flag [ edit ] "Chequered flag" and "Checkered flag" redirect to this section. For other uses, see Checkered Flag (disambiguation) A typical chequered flag design The chequered flag (or checkered flag) is displayed at the start/finish line to indicate that the race is officially finished. At some circuits, the first flag point will display a repeat chequered flag (usually on the opposite side of the circuit). The flag is commonly associated with the winner of a race, as they are the first driver to "take" (in other words, drive past) the chequered flag. Upon seeing the chequered flag and crossing the finish line, drivers are required to slow to a safe speed, and return to their garage, parc ferme, or the paddock, depending on the applicable regulations of the series. Design of the chequered flag [ edit ] There is no standard design for the chequered flag. Although it nearly always consists of alternating black and white squares or rectangles arranged in a chequerboard pattern, the number, size, and length-width proportions of the rectangles vary from one flag to another. Also, the chequered flag typically has a black rectangle at the corner of the flag closest to the top of the flagpole. There have been instances of the black and white squares being painted onto a wooden board and simply held up for drivers to observe at the finish line. Sometimes a sponsor's logo is emblazoned in the center of the chequered flag. In NASCAR and F1 events, a single chequered flag is waved to signal the completion of a race. In IndyCar, two chequered flags are waved together, a tradition dating to the 1980 Indianapolis 500, but only if the race is under green conditions. (The starter will wave both a chequered and yellow flag if safety car conditions occur at the end of the race, in a yellow-chequer finish.) NASCAR green and white checkered flag for stages NASCAR traditionally has a special version of the chequered flag sewn for Victory Lane that has the name and date of the race on it, a practice that has spread to IndyCar. That flag is used for the team in the winner's photographs taken after the race, and is a prize awarded to the team along with the race trophy. Teams often hang such flags at their headquarters in a similar fashion to other sports teams hanging championship banners from the rafters at stadiums. Beginning in the 2017 season, NASCAR has utilized a white-and-green variant of the chequered flag to indicate the end of a stage of a race. After the flag is waved, the race temporarily goes into caution to allow drivers who have had placed in the top 10 position following a stage to go into the pit road in a timely manner. Origins of the chequered flag [ edit ] A chequered flag being used at the end of the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup The chequered flag originated in at the Glidden Tours, a road rally, in 1906.[15] Sidney Walden divided the courses into sections; the time check at the end of each section was performed by race officials called "checkers." [15] These checkers used chequered flags to identify themselves.[15] The earliest known photographic record of a chequered flag being used to end a race was from the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race held in Long Island, New York.[16] There is a persistent urban legend claiming that the flag originated in horse racing, but there is no basis for this myth.[17] Another myth claims that the chequered flag's earliest known use was for 19th century bicycle races in France, but this claim also has no evidence.[18] In 1980, USAC starter Duane Sweeney started a tradition at the Indianapolis 500 by waving twin chequered flags at the end of the race. Previous starters had only used a single flag. Sweeney also marked the first use of twin green flags at the start of the race.[19][20] Celebrating a win with the chequered flag [ edit ] In snowmobile water cross the chequered flag is attached to the racer's life vest, and the racer is rewarded with a victory lap. In many short tracks, the flagman gives the chequered flag to the winner of the race, but a variety of other celebratory traditions, such as the burnout, the Polish victory lap and the victory lane or victory circle celebration, sometimes overshadow the chequered flag tradition. Use outside auto racing [ edit ] The chequered flag has become so well recognized that it is often used to indicate the conclusion of many things unrelated to auto racing. For example, some software installation programs display a chequered flag to indicate that a computer program has been installed successfully.[citation needed] Chequered flags were also posted at each corner of the end zones in the original Yankee Stadium when the facility was used by the New York Giants of the National Football League from 1956 through 1973. The chequered flag is not only used for auto racing, but also for a representation of the automotive industry itself. Flags in motorcycle racing [ edit ] Flag indicating an emergency vehicle in motorcycle racing The chequered, red, yellow, white, and green flags are used identically to how they are used in auto racing. The yellow and red striped flag is used to indicate debris on the track. Other flags used include: A white flag with couped red cross, to indicate medical attention is required near the marshalling post. Can also mean an ambulance is on the course (generally a red cross is followed by the race being "red flagged") A black flag with white border, indicating that a rider must leave the course. A dark, rather than light blue flag, indicating that a faster motorcycle is approaching. A white flag with a black "V", to indicate poor visibility ahead. Used at the Isle of Man TT festival. Practicality of racing flags [ edit ] Historically, the only means for race officials to communicate to drivers was through the usage of flags. With the advent of two-way or full-duplex radios, this is not necessarily the case. Most drivers racing on paved short track oval courses do not rely on flags; rather, they are informed of track conditions by their crew chiefs and spotters or by yellow / red flashing lights found on most oval tracks. Occasionally, though, some drivers must rely on the use of flags for information when they experience radio malfunctions. Flags are still used to tell the crowd of spectators what is happening. Dirt track and lower level racers are less likely to have radios than their paved track counterparts. In contrast to smaller circuits, road racing drivers rely heavily on the use of flags. As it is impractical to have spotters covering all segments of a winding race track, the first indication to drivers of local hazards almost always comes from marshals stationed at various flag stations around the course. Missing or disregarding a flag can have critical consequences, as Mario and Michael Andretti discovered during a 1991 CART race in Detroit, Michigan. Michael came around a blind corner at high speed, without heeding the yellow flag being displayed—and plowed into the back of a CART safety truck tending to another disabled car. Fifteen seconds later, his father Mario disregarded the same madly waving yellows and crashed into the car the safety vehicle was trying to assist.[21] Modern F1 cars and other high-end formula racing cars have information displays on their steering wheels which can flash up the word flag to warn drivers when they are entering a sector with a local yellow. Most new circuits and older ones used for F1 employ trackside flashing lights at regular intervals, as a clearer way to signal yellow, green, red, blue or SC flag status to drivers than relying on them to spot a marshal waving a flag, especially so on modern circuits where there are large run-off areas which put the marshals well away from the actual track. References [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ]A row over giving more say in the running of the International Monetary Fund to countries such as China threatens to jeopardise the lender's bid to raise an additional $500bn to deal with the global economic crisis. The IMF spent much of its annual summit in Washington, which ended last night, discussing how it will raise the new funds, but the developing countries on which it is depending for much of the money repeatedly warned that they would not contribute more without being given greater control of the organisation. The $500bn (£340bn), which was agreed upon at last month's G20 meeting in London, is seen as a crucial weapon in the armoury of the international response to the credit crisis and economic downturn. A failure to secure the extra money could have serious implications for the growing number of countries that are dependent on IMF loans and aid. 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. However, representatives of some of the developing countries most likely to help reach the $500bn target are not yet convinced that the IMF's more powerful members are serious about ceding any control. Alexei Kudrin, Russia's finance minister, warned yesterday that developed countries were proving reluctant to offer concessions. "We already meet a cool attitude and even resistance [to reform of the IMF]" Mr Kudrin said. "The leading countries are not in a hurry... this was the main discussion, the nerve of the IMF meeting." Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's managing director, has so far secured commitments of around $324bn from members for the top-up in the len- der's funding, including $100bn promised by the US. Mr Strauss-Kahn said yesterday that a bond issue was one of the ways in which the IMF was hoping to make up the shortfall in funding, with countries including Brazil and China already having indicated that they would consider subscribing for such bonds. "I'm sure this vehicle will be used," Mr Strauss-Kahn said. "Now we're discussing with different creditors the way to implement it and the amount that we put in." However, Guido Mantega, the Brazilian finance minister, described the IMF's plans as "premature" and "insufficient". Mr Mantega, who yesterday met with finance ministers from Russia and China, as well as India, the fourth member of the so-called Bric group of leading developing nations, said that contributions made by these countries would be "provisional", implying that support might be withdrawn if the IMF's decision- making process is not reformed to their satisfaction. The Brazilians are also anxious to see more of the IMF's lending directed towards emerging nations. The IMF has already promised to change the shareholding and voting power of members by January 2011, but negotiations on the terms of such reform have only just begun. Firm proposals on many of the key issues around the management of the IMF are unlikely to be made before October. Tensions at the IMF summit, which, like the G20 meeting, was disrupted by a wide variety of protesters, were heightened by a separate row over the forecasts made by the organisation about the next stage of the banking crisis. European governments are furious about the IMF's assertion that the continent's banks will be forced to write down the value of their assets by $750bn over the next year. The British Government last week succeeded in having the IMF withdraw some of its forecasts about its borrowing and France yesterday joined the lender's critics. Finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said: "Many of us expressed our greatest reserve on the methodology adopted by the IMF." Mr Strauss-Kahn is also attempting to defuse a potential argument between some European countries, which are increasingly focusing on how government intervention in the banking sector might be withdrawn once the crisis passes, and more cautious members, including the US, who insist it is too early to begin discussing an "exit strategy". We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. Subscribe nowIn football, a long-held personal view is that too much credence is given to formations. They have their value, of course, and provide a good starting point when talking about how a specific team sets up, but most of the time they allude to a side's defensive positioning. A manager's instructions to play 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 means that a team, in theory, can be perfectly organised to close down space and not let the opposition cut through them. In attack, however, it is in a team's interest to let loose and offer all sorts of problems for the opposition defence. That is one of the reasons why Barcelona cause so many headaches for teams they face. Trying to pin them to a formation is pretty pointless as it is often something like a 4-6-0, such is their ability to group in midfield and attack en masse. Manchester City have yet to reach the same heights, but although they might have lined up in a similar formation to rivals Manchester United on Sunday, they showed a marked difference in the way their wide midfielders linked up, leading to the first two goals in their 6-1 victory. This blog has already drawn attention to the merits of David Silva this season, who is currently the Premier League's in-form player. And James Milner's importance to manager Roberto Mancini was highlighted by the Italian selecting the 25-year-old for such a crucial fixture. Telling in City's win, though, was the way in which one of the pair continually switched wings to overload the left or right flank, causing havoc for United's full-backs Chris Smalling and Patrice Evra. In combining this with an indefatigable work ethic, it showed an intelligence that United's wide midfielders did not really match. Silva's grace means that he is given licence to roam wherever he pleases when City are on the attack, yet he was still committed enough to funnel back to offer cover to City left-back Gael Clichy. Milner offered a similar diligence to help right-back Micah Richards, who had his hands full early on with United left-winger Ashley Young. While Young showed the enthusiasm to both attack and defend in equal measure, both he and Nani limited the majority of their work to their respective wings. This, in turn, meant Darren Fletcher and Anderson had to put extra work in to cover the huge spaces between them. In contrast, Silva and Milner popped up in different areas across the pitch and their positioning allowed them to link up with their fellow attackers, with central midfielders Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure taking care to fill in the gaps on either side. "If you go to Old Trafford you know you are in for a hard game and United's strengths obviously are pace, with Nani on one side and Young on the other," Match of the Day 2 pundit Lee Dixon said. "Down the wings you have to stop them and also Wayne Rooney playing in the hole. "City had two full-backs who were outstanding and in front of those the two wide midfielders Milner and Silva were absolutely sensational. Their work-rate was unbelievable. "Clichy and Richards had great protection in front of them and when the full-backs were drawn to the ball, Silva and Milner offered cover in behind." In a strong United opening, both Silva and Milner played their part as City defended resolutely. But once the visitors had weathered that onslaught, Milner was clever enough to join Silva on the left, in one of City's first forays forward, and it was his cutback which created the opening goal for Mario Balotelli. It was not all rosy for Milner and he did suffer some nervous moments, particularly when he unintentionally passed the ball back to Young in the City penalty area and was relieved to watch the United player's snap-shot go wide. But the City staff would have been impressed that he was in that defensive position in the first place. On another occasion when he gave the ball away just before half-time, he sprinted 50 yards deep from the United half to track the overlapping Evra. Once centre-back Jonny Evans was dismissed the task became easier for City. Again the second goal came when Silva received the ball on the right flank, combined with Milner, and crossed deep for Balotelli to put City in firm control. For a United defence which has conceded the most number of shots in the Premier League this season and chose not to start with Nemanja Vidic, losing Evans was a terminal blow. There are various theories as to why the normally tight defence has become so leaky this season, and the chopping and changing in three of the four defensive positions has hardly helped. But attention must be paid to the lack of cover given by United's central midfielders and with Young and Nani often so wide, perhaps it is no surprise that gaps often appear in these areas. Fletcher and Anderson are simply being stretched too far across the pitch. This issue was brought into sharp focus in last year's Champions League final against Barcelona and after Sunday's capitulation it seems that the United coaching staff still need to address it. You could argue that both City and United played 4-4-2 at
_update’ method from the Beginner’s Guide to install Syslinux, you can skip from here to the paragraph on ‘mkinitcpio’ below. Author’s Note [11/21/2013]: If you’re following along with the procedures in Step Twelve, please note that a few specifics have changed. I will eventually update this post to reflect this, but in the meantime, please reference the comments by Benny Kleykens and tepaleguiojo in the comment thread below. Now, while we’re still logged into our hard drive’s Arch Linux installation, let’s configure the boot loader. On the command line, navigate to the /syslinux directory, which resides in your /boot partition: # cd /boot/syslinux/ Inside this directory, there’s a file called ‘syslinux.cfg’. This file contains a list of other support files that must be copied over to the /boot/syslinux directory from another directory on your system called /usr/lib/syslinux/ in order for the boot loader to work correctly. To see this list, we’ll take a look at the contents of ‘syslinux.cfg’ by using the ‘more’ command: # more syslinux.cfg Near the top of the file, you should see a list of “comboot modules”, similar to that pictured below. This is the list files we’re going to need to copy over to the present directory. Make a note of the filenames in this list, and then type Control-C to quit to the command line (or press the spacebar continuously to page through the file, which will drop you back at the command line once it’s finished displaying). Next, we copy the specified files into the /boot/syslinux from the /usr/lib/syslinux directory by running the following commands: # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/menu.c32. # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/vesamenu.c32. # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/chain.c32. # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/hdt.c32. # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/reboot.c32. # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/poweroff.com. Once this has been done, we run the following command to install Syslinux to the /boot partition, which you’ll recall is at the beginning of the hard drive, where the hardware looks when it wakes up: # extlinux --install /boot/syslinux A few notes on the above command. First, why is the command titled ‘extlinux’, rather than ‘syslinux’, since it’s Syslinux that we’re installing? The answer is that, while Extlinux was at one time a spinoff of Syslinux, the two versions of the boot loader software have since been merged. So in fact, they’re the same thing. The ‘extlinux’ command thus installs the files required for ‘syslinux’. Second, didn’t we install Syslinux previously with the ‘pacstrap’ command in step ten? And if so, why are we installing it again here? This is a subject I’m a bit less clear on, and which I haven’t been able to find a terrific answer to yet (please provide one in the comments if you know!). The best answer I have is that (a) with the pacstrap command we previously installed Syslinux files to our hard disk’s root partition (though syslinux.cfg did end up here), whereas now we’re installing them to the /boot partition, and (b) since we’ve already been copying files over to /boot from the root partition, the files on the root partition must serve as a resource for installing the boot loader to the boot partition, which I take it also means (c) that the ‘extlinux’ command was probably made available to us by the ‘pacstrap’ installation we did earlier. Still, when I list the files in the /boot/syslinux directory after running this command, I don’t see anything we didn’t put there ourselves, so I confess I’m not sure what’s going on with the ‘extlinux’ command, beyond the fact that running it was a necessary part of the other, more terse installation guides I read through. Suffice it to say that (a) this works, and (b) I have a good deal more to learn about Syslinux. In either case, now that we’ve finished configuring the boot loader, we’ve still got a few steps left to go to get our new virtual PC ready to boot. In order to tell the computer what’s what, Syslinux is going to need to have something called the “booting protocol”—instructions to run in order to boot the system—ready to hand. The sort of boot protocol Syslinux requires depends on the method you’ve used to partition your hard drive. Since we’ve partitioned using GPT, Syslinux is going to need a boot protocol that works with GPT partitioning. There is such a file available, called ‘gptmbr.bin’, and at this point we’re going to write a copy of it to the very beginning of our hard disk, so it’s the first thing that the machine’s hardware sees when it boots. To do this, use the following command—be very careful to enter this one correctly, as a mistake could screw up your virtual PC for reasons that will become apparent in the subsequent explanation: # dd conv=notrunc bs=440 count=1 if=/usr/lib/syslinux/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/sda The ‘dd’ command above is a special unix command capable of reading and writing data to and from hardware devices. In the above command, it’s taking data from the input file (if) ‘/usr/lib/syslinux/gptmbr.bin’ and writing it to the hard drive, which you may recall is represented in the file system as the object ‘/dev/sda’ (the ‘output file’, or of). As the other portions of the command get a bit esoteric, I’m not going to bother to explain their intricacies, but if you want to know more, you can read up on the ‘dd’ command on Wikipedia and on this specific use of the command on the Syslinux wiki. Next, we’ll run another handy script called ‘mkinitcpio’, which is going to set up the initial ramdisk (memory) environment for our virtual PC. This serves as the computer’s memory when it first boots up, before it finds the rest of its brain. If you want to customize this environment, you can read up on mkinitcpio and modify ‘/etc/mkinitcpio.conf’. But if you’re not doing anything fancy, you can skip making any modifications and simply run the command: # mkinitcpio -p linux In English, this translates to “Make an initial ramdisk environment (mkinitcpio) using presets (-p) suitable for Linux”. We’re now very nearly finished installing Arch Linux. There are still a couple loose ends to be tied up, which will be covered in the next step. Step Thirteen: Finishing Up the Installation We’ve got a couple loose ends to tie up as we back out of the system we’ve just installed and prepare to reboot our virtual PC. First, now that we’re preparing to boot into a fully functional system for the first time, we’d like a bit of security. It’d be best if, in the future, no one could log in and make the sorts of changes we’ve just made without first entering a password. To set a password for your system’s “root” user—the all powerful super user—enter the following command: # passwd You’ll be prompted to enter and re-enter a password. Make sure to remember it, as you’ll need it in both the near and foreseeable future. We’re now done making changes from within our virtual PC’s Arch Linux installation. The next step will be to transport back to working from the Arch Linux Install CD. To do so, type the command: # exit If you entered the ‘bash’ command earlier to work with the BASH command line, this may only drop you back to the standard command prompt. If you still see this… sh-4.2# …then enter the ‘exit’ command one more time to get back to the CD environment. What you want is to see the original colorful command prompt beginning with ‘root@archiso’ that you first saw when you booted Arch from the CD, and absent the square brackets we’ve been seeing as part of the prompt since we first entered the ‘arch-chroot’ command. When you’re back to this prompt, it will indicate that you’re once again working from the Arch Linux installation CD, rather the copy of Arch on your hard disk. Once you’ve returned to the CD’s command prompt, it’s time to unmount all the partitions we mounted earlier. If you’re using the partitioning scheme I’ve been demonstrating, the commands will be as follows (you can alter these as needed for your own partition scheme). Note that you should unmount the root directory, mounted at /mnt, last since other partitions are mounted within it: # umount /mnt/boot # umount /mnt/home # swapoff /dev/sda2 # umount /mnt Once this has been done, we’ve only one last command to run before rebooting into our new system. Before rebooting, run this command from the installer disk’s command prompt, which will set the /boot partition’s BIOS flag to “bootable”—basically, tell the computer’s lizard brain which partition to boot—and allow your new system to boot on restart: # sgdisk /dev/sda --attributes=1:set:2 For context, sgdisk is a disk utility program similar to gdisk, which we used earlier, but which can take instructions directly from the command line, rather than by entering into an interactive mode (i.e., engaging in a Q&A with the user). The command, in English reads “Using sgdisk, examine the device found at /dev/sda (which is our hard drive). Give partition 1 the attribute of being bootable (‘2’ means ‘legacy BIOS bootable’).” The reason we didn’t simply do this earlier in gdisk is that gdisk doesn’t appear to offer this option—probably because under GPT, we’re not supposed to have to set a boot flag (one of its advantages). Unfortunately, not all hardware is smart enough to realize this, so we have to set it anyhow. Step Fourteen: Rebooting Into Your New Arch Linux Machine And that’s it! Your virtual PC is now completely set up and Arch Linux has been installed and configured. It’s time to reboot into your new system! To do so, just enter the command: # reboot When the virtual machine reboots, it will boot from the CD again, which isn’t what you want from now on. So, when the CD’s boot screen comes up, go to the VirtualBox menu bar and select: Devices > CD/DVD Devices > Remove disk from virtual drive Now, attempt to close the application window in which your virtual machine is running. A dialog panel will come up asking what you’d like to do. Select ‘Power off the machine’ and click ‘OK’. Now that the virtual installation CD has been “ejected” from our virtual machine, we can boot it up directly from the hard drive, which is what we’ll be doing every time in the future. To do this, just double-click on the virtual machine in VirtualBox to start it once more. This time, when the system starts up, you’ll be presented with a boot menu, created by Syslinux, which asks you what you’d like to do: Hit ‘Return’ to select the first option, ‘Arch Linux’, which will continue booting you into Arch Linux. Note that if you don’t make a selection, this option will be chosen automatically and the boot process will begin after five seconds. Once your system has booted, you’ll be asked to log in. Sometimes the login prompt will come up, only to be followed by a few more status messages from the boot process. If this happens, just hit ‘Return’ to see the login prompt again. Since you’ve yet to create any user accounts, your login name should be ‘root’ to log in as the root user. The password will be the one you set at the beginning of step thirteen. Once you’ve entered these credentials, you’ll be given a command prompt. Your new Arch Linux system is ready and awaiting your instructions. Step Fifteen: Some Housecleaning that Will Make the System More Usable First, when we booted from the CD, Arch automatically connected to the internet for us in anticipation of our needing it to install the system. But this time around, we have to tell the system to connect to the internet. We’ll automate this momentarily, but for now, to connect to the internet run the command: # dhcpcd One beautiful thing about using virtualization software like VirtualBox is that it saves us having to configure wireless internet from the command line, which is never very fun. Our virtual computer drafts off our real computer’s internet connection (wireless or otherwise), while thinking its connected to the ‘net via an ethernet cable. Update [3/21/2012]: As noted in the comments, a little while ago Arch got rid of the ‘adduser’ script, which is basically just an interactive interface for the command ‘useradd’. So you’ll now need to use the ‘useradd’ command to create a new non-root user. There’s a helpful guide to how to do this here. When following the examples, though, remember to add the ‘-d’ flag to the command or your new user account will have no home directory. Next, it’s more secure and more convenient to create yourself a user account, rather than continuing to use your Linux install as ‘root’. To create a user account for yourself, run the command: # adduser This will start an interactive program that will take you through the process of adding a user. If your Linux install is for personal use, however, not all the questions it asks are going to be necessary or relevant. You should definitely enter a username when prompted. This will be the name you use to log in to your system in the future. You can then just continue hitting ‘Return’ to accept all the defaults, including when you’re asked whether you’re sure you want to create the account. The next prompt you’ll want to pay attention to is the one reading… Name []: Your response to this prompt will determine how the system displays your name whenever it’s not using your login ID. So I generally put my full name, ‘Josh Braun’. After you’ve entered your name, you can start hitting ‘Return’ again to accept defaults until the system asks for your password. Here, you’ll enter—and then subsequently reenter—the password that you want to use to log in to the system in the future. Once you’ve entered this information, you’ll be dropped back to the command line. You’re finished creating a new user account for yourself. Though you now have a new user account for yourself that’s separate from ‘root’, you’ll occasionally want to perform administrative tasks without having to log out of your personal account and log back in as the root user. To do this, you can use the ‘sudo’ command, which means “perform my command as the root user.” However, before we can take advantage of the ‘sudo’ command, we have to install the ‘sudo’ on our system. Arch Linux has a handy package manager, called ‘pacman’ that automates the process of installing, uninstalling, and updating software on your computer. You’ll be using it frequently in the future. The command ‘pacman -S somesoftware’ tells pacman to install ‘somesoftware’ on your machine. In this case, to install ‘sudo’, we use the following command: # pacman -S sudo Follow any prompts provided by pacman to install the software. Once ‘sudo’ has been installed, we need to tell it that your new user account is one that should have access to administrative privileges. To do this, we’ll need to edit a configuration file called ‘sudoers’, located in the /etc directory. Again, since this configuration file is just a text file, we’ll use nano to edit it: # nano /etc/sudoers Once the file opens, find the lines reading: ## ## User privilege specification ## root ALL=(ALL) ALL Below the line beginning with ‘root’ shown above, add an identical line, but this time replacing ‘root’ with the new username you just created. For example, if I created the login ID ‘josh’ above, the new line I would add would look like this: josh ALL=(ALL) ALL Once this line has been added, exit to the command prompt by typing Control-X, answering ‘y’ for ‘yes’ when you’re asked whether you’d like to save your changes, and then hitting ‘Return’ to confirm the suggested filename. Once back on the command line, enter the command… # exit …to log out of the root user account and log back in with your new user ID and password. Update [3/21/2012]: An update to systemd has changed how network interfaces are named. Whereas your virtual machine’s ethernet card used to generally go by ‘eth0’, it will now have a custom name assigned by the system—a longer ID that looks like a serial number (e.g., ‘enp0s10’ or some such). To find this new name, run the command ‘iwconfig’. The output will show you your virtual machine’s various network devices and their names. There should be only one or two; copy down the six-character code from the first column and use this instead wherever I have written ‘eth0’ below. See also the helpful comment from Kirk Erickson below. Next, from here on out, we’d also like Arch Linux to automatically start an internet connection on login, so we don’t have to keep typing ‘dhcpcd’ or ‘sudo dhcpcd’ to get online. To have our system automatically connect to the internet, we’ll use this command (provide your password when prompted): # sudo systemctl enable dhcpcd@eth0.service Some context for the above command: As mentioned previously, ‘sudo’ is used to execute an administrative task without using the root account. ‘Systemctl’ is a command that works with Arch Linux’s default “service manager,” which is called “systemd.” Systemd is the tool that’s behind the scenes with regard to much of our system’s configuration. With the ‘systemctl’ command, we’re telling systemd to enable an internet connection for us automatically using the ‘dhcpcd’ command via our ‘eth0’ device, which is the virtual PC’s wired ethernet card. Now, in the future, whenever your virtual machine boots, it will automatically connect to the internet. Step Sixteen: Installing X and Guest Additions Arch Linux should be working wonderfully at this point. But chances are, you don’t want to live your entire computing life on the command line. You’d like a slick GUI desktop environment, with beautiful icons, where you can your favorite programs and—oh, I don’t know—use a mouse. You’d probably also like it if you could use your new Arch Linux installation in full screen mode, such that it was more like working with your native OS. All this is possible, of course, and we’ll get to it now. To begin with, we need to install a software suite called “X”, which is a “window system”—software that supports draggable, droppable windows and the like—that serves as the underpinning of most of Linux’s GUI desktop environments. We’ll start by installing the basic X packages. Once again, we can use ‘pacman -S’ to install all the software we’re looking to add: # sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-server-utils Provide your password if asked, and follow the prompts pacman provides to install the software. Next, since we’d like to be able to use a really slick GUI desktop, we also need to install another piece of software called “mesa,” which is required to support the 3D graphics common to many newer desktop environments: # sudo pacman -S mesa Once again, provide a password if asked, and follow the prompts to complete the installation. Normally at this stage, we’d install the hardware drivers for our computer’s graphics card, but since our PC is virtual we’re instead going to install VirtualBox’s “Guest Additions”—a collection of software packages that will enable our virtual machine to take advantage of full screen graphics and hardware acceleration. The Guest Additions also more generally enable our Arch Linux guest OS to integrate more fully with the native host OS running VirtualBox. To install guest additions, run the following command: # sudo pacman -S virtualbox-guest-utils At this point you’re likely getting used to working with both sudo and pacman, so I’ll stop with the spiel about entering your password if asked and following the prompts. Once Guest Additions are installed, we need to make sure that the various components of this software are loaded automatically each time the system boots. To do this, we’ll use nano to create a new configuration file called ‘virtualbox.conf’. This file will go in the ‘/etc/modules-load.d’ directory, which contains files that need to be loaded when Arch boots up. Since adding a file to this directory requires administrative permissions, we’ll need to precede our command with ‘sudo’ once again: # sudo nano /etc/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf When nano brings up the blank file, add these three lines to it: vboxguest vboxsf vboxvideo As usual, when you’re finished entering text in nano, type Control-X to exit to the command line, and answer ‘y’ for yes when you’re asked whether you want to save your work, and then hit ‘Return’ to accept the filename. At this point, reboot your machine for the Guest Additions to take effect. # sudo reboot Upon rebooting, your system should automatically connect to the internet, and Guest Additions should load up as part of the boot process. By installing Guest Additions, we’re working toward better integration between our host and guest OSes. One example is that we can sync our Arch Linux install’s clock with that of the host system by entering the following command. This will enable synching on the next boot: # sudo systemctl enable vboxservice.service But enough with the clock. At this point, we want to see if X is working, since we need it to be functional before we can install and use a GUI desktop. To this end, we’ll install a few software packages that will help us test X: # sudo pacman -S xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm After these software packages have been installed, we can test that Xorg is installed correctly by running the command: # startx This will launch a test environment that relies on X. At this point, a few things should happen. Your guest OS screen should resize, your mouse should work, and you should see some draggable windows. This all means that both Guest Additions and X are working properly. Note that the each of the draggable windows in the test environment should include a command prompt. At one of these prompts, type ‘exit’ to quit out of the test environment and back to the ordinary command line interface. Step Seventeen: Installing the GNOME3 Desktop Environment Now that we know X is working, we can install a GUI desktop environment. But that desktop is going to look pretty ugly unless we have some presentable fonts. So before installing the desktop, let’s first quickly install the Deja-Vu font set, which is a good set of starter fonts: # sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu Now, we’ll install our desktop environment. There are numerous to choose from, and which you go with is largely a matter of taste. A few popular ones are KDE, GNOME, and XFCE. I enjoy GNOME, so it’s the one I’m going to demonstrate here. To begin with, we’ll install the main sets of software packages for the GNOME desktop, ‘gnome’ and ‘gnome-extra’: # sudo pacman -S gnome gnome-extra Note that there are several hundred individual software packages in ‘gnome’ and ‘gnome-extra’, so they’re going to take a while to download and install. Speaking from experience, the installation of these packages also hogs a bit of memory and can be temperamental if it’s competing for that memory with other activity on your computer. So now would be a good time to step away from your computer and get a cup of coffee. Occasionally, you may see a warning message crop up during the installation, reading something along the lines of: GConf-WARNING **: Client failed to connect to the D-BUS daemon According to what I’ve read on various support forums, these messages can safely be ignored. Once the installation is complete, you can streamline your setup a bit. Most likely, you’ll want your desktop environment to come up immediately when you boot your computer. The following systemd configuration command will enable the “GNOME Desktop Manager (GDM)” (one of the numerous programs that you just installed along with GNOME), which in the future will send you directly to a GUI login screen and then on to your desktop when you boot your virtual machine: # sudo systemctl enable gdm At this point, you should be done. Rebooting your virtual machine… # sudo reboot …should launch you into your new GUI login screen and GNOME desktop. And thanks to Guest Additions, you should now be able to use this environment full screen by typing Host-F or selecting “View > Switch to Fullscreen” from the VirtualBox menu. Step Eighteen: Fixing Some Guest Additions Weirdness If you find that your GNOME desktop works beautifully at this point, skip this step and go straight on to step nineteen. Unfortunately, though, from what I’ve experienced, GNOME 3 sometimes starts behaving in a janky fashion when it first starts up. Windows don’t refresh until the user clicks and drags them, at which point they’ll display any typing or changes in content you entered since the last time you clicked and dragged. If you experience this or other strange behavior, you may choose to overwrite the Guest Additions packages you installed using pacman with the version provided with the VirtualBox software. Note that this is not recommended by the folks at Arch, who clearly state that pacman should be used to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions software. Be that as it may, in my own Arch Linux installations the version of the Guest Additions software packaged with VirtualBox has sometimes worked better than that provided through the Arch Linux repositories. So, with the understanding that I’m about to veer from the Arch Wiki’s best practices, I will provide a bit of instruction on how to overwrite the pacman-installed Guest Additions with the version provided with VirtualBox. If you’ve been following the instructions up ’til now, you currently have the Arch repository’s version of Guest Additions installed, and you’re presumably able to boot into your GNOME desktop environment, even if this environment isn’t working for you very well at the moment (again, if things are going smoothly, skip this step and go on to step nineteen). Boot into the janky desktop environment anyhow. Then, from the VirtualBox menu, select “Machine > Install Guest Additions (Host+D)”. This will insert a virtual install CD into your machine’s virtual CD drive containing an installer for Guest Additions. The Guest Additions installer will launch automatically (click ‘Run’ in the dialogue that pops up to allow it to start) and ask for the root password. Enter the root password and when prompted allow the installer to overwrite your existing Guest Additions installation. Follow any other installer prompts, and hit ‘Return’ when asked to close the installer window. When the installer has finished, eject the installer CD from your machine’s virtual drive by selecting ‘Devices > CD/DVD Devices > Remove disk from virtual drive’ from the VirtualBox menu. Allow VirtualBox to force-eject the disk if necessary. Then shut down your virtual machine and restart it. When the machine reboots into GNOME, you should find the performance of your desktop greatly improved. Play with the desktop for a while and figure out how to open a Terminal window, because there’s still trouble on the horizon that needs to be resolved before it crops up. The trouble now is that, because you installed Guest Additions earlier using pacman, and pacman is responsible for keeping your system up to date, eventually pacman is going to want to “update” the version of Guest Additions you’ve installed with a later version from the Arch repository. When that happens, your VirtualBox-provided version of Guest Additions will be overwritten again by the version from the Arch repository, and things will go back to behaving strangely again. To prevent pacman from trying to update the version of Guest Additions you’ve installed via VirtualBox, we need to edit a configuration file called ‘/etc/pacman.conf’, through which we can tell pacman to stop looking for updates to the Guest Additions software. First, open a Terminal window in GNOME and from the command line, use the following command to figure out what VirtualBox-related packages have been installed by pacman: # sudo pacman -Ss virtualbox This command will search for all software related to VirtualBox (or, more specifically, containing the keyword “virtualbox” as metadata) that’s available from the Arch repositories. It will list all these software packages, and more importantly, it will tell you which ones you already have installed. Make a note of the already-installed packages (most likely they include ‘virtualbox-guest-modules’ and ‘virtualbox-guest-utils’). Next, edit ‘/etc/pacman.conf’… # sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf …and uncomment (remove the ‘#’ from) the line that reads: #IgnorePkg = As you may have guessed, pacman will ignore any packages named on this line in future system updates. Next, after the equal sign on this line, add the names of the installed VirtualBox packages you made a note of just now, like so: IgnorePkg = virtualbox-guest-modules virtualbox-guest-utils Type Control-X to quit to the command line, and as usual type ‘y’ for yes when you’re asked whether you want to save your changes, then hit ‘Return’ to accept the filename. Now pacman won’t futz with your preferred Guest Additions installation. Step Nineteen: Configuring the GNOME Desktop The GNOME3 desktop environment is highly customizable and you can fiddle with it to no end. But when you first get it up and running in VirtualBox there are a few things you’ll likely want to do immediately. One of these is to get the sound working. To do this, go to the GNOME menu bar and unmute the audio, which is muted by default. Then, if you still don’t hear the confirmatory “pop” sound, open your audio settings from the same menu and select different audio configurations until you hear the system’s test audio through your computer’s speakers. Next, you may wish to install your favorite browser, like Chromium (the open source version of Google Chrome) or Firefox. To install these, open a Terminal window and run the following commands: # sudo pacman -S chromium # sudo pacman -S firefox You may also notice when browsing the web or attempting to play a YouTube video or Pandora station that the required Adobe Flash plugin isn’t yet installed. Rather than installing it manually, which is what the Adobe plugin page will suggest, you can quickly install the Flash plugin using pacman: # sudo pacman -S flashplugin Sometime down the road, I may also (far briefer) post tutorials on sharing files back and forth between Arch and the host operating system, and on customizing your desktop with the Gnome Tweak Tool. But I think this tutorial has gotten long enough already, so I’ll refrain from offering yet more customization advice here. Step Twenty: Installing Software and Maintaining Your System in the Future Finally, Arch Linux’s handy package manager, pacman, will largely automate the process of updating your system software in the future. To run a full system update (which you should do somewhat regularly), run the following command from the command line: # pacman -Syu …and follow the prompts it presents you with. Note, however, that you shouldn’t do this blindly. Check the homepage of archlinux.org first, prior to any system-wide update, to see if there are any disclaimers or instructions for manual intervention in updating your system. On a more day to day basis, you’ll likely want to install or remove particular pieces of software. While there are GUI interfaces for doing so, the simplest method (in my view, anyhow) is still to use pacman from the command line. Typing the command… # sudo pacman -Ss yourkeyword …will search Arch’s software repositories for software matching your search term. By default, you have access to the ‘core’ repository, which contains the essential components of your OS; the ‘extra’ repository, which contains other arguable essentials like X and GNOME that aren’t technically required by the operating system, but are important nonetheless; and the ‘community’ repository, which contains other popular, but optional, software packages. It’s also possible to add additional repositories, but that’s a topic for another day. In the meantime, when you search the repositories by keyword, make a note of the names of programs, font sets, etc. that you’d like to install. You can then install any piece of software that you want with the command… # sudo pacman -S packagename …where ‘packagename’ is simply the name of the thing you want installed. Incidentally, when using this command, you can leave off version numbers and simply use the one-word name of the software in question. If you decide later that you want to remove a piece of software, you can do so by using the command… # sudo pacman -Rs packagename There is, of course, more to know (I recommend looking at the Arch Wiki documentation on pacman). But this should get you started. Until next time, enjoy Arch and feel free to ask and answer questions, as well as to improve upon this guide, in the comments! P.S. [3/21/2013] Some time ago I added a post on how to get shared folders working to easily transfer files between your host operating system and your Arch guest OS. At least one user in the comments was asking about this, so here’s a link.[+]Enlarge A modern package of Brite Star icicle tinsel, which does not contain lead. Credit: Brite Star Manufacturing [+]Enlarge THE GOOD STUFF Brite Star’s vintage tinsel packaging. Credit: Brite Star Manufacturing Co. Some call tinsel tacky and passé while others can’t imagine a holiday tree without the inexpensive decoration. [+]Enlarge Credit: Carmen Drahl [+]Enlarge Credit: Courtesy of Carmen Drahl PHOTO ALBUM Michael J. Drahl (top), the author’s father, on Christmas 1947. Kathleen Fehr, née Flanagan, the author’s mother-in-law, attempts to lick lead tinsel. But tinsel—named from the Old French word estincele, for sparkle—didn’t always come cheap. The program for the 1853 New York Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations includes silver and gold tinsel goods from Nuremberg and Weissenberg, in Bavaria, though it isn’t clear whether these were made from pure precious metals. Tinsel was in use as a tree decoration in Germany in the late-19th century, says Georgia State University historian Joe Perry, author of the book “Christmas in Germany.” Texts mention thin strips of tin-laminated sheet brass as well as silver-laminated copper wire woven through textiles, he says. The expense of a decorated Christmas tree likely kept tinsel from all but the wealthy. Another choice for tinsel during this time was lead. German company Stanniolfabrik Eppstein received an imperial patent on lead tinsel in 1904. That tinsel consisted of a gray, dull lead alloy foil with shiny tin bonded on top, says Dirk Mälzer, chief executive officer of the firm’s modern-day descendant EppsteinFOILS. The other components of the lead alloy are no longer known, Mälzer says. The product was called Stanniol Lametta, from the Latin word for tin and an Italian term meaning “tiny blade.” But lead-filled tinsel wasn’t German-only merchandise. South Philadelphia-based Brite Star Manufacturing was selling the tree bling “with a large component of lead” by the early 1950s, says Brite Star’s Judy Kinderman. Lead-based tinsel was a hit. “It was beautiful,” says Susan Waggoner, author of “Handcrafted Christmas” and other books about the holiday’s history. “You had to put it on the tree one strand at a time,” she recalls. “It didn’t tarnish and it would hang down heavy, and you’d have that dripping, glittering icicle effect.” By the 1960s, though, awareness of the risks of lead poisoning spelled the end for lead-based tinsel. The Food & Drug Administration reached an agreement with tinsel importers and manufacturers, putting an end to lead alloy tinsel in the U.S. in 1972. The lead heave-ho-ho-ho got people thinking about other tree-trimming options. For instance, in 1969, Walter J. Schrenk of Dow Chemical patented iridescent Christmas tinsel prepared from combinations of polymers having a specified difference in refractive index. Even Stanniolfabrik Eppstein scrapped its imperially approved formula. In 1988, the firm patented tinsel made from an alloy of tin and antimony. Other merchants went back to basics: At least one German silversmith still markets real silver lametta. [+]Enlarge TINSEL 2.0 Diagram from Stanniolfabrik Eppstein’s 1988 patent.Chemists at Stanniolfabrik Eppstein, today known as EppsteinFOILS, patented a tinsel made from an alloy of tin and antimony. The tinsel is shown hanging on a Christmas tree branch in this drawing in the U.S. patent. Credit: US Patent and Trademark Office Most tinsel nowadays is made with fairly ordinary plastics. At Festive Productions, a family-owned firm in Wales, tinsel is made from polyvinyl chloride, says spokeswoman Cassie Hedlund. Plastic tinsel typically gets its shiny finish from metallization, which is performed by heating and evaporating a metal such as aluminum under a vacuum and condensing it onto the plastic to leave a thin coating. Diehards like Waggoner miss the heft of classic tinsel. “The plastic stuff just floats in the breeze,” she says. Even EppsteinFOILS’ tin-antimony alloy couldn’t compare with the original. Sales were weaker by comparison, so the company ceased all production of tinsel in 2013.
intense pre-game media spotlight, it’s also ruined the Super Bowl ads themselves, or at least the annual tradition of discovering them during the game. For 364 days every year, we’re conditioned to avoid TV ads at all costs: leave the room, change the channel, skip ahead on the DVR… whatever it takes. But every Super Bowl Sunday, all of that is forgotten as many of the telecast’s 100 million-plus US viewers pay more rapt attention to the commercials than the game itself. The ads have long been an essential part of the Super Bowl experience, offering audiences the tantalizing prospect of being dazzled by a new spot that could join Apple’s groundbreaking 1984 Macintosh ad or 1995’s Budweiser Frogs (“Bud. Weis. Er.”), in the pantheon of TV’s all-time greatest commercials. Not long ago, whenever the Super Bowl cut to a commercial, you wouldn’t dare leave the room. But that time is over, as we now have little incentive to watch the ads live. The Super Bowl ads have been already been posted for Budweiser, BMW, Victoria’s Secret, T-Mobile, Mercedes-Benz USA, Kia Sorento and Terminator Genisys, among several others, with more being added each day. In fact, we’ve already weathered the annual controversy over the Super Bowl Ad That Went Too Far—Go Daddy pulled its Super Bowl puppy mill ad Tuesday after concerns about animal cruelty—and the game hasn’t even happened yet. In the unlikely event you’ve missed an ad or two that airs, you can easily catch it later on: NBC is posting all of them on its Super Bowl Tumblr page immediately after they air. When we watch Super Bowl ads, we’re hoping to replicate that sense of wonder and awe that comes from discovering a brilliant spot for the first time (like the 1996 Independence Day spot from where we looked on, dumbfounded, as the White House was blown to smithereens). But those unspoiled surprises aren’t increasingly rare; there’s too much money on the line for most companies to resist holding their ads back when everyone else is showing theirs off. Instead of being astounded during every ad break, we’re simply checking off boxes for all of the commercials we’ve already seen or heard about. Yes, there might be one or two ads that swoop in under the radar and take our collective breath away, like last year’s Seinfeld reunion between Jerry and George, even though that wasn’t technically an ad. But those wondrous moments used to be the norm, not the exception. This isn’t going to change anytime soon: you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. BMW says it’s a sound business strategy to release Super Bowl spots early online, and Kardashian’s T-Mobile commercial has already been viewed more than 6.7 million times. Those companies will get their money’s worth, the telecast will likely draw the highest ratings in US history (as most Super Bowls do), and the cycle will be repeated next year, with even more ads premiering in advance. However, some companies are catching on, and realizing they can save millions and get similar amounts of free pre-Super Bowl ad publicity if they advertise in local markets, not nationally. That’s what Vox Media was able to do when its “Super Bowl ad” for The Verge was “leaked” Jan. 20, resulting in huge amounts of media attention, even though it turns out the ad buy had been restricted to one regional market (Helena, Montana) for just $700. Bravo, Vox Media. This local market workaround is likely one reason NBC didn’t sell out its national ads until Wednesday. The early commercial releases not only robs us of the tradition of viewing them during the game, it dilutes their impact. Let’s go back to that domestic violence PSA. Wouldn’t that spot have been significantly more effective watching it for the first time on a 50” flatscreen versus the a tiny window on a computer or phone? We’ll never know. So, for the first time, I won’t stay riveted to my television on Sunday when the Super Bowl commercials come on. After all, I’ve seen (almost) all of them already. The ads might still be terrific, but the thrill of watching them is gone. This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers.I’m not 100% sure what attracted me to Lottie Bring Me Joy, amongst all the bright and bold colours and glitters, there was a few neutral nudes – and my eye was drawn to this, and as you’ll notice if you’re a regular reader of my NOTD posts, I’m someone who pretty much always opts for bright colours rather than nudes. I’ve been hunting for an opaque cream, rather than white, nail polish for quite some time and in the shop light I thought this might be it. As soon as I got this out the shop I realised that it probably wouldn’t be the case. Bring Me Joy is a very pale pinky white, and is very reminiscent of OPI Bubblebath and does make a fantastic dupe for the much loved oldie from OPI. Both of these are of a more sheer formula that can be used to create a natural french manicure with the natural whites of your tips showing as I have done here or I think it would also work well with pairing with a white too for the classic frenchie look. The only difference I can spot is that on the first coat Bubblebath is more opaque, but with a second they are un-detectable between which is which. Quick drying with a decent wear time there’s no reason to buy OPI Bubblebath over this – especially as this is only £5.99 and with OPI you’ll be looking at around £12. I’d rather buy 2 different Lottie polishes for the same price as one completely comparable OPI 😉 I did find that when I wore this without Essie’s Set in Stones (A current favourite you will note as it keeps cropping up as part of reviews!), that it chipped quicker than the other Lottie polishes I’ve used, but I’m talking 3-4 days instead of 4-5 – but that was without a topcoat. Have you discovered any fantastic dupes? Instagram: @helplesswhilstdrying \| Twitter: @helplessdrying Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.comROSARITO, Baja California(GH) La producciÃ³n de la serie televisiva Fear The Walking Dead, rodarÃ¡ la tercera temporada en escenarios bajacalifornianos, confirmÃ³ el secretario de Turismo, Ãscar Escobedo. El funcionario dijo que la producciÃ³n se iba a ir a Nuevo MÃ©xico, pero se logrÃ³ retenerlos a travÃ©s de un apoyo importante entre el Gobierno del Estado y la federaciÃ³n, que darÃ¡n incentivos por 10 millones de pesos. Escobedo Carnigan expuso que esta filmaciÃ³n no solo ha generado derrama econÃ³mica, sino que ademÃ¡s proyecta una buena imagen del Estado, por eso era importante que la producciÃ³n se decidiera por MÃ©xico. RefiriÃ³ que se filmarÃ¡n 16 episodios y si bien la compaÃ±Ãa no ha dado a conocer el monto de la inversiÃ³n, sÃ seÃ±alÃ³ en aproximadamente dos meses mÃ¡s comenzarÃ¡n los trabajos de grabaciÃ³n. DetallÃ³ que de hecho, los productores de la famosa serie, no se han ido de Rosarito, ya que han realizado recorridos de nuevos escenarios y otros trabajos, para la nueva saga. Asimismo, explicÃ³ que se logrÃ³ superar la etapa que tenÃa trabadas las negociaciones debido a que no se habÃan cumplido a cabalidad, los incentivos ofrecidos para la anterior grabaciÃ³n, pero ahora, se hizo un compromiso por escrito a travÃ©s de la SecretarÃa de Turismo del Estado, con lo que se garantiza que se cumplirÃ¡ con lo ofertado, pues en el anterior acuerdo no se hizo directamente con esta dependencia.Quitting a job is hard. If you have been with a company a long time, it’s often like leaving family. We are convinced that a lot of people are so terrified about the thought of resigning that they just put off finding a new job, even if they aren’t satisfied with their current one. This post is to help you through the logistics of resigning. Assuming you have made the decision to accept another offer, or pursue something else, follow these steps to make sure you transition from your current role in a graceful and organized way. 1. When To Start Preparing To Resign? Start preparing for the resignation only after you have a sense from your new employer that you will get the job. You may not have completed all the paperwork yet, but you can start getting organized. Do not resign or speak of resigning to anyone at your workplace until you have actually signed on the dotted line for the new gig. Or if you are leaving to pursue something else like starting a company, or going back to school — be absolutely sure that you are doing that before you mention that you are resigning. Gossip of someone quitting travels like wildfire and even if the bosses don’t find out, if you end up staying — it can be embarrassing and lead to awkward questions. Sometimes, people also like to get a head start on preparing to leave while they are still interviewing. I strongly advise against that. Colleagues and employers often pick up on subtle cues that you are getting ready to leave. Sometimes it’s body language, sometimes it’s the fact that you desk seems tidier than usual. Don’t risk giving someone the impression that you are leaving if there is a meaningful chance that you are not. 2. Start Making Lists This is the time for a good ol’ checklist. We have provided one in the handy infographic accompanying this article. The 3 lists that matter: List of people you want to tell personally that you are leaving. Rank this list. When you quit, news spreads like wildfire. And if someone important to you finds out that you are leaving from another person, that can impact a relationship. If there is one thing to take with you to the new job, it’s the goodwill of the strong relationships you have built in your current one List of projects you are currently working on. This will be useful as you form a transition plan so you can leave on a good note List of items that you want to take home — these can be physical things like picture frames and plants, and important documents like W-2 forms and pay-stubs 3. The Confidential HR Conversation Some large companies allow you to schedule a confidential conversation with HR. We would absolutely not advise this at a smaller firm, or if you feel like you have a manager that will take your departure very poorly. But if that’s not the case, these 20 minute conversations can be immensely helpful prior to leaving. Use these conversations to clarify important details like: Your obligations such as the mandatory notice or garden leave period Process around transitioning your benefits How to address administrative issues like your outstanding expenses, corporate credit cards, and so forth Understanding your outstanding pay, vacation and how and when that will be settled 4. What To Take With You Do not take company property or confidential information. Even if you worked on an outstanding presentation for work, don’t take it with you without explicit permission. Even if you avoid getting sued, you may still end up tarnishing your reputation. Leave with your talent, your skills, your network and your credibility. If your future employer is pushing you to bring documents, or company client lists with you, then maybe they are not the right employer for you. Do take documents that are truly personal. When starting a new job, we recommend creating two important folders in both your email and your filing cabinet. Call the first one “Acclaim” and use it to save compliments, praise, accomplishments. This can be a refreshing folder to look at after a bad day at the office. It’s also useful when the year-end performance review comes around, especially at firms that require employees to review themselves as a part of that process. Call the second folder “Personal” and keep documents in there like photos, tax documents, and so forth. As we work in an interconnected age, it is inevitable that you will have some personal documents and artifacts at work. As much as you can, avoid emailing your personal email address from your work email, even if you are just sending personal documents. Companies often go back and look at email traffic of employees after they leave and it can lead to awkwardness, questioning or worse. Print out those documents where you can. Gradually take home personal artifacts, since leaving with big boxes on your last day can often be cumbersome, and also distracting to your colleagues around you who are trying to do their jobs. People often want to take their rolodex with them before they leave. Employers are generally worried about this, and often justifiably so. Its often easier to just note down the most important contacts and connect with them later on LinkedIn. In this age of the Internet, phone numbers are fairly archaic. Moreover, most companies treat their CRM information as firm property so avoid printing or downloading that. 5. Managing the Actual Conversation If possible, schedule the conversation in advance or at least make sure your boss is in the office on the day, if possible. It’s very awkward to resign over the phone. As to the stories of people who quit via email or text message? That’s just bad form. The conversation should involve your manager and potentially HR. Sometimes if you think it might be an acrimonious departure, you can formally resign to your human resources representative but try and speak to your manager soon after. Prepare your script so you keep your spiel brief and truthful. We find it easiest to just tell the truth regarding the reasons for your departure. If you aren’t happy, need a challenge, or looking for a change, be up-front but polite about it. Sometimes people who are leaving seem nervous about it or say too much, or articulate a laundry list of what is bad with the current job. Avoid that. As much as possible, articulate the reasons you are excited about the new opportunity, rather than the reasons that you are happy to leave the current one. Stick to the top two reasons and try and leave as gracefully as possible. Absolutely avoid showmanship, drama, crying and profanity. In the words of the wise Warren Buffet, you can always tell them to go to h*** later. It’s better to be polite and gracious and just point out that the role / company was not a right fit for you in the long-run (even if sometimes your profanity is well deserved) We spoke about the transition plan before. It’s really helpful and additive to take a short document with you that details your responsibilities / projects and / or accounts when resigning. That allows you to discuss a short transition plan and helps your employer get organized. Chances are that your leaving is a surprise to them and the easier you make the transition on them, the better the relationship upon departure. If you are angling for a shorter notice period, this can often help you make the case for that. 6. What if They Counter-Offer? So what if your boss counter-offers? We’ve often heard the story of the boss that looked the employee in the eye and say “Give me a number that will keep you”. This is a conundrum. If the only reason that you are leaving is because of money, then before you accept your new role and quit your current one, you should ask for a raise. However, most of the time, people quit for a wide range of reasons where money is only one of many factors. In a vast majority of situations, a counter-offer, even if attractive, isn’t worth it. If they truly valued you as an employee, they would have given you a raise before you resigned. And even if you have an excellent relationship with your current employer, the act of resigning often feels like a rejection and so many employees get tempted by a counter-offer. Yet, nearly all who accept these counter-offers often end up regretting the decision because the underlying reasons they wanted to quit almost never get rectified. 7. Letting People Know Letting people know is tricky and requires organization. Stay disciplined and let people know in the order of importance to you so you preserve relationships. If you have client / external relationships, you may want to let them know too but be sure to take permission from your employer so it doesn’t appear like you are attempting to poach these clients to your new job. Have a short email ready to go. You don’t have to state your new job in the email and we often advise against it. People will find out in short order anyway. It’s better to just say something like “I have accepted a new opportunity that I am very excited about”. Where possible keep your email (and in-person conversations) brief and positive. If you don’t have a lot of good things to say about your current employer, keep the conversations even briefer. It’s important to remember that while it might feel like it’s one big farewell party since it’s your last day, for many of your colleagues, it’s another busy workday to meet their targets. So be respectful of that, and try and keep from distracting them. They will appreciate you for it. Bonus Extra: Odds and Ends Think through a few of the odds and ends: If you can, claim your expenses before you leave and if not, make sure to note details, photocopy receipts and stay on top of HR after you leave so you do get reimbursed Understand your vacation policy. If your employer does not pay you for unused vacation days, try and take them before you resign Similarly be organized around your medical benefits and your 401K so you can transition those appropriately You don’t need to update your LinkedIn and other social media profiles right away, but do so in an organized manner. And if clients or external parties tend to call you or email you on your personal number / email address, work out an appropriate script with your employer before you leave Resigning does not have to be stressful if you are organized. In fact, its usually the start of a new chapter in your life so treat it positively and go out on a good note.The suit claims that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' directive on abortions contributed to her painful miscarriage. The judge struck down Idaho’s same-sex marriage laws, which voters approved as an amendment to the state constitution in 2006. (Photo11: Creatas Getty Images/Creatas RF) Story Highlights Woman taken to Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon, Mich., after her water broke She says she was sent home twice despite 'excruciating pain' She developed infection, miscarried 18 weeks into pregnancy DETROIT -- A Michigan woman is taking on the nation's Catholic hospitals in federal court, alleging they are forcing pregnant women in crisis into having painful miscarriages rather than terminate the pregnancy — and not giving them any options. The Muskegon woman, who developed an infection and miscarried 18 weeks into her pregnancy, sued the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Monday, alleging the group's anti-abortion directive denies proper medical care to women like herself. In her case, the lawsuit said, the directive contributed to a painful miscarriage and offered her no options. The case involves Tamesha Means, who was rushed to Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon in December 2010 when her water broke after 18 weeks of pregnancy. The hospital sent her home twice, even though she was in "excruciating pain;" there was virtually no chance that her pregnancy could survive, and continuing the pregnancy posed a significant risk to the mother's health, she alleged in the lawsuit. But because of its Catholic affiliation and directives, the hospital told Means that there was nothing it could do, and it did not tell her that abortion was an option, she alleged in the lawsuit. When Means returned to the hospital a third time in extreme distress and with an infection, the hospital still tried to send her home, but Means began to deliver while staff prepared her discharge paperwork. At that point, the hospital tended to her miscarriage. "They never offered me any options," Means said in a statement. "They didn't tell me what was happening to my body. Whatever was going on with me, they discussed it amongst themselves. I was just left to wonder, 'What's going to happen to me?'" Officials at Mercy Health Partners declined comment. So did the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which deferred to its 43-page Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. Under the directives: "Abortion... is never permitted. Every procedure whose sole immediate effect is the termination of pregnancy before viability is an abortion." The directives also defend the practice of denying patient requests for certain medical procedures, stating it "does not offend the rights of individual conscience by refusing to provide or permit medical procedures that are judged morally wrong by the teaching authority of the Church." The ACLU of Michigan, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of Means, disagrees, arguing Catholic hospitals are putting their beliefs before the health and welfare of its patients. In Means' case, the ACLU argued, the directives prohibited the hospital from complying with the applicable standard of care. Consequently, it argues, the bishop's conference is ultimately responsible for the unnecessary trauma and harm that Means and other pregnant women in similar situations have experienced at Catholic-sponsored hospitals. "The best interests of the patient must always come first and this fundamental ethic is central to the medical profession," said Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan. "In this case, a young woman in a crisis situation was put at risk because religious directives were allowed to interfere with her medical care. Patients should not be forced to suffer because of a hospital's religious affiliation." Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1baOBndNCCU University Police Emergency. Active shooter. If safe, seek shelter away from gunfire. Active shooter. Lock your door. — N.C. Central Univ. (@NCCU) October 26, 2015 A bullet hole in a dorm window at NCCU, where student shot overnight's expected to recover. Shooter still at large. pic.twitter.com/S7f73RwDAu — Anthony Wilson (@AnthonyABC11) October 26, 2015 #NCCUEagleAlert: All clear. The campus lockdown has been lockdown lifted. Normal activities can resume. — N.C. Central Univ. (@NCCU) October 26, 2015 A student was injured late Sunday night on the edge of North Carolina Central University's campus following a shooting.Just after 11 p.m., NCCU tweeted that there was an active shooter on campus, but in a statement Monday morning, school officials said that it "was NOT an active shooter situation."Durham police were called to the scene to assist campus police near the school's football stadium, off of Lawson Street, near Alston Avenue.NCCU put the campus on lockdown - urging all students to seek shelter and lock their doors as long as it was safe to do so.University officials said a 19-year-old sophomore was treated for non-life threatening injuries and released from the hospital earlier Monday morning.According to NCCU, the incident stemmed from an argument and appeared to be isolated and not random.Just before midnight, the school said the situation was "all clear" and the campus lockdown was lifted.Further details surrounding the incident, including information about the alleged shooter, have not been released.Anyone with information regarding the incident should contact the NCCU Police Department at (919) 530-6106.The incident comes as the university kicked off its week-long Homecoming celebration Sunday.+ 26 Architects MC2 Arquitectos Location Chile Category Houses Architect in Charge Francisca Cifuentes, Alejandro Morales Area 48.0 m2 Project Year 2013 Constructor Constructora Arriagada. Pablo Arriagada More Specs Less Specs Text description provided by the architects. Located between Araucarias and Oaks, in an almost pristine forest. In the access to the ski resort of Corralco, Araucanía Region. Chile. Intended as a winter retreat with minimum dimensions, as a point of observation of nature. The refuge is a slightly inclined prism, oriented north and looking towards a small waterfall. A large window overlooking north presides. A series of smaller, strategically placed windows, allows ventilation and focus to specific views. Outside is painted in dark brown, blending with the landscape, trying to disappear. The interior is a single space, generous considering its actual size, clear and warm, bleached pine wood. The place to sleep this resolved in separate attics, content and isolated, thus freeing the first plan for daytime activities. An elevated wood path crosses across the forest leading to the cabin, since the accumulation of snow ( up to one meter high) makes practically impossible to access by natural terrain.Taunton Crown Court (Picture Alamy) A woman has been spared jail after tying to get pregnant by a child. Hannah Cox, 29, said she was coerced into having intercourse with the vulnerable 13-year-old three times to try and conceive. A court heard that the boy was vulnerable and had learning difficulties and ADHD. School worker got so drunk she couldn't fly then broke arm fighting airport staff Her boyfriend forced her to carry out the acts on the boy between October and November 2013 at their home. Prosecutor Jenny Talentine said that Cox admitted what had happened to a friend and rumours eventually reached the boy’s mother. Cox told police: ‘I know it’s about me having sex with a 13-year-old. I know I shouldn’t have done it.’ She told the police she had been trying to get pregnant and it had been her partner who told her to sleep with the boy. People keep leaving skinned goats' heads under trees Taunton Crown Court heard that Cox had physical and mental disabilities and was in an abusive relationship. Advertisement Advertisement Speaking on behalf Rebecca Bradberry said: ‘All I can ask is a plea of mercy and a suspended sentence for my client. There are grave concerns for her vulnerabilities if she were sent to prison.’ Sentencing Cox, Judge David Ticehurst said they were very serious offences but ‘justice should be tempered by mercy’. He said: ‘There is no doubt this young boy and his family are suffering the consequences of your behaviour. Firm running NHS supply chain after Brexit was company behind KFC crisis ‘You should have known better and he was a particularly vulnerable child. But I intend to depart from the guidelines in this case. ‘You have considerable physical and mental difficulties and I am satisfied you were under the control and influence of your partner at the time of the offences. ‘I do not consider that the public needs protection from you. In fact, if there had been more support for you, I do not believe these offences would have been committed at all. ‘Judges are allowed to temper justice with mercy and this is what I’m going to do in this case.’ He sentenced Cox, of Wellington, Somerset, to two years in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered her to sign the sexual offenders’ register for 10 years.Hackers have stolen sensitive information from American energy companies -- and have planted malware in the energy grid with the intent to turn off the lights in the future. They even managed to infect at least three energy companies with Cryptolocker ransomware, a particularly nasty computer virus that locks digital files and demands a ransom payment. Newly released documents from the Department of Homeland Security are finally shedding some light on what exactly hackers are doing when they sneak into the American electrical grid. The DHS intelligence assessment -- originally dated January 27, 2016 -- was published by Public Intelligence, a research project that shares secretive documents to educate people. Some of the attacks described in the report are potentially serious. Aggressive foreign government hackers broke into American companies 17 times between October 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014, according to DHS. In two cases they snuck into U.S. petroleum organizations, and hackers are "suspected of exfiltrating data" from one of them. It's rare, but highly sophisticated foreign government hackers have gotten inside the energy grid, DHS said. They hack "primarily to conduct cyber espionage... to conduct a damaging or disruptive attack in the event of hostilities with the United States," DHS stated in a recent internal "intelligence assessment." That sounds alarming, but DHS is throwing cold water on any present worries. The agency concluded that damaging cyberattacks against the American energy sector is "possible but not likely." That calm demeanor doesn't sit well with some cybersecurity experts. Ryan Duff is a researcher and former member of U.S. Cyber Command, the American military's hacking unit. He warned that once a hacker gets into a computer -- even if physical damage hasn't been caused yet -- the potential is there. "While I agree with the DHS assessment overall, it's still pretty frightening," he said. "The fact is that the ability to cause destruction exists. Their assessment that attack is unlikely is based on political realities instead of technical realities. Attack is way more than technically possible." DHS prefers to label these cyber incidents as "espionage or some other activity," rather than "cyberattacks." To date, there have been "no damaging or destructive attacks against the U.S. energy sector," DHS said. "The majority of malicious activity occurring against the U.S. energy sector is low-level cybercrime that is... not meant to be destructive," DHS analysts wrote. Kyle Wilhoit, who investigates these types of hacks for Trend Micro (TMICF), said criminal hackers sometimes gain access to sensitive machinery by mistake. "Most of the attacks that we've witnessed against this sector are in fact criminal in nature," he told CNNMoney. "In some cases we even see criminals not realizing the importance of some of the machines [they gained access to.]" The agency cautions against media using the term cyber "attack," although it's own 2013 advisory refers to cyber "attack" 56 times. Closely guarded secrets Government investigators typically keep silent about potentially destructive hacks targeting the U.S. energy sector. A CNNMoney investigation last year showed that Corporate America keeps huge hacks secret by having the government deem any evidence "Protected Critical Infrastructure Information," which is then specially guarded from public view. No companies with computers infected by hackers are mentioned by name. And details are slim. For example, in 2014, CNNMoney reported that the U.S. energy grid was attacked 79 times that year. Publicly available documents would only say that the government's talented computer hacking SWAT team "responded to... incidents." And "the majority of these incidents involved attacker techniques" like fake websites and spam email. But it wouldn't say what those incidents were -- only that they were investigated by the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, otherwise known as ICS-CERT. Retired General Michael Hayden, who led the NSA and later the CIA, told CNNMoney in January that the country keeps too many hacks secret, which limits its ability properly guard the nation.BERKELEY PROTEST RULES: Let Blacks Beat Non-Blacks, Don’t Photograph Rioting Blacks #Ferguson A handout sheet for the Berkeley Eric Garner riots contains language demanding people let Blacks beat up non-Black people at the protests and to not photograph Blacks committing crimes. Garner was a Black man who died in July after resisting arrest for a minor offense by New York City police. A grand jury declined to indict a white officer for Garner’s death. The title of the handout reads: “There’s More Than One Kind of Pig: A Call for Non-Black People to Stop Policing Black Resistance” The handout was posted by the ‘Oaklands Allstar Solidarity’ according to Daniella Navarrete who posted a copy to Twitter. Navarrete describes her interests as, “Decolonization, Anti-Imperialism, Transformative Justice, Abolition, Feminism, Marxism, Psychoanalysis/Psychotherapy.” https://twitter.com/Aguililla_RWC/status/542136435826905088 The handout is apparently a response to non-violent white protesters trying to stop Black radicals from committing violent, lawless acts. (Note: white protesters have been seen breaking windows in Berkeley.) Some excerpts from the handout: …”In recent nights we’ve noticed the rise of a disturbing trend of non-black people in the streets policing the actions and tactics of black comrades. Frat bros have tackled black people while a crowd of non-black Berkeley students ironically chanted, “Black lives matter!” White people have pointed at other militant black folks and chanted, “This is not our movement!” in response to tactical disagreements in the streets. These actions, though scattered and few, suggest that non-black people need to be reminded of how their actions reinforce the policing, enslavement, and imprisonment of black comrades attempting to fight for their liberation. For example: “Black rebellion is not your photo project…Photographing people engaged in illegal activity continues the legacy of state surveillance of black bodies and creates evidence to put black people in prison. This is the work of the police.” …”If you see a non-black person getting hit or tackled by black people at a protest about anti-black violence, it’s probably best to assume that they did or said some (sic) racist or endangered the safety of others via non-consensual photography, the policing of other people’s tactics, or pitting some tactics against others. Stay out of those conflicts; black people deserve to defend their life and freedom by whatever means they choose. If you don’t act like a pig, you won’t be treated like one.” An archived image of the handout:Hi. We recently created AFH TV, Ambrosia For Heads’ streaming video service, because we believe real Hip-Hop deserves its own dedicated TV home, but we need your help to make it great. Please subscribe to AFH TV. It is only $1.99/month or $12/year, and already features some amazing content, but the best is yet to come. Thank you for all of your support. Hi. We recently created AFH TV, Ambrosia For Heads’ streaming video service, because we believe real Hip-Hop deserves its own dedicated TV home, but we need your help to make it great. Please subscribe to AFH TV. It is only $1.99/month or $12/year, and already features some amazing content, but the best is yet to come. Thank you for all of your support. While the JAY-Z vs. Nas battle of the early 2000s may be the one that gets the most ink in the history books, Hov’s beef with late Mobb Deep MC Prodigy is one of legend too. From Summer Jam photo reveals to disses on both sides, these two artists had apparent problems with one another in the public eye. In July, during a Roc-A-Fella live podcast reunion discussion hosted by It’s The Real, Just Blaze detailed how the “U Don’t Know” beat traveled from a Mobb Deep studio session to The Blueprint in one weekend. That was the same album that called out P on “The Takeover,” a song that’s original version focused almost entirely on the Mobb artist—per the podcast before it revised to include a verse aimed at Nas. JAY-Z Addresses Checking Kanye & Why They Have Not Spoken Since (Audio) Speaking with author Michael Eric Dyson in 2011, Prodigy weighed in on the rift. “[JAY-Z] had my picture up when I was a little kid at my grandmother’s dance school. I thought I was Michael Jackson. Aight, so cool. That was funny to me. I didn’t even take offense to that. That was just funny to me. My whole problem was a whole ‘nother thing.” The Loud Records artist (who died in June) says he and 10 to 15 of his affiliates waited for JAY-Z outside of Justin’s Restaurant, owned by Puff Daddy. “We surrounded the front door so he couldn’t get out without seeing us. So I’m standing there waiting to see him and finally he comes from back somewhere,” said Prodigy. “Him and Jermaine Dupri come walking. Jermaine sees us and he was out. Jay’s standing there with two bodyguards approaching us…He puts his hand out, like this, and comes walking up to me like this to shake my hand. So I’m looking at him like I could just really treat him like a rag dog right now like for real. So I shook his hand, ‘What’s up man?’ He was like ‘Yo listen, it ain’t no beef. It’s just music. Let’s keep it just music. There’s no problems son. I just wish you would have came and told me how you felt to my face instead of putting it in a magazine.’ And I’m like ‘Alright cool, there ain’t no beef. We can keep it just music.’ And I had thought about it real quick. ‘Cause I’m thinking about how I could just really overpower him right now with the security and all that.” The Blueprint: How 1 Kanye West Beat Tape Changed Roc-A-Fella Records Forever (Audio) A newly published video interview with Jay confirms the low key peace-offering. In the second part of the Rap Radar Podcast, JAY-Z details his relationship with P and the loss of many Hip-Hop artists due to health and illness (15:00). “I feel like a lot of us… Sean [Price] and [Big] Kap dying, we have to really pay attention. [Prodigy] obviously had a sickness that he couldn’t [control], but we have to take care of ourselves. We really do. These guys are dying young. I mean, I had super respect for Prodigy. In order for me to really spar with you, like really spar, I gotta respect you somewhere. I mean, I sampled him for my first album.” On the DJ Premier-produced “D’Evils” it sampled P’s voice from LL Cool J’s “I Shot Ya (Remix).” Here he discusses the making good on the 2000s beef. “We spoke. Me and him spoke before he passed. I saw him in the club like I wanna say maybe five years ago or something like that. He just came over and we kicked it. Again, it wasn’t really about nothin’. It’s just sad; blessings to his family.” How Losing His Father Helped JAY-Z Escape A Hard Knock Life (Video) During the Terror Squad vs. Roc-A-Fella beef, Jay also recalls riding an elevator to a New York Knicks game with nemesis Fat Joe. “It’s the most ridiculous thing…
occurred, hold accountable those who acted inappropriately, be open about what happened and permanently fix these problems so that such mis-steps do not occur again," he said. "We need to show the utmost fairness and impartiality … and there was a fundamental failure [to do this] by the IRS management." But Republican critics saw his testimony and that of treasury inspector general J Russell George as more evidence to support their view that the practice amounted, at best, to inadvertent political bias and may even have been sanctioned by the Democrat administration. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida said: "When government targets individuals for their beliefs this is an affront for democracy and an attack our freedoms. It's a basis of our country that you should not fear the government because of your beliefs". Fellow Democrat Jose Serrano added: "We need to have a have look at why we allow groups involved in political funding to have special status. Freedom of speech does not require this kind of tax advantage." Delays in granting the tax exempt status are still affecting 132 of the political advocacy groups, some of whom have waited over two years to clear through the IRS system – leading several to go bankrupt. Republican committee chair, Hal Rogers, compared the affair to a McCarthyite witch-hunt. "Having an enemies list harkens back to a dark page in our past," he said. Subcommittee chairman, Ander Crenshaw, added: "When an entire office singles out conservative groups and bullies them and harasses them, that's not bad management; that's someone gone wrong. And if no one steps up and says that's wrong, that's a culture of abuse."Sly Sludge I keep seeing people spraying Round-Up on the weeds in their sidewalk cracks, their hands on the spray nozzle mere inches away from the weed. I just want to scream at them, "Don't you know you're creating superweeds? Don't you know you're poisoning the earth? Don't you know Monsanto is poisoning you for monetary gain?" Ugh. It's especially on my mind lately because recently (following King Corn), I made my best friend watch Deborah Koons Garcia's The Future of Food. If you haven't seen it or can't find it, I made a children's book sort of thing about it, which boils down the message. You can read that here. Basically, it's about how Monsanto exploited the US Seed Bank and patent system and has been screwing over small family farmers in an attempt to control the production of (and therefor the profits from) food. I made a video about weeds, and how they're not so bad after all. Watch it if you'd like. Some Of Us three is now available for purchase in the store! So many comics! Get yours today! Say what? Plethora #1 is up? Check it out!Spread the love New York, NY — A video submitted to the Free Thought Project shows an NYPD cop repeatedly punch a 16-year-old teenager in the head over the weekend as onlookers watched in horror. What sets this video apart from others is that it shows bystanders intervene during the arrest. As the Gothamist reported, the incident took place around 9:00 a.m. at the intersection of 225th Street and Broadway in Marble Hill, where officers from the 50th Precinct say they were responding to a teenager allegedly stealing a bicycle. On the scene, 16-year-old Alfred Burns allegedly “began to struggle with officers and pushed one officer to the ground causing the suspect to fall on top of the officer,” an NYPD spokeswoman said Monday. According to the NY Post, rushing to protect his partner, the other, burlier officer gets atop Burns, and proceeds to pummel him, landing a vicious series of hooks and jabs, as a third female officer cries out, “Stop resisting!” We do not see what happened prior to the video starting. However, it is clear that the teen is not only resisting but appears to be wrestling with the other officer. He was also wanted for multiple crimes. “No, don’t hit him! Don’t hit him!” a woman screams off camera as others plead with the teen to “Stop resisting.” As the struggle continues, one bystander steps in to help police. He grabs the teen’s arm and begins pulling it back to allow the officer to place it in handcuffs. However, this does not appear to actually help and the massive cop continues to pound the teen’s face. “No, what are you doing? What did you do?” a bystander shrieks repeatedly as the officer pounds the defiant teen, the footage shows. “No, that’s extra!” quips the person filming the video. After seeing enough of the officer pound the teen’s face, another bystander steps in, this time to help the teen. As the bystander grabs the officer’s arm, the first bystander, who was helping the cop, also grabs the cops arm. Briefly, the two men stop the officer from hitting the teen as he then yells at the crowd to get back. A female officer then joins in and shows the other two cops how to properly handcuff a teen and the incident was then resolved. According to the Post, Burns, of Morrisania, was arrested and charged with assault, petit larceny, resisting arrest, criminal possession of stolen property and giving a fake name, cops said. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital for treatment and released, police said. In spite of Burns having been accused of committing a crime which warranted his arrest, a police spokeswoman confirmed that melee “is under investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau.” According to the police, they say Burns was resisting because he was wanted in connection to another robbery from July. What do you think? Was this officer’s force justified? Were the onlookers justified for stepping in? Let us know in the comments below.By By Bill Schmalfeldt Jan 26, 2012 in Politics UPDATE: The Debate started on time, and Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have already spoken, so it seems as this was another threat that "Anonymous" did not back up with action. The robotic voice explains: In response to the establishment media blackout of Ron Paul, and specifically to the lack of equal time given to him in the debates, we the people will be blacking out the responses of all candidates except Ron Paul in the upcoming CNN debate in Jacksonville Florida on Thursday, January 26 at 8PM eastern standard time. This is a call to all who are willing and able to join this effort to show the establishment media that we will not tolerate the continued media blackout of Ron Paul, and that we will, in return, shut down the CNN website and their live stream of the debate. Although "Anonymous" has taken credit for some high-profile website shutdowns recently, such as a series of attacks on the websites of the Justice Department, the MPAA and Universal Music, among others, on January 19, not all of its threats have played out as promised. A promised attack on Facebook and an unnamed Mexican drug cartel did not happen. If this is an actual threat by "Anonymous," it would be the first time they interfered with a partial stream of the audio/video portion of a website. This would indicate they have the technology to pull off a sustained, sporadic series of mini-blackouts, since they intend to allow Ron Paul's answers to be heard. The video includes instructions on how to assist in the hacking of the CNN website. Ron Paul is not actively campaigning in Florida, choosing instead to focus on states holding caucuses in the near future. A two-minute video, claiming to be connected with the hacker group "Anonymous" threatens to shut down the CNN.com feed of tonight's debate of the Republican Presidential Candidates -- except for the responses given by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).The robotic voice explains:Although "Anonymous" has taken credit for some high-profile website shutdowns recently, such as a series of attacks on the websites of the Justice Department, the MPAA and Universal Music, among others, on January 19, not all of its threats have played out as promised. A promised attack on Facebook and an unnamed Mexican drug cartel did not happen.If this is an actual threat by "Anonymous," it would be the first time they interfered with a partial stream of the audio/video portion of a website. This would indicate they have the technology to pull off a sustained, sporadic series of mini-blackouts, since they intend to allow Ron Paul's answers to be heard.The video includes instructions on how to assist in the hacking of the CNN website. Ron Paul is not actively campaigning in Florida, choosing instead to focus on states holding caucuses in the near future. More about Debate, Anonymous, Hackers, CNN, Ron paul More news from Debate Anonymous Hackers CNN Ron paul Ron paul supportersThe Trust Project is a collaboration among news organizations around the world. Its goal is to create strategies that fulfill journalism’s basic pledge: to serve society with a truthful, intelligent and comprehensive account of ideas and events. By signing up you agree to receive email about events, articles, offers, and the impact of The Walrus in your community. You can unsubscribe at any time. Canada’s newest prime minister, ultra-handsome Justin Trudeau, son of that other politician everyone loved a lot, announced his cabinet would be 50 percent women. Today, fifteen women were indeed named as ministers. This has made a lot of people freak out, including the editor-in-chief of The Walrus, Jonathan Kay. During a contentious panel on The National this past Sunday night, Kay said he opposed the idea of a quota, despite the fact that women make up half the population, and argued that positions in cabinet should be awarded based on merit. In response, Buzzfeed Canada senior writer Scaachi Koul pointed out that affirmative action-style policies such as the 50 percent pledge introduced by Trudeau are only needed because the existing system, “meritocratic” or otherwise, continues to fail to accommodate a wider range of diversity of representation on its own. If we really want to get technical, it’s important to acknowledge that notions of merit have never stopped previous governments from determining the make-up of their cabinets based on a variety of criteria. As Vice Canada parliamentary reporter Justin Ling has pointed out, “regionalism, parliamentary experience, who they endorsed for leader, [and] which MP they beat” are all considered valid reasons for the job, and gender is not. In effect, quotas meant to be fair representations of a variety of different Canadian constituencies have been around for almost fifty years. We can go a step further and look at some cabinet appointments that seemed to be made in spite of a yawning lack of merit, such as two climate change deniers (Peter Kent and Leona Aglukkaq) as environment minister, men in charge of women’s issues (Lloyd Axworthy), non-veterans withholding benefits while tasked with Veterans Affairs (Julian Fantino), and the legion of non-Aboriginal people screwing up the Department of Indian Affairs. As Maclean’s political editor Paul Wells points out, the precise definition of the term “merit” is debatable. You can have a brilliant person, but if they’re a “pure son of a bitch,” where do they fit? How leaders connect and get along with their appointed colleagues is, of course, very important. But if you’re constantly hiring friends or friends of friends from a small pool of people who look like you and come from similar backgrounds, then you’re choosing from an increasingly shallow and unrepresentative pool. You’ll play the same sports, perhaps never noticing how many of you are white, upper middle class, and male. This whole debate is infuriating because the issue of meritocracy only seems to come up when the capital-e Establishment, mostly a population of well-connected white men, find themselves suddenly at the slightest risk of losing their historical stranglehold on power. In the 2011 election, which saw a significant number of new MPs swept into office in Quebec, all sorts of young MPs were questioned about their strength of character and ability to perform their new duties. As we now know, what happened in the following four years was that women like Ruth-Ellen Brosseau, once dismissed with the nickname “Vegas Girl,” rose to the challenge. (Before moving to Ottawa, she worked three jobs and was raising a young son on her own.) Many of her millennial colleagues also became “solid MPs.” Ironically, it was Established members of the Conservative Party, including Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright, that were questioned repeatedly on the merits of their actions. Yesterday, Kay introduced a new angle to this simmering debate, arguing that social class is the “most profound schism of Canadian society.” But here’s the thing: women and people of colour, including Canada’s Aboriginal population, are more likely to experience being part of a lower class than white men. We know this from information gathered by Statistics Canada. Having more women and people of colour involved, be it in politics, business, art, activism or journalism, means you have a higher likelihood of encountering people with experiences of either being lower class or treated as lower class. Perspective is a powerful thing, especially in the halls of power, where it appears to have been historically in very short supply. Many of the cultural signifiers Kay references in his essay—orthodontics, golf or tennis lessons, backpacking through Europe, someone else helping pay a mortgage—are far less common among communities of colour, especially the families of recent immigrants. The money just isn’t there for these things, often because the adults are discriminated for their names, accents, foreign experience, simply their “otherness” or a combination of things. Furthermore, the examples Kay uses of people “on the margins”—such as veterans, survivors of abusive relationships, and former residents of public housing—historically have not had any incentive for revealing or talking about their painful experiences. For decades, our society has repeated the lie that industries of politics, law, finance, and journalism were tough-but-meritocratic places where rookies were to work hard and not complain if they wanted to rise through the ranks. If you wanted to cry, you did it in the bathroom, at home or in your car. For a long time, the predominant attitude was: Focus on your job, don’t bring other stuff into the workplace, everyone goes through this, so suck it up. It’s therefore not a coincidence that Kay hasn’t encountered many of these people in his professional career, while politicians and media almost only do so through survey data or think-tank reports. For many, going through these kinds of traumatic, difficult experiences weakens your ability to continually persevere, to believe in yourself, to believe you have a spot despite constantly feeling like you don’t. For many women and people of colour, the endless fight isn’t worth it. They quit before rising to the ranks of editor, manager, partner, designated candidate or MP. In this sense, a “meritocratic” bias simply increases the likelihood that those who rise to the top will be the same people who started out from closest to the top in the first place, as they have the least to lose and the least to overcome. The problem with Kay’s argument is how it ignores the fact that women and people of colour often experience a multitude of problems in addition to class. A black person, no matter how rich, famous or adept at golf, can never escape the racial profiling that comes with being black. A Chinese-Canadian woman, no matter how educated, “well-spoken,” and successful will never stop being asked where she is really from. Ultimately, Trudeau’s new policy for his cabinet will be most profoundly felt by men who look like Andrew Coyne, John Ivison, and Jonathan Kay. And this is a great thing! But as Globe and Mail columnist Denise Balkissoon writes, it is only the first step to representing the country’s diversity. The large shift in the number of visible minorities and residents of First Nations groups who were elected as MPs is a positive, encouraging change and their significant presence in Trudeau’s cabinet is nothing less than extraordinary. But real representation of this country also includes people with disabilities and members of the LGBT community. * It is true that you cannot measure certain kinds of diversity with the naked eye. But that doesn’t mean that Trudeau should be lambasted for trying to increase one of the kinds that you can. Frankly, we should all be mad it took this long for a prime minister to call out this problem and suggest a way to fix in the first place.Mitragyna speciosa (Rubiaceae), commonly known as kratom, is a tropical tree with a long history of traditional use in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. In recent years, kratom has gained popularity for use as a recreational drug across the globe. Relatively new to the illicit market and used in a manner different from its traditional applications, preparations of kratom are touted by many as a safe and legal psychoactive product that improves mood, relieves pain, and may provide benefits in opiate addiction. Available literature was reviewed for M. speciosa via PubMed, Google Scholar, CINAHL, and EBSCO to summarize its traditional uses, phytochemical composition, pharmacology and toxicology of proposed active constituents, and potential for misuse and abuse. Research has demonstrated that both stimulant and sedative dose-dependent effects do exist, but a growing concern for the drug's effects and safety of use has resulted in national and international attention primarily due to an increase in hospital visits and deaths in several countries that are said to have been caused by extracts of the plant. The main active alkaloid substances in kratom, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, present with a range of CNS stimulant and depressant effects mediated primarily through monoaminergic and opioid receptors. Recently, Palm Beach County, located in the southeastern corridor of Florida, has considered regulating kratom due to public safety concerns following the death of a young adult. At the local, state, and even federal levels, governments are now being confronted with the task of determining the safety and the possible regulation of kratom extracts. There are currently no standard analytical screening techniques for mitragynine and its metabolites following ingestion limiting its detection to more sophisticated techniques like liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine kratom use. The growing concern of the abuse potential of kratom requires careful evaluation of its benefits and potential toxicities.Panel Round Two More questions for the panel: Hookup Holiday; Armed With Only His Legs; Hey Boo Boo, Smile!; Trick or Trick. BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We're playing this week with Alonzo Bodden, Luke Burbank and Kyrie O'Connor. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal. PETER SAGAL, HOST: Thank you Bill. (APPLAUSE) SAGAL: Thank you so much. In just a minute, Bill seduces you with his poetry. It's our Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT, that's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news. Kyrie, forget Valentine's Day... O'CONNOR: OK. SAGAL:...According to experts, social scientists, the people who figure this stuff out, the best holiday for finding love - or at least a one night stand - is what? O'CONNOR: Probably not President's Day. LUKE BURBANK: Well, during the Clinton administration you had a shot. (LAUGHTER) O'CONNOR: Well, then every day was President's Day. SAGAL: Well, as of this weekend you'll only have to wait about 363 days. O'CONNOR: Well then it's got to be Halloween. SAGAL: It is in fact Halloween. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) SAGAL: Maybe it's the rush from all that sugar or the way you look in that sexy Ebola nurse costume, but according to psychologists at the Universe of Westminster in England, Halloween is our sexiest holiday. It's apparently because our attraction to each other is heightened by fear. You know how you clutch each other in moments of fear? And Halloween is the season of haunted houses, scary movies, etc. O'CONNOR: Well, I think everybody just goes for the guy with all the Snickers. (LAUGHTER) ALONZO BODDEN: Is that what the kids are calling it these days? (LAUGHTER) SAGAL: Luke, a member of the British Secret Service - their protective detail around the Prime Minister - is in a bit of hot water after letting what run into British Prime Minister David Cameron? BURBANK: Was it like an animal of some kind? SAGAL: An animal? No. BURBANK: Was it a car? Was it a vehicle? SAGAL: No. BURBANK: OK, so is it a mineral? (LAUGHTER) SAGAL: No. BURBANK: All right. Can I have a hint? SAGAL: Yeah. Thankfully the agents subdued him before he could start telling the Prime Minister about his half marathon? BURBANK: A jogger. SAGAL: Yes. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) SAGAL: So the scene was captured by a bystander's video. (APPLAUSE) SAGAL: The security guards were escorting the Prime Minister across the sidewalk to his car. But they're all standing around and they did not see this guy running down the sidewalk until he ran straight into the most powerful man in Britain. And then, of course, the guards sprang into action shouting, shorts fired, shorts fired. BODDEN: That's amazing on both ends that they wouldn't see him and that he would see like five burly guys surrounding a guy and say I'm going to run right through the middle of that. (LAUGHTER) SAGAL: Kyrie, after a number of incidents, the U.S. Forest Service has had to issue an official warning to hikers on our public lands not to do what with the Bears? O'CONNOR: I actually know the answer to this. Take selfies with them. SAGAL: That's right. (LAUGHTER) SAGAL: Bear selfies are becoming more and more popular among visitors to our national parks. The U.S. Forest Service realized they had a problem when park rangers kept finding these detached arms holding iPhones. (LAUGHTER) BODDEN: Do they really have to protect people from people from themselves? I mean, isn't that a Darwin thing that we - if you want to take a selfie with a bear, I think we should allow it. (APPLAUSE) SAGAL: Alonzo, just in time for Halloween, the Wall Street Journal printed a suggestion to help many parents improve the eating habits of their kids during that holiday. What? BODDEN: Can I get a hint on this? SAGAL: Well, it's as easy as taking - oh, you know, how would you put it? BODDEN: Candy from a baby. So they're suggesting you take it away? SAGAL: Yes. They're basically suggesting you steal their candy. (SOUNDBITE OF BELL) SAGAL: Now what makes this interesting... BODDEN: Can I stop you right there and say there's nothing better than Wall Street bankers telling you to steal candy from kids. (APPLAUSE) SAGAL: But it's not - they're not suggesting doing it like a banker would, just by walking up and going, it's mine. Give it back. They're saying you have to be devious. What they suggest - the Wall Street Journal - is that you tell your kids there's something called the switch witch. O'CONNOR: Oh God. SAGAL: This works with younger, impressionable children, or stupid ones if they're older. It's like the tooth fairy. There's the Easter bunny, there's the tooth fairy, there's the switch which. And the switch which comes at night and takes all the candy kids got trick-or-treating and replaces it with something else like apples or vegetables or school supplies or a lifetime of resentment. (LAUGHTER) BODDEN: I can't help but think this literally sounds like the test they would give to a new higher on Wall Street. Can you lie to a child and steal his candy? We'd love to have you work here. (LAUGHTER) SAGAL: If you can do this - it's like the new gangs. You have to go out and kill somebody - here. So the only problem with this is the kids are going to figure it out. They're going to try to defeat the switch witch by just eating all the candy the first night, or worse, they'll start adopting the tricks of drug mules to smuggle their candy. BURBANK: I think that's a Hershey Kiss - could be a butterscotch. (LAUGHTER) BURBANK: If any kid goes for that switch witching, they are - and I just did a study in my head of this - 90 percent more likely to take a selfie with the bear. (LAUGHTER) BURBANK: Is it not the best and brightest? Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Wednesday, April 2, 2008 "Two planes struck two buildings….but how is it that a third building fell 5 hours later?" asked Ventura, "How could this building just implode into its own footprint 5 hours later – that’s my first question – the 9/11 Commission didn’t even devote one page to that in their big volume of investigation," added the former Governor. Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura vehemently savaged the official 9/11 story on a syndicated national radio show today, saying the WTC collapsed like a controlled demolition and was pulverized to dust as he also highlighted the impossible 10 second free fall speed of the towers. Appearing on The Alex Jones Show, Ventura said that his initial reaction to 9/11 was much like most people at the time, and he accepted the official story outright, a response he now regrets because he was in a position of power and could have used it to raise a lot of pointed questions. "I kicked myself when it initially happened that the light didn’t go off but I was so shocked that this thing had even taken place that I apologize for not being more aware," said Ventura, adding that watching Loose Change at the insistence of his son was part of the catalyst for his wake up call. Host Alex Jones is executive producer of Loose Change (get it here), the most watched Internet movie of all time. Ventura said he ran through a rollercoaster of emotions when he saw the film. "When I finally did watch it I went through every emotion you could imagine, from laughing, crying, getting sick to my stomach, to the whole emotional thing," said the former Governor. "To me questions haven’t been answered and are not being answered about 9/11," said Ventura, before highlighting the collapse of Building 7, a 47-story tall skyscraper that was not hit by a plane but collapsed in its own footprint in the late afternoon of September 11. "Two planes struck two buildings….but how is it that a third building fell 5 hours later?" asked Ventura, "How could this building just implode into its own footprint 5 hours later – that’s my first question – the 9/11 Commission didn’t even devote one page to that in their big volume of investigation," added the former Governor. Ventura then explored how it was possible that all three buildings could rapidly collapse at almost free fall speed. "How could those buildings fall at the speed of gravity – if you put a stopwatch on them both of those World Trade Center buildings were on the ground in ten seconds – how can that be?" asked Ventura. "If you took a billiard ball and dropped it from the height of the World Trade Center in a vacuum it would hit the ground in 9.3 seconds and if you took that same billiard ball and dropped it 10 stories at a time and merely stopped it and started it it would take 30 seconds – if you dropped it every floor of the World Trade Center to the ground, simply stopping and starting it on gravity it would take over 100 seconds to reach the ground," he surmised. The former wrestling star then questioned how low-temperature burning jet fuel could melt steel. "Jet fuel is four fifths kerosene – which is not a hot burning fuel – and they wanted us to believe it melted these steel structured girders and caused these buildings to pancake collapse to the ground?" he stated. "I was on the site within two weeks after it happened and I saw none of these pancakes – wouldn’t they all be piled up in a huge mass on the ground and yet everything was blown into dust – when you look at it from that aspect none of it makes any sense," said Ventura. "Never before in the annuls of history has a fire caused a steel structure building to fall to the ground like these two did," he concluded. Having undergone Basic Underwater Demolition Seal training, Ventura is speaking from an experienced standpoint and he unequivocally stated that he thought the buildings were deliberately imploded. "Upon looking at the film in super-slow motion and the way the buildings fell and comparing that to the way that they do like a controlled demolition of a hotel in Las Vegas, they both fell identical." "I did watch the film of Building 7 going down and in my opinion there’s no doubt that that building was brought down with demolition," said the former Governor. Ventura also questioned the lack of wreckage outside of the Pentagon after Flight 77 allegedly struck the building. "When I was watching Loose Change with a friend of mine – he happens to work for a company that helps build the Boeing airplanes and they said that when the engines completely disappeared and were destroyed, his response was, excuse my French – bullshit!," said Ventura. "I turned to him and said why and he said because they’re made of titanium steel – they can’t disintegrate." Ventura said that the corporate media were going to continue to cover-up the truth about 9/11, but that the number of credible people speaking out and increasing education and knowledge about the subject would eventually reap dividends. "We don’t want to lose our country, after all it’s still our country and until they put us down we have the power," Ventura concluded. The Governor’s bold comments about 9/11 come on the heels of similar views expressed by American icon Willie Nelson during an interview on the same radio show in February. Click here to listen to the full interview.Full Disclosure mailing list archives By Date By Thread Iranian Weblog Services v3.3 CMS - Multiple Web Vulnerabilities From: Vulnerability Lab <research () vulnerability-lab com> Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2016 14:05:09 +0200 Document Title: =============== Iranian Weblog Services v3.3 CMS - Multiple Web Vulnerabilities References (Source): ==================== http://www.vulnerability-lab.com/get_content.php?id=1862 CWE-89 CWE-79 CWE-264 http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/89 http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/79 http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/264 CWE-ID: ====== 89 Release Date: ============= 2016-06-28 Vulnerability Laboratory ID (VL-ID): ==================================== 1862 Common Vulnerability Scoring System: ==================================== 7.4 Abstract Advisory Information: ============================== An independent vulnerability laboratory researcher discovered multiple web vulnerabilities in the Iranian Web Blog Service v3.3 content management system. Vulnerability Disclosure Timeline: ================================== 2016-06-28: Public Disclosure (Vulnerability Laboratory) Discovery Status: ================= Published Affected Product(s): ==================== Iranian Weblog Services Product: Content Management System 3.3 Exploitation Technique: ======================= Remote Severity Level: =============== High Technical Details & Description: ================================ 1.1 A remote sql injection web vulnerability has been discovered in the Iranian Web Blog Service v3.3 content management system. The vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute own sql commands to compromise the web-applicaation or connected dbms. The vulnerability is located in the `i` parameter of the `list.php` file GET method request. Remote attackers are able to execute sql commands by injection of malicious statements via GET method request. The vulnerability is located on the application-side and the request method to inject/execute is GET. The security vulnerability is a classic order by sql injection in the `i` value. The security risk of the sql injection vulnerability is estimated as high with a cvss (common vulnerability scoring system) count of 7.4. Exploitation of the remote sql injection web vulnerability requires no user interaction or privileged web-application user account. Successful exploitation of the remote sql injection results in database management system, web-server and web-application compromise. Request Method(s): [+] GET Vulnerable File(s): [+] list.php Vulnerable Parameter(s): [+] i 1.2 A client-side cross site scripting web vulnerability has been discovered in the Iranian Web Blog Service v3.3 content management system. The web vulnerability allows remote attackers to inject own malicious script codes to the client-side of the online service module or function. The cross site scripting web vulnerability is located in the `page` parameter of the `list.php` file GET method request. Remote attackers are able to inject own malicious script codes to the page parameter to compromise client-side requests. The attack vector of the vulnerability is non-persistent and the request method to inject/execute is GET. The security risk of the cross site web vulnerability is estimated as medium with a cvss (common vulnerability scoring system) count of 3.3. Exploitation of the web vulnerability requires no privileged web-application account with restricted access and only low user interaction. Successful exploitation of the vulnerabilities results in persistent phishing, session hijacking, persistent external redirect to malicious sources and application-side manipulation of affected or connected module context. Request Method(s): [+] GET Vulnerable Module(s): [+] list.php Vulnerable Parameter(s): [+] page 1.3 An arbitrary file upload web vulnerability has been discovered in the Iranian Web Blog Service v3.3 content management system. The vulnerability allows to upload malicious files to unrestricted path variables to compromise the web-server or database. The web vulnerability is located in the connector path of the fckeditor module. Remote attackers are able to upload files without secure authentication, which results in the compromise by malicious webshells (php or js). The path variable of the upload folder is not restricted by default configuration. The security risk of the web vulnerability is estimated as high with a cvss (common vulnerability scoring system) count of 7.1. Exploitation of the web vulnerability requires no privileged web-application account with restricted access or user interaction. Successful exploitation of the vulnerabilities results in unauthorized upload of files like webshells or rootkits to compromise the web-server and database management system. Request Method(s): [+] POST Vulnerable Module(s): [+] Fckeditor Vulnerable Function(s): [+] File Upload Proof of Concept (PoC): ======================= 1.1 The remote sql-injection web vulnerability can be exploited by remote attackers without privileged user account or user interaction. For security demonstration or to reproduce the vulnerability follow the provided information and steps below to continue. Dork(s): inurl:list.php?i= PoC: http://localhost:8080/list.php?i=-1'[SQL-INJECTION VULNERABILITY!]--- 1.2 The cross site scripting web vulnerability can be exploited by remote attackers without privileged user account and with low user interaction. For security demonstration or to reproduce the vulnerability follow the provided information and steps below to continue. PoC: http://localhost:8080/list.php?page=37<script>alert(document.cookie)</script> 1.3 The arbitrary file upload web vulnerability can be exploited by remote attackers without privileged user account or user interaction. For security demonstration or to reproduce the vulnerability follow the provided information and steps below to continue. PoC: http://localhost:8080/fckeditor/editor/filemanager/connectors/ http://localhost:8080/fckeditor/editor/filemanager/connectors/uploadtest.html Solution - Fix & Patch: ======================= 1.1 The first vulnerability can be patched by a secure parse and encode of the vulnerable i parameter in the list.php file GET method request. Escape and use a prepared statement to secure the sql request in the code-line of the file. 1.2 Encode and parse the vulnerable page parameter in the list.php file GET method request. Disallow the usage of special chars to prevent client-side xss attacks. Restrict the parameter input and encode the value or escape the entries. 1.3 Restrict the file path request and disallow uploads to prevent arbitrary file upload attacks. Disallow to review the path after upload to prevent the execute of webshells. Security Risk: ============== 1.1 The security risk of the remote sql-injection web vulnerability in the i parameter value of the list.php file is estimated as high. (CVSS 7.4) 1.2 The security risk of the cross site scripting web vulnerability in the page parameter value of the list.php file is estimated as medium. (CVSS 3.3) 1.3 The security risk of the arbitrary file upload web vulnerability in the fckeditor module is estimated as high. (CVSS 7.1) Credits & Authors: ================== Iran Cyber Security Group - 0x3a (ICG SEC) [Iran-Cyber.Net] [http://www.vulnerability-lab.com/show.php?user=Iran%20Cyber%20Security] Disclaimer & Information: ========================= The information provided in this advisory is provided as it is without any warranty. Vulnerability Lab disclaims all warranties, either expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and capability for a particular purpose. Vulnerability-Lab or its suppliers are not liable in any case of damage, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential loss of business profits or special damages, even if Vulnerability-Lab or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply. We do not approve or encourage anybody to break any licenses, policies, deface websites, hack into databases or trade with stolen data. Domains: www.vulnerability-lab.com - www.vuln-lab.com - www.evolution-sec.com Contact: admin () vulnerability-lab com - research () vulnerability-lab com - admin
Great retro gaming system, Even great for those on a budget. The Game Gear is a blast from the past that will keep even today's kids entertained for many many hour. This is an 8 bit gaming system with a fairly large game selection, and like most Sega products has a lot of neat addons and supporting hardware available.. The generation of color passive LCD that the Game Gear uses don't compare to today's LCD technology but that does not mean you cannot get a neat gaming experience. The blurring of the screen actually can make blocky graphics smooth and look better in some ways. The Game Gear is just the right size to hold for many hours without the cramping hands you get with many of these small gaming systems of today. Many systems out there suffer from the faulty capacitors of the day, but its an easy fix for anyone with a little experience in electronics or soldering such. Great system for what they go for todayRead full reviewSignificance Old Italian violins are widely believed to have playing qualities unobtainable in new violins, including the ability to project their sound more effectively in a hall. Because Old Italian instruments are now priced beyond the reach of the vast majority of players, it seems important to test the fundamental assumption of their tonal superiority. A recent study found that, under blind conditions, violin soloists generally prefer new violins and are unable to distinguish between new and old at better than chance levels. This paper extends the results to listeners in a hall. We find that they generally prefer new violins over Stradivaris, consider them better-projecting, and are no better than players at telling new and old apart. Abstract Old Italian violins are routinely credited with playing qualities supposedly unobtainable in new instruments. These qualities include the ability to project their sound more effectively in a concert hall—despite seeming relatively quiet under the ear of the player—compared with new violins. Although researchers have long tried to explain the “mystery” of Stradivari’s sound, it is only recently that studies have addressed the fundamental assumption of tonal superiority. Results from two studies show that, under blind conditions, experienced violinists tend to prefer playing new violins over Old Italians. Moreover, they are unable to tell new from old at better than chance levels. This study explores the relative merits of Stradivari and new violins from the perspective of listeners in a hall. Projection and preference are taken as the two broadest criteria by which listeners might meaningfully compare violins. Which violins are heard better, and which are preferred? In two separate experiments, three new violins were compared with three by Stradivari. Projection was tested both with and without orchestral accompaniment. Projection and preference were judged simultaneously by dividing listeners into two groups. Results are unambiguous. The new violins projected better than the Stradivaris whether tested with orchestra or without, the new violins were generally preferred by the listeners, and the listeners could not reliably distinguish new from old. The single best-projecting violin was considered the loudest under the ear by players, and on average, violins that were quieter under the ear were found to project less well. Violinists generally agree that individual violins vary considerably in their ability to project—projection referring to how well an instrument can be heard at a distance, especially over a background of competing musical sound. The paradigmatic test for projection is the violin concerto, where a soloist is expected to carry over a full orchestra, often in a very large hall. Old Italian instruments are commonly believed to have the advantage over new ones in this regard. “What made the old instruments great was their power in a hall,” wrote the distinguished violinist Earl Carlyss (1) in response to a 2010 blind study (2). Somewhat paradoxically, Old Italian violins are also commonly described as being relatively quiet under the ear of the player compared with new instruments. According to concertmaster Frank Almond (who plays a Stradivarius), “a peculiar (and sublime) aspect of great old Italian instruments is that the sound somehow expands and gains more complexity from a distance, especially in a concert hall.” He contrasts this with many modern instruments, which seem to have a large sound under the ear but may not “carry past the sixth row” (www.insidethearts.com/nondivisi/they-blinded-me-with-science/, accessed April 10, 2017). Similarly, renowned cellist Steven Isserlis (who plays a Stradivarius cello) wrote “[a] famous (and curious) feature of Stradivarius instruments is that their tone seems to increase with distance. As a rule, if my tone sounds small to me, it means that it is travelling out into the hall…” (3). Most celebrated violinists since the early 1800s have played instruments by Stradivari or Guarneri del Gesu, and this historical fact is often taken as evidence that these violins possess some combination of playing qualities not found in newer instruments. Over the past two centuries, numerous informal playing and listening tests have challenged the notion (4⇓–6). More recently, a pair of well-controlled studies invited players to blind test new violins against those by Stradivari and other Old Italian makers (2, 7). In both studies, the most preferred violin was new, and there was a general preference for new instruments over old. Moreover, players seemed unable to reliably distinguish between new and old. These studies focused on judgments made by violinists while playing. Because projection must by definition be judged by listeners at a distance, many questions remained unanswered. Do Stradivari violins, in fact, outproject high-quality new instruments? Are better-projecting instruments typically quieter under the player’s ear? Are the instruments that soloists prefer to play the ones that are found to project best in a hall? Can listeners tell whether a soloist is playing an Old Italian violin rather than a new one? To answer these questions, we ran two experiments in which neither players nor listeners knew the identity of the test instruments. Projection and preference were taken as the broadest criteria by which listeners might meaningfully separate two violins in a hall: which violin is heard better, and which is preferred? The first study was held in 2012 in a small concert hall near Paris, France immediately after the above-cited preference test (7). The second was held in 2013 in a larger hall in New York City. These studies, referred to here as the Paris and New York experiments, involved 55 and 82 listeners, respectively. In each case, three new violins were tested against three by Stradivari. In Paris, the violins were tested with and without orchestral accompaniment. In New York, all tests were unaccompanied. Materials and Methods General Methodology. In each experiment, a group of listeners was presented with a series of pairwise comparisons. Each pair consisted of a new violin and a Stradivarius (the selection of the instruments is detailed below) and was played by a soloist behind an acoustically transparent screen. Players used their own bows, which they typically would when evaluating instruments in real life. Modified welders’ goggles together with much-reduced ambient lighting made it impossible for players to identify instruments by eye. The Paris experiment was conducted in the 300-seat concert hall A coeur de ville in Vincennes (a hall well-regarded for its acoustics), and the New York experiment was conducted in the 860-seat Great Hall at the Cooper Union building. Listeners were free to sit anywhere in the halls, although in Paris, the first five rows were excluded. Seven internationally renowned soloists (named soloists 1–7 in Table S1) took part in the Paris experiment, six of whom participated in the player preference experiment (7) conducted in the preceding 2 days. In New York, one soloist from the Paris experiment was joined by another distinguished violinist (Table S1). In both tests, the number of soloists who normally performed on an Old Italian instrument was about equal to the number normally performing on a new one (Table S1). Table S1. Information about the players who took part in each experiment In Paris, we invited experienced listeners, by which we mean listeners with expertize relevant to our subject; they included violin makers, players, musicians, audiophiles, music critics, composers, and acousticians. The New York experiment was a public event within Mondomusica (an international exhibition of handcrafted musical instruments); listeners were people who saw the advertisement and were interested in the topic. In both experiments, listeners who returned incomplete evaluation sheets were omitted from the analysis. The distribution of the remaining listeners (55 for Paris and 82 for New York) is provided in Table S2. At the beginning of the experiment, listeners were informed orally that participation was voluntary and that all answers would be anonymized. Under these conditions, CNRS (the employer of C.F.) does not require any formal approval from a licensing committee before the experiment. Table S2. Information about the listeners who participated in each experiment Detailed Procedure for the Paris Experiment. This experiment was divided into three parts: parts 1 and 2 were concerned with the relative projection of old and new violins; part 3 tested whether listeners could tell if the violins being played were new or old. The full score sheet given to the participants is available in Dataset S1. Part 1. Testing projection. Relative projection was tested by a series of pairwise comparisons structured as follows. A soloist played a short excerpt on each violin of a pair and then did the same thing again. This so-called ABAB format ensured that listeners could hear each violin both before and after the other. The whole sequence was done twice for each pair, first using a solo excerpt and second, using a concerto excerpt accompanied by the orchestra (details about the orchestra can be found in SI Materials and Methods). It was made clear to listeners that the same pair was being played throughout. To test each of the Stradivari violins against each of the new violins, nine new/old pairs were formed. These pairs were played in random order by player 1; then, after a short break, they were played by player 2 but with the order of the violins within the pairs reversed and the order of the pairs modified. Note that, in choosing soloists for this test, we selected player 1 as one who regularly plays a new violin (soloist 1) (Table S1) and player 2 as one who regularly plays an old violin (soloist 2). To facilitate testing, a researcher placed each pair of violins in turn on a table. A large sign (legible even in the relative darkness) placed in front of each instrument indicated to the soloist whether it was violin A or violin B. To help listeners keep track, a large video screen indicated which violin of which pair was being played (e.g., pair 5, violin A). Musical excerpts were selected from the standard repertoire and well-known to all soloists. The unaccompanied excerpts were chosen to cover a good deal of the instrument’s range within about 10 s. Soloist 1 played the opening solo (bars 23–27) from the first movement of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto opus number (op.) 35. Soloist 2 played the opening solo (bars 90–94) from the first movement of the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77. The accompanied excerpts were a bit longer (∼20 s) and passages in which the solo violin might easily be “covered” by the orchestra: soloist 1 played bars 187–202 from the third movement of the Brahms Concerto, and soloist 2 played bars 41–43 from the second movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, op. 47. Although projection is presumed to be an intrinsic quality of an instrument, it may well be affected by how good a “fit” a particular instrument is for a particular player. An experimental design allowing separation of these two factors would, however, require the audience to rate nine pairs of violins twice. The resulting 36 repetitions of the same excerpt would, we believe, have been an unreasonable challenge to listener concentration. To help avoid boredom and fatigue, the second soloist was, therefore, given a different excerpt. This tradeoff between experimental design and the capacities of the listeners made it impossible to later decouple the intrinsic qualities of the violins from the influence of individual players. For each pair of violins, listeners were required to answer the following question: “which violin projects best?” The meaning of projection was left undefined, but a questionnaire on the subject (SI Materials and Methods) was sent to participants after the experiment.† Listeners recorded their evaluations by placing a mark at the position of their choice along a continuous scale, where one end indicated that violin A was far superior to B in terms of projection. A mark at the opposite end indicated the converse, and a mark at the midpoint indicated that the two projected equally well (Dataset S1). Although it was impossible for the soloists to evaluate violins in this way while playing them, they did indicate (to C.F.) which instrument of each pair that they believed projected better or that the two were equal. Selection of test violins. In the Paris preference tests (7), 10 soloists were presented with 6 new and 6 Old Italian violins (including 5 by Stradivari), which had themselves been preselected from a pool of 9 Old Italian and 15 new violins made available by dealers, collectors, players, and makers (ref. 7 has details of the preselection process). Over the course of two 75-min individual testing sessions, the soloists were asked to (i) eliminate any instruments that they found unsuitable, (ii) choose from the remaining their four favorites and then rank these four in terms of overall preference, and (iii) select the single violin that would best replace their own violin for an upcoming concert tour. Time limits restricted the number of violins that could be tested for projection to three new and three old. The following factors were considered in selecting these from six old and six new violins that the soloists had evaluated. i) The number of times an instrument was the top choice of a soloist. Five violins were chosen by at least one soloist. Three were new (N5, N10, and N9), and two were by Stradivari (O1 and O4). ii) Overall preference score based on soloists’ choices of favorite violins. The three top-scoring new violins were, in descending order, N5, N10, and N11. The three top-rated old violins were O1, O8, and O4. iii) Measured acoustical output. Acoustical measurements were made of all instruments (SI Materials and Methods and Fig. S1). Preliminary results were used for a quick measure of the relative sound output of each instrument per unit force at the bridge. The three new violins with the highest output were (in descending order) N5, N11, and N10. The three old violins were O6, O4, and O1. Fig. S1. Difference in averaged sound output level (per unit force at bridge) for each test violin relative to violin O3 for the 200- to 6,400-Hz frequency band (represented in decibels). Based on the data in Table 1, we chose the following violins: N5, N10, N11, O1, O4, and O6. The inclusion of O6 needs justification, because it was not chosen by any soloist and was rated 9 of 12 for preference. It was selected mainly on the basis of its acoustical output, which was the highest of all of the old violins. Moreover, unlike the well-liked O8 (also a strong contender), it was a Stradivarius and therefore, of most direct relevance to our hypothesis. Table 1. Data used in the selection of three new and three old violins for the listening experiment Part 2. Would the violins most frequently chosen by soloists in preference tests outproject those that the soloists most often rejected? We had listeners compare the two most frequently chosen violins (N5 and O1) with the two most often rejected (N2 and O12). The resulting four new/old pairs were tested as in part 1, with players and listeners being asked the same questions. The solo excerpts were as above, but to increase musical variety, different orchestral excerpts were used: player 1 (soloist 3) (Table S1) played a 20-s excerpt from the second movement of the Brahms concerto (bars 93–98), and player 2 (soloist 4) played a 16-s excerpt from the third movement of the Sibelius concerto (bars 254–262). Part 3. To test whether listeners could distinguish old violins from new violins, they were presented with a succession of seven concerto excerpts, each played (with orchestra) by a different soloist (soloists 1–7) (Table S1). Unbeknown to listeners, the soloists played their own personal violins, thus forestalling concerns that they might be insufficiently acquainted with the test instruments to fully exploit their individual qualities. Each soloist had prepared a three-minute excerpt from the Mendelssohn, Sibelius, or Beethoven concerto. After each performance, listeners were asked the following questions. “Do you think the violin is old or new? Why?” Detailed Procedure of the New York Experiment. Testing projection and preference. The New York experiment tested how well the listeners’ judgments of projection correlated with judgments of preference. It was structured in much the same way as part 1 of the Paris experiment, with three Stradivari and three new violins yielding nine new/old pairs. Listeners were not asked to judge projection and preference at the same time: such a task would be cognitively challenging; moreover, the answer to the first question might influence the answer to the second, creating artificial correlations. Instead, listeners were randomly divided in two groups: group 1 was asked first which violin of a pair they preferred and why, and group 2 was asked which violin projected better. After player 1 (soloist 8) (Table S1) had played the nine pairs, the questions were switched for player 2 (soloist 9), so that the first group now judged projection and the second group judged preference. Both projection and preference were reported on continuous scale as in Paris. Unlike Paris, listeners were asked to define what projection meant to them by means of a multiple choice questionnaire (Dataset S2). As in Paris, the soloists were asked to estimate projection on a simpler scale: A, B, or equal. All tests were done without orchestral accompaniment. Selection of test violins. We would have liked to use the same old and new test violins as in Paris, but just two of them were available: the new violin N5 and the Stradivari O6. Two additional new violins were chosen by a preselection process (SI Materials and Methods) from 15 violins submitted by violin makers. The two additional Stradivari were the only ones made available to us at the time. SI Materials and Methods Information About the Soloists and the Violins That They Played During the Experiment. Information about the soloists and the violins that they played during the experiment is provided in Table S1. Information About the Listeners. Listeners who turned in incomplete data sheets were excluded from the analysis. The distribution of the remaining (55 in Paris and 82 in New York) is described in Table S2. Information About the Orchestra. The Sorbonne Universités student orchestra was supplemented by several professional players and conducted by Vincent Barthe. In all, there were 10 violins, 5 violas, 3 cellos, 1 double bass, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 1 oboe, 1 bassoon, 2 horns, and timpani. To allow players to read their parts on the darkened stage, small directional lamps were attached to the music stands. Acoustical Measurements. The acoustical output (sound pressure per unit force at bridge) for each violin was measured using an impulse hammer and microphone. The bridge was tapped both horizontally and vertically, and the sound pressure was measured at 12 equatorial microphone positions 20 cm from the center of the violin in the plane of the bridge (10). These measurements yielded 24 frequency response functions (FRFs) for each violin. The real average for all 24 FRFs was calculated and then reduced to a single average (in decibels) for the frequency band spanning 200–6,400 Hz. This single average is provided for each violin in Fig. S1. The three new violins with highest levels are, in descending order, N5, N11, and N10, and the three old violins with highest levels are O6, O4, and O1. Selection of the Violins for the New York Experiment. New violins were chosen from a pool of 15 violins (including N5) submitted by their makers. A preselection took place in the same venue as the experiment. J.C. and the distinguished violin maker Sam Zygmuntovicz played the violins under blind conditions and selected what they considered the best eight violins. The selection of three new instruments was made by a blind test similar to the preselection in Paris (7). Three blindfolded soloists (the two participating in the experiment along with Karen Gyomo) each played eight violins behind an acoustically transparent screen for a small audience (J.C., F.-C.T., Sam Zygmuntovicz, and the two soloists who were not playing). Three violins (including N5) were chosen via an informal discussion of the player and listener preferences. There was good agreement among all parties. Score Sheet Used in Paris. The score sheet used in Paris is in Dataset S1. Questionnaire Sent to the Listeners After the Paris Experiment. i) What is your definition of projection (i.e., the one that you used to evaluate the different violins)? ii) Were there one or more musicians for whom the evaluation was easier/harder? Were there one or more excerpts for which the evaluation was easier/harder? Score Sheet Used in New York. The score sheet used in New York is in Dataset S2. Results In this study, some Bayesian statistical procedures supplement traditional frequentist inferences using LePAC software (8, 9). They assume an uninformative prior distribution (i.e., no information is used other than that contained in the data, and no particular hypothesis is favored a priori). Hereafter, Bayesian statements are notated Pr. They are naturally conditional on the data at hand, but conditional notation is omitted for the sake of brevity. Paris Experiment. Relative projection of three new violins and three Stradivarius (part 1). Fig. 1 shows the relative projection of the nine new/old pairs tested in Paris. Fig. 1, Left shows results for unaccompanied violin, and Fig. 1, Right shows violin with orchestra. N10 was about equal to O1 and O4 in terms of projection, but in all other pairings, the new violins outprojected the old. The spaces between the blue and red error bars in Fig. 1 (which are especially wide for N11) suggest that projection depends somewhat on the player. However, no firm conclusions can be drawn, because the two players used different excerpts. Fig. 1. Relative projection of the nine new/old pairs tested in Paris. (Left) Results for unaccompanied violin. (Right) Results for violin with orchestra. Listeners scored projection on a continuous scale between zero and one. The charts show the average of their scores for each of two players—P1 in red and P2 in blue. Error bars correspond to the SEM. The two players were asked to choose one of the following for each pair: (i) violin A projects best (indicated by a mark at the left edge of the graph, (ii) violin B projects best (mark at right edge), or (iii) the two violins project equally well (mark at center line). P1’s judgements are shown in red, and P2’s judgements are shown in blue. Do violins that project well when played alone also project well over an orchestra? We find a striking consistency across the two conditions. Averaging the evaluations of all listeners and both players, the observed effect is −0.002 [solo − orchestra; t(52) = −0.25; P = 0.40]. Furthermore, we can state that Pr(\|true effect\| < 0.02) = 0.95 (on a 0–2 scale): given these data, there is a 95% probability that the true effect (i.e., the effect in the whole population of experienced listeners) is between −0.02 and 0.02. Although nonnull, the zero to one scale means that its value is very small, and a conclusion of negligibility can be drawn. In other words, very similar results are obtained whether testing projection with or without orchestra. Do listeners from different professional backgrounds evaluate projection differently? By design, the entire audience consisted of experienced listeners, but they came from various professional backgrounds and included musicians, violin makers, and acousticians. All groups produced rather similar results. The observed rms of the differences between groups is 0.04 [F(2,52) = 1.75; P = 0.18; Pr(\|true effect\| < 0.08) = 0.95 (on a 0–2 scale)]. Given the consistencies described above, we felt justified in averaging the data from all listeners with and without orchestra. Fig. 2 shows the differences in projection between each new violin and all three old violins and then, between each old violin and all three new violins. Again, we see a large new/old effect, with new violins judged to project better than old. The observed difference in projection is 0.19 [t(52) = 15.14; P < 10−4; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): (0.16; 0.21)]. Pr(true effect > 0) > 1–10−4, and Pr(true effect > 0.17) = 0.95 (on a 0–1 scale). The apparent effect of the player is moderate (0.13) but clear as t(52) = −5.82, P < 10−4, and 95% CI: (0.09; 0.18). [In this case of a 1-df comparison with exactly the same assumptions as in the frequentist theory, the frequentist 95% CI and the standard Bayesian 95% CI coincide, so that we can state Pr(0.09 < true effect < 0.18) = 0.95. Therefore, for similar cases in the following, we report only the 95% CI limits.] Again, we cannot know whether this is because of the player or the use of different excerpts. Fig. 2. Differences in projection between each new violin and all three old violins (top three rows) and between each old violin and all three new violins (bottom three rows) tested in Paris. Results are averaged for all listeners with and without orchestra. Error bars correspond to the SEM. Relative projection of two preferred and two rejected violins (part 2). In part 2 of the Paris experiment, the two most preferred violins (N5 and O1) were compared with the two least preferred (N2 and O12). Fig. 3 shows that N5 clearly outprojected N2 and O12 and that O1 was about equal in projection to N2 and O12. There is good agreement between player and listener evaluations. Fig. 3. Difference in projection between the two most preferred violins and the two most rejected violins. Error bars correspond to the SEM. The players’ evaluations are single points at either zero or one (left or right) with the same color code as for the audience. Because the soloists gave the same answer with and without orchestra, there is no distinction between the two conditions as in Fig. 1. Comparison between soloist and listener evaluations of projection. Violinists generally believe that loudness under the ear is not directly related to projection and that a violin’s projection cannot be reliably estimated simply by playing it. During individual sessions that took place before the experiment (7), we asked each soloist to estimate projection and loudness under ear for three violins: their own, their favorite, and their next favorite of the opposite new/old category. This task was done in a rehearsal room and again in the concert hall (Table 2). Because of the selection method, only a few violins—N5, O1, and N10—were rated by five or more soloists. Table 2. Mean (SD) of the loudness and projection ratings for soloists’ own, old, and new violins averaged across the two conditions—rehearsal room and concert hall Although the soloists gave their own violins (seven of which were old) a slightly higher rating for projection than for loudness (8.2 vs. 7.9), when it came to the test instruments, the old got the same averaged rating (7.9) for both loudness and projection as the new (8.6). Because the new violins did, in fact, outproject the old, loudness under ear may be more closely related to actual projection than is generally believed. Table 3 shows the averaged projection and loudness ratings for the three most preferred violins: N5, O1, and N10. The projection estimates wrongly suggest that O1 projects better than N10. The loudness ratings, however, at least get the ordering correct: N5, N10, and O1 (in order of decreasing projection). The spread between projection and loudness seen in O1’s ratings (8.8 vs. 7.6) can be attributed to the four players who chose it as their favorite. Their ratings were (for projection and loudness) 10 and 6, 9 and 7, 9 and 8, and 9.5 and 9, respectively. By contrast, the two soloists for whom O1 was not the favorite violin rated it very similarly for the two criteria (8 and 8; 7.5 and 7). Given the small sample size, no firm conclusion can be drawn, although the data does suggest that the widely held belief that a Stradivari can project well despite sounding quiet under the ear may lead some players to overestimate projection for instruments that they like to play but find relatively quiet under the ear. There is indeed considerable anecdotal evidence that players and makers consider projection and loudness as two well-separated concepts. The distinction between projection and loudness is illustrated in the analysis of the questionnaires filled in by participants in the New York experiment (73% of whom were makers and musicians). They were asked to select which of seven possible definitions best captured what projection meant to them (Dataset S2). Table 4 summarizes the results. The question referring to loudness was selected far less often than all but one of the others. More research is needed to investigate whether listeners do indeed evaluate projection and loudness differently and if so, what the underlying acoustical parameters for each might be. Table 3. Averaged estimates for projection and loudness under ear for three violins rated by at least five soloists during their private sessions in the Paris experiment Table 4. Number of times each possible definition of projection was chosen during the New York experiment Distinguishing old from new (part 3). We asked listeners to guess whether each of seven violins was old or new; 39 of 46 subjects made a guess about all seven violins. (Incomplete evaluation sheets were discarded from the analysis.) The distribution of their correct guesses is shown in Fig. 4. It shows a unimodal distribution centered between three and four. In all, just 122 of 273 (or 44.7%) of the guesses were correct. Fig. 4. Distribution of correct guesses about the age of seven violins by 39 subjects. It is interesting to see how the correct guesses were distributed among violins. For all but two instruments (one old and one new), the 95% CIs (SI Results) include 50%, and therefore, the chance hypothesis cannot be ruled out. For the other two violins, there is a systematic error: listeners guessed that the old violin was new and that the new one was old. A supplementary analysis built on the hypothesis that the guesses were entirely governed by chance is available in SI Results. New York Experiment. The Paris experiment left at least one important question unanswered. How do listeners’ evaluations of projection relate to their evaluations of preference? It is easy to imagine, for example, that violin A is found to project better than violin B but that violin B is preferred for its tone quality. Exploring the relationship between projection and preference was the principal objective of the New York experiment. Fig. 5 shows relative projection (Fig. 5, Left) and preference (Fig. 5, Right) for each of nine new/old pairs. Looking first at projection, results are very similar to those of the Paris experiment. New violins are found to project better than old, although in this case, the difference happens to be even larger: observed difference = 0.27; t(80) = 14.55; P < 10−6; 95% CI: (0.23; 0.31); Pr(true effect > 0) > 1–10−6; and Pr(true effect > 0.24) = 0.95 (on a 0–1 scale). The better projection of the new compared with the old, therefore, seems robust across a change in halls, listeners, players, and violins. The observed effect of the player/order/excerpt is 0.03 (on a 0–2 scale), thus smaller than the effect of the player/excerpt in Paris (0.13 on a 0–2 scale). However, little can be inferred about the player effect, because it cannot be separated from the effect of the excerpt (in Paris and New York) and the order (in New York only). Fig. 5. (Left) Relative projection and (Right) preference for each of nine new/old pairs tested in New York. Listener scores are on a continuous zero to one scale. The charts show the average of their scores for each of two players—P1 in red and P2 in blue. Error bars correspond to the SEM. The two players were asked to choose one of the following for each pair: (i) I prefer violin A (x at the left edge of the graph), (ii) I prefer violin B (x at right edge), or (iii) I like them equally (x at center line). P1’s judgements are shown in red, and P2’s judgements are shown in blue. Looking at preference (Fig. 5, Right), listeners clearly preferred new violins over old: observed difference = 0.27; t(80) = 14.67; P < 10−6; 95% CI: (0.23; 0.30); Pr(true effect > 0) > 1–10−6; and Pr(true effect > 0.24) = 0.95 (0–1 scale). Fig. 5 shows slightly different results for the two players, but we cannot conclude that there is a player effect, because it is inseparable from the possible effects of different excerpts and testing order (i.e., testing preference first rather than projection first). We can, however, conclude that, if there is a player/order/excerpt effect on preference, it is rather limited: the observed value is 0.07; t(80) = 1.87; P = 0.07; and Pr*(\|true effect\| < 0.13) = 0.95 (on a 0–2 scale). There is an almost 90% agreement between soloists and listeners about preference, at least when testing them together in a hall. Consider that player/listener agreement was just 70% when the soloists were asked to estimate projection under similar conditions in Paris. Given that listeners generally preferred new violins over old and found them better-projecting, one may ask whether the new violins were preferred precisely because they projected better. Because the listeners were asked to explain their preference choices, we look to the explanations for insight; 58 of 82 listeners used words related to projection in at least one case (SI Results). meaning that just 158 of the total of 548 collected statements refer to projection. (Listeners evaluated nine pairs, but many listeners did not provide any explanations or else provided them for just a few of the pairs.) Among these 158 statements, some were of the kind “I preferred violin A because of its tone quality, despite it being less loud/projecting than violin B” rather than “I preferred violin A, because it projects better.” Consider, too, the extra definitions of projection given by two participants: “Doesn’t always mean the best sound but one that cuts through noise, fills a room, and allows the musician to be heard” and “full and loud, but not necessarily beautiful; sometimes harsh.” All of which to say, listener explanations do not suggest any obvious link between preference and projection. SI Results Statistical Analysis for the Old/New Guesses (Paris Part 3). For each of seven violins, the numbers of correct guesses over the total number of guesses are presented along with two intervals, the first one being the 95% Clopper–Pearson CI and the second one being the Bayesian Credible Interval with Jeffreys’ prior. Violin 1 (old): 7/45 (6.49; 29.46%), (7; 28.13%) Violin 2 (new): 11/46 (12.59; 38.77%), (13.42; 37.57%) Violin 3 (new): 27/45 (44.33; 74.30%), (45.43; 73.33%) Violin 4 (new): 26/45 (42.15; 72.34%), (43.24; 71.35%) Violin 5 (old): 24/43 (39.88; 70.92%), (41.00; 69.88%) Violin 6 (new): 22/44 (34.56; 65.44%), (
with GOG soon! Additionally, please note that all codes must be redeemed by May 1, 2017. After that, they will no longer work. (The game doesn't expire! Just unredeemed codes.) Here at Ars, we like to celebrate the classics—especially classic video games—and we've long been fans of the folks over at GOG (formerly known as "Good Old Games"). They sell modern games, sure, but the site is a treasure trove of DRM-free hits from days gone by. Want to grab a copy of Tie Fighter that works on modern computers? Boom, ten bucks. Want to replay Wing Commander IV with upgraded DVD-quality cutscenes? Here ya go, $5.99. Never got a chance to try your hand at managing global thermonuclear war? DEFCON, six bucks. And there are more—so many more. As it turns out, GOG likes Ars, too! We've been in talks with the GOG crew for the past couple of weeks and as of this morning, I am happy to announce that Ars and GOG are entering into a partnership—which means there are some cool things that are about to happen. First thing: You get a free game! And you get a free game! The first of those cool things is that we're giving away a few hundred thousand copies of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition—all you have to do is click in the sidebar over there to claim a code. You'll need to supply a valid e-mail address, because we'll e-mail the code to you (this is just to keep some control over distributing the codes—we won't be keeping the e-mail addresses once the giveaway period is over). Once you have a code, head to GOG.com to redeem the code and download the game. It'll work on Windows or MacOS (sorry, penguin fans—there's no Linux version of this particular game, though there's a buttload of Linux-friendly titles on GOG). Please note that this giveaway is only running for the next 48 hours as of the publication of this post. We can't just give away codes forever, but for the next two days we've got as many codes as there are people who want them. You can check the fancy timer in the sidebar for how much time is left. Note that in order to help prevent bots from taking codes you'll have to supply a working e-mail address in order to claim a Witcher code. More coming soon Giving away a game is just the first thing we're doing. Over the next few months, we're going to be testing out some cool integrations between Ars and GOG—most of it's under-the-hood stuff, but based on the talks we've been having with the GOG folks, it should be pretty neat. Additionally, GOG has agreed to open up its archives to Ars and give us access to the developers who worked on many of the big games of the last 30-plus years, which ought to make for some excellent write-ups and stories. We're also looking forward to running a story or two on the complex methods GOG has had to employ over the years to excise copy protection and DRM from old titles, often without access to the original source code. There's more, too—lots more. We'll announce additional initiatives over the next few months, so stay tuned folks!Alabama is one of 20 states - and counting - where residents have petitioned the White House in the days after the Nov. 6 presidential election, seeking to withdraw from the United States and create their own governments. The informal petitions are created by citizens on the White House web site under a "We the People" program created by the Obama administration. President Barack Obama was re-elected Tuesday, defeating a challenge from Republican candidate Mitt Romney. The Alabama petition was filed Friday by Derrick B. (no last name given) of Mobile. It was the third petition filed overall, following an initial petition filed Wednesday, the day after the election, on behalf of Louisiana. The second petition was filed Friday on behalf of Texas. "We petition the Obama Administration to peacefully grant the State of Alabama to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own new government," the petition reads. The Alabama petition had received 4,426 signatures as of Monday morning. Other states making similar requests include Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee. The "We the People" program allows anyone 13 or older to create or sign an online petition seeking federal government action on a range of issues, according to WhiteHouse.gov. Then it’s up to the petition creator and signers to build support for the petition by gathering more signatures. The White House requires a minimum of 150 signatures for a petition to be visible on the web site, and at least 25,000 signatures within a month of its filing date before it will be reviewed by the administration. Petitions that don't meet that threshold are removed from the site. "If a petition gathers enough signatures, it will be reviewed by White House staff and receive an official response," reads a statement on the web site. "We the People helps the White House understand the views of the American people and have a focused and civil conversation with them." In making the argument for secession, the Alabama petition - like many of the others - draws on a quote attributed to the Declaration of Independence: "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive." Updated at 6:39 a.m. Monday to clarify the headline.By: Keith Witchka, Staff Writer CHATSWORTH, CA — It has been a long time since we have attended the GayVN Awards show and not the wait is nearly over as after a seven-year hiatus, the GayVN Awards are officially back and the AVN Media Network is now accepting pre-nominations for the 2018 awards show celebration which is scheduled too take place in Las Vegas in January 2018. For the return of the GayVN Awards, the show will be presented for the first time during “AVN Week” in Las Vegas, which starts with the Internext Expo on January 20 and continues with the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, which ends January 27. The events are held at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. Recognizing excellence in the gay adult entertainment industry, the GayVNs will honor winners in 15 categories judged by a group of industry professionals and 13 categories voted on by fans. More details will be coming on the awards show itself, but the first step is to get the eligible movies, scenes and performers nominated. To pre-nom something in any category, members of the adult industry must request access to the restricted pre-nom website here in order to submit their movies, outlets and other entities for awards consideration. The pre-nom website will remain open until midnight on Sept. 30, 2017, which is also the eligibility deadline for 2018 awards consideration. Eligibility Period To be considered in any of the categories a title or scene must have been made available commercially during the eligibility period, which runs from October 1, 2016, to September 30, 2017. If a scene in one of the categories open to membership site content is released as both a standalone web scene and as part of a movie released on DVD or VOD, the scene will by default be considered part of the movie. For consideration in all other categories, a movie must be released in its entirety by September 30, 2017. Any scene considered for a 2018 GayVN Award will be void from consideration in all future years if included as part of any movie released after September 30, 2017. DVD/VOD Eligibility To be considered for a nomination, movies released via DVD/VOD must either fit AVN’s traditional distribution requirements of being stocked with five wholesale distributors and/or 100 retail outlets (on DVD), or be made available for VOD download and/or streaming as follows: (1) Must be available through a minimum of two (2) major for-pay VOD providers, defined as ones carrying movies from at least 100 active labels/studios. (2) Must have clearly marked post dates within the eligibility period across all qualifying VOD platforms carrying it. (3) Companies wishing to submit VOD-only titles for consideration must provide links showing that said titles meet the above requirements. Standalone Web Scene Eligibility To be considered for nomination in one of the scene categories, scenes must be released on a site that has members who are paying a monthly fee to access the site’s content. As with producers of content that is distributed on DVD and VOD, membership sites must also maintain 2257 records. Scenes released through clip stores are not eligible. Categories for the 2018 GayVN Awards: Judged Categories Best Actor Best All-Sex Movie Best Bear Scene Best Director – Feature Best Director – Non-Feature Best Duo Sex Scene Best Ethnic Scene Best Feature Best Fetish Scene Best Group Sex Scene Best Marketing – Company Image Best Newcomer Best Supporting Actor Best Twink Scene Performer of the Year Fan-Voted Categories Favorite Bear Favorite Body Favorite Butt Favorite Cam Guy Favorite Cock Favorite Daddy Favorite Industry Blog Favorite Membership Site Favorite Niche Site Favorite Porn Star Website Favorite Twink Hottest Newcomer Social Media Star For information on the GayVN Awards and all of the festivities, CLICK HERE. RELATED: Gay Porn NewsSunderland in talks with David Moyes as replacement for Sam Allardyce - Sky sources David Moyes could be back in the Premier League with Sunderland Sunderland will look to David Moyes to fill the vacancy left by Sam Allardyce once he is confirmed as England manager, Sky sources understand. Allardyce has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Roy Hodgson and his appointment could be ratified after a meeting of the Football Association Board on Thursday. Sunderland expressed their 'anger and frustration' over the news that broke on Wednesday evening, but have now turned their attentions to finding a successor. Allardyce was appointed by the Wearsiders early last season and turned their campaign around, managing to help them avoid relegation after a dreadful start to 2015-16. He was on the bench for the first half of the pre-season friendly with Hartlepool, which Sunderland won 3-0, but did not appear for the second period. Sky Sports News HQ understands talks have already taken place with Moyes with Sunderland keen to have a contingency plan in place should the FA plump for Allardyce over Hull boss Steve Bruce. Sunderland arrived at Hartlepool following news of his expected England appointment A deal to bring the former Everton and Manchester United manager to the Stadium of Light could happen quickly once the England appointment is confirmed. Moyes has been out of work since November 2015 when he was fired by Real Sociedad after a year in charge of the Spanish club.The prophet shows that, for the sake of silence, we are to abstain even from good talk. If this be so, how much more needful is it that we refrain from evil words, on account of the penalty of the sin… The fourth degree of humility is, that, if hard and distasteful things are commanded, nay, even though injuries are inflicted, he accept them with patience and even temper, and not grow weary or give up… The eleventh degree of humility is, that, when a monk speaketh, he speak gently and without laughter, humbly and with gravity, with few and sensible words, and that he be not loud of voice, as it is written: “The wise man is known by the fewness of his words.” —St. Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict, Chapters 6 and 7. In 2005 I became an Oblate of the Order of St. Benedict. This is a “third order” composed of lay people; one of the requirements to be an oblate is that one studies and follows The Rule of St. Benedict, as it might apply to a non-monastic contemporary situation. Other requirements are laid out in more detail elsewhere. For this post, I’d like to focus on those aspects of The Rule that might apply to behavior on the internet. A bit of biography and a mea culpa (said in all seriousness) is in order. In my younger days I had a temper and an inability to take criticism. Moreover, I did not suffer fools gladly, but used all the resources of native wit to embarrass them and show them as foolish. Along came the internet, and I served for a while as moderator for the Magis Faith and Reason Facebook webpage. The snarky and vicious comments of evangelical atheists disturbed me greatly. (I recall one comment made by a particularly vicious female on her web page, announcing the new Magis Facebook page: “fresh meat, guys. Let’s go kill them.”) My blood pressure and pulse rate would rise, my stomach would churn, when I read slanderous, nasty, irrational comments about the Church, the Magis Institute and my own articles. So I got out of that kitchen. (“If you can’t take the heat….”) This was a few years after I had become a Benedictine Oblate, but although I had studied the rules, I had not really taken them to heart. It was only after mentoring prison inmates who were learning to be Benedictine Oblates and seeing how they use The Rule in reacting to unjust treatment, that I began to see that The Rule had to be a way of life, not just an object of study. When the next occasion came to apply The Rule I was, if not altogether ready, more prepared. Several weeks ago Ben Butera was kind enough to review my third ebook Science versus the Church—Truth Cannot Contradict Truth, in a post, “Four Big Bangs?” A commentator, “Anonymous”, lambasted the book, or rather Chapter 4, in which I discussed the Church’s dogma of Creatio ex Nihilo, creation of the universe by God from nothing, and several cosmological theories about the beginning (or non-beginning) of the universe. In that chapter I tried to follow the proposition set forth in the preface of my book: That is the theme of this book: nothing that we know about the world from empirically verified scientific theories conflicts with Catholic teaching. Where there does appear to be a conflict, it arises from theories that are not verified by observation and that, in most cases, can never be so tested. As in many cosmology theories, theories about how (and whether) the universe came to be are untestable and lie in the domain of what might be best termed “mathematical metaphysics.” In short, there is no war between science and the Church. However, according to “Anonymous”, I failed miserably. In attempting (not altogether successfully) to understand his/her criticisms, I tried to see whether I was misunderstood and how I could clarify misunderstandings. When Anonymous insulted me by belittling my status as a Catholic physicist (I’m not sure whether as a physicist, or as a Catholic or as the conjoined entity), I attempted to make a joke of it. This infuriated Anonymous. I guess that reaction validates the point made in the quote above about the 11th degree of humility—that the Benedictine should speak without laughter, something which is very difficult for me to do. At any rate, toward the end of this exchange it seemed, and I’ll let the reader judge for himself/herself, that the tone of Anonymous’s comments become less heated and more conciliatory, so perhaps acting by the Rules did have some effect. There seemed to be more of a dialogue. A BENEDICTINE RULE FOR THE INTERNET To give a general discussion of The Rule of St. Benedict would require much more space than a single post. Much of it pertains to how monks in a community might best behave to follow Christ and to maintain the well-being and order of the community, but even the direction on how the steward best maintains the pantry and how and what the monks should eat and drink has relevance for us. Web references and books are given below for those who would like to learn more. I’m going to focus on those parts of The Rule that seem to me to be most important in our relations with those with whom we interact by comments on posts, our own and those of others. 1. Be mindful of the wounds of others. We should remember that even the most hateful and spiteful commentator has some reason to behave that way and we should be careful not to hurt them more. We should not try to belittle them, to shame them, or make them seem less, just to win an argument or make ourselves feel superior. To quote Fr. Donald Raila, Director of Oblates at St. Vincent Archabbey: The Rule of St. Benedict is written for a community of wounded persons. At the end of a series of precepts for dealing with wounded brothers, the abbot is enjoined to ‘realize that he has undertaken care of the sick, not tyranny of the healthy.’ Therefore, ‘he is to imitate the example of The Good Shepherd.’ In my replies to “Anonymous” I did not follow this precept as I should have. In explaining that the physics of the “raisin loaf analogy” for the expanding universe was correct, I made a comment that this explanation followed from first year physics. That was snarky, meant (albeit subconsciously) to belittle “Anonymous” and should not have been made. And, as the first quote says “we are to refrain from evil words.” 2. I interpret the second quotation “on the fourth degree of humility” as telling us to listen to criticisms even though they seem to be not justified or based on false premises. We should learn from them, and if they seem unintelligible, ask the person making that criticism to explain what premises or line of reasoning he/she is following. 3. We should reflect carefully on criticisms, even when they’re worded in a belligerent or belittling way, to determine whether there’s substance to them and, if so, how we can use that criticism to make our points more clearly and correctly. 4. One of the comments made by St. Benedict in the chapter on obedience has to do with accepting orders, just or unjust, without grumbling. And that means both external and internal grumbling. This can be translated to accepting justified criticism without grumbling, either external or internal. 5. Finally, the last of the quotations above, “that he speak gently …with few and sensible words” applies to comments and rebuttals. There’s an implication here that what we say should be instructive, not just empty chatter. I’m not sure about the injunction to abstain from laughter–perhaps St. Benedict meant laughing at someone, rather than with, and I am very often tempted to use humor to defuse anger (not always successfully, as pointed out above). The rules above are just a few general ones that can be drawn from The Rule. There may well be others, and if the reader can supply others, I’d be most grateful. Also, I must confess that I have just begun to follow these rules, even though I’ve been a Benedictine Oblate for more than 10 years. It takes conscious effort; it’s very tempting to react in kind when someone is particularly nasty. But following these rules and The Rule is an aid, a prosthesis, to help us live as a Christian. REFERENCES The Rule of St. Benedict OSB: About the Rule of St. Benedict Oblates of St. Benedict Downtown MonksMedical marijuana deductions for food stamps are up in smoke following an order from the feds. States have received instructions from the United States Department of Agriculture to cease medical marijuana income deductions for food stamps — that were already prohibited under federal law. Prior to the edict, quietly issued in mid-July, some states with statutory provisions giving doctors the ability to prescribe medical marijuana had allowed applicants to deduct the marijuana expenses from their incomes to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, based on a provision in the 2008 Food and Nutrition Act which allowed deductions of “allowable medical expenses” for households with elderly or disabled members. According to the memo sent to all regional directors of SNAP, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service has had a “long standing policy that a household may not utilize the SNAP medical deduction for the cost of any substance considered illegal under Federal law.” “States that currently allow for the deduction of medical marijuana must cease this practice immediately and make any necessary corrections to their State policy manuals and instructions,” the director of the Food and Nutrition Service’s Program Development Division, Lizbeth Silbermann, wrote in the memo. “Cases that cannot be readily identified must be corrected at the time of recertification or periodic report, whichever is sooner. States that are not in compliance may face penalties for any over issuance of SNAP benefits.” While the memo explains that 18 states have provisions allowing for medical marijuana, three states, which had previously given applicants the ability to use the deduction, were affected by this edict — Maine, Oregon and New Mexico. Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services spokesman John Martins explained to The Daily Caller that Maine has now ended all such deductions. “As soon as we received the guidance from the feds, that we could not continue on we dropped that from the program,” Martins said, adding that the order only affected ten Maine SNAP recipients. Gene Evans, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Human Services told The Oregonian, in advance of the policy adjustment, that with medical marijuana available legally since 1998, the deductions in Oregon had been long standing. “Medical marijuana gets treated just like any other prescription drug,” Evans told The Oregonian, explaining that while the deductions are uncommon about 8 percent of food stamp recipients were eligible for the deduction. Matt Kennicott, communications director for New Mexico’s Human Services Department, told TheDC that the state is having little difficulty complying with the order, as SNAP applicants in the state had not been using the deduction, despite its availability. “In the past we might have allowed for the deduction but nobody ever used it,” Kennicott said. While USDA issued their order to end marijuana deductions last month, according to the memo there has always been a federal ban on the practice. “Under the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C.§801 et seq., marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance that has no currently accepted medical use and cannot be prescribed for medicinal purposes. 21 U.S.C. § 812(b)(1), (c). SNAP is a Federal program and must conform to Federal law regarding illegal substances,” Silbermann explained in the memo. “Therefore, marijuana and other Schedule I controlled substances are not “allowable medical expenses” under Federal law.” When asked to clarify if USDA knew how long states had been issuing medical marijuana deductions for SNAP an agency spokesperson directed TheDC back to the initial letter. “As stated in the letter, this letter reaffirms longstanding USDA policy that a household may not utilize the SNAP medical deduction for the cost of any substance considered illegal under Federal law,” USDA spokesperson Alyn G. Kiel wrote in an email. UPDATE: After publication, John Martins emailed TheDC to explain that information he had offered for this report — that Maine allowed the deduction for anybody who had received a doctor’s order for medical marijuana, not just the elderly and disabled — was incorrect. The story has been updated to reflect the new information. Follow Caroline on TwitterMcBeth Still Playing Aussie Open Travel woes almost derailed defending champion's trip Paul McBeth is indeed still playing the Aussie Open, he confirmed to Ultiworld Disc Golf this morning. He is flying out to the first PDGA Major of the 2017 season tomorrow. McBeth hit some travel snags yesterday as he tried to get to the tournament, with his flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, being canceled and not able to be re-booked. “I was sitting on the plane for two hours, in my seat, on the plane, ready to go,” McBeth said. “And then they’re like, ‘We have an issue with the plane and we can’t go.'” McBeth’s original flight on Emirates was routed through Dubai, he said, but the airline told him that connecting flights from Dubai to Perth, where the Aussie Open is located, were full. “They only have one flight from Dubai to Perth [each day],” McBeth said. “So the issue wasn’t getting out of the U.S. The issue was getting from my connection in Dubai to Perth, because they were booked for the next two or three or four days.” After leaving Charlotte last night and driving back to his offseason home in Virginia, McBeth said he had “no intentions of going.” Then, he got a call from Disc Golf World Tour Director Jussi Meresmaa, who had been suffering his own travel issues as well. “I said to Paul that he can take a nap in his home, book fresh new flights and still beat me [to] Perth,” Meresmaa said after landing in Frankfurt, Germany, with another 36 hours of travel still to go. “Jussi called me and he’s like, we’ll cancel all media obligations for you,'” McBeth said. “‘We’ll do this, we’ll do that, we’ll do whatever it takes to get you here.'” With that extra push from Meresmaa, McBeth looked at flights from the Washington, D.C., area and found them to be less expensive than his original trip to Australia. He and his friend Hunter — who McBeth said has long dreamed of heading down under — now leave tomorrow for a 50-plus hour sojourn that will take them to San Francisco, then Singapore, before reaching their final destination. Even with the struggles of the last few days — in addition to his own flight cancellation, McBeth had been dealing with travel woes since before arriving at the airport, after his brother’s visa to Australia was denied last-minute, dooming his trip — the defending Aussie Open champion said he was not worried about any impact on his performance. Rather, he thought the new arrangement might benefit him. “I don’t think it’ll affect my play in any way,” McBeth said. “I’m gonna go out and practice today probably, so I’ll get an extra day of play in here. It could probably help in the sense that now I have no media obligations and I can just focus on playing.” Meresmaa said it only made sense to take care of McBeth as one of the sport’s marquee players and was not worried other players would be upset over the media plans. “He has the star factor that makes any tournament more interesting to watch,” Meresmaa said. “He is also one of the nicest athletes to work with [in] all situations on and off the course. He got frustrated because [of] all [of the] things that went down yesterday. New day brings new opportunities. I do not see unfairness. This is a sport where you need to earn your position. He is in a good position.” If McBeth had indeed missed the event, he would have been the third high-profile athlete to do so. Simon Lizotte bowed out earlier this month to focus on rehabbing his injured knee, while Dave Feldberg canceled his trip over financial concerns. The Aussie Open begins Thursday, January 26.Police warn Ukrainian against throwing politicians into garbage containers The interior ministry has called on all participants of the pre-election campaign to stick to civilized behavior and stop throwing officials and politicians into garbage containers. A wave of incidents involving officials and politicians has snowballed in Ukraine recently, with protesters forcefully throwing them into garbage containers. In several cases, the protesters delivered the containers close to offices. Some officials were kept in evil-smelling containers for up to 20 minutes. Decrying police inaction, protesters call their actions ‘people’s lustration’ of corrupt officials or those who collaborated with the Yanukovych regime. The police warned Ukrainians that any such actions will be classified as law violations and are inadmissible during election campaigning. * If you find a typo in the news, select it and press Ctrl + Enter.After making Bihar a dry state in keeping with his 2015 Assembly election promise, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has taken his policy to a whole new level. The minister has made a new rule, according to which, no officials of the state government are allowed to consume liquor outside the state or country. Bihar is the only state to have passed such a rule. According to Scroll, the state’s governor declared an amendment to the Bihar Government Servants’ Conduct Rules 1976 and said the rule was effective immediately. The decision was taken by Nitish during a Cabinet meeting. The government officials have gone a step ahead to sign pledges promising that they would abstain from consuming alcohol anywhere in the world. The state notification said, “Every government servant shall strictly abide by any law relating to intoxicating drinks or drugs, in force in any area in which he may happen to be.” According to The Indian Express, “guilty” officials will either be dismissed, suspended or face salary cuts. The decision was taken after the chief minister was told at a Jan Samvaad that his officials were still consuming liquor in their private space. Officials who are on deputation outside the state will also be facing the ban. On 21 January, News18 reported, the state organise an event event that saw a long human chain promoting prohibition across 11,000 km in the state. Nitish had told The Indian Express that the state has shown the way on prohibition and de-addiction. The state government had earlier said that crime rates in Bihar had gone down by 27% after the ban on the sale of alcohol came into effect on 5 April, 2016. The ban was one of Nitish’s key election promises to women voters during the 2015 Assembly election. 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.A major figure in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign warned she was in danger of losing the election days before the vote, but was ignored by the rest of her staff, a new write-up in Politico says. Glenn Thrush has published a massive piece, “10 Crucial Decisions That Reshaped America,” detailing the key decision points in the 2016 campaign that led to President-elect Donald Trump’s surprising ultimate victory. But buried near the end of the article is a compelling anecdote about the hubris in the Clinton camp that brought about her final defeat. In the last days of the campaign, Clinton was the overwhelming favorite according to most experts. Polls showed her with a consistent lead in key states, and several advanced forecasters regarded her chances of victory as 90 percent or more. Even FiveThirtyEight, the most pessimistic major forecaster, said Clinton’s chances were greater than 70 percent. Clinton’s campaign largely shared this optimism, Thrush says, with the exception of one person. (RELATED: Hillary Meets Sobbing Supporters At Capitol Hill) “Jake Sullivan, Clinton’s policy director—a brainy and nervous former State Department aide who took on an increasingly important political role as the campaign ground on—was the only one in Clinton’s inner circle who kept saying she would likely lose, despite the sanguine polling,” Thrush says, citing Sullivan’s friends. “He was also the only one of the dozen aides who dialed in for Clinton’s daily scheduling call who kept on asking if it wasn’t a good idea for her to spend more time in the Midwestern swing states in the closing days of the campaign.” But the rest of Clinton’s campaign ignored Sullivan, with his warnings being dismissed so quickly, they weren’t even substantively considered. “They spent far more time debating whether or not Clinton should visit Texas and Arizona, two states they knew she had little chance of winning, in order to get good press,” Thrush says. Just a week before Election Day, Clinton made a campaign stop in Tempe, Arizona. The end result was that Clinton’s campaign went into the final days utterly convinced the race was in the bag and Trump had no shot. “On the Monday before Election Day, Clinton’s polling team assured the candidate that she would win, echoing the prediction of nearly every public poll and most of Trump’s own data,” Thrush says. In the end, though, Sullivan was vindicated entirely. Clinton’s “Blue Wall” in the Rust Belt crumbled, and she suffered shocking defeats in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin by a combined margin of less than 100,000 votes. Had she won all three, she would have been the president-elect. In the case of Wisconsin, she lost narrowly after not bothering to visit the state a single time during the general election campaign. Send tips to blake@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. 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.BANGKOK — A century-old palace frequented by tourists will close its doors to visitors October onward, an official said Wednesday. The Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, where some of Thailand’s national treasures are displayed, will close down indefinitely for repairs, according to an official with the Queen Sirikit Institute, which oversees the exhibition space. “There is no date when the throne hall will reopen,” Nisa Chomphu said by phone, adding that the current exhibition will be moved to Ayutthaya province in February. Inspired by his trip to Europe, King Rama V ordered the throne hall constructed in a Western fashion. It was designed by an Italian architect and marble had to be transported from Italy for the site. The monarch, who was widely credited for modernizing Thailand, did not live to see his project. Construction was completed in 1915, six years after he died. It went through a turbulent history: from the seat of power of successive absolute monarchs to the parliament in the early years of Thai democracy. Now the throne hall hosts historical exhibitions for the general public and is only closed for major royal ceremonies. Nisa said tourists can visit the site until Sept. 30. Tickets are sold from 9:45am to 3:30pm each day. Visitors are required to dress modestly – sleeveless shirts and shorts are prohibited. Women must also wear long skirts.Floorspace in the capital is being snapped up levels not seen since the Celtic Tiger. FIRMS HAVE BEEN undertaking ‘preliminary scoping exercises’ for relocating staff to Dublin following the UK’s unexpected Brexit vote, according to CBRE Ireland. However any companies looking to shift operations to the capital will face an increasingly competitive – and expensive – market for office space. The commercial property agents reported the third quarter of the year featured the highest take-up in Dublin office space since the same period in 2007. The figures showed a near-trebling of activity on the same period in 2014, pushing prime rents in the city centre to around €645 per square metre – up close to one-fifth on the same period last year. Source: CBRE A lack of office supply, alongside poor infrastructure and a severe housing shortage, has been identified as a serious constraint for attracting new firms to Dublin – or convincing existing tenants to expand their operations. CBRE Ireland said tenants in high-tech industries accounted for one-third of all deals signed in Dublin for the quarter, while ‘business services’ were responsible for another 25%. Scoping stage The company’s head of research, Marie Hunt, said there had been more interest in office space in the capital since the Brexit vote – although it was too early for that to have any impact on availability or prices. “Most of these enquiries are still quite preliminary scoping exercises with any increase in transactional activity emanating purely as a result of Brexit unlikely to materialise in the short-term,” she said. Hunt noted there were also a stream of new offices under construction, with 29 office schemes featuring 372,000 sq m of combined space in the pipeline. A separate review from HWBC previously predicted rents on prime Dublin office space would top their Celtic Tiger peaks this year. While CBRE Ireland’s research showed the market for offices in Dublin’s south city centre was looking very squeezed – with vacancy rates hovering just above 2% – there was still a relative glut of space elsewhere. The overall vacancy rate across the city stood at 7.6%, while prime rents outside the city centre ranged from €296 per sq m in the southern suburbs to €161 per sq m in the west.SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Thomas S. Monson, 89, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and considered a prophet by the world’s 16 million Mormons, has been hospitalized. Monson was feeling ill on Monday (April 3) after attending the church’s General Conference last weekend, LDS spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a statement. “He has received treatment and fluids and will hopefully be released soon,” Hawkins said. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Monson remained in the hospital on Wednesday morning. Monson has been president of the LDS church since Feb. 3, 2008. Appearing gaunt, he skipped the afternoon sessions of the conference on Saturday and Sunday. He gave a brief sermon during the Saturday evening “priesthood session,” open only to male members of the church but broadcast in real time. And he announced plans for five new LDS temples to be constructed in Utah, Idaho, Kenya, the Philippines and Brazil. There are 155 in operation currently around the world. While LDS officials aren’t speculating on Monson’s health, a successor is in place. Should Monson leave office, Russell M. Nelson, 92, a thoracic surgeon who since 2015 has been president of the church’s second-highest governing body, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, would ascend to the position, as Monson did in 2008.In conjunction with the exhibition Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center is looking for stories from states that aren’t yet represented in the exhibition. We’re asking Indian Americans to share a unique memory and photograph related to their lives in the states below. The memories can be related to first days in the United States, everyday family life, an academic or professional achievement, travel, or a historic moment for the Indian American community, such as the founding of an Indian American association, institution, place of worship, or academic program. If you’d like to share your memory with us, please send a blurb of no more than 100 words along
oss won a #019 Rattata badge from pinball! tpp The match starts in 20 seconds. MinisculeCello bye aash tpp The match starts in 30 seconds. tpp The match starts in 40 seconds. tpp The match starts in 50 seconds. Dayrunner79 @Aashnod tpp The match starts in 60 seconds. Ponjos eww kbjhon night Aashnod Aashnod I love you all Aashnod Good night folk Aashnod / Aashnod I'll go to bed SparTonberry @tppsimulator Yes 1in256Miss taillow cant win Aashnod I feel like I should go to bed but meh xxmoonlotusxx Ponjos blue is doomed tppsimulator i have to learn Water Gun next level. Since it didn't do you need the whistle window to follow the whistle window to win? 1in256Miss blue too good OMGScoots MinisculeCello Masnateah Dayrunner79 Masnateah MinisculeCello Meyuu!balance MinisculeCello MinisculeCello Rosebud 村人 (murabito) FURRRRRRRSONA!!! RosebudTheGamer Masterlightx RosebudTheGamer Cello T Miracle_Seed It works now tpp The Pokémon for the next match are Glaceon (Special), Staraptor (Max Attack), Snubbull (Special) and Barboach (Special), Wigglytuff (Physical), Taillow (Scrappy)! xxmoonlotusxx my fursona Aashnod @MinisculeCello Masnateah SinR Token! Aashnod @SinR2014 SIN TOKEN MinisculeCello sinr token Miracle_Seed i was in a pop out but it isnt the way to pop out the chat.... I mean, the proper way is to go to the /chat url of this stream tpp Rattata badge bought by @Daraprim for T1 from @Agustreet tpp Rattata badge put up for sale for T1 by @Agustreet Meyuu!tokens tpp A new match is about to begin! It will start in 3m55s kbjhon i dont care, dont input MinisculeCello @Aashnod ok diebenacht just 1 more token tpp @redslender0 won a #004 Charmander badge from pinball! Miracle_Seed okay now i know what happened Aashnod @MinisculeCello Let's Wait Together Wait o Ponjos @kbjhon sorry im so badlikely why i have 90 pokeyen Aashnod WAIT FOR SMOL CELLO Aashnod wai Aashnod You tried tho kbjhon meh tpp Team Red won the match! Aashnod @kbjhon Good try at salvaging though Miracle_Seed I worked pretty well before kbjhon i used curse too late Miracle_Seed It says that I have to use the whistle window to start whistling.... but I'm in a pop out windows.... wth???? 1in256Miss or some nonsense 1in256Miss and crit 村人 (murabito) we're playing ultra sun in like 5 days 1in256Miss needed to ko there tpp The last pinball game achieved 39,568,500 points (x0) on the blue pinball table. easonchanfan participated. 1in256Miss ok blue loses 1in256Miss lucky punch tpp Miracle_Seed started playing on the red pinball table. Zetru twitch play pokemon is still up? and on pokemon stadium.... weird... Aashnod @tppsimulator 村人 (murabito) tarper Aashnod YES WE LOVE tpp @Agustreet won a #019 Rattata badge from pinball! Melcalc TrapperCap strongjon SparTonberry Bubble Beam is a throw because sim said kbjhon even in gen 1 ice beam doesnt work on water tppsimulator Have we still love!!! kbjhon ponjos wtf 村人 (murabito) flinch matters Melcalc yes terderrer this song is from a call of duty game?! 村人 (murabito) stomp better Melcalc... 村人 (murabito) one more Melcalc figuring out the basics 村人 (murabito) liquidate adda Melcalc kind of a neophyte to this betting thng chfoo adda sure has a lot of badges 🤔 kbjhon gastly cant touch exploud 村人 (murabito) um blue throw? Ponjos omfg Aashnod 得钱 (skillpokeyen) lol Jeffdeadout cod music Aashnod WEW strongjon @Ponjos it's all good. learning everything takes a while! kbjhon no win conditon now 村人 (murabito) nice call with the icy wind Aashnod @Ponjos It's okay man, we still love you Aashnod @Xanthophobic You are later than bait Ponjos @strongjon @kbjhon Sorry, I'm not very good at this game... I'm an old genwunner. Xanthophobic sorry adda chfoo Xanthophobic Addarash? More like Addacash or am I seven months too late kbjhon use waterfall strongjon ponjos waterfall is the better play since it has a higher hit percentage Ponjos @kbjhon yes tppsimulator Are we have Bubble Beam, are in throws Ponjos!a plz kbjhon ponjos do you want to win? tpp @Addarash1 won a #133 Eevee badge from pinball! Dayrunner79 gift subscription to skillpokeyen Miracle_Seed it says i should use a whisper windows to send this message.... but I'm in a pop-out chat window melcalc was timed out for 1 second. SparTonberry At the least it should be easier to follow the story the second time around actually knowing the characters. murabito was timed out for 1 second. 村人 (murabito)!bet 1 tpp The battle between Omanyte (Physical), Gastly (Curse), Chansey (Serene Grace) and Exploud (Flinch), Suicune (Hail), Nidorino (Special) has just begun! tpp The match starts in 5 seconds. tpp The match starts in 10 seconds. Miracle_Seed Usa la ventana de susurros para enviar susurros. tpp The match starts in 20 seconds. Masnateah kbjhon he knows tpp The match starts in 30 seconds. Masnateah @miracle_seed You need to type, “/tpp currency” tpp easonchanfan started playing on the blue pinball table. tpp The match starts in 40 seconds. ponjos was timed out for 1 second. Ponjos!bet 237blue tpp The match starts in 50 seconds. Miracle_Seed @tpp balance tpp The match starts in 60 seconds. tpp The last pinball game achieved 104,610,350 points (x2) on the red pinball table. easonchanfan participated. 村人 (murabito) ultra sun isn't the gigantic story upgrade i hoped for, but it's still the alola that i know and love xxmoonlotusxx @miracle_seed @glaceon1234 /w tpp balance kbjhon midnight mimosa Glaceon1234!balance medechi tpp The Pokémon for the next match are Omanyte (Physical), Gastly (Curse), Chansey (Serene Grace) and Exploud (Flinch), Suicune (Hail), Nidorino (Special)! terderrer hows everyone enjoying ultra sun and moon? tppsimulator would logs i go all in punt pls RosebudTheGamer LARRY Getting 140$as a prize! tpp A new match is about to begin! It will start in 3m0s Miracle_Seed ALMOST PIKACHU Masnateah @sinr2014 / Hello from Vacaville! tpp @MeowthsStream won a #022 Fearow badge from pinball! tpp The break is over! Stand by for token match bidding results... x42bn6 SinR2014 evening Masnateah Masnateah Hello everyone. Dayrunner79 tppsimulator has P1000 pokeyen T0 tokens Miracle_Seed sim bid once FlyingJ138 Have we ever got sim to bet? FlyingJ138 sim tppsimulator i go all in Ponjos Miracle_Seed!guess pikablu Ponjos!Guess Pikachu Miracle_Seed vergacion marico coño tpp The hourly break has started! tpp Team Red won the match! 村人 (murabito) bambi for ps2 Melcalc good thing i've only betted 1 lol Dayrunner79 TEENAGE BEST is BEST LOVER Miracle_Seed the power of love!!! Ponjos thank you Ponjos yes kbjhon \ / Dayrunner79 strongjon YEE BOI medechi x3 Dayrunner79 We need the power of love in order to live Ponjos moar love plz kbjhon really kbjhon omg medechi Dayrunner79 Oh wait I bet on this tpp @mikaru655 won a #021 Spearow badge from pinball! Dayrunner79 Strategic Love MinisculeCello kbjhon Dayrunner79 tppsimulator when you get skill if it's synchronize Scary Face until it might notwhen you get skill if it's synchronize kbjhon kbjhon yes Ponjos no Miracle_Seed Wooper with extra bbq sauce Miracle_Seed burger king pokemon Ponjos sucks mate Miracle_Seed the sunlight is stronk kbjhon no plume or attract... Matsouya tactical crit medechi Matsouya kbjhon papajhon tppsimulator what A bagel does anyone can still happen tpp easonchanfan started playing on the red pinball table. kbjhon Dendi just call me papa melcalc was timed out for 1 second. tpp The battle between Vibrava (Physical), Steelix (Special), Wooper (Standard) and Sunflora (Special), Zubat (Physical), Quilava (Special) has just begun! tpp The match starts in 5 seconds. Matsouya ooo castle crashers tpp The match starts in 10 seconds. Matsouya 14 second delay tpp The match starts in 20 seconds. tpp The match starts in 30 seconds. kbjhon stream... tpp The match starts in 40 seconds. Matsouya ok cool it's not just me? tpp The match starts in 50 seconds. 村人 (murabito) strem pls redslender0!bid 50 red tpp The match starts in 60 seconds. SparTonberry WEEB is going to learn Water Gun next level. Since we have Bubble Beam, are we going to keep grinding or switch another YEEB to grind more STAB? datrothbart sim likes the music 村人 (murabito) doot doot datrothbart sim Matsouya doot doot doot doot tppsimulator doot doot doot doot tpp The last pinball game achieved 99,192,050 points (x1) on the blue pinball table. Miracle_Seed participated. datrothbart plsfrog kbjhon mighty switch force >not for switch.... 村人 (murabito) SourPlsBy Matthew Harrington The Detroit Tigers may not always beat the Oakland Athletics, but the motor city kitties tend to find the most excruciating ways to do it. After bouncing Swingin’ A’s from the postseason in the last two campaigns, the American League Central leaders added another chapter of success against their West Coast foes Monday night at Comerica Park, converting a 4-1 deficit in the ninth inning into a walk-off grand slam for Rajai Davis and the Tigers (45-34). With a decent lead in the ninth, Oakland A’s Manager Bob Melvin tabbed bullpen backend stalwart Sean Doolittle (1-3, 2.97) to sit the Tigers down for three final outs. Instead the A’s bench boss saw a surefire victory turned into a stunning defeat. Detroit came to the plate in attack mode against Doolittle, with Nick Castellanos and Alex Avila reaching base with no outs three pitches in to the left-hander’s night. Doolittle found his footing, striking out Eugenio Suarez but failed to put Austin Jackson away on a full-count pitch. Instead Doolittle nibbled outside the strike zone to bring former Athletic Rajai Davis to the plate representing the winning run. Davis patiently took the first-pitch delivery from Doolittle for a ball, then crushed a belt-high breaking ball deep to left field about ten feet from foul pole for his sixth home run of the season. Davis made reliever Blaine Hardy (101, 2.89 ERA) the winner, handing the 27-year-old his first Major League win Doolittle saw his scoreless inning streak snapped at 26 1/3 innings Saturday in Miami, blowing his second save of the season after allowing a Casey McGehee single to tie the game at 6-6. With a second blown save Monday night, he now has failed to shut the door in two-straight games after going the first 38 games of the season with only one missed opportunity. Since taking over the closer’s role for a struggling Jim Johnson, the first baseman-turned-reliever has collected 11 saves in 2014. The A’s (51-31) looked securely en route to their fifth-straight win after taking a commanding 4-1 lead in the eighth inning. Oakland and Detroit entered the inning tied 1-1 after strong performances from A’s starter Scott Kazmir and his counterpart Anibal Sanchez. Sanchez opened the frame getting Yoenis Cespedes to bounce a grounder to short, but Suarez threw the ball away on the play. Brandon Moss made Detroit pay for the mistake by lacing an RBI double to left, chasing Sanchez from the game with no outs in the seventh. The 2013 ERA leader allowed the two earned runs on eight hits with only a pair of strikeouts (including the 1,000th of his career) but exited in line for the loss. Joba Chamberlain fared far worse in relief of Sanchez, allowing the first two batters he faced to reach base, walking Josh Donaldson before yielding a single to Stephen Vogt to load the bases. A visit to the mound by Tigers Pitching coach Jeff Jones proved only a brief respite for Chamberlain, as Lowrie took the fifth pitch of the next at-bat to left for a two-run single to stake the A’s to a commanding 4-1 lead. Lowrie knocked in the A’s first run of the game on an RBI single of Sanchez in the top of the sixth, but 2012 Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera responded in the home half of the inning by ripping a solo home run off Kazmir to left field, the 14th long ball of the season for the back-to-back American League Most Valuable Player. Kazmir would then walk J.D. Martinez before exiting the game two pitches in to the next batter. Kazmir appeared to suffer tightness in his lead leg after bouncing the first pitch to Nick Castellanos well in front of the plate. After a brief visit from Melvin and trainer, the southpaw stayed in the game for one last pitch. After seeing his pitcher grimace on the pitch, Melvin instantly jumped up to pull his ace from the game. After the game, Melvin stated that Kazmir was fine and the quick trigger was precautionary. Kazmir also departed his last start against the New York Mets on Tuesday earlier than expected, surrendering seven earned runs over three innings of a 10-1 shelling in Flushing Meadows. Aside from the one blip, Kazmir has been rock solid as the anchor of the A’s rotation, potentially in line to make this season’s All-Star team after going 9-3 with a 2.66 ERA in his first 16 starts for the green and gold. The A’s won’t have an easy road bouncing back, as they’ll face the Tigers’ surpise of 2014 Rick Porcello (10-4, 3.41) in the second game of the three-game series. Oakland sends lefty Brad Mills to the mound in his first start since getting his first win since 2012, outdueling Zack Wheeler and the Mets last Wednesday.By Oiwan Lam Christine Fan, an American-born Taiwanese singer, received over 40,000 bullying messages on popular social media site Weibo after uploading a photo of her twin babies on September 3 during China’s military parade to commemorate the end of World War II. The trolls accused her of not being patriotic enough, even though Fan’s nationality is American and China is not her homeland. Apart from Fan, a number of other artists who did not share military parade photos were attacked online in a similar manner. Below is an example of a typical comment from the “patriotic trolls”: Translation You don’t post parade photos, but instead post your babies’ photo, you don’t love your country! How can you not be touched? Are you Chinese? You don’t love the country, leave China. You don’t post parade photos, but instead post your babies’ photo, you don’t love your country!How can you not be touched? Are you Chinese?You don’t love the country, leave China. Original Quote 你不发阅兵的照片，居然发你儿子的照片！你不爱国！你不感动吗？你还是中国人吗？你不爱国，你滚出中国！你不发阅兵的照片，居然发你儿子的照片！你不爱国！你不感动吗？你还是中国人吗？你不爱国，你滚出中国！ Fan lost more than 200,000 fans within 5 days, from 47.93 millions before the parade to 47.73 millions on September 8 on her official Weibo account. Following the outpouring of hate, Fan deleted the photo and expressed regret: Translation I am sorry that because of my sharing of my babies’ photo, people are upset. I am sorry that because of my sharing of my babies’ photo, people are upset. Original Quote 真是对不起，因为分享了一张儿子的照片，让大家不高兴了！真是对不起，因为分享了一张儿子的照片，让大家不高兴了！ According to an online poll on Sina Weibo, by 10 p.m. on September 5, more than 80% of responses said it was OK for Fan to share the photo of her children during the military parade, while only 5.8% said she shouldn’t. Despite the vocal outcry, the majority of Chinese netizens likely share the feeling of Weibo user “Hi, Liming”: Translation Christine Fan attacked for posting a photo of her babies. How come a mother should apologize for loving her babies? What is the purpose of the military parade? To protect Chinese mothers and kids from fear? The call for peace is to ensure all mothers and kids in this world are safe and have the freedom to love? What’s wrong with Christine Fan? Christine Fan attacked for posting a photo of her babies. How come a mother should apologize for loving her babies? What is the purpose of the military parade? To protect Chinese mothers and kids from fear? The call for peace is to ensure all mothers and kids in this world are safe and have the freedom to love? What’s wrong with Christine Fan? Original Quote #范玮琪晒娃遭批#一個母親愛自己的孩子需要道歉麽？閱兵的目的是什麼？不就是為了保護中國的母親和孩子免於恐懼？呼喚和平的目的不就是為了讓世界上的每一個母親和孩子都有安全的、愛的自由？@范范范瑋琪何錯之有？ #范玮琪晒娃遭批#一個母親愛自己的孩子需要道歉麽？閱兵的目的是什麼？不就是為了保護中國的母親和孩子免於恐懼？呼喚和平的目的不就是為了讓世界上的每一個母親和孩子都有安全的、愛的自由？@范范范瑋琪何錯之有？ Current affairs commenter Hou Hongbing argued that even though the trolls are a minority of net users, their online bullying of public figures could “redefine” the meaning of patriotism: Translation To put it simply, an online community has redefined “patriotism”. Their judgement is not based on your contribution to the country or society and civilization. They attack those who are different from them, curse them and threaten them. And they do that in the name of “patriotism”. To put it simply, an online community has redefined “patriotism”. Their judgement is not based on your contribution to the country or society and civilization. They attack those who are different from them, curse them and threaten them. And they do that in the name of “patriotism”. When they are not happy, they forbid others to laugh; when they feel they should be happy, they force others to laugh. Original Quote 简单地说，网络上有这么一群人，重新定义了“爱国”，他们的衡量标准并不在于你为国家做了多少贡献，是否有益于社会和文明的发展和进步；而是，进攻每一个跟自己不一样的人，辱骂、胁迫，并把这种行为冠上“爱国”的名号。他觉得应该不高兴的时候，便强迫别人不许笑；他觉得应该高兴的时候，又强迫别人一定要笑。简单地说，网络上有这么一群人，重新定义了“爱国”，他们的衡量标准并不在于你为国家做了多少贡献，是否有益于社会和文明的发展和进步；而是，进攻每一个跟自己不一样的人，辱骂、胁迫，并把这种行为冠上“爱国”的名号。他觉得应该不高兴的时候，便强迫别人不许笑；他觉得应该高兴的时候，又强迫别人一定要笑。 Coordinated attack? The September 3 parade was the first time that the Chinese Communist Party had organized such an event to commemorate the end of WWII. As anti-Japanese war efforts were led by the Kuomintang political party of the then newly established Republic of China (Taiwan), the communist party’s claims that it was central to fending off the Japanese invasion has raised more than few eyebrows. Another blogger, Shen Shi, believed that the bullying was a well-organized and coordinated censorship push executed by China’s so-called 50 Cent Party or online civilization army against artists. The author pointed out that a number of Hong Kong artists who had expressed support for Occupy Central movement, the massive pro-democracy protest in 2014, were prevented from appearing in movies, TV programs and concerts by mainland propaganda authorities. Given the large entertainment market that China represents, the sanction can ruin an artist’s career, so the online “patriotic” bullying can create fear among artists: Translation Though artists are influential public figures, their political engagements are counter-checked by their supporters. That’s why those artists who are working with dictators are trashed by their supporters. The dictator banned them because of their influences. For those who had not been banned, they have passed the political review, but such a review is a ongoing process. During the sensitive period, they have to be reviewed again; they would be pressured to perform their loyalty. [The bullying] is to let them know that if they are not acting according to what is expected, they will face the consequences. Though artists are influential public figures, their political engagements are counter-checked by their supporters. That’s why those artists who are working with dictators are trashed by their supporters. The dictator banned them because of their influences. For those who had not been banned, they have passed the political review, but such a review is a ongoing process. During the sensitive period, they have to be reviewed again; they would be pressured to perform their loyalty. [The bullying] is to let them know that if they are not acting according to what is expected, they will face the consequences. Original Quote 演艺人士固然有较高的知名度和影响力，但他们在参与政治活动时的表现受到的是与其他政治参与者相同的检验，这也是那些与极权同流合污的演艺人被唾弃的原因。他们有影响力、号召力，不是被处罚（封杀）的理由，而只是极权对他们的行为与影响力、号召力相结合的恐惧。那些没被封杀的艺人们被视作通过了政审的过滤，政审是持续存在的，每个敏感时段都是“检验”的时刻，用逼迫表态的方式施压，以令其感受到与极权勾兑就要时刻负起“政治队形的责任”。演艺人士固然有较高的知名度和影响力，但他们在参与政治活动时的表现受到的是与其他政治参与者相同的检验，这也是那些与极权同流合污的演艺人被唾弃的原因。他们有影响力、号召力，不是被处罚（封杀）的理由，而只是极权对他们的行为与影响力、号召力相结合的恐惧。那些没被封杀的艺人们被视作通过了政审的过滤，政审是持续存在的，每个敏感时段都是“检验”的时刻，用逼迫表态的方式施压，以令其感受到与极权勾兑就要时刻负起“政治队形的责任”。 The scare tactic seems to be working, as at least a dozen Hong Kong artists saluted China in words or in photos posted online on the military parade’s occasion. A Hong Kong comedian, Ng Man Tat, even claimed to be a member of the communist party during the parade: Translation I’m proud that I’m a Chinese Communist Party member. I’m proud that I’m a Chinese Communist Party member. Original Quote 我驕傲，我是中國人！我自豪，我是中共黨員！我驕傲，我是中國人！我自豪，我是中共黨員！Release date: April 2nd, 2017 William MacAskill This episode introduces "moral uncertainty," the idea that you shouldn't be overly confident in your moral judgments -- like whether it's okay to eat meat, for example, or whether it's okay to abort a baby. The episode's guest is Will MacAskill, a founder of the effective altruism movement and Oxford professor of philosophy. Julia and Will discuss how to take multiple moral systems into account when making a decision, and how to deal with "absolutist" theories that insist some actions have infinite badness, like lying. Will's Pick (in response to 'what's a book you disagree with but respect?'): "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" by Robert Nozick Will's Other Pick: "Common Objections to Pascal’s Wager" by Amanda Askell Edited by Brent Silk Music by Miracles of Modern Science Full TranscriptsWhen Liliana blows a kiss, it can crack the earth's crust, spewing out molten planet as though Mother-Gaia herself were nothing more than a giant, white-hot whipped-cream filled balloon. However, it is an ultimately sexy wake of annihilation; you'd die happy. Here we see the lovely Mistress of Death showing off her sleek new dress of hideous, screaming doom. Woven entirely from the shredded hopes of the unfortunate souls who've crossed her. (Which, as it turns out, makes a comfortable, breathable material which accentuates both shapeliness, and pure smoldering evil.) As is not uncommon for me, I have two versions of this card. One that's a little simpler, clearer, and so will work better when shrunk down to card size. And another, that is dripping with detail and extras, that would pretty much look like super grainy multi-color sand at card size. So I give you both the official version, and the blingtastic version. For Magic: the Gathering. Copyright Wizards of the Coast. Art directed by Jeremy Jarvis. Dress design by Devourobot VII, High-Fashion Robot Cannibal. More on my website: www.steveargyle.comSwedish man accused of killing girlfriend in Fifty Shades of Grey-style sado-masochistic sex game Major TW for violence against women A Swedish man is to go on trial charged with killing his girlfriend in a Fifty Shades of Grey-style sado-masochistic sex game. “The unnamed 31-year-old is accused of killing his German girlfriend after she was hit 123 times with a wooden blackboard pointer while bound with nylon tights and condoms. The man claims the 28-year-old woman was a willing ‘sex slave’, but police later found a diary in which she wrote: “You once said you did not want to see me in real pain. I am subservient but no masochist.” The man was charged last week in connection with the woman’s death in October. She is said to have been an exchange student who had only been in the country for nine days to meet the boyfriend she had befriended on a previous visit and had kept in touch with online. Police said the man raised the alarm after he noticed his partner had stopped breathing during their S&M session at his home in Umea, northern Sweden. He tried in vain to resuscitate her before the ambulance arrived, with the woman spending two days in intensive care before her life support machines were switched off. She is said to have sustained “terrible” brain damage as a result of her airways being restricted. Local prosecutor Åsa Jonsson said she had her mouth stuffed with something which led directly to her death, adding: “It is our belief he is directly responsible for her death.” The manslaughter trial gets underway next week.” Source: The Independent \| Graphic source Horrifying and sad. This is why we’re posting so much about the movie. IT IS TEXTBOOK ABUSE AND A TEXTBOOK FOR ABUSE. See also: Fifty Abusive Moments in Fifty Shades of Grey (link TW for stalking, rape, threat, abuse) #FiftyDollarsNotFiftyShades #FiftyShadesofAbuseFrances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey receiving the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from President John F. Kennedy, in 1962. (Photo: Wikipedia)In recent weeks, Congress has been looking into last year’s outbreak of meningitis, which killed 53 people and injured more than 700 Americans in 20 states. The cause was a tainted steroid distributed by the New England Compounding Center (NECC), which is part of an obscure $2 billion-a-year niche of the pharmaceutical industry called “compounding pharmacies.” Recent reports document that this rogue industry is out of control, operating dangerously in the shadows and putting the lives of millions of Americans at risk. Democrats have been trying to give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate this shadowy niche of the drug industry, but the companies and their Republican allies have pushed back, arguing that states can do a better job and that stronger federal regulations aren’t needed. Sometimes it takes a scandal to get the public’s attention, but it also helps to have a courageous figure who takes on big business to protect public health and safety. This David vs. Goliath conflict not only makes good drama. It can also make good public policy. And that’s exactly what happened a half century ago when Frances Kelsey almost singlehandedly took on the pharmaceutical industry. Frances who? You’ve probably never of her, but she may have saved your life. In the early 1960s, Kelsey – a doctor and research scientist with the FDA – saved thousands of babies from severe birth defects by stopping a big pharmaceutical company from marketing the drug thalidomide. Equally important, Kelsey’s courageous stance inspired Congress to revise the rules for approving new drugs protecting hundreds of millions of Americans, then and now, from unsafe medicines. Kelsey’s battle with the makers of thalidomide is not only an inspiring tale of how one individual’s expertise and courage protected the public interest against the corporate push for profits, but also a warning to drug companies and their lobby groups fighting new drug safety rules that would put public health and safety over drug company profits. After World War II, many Americans and Europeans got hooked on sleeping pills and tranquilizers. One out of seven Americans took them regularly. Thalidomide was first introduced in Germany in 1957 by Chemie Grunenthal, a drug company. It was considered safe enough to be sold as a sleeping pill without a prescription. Then doctors began giving it to their pregnant patients suffering from morning sickness. By 1960, the company was marketing thalidomide in 46 countries, but not the United States. Its sales were almost on a par with aspirin. In 1960, Richardson-Merrell Pharmaceuticals applied for FDA approval to market thalidomide in the United States under the brand name Kevadon. At the time, pharmaceutical companies were required to show that their drugs were safe, but could sell drugs 60 days after they submitted requests to the FDA, so long as the agency didn’t object, which it rarely did, because it mostly relied on the manufacturers for information. At the time, the FDA did not require scientific clinical trials. Drug laws back then allowed companies to send new drugs to doctors for “research purposes,” so Richardson-Merrell distributed thalidomide tablets to more than a thousand doctors who gave them to about 20,000 patients. Approximately 3760 of them were women of childbearing age, including at least 207 who were pregnant. The doctors were not required to track their patients to find out if the drug was working or having any harmful side effects. Assuming that the Kevadon application was a slam-dunk, the FDA assigned it to Kelsey, who had just arrived at the agency a month earlier. Born on Vancouver Island, British Columbia in 1914, she had earned both her bachelor and master of science degrees in pharmacology from McGill University, and her Ph.D. in pharmacology as well as a medical degree from the University of Chicago. She taught pharmacology at the University of Chicago and the University of South Dakota and worked as a general practitioner from 1957 to 1960, when she moved to Washington to work for the FDA. She was one of only seven full-time physicians reviewing drug applications. Kelsey’s power to approve – or deny – the company’s application was the result of the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act that – for the first time – required pharmaceutical companies to prove that their products are safe before they can be sold. The pharmaceutical industry vigorously opposed the 1938 law, claiming it would be economic disaster for the drugmakers and pharmacies. Despite powerful opposition, the law passed after a scandal that outraged the public. In late 1937, hundreds of children were poisoned and died after being given the antibiotic, Sulfanilamide, which was dissolved in a toxic solvent to make it easier for children to take. Kelsey, who as a graduate student had helped with the Sulfanilamide investigation, quickly figured out that there was something fishy about Richardson-Merrell’s Kevadon application. She had seen a British study that linked thalidomide to significant neurological side effects. She discovered that many of the company’s claims that the drug was safe were not backed up with evidence. She asked the company for additional information. She demanded that Richardson-Merrell contact the physicians who were given Kevadon samples, but the company didn’t comply. She then asked the company for the names of patients who had been given the samples, but the drug company didn’t provide the list. Instead, Richardson-Merrell harassed Kelsey with constant phone calls, went behind her back to talk with her superior and threatened to file a lawsuit. Kelsey refused to back down. She conducted further research and discovered that some of the documents used to “prove” thalidomide’s safety were falsified. She discovered that some European doctors reported that a growing number of children were being born without limbs or with flipper-like arms and legs, but Chemie Grunenthal denied that there was any connection between these deformities and the drug. Assuming that the FDA would rubber-stamp its application, Richardson-Merrell had already created a marketing brochure for its salespeople claiming that it had “... firmly established the safety, dosage and usefulness of Kevadon by both foreign and US laboratory and clinical studies.” But thanks to Kelsey, the company never got to use those brochures. She recommended that the FDA deny the company’s application. Her concerns were vindicated when it came to light that at least 10,000 children in Europe were damaged by thalidomide. Thanks to Kelsey, the United States was spared this tragedy, with fewer than 50 cases of thalidomide-related birth defects, due to the samples the company provided doctors, who then gave the drug to their patients. But Kelsey did more than stop one drug company from marketing a dangerous drug to the
which I could tell she was pushing out to make herself look as pregnant as possible. The three of us joined a zillion other trekking-pole-carrying tourists in hiking around the Tre Cime di Lavaredo (9,839 feet) to admire its three fantastic summits: the Cima Piccola (Little Peak), Cima Grande (Big Peak) and Cima Ovest (Western Peak). We found a nice, photogenic spot to wait for the sun to glance across the massif’s cold north faces just before it would set. “Jesse, can you get a picture of me in front of the Cima Grande?” Marni asked. “Make sure you get my belly in it.” This was only the 50th photo Jesse had taken of Marni’s gravid profile in front of some famous Dolomites landmark. Marni assumed her contrapposto pose, pushing her belly out toward the great nordwand. “God, you’re so pregnant!” Jesse beamed, snapping shots like a proud papa-razzi. I was most excited to climb the Cima Grande, but thought we should warm up on one of the other classic faces in the area first. The next day, we split up. Jesse joined forces with a friend from Lecco, Marco Gianolo, and they opted for the Spigolo Giallo (5.10a), the “Yellow Edge” of the rocket-shaped Cima Piccola. First climbed by Renato Zanutti, Mary Varale and Emilio Comici in 1933, the 350-meter Spigolo Giallo was once considered one of the most badass routes in the Alps, and today it is one of its most popular. It is the ultimate Classic Moderate. “It’s the most exposed climb one can imagine,” wrote Comici of his ascent. “We experienced two days of raging battle on this route, clinging to microscopic holds, while she defended herself with torrents of falling stones.” Jesse took away a different experience. “That was one of the worst routes I’ve ever done,” he groaned, once back at the refugio. “Horrible belays; polished rock; easy, boring climbing and the most crowded route I’ve ever been on.” My route, however, was great. (Sorry, Jesse!) The retired competition climber Cristian Brenna and I tackled the Gelbe Mauer (5.12a), a completely bolted 330-meter sport climb established by Kurt Albert and Stephan Glowacz in the mid 1990s. Also located on the Cima Piccola, the Gelbe-Mauer takes a sustained line of crimps up the overhanging face, with belay ledges every 30 meters. By the eleventh pitch, my forearms were horribly cramped, and the only reason I didn’t fall was because I continually reminded myself to go back to basic climbing technique: don’t muscle through any move; straight arms; use your feet. One of the great joys of multi-pitch onsighting is how demanding it is, requiring nothing short of perfection for such a sustained period of time. These big routes bring out the best—and worst—in us all. The more I saw of the Dolomites, the more it became clear how perfectly constructed these mountains are for free climbing. Holds are everywhere. The metamorphic limestone is distinct for two characteristics: its blocky shape (good for hand holds) and its pale color, which, in the right sunlight, reflects a palette of warm hues. In fact, prior to the French geologist (and infamous ladies’ man) Déodat de Dolomieu’s identification, in 1792, of the mineral composition of the rock as stratified calcium-magnesium carbonate, the Dolomites were simply called the “Pale Mountains.” But it wasn’t always about free climbing here—at least not as we know it today. From the early 1900s up until the 1960s, the biggest climbs often served nationalistic purposes and were overcome with aid. These direttissimas—literally the most “direct line”—were born out of a sense of public spectacle, of climbing straight up the steepest, biggest face by any means necessary. Though aesthetic from a distance, in reality direttissimas often resulted in excessive bolting and sometimes ignored natural paths. Tre Cime became the unfortunate cynosure of the direttissima age, beginning with the 550-meter north face of the Cima Grande. In the 1930s, almost 20 different teams had failed to ascend this impossible-looking wall, making it one of the most beguiling objectives in the world. Born in 1901 in Trieste, Emilio Comici had discovered climbing in his late 20s and quickly became one of Italy’s top alpinists. Though successful on various objectives in the Dolomites and the greater Alps, Comici was magnetized to Tre Cime, and he worshipped its three battlement-like summits, calling them his “Indian Gods.” “Like a drop of water falls from the summit, that’s the line I shall take,” Comici famously said. In 1933, leading the brothers Giovanni and Angelo Dimai, Comici fought his way up the north face of the Cima Grande over three long days, ultimately succeeding on its coveted first ascent. The achievement brought this “Angel of the Dolomites” instant fame, but many Italian climbers criticized Comici for aid climbing and placing too many pitons. Ah, the more things change! Four years later, Comici silenced his critics’ cannoli holes by soloing the route. Comici died at age 39 in 1940. He was climbing with a hot Italian woman, who he was trying to impress by leaning out from the wall. Then his clothesline rope, which he was inexplicably using, snapped. Arrivederci. Today, the Comici-Dimai (5.10d, 1,800 feet) is the most popular line on the Cima Grande. All cruxes are easily aided, which most parties take advantage of when they find the climbing so surprisingly steep and sustained. Yarding on gear seems to be widely enjoyed by today’s casual Dolomites enthusiasts, which, from what I observed, mostly belonged to a rather senior demographic. In my brief travels, I saw almost no climbers under 30. I will hypothesize that you generally won’t find too many young climbers in any area that employs UIAA ratings. It’s probably just too confusing to translate the Roman numerals to 8a.nu points. Though many of the climbs during the early to mid 1900s were ethically questionable by today’s standards, the Dolomites was actually the “Oliana” of the day: i.e., it was the place where all the best climbers went to shred the sickest gnar-gnar ever sent by humanoids. One standout was Raffaele “Biri” Carlesso, who was 40 years ahead of his time when he climbed 5.11c, barefoot, on the Torre Trieste in 1934. This route remained unrepeated until “Manolo” Zanolla got the second ascent in 1979! Obviously a free-climbing prodigy, Carlesso was also one of the first true soul climbers. He shied away from fame and accolades, and continued climbing until he was too old to hang on, doing the Comici-Dimai on the Cima Grande at age 71, and Scoiattoli Direct on Torre Grande d’Averau at 80. He lived quietly and died in 2000 at the age of 92. Women played an interesting, influential role in the early years. Shout out to the Hungarian baronesses and sisters Rolanda and Ilona von Eötvös. They hired the day’s best mountain guide, Antonio Dimai, and established a 2,600-foot 5.7 on the Tofana di Rozes in a single day in 1901. What up, Rolanda and Ilona! Also, Big Ups to Beatrice Tomasson—a daughter of a British captain of industry, and herself an expert horse rider and tutor of Prussian generals’ children. Beatrice joined the guides Michele Bettega and Bortolo Zagonel on the first ascent of the 2,100-foot south face of the Marmolada (5.8), also in 1901, and also completed in just a day. But because people like to focus on the negative shit, much of the Dolomites’ history dwells on the direttissimas. This style of ascent climaxed in 1967 with the egregious Camilotto Pellissier route on the left side of the Cima Grande’s north face. During the eight-day FA, Enrico Mauro and Mirko Minuzzo placed upwards of 340 expansion bolts and 50 pitons, sometimes 18 inches apart. The glut of metal inspired Reinhold Messner to write, the same year, his game-changing polemic “Murder of the Impossible,” in which he called for an end to the direttissima: “Sometimes the line of weakness wanders to the left or the right of this line,” wrote the hirsute Tyrollean. “And then we see climbers—those on the first ascent, I mean—going straight on up as if it weren’t so, striking in bolts of course. Why do they go that way? ‘For the sake of freedom,’ they say; but they don’t realize that they are slaves of the plumb line.” The next year, 1968, Messner pulled off one of the most important first ascents of his rock-climbing career. Climbing with his brother, Gunter, and wearing clunky boots, Reinhold climbed the Middle Pillar of the Sasso della Croce, placing no bolts, and onsighting cryptic, unforgiving slabs up to 5.11d. Climbing up, climbing down; battling self-doubt and summoning the belief to continue, Reinhold achieved something immeasurable at the time. People didn’t really know what to make of his route. The Sasso della Croce wasn’t one of the major faces, and didn’t have that spectacle appeal held by, say, the south face of Marmolada. Strangely, Reinhold received almost no recognition for his achievement at first. Yet Messner’s route was a full number grade above the world standard. It took the failures of many other strong climbers for the world to appreciate what Reinhold had accomplished, particularly on the crux “Messner Slab,” which would eventually become the most famous four meters of free climbing in the Dolomites. Thanks to Messner’s influential essay, and the emergence of strong free-climbing visionaries in the 1970s through the present day such as Heinz Mariacher, Christoph Hainz, Kurt Astner, Franck Kenez, Rolando Larcher, Mauro “Bubu” Bole, Massamo da Pozzo, Pietro dal Pra, Alex Huber, and Nicola Tondini, the age of the direttissima has been replaced with the age of the free climb. “Bubu” freed the Camilotto Pellisier in 2003 at a grade of 5.13d, creating the hardest route on the wall at the time. Subsequent repeats have brought the grade down a bit. Last summer, the French power couple of Arnaud Petit and Stephanie Bodet nearly onsighted the route, downrating it to 5.13a and raving about its quality. It’s ironic that the Camilotto Pellisier, the quintessential direttissima, is now being called one of the area’s better free climbs. Perhaps Mauro and Minuzzo were inadvertently lucky in terms of picking a good free line; you might say they nailed it first try. One thing that sets the Dolomites apart from, say, Yosemite, is that Dolomites’ first ascentionists tend to leave most, if not all of, their pitons in place. Part of this style of route development was due to the lack of precedents, but climbers also realized that repeated placing and removal of pins damaged the rock, especially the already splintered limestone. Now many routes have pitons that are over 80 years old, and climbers have been discussing what to do about them. This is one of the more interesting debates in the Dolomites today. How much longer will the old pitons last before there’s a tragic accident? Should they be replaced with new pitons, potentially damaging the rock? Or should the pitons be replaced with well-spaced/placed bolts, an idea that arguably makes the most sense but also would most alter the character of these historic climbs? Heinz Mariacher explains that the biggest issue isn’t the gear, necessarily, but the change in mentality of today’s climbers. “In the 1970s, the pitons were already old and sometimes they came out or broke. So it was the normal use that everybody climbed with a hammer and some pitons for emergency or replacement. Nowadays everybody expects perfectly prepared routes. But is this Dolomite climbing? “The Tre Cime area was an aid-climbers paradise in the 1950s and developed in modern times to a multi-pitch sport climbing area. With a few exceptions, I would compare it to user-friendly, perfectly prepared, groomed ski slope.” Well known in the U.S. for designing the best climbing shoes ever made, Mariacher was one of Italy’s leading free climbers in the 1980s, with redpoints up to 5.14a. During his early climbing years, in the 1970s in the Dolomites, he soloed the Comici on the Cima Grande, the Cassin (5.11/A0) on the Cima Ovest, and the ultra-classic Vinatzer on the Marmolada south face. He also completed the coveted second ascent of the Messner Route on the Sasso della Croce in 1979, and got the first free ascent of Il Pesce (5.12c), aka “The Fish”—the Marmolada’s most fearsome and famous free climb. Also here is Mariacher’s Tempi Modernissimi (5.13a), which he bolted ground up in 1986. Il Pesce is quite dangerous, mostly because the route-finding is so challenging and the slabby moves are hard to reverse when you’re 50 feet run-out in the wrong direction. Many chuckleheads think that they’re up to the challenge of Il Pesce, and crawl away with broken legs. “Perhaps I have an exaggerated awareness for style because I experienced climbing in the Dolomites before the arrival of sport climbing,” wrote Mariacher in an e-mail. “In the 1970s and ‘80s mountain climbing was a way for individual expression and liberation; it was a counterculture. Modern climbers are more practical: aggressively success oriented on one side and kind of lame public/media-serving on the other. The result is that contemporary Dolomites climbing has lost any connection to history and is basically just an uncomfortable copy of sport climbing.” I contemplated this idea while absorbing the degree to which History is a living, omnipresent force here. Fewer new routes are being established in the Dolomites today. For the most part, people come here to climb 80-year-old choss piles like the Spigolo Giallo. Meanwhile, the the more modern routes are empty. Jesse and I stared up the south face of the Tofana di Rozes, one of the best faces in the Eastern Dolomites. Our objective was Sognanda L’Aurora (5.12c), a Modern Classic directly up the steepest section of the wall. The first four pitches were rope-stretching 5.10s, each one extremely run-out with less than four bolts per pitch. “I got this,” Jesse said. He deftly handled this block of delicate slab climbing that would’ve had me shitting my pants if it were my lead. Once again, I secretly wished to hug this big, beautiful man. To our right was the South Arete (5.9) of the South Face Buttress—a Classic Moderate. From our exposed face, we watched no less than five parties crawling up exposed the fin of rubble. Then I turned my head and saw an expanse of steep mountains stretching out quite comfortably into the unfathomable distance. It’s impossible to take in all these details at once. Our eyes can only focus on one point at a time. We look near then far; left then right. We see one handhold, one bolt, one piton at a time. And each piece of metal carries with it such an incredible story, a tableau of ultimate human drama. Now step back, and all you see is just a huge blank face. Our views of reality are, at any given time, composite images stitched together by our brains in the way that we choose to see things. It’s impossible to take in any totality, especially that of the Dolomites. Watching the ant-line of climbers crawling up the South Arete, I thought about such a small, select group of climbers that craft and shape our sport’s history. Do any of those people give a shit about climbing ethics? I wondered. Or are they just here to spend time in the mountains and gain a sense of accomplishment and self worth? These questions are impossible to answer, and are perhaps even pointless because the composite that remains most vivid in my mind—the one I choose to see—is a lifetime of climbing in these mountains, from Classic Moderates of yesterday to the Modern Classics of today, soon to be Classic Moderates of tomorrow. Thanks to CAMP for contributing the photography of Riky Felderer, for producing great equipment and for making this trip happen. This article originally appeared in Rock and Ice magazine.Hello everyone, Last couple of times when we’ve talked about Game Development with Python or about GameDev for Android Using Python, we’ve received great responce from our and other related communities. So we begin our small series of articles dedicated to more practical usage of Python in GameDev. Today we will build a very simple platform game using Python game framework PyGame, and in the next article, we will try to port it to Android! So what's a "platform game" game exactly? According to Wiki it's a video game which involves guiding an avatar to jump between suspended platforms, over obstacles, or both to advance the game. These challenges are known as jumping puzzles or freerunning. The player controls the jumps to avoid letting the avatar fall from platforms or miss necessary jumps. " Classical example of platform game is Nintendo’s famous “Mario”, so we wil try to build something similar to it. Let's start with the basics: Installation You can find installation instructions on the official PyGame page as well as prebuilt executables for whole variety of Operating Systems. It wasn't that hard, isn't it? Getting Started So now we have PyGame installed, let’s start with importing it into our future project! Simply start your favourite IDE (check out previous article about IDE's for Python) and paste this code into newly created main.py, see details in comment section of the code! Code: # Importing PyGame library import pygame from pygame import * #Declaring variables window_width = 800 #Width of game windows window_height = 640 # height screen = (window_width, window_height) #Grouping W and H into a single variable bg_color = "#FFFFFF" #setting background color def main(): #main function start pygame.init() # PyGame initialization (all pygame projects requires this) window = pygame.display.set_mode(screen) #Let's create a window pygame.display.set_caption("Platform Game") # Windows title bg = Surface((window_width,window_height)) # Creating a visible surface to use as background bg.fill(Color(bg_color)) #and fill it with bg_color color (white) while True: # Main Game cycle, ‘True' means it will run without stop forever for event in pygame.event.get(): # Handling quit event if event.type == QUIT: raise SystemExit("QUIT") # raise SystemExit, "QUIT" for Py 2.7 window.blit(bg, (0,0)) # We need to redraw screen each cycle iteration pygame.display.update() # drawing everything after each iteration if __name__ == "__main__": main() #executing main function Woah, it’s starting to get hot in here, isn’t it? Keep in mind: The game will be launched in the cycle (while True), each iteration it is necessary to redraw the background, platforms, monsters, messages, etc. It is important to note that the drawing is a sequence, ie if the first draw of the hero, and then fill the background, the character will not be seen. Once you will run above code, you will see a window filled with white color Level construction Let's draw a level on existing surface! How we will do this? We’re choosing the easiest way, we will create a two-dimensional array of m by n. Each cell (m, n) will be a rectangle. Rectangle can contain something or may be empty. Let's add some more constants: platform_width = 32 platform_height = 32 platform_color = "#000000" And a level structure to the'main' function : map = [ "-------------------------", " -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "- -", "-------------------------"] And to the main cycle we're adding a level parser, to convert above drawing into playable level x=y=0 # coordinates for row in map: # whole row for col in row: # each symbol if col == "-": #creating a block, filling it with color and drawing it platform = Surface((platform_width,platform_height)) platform.fill(Color(platform_color)) screen.blit(pf,(x,y)) x += platform_width #positioning blocks width y += platform_height #same for height x = 0 #on each row, start from 0 So what we're doing here is we sorting out the two-dimensional level array, and if there is a symbol "-", then the coordinates (x * platform_width, y * platform_height), where x, y - is the index in the array of level. Character Bold blocks on the background are boring. We need our character that will run and jump on the platforms we’ve just built. So it's time for some object oriented programming! We will create a class for our hero! For convenience, we will keep our character as a separate file player.py from pygame import * move_speed = 7 width = 22 height = 32 color = "#111111" class Player(sprite.Sprite): def __init__(self, x, y): sprite.Sprite.__init__(self) self.xvel = 0 # movement speed, 0 is standing still position self.startX = x # initial charecter spawn position self.startY = y # same for y spawn position self.image = Surface((width,height)) self.image.fill(Color(color)) # setting charecter color self.rect = Rect(x, y, width, height) # rectangular charecter def update(self, left, right): if left: self.xvel = -MOVE_SPEED # left = x- n if right: self.xvel = MOVE_SPEED # right = x + n if not(left or right): # standing still, when not walking self.xvel = 0 self.rect.x += self.xvel # moving our position on xvel def draw(self, screen): # drawing charecter screen.blit(self.image, (self.rect.x,self.rect.y)) What so interesting and what to look for in this code? Let's start with the fact that we create a new class inheriting from another class pygame.sprite.Sprite, thereby we inherit all the characteristics of a sprite. Sprite, according to wiki is a moving the bitmap. It has a number of useful methods and properties. In self.rect = Rect(x, y, width, height) line, we are creating borders of our rectangular character. Using this rectangle we will not only move hero, but also will check(later) it on a collision with other objects. update(self, left, right)) method is used to describe the behavior of the object. It overrides the parent update(* args) → None. It may be called in groups of sprites. draw(self, screen) method is used to display the character on the screen. We will lated remove this method to use more convinient way to display the character. Before defining the level, let's add our hero and variables to move it. hero = Player(55,55) # creating a hero on x and y coordinates left = right = False # standing still by default :) Also, let's add some code to move our charecter at the ‘event' section of our code. if e.type == KEYDOWN and e.key == K_LEFT: left = True if e.type == KEYDOWN and e.key == K_RIGHT: right = True if e.type == KEYUP and e.key == K_RIGHT: right = False if e.type == KEYUP and e.key == K_LEFT: left = False Everything is pretty much self explanatory in this code, if not, please, ask in the comment section Now, it's time to finally move and draw our charecter! According to drawing rules, you'll need to add this after backgroud and platform drawing hero.update(left, right) # movement hero.draw(screen) # charecter drawing But, if you launch your code, you'll see that our hero moves too quickly, let's add a restriction in the number of frames per second. To do this, after determining the level add a timer timer = pygame.time.Clock() And to make it work, we will add it's parameters to our main cycle timer.tick(60) As you may see, if you launch your code, your hero is stuck in the air, to fix this, let's add some gravity and ability to jump! It's kinda boring, but result is totally worth it! To do so, let's open our old friend player.py and add a little magic there! What in real life makes jumps possible? Of course it's gravity!. Now converting those values into the code,: jump_power = 10 gravity = 0.35 # Force, that will drag player down And voi-là, we now have gravity in our game! Now setting vertical movement speed and a check if we're standing on the floor, cause we can jump only from the floor. All this goes to init method! self.yvel = 0 self.GroundCheck = False Now let's add new argument to our existing method def update(self, left, right, up): if up: if self.GroundCheck: # Jump, only when on floor self.yvel = -jump_power Now, right before self.rect.x += self.xvel string, add: if not self.GroundCheck: self.yvel += gravity self.GroundCheck = False; # We don't know when we're on the ground self.rect.y += self.yvel Now, let's forbid our player to fly! After left = right = False line, let's add: up = false Again, this code is pretty much self explanatory. To end flying question, let's add some more event checks! if e.type == KEYDOWN and e.key == K_UP: up = True if e.type == KEYUP and e.key == K_UP: up = False And to ‘update' method, add argument named ‘up' Final Chapter: Jumping, Movement How do you know that we are on the ground or other hard surface? The answer is obvious - to check if rectangle(hero) crosses with platforms! Firstly, we will need to change how platforms are generating ;) To make our code more readable and clear, let's split each important part of the code to a different files, same as we did with player.py, but now, create platforms.py and move platform creation code there: platform_width = 32 platform_height = 32 platform_color = "#000000" Then, create class, that inherits from from pygame.sprite.Sprite class Platform (sprite.Sprite): def __init __ (self, x, y): sprite.Sprite.__ init __ (self) self.image = Surface ((platform_width, platform_height)) self.image.fill (Color (platform_color)) self.rect = Rect (x, y, platform_width, platform_height) Nothing new here, i think, so let's move on In addition, we will need to change some parts of main file. Just right befor level array let's add: entities = pygame.sprite.Group () # All objects platforms = [] # Platforms, that we will bounce of entities.add(charecter) We will will use Sprites Group entities to display all the elements of this group. An array of platforms will be used to test for intersection with the platform. Remember this tricky part? if col == "-": pf = Surface((platform_width, platform_height)) pf.fill(Color (platform_color)) screen.blit(pf, (x, y)) Now, we will replace it with more readable if col == "-": platform = Platform(x, y) entities.add(platform) platforms.append(platform) What we did is we created an instance of Platform class, and added it to the ‘entities' group of sprites and ‘platforms' array.'entities' part is to ease up blocks display logic, and ‘platforms' part is to check intersection with the player. Next, move all of the level generation code from the cycle and replace charecter display part charecter.draw (screen) with entities.draw (screen) # display everything If you'll run the code, you will see that nothing changed, becase we're not checking for intersections with our charecter! Let's fix it! Getting back to player.py. We can now remove draw method, wohoo! But we will need new method, boo!, let's name it ‘collide' def collide (self, xvel, yvel, platforms): for p in platforms: if sprite.collide_rect (self, p): # if there's collision with player if xvel> 0: # if moves right self.rect.right = p.rect.left # Not move to the right if xvel <0 # same for left self.rect.left = p.rect.right # if yvel> 0: # if falling down self.rect.bottom = p.rect.top # do not fall down self.GroundCheck = True # if standing on something solid self.yvel = 0 # falling velocity stops if yvel <0 # if moves up self.rect.top = p.rect.bottom # do not move up self.yvel = 0 # jump energy disappears In this method, we're checking the intersection of the coordinates of the hero and platforms, if any, above described the logic activates. Well, to make things work, we will need to call this method. Change the number of arguments for update method once again, it now should look like this: update(self,left,right,up,platforms) Tip: Do not forget to change method call in the main file. And some finishing touches: self.rect.y += self.yvel self.rect.x += self.xvel Replace with: self.rect.y += self.yvel self.collide(0, self.yvel, platforms) self.rect.x += self.xvel # transfer their position on xvel self.collide(self.xvel, 0, platforms) If the hero moved vertically, we check the intersection of the vertical, moved horizontally and again, checked at the intersection of the horizontal. Let's run our game and see what we've acieved! P.S That’s all folks, it was a tough one, but it’s your first game! In the next part of this article, we will try to add android support and maybe some graphics! Write your questions and feedback in the comment section, and CheckiO team will do the best we can to help you!Sen. Ron Wyden Ronald (Ron) Lee WydenTreasury official: Tax withholding guidance wasn't manipulated for political reasons Cohen grilled by Senate Intelligence panel Senate confirms Trump court pick despite missing two 'blue slips' MORE (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, on Wednesday introduced a bill that would require President-elect Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE to release his tax returns. The measure comes as Democrats are pushing to increase the financial transparency of Trump and his wealthy Cabinet picks. But it is unlikely to be enacted with Trump taking office later this month and Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress. Wyden's bill would require sitting presidents to provide their three most recent years of tax returns to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). It would also mandate that major-party presidential nominees release their returns to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) within 15 days of accepting the nomination at party conventions. Under the bill, if presidents and nominees don't release their tax returns, the Treasury secretary would provide them directly to OGE and FEC. The agencies would then make the returns public. ADVERTISEMENT Wyden had introduced a version of the bill last year that focused just on nominees. After Trump won, he expressed his intention to re-offer the measure to have it also apply to sitting presidents. “The fact that the president-elect refuses to release his tax returns is a tragic failure of transparency, and it needs to be corrected," Wyden said in a news release. "With President-Elect Trump flouting bipartisan traditions of disclosure while engaging with foreign leaders at the highest level, it’s more important than ever to ensure that the Commander-in-Chief isn’t playing by a different set of rules.” Democratic lawmakers have been expressing concerns about potential conflicts of interest for the president-elect and his Cabinet, reportedly the wealthiest in history. Democrats have been pressing for all of Trump's Cabinet picks to provide their tax returns to Senate committees. And a group of Senate Democrats intend to offer legislation this year that would require Trump to sell assets that pose a conflict of interest and put the money into a blind trust. During the campaign, Trump became the first major-party presidential nominee to refuse to release his tax returns, a move that drew criticism from Democrats as well as from some Republicans. Trump said that he would make his returns public once the IRS finished auditing him. However, the IRS has said that nothing prevents people from releasing their own tax information, including audits. The tax-return bill has several Democratic co-sponsors, including Sen. Tim Kaine Timothy (Tim) Michael KaineTrump claims Democrats ‘don’t mind executing babies after birth’ after blocked abortion bill Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Trump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 MORE (Va.), the former vice presidential nominee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenWoman to undecided Biden: 'Just say yes' to 2020 bid Raising taxes on the wealthy is 'extremely popular,' says Dem pollster 64 percent say Democratic Party supports socialism, says poll MORE (Mass.).By Aya Batrawy / Associated Press A mob of hundreds of men assaulted women holding a march demanding an end to sexual harassment Friday, with the attackers overwhelming the male guardians and groping and molesting several of the female marchers in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. From the ferocity of the assault, some of the victims said it appeared to have been an organized attempt to drive women out of demonstrations and trample on the pro-democracy protest movement. The attack follows smaller scale assaults on women this week in Tahrir, the epicenter of the uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down last year. Thousands have been gathering in the square this week in protests over a variety of issues — mainly over worries that presidential elections this month will secure the continued rule by elements of Mubarak’s regime backed by the ruling military. Earlier in the week, an Associated Press reporter witnessed around 200 men assault a woman who eventually fainted before men trying to help could reach her. Friday’s march was called to demand an end to sexual assaults. Around 50 women participated, surrounded by a larger group of male supporters who joined hands to form a protective ring around them. The protesters carried posters saying, “The people want to cut the hand of the sexual harasser,” and chanted, “The Egyptian girl says it loudly, harassment is barbaric.” After the marchers entered a crowded corner of the square, a group of men waded into the women, heckling them and groping them. The male supporters tried to fend them off, and it turned into a melee involving a mob of hundreds. The marchers tried to flee while the attackers chased them and male supporters tried to protect them. But the attackers persisted, cornering several women against a metal sidewalk railing, including an Associated Press reporter, shoving their hands down their clothes and trying to grab their bags. The male supporters fought back, swinging belts and fists and throwing water. Eventually, the women were able to reach refuge in a nearby building with the mob still outside until they finally got out to safety. “After what I saw and heard today. I am furious at so many things. Why beat a girl and strip her off? Why?” wrote Sally Zohney, one of the organizers of the event on Twitter. The persistence of the attack raised the belief of many that it was intentional, though who orchestrated it was unclear. Read moreLabor's Gotta Play Hardball to Win! Showdown on West Coast Docks: The Battle of Longview (November 2011). click on photo for article Chicago Plant Occupation Electrifies Labor (December 2008). click on photo for article May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down U.S. West Coast Ports (May 2008) click on photo for article June 2017 Enough is Enough: Stop the Scabs! Defeat the Cable Bosses! Strike rally outside Spectrum headquarters in New York City, May 18. (Internationalist photo) Strike rally outside Spectrum headquarters in New York City, May 18. June 10 marked the 75th day of the bitter strike by 1,800 cable workers in International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3 against Spectrum, formerly Time Warner Cable. That’s two and a half months on the picket line, with the hardships that entails. The determination of the Spectrum workers is an example to all defenders of workers’ rights. More than that, this battle is a test for the entire labor movement. New York-area union leaders have made speeches about solidarity, while relying on empty promises by Democratic politicians. But what’s needed – and long overdue – is for the unions to use their collective muscle now to help the Spectrum workers win. Telecommunications workers have a vital stake in this fight. There are tens of thousands of them in the NY-NJ area – their power must be mobilized in united action now, together with other key unions, to help the Spectrum strikers win. This is a case where solidarity is not
New Delhi, Feb. 16: The Americans have accomplished what should rank among missions impossible: find a weakness of the inscrutable and incorruptible Manmohan Singh. But contender Narendra Modi is unlikely to draw too much attention to it. Singh has been quietly building a collection of teacups, saucers and pots that he received as gifts from abroad and can be taken with him once he leaves 7 Race Course Road this May. The cuppa has become a simmering pot in politics because of Modi’s refrain that he started out as a tea vendor. Aided by a tasteless repartee by a Congress leader, the BJP has launched a series of interactions with Modi titled Chai pe Charcha. But a storm is not forecast in Singh’s teacups as he has gone by the book while retaining the gifted sets. Singh, known for his frugal lifestyle, has despatched to the government 38 of the 44 gifts he had received from heads of state and government, ambassadors and other foreign visitors since July last year. The gifts forwarded to the toshakhana, a repository managed by the external affairs ministry, include a Rs 9-lakh Rolex watch, a Rs 1.2-lakh jewellery set, a Rs 35,000 bracelet, and a Mughal-era coin Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Singh last October. All the six gifts Singh has taken home are tea sets. None of the tea sets is that expensive. They are valued below Rs 5,000 — the limit above which the recipients will have to pay the difference if they want to retain them, according to government documents listing gifts from foreigners declared by all Indian officials and representatives between July and December 2013. Singh’s choices offer a rare peek into the Prime Minister’s private life and preferences, which he has kept away from the limelight despite holding the top job for 10 years. “I can tell you that Dr Singh and Mrs Gursharan Kaur greet personal guests with tea at their home,” a close friend of the Prime Minister’s family told The Telegraph. “I can’t say why the Prime Minister has chosen tea sets, but yes, I’ve always felt that Mrs Kaur, in particular, has an affinity for tea.” Singh, too, drinks tea but with artificial sweeteners as he is diabetic, said an official who has travelled with the Prime Minister on several trips. Such everyday habits tickle the imagination of those entrusted with the delicate task of choosing gifts for international guests. “Nations spend weeks figuring out the best gift for a leader,” a former chief of protocol at the external affairs ministry said. “Diplomatic politeness mandates that the leader will accept every gift from the foreign dignitary but the smartest foreign diplomats try to follow up on what the leader does with it afterwards, to evaluate whether it resonated as a gift.” India, for instance, discreetly enquired about what President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden may like, when Obama hosted Singh to his first state dinner after taking office in 2009. Eventually, Singh gifted the well-read Obama five books, including an English translation of the Panchatantra, the stylish Michelle a beige pashmina shawl and the folksy Biden a statue of a jungle fowl rooster. It wasn’t easy tracking the Indian Prime Minister’s likes initially, said a diplomat from a west European nation. “For much of the first term under Manmohan Singh, no one — not even many Indian diplomats — had figured out appropriate gifts for him,” the diplomat said. Eventually, the Americans made a breakthrough — not because of the cloak-and-dagger stuff usually associated with the CIA but because of their First Lady. When Singh and Kaur visited Pittsburgh in September 2009 for the G20 summit, Michelle gifted the spouse of each visiting leader a porcelain tea set inspired by the gold-and-purple White House china that Abraham Lincoln and his wife had used over 150 years earlier. “The Prime Minister’s wife, we understood, really appreciated that gift,” an American official said. “That’s when we realised we had finally found something that may work well as a gift. And then, the word slowly spread in the diplomatic world.” When German chancellor Angela Merkel visited India in May 2011, she brought a Meissen tea set for Singh. It was one of only two gifts out of a total of 50 Singh received in 2011 that the Prime Minister took home with him, records show. Not that all gifts can be carted away at will. When Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister, rules had been introduced to ensure government officials are not influenced by foreign powers. Accordingly, the Prime Minister, all other ministers, bureaucrats and important government representatives are required to declare gifts received from foreigners. The declaration must be made to the toshakhana where customs officials examine the gift and ascribe a monetary value to it. Some gifts that have no tangible financial value are labelled with the tag of “no commercial value”. If the estimated value is below a limit — which varies with the rank of the recipient — the recipient can take the gift free of cost. If the value is higher than the ceiling, the official can keep the gift by paying the balance amount to the government. For the Prime Minister, the limit is Rs 5,000 — which means Singh has not had to pay for the six tea sets. But the limit alone does not appear to be the reason behind the Prime Minister’s choices: among the gifts he forwarded to the repository are a wooden chest and a carpet that are not valued above Rs 5,000."Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases." At the Fox Business Network debate, it didn’t take long for the topic of the minimum wage to come up. During a back-and-forth with the moderators, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson urged caution on raising the minimum wage, saying, "People need to be educated on the minimum wage. Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases." We checked a similar claim by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. In November 2014, Cardin made the opposite case, claiming that "every time we've increased the minimum wage, we've seen a growth in jobs." We rated Cardin’s claim Mostly False, after determining that during the 12 months following each of the 11 minimum wage increases since 1978, about half produced a net gain in jobs and about half produced a net loss of jobs. In this case, we decided we couldn’t rely on the exact same data, since Cardin referred to a growth in jobs, while Carson referred to an increase in joblessness. Those aren’t exactly the same things, though the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates both metrics. So we used the same methodology to look at the 12-month changes in unemployment level after those 11 minimum-wage hikes. The chart below shows what we found: Year of minimum wage increase New minimum wage Change in number of people unemployed over next 12 months Was a recession going on during the 12-month period? 1978 $2.65 Down 380,000 No 1979 $2.90 Up 574,000 Yes 1980 $3.10 Up 1,388,000 Yes 1981 $3.35 Up 1,326,000 Yes 1990 $3.80 Up 1,642,000 Yes 1991 $4.25 Up 976,000 No 1996 $4.75 Down 577,000 No 1997 $5.15 Down 356,000 No 2007 $5.85 Up 1,788,000 Yes 2008 $6.55 Up 5,664,000 Yes 2009 $7.25 Down 89,000 No The headline here is that joblessness rose after a minimum-wage hike more than half the time -- seven out of 11 occasions -- but fell four times. Since joblessness fell some of the time, it means that Carson’s sweeping claim -- that joblessness rises "every time" the minimum wage goes up is off-base. But there’s another factor that casts additional doubt on his assertion. As it happened, there was a recession under way during six of the 11 periods we studied. During each of those periods, joblessness rose after the minimum wage went up. This is not surprising -- but it does cast into doubt the cause and effect behind the rise in joblessness. The impact of a recession does, at the very least, raise questions about whether a minimum wage hike in and of itself caused joblessness. If you look instead at the five wage hikes that occurred when a recovery was under way, joblessness declined four of those times. The only exception was the 1991 wage hike, which took effect soon after a recovery began. Finally, we should note that economists are split over what effect a minimum wage hike has on job growth. There’s some research that shows raising the minimum wage negatively impacts job growth, and a lot that shows it has an insignificant effect. Our ruling Carson said, "Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases." If you look at the 12-month period following every minimum-wage hike since 1978, joblessness did rise on seven occasions, but it fell on four occasions, undercutting his sweeping claim. In addition, it’s not at all clear that a minimum-wage hike was the primary culprit for the periods in which joblessness rose, since those periods also coincided with broader recessions in the economy. We rate his claim False.The suite of PMIs should indicate that the momentum of U.K. economic activity remains strong but with differing performance by sector. Of the three sectors, manufacturing looks the most vulnerable to changes in global economic trends. There seems to be a slowdown in world trade which should be felt in export orders. "Domestic demand remains firm but the external factor should lead to a minor fall in the manufacturing PMI from 51.9 to 51.5. The overall result in construction sector should be dominated by the rising housing sector and so we expect an increase from 57.1 to 57.7", says Societe Generale. The services PMI is volatile on a month to month basis dipping from 58.5 in June to 57.4 in July. A bounce is expected to 58.3 in August and the overall composite PMI is likely to rise slightly from the July reading of 56.6, adds SocGen.Microsoft started dropping the Windows Phone brand back in September, and now we have its official replacement. The software maker has revealed today that the equivalent to Windows Phone for the Windows 10 era is simply "Windows 10 Mobile." If you’ve been paying attention to Microsoft’s mobile efforts over the years, then you’ll know that’s a straight return to the Windows Mobile days. Microsoft used a variety of names for Windows Mobile, including Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 5, and Windows Mobile 6 before switching to Windows Phone for version 7. While the new name isn’t simply Windows Mobile, thanks to the 10 numbering, it’s still a return to the old days of Windows Mobile especially if Microsoft does choose to ship a Windows 11 or Windows 12 in the future. After a confusing mix of names over more than 15 years, Microsoft has finally settled on the name it used the most. Windows Mobile makes a lot more sense than Windows Phone these days, especially as the operating system will span across phones and tablets, but it's still not really the Windows as we know it today. Microsoft is trying to change that with universal apps across all devices, but for most Windows is still Windows on PCs and laptops. Either way, welcome back old Windows Mobile friend, the circle is complete.Metalheads will be dreaming of a black Christmas if this news is indeed true. Rolling Stone has reported -- in its most recent issue with the Rolling Stones on the cover, again -- that Ozzy Osbourne will be releasing a collection of tunes to incite metallic holiday cheer next year and that it will be called 'Black Christmas.' Ozzy even hinted that there will be a TV special component to the Christmas album. A Christmas album for the Prince of Darkness? Stranger things have happened. Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy's wife-a-ger, told the publication that she's discussed the idea with Ozzy and that "he's trying to forget it actually exists." The Ozzman's publicists could not confirm or deny that these plans are solidly in the works. Can you imagine Ozzy covering 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,' 'Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer' or 'Silent Night'?WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Quietly, Sebastien Bourdais is sealing his legacy in American open-wheel racing. Bourdais dominated the second half of Sunday’s IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile, pulling away from the field on a late restart and beating Helio Castroneves to the finish line by 2.236 seconds. It was the second win of the season for the KVSH Racing driver, who also won the second race at Detroit. And it was the 34th of his career — tying him with Al Unser Jr. for seventh on the all-time victory list. “I respect the stats, because obviously you put yourself on a very special list with very respected and great drivers,” Bourdais said. “But I don’t live for stats. I don’t look back in the rear-view mirror. It’s just not me. So I just enjoy it and have fun with it.” Graham Rahal finished third, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya and Josef Newgarden. MILWAUKEE MILE: Bourdais pulls away late to win Wisconsin 250 Bourdais qualified 11th earlier Sunday and didn’t necessarily expect that to be the kind of effort that would put him in place to run for a victory. “It felt pretty good off the truck and I thought, ‘This could be a pretty good weekend,’ ” Bourdais said. “And then we messed up qualifying. Never did I think we could come up through the field and pass everybody. It’s just unbelievable. It’s what these places do to you. When the car is right, it’s so, so special.” It’s something of a return to form for Bourdais, who had an incredible streak of four straight championships in the Champ Car series as the series was nearing its end after the CART-IRL split. If not for his brief and largely unproductive flirtation with a career in Formula One, it’s possible he’d be even higher on the all-time victory list. Even Bourdais seems to put those Champ Car titles in context himself, noting that there were perhaps six drivers who could give him a run for his money — and now there are perhaps 15 who can win on any given race weekend. “You’re only as good as your car is, and you can only dominate as much as the field allows you to,” Bourdais said. Q&A: Bourdais on perfects laps, Paul Newman and his current team Those titles, however, have the respect of other drivers. “He’s not a champion four times by luck,” Castroneves said. “He definitely has talent, and it looks like the combination with his team this year, it’s paying off.” Said Rahal: “I was his teammate, so I saw all sides of him. But when it’s his day, he’s damn hard to beat. That’s just the truth.” Even at age 36, the French driver is showing he still can win races — and not just on road courses, although that remains his specialty. Sunday’s win was his fifth on an oval, and his first oval win since Milwaukee in 2006. TEAM PENSKE: Has uncharacteristic struggles at Milwaukee Mile Bourdais said he is more composed now than when he first returned to Indy-style racing. Before, he felt pressure to live up to his previous performances and made mistakes that made him look, in his own words, “like an idiot.” “People are expecting me to be Sebastien Bourdais from 2004 to 2007,” Bourdais said. “And it was just impossible. I tried to do the impossible.” Meanwhile, not much changed in terms of the IndyCar championship standings, as Montoya slipped from second to fourth in the closing laps — but it could have been much worse. He earned a drive-through penalty for a pit road speeding violation just before the race’s halfway point, dropping him out of the top five all the way back to 15th. Montoya continues to lead the IndyCar Series points with 439. Scott Dixon is second with 385. “It was a hell of a day,” Montoya said. “We just need to keep it going.”David Bradley wants to meet in Barnsley. This is where he grew up. It is where Kes, the film that changed his life, was made, and where he still lives. He is waiting for me in the middle of the road as I come out of the station, waving exuberantly. He then drives me a few miles south to the village of Tankersley. It was here, in 1965, that author Barry Hines’s younger brother, Richard, trained a kestrel, homing her in the air-raid shelter at the bottom of Barry’s garden. Richard wanted to call her Kessy; Barry suggested Kes. Kes – review Read more Bradley wants to talk in a pub he likes, which seems a generic suggestion until we get there: the last time he was here, he says, was for Barry Hines’s wake. Hines, who had Alzheimer’s for nine years, died in March, age 76, and is buried at a nearby church. Bradley, now 63, softly spoken and sensitive, has been inextricably linked to Hines and Kes since he was cast, aged 14, in Ken Loach’s 1969 adaptation of Hines’s novel A Kestrel for a Knave. The film, about Billy Casper, a neglected working-class 15-year-old who finds solace training a kestrel, was a gentle drama about harsh circumstances. It was a sensation, winning Bradley a Bafta for most promising newcomer. Bradley was, he says, an ordinary kid who had failed his 11-plus and went to St Helen’s, a Barnsley secondary modern school. His father was a miner, and Bradley was expected to follow suit, but says he wouldn’t have been able to cope down the pits. Local author Hines didn’t yet know Bradley, but he knew kids just like him. Hines’s father was a miner, and Hines, who had been a teacher at St Helen’s and modelled the school in his book after it, wanted to write about the pig-headedness of disregarding pupils who failed the 11-plus, thus branding them with inferiority complexes. Loach was equally keen to mine the subject on film. Bradley, who had starred in school pantomimes at St Helen’s, showed off keen improvisational chops in auditions, and was offered the job. The same day, a fortnight before shooting began, he was summoned to Barry Hines’s house to start training the three kestrels to be used in the film. (They were named Freeman, Hardy & Willis, after the shoe shop.) Bradley was paired with Hardy, while Barry and Richard worked with the other two, which was just as well: “Willis was freaking out all the time: it just wouldn’t do anything. We had to reintroduce him back into the wild.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bradley with Barry Hines during the filming of Kes. Photograph: Allstar/Woodfall Film Productions In striving for authenticity, Loach was as unpredictable as Willis. “He would play tricks to see if he could get a reaction,” says Bradley. In one scene, Bradley runs down a street, chased by a barking dog: he is convinced Loach had someone hiding who “threw the dog into the middle of the road”. For the famous sequence in which Bradley and other schoolboys are caned, they had been assured Loach would call “cut” just before they were struck – he didn’t. “You can’t imitate that expression, the point at which the cane strikes the hand,” Loach later explained. “So we just caned them, really.” To elicit a realistic emotional response for the film’s bleak climax, in which Billy’s self-loathing brother Jud (Freddie Fletcher) kills Kes, Loach approached Fletcher and Bradley in the lunch queue and told Fletcher to go off with Richard Hines and slaughter Hardy for the required corpse. Bradley says he wasn’t convinced – “I just couldn’t believe these nice people could be so cruel” – and after shooting the scene was reunited with Hardy (the one on camera had died from natural causes). “I said to them: ‘I knew you wouldn’t kill him! I knew you wouldn’t!’” After Kes, Bradley changed his professional name to Dai (because of the other David Bradley, last seen in Game of Thrones), got some TV work, enjoyed a spell with the National Theatre (including the lead in Equus), and on film appeared in Zulu Dawn and 1979’s All Quiet on the Western Front. After that though, work dried up somewhat. He bought a church and spent three years part-converting it into a home, but his co-investor didn’t come up with the other 50%. Meanwhile, a play he was doing in the US came to nothing when the producer didn’t arrange for him to get a green card. He came home, and reluctantly sold the church. He speaks with great affection about Kes – the tie has not been cut. In 2009, he told a BBC TV crew that every couple of years he revisits the woods filmed in Kes, as they remind him of making the film. Does he feel emotionally attached to it? He pauses for some time. “I wouldn’t say... I don’t often go now, I try to go at least once a year, because the wood which Billy used to walk through to the old ruined manor house was absolutely fantastic when I was a young lad. It was as you saw it in the film, a canopy of green dappled sunlight.” He appears at public screenings of Kes, but can’t watch the last 20 minutes as it upsets him too much. “I have to apologise to audiences,” he says. “I say to them: ‘Please excuse me if you see this shadow walking out at the end; it’s just too much to stay behind.’” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bradley in Kes. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo I ask about the site he runs, called Kes: Billy Casper, which features his CV, a guestbook and a detailed rundown of the film’s locations. “It was prompted by the fans,” he says. “But I get so bored of it. There’s a fan section where they’re invited to write to me, and there are hundreds of these little promos for various types of pills. And I just get so bored of erasing those all the time.” Spam? “Yes, offering legal-high-type things. I erase a month’s worth and then another couple of months’ worth comes within a week, and I think: ‘God, why did I invite the fans to write to me.’” I ask if he stays in touch with anyone from the film. “We try to see each other once a year if possible, just for half an hour, to say hello,” he says of Loach, and then, talking about Barry Hines, comes a reveal. Bradley had got back in touch “because I’d penned a sequel to Kes”, he says, matter of factly. What? He wrote a sequel? A book or a screenplay? “I’d loved for it to have been both. But I didn’t think that I could go through with it without Barry’s approval.” He says that he’s written a few things over the years, including a couple of TV scripts – one called Shake, Rattle and Roll based on his own experiences in the World Backgammon Championships – that didn’t work out. His Kes sequel came about because someone told him they had funding and an idea for a sequel, but Bradley didn’t like the idea and besides, the money never materialised. “I discovered that he was wanted by the police on three different continents,” he says of the financer. “I tend to commit myself to projects without any kind of financial insurance. And I’m the one that gets burned.” So he wrote his own sequel, in which Billy runs away to London and gets into trouble, sniffing glue, washing car windscreens at traffic lights, but is adopted by a couple and ends up converting a narrowboat. Bradley never showed it to Hines. “He wasn’t well enough. I didn’t even tell his wife. I thought it would upset her.” He drives me back to the train station, pointing out the church where Hines is buried. I think of an old Loach interview in which he said he cast Bradley because he was vulnerable, open and true. He still is. “I know I’ve had a chequered career, a bit of a rollercoaster. But then that’s because of, I guess, my appearance?” he says, and I’m not quite sure what he means. “Well, I’m not the boy-next-door type,” he says. “I’m not the macho, martial arts type. I’m just an ordinary chap. An amiable guy.” We talk about his recent work – a bit-part in the Jason Statham film Hummingbird, and an appearance in Holby City. I ask him if he’s still hoping for something to happen with his Kes sequel. “I’m not pursuing it at the present,” he says, wistfully. “The moment is gone. Sometimes I wonder if there were moments when things should happen. And if they don’t happen … you have to let them go.”It’s 7,541 pieces. That’s the number of Lego bricks in the newly updated Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon set that Lego announced today (via io9). It’s the single largest Lego set ever sold (by a considerable margin), and with a whooping $800 price tag, it’s also the single most expensive Lego set the company has ever sold. And let me tell you, it looks glorious. Lego has put a ton of work into making this a super detailed version of the actual ship from the films — to the point that it includes swappable deflector dishes to match either the original trilogy or the more recent Force Awakens variants of the ship, along with accurate interior sections. It’s the sort of thing Lego has become known for on its Ultimate Collector Series sets, which tend to go above and beyond the usual playsets when it comes to accuracy. The set also comes with 10 minifigures (Han, C-3P0, Leia, Chewbacca, BB-8, Old Han, Finn, Rey, and two porgs) allowing you to crew your giant Lego ship with the characters from the original trilogy and the latest saga films. As an added bonus, the heads on the original Han and Leia figures spin around to offer a variant look with air respirators, for re-creating scenes like the mynock attack in Empire Strikes Back. (A Lego mynock is also included.) Like the deflector dish, it’s another nice detail for how the set aims to satisfy fans of both eras of the films. The set is actually an updated version of the original deluxe Falcon set that Lego released back in 2007, which contained a paltry 5,195 pieces and cost a mere $500. While that set (like all of the Ultimate Collectors Series models) was eventually discontinued, it remains one of the most sought-after sets by fans; prices for the original model tend to cost in the $2,000 to $3,000 range. Fans have also taken on the mantle of trying to best Lego’s own official sets since then, with creations like this 10,000-piece replica that adds an extra level of accuracy. The Falcon isn’t the only collector’s set Lego announced today, either. If you have a more modest budget (or just prefer adorable droids), there’s also a 1,106-piece Lego BB-8 model coming out on September 1st for $99.99. The Millennium Falcon set will go on sale on October 1st for $799.99.Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Tuesday gave a stirring speech against the torture of detainees after the 9/11 attacks, following the release of a Senate report that found the CIA’s interrogation methods were harsher than the agency led lawmakers and the public to believe and did not produce valuable information. McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said on the Senate floor that his personal experience has shown abused prisoners offer up more bad than good, or even deliberately misleading, intelligence. “Most of all, I know the use of torture compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies,” he said. “Our belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic human rights which are protected by international conventions, [which] the United States not only joined but for the most part, authored.” McCain did acknowledge that the CIA resorted to extreme interrogation techniques with the goal of protecting Americans, but argued the ends didn’t justify those means. “I dispute wholeheartedly it was right for [CIA officers] to use these methods, which this report makes clear were neither in the best interest of justice, nor our security, nor the ideals we have sacrificed so much blood and treasure to defend,” he said. Many of McCain’s Republican colleagues opposed the release of the report. Incoming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) denounced it as harmful to national security, while McCain’s ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the timing of its release “politically motivated.” But the Arizona Republican said he believes officials who object to the release of the Senate report just don’t want the finding that so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” produced no helpful intelligence to finally come to light. “I suspect the objection of those same officials to the release of this report is really focused on that disclosure: torture’s ineffectiveness,” McCain said. “We gave up much in the expectation that torture would make us safer,” he added. “Too much.” Read McCain’s full remarks here, and watch a portion of the speech below:Politico's story this morning suggests Pelosi doesn't have the votes, but our sources insist the leadership isn't yet at that stage. The Democratic whip's office has been surveying members on the public option for the last several days to get a sense of where they stand on different elements of the bill, a strategy that will inform the final version of what the House introduces. Mike Allen knew it was fake and false yet he published it because House sources think Democrats may have spoken with Allen to apply pressure on Pelosi at this late stage in the game. Also the White house quickly and effectively put an end to this and the other rumors that has been floating around that Obama prefers a trigger. In denouncing the report Presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett went further when she jabbed at the Politico story while appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe today, saying of the reporter who penned the piece, "I don't know whether Mike Allen can actually count votes or not." This is not a coincidence. It is a coordinated attack by the opponents of the Public Option. They want to control the story in order to kill the Public Option. I am glad that the quick reaction from the Whitehouse and the House has put that to an end. But they will stop here. Politico's Mike Allen an ineffective Whitehouse reporter for the Washington Post during the Bush administration is back to his old tricks of fake news reporting.Story highlights Pentagon: Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi citizen, killed in air strike by U.S.-led coalition in Syria Nasr was the head of the Khorasan Group, said to be plotting attacks against the West He is the fifth senior Khorasan Group leader killed in the last four months (CNN) The leader of an al Qaeda-linked group allegedly bent on attacking the West has been killed in an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria, U.S. officials said Sunday. He was killed in an airstrike in northwest Syria on Thursday, the statement said. Nasr, who was once al Qaeda's chief financial officer and had been designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Treasury, is the fifth senior Khorasan Group leader killed in the last four months, said the statement. An image from Twitter of Sanafi al-Nasr, a top Khorasan Group leader killed in a strike in Syria. "The United States will not relent in its mission to degrade, disrupt and destroy al-Qaeda and its remnants," said Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. Read MoreOakland leaders scrambling to address the city’s shortage of low- and moderate-income housing are confronting the harsh reality that the obvious targets — such as fees on new development and taxpayer-backed bonds — either will not generate a significant number of units or have little chance of happening any time soon. Meanwhile, Oakland — along with Alameda County — is overlooking a potential opportunity to capture land and housing funds that is not available to more affluent Bay Area municipalities: acres of vacant lots and abandoned property. By some counts, there are 3,000 vacant lots in Oakland, many of which are saddled with defaulted tax bills and outstanding blight citations. Adding insult to injury, the city spends hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to clean up the derelict parcels, which often attract illegal dumping and other crime. But, despite a persistent blight problem and a severe housing shortage, the city and county have been notably conservative in exercising their authority to auction off troubled properties and put them back into circulation. This mostly is because state law generally prohibits county tax collectors from auctioning properties until they have accrued at least five years of back taxes. The maximum time that a tax-defaulted property can sit without an auction is a full four years later — or nine years. Yet, while state laws translate to long-stagnant parcels, there are exceptions that could make a big difference in Oakland. The state tax and revenue code allows property to be auctioned after only three years if a city, county or nonprofit organization produces a plan for developing a tax-delinquent property into affordable housing. In addition, when property has been offered at auction once and failed to sell, the tax collector may, with approval from the Board of Supervisors, offer the property for any price he or she deems appropriate. There are reasons Oakland and Alameda County have not aggressively pursued the fast-track and discount price options: They require a city or county resolution and coordination between governments. And, to auction properties more quickly in any significant number would mean more county manpower to provide notice to owners, process sales and surmount myriad other bureaucratic hurdles. There is little debate that any strategy to create affordable housing, or free up land to build it on, requires a public investment. What matters is getting the most bang for the buck. The two strategies I noted initially — fees on new market-rate housing construction and issuing housing bonds — included costs that would be passed on to buyers and taxpayers. In comparison, adding county staffers to focus on selling derelict property more quickly and cheaply might turn out to be a bargain. And remember, few alternatives for generating housing offer the bonus of directly fighting blight. Back to Gallery Ideas to turn abandoned Oakland properties into... 12 1 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 2 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 3 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 4 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 5 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 6 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 7 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 8 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 9 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 10 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 11 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle 12 of 12 Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle After spending nearly a year and $1 million on studies, Oakland recently proposed fees on new market-rate housing and commercial construction. However, the studies showed that fees would need to be relatively modest to not push development costs so high that builders would simply opt out. As a result, even with the fees increasing gradually over time, they are not expected to generate more than a few hundred affordable housing units in the next eight to 10 years, based on historic rates of housing production and the cost to build new affordable units. Local and regional housing bonds require a two-thirds vote, which means that a bond must have virtually no organized opposition in order to prevail. Regional bonds also include massive bureaucratic coordination. Recently, a nonprofit organization proposing a regional bond threw in the towel for now, recognizing that it had an uphill battle. The good news is that since 2012 Oakland and Alameda County have collaborated on two pilot programs intended to remove liens and sell property with long-overdue taxes and blight fees. According to a city of Oakland report, the 2012 program generated nearly $1.2 million in proceeds from the sale of 16 properties that are now in the hands of taxpaying owners. An August 2014 pilot program removed tax liens from 59 tax-defaulted properties to facilitate the sale of 34 parcels directly to affordable-housing developers. Sale proceeds from the other 25 properties were earmarked for code enforcement and blight operations. Unfortunately, the 34 properties are still winding their way through the county and state bureaucracy. And the city pulled the other 25 properties off the auction in March 2015 with no explanation to the county or the general public. City Council members I spoke with about the 2014 program don’t recall voting on it and are not up to date on its progress (or lack thereof). My goal here is not to berate local government. Rather, it is to urge the city and county to take their promising fledgling efforts and expand upon them. California law allows exceptions so that municipalities can sell derelict properties faster. Other states have approached the issue more proactively, recognizing that counties rarely collect long-unpaid property taxes. According to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, unpaid bills (tax or otherwise) outstanding for more than 360 days are considered doubtful for collection. After three years, collection is a fantasy. So does it make sense that the city of Oakland and Alameda County are waiting five years before they sell tax-defaulted land that is a scourge to neighborhoods and could add badly needed housing? Oakland and Alameda County should pass legislation lowering the auction sale trigger from five years to three years when it will translate to affordable housing. And state legislators should consider shortening that time frame even further — particularly in urban areas with housing shortages. A next step might be to follow the lead of states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which have taken
to develop this shot consistently, though, will seriously hurt the Lakers’ chances at running the pick-and-roll at peak efficiency – something they’ll absolutely need in Byron Scott’s offense. Fortunately, however, Russell will share the backcourt with someone who could very easily handle more of the creating responsibilities in Jordan Clarkson, if the former doesn’t develop a consistent enough pull-up jumper. Russell’s understanding of the game is such that he could very easily slide into more of the shooting guard role, especially seeing as he played a lot of that position at Ohio State. So, although as I described he could greatly aid the team and his own individual game as his shot improves, there are still ways to effectively use him on the court. Still, though, it goes without saying how vital shooting has become in the NBA. Just ask the aforementioned Rondo, who’s gone from a widely-considered elite point guard to a reclamation project for the Sacramento Kings.Forget reality shows about the subject, the ultimate tale of man vs. nature may be the story of Dashrath Manjhi who single-handedly carved a road through an entire mountain that had been isolating his village from essential services. The Gehlour hills are a low-but-treacherous spine of mountainous terrain that once divided the settlements and services on either side. In fact many villagers from Manijhi’s town had to trek for miles around the hills just to reach their fields and schools. However this all changed with the tragic death of Manjhi’s wife, Faguni Devi. Devi was traversing the narrow path across the tall hills to bring her husband some water when she was seriously injured. The nearest medical facility was over 40 miles away and Devi perished shortly after her accident. Struck by his loss, Manjhi resolved to make sure such a tragedy never happened again. Taking up simple tools, he began chipping away at one of the hills, hellbent on creating a road that would service his village and others like it. Ridiculed by his fellow villagers and ignored by the government, Manjhi worked dauntlessly on the road day after day, slowly but surely eroding a passage into the earth. In time the locals came to respect his work as they saw its promise and many of them began providing food and tools for the newly dubbed, “Mountain Man.” After 22 years of back-breaking labor, Manjhi finished the 360-foot road in 1982. Tearing straight through the mountain, the road not only cut off miles of travel for countless village travelers, but it made traversing the area safer as well as allowing for small automobile traffic. The Mountain Man passed away in 2007, but the road that was the fruit of his labor still bears his name in an amazing testament to the power of the individual.Although a court in Switzerland has ruled that Floyd Landis is unable to call UCI officials corrupt, attempts by the UCI to silence Greg LeMond’s similar allegations have proven unsuccessful. In an email to Cyclingnews, LeMond cited emails he had received from UCI president Pat McQuaid in 2006 and in 2008 in which the sport’s governing body asked LeMond to retract allegations of corruption he levelled at them. Related Articles Tyler Hamilton's book reveals in-depth doping network Swiss court finds in UCI's favour in Landis defamation case Landis never contacted to defend against UCI defamation suit LeMond: Armstrong has been trying to destroy me for 10 years Six former Armstrong USPS teammates receive bans from USADA Report: Did Nike pay $500,000 to Verbruggen to cover up Armstrong positive? In 2006 LeMond gave an interview to L'Equipein which he questioned the validity of the Vrijman report which looked into Lance Armstrong’s 1999 Tour de France samples. The three-time Tour winner also told the French publication that Operacion Puerto “is another example, the entire system is corrupt, the UCI is corrupt." The interview was followed up by a letter from the UCI asking LeMond to retract his statements or face a legal case. LeMond’s response was a drafted letter through his US attorneys at the time, Robins, Kaplan Millar and Ciresi. Along with debating the definition of corruption, the letter also spelled out that a Swiss court had no jurisdiction over LeMond: a sentiment reiterated on Wednesday when lawyers representing Floyd Landis argued the same standpoint over a defamation case involving Landis and the UCI. The UCI are also involved with a defamation case involving the former Sunday Times writer Paul Kimmage. In LeMond’s letter, his legal team also point out the UCI have defamed L'Equipe by stating that: “known to have questionable ethics.” The returning letter to the UCI also states: “In your July 26 letter, you accuse Mr. LeMond of committing criminal infringement and then demand that he either (1) corroborate his alleged accusations; or (2) withdraw his alleged accusations publicly. You also “suggest to discuss the way to proceed.” Obviously, Greg LeMond’s public retraction of his statements regarding UCI is something of value to UCI. Indeed, you would not have written your letter to Mr. LeMond and demanded the same unless it had value to your organization. Under United States’ law, threatening criminal prosecution in order to obtain “any money or other valuable thing” is a federal crime. See 18 U.S.C. 0 873. Violations of section 873 require a fine and imprisonment for not more than one year.” Yesterday a Swiss court issued an order against Landis in which he is prohibited from saying certain things about the UCI, McQuaid and Verbruggen, including that they “are corrupt”. Landis claims never to have been served on the lawsuit, which ruled he had defamed the others.Sixteen years ago, Marina Picasso, one of Pablo Picasso’s granddaughters, became the first family member to go public about how much her family had suffered under the artist’s narcissism. “No one in my family ever managed to escape from the stranglehold of this genius,” she wrote in her memoir, Picasso: My Grandfather. “He needed blood to sign each of his paintings: my father’s blood, my brother’s, my mother’s, my grandmother’s, and mine. He needed the blood of those who loved him.” After Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s second wife, barred much of the family from the artist’s funeral, the family fell fully to pieces: Pablito, Picasso’s grandson, drank a bottle of bleach and died; Paulo, Picasso’s son, died of deadly alcoholism born of depression. Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso’s young lover between his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, and his next mistress, Dora Maar, later hanged herself; even Roque eventually fatally shot herself.“Women are machines for suffering,” Picasso told Françoise Gilot, his mistress after Maar. After they embarked on their affair when he was sixty-one and she was twenty-one, he warned Gilot of his feelings once more: “For me there are only two kinds of women: goddesses and doormats.” Marina saw her grandfather’s treatment of women as an even darker phenomenon, a vital part of his creative process: “He submitted them to his animal sexuality, tamed them, bewitched them, ingested them, and crushed them onto his canvas. After he had spent many nights extracting their essence, once they were bled dry, he would dispose of them.” It is curious then that a new exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in Paris, just off the Champs-Elysées on the nightclub-laden rue Ponthieu, called “Picasso and Maya: Father and Daughter,” is full of heartfelt wood sculptures and paper cutouts Picasso made for his daughter Maya, loving and colorful portraits of his shy mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, and a wall full of rarely seen family photographs: Picasso with his children at the beach, at Christmastime, at a bullfight; Picasso and Maya sitting together, looking at a camera; Picasso and Maya with their dog, Riki, on a Parisian balcony. A flip-book turned into a video has Walter posing and smiling for him. A pencil drawing of a childish Maya has her cheeks red with crayon, as if blushing. Diana Widmaier-Picasso, who is the daughter of Maya Widmaier-Picasso and Pierre Widmaier, a shipping magnate, and the granddaughter of Picasso and Marie-Thérèse, curated the exhibition. She is well aware of the usual misanthropic, misogynistic characterizations of Picasso. “He’s a man of metamorphoses,” she tells me carefully in Paris, a few days before the vernissage of her exhibition. “A complex person to grasp.” Maya Widmaier-Picasso, on whom the show centers, was born in a suburb of Paris on September 5, 1935, just before a time of great social and personal upheaval. The Spanish Civil War was only months away, World War II was looming, and, although Picasso initially proved to be a present father—doing his share of the cooking and housekeeping—he was introduced to Maar at a movie premiere by the poet Paul Éluard (thus beginning their affair) only two months after Maya’s birth. But, for a brief honeyed moment, Picasso chronicled his family life with Maya and Marie-Thérèse in portraits and drawings. Out of his four children, Picasso most frequently depicted Maya—no less a muse than her mother—continuing to portray her consistently for nine years, from her birth until 1944, and off and on for years after that. “Maya symbolizes hope in a world that is kind of collapsing,” Diana Widmaier-Picasso says. “She is also a reflection not only of his beloved muse Marie-Thérèse—my mother—but also of himself. So you see in the portraits that he’s projecting himself and Marie-Thérèse onto Maya. I find it fascinating to see the exploration of the mirror of yourself within a daughter.” When the French president, Emmanuel Macron, recently stopped by the gallery to look at the works with Maya, who is now eighty-two, he asked her how it felt to be portrayed so frequently by her father. She merely shrugged. “She thought it hardly felt like her at all,” Diana explains. “Sometimes, you see that he’s clearly doing a self-portrait through the features of his daughter,” she says. “It’s not a portrait of a child, you know? She’s meant to be three years old, and there is something very severe about the way she looks … Certainly, he found a feminine projection of himself within his daughter.” The works on display also mark a stylistic shift for the artist. His series of portraits of three-year-old Maya in 1938 show a rare gentle but physical energy—Maya playing with a toy boat, Maya holding a doll against her cheek in a way that recalls the Virgin and Child. There are some who see Picasso’s treatment of women in a relatively positive light: the women in his life enriched his art and, in turn, he depicted them in loving portraiture and artistic allegory. The classic example given for Picasso’s respectful relationship with women is his friendship with Gertrude Stein, which Stein fondly recounted in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. But Picasso’s relationship with Stein and his gentle portraits of Marie-Thérèse and Maya don’t change the fact that Picasso cheated on nearly all of his lovers and, at least indirectly, drove two of them to suicide. Perhaps the nuance is to be found in the types of love he doled out—that is, between the type of love that he showed Stein and certain friends and the type of love he showed his wives and lovers like Jacqueline Roque and Marie-Thérèse. Marie-Thérèse was ready to be “crushed” into his art, as Marina Picasso says. “She had no social aspirations whatsoever,” says the art historian John Richardson. “Her entire life was devoted to being the artist’s great love and muse.” Maya, too young to have any agency of her own, was also easily ground up into her father’s art: her youthful girlishness provided a new avenue for Picasso to explore his femininity. But Maya is special because although she too was crushed into his art, she was too young to be entirely hurt by it. Picasso’s depictions of Maya are a testament to his genuine happiness at her birth but they are also, psychologically, some of his clearest self-portraits. The evening of the exhibition’s vernissage is warm and a line snakes through the gallery’s vestibule and out onto the street. Inside, Widmaier-Picasso balances on Louboutins while adjusting the pink bow on the front of her cherry-red dress. After an hour or so of glad-handing, Widmaier-Picasso is tired. She sits down on a circular cushion in the middle of the gallery’s second floor. On one wall next to her are dozens of photos of her mother, her grandmother, and Picasso, living what appears to be a fashionable but relatively normal life—restaurants, holidays, work. Earlier, Widmaier-Picasso had told me that her favorite artwork in the exhibition was Maya, dans ses cheveux une poupée en tissue, a drawing of Maya in which Picasso placed a cloth doll in her hair, adding a rare physical dimension to the artwork. Now, Widmaier-Picasso turns from the photographs to stare at it on the opposite wall. Picasso was a womanizer who left most of his lovers in emotional shambles. He was not, by most stretches of the imagination, a moral or “good” person. And yet, two generations on, his granddaughter, who now specializes in his art and is even working on a catalogue raisonné of his sculptures, has organized a show feting his relationship with one of his daughters. What we are willing to look past—Picasso’s indiscretions, cruelties, and emotional bloodletting—is just as telling of the viewer as of the artist. Today, Picasso is, seemingly, safely ensconced in the canon. And, as one gets to know his art and his life more intimately, it is a balm to look at works like that of little Maya with a cloth doll in her hair. Maya was not destroyed in Picasso’s artistic process, because the face he depicted of her wasn’t her own face so much as a portal for him to find—for a moment—his innocence, his childishness, and his goodness. Because so few other women in his life made it out unscathed, that wall will always be the easiest one to look at, which Widmaier-Picasso does, until, finally, she musters the energy to get up and start chatting and cheek-kissing with strangers once more. Cody Delistraty is a writer and historian based in Paris.LONDON: The UK government on Friday appointed Brenda Marjorie Hale as the first female president of the Supreme Court, the senior-most judge of the country.Baroness Hale, 72, will take charge as the head of Britain's top judging panel in September following the retirement of current president, Lord Neuberger, 10 Downing Street said in a statement."It is a great honour and a challenge," said Hale who has served as Neuberger's deputy since 2013.She added: "I look forward to building upon his pioneering achievements, including developing closer links with each part of the United Kingdom, for example by sitting outside London, and improving the ways in which we communicate our work to the public."Recent high-profile cases mean that more people than ever before have heard of the Supreme Court, and we hope that this will help to create a broader understanding of how the judiciary serves society."The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal for civil cases in the UK, and criminal cases from England, Northern Ireland and Wales - which means it considers cases where an order had already been made in a lower court and is being challenged.It most recently made headlines around the world with its Brexit decision earlier this year, directing British Prime Minister Theresa May to seek Parliament's approval before triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which set the clock ticking on Britain's exit from the European Union (EU) in March this year.Hale attended Cambridge University before teaching law at Manchester University. She qualified as a barrister and practiced at the Manchester Bar, where she specialised in family and social welfare law and founded the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, becoming the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission in 1984.Five years later, Lady Hale became a High Court judge - the first to have made her career as an academic and public servant rather than a practising barrister - and was the second woman ever promoted to the Court of Appeal and first female Law Lord.She retains her links with the academic world as Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Visitor of Girton College, Cambridge, and Visiting Professor of Kings College London.Three new justices have also been appointed to the Supreme Court - Lady Justice Black, Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Lord Justice Brigg - who will take up the role when Lady Hale is sworn in officially as president on 2 October.The appointments were confirmed the day after the judiciary published its diversity statistics, showing that women and ethnic minorities remain severely under-represented in the UK's judicial system.Greek mayhem has boosted bitcoin demand as dealers of cryptocurrencies position them as a potential haven alternative to conventional ones like gold. The latter is a much bigger market than bitcoin, with the investable market estimated over $2tn, as compared to bitcoin with a market capitalisation of only $3.7bn. However, institutional and larger investors appear to have levelled off on gold's traditional role as a haven investment. "Unless there is a rapid deterioration in the situation in Greece in the coming days and weeks, it's difficult to see gold having a more notable reaction," UBS analyst Joni Teves wrote in a research note. Thanos Marinos, the founder of BTCGreece, said the number of newly registered users in the country rose by 600 per cent in the past few weeks. "That has to do with the fact we're the only exchange available at the moment for the Greeks to buy bitcoin," he said. "Nobody can make any payments outside of Greece due to the capital controls." Not only in Greece, but the demand for bitcoin has also picked up in other pockets of Europe. "We've definitely seen a pick-up in interest," Mark Lamb, founder of London-based bitcoin exchange Coinfloor, said. "Greeks aren't necessarily buying bitcoin in droves because of the capital controls but countries all around Europe are buying bitcoin in response to the Greek events." Mark O'Byrne, founder of gold broker GoldCore, pointed out that the risks associated with holding bitcoin are also greater, citing the shutdown of Japan-based MTGox that happened last year. "Some of them are hoarding it and seeing it as a potential store of value, but the jury is out on that still," Mr O'Byrne said.Researchers at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco have developed a new breast cancer model to study the risk of developing breast cancer in Hispanic women. File photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI \| License Photo SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- A new model developed by Kaiser Permanente will help doctors assess the risk of breast cancer development in Hispanic women. The model is the first to assess breast cancer risk in Hispanic women. Previous models have been developed to examine breast cancer risk in non-Hispanic white, African-American, Asian and Pacific Islander women but not Hispanic women until now. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente developed the new model as part of the National Cancer Institute's online Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool. "Hispanics are the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the U.S., so it's important that the NCI tool include information from these women in determining their risk score," Matthew P. Banegas, Ph.D., MPH, lead author and researcher from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, said in a press release. "Our model does that because it is based on data from Hispanic women and specifically tailored for them." RELATED Minority women less likely to get breast cancer screening The assessment tool has providers enter information about the patient's age, race, family history of breast cancer and other risk factors such as age the patient had her first menstrual period and age of the birth of her first child. "Prior studies have shown that Hispanic women born in the U.S. have a higher breast cancer risk than Hispanic women who emigrate here from other countries," said Banegas. "Our model includes data from U.S. and foreign-born women, so providers will be able to more accurately predict risk based on where the woman was born." Researchers used data from the San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study, which included 1,086 Hispanic women who developed breast cancer between 1995-2002, and 1,411 women who did not have breast cancer. Of those women, nearly 1,000 were born in the U.S. and 1,500 were born in other countries. The team also included data from the Women's Health Initiative and the Four-Corners Breast Cancer Study. The new model accurately predicted the amount of breast cancers among U.S.-born Hispanic women who participated in the Women's Health Initiative, but slightly overestimated the number among foreign-born women in the WHI. Researchers emphasized that the new model should not be used for women who have invasive breast cancer, an inherited genetic mutation that causes breast cancer or women who received therapeutic radiation of the chest for other cancers. RELATED Strength training may prevent side effect of breast cancer surgery The study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.— A German national Friday was sentenced to one year in jail and three years formal probation in the death of a 36-year LAFD veteran. KNX 1070’s Pete Demetriou reports architect Gerhard Becker, 49, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in the death of Glenn Allen, who died after the ceiling of Becker’s Hollywood Hills home collapsed on him during a fire. Architect Sentenced To One Year In Jail In Death Of LA Firefighter Becker was the architect of the luxury residence, which had a defective fireplace. Last July, a judge declined to dismiss the case against Becker after defense attorneys argued he was not allowed to present evidence that the city inspector gave him permission to build the fireplace, which, according to prosecutors, caused Allen’s death. With time served and other credits, Becker will serve less than 120 days in jail after the District Attorney’s Office had sought the maximum term of four years in state prison. Off-duty members of the Los Angeles Fire Department were gathered in court Friday in honor of Allen, who died following the February 16, 2011, fire at Becker’s custom home on Viewsite Drive. Prosecutor Sean Carney, with firefighters standing near him in the courtroom, expressed anger over the sentence, adding it would do little to deter people like Becker who flout safety regulations. “To this defendant, the things he did were just the cost of doing business, and in this case, the cost of doing business was Glenn Allen’s life,” Carney said. “And that is morally abhorrent.” During firefighting efforts, a portion of the 12,500-square-foot home’s ceiling collapsed, fatally wounding 61-year-old Allen and injuring several other firefighters. Prior to sentencing, Frank Lima, president of the city firefighters union, told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO the possibility of a more lenient sentence for Becker has brought frustration to many of Allen’s colleagues. “Approximately 200 letters have gone to the courthouse from firefighters, people in the community, and obviously members of his family,” Lima said. Allen’s wife, Melanie, stood before Becker’s sentence was announced and read a letter, which stated in part, “Glenn and I met at church when I was 5 and he was 10. I could write volumes on our times together but suffice it to say, my life has been ripped to shreds.” She then spoke about their daughter who was pregnant with their first grandson at the time of Allen’s death in February of 2011. She stated, “she watched her loving father die on the 18th, and then was rushed to another hospital where she gave birth to her son on the 19th. I know she feels his loss every day, just as I do, and smiles and cries at the same time with each new discovery that her boys make.” RELATED: Firefighter Dies From Injuries Suffered In Hollywood Hills Blaze (©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)RMI With Nevada rolling back net metering and solar company stock prices falling, one might think the solar industry is in big trouble. In fact, a recent New York Times article stated that SolarCity and other residential solar companies face a cloudy future. The article implies that the solar business model is based largely on subsidies (federal, state, and local), and therefore highly exposed to regulatory changes. Yet we believe the opposite is true: the solar industry will continue to have sustained and significant growth despite SolarCity stock woes and net metering policy changes. And here are ten reasons why: 1. PV companies are diversifying The PV industry is increasingly diversifying, making it more resilient to incidents of bad policy. “While the New York Times article focused on residential solar, that segment is less than 25 percent of the market,” according to RMI Associate Kevin Brehm. In fact, SolarCity, a company commonly associated with rooftop solar, is now building and owning utility-scale solar projects. As companies diversify they are less exposed to policy risk that may affect one segment, such as the Nevada policy change. 2. The PV industry is global On a global scale, new markets will enable the U.S. PV industry to grow despite short-term recessions in local markets. In October of 2015, global information and analysis company IHS predicted 2015 global PV demand would reach 59 GW, 33 percent higher than 2014, and 2016 would reach 65 GW. This growth is largely due to increased demand in China, India, and other emerging economies. “It’s a growing global market and U.S. developers are really well positioned to capture that market,” says Brehm. For example, SunPower has been diversifying into markets including the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa, and 50 percent of SunEdison’s project pipeline is outside the U.S. First Solar is also going global with over 60 percent of its 2015 Q2 potential booking opportunities (16.7 GW) coming from international markets. “This global diversification mitigates local, state, and federal electricity policy changes to a great extent and helps to insulate the solar PV industry from microeconomic vagaries,” according to Anthony Coker, VP of Market Development for Hanna Solar. 3. Solar PV is a proven and robust technology Standard solar PV module warranties currently range from 25–30 years and product lifetimes are far exceeding manufacturers’ warranties. Many early off-grid adopters are still harvesting solar energy from modules installed in the ‘70’s. Even inverters are getting out of the reliability hot seat with over 20 year warranty extensions based on the belief that if products fail at 15 years they will delight customers with higher-efficiency longer-lifetime replacements. 4. Solar PV cost is beating fossil fuels According to Lazard’s latest Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE 9.0), the levelized cost of electricity for utility-scale solar PV without subsidies is beating conventional alternatives in many parts of the U.S.—even with current low fossil fuel prices. First Solar recently agreed to sell power from its 100 MW solar plant in Nevada for 3.87 cents per kilowatt-hour (escalating at 3 percent per year), thought to be the lowest electricity price ever. And last June, Austin Energy received bids for over 1.2 MW of PV projects under 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. 5. Cost of solar PV will continue to fall PV costs in all segments are expected to continue down. According to LCOE 9.0, “The levelized cost of rooftop solar PV is expected to decline in coming years, primarily as a result of more efficient installation techniques, lower costs of capital, and improved supply chains.” Canadian Solar estimates that the cost of the modules will fall 25 percent in the next three years, and GTM Research predicts that through balance of systems cost reductions, PV system prices will fall an average of 40 percent by 2020. Economies of scale along with improved business processes in a newly emerging industry will continue to drive down costs. 6. The industry is attracting top talent Forbes “Top 30 under 30” list of the brightest entrepreneurs and change agents under the age of 30 has a disproportionate share of PV talent compared to market cap. The new generation of leaders is bringing a pragmatic outlook honed in the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Yet, where previous generations largely fled green agendas this pragmatic generation has analyzed the long-term trends that will play out in our lifetime and see renewable energy and energy efficiency as sure bets for both job security and satisfaction. 7. Decommissioned coal plants will drive surge in PV demand Even with the unknown outcome of the challenge to the Clean Power Plan, a total of 46,000 MW of coal generation is on track to close in the ten years spanning 2012–2022. Just last July the 200th coal plant shut down in the U.S. As coal assets are decommissioned, solar PV is likely to step in and cover a large share of the capacity need. Solar PV is affordable, and with falling storage prices, it can be a great alternative to coal. According to Brehm, “The war on coal is over. Now it’s just a question of rebuilding and solar will be a large portion of that generation capacity.” Duke Energy, which installed over 200 MW of solar in 2015, has stated that despite what happens with the Clean Power Plan, any new generation it installs will be in natural gas and renewables. Coker adds, “No one is arguing for a single silver bullet—one generation source for the global economy’s electricity. Rather, we are seeing a displacement of coal by lower-priced gas, solar, and wind in many regions. Economics are dictating the change.” 8. Completely untapped markets still exist New solar business models will create access for more customers. There is currently a huge market for low-to-moderate income households in the U.S. Less than 0.04 percent of these families have solar PV systems, which we estimate at a $250 billion dollar market in the U.S. alone. And worldwide, over a billion people have no access to electricity at all. As PV costs continue to decline and more developing countries enact policies supporting renewable energy expansion and continue to push for electrification to drive economic development, the solar PV market is poised to grow at an incredible rate in those countries. Solar PV can reach these populations providing them with clean, reliable, and affordable electricity. 9. New solar markets segments are emerging in mature markets such as the U.S. Even if some currently active solar market segments stagnate, there are significant new markets opening up. Community solar is a large currently untapped market. There are currently 65 MW of community solar installed in the U.S. with an estimated 250 GW market potential. “Community-scale solar is an exciting segment of the market. Increasing demand from rural electric coops, community-based organizations, and local municipalities is driving developers and service providers to innovate new technology and business solutions,” according to RMI Associate Kieran Coleman. “Clearly this is a very early stage nascent sector that has huge potential to meet broader need.” 10. Business models are being continuously innovated While the New York Times article makes it sound as though SolarCity and other companies’ business models have inherent flaws and risks, we believe that business models are continuously changing. Whether it is a non-profit organization like Clean Energy for Us, a for-profit solar company such as PosiGen, or a utility such as Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, there is continuous innovation to make solar more affordable, accessible, and profitable. Even large, conservative investor-owned utilities are adding more solar (e.g., Southern Company with its three military bases of over 90 MW under construction and several large utility scale solar farms publicly announced by Mississippi Power) forging new solar business models in highly regulated markets. “And regulators like the New York Public Utilities Commission play an equally important role in opening the field in business model innovation in current and emerging sectors,” adds Coleman. A bright future So while states like Hawaii and Nevada end net metering, and solar companies’ stock values fall with the market like oil and gas or banking stocks, we feel the solar industry does not face a cloudy future. Far from it. Policies, regulations, and the stock market can’t stop the continued growth of this clean, affordable, reliable technology; the future of solar PV is bright. Source: RMI. Reproduced with permission.BY: Follow @DavidRutz MSNBC's Chris Matthews went after socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) for how he intended to pass his left-wing, populist proposals in Washington during an at-times contentious interview Thursday night. Sanders, who called himself an "outside-the-Beltway guy" in spite of being in Congress since 1990, repeatedly clashed with Matthews. The MSNBC host sounded like the Democratic candidate who's sought to portray herself as a pragmatist, Hillary Clinton. The interview, held live at the University of Chicago, was part of the Hardball College Tour. While trumpeting his call for tuition-free public colleges and addressing high student debt, Sanders said he knew the next question would be how he would pay for it. "I haven't asked that. I've asked you how do you pass that through the Senate," Matthews said. "How do you get 60 votes for any of this?" "We're going to pay for it through a tax on Wall Street speculation–" Sanders said. "Who's going to pass that tax?" Matthews asked. "The Senate's going to pass that?" "Chris, you and I look at the world differently," Sanders said. "You look at it inside the Beltway. I'm not an inside-the-Beltway guy. I am an outside-the-Beltway guy." "But the people that vote on the taxes are inside the Beltway," Matthews said. "And those people are going to vote the right way when millions of people demand that they vote the right way," Sanders said, touting his ability to rally young people and their parents to emulate European countries in this regard. Matthews asked if Sanders could name one senator who would back any of his proposals, such as Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.). "What you're not catching on, I have to say this respectfully, you're a nice guy," Sanders said. "You're missing the point, alright? If you look at politics today as a zero-sum total … you're right." How will that change, Matthews asked, after Sanders listed off statistics like low voter turnout and the influence of big money in politics. "We're going around in circles," Sanders said, as the two repeatedly talked over one another. He went back to his campaign message of starting a political revolution that would build the culture necessary to enact his socialist ideas. "The difference that you and I have is you're looking at politics in the way that it is today," Sanders said. "What I am trying to do is not just pass legislation. I'm trying to change the face of American politics, getting working people to stand up and fight for their rights." Matthews, still sounding the pragmatic tone, suggested the people who could propel Sanders into the presidency wouldn't be patient if he couldn't make good on his promises quickly.=High Altitude Medicine Definition of High Altitude High Altitude: 1500 - 3500 m (5000 - 11500 ft) Very High Altitude: 3500 - 5500 m (11500 - 18000 ft) Extreme Altitude: above 5500 m The Body's reaction to altitude Certain normal physiologic changes occur in every person who goes to altitude: Hyperventilation (breathing faster, deeper, or both) Shortness of breath during exertion Changed breathing pattern at night Awakening frequently at night Increased urination As one ascends through the atmosphere, every breath contains fewer and fewer molecules of oxygen. One must work harder to obtain oxygen, by breathing faster and deeper. This is particularly noticeable with exertion, such as walking uphill. Being out of breath with exertion is normal, as long as the sensation of shortness of breath resolves rapidly with rest. The increase in breathing is critical. It is therefore important to avoid anything that will decrease breathing, e.g. alcohol and certain drugs. Despite the increased breathing, attaining normal blood levels of oxygen is not possible at high altitude. Credit to Dr. Tom Dietz of the ISMM for the original document edited to fit this webpage.The election of the Syriza government in February 2015 was greeted with enthusiastic support by working class people in Greece and across Europe, only to turn into bitter disappointment after its capitulation to the Troika in July. As inequality and austerity continue to radicalise millions, leading to the rise of new movements of the Left, Paul Murphy (Socialist Party, CWI in Ireland) argues that there are important lessons from the experience of Greece that must be learnt if the rule of the 1% is to be ended. “For me, the atmosphere is a little similar to the time after 1968 in Europe. I can feel, maybe not a revolutionary mood, but something like widespread impatience. When impatience becomes not an individual but a social aspect of feeling, this is the introduction of revolution.” [i] The words of Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, are revealing. They capture the rising fear of the capitalist classes in Europe. The seemingly unchallenged domination of neo-liberalism since the collapse of Stalinism is now being vigorously contested in a number of advanced capitalist countries. The current deep crisis of capitalism which commenced at the end of 2007 is finding a political result in shifts to the left in outlook and consciousness and the development of new left forces. Revolt at the ballot box The crisis has created significant political problems for the capitalist class, particularly in the periphery of Europe where it was sharpest. It has been so deep and prolonged that in most countries both sides of the capitalist political coin have been in power. There they have carried out essentially the same policies of deep austerity resulting, in particular, in a collapse in support for the formerly social democratic parties, who still maintained a more working class voting base. One striking illustration is the collapse in the vote of the traditional parties to below 50% in three countries – Greece, where New Democracy and PASOK got
als spent hours searching for the felon after he was mistakenly released from the Oakland County Jail, officials said. Johnnie Rogers, 24, also known as Johnny Rodgers, was serving time in state prison for assault with intent to commit murder and armed robbery when he was released — and was considered an escapee, said Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz. He was re-arrested without incident just before 5 p.m. Thursday after Detroit police executed a traffic stop on the west side of Detroit. Corrections officials and U.S. Marshals joined Detroit police in surrounding the vehicle, he said. Rogers was in the Oakland County Jail since Aug. 1 in connection with court proceedings on a concealed weapon charge until Wednesday, when he was to be turned back over to the Michigan Department of Corrections, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe told the Free Press. Instead, he was set free by mistake. ►Related:Inmate to face charges after brief escape Sheriff's deputies found out they shouldn't have released Rogers when his mother called to say he had come to her Detroit home, in the 7 Mile and Livernois area, and she didn't think he should be at large, McCabe confirmed. By the time deputies arrived at her home to pick him up, he was gone. As for the mistaken release, "we'll get to the bottom of this," through an investigation now under way, McCabe said. "It's obvious human error has occurred." Rogers was supposed to be returned from Oakland County to the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, where he is serving a 7- to 15-year sentence on state charges, handed down in November 2015. Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2bYCtOBYou can play baseball as a flamethrowing Super Mario in this amazing Japanese video game Super Mario may spend most of his time rescuing princesses from castles, but he's technically a plumber. And if AL Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer's life is anything to go by, plumbers make pretty good baseball players. You can put this theory to the test in "Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball Heroes," the latest installment in Japan's popular Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball series. Mario makes a cameo and, as you can see in the trailer below, he's a pitcher who throws literal fire. And, like Shohei Ohtani, he's also a two-way player -- watch to the very end to see him hit a flaming baseball out of the park and into a moat filled with dolphins: The game will be released on Dec. 15 … but only in Japan, so buy your plane tickets/sign up for language lessons now. Gemma Kaneko has been a writer for Cut4 since the end of her term as Witch President in 2014. She is the proudest Tigers fan in New York City.(S04E01) – After three months our show’s been unfrozen. Regina’s upset at the girl Robin’s chosen. Elsa takes a walk lasting almost an hour, creating a monster that makes Emma cower. The Mirror returns to do the Queen’s bidding. If love is a battlefield Regina loves winning. The writers get meta with the hat and the book. Elsa seeks out Gold’s shop and the necklace he took. But Rumple’s too busy being Belle’s Mister, all in the premiere “A Tale of Two Sisters”. Show Notes Ratings for “A Tale of Two Sisters” Yen Sid on the Disney Wiki Sign up to be on Greetings! The Literals from Jack of Fables Promo for “White Out” “White Out” Synopsis Tour of the Costume Department This Week’s Audible Recommendations: Glinda of Oz Written by: L. Frank Baum Dogboy: Demon’s Dare written by Bill Meeks Narrated by: Nathan Beatty Contact Us: E-mail: greetingsfromstorybrooke@gmail.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/GFStorybrooke Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GreetingsFromStorybrooke Google+: http://plus.google.com/u/0/112790456541589451539/posts Voicemail Number: (424) 274-2352‘Feeling very good’ is the phrase Loris Karius chooses to respond with when asked how he is finding early life in the city of Liverpool following his summer transfer from FSV Mainz. Since finalising his switch from the Bundesliga, the 23-year-old has acquired an apartment in the south of the city and has taken whatever opportunity he has had to explore his new surroundings. “It’s really good,” Karius says of his new life on Merseyside during a chat with Liverpoolfc.com recently. “I have a home already and I am feeling very good there. “I am trying to make my way – I am not 100 per cent sure yet on how to get everywhere, but I think I will have enough time in the future to see more of the city and I am looking forward to that. “Liverpool One is in the centre, so I’ve had a look there, but I also like the areas that are a bit quieter – Sefton Park is nice, for example. “But I haven’t seen everything yet because we’ve been away on tour, training a lot and then the injury came. I will see it in future and then I will tell you another time what my favourite place is!” When making the most of those rare opportunities to explore what Liverpool has to offer as a city, Karius has naturally encountered scores of Reds supporters. The German has enjoyed such interactions, particularly as their well-wishes have helped keep his spirits up after the broken hand sustained in pre-season has kept him out of the opening to 2016-17. “People have recognised me at the traffic lights, when I’m having lunch or things like that and it’s really nice to see because they’re all just wishing you the best and a good recovery,” said Karius. “It’s nice to hear from people and to know they care about you. “It’s a very good feeling, especially as I am new to the club and haven’t been able to show them that much yet, but they are already supporting me like this. “It’s nice to see they don’t forget about you and they stand behind you and want you to come back soon. I think that’s very good for any player, not just for me. It helps a lot.” Once place Karius is yet to visit is what he’ll soon come regard as his home in footballing terms – Anfield. When he does, however, he’ll be greeted by the sight of the club’s imposing brand new Main Stand, which will take the stadium’s capacity to 54,000. “I haven’t been there yet, so it’s going to be every exciting – especially now with an even bigger stadium. I can’t wait,” Karius continued. “It’s going to be a new experience. I’ve heard all the people telling me about it, but when you experience it yourself it’s something different. I can’t wait for that. “Of course, there are a lot of fans that all want us to be the best we can be so they try and help us as best they can. It’s unbelievable how far they travel and how many of them to support us, but in the end it is down to the players to achieve good things. “We’re still in the early stages of the season so I think we should just take it from game to game. Hopefully then we can get on a good run, see where it goes and I hope we can do very well this season. “We have the potential in our squad for sure, now it’s down to us.”It was almost a storybook return, but history turned out to be too good to be true for Martin Brodeur. Still, after weathering a hectic first 10 minutes, the Devils responded with an excellent overall effort and have ended their most recent losing streak in impressive fashion. Some thoughts... Marty: It may not have been history, but it was an excellent return for Brodeur, who single-handedly kept the Devils in the game long enough for them to find their sea legs. Brodeur's performance during the first 10 minutes of the first period was the shining example of what we wrote earlier this week. While Johan Hedberg was good enough, he wasn't Brodeur. He didn't have that extra level. Moose was likely to be beaten on the fifth shot of a rapid-fire barrage. Brodeur, on the other hand, was calm, cool, collected and his usual reliable self. Of course, he was blatantly exhausted at the end of that stretch, but thankfully the rest of the team took over from there, shutting the Hurricanes down so well even Drake would've been impressed. But it wasn't just those saves -- or his goal (yes, his goal) -- that stood out for me. It was all the little things that Brodeur does that make him such an excellent netminder even at the age of 40. One of those examples came during the first period when there was a turnover and Alexander Semin came rushing up the gut toward the puck. Moose might've dove at the puck and he might have disrupted Semin enough to be successful. It's a risky proposition we've seen Hedberg both win and lose this season. Instead, Brodeur stayed calm, stayed upright and came out just far enough that he forced Semin to shoot at one of several tiny windows. Semin, of course, nearly scored, rocketing a shot off the post just over Brodeur's shoulder, but that's a nearly impossible shot to make and it's the only one Brodeur gave him. Marty also made at least two or three excellent decision with the puck on his stick, deftly moving the play away from the net and helping the Devils get out of the zone. Brodeur's return will likely be remembered for his incredibly bizarre goal and those frantic first minutes, but it was the things that went unnoticed, things not seen in the box score that impressed me the most. First 10, last 50: As alluded to above, it was a schizophrenic game to be certain, although not nearly a half-and-half situation. The Canes came out of the gate pressing the Devils, which only increased once Brodeur scored on that whacky deflection. Carolina threw everything they could at Brodeur over 10 minutes, amassing 11 shots and seemingly coming within a post or a puck bounce of at least a tie game if not a lead. Thankfully for the Devils, Brodeur was there to man the gates, but what happened after that 10 minutes is what really impressed me about this game. The Devils stopped the Hurricanes in their tracks. I mean absolutely stopped them. After those 11 shots, Carolina mustered three more until the midway point of the third period and it had everything to do with the Devils' smart play in the neutral zone and the way they kept the Canes from establishing any sort of presence in the the Devils' zone. This was the style of play that frustrated a lot of teams earlier in the season -- take the other team's top skill players out of the game in the neutral zone and halt their primary method of generating changes. The Hurricanes love to shoot the puck -- like, really, really love to shoot it -- but the Devils wouldn't even give them the chance to dump it at the net from the point until Jeff Skinner's puck deflected off Bryce Salvador's stick and in during the third period. Seeing this style of play return and seeing the Devils sustain it for basically the last 50 minutes of tonight's game was as good of a sign as Brodeur's return. Answering the bell: Of course, none of that would've mattered if guys like Adam Henrique and Travis Zajac didn't stand up and deliver some offensive hockey tonight. One night after Zajac scored for the first time in 11 games, Henrique scored for just the second time since March 7. While Zajac didn't register a goal tonight, it was his speed into the offensive zone and work on the forecheck that directly led to Peter Harrold's goal in the second. Zajac also played a key part in Andrei Loktionov's game-sealing tally in the fourth, winning an offensive-zone faceoff singlehandedly and deflecting a puck from the point to keep it moving in the offensive end. Tonight was the third game in a row where Zajac was clearly more engaged in the offensive zone and if the Devils can get Henrique going as well, along with the Loktionov-Kovalchuk combination, they could start to be a team that scores more than one or two goals a game. Of course, this is a very small sample size and we'll have to see if the Devils continue to finish their offensive chances in the next couple games, but it was an encouraging sign for a team that has been wondering when Zajac and Henrique would finally turn it on. The streak, part 2: As noted above, tonight's win ended the Devils' most recent losing streak, a 3-game skid that saw them pick up an overtime point in the first game against Philly. While it certainly wasn't the disastrous slide of two weeks ago, it was enough to temporarily knock the Devils out of the playoff picture. But this isn't about that streak, it's about what the Devils need to do going forward, which is reel off a stretch of four wins in five games or at least rack up points in all of those contests -- say, seven points out of five games. That's not too much to ask, not with the Panthers at home Saturday, an injury-ravaged Ottawa team Monday and a Florida twofer next Friday and Saturday. With the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoff pictures so tightly packed (eight points separate fifth place and 13th as of this post), even picking up a charity point can bump you a spot or two on any given tonight. As an example, the Devils moved from ninth to seventh Thursday night thanks to their win and a Rangers loss. It's going to be a crazy few weeks as this season wears down and it's incredibly crucial the Devils use this opportunity to stack points during games against beatable teams. Notes: I think it's a good thing the action slowed down after that first 11 minutes. Marty was gassed and I'm guessing if the Canes had continued to press eventually the rust and conditioning factors would've gotten to him.... You could feel a goal coming during the second period. The Devils were getting a lot of chances and Dan Ellis was leaving a lot of loose pucks in front of the net. Ilya Kovalchuk and Ryan Carter each missed or fanned on multiple chances before Henrique scored.... I think Pete DeBoer really wants to use the CBGB line as much as possible, but it's going to be difficult to do once the Devils are healthy.... Speaking of "when the Devils are healthy," I wonder what happens to tonight's interesting third line when that's the case. I assumd the Devils will continue to carry Krys Barch for pure intimidation factor and while also assuming Tim Sestito is the first one back to Albany when either Dainius Zubrus or Henrik Tallinder come off the IR. Since DeBoer insists on keeping eight defensemen around, that leaves either Tom Kostopolous or Harri Pesonen on the chopping block. I like Pesonen's game much better, but he doesn't have to pass through waivers, which Kostoplous would if they wanted to send one of them to Albany.... Good to see Adam Larsson putting the puck on net prior to Henrique's goal, but would've been better if he had kept the shot low. That puck was headed over the net until it hit Kovy in front.... Andy Greene made another of his underrated but excellent plays at the close of the second period. Greene was dealing with a bouncing puck in his own zone and had two or three Canes bearing down on him while the Devils changed lines. Instead of panicking, Greene settled the puck and calmly dodged all three Canes while skating behind his net and up the other side of the zone before eventually leading a breakout. All while being hit, chipped at and pushed by the Canes. Tremendous play by the Devils' best blueliner.... Marek Zidlicky, do you know how many scoring chances you would have if your stick was on the ice?... The calm Loktionov displayed on his goal was fantastic to see and just another example of how his game grows by the day. That backhander was pretty nice, too -- although not as nice as Harrold's.Note: A conference call for media with FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez will occur as follows: Date: October 28, 2014 Time: 2:00 p.m. ET Call-in lines, which are for media only, will open 15 minutes prior to the start of the call. Chairwoman Ramirez and FTC staff will be available to take questions from the media about the case. The Federal Trade Commission filed a federal court complaint against AT&T Mobility, LLC, charging that the company has misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds, in some cases by nearly 90 percent. The FTC’s complaint alleges that the company failed to adequately disclose to its customers on unlimited data plans that, if they reach a certain amount of data use in a given billing cycle, AT&T reduces – or “throttles” – their data speeds to the point that many common mobile phone applications – like web browsing, GPS navigation and watching streaming video – become difficult or nearly impossible to use. “AT&T promised its customers ‘unlimited’ data, and in many instances, it has failed to deliver on that promise,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “The issue here is simple: ‘unlimited’ means unlimited.” According to the FTC’s complaint, AT&T’s marketing materials emphasized the “unlimited” amount of data that would be available to consumers who signed up for its unlimited plans. The complaint alleges that, even as unlimited plan consumers renewed their contracts, the company still failed to inform them of the throttling program. When customers canceled their contracts after being throttled, AT&T charged those customers early termination fees, which typically amount to hundreds of dollars. The FTC alleges that AT&T, despite its unequivocal promises of unlimited data, began throttling data speeds in 2011 for its unlimited data plan customers after they used as little as 2 gigabytes of data in a billing period. According to the complaint, the throttling program has been severe, often resulting in speed reductions of 80 to 90 percent for affected users. Thus far, according to the FTC, AT&T has throttled at least 3.5 million unique customers a total of more than 25 million times. According to the FTC’s complaint, consumers in AT&T focus groups strongly objected to the idea of a throttling program and felt “unlimited should mean unlimited.” AT&T documents also showed that the company received thousands of complaints about the slow data speeds under the throttling program. Some consumers quoted the definition of the word “unlimited,” while others called AT&T’s throttling program a “bait and switch.” Many consumers also complained about the effect the throttling program had on their ability to use GPS navigation, watch streaming videos, listen to streaming music and browse the web. The complaint charges that AT&T violated the FTC Act by changing the terms of customers’ unlimited data plans while those customers were still under contract, and by failing to adequately disclose the nature of the throttling program to consumers who renewed their unlimited data plans. FTC staff worked closely on this matter with the staff of the Federal Communications Commission. The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 5-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division. NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The case will be decided by the court. The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics. Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.If Commissioner Gordon’s bat signal was standard definition, then Mississippi State’s newest projection into the sky is the switch to HD. The most recent addition to the campus skyline isn’t a building, but a 70-by-125-foot HD video feed projected onto the back of the massive video board sitting atop Davis Wade Stadium’s north endzone. Every night, when the sun goes down, the feed is fired up for the biggest screen in town, with videos, graphics and assorted Bulldog-related items shining over the campus. Visible from the highways and roads on the way into Starkville and MSU’s campus, the projection is the newest piece of the expansion of Davis Wade. When the $75 million expansion and renovation project began, the possibility of this board quickly became a pet idea of MSU athletic director Scott Stricklin. Based on the design of the stadium, Stricklin knew the back of the video board would provide a very large surface for, well, something. The question was what? A big M-State logo? Perhaps a vinyl cover like the back of the video board over at the baseball stadium. Maybe just a script ‘Mississippi State’ would be good. Before long, however, Stricklin asked, “What if we left it open and projected onto it?” “He knew we were going to have this big scoreboard standing out,” said Scott Wetherbee, MSU’s senior associate A.D. for external affairs and the man charged with making Stricklin’s vision a reality. “We were thinking, this thing is going to be so big, it’s kind of like a drive-in movie theater screen. So that’s when we said, let’s see if we can project on it.” So, as construction continued, Stricklin asked that board be painted a plain white, leaving the possibility open down the line. The video board itself debuted in the fall of 2014, and it was following that season when Wetherbee began working in earnest to make the project a reality. In the spring of 2015, Wetherbee started looking at the options, searching for companies who did similar things and making calls to price such a project. It was a difficult challenge, as more entities in recent years have projected things onto basketball courts and hockey rinks, but something like what MSU had in mind hadn’t exactly been done before. By the summer, groups were flying to Starkville to perform demos for MSU. “I got in a car and drove out on the highway to see where you could start to see it,” Wetherbee recalled. “We were showing ‘Thunder and Lightning’ and I could just sit there and watch it. You could see people pulled off on the side of the road wondering what was going on.” So, it turned out, it could be done. By the end of the 2015 football season, MSU had reached an agreement with Quince Imaging – they were going to build a system that would allow the athletic department to have the biggest screen in the state. Through multiple visits – and several bouts of creativity – Quince (who had caught Wetherbee’s eye for their work on NBA courts and NHL rinks) and MSU made it happen. Using nearby Memorial Hall as a base, Quince found a way to build a cage that is now drilled onto the top of the building’s chimney, with a swiveling base capable of not only projecting onto the back of the video board, but anywhere nearby. (One of the engineers on the trip even suggested the possibility of having a rocket take off using the adjacent water tower, using the base and all.) And that’s where the fun (and work) comes in for Wetherbee – figuring out what to do now that they have it. Currently, everything has to be loaded directly onto the server located in the stadium, but soon, MSU will have a new control room in Davis Wade that will be capable of live-streaming anything at any time. After football games this fall, fans driving home will see highlights of the game on the back of the board. They’ll see video of post-game press conferences. There are even plans of creating a short-range radio signal and having a radio station those in cars could tune to for audio to go along with the video. Even now, the opportunities are many. After MSU’s baseball team beat Ole Miss two weeks ago, for example, fans leaving the baseball stadium were treated to a “Bulldogs win!” video package playing in the skyline. During the week, infographics are shown with times and information for various athletic events over the course of the week. Highlights and hype videos for MSU’s teams are broadcast through the night. In the future, Wetherbee has hopes of doing something that integrates the Starkville community on a regular basis, too, possibly having movie nights during the summer, for instance. “If we want to have a Star Wars night,” he said, “we can watch Star Wars. It’s going to be endless, and we’ll be able to feed things very quickly.” For a school with conference ties to the Worldwide Leader in Sports, that quick feed is helpful, as MSU can, with the flick of a switch once the new control room is finished, pop up ESPN or the SEC Network on the back of the board so tailgaters can watch whatever is on before MSU plays. This project, Wetherbee believes, is just another example of the aggressive nature of MSU’s athletic department and Stricklin’s desire to be innovative in their world of college athletics. “Scott wants to be the first to stuff,” Wetherbee said. “We don’t know anyone else on a college campus projecting on the back of their video board.” AdvertisementsAlex Pietrowski, Staff Waking Times Monsanto must now consult with indigenous communities throughout the Yucatán peninsula before they will be granted any future permits for GMO soy farming, as of a court decision in early November 2015. Monsanto planned to farm genetically modified soybean in over 250,000 hectares of the Yucatán region, yet a Mexican court has suspended the Biotech giant’s permit. The judgement was based on constitutional law that requires the consideration of indigenous communities affected by development projects. The key organizations involved in the effort to stop GMO soy farming in Mexico were the Maya beekeepers, made up of about 15,000 Maya families who produce and collect honey and who filed the injunction, with the support of Greenpeace, Indignación and Litiga OLE. The Mayans primary concern is that “growing the plant requires the use of glyphosate, a herbicide classified as probably carcinogenic,” putting their communities, environment and economic activities at risk. Not surprisingly, Monsanto continues to argue that GM soybean has no effect on bees or honey production. Monsanto has already been accused of contributing to the deforestation in the state of Campeche, Mexico, where it has been expanding its agrochemical interests. Since 2013, transnational agrochemical companies have been aggressively seeking permission from the federal government to lift the provisional ban on the sales of transgenic maize seeds in the country. Even though the ban was overturned in August 2015, a new court decision also in early November, made by federal judge Benjamin Soto Sánchez, head of the second Unitarian Court in Civil and Administrative Matters of the First Circuit, “upheld a provisional suspension prohibiting federal agencies from processing and granting the privilege of sowing or releasing into the environment of transgenic maize in the country.” This latter victory against Monsanto is a result of activist organization Colectividad en Defensa del Maíz (CDM), which was also supported by Greenpeace México. René Sánchez, the attorney for CDM, applauded the court’s decision and stated that sowing of transgenic seeds “theatens the biological diversity, agricultural activities and culture of Mexico.” About 30% of maize farmed across Mexico and 30% of soy in the Yucatán are currently grown from GMO seeds. Mexico also imports GMO yellow corn from the United States, where it accounts for about 90% of the market. Mexico is part of a larger Latin American movement to stop Monsanto from expanding into the territory. About the Author Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and Offgrid Outpost, a provider of storable food and emergency kits. Alex is an avid student of Yoga and life. Sources: http://sustainablepulse.com/2015/11/04/mexican-federal-judge-upholds-gm-maize-ban-during-appeal-process/ http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/gmo-opponents-win-another-round/ http://sipse.com/mexico/juez-prohibe-siembra-maiz-transgenico-mexico-177142.html This article (Indigenous Activists Win Major Court Rulings Against Monsanto in Mexico) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alex Pietrowski and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement. ~~ Help Waking Times to raise the vibration by sharing this article with friends and family…The yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) is a rockfish of the genus Sebastes, and one of the biggest members of the genus. Its name derives from its coloration. It is also locally known as "red snapper",[1][2] not to be confused with the warm-water Atlantic species Lutjanus campechanus that formally carries the name red snapper. The yelloweye is one of the world's longest-lived fish species, and is cited to live to a maximum of 114 to 120 years of age. As they grow older, they change in color, from reddish in youth, to bright orange in adulthood, to pale yellow in old age. Yelloweye live in rocky areas and feed on small fish and other rockfish. They reside in the East Pacific and range from Baja California to Dutch harbor in Alaska. Yelloweye rockfish are prized for their meat, and were declared overfished in 2002, at which time a survey determined that their population, which had been in decline since the 1980s, was just 7–13% of numbers before commercial fishing of the species began. Because of the slow reproductive age of the species, recovery of the species is difficult, and liable to last decades, even with the harshest restrictions; Washington state, for example, maintains a quota of under 1000 individuals per year. The stock in inside waters is listed as "threatened" while the outside stock was declared overfished and is subject to a rebuilding plan. Characteristics [ edit ] A diagram of a Yellowfish, calling attention in particular to its head spines. The yelloweye rockfish is colored red on its back, orange to yellow on the sides, and black on the fin tips. Its young are typically under 28 cm (11 in) in length, and differ from the adults in that they have two reddish-white stripes along their belly,[3] and are often red. Because of the distinct difference in coloration between juveniles and adults, they were considered separate species for a long time.[4] Its head spines are exceptionally strong. They grow to a maximum length of 36 in (0.9 m) and are typically found in the 28-to-215-fathom (51-to-393 m) range, although specimen have been reported up to a maximum depth of 260 fathoms (475 m).[3] Yelloweye rockfish live to be extremely old, even for their unusually long-lived genus. They average 114[1] to 120[2] years of age; the oldest ones reach as much as 147 years. They fade from bright orange to a paler yellow as they grow in age. They are exceptionally slow developing as well, not reaching maturity until they are around 20 years of age.[1] Diet [ edit ] Larval yelloweye feed on diatoms, dinoflagellates, crustaceans, tintinnids, and cladocerans, and juveniles consume copepods and euphausiids of all life stages. Adults eat demersal invertebrates and small fishes, including other species of rockfish.[4] Habitat [ edit ] A yelloweye in its natural environment. The yelloweye rockfish has been recorded all along the East Pacific, from Umnak Island and Prince William Sound, Alaska, to Ensenada, Baja California.[5] They are typically found in deeper, rocky-bottomed areas; in fact, they often spend their entire lifetime on a single rock pile.[2] Stock Structure [ edit ] Genetic analysis has found three distinct populations of yelloweye rockfish: the outside coastal population off the coast of Alaska, British Columbia, and the West Coast of the United States; an inside population in the Salish Sea, including the San Juan Islands, Strait of Georgia, and Puget Sound; and third stock in Hood Canal[6] Fishing impacts and stock status [ edit ] Due to their large size and fillet quality, yelloweye rockfish are a highly prized species in both commercial and recreational fisheries. Historically, yelloweye are taken in by trawl, line, and sports gear. Fishing of the species using trawls was restricted following a 2000 resolution to keep trawlers out of their primary habitats.[7] Yelloweye brought to the surface by fishing boats tend to die of decompression barotrauma and temperature shock. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the fish is liable to die if brought to the surface from a depth of over 10 fathoms (60 ft; 18 m).[7] Recent federal research by John Hyde at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego indicates that, after a yelloweye is brought to the surface, devices which bring these fish back to 45 meters below the sea surface may allow the fish to recompress and survive, analogous to 'an ambulance ride home after an angler catches it.' The federal Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) may begin considering proposals to compensate anglers for using these devices, as a means to restore fish stocks.[8] The 20 fathoms (37 m) coastal limit for catching yelloweye, as defined at the coast of Washington state. Other states have a similar policy to protect the species. A stock assessment of the species, which incorporated data gathered from northern California and Oregon, was conducted in 2001. The study concluded the fish's numbers are just 7% of what they would be without human intervention in northern California, and a slightly higher 13% in Oregon. The assessment also showed a 30-year decline in numbers. These numbers are far below the 25% threshold at which a fish is labeled "overfished." The formal rebuilding analysis of the species initially estimated that recovery would take decades, as much as 100 years of recovery. This is associated with the fact that they do not reach sexual maturity until they are 10 to 20 years of age.[1][7] A total of 13.5 metric tons (29,800 lb) of yelloweye catch were allowed coastwide in 2002. This limit is set so that fisheries can potentially catch yelloweye if they are caught accidentally, but prevents the targeted fishing of the species. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, meanwhile, prohibited retention of yelloweye rockfish caught by recreational fisheries. Commercial retention of the rockfish is prohibited except for a small 300 lb (136 kg) limit, to allow yelloweye caught dead to be retained.[7] California's sportfishing regulations prohibit the take or possession of Yelloweye rockfish (also Cowcod and Bronzespotted and Canary Rockfish).[9] As time passed, the restrictions on fishing became stricter; the 2009 Washington state quota is just 6,000 pounds (2.7 t), fewer than 1000 fish. State departments are prepared to close down anglers hunting halibut to protect the species if the situation becomes dire.[2] A 2017 stock assessment covering the subset of the offshore population off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington estimated the population to have increased from a low point of 14.2% of unexploited levels in 2000 to 28.4% in 2017.[10] The updated rebuilding analysis associated with the 2017 stock assessment estimated that with the status-quo harvest policy, the stock had a high probability of being rebuilt by 2027.[11] Yelloweye rockfish in the inside waters of the Salish Sea are designated as a "Puget Sound/Georgia Basin yelloweye Distinct Population Segment" which was listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in 2010 and is subject to a recovery plan[6][12]further This is the best smelling shampoo ever made! he only thing shampoos do is strip your hair of it's natural oils and make it shinier. You know about 5 I assume; smell, touch, taste, hear and sight? Try these other 4 that scientists have agreed on: 1. Female koalas have 2 vaginas, and male koalas have a forked penis If you have a look at fossil evidence from kangaroos, you'll find that 25 million years ago they used to walk like us.However due to evolution they have an enlarged fourth toe on each foot. The way the toe is aligned with their leg allows them to use it as a spring to propel them into the air.Research has shown that at higher speeds hopping conserves more energy.Scientists found this out by strapping our friends to a treadmill and monitoring energy consumption, at higher speeds of bounding, they actually saved more energy by boundinginstead of more frequently.Assuming roughly a 50% yield, the tree being 18 feet high and 1 foot in diameter. So next time your parents accuse you of wasting paper, tell them it's the same as throwing a twig away! If you put your arms around a tree in the day, the
the original $200 million Clean Energy Fund transfer to help cover the FY12 shortfall, then tapped the Clean Energy Fund for another $89 million one shot. He anticipated $108 million in debt service savings in the FY13 budget – yet another one shot that would have to be made up the following year. Finally, Sidamon-Eristoff announced that he would tap $261 million in New Jersey Turnpike Authority toll revenues to help balance the budget. Originally earmarked as part of the state’s matching funds for the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) rail tunnel under the Hudson that Christie cancelled, the $261 million in toll money had been redirected to the Transportation Trust Fund as part of the state’s 50-50 match to draw down federal transportation capital funds. Sidamon-Eristoff was now planning to shift the toll money into the state budget and borrow an additional $261 million in transportation bonds to provide the match for the Transportation Trust Fund. (A state legislator has asked OLS for a ruling on the legality of that transfer, according to a transportation advocated who asked not to be identified.) At a 5 percent interest rate, the $261 million sleight-of-hand would add $13 million a year to the state’s TTF debt service for the next 30 years, transportation advocates noted; the cost is likely to come in closer to $10 million for FY14 because of current low interest rates. Of more immediate consequence, the $261 million that is now going to fund other programs brought total one shots in the FY13 budget to more than $1 billion, exacerbating the FY2014 funding gap. Most significantly, the Christie administration’s decision to break its promise to provide $261 million in pay-as-you-go funding was a difficult one, but there was no other choice, Sidamon-Eristoff told the Assembly Budget Committee. The Treasury Department had already cut FY12 spending by $200 million, reducing spending on supplemental appropriations by $133 million, and lapsing an additional $65.5 million in spending. If there was any way to balance the budget without shifting the transportation funding, the Christie administration would have done so. In short, there were no easy one-shots left. Taken as a whole, Sidamon-Eristoff’s May 23 fiscal maneuvers added a net of $248 million to the projected funded gap for FY2014, bringing the total that the governor and Legislature will have to handle next spring to $2.398 billion. Revenue Questions While Sidamon-Eristoff’s May 23 moves filled the $676 million gap that the Christie administration acknowledged, Rosen was projecting that the combined shortfall for FY12 and FY13 would actually be $1.3 billion – a projection that led an infuriated Christie to attack the OLS budget expert as the “Doctor Kevorkian of the numbers” for allegedly trying to kill his tax cut. Ten days ago, after May’s revenue numbers also came in below projections, Rosen revised his revenue forecast downward by $50 million to $100 million for the current year and a corresponding $50 million to $100 million for FY13 – putting his projections $724 million to $824 million below the governor, who gets the final word because he has the constitutional authority to certify revenue numbers. Senate and Assembly Democratic leaders believe Rosen’s revenue projections and doubt Sidamon-Eristoff’s insistence that total income, sales and corporate tax collections will come in just $277 million less than he predicted back in February before three months of disappointing revenue reports. Nevertheless, Democratic leaders made a political decision to pass a budget based upon Christie’s revenue projections and to set the $183 million earmarked by Christie for the first stage of his tax cut aside in a special surplus account dedicated to property tax relief. If New Jerseyans don’t get another tax cut, Democrats want Christie to take the blame. The Senate and Assembly today are expected to vote along party lines to pass a millionaire’s tax that would fund increases in direct property tax credits for senior citizens earning up to $250,000 and non-seniors making up to $150,000, but Christie is expected to veto the tax hike. He also is expected to veto the return of $66 million in energy tax funds diverted from municipalities to the state budget – a shift that would cut into the state’s already relatively small surplus – when that passes the Legislature today or Thursday. The real question is what Christie will do about the budget – whether he will simply slash favored Democratic programs through use of the line-item veto or whether he will veto the budget itself because it does not include an immediate tax cut. The latter would force a government shutdown beginning Sunday. The $31.7 billion budget bill that passed the Senate Budget Committee on Thursday and the Assembly Budget Committee on Friday included $50 million for immediate implementation of an Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor and the allocation of $55 million in anticipated lapsed funds from FY13 to provide increased funding for nursing homes and other social service and education-related programs. The speedup of the Earned Income Tax Credit would take $50 million more out of the FY14 budget, while the $55 million in lapsed funds tapped for the FY13 budget is yet another one-shot revenue that would have to be made up in FY14. In total, the $31.7 billion budget that the Legislature is expected to pass today now contains a built-in $2.503 billion funding gap for FY14 that will have to be made up by revenue growth, spending cuts or tax increases. Christie has ruled out any tax increases, and spending cuts will be particularly difficult in a gubernatorial and legislative election year. However, even the aggressive growth scenario laid out in the “Facing Our Future” report by a bipartisan panel of high-ranking former state officials projects only $1.5 billion in revenue growth for FY14, which would leave an all-too-real $1 billion net shortfall in the FY14 budget. That prospect doesn’t concern the governor: Christie wants to get his tax cut now by hectoring the Democratic-controlled Legislature to pass legislation that would lock the $183 million tax cut into the upcoming budget and an additional $393 million for FY14. "If they want a fight they're going to get one,” Christie told a cheering crowd at a Readington Town Hall meeting Friday. “They're going to get one long, hot summer 'til they cut your taxes." If the Democratic-controlled Legislature refuses to approve the tax cut, the FY14 funding gap would drop on paper to $1.925 billion. But the only way Democratic legislative leaders won’t push through the promised $183 million tax cut next winter will be if Christie and Sidamon-Eristoff have failed to meet revenue projections by $200 million or more. Every $200 million shortfall in FY13 revenues, will require a corresponding $200 million reduction in FY14 revenue projections. With or without a tax cut, New Jersey’s governor and Legislature will be facing a $2 billion to $2.5 billion funding gap next spring that will be too large for projected revenue increases alone to cover. Fighting over how to cut spending by $1 billion or more in an election year will make this year’s budget battle look easy.Some time ago I’d done a post about acessing the MODIS near-real time satellite images using Python and the data public available at NASA MODIS, if you are interested in those images, take a look in the post here. I’ve created now a Python package called pyearthquake to automatic retrieve any MODIS subset image from the NASA Rapid Response System in a easy way, just by using the subset, satellite and resolution parameters. The package has a module to get real-time USGS Earthquake data from the USGS website and automatically parse it for you, as well functions to retrieve shakemaps and other products from the USGS. Retrieving, handling and ploting USGS data Let’s start talking about the public available catalogs with real-time Earthquake data from the USGS site (they are in CSV formats, there are others in XML and KMZ formats if you’re interested too, but I focused in the CSV format files to create the Python modules: Note from USGS site: files are not inclusive (the past day file does not include past hour events, for example). M1+ Earthquakes (past hour) – M1+PAST_HOUR This is the worldwide catalog with earthquake data from the past hour; M1+ Earthquakes (past day) – M1+PAST_DAY This is the worldwide catalog with earthquake data from the past day; M1+ Earthquakes (past 7 days) – M1+PAST_7DAY This is the worldwide catalog with earthquake data from the past 7 days; To get and process data from these catalogs, you can use the pyearthquake package I created, let’s install it first: easy_install pyearthquake This command will use the easy_install to automatic install the package from the PyPI respository, it will automatically resolve the requirements too, but if you face some problem, here is the explicit requirements: matplotlib >= 0.99.0, numpy >= 1.3.0, PIL >= 1.1.6 and basemap >= 0.99.4. The basemap package is map toolkit for matplotlib. Let’s now, for example, get the catalog for the past hour earthquake data, we can do it by using the Python interpreter prompt, like this: >>> catalog = usgs.retrieve_catalog("M1+PAST_HOUR") >>> catalog <pyearthquake.usgs.USGSCatalog instance at 0x00BD0FD0> All catalogs available are: M1+PAST_HOUR, M1+PAST_DAY and M1+PAST_7DAY. But if you type a wrong catalog name, it will show you the name of all available. You can now work with the “catalog” object to explore the data retrieved from the USGS site: >>> list(catalog) [{'Src': 'ci', 'Region': 'Central California', 'Lon': '-118.2063', 'Datetime': 'Saturday, January 16, 2010 17:12:20 UTC', 'Depth': '6.00', 'Version': '1', 'Lat': '36.2061', 'Eqid': '10530221', 'Magnitude': '1.9', 'NST': '27'}, {'Src': 'ak', 'Region': 'Southern Alaska', 'Lon': '-150.0829', 'Datetime': 'Saturday, January 16, 2010 16:47:05 UTC', 'Depth': '34.90', 'Version': '1', 'Lat': '61. 4521', 'Eqid': '10029267', 'Magnitude': '2.3', 'NST': '27'}] >>> for row in catalog:... print row["Magnitude"], row["Depth"], row["Datetime"], row["Depth"], row["Region"]... 1.9 6.00 Saturday, January 16, 2010 17:12:20 UTC 6.00 Central California 2.3 34.90 Saturday, January 16, 2010 16:47:05 UTC 34.90 Southern Alaska As you can see, the “catalog” is an interable object where you can get all data from the earthquakes, like the Magnitude, Latitude, Longitude, Depth, Date, Region Name, etc… Let’s now get the past 7 days earthquake data: >>> catalog = usgs.retrieve_catalog("M1+PAST_7DAY") >>> len(catalog) 1142 In the past 7 days, there was 1.142 Magnitude 1+ earthquakes on earth, if we want to find the event for the last Haiti tragedy, we can filter the Magnitude of the catalog by 6.0 for example: >>> magnitude6 = [event for event in catalog if float(event["Magnitude"]) >= 6.0] >>> len(magnitude6) 3 >>> for row in magnitude6:... print row["Eqid"], row["Magnitude"], row["Depth"], row["Datetime"], row["Depth"], row["Region"]... 2010rla9 6.0 32.40 Thursday, January 14, 2010 14:03:40 UTC 32.40 south of the Mariana Islands 2010rja6 7.0 13.00 Tuesday, January 12, 2010 21:53:10 UTC 13.00 Haiti region 71338066 6.5 29.30 Sunday, January 10, 2010 00:27:39 UTC 29.30 offshore Northern California As we can see, the Earthquake ID “2010rja6” was the ID used by USGS to identify the 7.0 magnitude Haiti earthquake of the 12 January which has devastated the region and the unfortunate people of Haiti. USGS also provides a Shakemaps, which are automatic computer generated maps with the potential damage in the region of the earthquake, to get it, let’s use the pyearthquake package: >>> haiti_eq = magnitude6[1] >>> usgs.retrieve_shakemap(haiti_eq, "INSTUMENTAL_INTENSITY") The second argument of the function is the shakemap type, there are other products you can get from USGS too, like the Media Maps, Peak Ground Acceleration. These maps are available in the package as: INSTRUMENTAL_INTENSITY, BARE, DECORATED, UNCERTAINTY and PEAK_GROUND_ACC. The packas has functions to plot maps of the earthquakes (using Matplotlib), see how to plot a map of the earthquakes from the past 7 days: >>> usgs.plot_events(catalog) <mpl_toolkits.basemap.Basemap object at 0x01E6BDB0> Now a zoom in the Haiti region: The color of the points are relative to their magnitudes, I’m using here the JET (the yellow/red points are earthquakes with higher magnitudes) color map from Matplotlib, see in this link to use more color maps. Retrieving last images from MODIS Satellites and ploting earthquakes Let’s talk now about the “modis” module of the pyearthquake module. This module can be used to get the most recent or archived images (up to 250m resolution) from MODIS Aqua/Terra satellites. First of all, you must know what subset you want to retrieve from MODIS website, the subsets are available here in NASA site. To plot the Haiti region I’ll use the subset named “GreaterAntilles” which covers the Haiti region. To get the satellite images from today date, we can do like this: >>> from pyearthquake import modis >>> import datetime >>> now = datetime.datetime.now() >>> bmap = modis.get_modis_subset(now,... "GreaterAntilles",... satellite_name="terra",... resolution="250m") This command will get the composite image of the subset “GreaterAntilles” taken today from the “terra” satellite with a resolution of 250m (in fact, this will take a while, since I’m using a higher resolution here, the maximum is 250m). And here is the result: And here is after a zoom into the Haiti region near of Port-au-Prince: This is the interesting part about MODIS, this photo, is from TODAY. Now, let’s merge together the information about the earthquakes from the USGS data and the recent images from the Haiti: import datetime from pyearthquake import usgs from pyearthquake import modis catalog = usgs.retrieve_catalog("M1+PAST_7DAY") now = datetime.datetime.now() bmap = modis.get_modis_subset(now, "GreaterAntilles", satellite_name="terra", resolution="250m", show=False) usgs.plot_events(catalog, bmap) And here is the result of the past 7 days earthquakes plot over the today MODIS image from satellite Terra: That’s all =) you can use the package to plot earthquakes over other regions of world too, just select another subset from the MODIS Rapid Response System site. – Christian S. Perone All images and data shown here are from MODIS Response System or U.S. Geological Survey.WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading an investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the presidential election. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former top adviser to Trump’s campaign, and recently confirmed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recommended Comey be removed from his post in letters to Trump Tuesday. Sessions has recused himself from FBI investigations into the Russia matter and the Trump campaign. Comey, a Republican who formerly served as deputy attorney general during the President George W. Bush administration, had been leading the FBI’s investigation into possible ties between Trump associates and Moscow since July. Presidents have the legal authority to fire FBI directors, who normally serve 10-year terms that span administrations. Comey was confirmed by the Senate in a nearly unanimous vote in July 2013, and was nearly four years into his term. He is only the second FBI director in history to be formally terminated, after William S. Sessions, who was fired by President Bill Clinton in 1993. Democrats called for a special prosecutor to investigate the Russia matter. Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, suggested Comey’s firing could amount to interference with the FBI’s Russia investigation. “The decision by a President whose campaign associates are under investigation by the FBI for collusion with Russia to fire the man overseeing that investigation, upon the recommendation of an Attorney General who has recused himself from that investigation, raises profound questions about whether the White House is brazenly interfering in a criminal matter,” Schiff wrote in a statement. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Comey’s actions “called into question the trust and political independence of the FBI,” and said the bureau had been slow to provide answers to his questions. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said he was “troubled by the timing and reasoning” behind the firing. “I have found Comey to be a public servant of the highest order, and his dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by our Committee,” Burr said in a statement. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, called Trump’s actions a “Tuesday Night Massacre,” a reference to former President Richard Nixon’s 1973 firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. “Today’s action by President Trump completely obliterates any semblance of an independent investigation into Russian efforts to influence our election, and places our nation on the verge of a constitutional crisis,” Conyers said. “Today’s actions reek of a cover up and appear to be part of an ongoing effort by the Trump White House to impede the investigation into Russian ties and interference in our elections.” Trump’s letter dismissing Comey told him “you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.” “The FBI is one of our Nation’s most cherished and respected institutions and today will mark a new beginning for our crown jewel of law enforcement,” Trump said in a statement. Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later on Fox News that Comey’s firing wouldn’t cause “any change or disruption” in the FBI’s Russia-related investigations. But the “bigger point,” she said, is that “it’s time to move on.” “When are they going to let that go,” Huckabee Sanders told Fox’s Tucker Carlson. “It’s been going on for nearly a year, frankly it’s kind of getting absurd. There’s nothing there, we’ve heard that time and time again, we’ve heard it in the testimonies earlier this week, we’ve heard it for the last 11 months. Comey had been ensnared in controversy for months over his handling of the FBI’s investigations into the Russia matter and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. “Almost everyone agrees the Director made serious mistakes; it is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives,” Rosenstein wrote in his letter to Trump. When the FBI concluded its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server in July, Comey took the unusual step of holding a press conference, explaining the FBI’s reasoning for recommending no criminal charges be brought against the then-Democratic nominee. Democrats and some former Justice Department staffers criticized Comey, who spent the bulk of the press conference criticizing Clinton’s handling of classified emails, for speaking publicly about the result of a criminal investigation. Then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch had said at the time that she would accept the findings of FBI agents leading the investigation. But three months later, and just days before the election, Comey reignited the Clinton email controversy. On Oct. 28, he sent a letter to congressional leaders explaining that the FBI was investigating newly discovered Clinton emails. The letter leaked immediately, and Clinton fell in the polls. Two days before the election, Comey told Congress that the FBI had discovered no evidence that changed its recommendation against criminal charges for Clinton. But the damage was done. Many Clinton staffers blame the Oct. 28 letter for her loss. Clinton had no comment on Comey’s dismissal, a spokesperson told CNN. Before Comey sent the letter, a junior attorney asked him to consider that his actions might help Trump win the election, he recounted last week. Comey decided that for him to take politics into consideration would compromise the FBI’s independence. “I can’t consider for a second whose political fortunes will be impacted in what way,” he said. At the same time that the Clinton email scandal was publicly unfolding, the FBI was running a much quieter investigation into Russian attempts to sway the presidential election — and whether any members of Trump’s campaign staff colluded with Moscow. As news of the Russia probe trickled out in news reports, lawmakers pressed Comey, both public and in private, to confirm whether Trump and his team were under investigation for possible ties to Russia. For months, Comey stayed silent. “I would never comment on investigations ― whether we have one or not ― in an open forum like this, so I can’t answer one way or another,” Comey told lawmakers in January during a congressional hearing. “The irony of your making that statement, I cannot avoid,” Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) responded at the time. It was not until March 20, two months after Trump entered the White House, that Comey publicly confirmed the investigation into the Trump campaign. Once Trump assumed office, he had ties to most of the top figures in charge of overseeing investigations on the Russia matter: Sessions was appointed attorney general. Burr, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, and House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ― who were tasked with leading the congressional probes into Russian election interference ― were close Trump allies. Comey was the exception. (Along with Sessions, Nunes has since recused himself from the investigations.) Mary McCord, a high-level DOJ official working on the Russia probe, also will leave her job this month. Her departure, announced in April, does not appear to be related. The Justice Department’s inspector general opened an investigation into Comey’s actions in January. The results have not yet been announced. Last week, Comey told lawmakers that the idea that the FBI swayed the outcome of the election made him “mildly nauseous.” But, he added, it wasn’t fair to second-guess his decision, because he believed his only choices were to speak out, or to “conceal” information. The latter, he argued, would have been “catastrophic.” Sessions told FBI employees in a message Tuesday evening that Deputy Director Andrew McCabe would be acting director. The Washington Post via Getty Images Here’s Trump’s letter to Comey: Trump defended his decision on Twitter, lashing out at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Cryin' Chuck Schumer stated recently, "I do not have confidence in him (James Comey) any longer." Then acts so indignant. #draintheswamp — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2017 Here’s the letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommending Trump fire Comey: Here’s the letter from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein explaining the reasoning for firing Comey:This page requires JavaScript and a modern browser to function correctly. No login or downloads appear.in aims to make it super-easy to start talking over video. Therefore, we do not require you to register an account or download anything. 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Nothing is stored on our server and all the communication is encrypted over SSL."Our veterans are being unfairly punished due to lack of flexibility in the Post-9/11 GI Bill," Mike Pence wrote. \| AP Photo Pence asks feds to help veterans who attended ITT Tech Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence is calling for the federal government to aid veterans who attended ITT Tech — the massive for-profit college that abruptly closed this week. Nearly 7,000 veterans and their families had been using the GI Bill to attend ITT Tech. The Obama administration has long maintained that, under federal law, students aren't able to recoup the GI Bill money already they’ve spent if a school closes. Story Continued Below The former ITT students also face having their monthly GI Bill housing stipend cut off next month. The veterans can try to transfer their credits to another school, but many traditional colleges won't accept ITT's credits. "Our veterans are being unfairly punished due to lack of flexibility in the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which does not take into account such situations, such as this recent closure, that are of no fault to the students. We cannot allow this to stand," Pence wrote to Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Friday. Pence asked that the VA restore the GI Bill benefits of veterans who attended ITT. VA officials told veterans this week in an message on Facebook that the agency doesn't have the legal authority to restore GI Bill Benefits, but the Obama administration has previously said it backs congressional efforts to have GI Bill benefits reset when a school closes. A VA spokesman told POLITICO, "While we are anxious to help our education beneficiaries find alternative educational paths, our general authority to provide any kind of relief after a school closes is extremely limited." After the collapse of for-profit Corinthian Colleges last year left GI Bill students at those campuses in a similar situation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), the ranking member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, sponsored legislation that would assist them. But the legislation, which attracted bipartisan support, stalled in Congress. ITT Tech, based in Carmel, Ind., collapsed on Tuesday — 12 days after the Education Department said it could no longer enroll new students using federal student aid. The college had been struggling to maintain its accreditation. The closure affected about 40,000 students at 130 campuses around the country. Students who took out federal loans to attend ITT are entitled to a "closed school discharge" of their loans. Earlier this week, Pence directed state agencies to take other steps to help the affected veterans. He also criticized the Obama administration's crackdown on for-profit colleges. "ITT Tech's situation is due in part to the Obama administration's over-regulation, which is sadly killing jobs nationwide,” Pence spokeswoman Kara Brooks told the Indianapolis Star. Michael Stratford contributed to this report.A 59-year-old man who promoted prostitution services offered at six massage parlors has been sentenced to 15 months in a federal prison. U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello also sentenced David A. Warmack of Denver to three years of supervised release, according to a news release by U.S. Attorney John Walsh and FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle. “Warmack systematically perpetuated the victimization of the workers at these parlors, and he obstructed justice to boot,” Walsh said in a statement on Tuesday. “This turned out not to be a great strategy, thanks to the exceptional work of the law enforcement and prosecution team that put this complex case together.” From August of 2011 to July 2014, Warmack promoted and facilitated prostitution liaisons through a website business named sowet.com. Warmack charged fees to massage parlor owners of Happy Feet of Golden in 2011 and 2012; Sunday Spa in Aurora in 2012 and 2013; Jewell Spa of Lakewood in 2012 to 2013; Abalone Spa of Wheat Ridge in 2013; Maize Spa of Aurora in 2013 and 2014; and Hill Relaxation Spa of Parker in 2014, according to the news release. Warmack traded positive online reviews and sexually suggestive photographs of women on his site of some of the parlors in exchange for sexual services. He collected from $150 to $400 a month from each of the parlors. Warmack’s website offered tips about how to handle law enforcement questioning. He admitted he gave false information to federal agents and before the grand jury in 2009, and again in 2014 after FBI agents arrested him. “The defendant engaged in widespread, systematic exploitation and victimization of vulnerable women for his personal profit and pleasure. While he advertised the so-called spas online, he acted as a pimp, contributing to the vicious cycle of abuse and degradation of the women through prostitution,” Ravenelle said. He credited work done by law enforcement agents from state, county, local and federal agencies across the Denver area.Shinzo Abe and other world leaders gathered for the G7 summit today Reuters The Japanese prime minister warned world leaders today of a looming crisis on the scale of the 2008 credit crunch, as the heads of the Group of Seven nations disagreed on the danger to the world economy. Shinzo Abe, who is hosting the G7 leaders for their two-day summit, presented a graph indicating that world commodity prices have recently fallen as much as they did following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the world financial crisis of 2008. US President Barack Obama with Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister on the Ujibashi bridge at the Ise-Jingu Shrine today Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images But not all the leaders present, who include David Cameron, Barack Obama and Angela Merkel, agreed with his grim assessment, according to one of his senior aides. “G7 leaders voiced the view that emerging economies are in a severe situation,” said Hiroshige Seko, Mr Abe’s deputy chief…The Mexican tetra lost its eyes - as well as a significant portion of its brain - to ensure survival in a subterranean environment At some point back in deep time, a group of fish were washed into a limestone cave somewhere in northeastern Mexico. With no way out and little more than bat droppings to eat, the fish began to adapt to their new troglodytic lifestyle. Unable to see other members of their group in the dark, they lost their colourful pigmentation. Then they lost their eyesight, their eyes gradually got smaller, and then disappeared altogether. This was accompanied by a dramatic reduction in the size of the brain’s visual system. Yet, the question of why the blind cave fish lost its eyes and a large part of its brain remains unresolved. Now, biologists in Sweden believe they have found the answer. In new research published today, they report that loss of the visual system saves the fish a substantial amount of energy, and was probably key to their stranded ancestors’ survival. The blind cave fish Astyanax mexicanus is adapted to its subterranean environment in other ways. As its vision regressed, it became more reliant on smell and taste, and its taste buds grew larger and more numerous. They also developed an enhanced ability to detect changes in mechanical pressure, which made them more sensitive to water movements. Last year, Damian Moran of Lund University and his colleagues reported that blind cave fish eliminated the circadian rhythm in their metabolism during their course of evolution, and that this leads to a massive 27% reduction in their energy expenditure. This new study was designed test whether or not they lost their visual system for the same reason. The octopus can see with its skin Read more Darwin found it hard to imagine why eyes might be harmful to animals living in perpetual darkness, and attributed their loss “solely to disuse.” According to another hypothesis, however, the reduction of vision occurred because growing and maintaining eyes and brain tissue requires huge amounts of energy. The human brain perfectly illustrates just how energetically costly brain tissue is. It consumes one quarter of the body’s energy, despite making up just 2% of body mass, and nearly one third of the cerebral cortex is devoted to processing visual information. It’s hard finding convincing evidence for this ‘expensive tissue hypothesis,’ however, mostly because it’s usually impossible to compare the rate of energy consumption in a living organism with that of its ancient evolutionary ancestor. But blind cave fish are ideal for testing the idea, because their ancestors – the surface-dwelling form – still inhabit the rivers of northeastern Mexico and Texas. Moran and his colleagues therefore collected specimens of blind cave fish, their surface-dwelling counterparts, plus a hybrid form with some pigmentation and eye remnants, from caves and rivers in Mexico, and took them back to the lab in Sweden, where they used specially-built respirometry apparatus to measure and compare the size and metabolic rates of the fish and all their internal organs. Their results, published in the journal Science Advances, show that although the heart, digestive system, and gonads were roughly the same size and weight in all three, and used roughly the same amounts of energy, the gills of the cave-dwelling form were much larger than those of the other two, enabling them breathe in the oxygen-deprived cave environment. The brains of surface-dwelling fish were also roughly 30% larger than those of the blind cave fish, while those of the hybrids were of intermediate size. In the surface-dwellers, brain size increases relative to body mass, such that bigger individuals have larger brains. In the cave-dwellers, however, no such relationship exists – all had significantly smaller brains, due to significant reduction in the size of a midbrain region called the optic tectum, which normally receives visual inputs from the eyes. The man who grew eyes \| Mo Costandi Read more These size reductions significantly reduced energy costs. The researchers calculated the energy cost of the brain to be about 15% of the resting metabolic rate for a surface-dwelling fish weighing 1g, decreasing to 5% in 8.5g fish, compared to 4% and 3% for hybrids of those respective size and mass. And the eyes consume about 8% of resting metabolism in surface-dwellers weighing 8.5g, decreasing to 5% in the largest specimens. Overall, the brain accounts for some 23% of the resting metabolic rate in the surface-dwellers, compared to just 10% in the blind cave fish. Thus, the reduced size of the visual parts of the brain lowers total energy consumption by about 30% compared to surface-dwelling fish. This is strong evidence that cave-dwelling organisms lost their visual systems in order to save energy. The findings also provide insights into how different types of evolutionary pressure can drive brain evolution. According to another hypothesis, the invention of cooking was a major driving force for evolution of the human brain, because it would have released more energy from the food that our ancestors ate, allowing the brain to expand and the gut to shrink. It seems that the opposite happened to the ancestors of the blind cave fish – finding themselves trapped in that dark cave, their brains shrank dramatically, in order to save energy and ensure their survival. Reference Moran, D., et al. (2015). The energetic cost of vision and the evolution of eyeless Mexican cavefish. Sci. Adv.,1:e1500363 [Abstract]In her powerful new book, “Nomadland,” award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are — as the subtitle says — “surviving America in the twenty-first century.” Not quite homeless, they are “houseless,” living in secondhand RVs, trailers and vans and driving from one location to another to pick up seasonal low-wage jobs, if they can get them, with little or no benefits. The “workamper” jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon’s AMZN, +0.21% “CamperForce,” seasonal employees who can walk the equivalent of 15 miles a day during Christmas season pulling items off warehouse shelves and then returning to frigid campgrounds at night. Living on less than $1,000 a month, in certain cases, some have no hot showers. As Bruder writes, these are “people who never imagined being nomads.” Many saw their savings wiped out during the Great Recession or were foreclosure victims and, writes Bruder, “felt they’d spent too long losing a rigged game.” Some were laid off from high-paying professional jobs. Few have chosen this life. Few think they can find a way out of it. They’re downwardly mobile older Americans in mobile homes. During her three years doing research for the book, conducting hundreds of interviews and traversing 15,000 miles, Bruder even tried living the difficult nomad life; she lasted one workweek. I recently interviewed Bruder to learn more about the lives in Nomadland and what the future holds for these people: Next Avenue: How did you come to write “Nomadland?” Jessica Bruder: It grew out of a story I wrote for Harper’s in 2014. I had read a story in Mother Jones and it mentioned a woman working in a warehouse who was living in an RV and said she couldn’t afford to retire. I went ‘Goodness!’ Call me naive, but when I see an RV, I assume it’s owned by one of the last of great pensioners enjoying retirement and going to see the National Parks. I regarded it as a life of luxury and a neat retirement choice. After all, they call them ‘recreational’ vehicles. I started doing some research and learned there was a whole spectrum of thousands of employers hiring people in similar situations — in oil fields, harvesting sugar beets and helping out at amusement parks. These are not easy jobs or the kind typically associated with people in older stages. But nobody had been looking at it in context of the retirement crisis in the wake of the Great Recession. And a lot of the recruiting materials for these jobs made them look like summer camps. Some for Amazon’s CamperForce said if you come, you’ll make friends. It felt so strange to me
/tv/ and /g/. Green-oval started having troubles in July 2011; By then Easymodo was better equipped, so it took over Green-oval's /a/ archives. However, to reduce server strain, the search function was disabled for /a/. While Eksopl eventually implemented SphinxSearch into Fuuka, Easymodo shut down in Oct 2011, with /a/, /jp/, /m/, and /tg/ archived. When Easymodo shut down, Eksopl made it's archives public in a torrent. To whomever still has the Easymodo archive dumps: Please upload it to the Internet Archive. VoH, the admin of Nyafuu, supposedly has the data from the torrent, but it is in a hard drive in a currently inaccessible (to him) location. This will be updated with any further news/info. (Unfortunately, Eksopl no longer has it.) These archives were essential when Archive.moe accidentally lost it's thumbnails, and should not be lost ever again. green-oval.net Start Date: Feb 2010 End Date: Jul 2011? Green-oval.net was a Fuuka archiver that used AoRF/Eksopl's source code to archive /tv/ and /g/. It later adopted /sci/. However, on June 2010, the old /a/rchive was straining Eksopl's servers, so he transferred /a/ to green-oval.net, a fellow archive originally built for /tv/ and /g/. When Green-oval started having troubles in July 2011, Easymodo took over it's /a/ archives. Installgentoo.net inherited it's /tv/ and /g/ archives, which are now under the care of RebeccaBlackTech. Foolz Archive Foolz Archive URL archive.foolz.us Project status Offline Archiving status Partially saved, Inherited by Archive.moe Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown When Easymodo announced that it's longtime /a/ archive would be shut down, Woxxy (part of the Foolz Scanlation Team) managed to obtain Easymodo's backups and continue where it left off. Later on, the FoolCode developers created, (and are still maintaining) FoolFuuka, a significantly improved version of the original Fuuka Archiver. Foolz also assumed the boards formerly archived by The Dark Cave, InstallGentoo.net (/g/, /diy/, /sci/), and Deniable Plausibility (/v/, /vg/). While Foolz.us was one of the first Fuuka Archivers to retain full-size images, it would periodically prune these images to save space. On August 14, 2014, Foolz.us announced that the service would shut down. The entire archive was spun off and transferred to the newly-built Archive.moe. Unfortunately, a mishap occurred where most of the thumbnails obtained by Archive.moe were lost forever: By the time the staff noticed that the transfer failed, foolz.net was already deleted. (need more info on this) Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /a/ - Animu & Mango 2008-02-03 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- easymodo.net <- green-oval.net /biz/ - Business and Finance 2010-10-12 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us /c/ - Cute Animu 2012-04-02 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org /co/ - Comics and Cartoons 2012-05-21 archive.moe <- foolz.us /diy/ - Do It Yourself 2011-10-23 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- installgentoo.net /gd/ - Graphic Design 2014-07-12 archive.moe <- foolz.us /int/ - International 2013-01-08 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org /jp/ - Otaku Culture 2008-02-20 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us <- easymodo.net /m/ - Mecha 2009-03-27 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- easymodo.net /mlp/ - Pony 2012-03-27 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us /out/ - Outdoors 2012-03-18 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org /po/ - Papercraft and Origami 2010-10-20 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org /q/ - 4chan Feedback 2010-10-20 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us (board closed 2013-09-18) /sp/ - Sports Around 2012-06-12? abandoned, dump at Internet Archive <- archive.moe <- foolz.us /sci/ - Science 2013-10-01 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- installgentoo.net <- easymodo.net <- green-oval.net + gentoomen /tg/ - Traditional Games 2010-02-23 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- easymodo.net /tv/ - Television and Film 2010-02-10 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- installgentoo.net <- green-oval.net + gentoomen /v/ - Video Games 2012-02-12 archive.moe <- vidya.moe <- foolz.us <- deniableplausibility.net /vg/ - Video Games Generals 2012-02-16 (from birth) archive.moe <- vidya.moe <- foolz.us <- deniableplausibility.net /vp/ - Pokemon 2013-03-13 archive.moe <- foolz.us /vr/ - Retro Games 2013-03-18 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us /wsg/ - Worksafe GIF 2012-06-05 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us Closed Archives 4chan archives that have shut down, but either have dumps available or transferred their archives to other sites. archive.loveisover.me archive.loveisover.me URL archive.loveisover.me Project status Offline Archiving status Partially saved Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown Status: Offline Saves Images?: Yes Note: [Loveisover https://github.com/MayhemYDG/archives.json/pull/58] was shut down on 2018-03-29. Unfortunately, the last full image and SQL backup was in 20170903, and the server provider deleted the server immediately without a cooldown period. During December 2015 and to mid-February 2016 the main page announced that it was transferring files to a different location and could take a few weeks because of a slow connection, it took a lot longer than that. They probably are not archiving during this time, but that is not certain. A pure NSFW Fuuka archiver for /d/, /i/, /lgbt/, and /u/, created by Blade. It also inherited the archive.mawa.re /t/ archive. Has assumed responsibility of boards formerly curated by archive.nyafuu.org /c/, /e/, /w/, /wg/, as of November 2014, but full image support (except for /e/) was temporarily disabled. Now that Nyafuu is coming back (as of 2015-02-11), loveisover.me has given them the archives of /c/, /e/, /w/, /wg/. It no longer hosts /w/ and /wg/, but still keeps /c/ and /e/. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /c/ - Anime/Cute 2011-06-08 nyafuu.org ~ loveisover.me <- nyafuu.org /d/ - Hentai/Alternative 2013-03-04 loveisover.me <- (???) /e/ - Ecchi 2012-10-13 nyafuu.org ~ loveisover.me <- nyafuu.org /i/ - Oekaki 2011-11-05 loveisover.me <- (???) /lgbt/ - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender 2014-04-12 loveisover.me /t/ - Torrents 2012-06-08 loveisover.me <- mawa.re /u/ Yuri 2013-06-23 loveisover.me /w/ - Anime/Wallpapers 2012-01-11 nyafuu.org <- loveisover.me <- nyafuu.org /wg/ - Wallpapers/General 2013-04-10 nyafuu.org <- loveisover.me <- nyafuu.org archive.installgentoo.com Archived /g/ and /t/, started giving 403 errors in June 2014. No idea who has the data. It was closed because of storage constraints. This public site archives all 4chan boards with thumbnails only and publishes public dumps weekly to the Internet Archive. Sadly 4ch.be has stopped archiving since 2016-02-27, the weekly dumps are still available on archive.org. cliché.net/4chan cliché.net/4chan URL cliché.net/4chan Project status Offline Archiving status Saved! Bibanon has it, merged into Nyafuu. Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown Someone's past personal project. It was very slow, so any burst in traffic would've knocked the site offline, as it was the owner's personal computer. Images began to stop loading on the web view (although they were still downloaded), so that, along with the fact that the owner hadn't been actively working to remove illegal content, led to the owner removing the archive from public view. Nyafuu has imported all of its data as of 4/23/2016. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /e/ - Ecchi 2010-03-13 nyafuu.org <- cliché.net/4chan Archive.moe Archive.moe URL archive.moe Project status Offline Archiving status Partially saved (database up to 06-2015 uploaded, images coming soon) Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown Archive.moe was a union of archivists that inherited the boards of Archive.Foolz.us. Unfortunately, when it was founded and while Foolz was transferring data to them in 2014, a mishap occurred whereby the vast majority of thumbnails, let alone full images from before 2014, were lost. Some of /a/'s images were recovered using dumps from Easymodo, but the ramifications of this failed transfer have deeply negative effects for generations down the line. They announced their shutdown on 2015-10-07, after a server outage wiped their database, with the admin believing he is no longer fit for the job. The archived images and database up to June 2015 were archived here: https://archive.org/details/@archivemoe A static version with thumbs can be viewed at archived.moe. The site currently redirects to Archived.Moe, a 4ch.be/Archive.moe replacement made by the same guy who created the second 4archive.org. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree Thumbnails Oldest Full Image /a/ - Animu & Mango 2008-02-03 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- easymodo.net <- green-oval.net Yes, Restored??? /aco/ - Adult Cartoons All text data lost archive.moe Yes Yes, All /biz/ - Business and Finance 2014-02-13 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us Yes Yes, All /c/ - Cute Animu 2012-04-02 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org Yes??? /co/ - Comics and Cartoons 2012-05-21 archive.moe <- foolz.us Yes??? /diy/ - Do It Yourself 2011-10-23 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- installgentoo.net Yes??? /g/ - Technology 2010-02-07 rbt.asia & archive.moe <- installgentoo.net rbt.asia preferred No /gd/ - Graphic Design 2013-03-18 archive.moe <- foolz.us Lost before 2014??? /h/ Hentai 2012-01-25 archive.moe <- foolz.us Lost before 2014??? /i/ - Oekaki 2011-11-05 archive.moe <- foolz.us Yes Yes, All /int/ - International 2013-01-08 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org Some Restored??? /jp/ - Otaku Culture 2008-02-20 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us <- easymodo.net Yes??? /k/ - Weapons 2012-07-13 archive.moe <- heinessen.com Yes??? /m/ - Mecha 2009-03-27 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- easymodo.net Some Restored??? /mlp/ - Pony 2012-03-27 (from birth) archive.moe <- heinessen.com Yes Internet Archive /out/ - Outdoors 2013-03-18 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org Yes??? /po/ - Papercraft and Origami 2010-10-20 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org Yes Yes, All /q/ - 4chan Feedback 2012-08-08 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us (board closed 2013-09-18) Some Restored??? /qa/ - Questions and Answers 2015-01-23 (from birth) archive.moe Partial? Partial /r9k/ - ROBOT 9001 2012-06-02 archive.moe <- heinessen.com Yes??? /s4s/ - Shit 4chan Says 2013-10-01 archive.moe <- (???) Yes Yes, All /sci/ - Science 2010-05-12 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- installgentoo.net <- green-oval.net/gentooman Yes??? /tg/ - Traditional Games 2010-02-23 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- easymodo.net Yes??? /tv/ - Television and Film 2010-02-01 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- installgentoo.net <- green-oval.net/gentooman Some Restored??? /u/ - Yuri 2011-06-04 archive.moe <- foolz.us Lost before 2014??? /v/ - Video Games 2012-02-12 archive.moe <- foolz.us Lost before 2014 Partial /vg/ - Video Games Generals 2012-02-16 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us Lost before 2014 /vp/ - Pokémon 2013-03-13 archive.moe <- foolz.us Yes??? /vr/ - Retro Games 2013-03-18 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us Yes??? /wsg/ - Worksafe GIF 2012-06-04 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us Yes??? totally.not4plebs.org totally.not4plebs.org URL totally.not4plebs.org Project status Offline Archiving status Saved! Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown Status: Online Saves Images?:Yes A Fuuka archiver covering /sp/, picking up where archive.moe left off after the April Uprising. They have integrated the Internet Archive collection to kick off their archival efforts. totally.not4plebs.org eventually merged it's /sp/ archive with 4plebs.org itself. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /sp/ - Sports 2012-06-11 4plebs.org <- not4plebs.org <- (late 2014 threads lost) <- archive.moe 4archive 4archive URL 4archive.org Project status Offline Archiving status Saved! Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown Another site that saves threads on a unique platform, starting at January 17 2014. This site is notable as it was the only site archiving /b/ until 2015. Images are stored separately through Imgur and Imageshack. Unfortunately, this site shut down on May 7, 2015. The admin provided a MySQL Dump, which the Bibliotheca Anonoma mirrored to the Internet Archive here: [Internet Archive - 4Archive SQL Dump](http://archive.org/details/4archive) installgentoo.net installgentoo.net File:Installgentoo.png URL archive.installgentoo.net Project status Offline Archiving status Inherited by rbt.asia, Archive.moe, and warosu.org Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown Status: Transferred Saves Images?: Partially Start Date: 2011-10-?? End Date: 2014-02-?? Archived /diy/, /g/, /sci/ throughout its lifetime. All boards were inherited from Green-Oval and Gentoomen. It also apparently ran /pol/ for some time, according to this link: https://warosu.org/jp/thread/S8052074#p8055433 It shut down around Feb. 2014 due to hosting problems, but thankfully dumps of all boards were made public and were inherited by rbt.asia, Foolz.us (now Archive.moe), and warosu.org. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /diy/ - Do It Yourself 2011-10-23 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- installgentoo.net /g/ - Technology 2011-11-11 rbt.asia <- installgentoo.net <- gentoomen.org <- green-oval.net /sci/ - Science 2010-05-12 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- installgentoo.net <- gentoomen.org <- green-oval.net archive.mawa.re Status: Transferred Archived?: Yes (by loveisover.me) Start Date: 2014-01-19 End Date: 2013-09-07 Archived /t/. It was shut down by its owner, but the backups were transferred to loveisover.me. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /t/ - Torrents 2012-06-08 loveisover.me <- mawa.re archive.heinessen.com Status: Some Lost, Some Transferred Saves Images?: Partially (all boards except /mlp/ and /x/) Archived /an/, /fit/, /k/, /mlp/, /r9k/, /toy/, /x/. Also used the alternate domains archive.maidlab.jp and xfiles.to. Closed on November 2014 due to personal reasons, but the /r9k/, /mlp/, and /k/ archives were made public. The /fit/ archive was privately released to imcute.yt and other undisclosed individuals. Unfortunately, the admin decided to delete the /an/, /toy/, and /x/ archives without providing backups. These archives date all the way back to 2012. imcute.yt inherits all the boards that Heinessen archives, (except for /k/ and /x/), but only inherited history for /fit/ and /mlp/. 4plebs.net did not inherit it's /x/ archive, but their own archive dates back to 2013. Archive.moe inherited the Heinessen /k/ archive. They also made public Heinessen's 282GB archive of all full-size images from /mlp/, which was then uploaded to the Internet Archive. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /an/ - Animals & Nature (2012?) Lost X- heinessen.com (not backed up) /fit/ - Fitness 2010-10-12 imcute.yt <- heinessen.com /gif/ - Adult GIF (2012?) Lost X- heinessen.com (not backed up) /int/ - International (2012?) Lost X- heinessen.com (not backed up) /k/ - Weapons 2012-07-13 archive.moe <- heinessen.com /mlp/ - Ponies 2012-08-08 archive.moe & imcute.yt <- heinessen.com /r9k/ - ROBOT9000 2014-11-10 archive.moe <- heinessen.com /toy/ - Toys (2012?) Lost X- heinessen.com (not backed up) vidya.moe Status: Transferred A short-lived archive for /v/ and /vg/. Shortly before it was shutdown it was revealed that it was actually run by Foolz Archive, launched after they found a way to continue offering public access to /v/'s archive, and run from a different domain due to fears that Foolz's userbase would react negatively to the archive being re-enabled. All of its content was transferred with the rest of Foolz's data to archive.moe. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /v/ - Video Games 2012-02-12 archive.moe <- vidya.moe <- foolz.us <- deniableplausibility.net /vg/ - Video Games Generals 2012-02-16 (from birth) archive.moe <- vidya.moe <- foolz.us <- deniableplausibility.net archive.thedarkcave.org Status: Transferred An archiver for /c/, /int/, /out/ (since birth), and /po/. All archives were transferred safely to Foolz in June 2014. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /c/ - Cute Animu 2012-04-02 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org /int/ - International 2013-01-08 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org /out/ - Outdoors 2012-03-18 (from birth) archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org /po/ - Papercraft and Origami 2010-10-20 archive.moe <- foolz.us <- thedarkcave.org boards.deniableplausibility.net An archiver for /v/ and /vg/. It may have started and suddenly stopped sometime in Summer 2014. Foolz already archived the same date range, so nothing of value was lost. Though it would be nice if someone had the archives from this site, it could be used to restore /v/ and /vg/ thumbnails on Archive.moe. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /v/ - Video Games (guess) A few days (1-3) prior to 6/22/14 deniableplausibility.net /vg/ - Video Games Generals (guess) Around 7/4/14 deniableplausibility.net Lost Archives Archives of which there are no backups of, and only a few web scrapes from the Internet Archive. fgts.jp fgts.jp URL fgts.jp Project status Offline Archiving status Not saved yet Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown Status: Offline Saves Images?: Yes Board Date of Oldest Thread /asp/ - Alternative Sports 2015-04-18 /b/ - Random 2015-04-18 /cm/ - Cute/Male 2015-04-18 /gd/ - Graphic Design 2015-05-07 /h/ - Hentai 2015-04-18 /hc/ - Hardcore 2015-04-18 /hm/ - Handsome Men 2015-04-18 /n/ - Transportation 2015-04-18 /out/ - Outdoors 2015-08-06 /p/ - Photography 2015-04-18 /po/ - Papercraft & Oragami 2014-08-13 /qa/ - Question & Answer 2015-04-18 /r/ - Adult Requests 2015-04-18 /s/ - Sexy Beautiful Women 2015-03-02 /soc/ - Cams & Meetups 2015-04-18 /toy/ - Toys 2015-04-18 /vp/ - Pokémon 2015-10-07 /y/ - Yaoi 2015-04-18 fgts.jp suffered an irrecoverable hard drive crash in April 2015, causing all data archived before then to be lost. On the flip side, it will be importing Archive.moe's /vp/ archive. At 11:08 AM EST, Bui closed fgts.jp. Read the full message here: https://archive.is/78Buf https://i.imgur.com/XH7AUKU.png 4zip 4zip URL 4zip.org Project status Offline Archiving status Not saved yet Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown A site that saves threads using the shiny new 4archive Lumen framework, starting in mid-2015. This site is notable as users submit threads to archive, and full size images are stored separately through Imgur and Imageshack. Unfortunately, it shut down sometime between October 2015 and January 2016, and there are no backups. There are some threads scraped on the Internet Archive. imcute.yt imcute.yt URL imcute.yt Project status Offline Archiving status Not saved yet Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown Status: Offline Saves Images?:Yes A Fuuka archiver that started with /gif/, /int/, /jp/, /out/, presumably around 2014-08-09. It's resumed archiving all boards originally covered by Heinessen (/an/, /fit/, /gif/, /mlp/, /r9k/, /sp/, /toy/) except /k/ and /x/. Unfortunately, only /fit/ and /mlp/ contain Heinessen's full archival history prior to 2014, since the rest were not backed up. (though Heinessen's /r9k/ history was inherited by Archive.moe). It used to archive /sp/, but stopped in the aftermath of the /sp/ April Uprising. The owner, tali, abandoned archival and did not provide backups before deleting all data. What a tragedy. Board Date of Oldest Thread Pedigree /an/ - Animals & Nature 2014-10-15 imcute.yt /fit/ - Fitness 2010-10-12 imcute.yt <- heinessen.com /gif/ - Adult GIF 2014-08-09 imcute.yt /int/ - International 2014-10-18 imcute.yt /mlp/ - Ponies 2012-08-08 imcute.yt <- heinessen.com /out/ - Outdoor 2014-07-12 (from birth) imcute.yt /qa/ Q & A 2015-01-23 (from birth) imcute.yt /r9k/ - ROBOT9000 2014-11-10 imcute.yt /toy/ - Toys 2014-07-12 imcute.yt WorldAthleticProject Status: Offline Archived?: No Start Date: (sometime before Aug. 22 2013) End Date: 2013-10-23 WorldAthleticProject was an archiver for the boards /cm/, /s/, /con/, /e/, /h/, /hc/, /soc/, /s4s/, /d/, /pol/, /adv/, /trv/, /lgbt/, /r/, /u/, and /y/. This archiver also attempted to make a Fuuka vertabrim archive of /b/. Unfortunately, given that /b/tards are a feisty bunch and post CP from time to time (and deletions are difficult to transfer to the archiver), despite having a decent report system, the owner probably wiped all data in a panic when the partyvan came to his door. Apparently reports aren't enough, you need to log users as well, as fgts,jp will tell you in their archive. This is the most significant loss of data since the Chanarchive. We need to catalog what was lost (check archival start dates), and possibly recover some bits via Internet Archeology on the Wayback Machine. nth.pensivenonsen.se Status: Offline Archived?: No Start Date: May 10, 2013 End Date: Jun 16 2013 This archive was built by an anon after Foolz stopped archiving /vg/ for a few months. He obtained the backups of /vg/ from Foolz and rehosted it on his own server. However, he had inadequate hardware for the large amount of traffic, search didn't always work, and eventually when Foolz gained better infrastructure, they were able to start archiving /vg/ again, so this archive closed. It is unknown whether the data gathered here was transferred to Foolz, or simply lost. Foolzashit Status: Offline Start Date: (before June 2013) End Date: (around Nov. 2013) Foolzashit was an archiver for /adv/, /asp/, /cm/, /e/, /i/, /lgbt/, /n/, /o/, /p/, /s/, /s4s/ (since its inception), /t/, /trv/, /y/. Unfortunately, it was lost in its entirety and backups were not made, so all /s4s/ posts predating Nov. 2013 (when 4plebs.org began archiving) are lost. Chanarchive Chanarchive (formerly 4chanarchive) URL Chanarchive.org, formerly 4chanarchive.org Project status Offline Archiving status Lost Project source Unknown Project tracker Unknown IRC channel Project lead Unknown 4chan's primary archive site. Since 2006, significant 4chan threads have been archived on the 4chanarchive, creating a database of over 500GBs. On 10/3/2012, Chanarchive without warning, temporarily shut down (almost permanently though). On a, the owner stated that the site was banned from PayPal and had their funds frozen, making it impossible to pay it's massive expenses. However, the operators of Encyclopedia Dramatica stepped in, and offered to host chanarchive.org, which was accepted by the site's creator/then-owner, "Capsized". It is unclear whether this transfer actually happened though[1]. On 2013-08-01, after recurring issues with the site for months, Chanarchive went down once again due to irreparable data corruption caused by a hard drive failure[2][3]. It never returned after this, and an update on the archive's Facebook page in September 2014 said that the data was lost entirely when the host, srsvps, went out of business. "MIA" was said to possibly still have access to the data but had been unreachable for over a year.[4]. Internet Archive only has intermittent captures of the site. The Bibliotheca Anonoma is attempting to resurrect some portions of the site through Internet Archeology, by sifting through the Wayback Machine's many snapshots of 4chanarchive/Chanarchive. Not everything will be saved, and images are mostly lost, but a significant portion of the threads can at least be read.There are two kinds of Serious Dog Lovers: those who clamor to volunteer at county animal shelters, and those who cannot stomach them. The animals in county shelters can be pretty miserable. Yelps and whimpers echoing down the halls, bleachy antiseptics and the musk of panic in the air, cold hard floors, gray metal cages, and cells, full of healthy onetime loyal companions wagging their tails too hard, or worse, not at all, when a new person happens by — it is all too much for the faint of heart to bear. Luckily, Marcos Javier Garcia, 36, a Miami lawyer and emerging photographer, is the shelter volunteer kind of dog lover. He steeled his nerves and offered himself to the Miami-Dade Animal Services Pet Adoption and Protection Center (known as MDAS) in 2015. The shelter, like most public animal adoption centers across the country, was overcrowded and overwhelmed. (Around 7.6 million animals enter shelters each year, and nearly three million never make it out.) Photo Even after opening a gleaming new building last year, which is easier on both its animals and humans, the center has to triage its load of abandoned, injured and stray animals. Officials say they now save 90 percent of the over 27,000 animals that are brought in each year, more than ever. Yet that figure — and the numbers tend to vary, depending on who’s counting — that still suggests that the lives of more than 2,700 cats and dogs are cut short through no fault of their own. Mr. Garcia, who turned his own dog, Obie, a black and white Dingo-like multi-breed, into an Instagram star (#obiethedingbat) saw an opportunity to volunteer beyond the usual ways. He was practicing and experimenting with a Leica Q. What better way to work on his black and white compositions — he had taught himself to use a manual SLR — than taking pictures at the shelter? His photographic essay, which covers approximately six months of his time at the Miami-Dade shelter, began with a simple aim: “I originally intended to take portraits of the dogs and share them on social media,” he said, “hoping to solve the problem of dog oversupply one dog at a time.” Static portraits, like the kind used on adoption sites, failed to bring the animals or their circumstances to life, he thought. So he began documenting scenes at the shelter instead. Photo Dogs and cats are celebrated on social media, and a pageant — the Westminster Dog Show — makes headlines every year. But the images in his series are not meant to be sweet or cute. Mr. Garcia is conveying the limitations and stresses of shelter life. A tender moment of a dog reaching through its cage to touch Mr. Garcia’s hand, or poking a nose through a wire fencing in greeting, reveals more about the dog and the situation than a disconnected portrait, he found. His favorite image is almost abstract: a dog, barely visible save for the tail poking through its kennel gate, turned away from the world. “It’s the whole story in the most minimal parts,” he said. “The dog is facing away from the kennel gate, which sometimes happens, especially with new dogs.” Especially dear to him, and heavily represented in his essay, are pit bulls. Segregated from the rest of the shelter animals, they are typically doomed to die unless an out-of-county adopter or, more likely, an animal rescue group, saves them. The breed, one of the most plentiful in shelters across the country, is banned by law in Miami-Dade. Owning a pit bull is punishable by a $500 fine and confiscation. Another aspect of shelter life Mr. Garcia wanted to document was the intake, when dogs are unloaded from vans and “processed.” “Working as a volunteer — guiding people through the aisles looking for lost dogs, assisting people in viewing and adopting dogs, riding along with animal control cops and, what was worse, watching people surrender dogs to the shelter after signing a document advising them their dog may be euthanized — all of this gave me a firsthand perspective on what drove this problem: Supply outstripped demand,” Mr. Garcia said. “The economics of the shelter dog reality are as cold as its consequences. Given the finite amount of space to house the unwanted dogs, sometimes over 100 a day, harsh decisions must be made as to which dogs live and which dogs die.” While the essay is an artistic expression, it is meant to do what Mr. Garcia intended when he volunteered at the shelter: help save some animals. Whether it works remains a question. Lens readers are the first to see it. Follow @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Marcos Javier Garcia is also on Instagram. You can also find Lens on Facebook and Instagram.General Overview This all-in hits your opponent’s main with a lot of speed Roaches. However, Jaedong puts his own clever flair on this traditional ZvT All-in by using an Overlord Roach Drop to guarantee his Nydus follow-up is successful. Build Order 9 – Overlord 15 – Hatchery 17 – Extractor 16 – Spawning Pool 17 – Overlord 18 – @100% Spawning Pool, start 2 Queens and 2 Zerglings 24 – @100 Gas, start Metabolic Boost and Overlord Pull 2 Drones out of the Extractor @50 Gas (or when scouting Reaper/SCV has been denied), put 2 Drones back in the Extractor @100 Gas, start Lair and 3 more Extractors Benchmark : When your Lair starts (@5:40ish), you should have 2 Queens, and around 30 Drones : When your Lair starts (@5:40ish), you should have 2 Queens, and around 30 Drones @100% Extractors, start Roach Warren and saturate all Extractors with Drones @100% Lair, start Ventral Sacs, Roach Speed, Overlord Speed Start a bunch of Overlords and constant Roach production Drop your opponent with Roaches when your Overlord speed finishes (@9:30ish) with around 20 Roaches and Roach reinforcements rallied at home. Make a Nydus Network as you move out with the Roaches – you want to be able to deploy the Nydus Worm as you drop the Roaches. with Roaches when your Overlord speed finishes (@9:30ish) with around 20 Roaches and Roach reinforcements rallied at home. Make a Nydus Network as you move out with the Roaches – you want to be able to deploy the Nydus Worm as you drop the Roaches. Continuously reinforce from the Nydus Network into your opponent’s main with Roach reinforcements. Scouting First scout with your initial Zerglings. Use them to take the Xel’Naga Watchtowers or send them outside the front of Terran’s base depending on the map. If you see Terran move out with some kind of very early force, position your Queens to defend your natural and consider getting a
'd certainly be the highest paid goalie in the sport. Is he the best goalie in the sport? No, unfortunately he is not. I can't even get into what this would mean for Jeff Carter or Scott Hartnell or Kris Versteeg or Matt Carle or whoever else. I'm just irritated over this. $7 million dollars a year. Whatever, I'm going on vacation tomorrow.Update: This article stated that Republic previously offered unlimited domestic roaming - this is not correct. Republic previously offered 100MB of domestic roaming, and is dropping that to 25MB. Republic hasn't made this policy super clear in the past, so this information wasn't exactly easy to come by. One of the more innovative low-cost MVNOs in the smartphone era has undoubtedly been Republic Wireless, a Sprint-powered carrier that offers extremely competitive pricing on the philosophy that, if people are given a good deal on wireless service, they will try to do whatever they can to keep that service afloat. Republic strongly encourages users to map out public Wi-Fi hotspots and use private Wi-Fi whenever they can in place of mobile data in order to keep costs, and thus rates, low for Republic and its subscribers. Part of Republic's plans to date has been unlimited 100MB of domestic data roaming, though, and the company claims it simply can't bear the cost of this service anymore. Citing a 3000% markup over offering data directly through Sprint's network, Republic is dropping unlimited domestic data roaming for all subscribers down to 25MB per bill cycle, effective next week (there will be no grandfathering), September 15th. Republic's ToS already states, essentially, that usage of roaming data on the network isn't a right, it's a privilege, and as such Republic has already reached out to subscribers who it claims are "exploiting" this roaming coverage in a way not consistent with its subscriber agreement. Those people will, most likely, be forced to leave Republic or drastically change their usage habits. Everyone else will be limited to a 25MB allotment of roaming data per month, which Republic claims is enough for most of its subscribers who utilize roaming responsibly to start with. Roaming speeds will also drop, which will further reduce the incentive to abuse. Add-on plans for greater amounts of roaming data will be introduced later this year, though expect them to be relatively costly, given Republic's alleged financial burden when it does provide that data. You can read more about the announcement here. Republic WirelessADDRESS: 325 Grand Avenue Iowa City, IA 52246 LOCATION: Slater Hall can be found on the west side of campus, just across the Iowa River on Grand Avenue in Iowa City, across from Rienow Hall. Slater Hall is right next to the sports campus and health sciences campus and hospital. DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY: Slater Hall is a multi-storied, typical, modern brick building resident hall that is found on many college campuses, with housing for 499 students. It is solidly built, and completely air-conditioned for its coed residents. Each floor has its own lounge, with a piano probably on the first floor lounge. It’s dining facility is located in Hillcrest Hall. There is easy access to this dining facility, the field House recreational facilities, the computer labs and fitness center, which is a must as Iowa can have nasty weather. HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS: Some students enter college who are not ready for the pressure of academics, new relationships, etc. and if they are psychologically weak, pressure and emotional upset can push them over the edge. (Indiana University at Bloomington * Central Washington University * Idaho State University) A freshman male resident jumped off the ninth floor and killed himself. MANIFESTATIONS: The entity of the student: The entity of this young man has been reported by residents as he walks forlornly around the halls. Some claim that he is carrying an ax, late at night; a probable embellishment added to scare the younger students. His footsteps and screams are also heard by the living. The other legend is a scary tale which I think was drummed up to scare the younger residents. The story tells the tale of a serial killer, known as The Penguin who patrolled the area where the west campus is now located in the 1800s, looking for babies to feast upon, who must have eventually been caught and hung. The legend says that his evil spirit is haunting Slater Hall, reinventing itself in the form of: A fat R.A. who roams the first floor, looking for freshman to eat. A menacing entity is roaming the halls, looking for more victims. STILL HAUNTED? Yes, the entity of the young man is still haunting the halls, according to resident eye witnesses.This sad entity who killed himself hasn’t found the peace and release he was seeking, and he continues to wander aimlessly around the halls. Suicide creates a lot of restless spirits. While the axe detail may have been an added embellishment, to scare the younger students, it may be true. If it is true, perhaps this entity wanted to take his misfortune out on others, and regrets not doing so. Perhaps he might of been one of the modern day individuals who have attacked others on campus with a gun before killing themselves. Instead of a gun, perhaps he wanted to knife someone. Luckily, this young man didn’t act on this murderous thought, but unfortunately didn’t get mental health help in time to save his life. However, it is likely not to be true, because entities don’t change after death, and behave like they did while alive. His entity is still wandering around lost, occasionally reliving his dramatic death. SOURCES INCLUDE: essortment.com * theshadowlands.net * geocities.com VISIT GREAT HAUNTED HOTELSHere’s a fun little experiment from Hidden Pineapple, the minds behind Windows Phone and Windows 8 Twitter client Rowi. It’s called mytil.es and is simply a place to share your Windows Phone 8 home screens.The site allows you to: See the latest screenshots posted Sign in with Facebook or Twitter and upload your own E-mail your screenshots to a specific e-mail address to upload them View details about each screenshot Download the full size screenshot Facebook Like or Tweet a screenshot They are doing a soft launch and just seeing if there is any interest for projects like this. Be sure to report any bugs and leave feedback for the team. For me personally, it's fun to see little projects like this for the Windows Phone community. I'm looking forward to seeing how other people organize their start screen. So, what apps occupy your home screen "above the fold"? Share them in the comments below! Bonus Tip: Don't know how to do a screenshot in Windows Phone 8? Just press Power and the Windows key at the same time. Then head to your Photo Hub and look under Screenshots. That's it!JACKSON, MS—Citing a wish to maintain the quality of life for residents across the state, the Mississippi Senate on Thursday passed a bill outlawing the sale of soft drinks in containers smaller than 20 ounces. “We have a responsibility to ensure that Mississippians are consuming sugary beverages at an acceptably high and constant rate, and this ban will see to it that this standard is upheld,” said State Sen. Terry W. Brown (R-District 17) in a morning news conference, adding that the new law will be strictly enforced by state authorities and that any business caught selling soda, coffee, tea, lemonade, sports drinks, or energy drinks in standard cans or containers rather than 64 or 85-oz. cups will be subject to a fine. “This isn’t just about the comfort of individual consumers, it’s about the welfare and overall happiness of entire communities. The fact that a resident of this state could consume less than the equivalent of 16 packets of sugar in one beverage is simply unacceptable, and it demands immediate action.” Brown also called for stricter limits on diet sodas, the sale of which Mississippi lawmakers hope to restrict to minors by the end of the year. AdvertisementIt’s hard to say whether or not we’re in another comedy golden age – it really depends on where you’re sitting. If you’re sitting in a packed crowd for the 9pm show at The Comedy Cellar, then yeah, comedy seems to be at least as good as it has ever been. If you’re sitting on your couch in front of your TV, browsing all the standup specials on Netflix, Hulu, or HBO GO, it certainly seems more accessible than ever before. However, if you’re sitting on a broken chair in a dingy basement, clinging to a beer as your only source of comfort while you listen to everybody’s HOT TAKES on whatever is trending at that particular moment, you might need some convincing before you go ahead and claim that comedy is better than ever. After spending nearly a decade in precisely that situation, the shadowy figure of @OpenMicComic was born. While @OpenMicComic typically keeps things light, his critiques are no less pointed. And he may have gotten a little cynical over the course of all of those years spent listening to beginner standups trying to find their legs. For the purpose of this interview, feel free to imagine that @OpenMicComic began before I could turn on my recorder, saying “You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!” Andy Kaufman inspired me to ruin comedy. — Open Mic Comic (@OpenMicComic) November 4, 2015 So, what information about your identify as @OpenMicComic are you okay with confirming? I’ve admitted I’m a dude. I said to someone I’m a dude, that’s all you’re getting. And that’s where it’s going to stay. Did this just come out of frustration or was it something else that spurred you to make the account? Yeah, it was frustration. I needed to vent safely, and if I didn’t vent I was going to lose my mind. But I’d been at this long enough where I understood the repercussions. I never intended for @OpenMicComic to become the “hack police.” It becomes that way sometimes by accident, because you run out of stuff to tweet, frankly, but it was more always about etiquette and attitude and how I just found myself over the years with more people being rewarded for making mistakes, which just gives them false feedback and the whole thing snowballs, and you can’t voice that anywhere. So I thought, before someone else jumps on this, I’d better. There have been some copycats, they don’t last long, but there’s been a few. The same exact thing or just similar? I’ve seen “Comedy Industry Person,” stuff like that. One person specifically sent me “Female NY Open Micer.” That just seems like it’d be some sort of weird misogyny shit. I looked at the thing and like, even for me, that’s some hate. I feel bad looking at that thing. I feel like, even if your account was born out of annoyance with open mic tropes, there is a fun-loving nature to it. Especially to the recurring “hump day” thing. That’s my favorite part. There’s always some guy who thinks because it’s Wednesday… I don’t know how office humor carried over into open mic world. Probably because we’re all just so supportive and now we make little bubbles and that’s a whole other thing. Do you think the account has helped make open mics more bearable? Like do you think that people are learning from seeing the stuff you post? Oh, dear God, no. We’re doomed. We are in so much trouble. I don’t know if the industry is dying, I don’t know if the money is there or disappearing or whatever. The quality of comedy is in the shitter. We’ve developed this thing where instead of being the ones who burst the bubbles, now we become the bubbles. We’ve become the crybabies. It’s pathetic, and all we just do now is fight amongst each other. The idea of being supportive is killing everything. Supportive should really just mean that you don’t stone-face someone when you think their joke’s funny. You’re not holding out on a laugh because you don’t want to hurt the new guy or don’t care. Supportive isn’t laughing out loud at your buddy’s thing and within our scene we all just crack up at each other and when there’s a real show, it’s always the audience’s fault. Right – supportive shouldn’t mean misleading. Yeah, and there’s little etiquette things you can do. Not sitting up front with your phone in your face or talking the whole time. If you’ve gotta leave early, you gotta leave early, but you can stay for a little bit. Make an effort! That’s supportive. Supportive isn’t giving everyone false feedback so everyone thinks they’re a genius. You and your twenty friends aren’t all going to make it. It’s just unrealistic. And with all the new clubs, we’re all moving towards this world where every comic independently books a show. It just becomes a circle jerk of spot trading. Every producer’s different, but every show looks the same. All the lineups are all the same people now. So we’ve created a system of comedy where it’s like we’re bowling at a children’s birthday party and they put the bumpers in the gutters. That’s what we’ve done to comedy. We’ve destroyed it. And that’s a part of the function of @OpenMicComic, to kind of point out these things that take away from the quality of the comedy we’re all distributing. And I mean that in the sense of how we go about producing shows, but also in the sense that you tweet jokes that we’ve all heard and seen a million times – it’s useful to kind of have this collection of stuff that says “hey by the way, this isn’t new.” Yeah exactly. Sometimes I try to cut something off prematurely. Here’s the fun thing about this account and people might read this and say, oh he’s only got a little bit under four thousand followers, it’s not like a hundred thousand thing, what’s the big deal? Let me explain something about @OpenMicComic. I lose followers every time I tweet. The ones with the most favorites and retweets with the best numbers of my group, I always go down five or six followers because chances are I did the thing that a bunch of people are doing and now they’re butthurt about it. It’s the same way you have that audience that laughs at everything except the one issue that’s offensive to them, comics have become the same babies whether they want to admit it or not. They make their own monsters, they’ve got to look in the mirror sometime, and they’re not doing it. So trying to gain followers with this account is hilarious, it’s like running on a hamster wheel because all the good ones make all my followers mad. So you just kind of get new people. Thankfully it’s grown out, there’s like a lot of Australians and Canadians involved now. A bunch of New York, a bunch of the Northwest. What is the worst reaction you’ve ever gotten? I’ve had some people, they just want to argue because it’s Twitter and that’s what you do. I said something once, for example, about playing with the mic stand too much, and of course someone has to send me a screenshot of Bill Burr doing it. Problem is, he’s Bill Burr. I doubt he played with that mic stand for an hour. He was probably in the middle of something where it was necessary for him to do so. Or if I do a joke that someone famous did on a special five years ago, someone will be like, “Oh so you’re saying so-and-so’s a hack? You’re saying Jim Gaffigan’s a hack?” No, I’m saying that, since that special, everyone else has been doing that joke for five years. I’m not saying that famous comic’s a hack. I’m saying you’re all doing it right now, and that’s why I’m tweeting it today. That’s my point. Then there are people who don’t know what the account is, so they think I’m just trying to be funny. You know, “Good job, everyone else has made the same joke!” You’re right, sir, I’m an ass. You win. I’m going to re-think the whole thing. I got one today, “This account isn’t funny at all.” Other people think I’m a team; I get that one, like a Funny or Die type thing. How do you decide what to tweet? Is it just whatever you hear at the mics you’re at? That’s where I get the etiquette ones. Anybody doing something with the mic stand annoys me all the time. Anybody screaming into the mic when it’s close, or jamming the mic stand without twisting it instead… Or handing the microphone to somebody else like a baton in a relay race when the mic stand’s right there. From time to time you’ll make out-of-character posts. What inspires you the most to post out of character? That idea of “I’m only doing this for me.” This therapy approach to comedy mixed in with the over-supportive content, the over-supportive quality of their community. You might feel warm and fuzzy for that day, but you’re destroying yourself as a comic. This whole idea of we’re all champions, we all get a trophy, we’re ruining our own industry. I don’t know why we’re doing this to standup comedy. No one really shits on themselves anymore. “I killed!”, I always see that on Facebook. They go, “I killed!” Anyone who posts “I killed” has probably never done so. They don’t understand. They use words like “killing” and “destroying” and “crushing” and all that crap. They don’t know what any of those words mean. They’ve never done any of those things. They did okay. They got some laughs and that’s enough. “Some laughs” has become enough, that’s what we’ve done now. Do you think the account has helped you, personally? Do you think it’s channeled your anger? It’s definitely helped me. The way that I say people shouldn’t be using the stage as therapy, at least not directly; I’ve used @OpenMicComic as therapy. The only difference is I don’t have an audience sitting in front of my Twitter account expecting me to do a different job. It’s just Twitter. That’s what it’s for. Twitter is to vent, Facebook is to vent and put out whatever garbage you want to put out. So I don’t feel any guilt in that, that’s what it’s for. You can unfollow me anytime. You didn’t spend a dime. You can ignore me. If there’s anything I get out of it, yeah, it’s my punching bag. I do hope that it gets bigger and becomes a guide for what not to do or for questioning your own originality. God forbid you’re not a comedy genius today. God forbid you’re having a slow day. Nobody wants to come to terms with where they are just continuing along their path. It’s like everyone who’s not on top is obsessed with everyone who is. Everyone who’s trying to make it is not looking at themselves. They’re all looking at who’s on top, what they do right, what they do wrong. I think there’s a righteousness that comes from it. The last couple times Seinfeld spoke up and said something people don’t like, he said something about, you know, colleges being too sensitive and a few months before that he had a diversity remark. All the sudden, all these people who I only know because I’ve done mics and shows with them, all of the sudden these people have these long eighteen paragraph posts on why Seinfeld doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about. If you disagree with him, fine. But wouldn’t you at least give the guy the respect of an amazing thirty-something year career to hear him out? He doesn’t… he hasn’t done enough to earn your respect, other not famous guy? What the hell’s the matter with you? Why wouldn’t you just listen? No one listens. I don’t know if it’s a generational thing with the Internet, they grew up with it, they don’t have to listen. Maybe that’s part of it. Maybe standup comedy wasn’t meant to exist beyond the year 2000-whatever. Maybe the whole thing’s dying and it’s supposed to because it doesn’t apply in our world anymore. The same reason there’s no more Vaudeville. I mean, it’s the goddamnedest thing. The same reason sitcoms are dying out. It doesn’t apply to us anymore. Maybe I’m the dinosaur. Maybe I’m the one who crawls around in the park just waiting for the meteor to hit. Maybe my time is coming. I don’t know the answer. I could walk out of this place right now and get hit by a bus. I have to decide what I left behind. Photo by Noel Reinhold. Phil Stamato lives and writes in New York, where he may also be seen standing up and telling jokes. If you are reading this you are legally bound to follow him on Twitter.Last year, my buddy and I started about 1000 IVs in our hospital. We’ve become an unofficial IV start team and get called by other floors on a regular basis to help start IVs on patients who are difficult sticks. UPDATE: Check out the mega thread with all of our IV articles on the Nursejanx Forum! At this point, in our opinion the best IVs to start are the hard ones. They help us improve our skills rather than simply maintain them, and offer exciting challenges. Plus, there’s nothing more badass than being one of the only people in the hospital who can get an IV sometimes. It’s pretty cool! Now, time for some knowledge sharing! Join Our Community! Visit the Nursejanx Forum and dive into a discussion with your peers 😀 Check it out! Tourniquet etiquette One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is that they have a tourniquet on tight as hell, and they leave that sucker on throughout the entire process. This is the best way to make a vein blow. The goal should always be to have the least amount of pressure in the vein as possible. If you don’t even have to use a tourniquet, that’s great! Sometimes you can put one on very loose, just enough to see some veins. In all situations, you want to get rid of the tourniquet IMMEDIATELY once you see a flash of blood start to fill up your chamber. The longer you have the tourniquet on, the pressure in the vein is going to keep rising, and once you poke a hole in the vein you’ve significantly weakened its structure. TLDR; Use a tourniquet only when necessary, keep it as loose as possible, and remove it ASAP once you are in the vein. Valves If you’ve managed to get into the vein and not blow it from tourniquet pressure, the second most likely reason you’ll blow a vein is because of valves. Check out the figure above. Our veins have valves all along them to prevent the back-flow of blood and keep it moving towards the heart. Think of them as little french doors that open every time your heart beats to allow blood to go through, and then close every time there is a pause so that gravity or other forces doesn’t pull the blood back away from the heart. If the valves are open, you can advance a catheter through them rather easily, but if they’re closed… not so much. By trying to force something through a closed valve, you are going to rupture it, and your vein is going to explode. How can I avoid valves all together? There are some things you can do to avoid valves or get through them. First, you should always test the vein to see if it has valves in the area you are trying to stick. The fastest way to find a valve is to assume that any visible or palpable “knots” along a vein will be a valve, and to look for where veins come together or branch apart. All these spots are common valve areas. But if you’re not sure, here’s a reliable method for finding sneaky valves. Start by holding distal pressure with your finger below where you’re going to place the IV, and then with the other hand, use another finger to press and push the blood proximal to the patient from where you are still holding distal pressure. Basically you’re trying to push the blood out of a piece of the vein without letting it refill with blood. Now without releasing the finger holding distal pressure, release the second (proximal) finger that you pushed the blood out with, and you should see the blood flow backwards until it stops somewhere. Wherever it stops flowing, you know there’s a valve there, because the valve stopped it from going further backwards. If the entire vein puffs back up with blood all the way back to your finger still holding distal pressure, then you should be free of valves in that entire region of the vein that you tested. You only need about 1.5 inches of valve free vein (just look at your catheter), so this is your best bet to not have to worry about valves. It’s kinda hard to explain in writing, so please check out this instructional video below for a better understanding of how to locate valves. How can I navigate through valves? Sometimes you don’t have the option to avoid valves altogether and you have to go through them. It’s rare, but it happens. I remember a guy who had a single good vein, but every inch or so there was a valve. In this case, we had no choice but to get the catheter through the valves. How do you do that? You float it! Floating in an IV is super fun once you’re good at it. Firstly, you need to get the tip of the catheter into the vein and establish a good back-flow of blood. Once you’ve gotten the tip of the catheter in, you need to advance it just a couple of millimeters further so that the entire catheter tip is in the vein, instead of just the tip of the bevel. Next, you can slowly start advancing your catheter (not needle, never needle) until you start to feel the slightest bit of resistance. At this point, you’re poking a valve, so STOP ADVANCING THE CATHETER. Back up just a bit from where you felt resistance, and connect your flush. Start pulling back to get blood return in your flush as you would if you had just placed an IV (despite the fact that half of your catheter might not be in the vein yet… that’s okay). Once you have blood return, start slowing pushing saline. This pressure from the saline flush will open the valve, and while continuing to slowly push saline, you can simultaneously wiggle and advance the catheter through the valve. How to float an IV Check out this video detailing how to float an IV through a vein with lots of valves. Miscellaneous Pro Tips Remember IV catheters have a bevel You could do everything else right, but if you start to threat a catheter before you have the entire bevel in the vein, you can blow it. You always need an extra couple of millimeters more than when you first get a flash of blood. The first part of the bevel might be in, but if you start threading before you get the rest of it, the sharp jagged edge of the bevel can tear the vein wall, and that sucker is gonna explode. Never advance the needle further than necessary This might seem obvious to most, but you only have to insert the metal needle far enough to get the entire bevel of the catheter into the vein, that’s all. The further you insert the metal needle, the higher the chance that you’ll accidentally pierce through the vein. The plastic catheter is softer, and is the only thing you should be threading into the vein. Tight skin saves IVs With older patients especially, loose skin can make it hard to advance a catheter. Always hold the skin taught when advancing your catheter, or it will scrunch up and likely tear something… and it’s probably going to be the vein you just stuck. Wiggle Power Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle 🎶. You don’t have to sing Jason Derulo and Snoop Dogg (we do), but you should twist, twirl, & roll the catheter as you’re advancing it while floating, or if the vein is a little tortuous, or if you’re just being cautious. This helps the catheter navigate through little turns, bumps, or other obstacles in the vein. Shallow First! Once again, this may be super obvious, but always start shallow with your approach angle and gradually go deeper. The vein might only be a few millimeters tall, and if your approach angle is too steep, you could go right through it and blow it. I’ve read articles (obviously written by noobs) that say 15 degrees minimum, all the way up to 45 freaking degrees. That’s insane! I’d say 15 degrees max for an initial approach angle, but probably even less most of the time. Just remember, you can always go deeper, but you can’t undo a punctured vein because you started out too deep. Buddy System IV buddies are seriously underrated. Going into a room with a colleague takes the pressure off of just you and can help you relax. Plus, two sets of eyes makes finding a good vein easier and faster. Sometimes you need all your focus to just stick the vein, and have the other person help attach the flush, hold skin, help float the IV, reassure the patient, etc. IV starts are way easier with two people than by yourself. UPDATE: Check out the mega thread with all of our IV articles on the Nursejanx Forum!Welcome to Wii Reddit's source for news, pictures, reviews, videos, community insight, & anything related to Nintendo's 7th-generation console, the Wii. Subreddit Guidelines HOVER FOR MORE INFO All users are expected to be respectful to other users at all times. Remember the Human & follow the Reddiquette! Please respect everyone's views & opinions. 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Be sure to read their guidelines & rules to make everything easy for everyone. Upcoming Events Event Date NA NA Note, times are in Eastern Time (US) format unless otherwise noted. Upcoming Games DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE Game NA EU Just Dance 2018 Oct Oct For more upcoming games, click here!What follows is a journal written by one of the operatives in the second XCOM campaign, Alan Robertson. We’ve known for a while that there was a UFO that had been searching for us, but we’d been able to avoid its detection. Today, we were not that lucky. It has found us, and it is closing in quickly on us. We try some evasive maneuvers, but it hits us with a blast. We lost power and start going down hard. Shen looks and sees no damage to the engines and realizes they must have hit us with an EMP pulse. Shen works her magic and gets us on emergency power. It’s not enough to keep us flying, but it’s enough to keep us from crashing and destroying the ship. We work on trying to get her airborne again, but we’re not having any success. That’s when Shen lets us know that we have a big problem. ADVENT has dropped some sort of spike outside the Avenger that is generating the same EMP pulse that brought us down. Central comes to the realization at this point that it’s not us that ADVENT wants. It’s our ship. It’s determined that there is no way to neutralize the spike from inside. We’re going to have to take a team outside and destroy it ourselves. We’re also going to need to prevent the ADVENT forces from boarding and taking over the ship. In a move borne out of desperation, Central is even letting wounded soldiers participate in this mission due to its critical nature. Plus, we’re going in with more soldiers than normal for a mission. So, today’s mission lineup will be Lieutenant Kelly, Sergeant Ishikawa, Sergeant Girard, Squaddie Ye, Rookie Keenan, and myself (Sergeant Robertson). As soon as we step out of the Avenger, I feel an overwhelming sense of fear, more than I’ve ever felt before on a mission. I soon know why as Central lets us know that we have even more of a problem than just the disruptor spike. It seems there is a lot of communications chatter, and that there are dozens of ADVENT transports heading to our position. This is an all out effort by the aliens, and they are sending everything they have at us. Ishikawa starts us out by moving up into some cover outside the Avenger’s ramp. Ye follows suit to the other end of the cover. She spies an officer and a trooper outside a fence row a ways off, but they see her and start to advance upon us. Keenan moves up to some cover just down from Ye. Kelly moves up into cover between Ishikawa and Ye. Girard takes cover at the end of the ramp, and goes into overwatch. Ishikawa, Ye, and Keenan all follow suit and go into overwatch also. I move up into more cover at the end of the ramp and go into overwatch. Kelly pulls out one of her axes and throws it at the trooper, but her throw falls just short and misses. She then pulls out her bolt caster and takes down the officer with a well placed shot. The trooper starts to move in closer, and Ishikawa takes a shot at him but misses. Girard and Ye also take a shot, but both miss as well. Keenan tries his luck, but it is not meant to be as he misses also. I don’t have time for a sniper shot, but I pull out my pistol and graze the trooper with a shot. He’s hurt but not down. As the trooper makes it into cover, he fires a rifle blast that hits Kelly. She’s also hurt but not down yet. Central lets us know they are sending in reinforcements from the Avenger’s reserves to assist in this battle. Rookie Kim steps out onto the Avenger’s ramp to join us. To get a little bit of payback for the rifle shot she took, Kelly rushes up and finishes off the trooper with a swing of her axe. Unfortunately, she spies and catches the attention of a MEC unit and two more troopers down by a derelict building downfield. They move quickly into cover. It looks like she also got the attention of two sectoids, a trooper, a stun lancer, and something I’ve never seen before. Central is calling it a Berserker. He says they can’t do much at range but are lethal up close. As the berserker charges towards us, Ishikawa lays into it with a solid volley of fire. He makes a solid hit, but the thing is still standing, giving testament to its toughness. It then bellows loudly, and I think that Ishikawa just peeved it off and enraged it. Girard hits it with a blast from his rifle, but the thing is still standing. Ye takes aim and fires her sniper rifle at it. Finally, the thing goes down after her hit. Keenan moves up a little closer to the enemies and takes down a stun lancer with one well placed shot. Kim makes a mad dash into the field and into cover shortly behind where Kelly is at. I try lining up a shot, but I do not like my chances of hitting and instead go into overwatch. One of the sectoids starts to move up closer, and hit him square in the chest with a sniper rifle shot. He’s still standing, but just barely. The other sectoid falls back a tiny bit into some cover behind a tree. He then reanimates the dead trooper. The living trooper moves up behind a tiny bit of
account of a broken leg, but little suspected that the King of France, known for his innate sense of justice, would completely annul the Provisions in his Mise of Amiens in January 1264. Civil war broke out almost immediately, with the royalists again able to confine the reformist army in London. In early May 1264, Simon marched out to give battle to the King and scored a spectacular triumph at the Battle of Lewes on 14 May 1264, capturing the King, Prince Edward, and Richard of Cornwall, Henry's brother and the titular King of Germany. Montfort announced after the Battle of Lewes that all debts owed to the Jews were cancelled, as he had promised.[32] Rule and parliamentary reform [ edit ] Montfort used his victory to set up a government based on the provisions first established at Oxford in 1258. Henry retained the title and authority of King, but all decisions and approval now rested with his council, led by Montfort and subject to consultation with parliament. His Great Parliament of 1265 (Montfort's Parliament) was a packed assembly to be sure, but it can hardly be supposed that the representation which he granted to the towns was intended to be a temporary expedient.[23] Montfort sent his summons, in the King's name, to each county and to a select list of boroughs, asking each to send two representatives. This body was not the first elected parliament in England. In 1254, Henry was in Gascony and in need of money. He gave instructions for his regent, Queen Eleanor, to summon a parliament consisting of knights elected by their shires to ask for this 'aid'. Montfort, who was in that parliament, took the innovation further by including ordinary citizens from the boroughs, also elected, and it was from this period that parliamentary representation derives. The list of boroughs which had the right to elect a member grew slowly over the centuries as monarchs granted charters to more English towns. (The last charter was given to Newark in 1674.) The right to vote in Parliamentary elections for county constituencies was uniform throughout the country, related to land ownership. In the Boroughs, the electoral franchise varied and individual boroughs had varying arrangements.[citation needed] Fall from power and death [ edit ] The reaction against Montfort's government was baronial rather than popular.[23] The Welsh Marcher Lords were friends and allies of Prince Edward, and when he escaped in May 1265, they rallied around his opposition. The final nail was the defection of Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of Gloucester, the most powerful baron and Simon's ally at Lewes. Clare had grown resentful of Simon's fame and growing power. When he and his brother Thomas fell out with Simon's sons Henry, Simon, and Guy, they deserted the reforming cause and joined Edward. Though boosted by Welsh infantry sent by Montfort's ally Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Simon's forces were severely depleted. Prince Edward attacked his cousin, his godfather's son Simon's forces at Kenilworth, capturing more of Montfort's allies. Montfort himself had crossed the Severn with his army, intending to rendezvous with his son Simon. When he saw an army approaching at Evesham, Montfort initially thought it was his son's forces. It was, however, Edward's army flying the Montfort banners they had captured at Kenilworth. At that point, Simon realised he had been out-manoeuvred by Edward. A 13th-century cloth depiction of the mutilation of Montfort's body after the Battle of Evesham An ominous black cloud hung over the field of Evesham on 4 August 1265 as Montfort led his army in a desperate uphill charge against superior forces, described by one chronicler as the "murder of Evesham, for battle it was none".[35] On hearing that his son Henry had been killed, Montfort replied, "Then it is time to die."[36] During the battle, a twelve-man squad of Edward's men had stalked the battlefield independent of Edward's main army, their sole aim being to find the earl and cut him down. Montfort was hemmed in; Roger Mortimer killed Montfort by stabbing him in the neck with a lance.[37] Montfort's last words were said to have been "Thank God".[36] Also slain with Montfort were other leaders of his movement, including Peter de Montfort and Hugh Despenser. Montfort's body was mutilated in a frenzy by the royalists. News reached the mayor and sheriffs of London that "the head of the earl of Leicester... was severed from his body, and his testicles cut off and hung on either side of his nose";[37] and in such guise the head was sent to Wigmore Castle by Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer, as a gift to his wife, Maud.[38] His hands and feet were also cut off and sent to diverse places to enemies of his as a great mark of dishonour to the deceased.[39] Such remains as could be found were buried before the altar of Evesham Abbey church by the canons. The grave was visited as holy ground by many commoners until King Henry caught wind of it. He declared that Montfort deserved no spot on holy ground, and had his remains reburied in another "secret" location, probably in the crypt.[40] The remains of some of Montfort's soldiers who had fled the battlefield were found in the nearby village of Cleeve Prior. Montfort's niece, Margaret of England, later killed one of the soldiers responsible for his death, purposely or inadvertently. Matthew Paris reports that the Bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste, once said to Montfort's eldest son, Henry, "My beloved child, both you and your father will meet your deaths on one day, and by one kind of death, but it will be in the name of justice and truth." Legacy [ edit ] In the years that followed his death, Simon de Montfort's grave was frequently visited by pilgrims. Napoleon Bonaparte described Simon de Montfort as "one of the greatest Englishmen".[41] Today, Montfort is mostly remembered as one of the fathers of representative government.[3][42][43] Memorial stone, erected 1965, on the site of Montfort's grave at Evesham Abbey Montfort bears responsibility for persecution of Jews. In addition to his expulsion of Jews from Leicester, his faction in the Second Baron's War initiated pogroms killing perhaps the majority of Jews in Worcester and around 500 in London.[4][44] The violence and killings unleashed by the war targeting Jews carried on after his death.[45] Leicester City Council made a formal statement in 2001[46][47] that "rebuked De Montfort for his blatant anti-Semitism".[48] Evesham Abbey and the site of Montfort's grave were destroyed with the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. In 1965, a memorial of stone from Montfort-l'Amaury was laid on the site of the former altar by Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Harry Hylton-Foster and Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey. Various local honours were dedicated to his memory, and he has become eponymous several times over. De Montfort University in Leicester is named after him, as is the nearby De Montfort Hall, a concert venue. A statue of Montfort is one of four to adorn the Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower in Leicester. A relief of Montfort adorns the wall of the Chamber of the United States House of Representatives. Montfort's banner, known as the "Arms of Honour of Hinckley", blazoned Party per pale indented argent and gules, and displayed in stained glass in Chartres Cathedral, is used in the coat of arms of the town of Hinckley, part of his earldom in Leicestershire, and by many of its local organisations. Combined with his personal coat of arms, the banner forms part of the club crest for the town's football club Hinckley A.F.C.[49] A school[50] and a bridge on the north east stretch of the A46 are named after him in Evesham. Descendants [ edit ] Simon de Montfort and Eleanor of England had seven children, many of whom were notable in their own right:[51] Ancestors [ edit ] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Bibliography [ edit ] Texts on Simon de Montfort and the Baron's War [ edit ]73 SHARES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reddit Kevin Williams reports from IAAPA 2015, an Amusement Park expo featuring upcoming rides and attractions coming to theme parks. He takes a closer look at the ever growing presence of VR at the show and its importance to the out of home entertainment sector. About the Author – Kevin Williams has an extensive background in the development and sales of the latest amusement and attraction applications and technologies. The UK born specialist in the pay-to-play scene; is well-known and respected through his consultancy KWP; and as a prolific writer and presenter (along with his own news service The Stinger Report), covering the emergence of the new entertainment market. Kevin has co-authored a book covering the sector called ‘The Out-of-Home Interactive Entertainment Frontier’ (published byGower). He is also the founding chairman of the DNA Association, focuses on the digital Out-of-Home interactive entertainment sector. Kevin can be reached at –kwp@thestingerreport.com The International Association Amusement Parks & Attractions (IAAPA) Attractions Expo 2015 proved a major gathering for the amusement and attractions industry, as well as the other leading groups in the Out-of-Home Leisure sector, new trends in entertainment technology playing a major part in gathering the trade to this Orlando Mecca. First up, Chinese manufacturer 9D Technology brought their ‘9D Virtual Reality Experience’ is a three seat VR experience system, one of the first VR attraction systems to be released (having been in operation at a number of Chinese locations), the system running the company’s proprietary ‘9D HMD’, one of a number of Chinese Head-Mounted Display (HMD) systems seen at the show. OCT Vision, also from China, brought their new HMD US show. OCT Vision is a developer of urban and cultural complexes and dynamic attractions, and they showed their new ‘OCT Vision VR’ system, another proprietary HMD. Hopes are that this platform will be used in a series of new attractions developed for their own domestic market. Next up, The Giant Bug Company demonstrated their conceptual VR kiosk running the edutainment title ‘DinoTrek VR Experience’, based on the scalable VR App created by Geomedia. The employment of VR technology into the attraction sector was seen on a number of prominent exhibitor’s booth – given a major place on the MediaMation, Inc. (MMI) booth, they showed their ‘REACTIVr’ – a ATV customized into a motion base experience, with two players racing around in a shooting driving demonstration, a proof of concept of MMI’s skills in this technology. Not all the VR demonstrations were on the show floor, the major Dollywood theme park operation announced their new ‘Lightning Rod’ rollercoaster with a smartphone VR App that will allow coaster-fans to virtual ride the proposed new coaster using a YouTube 360 point-of-view video – with specially themed Google Cardboard HMD’s on display at the press event. Innovation and new concepts are a signature of the IAAPA show – and the Brazilian developer Rilix, came to the show with such a concept – the ‘Rilix Coaster’ offers riders in one’s a two’s a chance to experience a number of virtual coaster tracks using Samsung GearVR HMD’s. The company had planned to use Oculus hardware, but were still evaluating their options. One of the major presentations at the IAAPA exhibition was the appearance of Zero Latency from Australia, the company ran a demonstration of their ‘Arena-Scale’ VR experience. The company ran an exclusive demonstration in a closed booth with lines stretching from eager attendees signing up to try the system. KWP has consulted with Zero Latency and was able to gain an exclusive glimpse behind the closed doors of the booth. The Indian family-entertainment center (FEC) developer SMAAASH Entertainment, came to the American show promoting the sale of attractions development for their three facilities to other international operators – one such example is the company’s VR experience ‘Finger Coaster’. Riders use a touch screen interface to first create a coaster track, which they can then ride via the VR motion-based coaster simulator, which also incorporates wind effects for added realism. One of the unique new exhibitors at the show was the consumer game publisher Ubisoft International, with the company’s new business division looking to build on their theme park attraction work. The company brought their ‘Raving Rabbids 4D Virtual Reality Ride’ an example of their ability to take their IP and deploy this into the attraction scene. In partnership with Ubisoft development. Outside the show, the developer’s MM-One Project promoted their own VR 360-degree ‘MM-One’ motion-arm based system that was seen at Paris Game Week running ’Trackmania’. See Also: Ubisoft and MM Company to Bring ‘Trackmania’ Full-Motion VR Chair to Paris Games Week The development of convenient, accessible and affordable VR systems that can offer the full experience of PC gaming into a DOE application (as seen at LAN Centers) were also on display at this event, the company Talon Simulation, showed the British developed ‘Atomic motion system’ offering a compact but advance motion platform running PC racing game content. The company working to make the system compatible with all consumer HMD’s to be used under license. This is just some of the major immersive technology demonstrations that were at the event – many of the new developments planned for the coming years held behind closed door as the industry works on not only development the new attractions, but creating the next generation technology needed to provide the experience – an industry dedicated to keep one step ahead of the consumer sector, focused on building ‘Unattainable at Home’ experiences.5 years ago Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama continued what's become an annual post-Thanksgiving tradition by stopping at a bookstore for Small Business Saturday. With his two daughters alongside, the President went to Politics and Prose in Washington to pick up a few books, telling reporters he bought a "long list" of titles for every age group, including his own. (Read the full list below) Follow @politicalticker Follow @KilloughCNN The President chatted at length with several customers, while his daughters, Sasha and Malia, browsed. He went to the cashier to make his purchase after about 20 minutes. As he left the shop, the President wished everyone a "great holiday," and customers applauded. Started by two people in 1984, Politics and Prose has grown to a staff of 50 employees and is known as a popular spot for book discussions and readings, with daily visits by authors. First lady Michelle Obama, who was not with the family Saturday, held a book signing at Politics and Prose in May to promote “American Grown,” a book about the White House garden and her campaign against obesity. Last year, the Obamas shopped at a different bookstore - One More Page Books - in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia. Small Business Saturday is a tradition started by American Express in 2010. In 2011, they went to Kramerbooks and Afterwords Café in Washington. List of books purchased by Obama, according to the White House: “Half Brother” by Kenneth Oppel “Heart of a Samurai” by Margi Preus “Flora and Ulysses” by Kate DiCamillo “Jinx” by Sage Blackwood “Lulu and the Brontosaurus” by Judith Viorst and Lane Smith “Ottoline and the Yellow Cat” by Chris Riddell “Moonday” by Adam Rex “Journey” by Aaron Becker “The Lowland” by Jhumpa Lahiri “Red Sparrow” by Jason Matthews “Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crockett Johnson “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” by Anthony Marra “The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance” by David Epstein “Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football” by Nicholas Dawidoff “Ballad of the Sad Cafe: And Other Stories” by Carson McCullers “My Antonia” by Willa Cather “Ragtime” By E.L. Doctorow “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini “Buddha in the Attic” by Julie Otsuka “All That Is” by James Salter “Wild: From Lost to Found On the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed Obama also encouraged Americans to take part in Small Business Saturday via Twitter on Saturday. When our small businesses do well, our communities do well. Join me and visit a small business near you today to celebrate #SmallBizSat. –bo — The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 30, 2013 Attorney General Eric Holder, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and other members of the President's Cabinet also promoted shopping at locally-owned stores. The Small Business Administration's chief post, a Cabinet-level position, is currently held by an acting administrator. AG Holder makes one more purchase @UnionMarketDC before heading home. Support local merchants on #SmallBizSat pic.twitter.com/PZQOHCNcUl — Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) November 30, 2013 Today is #SmallBizSat. I observed with a baguette from Clear Flour Bread Bakery in Brookline, MA pic.twitter.com/9Ak3Ne4cWs — Ernest Moniz (@ErnestMoniz) November 30, 2013 A number of Republican lawmakers on Captiol Hill also urged followers to take part in the relatively new tradition. Tomorrow is #SmallBizSaturday. I encourage all Alaskans to #ShopSmall to empower & connect to our #AK community http://t.co/f6ciqvvLtf — Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) November 29, 2013 Are you out hitting Black Friday sales?Consider visiting smaller local retailers tomm on Small Business Saturday. http://t.co/lvZU6EylkI — Senator John Boozman (@JohnBoozman) November 29, 2013NEW DELHI: Prosperous Dalits and the financially well-off from other sections should voluntarily stop availing quotas like a large number of rich who are surrendering subsidised gas cylinders under the Pahal scheme, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) member Chirag Paswan said."In my opinion, people coming from decent financial background should leave reservation. That will help others from their community avail the opportunity to grow and do better. Actually, those who are in dire need of reservation will get the maximum benefit," the first-time MP from Bihar told TOI in an exclusive interview. Though Paswan said the decision should be prompted by self-realisation rather than the force of law, his remarks are likely to spark a lively debate.The LJP legislator said he really hoped for the emergence of a "casteless" society. "That will be my ultimate goal. I come from Bihar where caste scenario dominates politics. UP and Bihar will have to play a key role to achieve this goal," he said.Responding to whether his party's ally BJP is trying to woo backward castes and Dalits in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab by appointing an OBC as president in UP and a Dalit in Punjab, the junior Paswan said, "People may question the timing of such appointments. But irrespective of this or eyeing certain voters, we must accept that there is now acknowledgement about bringing in more such leaders. BJP is trying to bring more talent from this section of society, which is a good sign. More such representations will bring major change in our polity."However, taking a dig at powerful Dalit leaders and former UP CM Mayawati, the young MP said she had absolute power during her rule. "If she wanted, she could have done a lot for the section she belongs to. But she concentrated more on building statues," Paswan said.The lie that the Russian government intervened in the U.S. elections to favor Donald Trump, is at the heart of the attempt to mount a coup against him now—like the 2014 "color revolution" in Ukraine—to overthrow the President and the Constitutional government of the U.S. Lyndon LaRouche has said that if this coup against Donald Trump were to succeed, the result would be nuclear war in the very short term. This coup-attempt hasn't yet succeeded in overthrowing the government, but it has created chaos; hamstrung the political process; decorticated the Democratic Party; and helped block the President from fulfilling campaign promises essential to economic recovery—especially restoration of the Glass-Steagall act, and rebuilding America's infrastructure. Today's LaRouchePAC.com Friday Webcast will lay bare the lie of "Russia-gate." Everyone must watch it. Here are a few words to prepare you for what you will see. Let's go back about one year, to the origins of this charge of Russian interference. Now most Americans may not know this—or more likely, may no longer remember it, because they've been so thoroughly brainwashed—but at the bottom of the accusation of Russian interference, is the charge that the Russian government—using an on-line persona called "Guccifer 2.0"—hacked into Democratic National Committee e-mail files over the Internet, and gave them to Julian Assange's organization "Wikileaks." (Parenthetically: recall that Wikileaks began publishing DNC emails online on July 27, 2016. It's worth noting that the accuracy of these files has never been disputed, and that their proof of DNC intervention into the primary process on behalf of Hillary Clinton, and against Bernie Sanders, was so strong that DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign.) But what's been deliberately obfuscated in mass-media coverage, and in the mislabeled so-called "Intelligence Community Assessment" of Russian interference in the election—is that there were TWO separate cases in which private DNC files were made public, not one. One was through Julian Assange's Wikileaks organization, which insists that the files it obtained were "leaked" by an insider with legitimate access to them, not "hacked" over the internet. The second, and different case, is that associated with the "Guccifer 2.0" persona, who insists that he "hacked," i.e. pilfered the files over the internet—but insists falsely, as it now turns out! The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) has appealed repeatedly for any evidence linking "Guccifer" and Assange's Wikileaks, but none has ever been provided! The beginning of the chronology (as reported by http://g-2.space/) is that on June 12, 2016, Julian Assange said in a mass-circulation interview on Britain's ITV that "we have emails related to Hillary Clinton which are awaiting publication." Then, on June 14, the DNC released a statement that they'd discovered their servers were hacked. On June 15, someone calling himself "Guccifer 2.0" claimed responsibility for the hack, and claimed to be a source for Wikileaks. The first five documents he posted were tainted with Russian fingerprints. Now, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) July 24 Memorandum for the President, "Was the `Russia Hack' an Inside Job?" cites forensic evidence to show that: "From the information available, we conclude that the same inside-DNC, copy/leak process was used at two different times, by two different entities, for two distinctly different purposes: "(1) an inside leak to WikiLeaks before Julian Assange announced on June 12, 2016, that he had DNC documents and planned to publish them (which he did on July 22)—the presumed objective being to expose strong DNC bias toward the Clinton candidacy; and "(2) a separate leak on July 5, 2016, to pre-emptively taint anything WikiLeaks might later publish by showing it came from a Russian hack." The latter leak was associated with the "Guccifer 2.0" persona. The data which had been leaked on July 5, was posted on September 13, allegedly by "Guccifer 2.0." Elements had been added to implicate Russia, including the first and middle names of the founder of the Soviet secret police—written in the Cyrillic alphabet—and the name "Ernesto Che," for Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-67), an Argentine-Cuban Marxist revolutionary. Note for clarity that the "forensic analysis" referred to by the VIPS, was an analysis of data retrieved from the files posted to the Internet on Sept. 13—not an analysis conducted on the DNC's computers. The DNC has not given anyone but their own contractors access to their computers. Fired FBI Director Comey says the DNC denied access to the FBI, so that Comey was in the unusual position of supposedly solving the crime of the century—that is, Russian interference in the election—without being allowed access to the scene of the crime. He was probably afraid that some of his agents might learn too much. Watch the Friday webcast at LaRouchePAC.com. We are in the process of overturning this massive fraud. Congress must investigate it. Nothing will ever be the same again.I’ve had the pleasure to review the early access version of The Wizards, an adventure spellcaster game by Carbon Studio. Developed with Unreal Engine, the game has a cool ambition: make us become wizards and kill monsters using magic. As Pawel Gajda from Carbon Studio says The Wizards is a VR spellcaster that fulfills players’ childhood dreams of becoming powerful wizards. In the game, players cast spells with hand gestures using motion controllers of HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. During the single story campaign, players will travel in time to explore various fantasy sceneries, fight deadly monsters, and master their wizardry. Sounds cool, isn’t it? Well, after having tried the game for some time I can say that in fact it is pretty cool. The game sounds awesome since the beginning when there is the menu that lets you select your language (basically English or Chinese). In this moment you can see that your virtual hands wear awesome magician gloves and cast a magic ray to make you perform the selection. This is a great way to make the player interested to the game: show awesomeness since the first screen. The menu is not as immersive as I’ve seen in games like The Price of Freedom, but it’s a simple collection of UI elements (labels and button). But that’s ok… since there are many options, this is the most practical way to design it. (even if… selecting menu voices by casting spells towards crystal objects would have been damn cool…) At the end of the first menu, the tutorial auto starts. There’s a master magician that guides you and that tells you who you are, what is your mission and then teaches you how to cast spells. You are inside a training area and here you can start appreciating the graphics, that are well crafted. There are ruins around you and these ruins are floating in the air, in an oniric fashion. Red crystals are present in the scene and these are your training targets. But… how can you destroy them? Well, casting spells. You have no weapons, not even a dagger for melèe fight, you can only cast spells. The first spell that you learn is the fireball: you put your hand with the palm down, press the index trigger of your Touch controller (I’ve reviewed the game using Oculus+Touch) and then you turn your hand so that palm now points up: BAM! Your hand now contains a ball covered in flames and you can throw it releasing your trigger. If the magic ray at the beginning of the game was great… well, this is incredible! Throwing a fireball is so damn cool… I could have ended the review at this point. Then the tutorial teaches you the locomotion mechanic, that is teleporting. You perform it pointing your controller towards one of the various teleporting stations and then pushing the right thumbstick: you can’t teleport everywhere, just in some points defined by the developers. Using left thumbstick, instead, you can perform a snap rotation around yourself (very useful if you have an Oculus frontal setup, like me) and with the middle finger trigger you can use telekinesis to open portals or grab objects (you grab objects by making them fly towards you and then taking them inside your hands). During the tutorial, you learn the two basic spells: the fireball and the frozen arrow (you have a frozen bow and arrow and you shoot with the classical arrow gesture, like in The Lab). Fire and ice, two fundamental elements of nature. During the training stage, I noticed one of the greatest problems of this game: gestures detection. The tutorial teaches you how to do gestures, but they don’t always get detected correctly by the system: sometimes it just misses the gesture of a spell you want to cast… and while this is harmless during the training stage, it is a huge problem during a fight. I know that this kind of detection is quite hard to be performed, but since this is the main mechanic of the game, I think that during this Early Access stage it has to be improved. Summoning the icy bow has always been hard for me. One advice that I can give to you if you want to try this game is to perform each gesture in a very decisive and quick way: if you do it like that, it gets detected far better. When the tutorial finishes, you enter your house, that is a castle inside which the wizard lives. Here too you can move only using teleportation and this is a pity because it would be far better to let the player explore this wonderful environment. The developers are already addressing this topic and have announced that they’re thinking about implementing standard locomotion too. In this magic place, you can select the level you want to play, upgrade your current spells and also have a look around and throw books (but the magician will get a bit angry if you make a mess of his house!) I started my first mission and after a little intro, I found myself inside a fantasy place, with the order of going to a certain village. I started teleporting along the road to reach that village and I started noticing that the game is not optimized for an Oculus frontal setup. Sometimes you teleport in a place and the other teleporting station is behind you, so you have to snap rotate to return to an orientation that lets you see the next station in front of you (maybe some teleporting mechanics with orientation setting as in Robo Recall would help). UPDATE: the dev has contacted me and told that teleporting already works as in Robo Recall: feature is not clear if someone doesn’t tell you, but if you rotate the right stick while pointing at the teleportation platform, you’ll see orange arrows showing the direction you’ll face after the teleporting. At a certain point, suddenly, some big monsters started attacking me. I tried defending with fireballs, but due to bad gesture recognition and low fireball power, I got killed immediately. After I died, I had to restart the mission FROM SCRATCH. Whaaaaat?? Quite annoyed by this, I stopped a bit at the beginning of the mission and trained myself to learn how to perform the gestures in a way that makes the program detect them better: my advice to you is to do that in the training session of the game. Don’t exit the tutorial until you’ve mastered the basic gestures! This is the moment when I discovered that gestures have to be performed fast to increase detection rate… and that for instance the fireball gets summoned better if you perform a fake little fireball throw to generate it. After this auto-tutorial, I returned to fight the trolls and I defeated them. If you want an advice: use the bow and arrow, they’re more powerful than the fireball. After that I continued moving and killing trolls until I reached a point where I had to destroy a crystal inside a huge courtyard. But while I tried to destroy it, continuous hordes of monsters attacked and killed me. Enemies arrived from everywhere and with frontal setup I start forgetting about my actual orientation, so sometimes the game lost the tracking of my controllers and I got killed while I was snapping like hell and trying to evocate spells. Damn, I died and I had to begin from scratch again. What a nuisance. I restarted, I arrived again at the same point and died again. Again like this various times. I got to a point where I was about to take my PC and throw it out of the window. I was so fucking angry that if I had met a troll in real life I would have killed it with my bare hands. In the end I managed to complete this mission changing my strategy: if you want an advice for this point, don’t focus on the enemies but on destroying the crystal and kill enemies only to defend yourself. I was so satisfied with this win. I’ve been so damn awesome. After having won this level, I got rewarded by a new spell: the shield. So, back to training stage to learn shield gesture to defend me from fireballs of other enemies. Cool! Next two missions are pure monster waves shooting where you have to defend yourself and the village you’ve just arrived. You stay fixed in a point and you have to kill all monsters that come towards you. If you miss some, your health gets reduced and in the end, you die. After the second mission a new spell gets taught to you, so you can start casting lightnings against the enemies. With four spells and various enemies, things start becoming a little trickier, because for every type of enemy you have to decide which is the best weapon to kill him, evocate it hoping that the system will get it, kill him, then change weapon to kill the other monsters in front of you… and so on. Sometimes I got mad in deciding the right spell, sometimes the system takes a gesture for another, other times I tried to do the gesture so fast that I made the two Touch controllers collide and almost destroyed them. In one of the last matches, I was so frustrated that I told the monsters “go, destroy this damn city… I don’t even know these people, so kill them with my approval!” 😀 After this little experience with the Wizards, I can say that its flaws are: Gesture detection not optimal : sometimes gestures don’t get recognized and this during a fight is terrible : sometimes gestures don’t get recognized and this during a fight is terrible Gestures have a learning curve : you can’t start this game and think to master them in minutes : you can’t start this game and think to master them in minutes Some gestures are bad designed: I mean, the gesture the evocate the bow made collide my Touch controllers a thousand times! There’s no option to switch hands: the game seems suited for right-handed people only It is not optimal for Oculus frontal setup Sometimes UI elements stay in a place where they occlude your visuals (whaat? They were supposed to help me!) It’s tiresome : after one hour of play I was really tired of moving my arms (I think that I can skip gym this week) : after one hour of play I was really tired of moving my arms (I think that I can skip gym this week) Teleporting is not the ideal locomotion mechanic for this game and sometimes doesn’t work well (but developers are already working on this ) for this game and sometimes doesn’t work well (but ) Difficulty in some battles have to be calibrated better: the diamond scene was like the third duel of the game and was really hard for me Some automatic save checkpoints during missions would be better: restarting each mission from scratch is really boring (especially the first one is terrible to be done again and again) While its strengths are: Casting spells is really cool : fireballs are so damn epic and the lightning is the gatling gun of spells!! : fireballs are so damn epic and the lightning is the gatling gun of spells!! Have I already said that spells are cool? Really, they’re epic! I liked the graphical quality of the game … to be an indie game it is very well crafted … to be an indie game it is very well crafted Initial tutorial is very well made, it really shows you how to do the gestures with your hands. And the voice of the wizards plus some visual cues guide you during all the game , it really shows you how to do the gestures with your hands. And the voice of the wizards plus some visual cues guide you during all the game The house with the level select and the spells upgrade station are very well crafted and have a natural interface. For instance, to select the level to play, you take an object from the map and you put it into a special hole (I’ve just realized that this sentence can have a dirty meaning, but maybe it is just because of my wicked mind). Very appreciated it. The game is very variated and offers a campaign and arcade mode. In campaign mode, there are missions of different kinds (some are more like an adventure game, others are more like a wave shooter game). It also has Fate Cards, gameplay modifiers that can change game difficulty and rules to the player’s liking! My final opinion is that this is a really good game. Some things have to be refined, but let’s not forget that it is an Early Access title, so developers will surely fix them before the official release. I found it frustrating in some moments, but I really enjoyed the possibility to cast spells against trolls and make epic battles with them. And VR makes it super awesome thanks to hands interaction and immersion that make the game more realistic. If you’re interested in it, you can find for $19.999999 on SteamVR! My advice is to give it a try… (Header image by Carbon Studio) Disclaimer: this blog contains advertisement and affiliate links to sustain itself. If you click on an affiliate link, I'll be very happy because I'll earn a small commission on your purchase. You can find my boring full disclosure Disclaimer: this blog contains advertisement and affiliate links to sustain itself. If you click on an affiliate link, I'll be very happy because I'll earn a small commission on your purchase. You can find my boring full disclosure hereIn June 2017, California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon singlehandedly prevented a single-payer health care bill, SB 562, to be put up for a vote in the State Assembly after the State Senate passed it. Rendon called the bill “wholly incomplete,” but his decision halted the processes that would have enabled its completion. In California, the Democratic Party holds a supermajority in the State Legislature and the governorship, providing a straightforward path to enact progressive policies. Rendon’s
recht, Thiago Vivacqua, Bruno Baptista and Matteo Ferrer completed the top ten. Daruvala beat Hughes’ practice one benchmark with twenty minutes to go in the second session. Danyil Pronenko, Alessandro Perullo and Riener then took turns in the lead, but Daruvala eventually returned to the top, where he stayed until the chequered flag. Hughes was second, ahead of Riener, Vivacqua and Korneev. Jack Aitken, who was injured last time out at Monza, was 14th in the first session and improved massively in the second run, shaving off two seconds and finishing sixth. Pronenko, Perullo, James Allen and Daniele Cazzaniga made up the rest of the top ten. Combined practice results Pos. Driver Team S1 S2 1 Jehan Daruvala Fortec Motorsport 1:34.049 1:32.653 2 Jake Hughes Koiranen GP 1:33.739 1:32.951 3 Stefan Riener Koiranen GP 1:33.997 1:33.185 4 Thiago Vivacqua JD Motorsport 1:34.377 1:33.210 5 Alexey Korneev JD Motorsport 1:34.057 1:33.224 6 Jack Aitken Koiranen GP 1:35.131 1:33.236 7 Danyil Pronenko BVM Racing 1:35.005 1:33.338 8 Alessandro Perullo Technorace 1:35.435 1:33.433 9 James Allen ARTA Engineering 1:35.381 1:33.628 10 Daniele Cazzaniga GSK Grand Prix 1:34.670 1:33.811 11 TJ Fischer Cram Motorsport 1:34.959 1:33.911 12 Matteo Ferrer Cram Motorsport 1:34.468 1:33.955 13 Vasily Romanov Cram Motorsport 1:34.314 1:33.983 14 Philip Hamprecht Koiranen GP 1:34.341 1:34.107 15 Nerses Isaakyan Koiranen GP No Time 1:34.154 16 Bruno Baptista Koiranen GP 1:34.463 1:34.219 17 Denis Bulatov GSK Grand Prix 1:35.198 1:34.299 18 Matevos Isaakyan JD Motorsport 1:33.766 1:34.344 19 Julien Falchero GSK Grand Prix 1:35.877 1:34.777 20 Andrea Baiguera Brixia Horse Power 1:36.629 1:35.146 Personal best time in bold Best time of session in italicsDefeat after defeat on Tuesday has left the Democrat Party in shambles. So much so they cannot decide on a leader. Rep. Nancy Pelosi has led the House Democrats since 2002 while Sen. Chuck Schumer will replace Harry Reid as Senate Minority Leader. But now the Democrats have delayed a vote on leadership in the House, possibly a sign that Pelosi’s time has ended. In the Senate, anti-Trump protesters in DC have begun protesting Senator Shumer’s new role. The New York Post reported: The disgruntled are not limited to the grass roots — a group of nearly 30 Democratic members of Congress wrote a letter to the top Democrat in the House, Nancy Pelosi, asking for a delay in congressional leadership elections for the next Congress. “It is vital that our Caucus take the time to listen to the American people and learn the lessons of this difficult election in order to put our Caucus in the best position to fight the potentially dangerous agenda of President-elect Donald Trump and to have a realistic chance of taking back the House in 2018,” the members wrote. Early Tuesday morning the House Democrats decided to officially delay the vote until Nov. 30 after Pelosi “expressed a willingness to do so.” This would allow a challenger to build a case against Pelosi. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan is one who has thought about challenging Pelosi for the job: “I got a few calls saying, ‘We need someone from the Midwest who is a good communicator who can help us win seats in tough areas around the country,’” Ryan said of possibly taking on Pelosi, adding he hasn’t heard from her office yet. But like I said, the discontent spread to the Senate as well. Young liberals have invaded Schumer’s office because they do not want him as minority leader. We are still here at @chuckschumer's office demanding he stand down as minority leader. #ChuckOutWallSt pic.twitter.com/ljzO2WBbwI — #AllofUs (@AllOfUs2016) November 14, 2016 They claim that Schumer has too many close ties to evil Wall Street and big banks; he’s too establishment. Yes, you guessed it. They are Bernie Sanders supporters. Sanders remains popular, especially after leaked emails and phone calls over the summer showed the DNC actively working against him to prop Hillary Clinton as its nominee. Allies of Sanders have started to pressure Schumer to make him “chairman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Center, a powerful position with influence over the party’s messaging and floor strategy.” The Hill reports: Sanders’s allies say he would be a good choice for the third-ranking position because he had phenomenal success mobilizing voters during the Democratic presidential primaries. That showed he knows how to put together a message that resonates, they argue. The Senate Democratic leadership’s focus on the Supreme Court and Republican obstruction of Merrick Garland, President Obama’s middle-of-the-road nominee to the court, fell flat with voters this year, they note. Liberals want Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), both high-profile critics of Wall Street, to play bigger roles in the Senate’s leadership. Protesters will not receive their wish since Sanders has backed Schumer for minority leader.Cloud-enabled Mailbox Last updated: August 17, 2014 Background: The USPS used to deliver my mail with a mail truck that didn't have a muffler. I could hear the engine as it drove away from the mailbox, even in my house with music playing. That was great. My current mail carrier drives a newer vehicle that runs quiet. When I am expecting a package to arrive, instead of periodically checking the mailbox to see if the mail has been delivered, I wanted a way for the mailbox to notify me of a delivery.Requirements: I wanted the system to generate an e-mail, so that I can be notified anywhere. I wanted it to be inconspicuous so nobody would notice it. Since it is not near power, it had to be solar powered with a wireless data connection. I decided to use the Electric Imp for the brain of the system for a variety of reasons: It's tiny, it has WiFi, the firmware is remotely updatable, and it has a very low power mode.Electric Imp offers a breakout board known as the "April" model that makes this module easy to do breadboard testing with. I opted to use this breakout board and add my components to a daughter card that would connect directly to it. I have power inputs for a battery and solar panel, both with reverse polarity protection using MOSFETs to minimize voltage drop, a voltage divider circuit to measure the battery voltage, an I2C-to-Onewire converter with a DS12B20 temperature sensor, an input for the mailbox door detection, and one LED. The resulting schematic and board layout are shown here.I used OSH Park's PCB service to make the circuit board. They charge $5 per square inch for three copies with free shipping, so this little board came to $8.25. This picture shows the bare board. I used the skillet method to solder the surface mount components, then hand soldered the through-hole parts to it. I also added a male header to the April board.The plastic mailbox mounts to a 2x6, which is mounted to the post in the ground. I wanted to mount all of the electronics inside the 2x6 board. By putting everything inside the 2x6, everything would be hidden and somewhat protected from the weather. I purchased a 6 volt battery that is just under 1 inch thick. I cut a pocket into the 2x6 for the battery, fuse, wiring, and the electronics.I used a CNC router to cut the pockets. I placed the components on the board, traced approximately where they should go, drew that in CAD, generated the code for the pocket, then cut the holes on the CNC router.The result is that everything except the solar panel is contained within the dimensions of the 2x6.I used silicone sealant and clear plastic to create a waterproof compartment for the electronics. Here it is attached to the post.Looking from the bottom, you can see the magnet that is attached to the door, as well as the reed switch in the 2x6. When the door opens, the magnet causes the reed switch to close, triggering the Electric Imp to wake up and send a message.The Electric Imp contains a light sensor, so I made sure to allow light to get to it. This will allow reprogramming of the WiFi network to join, and monitoring of light levels.There is a small solar panel to keep the battery charged. For right now it is simply taped to the mailbox with clear packing tape. I need to find a mounting solution that is a bit more durable.I have programmed the Electric Imp to wake up every 10 minutes, check the temperature, battery voltage, light level, and WiFi signal strength, upload the data to my website, then go back to sleep. The website logs the values to a database and has some code to check the values against alert levels, and send e-mails for those sensors that have triggered an alert.The primary goal was to get an e-mail when the mailbox is opened, and here is what that e-mail looks like.Summary: Performance is great, no false positives or negative so far. The temperature data is interesting, but not particularly useful. I believe I purchased too large of a solar panel based on the voltages I'm seeing - 9 volts on a 6 volt battery is going to over-charge it. I may try pointing the solar panel down so that it never gets direct sunlight, thus reducing its charging ability to a level that won't over-charge the battery.The sci-fi drama is set to return to Netflix later this year. Like all good TV series, Stranger Things finished on a cliffhanger last season that gave viewers a final glimpse of Will’s parallel universe the “upside-down” dimension. But where will it pick up from in season two? Actor David Harbour, who plays Chief of Police Jim Hopper, has revealed more details about season two in the wake of Will Byers’ return. “It’s a year later in the story, so there are several things that happened last year, like Will has come back,” Harbour told Hollywood Life on Saturday (January 21). “There are certain people in the town that know what happened, and then certain people that don’t know what happened. So there’s a lot of fall out with who knows what.” Season two will feature new cast members, including Goonies actor Sean Astin, Paul Reiser – who played in Carter Burke in James Cameron’s Aliens – and Danish actor Linnea Berthelsen. Harbour explained that the arrival of bad boy Astin, who plays Winona Ryder’s new boyfriend, will cause a love triangle, while adding that “the “Justice for Barb” idea will play a central role. “The question and the feelings that Nancy (Wheeler), played by Natalia Dyer, has that no one ever cares about her friend Barb, are very much present in the beginning of the season.” Netflix confirmed the second instalment of the Golden Globe-nominated show with a teaser video in August, while show creators the Duffer Brothers also teased plot details in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Matt Duffer explained that this second series is conceived as a blockbuster sequel, which largely tries to capture “a little bit of the magic” imbued in James Cameron’s work. “I think one of the reasons his sequels are as successful as they are is he makes them feel very different without losing what we loved about the original,” he stated. Read next: Stranger Things: 10 eerie electronic gems to hear if you loved the Netflix showGovernment support for ethanol has led to an increase in corn production and a steep rise in soybean imports Demand for biofuels in the US is driving this year's high food prices, a report has said. It predicts that food prices are unlikely to fall back down for another two years. The report, produced by Purdue University economists for the Farm Foundation policy organisation, said US government support for ethanol, including subsidies, had fuelled strong demand for corn over the last five years. A dramatic rise in Chinese imports of soybeans was also putting pressure on prices and supply, the report said. Since 2005, a growing number of US farmers have switched to corn and soybeans from other crops. Farmers in other countries have also switched to corn but, the report said, the demand kept growing. "In 2005, we were using about 16m acres [6.4m hectares] to supply all of the ethanol in the United States and Chinese soybean imports," Wallace Tyner, one of the authors said. It took 18.6m hectares (46.5m acres) last year, just to satisfy that demand. The US department of agriculture reported earlier this month that US ethanol refiners were for the first time consuming more corn than livestock and poultry farmers. It took 27% of last year's corn crop to meet the demand for corn ethanol. Only about 10% went to make ethanol in 2005, Tyner said. The Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has estimated that 40% of the US corn crop now goes to make ethanol. But Tyner said the cobs and husks of corn used to make ethanol would go on to be used for animal feed. The other driver of rising food prices was China, which has been building up its soybean reserves since the last big global food price rises of 2008. But the report focused strongly on a US government mandate for ethanol production and $6bn (£3.7bn) in annual subsidies for ethanol refineries. Others have also been putting the corn ethanol industry in the spotlight. In an interview with the Financial Times, General Mills, which produces Cheerios cereal, Häagen-Dazs ice-cream and other major brands, also blamed ethanol subsidies for driving up food prices. Ken Powell the company's chief executive said the price of corn and oats was up by 30 to 40% over last year. "We're driving up food prices unnecessarily," Ken Powell, chief executive of General Mills, said in the interview. "If corn prices go up, wheat goes up. It's all linked." Even if US ethanol production plateaus, as the report predicts, food prices are unlikely to recede – at least within the next year – because global soybean and corn crops are now in relatively tight supply. The authors warned there just was not enough cropland available to shift to corn and soybeans. "We don't think these prices are going to come down in a year," said Tyner. "It's going to take at least a couple of years to see a significant reduction in price." The report warned that US corn and soybean stocks were also dangerously low, with the department of agriculture projecting supplies at about half typical levels. "These are scary, scary numbers," said Christopher Hurt, another author. "The cupboard is absolutely bare. We just are going to get out of this, at least on the basis of crops for this year."QPR defender Clint Hill has admitted he can’t cut it as a Premier League left-back. The 33-year-old played in the centre of defence for much of last season and ended the campaign as Rangers’ player of the year. And after being given a torrid time during recent defeats against West Ham and West Brom, Hill concedes he has been exposed in a position he no longer feels totally comfortable in. He was outpaced for both of Albion’s first-half goals at The Hawthorns and was replaced at half-time by Armand Traore, who has been nursing a hamstring complaint. “I’ve got to that age now where I know my limits,” Hill explained. “I’ve been punished a few times because my legs won’t get there at this time in my career. “I’m trying to do a job because we’ve had a few injuries with Fabio and Armand. He’s come in so hopefully he’ll be alright now.” Despite a summer of more big spending, Rangers go into the international break bottom of the table and without a league win this season. They are also yet to win away since Mark Hughes took over as manager in January. An influx of players, several of which have arrived from overseas, has been touted as a reason for the team’s dismal results. But Hill said: “I don’t like using that as an excuse. Everyone plays football no matter what league, language or country you come from. “There’s still the same white lines, ball, a goal and 11 men. It’s very frustrating because if you look at the team on paper you think you should be higher. “We’re surprised where we are, but there’s no given right that we should be any higher. The league doesn’t lie. “We haven’t performed to anything like the standards we set in pre-season. I don’t know why that is – it’s just not going for us. All we can do is regroup and go again. “The higher you go the more you get punished for individual errors and mistakes. As soon as we cut them out I think we might start getting decent results.” See also: Struggling Rangers beaten by West Ham More woe for Hughes as QPR lose again Granero: Hughes has backing of QPR squad Faurlin agrees new contract with Rangers Redknapp reluctant to let Leeds United sign QPR duo Follow West London Sport on Twitter Find us on FacebookThese Paleo Almond Pulp Crackers are made with 5 healthy ingredients. They’re perfect for using up leftover almond pulp. Yes, if you’re wondering what to do with the pulp after you follow my homemade Almond Milk recipe, this is the answer. I’m a bit of a cracker-a-holic. I think the quest for crunchy food intensifies when one goes on a gluten-free diet. I went gluten-free in 1998 when I was diagnosed with celiac disease. Since then I’ve created many healthy cracker recipes for y’all! The problem? My crackers are too good. As quickly as I make my paleo crackers they disappear. That’s because so many cracker thieves dwell in my abode. Therefore, my cracker quest continues day-in-and-day-out. Crackers made with almond flour (or in this case almond milk pulp) are highly nutritious and slightly addictive. These amazing Paleo Almond Pulp Crackers are also awesome because they’re a recycled treat. If you make these paleo crackers in your dehydrator they’ll be “raw.” I bake mine in the oven on low because I don’t have a dehydrator. Baking on low preserves as many of the live enzymes as possible. If you’re oven doesn’t go as low as 135°, set it to the lowest temperature possible and reduce your baking time. The crackers are done when they’re nice and crisp.Ah, it's that time of month again. Gunpla Review is an attempt to share some projects, finished in the past month, which have caught my eye. I also wanted to highlight some ongoing WIPs worth following. If I missed any of your favorites please share them via the comments below! And no, these are not in any particular order. Okay, they're alphabetical by how I named the pictures. But first, don't miss GAF's MG Delta Plus Recolour Challenge! Will there be prizes? Most likely. Will there be a superfluous letter U here or there? Unfortunately. But will there be fun for all? Absolutely! Featured Kits StraitStealth's Deathscythe Hell - Holy. Fuck. Waylander's MG Epyon - Subtle shading and one hell of a heat whip Bigbetterirish's GP03 - I love the color scheme, might have to steal this for myself... Darkyojimbo's Gundam Builders' Dio - Awesome action and even better weathering Mikejabile's Sinaju - A fantastic paint job GameraBaenre's Weathered Gouf - Classic weathering Zhen_yu's High Mobility Zaku - Very clean work with some great mods WIPs to Watch Make sure to check out last month's listing as many are still ongoing. Bs_Yamato's Scratch Built Hover Trailer (08th MS Team) DC23's Epic MG O Build Off TheGunny's Demise of a Pesky Dom Chriswoo's ReZEL Plus Evo Ver CDo you know that apart from being highly rewarding, cryptocurrency investment is extremely risky, too? That’s why there is a saying which goes something like: Never invest in crypto more than what you can afford to lose. And CoinSutra also advises the same. Along with that, we do thorough and rigorous research to bring out both the positive and negative points of a cryptocurrency in our analysis/introductory posts on them. So far we have given detailed insights on more than 30 cryptocurrency projects since CoinSutra’s launch, and we are happy to share that all of them are doing pretty well in terms of ROI. Some of those cryptocurrencies are: One more currency which we believe in is Ubiq, and that’s why today’s topic of analysis is the Ubiq cryptocurrency. In this analysis, I will cover the following salient points about UBIQ: What is Ubiq? How does it work? Ubiq team Total UBQ supply & its monetary policy Market cap of UBQ How to buy Ubiq cryptocurrency Ubiq wallets Ubiq’s future Official Ubiq resources So let’s get started… What Is Ubiq? Ubiq is decentralized, peer-to-peer, open-source cryptocurrency, but unlike Bitcoin or DASH, which are made purely for payment purposes, Ubiq has another function. Ubiq is also a decentralized platform for making DApps. It was forked out of Ethereum early this year and started its operations in January 2017. And just like Ethereum has ETH tokens, Ubiq has UBQ tokens to fuel operations on its blockchain. For starters, here is Ubiq’s introduction from their website: Ubiq is a decentralized platform which allows the creation and implementation of smart contracts and decentralized applications. Built upon an improved Ethereum codebase, the Ubiq blockchain acts as a large globally distributed ledger and supercomputer, allowing developers to create decentralized and automated solutions to thousands of tasks which today are carried out by third-party intermediaries. But being a fork of Ethereum doesn’t mean that it is just a replica, Ubiq is a better solution for implementing many things. How Does It Work? Because Ubiq forked out of Ethereum, it implements its code along with its Ethereum Virtual Machine and Turing-Completeness. That’s why, like Ethereum, it also has its native crypto-token (i.e. UBQ). Decentralized applications (aka DApps) and smart contracts implemented on the Ubiq blockchain get fueled from this native token which is accepted on its network as fees for transactions and computations. To know more about DApps and smart contracts, read: Ubiq Team The Ubiq team is small and made up of a bunch of very talented individuals. They are: All of them have a diverse background and make a perfect blend of crypto, math, programming, fintech, and economics which are must need things in a crypto project. Total UBQ Supply & Its Monetary Policy The total UBQ supply is not capped, and at the time of this writing, its total supply is 38,606,141 UBQ, which increases every year as per the given schedule: Year Supply Inflation Inflation Rate Block Reward 0 36,451,770 1 39,318,679 2,866,909 7.29% 8 2 41,827,225 2,508,545 6.00% 7 3 43,977,406 2,150,182 4.89% 6 4 45,769,225 1,791,818 3.91% 5 5 47,202,679 1,433,455 3.04% 4 6 48,277,770 1,075,091 2.23% 3 7 48,994,497 716,727 1.46% 2 8 49,352,861 358,364 0.73% 1 9 49,711,225 358,364 0.72% 1 10 50,069,588 358,364 0.72% 1 11 50,427,952 358,364 0.71% 1 12 50,786,315 358,364 0.71% 1 As shown in the above schedule, Ubiq started with a supply of 36,451,770 units in January 2017 and keeps increasing by 8 UBQ tokens per block. This block reward of 8 blocks is designed to decrease by 1 UBQ per year to adjust for inflation over the period of 8 years until the block reward comes down to 1 UBQ/block. I think this is a smart monetary policy to control inflation. Some more technical specs of UBQ tokens are as follows… Algorithm: Dagger Hashimoto (Proof of Work Algorithm) Block Reward: 8 decreasing by 1 yearly until 1 UBQ per block Block Timing: 88 seconds Market Cap of UBQ Currently, this is the first year of the UBQ blockchain, so its total supply is increasing at the rate of 8 UBQ tokens per block mined. According to CoinMarketCap, the total circulating supply of Ubiq at the time of this writing is 42,609,099 UBQ, and the current price of each unit is $0.5. This makes its market cap approximately $22 million, which I think is pretty low for such a promising project. Note: Later in this article we will explore what makes UBQ promising. How To Buy Ubiq Cryptocurrency Ubiq had its golden bullish run this year in where it grew more than 700% to reach its all-time high of $2.18 per unit. So if you had invested $100 at the beginning, then you could have cashed out around $800 by now, great isn’t it? And its current market cap is pretty small which has the potential to grow to the levels of some of its competitors like Ethereum Classic ($10 at present). If you are interested in buying this promising crypto, then you can do so from these exchanges: Bittrex-Supported pairs are UBQ/BTC Upbit-Supported pairs are UBQ/BTC Cryptopia-Supported pairs are UBQ/BTC LiteBit.eu-Supported pairs are UBQ/EUR Note: Buying UBQ in fiat currencies such as USD, EUR, or GBP is pretty difficult as of now. UBIQ Wallets Types Of Wallet Name Of Wallet Rating Pyrus Web Wallet 7/10 Fusion Desktop Wallet 8/10 Gubiq Desktop Wallet 6/10 Ledger Nano S Hardware Wallet 9/10 Ledger Blue Hardware Wallet 8/10 UBIQ wallets are specialized blockchain browsers just like in Ethereum. They let you access applications and store crypto on them. And since UBIQ has only started early this year, there aren’t many wallet options available. But for early adopters, there are certainly enough choices. What Makes Ubiq Promising & Different? (What’s Ubiq’s Future?) I believe Ubiq is both a promising cryptocurrency to HODL while also being a promising platform that will have a decent user adoption. Ubiq wasn’t pre-mined or got started with a shady ICO. The founders and its HODLers are both in the same boat; the founders and investors both want to see the project go well. Some you might be thinking: Why do we need Ubiq when we have Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and NEO? The answer is that Ubiq is much more stable and bug-free than any of its peers because it doesn’t do frequent updates like the others. So in terms of enterprise adoption, this is a good thing. Take on the other hand Ethereum and the others which have been in an alpha phase for a very long time. They have lots of bugs/scaling issues and are yet not stable for large-scale enterprise adoption. Enterprise solutions/apps are built upon stable and secure environments; alpha phases of blockchains aren’t a smart option to go with for enterprises. Ubiq is also a fork of Ethereum with consensus-level changes implemented in a new and improved code base. This offers much-needed security thereby making it a much better enterprise-ready solution for DApp makers and smart contract implementors. Also, I believe that the simpler and smaller the code, the better the performance and security of the platform will be. This is a general rule of thumb in programming. And because of all these reasons, Ubiq is a strong and competitive alternative to Ethereum and NEO because the others are still being developed, whereas Ubiq is already hosting some of its DApps. Some of those DApps are: Now, at last, the million dollar question: Should you invest in Ubiq? Well, the answer lies in your objectives and risk appetite. It is a relatively new cryptocurrency, but it does seem promising for the aforementioned reasons. I hope this detailed analysis helps you in making a good decision. Share that decision with us in the comments below! So that’s all from my side in this introduction of Ubiq Cryptocurrency. See you soon with another introduction to another interesting altcoin! If you liked the post, don’t forget to share it with your friends and family on social media! Official Ubiq Resources: Below are some links that will keep you updated about Ubiq: Here are a few more hand-picked fundamental analysis of cryptocurrencies that you should read next:Israeli firm Cellebrite, which is believed to have helped the FBI crack an iPhone 5C used by San Bernardino attacker Syed Farook, now claims it can decrypt and extract data from any phone in the world. The company said that it has the biggest research and development team in the sector and that the team is up-to-date with the latest technology. A BBC report details how the firm – that helps the police gain access to data on smartphones belonging to suspected criminals – works with top notch software systems to disable security of the devices. The firm even supplies these units to authorities for data extraction in the field. However, the company has denied being directly involved in the FBI iPhone hack as said that it does not reveal its customers' details. When asked about the latest Apple iPhone 7, which is expect to have the best security among smartphones, Yuval Ben-Moshe, senior technical director at the firm said, "We can definitely extract data from an iPhone 7 as well - the question is what data." In fact it is not just the iPhone 7. Moshe claimed that his firm can access data on "the largest number of devices that are out there in the industry". Although Moshe did not divulge much when asked about companies such as WhatsApp that promise end-to-end encryption, he said that criminals may be fooling themselves if they are of the opinion that any form of mobile communication is fully secure. Just last month another Israeli firm called NSO Group, was said to be behind a hack that reportedly allowed any iPhone to be broken into and have malware installed. Another security firm Elcomsoft, which is based out of Russia recently talked about such vulnerabilities in top-end smartphones and cited the recently released iOS 10 OS. It said that a severe security flaw could allow hackers to crack the passcode for backups stored on a Mac or PC, 2,500 faster than before.A tweet from CNBC (and a report from The Wall Street Journal) indicates Apple has purchased Emotient, a service that gauges your emotional response to things like videos. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Emotient’s stated focus is revenue growth based on customer satisfaction. It uses facial expressions to gauge your emotional response or sentimental feeling towards what you see on-screen. Apple buys artificial-intelligence startup Emotient, no price given for deal – Dow Jones — CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) January 7, 2016 Previously, Emotient was tested on Google Glass as a way to know how people around you may be feeling. The front-facing camera on glass was used to capture faces, while a quick bit of info was displayed on the small screen to let you know if people were happy, mad — or just plain annoyed. It’s not immediately clear why Apple may buy Emotient, but its service could be handy in several areas. Emotient could be handy in TestFlight for beta testing apps, or it could find a home directly in iAd, Apple’s in-house advertising system. Of course, it could be a straight-up ‘acquihire’ for talent, too. ➤ CNBC [Twitter] Read next: The Skulpt Chisel tracks your body fat, not your heart rateNew Delhi: Only 27 people out of 627 will be prosecuted for having black money in foreign accounts from next month, as per reports on Thursday. Also, 289 people have zero balance in the list of Indians who have accounts in HSBC bank, Geneva, in which tax probe for suspected black money has to be completed by March next year. And 13 accounts belongs to the corporates and trusts, plus 315 are taxable. Moreover, as per sources 136 account holders will deposit taxes. The government will reportedly get a mere Rs 750 crores in taxes. Complying with its directions, the Centre yesterday gave to the Supreme Court a list of 627 Indians who have accounts in HSBC bank in Geneva. The documents containing correspondence with French authorities, names of the account holders and the status report of the probe conducted so far in black money cases were submitted in separate sealed covers by the Attorney General which the apex court did not open. Instead, the Court said the envelopes would be opened by Chairman MB Shah and vice chairman Arijit Pasayat, both former judges of the Supreme Court, who are part of the court-appointed Special Investigation Team, and decide on future course of action. Appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that some of the account holders have already admitted to having accounts and having paid taxes. Rohatgi said that details of account holders are of 2006 which were supplied by the French government to the Centre in 2011. Most transactions in those accounts took place during 1999 and 2000 and the last date for completion and assessment in all these cases is March 31, 2015. With PTI inputsI recently purchased the Viking Tactics (VTAC) padded sling from Bravo Company USA. This was my first purchase from them and everything went very smoothly. I will definitely use them in the future. You can also get it here. The sling is packaged in no-frills packaging (a plastic zip-loc bag). Included was the sling and a simple one page set of instructions on how to attach and use the sling. Upon removing the sling from its packaging, the first thing that I noticed is the sling feels to be constructed very well and made of quality materials. The padded portion of the sling is connected to the main strap with multiple levels of stitching and appears to be very durable. The padding feels to be made of a high-quality foam (or foam like material) and is about 1/4″ thick and 2″ wide. The sling does not come with any swivels, but can be attached to pretty much any swivel that will handle a standard 1″ wide strap. The sling is attached to the swivels by two plastic strap adjusters. Though the adjusters are plastic, they feel to be very dense and strong plastic and it does not appear that they will break under normal usage conditions. The sling is equipped with a quick release buckle that allows for quick tightening of the sling by simply pulling on the loose end of the sling, and quick extension by simply pulling on the buckle lanyard. The quick release buckle is made out of metal and has a relatively strong return spring so it will stay tight and not slip while moving. On my first use of the sling, I needed to cinch it up pretty tight as it’s designed to fit different size people with different amounts of gear, etc. So using it wearing just a t-shirt, you end up with a pretty long tail out of the quick release. But that is nothing that a quick extra piece of Velcro or a ruber band won’t fix. Specifications Model #: VTAC-MK2-BK Length: 60in. / 1.52m (Fully Extended) Construction: Cloth strap with a mix of plastic and metal components Viking Tactical also has a demonstration video for how to use the sling. Update: 11/21/2013 I’ve been using the VTAC sling for quite some time now; and figured it was worth doing an update… The sling has performed great, I’ve run it through many shooting classes, and drug it around all over the place and had no issues with form or function. I have it setup so I can use my AR-15 with the strong or weak hand, and it all just works. The only gripe that I have is with the sizing (length) of the sling. If I’m not wearing full kit (plate carrier + chest rig + mags + etc.) even with the sling fully cinched up there is still a little too much slack for my taste. I have a relatively small frame, but if you are less than 160lbs and don’t plan on wearing full kit, be prepared for this sling to not hold the gun against you very tight. It’s generally not a problem, but, it can get annoying if you are trying to do something while the gun is slung over you (it ends up flopping around a lot). So just something to be conscious of.Randall Woodfin wins Birmingham mayoral runoff Share Shares Copy Link Copy Hide Transcript Show Transcript WEBVTT S A NEW MANHEADED TO THE MAYOR'S OFFICE INBIRMINGHAM.RANDALL WOODFIN IS LEADING THERACE OVER INCUMBENT WILLIAMBELL.LISA: HERE'S A LOOK AT THENUMBERS RIGHT NOW.WITH
that retweeting Britain First was the wrong thing to do." It came as Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the US, revealed he had made a formal complaint to the White House. Image: Mr Trump told the PM to 'focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism' in the UK Mrs May said at a press conference in Amman, Jordan: "I'm not a prolific tweeter myself, and that means I don't spend much of my time reading other people's tweets. "But when I feel there should be a response, I give it - and I've given it." Her comments are the first direct challenge made to President Trump since a Downing Street statement on Wednesday. It called the sharing of anti-Muslim videos from far-right party Britain First "wrong". Image: One of the anti-Muslim tweets Donald Trump shared But the move angered the US leader, who tweeted: "@Theresa_May, don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!" On Thursday, Mrs May reiterated the criticism made by Home Secretary Amber Rudd that the original posts were "wrong". :: Sad! Pathetic! A history of Donald Trump's Twitter insults :: 'A Trump state visit may now be unthinkable' Asked by Sky News to respond to President Trump's comments about her failure to tackle terrorism at home, Mrs May said: "We take the need to deal with the terrorist threat very seriously. "That's about what we do domestically in the United Kingdom, it's about what we do elsewhere in the world." Passionate exchanges as MPs condemn Trump But she dodged a question on whether the US leader was "a fit person to meet the Queen" on a planned state visit. And she avoided answering on whether she would sack a Cabinet minister if they retweeted Britain First material, saying only that she was sure they would not. :: The far-right - what is Britain First? Sky's Jason Farrell said: "The Prime Minister's comments went down well with Jordanian officials in the room who chuckled at the questions about Donald Trump and applauded Theresa May's rebuke that he 'got it wrong.'" Sir Kim also said on Thursday: "British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right, which seek to divide communities and erode decency, tolerance and respect. "British Muslims are peaceful and law abiding citizens. And I raised these concerns with the White House yesterday." Following Mr Trump's sharing of videos posted by the Twitter account of Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen on Wednesday, Ms Fransen issued a video statement in which she declared herself "delighted" with the President's actions. She also appealed to Mr Trump for his "help" and "intervention" as she faces a charge of using threatening or abusive language following an appearance at a rally in Belfast this summer. Ms Fransen is due in court next month. Asked on Thursday if the President knew who Ms Fransen was when he shared the videos with his followers, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: "No, I don't believe so." She added: "I think he knew what the issues are, and that is that we have a real threat of extreme violence and terrorism, not just in this country, but across the globe." Corbyn: Trump's UK visit 'unlikely' Commenting on the developing row on Thursday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "I would hope the President will think about this and people who advise the President will advise him. "Listen, we are a society that wants to be cohesive and inclusive of people and the remarks he makes are just not helpful and not appropriate. "I think he should stop retweeting what Britain First or any other far-right organisation say." Mr Corbyn also expressed his belief it is "unlikely" Mr Trump's planned state visit to the UK will now go ahead. But he added: "In the event that he does come to Britain, I hope he will look at the diversity of our society, the sense of inclusivity we have in our society and my local mosque would be very happy to receive him."Parade Magazine in Full Propaganda Mode Parade of Lies, Part 7 To discuss this article go to B’Man’s Revolt It is now an accepted fact with almost everyone that the George W. Bush administration lied us into war in Iraq. Less well recognized is the guilt of the American news media in that colossal crime. As Exhibit A for the charge, consider this little tidbit in what is probably the most-read column in the United States, “Walter Scott’s Personality Parade.” It appeared in Parade magazine on November 4, 2001, well before Secretary of State Colin Powell made his infamous invasion-justifying speech to the United Nations: Q. Before our war on terrorists began, how well did Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, the world's top terrorists, get along? -C. Barnes, San Antonio, Texas A. Not well at all, but they worked together on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Intelligence sources tell us Saddam encouraged attacks on U.S. targets because he harbors a deep resentment against George H. W. Bush, who created the coalition that defeated Iraq in the Gulf War. Our sources say Saddam figured the most effective way to punish the former President was to hurt his son, who now occupies the White House. It was a massive miscalculation. The recent outpouring of patriotic fervor pushed George W. Bush's popularity rating to more than 90%. There they were, giving us a rationale for war on Iraq using “expert” anonymous mind readers. They know their audience. The late Washington Post publisher, Katharine Graham, once said that Parade is for people who move their lips when they read. That didn’t stop her from going for the numbers and including Parade with the Sunday Post, like almost every other major newspaper in the country does. Parade and its audience also brings to mind a great George Carlin line, “Just think of how stupid the average person is…and half of the people are even dumber than that.” America’s press, as we noted in our previous column, has played at least as crucial a role in selling the coup d’état of the JFK assassination as it has in selling our wars of aggression in the Middle East. With that in mind, we should certainly expect that in its last edition before November 22, 2013, the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination Parade would practically be running the propaganda point for the hoary lone gunman myth. I also noted in that article, though, that the press this time is tending toward the use of the indirect or oblique approach in selling the line of our illegitimate, usurper rulers. So it was with Parade, and particularly with the mythical “Walter Scott” on November 15, 2013. Here’s as close as “Scott” got to the JFK assassination topic: Q. Who does Piers Morgan think is the greatest American TV journalist ever? - Owen M., Miami A. “Walter Cronkite would have to be right up there,” says the British news host, 48, whose new book, Shooting Straight, recounts his first two and a half years at CNN. “He presided for so long over so many dramatic stories and had such respect from the nation.” In general, Morgan adds, “I think the American news media is second to none.” Let’s have a look at what’s going on here. In the first place, you really would have to be one of those lip movers to believe that there really is such a person as “Owen M.” in Miami who would send in such an implausible set-up question to be directed not to “Scott,” but to this former editor of one of Britain’s sleazy tabloids, a newspaper that was involved in the disgraceful practice of phone-hacking. It’s pretty clear in the first place that Parade is simply giving free publicity to Morgan’s TV show and to his new book, whose full title was apparently too long for the attention span of Parade readers, Shooting Straight: Guns, Gays, God, and George Clooney. The book, which assiduously stirs the phony Left vs. Right debate, would appear to be a perfect fit for Parade’s target audience judging from one reader’s review: “Shooting Straight......like his shallow weak show.....this book is as shallow as a crepe pan......like the man. Do not buy this book.....unless you need something to start a fire with.” But what does Piers Morgan have to do with covering up the JFK murder, you might ask. Well, it happens that he is hosting a Kennedy assassination special on Friday night, November 22. One might gather the anticipated slant of the program by reading my article, “CNN Censors Richard Belzer.” Even more germane, though, is the big plug for Walter Cronkite, “the most trusted man in America,” who is very closely identified with the assassination through his coverage of it at the time. Cronkite was also a leading salesman of the lone-gunman theory from the day of the assassination until his own dying day. Listen to him say with great authority “Three sharp cracks punctuated the afternoon air” in this Kennedy special, obviously made many years after the event, as you can tell from Cronkite’s age. He surely knew better by that time, but that’s either the official Warren Commission conclusion he’s parroting, which requires that there be a “magic bullet, or it is the “assassination for dummies” version of events he’s selling, in which one of Oswald’s shots hit Kennedy in the neck, the next hit Texas Governor John Connally, producing a number of injuries, and the final one hit Kennedy in the head. Take your pick. One can also get a better idea of what Cronkite was all about from reading my article, “Clinton and Cronkite: Odd Couple? For what Cronkite’s network continues to be about, see Jim Fetzer’s “The JFK War: CBS Endorses “Magic Bullet”Absurdity.” As it turns out, Parade chose to tuck its more direct propaganda into a very short article, even for them, called “Parade Picks.” It’s on page 6, about 80% of which is taken up by an ad for a drug to treat psoriasis. Here is the article in its entirety: Our Favorite JFK Reads 1. End of Days As he did with the Lincoln assassination in Manhunt, James Swanson makes history read like a crime thriller, vividly re-creating the details surrounding the shooting through the perspectives of the killer, the victim, and those closest to them. 2. Dallas 1963 Spotlighting the local cabal of hard-right extremists—politicians, business leaders, media executives, and clergymen—who considered the president a traitor, Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis construct a riveting portrait of a city ruled by paranoia and hate. 3. Camelot’s Court Leading Kennedy biographer Robert Dallek provides a fascinating nuanced look at a brilliant but flawed leader and the close circle of advisers whose counsel on subjects including Vietnam, the Cold War, and civil rights shaped the administration—for better and for worse. Most of the propaganda poison, going by the customers’ reviews at Amazon.com, is packed into that first recommendation, and it appears to be perfectly prepared for Parade’s semi-literate readers: James Swanson's books about the Lincoln assassination are preeminent history. Manhunt is one of the finest works of history that I have ever read. Needless to say, I was so excited to hear that he was doing a book on the JFK assassination. From the very beginning I was struck by several things. His writing style in this book seemed aimed at adolescent readers. Throughout the work, he sounds more like a middle school teacher than an honored historian. Mr. Swanson also plays psychiatrist throughout delving into the shooter's mind, how he felt, etc. In his introduction, he talks about staying away from making exact judgments on the who, why, and how. Then he immediately dives into a discussion of the "assassin" Oswald. Huh?! The worst part is that he continues the fiction about single bullets, no grassy knoll witnesses, etc. This book is totally unobjective and does not present any information that pushes the "official" story. What a disappointment. I could spend 1,000 words challenging what he presents as the truth, but why bother. I saw Swanson on CNN's Morgan Show, and he arrogantly pronounced that he does not accept any challenges to the government's findings---"And I have read all those conspiracy books, have them in my home." Please read books by [Jerome] Corsi, [Roger] Stone, [Jim] Marrs and [James] DiEugenio. They write for adults, with overwhelming challenges to the Commission without arrogance, just a search for the truth. (Links supplied by the author to their most recently published books. Marrs and DiEugenio have also written other books on the Kennedy assassination.) Even a reader of a less critical mind than the one above noticed that Swanson has written a really dumbed down book, but ideal for one who stretches his intellectual capacity to its limit when he reads the likes of Parade: Author James Swanson wrote a fascinating account on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in his book entitled Manhunt. His latest effort entitled End of Days on the assassination of John Kennedy has received mixed reviews at best. I enjoyed the book and it held my interest to the end. However, I do agree with one reviewer who stated that it appeared to be written for middle school students even though he has written a similar book for young readers entitled "The President Has Been Shot." Swanson focuses on Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone shooter and he does not buy into any conspiracy theories. Swanson switches back and forth to Kennedy's itinerary while in Dallas while switching to Oswald's schedule until they collide with the assassination. Swanson believes there were three shots fired with the first shot missing the President. The subsequent shooting of Officer J. D.Tippit and the capture of Oswald are related as is the coverage at Parkland Hospital. Swanson relates the fiasco at the Dallas city jail where Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald while he was in the process of being transferred to the county jail. The funeral of the President and its aftermath conclude the book. As I previously stated I enjoyed the book but did definitely find it written at a middle school level. I purchased three copies as gifts for middle and high school student of Swanson's book "The President Has Been Shot" but had I known the book End of Days was written at a middle school level I would have purchased additional copies of this book and let it go at that. The second book, again going by the various customer reviews, does what Parade and the mainstream media do best, which is to keep the populace divided by fanning the Left vs. Right flames. The bad guys in most cases, except from the perspective of Fox News and most of talk radio, are those on the Right. So it is with Dallas 1963. It was not so much any one individual or group of individuals for that matter who killed Kennedy, it was that bad old “climate of hate.” If you, too, are among that species of liberal who are all touchy-feely and have little more than oatmeal for brains, it might be the book for you. You might even agree with Rachel Maddow that if we had had a law in place forbidding the importation of foreign combat rifles like that lethal Mannlicher-Carcano that they say Oswald used, JFK might not have been killed. And I’ll bet that you will watch the Reverend Al Sharpton’s JFK special on MSNBC on the night of November 22 entitled “50 Years of Guns.” The third book appears to be mainly a rehash of things we already know about Kennedy and his administration. Its publication was timed for the 150th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, but it has little to say about that assassination. Consider it a throw-in to give the list a little intellectual heft, but coming at the end of such a long list will be ignored by most of Parade’s readers. Parade wasn’t finished with its propaganda barrage with its Cronkite plug from Piers Morgan and its Kennedy book list, although it was through with the Kennedy assassination part of it. The last question for “Walter Scott” from someone who surely does not exist was about someone that, until now, surely very few people had ever heard of. Q. Aside from the question of who Ronan Farrow’s father is, what else is interesting about him? – Donna G., Dover, Del. A. Farrow, 25, has been in the news since his actress mother, Mia, 68, said that Frank Sinatra is “possibly” his birth father, not Woody Allen. But scandalous headlines aside, he is a Rhodes scholar, diplomat, and human rights activist with an uncommonly witty Twitter page. He has signed to write a book about American military aid and global crises, and is gearing up to host his own MSNBC news show in 2014. I hardly even know where to start with that one, so I believe that I will just leave it for readers to ruminate upon. Parade’s parting propaganda shot is in the section called “Views” and it comes from a former Congressman who is now a TV personality, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. In the article, “My Fix for What Ails the GOP,” Scarborough, who manages to make Piers Morgan look like an intellectual and moral heavyweight, urges his Republican Party to get behind a presidential candidate like Colin Powell, * who, most of us can see, would be virtually indistinguishable from his Democratic opponent. This should be done, he argues, simply in the interests of returning to power: In retrospect I realize how much better the GOP would have fared against Bill Clinton in 1996 if I had not let my hopes for a conservative stalwart get in the way of the best hope to beat Clinton. “If it’s just going to represent the far right wing of the political spectrum, I think the party is in difficulty,” said Powell this year. “I’m a moderate, but I’m still a Republican.” This war hero, who has made history of his own by becoming the first African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, should still be one of the leading voices in the party because of, not in spite of, his centrist political philosophy. Republicans can kick moderates like General Powell out of the party’s mainstream and drive them into the arms of the Democratic Party every four years, or they can leave their ideological comfort zone, work aggressively to expand their political coalitions, and start stealing swing voters away from Democrats like Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, the Republican Party of the moment bears little resemblance to the party of Ronald Reagan, who would have responded to Powell’s critiques of the Republican Party with an all-hands-on-board effort to win the war hero back. With that, it has occurred to me that reading Parade has become a lot like Kremlin watching used to be. Just as that little exchange telling us in late 2001 that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 presaged our attack upon Iraq, Scarborough (or his ghost writer) is giving us a pretty good idea of how the next presidential election is going to play out. Rand Paul, whether or not he is genuine, publicly represents the only thing that even resembles the slightest change from more of the depressing same from these heirs to the fruits of the Kennedy assassination. Here we see the early signs that he will be painted as a quixotic extremist of the Barry Goldwater stripe who can only lead the Republican Party to a similar crushing defeat as that which Goldwater suffered in 1964. It is quite likely to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a final note, if any doubt remains in your mind that the central problem in the United States is the complete corruption of the news media, please read, in its entirety if your stomach is strong enough, The Washington Post’s lead article by Joel Achenbach on the front page of its fiftieth anniversary issue. In its malevolent mendacity, it is quite similar to their 1999 article written upon the death of Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. * “Has there been a more vastly overrated person in the past 50 years than Colin Powell? He helped cover up My Lai. He did his part to make sure that the Iran-Contra mess never came fully to light. He buckled under to chickenhawk bullies in the Bush White House and did his part to lie us into a destructive war with a speech to the U.N. that he knew was based on stovepiped bullshit from people he already didn't trust. And still, people trust him and revere him and, I have no doubt, if he came to them shilling another war, they'd salute and agree with him as devoutly as they did back in 2003, when he was before the UN talking about those lagoons of anthrax consomme that didn't really exist.” – Charles P. Pierce, “Colin Powell Owes Us an Apology, Not Another Excuse.” Esquire, May 14, 2012. David Martin November 22, 2013 Addendum It’s such a small matter that one might put it under the “white lie” category, but is in its own way revealing. Chris Matthews, of MSNBC’s Hardball fame, has a short piece in the February 9, 2014, Parade entitled "John Lennon Was a Hero of Mine" in which he makes the following statement: "When I think of the '60s, I think of the record shop in Chapel Hill that blared out ‘I Am the Walrus’ during my grad school years at the University of North Carolina." Matthews graduated from Holy Cross University in 1967. I met him in the summer of 1968 at a party that my apartment mates hosted. Like me, Matthews was in the economics Ph.D. program, and he happened to live in the same apartment complex. I had just completed two years of active-duty Army service and was just embarking upon my graduate school career. Matthews expressed to me his disillusionment with the highly theoretical nature of graduate economics at UNC and talked with some excitement about Swaziland and his Peace Corps appointment there. He left for Africa before the fall session began and never returned to graduate school. He’s fibbing, then, when he writes of his “grad school years (plural) at the University of North Carolina," but, hey, he is an employee of the mainstream media. David Martin February 10, 2014 Home Page Column Column 5 Archive ContactSalt Wells Creek mustang Shiloh comes home to me a year after our wild dance. It’s a romantic story with many twists and turns along the way. I’ll tell it mostly in pictures, since that’s where it all began. I know many of you don’t know the whole story. Even this is extremely abbreviated, but it’s a big part… I found Lieutenant’s band deep in the Salt Wells Creek/Adobe Town complex September 13, 2014, two days before the heavily disputed Checkerboard gathers were started in Wyoming. After giving up for the day and starting home, as often happens… I spotted them. You can read about my extraordinary experience playing with these two mixed bands with little human contact, here: http://kerryobrien.org/2014/09/ The yet un-named red Appaloosa figured prominently in the band of the grey stud. You can see the older white mare’s legs in the background and the grey mare’s nose to the left in the photo above. They play prominently in the story. The red mare and the grey mare (not shown) with black points that looked exactly like this grey stud, were both clearly pregnant. We played together for several hours until I lost the light, when they lined up on the ridge to watch me go. Magic does not describe it. After the gathers were completed I contacted Lona, the adoption coordinator in Canon City, and she confirmed that they had the red mare and the grey stud. I dreamed about them day and night and held them briefly. I wanted a saddle and pack horse team to disappear me into the Rocky Mountains. (Little did I know Ben Masters had beaten me to the punch! DO NOT MISS the film, Unbranded. You can see the trailer here: www.unbrandedthefilm.com.) I had only just started on my journey and was living out of a 16′ Casita trailer. I had no home, no rig, no way to swing it. Dreaming too big again, I relinquished my hold and within hours both the red mare and the grey stud were snatched up. I quickly became friends with Tammy Morgan in N.C. who adopted both the red mare and her grey band sister. They were inseparable in the Canon City pens, even protecting the older white mare when she was injured. These three mares were together, maintaining their family structure, in nearly all the photographs from Canon City. Thank you Amanda Wilder for your dedication! Sadly, the grey mare “Sister,” was too heavily pregnant to ship on the January shipment. The next day her full term foal was found dead in the pens. Sister and the white mare called Ghost are still in Canon City as far as I know but have not been able to confirm. (Addendum: I visited the two mares in April 2016. They are still there.) As fate would have it, I was in Florida that January when the load of Canon City mustangs was shipped to N.C. I wouldn’t miss it for the world and made the trip to Asheville to meet Tammy and her sister Michelle, also adopting. The driver said it was a good looking load of horses. It was very cold and we were very excited. You can read about the arrival day here: http://kerryobrien.org/2015/01/meet-the-mustangs/ Tammy, bless her heart, also adopted Paisley, a filly who’s adopter bailed on in the eleventh hour. Shiloh took her under her wing and they penned together until Shiloh’s foal arrived in April. She just got bigger, and bigger and bigger…. And in April dropped a ginormous filly foal. This beast is newborn! Just a few hours old! All was well in N.C. through the summer. Then I got the call. Tammy and I had made a deal that if push ever came to shove for her and Shiloh, she would call me first. Because of some personal issues, she needed to re-home some of her adult horses. The baby, Denali was old enough to wean. I was caught. I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t afford it. I’m traveling. I don’t have a home. But… this was the third time this horse had come to me. How could I say no? There was scrambling, praying, exercises of faith. Friends, friends of friends and the amazing community of mustangers I have come to know, all contributed to making this happen. Ashley Rose, who I had met at a BLM adoption event in Florida (read about it here: http://kerryobrien.org/2015/02/mustang-adoption-event/) was coming west for the Kiger Adoptions in Oregon and tag driving with her mom. Tammy and Michelle met her in Chattanooga and Ashley and her mom drove the rest of the way, delivering the smutty nosed mare to Colorado Springs on Monday. She took a good look around, scenting the other horses and they her. She took her time taking it in, then decided to trust me, stepped off and calmly went to the round pen where she will be making her home for at least the next month. Thank you to Annie Noonan for hooking me up with Gib Franciscotti and to Gib for his gallant generosity and open heartedness. Day One: Shiloh was very, very thin. The beasty foal had pulled her down severely. The twenty plus hour trip exhausted her. She was hurting, not feeling well, confused and sad. Very, very sad. Day Two: More of the same. I was very concerned. Not eating. Not drinking. Getting very gaunt. I’m lucky some over zealous advocates were not reporting me to BLM. On the other hand, maybe they’d be offering to bring hay and water like they did in Fish Creek. Certainly she looks worse than the horses there that everyone was so hysterical about. Oh, didn’t catch that drama? You can read about it here: Fish Creek Debacle. Oddly (or not), I too felt extremely, extreeeeeemly tired, unfocused, lethargic and without appetite. I should have been over the moon excited, but I was not. It sounds crazy, but my bond with this horse is such, that I was feeling what she was feeling. And I was worried. She was listless, dehydrated and probably on the verge of colic. I expected to have to call in an emergency vet first thing in the morning. Not getting off on the good foot. Shiloh Eating I’m sorry, this video takes forever to load. If you are on Facebook, you can see it more easily here: facebook.com/Mustang-Chronicles I woke an hour before dawn. I felt good and went up to check on her. She was up and eating! She ate and drank all morning long. Peed and pooped good poo! She had turned the corner! YAY!!! She felt good enough to give me a little attitude so we had a short Come To Jesus about presenting her butt to me. It took very little to convince her that wasn’t a good idea. Crows and coyotes made a racket in the rosy dawn. I think we’re out of the woods. From the rear window of my Casita I can keep an eye on her. When I left to write this post, she was keeping an eye on me. A good start. It takes a damn village: I’d like to thank all the mustang people, too numerous to mention, for their support making this happen, and support and advice during these tough couple of days. Oh, yes. And for railroading me into adopting a mustang. Love to you all.The Document Foundation announced today a third update of its OpenOffice spinoff as well as continued corporate support. Upon the release of LibreOffice 3.4.2, the Document Foundation announced that Oracle and SUSE each contributes roughly 25 percent of the latest commits, while Red Hat contributed another 20 percent. The above chart was supplied by the Document Foundation. That means the two leading Linux distributors represent almost 50 percent of the ongoing work on the open source Microsoft Office competitor while Oracle -- which donated OpenOffice to the Apache Foundation, with IBM's support in June-- also donated about 25 percent of the new code. The remaining 30 percent came from pre-TDF developers, Canonical, Tata Consulting Services, Bobiciel, CodeThink, Lanedo and SIL. RedFlag 2000 is one new LibreOffice contributor. The last upgrade came in June. Version 3.4.2 incorporates work from more than 300 contributors and cointains numerous bug fixes. The 3.4.3 release, due at the end of August, will contain more bug fixes and security fixes. It appears that the Document Foundation -- which is favored by the Free Software Foundation -- wants to reassure the technology public that corporate support for Libreoffice remains strong and that this Office suite is "enterprise ready." "If we look at the same data for individual developers, the top 12 by number of commits since the inception of LibreOffice is composed of a mixture of corporate-sponsored contributors (from 4 companies: Canonical, Oracle, RedHat and SUSE) and a number of private individual contributors, indicating a balanced situation and a healthy community.Education minister Christopher Pyne has announced a sweeping review of Australia’s national curriculum to weed out a supposed “partisan bias” in what’s taught in Australia’s classrooms. Announcing the changes, Pyne said: We don’t see the Australian Curriculum as a static document, but rather one that is gradually improved over time. All Australian students deserve access to a curriculum that encourages and fosters choice and diversity. Last November, I speculated in a satirical fashion whether or not Pyne might appoint a national curriculum review panel that would include a team of such government-friendly luminaries as historian Geoffrey Blainey, Catholic cardinal George Pell and commentator Gerard Henderson. Today, after much puffing and huffing from Pyne over the past two years, we hear that the much-anticipated panel will actually comprise two regular News Corp columnists, former teacher and education researcher Kevin Donnelly and University of Queensland academic Ken Wiltshire. I wasn’t too far off in my November prediction then. My take is that nobody with serious professional credibility in the field could be recruited, so Pyne had to fall back on appointing hackneyed cultural warriors, neither of whom have recent experience in the classroom or in curriculum design. However, while they may not be the first team and probably aren’t even the A-team, they are in situ and they have a Pyne mandate to meddle with the curriculum. These appointments come as no surprise. They are entirely in line with the government’s brazen approach to appointing close supporters to positions of authority and influence. The justificatory rhetoric that surrounds the current nominations is familiar, stale and inaccurate. Donnelly, a former Liberal Party staffer, has said that the current history curriculum “undervalues Western civilisation and the significance of Judeo-Christian values to our institutions and way of life”. We know that the term “Judeo-Christian” is actually a 1980s Cold War rhetorical fiction recently revived by the Christian Right and the Institute of Public Affairs. Civics education too is attacked by Donnelly because of its alleged postmodernist relativism. Donnelly argues that the (draft only) civics education curriculum is ideologically blighted because it contains the (cherry-picked) clause: …citizenship means different things to different people at different times. This may be a vague assertion, but it does have a kind of accuracy, with Ancient Greek, 18th-century French, 1930s Soviet and 20th century Australian variations. But – and this is a very, very big but – one vague expression does not postmodernism make. From this imprecise assertion, Donnelly extrapolates excitedly in arguing that the civics education curriculum is somehow a licence to mistreat women and carry out jihad. Such an ill-informed and illogical standpoint is a worrying sign of ideologically driven obtuseness. Social cohesion in modern democracies is certainly a serious topic, but it needs more complex analysis than Donnelly seems capable of providing. At the same time, Donnelly’s fellow panellist Ken Wiltshire is quoted as saying that the national curriculum should be “knowledge-based”. And yet, Wiltshire’s investigation of that furphy when it comes to the history curriculum shouldn’t take too long. It has, at its core, two key elements: Knowledge (facts really) and Understanding (what the facts mean when providing an explanation). If there is any criticism to be made of the national curriculum in history, it is that Years 7-10 are overstuffed with facts. Almost all of the Pyne-led bombast surrounding this latest outbreak of the “reds behind the desks” culture wars is either confected, muddled or ill-informed about the supposed influence of what The Australian newspaper referred to as the “cultural Left”. There are indeed problems with the national curriculum – as there are with any curriculum – but they are generally more of a technical than an ideological nature. It will be interesting to see what the Donnelly-Wiltshire panel comes up with. It has taken the best part of six years to draw up most of the current national curriculum, a process that has included 26,000 submissions and state/territory involvement all the way. Our two panellists now have a wonderful opportunity to undo all of that and bring in a curriculum of the “cultural Right”. If they do, the fight will be on for young and old. We can look forward to 20 years of tedious culture wars in the classroom, as has been the case with the UK’s national curriculum since the Thatcher era. It would be good if Donnelly and Wiltshire realised the downside of that particular dynamic and came up with a professional report. But what are the chances of that happening?In the mind-numbing, what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-awake early hours of January 12, 1942, Private First Class Narcisco Ortilano of the 2nd Battalion, 57th Infantry Regiment, United States Army Philippine Scouts scanned his eyes alertly through the darkness for any signs of movement. The heart-pumping surge of adrenaline brought forth from sounds of distant machine gun fire and unholy artillery shelling helped him fight eyelids that hadn’t seen sleep in a minor eternity. Cooking in the sweltering heat and humidity of an unseasonably warm Philippines dry season, this hardened warrior took a swig of tepid water from his canteen and double-checked the belt on his Browning Model 1917 heavy machine gun, ensuring that when the time came this death-spewing behemoth would be barfing out an apocalyptic typhoon of thirty-aught-six ammunition so intense that the entire extended Japanese Imperial Family would be picking shell fragments out of their miso soup for the next half-dozen generations or so. Pfc. Ortilano was pissed. And not just the kind of pissed you get when the waiter brings out lukewarm adobo and then sneezes in your face when you ask him to send it back. This was the kind of pissed you get when the Japanese Imperial Navy bombs the fuck out of the entire United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, temporarily cripples the American naval war machine, then seizes the opportunity and proceeds to gun-hump every single island in the Pacific Ocean with high-yield explosives and tens of thousands of angry screaming warriors armed with bolt-action rifles and samurai swords… including your home town. Dug into a trench on the beaches near the Philippines’ Bataan Peninsula, with Japanese amphibious transports deploying swarms of elite troops all around his position and his terrified family taking shelter just on the other side of Manila Bay, Private First Class Narcisco Ortilano cracked his knuckles, racked a round into the chamber, and nodded to his gunner’s assistant to keep his eyes open for anything that needed to be carved apart with 600 rounds per minute of 30.-06 water-cooled Fuck You. The full-scale invasion had begun a few days earlier. A hundred and twenty thousand Japanese soldiers deployed by a huge naval fleet and supported by mortars, artillery, tanks, over six hundred aircraft, and anything else they could scrape together. They stormed the beaches, guns blazing, crashing into the defenses set up by the U.S. and Filipino defenders bayonets-out, hurling themselves into combat with all the grace and subtlety of a Hello Kitty mall kiosk. The Allies had fought their balls off
Revelation and the world’s religions. First, you must understand that God has initiated all the great religions of the world, and in each case has sent a Messenger from the Angelic Assembly to initiate these traditions at the outset. All the great Messengers have come from the Assembly, so they are intrinsically united, you see. They have all been sent by the Source, your Source and the Source of all the world’s religions. But living in Separation, people have separated the religions from one another and even internally—separating everything that was meant to be united, misunderstanding the meaning and the value of the Messengers and what they were really presenting. But this limitation is understood by God, for you cannot understand God’s Greater Plan for the world living for the moment. Living in Separation, you cannot yet see the greater panorama of things. For each religion was meant to be a building block in humanity’s development and evolution, preparing humanity for a future that would be unlike the past. The great Revelations were given at pivotal times in human history, times not only of change and challenge, but times of great opportunity when these Revelations could spread. They were placed in certain places for this purpose, places where the Message could move beyond one tribe or one group or one nation, at times of opportunity greater than what anyone could see in the moment. Here you must understand that the world’s religions are all part of a Greater Plan. And while they are distinct from one another in certain ways, their distinction represents their unique contribution to the growing wisdom and compassion and ethics of the human family. For God knows that not everyone can follow one Teaching or one Teacher or even one interpretation. Living in Separation, you do not yet have the skill and the development to do this. And if one interpretation is forced upon the people, it becomes a form of oppression and is counterproductive in that way. What We are telling you here today is very different from how religion is regarded and used in this world and, in fact, how it is regarded and used throughout the universe. For all who live in the physical reality are living in Separation—separation from their Source and from the timeless reality from which all have come and to which all eventually will return. This is beyond human comprehension and certainly beyond any possibility of a religious understanding. This greater understanding now of the unity of the world’s religions, the unity of their Source and intention, is vital because they all must now play a part in building human cooperation to face a world in decline, a world of environmental disruption, a world of growing economic and social disruption—a reality that the human family has never had to face before; a reality created by humanity’s misuse of the world and its contamination of your air, your water and your soils, which now has the power to undermine human civilization and create a human tragedy unlike anything that has ever been seen here before. Greater than all of your wars combined it is. For The Great Waves of change are coming, and they have already begun. The world will become hotter. Crops will fail. Water will dry up or become flooded in certain places. The world’s economy will be shaken by this. And the livelihoods of the people will be shaken by this. That is why God has spoken again. And that is why God must address the condition of the world’s religions because they are in contention with each other, and even internally divided. And religious violence is now growing in the world and will grow further as the Great Waves of change impact more and more people, depriving them of their security, depriving them of their foundation for living here. The world’s religions are all given as building blocks of human civilization. Each block is not like another. Each block is unique, bringing something unique to humanity’s understanding and perspective. But to see this, you must see beyond your desire for Separation, where you try to make everything unique and separate to validate yourself and your ideas. We are giving you the Will of Heaven here and how Heaven looks at the world’s religions, as the spokes of a wheel, around the central axis of the Creator. They are all rivers moving towards the same sea. They appear to be separate and unique in their features, in their landscapes, but they are all leading to the same outcome. To see this, you will have to change your religious beliefs and adjust your understanding, for there is not one religion for all, for that can never be. God knows this even though the people are still confused. There is no final Revelation because God has more to say to the world as humanity is now facing thresholds it has never had to face before, standing at the threshold of space, encountering others from the universe who are here in the world to undermine human authority and sovereignty here. You are living in a condition never seen before in the history of human civilization. You are at a new juncture. And the world’s religions cannot prepare you for this. They were not given for this purpose, given in antiquity. A new building block must be given now to complete the picture and to carry it forward so that humanity may be prepared for its new future and to live in a New World environment, where human cooperation and unity will be necessary for humanity’s survival and well-being. God’s New Revelation, therefore, must bring great correction and clarification and will challenge many of the fundamental ideas and beliefs that separate the world’s religions and place them in contention with one another. For their fundamental unity is because of their Source and the intention of their Source in providing them at critical turning points for humanity. They are all there, giving their unique service to humanity. And people are called to participate in one of them. For in this matter, you cannot simply create your own pathway, for the great pathways have been given. But because they have been misused and misunderstood, subject to human adoption and corruption, many people have turned away in dismay and confusion and disappointment, seeing how the religions of the world have been used as banners of war, been used to suppress peoples cruelly, ignorantly, foolishly, against the Will of the Creator. Many people have turned away from the traditions that are meant to serve them. And now people are lost, thinking they can create their own pathway, by borrowing from this or borrowing from that. But only God knows the way to return. You cannot create your own way, based upon human preference and human admonition. People have been assigned to one of the great traditions, but now they are alienated from it, cast out into the world with all of its persuasions, its denigration, its harshness, its cruelty. Therefore, great clarification must be brought to the world’s religions or they will continue to divide humanity, each claiming to be exclusive, each claiming to have dominance or God’s preference over the others, filled with ambitious people, adopted by governments for their own purposes. Let it be understood, then, that religion can never be used as a banner of war or a justification for cruelty, torture, punishment or death. This all represents humanity’s misuse of the great religions and the misunderstanding of their purpose in building human unity, human values and human ethics. War and punishment are done for other reasons. Never claim that God justifies or has directed such things, for this is a grave misunderstanding. To harm others in the name of God is a crime against God, and God’s Will and Purpose, and God’s intention regarding the establishment of the great traditions. You can see here from what We tell you today that this is very different from what people proclaim about their religion, what they believe or are taught to believe. For they have become corrupted, one and all, in certain ways. For a Christian not to help a Muslim, or a Muslim not to help a Jew, or a Jew not to help a Hindu represents the core problem. Now religion is part of the problem and not part of the solution as it was intended, as it was always intended. Fundamentally, all the religions are here to bring you to the Knowledge that God has placed within you to guide you and to begin a process of redemption that would be carried out step by step in your life and circumstances if you were able to follow this guidance correctly. It will require great compassion and forgiveness. It will require for you to see your life and others in a different way and not fall prey to the seductions of hatred and discrimination. There is always a distinction between the Will of Heaven and the understanding of people. But to bridge this gap within yourself, you must take the Steps to this Knowledge that We speak of. For it represents the part of you that has never left God and can receive the Will of God for you, specifically. In this, you will not be in contention with others because Knowledge within you is not in contention with Knowledge in others. It is the beliefs of the mind. It is the social and the religious conditioning of the mind. It is your preferences, your anger and your unforgiveness that stand in the way of this greater recognition, which would liberate you from so much of your suffering and sense of unworthiness. So God must speak again to prepare you for the Great Waves of change coming to the world. God must speak again to prepare you for your encounter with a universe full of intelligent life, a non-human universe where freedom is so rare. And God must speak again to bring correction and clarification to the world’s religions so that they may have the chance to fulfill their true purpose and destiny here, which is to generate greater cooperation and unity, forgiveness and compassion amongst the tribes and nations of the world. They are all meant to serve in this capacity in their unique ways and to provide unique perspectives and understanding to balance each other and to lead humanity back to their primary relationship with God. Here you must understand that the Messengers are not gods. They all come from the Angelic Assembly. Half holy, half human they are, greater than any other person in the world in this respect. But you cannot worship them. You cannot appeal to them for favors and dispensations. This you must appeal to God directly. All that We are telling you here today will require much consideration. And many people will reject these things to defend their beliefs and ideas and investment in their religious perspective or their social or religious position in society. They will be blind to the God that they proclaim that they follow. For if you cannot receive God’s New Revelation, what does that mean about your relationship with God? It means you have a relationship with humanity’s understanding of God, but your relationship with God is not yet strong enough to override these things. It is a great challenge at the time of Revelation. Whenever this has happened, perhaps once in a millennium, it is always a great challenge for the recipient. Can they listen anew? Can they respond? Can they step beyond their beliefs and the things that circumscribe them? Do they have the heart and will to know the truth beyond human ideology? For no religious understanding in the world can encompass the Purpose and Plan of God in this world, let alone the universe beyond you, a universe so great and vast your intellect is far too small to even comprehend it. We are telling you these things so that the true purpose and initiation of the world’s religions can be rekindled and rediscovered. But for this, you must follow the Knowledge that God has placed within you, for your mind is far too conditioned, far too afraid of change, far too limited by your conditioning, and for many people, far too oppressed by poverty and political and religious oppression in the world. You must appeal to your deeper conscience that God has placed within you at the beginning. This is not to make you a great saint or avatar or a great messenger, but to enable you to discover your unique contribution and service to the world. Humble it will be. Specific it will be. It is meant for certain people and places and situations. At this moment, you cannot understand this. You can only follow the pathway that Knowledge will lead you into, and have the faith to do this, and have the self-respect to trust this within yourself and others. For humanity to survive the Great Waves of change, for human civilization to remain intact and to grow and expand facing the Great Waves of change, for human freedom and sovereignty to be built and strengthened in the face of intervention from the universe around you, human cooperation and the cooperation of humanity’s religious traditions must be re-established and renewed, beginning with you and your understanding, and your heart and mind. Look not to others here, for you must bring yourself into alignment with this first. Do not blame and condemn nations and leaders no matter how ignorant they may appear to be, for you must bring your own house into order—your mind, your emotions, your beliefs, your grievances. Allow the healing of God’s New Revelation to liberate you from that which oppresses you and keeps your mind small, living in darkness and confusion. That is why the Revelation is focused on the individual. For everything that will happen in the future will be based upon the decisions of individuals and what informs those decisions. Will it be the power and presence of Knowledge within them? Or will it be the forces of persuasion in the world and the darkness of fear, anger and hatred? The service and giving in the future will be so great. The need will be so great. There will be whole regions of the world where people will be forced to leave. Who will receive them? Who will accept them? They will no longer be able to provide for themselves, for their lands will become barren. And the seas will rise, engulfing their ports and cities in the future. It will be a human need and calamity on a scale never seen. Do not think this is the Will of God. It is the consequence of how humanity has lived in this paradise that is now being turned into a hellish environment. Step by step, day by day, humanity is devouring the world as fast as possible, with no thought of the future, contaminating the air, the water and the soils, with no thought of the future, greedily, like locusts upon the land. This is ignorance. This is foolishness. You can understand what We are saying here. You cannot just live for the moment. You have to prepare for the future in all things. You can understand what We are saying here. The Will of Heaven is that the world’s religions will all participate in the restoration of humanity, according to the needs of people, not just according to their philosophies or ideologies. Everyone must pitch in to save the ship upon which you all live, for that ship is now taking on water and listing to one side. This is the purpose of all the world’s religions—feeding people, caring for people, forgiving people, uniting people. There can be no violence or contention between the world’s religions if they are understood correctly. These acts [of violence] are a crime against God and God’s Will and intentions for Earth, for you and for all peoples. Humanity must band together to protect itself from the Great Waves of change that it has created and to prepare for its engagement, its hazardous engagement, with intelligent life from beyond the world. You will not find this emphasis in the world’s religions unless you search very deeply. You will not see this if you live for the moment only or have your eyes to the past. For religion must be vital today and tomorrow and must prepare itself for the welfare of humanity, understanding that God has created all the world’s religions, and they have all been changed by man. Now they must return to their Source and to the initial intention that created them and the intention that requires them now to each join in service to the welfare of the peoples of the world, not only their adherents, but all peoples. In this, they become true servants of the human family. In this, they return to their initial purpose—the purpose for which they were given. Only God’s New Revelation for the world has the Power of Heaven to do this. You may think such a thing is not possible, given where people are associating themselves and how they think and behave. But We are talking about the Will of Heaven here, which can alter the course of human destiny if it can be received, if it can be accepted by enough people in the world. Many will fight against this, of course, because that always happens at times of Revelation. It all depends on who can receive the Will of Heaven now, standing at the threshold of a New World, standing at the threshold where humanity will have to choose to unite and to persevere, or to descend into endless chaos and self-destruction. May you listen with your heart. May you open your mind for Revelation. May you accept that you were sent here for this purpose, to live in these times, to serve the world under these conditions and to prepare yourself and others for the great change that is coming. This is the Will of Heaven, and within yourself, deep beneath the surface of your mind, you will know this to be true.The Scornful Lady is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, and first published in 1616, the year of Beaumont's death. It was one of the pair's most popular, often revived, and frequently reprinted works. Performances [ edit ] The title page of the 1616 first edition states that the play was premiered by the Children of the Queen's Revels; it later passed into the possession of the King's Men, who revived the play in 1624.[1] (The company's clown, John Shank, played the Curate in their 1624 production.) The King's Men acted The Scornful Lady on 19 October 1633, when Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, refused to let them perform The Woman's Prize. Prince Charles, the future King Charles II, attended a performance of the play at the Cockpit-in-Court Theatre on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1642. While the theatres were closed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum (1642–60), material was extracted from The Scornful Lady to form a droll called The False Heir and Formal Curate, published by Kirkman in The Wits. The play was revived early in the Restoration and became a standard in the repertory. In his Diary, Samuel Pepys recorded seeing it on 27 November 1660 and on 4 January 1661, both times with male actors in the title role, as was standard up to that time. Then Thomas Killigrew staged the play with women in the female parts; Pepys saw that production on 12 February 1661. Pepys saw the play again on 27 December 1666, 16 September 1667, and 3 June 1668. Charles Hart and Edward Kynaston were among the actors of the day who played in it.[2] The Scornful Lady remained in the repertory until the middle of the 18th century.[3] Some early actresses acquired reputations for their work in the play; Anne Marshall was noted for her portrayal of the title character in the 1660s, while in the next century Mrs. Macklin, the wife of Charles Macklin, was a popular success as the servant Abigail. Authorship [ edit ] The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 19 March 1616; both the Register entry and the first edition assign the play to Beaumont and Fletcher. Cyrus Hoy, in his survey of authorship problems in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators, produced this breakdown in the two writers' contributions:[4] Beaumont — Act I, scene 1; Act II, 2; Act V, 2; Fletcher — Act I, scene 2; Act II, 2 and 3; Act III; Act IV; Act V, scenes 1, 3, and 4. Hoy's schema is in general agreement with the work of earlier researchers.[5] A few early critics suggested the participation of Philip Massinger, though that possibility has generally been rejected due to lack of evidence. Based on references and allusions to contemporary events, scholars generally date the play to the 1613–16 period, though dates as early as 1610 have also been proposed.[6][7][8] The Scornful Lady participates in a complex inter-relationship with several other plays of its era, a set of dramas that includes Marston's The Dutch Courtesan, Fletcher and Massinger's The Little French Lawyer, Massinger's The Parliament of Love, and A Cure for a Cuckold by John Webster and William Rowley.[9] All the plays exploit the idea of a woman who wants her beloved to duel with and kill his closest friend. Texts [ edit ] The play went through multiple editions in the 17th century, leaving it with a complex publication history.[10] The 1616 first edition, published in quarto by the bookseller Miles Partridge, with the printing probably done by Richard Bradock. Q2, 1625, published by Thomas Jones, the printing presumably done by Augustine Matthews. Q3, 1630, issued again by Thomas Jones, printed by Bernard Alsop and Thomas Fawcett. Q4, 1635, published and printed by Augustine Matthews, the printer of Q2. Q5, 1639, issued by Robert Wilson, printing by Marmaduke Parsons. Q6, 1651, published by Humphrey Moseley; the printer was probably William Wilson. Two pirated editions of Moseley's Q6, issued by Francis Kirkman, both with the false date "1651." Q7, 1677, which, in light of the previous piracies, pointedly identifies itself as "The Seventh Edition" on its title page; "As it is now Acted at the Theatre Royal" in Drury Lane. The likely publishers were Thomas Collins and Dorman Newman, acting through the bookseller Simon Neale. Q8, 1691, from Dorman Newman. Subsequent editions followed in the 18th century. Like other already-published Beaumont/Fletcher plays, The Scornful Lady was omitted from the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647, but was included in the second folio of 1679. Thomas Shadwell borrowed from the Beaumont/Fletcher play for his own The Woman-Captain (1680),[11] which was revived in 1744 as The Prodigal. References [ edit ]The theme of this year's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was "Push the Tempo." That was also the title of the basketball analytics panel, which featured Mike D'Antoni, a coach whose Suns teams led the league in pace (possessions per 48 minutes) in each of his four seasons in Phoenix. Coaches often say that they want to play at a faster pace when they take over a team or when they open training camp. But fast pace doesn't have a great history in the NBA. Since 1977-78 (when turnovers were first counted), only one team has ranked in the top five in pace in the regular season and won a championship. That was 33 years ago, when the 1981-82 Lakers ranked fifth in pace (among only 23 teams) and beat the Sixers in The Finals. The highest ranking team in pace to even reach The Finals was the 1995-96 Sonics, who ranked third in pace and lost to the 72-10 Bulls. In total, only six teams in 37 years have ranked in the top five in pace and made The Finals. The Golden State Warriors are trying to buck that trend. The Dubs lead the league in pace, averaging more than 100 possessions per 48 minutes. They also rank second in offensive efficiency, first in defensive efficiency, and first in NetRtg by the widest margin (5.0 points per 100 posssions) we've seen in the 38 years since the league started counting turnovers. The previous high for NetRtg differential between No. 1 and No. 2 in the league was held by those '95-96 Bulls, who were 4.6 points per 100 possessions better than the Sonics. Historically, fast pace does not correlate with good defense. This season has been different, mostly because of the Warriors. If the Warriors maintain their ranks in pace and defensive efficiency, they would be the first team to lead the league in both since the 1977-78 Suns (who didn't make it out of the first round). But the Warriors' rank in pace is all about their offense, not their defense. According to SportVU, Golden State averages just 10.4 seconds per offensive possession, the lowest mark in the league. But they average 12.3 seconds per defensive possession, the eighth highest mark on that end of the floor. So, while they rank first in offensive pace, they rank 23rd in defensive pace. All stats are through Wednesday, March 4. D'Antoni, along with point guard Steve Nash, changed the way the game is played. And while the Suns didn't win any championships, the pace-and-space style that they brought to the league helped the Heat and Spurs win the last three. At Sloan, D'Antoni stressed the importance of pushing the ball up the floor, because every defensive system works best when it has time to set up. "You try to find a good shot before [the defense] kicks in," he said. The numbers back him up. As possessions go on, efficiency goes down. Efficiency according to the shot clock Shot clock Poss. OffRtg FG% 3P% eFG% TORate FTA/FGA 19-24 26,188 107.1 55.2% 36.8% 60.2% 19.1 0.489 13-18 57,501 93.1 44.8% 36.6% 49.9% 15.8 0.279 7-12 55,736 92.3 43.3% 35.8% 47.9% 13.1 0.256 0-6 22,890 84.5 37.9% 31.9% 42.5% 10.4 0.230 We're only looking at initial possessions here. Numbers after an offensive rebound are not included. It all seems logical, but some teams don't do much to get those shots early in the clock. While the Warriors have taken 19.7 percent of their shots in the first six seconds of the shot clock and the Suns lead the league at 21.4 percent, the Hornets have a rate (9.0 percent) less than half that. And Charlotte is one of the team's whose offense suffers most when it doesn't get a shot early. Biggest difference in efficiency, first 6 vs. last 18 seconds of the shot clock Team F6 PTS F6 Poss. F6 OffRtg L18 PTS L18 Poss. L18 OffRtg Diff. Minnesota 971 889 109.2 3,936 4,585 85.8 -23.4 Oklahoma City 1,200 1,066 112.6 4,202 4,640 90.6 -22.0 Charlotte 630 575 109.6 4,213 4,777 88.2 -21.4 L.A. Lakers 748 686 109.0 3,680 4,181 88.0 -21.0 Utah 816 744 109.7 3,997 4,495 88.9 -20.8 The Warriors' offense doesn't suffer as much, but ranks third in the league (behind Houston and Washington) in "look ahead" passes, a stat that SportVU tracks and that Warriors coach Steve Kerr values. It's one reason why Stephen Curry has shot less off the dribble this season. Look ahead pass = A pass that came from behind the midcourt line and traveled at least 20 feet in a north-south direction. "We want to throw the ball ahead to the wing if someone's open," Kerr said in a Q & A at All-Star weekend, "which means Steph is frequently passing it ahead to the wing instead of dribbling it up." On possessions after a shot (made or missed, field goal attempt or free throw attempt), the Warriors get the ball from the defensive end of the floor to inside the 3-point line on their end in an average of 8.4 seconds, according to SportVU. That's the lowest mark in the league and two seconds faster than the 30th ranked Toronto Raptors (10.4 seconds). On defense, the Warriors do a pretty good job of suppressing transition. Their opponents average 9.4 seconds to get inside the arc, the 10th highest opponent mark in the league. As you'd expect, there's a big difference between that time after a made shot and after a missed shot. Warriors opponents get inside the arc in an average of 7.3 seconds off a Golden State miss and in an average of 11.2 seconds off a Golden State make. But since the Warriors have the best make/miss ratio in the league, that average opponent time to the get inside the 3-point line is a lot higher than it would be if their offense wasn't so good. There's a lot more to the Warriors' defensive success than just getting back off made shots, but it's a great start. Again, it's pretty simple. Pushing the ball on offense leads to better shots, which lead to a better chance of getting back on defense and getting a stop. You can defend with pace. And the Warriors may make history by doing so. John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.Wombat mange: Call for volunteers to help treat animals 'itching to death' in Canberra Updated A Canberra wildlife protection group is on the lookout for new volunteers to help stop mange-infected wombats from itching to death. ACT Wildlife has just received $19,830 in funding from the ACT Government to help treat mange in wombat populations at Tharwa in the territory's south. But now they need more volunteers to help implement the trial program to save local wombats from the potentially fatal disease. ACT Wildlife secretary Dee Harmer said mange was a mite infestation introduced to Australia that wombats were unaccustomed to dealing with. "The mite actually burrows under the wombat's skin and it causes a lot of itching," she said. "The wombat scratches and carries on, trying to get rid of that, and it causes scabs." Ms Harmer said it was not actually the mange that the wombats died from — they literally "itched to death". "They die from secondary infections," she said. "They scab up quite badly, the scabs form cracks in the skin and that's what gets flyblown or infected. And they die really slow, horrible deaths." 'Crude but effective' flaps placed outside burrows Wombat mange is an Australia-wide problem and treatment programs have been established in a number of areas, including Tasmania, Victoria and even Yass, just across the border from the ACT in NSW. The most common treatment program involves placing plastic flaps, hung from simple wire frames, outside burrows — with a small cup of treatment solution attached. Then when the wombat moves through the flap, the solution spills down their backs and helps to kill the mites. "It's really quite crude, but it is so effective," Ms Harmer said. The trial in the ACT, based at several sites, will canvas about 300 burrows with repeated treatments over the course of four months. It will also investigate the merits of longer-term management of mange, to see if a maintenance program could help stop reinfection. Ms Harmer said ACT Wildlife fielded a lot of calls from Canberran residents living on the urban fringe around the Murrumbidgee Corridor, who see the animals out grazing — and scratching wildly — during the daylight hours. "The wombats with mange, they end up eating all day long... to try and get enough energy... whereas normally they're quite nocturnal," she said. "We're getting those calls, seeing the animals suffering... so we realised it was quite a problem." Range of work available for volunteers The problem is so widespread in the ACT, there is almost nowhere in Canberra to reintroduce injured or orphaned animals once they have been treated by volunteers. "If this is successful, we'll be able to treat areas in the ACT to actually eradicate mange, so that we can release orphan joeys that we raise back into the ACT, rather than having to transfer them interstate," Ms Harmer said. She said ACT Wildlife were constantly on the lookout for new volunteers, to help with their mange treatment programs. "We've got just under a dozen active volunteers, so we would love some more," she said. Volunteers can get involved in a numbers of ways — including doing treatment fieldwork, making mange flaps from ACT election corflutes or monitoring cameras. Anyone interested in taking part should visit the ACT Wildlife website or call 0432 300 033. Topics: animals, veterinary-medicine, canberra-2600, act, australia First postedScoop got scooped. The baby raccoon that spent days trapped on a window ledge at the Toronto Star building has been rescued. Toronto firefighters worked with Toronto Wildlife Centre staff to pull off a dramatic rescue of Scoop the raccoon, who spent days trapped on a 4th floor window ledge at 1 Yonge Street. ( Jesse Winter / Toronto Star ) Toronto firefighters worked with Toronto Wildlife Centre staff to retrieve the little fur ball Thursday afternoon. It was a tricky manoeuvre. The fire department backed a ladder truck onto the sidewalk outside the Starbucks near the building’s entrance. While the truck crew extended the ladder and basket towards the shivering Scoop, so nicknamed by Toronto Star staff, their colleagues stretched out a safety net and blanket below to catch the critter should he panic and fall. Article Continued Below Workers from the building lined the western stairwell just metres from Scoop while a crowd of around 50 passers-by formed on the sidewalk to watch the rescue. As the rescue team approached, Scoop uncurled himself from a tight ball and peered over the ledge. A wildlife centre staff member, accompanied in the fire truck bucket by two firefighters, threw a large net over the little raccoon, and dragged him free of the ledge. Scoop fought back, but was eventually lifted to safety. Firefighters worked with Toronto Wildlife Centre staff to pull off a dramatic rescue of Scoop the raccoon, who spent days trapped on a 4th floor window of the Toronto Star building. Wildlife centre staff on scene would not say what will happen to the little critter now that he’s been rescued. Calls to the centre’s spokesperson were not immediately returned. “He’s pretty stressed out,” said one worker, who would not give her name. Security staff at the building said they first noticed Scoop on Tuesday, and contacted the Toronto Wildlife Centre to help bring the animal down to safety. Firefighters hold a net and watch as their colleagues rescue Scoop the raccoon. The centre initially decided to postpone the rescue for a couple of days, hoping the baby raccoon would find a way down itself as the building material, which appears to be gravel-like, should be easy for the species to climb. Journalists line the stairwell at 1 Yonge Street to watch the rescue. Article Continued Below On Wednesday afternoon, the raccoon made several attempts throughout the day to lower itself back down to the ground, but slipped dangerously and nearly fell several times before finding refuge in the corner of the ledge, closer to the window. With files from Evelyn Kwong The raccoon on Wednesday at the Toronto Star building. The raccoon was spotted on Tuesday by security staff. ( Steve Russell )CHICAGO — On a recent Friday afternoon, the aroma of birria, a spicy Mexican stew, filled the basement of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. The entrance of this historic red brick church, founded by Polish immigrants in 1887, now bears signs in English and Spanish. Downstairs, two men in matching maroon T-shirts chatted in Spanish as they set up rows of long folding tables and chairs between columns whose gilded moldings were the only hint of the opulent cathedral above them. A trio of black-clad security guards assumed their posts near the exits, as a DJ tested the sound system, blasting Shakira through the speakers. “When I came over here, this neighborhood was Polish, some Irish, a few Mexicans,” said Alfonso Garcia, who moved to Back of the Yards with his family in 1971. “Back then, we heard the sound of rock ‘n’ roll. Now it’s all, you know, Mexican music, Hispanic music.” A Mexican-born U.S. citizen who spent 35 years working as a butcher in Chicago’s mostly bygone meatpacking industry, Garcia now heads the youth soccer program for the Union Impact coalition — a local organization that aims to keep kids off the streets and give them the structure, support and motivation needed to resist the pull of gang life. “That’s what a kid really needs — somebody to look after them,” said Garcia. He and the others were at the church setting up for a party to celebrate the end of the winter soccer season with trophies and awards. About 80 families, close to 400 people, were expected to show up. St. Joseph’s church symbolizes how the neighborhood has changed — and how it hasn’t — since long before Garcia and his family arrived. Once it was home to a diverse population of European immigrants, like those immortalized by Upton Sinclair in “The Jungle,” who had come from Ireland and throughout Central and Eastern Europe in search of work in the city’s meatpacking industry. But those communities began disappearing after the stockyards closed in 1971, making way for a new wave of Hispanic immigrants like Garcia and his family, also seeking a better life on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Life in Back of the Yards is better in some ways — the putrid smell of the stockyards no longer fills the air — but worse in others, as a deadly gang war, abetted by high-powered assault rifles and social media, has residents under siege. Driving through the densely populated community hardly evokes a sense of danger. Along the main drags of 47th and Ashland, a collection of pawnshops and dollar stores offer evidence of the lack of economic opportunity in the area since the stockyards closed. And though the two- and three-story wood-framed houses that line the leafy, one-way residential streets have seen better days, Back of the Yards on its surface looks more like a typical working-class community — with plenty of schools, playgrounds and public parks — than an “inner-city” war zone. Yet it is the setting of a decades-old gang rivalry that last year made the neighborhood home to one of the deadliest blocks in Chicago. And as of May 2, the Chicago Tribune had recorded 26 shooting victims this year in the neighborhood, also known as New City. By that night, the list had
a sense, it’s a teeny supermassive black hole,” said Elena Gallo, assistant professor of astronomy in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. Black holes come in two types. The “stellar mass” variety have the mass of several Suns. They form when the largest stars die and collapse. The other “supermassive” kind is typically at least 100,000 times the mass of the Sun. (The newly found one is half that.) These are thought to form and evolve with the host galaxies whose centers they inhabit. Every large galaxy, including our own Milky Way, is believed to have a supermassive black hole at its core. The recently discovered object is one of the first to be identified in a dwarf galaxy. The findings illuminate for astronomers important similarities between galaxies of vastly different scales. And because the dwarf galaxy, called RGG 118, is so small, it’s unlikely that it has ever merged with other galaxies, so it gives researchers a window to a younger universe. Larger galaxies are thought to have grown through mergers. “These little galaxies can serve as analogs to galaxies in the earlier universe,” said Vivienne Baldassare, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan and first author of a paper on the results published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “For galaxies like our Milky Way, we don’t know what it was like in its youth. By studying how galaxies like this one are growing and feeding their black holes and how the two are influencing each other, we could gain a better understanding of how galaxies were forming in the early universe.” As is the case in most present-day galaxies, the Milky Way’s black hole is dormant. Young or small galaxies like RGG 118 have active nuclei that are still in the process of swallowing stars, dust and gas. During this tumultuous time in galaxies’ history, the central black hole helps to shape its host’s evolution. It acts as a thermostat, Gallo described, regulating both the temperature of the galaxy and the movement of the dust and gases that form stars. “The black hole we found is active and based on the X-ray observations, it appears to be is consuming material at a rate similar to active black holes in much more massive galaxies,” Baldassare said. To make the observations, the team used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the 6.5-meter Clay Telescope in Chile. RGG 118 was originally found through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Researchers figured out the mass of the black hole by studying the motion of the gas near the center of the galaxy using visible light data from the Clay Telescope. They used the Chandra data to figure out the brightness of material around the black hole in the X-ray band. The X-ray luminosity tells astronomers the rate at which the black hole is taking in matter. RGG 118 is consuming material at 1 percent the maximum rate, which matches the properties of other supermassive black holes. “This little supermassive black hole behaves very much like its bigger, and in some cases much bigger, cousins,” said co-author Amy Reines, a Hubble fellow in the U-M Department of Astronomy. “This tells us black holes grow in a similar way no matter what their size.” Astronomers don’t yet understand how supermassive black holes form. Some hypothesize that giant clouds of gas serve as their seeds. Others believe they descend from gargantuan stars about 100 times the mass of the Sun. “We have two main ideas for how these supermassive black holes are born,” Gallo said. “This black hole in RGG 118 is serving as a proxy for those in the very early universe and ultimately may help us decide which of the two is right.” // end // More news releases and status reports or top stories. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Related Content The Real Science Behind the Megalodon The USS Indianapolis had delivered the crucial components of the first operational atomic bomb to a naval base on the Pacific island of Tinian. On August 6, 1945, the weapon would level Hiroshima. But now, on July 28, the Indianapolis sailed from Guam, without an escort, to meet the battleship USS Idaho in the Leyte Gulf in the Philippines and prepare for an invasion of Japan. The next day was quiet, with the Indianapolis making about 17 knots through swells of five or six feet in the seemingly endless Pacific. As the sun set over the ship, the sailors played cards and read books; some spoke with the ship’s priest, Father Thomas Conway. But shortly after midnight, a Japanese torpedo hit the Indianapolis in the starboard bow, blowing almost 65 feet of the ship’s bow out of the water and igniting a tank containing 3,500 gallons of aviation fuel into a pillar of fire shooting several hundred feet into the sky. Then another torpedo from the same submarine hit closer to midship, hitting fuel tanks and powder magazines and setting off a chain reaction of explosions that effectively ripped the Indianapolis in two. Still traveling at 17 knots, the Indianapolis began taking on massive amounts of water; the ship sank in just 12 minutes. Of the 1,196 men aboard, 900 made it into the water alive. Their ordeal—what is considered the worst shark attack in history—was just beginning. As the sun rose on July 30, the survivors bobbed in the water. Life rafts were scarce. The living searched for the dead floating in the water and appropriated their lifejackets for survivors who had none. Hoping to keep some semblance of order, survivors began forming groups—some small, some over 300—in the open water. Soon enough they would be staving off exposure, thirst—and sharks. The animals were drawn by the sound of the explosions, the sinking of the ship and the thrashing and blood in the water. Though many species of shark live in the open water, none is considered as aggressive as the oceanic whitetip. Reports from the Indianapolis survivors indicate that the sharks tended to attack live victims close to the surface, leading historians to believe that most of the shark-related causalities came from oceanic whitetips. The first night, the sharks focused on the floating dead. But the survivors’ struggles in the water only attracted more and more sharks, which could feel their motions through a biological feature known as a lateral line: receptors along their bodies that pick up changes in pressure and movement from hundreds of yards away. As the sharks turned their attentions toward the living, especially the injured and the bleeding, sailors tried to quarantine themselves away from anyone with an open wound, and when someone died, they would push the body away, hoping to sacrifice the corpse in return for a reprieve from a shark’s jaw. Many survivors were paralyzed with fear, unable even to eat or drink from the meager rations they had salvaged from their ship. One group of survivors made the mistake of opening a can of Spam—but before they could taste it, the scent of the meat drew a swarm of sharks around them. They got rid of their meat rations rather than risk a second swarming. The sharks fed for days, with no sign of rescue for the men. Navy intelligence had intercepted a message from the Japanese submarine that had torpedoed the Indianapolis describing how it had sunk an American battleship along the Indianapolis’ route, but the message was disregarded as a trick to lure American rescue boats into an ambush. In the meantime, the Indianapolis survivors learned that they had the best odds in a group, and ideally in the center of the group. The men on the margins or, worse, alone, were the most susceptible to the sharks. As the days passed, many survivors succumbed to heat and thirst, or suffered hallucinations that compelled them to drink the seawater around them—a sentence of death by salt poisoning. Those who so slaked their thirst would slip into madness, foaming at the mouth as their tongues and lips swelled. They often became as great a threat to the survivors as the sharks circling below—many dragged their comrades underwater with them as they died. After 11:00 a.m. on their fourth day in the water, a Navy plane flying overhead spotted the Indianapolis survivors and radioed for help. Within hours, another seaplane, manned by Lieutenant Adrian Marks, returned to the scene and dropped rafts and survival supplies. When Marks saw men being attacked by sharks, he disobeyed orders and landed in the infested waters, and then began taxiing his plane to help the wounded and stragglers, who were at the greatest risk. A little after midnight, the USS Doyle arrived on the scene and helped to pull the last survivors from the water. Of the Indianapolis’ original 1,196-man crew, only 317 remained. Estimates of the number who died from shark attacks range from a few dozen to almost 150. It’s impossible to be sure. But either way, the ordeal of the Indianapolis survivors remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. naval history. Sources: Richard Bedser. Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever. Discovery Channel: United States, 2007; Cathleen Bester. “Oceanic Whitetip Shark,” On the Florida Museum of Natural History. Accessed August 7, 2013; Nick Collins. “Oceanic whitetip shark: ten facts,” On Telegraph UK, December 6, 2010. Accessed August 6, 2013; Tom Harris. “How Sharks Work,” On How Stuff Works, March 30, 2001. Accessed August 6, 2013; Alex Last. “USS Indianapolis sinking: ‘You could see sharks circling’” on BBC News Magazine, July 28, 2013. Accessed August 6, 2013; Raymond B. Leach. The Tragic Fate of the USS Indianapolis. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000; Marc Nobleman. The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Publishers, 2006; “Oral History -The Sinking of USS Indianapolis,” On Naval Historical Center, September 1, 1999. Accessed August 7, 2013; “The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis, 1945.” On Eyewitness to History, 2006. Accessed August 6, 2013; Doug Stanton. In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors. New York, NY: Macmillan, 2003; “The Story.” On the USS Indianapolis CA-35, March 1998. Accessed August 6, 2013; Jennifer Viegas. “Worst Shark Attack,” On Discovery Channel. Accessed August 6, 2013.One of our abiding modern myths, as Russell Brand and George Monbiot explained in a recent episode of the Trews is: “that if you’re rich, you deserve to be rich and that story means that if you’re not rich, you don’t deserve to be rich and that means everything’s the way that it should be and nothing should change.” This is what Melvin Lerner described as the just-world hypothesis. We have an in-built bias which makes us view the world as fundamentally just and the basic reason it exists is to make us feel more secure in ourselves as we go about our daily lives. What this means however, is that we are prone to errors in judgement such as what Monbiot refers to as the self-attribution fallacy and what psychologists often refer to as the fundamental attribution error. In essence, we not only overestimate the extent to which our successes are down to ourselves alone – we also often take credit for things we didn’t do. This matters because in this day and age, we believe that we live in a pure meritocracy and that as such, our outcomes in life are down to our own hard work alone. This belief is deeply ingrained within our social psyche and forms the basis of the way in which some of those with the highest incomes justify earning so much while reserving the right to avoid tax. This kind of attitude leads us as a society to, for example, believe that tax cuts disproportionately affecting the disabled and the poorest in society are fine both inherently and as a means of reducing the budget deficit. In the grand scheme of things, this kind of attitude is at the heart of how we justify—and exacerbate—today’s vast social and economic inequalities. What I’m going to argue here is that Brand and Monbiot have hit the nail on the head: it’s stupid to attribute your success in life to yourself alone. That’s to say: rich people don’t deserve to be rich (or at least, not as rich as they are – especially the super-rich). This is the first in a series of posts in which I’ll be looking at (ir)rationality, meritocracy and inequality. In this post in particular, I’ll be explaining, with reference to the writings of Daniel Kahneman and Thomas Piketty, why our modern conceptions of meritocracy do more harm than good and segueing into the next post on what can be done about the inequalities that result. So then… …WHAT DO WE MEAN BY MERITOCRACY? I’m going to be borrowing fairly heavily from Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (as well as Kahneman’s writing later) throughout, because he captures the essence of the issues I’m writing about here. Firstly: Our democratic societies rest on a meritocratic worldview, or at any rate a meritocratic hope, by which I mean a belief in a society in which inequality is based more on merit and effort than on kinship and rents … [That is, in a democracy,] inequalities must be just and useful to all, at least in the realm of discourse and as far as possible in reality as well. (Piketty, 2014: 422) [However,] in the United States, France, and most other countries, talk about the virtues of the national meritocratic model is seldom based on close examination of the facts. Often the purpose is to justify existing inequalities while ignoring the sometimes patent failures of the current system. (Ibid.: 487) INHERITANCE, INEQUALITY AND A DIGNIFIED LIFE Nineteenth-century literature is alluded to quite often in Piketty (2014) and provides a useful backdrop for his discussion on inequality. As we’ve established above, democratic society has to at the very least, pay lip service to meritocracy (that is, virtuous and justified inequality). Interestingly, nineteenth-century novelists … often give a very concrete and intimate account of how people lived [… and sometimes] this went along with a certain justification of extreme inequality of wealth … Notwithstanding the extravagance of some of their characters, [they] describe a world in which inequality was to a certain extent necessary … without a fortune it was impossible to live a dignified life. (Piketty, 2014: 415-16) Piketty (Ibid.) credits these novelists for not describing this view of theirs as meritocratic, if nothing else, because what contrasts the likes of Austen and Balzac from the likes of Greg Mankiw however, is that the latter does just that. It is interesting to note that the most ardent meritocratic beliefs are often invoked to justify very large wage inequalities … The most worrisome aspect of this defense of meritocracy is that one finds the same type of argument in the wealthiest societies, where Jane Austen’s points about need and dignity make little sense. In the United States in recent years, one frequently has heard this type of justification for the stratospheric pay of supermanagers (50–100 times average income, if not more) (Ibid.: 417) The vast social and economic inequalities we have today cannot be justified as those of the nineteenth century were, because, as Piketty explains, while back then a dignified life required an income (or a fortune) far in excess of average earnings—due to the prohibitive costs of travel, food preparation and all the other conveniences civilised life demands—these days, all of that is much, much more affordable. To a large degree then, modern inequalities are useless in comparison. PAYING FOR LUCK Not only then does modern (Anglo-American) society have no right to be so unequal, the justifications for the disparities in earnings and wealth put forward by today’s 1% are found wanting as well. Both Piketty and Kahneman are in agreement with Monbiot on the fact that our thinking is often faulty and on the damage that results from not accounting for these biases in our policy-making. The most convincing proof of the failure of corporate governance and of the absence of a rational productivity justification for extremely high executive pay is that when we collect data about individual firms (which we can do for publicly owned corporations in all the rich countries), it is very difficult to explain the observed variations in terms of firm performance. If executive pay were determined by marginal productivity, one would expect its variance to have little to do with external variances and to depend solely or primarily on nonexternal variances. In fact, we observe just the opposite: it is when sales and profits increase for external reasons that executive pay rises most rapidly. This is particularly clear in the case of US corporations: Bertrand and Mullainhatan refer to this phenomenon as “pay for luck.” (Ibid.: 334-35) AN ILLUSION OF SKILL The standard theory of how the stock market works, Kahneman explains in Thinking, Fast and Slow, is that share prices follow a random walk; there is no reason or rhyme to the movements of stock prices. This is consistent with the (strong form of the) efficient markets hypothesis, which holds that share prices embody all the information available on the market and that as such, it’s not possible that they are wrong enough that one could systematically outdo the market. And yet, when buyers and sellers of shares participate on the stock exchange, they are aiming to do just this – show that market prices are wrong. Kahneman goes on to explain that: Mutual funds are run by highly experienced and hardworking professionals who buy and sell stocks to achieve the best possible results for their clients. Nevertheless, the evidence from more than fifty years of research is conclusive: for a large majority of fund managers, the selection of stocks is more like rolling dice than like playing poker … The successful funds in any given year are mostly lucky; they have a good roll of the dice. There is general agreement among researchers that nearly all stock pickers, whether they know it or not—and few of them do—are playing a game of chance. (Kahneman, 2011) Some time ago, Kahneman had the chance to study the illusion of financial skill up close. Addressing a group of investment advisers whose performance he had assessed, he explained the extent of this illusion. No one in the firm seemed to be aware of the nature of the game that its stock pickers were playing. The advisers themselves felt they were competent professionals doing a serious job, and their superiors agreed. On the evening before the seminar, Richard Thaler and I had dinner with some of the top executives of the firm, the people who decide on the size of bonuses. We asked them to guess the year-to-year correlation in the rankings of individual advisers. They thought they knew what was coming and smiled as they said “not very high” or “performance certainly fluctuates.” It quickly became clear, however, that no one expected the average correlation to be zero. Our message to the executives was that, at least when it came to building portfolios, the firm was rewarding luck as if it were skill. This should have been shocking news to them, but it was not. (Ibid.) What Kahneman’s account shows is the breathtaking extent to which we are cognitively biased. We are prone not only to be overconfident about our capacity to control and change our circumstances, we also see skill where it is in fact luck that is operating. As Monbiot explained, we are programmed to think in this way and as Piketty explained, this kind of thinking, when we are not vigilant, can lead to vast disparities in incomes and life opportunities. Kahneman continues that: There was no sign that they disbelieved us. How could they? After all, we had analyzed their own results, and they were sophisticated enough to see the implications, which we politely refrained from spelling out. We all went on calmly with our dinner, and I have no doubt that both our findings and their implications were quickly swept under the rug and that life in the firm went on just as before. The illusion of skill is not only an individual aberration; it is deeply ingrained in the culture of the industry. Facts that challenge such basic assumptions—and thereby threaten people’s livelihood and self-esteem—are simply not absorbed. The mind does not digest them. This is particularly true of statistical studies of performance, which provide base rate information that people generally ignore when it clashes with their personal impressions from experience. (Ibid.) While ordinarily, when confronted with evidence of say, optical illusions, we are content to modify our responses based on our new knowledge, in the case of cognitive biases, we find it much harder (if not impossible) to do so. We know that people can maintain an unshakable faith in any proposition, however absurd, when they are sustained by a community of like-minded believers. Given the professional culture of the financial community, it is not surprising that large numbers of individuals in that world believe themselves to be among the chosen few who can do what they believe others cannot. (Ibid.) The just-world phenomenon is not only problematic because of our inherent cognitive biases. One of the other major problems with the myth that society as we have it is fair and just is that it doesn’t account for the extent to which success hinges on arbitrary factors, such as inheritance. LORD ROTHERMERE AND LILIANE BETTENCOURT Returning to Brand and Monbiot’s discussion then, to what extent is inheritance rather than hard work responsible for the success of the richest in today’s society? Lord Rothermere, what he brilliantly done is, he came out of the vagina of this lady who was married to a person whose name was also Lord Rothermere. And that meant that he got a thing called a Daily Mail, a newspaper, given to him. (Brand, The Trews 223) The main thesis of Piketty (2014) is that when earnings on capital (r) exceed the rate of economic growth (the speed at which output and incomes rise) (g)—that is, when r > g—as was the case in the nineteenth century and is increasingly so in this century, arbitrary (rather than truly justified) inequalities result. This gulf in standards of living serves only to undermine the fabric of democratic society. While people tend to believe that the age of inheritance is now over, or at least has little prominence, examination of the data show why we should remain vigilant: One of the most striking lessons of the Forbes rankings is that, past a certain threshold, all large fortunes, whether inherited or entrepreneurial in origin, grow at extremely high rates, regardless of whether the owner of the fortune works or not. In other words, Liliane Bettencourt, who never worked a day in her life, saw her fortune grow exactly as fast as that of Bill Gates, the high-tech pioneer, whose wealth has incidentally continued to grow just as rapidly since he stopped working. Once a fortune is established, the capital grows according to a dynamic of its own, and it can continue to grow at a rapid pace for decades simply because of its size. (Piketty, 2014: 439-40) While we are led to believe that our own efforts are sufficient to yield a living income, in an age where r > g, this is becoming less true by the day. Capital, it bears repeating, grows according to a dynamic of its own. While we are led to believe that: you are on your own and what you achieve is down to you and if you don’t achieve, that’s your fault – and don’t expect us to pick up the pieces… (Brand, The Trews 223) …Piketty shows that inequalities are increasingly less down to our own actions and owe more to the particular way in which capital accumulates on its own. People with inherited wealth need save only a portion of their income from capital to see that capital grow more quickly than the economy as a whole. Under such conditions, it is almost inevitable that inherited wealth will dominate wealth amassed from a lifetime’s labor by a wide margin, and the concentration of capital will attain extremely high levels—levels potentially incompatible with the meritocratic values and principles of social justice fundamental to modern democratic societies. (Piketty, 2014: 26) PSYCHOPATHS IN BUSINESS AND MERITOCRATIC EXTREMISM On a related note, there genuinely are special qualities that distinguish some of the most successful in business to the rest of us, Monbiot explains – such as the extent to which corporate executives behave like psychopaths. Some of those highest up in British industry today are actually more psychopathic than the average psychopath in Broadmoor Hospital! We’ve built a society that rewards psychopaths! … On an individual level, we’re encouraged to be selfish and greedy … the apotheosis of that is psychos running our businesses and ultimately, our society is an echo of that madness. (Brand, The Trews 223) This, right here, is the most damning criticism of what Piketty refers to as meritocratic extremism (by which he means): the apparent need of modern societies, and especially US society, to designate certain individuals as “winners” and to reward them all the more generously if they seem to have been selected on the basis of their intrinsic merits rather than birth or background (Piketty, 2014: 334) The perpetuation of the myths of a just-world, of individualism, the insistence that we don’t have duties to each other, the insistence that the successful must be rewarded handsomely (paradoxically, even when they fail) – all this leads to exactly the kind of vastly unequal society that we currently have in the Anglo-American west, where hyper-psychopathic behaviour is held up as the model way to conduct oneself. SO WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THIS FINE MESS? What we can learn from Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow—and behavioural economics in general—is that while in professional life most people are highly skilled and rational, we overestimate the extent to which we are. We do this for a number of reasons. Partly it’s down to culture, which can make even patently false ideas appear to be eminently wise. We must also remind ourselves that we are human and as such, we are deeply flawed. Social psychologists have known since at least 1970 that we routinely confuse external causation (or situational factors) for internal causation (or dispositional factors). That is, we take credit for things that we did not do. We behave this way in order to protect our egos because often, the truth is too much to bear. In terms of a policy response to the inequalities that result, according to Piketty: There are nevertheless ways democracy can regain control over capitalism and ensure that the general interest takes precedence over private interests, while preserving economic openness and avoiding protectionist and nationalist reactions. (Ibid.: 1) We cannot rely on economic growth (growth in output and incomes) alone to make democratic society fairer because history shows us that high rates of growth manifest themselves only rarely (in the case of countries still in the process of industrialisation and in post-war periods). What we have to do then, is tax capital in a progressive way and as far as possible, on a global scale. In the rest of this series, I’ll be looking in more detail at what we can do to remedy today’s inequalities and trying to get to the bottom of what it is that really makes us successful to the degree that we are. Because, as George Monbiot puts it, “if wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire”. There’s a lot more to (financial) success than meets the eye. Advertisements"Is this a joke?": Reporters laugh in the face of conservative provocateur James O'Keefe at his own press conference O'Keefe had promised "bombshell" revelation about Clinton campaign, turned up with a Canadian who bought a t-shirt Professional troll James O'Keefe has been teasing journalists for weeks about an undercover operation that could take down Hillary Clinton -- I've received four "email blasts" from O'Keefe's Project Veritas about these videos in the past 48 hours alone -- so I was suprised to learn that the "trickle-down corruption" he'd come to expose amounted to a Project Veritas operative buying a few Hillary-themed t-shirts for a Canadian. You read that right -- O'Keefe's own operative captured herself, on camera, illegally purchasing the shirts on behalf of a Canadian and this, O'Keefe claimed, demonstrates the criminal mendacity of the Clinton campaign. Advertisement: Moreover, Compliance Manager Erin Tibe is actually shown on the video refusing to allow the Canadian woman -- who O'Keefe insisted at the press conference that he didn't know, and whose identity is still a mystery to him -- to make the purchase. It's the Project Veritas operative who says, "but she traveled all the way from Canada to support Hillary, you could give her, she's paying cash." Tibe reiterates that she can't accept money from the Canadian woman, but eventually Director of Marketing Molly Barker allows the Project Veritas operative to make the donation on the woman's behalf. "Barker broke the law by allowing our journalist to become the middleman," the video states, not acknowledging that the "journalist" also broke the law, a fact which O'Keefe acknowledged at today's press conference, but blew off, saying "I'm not running for president." As for that press conference, the Daily Beast's Olivia Nuzzi was in attendance, and needless to say, neither she nor any of the other reporters were impressed by O'Keefe's "revelations": O'Keefe saved the best for last, however, in his characterization of the operative who captured herself on camera breaking campaign finance laws: Watch the entire video below Project Veritas.Share. You yearn to visit Skyrim. You've been to Oblivion and Morrowind. These deities made them all possible. You yearn to visit Skyrim. You've been to Oblivion and Morrowind. These deities made them all possible. When I play an Elder Scrolls game, I get pretty excited. But not because I'm looking forward to donning beautiful glass armor, making small-talk with serving wenches and discovering magical bowers full of wildlife. Those things are super, but they only get me halfway there. What I really enjoy about the Elder Scrolls series is that it lets me make fat elves. Elves are supposed to be slender, graceful and beautiful, which annoys me. So I make the stupidest one I can and take him out into the world, laughing the whole time. With the buzz around Skyrim getting louder and louder, I recently went back to The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion to make a new fat elf, just to tide myself over. As I played god, it got me thinking about all the deities built into the amazing universe of the Elder Scrolls. I found myself ticking off a list of favorites in my head. Rather than keep them to myself like a pretentious elf, I decided to list them here. Mehrunes Dagon 10 Of all the evil entities in the Elder Scrolls universe, Mehrunes Dagon is easily the most prolific. He really gets around, even for a Daedric prince. He meddled in Imperial Throne ascension, attacked the Battlespire and tried to destroy the Septims. Oh, also, he attempted to invade the mortal world by opening the gates to Oblivion and kicking everyone's ass with his four-armed self. So there's that. But I've just never found Dagon all that interesting. Maybe it's because he's spreading himself too thin. I mean, can't the guy just focus on one thing and do it really well? He's great at natural disasters, so maybe he should work on that for a while. After all, what kind of ancient netherworld-dwelling Daedric prince gets his ass kicked in his own house by an Argonian with a spear and a leather vest? Lame. Jyggalag 9 Jyggalag could really only be two things: the name of a weird god in a role-playing game or the internet handle of one of those dudes who hangs out on Insane Clown Posse message boards. Jyggie, as I like to call him, is a complicated god, as most of the Elder Scrolls deities are. He's technically one of the Daedric princes, which are like normal princes except they destroy worlds, wield magical items and generally make a mess of everything. Jyggalag wasn't much of a rockstar in the series until Oblivion's Shivering Isles expansion, in which it's revealed that he is actually Sheogorath, another Daedric prince. It's a long story. Oh, also, the Khajit (the kooky cat people of the Elder Scrolls universe) call him Skooma Cat. Yeah, that had nothing to do with anything, but I stuck it in there anyway. I'm writing an article about made-up gods in a game full of elves and lizard people, and you're going to judge me for the Skooma Cat thing? Fine, but you're reading it. Stendarr 8 I like Stendarr for a purely selfish reason: He digs humans. A lot of the gods in the Elder Scrolls universe are constantly hating on men because they meddle in things they shouldn't and make stupid decisions. But Stendarr is different. He was bros with Tiber Septim, who is pretty much the biggest badass of all time (and nearly a god in his own right) and protects human civilization despite its relative unpopularity among the rest of Cyrodil's unwashed masses. That makes Stendarr alright in my book. Sure, the annoying Imperial Legion soldiers never shut up about him, but you get used to it. And it's better that listening to elves talk, am I right? Clavicus Vile 7 All religions need a trickster, except the boring ones (you know who you are). The mischevious Clavicus Vile has played at least a minor role in most of the Elder Scrolls games. Sometimes he appears as a rambunctious horned lad, and other times he pops up as a harmless looking dog. Clavicus Vile is special because he tricks mortals into giving up their eternal souls for magical trinkets and then snatches them back again without warning, which I find funny. If you followed the vampire quest line in Oblivion, you might remember that Clavicus was also responsible for bringing them into Cyrodil society. Vampires! Hilarious. Dibella 6 Hardcore Elder Scrolls lore nerds are probably reading this entry and shaking their sour-smelling, Cheeto-filled fists at the screen. "Dibella? You only had 10 spots and you chose Dibella? She's hardly even mentioned in many of the Elder Scrolls games! What about Kynareth or Meridia? Slow news day, IGN?" Calm down, I'll explain. Dibella might not be famous to us, but I guarantee everyone in Tamriel has a secret stash of Dibella offerings. She's known officially as the goddess of beauty, but one of her cults turns to her as a patron of the erotic arts. That's right -- she's a sex goddess. Wait, gross, that just made me think about elves having sex. Anyway, Dibella is hot, and I hope she gets her own quest line in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As long as it's about sexy Nord girls in skimpy fur outfits. I took it too far, didn't I? Alduin 5 There's apparently some confusion over whether or not Alduin is simply the Nordic interpretation of Akatosh (more on him later), but I'm going to assume otherwise for the purpose of this extremely important list. Let the nerds sort it out in the comments section. Yes, Akatosh takes the form of a dragon when he's upset, and Alduin hangs out in Nord country, which is full of dragons. But that's where the similarity stops. For starters, Akatosh doesn't usually destroy worlds and bring about the apocalypse. Alduin is also much scarier than Akatosh, who just sort of hangs around until he's needed. Alduin -- get this -- once ate the ages of everyone in Skyrim until they were all six years old. That's just weird and unexpected; the kind of thing a scary god should do. Bravo, Alduin. Phynaster 4 Alright, so there's no way I'm going to get away with including Phynaster on this list, but I'm doing it anyway because no one will ever notice. Phynaster sounds like a member of the Black Eyed Peas, but he is actually a god worshipped in the Summerset Isles, which is full of high elves, but I won't hold that against it. Next to nothing is known about him, other than the fact that he (and I'm quoting the internet here), "taught the Altmer how to naturally live another hundred years by using a shorter walking stride." Altmer is another word for "high elves." This is important because it proves that elves aren't that special. They may live a long time, but not because they are deeply and magically awesome. It's because some guy taught them how to walk a certain way. Stupid elves! Ruptga 3 I like gods with names that are impossible to pronounce. Apparently so do the Redguard, who worship him as "Tall Papa" instead. Modeled on an aboriginal archetype, Tall Papa apparently taught the other gods how to persist from lifetime to lifetime using a "walkabout" technique. He also created a helper from the skin of dead worlds, which is weird and probably not very sanitary. While he was doing that, he probably should have been keeping an eye on the Redguard homeland of Yokuda, which was destroyed when it sank into the ocean. Too soon? Vivec 2 Vivec is a floating golden Dumner poet-demigod. And if you hadn't previously asked yourself why the hell you're reading this article, you certainly did when you read that sentence. You are welcome. Now, on with the lesson. Vivec is seen as a benevolent protector by his worshippers. They conveniently ignore the fact that he may also be a murdering weirdo. But he writes sweet poems and taught the Dark Elves how to breathe underwater, so I can see how they overlook the bad bits. Great, just what we need: elves who can breathe underwater. It's gross enough
soup experience (at least, not without the help of a modified DeLorean and a flux capacitor), but, to be honest, a soup-filled future is far more exciting than a soup-filled past. Get the Recipe Easy Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup View Recipe » 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.There’s a reason why Amazon and other retailers are not yet delivering packages to American consumers via drone at scale within the United States and it’s not because the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”), Federal Highway Administration and National Park Services are cumbersome, bureaucratic-entities obstructing technological and social progress. While regulators certainly have a material role to play in the future success of of commcerial drone services, even if hypothetically there were no regulatory barriers, whatsoever, drones would still be restricted to operating over public property and or at higher altitudes (i.e. regulated airspace above 500 feet). If retailers and couriers would like to provide low-altitude drone delivery services within the United States, they’ll eventually need to fly low-altitude over parties’ property that are not the intended recipient of the drone service. Problem: In the U.S. drone operators need permission to fly at low-altitude over private property without trespassing and there is significant demand for commercial drone services (i.e. parcel delivery). According to research conducted by the NY Times, 86% of parcels are under 5 lbs. and can be handled by existing drone technology. Solution: AERO Token enables hosts (i.e. property owners) to authorize their property for commercial drone Right-of-Way operations in exchange for income. Participants can notify all drone services providers that their airspace is available via the blockchain, making their idling asset (i.e. airspace) a source of income generation, maximizing its potential value. AERO Token is a missing technological and legal mechanism necessary to develop the infrastructure for low-altitude commercial drone operations at scale. Summary: Practically speaking, drone service providers will inevitably need to operate at low-altitude over parties’ property that are not the intended recipients of the drone service. Therefore, unless we would like to restrict drones to static Right-of-Ways, commercial drone service providers will need a mechanism to easily be granted permission from every property owner they fly over, at low-altitude, along the course of a flight route. AERO Token makes it easy for property owners (i.e. hosts) to notify all drone service providers that their airspace is available for use in exchange for income.Labour divisions will be on show again today as MPs take up three contrasting positions on a Commons vote to renew the Trident system. Jeremy Corbyn will be voting against renewal, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry and Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis will be abstaining, and deputy leader Tom Watson plans to vote in support of renewal. Over 100 Labour MPs are expected to back renewal. Watson has argued that official Labour Party policy remains to support renewal of Trident, but sources close to Corbyn have said simply that it is a policy “under review” since the review into the party’s defence policy began in January. Emily Thornberry, who was put in charge of the review after being made Shadow Defence Secretary in the new year reshuffle, said that she was due to report back in the week following the EU referendum, but that the Leave vote had put things on hold. Thorbnerry, now Shadow Foreign Secretary, told the Today programme: “We were going to deliver the week after Brexit, but Brexit happened and that has an effect on all of the factors.” She added that “the Labour party has to come to a collective decision by collecting evidence in a proper way.” “Money is important, particularly at a time of financial stress,” said Thornberry, who is in favour of unilateral disarmament. “I think it is reckless for us to plough on ahead with the most expensive of all the various options and there are step-downs we can take.” She confirmed that she would be abstaining on the vote along with Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis in an article for The Observer yesterday. They accused the Conservatives of “playing games with the Labour Party and trying to embarrass us” rather than taking a reasoned approach to the defence system. John Woodcock, who writes for LabourList on the topic this morning, had looked into using his right as chairs of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) defence committee to set out Labour’s pro-Trident policy from the despatch box today, in what would have been an unusual move. However, it appears that he will be unable to do so as Corbyn will address the House from the frontbench – and the party seeks to avoid a replay of the crucial Syria vote last year, where different positions were set out from the Labour side of the despatch box. There is some speculation among MPs that Corbyn may have to set out Labour’s policy before arguing against renewal. Writing in The Guardian, Tom Watson said that abstaining on the vote would be “an abdication of responsibility”, and criticised leaders of trade unions who were continuing to back unilateralist Corbyn despite their members’ jobs relying on the Trident system. “Labour’s policy on Trident is clear,” Watson wrote. “But our MPs have been offered a free vote because there is a difference of opinion in the Shadow Cabinet. I support that. But those MPs who vote against Trident should be in no doubt that they are voting to put tens of thousands of defence engineers out of work, many of them members of Unite and the GMB. If you are a union general secretary supporting a unilateralist politician, you do so in the knowledge that thousands of your members may lose their jobs. “Some argue that Labour should abstain tomorrow, citing the current Labour defence review as justification. Yet to do so is an abdication of responsibility. No matter what low cunning has engineered this vote, MPs have a duty to take a position. We cannot say to the country that we haven’t made up our minds on strategic defence.” Owen Smith and Angela Eagle, the two challengers to Corbyn in the leadership race, are both expected to vote in favour of renewal.(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL - A recent underwater excavation in the Turkish port of Urla uncovered a ship estimated to date back 4,000 years, which experts say would make it the oldest sunken ship to have been discovered in the Mediterranean, as Anadolu Agency reported. Professor Hayat Erkanal, the head of Limantepe excavations for the underwater ancient city of Klozemenai and director of ANKUSAM, said the port dates back to the seventh century BC. Klozemenai, he explained, was a coastal town, making it the home of many sunken ships from different eras. An earthquake in the eighth century left the city underwater. He said the team is currently working to determine the features and correct age of its most recent shipwreck find. There are two other sunken boats that compete for the title of the world's oldest, Erkanal said. The Uluburun shipwreck, found off the coast of Kas, is around 3,500 years old, while the sunken ship of Hatshepsut, the fifth pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty, is dated to be around 150 years older. "If we confirm that the sunken ship (we have found) is 4,000 years old, it will be a very important milestone for archaeology," Erkanal said. Erkanal said materials removed from seawater must be cleaned of salt to prevent further decay. This process is conducted in a large restoration and conservation laboratory at the recently opened Mustafa Vehbi Koc Maritime Archaeology Research Center and Archaeopark. The process of removing a sunken ship from the water can take approximately seven to eight years, Erkanal said. (ANSAmed).In an interview with the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio published Thursday, Mitt Romney repeated a claim that already got him in trouble once this cycle and has reflects an enduring belief among Republicans: that people in the U.S. don’t die because they lack health insurance. “[Y]ou go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital,” Romney said. “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” It’s eerily reminiscent of a statement President George W. Bush made in 2007 that haunted Republicans during the 2008 campaign — “[P]eople have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.” There’s just one problem: It’s not true.Numerous studies over the past 10 years conclude that tens of thousands of Americans die each year because they lack insurance. A 2009 study conducted at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, and published in the American Journal of Public Health concluded that “[l]ack of health insurance is associated with as many as 44,789 deaths per year in the United States, more than those caused by kidney disease. … The increased risk of death attributable to uninsurance suggests that alternative measures of access to medical care for the uninsured, such as community health centers, do not provide the protection of private health insurance.” A 2012 report by the health care reform advocacy group Families USA concluded that 26,100 people died prematurely in America in 2010 due to lack of insurance. That report extrapolated from a 2002 Institute of Medicine study — conducted when the uninsurance rate was lower — which concluded that 18,000 people died prematurely because they weren’t covered. In a 2009 update, the IOM concluded that uninsured patients are at higher risk of mortality or poor health outcomes in the aftermath of both acute medical issues (heart attacks, serious injury, stroke) and chronic ones (cancer, diabetes). In 2008, the Urban Institute’s Stan Dorn concluded that “[b]ased on the IOM’s methodology and subsequent Census Bureau estimates of insurance coverage, 137,000 people died from 2000 through 2006 because they lacked health insurance, including 22,000 people in 2006. Much subsequent research has continued to confirm the link between insurance and mortality risk described by IOM. In fact, subsequent studies and analysis suggest that, if anything, the IOM methodology may underestimate the number of deaths that result from a lack of insurance coverage.” Conservatives have attacked these findings and methods and argued that, controlling for health status, there’s no difference in survival probabilities between insured and uninsured people. When the Families USA report came out, Avik Roy, a Romney health adviser, called its findings “statistical hogwash.” To buttress his argument, he cited a thorough study by Richard Kronick — a University of Rochester health policy expert who served in the Obama administration and was a senior adviser to Bill Clinton during his push for health care reform. His conclusion? “[I]f two people are otherwise similar at baseline … but one is insured and the other uninsured, their likelihood of survival over a 2-16-year follow-up period is nearly identical.” Further, I show that survival probabilities for the insured and uninsured are similar even among disadvantaged subsets of the population; that there are no differences for long-term uninsured compared with short-term uninsured; that the results are no different when the length of the follow-up period is shortened; and that there are no differences when causes of death are restricted to those causes thought to be amenable to the quality of health care. However, Kronick conceded that “[g]iven the inherent uncertainties in inferring causality from the results of observational analyses, the results presented here are not able to provide a definitive answer to the question, ‘How many fewer deaths would there be in the United States if all residents were continuously covered by health insurance?'” In an interview, Urban’s Stan Dorn praised Kronick but defended his and his colleagues’ conclusion. “I’m aware of Rick’s study and he’s a great researcher. And I guess what I’d say is it’s an outlier,” Dorn said in an interview. “There’s a lot of research that goes beyond what we did, and it’s an outlier.” Dorn noted that other studies focusing on particular ailments make the link between uninsurance and death quite clear. “We know that women with cervical cancer who are uninsured get their cancer detected later…. We know that people with heart disease don’t take their medicine because they can’t afford it…and sometimes die.” And as Boston University health economist Austin Frakt noted when he engaged this same controversy in February 2010, “among recent studies in this area the evidence is greater than three-to-one in favor of an insurance-health outcome link, including mortality.” In 2006, then-Massachusetts governor Romney himself agreed — at least to an extent. Though he did not address the mortality issue specifically, in an April 2006 presentation before the Chamber of Commerce he conceded that uninsured people who seek health care at emergency rooms experience worse outcomes. “There ought to be enough money to help people get insurance because an insured individual has a better chance of having an excellent medical experience than the one who has not. An insured individual is more likely to go to a primary care physician or a clinic to get evaluated for their conditions and to get early treatment, to get pharmaceutical treatment, as opposed to showing up in the emergency room where the treatment is more expensive and less effective than if they got preventive and primary care.”Sinha was protesting against the government’s “apathy” towards farmers of the Vidarbha region. Maharashtra Police on Monday detained veteran BJP leader Yashwant Sinha in state’s Akola district. Sinha, who remains critical of Narendra Modi & Co., was protesting against the government’s “apathy” towards farmers of the Vidarbha region. Akola district SP Rakesh Kalasagar confirmed the development and said that Sinha, 250 farmers, have been detained outside the district collector office as per provisions of section 68 of the Bombay Police Act. Sinha was taken to the Akola district police headquarters ground. Sinha was agitating against the government for its alleged apathy towards cotton and soybean cultivators. District Collector Asit Kumar Pandey said that administration has held talks with Sinha. “We have told him that if he wishes, he is free to leave,” he said. As per police, Sinha is insisting to lodge FIRs against bogus Bt cotton companies. Pandey said that government has already taken strict action and filed FIRs against six such companies. However, Sinha vowed to continue his protest for farmers’ rights. “I wish to tell the police, district administration and the state government that if we are formally arrested and released and they think that we will go home, then they are under wrong impression. You are seeing the mood of farmers now. We won’t be responsible for what happens,” he was quoted as saying by PTI. Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal termed Sinha’s detention as insane. “Why has Sh Yashwant Sinhaji been arrested? Insane. He shud be released immediately,” Kejriwal tweeted. Why has Sh Yashwant Sinhaji been arrested? Insane. He shud be released immediately https://t.co/4TwVS3Q9HU — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) 5 December 2017 Earlier, Sinha had addressed farmers at a programme called ‘Kapus Soyabean Dhan Parishad’ (cotton, soyabean and paddy rally), organised by Shetkari Jagar Manch at Akola. Sinha accused the BJP of reneging on promises made to farmers. “Before coming to power, the BJP had promised to give 50 per cent over and above the minimum support price (MSP). But after coming to power, the party forgot the promise. Just as Indian soldiers carried out surgical strikes across border, the farmers will also carry out a surgical strike against the government till justice has been done,” he said. The organisation is demanding the Minimum Support Price, 50,000 per acre compensation for cotton farmers affected by pink boll- worm disease. Also, it demands resolution of issues related to farm insurance and relief to drought-affected villages.LAS VEGAS — Lonzo Ball and the Los Angeles Lakers are pushing through the playoffs together, an important development even if it’s just Las Vegas Summer League. Ball may have started things slowly, but he’s captivating crowds as he drives the Lakers’ success with his passing. “We don't even want to run sets, we have Lonzo. We want to rebound and get out and run, and that's been successful for us,” Lakers summer league coach Jud Buechler said following the Lakers’ win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Lakers are heading to the quarterfinals, three victories away from capturing the championship Lonzo had his eyes on before the NBA descended upon the sweltering heat of Las Vegas. Ball has been the engine, fuel, tires, oil and GPS for Los Angeles. It’s no coincidence that Lonzo’s averaging 17 points, 9.8 assists (leading all summer leagues [Orlando, Utah and Las Vegas] in this category), 8.3 rebounds and 3.3 steals per game and the Lakers are winning now that he’s found his groove. His fingerprints are all over their success because his hands are touching so many different areas of the game. “[Lonzo impacts the game] with his rebounding, his defense and his passing, so I’m not surprised that even though he didn’t have a big scoring night his fingertips were all over the stat sheet,” Buechler said of Ball after his first summer league triple-double. After notching another triple-double to lead the Lakers to a win over the Cavaliers, the statistical marvel was barely a footnote. Watching Lonzo assert his will onto a game of basketball is an experience that takes some getting used to. In the blink of an eye the first quarter is over and Ball’s already notched six assists, five points and a handful of rebounds. It all looks so easy you almost miss it. The offensive sets the Lakers are running in Las Vegas are the same ones head coach Luke Walton installed when he took over as coach last season, the team focused on getting as many members (and potential members) of the roster a chance to get familiar with the kinds of actions the team will be running. “It's the exact same stuff. That's what we wanted our guys who are on our team, and the guys who are trying to make our team, to feel comfortable coming into camp,” Buechler said. ”So all the offensive sets are sets that Luke would run in the games and they'll learn in training camp.” “It's probably 90 percent his talent, 10 percent guys just knowing if they get on the wings they're gonna get easy layups.” - Jud Buechler What the Lakers are actually learning, though, is that summer league has been more about everyone on the roster getting used to playing with the new conductor in town more so than diagrammed X’s and O’s. "Practice is one thing, games are another. The first couple games guys are running down, the ball is almost hitting them in the head. That's how good of a passer [Lonzo] is. I think they've learned their lesson and guys are getting out and he's hitting them now,” Buechler said after Lonzo tallied up another 12 assists against Cleveland. “It's probably 90 percent his talent, 10 percent guys just knowing if they get on the wings they're gonna get easy layups,” Buechler said when asked how much of the Lakers’ success has been the offensive sets versus Lonzo’s impact leading the team. “He's just incredible at getting that ball and pushing it, and we really want him to set the pace for our team.” Pushing the pace and setting the tone he is: That’s by design, as Kyle Kuzma explained after another game featuring the No. 27 pick tearing up the court to convert on assists from Ball. The Lakers’ coaching staff is telling everyone to run up the middle of the court in transition. Lonzo’s handling the rest by playing his game. “I'm just playing how I always play. They're running, they're making the plays catching, and shooting and scoring, so credit to them,” Ball said, sure to compliment his teammates every chance he gets. “Sky is the limit, passes the ball better than anybody I've ever played with.” - Vander Blue The rest of the summer league Lakers are just as quick to rave about playing with Lonzo. Vander Blue, suddenly the elder statesman of a group of young Lakers, was the latest teammate to heap praise on Ball. “[Lonzo is a] super humble, talented player,” Vander Blue said. ”Sky is the limit, passes the ball better than anybody I've ever played with. Makes the game really easy. He's very coachable, he listens, and he's just a winner. He wants to win more than anybody, and that's what I love about him.” The Lakers have a chance to move one step closer to winning it all under the summer sun Saturday night against the Brooklyn Nets, but they’ve already notched their biggest victory of the offseason. Lonzo Ball is making believers as he drives the Lakers’ offense with his prodigious passing.WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday released a report warning of potentially "catastrophic" damage should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the government from defaulting on its debt. "A default would be unprecedented and has the potential to be catastrophic: credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could plummet, U.S. interest rates could skyrocket, the negative spillovers could reverberate around the world, and there might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse," the report states. In recent weeks, Wall Street has become increasingly skittish about the prospect of default, as top Republicans have argued that a standoff over the debt ceiling offers their party the most leverage to exact concessions from a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president. On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called the debt limit a useful "forcing mechanism." President Barack Obama has said he will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States. The cost of insuring one-year U.S. bonds against default has quintupled since Sept. 23, according to data from Markit, a financial information company. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said that the government will run out of legal options to avoid defaulting on the national debt by Oct. 17. Thursday's Treasury report mentioned that even the prospect of default can cause economic problems, including lower consumer confidence, stock market volatility and higher interest rates on business loans and mortgages. An actual default could have consequences for years to come. The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt, which is widely considered to be the world's safest financial asset.The current high-stakes political standoff over the debt ceiling and America's budget deficit is a fraud. At the end of 2010, President Obama and the Democrats caved to GOP demands to extend the Bush tax cuts for two more years. Had those cuts expired on schedule, the projected savings over the next decade would have been at least $4 trillion. Instead, the deal expedited the date on which the United States government would hit its debt ceiling. Republican leaders were already wringing their hands with glee last December about using the ceiling to push through deep spending cuts, naturally targeting the most vulnerable Americans. Obama has, disastrously, legitimized this highly cynical game of brinkmanship by agreeing that we need to live within our means "just like families do." In other words, governmentaka ordinary Americans who rely on that government for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, government jobs, public education and so onmust tighten its belt to pay, in part, for the extension of those tax cuts. This is all being debated within the perverse framework that people aren't already doing that belt-tightening. In fact, most Americans are making do with less, while the richest Americans continue to accumulate lavish and ostentatious wealth for themselves. On the heels of a three-decade-long explosion in inequality, recent data shows that over the past year and a half, corporate profits accounted for nearly 90 percent of the growth in gross domestic productthe final value of all goods and services produced in this country. Meanwhile, aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1 percent of that growth. It would be entirely reasonable to have a far-reaching conversation about the resources our country consumes relative to the rest of the world. Americans make up less than 5 percent of the world population, while we use up to a quarter of global energy resources. Given the growing pressures of resource consumption on the planet's carrying capacity and basic notions of global justice, it would certainly be appropriate to talk about living within our means in a global context. But that is not the debate we're having. Instead, we are being subjected to the perversity of wealthy elites in a nation of vast inequityelites whose economic security bears no resemblance to the insecurity faced by the majority of Americans, who are lecturing us about how we can no longer expect to live high on the hog. Without any apparent shred of embarrassment or self-reflection, elite pundits and wealthy officeholders have argued that Americans' sense of entitlementolder Americans have been particularly targeted latelyis unsustainable and that they can no longer expect the kind of public largesse to which they've become accustomed. Thomas Friedman of The New York Times recently opined that our fiscal deficits could be laid substantially at the feet of baby boomers who've squandered an "incredible bounty" by living too lavishly at the expense of future generations. It's worth noting that Friedman, in addition to having attained great wealth through his own best-selling writing, married a billionaire heiress, with whom he lives in an 11,000you read that right11,000-square-foot house. The hypocrisy of Republicans and the elite punditry's obtuse detachment in these matters follow all too familiar patterns. But the president has also played a central and insidious role in framing the budget debate in such distorted terms. The U.S. government is not like a household (nor is it like Greece); in fact, to recast government in such simple-minded terms is a fundamental abdication of economic and moral responsibility. The truth is, the government lives in perpetuity. It can print its own currency, and, despite all of the hysterical warnings about reckless and out-of-control spending, it can still borrow money at low interest rates, due to the fact that our Treasury bonds are considered among the safest investments in the world. To the extent that there is nervousness about our credit rating, that is a consequence of political shenanigans, not the inherent fiscal position of the United States. Government's responsibility during an economic crisis is, first and foremost, to fill the gaps left by the lagging private economy and to provide the social safety net necessary to get people through difficult periods. We have the means to do this. What we lack is political will, undermined in no small part by the increasing sense of entitlement of the super-rich that their increasingly disproportionate wealth is more sacred than any larger sense of the public good. If we were having a remotely sane debate, we would not be arguing over how the government should slash the social safety net when we face record long-term unemployment and incomes for most Americans have been stagnant or declining. There is a simple, inescapable fact about our long-run deficits: They are substantially attributable to our bloated private health care expenditures. We spend double per capita what the rest of the advanced industrial world does. Those expenditures aren't paying for better outcomes; they're paying for the extraordinary enrichment of our health-industrial complex, including the parasitical private insurance industry and Big Pharma. Reduce our health expenditures to the level that other wealthy countries pay, and we would have large projected surpluses, not deficits. The incoherence of our debates in these matters is evident everywhere you care to look. For example, proposing to raise the age of Medicare eligibility to 67bandied about by the president during the current budget negotiationswill only add to the costs of health care in the United States. It will leave 65- and 66-year-olds in the clutches of the more expensive, less efficient private insurance market for two years longer. It will prompt older Americans to postpone care and treatment until they're Medicare eligible, leading to exponential increases in the cost of their care once they do have the adequate coverage that Medicare provides. Raising the eligibility age may save the federal government money in the short run, but it will add expense to the health care system as a whole. It is as depressing as it is predictable that what so-called serious people consider a serious proposal for cutting our deficits is to funnel more Americans from the cheaper, more efficient Medicare program into the more bureaucratic, expensive and wasteful private insurance market. So this is where the current debate stands. Wealth has been rushing up the income ladder for three decades, while taxes on the rich have been sharply reduced. Our economy was brought to its knees three years ago, in significant part by an orgy of reckless Wall Street gambling, most of which ended up being backstopped by the full faith and credit of the United States governmentthe taxpayers. And in the face of this plunder, and the price that everyone except those responsible is paying for it, we are told that we must live within our means. The current debate about debts and deficits is a fraud, a distraction from the relentless consolidation of wealth and power at the top of the American social order.This is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten on the trail (Mike concurs) and so I thought I should share this fantastic recipe with everyone! It’s also ridiculously easy to make and packed with protein! This recipe is portioned to serve 2 people, but you can double or triple it with ease. Ingredients: 1 cup dehydrated chicken (I just dehydrated canned or steamed chicken at home) 1/2 cup dehydrated peas and peppers mix 1 cup instant rice 1/2 cup chopped unsalted cashews 2/3 cup powdered coconut milk (you can buy this at Asian grocery stores) 3 tsp curry powder 1 tsp garlic powder (you can also just throw in some dehydrated or fresh chopped garlic) 1 tbsp soy sauce (optional, I totally forgot to add it to ours and it was still delicious) At Home: Toss all of your dry stuff into a ziptop bag (including the garlic, even if it’s fresh). Put your soy sauce in a leak-proof container, or just get a couple of soy sauce packets. In Camp: Bring 3 cups of water to a boil, and then dump in your bag of dry food, and the soy sauce. Let this simmer (or use a pot cozy to reduce fuel use) until the chicken is fully re-hydrated and the rice is tender. Probably around 5-10 minutes, depending on your stove, cookware, etc. Stir well, and enjoy!Custom System Animations for the LG V10, LG V20, and OnePlus 3/3T LG might be disappointed by the lackluster sales of their most recent flagship, the LG G6, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of satisfied customers of LG smartphones. Sometimes, even if you are mostly content with the stock experience of your device, you want to play around with custom themes, modifications, ROMs, etc. If you are one of those people, then check out this set of custom system animations for the LG V10 and LG V20 called the oZoP Project by XDA Recognized Themer stangdriver44. The developer is hard at work porting it over to all kinds of devices, and he’s also been able to get it working on the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T. This is a flashable, AROMA-based installer which lets you pick from a multitude of system animations such as iOS, FlymeOS, Google Pixel, or MIUI animations. You can also adjust the animation duration of popups and dialogs. These system animation packs have been confirmed by various users to work on the LG V10, LG V20, OnePlus 3, and OnePlus 3T, but progress is being made to get this modification working on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ as well. In case it doesn’t work, there’s also a flashable restore zip in each thread linked below.Trench warfare had only just begun in 1914 The soldiers sang Christmas carols before leaving their trenches to play a match in sub-zero temperatures in no-man's land near Armentieres, France. The Germans won 3-2, according to some soldiers, and the truce gradually came to an end in the same way it had begun - by mutual consent. A film inspired by the events entitled Merry Christmas is being planned. The truce came about during the first winter of the war - not yet dubbed the "Great War". By the end of 1915 both sides were far too bitter for this to happen again Andrew Robertshaw Military historian Around 40,000 Britons had lost their lives by that stage - a tiny number compared to the body count by 1918. The British soldiers on the Frelinghien-Houplines sector on the western front were the main allied participants in the Christmas festivities. French and Belgian troops, who were fighting in the same trenches as the British, were less willing to take part. By Christmas 1914 they had already lost 400,000 people and parts of both their countries were occupied. Non-aggressive behaviour The truce began when German soldiers started to sing Christmas carols. British troops responded and gradually both sets of soldiers moved out of their trenches and met in no-man's land. After exchanging stories and gifts, several games of football broke out. The only result recorded was a 3-2 victory by the Germans, quoted in soldiers' letters from both sides. On some parts of the front hostilities were officially resumed on Boxing Day at 0830 - ceremonial pistol shots marking the occasion. In other areas non-aggressive behaviour lasted for days and, in some cases, weeks. Military historian Andrew Robertshaw says such a truce would have been unthinkable a year later. He said: "This was before the poisoned gas, before aerial bombardment. "By the end of 1915 both sides were far too bitter for this to happen again."Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized nearly $2 million in heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine during smuggling attempts in Arizona. Border Patrol agents working nearby also arrested a previously-deported illegal alien with a violent criminal history. CBP officers observed a man driving a Hyundai SUV from Mexico through the Dennis DeConcini border crossing in Nogales, Arizona, on September 9. The SUV, driven by a 27-year-old Mexican national, was referred to a secondary inspection station for a routine check. A K-9 officer alerted to the presence of drugs in his SUV and officers found 160 pounds of cocaine in the rear cargo area of the vehicle, according to information obtained by Breitbart Texas from CBP officials. Officials estimated the value of the 60 packages of cocaine to be nearly $1.8 million. The man was arrested and the drugs and vehicle were seized. That same day, Border Patrol agents from the Tucson Sector working out of the Douglas Station arrested a Mexican national who had illegal re-entered the U.S. after being deported. The man had previously been deported following felony and misdemeanor charges in Raleigh, North Carolina. His record included charges for assault on a female, assault on a child under the age of 12, setting a fire, and resisting arrest. He was previously removed from the U.S. in 2015. The Mexican national was turned over to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution for illegal re-entry by a felon after removal. Two additional drug seizures were made by CBP officers on Friday at the Nogales crossing. A K-9 officer alerted to the presence of drugs in a Dodge van driven by a U.S. citizen from Nogales. The officers found more than 17 pounds of methamphetamine in the front wheel well of the van. The 36-year-old man was arrested and the drugs and vehicle were seized. The meth was estimated to be worth over $52,000. Later that day, officers in the pedestrian lanes of the DeConcini border crossing a 16-year-old girl from Nogales was found to be carrying three pounds of heroin in her undergarments. The heroin was estimated to be worth about $48,000. Finally, on Saturday, another smuggling attempt was thwarted at the pedestrian lanes of the DeConcini crossing when a 32-year-old woman from Casa Grande, Arizona, was discovered to be carrying about a half-pound of meth in her underwear. Those drugs were estimated to be worth about $1,300. Homeland Security Investigations is investigating all of these cases for possible prosecution. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.A U.S. teen has shown doctors compelling evidence that reincarnation exists after awaking from a coma and speaking fluent Spanish – a language he was never taught. 16-year-old Reuben Nsemoh survived a life-threatening head injury on the soccer pitch that put him in a coma after being kicked in the head whilst diving for a loose ball. The English-speaking Georgia teenager left doctors utterly baffled when he awoke 3 days later speaking fluent Spanish Could it be that Reuben was Hispanic in a past life? Ksl.com reports: Slowly, his English is coming back, and he’s starting to lose his Spanish fluency. Foreign accent syndrome is an extremely rare condition in which brain injuries change a person’s speech patterns, giving them a different accent. The first known case was reported in 1941, when a Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel injuries to the brain during a German bombing run, and started speaking with a German accent.The technology used to project a lifelike, virtual Tupac Shakur Sunday night at Coachella has existed since the Victorian era, and at least one illusion designer believes the effect was even more remarkable in its original form. When “scientific showman” John Henry Pepper first unveiled the trick in London in 1862, the audience saw a three-dimensional actor apparently floating on stage, according to Jim Steinmeyer, a top creator of illusions for magicians and other entertainers and also a historian of the craft. Contemporary instances of the effect, known as Pepper’s Ghost, display a two-dimensional image with no “dimensionality,” he adds. “If that sounds like it’s less impressive today, the answer is yes, it is,” says Steinmeyer, who recounts the creation of Pepper’s Ghost in his 2003 book “Hiding the Elephant.” The same principle that underlies the Pepper’s Ghost trick is used today in “heads-up” aviation displays, which make some cockpit instruments appear to hover in space in front of a pilot. It also is behind Teleprompters, and is
Cory Booker, (D-NJ), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Patty Murray (D-WA) posted the open letter to Medium, saying, "we urge you to take a stand against this latest form of discrimination and move the 2017 NBA All-Star Game away from Charlotte, N.C." "Millions of Americans and millions more people around the world look up to the NBA," the lawmakers note. "The NBA boasts one of the most multicultural and multiethnic groups of players of any sports league in the world with more than 100 international players on its rosters. The NBA also made history just two years ago this month when Jason Collins became the first openly gay athlete to play in a major American professional sports league." They conclude, "we cannot condone nor stand idly by as North Carolina moves to legalize and institutionalize discrimination against the LGBT community. Nor should the NBA allow its premier annual event to be hosted in such a state. Doing so, we believe, would be inconsistent with the NBA's history and values. Therefore, we echo the words of NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley and call on the NBA to move the All-Star game from Charlotte." RELATED: North Carolina Governor Issues Executive Order in Response to Anti-LGBT Law Backlash The letter comes just days after a fake news website hoodwinked several news outlets and many people on social media over the weekend when it falsely claimed Commissioner Silver had given North Carolina 30 days to repeal the discriminatory HB2 law or "they can expect the 2017 All-Star game to be held elsewhere." NCRM was the first to report the "news" was fake. Earlier today North Carolina GOP Gov. Pat McCrory signed an executive order he tried to position as moderating HB2. While it does extend sexual orientation and gender identity protections to state employees, it does not repeal the anti-LGBT and unconstitutional law, nor does it roll back its most onerous acts. EARLIER: Major European Bank Scrubs 250 Job $9 Million Expansion in North Carolina Over Anti-LGBT Law Brilliant New Billboard: Welcome to North Carolina, Please Set Your Clock Back 100 Years WATCH: These 8 North Carolina Trans Citizens Share Their Feelings On HB2 And It May Break Your Heart Image by USCapitol via Flickr See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected]My major point when I gave my talk at the Fifth Biophysical Economics Conference at the University of Vermont was that our economy’s overall energy return on investment is already too low to maintain the economic system we are accustomed to. That is why the economy is showing signs of heading toward financial collapse. Both a PDF of my presentation and a podcast of the talk are available on Our Finite World, on a new page called Presentations/Podcasts. My analysis is with respect to the feasibility of keeping our current economic system operating. It seems to me that the problems we are experiencing today–governments with inadequate funding, low economic growth, a financial system that cannot operate with “normal” interest rates, and stagnant to falling wages–are precisely the kinds of effects we might expect, if energy sources are providing an inadequate energy return for today’s economy. Commenters frequently remark that such-and-such an energy source has an Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROI) ratio of greater than 5:1, so must be a helpful addition to our current energy supply. My finding that the overall energy return is already too low seems to run counter to this belief. In this post, I will try to explain why this difference occurs. Part of the difference is that I am looking at what our current economy requires, not some theoretical low-level economy. Also, I don’t think that it is really feasible to create a new economic system, based on lower EROI resources, because today’s renewables are fossil-fuel based, and initially tend to add to fossil fuel use. Adequate Return for All Elements Required for Energy Investment In order to extract oil or create biofuels, or to make any other type of energy investment, at least four distinct elements described in Figure 1: (1) adequate payback on energy invested, (2) sufficient wages for humans, (3) sufficient credit availability and (4) sufficient funds for government services. If any of these is lacking, the whole system has a tendency to seize up. Figure 1. One sheet from Biophysical Economics Conference Presentation EROI analyses tend to look primarily at the first item on the list, comparing “energy available to society” as the result of a given process to “energy required for extraction” (all in units of energy). While this comparison can be helpful for some purposes, it seems to me that we should also be looking at whether the dollars collected at the end-product level are sufficient to provide an adequate financial return to meet the financial needs of all four areas simultaneously. My list of the four distinct elements necessary to enable energy extraction and to keep the economy functioning is really an abbreviated list. Clearly one needs other items, such as profits for businesses. In a sense, the whole world economy is an energy delivery system. This is why it is important to understand what the system needs to function properly. What Happens as Oil Prices Rise When oil prices rise, wages for humans seem to fall, or at least stagnate (Figure 2, below). The comparison shown uses per capita wages, so takes into account changes in the proportion of people with jobs as well as the level of wages. Figure 2. High oil prices are associated with depressed wages. Oil price through 2011 from BP’s 2012 Statistical Review of World Energy, updated to 2012 using EIA data and CPI-Urban from BLS. Average wages calculated by dividing Private Industry wages from US BEA Table 2.1 by US population, and bringing to 2012 cost level using CPI-Urban. Related article: Alfa Billionaires Launch L1 Energy Fund In fact, if we analyze Figure 2, we see that virtually all of the rise in US wages came in periods when oil prices were below $30 per barrel, in inflation-adjusted terms. The reason why this happens is related to the drop in corporate profits that can be expected if oil prices rise, and businesses fail to respond. Let me explain this further with Figure 3, below. Figure 3. Illustration by author of ways oil price rise could squeeze wages. Amounts illustrative, not based on averages. Figure 3 is a bit complicated. What happens initially when oil prices rise, is illustrated in the black box at the left. What happens is that the business’ profits fall, because oil is used as one of the inputs used in manufacturing and transportation. If the cost of oil rises and the sales price of the product remains unchanged, the company’s profits are likely to fall. Additionally, there may be some reduction in demand for the product, because the discretionary income of consumers is reduced because of rising oil prices. Clearly, the business will want to fix its business model, so that it can again make an adequate profit. There are three ways that a business can bring its profits back to a satisfactory level, illustrated in the last three columns of Figure 3. They are • Automation. Human energy is the most expensive type of energy a business can employ, because wages to paid to humans to do a given process (such as putting a label on a jar) are far higher than the cost of an electricity-based process to perform the same procedure. Thus, if a firm can substitute electrical or oil energy for human energy, its cost of production will be lower, and profits can be improved. Of course, workers will be laid off in the process, reducing total wages paid. • Outsourcing to a Country with Lower Costs. If part of the production cost can be moved to a country where wage costs are lower, this will reduce the cost of manufacturing the product, and allow the business to offset (partially or fully) the impact of rising oil prices. Of course, this will again lead to less US employment of workers. • Make a Smaller Batch. If neither of the above options work, another possibility is to cut back production across the board. Even if oil prices rise, there are still some consumers who can afford the higher prices. If a business can cut back in the size of its operations (for example, close unprofitable branches or fly fewer airplanes), it can cut back on outgo of many types: rent, energy products used, and wages. With reduced output, the company may be able to make an adequate profit by selling only to those who can afford the higher price. In all three instances, an attempt to fix corporate profits leads to a squeeze on human wages–the highest cost source of energy services that there is. This seems to be Nature’s attempt way of rebalancing the system, toward lower-cost energy sources. If we look at the other elements shown in Figure 1, we see that they have been under pressure recently as well. The availability of credit to fund new energy investment is enabled by profits that are sufficiently high that they can withstand interest charges incurred in the payback of debt. Debt use is also enabled by growth, since if profits will be higher in the future, it makes sense to delay funding until the future. In recent years, central governments have seen a need to put interest rates at artificially low levels, in order to encourage borrowing. To me, this is a sign that the credit portion of the system is also under pressure. Government’s ability to fund its own needs has been under severe stress as well. Part of the problem comes from the inability of workers to pay adequate taxes, because their wages are lower. Part of the problem comes from a need for governments to pay out more in benefits, such as disability income, unemployment, and food stamps. The part that gets most stressed is the debt portion of government funding. This really represents the intersection of two different areas mentioned in Figure 1: (3) Adequacy of credit availability and (4) Funding for government services. The constellation of energy problems we are now experiencing seems to me to be precisely what might be expected, if energy return is now, on average, already too low. The Role of Energy Extraction in this Squeeze When any energy producer decides to produce energy of a given type (say oil or uranium), the energy producer will look for the resource that can be extracted at lowest cost to the producer. Figure 4. Resource triangle, with dotted line indicating uncertain financial cut-off. Initially, production starts where costs are most affordable–not much energy is required for extraction; governments involved do not require too high taxes; and the cost of human labor is not too high. The producer may need debt financing, and this must also be available, at an affordable cost. As the least expensive energy is extracted, later producers wishing to extract energy must often settle for higher cost extraction. In some cases, technology advancements can help bring costs back down again. In others, such as recent oil extraction, the higher costs are firmly in place. Higher sales prices available in the market place enable production “lower in the triangle.” The catch is that these higher oil prices lead to stresses in other systems: human employment, government funding, and ability for credit markets to work normally. What Is Happening on an Overall Basis Man has used external energy for a very long time, to raise his standard of living. Man started over 1,000,000 years ago with the burning of biomass, to keep himself warm, to cook food, and for use in hunting. Gradually, man added other sources of energy. All of these sources of energy allowed man to accomplish more in a given day. As a result of these greater accomplishments, man’s standard of living rose–he could have clothes, food which had been cooked, sharper tools, and heat when it was cold. Over time, man added additional sources of energy, eventually including coal and oil. These additional sources of energy allowed man to leverage his own limited ability to do work, using his own energy. Goods created using external energy tended to be less expensive than those made with only human energy, allowing prices to drop, and wages to go farther. Food became more available and cheaper, allowing population to rise. Money was also available for public health, allowing more babies to live to maturity. What happened shortly after the year 2000 was a sharp “bend” in the system. Instead of goods becoming increasingly inexpensive, they started becoming relatively more expensive relative to the earnings of the common man. There seem to be two reasons for this: (1) In the early 2000s, oil prices started rising, and these higher prices started exerting an upward force on the price of goods. At the same time, (2) globalization took off, providing downward pressure on wages. The result was that suddenly, workers found it harder to keep a job, and even when they were working, wages were stagnant. It seems to me that prior to the year 2000, part of what buoyed up the system was the large difference between: A. The cost of extracting a barrel of oil B. The value of that barrel of oil to society as a whole, in terms of additional human productivity, and hence additional goods and services that barrel of oil could provide. Related article: Is the Central-South Asian Energy Transmission Project just a Dream? As oil prices rose, this difference started disappearing, and its benefit to the world economy started going away. The government became increasingly stressed, trying to provide for the many people without jobs while tax revenue lagged. Slower economic growth made the debt system increasingly fragile. The economy was gradually transformed from one which provided perpetual growth, to one where citizens were becoming poorer and poorer. This pushed the economy in the direction of collapse. A More Complete List of Inputs that Need Adequate Returns My original list was: 1. Energy counted in EROI calculation–mostly fossil fuels, sometimes biomass used as a fuel 2. Human labor 3. Credit system 4. Cost of government To this we probably need to add: 1. Profits for corporations involved in these processes 2. Rent for land used in the process – this cost would be highest in biofuel operations. 3. Costs to prevent pollution, and mitigate its effects – not charged currently, except as mandated by law 4. Compensation for mineral depletion and degradation of soil. Degradation of soil would likely be an issue for biofuels. 5. Energy not counted in EROI calculations. This is mostly “free energy” such as solar, wind, and wave energy, but can include energy which is of limited quantity, such as biomass energy. Given the diversity of items in this list, it is not clear that simply keeping EROI above some specified target such as 5:1 is likely to provide enough “margin” to cover the financial return needed to properly fund all of these elements. Also, because the need for government services tends to increase over time as the system gets more stressed, if there is an EROI threshold, it needs to increase over time. It might also be noted that the amounts paid for government services are surprisingly high for fossil fuels. Barry Rodgers gave some figures regarding “government take” (including lease fees as well as other taxes and fees) in the May 2013 Oil and Gas Journal. According to his figures, the average government take associated with an $80 barrel of US tight oil is $33.29 per barrel. This compares to capital expenditures of $22.60 a barrel, and operating expenditures of $7.50 a barrel. If we are to leave fossil fuels, we would need to get along without the government services funded by these fees, or we would need to find a different source of government funding. Source of the EROI 5:1 Threshold To my knowledge, no one has directly proven that a 5:1 threshold is sufficient for an energy source to be helpful to an economy. The study that is often referred to is the 2009 paper, What is the Minimum EROI that a Sustainable Society Must Have? (Free for download), by Charles A. S. Hall, Steven Balogh, and David Murphy. This paper analyzes how much energy needs to provided by oil and coal, if the energy provided by those fuels is to be sufficient to pay not just for the energy used in its own extraction, but also for the energy required for pipeline and truck or train transportation to its destination of use. The conclusion of that paper was that in order to include these energy transportation costs for oil or coal, an EROI of at least 3:1 was needed. Clearly this figure is not high enough to cover all costs of using the fuels, including the energy costs to build devices that actually use the fuels, such as private passenger cars, electrical power plants and transmission lines, and devices to use electricity, such as refrigerators. The ratio required would probably need to be higher for harder-to-transport fuels, such as natural gas and ethanol. The ratio would also need to include the energy cost of schools, if there are to be engineers to design all of these devices, and factory workers who can read basic instructions. If the cost of government in general were added, the cost would be higher yet. One could theoretically add other systems as well, such as the cost of maintaining the financial system. The way I understood the 5:1 ratio was that it was more or less a lower bound, below which even looking at an energy product did not make sense. Given the diversity of what is needed to support the current economy, the small increment between 3 and 5 is probably not enough–the minimum ratio probably needs to be much higher. The ratio also seems to need to change for different fuels, with many quite a bit higher. The Add-On Problem for Fossil Fuel Based Renewables With renewables made using fossil fuels, such as hydroelectric, wind turbines, solar PV, and ethanol, the only way anyone can calculate EROI factors is as add-ons to our current fossil fuel system. These renewables depend on the fossil fuel system for their initial manufacture, for their maintenance, and for the upkeep of all the systems that allow the economy to function. There is no way that these fuels can power the whole system, based on what we know today, within the next hundred years. Thus, any EROI factor is misleading if viewed as the possibility what might happen if these fuels were to attempt to operate on a stand-alone basis. The system simply wouldn’t work–it would collapse. A related issue is the front-ended nature of the fossil fuels used in creating most of today’s renewables. People today think of “financing” any new investment, with easy payments over a period of years. The catch (as Tom Murphy pointed out in his BPE talk) is thatNature Doesn’t Do Financing. Nature demands up-front payment in terms of any fossil fuels used. Thus, if we build a huge new hydroelectric dam, such as the Three Gorges Dam in China, the fossil fuels required to make the concrete and to move huge amounts of soil come at the beginning of the project. This is also true if we make a huge number of solar panels. The saving we get are all only theoretical, and will take place only if we are actually able reduce the use of other fossil fuel energy sources in the future, because of the energy from the PV panels or other new renewable. In nearly all cases, adding renewables requires increasing fossil fuel use for this reason. We could, in theory, reduce fossil fuel use elsewhere, to try to cover the greater fossil fuel use to add renewables, but this would mean cutting industries and jobs currently using the fuel, something that many find objectionable. Several readers have suggested that we could greatly ramp-up solar PV. Yes, we could, but we would have to greatly ramp up fossil fuel usage (mostly coal in China, if current manufacturing approaches are used) to create these panels. Any future savings would be theoretical, depending on how long we keep the new system operating, and how much fossil fuel energy consumption is actually reduced as a result of the new panels. By. Gail TverbergThe American Bar Association wasn’t impressed with Alexander Williams Jr., and they said so. President Clinton’s first black nominee to the federal bench was rated “not qualified” by the ABA, which for most nominations, would be a death sentence. The U.S. Senate ignored them. “We now are at a happy confluence of opinion,” then-Senator Joe Biden said in 1994 after the judiciary committee unanimously approved Williams. “We all hate the ABA.” The American Bar Association’s influence in judicial nominations has long been a frustration for conservatives, who contend that the group is biased against conservatives. President George W. Bush stopped seeking their recommendations beforehand entirely. But liberal legal groups have long retained their own reservations about the ABA, namely that its standing committee on the federal judiciary rates women and minority candidates for the federal bench lower than white men. The committee evaluates nominees based on “integrity,” “competence,” and “temperament,” qualities which can often be in the eye of the beholder. The Obama administration, which has nominated the most diverse slate of judges ever, has sometimes found itself struggling to confirm its nominees who have received low ratings from the ABA. The Democratic Party has more financial and political links to the legal profession, so those complaints have often only been discussed quietly – as an industry, lawyers were the biggest donors to Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. Now there are some numbers to back up those long whispered anecdotes about women attorneys seen as being strident or aggressive while men were simply seen as confident, or minority candidates being dismissed as lacking the qualifications of their white peers. The potential implications for the federal judiciary are dramatic. While skin color is by no means a predictor of an individual’s legal or political views, studies have shown that have a woman or black judge on the bench can shift the outcome of cases dealing with matters like discrimination and voting rights. In 2009, according the Brookings Institution, only 20% of federal judges were women, 6% were black and 5% were Hispanic. Maya Sen, a professor of political science at the University of Rochester, recently published a study finding that even when women and minority candidates have similar qualifications to their white male peers, the ABA committee gives them lower ratings. Sen also found little evidence that high ratings are tied to fewer reversals on the bench, raising the question of what purpose the ABA ratings actually serve in terms of predicting a nominee’s future performance. She did not find that conservatives were less likely to be rated highly. “I tried as much as possible to compare people who were similarly situated, so I compared women candidates to male candidates across the legal education they had, work experience, legal experience,” said Sen. “What I found that even comparing across people who were very similarly situated, women candidates were 19% less likely to receive a high rating, and for African-American candidates it was 42% less likely.” Sen’s results offer support to what groups like the National Bar Association, which was founded by black attorneys in the early 20th century, already felt was happening. “The rating disparity issue is a longstanding complaint,” said Patricia Rosier, president of the National Bar Association. “The National Bar Association has found the same disparity.” The ABA has disputed Sen’s findings. ABA president James R. Silkenat wrote in a letter to the New York Times that Sen dusted off Mad Men-era data” and having wrongly placed “blame for this serious problem with the American Bar Association’s nonpartisan process to evaluate the professional qualifications of potential judicial nominees.” Sen writes in her study that she compared candidates nominated by the same president in order to avoid potential generational effects. Sen doesn’t think the discrepancy is deliberate. “The Bar Association to their credit really values diversity and they’ve put initiatives in place to promote diversity,” said Sen. “A lot people actually have implicit biases against women and minorities…as a social scientist it’s really hard to rule that out as an explanation.” Studies have shown that racial and gender bias can persist even when unintended. A 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that ”gender, race and nationality differences continue to affect salary growth after performance ratings are taken into account,” a 2014 study found that reviewers are more likely to review legal writing poorly if they think the writer is black. The ABA itself is cognizant of implicit bias–it has a task force whose given role is to “combat implicit bias in the justice system.” Asked whether other factors might explain the discrepancies, Sen raised the possibility of “mismatch,” the theory that affirmative action has given underqualified minorities access to elite institutions where they’ve been unable to compete. But she said that was unlikely. “Blacks would have to perform at three times worse the rate than whites to explain away my findings,” Sen said. Sen recommends that the ABA move to a more transparent and objective system, but also suggests that ABA ratings should not make or break a nomination as they often can. That’s an outcome the other bar associations would favor. “I think that certainly their opinion, their rating should be considered but I don’t think it should ultimately be the deciding factor,” said Rosier.In the aftermath of the global WannaCry ransomware attack, which has spread around the globe like wildfire, a significant number of corporations and public services have found their infrastructure grinding to a halt, unable to operate with unprotected if mission-critical computers taken offline indefinitely. Some of the more prominent examples so far include: NHS: The British public health service - the world's fifth-largest employer, with 1.7 million staff - was badly hit, with interior minister Amber Rudd saying around 45 facilities were affected. Several were forced to cancel or delay treatment for patients. The British public health service - the world's fifth-largest employer, with 1.7 million staff - was badly hit, with interior minister Amber Rudd saying around 45 facilities were affected. Several were forced to cancel or delay treatment for patients. Germany's Deutsche Bahn national railway operator was affected, with information screens and ticket machines hit. Travelers tweeted pictures of hijacked departure boards showing the ransom demand instead of train times. But the company insisted that trains were running as normal. with information screens and ticket machines hit. Travelers tweeted pictures of hijacked departure boards showing the ransom demand instead of train times. But the company insisted that trains were running as normal. Renault: The French automobile giant was hit, forcing it to halt production at sites in France and its factory in Slovenia as part of measures to stop the spread of the virus. The French automobile giant was hit, forcing it to halt production at sites in France and its factory in Slovenia as part of measures to stop the spread of the virus. FedEx: The US package delivery group acknowledged it had been hit by malware and said it was "implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible.". The US package delivery group acknowledged it had been hit by malware and said it was "implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible.". Russian banks, ministries, railways: Russia's central bank was targeted, along with several government ministries and the railway system. The interior ministry said 1,000 of its computers were hit by a virus. Officials played down the incident, saying the attacks had been contained. Russia's central bank was targeted, along with several government ministries and the railway system. The interior ministry said 1,000 of its computers were hit by a virus. Officials played down the incident, saying the attacks had been contained. Telefonica: The Spanish telephone giant said it was attacked but "the infected equipment is under control and being reinstalled," said Chema Alonso, the head of the company's cyber security unit and a former hacker. The Spanish telephone giant said it was attacked but "the infected equipment is under control and being reinstalled," said Chema Alonso, the head of the company's cyber security unit and a former hacker. Sandvik: Computers handling both administration and production were hit in a number of countries where the company operates, with some production forced to stop. "In some cases the effects were small, in others they were a little larger," Head of External Communications Par Altan said. One place which seemed to have emerged relatively unscathed from the global cyber-havoc (aside from the US, which is ironic as it is the U.S. NSA that was created the hacking software) has been China. Or so it seemed due to lack of media reports from the mainland. Now, courtesy of 95cn.org, and its twitter account, we have the first visual evidence that China too was materially impacted, to the point where not only local ATMs had been taken offline, but Chinese traffic police, immigration authorities and various public security bureaus and schools have suspended normal work until the malware threat is resolved. The following images taken on Saturday show Bank of China ATMs infected with the ransomware virus. More Chinese ATMs taken hostage: WannaCry also hit the Public Security Bureau: Various Chinese traffic police, immigration authorities and Public Security Bureaus were forced to suspend normal work: A map of the attacks shows that in addition to China, South Korea and Japan have also been seriously impacted. North Korea, however, has managed to squeeze through the cracks so far, perhaps due to the lack of local internet connectivity. * * * Finally, for those interested, here is a video courtesy of @hackerfantastic showing what realtime WannaCry infection looks like. Here is a video showing a machine on the left infected with MS17-010 worm, spreading WCry ransomware to machine on the right in real time. pic.twitter.com/cOIC06Wygf — Hacker Fantastic (@hackerfantastic) May 13, 2017 For now it is unclear what if any economic impact this "Biggest Ransomware Attack In History" will unleash on the world. Whatever the final outcome, don't forget to thank the NSA, whose product made all this possible, and which was warned by numerous skeptics, about just this eventuality.Fresh off his team earning the No. 3 pick in the lottery, a confident Joel Embiid says the Philadelphia 76ers are almost ready to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers and star LeBron James. "We're gearing up at the right time. When we start getting good, that's when Cleveland and LeBron will start going down," Embiid said Tuesday, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Embiid was the 76ers' representative at the draft lottery. Philadelphia received a top-three draft pick for the fourth straight year by virtue of being able to swap picks with the Sacramento Kings. Joel Embiid says the Sixers are ready to challenge the Cavs, and Philly fans are lining up to buy tickets. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images The 76ers finished 28-54 this season. While that marked their most wins since 2012-13, it was also 23 wins fewer than the regular-season total posted by the Cavaliers, who are currently playing in the Eastern Conference finals. Even so, Embiid is trusting the process and believes the 76ers' time is near. "When I say we are going to be ready to win when the Cavs are going down, that doesn't mean, like, five years," Embiid said. "Next year I think we are going to be ready to win." Embiid played in 31 games this season, averaging 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, before his season was cut short by a torn left meniscus. Speaking at ESPN's Upfront presentation Tuesday, Embiid said he was about two to three weeks from returning to the court.Kim Shin Jo is a protestant minister - the gentle leader of his church. But the 69-year-old is best known by history as a trained killer. Three decades ago, he and 30 others slipped from North Korea into Seoul to kill the South Korean president. He was the face of evil and terror for a generation of Koreans - a North Korean commando fighter who came into Seoul to assassinate the South Korean president at the time, Park Jung Hee. Kim recalls the chilling announcement he made to reporters more than 30 years ago: "I came from North Korea to kill president Park Chung Hee. I came to cut the throat of Park Chung Hee," Kim said. "We were taught that America had turned South Korea into a colony," he said, "and our mission was to remove the puppet government." In January, 1968, 31 North Korean commandos managed to slip across the border, through the woods, and make it within a few hundred meters of the president's residence. But a South Korean police officer confronted them. A gunfight ensued. In the end, more than 30 South Koreans were killed. All of the North Korean commandos were killed, except one who managed to make it back into North Korea and Kim Shin Jo, who was captured. Kim underwent months of interrogation while captive behind bars. A South Korean army general befriended him - and broke through his hardened training. "I tried to kill the president. I was the enemy," Kim said. "But the South Korean people showed me sympathy and forgiveness. I was touched and moved." The government eventually released Kim, finding he never fired a shot from his gun and didn't hurt anyone during the assassination attempt. Kim later worked for the South Korean military, became a citizen, married and had a family. Then he became a minister. He is now the country's symbol of redemption. Today, tensions on the divided peninsula are the highest in a decade - with few answers for workable, long-term solutions. But Kim is living proof that even the hardest of hearts in this conflict can change. Kim reflected on footage of himself held captive in 1968. "On that day, Kim Shin Jo died," Kim said. "I was reborn. I got my second life. And I'm thankful for that."Hoke didn't have to be there Monday night, but he showed up to honor his seniors and thank his players and staff Six days after getting fired as Michigan football coach, Brady Hoke showed incredible class by attending the football banquet Monday night to honor the team's 12 seniors. But it set up a strange, surreal, emotional, awkward situation. Hoke sat at the front of the banquet hall, under a spotlight, on a raised platform set up for players, coaches, administrators and alumni. He sat three seats from interim athletic director Jim Hackett, who fired him. "Our future is bright," Hackett said. "We owe Coach Hoke a deep debt of gratitude for having the kind of program that will help you for the rest of your life. "Thank you, Brady, for all you have done." The applause lasted 10 seconds. It said so much about Hoke that he would come back for his seniors. It couldn't have been easy to return under this situation. Michigan president Mark Schlissel said he was "blown away" by the size and energy and enthusiasm of the crowd. "I also want to express my appreciation to Coach Hoke for his dedication and service to the University of Michigan," Schlissel said. "It was clear to me from Day 1 that he cared very deeply for our players and Michigan football. He worked to nurture our student-athletes as players, as students and as men. And he was committed to their success at all levels. He also reached out to me with friendship and warmth during challenging times this semester. Thank you, Coach." The applause lasted 6 seconds. But it was weird, hearing so many great things about a guy who just got axed. It was like going to a funeral and the departed was very much alive and sitting up front, listening to everybody say nice things about him. CLOSE Former Michigan coach Brady Hoke speaks at the football Bust in Livonia; Video by Mark Snyder, DFP. Anthony Capatina, a walk-on from Catholic Central, summed it up best. He thanked Hoke for turning him "into a man." "We have been blessed with the best coach in the country when it comes to that," Capatina said. Everybody started to applaud. "He's taught me about integrity, honesty and doing the things the right way," Capatina said. "Coach did not have to be here tonight. But he is here. He's here because of us 12 seniors. He's here because he's a man of integrity, a man of honesty, because he does things the right way. Thank you, Coach." Senior after senior praised Hoke, although no one bashed the administration for firing him. After the players spoke, Hoke gave each one a big hug. Nobody ever questioned Hoke's love for his players. No, it was the losing that did him in. And all of that losing took its toll. CLOSE Former Michigan QB Devin Gardner and the end of his speech at the U-M Bust. Mark Snyder, Detroit Free Press The banquet hall was set for about 880 people — the smallest football banquet in the past 40 or 50 years. Normally, it draws about 1,200 fans and alumni. Hoke thanked his players and coaches and said it was a privilege to coach at Michigan, a team that showed "great resiliency" despite the "external distractions." "As a team, they played every Saturday," Hoke said. "I'm very proud of that for them. I'm very proud of what this coaching staff did. Tonight is to honor our seniors." Hoke built a program that excelled in every aspect but on the scoreboard. It was a team that succeeded in the classroom, a team that graduated players and produced men. But in the end, Hoke didn't win enough. After Hoke announced that Jake Ryan won the team's MVP award, the former coach turned and walked across the podium. As Ryan spoke, Hoke tapped players and coaches on their shoulders and ducked out a doorway. It was surprising — Hoke was scheduled to make a final remark — but it made sense. A final good-bye would have been heartwrenching for him and his players. Hoke came back for his players; and when that part was done, he simply disappeared into the night. Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com.LONDON/ANKARA/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen’s rebel Houthi movement, stepping up support for its Shi’ite ally in a civil war whose outcome could sway the balance of power in the Middle East, regional and Western sources say. Iran’s enemy Saudi Arabia is leading a Sunni Arab coalition fighting the Houthis in the impoverished state on the tip of the Arabian peninsula - part of the same regional power struggle that is fuelling the war in Syria. Sources with knowledge of the military movements, who declined to be identified, said that in recent months Iran has taken a greater role in the two-year-old conflict by stepping up arms supplies and other support. This mirrors the strategy it has used to support its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Syria. A senior Iranian official said Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force - the external arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - met top IRGC officials in Tehran last month to look at ways to “empower” the Houthis. “At this meeting, they agreed to increase the amount of help, through training, arms and financial support,” the official said. “Yemen is where the real proxy war is going on and winning the battle in Yemen will
, pretty precisely. He made the case for maximum flexibility and I said you know what if I were in your shoes I would be making the exact same argument because your job right now is to succeed in Iraq on as favorable terms as we can get. My job as a potential commander in chief is to view your counsel and your interests through the prism of our overall national security which includes what is happening in Afghanistan, which includes the costs to our image in the middle east, to the continued occupation, which includes the financial costs of our occupation, which includes what it is doing to our military. So I said look, I described in my mind at list an analogous situation where I am sure he has to deal with situations where the commanding officer in [inaudible] says I need more troops here now because I really think I can make progress doing x y and z. That commanding officer is doing his job in Ramadi, but Petraeus's job is to step back and see how does it impact Iraq as a whole. My argument was I have got to do the same thing here. And based on my strong assessment particularly having just come from Afghanistan were going to have to make a different decision. But the point is that hopefully I communicated to the press my complete respect and gratitude to him and Proder who was in the meeting for their outstanding work. Our differences don't necessarily derive from differences in sort of, or my differences with him don't derive from tactical objections to his approach. But rather from a strategic framework that is trying to take into account the challenges to our national security and the fact that we've got finite resources. I have made this general point again and again -- about airline security, about terrorism, about a lot of things -- that the person in charge of the security system can't be the person who decides what resources to devote to that security system. The analogy I like to use is a company: the VP of marketing wants all the money for marketing, the VP of engineering wants all the money for engineering, and so on; and the CEO has to balance all of those needs and do what's right for the company. So of course the TSA wants to spend all this money on new airplane security systems; that's their job. Someone above the TSA has to balance the risks to airlines with the other risks our country faces and allocate budget accordingly. Security is a trade-off, and that trade-off has to be made by someone with responsibility over all aspects of that trade-off. I don't think I've ever heard a politician make this point so explicitly. EDITED TO ADD (10/27): This is a security blog, not a political blog. As such, I have deleted all political comments below -- on both sides.. You are welcome to discuss this notion of security trade-offs and the appropriate level to make them, but not the election or the candidates. Posted on October 27, 2008 at 6:31 AM • 60 CommentsNanotube Aerogels Could Suck Oil Spills Right Out of Oceans Oil spills suck, right? Well, what if there was something that did the sucking for them? That’s what a team of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania presupposed when they created a new form of oil-soaking ‘frozen smoke’. Taking its descriptive nickname from its appearance and weight, the low-density, ultra-sturdy aerogels they created are composed of carbon nanotubes. Weighing in at about three times the density of air, this nearly-invisible material can absorb up to 900 times its own weight. Traditional aerogels have been used by NASA for their incredible insulating capacity, which makes them great for insulating the Mars rovers and snagging orbiting stardust (pictured above). The new nanotube aerogels were synthesized exclusively for absorption and are 99.9% empty space. The absorbed oil can simply be squeezed out or burned in the fire-resistant aerogels. Oil spills are most certainly a tragedy that is best prevented, rather than cured. But these new carbon nanotube aerogels may very well be the last line of defense for aquatic creatures after an oil spill.For thousands of years, Man has tried to explain the world around him. Over time he came to the conclusion that there must be some superior force controlling and creating the wonders on Earth. From there came the notion to honor the controlling force by creating a set doctrine of worship, or a religion. Once more came the realization, especially recently, that hundreds or thousands of years of the same worship and ideology might not be working. More than few have chosen to belong to these new religions, whose teachings seem unorthodox, odd, even humorous. Here are a few of those, in no particular order. 10 Discordianism Also known as: Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric (POEE) Symbol: The Sacred Chao, symbol of the hodge and podge Founded by/in: Malaclypse the Younger (aka Greg Hill) with Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (aka Kerry Thornley) in 1958 or 1959 Definition/main doctrine: “The Discordian Society has no definition.” Info: It’s still up in the air as to whether on not Discordia is a mock religion or not. Discordia is mostly about nothing; they teach that discord and anarchy are paramount. Discordians do not worship, but are very interested in Eris, the goddess of discord. They also believe that everything is true, even lies. More information: Read about the fundaments of Discordia in The Pricipia Discordia!. Discordianism also plays a prevalent role in Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! trilogy 9 Kibology Founded by/in: James “Kibo” Parry in 1989 Info: While Wikipedia lists Kibology as a religion satirizing Scientology, it seems I can find no real strong correlation to that fact. Kibologists, sometimes referred to as “kibozos”, follow the humorous teachings of Kibo, who was a strong presence on the internet in the ‘90’s. Most of the religious texts involve humorous anecdotes, facts, short stories, and decrees made by Kibo and his followers. Kibo has run for office of President of the United States. He also wrote a fact page very similar to many Chuck Norris jokes years before the internet meme was created. More information 8 Church of Google Also known as: Googlism Founded by: Matt MacPherson Info: Google.com, the world reknowned search engine, has a following. These people believe that Google, being omniscient and omnipresent, is the closest Mankind will come to knowing and facing a god. Google can solve all their problems through knowledge, and knowledge is power. They even have nine proofs of Google’s godliness. More information 7 Last Thursdayism Founded by/in: Michael Keene in 1996 Info: The omphalos hypothesis claims that there is no proof that history wasn’t created and implanted by God as a test for us. Creationists use this when referring in arguments about dinosaur bones being planted on Earth to test our faith. Last Thursdayism takes this to another level by claiming that there is no proof that everything wasn’t created last Thursday. In fact, they believe that you are God, and You have created a copy of yourself, created the world, and are testing yourself. Any memories prior to Thursday have been implanted, as well as Your belief system. Oh, and everyone knows about it and is in on it, so You best behave well or else You will have to punish Yourself on the day of reckoning (next Thursday). More information 6 Church of the Subgenius Founded in/by: the 1950s by J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, the world’s greatest salesman (or Douglass St. Clair Smith and Philo Drummond in 1979) Info: The Church of the Subgenius parodies all. Science, New Age, Christianity, conspiracy theories, pop culture, and the government are not safe from the tauntings of Rev. Ivan Stang and his brethren. The fundaments of church are based on achievement of “slack”, which is freedom, humor, money, and luxury. Of the post-modern religions I’m writing about, this is the one with the most richness to it’s background. They have many holidays, including Hate for the Sake of Hating Day and the Feast of Weird Al Yankovic. They have a deity, “Bob”, and his wife, Connie, the anti-virgin. They also have a complex religious order, which you can be a part of for a one-time fee of $30. More information 5 Campus Crusade for Cthulhu Also known as: The CCC Definition/main doctrine: Why settle for a lesser evil? Info: The Dark, Tentacled Lord is coming and the CCC wants you to be part of it! By joining Cthulhu’s minions, the group promises years of friendship, bonding, and fear-of-dying-at-the-hands-of-Cthulhu-free existence. The religion’s sole (soul?) purpose is to please the god Cthulhu, a deity created by debatably science-fiction author, H. P. Lovecraft. Right now Cthulhu is sleeping, but when the day comes for his awakening, boy are you going to be sorry (unless you are part of the CCC, whose souls he will not devour). More information 4 Church of Emacs (and the Church of Vi) Info: The Editors Wars began some time ago, pitting emacs using editors versus vi using editors. I’ve done extensive research (read: too boring to actually learn, so I glanced at it) into the whole mess, and it seems silly. Reminds me a lot of the Lilliputians in Gulliver’s Travels. Anyhow, the Church of emacs upholds the teachings that emacs is good and vi is evil. The church of vi is the opposite. [JFrater: I would contend that the Church of Vi is, in fact, the superior of the two.] Pictured above we see Saint IGNUcius of the Church of Emacs. More information 3 Iglesia Maradoniana Founded by/in: October 30, 1998 by many rabid fans Info: First watch this. Did you look at the video? Why would you need to know more about Diego Maradona? I mean, look at him. He’s awesome! Who wouldn’t worship him? More information 2 Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth Also known as: TOPY Founded by/in: Psychic TV, Coil, and Current 93 in the 1980s Info: TOPY was created to break through restraints many of the founding members were feeling. They feel that society puts too much stigma on things being “right” or “wrong” They are heavily involved in occult and magickal practices as well as the arts. Many TOPY followers will create and mail a magickal sigil, created on the 23rd hour of the 23rd day of each month. More information 1 Pastafarianism Also known as: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Founded by/in: Bobby Henderson in 2005 Info: Oh, you thought I was going to forget Him, didn’t you? His Noodlyness wouldn’t be pleased. In an open letter to the Kansas School Board, Bobby Henderson challenged the state to either include his version of Intelligent Design or dismiss it from the curriculum altogether. He gives a very convincing argument for the belief system of his Noodly Savior. Bobby claims that he has written documentation that the world was created by a flying spaghetti monster. He demands that if the Board is okaying the admission of teaching in school systems about the Christian God and his teachings, then the FSM teachings should be included as well. More information Contributor: CedestraSome 37 per cent of Australians believe we should protect ourselves from the world, the survey found. Credit:Michel Bunn More than 70 per cent of Australians believe the nation "needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful" and nearly half believe "to fix the country, we need a strong leader willing to break the rules", the survey found. Over two-thirds (68 per cent) believe "the economy is rigged to the advantage of the rich and powerful" and 61 per cent believe "traditional parties and politicians don't care about people like me". Notably, Australians were more likely than most around the world to want a strong leader to take the country back, with 71 per cent of Australian respondents supporting this statement, compared with 69 per cent in the US, 67 per cent in Great Britain and 63 per cent globally. And it's not just the political elite Australians distrust. Sixty per cent believe that "experts in this country don't understand the lives of people like me", according to the survey. It's a sign that Trump's America and the wave of resentment he rode to the White House may be closer to home than we think, experts say. "We should be concerned," said Carol Johnson, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Adelaide. "If there's anything we can learn from Trump's victory and from Brexit, it's that these forces can emerge far more quickly than mainstream politicians and commentators expect." While previous surveys have shown some dissatisfaction with traditional politics, these latest findings come at a time of declining primary votes for both Australia's major parties, she said. "While there has been distrust before, these are very high figures," Professor Johnson said. "I think they are a sign that in economic policy in particular the major parties need to think about whether they have been adequately addressing the concerns of voters." Globally, 69 per cent believed the economy was rigged to favour the elite, 57 per cent of people believed their country was in decline and 43 per cent believed their lives would be worse than their parents', the Ipsos survey found. Ipsos Social Research Institute director David Elliott said recent political events had galvanised populist forces across the globe. "There is growing discontent and with things like Brexit and Trump, people holding similar views feel more confident to speak out about it," Ipsos Social Research Institute director David Elliott said. "[In Australia] the increase of support for Pauline Hanson and her party in the previous election certainly supports that." While Australia was on par with, or very close to, the global average for most of the survey's questions, Australians emerged as more likely than most to support closing the door on globalisation. More than 30 per cent of Australians see foreign business and trade as a threat, compared with 26 per cent globally, while 37 per cent believed we should protect ourselves from the world, compared with 31 per cent globally. Mr Elliott said Australian political discourse had focused heavily on immigration and refugees in recent years, often linking these issues with terrorism. "As we get more fearful of what might be coming to our shores, I think it's a natural reaction for people to want to huddle in and close the doors to the outside world," he said. Professor Johnson said the major parties would find these results "very concerning". "Especially the Liberal Party, given that Malcolm Turnbull is a very strong supporter of globalisation and free trade," she said. "Both parties will be very worried that this anti-globalisation sentiment will encourage parties like One Nation, who have such a strong anti-globalisation stand." Professor Johnson said these sentiments were "fertile ground for the growth of right-wing populism", which often tried to tie the belief that elites haven't been pursuing the economic interests of ordinary workers to the idea that immigrants are getting more than their fair share. However, she pointed out that it was not clear how respondents had interpreted the survey's questions and anti-elite, anti-establishment discontent could include people with either left-wing or right-wing political views. One bright spot in the survey found Australians were slightly less pessimistic than most people around the world. While half of Australian respondents believed their country was in decline, this was below the global average of 57 per cent and significantly lower than in countries such as the US (60 per cent), Spain (69 per cent) and South Africa (77 per cent). Similarly, 38 per cent of Australians said they felt their generation would have a worse life than their parents' generation, compared with 43 per cent globally and 47 per cent in the US.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption There are at least four rounds of spanking in the video with one woman (far right) recoiling each time A video has surfaced online showing staff at a Chinese bank being publicly spanked for poor performance during a training session, sparking outrage. The video, first posted by the People's Daily, shows a trainer asking eight employees why they did not "exceed themselves" at training. He then spanks them with what looks like a stick. Reports say he later also cut and shaved their hair. Two executives at the bank have been suspended. The incident took place at a training session for more than 200 employees at Changzhi Zhangze Rural Commercial Bank in northern China on Saturday. The trainer, Jiang Yang, has issued an apology, saying the spanking was "a training model I have tried for years" and had not been instigated by executives at the bank. 'Hair cutting punishment' The video, which first surfaced on Monday, appears to have been taken by someone in the audience on a smartphone. Mr Jiang is seen reprimanding eight bank employees on stage, asking them why they received the lowest scores in a training exercise. The employees give answers including "I did not exceed myself", "I did not co-ordinate with my team" and "I lacked courage". Mr Jiang then says "get your butts ready" and proceeds to spank them with what appears to be a thick piece of wood. It shows at least four rounds of spanking, with one woman recoiling each time, apparently in pain. At one point, that woman places her hands over her behind, but is told to "take your hand off". The spanking was followed by a "hair cutting punishment", a statement (in Chinese) by the Changzhi local government said. Chinese media reports said the men had their heads shaved, while the women had their hair cut. 'What sort of logic is this?' According to the statement, the Shanxi Rural Credit Co-operatives Union, which regulates the bank, has set up a group to investigate the incident. The bank's chairman and deputy governor had been suspended for "failing to strictly check the content of the course", the regulator said, while the bank would help the employees seek compensation from the training company. Mr Jiang has issued a video apology, and said the spanking had "nothing to do" with the leaders at the bank. Such rumours "had severely harmed his clients and the leaders" at the bank, he added. People online have been expressing outrage over the treatment of staff. "Since when does beating employees become a way of raising performance?" one user asked on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog used in China. Another user said he was dissatisfied because he felt Mr Jiang had focused on apologising to the banking executives. "In his video apology, he kept emphasising that he had hurt the leadership at Changzhi Zhangze Rural Commercial Bank! He spanked the employees, but apologised to the leadership? What sort of logic is this?""Molon Labe." It's a Greek phrase well-known to Army folk. It means "come and take it," and it's what King Leonidas supposedly told Xerxes before the Battle of Sparta. The slogan, which was used during the Texas Revolution, is also popular among Second Amendment activists today. Military members, separatists, and gun nuts. What do these people have in common? Many of them probably watch Fox News, where former U.S. Rep. Allen West commentates. And as of yesterday, the Palm Beach Gardens resident will have something up his sleeve other than Tea Party rhetoric. He got the conservative motto permanently etched on his forearm yesterday at Ace's High Tattoo in West Palm. "I said to take a pic with him," says John Wylie, the shop's owner. "I expected people to talk shit, but we do it with anybody who comes in that's notable."blog [link] Facebook page [link] Photoshop 2 daysprocess [link] Original watercolor sketch concept [link] Had this one in my head for a while. Im still exploring style options for my rendering techniques this was the outcome.Ill post the process very soon check back.Located on the edge of the western continent on the ruins of an ancient vessel, was once a mere tribe that grew into an expanding nation of humans. The Empire continued to perfect its aerial armored force by building increasingly better floating warships from any ancient technology they could research. The Empire soon conquered each of its neighboring nations one by one. Few nations could resist the Empire's advanced technology. The Empire's rise to power would eventually lead to its own downfall. A Basic hunger for power corrupted the foundations upon which the Empire was built...0 11 7 0 0 Don't be shellfish... We’ve updated our Guide to Spring for 2016! If you want to know the best places to go this spring, we’ve come up with a list of our top five. If you want to learn more about events this spring, give our Guide to Spring Events a look. Also remember to check out our Guides to Summer, Fall, and Winter! We’re now about a week and a half into spring. Outside the flowers are blooming, the grass is lush and green, and the trees are beginning to show some signs of awakening from their winter hibernation. So pull out your bike and, after months spent hidden inside, allowing your body to lie fallow, rediscover how nice it is to be outside in Champaign-Urbana. The criteria for our selection of the top 5 places are the following: Any location selected is within biking distance of C-U. Locations selected are not just nice, but offer something that will help you to enjoy spring. 1. University of Illinois Arboretum The word arboretum refers to a collection of trees, but here at U of I, it’s essentially a botanical garden. Not only does it have a beautiful pond, walking trails, and a number of different gardens, it’s also home to the UIUC’s Japan House. The purpose of the Japan House is to give C-U some exposure to Japanese culture and foster intercultural understanding. They have a lot of interesting events that are scheduled regularly including Ikebana (the art of Japanese flower arrangement), tea ceremony, and calligraphy, as well as occasional workshops on meditation and Japanese cooking. Check out their calendar to see what activities are lined up this spring. They tend to have 2-3 events a week. It’s also home to various Japanese gardens open from dawn ’til dusk. On April 9th, they’ll be holding an open house. Among scheduled activities are multiple tea ceremonies, a presentation on traditional Kokeshi dolls, as well as a guided tour of the gardens. Fans of cherry blossoms should keep an eye on their Facebook page to know when the cherry blossoms in the Sen Cherry Tree Allée are at their peak. That way you don’t have to travel to Tokyo or D.C. 2. C-U Neighborhood Parks: Clark Park, Noel Park, and Carle Park So maybe we’re cheating by including this as just one entry, but I see these three parks as three examples of the same phenomenon: quiet parks, nestled between low-traffic streets and beautiful houses, that are well integrated within the community around them. Some of these parks are lesser known—particularly to students—but they’re well worth the ride. So why are these parks places that are especially interesting during the spring? It’s because they’re each a part of a neighborhood and not a separate entity. They’re meeting places for people. These are locations where people don’t just play sports or have some contact with the natural world, but spaces that allow for the strengthening of a sense of community that’s missing in so many American neighborhoods. As spring marks the season when people again start to frequent parks, you can see the restoration of these processes, with new connections being built and old ones being reawakened. Clark Park Situated in Champaign between Daniel and Charles, a few blocks west of Prospect, Clark Park has everything. It has tennis courts, a basketball court, a picnic area, tree-covered areas, open spaces, playground equipment, and a sandbox full of toys provided by local residents. It’s been around since 1909 and provides the perfect space to spend some time with your friends or family. Noel Park Noel Park, located southwest of Windsor and Prospect, is a 10-acre park nearly entirely circumscribed by houses, barely connected to any street. No park in C-U is better integrated physically into its community, with many backyards blending in seamlessly with the park. Other houses, not located directly on the park are connected by a series of paved footpaths, emerging from the park like wooded tendrils and embracing the neighborhood. To me, Noel Park is the kind of park that you dream of existing but never find. There are facilities for soccer, picnicking, and a children’s playground. If you want to fly a kite, this is the place to go. Carle Park Carle Park is better known than the other two parks. Situated west of Urban High School, Carle Park boasts some of the most impressive trees you’ll see in C-U. If you’re interested in knowing what types of trees they have, there’s a tree map showing which type of tree is where. It could be a great activity to take your kid to Carle Park and talk about how and when different types of trees cycle out of winter dormancy. They also have a soccer field and a really great set of playground equipment. If you’re interested in architecture, check out the Erlanger House, at 303 W. Indiana Ave on the south edge of the park. Designed in the International Style, the Erlanger House now hosts UIUC’s artists-in-residence. Honorable Mention: Mayfair Park – Though relatively small, it’s a great neighborhood park with open space, playground equipment, and a picnic area. Located in residential Champaign, east of Mattis, it’s a favorite place of mine to stop for water while on a ride through Champaign (often ending in Noel Park). 3. Plant Biology Greenhouse, University of Illinois Not every day in spring will be ideal for activities outdoors. Sometimes it’ll be cold. Sometimes it’ll be rainy. But thanks to to the Plant Biology Greenhouse, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use those days to enjoy the flourishing of plant-life that spring brings. The greenhouses are located in the Plant Sciences Laboratory, east of the South Quad, and open to the public Monday-Friday, from 8:30-4:30. In their main greenhouse, you’ll find coffee and banana trees amongst the lush tropical vegetation. Moving beyond this, you’ll find themed rooms with—among other plants—orchids, desert plants, and carnivorous plants. Yep, here you can see pitcher plants and venus fly traps! Moving on, you can go into greenhouses used for scientific research by the university. You can’t enter these rooms, but you can see them from hallways and the central corridor. 4. Allerton I’ve written about Allerton in the past in Neutral’s Guide to Fall. Allerton is certainly great in every season. I’ve been there both when covered by almost a foot of snow as well as on sweltering July days. While those times were nice, I think Allerton is at its best during the transitional seasons. In spring, Allerton offers a great venue to see the blooming of local wildflowers. Allerton’s peony garden is another reason to go; they’ve got loads of different species and cultivars that allow you to see the massive variety in blooms that this plant produces. Generally the height of the blooming is during the end of May. Check their calendar to see when it’s going to happen this year. If you have the time and inclination, I suggest that you take a few trips to Allerton during spring to see how the season develops. You can see the changes in the flora as they slowly come back to life, listen to the birds on one of the hiking trails, and enjoy the relatively temperate weather. It’s about 30 miles away from C-U, meaning that Allerton provides the perfect day trip for a bike. Bike there in the morning, enjoy it during the afternoon, and bike home in the evening. You can bring your own food—they have grills—or stop for a bite to eat in Monticello, a picturesque example of a small Central Illinois town. If you’re biking—or even if you’re driving, plan a route off of the main highways and you’ll get a lot more out of the experience. There are county roads crisscrossing the entire area between C-U and Allerton. One reason is that you’ll have less traffic to deal with. More importantly, though, you’ll get to see what Champaign and Piatt counties look like away from major roads and urban centers. You’ll see farms, fields, homesteads, groves, and small settlements. The best part, though, I think, is the quietness you can find in these places. It’s nice to be able to hear nothing but the wind once in a while. 5. Busey Woods Between the Urbana Country Club, Crystal Lake Park, Woodlawn Cemetery, and northeast Urbana neighborhoods, you’ll find Busey Woods, a 59-acre plot of land boasting trees, trails, wildflowers, and a small body of water. A large portion of it is subject to seasonal flooding, but this is no issue for interested visitors because these areas are covered by a boardwalk, ensuring that, even in the wettest of times, you won’t have to worry about water-sodden shoes. Nearby is the Anita Purves Nature Center, is worth a visit by both adults and children alike. Just please remember to not ride your bikes on the trails! 8609 Total Views 2 Views Today Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit Google Tumblr Pinterest Print EmailRio de Janeiro: Australia's champion women's 4x100 metres freestyle quartet have announced themselves as the country's greatest relay team with the second gold medal of a thrilling first night at the Olympic Aquatic Centre. Already Mack Horton had opened Australia's account in Brazil in the 400m freestyle final and Cate Campbell, Bronte Campbell, Emma McKeon and Brittany Elmslie completed a double by defending the relay team's title from London four years ago. A brilliant third leg from Bronte Campbell booted the Australians to the front before her sister put on the finishing touches to lead Australia home in a world record time of 3.30.65. The United States, anchored by a gutsy Katie Ledecky, were second in 3.31.89 with Canada claiming the bronze in 3.32.89. McKeon began strongly for Australia, handing over to Elmslie only 0.05 seconds behind the Americans, but the US were booted in front by nearly half a second at the halfback mark thanks to Dana Vollmer.Hawaii launched an investigation into game developer Electronic Arts over “predatory practices” and gambling concerns involving the company’s new game “Star Wars: Battlefront II,” according to a Wednesday report. Calling the game an “online casino,” Hawaiian Democrat Rep. Chris Lee announced the investigation in a Tuesday press conference, according to Game Informer. “Star Wars: Battlefront II” and EA more broadly have received a deluge of criticism for micro-transactions, or purchases made in-game with real-world money. The game “is a Star Wars-themed online casino designed to lure kids into spending money,” said Lee. “It’s a trap.” The representative said the government would be examining the notion of banning “Star Wars: Battlefront II” for sale to children, as well as the prospect of banning certain elements of the game. He noted that other states are also analyzing the situation. “We turned off in-game purchases,” said John Reseburg, brand and corporate communications vice president at EA, to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “That is explained here, with an apology to our community that the design lead to unintended circumstances and concern.” The Belgian Gambling Commission is currently investigating whether lootboxes, a feature in Battlefront II, constitute gambling, according to gameindustry.biz. WATCH: Hawaiian state Democrat Rep. Joe Quinlan compared the gambling-oriented devices in the game, which he claimed was marketed to children, to Joe Camel, a character alleged to have targeted children in smoking ads. “Gambling’s addictive,” said a mother at the hearing. “For parents, we can’t protect our children from everything. …We can’t control it, so we do need help from regulations to help set boundaries.” “I have a six-month-old daughter now,” said one unnamed gamer. “I kind of see that the world she’s growing up in — I better try and make changes now before she grows up and she’s exposed to all of this stuff.” EA received criticism from the gaming community earlier in November for charging players $80 to unlock Darth Vader in “Battlefront II.” (RELATED: EA’s Explanation For Why You Have To Pay $80 More To Play As Vader Made History For Its Reddit Beat Down) Editor’s Note: The original version of this article cited reporting that the Belgian Gambling Commission had determined loot boxes to be gambling. That reporting was incorrect, and we have updated accordingly. Follow Rob Shimshock on Twitter Connect with Rob Shimshock on Facebook Send tips to rob@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. 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.Sharing sexual partners is a pretty frequent boast in hip-hop. Just one question: Why? Complex gets to the bottom of it. Written by Ernest Baker (@newbornrodeo) “Now get low and touch your toes for my people/And if you ain’t fucking them, you ain’t fucking me neither” —Lil Wayne, “Dick Pleaser” In the real world—or at least, the one that art supposedly holds a mirror up to—it’s not a stretch to say that most men get upset when a woman they’re involved with engages in coitus with a friend of theirs. In the rap world—or at least, the one that’s recorded and turned into music—people brag about the same thing all the time. To hear them tell it, rappers aren’t the kinds of guys who get mad when a woman sleeps with one (or even several) of their friends. In fact, they encourage it. It’s called “crew love.” Rappers have been celebrating it for decades, long before Drake and The Weeknd dropped a song about it in 2011 (titled, of course, “Crew Love”). Like most cultural norms, the conceit that associates, colleagues, and friends are off-limits is an idea hip-hop flipped on its head (or: on the bed). But the reasoning behind it is unclear. Rappers aren’t the kinds of guys who get mad when a woman sleeps with one (or even several) of their friends. In fact, they encourage it. Is it a pure hedonism thing—the kink and sexual deviation of shared partners—or a matter of brotherhood and generosity? Or something more? POST CONTINUES BELOW Juicy J, who once rapped, “Call my niggas over, and let her fuck the team,” sees it as the latter. In a phone interview with Complex, when asked about the indelicate matter of rappers sharing women, Juicy responds, with an air of indifference: “I don’t love her, man. You can have her.” Why? One theory: It has to do with the affection (or lack thereof) rappers have for women. It's a way to guard their impenetrable egos and hidden feelings—offering no emotion toward women. Rap is a straight male-dominated genre, and of course machismo’s going to be a common theme. Love is seen as a weakness, which is a theme as old as storytelling itself. Kurosawa's samurai don't have time for love; they have a higher, violent calling and weakness isn't an option. This is a genre where artists employ details of what they did with “your girl” as the number one most dismissive taunt against their nameless foes. Juicy himself once rapped about how “Your girlfriend is my groupie.” Like most rappers, he knows it's a point of weakness for the male ego, but not by default. In his estimation, wayward behavior's inevitable, and it’s how one chooses to react that defines character. “Life goes on. We win, we lose some. I don’t dwell on that.” The "that" being a woman stepping out. To that end, he’s also rapped, “You mad ‘cause he fucked your bitch, boy, you a hoe.” POST CONTINUES BELOW It’s that apathy that’s telling. To care that a woman slept with a friend would be a sign of vulnerability. By shielding themselves from the trauma of former lovers taking up with friends, rappers have—like they helped do with “nigger” in its slow transformation to the term “nigga," a term with an ostensibly inoffensive, if not empowering, denotation—started to promote crew love. In turn, everyone wins. (Sort of.) “Women wanna fuck the star. She wanna fuck the main motherfucker she see on TV,” Prodigy of classic hip-hop duo Mobb Deep explains to Complex. To care that a woman slept with a friend would be a sign of vulnerability. By shielding themselves from the trauma of former lovers taking up with friends, rappers have started to promote crew love. “It’s basically like peer pressure," he continued. "Pressuring the girl to fuck your boys, everybody else in the crew. She don’t know these niggas. That’s just a way of hooking your boys up with some pussy.” For the woman in question, that means sleeping with a long line of weed carriers and hanger-ons before getting to the main attraction. 50 Cent once detailed part of this post-show, hotel ritual on “Piggy Bank,” telling Tony Yayo to “bring the condoms, I’m in room 203.” POST CONTINUES BELOW These scenarios aren’t necessarily something that women engage in unwillingly. On her debut verse, Trina once bragged about how she could “fuck about five or six best friends.” There’s a thrill associated with the act, which may be because of it doesn't happen as often as we're lead to believe. Far from an every day occurrence, crew love is a figment of rap mythology according to Love & Hip Hop star Erica Mena. Alleged by
photographs were then forwarded to colleagues, and were leaked onto the Internet. Two CHP employees, Aaron Reich and Thomas O'Donnell, admitted to releasing the photographs in violation of CHP policy. O'Donnell later stated in interviews that he only sent the photos to his own e-mail account for viewing at a later time, while Reich stated that he had forwarded the pictures to four other people.[3] Catsouras' parents soon discovered the photographs posted online. The pictures had gained much attention, including a fake MySpace tribute website that actually contained links to the photographs.[3] People also anonymously e-mailed copies of the photos to the Catsouras family with misleading subject headers, in one case captioning the photo sent to the father with the words "Woohoo Daddy! Hey daddy, I'm still alive."[1] This led the Catsouras family to withdraw from Internet use and, concerned that their youngest daughter might be taunted with the photographs, to begin homeschooling her.[3] The online harassment aspects of the case were covered by Werner Herzog in his 2016 documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World. Legal action by the family [ edit ] The Catsouras family sued the California Highway Patrol and the two dispatch supervisors allegedly responsible for leaking the photographs in the Superior Court of California for Orange County. Initially, a judge ruled that it would be appropriate to move forward with the family's legal case against the CHP for leaking the photographs.[3] An internal investigation led the CHP to issue a formal apology and took action to prevent similar occurrences in the future, after discovering that departmental policy had been violated by the two dispatch supervisors responsible for the leakage of the photographs.[3] O'Donnell was suspended for 25 days without pay, and Reich quit soon after, "for unrelated reasons", according to his lawyer.[1] However, when the defendants moved for summary judgment, Judge Steven L. Perk dismissed the case against the Department of the California Highway Patrol after both Reich and O'Donnell were removed as defendants. Judge Perk ruled that the two were not under any responsibility for protecting the privacy of the Catsouras family, effectively ending the basis for the case. The superior court judge who dismissed the Catsouras' case ruled in March 2008 that while the dispatchers' conduct was "utterly reprehensible",[1] there was no law that allowed it to be punishable. The CHP sent websites "cease and desist" notices in an effort to get the photos off the Internet. The Catsouras family hired ReputationDefender to help remove the photos, but they continue to spread. ReputationDefender estimates that it has persuaded websites to remove 2,500 of the photos, but accepts that removing them from the Internet completely is impossible.[4] Attorney and blogger Ted Frank wrote that even though the media were sympathetic to the parents' plight, "the Streisand effect has resulted in far more dissemination of the gruesome photos".[5] On February 1, 2010, it was reported that the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District had reversed Judge Perk's grant of summary judgment, and instead ruled that the Catsouras family did have the right to sue the defendants for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Calling the actions of O'Donnell and Reich "vulgar" and "morally deficient", the court stated: We rely upon the CHP to protect and serve the public. It is antithetical to that expectation for the CHP to inflict harm upon us by making the ravaged remains of our loved ones the subject of Internet sensationalism... O'Donnell and Reich owed the plaintiffs a duty not to exploit CHP-acquired evidence in such a manner as to place them at foreseeable risk of grave emotional distress.[6][7] On May 25, 2011, the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District ruled that Aaron Reich failed to prove that e-mailing the photographs is covered by the First Amendment. Reich claimed that he e-mailed the photographs as a caution about the dangers of drunk driving because he e-mailed the pictures with an anti-drunk driving message, despite Catsouras' postmortem examination revealing a blood alcohol content of zero. The three-justice panel that reviewed Reich's appeal wrote, "Any editorial comments that Reich may have made with respect to the photographs are not before us. In short, there is no evidence at this point that the e-mails were sent to communicate on the topic of drunk driving." The justices questioned whether the recipients still retained the e-mails, but Reich's attorney conceded that they had not investigated this.[8] On January 30, 2012, the CHP reached a settlement with the Catsouras family, under which the family received around $2.37 million in damages. CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader commented: "No amount of money can compensate for the pain the Catsouras family has suffered. We have reached a resolution with the family to save substantial costs of continued litigation and a jury trial. It is our hope that with this legal issue resolved, the Catsouras family can receive some closure."[9]WASHINGTON -- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said Thursday that he opposes reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights law whose protections the Supreme Court watered down in 2013. "There's been dramatic improvement in access to voting. I mean exponentially better improvement," the presidential candidate said in Iowa. "And I don't think there's a role for the federal government to play in most places, there could be some, but in most places where they did have a constructive role in the '60s. So I don't support reauthorizing it as is." In a 5-4 decision two years ago, a conservative majority of justices struck down a key provision of the 1965 law that designated which parts of the country must have changes to their voting laws cleared by the federal government. This stipulation applied widely to states in the South, where changes to voting laws have historically worked to keep low-income and minority voters away from the polls. The court, however, wrote "things have changed in the South." One major issue with Bush's statement is that even the law's advocates don't want to reauthorize it exactly "as is." Multiple attempts to restore the law's protections have been rejected by Republicans in Congress. As a way to address the court's objections, Democrats have introduced bills in Congress seeking to update the formula used to determine which states require federal approval before updating voting laws. But that legislation, too, has failed to receive a vote. Bush's contention that access to voting has improved "exponentially" is also questionable. Since 2010, when Republicans won a large majority of state houses across the country, civil rights groups have been fighting a wave of new voting restrictions called up under the auspices of voter fraud. Most recently, a federal appeals court ruled Texas’ restrictive voter ID law violates the Voting Right Acts and has a discriminatory impact on voters. Bush's opposition to reauthorizing the law sets him apart from his brother. Former President George W. Bush renewed the law in 2006 and said it "helped bring a community on the margins into the life of American democracy." He further promised that his administration would "vigorously enforce the provisions of this law, and we will defend it in court." The presidential candidate doesn't hold the best record on voting rights. While governor of Florida, he attempted to remove felons from the state's voting roll before the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. The botched "voter purge" resulted in thousands of eligible voters being disenfranchised.Graph from Rainer Kattel and Ringa Raudla Economists at the moment debate the pro’s and con’s of Austerity. The Baltic countries are often used as an example, as they are supposed to have been the first countries to implement such policies. A few days ago I posted a quote which showed that Estonia got quite some transfers from the EU, which facilitated ‘austerity’ policies. However, as one commenter stated, Estonia is only a very, very small country. Thanks to Rainer Kattel and Ringa Raudla and based upon an as yet unpublished paper we can now publish a graph on EU-transfers to the Baltics (Estonia, about 1 million inhabitants, Latvia, about 2 million inhabitants and Lithuania, about 3 million inhabitants) as well as EU transfers to the PIIGS (over 100 million inhabitants). Public deficit and EU fiscal transfers (cohesion funds), as % of GDP, in the Baltics, 2008-2010. Imagine where the debt and deficits of Spain and Italy and maybe even Greece would have been if they had gotten such amounts of money… (Ireland, however, would still be in the trouble). Anyway – when discussing the pro’s and con’s of ‘austerity’ it is highly important to make a distinction between ‘Baltic style’ austerity and ‘PIIGS-style’ austerity.Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. Big news on the bug front this week from the state of Florida: Scientists are warning that conditions may be ripe for a swarm of monster mosquitoes to invade the state this summer. Dubbed the “Gallinippers,” the mosquitoes are the size of a quarter and known to chow on everything from humans to pets to fish. Their larvae can eat tadpoles, and unlike regular mosquitoes, they feed day and night and can bite through clothing. If the rainy season is wet enough, there could be a mess of these pests in Florida, just in time to plague Gov. Rick Scott (R) at county fairs and community picnics on the campaign trail. Which would be sort of poetic justice. After all, under Scott’s leadership, Florida’s famous mosquito abatement programs have taken a sizeable hit in the past two years, as I chronicled in this story in our print magazine this month. Here are the critical deets: The state Legislature has also done its part to liberate mosquitoes from the shackles of big government. In 2011, the Republican-dominated Legislature slashed the state’s contribution to mosquito control by 40 percent. Florida A&M University closed one of two major mosquito research labs in the state after the Legislature axed $500,000 in research funds. Public health officials succeeded in restoring money to keep the lab open, only to see Scott kill it with a stroke of his veto pen. Along with other budget cuts, the closure halved the number of Florida scientists working on mosquito control. “There’s maybe a perfect storm of sorts,” says Joseph Conlon, a technical adviser to the American Mosquito Control Association in Florida. “You’ve got the government rightfully trying to cut budgets across the board, but down here in Florida, the place would be uninhabitable without mosquito control.” The state is increasingly less prepared to handle mosquitoes even as the bugs in question get bigger and bigger. Luckily for people in Florida, the monster mosquitos are likely to just be really, really annoying. Unlike regular mosquitoes, these particular ones, while huge, don’t carry deadly diseases like malaria and West Nile. Still, there’s nothing like giant mosquitoes at a tea party rally to enlighten citizens about the benefits of big government.Each subject in each episode of Intervention is troublesome, but the young woman featured on last night's show is fucked up. Her name is Allison, and in addition to anorexia and self-mutilation, she suffers from a huffing addiction of gargantuan proportions, sucking on dust remover like it's a baby bottle (she puts away 8 to 10 of them a day). Allison began abusing the substance as a junior in college (she is in her mid-20s now) as a way of trying to deal with the intense amount of pain caused by molestation as a child, the trial of the alleged molester (for which she had to testify in front of a court filled with people), her parents' divorce, a nasty custody battle, and her eventual abandonment by her father. She ends up going to rehab in the end, but only after her cats are taken away by the Humane Society and she's put in the psych ward. Clip above.The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror / fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It expands upon the scenario of his earlier short story " Night Surf " and outlines the total breakdown of society after the accidental release of a strain of influenza that had been modified for biological warfare causes an apocalyptic pandemic, which kills off over 99% of the world's human population. King dedicated the book to his wife, Tabitha : "For Tabby: This dark chest of wonders." Note that depending upon the edition of the novel, the events of The Stand occur in either 1980–1981, 1985–1986, or 1990–1991. Captain Trips Edit June 16 – July 4 At a remote U.S. Army base, a weaponized strain of influenza known as "Project Blue" is accidentally released inside a secret underground laboratory. Charles Campion, a soldier charged with security, manages to escape from the base by car with his wife and child. By the time the Army tracks Campion down to the East Texas town of Arnette and establishes a cordon sanitaire around it, he as patient zero has already died of the Project Blue virus and spread it to numerous others beyond the cordon. The virus is extremely contagious and resistant to antibodies and vaccines. A pandemic of apocalyptic proportions is triggered, which eventually kills off 99.4% of the world's human population. As the pandemic intensifies it gains many names, "Captain Trips" and the superflu being the most used. A multi-faceted narrative—told partly from the perspective of primary characters—outlines the total breakdown and destruction of society through widespread violence; the failure of martial law to contain the outbreak; the military's increasingly violent efforts to censor information; the rapid collapse of society; the deliberate exposure of the virus in the Soviet Union and China to guarantee their destruction as well and, finally, the near-extinction of humanity. The emotional toll is also dealt with, as the few survivors must care for their families and friends, dealing with confusion and grief as virtually everyone they know succumbs to the disease. The Complete & Uncut Edition opens with a prologue entitled "The Circle Opens" that offers greater detail into the circumstances surrounding the development of the virus and the security breach that allowed its escape from the secret laboratory compound where it was created. It also expands upon the Army's response to the outbreak; scenes of civil unrest, looting, and vigilantism; and deaths caused not by the pandemic itself, but by the resulting collapse of society. On the Border Edit July 5 – September 6 Intertwining cross-country odysseys are undertaken by a small number of survivors in three parties, all drawn together by circumstances and their shared dreams of a 108-year-old woman in Hemingford Home, Nebraska,[1] whom they see as an embodiment of good. The woman, Abagail Freemantle—better known as "Mother Abagail"—becomes the spiritual leader for the survivors. Mother Abagail directs them to Boulder, Colorado, where they struggle to re-establish a democratic society called the "Free Zone". Meanwhile, another group of survivors is drawn to Las Vegas by Randall Flagg, an evil being with supernatural powers. Flagg's governance is brutally tyrannical, using gruesome methods of torture and execution to quell dissent. Flagg's group is able to quickly reorganize its society, restore power to Las Vegas, and rebuild the city with the many technical professionals who have migrated there. Flagg's group launches a weapons program, searching what remains of the United States for suitable arms. Mother Abagail, feeling that she has become prideful due to her pleasure at being a public figure, disappears into the wilderness on a journey of spiritual reconciliation. During her absence, the Free Zone's leadership committee decides to secretly send three people to Flagg's territory to act as spies. Harold Lauder and Nadine Cross, who are disaffected Free Zone inhabitants tempted by Flagg, stage an attack on the committee with a bomb. The explosion kills several people, but most of the committee members avoid the explosion thanks to Mother Abagail's return. The Complete & Uncut Edition expands on a character seen only in flashbacks in the original novel: The Kid, modeled after spree killer Charles Starkweather. The Kid travels west through Colorado with the Trashcan Man, one of Flagg's recruited henchmen. He states to the Trashcan Man that he intends to kill Flagg and take over as leader in Las Vegas when he arrives. In response, Flagg causes a pack of wolves to descend on the two travelers, allowing the Trashcan Man to flee unharmed, but the wolves kill The Kid after a standoff. Stu Redman's party, which is sent to Vegas later in the novel, find The Kid's remains and dub him "The Wolfman". The Stand Edit September 7 – January 10 The stage is now set for the final confrontation as Flagg's group becomes aware of the threat from the Free Zone. There is no pitched battle, however. Instead, at Mother Abagail's dying behest, four of the five surviving members of the leadership committee—Glen Bateman, Stu Redman, Ralph Brentner, and Larry Underwood—set off on foot towards Las Vegas on an expedition to confront Flagg. Stu breaks his leg en route and persuades the others to go on without him, telling them that God will provide for him if that is what is meant to happen. The remaining three are soon taken prisoner by Flagg's army. When Glen refuses to grovel before Flagg, he is killed by Lloyd Henreid, Flagg's second-in-command. Flagg gathers his entire collective to witness the execution of Brentner and Underwood. Moments before they are to be killed, the Trashcan Man arrives with a stolen nuclear warhead. Flagg conjures a magical ball of energy in an attempt to silence a dissenter, but it is transformed into a giant glowing hand—"The Hand of God"—which detonates the bomb, destroying Las Vegas and killing all of Flagg's followers, in addition to Larry and Ralph. The inhabitants of Boulder anxiously await the birth of a baby by Stu's love interest, Frances Goldsmith. They fear that the child may not possess an immunity to the superflu and may die, implying a permanent end to humanity. Soon after she gives birth to a live baby, Stu returns to Boulder, having been rescued first by dog Kojak and then by Tom Cullen, the only survivor of the three Free Zone spies. The baby, Peter, manages to fight off the superflu. The original edition of the novel ends with Fran and Stu questioning whether the human race can learn from its mistakes. The answer, given in the last line, is ambiguous: "I don't know." The Complete & Uncut Edition follows this with a brief epilogue, "The Circle Closes", which leaves a darker impression. While Stu, Fran, and baby Peter leave Boulder and return to Fran's hometown in Maine to establish a home front in the east, an amnesia-stricken Flagg wakes up on a beach on an unknown island, having somehow escaped the atomic blast in Vegas by using his dark magic to teleport away at the last second. There he begins recruiting adherents among a pre-literate, dark-skinned people, who worship him as a deity.Best players at every position for Preseason Week 2 By Sam Monson • Aug 22, 2016 We have suffered through the offseason, OTAs, minicamps, training camps, and now we are finally seeing some live football. It may only be preseason, but this is still the first real action for a lot of the impact players who will reveal themselves during the 2016, and an early glimpse at some players languishing further down depth charts who are trying to play themselves into a larger role and the notice of the rest of the league. Not everybody on this list is a first-team player, and not all of them will be facing the best the NFL has to offer during their preseason action, but preseason is about getting yourself noticed and earning a role against those players if you don’t currently have one. We are judging the performances that might be getting a player noticed, not whether he did it against the league’s all-pros. With that in mind, let’s take a look at who’s been separating themselves with our Team of the Week for the second week of preseason action: Offense QB Ryan Tannehill, Miami Dolphins The raw numbers suggest Dak Prescott should be here, but the key bad decision nullified by a penalty is hidden by his box score, but not his grades. Instead, Tannehill had a near-perfect outing in his first preseason action, scoring a pair of touchdowns, completing a fantastic pass on a corner route, and not earning a single negative-graded play against the Cowboys. RB LeGarrette Blount, New England Patriots There were no better outings at the running back position than LeGarrette Blount, who averaged 6.3 yards per carry, gained 51 of his 69 yards after contact and broke three tackles on his 11 carries. WR Tajae Sharpe, Tennessee Titans Sharpe doesn’t just look like an unlikely starter in Tennessee, but like their No. 1 receiver. This week he caught all six of the passes sent his way for 68 yards, including a couple of excellent grabs that showed his array of skills. WR Robby Anderson, New York Jets With the Jets backups, Anderson was moving the chains all day, notching three first-down catches, a touchdown, and another that picked up nine yards on first and 10. He scored on a double move deep down the left sideline late in the game over Jeremy Harris, where his double move didn’t get him any space but he won the ball at the catch point anyway for an easy score. Slot WR Tyler Boyd, Cincinnati Bengals This wasn’t a great week for slot receivers, but rookie Boyd caught a couple of passes including a touchdown against Detroit on three targets. His other catch was a diving grab by the sideline despite being held at the time by the Lions defensive back Quandre Diggs. TE A.J. Derby, New England Patriots New England has a pretty impressive TE stable to learn from, and so far this preseason Derby is showing he’s picked up a few things. He caught 86 percent of the passes sent his way this week at an average depth of target of 12 yards downfield, scoring a touchdown and notching 71 receiving yards. LT Charles Leno Jr., Chicago Bears Chicago’s offensive line had a fine week overall, and Leno was the best left tackle in the league this week, grading well against the run but also having a perfect day in pass protection, surrendering no pressure at all in his 33 snaps. LG Martin Wallace, Chicago Bears The second member of the Bears line to make the team this week, Wallace also had a perfect day in pass protection over his 36 snaps, and also had some solid run-blocking plays. C Austin Blythe, Indianapolis Colts The Colts haven’t been used to impressive displays from their offensive linemen over the past few seasons, but Blythe had an excellent day with the backups against Baltimore. He played 44 snaps and didn’t surrender a single pressure, as well as adding positive plays in the run game and on the move during screens. RG Connor McGovern, Denver Broncos Denver’s offensive line overall had a good day against the 49ers, paving the way for their backs to average 5.0 yards per carry. McGovern was the best performer of the group, executing some excellent reach blocks in the run game and grading well as a pass-blocker. He surrendered two marginal hurries, but did so over a huge preseason workload of 68 snaps. RT Lane Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles If you want an indication of the gulf in quality between the top of the NFL and roster bubble guys, watch Johnson playing late in the game against them this week for the Eagles. Johnson found himself with the backups after news that he will be suspended for 10 games, and just laid waste to the bodies in front of him, driving defensive linemen 10 yards off the line on some plays. Defense Edge defender Marcus Rush, San Francisco 49ers It came against the Denver backups, but Rush was a force for the 49ers, notching three sacks and four more hurries from his 43 snaps. His grade was significantly higher than any other edge rusher this week, and his seven total pressures were the highest among 3-4 outside linebackers. Interior defender Nick Fairley, New Orleans Saints Fairley is in danger of appearing like a journeyman, on his third team in as many years, but he remains a quality impact player capable of influencing games in a major way. Fairley had a sack this week, but also three more hurries. He also recorded five defensive stops and graded well in the run game. Interior defender Jerel Worthy, Buffalo Bills In 30 snaps of action, Worthy, a former second-round pick back in 2012, recorded just one hurry but was a monster in the run game, notching four stops and seven total tackles, consistently affecting the play and making life difficult for the Giants blockers. Edge defender Frank Clark, Seattle Seahawks For the second preseason in a row, Clark is taking names and making plays. Against the Vikings, Clark had a sack, hit and two hurries as well as a batted pass and three defensive stops. His sack came despite being held on the play by Jeremiah Sirles, the Vikings left tackle, and he also posted a solid grade against the run. LB Tyler Matakevich, Pittsburgh Steelers A favorite of many draft fans, Tyler Matakevich was a seventh-round draft pick despite an exceptionally productive career at Temple because of his limited athletic profile. This week he made the case that won’t prevent him making plays in the NFL any more than it did in college, grading atop the linebacker group by recording three defensive stops, a hurry and forcing cuts away from the point of attack multiple times in the run game. LB K.J. Wright, Seattle Seahawks One of the best linebackers in the league, Wright had another excellent game in his 28 snaps, making six tackles, four stops (second in the league among LBs) and giving up just one catch for five yards in coverage. Slot CB Vernon Hargreaves III When you play 17 snaps, are targeted three times, and allow a passer rating of 0.0, you have had a pretty good day in coverage. That’s the day Hargreaves had this week, intercepting two of the three passes sent his way for one of the best days of any corner this week and the best day of any slot corner. CB Corey White, Buffalo Bills White had by far the highest grade of any corner this week. He was thrown at four times, and had two pass breakups, but also broke up another pass with a hit on a slant route, and forced a fumble. CB Nolan Carroll, Philadelphia Eagles Carroll fought through Sammie Coates at the top of the route to intercept a pass from Landry Jones and take it back for a touchdown this week against the Steelers, and also broke up a pass to Darius Heyward-Bey on the only other pass thrown his way. S Landon Collins, New York Giants His rookie season did not go well, but this week at least Collins had a fine game for the New York Giants. He recorded eight tackles, three defensive stops, a forced fumble and even corralled Bills QB Tyrod Taylor for a short gain when he took off scrambling from the pocket. This was the do-it-all safety the Giants have been looking for. S Vonn Bell, New Orleans Saints Bell had a sack and seven tackles this week against Houston, with six of those being defensive stops. He was consistently around the football and able to work his way quickly to the play against the Houston backups. ST Clayton Fejedelem, Cincinnati Bengals Three special teams tackles was tied for most in the league this week from Fejedelem, who played on the kick coverage, kick return, punt and punt return teams this week.President-elect Donald Trump picked a Washington insider Tuesday for his secretary of transportation, selecting former labor secretary Elaine L. Chao for the post. “Secretary Chao’s extensive record of strong leadership and her expertise are invaluable assets in our mission to rebuild our infrastructure in a fiscally responsible manner,” Trump said in a statement. Chao became the first Asian American woman to be named to a Cabinet post in 2001 and went on to head the Labor Department under George W. Bush for eight years. In naming a former Cabinet member, who has been married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) since 1993, Trump selected another Washington insider after campaigning on a promise to “drain the swamp” of the influences that he said permeate the capital. [Donald Trump is showing just how tough it is to ‘drain the swamp’] Chao is expected to play a critical role in the administration if the president-elect follows through on his campaign promise to invest $1 trillion in restoring bridges, roadways and transit systems over the next 10 years. “The President-elect has outlined a clear vision to transform our country’s infrastructure, accelerate economic growth and productivity, and create good paying jobs across the country,” Chao said in a statement released with Trump’s announcement. That would make her Trump’s point person in negotiating his legislative agenda to achieve that plan with congressional leaders, presumably including her husband. Congress has struggled to come up with money to meet transportation needs in recent years, as the traditional source of revenue — the federal gas tax — has fallen short. [Trump promised $1 trillion for roads and bridges. The trick now is finding the cash.] There are sticky differences between what Trump has proposed and what Congress has shown itself willing to accept. For example, congressional Republicans have been sticklers about what are called “pay-fors.” If spending is to expand, they insist on knowing where the money will come from. The heart of Trump’s revitalization plan is issuing massive tax credits to investors who would step in to build and rebuild infrastructure. But his “pay-for” is the questionable belief that putting construction workers and contractors on the job will yield new tax income that will compensate for the tax credits. McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) are critical players both in negotiating with the administration and quieting fractious members — often from their own party — who might obstruct their goals. Whether Chao will negotiate directly with her husband was unclear Tuesday. “Let me be quite clear, I will not be recusing myself,” McConnell said. “I think it was an outstanding choice.” The pace of Chao’s nomination is likely to move quickly, as her recent public service means that there are somewhat recent vetting files on her. McConnell promised to quickly move ahead with hearings on some nominees even before Trump is sworn in Jan. 20. “We hope on January 20 that, even though there’s a lot going on that day, we hope to be able to vote on and confirm a number of the president’s selections for the cabinet so that he can get started,” McConnell said. If Chao is confirmed, it would not be the first time that a Cabinet member has been put in position to deal directly with a spouse. Elizabeth Dole served as secretary of transportation during the Reagan administration during a period when her husband, Bob Dole, was Senate majority leader. Samuel K. Skinner, who hired Chao after he was transportation secretary under President George H.W. Bush, described her as an effective communicator with Congress. “Her relationships in Washington are really deep and very well-respected, and that helps a lot,” Skinner said. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the incoming Senate minority leader, said in a statement that he hopes Chao “is willing to work with Democrats.” “Senate Democrats have said that if President-elect Trump is serious about a major infrastructure bill, backed by real dollars and not just tax credits and without cutting other programs like health care and education, that we are ready to work with his administration,” Schumer said. [Trump names Rep. Tom Price as next HHS secretary] Since departing the Bush administration, Chao served as a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and, more recently, as a fellow with the Hudson Institute, a Washington think-tank headed by conservative commentator Kenneth R. Weinstein. She also has been a contributor to Fox News. She served four years as president of United Way. Before becoming politically active, Chao was a vice president of Bank of America and an international banker at Citicorp. A career in public service that began as a White House fellow in Ronald Reagan’s administration grew to stops in the Maritime Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. She served as a deputy secretary of transportation under George H.W. Bush and went on to direct the Peace Corps for two years in the early 1990s. As secretary of labor, Chao and two other Cabinet members took a bus tour across the country to promote George W. Bush’s tax cuts. She earned a reputation for reforming regulations and restructuring the department. During a major West Coast labor dispute at several ports, the Bush administration invoked the Taft-Hartley Act for the first time since 1971. Her tenure as secretary of labor was not free of controversy. Labor leaders remain hostile after her sharp-elbowed approach to unions set the tone. Shortly after she left office in 2009, she touted her department’s crackdown on unions. “From 2001-2008, the Labor Department secured more than 1,000 union fraud-related indictments and 929 convictions,” she claimed in a Heritage Foundation essay, though she provided no specifics. The Government Accountability Office said in a report that her department did not fully investigate when low-wage workers lodged complaints against their employers over failure to pay the minimum wage or overtime. Chao also faced criticism in two mining disasters that occurred after coal mine inspections were reduced. In the Sago Mine incident in 2006, 12 miners were killed. The following year, three rescue workers died at Crandall Canyon Mine as they tried to reach trapped miners. Though Chao announced beefed up inspections after the two disasters, an inspector general’s report in 2008 found that many mines still went uninspected. [Meet the key players in fundraising scandal] Chao also faced controversy involving her husband. In 1999, a House committee heard testimony from John Huang, a former midlevel Commerce Department official, who said that Chao asked him to contribute to McConnell. The Indonesian company for which he worked, Huang said, illegally reimbursed him for the $2,000 contribution. Huang later pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws for funneling $100,000 to Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. Chao’s selection creates a strong tie among two people who otherwise have little in common — McConnell and Trump, whose relationship during the campaign was neither confrontational nor cordial. Early in the primary season, McConnell did not support Trump’s candidacy, but he never wavered once Trump wrapped up the nomination and was destined to be on the ticket this fall. Chao, 63, was born and received her early education in Taiwan. Chao, her mother and two sisters immigrated to the United States in 1961. She was 8 years old when the family arrived. “We didn’t speak any English and we were not familiar with any of the American customs. We left behind everything that was near and dear to us — our families, our friends, my schooling, and our tradition and our culture and our food,” Chao told graduates at Indiana’s DePauw University in a 2002 address. During the early, difficult days, Chao said, “it was the kindness and the helping hands of strangers, who soon became neighbors and our friends, that helped us smooth our transition.” After high school in Upstate New York, she received an economics degree from Mount Holyoke College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Chao was steeped in the transportation world early. Starting as a young girl, she watched her father build a global shipping business. He still runs the company, the Foremost Group, with two of Chao’s sisters. Chao’s perspectives on transportation and management were also shaped in part by her stints in corporate boardrooms. She served as a director at Northwest Airlines, where she was granted lifetime travel benefits before the airline was acquired by Delta. She was also a former director at Parsons, the international construction company. Lori Aratani, Paul Kane, Michael Laris and Martine Powers contributed to this report. This story was updated on Dec. 19 to reflect Chao’s role with the Hudson Institute.Houston again appeals anti-transgender bathroom petition Wilson's list of required signatures is called 'untimely' and 'not a charter amendment' The verdict on whether anti-gay activist Dave Wilson collected enough valid signatures to force a vote to amend the city charter and bar men "who perceive or express themselves as women" from entering women's restrooms will have to wait. On Friday evening, the city appealed District Court Judge Brent Gamble's order to count the signatures on Wilson's petition by Saturday's deadline, saying it "is an untimely referendum petition, not a charter amendment." Wilson, a Houston Community College trustee, said he collected more than 22,000 signatures, more than the needed 20,000 to change city charter. Possible repeal this fall The secretary's office was counting signatures under order from a state district judge since late July. Wilson says the city tried to delay validating signatures until Monday and asked Gamble to clarify his order in a conference call on Monday. Gamble refused to grant the city a delay or to clarify his order, according to both Wilson and the letter from the city appealing the order. "If I didn't have enough signatures, they wouldn't be pulling this," said Wilson. "It's obvious I have enough signatures. They can't win that way so they're fighting me this way." City officials did not respond to calls or emails Saturday about the appeal. Wilson submitted a similar petition in April, but apparently misunderstood state law and was 300 signatures shy of the 20,000 names needed for a charter amendment. He said he started over and said he submitted more than 22,100 valid signatures on July 9. For months now, Parker's legal team has contended that Wilson's proposed charter revision too closely resembles a repeal petition pertaining to the city's equal rights ordinance that had been tied up in court. His effort is too late and should not be considered, they have said, because those seeking to repeal an ordinance must submit their petition within 30 days of the law going into effect. City Council passed the ordinance in May 2014. Under separate orders from the Texas Supreme Court, City Council voted Wednesday to send the law to voters for possible repeal this fall. Rallying cry That law has become a rallying cry for Wilson and other social conservatives, who object to the protections it extends to gay and transgender residents. The ordinance also bans discrimination, as federal laws do,
joining persons from manufacturing or distributing the product, or requesting a recall of the product. Enforcement action is usually preceded by a Warning Letter from FDA to the manufacturer or distributor of the adulterated product. In the case of an adulterated meat or poultry product, FSIS has certain additional powers. FSIS may suspend or withdraw federal inspection of an official establishment. Without federal inspection, an establishment may not produce or process meat or poultry products, and therefore must cease operations. With the exception of infant formula, neither FDA nor FSIS has the authority to require a company to recall an adulterated food product. However, the ability to generate negative publicity gives them considerable powers of persuasion. State regulators generally have similar enforcement tools at their disposal to prevent the manufacture and distribution of adulterated food. In addition, many states have the authority to immediately embargo adulterated food and to impose civil fines. Federal agencies often will coordinate with state or local authorities to remove unsafe food from the market as quickly as possible. See also [ edit ]Any mom who says she has never looked at a Facebook update from a childless (or "child free") friend and not felt a twinge of envy would be a liar. Sometimes when my kids are being particularly difficult, I will stumble upon a friend's status saying something like: "Saw three movies today since it was a rainy day. Score!" Inside, a little piece of my heart dies. Then, like most moms, I cover it up with this gem: But I wouldn't have it any other way. And the awful truth is I wouldn't. But unlike the child free, I have a little experience being on both sides of this here fence. And let me tell you, the grass, while green enough on both sides, sometimes seems just a little more brilliant and perfect on that other side. That's why I will never get the "hate" for the child free. Katie Roiphe has an essay about this on Slate, which attempts to make the argument that us mamas are just jealous. And you know what? She's right. Don't get me wrong, my children are my world and I would rather die than lose one of them. I am neck deep in this whole parenting thing and it's my life and I am living it, mostly happily. But I call BS on moms who go on and on about how "fulfilled" they are by parenting. Is it wonderful and lovely and beautiful? Yes. But it's also hard and soul sucking and highly depressing at times, too. We trade a lot for these (lovely! Fulfilling! Wonderful!) bundles. More From The Stir: Good Parents Take Advice From the Child-Free So yes, I am a little envious of those who actively choose not to have children and their willingness to take a path I would have been too scared I would regret. I will also admit to encouraging people to procreate maybe for the wrong reasons (One of us! One of us!) and to becoming, perhaps, too elated at the news of a friend's second pregnancy because finally she will know my pain! Obviously, I also know not every childless woman chose that path. Sometimes it chooses her. Furthermore, I know that not every childless person is living under a rainbow and frolicking with unicorns. We all have our life stresses and responsibilities. But here is what I envy: Freedom: Oh sure it may not SEEM like much to be able to sleep in and read books and go out to dinner and travel on a whim. But it is. Believe me, it is. And once it's gone, poof! It doesn't come back. Oh sure it may not SEEM like much to be able to sleep in and read books and go out to dinner and travel on a whim. But it is. Believe me, it is. And once it's gone, poof! It doesn't come back. Sex: There is a lot less of it when baby comes. Trust me on this. No matter what people will insist in these comments. And the sex you will have? Is not as good. It isn't as spontaneous. And it isn't as long (because mama needs sleep!). There is a lot less of it when baby comes. Trust me on this. No matter what people will insist in these comments. And the sex you will have? Is not as good. It isn't as spontaneous. And it isn't as long (because mama needs sleep!). Time: There is so much more time when you are child free. Obviously we all have demands, but this is something you can only learn on the other side. Your time is your own before kids. After kids? It isn't. There is so much more time when you are child free. Obviously we all have demands, but this is something you can only learn on the other side. Your time is your own before kids. After kids? It isn't. Work: I would LOVE to just do my job for 10 hours straight and not have to worry about anyone's pick-up or drop-off or lunch or attitude. The freedom to be able to work my tail off is missing as a mom. I would LOVE to just do my job for 10 hours straight and not have to worry about anyone's pick-up or drop-off or lunch or attitude. The freedom to be able to work my tail off is missing as a mom. Sleep: Enough said. Enough said. Peeing uninterrupted: This never happens any more once you have kids. It's a luxury that is so missed. This never happens any more once you have kids. It's a luxury that is so missed. A clean car: My car is like a traveling garbage can. Kids, man. They crumble their Pirate's Booty and throw their trash on the floor and stomp all over it. My car is like a traveling garbage can. Kids, man. They crumble their Pirate's Booty and throw their trash on the floor and stomp all over it. Chocolate: After you have kids, you are supposed to share your chocolate and ice cream and candy with them. It's not as fun as it seems. More From The Stir: 17 Most Annoying Things About Parents (According to People Without Kids) Look, having kids is great. But so is not having kids. To each their own. And to those who DO have the courage to say kids are not for you (while also managing not to hate on kids just because you can): I, Sasha Brown-Worsham, mother of two, salute you. Do you ever envy childfree women? Image via © iStock.com/ArtisticCapturesSeth Conrad Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer, was shot and killed on Sunday in Washington D.C., according to reports. Mary Rich, Seth’s mother, told NBC 4 in Washington that her son might have been the target of an attempted robbery at the time of his death. Seth, 27, was walking home through a Northwest D.C. neighborhood, while talking on the phone with his girlfriend at the time of the shooting, NBC reports. “Worst nightmare,” Rich said of learning about her son’s death. “There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything.” According to Fox News, Seth – the DNC’s director of voter expansion – was attacked in the early morning hours and police said gunshots were heard around 4:20 a.m. Seth was reportedly found conscious and breathing and was taken to a local hospital, where he died from the several gunshot wounds he sustained. “Our hearts are broken,” DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, according to Fox News. “Seth was a dedicated, selfless public servant who worked tirelessly to protect the most sacred right we share as Americans – the right to vote.” Police reportedly have no suspects or potential motives for the shooting. “They took his life for literally no reason. They didn’t finish robbing him, they just took his life,” Seth’s mother told NBC 4. “They hurt the community, and they hurt the long-term possibility of what he could have done.” Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact police at 202- 727-9099 or through text message at 50411. A reward of up to $25,000 is being offeredTony Gardner (born in September 25, 1965, Cleveland, Ohio) is an American makeup and special effects designer. He has designed and created effects for many feature films, including the films Zombieland, 127 Hours, Smokin' Aces, Hairspray, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, The Addams Family, Seed of Chucky, Shallow Hal and There's Something About Mary. Gardner helped create the signature helmets for Daft Punk, as well as an animatronic robot for their "Technologic" music video. He wrote and directed Daft Punk's music video for the song "The Prime Time of Your Life" and associate produced and populated a world full of robots for the duo's feature-length directorial debut, Daft Punk's Electroma. Beyond the film-making arena, Gardner's special effects company Alterian, Inc. has also designed and created the popular GEICO Cavemen characters as well as the current iteration of Smokey Bear. Alterian's makeup effects for Johnny Knoxville's character in Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa were nominated for an Academy Award as well as a Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild Award, and won the Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild Award for Best Special Makeup Effects in the Feature Film category for 2014. Work [ edit ] His first professional job was for Rick Baker on Michael Jackson's music video for the song "Thriller". Gardner appeared in the video as the first zombie to crawl out of a grave as well as the hobbling zombie whose arm falls off. His daughter Brianna Gardner appeared in Shallow Hal (2001) as Cadence, the seven-year-old burn ward patient. Tony recommended her to the Farrelly brothers because he knew she would be capable of tolerating the extensive prosthetic burn make-up. She auditioned for and won the part. He was investigated by Arizona State Police and Missing Persons Bureau for the makeup effects work designed and created for the feature film Three Kings (1999) involving a bullet traveling through a soldier's body. Arizona State Police originally believed that bullets had been fired through a real human cadaver and filmed with a high speed camera. The Missing Person's division thought that the "cadaver" was obtained by taking a homeless person off the streets of Phoenix, Arizona. Eventually, Tony had to write a disclaimer describing how he had achieved the sequences with makeup effects technology so that Warner Bros. could hand or fax the disclaimer out to all of the people flooding their offices with inquiries. Oddly enough, this was not an unfamiliar situation for Tony Gardner, as his work was investigated by FBI agents in Los Angeles several years earlier when a film lab called the police after viewing his work on an earlier film project.[citation needed] His work on the 2010 Danny Boyle film 127 Hours received notoriety for the amputation sequences designed, engineered, and built to recreate the actual event in extreme closeup detail. The film's pre-release screenings at several film festivals have resulted in audience members requiring medical assistance. Gardner stresses though that the desired result was accuracy and an immersion in a recreation of the experience so that the audience experiences things through Aron Ralston's eyes. Gardner is also noted for his work with electronic music duo Daft Punk. He helped create the signature robotic headgear worn by the duo.[1] He was also involved in the music videos for their singles "Technologic", "Instant Crush", and "The Prime Time of Your Life", the latter of which he also directed. He worked alongside the duo as an associate producer for their first feature film Daft Punk's Electroma, a film that his company Alterian, Inc. also populated a world full of robots for. Gardner's Alterian, Inc. designed and created the makeup effects for the film Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. The makeup effects for Johnny Knoxville's character were nominated for both an Academy Award for Best Makeup & Hairstyling and a Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild Award in 2013. The work received the Guild Award for Best Special Makeup Effects in the Feature Film category.[2] Recognition [ edit ] 2014: Won Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Award for 'Best Special Makeup Effects - Feature Films' for Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (shared with Stephen Prouty) (shared with Stephen Prouty) 2008: Nominated for OFTA Award for "Best Makeup and Hairstyling" for the film Hairspray 2000: Nominated for OFTA Award for "Best Makeup and Hairstyling" for the film "Titus" 1994: Nominated for Saturn Award for "Best Makeup" for the film Army of Darkness 1994: Nominated for Saturn Award for "Best Makeup" for the film Freaked (shared with Steve Johnson and Screaming Mad George) (shared with Steve Johnson and Screaming Mad George) 1992: Won Fangoria Chainsaw Award for 'Best Special Makeup Effects - Feature Films' for "Army of Darkness" 1991: Nominated for Saturn Award for "Best Makeup" for the film Darkman References [ edit ]There are few other things more soothing to people of a certain type—myself included—than leisurely browsing their favorite neighborhood bookstore. In San Francisco, my favorite store is Green Apple Books, on 9th Avenue in the Inner Sunset district, right by the Golden Gate Park. Walking between those tall stacks of books under the warm store lights feels reassuring. The faces at the counter are friendly. And you know you're in the presence of others who share in your comfort there. Hiding among the shelves, you think (and you imagine others are thinking), might be your next beloved book, the one you later push onto family and friends, one that freezes some essential idea about the world that you immediately want to share with others. 'Physical books are closer to perfect and affordable technology. There was very little about it that needed to be reinvented.' Michael Cader, Publishers Lunch founder It’s perhaps because book lovers are so ardent that we tend to gobble up news that makes the claims we want to hear about the future of the medium we hold so dear. "Print is back, ebooks are dead!" is the latest refrain to catch our ears. Bookstores are coming back and, you guys, Amazon isn’t doing that well. Every one of these claims contains some truth. But for book lovers, embracing them also involves a little bit of wish fulfillment. The book industry is too complicated to distill into any one of those sweeping theses. Print books have persisted, but ebooks are not going away. Amazon is powerful, but physical bookstores are still here. The book is not immune to the powerful digital forces that have re-shaped so much of the rest of the world. At the same time, books have been able to resist the forces of change because books really are different. Read Different For so long, the prevailing narrative held that the digital revolution would completely upend books and bookstores—especially with the introduction of the Kindle in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. Just yesterday, Amazon announced the Kindle Oasis, which looks to be another successful e-reader for the company. But the digital transformation of the book industry has been markedly different from the transformation of other media industries. “For many people, digital books are not a directly substitutive experience,” says Michael Cader, founder of book industry newsletter and website Publishers Lunch. In other words, an ebook doesn't offer the same experience the way a digital file streamed through headphones is essentially the same, whether it's from a CD or Spotify. 'Independent bookstores have kept surviving or thriving in spite of all the economic rationality of Amazon’s lower prices.' Pete Mulvihill, co-owner of Green Apple Books “Physical books are … closer to perfect and affordable technology," Cader says. "The printed book is much, much older than other types of media, and it revolutionized modern society. There was very little about it that needed to be reinvented.” For that same reason, the stores that sell physical books are not all disappearing. “Independent bookstores have kept surviving or thriving in spite of all the economic rationality of Amazon’s lower prices,” says Pete Mulvihill, co-owner of Green Apple Books. “In the indie channel, there are more and more stores, and sales data seem strong.” At Green Apple itself, Mulvihill says, sales have steadily increased since the most recent recession. Mulvihill says Green Apple, after nearly four decades in the business, opened a second location in 2014 due in part to people’s seeming rejuvenated eagerness to buy print books. Instead of killing print books, enthusiasm for ebooks seems to have leveled off. In fact, ebook sales fell 10.5 percent to $68 million for the first five months of 2015, according to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which tracks print and digital book trends. At the same time, according to Publisher’s Weekly, bookstore sales rose 2.5 percent in 2015, the first time sales were up in the sector since 2007. Total bookstore sales in 2015 reached $11.17 billion, compared to $10.89 billion in 2014, according to government data. But this development isn't new—it’s the continuation of a trend rather than a new development. Growth rates for eBooks dropped in 2012, and have been about flat since 2013. And all those ebook readers didn't just go back to buying books in print: total hardcover sales through May 2015 fell by 11.25 percent ($91 million) down to $718 million. Print is slightly up, with about 571 million paper books sold in the US, a slight increase over the 559 million sold in 2014. But the core area of growth in the category? Nonfiction trade paperbacks, which include the latest fad taking over the nation, adult coloring books, which are inherently a print product. Part of what complicates trendspotting when comparing ebooks to physical books is what readers tend to voraciously consume on digital devices depends largely on genre. Popular fiction titles, romance, and young adult bestsellers (think The Hunger Games) do better in digital than print, one Big Five publishing executive tells WIRED, while general nonfiction, children’s books and yes, adult coloring books, obviously sell more in print. In general, really popular new books may do better digitally, which makes sense if many people are opting for a quick download in order to keep up with water cooler conversation. Amazon, the Looming Giant Meanwhile, Amazon has hardly ceased to act as a force in dictating the direction of book publishing. (Apple still only captures about 12 percent of US eBook sales, according to data-scraping website Author Earnings.) As a tech company first, not a publisher, iterating to adapt to changing trends is just the way it does business. As ebook sales flatten, Cader says the company seems to have taken a sideways approach. It's focusing more of its energies on the self-publishing market and its own imprint. It's also pushing its Kindle Unlimited program, a Netflix-like subscription service for ebooks model that has stymied startups. As for the future of the bookstore? Amazon itself seems to see one. The company has opened a physical bookstore in Seattle and is reportedly planning to open a second in San Diego this summer. “The idea of a bookstore has not been significantly experimented with or revised since superstores became popular in the pre-digital era 20 years ago,” says Cader. And as big bookstore chains have shuttered (Borders) or faltered (Barnes & Noble), there's new space for experimentation. With Amazon's rich data on book sales, the company could use its physical bookstores to introduce customers to books they may not have heard of but that do well on its online store, says Peter Hildick-Smith, founder of The Codex Group, which follows the book industry. It could also use its online data to target books by place. “It could be very customized to the local taste,” Hildick-Smith says. Amazon, after all, started with books because they seemed like the right product for the company to use as an experiment—a test bed for figuring out how commerce could work in the future. Now that Amazon is well into that future, the company is about more than books. But books still may help it reach greater heights.But a new look at Titan's insides reveals even more oddities: Beneath the brittle crust of ice lies a layer of slush. Deeper still is an underground ocean over a solid core of rock and ice. This new picture is based on measurements of Titan's gravity field. The measurements were made by clocking the speed of the NASA-ESA Cassini orbiter with extreme precision—gaguing how many five-thousands of a millimeter the craft traveled per second. "The ripples of Titan's gravity gently push and pull the spacecraft. By studying the velocity changes we can calculate the gravity," explained study leader Luciano Iess, of Sapienza University of Rome. Subtle differences in Titan's pull on Cassini suggest that the materials inside the moon are a mix of ice and rock with no clearly defined rocky layers. Titan's Icy Insides Until now, scientists had thought Titan's interior would look a lot like the inside of Jupiter's moon Ganymede: Both bodies are large, have similar densities, and are made of roughly the same materials. Under Ganymede's thin, icy crust lies a well-defined upper mantle of warmer ice, an inner mantle of silicate, and a molten iron core. (Related blog: "Comets 'Melted' Jupiter's Biggest Moon.") But the new gravity data suggest that Titan and Ganymede had very different evolutionary histories. "It is really quite a surprise, and it tells us that [Titan] never got hot enough to separate out into a core, mantle, and crust," said Ulrich Köhler of the German Aerospace Center in Berlin, who wasn't on the study team. Instead, Iess and colleagues think that Titan's ice and rock remained together in a relatively lukewarm mixture. This mixture took a leisurely million years or so to settle toward Titan's center—"plenty of time for heat to escape" and for the moon to cool into its present state, Iess said. The team's calculations support the idea that Titan today has a subsurface liquid ocean from which methane bubbles up through an icy crust, constantly shrouding Titan in thick smog. (Related: "Methane Rain Formed New Lake on Saturn Moon.") The study's notion of a relatively warm, spongy ice layer beneath a thin, hard outer shell would also explain Titan's lack of major mountains. "Large mountains can't exist on Titan," Iess said. "They would simply sink into the ice."CATHARINE MACKINNON BELIEVES that Hugh Hefner’s death proves that there’s justice in the world. “Playboy revolutionised sexual abuse by normalising it in a major way. It made it ordinary. Sometimes justice takes interesting forms—we are alive and he’s not,” she says. It’s a perspective many would consider extremist, offensive even, but it’s one that rightly echoes MacKinnon’s radical feminism. In the 70s, the American writer-lawyer-activist pioneered the legal claim against sexual harassment, and in her first book—Sexual Harassment of Working Women (1979)—argued that sexual harassment was sex discrimination. Later, alongside feminist activist Andrea Dworkin, she also took up arms against pornography for dehumanising women. MacKinnon, the author of half a dozen seminal feminist books, who teaches law at Harvard Law School and the University of Michigan, was recently in Mumbai for a panel discussion on the legalities of sexual harassment at Tata Literature Live. In an exclusive interview, she talks about how the moment of change is now. Sexual Harassment of Working Women had a major impact on the development of the sexual harassment law. There’s been progress in the professional sector globally since, with organisations instituting anti-harassment cells and sexual guidelines. How do you view the developments? I created the legal claim for sexual harassment around 1972-73, and worked on it in the next few years, when I was also writing the book. The book went on to have an impact. There have been a lot of developments and not just in the professional sector, but also in schools in the United States and some other countries. In fact, my new book Butterfly Politics (2017) is about complex causality in the relation between legal and social change. I view the development as complicated. It goes in a lot of directions at once and it’s happening on a great many levels. Change is being resisted because the basic rule is that the more power men have, the more they can have access to women sexually without consequences, just because they want to. People say change is slow, but that isn’t true. It’s resisted until something happens that breaks that. And then change happens extremely quickly. There have been a few times when real change has gone forward and right now is one of them in the US. Since the Harvey Weinstein scandal, women across the world are speaking out against sexual assault. Is this a watershed moment in feminism? Are things going to change in work spaces? I wouldn’t call it a scandal if I were you. That’s sort of a British word that combines when people are having sex that’s not a good idea with sex that’s being forced on people. And they really are two different things. But it is a watershed moment and things are changing. How much, for how long and what gets institutionalised from it is the only question. Right now, White male money is fleeing White people in ways we’ve never seen. It’s a remarkable thing to see sexual harassment go from being a privilege of power to a total disgrace. And in the middle of that process, it became a legal claim, a human right. What’s also interesting is the women aren’t suing anyone. They don’t have anything to gain from this. And everything to lose. And we’re suddenly seeing consequences for men you couldn’t bring a lawsuit against. You can’t bring a lawsuit to get the guy fired, his book deal undone, his magazine deep-sixed, his movie or series taken off the air. Change is being resisted because the basic rule is that the more power men have, the more they can have access to women sexually without consequences, just because they want to Also the women who came forward with a lot of courage are mainly celebrities calling out powerful men in the entertainment industry. It’s a combination of celebrity culture with the media’s interest in what powerful men do. If your harasser isn’t a guy who’s prominent enough, it’s unclear if the media would be that interested, no matter how many women he’s done that to. In an age of media excesses, how do you view the #MeToo campaign as an agent of change? It’s already an agent of change. Social media gives women a voice where they didn’t have it before. The campaign is giving a platform to women to join together with other women, which is a collective motion. It’s called a women’s movement, when you have 500,000 women on it in two hours. The other thing is there’s been good data on this for a long time. But for some reason, people didn’t believe it somehow. They don’t have any reason for not believing, they just sort of choose not to. Now, women are coming forward in real numbers... with real accounts. That helps support the information that people who work in this area have had for a long time. There’s nothing for the women to gain here except to be believed and to stop this being done to other women. That’s real progress. Although it’ll be even more progress when there are more women in more positions of power like those men. So that there are possibilities for women in all those industries to do their art, not leave their professions, and be able to work with women who presumably aren’t going to force sex on them, because women don’t tend to do that. Recently, an Indian law student in the US, Raya Sarkar created a Google spreadsheet where she and other women have accused over 70 Indian professors of sexual harassment. This has stirred an ideological debate on the ethics of The List versus the difficulties women face in actually reporting harassment. What do you think of this? If she did this, it’s courageous because she’s opening herself to defamation and lawsuits. It’s a product of desperation and hope. There has to be legislation against this and there have to be processes on campuses where people can complain. Because there aren’t, something like this happens. What about the ethics of that? The people who are upset about the ethics of people complaining (to the only place they can complain to) are to consider that there should be a better place for complaint, where there could be some actual due process, actual hearings, inquiries, investigations and consequences. There also needs to be a forum. The absence of one means there’s no avenue for relief for people who’ve been abused and also no avenue for being cleared for people who’ve been wrongly accused. Where are they going to go to get their reputation back now that there’s no place to go for any real complaint or any real response to a real complaint? It never occurred to a lot of these men that the women they harassed might someday have more power than they do. If your harasser isn’t a guy who’s prominent enough, it’s unclear if the media would be that interested no matter how many women he’s done that to You’ve held that prostitution is not a free choice and is the oldest form of oppression. In India, it’s also closely linked with poverty and caste. What kind of system do you advocate to curb trafficking? Poverty and caste mean you don’t have a choice. The one thing that works is to criminalise the buyers, the ones with the real power. If there were no buyers, there would be no sellers, namely traffickers. In Sweden, I proposed they criminalise the buyers and decriminalise women. They have virtually eliminated sex trafficking and dramatically reduced prostitution. It’s essentially the only approach that’s worked against prostitution so far as I know in the history of the world. The upper class, the relatively more wealthy buyers drive the situation and they keep getting off the hook. They’re the ones everyone ignores. It’s a real rule-of- law challenge because the easy people to get are the women, and you have to eliminate all penalties for them. Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland and Canada have done that. France has the best material support in terms of housing and education for women who want to leave the sex industry, so that they can have the life they want, with real backup from the government. Your stance on pornography, as a violation of women’s civil rights, has attracted widespread criticism, including from sex- positive feminists. The Internet Age has only boosted the industry. Do you think all pornography is wrong? What happened to those sex-positive feminists? Why aren’t they out here defending Harvey Weinstein? There he was being sex positive, swinging his penis around at women in his open bathrobe. All those women who’ve been defending young men accused of sexual assault on campuses, saying they aren’t getting a fair shake, where are they? Pornography is a major reason for sexual assaults. The logic, as made clear by research, is it has to become more and more aggressive, intrusive and violent on women because it de-sensitises the user to abuse. Look at the way men in the entertainment industry treat the women in that industry. They relate to them the way they relate to the women in pornography. They’re masturbating all over them. It’s this spectator sexuality that they’re practising, which is straight from pornography. I think a lot of women, at least in the US, appear to be at the end of their tolerance for that. They’re not willing to be treated like things, where their capacity to be sexually used is the measure of their value, where their worth in their profession is measured according to some superior’s notion of their sexual accessibility. What is the future of feminism? What feminist battles need to be fought in the developed and developing world? The way I think about it is, what is it going to take to produce equality for women? That’s really my question. There are different routes and complex interactions with everything else that’s going on in the country at the time with the prevailing politics, even though the politics of women and men is a politics of itself. There is no single answer to it. It’s a global movement and a global problem, but the solutions are local. Rape and marital rape have been a universal problem and even in places where it’s actually illegal, it still goes on and isn’t reported. Even when it is reported—I’ve studied these cases—it turns out you need to have unbelievably more violence in it to get a conviction in a marriage. Because the attitudes are often, ‘Oh well, there she was with him for like all these years.’ The issues are recognisably similar across cultures, and it’s going to take the women in those places to effectively go after the way they get culturally embedded. Because they’re the ones who know. They know the realities, the interconnections and the political challenges that are specific to their own situation. As for the men, I’ve heard some of them say, ‘Those are the bad men but I’m not one of them. I’m the good guy.’ You don’t begin by distancing or exempting yourself from it. At the same time, you don’t have to go out there and say, ‘Here are the thousand things I’ve done.’ You can figure out a way to support women, to make space for them to say things, back them up and stand behind them for a change. Give them real power.Apr 9, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Winnipeg Jets right wing Blake Wheeler (26) celebrates his game-tying goal with Jets center Mark Scheifele (55) during the third period against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center. The Winnipeg Jets won 4-3 in a shootout. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports Welcome to Ask the Jets Experts. We have all the answers to percolating questions involving the Winnipeg Jets. Whatever your question is, we’ve got the answer. This September issue focuses on pre-season predictions. Question 1: Do you see the Jets making the post season for a second time in three years? Anthony Jacob – I predict with the Jets big youth movement of their forwards, they will creep into the playoffs. Patrik Laine, and Kyle Connor will help the Jets finally score enough goals to hide any other deficiencies they have. If Connor Hellebuyck can finally cement his job as number one, even better. Dylan Paré- They could possibly make the post season, but it completely depends on if they are going to attempt to make the playoffs, or look at one final year at receiving top prospects during the draft. I think they will play Connor Hellebuyck as the starting goalie, and will get their prospects and veterans to step up and show a little bit more leadership towards the rookies, and young guns. That leads us to the second question, Who will win the starting goalie role for the Jets? Anthony – Connor Hellebuyck has shown his potential in international events, and now it’s his time to shine in the show. Taking over the job from Ondrej Pavelec won’t be too easy, but since the Jets aren’t too crazy about winning yet, they will give Connor whatever opportunities he needs to succeed, and that may be a starting role. Dylan – The Jets have three goalies on their hands that they have to choose from in Connor Hellebuyck, Michael Hutchinson and Ondrej Pavelec. I don’t believe that Pavelec has the consistency to be a starter, but has his spurts of an all-star. Connor Hellebuyck is the best candidate because he is the only one who can stay consistent as a young player. Michael Hutchinson will probably end up as the AHL backup because they don’t want Eric Comrie riding the pine all season, and stunt his development. Who will represent the Winnipeg Jets at the 2017 All-Star Game? Anthony – Mark Scheifele had a half season breakout last year, and this upcoming year might be his to finally become a true NHL number one centre. Blake Wheeler or Dustin Byfuglien are also always possibilities, with their scoring, and game changing abilities. Patrik Laine could also represent the Jets as a rookie, due to impressing by his goal output. Dylan – Dustin Byfuglien was chosen as the candidate to play in the NHL All Star Game last year, and Blake Wheeler was nominated after a player had an injury. I don’t necessarily think it will be the same this year. I think they will choose Wheeler, and Byfuglien and then if there is an injury, they will add Mark Scheifele to that list. If Patrik Laine has a good start to the season, he could be nominated as a rookie All-Star. Question 4, Will Jacob Trouba be signed before the season, or get traded? Anthony – I don’t think it’s a case of Winnipeg not wanting Trouba (although it could be the other way), so I think a deal will get done. Trouba and his agent are making sure the Jets know what kind of player they think he is, and why he’s worth a huge contract. Eventually he will realize in late September it’s time to give in, and to get a huge contract, he’s gonna have to earn it. Dylan – I think it’s a complete toss up. It totally depends on how much GM Kevin Cheveldayoff wants him. I think a trade will and should be the end result. There is no way he is worth more than almost every player on their team, and he has lots value on the trade market as a quality, overvalued right handed defenseman. Final question, will the Schwehlers (Scheifele, Wheeler, Ehlers) line stay together for the majority of the season, and will it be one of the best lines in hockey like it was down the stretch last year? Anthony – Having a line you can trust is something every team needs, and after Andrew Ladd got dealt, they don’t have their Little, Ladd, Wheeler combo. Down the stretch these three showed why they’re a big part of the Jets future, they will most likely start the season together, and have some success together. Dylan – I think it will, because there was so much success with them together, and why would you take that away if it’s working for them. Stay tuned for next months edition of Ask the Jets Experts. Comment any Jets related questions you have!But it was on a well-traveled road in Grand Forks that Marvin’s life was drastically altered on Nov. 17, 2014. She had just left campus
anna Fáil, 21 per cent (up one point); Sinn Féin, 22 per cent (down two points); and Independents/Others, 32 per cent (up nine points). The survey was undertaken on Monday and Tuesday this week among a representative sample of 1,200 voters aged 18 and over, in face-to-face interviews at 100 sampling points in all constituencies. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 per cent. The core vote for the parties – before undecideds are excluded – compared with the last poll was: Fine Gael, 16 per cent (down three points); Labour, 5 per cent (down two); Fianna Fáil, 16 per cent (no change); Sinn Féin, 17 per cent (down one); Independents/Others, 25 per cent (up eight); and undecided voters, 22 per cent (down one). General election The sharp decline in support for Fine Gael will send tremors through the party with a general election expected within the next year. The seven-point drop in Enda Kenny’s satisfaction rating to just 19 per cent leaves him the least popular party leader in the Dáil, while the Government’s satisfaction rating of 17 per cent is the lowest since it took office. Fine Gael’s share of the vote has dropped across all regions of the country and across all age groups. The only category where the party vote is holding up is among the best-off AB voters. Labour has also suffered a serious loss of support following a modest recovery in the last poll. Joan Burton has seen a big drop in satisfaction after an initial good performance in her first poll as leader. There was a nine-point increase in support for Independents and smaller parties. When voters in this category were asked why they intended voting for Independents or small parties, 36 per cent said it was because they did not trust the established parties. The next most common reason, given by 27 per cent, was that they were best at local issues. A further 19 per cent said they liked what Independents or small parties stood for. Maíria Cahill affair Although Sinn Féin support has slipped back two points since the last poll, it has held up well considering the publicity surrounding the Maíria Cahill affair. Party leader Gerry Adams has suffered an 11-point drop in his rating, probably as a result of the controversy, but he still has the highest rating of any party leader. Fianna Fáil’s marginal rise in support will come as welcome news for the party after a significant drop in the last poll. At 21 per cent, it is ahead of Fine Gael and almost level with Sinn Féin.src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/254984"> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/254973"> Race: Orc Identifying Characteristics: Green skin Black hair, often with pronounced male pattern baldness and gnarly beards beards Prognathous lower jaw with tusk-like lower canines Broad, muscular frame Crude leather-strap armor covered in spikes, fur, bones, bits of chain and the occasional hunk of battered metal plate Strengths: Physical strength Good with axes of all kinds Assertive and fearless MOAR DAKKA! Weaknesses: Not particularly cerebral Most "good" races despise them because they are "misunderstood" Description: Another fantasy race that owes much of its existence to Professor Tolkien, the Orc has in recent times undergone a massive public relations shift. Tolkien's Orcs were the invention of Morgoth, the most powerful of the Ainur. He made them in mockery of the elves of Illuvatar, either through vile sorcery applied to various muds and slimes from the bowels of Arda, or by corrupting actual Elves and twisting them into Orcs, depending on who is telling the story. Tolkien's orcs have broad bodies shorter than a man, bowed legs, long arms, and crooked backs, making them walked stooped like an ape. They have flat Goblin-y faces with wide, fanged mouths and slanted eyes, and skin described as "sallow" or "black." Not green - that came later. Essentially, Tolkien's Orcs and Goblins (which are the same creature - the only difference is size) were created as cannon fodder for the great evil overlord villains of the stories. They were Sauron's footsoldiers and lackeys. The Uruk-hai created by Saruman were evidence of his mad attempts to play God, and served as his stormtroopers. They were irredeemably wicked - not necessarily evil by nature, but so thoroughly subservient to the forces of darkness that they were pretty much rotten to the core. They were brutes, thugs and terrorists, soulless killers bent on destruction and carnage. They used the Black Speech of Mordor, a harsh and guttural language which has seemingly become the template for Orcish (or Orkish) in most other settings, but were clever enough to also be fluent in Westron. "Come at me, bro!" These orcs can still be found in the Lord of the Rings Online - mostly as hostile mobs, but also as playable monster characters for PvMP in the Ettenmoors. But most other games featuring Orcs have taken a very different approach to the race, attempting to add depth and pathos to a race that was created to be un-dimensional and anti-sympathetic. The first green-skinned Orcs came around much later, with Dungeons & Dragons, in the 1970's and 80's. These green-skinned barbaric tribals are the ones most often adapted in other works. D&D Orcs are Chaotic Evil, which is more or less in keeping with Tolkien's orcs, but these Orcs are not dominated by a great godlike power - they're just a bunch of one-hit-die barbarian jerks doing whatever evil things they feel like doing because that's how CE rolls. "Bro, do you even lift?" D&D also carried on Tokien's idea of orc-human hybrids. The Half-orcs of Tolkien's world are sleazy characters who are universally up to no good whenever they are encountered, but except for sallow skin, slanty eyes and an ill-favored cast to their faces, they pass as regular humans. D&D Half-orcs are much more orc-y in appearance and stick out like sore thumbs among human society. Some of them try to fit in with the "good guys" and live in human cities. Others embrace their darker halves and head to the barbarian tribes to become warriors. This tribal barbarian theme has been sort of split into two different paths: that of the battle-crazy 'zerker race, and that of the proud and martial tribal. MOAR DAKKA! The battle-crazy 'zerker is what one finds in settings like the Warhammer universe. It's too bad Warhammer Online didn't do better than it did, because Warhammer Orks are hilarious. These Orks are blindly hyper-aggressive, bristling with spikes and axes and skullz on everything. In the 40k universe, they can make functional weapons by essentially hammering any parts together to make something that looks like a weapon. If it looks like dakka, it is dakka, and more dakka is always better. These orcs are not so much "evil" as they are comically aggressive and brutish. They are dumb as a bag of hammers, but who needs brains when you have MOAR DAKKA! MOAR DAKKA! MOAR DAKKA! The noble savage is slightly more popular in MMOs, in large part because of the Warcraft universe. Warcraft Orcs are basically the fantasy greenskin version of Klingons - a strong, proud warrior race ruled by honour and a deep, abiding love of warfare and yelling dialogue with a Muppet-like growl. They have a "savage," barbaric culture but with a deeper, spiritual side keeping their heightened aggression somewhat in check. This new type of Orc often stands taller than Humans, not just in the Warcraft universe but elsewhere as well. Orc society in these cases is often patriarchal and absurdly masculine. Physical prowess is valued more than intelligence, women are chattel, and everyone lifts. These Orcs are warlike and testosterone-fueled, but not really evil. They live in harsh conditions, and have harsh rules and unforgiving codes that may seem brutal to outsiders, but they are also capable of great deeds of heroism and goodness, the same as the other races. src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/254979"> They're probably talking about spikes, axes and/or honor. This new direction more or less mirrors our current views of real-world tribal cultures. Western culture has long regarded itself as "advanced" and "proper," and the hunter-gatherers they encountered in remote places were seen as "backwards" because they didn't have guns and cathedrals and galleons, or as "immoral" because they didn't wear a lot of clothing. We now view these ancient cultures in a different context - they live in closer harmony with nature without guns, stone buildings and sea-faring vessels. Modesty is impractical when it's always oven-hot and humid as a steam shower. We now accept that these cultures are different from but not lesser than our own. This appears also to be the case with Orcs. Orc "culture" is an amalgamation of many different aspects of real-world tribal and other cultures. Though they are certainly warlike and love a good fight, they are no longer strictly seen as "evil" by forward-thinking people - though they often suffer from a bad reputation because of the propaganda of the people they have fought against in the past, who play up their savagery and malice. The Orcs of the Elder Scrolls universe are a good example - they fought for independence in the past, and the humans and elves they fought against spread tales of their ferocity and bloodlust and savagery. Nevermind that a lot of their culture is centered around crafting high-quality armour, and the worship of the same basic set of gods as everyone else. These gentle, misunderstood souls stand at odds with the original Orcs. There was no cultural misinterpretation of Tolkien's orcs - they were clearly wicked, savage beings with no regard for life. It wasn't a spiritual-but-martial tough-guy culture that inspired them to attempt to commit genocide against the Rohirrim at Helm's Deep - it was the will of their evil overlord, Saruman, and of his evil master, Sauron. They weren't staging a righteous rebellion, they were out for blood and murder, for the death of every last man, woman and child in Middle-Earth. They didn't live in druidic harmony with their environment - they had more of a slash-and-burn approach to nature. There is no misinterpretation here. The motivations of Tolkien's Orcs are stated fairly explicitly. Warband or metal band? Hard to tell sometimes. Warcraft Orcs have as much in common with Tolkien's Elves as they do with his Orcs. Maybe even more. Now that the Orcs of Azeroth are no longer being controlled by a powerful demon, they're dirt-worshippers with a strict code of honour. Tolkien's Orcs didn't give a hot damn about honor, and when their master fell, so did they. WoW Orcs are Orcs in name only. Don't get me wrong - I actually like the more modern take. The Orc is the raging berserker-beast inside all of us, but having those feelings doesn't make us monsters. In a way, the story of an Orc is the story of an underdog - in order to make something of himself, the Orc has to overcome a severely tarnished image, the hatred and prejudices of his peers and his own base, violent instincts. Behaving in any way other than as a raging bloodthirsty goon risks earning the Orc the scorn of his peers - to behave in a thoughtful, civilized manner is considered an act of outrageous non-conformity. Orc stories have a kind of inverse depth that is unique to their race. Quite frankly, there are lots of times when I find Orcs to be the only race I can really relate to. And it's not just because we look alike. Shut up.Xbox Australia with Triple Eight Race Engineering today announced that they are launching the Xbox One Racing Team in the 2013 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. To celebrate, Xbox Australia and Turn 10 Studios, the makers of the “Forza Motorsport” series, have also announced the Bathurst track, Mount Panorama, will be included in the highly-anticipated racing game, “Forza Motorsport 5” set to launch exclusively for Xbox One on Nov. 22, 2013. The Xbox One Racing car is the latest Holden VF Commodore and comes equipped with a 5.0 litre naturally aspirated V8 Holden, which has an estimated output of 640bhp and a top speed of almost 300kph. The car will be driven by international champion race car drivers Andy Priaulx (UK) and Mattias Ekström (Switzerland). The Xbox One Racing Team will be accompanied by the support of Xbox ambassador and Team mentor, Mark Skaife and Triple Eight Race Engineering Team Owner, Roland Dane. Developed by Turn 10 Studios, “Forza Motorsport 5” is a cinematic automotive journey designed exclusively for the Xbox One, and the team is excited to bring Bathurst to the title. Dan Greenawalt, Creative Director at Turn 10 Studios said, “Few circuits have been requested more by the worldwide Forza fanbase than Bathurst, and for good reason. It holds a special place in motorsports history as one of the most demanding and challenging circuits in the world. In addition, the timing couldn’t be better to finally bring Bathurst to the Forza series; with ‘Forza Motorsport 5’, we’re able to bring the circuit to life in a way that nobody else can. “Through the use of cutting-edge technology like laser-scanning and our new materials-based graphics engine, we can now precisely reproduce the characteristics of every corner, straight and detail to sub-centimeter accuracy; from the narrow twists and turns of the Esses, to the thrilling rollercoaster sprint down the Conrod Straight. This is the Bathurst that racing fans have been asking for years and we’re proud to bring it to them in ‘Forza Motorsport 5.’” On Oct. 10-13, fans will be able to catch a real-life glimpse of the newest circuit featured in “Forza Motorsport 5” before it launches exclusively on Xbox One in November.We are sorry, you need to be a subscriber to watch this video We are sorry, you need to be a subscriber to watch this video Raheem Sterling is not seeking vindication because he believed his actions were right all along. In a refreshingly open interview yesterday, the England winger cited stubbornness as his foremost characteristic, though honesty cannot have been too far behind. By quickly establishing himself as a central figure in a Manchester City side who are top of the Barclays Premier League, scoring six goals in the process, Sterling’s decision to leave Liverpool last summer has been amply justified. The 20-year-old never had any doubts, demonstrating the strength of character that enabled him to leave London for Liverpool aged 15, a quality that underpinned his family’s move from Jamaica eight years earlier. “I’m not trying to say I proved anyone wrong,” Sterling said. “It’s just what I thought…The Pitch Gradescope is a web-based smart grading tool developed by computer science doctoral students, former teaching assistants, and a professor from UC Berkeley. The startup aims to streamline the more tedious aspects of the grading process, allowing instructors to grade everything online (including paper-based assignments, which can be scanned) and enable data-driven education. Gradescope’s reusable scoring criteria are designed to improve consistency, promote transparency, and reduce time spent grading by half. The team also plans to roll out additional premium features, which would allow certain assignments to be graded in 10 percent of the time it currently requires. Traction The prerevenue startup completed UC Berkeley’s accelerator program SkyDeck, and has attracted more than $1 million in investment funding from angel investors and venture capital funds including K9 Ventures. The Gradescope software has been used to grade over five million questions in over 100 high schools, colleges, and universities. This semester, half of all Berkeley undergraduates are taking courses that use the online tool.CLOSE Plot Twist Bookstore will offer a mix of mainstream best-sellers and independently published books. Buy Photo Plot Twist Bookstore will open next week in Ankeny. (Photo: Linh Ta/The Register)Buy Photo Ankeny has lured a growing number of high-profile retailers in recent years. Names like Duluth Trading Company, Sam's Club and Mills Fleet Farm. But one thing the growing suburb has been missing is an independent bookstore. That will change Monday when Plot Twist Bookstore opens at 502 N. Ankeny Blvd. Owner Mary Rork-Watson said the shop will offer a mix of mainstream best-sellers and independently published books. "You're going to walk in and say, 'Good, you got that, It’s here,'" Rork-Watson said. "But then I hope you’ll walk around the corner and go 'Huh. I didn’t know about this.' I hope I’m going to present some surprises." The 1,400-square-foot store has about 4,000 books on display, along with space for reading or community gatherings. Buy Photo Mary Rork-Watson, owner of Plot Twist Bookstore, plans to offer a mix of mainstream best-sellers and independently published books. (Photo: Linh Ta/The Register) There are little chairs and colorful gnomes for children's story time. A young adult area has a table where teens can sample books and socialize with friends. Rork-Watson, 53, of Altoona, said she wanted a space where people could hang out or host book clubs and poetry readings. “You can come into this space and nothing is expected of you other than to hang out and relax and be a part of it,” she said. “It’s my goal to be a part of the community, to give back, to be involved, to bring in interesting people and local authors.” Rork-Watson grew up in Elkhart and earned an English degree from Drake University. She previously worked at the Ankeny Art Center and for two years owned MRW Studio was in Pleasant Hill, where she taught classes. Last fall, after visiting a local bookstore in Denver, she began planning the concept for Plot Twist Bookstore. She has been leasing space at Kimberly Plaza since December. Buy Photo Plot Twist Bookstore has spaces for children and teens to relax and read. (Photo: Linh Ta/The Register) Rork-Watson said she chose Ankeny because of its community focus and support of the arts. "There were already those little pieces," she said. "The one piece that was missing was a bookstore." What makes Plot Twist unique to other stores or buying online is the personal experience, Rork-Watson said. “I’m not going to make weird recommendations based off your last purchase. I’m going to make an informed decision based off what you purchased or told me,” she said. “It’s people, not algorithms.” Plot Twist Bookstore will hold a grand opening from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 30 to coincide with Independent Bookstore Day. It will include local authors, storytelling sessions, food and refreshments. Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/1RYHcfgSeptember 22, 2010 \| Written by PETA Are you still throwing shrimp on the barbecue because you think that eating them is good for you? Nothing could be more skewered. In fact, the latest scientific research shows that eating shrimp may actually be hazardous to your health. Here are the top 10 reasons to keep prawns off your plate: 1. Poop Cocktail During cleaning, shrimp’s legs are torn off and they’re decapitated and disemboweled. As their bowels are ripped out, poop spills out and often gets all over the shrimp. 2. Extra Skin Shrimp are bottom dwellers who feed on parasites and skin that they pick off dead animals. This means that every mouthful of scampi you eat comes with digested parasites and dead skin. 3. Toxic Jambalaya Most shrimp who are eaten come from places that have no restrictions on traces of illegal contaminants, such as dioxins, PCBs, and other banned chemicals, or on pumping them full of hormones and antibiotics. 4. Dolphin-Safe Shrimp? Trawling is taking a toll on the legions of wild creatures, including dolphins, who call the sea their home. Nets don’t discriminate. 5. Farming Destroys Fish, Too Shrimp farming is fatal to fish. Because it takes up to 3 pounds of wild-caught fish to feed and produce a single pound of farmed shrimp, fish populations are plummeting. 6. Slave Labor Almost all shrimp farms and shrimp processing plants are located in developing countries, where workers are forced to work long hours for minimal pay. Eating meat supports unethical employers. 7. Too Neat to Eat With more than 2,500 species of shrimp out there, scientists are just beginning to scratch the surface of these fascinating animals’ largely unknown behavioral characteristics. 8. Cholesterol Bombs With a whopping 152 milligrams of cholesterol per 100-gram serving of shrimp (four or five shrimp), just two servings would put you over the daily recommended allowance of 300 milligrams of cholesterol. No plant food in the world contains any cholesterol. 9. Fished to Extinction A study conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that at least 28 percent of the world’s freshwater shrimp species are threatened with extinction. 10. Shrimply Fantastic Faux Forget the “reel deal”! More and more vegan shrimp dishes are making their way onto restaurant menus. You can also trawl the frozen-food section of your local supermarket or specialty store to find vegan shrimp and dozens of other mock meats. If you’re fishing for a heart-smart way of eating that’s fish-friendly and good for the environment, a vegan diet is the perfect catch. The consumption of plant-based foods has been linked to better cardiovascular health as well as a decreased risk of developing cancer, diabetes, and obesity. Take our Pledge to Go Vegan! If you’re fishing for a heart-smart diet that is healthy, fish-friendly, and good for the environment, being vegan is the perfect catch. Plant-based diets have proved to reverse heart disease and reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, and obesity.The gent’s toilets in a sleepy Devon village have been closed indefinitely after they became a popular meeting place for gay sex. Shocked parish councillors took the decision after a local was propositioned by a bearded man in his late 50s or 60s, wearing a white wedding dress. The conveniences are being advertised on a seedy website, complete with directions and the best times to visit. More than 10,000 people have viewed the listing, which also has a star rating. But Newton Poppleford Parish Council has closed the male facilities until further notice. The local resident who was propositioned by the man in the dress said he was horrified by the incident. He told the Daily: “I intended to do some business in the village and I went in to use the gentlemen’s public convenience which adjoins the car park. “Imagine my shock and horror when I entered the toilet to find a bearded man, in his late 50s or early 60s, wearing a full white wedding dress. “He invited me into the cubicle with him, and stated that the toilets in Newton Poppleford are a well-known gay haunt, advertised and promoted on a national website. “I find this thoroughly abhorrent and reprehensible, since there is a school very close by, and children pass by there every day. “The man wearing the white wedding dress did not seem at all concerned by my alarm at his presence, what he was wearing or what he was suggesting we do.” David Atkins, clerk to the Parish Council, said the police had been informed and that the decision had been taken to immediately close the toilets. He told the Daily: “We’ve had issues before but not like this. We’ve got a meeting next week when we’ll decide what to do next but we felt the best move was to shut them for now.” Mr Atkins said a key would be made available for the nearby church to use. * Picture from google mapsThe Kennedys (Jack, Teddy and a bunch of others), the Bushes (George, George, and Jeb), the Pauls (Ron and Rand), the Clintons (Bill and Hillary). Is America – founded to put an end to hereditary monarchy – ready for another political dynasty? Politico reports that Liz Cheney, daughter of the former vice president, may be following her father into Congress – or at least making speeches and otherwise positioning herself to make a run for office. Before he moved to Washington as Secretary of Defense, White House chief of staff, and then VP under George W. Bush, Dick Cheney represented Wyoming in the House of Representatives, where he was reelected five times. (No, his most important role was not as Darth Vader, although he good-naturedly adopted the nickname.) Like all good potential candidates for high office, Ms. Cheney demurs. “Right now, I’m focused on the presidential campaign and getting Mitt Romney elected,” she told the Cody Enterprise newspaper in Wyoming, and she’s doing that in many venues – including groups that could be very helpful in a campaign. Cheney told the recent meeting of the powerful Jewish lobby AIPAC (the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee), "There is no president who has done more to delegitimize and destabilize the state of Israel in recent history than President Obama." Meanwhile, in speeches to Wyoming audiences, Cheney emphasizes the economy. "The difference between how things work in D.C. and Wyoming is that your credit rating is Triple A and the federal government saw its credit rating decline under the current administration," she told the annual dinner of the Casper Area Chamber of Commerce. "President Obama has showed no intent or ability to put structural changes into place" that will help control the national debt, she said, according to the Wyoming Business Report. "He formed the national debt commission … the Simpson-Bowles group … and has ignored their recommendations," she said. "The solution to our problems is a new president." And a strengthened Republican caucus in the House and Senate, she might have added. Last month, Cheney appeared with her father at the state GOP's convention. It was Dick Cheney's first public engagement since he underwent a heart transplant. Early in the Obama administration, the two Cheneys tag-teamed the new president over Afghanistan, claiming that he had dithered, meandered, waffled, and “seems afraid.” (That was before Obama ramped up the number of US troops there, launched hundreds of drone attacks, and took out Osama bin Laden.) On “Keep America Safe” (the organization she founded), as a Fox News contributor, and elsewhere, she continues to hammer Obama on national security issues, claiming for example that there is “no terrorist Obama is unwilling to release.” All of which sounds like building a case for one’s candidacy – and a possible antidote to the GOP’s alleged “war on women.” Is the former Veep urging his daughter to follow in his congressional footsteps? Hard to know, although one can imagine fatherly pride at the notion – and a desire to pass along the benefit of his political experience and wisdom. "My dad always keeps track of my travels and media performances and gives me advice on how to do better or how to address an issue differently," Ms. Cheney told the Chamber of Commerce group in Casper. Running for Congress as the child of a former member would not be unheard of or all that unusual. “For a nation forged by revolution against a hereditary monarchy, America has always had an unusual tolerance for – or even embrace of – political dynasty,” notes Charles Mahtesian, Politico’s national politics editor. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy “In his book America's Political Dynasties, scholar Stephen Hess counted some 700 families in which two or more members had served in Congress since 1774 – and that book was published nearly a half-century ago, in 1966,” he writes. “At the moment, there's somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 members of Congress whose parents also served in Congress, or have a sibling or cousin in Congress, or who succeeded to their husband's seat. And there's more waiting in the wings: Seven sons of congressmen are currently seeking election to the House.” And perhaps a daughter as well.A new comic I had been working on in these days!I hope you will like it! ^^Also, I wanted to thank: Rated PonyStar, my dear friend - he proofreaded this page; Mr-Blitz and JDRIZZLE : they had to proofread the page, but because of some reasons I had to change my mind. Don't worry guys, I appreciate your help and I will not forget it: did I tell you I was going to mention you here? Well, even if I couldn't use your corrections, you still deserve a mention here, because of your infinite kindness! ^_^ nice2becrushed for his support, he's another good friend of mine!Plus, might notice that I was somehow... inspired by his series, that I've always enjoyed a lot, when drawing those ponies in the background in some of the panels!Also, I had told about the fact I was working on a comic, so I think he might be interested in knowing that I've completed it: I'm sorry if the mention disturbs you, thoughSo..., thank you a lot! ^__^It’s been quite a journey, but after years of working on the blog, visiting Maine to take photography, and conspiring with fellow writers, I.Am.Maine has a physical manifestation. I’m proud that a small blog had the opportunity to reach so many readers. Through I.Am.Maine I was able to connect with residents of small towns, both in and out of Maine. I told stories and was told stories. I got the chance to hide amongst the recesses of my mind and relive fond memories of my childhood.I’ve decided to do something a little different with I.Am.Maine. Many people had a hand in this project, and I wanted to offer a way to specialize the book. Because of this, I will be offering signed copies of I.Am.Maine until February 20th, 2015. Books will ship towards the end of February. After that the book will be available through Amazon. To purchase a signed edition of the book, use the Paypal link to the right. For those who are interested in purchasing but do not have Paypal, leave your email in the comments and I will contact you with instructions. Thank you again for this amazing experience.Bahrain: Two Years On Bahrain is a small island with a population of 1.2 million (0.6 million citizens) and a history of pearl diving. Assyrian inscriptions from 2000 B.C. mentioned the island's pearls, which were a gem so unique to it that they lured the likes of Jacques Cartier [1]. For over a century, Bahrain has been the scene of conflict at the approximate rate of once every decade [2]. The unrest has centered around such issues as civil liberties and political freedom, as evidenced in this BBC video from 1956 [3]. In 1921, while Bahrain was still a British protectorate, Major A. P. Trevor wrote to the government of India about the country's instability [4]. Later accounts by Charles Belgrave told of similar unrest [5]. The current conflict began on February 14, 2011 and has so far resulted in the deaths of 107 civilians, including seven expatriates, and three police officers totaling 110 [6][7][8][9]. Of those, 18 were teenagers or younger; 21 were female. Additionally, up to 20 miscarriages have been attributed to the crackdown. This visualization depicts those 110 deaths, relying on data provided by human rights organizations, the Independent Commission of Inquiry and the government, abstracted to take the form of a palm tree. Mouse over for more details; click the axis labels to show or hide the horizontal bands. Unless noted otherwise, the causes of death are from [9], either verbatim or paraphrased. Causes of death The leading cause of death is tear gas inhalation or complications arising from that. Several videos on YouTube, such as this one, appear to show police officers firing directly into homes. Birdshot is similarly indiscriminate and can have fatal results when used against people [11]. 15% of deaths are attributed to injuries caused by such shells, while 12% are attributed to other forms of gunfire such as live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas canisters. Physical abuse and torture while in custody account for 17% of all deaths. The Independent Commission of Inquiry's report concluded that torture was a systemic problem and noted several methods of mistreatment that are used against detainees. They include “blindfolding; handcuffing; enforced standing for prolonged periods; beating; punching; hitting the detainee with rubber hoses, cables, whips, metal, wooden planks or other objects; electrocution; sleep-deprivation; exposure to extreme temperatures; verbal abuse; threats of rape to the detainee or family members” [8]. Tear gas inhalation (40%) 44 Birdshot (15%) 16 Gunshot (12%) 13 Run over (10%) 11 Physical abuse (9%) 10 Torture (8%) 9 Other (6%) 7 Deaths over time The highest number of deaths in a single day occurred on March 16, 2011, a day after Gulf troops crossed into Bahrain. A nationwide crackdown claimed six lives and left hundreds or more injured. Prior to that, the bloodiest day had been February 17, 2011 when Pearl Roundabout was raided in the early morning hours. Of the 10,000 protestors who were camped there [14], four died and 300 were injured. [1] Cartier by Hans Nadelhoffer, 2007. [2] Political Movements in Bahrain: Past, Present, and Future by Omar Shehabi, http://bit.ly/z2hy1p (jadaliyya.com) [3] If you take my advice - I'd repress them by Adam Curtis, BBC Blogs, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/if_you_take_my_advice_-_id_rep [4] Bahrain: 1920 - 1971, A reading of British documents (Arabic) by Saeed Alshehabi, http://bit.ly/Yn1JLV (neelwafurat.com) [5] Belgrave Diaries: Papers of Charles Dalrymple-Belgrave (1926-1957), http://bit.ly/bvC2Xy (scribd.com) [6] Bahrain Center for Human Rights, http://www.bahrainrights.org/en [7] Police Media Center, http://www.policemc.gov.bh/en [8] Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, http://www.bici.org.bh/BICIreportEN.pdf [9] Casualties of the Bahraini uprising (2011-present), http://bit.ly/THTvkh (wikipedia.org) [10] Bahrain: Investigate Shooting, Arrest of Man Caught Up in Police Sweep, Human Rights Watch, http://bit.ly/ev567s (hrw.org) [11] Bahrain in Pictures, http://bahrain.viewbook.com [12] Bahrain: Investigate Deaths Linked to Crackdown, Human Rights Watch, http://bit.ly/11WHqa5 (hrw.org) [13] Tear-Gas Related Deaths in Bahrain, Physicians for Human Rights, http://bit.ly/GKoo0Z (physiciansforhumanrights.org) [14] Bahrain Takes the Stage With a Raucous Protest by Michael Slackman, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/world/middleeast/16bahrain.html [15] Bahrain protesters join anti-government march in Manama, BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17309839by LetsRun.com November 19, 2016 Full team and individual results below. NAU and outgoing coach Eric Heins won its first national title over Stanford and Patrick Tiernan stopped Edward Cheserek’s quest for a fourth straight NCAA title. *Women’s Results here TEAM SCORING SUMMARY Final Standings Score Scoring Order Total Avg. Spread 1 Northern Arizona 125 3-9-18-29-66(75)(77) 2:31:16 30:16 0:56.6 2 Stanford 158 4-19-32-45-58(67) 2:31:58 30:24 0:44.3 3 Syracuse 164 1-14-27-37-85(92)(101) 2:31:27 30:18 1:28.3 4 Mississippi 196 5-30-42-48-71(132)(198) 2:32:26 30:30 0:50.5 5 Arkansas 206 12-16-36-53-89(143)(163) 2:32:31 30:31 0:48.0 6 Colorado 223 17-22-26-59-99(160)(181) 2:32:37 30:32 0:53.0 7 BYU 247 7-25-62-73-80(84)(87) 2:32:47 30:34 0:49.6 8 Wisconsin 256
Legacy address start with "1...", do not use SegWit and do not take advantage of SegWit improvements, but can still be used like any other. If the service you are using only works with this address format, please contact them so they update their system. Other coins may have different starting characters for their addresses, but the idea is the same. Use the default address for lower fees and faster confirmations. My wallet doesn't show these options, how do I get them? SegWit is an optional upgrade, but allows cheaper and faster transactions, by implementing the most recent advancements on the Bitcoin network. To upgrade your current accounts to Segwit, open your wallets and swipe one screen to the left to the "receive" tab. There, 1) tap the "upgrade" button. 2) Read the brief introduction about the upgrade and press "next". 3) Confirm with your password, and you're done! Make sure you perform this process on all your devices. If you have multiple devices sharing the same recovery phrase, un-upgraded ones may show your balance incorrectly. Which coins can be upgraded to SegWit in Coinomi? Currently Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), BitcoinGold (BTG), BitcoinAtom (BCA), DigiByte (DGB), Monacoin (MONA), Vertcoin (VTC), Viacoin (VIA), Fujicoin (FJC), Bitcore (BTX) and Groestlcoin (GRS) enjoy native SegWit support. The rest of the SegWit enabled coins that are currently supported by Coinomi (Syscoin (SYS), Navcoin (NAV)) are welcome to register here so that we can provide full SegWit support for them too. Users are welcome to contact those coins' teams in their community media and remind them to register an entry. I upgraded, now what do I do? The benefits of SegWit are only used when sending from a segwit address. Simply keep using the wallet normally and receive future coins in your SegWit addresses. Any "change" from outgoing transactions goes to native SegWit addresses, so eventually all your coins will be in the most efficient address type. You can send coins to all address types, all are now supported by Coinomi. How can I see my address on a block explorer? Not only wallets, but block explorers are still in the process of properly displaying "bc1" addresses. You can find a list of updated explorers here. Can I claim forked coins now? If your coins were in a SegWit address at the time of the fork, it is only possible to claim a fork by sweeping its private key into an upgraded wallet. This means for now it's only possible to claim BTG and BCA from SegWit address. As other forks receive the upgrade, you will be able to claim them as well. I don't want to use Segwit. Can I keep my wallet the way it is? Yes, using SegWit is optional. You can keep using Coinomi normally and not press the "upgrade" button. If you recover your wallets on a new phone, or add new coins, add the wallets manually. Select the "advanced" options when adding, and type in the derivation path you see in the text box. If left with the default settings, upgraded wallets will be added.Alex Hornibrook is racking up the honors following an incredible outing last Saturday against BYU. Monday afternoon, Hornibrook was named the Rose Bowl’s B1G Player of the Week after completing 18-of-19 passes for 256 yards and four touchdowns in Wisconsin’s 40-6 win over BYU. The honor came not long after the Badgers QB was tabbed as the B1G Offensive Player of the Week following Week 3. .@BadgerFootball QB Alex Hornibrook is the Week 3 #RoseBowl @bigten Player of the Week after his career day against BYU (photo: @UWBadgers) pic.twitter.com/ybJW2ZzQb5 — Rose Bowl Game (@rosebowlgame) September 18, 2017 Hornibrook has been sensational in non-conference play for the Badgers. In three games, the sophomore is completing 70 percent of his passes and has thrown for 701 yards and eight touchdowns. He’s tossed just one interception. The competition intensifies moving forward and Hornibrook will surely face tougher challenges as B1G play approaches. The Badgers are off this week but will host Northwestern on Sept. 30 to open conference play. Still, Hornibrook has had a great start to the 2017 campaign and has earned plenty of recognition for Saturday’s performance.It’s the ultimate privacy nightmare: hackers taking over your machine and subverting the microphone to extend their reach beyond the digital confines of the operating system into the real world. That’s a scenario that Microsoft hopes to take off the table with a newly patented design that implements privacy measures directly into the hardware. The proposed microphone comes embedded in an integrated circuit with a built-in feature extraction chip that is preconfigured for a specific function like detecting a particular voice command or recording conversations without registering any semantical patterns that can be used to identify the speaker. Since everything else is discarded, the filing suggests future implementations will likely include multiple such processors and let you switch between them for different applications. That may seem like a very roundabout way to accomplish what can be achieved programmability with only a single slightly more sophisticated processor, but serves an important purpose. The limited nature of the feature extraction circuitry not only prevents applications from modifying its function but also hackers who might abuse that adaptability to their own malicious ends. [do_widget id=text-11] Even if a committed attacker did somehow find a way to change the instructions encoded into the chip, though, they’d still need physical access to perform the necessary modifications, which Microsoft’s engineers have considered as well. The feature extractor is embedded inside the board containing the microphone in a way that the filing indicates makes removal impossible without damaging the silicon. Of course, all of that doesn’t account for the possibility of someone sneaking into your home and replacing your microphone with an identical-looking unit crafted in some clandestine lab to eavesdrop on private conversations without raising any suspicious. But unless you find yourself caught up in a real-life spy drama, that won’t happen, and Microsoft’s invention will block practically all forms of snooping. That includes webcam spying, too. After all, there’s no reason why integrated feature extraction couldn’t be used with cameras, or any other sensor for that matter. The patent filing states as much, suggesting that Microsoft is keenly aware of the potential business opportunity in selling privacy-hardened computer accessories. [do_widget id=text-6]10 years ago In California exit polls reported thus far tonight, Proposition 8 appears to be going down to a narrow 52 percent to 48 percent defeat.The proposition would amend California's state constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. Earlier in the year, the California Supreme Court issued a ruling making such marriages legal under the state's constitution If the trend holds, younger, first-time voters can be said to be responsible for Proposition 8's defeat. Voters between the ages of 18 and 29 opposed the proposition 66 percent to 34 percent; voters 30-64 were evenly split; voters 65 and above favored the amendment 57 percent to 43 percent. First-time voters cast their ballots against the proposition by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin. The rest of the electorate favored the amendment 52 percent to 48 percent. Californians who attend church weekly voted for Proposition 8 by an 83 percent to 17 percent. Those who attended church occasionally voted 40 percent in favor and 60 percent opposed. Californians who never attend church were 14 percent in favor and 86 percent against. College graduates opposed Proposition 8 by a 57 percent to 43 percent margin. Those without a college degree favored it, 53 percent to 47 percent. African-Americans voted for Proposition 8 by a 69 percent to 31 percent margin. However, 55 percent of white voters and 52 percent of Hispanics voted against the proposition.The result is “Conversations With My Molester: A Journey of Faith,” which had its debut last year at the Boston Playwrights’ Theater at Boston University to mark the 10th anniversary of the Globe series. Now, Mr. Mack, 56, is reviving the nonfiction drama at the Paulist Center, a Catholic community center in downtown Boston that is dedicated to social justice. On Friday night, about 50 people attended the opening, which was followed by a question-and-answer session with Mr. Mack and the Rev. Rick Walsh of the Paulist Center. The play and subsequent discussion showed how the priest scandal, stemming from events that took place decades ago, continues to haunt the lives of the victims and reverberate throughout the church. The opening happened to coincide with an announcement by the Archdiocese of Boston, the epicenter of the pedophile priest scandal, that it was further consolidating its parishes in the face of continued low attendance at Mass, a priest shortage and lackluster fund-raising. The announcement was just the latest sign of the toll that the scandal, along with various demographic changes, has taken on the archdiocese. It has been forced to sell valuable property and close parishes and has paid out tens of millions of dollars in settlements to victims of sexual abuse. Then there is the toll on the victims. And that is the focus of Mr. Mack’s lyrical drama, in which he is the sole performer on a relatively spare stage for 90 minutes. One of the most unsettling moments of the performance was when Mr. Mack revealed that as a camp counselor when he was in high school, he had come close to seducing a vulnerable, 8-year-old in whom he recognized himself.ORLANDO, FL - SEPTEMBER 22: Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson speaks in the Fox News/Google GOP Debate at the Orange County Convention Center on September 22, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. The debate featured the nine Republican candidates two days before the Florida straw poll. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images Ron Paul’s hardcore libertarian base may have an alternative on the ballot this November. The Libertarian Party is holding its convention in Las Vegas this week and is expected to pick New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson as its presidential nominee. Johnson, who left the Republican Party in December to join the Libertarian ranks, has called for steep cuts in government spending and the legalization of marijuana. The Libertarian Party nominated former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr in 2008 and was on the ballot in 45 states. But the party has never garnered more than 1 percent of the vote in a presidential election, so it’s hard to imagine President Obama or Mitt Romney dialing up any op-research or attack ads on Gary Johnson. Unless, say, Ron Paul’s dedicated army of supporters suddenly rallies around him.“The single most powerful element of youth is our inability to know what’s impossible.” -Adam Braun Each week, you send in your questions and suggestions, and I pick my favorite to tackle in our weekly Ask Ethan column. But sometimes, the simplest questions are the most challenging to answer. Take a look, for example, and the Sun and the stars, and then take a look at the planets. You might think that mass is the only difference — that if you made a planet massive enough, it would become a star — but then how do you explain the simple observation that Greg Rogers makes: If the Sun (and all stars) are mostly Hydrogen and Helium, why don’t planets have about the same distribution of stuff? Not only don’t planets have about the same distribution of stuff, it’s not even close. Image credit: Sarah Johnson — Plant Ecology Research Lab, via https://johnsonplantecologyresearch.wordpress.com/research/great-lakes-sandscapes/. If we take a look around at say, the surface of our planet, we find that there are all sorts of elements around: some 90-or-so naturally occurring ones on our surface. Hydrogen is plentiful, but not dominant, especially not if we’re looking by mass. The air we breathe is mostly nitrogen and oxygen; the oceans that cover our world are only about 11% hydrogen by mass (because each oxygen atom is 16 times as massive as each hydrogen); the solid matter of both living and non-living things from rocks to dirt to plants and animals certainly contains hydrogen in significant amounts, but it’s vastly outnumbered (and outmassed) by things like sodium, oxygen, silicon, aluminum and a whole slew of other elements. Image credit: Gordon B. Haxel, Sara Boore, and Susan Mayfield from USGS; vectorized by wikimedia commons User:michbich. If we take a dive inside our planet, the situation gets even worse. Sure, we can find additional repositories of helium stored in underground chambers, but those were produced by radioactive decays of ultra-heavy elements over billions of years. There are small amounts of hydrogen in there as well, by far and away we come to heavier and heavier elements: metals like iron, nickel and cobalt, as well as elements that transcend the limit of stability on the periodic table. Image credit: USGS / Wikimedia Commons user Anasofiapaixao. We know this because the different layers of Earth get denser and denser as we go deeper and deeper. It isn’t exclusively due to gravitational contraction and compression, either; the heavier elements sink to the bottom. This last point is incredibly important so I’ll say it again: when the Earth is very young, a huge variety of elements are present, but the heavier elements sink to the bottom and the lighter elements “float” on the top, the same way that less dense liquids will float atop denser ones. Image credit: © Copyright 2013 Steve Spangler Science, via http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/density-tower-magic-with-science. So when we’re looking at the Earth, we’re actually seeing the lightest elements that our planet is made of preferentially represented on the surface; the majority of what we have is even heavier and denser. So when it comes to hydrogen and helium, we truly have very little of it. Image credit: N.A.Sharp, NOAO/NSO/Kitt Peak FTS/AURA/NSF, via http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0600.html. And then, we come to the Sun and the stars. Have a look at the solar spectrum: you can see that there are all sorts of absorption lines there, representing the full gamut of elements found on Earth, as well as a few that aren’t naturally occurring here at all. But one thing really stands out: two sets of absorption features — those from hydrogen and helium — are incredibly strong. Once we came to understand how stars worked, and how temperature, ionization and elemental abundance were related, we discovered that the Sun was made of roughly 70% hydrogen, 28% helium and only about 1-to-2% “other” stuff. Image credit: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center / SDO, of the Sun and Earth to scale. Yet the Earth is 99%+ “other stuff”! So why is this the case? To understand it, let’s go all the way back to our birthing grounds: the star forming nebulae. These are molecular clouds of gas — mostly hydrogen, lots of helium, and small amounts of other stuff — that have begun to collapse under their own gravity. Image credit: Tom O’Donoghue, via http://www.flickr.com/photos/28192200@N02/8528939580/in/photostream. In the earliest stages that lead to star formation, gravitation is the only thing that matters. The gas cloud inevitably develops clumps, and these clumps grow denser and denser in places, with these overdensities attracting more and more matter to them. Because gravitational collapse is relatively rapid and there’s not a very efficient way for these gas clouds to radiate their energy away, the collapse causes the interior of these clumps to heat up. Before long, the hydrogen at the core has reached sufficient temperatures and densities to begin nuclear fusion. Image credit: ESO, via http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0636a/. These infant stars come in many varieties: different colors, temperatures and masses. But one thing that most of them have in common is that they don’t form in isolation, but rather with other, smaller “clumps” of matter around them. The largest ones — and the ones that got the biggest head starts — will eventually grow into rocky planets, gas giants, or in the most extreme cases, other stars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC). At the same time, the energy being put out by the parent star in the system is being flung outwards at everything it can interact with in the solar system. This includes the solar wind, ions, electrons and — of course — photons. The thing is, what are these energetic particles going to be running into? Image credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA artwork by Lynette Cook. For every planet or planetoid they encounter, they’re running into the outermost, lightest elements, because those are the ones that “float” on top of the heaviest ones, which have mostly sunk towards the center. Think about what happens if you run up to and kick a soccer ball as hard as you can, versus what happens if you kick a bowling ball as hard as you can. Don’t think about your foot: think about the ball! The soccer ball will get an incredible velocity imparted to it, and will likely fly fast and far, while the bowling ball will hardly go anywhere at all. Why? Because when you give things with different masses the same energetic kick, the lighter ones wind up moving faster. Image credit: James Schombert, via http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast121/lectures/lec14.html. Note how gases will escape based on the mass and temperature of the planet, as well as on how heavy the gas in question is. Every element that is “above” the planet in the figure will escape, which is why none of the rocky worlds have a hydrogen/helium atmosphere, but all four of the gas giants do. This is enough — on nearly all worlds — to expel practically all of the hydrogen and helium into interstellar space: the energy emitted from the star is enough to give those atoms sufficient speed so that they reach escape velocity, and are no longer gravitationally bound to the world they began bound to. Image credit: NASA / Voyager spacecrafts / Lunar and Planetary Institute. It’s only the gas giant worlds — worlds about two times the mass of Earth or more — that have enough gravity to hang on to a hydrogen/helium envelope. And the more massive your world is, the “thicker” the envelope it can hang on to! The gas giants are expected to have a dense, heavy-element filled solid core, but you’d only find it after descending through many layers that are dominated by hydrogen. Image credit: NASA / Lunar and Planetary Institute. So to answer your question, Greg, planets are all born out of the same materials, and if it weren’t for the radiation emitted by stars, every single planet would be dominated by hydrogen and helium, just like our Sun and the stars. But being so close to an energetic source means that every element gets an energetic “kick” applied to it, and in the case of all the rocky planets we know of, that kick is enough to rid the world of practically all the free hydrogen and helium in it. It’s only when you accrue enough mass — and/or are also far enough away from your parent star — that you can begin to hang on to the lightest of all the elements in the face of all that incoming radiation. And then the more massive you are, the more you can hang onto! This goes all the way up to a limit of about 8% the mass of the Sun, where once you reach that, you begin fusing hydrogen into helium, and become a star yourself! Image credit: MPIA/V. Joergens. And that’s why the elements are where they are! Thanks for a great question, Greg, and if you’ve got questions or suggestions for the next Ask Ethan column, send them in. You might be surprised at what we know!As US officials visit, we ask if progress is underway or if Myanmar's president is the public face of the old junta. There has been a flurry of recent visits to Myanmar by Western governments offering more development assistance. The US says it now wants to restore full diplomatic relations with the nation following its recent reforms. "They haven't changed anything yet, but they saw the Arab Spring happening in the Middle East - peaceful protests on the street calling for the regime to change.... So the Burmese government does not want people coming [on]to [the] streets calling for positive change. If people come they will have to shoot and kill them as they did before." - Aung Din, the co-founder of the US Campaign for Burma Mitch McConnell, the top Republican politician in the US senate, is in Myanmar. He met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday and then with President Thein Sein, on Tuesday. McConnell said: "We also look forward to a free and fair election, a by-election on April 1, and in the wake of that I think it would be appropriate for us to further consider, in the United States, the various sanctions that we have in place and the appropriateness of continuing those." His visit follows US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's visit last month to the country. It marks a new engagement with the nation. For nearly two decades, since the regime’s brutal crackdown on the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations and its refusal to honour the 1990 election results, the US has attempted to isolate Myanmar, imposing tough sanctions. In November 2010, an election took place which led to a nominally civilian government. But its ranks are filled with former generals including President Thein Sein. And in recent months, the new regime has begun a series of reforms. "There is also geopolitics. China has had a very strong political and military relationship with Burma [Myanmar] and that is something that concerns this [US] administration... If you actually get changes in Burma, you might get economic opportunities, get improved human rights, and you suddenly get an engagement that helps reduce Chinese influence - that sounds like a pretty good deal I think to the people in the state department and the White House." - Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the CATO Institute First of all, the government began dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, who had spent 22 years under house arrest until her release in November 2010. Ethnic minorities make up 40 per cent of Myanmar's population and they have been demanding either independence or regional autonomy from the Burman-dominated government for decades. And the government is now pursuing peace deals with ethnic minority rebels. According to officials, the military was told to halt all offensives in ethnic minority conflict zones, on Tuesday. As part of the reforms that have led the US administration to order the restoration of full diplomatic ties with Myanmar, the government has also pardoned hundreds of imprisoned dissidents. Around 200 political prisoners were released last Friday. That step that was hailed by Hillary Clinton, who said: "... The United States will meet action with action. Based on the steps taken so far, we will now begin. In consultation with members of congress and at the direction of President Obama, we will start the process of exchanging ambassadors with Burma [Myanmar]. We will identify a candidate to serve as US ambassador to represent the United States government and our broader efforts to strengthen and deepen our ties with both the people and the government." On this episode of Inside Story Americas we ask: Why is the US reaching out to Myanmar and what does it stand to gain from doing so? And is Myanmar's president committed to meaningful progress or is he simply serving as the public face of the old junta in its quest to retain power? To discuss this we are joined by: Kyaw Win, who was the second most senior diplomat in the Myanmar embassy in Washington DC but defected in July 2011 and has since been granted political asylum in the US; Doug Bandow from the CATO Institute and; Aung Din, the co-founder of the US Campaign for Burma - an organisation which promotes human rights and campaigns to bring an end to the military dictatorship. During her meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi last December, Hillary Clinton said this about US objectives in Myanmar: "Democracy is the goal. That has been the goal from the very beginning. And yet we know that it has been a long, very difficult path that has been followed. We do see openings today." And the Burmese pro-democracy leader said: "Before we decide what steps to take, we have to find out what our greatest needs are, and of course, two of the greatest needs in this country are rule of law and a cessation to a civil war. All hostilities must cease within this country as soon as possible." Myanmar economy Myanmar has huge amounts of untapped natural resources - including oil and gas, minerals, gems and timber. Oil pipeline deal - In 2010, Myanmar and China agreed on a pipeline worth $2bn to ship oil and gas to China from the Bay of Bengal. - In 2010, Myanmar and China agreed on a pipeline worth $2bn to ship oil and gas to China from the Bay of Bengal. Rare Earths - South Korea has struck a deal to develop mineral resources including rare-earths - which are vital to many hi-tech products. Japan too is seeking a similar deal. - South Korea has struck a deal to develop mineral resources including rare-earths - which are vital to many hi-tech products. Japan too is seeking a similar deal. Cheap Labour - Labour costs being less than one-fifth of those in China or Thailand, could attract US investment in, for example, garment factories. Source: Al JazeeraThe slave revolt led by Spartacus shook the Roman world to its foundations and, although a failure, has inspired the oppressed for centuries. Communist historian Doug Enaa Greene delivered a talk at the Center for Marxist Education on Spartacus on March 7, 2015. For more by Doug Enaa Greene, click HERE By Doug Enaa Greene May 15, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The ancient rebellion of Spartacus and tens of thousands of subjugated slaves is arguably the most famous slave revolt in history. During his lifetime, Spartacus dared to challenge the dominance of the Roman slave masters and their Republic. In subsequent generations, the name of Spartacus has stood forth as a symbol for resistance and liberation from oppression – inspiring the Haitian slave Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led a successful revolt in the 1790s; Karl Marx; and Germany's Spartacist League of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Spartacus has entered popular culture through films, television shows and novels. Despite the enduring influence of Spartacus, we actually know rather little about him – the primary historical sources were written by wealthy Romans, who were not sympathetic to him, contradictory in their accounts, and often at a great distance in time. Not only that, these histories were written by the winners in the war. Thus, we have very little concrete information on the life of Spartacus, the course of events and the goals of the revolt. It is our purpose here to give the background of the Roman Republic and Spartacus' revolt, but to ask what exactly Spartacus represented. Despite the scanty information available, I will follow the French communist philosopher Alain Badiou in arguing that Spartacus represented a “communist invariant” (or better, a proto-communist). According to Badiou, a communist invariant is the “pure Idea of equality”, which has been represented in mass revolts, whether by slaves, peasants and workers, throughout history. These communist invariants, such as Spartacus, are examples of a political truth with four key characteristics: will, equality, confidence and terror. In saying that Spartacus represents an example of the communist idea, I want to clarify that I don't believe that communism is something that was historically possible in Spartacus' time, it was just a dream. Yet those dreams, which have inspired centuries of “premature” revolts, from Spartacus onward, have pushed the limits of what was possible. Ultimately, it is only with the emergence of modern capitalism and the proletariat, with the intervention of Marxist theory and practice, that communism could be realised. As Bruno Bosteels puts it, only with the emergence of Marxism does communism cease being a dream, but becomes a historical possibility: “Marxism without communism is empty, but communism without Marxism is blind.” Background The Roman Republic at the time of the Spartacus revolt was in the midst of vast expansion and upheaval. The legions of the Republic had conquered Carthage, Greece and the Iberian Peninsula. The wars had turned the Mediterranean Sea into a Roman lake, which saw the Republic become a world power, standing unrivalled. While Rome faced few challengers abroad, it was beset with troubles from within. Unlike most other ancient powers, Rome was a republic – which meant that it did not have a monarchy, but an elected Senate. The members of the Roman Senate – consuls, quaesters, praetors – came from the wealthy patrician class. Throughout most of the Republic, the patricians possessed a monopoly of power in the Senate and they were able to determine policy. The class of plebeians, composed of the small peasants and the propertyless proletarii possessed little representation. The patrician families used their political power to increase their already vast holdings of land by squeezing the peasants – and enforced those claims through judges they appointed. Patrician control of the Senate meant that they appointed the officers, who in turn took the bulk of conquered lands. The plebeians did not passively endure their situation. Five times between 494 to 287 BCE, the plebeians left Rome in a quasi general strike known as the secessio plebis: leaving Rome and refusing to serve in the army. These conflicts eventually resulted in the plebeians being granted expanded rights by the Senate and their own form of representatives known as tribunes. The tribunes were set up to protect the plebeians from abuses by the patrician magistrates and veto unfavourable legislation. However, over time, the tribunes became an integral part of the Roman state. As Marxist historian G.E.M de ste Croix said: At first, one might say, they stood to official state magistrates almost as shop stewards to company directors, but gradually, although they never acquired the insignia and trappings of state magistrate, their position became more and more assimilated to that of magistrates...” Many of the wealthier plebeians gained substantially from their new elected positions, in effect they became joint rulers with the patrician nobility, which meant that ordinary plebeians had a difficult time finding protectors. Despite this, the idea of a “tribune of the people” -- a champion of the poor and oppressed classes -- has endured throughout history and has been taken up by communists such as Gracchus Babeuf and V.I. Lenin. Even though the Republic was expanding through continued wars, this did not improve the lot of the plebeians. As said above, the lands conquered generally went to the patricians. The wars also meant that vast numbers of small farmers had to serve in the legions, sometimes for periods extending up to 20 years. By the time they came home, their farms would be mired in debt and ruined. Soldiers from abroad also imported diseases that wiped out local populations. One way that ambitious Roman generals could gain a flowing among their soldiers was to promise them land in the conquered provinces. However as soldiers saw their first loyalty to their commander and not the Republic, this led to recurrent civil wars and social unrest between rival claimants for power. And thus, vacated and indebted lands fell into the hands of the state and the patricians, who built vast estates (ignoring laws that limited the size of holdings). Historian Michael Grant describes the process as follows: “holdings of hundreds of acres became an increasingly prominent feature of the Italian scene; and their wealthy proprietors continued to expand further at the expense of the small holders in the area, by methods ranging from purchases and mortgages to physical violence.” The large estates, or latifundia, brought changes to agricultural production. The rising urban population encouraged these landowners to produce crops, such as grain, commercially using new methods of crop rotation, manure, deeper cutting ploughs and a better selection of seeds. Other products that earned more money such as grapes and olives were also in demand along with breeding of livestock to produce wool, cheese and other goods. Slavery In order for the latifundia to profitably produce these goods, they also needed a workforce since the peasantry was ruined. They found this in a rapidly growing slave population. Although slavery had long been practiced in the Roman world, the wars of conquest during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC brought a vast influx of slaves numbering tens of thousands. For instance, after the Third Macedonian War, which saw the conquest of Greece, more than 150,000 were sold into slavery. Slaves lacked any form of legal protection. While domestic slaves were treated comparatively better than agricultural slaves, this should not imply that they were treated well. Agricultural slaves were seen as beasts of burden – to be ill treated and worked to death. Roman landowner Cato the Elder offered advice on how slaves were to be treated: when sick, slaves should have their rations cut, more attention was to be paid to oxen and he was gracious enough to allow marriage between slaves, provided they paid him a fee. Slaves were often kept in chains and sexually abused. By the 1st century BCE, Roman Italy possessed 2 million slaves compared to a free population of 3.25 million. This ruthless exploitation of slaves, the impoverishment of the Roman peasantry, the growing poor population in the cities, and the rise of the ambitious generals set the stage for social explosions that threatened to bring the Republic to ruin. The Roman latifundia were inefficient and not very productive. Slave workers were not as efficient as free labourers since slaves had no interest in their work. Karl Kautsky describes the Roman economy as follows: Unintelligent, half-hearted, malicious, glad of any chance to do harm to their hated tormentor, the slave labor of the latifundia produced far less than peasant farms. In the first century A.D. Pliny was already pointing out how fruitful the fields of Italy had been when generals were not ashamed to do their own farming, and how refractory Mother Earth became when she was turned over to chained and branded slaves to mistreat. This sort of agriculture might give a greater surplus than peasant farms in some cases, but it could not by any means support as many men in well-being. Meanwhile, all through the wars during which Rome kept the whole Mediterranean world in constant unrest, the slave economy kept expanding and the peasant class kept sinking; for war brought rich booty to the great landowners who conducted it, new tracts of land and countless cheap slaves. Thus we find in the Roman Empire an economic evolution that externally bears a striking resemblance to modern developments: decline of small enterprise, advance of large enterprises and still quicker growth of large landed estates, the latifundia, which dispossesses the peasants and, where they do not replace him by plantations or some such extensive form of cultivation, at least reduce him from a free landholder to a dependent tenant. The slave economy saw the emergence of a parasite landowning class, living only for their own luxury. The influx of slaves destroyed the peasantry and independent craft production. Yet the accomplishments of Rome, its arts, literature, crafts, philosophy, science, architecture and military victories came from a class that was “liberated” from work. The much-praised “glory of Rome” was built on the blood and toil of slaves. Naturally enough, the slaves did not accept their subordinate position passively. During the 2nd century, there were at least a dozen uprisings in Italy, two major uprisings in Sicily (135-132, 104-100 BC) and revolts in Asia Minor. The uprisings in Sicily were put down at great cost and bloodshed. So-called "barbarian” kings, who fought Rome, were able to gain major followings by promising freedom to slaves. All of this was to set the stage for the revolt of Spartacus. Kirk Douglas portayed Spartacus in the classic film of the same title. The revolt Who exactly was Spartacus? The source material gives different information on his background. For one, he may have served in the Roman auxiliary, deserted and was sold into slavery, where he was trained as a gladiator (according to Sallust and Appian) The historian Plutarch says that Spartacus had a wife who was a prophetess and who was sold into slavery with him (and escaped with him). He also describes Spartacus as someone “possessed not only of great courage and strength, but also in sagacity and culture superior to his fortune, and more Hellenic than Thracian”. Spartacus was enslaved at the gladiatorial school of Lentulus Batiatus, which also contained Gauls and Germans, in Capua. According to Plutarch the slave revolt began in 73 BCE and “through no misconduct of theirs, but owing to the injustice of their owner, they were kept in close confinement and reserved for gladiatorial combats. Two hundred of these planned to make their escape, and when information was laid against them, those who got wind of it and succeeded in getting away, seventy-eight in number, seized cleavers and spits from some kitchen and sallied out.” Other sources say that only thirty slaves at Capua were freed (Florus). Regardless, Spartacus and the escaped gladiators gathered other slaves and freed people to their standard. If the Romans are telling the truth, the slaves proceeded to plunder the neighbouring countryside and to seize Roman arms from Capua, considering their gladiatorial weapons to be dishonourable (Plutarch). The armed force of Spartacus began small, but at its height numbered between 70,000 and 120,000 men under arms (Appian). Roman sources give multiple motivations for the slaves: revenge, freedom, plunder and returning to their homelands. According to Plutarch, the slaves elected Spartacus as their commander, and he had two subordinates who were also escaped gladiators – Crixus and Oenomaus (Orosius). There was friction between Spartacus and the
still need enough peers seeding the content to obtain it, and the content isn’t likely to be of high quality. Finally, there is the tricky problem of being able to trust the people behind Torrents Time. It’s currently in beta, and monetized by promoting a paid VPN (Virtual Private Network). There is also talk of ad servers “coming soon”. So, it’s illegal, annoying to use, and suspect. Which all adds up to mean we’re reporting on its existence without recommending you use it. How Twitter Is Turning Into Facebook Hello Twitter! Regarding #RIPTwitter: I want you all to know we're always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week. — jack (@jack) February 6, 2016 Twitter looks to be doomed, with its share price tumbling Stop Windows 10 Nagging, Employers Can Read Your Private Messages... [Tech News Digest] Stop Windows 10 Nagging, Employers Can Read Your Private Messages... [Tech News Digest] Microsoft details how to stop Windows 10 nagging, European employees can legally snoop on private messages, YouTube returns to Pakistan, Twitter stock continues to drop, and Snoop Dogg isn't happy with Xbox Live outage. Read More, and users getting increasingly annoyed by its continued evolution. The latest move sees Twitter taking a leaf out of Facebook’s book by introducing an algorithmic timeline. Which led to the hashtag #RIPTwitter trending. This all started with a BuzzFeed story claiming Twitter would be introducing an algorithmic timeline as early as this week. BuzzFeed may not be the most reliable source, but has actually broken a number of stories about Twitter. However, according to The Verge, rather than being a complete switch to the Facebook model, where the social network controls what you see each time you log in, Twitter will be offering a kind-of highlights reel of tweets from those you follow. Crucially, you’ll still be able to view tweets in chronological order, and/or even opt out of the whole thing. This still has the capacity to break Twitter and cause a mass exodus by dedicated users. However, it’s much more likely that people will get used to it after a while, making this an epic storm on a teacup. Whether it will actually help Twitter reverse its fortunes remains to be seen, but I for one remain resolutely pessimistic. Facebook’s 3.57 Degrees of Separation Boasting 1.6 billion users worldwide, Facebook has definitely made the world a smaller place. However, we’re only now learning to what extent that’s true. In layman’s terms, Facebook has made it so that the idea that each of us is connected to everybody else in the world by no more than six people is outdated. The six degrees of separation that has been a working theory for over 100 years gained popularity when it was subverted into the six degrees of Kevin Bacon Learn About The 'Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon' Game Before Playing It Online Learn About The 'Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon' Game Before Playing It Online Read More. But Facebook thinks it has brought those six degrees down to just 3.57 degrees. Which means that the average Facebook user is connected to everybody else by just over three and a half people. You can view your own degrees of separation number by visiting the Research at Facebook blog post while logged into the social network. Mine is 3.51. And with Mark Zuckerberg aiming to get 5 billion users on Facebook by 2030, the average is sure to keep spiraling downwards. The Malware Museum Opens Its Doors Most of us know malware as insidious pieces of code installed on computers Which Websites Are Most Likely to Infect You with Malware? Which Websites Are Most Likely to Infect You with Malware? You might think that porn sites, the Dark web or other unsavory websites are the most likely places for your computer to be infected with malware. But you would be wrong. Read More to make money in some way. However, this wasn’t always the case. Early malware tended to be a way of destroying or disabling computers, with the authors taking wicked delight in their creations causing havoc in the digital realm. The Malware Museum, as created by Mikko Hermanni Hyppönen of Finnish security firm F-Secure, is a way of harking back to those “glory” days. Forming part of The Internet Archive 5 Types of Free Content Riches You Can Dig Up at the Internet Archive 5 Types of Free Content Riches You Can Dig Up at the Internet Archive The Internet Archive keeps a variety of old content alive on the Web for the future. What kind of content can you dig up, and why should you care? Let's find out. Read More, The Malware Museum contains emulated versions of multiple MS-DOS viruses from the 1980s and 1990s. Luckily, the damaging part at the center of each virus has been removed, leaving only the visual effects that accompanied an infection. These include flickering ASCII characters, scrambled code, hypnotic animations, or even laughing skulls. All of which look innocent by today’s standards. Tim Cook Takes a Blurry Photograph And finally, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, needs to brush up on his photography skills. Or perhaps he just needs better equipment than an iPhone 6s iPhone 6s Review and Giveaway iPhone 6s Review and Giveaway Spoiler alert: if you like iPhones, you’re probably going to love the iPhone 6s. But are you really surprised? Read More. Either way, people following him on Twitter were quick to point out the flaws in this photo he tweeted from Super Bowl 50. It IS a bad photo, of that there is no doubt. However, he also tweeted other photos that came out just fine. We also don’t actually know what he used to shoot the photo with, but it’s much more fun if we imagine it’s an iPhone. Maybe he should just switch to Android Switching From iOS To Android? Here's What You Need To Know Switching From iOS To Android? Here's What You Need To Know Having recently decided to abandon my iPhone in favor of an HTC One X, I'm in the unique position of being "behind the enemy lines" already. If you're as frustrated as I am by Apple's... Read More already. [H/T The Verge] Your Views on Today’s Tech News Are you likely to start streaming torrents? How do you feel about Twitter’s proposed changes? What’s your degrees of separation score? What do you do to prevent malware infecting your system? Does Tim Cook deserve the roasting he’s getting? Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome. Tech News Digest is a daily column paring the technology news of the day down into bite-sized chunks that are easy to read and perfect for sharing. Image Credit: Stephen Dann via FlickrRepealing the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate could eventually leave 13 million more Americans uninsured and destabilize health insurance markets, critics warned, an outcome that could be especially bad for high-cost states like New Jersey. A wide array of healthcare advocates, insurance leaders, and policy experts joined forces Wednesday to oppose the latest addition to the Republican tax-reform plan under consideration in the U.S. Senate. The new amendment would eliminate the mandate, which triggers a tax penalty for those that don’t have healthcare coverage — a controversial element of the law that experts insist is essential for broad, affordable coverage. (A version of the tax plan in the U.S. House of Representatives does not include the mandate repeal.) Bad to worse The Senate proposal, which was approved by the Senate finance committee Wednesday, had already attracted the ire of the Garden State members, both Democrats. Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker said the addition of the individual-mandate repeal only made a bad tax bill even worse. Booker called it “an offense to basic fairness” and “bad economic policy” that will harm New Jerseyans and other hardworking Americans. “It’s like a wolf in wolf’s clothing,” Menendez tweeted Wednesday. Ray Castro, the healthcare policy analyst for New Jersey Policy Perspective, a progressive think tank that has tracked the ACA and the tax bill, said the latest version of the Senate bill is a “lose, lose” for the Garden State. “When the harm caused by this proposal is added to the Senate tax proposal,” he said, “the combined impact is disastrous.” Critics fear repealing the individual mandate would encourage younger, healthy people to avoid spending money on healthcare coverage. As these people drop out of the insurance pool, the concentration of sicker, more costly patients increases, driving up healthcare costs and the price of coverage for everyone. “Under current law, the individual mandate is one of the primary incentives for individuals to enroll in coverage,” wrote leaders from a diverse coalition: America’s Health Insurance Plans, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, and Federation of American Hospitals. “Broad and sustained enrollment contributes to affordable coverage as costs are shared across a larger pool of individuals,” the group wrote in a joint letter to Congressional leaders. Maintain the mandate “Eliminating the individual mandate by itself likely will result in a significant increase in premiums, which would in turn substantially increase the number of uninsured Americans,” they warned, urging Congress to maintain the mandate until it can enact comprehensive reforms to stabilize the system. The tax-bill measure is just the latest Republican attack on the ACA, or Obamacare, to rally opposition from a broad coalition of healthcare industry and patient advocacy groups. However, critics of the 2010 law, which extended coverage to more than 800,000 New Jeseyans, claim it has driven up costs, reduced options for insurance consumers, and harmed businesses on many levels. Earlier attempts to repeal and replace the act, which have been defeated in the House and Senate, also triggered a local legislative response. In July, a trio of state Democrats introduced a plan to create several new taxes — on investment income and payroll for some higher-earners — to replace several ACA-related federal levies that were threatened for repeal. (The bill has yet to see a hearing in either legislative house.) The latest tax bills in both the Senate and the House reduce tax rates on corporate earnings and personal income and scale back the estate tax. To help pay for these changes, the measures also call for eliminating most of the deductions for state and local taxes — an important offset for residents in high-tax states like New Jersey and New York. The elimination of the ACA mandate-related federal penalties is also being proposed as a cost-saver. How the changes would impact taxpayers depends on a number of factors, including income level, home ownership, family size and other factors. But according to Jon Whiten, vice-president of NJPP, the proposal could actually result in higher taxes for one out of four New Jersey residents. The push by GOP leaders in the Senate to include the individual-mandate repeal doesn’t sweeten the pot for a state like New Jersey, NJPP’s Castro and others said. Healthy residents may decide to opt out of coverage they purchase on the individual market, which includes subsidized commercial policies sold under the ACA, and now covers nearly 370,000 people here. Double-digit increases Consumers are already facing double-digit increases for some policies next year, due largely to uncertainty about the ACA’s future. Eliminating the mandate could drive up premium costs by another 10 percent, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which would add hundreds of dollars annually to healthcare costs for some 7 million middle-income Americans, and over $1,000 for some seniors. Castro said the costs could be even higher in New Jersey, given the fact that we have dozens of coverage mandates — patient protections that make insurance more expensive here — and a history of pricy policies. “Prior to the ACA, New Jersey had the highest premiums in the nation — this could happen again if the individual mandate is repealed,” Castro noted. “Rapidly rising premiums, in turn, would cause many people who are sick to abandon their insurance because they cannot afford it.” Nationwide, these changes would add 4 million people to the uninsured rolls by 2019, when the law would take effect, and at least 13 million by the end of the decade, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates. According to CBPP, the uninsured rate for non-elderly Americans would rise from 11 percent to 16 percent; in New Jersey, less than 8 percent of the population lacks insurance, the lowest level in recent history.We have a president who is now defending Nazis. Three days after blithely refusing to condemn white supremacists who murdered a woman by running her over with a car, and one day after issuing a halfhearted follow-up after some bewildered White House staffer told him that a key part of being President of the United States is saying that Nazis are bad, Donald Trump trotted out for a press conference this afternoon and angrily ripped this fragile, clumsy, multi-part response to shreds. I've watched a lot of the president's press conferences these last few months. This is the worst of the lot, and it isn't close. When asked about the "alt-right" groups that congregated to celebrate white supremacy in Charlottesville, Trump indignantly invoked the culpability of the club-wielding, bat-carrying, helmet-wearing "alt-left" in all of this. "What about the alt-left who came charging at the alt-right?" the president asked. "Do they have any semblance of guilt?" He characterized Friday night's torch-wielding goons as people protesting "very quietly." He noted multiple times that the men walking the streets chanting "Blood and Soil!" had a permit, whereas the counterprotesters did not. Yes, in the year of our Lord 2017, the President of the United States shrugged his shoulders at hate-motivated violence and suggested that the real problem is that Americans repudiating Nazism should have registered with the city first. There is another side. There was a group on this side—you can call them the left, you just called them the left—that came violently attacking the other group. You can say what you want, but that’s the way it is. It's tempting to label this episode as some variety of "crazy," or "insane," or "deranged," or any of the other hyperbolic words we often wryly employ to explain away disturbing behavior we don't fully understand. Not now, though. Donald Trump snapped on Tuesday, revealing himself to be a deeply angry, bitter, and broken man who endured 72 hours of blistering criticism and then finally decided, Fuck this and fuck you and fuck everyone, I'm going to say exactly what I think. It was a cartoonishly disgraceful display of cowardice from a spiritually tiny person, and yet the implications of his inflammatory rhetoric for the future of this country, at a time when gleeful white supremacists are more emboldened than they've felt in decades, are too frightening to earn even the grimmest and most nihilistic of chuckles. The garish mask that this president wears to hide his fear, his ineptitude, and his crippling mediocrity has been wearing increasingly thin of late, held delicately together by an endless stream of "clarifying statements" issued from his circle of apologists after each progressively more unsettling day. This was its grand undoing, and although it might get stitched together eventually—Donald Trump has certainly wriggled his way out of a pickle before—we saw him today for who he really is, even if only for a few minutes: a trapped, wounded animal who senses his nascent presidency already slipping from his grasp, and who will say and do anything to hold onto it. This country is in the midst of a national emergency, and for so long as the White House's occupant is willing to offer a full-throated defense of people proudly marching under swastikas, it's going to get worse before it gets better. Watch Now:The US administration’s tax plan is not a plan. It is a mélange of ideas put forth without precision or arithmetic. It is not clear enough to permit the kind of careful quantitative analysis of budget costs, economic impacts and distributional implications that precedes legislation in a serious country. It is clear enough to demonstrate that the claims of Steven Mnuchin, Treasury secretary, Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, and Kevin Hassett, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, are some combination of ignorant, disingenuous and dishonest. I have strong disagreements on tax policy with Republican economists like Greg Mankiw, Glenn Hubbard and Martin Feldstein and with Treasury alumni like Nick Brady, John Snow and Hank Paulson. Nothing I have ever heard or read from them seems absurd or dishonest in the way that almost everything coming out of this administration has that character. We know enough to know that a tax reform plan along the lines of the administration’s sketch will not substantially increase growth, will blow out the budget deficit and will make America an even more unequal place. The administration pushes the idea that cutting the corporate tax rate will spur investment. It is certainly possible that with a lower rate, accountants will locate more corporate income in the US but a big spur to investment seems very unlikely. With long-term interest rates well below 2 per cent, the stock market sky high and business able to write off investments immediately, capital costs have never been lower. For tax cuts to pay for themselves, as Mr Mnuchin sometimes asserts, they would have to massively spur growth True, there is much cash parked outside the US. But almost all the companies with large cash holdings outside the US also have cash hoards in the US that they choose not to invest. The first order impact of a “territorial system” that renounces a US tax claim to corporations’ overseas income will be to encourage the relocation of productive activity from America to tax-haven jurisdictions, and so to slow US growth. It should not be forgotten that the most rapid growth in gross domestic product that the US has seen took place in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when top tax rates were nearly twice as high as now. Those rates were surely too high and punitive rates would be a huge mistake in the current context. Yet it is absurd to suggest that reductions from current levels will call forth some renaissance of hard work. What about the budget deficit? In order for tax cuts to pay for themselves, as Mr Mnuchin sometimes asserts, they would have to massively spur growth. Since it is unlikely they will have any important effect on growth, they will bloat the budget deficit at a time when we should be preparing for the next downturn, for rising entitlement costs, and potentially for the need for increased national security spending. It is worse than this. Many in the administration’s orbit have expressed the belief that the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing programme has inflated asset prices. If so, increasing the supply of bonds should have a significant depressing impact on asset prices and the economy. Any possible supply-side benefits of the tax programme have to be weighed against the damping impact of future deficits on economic growth. Finally, there is the question of fairness. Those secure in their beliefs do not, as Mr Mnuchin did, seek to de-publish studies by apolitical civil servants. There is very little doubt among serious economists that the immediate impact of corporate tax cuts would be to help corporations and that the vast majority of corporate shareholding is concentrated among those at the top of the income and wealth distribution. Anyone in doubt about fairness should note that the administration chooses to exclude the estate tax from discussion when it considers fairness and is unwilling, as all previous Treasuries have been, to present a revenue and distributional analysis of its plan. This week the world’s finance ministers and central bank governors will gather in Washington for the annual International Monetary Fund-World Bank meetings. These meetings used to be a time when the US urged other countries to respect the laws of economics and arithmetic in formulating economic policies. This time the lecturing should go in the opposite direction. The international community should make sure that US officials have a very uncomfortable week. Just possibly, that will be enough to get the administration economic team to consult their consciences as well as their Twitter accounts. The writer is Charles W Eliot university professor at Harvard and a former US Treasury secretary1 of 7 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Do the actors in FX’s ‘American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson’ look the part? View Photos Do the actors in FX’s ‘American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson’ look the part? Some well-known Hollywood actors step into the roles of O.J., Marcia Clark and others. Caption Some well-known Hollywood actors step into the roles of O.J., Marcia Clark and others. O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney Robert Shapiro is played by John Travolta. Kevin Karzin/AP; FX Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. Here’s a strange blessing for our times: May you live long enough to see a sensationally overblown news event that you can still vividly recall turned into a very good and even powerfully thoughtful TV miniseries a couple of decades later. For, as creator Ryan Murphy and his collaborators on FX’s masterful “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” are quick to remind us old fogies, many viewers will be coming to this material fresh. “American Crime Story” begins Tuesday from a square-one approach, assuming that anyone under 30 is only vaguely aware that, once upon a time in the dial-up modem days, a retired professional football star was arrested and charged with murdering his ex-wife and a restaurant employee with whom she was casually acquainted. It happened in June 1994, and by the time of O.J. Simpson’s acquittal 16 months later (oops, spoiler alert), American culture had unwittingly but necessarily entered a new kind of conversation about race, justice and the media — a conversation that remains an important precursor to the #BlackLivesMatter era. It’s easy for some of us to regard the Simpson saga as a spent narrative, picked apart and talked to death, but “American Crime Story” makes an effective, convincing case that now is a perfect time to turn the story into a piece of topical art. “The People v. O.J. Simpson” isn’t flawless, and it probably won’t stand up to the sort of factual scrutiny that still swirls around its subject matter, but it is ambitiously imagined, surprisingly responsible and practically unerring in tone and pace. There are stumbles, sure — first and foremost the decision to cast Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson. Gooding is a talented actor who nevertheless lacks the physical and symbolic heft and presence of the fallen hero. Gooding, who typically plays an entirely different and louder sort of “big,” has to tamp down his usual energy in order to play a sullen and egocentric man known to friends as “Juice.” Six episodes in, the viewer will probably have accepted all of the other actors as their real-life counterparts — except Gooding. Kenneth Choi as Lance Ito, the judge who presided over the O.J. Simpson trial. (Michael Becker/FX Networks) John Travolta as Robert Shapiro. (Michael Becker/FX Networks). But perhaps that’s not as crucial as it seems, since “The People v. O.J. Simpson” treats its star defendant (as well as the status of his guilt or innocence) as a secondary concern. From its first few scenes (a primer on the post-Rodney King mood of Los Angeles; the early-morning howls of the worried Akita; the bloody bodies crumpled on the Brentwood walkway), the series announces itself as more than just a melodramatic exercise in stunt-casting and campy revision — which would be easy to expect, given Murphy’s imprimatur. Although “The People v. O.J. Simpson” has 10 episodes with which to allow the saga some sprawl, it’s clear that theme and arc are perhaps more important than making sure every twist and turn in the story of record are covered. At the same time, quite a number of the case’s key elements are touched upon, inside and outside the courtroom. (The source material is journalist and author Jeffrey Toobin’s 1996 book, “The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson”; Toobin also serves as a consultant to the show.) [14 reality stars who exist today because of the O.J. Simpson trial] The series steadily ruminates on the subject of fame itself, as Simpson’s B-list celebrity status subsumes his acquaintances, defense attorneys, the prosecutors, the family members of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, the witnesses, the reporters, the jury members and court personnel. (Even Judge Lance Ito, played by Kenneth Choi, falls prey to the trial’s allure.) In one episode, Simpson’s friend Robert Kardashian (David Schwimmer), who also serves as one of his many “dream team” attorneys, takes his children to brunch, where they are dazzled by the fact that the hostess recognizes him and offers the family a prime table while other customers wait. Kardashian (who died in 2003) offers his brood (Kim, Khloe — you know) a cautionary word about those who seek fame. It falls on deaf ears. It’s a moment that is almost too delicious in its irony and resonance. [A complete guide to kardashians in the O.J. Simpson miniseries] “American Crime Story” is conceived as an anthology series (meaning it will tackle a different tale in future seasons, like Murphy’s bloody thrill rides in “American Horror Story”), but it almost has more in common with the film adaptation Murphy directed for HBO of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart.” This take on O.J., executive-produced and developed by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (“The People vs. Larry Flynt), is fully committed to the idea that context is everything. Boy, is it ever. The real attraction in this story was always the legal maneuverings, which make even more sense with a couple of decades of hindsight. John Travolta, whose comebacks tend to occur in 20-year cycles, has a ball covering his face in even thicker makeup than usual, playing Robert Shapiro, the vainglorious attorney who wisely senses that some early mistakes by L.A. police and prosecutors have opened a window into the flammable subject of race. Is it possible, Shapiro wonders, to portray his client, who has for all appearances assiduously avoided identifying with African Americans, as a victim of discrimination? Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran. (FX, Fox 21 TVS, FXP). Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark. (FX, Fox 21 TVS, FXP). Enter the legendary defense attorney Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance, in a knockout performance), who not only takes that bet but wrests control of the case from Shapiro — and everyone else. In Episode 5, titled (of course) “The Race Card,” the series goes deep on Cochran’s background and style, contrasted with the inner conflict experienced by Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown), a prosecutor who must always wonder whether his role in the case is merely symbolic — and if so, symbolic of what? What comes across is the inexorable, unrestrained chaos that was the Simpson trial. This is particularly true in “The People v. O.J. Simpson’s” and Sarah Paulson’s exquisitely painful take on lead prosecutor Marcia Clark, who, in the trial’s permanent lore, must shoulder not only the burden of proof (the series once again shows us just how much proof should have been there; how open-and-shut the case first seemed) but also the burden of utter failure. [How the O.J. Simpson murder trial 20 years ago changed the media landscape] Perspective and context mean everything here, too, as viewers experience Clark’s naivete about her own sudden notoriety and how the media tore apart not only her courtroom performance but every aspect of her appearance, while she privately endured a bitter custody battle with her exhusband. (It’s a total Murphy touch that an episode about her is titled “Marcia Marcia Marcia,” as if to say that it’s hard to resist teasing her, even now.) Was she that bad at her job? Was she also a victim? Sometimes good television about past events can make time travel seem almost possible. If you lived it the first go-around, you’ll probably be amazed at how “The People v. O.J. Simpson” sucks you right back in, even if you believed yourself immune or permanently numb to its circumstances and outcome. And if this is all new to you (or like the hook in some old pop tune you can’t quite identify), then perhaps you’ll take to the social networks and start the debate all over again, with new insight and perspective. Given the degree to which it left so many of us feeling outraged or misunderstood, this story could use some fresh meaning. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (one hour) premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. on FX.As anyone can tell by my icon, I am, in fact, a chess player. In chess, we have what’s called “book moves”. For instance, if I play 1. d4 with white and my opponent responds 1… d5, the “book move” would be to play 2. c4, a Queen’s Gambit opening. Thankfully, a number of websites offer a Game Explorer, where players can sort through millions of games played by masters over the past few centuries. This essentially generates “book” moves for nearly every situation imaginable. Therefore, I asked myself – “What is the most book game ever played?” We’ll start with chess.com, which claims that Metz Hartmut vs. Hanisch Joerg 1997 is the most “book” game. http://www.chess.com/games/view?id=820428 The Game Explorer recommended a Sicilian defense (1. e4 c5). The game evolves into the Najdorf variation, which can be seen in full here: http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/B99_Sicilian_Defense_Najdorf_Variation_Main_Line After Black plays what looks like suboptimal knight runaway, he threatens the queen, which White dodges with a rook check. The lone game takes over when Hartmut opts for 22. h3, threatening the bishop. Several moves later, Hartmut takes control with a queen/rook fork by the knight. Down a knight and with a pawn on the seventh rank, Joerg resigned. 365chess.com, with over 3,000,000 games in its database, opts otherwise. They agree with the Sicilian, Najdorf, however they recommend an Opovcensky variation. Most notably, both sides castle kingside rather than queenside. After eleven moves, both sides are rather parallel. All four bishops are lined up on the e file. However, white’s and black’s knight position differs. White has more active rook play, getting a rook in line with the queen on move 13. After an incredibly closed position, the game appears to be drawn. However, Black improves his position by keeping the bishop in its place after a loop (15. Bf3 Qc7 16. Be2 Qc6). The most “book” game breaks off at 18. h3 (a few moves earlier), and our winner is Xiaowen Zhang vs. Huang Qian, a match between two female Chinese masters on April 28, 2009: http://www.365chess.com/view_game.php?g=3694092 Zhang repeats a similar loop a few moves later and the game is drawn. Ironically, Qian had the same position after seventeen moves as black – that time, she beat Irine Kharisma Sukandar in the Philippines… less than one month later. http://www.365chess.com/view_game.php?g=3693205 For the chess-savvy, I set up an exhibition with my Windows desktop and my Mac laptop. Windows, on white, was running Chess Titans at hardest difficulty, while Mac, on black, was running Chess at hardest difficulty. I should add that the Mac took significantly longer (often times 10 minutes to Windows’ 1 minute) to move. This was the result: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.a3 Be6 6.e3 dxe3 7.Qxd8+ Rxd8 8.Bxe3 Nge7 9.Nc3 a6 10.Be2 Ng6 11.Bg5 Rd7 12.O-O Ncxe5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.b3 Bc5 15.Rfc1 O-O 16.a4 Nc6 17.Bf3 Nd4 18.Bd1 Re8 19.h4 Be7 20.Bxe7 Rdxe7 21.Ne2 Nf5 22.h5 Bd7 23.Rc2 Re5 24.f4 Re4 25.Rd2 Bc6 26.Raa2 Ne3 27.Bc2 R4e6 28.Nd4 Rd6 29.c5 Rd5 30.h6 gxh6 31.b4 Ng4 32.Ra1 Rxd4? 33.Rxd4 Re2 34.Rd8+ Kg7 35.Be4?? Bxe4 36.Kf1 Rxg2! 37.Ra3 Rb2 38.Rc8 Bf3 39.Ke1 Re2+ 40.Kf1 Nh2+ 41.Kg1 Rg2+ 42.Kh1 Ra2+ 43.Kg1 Rxa3 44.Kxh2 Rxa4 45.b5 axb5 46.Rxc7 b4 47.Kg3 Be4 48.Rd7 b3 49.Rd2 Bc2!? 50.Kf3 b2 51.Rg2+ Kf6 52.Rg1 Ra1 53.Kg2 Bd1 54.Rh1 b1=Q 55.Rxh6+ Kg7 56.Kg3 Qd3+ 57.Kh4 Ra3 58.Kg5 Qd8+ 59.Kf5 Qd5# I had intended on playing several more games, but this game alone took nearly six hours. I think I’ll stick to watching real people play chess. Or, on the other hand… AdvertisementsNEW DELHI: An expert panel of the National Green Tribunal told the environment court that the Rs 120 crore penalty it recommended against Art of Living Foundation for holding its World Culture Festival on the Yamuna floodplains in March had no scientific basis.“It was not based on any scientific assessment,“ wrote Shashi Shekhar, water resources secretary, who headed the panel. Shekhar described the estimate that Rs 120 crore would be needed to repair the likely damage as “tentative“ and a “spontaneous suggestion“, which got elevated as a “recommendation“ because of an “inadvertent mistake“. This inadvertent mistake was largely due to the fact that I was running high fever and could not see the entire report prepared by the experts,“ Shashi Shekhar, head of an NGT panel, wrote to the environment court.Significantly, Shekhar wrote this letter to the NGT on March 3, eight days before the AOL event got under way.The panel, comprising experts and environmentalists C R Babu, A K Gosain and Brij Gopal, had submitted its report to NGT on February 22.Clarifying the stand, Shekhar had said while members of the panel did discuss imposition of Rs 120 crore penalty on the AOL, he did not endorse the experts' view (on the amount) and had, instead, suggested that the organiser must restore the Yamuna floodplains after the festival, with the experts assessing the cost of the repair job.In his letter to the NGT chairman, the water resources secretary wrote, “I had not endorsed the view (putting a fine of Rs 120 crore on AOL) and, instead, suggested that after the festival is over, the organizer must restore the Yamuna floodplain, the cost of which is to be scientifically assessed and the restoration should take place under the supervision of the committee as constituted by NGT. Rs 120 crore as assessed by experts was tentative and the figure emerged as a spontaneous suggestion. It was not based on any scientific assessment.“The entire idea was to ensure that the Yamuna floodplain is restored to the original condition and the organiser must bear the cost which should be assessed by experts.“Shekhar suggested that the NGT consider “this view as the recommendation rather than the ad hoc figure of Rs 120 crore as the cost of restoration which did not have any scientific basis“.The AOL has disputed the recommendation and has asked the NGT to set up a new panel of experts to examine whether the World Culture Festival resulted in damage to the Yamuna floodplains.Environmentalists had protested AOL's event and approached the green court demanding cancellation of the festival. Though the NGT had refused to stay the event at that stage citing time constraint, it fined the organisation Rs 5 crore for `environmental damage', saying a final amount would be decided by a courtappointed `principal committee'. The NGT had, during the hearing, also said the fine was an interim one and its panel had suggested a much higher amount (Rs 120 crore) to be recovered from AOL.Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. Israel should agree to nuclear disarmament for its own sake, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War co-president Dr. Ira Helfand told the Knesset in the Israeli Disarmament Movement’s first-ever conference in the legislature. Several coalition and opposition MKs spoke out against nuclear weapons at the conference with the leader of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization. The Jerusalem Post “The current political reality looks like an attempt to hit a wall, when it comes to nuclear war,” MK Dov Henin (Hadash) said. “It’s essential to understand that use of nuclear weapons will have terrible results for those using them and not only their target. The conclusion is that it is necessary to urgently find alternatives, like promoting disarmament in the entire Middle East.”MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud Beytenu) explained that the Torah calls for life over death, which means fighting evil, like Iran. “We need to find a middle ground between total disarmament and the
forests is the stubborn dependence of the Leadbeater’s possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) on the accessibility of a very specific mix of moderately mature eucalyptus trees and wattle (Acacia). This nondescript, nocturnal, squirrel-like marsupial, closely related to the watery-eyed, frenetic, more publicly familiar sugar gliders, is now found only in a tiny stretch of forested uplands in central Victoria. It is a victim of the punctuated, but extensive, loss of mountain ashes old enough to have tree-holes as a daytime refuge (because apparently nocturnal animals aren’t big into the whole good ol’ vitamin sunshine thing); cataclysmic fires in the region, paired with regular clearcutting, have decimated available habitat for the possum in recent years, causing a drop to an estimated 1000 remaining animals in the wild. That may seem like a lot of Leadbeater’s possums left in the world, but in reality, a series of marginally inferno-y summers could evict these little guys off the planet for good. Considering that every single individual alive is now constricted to an area smaller than that of metropolitan L.A., the idea of them getting snuffed out by a bad case of climactic heartburn, or indirectly through a temporary spike in the price of mountain ash timber, doesn’t seem all that ridiculous. If you aren’t yet feeling a bit morose about the possum’s likely eventual, brutal blaze-and-blade initiated gentrification into oblivion, please consider that Gymnobelideus leadbeateri continuously makes a face like you just stole food out of its mouth and told it its birthday was canceled: Here, the equation is simple. No mountain ash = no Leadbeater’s possum. No Leadbeater’s possum = no inspiration for a new Pokemon in the next series of games. No new Pokemon = I actually have to grow up and begin behaving like a fully functioning adult human. This is an unspeakable tragedy. The other reason the loss of mountain ash forests is worrisome, in particular the old-growth forests full of the largest trees, is that gargantuan trees are uniquely suited for siphoning off the carbon dioxide pollution responsible for global climate change, and converting it back into biomass. Forests, more broadly, are the truthfully important engines on land for grabbing carbon out of the atmosphere and incorporating it into new growth…but for the world’s largest trees (like mountain ash and redwoods), with an increase in size and age, that capacity for transforming greenhouse gases into board feet of lumber climbs in scale almost exponentially. Rather than slowing down and taking it easy on the growth as they enter retirement age, the world’s giant tree species appear to do the opposite, ratcheting up their efficiency as a “carbon sink” and accelerating their carbon mass gain. Big trees, not unlike humans, tend to pack on the pounds faster in their golden years. Since one big, ancient mountain ash or redwood far more adequately gobbles up greenhouse pollutants year to year than a stand of dozens of smaller, more junior trees, we should start considering the last remaining fragments of old-growth forest, specifically, as a minor means of mitigating some of the output of global carbon dioxide emissions; these exemplary trees are worth saving as both crucial, ecosystem-influencing habitat for scores of other species, as well as a drain on the atmosphere-bound outflow of greenhouse gases. It’s important to note that mountain ash specifically has been shown to have groves that are estimated to be the most carbon-dense in the world, hinting at their potential as especially effective carbon traps. If we lose the biggest mountain ashes, we simultaneously shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit on combating climate change. Since we now recognize the utility of incredibly large trees as veritable carbon vacuums, we would be wise to understand the scope of what kind of a loss it would be to have these plants fade into extinction. Mountain ash, as a species, seems to be holding on (for now), but the coast redwood was, depressingly, newly included in 2013’s IUCN Red List as an endangered species, still in decline from human harvesting and encroachment. We are just now starting to understand the most tenuous, subtle relationships between the most massive organisms (among which the mountain ash is a prime example) to ever evolve on Earth, and their surrounding neighbors…both in a direct, ecological framework, and indirectly through recycling climate-altering carbon dioxide. Hastening our pace on keeping the Tallest Trees in the South, or the North, or wherever, from collectively biting the dust at our own misguided and careless hand does far more than save some of the handsome hiking and photography locales we supposedly love so much…it also avoids a world of ecological pain. Because that’s the thing about really big trees, evidently; the taller they are, the harder they fall. Image credits: introduction image of E. regnans, rainbow eucalyptus, mountain ash with cars, logging photo, Leadbeater’s possum © Jacob Buehler and “Shit You Didn’t Know About Biology”, 2012-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jacob Buehler and “Shit You Didn’t Know About Biology” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. AdvertisementsIt’s not easy being Mayor of the Capital city of the wealthiest state in the country. But Michael Pantelides is that guy; and he is running for a second term. The Maryland Crabs sat down with “Mayor” Pantelides a bit ago, and now we talk to “Candidate” Pantelides and see how he plans to win a second term. He pulls no punches with one of his Democrat opponents, Senator John Astle (who we spoke with as well). He lays out his vision for the environment and the business community. He discusses his upcoming book “The Book of Bad Ideas” (J/K), and his frustration when people interrupt him during one of the few times he can take his “Mayor’s Hat” off. The elections are coming up, so make sure you catch all of our upcoming episodes–we will be all over it! Make sure you follow Mayor Michael Pantelides all over the place including: NOTE: John edited this episode while tired…so if it is not up to the par of Tim’s outstanding editing–now you know why! And a special thanks to our sponsors this week including… Union Jacks and a thanks again to Governor Hogan for the plug! Thank you to everyone who wrote with suggestions for upcoming episodes. We are on it. Coming up — Alex Pline, an advocate for biking in Maryland and a member of the Annapolis Transportation Board talks about the changes with parking in Annapolis, Maryland Comptroller, Peter Franchot who pulls no punches wth the legislature. Travis Pastrana will be here, the developer behind one of the most controversial projects in Annapolis, and…. well that woudl spoil it…just subscribe and be surprised! BIG NEWS: We are now on the app tunein. So if you use tunein…well… tune in. As an added bonus, if you have an Amazon Echo—you can say “Alexa, play The Maryland Crabs Podcast” and she will fetch the latest episode from tunein. How cool is that? We are also now on iHeartRADIO! So if you listen to iHeartRADIO, you can listen, rate, share, subscribe, favorite right there. Here’s the direct link! If you are just joining us…. make sure you check out some (or all) of our previous episodes? You really should. They could change your life. Granted, your life would have to be pretty bad. But still, we have some gems you will want to check out! Most recently…. Rushern Baker, III, the Prince George’s County Executive sat down with us to talk about how well the County is doing after being pretty much at the bottom of the barrel. His predecessor was indicted, arrested, and served time in prison for corruption, the murder rate was out of control, and because the FBI was still investigating people, he had to fire the entire management of the county and start fresh! Now we talk MGM Grand, Harborplace, Westphalia, and that time his mom called him to make sure he wasn’t the one in jail. the Prince George’s County Executive sat down with us to talk about how well the County is doing after being pretty much at the bottom of the barrel. His predecessor was indicted, arrested, and served time in prison for corruption, the murder rate was out of control, and because the FBI was still investigating people, he had to fire the entire management of the county and start fresh! Now we talk MGM Grand, Harborplace, Westphalia, and that time his mom called him to make sure he wasn’t the one in jail. Gavin Buckley comes back to the Crabs now that his campaign is in full swing and lays out his vision for Annapolis as he looks to unseat the incumbent Mayor, Mike Pantelides in this year’s election! Can an Aussie handle an American colonial town? Put a shrimp on the barbie, grab some vegamite and have a listen! now that his campaign is in full swing and lays out his vision for Annapolis as he looks to unseat the incumbent Mayor, Mike Pantelides in this year’s election! Can an Aussie handle an American colonial town? Put a shrimp on the barbie, grab some vegamite and have a listen! Chase Cook. He’s the eyes and ears of The Capital for the City of Annapolis and he sat down and talked about the firing of the Annapolis Police Chief, the issue with public housing, undocumented residents, and the Mayor’s chance to win re-election! He’s the eyes and ears of The Capital for the City of Annapolis and he sat down and talked about the firing of the Annapolis Police Chief, the issue with public housing, undocumented residents, and the Mayor’s chance to win re-election! Working the Chesapeake Bay. We sat with Mary Ewenson who is the publisher of Prop Talk and Spin Sheet and sits on the Board of the Eastport Yacht Club Foundation to talk about working on the Bay. What jobs are there now and in the future. Also the Marine and Maritime Trades Career Fair that is happening on February 25th. . We sat with Mary Ewenson who is the publisher of Prop Talk and Spin Sheet and sits on the Board of the Eastport Yacht Club Foundation to talk about working on the Bay. What jobs are there now and in the future. Also the Marine and Maritime Trades Career Fair that is happening on February 25th. Annapolis Mayor Mike Pantelides talks about firing long-time chief of police Mike Pristoop, some of his accomplishments in his first three years and what he might hope to accomplish in a second terms if the voters will have him again! Oh hell…just go back and listen to the ones you haven’t heard! And PLEASE be sure to tell your friends about us! Better yet, go to iTunes or Google Play or iHeartRADIO and subscribe to our podcast and have them automatically delivered to your phone every time there is a new episode. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! HELPFUL LINKS Wanna touch base? Got a suggestion? Criticism? Want to be a guest? Have an idea for a guest? …send us an email at info@themarylandcrabs.com You can also hit us up on Twitter at @MDCrabsPodcast. We have no lives, so hearing from listeners really makes our day. PLEASE Click to rate us and leave a comment on Google Play or iTunes! That would go a long way to getting our podcast out there! While you are there—why not subscribe and have it delivered right to your device? If you want to find us, click on the links below: Personally, on Twitter, find Tim at @timhamilton47 and John at @eyeonannapolisA woman has been appointed by the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to lead a new all-female battalion in Syria,the al-Arabiya news site quoted an activist as saying on Sunday. Nada al-Qahtani who joined the group after leaving Saudi Arabia in 2013 is said to have lead the all-female modesty police, al-Khansaa Brigade in the group's de-facto capital of Raqqa in Syria. Another leader of the group is believed to be Britain Aqsa Mahmood who disappeared from her home in Glasgow in November 2014, and flew to Syria to marry an IS fighter. According to al-Arabiya, al-Qahtani, who along with Mahmood led an estimated 800 girls in the brigade will now supposedly lead a new branch of the brigade in the Syrian province of Hasakeh after meeting with Baghdadi twice. The female fighter “is now present in Hasakah… and she plays a prominent role on the level of communicating with foreign fighters,” al-Arabiya quoted the activist as saying. While the all-female IS battalion led by al-Qahtani is a new step for the group, it is not the be the first all-female fighting in Syria. In December, i24news reported on an all-female Christian female militia battling IS in Hasakeh who following in the footsteps of Syria's other main female force battling the jihadists -- the women of the YPJ, the female counterpart to the Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG. Meanwhile, aid groups hope to use the lull in fighting that has claimed 270,000 lives and displaced more than half the population to deliver desperately-needed supplies. United Nations Resident Coordinator in Damascus Yacoub El Hillo said in a statement on Sunday that the UN and other aid organizations hope to use the ceasefire to deliver aid to an estimated 154,000 Syrians in besieged areas in the next five days. "It is the best opportunity that the Syrian people have had over the last five years for lasting peace and stability," he added. The UN estimates there are close to 500,000 people living under siege and another 4.6 million who are in need of aid who live hard to reach areas. Read more: Under the veil in RaqqaBarclays has announced that it will start testing bitcoin, citing the digital currency's "potential to change financial services". Derek White, the UK bank's chief design and digital officer, told the Sunday Times that a partnership with a bitcoin exchange had been sought following research into cryptocurrency in its London offices. The unnamed bitcoin exchange will assist charities looking to accept bitcoin as a payment method, though no further details were given. Barclays did not respond to a request for comment from IBTimes UK by the time of publication. Two separate spaces are used by Barclays for bitcoin and blockchain research, one in Notting Hill and the other in Old Street. An area in Whitechapel is also used for "inviting start-ups, academics, the government, to work at the space to connect with others that are interested in the bitcoin and blockchain community", the Sunday Times reported. Earlier this year, the UK government announced plans to invest £10 million into a bitcoin research initiative as part of its 2015 budget. The funding followed a call for information about digital currencies in November 2014 that garnered responses from UK banks, including HSBC. "The government recognises that the technology associated with digital currencies offers considerable promise, making it possible for users to transfer value (or other information) quickly, efficiently and securely, providing a permanent record of what has taken place, and without the need for a trusted third party to oversee the process" the government's report stated. "The government considers that digital currencies, when used legitimately, offer an innovative, alternative payment option, which competes with existing payment models and has particularly clear short-term advantages for micro-payments, overseas remittances and cross-border trade."Kim Jong-un escalated his inflammatory response to a new round of United Nations sanctions by ordering troops on the border with South Korea to prepare for war. Mr Kim chose a highly sensitive location for his address to North Korean troops, visiting military positions facing the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, where a North Korean bombardment killed four people and wounded 19 in 2010. Mr Kim “stressed the need for the soldiers to keep themselves fully ready to go into action to annihilate the enemy”. The country’s official news agency added that, if war broke out, he “instructed them to deal deadly blows at the enemies”. Mr Kim’s open talk of a new Korean war came after his regime threatened America with a “pre-emptive” nuclear strike. The belligerence came in response to the unanimous vote in the UN Security Council on Thursday to impose further economic sanctions. These measures followed North Korea’s third test of a nuclear bomb last month. In addition, Mr Kim has ended the hot-line between North and South, which was designed to defuse crises, and renounced various non-aggression pacts between the two countries. Despite all the posturing, experts believe that North Korea is highly unlikely to start a war. South Korea benefits from a US security guarantee, meaning that Mr Kim would almost certainly lose any conflict. North Korea has a small nuclear arsenal, but it does not yet have an operational missile capable of striking the US. A spokesman for South Korea’s defence ministry pointed out: “If North Korea attacks South Korea with a nuclear weapon, Kim Jong-un’s regime will perish from the Earth.” He added that “mankind would not forgive” the use of nuclear weapons “against a free and democratic society”. President Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s newly elected leader, described the situation as “very grave”, adding that she would “deal strongly with North Korea’s provocations”. Daniel Pinkston, from the International Crisis Group in Seoul, said North Korea’s objective was not to start a war but to coerce the US and other countries to back down from the sanctions. “It’s a game of brinkmanship and they keep ratcheting up the pressure in the hope that the other side will cave in,” he said. The biggest danger was that fighting could break out by accident as both sides raised their alert level. “Somewhere along the line, there could be a mistake,” he said. China joined the US to vote in favour of the UN Resolution 2094, which imposed the latest sanctions on North Korea. The foreign ministry in Beijing on Friday urged “calm and restraint” from all sides, adding: “The current situation on the peninsula is highly complex and sensitive.” China’s patience with North Korea appears to be wearing thin. Zhang Liangui, a Korea expert at the Central Party School, which trains communist cadres, said the fact that North Korea had chosen to press ahead regardless of Chinese objections and international pressure “shows their internal policy, and their policy to the outside world, is hardening”.UPDATE: George Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the special prosecutor for the case announced. He is currently being held in custody after turning himself in to authorities. PREVIOUSLY: George Zimmerman will reportedly be charged in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, according to the Washington Post. NBC News confirms the report. On Tuesday night, Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey told reporters that she would hold a news conference with an announcement on the case within 72 hours. According to a law enforcement official close to the investigation, Corey's office plans to announce that she is charging the neighborhood watch volunteer at a press conference Wednesday at 6 p.m., and an arrest is expected soon. It was not made clear what specific charges Zimmerman would face. ABC reports that investigators still don't know Zimmerman's whereabouts. The news of the impending announcement came shortly after a bizarre press conference in which Zimmerman's lawyers said they no longer represent him, claiming he has repeatedly rebuffed their legal advice and that they had lost contact with him. "As of now we are withdrawing as counsel for Mr. Zimmerman," Craig Sonner, one of his attorneys, told reporters outside the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Fla. "He's gone on his own. I'm not sure what he's doing or who he's talking to, but at this point we're withdrawing as counsel. If he wants us to come back as counsel, he will contact us." Protesters around the country have held rallies calling for Zimmerman's arrest, and a fringe group put a $10,000 bounty on his head, prompting him to go into hiding over concerns that he is in physical danger. Although Sonner maintained that Zimmerman was "still in the United States," Hal Uhrig, another of Zimmerman's former attorneys, said that Zimmerman was not in the state where the fatal confrontation took place. "You can stop looking in Florida," he told reporters. "Look much further away than that." Zimmerman said he killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, on Feb. 26 in the gated community where the girlfriend of the teenager's father lived in Sanford. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, called 911 and told a police dispatcher that Martin, who was returning from a trip to a nearby convenience store, "looked suspicious." After an altercation, Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest. He told the local police that he shot Martin in self-defense, and was not arrested or charged. Corey announced earlier this week that she would not convene a grand jury in the case. Experts familiar with Corey's background say she has a reputation for avoiding grand juries in cases in which they are unnecessary. Under Florida law, murder charges can only be issued by a grand jury. Zimmerman may face other charges in the shooting death, including manslaughter and assault.Please enable Javascript to watch this video MILWAUKEE -- A Milwaukee woman is supposed to start taking college classes in January. While she says nothing can stop her, she can be slowed. Earlier this week, Rayquetta Lawrence's routine went from difficult to devastating. "I have to do what I have to do, because I gotta go get my money," Lawrence said. Cerebral palsy is no match for the 19-year-old woman, who does not let the condition keep her from being active. "Very confident. Very independent. And that's the type of person that I am," Lawrence said. A few days ago, her cousin helped Lawrence get to her job at Sam's Club -- and her special seat was stolen. "I pretty much have to have a power chair," Lawrence said. "First, I thought my cousin was joking. I'm like, 'the chair is not outside,' and 'no. It's really not outside. Somebody took it from behind the fence.' And 'yeah, it's really not outside, anymore,'" Lawrence said. Lawrence filed a police report and most certainly has rolled on. But she said she's concerned about the approaching winter. "This is about to get really difficult -- with the snow, and I gotta have people push me. This is about to get really -- this is about to get hard. But I mean, there's a lot of stuff I can get past. I been through a lot worse than this," Lawrence said. Lawrence said her mother, who lives in Texas, has been trying to get her daughter to join her for months. But Lawrence has tried to maintain her independence, and make it on her own here in Milwaukee. However, after this crime, she said she's reconsidering -- and may be making a move. If you're interested in contributing to Lawrence's effort to replace her wheelchair, CLICK HERE.EU faces further fragmentation with hardline PM saying it could not impose quotas against will of Hungary parliament Hungary has called an anti-immigration referendum aimed at stopping Brussels and Berlin forcing it to take in refugees under any EU quota schemes. The hardline prime minister, Viktor Orbán, called the plebiscite – and is certain to win it – in a preemptive strike against the European commission and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who are pushing for a permanent EU refugee quota system. The proposals will be fought over at two EU summits within three weeks. Already divided over what to do about mass immigration, the EU faces further fragmentation on the issue as governments rush to impose national border controls from central Europe down to the Balkans, leaving Greece as the entry and end point for many migrants entering the EU from Turkey. Orbán’s move also confirms fears in Brussels that David Cameron’s resort to a referendum to obtain policy changes in Brussels would prove contagious, with Eurosceptic governments calling national votes to resist EU policies they oppose. Orbán said the EU could not impose immigrant quotas on Hungary against the will of the the country’s parliament, which he controls completely through a sweeping majority of his Fidesz party. It was clear the referendum question would be loaded to reflect that argument. The question on the ballot paper will ask whether “you are in favour of the EU being allowed to make the settlement of non-Hungarians obligatory in Hungary even if the parliament does not agree”. The ballot additionally asks whether voters are for mandatory quotas or for the independence of Hungary. Since the immigration crisis started last year, Orbán has been the EU’s leading hardliner, sealing his country’s borders with razor wire, scorning Merkel’s open-door policies and attacking Brussels at every opportunity. He refused to take part in an earlier one-off mandatory scheme distributing 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy across the EU. Hungary and Slovakia are challenging the decision in the European court in Luxembourg. Orbán is also supported by Poland and the Czech Republic and increasingly elsewhere in Europe. Anti-immigrant national border controls are going up everywhere from Sweden to Austria, and Greece is being partially sealed off from Europe’s free-travel Schengen zone, the survival of which is in doubt. Following Austria’s decision last week to allow in no more than eight asylumseekers daily, Slovenia is following suit and sending troops to its frontier with Croatia, while Belgium announced new border controls with France this week. The numerous splits in Europe over immigration policy were fully evident on Wednesday when Austria unilaterally organised a meeting of interior and foreign ministers of several Balkan states in Vienna. The Austrians snubbed the Germans and did not invite the Greeks, provoking a furious reaction from Athens. Vienna is also embroiled in a sharp-tongued row with the European commission over its border controls, dismissing Brussels’ objections as “nonsense”. The Vienna meeting was seen as the latest move to tighten the screws on Greece. Merkel pressed last week for a special summit on 7 March with Turkey in an attempt to revive a faltering pact with Ankara that pays the Turks to stem the flow of refugees to Greece. It is not working. About 100,000 have made the Aegean crossing this year, 10 times more than in the same period last year, triggering panic and ever greater divisions among and between EU leaders. Orbán and many others are strongly opposed to Merkel’s policies and to the Turkey pact. Instead, they want to quarantine Greece and seal the country’s northern border with Macedonia, effectively shifting Schengen’s external southern border from the Aegean to central Europe. The east Europeans, Austrians and Slovenes want to help the Macedonians close the Greek border. In a speech to parliament this week, Orbán thundered against Brussels and Berlin. “Hungary is under enormous pressure,” he said, “[over] whether or not the EU will succeed in pushing a new EU asylum and migrant system down the throats of the central European countries, including ours. Such a system would authorise [the EU] to distribute migrants among the other EU countries, including those which have not taken in migrants, do not want to, are opposed to this and do not want any part in it.”• Colombian to wear No10 shirt vacated by Mesut Özil • Midfielder joins Toni Kroos at European champions • Sid Lowe on how the new galáctico will fit in The unexpected star of the World Cup finals, Colombia’s James Rodríguez, has signed for Real Madrid for a reported £63m. The 23-year-old follows the signing of another key midfielder from the World Cup, Germany’s Toni Kroos who joined for a bargain £20m, and will be given the No10 shirt which was last worn by Mesut Özil. He passed a medical in the Spanish capital on Tuesday morning and has agreed a six-year deal at the Bernabéu. He was presented to Real Madrid’s fans in their stadium on Tuesday night. He emerged to a rapturous reception from a 45,000-strong crowd, around a third of whom were wearing Colombia shirts. Then while he kicked balls into the crowd – as is traditional for new high-profile arrivals to do – he was rushed by several enthusiastic supporters and made a point of embracing them before they were ushered away by security. He said: “I’ve always followed Real Madrid and always dreamed of playing here. I’ve suffered a lot to get here and when you do that then it tastes so much better. “I will never forget this day. I hope to work hard, to train well, and to experience a lot of joy here. I know I am under a lot of pressure, but I am happy to face it.” The fee makes Rodriguez the fourth most expensive transfer of all time after Real’s £86m for Gareth Bale and £80m for Cristiano Ronaldo, and Barcelona’s £75m for Luis Suárez. “The numbers mean nothing to me,” he said. “I just want to help make history and bring joy to the Madrid fans. “This is a club which is used to winning and I’m prepared mentally and physically to do so. It is a pleasure to be among so many stars and I’m sure I’ll learn a lot from everyone.” Rodríguez was one of the revelations of the World Cup, scoring in each of Colombia’s games as they reached the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time, eventually losing 2-1 to the hosts Brazil. He scored six goals at the World Cup to finish as the leading scorer – one clear of Thomas Müller – while his 25-yard volley against Uruguay was voted goal of the tournament. Rodriguez gives the thumbs up at his medical. Photograph: Pedro Castillo/Real Madrid via Getty Images Rodríguez began his professional career with the Colombian side Envigado before moving to the Argentinian club Banfield aged 17. His performances attracted the attention of Porto, who signed him for £4m in 2010, and three years later he joined Monaco for £38.5m after helping the Portuguese side win a hat-trick of league titles and the 2011 Europa League. The left-footed forward scored 10 goals in 38 matches in all competitions for Monaco last season as they finished second in Ligue 1 behind Paris Saint-Germain. Rodriguez's volley against Uruguay was voted goal of the World Cup. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AFP/Getty Images Monaco said they had not been looking to sell Rodríguez but described the deal as “one of the most significant transfers in football history”. “The club would like to take the opportunity to thank James for the role he played in getting the club back to the Champions League and wishes him the very best for the future,” they said. “The club had no intention to sell the player, however the time came when the solution of a transfer was considered to be the most beneficial solution for all parties. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A fan is grabbed by security guards as he tries to embrace the new Real Madrid player James Rodríguez Photograph: Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP “Monaco is proud to be a party to one of the most significant transfers in football history. Monaco is a club that will continue to grow and remains focused on the future. More than ever it has the ambition to strengthen the team and continue to progress for next season.” The announcement had been delayed as Real and Monaco struggled over the small print in the deal with Monaco’s owner Dmitry Rybolovlev holding out for €85m, according to L’Equipe. Monaco were keen to sign Diego López in part exchange but the goalkeeper did not want to leave. Real are expected to sign the Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas for £8m as their No1 after the European champions agreed to meet the release clause in his contract at Levante.Back in the 1990s, Bill Clinton talked a lot about building "a bridge to the 21st century." Right now, his wife looks like an unappealing detour back to the 20th. Having him stand behind her as she addressed supporters after her third-place finish in Iowa didn't help. She might as well have invited Fleetwood Mac to provide the music. Nostalgia isn't everything. The Iowa caucuses, it should be noted, are rarely as decisive as they may appear. Since 1976, only one candidate has won Iowa on the way to becoming president—George W. Bush in 2000. But if you can't win the election in Iowa, you can certainly put yourself in a solid position to lose it, which is what Clinton and John Edwards accomplished Thursday evening. The evening was full of surprises. I would not have guessed that Barack Obama would reprise a German slogan chanted upon the fall of the Berlin Wall: "We are one people." But it was appropriate, since the polarization of the last 15 years has featured everything short of an Iron Curtain between the red states and the blue. Mike Huckabee waxed grandiose in his victory speech, declaring that "tonight, I hope we will forever change the way Americans look at their political system and how we elect presidents and elected officials." Somehow I doubt that 20 or 50 years from now, Americans will look back at Huckabee's upset and say, "That was the moment that changed us forever." As he could learn from Pat Robertson, who thought he was White House-bound after finishing ahead of Vice President George Bush in the 1988 caucuses, it's one thing for an evangelical darling to win in Iowa. It's another to win elsewhere, especially when you lack money and face an expanded field of capable opponents. His victory was one for "none of the above." Once voters get to know the newcomer better, he may look worse than the other options. But Huckabee was on to something earlier when he said voters should choose someone "authentic." That is not an adjective anyone would apply to Mitt Romney, unless it preceded "phony." The former Massachusetts governor is less a flesh-and-blood person than an assemblage of focus-tested attributes that could be instantly reconfigured on demand. Romney brought a business executive's skill at raising money and identifying the demands of his customers, in this case Republican voters. But in trying to meet their every specification, he left the unappetizing impression he would say anything to become president. A virtue in a capitalist—being willing to do whatever is needed to satisfy the target audience—becomes a vice in the political realm, where it looks like an acute lack of principle or character. Voters in Iowa seem to prefer a candidate who appears true with them, and true to himself. Or herself, which raises a problem for Hillary Clinton. Like Romney, she executes programmed responses with the efficiency and warmth of a Dell Inspiron desktop. But while Romney gives the sense of having no inner core, Clinton gives the sense of having an inner core that she is stoutly determined never to let us see. She has portrayed herself as misunderstood—"the most famous person you don't know." If Americans don't know her after 16 years in the spotlight, it's not our fault. But maybe we know her all too well. Much has been made of Obama's complexion, with good reason. For an African-American to win the opening round of a presidential campaign is truly historic, even if it doesn't lead to ultimate victory. But his appeal has more to do with skin comfort than skin color. Obama is at ease in his epidermis in a way that Clinton and Romney are not. He offers a reassuring grace and calm likewise absent in John Edwards, who pretended that finishing second in a state where he has concentrated his efforts is proof that Americans yearn for a pitchfork populist. From Edwards' speech Thursday night, you would never guess he did worse this time than when he ran in 2004, with a more genial approach. Obama has succeeded by preaching our essential unity; Edwards has failed by trying to exploit—or, more accurately, create—divisions and resentments. As with Clinton and Romney, the campaign raised the question of what about Edwards, if anything, is genuine. And this year that may be a fatal question. COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.Until a few years ago, the word “occupation” was synonymous with power, imperialism and foreign invasion. Today, in the post-Occupy Wall Street era, more and more activists are using their physical presence to make demands. From Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to Tahrir Square in Cairo, occupation has become a powerful method of organizing. One of the most dramatic such occupations is occurring in the form of a growing encampment at the Cannonball River in North Dakota, where indigenous tribes are leading a coalition of environmental activists in protest over the building of a new crude oil pipeline. The Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) has stolen more than a name from American Indians (“dakota” means “friendly” or “allied”). If built, it would pass under the Missouri River twice. The pipeline, which could leak, as many pipelines do, threatens to contaminate the drinking water, crops and burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Federal regulatory agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, quietly approved DAPL, which will transport Bakkan crude oil from North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. Last November, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The rejection was the result of a years-long, hard-fought battle by thousands of activists, many of whom made personal sacrifices, traveled long distances and were even arrested for their acts of civil disobedience. DAPL, which is only seven miles shorter than Keystone would have been, has not received the same scrutiny. Now, the only thing standing in the way of the pipeline is a growing army of nonviolent protesters blocking construction. An occupation that began in April has grown to about 2,000 and is still growing. Members of the Standing Rock Sioux have set strict rules at the space they are calling Sacred Stone Camp: No weapons, alcohol or drugs. Members of other North American tribes, including Canadian First Nations, are traveling to the site in solidarity. Celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Shailene Woodley and Ezra Miller have lent their support. The protesters are standing firm, and more than 20 people have been arrested. Jason Coppola, a filmmaker and journalist who has been covering the protests, explained in an interview with me that one of the most important aspects of this story is one that is age-old: The U.S. government is violating its treaty obligations to Native American tribes. According to Coppola, “The Fort Laramie Treaty of
did not reach our office. No one asked us to sign it so it’s not right to say we did not intentionally sign it. Now the offensive part is this, after which they hurled bad words at us, one after another.) Sotto said he was only being kind because he will only file a cyberlibel case against them, “otherwise masalubong ko ‘to sa daan (if I come across them in the street), I will not be able to help myself. I will scatter their brains.” Pacquiao also made a manifestation that no one asked him to sign the resolution as it did not pass through his office. The boxer-turned-politician warned the “cowards” behind the alleged demolition job that he will not be afraid to face them. Clenching his fist and cracking his knuckles, Pacquiao said: “Sana hindi mangyari na mapatawag siya sa Senado kundi…. If I’m not spiritually renewed, ayaw ko na bumalik sa dati kong buhay. Pinipilit ko magpakabait at gawin ang tama pero kapag ganyang mga klaseng tao, hindi ako magdadalawang isip para…” ADVERTISEMENT (I hope that person will not be called before the Senate, or else… If I’m not spiritually renewed, I don’t want to go back to my previous [lifestyle]. I’ve been trying my best to do what is right but if you encounter these kinds of people, I will not think twice to…) Zubiri was also fuming mad when he delivered his manifestation. “I would have signed (the resolution). I don’t know if this is a deliberate attempt to destroy us. Let’s call spade a spade… If you want to pick a fight with your colleagues, ‘wag duwag. Harap-harapan na lang (Don’t be coward. Do it face to face),” the senator said. After being bypassed, Zubiri said they filed another resolution urging the Duterte administration to end the killings, not only of children and minors, but all extrajudicial and unresolved killings. Other senators in the majority bloc also signed, including Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Grace Poe, Joel Villanueva, and JV Ejercito. /jpv RELATED STORY Senators express alarm over high number of drug deaths Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READJohn Stoehr: We must demand our corporate citizens act responsibly John Stoehr John Stoehr Photo: Digital First Media Photo: Digital First Media Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close John Stoehr: We must demand our corporate citizens act responsibly 1 / 1 Back to Gallery When Alexion Pharmaceuticals announced in 2016 that it was moving back to New Haven after nearly a decade in Cheshire, elected officials and civic leaders hailed the news as a sign that the Elm City was fast becoming a force in biomedical research. Supported by more than $50 million in grants, loans and tax breaks from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s First Five program, the drugmaker was set to join Yale University, Yale New Haven Hospital, Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Melinta Therapeutics and Arvinas Inc. to solidify the area’s reputation as a hub of 21st-century innovation. The company spent $15 billion to bring its marquee drug, Soliris, to market the year before. It planned to relocate about 1,000 employees to New Haven’s brand-new Downtown Crossing, a building that Mayor Toni Harp called “the crown jewel.” It posted revenues of $2.6 billion in 2015, up 17 percent from 2014. Success breeds success, successful people tend to say. The best was yet to come. That was then. Alexion’s founder, Leonard Bell, announced his retirement in March and in December top executives left the company. In May, another wave of top officials left suddenly. All that happened days before Bloomberg Businessweek published a devastating exposé on Alexion’s business strategy along with allegations about its sales strategies and a report of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The story was so damaging, it had me wondering: Does the public know what’s going on at Downtown Crossing? Yet, more pressing: Do city and state taxpayers know what they are underwriting? Do elected officials know what they have done in the public’s name? I’m guessing no. Alexion specializes in what are called “orphan diseases,” meaning illnesses that are so rare (like one in 500,000 people), it’s nearly impossible to make money making drugs to treat them. Soliris, for instance, is used for a rare blood-disorder. To people the drug has helped, Alexion’s research and development have been a godsend. But because Alexion’s business is treating rare diseases, that means its clientele is vanishingly small. According to Businessweek, Soliris accounts for nearly all of Alexion’s revenue, and all of that is from an estimated 11,000 people around the world. That small clientele generated last year $3 billion in sales, making Alexion as valuable to Wall Street as Hewlett-Packard and Pizza Hut. Pricing is the reason. One treatment of Soliris costs more than $18,000. The average patient last year needed $136,000 in therapy, a price tag that climbed nearly 40 percent over six years. Federal law meant to encourage entrepreneurs to develop drugs for rare diseases that had no market gives them the right to monopoly. A policy expert told Bloomberg that this gives Alexion and others “a blank check to price the drug where they think it’s reasonable.” When first pricing Soliris in 2007, “reasonable” for Alexion was almost $390,000 a year. Alexion says it price is high to recoup the cost of developing Soliris, but that rationale doesn’t much square with facts unearthed by Bloomberg. Alexion can’t afford to lose patients, so it goes to great lengths to find and retain them. These lengths include: allegedly harassing doctors not to take their patients off Soliris; hiring nurses to exploit their medical authority to sell Soliris; funding lawsuits against Brazil to force the government to pay for Soliris; striking deals with commercial laboratories — familiar ones like LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics — to send “blind test data” with which to grow the Alexion’s client list. Not only do these sales practices cost a lot, Businessweek reported they appear to transgress ethical boundaries. On Tuesday, Alexion said it hired a new CFO to clean house. Paul J. Clancy better hurry. New Constructs, a Wall Street analysis firm, urged investors in May to hurry up and sell stock in Alexion. Alexion had earned its “very dangerous rating,” meaning there’s more downside than upside to owning Alexion’s stock. Of the 337 health care sector stocks it examines, Alexion’s ranks 312. But Wall Street isn’t the only stakeholder. Connecticut taxpayers ponied up $6 million in grants for Alexion to move to New Haven (in other words, free money). That’s not to mention $20 million in loans forgivable after Alexion creates 650 jobs. That’s not to mention $25 million in state and local tax breaks. But more importantly, New Haven needs Alexion, just as it needs all private enterprise to succeed. There’s only so much land to tax and a large portion of that is owned by Yale. New Haven must do what it can to encourage entrepreneurship, promote growth and retain smart, talented and industrious people who buy homes, send their children to school, and pay taxes. But we can’t be made captive to our need. We demand that individual citizens act responsibly. We must demand no less from our corporate citizens. Time will tell if that’s the case. Let’s hope, for New Haven’s sake, that it is. John Stoehr is a lecturer in political science at Yale and a New Haven resident.After Attorney General Jeff Sessions reiterated the federal government’s threat to block funding for so-called "sanctuary cities,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel doubled down on his own promise that Chicago will “continue to welcome” immigrants. Mary Ann Ahern reports. After Attorney General Jeff Sessions reiterated the federal government’s threat to block funding for so-called "sanctuary cities,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel doubled down on his own promise that Chicago will “continue to welcome” immigrants. "I've always seen Chicago as a welcoming city,” Emanuel said in an interview from the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York on Monday. “It welcomed my grandfather 100 years ago, we continue to welcome entrepreneurs, immigrants, and I would just say think of it this way: Half the new businesses in Chicago and the state of Illinois come from immigrants, nearly half,” he added. “Half the patents at the University of Illinois come from immigrants, and so we want to continue to welcome people, welcome their ideas, welcome their families to the city of Chicago, who want to build the American dream for their children and their grandchildren.” Emanuel’s pledge came after Sessions told reporters that the Department of Justice would use compliance with immigration law as a condition for cities to receive federal grants – a reinforcement of the executive order on sanctuary cities that President Donald Trump signed in January. Sessions Threatens Federal Funding for Sanctuary Cities in WH Briefing Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a warning to sanctuary cities in a Monday White House briefing, threatening to pull federal funding for states and cities that do not follow federal code on illegal immigration. (Published Monday, March 27, 2017) The term "sanctuary city" refers to jurisdictions that do not comply with federal requests to detain undocumented immigrants who have been arrested on charges unrelated to their immigration status and turn them over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for possible deportation. In a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing Monday, Sessions said that these policies are “designed to frustrate the enforcement of our immigration laws.” “They make our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on our streets,” Sessions said. "We intend to use every lawful authority we have to make sure our state and local officials, who are so important to law enforcement, are in sync with the federal government.” Chicago receives more than $1 billion in federal funding for initiatives including transportation, housing, public health and law enforcement – an area in which Emanuel has repeatedly asked for more assistance in combatting the city’s violence. On Monday, however, Emanuel appeared more concerned about maintaining Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city than he was about losing resources. “Chicago was built on the back of immigrants and our future is hitched to the wagon of immigrants who come to the city,” he said. “I would say that the approach of penalizing cities, cities that are driving the economy, driving the energy of the United States – and they do it because we bring people of all different backgrounds to work together – that's just the wrong approach." This is not the first time Emanuel has spoken out against the order, reaffirming that Chicago will remain a sanctuary city immediately after Trump signed the executive action in January, and joining a coalition of 34 cities and counties across the country on Thursday in asking a federal court to halt that order. “Chicago has always been a welcoming city – its history is that of people, whether they’re from Poland or Pakistan, whether they’re from Ireland or India, whether they’re from Mexico or Moldova like where my grandfather came – we welcome immigrants who believe in America, believe in the American dream and want their children to do better than they do right now,” Emanuel added. Chicago is not alone in its immigration policies, as more than 200 jurisdictions nationwide have declared sanctuary status, including New York City, Los Angeles and more.Biologist Daisy Robinton talks about engineering aging and the possibilities new technology offers. Harvard University biologist Daisy Robinton reveals how science is helping us understand how and why we age. Daisy Robinton is a scientist at Harvard University researching mechanisms of stem cell identity at the intersection of cancer and developmental biology. Daisy’s passion for the effective translation of science has fuelled her years of teaching and speaking, and in 2011 Daisy founded the Science in the News Spring Public Lecture Series at Harvard. Daisy consults to numerous biotech startups in the US and UK and for projects ranging from feature film screenplays on the future of medicine and longevity to the “Future of Making” via bioengineering with IDEO. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Read moreDiners can choose their own carp for dinner at Baghdad's al-Wiyah club By Gabriel Gatehouse BBC News, Baghdad Baghdad is much less violent than it was five years ago, but today's version of "normality" bears no comparison to the city's heyday in the 60s and 70s, before Saddam Hussein took power. The first thing most people ask me when I tell them I live and work in Baghdad is: "What's it like?" A perfectly natural question, for sure, but one I find difficult to answer. The litany of Iraq's current problems is too long to list, but it starts with virtually non-existent basic services like electricity supply, and ends with the continuing violence which claims the lives of hundreds of Iraqis every month. "But isn't life getting back to normal?" they ask. "Aren't things getting better?" That is true, they are. Or at least, things are not nearly as bad as they were two or three years ago. But is Baghdad a city where one can now lead what might conceivably be termed a "normal life"? Well, there is one small corner of the capital where they are trying very hard. Old Baghdad If you climb up on top of the blast walls that surround the BBC compound and negotiate your way past the guards armed with Kalashnikov rifles and around the coils of barbed wire, you will come to a little wooden stepladder. At the bottom is a warren of narrow concrete alleyways, and yet more blast walls. And behind one of those walls, a short walk away, there lies hidden a small oasis of the old Baghdad, a place where things are, more or less, the way they used to be. Barbed wire, guards and blast walls are part of everyday life This is the al-Wiyah club. The other night some Iraqi friends and I went to the club for dinner. We sat at a table towards the back of the large garden. Children played on the well-watered lawn, families and groups of friends sat on plastic chairs or swing-benches, the men and women together, smoking nargileh (hookah pipes with fruit-scented tobacco) and drinking tea, or even something stronger. The first thing to do was to select our carp. Right at the back there was a roaring charcoal fire, and next to it a tank full of enormous fish. No, these had not been caught in the sewage-filled Tigris, a man in a turban assured me, they were farmed. He scooped our chosen carp out with his hands and, with a broad grin gave its gaping mouth a kiss of death, before whacking it over the head with his large knife, and slicing it open length-ways. Halcyon days While we waited for our dinner, the Baghdad speciality mazgouf, we sat down with a drink and a nargileh. Mustafa, an engineer in his 40s, had brought along some old footage, reels of family film taken in the late 60s and he 70s. Life back then seemed to have consisted of an endless series of birthday parties, weekend excursions and holidays abroad. Men and women, smartly dressed in the latest European and American fashions, were joking, singing, dancing together, heads uncovered, and women's skirts firmly above the knee. This was Iraq in its heyday, a country that was relatively liberal, prosperous and well-educated. It looked like a carefree existence. Life, Mustafa said, was quite literally a picnic. People come here to drink and to eat - to forget what's outside these walls, the bombs and the killings Al-Wiyah club manager Everyone round the table agreed that three historical events had killed off what now seems a charmed way of life. The first was the rise to power of Saddam Hussein and the outbreak of war with Iran in 1980. The second was the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the crippling economic sanctions that followed. But by far the biggest and most shattering change came in 2003, with the American and British invasion, which plunged the country into unspeakable violence. At least under Saddam Hussein, Mustafa said, Iraq was the safest country on earth. As we waited for our food, the garden suddenly went dark, briefly, as the city's power-supply gave out, and the rumble of a dozen generators kicked in. Just then a pair of American helicopters hovered overhead - a sound that provides the quintessential accompaniment to life in Baghdad today. The carp arrived, and we all tucked in, using our hands to scoop up the salty warm fish in big chunks of flatbread. 'Losing hope' Then the manager stopped by for a chat. He told me that the club had been open continuously for more than 85 years. "But since 2003, we're all scared," he said. "People come here to drink and to eat - to forget what's outside these walls, the bombs and the killings." "So is this normal life?" I asked him. He shrugged. Another friend chipped in. "The problem is," he said, "people have lost hope that things will change. So we are all trying to get used to the way things are now." We turned back to Mustafa's old film. Grainy footage showed a young girl sitting on a dining table surrounded by beaming friends and family. There was a birthday cake with three candles, and the girl was trying, and failing, to blow them out, much to the amusement of the onlookers. Suddenly, the screen went dark. Mustafa roared with laughter. "Even back then there were power cuts," he said. Some things, at least, really have not changed. How to listen to: From Our Own Correspondent BBC Radio 4: Saturdays, 1130. Second weekly edition on Thursdays, 1100 (some weeks only) BBC World Service: See programme schedules. Download the podcast Listen on iPlayer Story by story at the programme website Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionGeneral Motors plans to announce a billion dollar investment in its US factories. President-elect Donald Trump has criticized US automakers for taking American jobs abroad. The move will add around 1,000 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter as quoted by Reuters. The source added that the measure is part of the regular business process, not a political step. The corporation aims to reequip its factories to build new models. GM also wants to take some extra steps to boost US employment, including employing new engineers. Read more Any investment the company might disclose has been long planned and was not a response to Trump's criticism, said GM General Counsel Craig Glidden on Monday, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The automaker has over 40 manufacturing sites in the US and announced $2.9 billion in domestic investment last year. However, GM has recently said it would cut nearly 3,300 jobs at three factories. The company also plans to cut some 2,000 jobs when it ends the third shift at its Lordstown, Ohio and Lansing, Michigan plants in January. About 1,300 jobs will be axed from its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in March. Trump has campaigned hard on bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US. He has been attacking GM and other producers for assembling cars in Mexico. The President-elect promised to impose increased import taxes on GM for manufacturing some of its Chevrolet Cruze compact vehicles in Mexico. READ MORE: GM won't move production from Mexico despite Trump’s criticism Trump has threatened German car manufacturers with a 35 percent tax on vehicles imported to the US market. He also criticized Japan's Toyota over a plan to move its Corolla production from Canada to Mexico. #Anti-American tag by Trump new nightmare for US businesses/#Trump is correct/US businesses only loyal to profits! https://t.co/50vjeRMeEP — LV (@SpiritualSuccah) January 11, 2017 Last week, Toyota announced a $10 billion investment in the US over the next five years. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles promised to invest a billion dollars in the modernization of two plants in the Midwest, creating 2,000 jobs. READ MORE: Trump threatens Toyota on Twitter with ‘big border tax’ if they build plant in Mexico Earlier this month, the Ford Motor Company said it would cancel plans to build a $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and instead invest $700 million in a Michigan plant.AT&T Inc. confirmed that starting May 2 it will impose a monthly data cap of 150 gigabytes on users of its DSL broadband service. Subscribers to its U-Verse service get 250 gigabytes a month. Consumers who go over this limit three times will be charged $10 for every 50 additional gigabytes of usage. The new data caps represent the latest move by an industry grappling with unabated and significant increases in bandwidth usage, fueled by online video consumption. According to the latest data from the Nielsen Co., U.S. viewers spent nearly 45% more time watching online videos in January than in the same month a year earlier. AT&T, like other service providers that have experimented with or imposed data caps, emphasized that less than 2% of its Internet customer base, or "those who are using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth," would be affected. The vast majority of subscribers won't come close to 150 gigabytes per month with typical e-mailing, Web surfing and casual video watching. But the growth trends are concerning. An October report by Sandvine, a Canadian technology company that helps service providers manage their networks, said that Netflix streaming accounts for more than 20% of downstream traffic in the U.S. during peak hours. Wireline companies want to avoid the same network congestion issues that took mobile phone operators by surprise after the introduction of Apple's iPhone. wawong@tribune.comEach year, more than 20 million people in this world are diagnosed with cancer. Although you are not one, you might know someone who is in battle with cancer, whether it is your family or your friends. Living with cancer can be very tough, but it won’t be tougher if you know how to support cancer fighter. – Buy to Support Cancer treatment is very costly and it will take a long time before it is fully cured. It can be very hard for people with cancer since they need to have enough money for the treatment and they need to stop all of their activities to focus on the treatment. But, you can help them by buying cancer support products, like a t-shirt, mug, books, and others. There are lots of organizations that offer you with the cancer support products, like the and American Cancer Society. If you are buying the products from this organization, all of the profit from the selling will be donated to the cancer fighter through this organization. Although it seems small, every penny you spend on buying those products will be very helpful to put back their smile. – Learn About the Cancer Diagnosis It is hard to understand people with cancer, especially if you don’t know their struggle. You cannot just throw empty words for giving the courage to cheer them up. If you say the wrong thing, you might hurt them since you don’t know their true and deep feelings. They will also feel uncomfortable when you constantly ask about their condition. If so, the best thing that you can do to help them is to learn about the cancer diagnosis. There are different types of cancer and each of them has different details. Make sure you get the correct judi bola information so that you can put yourself in their shoes. You can learn about the different types of cancer in the American Cancer Society and here, you can also get the best suggestion for the treatment. The best thing is that you will receive lots of tips on how to stay healthy during and after treatment. By knowing all of those things, you can support them and take care of them better. Overall, learning how to support cancer fighter is very important, but it is more important if you can put it into action. There are different kinds of ways that you can do and all of them can encourage people with cancer.President Trump's one-time dabble in horse racing reportedly left a thoroughbred named "D.J. Trump" nearly dead and without front hoofs, The Washington Post reports. While Trump denies the story as "totally unsubstantiated and false," it is recalled in a book by John O'Donnell, Trumped!, and the Post was able to confirm many details of the story. Allegedly, racehorse trader Robert LiButti, a high-roller at Trump's casinos, wanted Trump to purchase his horse with Triple Crown potential, Alibi, for $500,000. The CEO of Trump's casinos, Stephen Hyde, saw the purchase as an investment to keep LiButti visiting the casinos. Trump agreed, but demanded the horse's name be changed to D.J. Trump. Trump (the human) then argued his name was "worth at least $250,000... so he should only have to pay an additional $250,000 to complete the purchase," The Washington Post writes. Then the story gets dark: A few days before D.J. Trump was due to head north [for races], according to O'Donnell, a virus ripped through the horse farm. D.J. Trump didn't appear sick, but the trainer Jerkens recommended postponing a final workout in Florida, and the move north, for a few weeks. If the horse was sick, the trainer said, working him out risked a high fever, and possibly death. Trump was impatient, O'Donnell wrote. He wanted his horse racing, up north, with no delays. Hyde relayed the order reluctantly: "He wants the horse to work." D.J. Trump's last workout in Ocala was, in Trump parlance, a total disaster. A few hours after running, the horse's legs began shaking uncontrollably, then he collapsed in a heap. D.J. Trump had contracted the virus without showing symptoms, veterinarians concluded, and the workout had exacerbated his condition. [The Washington Post] Ultimately, D.J. Trump lived — but his front hoofs had to be amputated, and he would never race. As the story goes, Trump was "unmoved," and, as he hadn't written the $250,000 check yet, he wiggled out of the deal. "[Trump's] cavalier attitude about the horse, I think, bothered Steve," O'Donnell told the Post. “That [Trump] didn't care, that it was just a piece of flesh … That really disturbed him." Read the full saga at The Washington Post. Jeva LangeJust a reminder for those who missed the earlier news– Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season will be arriving on Digital HD on August 1st. So Game of Thrones‘ newest season, along with some pretty sweet bonus features, can be yours in just a few days. We also have a sneak peek at one of the features, thanks to the Wall Street Journal (shared after the cut)! The set features all 10 season six episodes, plus extensive bonus content. The Digital HD Download includes: Bran’s Journey – A nine-minute feature delving into the shocking and revelatory journey Bran Stark took in Season 6. The Dothraki World – Behind-the-Scenes featurette bringing viewers up to speed on the Dothraki culture, not seen since Season 1. Inside Game of Thrones: Prosthetics – Behind-the-Scenes featurette detailing what goes into the show’s prosthetics creation. The Game Revealed – Five-part series covering the creation of Season 6’s most epic set pieces and scenes. It’ll be available for download on iTunes, Vudu, Amazon Video, and many more outlets. The Wall Street Journal has shared a new snippet from the Bran featurette, with commentary from Isaac Hempstead Wright, Kristian Nairn and director Jack Bender taking us behind “The Door”: For those who prefer the hard copies, great news this year- as previously announced, Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season will be available on Blu-ray™ with Digital HD and on DVD this November 15th!PITTSBURGH—After losing their fifth straight game Monday, the Pittsburgh Pirates were mathematically eliminated from Major League Baseball, having fallen to a 36-69 record that officially disqualified the team from ever playing the sport again. "Eventually it comes to a point where there just aren't enough future games to turn things around for a baseball team," manager John Russell said following a 4-0 loss to the Reds that ended the Pirates franchise. "I had high hopes that we would go deeper into our regular seasons, but truthfully, we've been playing so lousy for the last 18 years that even if we got to our 106th game we wouldn't have been able to contend." In response to the Pirates' getting knocked out of professional baseball forever, Pittsburgh fans said that they were frankly relieved. AdvertisementMitt Romney’s acceptance speech Thursday night was less of an emphatic statement of purpose than a direct challenge to President Obama. In a low-key, neighborly way, he portrayed Obama as a disappointing leader who squandered the goodwill of the American people. In doing so, Romney served the ball cleanly into Obama’s court. Next week, Obama will have a chance to return the volley. He would do well to offer a clear, persuasive game plan for the future. But Romney, it seemed, missed a chance to articulate a fully convincing game plan of his own. Instead, he repeated some of the piecemeal promises he’s made earlier in the campaign: expanded oil and gas drilling, a repeal of Obama’s health plan, a tougher stance on Iran’s nuclear program, and a general commitment to lower taxes and less government regulation. Some of these ideas are workable; others, such as his suggestion that eliminating Obama’s health plan would drive down premiums, seem more a step backward than forward. But they don’t amount to the compelling plan for American renewal that Romney promises. Instead, the speech was designed to bolster Romney’s personal image, showcasing his strong commitment to his family, his personal diligence, and his generosity to his church and community. Many people in Massachusetts have already seen this side of Romney, and can attest to his basic decency. But a bruising primary campaign, including attacks by his GOP rivals on his Bain Capital business career that were later amplified by the Obama campaign, damaged Romney’s reputation in the eyes of many voters. Last night, he took some steps toward restoring his personal honor and appeal. Advertisement Romney wisely avoided many of the overblown charges that were featured in vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s speech a night earlier — claims that Obama was responsible for factory closings, “cronyism,” and corporate welfare. Instead, he delivered to Obama a more prosaic version of Ronald Reagan’s challenge to Jimmy Carter back in 1980 — to explain why people are or aren’t better off because of his presidency. That puts a lot of pressure on Obama, but also hands him an opportunity. This campaign was always destined to be a referendum on the president’s leadership, and Romney, last night, effectively called on Obama to explain himself. In his own speech next week, Obama needs to answer the bill of particulars that Romney delivered on Thursday night.“He works on the dark side,” said Tony Danza, another actor friend of Mr. Carlo. Mr. Carlo, 60, matches immersion-reporting with authentic street cred. He grew up in Bensonhurst, which he has called a graduate school for the Mafia; Mr. Casso, the subject of nonfiction book No. 3, was once a neighbor. The combination has earned him respect among fellow crime writers like Nicholas Pileggi, whose books became the Scorsese films “Goodfellas” and “Casino.” “I just grab everything he writes,” Mr. Pileggi said of Mr. Carlo. But after 28 years of stalking killers, the tables have turned on Mr. Carlo. Death is now stalking him. Nearly five years ago, he was stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the almost invariably fatal motor neuron disease that felled Lou Gehrig, the jazz bassist Charles Mingus and Morrie Schwartz, the teacher in Mitch Albom’s best seller “Tuesdays with Morrie.” Stephen W. Hawking, the British physicist who has lived almost 40 years with the condition, is a notable exception. “The worst disease of modern times has got me by the throat,” said Mr. Carlo, who uses a motorized wheelchair and breathes through a hose that forces pressurized air into his lungs. “I can’t brush my own teeth. I can’t feed myself.” But he continues to work on a new book, a memoir, writing the words in his head and dictating them to an assistant at a laptop. “I have a deadline,” he said. “My own death.” “PICK me up at the corner,” shouted Mr. Carlo one day in late October, hitting his wheelchair accelerator and whizzing down the sidewalk near his Upper West Side brownstone. When he reached West End Avenue, his white Chevrolet van was waiting at the curb cut. Mr. Carlo’s wife, Laura, a slim blond woman of 35, hopped out, opened the rear doors and unfolded a ramp. Photo “Ready?” she asked. “Ready,” he said, propelling the chair inside. Ms. Carlo strapped him in and slid behind the wheel. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I’m the chauffeur,” said Ms. Carlo cheerily. “I’m driving Miss Daisy.” The two met in August 2006, through the Mafia, of course. Mr. Carlo was doing a radio show and mentioned that one of his childhood friends, Manny Garofalo, had a brother, Eddie, who had been killed on orders of the Gambino underboss Salvatore Gravano, known as Sammy the Bull. Someone listening called Manny, and the two Brooklyn buddies reunited, along with Manny’s niece, Eddie’s daughter, Laura Garofalo. Love bloomed. Mr. Carlo, whose A.L.S. had been diagnosed 10 months earlier, did not at first tell her the truth about why he was limping. “He told me it was a torn kneecap,” she recalled. But that October he broke the news. “This is what I have,” he said, “but don’t look it up.” She eventually did. “The first thing I read is that it’s fatal,” Ms. Carlo said. She learned everything she could about the disease, but stuck around anyhow. By late 2007, Mr. Carlo was in and out of a wheelchair. That December, they were married by the city clerk. Heading downtown in the van for lunch, Mr. Carlo took the breathing tube out of his mouth to speak. “To sleep, I have to wear a mask,” he said. “I look like an octopus. It’s not very good for my love life.” But he sleeps dreamlessly, sometimes waking up confused. “I don’t know where I am,” he said. “There’s this blond girl standing over me. I ask who she is and she says, ‘I’m your worst nightmare.’ ” He guffawed. “Laura, make your turn,” he commanded. “I’m going to pull in front, Phil,” she said, cheerfully resigned to his back-seat driving. Advertisement Continue reading the main story At the restaurant, Beppe, on East 22nd Street, Valerie Estess was waiting. As chronicled in a documentary broadcast on HBO in 2004, Ms. Estess’s sister Jenifer died from A.L.S. at age 40, after six years fighting the disease. Valerie Estess and another sister, Meredith, have raised $53 million for Project A.L.S., a nonprofit group Jenifer founded to finance research. “In all honesty, I’m counting on Valerie to save me,” Mr. Carlo said. “No pressure,” she said. “Sorry I missed the book party. He’s writing them faster than we can read them.” A latecomer arrived — Mr. Carlo’s amanuensis, Kelsey Osgood, 25, a Columbia graduate from Brooklyn who has assisted him on two previous books. When he is writing, they often work side by side from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. At the restaurant, she flipped open a MacBook laptop as soon as she sat down at the table, ready to take notes. “She can type faster than I can talk,” Mr. Carlo said. “She’s staring at me, waiting for another sentence, and I’m rummaging around my memory, almost like I’m talking to myself.” Photo THE urge to write, Mr. Carlo said, came on him abruptly in the late 1970’s when he was in his 20s and owned an apartment-rental business on Central Park West. He was healthy then, addicted to biking and running seven miles a day. “I wanted to write about crime,” he said. “I felt I had a personal innate understanding.” In Bensonhurst, Mr. Carlo’s father imported and exported bristle for brushes — “a legitimate guy,” Mr. Carlo said — but mobsters were everywhere. It was the kind of place where Mary’s, a neighborhood restaurant, would shut down when Carlo Gambino came to dine. Where, as a boy, Phil Carlo would pass mob soldiers milling outside their window-darkened social clubs, and went to school with baby mobsters who were picked up by fathers dressed in sharp silk suits. At 13, he often saw Paul Castellano, the mobster gunned down in 1985 on orders from John J. Gotti, working in his family’s butcher shop; later, Mr. Carlo dated Mr. Castellano’s granddaughter. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. After Mr. Casso, then a rising enforcer for the Genovese family, married and moved in next door to the Carlos, the two families grew close, sharing Sunday dinners and vacations. Mr. Carlo’s sister, Doreen, became the Cassos’ favorite baby sitter. “We knew Anthony was connected, but in that neighborhood it was not
number of people injured in the attack has been determined to be 25 at this time. This story is breaking as details are emerging, and we will update accordingly. UPDATE — 11:56 a.m. ET: Foreign Affairs correspondent Richard Engle has confirmed through NBC News that there are now no other injuries to report: Germany. NBC confirmation: suspect dead, no other injuries — Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) June 23, 2016 — [image via Twitter] Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comBrian McClellan is my beard brother. TREAT HIM WELL, INTERNETS. That is all. Anyway, here he is to talk about some things and some stuff. Stay frosty. * * * A week ago I put out a new novella called Servant of the Crown. It’s the second novella and fifth piece of short fiction based off the world I created in the Powder Mage trilogy. That trilogy, starting with the novel Promise of Blood, is published by Orbit Books, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Hachette. The short fiction is something I put out myself electronically. This makes me a “hybrid” author. You may have heard the term. Our own friend Chuck Wendig has written about it for Writer’s Digest. In short, a hybrid author is someone who has fingers in both traditional and self-publishing. These kind of authors are becoming more and more common. In my experience, most authors approach hybridization by putting out some novels themselves and others with their publishers. Maybe it’s every other book. Maybe one in three. Everyone does it differently and that’s something that I took to heart when I got my initial idea for the Powder Mage short fiction. Back when I had just signed my first contract, I asked an author what he thought about writing in other universes for pay. Star Wars, video game freelancing, that kind of thing. I had gotten a nice advance but I knew it wouldn’t pay all my bills, and was looking around for other options. He told me to forget it. Freelancing for another intellectual property is fantastic and can pay well, but I had a good a contract for a shiny hardcover trilogy. Focus on my own universe because it was just that: mine. I thought about this a lot. I considered applying for a creative position at Riot, one of my favorite computer game companies. I daydreamed about writing for Blizzard or Star Wars. After all, I grew up reading Star Wars novels and playing Warcraft. How stinking cool would that be to write in those universes? I never pursued it seriously. The idea of self-publishing came up once in a while when my bills were tight. I had some old novels laying around that I could clean up and put out myself, but that seemed kind of silly when I have an agent and a publisher. If I was going to go to that effort I might as well try to sell them traditionally. But I worried about trying to juggle two original universes. I don’t have that kind of brain power. Like looking for a creative job in another EU, I never took the plunge on self-publishing a novel. Then, strangely enough, I read an article about erotica. The article talked a bit about the success some erotica authors were finding on Kindle, Nook, and the other self-publishing platforms. They’d go for volume, pumping out a 4000-word piece every week or two, and build themselves a big backlist. Over time, that turns into a pretty solid income stream. We could have a debate over “art” and “selling out” and “oversaturation of the market,” but I thought that was a smart business model. Maybe I could make a serious go at self-publishing with shorter stuff like what these particular erotica authors were doing. But I was writing in fantasy, not erotica, with a different end-game in mind. I didn’t want to just pump out a bunch of content to make a buck. I wanted to create something with the depth of a fantasy world and, happily enough, I had a universe already handy. I took an idea for an origin story of one of the side characters from my trilogy and wrote an 8000 word piece called “The Girl of Hrusch Avenue.” I had a budget of exactly $0. Using some awesome friends and family, I had it edited professionally and threw together an adequate (if generic) bit of cover art. The only hiccup came when my agent asked if my publisher was going to be cool with this. After all, they had the rights to the trilogy that this universe was attached to. After a stressful day or two waiting for my agent to check with them, I got the green light. The result wasn’t overwhelming at first. The way Amazon’s royalty rate is set up I would only make $.35 off of a $.99 sale, and I could not in good conscience charge $2.99 for one of these short pieces (the minimum required to make a 70% royalty rate). But they kept selling consistently, and my first book Promise of Blood was doing better and better, and I noticed that when my novel had a good week the short piece would often have a good week as well. It was a small spike, no more than a few books, but a logical and easy correlation. I wrote another short piece and did the same thing. Zero budget but with professional editing and lots of beta readers. Put it out. It did a little better than the first. Then Promise of Blood went on sale for $1.99 and got some well-placed publicity and there was a (for me) huge spike on the short pieces as well, which put money directly into my pocket every month. For someone who gets paid sporadically, that’s kind of a huge deal. Over the fall, a bunch of awesome things happened. Promise of Blood was a finalist for Best Debut Goodreads Author in the Goodreads Choice Awards and a semi-finalist in the Fantasy category. It garnered a few more cover quotes by really awesome authors. The sales continued to increase (it was still $1.99 at this point) and with them the sales of my short fiction. For about every ten sales I got of the novel, each piece of short fiction sold one. Small, sure, but that does add up. I was pounding out book three, The Autumn Republic, at this point. I had ideas for other short fiction and fans had started to ask me about putting out more. But I was pretty busy. That’s when Orbit delayed The Crimson Campaign by two months. It was a good decision in the end and I’m glad they did it, but I was the one who had to tell fans that it would be late. In the end, I delivered the news and immediately tore into writing what would become my first novella, Forsworn. I hoped if I could put out something new, they might forgive the delay easier. I revisited the Powder Mage Universe, this time with a prequel featuring the mother of one of the main characters. I gave myself a $500 budget, which I quickly went over, and I commissioned my first professional art and was able to pay a copy editor. With a longer piece and real cover art, I felt good about charging $2.99. Note that this means Forsworn would make six times as much money per sale as “The Girl of Hrusch Avenue.” From start to finish, Forsworn went from an idea to readers’ hands in about six weeks, reaching them a full two weeks before Crimson Campaign‘s original release date. It sold well and no one complained about the price, which is something I worried about a lot. I never want people to feel like I’m trying to rip them off. This is the point I realized that I had created my own expanded universe. There are a few downsides to self-publishing an EU. For one, I have to keep all this stuff straight. If I write something in a short piece it’s technically cannon. I can’t just pull a Star Wars and wave my hand, saying none of this actually happened in-universe. Well, I could, but it would be a jerk thing to do. I worry about oversaturation. More publishing credits means I’m hawking more things on social media, which is a dangerous line to walk before getting all of your friends and fans annoyed with you. I also worry if I put out one of these short pieces too often if people will get sick of them, but I suppose if that happens I’ll just see sales dry up. In the end, it has too many upsides to ignore. It’s good for me because I get to pull down an extra small salary from a half dozen electronic publishers. I get to explore all the little side plots and prequel stuff that would never make it into the novels. I also have greater control. I can see how many of each story are selling each week and on what format, with all that data at my fingertips. Deadlines and production times aren’t really a thing. The last novella, Servant of the Crown, went from an idea to published in less than four weeks. It’s good for my publisher because I’m creating things that draw my fans deeper into the world, getting them more excited for the next book to come out. And it’s good for my fans, because they get to explore the world alongside me. Every time someone emails me and says they can’t get enough of the Powder Mage Trilogy, I have someplace I can point them. All of this is because, as a friend once advised me to do, I’ve invested in my own universe rather than one that belongs to someone else. * * * Brian is a flintlock fantasy author of the Powder Mage Trilogy, including Promise of Blood, recent winner of the Gemmell Morningstar Award. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife, where he plays computer games, gardens, and tends his hive of minions honey bees. His newest is the novella, Servant of the Crown: Captain Tamas is an ambitious young officer in the Adran army. As a commoner, he is one of very few without noble blood to hold a rank. When he challenges the son of a duke over an insult, the subsequent duel lands him in hot water with the nobility and the royal cabal of Privileged sorcerers. Tamas is soon drawn into a conflict that goes to the very highest office in the land, and his only ally is the most unlikely of people: a young noblewoman named Erika, who needs Tamas to teach her how to wield her powers as a powder mage. Brian McClellan: Website \| Twitter The Powder Mage Series: Amazon \| B&NCAIRO — Defense lawyers for 26 men arrested in a televised raid by police looking for gays at an Egyptian bathhouse criticized the prosecution’s case Sunday, saying it is based on a faulty investigation and only one police officer’s testimony. The December 7 raid was part of an ongoing crackdown on gays in Egypt, described by activists as the worst in more than a decade. While consensual gay and lesbian relationships are not specifically outlawed in Egypt, there is a societal taboo against same-sex couples. A private TV station’s crew filmed the men’s arrest, saying it tipped off police to a bathhouse “hosting men sex orgies.” The televised raid outraged activists. One lawyer representing 14 of the men, Islam Khalifa, told the court Sunday that the defendants suffered “psychological duress” from the publicized arrests, which defamed and endangered both them and their families in conservative Egypt. He said having the television crew there violated the men’s right to privacy and Egypt’s constitution. Of the 26 men, 21 have undergone medical examinations to see if they had had anal sex. Three of men had trauma that required further examination, defense lawyer Tarek al-Awadi said. The men face charges including debauchery and performing indecent public acts. Such vague terms can apply to prostitution or even public display of affection. Their trial began Dec. 21. On Sunday, the men stood in a small cage in the court, some with hoodies covering their face. Two wept in front of journalists, who were not allowed to approach them. Article continues below Family members were not allowed to attend the session, apparently to avoid outbursts as lawyers discussed details of the case. Angry family members largely refused to speak to the journalists gathered there, accusing them of trying to slander their relatives. “We are innocent! We were scandalized! No one in our family is gay!” one screamed. As the defendants left the courtroom, one relative chanted: “Raise your heads up high. Acquittals, God willing.” Once in a security vehicle to be return to jail, family members shouted: “You are men! You are men!” The trial will resume Monday. © 2015, Associated Press, All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. This Story Filed UnderLast Thursday, Lou Williams woke up to an urgent text message after a late afternoon nap in New Orleans. The text said his trade to the Houston Rockets had finally become official and he was due to debut in three hours. There was no practice or shootaround for the sharpshooting guard to prepare. But in typical “legend of Lou” fashion, Williams scored 27 points and nailed seven 3-pointers off the bench in his triumphant Rockets debut, spoiling DeMarcus Cousins’ debut with the New Orleans Pelicans on Feb. 23. Afterward, an impressed James Harden waited to walk off the court with his intriguing new teammate who only knew three offensive sets. “That was a pretty decent introduction, I would say,” Williams said. If you’re not familiar with Williams’ “Legend of Lou,” here’s a brief introduction. Whether it is scoring the basketball at will, turning a robbery into community outreach, rapping on a song with Meek Mill, being Allen Iverson’s mentee or dating two gorgeous women at the same time, Williams’ true stories are … well, legendary. Case in point: On Christmas Eve 2011, Williams was driving in a Philadelphia neighborhood when a man approached with a gun drawn and knocked on the window. Despite the life-threatening scare, the then-Philadelphia 76ers guard eventually talked the struggling man out of killing him. The gunman recognized Williams and told him he liked his game and what he was doing for the Philadelphia community. Williams ended up buying the man a meal from McDonald’s and went on his way unharmed as an early Christmas present. “That really happened to me,” Williams said. “The man recognized my face. It just so happened that the neighborhood I was in, I had done a lot of community work in. I was really in touch with those people in Philadelphia. When it got cold out, we bought coats, we bought hats, we bought gloves. When it was hot, we had camps where we had ice cream for the people. “He told me he had seen me around and I was able to touch people. Whatever he was going through, for him to look me in my eyes and understand I was one of him, we were able to work a deal out.” Williams has also been mentioned in rap songs from hip-hop stars Drake and Meek Mill. And he can spit bars, too. Williams collaborated with Meek Mill on the song “I Want It All,” rhyming such verses as, I made my first mill told moms I was leaving home/Then I made 30 more God damn I was puttin’ on/I used to dollar menu and spectate at the mall/But now I’m buying that b—- out, cuz s— I want it all.” Williams rapped on “I’m On My Dip,” with rapper Gillie Da Kid and NFL star wide receiver DeSean Jackson. Williams told LakersNation.com that he has recorded numerous rap songs that he has not released. “Obviously, music is a hobby for me,” Williams, 30, said. “Basketball always comes first. I always keep my priorities in check. I had some music I was going to release. It just didn’t fold out that way.” The “Legend of Lou” probably reached its height when the website Baller Alert reported that Williams was in a relationship with two women in December 2014. There were several photos on social media of Williams with Ashley Henderson and Rece Mitchell. They weren’t shy about it as the three hung out publicly and even took vacations together. Both waited for the then-Toronto Raptors guard once after a road game against the Golden State Warriors. Williams reportedly affectionately called them “Blonde” and “Brown” for their different hair colors. Drake even rapped about Williams and his two ladies in the song “6 Man”: Boomin’ out in South Gwinnett like Lou Will/ sixth man like Lou Will/ two girls and they get along. “It’s legend, right? You got to let legend be legend, ” Williams said when asked about his relationship with Henderson and Mitchell. “You don’t speak on legend. You just let it be what it is and let people assume and say what they want to say.” Stay undefeated with our culture newsletter The legendary Lou also had a unique NBA mentor in Iverson, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer. Williams was drafted by the Sixers out of South Gwinnett High School with the 45th overall pick in the second round of the 2005 NBA draft. At that time, Iverson — a 2001 NBA MVP — was a superstar with the Sixers in the midst of his final roller-coaster days with that franchise. Williams said he learned a lot from the 11-time NBA All-Star on and off the court that he applies to his life today, including his recent Rockets debut game. “Just stay ready. I played with A.I., whose favorite saying was, ‘Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,’ ” Williams said. “That is one of the mantras I took with me, the gems he gave me. That is always how I patterned myself and prepared for every situation … “I learned a lot from just the way he approached the game. A little dude that would go out there feeling like he is 7-2. Being able to line up next to him, having the ability to compete with him, seeing how he competed for games, that was one of the career-changing experiences for me. “I’ve seen him sick, I’ve seen him beat down, laying on the training table with 30 minutes on the clock, get up and put his stuff on and get 40 like it was nothing.” Williams enjoyed vacation time in the Dominican Republic during the recent NBA All-Star Weekend before going to his hometown of Atlanta for the final stretch. He expected to return to Los Angeles as a member of the Lakers. New Lakers president Magic Johnson, however, agreed to deal Williams to the Rockets for swingman Corey Brewer and a 2017 first-round pick two days before the trade deadline. While Williams worked hard to help the struggling Lakers rebuild, he appreciated being sent to a championship-caliber situation with Harden and the Rockets. In true “Legend of Lou” fashion, Williams actually got word of the trade from his best friend while working out at his old high school. “I was about five minutes into my workout when my best friend’s phone started ringing,” Williams said. “I got on him a little bit and told him to turn his phone off so I could get some work done. He looked at his phone and said, ‘Man, it’s your agent.’ I said, ‘My agent is calling you?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ Then I said, ‘Something happened.’ “I just took a deep breath and took everything in. After that, I was excited when I started thinking about the personality of this [Rockets] team and the way these guys play, the position they are in, in the West. Obviously, it’s going to be a playoff run, so I’m excited about that.” Williams was averaging an NBA-reserve best 18.6 points per game for the Lakers at the time of the trade. The 2015 NBA Sixth Man of the Year entered Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers averaging 24 points and 4.7 3-pointers off the bench for Houston. In just a week’s time, Williams appears to be a perfect match for the 3-point-thirsty Rockets. He has scored more than 25 points off the bench in two of his first three Rockets games, and is averaging 19.8 points and 3.8 three-pointers in 25.1 minutes with the team. “I just felt like I would fit in with the style of play they have,” Williams said. “With the identity of the team, I felt it was something I could contribute to.” With his scoring average rising with the Rockets, Williams is a growing favorite to win the 2017 NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award again. Such an accolade would just add another chapter to the “Legend of Lou.”At the assessment of damages in Singapore last week, Bantleman's wife, Tracy Bantleman, gave testimony as to how that email had "ruined" her husband's personal and professional life. "He has been demoralized," she recounted in a phone interview. "He takes great pride in himself as an educator, and these allegations have ruined his sense of self and sense of purpose." Tracy Bantleman added that the allegations would make it nearly impossible for her husband to work as a teacher again, and would jeopardize her own career as they have been teaching together internationally. "In the international teaching circuit, couples are hired first," she said. "And what school would honestly want to take on a teacher who has had allegations of sexual abuse made against them?" Tracy said the couple filed the suit mainly to restore Neil Bantleman's professional reputation. "If there's one country we can ever work in, then, it might be Singapore," she mused. The city-state sets the burden of proof for defamation plaintiffs relatively low, making it a favourable place for such litigation. The plaintiffs had tried to defend their reputations in Indonesia as well, through a different claim of criminal defamation, but were unsuccessful. Tracy Bantleman said the last time Donohue was interviewed by Indonesian police was in August last year, "and nothing has come of that." The Singaporean judgement, however, has no effect in Indonesia, which does not have an enforcement treaty with the city-state. Tracy said the couple will likely never see the monetary damages. But evidence gained in the civil litigation — Singaporean medical records of the boy, subpoenaed by lawyers — can be used in the criminal trial, which is nearing its end. The defence has until March 3 to call witnesses and a verdict is expected in April. Tracy said that timeframe limits the defence's days of testimony to seven, while the prosecution has had 11. But beyond voicing "serious concerns," Tracy provided few details on the proceedings as the trial becomes increasingly opaque. In an unusual move earlier this month, Judge Nur forbade those involved in the trial from disclosing details to media, completely curtaining off the already closed-door proceedings. Canadian consular officials have also been repeatedly shut out. Back home, the Liberals and NDP have called on the federal government, which has been quiet on the subject, to pressure Indonesia for a fair and transparent trial. In a statement, a foreign affairs spokeswoman acknowledged it is "rare" that consular officials attend proceedings, but said they are "actively engaged" in other ways. She added that senior officials, including Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Lynne Yelich and Ambassador to Indonesia Donald Bobiash, "continue to press" local authorities for, among other things, transparency. Torstar News ServiceSouth Korean Army K1A1 and U.S. Army M1A2 main battle tanks fire live rounds during a U.S.-South Korea live-fire exercise in a training area near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Pocheon, South Korea, on April 21, 2017. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters) What is the frightening situation between the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Un and the United States about? We have seen an escalation of words and actions suggesting possible war. But the North Koreans say, in so many words, that they just want security against attack by the United States. And members of the Trump administration, just like previous administrations, say they have no program for regime change in North Korea and simply want not to be threatened by its nuclear missiles. In principle, these look like compatible positions. So why is the escalation happening? International relations scholars often talk about the “security dilemma,” which you may remember if you ever took a college course on international relations. This purports to explain how two states that really would be just fine with peace and the status quo might end up in a war nonetheless. Given the apparent compatibility of the stated main goals, it is tempting to argue that the current crisis is an example of the “security dilemma” in action. Some analyses implicitly or explicitly invoke the idea. But this is not what is going on here. The underlying problem — which is further complicated by a variety of psychological and personality issues — is that no U.S. administration, Trump’s or any other, can commit itself not to act to help replace Kim’s government if it were to face major domestic instability. What is the security dilemma? The security dilemma refers to two related ideas. The first is very simple: Things that one state does to make itself more secure typically have the effect of making other states less secure. For example, Kim is trying to develop a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability to make his government more secure, but this has the effect of making the United States less secure. The second is about how this fact could lead states whose leaders are both basically interested in maintaining a non-conflict status quo to end up in a very costly war. How might this work? Imagine two states, State A and State B, that both prefer the status quo to a military conflict. The problem is that while each state knows that it prefers the status quo, it doesn’t know that the other state does, too. So State A might build weapons, or do some other militarily competitive thing, to try to make itself more secure in case State B is in fact an aggressive type. State B, which really prefers the status quo, sees this action, and becomes more worried that State A is aggressive and expansionist, even though State A was really just motivated by fear of State B. So State B increases its arms (or takes some other such action, such as invading a buffer state or establishing a colony). This then confirms or increases State A’s belief that State B must be an aggressive type. The net effect, according to this story, is a “spiral of hostility” that might lead to war, especially a preventive or preemptive war in which one state thinks it needs to act against the other before it is too late. Substitute North Korea for State A and the United States for State B for the example of the moment. The security dilemma story has some puzzling features. For one thing, it is not clear whether the inferences driving the spiral of hostility make sense. Why shouldn’t State B realize that State A would arm, whether it was an aggressive type or just afraid of B, in which case seeing A arming itself does not provide B with any new information about whether A prefers the status quo or aggression? The same is true for State A’s inferences about B. Furthermore, if the states’ leaders both just want to preserve the status quo, why can’t they signal this by showing some restraint? Robert Jervis’s classic statement of the problem in his “Perception and Misperception in International Politics” starts out saying that the “spiral of hostility” might occur between states with rational leaders. But then he pretty quickly shifts into arguments about how psychological biases drive the unnecessary escalation, arguing that state leaders tend to see themselves as nonthreatening and to assume, incorrectly, that others understand that they are not threatening or aggressive also. As a result, when State B sees A arming itself, its leaders think: “They know that we pose no threat to them, so this can only mean that they are aggressive and want to attack us or do something with those weapons that we won’t like.” However, the North Korea crisis is probably not the result of this security dilemma dynamic In the security dilemma story, escalation and war might happen even though both sides are in fact just interested in maintaining the status quo. Neither has any underlying ‘revisionist’ aims (i.e. aims to change the larger international situation and their own role in it) that the other side needs to worry about. That’s not the problem between the United States and North Korea. U.S. leaders have long hated the North Korean regime and would love to see it gone, just as successive U.S. administrations hated the Gaddafi regime in Libya. And there are truly excellent reasons for the leaders of a democratic country — or really anyone who cares about human rights — to hate the North Korean government and want to see it change. But from Kim’s perspective, the fact that the United States would ideally like to see him and his gang of thieves and murderers gone makes the United States the revisionist power. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson can say in public that “we do not seek a regime change” and that “we are not your enemy,” but Kim knows that this is cheap talk. If the opportunity for regime change arose, there is no way that the United States (and South Korea) could make a credible promise not to support opposition to Kim. Just look at Libya. Gaddafi negotiated to end his nuclear program, and then later NATO intervened to help overthrow him when there was an uprising. So this is not a situation where two states each mistakenly worry that the other is hostile. Rather, it’s what international relations scholars might call a classic problem of anarchy, in the sense that there is no power above states that can enforce agreements they make with each other. Here, the United States can’t credibly commit not to take actions to help depose Kim in certain circumstances. Kim thinks, with some reason, that being able to strike the U.S. mainland would lower this risk. This in turn leads U.S. leaders to think about a preventive war. Of course, there may be other dynamics in play. In particular, some part of Kim’s nuclear policy is aimed at increasing his legitimacy with domestic audiences, shoring up legitimacy and status, and so trying to lower the odds of a domestic uprising to begin with. Questions follow about Trump’s approach What is puzzling is that the Trump administration seems to think that threats and coercion from the United States and China can work to get Kim to agree to stop his missile program in a verifiable way. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. have said things in recent weeks that suggest a real willingness to try a preventive war rather than allow North Korea to acquire a fully functional capability to hit the U.S. mainland. This isn’t even to mention Trump’s more extreme statements. At the same time, Trump and his advisers also say things that suggest they want to use the threat of war to press the North Koreans to make a deal (including via pressure from China). But threats and coercion just reinforce Kim’s sense that his safety — from the United States and China — requires a working nuclear weapons capability. Due to the commitment problem just described, he is likely to try to develop this capability whether we make threats and raise nuclear risk or not. So the question is really whether the United States would be willing to undertake a preventive war at this point. Why rattle sabers and draw red lines if you don’t have a clear path to a feasible deal?freddiew We just passed the 1 year anniversary of Chrono Trigger a few days ago. This is the first action video that we posted after rebooting the channel. Chrono Trigger: Short Action Scene CLICK TO RT! more The stairs and pallet are made wood from the holly tree, the strongest material known to man. That should clear things up!CLICK TO RT! http://bit.l... CLICK TO RT! This is how an action scene should look like. No shaky-cam to make up for lack of decent stunts! Just a short video about what happened between me and some bad guys. If you think about it, the title makes PERFECT SENSE. The gun flares and smoke and hits are from Video Copilot's Action Essentials 2 pack: Blood is from our own personal library - red chalk dust on black and composited in. See the Behind the Scenes: See the Muzzle Flare Tutorial: And finally, check out my 2nd channel, with tutorials and behind the scenes: less The stairs and pallet are made wood from the holly tree, the strongest material known to man. That should clear things up!CLICK TO RT! http://bit.ly/RTaction This is how an action scene should look like. No shaky-cam to make up for lack of decent stunts!Just a short video about what happened between me and some bad guys. If you think about it, the title makes PERFECT SENSE.The gun flares and smoke and hits are from Video Copilot's Action Essentials 2 pack: http://www.videocopilot.net/products/... Blood is from our own personal library - red chalk dust on black and composited in.See the Behind the Scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apw4m0... See the Muzzle Flare Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsViAv... And finally, check out my 2nd channel, with tutorials and behind the scenes: http://youtube.com/freddiew2 freddiew New 'freddiew' video is up! Jedi Assholes Strike Back! Help us spread the word by liking and favoriting! It helps more then you would think, thanks guys! Jedi A-Holes Strike Back We tend to not do a lot of sequels, but we couldn't resist going back... Click here to tweet it, help us spread the word! http://bit.ly/RTJediAholesSB We tend to not do a lot of sequels, but we couldn't resist going back... more We tend to not do a lot of sequels, but we couldn't resist going back and doing another Jedi Assholes. Special thanks to Shelly Dennis for getting in the freezing cold water in a bikini! -- 2nd Channel! ‪http://youtube.com/freddiew2‬ Twitter! ‪http://twitter.com/fwong‬ ‪http://twitter.com/brandonjla‬ Facebook! ‪http://facebook.com/freddiewspage‬ Website! ‪http://facerocker.com‬ less Click here to tweet it, help us spread the word! http://bit.ly/RTJediAholesSB We tend to not do a lot of sequels, but we couldn't resist going back and doing another Jedi Assholes.Special thanks to Shelly Dennis for getting in the freezing cold water in a bikini!--2nd Channel!Twitter!Facebook!Website! freddiew uploaded a new video Jedi A-Holes Strike Back We tend to not do a lot of sequels, but we couldn't resist going back... Click here to tweet it, help us spread the word! http://bit.ly/RTJediAholesSB We tend to not do a lot of sequels, but we couldn't resist going back... more We tend to not do a lot of sequels, but we couldn't resist going back and doing another Jedi Assholes. Special thanks to Shelly Dennis for getting in the freezing cold water in a bikini! -- 2nd Channel! ‪http://youtube.com/freddiew2‬ Twitter! ‪http://twitter.com/fwong‬ ‪http://twitter.com/brandonjla‬ Facebook! ‪http://facebook.com/freddiewspage‬ Website! ‪http://facerocker.com‬ less Click here to tweet it, help us spread the word! http://bit.ly/RTJediAholesSB We tend to not do a lot of sequels, but we couldn't resist going back and doing another Jedi Assholes.Special thanks to Shelly Dennis for getting in the freezing cold water in a bikini!--2nd Channel!Twitter!Facebook!Website! freddiew added new videos to added new videos to freddiew's vidsWhen Malcolm Turnbull took the leadership last year from Tony Abbott, he reasoned his predecessor just wasn’t up to the task of providing the economic leadership the country needed. This is what Turnbull said: “The big economic challenges that we’re living through here and around the world offer enormous challenges and we need a different style of leadership … a style of leadership that respects the people’s intelligence … we need advocacy, not slogans.” It was a profound thing to say, and he was exactly right. Roll forward several months and here is the current character of the economic policy conversation. Scott Morrison shrugs off claims Malcolm Turnbull did not consult on budget date Read more There’s an intraday fixation about whether Turnbull and his treasurer, Scott Morrison, are not very secret frenemies – in large part because the prime minister and treasurer look and sound like they want different things just about every time they open their mouths. As fixations go it’s reasonable enough. Reforming governments require prime ministers and treasurers to work together, synthesising their various conflicts, in the national interest, and if they can’t or won’t then governments will find themselves in trouble fairly quickly. But, frankly, I am not very interested in whether or not these guys want different things or refuse to share their play lunch, or dream big and scheme small – I actually just want them to get on with delivering what Turnbull promised, which was a serious conversation about economic policy. I really don’t give a stuff about Turnbull and Morrison’s first-world problems. Let me repeat. I don’t care. I strongly suspect voters don’t give a stuff either. I suspect voters have had more than a gutful of political discussion and political reporting manifesting as little more than commodified narcissistic dysfunction – clickable and shareable soap opera – because dealing with substance is just too hard, both for politicians and for political reporters. So let’s push past the soap opera to the government’s substantive conversation, which started out broad, and dangerously free flowing in the best sense. Recent evidence suggests it’s now shrinking into predictable formulations and short-term tactical flourishes that do nothing to address the substance of Australia’s medium-term problems. A shift in political thinking is giving Labor a sense of purpose Read more After a long amble around tax reform, with a brief rest-stop at new federalism, we are back to the Abbott-era absurdity that Australia does not have a revenue problem. There is also a near meaningless formulation that Australia just has to live within its means. On the ABC on Monday morning, journalist Michael Brissenden attempted to cut through the vacuousness of the formulation by pointing out that taken to its logical extent, we would not borrow for infrastructure, we would not build for the future, we would not allow students to borrow money to fund their education. What does this living within your means concept actually mean? The treasurer said he believed Australian households knew exactly what living within your means meant. “It means you manage your finances responsibly, it means if you do
turns out that it is all a matter of intentions and the intended recipients. In Mr. Judis’ view, mainstream modern American liberals have lost their way; they too frequently sleep with the enemy (think Bill and Hillary Clinton) in the form of excessively collaborating with businessmen and bankers to the latter’s benefit; American liberals and progressives have stopped sufficiently emphasizing “economic justice” for middle America with their increasingly primary focus on “identity politics.” Liberal Socialism and Democratic Politics Without Romance Also, unlike the communists and many radical socialists and some progressives, Mr. Judis calls for moving towards his notion of a better socialist future through a more active participation in the Democratic Party. The task is to nudge and shove mainstream modern American liberals in the Democratic Party further to the socialist left, which in many of their hearts these people already know is right. And to use the Democratic Party as the vehicle to propagandize and persuade more in society that socialism is good and just and the best for them. In other words, Mr. Judis calls for using the methods of the earlier German Democratic Socialists and the British Fabians, only do so in a way that does not seem to be as threatening or undermining of all the institutions of existing society as those earlier groups often did with their call for the total abolition of capitalism. What is sometimes called “crony capitalism” is just Pareto’s “bourgeois socialism.” Mr. Judis’ “liberal socialism” is really just the existing interventionist-welfare state placed – “democratically” – in the “right” elected hands, so those manning and managing the machinery of government will do what he wants political authority to do, rather than what it is currently being done by Republicans and the current Democratic Party establishments. A way for Mr. Judis to more easily defend his desire and ideal is to suggest that the existing political-economic system in America today is a free market, “neo-liberal” capitalism, rather than what the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) once more accurately labeled it: “bourgeois socialism.” That is, a system of government regulation, redistribution, favors and privileges that benefits many in the private enterprise sectors of society rather than a more “proletarian socialism” that simply would take from “the rich” to give to “the workers” and “the poor.” What is sometimes called “crony capitalism” is just Pareto’s “bourgeois socialism.” Pareto also understood with amazing clarity in the 1890s one of the insights of modern Public Choice theory, that “participatory democracy” of the community as a whole is a theoretical and practical illusion in a complex society. Politics in an unrestrained democracy always becomes a contest among special interest groups capable of gaining concentrated benefits from State intervention and redistribution at the diffused expense of the rest of the society. In democratic societies it takes the form of coalitions of special interest groups who succeed in offering campaign contributions and votes to politicians desiring elected political office, who then fulfill their campaign promises to those groups once in the actual halls of political power. The communist “classless society” had one of the most intricate social webs of favoritism and plunder ever. In totalitarian societies, such as in the former Soviet Union, it took the form of hierarchical positions within the Communist Party and within the central planning bureaucracy, including the state enterprise managers, who had the decision-making power over access to and use of the socialized means of production. Thus, the communist “classless society” had one of the most intricate social webs of power, privilege, favoritism and plunder ever seen in human society. This “politics without romance,” to use Nobel Laureate, James M. Buchanan’s (1919-2013) phrase, shows why the notion of “the people” owning, controlling, regulating and overseeing the collective direction of an economy is pure illusion and deception concerning the reality of how and why political power works the way it does. What Mr. Judis and far too many who share his views about capitalism and some form of socialism – “liberal” or otherwise – fail to understand is that any and all forms of planning, regulation, and political redistribution in fact takes power and decision-making out of the hands of the people about whom they express their concerns. Real Participatory Liberation under Free Market Liberalism It is the open, competitive market economy that, precisely, gives each and every individual wide latitude and liberty over his own personal affairs. It is the market that enables each of us to make his own choices concerning the profession, occupation, or productive calling to pursue. It is the market that enables each and everyone of us to have the freedom to make our own choices to earn an income and spend that income as we consider best in terms of the values, beliefs, purposes and desires that we think may bring meaning and happiness to our individual lives. It is the free society that provides truly participatory opportunities to form groupings of almost any type. It is the free society of individual liberty and voluntary association that provides truly participatory opportunities to form groupings of almost any type to further the ends outside of the narrower arena of market transactions to better our lives materially, socially, culturally and spiritually. See my article, “Individual Liberty and Civil Society” for more about this. At this point no doubt, Mr. Judis would reasonably ask, but what about those who are unable to provide for themselves, due to personal tragedy, unfortunate circumstances, or simply bad luck? Is this not the reason why enlightened and decent societies had to move “leftward” to establish and financially provide for those unable to personally meet the essentials of everyday life and to have opportunities to fulfill their potentials as a human being? Is not the welfare state of “liberal socialism” the inescapable necessity of having a humane society? The classical liberal responds that these very concerns can be far better and more successfully solved and served through the voluntary institutions and associations of civil society than to turn such tasks over to the government. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before the modern welfare state, all such “social problems” were handled with wide and positive effects by charities, philanthropies and for-profit organizations in places such as Great Britain and the United States. That their workings and successes are virtually unknown to most people in modern society shows the extent to which their history and social nobility has gone down a memory hole of collectivist misinterpretation and misunderstanding of what a society of liberty did and could provide (for more about this, see my article, “A World Without the Welfare State”). Furthermore, the transfer of such welfare responsibility to the government reduces each and every recipient to a ward of the State. It is politicians and bureaucrats who decide the education your children will receive in government schools; they are the ones who determine the retirement possibilities you will have, the healthcare to which you will have access and its type, the wages and work conditions under which you may be allowed to be employed or unemployed, and the forms and types of associations you may enter into as well as the activities and membership you are permitted. “Liberal socialism” is not the path to liberation, but of continuing servitude to the those with political power. The “liberal socialism” about which Mr. Judis dreams is not the path to liberation, but of continuing servitude to those with political power and who have the presumption to imagine that they know better how people are to care for their own lives than those individuals (See my article, “Democratic Socialism Means Loss of Liberty”). One would have thought that after more than seven decades of the interventionist-welfare state as the political left’s “liberal socialist” alternative to Marxian socialist central planning, it would be realized that it is just another constraining and corrupt manifestation of the unworkability of any collectivist system of control and command. Mr. Judis’ program for a socialist America also shows the intellectual bankruptcy of those on “the left.” The revolutionary transformation of society, for which they yearn, ends up being nothing more than the existing interventionist-welfare state, except with the desire that people who agree with Mr. Judis should be at the helm of political power rather than those with whom he disagrees.Aedes aegypti mosquitos are seen in containers at a lab of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Sao Paulo University, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (credit: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images) DALLAS COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have sent official confirmation to Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) that a patient there is the first Dallas County case of Zika virus in 2016. DCHHS workers also say the individual acquired the virus through sexual transmission. POLL: With the first confirmed Zika case in Dallas County, are you more concerned about the virus now? Health officials say the patient was infected after having sexual contact with an ill person who had returned from a country where Zika virus is present. Officials did not release the name, age, or sex of the infected person. Late Tuesday afternoon a second case in Dallas County was confirmed. The person had recently traveled to Venezuela. In a press releases statement DCHHS director Zachary Thompson said, “Next to abstinence, condoms are the best prevention method against any sexually-transmitted infections.” Zika virus is transmitted to people by mosquitoes and through sexual activity. According to the CDC, about 1 in 5 people infected with Zika virus become ill. The most common symptoms of Zika virus are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). Other common symptoms include muscle pain and headache. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting several days to a week. Officials say severe cases requiring hospitalization are uncommon and deaths are rare. DCHHS officials advise that anyone with the above symptoms, who has visited an area where Zika virus is present or had sexual contact with a person who traveled to an area where Zika virus is present, see a healthcare provider. There is no medication to prevent or treat Zika infections. Anyone who is infected or believes they are infected should get plenty of rest, drink lots of liquids and take medicine such as acetaminophen to help with fever and pain. Health workers say aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen and naproxen, should not be taken. Recommendations to avoid Zika virus are similar to West Nile virus. North Texas health officials are urging residents to: DEET—Use bug spray and protect clothing with repellents containing permethrin or DEET; DRESS—Dress in loose, light- colored clothing with long sleeves and wear long pants; DUSK/DAWN—Limit outdoor exposure at dusk and dawn; DRAIN—all areas of standing water including changing water in wading pools, birdbaths, and cleaning out gutters (©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has approved the first clinical trial using MDMA along with psychotherapy to treat anxiety among people with life-threatening illnesses, researchers told Al Jazeera on Tuesday, adding that public support for the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs is rapidly growing. "The tide has changed for psychedelic research," said Brad Burge, the communications director for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a California-based nonprofit research group that studies medicinal uses for psychedelics and marijuana and is sponsoring the study. The DEA approved the project on Friday, he said. Unlike Ecstasy or Molly — names for MDMA sold on the street and often mixed with dangerous adulterants — pure MDMA has been proved “sufficiently safe” when taken a limited number of times in moderate doses, MAPS says on its website. The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. MDMA can be useful in psychotherapy for people suffering from anxiety due to life-threatening illnesses because it produces in users a sense of calm, trust and confidence, Burge said. Unlike psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin, MDMA does not produce hallucinations, he added. The clinical trial will be held in Marin, California, in a psychologist’s office, as opposed to a hospital setting, Burge said. The patients will lie on a couch with a therapist nearby for support and conversation. In the trial, 18 subjects diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses will attend months of psychotherapy, with MDMA being used in a few sessions in order to facilitate the process, he said. The outcome will be measured by whether using the psychedelic helps reduce people's anxiety, which will be determined at the end of the sessions by the patient’s feedback and the therapist's assessments. Researchers hope that using MDMA alongside psychotherapy will let subjects confront their situation more clearly and allow the positive steps they take during the therapy to "stick," Burge said. "It opens them up and makes them more comfortable with the therapist while reducing fear and making them more able to talk about difficult emotions." If the pilot is successful, MAPS plans to continue with further studies involving more subjects and different approaches. For now, researchers hope to establish basic safety and effectiveness, he said. The trial is part of a larger $20 million plan to make MDMA an FDA-approved prescription medicine by 2021, Burge said. MAPS is the only organization in the world funding MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trials, he added. The institute has carried out successful pilot studies of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, adding to the drug’s scientific credibility, he said. Other research by the institute includes ayahuasca-assisted therapy for drug addiction, LSD for cluster headaches and psilocybin for nicotine addiction. Researchers hope to back up growing evidence that psychedelics have legitimate therapeutic uses — and to counter the narrative that has demonized them as mind-destroying drugs. "That's what the really good science shows, despite decades of propaganda and government misinformation," Burge said. "Just a couple weeks ago, a phenomenal study showed that there are no long-term associations between psychedelic use and mental illnesses." That study was published this month in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. In addition, a recent report by Johns Hopkins Medicine, a leading U.S. medical institution combining the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, showed that the use of psychedelic drugs — primarily psilocybin and LSD — could reduce psychological distress and suicidal thinking.Perhaps handcuffed by its $200 starting price, the ZenFone 2 just can't match some of the flashier designs we've seen from other Android manufacturers lately. There's no curved screen, no metal finishes, and upon picking it up you're greeted by a pretty large chin bezel beneath the display. It’s not a head-turning or envelope-pushing design — it’s mostly just generic. Three capacitive menu buttons add significantly to the phone's height, and these keys bizarrely don't light up, which is one cost-cutting shortcut I wish Asus hadn't taken. On first impression, the ZenFone 2’s budget price is painfully obvious. The phone's design is basic in every sense: it's a plastic phone that feels like plastic. If you've picked up any LG-branded smartphone over the past couple years, you'll have some clue of what to expect. The rear shell is textured and offers a nice grip that never had me worried about fumbling it, but if the goal was to invoke metal, Asus missed the mark. Can a $300 smartphone stand up with the best Android devices out there from heavyweights like Samsung, LG, and HTC? That’s what Asus is trying to answer with the ZenFone 2. It’s not alone either — a whole host of smaller smartphone manufacturers are trying the same thing this year. Similar to the Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 and OnePlus One, the ZenFone 2 from Asus makes a strong case that it’s not implausible. In a year that’s produced some of the best flagship smartphones we’ve ever seen, these smaller players are trying to win by pairing an appealing price with surprisingly robust performance. In Asus’ case, a low price tag and unproven processor could be seen as handicaps, but they don’t hold it back from hanging with the big guns. The 5.5-inch display itself is nice, but also pretty dim. Colors from the 1080p panel are accurate if a bit washed out (a "Vivid" display setting helps boost saturation), and viewing angles leave nothing to be desired. Sure, the ZenFone 2 is outclassed by Apple, Samsung, LG, and HTC, but their devices cost hundreds more. The ZenFone 2’s screen will do fine for gaming, YouTube, and so on. The only real problem is brightness — or lack thereof. The screen fails miserably outdoors on a sunny day, and even in well-lit rooms I found myself cranking the ZenFone 2 up to around 80 percent and above. And it must be said that other companies have done better at making quality displays for around the same price point; Alcatel’s Onetouch Idol 3 has one of the best 1080p screens we’ve come across. Asus has made some poor design choices Asus borrows another LG idea on the back of the phone with its rear-mounted volume rocker. There are mixed opinions on this idea, but at least LG’s version works, which can’t be said for Asus’. The volume buttons on the ZenFone 2 are way thinner than on any LG smartphone, and there's no power button sandwiched between them. Easily the worst aspect of this phone's design is where Asus decided to put that power button; it's centered at the very top of the device. I almost always had to adjust my grip to reach it, and even then it requires a firm press. Fortunately, I rarely have to bother with the button: Asus does offer tap-to-wake and tap-to-sleep gestures. The software also lets you draw letters on the screen to open your favorite apps. "C" launches the camera, and I set up "S" to work with Spotify and a lower-case "e" to trigger Gmail. These features work well when you remember that they're there, but most of the time I didn’t. One misleading thing about the phone's outer design is the big speaker grill on the rear. Based on looks alone, you'd expect the ZenFone 2 to rival many devices on the market in sound output. But remove the back case and you'll see the truth: all you're hearing is a pretty measly (and tinny) speaker. This isn't really a phone that can double as a music speaker; even watching Netflix is questionable. You're just better off plugging in headphones. As for the 13-megapixel camera itself, it’s pretty run-of-the-mill. Daytime shots are satisfactory, but Asus layers on extra sharpening that can do more harm than good. There’s no optical image stabilization built in, so low-light shots contain some blur unless you use the ZenFone 2’s low-light mode. The resulting images are much brighter and can capture scenes where other modes see nothing but black. Unfortunately, this option downsizes your shots to just 3 megapixels (a process known as pixel binning), and they also contain a healthy dose of noise. Asus has included a swath of other shooting modes, too. There are 18 in all, including a decent HDR option and Super Resolution mode that combines four 13-megapixel images into a single 52-megapixel shot. But the camera’s output doesn’t really justify these extravagant software features, and Super Resolution photos don’t look discernibly better or sharper than what you’d get from Auto mode. While the camera is generally fast and thankfully avoids shutter lag, it can also sometimes take a bit to get you back to the viewfinder between shots. If camera quality is your most important criteria in selecting a new phone, the ZenFone 2 won’t top that list. There's a gross amount of bloatware here But design complaints and camera issues aside, the ZenFone 2 shines when it comes to performance. This $300 phone breezes through every task you throw at it. The ZenFone 2 handled everything with aplomb: multitasking, playing games, and general everyday usage caused no issues whatsoever. It felt no different from many existing Android flagships, a notion that may stir some panic inside Qualcomm and Samsung. If nothing else, this device proves Intel is totally up to the challenge of powering a modern smartphone experience. The ZenFone 2’s abundance of RAM (4GB in the high-end version) probably helps out, too. Call quality, LTE data reception on T-Mobile, and Wi-Fi performance were all perfectly adequate, as well. The ZenFone 2 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, but it’s topped with Asus’ ZenUI skin. It’s a heavy customization of Android by today’s standards, and a different approach from what Alcatel is doing. Still, ZenUI has some pretty advanced features that could satisfy power users. The ZenFone 2 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, but it’s topped with Asus’ ZenUI skin. It’s a heavy customization of Android by today’s standards, and a different approach from what Alcatel is doing. Still, ZenUI has some pretty advanced features that could satisfy power users. Installable theme packs make it easy to change up the software’s appearance (which isn’t awful out of the box but doesn’t mesh well with Google’s own design for Android), and you can choose different transition animations for the home screen. It doesn’t take much to get the ZenFone 2 looking great, but you’ll definitely want to replace the stock messages, calendar, and gallery apps with Google’s superior alternatives. Asus’ stock versions just aren’t particularly good. Customizability doesn’t excuse Asus’ other software faults, however. Out of the box, the ZenFone 2 comes filled to the brim with bloatware and a ton of useless in-house apps. It’s the most egregious example we’ve seen in a long time, and in going so overboard, Asus could quickly overwhelm novice users. I could stand about five minutes of CleanSweep scanning every app I installed for malware — something Google Play already does, mind you — before I disabled that and every other junk app, such as Omelet Chat. I ended up hiding away almost 40 of the apps included out of the box. That’s just ridiculous. Battery life was a mixed bag. On most days, the ZenFone 2 made it through the full workday without issue and had a small reserve left waiting at night. But there were others where the phone neared the red line much sooner — and that was without me pushing it particularly hard. There’s at least one positive: the ZenFone 2 supports quick charging and goes from zero to 100 in about 1.5 hours. Even so, the ZenFone 2 should offer much better longevity when off a charger and falls short of the OnePlus One, a device that shares its screen size and has a similar battery capacity. If you put some effort in, the Zenfone 2 can be a great phone With all of that said, the ZenFone 2 still makes for a fantastic package considering what you’re paying. I’d recommend the $300 model over its $200 counterpart thanks to the faster processor, more storage, and the bundled quick charger. When you step back and look at the bigger picture, Asus has built a device that often does stand toe-to-toe with today’s far more expensive flagships — or at least comes close enough. Camera performance and battery life fluctuate between average and disappointing, and the screen might not leave you in awe. But everything else about the ZenFone 2 gets a thumbs up. The experience of actually using it proves incredibly fast, reliable, and satisfying thanks to Intel’s processor. And when you rid the ZenFone 2 of all the crapware that Asus stuffed into it (and install your favorite third-party launcher), you’re left with a wholly capable smartphone that costs half what you’d pay for a Galaxy S6, HTC M9, or LG G4. In the end, Asus’ biggest achievement is exactly that; it’s not better than any of those flagships, and it requires some work on your part to get the best out of it, but mentioning the $300 ZenFone 2 in the same sentence isn’t as crazy as you’d think.Pfizer and Allergan will join in a $160 billion deal to create the world's largest drugmaker. It's the biggest health care deal ever and the largest so-called inversion, a tax-saving maneuver in which a U.S. company reorganizes in a country with a lower corporate tax rate. U.S. efforts to curb the practice have so far proven ineffectual. Botox maker Allergan is based in Ireland but runs much of its operations out of New Jersey. The deal would create a pharmaceutical colossus with annual sales of more than $60 billion, putting the merged group well ahead of No. 2 U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co, which has annual sales of about $40 billion. Widely used Pfizer drugs such as Lipitor, Viagra and nerve pain treatment Lyrica would be brought together with Allergan's Namenda memory loss treatment, Restasis dry eye medication and other leading eye-care brands. It would be the biggest merger of the year, topping beer maker Anheuser-Busch InBev's proposed $107 billion takeover of SABMiller Plc. Pfizer’s talks with Allergan come more than a year after the U.S. firm abandoned a bid to acquire AstraZeneca and move its tax headquarters to Britain. The U.S. Treasury last year, and again last week, updated its rules on inversions to make it harder for companies to avoid U.S. taxes by moving overseas. But experts have said these moves would do little to prevent Pfizer from inverting. Although Pfizer has decried the high U.S. corporate tax rate, it has minimized its U.S. taxes for years by selling its drug patents to overseas subsidiaries and then using them to make drugs that are sold back to U.S. affiliates. While generating big profit margins for its overseas arm, the practice has allowed Pfizer to report losses on its higher-taxed U.S. business in each of the past five years. The inversion deal would get Pfizer out from under the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate, among the world's highest. The tax rate in Ireland is 12.5 percent. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Monday spoke out against the Pfizer-Allergan inversion plan. Clinton said it would leave "U.S. taxpayers holding the bag" and plans to propose steps to prevent future inversions. Sanders said the merger would be a "disaster" for U.S. consumers paying high prescription drug costs, adding that the Obama administration should exercise its authority to stop it. Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has called for a corporate tax overhaul, called the deal "disgusting" in comments to news website Business Insider. Many industry analysts and investors believe Pfizer could be bulking up with Allergan's fast-growing brands as a prelude to splitting by 2017 into two companies — one selling high-margin branded drugs and one selling inexpensive generics that have dragged down Pfizer results over the past few years. Pfizer's Chief Executive Ian Read, 62, a trained accountant, has said Pfizer could decide on such a split by late 2016, after it completes separate financial analyses of the two businesses. Pfizer's $15 billion purchase earlier this year of hospital products maker Hospira, which sells generic injectable drugs and is developing biosimilar versions of top-selling biotech medicines, was widely seen as a move to make its generics business more attractive ahead of a sale. Pfizer and Allergan will be combined under Allergan PLC, which will be renamed Pfizer PLC. Read will be CEO of the combined company, with Allergan's CEO Brent Saunders, 45, serving in a very senior role focused on operations and the integration, the people added. Saunders will also have a seat on the combined company's board, one of the people said. Al Jazeera and wire servicesImage copyright Dan Bowie Image caption The vehicle used in the robbery was found blazing on a street in the village Two armed men dressed as women, one pushing the other in wheelchair, have robbed a village post office. Two shots were fired as the suspects attacked the building on High Street, Boston Spa, on the outskirts of Leeds. Although no one was shot, one post office worker suffered minor injuries as he tried to stop the pair, who escaped with an amount of cash. One vehicle used in the robbery, a Nissan Juke, was found on fire at Beeches End in the commuter village. Image copyright Mark Grayson Image caption Police and ambulances were called to the scene in Boston Spa on Monday morning Det Insp Phil Jackson said: "We are in the early stages of our investigation into this armed robbery, which is being treated as an isolated incident. "From our inquiries it would appear that a firearm has been discharged twice, once inside the premises and once outside. No one was injured as a result of these discharges. "It was initially reported that two female suspects entered the post office but it has now been established that the suspects were dressed as women and wearing wigs. "We believe that two vehicles were used in this incident and in addition to the two suspects who entered the post office there may have also been a driver involved. "One of the vehicles, a Nissan Juke, has been located burnt out in Beeches End. The other vehicle involved is believed to be a white Mercedes."Tim Anglade, Executive in Residence at Scale Venture Partners: So you’re in Menlo now, like back in the incubator? What’s that like, the incubator? Did you ever even go to an incubator before? Roger Bodamer, Chief Product Officer at MariaDB: No, this is my very first time, and it’s quite a big adjustment. I must confess, I really do like my office, you know, way more than this type of stuff, but it’s a good place, it’s easy. We have a few desks and so it makes it easy to have things around. You don’t have to have your own kitchen and all these type of things, it’s all there. Tim: Yeah, and there’s some energy, right? There’s some stuff you can overhear that’s always funny. I like incubators, But more importantly, you’re back, fully in the database game. I mean, you could say you never left, but you know, you did some time in Oracle, or you were in MongoDB and now you’re helping out MariaDB. And so, I wanted to chat with you because we both went through the NOSQL phase, and I just realized this morning, that we had very, very different opinions as to what that trend was about and whether or not it actually succeeded or failed or whatever that even means, and so I wanted to get that on camera, ‘cause I was in there at Cloudant and a few other companies. You were in there at MongoDB. I was a firm believer of NOSQL in a technical sense and a business sense and I kind of feel like it didn’t really deliver everything that I hoped for it. But this morning, you were telling me you were like, “No, NOSQL succeeded,” so I want to hear that out and I wanted to talk about like, in general, I guess, how those tech trends can succeed and fail, and what that means in Silicon Valley. Roger: Yeah, so I think NOSQL succeeded. I think there was a hype phase in which people thought that everything was going to be NOSQL. I never believed that. I mean, that was a little too much, but this is a general statement. I think that NOSQL actually has succeeded. I think there’s several companies that are going to be very successful and are being very successful in this space. I also believe, at the same time, that relational databases will continue to be the workforce, like off the database industry. But where NOSQL has succeeded is I think that relational databases, for a while, sort of took a step in place, you know, they were what they were and there was very little innovation. They didn’t know how to talk to developers anymore, and so I think they lost some grounds there. Tim: Right, that’s the kind of part about it that I feel like failed, but looking at the start of it, I felt like from a technical standpoint, they were the real chance for it to kind of take over. Because we had to add the relational data to the standard for many, many years. But before we used relational databases, we used a lot of different things before, right? So it felt like, why not change that again? Why not have a new edge, and why not have NOSQL become the new standard the way like maybe self-driving cars are going to be the new standard in the years to come, and that didn’t quite happen, right? Let’s put it like this. And so from a technical standpoint, I kind of felt like there was an opportunity lost, but then also from a business standpoint, the lack of cooperation kind of really prevented it from really making a dent in the market, from really getting a lot of adoption in the enterprise, and I kind of feel a bit of a letdown there. So how do you feel about those two aspects, the technical aspect and the business aspect? Roger: Yeah, so a couple of things. I mean, you and I were on stage in the very, very beginning of the NOSQL phase. And the thing that I found very interesting is I was on stage with six or seven other vendors, and they were all attacking each other, and I was looking around me on stage, and I was going like, amongst us, amongst the vendors on stage at that point in time, we barely had maybe five or 10 million dollars of revenue, and so for me, it was always about we’re trying to make a market, and so what you do is you collaborate. All the various different vendors on stage had different used cases that they supported better and some that they didn’t support as well, but it was more about the notion that relational didn’t have to be everything. Relational is very, very good for most things, but there are some areas where it’s not as good, and that’s where NOSQL has a very legitimate place. From a business perspective, too, I think what people sort of underestimate is that it takes a long time for people to change, to change their development practices and to adopt newer technologies. This is not something that happens in a couple of years. This takes easily a decade. Oracle, it was, if I remember correctly, it was founded in 1984, or something like that, and only in 1990 did they have diverse, viable product. This was five, six years. Now, things have changed, development goes faster, there’s more things available, people are more productive, but still, it takes a long time before things become available. Tim: So there’s few things to unpack here, the first thing is, yeah, I do think there wasn’t a long enough runway, I guess, for a lot of these companies, for the space in general. Because it would take a lot of time to change, trending the enterprise, that always does, right? You look at contenders now, JavaScript, things that are really, really hot and are getting really good traction, it always takes a long time to get to that core revenue that’s powering a lot of those technical trends. Then the other thing is that the infighting, and you could say for example what’s also happening was continued right now. You hear about rumors of a split in Docker and all those kind of vendors back-stabbing each other, and trying to do competing things when considering the market isn’t completely cemented yet, or even as a tech trend for getting the market for a second. And I kind of feel like that’s kind of something we did wrong in NOSQL where we felt like for sure it was going to happen, so it was a question of who was going to get the bigger part of the pie. That’s how every company felt, maybe on the inside of like, “Well, NOSQL’s gonna be standard. “I just want to be the 50% vendor of NOSQL,” as opposed to “Let’s cooperate, “make NOSQL happen on a large scale, “and then after that or in parallel to that, “we can focus on building our own differences, “our own staff, our own message.” Roger: I think what I try to bring, like at the time when I was at Mongo, what I was trying to really bring, and the Mongo team themselves were really focused on this, was not to be focused too much on the competition, but more focused on customer success, and I think that in the open source world, there is often a lot of sort of religion around how to do open source and how open source are you and there’s all these litmus tests, like “On the open source scale, how open source are you?” “Are you this open source or that?” and I think at some level it’s immaterial. I think that what’s very important is to be customer-focused and to be customer successful, because then I think if you look at the success of the companies that are going to make it in a NOSQL space, what you’ll find in common with them is that they have good technology and they solve certain use cases really well, but in addition to that, they’ve had a maniacal focus on making sure that their customers are being successful, and I think specifically, like in the NOSQL days, I think one of the things that was done really well there was the initial focus on developers, like making developers productive and then those developers, as they started deploying it, and starting to use it for significant use cases in the enterprise, at that point in time they became customers and started the revenue, and that’s what you’re seeing now. So I think that for NOSQL, I think again, there’s going to be two or three companies successful, and I think they’re going to do well. Tim: Right, customer success is really key, and it makes sense, because even a trend around you kind of crumbles, or doesn’t get as big, if you actually deliver value and you actually get paying customers, you’ll probably make it. You may not be as big as if a wave really caught on, but you’ll still get somewhere. So that’s a good one. Roger: It’s sort of the land-and-expand. Tim: Right, exactly, and you can do it on your own individual level even if the rest of the field doesn’t really cooperate in that way. But let’s talk about larger success. So what do you think NOSQL did succeed at on a large scale? It definitely kind of forced people to reconsider the use cases to think about different ways of doing data storage, so on a technical level, I do
favorite video of himself, too, not because it shows him doing something completely out there, but because it demonstrates an improvement in his skills. Zettel roundhouse kicked a water bottle being held in the air by a teammate in the Penn State locker room, almost sending the water bottle into the face of another teammate. The video, taken last year, shows off the results of Zettel’s offseason training, which helped him develop as a football player. For the past four years, he has spent time training with Bruce Lombard, a professional MMA and Muay Thai coach based in State College, Pennsylvania. Zettel and Lombard met when Lombard was training one of Penn State’s strength and conditioning coaches, and the two hit it off. Now, Zettel considers Lombard a close friend as well as an offseason conditioning coach. “Kickboxing really opens up your hips and allows you to use your power and transfer energy,” Zettel said. “So I think it’s good. Plus, the hand-eye coordination. But football is my number one go-to and then the kickboxing stuff is just for conditioning to help me in football.” Zettel said he never has considered trying to fight professionally in MMA -- at least not until his football career is over. It’s a smart move, too, since the Detroit Lions invested a sixth-round pick in Zettel out of Penn State and have glaring needs at defensive end, which Zettel can help with. But Zettel has always been interested in mixed martial arts -- he used to buy the UFC fights on pay-per-view when he was a kid and then invite all his friends over to watch. And he always has liked Georges St. Pierre, the Canadian-born semi-retired fighter who is one of the most well-known UFC fighters in history and a former welterweight champion. “I know he’s not my weight class, but he’s a real technician, gets after it, very humble,” Zettel said. “I think that’s what I like about him the most. At times you get guys that are bigmouths and stuff, but GSP is a real humble guy that got after it and did things the right way.” Zettel appears to be trying to incorporate part of St. Pierre’s approach into his own approach to the NFL. Despite his big personality, Zettel said he is going to hold back a little bit in the locker room to get a feel for the veterans. Then, as he gets comfortable, he’ll get back to doing things that show who he is. “As a rookie, I want to just get to know the guys before I really let my true self out,” Zettel said. “Just keep my head down and go to work and do what the coaches want me to do and just be the best player I can be.” Some of that will happen because of the MMA training. He sees the value in it -- not only as a fight fan but as a football player. “Opening up your hips allows you to transfer energy from the ground up, just like you will in a pass-rush technique and stuff,” Zettel said. “Then also hand-eye coordination might be the biggest thing just because in the NFL and on the O-line, D-line, it’s a giant hand battle. “So getting your hands on people, being violent really is just the biggest thing, being able to use your body in space.” That’s what the Lions are hoping to get from him this fall behind Ezekiel Ansah and Devin Taylor.In all the vast history of the sprawling bureaucracy known as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey there has never been a job like it. It came with no actual job description. In the end, it had only one occupant, and he didn’t even have to submit a résumé. Nobody seemed to have the vaguest idea what he was really doing. But he was paid $15O,020. The job of director of interstate capital projects, a special niche created for David Wildstein, the central figure in the George Washington Bridge scandal, has officially been abolished, the agency confirmed yesterday. This means Wildstein will be forever known as the first and last DICP appointee. A spokesman for the Port Authority, Chris Valens, did not say why the agency had eliminated the interstate capital projects directorship. But some critics said that it was a fairly logical move. "Maybe what it says is that his job wasn’t really necessary," said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen). The senator then added, sarcastically, "Maybe I’ll save a penny and half on my tolls next year." Weinberg co-chairs the special investigative panel looking into the lane closures. It was August 2010, when the mysterious stranger walked into the agency’s Park Avenue headquarters in Manhattan. Various sources there say he quickly dis-ingratiated himself by peering in, uninvited, on his new colleagues at their offices and, some say, minding everyone’s business but his own. No one really seemed to know what that business was supposed to be doing. But whatever he was doing, he made it clear he did so at the behest of the governor. Wildstein was hired by former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, with the blessing of Gov. Chris Christie. Emails and other revelations now seem to indicate his job title may have been just a cover for serving the political interest of the governor. "On many occasions I heard both he and Baroni say they have only one constituent: Chris Christie," said a former official, one of two who asked for anonymity because they did not want to jeopardize colleagues still at the agency. The new director eventually became the subject of unwanted attention when he was identified by his boss, Baroni, as the agency official who ordered the now-infamous lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. Wildstein resigned Dec. 6. Wildstein’s credentials included a term as mayor of Livingston, where he had graduated from Livingston High School one year ahead of Christie, plus a stint helping run his family’s successful textile business. Before being hired by Baroni, he had founded the popular political blog, PolitickerNJ, where he wrote under the assumed name Wally Edge. Baroni, who had been appointed by Christie, ended up resigning a week after Wildstein. The deputy executive director’s job was not eliminated, and instead Christie named Deborah Gramiccioni to replace Baroni. Baroni and Wildstein are now among a group of 18 current or former officials affiliated with the Port Authority, the Christie administration and the governor’s re-election campaign who were subpoenaed by the Legislature. Officials at the Port Authority say the title director of interstate capital projects may be gone from the organizational chart but it’s sort of legend now. And it won’t be soon forgotten. "His thing was that he comes and stands at your door, and you finally invite him in, and he stands there and looks at you," said a former agency staffer, describing Wildstein, who, like Baroni, has declined to speak with reporters.Photo: Courtesy Raising children of character is a daunting task, so there’s no better time to start than when they’re young! As a parent, you’re right at the centre of that process. It’s impossible to overestimate how important a role you play in rearing your child. ALSO READ: 'I skipped school to protect mum after dad tried to strangle her' Most parents feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the job. With so many things to worry about, how do you know the real tasks and goals of parenting? Many mothers and fathers become discouraged or don’t know where to start. However, there is a road map for creating character in your children to function properly in the world. The first step is to realise that: Your task is to develop a little person into an adult. The issue along the way is not simply about the child being good, but about having good character. Character is the sum of our abilities to deal with life. As a child grows up, parents transfer more and more freedom and responsibility from their shoulders to their child’s. There are three fundamental factors in effective parenting: ALSO READ: Still A Mum Wellness Center: Wanjiru Kihusa’s campaign expands support for miscarriage victims 1. The value of love: Relationship is central to parenting. To develop, your child is going to need to be deeply related to you and others, and you are going to have to keep relationship as a goal of her development. 2. The value of truth: Children cannot be loved too much, but they can be disciplined too little. As a parent, you’re a dispenser of truth and reality. The goal is to have your child become a person of truth, living in wisdom. 3. The value of freedom: You must require responsibility from your children. Then you’ll be helping them grow into free people who have learned how to use their freedom to choose good things -- things like love, responsibility, service and accomplishment. You have to appreciate, though, that because children have free will, there is no guarantee they will turn out right. You’re responsible for the process. ALSO READ: Bad boy: The other permanent man in your wife’s life Aspects of character Connectedness is the most basic and important character ability. This is the ability to form relationships. Children need to learn to need, trust, depend, and have empathy for others. When your child falls down and bruises her knee, your comfort helps her to experience and learn the value of reaching out. The second important aspect of character is responsibility. Your child is born thinking her life is your problem. But part of growing character is helping her to take ownership over her life and to see her life as her problem. Reality is the ability to accept the negatives of the real world. You need to help her deal with loss, failure and evil, not only in herself, but in others and in the world. Another important aspect of character is competence. Children need training to develop their gifts and talents. They need to develop their skill not only in specialty areas such as art, sports or science, but also in everyday matters, such as decision making, judgment and work ethics.Image caption RE teachers say that religious education is being squeezed out of the school curriculum Religious education in schools is under threat, faith leaders have warned. Leaders representing Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists said they were "gravely concerned" about the "negative impact" that current government policies were having. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph they called for RE to be included in the new English Baccalaureate. The Department for Education (DfE) said the English Baccalaureate "does not stop any school offering RE GCSEs". In the letter published in the Telegraph, faith leaders warned that a failure to act would be a "serious flaw" in David Cameron's Big Society project. The signatories included the Rev Michael Heaney, president of Churches Together in England, and Farooq Murad, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain. Undermining RE They write: "Changes to the role and capacity of local authorities, coupled with the extension of the academies programme, are in danger of undermining the nature and quality of RE." "Also, recent policy initiatives in relation to GCSE examinations are already leading to a deterioration in the provision for RE in many secondary schools." RE teachers recently warned that religious education could disappear from many secondary schools because of the new English Baccalaureate. A DfE spokesman said it is compulsory for every student to study RE up to 16, adding that success in RE GCSE "continues to be recognised in the annual GCSE tables, as well as being a valuable qualification in its own right". He said: "The English Baccalaureate does not stop any school offering RE GCSEs and we have been clear that pupils should take the GCSEs that are right for them. Big society "It is for teachers and parents to help pupils make the right choice. All academies and free schools must offer a broad and balanced curriculum." The "Bacc", which was introduced last December, is a new league table measure which ranks schools according to how many pupils gain grades A-C in GCSEs in five subject areas: English, maths, a language, science and either geography or history. A recent survey by the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE) found that a quarter of the state-funded schools featured in its research were not teaching RE to pupils aged from 14 to 16. The faith leaders called on the prime minister to do more to develop "a clear strategy" for the subject. "Failure to work with faith communities, along with their partner academic and professional associations, would represent a serious flaw in the Big Society project," they write.04 Jul 2017 Preparation On the 21st of May, it was just a few days before I left Paris to spend a month in New York City with my colleagues from Deep Algo. I knew that I was going to take my watercolors with me, and I wanted to be ready to capture scenes of NYC just like those guys who paint on location around Grand Central Terminal. So cool! Yet I had never left the comfort of my home for any of the previous Youtube tutorials, so I felt that I had to do it at least once before leaving. So I brought my stuff to this week-end’s hike with friends, where I made the most of the picnic break to paint a view of the Port-Royal-des-Champs Abbey. I still have a lot of work to do on trees and shadows. Overall though, the test run was a success, and it was a real pleasure to work outside. The nice thing with watercolors is the reduced number of items you have to carry: a paper block pencils and an eraser a small bottle of water and a glass your color palette (24 half-pans are more than enough for me) your brushes some paper towels, to dry the brushes and to retrieve colors from the paper when you make a mistake, or when you want to achieve special effects (I don’t know which ones yet, I only use it to correct mistakes) After that, I also felt that I needed to get a hang of NYC’s color palette. Everyone knows the iconic yellow cabs (I found that a mix of Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Orange could do the trick). I looked for nice pictures of New York online, which I usually go about by browsing quality pictures on Wikimedia Commons. Although I can’t remember why, I chose to work on this subway photo. New York City On our first day in New York, we were treated to a burger and beers at a bar near Ground Zero, with a view on the Hudson river and New Jersey. That’s why the first painting from my trip is actually not depicting New York. I didn’t even know what I was doing, but now that I’ve looked at a map to understand what it is that I’ve painted, I feel I’m owed a refund. Anyway. Here is a view from Manhattan (although I don’t remember the street in which the photo was taken). I enjoy the contrast that there is between the high geometric towers against the mineral sky and the greasy organic mess of traffic, pedestrians and shop signs in the streets. None of the previous two paintings was done on location. In fact, the only watercolor I did en plein air was at Long Beach. Even though it doesn’t show, I waited for a actual plane to cross the sky before committing that smudge. Finally, another painting that I did at home from a photo: the defiant little girl that now stands in front of Wall Street’s charging bull. At first I aimed for a very quick watercolor, that’s why the pencil strokes are so apparent: I wanted to get primarily a drawing with just a bit of color on top. However I turned out to spend a considerable amount of time trying to give a human figure to the girl. I need to work on drawing and painting the human body. Almost on the very last day of the trip, I finally resolved to send postcards. However, with the four postcards that I had bought, I was one short to reach the bare minimum of recipients that would grant me continued contact with my family upon my return to France. That’s when I thought that I could make a postcard myself! It’s a view of Hudson Square. Not special, but typical of NYC with a yellow cab and American flags (here on the Fire Museum). In the end, I did not have so much time to dedicate to painting during the trip, so that’s all for my first carnet de voyage. I hope you enjoyed it! Epilogue Near the end of the trip, I felt like destroying stuff, probably because the heavy weather was getting the best of me (or was it that somewhat unpleasant work meeting that left me in a murderous mood? I can’t remember). Anyway, I had some bad energy to release, which materialized in the form of a building on fire. I first drew with a pencil, then used Faber Castel PITT Artist pens for the gray coloring, and finally used my watercolors only for the fire. I’m quite proud of that one, I think the different techniques make the fire stand out. Also I went crazy with the paint brush and made some small projections to suggest small particles and a truly raging fire. This burning building idea comes from a puzzling chain of circumstances that led me to view Arthur Tiar’s artwork at the Felicità 17 exposition at the Beaux Arts in Paris, and then similarly fiery images by Celeste Sousa at the Cooper Union’s Annual student exhibition in New York. After that, I was back to my normal mood and up for bucolic scenery. See you again soon for a collection of tips that I gathered during my first months of watercolors.Project will give doctors the genetic information they need to choose drugs that work best and minimise side effects Doctors have drawn up plans to sequence the full genetic code of thousands of people in a landmark project to personalise their medical care. Volunteers will have all six billion letters of their genome read, stored and linked to their medical records to help doctors prescribe more effective drugs and other therapies. The prestigious Mayo Clinic in the US will launch the pilot study early next year as part of an ambitious move towards an era of "proactive genomics" that puts modern genetics at the centre of patient care. The trial reflects a growing trend in medicine to use genetic information to identify those patients who will benefit most from a drug and those who will respond better to an alternative. Other medical centres around the world that are thinking of introducing their own whole genome tests will be watching the trial with interest. The wealth of information locked up in the human genome can help doctors advise patients on lifestyle changes to stave off diseases they are at risk of developing, but in many cases that advice is familiar and generic – for example focusing on healthy eating, regular exercise, drinking in moderation and not smoking. The Mayo Clinic trial goes further by giving doctors all the genetic information they need to choose drugs that will work best for a particular patient while minimising side effects. Many clinics already offer specific genetic tests to steer patient treatments, but these are often used in a piecemeal fashion and reactively, for example when a patient fails to respond to a drug or experiences an adverse reaction. Under the new scheme, doctors will have a patient's genetic makeup available to inform their prescriptions from the start. Dr Gianrico Farrugia, director of the Centre for Individualised Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, said the cost of sequencing a person's whole genome – some 23,000 genes – has fallen so rapidly that it was now comparable to the price of a single gene test. The project will help managers at the clinic decide whether it makes sense to read and store a patient's whole genome early on, instead of ordering single genetic tests as and when the need arises. "We are convinced that whole genome sequencing is going to radically change the way we practice medicine," Farrugia told the Guardian. "The question is, how do you change the practice of medicine? We cannot expect doctors to say, 'Ok, we accept it's a great thing, let's do it.'" Patients who join the study will have either their whole genome read or a subset of genes that are linked to diseases. Another group will be tested for 83 genes that govern how the body metabolises drugs. Through discussions with doctors and counsellors, patients who have their whole genome sequenced will decide how much genetic information they want to know. Most patients are expected to want to learn only about genetic risk factors that lifestyle changes or medication can influence. Doctors will keep track of the patients and their prescriptions to see whether whole genome sequencing, or more limited genetic testing, benefits them or reduces the costs of their treatment. The trial could help scores of patients who find out that certain pills are ineffective, or damaging to them, only after beginning a course of the drugs. For example, Farrugia says that one in five people with heart problems who are prescribed a clot-busting drug called Clopidogrel (also called Plavix) see no benefit because of a single gene that prevents them from processing it properly. Under the new scheme, doctors would be able to check for the gene before choosing which drug to prescribe. The shift towards whole genome sequencing is expected to become more valuable as doctors and scientists piece together how multiple genes influence disease and how the body reacts to drugs. "With piecemeal genetic testing you only test for what you know. The advantage of whole genome sequencing is that you go after everything. Not only does that give you a fuller picture, but it allows you to draw complex interaction pathways that you cannot draw by going after select genes," Farrugia said. The trial will help physicians at the Mayo Clinic work out how best to store a person's genetic code and develop procedures to explain the information to patients and direct their medical care. "This is a trend that will definitely be found across the developed world in the coming two to five years," said Tim Aitman, professor of clinical and molecular genetics at Imperial College London. "The questions that arise are who is going to store the information, how is it stored securely, who has access, and what are you going to do with information that you or the patient might not necessarily want to find out? There are some significant ethical and privacy issues and they are probably more difficult to solve than storing the information." Anneke Lucassen, professor of clinical genetics at Southampton University, cautioned that genetic testing was not yet good enough to give definitive information for patients. "Although the cost of a full genome sequence is getting to be very affordable, robust interpretation of what it means for an individual lags behind," she said. "There's a lot of promise about tailoring treatments, or modifying lifestyles, depending on particular genetic variation, but to date, with a few exceptions, the clinicial utility of genome sequencing is limited."Leinster House authorities have published expenses records for December 2012 - allowing us to compile a full picture of how much TDs got in 2012. Leinster House authorities have published expenses records for December 2012 - allowing us to compile a full picture of how much TDs got in 2012. THE 166 MEMBERS of Dáil Éireann received over €7.2 million in travel and office allowances for 2012, new figures show. Monthly figures for December, published this morning, have allowed TheJournal.ie to compile full figures showing how much each TD received in the two-legged allowance for the entire calendar year. As in 2011, Fine Gael TD Noel Harrington received the most allowance payments, with authorities giving him €63,550 in allowances for the year – equivalent to over two-thirds of his basic salary as a member of the Dáil. This is explained by his commuting distance to Leinster House, however – he is the only TD whose home is over 360 kilometres from Kildare Street. Contacted last year about his expenses claims, the Cork South-West deputy explained that his journey to Leinster House so so lengthy that by the time he had travelled halfway from his Castletownbere base to Leinster House, he was still within the confines of Co Cork. Allowances in full: Click here to access our interactive spreadsheet showing exactly what your TD was given in 2012 > Independent TD for Kerry South, Michael Healy-Rae, is the next highest claimant at €62,806 – though again, he is the only TD who lives between 330km and 360km from Leinster House. Five other TDs from Harrington’s Cork South-West or the two Kerry constituencies, whose commute is over 300km, received allowances of €62,050. Again, replicating last year’s figures, only one TD has opted against receiving any allowances for the entire year: Eamonn Maloney, Labour TD for Dublin South-West. Maloney last year explained that he had been on the Dole before his election to the Dáil and felt that his annual wage of €92,672 was enough to cover his travel and office expenses. His Labour colleague, Robert Dowds from Dublin Mid-West, did not claim any allowances for the months of January or February. Tweaks from last year Aside from a small number of TDs switching between the vouched and unvouched systems, two TDs changed their claims entirely. A change in the records for Wicklow independent Stephen Donnelly resulted in a saving of over €12,080 over nine months. A spokesman said Donnelly had tried to minimise the monthly payment he received, which required him to give a Dublin address for expenses purposes although he still lives in Greystones. Fine Gael’s Joe Carey, from Clare, moved his home address slightly closer to Dublin and cut his travel allowance by €756 over the year after falling into a separate travel band. In other changes, Tipp North independent Michael Lowry and Labour minister Ruairi Quinn changed from the unvouched system to the vouched model for January – only to move back from February onwards, after realising that the vouched model would cost taxpayers slightly more. Quinn’s constituency colleague in Dublin South-East, Fine Gael’s Eoghan Murphy, began to collect the €1,000 monthly travel allowance from March onward, having declined it for the previous twelve months. Records incomplete… for now It should be noted that the figures provided in the spreadsheet above are not final: members are given a few months to return any allowances they were paid in 2012 which they did not end up using for whatever reason. A report published in June 2012 showed that 57 TDs had returned some of their allowances for 2011, with TDs returning a grand total of €210,091 to the Oireachtas in unused allowances. Payments to members are made on a monthly basis – irrespective of how many times the Dáil sits in that month, if at all – and are paid in advance of TDs actually incurring the expenses they might actually cover. For this reason the Oireachtas formally refers to the system as an allowances regime, rather than an expenses system – members are given a fund which they can use to cover their costs, rather than having to incur those costs and then claim them back as expenses later. Two parts of allowance The allowance paid to members is broken down into two parts – the ‘Travel and Accommodation allowance’, which is paid out at 13 different rates depending on a TD’s commuting distance to the Dáil, and a ‘Public Representation Allowance’, which is paid on a flat-rate basis. The latter allowance – which is intended to cover the costs of renting a constituency office, advertising weekly clinics, kitting out the office with a computer and phones, and so on – is paid at two rates. Those who opt to vouch for their allowances are paid slightly more than those who do not. Ministers and ministers of state are not entitled to the Travel and Accommodation allowance, as any expenses they incur in the line of their ministerial duties are covered by their Department and not by the Oireachtas. For the remainder, travel expenses start at €12,000 – or €1,000 a month – for those living in Dublin, moving up to €37,850 for those who live over 360 kilometres away (the aforementioned Harrington is the only TD to fit into this slot). To vouch or not to vouch? Of the 166 TDs, 50 opted against vouching for their Public Representation Allowance in 2012. Opting not to vouch for their allowances means that TDs do not have to keep receipts for how they spend their allowance – meaning, broadly speaking, they are free to spend the money however they wish without any oversight (though there are rules on what sort of costs are ‘allowable’). Those who vouch for the allowance get a higher annual payment – €25,700 as opposed to €15,000 – are required to keep receipts proving that they spent the allowance on the appropriate costs. This is scrutinised by auditing firm Mazars, who select 10 per cent of the vouching TDs and Senators for a random audit every year. In previous years this has resulted in a handful of TDs having to repay small amounts because they could not provide the appropriate receipts to vouch for some spending. While Brendan Howlin announced plans to end the unvouched system in Budget 2013, and to lower the rates of vouched payment by 10 per cent, such rules have not yet been brought into effect. Of the 50 who did not vouch for their allowance, Labour has the highest proportion of members who claim unvouched allowances, with 16 of its 38 TDs opting against vouching for their spending. 20 out of Fine Gael’s 75 TDs claimed the unvouched allowance, as did four of Fianna Fáil’s 19 and two of the five TDs who were attached to the United Left Alliance at various points of the year. Of the 14 non-party members in the Dáil, seven opted for the vouched system and seven went for the unvouched option. Sinn Féin was the only party to avoid the unvouched model, with all 14 TDs opting to vouch for their spending. Perfect attendance Any TD or Senator who does not sign in their presence at Leinster House fewer than 120 times in a calendar year is required to return some of their allowances, proportionate to the number of days they missed. However, this will not apply to any members for 2012 – every single non-minister showed up for the requisite number of days necessary to claim their full entitlement. In full: Our interactive spreadsheet showing what TDs were given in 2012The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend. It is the subject of quests undertaken by famous knights such as King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival. Description and name [ edit ] The strange creature has the head and neck of a snake, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion, and the feet of a hart.[1] Its name comes from the great noise that it emits from its belly, a barking like "thirty couple hounds questing". Glatisant is related to the French word glapissant, 'yelping' or 'barking', especially of small dogs or foxes. The questing beast is a variant of the mythological medieval view on giraffes, whose generic name of Camelopardalis originated from their description of being half-camel and half-leopard.[2][3] Early accounts [ edit ] The first accounts of the beast are in the Perlesvaus and the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin. The Post-Vulgate's account, which is taken up in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, has the Questing Beast appear to King Arthur after he has had an affair with his half-sister Morgause and begotten Mordred (they did not know that they were related when the incestuous act occurred). Arthur sees the beast drinking from a pool just after he wakes from a disturbing dream that foretells Mordred's destruction of the realm (no noise of hounds from the belly is emitted while it is drinking). He is then approached by King Pellinore who confides that it is his family quest to hunt the beast. Merlin reveals that the Questing Beast had been born of a human woman, a princess who lusted after her own brother. She slept with a devil who had promised to make the boy love her, but the devil manipulated her into accusing her brother of rape. Their father had him torn apart by dogs as punishment. Before he died, however, he prophesied that his sister would give birth to an abomination that would make the same sounds as the pack of dogs that were about to kill him. Other appearances [ edit ] The Perlesvaus offers an entirely different depiction of the Questing Beast than the best known one, given above. There, it is described as pure white, smaller than a fox, and beautiful to look at. The noise from its belly is the sound of its offspring who tear the creature apart from the inside; the author takes the beast as a symbol of Christ, destroyed by the followers of the Old Law, the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Gerbert de Montreuil provides a similar vision of the Questing Beast in his Continuation of Perceval, the Story of the Grail, though he says that it is "wondrously large" and interprets the noise and subsequent gruesome death by its own offspring as a symbol of impious churchgoers who disturb the sanctity of Mass by talking. Later in the Post-Vulgate, the Prose Tristan, and the sections of Malory based on those works, Saracen knight Palamedes hunts the Questing Beast. It is a futile venture, much like his love for Sir Tristan's paramour Iseult, offering him nothing but hardship. In the Post-Vulgate, his conversion to Christianity allows him relief from his endless worldly pursuits, and he finally slays the creature during the Grail Quest after he, Percival, and Galahad have chased it into a lake. The Questing Beast appears in many later works as well, including stories written in French, Galician, Spanish, and Italian. Modern versions [ edit ] Merlin The Questing Beast as depicted in the TV series T. H. White re-envisions the Questing Beast's role in his novel The Once and Future King. As King Pellinore describes it, the hunt of the beast has always been the burden of the Pellinores, and all Pellinores are in fact trained for the hunt from birth—a training which does not seem to extend much beyond finding the beast's fewmets. (Pellinore is more of a comic character as described by White than a great hunter or knight.) Having searched fruitlessly all his life for the beast, Pellinore is convinced by his friend Sir Grummore Grummursum to drop his quest. However, it turns out later that the beast is pining away for lack of attention, so King Pellinore nurses it back to health and resumes his Sisyphean hunt. This account also appears in slightly different form in the original version of The Sword in the Stone. There, King Pellinore is imprisoned by Galapas the giant, but he is saved by the Beast who turns up to rescue him—as well as Merlin and Arthur, who happen to be there at the time. Galapas ends up barricaded in his topmost tower, shrieking "let go of me you awful animal", and shouting to be rescued by the Fire Brigade. Later, the Beast falls in love with Sir Palomides, who briefly disguised himself and Sir Grummore as the beast herself in order to raise Pellinore's spirits when he is pining for his lover. White explains that this is why it is Palomides who is seen pursuing the beast later in Malory's work. . As King Pellinore describes it, the hunt of the beast has always been the burden of the Pellinores, and all Pellinores are in fact trained for the hunt from birth—a training which does not seem to extend much beyond finding the beast's fewmets. (Pellinore is more of a comic character as described by White than a great hunter or knight.) Having searched fruitlessly all his life for the beast, Pellinore is convinced by his friend Sir Grummore Grummursum to drop his quest. However, it turns out later that the beast is pining away for lack of attention, so King Pellinore nurses it back to health and resumes his Sisyphean hunt. This account also appears in slightly different form in the original version of. There, King Pellinore is imprisoned by Galapas the giant, but he is saved by the Beast who turns up to rescue him—as well as Merlin and Arthur, who happen to be there at the time. Galapas ends up barricaded in his topmost tower, shrieking "let go of me you awful animal", and shouting to be rescued by the Fire Brigade. Later, the Beast falls in love with Sir Palomides, who briefly disguised himself and Sir Grummore as the beast herself in order to raise Pellinore's spirits when he is pining for his lover. White explains that this is why it is Palomides who is seen pursuing the beast later in Malory's work. A 1967 television episode of Lost in Space features the Questing Beast pursued by Sir Sagramonte. features the Questing Beast pursued by Sir Sagramonte. The Questing Beast appears in "Le Morte d'Arthur", the season finale of Season 1 of the BBC's series Merlin. [4] . The Questing Beast also appears in the Thursday Next novel series by Jasper Fforde, although it is not described. Here it is also hunted by King Pellinore as part of his family's tradition and burden. See also [ edit ]Image copyright Maguire family Image caption Ann Maguire taught Spanish at Corpus Christi Catholic College for more than 40 years The family of murdered teacher Ann Maguire has lost a court challenge to a coroner's decision not to call on pupils to give evidence at her inquest. The 61-year-old was stabbed to death by Will Cornick at Corpus Christi Catholic College, Leeds, in April 2014. Her family's call for a judicial review into the decision by West Yorkshire coroner Kevin McLoughlin was rejected by a High Court judge in August. Three Court of Appeal judges have now dismissed the family's challenge. More stories from around Yorkshire Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, Lord Justice Treacy and Lord Justice Hickinbottom said they would give their reasons for the decision at a later date. Cornick, who was 15 at the time of the killing, admitted murdering Mrs Maguire and was later sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years. An inquest into her death is due to take place before a jury at Wakefield Coroner's Court on 13 November. Image copyright West Yorkshire Police Image caption Will Cornick is serving a life sentence for stabbing Mrs Maguire in 2014 Mrs Maguire's husband Don, children and nephews were challenging the coroner's decision not to call
election to serve as chief justice again in 2013, Moore was suspended in 2016 for refusing to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling that legalized same-sex marriage across the nation. Scott Olson via Getty Images Former adviser to President Donald Trump and executive chairman of Breitbart News, Steve Bannon, speaks at a campaign event for Roy Moore. Moore is “much closer to our ideal Alt-South candidate: Southern, Christian, populist and nationalist, slashing and willing to defy the federal government,” Shannan, the 9/11 truther who sat on the board of the Foundation to Defend the First Amendment when it donated to Moore’s nonprofit, wrote in an endorsement of Moore published last month. “The White vote in the South, which was splintered during the late 20th century, has reconsolidated like it was in the Jim Crow South.” Shannan added that he declined to endorse Moore until after the primary, because “it would have been fodder for a media narrative that ‘white supremacists support Roy Moore’ and would have been an unnecessary distraction in the race.” The receipt of a contribution from a bonafide pro-Nazi organization is far from the first controversy surrounding Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law. The nonprofit paid more than $1 million to Moore between 2007 and 2012, far more than the group reported on its tax disclosures, according to the Washington Post. Moore’s group also hosted two events at its offices by neo-Confederate, pro-secession groups, according to a CNN report. The foundation’s largest known donor is Michael Peroutka, a Maryland county commissioner who used to sit on the board of the League of the South, a white Christian separatist group, according to Talking Points Memo. The League of the South was one of the organizers of the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that ended with the killing of a counter-protester. When HuffPost called the Foundation to Defend the First Amendment, the phone was answered by an operator who stated the location as American Free Press. HuffPost’s call was then directed to Chris Petherick, the editor-in-chief of American Free Press and current head of Carto’s foundation. When asked to explain the group’s 2005 donation to the Foundation for Moral Law, Petherick responded, “That’s Roy Moore.” Then he hung up.Welcome to the Spoiler Room, a safe place for spoiler addicts to come on a weekly basis to learn what’s coming next on their favorite shows and, hopefully, get a few of their own questions answered. If you want scoop on a specific show, send your questions to spoilerroom@ew.com. Is there anything you can share on the Arrow finale? — Eva Oliver will have to use everything (and everyone) in his arsenal in order to take down Prometheus. “The alliances are going to be very surprising,” EP Wendy Mericle says of the finale. “You’re not going to believe who Oliver is working with to defeat Prometheus. It’s going to be really emotional. It’s going to be all about Oliver’s family, but not the family we’re thinking of right now. It’s going to end in a giant explosion, but not where we think it’s going to end, and the emotional punch is going to be bigger than the actual physical part of the bombs going off.” What can you tease about The Blacklist‘s return? — Ralph Red will be determined to find who’s trying to dismantle his company, leading him to use some rather, ahem, unconventional methods. “Liz is really struggling with the way that Reddington is handling this rift that is within empire,” EP Jon Bokenkamp says. “Red has been taking hits and he’s lost key allies, and as he handles that, we see things flare up that, oddly in a way, bring Liz and Red closer through how he handles these problems that he’s being faced with. So their weird tethered-together dynamic is something that’s still in flux, but she is definitely struggling with the way that Red is choosing to fight this war.” If Olivia never rigged the election on Scandal, does that mean Fitz really isn’t POTUS in the 100th episode? — Alex Sorry to break it to you, but Fitz would not have won without their help. “He’s not the president of the United States,” Tony Goldwyn confirms. “He’s very different. It’s something of a study of how the circumstances of our lives shape our identity, how we see ourselves, and how we present ourselves to the world. It’s subtle, the difference, it’s just really interesting who he is and what he struggles with. He ultimately is quite different.” Plus: Did you see this? Any Supergirl scoop? — Abbey The return hour features a big Lena-Supergirl story — with the introduction of Lena’s ex (iZombie‘s Rahul Kohli)! But despite Kara’s BFF having an infamous last name, Kara has no reason to suspect that the youngest Luthor is nothing but an ally. “Not at this point, no,” Melissa Benoist tells me. “I think they have a really special bond. The allure of the Luthor-Super relationship is so fascinating in the comics. I love where they’re taking it now. She has no caution to being friends with Lena. She just sees a good heart right now.” And if Kara someday has to face-off against Lena? “It would be devastating,” Benoist says. Anything Once Upon a Time you can share? — Darren In order to get Hook back, Emma will actually have to work with Gideon, and Jennifer Morrison likens their unlikely team-up to the heroes sometimes working with Gold knowing he could, at any moment, turn on them. “She treats Gideon very similarly to that and wants to believe the best in him because she sees the yearning in Belle to believe that her son isn’t irredeemable,” Morrison says. “Emma wants to believe that along with Belle, so she’s willing to give him a chance to prove that he’s not the villain that he seems to be.” Loved the Haylijah “I love you” on The Originals! Anything on what’s next for them? — Susie There’s good and bad news on that front. The good news? It was a sincere moment. “That’s a big step forward for them,” EP Michael Narducci says. “There is an intense — not just attraction — but an intense loyalty and intense romance [with] very strong feelings between these two characters.” The bad news, however, is that their love is going to be tested this season. “What’s going to happen next is what happens in life: You don’t just get to rest and enjoy a perfect tranquil life where everything you experience is joy and happiness,” Narducci says. “There’s going to be complications and heartbreak and trouble. A lot of things are going to stand in the way of these people’s happiness, and I just hope they’re able to not only survive it but endure together.” Even though it was LMD Fitz who brought up marriage, will the couple still discuss that on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? — Matthew That all depends on if and when they actually get out of the Framework, but basically yes. “He was expressing real emotion,” EP Jed Whedon says. “It could happen. If they ever get back together, that’s something that could happen in their future.” Would love some Blindspot scoop to tide us over during this hiatus! — Erin Though viewers didn’t actually get to see the content of the tape, Reade’s worst fears about what the coach may have done to him have been confirmed, according to EP Martin Gero. However, “It helps him start to heal,” Gero says, teasing that Reade will now face his problems head-on, though his status on the team is still TBD. “Reade is at least on the road to recovery, I don’t think he’s back into fighting shape just yet. The rest of the arc of the season is Reade trying to figure out what makes sense for him when it comes to being back on the team.” You’ve told us before that Caleb will be back on Quantico, but it’s been three episodes and he’s still nowhere to be seen. When will he reenter the picture? — Charles You’ll see him in Monday night’s episode — or rather, you’ll see one of our leads reach out to him, definitively bringing him into the loop. (You can probably guess which one.) After that, everyone’s favorite Haas brother — or maybe not, depending on how much you’ve warmed up to Clay — “begins his arc with us in the next few weeks,” says showrunner Josh Safran. Trust me: It’s an arc that’s sure to shake things up in the task force. Any teases for the series finale of Switched at Birth? — Simone As you might expect, the extended finale will harken back to the show’s first few episodes, when the Kennish and Vasquez family first learned of the switch (and had their first big dinner together — see the reprise of that meal here). It’ll also have a few twists, including someone getting a new job, someone being told off (and deservedly so — go, Daphne!), and at least one person leaving their current home. And while it’s certainly not devoid of romance, expect the finale to stay true to the show’s original theme: family. This week in TV: Loving all the twists in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s Framework! That’s a wrap on this week’s Spoiler Room. Be sure to email your questions to spoilerroom@ew.com or tweet them to @NatalieAbrams. Additional reporting by Breanne L. Heldman, Samantha Highfill, and Shirley Li.From players sliding in the snow to Shania Twain's epic half-time entrance on a dog sled, the 105th Grey Cup might just go down in history as the most Canadian Grey Cup ever. In the twilight of the country's 150th anniversary celebrations, the Toronto Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders 27-24 in the nation's capital in a night jam-packed with Canadiana. In true Canuck style, snow fell relentlessly throughout the first half making for some frigid and slippery, yet picturesque, moments. Sliding into some Sunday night football. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/pzeg7zBixD">pic.twitter.com/pzeg7zBixD</a> —@pdkeiper Players are slipping all over the place. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a> —@Devin_Heroux Serious snow accumulation on the toques of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a> fans in Ottawa. And it’s not stopping anytime soon. <a href="https://t.co/flxygh3BSg">pic.twitter.com/flxygh3BSg</a> —@Devin_Heroux Not surprising, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on hand to bask in the excitement. If this photo isn’t peak Canadian I don’t know what is. <a href="https://twitter.com/CFL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CFL</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/mjpjbepCIz">pic.twitter.com/mjpjbepCIz</a> —@CityMichaud <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a> 🏈 in the ❄️ with <a href="https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JustinTrudeau</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArgosFootball?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ArgosFootball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoStampsGo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoStampsGo</a> <a href="https://t.co/5J98pYJ8jJ">pic.twitter.com/5J98pYJ8jJ</a> —@RandyAmbrosie While the players seemed to have laser vision through the snowflakes, optics were apparently an issue for some from the stands. Did the flyover happen?! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/hGU2dDG29o">pic.twitter.com/hGU2dDG29o</a> —@Devin_Heroux And of course, snow plows and shovels made a cameo on the field. They brought in the big trucks. Little truck has big truck snow-plowing envy... but everyone has a roll in the snow. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/e0WRIMdnKb">pic.twitter.com/e0WRIMdnKb</a> —@Devin_Heroux Right now at he <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a>, there are kids in hockey jerseys shovelling the yard lines and guys in massive yellow snow suits driving mini plows around the field. It's all very Canadian and more than a little fantastic. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CFL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CFL</a> —@scratchingpost In perhaps the most anticipated moment of the night, Canadian country music star Shania Twain took the field for a uniquely northern halftime show. Shania Twain coming out in a snowstorm on a dog sled at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreyCup</a> and greeted by Mounties is the most Canadian thing of all-time. 🇨🇦 <a href="https://t.co/PK96CJauxr">pic.twitter.com/PK96CJauxr</a> —@IAmMapes Please let <a href="https://twitter.com/ShaniaTwain?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ShaniaTwain</a> enter the stadium on a horse OR a horse ON a zamboni like a real Canadian. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/greycup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#greycup</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/canada?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#canada</a> <a href="https://t.co/uz4ZHspENF">pic.twitter.com/uz4ZHspENF</a> —@lindachep All the patriotism should really be no surprise. After all, is there anything more Canadian than the Grey Cup?The Essence Of Watching a Football Game by Barry Weir Who would deny the fact that sports and games are integral part of human history and life style. Of course, sports and entertainment is something that no culture can subtract from its roots. The sports and games activities are part and parcel of all cultures and in all regions of the world. And it is for this reason that these activities are so much loved all around the world. And amongst all sporting activities, football is arguably the most favored, most cherished and the most awaited game. This article is all about the structure of this game, different global event on this game and the most exciting moment of the game to enjoy. Football is indeed a game that requires a lot of passion and energy even if you are in the ground being a spectator. Yelling at the top of your lungs for about 90 minutes isn’t really an easy task. The heartbeat of the spectators move with the flow and pace of the game. One wrong movement of the player can break your heart and one brave move can make you feel as if you’re the king of the world. There are a number of leagues played in America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Of these, the European league I s considered to be the most colorful event. But the mother of all football events is the FIFA world cup event which has a magical effect like no other event. Purchasing tickets for FIFA events is another challenging task. These days, a number of ticketing websites have started selling FIFA tickets online. These tickets are sold on websites on a little higher payments. However, it is important to note that if you become late in purchasing your ticket, you’ll then have to purchase these tickets on the double which can cost you a big deal. So, always be on time with your ticket purchasing move. Therefore, it can be concluded pretty safely that these events of football are of immense significance and one would really enjoy these events. Make sure that you don’t miss these moments and events and extract the most of its excitement. In this way, your favorite game becomes your favorite entertainment. So, pull up your socks for your upcoming FIFA event and make sure that you purchase your tickets in time. Be in the ground with your friends and support your team. Visit my Facebook, Twitter and Google+.Ronald Reagan famously quipped that the Democratic Party left him before he left the party. Like many progressive supporters of Barack Obama, I'm beginning to have the same feeling about this president. Consider what we've seen since the shellacking Democrats took in the fall elections. On Afghanistan, the administration has intimated that the 2011 pullout date is "inoperable," with the White House talking 2014 and Gen. David H. Petraeus suggesting decades of occupation. On bipartisanship, the president seems to think that cooperation requires self-abasement. He apologized to the obstructionist Republican leadership for not reaching out, a gesture reciprocated with another poke in the eye. He chose to meet with the hyper-partisan Chamber of Commerce after it ran one of the most dishonest independent campaigns in memory. He appears to be courting Roger Altman, a former investment banker, for his economic team, leavening the Goldman Sachs flavor of his administration with a salty Lehman Brothers veteran. On the economy, the president has abandoned what Americans are focused on - jobs - to embrace what the Beltway elites care about - deficits. His freeze of federal workers' pay, of more symbolic than deficit-reducing value, only reinforced right-wing tripe: that federal employees are overpaid; that overspending is our problem, as opposed to inane tax cuts for the top end; that we should impose austerity now, instead of working to get the economy going. Now the not-so-subtle retreats are turning into a rout. The president is touting a NAFTA-like corporate trade deal with South Korea. He appears to be headed toward supporting cuts in Social Security and Medicare and irresponsible reductions in domestic investment. And he's on the verge of kowtowing to Republican bluster and cutting a deal to extend George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich in exchange (one hopes) for extending unemployment insurance and possibly getting a vote on the New START treaty. This is political self-immolation. Blue-collar workers abandoned Democrats in large numbers in the fall; wait until they learn what the trade deal means for them. Seniors went south, probably because of Republican lies about cuts in Medicare; wait until anyone over 40 who's lost their savings hears about Alan Simpson's plan to take it to the "greedy geezers." The $60 billion each year in Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans could pay for universal preschool for America's children, or tuition and board for half of America's college students. The stakes are much higher than the distant election. The president has suggested unconvincingly that he'd prefer to be a successful one-term president than a two-term president who didn't get anything done. But there are other alternatives. If the president continues on his current course, we're looking at a failed one-term presidency that the nation cannot afford. Forget about electoral mandates or campaign promises. This president has a historic mandate. Just as Abraham Lincoln had to lead the nation from slavery and Franklin Roosevelt from the Depression, this president must lead the nation from the calamitous failures of three decades of conservative dominance. This requires beginning to reverse the perverse tax policies that have contributed to gilded-age inequality and starved the government of resources needed for vital investments. This demands correcting destabilizing global imbalances, laying a new foundation for reviving American manufacturing and shackling financial speculation. It means ensuring the United States leads rather than lags in the green industrial revolution. And it requires unwinding the self-destructive military adventures abroad. The president must strengthen America's basic social contract in a global economy, not weaken it. This daunting project is not a matter of ambition or appetite - or even unconscious Kenyan socialism. It is the necessary function of a progressive president elected in the wake of calamitous conservative misrule. Every entrenched corporate and financial interest stands in the way; it is easier to take a less confrontational path. President Bill Clinton, for example, found it convenient to join in the conservative project of corporately defined trade, financial deregulation and social welfare constriction. From NAFTA to the repeal of welfare and the failure of labor law reform, to deregulating derivatives and repealing Glass-Steagall, he got his agenda wrong. He was seduced far more by Wall Street's Robert Rubin than by Monica Lewinsky. Now Obama faces the same challenge. This isn't about conventional politics. This is simply about the fate and future of our country. This president has a clear and imperative historic mandate. If he shirks it, he risks more than failing to get reelected. He risks a failed presidency. Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation and writes a weekly online column for The Post.University of Chicago scientists accidentally created an entirely new type of glass – one with unusual peaks that indicate a molecular order in a material previously thought to be entirely amorphous and random. "This is a big surprise," said Juan de Pablo, a molecular engineering professor at the University of Chicago. "Randomness is almost the defining feature of glasses. At least we used to think so." © AP Photo / Mark Lennihan Cure Obesity With One Injection? Scientists Claim to Have Found a Solution "What we have done is to demonstrate that one can create glasses where there is some well-defined organization. And now that we understand the origin of such effects, we can try to control that organization by manipulating the way we prepare these glasses." Researchers grew the glass by vaporizing large organic molecules within a vacuum. Those molecules were then deposited layer by layer onto a substrate until the sample was thick enough to analyze. Scientists attributed the unique molecular structure of the glass to the way the material was created, that is, layering thin deposits of glass one at a time, thereby “trapping” the molecules in their original orientation. "Glasses are one of the least understood classes of materials," de Pablo said. "They have the structure of a liquid – disorder – but they're solids. And that's a concept that has mystified people for many decades." So the fact that we can now control the orientation of these disordered materials is something that could have profound theoretical and technological implications. We don't know what they are yet – this is a new field of research and a class of materials that didn’t exist before. So we're just at the beginning." The new glass this new glass could improve products such as solar cells, LEDs, and optical fibers, researchers said.By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption Women account for only a small proportion of skilled scientists worldwide Policy and business leaders have used a major food conference to highlight the need for more women in the global agriculture sector. One of the speakers, Chelsea Clinton, told delegates that women were a "crucial, vital and necessary" part of delivering global food security. Data shows that progress has been made in recent years, but there is still a long way to go to close the gender gap. The call for equality was made at the 2015 Borlaug Dialogue in the US. "Certainly, we are not on track at the moment to feed the population we expect to have around the world in 2050," Ms Clinton, vice-president of the Clinton Foundation, told the gathering. One of the themes of the three-day event, which focused on the "fundamentals of global food security", was inspiring young women to take up careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem). Global problem Another speaker, Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg - director of the Kenya-based African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (Award) - outlined some of the challenges. "We need to increase the number of women scientists but first of all we need to create a conducive environment in which they work. It is as much about institutional transformation as it is about investing in individuals," she said. "It can be a little too easy to pretend that this is only an African problem, hence a cultural problem. But that is not true; we have got the same challenge in the UK, across Europe and in the US. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Chelsea Clinton: "We are not on track to feed the population we expect to have around the world in 2050" "It is a global problem so we have to change the global culture surrounding science and who can be a scientist." A report produced by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (Case) that examined diversity in UK Stem said that just 9% of those involved in non-medical Stem posts were women. However, it also highlighted that the problems facing the science sector in the UK went beyond gender equality. The authors reported that there was an annual shortfall of 40,000 skilled Stem workers. Dr Kamau-Rutenberg told the BBC the shortfall illustrated why it was critical to attract more young women to pursue careers in the Stem sector. "We need to expand the pool of talent and increase the number of scientists. Investing in women scientists is a really good way to solve the problem of not enough scientists being available to do the work." Mentoring She said Award offered a career development programme that was "investing in high-potential African women and agricultural scientists". As well as developing technical skills, Award provided leadership training and a mentoring network. "We just know that people do so much better at achieving their potential as a result of mentoring - when they are in a community of peers and when they are connected to senior scientists," she said. Dr Kamau-Rutenberg added that just under half of the mentors in the network were men: "This is fantastic because we are able to engage men in this journey of investing in women scientists." Image copyright Reuters Image caption President Obama: "Any nation that fails to educate its girls or employ its women is doomed to fall behind" She said that a speech by US President Barack Obama, during his visit to Kenya in June, showed the importance of giving women the opportunity to "earn a place at the decision-making table". Mr Obama had told a gathering at a sports stadium: "Any nation that fails to educate its girls or employ its women and allow them to maximise their potential is doomed to fall behind the global economy. "We're in a sports centre. Imagine if you have a team and don't let half of the team play. That's stupid. That makes no sense." Beyond the farm gate Data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows that the gender gap extended to access to agricultural resources and opportunities. The FAO said: "Closing the gender gap in agriculture would generate significant gains for the agriculture sector and for society. "If women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%." Dr Kamau-Rutenberg went further: "It is not enough to talk about African women in agriculture and leave the conversation at the farm level. "There is no point pretending that the only place it is important to talk gender, and the roles of men and women in agriculture, is on the farms. "We also need to transform the landscape when it comes to research and development. It is really important that we have both men and women setting the research agenda."Israeli Air Force (IAF) jets destroyed an anti-aircraft missile battery in Syria following an attack on Israeli planes carrying out reconnaissance over Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday. Earlier, the SA-5 anti-aircraft battery, located about 30 miles east of Damascus, fired at Israeli planes conducting “routine” reconnaissance over Lebanon. Israel reported that the missile missed the IAF jets. “We see the Syrian regime as responsible and see these missiles as a clear Syrian provocation, and it will not be accepted,” IDF Spokesman Brig.Gen. Ronen Manelis said. Manelis asserted that Israel had no intent of getting involved in Syria’s civil war, but would react to threats emanating from Syria. According to the spokesman, Russia was informed of the incident and the matter will be discussed with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who is in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and other security officials to ensure that the Israeli and Russian militaries do not accidentally come into conflict in Syria. https://twitter.com/LTCPeterLerner/status/919883812494077953 First the SA-5 battery fired a missile at Israeli planes over Lebanon, The Times of Israel reported. Later, a second group of Israeli planes re-entered Lebanese airspace identified and attacked the SA-5 battery. Syria’s military subsequently threatened Israel with “dangerous consequences for its repeated attempts of aggression.” Syria also claimed that the Israeli jets were targeted after then entered Syrian airspace, a claim that Israeli denied. IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said that both the reconnaissance planes and the ones that targeted the anti-aircraft battery “were in the skies over Lebanon, and not in Syria.” Both the Israeli and Syrian accounts agreed that the incidents occurred about three hours apart. According to the Times, the exchange of fire was unusual because Syria doesn’t usually target Israeli reconnaissance flights and Israel doesn’t usually wait to respond. The Syrian boldness, according to some experts, may have been a product of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s recent battlefield successes. It was also speculated that the delay in the Israeli response may have been due to concerns with Russia’s reaction to the airstrike. In a conference call with The Israel Project, which publishes The Tower, Ephraim Segoli, a retired IAF general, now with the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, said that the unsuccessful Syrian attack against the Israeli planes was something “unique” that Israel might have to address. “The fact that the missile was launched from Syria to our planes in Lebanon, the fact that we are attacked a SAM battery after so many years … something different has happened. Does it mean that there’s a new direction in the ongoing campaign between us and Syria? I do not know,” Segoli added. A complete recording of the call is embedded below. [Photo: Israel Defense Forces / Flickr ]THE WORLD'S most dangerous conflicts stem from religion and ideology -- tragic proof that man does not live by bread alone. But when bread is hard to get, that, too, causes unrest. And lately, it has been very expensive indeed: The World Bank estimates that global food prices have risen 83 percent in the last three years. Hence, food riots in Haiti, Egypt and Ethiopia and the use of troops in Pakistan and Thailand to protect crops and storage centers. Many countries are banning or limiting food exports. World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick says that 33 countries are at risk of food-related upheaval. Famine may revisit North Korea, parts of Africa or, disastrously for U.S. foreign policy, Afghanistan. To many, the villain is biofuels. U.S. and European ethanol programs, intended as an antidote to climate change and an alternative to OPEC oil, stand accused of snatching food from the world's hungry. According to India's finance minister, ethanol is "a crime against humanity." And it is part of the problem. The more corn becomes ethanol, the less will be available as food for people and livestock. In the U.S. farm belt, heavy ethanol subsidies, such as a tax break of 51 cents a gallon, encourage the shift. These subsidies were already questionable, in economic terms, before the commodity crunch. That they might contribute to hardship for the world's poor is another argument for reducing them. But ethanol's impact should not be overstated. The International Food Policy Research Institute, which is critical of ethanol, pins about 25 to 33 percent of the recent price rise on biofuels; the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization guesses about 10 to 15 percent. Most of the crisis is rooted in three other factors: drought in grain-exporting Australia; the surging price of crude oil, which raises food prices through the costs of shipping and petrochemical fertilizer; and booming demand for food in China, India and other newly prosperous areas of the developing world. These areas consume not only more staples such as rice and wheat but also more meat from animals fed on grain. This trend is here to stay -- and, unlike Australian drought or oil inflation, no one should want it to go away. Lifting hundreds of millions of Asians out of poverty is a historic achievement. To cope with the current situation, the United States must contribute its share to help the U.N. World Food Program fill a $500 million gap in its budget. Congress should change U.S. law to let U.S. aid buy food in developing countries themselves, which could boost local producers. Looking further ahead, the U.S. and multilateral institutions must also support greater investment in farming in the developing world, including funding for research into improved crop yields, which has been in steady decline over the last 25 years. Today's crisis could be tomorrow's opportunity. If the era of cheap food is over, higher prices might stimulate local agricultural production in Africa and other places that now depend on imports. This will be likelier if the United States and Europe finally dismantle the wasteful crop subsidies and trade barriers that fatten their farmers' bank accounts -- but distort international markets at the expense of the poor.The pending Supreme Court decisions concerning the constitutionality of California Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act have pushed discussion of same-sex marriage into the mainstream of the news cycle, with many civil rights advocates convinced that regardless of the court’s decision, eventual victory is a done deal. I don’t disagree. I’ve also argued in support of same sex marriage rights. However, I have some serious worries about the broad implications of this victory. Why? First, the obvious. Marriage is a conservative institution. It licenses certain kinds of relationships and not others based on a template that reproduces a status quo rooted in conservative Christian religious values. Those values reflect a bias that is both normative and cultural in a pretty blatantly chauvinistic way. And if you don’t think that bias is all that big a deal, consider for a moment the way conservative Christian norms have justified American Indian removal and forced assimilation, slavery, Jim Crow, excluding women from the vote, bans on abortion, sodomy laws, and systemic discrimination against Jews and other religious minorities. And then consider for a moment how those same values are currently being used to promote a permanent war against Muslims. The fundamentally conservative nature of the marriage contract is why, I think, younger conservatives are growing more supportive of same sex marriage. Extending marriage rights to LGBT people does little or nothing to address the structure of oppressive family laws and values in society. It also does very little to change the core of the conservative agenda which is, fundamentally, about power and control. This is evidenced by the fact that young conservatives are increasingly supportive of same-sex marriage at the same time that they continue to be champions of austerity who are deeply opposed to public funding of critical safety net programs. And many are terrible on issues of race, equating black and brown people with destructively out-of-control sexuality, crime, and government debt. So their attitudes about LGBT people may have changed, but their worldviews remain pretty much the same. They’ve just let monogamous same sex couples off the hook for certain societal problems, which is essentially what they’ve been doing all along for heterosexuals who marry. What appears to be leading to this “success” with young conservatives points to another of my concerns. By presenting LGB (I’ll leave off the “t” here) people as basically conservative in our demands, the most mainstream faction within the LGB movement is subtly positioning us as a model minority. And it’s working. Where once attacks against LGB people relied heavily on messaging that mirrored prejudices historically used against people of color (morally debased sexual predators and criminals seeking anti-American special rights), LGB people are increasingly understood to be all-American and fundamentally non-threatening. The sales job basically seems to revolve around the idea that if you let us in, nothing really changes. And, based on the demands at the center of this agenda, this is, to a degree, true. And, like all model minority strategies, this kind of argument plays subtly on an us vs them mentality that suggests that we ought not be vilified because we are like you, and not like the them popular prejudices associate us with. This argument is not unlike that put forth by certain immigrant rights advocates who argue that undocumented immigrants aren’t criminals or lazy free-loaders getting benefits without paying taxes. They argue instead that immigrants are hard workers just wanting a break so they can participate in the American dream, even going so far as to claim that Latino immigrants are just the latest wave of sojourners landing in “a nation of immigrants.” That argument that has the indirect effect of marginalizing and even demonizing groups like African Americans and Native Americans who A) aren’t really immigrants and whose demands for justice hinge in part on their non-immigrant status, and B) are stereotyped as lazy moochers. Also troubling is my sense that the current strategies ignore something about marriage rights that ought to be obvious to anyone excluded from them, especially when that group is arguing that being excluded has real, material consequences. That is, that we are
was making to the first lady. "This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert,” Palin said. Overweight for most of his life, Huckabee lost more than 100 pounds after a 2003 health scare and has since become an advocate for healthful eating and exercise. “Michelle Obama's not trying to tell people what to eat or not trying to force the government's desires on people,” Huckabee said. “She’s stating the obvious, that we do have an obesity problem in this country.” He added: “The first lady's campaign is on target.”KABUL (Reuters) - Eight Afghans detained in Guantanamo Bay have been imprisoned for years on the basis of tenuous evidence, “fantastical allegations” and hearsay, a report issued on Thursday said. The report by the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), an independent, non-profit research group, examined the cases of eight of the longest-serving Afghan detainees, all either still in Guantanamo Bay or recently moved to the United Arab Emirates. It said the U.S. military had been unable to substantiate accusations against any of them. Their cases underlined the danger that arbitrary detention could lead to “gross miscarriages of justice”, a major factor in driving some Afghans toward insurgency, the report, entitled “Kafka in Cuba”, said. “Viewing the U.S. detention regime through the lens of the Afghan experience in Guantánamo raises broader questions about the effectiveness of U.S. intelligence and justice,” it said. The eight detainees, including a former plastic flower seller, named Bostan Karim, a “chokidar” or doorman named Abdul Zahir and a grocer named Obaidullah, were held over a variety of accusations ranging from being an al Qaeda and Taliban financier to being a member of al Qaeda bomb making cell. One man, Muhammad Rahim, classified as a “high value detainee” was accused of being a personal translator and aide to Osama bin Laden, although the precise allegations against him remain secret. However the report said none of the men was captured on the battlefield, with six handed over by Pakistani or Afghan forces and two detained after tipoffs from unknown sources. It said the military and court documents outlining the evidence against them were “rife with hearsay, secret evidence, bad translations, gross errors of fact and testimony obtained under duress and torture”. As well as making “multiple, basic” errors of geography, the U.S. military mixed up groups that had long ago laid down their weapons or never fought with jihadists, it said. Military boards had failed to clear obvious factual mistakes from detainee files, while courts had “utterly failed to hold the executive to account”. President Barack Obama, who had pledged to close the prison before he leaves office in January, is scaling the facility down by transferring detainees not considered a threat to foreign countries. However he has been unable to close it in the face of opposition from Congress. Supporters of keeping the facility open say it has held some of the most dangerous militants and is a valuable tool in fighting international terrorism. Critics say it contravenes U.S. values and feeds propaganda for militant groups.President Trump tweeted July 28 that his homeland security secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, is replacing Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff. (Victoria Walker,Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) The excitement — or maybe it’s just relief — among Republicans that greeted John F. Kelly’s ascension to chief of staff may be short-lived. Here are five reasons: First, this administration has zero legislative accomplishments and seems unable to negotiate with members of its own party. Kelly, who has been openly scornful of Congress, is unlikely to help in that regard. (“If lawmakers do not like the laws they’ve passed and we are charged to enforce, then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws,’’ he said about congressional critics of immigration enforcement. “Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.’’) That’s a problem as the administration faces deadlines for the debt ceiling and the budget. Ironically, Trump needs help to close deals, and Kelly doesn’t have those skills. Second, the president refuses to learn in office or master any level of detail. He therefore is far less influential in pressing lawmakers to pass his initiatives. Without understanding individual lawmakers’ objections, his ability to persuade and cajole them is limited to repeating empty talking points. The same problem that afflicted him in the health-care debate will be evident no matter what the topic. Third, Kelly cannot and should not attempt to defend Trump’s actions regarding Russia. (Kelly doesn’t want to be part of any conspiracy to cover up actions that are now the subject of an FBI investigation.) Moreover, it seems no one — not even Trump’s relatives and lawyers — can prevent him from digging himself a deeper hole. With regard to the revelation that he dictated a misleading statement regarding Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian officials in 2016, my colleague Aaron Blake notes that the leaked story is a sign of desperation: In this story, [advisers are] admitting that he is personally responsible for deliberately misleading the American people about a major topic of the Russia investigation. They’re saying that he did something that could very well be construed as a cover-up and could damage his legal defense. The reason? Because they apparently can’t prevail upon him in person and they think he simply doesn’t get what kind of jeopardy he is putting himself in. Fourth, Kelly is more likely to accentuate Trump’s alienation from Republicans. Already strained because of health reform, the president’s serial outbursts and the Russia scandal, the relationship between Congress and Trump seems more like that between a president and the majority of the other party. In point of fact, Trump’s never really been a Republican (except insofar as he inhabited the party), so this may have been the inevitable course of his presidency. Nevertheless, Kelly has no particular ideological leanings, no ties to the conservative movement and no experience in domestic policy. That leaves Trump even less tethered to his party than he was at the onset of his term. For those rooting for Trump to be stymied and ultimately ejected from the party, this is good news. (House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) rationalized support for Trump on the grounds he’d help get the GOP agenda through. That goes down as one of the worst political misjudgments in years.) Fifth, Trump refuses to be disciplined. He rejects the overwhelming sentiment among voters that Twitter is a dangerous distraction. Trump doesn’t agree. He tweeted again Tuesday: “Only the Fake News Media and Trump enemies want me to stop using Social Media (110 million people). Only way for me to get the truth out!” Without a disciplined boss, the administration and Congress will be tied up in whatever controversy of the day Trump creates. Trump remains the obstacle that’s impossible to overcome. As long as he is there, effective leadership will be a fantasy.World No 1 Rafael Nadal is understood to be the highest-profile player committed to the International Premier Tennis League. The controversial new competition, developed along the lines of the successful Indian Premier League of cricket, will launch this coming weekend with an auction in Dubai. Nadal is believed to be earning $1m (£600,000) a night for his contribution as one of the "marquee" players in a scheme developed by Mahesh Bhupathi, the Indian doubles player who is branching out into the world of business. According to the ground rules, players who have been No 1 or who have won a slam will be able to nominate which matches they play, and so avoid. The competition will be staged between Nov 28 and Dec 20 in five cities - Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Singapore and Hong Kong - and each team will bid for its players on Sunday at the Oberoi hotel in Dubai. There are at least three players of the women's top ten who are also understood to have committed to the project, led by the two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka. The former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki and the Polish No 1 Agnieszka Radwanska are believed to have put their names down but Roger Federer is not thought to be involved. As for Andy Murray, he is still in discussions with Bhupathi, who briefly had a role on Murray's commercial team last year before he became too involved in this project and set off on his own path.Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics' morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today. When I heard about Amazon's recent announcement about its subscription streaming service, Kindle Unlimited, I was thrilled. I already subscribe to Spotify for music, Netflix for TV and movies, and I love reading books on my Kindle. This seemed like the next logical step in my slow march toward streaming everything. But before jumping in to another subscription, I wanted to make sure Kindle Unlimited was worth $9.99/month. I belong to the New York Public Library, and often check out e-books to my Kindle. The only problems I have with the library system are the standards: sometimes the book I want is already checked out and sometimes I don't read fast enough to finish the book before I have to check it back in. Since the library is free, I can't really complain. Wondering how Kindle Unlimited and the library matched up, I searched for ten books from my Goodreads "to read" bookshelf to see whether any of these sites carried books I'd read. I decided to include other book streaming services like Oyster and Scribd to see if they were any better or worse. My search is in no way scientific, but from this small sample size, I'll stick with my library card — Kindle Unlimited carried zero, and Scribd and Oyster weren't much better, offering only two of my ten books. The New York Public Library, on the other hand, had seven available: I'm curious to see what the future of book streaming looks like. One of the early problems with Netflix was its sad offering of digital movies; now it's getting Emmy nominations for its original shows and it's expanded the film and TV selection over the years. So maybe this is just the start to Kindle Unlimited, and over time, its collection will grow (though hopefully not to the detriment of authors). In the meantime, the library looks like the best bet. Read This Alaskan frogs stay frozen for seven months, thanks to a kind of natural antifreeze in their blood. [via The Los Angeles Times How has the climate changed on Tatooine over the past 110 years? Here's a graphic that shows it. [via Wired This past Friday, neuro-thriller Lucy hit the theaters, and reviewers haven't been positive about its inaccurate depiction of brain science. Myth #1: we only 10 percent of our brain. [via The Atlantic Watch This What happens when scientists try to harness lightning's power?wielding blasphemy in a religious world The modern world needs blasphemy not just as abstract right, but being actively exercised when the occasion calls for it. Long time atheist Paul Kurtz is continuing his promotion of non-theist thought not with a bang but with a rather accommodationist-like whimper, expressing his shock that groups like the CFI are encouraging blasphemy to skewer pious pundits in an atheist magazine. According to him, atheists should be like children in a strict household; seen but not heard until someone asks them to, and if they talk, it better not be something mean, lest they be ridiculed as those “shrill, uppity heathens.” And of course, they certainly shouldn’t be making light of religious groups that demand unquestioning respect for their dogmas, much less draw cartoons like this… In case you’re wondering, this cartoon is the winner of the CFI’s Free Expression Cartoon Contest and one of the targets of Kurtz’s ire. Personally, I’m not sure what’s so rude about it since far harsher cartoons appear in newspapers, and the fact that the Vatican has been covering up its supposedly celibate priests’ pedophilia for centuries is a lot more offensive than any joke we can make about it. We can respect others’ right to have religious beliefs as secularists, but we certainly don’t owe any fawning or self-censorship to people who were allowed to commit crimes that that even the most hardened and violent criminals consider to be the lowest of the low. Likewise, we don’t owe any respect to fiery dogmatists who think they have God on mental speed dial and can tell us what to believe, what deity to worship, with who we should be having sex and in what position. If they’re not going to give us the courtesy of leaving us alone, why should we respect them? Because they run towards something they call tradition and arrogantly blab about their supposedly superior morality? Kurtz is right in one respect. There should be a line between exercising one’s right to blaspheme in the public square without fear of reprisals and to show that you’re not afraid of religious demagogues, and simply being the reverse of a born-again Christian, an atheist who discovered non-theism as a new way to be a rebel. In nations where religious institutions hold too much sway and consider any disagreement with their doctrine to be blasphemy, people are killed, imprisoned, or outright fined for speaking their minds. Just look at the brutal religious police in Saudi Arabia, or Irish blasphemy laws, or the Polish pop star being threatened with fines or jail time just for speaking her mind about her lack of faith. If we don’t establish that self-appointed pontificators who think that wearing a fancy collar, or a black robe, or holding a certain book have more rights than anyone who doesn’t, can’t infringe on our right of free speech and that their days of absolute rule are on the wane, we can and eventually will lose that right. So while Kurtz is warning us to be polite, timid and inoffensive as not to annoy the snarling priests and clerics, he’s missing what the main points of Blasphemy Days and organized heresy are all about. They’re about free speech and defending non-theists’ rights to be non-theists. They’re about showing that you’re not afraid of the self-righteous, their condemnations, and their fire and brimstone speeches. And the big challenge we have to face there is how not to make it about offending the believers just for being believers, but to use our heresy as a sign that we’re free to make up our own minds about the world, and that no one can force us to bow before a religion by threats of lawsuits, eternal torture, self-aggrandizing speeches or brute force.Margarita was taken away from her mother at just a few days old and was destined for the slaughterhouse. But instead, she was given a new lease of life after being presented as a gift to a family in Tortosa, in Spain’s Catalonia region, who lovingly reared her by hand. However, now aged four the cow, who is a from a breed of bovine used in bullfighting, could be up for the chop for a second time thanks to bizarre EU rules according to The Local. EL HOGAR Margarita the cow won the hearts of her neighbours in Spain Growing up in a field at the edge of town for four years, Margarita quickly became a sensation in the town. Passing neighbours frequently stopped to feed her treats and given her a quick stroke, or even smother her in hugs and kisses. And she also proved to be a huge success with the town’s children - who call her "Sweet Margarita" thanks to her gentle nature. The Cutest Baby Animals Ever Tue, April 25, 2017 Instant mood booster: These are the most adorable baby animals around the world, scurrying over exotic lands and hiding high above the ground, these tiny creatures will melt the hardest of hearts Play slideshow Chester Zoo 1 of 13 Lily the capybara is a new mum! Her baby could eventually grow to be 1.5m in length – making the capybara the largest species of rodent in the world She’s an orphaned baby cow who has never harmed anyone or anything, and she has a death sentence because the authorities apply the law as if she belonged to a livestock farm Animal rights group El Hogar ProVegan But now her life is under threat thanks to EU rules that require all livestock to be traced through the food chain. Last week, it emerged her owners had not registered Margarita with the agricultural authorities. And even though she is not intended to become meat, Catalan regional agriculture authorities claim they have no choice but to sacrifice the animal. EL HOGAR Margarita is a from a breed of bovine used in bullfightingMore Mata Nui. More subject matter. This piece was really hard 'cause I am apparently not good with plants.I reaaaally really love beaches.This piece is partially inspired by an area on the island of Bornholm, Denmark called Dueodde. It's not tropical, but it feels tropical. To get to the sea at the beaches of Duode, you have to cross a small layer of forest with high thin trees and then sand dunes with rushes before you can see the water. There is something truly mesmerizing about walking through this and suddenly being able to hear the sound of waves. The feeling is similar to that of seeing Simba walk pride rock. In my own honest opinion I did not come anywhere near capturing that feeling in this piece, but it doesn't really surprise me. One does not simply recreate such powerful feelingsAnyway I hope it is enjoyable.Background musicz yay: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGXMMU…The TV news is coming fast and furious this week as networks announce pickups and cancellations, but USA has quietly picked up a pilot for a very intriguing new sci-fi series. Dubbed Colony, the series would be set in the near-future of 2015 in a version of Los Angeles that is now occupied by aliens. It comes from a good pedigree, with Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) and Ryan Condal (Hercules) signed on to write and executive-produce. As for the plot, the series would follow the residents of Los Angeles living under alien occupation, as some collaborate with the alien authorities and benefit from the new order, while others rebel and suffer the consequences. Zap2it describes the series as a “naturalistic drama about a family torn apart by those opposing forces.” It’s an intriguing pitch, and could strike the balance between something like Falling Skies and the occupation years of Battlestar Galactica — with a bit more family drama thrown into the mix. With Cuse behind the scenes, it at least makes this project one to watch. What do you think? Do you hope USA will pick this one up? Zoom In (Via Zap2It)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton and rival Barack Obama are running neck-and-neck in Ohio and Texas one day before their crucial Democratic presidential showdowns, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll released on Monday. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama speaks to a veteran after a town hall meeting at the American GI Forum in San Antonio, Texas, March 3, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Young Clinton, fighting to save her presidential bid after 11 straight wins by Obama, desperately needs victories in the big-state battles to keep her candidacy alive and face the Republican candidate in the November election. Obama, an Illinois senator, has a slim advantage on Clinton in both states, although the leads are within the poll’s margin of error of just under 4 percentage points. Obama leads 47 percent to 44 percent in Texas, as Clinton gained 1 point overnight in the polling conducted by Zogby International. He leads 47 percent to 45 percent in Ohio, a turnaround from Clinton’s 1-point advantage on Sunday. Obama has wiped out big leads in the last two weeks in both states for Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, but in the final days of the race neither candidate has managed dramatic shifts. “There are no big movements, no great swings, these are just very tight races,” pollster John Zogby said. “At least for now it doesn’t look like either one of them is going to be winning in a blow-out.” Republican front-runner McCain, however, appears headed to easy victories in both states. He has big double-digit leads over his last major rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. McCain, an Arizona senator, is moving closer to clinching the Republican presidential nomination and has built an insurmountable lead in delegates, who will choose the nominee at the party’s September convention. COALITIONS STABLE Both Democratic candidates have maintained the voter coalitions in Ohio and Texas that fueled them in earlier contests, with Clinton winning women, older voters, traditional Democrats and Hispanics while Obama attracts men, young voters, blacks and independents. In Texas, Clinton continues to hold a big lead among the state’s sizable bloc of Hispanics and has an edge in the state’s heavily Hispanic south and conservative west. Obama is strong in the cities, but the two have battled back-and-forth in east Texas and now run even there. “It really is looking like east Texas is the place to watch in the popular vote, whoever wins there could have the edge in the state,” Zogby said. Clinton moved ahead slightly in Ohio among voters who made their decision in the last few days — a possible sign Obama’s momentum could be slowing after days of Clinton attacks on his readiness to become U.S. commander-in-chief. In Ohio and Texas, 6 percent of Democrats are still undecided on the day before the primary. In the Republican race, McCain leads Huckabee 61 percent to 28 percent in Ohio and 53 percent to 33 percent in Texas. The other remaining Republican candidate, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, had 6 percent in Texas and 5 percent in Ohio. McCain leads handily in nearly every voter category and in all regions of both states. He even leads in Ohio among those who call themselves very conservative, although Huckabee leads in that category in Texas. McCain has faced a revolt among some conservatives unhappy with his past stances on immigration, tax cuts and campaign finance reform, although it has done little to slow his march to the nomination. The rolling poll was conducted Friday through Sunday. It surveyed 761 likely Democratic voters in Ohio with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points, and 748 in Texas with a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points. Slideshow (34 Images) The poll of 675 likely Republican voters in Ohio had a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points. The survey of 628 voters in Texas had a margin of error of 4 percentage points. In a rolling poll, the most recent day’s results are added and the oldest day’s results are dropped to track changing momentum. The poll will continue one more day. (Editing by Jackie Frank)Tim Harford looks at how much revenue the 50p rate of tax would raise. Plus plus have wages risen? How much does it cost to raise a child? Who do you invite to your wedding? Labour say that in the three years where the 50p rate of tax was in place, it raised almost 10 billion pounds more for the Treasury than government estimates at the time captured. When he scrapped it, George Osborne said the total was only £300million. Who's right? Meanwhile, the Labour party has been attacking the Government on the cost of living. It says wages are now down £1600 a year after inflation under David Cameron, while Conservative ministers say that 90% of people's wages have been increasing above the rate of inflation. So who is right? How many guests should you invite to your wedding? It's a tricky problem. And one Damjan Vukcevic tried to solve with statistics when he was planning his marriage to his partner, Joan Ko. But with how much success? Tim Harford interviews the couple. Disability benefits: Almost a million people who applied for sickness benefit have instead been found fit for work, the Department for Work and Pensions has announced. We put the numbers into context. Cost of raising a child: Does it really cost nearly a quarter of a million pounds to raise a child from birth to the age of 21? That's a claim made by life insurance providers LV in their annual report. We examine the methodology behind their numbers.Per H. Enflo ( Swedish: [ˌpæːɹ ˈeːnfluː]; born 20 May 1944) is a Swedish mathematician working primarily in functional analysis, a field in which he solved problems that had been considered fundamental. Three of these problems had been open for more than forty years:[1] In solving these problems, Enflo developed new techniques which were then used by other researchers in functional analysis and operator theory for years. Some of Enflo's research has been important also in other mathematical fields, such as number theory, and in computer science, especially computer algebra and approximation algorithms. Enflo works at Kent State University, where he holds the title of University Professor. Enflo has earlier held positions at the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, École Polytechnique, (Paris) and The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Enflo is also a concert pianist. Enflo's contributions to functional analysis and operator theory [ edit ] In mathematics, Functional analysis is concerned with the study of vector spaces and operators acting upon them. It has its historical roots in the study of functional spaces, in particular transformations of functions, such as the Fourier transform, as well as in the study of differential and integral equations. In functional analysis, an important class of vector spaces consists of the complete normed vector spaces over the real or complex numbers, which are called Banach spaces. An important example of a Banach space is a Hilbert space, where the norm arises from an inner product. Hilbert spaces are of fundamental importance in many areas, including the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, stochastic processes, and time-series analysis. Besides studying spaces of functions, functional analysis also studies the continuous linear operators on spaces of functions. Hilbert's fifth problem and embeddings [ edit ] At Stockholm University, Hans Rådström suggested that Enflo consider Hilbert's fifth problem in the spirit of functional analysis.[4] In two years, 1969–1970, Enflo published five papers on Hilbert's fifth problem; these papers are collected in Enflo (1970), along with a short summary. Some of the results of these papers are described in Enflo (1976) and in the last chapter of Benyamini and Lindenstrauss. Applications in computer science [ edit ] Enflo's techniques have found application in computer science. Algorithm theorists derive approximation algorithms that embed finite metric spaces into low-dimensional Euclidean spaces with low "distortion" (in Gromov's terminology for the Lipschitz category; c.f. Banach–Mazur distance). Low-dimensional problems have lower computational complexity, of course. More importantly, if the problems embed well in either the Euclidean plane or the three-dimensional Euclidean space, then geometric algorithms become exceptionally fast. However, such embedding techniques have limitations, as shown by Enflo's (1969) theorem:[5] For every m ≥ 2 {\displaystyle m\geq 2} Hamming cube C m {\displaystyle C_{m}} D {\displaystyle D} 2 m {\displaystyle 2^{m}} D < m {\displaystyle D<{\sqrt {m}}} { 0, 1 } m {\displaystyle \{0,1\}^{m}} m {\displaystyle m} [6] This theorem, "found by Enflo [1969], is probably the first result showing an unbounded distortion for embeddings into Euclidean spaces. Enflo considered the problem of uniform embeddability among Banach spaces, and the distortion was an auxiliary device in his proof."[7] Geometry of Banach spaces [ edit ] A uniformly convex space is a Banach space so that, for every ϵ > 0 {\displaystyle \epsilon >0} there is some δ > 0 {\displaystyle \delta >0} so that for any two vectors with ‖ x ‖ ≤ 1 {\displaystyle \\|x\\|\leq 1} and ‖ y ‖ ≤ 1, {\displaystyle \\|y\\|\leq 1,} ‖ x + y ‖ > 2 − δ {\displaystyle \\|x+y\\|>2-\delta } implies that ‖ x − y ‖ < ϵ. {\displaystyle \\|x-y\\|<\epsilon.} Intuitively, the center of a line segment inside the unit ball must lie deep inside the unit ball unless the segment is short. In 1972 Enflo proved that "every super-reflexive Banach space admits an equivalent uniformly convex norm".[8][9] The basis problem and Mazur's goose [ edit ] With one paper, which was published in 1973, Per Enflo solved three problems that had stumped functional analysts for decades: The basis problem of Stefan Banach, the "Goose problem" of Stanislaw Mazur, and the approximation problem of Alexander Grothendieck. Grothendieck had shown that his approximation problem was the central problem in the theory of Banach spaces and continuous linear operators. Basis problem of Banach [ edit ] The basis problem was posed by Stefan Banach in his book, Theory of Linear Operators. Banach asked whether every separable Banach space has a Schauder basis. A Schauder basis or countable basis is similar to the usual (Hamel) basis of a vector space; the difference is that for Hamel bases we use linear combinations that are finite sums, while for Schauder bases they may be infinite sums. This makes Schauder bases more suitable for the analysis of infinite-dimensional topological vector spaces including Banach spaces. Schauder bases were described by Juliusz Schauder in 1927.[10][11] Let V denote a Banach space over the field F. A Schauder basis is a sequence (b n ) of elements of V such that for every element v ∈ V there exists a unique sequence (α n ) of elements in F so that v = ∑ n ∈ N α n b n {\displaystyle v=\sum _{n\in \mathbb {N} }\alpha _{n}b_{n}\,} where the convergence is understood with respect to the norm topology. Schauder bases can also be defined analogously in a general topological vector space. Problem 153 in the Scottish Book: Mazur's goose [ edit ] Banach and other Polish mathematicians would work on mathematical problems at the Scottish Café. When a problem was especially interesting and when its solution seemed difficult, the problem would be written down in the book of problems, which soon became known as the Scottish Book. For problems that seemed especially important or difficult or both, the problem's proposer would often pledge to award a prize for its solution. On 6 November 1936, Stanislaw Mazur posed a problem on representing continuous functions. Formally writing down problem 153 in the Scottish Book, Mazur promised as the reward a "live goose", an especially rich price during the Great Depression and on the eve of World War II. Fairly soon afterwards, it was realized that Mazur's problem was closely related to Banach's problem on the existence of Schauder bases in separable Banach spaces. Most of the other problems in the Scottish Book were solved regularly. However, there was little progress on Mazur's problem and a few other problems, which became famous open problems to mathematicians around the world.[12] Grothendieck's formulation of the approximation problem [ edit ] Grothendieck's work on the theory of Banach spaces and continuous linear operators introduced the approximation property. A Banach space is said to have the approximation property, if every compact operator is a limit of finite-rank operators. The converse is always true.[13] In a long monograph, Grothendieck proved that if every Banach space had the approximation property, then every Banach space would have a Schauder basis. Grothendieck thus focused the attention of functional analysts on deciding whether every Banach space have the approximation property.[13] Enflo's solution [ edit ] In 1972, Per Enflo constructed a separable Banach space that lacks the approximation property and a Schauder basis.[14] In 1972, Mazur awarded a live goose to Enflo in a ceremony at the Stefan Banach Center in Warsaw; the "goose reward" ceremony was broadcast throughout Poland.[15] Invariant subspace problem and polynomials [ edit ] In functional analysis, one of the most prominent problems was the invariant subspace problem, which required the evaluation of the truth of the following proposition: Given a complex Banach space H of dimension > 1 and a bounded linear operator T : H → H, then H has a non-trivial closed T-invariant subspace, i.e. there exists a closed linear subspace W of H which is different from {0} and H such that T(W) ⊆ W. For Banach spaces, the first example of an operator without an invariant subspace was constructed by Enflo. (For Hilbert spaces, the invariant subspace problem remains open.) Enflo proposed a solution to the invariant subspace problem in 1975, publishing an outline in 1976. Enflo submitted the full article in 1981 and the article's complexity and length delayed its publication to 1987[16] Enflo's long "manuscript had a world-wide circulation among mathematicians"[17] and some of its ideas were described in publications besides Enflo (1976).[18][19] Enflo's works inspired a similar construction of an operator without an invariant subspace for example by Beauzamy, who acknowledged Enflo's ideas.[16] In the 1990s, Enflo developed a "constructive" approach to the invariant subspace problem on Hilbert spaces.[20] Multiplicative inequalities for homogeneous polynomials [ edit ] An essential idea in Enflo's construction was "concentration of polynomials at low degrees": For all positive integers m {\displaystyle m} and n {\displaystyle n}, there exists C ( m, n ) > 0 {\displaystyle C(m,n)>0} such that for all homogeneous polynomials P {\displaystyle P} and Q {\displaystyle Q} of degrees m {\displaystyle m} and n {\displaystyle n} (in k {\displaystyle k} variables), then \| P Q \| ≥ C ( m, n ) \| P \| \| Q \|, {\displaystyle \|PQ\|\geq C(m,n)\|P\|\,\|Q\|,} where \| P \| {\displaystyle \|P\|} denotes the sum of the absolute values of the coefficients of P {\displaystyle P}. Enflo proved that C ( m, n ) {\displaystyle C(m,n)} does not depend on the number of variables k {\displaystyle k}. Enflo's original proof was simplified by Montgomery.[21] This result was generalized to other norms on the vector space of homogeneous polynomials. Of these norms, the most used has been the Bombieri norm. Bombieri norm [ edit ] The Bombieri norm is defined in terms of the following scalar product: For all α, β ∈ N N {\displaystyle \alpha,\beta \in \mathbb {N} ^{N}} we have ⟨ X α \| X β ⟩ = 0 {\displaystyle \langle X^{\alpha }\|X^{\beta }\rangle =0} α ≠ β {\displaystyle \alpha eq \beta } For every α ∈ N N {\displaystyle \alpha \in \mathbb {N} ^{N}} \| \| X α \| \| 2 = \| α \|! α!, {\displaystyle \|\|X^{\alpha }\|\|^{2}={\frac {\|\alpha \|!}{\alpha!}},} where we use the following notation: if α = ( α 1, …, α N ) ∈ N N {\displaystyle \alpha =(\alpha _{1},\dots,\alpha _{N})\in \mathbb {N} ^{N}}, we write \| α \| = Σ i = 1 N α i {\displaystyle \|\alpha \|=\Sigma _{i=1}^{N}\alpha _{i}} and α! = Π i = 1 N ( α i! ) {\displaystyle \alpha!=\Pi _{i=1}^{N}(\alpha _{i}!)} and X α = Π i = 1 N X i α i. {\displaystyle X^{\alpha }=\Pi _{i=1}^{N}X_{i}^{\alpha _{i}}.} The most remarkable property of this norm is the Bombieri inequality: Let P, Q {\displaystyle P,Q} be two homogeneous polynomials respectively of degree d ∘ ( P ) {\displaystyle d^{\circ }(P)} and d ∘ ( Q ) {\displaystyle d^{\circ }(Q)} with N {\displaystyle N} variables, then, the following inequality holds: d ∘ ( P )! d ∘ ( Q )! ( d ∘ ( P ) + d ∘ ( Q ) )! \| \| P \| \| 2 \| \| Q \| \| 2 ≤ \| \| P ⋅ Q \| \| 2 ≤ \| \| P \| \| 2 \| \| Q \| \| 2. {\displaystyle {\frac {d^{\circ }(P)!d^{\circ }(Q)!}{(d^{\circ }(P)+d^{\circ }(Q))!}}\|\|P\|\|^{2}\,\|\|Q\|\|^{2}\leq \|\|P\cdot Q\|\|^{2}\leq \|\|P\|\|^{2}\,\|\|Q\|\|^{2}.} In the above statement, the Bombieri inequality is the left-hand side inequality; the right-hand side inequality means that the Bombieri norm is a norm of the algebra of polynomials under multiplication. The Bombieri inequality implies that the product of two polynomials cannot be arbitrarily small, and this lower-bound is fundamental in applications like polynomial factorization (or in Enflo's construction of an operator without an invariant subspace). Applications [ edit ] Enflo's idea of "concentration of polynomials at low degrees" has led to important publications in number theory[22] algebraic and Diophantine geometry,[23] and polynomial factorization.[24] Mathematical biology: Population dynamics [ edit ] In applied mathematics, Per Enflo has published several papers in mathematical biology, specifically in population dynamics. Human evolution [ edit ] Enflo has also published in population genetics and paleoanthropology.[25] Today, all humans belong to one population of Homo sapiens sapiens, which is individed by species barrier. However, according to the "Out of Africa
-onset emergencies, such as the one we are dealing with in southern Africa, do not get enough attention because they creep up on us.” Since July 2015, Britain has contributed about £150m for aid to El Niño-affected countries in Africa, including Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya Mozambique, Somalia and Uganda. The international development minister, Nick Hurd, said: “We cannot and will not stand idly by while millions suffer. Britain is playing a leading role in helping countries across Africa to cope with the impact of El Niño. Support for people affected by El Niño is important to Africa and also firmly in Britain’s national interest.”After issuing an alert last Wednesday about a door-to-door scam, ENMAX is warning people of another scam that seems to be targeting small, animal-related businesses such as veterinary offices. The scam informs such businesses that there is an issue with their account and that immediate payment is required in order to stop their account from being disconnected. READ MORE: ENMAX warns of phone scam claiming power will be disconnected “We never work with customers that way,” said Doris Kaufmann Woodcock, senior media relations advisor for ENMAX. “We actually let them know far in advance if their account truly is in arrears and work with them to come up with mutually agreeable payment arrangements so they are aware that options are available to them before we ever get to a disconnection phase.” ENMAX said the business is then asked for unusual forms of payment such as iTunes cards or prepaid credit cards. None of these payments are ever accepted by ENMAX. These types of cards are preferred by the scammers because once they have the card number, there is no way to block a charge. ENMAX said Friday they have not heard of anyone falling victim to the scam. READ MORE: Police warn of door-to-door salesman posing as ENMAX employee Here are some things to keep in mind to avoid being scammed: ENMAX will not do surprise disconnections. ENMAX will never try to intimidate customers by yelling or swearing. Prepaid credit cards are never taken as a form of payment by ENMAX. ENMAX calls are made from Calgary. If there is poor audio quality, that can be a sign that you may be talking to a scammer. Calgary Police Services is aware of the scam but ENMAX said they can’t do much about it, other than warning the public. “We don’t want people to engage with these individuals at all,” Kaufmann Woodcock said. “The longer that you are on the phone with them, I suppose that it’s possible that the more information you end up giving out. “Just end the call. You don’t have any reason to be speaking to them; they aren’t authorized representatives of ENMAX.” The calls may appear to be local, but it is suspected they are coming from outside of Canada.The Crypto Co. did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. The latest jump in its share price gives the company a market value of more than $11 billion, according to FactSet. The company's shares last traded at $575. "There are a lot of companies taking advantage of the euphoria associated with this space, and we do not want be associated with them," CEO Mike Poutre said in a release last week announcing a 10-for-1 stock split. "We want people to pay attention to the business we are building, not the hype of a stock or the cryptocurrency world." On Dec. 4, the California-based company announced it had launched the first phase of trading operations and platforms for digital currencies. Crypto Co. was incorporated in March and its stated businesses include advising, investing and trading digital assets, according to a filing. The company went public in June by acquiring Croe, which says on its website that it is "a developmental stage fitness apparel company," primarily for sports bras. Bitcoin traded 3.9 percent lower Tuesday near $18,150 on Coinbase, the leading U.S. platform for buying, selling and trading major cryptocurrencies. The digital currency itself has soared 2,000 percent in the last 12 months. Several other small companies have seen their stock surge dramatically after announcements that tied them to bitcoin or the blockchain technology behind the cryptocurrency. Financial technology company Longfin grabbed investors attention Monday with a brief two-day surge of more than 2,500 percent after saying it was acquiring Ziddu.com, which says it's a microlending company based on blockchain. Longfin's CEO and Chairman, Venkat Meenavalli, said Monday on CNBC's "Fast Money" that "this market cap is not justified." The SEC has been more active in trying to limit speculative activity related to bitcoin and token sales, also known as initial coin offerings. The commission's chairman, Jay Clayton, warned in a lengthy statement earlier this month about the dangers of investing in cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings. In August, the SEC temporarily suspended trading in three stocks due to questions about the companies' claims regarding investments in initial coin offerings or other token-related news. The agency also published an investor bulletin in July warning investors about the risks of participating in initial coin offerings.Obama ran an ad calling McCain---McSame in the economy. Republican Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina went blank trying to think up any differences between John McCain and George Bush's economic policies when Blitzer asked him to name some. After stammering for a minute, he brought up NAFTA? Say, what? Blitzer then said they had no differences on NAFTA. Oh, and then Sanford mentioned McSame's opposition to earmarks. That's sure going to cut your gas prices. (rough transcript) Download Download (h/t Billw) Blitzer: Are there any significant economic differences between what the Bush administration has put forward over these many years as opposed to John McCain's support? Sanford: Yea, I mean for instance take, you know, ummm, ahhh, take for instance the issue of, ahhhh..(knocks on table) I'm drawing a blank. I hate it when I do that, particularly on TV. Take for instance the contrast between NAFTA. I mean, I think the bigger issue is credibility in where one is coming from. I mean, to that position are they consistent where they come from? John McCain has consistently stood against earmarks throughout his tenure in the US Senate. Regrettably, the President has not been exactly busy with the veto pen. Blitzer: Let me get back to, you raised the issue of NAFTA. He's a huge supporter of free trade John McCain.The Bush administration supports free trade. I don't see a big difference between the two.. Sanford: No, I was going to go to a point, I was going to go to a point which is what you'd want is consistency with regards to that position. Blitzer: that's a major difference between Obama and the President, but as far as NAFTA is concerned McCain and Bush are on the same page. Sanford: They are---for free trade. What an embarrassment. Sanford started out by saying McCain was against the Bush/NAFTA position and then said they were the same. Thanks for justifying Obama's new ad. Sanford couldn't think of any because there really aren't any. He just Gramm'd himself...The first major clinical trial to include a blinded, placebo-controlled "statin re-challenge" in patients with a history of muscle-related side effects sheds new light on statin-associated muscle symptoms, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session. The trial also demonstrates that monthly self-injection of the relatively new non-statin cholesterol-lowering drug evolocumab reduces levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol to a greater extent than ezetimibe, a traditional drug used in statin-intolerant patients. The study showed that 42.6 percent of 491 patients who had previously reported muscle pain with at least two different statins had a recurrence of symptoms during blinded administration of atorvastatin, but not while taking a placebo. After a 24-week treatment period, patients with confirmed statin intolerance who were given evolocumab on average showed a 52.8 percent reduction in LDL cholesterol, one of the study's co-primary endpoints, compared with a 16.7 percent reduction for patients taking ezetimibe. For the study's other co-primary endpoint, the average change in LDL cholesterol for weeks 22 and 24, patients taking evolocumab showed a reduction of 54.5 percent and patients taking ezetimibe showed a reduction of 16.7 percent. "These findings provide unique insights into the challenging clinical problem of muscle symptoms in statin treated patients," said Steven Nissen, M.D., MACC, chairman of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic and the lead author of the trial. "Evolocumab substantially lowered LDL cholesterol with few patients experiencing muscle symptoms. The study has important implications for both guidelines and regulatory policy, because it provides strong evidence that muscle-related statin intolerance is a real and reproducible phenomenon." The patients in the GAUSS-3 trial had very high levels of LDL cholesterol, averaging more than 210 mg/dL. Untreated high LDL cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease, and statins are the most effective drugs available, yet some patients report that that they are unable to tolerate statins, mostly due to muscle pain or weakness. There has been considerable controversy about the prevalence of muscle-related statin intolerance because large randomized trials have reported low rates of muscle symptoms, while observational studies have suggested that 5 to 20 percent of patients experience muscle symptoms when taking statins. "Statin intolerance has been one of the most vexing problems faced by cardiologists," Nissen said. "Patients with high levels of LDL cholesterol and a high risk of cardiovascular events are often reluctant or completely unwilling to take statins, the only cholesterol lowering drugs approved to reduce their risk of a cardiovascular event. This situation is extremely frustrating for both patients and physicians because there have not been good alternatives for treatment." Evolocumab, a proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor, is a non-statin cholesterol-lowering drug administered by self-injection every two to four weeks. By binding to and inhibiting PCSK9, a protein that degrades LDL cholesterol receptors on the surface of the liver, the drug is designed to increase the number of LDL receptors on the liver, thus allowing the liver to remove LDL cholesterol from the blood more effectively. Ezetimibe, the existing drug used as a control in the trial, lowers blood cholesterol by decreasing the absorption of cholesterol in the small intestine. The phase 3, randomized, double-blind GAUSS-3 trial enrolled 511 patients at 53 health care centers. Participants had high LDL cholesterol and a history of statin intolerance. A vast majority of participants -- 82 percent -- had tried and failed to tolerate three or more statins. Previous studies, including the trial's predecessor, GAUSS-2, have shown evolocumab reduces LDL cholesterol levels more effectively than ezetimibe. Because the trial was intended to evaluate evolocumab in statin-intolerant patients, it included an initial statin re-challenge procedure designed to confirm that patients had reproducible muscle symptoms when taking a statin. Nineteen of the enrolled participants bypassed this initial segment because they were documented to have creatine kinase levels -- a marker of muscle injury -- at least 10 times higher than the upper limit of normal when taking a statin. Those who participated in the statin challenge were given 20 milligrams of atorvastatin or a placebo daily for 10 weeks, then switched over and were given either a placebo or atorvastatin -- whichever one they had not been given in the first phase -- for 10 more weeks. Of the 491 participants, 209, or 42.6 percent, reported muscle-related side effects while taking atorvastatin but not while taking the placebo. More than a quarter, 26.5 percent, reported muscle pain while taking the placebo but not while taking atorvastatin, suggesting that although statin intolerance can be confirmed in a substantial proportion of patients with self-reported intolerance, there is also a significant proportion who experience muscle pain that cannot be attributed to taking statins. After that initial phase, 218 patients with confirmed statin intolerance were enrolled in the trial's second segment, with 145 randomly assigned to receive evolocumab and 73 randomized to receive ezetimibe. Because evolocumab was administered through self-administered injections totaling 420 milligrams per month, and ezetimibe was administered through a 10-milligram daily pill, those randomized to receive evolocumab were given injections of evolocumab and daily placebo pills, and those randomized to receive ezetimibe were given placebo injections and a daily ezetimibe pill. Participants in the study's second phase had an average baseline LDL cholesterol level of 220 mg/dl. After 24 weeks, those given evolocumab had an LDL cholesterol level of 104 mg/dl on average; 64.1 percent of patients taking evolocumab finished the trial with LDL cholesterol below 100 mg/dl, and 29.9 percent finished with LDL cholesterol below 70 mg/dl. Treatment was discontinued during the trial for one patient given evolocumab and five patients given ezetimibe due to muscle-related adverse events. Longer-term results from another evolocumab trial showing health outcomes may be available by the end of 2016. The study's limitations included its modest size and relatively short duration, but Nissen said it was adequately powered to address its primary endpoint. The trial was funded by Amgen. Nissen has served as a consultant for many pharmaceutical companies and has overseen clinical trials for Amgen, AstraZeneca, Cerenis, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, The Medicines Company, Orexigen, Takeda and Pfizer. However, he does not accept honoraria, consulting fees or other compensation from commercial entities.This post originally appeared at The Nation. Young people are the good news of 2016. They see the stressful realities of American life more clearly than their elders and are rallying around the straight talk of Bernie Sanders. Meanwhile, the big hitters back in Washington politics are working on an ugly surprise not just for the kids but for all of us — another monster tax break for US multinational corporations. The bad news is that key leaders of the Democratic Party — including the president — are getting on board with Republicans, despite some talk about confronting income inequality. Influential Democrats intend to negotiate with Republican counterparts on the size and terms of post-facto tax “forgiveness” for America’s globalized companies. This is real money they’re talking about — a giveaway of hundreds of billions. Why haven’t voters heard about this from candidates? Because Republicans and Democrats both know it would make angry voters even angrier. The major multinationals complain about a tax problem that most citizens would love to have for themselves: Thanks to a loophole in the tax code, the companies do not have to pay US taxes on profits they have earned in foreign countries until they bring the money home to American shores. Altogether, the globalized US companies have accumulated $2.1 trillion in untaxed profits, most of it parked in overseas tax havens. The multinationals are waiting for Congress to forgive them their debts. The facts are obscure but not secret. Even so, political reporters covering the candidates have shown little interest in alerting the public. I blame them for failing democracy. That is, the US companies insist they won’t bring the money home and pay the taxes they owe until Washington pols steeply reduce the rate to bargain-basement levels. That’s tax “forgiveness” on a grand scale. What the companies also demand is a permanently lowered tax rate on their future earnings. Some leading Republicans advocate eliminating taxation of foreign corporate income entirely. Imagine if average citizens were given this kind of discretion for their personal income tax. You could tell the IRS you regard your tax liability as unfair, so you’re not going to pay it until Congress enacts a lower rate. Don’t try this dodge in real life. They will come after you. Many politicians are attracted to cutting a deal with the corporations because they’re in a bind of their own. Given the intense budget battles, the House and Senate often can’t even agree on how to pay for essential government projects and services. The tax-forgiveness scheme could bring home hundreds of billions in supposedly “new” revenue for those vital projects. For cynical politicians, the deal looks like a “twofer.” You can please constituents with infrastructure projects and reward corporate patrons in the same stroke. In reality, of course, the revenue loss from the giveaway will inevitably be dumped on other taxpayers, either by cutting domestic programs or running up the national debt. To put it plainly, this trade-off is certain to worsen income inequality, because the money goes to the very people — shareholders and corporate execs — who have already done fabulously well at the expense of other Americans. Senator Elizabeth Warren, as she often does, found the right words to describe this transaction. She called it “a giant wet kiss for the tax dodgers.” Warren and Senator Sanders have repeatedly charged that the system is rigged. What’s particularly outrageous about this new rigging of the tax code is that even though the politicians are engineering it in the midst of a presidential election, most voters don’t have a clue. The facts are obscure but not secret. Even so, political reporters covering the candidates have shown little interest in alerting the public. I blame them for failing democracy. Campaign reporters are horse-race junkies who typically take their cues from political insiders, not untutored citizens. The threat of corporate flight is now made explicit by the lobbyists and cheerleaders: If Congress doesn’t give them a sufficiently generous tax break, some of the biggest corporate names may decide to leave. The politicians are actually plotting a repeat plundering. Back in 2004, when President George W. Bush was running for re-election and John Kerry was his opponent, they agreed upon a similar proposition. Both were snookered, but it was ordinary citizens who were really screwed. The measure was called the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, and companies repatriated $362 billion at a reduced tax rate of 5.25 percent. Then they walked away from the jobs promise. In fact, the largest companies killed jobs after they got the money — some 60,000 jobs — moving them overseas to low-wage, low-tax countries. They used their windfall to boost stock prices and thereby enrich investors and CEOs. Now the same crowd is planning a rerun, counting on the wayward press to maintain public ignorance. Warren’s “tax dodgers” are not what are usually thought of as scumbag swindlers. They are the blue chips of American capitalism, drawn from the high-tech and pharmaceutical sectors as well as the biggest barons of Wall Street. Let’s name some names. The top 10 multinationals that would reap the largest boodle from this deal are Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Citigroup, Amgen, Qualcomm, JPMorgan Chase, Gilead Sciences, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, these 10 collectively owe $162 billion in unpaid taxes on the $540 billion in profits they’ve parked offshore. Under the proposal offered by President Obama, the standard statutory tax rate of 35 percent would be reduced to a onetime, bargain-basement rate of 14 percent. This would enable the fortunate 10 to save $97 billion. An alternative Republican proposal would raise the giveaway to $122 billion. The entire list of winners — the scores of multinationals holding $2.1 trillion in offshore profits — could save as much as $400 billion in taxes owed if bipartisan Washington gives in to the corporate bandits. Citizens may be weary of Washington scandals, but this squeeze by the multinationals is a grand champion of corrupted democracy. It looks like bank robbery at gunpoint. The corporates are saying to Congress: Give us the money or we pull the trigger. If average citizens learned about this grand heist, they would be reaching for pitchforks. People who love Donald Trump would be especially troubled to learn that Trump has, in his way, endorsed what the corporate bandits are after. The trigger in this case is the threat to use another notorious tax loophole called “corporate inversion.” A company can decide for tax purposes to drop US citizenship and move to Ireland or some other inviting nation by arranging a merger or acquisition by a foreign corporation. Some 50 corporations — most recently Pfizer, the giant drugmaker — have announced that they are using this device to escape US tax obligations. They don’t actually have to move factories or headquarters. It’s a tax gimmick (a lot of this offshore money is actually deposited in US banks). But the threat of corporate flight is now made explicit by the lobbyists and cheerleaders: If Congress doesn’t give them a sufficiently generous tax break, some of the biggest corporate names may decide to leave. Instead of repealing the outrageous loopholes, gullible members of Congress now claim they have no choice but to appease the bankers, the techies and the drugmakers. If average citizens learned about this grand heist, they would be reaching for pitchforks. People who love Donald Trump would be especially troubled to learn that Trump has, in his way, endorsed what the corporate bandits are after. He tells audiences that corporate inversions are a terrible, terrible problem…but not to worry! His good friend Carl Icahn — the notorious corporate raider — knows how to fix the problem. What Trump neglects to say is that Icahn’s solution is for Congress to enact the monster tax reduction the multinationals are demanding. The only way to stop the inversions, Icahn insists, is to give the companies what they want. Furthermore, he’s created a $150 million super PAC that he intends to use to punish members of Congress “responsible for this ridiculous and unconscionable situation.” Icahn says in broad daylight what the money guys usually say behind closed doors. If this deal goes through, Icahn’s investment firm will itself reap $440 million in tax forgiveness on its stock holdings in Apple alone. Of course, Icahn doesn’t need the money. He’s worth $18.5 billion, the 43rd-richest person in America, according to Forbes magazine. If voters grab pitchforks to go after Trump, they should go after his pal Icahn, too. The informal politics surrounding this issue proceeds more like a silent auction than a public campaign. Starting last summer, various Washington players began posting “bids” on how much tax revenue they think Congress should pay in ransom to the bandits. Not until the lobbyists settle on the correct bid will the companies allow Congress to proceed with the legislation. Nothing demonstrates the corporate stranglehold over both political parties more starkly than this maneuver. Obama’s business-friendly, onetime bid of 14 percent was dismissed as too little, too late, not just by Republicans but by leading Democrats, too. The president also proposes permanently lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 to 28 percent. Republicans, it is understood, want more generous forgiveness — a onetime rate of less than 10 percent. According to his website, Trump has bid for a onetime rate of 10 percent on repatriated profits and a reduction of the permanent rate from 35 to 15 percent. That should make the multinationals feel loved by the Donald. Others chimed in. California Senator Barbara Boxer, usually depicted as an arch-liberal in the media, represents Silicon Valley tech companies and has teamed up with Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky GOP libertarian, to propose a onetime tax rate of 6.5 percent — a very wet kiss for Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and other globe-trotting American heroes. These preliminaries gained momentum in recent weeks when two GOP leaders — House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Orrin Hatch, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which writes tax legislation — separately announced their intention to introduce broader measures for “international tax reform” in time for debate this fall. Hatch’s grand reform would virtually eliminate the offshore tax problem by telling companies to pay taxes only in the countries where they produce things — inviting global competition among nations to attract factories by slashing rates. The GOP legislators want their groundwork to frame the debate, regardless of which party wins the White House. An announcement last summer by Senator Charles Schumer of New York was a telling hint of his party’s intentions. Schumer, the senator from Wall Street, is expected to become the Democrats’ floor leader in 2017. He has partnered with GOP Senator Rob Portman of Ohio in recruiting fellow senators for a bipartisan alliance on tax “reform.” The group hasn’t announced a specific bid, but Schumer and Portman agree that President Obama’s bid is not generous enough to our richest corporations and their CEOs and shareholders. The Schumer group instead described the organizing principles for a two-party deal. Among their goals was “a onetime transition toll charge significantly lower than the statutory corporate rate.” That sounds like the steep tax discount that America’s global champions want. Democrats are a soft touch for cutting business taxes, one insider told me, because the party of the working class has to vote against business on so many other issues like climate change and labor standards. Some Dems find it strange — and disturbing — that their prospective Senate leader is making common cause with a GOP senator who faces a tough re-election race this fall. Shouldn’t Schumer be trying instead to defeat Portman and other GOP senators to regain a Democratic majority? Instead, Schumer boasted that he’s recruiting senators from the left and center of his party to cooperate with Republicans. He mentioned Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a loyal advocate for workers and jobs, and Mark Warner of Virginia, a pro-business moderate. I have been a longtime admirer of Senator Brown, but this news makes me nervous. He has vowed that “under no circumstances” would he support another “tax holiday” for the corporations. Brown sits on the Finance Committee, where maybe he can gather allies to prevent Schumer from making a rotten deal. But he only has one vote, and obviously he wants to do a deal. In fact, Democrats opposed to the “wet kiss for the tax dodgers” are in a very weak position in the halls of Congress. In their campaigns against inequality and for tax fairness, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren may be describing the Democratic Party of the future, but it’s certainly not the one that exists right now. The insider baseball is rigged to marginalize left-liberal members. The Finance Committee has no Democratic member who is flatly opposed to the deal-making. And 1,500 corporate lobbyists are working for the other side. Democrats are a soft touch for cutting business taxes, one insider told me, because the party of the working class has to vote against business on so many other issues like climate change and labor standards. This helps to explain the growing alienation of working-class Americans. Taxation is complicated stuff, and a fog of deceitful propaganda already envelops the subject. To get straight facts, I recommend two tough-minded, truth-telling organizations: Citizens for Tax Justice, led by Robert McIntyre, and Americans for Tax Fairness, run by Frank Clemente, are rallying opponents of this royal scam. The essential lie peddled by corporate camp followers is that the US corporate tax rate of 35 percent is the highest in the world and crippling America’s globe-trotting companies. As lobbyists well know, this is a load of crap. The actual effective tax rate is far lower than 35 percent (maybe around 20 percent), once corporations apply all their wondrous loopholes and creative accounting. Some major names like General Electric are so adept at dodging that they frequently pay zero taxes. Some years, the government owes money to GE. And this is all legal. More to the point, the politically neutral Congressional Research Service concluded that the effective US corporate tax rate is actually about the same as the effective tax rate of the companies’ leading competitors in other industrial economies, all things considered. But never mind facts. It’s very difficult to reason with a robber holding a gun to your head. A good many elected politicians suffer from the Stockholm syndrome; they identify with their captors. It will require a political strike force and more than one election cycle to rescue democracy from the bandits and liberate the country for citizens. If the big corporations wish to leave America, I say good riddance — call their bluff. On their way to the door, though, Congress should present them with their unpaid due bills. It should cover not only the taxes they have dodged for years but also the much larger debt they owe the country for all the free services and subsidies they received from taxpayers as they developed their profit-making machinery. If accounts were settled fairly, Congress would have plenty of money to spend. If lawmakers found the courage to cut off the corporate free riders, that would be a political revolution. It sounds improbable, but this scandalous predicament is actually a rare opportunity for progressive reformers. The people can win this fight if they learn the facts and bring this shocking mess out into the daylight. I believe a very public and noisy effort from citizens would break through the silence and shame the players in both parties who timidl — or all too eagerly — go along their captors. What does Hillary Clinton think about this scandal? Citizens should ask her everywhere she goes. But don’t leave out Republican candidates. Ask them too, and ask those Tea Party irregulars. Are they on board with bank robbers? Or fed-up citizens? Ask your senators and representatives which side they are on. They say this is the year of rebellion. I hope it’s only the beginning. There is the promising possibility that this time, voters will instruct the powerful rather than the other way around. People are learning they can do more than listen. The views expressed in this post are the author’s alone, and presented here to offer a variety of perspectives to our readers.An internet chat room was shut down earlier today after a number of users started what the organizers are calling a ‘reasonable and intelligent debate’ in one of the forums. Although details are sketchy, the outbreak of the sensible discussion was apparently characterized by polite disagreement, constructive criticism, and mild language. The discussion thread on ukfilmforum.co.uk was started by a user who wished to discuss the new Batman film. Several other users joined, at which point the discussion seems to have taken off. As one shocked-looking moderator stated, ‘Generally someone will disagree with something said by another forum user, at which point they write ‘batman is gay lol’. The first person usually responds with something along the lines of ‘your mom sucks goat rofl’, then the first person calls the second a bint or a tart, and from then on the messages become increasingly obscene, vitriolic and nonsensical. It’s standard forum etiquette.’ But it appears that the visitors discussing Batman ignored all the well-established conventions, causing offence and some distress to more experienced forum users. One maverick forum visitor commented that he found ‘the directing to be of the highest quality, and Heath Ledger’s final performance worthy of the utmost praise’, while another ‘had certain reservations about the underlying thematic content, but described it as a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy’. When the writers began to use both upper and lower case on their keyboards, alarm bells rang that the discussion was breaking all the rules of internet chat rooms and moderators quickly moved in to close the whole thing down. Although some have suggested that this censorship was slightly heavy-handed, the website owner defended his staff, saying “What is the world coming to if four or five angst-ridden teens can’t gain a tiny bit of satisfaction from starting a puerile and meaningless argument with people they’ve never met? It’s what the internet is all about’. One disgruntled user disagreed, saying ‘this kind of gratuitous dumbing-down is exactly what’s wrong with today’s society, and I must protest with the utmost vigour’, before concluding ‘ps – your mom is totally gay lmao!!!!!!’ Team BiscuitStory highlights Nigeria's president will meet with the girls Sunday, his office says The 82 girls were to be transferred to Abuja for medical checks Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) Eighty-two Chibok schoolgirls have been released after negotiations between the terrorist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government, the President's office said. A government official close to the negotiations told CNN the freed girls are in military custody in the town of Banki in northeast Nigeria. They will be transferred to the capital, Abuja, where they will have medical checks and be reunited with their families. They are believed to be among the 276 girls, ages 16 to 18, forced from their beds by Boko Haram militants in the middle of the night in April 2014. The kidnapping from a boarding school in the town of Chibok sparked global outrage and the social media movement #BringBackOurGirls. "I am very, very excited with this development. I cannot even sleep tonight," said Yana Galang, whose daughter, Rifkatu, was among the girls kidnapped.Labour Party issues statement echoing victims’ plea; Theresa May confronted on the topic during Prime Minister’s Questions By Brian P. McGlinchey A year after the U.S. government declassified 28 pages on Saudi government links to the 9/11 attacks, the British government is now concealing its own damning report on Saudi sponsorship of extremism, and a group of 9/11 survivors and family members has added its voice to those on both sides of the pond calling for its release. The report is the product of a review of extremist sponsorship authorized in 2015 by then-Prime Minister David Cameron, who agreed to the study as a concession to Liberal Democrats as he sought their support for a vote on military intervention in Syria. On July 7, the government of his successor, Theresa May, announced that the recently completed report will be kept under wraps, due to claimed national security and personal privacy concerns. Critics, however, charge that the secrecy is aimed at protecting the Saudi monarchy from embarrassment, and preventing the disruption of lucrative arms sales to the kingdom. “How many more people must die?” In a letter to May shared with The Independent and 28Pages.org, 9/11 survivor Sharon Premoli and a dozen other survivors and family members implore the prime minister to release the report: “How many more people must die before Government decides to use its power to protect its people? You have the power to alter the course of history, stem the growth of terrorism and ultimately, secure our safety. Please release the report and let truth and justice finally prevail.” Premoli and the other signatories—who include Ellen Saracini, widow of United Airlines Flight 175 pilot Victor Saracini—tell May the American and British government practice of shielding Saudi Arabia from scrutiny has deadly results. “Almost 16 years after 9/11, the extreme, virulent, intolerant brand of Islam disseminated by the Saudis continues to be the heart and soul of terrorism, and money is its lifeblood…The longer Saudi Arabia’s complicity is hidden from sunlight, the longer terrorism will continue,” the letter says. The Labour Party promptly issued a statement today citing the letter and reiterating demands for the report’s release. “Labour has consistently called for Theresa May to publish the report in full and echoes the demand of these 9/11 survivors,” said Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott. “Last week, the Government published a summary rather than a full report on the subject. This decision raises serious concerns that the report is being suppressed to protect commercial relations with possible sources of funding, including Saudi Arabia…The public has a right to know how extremism in the UK is funded,” the statement said. Sixty-four percent of British citizens think the report should be “publicly available in full, according to a poll commissioned by The Independent. Letter Referenced During Prime Minister’s Questions May was confronted on the topic today during Prime Minister’s Questions, the enviable practice in which prime ministers, every Wednesday at noon, field pointed questions from members of parliament. Caroline Lucas, who represents the Green Party, noted the message from 9/11 survivors and asked May “to explain if her refusal is simply because the contents of the report will embarrass the government’s friends in Saudi Arabia, or is it because ministers care rather more about arms sales to Riyadh than they do about public safety in Britain?” May said, “It has absolutely nothing to do with that. There is certain confidential information in the report that means that it would not be appropriate to publish it.” Read the letter from 9/11 survivors and families in its entirety. Don’t miss the next post: Click “Subscribe” button at top right (free) Follow 28Pages.org on Facebook and TwitterNoel Edmonds to sue Lloyds for up to £300m over loans scam Noel Edmonds to sue Lloyds for up to £300m over loans scam Noel Edmonds says he has suffered 'deep distress and public humiliation' Noel Edmonds is to take legal action against Lloyds Banking Group in a bid to secure as much as £300m for a fraud carried out by HBOS staff. The former Deal or No Deal host attended mediation with his lawyer last Friday, but they walked out amid concerns the bank was not going to fulfil its pledge that victims would be compensated "swiftly, fairly and appropriately". Mr Edmonds' losses were suffered when his former business, Unique Group, was allegedly destroyed by the £245m loans scam carried out by HBOS Reading staff between 2003 and 2007. The corrupt financiers from the branch, who squandered the profits on high-end prostitutes and luxury holidays, were jailed earlier this year. Mr Edmonds will now take his case to court, his lawyer Jonathan Coad confirmed. "One reason for our confidence is that, back in 2008, when the bank sued Noel on its personal guarantee, such was the adverse legal advice it was getting from its then lawyers that it bribed Noel's business partner to the tune of around £1m to stop him supporting Noel's defence," Mr Coad said. "Since then the bank's primary witness has been jailed, which greatly weakens its position." :: Noel Edmonds reveals suicide bid after firm collapsed Image: Lloyds has denied Mr Edmonds' claims Mr Edmonds claims there is a culture of "dishonesty and concealment at Lloyds, which goes right to the top" and said he looked forward to exposing it during a trial. Lloyds has set aside £100m for the victims, but a spokeswoman said it rejected the claim that it had caused Mr Edmonds' firm to collapse. She said: "Despite Lloyds Banking Group's determined efforts to reach a consensual resolution with Mr Edmonds through mediation, this has not been possible. As a result, a formal litigation process has begun. "We recognise Mr Edmonds suffered personal distress and inconvenience as a result of him interacting almost a decade ago with an ex-HBOS employee convicted earlier this year in relation to criminal conduct at HBOS Reading Impaired Assets office. However, we strongly
death with machetes, than for one anarchist to be let off with a warning from a cop. It is better that all the world starve in a free market, than a penny be taxed in the name of feeding the poor. It is better that the streets of America be paved with the bodies of police and politicians than for one drone to harm one hair on one child’s head overseas. The needs of others do not incur debts to me. We owe society one thing and one thing only, non aggression, and they owe it to us as well. If they wish to pay this debt because they see the righteousness of it, then that is preferable, but if they will not, then the other side of that coin is force, which is a perfectly acceptable alternative to allowing them to continue in their bloodlust. Luckily, we know that nobody need starve, that streets need not be paved with bodies, and that machetes are a tad dramatic. All that defensive force proposes is that non aggression drive up the opportunity costs of oppression, beyond the point where it beats production as a career choice. We know that in the absence of the State, market alternatives to State institutions will appear spontaneously. The rubber hits the road where supply meets demand. Our entire philosophical platform relies on this simple truth. If most people will not listen to reason, if most people insist on using the State to do harm to others, then the State must be taken away from them without their consent. In its absence, they will find other ways of doing things, they will adapt, they will move on. Subscribe via email and never miss another post! [mc4wp_form id=”7723″](Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review) Sept. 20, 2017 at Sylvan Lake Park Availability: HC Jason Kreis, MF Antonio Nocerino Orlando City SC is coming off a two-game road trip in which it earned four points. City first earned a 2-1 win over D.C. United on Sept. 9 before working to a 3-3 draw with Atlanta United FC on Sept. 16. The Lions battled with their neighbors to the north in front of a sold-out crowd of over 70,000 fans in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. HC JASON KREIS: “You know, obviously, I think any game that you give up three goals, regardless of who the competition is, you have to look and see what the errors were. I thought that we had some pretty glaring, obvious errors by individual players on the goals, but, having said that, I do think that we need to take a step back or step sideways and say that’s a pretty good attacking team, Atlanta, and they’ve shown that over the season with how many goals they’re capable of scoring all the time. And the fact that we scored three goals, I think, was a real positive sign for us as well. So, all in all, I think at any other moment in the season, or if we have a few more points in our pocket, we’re probably walking away saying we’re thrilled to get that result in a sold-out stadium. But, at the moment, when we were so desperate for the three, it feels like a little bit of a disappointment.” “It’s terrific [to see the league with environments like the Portland Timbers, Atlanta and Orlando]. It’s really exciting. It’s a good moment to be a part of the league. There’s so many positives that are happening in and around the league and so many fantastic things about the communities that the teams are in and how much people are paying attention to the teams and, finally, the atmospheres in the stadiums are, I think, improved everywhere that we go. But those three spots, in particular—Portland, Atlanta and Orlando—are top of the charts, no doubt.” MF ANTONIO NOCERINO: “The—is good performance because is a play the before with the D.C. is play very well. The team is play hard and, with Atlanta, is the same. The team is a work hard, is good together because it’s important when no play in the home. Is important have result. I hope is a three points every game, but when is no have the possibility for win, it’s important no lose. And two game out the home is four point. Is good, but now it’s important watch the game the Portland because is very important.” “How many game is finish the season? Five? Six? Five. Now is five final. It’s now important when you—which you play. It’s important watch the my team. It’s important work for win. This is five game because is five final. It’s important work for three point. For team, it’s very important. Now is no look before but look this is five final, and I hope 15 point, maybe.” City will conclude their four-game road trip with a visit to Portland on Sunday at 8 p.m. Against Atlanta, the Lions faced Miguel Almirón and his eight goals and 12 assists. and his eight goals and 12 assists. The Lions will face someone similar on Sunday in Portland’s Diego Valeri, who has scored in each of his last games, totaling 18 goals so far this season. HC JASON KREIS: “I think the really nice thing about playing Portland, right now, is that they’re very similar to Atlanta. Portland’s Valeri is similar to Atlanta’s Almirón. Both wanna occupy very similar spaces. Both are looking for the ball in the same sorts of areas. Both are very lethal when they have the ball at their foot. And so I think that we’ll be fully prepared.” “It’s terrific [to see the league with environments like Portland, Atlanta and Orlando]. It’s really exciting. It’s a good moment to be a part of the league. There’s so many positives that are happening in and around the league and so many fantastic things about the communities that the teams are in and how much people are paying attention to the teams and, finally, the atmospheres in the stadiums are, I think, improved everywhere that we go. But those three spots, in particular—Portland, Atlanta and Orlando—are top of the charts, no doubt.” Lions forward Dom Dwyer scored his first two goals for City in the draw with Atlanta. scored his first two goals for City in the draw with Atlanta. Dwyer also recorded his first two City assists in each of the last two games. The United States men’s national team have two 2018 World Cup qualifiers remaining, one being against the Panamanian men’s national team in Orlando City Stadium on Oct. 6. Dwyer has been in consideration for a USMNT call-up, as he’s scored in each of his two caps against Ghanaian men’s national team and Panama in early July 2017. HC JASON KREIS: “Yeah, I’m quite certain that he feels like he’s gotten not a monkey off his back but a large-sized ape. And so he’s feeling very good, and we’re feeling very good for him.” “(jokingly) Yeah, yeah. [Dwyer scoring his first City goals] is all due to the coach. It’s all coaching.” “No, I think Dom took up some fantastic spots. I think that the way our outside backs were positioned in this match—both of them had an assist in the game. Both of them had an assist to Dom. I think that those were critical moments as well as just his willingness to compete and to get up to head both those balls were fantastic plays. And then his assist to [Cyle Larin’s] header in the second half was a terrific pass as well.” “Yeah, I mean, I know that [Dwyer’s] in consideration. I know he’s in the pool that they’re always thinking about, so wouldn’t surprise me at all if [USMNT head coach Bruce Arena] looks at the timing of the situation as well as the fact that the game’s in Orlando and makes a move like that. But, again, that’s his decision. I’m not a part of that.” “Yeah, you know, [Arena and I have] had conversations. I’ve a really good relationship with Bruce, and I think he’s just done a terrific job of communicating with the [Major League Soccer] coaches about which players he’s thinking about using and then kind of what his decision-making process is as it relates to where we’re at in our season. So, yeah, we’ve had conversations about Dom and a couple of other guys.” MF ANTONIO NOCERINO: “I hope Dom is score, this five game, two goal for game. Is work hard. Him, is Cyle, Carlos [Rivas], Giles [Barnes], Ricky [Kaká] have the good striker de Orlando. I hope the striker have the possibility for score every game. It’s important created the opportunity for striker, but the team is work for striker, and I hope the striker is score every game. Dom, Cyle—it’s very important for team for scoring when is a work ’cause is work very, very hard.” Nocerino assumed the captain’s position to start the game against Atlanta. MF ANTONIO NOCERINO: “Here, the captain is captain. For me, I have the same responsibility. For me, the captain or no captain, it’s the same. The my responsibility is the same. I work same. I work hard for help everyone, and I have experience, but the captain, no captain no change the my game, the my attitude, the my angry on the pitch because of the captain is today captain, tomorrow, no captain. For me, it’s no important. It’s important have is the good example for player. No change for me.” For more on Orlando City, as they travel to Portland for their second-to-last road game of the season, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.Share on Twitter Tweet Share on Facebook Share It is not the L-pocalypse, but it is an M-ergency! The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will close several Bushwick M train stations for 10 months while it rebuilds parts of the decrepit century-old railing ahead of the dreaded L-train closure, authorities announced on Friday. The elevated track between the Myrtle Avenue-Broadway and Central Avenue stops — a stretch called the Bushwick Viaduct — is old and crumbling, the transit agency says, and it needs to patch it up before it becomes danger — and before riders flock to the line when it closes down L train tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan for years of repairs in 2018. Starting in summer next year, the transit authority will close the Knickerbocker and Central stops for 10 months while workers replace the tracks and the parts and platform that hold them up. During the drought, it will re-route the M train along the J and Z line, and provide buses between the shuttered stops. The agency will also stop service entirely between Myrtle Avenue and Middle Village — the furthermost Queens stop — for two months to fix up a stretch of track in the outer borough, and provide shuttle service along the track that will make stops at the Jefferson Street L train station for commuters switching lines. Straphangers making the sensible decision to travel from Queens to the Borough of Kings will also be able to catch a shuttle bus from the Middle Village stop to the Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenue stop during the 10 months closure. The transit agency could not say exactly when the closures will begin other than the vague “summer.” Reach reporter Allegra Hobbs at ahobb s@cng local.com or by calling (718) 260–8312. Updated 10:17 pm, July 9, 2018 ©2016INDIANAPOLIS -- A Ford F-450 truck containing $40,000-worth of concrete tools and construction equipment was stolen from an Indianapolis hotel parking lot overnight – the latest in a series of thefts of Ford heavy and super duty trucks in Central Indiana. The theft occurred sometime between 2-7 a.m. at the Super 8 Motel at 4530 S. Emerson Avenue. The truck, a white 2004 Ford F-450, belongs to ADC Concrete of Union City, Ohio, and has "ADC Concrete" written on the doors. It's just the latest of dozens of thefts of Ford F-series trucks across Central Indiana over the past year. CALL 6 \| Ring of thieves targeting heavy duty trucks in Central Indiana In the past week alone, an RTV6 review of vehicle theft reports found four other F-series trucks reported stolen from Indianapolis: 10/5 10:00 AM – Owner reports his 1998 Ford F-150 stolen from its parking spot outside of his apartment building on the 6700 block of Martinique Lane. 10/5 3:00 PM – 2003 Ford F-250 reported stolen from Ed Martin Nissan at 802 N. Shadeland Avenue, along with a 2010 Nissan sedan. The sedan is later recovered. 10/9 10:20 AM – A 2006 Ford F-250 is reported stolen off the street on the 900 block of Shelby Street sometime overnight. 10/11 6:30 AM – IMPD officers are called to investigate a 2011 Ford F-150 Super Cab truck stolen from the 6300 block of West Washington Street. The truck is later recovered. The trucks are popular for thieves because their parts, especially their motors and catalytic converters, are hot commodities. In August, police found two heavy duty Ford trucks that had been stolen. One of them was loaded up with thieves' tools. The other was chopped up into pieces. CALL 6 \| Stolen truck found chopped up for parts Last month, officers found six stolen Ford heavy duty trucks on a property on the south side of Indianapolis while serving a warrant. The vehicles were stripped of parts inside and out, and had been reported stolen from Monroe, Marion and Hendricks counties. CALL 6 \| Police arrest man at scene of stolen trucks discovery Brand new, Ford heavy-duty trucks can run more than $50,000. If you have any information about the thefts, contact Crime Stoppers at 262-TIPS.CLOSE Gersh Zavodnik is not an attorney. But he has filed about 100 lawsuits in Marion County. Tim Evans/The Star May 2013 Buy Photo Gersh Zavodnik poses in a room in his home, Tuesday, May 14, 2013, that is full of files for the vast number of lawsuits he has filed. (Photo: Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar)Buy Photo An Indianapolis man who has filed more than 120 lawsuits since 2008 got a stern message this week from the Indiana Supreme Court. Enough's enough, the justices told Gersh Zavodnik. The state's high court, in an order issued Tuesday, called Zavodnik "a prolific, abusive litigant" and put him on notice. In the unanimous ruling, the five justices warned the Ukraine-born U.S. citizen that he "can expect any further abusive litigation practices... to be met with appropriate sanctions and restrictions." Zavodnik could face fines, criminal charges or a prohibition on filing new lawsuits unless he is in "immediate danger of bodily injury," the justices warned. The Supreme Court also issued guidance to judges "confronted with abusive and vexatious litigation practices," particularly on the part of non-attorneys attempting to represent themselves. Zavodnik is not a lawyer but acts as his own attorney in the majority of the cases. His lack of understanding of the law and court procedures, the high court said, creates myriad problems. And that is compounded by his prolific, persistent nature. EARLIER COVERAGE:Frequent filer represents himself in more than 100 lawsuits Court records show Zavodnik has filed at least 123 civil lawsuits in Marion and surrounding counties since 2008. Most revolve around Internet sales and purchases gone bad. He also is a party to 34 cases before the Indiana Court of Appeals, including 23 requesting the appointment of special judges to hear his complaints because of previous tiffs with the judges handling those cases. Zavodnik came to the U.S. in 1987 under a grant of political asylum. After settling in Indiana, he earned a college degree and became a U.S. citizen. In an interview with The Star last year, Zavodnik said he is trained as a photographer and illustrator, but most of his time is now consumed by his lawsuits and legal fights. "I cannot go and beat people on the knees like they did back in Russia," he said. "These people stole from us. I come (to the court) for justice." In 2012, however, the Court of Appeals described Zavodnik as someone who "attempts to make his living by filing lawsuits." Zavodnik objected to that claim in The Star interview, but the Supreme Court found — as had other lower courts before it — that many of his claims and motions are legally "defective, repetitive, and lacking merit." NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Urgent developments you should know now, not later. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-888-357-7827. Delivery: varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Breaking News Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters That included his plea for the high court to take up an appeal of a Marion County judge's ruling that dismissed one of Zavodnik's lawsuits. His request for a review, the order noted, did not give justices any indication of the nature of his complaint against the defendant. Zavodnik told The Star today that he disagrees with the opinion and added, "I am not going to change my ways." "Everything in that opinion is a lie," he said. "There is nothing I can do about it because the whole game isn't fair. They've pretty much closed the door to courts to me in this state. Where can I go now where a judge will not (mistreat) me?" A frequent target of Zavodnik's legal and personal attacks said he was happy to see the Supreme Court take a strong stand. "I am very pleased to see the court stand up and do the right thing," said Indianapolis attorney Chad Wuertz, who has represented several clients targeted by Zavodnik's lawsuits. "I've been telling judges from county to county to county the same thing about this guy. The judges are tired of dealing with this." Wuertz said any attorney who acted the way Zavodnik has in court would have faced serious sanctions. "You want to give everybody their day in court," he explained, "but he wants his day, the next week, the week after that and next month." Wuertz added Zavodnik may have landed a spot in Indiana legal history thanks to this week's ruling. "This is a case that will be cited in other opinions for years to come," he predicted. "Gersh is not the only person that goes out there and does this crazy stuff." In the order turning down Zavodnik's request for an appeal, the high court said Zavodnik has done nothing that "shows any desire to litigate this case expeditiously to resolution on the merits," the justices said. "Rather, he has burdened the opposing party and the courts of this state at every level with massive, confusing, disorganized, defective, repetitive, and often meritless filings. And this Court has previously warned Mr. Zavodnik against continuing such abusive and burdensome litigation tactics." One example, the court noted, is Zavodnik's penchant for making filings under often "bewilderingly lengthy titles" such as: "Appellant's Verified Motion to Compel the Clerk of the Trial Court to Provide the Entire Record as Opposed to the Partial Record and to Extend Time for Brief to Be Filed Due to the Fact that the Appellant Does Not Have the Full Certified Record and the Record Needs to Be Complete and Fixed (Which Will Require Time) Because of the Clerk's Error in Providing Only a Partial Record or Alternatively to Relinquish Jurisdiction Back to the Trial Court by Mandating It to Fix the Record (the CCS) and to Provide the Court of Appeals and the Parties with the Corrected Full and Complete Fixed Record or Alternatively to Order the Clerk of this Court to Fix the CCS and to Provide the Complete Record or Alternatively to Allow the Appellant to Use His Own CCS Printed out by Him from the Odyssey Website." The rambling titles burden court personnel and opposing parties and other attorneys, who must struggle with Zavodnik's filings. "How do you even know what he is talking about?" offered Wuertz. "I got to the place that I would respond with a motion asking for a more definitive statement. I would tell the judge 'I really don't know what this says.'" This week's order said the Supreme Court "as a matter of grace" will not impose sanctions against Zavodnik. "But we will provide the courts of this state with guidance on options available to sanction and otherwise restrict the abusive and burdensome litigation tactics practiced by Mr. Zavodnik and a small number of other litigants in this state," the order said. The justices cited a "three strikes statute" which prohibits offenders who've had three lawsuits dismissed from filing a new complaint "unless they are in immediate danger of bodily injury." The order also notes courts may assess fines and other sanctions "to those engaging in abusive tactics." The justices also addressed Zavodnik's claim that the system is unfairly biased against him. The fact that Zavodnik is not an attorney, and instead acts as a pro se litigant, the justices explained, does not mean he does not have to follow the same rules and procedures as attorneys. "One acting pro se has no license to harass others, clog the judicial machinery with meritless litigation, and abuse already overloaded court dockets... Even if a court may take reasonable steps to prevent a good faith pro se litigant from being placed at an unfair disadvantage, an abusive litigant can expect no latitude," the order says. "Contrary to Mr. Zavodnik's arguments, the system actually imposes more restrictions on represented parties, at least indirectly through regulation of their attorneys." For instance, the order explained "an attorney may be sanctioned for a willful violation of the rule that an attorney's signature on a pleading constitutes a certificate that the attorney has read the pleading; that to the best of the attorney's knowledge, information, and belief, there is good ground to support it; and that it is not interposed for delay." The court added that attorneys may be disciplined for abusive litigation practices. "Because these rules have no application to pro se litigants," the order said, "it is all the more important that courts be able to fashion appropriate sanctions for abusive pro se litigants." Call Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim. The Indiana Supreme Court, in an order this week, laid out guidelines for judges to deal with litigants who abuse the legal process while attempting to represent themselves in court. Here are directives from that order: After due consideration of a litigant's history of abuse, a court may be justified in imposing restrictions such as the following: Require the litigant to accompany future pleadings with an affidavit certifying under penalty of perjury that the allegations are true to the best of the litigant's knowledge, information, and belief. Direct the litigant to attach to future complaints a list of all cases previously filed involving the same, similar, or related cause of action. Direct that future pleadings will be stricken if they do not meet the requirements that a pleading must contain "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief" and that "[e]ach averment of a pleading shall be simple, concise, and direct." T.R. 8(A)(1) and (E)(1). Require the litigant to state clearly and concisely at the beginning of a motion the relief requested. Require the litigant to provide specific page citations to documents alleged by the litigant to support an argument or position. Limit the litigant's ability to request reconsideration and to file repetitive motions. Limit the number of pages or words of pleadings, motions, and other filings. Limit the length of the title that may be used for a filing. Limit the amount or length of exhibits or attachments that may accompany a filing. Instruct the clerk to reject without return for correction future filings that do not strictly comply with applicable rules of procedure and conditions ordered by the court. Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1wYcE1ODemocrats who are giddily munching popcorn while watching Republicans struggle with trying to repeal Obamacare may want to put down the tub. They are on the verge of adopting a politically analogous health care plank, one designed to rev up their ideological base in the next campaign, but destined to make the party suffer once in power. Last week, Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and possible presidential aspirant, declared in a Wall Street Journal interview that after stymying repeal, the “next step” for Democrats should be “single-payer” -- a health insurance system with only one main insurer run by the federal government. This is a shift for Warren; she had refused to back single-payer in her 2012 Senate run. And it has seismic repercussions for the Democratic Party. Previously, only gadfly Democratic presidential candidates touted single-payer: Jerry Brown in 1992, Dennis Kucinich in 2004 and 2008 and Bernie Sanders in 2016. But Sanders graduated from gadfly to heavyweight contender, and in turn, intensity on the left for single-payer has grown. This year, for the first time, the perennial “Medicare for All” bill is being co-sponsored by a majority of the House Democratic Caucus. One health policy expert recently told Vox, “Democratic politicians I never thought would utter the words have mentioned single-payer to me in a non-joking way of late.” You can now expect other 2020 presidential candidates to wave the single-payer banner. (A few days after Warren's move, another possible candidate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, followed suit.) No longer can Democrats breezily wave off Iowa and New Hampshire health-care activists with pragmatic rationalizations. Democrats will have to either embrace single-payer to avoid being tagged as ideologically timid or soullessly corporatist, or engage in politically risky trench warfare with the party’s left wing. If Warren is on the debate stage, perhaps alongside Sanders, any rejection of single-payer will be particularly glaring. This is the part of the reasoned pundit’s analysis where I’m supposed to say that the Democrats are going too far to the left to win in the general election. But one can’t assume that to be true. Spend five minutes with a committed Berniecrat and you will learn that poll after poll shows majority support for single-payer. The claim is oversimplified; poll numbers range widely depending on how the question is worded, and support drops when faced with the prospect of “large increases in government spending.” Nevertheless, polls on issues don’t necessarily determine who wins elections. Most voters didn’t want to fully repeal Obamacare, yet we elected a man who pledged to do just that. Middle-of-the-road voters may not be completely sold on single-payer, but we can’t know if it would be an Election Day deal breaker. The big danger single-payer presents Democrats wouldn’t necessarily manifest on Election Day, but afterwards. Today’s Republicans are in a pickle because they spent seven years ginning up their base with cries of “Repeal!” without putting sufficient thought into replacement. “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated,” whined President Trump, who obviously paid little attention to the legislative process that produced the Affordable Care Act. Initially, Republican legislative leaders planned to buy themselves time, and discussed putting off a replacement for as much as three years. But because the conservative base had been whipped into such a frenzy, the leaders concluded they had to forge ahead, torpedoes be damned. The result has been slapdash legislation blown to bits by torpedoes from the Congressional Budget Office. Either a faction of Republicans will break ranks and kill the bill, risking charges of betrayal from conservative die-hards, or the bill will actually become law, risking anger from the millions of voters likely to be saddled with higher health care costs. If Democrats take back Congress and the White House on a pledge to enact single-payer, they would find themselves in a similar predicament. While expectations of the progressive base would run high, the simplistic talking points of the campaign would run smack into the realities of health-care policy. Democrats would not be able to quickly ram through the existing House “Medicare for All” legislation, which is a wisp-thin, not-ready-for-prime-time 30 pages long. And digging into the details would not be pretty. Already we’ve seen single-payer pushes founder in deep blue Vermont and California because the upfront costs were steep and few were willing to support the necessary tax increases. The controversial line that greased passage of the Affordable Care Act – “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it” – would be non-operative in a single-payer debate; people currently satisfied with their health insurance would instead be told they would have to give it up for a government plan. The insurance industry would be literally fighting for its life, and would spend millions stoking every possible concern anyone could have about a wholesale revision of one-sixth of the United States economy. Could a progressive populist revolution overcome these challenges? One can never say never. But anyone who saw what Barack Obama’s Democrats had to go through to barely squeeze the Affordable Care Act through a heavily Democratic Congress (including the subsequent loss of the House) or saw how “HillaryCare” was destroyed in 1994 by the insurance lobby’s “Harry and Louise” ad campaign, has to be deeply skeptical. Any health reform proposal involves trade-offs that make some people unhappy. At minimum, the process would be a bitterly fought slog. Which raises the question: Why would progressive activists effectively force the Democratic Party to commit to single-payer when there are so many other pressing issues? Democrats already paid a stiff political price to win a massive expansion in health insurance coverage with a program that can still be refined over time. Why bet the house (and the Senate) on a sequel, when there is plenty to do on jobs, wages, climate, immigration and civil rights? “The mover on health care loses. To do something is to lose,” warned battle-scarred Democratic operative James Carville earlier this year. Republicans failed to heed his warning. Democrats, who have repeatedly gone through the health care wringer, shouldn’t need a reminder.Concrete, asphalt recycling a ‘win-win’ for SIU by Christi Mathis CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale has initiated a program to recycle campus concrete and asphalt, saving thousands of dollars and significantly reducing landfill waste. Concrete and asphalt are commonly used building materials. Over the last 1-1½ years, when sidewalks, roadways or buildings have been demolished, those materials were stockpiled at a university-owned site near campus, according to Dave Tippy, superintendent of grounds. Beginning last fall, the materials were then crushed and ground into an aggregate material and screened to a consistent size for future use. Concrete became gravel and asphalt was turned into bituminous asphalt material. These products can now be used in future campus construction projects such as for a base for a new concrete pour or to help maintain campus roads or parking lots. During the processing, about 99 percent of the metal within those materials, primarily rebar and wire mesh, was also removed and recycled. In the first processing, which wrapped up in December, SIU recycled about 3,188 tons of concrete, 500 tons of asphalt and about seven tons of metal, according to Tippy. By recycling, SIU realizes a cost savings of 30 percent to 40 percent, Tippy said, due to the elimination of the cost formerly paid to dump the waste materials and the cost of purchasing the new base materials when needed. On average, that’s a savings of approximately $30,000-$40,000 annually, he said. Moreover, SIU is reducing its environmental impact. “It’s a win-win for the university,” Tippy said. “We are enhancing SIU’s commitment to green initiatives by recycling and reusing materials. We’re keeping these products out of the landfills, saving on hauling and landfill costs and not using landfill space while also reducing the expense of purchasing products we use.” Plans call for continuing the program in the future, stockpiling the materials and having them processed every year or two, Tippy said.THE political heart of China is one of its most tightly controlled and patrolled patches of ground. Yet a constant police presence and surveillance cameras were not able to stop a Jeep from ploughing into concrete barriers at Tiananmen Square on Monday morning—just below Mao's portrait—killing five people, including the car's driver and two passengers, and injuring at least 38. There is no direct evidence that the collision was intentional. But explosive events at Tiananmen, which has long been the symbolic centre of Communist Party power in China, are almost always presumed to be. Authorities are on constant watch to prevent them. In the hours after the crash, police closed the square and established a massive presence in central Beijing; state agencies removed photos of the site from the internet and imposed a general clampdown on the national media. This all contributes to the sense that whatever happened was something more than an accident. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. The fiery crash has been left unexplained in official channels, but that has not stopped a torrent of rumours and theories. Most have it that this was some sort deliberate grab for attention to some specific political issue. Tiananmen and the Forbidden City, the centres of the capital and, by extension, China, are typically scenes of hushed tranquillity, which is enforced by hyper-vigilant security patrols. But when things happen anywhere in the capital, they tend to happen out in the open on or near the square, which is China's most public place for airing grievances. Mass demonstrations filled Tiananmen in both 1976 and in 1989. Both were crushed by the government. These were not the first flames to have been seen in Tiananmen since then. Members of the Falun Gong, a quasi-Buddhist sect, tried using the square as a site for protest from 1999 until 2001, when a group of people was set on fire there (the government says the people who were burned were suicidal protesters from the Falung Gong, and used the event to discredit their movement effectively). And a farmer set off a bomb in 2001, killing one man. This is not even the first mysterious car crash in Tiananmen. In 1982 a female taxi driver who had been fined at work drove her car across the square and smashed it into concrete barriers. Today’s wreck, whether or not it was intended to make a point, came at the end of a weekend that was marked by a series of strange events around the core of Beijing. Just an hour before the crash, reports surfaced that a group of a seven or eight people caused a scene by linking arms and jumping fully clothed into a lake near the Forbidden City, the imperial palace that lies behind Tiananmen. Photos show the group huddled together, standing in the water. It was also reported that on Friday October 25th a worker at the Forbidden City stabbed to death two of his co-workers, inside the palace’s cafeteria. Official media say the murders were the culmination of a dispute between employees. Correction: An earlier version of this post stated that the people who were burned to death in the square in 2001 were indeed members of the Falun Gong who immolated themselves in protest. While that remains the official account, the actual facts are substantially in dispute. This article was changed to reflect that on October 29th, 2013. (Picture credit: AFP)Recently, someone sent me a blog post that helped them get to inbox zero -- for good. "It takes about 15 minutes to set up, but might change how you work with email forever," claims the post's author, Andreas Klinger. I was eager to try it out. I couldn't be more pleased with the results. I made it to inbox zero in a single afternoon -- and when it happened, I almost leapt out of my chair in excitement. The best part? I've been able to maintain an empty inbox pretty easily ever since. Emails aren't slipping through the cracks like they sometimes used to. I'm also able to keep better track of all the emails I've sent that need a reply or that I have to follow up on in some way. Basically, it's awesome. And I'd like to share that awesomeness with you. In this post, I'll show you how to organize your Gmail inbox according to Klinger's method so it's clean, systematized, and easy to navigate -- making you a more efficient, productive, and overall happier human being. I'll also show you how I adapted his labeling system for content marketers. Here's What It Looks Like Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let's go over the basic methodology: You set up multiple inboxes in Gmail and give each of them a name, like "Needs Action/Reply" and "Awaiting Response." Your general inbox will then appear the left, and your labeled inboxes (which Gmail calls "panes") will appear on the right, like so: You know that yellow star icon you can press to mark an email as important? Turns out you can turn on other colored stars and icons in Gmail, too, like bangs (i.e. exclamation points) and question marks. Gmail calls these icons "special stars." In this methodology, each pane is represented by a different special star. Every time you get a new email in your inbox, you'll want to: Reply to the ones you can right away. For those you want to keep track of as "Awaiting Reply" or "Delegated," mark with the appropriate special star. Label the emails you need to deal with later by marking them with the appropriate special star. For the ones that you don't need to deal with or aren't current, either archive them without special stars or delete them entirely. In the end, archive everything. This way, your inbox stays at zero and everything else is either in its designated pane, archived, or deleted. The result? A clean inbox that's easy to navigate and lets you triage new emails with little effort. Here's how to set this up in Gmail. The Step-by-Step Guide to Getting to Inbox Zero in Gmail Step 1: Prepare for your new inbox layout. To make this whole process work, you'll need to get rid of the Social and
years,” he said. “And we’re willing to put the time and work into doing that.” ardelgallo@orlandosentinel.comLocated across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Madison County, IL, led the nation in asbestos lawsuit filings in 2015, with 1,000+ cases filed there through the year. In 2015, asbestos lawyers filed 1,012 mesothelioma cases in Madison County, IL, according to research from consulting firm KCIC. That accounts for just under half of all asbestos lawsuit filings in the U.S. for the year. More broadly, in terms of all asbestos cases, including mesothelioma, 25 percent were heard in Madison County in 2015. Simply put, Madison County far outpaces other jurisdictions for asbestos related cases. Cook County, IL – the jurisdiction with the next highest total – heard just 114 mesothelioma lawsuits last year. The county is no stranger to asbestos cases. In 2003, a Madison County jury awarded the largest settlement in an asbestos lawsuit, $250 million, including $50 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages. Since then, the county has continued to hand down some of the largest asbestos settlements in the country. Why Are So Many Asbestos Cases Filed in Madison County? Illinois has particular laws in place to protect people with mesothelioma. In particular, an expedited docket for terminally ill victims, allows cases to be tried in six months following filing. Unfortunately, many asbestos victims face that solemn fate, with life expectancies for mesothelioma patients ranging from 12 to 21 months. The so-called “rocket docket” was put in place to ensure people who do not have long to live have the chance to provide financial assistance for medical bills, as well as compensation for victims and their families. Unlike other states with much longer trial processes, Illinois enables victims who do not have long to live can see justice served in their lifetime. Additionally, the state also has venue laws in place that allow out-of-state plaintiffs to file lawsuits there and precedents have been set in previous cases. This enables plaintiffs nationwide to file in Madison County, if it can be proven the business conducted business in the state. Last year, Dale Jeffs, who worked throughout his career in the insulation industry and was exposed to asbestos, tried his mesothelioma case in Madison County. Jeffs had alleged he was exposed to asbestos while working at a plant in Michigan. Yet, the presiding judge found that since the defendant company had registered to do business in the state, appointed an agent, and had engaged in litigation in Illinois the company had consented to jurisdiction in the state. Madison County Compared to Other Jurisdictions Due to its venue and docket laws that benefit plaintiffs, Madison County has risen as one of the most favorable jurisdictions in the country for asbestos exposure victims. In many other parts of the country, the possibility of a six-month window from filing to trial is unheard of. Many asbestos companies drag on litigation for 3 to 5 years in other states, and in some cases, these lawsuits can spend up to a decade tied up in the legal system. For the majority suffering from lung cancer and mesothelioma, that’s far too long. If you you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure, call our free and confidential legal helpline anytime (800) 956-9876 to speak with one of our asbestos exposure lawyers.CLOSE According to Kensington Palace, Meghan Markle has been harassed and abused by paparazzi and "social media trolls" over her budding relationship with the prince. USA TODAY NETWORK Prince Harry took the unusual step of confirming his relationship with American actress Meghan Markle in an attempt to get the press to back off her. (Photo: AP/Getty Images) LONDON — Britain’s Prince Harry has condemned the racist and sexist abuse of his girlfriend, Meghan Markle. A statement issued by the 32-year-old prince's spokesperson Tuesday said that while Harry has rarely taken action over fictional stories and has worked hard to develop a professional relationship with the media, “a line has been crossed” in the past week. “His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment,” the statement said in the first official confirmation of the pair's relationship. “Some of this has been very public – the smear on the front page of a national newspaper, the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.” Related: • A field guide to British socialites, Prince Harry and the Meghan Markle connection • Does Prince Harry have a new girlfriend? The statement said Markle’s mother has had to struggle past photographers to reach her front door, reporters and photographers have tried to illegally enter Markle’s home and papers have offered “substantial bribes” to her ex-boyfriend. “Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her,” the statement said. “It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm. He knows commentators will say this is ‘the price she has to pay’ and that ‘this is all part of the game.’ He strongly disagrees. This is not a game – it is her life and his.” The prince asked for the "unusual" statement to be issued in the hope that "those in the press who have been driving this story can pause and reflect before any further damage is done," the communique said. Los Angeles-born actress Markle, 35, is best known for her role as Rachel Zane in the legal drama Suits. Her mother is African-American and her father is Dutch and Irish, according to media reports. Markle has worked with the United Nations on gender equality and is a global ambassador for the humanitarian aid organization World Vision Canada. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2fyZrLdMoondog was the pseudonym of Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916–September 8, 1999), a blind American composer, musician, cosmologist, poet, and inventor of several musical instruments. Although these achievements would have been considered extraordinary for any blind person, Moondog further removed himself from society through his decision to make his home on the streets of New York for approximately twenty of the thirty years he spent in the city. The public began to appreciate the extent of Moondog's talents only in the final decades of Moondog's life, primarily because of his stubborn refusal to wear anything other than his own home-made clothes, all based on his own interpretation of the Norse god Thor. Indeed, he was known for much of his life as 'The Viking of 6th Avenue'. Born in Marysville, Kansas, he started playing a set of drums that he made himself from a cardboard box at the age of five. Hardin was blinded in a farm accident at the age of 16. After learning the principles of music in several schools for blind young men across middle America, he taught himself the skills of ear training and composition. Principally self-taught, he studied with Burnet Tuthill and at the Iowa School for the Blind. He had a particular interest in Native American music. From the late 1940s until 1974, Moondog lived as a street musician and poet in New York City, busking mostly on 53rd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. In addition to his music and poetry, he was also known for the distinctive Viking garb that he wore, which included a horned helmet. He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry and his musical philosophy. Because of his street post's proximity to the famed 52nd Street nightclub strip, he was well-known to many jazz musicians and fans. Moondog's music took its inspiration from street sounds, such as the subway or a foghorn. It tended to be relatively simple but characterized by what he called "snaketime" and described as "a slithery rhythm, in times that are not ordinary [...] I'm not gonna die in 4/4 time" Moondog's work was early championed by Artur Rodziński, the conductor of New York Philharmonic in the '40s. He released a number of 78s, 45s and EPs of his music in the 1950s, as well as several LPs on a number of notable jazz labels, including an unusual record of stories for children with actress Julie Andrews in 1957. For ten years no new recordings were heard from Moondog until producer James William Guercio took him into the studio to record an album for Columbia Records in 1969. The track "Stamping Ground", with its odd preamble of Moondog saying one of his epigrams, was featured on the sampler double album Fill Your Head with Rock (CBS, 1970). The melody from the track "Bird's Lament (In memory of Charlie Parker)" was later sampled by Mr. Scruff as the basis for his song "Get a Move On", which was then used in commercials for the Lincoln Navigator SUV. A second album produced with Guercio featured one of Moondog's daughters as a vocalist and contained song compositions in canons and rounds. The album did not make as large an impression in popular music as the first had. The two CBS albums were re-released as a single CD in 1989. In a search for new sounds, Moondog also invented several musical instruments, including a small triangular-shaped harp known as the "Oo", another which he named the "Ooo-ya-tsu", and (perhaps his most well-known) the "Trimba", a triangular percussion instrument that the composer invented in the late 40s. The original Trimba is still played today by Moondog's friend Stefan Lakatos, a Swedish percussionist, to whom Moondog also explained the methods for building such an instrument. Moondog had an idealised view of Germany ("The Holy Land with the Holy River" — the Rhine), where he settled in 1974. A young German student named Ilona Goebel hosted him, first in Oer-Erkenschwick, and later on in Münster in Westphalia, Germany, where he spent the remainder of his life. Moondog visited America briefly in 1989, for a tribute in which Phillip Glass asked him to conduct the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, at the New Music America Festival in Brooklyn, stimulating a renewed interest in his music. He recorded many albums, and toured both in the US and in Europe — France, Germany and Sweden. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Moondog". Moondog linksFor about 30 years, the cancer-linked chemical 1,4 dioxane has been leaching into Kalamazoo County’s groundwater from the KL Avenue Landfill. It’s contaminated drinking water wells in Oshtemo Township and forced more than 300 people to switch to Kalamazoo city water. Now state regulators are planning to tighten the limits on 1,4 dioxane in drinking water. That means even more homes will have to give up their wells as the toxic plume moves west. How Ann Arbor Helped Change A DEQ Standard 1,4 dioxane or 1,4 DD for short is an industrial chemical used in things like paint strippers, dyes, and varnishes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, long term exposure to it could increase your risk for cancer, kidney damage, and a host of other problems. Last week, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced that it would make a drastic change to the state standard for 1,4 DD. It plans to drop the level allowed in drinking water from 85 parts per billion to just 7.2 ppb. “It’s in part due to the change in the toxicity level assigned to 1,4 DD as well as the exposure assumptions,” said Bob Wagner, chief of remediation development for the DEQ. Basically he’s saying that 1,4 DD is much more toxic than we thought. Because of that, the DEQ had planned to change the drinking water standards for 1,4 dioxane, but this wasn’t going to take effect for a few years. However, this winter, when the City of Ann Arbor found that a similar dioxane plume was headed toward its drinking water supply—the DEQ fast-tracked the criteria for 1,4 DD. Now Wagner says the new rule will take effect this fall. Kalamazoo County's Roving Plume Of Contaminated Drinking Water Kalamazoo County also has a dioxane plume — and unlike Ann Arbor, it’s already in county drinking water wells. Rob Engels is a stay at home dad of two. He lives in Oshtemo Township—the northwest tip of where the 1,4 dioxane plume lies in the groundwater. Engels says he only found out about the plume a few years ago—and that scared him. “It was never disclosed to us at all that there was a problem with the water. And we never would have known that there was a problem with the water except for somebody showed up unannounced, without permission and was in my yard taking water out of my spigot,” he said. That was likely an engineer testing for the KL Avenue Group—the party responsible for the plume. The group includes the city of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Oshtemo Township, and Pfizer. The KLA has been running Kalamazoo city water lines out to residents like Engels since the ‘80s. At first, the group just told owner of specific homes that they couldn’t use their well water. The EPA decided that wasn’t safe enough. Most people near the plume needed to be on city water—even if their 1,4 DD levels were low. That's because the EPA says the plume is moving—slowly, but it’s moving. “The groundwater flow is not always completely predictable on our part and contamination flow is not always completely predictable. And so to protect against that unpredictability of where contamination might go, we include areas that are currently not identified as contaminated but could potentially be,” said Joan Tanaka, the EPA’s branch chief for remedial response programs in the Great Lakes states. Last December Kalamazoo County approved a groundwater restricted zone in the contaminated area in Oshtemo Township. Almost everyone in the zone has switched to city water. The EPA says that the groundwater restricted zone will likely have to expand to include wells that are above the new limit. Dan DeWitt is the environmental attorney representing the group. He says the group will be testing about 100 wells in Kalamazoo County to make sure they fall under the new criteria. Possible Lawsuits Over City Water Bills Engels’ home isn’t in the zone, but most of his neighbors’ are. With the 1,4 DD standard changing this fall, he could be soon. Under the new rule, Engels’ well would still be considered safe. He has just 2.8 ppb of 1,4 dioxane—lower than the new standard of 7.2 ppb. But since October, Engels says the levels at his home have more than doubled. The City of Kalamazoo has contacted him multiple times about hooking up to the city’s water. Engels, however, isn’t in a hurry to make the switch. Some of his neighbors have complained about how hard the city water is—that they’ve had to buy filters for their homes because the water clogs their appliances. Engels says he’ll happily hook up to the city’s water, but only if the KL Avenue Group agrees to pay for his water bills—as well as a water softener and filtration system. “I’m just asking those people to please—if they’re not going to allow me to drink the water that’s my right that runs under my house, they’re going to force me to pipe into Kalamazoo’s water—then they should at least do everything possible to bring my water up to the standard before they polluted it,” he said. Right now, the KL Avenue Group says it doesn’t intend to do that. Dan DeWitt says this is an old problem with an old landfill—many of the people responsible for the 1,4 dioxane aren’t alive anymore and can’t help pay these expenses. Aside from Pfizer, the other liable parties are the city of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, and Oshtemo Township. Dewitt says they likely don’t have the money for it either. “The municipalities do have a role here and some liability, but then it comes down to do we raise taxes to pay for some people’s water bills going forward. And we just didn’t feel that was appropriate,” he said. Engels says he’s prepared to take legal action against the KL Avenue Group. DeWitt says so far The Upjohn Company—now under umbrella of Pfizer—has taken on the majority of the costs of the cleanup at KL Avenue Landfill. Residents near the plume are also receiving free hookups to Kalamazoo city water. DeWitt says parties in KL Avenue Group have not really discussed who would pay water bills—because the issue was never brought up. He says as of right now, all parties are equally liable for the KL Avenue Landfill. You can stay in touch with WMUK news on Facebook, Twitter, and by signing up for our eNewsletter.BOSTON -- There's a neat story about Colton Iverson's father, Chuck, who was drafted by two professional basketball teams but never played for either one. He says the ABA's Memphis Tams were willing to offer him a contract, but told him the deal would not stand if he decided to try out for the Seattle Supersonics. The Supersonics had selected him in the fifth round of the 1973 NBA Draft, and they featured a coach by the name of Bill Russell. Chuck Iverson knew he might not make the Supersonics, but called a lawyer friend anyway to learn options to escape a contract he had signed to become a teacher. This was before the days of big-money professional basketball deals; the drafts were such a minor event, compared to the way the NBA Draft is now, that Iverson did not know he had been chosen in one of them until his brother informed him. Still, Iverson wanted to continue playing basketball and determine if he could make it in the NBA. And Bill Russell was his hero. "I'd rather get cut by Bill Russell," the current Mount Marty College athletic director says now, "than make it in Memphis." Iverson was indeed cut by Bill Russell, but not before rubbing toes with the legend. The tryout featured so much conditioning work that, more than 40 years later, Iverson can still remember how his legs felt after doing jumping jacks on his toes for 15 consecutive minutes. During one scrimmage, Russell approached Iverson before a jump ball and asked whether Iverson was tired. He was exhausted from all the running but refused to admit it to the greatest winner in basketball history. The story is relevant now because Colton Iverson, like his father many years ago, hopes to latch on with an NBA team. Drafted three years ago by the Boston Celtics, the 7-footer began his professional career in Spain and spent this past season in Turkey. Playing for Karsiyaka, he showed enough improvement that Austin Ainge, the Celtics director of player personnel, believes Iverson has outgrown the NBA summer league. "He's played so well in Europe, he's priced himself out of that market," Ainge said recently. "He's going to get big, big offers -- kind of like last year (at summer league) where he had to leave early because he got so much money. And he's played even better this year. He's having a great career." At some point, Iverson hopes that career will take him to the NBA. One issue: the Celtics still hold his rights. With an absurd eight draft picks on top of their current players, they won't have much (or any) roster space unless they undergo a complete overhaul this summer. According to Iverson's agent, Adam Pensack, other NBA teams have inquired about the center's availability, but a trade would be needed to send Iverson elsewhere. If he does get a shot, he would likely need to accept a pay cut from the money he would make overseas. "That's what it's starting to sound like, so that kind of hurts," Iverson said recently. "But you can't put a price tag on playing in the NBA. That's just been my dream since I can remember. So I really hope there's an opportunity, and if that opportunity comes I'm going to for sure make the most of it. And I'm going to prove to them that I deserve to be there. I'm hoping that will be the next step, but if not there will be very lucrative offers overseas also. "Everybody recognizes what I did, and I'm ready for the next step. We're just kind of hoping, waiting, seeing. I think we did enough that I don't have to prove myself in summer league this year." "It was a little bit of a bummer knowing that I had to go overseas (initially)," Iverson added. "Boston told me they wanted to draft me, they were going to go out of their way to draft me (by trading cash to acquire the draft pick they used on him). They kind of made it sound like, OK, one year overseas. And it's been three years now. And I think I've just made a really good adjustment. There is really good players and really good contracts in Europe so I'm making the most of it. But also at the same time I want to make it to the NBA. You learn every year, every country is a little bit different, every team is a little bit different, but you just always have to keep your mind open, your thoughts open, and just do your job which is playing basketball." Iverson said he believes the Celtics are "making the right moves," and he doesn't blame them for the fact he has yet to receive an NBA opportunity. "They're putting together a really good team and they're establishing themselves, and they've got a good foundation right now. So I understand their roster situation," he said. "They have a ton of draft picks. I'm hoping I get my shot or my opportunity, but if not I'll just keep working hard to get to where I need to be. And hopefully another team or Boston will finally make a move."We revealed a boatload of information on the Galaxy Note 5 earlier today (and on the Galaxy S6 edge+ as well), and we now have a few details on Samsung’s launch plans for the phablet over in Europe. Well, details on the lack of any such plans if we go by the fact that Samsung has currently put firmware development for the European region on hold. Countries like North America, South Korea, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Asia will be seeing the Galaxy Note 5 hit retail shelves, but neither Samsung Europe nor Samsung Russia seem to be working on the phone’s software. It’s not that the Note 5 won’t come to these regions at all, but it is possible the launch will be limited to a lesser number of markets than what we’re used to for Samsung’s flagship smartphones. We’re only guessing here, but it’s also possible Samsung wants the Galaxy S6 edge+ to also see some attention in these regions when it launches alongside the Galaxy Note 5 in August; that could be why Samsung is delaying the latter’s release, and it could be that the company will follow its launch schedule of previous devices in the series and complete worldwide availability somewhere in October or later this year. Like everything we learn from our insiders, anything and everything can change in the future, but for now it looks like consumers in Europe, Russia and possibly a few other regions will have a longer wait than others before they get the option to officially buy Samsung’s next S Pen-toting flagship.Two weeks before Veterans Day, and eight long months after news of neglect at Walter Reed hit the headlines, the Bush administration finally responded publicly to the flurry of reports ordered when the scandal broke. Earlier this week, President Bush met with the co-chairs of his Wounded Warriors Commission, former Senator Bob Dole and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, to discuss executive implementation of their recommendations, and to announce recommendations for legislative action that he will be sending to Congress. Among the recommendations are a streamlined disability process, support for families, and treatment for troops' mental health problems. It's about time. For over two months, the recommendations of the Dole-Shalala Commission seemed to be gathering dust. In the veterans' community, there has been real concern that this Commission Report would join countless others that were received with great fanfare, and then promptly forgotten. On Tuesday, veterans like me were encouraged to see that the president has not forgotten the promises he made at the start of the Walter Reed debacle. While the intentions of the Commission's recommendations should be applauded, there are outstanding problems that will undoubtedly impede their accomplishment. With the Secretary of Veterans Affairs' post filled by a temporary appointment, and a VA budget that is more than two weeks late, implementation will be a challenge. One of the Dole-Shalala Commission's major recommendations is already doomed. The Commission suggested that coverage be provided for family members of wounded troops under the Family Medical Leave Act. Earlier this month, this protection was denied not due to bureaucratic hurdles or funding shortfalls, but because of the President's decision to veto SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program reauthorization. Today, Congress had an opportunity to override the President's SCHIP veto--and should have voted to do so. Two largely overlooked provisions of SCHIP would address the urgent issue of protecting military families as outlined by the Dole-Shalala Commission. Sections 621 and 622, under Subtitle C, provide one year of employment discrimination protection to family members caring for grievously wounded troops, and extend permitted work leave for these caretakers from three to six months. Right now, when a service member is critically wounded, friends and family members put their lives on hold to be at their loved ones' bedside during the weeks and months of recuperation. Annette McLeod is one such family member. When her husband, Specialist Wendell McLeod, was injured while serving in Iraq, she rushed from her Chesterfield, South Carolina home to be with him at Walter Reed in Washington, D.C. Caring for her husband, who sustained multiple injuries to the back and head, became her full time job. After three months at Walter Reed, the human resources department at the factory where she had worked for 20 years told her she had exhausted her time off. She was forced to give up her job and all of her benefits. Annette's story is all too common. Thanks to improved battlefield medicine, thousands of troops are surviving catastrophic injuries, but they face long and painful recoveries at home. This puts enormous financial and emotional strain on their loved ones. According to the Dole-Shalala Commission, one in five severely wounded troops says a family member or friend has had to give up a job to provide care. Unfortunately, current law offers caregivers few employment protections. All too often, they lose their jobs, pushing their families to the brink of financial ruin. Today, Congress had the opportunity to defend the family caregivers of wounded heroes by overriding the President's SCHIP veto. Unfortunately, the legislation that would have given these families much-needed breathing room failed. So now, instead of focusing on recuperating, many of our injured service members will have to worry about where their family's next paycheck will come from.Starting August 6, 2016, you can now download Pokémon Go in the Philippines from the Play Store or App Store! I know you want to start as soon as possible. Here are places where you may probably find these cute critters. We’ll focus first on the the first 152 Pokémon so that we won’t disorient the millennials of the 90’s who have loved them before and then forgot about them after puberty arrived. [Note: All animated GIFs sourced from pldh.net] CAMANAVA The combined cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela (CAMANAVA) could probably be the answer to all your water-type Pokémon needs if you’re just here in Metro Manila. A sizeable percentage of these cities has elevations below sea level. That’s why it makes sense to put a fish port in Navotas. And now that it’s the rainy season, you don’t even need to go out to sea to catch them. Just wait for a strong typhoon or torrential rains and water-type Pokémon such as Horsea, Seaking, Goldeen, Staryu, Lapras and Shellder may come flooding in quite a number of streets in CAMANAVA. Scarborough Shoal (Panatag Shoal, Bajo de Masinloc, Kalburo) This place has so many names even if it is not an island, technically. The West Philippine Sea hides and engulfs this shoal on normal days when the tide is high. But the Chinese Coast Guard was really wearing their game face as they drove Filipino fishermen and our news teams during our visit in the disputed territory on July 21, 2016. It’s possible they may be guarding a precious secret in this shoal. I’m thinking it’s a bevy of Magikarp that may soon evolve into their dominant Gyarados forms. After all, the Gyarados looks like a Chinese dragon. Sea superiority! Ninoy Aquino International Airport Last July 19, we received reports of flight delays because of damages to the runway of NAIA. Beyond the usual wear and tear, I fear the authorities may not be telling us the entire situation. It’s quite probable there are huge bird-type Pokémon like Pidgeot and Fearow nesting in the runway. Tough luck for Filipino trainers out there because you would need a high-level security clearance to reach the runway. Even journalists have to coordinate in advance before we can enter these important installations. At least, there’s hope that you can catch them flying around together with the airplanes. The Streets of Metro Manila Sadly, if you try to play Pokémon Go at night, you may probably encounter a lot of these ghost-type Pokémon such as Gastly, Haunter and Gengar. Here’s hoping there are no cardboards attached to them referring to them as drug pushers. Hindi naman sila nanlaban. The Home of Your Ex Likely, there is an ice-type Pokémon near a former lover whose feelings have gone cold on you. If you’re looking for an excuse to visit the house of your ex, just say the app brought you there and that you’re just trying to catch the ice/psychic Pokémon Jynx. No malice. (But it’s okay to admit to yourself that you just want to catch his or heart back). Take all these with a grain of salt. If you have ideas for hotspots in the Philippines where you can find Pokémon, tell us and we may include you in the 2nd Edition. But before anything else, safety first! When playing this game, do not commit trespassing, and look both ways when you cross the street. Enjoy! [Entry 158, The SubSelfie Blog] About the Author: Bam Alegre is the founder of SubSelfie.com and writes from time to time as a guest contributor. He is a News Reporter for GMA News (2012) and a Special Lecturer for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of the East (2015). He was also part of the team that won GMA News the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for the news coverage of super typhoon Yolanda (2013). Previously, he worked behind the scenes as a Segment Producer for State of the Nation with Jessica Soho and 24 Oras (2009-2012). He is also the vocalist, pianist and guitarist of the band No Parking (2005). BA Broadcast Communication 2007, UP Diliman. Read more of his articles here. AdvertisementsCLEVELAND, Ohio -- More than 2,000 people will get a chance to have bit parts in the new movie "The Avengers" when filmmakers begin shooting the film this August in Cleveland. But if you miss out at being an extra in that Marvel/Disney super hero film, you will have other chances because 10 other movies are to be filmed here soon. The announcements were made Thursday in a joint news conference by The Greater Cleveland Film Commission and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald on the west bank of the Flats. FitzGerald and Ivan Schwarz, executive director of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, said the city is becoming a hot spot for Hollywood film producers. "Boot Tracks," a psychological thriller starring Matt Dillon and Michelle Monaghan, will begin filming here next month for four weeks. That film also will need extras and crew workers. Schwarz said two more films, whose titles will be announced in a few weeks, will also be shot in Cleveland this year. Seven others have been approved to be made here. "The Avengers" will be filmed in various parts of the city over a two-month period starting in August. Schwarz said applicants - who will be paid for working or appearing in the movie - should send a resume to Cleveland@cupber.com. "We'll know more exactly how many extra hires they need in the upcoming weeks," Schwarz said, "but I can safely say a good guess will be several thousand." "The Avengers" is a popular group of Marvel Comics superheroes. The team includes "Iron Man," who will be played by Robert Downey Jr., The "Black Widow," played by Scarlett Johansson and "Nick Fury," played by Samuel Jackson. It's to be directed by Joss Wheedon. Cleveland-area residents will get preference to work as extras in the films, Schwarz said. Pay for extra work varies from film to film, but it ranges from $50 to $100 a day, plus meals, he said. Applications for "Boot Tracks" will accepted online, Schwarz said. To apply, send an email to boottracks@gmail.com. The Ohio Department of Development has estimated $30 million will be spent in Ohio during filming of the Avengers. FitzGerald said the county is making a $160,000 donation to the film commission because the movie industry will help lead the city into an economic renaissance. In the last two years, production companies have spent $78.3 million in Ohio making movies. "The film industry is an industry that is growing," FitzGerald said. "New York and Los Angeles were the "hot spot" cities for past films, but since the Ohio Film Tax Credit was passed in 2009, 13 movies have been approved and we expect more movies being made here. He said there are many movies about Cleveland, but filmmakers have not shot many here despite having good locations. But the tax credit levels the playing field - 40 states now have it -- and he said we want to prove we're business friendly." FitzGerald said local businesses also will benefit, including StrEat Mobile Bistro & Production Catering, whose colorful truck has done past professional production catering for the film industry. He also said hotels will be booked here and restaurants filled, while equipment rental companies, skilled tradesmen like carpenters and electricians will find more work as movie crews make their way to the city. "They'll be working on a different scale from what Cleveland has seen in the past," FitzGerald said. "The economic impact will be significant...the additional tax revenues we'll get will far exceed the $160,000 we donated."André Gerin, a Communist Party legislator and mayor of Vénissieux, a Lyon suburb with many Muslims from North Africa, began the affair in late June by initiating a motion, signed by 57 other legislators, calling for the parliamentary commission. “The burqa is the tip of the iceberg,” Mr. Gerin said. “Islamism really threatens us.” In a letter to the government, he wrote: “It is time to take a stand on this issue that concerns thousands of citizens who are worried to see imprisoned, totally veiled women.” A few days later, President Nicolas Sarkozy said that “the burqa is not welcome on the territory of the French Republic.” He did not say how it would be made unwelcome, however, or whether he intended to extend existing laws that already ban head scarves or any other religious symbol from public schools. Photo For Mr. Sarkozy, who defends participation in the Afghan war as a matter of women’s rights, “the problem of the burqa is not a religious problem,” he said. “It is a problem of liberty and the dignity of women. It is a sign of servitude and degradation.” There is a strong suspicion that Mr. Sarkozy, who has supported religious freedom, is playing politics in a time of economic unhappiness and social anxiety. But he also seems to want to restrict more radical and puritanical forms of Islam from gaining further hold here. The French press has been full of heated opinion pieces, charts about different Islamic veils, stories about public swimming pools and the burqini, an Islamic swimsuit that covers the body and the hair (but not the face). Women wearing the niqab, many of them French converts to Islam, have said that they have freely chosen to cover themselves after marriage. Others say solemnly that to stigmatize or ban the veil would only cause more women to wear it, out of protest. Last year, Faiza Silmi, now 33, was denied French citizenship in part for wearing the niqab, bringing a legal judgment about personal dress into the home. In an interview with Le Monde, Ms. Silmi said that she chose to wear the niqab after her marriage, even if her own mother thought it was “a little too much.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Don’t believe for a moment that I am submissive to my husband!” she said. “I’m the one who takes care of the documents and the money.” Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Passions have been so high that when domestic intelligence issued a report saying that only 367 women in France wore a full veil, it seemed to make no difference. For many French Muslims, the entire discussion is an embarrassment and an incitement to racial and religious hatred. M’hammed Henniche is the secretary for the private Union
isolated." Det Supt Hawkings, head of major crimes for Essex Police added: "There are significant similarities between both crimes. “Both victims sustained frenzied knife wounds. Both were on secluded paths in parks used by members of the public." However, he added there were clear differences in the attackers' victims, including the gender, dress and religion of the victims. "We can't discount the possibility of hate crime," he said. Ms Almanea, who was from Saudi Arabia but lived with her brother in Woodrow Way, Colchester, was described by lecturers on the Essex English language programme as a “conscientious student”. Richard Barnard, head of the University’s International Academy, said: "Nahid joined this programme and was a very hard-working and conscientious student, who was making excellent progress. "She was a quiet, considerate and well-respected member of the programme and had ambitions to move on to further academic study. “She will be greatly missed by her teachers and her fellow students." Ms Almanea had been planning to undertake a PhD in life sciences and had co-authored a number of academic papers since 2010. Meanwhile, a British extremist fighting in Iraq appeared to use the murder to encourage followers in the UK to commit revenge attacks on non-Muslims. The purported British member of Isis, the fanatical Islamic force leading an insurgency in Iraq, said Muslims should "take up a knife and kill as they did in Colchester". A tweet under the name of Abu Rashash Britani, who has previously said he would bring Isis' brand of bloody attacks to Britain, said: "These kuffar [non-Muslims] getting out of hand, dare they touch a #Muslimah. "I call upon any brother to take up a knife and kill as they did #colchester." Comparing Ms Almanea’s death to the to murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Greenwich last year, the tweet added: "#colchester attack is cowardly act. At least when our noble brothers, killers of #leerigby did so they killed a soldier not a civilian. "I pray a revenge attack takes place in #uk against those enemies of #Islam n #Muslims." But Omar Ali, president of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, yesterday paid tribute to the victim. "My heart sank after hearing the traumatising news an innocent life had been brutally snatched away,” he said. "This is the saddest piece of information I have received in all my years of activism in the student sector.” He added: "This isn't the first attack on a Muslim student and certainly is not the last on a member of the Muslim community in the UK.” The Saudi Arabian embassy in London also confirmed that Ms Almanea’s body would be returned to her family in the Middle East. "Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Ambassador to the UK, expressed in a telephone call to the brother of the deceased his sincerest condolences to her family,” a spokesman said. "He affirmed the embassy's speed in taking all the procedures for the transfer of the body of the deceased to the Kingdom, highlighting in this regard the embassy will not stop until reaching the aspects of this case."Adrian Peterson spent a week soul searching after an "out of whack" performance against the Chicago Bears in Week 2. That was a major upgrade from his post-game reaction to an innocuous Week 1 comment from Jim Schwartz, who revealed that the Detroit Lions had been game-planning to stop the Minnesota Vikings' ground attack for a month leading up to the season opener. "(Expletive.) A month y'all been game-planning to stop the run? (Expletive.) Y'all better do a good job," Peterson said in frustration Wednesday, via USA Today's Tom Pelissero. "(Expletive.) That's what we're facing. Guys are coming in, and they know our run game. They're doing everything they can to stop it. It's not easy." Peterson actually is ahead of last year's three-week pace when he was easing back from reconstructive knee surgery, but he's averaged a paltry 2.9 yards per carry since opening the season with a 78-yard touchdown scamper against the Lions. So what's different this year? He's faced more stuffed boxes than any other running back, which backs up his contention defenses are doing "everything they can" stop the run. The quarterback is the same as last year. Peterson still is forcing missed tackles at a high rate. The most significant difference this year is that Peterson hasn't burned those extra safeties in the box for long runs, as he did in rushing for nearly the same amount of yards (1,598) over the final 10 games as second-leading rusher Alfred Morris (1,613) did over the course of the entire season. Those missing big plays are on the horizon with fullback Jerome Felton returning from his three-game suspension this week. The 2012 rushing leader averaged an eye-popping 7.25 yards per carry out of two-back sets with Felton as the primary lead blocker last season. Peterson failed to top 4.0 yards per carry in single-back sets. Peterson isn't going to reach his outlandish goal of rushing for 2,500 yards, but he needs only to increase his current per-game rushing average of 93.7 by 40 yards to reach the 2,000-yard marker again. With Felton back, that's not an unrealistic milestone for a freakish talent who averaged 160 yards per over the final 10 games of last season. The "Around The League Podcast" is now available on iTunes! Click here to listen and subscribe.Dr. Neil A. Shneider, director of the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center at Columbia University Medical Center, said, “The effect is modest but significant.” He added, “I’m very happy, frankly, that there is a second drug approved for A.L.S.” The disease kills nerve cells that control voluntary muscles, so patients gradually weaken and become paralyzed. Most die within three to five years, usually from respiratory failure. About 12,000 to 15,000 people in the United States have A.L.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Shneider predicted that patients would be eager to try the new drug. He said several of his patients were already receiving it because they had obtained it themselves from Japan. If more want it, he will prescribe it, he said. “It’s very safe,” he said. But he was uncertain about whether he would actually recommend it, because the method of administration is difficult. Patients have to have an intravenous line inserted and left in place indefinitely, which poses an infection risk. The first round of treatment requires a one-hour infusion every day for 14 days, followed by 14 days off. After that, the infusions are given daily for 10 out of 14 days, with 14 days off. “If it were a pill and easily administered, I’d be less reluctant to use it,” Dr. Shneider said. He added that the drug will not make patients feel better or stronger. It does not improve symptoms. It can slow the decline, but that is not something a patient will notice.black—lamb: “I honestly had so much respect for you but now you just always post about what makes white People so bad and violent” What I heard: “OMG HOW DARE YOU BE BLACK AND TALK ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH RACISM! HOW DARE YOU DEDICATE YOUR BLOG TO UPLIFTING BLACK PEOPLE BECAUSE THE REST OF THE WORLD ISNT HERE FOR IT! IM SICK OF HEARING THE TRUTH AND HOW BADLY WHITE PEOPLE HAVE AFFECTED PEOPLE OF COLOR’S WORLDVIEW!! YEA YOU HAD IT BAD BUT MY EGO IS MORE IMPORTANT! CANT YOU JUST STOP TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAS AFFECTED YOU SINCE BIRTH, SHAPED THE WAY YOU VIEWED YOURSELF AS A HUMAN, AND THAT WILL ALWAYS FOLLOW YOU AND KEEP YOU FROM RECEIVING THE SAME OPPORTUNITIES THAT I WILL GET HANDED TO ME JUST FOR EXISTING. MY FEELINGS ARE HURT EVEN THOUGH I DONT HAVE TO FEAR FOR MY LIFE BECAUSE OF THE COLOR OF MY SKIN…”Consumers expect a fast, always-on smartphone experience. Performance however can be degraded by many factors including how a phone is held or positioned. In the past, MIMO systems have solved these problems on tablets and larger devices by using multiple antennas. With Broadcom’s advanced antenna and PHY design, the BCM4354 can now deliver the benefits of 5G WiFi 2×2 MIMO to smaller platform designs like smartphones while reducing implementation complexity for designers. This achievement enables the industry’s first practical implementation of 2×2 MIMO on a smartphone, opening the door for a new market segment. Broadcom today announced a first of its kind 5G WiFi system-on-a-chip that will bring faster 802.11ac WiFi and improved performance to smartphones. Apple currently uses a WiFi chip based on the Broadcom technology in the iPhone, iPad and Mac products making the new 5G chip a likely successor for next-generation iOS devices. The chip is the first to implement 2×2 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) on a smartphone and Broadcom said that will significantly improve performance over current implementations of 802.11ac on mobile: Broadcom said the chip will allow smartphone makers to double WiFi performance “while improving system power efficiency up to 25 percent when using wireless applications.”Mohammad Salar Fard-Hajian DEARBORN- At 7 a.m. on Thursday, March 30, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents detained an Iranian Schoolcraft College student at his apartment in Dearborn. According to his roommate, Mohammad Salar Fard-Hajian, 24, was taken to the Dearborn Police Station where he was held in a cell and reached out to friends over the phone. At the time of the incident, the electrical engineering student woke up his 22-year-old roommate, Shayan Shafiei, to let him know he was being detained. “[He told me] ‘wake up, they’re taking me, they’re detaining me,’” Shafiei told The AANews. Shafiei thought it was a joke until he heard agents outside his bedroom door. “They cuffed him with shackles… hands and feet,” he said. Shafiei said Fard-Hajian told him over the phone that Dearborn police said he had to be apprehended because he didn’t update his address on his immigration form since he moved from Oregon to Michigan. He said his friend studied in Oregon for one year, but decided to move to Michigan because he wanted to live around his acquaintances. Fard-Hajian has been living in the state for two years now. “He’s been receiving immigration papers now in Michigan,” he said. “Therefore, it’s impossible that they did not have his current address.” He added that no one is able to bail Fard-Hajian out, see him or find out more about his case. “He’s been in solitary for the past 30 hours and has been slowly getting sick,” he said. “He’s complaining about the lack of air in his cell.” Shafiei said he tried visiting him twice, but police wouldn’t allow him. He asked for more information, but they said they can only speak to immediate family. However, he has no one in the U.S. except for friends. “All they said is that, ‘this guy is an immigration prisoner,’” he said. “’All we do is have a cell for [him]’ and that I have to check with immigration.” Shafiei then visited U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services to see what he can do to help his friend. An official told him he can’t do anything and that Fard-Hajian would be transferred to jail soon. “[He said] he has to wait for a judge to see his case and I asked him, ‘Ok, how long would that take?’” he said. “He was like it might take three weeks to a month. That’s crazy. Imagine a person who has never been in a situation like this going to jail.” Shafiei said Fard-Hajian has been living in the U.S. on a student visa for three years and has no criminal record. “He’s a very close friend of mine,” he said. “His family is in Iran, so they have no idea what is happening to him. Like I don’t have the guts to tell them your son is detained. I can’t imagine how they would feel.” On Friday, March 31, Dearborn police told The AANews that they housed Fard-Hajian overnight until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took him away. Police said they know nothing about the case or where they took him.Using Boost Libraries in Windows Store and Phone Applications Boost contains a lot of high quality cross platform C++ libraries. Some of the libraries in Boost use APIs that aren’t available in Windows Store and Phone applications. To help improve the experience Microsoft’s been working on enabling some of the Boost libraries. We’ve made improvements to the Boost build system to support targeting the Windows Runtime for Windows Store and Phone. Also we’ve made changes to make the following Boost libraries work for Windows Store and Phone: system, chrono, date_time, smart_ptr, signals2, and thread. In addition to these Boost libraries, many others don’t use any banned APIs and work fine. This post shows how you can build and utilize portions of Boost in your Windows applications. Download and Setup Boost Sources Here are the steps to download and setup the Boost sources for building. Boost has moved over to GitHub, now using Git submodules. More detailed information about modular Boost can be located here. Clone Boost and setup for building. Please note this is a one-time operation that will take some time as it brings down all of the Boost sources. Throughout this post it is assumed you cloned into C:\boost. git clone –recursive https://github.com/boostorg /boost.git boost cd boost .\bootstrap .\b2 headers Add the build tool, b2, to your Path environment variable. If you are using PowerShell something like following works. $env:Path += “;C:\boost”; A few of the changes for enabling the Windows Runtime haven’t migrated to into the ‘master’ branches or are still pending a merge. For these you will need to checkout the ‘develop’ branch or pull from my private branch containing the necessary changes. Boost.Build cd C:\boost\tools\build git checkout develop Boost.Config cd C:\boost\libs\config git remote add winrt_fork https://github.com/ MSOpenTech /config.git git fetch winrt_fork winrt git checkout winrt Boost.Thread – optional only needed if going to use thread or a library that depends on it cd C:\boost\libs\thread git remote add winrt_fork https://github.com/MSOpenTech/thread.git git fetch winrt_fork winrt2 git checkout winrt2 Building for Windows Store and Phone With the latest Boost sources and your repositories setup you are now ready for building. If the Boost library/libraries you are interested in using are header file only, like Boost.Signals2 for example, then you don’t need to build and can entirely skip this step. Of the libraries we’ve enabled and verified, system, chrono, thread, and date_time are the only ones that require building. To enable easily targeting the Windows Runtime a new feature called ‘windows-api’ has been added to the Boost build system. It accepts the values ‘store’, ‘phone’, and defaults to ‘desktop’ if not specified. To build go to the build directory under the library you wish to use, for example to build Boost.Thread 32 bit debug for Windows 8.1 Store for static linking use the following command: cd C:\boost\libs\thread\build b2 toolset=msvc-12.0 link=static windows-api=store About toolsets and targeting, the toolset you specify determines which Windows version you are targeting: Windows 8.0: toolset=msvc-11.0 windows-api=store Windows 8.1: toolset=msvc-12.0 windows-api=store Windows Phone 8.0: toolset=msvc-11.0 windows-api=phone Windows Phone 8.1: toolset=msvc-12.0 windows-api=phone The built-in Boost features variant, address-model, architecture, link can be used to produce debug/release, x86/x64/arm, and static/shared binaries. For example the following builds the release configuration, with static linking for the ARM architecture: b2 toolset=msvc-12.0 variant=release link=static architecture=arm windows-api=store More detailed information can be found in the Boost.Build documentation. Once built, the binaries are output under the bin.v2 folder. The exact location is dependent on the options used and the name of the library built. For the command from before used to build Boost.Thread the binaries are located under: C:\boost\bin.v2\libs\thread\build\msvc-12.0\debug\link-static\threading-multi\windows-api-store\ Please note Visual Studio 2013 didn’t include vcvarsphone setup scripts so you won’t be able to target Phone 8.1 out of the box. With this blog post I’ve included phone setup scripts that can be used when targeting Windows Phone 8.1. To setup them up create the folders called WPSDK\WP81 under the VC Visual Studio installation directory, C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\, and copy the phone setup script files in. How to use in an Application With all the setup and building complete, using in an application is just the same as with any other C++ library. Setup the include path by adding C:\boost\. If the Boost library you’re using isn’t header file only then link to the lib and add the dll to the project (if not using static linking), making sure to set the ‘Content’ property to true so it is picked up for application deployment. To help illustrate how to setup and use in an application, at the end of this post, I’ve included a simple sample Windows 8.1 Store application that utilizes the thread and signal2 libraries. The sample creates a simple signal with multiple slots using Boost threads in different ways. The sample assumes you cloned Boost into the C:\boost directory and built static linking for Boost.Thread, Boost.Date_Time, Boost.Chrono, and Boost.System, if this isn’t the case then you will need to update the include and library paths. Included with the sample also are the vcvars setup scripts for targeting Windows Phone 8.1. Feedback and How to Enable More Boost Libraries For your next Windows Store and Phone application try using and let us know how it goes. Several individuals are already trying it out and Spotify is using several of the libraries in their Windows Phone application. Not all of the libraries in Boost work yet in Windows Store and Phone, but the work we’ve done makes it easier to build and replace or update banned APIs. If one of the Boost libraries you want to use doesn’t work, depending on the banned API it might be easy to replace. We’ve added several new Boost.Predef, macros. By including <boost/predef/platform.h> you can use the BOOST_PLAT_WINDOWS_DESKTOP and BOOST_PLAT_WINDOWS_RUNTIME macros to test which platform is being targeted. For example if a call to WaitForSingleObject (only allowed in desktop) is used, you could replace it with WaitForSingleObjectEx by checking the macro for the Windows Runtime: #include <boost/predef/platform.h> … #if BOOST_PLAT_WINDOWS_RUNTIME WaitForSingleObjectEx(handle, INFINITE, FALSE); #else WaitForSingleObject(handle, INFINITE); #endif For more complex examples of API replacement you can take a look at the changes I made for Boost.Thread. We are interested in hearing your feedback. What Boost libraries do you care about or what to use in your Windows Store and Phone applications? BoostSample.zipPolice officers shot a man who allegedly aimed his weapon towards them after they responded to a reported domestic dispute in Northeast Philadelphia. On Wednesday at 5:47 p.m., police responded to a domestic incident and a report of a person with a weapon at a home on Crafton and Levick streets. When they arrived they were met by a woman who told them her husband was standing in the doorway of the house, police said. Police say they then saw the man in the doorway armed with a rifle. The officers ordered the man to drop the weapon but he refused, according to officials. The officers then told the man again to drop his weapon, police said. The man then allegedly lowered his weapon towards one of the officers. The officers then opened fire, striking the man once in the left arm. The man was taken to the hospital where he is currently in stable condition. Police continue to investigate the incident.UPDATE: Monday, January 5, 2015 NEW ELLENTON, SC (WRDW) - New Ellenton investigators confirm murder suspects, Devonte Green, 20, and Rakeem Jackson, 16, are in custody. Jackson and Green were wanted in the murder of Dantroy Cuthbertson on Williamson Ave. on Saturday night. Both were considered armed and dangerous. Authorities tell us families members brought the suspects to law enforcement. Green will be held at the Aiken County Detention Center. Jackson will be taken to a facility in Columbia, SC, investigators say. Both are being charged with murder. Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015 NEW ELLENTON, SC (WRDW)- Investigators say 20-year-old Devonte Green, and 16-year-old Rakeem Jackson are wanted on murder charges. Authorities say Green has threatened to kill a law enforcement officer. The two suspects are still on the loose, and considered armed and dangerous. Both are wanted for the murder of 35 year old Dantroy Cuthbertson who was shot and killed last night. "Humanity is not getting any kinder to humanity," said Reverend Paul Bush, President of Concerned Ministries Fellowship. "Something that was proven last night when 35 year old Dantroy Cuthbertson was shot and killed last night in New Ellenton. "Stuff goes on different places and you hear about the crime, but it's a little harder when you travel up and down this road all the time," said Bart Mclendon. "The sad part is a life was taken, and someone took that life," said Rev. Bush. Reverend Paul Bush says sadly it's happening too often. "One death is too many. One crime is too many," said Rev. Bush. According to a study by the FBI, violent crime in the Palmetto state decreased in the past year, but still is some of the highest in the country. South Carolina is the 6th most dangerous state in America. "That's not what we as South Carolinian's want. We should still be able to walk the streets at night and not worried about being attacked, and go to bed and not wonder if we're going to be broken into," said Rev. Bush. There were nearly 500 violent crimes per hundred thousand people. In 2013 there were nearly 300 murders across the state. People living here say way too much crime is happening. Many of them have been robbed, they've had stray bullets hit their house, and last night wasn't the first time they've heard gun shots. "We have to get back to the basis of crime being evil whoever it's against," said Rev. Bush. The study sites high crime rates due to high poverty rates. Where you live doesn't define who you are. You define who you are," said Reverend Bush. Reverend Bush, the President of Concerned Ministries Fellowship says their goal in 2015 is to fight crime any way they can. "We've got to get in the streets, we've got to talk to the young men and women on the corners," said Bush. There's a new Facebook page called "making New Ellenton a better place," where people in the area can post what's going on. Reverend Paul Bush says they plan to meet with Aiken Public Safety monthly to help bridge the gap between police and the public. Sunday, January 4, 2015 NEW ELLENTON, SC (WRDW) - New Ellenton authorities are asking for the community's help finding two murder suspects involved in the deadly shooting on Williamson Ave. Investigators say Devonte Green, 20, and Rakeem Jackson, 16, are both wanted for murder. Officers say both suspects are considered armed and dangerous. New Ellenton Police say Green has made threats to kill law enforcement. Officers are asking for the community's help finding the two suspects but warn not to approach them. Instead, call 911 immediately. The Aiken County coroner says Dantroy L. Cuthbertson, 35, was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:10 this morning. The coroner says Cuthbertson died from a fatal gun shot wound. There will be an autopsy performed on Monday in Newberry, SC. Authorities were called to Williamson Ave. around 10:30 Saturday night. The New Ellenton Police Department and the Aiken County Sheriff's Office are currently investigating. Saturday, January 3, 2015 NEW ELLENTON, SC (WRDW) - New Ellenton authorities are investigating a shooting on Williamson Ave., according to Aiken County Dispatch. Dispatch says the call came in around 10:30 and at least one person was injured. No details at this time on how severe those injuries are or how the shooting happened. News 12 is on the way to the scene and will have an update when information becomes available.Granny, the world’s oldest orca, is 105 years old. She was born a year before the Titanic tragedy. Recently she was seen from the vantage point of the Washington state coast. Scientists have been studying this killer whale since 1971. That was when they had estimated that she was 62 years old. Her existence is a surprise and a shock for scientists. That is because normally killer whales live to be 60 or 80 years in the wild marine environment. Yet this one is currently 105 years old. Granny is basically a matriarch that belongs to a group of whales. They have been given the moniker of Southern Resident Killer Whales. Granny was identified via a mark on her dorsal fin and a half-mooned notch. In the past fortnight or so, Granny seems to have spent her time, along with her family of killer whales, feeding in and traversing through the Georgia Strait. This brave and intrepid whale has been swimming for at least a century. That is indeed backbreaking work. According to Oceanecoventures, her group of whales often travel 72 miles in the span of a day and they do this in a nonstop manner. Thus Granny must have traveled the world a hundred times through her lifetime which is quite a feat. Granny was seen in the Strait of Georgia about two years ago. A certain Mr Pidcock captured this veteran whale on camera and the images are beautiful to look at. It was a real fun thing to see this whale. Just to think that it is a hundred years old is in itself a big thrill for scientists. Granny was born before the Titanic went down. Just to imagine the times from the past years through which this matriarch whale lived, sends the mind into a nostalgic journey of memories. Other members of Granny’s clan of orcas have lived almost as long as she has. Ocean Sun and Lumi, both aged females, died at 85 and 98 respectively. Tokitae and Corky are two other examples of aged killer whales that are in captivity. They are both around 52 years old. The earliest pics of Granny were snapped in 1967. As for the studies regarding her clan, they began in 1971. Granny may be getting on in years, yet she is still as active today as she was in her prime. This shows us that age is indeed just a number.I spent last Sunday afternoon surrounded by fellow creatives at Dublin Gamecraft Unplugged. We had about 4h30m to make an analog game. Yep, that’s right! No videogames this time. The theme was “Grow Your Own”. I knew we didn’t have much time or materials but I wanted to make something different. A simple adventure game that physically grows as you play. I ended up with “Grow your own Adventure”: an interactive story where you follow a line, choose your path and your choices alter what comes next. I started folding to see what I could do with one sheet, and accidentally got to this. Twice! If you had asked me to teach this to you I couldn’t remember how to, but muscle memory brought it back. I kept folding and realized you can make very interesting “page turns” from just a single cut in the middle of the sheet. It allows you to hide surprises but, most importantly, make choices that change the layout. I started drawing a line and improvising. Taking notes, seeing how far I could go with it and how many “faces” I would be able to write on. In the end, I got to something I’m very proud of. It’s an interactive story system you can fit in your pocket. Your choices change it, so there’s some replayability. It comes from a single page, which makes it possible to distribute as PDFs. You can see the other projects here.Voluntary movements are one of the brain’s main “outputs,” yet science still knows very little about how networks of neurons plan, initiate and execute them. Now, researchers from Columbia University and the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal, say they have discovered an “activity map” that the brain uses to guide animals’ movements. The findings, published Wednesday in Neuron, could advance our understanding of how the brain learns new movements—and of what goes wrong in related disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Movements are controlled and coordinated by multiple brain structures including the primary motor cortex. Located at the back of the frontal lobe, it contains cells whose long fibers extend down through the spinal cord, where they contact “secondary” motor neurons that signal the body muscles. A set of deep brain structures called the basal ganglia are also critical for movement, as evidenced by their degeneration in conditions such as Parkinson’s. One component of the basal ganglia, called the striatum, receives information about possible actions from the motor cortex and is thought to be involved in selecting, preparing and executing the appropriate commands before they are sent to the body. Earlier research had shown that signals leave the striatum along one of two distinct pathways: one that facilitates movement, and another that suppresses it. A number of more recent studies show that both pathways are active during motion, however, suggesting that they do not act by simply sending “stop” and “go” signals. And although it has long been suspected that different groups of neurons in the striatum represent distinct actions, exactly how they might do so has remained unclear. To investigate further, neuroscientist Rui Costa of the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University and his colleagues created a strain of mice carrying a genetically encoded calcium sensor in neurons in the striatum. This sensor, a protein, emits fluorescent light in response to the increases in calcium ion concentrations that occur in cells when they become active. By combining this with a recently developed imaging technique called one-photon microendoscopy, the researchers were able to visualize the activity of up to 300 individual neurons in the striata of freely moving mice—using miniaturized microscopes attached to the animals' heads—and to capture the dynamics of the cells' firing patterns in time and space. “We found a 'local bias' in the cellular activity, [such that] neurons that are closer together are more likely to be active together,” says Costa, the senior author of the study. “In addition, we saw that many neurons are active specifically during one movement, while others are active during more than one movement, so there is some kind of map of actions.” The researchers could predict what movements the animals were making based on which neurons lit up, Costa adds. “Similar actions had similar patterns of neuronal activity, and dissimilar actions had less-similar patterns,” he explains. “So our predictions weren't as accurate when we looked at the patterns for similar movements.” The study authors noted that these activity patterns were independent of the animals’ speed of movement, as measured by accelerometers attached to their heads. This, Costa says, suggests that movement-related activity in the striatum is far more complex than we thought, and that the precise pattern of activity within the “stop” and “go” pathways is more important than overall levels of activity within each. “This is a great paper using complex methodology to help resolve a conceptually simple problem that has been a source of significant debate,” says John Reynolds, a professor of physiology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, who studies how the basal ganglia generate movement. “It takes us one step forward to resolving the conundrum of whether the two major classes of neurons in the striatum that independently either activate or inhibit movement exist in discrete functional clusters or coexist and work in concert during behavior.” Joshua Dudman, a neuroscientist at the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute who studies the neural circuits controlling movement, says the study is useful, but stresses its limitations. “We've known for several decades about such weakly clustered, functionally similar activity patterns in the striatum, so it's good to confirm that in freely moving animals,” Dudman says. “They [the researchers] seem to focus on evaluating a model that no one has proposed—that movement speed is encoded in the striatum independently of action identity.” But, he says, the researchers’ conclusions rest on “inferring what simultaneous measurements of [the entire'stop' and 'go' cell] populations might look like, rather than making the important step of actually performing them.”* Dudman adds that the study is nevertheless useful because it shows distinct populations of striatal neurons being active for a variety of behaviors. “In the past, such observations have primarily been made between a few, relatively similar actions, such as left/right turns,” he says, “so providing evidence across a range of behaviors is valuable. Other recent work has highlighted that the'stop' and 'go' populations act in concert to control actions, and so this study further emphasizes the critical importance of simultaneous measurements across diverse behaviors as a goal for future work.” Costa and his colleagues are now trying to decipher the logic of the activity patterns they observed in the striatum. Cells in the primary motor cortex—which sends movement commands to the muscles via the spinal cord—are organized such that cells controlling adjacent body parts and muscle groups are located next to each other, and Costa believes that this so-called “somatotopic” organization may contribute to the patterns in the striatum. “We think there's something very similar going on [in the striatum], and we already have some preliminary data on that,” Costa says. “But turning right and left had very different patterns, although both involve the head, so it's not somatotopy alone. It could have something to do with the muscles, or a combination of both.” “We'd also like to know what happens to these action maps in diseases like Parkinson's,” he adds. “We predict they'll be greatly altered.” *Editor's Note (9/12/17): The last sentence of this quote was removed after posting at the request of the speaker, who objected to the substance of how he was quoted.So...yeah. Right now there’s a lot of talk about a tumblr called WomenAgainstFeminism. It’s just pictures of some women holding up handwritten signs entitled “I don’t need feminism because...” Some of the reasons they give for not needing feminism almost seem like a parody (“How the fuck am I suppose to open jars and lift heavy things without my husband?”) and some (“I don’t need to grow out my body hair to prove I’m equal to men”) just make me wonder where in the world they got their definition of feminism. At first I considered starting my own “I Don’t Need _____ Because” tumblr with people holding equally baffling signs. Signs like: I don’t need books because YOU KNOW WHO WROTE BOOKS? HITLER. HITLER WROTE A BOOK. NO THANK YOU, NAZIS. I don’t need money BECAUSE I HAVE A CHECKBOOK, ASSHOLE. I don’t need air because LOTS OF IT IS FARTS. I’M NOT BREATHING FARTS. YOU BREATHE FARTS. But then I remembered that I’m too lazy to make a tumblr and that this whole thing was a bit ridiculous. Here’s the thing: Do you think men and women should have equal rights politically, socially and economically? Then you’re probably a feminist. There are a million tiny aspects of this to break off into and I get it. It’s complicated. There’s not just one type of feminist, just as there’s not just one type of Christian or Muslim, or man or woman. Hell, there’s not even just one type of shark. Some are non-threatening and friendly. Some get sucked up into tornadoes and viciously chew off people’s faces until that guy from 90210 stops the weather with bombs. (Spoiler alert.) The point is that sharks, much like feminists, are awesome, and beneficial, and the world would be a worse place without them. Plus, they’re incredibly entertaining and even if you sometimes think they’re dicks for eating cute seals you still yell “HOLYSHITLOOKATTHAT!” when Shark Week comes on. I think this is a bad analogy. Lemme try again. Feminists are like bees. They are adorable and fuzzy but people run away from them because they don’t understand that they just want to make things good. We’d be fucked without bees. Seriously. And yes, some bees are assholes and maybe one killed your great-uncle and there are some that you give the side-eye to when they start acting crazy but eventually you realize that you have to take the good bees with the bad bees and maybe just be picky about what honey you choose to eat. Eat the raw honey, by the way. It’s way healthier. That last part isn’t part of the analogy. It’s just good advice from my great-grandfather (beekeeper). Also, like bees, feminists secrete a non-edible wax and are easily distracted by smoke. I’ve lost my point. Wait, no. I’ve got it again. Feminism is inherently good. It’s not even close to perfect and still needs lots of work and sometimes it gets all fucked up and backward and awful but that doesn’t mean it
try with your existing codebase. Not only can you see the speed increases for yourself, but by logging any bugs you find you’ll be helping everyone get a stable PHP 7 on release day. PHP.net have released their official PHP 7 Migration Guide, while Symfony have announced 100% PHP 7 compatibility which is great news for users of the framework. Joe Fallon blogged well on Immutable Objects in PHP – immutable objects are a cornerstone of the PSR-7 standard, and it’s well worth understanding them. Sitepoint published a compelling article – Re-introducing PDO – the Right Way to Access Databases in PHP. Understanding PDO can be missed with modern framework and abstraction layers, so it’s well worth understanding these fundamentals. Laracasts has started a very interesting series on PHP 7 Up and Running which is definitely worth a watch – they are part of the free offering which is a nice bonus. A sober Phil Sturgeon posted on why you should Avoid Hardcoding HTTP Status Codes, he makes some valid points and introduces a few libraries that may prove useful. Save Memory by Switching to Generators by Evert Pot is a really nice introduction on how and why to use generators in your application, definitely worth a read if you don’t use generators, or don’t understand what they are and where their place is in your toolset. There’s also an interestingly styled PHP Object-Oriented Programming Beginner’s Guide on the StarTutorial site. It’s a useful primer for people looking to get a solid grounding in how and why OOP works in PHP. Frameworks and Tools A number of frameworks have had updated versions in the last month: In addition to this, Slim PHP version 3 released it’s RC1, which is a fantastic milestone in a very good micro-framework. The ever prolific Rob Allen has blogged on the Improved Error Handling in Slim 3 RC1. If you’re interested in learning more about Slim 3, then Rob has blogged several times this month, so I recommend checking out his blog at akrabat.com. While we are covering Slim 3, Andrew Smith has publish a post explaining Why is Slim 3 Not So Slim Anymore – which, contrary to it’s title explains why Slim is still slim, despite the perceived size increase; it’s worth a read. Anna Filina posted an interesting short post on Forcing Doctrine to Persist – it may be a problem that others have encountered. Paul M. Jones has written a very thought provoking piece on Frameworks Are Not Tools, while Bruno Skvorc wrote a really cool post on BDD in Laravel: Getting Started with Behat and PhpSpec. I recommend you check it out even if you don’t use Laravel but are interested in learning BDD as it has value to everyone, not only Laravel users. The Zend Framework Blog announced Expressive – a new micro framework based on some Zend Framework components, it aims to make PSR-7 middleware applications easy to develop. Personally, the big news here was the ZF team’s step away from the NIH philosophy; it bundles with Aura’s router, and includes interfaces for non-ZF components. It’s a refreshing approach. The Symfony blog lets you know How to Upgrade Twig to 2.0 using deprecation notices to help, and on a similar note, Barry vd. Heuvel posted an article Comparing Blade and Twig Templates in Laravel. Community (and more) It’s been a busy month for community (as usual), with Larry Garfield posting one of the most interesting posts of the month – Just How Insular is the PHP Community? Larry pulled all the speaker data he could from the talk review site joind.in and used it to challenge some preconceptions about the community. The great people at PHP Mentoring have launched an app that aims to make the job of mentors finding apprentices, and apprentices finding mentors much easier. I can highly recommend the process of either being a formal mentor, or having a formal mentor (I’ve done both), so if you’re looking for some help and guidance in your career, or are looking to help someone out, please check them out. Joe Ferguson has blogged a very interesting post on his observations On Community Silos at Laracon US. While completely anecdotal, the observations and conclusions are very interesting for many. Taking up the challenge from August, the podcasting community has deliberately tried to make my life difficult by inundating me with new episodes to post – Cal Evans of Voices of the ElePHPant has been particularly spiteful by releasing 5 episodes in the last month: I’m sure there are many many great podcasts I’m missing, if you want to see yours listed here – give me a tweet! Conference season is hotting up, with open calls for papers at: Again, if you have an open CFP and would like to see it listed, get in touch. I hope you had a productive month and look forward to doing it all again in October. Develop with pleasure! – JetBrains PhpStorm TeamMassive drop in mining exploration funding in Western Australia, survey finds Updated Mining companies in Western Australia have massively reduced their exploration budgets, a new survey has found. SNL Metals and Mining surveyed about 250 West Australian companies and found the amount of funds collectively allocated to exploration fell from more than $1 billion in 2013 to about $630 million last year. HSBC's chief economist Paul Bloxham said the reluctance to splash cash was driving exploration spending to its lowest level in years. "Exploration has been falling, it's down about 30 per cent year on year, up until about the third quarter of last year, which is the latest data we have," he said. "We actually get some more information next week for the fourth quarter, but there's a good chance, I suspect, it will have fallen further. "It's at its lowest level since 2006 and this all makes sense given commodity prices have fallen, given we've seen the peak of the mining investment boom, so it's a tough environment to be in, Mr Bloxham said." It is a slump explorers say is being driven by tumbling commodity prices and a market unwilling to invest in high risk mining stocks. Toughest market in a decade: miner Rox Resources managing director Ian Mulholland said it was the toughest market he had seen in about a decade. "Investors are quite happy to invest in the larger companies, the dividend paying companies, companies with cash flow - but investing in the small resources sector, people have gone right off that," he said. The tough market conditions forced his company to cut back its exploration spend last year by about $1 million. It ended the year with just $3 million left in the bank. He said the company had now decided to take the risk and spend most of its savings on a new drilling program. "We've just decided to go ahead and spend that money now, so we're starting another program this week, but that's 60 per cent of our money," Mr Mulholland said. "We're fairly confident we'll get good results that will justify further investment in the company but we're taking a risk too." Blackham Resources Limited is in a similar situation. Managing director Bryan Dixon said the company hit funding issues last year and was forced to shut down for a few months. "It's the junior sector that generally spend the money and right now a lot of the traditional funds aren't paying," he said. "There's some private equity money around but a lot of that is pretty cautious and still sitting on the sidelines." But his situation has since improved with the gold price making a slight comeback. "The Australian gold price has improved a little bit and there's a little bit more interest coming back in the sector," he said. Topics: mining-industry, wa, kalgoorlie-6430, esperance-6450, karratha-6714, geraldton-6530, broome-6725, boulder-6432 First postedAussie doco pioneers simultaneous Tugg USA and Aus tour A documentary about tiny houses is hoping to make a big splash in Australia as it tours the country. Directed by Jeremy Beasley, Small is Beautiful is an observational doco that follows four people at different stages of building tiny houses in Portland, Oregon. The film poses the question: is the tiny house movement a fad, or is it a viable solution to the issues of housing affordability and sustainability? Advertisement The film has already attracted an audience in Australia, with the premiere screening, held in Brunswick Melbourne on March 26, selling out within 24 hours. Due to the demand, additional screenings have been now announced. It also marks a world first simultaneous Tugg USA and Australian theatrical tour, which is set to kick off on April 1. Producer Chris Kamen tells IF the decision to distribute the documentary in this way came out of the belief nobody was more passionate than he and Beasley in helping the film find an audience. “We’ve got more passion than anyone else to take this story further,” he says. “As indie filmmakers, our unfair advantage over the larger players is the inclination and ability to forge an genuine and authentic relationship with our online audience. This results in far a greater level of audience engagement – so whilst the audience may be niche the conversion rate is high.” Tickets for screenings are at smallbeautifulmovie.com, with a VOD release scheduled for April 30 on the film’s website, iTunes, Google Play and Amazon. To host a screening at a theatre near you, visit http://tugg.com.au/small-is-beautiful/ View the trailer below: .TEL AVIV (JTA) – The Israeli government has adopted a major reform expected to ease the path to conversion for hundreds of thousands of Israelis now prohibited from marrying in the Jewish state. In the most significant response in decades to about 400,000 Israelis who are not considered Jewish by the Chief Rabbinate, the Cabinet expanded authority for conversion beyond a small group of approved haredi Orthodox courts. Since only Orthodox Jewish marriage is permitted in Israel, such Israelis — the majority of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union — must convert if they wished to be married in Israel. Under the new law, which was passed Sunday and became effective immediately, the conversion process is expected to get significantly easier. The measure, which allows any city rabbi in Israel to perform conversions, is expected to pave the way for the elimination of some provisions seen as overly stringent, such as the Chief Rabbinate’s requirement that converts send their children to Orthodox schools. Currently, only four rabbinic courts appointed by the haredi-dominated Rabbinate are authorized to perform conversions. “Every rabbi in every city will be able to set up his own tribunal according to Jewish law,” said Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who brought the bill to a Cabinet vote along with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni. “It also gives a choice. People will be able to choose the tribunal they want to go to, and warm, friendly tribunals will be used more than others.” Conversion policy has dogged Israel since the 1990s, when about 1 million immigrants from the former Soviet Union entered the country. The immigrants qualified for citizenship under the Law of Return, which requires immigrants to have just one Jewish grandparent. But hundreds of thousands did not meet the Chief Rabbinate’s stricter standard for Jewishness — either having a Jewish mother or undergoing an Orthodox conversion — and thus could not marry in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate’s stringencies led many to balk at the process entirely, in many cases choosing instead to marry abroad. Israel recognizes non-Orthodox conversions performed overseas. The Cabinet vote on Sunday is the latest attempt at a compromise to make the conversion process friendlier. In 1999, the government established the Joint Institute for Jewish Studies, a body intended to teach potential converts about Judaism from a range of non-Orthodox perspectives in preparation for an eventual Orthodox conversion, but the effort foundered. In 2010, the issue heated up again after Yisrael Beiteinu became the Knesset’s third-largest party. The party, focused on Russian immigrant interests, proposed a measure similar to the one that just passed, but a provision would have given full control over conversions to the Chief Rabbinate. That provoked the ire of non-Orthodox groups and the law was shelved. “This government resolution doesn’t give more power to the Chief Rabbinate,” said Seth Farber, the founder of Itim, an organization that aids Israelis with personal status issues. “The hope is that this bill will enable a much more understanding and friendly set of rabbinical courts to emerge without the Chief Rabbinate imposing their monolithic view on every conversion.” The reform chips away at longstanding haredi Orthodox dominance of conversion policy. Both of Israel’s chief rabbis, who are haredi, oppose the new law. Should the chief rabbis attempt to block the conversions, Farber has pledged to petition the Supreme Court. The passage of the law marks the end of a lengthy legislative process. Though it passed an initial Knesset vote last year, a ministerial committee vote required to move the measure along was postponed continuously until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu removed it from the legislative agenda entirely two weeks ago, reportedly to appease haredi parties. A group of ministers led by Bennett and Livni responded by pushing the law through the committee anyway, and a modified version passed in the Cabinet. While the reform doesn’t go as far as recognizing non-Orthodox conversions — a step many non-Orthodox and Diaspora groups would liked to have seen — those groups nevertheless heralded its arrival. Rabbi Gilad Kariv, CEO of the Israeli Reform movement, said he supports any reform that eases conversion as long as it doesn’t hurt non-Orthodox streams. “Now there are no more excuses for [Religious] Zionist rabbis,” he said. “Now is the time for them to deliver.”Safewords and Safesigns 101 Safewords and safesigns are verbal or non-verbal signals that are used to communicate with partners during any kind of sexy fun time that the activity needs stop, may be too intense or that a check-in is needed. Safewords are not just for submissives or bottoms; dominants and tops need safewords too. Play spaces can be loud, so putting a safesign in place gives you more options for communicating with the people you play with. Nonverbal signs are an imperative if someone in the scene is to be gagged or if someone in the scene is hearing impaired. (Aside: My spouse and I have a safesign for everyday life. It’s how I let them know that it’s time to leave unending family gatherings or that I don’t feel safe in a given situation. One long, firm hand squeeze means “I’m okay." Two quick hands squeezes mean "Time to go.” We use a similar signal for play.) Below is my favorite set up for safewords and safesigns. I’m a fan of the stoplight system. YMMV! Verbal Safewords Safeword 1: Red - All activity is to stop immediately. Safeword 2: Yellow - A check-in or adjustment is needed. Non-verbal Check-ins Non-verbal check-in: Two squeezes - Are you with me? Response 1: One squeeze - A more direct check-in is needed. Response 2: Two squeezes - Active consent to continue the scene. “Drop Out” If you or your partner do not have the dexterity or are not in a position to squeeze you can give the bottom something to hold. When the bottom drops the item, it is time for a direct check-in. Keys, stress balls and even bandanas can make good “drop out” items. Notes Negotiate safewords/signs in advance. Make sure the signals are something everyone will understand. (“Harder” is not a good safeword ;o) Make sure the signals are something everyone will understand. (“Harder” is not a good safeword ;o) Always honor the safeword/safesign agreement. Once the safeword/sign is used, consent is revoked; to continue is assault. Once the safeword/sign is used, consent is revoked; to continue is assault. Don’t joke about safewords. Don’t joke that you won’t honor them, don’t jokingly use them in a scene and don’t shame a bottom out of using them. Don’t joke that you won’t honor them, don’t jokingly use them in a scene and don’t shame a bottom out of using them. Check-in. Check-ins don’t have to break the mood; stay connected with your partner’s emotional and physical state. “Are you with me?” Check-ins don’t have to break the mood; stay connected with your partner’s emotional and physical state. “Are you with me?” Use your safewords/signs. Using your safeword does not make you less of a bottom; it makes you a trustworthy bottom with good judgment. If you are at a public event or play space “Safeword” can be used to signal that outside assistance is needed. It communicates to others that you have attempted to communicate a safeword/safesign to your partner and it is not being honored. It’s Safety Sunday: Be safe! Have fun! YMMV - Your Mileage May VaryWe are excited to introduce you to the brand new MyGoodToGo.com. Not only does the site have a brand new look, we also listened to customer feedback and made many tasks easier to complete online. Best of all, we’ve made the new site mobile friendly so customers can access their accounts with ease, wherever they are!For existing customers, the new site is much more intuitive about how to do common tasks like adding vehicles or updating payment information. You won’t have to do as much clicking around, guessing which menu contains the item you want to update. We’ve streamlined the website so you can get your tasks finished faster.Change can be confusing. When you move or get a new job, it takes a while to figure out where everything is. You may get a similar feeling from the new site because features have moved around. We did not do this to puzzle you, we did it to make things simpler!We changed things like making it easier to get to the most used features on the website. The new site also features more accessible statements, notifications, and transaction histories so customers can keep track of what they do on their accounts.account can save you money on your toll bills and now it’s easier than ever to sign up online.Setting up a new account on the old site could feel a little overwhelming; there were a lot of hoops to jump through and you didn’t immediately get access to your account online. We listened to feedback we got from customers and restructured the process so that it’s faster and easier.Why wait any longer? If you don’t have an account yet, now is a great time to set one up and start saving money.We redesigned the site with our customers in mind and we think you’ll really like it, but we also know that it may take a little getting used to. Here are some guides to help navigate the new MyGoodToGo.com.One of the most common complaints we got about the old website was about the frustrating error message that didn’t let you make a payment when your account balance was negative. We totally get why that was annoying but that feature was meant to notify customers of a confusing aspect of our system. When your account is negative, our system sends a Pay By Mail bill instead of linking it to your account, so you get a bill in the mail even if you reactivate your account by depositing money into it. Customer service can link those bills to your account.We are working on fixing this aspect of our system but in the meantime, we wanted to make it easier to handle it online. If you do get a surprise bill in the mail, or just want to double check that everything’s alright, just shoot us an email or a Tweet and we can fix any problems so you can get on with your day.We are so excited for you to check out the new site and we hope you like it. While many features of the site have been improved, updating the site is an ongoing process and there are still features that we plan to work on to improve customer service.The site can’t answer all your questions, so all of our customer service representatives will be ready and happy to assist with anything that comes up. We expect our phones will get pretty busy this week, so remember you can always send us a private message on Twitter and Facebook for some quick help.Daredevil Lucinda Grange perches on the eagle's head on the corner of New York's Chrysler Building in Manhattan, New York City. Alex Shaw / Barcroft USA Adventure photographer Lucinda Grange stands on the top of New York's Chrysler Building with the Empire State Building visible in the background in New York City. Lucinda Grange / Barcroft USA Adventure photographer Lucinda Grange sits atop the Carpe Diem building at night in the central business district of Paris, France. Lucinda Grange / Barcroft USA Adventure photographer Lucinda Grange poses atop the Forth Rail Bridge, after scaling the structure at night in Queensferry, Scotland. Lucinda Grange / Barcroft USA A picture of adventure photographer Lucinda Grange stood on the Transporter Bridge in Newport, Wales. Lucinda Grange / Barcroft USA Explorers (L - R) Mark Explo, Bradley Garrett and Luca Urban, descend beneath London to find the underground River Fleet in London, England. Lucinda Grange / Barcroft USA A photograph taken by adventure photographer Lucinda Grange from the top of the Herccilio Luz Bridge in Florianopolis, Brazil. Lucinda Grange / Barcroft USA A photograph taken by adventure photographer Lucinda Grange of her friend Max sat on the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Lucinda Grange / Barcroft USA Ad Up Next Close Former Dinkins aide named de Blasio's DEP commisioner Another old government hand from the David Dinkins administration is... 8 View Slideshow Back Continue Share this: Facebook Twitter Flipboard WhatsApp Email Copy Advertisement This may be the ultimate selfie. Daredevil shutterbug Lucinda Grange — perhaps inspired by the iconic 1934 image of New York photo pioneer Margaret Bourke-White — sat on one of the Chrysler Building’s stainless-steel eagles for a spine-tingling self- portrait 1,000 feet over Midtown. The British adventurer, 24, has also scaled the Pyramids of Giza and the Brooklyn Bridge. Grange has traveled around the world for the past six years, risking death and arrest to capture her breathtaking photos.A woman teacher from Britain caused a major security alert at a Moscow airport after a 'hand grenade' was spotted in her suitcase. The 46-year-old - named only as Julie - was held and quizzed by police and FSB secret service officers after the discovery as urgent checks were conducted. The item was later described by officials as a 'hoax grenade', which the woman - due to check in for a flight to London - said she had bought at a Moscow market. What appears to be a hand grenade was found in the woman's suitcase at Moscow airport A 46-year-old British woman was held and quizzed after the discovery of the grenade, which she said was bought in a market Security teams at Sheremetyevo Airport detained the woman for interrogation as bomb disposal officers were summoned. Part of the busy airport was sealed off. The lookalike weapon showed on a scanner during a compulsory luggage check at a terminal entrance. The London woman was searched and faced questioning by FSB security service officers before being released and allowed to fly home. The fake weapon was impounded by Russian airport security officers. A security officials examining another passenger's bag at the airport, part of which was sealed off after the discovery The grenade was found during a a compulsory luggage check at a terminal entrance The incident happened at Moscow's Sheremetyevo, part of which was sealed off after the incident It is believed to be not a toy but a lookalike grenade used by the Russian military for training exercises. Pictures showed the item after her bags were opened during a search at Sheremetyevo airport. The teacher said that she had bought 'grenade' at a street market in Moscow and intended too show it to her students during a history lesson at her London school. She was on a short pre-Christmas holiday to the Russian capital. The incident was on 21 December - the same day foreign secretary Boris Johnson flew to Moscow. However, details were only released today, Russia has a high level of security at airports ahead of a year that will see both presidential elections and the finals of the FIFA World Cup. The capital's airports have been previously attacked by terrorists.Beware of the monkeys! Hundreds of rare wild monkeys — some carrying herpes — are on the loose in Florida after a tour guide brought the spunky critters to the state long ago. Wildlife officials said that three pairs of Rhesus monkeys were transported to a park near Ocala in the 1930s by tour operator Colonel Tooey after a “Tarzan” flick sparked a fascination with the creature. But the breed has since boomed and more than 1,000 of the monkeys now live in the state, wildlife officials say. State officials have caught more than 700 of the monkeys in the past decade — most of which tested positive for the herpes-B virus. Wildlife officials now consider the monkeys a public health hazard. Current Silver River tour operator Captain Tom O’Lenick, 65, defended transporting the animals, claiming people love them. “Everybody who comes on the river for a tour wants to see the monkeys,” O’Lenick said. “From my point of view, as a naturalist, I think the planet changes naturally and species do move around, whether that is by man or other means,” he said. The monkeys were first marooned on a small island near the Silver River. But the creatures learned to swim. They have since been spotted hundreds of miles away, near Jacksonville, officials said. “Just like any other wild animal you need to give them space,” said British wildlife photographer Graham McGeorge, 42. The monkeys eat dirt and spiders and live near rivers. A family of wild Rhesus monkeys, part of the huge population sweeping across the state of Florida, relaxes in Silver Springs. Barcroft Media Three pairs of Rhesus monkeys were transported to a park in Florida in the 1930sw after a “Tarzan” flick sparked a fascination with the creature. Barcroft Media There are now estimated to be hundreds of Rhesus monkeys roaming the sunshine state. Barcroft Media A population was brought to America and marooned on a small island near the Silver River by tour operator Colonel Tooey - but he didn't know they could swim. Barcroft Media Wildlife officials now consider the monkeys a public health hazard. Barcroft Media “Just like any other wild animal you need to give them space,” said British wildlife photographer Graham McGeorge, 42. Barcroft Media A mother and baby wild Rhesus monkeys in a tree. Barcroft Media A mother and baby wild Rhesus monkey in a tree in Silver Springs, Florida. Barcroft Media Barcroft Media Ad Up Next Close Kids crushed in Queens SUV horror They never saw it coming. A girl walking to her... 9 View Slideshow Back Continue Share this: Facebook Twitter Flipboard WhatsApp Email Copy AdvertisementBooks x Imagination = Awesome. A silent diversion from my usually wordy strip, so I’ll make up for it here. First up, Comics Should Be Good’s Line is Drawn feature has hit yet again, so get along and check out my X-Babies meets the Muppet Babies pin up, and the many other great pieces, including a dynamic, crazy-good Captain Caveman/Captain America mash-up. Don’t forget to hit Twitter and suggest something for this week’s challenge. Comic characters in different times! 30AD Spider-Man, Shakespearean Batgirl (played by a man?) etc. Direct your suggestions to @csbg. Join the fun! Second, a reminder of Fan Expo this coming weekend, where I will be selling Max books, and scribbling in them, as well as selling original art and sketches. At booth A150, across from DC (and Tron! Yeah!) We’re listed as Postscript-Celadore in the official program. And lastly, Max is obviously reading a horror book, which more kids should do. I don’t mean go out and rent Hostel, Wolf Creek, etc. but “kid-friendly” is becoming increasingly “safe”, in my opinion, in this offend-nobody world of today. As a kid from the 80s, who doesn’t remember the room of heads screaming at Dorothy in Return to Oz? The Nothing in the Neverending Story? Or the Skeksies (and their crab minions) from the Dark Crystal! (I still jump when we first meet Fizgig, even!) I dunno. Scary is good. Not gore, but clever scary. Let’s bring it back. For the children.My intentions with this train of thought are for conversational exploratory purposes only. Although I personally conclude our historical use of resources would have been better allocated in other ways I wouldn’t expect anyone to euthanize their pet after reading this and I wouldn’t want them to. Personally, I believe that would be futile. Such significant precedent for collapse is already established that I have little confidence anything this far along could stop what we stand to face. I am certainly not proposing a “final solution” where pets are mass murdered or laws regulating anything. I simply wish to question that our actions have served us and future generations well, to entertain the thought that with what we know now we could have made more effective use of resources we invested in the relative short term rewards of pet ownership. What I love about movies like Back To The Future and The Butterfly Effect is the way they capture this innate curious fascination with time as a living document where historical changes influence downstream events. I love to apply this “what if” lens to things we accept at face value and people openly welcome this vein of conversation when we use it to dissect cultural staples like money, violence, and even religion. I do it frequently, I am seldom forgiving with my words or careful to avoid revealing my stance on any issue I take the time to address but I recently discovered that the same approach paired with my usual inflammatory language was received with much less tolerance when it came to pets. The typical cricket chirps of ambivalence (save the few I count on for regular debate) were replaced with emotionally charged conversation from a much larger and more diverse pool of people responding than usual when I told my Facebook friends: ‘All the energy and resources humans have wasted on domesticated animals would’ve been much better spent on other humans, clean renewable energy, or fighting human trafficking.’ In light of global hunger, looming energy crisis, and sexual exploitation of people unable to protect themselves I stand by this statement knowing full well that these domesticated pets were once species that either didn’t exist before human intervention or they exist now in a state dependent upon it. This doesn’t mean I hate animals, pets, or pet owners.I’ve had dogs in my life that meant a lot to me and I wouldn’t expect anyone with the resources at their disposal to forgo any such luxuries in life but let’s be sure not to mistake pet ownership as anything less than a luxury. Our planet is finite in resources. Access to and use of these resources is at best poorly distributed among earths inhabitants but this doesn’t impede the rapidly growing rate of consumption. This world might be hanging in the balance of dumb luck at Fukushima or ironically exterminated by the effects of a decimated honey bee population. When you see yourself and everything you know standing at the edge of existence it’s only natural to look back and wonder in which baskets our eggs fared best. In this imaginary game of editing history the ripple effect applies and the footprint of a thing will determine its impact over time. Abysmal failure to prioritize as a species is illustrated by ongoing conflict, prevalent rape culture, and our derelict stewardship of this planet as the most universally obvious indicator. I call this awareness being “Collapse Conscious” and find my self drawing from this perspective to dissect cultural staples. The collapse conscious mentality makes it difficult to justify applying scarce resources to most things that aren’t purely utilitarian, energy efficient and of critical importance. Some would argue that we’ve long been squandering resources borrowed from future generations. Regardless of how, why, or who’s responsible the world’s lack of regard for sustainability has jeopardized life on earth as whole. In 2013, $55.72 billion was spent on our pets in the U.S. Breakdown: Food $21.57 billion Supplies/OTC Medicine $13.14 billion Vet Care $14.37 billion Live animal purchases $2.23 billion Pet Services: grooming & boarding $4.41 billion To end world hunger $30 billion To feed the 600 million hungry kids $3.2 billion Sources: http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats http://borgenproject.org/the-cost-to-end-world-hunger/ American consumers spent over a billion dollars more on pet grooming and boarding in 2013 than is needed to feed all 66 million hungry school age children worldwide. People who are born into poor countries may not realize that American dog food is made suitable for human consumption because some poor Americans will survive on it through hard times but you may not realize that either and probably for much different reasons. When it is estimated by the UN that world hunger could be eradicated for $30 billion per year while consumers in the US spent almost double that on their pets in 2013 it has got to be a lot easier to depict your pet as a family member on the internet than it is to look a starving kid in the eye and tell them that your precious pet Fluffy likes her fancy feast on a people plate and that she deserves it. Starving kids from the forgotten corners of the world probably don’t worry much about how fancy feats is best served, the ASPCA, or PETA because they’re too weary from hunger, they never heard of such things, and they have bigger fish to fry like not getting stolen into sex slavery leaving the house for whatever meager sustenance they can scare up. Cognition and communication are among the qualities that make the human race unique. They give value to our experiences and allow us to pass down traditions for generations. The short term benefit of the pet that felt instrumental in your life is hard to compare with traditions of compassion that echo through several generations. Traditions shouldn’t simply be accepted because they are tradition though. Most things in life should be subject to periodic evaluation. What was once an indispensable hunting companion and family protector has become the anonymous demand for puppy mills and the pets that once helped us bring home dinner are now depending on us to feed them. Today you can’t really say that our failure to support ourselves as an entire species demonstrates a means to provide for that additional mouth at the global table.We examined the effects of varying concentrations of testosterone propionate (T) treatment within intact and gonadectomized male and female mice with regard to its capacity to alter striatal dopamine (DA) depletion in response to a neurotoxic regimen of methamphetamine (MA). Administration of T at 24 h prior to MA significantly increased striatal DA depletion in intact and gonadectomized male mice. Similar treatments administered to intact and gonadectomized female mice failed to alter striatal DA concentrations in response to MA. These results demonstrate that T can enhance MA-induced neurotoxicity in male, but not in female, mice. Such findings have important implications with regard to sex differences in nigrostriatal dopaminergic function, in general, and, in specific, to sex differences related to nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration like that in response to MA and in Parkinson’s disease, where a greater incidence is typically reported for males.Our minds and bodies collaborate to make us who we are. RIT’s new college of Health and Science provides exciting opportunities for us to explore the complex connections that must be kept in balance for us to be happy and healthy. During this camp we will look at how we measure life, what it means for our bodies to be in balance and how we can use this knowledge to grow and improve. Campers will utilize RIT's state-of-the-art labs and equipment to explore the many uses of DNA in the science laboratory. They will find out how genetically engineer bacteria glow in the dark, and how DNA is used to solve crimes. Using laboratory and computer investigations designed to engage both mind and body, campers will employ the techniques of biologists to learn about the natural world and have fun in the process. From DNA to ecosystems, this camp provides the perfect opportunity for young students interested in biology to do scientific inquiry using RIT's expansive natural environment and world class laboratories. Students entering grades 6 - 8 will use RIT's natural environment and high-tech laboratories to explore the biosciences in fun and interesting ways. During each week-long session, students will learn to look at the world the way biologists do using both traditional and modern experimental approaches. Please note registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Camp sessions are limited to 12 students each and will be closed with the limit is reached. Important Details Each one-week session runs Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 4 PM. The cost of the program is $300 per session. An extended day option (8:30am - 5:00pm) is available at additional cost. Partial scholarships are available to qualified applicants. Daily Schedule 9–10 Opening activities 10–12 Field investigation 12–1 Lunch 1–3 Lab/Computer time 3–4 Concluding activities Need-based Scholarship Application Parental Consent Forms Campus Map These unique summer programs will be held in the sophisticated, high-tech Excellus Center for Bioscience Exploration and Discovery.Contractors will probably receive incentive payments for finishing the "Carmageddon" demolition on the 405 Freeway ahead of schedule Sunday, transportation officials said. But officials said the cost savings to Metro and Caltrans from finishing ahead of the Monday morning deadline will far outweigh the incentive rewards to the lead contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. Had the freeway project not been finished by 5 a.m. Monday, the contractor faced potential penalty payments of $6,000 for every 10 minutes it was late. PHOTOS: 'Carmageddon' closes the 405 Freeway The weekend demolition of half of the Mulholland Drive bridge spanning the 405 cost an estimated $3 million, according to Mike Barbour, project director of the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Project. The overall project, which includes replacing the bridge, building a northbound carpool lane, ramp improvments and landscaping, costs about $1 billion. “We worked with the contractor to build in some incentives to get it done early,” Barbour said
may also just receive a warning letter. A rep for the actor had no comment. Ford has been involved in several piloting accidents in the past. The most serious was in 2015, when he crash-landed at a Santa Monica golf course after encountering engine trouble. Ford, who was flying a yellow vintage fighter plane, suffered a broken arm and lacerations to his scalp. Splash News Online “He had no other choice but to make an emergency landing, which he did safely,” a rep for Ford said in a statement at the time, adding that the actor’s injuries were “not life-threatening” An eyewitness on the scene of the 2015 crash told PEOPLE: “During takeoff, the engine blew. You could hear it go silent, and then he banked to the left, clipped the tree and fell on the number 8 tee.” Ford had another scare in the summer of 2000 when his six-passenger plane took a hard landing in Lincoln, Nebraska, but the actor was not hurt. Ford also crash-landed a helicopter in October 1999 while he was practicing emergency landings with a flight instructor.Americans will be able to register to vote when applying for insurance through Obamacare, a White House official told TPM Tuesday, despite reports to the contrary and outcry from congressional Republicans. Mother Jones reported earlier Tuesday on a report from progressive groups, which asserted that the Obama administration was planning to back down from its plan to offer voter registration on the federal marketplace, which will cover 36 states. The source of the claim is unclear, which the Mother Jones article acknowledged, but it sparked some panic among liberal activists. Not to worry, a senior administration official told TPM: Voter registration through the health insurance marketplaces will continue as planned. The official said any reports to the contrary were “inaccurate.”Insurance applications filed under the health care reform law are required by law to have a section for voter registration. The 1993 National Voter Registration Act mandates that any government agencies providing government services must also provide people with access to voter registration. The Obama administration had previously said that the marketplaces fell under the 1993 law’s statute and would therefore offer voter registration. That’s still the plan, according to the senior administration official. According to Mother Jones, the left-leaning policy group Demos and voter registration rights group Project Vote posted a report last month that the Obama administration would not offer voter registration services on the marketplaces. Instead, the insurance application would simply link consumers to a mail-in form. When contacted by the magazine, the groups seemed to back off the report, saying that they had considering pulling it. Congressional offices had been in touch about the matter, according to Mother Jones, though HHS had declined to comment to the magazine. HHS didn’t immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment. Congressional Republicans have been critical of voter registration on the marketplaces. House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany, Jr. (R-LA) wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in March, questioning the administration’s plan. Combining voter registration with the Obamacare marketplace, Boustany wrote, “could lead some to think voter registration is somehow tied to subsidy eligibility.”[Updated] The driver market this season seems both volatile and fluid, with many drivers in the balance and some big moves being made. The latest is the decision by McLaren, after much agonising, to drop Sergio Perez after just one season and replace him with Kevin Magnussen. The decision has not been announced by McLaren yet, but various news outlets have heard it in the last 24 hours from various sources and this site has had solid evidence that Perez has been dropped. It's a brutal reversal for Perez, who thought he'd hit the jackpot 12 months ago, moving to the team that had the fastest 2012 car. But it's been a nightmare season with uncompetitive machinery and McLaren has made little secret of its disappointment in the Mexican's performance. His best option appears to be Force India, which is already turning into the in-demand team, with two seats up for grabs and plenty of drivers looking for a life raft. This puts their two current drivers in a difficult position. Adrian Sutil is known to be talking to Sauber, while Nico Hulkenberg's management is in discussions with Force India. Sauber is another team, which still has Mexican connections with Carlos Slim's Telmex team, but this situation too seems fluid at the moment and it doesn't appear to be the direction Perez is looking in. There have been many conversations internally in the last two months at McLaren about the pros and cons of Perez and Magnussen but it looks like the "racers" have won this time and they've taken a bold step rather than a conservative one. Perez is a known quantity within the team, they've seen his numbers on the simulator and in the car over the season and they are able to assess his potential. Unlike Heikki Kovalainen, who struggled against Lewis Hamilton but was given a second season, McLaren are clearly keen to get on with it and look to the future and a return to full competitiveness. In Magnussen they feel they may have another Hamilton on their hands (and also in Stoffel Vandoorme) and the racers in the team want to blood him next year, in what is certain to be a transition year for McLaren, before they throw the kitchen sink at it with Honda in 2015. It makes sense to give Magnussen a chance to stake his claim and gain a season's experience before then. With Fernando Alonso a target for 2015, Magnussen will need to show real form and potential to rival Jenson Button for a seat with the team for 2015. Button provides and excellent benchmark for a young driver like Magnussen. Magnussen has had limited testing time in the car, but JA on F1 drew attention to his performance in the Young Driver test at Silverstone in July, where JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan had the following to say about the 21 year old Dane's run: "Perhaps the standout performance of the test was young Kevin Magnussen in the McLaren on Day 1. The 21 year old has had limited experience in F1, but put in a performance that he and the engineers will be delighted with. He was sent out with a lot of fuel in the car, but his runs (shown in blue below in Fig 1 below) show highly impressive consistency. If you compare the time delta between the high fuel runs, (shown on the left, the lap times are higher, reflecting the extra weight of the fuel in the car) with the lower fuel runs, on the right, you can see that the difference is what it should be – so he has been able to take the maximum from both the higher and the lower fuel load and has been able to string together laps very consistently in both conditions, with a nice downward trend on both long and short runs." (His performance is compared in the graph with Paul di Resta. “If I was on the technical team at McLaren I would be very impressed and very happy with this run,” adds Gillan. “It’s a very impressive run for a young man who has limited F1 experience.” The news comes ahead of the United States Grand Prix, where Perez is expected to have a huge amount of support from fans from his home country Mexico. Speaking in an interview in Spanish, Perez said: "There are many more people that probably haven't been good enough, especially this year. Mentally after what's been said I'm ok, I have a lot of support from my country and that's what helps me carry on. "Yes I'm disappointed [with this season]. When your objectives are much higher than your results, we have a reason to be disappointed both me and the team. "This is a great team, I have no doubt about it, but if I'm here next year there needs to be more organisation. Right now the car we have is to fight for points and the team has struggled to understand this. "If I don't drive for this team (McLaren) next year I have to study the best option and see what's best for my future."EspañolTech giant Microsoft has joined the list of companies that now accept the digital currency bitcoin as payment. The California-based company will now allow their app store customers to use bitcoin to add credit to their accounts. Beginning last week, bitcoin can be used to purchase apps, games, and other digital content in Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox Games, Xbox Music, and Xbox Video stores, according to the new payment policy released by the company. Subscribe to our daily newsletter Youtube “The use of digital currencies such as bitcoin, while not yet mainstream, is growing beyond the early enthusiasts,” said Microsoft Vice President Eric Lockard. “We expect this growth to continue and allowing people to use bitcoin to purchase our products and services now allows us to be at the front edge of that trend.” For the time being, bitcoin payments are only available in the United States. Microsoft did not indicate whether or not the option to pay with bitcoin will extend to other countries. The company did, however, specify that money will not be reimbursed in bitcoin in case of returns. To clarity how these transactions will work, Microsoft added a support page that details how the virtual currency can be used with their user accounts. For Franco Amati, co-founder of the Buenos Aires Bitcoin Embassy, Microsoft’s adoption of bitcoin demonstrates how the digital currency has “established itself as a means of payment, especially in countries with heavy financial regulations or poor banking systems.” “That a company the size of Microsoft has begun using [bitcoin] as a payment alternative provides greater security to those who, because of the technical complexity of bitcoin, are not sure how to use it or how it works,” he told the PanAm Post. Microsoft now joins other companies such as Ebay, PayPal, and Braintree, which adopted bitcoin as a means of payment earlier this year. Sources: BolsaManía, BBC.It never seems as though they're beyond hope, which is how horror should always be, but it definitely pushes the bizarre factor when it comes to how far things can go before it's too late.Although I won't get into detail, the story for this manga is everything I was hoping for in Ibitsu. The two are VERY similar, ridiculously so, but this one carries itself much better, whilst dropping the 'creepy loli' aesthetic and dumb grade school cast that I have come to hate as a trope in anime/manga. The characters in this are all in college (save for one high school girlfriend) and it's nice to see the characters do things that makes sense. I won't get into a ton of detail cause I'd likely find myself comparing to much to Ibitsu but, for instance, our characters end up visiting the police station like sane people, although they do visit it while intoxicated, so you can imagine how that turns out in a horror narrative.So, what else makes Zashiki Onna any good? Well, for one thing, it carries itself as a mystery manga before it's a horror manga. Most horror are exactly that, a mystery, It means there's something to learn, but most of all we're just finding ourselves more and more steps backwards. Is that bad? Not really, considering the genre is primarily horror over mystery, but a lot of the horror comes out of the fact that you CAN'T learn anything. Mystery is about progress, horror is about failure.Art:I love the realistic designs of the characters, settings, everything. It feels fresh to read something that doesn't try to look cutesy or cartoony. I enjoy when artwork pushes for emulating realism. If not realism, then emulating a respectable style that amplifies the artwork.As expected, I find myself comparing to Ibitsu again, one of the great things about this manga is the respect it has for it's characters. One thing I abhorred about Ibitsu is how it put female characters in compromising positions. In that, I mean the 'camera' for certain panels were placed behind a teenager a her skirt was lifted. It was pretty stupid considering the girl was pushed over by the horror of the narrative and then you get this random butt shot. I joked, saying how this does nothing for the reader since they're supposed to be scared and now they're treating with something childish and stupid.At one point, I was worried that Zashiki Onna was going down the same path. I was gonna be real bummed, but thankfully it fit comfortably in the story when something comprimising took place. Of course, as horror goes, it wasn't exactly a good thing that took place, but there was respect for the female body in regards to what happened, and I can't keep out the men either. There's plenty of respect for male proportions too.And, speaking of proportions, they're all pretty spot on. The bodies look great and motions feel fresh and realistic. I would love to see a full colored version of this manga. I'm sure it would look fantastic.Character:Probably the weakest category. I don't really know anything about anyone in the manga, but I do know enough to build a narrative in which I care about the characters. At least, in so far as to sympathise with the horror taking place. I mentioned before that I shuttered at one panel. I wouldn't have been scared if I didn't want to see the protagonist survive, so that should be evidence enough that it succeeds in so far as it needs to.Enjoyment:Thuroughly enjoyed this manga. Probably the best horror manga I've read today (3 so far!). I'm excited to read some more spooky stories but I'm totally fine if this one remains the best find for today.((If you liked this review, check out my other reviews by going to my profile and clicking the'reviews' tab. I review virtually all anime and manga I find!))Malaysia’s CIMB Group is expected to secure the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) approval to start banking operations here before the end of the year. Highly placed BSP sources identified CIMB as the listed Malaysian bank reportedly eyeing to establish presence in the Philippines. CIMB is Malaysia’s second largest bank in terms of assets. ADVERTISEMENT Last January, CIMB group chief executive Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz was quoted by Malaysian media as saying they wanted to start Philippine operations by the third quarter. The Malaysian banking giant was also reported to have already applied for an accreditation with the BSP, as the group wanted to be present in all 10 Asean member-countries. In 2016, CIMB secured a full banking license to operate in Vietnam. According to reports, the group, which has more than 1,000 branches, is said to be the biggest retail banking network in the region. Last month, BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier said that of the eight foreign banks that have expressed interest to do business here, two were from Asean, and one of them has already submitted the requirements. Fonacier had said the application of the Malaysian lender, which she declined to identify, was already being processed by the BSP. “It’s a done deal. They presented their business model. We already talked to them,” Fonacier had said. The Malaysian bank will put up a branch in the country, similar to the usual mode of entry of other foreign lenders, she had said. Last week, Fonacier also told reporters that global banking giant Credit Suisse already submitted documents to put up a representative office in the Philippines. ADVERTISEMENT In 2014, former President Aquino signed into law Republic Act No. 10641, which allowed the full entry of foreign banks. The BSP has so far accredited 10 Asian banks to fully operate in the country, namely: Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.; Singapore’s United Overseas Bank Ltd.; South Korea’s Shinhan Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, and Woori Bank; and Taiwan’s Cathay United Bank, Chang Hwa Bank, First Commercial Bank, Hua Nan Bank, and Yuanta Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READBlockchain technology may be used to defend interests of the state. So says Russian Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov. Speaking to the reporters of the TASS State News Agency, Nikiforov suggested some not bitcoin-related applications for open ledger platforms. “Blockchain as a new kind of technology is very interesting. It is useful for more than one purpose, not necessarily for cryptocurrency. We should look into it as to how it can be used in the interests of the state, for security matters,” noted Nikiforov. According to the minister, the blockchain technology can be of service to the national economy and relationship “between the state and the individual.” “There are plenty of ideas now how to use it,” said Nikiforov. The Russian minister voiced his opinion on blockchain a few days after the US Department of Homeland Security advertised a new version of the grant program for small business innovation research (SBIR). It is looking for partners to investigate applicability of blockchain to the tasks of national security. The maximum award is $750 000. Besides, the declaration of state interest to blockchain may be connected with another recent development. In the new draft version of the Russian administrative code penalties for use of “money surrogates” seem to make exception for bitcoin, which may ease the discussion on the cryptocurrency gaining momentum in crisis-hit Russia. Roman KorizkySince the release of the ground breaking Fermi architecture almost 5 years have gone by, it might be time to refresh the principle graphics architecture beneath it. Fermi was the first NVIDIA GPU implementing a fully scalable graphics engine and its core architecture can be found in Kepler as well as Maxwell. The following article and especially the “compressed pipeline knowledge” image below should serve as a primer based on the various public materials, such as whitepapers or GTC tutorials about the GPU architecture. This article focuses on the graphics viewpoint on how the GPU works, although some principles such as how shader program code gets executed is the same for compute. Pipeline Architecture Image GPUs are super parallel work distributors Why all this complexity? In graphics we have to deal with data amplification that creates lots of variable workloads. Each drawcall may generate a different amount of triangles. The amount of vertices after clipping is different from what our triangles were originally made of. After back-face and depth culling, not all triangles may need pixels on the screen. The screen size of a triangle can mean it requires millions of pixels or none at all. As a consequence modern GPUs let their primitives (triangles, lines, points) follow a logical pipeline, not a physical pipeline. In the old days before G80's unified architecture (think DX9 hardware, ps3, xbox360), the pipeline was represented on the chip with the different stages and work would run through it one after another. G80 essentially reused some units for both vertex and fragment shader computations, depending on the load, but it still had a serial process for the primitives/rasterization and so on. With Fermi the pipeline became fully parallel, which means the chip implements a logical pipeline (the steps a triangle goes through) by reusing multiple engines on the chip. Let's say we have two triangles A and B. Parts of their work could be in different logical pipeline steps. A has already been transformed and needs to be rasterized. Some of its pixels could be running pixel-shader instructions already, while others are being rejected by depth-buffer (Z-cull), others could be already being written to framebuffer, and some may actually wait. And next to all that, we could be fetching the vertices of triangle B. So while each triangle has to go through the logical steps, lots of them could be actively processed at different steps of their lifetime. The job (get drawcall's triangles on screen) is split into many smaller tasks and even subtasks that can run in parallel. Each task is scheduled to the resources that are available, which is not limited to tasks of a certain type (vertex-shading parallel to pixel-shading). Think of a river that fans out. Parallel pipeline streams, that are independent of each other, everyone on their own time line, some may branch more than others. If we would color-code the units of a GPU based on the triangle, or drawcall it's currently working on, it would be multi-color blinkenlights :) GPU architecture Since Fermi NVIDIA has a similar principle architecture. There is a Giga Thread Engine which manages all the work that's going on. The GPU is partitioned into multiple GPCs (Graphics Processing Cluster), each has multiple SMs (Streaming Multiprocessor) and one Raster Engine. There is lots of interconnects in this process, most notably a Crossbar that allows work migration across GPCs or other functional units like ROP (render output unit) subsystems. The work that a programmer thinks of (shader program execution) is done on the SMs. It contains many Cores which do the math operations for the threads. One thread could be a vertex-, or pixel-shader invocation for example. Those cores and other units are driven by Warp Schedulers, which manage a group of 32 threads as warp and hand over the instructions to be performed to Dispatch Units. The code logic is handled by the scheduler and not inside a core itself, which just sees something like "sum register 4234 with register 4235 and store in 4230" from the dispatcher. A core itself is rather dumb, compared to a CPU where a core is pretty smart. The GPU puts the smartness into higher levels, it conducts the work of an entire ensemble (or multiple if you will). How many of these units are actually on the GPU (how many SMs per GPC, how many GPCs..) depends on the chip configuration itself. As you can see above GM204 has 4 GPCs with each 4 SMs, but Tegra X1 for example has 1 GPC and 2 SMs, both with Maxwell design. The SM design itself (number of cores, instruction units, schedulers...) has also changed over time from generation to generation (see first image) and helped making the chips so efficient they can be scaled from high-end desktop to notebook to mobile. The logical pipeline For the sake of simplicity several details are omitted. We assume the drawcall references some index- and vertexbuffer that is already filled with data and lives in the DRAM of the GPU and uses only vertex- and pixelshader (GL: fragmentshader). The program makes a drawcall in the graphics api (DX or GL). This reaches the driver at some point which does a bit of validation to check if things are "legal" and inserts the command in a GPU-readable encoding inside a pushbuffer. A lot of bottlenecks can happen here on the CPU side of things, which is why it is important programmers use apis well, and techniques that leverage the power of today's GPUs. After a while or explicit "flush" calls, the driver has buffered up enough work in a pushbuffer and sends it to be processed by the GPU (with some involvement of the OS). The Host Interface of the GPU picks up the commands which are processed via the Front End. We start our work distribution in the Primitive Distributor by processing the indices in the indexbuffer and generating triangle work batches that we send out to multiple GPCs. Within a GPC, the Poly Morph Engine of one of the SMs takes care of fetching the vertex data from the triangle indices (Vertex Fetch). After the data has been fetched, warps of 32 threads are scheduled inside the SM and will be working on the vertices. The SM's warp scheduler issues the instructions for the entire warp in-order. The threads run each instruction in lock-step and can be masked out individually if they should not actively execute it. There can be multiple reasons for requiring such masking. For example when the current instruction is part of the "if (true)" branch and the thread specific data evaluated "false", or when a loop's termination criteria was reached in one thread but not another. Therefore having lots of branch divergence in a shader can increase the time spent for all threads in the warp significantly. Threads cannot advance individually, only as a warp! Warps, however, are independent of each other. The warp's instruction may be completed at once or may take several dispatch turns. For example the SM typically has less units for load/store than doing basic math operations. As some instructions take longer to complete than others, especially memory loads, the warp scheduler may simply switch to another warp that is not waiting for memory. This is the key concept how GPUs overcome latency of memory reads, they simply switch out groups of active threads. To make this switching very fast, all threads managed by the scheduler have their own registers in the register-file. The more registers a shader program needs, the less threads/warps have space. The less warps we can switch between, the less useful work we can do while waiting for instructions to complete (foremost memory fetches). Once the warp has completed all instructions of the vertex-shader, it's results are being processed by Viewport Transform. The triangle gets clipped by the clipspace volume and is ready for rasterization. We use L1 and L2 Caches for all this cross-task communication data. Now it gets exciting, our triangle is about to be chopped up and potentially leaving the GPC it currently lives on. The bounding box of the triangle is used to decide which raster engines need to work on it, as each engine covers multiple tiles of the screen. It sends out the triangle to one or multiple GPCs via the Work Distribution Crossbar. We effectively split our triangle into lots of smaller jobs now. Attribute Setup at the target SM will ensure that the interpolants (for example the outputs we generated in a vertex-shader) are in a pixel shader friendly format. The Raster Engine of a GPC works on the triangle it received and generates the pixel information for those sections that it is responsible for (also handles back-face culling and Z-cull). Again we batch up 32 pixel threads, or better say 8 times 2x2 pixel quads, which is the smallest unit we will always work with in pixel shaders. This 2x2 quad allows us to calculate derivatives for things like texture mip map filtering (big change in texture coordinates within quad causes higher mip). Those threads within the 2x2 quad whose sample locations are not actually covering the triangle, are masked out (gl_HelperInvocation). One of the local SM's warp scheduler will manage the pixel-shading task. The same warp scheduler instruction game, that we had in the vertex-shader logical stage, is now performed on the pixel-shader threads. The lock-step processing is particularly handy because we can access the values within a pixel quad almost for free, as all threads are guaranteed to have their data computed up to the same instruction point (NV_shader_thread_group). Are we there yet? Almost, our pixel-shader has completed the calculation of the colors to be written to the rendertargets and we also have a depth value. At this point we have to take the original api ordering of triangles into account before we hand that data over to one of the ROP (render output unit) subsystems, which in itself has multiple ROP units. Here depth-testing, blending with the framebuffer and so on is performed. These operations need to happen atomically (one color/depth set at a time) to ensure we don't have one triangle's color and another triangle's depth value when both cover the same pixel. NVIDIA typically applies memory compression, to reduce memory bandwidth requirements, which increases "effective" bandwidth (see GTX 980 pdf). Puh! we are done, we have written some pixel into a rendertarget. I hope this information was helpful to understand some of the work/data flow within a GPU. It may also help understand another side-effect of why synchronization with CPU is really hurtful. One has to wait until everything is finished and no new work is submitted (all units become idle), that means when sending new work, it takes a while until everything is fully under load again, especially on the big GPUs. In the image below you can see how we rendered a CAD model and colored it by the different SMs or warp ids that contributed to the image (NV_shader_thread_group). The result would not be frame-coherent, as the work distribution will vary frame to frame. The scene was rendered using many drawcalls, of which several may also be processed in parallel (using NSIGHT you can see some of that drawcall parallelism as well). Further readingDespite the preponderance of useful data and the potential for a non-savvy manager to render it useless, most MLB managers are former players. Contrast this with the NFL, NBA, and NHL, where fewer than half of all head coaches are former players. These sports, by and large, recognize that a managerial or head coaching role is too important to assign to someone whose only success came when playing. Why is MLB so different from its other major counterparts? There doesn’t seem to be a very clear answer. It may be a function of legacy—MLB is a much older league than its counterparts, and transitioning from the field to the dugout became ingrained in the league’s culture. (Yet the NHL and NFL formed at roughly the same time and clearly have very different hiring practices from one another.) And in all cases, the sports played in each league have dramatically evolved over time. No one would confuse a 19th-century baseball game for one played today, Conan O’Brien’s attempts notwithstanding. Or it may be because baseball has a distinct position—catcher—which is regarded as more cerebral than other positions and thus creates the perception of grooming players into managers. Whatever the reason, MLB has clearly been slower than its counterparts in moving away from using playing experience as a proxy for managing experience. Even today, the sport doesn’t seem to be learning its lesson. A recent article by FOX Sports’s C.J. Nitkowski (himself a former player) points out numerous managerial candidates with no previous experience being considered for 2016 hires. Yet the article highlights current managers with no experience either: Mike Matheny, Robin Ventura, Walt Weiss, Craig Counsell, and Brad Ausmus. If one wanted to make a case that managerial experience isn’t a prerequisite for success, this is an awfully strange list of examples to make that case. Of those five managers, all but Matheny oversee teams that have lost far more than they’ve won. Two of those five manage clubs in last place in their division; two more are next to last. Ausmus is likely to be fired at the end of the season. Even Matheny, the manager of the Cardinals, seems to win in spite of his inexperience even while his blunders are well-chronicled. Certainly, even a great tactical manager is limited by the talent he’s able to put on the field. Given the injuries, age-related decline, and general lack of talent on the rosters of many of these managers’ teams, you’d be hard-pressed to claim a different manager would’ve gotten appreciably different results. Data analysis and good use of data almost certainly can’t take a team from last place to first. But baseball is a sport played at the margins. Given that the Pirates and Cardinals are currently locked in a dogfight for their division title, that the Pirates manager is arguably more receptive to analytics than any other manager, and that Matheny is rather lesser regarded, managers may well make the difference in this instance. As shown previously, managerial maneuvers absolutely make a difference in the postseason, where a bad decision is magnified due to the small sample of games—there’s simply no time for the talent of a roster to normalize away from the impact of bad managing.Week 9 Rankings: Standard \| PPR As we pointed out in this week's Waiver Wire column, it's ugly in Week 9 at running back because of injuries and the key players on a bye. You should consider yourself lucky if you have two quality starters, even in a 12-team league. It was hard finding running backs to recommend as sit candidates this week because even the guys with bad matchups like Todd Gurley (vs. CAR), Isaiah Crowell (vs. DAL) and Latavius Murray (vs. DEN), among others, are worth starting because of their potential workloads. You might find yourself starting running backs like C.J. Prosise and Paul Perkins, who could see increased roles this week. And it's a benefit if you added someone like Charcandrick West, Tim Hightower or Antone Smith off the waiver wire because all three have the chance to be great in Week 9. We hope your team will not suffer because of poor running back play this week. But that's where we are in Week 9 with injuries and Arizona, Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington, New England and Houston on bye. Sometimes it's not just about having a running back with talent. It might just be about having a running back who steps on the field and can turn minimal touches into a productive day. Editor's Note: Projections are provided by CBS Sports and not Jamey Eisenberg. Start of the Week View Profile Dak Prescott DAL • QB • 4 Week 9 projected stats at CLE FPTS 21.7 With every good performance that Dak Prescott has it buys the Cowboys another week to let Tony Romo (back) get healthy. Or just stay on the bench. Romo's injury in the preseason has brought us Dak Mania, and Fantasy owners have benefited from the rookie sensation. That's not to discredit Romo. He might have had the same success or more through the first seven games for Dallas (6-1). But Prescott is the Cowboys starter now, and we hope he has one more outstanding game this week at Cleveland. He's scored at least 21 Fantasy points in a standard league in four of his past five games, and his worst outing over that span was 19 points in Week 5 against Cincinnati. He's coming off his best game of the year in Week 8 against Philadelphia with 30 Fantasy points, which coincided with Dez Bryant returning from a three-game absence with a knee injury. Bryant should help Prescott continue to dominate, and this is a tremendous matchup against the Browns. Prior to last week when Cleveland held Ryan Fitzpatrick to 16 Fantasy points, every opposing quarterback against the Browns scored at least 20 points. That should be Prescott's floor, and he's worth starting in all leagues, especially with guys like Tom Brady, Andy Dalton, Kirk Cousins and Carson Palmer on a bye. He should also be better than standout Fantasy quarterbacks like Matthew Stafford (at MIN) and Derek Carr (vs. DEN), who have difficult matchups. Now, there's a risk involved with Prescott if the Cowboys build a lead behind their running game with Ezekiel Elliott and don't need to throw. But we expect the Browns offense to show up this week, especially with Dallas down two defensive backs in Barry Church (arm) and Morris Claiborne (groin). This game could end up being a high-scoring affair, and the Cowboys offense should do their part behind Prescott. We don't know how many more games he'll start if Dallas gives the job back to Romo. But as long as Prescott is playing well he has the chance to start for Fantasy owners, especially this week against the Browns. I'm starting Prescott over: Russell Wilson (vs. BUF), Matthew Stafford (at MIN) and Derek Carr (vs. DEN) Quarterback Start 'Em View Profile Marcus Mariota TEN • QB • 8 Week 9 projected stats at SD FPTS 18.6 Mariota has become a solid Fantasy quarterback of late, and we expect him to play well for another week against the Chargers. He comes into this game with at least 20 Fantasy points in four games in a row, and he has 10 touchdown passes and just one interception over that span. Now, three of those games have come at home against some miserable defenses in Cleveland, Indianapolis and Jacksonville, but his best outing was at Miami in Week 5 with 36 Fantasy points. The Chargers have only allowed one quarterback in their past six games to score more than 16 Fantasy points in a standard league, which was Carr in Week 5, including matchups with Andrew Luck, Drew Brees and Matt Ryan over that span. But Alex Smith and Blake Bortles also scored at least 22 Fantasy points against San Diego this year, and they both had at least three points using their legs. Mariota's running ability should come into play this week, and he remains a No. 1 quarterback in Week 9. View Profile Philip Rivers LAC • QB • 17 Week 9 projected stats vs. TEN FPTS 22.2 Rivers has the chance for a standout performance this week against a Titans defense that has allowed at least 25 Fantasy points in a standard league in three weeks in a row to Cody Kessler, Luck and Bortles. Now, Bortles got his production in garbage time, but Tennessee has allowed eight touchdowns with no interceptions in the previous three games. Rivers is due for a big day after three games in a row with 16 Fantasy points or less, but two of those were on the road and two were against the Broncos. In two of three home games this year, Rivers has scored at least 22 Fantasy points, and he should score at least that many points this week, even if Travis Benjamin (knee) is out. Rivers could easily be a top five Fantasy quarterback in Week 9. View Profile Jameis Winston TB • QB • 3 Week 9 projected stats vs. ATL FPTS 20.9 There are several things working in Winston's favor this week. He's coming off two solid performances against San Francisco and Oakland with at least 22 Fantasy points in a standard league in each outing, and he has five touchdowns and one interception over that span. He also faced Atlanta in Week 1 and passed for 281 yards, four touchdowns and one interception for 33 Fantasy points. The Falcons have allowed the most Fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this year, with five guys scoring at least 30 points, including Aaron Rodgers last week with 41 points. Winston might not score 30-plus points again in the rematch, but he should score another 20 points for the third week in a row. He remains a must-start quarterback in all formats against the Falcons on Thursday night. View Profile Eli Manning NYG • QB • 10 Week 9 projected stats vs. PHI FPTS 16.0 Manning has a good track record coming off a bye week, and we expect him to play well against the Eagles. In his past five years after a bye week, Manning is averaging 21 Fantasy points in a standard league, including two years in a row with at least 25 points, which is the time he's worked with head coach Ben McAdoo. The Eagles have struggled of late against opposing quarterbacks with three guys scoring at least 20 Fantasy points in the past four outings, including Stafford, Cousins and Prescott. The lone quarterback who failed to hit that mark was Sam Bradford in Week 7. Manning also likes facing the Eagles at home. In his past four meetings against the Eagles in New York, he's averaging 25 Fantasy points, and we like the way all these trends are coming together this week. With all the quarterbacks on bye, Manning is worth starting
Mr. Benefield said he was aiming for 350,000. Tickets will be timed, so drop-ins may not be immediately accommodated. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Museums designed to burnish reputations rarely succeed, except in the minds of the organizers. Often sneered at as vanity projects, they typically steer so clear of anything controversial or unflattering that the public grows suspicious of the positive parts of the story. Mr. Benefield said he had a blunt conversation with Mrs. Miller and her son Walt before taking the job. “There has to be academic integrity and scholarship of the highest order, or I really don’t want to be involved,” he recalled telling Mrs. Miller. “I told her there are things that you might not want to hear about your father, but we don’t want to ignore them,” Mr. Benefield continued. “Putting out the whole story will be very meaningful. It will debunk some of these wild myths, like that he was frozen when he died. Totally untrue.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story (Disney, who died in 1966 at 65 from complications from lung cancer, was cremated; his burial site is in the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, Calif.) So the museum will include, for example, a video about Disney’s friendly testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 and will pay attention to the bitter animators’ strike against him in 1941. Starting the museum has been difficult. Disney did not decorate his home with animation art, so the vast majority of his work is owned by the company. Mrs. Miller had to buy what she could and is relying on lent material as well. The company is sending scores of items, including a rare multiplane camera that was developed to create a three-dimensional effect for “Snow White.” Further complicating matters, Disney owns its founder’s name and image. “We have to run most everything by the company to make sure it’s happy with it,” Mr. Benefield said. Disney executives declined to comment. They are probably puzzled by Mrs. Miller’s concerns, given the attention the company gives her father. Disney releases DVDs called “Walt Disney Treasures” that feature his television appearances and operates a museum-style attraction about his life at Walt Disney World. The company recently issued collectible figurines in his likeness and runs a fan club and magazine dedicated to him; part of its California Adventure Park is being rebuilt to reflect Disney’s early days in the state. The company has thrived by controlling its characters, whether Mickey Mouse or Walt Disney himself. But Mrs. Miller may set the bar when it comes to being protective. Mr. Benefield recalled that, upon his hiring, her son Walt said, “Anything my mother wants, she gets.”Train Smarter and Harder – Clinton Rodell, Cadet Men’s Epee Junior Olympic Champion 2012 Photo: David Ruskin Everyone knows that the harder you train, the better you become right? Well, in fencing it’s not always that simple. In sports like running and swimming, you keep getting better by pushing your limits in practice. No matter what level you are at, this principle remains constant. The amount you improve is a function of the amount of work you put in. In fencing, after the first few years, the two aren’t necessarily as correlated. The effort and grueling physical demands you put on yourself don’t mean as much if you don’t train right. What makes it even trickier is that frequently it’s not 100% clear as to what “right” really is for your fencing at a given time. You can do 5000 lunges every day, you can do hours of grueling footwork, but if you are not focusing on these improvements within the context of a larger, overall plan, you end up spinning your wheels, devoting hours of work but reaping less and less real improvement per hour spent training. I heard a coach say one time that, “It’s easy to make and athlete. It’s hard to make a fencer.” Take the lunging example for instance. After 5000 lunges, you will undoubtedly get stronger lunging muscles (after allowing yourself to recover of course). But you won’t have spent any of that time focusing on when to pull out that lunge and while the power and speed of that lunge is important, it’s not nearly as important as knowing exactly when to unleash it. You may have even been training yourself to resort to that lunge when you are tired. Ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing in practice. Ask yourself how practicing whatever it is the way that you are directly builds into your overall fencing game. Instead of pushing as hard as possible to do the same movements faster and with more repetitions, try to practice those movements smoother, or even differently. Try to get a feel for how you might actually implement those movements in a bout. Focus on smoothness or being able to respond in a specific tempo. Ask yourself if you really are ever going to be mindlessly running up and down the strip at full speed when you fence or if you would be better served focusing on ways to change speeds smoothly and manage the distance more efficiently. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the adage, “Work smarter, not harder.” Due to the insane number of mental and physical variables in fencing, this is especially true at the intermediate and advanced levels more than in other sports. Of course, you need hard work if you are going to get yourself to the next level. It’s just important that you have a plan for how exactly you are going to practice to drive the specific improvements you want. Work with your coach so that you have a clear set of objectives for each practice session and you will get much more out of it. Let’s put it this way: If you want to improve, you have to train both smarter and harder. If you liked the article, click here to like Jonathan’s Facebook Page, Jonathan Yergler (athlete), and here to follow his Twitter handle @yerglerj. AdvertisementsMatt Miller of Bleacher Report says that rookie wide receiver Jehu Chesson could be a name to watch, even in 2017. Even after the release of Jeremy Maclin, it’s hard to find anyone who is predicting or expecting much from Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Jehu Chesson this season. After all, the Michigan product was just selected in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft and sits behind numerous other young players who have been waiting their turn as well. But one prominent reporter says that shouldn’t be the case for those who aren’t giving Chesson a chance to make an instant impact. Despite the presence of Chris Conley, Tyreek Hill, DeMarcus Robinson and Albert Wilson, Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller recently pointed out Chesson as his No. 1 name to know as he points to under-the-radar players who could surprise with their 2017 performance. Miller writes: Jeremy Maclin is out, and the Chiefs are going young at wide receiver. Jehu Chesson is a strong possession receiver with the route-running skills Andy Reid’s offense utilizes well. Chesson won’t push Tyreek Hill, but don’t be surprised if he works his way among the top four wide receivers in Kansas City. Chesson was one of three targets for whom general manager John Dorsey traded up, so there was some determination on the front office’s part to get the wide receiver. Whether it was because he was the last remaining player within a certain graded tier on the draft board or whether Dorsey specifically wanted Chesson of all prospects around that time isn’t certain. But the fact that the Chiefs made a move could prove that he’s a bit more ready than fans might realize. Unfortunately for Chesson, most fans and NFL analysts look at his final season at the University of Michigan and see a statistical slip. Chesson went from 50 receptions to 35 and from 9 touchdowns to 2. He also dropped from 919 yards from scrimmage his junior year to 563 his senior year—not exactly the sort of pre-draft performance most players want to put on. However, Dorsey’s move makes it clear that he knows the story behind the stats and feels just fine about his new wideout. So does Miller. Here’s hoping both of them are right.Ben Shapiro is editor-in-chief of the Daily Wire and author of several books including "Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans." On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s campaign announced Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon as its new CEO — shocking no one in the conservative world. Conservatives joked openly for months about “Trumpbart” and the transformation of Breitbart.com into, essentially, Bannon.com, but it was still something of a surprise that Trump would so publicly embrace Bannon, a man who helped transform a mainstream conservative website into a cesspool of the alt-right. It also comes as a surprise — or at least it should — that the Republican National Committee appears ready to go along with the Bannon-Breitbart-Trump takeover over the party, even as the Trump campaign’s latest move means RNC Chairman Reince Priebus now sits, effectively, side by side with alt-right Trump fans. The takeover, now a virtual fait accompli, represents the dangerous seizure of the conservative movement by the alt-right. Constitutional conservatives can’t stand the alt-right. Conservatives — real conservatives — believe that only a philosophy of limited government, God-given rights and personal responsibility can save the country. And that creed is not bound to race or ethnicity. Broad swaths of the alt-right, by contrast, believe in a creed-free, race-based nationalism, insisting, among other things, that birth on American soil confers superiority. The alt-right sees limited-government constitutionalism as passé; it holds that only nationalist populism on the basis of shared tribal identity can save the country. It’s a movement shot through with racism and anti-Semitism. [Trump’s ‘extreme vetting’ is harsh, but probably legal] Trump himself has flirted with the alt-right for months, from taking his sweet time distancing himself from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to failing to condemn alt-right anti-Semitic attacks on journalists. The alt-right association came into focus after I left the site in early March — I worked there as an editor for four years — with the elevation of alt-right cult hero Milo Yiannopoulos to a position of prominence. I’d heard, of course, that the some of Breitbart’s comment sections had been occupied over previous months by a motley collection of white supremacists and anti-Semites (I generally never check the comments). I’d certainly felt their online wrath, accused by alt-righters of being an anti-Trump “cuck” — accusations that came with memes of gas chambers and “shekelmeister” cartoons that could have come directly from Der Stürmer. Such material flowed into my inbox and Twitter feed. That flow escalated dramatically after I declared that I would not support Trump, and it escalated again after I left Breitbart over its attempts to smear its own reporter, Michelle Fields, in order to shield then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski against charges that he’d yanked her by the arm at a campaign event. But it wasn’t until March 29 that Breitbart’s full embrace of the alt-right became clear. That’s the day the site featured Yiannopoulos’s lengthy piece glorifying the alt-right. Yiannopoulos had already given interviews in which he stated that “Jews run the banks” and “Jews run the media,” dismissing anti-Semitic memes as merely “mischievous, dissident, trolly.” He wrote, along with co-author Allum Bokhari, this insane sentence: “There are many things that separate the alternative right from old-school racist skinheads (to whom they are often idiotically compared), but one thing stands out above all else: intelligence.” And this is the cast of characters, and their enablers, to whom Trump has turned. Bannon is known, among other things, for his Sarah Palin documentary, “The Undefeated,” and his relationship with conservative patrons Rebekah and Robert Mercer. But he’s also the guy who ushered along the twisted turn at Breitbart. If Republicans aren’t careful, he’ll inflict similar damage on their party now that he’s the top man running their standard-bearer’s campaign. If they don’t know it yet, the alt-right surely does. As one of its own, Richard Spencer, explained: “Breitbart has elective affinities with the alt-right, and the alt-right has clearly influenced Breitbart. In this way, Breitbart has acted as a ‘gateway’ to alt-right ideas and writers.” There’s now a path for this same kind of thinking to infiltrate the GOP. [Trump loves conspiracy theories. So do his foes.] None of this was Andrew Breitbart’s vision. He despised what he declared the dishonest, unspoken cooperation between the Democratic Party and major media outlets. In his memoir, “Righteous Indignation,” he wrote: “The left wins because it controls the narrative. The narrative is controlled by the media. The left is the media. Narrative is everything. I call it the Democrat-Media Complex — and I am at war to gain back control of the American narrative.” Andrew knew Trump wasn’t a conservative, and he despised racism — he routinely bragged about helping to integrate his fraternity at Tulane University, and was personally heartbroken over the accusations of racism directed at him after the Shirley Sherrod story. But Breitbart News has become everything Andrew hated: a party organ, a pathetic cog in the Trump-Media Complex and a gathering place for white nationalists. What does this mean for Trump’s campaign? It means that like Breitbart, Trump will continue to tacitly embrace the alt-right, hoping, presumably, that adherents of its worldview will propel his campaign in the same way it has boosted Breitbart’s traffic by millions of monthly page views. Trump lives in a Breitbart fantasy world, and he’s now invited Bannon to personally decorate that world for him. The GOP establishment, too weak and cowardly to oust Trump earlier, risks displacing the true, constitutional conservatives for whom the party has been a natural political home, and now it looks prepared to ride the Trump train, next to alt-righters, all the way into the electoral ravine.“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde We have a natural tendency to blame ourselves when something goes wrong in our lives. This is because we have evolved to experience emotions like shame and regret, especially when we behave in a ways that violate the expectations of ourselves and others. For example, say as a child you get into a fight with one of your younger siblings. You both want to play a video game, but it’s single-player, so you are both arguing over when it’s your turn to get to play. Your sibling refuses to give up the game, so you get angry and you punch them really hard in the stomach. They get the wind knocked out of them, fall to the floor, and start crying. Most of the time, you’re going to feel a little bad and regret that decision. That’s because you acted in a way that disappointed yourself. You got caught in the heat of the moment, you acted impulsively, and that ended up hurting someone you really care about. We all experience shame and regret from time-to-time. And while these emotions can be uncomfortable, many psychologists believe they serve a useful function in our lives. These negative emotions can trigger us to reflect on our actions, learn from them, and use this knowledge the next time we are in a similar situation. In this way, our emotions are a kind of “signal” that guides us on how we should behave (or not behave) in the future. However, sometimes we cling to these emotions and we never learn from them or forgive ourselves. Instead, we carry these emotions around with us and we beat ourselves up over them constantly. I believe that no matter what we did in the past, we have the capacity to completely forgive ourselves. Here are the most important things we need to do to achieve self-forgiveness: Accept that everyone makes mistakes The first step to forgive yourself is to accept that everyone makes mistakes. No one is perfect, and even the smartest individuals will occasionally make errors in judgement. Therefore, experiencing shame and embarrassment doesn’t mean that you are inferior to anyone – it just means you are a human being. These emotions are not only natural, but an often necessary part of life, so being able to forgive yourself doesn’t mean that you never experience shame or guilt anymore. Instead, it means that you accept these emotions when they happen – but at the same time you don’t attach to them or center your whole life around them. They are only one part of a much bigger whole. Don’t underestimate situational factors We like to believe that we have complete free will over all of our choices, but psychology research shows us that situational factors can sometimes overpower our judgement. In the popular Milgram experiment, individuals were instructed to send a “lethal shock” to a participant in another room (who didn’t really exist). The study found that 65% of individuals gave in to this peer pressure, merely because they were told to do so by an authority figure in a lab coat, who insisted that the “experiment must go on.” Milgram used this study to help explain the “obedience of authority” that was rampant among Nazis during the Holocaust. It is surprising the things people do when they are ordered by someone who is a perceived authority, but this is an influence we are all susceptible to. Another study that illustrates the power of situational factors is the Stanford prison experiment. In this study, participants were randomly assigned to play the role of “prisoner” or “guard” in a fake prison setting. As it turned out, the situational factors were so strong that participants actually began to act as if they were really prisoners and guards. Many of the “guards” enforced authoritarian measures and subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture (even though, somewhere in their minds, they knew this wasn’t a real prison). These situations don’t necessarily excuse bad behavior, but they do help explain these behaviors and put them into context. In that way, we can at least understand why we may occasionally give in to these negative influences and do bad things when we don’t really want to. You are not in control of everything Sometimes bad things happen that we have little to no control over. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop us from blaming ourselves and beating ourselves up over these events. It could be that we are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or we engage in “magical thinking” that leads us to believe we caused an event that we really didn’t. People sometimes take too much responsibility for what happens to others. Like a child that blames themselves for their parent’s divorce, or when someone dies and we think we “should’ve been there” even though we had no way of knowing. Our minds are designed to build causal associations between ourselves and the events in our lives, but it is also highly prone to error. We think that our favorite sports team lost because we were at the game or watched it on TV, but if we really ask ourselves we know that these couldn’t have possibly influenced the outcome in a realistic way. The truth is we don’t control everything and we can’t possibly know everything. Understanding these personal limitations plays a big role in not putting unnecessary blame on ourselves for events which we have no influence over. Take something positive from every experience I firmly believe that you can take something positive away from every experience you’ve ever had. Even when you make a mistake or embarrass yourself, you can use that experience as a “learning tool” to help make you a smarter and better person in the future. As mentioned before, negative emotions can serve a valuable function in influencing our behavior. Shame and regret teach us not do certain behaviors that may hurt ourselves or others. Often we can not fully forgive ourselves until we’ve digested these emotions and learned what we need to from them. On the contrary, if we don’t learn from these emotions, we are more likely to repeat the negative and destructive behaviors from which they stem. Sometimes we need to make a mistake several times before we fully “learn our lesson” and can move on. Once we do learn the lesson behind our emotions, however, then it’s like a weight is being lifted off of our shoulder. We no longer need to cling to our shame and regret, but we feel glad that it happened and we feel like a better person at the end of the day. Make a habit of forgiving others We are all susceptible to the same flaws and imperfections. Therefore we should exercise forgiveness not only toward ourselves, but also our family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and even enemies. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that we have to continue a relationship with someone who has hurt us or disappointed us. Instead it means that we sympathize with that person’s wrong-doing, and we hope that they eventually correct themselves and find their way. When we practice forgiveness toward others, we make it into a habit, and it becomes easier to forgive ourselves when we discover our own self in a similar situation. Often times we are a lot more similar to other people than we think. And once we recognize our commonalities as human beings, we become kinder and gentler in our judgments toward everyone. Stay updated on new articles and resources in psychology and self improvement:It’s high time I talked about Cosmos here. It’s been a long time since the last update to this site, and Cosmos is the kind of experience that only comes along once in a generation. It has become a sort of nucleation center toward which my family and friends have gravitated, and it seems that this pattern is playing out on a much larger scale with the general television viewing audience of the US as well, a trend which I could not be happier about. I have a few particular thoughts about the show, as well as what other people are saying about it. I’ll begin by addressing a relatively innocuous criticism that was voiced by my father, who was not expecting the show to devote so much time towards discussing biology and its key concepts of genetics and evolution by natural selection, but rather expected a show predominantly occupied with physics and astronomy. It’s not a particularly surprising expectation, given that the title of the show itself calls to mind astronomy, that Neil Tyson is an astrophysicist, and that his predecessor Carl Sagan was an astronomer. However, Cosmos is not about any one branch of science in particular, but about science as a whole, the aim of which is nothing less than to understand everything about the universe in which we live. This includes not only stars and planets or quarks and atoms, but also the science of life, and the history that science has provided for us regarding how we as a species and as individuals came to be. Cosmos isn’t just about the static building blocks or megastructures of our universe, but about the dynamic processes of life that have arisen from those building blocks within it. As Carl Sagan and others have put it, we are the Universe trying to understand itself–beings of fantastic complexity that have arisen from the most basic of building blocks, and which are now looking at those same building blocks and trying to understand their own existence as well as the existence of everything else in the universe around them that has been formed using those same building blocks. Furthermore, the program’s emphasis on the different branches of science and how they interconnect, illustrated by a seemingly freewheeling tour led by Tyson, is its secret genius. In one stroke, it manages to bypass the potentially short attention spans of casual viewers by introducing a huge number of very different yet interconnected topics in a short span of time through its fantastic imagery, while at the same time illustrating the fundamental inseparability of any one topic in science from any other. There are critics out there who claim the show is too glossy and shallow; these critics want nothing less than for Neil Tyson and Cosmos to single-handedly turn back the tide of anti-science rolling over the US. Such a task is clearly impossible for a 13-part series on broadcast television, or any endeavor short of generations worth of top-notch education for every citizen. But these critics are missing the very thing that sets Cosmos apart from other science programming of recent memory–rather than presenting a rigorous college-level course on the scientific method, physics, chemistry, biology, and astronomy to a wide audience of television viewers, it is showing them particular examples of what we’ve come to understand about the world through science, the significance of each, and how every single one of them is connected to every other. If one accepts the validity of the scientific method as a way of understanding the natural world, then they must accept every piece of evidence, finding, and conclusion it has to offer–no matter the topic. If one accepts artificial selection, then one cannot logically deny natural selection. Nor can they logically deny the mechanism of DNA, or the chemistry which governs the processes of life, or the physics that allows those processes to occur. There is no cherry-picking in science, at least not in good science. No matter the specific subject of study, there is only one brand of science, and it is all-inclusive. That’s one of the best, most important, and most powerful things about science: SCIENCE IS A PACKAGE DEAL. You either accept it all, or leave it alone. The former choice will give you the most accurate understanding of the world in which we live that is available to us today. The latter will isolate you in your own pocket universe, away from the rest of human civilization and all of the wonders of the natural world. But this pocket universe will still be governed by the same rules as the one in which the rest of humanity lives. And that’s one of the other most powerful things about science, and indeed its single most important aspect: THE FINDINGS PROVIDED BY SCIENCE ACCURATELY DESCRIBE THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN, WHETHER OR NOT YOU ACCEPT THEM. You may notice that I sidestepped the words ‘true’ and ‘believe’ in that assertion. The reason is that truth is the domain of philosophy, and not that of science; science is concerned only with evidence–things that are objectively accurate descriptions of reality, no matter your own personal view on the subject, things that are testable and do not vary with the person interpreting them. Similarly, belief has nothing to do with science. Belief is reserved for notions like truth, things that cannot be empirically tested and for which you either take someone’s word for, or make up your own mind about. Belief is internal. Science doesn’t deal with internals, it deals with externals: things that are out there for all the world to see. Things that can be tested, measured, quantified, and reproduced. These things are evidence which can be used to infer facts about the natural world. These facts will exist and remain accurate whether or not you believe in them. SCIENCE IS NOT A BELIEF. However, your beliefs may cloud your ability to recognize and accept the facts. Belief, or dogma, inhibits the progress of science, which is a method of understanding fundamentally opposed to dogmatism. Science isn’t about accepting what you’re told at face value, it’s about questioning everything. As a result, there is no sole arbiter of science, no one person who decides what is fact and what is not, not even the esteemed Neil deGrasse Tyson himself. It is unnecessary, because evidence is by definition self-evident–he’s just the messenger, as are all scientists. And good scientists are always willing to change their worldview if presented with appropriate evidence; dogmatists rarely are. This is ultimately what makes science so effective and powerful a tool. To be sure, science is incomplete. There are many unknowns in science, a great deal of things we still don’t know about the universe. In Cosmos, Tyson frequently points out when something is not known to present-day science. This is not to say science is inaccurate or can never be trusted; this is a reflection instead of the fact that there are limits to how much we can know–a limit to what we can discern or infer from the evidence. This can best be understood by recognizing that science can only ever disprove things, and can never truly, directly prove them. One can disprove an idea, or indirectly support its validity by disproving its opposite, if such an opposite exists and can be tested. This is the necessary prerequisite for disproving something: that it be testable. This may sound like a shortcoming, but it is in fact science’s greatest strength. Using only the ability to disprove things, we’ve developed all the technology and artificial wonders you see around you today, from the computer or smartphone you’re reading this on to the car, bus, or train you might have taken to work. We’ve developed scientific theories like evolution by natural selection, quantum mechanics, and general relativity, which have been stunningly successful in explaining the world around us. The basis of this success is not that they have been proven, but that they have never been disproven, not by any experiment or observation, not even once in a century of scientific inquiry and investigation. Theories like quantum mechanics and relativity have successfully explained many observations and predicted the outcome of many experiments, and natural selection has similarly been extremely successful in explaining the history of life on Earth. But still, none of this is definitive, incontrivertible proof, because some future observation or experiment may at any point provide evidence which contradicts any of these theories, and once that happens, they either need to be modified to account for the discrepancy or discarded entirely. It takes only one finding–one which must be able to be replicated–to disprove something. And that is what science does: it seeks to disprove. When it can, such ideas are thrown out. When it cannot, those ideas must be taken seriously and considered to be accurate descriptions of reality. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stated through the voice of Sherlock Holmes: ‘WHEN YOU HAVE ELIMINATED THE IMPOSSIBLE, WHATEVER REMAINS, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, MUST BE THE TRUTH.’ Although, he really should have said “fact” instead of ‘the truth’. But this is the very essence of a successful theory: an idea which could be disproven if certain assumptions are incorrect, but has not been, and thereby supports the accuracy of the assumptions or ideas underlying it. This is very different from an idea which cannot be disproven–these ideas are in the domain of belief, not fact, and are fundamentally unscientific. If science can never disprove it, no matter what, it is not within the realm of science to explain, address, or even consider. There are many who do not understand the subtleties of this concept, and who perceive the advance of collective human knowledge through science as an assault on religion, or that science somehow disproves God. It does no such thing. I say this as both a scientist and an athiest–not one who is violently opposed to religion, but one who is merely happy to live without it. There are some questions, such as the nature of God, which will forever be beyond the reach of science, because they are not testable and hence can never be disproven, or supported by disproving their opposite. As long as these ideas or questions remain untestable, they will forever be beyond the reach of science, and those who value religion and what it teaches them need not be afraid of what science has to offer. Their religion will be able to give them answers which science will never be able to. Furthermore, practitioners of science generally have no real desire to take these things away from the religious or the spiritual–those who truly understand what science is recognize its boundaries, and restrict their inquiries to its proper domain. Only dogmatists will ever claim to know everything–whether that dogma is propagated through religion, or by misguided interpretation of science. SCIENTISTS, AT LEAST GOOD ONES, WILL NEVER CLAIM TO KNOW EVERYTHING; ONLY DOGMATISTS WILL. Rather, it is religion that often steps into the realm of science, a historical accident, a holdover from the times when we didn’t have science and had nowhere else to turn but to religion for physical understanding as well as spiritual understanding. The result is dogma. It is with dogma that science has a beef, not religion at large. When someone makes the claim that all of creation is 6000 years old, that’s a testable claim which science can investigate, and science has disproven it by not one but many different lines of evidence, from the present concentrations of radioactively decaying elements and their products, to radiocarbon dating of fossils, to geological strata of the earth, to how long it would take Earth to cool from the heat of its formation, to the fact that we can see not just 6000 light years out into space, but out to over 13 billion. When religion is conflated with dogma, it sets up a false conflict between science and religion. Only when science and dogma ram horns is science considered controversial or subversive, whether that dogma be religious, political, or otherwise. Science and religion can coexist, because they are intended to answer fundamentally different types of questions. Further understanding of the physical universe takes nothing away from God or what religion can teach us about ourselves. Science will never be able to answer every question that beings like us can ask. The knowledge it can provide us with is quantifiable. Finite. God is the infinite, and if He or Anyone Else is there, They will forever know more than we do, and science will never crowd Them out; we will forever be in Their shadow. Not only is there no inherent conflict between science and religion, as the ultra-religious at one end of the spectrum or the extreme atheists at the other may claim, but science can also add to the beauty of the natural world, and need not detract from it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The more that beholder understands about what they are seeing, the more beauty it is possible to derive from it. One can look at a sunset and appreciate the aesthetic appeal of a pretty arrangement of colors. Or, they can also contemplate the complex interplay of the universal building blocks that allow us to perceive it: the nuclear fusion inside the sun that generates the light, which travels millions of miles through vast space to refract in Earth’s atmosphere and ultimately interact with our retinas, from which our brains, the most complex structures in the known universe, reconstruct that beautiful image. Science need not detract from or reduce beauty. It can augment it, just as it augments our understanding of the Universe and our place in it. Cosmos operates according to this philosophy. If one is willing to accept the simple but profound premise that the world operates in an ordered fashion, and that the rules governing this order can be discerned through observation and logical reasoning, then Cosmos is ready to take you on a guided tour of everything we currently know about the world in which we live, and about ourselves: in other words, everything science has to offer from millennia of observation, experimentation, and reasoning. There are wonders out there in the real world beyond anything the human imagination can muster. If you’re willing to entertain this notion and embark on this journey, always remember that science and religion need not conflict, but rather can complement each other. In an infinite universe, there is always room for an infinite supreme being in addition to our finite selves, should you feel the need to invoke one. Cosmos, and science itself, are about everything. But even that still leaves plenty of room for religion and spiritualism. When someone claims that science and religion are mutually exclusive, or attempts to undermine any conclusion of science, whether it be evolution or the age of the Universe, examine their reasoning. If they have none, then examine the dogma they’re trying to sell, and why they’re selling it–dogma is the last resort of those who have no reasoning, but it is no substitute. And above all else: QUESTION EVERYTHING. AdvertisementsCaltrans Endorses the NACTO Urban Street Design Guide It wasn’t a total surprise, but exciting nevertheless for bicycle advocates gathered at the NACTO “Cities for Cycling” Road Show in Oakland last night. Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty announced that the agency will endorse the use of the National Association of City Transportation Officials Urban Street Design Guide, giving California cities the state DOT’s blessing to install modern infrastructure like protected bike lanes. Received with enthusiastic applause from the crowd of bike advocates, city officials, and planners, Dougherty said: We’re trying to change the mentality of the department of transportation, of our engineers, and of those that are doing work in and around the state highway system. Many cities around California are trying to be forward thinking in terms of alternative modes, such as bike and pedestrian, as well as the safety of the entire system, and the very least we can do as the department of transportation for the state is to follow that lead, to get out of the way, and to figure out how to carry that into regional travel. NACTO’s Urban Street Design Guide, launched last September, is the product of collaboration between the transportation departments of its member cities around the U.S. The guide provides the latest American standards for designing safer city streets for all users, incorporating experience from cities that have developed innovative solutions into a blueprint for others to use. It supplements, but doesn’t replace, other manuals such as the Caltrans Highway Design Manual and California’s Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. As the state’s transportation department, Caltrans has control over the design of state-owned highways, but the design of local streets and roads is left to local jurisdictions — with one exception. Bicycle infrastructure throughout the state has been dictated by the car-focused agency because local engineers rely on Caltrans-approved designs to protect local municipalities from lawsuits. As a result, city planners were often hesitant, or flat out refused, to build innovative treatments like protected bike lanes that don’t appear in Caltrans Highway Design Manual. “It’s a permission slip for cities, for engineers and planners, to do the good, well-vetted, proven work that we know we can do to make our street safer,” said Ed Reiskin, president of NACTO and director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “It’s only a first step — ultimately, we’d like to see the changes in the Highway Design Manual to see it actually integrated into Caltrans documents. But this is a huge step forward, and great leadership from Malcolm, Secretary [Brian] Kelly, and Governor [Jerry] Brown,” who commissioned a report that recommended Caltrans adopt the NACTO guide. The guide includes design standards for infrastructure including bike boxes, physically protected bike lanes, contra-flow bus lanes, and even parklets. Although these improvements have been implemented in cities in California and the world, they have been considered “experimental” until now. The NACTO guide has only been endorsed by two other states, Washington and Massachusetts. “Endors
.6Mbps), Ann Arbor, Mich. (13.2Mbps) and Ithaca, N.Y. (13.3Mbps). The fastest non-U.S. cities in the world were Masan, South Korea (15Mbps) and Oxford, England (14.5Mbps). From a global standpoint, however, the United States' overall average connection speed of 3.8Mbps places it 22nd behind several Asian and European countries. South Korea still has the fastest average broadband connection speed in the world at 11.7Mbps, easily beating out second-place Hong Kong (8.6Mbps) and third-place Japan (7.6Mbps). Additionally, the United States has seen its average connection speed actually drop over the past year, as its 3.8Mbps average is 2.5% lower than the 3.9Mbps average registered at the start of 2009. Akamai collects data for its connectivity speed reports through its globally deployed server network that it uses for content delivery. The company has been issuing its quarterly state of the Web reports since June of 2008. Read more about lans and wans in Network World's LANs & WANs section. This story, "And the state with the fastest broadband is... Delaware" was originally published by Network World.Posted Thursday, January 31, 2013 12:00 am If one were to measure the life’s work and achievement of any human being, I am certain that the spiritual legacy and literary accomplishments left by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan would certainly rank high among those who sought to interpret and share their spiritual commitment to our Jewish faith with a world in need of its message. Much has been written in appreciation of Rabbi Kaplan’s work but, in his own words to be presented below, not much has been shared until now. He was a man with a sacred mission, a person fully cognizant of what was lacking and what had to be repaired. With his gift for eloquence and spiritual genius, he was able to translate and give commentary to the Chumash in only nine months with no revisions, where others of other denominations took seven years and countless revisions to achieve the near but not quite same result. He was a trained and skilled scientist, an artist, a linguist, a great fan of the English language, a tongue that he viewed as having been gifted with divine blessing. And most important of all, he possessed a gift to envision that which is troubling our people spiritually and was able to articulate the solution with a theology in a simple and direct manner for all to understand. “The Living Torah” and “The Handbook of Jewish Thought” were to be the signature works of Rabbi Kaplan’s literary legacy that demonstrated his intellectual genius in his ability to translate scripture, and to interpret our faith’s holy message in clear and literate tone and style. His goals were never publicized. This essay is intended to share some of them with you. Entitled, “A Proposal For A Series On Basic Jewish Concepts,” Rabbi Kaplan, in late 1973, articulated the needs, troubles and solutions that inhibited our spiritual well being. “The ignorance of the average Jew today is almost legendary, especially with regard to the most basic Jewish concepts. Even those with more than a rudimentary religious education often have trouble looking at the various concepts of which they are aware as part of an integrated whole. Although the basic philosophies of Judaism were developed over 3500 years by some of the keenest minds in the world, the richness of this tradition is inaccessible to most contemporary Jews both because they are contained in works written in Hebrew and Aramaic, languages foreign to most American Jews. Even in the original, many of these works assume a basic background in the fundamentals in Judaism that has almost been lost today.” Further on, Rabbi Kaplan continues to describe what we are facing, a situation no different today than in 1973.“The fact that so little material is available explaining Judaism in depth has resulted in a general opinion among many that this depth is totally lacking. Our youth who are looking for a deep and meaningful philosophy of life thus often seek it in many areas outside the Jewish fold. We need only to witness the many who are attracted to Christianity and the Eastern religions. We earnestly feel that a meaningful presentation of Judaism in all its depth will contribute much to counter this tide.” Rabbi Kaplan proposed a 20 part series of essays, in booklet form, each detailing a different aspect of our faith’s legacy. This series never went beyond five of the projected parts of this series. These five were published by the Intercollegiate Council of the Young Israel movement and distributed nationwide. Today, they can be found in “The Aryeh Kaplan Reader,” published by Artscroll. The five are Belief in G-d, Free Will and the Purpose of Creation, The Jew, Love and Commandments, and The Structure of Jewish Law. Among the other 15 never published by Young Israel, were Rabbi Kaplan’s take on religious legislation, morality and sin, repentance, inspiration and prophecy, reward and punishment, prayer, immortality and the soul, the messiah, the resurrection, and the world to come. Given what we know of Rabbi Kaplan’s verbal take on these topics, their absence in print was a big loss to our people. A sample can be seen in “Love and Commandments.” With the reading of the Ten Commandments this coming Shabbat, it would be most opportune to read some of Rabbi Kaplan’s teachings on them. Consider the following: “The main significance of the commandments is the fact that they were given by G-d Himself. They are, therefore, the only means through which we can approach G-d and fulfill His purpose in creation.” “Furthermore, it is the commandments that make Judaism more than a mere religious philosophy. Because of them, Judaism is a way of life involving action and observance, and not a mere confession of faith.” Further on, Rabbi Kaplan notes the following:“Ultimately, we, therefore, keep the commandments precisely because they are commandments – laws decreed by G-d. It is forbidden to think of them as anything else. Thus, one may not keep any commandment as a superstitious luck charm. Our sages furthermore teach us, ‘The commandments were not given for our material pleasure.’” The following should serve us as the everlasting legacy of Rabbi Kaplan:“It is only such a constant transmission of tradition that can guarantee the continuity of our faith, and, therefore, this is a most important reason for the commandments. They act as a survival mechanism for Judaism, enabling it to retain its strength, even through the harshest persecutions. Indeed, this may be the strongest of all proofs of the divine nature of the commandments, if any such proof is needed.” “As long as the Jews kept the commandments, they remained strong for over a hundred generations. A single generation’s lapse, on the other hand, has led to both the spiritual and physical decay of the Jewish people.” This is a timely teaching for Parshat Yitro and an everlasting testimony to the legacy of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan of blessed memory, the greatest person that I ever knew. To help perpetuate Rabbi Kaplan’s legacy I urge you, to obtain copies of “The Living Torah,” “The Handbook of Jewish Thought,” “The Aryeh Kaplan Reader,” and as an apt engagement gift of great value, “Made in Heaven.” These volumes should be on everybody’s bookshelf as well as in every shul and school library.How much water will flow off a 1 hectare construction site in a big storm? The answer can be found with: Q = CiA Q = Flowrate C = Coefficient of Runoff i = intensity of the storm A = Area of the Catchment that the rainfall will runoff of. This formula is usually called “The Rational Method.” Determining the Coefficient of Runoff is the trickiest part of the rational method exercise. As you can imagine a hard surface that does not allow any rainfall to soak in will have a very high runoff coefficient, maybe 0.9 or 0.95 in a high intensity storm. Sandy soil that allows a lot of water to soak in, would have a very low runoff coefficient, maybe 0.2 if on a very flat surface. Forests also have a low runoff coefficient because a lot of the water is caught in the branches and leaves of the trees and never hits the ground and a lot is soaked up by the leaf litter, grass and other material on the forest floor. I’ve listed a few runoff coefficients below from Hydrologic Analysis and Design by Richard McCuen (1989, Prentice-Hall Publishers). For our first example we will just assume that we had a storm of 30mm in 2 hours. A relatively common event in Sydney. We can assume C = 0.55 as the worst case from the reporting of Runoff Coefficients from the CALM manual Urban Erosion and Sediment Control, 1992 as shown below. Q=CiA = 0.55 x 30mm/(2 hours) x 1 hectare x 10,000 m3 / ha x (1 m / 1000mm) x (1 hour / 3600 sec) Q = (0.55 x 30 x 1 x 10,000) / (2 x 1000 x 3600) = 0.023 m3/sec Volume of runoff = Q x t = Flowrate x time V = 0.023 m3/sec x 2 hours x 3600 sec / hour = 165 m3 = 165,000 Litres Therefore we know that if we build a 165 m3 retention pond we will capture all of a 30mm/hour, 2 hour storm on our 1 hectare construction site. How much water will flow off the one hectare site in a one day, 1 in 20 year storm. The one in twenty year storm is often called the 5% storm, but in actual fact it is a one day in twenty year storm, or one day in (20 x 365.25) = 7305 days, so really it is the 0.014% storm. Rainfall intensity is determined using historical data that is getting better each year. We have an excellent system in Australia developed by Dr. David Pilgrim and his team and published by the Institution of Engineers in Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR). Using the ARR system we can find the intensity of a storm that will last 10 minutes, an hour, 12 hours, 3 days and most increments in between. I have attached at summary of the intensities at the Homebush Olympic site that were developed from the ARR model. From the table below the rainfall from the 20 year storm over a 24 hour period is 9.19 mm/hour. Over a 24 hour period that would be: 24 hrs / day x 9.19 mm / hour = 220 mm / day Using the rational method again: Q=CiA = 0.55 x 9.19 mm/hour x 1 hectare x 10,000 m3 / ha x (1 m / 1000mm) x (1 hour / 3600 sec) Q = (0.55 x 9.19 x 1 x 10,000) / (1000 x 3600) = 0.014 m3/sec Volume of runoff = Q x t = Flowrate x time V = 0.014 m3/sec x 24 hours x 3600 sec / hour = 1200 m3 = 1,200,000 Litres Therefore we know that if we build a 1200 m3 retention pond we will capture all of the 24 hour, 20 year storm on our 1 hectare construction site. Runoff Coefficients for the Rational Formula Land Use for less than 25 year storm C Land Use for greater than 25 year storm C Paved Parking Area, <2% slope 0.85 Paved Parking area, >6% slope 0.97 Commercial, <2% slope 0.71 Commercial, >6% slope 0.90 Streets, <2% slope 0.70 Streets, >6% slope 0.89 Industrial, <2% slope 0.67 Industrial, >6% slope 0.87 Residential 1000m2 block, loam soil <2% slope 0.22 Residential 1000m2 block, loam soil >6% slope 0.47 Pasture, sandy soil, <2% slope 0.12 Pasture, loam soil, >6% slope 0.52 Meadow, sandy soil, <2% slope 0.10 Meadow, loam soil, >6% slope 0.44 Cultivated land, sandy soil, <2% slope 0.08 Cultivated land, loam soil, >6% slope 0.34 Forest, sandy soil, <2% slope 0.05 Forest, loam soil, >6% slope 0.20 Summarised from Hydrologic Analysis and Design by Richard McCuen (1989, Prentice-Hall Publishers), page 282. Rational Method C values for disturbed sites, Bare packed soil, smooth = 0.25 to 0.55 Bare packed soil, rough = 0.15 to 0.45 From Urban Erosion and Sediment Control, 1992, Department of Conservation and Land Management, page 29 C Values for feedlots and irrigation areas from NSW Feedlot Manual Feedlots = 0.80, page A6.4.1and Irrigation areas = 0.65, page A6.4.1 Feedlot Manual The Interdepartmental Committee on Intensive Animal Industries (Feedlot Section), 1995 Storm Intensity in millimetres per hour at Homebush Olympic Site, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Duration Average Storm Recurrence Interval (years) 1 2 5 10 20 50 100 5 min 98.6 126.5 161.9 180.8 207.2 241.4 267.4 10 min 75.7 97.5 126.1 141.5 162.8 190.7 211.8 15 min 63.3 81.8 106.4 119.9 138.4 162.6 181.0 30 min 45.0 58.3 76.9 87.2 101.2 119.6 133.7 60 min 30.7 40.0 53.5 61.2 71.4 85.0 95.5 3 hr 15.2 19.8 26.4 30.1 35.1 41.7 46.8 6 hr 9.7 12.6 16.7 19.0 22.2 26.4 29.6 12 hr 6.2 8.0 10.6 12.1 14.1 16.7 18.7 24 hr 4.02 5.23 6.94 7.90 9.19 10.90 12.21 72 hr 1.92 2.50 3.31 3.77 4.38 5.19 5.81 Calculated using the algebraic procedures in Chapter 2 of Australian Rainfall and Runoff (1987).A blockbuster scandal continues to boil in Beijing as the Communist Party attempts to pass the political torch to new leaders. The death of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, in a Chongqing hotel room was declared a murder yesterday, and the wife of Bo Xilai, one of China's most powerful men, is the lead suspect. Bo had long been thought to be one of the leaders who would benefit most from the power transition. But on Tuesday, Bo was suspended from the powerful Chinese Politburo, a sign that he may be forced out by political rivals. Michael Bristow, a correspondent for the BBC, said there was initially no reason to believe the death was suspicious — but that began to change as more information came out. "The British government asked the Chinese authorities to reopen the case. They did that and now they've come out with a startling revelation, that Bo Xilai, this famous politician here in China, his wife is suspected of being involved in the murder of the businessman," Bristow said. British authorities have said they want the case investigated properly, but there's been no movement, publicly to try and have the suspect, Gu Kailai, extradited to the U.K. to stand trial. At the same time the Communist Party announced the finding with regard to Bo's wife, the party announced Bo had been stripped of all his senior party positions. He'd previously lost his post as the influential mayor of Chongqing. "This is to do with the murder investigation," Bristow said. "The Communist Party says that he broke discipline rules connected with this case. We're not sure how." Bristow said its been a major political storm in China. In Chinese media reports, attention has been drawn to financial ties that are reported to exist between Bob and Heywood. But Bristow cautioned that because the government controls the media in China, it's hard to know what's fact and what's political point-making. "In this particular case, it's unclear exactly how closely Bo Xilai is tied up with this murder investigation. It's clear that he did have a lot of political enemies. He was hoping to be promoted later this year when the Communist Party has its once-in-a-decade leadership change, so some people are asking how closely is he connected to the murder, or is it being used by his political opponents to really silence a rival."China is changing fast. Over the past several decades, the country has transformed economically and culturally at a pace the world has rarely seen. Despite this metamorphosis, one thing remains the same: China has almost no migrants coming to the country. According to recently released estimates from the United Nations, as of July 2017 there were almost exactly 1 million migrants in mainland China. (People born in Hong Kong and Macau now living in China are considered migrants by the UN.) That’s just 0.07% of all people in the country, meaning China has the fewest share of migrants of any country in the world. By comparison, migrants make up 15.6% of the US population. The following chart shows the countries with the smallest inflow of migrants. The percentages are based on official country reports of the number of people who are permanent residents in the country. People that China considers short-term residents, like the hundreds of thousands Africans living in the region of Guangdong, are not counted in this data—though even if they were, China would still rank at or near the bottom of countries. (If you were curious: Saudi Arabia has the largest foreign-born population—37%—out of the 50 most populous countries.) More than 60% of China’s official foreign-born residents come from just four places: Hong Kong, South Korea, Brazil and the Philippines. Hong Kong, South Korea, and the Philippines provide so many of China’s migrants because of their proximity and the fact that each country has a large ethnic Chinese population: The Chinese government promotes educated ethnic Chinese migrating “back” to China. The large Brazilian population is due to the strong economic ties between the two countries; China is Brazil’s largest economic trading partner. There are several reasons for China’s low rates of incoming migration—including language barriers and the country’s large number of rural workers willing to fill available low-skill jobs—but the main reason is China’s restrictive immigration policy. Millions of people in poor countries from Africa and Southeast Asia would have gladly emigrated to booming coastal Chinese cities over the past several decades, but they have not been welcome. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the Chinese government’s stated goal for their immigration policy is to promote economic development and national security, while maintaining “social stability.” These goals have led China to discourage migrants who were not of Chinese ethnic origin, and to only grant permanent status to people without Chinese ethnic backgrounds if they are important business or scientific leaders, or have made “outstanding contributions” to China. Under these rules, only about 10,000 foreigners have been granted the Chinese “green cards,” which allow permanent stay. Ironically, China has benefitted tremendously from people born in the country immigrating elsewhere. There are currently about 10 million immigrants from China in the rest of the world, the fourth highest after India, Mexico, and Russia. These immigrants, and immigrants of previous generations, have developed important trade relationships with China, and have sent home trillions of dollars in remittances. In 2015 alone, remittances to China accounted for 0.4% of GDP, according to the World Bank. China’s strong limits on immigration follow on the policies of Japan and South Korea, which also did not allow in many immigrants during their economic booms. But also like those countries, an aging population will mean pressure to open up. Japan and South Korea have both turned to foreigners to make sure the working-age population is large enough to keep the economy humming. China, too, may soon be forced to embrace the one change it hasn’t been ready for.Read More 4 stocks to buy at all-time highs: 'Fast Money' pros What about Dow 19,000? "No, it wouldn't surprise me," he said. "It's very hard to give a point estimate of the Dow or any index, that we know how much short-term variability there is. Late last year, I said 18,000, and of course, it could go higher. And of course, it might not reach there. But I think we're on track for an 18,000 Dow by year end." Multiple expansion in excess of 16½ times earnings could conceivably push the Dow to 21,000 or higher, but Siegel said he didn't think that was likely. "That's more rarified air," he said. "We're not going there. That's really too high." But, he added, "Certainly, this bull market could continue." Siegel wrote off geopolitical risk. Read MoreWe're 5 years into a 20-year bull stock market: Pro "Remember, bull markets climb the wall of worry. You know, what's going on in the Mideast, Ukraine—those are the worries. Bull markets top off when no one sees a problem on the horizon, everyone is in, there's no one else to come in," he said. "We are not at that area, and we know the public is still very gingerly putting their toes in this market with disbelief. That does not mark a top of the market. And that's why I think this bull has room to run." Siegel didn't see the Federal Reserve's expected reduction of asset purchases as much of a headwind, either. "So, if the Fed eases in March or April instead of late in the summer (of 2015), so it goes to 50 basis points, is that going to end the bull market? I mean, that is still unbelievably low compared to anything historical," he said. "So, the 10-year goes from 2½ to 3—and maybe even 3½—that's still extraordinarily low from any historical (perspective). And that's why, again, stocks have that wind of the interest rates going with them no matter when the Fed starts tightening." —By CNBC's Bruno J. NavarroWith nearly all votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party is set to emerge as the election's big winner with 30 seats. The Zionist Union trails behind with 24 seats. The Joint List of Arab parties is the third-largest party at this point, followed by Yesh Atid, Kulanu, Habayit Hayehudi, Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu, United Torah Judaism, Meretz and Yahad. President Reuven Rivlin said he would work for a national unity government. Ballots were cast at 10,372 polling stations throughout Israel. There are 5,881,696 Israelis (citizens over the age of 18) who were eligible to vote today for the 20th Knesset. Latest opinion and analyses: Netanyahu resorts to race-baiting in attempt to win elections \| Netanyahu, Herzog fight Election Day battle of the gap \| A last-minute bid to block Netanyahu’s ‘rescue me’ campaign (Yossi Verter) \| A black hole at core of Israeli electoral politics (Aluf Benn). Live updates: 11:15 A.M. Labor MK Shelly Yacimovich says Isaac Herzog told her that the Zionist Union won't join a Likud-led government. "This morning I spoke with Herzog and he explicitly told me that we are going to the opposition," she told Army Radio. Clockwise from left: Isaac Herzog, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ayman Odeh and Moshe Kahlon. Reuters, AFP, Rami Shllush Yacimovich, a former Labor leader, says, following the election results, that teaming up with Tzipi Livni was a right call, but argued that too many concessions were made. (Jonathan Lis) Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, The email address you have provided is already registered. Close 10:45 A.M. Meretz No. 2 Ilan Gilon says he does not accept Galon's resignation and is not prepared to take on chairmanship of the party in her stead. (Haaretz) 9:56 A.M. Meretz chief Zehava Galon officially announces that she will resign from chairmanship in the wake of the election results. 9:30 A.M. Senior Palestinian officials tell Haaretz that the fact Israelis reelected Netanyahu after he declared that there will be no Palestinian state means that Israel is not a partner for peace. The international community needs to realize that and stop defending Netanyahu and his policy, they added. (Jack Khoury) Read full story 8:54 A.M. Zionist Union MK Stav Shafir says in a Facebook post: "We will serve the people from the opposition." (Haaretz) 8:44 A.M. Isaac Herzog says he called Netanyahu and congratulated him for the election results. "Nothing has changed, we will keep fighting for a just society." Herzog refused to explicitly say that the Zionist Union won't join a Netanyahu-led government. (Haaretz) 8:32 A.M. Moshe Kahlon: "Netanyahu spoke with me and said his intentions are serious. I am waiting for the results. There were never any personal issues, only differences in ideology that I hope to resolve now with a government focused on social aspects." 7:45 A.M. Zionist Union's Herzog and Livni: "This is not an easy morning for us and for those who believe in our way. We will lead the fight, together with our partners in Knesset, for the values believe in. We will fight on behalf of the citizens of Israel for social justice, diplomatic horizon, equality and democracy in hope that we can maintain a just, safe Jewish and democratic state. We thank from the bottom of our heart to all those who believe in us and in our way." 6:50 A.M. Meretz leader Zehava Galon says if final results give Meretz four seats, she will resign from Knesset in order to allow Tamar Zandberg to remain MK (Ilan Lior). 6:06 A.M. With 99 percent of the ballots counted, Likud is increasing its lead with 30 Knesset seats, compared to the Zionist Union's 24. The Joint List, the third-largest party, gets 14 seats, followed by Yesh Atid with 11, Kulanu with 10, Habayit Hayehudi with eight, Shas with seven, United Torah Judaism with six, Yisrael Beiteinu with six, and Meretz with four. It appears at this point that Yahad has not crossed the electoral threshold. (Haaretz) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to supporters at party headquarters in Tel Aviv, March 18, 2015. Photo: Reuters 4:30 A.M. Likud increases its lead over the Zionist Union as the vote count nears completion. (Haaretz) 3:23 A.M. With 60 percent of votes counted, Likud leads with 23.73 percent over Zionist Union's 19.07 percent. Yesh Atid stands at 8.92 percent, the Joint List at 9.63 percent, Kulanu at 7.53 percent, Habayit Hayehudi at 6.4 percent, Shas at 5.88 percent, Yisrael Beiteinu at 5.26 percent, United Torah Judaism at 5.15 percent, Meretz at 3.95 percent and Yahad at 3.04 percent. 2:45 A.M. Some 71.3 percent of Israeli soldiers voted on Tuesday, a 2.3 percent bump compared to the 2013 election. The rate does not include soldiers voting in civilian polling stations. (Gili Cohen) 2:30 A.M. The chief Palestinian negotiator expects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next Israeli government and has declared that the Palestinians in turn will push forward with diplomatic efforts at the International Criminal Court. “It is clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next government, and for that, we say clearly that we will go to the Hague Tribunal, we will accelerate, continue and intensify” diplomatic efforts, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Agence France-Presse. (JTA) 1:10 A.M. Netanyahu: "Dear friends, against all odds we have achieved a great victory for Likud, for the national camp which is headed by Likud, for our people. I am proud of the Israeli people, who recognized what's important and stood up for real security, economy and social welfare, which we are committed to. "This is what's important to everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike," he said. "All of you are important to me. "Now we must form a strong and stable government that will care for the security and welfare of all of Israel's citizens," he said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kisses his wife, Sara, as he addresses supporters. Photo: Tomer Appelbaum 12:25 A.M. Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid: "We are the biggest centrist party, and will remain a political force for many years to come." 12:16 A.M. Zionist Union Chairman Isaac Herzog on the exit polls: "These results will bring Labor back into power." He calls on the "social parties" to unite under him to form "a real reconciliation government." "This is a big victory for the Labor Party, which hasn't done this well since Yitzhak Rabin won in 1992." Referring to his efforts to from a governing coalition, Herzog says "no decision will be made tonight. We have formed a negotiating team." (Haaretz) Zionist Union party co-leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni. Photo by AP 12:20 A.M. Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman says his party's five Knesset seats are a triumph over attempts to "take out" his "entire party." Lieberman says the close election results are further proof that Israel needs a different system of government. Shas Chairman Arye Dery says this election has been the "toughest we have ever experienced." "This was a great battle for legacy, a struggle for a path, a struggle of leadership, a very tough struggle," he said. "But, thank God, the way of the truth won, the Torah's way won." He said that he made efforts to unite with Eli Yishai, but the latter resisted. Zionist Union MK Shelly Yacimovich suggests that Shas and Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu may join a government led by Isaac Herzog. "You treat Kahlon like he's in Netanyahu's pocket, and Shas like it's clearly with Netanyahu," she said in an interview with Channel 2. "People say a lot of things before the election. It's possible that they will understand that they could fulfil their desires under Herzog as prime minister." 12:15 P.M. Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon says he will work with any party working on social, economic lines. "This election has caused rifts and polarization in our nation. This is the time to mend, to unite," he says. (Haaretz) 12:10 A.M. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman talk. (Jonathan Lis) 11:59 P.M. Channel 1's corrected exit polls indicate Eli Yishai's Yahad party has crossed the electoral threshold with four Knesset seats. The corrected polls show that Likud has gotten 27 seats, the Zionist Union 26, the Joint List 12, Yesh Atid 11, and Kulanu nine. (Haaretz) 11:54 P.M. Hamas: Elections should convince Abbas to abandon talks with Israel Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should abandon negotiations with Israel following the elections in the Jewish State, Hamas official Ismail Radwan says in the Gaza Strip. "The results should be enough to convince the Palestinian Authority and Fatah Party to forget about the choice of keeping the absurd negotiations," he says in a statement. (DPA) 11:34 P.M. Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon says on Twitter that his party's election result is a "great success." 11:27 P.M. Zionist Union Chairman Isaac Herzog is holding talks with potential coalition partners as part of an effort to form a broad government that excludes Netanyahu and Bennett. The Zionist Union says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's and Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett's celebration is premature, claiming the rightist bloc has "crashed." 11:21 P.M. The 2015 election had 71.8% voter turnout, up from 67.8% in the 2013 election. The 2009 election had 65.2% voter turnout, compared to 63.2% in the 2006 election (Ofra Edelman). 11:15 P.M. Avigdor Lieberman on whether he will join a coalition headed by Netanyahu: "Why not?... we should join the friends who worked hard and gave everything they could. We can't talk of defeat, it was a difficult journey." 11:00 P.M. Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh: "The list is a success story. More than 65% of the Arab public voted, and that was a positive referendum for the list and its future." The party expected to get 14-15 Knesset seats, but has gotten 13, according to the preliminary results. MK Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List: "The general result is disappointing, but the Joint List has won the support of the public, Marzel has disappeared and the public said Nyet to Lieberman." MK Ya'akov Litzman, head of United Torah Judaism, told Channel 2 that he is awaiting tomorrow morning's decision from the Council of Torah Sages on whether his party's six seats will be part of the next government. (Haaretz) 10:57 P.M. Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett, whose party won a disappointing eight Knesset seats according to the exit polls, said his party is a "long distance runner." "We are long distance runners. We're not afraid and we're not lowering our heads," Bennett said, adding he is proud of his public, the religious Zionists. (Haaretz) 10:53 P.M. Likud officials estimate: Netanyahu will work for coalition with Herzog Likud officials estimated Netanyahu will work toward forming a national unity government with Zionist Union's Isaac Herzog. "Netanyahu doesn't want a unity government, but sometimes you find yourself with no choice. In this case, the most likely scenario is that the prime minister will agree to pay Zionist Union a heavy price, among other things, leaving Bennett or Lieberman in the opposition, to make it easier for Herzog to make the move agreeable for his party. (Jonathan Lis) 10:48 P.M. Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon told Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu and Zionist Union's Isaac Herzog that he will decide on his next move only after the full results are tallied. Kahlon's party won 10 Knesset seats according to the exit polls. 10:40 P.M. Zionist Union: Everything's possible until the real results are in Zionist Union, which gained 27 Knesset seats according to the exit polls, said in response: "Likud keeps misleading. The rightist bloc has shrunk. Everything is possible until the real results are in, when we can know which parties passed the electoral threshold and which government we can form. All the spins and statements are premature. A negotiating team has been formed in an effort to form a government led by Herzog." Meretz, which gained five Knesset seats according to the exit polls, called on Zionist Union's Isaac Herzog not to form a unity government with Benjamin Netanyahu. (Gili Cohen) 10:35 P.M. Netanyahu announces 'great victory, against all odds' Likud leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the exit polls, which gave his party 27 Knesset seats, a tie with Zionist Union, announcing a "great victory for Likud." "Against all odds, a great victory for Likud, a great victory for the nationalist camp headed by Likud, a great victory for the nation of Israel," Netanyahu said in a Facebook post. (Haaretz) 10:25 P.M. Netanyahu and Bennett agree to start negotiations for right-wing government Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Habayit Hayehudi's Naftali Bennett several minutes after the exit polls were released. The two agreed to initiate accelerated negotiations to establish a right-wing government. (Haaretz) 10:08 P.M. President Rivlin says would work for national unity gov't Israeli President Reuven Rivlin made clear to political officials on Tuesday evening that he would work for a national unity government. "I am convinced that only a unity government can prevent the rapid disintegration of Israel's democracy and new elections in the near future," Rivlin said. (Yossi Verter) 10:00 P.M. Exit polls: Zionist Union and Likud
named Lance Morris explains that he did an MFA project "about this very thing, but in Long Beach. There's a long diagonal scar running from Long Beach Blvd and Willow all the way down to Belmont Shore. I tried walking as closely to the line as I could and GPS tracked the results. There are even 2 areas where you can still see tracks!"This inspired me to look around the area a little bit on Google Maps, which led to another place nearby, as seen below.Again, seeing how these local building forms have been generated by the outlines of a missing street or streetcar line is pretty astonishing.Further, the tiniest indicators of these lost throughways remain visible from above, usually in the form of triangular building cuts or geometrically odd storage yards and parking lots. Because they all align—like some strange industrial ley line —you can deduce that an older piece of transportation infrastructure is now missing.Indeed, if you zoom out from there in the map, you'll see that the subtle diagonal line cutting across the above image (from the lower left to the upper right) is, in fact, an old rail right of way that leads from the shore further inland.To give a sense of how incredibly subtle some of these signs can be, the diagonal fence seen in the below screen grab——is actually shaped that way not because of some quirk of the local storage lot manager, but because it follows this lost right of way.There are yet more interesting examples popping up now over in a thread on Metafilter There, among other notable comments, someone called univac points out that the streetcar scar that "begins on 8th St. at Hobart, and ends at Pico and Rimpau"—quoting an earlier commenter here on BLDGBLOG—"actually has one echo in the diagonally-stepped building here, and picks up again in the block bounded by Wilton, Westchester, 9th and San Marino, and ends at a crooked building just north of 4th and Olympic."You can see the middle stretch of that route in the image, above. For more, check out the thread on Metafilter Not only this, however, but the old right of way followed by that commenter actually extends much further than that, all the way southwest to a small park at approximately Pico and Queen Anne Place In the above image, you can see a small structure—a garage or a house—turned slightly off-axis in the northeast corner, indicating the line of the old streetcar line, with some open lawns and small paved areas revealing its obscured geometry as you look down to the southwest.Patriotism and Government By Leo Tolstoy "The time is fast approaching when to call a man a patriot will be the deepest insult You can offer him. Patriotism now means advocating plunder in the interests of the privileged classes of the particular State system into which we have happened to be born." - E. BELFORT BAX. I. I have already several times expressed the thought that in our day the feeling of patriotism is an unnatural, irrational, and harmful feeling, and a cause of a great part of the ills from which mankind is suffering, and that, consequently, this feeling--should not be cultivated, as is now being done, but should, on the contrary, be suppressed and eradicated by all means available to rational men. Yet, strange to say--though it is undeniable that the universal armaments and destructive wars which are ruining the peoples result from that one feeling--all my arguments showing the backwardness, anachronism, and harmfulness of patriotism have been met, and are still met, either by silence, by intentional misinterpretation, or by a strange unvarying reply to the effect that only bad patriotism (Jingoism or Chauvinism) is evil, but that real good patriotism is a very elevated moral feeling, to condemn which is not only irrational but wicked. What this real, good patriotism consists in, we are never told; or,if anything is said about it, instead of explanation we get declamatory, inflated phrases, or, finally, some other conception is substituted for patriotism-- something which has nothing in common with the patriotism we all know, and from the results of which we all suffer so severely. It is generally said that the real, good patriotism consists in desiring for one's own people or State such real benefits as do not infringe the well-being of other nations Talking recently to an Englishman about the present war, I said to him that the real cause of the war was not avarice, as people generally say, but patriotism, as is evident from the temper of the whole of English society. The Englishman did not agree with me, and said that even were the case so, it resulted from the fact that the patriotism at present inspiring Englishmen is a bad patriotism; but that good patriotism, such as he was imbued with, would cause Englishmen, his compatriots to act well. 'Then do you wish only Englishmen to act well?' I asked. 'I wish all men to do so,' said he; in dictating clearly by that reply the characteristic of true benefits whether moral scientific, or even material and practical -which is that they spread out to all men. But, evidently, to wish such benefits to everyone, not only is not patriotic, but is the reverse of patriotic. Neither do the peculiarities of each people constitute patriotism, though these things are purposely substituted for the conception of patriotism by its defenders. They say that the peculiarities of each people are an essential condition of human progress, and that patriotism, which seeks to maintain those peculiarities, is, therefore, a good and useful feeling. But is it not quite evident that if, once upon a time, these peculiarities of each people-these customs, creeds, languages were conditions necessary for the life of humanity, in our time these same peculiarities form the chief obstacle to what is already recognised as an ideal the brotherly union of the peoples? And therefore the maintenance and defence of any nationality- Russian, German, French, or Anglo-Saxon, provoking the corresponding maintenance and defence not only of Hungarian, Polish, and Irish nationalities, but also of Basque, Provencal, Mordva, Tchouvash, and many other nationalities-serves not to harmonize and unite men, but to estrange and divide them more and more from one another. So that not the imaginary but the real patriotism, which we all know, by which most people to-day are swayed and from which humanity suffers so severely, is not the wish for spiritual benefits for one's own people (it is impossible to desire spiritual benefits for one's own people only), but is a very definite feeling of preference for one's own people or State above all other peoples and States, and a consequent wish to get for that people or State the greatest advantages and power that can be got- things which are obtainable only at the expense of the advantages and power of other peoples or States. It would, therefore, seem obvious that patriotism as a feeling is bad and harmful, and as a doctrine is stupid. For it is clear that if each people and each State considers itself the best of peoples and States, they all live in a gross and harmful delusion. II. One would expect the harmfulness and irrationality of patriotism to be evident to everybody. But the surprising fact is that cultured and learned men not only do not themselves notice the harm and stupidity of patriotism, but they resist every exposure of it with the greatest obstinacy and ardour (though without any rational grounds), and continue to belaud it as beneficent and. elevating. What does this mean? Only one explanation of this amazing fact presents itself to me. All human history, from the earliest times to our own day, may be considered as a movement of the consciousness, both of individuals and of homogeneous groups, from lower ideas to higher ones. The whole path traveled both by individuals and by homogeneous groups may be represented as a consecutive flight of steps from the lowest, on the level of animal life, to the highest attained by the consciousness of man at a, given moment of history, Each man, like each separate homogeneous group, nation, or State, always moved and moves up this ladder of ideas. Some portions of humanity are in front, others lag far behind, others, again - the majority- move somewhere between the most advanced and the most backward. But all, whatever stage they may have reached, are inevitably and irresistibly moving from lower to higher ideas. And always, at any given moment, both the individuals and the separate groups of people-advanced, middle, or backward- stand in three different relations to the three stages of ideas amid which they move. Always, both for the individual and for the separate groups of people, there are the ideas of the past, which are worn out and have become strange to them, and to which they cannot revert: as, for instance, in our Christian world, the ideas of cannibalism, universal plunder, the rape of wives, and other customs of which only a record remains. And there are the ideas of the present, instilled into men's minds by education, by example and by the general activity of all around them; ideas under the power of which they live at a given time: for instance, in our own day, the ideas of property, State organization, trade, utilization of domestic animal, etc. And there are the ideas of the future, of which some are already approaching realization and are obliging people to change their way of life and to struggle against the former ways: such ideas in our world as those of freeing the labourers, of giving equality to women, of disusing flesh food, etc.; while others, though already recognised, have not yet come into practical conflict with the old forms of life: such in our times are the ideas (which we call ideals) of the extermination of violence, the arrangement of a communal system of property, of a universal religion, and of a general brotherhood of men. And, therefore, every man and every homogeneous group of men, on whatever level they may stand, having behind them the worn-out remembrances of the past, and before them the ideals of the future, are always in a state of struggle between the moribund ideas of the present and the ideas of the future that are coming to life. It usually happens that when an idea which has been useful and even necessary in the past becomes superfluous, that idea, after a more or less prolonged struggle, yields its place to a new idea which was till then an ideal, but which thus becomes a present idea. But it does occur that an antiquated idea, already replaced in people's consciousness by a higher one, is of such a kind that its maintenance is profitable to those people who have the greatest influence in their society. And then it happens that this antiquated idea, though it is in sharp contradiction to the whole surrounding form of life, which has been altering in other respects, continues to influence people and to sway their actions. Such retention of antiquated ideas always has occurred, and still does occur, in the region of religion. The cause is, that the priests, whose profitable positions are bound up with the antiquated religious idea, purposely use their power to hold people to this antiquated idea. The same thing occurs, and for similar reasons, in the political sphere, with reference to the patriotic idea, on which all arbitrary power is based. People to whom it is profitable to do so, maintain that idea by artificial means, though it now lacks both sense and utility. And as these people possess the most powerful means of influencing others, they are able to achieve their object. In this it seems to me, lies the explanation of the strange contrast 'between the antiquated patriotic idea, and that whole drift of ideas making in a contrary direction, which have already entered into the consciousness of the Christian world. III. Patriotism, as a feeling of exclusive love for one's own people, and as a doctrine of tile virtue of sacrificing one's tranquillity, one's property, and ever, one's life, in defence of one's own people from slaughter and outrage by their enemies, was the highest idea of the period when each nation considered it feasible and just, for its own advantage, to subject to slaughter and outrage the people of other nations. But, already some 2,000 years ago representatives of its in the person of the highest wisdom, began to recognise the higher idea of a brotherhood of man; and that idea, penetrating man's consciousness more and more, has in our time attained most varied forms of realization. Thanks to improved means of communication, and to the unity of industry, of trade, of the arts, and of science, men are to-day so bound one to another that the danger of conquest, massacre, or outrage by a neighbouring people, has quite disappeared, and all peoples (the peoples, but not the Governments) live together in peaceful 1, mutually advantageous, and friendly commercial, industrial, artistic, and scientific relations, which they have no need and no desire to disturb. One would think, therefore that the antiquated feeling of patriotism being superfluous and incompatible with the consciousness we have reached of the existence of brotherhood among men of different nationalities-should dwindle more and more until it completely disappears. Yet the very opposite of this occurs: this harmful and antiquated feeling not only continues to exist, but burns more and more fiercely. The peoples, without any reasonable ground, and contrary alike to their conception of right and to their own advantage, not only sympathize with Governments and their attacks on other nations, in their seizures of foreign possessions, and in defending by force what they have already stolen, but even themselves demand such attacks, seizures and defences: are glad of them, and take pride in them. The small oppressed nationalities which have fallen under the power of great States--the Poles, Irish, Bohemians, Finns, or Armenians-- resenting the patriotism of their conquerors, which is the cause of their oppression, catch from them the infection of this feeling of patriotism--which has ceased to be necessary, and is now obsolete, unmeaningful, and harmful--and to catch it to such a degree that all their activity is concentrated upon it, and they, themselves suffering from the patriotism of the stronger nations, are ready, for the sake of patriotism, to perpetrate on other peoples the very same deeds that their oppressors have perpetrated and are perpetrating on them. This occurs because the ruling classes (including not only the actual rulers with their officials, but all the classes who enjoy an exceptionally advantageous position: the capitalists, journalists, and most of the artists and scientists) can retain their position--exceptionally advantageous in comparison with that of the labouring masses--thanks only to Government organization, which rests on patriotism. They have in their hands all the most powerful means of influencing the people, and always sedulously support patriotic feelings in themselves and others, more especially as those feelings which uphold the Government's power are those that are always best rewarded by that power. Every official prospers the more in his career, the more patriotic he is; so also the army man gets promotion in time of war--the war id produced by patriotism. Patriotism and its results--wars--give an enormous revenue to the newspaper trade, and profits to many other trades. Every writer, teacher, and professor is more secure in his place the more he preaches patriotism. Every Emperor and King obtains the more fame the more he is addicted to patriotism. The ruling classes have in their hands the army, money, the schools, the churches, and the press. In the schools, they kindle patriotism in the children by means of histories describing their own people as the best of all peoples and always in the right. Among adults they kindle it by spectacles, jubilees, monuments, and by a lying patriotic press. Above all, they inflame patriotism in this way: perpetrating every kind of harshness and injustice against other nations, they provoke in them enmity towards their own people, and then in turn exploit that enmity to embitter their people against the foreigner. The intensification of this terrible feeling of patriotism has gone on among the European people in a rapidly increasing progression, and in our time has reached the utmost limits, beyond which there is no room for it to extend. IV. Within the memory of the people not yet old, an occurrence took place showing most obviously the amazing intoxication caused by patriotism among the people of Christendom. The ruling classes of Germany excited the patriotism of the masses of their people to such a degree that, in the second half of the nineteenth century, a law was proposed in accordance with which all the men had to become soldiers: all the sons, husbands, fathers, learned men, and godly men, had to learn to murder, to become submissive slaves of those above them in military rank, and be absolutely ready to kill whomsoever they were ordered to kill: to kill men of oppressed nationalities, and their own working-men standing up for their rights, and even their own fathers and brothers--as was publicly proclaimed by that most impudent of potentates, William II. That horrible measure, outraging all man's best feelings in the grossest manner, was, under tire influence of patriotism, acquiesced in without murmur by the people of Germany. It resulted in their victory over the French. That victory yet further excited the patriotism of Germany, and, by reaction, that of France, Russia, and the other Powers; and the men of the European countries unresistingly submitted to the introduction of general military service--i.e., to a state of slavery involving a degree of humiliation and submission incomparably worse than any slavery of the ancient world. After this servile submission of the masses to the calls of patriotism, the audacity, cruelty, and insanity of the Governments knew no bounds. A competition in the usurpation of other peoples' lands in Asia, Africa, and America began-evoked partly by whim, partly by vanity, and partly by covetousness and was accompanied by ever greater and greater distrust and enmity between the Governments. The destruction of the inhabitants on the lands seized was accepted as a quite natural proceeding. The only question was, who should be first in seizing other peoples' land and destroying the inhabitants? All the Governments not only most evidently infringed, and are infringing, the elementary demands of justice in relation to the conquered peoples, and in relation to one another, but they were guilty, and continue to be guilty, of every kind of cheating, swindling, bribing, fraud, spying, robbery, and murder; and the peoples not only sympathized, and still sympathize, with them in all this, but they rejoice when it is their own Government and not another Government that commits such crimes. The mutual enmity between the different peoples and States has reached latterly such amazing dimensions that, notwithstanding the fact that there is no reason why one State should attack another, everyone knows that all the Governments stand with their claws out and showing their teeth, and only waiting for someone to be in trouble, or become weak, in order to tear him to pieces with as little risk as possible. All the peoples of the so-called Christian world have been reduced by patriotism to such a state of brutality, that not only those who are obliged to kill or be killed desire slaughter and rejoice in murder, but all the people of Europe and America, living peaceably in their homes exposed to no danger, are, at each war thanks to easy means of communication and to the press--in the position of the spectators in a Roman circus, and, like them, delight in the slaughter, and raise the bloodthirsty cry, 'Pollice verso.' Not adults only, but also children, pure, wise children, rejoice, according to their nationality, when they hear that the number killed and lacerated by lyddite or other shells on some particular day was not 700 but 1,000 Englishmen or Boers. And parents (I know such cases) encourage their children in such brutality. But that is not all. Every increase in the army of one nation (and each nation, being in danger, seeks to increase its army for patriotic reasons) obliges its neighbours to increase their armies, also from patriotism, and this evokes a fresh increase by the first nation. And the same thing occurs with fortifications and navies: one State has built ten ironclads, a neighbour builds eleven ; then the first builds twelve, and so on to infinity. 'I'll pinch you.' 'And I'll punch your head.' 'And I'll stab you with a dagger.' And I'll bludgeon you.' 'And I'll shoot you.'... Only bad children, drunken men, or animals, quarrel or fight so, but yet it is just what is going on among the highest representatives of the most enlightened Governments, the very men who undertake to direct the education and the morality of their subjects. V. The position is becoming worse and worse, and there is no stopping this descent towards evident perdition. The one way of escape believed in by credulous people has now been closed by recent events. I refer to the Hague Conference, and to the war between England and the Transvaal which immediately followed it. If people who think too little, or but superficially, were able to comfort themselves with the idea that international courts of arbitration would supersede wars and ever-increasing armaments, the Hague Conference and the war that followed it demonstrated in the most palpable mariner the impossibility of finding a solution of the difficulty in that way. After the Hague Conference, it became obvious that as long as Governments with armies exist, the termination of armaments and of wars is impossible. That ail agreement should become possible, it is necessary that the parties to it should trust each other. And in order that the Powers should trust each other, they must lay down their arms, as is done by the bearers of a flag of truce when they meet for a conference. So long as Governments, distrusting one another, not only do not disband or decrease their armies, but always increase them in correspondence with augmentations made by their neighbours, and by means of spies watch every Movement of troops, knowing that each of the Powers will attack its neighbour as soon as it sees its way to do so, no agreement is possible, and every conference is either a stupidity, or a pastime, or a fraud, or an impertinence, or all of these together. It was particularly becoming for the Russian rather than any other Government to be the enfant terrible of the Hague Conference. No one at home being allowed to reply to all its evidently mendacious manifestations and rescripts, the Russian Government is so spoilt, that--having without the least scruple ruined its own people with armaments, strangled Poland, plundered Turkestan and China, and being specially engaged in suffocating Finland--it proposed disarmament to the Governments, in full assurance that it would be trusted! But strange, unexpected, and indecent as such a proposal was--especially at the very time when orders were being given to increase its army--the words publicly uttered in the hearing of the people were such, that for the sake of appearances the Governments of the other Powers could not decline the comical and evidently insincere consultation ; and so the delegates met--knowing in advance that nothing would come of it--and for several weeks (during which they drew good salaries) though they were laughing in their sleeves, they all conscientiously pretended to be much occupied in arranging peace among the nations. The Hague Conference, followed up as it was by the terrible bloodshed of the Transvaal War, which no one attempted, or is now attempting, to stop, was, nevertheless, of some use, though not at all in the way expected of it--it was useful because it showed in the most obvious mariner that the evils from which the peoples are suffering cannot be cured by Governments. That Governments, even if they wished to, can terminate neither armaments nor wars. Governments, to have a reason for existing, must defend their people from other people's attack. But not one people wishes to attack, or does attack, another. And therefore Governments, far from wishing for peace, carefully excite the anger of other nations against themselves. And having excited other people's anger against themselves, and stirred up the patriotism of their own people, each Government then assures its people that it is in danger and must be defended. And having the power in their hands, the Governments can both irritate other nations and excite patriotism at home, and they carefully do both the one and the other; nor can they act otherwise, for their existence depends on thus acting. If, in former times, Governments were necessary to defend their people from other people's attacks, now, on the contrary, Governments artificially disturb the peace that exists between the nations, and provoke enmity among them. When it was necessary to plough in order to sow ploughing was wise; but evidently it is absurd and' armful to go on ploughing after the seed has been sown. But this is just what the Governments are obliging their people to do: to infringe the unit which exists, and which nothing would infringe if it were not for the Governments. VI. In reality what are these Governments, without which people think they could not exist? There may have been a time when such Governments were necessary, and when the evil of supporting a Government was less than that of being defenceless against organized neighbours; but now such Governments have become unnecessary, and are a far greater evil than all the dangers with which they frighten their subjects. Not only military Governments, but Governments in general, could be, I will not say useful, but at least harmless, only if they consisted of immaculate, holy people, as is theoretically the case among the Chinese. But then Governments, by the nature of their activity, which consists in committing acts of violence are always composed of elements the most contrary to holiness-of the most audacious, unscrupulous, and perverted people. A Government, therefore, and especially a Government entrusted with military power, is the most dangerous organization possible. The Government, in the widest sense, including capitalists and the Press, is nothing else than an organization which places the greater part of the people in the power of a smaller part, who dominate them; that smaller part is subject to a yet smaller part I and that again to a yet smaller, and so oil, reaching at last a few people, or one single man, who by means of military force has power over all the rest. So that all this organization resembles a cone, of which all the parts are completely in the power of those people, or of that one person, who happen to be at the apex. The apex of the cone is seized by those who are more cunning, audacious, and unscrupulous than the rest, or by someone who happens to be the heir of those who were audacious and unscrupulous. Today it may be Boris Godunof, and tomorrow Gregory Otrepyef. Today the licentious Catherine, who with her paramours has murdered her husband; tomorrow Pougatchof ; then Paul the madman, Nicholas L, or Alexander. Today it may be Napoleon, tomorrow a Bourbon or an Orleans, a Boulanger or a Panama Company; to. day it may be Gladstone, tomorrow Salisbury, Chamberlain, or Rhodes. And, to such Governments is allowed fall power, not only over property and lives, but even over the spiritual and moral development, the education, and the religious guidance of everybody. People construct such a terrible machine of power, they allow any one to seize it who can (and the chances always are that it will be seized by the most morally worthless)--they slavishly submit to him, and are then bed that evil comes of it. They are afraid of Anarchists' bombs, and are riot afraid of this terrible organization which is always threatening them with the greatest calamities. People found it useful to tie themselves together in order to resist their enemies, as the Cireassians did when resisting attacks. But the danger is quite past, and yet people go oil tying themselves together. They carefully tie themselves up so that one mail can have them all at his mercy; then they throw away the end of the rope that ties them, and leave it trailing for some rascal or fool to seize and to do them whatever harm he likes. Really, what are people doing but just that--when they set up, submit to, and maintain an organized and military Government? VII. To deliver men from the terrible and ever-increasing evils of armaments and wars, we want neither congresses nor conferences, nor treaties, nor courts of arbitration, but the destruction of those instruments of violence which are called Governments, and from which humanity's greatest evils flow. To destroy Governmental violence, only one thing is needed: it is that people should understand that the feeling of patriotism, which alone supports that instrument of violence, is a rude, harmful, disgraceful, and bad feeling, and, above all, is immoral. It is a rude feeling, because it is one natural only to people standing on the lowest level of morality, and expecting from other nations such outrages as they themselves are ready to inflict; it is a harmful feeling, because it disturbs advantageous and joyous, peaceful relations with other peoples, and above all produces that Governmental organization under which power may fall, and does fall, into the, hands of the worst men; it is a disgraceful feeling, because it turns mail not merely into a slave, but into a fighting cock, a bull, or a gladiator, who wastes his strength and his life for objects which are not his own but his Governments'; and it is an immoral feeling, because, instead of confessing one's self a son of God (as Christianity teaches us) or even a free mail guided by his own reason, each man under the influence of patriotism confesses himself the soil of his fatherland and the slave of his Government, and commits actions contrary to his reason and his conscience. It is only necessary that people should understand this, and the terrible bond, called Government, by which we are chained together, will fall to pieces of itself without struggle and with it will cease the terrible and useless evils it produces. And people are already beginning to understand this. This, for instance, is what a citizen of the United States writes: 'We are farmers, mechanics, merchants, manufacturers, teachers, and all we ask is the privilege of attending to our own business. 'We own our homes.. love our friends, are devoted to our families, and do not interfere with our neighbours- we have work to do and wish to work. 'Leave us alone! 'But they will not-these politicians. They insist on governing us and living off our labour. They tax us, eat our substance, conscript us, draft our boys into their wars. All the myriads of men who live off the Government depend upon the Government to tax us, and, in order to tax us successfully, standing armies are maintained. The plea that the army is needed for the protection of the country is pare fraud and pretence. The French Government affrights the people by telling them that the Germans are ready and anxious to fall upon them; the Russians fear the British; the British fear everybody; and now in America we are told we must increase our navy and add to our army because Europe may at any moment combine against us. 'This is fraud and untruth. No plain people in France, Germany, England, and America are opposed to war. We only wish to be let alone. Men with wives, children, sweethearts, homes, aged parents, do not want to go off and fight someone. We are peaceable and we fear war; we bate it. 'We would like to obey the Golden Rule. 'War is the sure result of the existence of armed men. That country which maintains a large standing army will sooner or later have a war on hand. 'The man who prides himself on fisticuffs is going some day to meet a man who considers himself the better man, and they will fight. Germany and France have no issue save a desire to see which is the better mail. They have fought many times--and they will fight again. Not that the people want to fight; but the Superior Class fan fright into fury, and make men think they must fight to protect their homes. So the people who wish to follow the teachings of Christ are not allowed to do so, but are taxed, outraged, deceived by Governments. 'Christ taught humility, meekness, the forgiveness of one's enemies, and that to kill was wrong. The Bible teaches men not to swear; but the Superior Class swear us on the Bible in which they do not believe. 'The question is, flow are we to relieve ourselves of these cormorants who toil not, but who are clothed in broadcloth and blue, with brass buttons and many costly accoutrements; who feed upon our substance, and for whom we delve and dig? 'Shall we fight them? 'No, we do not believe in bloodshed; and besides that, they have the guns and the money, and they can hold out longer than we. 'But who composes this army that they would order to fire upon us? 'Why, our neighbours and brothers-deceived into the idea that they are doing God's service by protecting their country from its enemies. When the fact is, our country has no enemies save the Superior Class, that pretends to look out for our interests if we will only obey and consent to be taxed. 'Thus do they siphon our resources and turn our true brothers upon us to subdue and humiliate us. You cannot send a telegram to your wife, nor an express package to your friend, nor draw a cheque for your grocer, until you first pay the tax to maintain armed men, who can quickly be used to kill you; and who surely will imprison you if you do not pay. 'The only relief lies in education. Educate men that it is wrong to kill. Teach them the Golden Rule, and yet again teach them the Golden Rule. Silently defy this Superior Class by refusing to bow down to supporting the preachers their fetich of bullets. Cease supporting the preachers who cry for war and spout patriotism for a consideration. Let them go to work as we do. We believe in Christ--they do not. Christ spoke what lie thought; they speak what they think will please the men in power--the Superior Class. 'We will not enlist. We will not shoot on their order. We will not "charge bayonet" upon a mild and gentle people. We will not fire upon shepherds and farmers, fighting for their firesides, upon a suggestion of Cecil Rhodes. Your false cry of " Wolf! wolf!" shall not alarm us. We pay your taxes only because we have to, and we will pay no longer than we have to. We will pay no pew-rents, no tithes to your sham. charities, and we will speak our minds upon occasion. 'We will educate men. And all the time our silent influence will be going out, and even the men who are conscripted will be halfhearted and refuse to fight. We will educate men into the thought that the Christ Life of Peace and Goodwill is better than the Life of Strife, Bloodshed, and War.'"Peace on earth!"--it can only come when men do away with armies, and are willing to do unto other men as they would be done by.' So writes a citizen of the United States; and from various sides, in various forms, such voices are sounding. This is what a German soldier writes: 'I went through two campaigns with the Prussian Guards (in 1866 and 1870), and I hate war from the bottom of my soul, for it has made me inexpressibly unfortunate. We wounded soldiers generally receive such a miserable recompense that we have indeed to be ashamed of having once been patriots. I, for instance, get ninepence a day for my right arm, which was shot through at the attack on St. Privat, August 18, 1870. Some bunting dogs have more allowed for their keep, And I have suffered for years from my twice wounded arm. Already in 1866 I took part in the war against Austria, and fought at Trautenau and Koniggratz, and saw horrors enough. In 1870, being in the reserve I was called out again; and, it's like I have already said, I was wounded in the attack at St. Privat: my right arm was twice shot through lengthwise. I had to leave a good place in a brewery, and was unable afterwards to regain it. Since their I have never been able to get on my feet again. The intoxication soon passed, and there was nothing left for the wounded invalid but to keep himself alive on a beggarly pittance eked out by charity.... 'In a world in which people run round like trained animals, and are trot capable of any other idea than that of overreaching one another for the sake of mammon--such a world let people think me a crank; but, for all that, I feel in myself the divine idea of peace, which is so beautifully expressed in the Sermon on the Mount. My deepest conviction is that war is only trade on a larger scale-- the ambitious and powerful trade with the happiness of the peoples. 'And what horrors do we not suffer from it! Never shall I forget the pitiful groans that pierced one to the marrow! 'People who never did each other any harm begin to slaughter one another like wild animals, and petty, slavish souls--implicate the good God, making Him their confederate in such deeds. 'My neighbour in the ranks bad his jaw broken by a bullet. The poor wretch went wild with pain. He ran like a madman, and in the scorching summer heat could not even get water to cool his horrible wound. Our commander, the Crown Prince (who was afterwards the noble Emperor Frederick), wrote in his diary War--is an irony oil the Gospels."...' People are beginning to understand the fraud of patriotism, in which all the Governments take such pains to keep them involved. VIII. 'But,' it is usually asked, 'what will there be instead of Governments?' There will be nothing. Something that has long been useless, and therefore superfluous and bad, will be abolished. An organ that, being unnecessary, has become harmful, will be abolished. 'But,' people generally say, 'if there is no Government, people will violate and kill each other.' Why? Why should the abolition of the organization which arose in consequence of violence, and which has been handed down from generation to generation to do violence--why should the abolition of such all organization, now devoid of use, cause people to outrage and kill one another? On the contrary, the presumption is that the abolition of the organ of violence would result in people ceasing to violate and kill one another. Now, some men are specially educated and trained to kill and to do violence to other people-there are men who are supposed to have a right to use violence, and who make use of an organization which exists for that purpose.
’ll either: Under-fragment your application so you won’t see the benefit of microservices. Over-fragment your application, which means the weight of managing the microservice itself will destroy the value the microservice can provide (Avi Cavale). It’s crucial to have a very clear philosophy of how the microservice characteristic looks for your company. How do you do it? A micro case study “We determined what a microservice is by looking at what pieces of code, if changed, ended up creating exponential test cases. We started taking those out because our goal was to reduce the amount of testing we had do for every single change we make. If that is your goal, then what you define as a microservice is different than when somebody says, ‘I want billing to be a microservice.’” - Avi Cavale, Co-founder & CEO at Shippable 👉 Recommended reading: Microservices vs. Monolithic architecture Advantages of microservices Scalability: You have small pieces you can analyse to see what requirement each piece has. It enables you to scale different parts of your application separately. “The other big benefit for me is that I can scale these containers outside of any VM. I can put containers in any kind of configuration I want so I have complete portability of my application.” - Steven McCord, Founder and CTO at ICX Media Easier maintainability: Let different teams work on different components in a more-or-less independent manner. Deploying and configuring without much distractions: You can deploy and configure tiny pieces of your system without affecting other services. Multiple teams can deliver multiple results to production without interfering and stepping on each other’s’ toes. Problem isolation: Much easier to isolate and detect problems. Easier hiring: When you’re looking for developers or third-party providers, you only need to train them for a small part of the system. Responsibilities are clearly defined: One team is responsible for a given microservice. Deep knowledge: The team working on it knows it inside-out. Wide variety of programming languages: You can use different programming languages, depending on what best serves the microservice's purpose. Easier to oversee and understand: You can split your huge code base to smaller projects. This approach allows you and your team to understand the project and its code better. Easier to open up components: It’s way easier to open up components or existing functionalities to new business units or external entities when the boundaries and interfaces are clearly defined. Disadvantages of microservices Deployment and interoperability: The drawback here is that deployment and interoperability become chief concerns. Too many programing languages: This can limit your code reusability as well as maintainability and it could make hiring more complicated. Making components work together: You always need to ensure that your services are composed in a way they work together. Just think about changing a single endpoint which would break other depending services in older versions. Harder to do integration tests of the whole system compared to a monolithic system where everything is in one place. Architecture has to be well-thought through from the beginning: If there is too much cohesion among the services, you lose most if not all the advantages. Requires more effort in communication: There is an associated cost related to the investment you have to make in terms of communication between the services. Lots of failures can happen between the communication of the services. Difficult to monitor the whole system: You have a lot of pieces altogether which could be a nightmare to monitor. Takes time to learn: Using a microservice requires learning, and that takes time. Complexity: Having more and more microservices makes the whole system more complex and harder to oversee the whole operation. “All these pieces are lying around. If you don’t have very good engineering processes, you will end up with a whole bunch of things lying around that may never be used at all.” - Avi Cavale, Co-founder & CEO at Shippable “Debugging production issues on a microservices-based platform is a completely different opera. Without proper monitoring, logging and tracing facilities, the complexity of your system grows significantly. It’s like going through a maze. Engineering practices and standardization become critical.” - Daniel Ben-Zvi, VP of R&D at SimilarWeb Logging to one place is challenging. Third party log aggregation services like Loggly, Splunk or Heroku are very good solutions but they do come at very hefty price. In my experience telemetry specially centralized logging is a biggest pain. You have to think of verbosity level of each service. If you don't, you might end up paying 50-60% of your cost in logging infra only. (Sonu Kumar, Site Reliability Engineer at Microsoft) When it comes to switching to a microservice, these are the top challenges tech leaders and developer teams could face. Challenge 1: Switch the system all at once Challenge 2: Splitting the system Challenge 3: Organizational buy-in Challenge 4: Team 🔴 Challenge 1: Switch your system all at once “Switching from a monolithic architecture to a microservice architecture is not something you can do all at once. If you have a monolithic server, you probably have repositories, deployment tasks, monitoring and many other things tightly set up around it. Changing that all together is not easy.” - Brujo Benavides, Ex-CTO at Inaka “If a company never had any experience with microservices, even a green field project would be harder than they think.” - Viktor Tusa, DevOps Engineer at LogMeIn ✅ Possible solution What we did back then was to keep the monolithic server in place but any new addition was developed as a microservice, so that eventually things were drained out of the original server until it ended up being only the oldest and biggest of our microservices. (Brujo Benavides) 🔴 Challenge 2: Splitting system It can be pretty challenging to isolate components and services if they have been glued together since the beginning of a project. (Robert Aistleitner). You need to define the interaction and processes between the pieces. If you don't define in a good way, your system will generate more problems. (Jose Alvarez, Senior Developer at StyleSage) “There is no pattern; there are many different rules for splitting a system into microservices but no one will tell you how you should do it in case of your application. There is no two identical microservices.” - David Papp, Chief Architect at Recart ✅ Possible solution “The only way to split a monolithic system into microservices is to inspect the monolithic system first to see where it ‘hurts’ the most. These parts of the system should be taken out and transformed into a microservice.” - Andras Fincza, VP of Engineering at Emarsys If you don't monitor appropriately, you won’t see how your system works. Monitor how all the pieces are working and what they’re doing. If you monitor your system, you can detect and solve problems easily. (Jose Alvarez) Incrementally, module by module is the best way to split a monolithic system. If you want to do everything at once, you will certainly fail. Tool tips for monitoring: New Relic Datadog Influxdb Grafana 🔴 Challenge 3: Organizational buy-in “Getting organizational buy-in is probably the hardest part.” - Steven McCord, Founder and CTO at ICX Media It’s not a technological decision. You’ll need to clearly state the benefits of a microservice architecture to persuade your company to reallocate resources. It’s a long, tedious process until a change like this is accepted in an organization, and the larger the organization, the longer that decision can take. ✅ Possible solution The best way to convince your organization to switch to a microservice is to transform just one, non-critical part of your system into a microservice. This way you can demonstrate its advantages using a real, working microservice. 🔴 Challenge 4: Team “The biggest challenge happens with the team itself because it requires different thinking.” - Avi Cavale, Co-founder & CEO at Shippable Developers have to spend a lot more time understanding what is an end-to-end scenario. They need to be familiar with the technologies and it might require switching mindsets, which takes time. It is uncomfortable for people who have been working in a world where they can do end-to-end tests and now you’re suddenly breaking it down into small pieces. It’s more of a cultural change. (Avi Cavale) ✅ Possible solution Start with something very small, where you can really benefit from it and select something that’s not a critical part of your application. Get a small team and transform that part of the app into a microservice. Prove that it’s actually better and scale that out to the organization, step by step (Avi Cavale). “Avoid switching the entire system at once to microservices.” - Andras Fincza, VP of Engineering at Emarsys “I guess the biggest mistake you can make is that you haven't created an overview of the implications a change to a microservice architecture can have. There are a lot of moving parts that you have to include before actually starting to implement the new approach.” - Robert Aistleitner, VP of Engineering at Usersnap “With a monolith, it’s easy to change an internal interface; you just refactor your code end to end and run your tests. With microservices, your API must be gold. It’s relied upon and you’re not necessarily aware of all your clients. Moving without API future proofing is going to create lots of headaches in the future. Also, make sure you have a distributed tracing system in place.” - Daniel Ben-Zvi, VP of R&D at SimilarWeb “Avoid trying to switch to microservices without figuring out the platform and the dependencies. Also, believing that microservices are good because every microservice can be written in a different language is a bad practice.” - Viktor Tusa, DevOps Engineer at LogMeIn “Handling data is crucial. It’s pretty easy to screw up data but really hard to restore. Data migration should happen in more steps.” - Andras Fincza, VP of Engineering at Emarsys “Sharing data between microservices is a big no-no. If two services are manipulating the same data, you will start experiencing consistency issues and disambiguate ownership.” - Daniel Ben-Zvi & Varun Villait "Breaking an application into too many and too small pieces or forcing to transform a system into microservices that shouldn’t be a microservice - just because of the hype".- Csaba Kassai, Lead Developer at Doctusoft Creating isolation between microservices enables them to be changed as fast as you need them to be. This generally requires isolation at several levels: Runtime Processes: This is the most obvious, and one that’s commonly adopted quickly. Where before you had one process, now you have many. The primary cost here is adopting some form of distributed computing, which is hard to do right. This may lead you to adopting containerisation, event architectures, various http management approaches, service meshes, and circuit breakers. Team/ Cultural. Separating teams, to give you autonomy, means you partition your human-to-human communication. This tends to lead to knowledge silos and duplication of work (a working out of the optionality vs resource efficiency choice). Recommended reading: Programming as Theory Building by Peter Naur Data. The largest impact of adopting a distributed computing approach like microservices is in the way it affects your data. You have partitioned your data in some form, and so you need to re-integrate it at the system level to give the impression of “a system.” This gives you some interesting potential benefits in regard to scaling, but it also needs much more thought than a simple monolithic approach to data architecture. (David Dawson) This is where different opinions begin to collide... On one side, people argue that it doesn’t matter what technology and programing language you use. “Almost every problem can be solved with any technology. Others spend too much time finding the right technology but if you do it in an iterative way, you have time to think it through and see it in action. This way, bad decisions can be mitigated.” - Andras Fincza, VP of Engineering at Emarsys “Most of the big modern languages (Python, Java, C#, Node/JavaScript) are equally fast and scalable. From that perspective, the language does not matter. Every language has their pros and cons; most of the time, the language selection is based on personal preferences instead of technical arguments.” - Viktor Tusa, DevOps Engineer at LogMeIn Spending a lot of time on selecting the best technology isn’t worth it since the differences are minor. “The importance of selecting a technology is too overvalued. If the running costs are important, then it can be acceptable but it doesn’t matter that much for us.” - Andras Fincza, VP of Engineering at Emarsys “If it is a greenfield project, then I use the language my programmers know the most. If it is not a greenfield project, then I use the language that has the best coverage on client side for the business entities in the system.” - Viktor Tusa, DevOps Engineer at LogMeIn “The good thing about microservice is its encapsulated in a microservice as long as you give an external microservice interface to talk to that thing. I don’t really care as long as they have an interface.” - Steven McCord, Founder and CTO at ICX Media Selecting the appropriate technology isn’t just a technological question but also a hiring decision. If you choose a microservice architecture with 10 different programing languages, you need to make sure your team is able to handle that. “I wouldn't recommend mixing too many programming languages because hiring people gets more difficult. Also, the context switches for your programmers would slow down development.” - Robert Aistleitner, VP of Engineering at Usersnap “You have to make a conscious choice of what type of development team you want to build. If you want to use many different programming languages, you need to build a dynamic team that’s able to use and learn different programming languages.” - Steven McCord, Founder and CTO at ICX Media Some technology suggestions: “I highly recommend to use managed services such as AppEngine in the Google Cloud Platform. It will take a lot of the burden from your shoulders. Also, when selecting language/technology/framework it’s always important to select the appropriate one for that specific microservice use case, don’t force a something just because you’re familiar with it.”- Csaba Kassai, Lead Developer at Doctusoft From Brujo Benavides On the other hand, some tech leaders were happy to recommend some technologies that could be a good fit for a microservice that serves a specific role. When selecting a technology for a microservice, it’s recommended to consider: Maintainability Fault-tolerance Scalability Cost of architecture Ease of deployment Some examples of frameworks/ technologies Brujo’s team uses for microservices: Scrapy for web crawling Celery + RabbitMQ to communicate the microservices NLTK + Tensorflow (and some others) in the Machine Learning part AWS services 👉 Recommended reading: Technology selection case study for cloud-based apps When selecting a programing language/technology for your microservice, there are many things you need to consider. One of the most important thing is to see what competencies your developers have and how big support (tools, community...) is behind a language/technology. According to my experience, companies tend to select a programming language according to the competencies its developers have." - Csaba Kassai, Lead Developer at Doctusoft “Use technology that has a lot of support (resources and active community) behind it. I would recommend Ruby and JavaScript because you get a lot of support and lot of people could help you if anything goes wrong. I think as long as you make sure there is a lot of people using it, undertaking a language shouldn’t be a problem. Because in this case, you can rely on external resources if your team doesn’t possess that knowledge.” - Varun Villait, CEO at Industry “Another factor may be what libraries exist for a language that could be used to speed the project up. Your ideal choice of language may not have libraries for certain things that you may have to invent yourself, which could be another time drain. Obviously, things like fault-tolerance and scalability should be a big factor too. If you’re going to have to re-write something from scratch a few months from now because the initial choice can’t scale, then you might be better off biting the bullet earlier. I think it all comes down to a specific teams situation and the investments they are willing to make.” - Greg Neiheisel, Co-Founder & CTO at Astronomer This is how this process looks at Emarsys: At Emarsys, if they want to apply a new programming language, developers need to provide real, logical reasons and consult with lead developers. The team gathers together and discusses the pros and cons of a technology. They always create a spike solution with different technologies. This lets them experiment with the boundaries of a given technology and see if it can be applied for a given microservice. This is perfect for uncovering the limitations of a technology. “It’s recommended to use the language your team is already familiar with. This way they can work more comfortably and progress faster.” - Andras Fincza, VP of Engineering at Emarsys This is how they do it at SimilarWeb: As a big data and analytics company, we deal with very large-scale challenges, which increase the risk and impact of choosing the wrong technology. A single threaded framework, such as NodeJS, while great for network bound services, will not scale when dealing with real-time intensive data processing. Engineers determine which technology to use by balancing between the tactical and strategic needs and by looking at both the technical and organizational constraints. Are we in a rapid prototyping phase? Does the service deal with large amounts of data? Do we want to add a new technology to our stack because we believe in its ecosystem or do we use existing technologies we have already mastered? Do we want to experiment? Can we find engineers who are passionate about it? Are we willing to commit to this technology in the long term? The ecosystem of a technology is a major factor. We want to engage with the open source community and rather use and contribute to existing frameworks than reinvent the wheel. In general, we don’t want to be spread too thin; otherwise, you don’t gain the expertise. Defining clear guidelines, even a checklist, can help facilitate a healthy decision-making process and narrow down the possible technological options to select the one that’s probably the best fit for your team and for the product. David Dawson’s suggestion for selecting technologies: 1. From a data architecture point of view, you need something that can provide data you can easily synchronise into some consistently usable state across a network between services. There are a variety of approaches for that, which is what I’m actually looking for in my microservice deployments. So, you can observe the various frameworks and technologies for implementing these kinds of patterns (this is where techs such as Kafka, Spring Data Flow, Akka and friends sit). 2. Once we have decided on these patterns and approaches, you then mesh that with what resources you have available. If you have decided on a data flow approach with lots of reactive programming, and you already have Java devs, then it makes sense to pick Spring, Spring Cloud Data Flow, and Kafka and probably to deploy onto some form of Cloud Foundry (if you can get it!). If you need lots of heavier data transforms, bring in Spark, or Kafka Streams to help with that. If you have JavaScript developers, then that would not make sense. Instead, you would look to adopt some functional language on the JS runtime (clojurescript, etc.), again using some similar reactive integration tech (Kafka is certainly making waves in this space) and taking it from there. Key takeaways: Do not stress about selecting the perfect technology. Take an iterative, experimental approach instead. Every microservice architecture is unique; the selected technology should be aligned with the system’s needs. Keep in mind that too many different technologies make hiring more complicated. Did you like this post? Please, help us by sharing it. Microservice Architecture: All the Best Practices You Need to Know #microservicehttps://t.co/sbyMbzhW7s pic.twitter.com/5HRWjKtcOp — CodingSans (@codingsans) 30 November 2017 Conclusion When it comes to switching to a microservice architecture, there are many challenges. Before you start transforming your system into microservices, make sure to have real reasons why you want to do it. Going through the advantages and disadvantages could be a big help. Instead of following the latest hype, you need to consider the unique features of your system first and only change the part of the system that hurts the most. Starting with a microservice architecture from scratch isn’t recommended since clearly defining the boundaries of a microservice at the beginning is difficult. If you decide to switch to a microservice, take an incremental approach and take out a small, non-critical part of your system to see how it works. This also serves as a good way to get organizational buy-in for creating more microservices. There is no one best way to select the perfect technology for a microservice. Every technology-related decision is influenced by your team’s current knowledge and also by the company’s future hiring plans. In some cases, selecting a technology for a microservice is more of a hiring decision, and it’s up to you what kind of developer team you want to build in the future. For narrowing down the possible technologies, Andras Fincza from Emarsys, Daniel Ben-Zvi from SimilarWeb and David Dawson provided a short process you can easily apply.BILL DWYRE This boxer's back story is one for the books A Dec. 14 undercard bout on Showtime promises to raise the profile of Beibut Shumenov, a multilingual millionaire businessman-attorney from Kazakhstan. Real recognition will come as success prompts more of the media to learn his story. His is not your usual boxing yarn — kid grows up poor, fights his way out and parlays his anger into millions in the ring. Shumenov had childhood setbacks, but any millions he makes in the boxing ring will merely supplement those already there. He hopes his road to recognition will begin Dec. 14 in San Antonio, where he will fight on the undercard of the Adrien Broner-Marcos Maidana match and be seen on Showtime. Ask American boxing fans about Shumenov and the response will be the same. He is 30 and won his first pro title in just his eighth fight, a near-record pace. But Shumenov is a man in an even bigger hurry, not only to improve on his 13-1 record, but to emerge from the shadows of the sport. He is a boxer, the light-heavyweight champion of the world in two sanctioning bodies. LAS VEGAS — Beibut Shumenov might be the most interesting man in the world who doesn't have a TV commercial to tout that. He is a son of a government accountant in Kazakhstan, which was part of the old Soviet Union. His wasn't a wealthy family, but they lived comfortably. As a child, his biggest scare was medical, not financial. With his parents away for a couple of weeks, two aunts watching him accidentally poisoned him with bad milk. His parents returned to a child turning blue and shriveling up. They rushed him to a hospital and were told he wouldn't make it. He did, but only after they put an IV in his skull. He was told he would always be small and should steer clear of physically taxing things. He is 6 feet 2 and fights at 175 pounds. His one sibling, younger brother Chingas, is 6-5 and 230. He has responded with a training routine of near fanatical workouts. The rest of his inspiration comes from seeing a film one day of a Mike Tyson fight. "From then on," Shumenov says, "I just wanted to be a fighter." When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Shumenov and his family were free of Communism, but also without jobs. It got so bad they had to knock on relatives' doors to ask for food. Usually, they were turned down. The worm turned quickly. Shumenov's parents, Amirkhan and Saule, turned their Soviet work ethic into the wonders of capitalism. Now his family, with ownership of large marketplaces and construction businesses in the city of Shymkent, is among the wealthiest in the country. Relatives who had turned his family down for food are not treated similarly. "I still have trouble with that," Shumenov says of his parents' generosity to those relatives. He and Chingas are lawyers. Beibut remains closely involved in the family business and talks nearly every night by phone to Chingas. So important were he and his family connections to the national psyche of Kazakhstan that the day of his second-round match in the Athens Olympics in 2004, the country's president came to give him a pep talk. Unknown to all was that Shumenov had broken his hand in his first match and would fight with only his left hand. He lost, thought he had let down an entire country and quit caring, even ballooning to 230 pounds. But in 2007, after winning his pro debut in North Carolina, he came to Las Vegas, mostly because that's where boxers are. He spoke no English (he speaks five languages today), knew almost no one and decided to stay. Now, the story really gets good. He lives in a 9,654-square-foot house on Coast Line Drive in northwest Las Vegas. The address is strange for a city in a desert, until you realize the property is on a man-made lake with expensive boats docked out back.(CNN) -- Suspected Al Qaeda militants disguised as security forces launched an explosive assault on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, Wednesday killing 10 Yemeni police and civilians, officials said. The attack involved two car bombs, a spokesman for Yemen's embassy in Washington said. Six attackers, including a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest, were also killed in the attack, Mohammed al-Basha said. There were at least four explosions -- including at least one car bomb -- and sniper fire, a senior State Department official said. Yemeni officials said the first car contained people in police uniforms who exchanged fire with Yemeni security forces, the officials said. The second car exploded after it passed an outermost gate to the Embassy but before it reached a second protective barrier, the officials said. But al-Basha said there were two cars packed with explosives involved in the attack. The heavily fortified compound in the capital of Yemen -- the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- has previously been targeted in attacks. Watch the aftermath of the attack » A U.S. official told CNN the attackers initially opened fire outside the embassy's security gate, then there was the main explosion followed by a secondary explosion. At some point, snipers positioned across the street from the embassy opened fire on Yemeni first responders as they arrived on the scene, the official said. Those killed include six Yemeni policemen and four civilians, he said, noting that the number of wounded is unclear. No U.S. Embassy employees were killed, the official added. However, CNN affilliate WGRZ reported that Ahmed Elbaneh of Lackawanna, New York, said his sister, Susan, 18, and her new husband died in the attack. Elbaneh said his sister left Lackawanna about a month ago for an arranged marriage and that she had been married for only 30 days. Elbaneh said family members in Yemen told him she was at the embassy translating for her new sister-in-law when the blast occurred. Yemen believes al Qaeda is responsible for the attack, al-Basha said. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the the explosions "bear the hallmarks of an al Qaeda attack." And Al-Basha said in a statement: "The government of Yemen considers terrorism as a crime against humanity. It strongly condemns this heinous attack. Whoever else who may have planned, plotted and supported the perpetrators of this terrorist attack will be apprehended and justice will prevail." Media reports said Islamic Jihad in Yemen -- which is affiliated with al Qaeda -- has claimed responsibility for the attack, but CNN could not independently confirm those reports. The U.S. State Department said it is sending a team of law enforcement and security experts to help in the investigation, spokesman Sean McCormack said. Trev Mason, a British national who lives near the embassy, said he saw "a massive fireball" near compound. Eyewitness tells of fireball outside embassy » "We heard the sounds of a heavy gun battle going on," he told CNN. "I looked out my window, and we saw the first explosion going off -- a massive fireball very close to the U.S. Embassy. "The gun battle went on for a further 10 to 15 minutes, followed by two further loud explosions." The first explosion happened about 9:15 a.m. Wednesday (0615 GMT/2.15 am ET) and was followed by several secondary blasts, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Ryan Gliha. Gliha describes the aftermath » Gliha was at the embassy at the time of the attack and said he felt the compound shake. "We were all ordered to assume what we call a duck-and-cover position which is a position where we guard ourselves and bodies from potential debris," Gliha told CNN. "From that vantage point, I can't tell you much after that except we did feel several explosions after the main explosion that shook the ground." Al-Basha called it a "despicable and heinous act" particularly because it took place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. President Bush condemned the attack, and warned that it is "a reminder that we are at war with extremists who will murder innocent people to achieve their ideological objectives." "One objective... is they will try to cause the United States to lose our nerve," he said. "We want people to be able to live normal lives; we want mothers to be able to raise their sons and daughters." A senior State Department official told reporters Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a phone call with Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh expressed regret for the loss of Yemeni life but also underscored the need to increase and improve cooperation against terrorism. Witnesses told CNN they heard gunfire, and said they saw ambulances rushing from the scene. The U.S. State Department has warned of violence that it attributes to Islamic extremists in Yemen. It has cited concern "about possible attacks by extremist individuals or groups against U.S. citizens, facilities, businesses and perceived interests." The State Department ordered the departure of all non-emergency American staff from the Embassy, along with their family members, in April, after attacks against the Embassy and a residential compound. That order was lifted last month. In March, three mortar rounds landed near the Embassy, injuring Yemeni students at a nearby school and Yemeni government security personnel, the State Department said. The next month, an expatriate residential compound in the Hadda neighborhood was attacked by mortar fire. Suspected extremists fired two mortar rounds toward the Yemen Customs Authority and Italian Embassy in April, as well, but no one was hurt. Authorities in Yemen have been struggling to curb the activities of al Qaeda-linked groups, with militants seen as having free rein outside major cities, says CNN's International Security Correspondent Paula Newton. Watch Newton analyze the situation in Yemen. » CNN's Zain Verjee, Caroline Faraj and Mark Bixler contributed to this report Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. All About Al Qaeda • YemenToledo police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man outside of Intensity CrossFit gym on Warehouse Road early Monday. Emergency responders received reports of the shooting shortly before 6 a.m. and found the man in critical condition. Lt. Mark King of the Toledo Police Department confirmed that the victim died not long after. Police identified the victim as the gym's owner, 57-year-old Joseph Lengel. When officers responded to the scene, they found Lengel lying on the ground, being helped by gym members. He was transported to a Toledo hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. Facebook users began leaving condolence messages for Lengel on the early Monday. "I had the pleasure of meeting Joe earlier this year during a few drop-ins while visiting family in Toledo. It was not hard to see what an inspiration he must be to his Crossfit family. I feel privileged to have known him. Hill Country Crossfit sends our deepest condolances. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all," one user wrote. Police said the shooting could have been a robbery, but they cannot confirm anything until after analyzing security camera footage.A former Republican attorney general who spoke at this summer’s GOP national convention warned that Donald Trump’s vow to imprison Hillary Clinton represents a “watershed” moment in American politics and could lead to the world perceiving the U.S. to be a “banana republic.” Michael Mukasey, an ex-U.S. attorney general who served under President George W. Bush, told NPR Monday that he initially deemed the GOP nominee’s line at Sunday’s debate that Clinton would ‘be in jail” under a President Trump to be a quip, but had become concerned about Trump’s promise to have his attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to re-open the case on Clinton’s private email server. “But then you have to determine whether the bringing of charges is proper,” Mukasey said, as he outlined what such a process would look like. “And then you start to get into questions of policy and whether doing that would make us look like a banana republic, which I think it would.” Mukasey has been critical Clinton and her use of the private email server as secretary of state. But he told NPR that it would be inappropriate for a Trump administration to re-open the case after the FBI already decided not to prosecute her. “That’s the – that to me is the – is a watershed event – that is that it’s the president of a different party. That makes it an entirely different kind of exercise in my view,” Mukasey said. Mukasey went on to confirm that he had not endorsed either presidential candidate, while adding that he had lent advice to anyone who sought it. He spoke at the GOP convention in July even though, back in January, he wrote in the National Review that a Trump presidency would “imperil” the country. Mukasey is a longtime associate of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a top Trump adviser, and his son works for Giuliani’s law firm. Mukasey is not the only former GOP-appointed Department of Justice official to raise concerns about this Trump line of attack. Paul Charlton, a U.S. attorney for Arizona under President George W. Bush, told Politico the rhetoric was “wholly inappropriate and the kind of talk more befitting a Third World country than it is our democracy.”Michael Dunn, who killed Jordan Davis in argument over loud ‘rap-crap’ music, to be retried after first jury failed to reach verdict A Florida man who shot dead a black teenager in an argument over loud rap music blaring from a car returned to court on Monday for a new trial, seven months after a jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of first-degree murder. Michael Dunn, 47, claimed he was acting in self-defence when he fired 10 shots at an SUV containing Jordan Davis, 17, and three of his friends at a Jacksonville petrol station in November 2012. Although the jury at Dunn’s February trial convicted him of three counts of attempted murder, for which he has yet to be sentenced, they could not agree on the murder charge despite more than 30 hours of deliberations. Davis’s family called it an “injustice” that they hope to see corrected at Dunn’s retria, which began with jury selection Monday morning at Jacksonville’s Duval County courthouse with jury selection. The same prosecution team from the February mistrial, led by state attorney Angela Corey, will present a case playing into themes of race and Florida’s self-defence and gun control laws. “We have a problem in America with who gets the benefit of the doubt,” John Phillips, a Jacksonville lawyer who represents Ron Davis and Lucia McBath, Davis’s parents, told the Guardian on Monday. “If Michael Dunn, a middle-aged, white software designer, walks in front of your car, you think nothing of it, but if it’s a black teenager like Jordan Davis he is all too often falsely perceived as more of a threat. “We hope the jury sees and hears more about the overall picture of Michael Dunn and Jordan Davis. Jordan was a good kid. He did nothing to warrant his death that night.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ronald Davis, the father of slain teen Jordan Davis, talks to the media outside Duval County courthouse. Photograph: Bob Self/AP At the original trial, Dunn claimed he had “respectfully” asked the teenagers to turn down the music in their red Dodge Durango after he and his girlfriend Rhonda Rouer pulled in next to them at the gas station, but that his request was met with aggression. Dunn, who said he’d stopped for wine and snacks on his way to a hotel after his son’s wedding, insisted he opened fire only after he saw Davis pointing what looked to be a shotgun at him. His lawyer Cory Strolla told the jury that Dunn was being threatened and had no duty to retreat under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. But police found no weapon in the teenagers’ SUV, and prosecutor Erin Wolfson portrayed Dunn as a loose cannon who “lost it because he was disrespected by a mouthy teenager”. Forensic evidence showed that Dunn continued firing his 9mm handgun at the back of the SUV even it was speeding away. After the shooting, Dunn and Rouer left the scene but witnesses took his vehicle’s tag number and he was arrested the following morning at his home in Satellite Beach, Florida, 175 miles away. In testimony, Dunn said he was “crazy with grief” when he learned Davis was dead. He also denied calling the rap “thug music” but admitted he thought it was “rap-crap” and that it was “ridiculously loud”. Trial judge Russell Healey denied a motion from Dunn’s new defence lawyer, Waffa Hanania, to move the trial away from Jacksonville because of concerns that it would be impossible to seat an impartial jury. But Healey said he would reconsider if jury selection, which is expected to last several days, proved impossible. The trial will hear testimony from dozens of witnesses and could last several weeks. At its conclusion, Dunn will be sentenced for the February convictions. He faces up to 20 years each for the attempted second-degree murders of Davis’s friends, and an additional 15 years for firing into a vehicle. Davis’s parents are now activists for stricter gun control laws and have addressed Congressional hearings. Last month Ron Davis was in Ferguson
changing and what does it all come down to at the end of the day? It comes down to the songs.” Madonna is due to release ‘Rebel Heart’ on March 9. On Christmas Day, 14 tracks supposedly taken from the record were leaked, while six unfinished demos were previously released without the singer’s consent earlier in 2014.The Stanford GSB lecturer and chairman of JetBlue airlines explains how to bring the best people on board. Don't fall into the trap of selecting candidates who look and act like you do. (Getty Images) Nothing is more important than hiring. Nothing. Who you decide to hire impacts every part of your organization: from its values and vision to its ability to innovate, adapt and survive. You can't hire great people if you're just filling positions on a piece of paper. People aren't interchangeable cogs in a machine. The wrong people don't fit at all, and just end up gumming up the works. But the right person brings a special kind of harmony to the way things run — she'll come up with all kinds of new ideas and invent brilliant ways to improve the business. Like a good investment, these people pay off far more than anyone expects. But also like a good investment, finding a great person takes diligence, care and often time. It means locating the best candidates, interviewing them carefully, doing in-depth reference checking, and coaching them well once they're on board. In the coming days, I'll post ten of the most common — and most critical — mistakes that hiring managers make. Here's the first one: #1: Hiring Yourself, Over and Over Don't fall into the trap of selecting candidates who look and act like you do. Many new CEOs I know are too easily impressed by candidates who went to the same business school as they did, or worked at a company they worked at, or grew up in the same part of the U.S. There's plenty of research to show that we evaluate people more positively when we feel they're more like us. Similarities in experience, attitude, political views, and physical appearance all increase the likelihood that people will "connect" — even if those similarities are hiding weaknesses that make the person ill-suited for the job. From the factory floor to the executive suite, no manager is immune from feeling comfortable with the familiar. For one thing, we tend to like people who affirm our opinions and decisions. And we tend to be able to communicate more easily with people who share our background, language, and belief system. Better communication means fewer conflicts, and if we feel like we're going to get along with one hire better than the other, that's a hard impulse to ignore. But ignore it you should. At the worst, an unchecked tendency to hire people just like you can be discriminatory; if it means you're excluding people because they're different, that can spell legal trouble. You want to work with a group of people who challenge each others' perspectives, and push each other beyond perceived limitations. Joel Peterson, consulting professor More important, building a homogeneous organization is just bad business. You won't have the variety of perspectives, backgrounds, and skills that are invaluable when you're up against big problems, or facing big opportunities. You want to work with a group of people who challenge each others' perspectives, and push each other beyond perceived limitations. The value of a great hire becomes clear when people on your team are forced out of their comfort zone by an infusion of new ideas. That's when the world begins to look a little different. This post originally appeared on LinkedIn. Follow Joel's influencer column.The Arizona secretary of state this week shot down claims that a Hispanic get-out-the-vote group had committed voter fraud in Yuma County, in the race for the seat held by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D). As we reported earlier this week, right-wing blogs were claiming that the SEIU-affiliated Mi Familia Vota had committed voter fraud by submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms to the county. But the group hadn’t submitted new voter registrations — instead, they were signing up already registered voters to the permanent early voting list, meaning they’d get an early ballot mailed to them every year. The top county elections official said that there was no evidence of fraud.Now the top elections official in the state is chiming in. Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a Republican who’s been endorsed for his re-election campaign by Gov. Jan Brewer and Sen. John McCain, released a statement saying the allegations are “without merit” and debunking them one by one. “I take seriously any allegations of fraud in our election process,” he said. “As soon as these accusations came to light, we got in contact with elections officials in Yuma County and across Arizona to determine if a fraudulent scheme was afoot. With our initial inquiry complete, I’m happy to report that these latest allegations of rampant registration fraud are without merit.” “Why make our findings public? Because the truth matters. Unfounded rumors and undue allegations only serve to weaken public faith in our elections, which are one of the underpinnings of our representative democracy.”(Optional Video Accompaniment To This Post) Let us take one more tour of the battlefield before we retire to the gift shoppe at Ronnieworld to pick up some Fawn Hall Authorized Confetti (Guaranteed 100 percent Genuine Secret Government Documents!) or, perhaps, for the kids, a Junior TOW Missile Commander suit complete with Iranian flags on the sleeves. What we saw last night, and I stayed awake for the whole damn thing so I now know all I care to know about Chris Christie's secret crush on Abigail Adams, was the triumph of fiction over fact, of fantasy over reality. In other words, what we saw was the most fitting tribute to Ronald Reagan ever produced. Congratulations, one and all. The final fealty of the Republican Party to total and complete bullshit has been sworn. The first time I ever noticed Chris Hayes was because of a terrific piece he wrote for The Nation regarding something called The NAFTA Superhighway. This was a planned project that would be built up through the middle of the North America roughly from El Paso to, I don't know, Winnipeg, I guess, so as to ease the transportation of cheap Mexican goods—and of undocumented immigrants!—around the continent. This, of course, would be done largely for the benefit of the hidden corporate masters of the New World Order. Hayes noticed that the issue had particular political salience, particularly in where-the-fck-else? Kansas. He also noticed that its political salience was not diminished by the fact that the NAFTA Superhighway did…not…exist. (There was a smaller project underway that Hayes correctly pointed out was bad enough.) This was an example of having something exist purely as an issue despite the fact that there was no empirical reality to the problem around which the issue was supposed to center. It was exactly the same as getting elected to the city council of Emporia based on your four-point plan to keep unicorns from grazing on the library lawn. This, of course, occasioned a book on which, if Wednesday night's extended exercises are any indication, I wasted two years of my life. The whole debate was contested on the NAFTA Superhighway and, on that track, Carly Fiorina was Jimmie Johnson in that No. 48 Chevrolet, Bubba. She was steely-eyed in her prevarication. She was relentless in her determination to launch pure crapola into the stratosphere. She smiled rarely. She glowered effectively. The woman stares daggers better than anyone I've ever seen. And, on many occasions, she lied her ass off with a formidable brand of armored certitude. If you eliminate "telling the truth" from the assessment, Carly Fiorina was every bit the winner she is universally acclaimed to be this morning. By far, her most effective falsehood was her thunderous denunciation of what she allegedly "saw" in those phony videos involving Planned Parenthood. Here it is, in its gloriously fact-free entirety: As regards Planned Parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape, I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain. This is about the character of our nation, and if we will not stand up in and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us. OK, let's just state for the record that the scene described by Fiorina in her Grand Guignol palaver does…not…exist, not even in the creatively edited version of the videotapes released by the charlatans at the Center For Medical Progress. (And, as Sarah Kliff points out, Fiorina's sticking by her grisly fiction even when called on it by George Stephanopoulos on Thursday morning. She saw that kicking infant, dammit. Who the hell are you to ask, anyway?) Now, it is important to remember that those phony videos were accepted as being genuine by everyone on the stage in both debates. They all stated their belief that Planned Parenthood is shopping baby parts for profit, which a number of state investigations, and almost every bit of common sense, have determined is not true. At this point, the CMP could create a video of PP doctors eating a baby's liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti, and these people would swear to its authenticity. But Carly Fiorina would be the only one claiming to have a copy of the menu for that particular evening. Read on. There is a monumental question facing political journalists this morning. How do you cover a campaign in which 15 candidates are running on the basis of things that simply are not true, on the basis of things that simply do not exist? There are two choices: call bullshit for what it is, or just surrender to the unceasing barrage of truthless performance art. Here's Ezra Klein, pretty much running up the white flag. This is the second debate Fiorina won. She dominated the JV stage in the Fox News debate, forcing CNN to change the rules to ensure she made the main stage in their event. She validated their decision tonight. She had the crispest answers, received the biggest cheers, and proved the only candidate on the stage capable of standing against Trump. She made everyone else on the stage — especially Trump — look unprepared. But she did it in part by playing fast and loose with the facts. Her barrage of specifics often obscured a curious detachment from reality. If a cop sees someone on the sidewalk evincing a "curious detachment to reality," he will run that person in for medical observation, but read on, and Klein correctly points out that Fiorina doesn't really know what she's talking about. On foreign policy, and on immigration, and on a host of other issues, she simply asserts that which is not true. This has become something of a habit for Fiorina, who has a notable facility for delivering answers that thrill conservatives but fall apart under close examination. In a recent interview with Katie Couric, for instance, Fiorina delivered a four-minute riff on climate change that the National Review enthused "shows how to address the left on climate change." The only problem, as David Roberts pointed out, was that every single thing she said in it was wrong. But if presidential campaigns were decided by fact checkers, Al Gore would have won in a landslide. Were I young Ezra, I would not use the events surrounding the Gore candidacy as precedent for how political reporters should cover presidential campaigns, and Gore did win by half-a-million votes nationwide. If the elite political press is going to treat fiction as fact as long as the fiction is delivered in a compelling, dramatic manner, then the country truly is lost. If Carly Fiorina is adjudged to be the winner of a debate simply because of how "crisply" she delivered lies about Planned Parenthood, or how "forcefully" she responded to a cartoon like Donald Trump, or how "sharply" she presented her nonsense about reining in Vladimir Putin with "aggressive military maneuvers" on his borders, then there is a problem in the political process that is metastasizing by the hour. Ronald Reagan was the index patient for that problem. They truly are his children now.ISLAMABAD (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In late April, after 28 hours of heavy rain, Noor Hussain and his two brothers surveyed his three-hectare wheat plot to see what they could save. An earlier hailstorm had already devastated much of the crop. Now, standing on the fringes of the sodden farm, Hussain despaired. “Look at spikes of the wheat,” he said, pointing out where the heavy weather had broken them off. “Only the small plants in the middle of the plot have survived.” Hussain, 39, estimated 70 percent of the crop was ruined, with harvest only six weeks away. Farmers all over Pakistan are suffering the same heartbreak, as a season of unusually heavy rain and cold weather continues to destroy crops across the country. Heavily in debt and tired of struggling against the worsening effects of climate change, some farmers have decided to abandon crop farming altogether, instead turning to raising cattle and poultry as more reliable sources of income. “How can I keep growing wheat when I have suffered so much economic damage?” asked Hussain, who said erratic rains had been hurting his harvests since 2011. “I will grow wheat on one hectare to meet my family’s food needs and on the rest I will establish a cattle pen and poultry farm,” he said. SWAPPING CROPS FOR CATTLE Speaking to the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone, farmers from districts southeast of Islamabad said that delayed or excessive rains, coupled with heavy hailstorms, have nearly flattened their wheat and mustard crops. “I have no way to pay off my loan, other than resorting to labor at a brick kiln on the outskirts of Islamabad,” said 40-year-old Mujtaba Khan, who wept as he spoke. “I don’t think I will be able to grow crops for the next three years, because it will take too long for me to clear my debt.” Of the dozens of farmers in Punjab province who spoke with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, most have already reduced their crop farming activities and started raising animals. A mushrooming of cattle pens around towns and cities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces reflects a growing resignation among farmers that they can no longer make a living from agriculture, experts said. As unseasonable rain continues, many farmers are still waiting to harvest their crops, three weeks behind schedule. According to farming experts, such delays, as well as hurting harvests, can increase the chances of attack by yellow rust, a fungal disease that hampers photosynthesis and stunts the growth of grain. Ibrahim Mughal, chairperson of the Pakistan Agri Forum, estimates that unwanted rains in northern Punjab and Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces have resulted in losses of up to 50 percent in wheat, mustard, and maize production. The region accounts for over 65 percent of the country’s total wheat production, according to Mughal. “If the rains come a month ahead of harvest time – usually April to mid-May – it is always disastrous,” he said in a telephone interview from Lahore. The Federal Committee on Agriculture had fixed the national wheat production target at 26.3 million tons for the 2014-2015 rabi season, which produces a spring harvest. But officials are pessimistic about achieving those figures. Instead, “we estimate damages of over three million tons to the crop from this year’s odd rainy season,” said Sikandar Hayat Bosan, federal minister for National Food Security and Research. For some of Pakistan’s farmers, this year’s damage is the last straw. In Gujar Khan, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Islamabad, wheat and mustard farmer Fareed Khan lost $325,000 worth of crops to heavy rains. Now he’s converting his farmland into a cattle pen. “How can a farmer like me afford to continue with the cultivation of wheat, when erratic weather has become the foe of farmers?” he asked.Lippisch P.13a Model of Lippisch P13a at the Technik Museum Speyer Role Interceptor Designer Lippisch Status Project Number built 0 Developed from Lippisch DM-1 The Lippisch P.13a was an experimental ramjet-powered delta wing interceptor aircraft designed in late 1944 by Dr. Alexander Lippisch for Nazi Germany. The aircraft never made it past the drawing board, but testing of wind-tunnel models in the DVL high-speed wind tunnel showed that the design had extraordinary stability into the Mach 2.6 range.[1] Design and development [ edit ] As conventional fuels were in extremely short supply by late 1944, Lippisch proposed that the P.13a be powered by coal. Initially, it was proposed that a wire-mesh basket holding coal be mounted behind a nose air intake, protruding slightly into the airflow and ignited by a gas burner. Following wind-tunnel testing of the ramjet and the coal basket, modifications were incorporated to provide more efficient combustion. The coal was to take the form of small granules instead of irregular lumps, to produce a controlled and even burn, and the basket was altered to a mesh drum revolving on a vertical axis at 60 rpm. A jet of flame from tanks of bottled gas would fire into the basket once the P.13a had reached operating speed (above 320 km/h), whether by using a rocket to assist takeoff or by being towed. The air passing through the ramjet would take the fumes from the burning coal towards the rear where they would mix under high pressure with clean air taken from a separate intake. The resulting mixture of gas would then be directed out through a rear nozzle to provide thrust. A burner and drum were built and tested successfully in Vienna by the design team before the end of the war. It is not known what armament would have been carried by the P.13a; the MK 103 cannon would have been too heavy and large for such a small aircraft and it is possible that one or two large-calibre machineguns would have been used. At the end of the war even the prototype DM-1 test glider had not been finished when it was captured by American forces. The Americans ordered Lippisch's team to complete the glider, and it was then shipped to the United States where it was test-flown. According to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics the results were positive[2] and lessons learned were incorporated into NASA's research aircraft of the 1950s and on. Film footage exists which shows a gliding test of a scaled-down model of the P.13a. These tests began in May 1944 at Spitzerberg, near Vienna.[3] Variants [ edit ] Akaflieg Darmstadt/Akaflieg München DM.1 - AKA Lippisch DM.1 A scale flying wind tunnel glider version of the proposed Lippisch P.13a Lippisch P.13b - a further development of the P.13a, which never came beyond the drawing board. The P.13a was completely unrelated to the 1942 project for a high-speed bomber aircraft, but similarly named P.13. Specifications (P.13a, as designed) [ edit ] General characteristics Crew: one one Length: 6.70 m (22 ft 0 in) 6.70 m (22 ft 0 in) Wingspan: 6.00 m (19 ft 9 in) 6.00 m (19 ft 9 in) Height: 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in) 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in) Wing area: 20.0 m² (215 ft²) 20.0 m² (215 ft²) Loaded weight: 2,295 kg (5,060 lb) 2,295 kg (5,060 lb) Powerplant: 1 × Kronach Lorin coal-burning ramjet Performance Replicas [ edit ] There is a non-functioning replica at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia located in the Cottbus hangar See also [ edit ] Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era Related lists Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ]For almost a decade, the 15 detainees considered to be the most dangerous at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been locked in a special top-security facility, deprived of some of the privileges granted to other prisoners, such as communal living, live television and periodic calls with their families. Now, as the Pentagon moves to improve prisoner conditions, officials have allowed several “high-value” inmates to make Skype-like video calls and speak with their families for the first time since they were brought to Guantanamo Bay from secret CIA prisons overseas. Officials have imposed strict security restrictions on the calls, monitoring both sides’ statements to ensure no classified information is divulged, making for a disruptive experience that in one case stretched a 30-minute conversation to four hours. The tightly controlled concession reflects not only ongoing sensitivity about information the prisoners, some of them charged with plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, might divulge, but also unresolved disputes about the detainees’ most basic rights. Anna Nelson, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the ICRC facilitated video conversations for two detainees on Jan. 17 and 18. “We believe that in situations of prolonged detention, family contact enables detainees to maintain their sense of human dignity,” Nelson said. A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss prison operations, confirmed the calls took place in “near real time” and were subject to security screening. “We have concluded that increasing family contact for the High Value Detainees can be done in a manner that is consistent with both humanitarian and security interests,” Lt. Col. Myles Caggins III, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement. He said Pentagon officials now planned to expand the calls to the 13 remaining high-value detainees. Navy Cmdr. Patrick Flor, a military defense attorney for Abu Faraj al-Libi, one of the high-value detainees, said his client had spoken with his family in Tripoli, Libya, in the past week. He said the call was disrupted by audio problems, which may have resulted from the screening of Libi’s statements. “Do I think this is a good thing?” Flor asked. “My guy has been locked up since 2005 at Guantanamo. He has had no direct contact with his family,” and has a daughter he has never even seen, he said. Libi, who provided the United States with information that ultimately helped locate al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan, has not been charged with a crime. Among the other prisoners at Camp 7, the maximum-security detention area that is so secret that its location is classified, are Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent who could receive the death penalty for his alleged role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Both men were subjected to waterboarding and “rectal feeding” during their CIA detention and were brought, along with a dozen other prisoners held by the spy agency, to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Navy Cmdr. Brian Mizer, Nashiri’s lead military attorney, said his client had also made a call to his family in Saudi Arabia. “Allowing Abdul Rahim to speak with his family was, I am sure, uplifting for both him and his family,” said Richard Kammen, a civilian attorney for Nashiri. “Because he suffers chronic complex PTSD from the physical, sexual and psychological torture inflicted upon him by the United States, allowing him to make this call is a minor but appropriate part of his medical care.” Mizer said he expected the call was “overwhelming” for Nashiri and family members. “Mr. Nashiri hasn’t seen his family in 12 years — no voice contact,” he said. “That circumstance happening in an American prison or a [prisoner of war] setting is simply unfathomable.” Walter Ruiz, a defense attorney for Mustafa al-Hawsawi, a Saudi man also being tried for involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, said Hawsawi’s defense team also requested that its client be allowed to speak with his family. “International humanitarian law requires the government to provide law of war detainees with those standards,” including family communication, Ruiz said. “To not do [so] is considered to be punishment and in this case would be illegal punishment prior to being found guilty.” Defense attorneys had long appealed to military authorities to permit such calls. Prisoners in Guantanamo’s general population have been able to make land-line audio calls since April 2008, the ICRC said, and Skype calls began in September 2009. Previously, high-value detainees were only allowed to write and receive letters transmitted by the ICRC. Last August, prison officials began allowing them to record video messages about family topics, which were then shared with relatives. All communication is screened by government officials. Navy Capt. Tom Gresback, a military spokesman at Guantanamo, said differences in conditions for prisoners at Camp 7 and other detainees were “very minimal.” “All detainees held at the detention facility at Guantanamo are treated in accordance of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions,” Gresback said, referring to international rules governing treatment of people during armed conflict. Defense attorneys said that security restrictions have also hampered the recorded video communication. Air Force Capt. Michael Schwartz, a military lawyer for Waleed bin Attash, also charged in the 9/11 attacks, said his client recorded a video for his family in November. A screening of the video was offered to his family in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but only five people — chosen by the United States — were permitted to watch it. Schwartz said the Attash family declined to watch the video because of those restrictions. Mohammed, likewise, was offered a chance to participate in recording a message to his family, but he ultimately declined because of viewing restrictions, said David Nevin, his civilian lawyer. Adam Goldman contributed to this report.Listen, we know New Yorkers have a fierce pride for the bacon egg and cheese from their local bodegas, but we admit we’re pretty excited that Los Angeles’s famed Eggslut finally arrives in the city today. The Los Angeles restaurant (and former food truck) offers delectable BEC options including the Fairfax, made with scrambled eggs and Sriracha mayo, and the new SoHo Salmon, a New York–inspired sandwich made with smoked salmon and pickled mustard seed. There’s also the Slut, a mason jar filled with egg and pureed potatoes that you spread on bread. According to Los Angelenos, it’s much more delicious than it sounds. You can find the Eggslut offerings from chef Alvin Cailan in NYC at the new Chefs Club Counter, which will offer other fast food options from world-famous chefs as well. And don’t forget to Instagram the oozing egg and cheese sammie before you dig in."You need to have pretty much the same pay for men and women in every job but you also need to have gender balance across the whole organisation, especially the leadership." Gender removed from job applications Australia Post acting CEO Christine Corbett said the result was particularly impressive given Australia Post was one of the largest employers in the country with 34,000 employees. "Over the last seven and a half years we have focused on improving the representation of women across all levels of leadership and addressing unconscious bias. "This culminated in October 2015 when we launched our landmark gender action plan to focus and fast-track professional development." She said over the past 12 months, more than 400 women had participated in career development programs, which "has been instrumental in identifying and nurturing talent". The company also took part in the Victorian government's trial program last year to remove unconscious bias by de-identifying personal details during recruitment, such as gender, age and names. Its marketing campaign for its male-dominated operations roles also made strong efforts to attract females, including for van drivers and motorcycle posties. Advertisement New female CEO still highest paid Australia Post's zero per cent gender pay gap also comes as it recently hired Blackmores CEO Christine Holgate as its new chief executive on half the pay of her predecessor, Ahmed Fahour. While Mr Fahour took home $5.6 million last year, Ms Holgate will earn a base salary of $1.4 million with the potential for another $1.4 million as a bonus. The pay disparity is partially explained by Mr Fahour's salary attracted criticism for being excessive but the position remains the highest paid in the public service. Ms Holgate's appointment also means the majority of Australia Post's board of directors are now set to be women. Female board directors, including deputy chair Holly Kramer, Dominique Fisher, Jan West and Deidre Wilmott, will increase from four to five out of nine when Ms Holgate joins at the end of October. The proportion of women on the board had already risen from 33.3 per cent in 2015-16 to 44.4 per cent in 2016-17. Women also account for 37.7 per cent of Australia Post executives, up from 35.4 per cent, including CFO Janelle Hopkins and corporate secretary Erin Kelly. Across all managerial roles, women made up 37.5 per cent of the workforce, up from 36.4 per cent, and accounted for the majority of postal managers at 53.6 per cent, up from 51 per cent.8 Pesky CNY Train Station Characters Happy Chinese New Year folks! Hai Shifu missed his train back to Turtle Island and had to wait in the train station for two whole days. In the end, I had to buy the 2000rmb VVIP seat and sit with the village bosses, but it was worth it. The train station sure is a colorful place. I bet that if you hang out there for even two hours, you can find all these characters too. 1.Wild Beastchild and Mom on Phone Baby’s on fire, mom’s on WeChat. Where’s daddy? 2. He Who Guards The Only Power Outlet You asked if you could charge your phone for three minutes so you could find your Uncle Ron, and he threatened to cut you. 3. The Ticket Line Creeper First they hover around the perimeter like an uncle watching a street fight, then all of the sudden they’re at the front of the line. Very bù hǎo. 4. Guy Carrying a Random Piece of Wood You can ask him what it’s for, but good luck understanding his dialect. 5. “I’m Doing Fucking Awesome and Want Everyone in My Hometown To Know It” 6. The Dudes Smoking in the Bathroom Ohhhhhh, there’s daddy. 7. Confused and Angry Foreigner He just can’t accept that the ticket machines don’t accept passports. And no one understands that he wants to go to Yiwu because he’s screaming, “I want to go to EWWWWWW!” Quick! Get him to the Burger King upstairs before he burns this whole place down. 8. The One Who Ate an Entire KFC Bucket by Himself This is The Colonel’s favorite boy. In this moment, it’s just him and his bucket. The rest of the world doesn’t exist. Some folks practice meditation to forget about the world and get on that higher level, and some of us find peace in a bucket of chicken. This is a sign, folks – it’s gonna be a great year! (Unless you live in the USA. Good luck with that). Well folks I’m back on Turtle Island eating gummy squids and pineapple pie under the stars with all my turtle friends. Hope you had a safe and colorful journey to your special place this Chinese New Year. Signing off, Hai Shifu, Editor-in-Chief Over the next week, we’ve got an ’80s Cantopop mixtape, exclusive coverage of the New Year’s TV Special, and lots more magic for you, so stay tuned! If you’ve got WeChat, scan this QR code to follow us there.Paelcolp & wife, I cannot tell you how amazing all of this was, or how excited I was. Any one of the gifts you sent would have made me happy - such a surfeit of generosity is overwhelming and I am stumbling here in my attempt to convey my gratitude. First, my compliments on your stalking - the toothpaste made me smile. I enjoyed the postcards as well but wasn't sure if I should let the internet know your city of origin. =) In one of the included letters Paelcolp expressed concern that I wouldn't like the boots as I might find them too "flirtatious." While they do have quite a heel on them, please rest assured that I LOVE THEM. Completely. They were the first box I opened and it was about 20 minutes before I got to the next box because I had to try them on and fiddle with them and look at them from all angles and text my husband about how excited I was. The ring is gorgeous as well. I think I need to get a sewing machine and make a whole Steampunk ensemble and just wander around town in it. That sounds pretty fantastic. We can't wait to try the board games! I have to wonder if my Santa is a board game aficionado as well. We've got a whole bookshelf full of board games but neither of us have ever heard of Antler Island, and while we had heard of Twilight Imperium, we've never had a chance to play. I'd be curious to know what led you to choose these titles! :) TLDR: Thank you SO much for everything, you did an A+++ job! EDIT: I missed a gift in the packing materials! Gorgeous nerd bling which I shall wear all the time.Election criticised by western observers for irregularities and lack of competition as Karimov wins more than 90% of preliminary vote Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s authoritarian president since 1990, has won re-election in a predictable landslide victory that will put him in office for another five years. According to preliminary results announced on Monday by the central Asian state’s electoral commission, Karimov, 77, won 90.39% of the votes in Sunday’s election, which was roundly criticised by western observers for irregularities and lack of competition. Islam Karimov set to reprise presidential role as Uzbekistan heads to the polls Read more This will be his third term under the current constitution, even though that same treaty limits presidents to two terms, an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe observer mission noted in a report. The only question going into the election was how badly Karimov would trounce his three toothless competitors from the country’s other parliamentary parties, who have themselves praised the president as the best candidate. The electoral commission put the turnout at an impressive 91.08%. Monitoring missions from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which include former Soviet republics and China, called the election open and democratic. Although Vladimir Churov, the Russian electoral commission head also lauded the vote, he told the state news agency RIA Novosti that “there’s no such thing as totally clean elections” and said his team would discuss “certain remarks on the organisation of the voting” with local authorities. Autocratic leaders across the former Soviet Union have been known to dispatch “quid pro quo” observer missions to each others’ elections to lend them legitimacy. But the OSCE observer report on the election catalogued many “legal and organisational shortcomings,” noting that slavish media coverage gave Karimov a “clear advantage” and that “proxy voting on behalf of several voters appeared to be universally practised”. Independent candidates have been barred from running by recent reforms. Thousands jailed in Uzbekistan on politically motivated charges, report says Read more Human rights groups also lambasted the election as unconstitutional and unfair, while also noting the Karimov regime’s track record of abuses and repression of criticism. Before the vote, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights listed ongoing rights violations including child slave labour in the country’s large cotton industry, forced sterilisation of women, and arbitrary detention and torture. Uzbekistan's ruling family feud spills into open with Twitter row Read more A Human Rights Watch report in September said Karimov’s government had locked up thousands of critics, including activists, journalists, artists and clerics. Of 34 prisoners profiled, 29 made credible allegations of torture and ill treatment, including beatings, electric shocks, and hanging from wrists and ankles. Analysts have said the ageing Karimov is trying to postpone a power transition that has recently been complicated by an ugly family feud. Last autumn, the president’s oldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova, an occasional pop star and businesswoman whose dealings are the subject of two corruption investigations in Europe, accused her sister of sorcery and claimed her mother was trying to “destroy” her. Before her Twitter account was mysteriously shut down, Karimova also accused the powerful head of Uzbekistan’s security service, Rustam Inoyatov, of attempting a power grab. Despite the repressive political situation, Uzbekistan’s economy continues to grow on the back of gas, cotton and gold exports, reportedly expanding by 8.1% in 2014.One of the glories of journalism is openness. Want to file a story and publish it? Go right ahead. There are no government licensing requirements, no independent board, no regulatory hurdles, no nothing. Accordingly, there are no official sanctions applying to journalists who screw up, who mangle facts, who libel innocent youngsters hanging around at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. So journalists at the New York Post should be extra appreciative of the First Amendment these days. No one can revoke their journalistic licenses for their most heinous act of last week — publishing a cover photo of two guys at the marathon under the headline “Bag Men: Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.” They can continue mangling journalism for as long as the paper remains in circulation. It’s a great country. That’s not to say there are no countermeasures. The victims of the New York Post’s scurrilousness may avail themselves of another great constitutional amendment — the seventh, which entitles people access to the courts “in suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars…” In other words, the young men in the New York Post cover photo can seek millions or even billions of dollars in damages from the paper. And let the Erik Wemple Blog express our firm support for this course of action. Unlike other cases examined in this space, the “Bag Men” case presents a straightforward matter of media law, for the following reasons: 1) The two fellows in the photograph are anonymous individuals. Our legal system makes it harder for public figures — politicians, celebrities and the like — to sue media outlets, a rule
SE, et al. "Comorbid Pain, Depression, and Anxiety: Multifaceted Pathology Allows for Multifaceted Treatment," Harvard Review of Psychiatry (Nov./Dec. 2009): Vol. 17, No. 6, pp. 407–20. Vranceanu AM, et al. "Psychosocial Aspects of Disabling Musculoskeletal Pain," Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (Aug. 2009): Vol. 91, No. 8, pp. 2014–18. For more references, please see www.health.harvard.edu/mentalextra.Carly Fiorina’s presidential campaign may be fizzling out. But her campaign could have an impact far beyond the 2016 race with the questions it's raised about U.S. campaign finance rules. Federal election regulations are meant to bar campaigns and outside groups from coordinating, but Fiorina and other presidential hopefuls have relied on super PACs to fill crucial roles traditionally handled by campaigns. She is among a handful of Republican candidates who exploited an apparent loophole in the campaign finance system, filming videos and advertisements with super PACs before formally announcing their campaigns. On the Democratic side, one super PAC contends it’s allowed to coordinate directly with Hillary Clinton’s campaign because its work is posted online only. There’s a financial incentive to this approach: Campaigns can take in only a few thousand dollars from an individual per election cycle, while super PACs can accept unlimited donations. With the Federal Election Commission (FEC) slow to act, the lines between campaigns and outside groups have become increasingly blurred. This is in part a function of the FEC’s structure. The commission comprises three Democrats and three Republicans, and routinely deadlocks on policy decisions — including on the question of whether candidates may record ads with super PACs before announcing their bids. In the 2016 field, Fiorina’s campaign appears to be working more closely with a super PAC than her opponents. The group, named CARLY for America, frequently handles advance work for her campaign events. Its staff members collect voters' contact information and hand out CARLY for America materials, and often manage the Eventbrite websites where people sign up to attend her events. At event after event, Fiorina can be seen speaking in front of signs bearing the super PAC’s logo. (The super PAC's name is in capital letters in order to comply with FEC rules prohibiting them from using a candidate's name. CARLY is, technically, an acronym for Conservative Authentic Responsive Leadership for You — and for America.) In interviews with National Journal and the New York Times, representatives for CARLY for America have said the group doesn’t coordinate with Fiorina’s campaign. They say its staff members learn about Fiorina’s events online through a public calendar and show up with super PAC materials and signup lists. But an International Business Times review of documents from two public universities and one college where Fiorina attended events suggests it’s not so simple. The super PAC appears to have played an active role in helping organize a September event at Winthrop University in South Carolina, according to a review of emails between the school’s employees, staff for the Fiorina campaign and CARLY for America. Carly Fiorina takes the stage to a raucous crowd cheering at Winthrop #Carly2016 A photo posted by @carlyforamerica on Sep 23, 2015 at 3:23pm PDT When a Winthrop University employee could not reach a Fiorina about correcting details on the Eventbrite website for the event, she reached out to Taylor Mason, a super PAC staff member listed as a contact on the Eventbrite page. “I have a few questions about the location,” Mason wrote back after fixing the details. “What is the address of the building? Where should people park? Is there handicap parking available? Do y'all plan on putting something out to your students to let them know she'll be there?” Soon, the super PAC received an advance walkthrough of the event location, after Mason arranged a meeting between a university employee and his group’s field director. The school staff member wrote in a subsequent email to the Fiorina campaign, “The PAC rep who toured the space yesterday said CNN and Fox News was traveling [with] the campaign.” Asked if it was appropriate to give the super PAC a walkthrough of the event, the university’s vice president for university relations, Jeff Perez, provided a statement to IBT: “We at Winthrop University are very proud that nine presidential candidates have visited our campus, more than any institution on the Eastern Seaboard. More than 15,000 people have visited our campus to attend these events. The university is not in a position to distinguish among the individuals working on behalf of the candidates.” Perez said the university employee who corresponded with CARLY for America “is no longer employed by Winthrop,” but that her departure was unrelated to the event. “This fits the larger narrative that the super PAC is basically running the campaign’s events,” said Larry Noble, a former FEC counsel who works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, after reviewing IBT’s documents. “The whole thing frankly makes a mockery of the law.” Noble contends that CARLY for America’s help with setting up Fiorina’s events constitutes providing a free service to her campaign and should be considered an in-kind contribution. Super PACs are prohibited from making such contributions to campaigns. CARLY for America and Fiorina’s campaign have dismissed Noble’s interpretation in the past. Representatives for Fiorina’s campaign and CARLY for America did not respond to questions from IBT about the role the group plays at her events. In November, before Fiorina spoke at Keene State College in New Hampshire, a Fiorina campaign staff member wrote to the school with an urgent request to formally confirm the event: “Deidre, our national scheduler needs this so we can list the event on the public calendar and start advertising!” A picture posted by the college shows the super PAC’s banners displayed prominently behind Fiorina on the event stage. Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina addresses an audience at Keene State College via KSCs American Democracy Project. Posted by Keene State College on Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Last month, Fiorina attended an event at Georgia Tech. Billed as a “conversation with Carly,” the event appears to have been organized exclusively by the super PAC, according to emails provided by the university. The school did not share any emails exchanged with Fiorina’s campaign. The event likely did not cost much for the Fiorina campaign, or even for the super PAC, which received an invoice — marked “Presidential Candidate” — from the school. Emails shows the university waived most of the fees for the event, charging only $150. "The space was reserved by the College Republicans, a recognized student organization, and we waived the fees for the space in keeping with our practice for all student groups," a Georgia Tech spokesperson told IBT. Pictures from the event show CARLY for America staff members were on hand to sign up volunteers and pass out flyers, and that Fiorina once again spoke in front of super PAC signage. Before her speech started, the group aired footage from “Citizen Carly,” a documentary it filmed with Fiorina and her family before she announced her campaign. Even though Fiorina is lagging in the polls and is unlikely to be a nominee, the precedent set by her campaign and the super PAC matters, Richard Skinner, a policy analyst at the Sunlight Foundation, said. “Somebody needs to care about this stuff,” Skinner said. “Otherwise someone else will be doing this. Bigger campaigns — more-competitive campaigns — will start doing this. And the way the FEC is, goodness knows when any enforcement’s coming.” UPDATE: 1/17/16, 1:30 a.m. -- This story has been updated to include a statement from Georgia Tech, which was provided to IBT after press time.The third installment in the found footage V/H/S franchise is headed home in early 2015, and it will include a segment that wasn’t attached to the theatrical or VOD release of the anthology film. So read on for all the details! Bloody Disgusting reports today that the Todd Lincoln-directed segment, titled “Gorgeous Vortex,” was excised from the film for a reason, and all will be revealed once V/H/S: Viral spreads to home video on February 17, 2015. “Everyone will soon understand why we’ve been so secretive with Lincoln’s astounding segment,” said producer Brad Miska. “I assure you that fans who grew up in the 90′s are going to explode with what we did…” Check out a still from the segment below along with full release info. From the Press Release: The third installment of the highly anticipated horror sensation, V/H/S: VIRAL, arrives on Blu-ray and DVD February 17 from Magnolia Home Entertainment under the Magnet Label. Written and directed by a stunning collection of terror masterminds including Academy Award® nominee Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes, The ABCs of Death), Marcel Sarmiento (The ABCs of Death, Deadgirl), Justin Benson (Resolution, Spring), Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, A Glaring Emission) and Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead), V/H/S: VIRAL “is a magnificent collection of horror shorts from both established and newer talent in cinema” (Next Projection). V/H/S: VIRAL follows four stories of LA-based, fame-obsessed teens hell-bent on posting the next viral video sensation. Yet when a stash of VHS tapes is discovered featuring the wannabe celebrities at the moments of their deaths, it becomes clear that those capturing scandalous videos are meeting gruesome ends. Produced and conceptualized by Brad Miska, the founder of one of the world’s most popular horror websites, Bloody-Disgusting.com, the V/H/S: VIRAL Blu-ray and DVD is packed with bonus footage including a behind-the-scenes featurette, director interviews and a special short by video producer Todd Lincoln called Gorgeous Vortex. The Blu-ray and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $29.98 and $26.98, respectively. Synopsis: A police chase after a deranged ice cream truck has captivated the attention of the greater Los Angeles area. Dozens of fame-obsessed teens flock to the streets with their video cameras and camera phones, hell-bent on capturing the next viral video. But there is something far more sinister occurring in the streets of L.A. than a simple police chase. A resounding effect is created onto all those obsessed with capturing salacious footage for no other purpose than to amuse or titillate. Soon the discovery becomes that they themselves are the stars of the next video, one where they face their own death. Special Features: • Audio commentary by the directors • “AXS TV: A Look at V/H/S: VIRAL” • “Bonestorm”: Behind-the-scenes featurette, FX storyboards, galleries • “Dante the Great”: “Behind the Magic,” photo gallery • Director interviewsALMERE, Netherlands (Reuters) - Almost a fifth of Amsterdam’s popular marijuana-selling coffee shops will be closed down because they are too close to schools, the city council said Friday. Joints containing different types of cannabis are seen in their jars at a coffee shop in the southern Dutch city of Bergen op Zoom November 18, 2008. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen Of the 228 coffee shops in the Dutch capital, 43 must close by the end of 2011 because they are within 250 meters of a school, the council said. The Dutch coffee shop policy has come under fresh criticism after the Dutch cities of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, located near the Belgian border, said they will close all their shops within two years to combat drug tourism and crime. Amsterdam, home to a quarter of the nation’s cannabis coffee shops that are a big draw for tourists, joined with 32 other Dutch mayors or city council representatives Friday to back a continuation of the Dutch “soft drugs” policy of toleration. But the mayors also called for better rules on the sale and trade of cannabis. They stressed that while a ban on marijuana use was not a solution to the problem, the use of the drug should be discouraged. The policy on soft drugs in the Netherlands, one of the most liberal in Europe, allows for the sale of marijuana at coffee shops, which the Dutch have allowed to operate for decades, and possession of less than 5 grams (0.18 oz). But the cultivation or supply of the drug to the coffee shops, the so-called “back door” of the business, is banned. Annemarie Jorritsma, Almere Mayor, said mayors agreed to push for a system of “heavily regulated toleration.” “Make it transparent who is dealing, who is delivering it to the coffee shops and take care that there are no criminals entering there, which they are at the moment,” she said. Gerd Leers, Mayor of Maastricht which earlier angered Belgian authorities by proposing to move its city center coffee shops to the edge of the city, said 60 percent of the people who visit the city’s coffee shops each year are French or Belgian. He added that the problem is not the fact the Netherlands has coffee shops, the problem is that other countries don’t. Arjam Roskam, a spokesman for the Cannabis Retailers Association which represents 100 members, said the proposals from the mayors were a step in the right direction. The government will finalize next year an evaluation of its soft and hard drugs policy and a Justice Ministry spokesman said the proposals from the mayors may be taken into consideration.The large intestine, also known as the large bowel, is the last part of the gastrointestinal tract and of the digestive system in vertebrates. Water is absorbed here and the remaining waste material is stored as feces before being removed by defecation.[1] The colon[2] is the largest portion of the large intestine, so many mentions of the large intestine and colon overlap in meaning whenever anatomic precision is not the focus. Most sources define the large intestine as the combination of the cecum, colon, rectum, and anal canal.[3][4] Some other sources exclude the anal canal.[5][6][7] In humans, the large intestine begins in the right iliac region of the pelvis, just at or below the waist, where it is joined to the end of the small intestine at the cecum, via the ileocecal valve. It then continues as the colon ascending the abdomen, across the width of the abdominal cavity as the transverse colon, and then descending to the rectum and its endpoint at the anal canal.[8] Overall, in humans, the large intestine is about 1.5 metres (5 ft) long, which is about one-fifth of the whole length of the gastrointestinal tract.[9] Structure [ edit ] 3D File generated from computed tomography of large intestine Illustration of the large intestine. The colon is the last part of the digestive system. It extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated from the body and is the site in which flora-aided (largely bacterial) fermentation of unabsorbed material occurs. Unlike the small intestine, the colon does not play a major role in absorption of foods and nutrients. About 1.5 litres or 45 ounces of water arrives in the colon each day.[10] The length of the adult human male colon is 65 inches or 166 cm (range of 80 to 313 cm), on average, for females it is 155 cm (range of 80 to 214 cm).[11] Sections [ edit ] Sections of the colon [12] Average inner diameters and ranges of different sections of the large intestine. In mammals, the colon consists of five sections: the cecum plus the ascending colon, the transverse colon, the descending colon, the sigmoid colon, and the rectum.[1] Sections of the colon are: The parts of the colon are either intraperitoneal or behind it in the retroperitoneum. Retroperitoneal organs in general do not have a complete covering of peritoneum, so they are fixed in location. Intraperitoneal organs are completely surrounded by peritoneum and are therefore mobile.[13] Of the colon, the ascending colon, descending colon and rectum are retroperitoneal, while the cecum, appendix, transverse colon and sigmoid colon are intraperitoneal.[14] This is important as it affects which organs can be easily accessed during surgery, such as a laparotomy. The average inner diameter of sections of the colon in centimeters (with ranges in parentheses) are cecum 8.7 (8.0-10.5), ascending colon 6.6 (6.0-7.0), transverse colon 5.8 (5.0-6.5), descending/sigmoid colon 6.3 (6.0-6.8) and rectum near rectal/sigmoid junction 5.7 (4.5-7.5).[12] Cecum and appendix [ edit ] The cecum is the first section of the colon and involved in the digestion, while the appendix which develops embryologically from it, is a structure of the colon, not involved in digestion and considered to be part of the gut-associated lymphoid tissue. The function of the appendix is uncertain, but some sources believe that the appendix has a role in housing a sample of the colon's microflora, and is able to help to repopulate the colon with bacteria if the microflora has been damaged during the course of an immune reaction. The appendix has also been shown to have a high concentration of lymphatic cells. Ascending colon [ edit ] The ascending colon is the first of four sections of the large intestine. It is connected to the small intestine by a section of bowel called the cecum. The ascending colon runs upwards through the abdominal cavity toward the transverse colon for approximately eight inches (20 cm). One of the main functions of the colon is to remove the water and other key nutrients from waste material and recycle it. As the waste material exits the small intestine through the ileocecal valve, it will move into the cecum and then to the ascending colon where this process of extraction starts. The unwanted waste material is moved upwards toward the transverse colon by the action of peristalsis. The ascending colon is sometimes attached to the appendix via Gerlach's valve. In ruminants, the ascending colon is known as the spiral colon.[15][16][17] Taking into account all ages and sexes, colon cancer occurs here most often (41%).[18] Transverse colon [ edit ] The transverse colon is the part of the colon from the hepatic flexure, also known as the right colic, (the turn of the colon by the liver) to the splenic flexure also known as the left colic, (the turn of the colon by the spleen). The transverse colon hangs off the stomach, attached to it by a large fold of peritoneum called the greater omentum. On the posterior side, the transverse colon is connected to the posterior abdominal wall by a mesentery known as the transverse mesocolon. The transverse colon is encased in peritoneum, and is therefore mobile (unlike the parts of the colon immediately before and after it). The proximal two-thirds of the transverse colon is perfused by the middle colic artery, a branch of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA), while the latter third is supplied by branches of the inferior mesenteric artery (IMA). The "watershed" area between these two blood supplies, which represents the embryologic division between the midgut and hindgut, is an area sensitive to ischemia. Descending colon [ edit ] The descending colon is the part of the colon from the splenic flexure to the beginning of the sigmoid colon. One function of the descending colon in the digestive system is to store feces that will be emptied into the rectum. It is retroperitoneal in two-thirds of humans. In the other third, it has a (usually short) mesentery.[19] The arterial supply comes via the left colic artery. The descending colon is also called the distal gut, as it is further along the gastrointestinal tract than the proximal gut. Gut flora are very dense in this region. Sigmoid colon [ edit ] The sigmoid colon is the part of the large intestine after the descending colon and before the rectum. The name sigmoid means S-shaped (see sigmoid; cf. sigmoid sinus). The walls of the sigmoid colon are muscular, and contract to increase the pressure inside the colon, causing the stool to move into the rectum. The sigmoid colon is supplied with blood from several branches (usually between 2 and 6) of the sigmoid arteries, a branch of the IMA. The IMA terminates as the superior rectal artery. Sigmoidoscopy is a common diagnostic technique used to examine the sigmoid colon. Rectum [ edit ] The rectum is the last section of the large intestine. It holds the formed feces awaiting elimination via defecation. Appearance [ edit ] The cecum – the first part of the large intestine Taeniae coli – three bands of smooth muscle Haustra – bulges caused by contraction of taeniae coli Epiploic appendages – small fat accumulations on the viscera The taenia coli run the length of the large intestine. Because the taenia coli are shorter than the large bowel itself, the colon becomes sacculated, forming the haustra of the colon which are the shelf-like intraluminal projections.[20] Blood supply [ edit ] Arterial supply to the colon comes from branches of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and inferior mesenteric artery (IMA). Flow between these two systems communicates via a "marginal artery" that runs parallel to the colon for its entire length. Historically, it has been believed that the arc of Riolan, or the meandering mesenteric artery (of Moskowitz), is a variable vessel connecting the proximal SMA to the proximal IMA that can be extremely important if either vessel is occluded. However, recent studies conducted with improved imaging technology have questioned the actual existence of this vessel, with some experts calling for the abolition of the terms from future medical literature.[citation needed] Venous drainage usually mirrors colonic arterial supply, with the inferior mesenteric vein draining into the splenic vein, and the superior mesenteric vein joining the splenic vein to form the hepatic portal vein that then enters the liver. Lymphatic drainage [ edit ] Lymphatic drainage from the ascending colon and proximal two-thirds of the transverse colon is to the colic lymph nodes and the superior mesenteric lymph nodes, which drain into the cisterna chyli.[21] The lymph from the distal one-third of the transverse colon, the descending colon, the sigmoid colon, and the upper rectum drain into the inferior mesenteric and colic lymph nodes.[21] The lower rectum to the anal canal above the pectinate line drain to the internal iliac nodes.[22] The anal canal below the pectinate line drains into the superficial inguinal nodes.[22] The pectinate line only roughly marks this transition. Nerve supply [ edit ] Sympathetic supply : Superior & inferior mesenteric ganglia Parasympathetic supply : Vagus & pelvic nerves Development [ edit ] Variation [ edit ] One variation on the normal anatomy of the colon occurs when extra loops form, resulting in a colon that is up to five metres longer than normal. This condition, referred to as redundant colon, typically has no direct major health consequences, though rarely volvulus occurs, resulting in obstruction and requiring immediate medical attention.[23][24] A significant indirect health consequence is that use of a standard adult colonoscope is difficult and in some cases impossible when a redundant colon is present, though specialized variants on the instrument (including the pediatric variant) are useful in overcoming this problem.[25] Microanatomy [ edit ] Colonic crypts [ edit ] [26] and illustrations were published with Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License allowing re-use. Colonic crypts ( intestinal glands ) within four tissue sections. The cells have been stained to show a brown-orange color if the cells produce the mitochondrial protein cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (CCOI), and the nuclei of the cells (located at the outer edges of the cells lining the walls of the crypts) are stained blue-gray with haematoxylin. Panels A, B were cut across the long axes of the crypts and panels C, D were cut parallel to the long axes of the crypts. In panel A the bar shows 100 µm and allows an estimate of the frequency of crypts in the colonic epithelium. Panel B includes three crypts in cross-section, each with one segment deficient for CCOI expression and at least one crypt, on the right side, undergoing fission into two crypts. Panel C shows, on the left side, a crypt fissioning into two crypts. Panel D shows typical small clusters of two and three CCOI deficient crypts (the bar shows 50 µm). The images were made from original photomicrographs, but panels A, B and D were also included in an articleand illustrations were published with Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License allowing re-use. The wall of the large intestine is lined with simple columnar epithelium with invaginations. The invaginations are called the intestinal glands or colonic crypts. The colon crypts are shaped like microscopic thick walled test tubes with a central hole down the length of the tube (the crypt lumen). Four tissue sections are shown here, two cut across the long axes of the crypts and two cut parallel to the long axes. In these images the cells have been stained by immunohistochemistry to show a brown-orange color if the cells produce a mitochondrial protein called cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (CCOI). The nuclei of the cells (located at the outer edges of the cells lining the walls of the crypts) are stained blue-gray with haematoxylin. As seen in panels C and D, crypts are about 75 to about 110 cells long. Baker et al.[27] found that the average crypt circumference is 23 cells. Thus, by the images shown here, there are an average of about 1,725 to 2530 cells per colonic crypt. Nooteboom et al.[28] measuring the number of cells in a small number of crypts reported a range of 1500 to 4900 cells per colonic crypt. Cells are produced at the crypt base and migrate upward along the crypt axis before being shed into the colonic lumen days later.[27] There are 5 to 6 stem cells at the bases of the crypts.[27] As estimated from the image in panel A, there are about 100 colonic crypts per square millimeter of the colonic epithelium.[12] Since the average length of the human colon is 160.5 cm[11] and the average inner circumference of the colon is 6.2 cm,[12] the inner surface epithelial area of the human colon has an average area of about 995 sq cm, which includes 9,950,000 (close to 10 million) crypts. In the four tissue sections shown here, many of the intestinal glands have cells with a mitochondrial DNA mutation in the CCOI gene and appear mostly white, with their main color being the blue-gray staining of the nuclei. As seen in panel B, a portion of the stem cells of three crypts appear to have a mutation in CCOI, so that 40% to 50% of the cells arising from those stem cells form a white segment in the cross cut area. Overall, the percent of crypts deficient for CCOI is less than 1% before age 40, but then increases linearly with age.[26] Colonic crypts deficient for CCOI in women reaches, on average, 18% in women and 23% in men by 80–84 years of age.[26] Crypts of the colon can reproduce by fission, as seen in panel C, where a crypt is fissioning to form two crypts, and in panel B where at least one crypt appears to be fissioning. Most crypts deficient in CCOI are in clusters of crypts (clones of crypts) with two or more CCOI-deficient crypts adjacent to each other (see panel D).[26] Mucosa [ edit ] About 150 of the many thousands of protein coding genes expressed in the large intestine, some are specific to the mucous membrane in different regions and include CEACAM7.[29] Function [ edit ] Histological section. The large intestine absorbs water and any remaining absorbable nutrients from the food before sending the indigestible matter to the rectum. The colon absorbs vitamins that are created by the colonic bacteria, such as vitamin K (especially important as the daily ingestion of vitamin K is not normally enough to maintain adequate blood coagulation), thiamine and riboflavin.[citation needed] It also compacts feces, and stores fecal matter in the rectum until it can be discharged via the anus in defecation. The large intestine also secretes K+ and Cl-. Chloride secretion increases in cystic fibrosis. Recycling of various nutrients takes place in colon. Examples include fermentation of carbohydrates, short chain fatty acids, and urea cycling.[30][citation needed] The appendix contains a small amount of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue which gives the appendix an undetermined role in immunity. However, the appendix is known to be important in fetal life as it contains endocrine cells that release biogenic amines and peptide hormones important for homeostasis during early growth and development.[31] The appendix can be removed with no apparent damage or consequence to the patient.[citation needed] By the time the chyme has reached this tube, most nutrients and 90% of the water have been absorbed by the body. At this point some electrolytes like sodium, magnesium, and chloride are left as well as indigestible parts of ingested food (e.g., a large part of ingested amylose, starch which has been shielded from digestion heretofore, and dietary fiber, which is largely indigestible carbohydrate in either soluble or insoluble form). As the chyme moves through the large intestine, most of the remaining water is removed, while the chyme is mixed with mucus and bacteria (known as gut flora), and becomes feces. The ascending colon receives fecal material as a liquid. The muscles of the colon then move the watery waste material forward and slowly absorb all the excess water, causing the stools to gradually solidify as they move along into the descending colon.[32] The bacteria break down some of the fiber for their own nourishment and create acetate, propionate, and butyrate as waste products, which in turn are used by the cell lining of the colon for nourishment.[33] No protein is made available. In humans, perhaps 10% of the undigested carbohydrate thus becomes available, though this may vary with diet;[34] in other animals, including other apes and primates, who have proportionally larger colons, more is made available, thus permitting a higher portion of plant material in the diet. The large intestine[35] produces no digestive enzymes — chemical digestion is completed in the small intestine before the chyme reaches the large intestine. The pH in the colon varies between 5.5 and 7 (slightly acidic to neutral).[36] Standing gradient osmosis [ edit ] Water absorption at the colon typically proceeds against a transmucosal osmotic pressure gradient. The standing gradient osmosis is the reabsorption of water against the osmotic gradient in the intestines. Cells occupying the intestinal lining pump sodium ions into the intercellular space, raising the osmolarity of the intercellular fluid. This hypertonic fluid creates an osmotic pressure that drives water into the lateral intercellular spaces by osmosis via tight junctions and adjacent cells, which then in turn moves across the basement membrane and into the capillaries, while more sodium ions are pumped again into the intercellular fluid.[37] Although water travels down an osmotic gradient in each individual step, overall, water usually travels against the osmotic gradient due to the pumping of sodium ions into the intercellular fluid. This allows the large intestine to absorb water despite the blood in capillaries being hypotonic compared to the fluid within the intestinal lumen. Gut flora [ edit ] The large intestine houses over 700 species of bacteria that perform a variety of functions, as well as fungi, protozoa, and archaea. Species diversity varies by geography and diet.[38] The microbes in a human distal gut often number in the vicinity of 100 trillion, and can weigh around 200 grams (0.44 pounds). This mass of mostly symbiotic microbes has recently been called the latest human organ to be "discovered" or in other words, the "forgotten organ".[39] The large intestine absorbs some of the products formed by the bacteria inhabiting this region. Undigested polysaccharides (fiber) are metabolized to short-chain fatty acids by bacteria in the large intestine and absorbed by passive diffusion. The bicarbonate that the large intestine secretes helps to neutralize the increased acidity resulting from the formation of these fatty acids.[40] These bacteria also produce large amounts of vitamins, especially vitamin K and biotin (a B vitamin), for absorption into the blood. Although this source of vitamins, in general, provides only a small part of the daily requirement, it makes a significant contribution when dietary vitamin intake is low. An individual who depends on absorption of vitamins formed by bacteria in the large intestine may become vitamin-deficient if treated with antibiotics that inhibit the vitamin producing species of bacteria as well as the intended disease-causing bacteria.[41] Other bacterial products include gas (flatus), which is a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, with small amounts of the gases hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide. Bacterial fermentation of undigested polysaccharides produces these. Some of the fecal odor is due to indoles, metabolized from the amino acid tryptophan. The normal flora is also essential in the development of certain tissues, including the cecum and lymphatics.[citation needed] They are also involved in the production of cross-reactive antibodies. These are antibodies produced by the immune system against the normal flora, that are also effective against related pathogens, thereby preventing infection or invasion. The two most prevalent phyla of the colon are firmicutes and bacteroides. The ratio between the two seems to vary widely as reported by the Human Microbiome Project.[42] Bacteroides are implicated in the initiation of colitis and colon cancer. Bifidobacteria are also abundant, and are often described as 'friendly bacteria'.[43][44] A mucus layer protects the large intestine from attacks from colonic commensal bacteria.[45] Clinical significance [ edit ] Disease [ edit ] Following are the most common diseases or disorders of the colon: Colonoscopy [ edit ] normal mucosa. You can see spleen through it : the black part Colonoscopyimage, splenic flexure,normal mucosa. You can see spleen through it : the black part Colonoscopy is the endoscopic examination of the large intestine and the distal part of the small bowel with a CCD camera or a fiber optic camera on a flexible tube passed through the anus. It can provide a visual diagnosis (e.g. ulceration, polyps) and grants the opportunity for biopsy or removal of suspected colorectal cancer lesions. Colonoscopy can remove polyps as small as one millimetre or less. Once polyps are removed, they can be studied with the aid of a microscope to determine if they are precancerous or not. It takes 15 years or less for a polyp to turn cancerous. Colonoscopy is similar to sigmoidoscopy—the difference being related to which parts of the colon each can examine. A colonoscopy allows an examination of the entire colon (1200–1500 mm in length). A sigmoidoscopy allows an examination of the distal portion (about 600 mm) of the colon, which may be sufficient because benefits to cancer survival of colonoscopy have been limited to the detection of lesions in the distal portion of the colon.[46][47][48] A sigmoidoscopy is often used as a screening procedure for a full colonoscopy, often done in conjunction with a fecal occult blood test (FOBT). About 5% of these screened patients are referred to colonoscopy.[49] Virtual colonoscopy, which uses 2D and 3D imagery reconstructed from computed tomography (CT) scans or from nuclear magnetic resonance (MR) scans, is also possible, as a totally non-invasive medical test, although it is not standard and still under investigation regarding its diagnostic abilities. Furthermore, virtual colonoscopy does not allow for therapeutic maneuvers such as polyp/tumour removal or biopsy nor visualization of lesions smaller than 5 millimeters. If a growth or polyp is detected using CT colonography, a standard colonoscopy would still need to be performed. Additionally, surgeons have lately been using the term pouchoscopy to refer to a colonoscopy of the ileo-anal pouch. Other animals [ edit ] The large intestine is truly distinct only in tetrapods, in which it is almost always separated from the small intestine by an ileocaecal valve. In most vertebrates, however, it is a relatively short structure running directly to the anus, although noticeably wider than the small intestine. Although the caecum is present in most amniotes, only in mammals does the remainder of the large intestine develop into a true colon.[50] In some small mammals, the colon is straight, as it is in other tetrapods, but, in the majority of mammalian species, it is divided into ascending and descending portions; a distinct transverse colon is typically present only in primates. However, the taeniae coli and accompanying haustra are not found in either carnivorans or ruminants. The rectum of mammals (other than monotremes) is derived from the cloaca of other vertebrates, and is, therefore, not truly homologous with the "rectum" found in these species.[50] In fish, there is no true large intestine, but simply a short rectum connecting the end of the digestive part of the gut to the cloaca. In sharks, this includes a rectal gland that secretes salt to help the animal maintain osmotic balance with the seawater. The gland somewhat resembles a caecum in structure, but is not a homologous structure.[50] Additional images [ edit ] Intestines Colon. Deep dissection. Anterior view.
,” Ashby recalled. “We were up dancing to Miguel, which was so fun. We said we wanted to have a good table this year. We want to be up dancing like last year.” Paul chimed in skeptically: “One of us will be dancing, maybe.” Contact us at editors@time.com.Manchester United signing Angel Di Maria was once sold for 35 footballs - now it's £60m BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Angel Di Maria will cost Manchester United a staggering £60m – a sum that somewhat dwarfs the first transfer fee the 26-year-old commanded: 35 footballs. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/manchester-united/manchester-united-signing-angel-di-maria-was-once-sold-for-35-footballs-now-its-60m-30536311.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/article30535958.ece/a0f0e/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-4d13c853-23ca-4275-b2aa-7eacb326e406_I1.jpg Email Angel Di Maria will cost Manchester United a staggering £60m – a sum that somewhat dwarfs the first transfer fee the 26-year-old commanded: 35 footballs. Di Maria, one of three children born to Miguel and Diana, grew up in the city of Perdriel in the Mendoza district of west Argentina. He was obsessed with football and spent every waking hour taking to the streets with friends in his neighbourhood. When scouts from Rosario Central first spotted him there was a minor issue as he was already committed to playing for the local side Torito. “They drove a hard bargain to release me,” recalled Di Maria. “The transfer fee was 35 footballs. That probably puts into perspective where I was and how much it took to get me. Mind you I was very young, about four so I’m not sure it really counts.” Mind you, the hyperactive youngster was lucky to make it past his first birthday. The family had moved to a new home which was falling apart and Di Maria fell down a well in the garden. “My mother always recalls the story,” Di Maria added. “I was a year old and had a baby walker and went outside and fell into a well. I was lucky because they saved me in time otherwise I wouldn’t be here to talk about it.” That was the first of many incidents that prompted Di Maria’s mother to take him to a doctor because she was concerned there might be something wrong with him. However, he believes it was the start of his career in the game. “My mother got tired of me breaking everything in the house so she took me to see a doctor when I was three. I was running around the examination room breaking everything. The doctor just said ‘Sign him up for a sport’ and that is where my career began.” Growing up in relative poverty has taught Di Maria to appreciate the finer things in life. “I had a humble upbringing and grew up playing on the streets of Perdriel. We didn’t have much. Our house was small and I shared a room with my sister. But I don’t feel angry. There are people who are a lot worse off. My values come from my upbringing. Humility, to become someone in life. My childhood was about having enough to eat, having the bare necessities. “My parents worked so they could earn enough to buy me a pair of football boots. It’s something I will always keep inside me. For me to play football and have boots meant my two sisters went without. “My father worked at a coal yard with my mother. It was a horrible existence and when the weather was bad all they had was a metal roof over their heads. But both me and my sisters worked at the coal yard as well. I started aged 10 and by the time I was 15 I was helping with deliveries. It was hard work. “I often think how lucky I am to have football. I was a terrible student. If I didn’t have football I would have continued to work in the coal yard. What else would I have done? “My father worked at that coal yard for 16 years until I made him give up work when I joined Benfica. It was nice to be in a position to be able to do that and say ‘Dad, you don’t have to do this any more’. “I was heartbroken for my father because he could have played football but got a serious knee injury playing for River Plate reserves. My mother always reminds me how lucky I am and that I am doing what my father wanted to do, I am living his dream. “None the less he is a very kind and wise man. Family means everything to him and I feel blessed that I am now in a position to repay him and my family and make sure they don’t have to struggle. My father made so many sacrifices for me. I will always remember what he said when Benfica made a bid for me: ‘Son, this train only passes by once in a lifetime so you have to get on and go forward.’” Di Maria’s mother also made sacrifices for her son. “When I began to play for Rosario Central when I was six it took us 30 minutes to get to the training ground,” he added. “She took me on a bicycle, three of us on that bike. I would sit on the back and my younger sister would sit on a seat on the handlebars and my mother would ride the bike. It was hard during winter. Can you believe we did this for seven years? "My mother is religious too. She is the one who blesses me and gives me strength before games. She lights candles for me before every game. Religion is important for all of us. My wife, Jorgelina, also lights candles for God to bless me and look over me.” On the field Di Maria has a reputation for being a relentless runner with extraordinary stamina. “I have frequently left the field when an opponent asks where I get the strength to run so much. But I have always been the same, it’s just the way I am. I never stop running. “I’m very focused, rarely get emotional. I think I have only ever cried once in my career when I got injured playing for Argentina in the semi-final of the Under-20 World Cup against Chile. I was heartbroken to miss the final and wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Naturally I get goosebumps in big games but in general I don’t let emotion give way to weakness. “I like to think I have given my family back something by buying them houses and gifts. Hopefully I will be able to continue doing that until my career ends.” With his cut of the transfer fee, he will. Belfast Telegraph DigitalThe unforgiven Last night Bill Maher defended Clint Eastwood’s performance at the Republican National Convention. “He killed,” Maher said, pointing out that we’re always saying how scripted and dull conventions are. Here was an unscripted, unpredictable moment where a man and a chair brought great mirth to the convention goers. Maher knows firsthand that making strangers laugh is nearly as difficult as making Mitt Romney seem anatomically correct. But he’s overestimating how difficult it is to get Republicans to laugh at President Obama. Hit a few keywords they’ve all been trained to accept as punch lines – teleprompter, golf, Biden – and the laughs follow. The fact that Clint is a huge star from liberal Hollywood who growls only made it easier. The GOP did a huge favor for the President by making Eastwood the star of Mitt Romney’s biggest night. The right’s only hope is scaring up enough young people, women and minorities to make their huge advantages with married white people mean anything. Clint Eastwood sums up why that’s looking as unlikely as Christine O’Donnell ever being elected to anything. Eastwood was mostly incoherent on the issues, messing up facts, blaming the President for things Bush and the Republicans did. Eastwood himself is pro-choice, pro-marriage equality. Why he opposes the president seems entirely tied to a personal grudge, an economy the GOP broke and won’t help fix and antipathy toward how other people feel about Obama. Here’s why Clint Eastwood is a huge problem for the GOP: They meant to create a parody of Obama. Instead they created a parody of a Romney voter. Thank you, Mr. Eastwood. You haven’t been this good since you directed Mystic River.Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have accused the pope, the Vatican secretary of state and two other high-ranking Holy See officials of crimes against humanity, in a formal complaint to the international criminal court (ICC). The submission, lodged at The Hague on Tuesday, accuses the four men not only of failing to prevent or punish perpetrators of rape and sexual violence but also of engaging in the "systematic and widespread" practice of concealing sexual crimes around the world. It includes individual cases of abuse where letters and documents between Vatican officials and others show a refusal to co-operate with law enforcement agencies seeking to pursue suspects, according to the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a US-based organisation that represents the claimants. Pam Spees, human rights attorney with CCR, said: "The point of this is to look at it from a higher altitude. You zoom out and the practices are identical: whistleblowers are punished, the refusal of the Vatican to co-operate with law enforcement agencies. You see the protection of priests and leaving them in the ministry and because of these decisions other children are raped and sexually assaulted." She said: "It's not only the facts of the abuse but the way that the church deepened the harm in sometimes irreparable ways." According to the document filed by CCR, the pope, as head of the Catholic church, is ultimately responsible for the sexual abuse of children by priests and for the cover-ups of that abuse. The group argues that he and others have "direct and superior responsibility" for the crimes of those ranked below them, similar to a military chain of command. The others named in the complaint are Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals and former Vatican secretary of state; Cardinal Tarcissio Bertone, now secretary of state, who previously served at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the organisation tasked with handling sexual abuse cases under the pope when he was Cardinal Ratzinger; and Cardinal William Lavada, head of the CDF, whose handling of previous sexual abuse cases has been criticised in the past. Megan Petersen, from Minnesota, is one of two named US victims whose cases have been included in the complaint to the ICC. Petersen was awarded $750,000 (£500,000) last week in a civil claim against Crookston diocese, in which she alleged that a priest, Joseph Jeyapaul, had raped her repeatedly as a child. Speaking at The Hague, where the complaint was being launched, Petersen said of Jeyapaul: "He was a man of God and I was very devout. I wanted to be a nun. I trusted him. "Part of why I'm here is to protect kids. My perpetrator is still serving among kids and vulnerable adults, despite there being criminal charges against him. Ratzinger is the head of this organisation and these are his sheep, his flock. I will do everything in my power to make sure this does not happen to another child." Jeyapaul has denied the abuse from India, where he is serving as a priest. Amnesty International's latest annual human rights report, which cited the Holy See for the first time, concluded there was widespread evidence of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy over past decades, and an "enduring failure" of the Catholic church to seek redress.After barring reporters from covering one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's speeches, the Conservative Party is decrying a "new low for the Ottawa media elite" because some TV cameras refused to film the event if reporters weren't allowed inside. In an e-mail to Conservative supporters, the Conservatives' director of political operations, Fred DeLorey, sought to explain why a speech Mr. Harper made to his caucus Wednesday won't be seen "on the evening news." "You won't believe what the Press Gallery just did in Ottawa," Mr. DeLorey began. "Some media decided to boycott an important speech by our Prime Minister – one where he laid out his vision for our country, before today's Speech from the Throne." Story continues below advertisement On Tuesday, the Prime Minister's Office announced cameras would be welcome inside Wednesday morning's speech, but not reporters. In the past, both had. And the PMO has clashed recently with people trying to ask questions. One CTV cameraman was reportedly nearly banned from an overseas trip after shouting an impromptu question during one Harper event, while during the summer the RCMP whisked away a reporter who tried to seize a microphone during Mr. Harper's Northern trip to ask a question. On Wednesday, some TV stations refused to send in cameras without reporters. Most other media, including newspapers, were never offered the chance to come in at all – and therefore never given any opportunity to cover the speech live, much less boycott it. The PMO refused to budge and allow in reporters, and most TV stations – all but Sun News – ultimately refused to send in cameras without reporters. So the speech went on without most of the media there. Soon after, the NDP meeting across the hall opened its doors briefly to the press, some of whom covered a speech inside. Mr. DeLorey cited this as an apparent example of bias against the Conservatives, who refused to allow reporters in, in favour of the NDP, who allowed reporters in. "Rather than send cameras to cover the Prime Minister's speech, they attended the NDP's meeting, and were welcomed with cheers and applause. We knew they wouldn't give us fair coverage – but this is a new low for the Ottawa media elite," Mr. DeLorey wrote. Mr. DeLorey took over the role as political operations director from Jenni Byrne, who managed the 2011 election campaign and was brought back into Mr. Harper's office in August, a move widely seen to help lay the groundwork for the next campaign. Mr. Harper's office released portions of the speech live on his Twitter account. The Conservatives have uploaded a video of it.Trezor launches it's Password Manager cloud solution application SatoshiLabs has officially launched the Password Manager cloud solution for the Trezor hardware wallet, which they have been teasing now for the past few months. The Trezor Password Manager is a new lightweight application designed to store and manage passwords with ultimate security. One of the great things about the Password Manager is there is no master password for all your passwords. Unlike traditional password manager services, Trezor uses advanced cryptography to encrypt each password entry in your personal Trezor device. Password Manager then automatically uploads the encrypted data to the user’s private cloud storage, making them always available when needed. Passwords are accessed through the Trezor device and a synced Trezor Chrome extension. In a SatoshiLabs blog post today, they said that the Trezor Password Manager, “solves the most pressing security flaw of typical password managers — the master password unlocking the entire database. Once leaked or fished out by keylogger malware running silently on one’s computer, a malicious hacker gains access to all data stored in the password manager. Stolen login credentials are then typically sold on the black market to be further exploited by criminals for theft and impersonation.” Each device comes equipped with two-factor authentication functionality for added security. In addition to the Password Manager, the Trezor still serves as an offline bitcoin storage device for bitcoin users to securely hold and use their bitcoin. SatoshiLabs says that in the future an Import/Export option will be added and that they may begin to work on an Android app too.Europe's top human rights court ordered Turkey to compensate Cyprus over its invasion of the island and its subsequent division. The island has been split since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the north, responding to a coup orchestrated by supporters of a union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes the breakaway Turkish-Cypriot state in the north of Cyprus. The case before the European Court of Human Rights was brought by the Cypriot government in Nicosia, an EU member, in the southern half. Cyprus held Turkey responsible for the disappearance of 1,500 Greek Cypriots and the displacement of 200,000 others, as well as the violation the basic rights of Greek Cypriots who remained in the north. The court's decision on Monday, given in the French city of Strasbourg, said that Turkey's responsibility had not been erased over the passage of time. It was ordered to pay 30 million euros ($41.27 million) to relatives of those missing, and a further 60 million euros ($82.5 million) for "the enclaved Greek-Cypriot residents of the Karpas peninsula." It will be up to the Cyprus government to determine how to award the damages. The court also found Turkey guilty of violating several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. This includes the right to property and prohibiting inhuman or degrading treatment. Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities have recently begun a new effort to reunite the island. It is not yet known what effect the ruling could have on these discussions. Greece and Cyprus are both EU members, a status sought by Turkey, itself part of the NATO alliance. jr/msh (AP, dpa, AFP)Far, far up north in Scandinavia we find a destination entirely different from the ones we usually look at. There are no beaches in Malung, no wild nightclubs, the sunshine is sparsely distributed and you wont find hordes of tourist guides ready to hold your hand whilst explored. That is however exactly the attraction. The small town of Malung is the capital of a vast area of isolated and indisturbed nature, endless forest and streaming rivers, snow covered mountain tops and quiet lakes hidden away kilometres away through the wilderness. During the swedish summer month temperatures are generally rather mild and pleasant in this part of Sweden. You wouldnt exactly go here to catch a suntan, but the weather isnt likely to stop you exploring the wilderness either. And exploring is exactly what you should do. Get yourself a tent, a compas and plenty of supplies and head out into the vast rewarding forests. Try your luck fishing in the streaming river Västerdalälven that has a natural habitation of salmons, sea trouts and other exciting potential captures. You can find advice and buy a permit to go fishing in one of the local fishing accessories shops. Even better though, try discreetly getting to chat to local sports fishers out there as they might just reveal some of those secrets that will help you land a giant salmon or find the perfect spot to practice your fly fishing skills. For a more relaxing fishing experience there are plenty of lakes full of pikes, bass and other interesting species spread around the forests. The beauty of the fishing around Malung is that you tailor it exactly as you please, every type of fishing environment is ready and waiting and you wont even have to compete for a good spot at the lakes or rivers. Theres plenty of room, plenty of fish and plenty of nature to enjoy whilst youre at it. Hunting is very much the same, the area has a diverse and exciting wildlife and huge areas ready for hunting – but check with the local hunting shops first for required permits and areas you may use. In terms of places to go in general, Sweden has a socalled “allemandsret”, which basically allows you to camp anywhere in the wilderness for free unless the area is clearly marked as a no-go (which it wont be round Malung). In this way you can camp for free where ever you like and explore on your own terms. There are campsites spread around the area as well, that can be useful for gaining access to facilities, a hot shower and purchase of fresh supplies. Malung itself is a relatively small village with few outstanding events happening, the main feature by far is the nature surrounding it. There are however all you might need of shops and restaurants as well as a couple of bars. Dont go to Sweden for drinking though, its excessively expensive and the state has a monopoly on selling alcohol, driving up prices and the level of inconvenience. Malung has a few interesting events through the year such a Scandinavian folk festival with traditional swedish folkmusic from rather well known bands in the genre. During the winter theres a huge ski resort nearby as well to look into. But overall, go to Malung if you fancy exploring the wilderness, wants an extraordinary fishing or hunting trip, or if you simply enjoy the peace and quiet of vast sparsely populated areas full of wildlife, rivers and forests.More often than not I don't even understand what kills them. Sometimes fighters will survive a huge encounter with tens of ships on each side, but sometimes you send them to help in a 1v1 situation, and half of them will die without them even being focused. I followed them very closely, and they would just pop almost at random. Splash damage? Stray projectiles? I had a situation where fighters died even without anyone in the system. I had two flights of fighters salvaging a massive wreck, while also salvaging it with turrets myself, and I had a fighter die. I am thinking that either one fighter shot another, or maybe my salvager hit it. It really is hilarious at times. With unshielded fighters, they basically die from each others friendly fire, or by crossing your salvage & mining beams since their hitpints are so low (<4 hp), with the buffed ones with shields, they mostly die from colliding with stuff, since that damage ignores shields, also since cannons have a chance to punch through shields and its AOE damage, with the low health, cannon fighters usually just die from their own AOE effect when they attack something.I'd stick with tesla, lightning, chaingun or bolter fighters. Laser may have issues with the fighters jitter and speed, cannon is dangerous with AOE damage and missiles sucks unless you get a super lucky roll with high dps, non-burst and guided perk.A Boca Raton woman was arrested after she allegedly drove drunk, rear-ended another vehicle and became combative with Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies Tuesday night. Monica Felzer, 35, crashed into the back of the other car on the off-ramp of Southern Boulevard near State Road 7 in Royal Palm Beach, the report said. She and another woman were returning from a concert at the South Florida Fairgrounds. The other driver told Felzer that she hit the car, but Felzer denied it and drove away. The other driver followed her and called PBSO deputies who stopped the car. Felzer, who had bloodshot eyes and swayed while standing, first told police that she wasn’t driving — a story that contradicts the statements of the other driver and the passenger, the report said. She told police that she had two Cosmos at the concert and refused to perform roadside sobriety tests. As deputies took her to the Blood Alcohol Testing center, she told them she would give them $1,000 to take her home and let her go, the report said. At the center she threatened to kill the deputy and have him fired, the report said. After answering some questions, Felzer jumped on the ground and allegedly told deputies they would have to drag and beat her so she could claim police brutality. She then got up to move out of the room and said “Beat me. I love it,” the report said. Felzer then refused the breath test and was taken to a holding cell. Upon seeing the cell, she complained that it was dirty and she said she would not use the restroom, instead intending on urinating in her pants, the report said. She also allegedly told the deputies that she was rich and would have them fired. Felzer faces charges of DUI causing property damage, hit and run and resisting an officer without violence. She was released from Palm Beach County Jail under her own recognizance.View Full Version : [Anime] Episode 51:... The Small One Okay, here a very short summary of what happened in the last episode: Al stands up and walks to Ed, he claps his hands and the whole room becomes full of transmutation circles. Mustang is loosing to the Führer, when the son appears with the thing from the save. The Führer gets angry and chokes his son. Mustang intervenes, he takes a skull from the bag of the son and kills the Führer. On his way out, Archer is standing in his way. Hawkeye kills Archer. Ed is standing in a nothingness. Al appears before him, but vanishes. Then Envy appears and wonders where he is. Ed answers they are standing before the gate. Envy asks where it leads to, and after he hears that Hohenheim is on the other side, he opens the gate and goes inside. Ed awakes with a perfect body and Al is nowhere to see. Dante is escaping in the Elevator, when mindless-Gluttony eats itself through the bottom... he looks very hungry. Dante claps her hands... when the Elevator arrives its empty. After telling Roze to excape and take Wrath with her, Ed does some transmutation on himself. Result: Al in his old body with no memory of what happened. Mustang lost his left eye. Hohenheim and Ed (with Automail again) are living together in München (1921). Wrath with Automail is living on the steets. Tucker with his lifeless Nina is practicing to draw Soul-Transmutation Circles on a wall. In the End both AL and Ed are sitting in a train and talking to themselves that they will meet again. huh so the movie will focus on Al and ed than??? :confused: Hoshi I have a question: and Winry? She rest in Resembool??? Pai Ed and Al separated? :sad: BTW It seems a very good end. But.. Too many months to the movie DAMN michiru Umm....In short....... Ed---to this world.Alive. Al---revived but lost memories for 4 years. Roy---got his left eye injured.Alive. Hawkeye---LOVE LOVE with Roy(lol).Alive. Roze---Alive. Wrath---Full metal Wrath!?Alive but disappeared. Dante---was eaten by Gluttony.Dead? Gluttny/---Where did you go?Dead? Envy---To this world in order to see dad.But where are you!?Alive? Pride---Dead. Archer---Dead. Winry---Who are you?(lol) We have to watch FMA the movie after all. I think that the contents must be Ed & Hohenheim VS Nazis & Envy. :heh: OMchan Here are two screenshots I found from Episode 51. One of Ed and one of Riza. http://s02.imagehost.org/0214/fma51_ed_jpg.t.jpg (http://s02.imagehost.org/view.php?image=/0214/fma51_ed.jpg) http://s02.imagehost.org/0214/fma51_riza_jpg.t.jpg (http://s02.imagehost.org/view.php?image=/0214/fma51_riza.jpg) Scrumhalf More spoilerific caps of Episode 51 if you can't help yerselves. Yarrr... Roy v Pride scene. http://wgalland.hp.infoseek.co.jp/img/200410/20040100207.jpg Revival of Ed. http://wgalland.hp.infoseek.co.jp/img/200410/20040100208.jpg Full Metal Archer finally pwned. http://wgalland.hp.infoseek.co.jp/img/200410/20040100209.jpg Ed & Hohenheim in Munich, Germany. 1921. http://wgalland.hp.infoseek.co.jp/img/200410/20040100210.jpg Ed finally lays the smackdown on Dante & co. Or does he? http://wgalland.hp.infoseek.co.jp/img/200410/20040100211.jpg Roy x Riza moments. http://wgalland.hp.infoseek.co.jp/img/200410/20040100212.jpg Revived Al (10-years-old) back in hometown with Rose & Winry. http://wgalland.hp.infoseek.co.jp/img/200410/20040100213.jpg Ending captures. http://wgalland.hp.infoseek.co.jp/img/200410/20040100214.jpg gangsta905_04 wutta a waste... Hiruka00 OH WOW! The ending sounds like it turned out alright. I can't wait to see it!! :eek: :D http://www.geocities.com/hi_iruka/FMAbanner.jpg dew Holy crap. They didn't pull a crappy ending out of their asses. I'm shocked. It's fine with me. kmm is this going to be the final episode?! dew is this going to be the final episode?! Yes, but there's a movie that takes place 2 years later that will come out next summer. Gatts Wow, am I actually...satisfied with a Bones ending for the first time?! Oh my.. There were a few points that made me go 'wtf', but overall it felt good. It wasn't the type of ending that's going to drive you crazy waiting for the movie, anyways. omfgeyepatchroyxriza?!11 DNE ooo niceee, cant wait to see it Sonhex Thought the ending was very well done, managed to capture the spirit of the series and didn't seem rushed. BONES actually did the impossible and tied up most of the plot threads superbly and left a few for the movie... ...Dante and Gluttony's fate seems purposely vague, guess we'll see them in the movie. Same with Envy passing through the Gate and changing into a Green Serpent was wierd. Bradley killing his son was the real shocker for me, I wasn't expecting that. He seemed like a devoted father. But it reiterates the fact that he's an evil sadistic bastard and Roy did the job of killing him well. Of course, it's great Al got his body back. The fact he cannot remember the last 4 years is also a good thing, he's seen so many horrors and been through so many disturbing events that he deserves a 'clean' start. Unfortunately it will be without Ed, but then the movie will follow that story... Most importantly it gives us a really good premise for the movie, hopefully taking it in a new and welcome direction. Look forward to it... :) dew One thing I'm surprised nobody pointed out: Apparently 5 years passed in London for the end of the series (1916 -> 1921). So I assume that the movie will be taking place SEVEN years after the TV series timeline, instead of two like everyone thought. gangsta905_04 wut happened to winry shezka and izumi?? Mb81 A perfect episode... still i don`t want this series to end g. Soundtrack, story... best series this year. gangsta905_04 g??? wut do ya mean lol..=P...sum1 wanna make this a sticky thread?? Ed Elric Wow...the ending was absoultly beautiful in every way. I am completly and utterly amazed at it...wow... BONES did and amazing job, best series I have ever seen. Beautiful.... eabandit i loved it. i would rather the vagueness of dante's fate be cleaned up just simply by showing Al let loose and kick the shit out of her... but being done in by her own creation (possibly? or maybe shes still alive) was alright as well... Avarice haha that WAS a good ending. but to get this straight, there is no title for this episode? it's just called "???"? f00l nice ending but :sad: it over......... thanks for summarizing this episode and thanks to the other people who summarized past episodes.........its been a good ride :) Stellae I'm confused... how did Mustang randomly end up with an injured eye and needing a cane to walk with, when he injured mostly his arm and chest where Pride stabbed him? And why did he bother pulling out Selim when it seems like he was dead... maybe he did something to save him and it cost Mustang his eye? o_O? IMSabbel Hm. So in the end, ed landed in munich 1921... and the movie plays 2 years later... I only remember one thing that happened 1923, in munich: Hitlers first action to claim power, the beer hall putch. Normaly, i would discard that idea, but hey, we had fucking zeppelins in episode 49/50, so anything goes... DNE nice ending but :sad: it over......... thanks for summarizing this episode and thanks to the other people who summarized past episodes.........its been a good ride :) on the bright side, Seed 2 is airing now instead :heh: louie2004 Hm. So in the end, ed landed in munich 1921... and the movie plays 2 years later... I only remember one thing that happened 1923, in munich: Hitlers first action to claim power, the beer hall putch. Normaly, i would discard that idea, but hey, we had fucking zeppelins in episode 49/50, so anything goes... well the yr and place that ed landed did make me have a deep thinking. I am sure that the editors of the anime want to carry out some special messages by placing ed in 1922Munich,and my guess is the same as you,it may be something related to german politics or hitler's story.Anyway,i am looking forward to the movie next year and i'm happy to see if the movie continue the story ended in Munich1922. jonny-mt Thought the ending was very well done, managed to capture the spirit of the series and didn't seem rushed. BONES actually did the impossible and tied up most of the plot threads superbly and left a few for the movie... ...Dante and Gluttony's fate seems purposely vague, guess we'll see them in the movie. Same with Envy passing through the Gate and changing into a Green Serpent was wierd. Bradley killing his son was the real shocker for me, I wasn't expecting that. He seemed like a devoted father. But it reiterates the fact that he's an evil sadistic bastard and Roy did the job of killing him well. Of course, it's great Al got his body back. The fact he cannot remember the last 4 years is also a good thing, he's seen so many horrors and been through so many disturbing events that he deserves a 'clean' start. Unfortunately it will be without Ed, but then the movie will follow that story... Most importantly it gives us a really good premise for the movie, hopefully taking it in a new and welcome direction. Look forward to it... :) The Fuhrer attacking his son was actually really cool. If you remember, he gave him the key a couple of episodes ago, telling him that what was in the vault was his life and that it was now his son's job to protect it. The son came back because he had to get it and then found the Fuhrer in the blaze with Mustang...you'll notice that when the kid looks up at him and asks what's wrong, the Fuhrer isn't looking so hot. If you're a homunculus and you know where a part of your original body is, it makes a lot of sense that you'd want to be the only one to have access to it. Gatts I'm confused... how did Mustang randomly end up with an injured eye and needing a cane to walk with, when he injured mostly his arm and chest where Pride stabbed him? And why did he bother pulling out Selim when it seems like he was dead... maybe he did something to save him and it cost Mustang his eye? o_O? It's likely Archernator just shot him in the head before Riza pwned him. As for the cane, who knows, you'd probably need one after taking a shot like that... Whisky Hm. So in the end, ed landed in munich 1921... and the movie plays 2 years later... I only remember one thing that happened 1923, in munich: Hitlers first action to claim power, the beer hall putch. Normaly, i would discard that idea, but hey, we had fucking zeppelins in episode 49/50, so anything goes... Hitlers career started already 1919, making propaganda at DAP ( later NSDAP ) and everything started in bavaria, too. So I think it's munich for a certain reason... GryphonZ This is better ending than I though. Good to see Al restore his body. Well done BONES! ...Ah can't wait for the movie XD Ed Elric I wonder what the next anime BONES will be doing is? dew Well, there are two possibilities: The time on our side of the gate flows different than there. Ed arrived a few years later, when he came the second time. I'm more surprised, that the Automail seemed to work perfectly. At first it looked like it didn't, but afterwards, he clearly was using this arm. I certainly didn't get either of those two impressions. Ed was older in the very end of the series. I'm gonna say that the 5 years passed, and this is where they are now. gaheris Man now we have to wait till next summer to find out what happens next. That wait is too long you would think they would try to get it out sooner but I guess not... I like that Al got his body back but still still have questions like will Al get his memory back? WTF happened to Dante? Did Gluttony eat himself and her. I wonder if he can do no circle alchemy? What happened to Envy and what's up with the dragon what is the point of that? And I hope they don't make it about Ed playing some important role in WWI or II something. realdeal That would be a dumb ending if Al dont get his memory back. Its basically saying that the whole series for him was pointless. Reticia in can sense a second fma season, not you? :p Even if there's a movie, there's too much things that aren't answered what happened to dante and gluttony? what about envy? what will happen to wrath? will the 2 brothers be together in the future? What about the tringham brothers? etc, etc. I can sense it as big as a building :heh: GryphonZ in can sense a second fma season, not you?
was able to talk. "H-how… " She started, but it sounded more like a squeak, so she cleared her throat and started again. "How did you…? The color…?" At the question, Elsa looked (really looked) at the chameleon and blinked twice, as if she thought it was an illusion. But there was no doubt; the little creature wasn't blue as her regular ice-sculptures. She was as shocked as her friend. "I-I don't know." She answered. "I have no idea how I did that." "That's fine, but…" Rapunzel put a pained expression, finally realizing her shoulder was freezing at the touch of the chameleon, but when she tried to remove it, she discovered it was glued to her clothes. "Elsa? Can you please remove it?" She pleaded. "Of course!" The ice-wilder exclaimed when she realized what was happening before disappearing the ice-Pascal with just one movement of her hands. Then, she approached the brunette to see if she wasn't hurt. However, when the girl uncovered her shoulder to inspect it, it was purple, broadening in black. Apparently Elsa's ice was colder than normal ice. "I'm sorry!" She said very regretful. "I didn't mean to hurt you." "I know." She sighed as she touched the sore area that, even now, felt as if it was being burned. Still, she couldn't blame Elsa; she knew it hadn't been on purpose. "It's okay, I can heal it… I think." The truth is, she'd never tried to heal herself, mainly because she had never been hurt so badly, but she hoped it worked. Letting out a tear was fairly easy because she was in real pain, and then all she had to do was take it with her fingers and place it where the frostbite was. Instantly, her skin recovered its normal color, as if harm had never been done. Both girls sighed in relief and then the brunette covered her shoulder again. "Looks like I can also heal myself." Rapunzel said smiling. "That's something I'd never done… Talking about recently-discovered-powers, are you sure you'd never done that color thing before?" Elsa shook her head. "Weird. Maybe your powers are still growing." "Maybe." Elsa said hoping it wasn't the case. If they grew more, she may not be able to control them. "Or maybe it was something else." The other girl suggested as a new idea popped into her mind. "Did you feel any different when the ice changed colors?" Elsa thought a little before answering. "Yes… when I first did it, I was upset." She admitted. "And then I was very happy." "So it turned red and then green…" Rapunzel let out a thoughtful hum. "You may not have noticed, but the same happened to your dragon and the rest of the ice you'd casted… and when you panicked seeing my wound, it all turned yellow." "Are you suggesting that the color of the ice changes according to my emotions?" Elsa raised an eyebrow. "It could be." She shrugged. "And why it hadn't happened before?" "Well, when you were young, you probably didn't have that power, and more recently… Has something about your feelings changed recently?" "Well…" Elsa thought for a few seconds trying to point out any change that may had occurred. The only thing she could think of was admitting how she felt for Anna. "I can now express exactly how I feel for Anna." "And for the others? When Eugene or I make you feel something, do you express it freely?" "Well… yes." Elsa realized her friend was right. She had stopped concealing a while ago. "That may be what triggered such a change in you powers; when you express a feeling freely while controlling ice, it reflects in your creations." "Doesn't that sound a little crazy?" Elsa said unsure. "There's only one way to find out." The other girl smirked. After that, Elsa spent at least two more hours focusing on one emotion and creating ice-sculptures of different colors. She even created one of Anna with the exact same clothing she was wearing that day. It was kinda hard at first, but then she almost became an expert. After that, Rapunzel had make her practice her aim, blasting different ice-made targets. The blonde didn't really see why she should do this, since she really didn't want to hurt anybody, but the brunette always said it was necessary in case Weselton's men discovered where she was. After all, Anna couldn't defend them both on her own. Exhausted, they returned to the house, where Rapunzel quickly warmed some food they had prepared the previous day while Elsa sat down on the couch and zipped through the channels searching for something to watch. Just when she'd found a movie about a bunch of teenagers that were in a school for mutants that she found quite interesting (As well as ironic), the front door's handle twisted signaling someone's arrival. Elsa got up as if she had been struck by a thunder and ran to the entrance. As soon as the door opened and a certain redhead got through it, sweaty and tired, she found herself enveloped by a pair of slim arms winding themselves around her neck and kissed by soft pink lips. She opened her eyes wide, not expecting such a welcome, but relaxed at the gentle touch. Then, a playful tongue slipped through her lips as the owner pressed into her body, making the kiss become more heated. It was as if Elsa was possessed by an irrational hunger… which wasn't anything new anymore. Anna barely had enough presence of mind to close the door before tugging at Elsa's leg urging her to lift them. The girl complained, wrapping Anna's waist with her legs as she caught her hips and pulled her even closer. Anna's whole body trembled in protest to this great physical effort, but she ignored it as she walked to the couch, still kissing Elsa, and deposited the girl on it before climbing on top of her to resume their kissing. For all they cared, the world could've ended in that instant and they'd continue kissing, because the sensation of being so intimately linked with the one they loved most (Both, physically and emotionally) was just heaven. They could've kept kissing the rest of the day if not for certain someone screaming at their ear: "Hey, get a room you two!" Anna jumped in surprise and fell from the couch to then glare at her now ex-best friend… who was she kidding? She'd always be her best friend, as much as she annoyed her sometimes. "Why did you interrupt them?!" A male voice was heard from the entrance and the three girls turned, surprised to see Eugene, who had apparently just arrived from work. "It was getting hotter!" He protested, to which Rapunzel just rolled her eyes. "Exactly why I interrupted them. I don't want to watch them having sex in my couch." "I do." "Because it's not your mother's couch!" "You have a point." He accepted. Then, they both erupted in laughter and approached to each other to hug and kiss sweetly. "See?" Rapunzel turned to Elsa and Anna after the kiss ended. "This is how decent people greet their partners." Anna just rolled her eyes. "I swear, sometimes I think you're the recently-married couple here." To this all of them laughed lightly. "More like a couple of horny teenagers, I think." Eugene corrected which made them all laugh even harder (Except Elsa, who just made a mental note to ask Anna about the meaning of 'horny' later). "Hey, don't you smell something burning?" Anna asked suddenly, interrupting everyone's laughter. "The chicken!" Rapunzel exclaimed and ran to the kitchen while other three people looked at each other briefly before following her. It all went to hell as soon as the doorbell rang. None of them was expecting visitors, so it was weird, but still Eugene got up and went to open the door, where she found three men wearing suits. Anna was just about to take a spoonful of hazelnut soup into her mouth when she heard something that put her senses on alert. "We're here to inform you that you've won a free trip to the most marvelous island getaway ever." "A trip? But I didn't…" Before Eugene had finished his sentence, however, he was punched in the gut and, before he could recover and fully process what was happening they hit him in the head with the back of a gun and he fell unconscious. Fuck. The only thing in Anna's mind as she walked to the men was that they were screwed, after all, whatever she had learned with Mulan hadn't included "fighting against three guys holding guns while I only have a spoon". "You're Weselton's men." She said, voice full of hatred more than fear. "We are." Said the one who was in the middle. "It took us a while since that incompetent Hans refused to say anything unless he was rewarded in compensation for the time he'd spent hiding from the police. Fortunately at least, he relented due to our boss' methods of… persuasion." A chill ran through Anna's spine. She didn't like what Hans had done, of course, but she didn't think he deserved torture. In that moment she noticed Rapunzel approaching carefully to the men holding a frying pan, but as she did so very slowly and silently, they didn't seem to notice. At the same time, Eugene stirred and opened his eyes, and Anna quickly realized she should keep the men distracted. "You mean torture?" She said accusingly, her stare hardening. The man just laughed. "I'll just say that I hope I'll never be in his hands." "Well, I guess you'll be." Anna's mouth was now talking without being connected to her mind. "After all, I'm pretty sure he'll be very mad at you when you return empty handed." "What do you mean? You aren't armed, and our men are right now surrounding this house." "Yes, but with my special ability I could crush you all before you have time to even blink." Anna didn't know where that came from, but she knew it may give them an opportunity to attack. "You're bluffing. There are only two girls here with magic, and you're not one of them." It sounded more like he wanted to convince himself and his men. "Really? Well…" Anna discretely looked at Rapunzel who was now hiding behind a drawer really close to the men, and then at Eugene who was still lying on the floor but his breath was very agitated so she guessed he was just pretending. It was time. "Why don't you come and see if I'm really bluffing?!" She shouted defiantly. The men doubted just an instant, but it was enough. The one to the right got knocked down when the frying pan hit his head, and the one to the left hit the wall when a potent kick landed on his stomach, losing consciousness as his head was also damaged. The one at the center made the worst mistake possible; pointed Anna with a gun, but just when he was pulling the trigger, he suddenly froze. Literally. He was now a human ice-statue. They all turned to see Elsa who was now standing behind the couch with her arms extended, a despaired look in her face. "He tried to kill Anna." She explained, voice trembling. "That's okay." Anna assured her. "You didn't have an option; this guys are bad men. They won't hesitate to kill us, so don't hesitate when you attack either." That last part was said to them all, so everyone nodded, conscious that now their lives were in serious danger. "Rapunzel, you and Flynn go south, find the airport and leave to Corona as soon as possible; your parents will surely offer you protection." "And you?" Eugene asked fearing the answer. "We'll go east first, find your friend and see if he finished the false papers I requested for Elsa. Then we'll also leave." "But why do we have to separate?" Rapunzel protested. "We have a better chance to escape if we're not together." Anna simply answered. "Apparently Weselton knows about your powers too, so they'll probably split. That way, we won't be in such a great danger." Rapunzel nodded and put a serious and determined expression. "I'll go get our papers." "There's a small leather bag on my bed. Bring it to me; it has my papers and some money. We have to travel light." "Meanwhile we'll keep anyone from entering." Eugene assured her closing the door. "Go!" At this, Rapunzel disappeared upstairs. "Elsa!" Anna yelled to transmit to the girl a sense of urgency. Her head quickly snapped in her direction. "Freeze the door and the windows." Elsa nodded and proceeded to do that. "Eugene, give me a gun and take one for yourself; we're gonna need them." As if on cue, a window that wasn't still frozen broke and a hammer could be distinguished, however, as soon as the man's body peered through the window frame, he was shot in the leg by Anna. Just a moment after he fell and another one was trying to get inside, the window was covered by three feet of solid ice just as the others. In that moment, Rapunzel came down with her chameleon on her shoulder and holding two bags; hers and Anna's. Anna took hers, saying with an intense stare: "Don't let him capture you." She said with a voice so serious that it gave the brunette chills. "Neither do you." She squeaked. Anna nodded and then went to Elsa and took her hand. "Elsa, conjure a strong blizzard outside the house. Once they've fled, we'll get out." Elsa nodded and closed her eyes. Instantly, a mini storm appeared around her to then expand, making all of them cold, until it surrounded the entire house in a fourteen feet radius. Since they were in the center, they didn't suffered anymore. "Ready?" Elsa nodded, opening her eyes. "I… I guess this is the goodbye then?" Rapunzel asked tentatively, approaching to her best friend and her girlfriend. "We'll meet again." Anna promised, gaze softening for the first time since the attack. "I promise… a-and I'm sorry I dragged you into this." She added guilty, knowing that, if not for them, Weselton would've never disturbed Rapunzel. "It's alright." She assured her. "I'm glad I was able to help you." Then, she pulled her into a tight hug that Anna reciprocated gladly, hoping it wouldn't be the last. "Take care of Elsa." She then added as they pulled back. "I'll will." Anna assured her before Rapunzel turned to the girl. "Elsa… I'll miss you." She admitted. "I already see you as a friend, and I hope you do too. I could never imagine a better girlfriend for Anna, so… please, protect her for me, will you?" Elsa nodded before she was crushed by a hug and felt wet tears on her shoulder, then she hugged her back feeling that her eyes were also watering. However, in that moment the brunette broke the embrace, giving her a light squeeze in her arms before pulling back completely. "I'll miss you too." Eugene said to the girls emotively before hugging Anna and trying to hug Elsa, who took a little step back; she still didn't know Eugene as well and so wasn't very comfortable with physical contact, so he had to settle for taking her hand and shaking it as he gave her a smile, trying not to look hurt. "We'll see each other again." He promised. "We will." Anna reiterated and, thereupon, she opened the door and the four of them walked into the white storm.Niantic haven’t done it before but this time, Lure Modules will last for six hours for the entire event duration, so use lure modules and paint your town pink, this valentine’s day! They have also announced that it’s starting today as of 8th February on 11:00 AM PST and the event will end on 15th February 11:00 AM PST. Here is Niantic’s Official message to us: Trainers, With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we couldn’t think of a sweeter time to double the amount of Candy you’ll earn every time you catch, hatch, and transfer Pokémon. Your Buddy Pokémon is also getting into the Valentine’s Day spirit and will find Candy twice as fast! Throughout the celebration, you’ll notice that Chansey, Clefable, and many other adorable pink Pokémon will be encountered more frequently in the wild. Continued On Next PageInternet users are currently bombarding the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) with 50 emails per minute and the campaign is just a few thousand emails short of a million. Sometime in the next 24 hours, India will mark a massive milestone in digital activism. That moment will come when the ‘Save The Internet’ campaign crosses a record one million emails in what has been called the #MillionMailMission to protect net neutrality. Advertising Internet users are currently bombarding the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) with 50 emails per minute and the campaign is just a few thousand emails short of a million. “It is the largest ever campaign conducted in this country within the shortest span of time — just over 10 days,” said Bangalore-based Kiran Jonnalagadda, one of the volunteers who spearheaded the online crusade. [related-post] “It is a historic mandate for net neutrality,” said Sharmila Srinivas, a college student in Bangalore who has egged on her friends to mail TRAI. Advertising Net neutrality is a principle that ordains that internet providers give all content and applications the same access without favouring particular apps or websites. On Wednesday, even Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi waded into the net neutrality debate in Parliament, saying that “the government wants to divide the internet among big industrialists”. India has about 300 million internet users and over two-thirds of them access the internet through their cellphones. The emails have been in response to TRAI seeking public opinion on its proposal to allow the country’s telecom-cum-internet providers to charge differently for different uses of data. This means charging certain rates for email or internet browsing, and even more for use of apps like Whatsapp, Viber and Skype, whose rampant use has hit internet providers’ bottom lines in recent quarters. But the backlash has forced Indian companies to distance themselves from Facebook’s Internet.org, an initiative to make selective content free to users, as well as Airtel Zero, a platform by the country’s largest internet provider, Airtel, wherein certain companies pay to make their services available to users. What is remarkable is that the ‘Save The Internet’ campaign has been run by about four dozen professionals countrywide, who have taken time off their work schedules to organise the massive online dissent. Jonnalagadda, for instance, runs a platform for coders. The campaign is singular in that it is only through social media – ironically, the same social networks that campaigners claim are subverting net neutrality in India. “We have not taken to the streets or gone offline,” said Jonnalagadda. “It is one million emails to TRAI minus any trolling or harassing, quite unprecedented for digital activism,” said Nikhil Pahwa, editor of the Delhi-based MediaNama, which covers mobile and the internet. When the campaign started, volunteers had hoped to reach 15,000 emails to TRAI, but to cross a million in 10 days was beyond their expectations. “It shows the magnitude of concern… the way we use the internet today may be destroyed because a few telecom operators want to take control of how we access the internet and, more importantly, what we access online,” said Pahwa. Advertising The campaigners are asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and help ensure that the internet, which helped garner massive support for his election victory, remains free of influence and manipulation.Welcome to Extraordinary Faith. Extraordinary Faith is a monthly 30 minute television program on EWTN that celebrates the beauty of classical Catholic sacred art, architecture, music, and liturgy. We’ll take you to some of the world’s most awe-inspiring churches. We’ll introduce you to dynamic young Catholics whose faith has survived the demands of a secular world and who are becoming key players in the New Evangelization by sharing their enthusiasm for the traditions of Catholicism. We’ll show you the rich vocations harvest that is synonymous with the movement to restore the Extraordinary Form of Mass to mainstream parish life. We’ll give you the resources to find churches that offer traditional worship experiences, and we’ll even assist you to organize your own Latin Masses. Come back to this site often and read about our latest new episodes. Every episode will be available for viewing on this web site one month after it debuts on EWTN.· Journalist kills himself as he is linked to four deaths · Police suspicion raised by use of unattributable facts When Vlado Taneski wrote about the serial killer stalking his hometown in Macedonia, his eye for detail was such that the story was soon riveting readers. The journalist's inside knowledge of the brutal murders of three elderly women in the tiny town of Kicevo ensured that newspaper editors gave his columns prominence. Yesterday the 56-year-old father-of-two killed himself by dunking his head in a bucket of water in the toilet at a prison in the town of Tetovo, after it was revealed he had been charged with the murders he had written about. "All these women were raped, molested and murdered in the most terrible way and we have very strong evidence that Taneski was responsible for all three," said police spokesman Ivo Kotevski speaking from the capital Skopje. "In the end there were many things that pointed to him as a suspect and led us to file charges against him for two of the murders," he added. "We were close to charging him with a third murder, and hoped he would give us details of a fourth woman who disappeared in 2003 - because we believe he was involved in that case, too." Of all the things which gave Taneski away, police point to his in-depth coverage of a story which is being reported as one of the most bizarre events to have befallen the two-million strong mini-state. The three women were aged between 65 and 56. Zivana Temelkoska, Ljubica Licoska, and Mitra Simjanoska were each beaten repeatedly and strangled with a phone cable. Temelkoska was murdered in May, Licoska in February last year and Simjanoska in 2005. They shared a common background in being cleaners, a job which Taneski's deceased mother had held for years. Each of the three bodies was discovered wrapped in plastic bags and dumped and discarded around Kicevo, a drab town southwest of Skopje with a population of fewer than 20,000. The fourth woman, aged 78, went missing in 2003, and her body has never been found. It was the ostensibly mild-mannered journalist's intricate account of the murders which led to suspicion. But what made it unmistakable was his inclusion of details police had chosen not to release. Unlike any of his journalist rivals, Taneski knew the type of phone chord the killer used as his "signature weapon" - reporting, without attribution, that the cord had been used to strangle as well as tie up the bodies of the women; and, even more brazenly, he speculated about the chronology of the murders. "On May 18, just after the gruesome murder of Zivana Temelkoska, he called and pitched the story to us," said Goce Trpkovski, a reporter at the daily Nova Makedonija. "He was very quietly spoken but also very persuasive. As a contributor we published his story as the main article on the crime pages the next day - under the headline 'A serial killer stalks Kicevo, too' - because the murders followed a series of killings in Ochrid, although they were nothing like this. "To tell the truth, I didn't believe the story - almost nothing happens in Macedonia, and suddenly we have two serial killers stalking our tiny country in a matter of months." What neither the staff at Utrinski Vesnik, another newspaper that he contributed to, or any of his many friends, could also believe, was how a man described as "unbelievably low-key and soft-natured" was capable of such crimes. Yesterday, his estranged wife told Canal 5, a local TV station, that she had enjoyed "an ideal marriage" with Taneski for 31 years. "He was always quiet and gentle. The only time I ever saw him get aggressive was when we were living with his parents," she told the channel. As police released more details yesterday, it did emerge there was also a darker side to Taneski's life. A large collection of pornographic videos and magazines was found in his summer house. And, adding to the fact the victims were cleaners, as was Taneski's dead mother, police noted all three bore a striking resemblance to her. He is believed to have had a troubled relationship with his mother, one which worsened considerably after his father killed himself in 1990. "There is obvious symbolism in the fact that his mother, like the victims, was a cleaner," said Antoni Novotni, a professor who heads the psychiatric clinic in Skopje. "This is pure speculation - as he was never my patient - but one explanation could be that he wanted to be caught by letting slip what he did in his articles," Novotni told the Guardian. "Perhaps he saw it as a way of resolving his inner problems, and getting rid of the burden which came with killing these women." Extract From a piece by Vlado Taneski, published in Nova Makedonija on May 19 2008 The people of Kicevo live in fear after another butchered body has been found in the town. The corpse strongly resembles one discovered 20 kilometres outside Kicevo last year and there is a possibility that these monstrous murders are the work of a serial killer. Both women were tortured and murdered in the same fashion, which rules out the possibility that this could have been done by two different people. The Ochrid serial killer murdered three people [in 2007] but his victims were all street-based money exchangers and his motive was to rob them. The motive of the Kicevo monster remains unclear. Both women were friends and living in the same part of town. Police have a few suspects who they are interrogating. The latest body was found in rubbish dump. It had been tied up with a piece of phone cable with which the woman had clearly been previously strangled.The WGC-Mexico Championship makes its first trip to its namesake country this week for the opening World Golf Championship event of the calendar year. Previously the WGC-Cadillac Championship, the newly named WGC-Mexico Championship makes its debut at Club de Golf Chapultepec just outside Mexico City. Rory McIlroy returns to action after being side-lined with a rib injury since his play-off defeat to Graeme Storm at the BMW SA Open in January and will be joined by the world-number-one Dustin Johnson for the first time since his coronation. It may prove testing for McIlroy to work off rust to any reward after over a month off in such a strong field or to fully commit on the back of an injury. However, this perhaps offers a welcome warm-up opportunity in the lead up to the Masters. Nevertheless, the Northern-Irishman could well be looking to earn a maiden victory at this event with a previous best finish of third. The field is so strong here, in fact, that Jason Day – who withdrew on Sunday due to illness – is the only player inside the world’s top 50 to not be competing in Mexico. The elite field includes the PGA Tour’s most recent winner, Rickie Fowler, who strolled to a four-shot victory at the Honda Classic last week and kept to the trend of highly ranked players winning PGA events after Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Hideki Matsyama’s recent success; all of whom will enter here brimming with confidence. Adam Scott will attempt to defend his title having beat Bubba Watson by one stroke last year to make it two wins in two following a Honda Classic victory the week prior; a good omen for a certain Fowler. Several other past winners return, though, including the aforementioned Johnson (2015), Patrick Reed (2014), Justin Rose (2012) and Phil Mickelson (2009). There’s no place for the tournament’s most triumphant competitor, Tiger Woods, who fails to qualify – although would still be sidelined with injury regardless. The 41-year-old has won the event of 17 instalments an astounding seven times including back-to-back-to-back wins from 2005 to 2007. He holds to record for both overall score of 261 (2006) that led to an eight-shot victory and aggregate score of 25-under-par (2002). With no recent course history for this event or any alike it’s impossible to predict how scoring will be this week and, with irregular hosting of this event, past winning scores range from four-under-par to Woods’ 25-under-par. After a 10-year stay at the Blue Monster course in Doral, Florida, this year’s host is Club de Golf Chapultepec. The course has little experience in significant event hosting; you have to go back to 1944 to 1960 to find its last notable run of hosting – the Mexico Open. With that said, there have been numerous upgrades made to the course over the last few months to prepare it to host an event of this calibre. At just over 7300 yards for a par 71, one thing that can be confidently assumed is that it will test the distance of anyone at the tee. The format is a standard 72-hole stroke play except from the fact that, because of a significantly shortened 70-man field, there’s no 36-hole cut. The ever-growing purse for a WGC event is at its highest of $9,750,000, with $1,700,000 for the winner alone, this year and it’s sanctioned for the money lists of both the PGA and European Tours. With 70 of the world’s elite golfers taking to the fairway, the WGC events sit just behind the majors as standout tournaments in the year. It may not be viewed in the same light as the upcoming Masters but this event provides players with a great opportunity for a trial run against the best and spectators with a preview for Augusta in five weeks time. AdvertisementsThe pathway for a Republican to the White House is a narrow one. There is no room for error. These next few weeks are critical for Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton must still deal with Bernie Sanders and the prospects of another primary—the FBI Primary. Trump has a real opportunity to “seize the moment” between now and the convention. He must make his case that 2016 will be the most important election of our lifetime and that America as we now know it—a nation with a debt of $19 trillion, a military that’s been gutted, that cuts deals with terrorist regimes and lacks a real foreign policy—can’t survive third Obama term. Recent polls show a tightening Presidential race. Trump has brought millions of new people into the Republican Party and connected with “forgotten Americans” who believe their government has failed them. Here’s what Trump must do to further solidify his bond with the “silent majority,” convince Republicans and conservatives who didn’t support him to join him now to prevent an Obama 3rd term, expand the Electoral College map and continue to dominate media coverage. ? Go to the San Diego-Tijuana border and highlight the one part of our border where our government built a secure double-fence as mandated by the Secure Fence Act. Illegal crossings, drugs, murders and other crimes have been drastically reduced. He should be joined by U.S. Representative Peter King and former House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, co-sponsors of the 2006 Secure Fence Act and announce that his wall will be patterned after this legislation that the last two administrations failed to enforce and fund. ? Give a major address on China. Focus on our massive trade deficit with China, as well as China’s “cyber war” against our national security and economic interests. ? Have a robust “Get Out The Vote” (GOTV) and data analytics technology platform. Over 90 million eligible voters did not vote in 2012 and this year roughly 40% of Republicans and Democrats say they may look to another candidate or stay home. Independents will be more important than ever. The votes are there for Trump to win, but he must have the best technology platform a GOP nominee has ever had to identify his supporters and get them to vote. ? Choreograph the Republican National Convention so that each night highlights a specific issue that connects with voters Trump must turn out. Have one night focused on the military and veterans. Another could be focused on securing our borders (highlight how terrorists have used our open border policy, etc.). Faith and family night could highlight the need to end common core—something Trump connected with evangelicals on early in the campaign. Jobs and economy night could be on the last night with him accepting the nomination. An underlying theme could also show a side of Trump that most haven’t seen. There are stories of his generosity helping people in need. While it’s not in his character to talk about such things—the American people need to see this side of him. ? Picking the right vice presidential running mate will be crucial. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and Ohio Governor John Kasich would be solid choices and help the ticket big time. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would be the most effective at getting Trump’s agenda enacted and his intellect and vision are sorely needed in a dysfunctional government. ? Identify key presidential appointments, including cabinet positions and a pool of qualified jurists he would pick from for the Supreme Court. President Reagan said that “Personnel is policy.” Unfortunately, no President for the last 25 years has been ready with his key appointments when he took office and it routinely takes over 6 months after the Inaugural to get key personnel in place. By doing this, Trump can say the country is a mess and we need a President who is ready to hit the ground running on Day 1. His announcement of Governor Chris Christie to head his “transition team” is a good step. ? Enter into a “Contract with America” patterned after what House Republicans did in 1994. Focus on securing the border, scrapping the Iran deal, protecting the 2nd Amendment, ending common core, rebuilding America’s military and bringing jobs back home. ? Give an address on how he would work with our allies in the Muslim world to defeat radical Islam. His recent foreign policy speech mentioned this, but you didn’t hear much about it on the evening news. Make King Abdullah, of Jordan, a central part of his strategy. Abdullah, a descendant of Mohammad, is pro-West and complained to our Congress last year about our government’s bureaucracy not giving him all he needs to fight radical Islam. ? Focus on the Rust Belt states. Remind voters this used to be the industrial heartland of America. Families here, who traditionally vote Democrat, have suffered real economic hardship thanks to NAFTA and outsourcing of American jobs. The blue-collar billionaire’s message resonates with them. The Teamsters Union, which backed Ronald Reagan in 1980, is taking a hard look at Trump and many members are already on board. The 1.3 million Teamsters and their families could play a big role in Trump expanding the GOP Electoral College map. ? Remind those Republicans who opposed him for the nomination that President Reagan was right when he said, “My eighty-percent friend is not my twenty-percent enemy,” and that the traditional GOP based coupled with the millions of new voters he’s brought into the Republican Party is a winning combination. Donald Trump has a real chance to win the presidency. He has connected with working class Americans unlike any Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan. He’s entering the championship rounds now, though, and the establishment and elites will come at him with everything they’ve got. He must convince the electorate that this is the most important election of our lifetime and the last real chance to keep the America our founding fathers envisioned.We already knew Ken Jennings thought IBM's Jeopardy-winning supercomputer was a dick, but he's not alone. Developers at IBM were forced to wipe part of Watson's memory once they realized their hyperintelligent computer had turned into a bit of a twat. During development, Watson's project head had what must have seemed like a brilliant idea. If Watson's going to spend most of his time interacting with humans, he was going to need to understand common human slang. And where do you go to figure out the hip new words of today's youth? Urban Dictionary, of course. Unfortunately for Watson's progenitors, they seem to have overlooked the fact that 75% of Urban Dictionary contains absurd, profane, and physiologically impossible turns of phrase that could make Jeffrey Dahmer blush. Watson, being the knowledge fiend he is, of course loved the way his colorful vocabularly enabled him to describe the world around him (i.e. in terms of sex, defecation, and blasphemy as a whole). According to Fortune's Michal Lev-Ram: Watson couldn't distinguish between polite language and profanity — which the Urban Dictionary is full of. Watson picked up some bad habits from reading Wikipedia as well. In tests it even used the word "bullshit" in an answer to a researcher's query. Proving there is such a thing as too much knowledge, the team was ultimately forced to erase Urban Dictionary from Watson's memory. Somewhere out there, Ken Jennings is smiling triumphantly to himself as Jeopardy reruns blare in the background. [The Atlantic]The Supreme Court’s decision this week to halt President Obama’s sweeping climate change regulation for power plants is causing environmentalists and experts to wonder whether they need a backup plan. The Obama administration has repeatedly said, both before and after the judicial stay was ordered, that it does not have a Plan B if the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan gets overturned. ADVERTISEMENT Officials insist that a backup plan isn’t necessary because once the high court hears the case, it will find that the rule is well within the boundaries of the Clean Air Act and the Constitution. “We remain confident that when this is given its day in court, it’s going to be upheld on the merits,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters. “Plan A’s a good one, and I don’t want anyone to think it isn’t,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy Regina (Gina) McCarthyOvernight Energy: Joshua Tree National Park lost M in fees due to shutdown \| Dem senator, AGs back case against oil giants \| Trump officials secretly shipped plutonium to Nevada Overnight Energy: Ethics panel clears Grijalva over settlement with staffer \| DC
’s not clear whether women’s empowerment is a winning issue with anybody who doesn’t already call themselves a feminist. According to an October Pew survey, 44% of American men and 33% of women say gender equality has been “about right,” while 13% of men and 8% of women say it’s gone “too far.” A feminist campaign is also unlikely to win over many Trump voters: 22% of Republican men say they think gender equality has “gone too far.” With more than three years to go and countless twists ahead, both Gillibrand and Klobuchar have plenty of time to perfect their messaging should they choose to run in 2020. But if they do make a bid, they’ll have to figure out that impossible puzzle: how to make progress for women while transcending gender, how to be both female and human at the same time. Write to Charlotte Alter at charlotte.alter@time.com.All signs point to a tightening race with just three full days of campaigning to go before Election Day. Republican nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE appears to have momentum on his side. But no-one knows if there is enough time left for him to fully reel in the lead held by his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE. ADVERTISEMENT Assuming the opinion polls are largely accurate, Clinton retains an advantage, albeit one that has been narrowed significantly. The race could come down to a photo finish but here are several things to watch for clues as to who will ultimately emerge as the winner. Do Trump’s numbers keep ticking up? Late-breaking voters appear to be moving toward Trump, in both national and state polls. Clinton does not appear to be suffering any real erosion in her support, despite negative publicity from FBI director James Comey’s announcement last week that agents were examining newly-discovered emails. In the RealClearPolitics (RCP) national polling average, Clinton was drawing 45.1 percent support late on Friday afternoon, down only about one point from her recent high on Oct. 18. Back then, however Trump was mired at 39.1 percent, six points behind. Since then, his support has risen to 42.7 percent. At least two factors may be working in Trump’s favor. Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson Gary Earl JohnsonPotential GOP primary challenger: Trump's 'contempt for the American people' behind possible bid The Hill's 12:30 Report — Presented by Kidney Care Partners — Trump escalates border fight with emergency declaration Former Mass. governor takes step toward Trump primary challenge MORE has lost a couple of points in support across the same period, and it seems plausible that Trump has benefitted more than Clinton as a result. There is also polling evidence to suggest that the cohort of Republican voters that has been uneasy with Trump is finally “coming home” to him, as The Hill previously reported. The huge question, however, is whether Trump can actually get ahead of Clinton. He has not led for any sustained period of the campaign. Is he in a real position to win the race or is he merely making it more competitive than it has been in recent weeks? Could Clinton’s firewall crack? Much of Clinton’s strategy has been premised on the idea that she is all-but-guaranteed to hold competitive states that 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry John Forbes KerryOvernight Defense: White House eyes budget maneuver to boost defense spending \| Trump heads to Hanoi for second summit with Kim \| Former national security officials rebuke Trump on emergency declaration 58 ex-national security officials rebuke Trump over emergency declaration Ex-national security officials to issue statement slamming Trump's emergency declaration: WaPo MORE carried. Among those states are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. That assumption has begun to look increasingly shaky in recent days. In New Hampshire, Clinton has not led in any of the four most recent major polls — two were tied and two had Trump ahead, albeit by only one or two points. New Hampshire is the smallest of all the battlegrounds, with just four votes in the Electoral College. But Clinton is also seeing narrowing margins in Pennsylvania, where her lead is down to less than three points. Her position is better in absolute terms in Michigan, but a new poll from the Detroit Free Press released Friday afternoon had her lead down to four points from seven points a week before. Wisconsin seems, for now, to be safer territory for Clinton. But a loss in either Pennsylvania or Michigan could complicate her White House path considerably. The two states have 20 and 16 Electoral College votes respectively, What do the candidates’ travel plans tell us? Clinton’s decision to go to Detroit on Friday for a get-out-the-vote event startled many observers, since it seemed to reflect concerns about the fate of Michigan and, relatedly, reports of reduced black enthusiasm. The biggest single event of the closing stretch of Clinton’s campaign will be aimed at shoring up support in Pennsylvania — she will appear with her husband former President Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonKasich fundraises off 2020 speculation Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 MORE, as well as President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama Michelle LeVaughn Robinson ObamaChicago's next mayor will be a black woman Obama portraits brought more than 1 million visitors to National Portrait Gallery in first year Barack and Michelle Obama announce new heads of their production company MORE in Philadelphia on Monday evening. It is her final event before Election Day. Trump is taking a more diverse path. On Saturday, he is in Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado. The next day sees him scheduled to hold rallies in Iowa, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Monday events include return trips to Florida and North Carolina, and an evening rally in New Hampshire. Can pro-Clinton stars rock the vote? Democrats have long held the advantage when it comes to the number of celebrities who rally to their flag. That is especially obvious in the closing days of this campaign. On Friday evening, Jay-Z was joined by Beyoncé and several other stars at a concert at Cleveland State University intended to get out the vote for Clinton. In Philadelphia, Stevie Wonder performed at a similar event. Over the weekend, Jon Bon Jovi will pick up the baton, with events in St. Petersburg and Charlotte. Star power is good for headlines, but will it actually make a difference at the polls? One more surprise? This year’s campaign has been always dramatic and sometimes downright bizarre. But could there be one more news shock, or more, still to come — either from WikiLeaks or some other source?Rideshare Week is coming up in just a few weeks! This year, it takes place from October 6 through 10, and here’s a very important question: Are you a ride sharer? If you’re not sure, here’s a handy checklist. If you have ever… taken the train ridden the bus ridden your bike walked carpooled vanpooled …to work or school, then congratulations–you rideshare! Now head on over and take the rideshare pledge to share the ride some more. If you have never, ever in life used any of these modes of transit to get to work or school, now’s a good time to pledge to start. By pledging, you’ll have the chance to win some great prizes, such as gift cards to Macy’s and more. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTiDAjyGoyM] After you pledge, share your rideshare story with us and you might be featured on The Source! Like this: Like Loading...61-year-old Thomas Sawyer is a retired special education teacher, and a survivor of bladder cancer. He says he was "absolutely humiliated," broke down in tears and soaked in his own urine, after a degrading and invasive TSA "pat-down" at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on November 7 caused his urostomy bag to rupture. Snip from MSNBC: Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. "One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn't have any place to take me," said Sawyer. "After I said again that I'd like privacy, they took me to an office." Sawyer wears pants two sizes too large in order to accommodate the medical equipment he wears. He'd taken off his belt to go through the scanner and once in the office with security personnel, his pants fell down around his ankles. "I had to ask twice if it was OK to pull up my shorts," said Sawyer, "And every time I tried to tell them about my medical condition, they said they didn't need to know about that." Before starting the enhanced pat-down procedure, a security officer did tell him what they were going to do and how they were going to it, but Sawyer said it wasn't until they asked him to remove his sweatshirt and saw his urostomy bag that they asked any questions about his medical condition. "One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants."Major news out of Las Vegas is far from over as Pasquale Rotella, the owner of Insomniac Events, has announced an official partnership with Live Nation. It is still not clear how much of a stake Live Nation now owns, but if a prior Billboard article is to act as a guide, it is a strong possibility that Live Nation now controls 50% of Insomniac Events. This new ground breaking deal that will shake the EDM business in North America was announced in an open letter from Pasquale addressed to headliners (that's you), family, and friends on Insomniac's official site this evening. He was quick to point out that Insomniac Events retains "complete creative control of all events", and ensured fans that ticket prices will "continue to be fair and reasonable". One reason that Pasquale offered for the new partnership is to "take our events to the next level" as they will "enjoy access to a much larger and diverse variety of venues and resources." He later stated in the FAQ section of the letter that Insomniac will utilize Live Nation's resources and relationships around the world to "bring a bigger and better Insomniac experience to even more places." Will this mean that Insomniac will be looking to expand to different countries such as Canada in order to create a global conglomerate that will compete toe to toe with ID&T/SFX Entertainment? Absolutely. With EDC London already planned in July, it is now conceivable to expect more EDC's being organized all over the world, especially in places like Canada, Australia, and possibly Asia. Live Nation has already made inroads with Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas this year by having Hard Events control a stage. So the prospect of seeing Live Nation backed EDC festivals spread all over the world could be exciting. With Live Nation now engaged in a strong partnership with Insomniac Events, this leaves less players at the top to compete for global dominance of the EDM industry. This is a dynamic time during this EDM boom and what lies ahead following this major deal will be very interesting.$\begingroup$ I second most of what the other answers have said, and would like to add a technique that I think is very useful for people first learning how to prove things: If you are trying to "prove statement X," take the point of view that you are unsure if statement X is true. Then, try to decide if it is true or not. Seek counterexamples, as Hagen von Eitzen suggested. Seek evidence that might suggest X is true as well. If at some point you become convinced that X is actually false, great! Try to convince somebody else. If, on the other hand, you become convinced that X is true, great! However you became convinced can be the basis of your proof. The heart of this piece of advice is: you need your proof-writing skills to be linked to the process by which you come to believe what's true and what isn't. Learning how to prove is nothing more than learning how to write down an absolutely convincing argument. Math has developed a lot of techniques, tricks, common argument patterns, etc., giving the impression that there is a whole body of stuff one has to master, but at its heart, a proof is nothing more than a logical argument that serves to convince everybody that something is true. To learn how to make good arguments, you need to be tuned into what is convincing and what isn't, and the authentic way to do this is to stay tuned in to what convinces you and what doesn't. So in trying to create a proof, the best thing is to take the point of view that you aren't sure if it is even true, and actually decide for yourself if and why you think it is, being as skeptical as you possibly can. If you become convinced it is true, no matter how skeptical you try to be, then whatever convinced you can be turned into your proof. As an aside, I believe that those of us who are experienced at writing proofs have all, at least on some (conscious or unconscious) level, developed this habit of taking the point of view that we are not sure if it is true. Then we write the proof to convince ourselves.Developing story, stay tuned for details from 11 a.m. news conference and tour. Facebook this morning is providing the first official look inside its new Seattle office, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry as the new home of the social network’s Pacific Northwest engineering outpost. “Seattle is a key part of our long-term ambition to connect the world,” said Mike Schroepfer, the company’s chief technology officer, at a news conference unveiling the new office. “It’s a really huge part of our future.” It’s a symbolic moment for the Seattle region’s tech boom, as out-of-town giants like Facebook and Google contribute to the industry’s growth along with homegrown tech titans like Microsoft and Amazon, as well as hundreds of tech startups. They’re all competing fiercely for tech talent, and Facebook’s new offices represent another amenity that it can tout to engineering prospects. The social networking giant’s new office maintains the look of its other spaces, with exposed ductwork, raw concrete floors and unpainted plywood walls. Facebook likes to say that the unfinished look is a reminder that its work to connect everyone on the planet is far from done. “The team is really excited to be here,” said Jay Parikh, the vice president who heads up engineering and infrastructure at Facebook, in an interview with GeekWire this morning. “It feels like Facebook now.” Work is taking place in Facebook’s Seattle office on projects including Facebook Messenger, the Facebook platform, the Nuclide developer infrastructure, advertising ecosystem and other initiatives. Projects include some related to Facebook’s recently unveiled 10-year roadmap and others that are more short-term, Parikh said. In some cases, Facebook takes its cues from the incoming talent to determine what the office will focus on. For example, the company’s cold storage system is developed in Seattle because the company was able to recruit engineers with expertise in that area. Facebook opened its first Seattle engineering office in 2010, near Pike Place Market, and later moved to occupy multiple floors in the Metropolitan Park complex near Interstate 5. The company surpassed 500 employees in the Seattle office early last year, cementing its position as the company’s largest engineering center outside of its Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters. Including operations of Facebook-owned Oculus, the company now has around 1,000 employees in the area, reflecting another year of strong growth, Parikh said. “We’ve been growing very aggressively here,” he said, noting that the market for talent here is increasingly competitive, but still not as much as in Silicon Valley. The new office, at 1101 Dexter Ave. N., has room for up to 2,000 people, and the developer of the Dexter Station project has already filed plans for an expansion that could give the social network even more room, if it leases the additional space. Facebook’s new office plays into many of the signature cultural aspects of Facebook, with interconnected floors and open collaboration spaces in addition to areas where employees can retreat for interrupted work. The company also made a heavy investment in video conferencing for engineers to connect with teammates in other Facebook offices. RELATED CONTENT Check out GeekWire's list of Seattle-Area Engineering Centers established by out-of-town companies. GeekWire got a sneak peek of the office previously, through the windows, but those photos didn’t do justice to the experience inside the space. Although Facebook is giving the media its first official look inside the engineering center this morning, employees have actually been in the space for the past week, providing glimpses of the new office via Facebook, of course. Facebook’s growth is part of a larger boom in engineering centers established by Silicon Valley tech giants in the Seattle region. Google, which led the wave, recently announced plans to move its Seattle engineering center, currently in the Fremont neighborhood, to a new campus in South Lake Union, near Amazon’s headquarters. Kate Joncas, a deputy mayor with the city of Seattle, said Facebook’s focus on virtual reality and 360-degree videos will help to cement the region’s expertise in those areas. “We think we have a growing ability to be known for that here,” Joncas said in her comments during the news conference. Here are more pictures from the company, including photos of the rooftop deck.“[T]hey steal, they are cruel and bloody, full of revenge, and delighting in deadly execution, licentious, swearers and blasphemers, common ravishers of women, and murderers of children.” —Edmund Spencer “The emigrants who land at New York, whether they remain in that city or come on in the interior, are not merely ignorant and poor—which might be their misfortune rather than their fault—but they are drunken, dirty, indolent, and riotous, so as to be the objects of dislike and fear to all in whose neighbourhood they congregate in large numbers.” —James Silk Buckingham These are not quotes from a Trump rally or an “alt-right” message board. These are historical statements from yesteryear describing a despised race of people in America. They are indicative of the sentiment of white people throughout this country who thought a subhuman species good for nothing but work and servitude might ruin America with their crime, poverty and interbreeding with white women. They were not referring to Africans, Mexicans or Muslims. They were talking about the Irish. First, we should get this out of the way: One of the favorite recurring themes of racists in America is the idea that the Irish came to America as slaves and had it as bad as, or worse than, Africans. According to these “racialists,” the European blood in the Irish made them pull themselves up by their bootstraps and integrate themselves into the opening arms of American liberty. They never bitched and moaned about their situation, so... Advertisement All of this is wrong. In fact, it is too stupid to give space, credence or words, so read where it is debunked here and here. But as we celebrate the first St. Patrick’s Day of the Trumpian era, we should remember when America passed laws against another group of immigrants. We should recall when this country tried to ban another group of people based on their religion. We should never forget that both “American” and whiteness are sociopolitical constructs that have evolved over a long period of time, always seeking exclusion and supremacy, and it was not so long ago that Irish Americans were on the outside looking in. In his book The Renegade History of the United States, Thaddeus Russell explains that the first large wave of Irish immigrants worked low-paying jobs—mostly building the canals along the Canadian border—that other Americans wouldn’t do. Like finding out a song you thought was new is actually a 100-year-old remake, the Irish were simultaneously accused of stealing all the good jobs and branded as “lazy” and “shiftless.” They were also thought to be the nonwhite “missing link” between the superior European and the savage African based on stereotypes from the early American media, according to the Boston Globe: In the popular press, the Irish were depicted as subhuman. They were carriers of disease. They were drawn as lazy, clannish, unclean, drunken brawlers who wallowed in crime and bred like rats. Most disturbingly, the Irish were Roman Catholics coming to an overwhelmingly Protestant nation and their devotion to the pope made their allegiance to the United States suspect. Advertisement In 1798, Congress passed three “Alien Acts” based mainly on fears of Irish-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment. These new laws gave the president the power to stop immigration from any country at war with the U.S. and the right to deport any immigrant, and made it harder for immigrants to vote. Then, again in the late 1840s, a nationalist political group called the Know-Nothings sprang from a populist movement of poor whites who were dissatisfied with the two-party system and started the American Party, intent on preserving America’s culture by restricting immigration, especially from Catholic countries—including by Irish Catholics. They managed to get candidates elected into the highest political offices in America, including a president. Does this sound familiar to anyone? So how did the Irish become white? Russell suggests they did it by coalescing their political power while simultaneously assimilating into the American mainstream, specifically with jobs in civil service (which is why most cities’ St. Patrick Day parades are ostensibly celebrations of police and fire departments): In 1840, at the beginning of the great wave of Irish immigration, there was only a handful of Irish police officers on the force.... By the end of the year, Irish made up more than one-quarter of the New York City police, and by the end of the century, more than half the city’s police and more than 75 percent of its firefighters were Irish Americans. In addition, Irish were disproportionately represented among prosecutors, judges and prison guards. Soon, the Irish cop was a stock figure in American culture. Once known as apelike barbarians, the Irish were now able to show themselves as the most selfless and patriotic civil servants. Advertisement In his book How the Irish Became White, author Noel Ignatiev notes, “While the white skin made the Irish eligible for membership in the white race, it did not guarantee their admission; they had to earn it.” Ignatiev and other scholars argue that the sons of Ireland gained their white status by joining the fight against abolition and uniting in the suppression of blacks—embracing the oldest American tradition of them all: racism. “While Irish American repealers maintained a pride and love for their homeland, they acted unabashedly American in the way they dealt with the slavery controversy.”—Angela F. Murphy in American Slavery, Irish Freedom: Abolition, Immigrant Citizenship, and the Transatlantic Movement for Irish Repeal But there is a simpler, less complex explanation for how this country eventually came to view the Irish as regular, good, American white people: They just did it. “Whiteness” isn’t real. Ultimately, race is a social construct, and “white” is just some dumb shit that people made up a long time ago to build a fence around their idea of self-supremacy. The Irish didn’t suddenly calm down, put down the Guinness, put their noses to the grindstone and work their way into an exclusive club. They had the same historical trajectory in America as the Polish, Italians and Jewish people. Their melanin-less skin just afforded them an opportunity to blend in that black people will never get. Advertisement The “great white race” is as real as a mermaid riding a unicorn on the back of a dragon while listening to dope lyrics from Lil Uzi, and that’s why white supremacy is so stupid. People who perpetuate that bullshit should be paid the same attention as alt-right advocates, Hoteps, flat-earthers and anyone who owns an Iggy Azalea album. So later tonight, as you’re kneeling by the toilet blowing chunks of corned beef and green beer, if you start thinking about how poorly we treat immigrants and how we live in a new era of intolerance and hate, just remember how the Irish became white. Because just like St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, whiteness and racism itself—it’s an American tradition that has existed for a long time.SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google unit told U.S. election regulators in a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday that it “strongly supports” tightening rules on online political advertising as part of efforts to curtail “foreign abuse and influence” in elections. FILE PHOTO - The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Federal lawmakers have criticized Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc for not doing enough to identify and block Russian agents from buying ads on their services. U.S. authorities say the ads were intended to influence voters during the 2016 presidential election. U.S. law permits foreign entities to advertise about certain issues if they disclose such spending, but it is unlawful for them to interfere in elections. In September, the Federal Election Commission, which sets campaign finance rules, voted to consider ensuring that those disclosure rules apply to online activity. It opened a public comment period that is set to expire Monday. In the letter, Google on Thursday offered its formal response to the FEC’s deliberation. “Now more than ever, we must work together to improve transparency, enhance disclosures and reduce foreign abuse and influence in U.S. elections,” the company wrote. The stance marks an about-face from 2010 when Google sought an affirmative exemption from a requirement that an ad should state who purchased it. The commission did not reach a consensus on the exemption at the time. Google now is calling on the commission to extend disclosure rules that apply to TV and print ads to the Web. “Google strongly supports the commission’s proposal to proceed with a rulemaking so that the commission can provide the clarity that campaigns and other political advertisers need to determine what disclaimers they are required to include.” The company, which is the world’s top seller of online ads, also asked federal regulators and lawmakers to expand restrictions on foreign participation in elections to cover content distributed and advertised on the Internet. Ratifying such provisions could give tech companies guidance on how to treat soft influence, or content from organizations such as RT, a Russian news outlet that has drawn concerns from lawmakers for peddling propaganda on Facebook and Google’s YouTube service. In its letter, Google also reiterated plans to offer the public a database of election ads purchased through its service. In addition, the company has said information about buyers would be more accessible. Technology news website Recode first reported the Google letter.In a bar and don’t want to give your cell number to a stranger? Selling a table on Craigslist and don’t want randos knowing how to reach you at all times? Or, perhaps you’ve watched reruns of The Wire one too many times? Say hello to Burner, the app that lets users purchase short-term cell numbers that can be used and “burned” in a short period of time, all managed through a user’s personal iPhone without giving away that cell’s number. Advertisement Disposable cell numbers certainly seem like they might be used for nefarious activities, but founder & CEO Greg Cohn said these numbers can be used for any number of purposes in the era when a cell number is so closely tied a person’s identity. “Burner is for anyone who has more than one life – or who simply values their privacy,” Cohn stated in the press release for Burner, which was built by Ad Hoc Labs, the Los Angeles-based software company. The app will become available in the Apple(s appl) iTunes App Store Wednesday for $1.99 per download. Users start out with three credits, which gives them a single number for seven days of use or 20 minutes of talk time. Users can purchase additional credits or packages to extend the life of a number, or “burn” it at any time. Within the app, users can manage texts and calls to individual numbers, purchase credits to create additional lines, and share those numbers to social networks. Cohn explained that while users might eventually be able to purchase and maintain numbers for indefinite use, they’re really intended to serve short-term purposes, like accompanying a Craigslist ad, putting the app’s services in a different category than something like a Google(s goog) Voice number which is more permanent by nature.President Obama on Sunday said the Boy Scouts of America should end its ban on gay members and scout leaders. With the venerable national organization weighing whether to lift its prohibition of gays, Obama was asked in a “Super Bowl” pre-game interview with CBS's Scott Pelley whether the Boy Scouts should be open to gays. Obama gave a one-word answer: “Yes.” Pressed to elaborate, Obama said, “I think that my attitude is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does in every institution and walk of life.” Last August, the White House said Obama disagreed with the Boy Scouts' ban on gay members, but Sunday's interview was the first time Obama publicly addressed the issue since the Boy Scouts said last week it would consider lifting the ban. Boy Scout leaders are expected to discuss lifting its ban on gays at the organization's national executive board meeting this week in Texas. On Saturday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican presidential candidate in 2012, spoke to a group of Texas scouts and urged the organization to maintain its policies prohibiting openly gay members. “Hopefully the board will follow their historic position of keeping the Scouts strongly supportive of the values that make scouting this very important and impactful organization,” Perry said, according to the Associated Press. Perry, a former Eagle Scout, wrote a book in 2008 titled, “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.”Update: Jacob Stanley has a great article on installing gtk2hs on Windows which goes into more detail, including a tutorial on GTK theming. Gtk2hs is my favorite way to do cross-platform GUI programming in Haskell — and it’s the toolkit to use if you want to work through the examples in the excellent Real World Haskell. But the official instructions for building gtk2hs on Windows leave out some important information, so here’s how I got it all working on Windows 7… Haskell Platform First of all, if you haven’t done so already, download and install the latest release of the Haskell Platform for Windows (version 2010.2.0.0 at the time of this writing). Opt for the installer to add GHC and friends to your %PATH%. GTK + Next download the GTK+ 2.16 all-in-one bundle and extract it to C:\Gtk, then add C:\Gtk\bin to %PATH% by hand. (Alas, I was unable to get gtk2hs 0.11 to build with GTK+ 2.22 — it failed complaining that c:/devel/dist/win32/libpng-1.4.3-1/lib doesn’t exist, and I didn’t feel like messing with it beyond that point.) If you have Cygwin stuff on your Windows path, make sure the Gtk directory has higher priority; you can use PowerShell’s Get-Command to check on this, e.g. run get-command pkg-config and make sure the one in C:\Gtk\bin is listed first. Verify that the library is installed correctly by running: pkg-config.exe --modversion gtk+-2.0 The above will report the version number of your installed GTK+ library, e.g. 2.16.6. If you get an error message here then something is wrong… MinGW The gtk2hs documentation claims you don’t need MinGW installed to build on Windows, but this isn’t strictly true from our perspective: you’ll need MinGW’s gpp in order to build Haskell’s Cairo bindings, upon which the GTK module depends. The good news is that all the MinGW components you need are already included with the Haskell Platform distribution, so just add its mingw\bin subdirectory to your path. Make sure that this, too, has a higher priority than any Cygwin (or SUA, for that matter) entries in the Windows environment variables; the Cabal installs we’ll be doing in a moment will attempt to invoke the strip command at the end of the build process, and things will go south if Cabal accidentally invokes Cygwin’s strip instead. (This had me scratching my head for longer than I care to admit…) gtk2hs Now you should have everything you need to install gtk2hs from Hackage: cabal update cabal install gtk2hs-buildtools cabal install gtkMobius strips, are generally held to have only one side - if one marks a place on the strip and on what looks like the other side then a pencil can draw a line between these two points without ever leaving the surface of the strip. Technically this property is called non-orientability; and what we've done in the above demonstration is show that both'sides' are path-connected. So our intuition is shown to be limited and a little foolish. However, one can as why then does it look as though it has two sides; a little thought shows that it is because we examine locally; in the same way that the earth looks flat, but in fact is round, and we resolve this tension by saying that the earth is locally flat; similarly we can say that the mobius strip is locally two-sided but not so globally. (Now if the default adjective applied to the concept is local rather than global we could just simply say that the mobius strip is two-sided). So, can we say that the Mobius strip has a front and back, despite all the write-ups it has had, by adding 'locally' as a qualifier?This is This is coming from Newsweek which is claiming it is a “scoop” or whatever. FBI Director James Comey attempted to go public as early as the summer of 2016 with information on Russia’s campaign to influence the U.S. presidential election, but Obama administration officials blocked him from doing so, two sources with knowledge of the matter tell Newsweek. Well before the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence accused the Russian government of tampering with the U.S. election in an October 7 statement, Comey pitched the idea of writing an op-ed about the Russian campaign during a meeting in the White House’s situation room in June or July. “He had a draft of it or an outline. He held up a piece of paper in a meeting and said, ‘I want to go forward, what do people think of this?’” says a source with knowledge of the meeting, which included Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson and the national security adviser Susan Rice. The article goes on to reveal that nothing ever happened with Comey’s suggestion: But the source with knowledge of Comey’s request says that the FBI director wanted the Russian interference made public earlier and that it was a sluggish White House that denied Comey and delayed the announcement. “The White House shut it down,” that source says. “They did their usual—nothing.” Both sources spoke to Newsweek on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press. I really have no idea what I’m supposed to make of this but a couple of thoughts come to mind. First, Comey is as slippery as your average greased pig. The offer to run an op-ed seems disingenuous to the extent that it even happened. If Comey were truly concerned he didn’t need an op-ed. He or one of his minions could have called any number of reporters and given then an on-background exclusive about the Russian Threat and what the brave men and women of the FBI were doing to keep America safe. Given the context of the DNC hacking it would have been on the front page of either the WaPo or New York Times. Secondly, we really have no reason to believe this story is true. It could be true, other than killing Americans to further their own policy goals, the Obama administration was pretty supine when it came to our internal security. Keep in mind, it isn’t Comey making the claim. It is an anonymous source. Even of Comey had raised the alarm, the article said the op-ed did not mention any connection to the Trump campaign so it would have been a null set in terms of politics. In terms of policy and resource allocation, the op-ed is a nothingburger. The refusal of this group to run the op-ed did not prevent Comey from directing additional resources to countering the perceived threat. The best is shows is a complacent and lackadaisical FBI going through the motions of being concerned about the Russians. A worst it is a total fabrication. Either way it is meaningless.It sounds like UFC Featherweight fighter José Aldo has taken too many hits to the head. After he withdrew from a fight last month with a rib injury, UFC President Dana White criticized his training methods, saying that Aldo might have avoided breaking his rib if he’d worn proper padding. Aldo fired back in a Brazilian press conference, claiming that body pads are irrelevant since he has the protection of a Higher Power. … [Aldo] maintains that he personally never considers using the added protection in training. “Not for me. I ask for God’s protection and I’m protected,” he said. “The closer to reality, the better for me. Protection is for the weak. We have to be closer to reality.” The “reality” is that God didn’t prevent this broken rib. And who’s to say that body pads aren’t God’s way of protecting athletes from injury? They have a much better track record than prayer. Even Tim Tebow isn’t going to go without a helmet in a football game. Aldo’s beliefs also haven’t shielded him against a drug-testing scandal that might be the real reason he withdrew from his scheduled July bout with Conor McGregor, who went on to defeat Aldo’s replacement, Chad Mendes and become the interim Featherweight Champion. When the Nevada State Athletic Commission sent a Drug Free Sport representative to test Aldo for performance-enhancing substances in June, a police officer who trains at Aldo’s gym interfered by accusing the DFS tester of having an improper visa. With all the troubles he’s been facing, Aldo ought to realize that relying on religion isn’t doing him any favors in his sport. If he’d stopped praying long enough to put on some pads and comply with UFC regulations, he might still have his Featherweight title. (Edit: A commenter pointed out that Aldo still technically has his title because he was injured. That’s why Mendes is only the interim champ. Our bad!) (Image via
on so many levels: The new architectural aspirations of the city are meeting—and sometimes clashing with—the bland uniformity of its past. Seoul residents are some of the earliest adopters of new technology in the world, especially cellphones and mobile computing devices, and their immediate access to the most up-to-date information means that the city’s hottest neighborhoods and sleepiest sections can change overnight. Seoul Never Sleeps This contrast between the old and new Seoul is felt most strongly in Dongdaemun, a commercial neighborhood in the northeast of the city that boasts a wholesale market, much of the city’s clothing and design industry, a newly erected history park and the soon-to-open Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a project of Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. I venture into the design plaza construction site with JB Park, the senior manager in charge of construction at DDP, and Eddie Can, Hadid’s man on the ground. It is high noon and quiet—only a few people wander aimlessly up and down the blocks, and there’s none of the energy found a couple of miles west in Myeongdong, a teenage shopping haven filled with young women clamoring for the latest eyewear, fashion and makeup. Park leads me into the belly of the beast, an enormous, curved structure that sits on what was once a sports stadium and now stands out like an alien spaceship. “The old stadium was erected under Japanese occupation,” says Park. “And so it always had that association.” The original plan was to raze the stadium, expunging its ghosts, and create a cultural center for the city’s fashion and design industry. But when builders broke ground, they discovered that a whole section of Seoul’s ancient wall had been buried below the stadium. So instead, the city created a park to memorialize the archaeological remains, shrinking the footprint of the original Hadid project. After we exit the construction site, I have a coffee with Eddie Can. “This area is dead now,” he tells me. “You have to come back here at 2 a.m. That’s when Dongdaemun comes alive.”I can’t get enthused about discussing Karen Armstrong and Reza Aslan any longer. They’re both in the media spotlight because they coddle religion in an age when it’s eroding but some people desperately cling to faith; they’re both religious apologists, refusing to pin any malfeasance on faith; and they both say the same thing in interview after interview. So just let me drop a few quotes from Armstrong and move on. I’ll deal with Aslan tomorrow—if I feel up to it. Karen Armstrong was interviewed in Salon (also known as “The Journal of Religious Osculation”), and, surprisingly, was handed a few tough questions, which she ducked. She begins by saying that the distinction between religion and politics is a modern innovation, and continues by claiming that nothing, including suicide bombing, is solely or even largely motivated by religion (she cites discredited statistics by Robert Pape, misspelled in the article as “Robert Tate”). She argues further that humans need mythologies (i.e., religion) to give purpose and meaning to our lives: Let’s try a different analogy: Perhaps our search for narrative and meaning is a bit like a fire. It can go out of control and burn people pretty badly. Seeing this destruction, some people say we should just put out the fire whenever we can. There are others who argue that the fire will always be there, that it has benefits, and that we need to work with it to the best of our abilities. And you’re sort of in the latter camp, yes? I would say so … If we lack meaning, if we fail to find meaning in our lives, we could fall very easily into despair. One of the forensic psychiatrists who have interviewed about 500 people involved in the 9/11 atrocity, and those lone-wolves like the Boston Marathon people, has found that one of the principal causes for their turning to these actions was a sense of lack of meaning; a sense of meaningless and purposelessness and hopelessness in their lives. I think lack of meaning is a dangerous thing in society. Armstrong apparently feels that religion is an essential source of meaning for modern people. And a lack of meaning, says Armstrong, plays a huge role in terrorism, for terrorists aren’t really motivated by religion, but by nihilism (WHAT?): There’s been a very strong void in modern culture, despite our magnificent achievements. We’ve seen the nihilism of the suicide bomber, for example. A sense of going into a void. The void clearly represents a failure to appreciate Armstrong’s notion of God as Love, Meaning, and the Ineffable Ground of Being, whereof we cannot speak. But it seems to me that many of these terrorists clearly do embrace the “mythologies” that Armstrong sees as necessary for our world. They aren’t nihilists in any conventional sense of the word. She grudgingly admits that religion may be in the mix of terrorists’ motives, but, in the end, it’s really other stuff: In fact, all our motivation is always mixed. As a young nun, I spent years trying to do everything purely for God, and it’s just not possible. Our self-interest and other motivations constantly flood our most idealistic efforts. So, yes, terrorism is always about power — wanting to get power, or destroy the current power-holders, or pull down the edifices of power which they feel to be oppressive or corruptive in some way. Of course, she doesn’t consider that “power” might be “the power to impose your faith on others,” as in ISIS’s Caliphate and the actions of other Islamic extremists. She then goes on to blame Muslim terrorism completely on the West, though she neglects to discuss Muslim-on-Muslim terrorism, by far the most common form. Somehow, I suppose, she’d also pin that on colonialism. But the worst thing she says is this: When you hear, for example, Sam Harris and Bill Maher recently arguing that there’s something inherently violent about Islam — Sam Harris said something like “Islam is the motherlode of bad ideas” — when you hear something like that, how do you respond? It fills me with despair, because this is the sort of talk that led to the concentration camps in Europe. This is the kind of thing people were saying about Jews in the 1930s and ’40s in Europe. This is how I got into this, not because I’m dying to apologize, as you say, for religion, or because I’m filled with love and sympathy and kindness for all beings including Muslims — no. I’m filled with a sense of dread. We pride ourselves so much on our fairness and our toleration, and yet we’ve been guilty of great wrongs. Germany was one of the most cultivated countries in Europe; it was one of the leading players in the Enlightenment, and yet we discovered that a concentration camp can exist within the same vicinity as a university. There has always been this hard edge in modernity. John Locke, apostle of toleration, said the liberal state could under no circumstances tolerate the presence of either Catholics or Muslims. Locke also said that a master had absolute and despotical power over a slave, which included the right to kill him at any time. That was the attitude that we British and French colonists took to the colonies, that these people didn’t have the same rights as us. I hear that same disdain in Sam Harris, and it fills me with a sense of dread and despair. This shows two things. First, Armstrong doesn’t want any criticism of religion, for religion is inherently good as a concept, and what bad things seem to spring from it come simply from misinterpreting true religion. Criticize it at your peril, for you’re being a Nazi when you do. (How lovely of Armstrong to play the Hitler card against critics of Islam!) Second, she can’t distinguish between criticism of religious tenets and racism or bigotry. The Nazis were manifestly not saying that Jews should be killed because their beliefs were unsupported (though their supposed role as Christ-killers was certainly in the mix), but because they were Jews, and Jews were rats who deserved extermination. Further, the Nazis weren’t saying “Judaism is the motherlode of bad ideas.” They were saying “Jews are bad and should be killed.” You don’t hear Sam Harris or Bill Maher saying that Muslims should be exterminated. They’re saying that bad ideas should be attacked. Perhaps Armstrong thinks that there are no bad ideas in religion, but then she’d be blinkered—as she is. And here’s a lovely exchange: ... (Armstrong:) Fundamentalism represents a rebellion against modernity, and one of the hallmarks of modernity has been the liberation of women. There’s nothing in the Quran to justify either the veiling or the seclusion of women. The Quran gave women rights of inheritance and divorce, legal rights we didn’t have in the West until the 19th century. That’s what I feel about the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. It’s iniquitous, and it’s certainly not Quranic. She should have a look at the hadith as well, for that’s part of Muslim tradition, and adds some iniquity. But at least she decries the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. By Gad, she’d better! However, she emphasizes that this misogyny is not based on authentic Islam. That leads the interviewer to ask a good question: Where do you, as someone outside of a tradition, get the authority to say what is or isn’t Quranic? I talk to imams and Muslims who are in the traditions. What? Doesn’t she know that there is more than one tradition in Islam, and some of them are iniquitous? There is, for example the Quranic tradition that apostates deserve death. Doesn’t she know, too, that there’s more to religion than “tradition”—there is what the imams say now, how it’s based on the Qur’an, and how people follow their dictates? Her assumption that tradition is everything in determining religious dogma (which is wrong), and that any Islamic perfidy isn’t “traditional,” are just cheap ways of ignoring the bad religious dogma. In the end, she simply admits that she’s cherry-picking scripture: I think it’s easy to say, “Well the text isn’t binding” when you see something in there that you don’t like. But when you see something in the text that you do want to uphold, it’s tempting to go, “Oh, look, it’s in the text.” Oh, it is. We do it with all our foundation texts — you’re always arguing about the Constitution, for example. It’s what we do. Previously, before the modern period, the Quran was never read in isolation. It was always read from the viewpoint of a long tradition of complicated, medieval exegesis which actually reined in simplistic interpretation. That doesn’t apply to these freelancers who read “Islam for Dummies”. “It’s what we do.” That is, we can ignore the bad parts of scripture and pretend that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are based on just the good parts. And I doubt that many members of ISIS or Hamas have read “Islam for Dummies”. They have, however, read or heard the Qur’an. Despite her constant self-promotion as an arbiter of compassion, Karen Armstrong is dangerous. She’s dangerous because her blanket of tedious verbiage hides the truth that she wants us to completely ignore the dangers of religious dogma. She thereby enables it. And it appears that for her, there is no harmful dogma that can be pinned on religion itself: it’s all about politics, oppression, or nihilism. Well, tell that to the Catholics who prevent women from getting abortions, couples from getting divorces, and who demonize gays and inform Africans that condoms won’t prevent AIDS. Tell that to the Muslims who kill other Muslims because they think the heads of the faith should be genetic descendants of Muhammad, and who mutilate the genitals of their daughters because the imams insist it’s a sign of purity. Tell that to the Hindus and Muslims who butchered each other by the millions in 1947 even though they lived cheek by jowl and were similar in most ways except for their faith. It’s a curious fact that people like Armstrong, Aslan, and Pape can so easily see how politics can motivate people to do bad things, but yet insist that religion cannot. I wonder what observations would really convince them that people’s religious (as well as political) beliefs can make them do harm. Can they tell us? The jihadis’ repeated insistence on religious motivation is apparently misleading, for they don’t know their own minds. Armstrong and Aslan know better.This evening, fans nationwide (myself included) finally got the chance to experience the highly anticipated Marvel Studios film,. In a year chock full of good and bad superhero movies, fans have seen a lot. Teams of villains, fourth wall breakers, X-Men, and even hero on hero battles (twice). One would think that we've seen it all. If you thought this, you are wrong.is a trip unlike all of the other superhero films we have seen so far. is the story of Stephen Strange, a young and arrogant surgeon who loses his ability to operate after a terrible car accident. Desperate and suicidal, Strange turns to mysticism and learns that his true purpose is to become the Sorcerer Supreme. Mysticism and comic book lore merge together to form a film that serves as a surreal and trippy introduction to a Marvel mainstay and builds on to the world in a way that is organic and interesting. Visually, this is the most impressive of the MCU movies so far which fits with Stephen Strange as a character. The colors are so vibrant and alive that it will take your breath away. The battles and chases we see throughout are different from any other Marvel movie I've seen. Imaginemeets David Lynch. That describes the visual tone of what this movie is going for. Scott Derrickson and his team deserve several pats on the back for knocking this out of the park. The cast is just wonderful. Benedict Cumberbatch proves that he was a great choice as the once successful doctor, providing the role with a sense of humor and gravitas. The vulnerability he shows in the second act gives the film a sense of humanity and allows the audience to take the journey with him. In the same way that Robert Downey Jr has become Iron Man, I hope that audiences feel the same way about Cumberbatch as Strange. The supporting cast is great too; Tilda Swinton does solid work as the Ancient One, the one who teaches Strange in the mystical arts. Despite the controversy around her casting, Swinton manages to do a great job of playing into the mystery that is required from a mentor like her. Benedict Wong and Chiwetel Ejiofor do a great job at making their characters feel real and play well off of the arrogant Stephen Strange. Rachel McAdams is equally great as the former flame of Strange and manages to bring some dimension to a generally thankless role. Even Mads Mikkelsen gets some great moments to shine as the main villain. I wish there was more with him as he was an interesting character who never got a fulfilling backstory.France tested a M51 strategic ballistic missile by a nuclear-powered submarine, Triumphant early Friday morning. The missile was monitored throughout its flight phase from the test center of the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA), including the test and telemetry ship “Monge”, Le Telegramme reported Friday. The impact zone is located in the North Atlantic, several hundred kilometers from the nearest coast. As always, this test was conducted without a nuclear warhead and in strict compliance with France’s international commitments. Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in an official statement expressed his satisfaction today after the successful launch of an M51 strategic ballistic missile by the nuclear-powered missile submarine (SSBN) Le Triomphant this morning at 9:18 a.m. from the Bay of Audierne, in Finistère county. This firing validates the operational capacity of the overall Le Triomphant weapon system, and again demonstrates the excellence in high technology that French industries are implementing in this area. The M51 missile today is fitted to three of the four next-generation missile-launching nuclear-powered submarines (SSBN-NG). The conversion of the entire Force Stratégique Océanique to this new missile is expected by the end of the decade.A section of the East Coast Greenway in East Bay, Rhode Island. East Coast Greenway Alliance One organization is working to connect cities and towns from Maine to Florida with protected trails. From northern Maine to the tip of Florida, the East Coast of the United States stretches 3,000 miles. It’s a diverse, expansive route, cutting through wooded hills and rocky coastlines before hitting the sun-drenched beaches of the South. And all of it can be traveled by bicycle. The East Coast Greenway Alliance has been working since 1991 to connect the whole geography of the Atlantic seaboard with protected bike paths. So far, 850 miles of trail have been designated as Greenway. The project is about 31 percent complete, says Dennis Markatos-Soriano, the executive director of ECGA. By 2020, the ECGA hopes to add another 200 miles. As it winds down the coast, the East Coast Greenway passes through 450 communities in 15 states. Efficiency is not the point: Instead of cleaving to interstate routes, the Greenway mostly follows the rivers and old train tracks connecting the cities and towns along the coast. “Even though a pretty small percentage of the trail’s miles actually pass through cities, it’s still very much an urban story,” says the Director of Greenway Development, Eric Weis, who will be transitioning to the ECGA Advisory Board after 18 years with the Alliance this summer. Before the East Coast Greenway was labeled, and before the Alliance was founded, many of the paths that make up sections of the Greenway today already existed. In New York, a trail follows the length of the Hudson River; in Philadelphia, the Schuylkill River trail stretches around 25 miles. They’re now Greenway-affiliated, but in the early 90s, Weis says, the ECGA founders looked at these distinct urban corridors and began to wonder: what would it take to connect them? “We can’t get this done with a top-down approach,” Markatos-Soriano says. The Greenway cuts across federal, state, and local interests. When completed, the ECGA hopes it will serve as a viable national thoroughfare—an interstate for the health-conscious, eco-friendly age. But reaching that point, Markatos-Soriano says, will take cooperation and support at the community level. A network of ECGA regional coordinators and volunteers are working to engage local governments on the project and to secure federal and private-sector funding. There has been very little pushback: Since 2010, the Greenway’s annual budget has more than doubled from $470,000 to just under one million dollars last year. “It’s not a question of when the Greenway will get done, it’s a matter of how fast,” Markatos-Soriano says. The Greenway, he adds, is “one of those universally appealing projects.” The East Coast Greenway, is, in a sense, riding a demographic wave that Markatos-Soriano hopes will speed the completion of the entire route. Fewer Americans are relying on cars, and more are looking at safe and accessible bike and footpaths as a top priority when selecting where to live. And there’s the health impact: The presence of a usable trail makes an active lifestyle more of a possibility. Well over 10 million people use the Greenway annually, Weis says, and as the national and global mentality shifts toward one of greater connectivity, the appeal of traversing the East Coast by one simple mode of transit will only grow. This “linear community,” as Markatos-Soriano calls the Greenway, attracts two groups of users. There are those who might touch on a section of the trail on their daily route through their city: kids biking to school, joggers out for their regular run. And then there are those like Bob Spiegelman, the chair of the ECGA Board of Trustees, who approach the trail as a whole. In 2012, Spiegelman biked the entire length of the Greenway, from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida. Logging around 50 miles a day, his trip took eight weeks. It’s possible to shave down that time, but that defeats the purpose, Weis says. With your head down and the ground zipping beneath you, “you’re going right through Boston without stopping to visit any historic sites. You’re going through Washington, D.C., without seeing any monuments or museums. You’re going through Charleston without stopping to sit under a tree and admire the architecture,” Weis adds. “If you do 100 miles a day for a month, you can ride the whole East Coast Greenway, but you’ve robbed yourself of the heart of the experience.” The ECGA cannot predict when the whole Greenway will be completed, but the organizers understand that a gradual approach will be necessary to ensure the long-term success of the project. “Bike-path planning is not a good career choice for people who want a quick return on investment,” Weis says. Through slow and careful work on the local level, the Greenway is coming together as an artery that carries with it parts of the varied communities it passes through. Each of the Greenway-designated sections conforms to standard trail requirements: The material of the path must be strong enough to support a touring bike, and the lanes have to be wide enough so people can safely pass—around 10 feet is ideal, Weis says. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... But how the trail manifests is really left up to the local communities. A section of the Greenway running alongside a canal towpath in New Jersey, Weis says, passes through a state historic site. As such, the path is made of crushed and compacted stone, not unlike a trail built in the 1800s. In that way, biking the whole Greenway is as much an exercise in connectivity as it is in specificity. The project, Markatos-Soriano says, touches on so many different elements, from environmental sensitivity to alternative transportation. But fundamentally, “it’s about seeing America at the right speed, where you can take in all of the culture around you,” he adds. “And you don’t have a windshield between yourself and the community.”The landscape can change quickly Four weeks ago Frank Farina was a dead man walking or, if you prefer, John Aloisi. If you believe everything that is written then the former Socceroo boss was potentially just a single loss away from the sack just a month ago. He had even had the dreaded vote of confidence. Now four weeks on and the Sky Blues are somehow sharing second with Western Sydney Wanderers. Yet there was not a single truly inspiring 90 minutes over the month. All four wins owed far more to blue collar work ethic than their long-held bling moniker. With such a fine line between relative success and the coaching scrapheap it is little wonder that Farina’s ‘week at a time’ mantra features heavily in the A-League book of coaching platitudes and clichés, version 9 (updated to include extra Tony Popovic chapters). Self-assurance is everything for a striker Football is often a game of tight margins, meaning lining up with a potent striker can be everything. Turning those draws into one goal wins can be the difference between winning and losing the league. Who knows how much better the Wanderers debut season could have been, had they lined-up with Tomi Juric rather than Dino ‘goal a season’ Kresinger as their No. 9. Besart Berisha’s winner on Saturday against Perth Glory was a classic striker’s goal, and one that few other players in the competition could have executed. Indeed, Berisha is playing with a rare confidence and sometimes that self-belief is the distinction that separates a goal and a near miss. Witness last week’s determined and confident run through the middle of the Wanderers defence to score a goal which reeked of that oversized kid using all his growth-spurt advantage to power through the opposition U-14 defence. And while we are on the topic, has there ever been three more confident strikes than Adam Taggart’s long-range treble last week? Discuss... Del Piero not essential for success It seemed last year that any success Sydney FC enjoyed was in concert with Alessandro Del Piero’s form. They won just one of four games in which the Italian didn’t start last term. This season Del Piero has nabbed a single goal from open play in seven starts. Though injury may have been a factor, Saturday night was arguably his most ineffectual performance since arriving in Australia. His yellow card for his huffy ‘don’t you know who I am’ exit from the field was poor form at best, though it perhaps hints at a greater unhappiness. It may be that Il Pinturicchio’s storied and glorious career only has a few months to run. Fan culture takes another shift Melbourne has always been a militant kind of town. Perhaps it is some sort of traditional flow-on from the Eureka Stockade era and a strong record of robust protests, or the 21st century equivalent of suburban anti-establishment; indolently hanging by the ticket machine on the tram with no intention of touching on or off that myki card. Either way it is hard to imagine many, if any, other A-League cites doing the silent protest for the first half as the Yarraside did in a slightly curious protest, which oscillated somewhere between petulant and admirably rebellious. Perhaps, though, the desired effect was achieved because Melbourne Heart were finally involved in a genuinely pulsating game for the first time this season. And the atmosphere – though the second lowest crowd of the season, behind only Central Coast Mariners on Friday – was electric as AAMI Park again proved itself to be the A-League’s most atmospheric venue. Roar are the best A-League team ever It’s official. Brisbane Roar are the best team in the A-League. The statisticians said so and who are mere mortals to argue. Brisbane Roar’s three points this weekend lifted them above Central Coast Mariners on the all-time A-League points table. Rather like the Unofficial Football World Championship, the merits of such a claim are debatable but there is no doubting Brisbane’s consistency in the Postecoglou-Mulvey epoch."Were you interviewing Jesus?" asked a colleague within minutes of Howard-Yana Shapiro leaving the building. Shapiro is global director of plant science and external research for Mars, the secretive food empire most famous for its eponymous chocolate bar. He doesn't look a lot like Jesus but does have a mesmerising long white beard, which dates back beyond a decade of corporate life to when he founded a radical organic food company, Seeds of Change. Twelve years after Seeds of Change was sold to Mars – amid cries of betrayal from some customers – Shapiro recently announced that the world's biggest chocolate company is committing itself to sustainable sourcing of the whole of its annual cocoa bean supply, worth more than $1bn (£662m). The policy starts with the Galaxy bar and by 2020 will encompass not just Galaxy and Mars but also Snickers, Twix and M&Ms. The new strategy also covers environmental issues and labour, dwarfing Cadbury's pledge that all Dairy Milk chocolate will be Fairtrade later this year. Shapiro's visit to London was a chance to try and find out why Mars had made such an ambitious pledge. In the wake of another ethical brand selling up to a big corporation, with Coca-Cola taking a 30% stake in Innocent smoothies, was this an example of a mega-business being influenced from within by its smaller, chippier acquisition? Or would Mars have done this anyway, for purely commercial reasons? "If you want to set the stakes [higher] you can't say 'this is good, this is bad'," he says. "Let's make everything good: let's take our profitability and go out and certify 100% of our cocoa globally." Mars bought Seeds of Change because it saw a future in ethical production, says Shapiro. Crucially, however, Mars had the might to put those principles into practice on a much bigger scale. "If you're interested in the future, scale is one of the things that's critical," says Shapiro. "I'm interested in not having any hungry people in the world. I'm interested in changing the lives of as many people as possible." Shapiro set up Seeds of Change in the late 1980s as an organic seed producer. At first, the company was more activist than commercial: "I grew up [in] the civil rights era, the anti-war movement." Late one night he had the idea that the company should replace its identical seed packets with photographs of what the plants inside would look like and use their common names – Adventist bush beans, Porter Pink tomatoes and Red Deer Tongue lettuce among other evocative varieties – and the company took off. Shapiro had learned about farming from his extended family; his parents came from Russia and Lithuania to the US before he was born: "Though we were eastern European intellectuals, there were members of my family who farmed because having food was very important." His father was a chemist and physicist who worked in academia and industry and taught him to think "systematically". His mother, he says, "taught me abstract thinking". The family did maths problems instead of games on car journeys. "From a very, very early age, I had an understanding of what complexity was," he says. Planting the seeds Colleagues from African-American universities in the southern states told him they collected their own seeds. "It was the beginning of a very interesting education I could never have had in college or university, but you could have by the nature of what we were doing, so I became a plant breeder." Shapiro's first love was flowers, and he thinks, but is not sure, that his first experiment was with African violets. Later he "realised it was food I was really interested in". In 1997, Seeds of Change wanted to expand into now popular foods such as pasta and sauce, looked around for a commercial partner and sold itself to Mars. Shapiro says what was important was Mars's "five principles": quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency and freedom – that is, freedom from public ownership: "They understood what we stood for, and shared the same views, though they used different ways." Since he joined Mars, Shapiro appears to have thrived. He heads a team of a few dozen full-timers and more outside experts, from where, he says, he is "two steps, or one step" from where decisions are made at the top. In moving up the closed, family- dominated petfood-to-confectionary group, Shapiro has swapped his biker gear for a suit and uses phrases such as "freedom works with profitability". But he still has his signature beard and a calm, infectious passion for his work. From these clues it is tempting to try and work out what compromises the radical hippy and his pioneering seed company had to make, and whether they were worth it. About 18 months ago Ethical Consumer magazine gave "before" and "after" scores to brands that had been sold to corporations: like many of the acquisitions, Seeds of Change did badly, dropping from 15 to 3.5 out of 20. This Easter the UK-based magazine ranked chocolate eggs: again, two Mars brands – Mars and Galaxy – did badly, scoring a near-bottom three out of 20. The company was marked down for poor environmental reporting, testing on animals, operations in oppressive regimes and campaigning against EU obesity laws. Shapiro dismisses Ethical Consumer's criticism, arguing: "We're a private company – it would be hard for them to know anything about us." Instead, he points out that, among other accolades, at Mars he received an Organic Trade Association lifetime achievement award in 2007 and last year was made a fellow of the World Agroforestry Centre for "outstanding contribution to the cause of agroforestry worldwide". He is also adjunct professor at the respected College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Mars attacks More importantly, there have been major policy developments. Last June Mars announced it would contribute $10m to a project to map the cacao tree genome and publish it for free to speed up the development of quicker-growing and more resilient varieties. In November the company sponsored a major conference of NGOs and governments to develop a 30-year plan to encourage cocoa growers in Africa to plant different crops to restore nutrients to degraded soil and bring a year-round income. This was background to the announcement in April that the Rainforest Alliance and at least five other global certification bodies will be asked to make sure all cocoa beans bought by Mars meet standards such as a minimum wages for farmers, conserving water and biodiversity-friendly pest management. "Mars's commitment to buying sustainable cocoa is unprecedented, and the benefits to farmers, farm workers, tropical environments and wildlife will be tangible," said Tensie Whelan, president of the Rainforest Alliance. Shapiro says changes Mars has made – the genome mapping, the survival plan, the insistence on fair pay and good environmental practices – are crucial to its future because the company cannot thrive if such an important part of its supply chain is suffering: "How can you expect to keep extracting out of soil if you don't put something in?" With three years of global cocoa deficits and warnings that production is reaching its upper limits, coupled with the threat of climate change to growing patterns and evidence that shoppers want a wider variety of ethically certified goods, shoring up supply chains seems good business sense, even without the social and environmental considerations. "The whole industry is going this way," Shapiro adds. Unlike many companies, Mars can take this long-term view, he says. "We want to be in business in 100 years. You don't spend money like this short term. We're thinking about these actions for the grandchildren of the owners." CV: Howard-Yana Shapiro Born 1947 Career 1991-97 Vice-President for agriculture, Seeds of Change 1997-2000 Senior scientist in plant science and agroforestry/agroecology for M&M, Mars 2000- Research manager, plant science, M&M/Mars 2005- Global director of plant science and external research, Mars; manager of the multi-disciplinary research unit Interests Motorcycles, organic farming and organic seed production Family Married 42 years, one daughterWhile India and China continue to have the largest number of underweight people in the world, both the countries have also broken into the top five in terms of obesity, a new study published in The Lancet jorunal has found.With 102 million men and 101 million women underweight, India leads the world in being home to over 40% of the global underweight population. China is a distant second with about 8% of underweight men and over 12% of underweight women.However, India has also seen a surge in obesity. It had 0.4 million obese men, or 1.3% of the global obese popula tion in 1975, but in 2014, it zoomed into the fifth position with 9.8 million obese men, or 3.7% of the global population.Among women, India has jumped to the third rank with 20 million obese women (5.3% of global population). China has followed a si milar trajectory to In dia when it comes to obesity, rising from 13th rank in 1975 for men and 10th among women to the first rank in 2014 for both men and women. It now has the most number of obese persons in the world edging out the US.“If these trends continue, by 2025, global obesity prevalence will reach 18% in men and surpass 21% in women; severe obesity will surpass 6% in men and 9% in women,“ the study, led by Majid Ezzati, professor at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London said.“Nonetheless, underweight remains prevalent in the world's poorest regions, espe cially in south Asia,“ it added.The study used data from national and smaller studies representing 19.2 million adults from 186 countries to arrive at its conclusions. It used the standard definitions of underweight (Body Mass Index less than 18.5 kg per sqm) and obesity (BMI greater than 30 kg per sqm). BMI is a ratio of weight and height, standardised to various age groups.Both underweight and obesity are well known causes for several fatal condi tions like heart diseases, diabetes and others.Globally, underweight population has declined while obese population has increased since 1975, the study found. In 1975, 13.8% men and 14.6% women were underweight. These proportions declined to 8.8% for men and 9.7% for women in 2014. Obese population shares were just 3.2% for men and 6.4% for women in 1975 which have risen to 10.8% for men and 14.9% for women in 2014.Africa’s energy revolution, one of the biggest overlooked stories of our time, is poised to change the lives of millions of Africans. Why has it been overlooked? Coverage of Africa has tended to focus on disasters, coups and terrorism – or on swings in the price of oil and metals. These events have happened. But they do not define Africa. What defines modern Africa is the steady, remarkable progress it has been making for the past 15 years. Let’s celebrate that progress – and the entrepreneurial spirit that is not only applying the latest technology to African contexts, but also generating new ideas and new techniques that can benefit the world. The best-known example is Africa’s “leapfrogging” directly to mobile phones, bypassing landline connections and using mobiles to move money, consult farm prices and much more. The number of mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people soared from 18 in 2006 to 71 in 2014. A less well-known example is Africa’s embrace of renewable energy to leapfrog older power generation technologies, while also reducing the need to extend the national energy grid to remote villages. From an African perspective, renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind power, have two powerful advantages: speed and decentralization. They can be rolled out much more quickly than fossil fuel-fired power plants, and they can operate both on grid and off grid. Small-scale renewable energy is starting to deliver the social and economic advantages of electrification to rural communities, helping improve public health, enabling access to education, and opening
's a giant ravine. And as you're working during the day, you're building a glass bridge. It's a delicate bridge and it's made of glass. And once you've got everything done for that day and it feels correct, boom, the glass turns to steel and you can cross over. And then you've got to do it again the next day." The glass bridge covering the giant ravine known as Twin Peaks: The Return is available for crossing once it hits Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday.FuzzySc2 Profile Joined December 2010 Canada 140 Posts #1 Sc2 is my first RTS and I have been playing it for a little over a year, this is my 3rd season in GM and I'm hoping to break out into the pro scene with the upcoming tournaments (mlg invite only qualifier - spring arena #2 and spring championship). Thanks for reading and enjoy the replays of me vs top players ^_^ Sc2 ranks profile Fuzzy.748 I will be playing and streaming the Col academy vs Nada showmatch at 9est on 4/24/2012 from a local Lan in Toronto at Zerg vs Zerg + Show Spoiler + Fuzzy vs egIdrA http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239131/ Fuzzy vs LiquidTLO http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239133/ Fuzzy vs NitrixEnergy http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239135/ Fuzzy vs coLgoswser http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239132/ Fuzzy vs egIdrAFuzzy vs LiquidTLOFuzzy vs NitrixEnergyFuzzy vs coLgoswser Zerg vs Terran + Show Spoiler + Fuzzy vs ColGanzi http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239120/ Fuzzy vs LessonForU (makaprime) http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239134/ Fuzzy vs NmxMasa http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239136/ Fuzzy vs ColGanziFuzzy vs LessonForU (makaprime)Fuzzy vs NmxMasa Zerg vs Protoss + Show Spoiler + Fuzzy vs mTwTTOne http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239137/ Fuzzy vs Attero http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239130/ Fuzzy vs Yata http://www.sctemple.com/replay/239138/ Fuzzy vs mTwTTOneFuzzy vs AtteroFuzzy vs Yata Hi I am Nick (Fuzzy) Degtiarev I am a 19year old grandmaster Zerg from Toronto, Ontario. I'm taking a year off from school in an attempt to making a living from Esports. I am currently on Complexity Academy.Sc2 is my first RTS and I have been playing it for a little over a year, this is my 3rd season in GM and I'm hoping to break out into the pro scene with the upcoming tournaments (mlg invite only qualifier - spring arena #2 and spring championship).Thanks for reading and enjoy the replays of me vs top players ^_^Sc2 ranks profile Fuzzy.748 http://sc2ranks.com/us/3045303/Fuzzy I will be playing and streaming the Col academy vs Nada showmatch at 9est on 4/24/2012 from a local Lan in Toronto at http://www.twitch.tv/fuzzysc2 Please tune in! ^_^Zerg vs ZergZerg vs TerranZerg vs ProtossDevin Taylor reaches in on Aaron Rodgers and is called for a facemask penalty on the play before the Packers' Hail Mary TD pass to end the game. (Photo: Melanie Maxwell, AP) Allen Park – The official who flagged Devin Taylor for a facemask penalty last season, leading to the Green Bay Packers’ improbable Hail Mary victory at Ford Field, is still convinced he made the right call. Not only that, he believes Taylor committed two infractions on the play. “I think it was an illegal tackle,” official Carl Cheffers said Friday, following a video presentation on the NFL’s rule changes and points of emphasis for 2016. “Horse-collar, facemask, I think it was an illegal tackle. I’m very comfortable with it.” On what should have been the final play of the game, with the Lions holding a two-point advantage, Taylor got his hand up near the helmet of quarterback Aaron Rodgers with the defensive end’s thumb allegedly hooking the bottom bar of the face mask. Taylor eventually tossed Rodgers to the ground by the shoulder pads. Cheffers and a second official each tossed a flag, giving the Packers one last play with no time remaining on the clock. Rodgers would go on to find tight end Richard Rodgers on a 61-yard heave to win the game. While an impartial arbiter, Cheffers admitted it was cool to experience the moment live, from field level. “That’s one of things we all enjoy about getting to do what we do,” Cheffers said. “It was an exciting play. I’m in Detroit, so I’m sure it wasn’t the most popular play in the world, but we’re football fans, too, or we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing. Any time you get to be part of a great play like that, it’s pretty exciting.” Cheffers said Taylor didn’t say anything to him after the flag was thrown, but the player’s reaction was as if “he had done something wrong.” When presented video of the play, seeking further clarification of which rules were violated, Cheffers became agitated. “Dude, I’m not going to watch that again,” he said, walking away. “It’s 2016, dude.”The National Intelligence Council has just released its much anticipated forecasting report, a 140-page document that outlines major trends and technological developments we should expect in the next 20 years. Among their many predictions, the NIC foresees the end of U.S. global dominance, the rising power of individuals against states, a growing middle class that will increasingly challenge governments, and ongoing shortages in water, food and energy. But they also envision a future in which humans have been significantly modified by their technologies — what will herald the dawn of the transhuman era. This work brings to mind the National Science Foundation's groundbreaking 2003 report, Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance — a relatively early attempt to understand and predict how advanced biotechnologies would impact on the human experience. The NIC's new report, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds, follows in the same tradition — namely one that doesn't ignore the potential for enhancement technologies. Advertisement In the new report, the NIC describes how implants, prosthetics, and powered exoskeletons will become regular fixtures of human life — what could result in substantial improvements to innate human capacities. By 2030, the authors predict, prosthetics should reach the point where they're just as good — or even better — than organic limbs. By this stage, the military will increasingly rely on exoskeletons to help soldiers carry heavy loads. Servicemen will also be adminstered psychostimulants to help them remain active for longer periods. Many of these same technologies will also be used by the elderly, both as a way to maintain more youthful levels of strength and energy, and as a part of their life extension strategies. Advertisement Brain implants will also allow for advanced neural interface devices — what will bridge the gap between minds and machines. These technologies will allow for brain-controlled prosthetics, some of which may be able to provide "superhuman" abilities like enhanced strength, speed — and completely new functionality altogether. Other mods will include retinal eye implants to enable night vision and other previously inaccessible light spectrums. Advanced neuropharmaceuticals will allow for vastly improved working memory, attention, and speed of thought. "Augmented reality systems can provide enhanced experiences of real-world situations," the report notes, "Combined with advances in robotics, avatars could provide feedback in the form of sensors providing touch and smell as well as aural and visual information to the operator." Advertisement But as the report notes, many of these technologies will only be available to those who are able to afford them. The authors warn that it could result in a two-tiered society comprising enhanced and nonenhanced persons, a dynamic that would likely require government oversight and regulation. Smartly, the report also cautions that these technologies will need to be secure. Developers will be increasingly challenged to prevent hackers from interfering with these devices. Lastly, other technologies and scientific disciplines will have to keep pace to make much of this work. For example, longer-lasting batteries will improve the practicality of exoskeletons. Progress in the neurosciences will be critical for the development of future brain-machine interfaces. And advances in flexible biocompatible electronics will enable improved integration with cybernetic implants. Advertisement The entire report can be read here. Image: Bruce Rolff/shutterstock.Another question that’s crossing the mind is how long will this trend continue? For, unlike a stock market, real estate consolidation can take very long and may last around five years, says Azeez. “The new development rules by the Maharashtra government, once enacted, should add a lot of supply to the market. So, the consolidation may last till real estate prices become affordable once again,” says Mittal.The Mumbai real estate market had seen a very big correction between 1995 and 2001, when prices crashed by half in many pockets. And if one takes into account the high inflation during the period, the correction works out to around 75% in some cases.So, are we heading for a similar situation? Most experts don’t think so. “A price correction of the magnitude that was seen during 1995-2001 may not happen this time,” says Puri. This is because most factors — high inflation, high interest rates, slowing economic activity, etc, — are much better now than they were in that period. Also, investors use the portfolio approach to switch from real estate to other asset classes (like equity and debt) because they are doing well now. So, what should one do now? It depends on whether you are in the market to buy or sell. “Sellers shouldn't bother too much about the 5-10% discount, and let their property go. This loss can be recouped in a year’s time from safe instruments like bank FD. Else, they may be forced to hold on to their property for another 4-5 years to get the same price,” says Azeez.Buyers can be broadly classified into two categories — investors and end users. Since the correction is expected for a few more years, investors should not enter now. “The correction has just started and there is no panic selling in the market yet. So buyers, who are buying a property for investment, should defer it by 1-2 years,” Azeez explains. However, end users are restricted by several other factors like marriage, birth of kids, getting a better job, etc, and therefore it may be difficult for them to postpone the decision. However, they should also note that this is a buyers’ market and therefore, have to bargain hard.Baby not crying due to getting a MogenOkay everybody, prepare for some wincing. Whether you believe that circumcising baby boys is wrong or that it's nobody else's business, I think we can all agree that no one should be chopping off the tips of penises. But apparently there's a certain type of device used during circumcision by hospitals and mohels that has the risk of doing exactly that, and some little boys have suffered the loss of the tip of their penis. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, OUCH. The Mogen clamp was invented in 1954, and while it's not very popular, it is still used even after many reports of injury. As someone who is married to a Jewish man and has a little boy, I'm shocked I haven't heard about this before. Which is why I'm writing this, because if you're considering having your little boy circumcised, you're going to want to make sure this isn't the device that will be near your baby's penis. Here's how it works, or rather doesn't work. AdvertisementAn airplane transporting a doctor infected with the deadly Ebola in West Africa lands near Atlanta on Tuesday. (AP Photo/David Tulis) An undisclosed number of people who’ve been exposed to the Ebola virus — not just the four patients publicly identified with diagnosed cases — have been evacuated to the U.S. by an air ambulance company contracted by the State Department. “We moved a lot of other people who had an exposure event,” said Dent Thompson, vice president of Phoenix Air Group. “Many times these people are just fine, they just had an exposure. But you have to treat it as though the disease is present.” How many exposed patients have been flown from West Africa to the U.S.? Thompson said medical privacy laws and his company’s contract with the State Department prevent him from revealing the figure. “I’m not avoiding it,” Thompson told Yahoo News. “I’m just not allowed to talk about it.” Five weeks ago, medical missionary Dr. Kent Brantly became the first Ebola patient to be treated in the U.S. He and fellow missionary Nancy Writebol were nursed back to health in a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and later released. Dr. Rick Sacra and an unidentified doctor who arrived on Tuesday are currently being treated in the U.S. An ambulance carries American missionary Nancy Writebol from the airport to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital last month. (Reuters/Tami Chappell) More The State Department confirmed the four known Ebola patient transports but couldn’t provide details on any exposure evacuations to the United States. Phoenix Air, they said, is under contract because of its expertise. An unnamed State Department official said “every precaution is taken to move the patient safely and securely, to provide critical care en route, and to maintain strict isolation upon arrival in the United States.” Thompson said Phoenix Air has flown 10 Ebola-related missions in the past six weeks. “Not everything we do is [related to] a sick person,” he said, adding that the company has also flown supplies. “We do basically whatever needs to be done.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is operating an around-the-clock Ebola emergency operations center, did not immediately respond to an email seeking information about the exposure patient transports. On Monday, President Barack Obama, who has called the outbreak a U.S. national security priority, pledged more U.S. assistance to West Africa. The White House recently requested $30 million more from Congress to help the CDC’s efforts with the crisis. With multiple government and aid organizations trying to tackle the unprecedented epidemic, Thompson predicts his team will be flying more precautionary patients back to the U.S. “There will be a certain number of people who, through no fault of their own, will have an exposure event, and they are immediately identified and immediately extracted,” he said. Phoenix Air’s modified Gulfstream III jets are “literally intensive care units with wings,” Thompson said. He said even evacuees without a confirmed Ebola diagnosis are placed in an isolation chamber for the 12- to 14-hour flight from West Africa to the U.S. “You can never, ever let your safety guards down,” he said. The tentlike device installed on Phoenix Air's planes when biological containment is required. (CDC/Reuters) MoreA pregnant mother-of-one stole high-performance electric guitars from music shops by hiding them up her long skirt after her husband passed them to her. A pregnant mother-of-one stole high-performance electric guitars from music shops by hiding them up her long skirt after her husband passed them to her. Pregnant mum helped steal guitars worth €6k by hiding them up her skirt Madelina Iancu (19) and husband Veniamin Raducanu (23) stole two guitars, worth €6,000, in two visits to Dublin city centre shops on consecutive days, a court heard. Raducanu, who claimed to have an "interest in music", was jailed for six months for his part in the theft, while Iancu had her six-month sentence fully suspended. Judge Michael Walsh said they had been "carefully planned, carefully orchestrated" crimes. He refused to suspend Raducanu's sentence after defence solicitor Michelle Finan argued there was case law covering equal treatment of male and female accused on identical charges. The couple, from Coolmine Court, Blanchardstown, both pleaded guilty to theft and garda obstruction. Dublin District Court heard they stole a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, worth €2,999, from X Music on Exchequer Street on July 2. The following day they stole a €3,000 Warner guitar at Some Neck Guitars on Aungier Street. The court heard the pair went to the first store and Raducanu passed a guitar to his wife, who placed it under the long skirt she was wearing. They were later identified on CCTV. The next day, the pair did the same thing. Later the following day, gardai called at their home with a search warrant and both accused violently resisted. The guitars were discovered undamaged in a back bedroom. The couple, from Romania, had been in Ireland since February and neither had any previous convictions. "It was opportunistic. They thought they had got away with it the first time and did it again," Ms Finan said. Refusing Ms Finan's application to also suspend Raducanu's sentence, the judge said he had made a "subtle distinction" in relation to the evidence in each case. HeraldIt's estimated that there are at least 1.4 million – 2 million people in prison at the moment in the US justice system. The US has the largest prison population in the world and it's claimed that the most prevalent reason for why folks are found behind bars, is due to drug-related offenses. According to a new report from the US Sentencing Commission, there are more people who are currently behind bars because they were sentenced over cannabis related crimes, compared to individuals who are behind bars for charges related to heroin use. However, overall the arrests related to cannabis charges have declined for at least 5 years in a row. To this day, there has never been a single overdose attributed to cannabis consumption. Compare that to the thousands of deaths from heroin-use every single year. It's estimated that deaths from heroin have quadrupled in recent years. The only drug that came before cannabis-related arrests, was detentions related to powder cocaine and methamphetamine. The issue surrounding the abuse of opioids has gotten so terrible that now there is even a bill being proposed which would force users into treatment facilities against their will. But anyone who has ever dealt with a person suffering from and battling an addiction will tell you, that they cannot be forced into getting clean, that is a decision which they need to make for themselves. Force isn't the best solution to get things done. Many addicts have gone through treatment programs only to later relapse because they had been forced into the situation originally and they weren't ready to make the commitment to change their ways. But something needs to be done, there is an epidemic that many health experts and others feel needs to be desperately addressed. There has even been suggestion of lawsuits aimed at drug distributors in the nation. And one of the things that has been suggested to be an honest contender as a solution to the opioid epidemic, is cannabis. End the War On Drugs Thanks to the numerous jurisdictions around the US who are determined to exercise civil disobedience in allowing their citizens to access cannabis, it has been helping to further support a reallocation of resources and attention, to other pressing matters for law enforcement. Many legal and criminological experts, along with health professionals and others in the field of criminal justice, would argue that cannabis users don't deserve to be detained behind bars. Many of these individuals are being detained over victimless crimes, over instances where they didn't infringe upon the property rights of any other individual. And if anything, drug addicts need medical and psychological attention, not physical abuse and detention. Life In Prison For Selling $20 Of Cannabis? There are many individuals who are serving life in prison or decades behind bars, because of victimless crimes related to drug charges and it's a devastating crime against their natural rights and therefore humanity. When we continually see much lesser sentencing to individuals who actually inflicted violence upon others (rape, assault etc), then it starts to really give off a stench of abusive authority. Pics: Freethoughtproject WAPO.ST / US Sentencing Commission Sources: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/feds-still-jail-people-cannabis-heroin http://www.king5.com/news/politics/heroin-opioid-users-could-be-forced-into-treatment/422447148 http://clemencyreport.org/top-10-outrageous-marijuana-sentences/ http://www.alternet.org/drugs/15-people-rotting-prison-life-drug-crimes-didnt-hurt-anybody http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/27/fate-vincent-winslow-got-life-in-prison-for-20-worth-of-weed.html Related Posts: New Research Suggests Painkillers Might Make Chronic Pain Worse https://steemit.com/health/@doitvoluntarily/new-research-suggests-painkillers-might-make-chronic-pain-worse Seniors Boosting Their Quality Of Life With Cannabis https://steemit.com/cannabis/@doitvoluntarily/seniors-boosting-their-quality-of-life-with-cannabis Former Football Star Says Cannabis Saved His Life https://steemit.com/cannabis/@doitvoluntarily/former-football-star-says-cannabis-saved-his-life Multiple Lawsuits Launched Against Opioid Distributors https://steemit.com/health/@doitvoluntarily/multiple-lawsuits-launched-against-opioid-distributorsAn Analysis of Abortion Facts And Statistics, 1970-2016 Last month I wrote an article debunking Planned Parenthood‘s claim that “1 in 3 American women have had an abortion”. You’d think that an article on abortion would’ve been easy to research, since it’s such a hot button issue. But it wasn’t. In truth, getting accurate statistics about abortion is a pain in the ass, because most of the sources either (i) misrepresent the data to score political points, or (ii) have never heard of the phrase “user friendly”. That’s why I wrote this article. I’ve collected (and organized) some of the most basic statistics on abortion, and also answered some of the most common statistical questions, and corrected some common misconceptions—we can’t have a debate unless we get our facts straight. First-thing’s-first: the following table records the number of abortions per year in the US, how many of which were “first time” abortions, and also the cumulative number of abortions since 1970. Also, if you’re interested in exploring the data yourself, you can download the abortion statistics as an excel file—it’s much more detailed than what you see below, which I parsed for brevity and clarity. US Abortion Statistics: 1970-2016 Year Legal Abortions 1st-Time Abortions Cumulative Abortions 1970* 193,491 106,420 193,491 1971 485,816 267,198 679,307 1972 586,760 322,718 1,266,067 1973* 615,831 338,707 1,881,898 1974 763,476 417,911 2,645,374 1975 854,853 470,169 3,500,227 1976 988,267 543,546 4,488,494 1977 1,079,430 593,686 5,567,924 1978 1,157,776 636,776 6,725,700 1979 1,251,921 688,556 7,977,621 1980 1,297,606 713,683 9,275,218 1981 1,300,760 715,418 10,575,978 1982 1,573,920 865,656 12,149,898 1983 1,575,000 866,250 13,724,898 1984 1,333,521 733,436 15,058,419 1985 1,328,570 730,713 16,386,989 1986 1,328,112 730,461 17,715,101 1987 1,353,671 744,519 19,068,772 1988 1,371,285 754,206 20,440,057 1989 1,396,658 768,161 21,836,715 1990 1,429,577 803,422 23,266,292 1991 1,388,937 750,025 24,655,229 1992 1,359,145 733,938 26,014,374 1993 1,330,414 705,119 27,344,788 1994 1,267,415 671,729 28,612,203 1995 1,210,883 653,876 29,823,086 1996 1,221,585 654,769 31,044,671 1997 1,186,039 581,159 32,230,710 1998 884,273 465,127 33,114,983 1999 861,789 448,130 33,976,772 2000 857,475 454,461 34,834,247 2001 853,485 460,881 35,687,732 2002 854,122 461,225 36,541,854 2003 848,163 457,159 37,390,017 2004 839,226 450,664 38,229,243 2005 820,151 438,780 39,049,394 2006 846,181 456,937 39,895,575 2007 827,609 462,633 40,723,184 2008 825,564 459,013 41,548,748 2009 784,507 433,832 42,333,255 2010 765,651 424,170 43,098,906 2011 730,322 392,182 43,829,228 2012 699,202 389,455 44,528,430 2013 664,435 365,439 45,192,865 2014* 540,537 297,295 45,733,402 2015 340,255 187,140 46,073,657 2016 77,983 42,890 46,151,640 *Notes On The US Abortion Statistics: This data only reflects legal induced abortions, and makes no effort to account for illegal induced abortions, for which there is no accurate data. The majority of the data came from voluntary reports of legal abortions to the Center For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC). This data was supplemented (when necessary) by data from multiple sources, compiled by Wm. Robert Johnston. First time abortion statistics between 1970 and 1989 are estimated using rates from 1986, 1987, and 1990 (55% average), due to a lack of data. Given that this number remained remarkably consistent over the remaining period, this is a reasonable assumption. 2014 marks the last year we have accurate data yet compiled. The reason the 2015 and 2016 abortion statistics are unrealistically low is because the numbers are still being reported and compiled. Regarding the conditional probability of a woman having an abortion in the USA: over the period for which we have good data (1990-2013), the average likelihood that a woman would have an abortion was 1.75%. The average likelihood that an abortion was a “first time” abortion (performed on a woman who had not had a prior induced termination) is 53.92%. This means that (i) 46.08% of all abortions were performed on woman who had a previous procedure, and (ii) the average likelihood that a woman would have a first time abortion was 0.945%. The average likelihood that a woman had 1 prior abortion was 25.78%. This means that a woman who received 1 prior abortion had a 47.8% chance of having a second abortion. The average likelihood that a woman had 2 prior abortions was 11.03%. This means that a woman who received 2 prior abortions had a 42% chance of having a third abortion. The average likelihood that a woman had 3+ prior abortions was 7.4%. This means that a woman who received 3+ prior abortions had a 67% chance of having additional abortions. of a woman having an abortion in the USA: over the period for which we have good data (1990-2013), the average likelihood that a woman would have an abortion was 1.75%. 1. How Many Abortions Are Performed Each Year In The US? Let’s start with the most basic question: how many abortions are there per year in the US? Between 1973, when Roe v Wade made abortion a constitutionally guaranteed right, and 2014, the most recent year for which we have full data, an average of 1,058,746 abortions were performed each year in the US. But that doesn’t give us the full story. We also need to look at how the abortion rate’s changed over time. As it turns out, the number of abortions per year have declined every year since 1990, when 1,429,577 were performed. In fact, abortion is currently at historic lows: only 540,537 abortions were performed in 2014, which is the smallest number since 1972. To put it in perspective, that’s only one-third as many abortions as were performed in 1982, the peak year for abortion in America (1,573,920 fetuses were aborted). 2. Why Is The US Abortion Rate Declining? Both pro-choice and pro-life supporters argue that their methods have been the most successful at reducing America’s abortion rate. But as is often the case, the truth lies somewhere in between. Pro-Choice Argument The pro-choice camp says that the abortion rate has declined primarily because of increased awareness, and use, of contraceptives. In other words, more women use birth control, and more men wear condoms than they used to. In turn, this lowered the number of unintended pregnancies, and therefore reduced demand for abortions—they didn’t get them because they didn’t need them. Simple. Although this is probably a contributing factor, it’s not nearly as big as they’d have you believe. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 1982, 95% of sexually active women aged 15-44 had, at some point, used contraception. By 2008 this increased to 99%. Of course, given the prevalence of contraception in 1982 (when the abortion rate was at its peak), this 4% increase in the intervening years can’t possibly account for the difference. But perhaps it’s not the prevalence, but the type of contraception used. For example, in 1982 only 52% of sexually active women’s partners used condoms, whereas in 2008 93% did—could an increased use of condoms explain the declining abortion rate? No, not totally. The abortion rate was still near its peaks in the mid-1990s, even though condom use was at 90% during this period—that extra 3% is pretty irrelevant. All in all, the prevalence of contraceptives, and the type used, doesn’t fully explain America’s declining abortion rate (mostly because they haven’t changed all that much in the last 30 years). Pro-Life Argument Pro-lifers often attribute the declining abortion rate to the passage of anti-abortion laws at the state level, which limit access to abortion by placing incomprehensible restrictions on abortion clinics, or denying funding etc. By and large, these laws have successfully reduced legal induced abortion rates—even the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute admits this. After all, the underpinning logic makes sense: if there are no clinics, then there’s nowhere to get the procedure. This applies to pretty much anything—no watering hole, no water. However, as the Institute points out, said laws only affect legal abortions, not illegal abortions, nor do they prevent someone from getting an abortion in an adjacent state (no clinic in New Jersey, no problem, just drive to New York). For these reasons, they’re not as effective at reducing the abortion rate as their proponents claim, although they are a contributing factor. The pro-life side also cites the growth of the pro-life movement as a cultural force: they say they are “winning the culture war“. While I think this is true in general (millennials are the most conservative generation yet), it doesn’t appear to have much of an impact on abortion rates. Why? First, the rates of premarital sex have remained remarkably consistent since the 1950s, regardless of whether the abortion rate was high or low. The moral of this story is that people are getting laid, regardless of the prevailing cultural winds. Second, the historical ebbing and flowing of the pro-life and pro-choice movements don’t correlate strongly with abortion rates, according to polling from Gallup—people do what they’re going to do. Speculations On The Declining Abortion Rate I’ll be honest with you, I can’t offer you one solid, unassailable answer as to why the rate is dropping; I think it’s a combination of factors. I think that people today are generally more diligent about avoiding unplanned pregnancies than they were in the past. Both sides have contributed to this, albeit in different ways. On the one hand, pro-choice people have pushed for better sexual education in school, and although the rate of contraceptive use hasn’t changed much, people today use contraception more diligently (they’re less likely to skip the condom, or forget the pill), and are more likely to use it correctly (which prevents unintended pregnancies) than they used to. We’ve all seen the “condom on the banana” demonstration, and that’s probably a good thing (even if it was weird). On the other hand, pro-lifers have brought much-needed attention to the darker side of abortion (including the existence of an underground fetal organ market), and have ensured that people have greater respect for the unborn. For example, although half of Americans are pro-choice, two-thirds of Americans believe a fetus is a human life—all Americans, even many pro-choice people, now take abortion much more seriously than they used to. People are more reticent to abort today than they used to be, and are often more willing to explore other options (such as adoption). Fundamentally, the abortion rate is declining because American culture is changing: people are better at using contraception, and have a greater respect for fetal life than in the 1990s—this is good for everyone. 3. How Many Abortions Have There Been Since Roe v Wade (1973)? Of all the statistics about abortion, this one’s the most disquieting (no matter where you stand on the issue). There have been 44,0112,775 legal abortions since 1973, when Roe v Wade gave abortion constitutional protections. This, of course, does not include abortions that were performed in private. Interestingly, this is greater than the total number of legal immigrants in the USA (38 million), and the total number of illegal immigrants (11-33 million) as well. 4. How Many American Woman Have Had Abortions? Planned Parenthood claims that “1 in 3 woman have had an abortion” in the US and UK. That’s a lie. They created this fake “fact” by looking at the total number of abortions (46 million) relative to America’s female population (159 million)—rather than the number of individuals who’ve had abortions. Basically, they counted women with multiple abortions multiple times, which makes abortion seem more prevalent than it is—Planned Parenthood deliberately inflates the abortion statistics. For example, Irene Vilar had 15 abortions (and brags about it), and therefore was counted 15 times by Planned Parenthood—people who use abortion as contraception distort the data. If we look at the actual data, we find that 46.08% of all abortions were performed on women who had previous abortions. In actual fact, only 25,012,076 million American woman have had abortions between 1970 and 2016 (not even close to 46 million). That equates to 15.7% of American women, or just over 1 in 7. This is the same trick that people use to make the divorce rate look so high: we’re told that that 50% of all divorces fail, which makes marriage seem like a bad bargain. However, what they forget to mention is that only 25% of first-time marriages fail—the difference is made up because people like Ross from Friends just can’t keep it together, and end up getting divorced 3 times. 5. What Is The Likelihood That An American Woman Will Have An Abortion In Her Lifetime? There are a few ways to look at this question. First, we could say that since 15.7% of American women have had abortions, it’s reasonable to conclude that there’s a roughly 1 in 7 chance that a woman will artificially terminate a pregnancy sometime in her life. But that’s rather crude, since it doesn’t account for the fact that the abortion rate has been declining for decades—we have to account for trends if we’re going to make our claim remotely useful (although if I’m being honest, I think predicting stuff like this is a fool’s errand). For example, in 1980 there were 25 abortions for every 1,000 woman per year; in 2013, that number dropped to 12.5. And remember, this includes woman with multiple terminations. Let’s get a more accurate number. Assume that a woman has 29 child-bearing years, between the ages of 15-44 (this is what the data we’re working with assumes, so we’ll stick with it). Also assume
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individuals, businesses, and government. Conservative thinkers, along with many economists and libertarians, tend to put individuals and businesses at the heart of their worldview, and so favor a revenue-neutral carbon tax that gives the money back to people and businesses. Many on the left, including the Washington State Democratic Party and Fuse, believe public institutions and collective decision-making processes are critical to large-scale social change, and so favor a diverse committee overseeing spending on clean energy projects, targeted investments in communities of color, and aid to workers transitioning to new jobs. Sightline recognizes these differing philosophies, understands them both, and sympathizes with both. Because we believe that winning a high and rising price on carbon pollution—and soon—is a life-or-death obligation for the future not only of Cascadia but of the world, we are amenable to policies that rest on either philosophical foundation or that successfully blend the two. Our concern is with the policy outcomes on balance. If the price is right and the details are well-designed, we can support—and have argued in support of—giving the money back to people and businesses or investing in education and transportation choices or investing in disadvantaged communities, clean energy, and protecting energy intensive, trade exposed industries, or some combination of these. Politics The best climate policy is not the one that looks best on paper but the one that legislators or voters will actually pass—and uphold. Politically astute use of the revenue can help muster the political will to pass a carbon price and keep it rising over time. But political astuteness is in the eye of the beholder. Some commentators, such as David Roberts, believe polling suggests the best way to sell a carbon price to the public is to spend the revenue on popular clean energy technologies. However, some research suggests that people will flip from favoring such environmental earmarking to favoring giving the money back to people if they know how much a price can cut pollution and how much it will impact low-income households. Other climate hawks, including I-732’s backers, believe that winning bipartisan support is the best hope for passing and safeguarding a carbon price, and a revenue-neutral approach has the best political chances because it might win more conservative support than other options. Revenue neutrality appeals to a conservative worldview, and conservative think tanks support a revenue-neutral carbon tax. But in practice, I-732 has only attracted tepid conservative support. We don’t pretend to judge political strategies, but we note that the split in the climate movement in Washington does not seem to be solely about the policy differences that we are analyzing. It may also reflect divisions over philosophy and political strategy that fall outside our purview. Conclusions about disagreements I-732 backers and critics agree that Washington should put a price on carbon, but they disagree about how best to design the price and how best to use the resulting revenue. We find the cap vs. tax argument to be a distraction. I-732’s price is high and rising. It is the best in its class, possibly worldwide. By a procedural definition of climate justice, I-732 fails: it was not designed by, nor will it be governed by representatives of historically excluded or disadvantaged communities. By an economic definition of equity, I-732 is a massive improvement over the status quo, aiding 460,000 working families. However, we agree with the critique that I-732 has an equity gap. It makes 460,000 low-income workers’ families better off and holds many other households harmless. But it does not completely shield some hundreds of thousands of ineligible low-income residents from the effects of rising energy prices. We wish I-732 put a higher priority on ensuring that every low-income Washingtonian was better off by ensuring that more benefits went to low-income households not covered by the Working Families Tax Credit. We reject the critique that I-732 is ineffective because it doesn’t invest in clean energy. I-732 would be the most effective carbon reduction policy in North America, maybe in the world, because it would be the highest and most reliably rising price. We sympathize but are not persuaded by the critique of I-732 for failing to help fossil fuel workers transition to a clean economy. Transitional assistance may be needed by other workers more than by fossil fuel workers. In sum, three of the criticisms launched against I-732 miss their mark, one hits home, and one is indeterminate—it depends how you define climate justice. Taken on whole, for us at Sightline, and judged exclusively on the basis of policy, not politics or political strategy, the policy’s flaws are cause for concern but are dwarfed by I-732’s potential benefits. Conclusions about I-732 I-732 would launch Washington to a position of global leadership on climate action. By implementing a pollution price, rising steadily for four decades and keeping pace with inflation thereafter, I-732 would reorient Washington’s economy away from fossil fuels and toward low-carbon options. The price would be simple to administer and would cover most of the state’s pollution. By reducing Washington’s regressive state sales tax and funding tax credits for working families, I-732 would make the state tax code more progressive. On the other hand, as we previously noted, I-732 would give an unfortunate windfall to Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers. It wouldn’t do enough to protect and boost the interests of all low-income Washingtonians or to help the hardest-hit Washingtonians thrive in a clean energy economy. UPDATE August 26, 2016: Front and Centered is publishing a series of articles articulating its principles more fully and offering counterarguments to some of our conclusions. It’s worth reading. UPDATE October 13, 2016: Plan Washington has published “The Business View on I-732” analyzing how well I-732 will reduce carbon how it will impact business, and how it could be improved to become more effective.Google has posted a whole bunch of new job listings for things related to virtual reality. Among them are hints that Google will be creating a 3D VR camera, “from scratch” and it appears – a game engine. According to one job listing for a “Software Engineer, Game Engine” the company is looking for someone who can “Develop tools and common technologies to enable VR application development.” See below for the full description: Google’s software engineers develop the next-generation technologies that change how millions of users connect, explore, and interact with information and one another. Our ambitions reach far beyond just Search. Our products need to handle information at the scale of the web. We’re looking for ideas from every area of computer science, including information retrieval, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, distributed computing, large-scale system design, networking, security, data compression, and user interface design; the list goes on and is growing every day. As a software engineer, you work on a small team and can switch teams and projects as our fast-paced business grows and evolves. We need our engineers to be versatile and passionate to tackle new problems as we continue to push technology forward. Responsibilities Develop tools and common technologies to enable VR application development. Work cross-functionally with other teams to enable code reuse and high code quality. Communicate with Developer Relations and enable Open Source releases of our components. Continuing to peruse the job listings related to VR another listing for a computer graphics engineer asks for someone to “develop core high-performance graphics code and common technologies that enable VR application development.” All in all these listings seem to suggest that Google is taking a big step towards VR content creation tools. Content creation tools for VR are going to be incredibly important. One of the greatest things about virtual reality is the ability to create. It enables you to express your imagination in ways never before possible – problem is, right now it’s not exactly easy. Companies like Epic and Unity have already developed tools – but it appears that Google wants to create something more unified in a mission to help explode the content creation sphere. Theres a chance we will hear more about this as the conference continues. Be sure to check back on this live, updating post for more details.Description and Title Most ignored part ever.You're non-native? You don't like writing? Fine, don't write too much and make errors, but write SOMETHING. Nothing screamsmore than no screenshots and no description. When I lurk the workshop, I don't even try the thing out. Why would I?What is it? What's cool about it? What's not? How many thrusters, batteries, seats?Remeber that when you'll hover over WS item, a little pop-up appears with a first bit of the description. For this reason I use cheesy "slogans" at the beginning, just to make someone curious enough, for him to gimme dat click. If you feel like it you can make sections and role-play as some space-age ship manufacturing corporation. Making solid descriptions won't matter much for typical lurker, but may earn you. And those guys are real MVP's when it comes to handling your Workshop page. Followers are people, who looked at your stuff and thought "hey, he's making some really cool stuff, and he's doin' a solid piece of work here! I want more!". They're getting your crafts in their feed first when you'll publish something. They're usually the first ones to comment and rate. To give you feedback. If you care about Workshop thing enough to read this guide, you probably like to get feedback on your work.If you're publishing ships semi-regulary, you may want to get yourself a template like I did:When I'm publishing something I'm just copy-pasting it, and fill it accordingly, much less work and submissions look uniform.Now, the next super-important bit - title game.I have a naming system for my crafts - I apply alphanumerical names like G-1 "Svarog" (Gunship 1, called Svarog), S-2 "Rusalka" (Scout 3, called "Rusalka") or MF-005-H "Ratainitsa" (Medium Freighter 5, Hydrogen propulsion, called "Ratainitsa"). It tells me a lot about the craft, but not necessarily a random dude who played a bit and wants to check some crafts.So, "C-5/r Nyja" tells him absolutely nothing. But "Retractable Orbital Transport Nyja C-5/r"... That sounds interesting... Thing is, that Workshop page has limited space. When my item is called "Retractable Orbital Transport Nyja C-5/r" it only dispays as "Retractable Orbital Transpo...". So if you've got some naming system, put it after more "descriptive" name. It needs to gain attention, be a little bit clickbaity.Less important thing, but rather nice practice is to keep naming policy uniform and preferably a bit intriguing. Yet another "Annihilator" followed by yet another "Wasp" looks silly and at this point is simply uninteresting. There were thousands of ships called like that! Come on! And why on Earth did you called one ship Annihilator and the other Wasp? Go with animals/insects OR "intimidating" adjectives.I'm rolling with names and creatures from slavic mythology. I'm a Pole so it's close to my heart, it gives me huge source of names for crafts and maybe most importantly - it sounds exotic for foreigners. They need to think how to pronounce it, it's new to them, it gains interest.Silverfrost Mountains presents an enormous new landmass, and similarly impressive variety of new content, like new zones, quests, dungeons, and cooperative objectives. The Soulstone Plains offers those defending the Cerulean Order or Crimson Legion the ability to fight for their faction, and reap substantial rewards. Soulstone Plains is a level 50 faction area, similar to Misty Woods at level 45. Both factions have a base of operations set up at opposite ends, protected by their own armies. In the middle are fields rich with Soulstones, and two large mining drills have been set up to extract them. The battle over the fields and drills are constant over these much sought after resources. The battle runs constantly at all times throughout the day, and happens in phases. Kill the opposing faction’s primary NPC (Konta for the Cerulean Order, or Suljun for the Crimson Legion) to begin your mining operation. Shortly afterward, your faction will take over the mining drills, and they’ll need to be defended against other players and increasingly difficult waves of enemies. If you successfully defend your mining operation, you’ll be presented with a final challenge to receive your rewards. Soulstone Plains is the primary source of Soulstones and Moonstones which are used to upgrade your weapons and accessories. You earn Prestige for killing both enemy players and NPCs, and you can trade Prestige for Faction Contribution Points, buffs for the battle itself, and Soulstone Pouches. There are also a large amount of dailies available from this area that award Soulstones, gold, experience, and Faction Contribution Points. When the Silverfrost Mountains expansion releases, and once you hit level 50, you’ll want to make the Soulstone Plains a regular part of your adventures.Seal of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Court District of Columbia Court of Appeals Full case name Carolyn WARREN, et al., Appellants, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Appellees. Wilfred NICHOL, Appellant, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, et al., Appellees. Decided December 21, 1981 ( ) Citation(s) 444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981 Warren v. District of Columbia[1] (444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981) is an oft-quoted[2] District of Columbia Court of Appeals case that held that the police do not owe a specific duty to provide police services to citizens based on the public duty doctrine. Procedural history [ edit ] In two separate cases, Carolyn Warren, Miriam Douglas, Joan Taliaferro, and Wilfred Nichol sued the District of Columbia and individual members of the Metropolitan Police Department for negligent failure to provide adequate police services. The trial judges held that the police were under no specific legal duty to provide protection to the individual plaintiffs and dismissed the complaints. In a 2-1 decision, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals determined that Warren, Taliaferro, and Nichol were owed a special duty of care by the police department and reversed the trial court rulings. In a unanimous decision, the court also held that Douglas failed to fit within the class of persons to whom a special duty was owed and affirmed the trial court's dismissal of her complaint. The case was reheard by an en banc panel of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the defendant (District of Columbia) prevailed. Background [ edit ] Warren, Taliaferro, and Douglas [ edit ] In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 16, 1975, Carolyn Warren and Joan Taliaferro, who shared a room on the third floor of their rooming house at 1112 Lamont Street Northwest in the District of Columbia, and Miriam Douglas, who shared a room on the second floor with her four-year-old daughter, were asleep. The women were awakened by the sound of the back door being broken down by two men later identified as Marvin Kent and James Morse. The men entered Douglas' second floor room, where Kent forced Douglas to perform oral sex on him and Morse raped her. Warren and Taliaferro heard Douglas' screams from the floor below. Warren called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher that the house was being burglarized, and requested immediate assistance. The department employee told her to remain quiet and assured her that police assistance would be dispatched promptly. Warren's call was received at Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters at 0623 hours, and was recorded as a burglary-in-progress. At 0626, a call was dispatched to officers on the street as a "Code 2" assignment, although calls of a crime in progress should be given priority and designated as "Code 1." Four police cruisers responded to the broadcast; three to the Lamont Street address and one to another address to investigate a possible suspect. Meanwhile, Warren and Taliaferro crawled from their window onto an adjoining roof and waited for the police to arrive. While there, they observed one policeman drive through the alley behind their house and proceed to the front of the residence without stopping, leaning out the window, or getting out of the car to check the back entrance of the house. A second officer apparently knocked on the door in front of the residence, but left when he received no answer. The three officers departed the scene at 0633, five minutes after they arrived. Warren and Taliaferro crawled back inside their room. They again heard Douglas' continuing screams; again called the police; told the officer that the intruders had entered the home, and requested immediate assistance. Once again, a police officer assured them that help was on the way. This second call was received at 0642 and recorded merely as "investigate the trouble;" it was never dispatched to any police officers. Believing the police might be in the house, Warren and Taliaferro called down to Douglas, thereby alerting Kent to their presence. At knife point, Kent and Morse then forced all three women to accompany them to Kent's apartment. For the next fourteen hours the captive women were raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon one another, and made to submit to the sexual demands of Kent and Morse. Warren, Taliaferro, and Douglas brought the following claims of negligence against the District of Columbia and the Metropolitan Police Department: (1) the dispatcher's failure to forward the 6:23 a. m. call with the proper degree of urgency; (2) the responding officers' failure to follow standard police investigative procedures, specifically their failure to check the rear entrance and position themselves properly near the doors and windows to ascertain whether there was any activity inside; and (3) the dispatcher's failure to dispatch the 6:42 a. m. call. Nichol [ edit ] On April 30, 1978, at approximately 11:30 p. m., appellant Nichol stopped his car for a red light at the intersection of Missouri Avenue and Sixteenth Street, N.W. Unknown occupants in a vehicle directly behind appellant struck his car in the rear several times, and then proceeded to beat appellant about the face and head, breaking his jaw. A Metropolitan Police Department officer arrived at the scene. In response to the officer's direction, appellant's companion ceased any further efforts to obtain identification information of the assailants. When the officer then failed to get the information, leaving Nichol unable to institute legal action against his assailants, Nichol brought a negligence action against the officer, the Metropolitan Police Department and the District of Columbia. Decision [ edit ] In a 4-3 decision, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the trial courts' dismissal of the complaints against the District of Columbia and individual members of the Metropolitan Police Department based on the public duty doctrine ruling that "the duty to provide public services is owed to the public at large, and, absent a special relationship between the police and an individual, no specific legal duty exists". The Court thus adopted the trial court's determination that no special relationship existed between the police and appellants, and therefore no specific legal duty existed between the police and the appellants. See also [ edit ]Stephen Bannon joins the White House with a reputation as hard-charging and foul-mouthed but fiercely loyal. \| Getty Bannon, tormentor of establishment GOP, gains foothold in West Wing When Donald Trump hired Steve Bannon — the bomb-throwing CEO of alt-right powerhouse Breitbart News — to help steer his campaign in August, GOP insiders were aghast. They’ll have to get used to him being around for awhile longer. Story Continued Below Trump’s decision Sunday to elevate Bannon to chief strategist and senior counselor ensures that the firebrand’s long-time efforts to tear down the GOP establishment will have a home just steps from the Oval Office. It's a complicating factor for Republicans overjoyed at Trump's selection of Reince Priebus — a more moderate, collaborative presence — to be his chief of staff. Bannon will have Trump's ear, and he and Priebus will likely form the yin and yang in Trump's decision-making orbit, especially when it comes to cooperating with House Speaker Paul Ryan next year. Trump's announcement — specifically, his emphasis on Bannon and Priebus as equals — is already roiling some establishment Republicans who opposed Trump's candidacy. "Just to be clear news media, the next president named a racist, anti-semite as the co-equal of the chief of staff," tweeted John Weaver, a top strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich's failed presidential bid, on Sunday. Bannon joins the White House with a reputation as hard-charging and foul-mouthed but fiercely loyal. In the 1990s, he faced an accusation of domestic abuse from an ex-wife as well as charges of workplace discrimination and harassment. But it's Bannon's joyful crusade against GOP establishment that has Washington Republicans on edge. Bannon, a former naval officer and Goldman Sachs executive, has relished needling Republican stalwarts like John McCain (who he accuses of supporting "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants) and Romney (who he once suggested he'd never support because neither he nor any of his sons served in the military). He spent years producing and promoting a documentary-style ode to the tea party and Sarah Palin — another tormentor of GOP insiders. (Asked in 2011 if he'd work on a Palin presidential bid, he said, "I'm not a political guy.”) Bannon also fomented accusations that Barack Obama's administration had been infiltrated by supporters of sharia law. And throughout 2016, Bannon repeatedly gave a Breitbart News Radio platform to Ryan's primary opponent, Paul Nehlen, to ridicule the speaker. (Ryan would eventually eviscerate Nehlen by nearly 70 points). Above all else, Bannon built his career mocking the Republican political elite as out-of-touch. "The Republican establishment has more distaste for you than the progressive left," he said in a 2012 speech to Alaska activists gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "I realize that's a hard thing to embrace." Trump himself has even found himself perplexed by Bannon, the man he'll now turn to as a top source of counsel and likely power center in his administration. “You’re impossible to totally figure, Steve," Trump told Bannon during a Breitbart interview in May. "I must also say that to your listeners. Anyone who thinks [they know] where you totally come from, they’re making a big mistake.”Advertisement A group of electrical engineers from Toronto, Canada, felt left out of the whole online collaboration boom. After all, folks could edit text, spreadsheets, and presentations on Google Docs and code together with GitHub. But online collaboration wasn’t really available to hardware designers. The three, Zak Homuth, Michael Woodworth, and Steven Hamer, started the company Upverter to create what they say are the first cloud-based EE tools, working for the past year, in Homuth's parents basement and then for six months at startup incubator Y Combinator in Silicon Valley. They built tools for drawing schematics in HTML5, and launched a crowd-sourced library of parts and design tools. They tested the service with 500 Alpha users, then, at DemoFall 2011 held this week in Santa Clara, Calif., they opened Upverter to the public, reporting excitedly that 1000 new users signed on in the first day. Homuth explains Upverter in the video above. Says Homuth “If it plugs in or turns on it can be designed faster in Upverter.” More from Homuth in the video above. Follow me on Twitter @TeklaPerry.LODI, Calif. (Reuters) - With their red heads, 7-foot (2.13 m) wingspan and a trilling call, migrating Sandhill Cranes provide a dramatic sunset spectacle as they land by the thousands in wetlands near Sacramento each night during the fall and winter. But the state’s ongoing drought has left the cranes, along with millions of other waterfowl that migrate from Canada and other northern climes to spend the winter in California, with fewer places to land, threatening their health as they crowd in on one another to seek shelter and food. “They’re left with fewer and fewer places to go, which will start to have impacts on their population,” said Meghan Hertel, who works on habitat issues for the Audubon Society in California. “They can die here from starvation or disease or be weaker for their flight back north.” The cranes are a beloved sight in California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys when they arrive each fall. Tourists flock to see them as they take off en masse at dawn or land in a series of swooping, trilling groups as the sun goes down. This weekend, the town of Lodi near the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta holds its annual crane festival, complete with tours of the wetlands where the five-foot tall birds spend their days foraging for food and their nights roosting in shallow water. California’s Central Valley - which includes both the San Joaquin and the Sacramento - provides winter lodging for 60 percent of the world’s 10,000 remaining greater Sandhill Cranes, a taller crane variety that is listed as a threatened species by the state, according to the Audubon Society. As many as 25,000 of their shorter cousins, the lesser Sandhill Cranes, also roost in the region. But the wildlife refuges set up to replace natural habitat long diminished by the dams and levees built by humans in the most-populous U.S. state are themselves drier this year, and fewer acres of wetland are available to the birds. And in an ironic twist, farmers criticized by some conservationists for flooding their corn, rice and alfalfa fields have cut back the practice dramatically as the drought has worn on, saving water but reducing habitat for waterfowl, who rely on the wet acreage to roost and feed. “The impact of not having flooded agricultural fields available to the birds is huge,” said Craig Isola, deputy project leader for the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Sandhill cranes land in flooded fields to roost for the night at the Sandhill Crane Reserve near Thornton, California, November 3, 2015. REUTERS/Max Whittaker In the Sacramento Valley north of the Delta, flooded fields rich with unused grain, insects and other nutrients supply half of the food eaten by migratory birds each year, Isola said. But this year, rice farmers plan to flood just 100,000 of the 300,000 acres that they normally cover with about five inches of water, said Paul Buttner, environmental affairs manager for the California Rice Commission. Wetland acreage is also down at the wildlife refuges managed by state and federal agencies. That’s because even though the refuges are located in areas that were once natural wetlands, the water that would have flowed to them a century or more ago has long since been blocked by dams, levees and reservoirs meant to help manage water for a state that has grown to include 39 million residents. As a result, the refuges receive an allocation of water each year from regional water suppliers, which they then use to flood their lands just in time for migratory birds to come in the fall. The state’s catastrophic drought, now in its fourth year, led the regulators who manage California’s water supply to cut back the allocation for the refuges by up to 45 percent for 2015. Rain is expected to help ease conditions in the southern part of the state, thanks to the weather and Pacific Ocean warming phenomenon known as El Nino, relief that would also provide more wet habitat for migratory birds. But El Nino doesn’t always bring rain as far north as the Sacramento Valley or the Delta area, so there is a chance that dry conditions will linger here. If that happens, the cranes, ducks, geese and other migratory birds that winter in the state’s midsection would have to crowd in to dramatically smaller wetland areas, making it easier to spread of such diseases as avian cholera. Slideshow (11 Images) “If a disease outbreak occurs we could lose a lot more of them than we would in a normal year,” said Dan Yparraguirre, deputy director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Birds might also be weakened by a lack of food. “They will have less access to food and poorer body condition come spring, then when they migrate north they may not make it,” he said.A small corruption case in southern China, recently unearthed by the dogged Southern Weekly newspaper, offers an illuminating peek at one corner of China’s shadowy Internet-censorship machinery. A story published Thursday but since removed from the Southern Weekly website, calls attention to the conviction in December of Wei Yining, a former official with the Internet division of the Haikou police, on charges of accepting a little over 700,000 yuan ($112,000) in bribes. The notion of a policeman taking bribes is hardly noteworthy in a country where even teachers routinely exchange favors for cash. And on the Richter scale of Chinese graft, the amount Mr. Wei is accused of taking registers somewhere in the range of a pond ripple. What is notable, however, is who was bribing him and why. According to the court decision posted online, Mr. Wei received more than 280 bribes from 11 police officers in six different provinces. Each bribe – there were more than 280 in all – came with a request for him to order the deletion of material from websites in his jurisdiction, the decision said. Mr. Wei, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and required to forfeit the bribe money, couldn’t be reached, and the Haikou police department didn’t immediately respond to request for comment. According to the court documents, only police in the province where an Internet service is registered have the authority to issue take-down notices, meaning authorities who want material censored on websites in other provinces need the cooperation of the local police in charge of dealing with that site. In Haikou, that man was Mr. Wei. Haikou is the capital of the southern island province of Hainan, which is where two of the country’s most popular Web forums, Tianya and Kaidi, are registered. Both are well-known as breeding grounds for rumors and leaks, sometimes involving officials and businesses, and both fell within Mr. Wei’s censorship purview. Under normal circumstances, according to the court document, take-down notices for “harmful information” can be issued only after leaders of the police department’s Internet division have reviewed and approved them. “If police from other provinces require the removal of posts on Tianya or Kaidi, they are required to ask the assistance of the Haikou Internet police team,” it explains. Rather than go through normal procedures, police offers in other provinces instead paid Mr. Wei to issue the orders directly, according to the document. Mr. Wei then issued the orders to take down the offending content through instant-message group chats with employees of the Web forums, using QQ in the case of Kaidi and Real-Time eXchange (or RTX) for Tianya. Some police paid Mr. Wei as little as 1,000 yuan, while one fellow Internet cop in Hubei province appears to have used his services often, paying him a total of 483,000 yuan between August 2011 and August 2012, the court document said. The document also said that Mr. Wei’s lawyer argued “although he accepted money from others, the posts deleted were all seriously damaging to the government. He didn’t do anything in the private interests of others, so his actions don’t constitute taking bribes.” It isn’t clear from the document what types of information Mr. Wei was asked to delete. It also isn’t clear who pressed to have the Southern Weekly story taken down, though presumably they didn’t pay cash to get it done. --Josh Chin and Yang Jie. Follow Josh on Twitter @joshchin NOTE: This post has been updated to correct a misspelling of the word "peek." Follow @ChinaRealTime on Twitter and sign up for CRT’s daily newsletter to get the latest headlines delivered to your inbox.Popular animated films from Academy Award-winning animation studio in Japan, Studio Ghibli, are slated to be screened in 45 Cinema XXI theaters in 17 cities across Indonesia between April and September. Among some of the movies are the 2003 Academy Award-winning Spirited Away that narrates the adventure of Chihiro in a world of strange creatures, spirits and sorcerers, the iconic My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle. Tickets to see Spirited Away in April are currently available online with prices starting from Rp 30,000 (US$2). Read also: Must-watch anime movies from Studio Ghibli The poster of 'Spirited Away' that will be screened in 17 cities across Indonesia throughout 2017.(World of Ghibli /File) The screening is part of a collaboration between Jakarta-based film company Kaninga Pictures and Japan-based media firm Hakuhodo DY with Studio Ghibli as the licenser, as well as local cinema network Cinema 21. “Studio Ghibli has many devoted fans from all around the world thanks to its unrivaled animation quality and stories that are filled with precious values, such as love of family, environmental sustainability and women empowerment,” said Kaninga Pictures CEO Willawati in a press release. “We hope that Studio Ghibli’s films will be well received not only by Indonesian fans but also by the public in general.” (kes)All this talk of marriage having anything to do with love or God is just dumb. Marriage was never a personal matter concerning only husband and wife, but rather the business of their two families which brought them together. Most marriages, therefore, were arranged. The wife usually had few if any rights in the relationship and was expected to be subservient to her husband. Marriage was an economic arrangement. There was little room for romantic love, and even simple affection was not considered essential. Procreation and cooperation were the main marital duties. Much hasn’t changed in today’s society except the excessive application of the god factor to the union. Again, which is dumb, because marriage is still a LEGAL, not SPIRITUAL, contract. Because people have added love to the equation, why is it that these fools think they are the only ones who know how to love? Which, in and of itself, is a joke since they can’t find time to love their fellow man or woman. You don’t have to agree with same-sex marriage, but you do have to accept it. Because only your god, by the Book’s word, is allowed to judge. I really wish these people would read the Book they claim to live by. Minnesota Gay Marriage Ban Amendment Supported By College Students (PHOTOS) http://huff.to/YC5Xm3 via @HuffPostGay Advertisements Share this: Email Facebook Twitter Print LinkedIn Tumblr Reddit Google Pinterest Like this: Like Loading... Related Posted in UncategorizedCloud9 have secured a "Series A" financing round from investors such as Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, NFL hall of famer Joe Montana, Golden State Warrior owner Chamath Palihapitiya and many more, according to a press release from Cloud9 on Tuesday. According to the press release, the round of investment is led by Daniel Fiden of FunPlus Ventures and also includes investment from United Talent Agency and the founder of Eldridge Industries Todd Boehly. Cited in the press release are statements from Joe Montana and Alexis Ohanian, who suggested that Cloud9's success in various esports titles and large fanbase were key factors to their investment. “We’ve formed a fantastic group of investors to help push Cloud9 to the next level,” Cloud9 co-founder and CEO Jack Etienne said in the press release. “With this investment you can expect Cloud9 to continue our expansion into the esports market while maintaining an exceptional experience for our players.” A previous funding round saw Cloud9 seek $3 million USD in November and obtain at least $2.8 million from unidentified investors. Dennis "Tarmanydyn" Gonzales is a news editor for theScore esports who enjoys whiskey, D&D and first-picking Abaddon Slardar Clinkz Medusa Oracle a P90 my Souvenir Negev Discipline Priest Pharah.You can follow him on Twitter. Gabriel Zoltan-Johan is a News Editor at theScore esports and the head analyst for the University of Toronto League of Legends team. His (public) musings can be found on his Twitter.Kip Colvey's career continues to kick on at a rapid rate. After a remarkable five-month period that has seen him drafted by the San Jose Earthquakes, sign his first professional football contract and make his MLS debut, Colvey can now add another significant milestone to his growing collection following his selection in the 23-man All Whites squad to contest the OFC Nations Cup. The 22-year-old left-back has already represented New Zealand at under-17 and under-23 level but it's his impressive performances in four MLS appearances for the Quakes that has seen him elevated into the senior national team for the first time. Colvey will compete with Wellington Phoenix players Tom Doyle and Louis Fenton for a starting fullback role in Papua New Guinea and was one of four uncapped players named by coach Anthony Hudson on Thursday. READ MORE * Colvey feels 'right at home' in the MLS * Kiwi off to the US with MLS side * Colvey drafted by San Jose "These guys have really gone under the radar. Kip Colvey is a player that no one had heard about until he signed for San Jose, but down in PNG [with the under-23s] he was outstanding. He's a proper player and he's someone we've been really excited about getting into the first team," Hudson said. "The players we brought in we know are ready now to do a job for the first team. These guys can handle it." Colvey, who was eligible for the United States, was born in Hawaii and grew up in Linkwater in the Marlborough Sounds. He briefly moved to Nelson where he attended Nelson College and played a season of senior football for Nelson Suburbs, before linking up with the Asia Pacific Football Academy in Christchurch. He also studied at Lincoln High School. Colvey then joined California Polytechnic State University and, after graduating, was snapped up by the Quakes in the third round of the MLS draft, impressing enough during the preseason that he was signed on a fulltime contract. Meanwhile, Nelson's Jeremy Brockie was a surprising omission from the All Whites
I wrote about feeling great and being very happy with where I am with transition related stuff. It was just one of those days where I felt awesome and beautiful. Every time I looked in the mirror, I loved what I saw so much. My confidence was through the roof. Unfortunately, like pretty much everyone else, we have ups and downs with our self-confidence and sometimes things happen that can shake that confidence. What I looked like yesterday After work yesterday, I had to run over to the vet real quick to fill a prescription for our oldest cat since it turns out Hattie, the new one, has intestinal parasites and we need to treat all three of the cats in case she had already spread it. Anyway, I’d been having a reasonably good self-confidence day. I wasn’t looking as good as Tuesday, but I liked the way I looked, cute even. I was rocking some new pants I had gotten over the weekend, my Against Me! shirt, some cute dangly earrings, and a pony tail. I had sort of a rough afternoon thanks to getting sucked into an argument I wasn’t originally a part of, but I was starting to get over it. It took a little while for them to fill the prescription at the vet and I was chatting with the two receptionists while I was waiting. They asked how Hattie was and everything felt normal. I wasn’t thinking about “how do these people see me?” I was just happy feeling like an average and unremarkable person. They were both being super friendly and I felt totally like they unquestionably saw me the same as any other pet-obsessed woman who walks in their door. Everything was going fine until the one receptionist referred to me as “he.” There was no coming back after that, even when the other receptionist continued to properly gender me. I’ve written before about how it feels when someone willfully misgenders, but this is a bit different than that. In a lot of ways, it’s actually worse when it’s completely unintentional and the person doesn’t even realize they’re misgendering you. It means when they look at you, they, for whatever reason, see a man. No matter the fact that I have boobs, a woman’s hairstyle, makeup, nails painted, jewelry, and women’s clothes, they still unquestionably see a man. This wasn’t an ”I’m not sure what this person is so I’m going to avoid gendering in either direction” confusion, this was a straight up “you’re a man” situation. Did this person do this on purpose or to hurt me? Nope, not even close. They were incredibly friendly and nice to me, just like they are every other time I’ve been there. This is a person who looked at me and saw nothing but a man. Another photo of what I looked like yesterday I’ve gotten to the point where when I look in the mirror, I no longer see a man staring back at me. I see the woman that I am nearly 100% of the time. I may pick out countless features that bother me or look manly to me, but when I just look at me as a whole, I see a woman. When someone else doesn’t see this, it cuts through so much. Am I deluding myself? Do I not really look how I think I do? Is it still that obvious? Are people only humoring me when they do properly gender me? I say it time and time again, but I don’t care about “passing.” I don’t care if people read me as transgender, in fact, I generally prefer that. What I do care about, though, is being seen as a woman. Being misgendered like this tells me that at least some people don’t see me as I see myself and as I want to be seen. It’s very shaking to my confidence in my ability to leave the house and simply live my life as a person without having to be treated as some sort of “other.” Over the weekend, in addition to #YesAllWomen, there was another hashtag going around. #CisGaze was being used as a way for trans people to sound off about the aggressions, microaggressions, transphobia, and transmisogyny we deal with on a day to day basis. I made a few of submissions myself, among them was this one: #cisgaze is looking at someone who very clearly wants to be seen as a woman and calling her he and him. — Amelia "Merry Holidays" Gapin 🎄🕎🎅❄️🕯️ (@EntirelyAmelia) May 26, 2014 Here’s the thing, misgendering someone is never cool, whether they’re trans or cis, pass or don’t pass, look like your definition of their gender or not, or whether they express themselves femininely, masculinely, or androgynously. It’s just not cool and it hurts. I happen to look very much like a woman and I dress very much like a woman. There is no question when looking at me that I want to be seen as a woman…since, you know, I am a woman. It may not seem like it’s that big of a deal. What’s it matter what one person says or does without even thinking? They didn’t do it on purpose. There are thousand ways to dismiss it, but it does matter. It’s a constant reminder that the world doesn’t see you as you. It separates you out from the rest of society as saying “you’re different” and “you’re not who you say you are.” “Your gender and your identity are up to my discretion.” EDIT: I meant to mention this and totally forgot before publishing. If you’re not sure what pronouns to use for someone, ask. Really, this is okay. Just don’t say “hey, are you a man or a woman?” Instead, something like “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to assume, but what pronouns do you use?” works just fine.For anyone living nervously at the edge of NATO’s eastern borders, there is probably little that could be more reassuring these days than a visit from the U.S. president. Barack Obama’s brief stop Wednesday in Talinn, the capital of Estonia located just over 200 kilometres from the Russian border, will bring him as close as he is likely to get in the near future to Russian soil. And it’s probably as close Obama has come to a provocative move since the Ukraine crisis started. Officials see Estonia and its sister Baltic states — in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s backyard — as NATO’s new front line. Obama’s stop there is designed to reassure one side of the border, while riling the other. The visit also kicks off a week that will be pivotal in defining Europe’s “new normal.” The way western officials describe it, the continent’s security environment has been “turned upside down” in a way they could not have predicted. Just a few months ago, and despite their history, NATO nations and Russia had a formal arrangement that allowed them to work as equals on issues of “common interest.” This week’s NATO gathering in Wales is now aimed at taking what was once a collaborative relationship with Russia, and recalibrating it into a more adversarial one. Military options Without the threat of military action — which has been repeatedly and explicitly excluded as an option for NATO — insiders acknowledge that sanctions alone will do little in the short term to change Russia’s policy in Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is urging Russia to cease its military actions and take immediate and verifiable steps towards de-escalation of the crisis in Ukraine. (Olivier Matthys/Associated Press) So the coming “reset” to relations with Russia involves NATO and its leaders pushing at the alliance’s edges, at least trying to appear to be upping the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. It isn’t clear whether it’s a strategy that will work. Or that it even should. But other options to which all NATO members might agree are limited. Later this week, at their first summit since the Ukraine crisis started, NATO leaders will consider establishing a new forward operating base in Poland east of the Iron curtain. They will also likely agree on a rapid reaction force, announced Monday, which could involve thousands of troops at a time from the 28 NATO countries in rotation and which could deploy within 48 hours. The bottom line is you will in the future see a more visible NATO presence in the East. - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Perhaps more vexing (if you look at it from the Russian view), the leaders are hosting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, while the NATO secretary general is publicly stating Ukraine has a right to apply for NATO membership. “The bottom line is you will in the future see a more visible NATO presence in the East," says Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. For Russia, Ukrainian NATO membership is a red line. So in doing all this, NATO leaders are pushing buttons they know might bring on severe blowback. Putin is not a fan of any form of NATO expansion — in geographic footprint or in membership — however modest. The NATO summit’s inclusion this week of Poroshenko — with whom Putin met a mere week ago to discuss the crisis — will surely be seen by Putin as a direct provocation. Russian ire Already in this past week, Putin has been vocal in response. He worryingly reminded the world that Russia is still a nuclear power. Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko (left) is being hosted by NATO leaders at their summit in Wales this week, while the NATO secretary general is publicly stating Ukraine has a right to apply for NATO membership. NATO's actions are contrary to the wishes of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Christophe Ena/Associated Press) And it appears Russia is again pushing at the edges of its own boundaries of influence. Few Western leaders are using the word “invasion” to describe the entry of Russian troops and military hardware into the southeast region of Ukraine last week, but on Monday leaders did sharpen their language, explicitly naming Russia as a party to the conflict in Ukraine. That’s not likely to sit well with Putin, who has rejected the notion that Russia as a nation has intervened. Nor will the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, however academic. Even though, despite the public statements to the contrary, it is highly unlikely Ukraine would join NATO anytime soon. There is too much opposition to the idea inside the organization. Still, the discussion alone will raise Russia’s ire. So does the idea of a new permanent rotation of thousands of NATO troops exercising at Russia’s borders. “I am sure the reaction will be strong,” says Heather Conley, senior vice-president for Europe, Eurasia and the Arctic at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies. She points out NATO’s actions have come only as a response to Putin’s “provocative” actions in Ukraine, and his massing of thousands of soldiers at their joint border. “It will probably, again, provoke the addition of force — Russian forces along this area. So we will see a buildup on both sides, absolutely.” Mixed signals Insiders acknowledge Putin has time on his side. On the one hand, Obama and NATO’s message for Russia is, “don’t even think about messing around in Estonia or in any of the Baltic areas in the same way that you have been messing around in Ukraine,” says Charles Kupchan, senior director for European affairs in the Obama administration. The crisis in Ukraine is giving NATO a new sense of direction and purpose. (Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images) To the Baltic States, NATO is signaling that its security guarantee is “ironclad,” Kupchan says — exactly the kind of reassurance Estonia has been seeking. Yet the alliance has also been at pains to point out it is only taking a defensive posture, and that it has no plans for military confrontation with Russia. Asked directly, Obama concurred. Any new steps taken by Russia in Ukraine will be punished by more sanctions. Officials have also repeatedly said that NATO enlargement is not on the agenda. Still, in this crisis, NATO is also presented with an opportunity to re-define itself. “NATO should thank Vladimir Putin, because it was really searching for its purpose... it was having a fairly significant identity crisis,” Conley says. “It has now not only been repurposed, it has been reinvigorated.” And from the other side of the border, Putin is watching it warily, but closely.What are Versa Bricks™? Versa Bricks™ are toy construction bricks that allow you to connect LEGO® type bricks to Hot Wheels® tracks, K'NEX® building systems and HO scale train tracks. There are currently six fully designed and tested bricks. They work great and really allow you to "free your mind" and come up with all kinds of fun creations, expand your creativity and get more fun time out of your toys! We need your Kickstarter support so we can build plastic injection molds for the six new bricks. Then we can bring Versa Bricks™ to the masses! http://prlink.toledoblade.com/Whitehouse-Ohio-family-brings-their-new-toy-project-to-Kickstartercom,243 Here's a look at all six bricks!!! Where did the Versa Brick™ idea come from? The Versa Brick™ idea came to me way back in 1973 when I was a kid playing with my LEGO® and Hot Wheels® tracks. Once you build everything you can per the instructions, you start to get creative! Make the tracks go through the LEGO® buildings and trying to use LEGO® to support ramps, the ideas are endless! But the problems are too! Nothing seemed to hold up. I always thought there should be a way these toys could be used together, I could picture it in my mind, I could sketch it, but just couldn't make the parts! Later in life I now have my own kids and they face the same challenges with these toys that I did. Then I remembered my ideas from back in '73. But today I have an engineering degree, 3D solid modeling software, 3D printers and most of all Kickstarter! Finally Versa Bricks™ can become reality! What have we done so far? Created 3D solid models for six new brick designs Made prototypes from ABS material using 3D printer Tested for fit and function Applied for patents, Versa Bricks™ are now Patent Pending Determined tooling and productions costs Created a project plan & timeline Early concept sketch. Wire frame model generated by SolidWorks® Virtual fit & function using SolidWorks® You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Play Replay with sound Play with sound 00:00 00:00 Virtual fit & function using SolidWorks®, Versa Bricks™ shown in red. First batch of 3D printed prototypes! What are the rewards? Here is a quick look at Brick #7 which will be made if we reach the stretch goal! You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Play Replay with sound Play with sound 00:00 00:00 Share: Even if you don’t back Versa Bricks, please share the project. You can follow us on Twitter @versabrick. Why do we need Kickstarter? The next step is to invest in plastic injection mold tooling which will allow us to mass produce Versa Bricks™ at a competitive price. We need your support and in return you can get your very own Versa Bricks™ and the "warm and fuzzy feeling" that comes from supporting a great project. Kickstarter will allow us to fund the plastic injection mold tooling for all the Versa Bricks™, fill the orders and give us the means to move forward! What's the Project's Timeline? NOTE: LEGO® is a registered trademark of the LEGO® Group of companies, who do not officially endorse or support this project. NOTE: HOT WHEELS® is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc., who does not officially endorse or support this project. NOTE: K'NEX® is a registered trademark of K'NEX Brands, LLC, who does not officially endorse or support this project.Under a normal presidential administration, little-to-no attention is ever paid to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Of course, there is nothing “normal” about the Trump administration. Ajit Varadaraj Pai spent most of his life as a little known corporate attorney and bureaucrat. Pai, who was appointed to the FCC by President Obama, was made chairman of the commission by President Trump. Since his appointment, Pai has become a near household name for his crusade against Obama-era internet regulations. Pai’s quest to end net neutrality regulations has made him perhaps the most hated, infamous man on the internet. Pai has gotten in Twitter hatchet battles with celebrities and pop stars. He’s been the punchline of savage late night comedy. His name brings up over half a million Google results, and that’s not including the Reddit message boards that light him up on a near hourly basis. None of it seems to bother the ever-grinning Pai, who takes the criticism in stride. (EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: ‘Call It Racist’ — FCC Chair Ajit Pai UNLOADS On His ‘Net Neutrality’ Critics) Pai visited the Daily Caller office and defended, in detail, his stance on repealing net neutrality. He also wanted to inform his critics of what they can still do on the internet once net neutrality is repealed. For instance, you can still Instagram your food. Take selfies with your pets. Shop for Christmas presents. Binge watch your favorite shows. Remain a part of your favorite fandom. And drive memes into the ground. You may not agree with Pai on everything, and we expect he will get some hate for this, but you got to respect a guy who does the Harlem Shake in 2017.May the 4th be with you: This week in Minor League Baseball promotions There are three certainties in life: Death, taxes and most importantly, Minor League promotions. MiLB.com's Ben Hill has the inside scoop on the latter, and he'll be sharing the best with us and you each and every week. Check out a few upcoming promos below and read his full recap right here. You can follow Ben on Twitter @Bensbiz. In an ideal world, all Minor League teams would schedule a "Star Wars" promotion on the unofficial holiday that is "May the Fourth Be With You." But we do not live in an ideal world; we live in a world in which May 4 has fallen on a Monday. Very few teams are about to squander one of their premier theme night promotions on a Monday, that most dreary of weeknights. But many are keeping with the "May the Fourth" spirit by staging "Star Wars" promotions over the preceding weekend. The Force Awakens in the Minor Leagues, in other words. From now through the end of August, "Star Wars" theme nights will be happening across the country at a fast and furious clip (sorry, wrong movie franchise). "Star Wars" promotions always include character appearances at the ballpark, but an increasing number of teams are incorporating theme jerseys into the mix. Because imagery is everything here on the internet, let us pay special attention to the three teams who will be taking the field in "Star Wars"-inspired uniform tops this week: The Round Rock Express (Friday), Jackson Generals (Saturday) and Mississippi Braves (Saturday). The Express have gone full R2-D2, as befits a franchise that already identifies itself using two Rs (Round Rock = R2): The Generals pull back the frame to reveal R2-D2 alongside his pal C3PO, the two of them looking resplendent amid the desert landscape of Tatooine: Then, finally, we have the Mississippi Braves, who have created a hallucinogenic collage featuring Darth Vader, Yoda, legions of storm troopers and, perhaps a bit out of place, the team's primary logo in the center of it all: Finally, a brief mention must be given to the Indianapolis Indians. The team is staging its "Star Wars" night on Saturday while, as part of an unrelated promotional endeavor, Wade Boggs is signing autographs at the ballpark. The team reports that there are currently no plans to integrate the four-time American League batting champion into the "Star Wars" universe, but one can dream. Obi-Wade Kenoboggs, anyone?Advertisement Scientists monitoring a rift in an Antarctic ice shelf where an iceberg the size of south Wales is poised to break off say the huge crack in the ice has spread. Late last year a rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf grew suddenly by around 18 kilometres (11 miles), leaving a vast iceberg more than 5,000 square kilometres (1,900 square miles) 'hanging by a thread'. Just 20 kilometres (12 miles) of ice connects the iceberg to the rest of the ice shelf. The main rift continued to grow early this year and is currently 180 kilometres (110 miles) long. Now satellite data has revealed a second branch of the rift, some 15 kilometres long (nine miles), is moving towards the edge of the ice, according to researchers at Swansea University. Scientists monitoring a rift in an Antarctic ice shelf where an iceberg a quarter the size of Wales is poised to break off say the huge crack in the ice has spread. The rift is likely to lead to an iceberg breaking off, which will remove about 10 per cent of the ice shelf's area. Pictured is a graphic on how the rift has progressed over the years, including the formation of a new branch WHAT HAPPENED TO LARSEN B? In 2002 a massive section of the Larsen B ice shelf disintegrated in just 32 days. The 656 feet (200m) thick ice sheet broke apart into thousands of ice bergs that gradually drifted away over several years In total 1,235 square miles of ice collapsed into the sea. It is thought increased ice flow from behind the ice shelf had weakened it and caused cracks to appear. Melt water flowing into these cracks acted as wedges that forced the ice shelf apart, causing it to shatter. About 1,620 square kilometres (625 square miles) of Larsen B remains - an area roughly the size of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan combined. When the ice breaks off it is likely to lead to one of the biggest icebergs ever recorded. Professor Adrian Luckman, of Swansea University College of Science, said: 'While the previous rift tip has not advanced, a new branch of the rift has been initiated. 'This is approximately 10 kilometres (six miles) behind the previous tip, heading towards the ice-front.' He said it was the first significant change to the rift since February, but added: 'Although the rift length has been static for several months, it has been steadily widening, at rates in excess of a metre per day.' And he said: 'When it calves, the Larsen C Ice Shelf will lose more than 10 per cent of its area to leave the ice front at its most retreated position ever recorded; this event will fundamentally change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula.' The researchers warned the ice shelf will be less stable after the iceberg calves, and could follow the example of its neighbouring ice shelf Larsen B, which disintegrated in 2002 after a similar event. A team of researchers flew over the gigantic crack in the ice in December and calculated it to be about 112 kilometres (70 miles) long, more than 90 metres (300 feet) wide and about half a kilometre (0.3 miles) deep. It has since grown to around 180 kilometres (110 miles) long. 'The crack completely cuts through the Ice Shelf but it does not go all the way across it – once it does, it will produce an iceberg roughly the size of the state of Delaware,' NASA said in a press release in December. Satellite data has revealed a second branch of the rift, some 15km long (nine miles), is moving towards the edge of the ice, according to researchers at Swansea University. This graph shows the velocity of the ice surface in metres per day. White and pink indicate areas where the ice is separating at rapid speeds of more than two metres per day Lead researcher Professor Luckman said the iceberg was 'hanging by a thread'. When it calves off, the Larsen C Ice Shelf will lose more than 10 per cent of its area, fundamentally changing the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula, and making the shelf less stable, the experts said. The current event is not an ice shelf collapsing, but Larsen C may, in years or decades to come, follow the course of the Larsen B Ice Shelf which splintered and collapsed in the space of a month in 2002, they said. Speaking to the BBC, Professor Luckman, said: 'If it doesn't go in the next few months, I'll be amazed. Two radar images from April 7 and 14, 2017 were combined to create this so-called interferogram showing the growing crack in Antarctica’s Larsen-C ice shelf. The crack is seen to the right hand side of the image in red. The colored fringes show displacement on the surface of the ice shelf Late last year a rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf (pictured) grew suddenly by around 18 kilometres (11 miles), leaving a vast iceberg more than 5,000 square kilometres (1,900 square miles) 'hanging by a thread' 'There hasn't been enough cloud-free Landsat images but we've managed to combine a pair of Esa Sentinel-1 radar images to notice this extension, and it's so close to calving that I think it's inevitable.' Professor Luckman says that when the iceberg breaks off, it will be among the 10 biggest ever recorded. The collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula in 2002 saw a 1,235 square miles (3,200 square km) section of ice break apart into thousands of icebergs in just 35 days. The Larsen C Ice Shelf is primed to lose an area of more than 1,900 square miles (5,000 square kilometres), after a rift in the ice shelf grew suddenly by around 11 miles (18 km) in the second half of December. Pictured is the view of a recently discovered 300-ft wide rift in the Larsen C Map of Antarctica showing the amount of melting of ice shelves from below. Blue shades represent melt rates of greater than 5 meters per year. Arrow points to Larsen C Ice Shelf Larsen B was thought to have been stable for up to 12,000 years, according to studies on the collapse, but had become a hotspot of global warming. Previous studies had suggested that the ice shelf began melting only a few years before it disintegrated in 2002. Rising summertime temperatures are thought to have increased the water flow into cracks which then acted like wedges to lever the ice shelf apart. It sparked widespread concern about the impact that climate change is having on the ice sheet balance in Antarctica, although a recent study showed ice mass on the continent has actually increased. The current event is not an ice shelf collapsing, but Larsen C may, in years or decades to come, follow the course of the Larsen B Ice Shelf which splintered and collapsed in the space of a month in 2002, they said. Pictured is the Larsen B Ice Shelf before its breakup in 2002 Over the course of a couple of months, a huge section of the Larsen B Ice Shelf completely disappeared after breaking up The Larsen B ice shelf is thought to be one of the largest collapses of sea ice to have been witnessed. It lies off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is thought to be a warming hotspot IS ANTARCTICA GAINING ICE? Antarctica is gaining more ice than it loses, research by Nasa last year found. It said Antarctica's ice sheet is thickening enough to outweigh losses caused by melting glaciers. The research challenges the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report, which says that Antarctica is losing land ice. But it also warns that losses could offset the gains in years to come. The increase in Antarctic snow began 10,000 years ago and continues in East Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica by an average of 0.7 inches (1.7cm) per year, according to the space agency. The researchers say the acceleration of ice flow seen in the Larsen B ice shelf may be due to changes in the properties of the ice itself. Melting may have caused the ice to become more plastic and increased the slipperiness of the ice behind the ice shelf, pushing it further out to sea. The collapse of the Larsen Ice shelf in 2002, which is one of the biggest on record, is thought to have triggered further acceleration and thinning of the glaciers behind it. There are now growing fears over the remaining section of the Larsen B ice shelf - which covers around 1,620 square kilometres (625 square miles), and the large Larsen C ice shelf further to the south. A recent study revealed that on the opposite side of the Antarctic Peninsula, more than 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) of ice – an area the size of Berlin – has been lost in the past 40 years. But elsewhere in the Antarctic, the ice sheet has been growing. Satellite data showed that the continent's vast ice sheet has showed a net gain of 112 billion tons of ice each year between 1992 and 2001. However, between 2003 and 2008, that has slowed to 82 billion tons of ice per year.On October 6, after Cam Newton threw three interceptions, fumbled and was sacked seven times in Arizona and the Panthers lost, 22-6, Rodney Harrison popped off on NBC about how it was time for Carolina to bench Cam Newton. There was little or no context, just another talking head going knee-jerk based on a 60-minute performance. Rodney Harrison says it’s time for the #Panthers to change quarterbacks — Robert Flores (@RoFloESPN) October 7, 2013 [Aside: What did Harrison say about Matt Ryan, who threw 61 passes and was intercepted four times in Arizona Sunday? Nothing.] Two weeks prior, Newton was effective in beating the Giants handily at home (15-of-27, 223 yards, three TDs, one interception, one rushing TD). Here’s what Newton has done since the disaster in the desert: * Three straight games completing 70% or more passes * 6 TDs passing, 0 interceptions * 2 TDs rushing, 0 fumbles This week, the Panthers host the reeling Falcons, who are coming off their own drubbing in the desert. Here’s what Rodney Harrison doesn’t understand: Arizona’s defense is actually quite strong. Significantly better than many (yours truly included; Jason Lisk, too) anticipated. The Cardinals held the Lions to 49 rushing yards on 20 carries in a home victory. Their lone home defeat was against the 7-1 Seahawks. That was the only game in which the Arizona defense was thoroughly beaten – the Seahawks had touchdown drives of 82, 73 and 80 yards. Yes, I’m aware that in the three wins post-Arizona, Newton has carved up some poor defenses (Minnesota, St. Louis, Tampa). I’m also aware Newton still has to face New Orleans twice, the 49ers, the Patriots and Jets. My guesses at Rodney Harrison’s knee-jerk moment Sunday night: * Fire Rex Ryan if the Jets lose to the Saints * Chip Kelly isn’t working, he’s got to go, if the Eagles lose to the Raiders * Mike Tomlin might be in trouble if the Steelers lose to the Patriots * If the Cowboys lose to the Vikings, bench Tony Romo! Related: Beware the Carolina Panthers, Who Might Make the Playoffs Related: Cam Newton Unveils Superman Cleats, Presumably Still Plays With Superman DollNEW YORK (Reuters) - Traffic lights don’t just work for drivers, some bank customers obey them on their smartphones too. A Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) sign is seen outside of a branch in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie A transaction-tracking app using red, yellow and green messages to warn account holders when they are paying out more or less than usual has resulted in some users spending less, a potentially powerful new weapon in the battle for customers. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) did not set out to change consumer habits when it offered its TD MySpend app in April. Canada’s second-largest bank just wanted to offer more information to customers who use their phones to check account balances. But its ease of use has caught on. Customers don’t have to make up a budget to start using the app and it sends notices immediately with each purchase showing them whether they are spending more or less each month in categories such as dining out, entertainment and travel. “The real-time nature encourages customers to change their behavior toward their financial goals,” Rizwan Khalfan, chief digital officer at TD Bank, told Reuters in his first interview about customers using the app. “We were not expecting this.” About 750,000, or 20 percent, of TD’s 3.5 million mobile banking customers in Canada have downloaded the TD MySpend app since April, Khalfan said. Of those, 30 percent were using it at least twice a month and, on average, reducing their spending by 4 percent to 8 percent. Overall, that means about 6 percent of TD’s mobile banking customers have been using TD MySpend and spending less. Rizwan said the bank plans to put more marketing muscle behind the app as it learns how initial customers are using it. See how TD Bank in Canada pitches its app here (go.td.com/1XEIKyy) It is too early to know, Rizwan said, whether TD MySpend could improve TD’s ability to hold onto deposits, a key consideration as interest rates rise and banks compete more aggressively for customers. Consumer deposits are a relatively stable source of funds for lending, which is more important in light of new global regulations. They tend to be cheaper than deposits from businesses, especially when interest rates rise. The success of new apps is also vital to bankers who fear technology companies will offer better tools to win customers and snag more of the fees and marketing information that come with handling payments. CYBER RISK? For decades, financial advisers, self-help authors and software firms have come up with systems to help spendthrifts budget and save money, only to see the vast majority drop them like New Year gym memberships. Whether using separate envelopes of cash to limit spending by category, or installing programs on personal computers, the rule of thumb is that only about five to 10 percent of people are determined enough to stick with a plan, said Greg Midtbo, chief revenue officer at Moven, the financial technology company that developed and licensed MySpend to TD Bank. One big hurdle facing spending apps is their inability to safely and quickly pull together data from accounts at different institutions at the same time. TD MySpend combines spending from different deposit and credit card accounts only at TD Bank. Khalfan said the bank is considering how it might safely bring transaction details from accounts outside of TD into the app. Doing so would require contracts and technical agreements with rival banks. JPMorgan Chase & Co and others in the industry have complained that customers increase the risk of cyber theft when they give account passwords to outside firms. There are moves to collaborate on a solution. In October, the Center for Financial Services Innovation, which is funded by U.S. banks and foundations, issued principles for sharing account data. TAKE CONTROL The Moven app underlying TD MySpend was not immediately a success. Moven initially offered the app directly to consumers but too few people were willing to connect it to their accounts, so the company decided to provide the technology through banks instead. Since turning on TD MySpend in April, Moven started an app in September called CashNav for the New Zealand branch of Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX). So far, 20 percent of Westpac New Zealand mobile banking customers have downloaded the app, a spokeswoman said, adding that about three quarters of those people said it is helping them control their spending. BBVA (BBVA.MC), Spain’s second-largest bank and owner of consumer franchises in the Americas, picked up a similar app, and experience in the field, with its 2014 acquisition of financial technology startup Simple, which still markets itself directly to the public. BBVA’s Compass bank in the United States plans to introduce its own app to track spending next year, said Alex Carriles, its executive director of mobile and online banking. BBVA banks in other countries are on similar paths, said Jose Olalla, head of business development for BBVA Compass. The tools, Olalla said, build loyalty with customers. “The sense of control is the benefit they are getting,” he said. PAYDAY EFFECT Despite the urge to spend, many people would be better off with more control over their discretionary spending. A survey by the U.S. Federal Reserve found 46 percent of adults said they could not cover a $400 emergency expense without selling something or borrowing money. While some of those do not make enough money to have emergency cash, even people with means have trouble keeping their spending on an even keel. The so-called payday effect, in which people spend more after receiving a surge of money, occurs across income groups, according to an April 2016 study by scholars at the Columbia Business School and Copenhagen Business School. “The swings weigh on people emotionally,” said Josh Reich, chief executive and co-founder of BBVA’s Simple. “It shoots people’s confidence when one day they are feeling rich and two weeks later they are feeling poor.” Instead of showing people only the ups and downs of their balances, better to let them see their spending trends and they will temper impulse spending, Reich said. “If you give people the tools to feel in control, they will take control.”Photo credit: Susan Sheldon \| Dreamstime The current state of mind for every individual in Chicago is that of fear. Even if you do not live in the actual city limits, your life is in danger at any point in time. It is not safe for anybody walking the street of any neighborhood. Nobody is able to point out exactly where the problem originates, but there is systemic deeply rooted faults in the foundation which holds this city together. It is rather surprising that a state of martial law is not enacted immediately, until this issue can be fix and resolved. According to http://heyjackass.com/ a total of 714 people were murdered, also a total of 4379 people were shot. There is only 365 days a year and when you do the math that averages to about 12 people being shot a day and 2 people being killed per day. I understand that it has been this way for a long time, but are people's minds so conditioned to accept the daily violence that partakes here? If there is anybody to place blame on,
encouraged to pray while awaiting treatment. The medical staff introduce God as part of what the organisation describes as holistic care. "We find a lot of people who come to us with a medical need but wouldn't set foot in the door of a church," said the mobile clinic's nurse, Lynn Hersey. "They want to check and see if someone who is a Christian can be trusted with one little thing, if they're going to shove Jesus down their throat because they ate the bait and came in through the door." But there's another kind of evangelising at work too, involving a web of interests more focussed on Mammon than the Almighty. Much of Good Samaritan's work is funded by hospitals trying to keep patients who cannot pay out of emergency rooms, where they must be treated for any immediate health crisis by law whether they can pay or not. Those same hospitals have an interest in promoting charity as an alternative to President Obama's plans for government to take the lead in getting healthcare to the poor and the middle classes likely to be bankrupted by catastrophic illness. Good Samaritan makes no secret of where it stands on the issue; the government has no business involving itself in healthcare. "Governments treat you like a number," said the organisation's director, Dr John Crouch. "I really believe that there has to be a way to cover the folks who can't get care at all, and I think one of the ways is what we're doing. Maybe there's a different way of funding us, besides just funding us through our donations. We're emphasising that the more all the time." Hersey concedes that the present system can be a tragedy for the poor. What happens to someone with a chronic disease and no insurance? A woman with cancer, say, who might get the surgery she needs thanks to Good Samaritan but not the medicines afterwards. Hersey hesitates. "They go without," she said. You mean they die? "Yes." But Hersey quickly added that where there is no chemotherapy there is still God. "I can say that even with the spiritual help they may die but for those of us who are Christians and believe in God intervening directly in peoples lives, we've seen many answers to prayer where medicine falls short. We have seen cancer turn around," she said. It's a message Banes and Levy are only to open to. There is no anger or bitterness on their part at their situation, only a sense of helplessness and suspicion of authority. Banes might have been expected to support Obama as the president most likely to act to help the poor. "I voted for the other guy. McCain," she said. "Something grated against me [about Obama]. I really don't know what it was. I'm not racist. It's just one of those things where he's a good speaker, he talks very very well, even better than Bill Clinton I would say. But I wasn't about to go there. I went the other way." Banes said she doesn't have confidence in the government to look after her interests even if the state of Oklahoma is providing free healthcare to her children. "If for some reason Oklahoma state's healthcare failed then I would have something to worry about because of my children, I know. But I'm really not going to worry about it because that's one more thing to put on the plate. I don't really trust the government," she said. "The Lord has a plan and if anything happens, then it's meant to be". Levy, too, voted for McCain. "There's a lot of people with health problems who really need help and they have no place to turn," she said. "But the government? People who run government don't care about people like us. And there's a lot of people need to know that there's someone who cares about them."The Gundam Anime franchise captured my heart back as a teenager and never let go. After collecting countless models, figures and imported games, finally a quality title is coming west in Fall of 2017 for PlayStation 4 players to enjoy. Simply titled, Gundam Versus, players take control of one of the 90+ mobile suits available from across all entries of the popular anime series and duke it out in an intense 2 vs 2 arcade styled mech battle until only one team remains. The Gundam Versus franchise has a deep history in Japan, taking the bones of 3D arcade fighters, such as Virtual On and Gotcha Force, and mixing them together to create the definitive super robot battle experience that mecha fans can’t help but adore. While many iterations of the title have existed on Sony platforms in the past, Gundam Versus is known for its Japanese arcade editions, which continue to get frequently updated and add new DLC units with every patch unlike their console counterparts. That changes with the latest version of Gundam Versus, which will see frequent content support from Bandai Namco Entertainment. Immediately after picking up the controller I was excited about all the mobile suits I was available to play as. From fan favourites like the Gundam Exia to newcomers like the Psycho Zaku from Gundam Thunderbolt, every fan is sure to find a mobile suit they immediately want to try. The catch is that each suit is worth a certain amount of points. This leaves players with a critical decision; whether they want to invest their team’s health bar into picking out a behemoth unit that can only be destroyed once or twice, or make the choice to pick out an inexpensive unit that has a limited move set, but can be used 3-4 times in a single match. Building the ideal team of mobile suits is going to take weeks upon months of trial and error as player’s experiment with the massive roster and assist options. After settling on the infamous Sinanju from Gundam Unicorn as my mobile suit of choice, I picked out a CPU controlled team member and an optional Assist unit, called a striker, to further deepen my mechs move set. The section of the game I played was called wave mode, which totaled 15 waves of randomized cannon fodder grunts and mini bosses until I faced the colossal Mobile Armor as my penultimate battle during the final wave. The action never let up as I zipped around the various destructible arenas blowing up grunt units with rapid beam rifle fire and splitting others in half stylishly with dual beam sabers. It takes a lot of focus to make sense of all that’s happening during a fight in Gundam Versus because of the sheer amount of effects and warnings that pop up the moment you’ve been locked on to or about to be hit. A lot of time I felt like I had to rely on my instinct and intuition to predict what the enemy was going to do before it actually happened to get the upper hand. Overall the mode was a lot of addictive fun, which is exactly how I want the game to feel once I get my hands on arcade mode and online multiplayer. While I personally enjoy the way Gundam Versus is shaping up I can fully understand that this isn’t the experience some players want. There’s no way to customize mobile suits by giving them new parts or a new paint job, and the single player offerings are going to feel sparse, with no story to complete the package. For those players I recommend the Gundam Breaker series. While these games have yet to head west, they can be imported through other sites with English subtitles. This title is built at its core for competitive players and is sure to satisfy their addiction for battle. Gundam Versus releases in the west this Fall exclusively on PlayStation 4.DC Comics is a perennial must stop destination on the exhibit floor of San Diego Comic-Con. That looks to continue in 2017 as DC offers a plethora of events, signings, exclusives, prop and product displays, and activities for fans. Including for the first time ever, live broadcasts straight from the booth. Here’s what you’ll find at the DC booth (#1915) this year. Likely to be the biggest single event at the booth, or possibly the whole con, will be the cast of Justice League signing on Saturday. In addition there will be costumes and props on display all weekend from the upcoming Warner Bros. film. For the first time DC All Access will broadcast live from the booth on Thursday and Friday once every hour during the convention. DC All Access Live will feature interviews, breaking news, and highlights from around the con as it happens. Also on display will be an array of never before seen products and collectibles, including DC Collectibles new DC Artists Alley series of vinyl statues. The interactive green screen returns and will let fans pose with backgrounds featuring a wide range of DC characters from DC Universe: Rebirth, Batman: The Animated Series, DC Super Hero Girls, the Justice League movie cast and a surprise reveal on Friday. You can also be there for cosplay meet ups every day of the convention. For gamers, DC is hosting a tournament for Injustice 2 on stage Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 6PM. And don’t forget Graphitti Designs will have exclusive variant comics on sale right next door at booth #2314. Not only can you experience all these events and displays, but there will be appearances and autograph sessions with comic artists and writers nearly every hour of the con. You can find all the signings we know about on our Announced Autograph and Signing page. If you can’t make it to the booth, want to see behind the scenes coverage and interviews from DC All Access, or would like more information on DC panels and their schedule of signings, check out their mobile app. (Apple App Store) (Google Play Store) What are you looking forward to most at the DC Booth? Let us know in the comments.Game Of Thrones made its customary victory lap around Hall H at the San Diego Comic-Con today, its fifth time at the convention since the show’s debut in 2011. This year’s panel was moderated by Rob McElhenney, who opened the panel with a video featuring him and his It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia co-star Charlie Day walking around Westeros asking when, exactly, winter would arrive. With news of the show’s truncated seventh season and delayed release date already announced, there wasn’t a whole lot of new information to be gleaned from the panel. Departing cast member Kristian Nairn—who was greeted with a massive chant of “Hodor! Hodor! Hodor!” from the crowd—expressed his gratitude, and recalled a trip to an L.A. hotel that had “Hodor” written on all the door stops. John Bradley joked about Samwell Tarly’s imminent demise falling from a ladder in the Citadel library, Isaac Hempstead Wright implied that Bran would spill the beans on Jon’s true parentage next season, and the cast all gave their predictions for who will sit on the Iron Throne by the end of the series. Perhaps the most interesting insights came from actress Sophie Turner, who obliquely referred to Sansa Stark’s newfound “taste for killing” and said she could evolve into either a strong leader, or a sadistic one. Advertisement The panel ended with a teaser for the show’s seventh season, showing crew members at work creating the show’s elaborate sets and props and writers distributing scripts over quotes from season six: But the best thing to come out of Game Of Thrones at Comic-Con this year was the now-customary blooper reel. This year’s season-six edition features lots of people yelling “fuck!” in British accents, some mangled Dothraki, Kit Harington goofing off when he’s supposed to be playing dead, and Peter Dinklage’s repeated inability to pronounce the word “benevolent”:Image copyright PA Image caption Almost a third of those questioned in the YLT survey had experienced serious personal, emotional or mental health problems One in ten 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland who took part in a new study have said they have considered self-harming or taking an overdose. The annual Young Life and Times (YLT) survey was carried out by Queen's and the University of Ulster. It also revealed that almost a third of those questioned had experienced serious personal, emotional or mental health problems. Researchers interviewed 1,367 16-year-olds. Dr Dirk Schubotz from the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work at Queen's University and YLT director, said: "These findings from the YLT survey show that despite the investment in mental health services in Northern Ireland, compared to five years ago, there has been virtually no change with regard to young people's experiences of stress and mental health problems. 'Self-punishment' "It is particularly significant to note that still only a small minority of 16-year-olds seek professional help when experiencing serious emotional health problems. "Although mental health campaigns have for some time attempted to de-stigmatise mental ill-health, by far the most likely reason why young people self-harm remains self-punishment. "This suggests that young people with mental health problems keep blaming themselves for these, rather than appreciating external stressors such as pressures arising from school work or financial difficulties." The key findings of the 2013 survey on 16-year-olds' mental health include: 28% of 16-year-olds said that they had experienced serious personal, emotional or mental health problems at some point in the past year. Just over one third of these respondents had sought professional help for these problems. 13% of respondents said that they had, at some point in the past, seriously thought about taking an overdose or harming themselves, and 6% had thought about this in the past month. 13% of respondents said they had self-harmed - 5% had done so once and 8% more than once. The most likely reason (60%) given by these young people for doing this was that they 'wanted to punish themselves'. The survey was undertaken by ARK on behalf of the universities. The research aims to give an insight into the lives of 16-year-olds across Northern Ireland, by addressing a range of key issues.Sign-up for the Urban Milwaukee daily email Repeal of the federal health care reform law, known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), would cause the number of children who are uninsured to more than double, according to a new report. The study released on December 21 by the Urban Institute projects that repealing the ACA without developing a viable replacement plan would result in an increase of 4.4 million additional uninsured children (ages 18 and under). Unfortunately, that’s not a worst case scenario; the report contains estimates of much larger increases in uninsured children under other possible changes in federal policy that could be coupled with or follow on the heels of ACA repeal. Most analyses of the ACA have focused on the effects for adults because adults were far more likely to be uninsured prior to the law’s implementation. Because kids were already benefiting from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), their uninsured rate had been steadily declining for more than a decade. But the new analysis helps illustrate that the ACA has built on that progress and has significantly improved health care coverage for kids. According to the new study, the uninsured rate for children would be just 4.1% in 2019 under current law, but they project that rate would jump to 9.6% in 2019 if the ACA is repealed. For Wisconsin, the Urban Institute estimates that the number of uninsured children would increase from 49,000 (3.6%) under current law to 96,000 (6.9%) if the ACA is repealed and not replaced, and the number or uninsured parents would jump by 63,000 (a 91% increase). Some of the other findings relating to ACA repeal include the following: Eighty-eight percent of children losing coverage would be from working families, and 900,000 would be under the age of 5. The majority (54%) of the children losing coverage would be white. The number of uninsured parents would increase nationally by 7.6 million in 2019 – an increase of 113% – and more than 85% of parents who would lose coverage are working full or part-time. Children who retain their insurance would also be harmed by repeal of the ACA because they would lose many of the other gains from the law, such as improved access to preventive services and the elimination of annual caps on the cost of health care services. The new report also looks at a couple of scenarios in which federal lawmakers go even further and end other federal laws that have very substantially improved health care coverage for kids. For example, they estimate that ending the Children’s Health Insurance Program could cause the number of uninsured children to more than triple – jumping to 178,000 in Wisconsin – if the ACA is repealed. Funding for CHIP will run out on September 30, 2017 if Congress takes no action to extend funding. The Urban Institute report also estimates the effect of repealing the “maintenance of effort” (MOE) provisions, which have required states to maintain income eligibility standards for children in Medicaid and CHIP. The MOE provisions are currently in effect until 2019, but previous ACA repeal bills have proposed eliminating them in 2017. The report indicates that if all states rolled back their Medicaid coverage to the minimum level that would be required in the absence of MOE standards, the number of uninsured children would increase to about 207,000 in Wisconsin, more than four times the current level, and it would surge by about 10 million nationally. Looking ahead for the next three to five years, I can’t imagine Wisconsin reducing its Medicaid coverage of children by anything close to that amount. Nevertheless, I think it’s very relevant to consider those estimates of how large the reductions in children’s coverage could potentially be. One of the proposals federal lawmakers will offer next year is to change Medicaid funding to a block grant, and the last block grant bill introduced by House Republicans would have gradually reduced Medicaid funding by 33% over a 10-year period. Federal funding cuts of that magnitude would force states to make very deep cuts in Medicaid eligibility and services, and the cuts in children’s coverage would probably be far greater than anything we can now imagine. Read more about the effects of ACA repeal in WCCF’s brief fact sheet about what repeal without replacement would mean for Wisconsin, and see also this three-page Wisconsin fact sheet prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services.Growing up poor isn't merely hard on kids. It might also be bad for their brains. A long-term study of cognitive development in lower- and middle-class students found strong links between childhood poverty, physiological stress and adult memory. The findings support a neurobiological hypothesis for why impoverished children consistently fare worse than their middle-class counterparts in school, and eventually in life. "Chronically elevated physiological stress is a plausible model for how poverty could get into the brain and eventually interfere with achievement," wrote Cornell University child-development researchers Gary Evans and Michelle Schamberg in a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For decades, education researchers have documented the disproportionately low academic performance of poor children and teenagers living in poverty. Called the achievement gap, its proposed sociological explanations are many. Compared to well-off kids, poor children tend to go to ill-equipped and ill-taught schools, have fewer educational resources at home, eat low-nutrition food, and have less access to health care. At the same time, scientists have studied the cognitive abilities of poor children, and the neurobiological effects of stress on laboratory animals. They've found that, on average, socioeconomic status predicts a battery of key mental abilities, with deficits showing up in kindergarten and continuing through middle school. Scientists also found that hormones produced in response to stress literally wear down the brains of animals. Evans and Schamberg's findings pull the pieces of the puzzle together, and the implications are disturbing. Sociological explanations for the achievement gap are likely correct, but they may be incomplete. In addition to poverty's many social obstacles, it may pose a biological obstacle, too. "A plausible contributor to the income-achievement gap is working-memory impairment in lower-income adults caused by stress-related damage to the brain during childhood," they wrote. To test their hypothesis, Evans and Schamberg analyzed the results of their earlier, long-term study of stress in 195 poor and middle-class Caucasian students, half male and half female. In that study, which found a direct link between poverty and stress, students' blood pressure and stress hormones were measured at 9 and 13 years old. At 17, their memory was tested. Given a sequence of items to remember‚ teenagers who grew up in poverty remembered an average of 8.5 items. Those who were well-off during childhood remembered an average of 9.44 items. So-called working memory is considered a reliable indicator of reading, language and problem-solving ability — capacities critical for adult success. When Evans and Schamberg controlled for birth weight, maternal education, parental marital status and parenting styles, the effect remained. When they mathematically adjusted for youthful stress levels, the difference disappeared. In lab animals, stress hormones and high blood pressure are associated with reduced cell connectivity and smaller volumes in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. It's in these brain regions that working memory is centered. Evans and Schamberg didn't scan their human subjects' brains, but the test results suggest that the same basic mechanisms operate in kids. "Brain structures change with stress and are affected by early-life stress in animal models," said Rockefeller University neuroendocrinologist Bruce McEwen. "Now there are beginnings of work on our own species. The Evans paper is an important step in that direction." McEwen also noted that, at least in animals, the effects of stress produce changes in genes that are then passed from parent to child. Poverty's effects could be hereditary. The findings, though compelling, still need to be replicated and refined. "They're not really saying which causal events were stressful. They're just measuring biological markers of stress," said Kim Noble, a Columbia University psychobiologist who studies the relationship between child poverty and cognition. Other mental consequences of poverty also need to be measured. "I think that different cognitive outcomes have different causes," said Noble. "Something like working memory might be more associated with stress, whereas language might be associated with hours spent reading to your children." But Noble still said the study "was very well-done. They have an impressive data set." And though some details remain incomplete, she said, evidence of connections between poverty and neurobiology are strong enough to justify real-world testing. "Policy changes that affect environments that might affect cognitive development and brain change — that's the ultimate future of the field," she said. Citation: "Childhood poverty, chronic stress, and adult working memory." By Gary W. Evans and Michelle A. Schamberg. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106 No. 13, March 30, 2009. See Also: Image: Flickr/ActionPixs (Maruko) Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.Four Queens community organizations received a share of $1 million in grant awards to use to complete neighborhood development projects meant to boost commercial corridors in underserved neighborhoods as part of the city’s “Avenue NYC” Initiative. The NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) is funding 34 total neighborhood development projects across New York City with grants up to $30,000 to help support and grow vibrant commercial corridors. The funding will be used for projects that include business attraction/retention, façade improvements, merchant organizing, and placemaking. In Queens, the 82nd Street Partnership in Jackson Heights will use their funding to develop a rewards program with participating businesses and orchestrate seasonal events to encourage local residents to explore and shop at the many businesses within the district, which runs from 37th Avenue to Baxter Avenue along 82nd Street. The Rockaway Business Alliance will begin recruiting members and organizing meetings to revitalize the existing merchants within the Arverne, Edgemere, Hammels and Rockaway Beach neighborhoods. Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District (BID) will create marketing collateral to promote and celebrate the diverse array of independent restaurants and cultural activities along Queens Boulevard. Finally, the Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC) will use funds to coordinate interactive programming in Woodside and Corona Plaza to connect residents with businesses. “The Avenue NYC initiative is investing in local, community-based organizations to help strengthen and preserve small business corridors across our city,” said Gregg Bishop, NYC Department of SBS commissioner. “Small businesses are an essential part of building vibrant neighborhoods, and the grants we are awarding today will help meet tailored, local needs.”Ghostface Killah and Action Bronson feuded this summer after Bronson claimed the Wu-Tang Clan member no longer raps in his signature style. Ghostface published a video telling Bronson he would “gut you like a pig.” Wu-Tang affiliate Popa Wu confronted Bronson at Sean Price’s wake in another chapter of the saga. Web developers Swamp Penguins has created a computer video game based on the rappers’ beef. The soundtrack to the game is a digitized version of Bronson’s “Actin’ Crazy.” “The wonderful adventures of BronBron and the 36 chambers,” the game description says. “Ghosts and ghouls and drugs and rap. Is the Wu Tang Clan something to fuck with? Will mr.fabulous escape the clutches of the evil face that also happens to be a ghost? How hard will ghostface grab his nuts? What about the wu tang affiliates? Will killah beez come for dem kneez? Find out next time on Whats beef.” Play the game here. (Note: The game works best on Safari and Firefox.) For additional Ghostface Killah coverage, watch the following DX Daily:Are you a fan of political memes? In the 2016 election, did you create, view or share them? Were there any you found particularly smart, funny or disturbing? What do like or not like about these kinds of memes? Students: Watch the video “The Dark Art of Political Memes” by Amanda Hess, then tell us: — How do memes influence our perceptions of political candidates, their personalities and their platforms? In your opinion, is this influence mostly beneficial or dangerous to our society, and why? — According to the author, what are some of the problems political memes pose to democracy? Are there any you disagree with or might add? — Do you think memes empower citizens, or only give us the illusion of power, as the author suggests? Why do you think this? — After weighing their costs and benefits, in your opinion, are political memes dangerous to democracy? Why or why not? — What do you think is the future of meme use in politics?Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Some graduates earn more than others Black workers earn much less than similarly qualified white workers, at all levels of education, research suggests. Analysis of pay data by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) suggests that the difference in average pay rates amounts to a gap of 23%. Black graduates earn on average £14.33 an hour, compared with £18.63 earned by white graduates, the TUC says. The average pay gap between black and white workers with A-levels is 14%. And at GCSE level the gap is 11%, the TUC says. The TUC's general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Race still plays a huge role in determining pay. "The harsh reality is that at any level of education, black and Asian workers are getting paid less than their white counterparts. "The government cannot afford to ignore these figures and must now take genuine action to tackle pay discrimination." 'Interventions needed' The Runnymede Trust, a leading race equality think tank, has previously found that pay gaps are not due to the type of university attended, as they even extend to black workers with degrees from the most selective Russell Group of universities. In fact the TUC's analysis, based on the Labour Force Survey figures from 2014 and 2015, shows the pay gaps are widest for those with higher qualifications. "This suggests that education alone will do little to address racial inequalities, and the need for interventions that directly challenge racial inequalities in the workplace," the TUC said. The trade union umbrella body is calling on the government to recognise the scale of the problem and to urgently develop a race equality strategy. As part of an anti-discrimination drive announced on Sunday, David Cameron said universities in England would be forced to disclose the proportion of ethnic minority applicants who get places. The prime minister said transparency would force top universities like Oxford to work harder to broaden their intake.North Korea reportedly said on Sunday that new sanctions passed by the United Nations (U.N.) are an "act of war" and violate peace and stability in the region. “We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the U.S. and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region and categorically reject the ‘resolution,' ” a statement from North Korea's foreign ministry said, Reuters reported, citing the official KCNA news agency. ADVERTISEMENT “There is no more fatal blunder than the miscalculation that the U.S. and its followers could check by already worn-out ‘sanctions’ the victorious advance of our people who have brilliantly accomplished the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force”, the statement continued. The ministry also threatened to punish those who supported the sanctions, according to the news service. “We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the U.S. nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the U.S." The comments from Pyongyang come after the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to impose new sanctions on North Korea aimed at weakening the country's economy. The resolution aims to cut off roughly 90 percent of refined petroleum product exports to the country while ensuring the return of North Korean citizens working abroad within 24 months. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley Nimrata (Nikki) HaleyNikki Haley launches new policy group to tackle'socialism,' other issues Trump selects Kelly Craft for United Nations ambassador Ivanka Trump endorses Nikki Haley's daughter for student vice president MORE praised the vote on Friday, saying it "sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation." 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 also voiced his approval of the sanctions in a tweet. The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 in favor of additional Sanctions on North Korea. The World wants Peace, not Death! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2017 Tensions between North Korea and the global community have increased after Pyongyang launched a series of intercontinental ballistic missiles this year. — This report was updated at 8:52 a.m.Antionio Silva is one of the few fighters with an easy to believe reason to need to be on Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT). Silva has acromegaly, a syndrome which does have a known association with low testosterone. The controversial practice of TRT in professional fighting came back to bite Silva, however, when he tested positive for elevated testosterone levels following his thrilling draw with Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 33. The failed test led to Silva losing the draw off his record and losing his Fight of the Night bonus from the UFC. Silva quickly took to Facebook and media outlets to blame his medical team. In specific, Silva's anger seems directed at Dr. Marcio Tannure. Tannure is the medical director for Comissao Atletica Brasileira de MMA and also functions in a limited capacity as a go between for the UFC, the Comissao and regional doctors. On his Facebook page, Silva posted: Clarification: Months before my fight I looked for the UFC doctor Marcio Tannure in Brazil so I could start the hormonal replacement "TRT" which was authorized and recognized by a professional. I started the treatment and 2 weeks before my fight I did all the exams required by the UFC. My testosterone level continued to be low so I was recommended by the doctor to increase the dosage. Unfortunately my level increased too much and caused me to suspend. I only did what was recommended by someone trained who understands about the subject therefore it was not my mistake. I'm cool because I know that the mistake was not made by me,I never tried doing anything wrong for my fight. Silva then spoke to MMA Fighting and declared his intention to sue Dr. Tannure: "I took a shot at the same day he sent me that e-mail, and he asked me if I had another one to take with me to Australia, to take on fight week," he said. "He authorized everything. I did exactly as I was informed to do. "You go get help with a doctor, you do the right thing, and now this story tarnishes my professional career," he continued. "It tarnishes the great fight I did with Mark Hunt, and gave me a huge financial loss. The doctor knows that I cut weight, he knows how the body of a MMA fighter reacts. He should know at what level I would be with one shot. I felt like a lab rat. I did everything I was told to do and now I’m the cheater."... "I want to prove that it was not my fault. When I have all the exams from both doctors, I want to sue (Dr. Tannure) for the moral and financial prejudice that he has caused me." Silva had even provided e-mails from Dr. Tannure which read "Your levels are still low. You can start taking one shot per week. Let's see how that will look on the next test. Contact me if you have questions." Dr. Tannure is now speaking out to address what he considers to be inaccurate statements from the UFC heavyweight (via MMA Junkie): "To be clear, I am not, nor have I ever been, Antonio Silva’s medical doctor," Tannure stated. "Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva has made some inaccurate statements in the media recently concerning the circumstances leading up to his positive test for an elevated testosterone ratio," Tannure wrote in a statement emailed to MMAjunkie. "I am releasing this statement to clarify the facts related to my limited involvement leading up to his fight with Mark Hunt."... "Approximately seven to 10 days prior to the bout, Antonio’s primary care physician and I discussed the fact that, in spite of the TRT, his levels continued to be below the therapeutic level," Tannure stated. "His doctor recommended that Antonio increase the frequency of his dosage of testosterone based on his prior levels, and I was asked to communicate that recommendation to Antonio – which I did via email. I also invited Antonio to contact me if he had any questions. "Antonio’s primary physician and I agreed that his last injection of testosterone was to be taken on Nov. 30, 2013 – one week prior to his fight. I communicated this to Antonio, as well. That was the extent of my involvement in this matter." It does seem that Silva would have an awful hard time suing a Tannure for the situation. TRT isn't an exact science (one of the issues with it) and an e-mail saying to do another injection isn't really grounds for a lawsuit. But it would seem that the more parties involved in monitoring a situation like this, the more room for error.Viewers Shocked By Vile Islamophobic Abuse Of Woman In Hijab On TV Show TV viewers were appalled by a scene on Channel 4's My Week As A Muslim, where a woman wearing a hijab was subjected to vile Islamophobic abuse as she walked past a pub garden. Katie Freeman, who had campaigned to ban the burka, wore a headscarf to find out what it's like to be a Muslim in Britain. And when she walked through Manchester in the hijab left viewers, people in a pub garden shouted at her "are you going to blow us up?" The shocking scene from My Week As A Muslim. Picture: Channel 4 Viewers were shocked by the scene. Five minutes in and already disgusted with the ignorance #myweekasamuslim — maggie (@maggiecrowley_) October 23, 2017FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2017 file photo, tourists ride in classic American convertible cars past the United States embassy, right, in Havana, Cuba. Cuba on Oct. 26 presented its most detailed defense to date against U.S. accusations that American diplomats in Havana were subjected to mysterious sonic attacks that left them with a variety of ailments including headaches, hearing problems and concussions. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File) HAVANA (AP) — Cuba on Thursday presented its most detailed defense to date against U.S. accusations that American diplomats in Havana were subjected to mysterious sonic attacks that left them with a variety of ailments including headaches, hearing problems and concussions. In a half-hour, prime-time special titled “Alleged Sonic Attacks,” Cuban officials attempted to undermine the Trump administration’s assertion that 24 U.S. officials or their relatives had been subjected to deliberate attacks by a still-undetermined culprit. Many officials reported being subjected to loud, grating noises before falling ill. The U.S. has not accused Cuba of carrying out the attacks, but says that Cuba has not met its obligation to protect diplomats on its territory. The television special pointed out what it alleged was a lack of evidence for the U.S. accusations. It argued the United States had failed to show that such attacks had actually occurred because it had not given Cuba or the public access to the testimony or medical records of U.S. officials who reported attacks, despite three visits to Cuba by U.S. investigators in June, August and September. “The members of the U.S. delegation said they don’t have evidence that confirms that these reported attacks occurred, and brought up that there was no working theory about the cause of the health problems reported by their diplomats,” the program’s narrator said. The narrator said Cuba had undertaken an exhaustive investigation ordered by “the highest government authorities,” a clear reference to President Raul Castro. Cuba did not possess any technology capable of carrying out a sonic attack and importing it was prohibited by law, according to the special. “Its entering the country could only take place illegally,” the narrator said. The creators of the report interviewed neighbors of the affected diplomats who said they had not heard any strange sounds or suffered any symptoms, which the special presented as another purported weakness in the U.S. allegations. It said security around U.S. diplomats’ homes had been dramatically increased. The U.S. State Department declined to comment at length on the Cuban critique, saying Thursday that, “the safety and wellbeing of American citizens is our top priority... We are continuing our investigation into the attacks, and the Cuban government has told us they will continue their efforts as well.” The U.S. has cut staffing at its Havana embassy by 60 percent in response to the incidents, expelled Cuban diplomats from the embassy in Washington, issued a travel warning for Americans going to Cuba and stopped issuing visas for Cubans in Havana. The measures have sent U.S.-Cuba relations plummeting from a high point under President Barack Obama and cut into the increasingly important flow of tourists to Cuba, whose economy went into recession last year for the first time in more than two decades.
murder caseThey were acquitted by the Allahabad High Court in the case last week.The couple will be visiting the Dasna Jail every 15 days to attend to inmates facing dental problems after their release.It seems Kim Zolciak may have made time for a little lip service during her whirlwind trip to LA this week. The reality TV star, 38, was spotted jetting home to Atlanta on Tuesday with pout that appeared more plump than usual. Her look was even more eye-popping thanks to the use of liner outside her lips. Scroll down for video Read my lips: Kim Zolciak was spotted leaving LA with a VERY plump pout on Tuesday Her lookalike daughter Brielle Biermann also appeared to have had her filler topped up during the LA visit. The 18-year-old first got lip injections last year from Dr Simon Ourian, an LA-based cosmetic dermatologist who is a Kardashian favourite and the man behind Kylie Jenner's pout. Kim's husband Kroy Biermann and second child Ariana, 14, were also along for the California adventure. Woah! Kim's pouty look was emphasized even more thanks to the use of liner outside her lips Mommy's clone: Kim's daughter Brielle also had a very plumped up pout Touch up: Kim showed off her fuller lips as she shared some Snaps from LAX and said her secret to looking good was to just add lipstick and cover up in sunglasses Like mother, like daughter: Brielle, 18, also appeared to show off a much-plumper pout on Snapchat Tuesday Kim shared a close-up look at her plump lips as she shared some Snapchat videos from the airport, saying she prefers a low-key look while travelling. 'Heading home,' she said as they waited to check in. 'I've been going crazy since like, seriously, six o'clock this morning so I need some rest but I'm happpy to go home and see my little babies. And she added, lifting up her sunglasses: 'You guys ever just put like your shades on and lipstick, so you look like you're put together?' 'But I have no other make up on, it's cool, it's a good way to travel. Fuller lips: Kim appeared to sport a thinner top lip in Atlanta in 2009, and right at LAX on Tuesday Different look? The former Real Housewives of Atlanta star jetted out of Los Angeles with her family Quick trip: The mother-of-six wore an all-black ensemble with black heels as she headed back to Georgia Something to tell us? Kim has been open about having a tummy tuck, but denied having her nose done and has not commented on speculation she's had her lips done or a facelift The Don't Be Tardy Stars fuller pout comes after she snared Snapchat video from the office of Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Garo Kassabian on Friday. The 38-year-old's doctor is in such demand Kim had to wait until 9pm to get in to see him. 'Only the best baby,' the former Real Housewives Of Atlanta star said as she shared Snapchat video of the herself walking into the medical suite. The mother-of-six has frequently denied she's had any plastic surgery done apart from a boob job and a tummy tuck when she had a hernia fixed following the birth of her twins in November 2013. Lookalikes: Brielle and Kim at a party in 2009, left, and right, sporting plumper pouts at LAX on Tuesday Plump lips: The Bravo star strolled through LAX with her luggage after a quick trip to LA Her biggest fan: Kim's NFL player husband Kroy Biermann was by her side as they arrived at the airport Heading home: The mother-of-three played up her fuller pout with pink lipstick after a trip her plastic surgeon in Los Angeles She insists that her stunning figure is down to genetics, insisting that her mother also has a slim figure, and maintains her looks through exercise and eating in moderation. In the past, there's been speculation she has had a nose job and her lips done and has been rumored to have had a full face lift. And while Kim has said she has no problem with going under the knife to maintain or improve her looks, the Don't Be Tardy reality star also says when she does, she will be open about it with her fans. Heading home: Brielle, Ariana and Kim arrived at LAX after their family visit to Los Angeles Reality star: Kim chatted with a camerawoman as she checked in for her flight home In her element: The former Real Housewife added large sunglasses inside 'I will always nip and tuck if I feel the need to do so, but I'm open about it,' she told E! in May. 'I don't care. You only go around one time, and I especially understand that. And life is very short, so there's no reason for me to lie,' she said. 'If I chose a life of reality television, which is an open book, so I share with people what I've done. There's no secrets.' Think pink: Brielle also sported large sunglasses and a fuller pout and wrapped up in a pink robe as the family flew out of LA Appointment: 'Only the best, baby,' Kim said as she shared a video of her plastic surgeon's office while in LA on FridayHow to Defeat a Pit Bull with Your Bare Hands Because nothing can muck up a sweet Seattle spring like having your face ripped off by a dog. All Illustrations by James Yamasaki Fact: Any breed of dog is capable of attacking a human. But 56 percent of all fatal dog attacks in the United States in the past five years were committed by pit bulls, according to a report released last week by the organization DogsBite.org. "During the 1980s and 1990s, fatal dog attacks averaged 17 per year. The death-by-dog-bite rate now is nearly double this amount at over 30 per year and largely due to pit bulls," the group says. The tips below can be used against any breed of dog that happens to attack, up to and including the pit bull. (And to those who claim that humans' anxiety about pit bull attacks is fostering an environment where pit bulls are subliminally encouraged to attack: I will not discuss matters of human culpability and mind-reading pit bulls because YOU ARE INSANE.) 1. Avoid Conflict "Trying to make friends with strange dogs is not a good idea," says David Wiley, a Seattle dog behavioral therapist with BarkBusters.com. "Don't try to pay attention to a dog in a car or behind a fence—even friendly dogs can be territorial." Never let yummy little kids—who make sudden, startling, unpredictable movements—anywhere near unleashed pit bulls. If you find yourself on what feels like the verge of being attacked: "Don't run—the movement can make the dog more excited and chase you. Stand completely still and cross your hands in front of you. Don't make direct eye contact, which can come across as a challenge. Don't turn your back, as it may embolden the dog. Just stand still. Once the dog loses interest, back away," says Wiley. 2. Stand On A Car So you've stood still and avoided eye contact, and still the dog in question shows signs of dangerous aggression. If you can get yourself somewhere higher than the ground, do it. If you can stand on a car, stand on a car. (You can worry about possibly denting a stranger's hood and roof later—just get the fuck up there.) 3. Cover Your Face and Play Dead If there's no car or any other higher level handy, "don't try to defend yourself, just protect yourself," says Emily Keegans, behavior program manager at the Seattle Humane Society. "That basically means to get down on the ground, pull your knees to your chest, clasp your hands behind your neck, put your elbows around your face." This play-dead-while-defending-your- tender-face-and-lap-bits approach is seconded by Wiley: "Stillness is the best thing. If a dog gets its teeth into you, fighting back can make things worse." 4. Mace The Fucker There's nothing as low drama as spraying the animal with a pain-inducing repellent. If your life regularly takes you through areas populated with dogs, get Mace (or pepper spray, or citronella). Do it now, because all other "fighting back" options are nauseatingly violent. Butch's Gun Shop on Aurora Avenue sells a small container of Mace for around $12, while REI sells an eight-ounce "bear spray" for $30. 5. Bust Its Head, Break Its Knees, Or Choke It Is there something heavy you can grab? A rock, a brick, a boom box? If so, smash it against the dog's head until it retreats or loses consciousness. Or can you or someone else grab the attacking dog's legs? If so, yank them apart to break the dog's knees. If that's not possible, choke it. Don't straddle the dog, but get into a position with the bony part of your forearm against its throat and put pressure on the windpipe "for at least 30 seconds until the dog is unconscious and has stopped struggling," says self-defense specialist Charles Prosper. 6. Gouge Its Eyes Out Is choking not in the cards? Do you have something to wrap around your arm? Say, a jacket? If so, wrap it around your nondominant arm and let the dog bite it. Then fall on top of the fucker and dig your fingers into its eyes. Don't stop until the dog's a whimpering mass of blindness, then get yourself to safety.By Gergana Koleva Wallet Pop Meat contaminated by a potentially lethal infection is being sold to consumers — creating a public health threat that has largely flown under the the radar due to powerful industry interests and lax accountability at the federal agency in charge of ensuring food safety, according to recent studies and a prominent investigative journalist. “It makes salmonella look like a picnic,” is how David Kirby, an investigative journalist who has written about MRSA, a life-threatening pathogen, described it in an interview with Consumer Ally. MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is an antibiotic-resistant staph infection that kills about 20,000 Americans — more than the number of people who die from AIDS — each year. MRSA affects livestock and ultimately supermarket meat. Previously associated mostly with infections acquired in hospitals, nursing homes or by people with compromised immune systems, for the past 15 years MRSA is increasingly being traced to industrial animal feeding operations, so-called factory farms, where much of the nation’s protein comes from. A number of clinical and academic studies bear this out: a recent Canadian study showed nearly 14% of pork chops (about one in seven) and 6.3% of ground pork sold in supermarkets carried the contamination — taken together, 9.6% of all pork samples. Additionally, 5.6% of the beef and 1.2% of the poultry carried the bug. The bacterium was also found in veal, lamb and other meats. Read full post at Wallet PopSenator Clinton's campaign has launched one of the oddest bits of political propaganda in the history of modern politics. Called DelegateHub.com, it is a web site that does nothing less than lay out, in glorious policy-wonk detail, their rationale for stealing the Democratic nomination. DelegateHub is a mix of tone-deaf assertions about superdelegates ("FACT: Automatic delegates are expected to exercise their best judgment in the interests of the nation and the Democratic Party") and endorsements from politicians who support her goal of thwarting the will of the voters ("Rep. Clyburn (D-SC) says automatic delegate support should not be based on election results.") The idea that the campaign would spend its precious time, money, and energy in a public rebuke to voters in their own party suggests that they really don't understand what we are objecting to. If they keep this line of argument up, it may lead to a "Million Little Pieces" moment for Senator Clinton. Remember A Million Little Pieces, James Frey's 2003 memoir? When important chunks turned out to be fiction, the most interesting public reaction didn't happen to Frey, it happened to Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey had praised Frey's book on air, selecting it in 2005 for her prestigious book club and adding millions to its sales. When the scandal broke in early 2006, she went in front of her adoring fans with what might be called the Hollywood defense: "Everything done for public consumption is a little bit fictionalized anyway. That's how it works. If Frey went farther than most, well, what's the big deal? As long as the book made you feel real emotion, what does it mater if the events didn't all actually happen?" This did not go over well. Winfrey's audience turned out to care a great deal about the truth; writing about being in jail for three months, while never actually having spent even a night there, struck them as a violation of trust. Prior to 2006, Winfrey might have been able to weather the discontent she created in her audience with classic political techniques -- go publicly silent and deal with the complainers in private and one at a time ("Dear long-time Oprah fan, We were very sorry to get your recent letter...") A couple of months of that, and the whole thing should have blown over. But it didn't, because of the internet. Winfrey had embraced the internet as a way to talk to her fans, and to let them talk back to her (or at least her staff). What she hadn't understood, 'til Frey, was that her fans were also talking to one another, not just in book groups of five or eight, but by the thousands, in mailing lists and bulletin boards all over the net. When her fans reacted, they reacted in public, and once they could see how general their anger was, it emboldened them. They didn't back down, it didn't blow over, and in short order, Winfrey, the most universally beloved television figure since Walter Cronkite, had to call for a do-over, this time going on air and castigating everyone involved on behalf of her fans. Which brings us to Senator Clinton. Faced with fears that she may be planning to ignore our votes, she has gone public with what we might call the Washington defense: "Of course I'm planning to ignore you if you don't vote for me, because I want to win. That's how it works. If I get elected by seating the bogus Florida and Michigan delegates, and convincing party members to vote for me no matter what you want, well, what's the big deal? As long as the process selects a candidate, what does it matter if it isn't the one most of you want?" This will not go over well. Democratic voters turn out to care a great deal about process; Gore's Electoral College loss in 2000 was a calamity, and the idea that that sort of end-run might be perpetrated on us again by a member of our own party strikes us as a betrayal of trust. And there is no way to integrate Florida and Michigan after the fact, because no competitive election took place there, so no one knows the will of the people in those states. Even worse, not only are Clinton's rationales for increasing the delegate count anti-democratic, they are mutually contradictory. DelegateHub explains her goal to seat Florida and Michigan as a question of fundamental fairness, but in explaining superdelegates, they call the popular vote an arbitrary metric. So which is it: fair, or arbitrary? The campaign never says, because of course, there's no actual principle here. Things that increase her delegate count are good, period.I do not find small donors or a reliance on small donors to be “criminal” as Mr. Eller asserts; I merely point out the facts that when candidates rely on rational actors for funding (and that’s a political science term of art; it does not paint others as “irrational” in any normal sense of the word), candidates who are losing are forced to drop out. That is why Marco Rubio and John Kasich left the Republican race. And yes, rational actors are self-interested, but that hardly makes them villains. Democracy is supposed to function when people organize to promote a mutual self-interest, which applies to labor unions and Planned Parenthood as much as it does to “the 1%.” And note that Sanders has received the endorsement of only a couple of labor unions, as opposed to the many unions supporting Clinton, not to mention the other groups dependant on millions of grass roots donors such as the LGBT rights group The Human Rights Campaign Fund, NARAL, and many more who are not supporting Bernie. These groups are acting rationally to support the candidate most likely to be successful against Donald Trump, and a self-identified life-long Socialist is not that candidate, no matter how robust his support seems in a poll taken before the majority of voters are tuning in to the race. Because, no matter that Eller reminds us that “Sanders has hardly hidden his Socialism,” the media has rarely even whispered it. And decades of public opinion research show that if voters are made to understand that a candidate is a self-identified Socialist, the support for that candidate goes down to single digits. Rational actors such as Planned Parenthood, and perhaps also the African American community, understand this in ways the Bernistas do not. Small donors are a good thing, but when they become swept up in campaign psychosis, believing every small drop of good news is the moment the campaign will convince hundreds of superdelegates to switch sides, then those donors are not responding to facts or probabilities. They have been swept away by enthusiasm. They are politically in love with a candidate. And we all know that love can make us blind to the faults of our beloved. As to the Sanders campaign exaggerating the chances of the coming “revolution” by pointing to victories in low-turnout caucuses … here again, the facts are on my side. Eller asserts: “Dr. Bauer’s sour grapes perspective on low-turnout caucuses (empowered by the Democratic Party, of course) and their ‘fanatical’ attendees, fails to address the obvious question: If the turnout required to win is so low, what wasn’t the formidable Clinton campaign unable to overcome such low numbers of ‘fanatics?’” This is incredibly easy to refute. Anybody who’s ever taken Intro to American Government should know that caucuses are the least democratic method of making political choices, for the very reason that they are biased against the working class! Because caucuses require attendees to give up four or five hours of their time as the price of participation, working mothers, tired minimum-wage workers, and other members of Sanders’s beloved “working class” are far less likely to show up than the small percentage of voters who are fanatically attached to a candidate. Mere supporters stay home, activists show up. This has been proven so many times it is a political science axiom. And this year was no exception. Sanders biggest percentage win on June 7th came in North Dakota, where he had a whopping percentage of the vote in a caucus where fewer than 600 people participated! The irony of a campaign that’s supposed to be about empowering the masses, where the largest margins of victory have come in very low turn-out caucuses, is lost on those in the throes of campaign psychosis. The irony of a campaign that at first lashed out against superdelegates as the perverted child of the Establishment meant to coronate Hillary, is now turning to superdelegates with an illogical pitch to turn against the will of the majority of voters, and the majority of pledged delegates, because Bernie is ahead in a few polls, well … that’s a heaping load of irony that is also lost on the Bernie-or- Busters. If that’s not the very definition of “campaign psychosis,” I don’t know what would be a better one. If one needed further proof of that argument, one needs look no further than Sanders speech on June 7th. After saying for weeks that he would win California, and that would be a powerful argument to the superdelegates, you would not have known that he had lost California, and lost decisively, by listening to his speech, which exhorted his supporters to fight on, fight on, to the D.C. primary, where he knows he will lose by a huge margin. Political science seeks to explain reality. To deal with facts. The Framers thought it was extremely important for democratic politics to remain reality based, because the minute it becomes all about emotions, voters can lose sight of what is possible, and not possible, in a large nation with many different points of view. Democracy requires compromise. Ideological purity requires putting an end to compromise. The heart of Mr. Eller’s response is a defense of Sanders as the better candidate because he wants a revolution. That the real difference between the two campaigns is one favoring incremental positive change and the other sweeping, and most likely impossible-to-pass-through-Congress, revolutionary reforms. Here Eller is absolutely correct! And that is the real reason the Sanders campaign has lost. Most voters are wary of “revolution.” They don’t know what the outcome would be of eliminating the Affordable Care Act in favor of a single-payer system, or how the country could possibly afford free college for all. There will be no “revolution” of the masses because the masses do not want it! They’ve been offered the choice between revolution and incremental, but real, progressive change. And they have spoken.AUSTIN—Following a staggering number of traffic fatalities in 2015, a task force has spent months drafting a plan to save more lives. The proposal is supposed to be in place in the next month or two. When adjusted for population growth, last year was the tenth deadliest, which is why efforts have been underway for a year to eliminate traffic deaths. The Vision Zero Task Force plans to give its final action plan to the Austin City Council in a month. City staff members say low gas prices and unemployment rates could have contributed to the spike in traffic deaths last year. “Every neighborhood association wants more traffic enforcement. They can't get it. They may get a couple motorcycle officers for two days, and that's it,” said Mike Levy, Austin Public Safety Commission. The public safety commission received an outdated presentation Monday. Commissioners want city staff to come back next month with the full action plan in order that they can make an informed recommendation.bjp leader rupa ganguly alleges attack by tmc supporters Kolkata: Actress and BJP leader Rupa Ganguly's convoy was today attacked allegedly by ruling TMC supporters in the city's upmarket Alipore area, where she had gone to campaign for the upcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation election. Rupa Ganguly alleged that she was attacked, her driver beaten up and the car damaged when she arrived in the area for campaigning in support of her party candidate. The actress said that the police personnel present there saved her, wondering why they had to resort to such acts if the ruling party was so sure about its victory. She said that she had registered a complaint with the police. According to a senior police official, a scuffle broke out between the BJP and TMC supporters in the area. When Ganguly arrived at the spot, her car was gheraoed by the TMC workers, he said. BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh who visited the area said that the TMC had got scared of the BJP and that was why they resorted to such attacks. Alleging that jungle raj prevailed in the state, he demanded that the culprits be arrested.This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. I... and... the water... by over the weekend... preventing effect back in getting the troubled plant under control... I Michael Sanchanta deputy Peter TI for The Wall Street Journal in Tokyo with me today is unique Ohno... the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal site in Japanese... DiMicco what Assistly this... will... report mean for... the progress in terms of getting the plant under control... well the weekend be found that the level of radioactivity in the pool inside one of the reactors... was ten million times a normal level... leader David bias again two hundred thousand times... the normal level it's still a huge jump though much less than what the pieces said... now what that means is that people have to be evacuated from outside the area... at once the Found symmetry here in the water... that could slow stand the whole process of getting back... to see that Gonen into the cooling started again... at this point it's very important to keep cooling the reactor... otherwise the scene it will happen the temperature will rise since the yen would come out and it could be another explosion and... this is not dead... so... all this means that the half to think about what this... low water is we are is a coming from what's the cause of it may have to do something with the wonder of Arabic and just train in the ceiling being... so they have to begin that it's a whole new barriers to this whole thing of... the process and you know getting the reactors to... have back down to under control again and this is become that one of the Bekis setbacks for that... have people around the nuclear plant have they actually had to evacuated workers from the plant because of the Treaty of DTN was once the found this they have to temporarily evacuated people... but they're back now that I don't know what what this situation is right now that banking in the week... rapidly trying to figure out you know what the costs of offices... and how is that water affecting the Tokyo area of course last week with some big scare... in terms of radiation in the water does this affect starting to affect other areas in Japan as well wealthy have also found a higher your level of radioactivity in seawater around the area... of though that government officials have ruled out there that there's a direct leakage from the Plains the think it might... be in the US to be in the air that has quite medial falling to the scene or something ounce... I see so this is another big concern for the iPhone now yet the concern is well what will happen to the finish and I you know how with that band effect... you know the whole system... thank you remits DiMicco... um I took a Sanchanta with The Wall Street Journal...A little over a week ago, Matt Pulle of the Nashville Scene newspaper wrote an article about Carolyn Baldwin Tucker, a Christian woman who was running to be Nashville’s next school director. That alone wouldn’t be a problem. It’s her bigotry and idiocy that’s the issue: … Tucker’s tenure in office featured a series of old-fashioned histrionics, including her angry and often inane opposition to a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance that would have given equal rights to gay city employees. Calling homosexuality a “lifestyle choice,” Tucker told The Tennessean that protecting gay people would be akin to safeguarding conduct like prostitution, alcoholism and lying. She even wondered whether the ordinance would protect public school employees who practice bestiality. Tucker also found herself in the middle of just about every silly council folly, from her endorsement of the pro-Jesus resolution [she had supported a resolution proclaiming “Jesus Christ as an actual man who was born over 2,000 years ago.”] to her “affirmation and support of the use of the words ‘Christmas’ or ‘Merry Christmas’ when referring to Metro Government events or activities traditionally associated with Christmas.” Of course, those moments were positively Churchillian compared to when she railed against Musica, the collection of nude statues at the Music Row roundabout. Let’s not forget our onetime county leader voted against a feel-good resolution proclaiming a “Nashville Magic Week,” presumably because of her fears of the occult. I would hope the leader of a school system knew more about critical thinking and knew better than to push her religious views on everybody else. You have to wonder if Tucker would, as Pulle says, “cast doubt on the theory of evolution in her position as a schools director.” The assumption is that she would advocate teaching Creationism/Intelligent Design. You don’t want someone that ignorant of science (and so much more) to be in charge of your schools. Looks like her defenders share the same type of brain. In a response letter to the article, Narika Kendrick writes this (Emphasis mine): … I was quite appalled by your ill-spirited outtakes on Carolyn Baldwin Tucker, an individual who is expressing her love for Christ and standing up for what is right. It is about time someone stood up against those who are anti-Christ—you being one of them. Just because you don’t believe in Jesus, who died for your sins and mine, don’t hold it against a politician who has done a heck of a job in the school system just because of your corrupted, immoral, individualistic outlook. By the way, the last time I checked, it’s people like you that cause Columbine or other school shootings to happen because you want prayer, the Ten Commandments, Christians and every other precious good out of the school system. That’s what’s wrong with America today. Be blessed and have a nice life. But leave the morally righteous people alone. That’s some mighty fine logic she uses… Probably similar to the type of thinking the Nashville school system would produce if Tucker became the director. (Thanks to Susan for the link!) [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]Rogue, a word that has been used to refer to any one of a number of types of human scoundrels since the 15th century, has been having a greatly increased amount of use in recent years. This is not because of any renewed interest in finding a good synonym for ne’er-do-well or rapscallion, but rather because the phrase going rogue—exhibiting maverick-like behavior, or bucking the status quo—has been given new life as a political byword. The phrase has seen one of its shades of meaning become considerably more common, thanks in large part to associations with the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, whose 2009 memoir was titled Going Rogue: An American Life. The earliest known citations for "going rogue" all dealt with elephants—appropriately enough for a phrase now commonly used in reference to the Republican Party. What is going rogue, and when did we start using the expression? The earliest known citations for going rogue all dealt with elephants—appropriately enough for an expression that is now frequently used in reference to the Republican Party (often symbolized by an elephant). “Itu gajah dya jehat! (That elephant’s going rogue)” remarked the head axeman, shaking his head. (Boys’ Life, January, 1924) “When an elephant goes rogue he never reforms,” said the circus man. (Springfield Republican, June 22, 1928) There is always a reason why these giant pachyderms go rogue, and here in this report we seemed to be able to define this one clearly: if then the tusk were actually growing into the flesh of the cheek or jaw, we must keep a guard day and night, for as the pain grew worse he would become the killer, taking everything before him in wild stampedes. (Dallas Morning News, May 17, 1931) Rogue, by itself, has been used to refer to an elephant that has become violent (either from being separated from their herd, or because they have been injured) since at least 1835. When going rogue was first used it had a fairly specific meaning of ‘behaving in an erratic or dangerous fashion.’ The expression today is more likely to be used to indicate that someone is displaying some degree of independence or failing to follow an expected script. And it need not be applied only to elephants (either real or symbolic ones).The ICRC hoped that the aircraft could land on Monday in the capital Sanaa, she said. However, it was still awaiting approval for an ICRC surgical team it plans to take by boat into the southern city of Aden, where fighting remains intense. Yemenis search for survivors in the rubble of houses destroyed by Saudi-led air strikes in a village near Sanaa on Saturday. Credit:AP In Riyadh, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said arrangements had been made for at least one Red Cross aid delivery on Sunday morning, but the ICRC had pulled out of the arrangement. "There was a trip fixed for them at 9 this morning... They informed us, after the time was set, of a request to delay the flight", Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri told reporters, adding that this was because the company from which they had chartered the plane could not fly to Yemen. The coalition says it has set up a special coordination body for aid deliveries and asked NGOs and governments to work with it to ensure humanitarian aid can be brought into Yemen and foreign nationals can be evacuated safely.As a key collaborator with Frank Zappa and Joe Satriani, Mike Keneally has enjoyed the rarified air of musical genius. But Keneally, a guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist, is no slouch himself. He’s released 30 albums under his own name, is in the midst of a three-album trilogy which kicked off in 2009, and in addition to his own work and his Zappa and Satriani partnerships, he’s worked with everyone from Andy Partridge of UK art-rock heroes XTC to Dethlok, the metal band featured on Adult Swim’s “Metalocalypse.” Keneally is about to bring his band, Beer for Dolphins, to the East Coast for the first time since the 1990s formation of the group, which also includes Joe Travers (drums) and Bryan Beller (bass) in support of “Scambot 2,” the new studio album Keneally released just last month. With shows scheduled for the River Street Jazz Cafe in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (Oct. 25) and Leftfield in New York City (Oct. 26), we chatted with Keneally via email about Beer for Dolphins, the “Scambot” trilogy and the legacy of Frank Zappa. What makes this lineup, with Joe and Bryan, work so well? What do you get from playing with these guys that is particularly unique to this lineup? Joe Travers and Bryan Beller have a musical rapport that’s been in evidence from the very first minute they played together at music school in Boston. They are meant to play together and they complement one another’s playing styles perfectly. It helps that they’re both virtuosos also. The three of us have known one another for nearly 25 years and it’s a deep friendship, with a lot of humor that is really evident onstage, and a mutual desire to just rage musically when we get together. It’s just a really potent combination. What type of setlist will you be playing on this tour? Do you change it up from night to night? We have a deep repertoire for this tour, around 40 tunes, so we have a lot of leeway to change it up a lot from night to night. It’s covering my whole span of albums from “hat.” in 1992 to the brand-new “Scambot 2,” plus at least one older song that I wrote back in 1983. Cover tunes are likely to pop up here and there too. But even when we play the same song during a tour, the way we treat the songs genuinely changes a lot from night to night. Each show is definitely its own animal. How would you describe the fans that come out to your shows? Is it a cross-section of Zappa fans, fans of your own career and curious Satriani fans? The core of my following definitely includes a lot of Zappa fans, but the Satriani connection certainly brings some folks out, as does the Dethklok connection. But the majority of the people coming out do tend to have familiarity with my career, know the albums and have favorite songs they’d like to hear (and we’re happy to do requests, when we know them). What were your intentions going into “Scambot 2,” especially as it relates to the original “Scambot” album? A major building block of the Scambot concept is the idea of clutter being cleared gradually. There will be three volumes eventually, and each one will be a bit less dense and convoluted than the one before. “Scambot 1” was very intricate, abstract and layered; “Scambot 2” is still intricate, but much less abstract, and it starts with the most crazy-sounding, dense and complex song (“In The Trees”) and gradually becomes more open and relaxed as it goes. I envision “Scambot 3” being essentially my version of an ambient album, but I won’t get around to making the third volume for a long time. What do you have planned for your next recording project? Right now I’m taking a break from making solo albums, but I’ve been in a songwriting collaboration with a new band formed late last year, featuring Kris Myers from Umphrey’s McGee, Pete Griffin and Ben Thomas (both formerly with Zappa Plays Zappa) and a brilliant keyboardist named Jonathan Sindelman (who was a sensation at the recent Keith Emerson tribute in LA). We’ve been more focused on creating a new live repertoire, rather than aiming specifically at making a record, although that will definitely happen as well eventually. What type of music caught your ear when you were a kid? Was there a particular moment or influence that convinced you to dedicate your life and career to music? The Beatles were the first and biggest. In a way I was probably on a path to eventually devote my life to music from the first moment I realized that The Beatles were just about the most important thing in my life outside of family. I was obsessed almost solely with them from when age four to about age eight, although there was also a lot of pop music on the radio that I really enjoyed as well. Then when I was nine I started hearing the progressive rock of the day and loving it (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson and Yes all made a big impression on me before I was ten years old). That’s also the year I heard Frank Zappa for the first time and my life really took a major turn for the different. What attracted you to the music of Frank Zappa? The attitude of it just screamed out at me from the first time I heard it, and I felt like I was at home, like I finally found the music that made perfect sense to me. The bizarre sensibility, the anti-social attitude and just the way it sounded – the odd intervals, the unexpected harmonizations, the incredibly individual approach to style and content. I loved everything about it. What did you think working with Frank would be like? And what was it really like? I guess when
where they appeared, the shamans would fill their sacks and return home. Climbing down the chimney-entrances, they would share out the mushroom’s gifts with those within. The mushroom needs to be dried before being consumed; the drying process reduces the mushroom’s toxicity while increasing its potency. The shaman would guide the group in stringing the mushrooms they gathered and hanging them around the hearth-fire to dry. This tradition is echoed in the modern stringing of popcorn and other items. The psychedelic journeys taken under the influence of the amanita were also symbolized by a stick reaching up through the smoke-hole in the top of the yurt. The smoke-hole was the portal where the spirit of the shaman exited the physical plane. Santa’s famous magical journey, where his sleigh takes him around the whole planet in a single night, is developed from the “heavenly chariot,” used by the gods from whom Santa and other shamanic figures are descended. The chariot of Odin, Thor and even the Egyptian god Osiris is now known as the Big Dipper, which circles around the North Star in a 24-hour period. In different versions of the ancient story, the chariot was pulled by reindeer or horses. As the animals grew exhausted, their mingled spit and blood falls to the ground, forming the mushrooms. St Nicholas and Old Nick Saint Nicholas is a legendary figure who supposedly lived during the fourth century. His cult spread quickly and Nicholas became the patron saint of many varied groups, including judges, pawnbrokers, criminals, merchants, sailors, bakers, travelers, the poor, and children. Most religious historians agree that St Nicholas did not actually exist as a real person but was instead a Christianized version of earlier Pagan gods. Nicholas’ legends were mainly created out of stories about the Teutonic god called Hold Nickar, known as Poseidon to the Greeks. This powerful sea god was known to gallop through the sky during the winter solstice, granting boons to his worshippers below. When the Catholic Church created the character of St Nicholas, they took his name from “Nickar” and gave him Poseidon’s title of “the Sailor.” There are thousands of churches named in St Nicholas’ honor, most of which were converted from temples to Poseidon and Hold Nickar. (As the ancient pagan deities were demonized by the Christian church, Hold Nickar’s name also became associated with Satan, known as “Old Nick!”) Local traditions were incorporated into the new Christian holidays to make them more acceptable to the new converts. To these early Christians, Saint Nicholas became a sort of “super-shaman” who was overlaid upon their own shamanic cultural practices. Many images of Saint Nicholas from these early times show him wearing red and white, or standing in front of a red background with white spots, the design of the mushroom. St Nicholas also adopted some of the qualities of the legendary “Grandmother Befana” from Italy, who filled children’s stockings with gifts. Her shrine at Bari, Italy, became a shrine to St Nicholas. True spirit of Christmas By better understanding the truths within these popular celebrations, we can better understand the modern world, and our place in it. Many people in the modern world have rejected Christmas as being too commercial, claiming that this ritual of giving is actually a celebration of materialism and greed. Yet the true spirit of this winter festival lies not in the exchange of plastic toys, but in celebrating a gift from the earth: the fruiting top of a magical mushroom, and the revelatory experiences it can provide. Instead of perpetuating outdated and confusing holiday myths, it might be more fulfilling to return to the original source of these seasonal celebrations. How about getting back to basics and enjoying some magical mushrooms with your loved ones this holiday season? What better gift can a family share than a little piece of love and enlightenment? Below are references providing more in depth background on the role of mushrooms in the beginnings of some of our holiday traditions. – The Hidden Meanings of Christmas, Mushrooms and Mankind, by James Arthur – Santa Claus & the Amanita Muscaria, by Jimmy Bursenos – “Who put the Fly Agaric into Christmas?,” Seventh International Mycological Congress, December 1999, Fungus of the Month – “The Real Story of Santa, The Spore Print,” Los Angeles Mycological Society, December 1998 – Santa and those Reindeer: The Hallucinogenic Connection, The Physics of Christmas, by Roger Highfield – “Fungi, Fairy Rings and Father Christmas,” North West Fungus Group, 1998 Presidential Address, by Dr Sean Edwards – “Fly Agaric,” Tom Volk’s Fungus of the Month for December 1999 – “Father Christmas Flies on Toadstools,” New Scientist, December 1986 – “Psycho-mycological studies of amanita: From ancient sacrament to modern phobia,” by Jonathan Ott, Journal of Psychedelic Drugs; 1976 – “Santa is a Wildman,” LA Times, Jeffrey Vallance AdvertisementsKukla's Korner Hockey From Tom Gulitti at Fire & Ice: Defenseman Colin White and right wing Trent Hunter cleared waivers at noon today without being claimed by another team. The next step will be for the Devils to complete the buyouts of both players, which general manager Lou Lamoriello said Monday is the intention. read on for salary info on each player Update 4:20pm ET: Gulitti notes on Twitter that the buyouts are now done and White and Hunter are each now Unrestricted Free Agents. On his blog, he writes: The buyout formula is two-thirds the remaining total monetary value on the contract spread over twice the remaining years on the deal. Comments Be the first to comment. Add a Comment Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide. Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel. Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.Puerto Ricans are heading for polling stations as the island’s fifth plebiscite in 50 years on whether to become the 51st state of the United States gets under way. The referendum is the brainchild of the ruling Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) and its governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló. He won election last November at the tender age of 37 largely on the promise of making a new push for statehood. But the credibility of the vote has been dented by a boycott staged by all the main opposition parties, including those who want to uphold the status quo and those who want to make a break for full independence. Just how impactful the plebiscite will be depends on how many of the 2.3 million Puerto Ricans who are registered to vote can be persuaded to turn out, and within that figure, what percentage opts for US statehood. Puerto Rico votes again on statehood but US not ready to put 51st star on the flag Read more Puerto Rico has been under the tutelage of the US since 1898, when it was handed over as war booty at the end of the Spanish-American war. The islanders were granted US citizenship in 1917, but they have continued to exist in a colonial limbo in which much of the economy is tethered to the US mainland without them being able to vote for representatives in Congress or the White House. Ultimate power within this colonial relationship rests with Congress, and as such, the success of today’s vote depends overwhelmingly on how Washington responds. The indications so far are not good for supporters of statehood. Luis Gutiérrez, a Democratic US congressman from Chicago of Puerto Rican descent, who favours full independence, dismissed the vote as a charade given the lack of interest in it among his colleagues on Capitol Hill. “The statehood-ers are putting on a rather silly show, as though this was Tennessee becoming a state 200 years ago. The result will come in, they will say ‘We demand statehood!’ and somehow they will expect that this will embarrass the US Congress into doing something. The only problem is, I don’t think Congress will respond in any way at all, regardless of the outcome.” Gutiérrez added that Donald Trump made the likelihood of real change even smaller. “I don’t see Trump’s base saying: ‘Yes, let’s make Spanish-speaking Puerto Ricans the 51st state.’” But in an interview with the Guardian, Rosselló said he was confident that Washington could be made to listen given a resounding result in Sunday’s poll. “Change is in the air. The US is the third largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world. It’s time to argue this out.” Once polls close at 3pm eastern time, all eyes are likely to be focused on turnout, as an indication of how fired up Puerto Ricans are about the idea of becoming a formal part of the US. In previous polls, the population has tended to be equally divided between statehood and the status quo, with a small but potent element favouring independence. Rosselló said the turnout should not be the overwhelming factor in measuring success, as with no general election to peg the referendum to it was likely to be lower than usual. “The narrative shouldn’t be the turnout – it should be who wins the vote and by what margin,” he said.One day before automatic spending cuts were due to hit the Pentagon and other federal agencies, Congress on Thursday abandoned efforts to avert the reductions and left town for the weekend. The sequester is here, and policymakers have no plans to end it. President Obama is scheduled to meet Friday at the White House with congressional leaders, but expectations for the meeting are low. House Republicans are already turning their attention to the next deadline on March 27, drafting a measure that would avoid a government shutdown while leaving the sequester in place through the end of September. Administration officials insist that the path to compromise lies in a “balanced” approach that replaces the cuts in part with higher taxes. But among Republicans — even those who admit the sequester will cause pain to the folks back home — the appetite for new taxes is virtually nil. “Look, the American people will simply not accept replacing spending cuts agreed to by both parties with tax hikes. And I plan to make all of this clear to the president when I meet with him,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. Despite a steady drumbeat of dire warnings from the White House about the sequester’s impact on jobs and economic growth, financial markets reacted with a yawn. On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down a bit after surging within 25 points of its all-time high, reached in October 2007. Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service announced that it would delay furloughs of agency workers until after the April 15 tax-filing deadline, providing another reason to doubt that the cuts would hit hard and fast enough to change GOP sentiment. “The sequester is not a good idea. The reality is it’s a terrible idea. As an appropriator, it’s even more terrible to us than to normal people,” said Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.), who oversees homeland security spending on the House Appropriations Committee. Carter’s central Texas district is home to Fort Hood, one of the nation’s largest military bases, and its economy is heavily dependent on government spending. “But if we don’t face up to these things and lead on this issue, what’s the panic going to look like when we start seeing our entitlement programs collapse around our ears?” Carter said. “It’s hard. But doing the hard thing is the definition of leadership. As Harry Truman said, ‘The buck stops here.’ ” Administration officials predict Republicans will be more open to compromise once the sequester starts to steal resources from local schools, police forces and businesses that hold contracts with the government. But Republicans say the dynamics of the sequester are fundamentally different from the year-end fiscal cliff, when large numbers of congressional Republicans agreed for the first time in more than two decades to approve significant tax hikes. In December, the failure to act meant taxes would automatically rise for everyone, an outcome most Republicans opposed. With the sequester, the failure to act means government spending will automatically fall by $85 billion this year — an outcome most Republicans not only desire but promised on the campaign trail. On Thursday, not a single Senate Republican broke ranks to support a Democratic proposal to replace the sequester in part with higher taxes on households earning more than $5 million a year. The measure won 51 votes but failed to garner the 60 votes needed to avoid a GOP filibuster. Three Democrats who are up for reelection in 2014 voted against the tax measure. And two other Democrats — Sens. Mark R. Warner (Va.) and Max Baucus (Mont.) — voted for a competing Republican proposal that would keep the sequester in place but give Obama new flexibility to decide where the cuts would fall. The GOP bill was rejected 62 to 38, with nine Republicans who feared it would afford Obama too much power voting no. With that, the Senate closed up shop for the week. The House — which made no recent attempt to stop the sequester after adopting two proposals last year to shift the spending cuts from the military to domestic programs — completed its work hours earlier. So lawmakers left Washington resigned to the idea of letting the cuts take effect sometime before midnight Friday, when the law requires Obama to sign a formal order telling agencies how much to cut from each account. “Today, Republicans in the Senate faced a choice about how to grow our economy and reduce our deficit. And instead of closing a single tax loophole that benefits the well-off and well-connected, they chose to cut vital services for children, seniors, our men and women in uniform and their families,” Obama said in a statement. “I believe we should do better,” Obama said, adding that Friday’s meeting at the White House offers an opportunity to chart “a path forward.” The path seems uncommonly murky, however. Last week, in meetings with liberal activists, administration officials suggested that they hoped to persuade Republicans to cancel the sequester as part of negotiations over the funding bill needed to keep the government open past March 27. That now appears unlikely. House Republicans announced plans to vote next week on a measure that would keep government funding at sequester levels for the rest of the fiscal year while providing new flexibility to manage the cuts at the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Obama and Senate Democrats are angling for adjustments to that bill that would make the sequester easier for domestic agencies, as well. But neither the White House nor Senate leaders is threatening to block the House proposal. “There’s nobody talking about using the [government funding bill] to try to turn off the sequester,” said a senior Democratic aide in the Senate. After that comes the congressional budget process. House Republicans have said they will keep the sequester savings, which total $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Thursday that she plans to replace the sequester in her 10-year framework, in part with higher taxes on the wealthy. Ultimately, the president argues that Washington will have to return to the “grand bargain” that would require Republicans to raise taxes and Democrats to cut the health and retirement programs that account for the biggest portion of government spending. The sequester targets primarily the agency spending that Congress doles out each year and doesn’t touch hot-button “entitlement” programs such as Medicare and Social Security. But the grand bargain has eluded Obama for more than two years; talks with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) never bore fruit. And even sympathetic Republicans say it’s difficult to see a forum for reopening negotiations. “How does this movie end? I don’t know,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a defense hawk and a champion of the grand bargain who met with Obama this week. “Maybe [lawmakers] will come together after seeing the effects of the sequester on the economy and the Department of Defense.” Not very hopefully, he added: “Hope springs eternal.” Paul Kane and David Nakamura contributed to this report. Discuss this topic and other political issues in the politics discussion forums.Over and over and over again, we’ve heard that the Atheism Plus is driving divisiveness, is tribalistic, and is just like a religion. I’m not really sure how to answer that last one, except to point out that if we didn’t have a point when we say “hey, we have an adoption problem, people are being turned off of atheism by all the douchebags that have entrenched themselves in it”, we wouldn’t be fomenting so much hate from those same self-identified douchebags, would we? Movement atheism largely organizes and self-arranges via the internet. The internet is a subset of reality — for the most part, the large majority of the content you see, even from trolls, originates directly from a human’s mind. Very little of that content is program-generated, though in many cases the attacks on X idea could be as easily generated by script for its repetitiveness and the patterns by which pushback is developed. For simplicity, we’ll assume that all these trolls are real human beings, and that each instance of a troll actually represents a unique human being rather than multiple sockpuppets employed to “pad out” their side of the argument. If these people are genuine, then they represent some odious philosophies that do need to be expunged from the discourse at hand. The people are welcome to stay, but the ideas must be repudiated. Ideas like that giving offense to people is its own intrinsic good, and that you should freely talk about everyone and everything you don’t like using as vilifying terms as you can at every turn. Now, I’m not talking about calling individuals asshats or douchebags — some folks think that ANY dip into the language of vilification is awful, and I won’t argue those points of view except to note that I don’t share them. No, I’m talking about those folks who demand the right to come into your space and say terrible things about whole groups of people, either directly or by extension from the slurs they choose to use. Calling women “cunts” and “bitches” and gaslighting them and doubting their every word just because they’re women, calling trans folks “traps” or “trannies”, calling calling gays “homo” or “fag”, using “that’s gay” as an epithet. The war on racist language is largely won, where you rarely hear someone call blacks “niggers”, though ask Crommunist what kinds of coded racist language you see since direct racism is so thoroughly stigmatized! So, at the same time as I’m talking about slurs, I’m also talking about those people who can raze the earth and damage whole classes of folks without using a single uncivil syllable. The important thing to challenge is the ideas that lead to these behaviours. These ideas contribute more to a culture of hatred than individual insults ever could. And that culture of hatred derives from a culture of privilege. The loudmouth and the bigoted subsets of movement atheism are largely populated by young, white, libertarian males. There are older folks, there are non-whites, there are non-males, but the largest and most vocal defenders of privilege are and will likely always be libertarians. Not economic libertarians or civil libertarians, no — the folks who have internalized Atlas Shrugged and Rand’s atheism and demand that classism and wealth privileges be held sacrosanct. They also hold that privilege on every other axis be upheld, largely because the adherents to this philosophy benefit from those privileges heavily. They are the folks who believe that any attempt to curtail their privileges by leveling the playing field is “fascism” or “socialism” or “naziism” or some other ahistorical use of a political twitch-word. You’d think privilege as a concept wouldn’t be so difficult to grasp, given that they are underprivileged as concerns their religious views, the hatred they get for it, and the theistic stranglehold on government that many countries endure. But apparently recognizing privilege other than religion is “fascist”. Yes, this sort of Randian libertarianism is a minority, but just being a minority isn’t enough to warrant special protection — the 1% who own 90% of the power and wealth on our continent are a numeric minority but are not an underclass like the 99% who share 10% of the wealth and power. And yes, we’re telling you that parroting the “bitches lie amirite?” attitude is just the sort of institutionalized oppression that has resulted in so many women leaving the movement. And yes, telling you this is actually suggesting that maybe you shouldn’t do that if the end goal is to bring atheism to everyone — especially if you’re telling women that we’re better for them than religion. The people who balk at the notion that these memes might drive people out are largely the sort of libertarian that thinks THEIR privilege is good, and simultaneously ALL privilege is mythical. They believe that might makes right. That identifying behaviours that do real damage to the movement is equivalent to “drumming them out” — SPECIFICALLY them, even. They decry the divisiveness, the “deep rifts” that we’ve created. Never mind that these rifts have existed since atheism self-arranged around the idea that there are no gods, where this hardly a coherent community makes, and that people differ on all manner of other axes and we can’t all be right about all of them. These same people would prefer to drum US out, but since that’s the sort of thing we’re fighting against, the exclusionism and tribalism that creates factions and rifts and real pain to underprivileged classes, they perform their very best judo on us. They do whatever they can to make the rifts our fault. Because we pointed them out. They’ve fully internalized the Kindergarten meme of “who smelt it, dealt it”. Since we’re all atheists, and the worst thing in the world is religion, they attack the thing that directly confronts their views of the primacy of their privileged position as “religious”, even though the people who identify as “atheist plus” are generally the following: 1) a subset of movement atheism who therefore also explicitly reject dogmatic religion; 2) a subset specifically made up of people who also hold humanist ideals and want to discuss social justice issues (primarily, at the moment, feminism); 3) consider those humanist and social justice ideals as being informed by their atheism; 4) question behaviours by so-called “leaders” of movement atheism that conflict with their philosophies about humanism and social justice; 5) have no leaders or accepted dogma, given the range of opinions WITHIN the label that conflict with one another; 6) have already had folks cleaning house within the label by demanding changes to behaviours identified as harmful from its own members; 7) have shown themselves open to social justice issues that aren’t necessarily their “pet” issue. Atheism Plus is a nascent movement, and it’s not a movement at all. It is the result of Jen McCreight managing to light the tinderbox whose flint a number of us, myself included, have been trying to strike for years, by calling for a third wave of atheism where “New Atheism” hasn’t been entirely successful on many fronts as concerns internal coherence. A+ is the inevitable end result of the realization that movement atheism is very largely populated by people who insist that the fact that we have no religion means we must never curtail behaviours no matter how antisocial or harmful. This is, of course, both incorrect as a rule for building cohesive social structures, and as a characterization of the actual purpose and effects of A+. I’ve said this before — I consider the “atheism plus” label a mere shorthand. It is an optional label that one can employ of you want to indicate to people that not only are you an atheist, but you also care about other things which are informed by your atheism. It means you have had it with those movement atheists who would prefer to keep acting exactly how they’re acting, even if it means trans folk and women generally — the two largest groups presently put off by their bigotries — get marginalized or ostracised, either by design or by accident. Misogyny, cissexism and other forms of overlapping gender-based discrimination are our best-represented, most visible bigotries in our movement. That’s not to discount other problems like ableism, or those hideous “race realists” who mangle science to prove racism, mind you — those must be challenged as well. Adopting the A+ shorthand is a signal that you won’t stand for any of that. It means you are willing to build a safe space where those anti-egalitarian and misanthropic ideas are dismissed for the bigoted and often religiously-derived prejudice that they are. But while there’s a few people willing to turn this into a “with us (against prejudice) or against us (and for prejudice)”, I’m not. With every person who by their behaviour embraces bigotry and prejudice whether they’re conscious of it or not, I’d rather tell them the effects of their behaviour, and convince them that to be a better person they need to change their behaviour, because some of these people are simply unaware. If they refuse, then I distance myself from them. If they’re stubborn and intractable and have been uncivil for any length of time, if they show no signs of abating, if they go on the attack, then I distance myself from them. Not “we”. Not unless you choose to judge these people by their behaviours the way I do. And they’re still free to keep acting like the douchenozzles they are — just as I’m free to associate with them or disengage as I see fit. It impinges not one whit on their ability to keep saying ridiculous nasty things about people, that I’ve said “not here”. Meanwhile, even when they refuse to be corrected on those shitty behaviours, I still have a lot of respect for some of them. Say, for instance, Richard Dawkins’ work on popularizing atheism. And his works on scientific matters are unparalleled. I do think some of his ideas about feminism and social justice are muddled and fuzzy and in some very specific cases completely incorrect and damaging, and he’s said some absolutely terrible things to some people that are damaging to the brand of atheism altogether, so he does not represent me on any label other than “atheist” and “science-booster”. I have strongly chastised DJ Grothe for some terrible anti-woman and anti-feminist messaging that has tangibly harmed the TAM brand and harmed movement skepticism, and his handling of the idea of implementing harassment policies that are less of a policy and more like a secret police force that nobody knew about until it swung into action and treated harassment into “protect the victim from physical assault” when no assault was in the making. He does not represent my views on feminism, on harassment, or on tribalism, given his “this is our tribe” speech at this last TAM. But he is an unparalleled skeptic in traditional skeptical matters like homeopathy, ghosts, UFOs and other matters. While I wish he would examine the sociological concept of privilege and how his repeated poor messaging has actually hurt his causes, I have immense respect for the man’s scholarship in those other matters. But that’s not to say that those behaviours are acceptable by virtue of the good they’ve done — you don’t get a free pass for murder by doing charity work for thirty years. Nor is it to say that atheists need a set of laws or moral precepts to follow for adoption of the label “atheist”. You’re an atheist by merely denying the existence of a god or gods… but that’s not enough to build a coherent society around. If you want to build a movement that is accepting of more than cis-gendered men — accepting of any underprivileged person on any axis, in fact — then you need to acknowledge that these people deserve respect. And respecting them means not condoning trollish behaviour that explicitly denigrates the personhood or value of those several underprivileged classes. So, we’ve taken the advice of those folks who demand that atheists stop talking about feminism by saying “well, we’re not JUST atheists, we give a shit about this other stuff too”. We’re tired of being told we’re splitting up the movement by those tribalists who really would like us to leave the movement altogether, so we’re modifying the label to fit us better. It is only divisive if you find being explicitly told a person’s views on other topics somehow damning of your own views. It also indicates that when we are told we’ve done something that plays into a privilege that harms a subset of society, we are open to correcting that privilege in ourselves. I often forget to include alt tags or descriptions on my images for the blind or vision-impaired, because I’m fully sighted (though I require corrective lenses). I almost never think to include descriptions of videos or provide transcripts even though they’re available, because I’m not hard of hearing. Well, I suspect I have some hearing loss from my time working through school at a lead refinery, but it’s not enough that turning up the volume a little or asking someone to repeat from time to time doesn’t solve. It very often never occurs to me to do these things until someone corrects me on my privilege. Not once have I said “oh come on, I really doubt anyone who’s in X group really cares enough to know what I’m talking about here”, because at least one person just did so. And if there’s one, there’s more than one. So, I do my damnedest to include alt tags on images, though I often only remember after publication. And wherever there’s a transcript available for a video, like the recent Google Hangout that Ophelia, Stephanie, Alex, Debbie and I had on A+ that was kindly transcribed by A+ Scribe, I will gladly include it in the post not only because it benefits the hard-of-hearing community, but also the folks who might want to reference a specific section of the video in a post of their own. Not only are we aiding an underprivileged group in enjoying the same content we do, but our community is stronger and better for it. I am hard pressed to think of a single vector for which correcting our privilege as a community wouldn’t strengthen it, and that includes putting down the kinds of targeted vitriol that women and feminists endure on a daily basis. Privilege as a sociological concept is a powerful one, for its explanatory power and the mountain of evidence that it exists and that we all benefit from fixing the structures that lead to and support it. And whether you want to use the label as a shorthand, or you’re on board with all of the ideals the label is intended to represent and would rather eschew the label, either way’s fine with me. The words used to represent the idea matter less than the actions taken to realize the idea. Those people who are pushing back against being told that their behaviours are harmful to our movement keep claiming that this is like a religion. What they’re really telling you is that they’d rather never be told to stop doing shitty things to good people. What they’re saying is that only religions tell you what is helpful or harmful, even if the people claiming it are able to provide evidence of harm where religion never does. That’s a truth claim about the world that I think we can all agree — well, all of us but those privileged jackholes, anyway — is bullshit. Like this: Like Loading...18th Street Brewery Every Session: BA Hunter Session 1: BA Wild Peach Session 2: BA Cherry Gose Session 3: Deal With the Devil 7venth Sun Brewery Every Session: Yuzu Lager Session 1: At Least You Won’t Die Wondering Session 2: BA La Fête Session 3: Or It Gets the Gose Again 8 Wired Brewing Every Session: 2015 Wild Feijoa Sour Session 1: Gypsy Funk Session 2: Le Fût Session 3: Rendition Against the Grain Brewery Every Session: A Beer Session 1: Gnight Ryder Session 2: Inner Sacrum Session 3: Bloody Show Amager Bryghus VIP: Green, Green Banshee Every Session: The Lady of Cofitachequi (Fonta Flora collab) Session 1: Game of Arms Session 2: Lawrence of Arabica (18th Street collab) Session 3: Chad, King of the Wild Yeasts (Crooked Stave collab) American Solera Every Session: Money Blend Session 1: Foeder Cerise Session 2: Foeder Gold Session 3: Good Will Overcome Argus Cidery Every session: Stellar & Perennial Session 1-2: Ginger Perry & Peach Wine Session 2-3: Ciderkin & Vinho Pearde Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. Every Session: Gin BA Headin’ West Session 1: Tart Sunshine Session 2: La Région Sauvage d’Arizona Session 3: BA American Presidential Stout Artisan Beverage Cooperative Every Session: Ginger Libation Au Baron Every Session: Cuvée des Jonquilles Session 1: Saint Médard Ambrée Session 2: Saint Médard Dark Session 3: La Belle Glaneuse Bière de Récolte Bagby Beer Company Every Session: Sweet Ride Session 1: Dork Squad Session 2: Upside Down Frown Brown Session 3: Grief Counselor Baird Every Session: Rising Sun Session 1: Saison Sayuri Session 2: Pacific Porter Session 3: Four Sisters Bock Big Island Brewhaus Every Session: Mahalo Special Pale Session 1: Tall, Dark, and Mandarin & Starshine Ginger Beer Session 2: The Halfling Session 3: Paka Bock Birra Toccalmatto Every Session: Okie Matilde Session 1: Dr. Caligari Session 2: Toats (Stillwater collab) Session 3: Matt2 (Hair of the Dog collab) Blaugies Every Session: La Vermontoise (Hill Farmstead collab) Session 1: Darbyste Session 2: Moneuse Session 3: Saison d’Epeautre Bluejacket Every Session: Forbidden Planet Session 1: Kelsey & Greg’s Wedding Ale #2 (Vintage 2016) Session 2: Twilights Session 3: Bone Machine Boneyard Brewing Session 1-2: RPM IPA Session 1-2: Gooze Cruze Session 2-3: Notorious Session 2-3: Funky Bunch Brasserie de la Senne VIP: TBA 10/24 Every Session: Bruxellensis Session 1: Brusseleir Session 2: Schieve Tabarnak Session 3: Taras Boulba Brasserie du Pays Flamand Session 1: BA Triple Blonde (Burgundy) & BA Barleywine (Pinot Noir) Brasserie Dunham VIP: Assemblage #7 Every Session: Saison Rustique var. Brett Drie Session 1: Oro Zuur Session 2: Assemblage #2 Session 3: Berliner Mango Weisse Brasserie Saint Germain/Page 24 Every Session: Sorachi Sour Session 1: Imperial Stout Whiskey Barrel Session 2: Barleywine Whiskey Barrel Session 3: Belgian Dubbel Burgundy Barrel Brasserie Thiriez Every Session: Extra Session 1: Vieille Brune Session 2: Train to Mars (Get Radical collab) Session 3: Blonde Brekeriet Every Session: Lilac Session 1: Swedish Chef IPA Session 2: Cassis Session 3: B My Honey BrewFist Every Session: Galaxie Chardonnay Barrel Session 1: Trinidad Session 2: Grapefruit Spaceman Session 3: Sentenza Brewski Every Session: Mangofeber DIPA Session 1: Mr. Candy King Session 2: Persikofeber IPA Session 3: Conan DIPA Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen Every Session: Oude Geuze & Oude Kriek Session 1: Hommage Session 2: Cuvée Armand & Gaston Session 3: Schaerbeekse Kriek 2015 Brouwerij West Every Session: Brilliant But Lazy Session 1: Dog Ate My Homework Session 2: Small Gods Session 3: Saison Buxton Brewery Every Session: Barrel-aged Rain Shadow Session 1: Double Fruit Raspberry Rye Session 2: Anglo-Belgique IPA Session 3: Extra Porter Cantillon VIP: Citoyen du Monde Every Session: Fou’foune Lambic aged in Sixth-Use Lambic Barrels Lambic aged in First-Use Meursault Barrels Lambic aged in First-Use Armagnac Barrels Session 1: Rhubarbe Session 2: Lambic d’Aunis Session 3: Iris Grand Cru Celestial Meads Every Session: Odin’s Gift Session 1: Belgique Session 2: Marriage Session 3: Raizin d’Etre Cloudwater Every Session: Bière Brut Session 1: PX BA Imperial Stout Session 2: Rum BA Imperial Stout Session 3: Bourbon BA Tripel Coppertail Every Session: Free Dive IPA Session 1: Whoops Session 2: Barrel-aged Stout Session 3: Barrel-aged Farmhouse Crooked Stave VIP: Blueberry Origins Every Session: Nightmare on Brett Session 1: Sourless IPA Session 2: Ampersand Vol. 3 Chapter 1 Session 3: Batch #200 De Garde VIP: Broken Truck No. 2 Every Session: Bu Weisse Session 1: The Purple Session 2: Nectarine Première Session 3: The Marion De Molen Every Session: Hel & Verdoemenis Bruichladdich Brett BA Session 1: Ball & Chain Session 2:
. She is survived by her brother, Arnold; her children, Mark, Matt, Lisa and Maggie; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. The family thanks the wonderful caregivers from Visiting Angels and the hospice nurses from Housecall Providers. Special appreciation also goes to loyal friend, Grace Clark. Published in The Oregonian on May 6, 2013Dear Defender, The City of Irvine has published a construction cost estimate for building Adventure Playground according to the design set forth in the Master Plan. The construction cost estimate will be presented in a staff report this Wednesday (today! for most of you reading this) March 5th at the Community Services Commission Meeting at City Hall taking place in the evening at 5:30. The commission agenda can be found here, and the staff report here. A warning: finish chewing or swallowing any liquid at this moment. Drum-roll please… AP as designed will cost a total $4.9 million over the life of the entire project. That figure is to build AP to the fullest extent of the Master Plan: with a pond, hillside water feature, sunken pirate ship, tree house, rock wall, amphitheater, zip-line, sensory garden, admin building, night lighting etc. The price includes the monies already spent for design, as well as future engineering costs and construction costs. The construction side of that is $3.3 million, with an additional $665,000 for construction management and construction contingency. Total construction cost: $3,965,000. City of Irvine Public Works department has offered a Value Engineering Alternative where they shave of $1.3 of the construction price tag by eliminating the pond and water feature, shrinking the play structures, eliminating the admin building, and doing other tweaks like installing gray concrete walkways instead of sand colored ones, taking out boulders, and planting smaller trees. Ultimately, it is a cheapened down version of the park. Construction contingency and management goes down to $535,000, but the alternative requires another $125,000 to go back and redesign. So total construction cost $2,660,000. That’s $1,305,000 total cost savings for the value alternative. What does it all mean? Basically the Community Services Planning Commission will make 1 of 3 recommendations to City Council: 1.Recommend the project as is (possibly with the option to build it in stages), 2.Recommend the value alternative, 3.Scrap the whole project. Where do the Defenders of Adventure Playground stand? I want to first note that we have been serving as representatives of this group for nearly 4 years. In all those years we have been confident that we understand the voice of the community based on our experiences as former AP staff, former kids playing there, presence in all community workshops, and presence in social media. This is the first time where we cannot comfortably speak on behalf of the community regarding this matter. It’s a lot of money by most people’s standards. Yes, when you compare it to the mammoth budget of the Great Park it seems cheap, but it’s a big chunk of money and there are definitely going to be mixed opinions on whether it’s worth the price tag. Furthermore, we feel that there will also be mixed opinions on what elements to keep for the value alternative. Should we keep the water features and eliminate play structures, or vice versa. As leaders of this organization here is our official stance: We recommend the park continue as designed by the Master Plan. We’ve worked long and hard on getting this design to harmonize with the AP spirit, and if it’s possible to go through with it all intact then damned if we don’t go for it. If the park is simply too expensive as is, then we recommend that Community Services host another workshop to collect community input on what elements should stay and what should go. We feel that’s the most fair way to modify the design. What stays and what goes should be the community’s decision. So now what? We urge you to come to the Community Services Commission Meeting this Wednesday March 5th (likely today if you’re still reading this) and support AP in the way you feel is best. If you can make it, come out and show your support. Sincerely, Defenders of Adventure PlaygroundThere are 15 secret “directions” in force under the Telecommunications Act enabling the intelligence services to collect bulk data about online and phone traffic, a surveillance watchdog has revealed. The number of orders imposed on telephone and internet companies under section 94 of the 1984 legislation has been published for the first time by the interception of communications commissioner’s office (IOCCO). The firms involved have not been identified. A further eight directions have been made to provide for emergency services and to protect security personnel, according to a report on the operation of the rarely disclosed powers. Parliament does not have to be notified of section 94 directions and until last year they were not subject to formal oversight from any watchdog. Their operation will be reorganised under the investigatory powers bill although the IOCCO is pressing for stronger oversight of bulk communications data collection. Snooper's charter: GCHQ will be licensed 'to hack a major town' Read more The 15 directions, or warrants, relate to traffic data, subscriber and service user information acquired by the government’s monitoring agency, GCHQ, and the national security service, MI5. They do not include the content of calls or emails. Any secretary of state can sign a secret section 94 direction. Their use was so poorly recorded within Whitehall, the IOCCO said, that it was difficult to be sure it could account for every one ever issued. Sir Stanley Burnton, the commissioner, said: “The review of section 94 has been extremely challenging. Our report highlights clearly the difficulties when statutes are operated in secret and without codified statutory procedures. “We make extensive recommendations that the intelligence and law enforcement agencies must implement to clarify and bring consistency to their procedures, to remedy the lack of record-keeping requirements and to ensure that we can oversee properly how section 94 directions are given and used.” Telephone and internet service companies have to comply with the orders and cannot reveal their existence. Directions are not time limited. The report notes: “It is not an exaggeration to say that the lack of codified procedures made it challenging for us to piece together and determine historically what section 94 notices had been given, by whom and when, which ones had been modified and whether they were still extant or not.” There are other section 94 orders that do not fall within the scope of the watchdog, including some relating to Ofcom and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The report shows that some service providers subject to bulk collection orders were worried about publicity and whether information would be shared with foreign intelligence agencies. Some of the public electronic communications networks (PECNs), the watchdog said, raised concerns “relating to reputational [and commercial] risks”. Others worried about whether bulk communications data they had disclosed had been shared with agencies in other jurisdictions. “In one case, a PECN had asked the agency to ensure that this did not happen and we were able to confirm that their data had not been shared with another jurisdiction,” the report says. It revealed that in 2015 GCHQ “identified 141,251 communications addresses or identifiers of interest from communications data acquired in bulk pursuant to section 94 directions which directly contributed to an intelligence report”. In the same year, MI5 “made 20,042 applications to access communications data obtained pursuant to section 94 directions. These applications related to 122,579 items of communications data.” Millie Graham Wood, a legal officer at the campaign group Privacy International, said the report was “a damning verdict of the government and intelligence agencies’ use of very vague powers as a justification of mass surveillance of innocent people”. She said it was “shocking and unacceptable” that there had never been a public or parliamentary debate about the use of the powers, and that rigorous oversight was vital.. “Section 94 is tucked away in the ‘miscellaneous’ provisions of the 1984 Telecommunications Act and provides a very broad power to any secretary of state to give secret directions to any provider of a public electronic communications network. Communications providers can be instructed ‘to do, or not to do’ anything specified and the direction does not automatically expire. “The agencies have used this vague power to demand our internet and telephone network providers hand over huge swaths of our personal data. The intelligence agencies tell us that they need this data to conduct targeted searches, however, in 2015 GCHQ and MI5 searched bulk communications data databases for 263,830 communication addresses or identifiers. This is hardly looking for the needle in the haystack. We need robust oversight and a transparent authorisation process for access to data.”MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA — When Montgomery resident Jessica Dent heard the news that the United States Supreme Court had struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, she had to fight the urge to jubilantly scream out loud while at work. The order meant that she and Carolee Taylor — her partner of 13 years — would finally be able to get married in their home state after months of legal uncertainty. She quickly left her office and rushed to the Montgomery County Courthouse. A few hours later, they were wed in an impromptu ceremony, exchanging vows and rings in front of one of the city’s fountains, surrounded by activists, reporters, and photographers. When asked how it felt to finally be married, Dent replied: “Amazing. Legitimized.” In her opinion, it had been “too long to wait.” Like other same-sex couples in Alabama, Dent and Taylor had endured months of tumult over the status of their relationship as federal and state judges clashed over marriage equality. Despite Friday’s Supreme Court victory, some LGBT campaigners believe that opponents of marriage equality won’t end their opposition anytime soon. The confusion began in late January after a federal judge overturned a 2006 state ban on same-sex marriage in Alabama. The ruling outraged Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and probate judges tasked with issuing marriage licenses soon found themselves caught between federal and state courts — both of which were seeking to control the probate judges' actions. Amid the legal chaos, one county judge even ordered a temporary ban on the issuing of marriage licenses altogether. Friday’s decision from the Supreme Court, which ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that marriage is a constitutional right available to all couples nationwide, should have put the matter to rest — although questions continued into this week about whether and how readily state and local officials would comply with the ruling. Moore, also known for once being removed from public office for disobeying a federal ruling ordering him to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from his courthouse, has long been vocal in his opposition to marriage equality in Alabama. He has said that “Christians are going to be persecuted” in the U.S. following Obergefell v. Hodges and has compared the ruling to the Dred Scott case. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley also tweeted his disagreement with the court ruling: “Regardless of today’s ruling by the Supreme Court, I still believe in a one man and one woman definition of marriage.” Bentley said he was disappointed the Supreme Court “has disregarded the choice made by the people of Alabama in its decision.” While Bentley’s statement expresses disapproval with the verdict, he has not said he plans to defy the Court’s orders. However, others in Alabama expressed concern about Moore’s intentions, citing his history of defying federal orders at the cost of his position. Representatives for Bentley and Moore did not respond to requests for comment for this article.Image copyright Dorset & Wiltshire Fire & rescue service Image caption The teenagers were searching for Pokemon in mines at Hawthorn in Wiltshire A group of teenage boys who entered an underground cave network to search for Pokemon got stuck 100ft below ground. The "glum and embarrassed" foursome had to be rescued after entering the complex, known as the Box mines, in Hawthorn, Wiltshire. They had entered while playing smash hit smartphone game Pokemon Go, where users search real-life locations for digital creatures. One member called for help when they "miraculously" found a phone signal. The caves cover an area of about 72 sq miles (186 sq km) and were "very intricate with lots of windings and different junctions", Damien Bence, from Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue said. He said the teenagers, aged about 16 and 17, had managed to find their way to an open-air part of the rock, called the Cathedral and call the fire service. Image copyright Dorset & Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service Image caption "We would advise anyone thinking about going into the Box mines not to," said Trowbridge station manager Damien Bence Image copyright EPA Image caption Pokemon Go has launched in the UK, US, Germany and Australia Mr Bence said: "The fire service doesn't have a statutory duty to enter underground systems, normally we would call on other experts such as mine rescue. "But in this case there's lots of local experts and guides, and we used one of those. We managed to lower down water and radios so they could communicate with us. "It's [Pokemon] beyond me. I don't quite understand it, it seems to be a bit of a phenomenon at the moment. "They were looking for these Pokemon creatures and surprisingly they didn't find any, but it's obviously leading people into dangerous situations, such as this, and things are likely to escalate if people are going to follow the rules of this game." He advised anyone thinking about going into the Box mines not to, unless they know exactly what they are doing and have a map and an experienced guide with them. Pokemon Go, which has become a global phenomenon, was launched in the UK on Thursday. A smartphone update of the Nintendo Game Boy classic, it encourages players to catch monsters via a combination of GPS and augmented reality. Its popularity has prompted a series of safety warnings and reports of players finding themselves in dangerous situations.Female and minority directors have made few strides in getting jobs on leading television shows, according to a new survey by the Directors Guild of America. The survey found that out of 190 scripted television series and 3,100 episodes from the 2011-2012 network television season, Caucasian males directed 73% of all episodes (compared with 72% from the prior year). Caucasian females directed 11% of all episodes (unchanged), minority males directed 13% (down from 14%) of all episodes and minority females directed 4% of all episodes (up from 3%). "Our industry has to do better,'' said Paris Barclay, the DGA's first vice president and co-chair of the diversity task force of the DGA national board. He is also an executive producer of "Sons of Anarchy." "In this day and age, it's quite disappointing that so many shows failed to hire even a single woman or minority director during the course of an entire season -- even shows whose cast and crew is notably diverse, Barclay noted. "And, 'We just don't know anybody' doesn't cut it anymore -- the pool of talented and experienced women and minority directors grows every year, and too many of these qualified, capable directors are still overlooked."In its first of two meetings this week, the Defense Ministry body responsible for authorizing settlement construction in the West Bank advanced plans for 1,292 housing units Tuesday. The Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee also approved 296 homes to be marketed for sale in Beit El, thus fulfilling a promise that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to the evacuees of the settlement’s illegal Ulpana outpost, which was razed in 2012. Of the 1,292 units advanced Tuesday, 562 are located outside the so-called “settlement blocs” that Israel has vowed to retain under any future peace deal, with mutually agreed land swaps with the Palestinians. Among them were plans that gained final approval for settlements that lie deep in the West Bank, such as Nokdim (146 units) Rehelim (97 units). This in addition to projects in Tomer (55 units) and Maskiot (27 units) that are in the Jordan Valley. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up In the Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem, 344 units were advanced for the Kfar Etzion settlement and 68 units were advanced in the Elazar settlement. In addition, plans were approved for Barkan (56 units), Nofim (170 units), Beit Aryeh (8 units) and Har Adar (10 units) — settlements that all lie west of the security barrier. Responding to Tuesday’s approval’s the Peace Now settler watchdog said that the government has “gone wild” in approving plans “deep in the West Bank.” The White House said the settlement building was not conducive to peace efforts. “President Trump has publicly and privately expressed his concerns regarding settlements and the Administration has made clear that unrestrained settlement activity does not advance the prospect for peace. At the same time the Administration recognizes that past demands for a settlement freeze have not helped advance peace talks,” a spokesperson said. Included in the 1,292 houses that were advanced by the Civil Administration were also 17 temporary homes for the residents of the illegal Netiv Ha’avot outpost, which is slated to be razed in March. The homes will be located just outside the Alon Shvut settlement in the Gush Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem, but they will only be permitted to remain for three years. Netiv Ha’avot residents slammed what the government referred to as a “temporary solution” for the 15 families set to lose their homes. In a Tuesday statement, the residents referred to the Civil Administration approval as “insufficient.” “We call upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Education Naftali Bennett, cabinet ministers and members of Knesset not to repeat the mistakes of the past in Migron, Amona, Ofra and Beit El and stop dragging their feet.” Further criticizing the plan, Netiv Ha’avot resident Ami Gvirtzman told The Times of Israel that during meetings with the prime minister, Netanyahu had promised him that replacement homes for the ones slated for razing would still be built in the same neighborhood within the Elazar settlement. “What was approved today is completely contrary to what we were told.” The High Planning Subcommittee will be convening again on Wednesday, and — barring bureaucratic issues with the plans brought before them — will advance plans for some 650 additional housing units. Among those set for approval are plans are for evacuees of the illegally built outposts of Migron, and Amona, which were demolished in September 2012 and February 2017 respectively, after the High Court of Justice ruled they had been built on private Palestinian land. After blasting Netanyahu over the past several months for what he referred to as “foot-dragging” regarding its approval of the expansion plan for his settlement, Beit El Mayor Shai Alon thanked the government in a Tuesday statement. “We hope that these 300 units are just the tip of the iceberg for more housing unit approvals. As they build in Rishon Letzion, Kfar Saba, and Ra’anana, so too we should build in Beit El, Ofra and Efrat,” he said. On Monday, a separate Defense Ministry body — the Civil Administration’s Licensing Subcommittee — granted building permits building permits for 31 housing units for the Jewish settlement in Hebron. This was first time in 15 years that Israeli construction has been approved in the flashpoint West Bank city and was seen as an Israeli response to the recent decision by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to list Hebron’s Old City as an endangered Palestinian world heritage site. Nonetheless, Hebron’s Palestinian municipality is expected to petition against the decision in the coming weeks, claiming to have a protected tenancy status over the land in question. Peace Now said the approvals in Hebron and Netiv Ha’avot were “particularly enraging. “They indicate to settlers that the rule of law does not apply to them and illustrate the government’s deteriorating legal standards when it comes to settlement expansion,” the NGO said. Despite reports of a surge in authorizations for up to 4,000 units, the exact number of housing units that the Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee will be advancing on Tuesday and Wednesday will be 1,941 — with 1,196 of them up for final approval. Settlers have expressed frustration over what they’ve perceived as an insufficient amount of housing units being green-lighted this week. Following the publishing of the agendas for the Civil Administration’s meetings this week Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan harshly criticized Netanyahu and his government. “We need to tell the truth. The emperor has no clothes,” Dagan said in a statement, characterizing Netanyahu as dishonest for breaking previous pledges to settler leaders to advance over 3,000 housing units. “We are tired of thanking (this government) for every bone that it throws at us, Dagan said. “The prime minister is missing a historic opportunity that won’t likely recur. There is currently a US president who, even if he does not agree (with settlement building), will not condemn it to the extent that was done during the Obama era.”The 3DS update train keeps on moving, with another firmware tweak arriving and taking us to version 9.9.2-26. Like a series of other updates, however, it's not clear what it achieves for users, as it appears to deliver behind-the-scenes tweaks. The following is from the official update history: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience. We've had a little look around hacking and modding forums, and only one feature of one brand of flashcard has been blocked, which is a fairly minor shutdown on Nintendo's part [Update: thanks to the comments we understand this may be a standard block due to a code change, potentially not intentional on Nintendo's part]. It'll be interesting to see whether this year brings version 10 and a series of notable updates to the portable. With the NFC amiibo reader coming out alongside Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer later this year, that will likely prompt an update for older systems, at least. In the meantime enjoy that sweet, sweet stability. With thanks to Ryan Millar for the heads up.Image caption The school population is going to rise by 10% in the next decade An extra 750,000 school places will be needed in England by 2025 to keep up with a population bulge, says an official forecast from the Department for Education. The pressure on creating new schools and extra classrooms will be one of the challenges for incoming Education Secretary Justine Greening. Schools will have faced 16 consecutive years of rising pupil numbers. The Department for Education says it has committed £7bn to extra places. Between 2009 and 2016, the school system had already expanded to take in an extra 470,000 pupils. 'Massive increase' From 2016 to 2025, the projection says there will be another 10% of pupils in the state school system, up from about 7.4 million to about 8.1 million. Head teachers' leaders say that this "massive increase" will make it even harder for parents to get their preferred choice of school. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Justine Greening, the new education secretary, will need to tackle the rising demand for school places The official forecast from the Department for Education is used to plan for school places, classrooms, buildings and teaching staff. The projection shows that the population bulge is moving through the secondary years - but that the increase in primary numbers is slowing. The primary population is now 4.5 million - and the forecast predicts this will rise to 4.68 million in four years' time when it will stabilise. The annual school census, published last month, showed the pressure on places had increased the average size of a primary school by 30 pupils, equivalent to an extra class. Rising birth rate But the next big increase will be in secondary schools, currently with 2.76 million pupils and forecast to rise to 3.04 million in 2020 and then 3.33 million in 2025. It means that within the next decade secondary schools will have to create an extra 570,000 places - and these figures do not include post-16 education or sixth forms. Image caption The biggest increases are going to be in the secondary age group, up by 570,000 in a decade The increase has been driven by a rising birth rate - and the analysis says this reflects an increasing number of non-UK born mothers, who tend to have bigger families. The forecast says "direct immigration of pupils" has had only a very small effect. Russell Hobby, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, said there needed to be much better integrated planning for extra places, including the involvement of local authorities. "We are looking at over 750,000 more young people in school education by 2025. The government's only clear plan for increasing capacity is to open 500 free schools. Whilst good, new free schools are fine, they are not sufficient. "The government will also need to take teacher recruitment and retention more seriously," said Mr Hobby. The New Schools Network, which supports the opening of free schools, says that when all the free schools that are open and which have been approved are at full capacity they will have created an extra 250,000 places. Sarah Pearson, interim director, said: "We mustn't lose sight that they are also about bringing new people and ideas into education and driving up standards across the board." Teacher shortage There have been warnings from school leaders about a shortage of teachers and problems with retention - and figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, published on Friday, showed that 40% of teachers who enter initial teacher training were not teaching five years later. It means that 14,000 people who enter teacher training each year are not in the classroom five years later. A Department for Education spokeswoman said the government had already committed £7bn to the "top priority" of creating school places, which along with more free schools, would provide 600,000 more places in the next five years. "The latest figures show that the system is responding well to growing numbers of pupils - fewer children are being taught in large infant classes, the average primary school class sizes remain stable at 27.1 pupils and the vast majority of parents get places in their preferred schools."Food porn on Instagram is ubiquitous. That is to say, pretty much everywhere you look someone's posted a meal for one reason or another. It's the perfect tool to show off how lovely your burger looks before devouring it. If, however, you're an identity thief trying to avoid getting caught by the law, perhaps it's a good idea to not take photos of food at your clandestine meetings. That didn't stop Nathaniel Troy Maye, 44, from snapping a nice image of his steak and macaroni and cheese at a January 7th meeting with an undercover witness for the IRS at Morton's steakhouse. They'd been trying to catch the person claiming they had 700,000 identities up for sale, and this was the second meeting with the suspect, but they'd yet to get an actual identification. After the witness obtained a flash drive with 50 identities — though they'd attempted to get 50,000 — on it from Maye and Tiwanna Tenise Thomason, 39, at the second meeting, the IRS found data on it that linked to "Troy Maye." As it so happens, a little Internet sleuthing by IRS special agent Louis Babino brought him to an Instagram page for one Troy Maye (which is now private), and that page just so happened to include this steak and macaroni and cheese image from January 7th with the caption "Morton's" on it: Thanks to a photo of Maye on the same Instagram profile, the witness identified him as the person they'd met with. From there, it was as simple as picking up the two suspects at Thomason's apartment — where they found some 55,000 stolen identities. The two pleaded guilty this past Friday to both aggravated identity theft and possession of unauthorized access devices according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, so they could serve up to 12 years in prison and be forced to pay significant fines. The perils of social media as a criminal. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel via Gizmodo] Top image via iStockphoto, NightandDayImages This article originally published at Geekosystem hereThe Canadian Press TORONTO - Young Canadians eager to launch their careers say they're under mounting pressure to take unpaid internships that promise valuable experience and a foot in the door but rarely lead to permanent work. Unpaid internships are replacing entry-level jobs, experts say, propelled in part by a recession that has forced companies to tighten their belts and graduates to fight for any advantage in the job market. But some of these positions are illegal, says Andrew Langille, an employment lawyer in Toronto who has researched labour standards and case law related to internships. "I would say upwards of 95 per cent of unpaid internships (in Ontario) are probably illegal," because interns are doing work typically performed by paid employees, he says. "If you have an intern making coffee or researching articles... then they're an employee, not an intern, and they should be getting minimum wage and all the other protection that comes with the Employment Standards Act." Companies offering unpaid internships say they're part of a sweeping shift in workplace culture, one that rewards "hungry" workers willing to go above and beyond their job descriptions. But many young grads, while willing to pay their dues at the office, say they can't afford to work for free, particularly while saddled with student loans. "There's people who say young people expect everything right now, they want this great-paying job," says Heather Bellingham, a 26-year-old from Oshawa, Ont., who has held a string of unpaid internships since graduating from a film and television college program. "I don't expect a lot -- I would love minimum wage." Setting and enforcing employment standards such as minimum wage falls to the provinces, except for federally regulated industries such a aviation and telecommunications. Yet none of the provinces seem to have rules that directly govern internships. Instead, they have a patchwork of regulations mostly meant for trainees and volunteers that lay out when employers aren't required to pay minimum wage. Under Ontario law, "trainees" can work for free under specific circumstances. The training must be similar to what's given in a vocational school. It must be for the benefit of the trainee, with little to no benefit for the employer. The trainee can't displace paid employees and isn't guaranteed a job. He or she must be warned that the position is unpaid. Students completing internships for university or college credit can also work for free in Ontario and several other provinces. Many employers mischaracterize employees as trainees, often because they don't know or understand the regulations, Langille says. In the U.S., the federal Labor Department last year pledged to crack down on companies that fail to pay interns proper wages. But the issue hasn't drawn much attention in Canada, where the internship phenomenon is more recent. Matt Blajer, a spokesman for Ontario's Ministry of Labour, says the government will consider suggestions "regarding non-traditional work patterns" when the law is up for review. He wouldn't comment on the suggestion that most unpaid internships in the province are illegal. It's hard to measure how many people have signed up for internships, paid or not. Statistics Canada, which compiles employment data, doesn't track internships, nor do federal or provincial labour departments. A handful of cases have come before labour boards as unpaid wages claims, but "there isn't a lot of precedent given the new development of internships," Langille says. Still, students and graduates say there's no doubt unpaid work is increasingly common. Bellingham has worked on film sets, put together sales packages for distribution companies and set up databases -- all for free. She says she was ready to sacrifice a year or two of wages to gain experience in the field, and some positions have helped her develop new skills. But now, even with several years of hands-on training, "when I apply (for a job), I'm told to intern," she says. Employers often hint that an internship could turn into a permanent job, but so far, none have, she adds. As a result, Bellingham lives with her mother, unable to buy food, much less rent a place of her own, she says. "I can't move forward with my life because I don't have an income." Kelly Fallis, CEO of the web-based design firm Remote Stylist, says she's had unpaid interns work on projects in marketing, communications, business development and design. The company won't hire anyone full-time if they haven't completed a 12-week placement first to see if they fit in, she says, adding unpaid internship are part of "a new business model" that pushes young workers to show passion for their job. "There's something about the hungriness of it all" that isn't there in a minimum-wage, entry-level position, she says. Fallis says she doesn't see anything wrong with the arrangement. "At the end of the day, these people are doing something to get ahead in the world... so why put restrictions on them? If they want to work for free, it's their prerogative." "It's such a win-win for everyone... there's no down side to me." Langille says labour laws need to keep up with the changing realities of the workplace, including the rise in unpaid internships. Provinces need to apply the rules aggressively, he says, noting few interns will risk filing a complaint against their employer. "What's occurring now is very exploitative," he says.In recent time, many transformations have been seen into the Internet of Things. Every business is investing in the IoT and this helps them in implementing IoT solutions that are driving the bottom line. Companies are driving IoT transformation. More wearable devices and gadgets certainly hold a large share of the market. Yet experts are expecting that more than 80% of IoT spend through 2020 will be on use cases and B2B applications. Year 2017 will be an ideal period for IoT as it will grow. IoT is still in its infancy when it comes to deployments and dollars. 2017 must become the year where app development companies will focus on real deployment and monetization of Internet of Things systems, including both hardware and software. A lot of “platform” and hardware vendors are trying to gain clients in the market. Small platform providers will either get invisible with time or get overtaken by “bigger fish”. Hardware will continue to evolve, but companies that only offer single or narrower solutions will lose their existence. What You Can Expect For IoT in 2017? There are top trends of Internet of Things in 2017 that we will talk about in this post. #1. APIs Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and a great strategy around APIs is becoming significant to enterprises tapping into the IoT. Application Programming Interfaces act as a bridge that helps in connecting useful information and bulk data to the IoT. APIs make the IoT useful for developers by connecting several distinct things into a powerful network that provides great possibilities. There would be no use of IoT devices without APIs. APIs offer an edge between the Internet and the things to determine possibilities that are invisible to the eyes. #2. Security Since users depend on connected devices to initiate better living with convenience, security must be at priority. All participants in the IoT ecosystem have to secure the devices, data and solutions. This implies that device manufacturers, consumers, application developers, integrators, operators, and enterprise businesses all have their duties to follow best practices. A multi-layered approach is needed by IoT security. When we talk about device, IoT security should be considered at the blueprint level that begins with design and development and keeps software/firmware, data, and hardware secure through their life. This same approach is used by security analyzing teams or operations teams that are responsible for IoT solutions. It is necessary to address security challenges to enable the complete potential of IoT and this can be done through a combination of interoperability, good design and education. Developers need to take proactive approach for intending security features which will bring out the best solutions and products for the clients. #3. Platforms New vendors are making noise and trying to push alike solutions. IoT platforms got mass attention previous year. Platforms with right elements have potential to bring tremendous value by connecting the IoT endpoints to the applications and analytics required to create business outcomes. An IoT platform must be able to connect devices, collect data, handle numerous vendors and standards, and scale to millions of devices sending billions of messages. In order provide true value beyond the basics, the platform must add security, cognitive, insight generation, privacy, and close loop automation features. This is how the IoT platform will be able to transform a business into digital. #4. Smart life Smart cities will value safety, convenience, and potential cost savings. It will include smart lighting, transportation, parking, smart meters and on-demand trash pickup. Smart home technology will become more secure, smarter and easier to handle. #5. Blockchain Blockchain has a critical space in the IoT as it enhances security, creates efficiencies in supply chain, and making transactions more seamless. Experts expect that in 2017, companies will leverage blockchain in 3 key ways- Build Trust – Blockchain can assist build trust between the parties and people that do business together. IoT blockchain allows devices to take part in blockchain transactions as a trusted party. Lower Costs – Blockchain and IoT can allow participants to lower monetary and time commitment costs by eliminating the need of the middle man from the process. Device data and transactions are now exhibited on a peer to peer basis, eliminating most contractual costs. More Transactions – Blockchain and IoT accelerate transactions overall as there is no middle man in the process. Smart contracts enable companies to reduce time required for completing legal/ contractual commitments. It is clear that Blockchain and IoT can make a lot of difference to the business transactions and automate and encode business transactions while preserving enterprise level security and privacy for all parties in the transaction. IoT allows entities to connect to and handle their IoT devices including manufacturing, energy, transportation, agriculture, and more. The main goal of IoT deployment is to gather data. This will bring next level of complexity for IT leaders to handle and support within the enterprise. Moreover, they can increase their security requirements. The back-up devices need further support related to usage and connectivity with wireless carriers. Enterprise mobility is more than just services and devices. What is new ahead in terms of mobile data networks? Mobile data networks will become significant for stationary devices. With IoT, we often mean connecting devices that are beyond the reach of a WLAN and are not on the LAN. There is now extra level of support needed for end users if the device demands a cellular connection. The author of this post is working with the reputed iPhone app development company since three years. The post is intended for global readers to make them aware about the trends of IoT in 201
10, 2014 after a five-month Internal Affairs investigation – receiving his approximately $98,000 annual salary – which ends with his termination. Contact Robert Salonga at rsalonga@mercurynews.com. Contact Tracey Kaplan at tkaplan@mercurynews.com.John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is the coauthor with Fred Magdoff of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, recently published by Monthly Review Press. This interview was conducted by Mike Whitney and first appeared at Dissident Voice. It has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with Whitney's permission. Mike Whitney: The financial crisis is quickly turning into a political crisis. Already governments in Iceland and Latvia have collapsed and the global slump is just beginning to accelerate. Riots and street violence have broken out in Greece, Latvia and Lithuania and worker-led protests have become commonplace throughout the European Union (EU). As unemployment skyrockets and economic activity stalls, countries are likely to experience greater social instability. How does one take deep-seated discontent and rage and shape it into a political movement for structural change? John Bellamy Foster: The first thing to recognise is that we are suddenly in a different historical period. One of my favourite quotes comes from Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1969 film Burn! where the main character, William Walker (played by Marlon Brando), states: “Very often between one historical period and another, ten years suddenly might be enough to reveal the contradictions of an entire century.” We are living in such a period, not only because of the Great Financial Crisis and what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is now calling a depression in the advanced capitalist economies, but also because of the global ecological crisis that during the last decade has accelerated out of control under business as usual, and due to the reappearance of “naked imperialism”. What made sense ten years ago is nonsense now. New dangers and new possibilities are opening up. A whole different kind of struggle is emerging. The sudden fall of the governments in Iceland and Latvia as a result of protests against financial theft is remarkable, as are the widespread revolts in Greece and throughout the EU, with millions in the streets. The general strikes in Guadeloupe and Martinique (the French Antilles), and the support given to these movements by the France's New Anti-Capitalist Party is a breakthrough. In fact much of the world is in ferment. Latin Americans are engaged in a full-scale revolt against neoliberalism, led by Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, and the aspiration of a new socialism for the 21st century (as envisioned also in Bolivia, Ecuador and Cuba). The Nepalese revolution has offered new hope in Asia. Social struggles on a major scale are occurring in emerging economies such as Brazil, Mexico and India. China itself is experiencing unrest. The one place in the world where this world historical ferment appears to not be having telling effect at present is the United States. This can be traced to two reasons. First, the United States as the centre of a world empire is a fortress of conservatism. Second, the election of the Barack Obama administration has confused progressive forces, leading to absurd notions that the Democratic Party under Obama is going to create a New New Deal without renewed pressure arising from a revolt from below. Meanwhile, under Obama’s watch, and with the help of his chosen advisers, vast amounts of state funds are being infused into the financial system to benefit private capital. What is needed in the United States today, we argue in The Great Financial Crisis, is a renewal of the classic concept of political economy (with its class perspective), whereby it comes to be understood that the economy is subject to public control, and should be wrested from the domination of the ruling class. The bailing out of the system right now is going on with taxpayer funds but without the say of the public. A revolt to gain popular control of the political economy is therefore necessary. It is possible to start with the demand for a New New Deal rooted in the best legacy of the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s, most notably the Works Progress Administration. But as Robert McChesney and I argued in “A New New Deal Under Obama?” in the February 2009 issue of Monthly Review, the struggle has to move quickly beyond that to an expansion of workers’ rights along socialist principles, breaking with the logic of capital. For this to occur there has to be a great revolt from below on at least the scale of the industrial unionisation movement of the 1930s that created a new political force in the country (later destroyed in the McCarthy era). The story of this struggle is told in David Milton’s classic account, The Politics of U.S. Labor, which also points out that the rising labour movement was led by socialists and radical syndicalists. It is important, as István Mészáros explained in his Beyond Capital, that the radical politics opened up in this historical moment must not be diverted into attempting to save the existing system, but be directed at transcending it. As Mészáros wrote: “To succeed in its original aim, radical politics must transfer at the height of the crisis its aspirations — in the form of effective powers of decision making at all levels and all areas, including the economy — to the social body itself from which subsequent material and political demands would emanate.” In the United States a primary goal of any radical politics should be to cut military spending, which is the imperial iron heel holding down the entire world, while corrupting the US body politic and diverting surplus from pressing social needs. The obvious weak link of the whole political, ideological and economic structure in command in the United States today is that the system has clearly failed to meet peoples’ real needs. Rather than addressing these pressing needs in the crisis, the emphasis of the economic overlords is to bailout private capital at virtually any cost. Between October 2008 and January 2009 the federal government provided about US$160 billion in capital and infusions and debt guarantees to the Bank of America, which had a total net worth in late January of only a small fraction of that amount. The rest had gone down the rat hole. The robbing of public funds to bailout private capital is now on a scale probably never before seen. A politicised, organised working class capable of understanding and reacting to that theft, and choosing thereby to restructure society, to meet real social, egalitarian needs is what is now to be hoped for. The title of a recent cover story Newsweek declared: “We Are All Socialists Now”. As it turned out, Newsweek’s editors were simply referring to the increase in public spending now taking place — hardly an indication of socialism. But the fact that this is said at all in the mainstream media points to the fact that we are in a different historical moment in which radical forces have the possibility of moving forward. MW: As the economy has become more dependent on financialisation for growth, the gap between rich and poor has grown wider and wider. As you point out in your book, “In the United States the top 1 percent of wealth holders in 2001 owned more than twice as much as the bottom 80 percent of the population. If this was simply measured in terms of financial wealth, the top 1 percent owned more than four times the bottom 80 percent” (p 130). How have working-class people managed to keep their heads above water with all this wealth being shifted to the rich? JBF: The answer is fairly obvious. If people cannot maintain their standard of living on the basis of their income, they will borrow against income and against whatever wealth they have. The result — if their incomes don’t rise, or if the value of whatever assets they have do not increase — is that they will simply get deeper and deeper in debt in an attempt simply to stand still. I became concerned about the growth of working-class household debt in 2000 and carried out a study of The Survey of Consumer Finances, which is published every three years by the federal government with a three-year lag in the data. This is the only major federal government data source that we have on household debt broken down into income groups so that we can determine the debt burden of different classes. I published an article based on this research in the May 2000 issue of Monthly Review entitled “Working-Class Households and the Burden of Debt”. I then followed this up six years later with an article in the May 2006 Monthly Review on “The Household Debt Bubble”, which was to be incorporated into The Great Financial Crisis. There I wrote that, “The housing bubble and the strength of consumption in the economy are connected to what might be termed the ‘household debt bubble’, which could easily burst as a result of rising interest rates and the stagnation or decline of housing prices.” This is of course what happened, and the reason why this crisis has turned out to be so severe was the destruction over decades of the finances of working-class households, on the back of which financialszation took place. MW: Will you define “debt-deflation” and explain its potential danger to the economy? As credit continues to tighten and housing prices sink, aren’t we slipping into a reinforcing deflationary spiral? Do you think that fiscal policy will reverse this trend or is the stimulus package too small to stop real estate and equities from continuing to slide? JBF: The term “debt-deflation” is associated particularly with the work of Irving Fisher during the Great Depression. Fisher wrote an article for the journal Econometrica in 1933 entitled “The Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions”. Deflation as applied to the general economy is a drop in the general price level, something not seen in the United States since the Great Depression, and catastrophic in the economy of monopoly capital (and even more so under monopoly finance capital). In the first place, deflation (or disinflation, i.e. the reduction of inflation to what the US Federal Reserve calls “below optimal” levels) means that the profit margins of corporations are squeezed, even if the cost structure of production and productivity remain the same. Under these circumstances price competition is reactivated with giant firms actually in a life and death struggle. This also generates pressure for heavy layoffs and wage reductions, creating all sorts of vicious cycles. But the real fear of deflation has to do with the enormously bloated financial structure and the huge debt load of the economy. Under inflation, which is usually assumed to be built into the advanced capitalist economy, debts are paid back with smaller dollars (that is, worth less over time). In a deflationary economy, however, debt has to be paid back with bigger dollars (worth more over time). This then creates a debt-deflation spiral, enormously accelerating financial meltdown. As Fisher put it, “deflation caused by the debt reacts on the debt. Each dollar of debt still unpaid becomes a bigger dollar, and if the over-indebtedness with which we started was great enough, the liquidation of debt cannot keep up with the fall of prices which it causes”. Stated differently, quoting from The Great Financial Crisis (p. 116), “prices fall as debtors sell assets to pay their debts, and as prices fall the remaining debts must be repaid in dollars more valuable than the ones borrowed, causing more defaults, leading to yet lower prices, and thus a deflationary spiral”. In order to check this deflationary tendency, the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury have been trying to reflate the economy by printing money (euphemistically called “quantitative easing”). But they have not succeeded and deflationary forces are still very strong, causing President Obama to warn shortly after his election that “we now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further”. It is also worth mentioning the effect that deflation has on investment. With capital faced with the fact that a few years down the line the price level could be lower than it is now, expected profits on investment in new productive capacity (given that this takes years to be built and has to paid for in current prices) are depressed, creating a deeper stagnation of accumulation. The stimulus package introduced by the Obama administration is far too small to pump up demand and reflate the economy under these circumstances. It is less than $400 billion a year, 40 per cent of which is tax cuts, so that the increased governmental spending is minuscule compared to the size of the hole created by the drastic drop in consumption, investment, and state and local government spending. It is also dwarfed by the total federal government support programs, primarily to financial institutions, which now amount to more than $9.7 trillion in the form of cash infusions, debt guarantees, swaps of Treasuries for financial toxic waste, etc. MW: Karl Marx seems to have anticipated the financial meltdown we are now facing. In Capital, he said, “The superficiality of political economy shows itself in the fact that it views the expansion and contraction of credit as the cause of the periodic alterations of the industrial cycle, while it is a mere symptom of them”. Marx appears to agree with your theory that the real problem is deeper — economic stagnation which forces surplus capital to look for more profitable investments. While the monetarist theories of Milton Friedman are now under withering attack, Keynes and Marx seem to have held up rather well. What does Marx mean when he talks about “political economy”? JBF: Marx was an acute analyst of financial crises in his time and described their main features. However, he saw financial expansions as occurring at the peak of a boom, not as a secular phenomenon. Financialisation in the sense of a long-term shift in the centre of gravity of the economy toward finance, with financial speculation building over decades, is a completely unprecedented situation. Marx and Engels did place great emphasis on the growth of joint-stock companies/corporations and the appearance of a market for industrial securities that began to appear near the end of the 19th century. It was this creation of the modern market for industrial securities that was the real beginning of the emergence of finance as a relatively independent aspect of the monopoly capitalist economy. There are essentially two pricing structures to the economy: one in the real economy related to the production of goods and services, the other in the financial realm associated with the pricing of assets (paper claims to wealth). The two are interrelated but can be disassociated from each other for periods of time. Keynes in the 1930s singled-out the dangers of an economy that was increasingly governed by the speculative pricing of financial assets. Marx was such an acute observer of capitalism, that even in his time he began to see the contradictions emerging between money (or fictitious) capital and real capital. One thing that Marx did argue in this context is that surges in financial speculation were responses to stagnation and decline in the real economy, as capital desperately sought a way to maintain and expand its surplus. Thus he wrote that the “plethora of money capital” in such periods was due to “difficulties in employment, through a lack of spheres of investment, i.e., due to a surplus in the branches of production” and showed nothing so much as the immanent barriers to capitalist expansion (quoted in The Great Financial Crisis, p. 39). Marx remains the strongest foundation for the critique of the capitalist economy, down to our day. But the real Keynes (not to be confused with the bastardised Keynesianism of today) is also important, since he emphasised what he called the “outstanding faults” of the capitalist economy: the tendency to high inequality and high unemployment. He also pointed to the dangers of a system geared to speculative finance. MW: Is wage stagnation and income inequality a direct result of financialisation? JBF: I would put it the other way around. Wage stagnation and growing income and wealth inequality are components of the underlying stagnation tendency. Both have shown a tendency to worsen over time, resulting in deepening stagnation tendencies within the overall economy. Real wages in the United States peaked in 1971, when Richard Nixon was president, and by 2008 had fallen back to 1967 levels, when Lyndon Johnson was president. This is in despite of the enormous growth of productivity and expansion of wealth over the intervening decades. Hence, this is a marker of “the tendency of surplus to rise”, as Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy put it, or a rising rate of surplus value, in Marx’s own terms. This was accompanied by a massive growth of income and wealth at the top. As we stated in The Great Financial Crisis (p. 130), “From 1990 to 2002, for each added dollar made by those in the bottom 90 percent [of income] those in the uppermost 0.01 percent (today about 14,000 households) made an additional $18,000”. By 2007 income/wealth inequality in the United States had reached 1929 proportions, i.e., the level reached just prior to the 1929 Stock Market Crash that led to the Great Depression. I do think you are right, though, that financialisation made income and wealth inequality worse and contributed to the stagnation of wages. We can see neoliberalism as basically the ideology of monopoly-finance capital, introduced originally as the ruling class response to stagnation, and then increasingly geared to promoting the financialisation of capital, itself a structural response to stagnation. Neoliberalism promoted incessant breaking of unions, forcing down wages, cutting state social welfare spending, deregulation, free mobility of capital, development of new financial architecture, etc. One way to understand this is the enormous need for new cash infusions to feed a financial superstructure that was voracious in its demand for new money capital, which it needed to leverage still more piling up of debt and financial speculation. Insurance companies, real estate and mutual funds all provided infusions into this financial superstructure, as did the state. All limits were removed. Under these circumstances workers were encouraged to use their houses like piggy banks to finance consumption, credit cards were handed out to teenagers, subprime loans were pushed on those with little ability to pay. Individual retirement packages were shifted toward individual retirement accounts (IRAs) that were tied into the speculative financial system. This had all the signs of an addictive system. In these circumstances too, the real economy, particularly production of goods and manufacturing, was decimated. In the introduction to The Great Financial Crisis we include a chart covering the period since 1960 showing production of goods as a percentage of GDP in a slow, long-term decline, while debt as a percentage of GDP is skyrocketing over the same period. All of this meant a massive redistribution away from working people to capital, and to those at the pinnacle of the financial pyramid. MW: In your book The Great Financial Crisis, you are critical of Paulson’s capital injections into the banks saying that “at most they buy the necessary time in which the vast mass of questionable loans can be liquidated in an orderly fashion, restoring solvency but at a far lower rate of economic activity — that of a serious recession or depression.” US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC that, “We will preserve the system that is owned and managed by the private sector.” This suggests that the treasury secretary might not liquidate the toxic assets at all, but try maintain the appearance that these underwater banks are solvent. What do you think will happen if Geithner refuses to nationalise the banks? JBF: I would not interpret Geithner’s statement that way. Rather we are experiencing one of the greatest robberies in history. I have written on the question of nationalisation for the “Notes from the Editors” forthcoming in the March 2009 Monthly Review. All the attempts to rescue the financial system at this time go in the direction of nationalisation. The federal government is providing more and more of the capital and assuming financial responsibility for the banks. However, they are doing everything they can to keep the banks in private hands, resulting in a kind of de facto nationalisation with de jure private control. Whether the federal government is forced eventually toward full nationalisation (that is, assuming direct control of the banks) is a big question. But even that is unlikely to change the nature of what is going on, which is a classic case of the socialisation of losses of financial institutions while leaving untouched the massive gains still in the hands of those who most profited from the whole extreme period of financial speculation. To get an idea of what is happening one has to understand that the federal government, as I have already indicated, has committed itself thus far in this crisis $9.7 trillion in support programs primarily for financial institutions. The Federal Reserve (together with the US Treasury) now has converted itself into what is called a “bad bank”. It has been swapping treasury certificates for toxic financial waste, such as collateralised debt obligations. As a result the Federal Reserve has become the banker of last resort for toxic waste with the share of treasuries in the Fed’s balance sheet dropping from about 90 per cent to about 20 per cent over the course of the crisis, with much of the rest now made up of financial toxic waste. Obviously, full, straightforward nationalisation would be more rational than this. But one has also to remember the system of power — both economic and political — that we are dealing with at present. The classic case of full bank nationalisation was Italian corporatist capitalism of the 1920s and 1930s, and was carried out by the fascist regime. Without suggesting that we are headed this way now it should be clear from this that nationalisation of banks itself is no panacea. The fact that Geithner, Obama’s pick for Treasury Secretary, is overseeing the enormous robbery taking place, probably exceeding any theft in history, with the ordinary taxpayers picking up the tab, should certainly cause one to ask questions about the “progressive” nature of the new administration. MW: Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan has dismissed criticism of his monetary policies saying that no one could have seen the humongous credit bubble developing in housing. In your book, however, you make this observation: “It was the reality of economic stagnation beginning in the 1970s... that led to the emergence of the ‘new financialized capitalist regime’s kind of ‘paradoxical financial Keynesianism’ whereby demand in the economy was stimulated primarily ‘thanks to asset bubbles.’” (p 129) The statement suggests that the Fed knew exactly what it was doing when it slashed rates and created a speculative frenzy. Debt-fueled asset bubbles are a way of shifting wealth from one class to another while avoiding the stagnation of the underlying economy. Can this problem be fixed through regulation and better oversight or is it something that is intrinsic to capitalism itself? JBF: Greenspan is of course trying desperately to salvage his reputation and to remove any sense that he is culpable. I would agree that the Fed knew what it was doing up to a point, and deliberately promoted an asset bubble in housing — what Stephanie Pomboy called “The Great Bubble Transfer” following the bursting of the new economy tech bubble in 2000. The view that no one saw the dangers of course is false. It reminds me of Paul Krugman’s face-saving claim in his The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 that while some people thought that financial and economic problems of the 1930s might repeat themselves, these were not “sensible people”. According to Krugman, “sensible people” like himself (that is, those who expressed the consensus of those in power) knew that these things could never happen — but turned out to be wrong. It is true, as Greenspan says, no one could have foreseen precisely what really happened. And certainly there were a lot of blinders at the top. But there were lots of warnings and concerns. For example, I drafted an article (“The Great Fear”) for the April 2005 issue of Monthly Review that referred to “rising interest rates (threatening a bursting of the housing bubble supporting US consumption)” as one of the key “perils of a stagnating economy”. Other close observers of the economy were saying the same thing. The Federal Reserve Board, indeed, was internally debating in these years whether to adopt a policy of pricking the asset bubbles before they got further out of control. But Greenspan and his successor Ben Bernanke were both against such a dangerous operation, claiming that this could bring the whole rickety financial structure down. Since they didn’t know what to do about asset bubbles they simply sat on their hands and tried to talk the market up. The dominant view was that the Federal Reserve could stop a financial avalanche by putting a rock in the right place the moment there was a sign of trouble. So Bernanke went ahead, closed his eyes and prayed, raising interest rates to restrict inflation (an action demanded by the financial elite) and the rest is history. At all times it was those at the commanding heights of the financial institutions that called the shots, and the Federla Reserve followed their wishes. Greenspan himself is no dummy. He wrote in Challenge Magazine in March-April 1988 of the dangers associated with housing bubbles. But as a Federal Reserve Board chair he pursued financialisation to the hilt, since there was no other option for the system. Needless to say, such financialisation was associated with the growing disparities in wealth and income in the country. Debt itself is an instrument of power and those at the bottom were chained by it, while those at the top were using it to leverage rising fortunes. The total net worth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans (an increasing percentage of whom were based in finance) rose from $91.8 billion in 1982 to $1.2 trillion in 2006, while most people in the society were finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. None of this was an accident. It was all intrinsic to monopoly-finance capital. [Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney [at] msn.com. Read other articles by Mike Whitney. This interview is posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission. It first appeared at Dissident Voice. For more by John Bellamy Foster, click HERE.The call to retreat was the most forthright and prominent yet from older democracy advocates in Hong Kong, who, while supporting the youthful protesters, had voiced deepening fears that the street occupations were angering residents and risking clashes with the police and with organized opponents. The call from the three leaders carried more weight than those of others who have urged the demonstrators to abandon their camps, because Occupy Central has been so closely identified with the idea of using street-level civil disobedience to advance demands for democracy. The group was founded on the premise that if the Hong Kong government failed to heed demands for a fully democratic electoral system, residents should stage peaceful sit-down protests in Central, the city’s main financial district, which is filled with skyscrapers and expensive shops. In the end, Occupy Central did not instigate the student-led protests that evolved into street camps across the city more than two months ago. But Mr. Tai endorsed the students’ sit-in at the city government’s offices, which expanded into the street occupations after a failed police operation to disperse the protesters. Now he and two co-founders of Occupy Central, Chan Kin-man and Chu Yiu-ming, have added their weight to those telling the protesters that it is time to leave. Two weeks ago, Mr. Chan, a sociologist, published a newspaper commentary urging the protesters to retreat and focus their energies on community mobilization and education. Public opinion surveys show that growing numbers of Hong Kong residents feel that the protests have gone on too long. Last week, the police cleared the protest camp at Mong Kok, a crowded shopping and entertainment area, and for days since, protesters have returned at night and clashed with the police. Apart from the main remaining protest site at Admiralty, protesters continue to occupy a patch of road at Causeway Bay, a retail area thronged by tourists from mainland China.US Senate approves deeply unpopular tax cut bill in midnight vote Updated The Republican-led US Senate has approved the most sweeping rewrite of the nation's tax laws in more than three decades, a deeply unpopular bill they say Americans will learn to love when they see their paychecks in the new year. Key points: Bill will be sent back to the US House of Representatives for a final vote Republicans say changes will provide "real tax relief" for most Americans The package will cost US$1.5 trillion and push national debt higher US President Donald Trump cheered the lawmakers on, eager to claim his first major legislative victory. The Senate narrowly passed the legislation 51-48, with all Republicans in favour and all Democrats opposed, shortly after midnight. Protesters chanted "kill the bill, don't kill us" as the legislation passed, with US Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly calling for order. However, it was not the final word in US Congress because of one last hiccup: three provisions in the bill, including its title, violated Senate rules, forcing the Senate to vote to strip them out. The massive bill was sent back to the House of Representatives for a final vote, and Republicans will get a chance to celebrate again. Hours earlier, US House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has worked years toward the goal of revamping the tax code, gleefully pounded the gavel on the House vote. GOP House members roared and applauded as they passed the US$1.5 trillion ($1.96 trillion) package that will touch every American taxpayer and every corner of the US economy. Republicans say the changes will provide tax relief for most Americans and boost economic growth, but Democrats say it is a give-away to corporate America and the super-rich. The bill would slash the corporate income tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent. The top tax rate for individuals would be lowered from 39.6 per cent to 37 per cent. The legislation repeals an important part of the 2010 health care law known as Obamacare — the requirement that all Americans carry health insurance or face a penalty — as the GOP looks to unravel the law it failed to repeal and replace this past summer. It also allows oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 'Real tax relief', or'messing up America'? Despite Republican talk of spending discipline, the bill will push the huge national debt ever higher. "This was a promise made. This is a promise kept," Mr Ryan and other GOP leaders said at a victory news conference. After the delay for a second House vote, the measure then heads to Mr Trump, who is aching for a big political victory after 11 months of legislative failures and nonstarters. The President tweeted his congratulations to GOP leaders and to "all great House Republicans who voted in favour of cutting your taxes!" Congressional Republicans, who faltered badly in trying to dismantle Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, see passage of the tax bill as crucial to proving to Americans they can govern — and imperative for holding onto House and Senate majorities in next year's midterm elections. "The proof will be in the paychecks," Senator Rob Portman said during the Senate's night-time debate. "This is real tax relief, and it's needed." But the top Senate Democrat disagreed. "This is serious stuff. We believe you are messing up America," New York Senator Chuck Schumer told Republicans, chiding them for not listening to his remarks. The GOP has repeatedly argued the bill will spur economic growth as corporations, flush with cash, increase wages and hire more workers. But they acknowledge they have work to do in convincing everyday Americans. Many voters in surveys see the legislation as a boost to the wealthy, such as Mr Trump and his family, and a minor gain at best for the middle class. The bill would initially provide tax cuts for Americans of all incomes. AP Topics: government-and-politics, tax, world-politics, donald-trump, united-states First postedThroughout July, we're presenting 30 deals in 30 days: the best trade-deadline deal ever made by each team. We wrap up with the NL West. THE TEAM: San Francisco Giants THE YEAR: 2001 THE SITUATION: Barry Bonds was on his way to setting the all-time single-season home run record, but on the morning of July 31, the Giants woke up in third place in the NL West, four games behind the division-leading Dodgers and 2.5 games behind the Diamondbacks. They had allowed 33 more runs than the Dodgers and 57 more than the Diamondbacks and were on the search for some pitching help. The Pirates were once again non-contenders. Jason Schmidt, who they had acquired from the Braves in 1996 for Denny Neagle, was 6-6 with a 4.61 ERA and owned a career mark of 49-53 and was an impending free agent. THE TRADE: The Giants acquired Schmidt and outfielder John Vander Wal for Ryan Vogelsong and Armando Rios. Vogelsong had pitched in 13 games in relief for the Giants but had posted a 2.79 ERA in 10 starts at Triple-A Fresno. Rios was a platoon outfielder hitting.259/.330/.465 with the Giants. THE AFTERMATH: Schmidt was excellent down the stretch, going 7-1 with a 3.39 ERA in 11 starts. The Giants would win 90 games but fall two games short of the Diamondbacks for the division crown. However, they would re-sign Schmidt that winter in what would be a five-year, $41 million deal. He'd finally max out his potential and become one of the better starters in the majors, going 71-36 with a 3.35 ERA over those five seasons, valued at 21.6 WAR, 12th best among pitchers from 2002 to 2006. The Giants reached the World Series in 2002 and Schmidt had his best season in 2003, leading the NL in ERA and WHIP and finishing second in the Cy Young vote as the Giants returned to the postseason. He would sign a three-year, $47 million free-agent contract with the Dodgers after 2006 but hurt his shoulder after three starts and would make just 10 starts in his Dodgers career. Rios played two games for the Pirates in 2002 before getting injured and 76 the next season. His last season in the majors was 2003 and he later admitted to PED use and was mentioned in the Mitchell report. Vogelsong went 10-19 with a 6.00 ERA in his Pirates career... resurfacing years later with the Giants where he turned into a postseason hero in 2012.The Josiah Turner era at point guard lasted one troubled season at Arizona. The Wildcats announced Wednesday that Turner, who ended the season under indefinite suspension, missing the final four games, has decided to transfer to a school to be decided. "Josiah made a great deal of progress as a student-athlete in his year with us," UA coach Sean Miller said in a statement. "He will finish this semester and leave in good academic standing. All of us at Arizona wish him well in his future." Turner arrived as the most-hyped member of UA's four-man freshman class, rated the nation's second-best high school point guard and the No. 10 overall prospect by Rivals.com. Now, half of that class is gone -- with post player Sidiki Johnson not even lasting the first semester before leaving. There was talk before the season -- certainly not from the UA camp, however -- that Turner was a one-and-done player at UA, ready to dazzle and jump to the NBA. This is a different kind of one-and-done. Turner had trouble gaining traction from the start, landing in the doghouse when Miller didn't play him at all in the third game of the season. Miller said at the time: "He's trying to find his way from where he left high school... on and off the court, making good decisions, working hard every day." Turner was then suspended for a violation of team rules before Arizona played at Florida on Dec. 7, a game the Cats lost in overtime. Later, Miller would call that the "light coming on" moment for Turner, who improved in small steps and eventually regained his starting spot before the second suspension, this one coming before the Pac-12 tournament. He was rarely great (other than sometimes showing off his skills with entry passes with either hand), and he ended up averaging 6.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists. He showed a propensity to beat his man off the dribble but wasn't always able to finish. He has much work to do on his outside shot after making only 7 of 31 3-point attempts. Where he will work on that shot after his transfer... who knows? "I learned a lot in my year at Arizona and would like to thank my coaches, teammates and the fans for all of their support," Turner said in a statement. For the Cats -- who appear to be the early frontrunner to be the Pac-12 favorites next season -- this means that sophomore Nick Johnson likely will play a lot of point guard next season. Johnson, a shooting guard by trade, handled heavy minutes at the point late last season when Jordin Mayes was injured and then Turner was suspended. How about a starting lineup of Johnson, Kevin Parrom, Solomon Hill, Angelo Chol and one of the freshman big men (Grant Jerrett, Brandon Ashley and Kaleb Tarczewski)? Turner's departure, for now, squares up Arizona's scholarship situation. The Wildcats were one over their limit of 12 with the recent additions of junior college post player Matt Korcheck and Duquesne transfer point guard T.J. McConnell. There could be more maneuvering -- Mayes and senior post Kyryl Natyazhko have been mentioned as possible transfer possibilities -- although Mayes' playing-time situation improves with Turner out of the way. If somebody else leaves, Miller could try to bring in another guard in what is now a six-man recruiting class. He has one eligible guard in this class, although the 6-1 Gabe York is more of a shooter and scorer than a point guard. This marks the second consecutive season after which Arizona lost its primary point guard. MoMo Jones left after the 2011-12 season, perhaps in part because of Turner's impending arrival, although family reasons were a consideration, too, and the NCAA allowed him to be immediately eligible at Iona. The point guard position will stabilize in the 2013-14 season when McConnell is eligible as a junior, but next year, Miller will have his fourth starting point guard in four seasons at Arizona. Mayes did start 16 games last season, but it wouldn't have been that many if Turner had arrived with a better attitude and work ethic.About J. D. Tippit J. D. Tippit (September 18, 1924 – November 22, 1963) was a police officer with the Dallas Police Department who, according to the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations, was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald after Tippit stopped Oswald following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Oswald's initial arrest was for Tippit's murder, not Kennedy's. Biography Tippit was born in Clarksville, Red River County, Texas, to Edgar Lee Tippit
about how she was proud of her son and the lives he would save."NewsCatholic Church March 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- On March 16, speaking publicly on a rare occasion, Pope Benedict XVI gave an interview (English translation) to Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, in which he spoke of a “two-sided deep crisis” the Church is facing in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The report has already hit Germany courtesy of Vaticanist Guiseppe Nardi, of the German Catholic news website Katholisches.info. Pope Benedict reminds us of the formerly indispensable Catholic conviction of the possibility of the loss of eternal salvation, or that people go to hell: The missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that the unbaptized person is lost forever. After the [Second Vatican] Council, this conviction was definitely abandoned. The result was a two-sided, deep crisis. Without this attentiveness to the salvation, the Faith loses its foundation. He also speaks of a “profound evolution of Dogma” with respect to the Dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church. This purported change of dogma has led, in the pope's eyes, to a loss of the missionary zeal in the Church – “any motivation for a future missionary commitment was removed.” Pope Benedict asks the piercing question that arose after this palpable change of attitude of the Church: “Why should you try to convince the people to accept the Christian faith when they can be saved even without it?” As to the other consequences of this new attitude in the Church, Catholics themselves, in Benedict's eyes, are less attached to their Faith: If there are those who can save their souls with other means, “why should the Christian be bound to the necessity of the Christian Faith and its morality?” asked the pope. And he concludes: “But if Faith and Salvation are not any more interdependent, even Faith becomes less motivating.” Pope Benedict also refutes both the idea of the “anonymous Christian” as developed by Karl Rahner, as well as the indifferentist idea that all religions are equally valuable and helpful to attain eternal life. “Even less acceptable is the solution proposed by the pluralistic theories of religion, for which all religions, each in its own way, would be ways of salvation and, in this sense, must be considered equivalent in their effects,” he said. In this context, he also touches upon the exploratory ideas of the now-deceased Jesuit Cardinal, Henri de Lubac, about Christ's putatively “vicarious substitutions” which have to be now again “further reflected upon.” With regard to man's relation to technology and to love, Pope Benedict reminds us of the importance of human affection, saying that man still yearns in his heart “that the Good Samaritan come to his aid.” He continues: “In the harshness of the world of technology – in which feelings do not count anymore – the hope for a saving love grows, a love which would be given freely and generously.” Benedict also reminds his audience that: “The Church is not self-made, it was created by God and is continuously formed by Him. This finds expression in the Sacraments, above all in that of Baptism: I enter into the Church not by a bureaucratic act, but with the help of this Sacrament.” Benedict also insists that, always, “we need Grace and forgiveness.”A Pegatron worker takes a break. China Labor Watch Apple said today that it will, once again, audit working conditions inside the Pegatron factories in China that it uses to assemble iPhones, iMacs and the new, upcoming cheap iPhone, the iPhone 5C. Go straight to the pictures » The statement came after China Labor Watch produced a detailed report and a video of working conditions inside some of Apple's Chinese factories. The video shows work rules that ban tattoos, died hair, short people and certain ethnic groups from the factories. It also shows exhausted workers sleeping on the floor, using buckets to wash in, squalid communal showers rigged in parking garages, and a disgusting, unclean urinal. The film also shows that Apple's contract workers are all very young — CLW alleges there is a ban on workers over 35. You can read the full CLW report here. What follows are photos from the accompanying YouTube video, taken undercover inside Apple's China facilities.I was running around Manhattan the night of December 22nd and the temperature was 55 degrees. Being a bratty Californian, I admit I was thrilled to not be shivering. But the responsible part of my brain also found it disconcerting. It's even moreso when you look at the numbers. Discovery News reports: Bellingham, Wash., for example, saw a high of 60 in the first week of the year, while the mercury soared to a balmy 44 in Fargo, 61 in New York City, 72 in parts of Colorado and 79 in Tucson. In some regions of the Midwest, temperatures are 40 degrees higher than average. And snow covers just 19 percent of the country at the moment, compared to a usual coverage of about 50 percent at this time of year. Advertisement The immediate culprit is a super weird jet stream, which influences weather across North America. The jet stream is fueled by the North Atlantic and Arctic Oscillations, which are climate patterns determined by differences in sea-level pressure. A positive pressure difference, which is what we've been experiencing in the past few months, draws warm air from the southwest over the Eastern United States instead of cold air from the Arctic which is what happened last year and why tons of snow dumped on us. Piling on the weather weirdness, La Niña conditions have pushed warm water toward Australia, decreasing Pacific Ocean temperatures off the U.S. to about 5 degrees lower than normal. That also means less precipitation, because colder water is less likely to evaporate. A lack of snow is one more temperature raiser: Snow reflects the sun, adding moisture to the air and lowering the temp. But the naked earth is free to absorb solar radiation, making the ground toasty. Advertisement What about climate change, you ask? Stu Ostro, senior director of weather communications at The Weather Channel told me in an email that melting ice in the Arctic, caused by increasing temperatures over the past few decades, could be influencing those extreme pressure differences: The weather oscillations over the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic have been off-the-charts extreme in recent years, likely driven at least in part by the precipitous decline in the volume of Arctic sea ice. This is something which warrants close attention and further study, and what happens with atmospheric patterns in the far north also directly affects weather to the south of there. An example of that is the past three winters including this one. Enjoy it while you can. Those positive oscillations will likely head in the opposite direction in the next few weeks, weather experts say, meaning we won't completely miss out on a more a normal, nippy winter. Advertisement [Discovery News via Discover Magazine] Image: Shutterstock/karnizzA 19-year-old female Elmhurst College student lied when she said she was assaulted by a masked gunman last week, police said Friday. Oak Brook native Safia Z. Jilani has been arrested and charged with filing a false police report. Jilani said she was attacked in a lower-level bathroom at the college's Schaible Science Center. Word of the attack forced the campus into lockdown and and an emergency text message was sent to students, urging them to stay indoors while police scoured the campus for a suspect. She said the attack was motivated because of her Muslim religion. Jilani said her locker was defaced with a Nazi symbol and incendiary phrases a week prior to the alleged attack. Police said they are still investigating that incident. The same words of hate scrawled on her locker were also found on a mirror the night she claimed she was attacked. Police said Friday that a week-long investigation has determined that the assault and graffiti never occurred. Filing a false police report is a felony and punishable by up to three years in prison, police said.Impulse: At long last, a new Jumper novel from Steven Gould After a delay of too many years, Steven Gould has penned another Jumper novel. Impulse picks up where the excellent Reflex left off, with Davy and Millie -- a couple who possess the power to teleport -- living in exile, hiding away from the sadistic, power-hungry plutocrats who would enslave them and use them to increase their corrupt power. But now Davy and Millie have an adolescent daughter, Cent (short for Millicent), and she's not happy living in an isolated cabin in the Yukon with a pair of teleports who are her only means of getting to civilization. Though there are some perks: when Mom and Dad take her shopping, it's as apt to be in Tokyo or Sydney as at the local Sears. Cent's parents are understandably (over)protective of her. They've been hunted like animals, tortured, gassed, shot, by the conspiracy of wealth and privilege that would turn them into property. The last thing they want is for their daughter to be hunted too -- especially since Cent can't teleport. And then she does. Once Cent comes into the family gift, things change. Her demand to be put into a regular school, to have friends, and a semblance of a normal life, is finally taken seriously by her parents. After all, if Cent doesn't get what she wants, she might just jump away and take it. What proceeds is a book with the twin geniuses of Steven C Gould novels: first, a plot that roars along at 150mph without a pause for breath (I read Impulse over the course of about three hours, without a break); second, a fantastic, fresh, thoroughgoing explanation of the untapped possibilities of a old science fictional idea made new by an imaginative approach. As with the other Jumper books, Gould plays out the possibilities of teleportation with a combination of physics tutorials and spycraft that is absolutely enthralling. Watching Cent get into (and out of) trouble, fall in love, battle bullies, and even intervene in humanitarian disasters is a pure delight. Gould shows us that with the right mixture of creativity and rigor, any idea can be spun out in a thousand fascinating ways. This is a marvellous, if long overdue, installment in a series that I love to pieces. Now, if only Gould would return to his (equally wonderful) Seventh Sigma world! ImpulseThis article is over 1 year old Police in Östergötland say four rapes and 23 sexual assaults were reported at country’s biggest music festival over the weekend Sweden’s largest music festival has been cancelled next year due to reports of rape and sexual assaults at the event over the weekend. Allegations of rape and sexual assault at several music festivals in recent years have sparked outrage in Sweden. Police in the south-eastern district of Östergötland, where the annual Bråvalla festival took place, said they received four rape and 23 sexual assault reports between Thursday and Sunday. One woman said she was forced to have sex with a man after changing her mind. “Certain men … apparently cannot behave. It’s a shame. We have therefore decided to cancel Bråvalla 2018,” the festival’s organisers said. The chief police investigator, Martin Hedberg, said: “Many reports [of sexual assault] come after they’ve happened so there are weak descriptions [of the suspects] and nothing more to go on.” Last year, local media reported that five women were allegedly raped at the four-day festival, attended by thousands of people each year. The prime minister condemned the incidents and called for more surveillance at festivals. “This is so disgusting. These are obnoxious acts by deplorable men,” Stefan Löfven told the Swedish daily Expressen in televised comments on Sunday. “This must stop” The prime minister said the government was in talks with the police about increasing surveillance at such events. Mail Online sex attack story 'filled with lies', Swedish woman says Read more Last year, police were accused of withholding information about about alleged sexual assaults against women by young immigrants at a Stockholm summer music festival in 2014 and 2015. But the Swedish prosecutor’s office later dropped an investigation into the case. This year’s Bråvalla festival continued as planned despite the alleged assaults and ended on Saturday with performances by the Killers, Prophets of Rage and Dutch DJ Martin Garrix. FKP Scorpio, the German owner of the Bråvalla festival, blamed last year’s incidents on a drop in ticket sales. The festival sold about 45,000 tickets this year compared with 52,000 in 2016. “It stopped being about music and became almost completely about crime and violence,” said Folkert Koopmans, chief executive of FKP Scorpio.Panda Bear will be performing live in the UK and Europe next March, with a show at The Brixton Electric in London on 4th March 2015. Full dates with ticket links are as follows: WED 04/03/15 London UK Brixton Electric THU 05/03/15 Brussels BE Orangerie FRI 06/03/15 Paris FR Gaité Lyrique SUN 08/03/15 Zeewolde NL Where The Wild Things Are Festival TUE 10/03/15 Berlin DE Certain People @ Berghain WED 11/03/15 Lisbon Portugal Teatro Maria Matos THU 12/03/15 Braga Portugal GNRation Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper, or PBVSGR as the album has been referred to cryptically online over the past few months, is the fifth studio album from Animal Collective founding member and critically acclaimed solo artist Noah Lennox, a.k.a. Panda Bear. The album will be released via Domino on January 12th in the UK and January 13th in the United States. Watch the video for Mr Noah, the album’s first single, directed by AB/CD/CD, below. The Mr Noah EP, a 4-song standalone EP featuring the single, plus 3 new tracks that will not be on the forthcoming album is available to buy and to stream now. The exclusive iTunes pre-order of the album will come with the EP as instant gratification tracks. Noah has had a far-from-quiet few years since the release of his fourth solo record, 2011’s Tomboy. Since the breakout success of 2007’s universally-adored Person Pitch, each new Panda Bear release is a highly anticipated event, and a high-profile Daft Punk collaboration later (Doin’ It Right, from Random Access Memories), that’s more the case than ever. Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper finds our hero leaving the airy minimalism of Tomboy and unpacking his sonic toolbox again, rearranging the multitude of his disparate influences into the ever-morphing concoction he refers to as “the soup.” Old school hip-hop textures and production techniques meld with the intuitive, cyclical melodies he has become known for, for a sound that is at once dense and playful. Recording for the album came together everywhere from El Paso, Texas, to a garage by the beach near his home in Lisbon, Portugal. In a relationship that already proved fruitful on Tomboy, Noah partnered again with Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember, this time in a more top-to-bottom production role. Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper signifies a pivotal point for an artist who has proven he can continue to evolve while remaining at the top of his game. As Noah says, “It’s sort of marking change — not necessarily an absolute death, but the ending of something, and hopefully the beginning of something else.” Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper will be available in Standard CD and 2xLP formats, and Limited Edition Deluxe 2xCD and 3xLP formats. The Limited Edition Deluxe 2xCD and 3xLP includes the 4-song Mr Noah EP in addition to the album in deluxe packaging. Exclusive bundles that include a limited edition T-shirt and lithograph are available via the Animal Collective webstore. All pre-orders come with an instant download of the Mr Noah EP. For more information, head to the Domino website. Visit Panda Bear’s new website PBVSGR.com and sign up if you dare. Mr Noah EP Tracklisting Mr Noah Faces In The Crowd Untying The Knot This Side Of Paradise Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper TracklistingFraxinet or Fraxinetum (Arabic: فرخشنيط‎, translit. Farakhshanīt or فرخسة‎ Farakhsha, from Latin fraxinus: "ash tree", fraxinetum: "ash forest") was the site of a 10th-century fortress established by Muslims at modern La Garde-Freinet, near Saint-Tropez, in Provence. The modern Massif des Maures ("plateau of Moors") takes its name from the Muslims of Fraxinet. Muslim Fraxinet [ edit ] According to Liudprand of Cremona, in about 889 a ship carrying twenty adventurers from Pechina near Almería in what was then called Al-Andalus anchored in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez in Provence. They were called muwallad, that is, converts to Islam who spoke both Latin and Arabic.[1] They built a tiny stone fortification and protected their outposts by cultivating thorny bushes. The region around Fraxinet was known in contemporary sources as Djabal al-Qilâl (Arabic: جبل القِلال‎, "mountain of the many peaks") and is, strangely enough, depicted on Arab maps of the period as an island. The area controlled by Fraxinet included St-Tropez, its gulf and hinterland, as well as Ramatuelle and its peninsula.[2] Ibn Hawqal recorded that the area was richly cultivated by its Muslim inhabitants, and they have been credited with a number of agricultural and fishing innovations for the region. Shipwrecks in the area indicate that Fraxinet may have been a center of trade as much as piracy.[3] A leader of Fraxinet itself, Nasr ibn Ahmad, is mentioned in the Muqtabis of Ibn Hayyan of Córdoba, the greatest historian of medieval Spain. According to that 11th-century chronicle, Abd ar-Rahman III made peace in 939-940 with a number of Frankish rulers and sent copies of the peace treaty to Nasr ibn Ahmad, described as the commander of Farakh shanit, as well as to the Arab governors of the Balearic Islands and the seaports of al-Andalus—all of them subject to the Umayyad caliphate. Nothing else is revealed about the Fraxinet commander.[4] Fraxinet and Christendom [ edit ] Christian sources, especially Liudprand[5] and the Vita sancti Bobonis, depict the Moors of Fraxinet as brigands. From their base, they ravaged the surrounding area, reaching as far as Piedmont in northern Italy and effectively raided and plundered the Alpine passes between France and Italy. In 931 King Hugh of Italy, along with some Byzantine ships, attacked Fraxinetum. The Byzantines were able to overcome the Muslim ships with Greek fire, while Hugh's troops entered the town. However, in 941 Hugh allowed the Muslims of Fraxinetum to harass the Alpine passes for his own political ends in his struggle with Berengar of Ivrea.[6] There was a skirmish between Muslim and Hungarian cavalry in May 942, which ended with a Hungarian victory[citation needed]. It was assumed by Emperor Otto I that the Umayyad Caliph of Córdoba, Abd-ar-Rahman III, was sovereign over Fraxinetum, and he sent John of Gorze as ambassador in 953 to demand the cessation of the pirates' activities. A return embassy from the Caliph was made by the Mozarab bishop Recemund. Most authors ascribe Fraxinetum to the Caliph’s territory.[7] The end of Fraxinet [ edit ] The Muslims were defeated at the Battle of Tourtour by William I of Provence. They were expelled from Fraxinetum in 973 by an alliance of Rotbold I of Provence and Arduin Glaber. With the capture of Fraxinet the Alpine passes were reopened to Christian travellers. Renewed contact between France, Italy and Germany helped the dispersal of architectural and artistic styles, especially from the craftsmen of Lake Como, which led to rise of the Romanesque style across Western Europe.[8] Chronology of Fraxinet [ edit ] The Andalusis introduced fine pine tar called goudron, a word derived from the Arabic qitran, with the same meaning. The Andalusis also taught the villagers medical skills and introduced both ceramic tiles and the tambourine to the area. Some French scholars believe the Andalusis of Fraxinet introduced the cultivation of buckwheat, a grain that has two names in modern French, blé noir ("black wheat") and blé sarrasin ("Saracen wheat"). See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] Coordinates:Photo Related Links Document: Amended Prospectus Lending Club shot to prominence nearly eight years ago by helping borrowers and lenders avoid big banks and find each other directly through the Internet. Now, the lending platform is hoping that Wall Street investors will flock to buy into its forthcoming initial public offering. The company disclosed in an amended prospectus on Monday that it planned to price its stock sale at $10 to $12 a share, potentially raising up to $692.4 million. At the midpoint of that range, it would be valued at about $4 billion. As Lending Club executives take to the road for the next week to meet with potential investors, they are aiming to convince those institutions — including investment arms of some of the banks the company has sought to displace — that the prospects of the peer-to-peer lending industry it helped create are looking brighter than ever. A lot is riding on the company’s initial offering. Should it succeed, other alternative lenders, including competitors like Prosper Marketplace and the small-business specialist OnDeck Capital, might also look to tap institutional investors for millions of dollars in their own market debuts. Determining the best pricing for Lending Club’s I.P.O. has been tricky because the company will be in a league of its own when it begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol LC. No other alternative lender trades on the public markets, meaning that Lending Club’s bankers will have to use otherwise unrelated comparisons like nonfinancial Internet start-ups as benchmarks for the company’s performance. Behind the rise of such lenders is the belief that traditional banks, hamstrung by tougher capital requirements and expensive infrastructures, have stopped providing certain kinds of loans, particularly to smaller borrowers. Lending Club’s business model revolves around using advanced computer algorithms to match those seeking money with those willing to provide it. Customers who have relatively high-quality credit, with FICO scores starting at about 660, can borrow up to $35,000 at interest rates averaging about 14 percent. The initial lenders on the service were individuals, but now a significant percentage are big mutual funds and hedge funds. And though the company began with personal loans, meant for borrowers looking to refinance credit card debt with high interest rates, it has moved into other offerings. Small businesses can now borrow up to $100,000 through the platform. Moreover, in November, the lending platform unveiled a new two-year “superprime” loan offering that lets customers borrow up to $10,000 at an interest rate of less than 5 percent. Lending Club already has the backing of some of the biggest names on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley. Its board includes Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary; John J. Mack, the former chief executive of Morgan Stanley; and Mary Meeker, the venture capitalist and onetime star Internet analyst. And its existing investors include Google, the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the mutual fund giants T. Rowe Price and BlackRock. Should the I.P.O. price at the high end of its range with $12 a share, several of Lending Club’s other shareholders will see their wealth rise, at least on paper. The holdings of Norwest Venture Partners, which will amount to 14 percent of the company after the stock sale, will be worth nearly $610 million. Shares held by Renaud Laplanche, the company’s chief executive, will be worth about $178.8 million. The I.P.O. is being led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Citigroup.A Georgia man trying to videotape shooting a lawn mower packed with explosives lost his leg. "We get a lot of calls about Tannerite. It can be extremely dangerous if it is not used correctly," Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman told 11Alive's Duffie Dixon. Tannerite is the brand name of a combination of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder. When mixed and shot with a high-velocity bullet, it creates a loud noise and explosion. The manufacturer recommends using no more than half a pound at one time. But demonstrations using up to 100 pounds at one time have become popular internet videos. The apparent attempt to make one of those internet videos cost one man his leg. According to the March 19th incident report obtained by 11Alive, a sheriff's deputy responded to a call about an explosion. A 911 call reported 32-year-old David Pressley was shooting Tannerite in the woods and "had possibly blown his legs off from the explosion." PHOTOS \| Man shoots explosives-packed lawnmower, loses leg Two of Pressley's friends fashioned a tourniquet around his leg, helped him to the front seat of a vehicle, and drove him to a nearby road. That's where EMS met the group and started working on Pressley. "EMS advised David was missing his left leg below the knee," the report notes. Sign up for the daily 5 Things to Know Newsletter Thank You Something went wrong. This email will be delivered to your inbox once a day in the morning. Thank you for signing up for the 5 Things to Know newsletter Please try again later. Submit He was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He is now recovering from the incident. One of Pressley's friends told investigators they put three pounds of Tannerite into an old lawn mower "to blow it up". That friend also told the responding deputy the entire incident was captured on video. It became police evidence. 11Alive obtained that video. It shows Pressley dressed in what appears to be a tactical vest, sunglasses, and a ball cap. He shoots a semi-automatic rifle at the lawn mower for 30 seconds, getting off more than 20 shots. On the last shot, the lawnmower explodes in a cloud of water vapor. Shrapnel can be seen flying in all direction. The camera shot wavers. "I blew my leg off! Oh, [expletive]!" That's when what's happened hits the amateur cameraman: "Aw, [expletive]!" "Call an ambulance! Call an ambulance!" a voice is heard yelling. The video ends. Tannerite is legal (though not intended to be used in this way). No charges will be filed. The Tannerite website spells out its intended use (as a shot indicator) and posts a warning: Our patented and trademarked invention is designed for precision, long range target practice. Tannerite®, when used as prescribed, is safe/legal/fun for shooters from all walks of life. Please read all sections of this website so that you know you are in compliance with regulations. The site also includes an FBI guide for sellers of Tannerite. It shows intended use (1 pound shot indicator) and misuse (50 pound exploding vehicle). The company's site references recent injuries: Every time someone gets hurt with their own concoction or a fly-by-night patent thief's product, we get pointed at, and we are sick and tired of it. In the Walton County case, friends, police, 911 dispatcher, and the Sheriff all refer to Tannerite by name.Company Extends Chef IT Automation Platform with Proven DevOps Workflow for Managing Change in Enterprise IT; Now Available through Invitation Program SEATTLE and SANTA CLARA, Calif. – April 1, 2015 – This week at ChefConf 2015, Chef, the leader in automation for DevOps, announced Chef Delivery, a new DevOps workflow product that for the first time enables the continuous delivery of infrastructure, runtime environments – including containers – and applications. With Chef Delivery, the company has captured success patterns of its most innovative customers and distilled them into a product that brings advanced software development practices to all developers and system administrators who manage changes in enterprise IT environments. Customers can sign up today to try Chef Delivery through an invitation program. As enterprises embrace the cloud, their infrastructure and applications have shifted from static systems into rapidly changing services. A large enterprise must make a continuous series of changes to its networks, servers and applications – upgrades, patches, firmware updates, new configurations, and deployments – every single day. Because businesses are racing to shorten the time from idea to value, Chef has distilled its strength in high-velocity IT into a new product for the software-driven enterprise. Built on Chef’s IT automation platform, Chef Delivery uses a unified process to automate changes to infrastructure, runtime environments and applications at the same time. Chef Delivery provides a robust framework for automated testing, continuous integration and continuous delivery. It extends the Chef platform currently used by hundreds of enterprises worldwide, including Bloomberg, Disney, Facebook, GE Capital, Intuit, Nordstrom, Standard Bank, Target, and Yahoo, all of which are speaking this week at ChefConf. News Highlights: Chef Delivery’s advanced software workflow shortens the time from business idea to capturing value. It includes: Robust Pipeline: Chef Delivery provides a shared pipeline and proven workflow for software development that safely takes code from a developer’s or operations engineer’s workstation through build, test and production. Chef Delivery provides a shared pipeline and proven workflow for software development that safely takes code from a developer’s or operations engineer’s workstation through build, test and production. Platform for Collaboration: Each step of the Delivery pipeline incorporates automated testing to provide developers, operations engineers, compliance and security officers, and IT architects rapid feedback on proposed changes. The common workflow allows personnel of each IT discipline to work together with full visibility into the flow of changes through the pipeline. Policies can be easily applied at each step to ensure maximum change control and governance. Each step of the Delivery pipeline incorporates automated testing to provide developers, operations engineers, compliance and security officers, and IT architects rapid feedback on proposed changes. The common workflow allows personnel of each IT discipline to work together with full visibility into the flow of changes through the pipeline. Policies can be easily applied at each step to ensure maximum change control and governance. Sophisticated Analytics: Chef Delivery provides metrics for all stages of your development pipeline. With full audit capabilities, you can track both pipeline performance and activity, manage permissions and access comprehensive change history from easy to use dashboards. Chef Delivery provides metrics for all stages of your development pipeline. With full audit capabilities, you can track both pipeline performance and activity, manage permissions and access comprehensive change history from easy to use dashboards. Scalable Architecture: Chef Delivery was designed from the ground up for performance and scalability. Its architecture is fully integrated with the Chef Server and designed to meet the demands of the largest and most complex enterprise IT environments. Chef Delivery was designed from the ground up for performance and scalability. Its architecture is fully integrated with the Chef Server and designed to meet the demands of the largest and most complex enterprise IT environments. Full Ecosystem Integration: Chef Delivery integrates with an extensive array of operating systems and runtime environments, including public cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, as well as runtime environments such as Docker containers. Availability: Chef Delivery is currently available through an invitation program. Pricing: Chef Delivery will be sold in 2015 on a subscription basis. Supporting Quotes “The tools we use reinforce the behavior; the behavior reinforces the tool. Thus, if you want to change your behavior, change your tools.” – Adam Jacob, CTO, Chef Additional Resources Invitation Program to Chef Delivery Learn more about Chef Follow Chef on Twitter @chef Watch ChefConf 2015 via livestream About Chef We are Chef — the leader in automation for DevOps. We give you a model for automating IT infrastructure and applications that drive self-reliance across your development and operations teams. We are the Chef community. We are tens of thousands strong. We are helping your businesses become faster, safer and more flexible, so you win in today’s 24×7 digital economy. Join our movement today. https://www.chef.io/The federal government is doubling its estimate of how much oil might be discovered and harvested in the booming area of the Dakotas and Montana, a region that’s already helping to drive the United States’ dramatic shift into a role as the world’s leading oil producer. “These world-class formations contain even more energy resource potential than previously understood, which is important information as we continue to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign sources of oil,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday in a conference call. The surge comes primarily because of the Three Forks shale formation, which lies mostly in North Dakota and crosses into South Dakota and Montana. It was considered to have little potential for productive drilling the last time federal geologists launched an estimate of the area, four years ago. But advances in drilling techniques and growing activity by oil companies caused the U.S. Geological Survey to take a closer look. The USGS now thinks the Three Forks formation contains 3.73 billion barrels of undiscovered and technically recoverable oil. Combined with a similar figure for the neighboring Bakken formation, it represents double the oil and nearly triple the natural gas that geologists thought the region held four years ago. “The Three Forks was the big unknown,” said Brenda Pierce, the energy resources program coordinator for the USGS. “There’s been tremendous development in the Bakken, but the Three Forks is up and coming.” Intense development of the Bakken formation transformed North Dakota in recent years. North Dakota even passed Alaska last year and now ranks just behind Texas as the second leading oil-producing state in America. The oil is in shale rock and is recovered by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, a controversial process known as fracking in which highly pressurized water and chemicals are injected underground to break through the rock and free up oil and gas. Just because oil and gas are technically recoverable doesn’t mean it’s necessarily economic to drill at this point. But drilling is exploding in North Dakota. And Jewell said the new estimates for the Three Forks and Bakken formations would help companies and the government decide how to develop them. “Foreign oil imports now account for less than 40 percent of oil consumed in America,” Jewell said. “That’s the lowest level since 1988.” The International Energy Agency forecasts that the United States’ domestic energy boom will allow it to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer by about 2017. Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali al Naimi, said Tuesday that he welcomed the United States’ new bounty into the global oil market. But he said it wouldn’t mean an end to America’s “so-called” reliance on foreign sources of oil. “I believe this talk of ending reliance is a naive, a rather simplistic view.... Talk of energy independence fails to recognize the interconnected nature of the global energy markets,” he said in an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research center in Washington. America will still use a range of energy sources to meet domestic demand, Naimi predicted. A better question than whether America is energy independent, he said, might be whether the United States starts allowing exports of its crude. “We are all part of a global market, and no country is truly energy independent,” Naimi said.A Napa man was arrested Wednesday morning on suspicion of burglarizing six residences, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s St. Helena house twice, a Napa County sheriff’s captain said. The five burglaries in Napa County and one in Solano County occurred in the past week, Capt. Tracy Stuart said. The suspect, Kevin Michael Hagan, 21, admitted the six burglaries since Halloween, including those at Pelosi’s residence on Zinfandel Lane outside St. Helena on Nov. 5 and 6, Stuart said. Deputies found a glass door to the main Pelosi residence and a glass door to the pool house had been smashed when they responded to an alarm there around 2:50 p.m. on Nov. 5. No one was home at the time and it’s unknown what was taken, Stuart said. On Nov. 6 at 9:50 a.m., a caretaker at the Pelosi home discovered plywood that was placed over the broken glass doors the day before had been removed, and someone entered the main house and pool house, Stuart said. It appeared someone looked through drawers and cabinets, Stuart said. Sheriff’s deputies responded at 10:10 a.m. today to a residence at 2150 Silverado Trail outside St. Helena after a caretaker found an upstairs door open and a locked bedroom door, Stuart said. Thinking someone might be inside the house, the caretaker called police, Stuart said. A sheriff’s deputy discovered a window had been removed and a suspect was inside the house, Stuart said. Hagan was found and admitted burglarizing the Pelosi residence twice and two other properties on Zinfandel Lane, Stuart said. Stuart said Hagan did not realize it was Pelosi’s home the first time he burglarized it but he was aware the second time. Hagan took deputies to the properties and he was arrested on suspicion of 10 counts of burglary, felony vandalism and a violation of probation for prior burglaries and thefts, Stuart said. Hagan had a watch and coin collection taken from the Pelosi residence and Bose headphones taken from another victim’s residence, Stuart said. He was booked into the Napa County jail.Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. A Palestinian activist from east Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp, who was shot dead in a hail of bullets on Monday night, feared for his life for working with Israeli officials to improve living conditions in the beleaguered community, the former east Jerusalem portfolio head said on Wednesday. Baha Nabata, 31,
accident report. In the earlier accident, Mandel was being driven by Jacob Dummermuth, then a 21-year-old Senate campaign intern, when their vehicle collided with another in a downtown Columbus intersection near Mandel’s state offices at about 3 p.m. on April 26, 2011. Dummermuth was driving a Ford Explorer owned by his father, according to the Columbus police report. At the time, Mandel had been Ohio’s state treasurer for a little more than three months. He had not yet announced his plan to run for the Senate. Using campaign accounts to pay for official state trips is legally allowed, but it can raise transparency issues for public officials. Most make known any traffic accidents they’re involved in — such as a four-vehicle accident in April involving Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Those driving state vehicles are required to report accidents immediately. Wasserstein said Mandel had a political event in Toledo on March 6 and traveled up the night before in hopes of beating a snowstorm. His official calendar for April 26, 2011, shows Mandel was due at a videotaping at the Statehouse to promote his Center for Public Investment Management on the afternoon of the crash. Ohio Secretary of State filings show Pochitila, his driver in March, is paid by Mandel’s state treasurer campaign. The federal campaign, Citizens for Josh Mandel Inc., reported to the FEC that it purchased the vehicle it was driving for $13,800 on March 8, 2012, ahead of the November Senate election. The March accident report lists Citizens for Josh Mandel as the vehicle’s owner. Ohio campaign finance law would have prohibited transferring the vehicle from the federal to the state campaign, though the state campaign could legally have purchased the vehicle. The state campaign chose to pay $1,000 to rent it for two months from the federal campaign. Wasserstein said the rental fee covered January and February. After questioning by the AP, the campaign wrote an additional check for about $80 to cover the days in March before the vehicle was wrecked. The campaign provided listings showing several area Jeep rentals for less than $500 a month. Mandel’s state treasurer campaign reported in Ohio filings that it bought a new vehicle for $15,000 on April 9, the month after the March crash.NEW DELHI: Bullish on a series of reforms unveiled in the year passing-by, the government expects FDI inflows to rise by 40-45 per cent in the New Year while further steps could be on anvil to attract foreign capital.As per the latest available figure for 2015, FDI inflows during January-September period has increased by 18 per cent to USD 26.51 billion.In the entire 2014, India had received FDI worth USD 28.78 billion as compared to USD 22 billion in 2013."FDI will grow by 40-45 per cent in 2016 despite the global slowdown. The government has taken vast number of policy measures this year," Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Amitabh Kant told PTI.The sectors that have attracted maximum FDI this year include services, computer hardware and software, telecom, automobile and trading.Singapore is the top source for FDI coming into India, followed by Mauritius, UK, Japan, the Netherlands and the US.In a bid to streamline the FDI structure, the government this year introduced a composite foreign investment cap by clubbing all forms of overseas investments to define sectoral limits. It has also relaxed e-commerce norms for foreign companies having manufacturing facilities in India.Kant said that the steps announced to improve ease of doing business would help India in becoming the most easiest place for investors.He said that the government is planning to put 98 per cent of sectors, which are open to foreign investments, under the automatic route so that businessmen won't need to visit the Finance Ministry or 'Udyog Bhavan' for any approval.India's ranking in the World Bank's report on ease of doing business improved to 130th position this year from 142nd last year out of 189 countries. The Prime Minister has set a target to bring this rank to top-50.For the first time, states have also been ranked in terms of ease of doing business. Gujarat topped the World Bank-compiled ranking of Indian states for bringing in reforms to improve 'ease of doing business'.Foreign Direct Investment is important for the country as it needs around USD 1 trillion worth investments between 2012-13 and 2016-17, the 12th Five Year Plan period, to fund infrastructure growth covering sectors such as ports, airports and highways.Experts said there are huge expectations for a significant jump in FDI flows in 2016, but a lot would depend on the 'Make in India' programme."FDI should improve next year but much will depend on the performance of 'Make in India' programme in terms of more reform measures and steps to further improve ease of doing business in the country," said Krishan Malhotra of corporate law firm Shardul Amarchand and Mangaldas.As part of the reform measures, the government has hiked foreign investment caps, opened new sectors and relaxed norms for several segments.It permitted portfolio investors to buy up to 74 per cent in local private banks, with full fungibility, while palm, coffee and rubber plantations have been opened up for the first time.FDI norms have also been eased in real estate, defence, civil aviation and news broadcasting sectors.Sourcing rules for single brand retailers, particularly for high-tech, have been eased by allowing them to sell online without specific permissions. But there is no change in 51 per cent limit for multi-brand retailers like Wal-Mart.To improve investment climate, the DIPP has taken a series of steps that include having a time line for clearance of applications, de-licensing the manufacturing of many defence products and introduction of e-Biz project for single window clearance.Intelligence panel votes 13 to two in favour of bill which would force the public disclosure of civilian drone-strike deaths A new Senate bill authorizing the next year’s worth of intelligence operations would force the public disclosure of civilian deaths in drone strikes and add protections for spy-sector whistleblowers that are being hailed by advocates. The bill, which was approved in the Senate intelligence committee this week by 13 votes to two, would require the president to provide greater visibility than ever before into the controversial drones programme. Each year, the president would have to “make public” a report listing “the total number of combatants killed or injured during the preceding year by the use of targeted lethal force outside the United States by remotely piloted aircraft”. The drone casualties so listed would not include those from declared war zones – putting a focus on civilians killed and injured in so-called “shadow battlefields” in places like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Estimating the number of civilians killed in drone strikes is as difficult as it is contentious. Most observers are hard-pressed to enter places like the tribal regions of Pakistan. Drone strikes are most often reported by anonymous security officials, who have an interest in describing the dead as combatants. Various non-governmental organizations keep estimates of civilian drone casualties – usually in the hundreds, stretching back to the early 2000s – but there is no consensus on a figure, let alone an official statement. In February, during his nomination hearing to run the CIA, which conducts the majority of US drone strikes, John Brennan signaled an openness to issue a public estimate. “I believe that, to the extent that US national security interests can be protected, the US government should make public the overall numbers of civilian deaths resulting from US strikes targeting al-Qaida,” Brennan said in responses to prepared questions from the same Senate committee that passed the bill. The CIA declined to comment on the proposal. Representatives for Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate committee, did not reply to requests for comment by deadline. The bill also includes an unlikely proposal relating to the most controversial aspect of drone strikes as far as a US audience is concerned: taking steps to avert mistakes in targeting US persons in such strikes. The bill would require the director of national intelligence to conduct an alternative assessment, known as a “red team analysis”, of the intelligence underlying a determination by any intelligence agency that a US person – a citizen or resident alien – is being considered for “the use of targeted lethal force”. The director would have to notify his inspector general and the congressional intelligence committees that such a determination was made, and would have 15 days to compile the red team analysis. That analysis would not appear to have the power to override a decision to kill a US person. “Nothing in this section shall be construed to impede the ability of the United States Government to conduct any operation consistent with otherwise applicable law,” the bill reads, although a later section adds: “Nothing in this section may be construed to authorize the use of targeted lethal force against a United States person.” CIA director John Brennan has signalled an openness to a public estimate of civilian drone-strike deaths. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images The US has acknowledged killing four Americans in drone strikes, including the al-Qaida propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year old son, Abdulrahman. Only the elder Awlaki was an intentional target, officials have said, although as yet there has been no restitution made for the apparently accidental deaths. A different provision of the bill would for the first time extend whistleblower protections to members of the intelligence community, comparable to those enjoyed by other federal employees. The effort would incentivize future Edward Snowdens to take their concerns about waste, fraud, abuse or illegality inside the 16 intelligence agencies to “the appropriate inspector general of the employing agency, a congressional intelligence committee, or a member of a congressional intelligence committee”, according to the bill text. Currently, would-be whistleblowers inside the intelligence agencies do not enjoy protections from retaliation. Snowden, the ex-NSA contractor who leaked a trove of documents about the NSA to the Guardian and the Washington Post, has said he had no confidence that internal whistleblower rules within the intelligence community protected him from reprisal. The proposal still would not do so: it does not apply to contractors. It also mandates internal agency hearings to adjudicate whistleblower disputes, rather than an outside or judicial body. According to Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project, this “locks in an institutional conflict of interest”. But Devine, whose organization advocates for whistleblower rights, hailed the proposal as a “landmark breakthrough”. Previous congressional attempts to extend whistleblower protections to intelligence agency employees have foundered. “This is not a final solution, but its passage would be a breakthrough paradigm shift for free-speech rights, to challenge abuses of power and corruption in intelligence agencies without risking threats to national security in the process,” Devine said.Visiting the Zulu king seems top of the to-do the list for presidential hopefuls as the ANC's December national conference draws near -- and there's a good reason for it. King Goodwill Zwelithini commands substantial influence in many parts of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), the province with the highest number of voting delegates attending the conference. Aspiring politicians are well-aware of this. Last month, ANC treasurer-general and presidential frontrunner Zweli Mkhize stood side by side with the king at his royal kraal during the annual reed dance festival in Nongoma north of Durban. Mkhize swopped out his posh suits for a white vest and leopard skin, making an impression on those who hold traditional leadership in high regard. During his speech the king even gave him a special mention for his continued support of the festival, stretching back to when he was KZN premier. The king holds an important place in the traditional and political dynamics in KZN. Mkhize's presidential opponent Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has been making an effort to visit traditional leaders whenever she speaks in rural parts of the country -- like she did in Limpopo recently. But her recent visit to the Zulu king specifically stood out, as she was welcomed with open arms. Zwelethini gifted the KZN-born Dlamini-Zuma and her ANC Women's League compatriots a cow upon their arrival. The king holds an important place in the traditional and political dynamics in KZN, explained political expert at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Lubna Nadvi. "KZN has a particular set of dynamics, traditionally and politically. The king holds an important place in that he commands respect as a leader in the community and among those who follow him," Nadvi said. "Traditional leaders are held to a certain standard by politicians. They have great influence over a large size of the electorate and exert that influence on that community to steer the voters." She said it is part of the candidates' overall campaign strategy. Before democracy, kings and other traditional leaders across the country were at the forefront of development in rural communities. "But it also speaks to the way in which politicians engage with traditional leaders, sometimes seeking blessings and advice," she explained, especially for Dlamini-Zuma and Mkhize. "They are from KZN and part of the Zulu tradition. There is an existing respect for traditional forms of governance." Before democracy, kings and other traditional leaders across the country were at the forefront of development in rural communities, commented political analyst Ralph Mathekga. "But their influence was withdrawn after 1994, and they lost most of their legitimacy. A lot of the community's trust was given to the new government. But towards 2010, the traditional leaders started gaining legitimacy again," Mathekga said. "Corruption and lack of service delivery has led to a decline in community trust in local government. This gave traditional leaders a better rapport with community members." Mathekga said politicians "cozy up" to kings and other traditional leaders to use them as a platform to influence voting. "It is the same effect in the presidential race because candidates are appealing to branches. Branch leaders work closely with monarchs and local leaders in various communities, so there is a direct connection between the two," he said.Gameband is packing a 1.63-inch AMOLED display paired with Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip clocked at 1.2GHz. Other features include a 400mAh battery, USB C, Bluetooth 4.2 and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi as well as an integrated microSD card slot. The unit runs a tweaked version of Android Marshmallow and will work with both Android and iOS devices. You can also use it much like its predecessor: as a mobile storage device for PC-dependent games like Minecraft and Terraria. The device will come in three different flavors: a vanilla Gameband, as well as versions with Terraria and Atari branding. Each one, we're told, will come with 20 mini games pre-loaded, including versions of Pong, Asteroids and Centipede built for the small screen. In addition, the latter two will have a choice of limited-edition branded straps and digital watch faces to show your allegiance to the respective brand. Should you wish to grab one of these, then you can do so at the low price of $99, should you be an early backer on Kickstarter. Later backers will be asked to cough up $149, while latecomers will need to spend $199 if it meets its planed street date this September.GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Steelcase is donating its massive, multimillion-dollar pyramid-shaped former research facility to a nonprofit for use as a STEM-focused education hub that would cater to students in preschool through graduate school, according to officials. “We are really excited to see the building take on a different life,” said Laura VanSlyke, spokesperson for Steelcase Inc., about the proposed hub that aims to graduate more students knowledgeable in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) - and produce more STEM qualified teachers. “We think it will bring value to the state.” But while the concept is appealing to many, a number of questions remain unanswered about the group spearheading the initiative, its operations, and the educational institutions that could occupy the seven-story, 664,000-square-foot building located at 6100 East Paris Ave. SE. Chief among them: • Who are all the individuals/businesses behind the Pyramid P20 STEM Education Hub, the nonprofit foundation charged with setting the vision and managing the facility? • How will traditional schools, charters, and higher education institutions work collaboratively together on the site? • How much will they have to pay to occupy the space? • Is it a duplication of services currently offered? • Does it have the potential to benefit the entire state? The state Legislature is currently weighing in on the proposed educational facility’s merits. There's that was approved by the Senate Thursday, Feb. 21, and is scheduled to be taken up by the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 26. “It is an awful lot of money to spend on a concept,” said state Rep. Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, who added the project is shrouded in secrecy. “I would be very disappointed if this passed without a real understanding of the project detail, where the money is going and what’s it for.” But Sen. Mark Jansen, R-Gaines Township, said he pursued the funding because he thinks it is a “rare opportunity for the state to become a global leader for STEM education and teaching.” He defended the proposal for funding to develop the project against Senate Democrats, who have suggested possible political motivations for the proposed expenditure. “STEM is where everyone says Michigan’s focus should be,” said the term-limited Jansen, who said bolstering STEM education would be good for the economy. “I think it is a wise decision that can help the whole state. This is cutting-edge, creative thinking.” Businessman Jerry Zandstra, president of Inno-Versity, a Lowell-based firm that produces manufacturing training films, and , a new K-12 public online charter school, is the only publicly identified partner in the project. He said he and his partners have been working on the project for several months and have met with businesses. "The state is in desperate need of STEM-certified students and students with a STEM background," he said. “The program will focus on STEM plus art education and our vision is not to have unrelated schools in a building, but for it to be truly a hub with the integration of STEM education at all levels and at all ranges.” “The educational partners we bring on will be creative, innovative and collaborate, working as a team.” In the next few weeks, he said he will introduce the foundation's board and advisory board and release more information about the project. “I’m always interested in ways to make education more innovative. While I’m still learning about the specifics of the proposal, I will continue to put the needs of Michigan’s kids first,” said state Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons, R-Alto, who chairs the House Education Committee. Zandstra insists this is not a charter school initiative. He said the idea is to recruit traditional public schools and charters, such as Zeeland's Innocademy, from across the state to operate STEM-focused programs on the site, as well as colleges. He said there could also be some type of tech center arrangement, where students would come for a few hours. Questions have been raised about duplication. Both the Kent and Ottawa ISDs have tech centers. For example, KISD has STEM programming in mechatronics, information technology and health sciences and works closely with Grand Rapids Community College and area universities. But Zandstra sees the facility as being on another level in terms what it can offer students and does not think it's a duplication. He said he has been in conversations with retired school leaders about the initiative, but not current districts. “We are going to be looking around at a number of models of STEM and art education,” he said. “We want to learn as much as we can about how to integrate STEM education at the various levels, plus art, in a world-class way.” He said funding will go toward hiring experts, curriculum development, equipment and costs associated with bringing the program to fruition. During a tour of the facility, Tuesday, Feb. 25, Zandstra pointed out what floors students would occupy, the administrative offices, electrical, chemical and other lab areas, as well as space for such things a robotics. From the fifth floor, he pointed out where a gymnasium, soccer and baseball fields and dorms would be located. The P20 project doesn’t immediately stand out in the mid-year spending bill that includes things such as $100 million to road agencies across the state and an additional $114 million for the Michigan Department of Community Health. Zandstra plans to give lawmakers a tour of the facility and discuss the vision Friday. He said his group has talked with a dozen public universities and colleges about being on campus but wasn't ready to say who. Grand Rapids Community College has not been contacted yet. Grand Valley State University was briefed on the concept. "At this time, we are fully focused on our downtown initiatives. We have a new L. William Seidman Center that houses our business college, and we just purchased land near our Center for Health Sciences with the intention of expanding our health campus to accommodate students seeking degrees in the health professions and nursing," according to GVSU. Dillon said the project sounds like an intriguing idea, but no private sector company would give $5.5 million without knowing the specifics of the project and all the individuals involved. He said he doesn’t have a problem with competition with area schools but is concerned about a duplication of services. In 2009, Steelcase announced it would be moving its workforce from its landmark pyramid building to its 44th Street site and putting the triangular building on the market. at a cost of $111 million, and had been on the market for $19.5 million. Steelcase declined to say what it considers the current value of the property. According to county property tax records, the building site has an approximate value of $16.3 million and is 167 acres. The company is known for its support of multiple education initiatives, and is one of the businesses backing the University Preparatory Academy, a Grand Rapids schools public-private partnership. Zandstra said the P20 project will be phased in over five years beginning in 2015. "We want to make a contribution to the evolving nature of education," he said. Monica Scott is the Grand Rapids K-12 education writer. Email her at mscott2@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter @MScottGR orThe Sunday Business Post reports that Facebook has received a licence from the Central Bank to operate a financial payments service, two years after applying for authorisation. A subsidiary of the social media giant can now act as a payments provider and electronic money issuer, as well as provide credit transfers and remittance services across the EU, as a result of the regulatory approval. The company has been in the payments space for some time in the US. AIB mortgage compensation plan to beat PTSB AIB customers affected by interest overcharging after being wrongly denied cheap ECB tracker mortgage rates will receive better terms than rival Permanent TSB gave borrowers under its redress scheme last year, according to the Sunday Times. In addition to repaying overcharged interest, AIB will pay compensation equivalent to 15 per cent of refunds and a further amount taking account of the money customers had to live without during the relevant period. PTSB only offered 10 per cent compensation in addition to repayments, according to the report. One51 presses ahead with hazardous waste unit sale The Sunday Times also reports that One51 is in exclusive talks to sell its hazardous waste unit, Clear Circle Environmental, to management teams in the UK and Ireland for as much as €45 million. The two deals could be inked by the end of the year, marking One51’s exit from environmental services and allowing it to expand its fast-growing plastics business in Ireland, the UK and North America, the report said. Maurice Pratt joins new wellness fund The Sunday Independent reports that Maurice Pratt, the one-time head of cider-maker C&C, has joined the board of a new health and wellness fund set up by former head of Merrion Capital, John Conroy. Mr Conroy is reportedly aiming to raise around €74 million for the fund, according to the report. Mr Pratt, also previously the public face of Quinnsworth, has been joined by Con Scanlon, former deputy chairman of Eircom (now Eir), on the board of the fund. Medtech firm Lincor puts Australian merger on ice Irish medtech company Lincor Solutions has postponed a planned merger with Australian-listed technology company Hills, given volatility in financial markets, according to the Sunday Independent. The deal, announced in September, would have seen the creation of a new Australian-listed company, called Lincor Ltd. However, both companies said they remained committed to a deal.TRENTON, N.J., Aug. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- In a blow to anti-gun politicians and the gun ban lobby, today New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed a ban on fifty caliber firearms and conditionally vetoed two other bills - a "kitchen sink" bill attacking numerous rights of gun owners and sportsmen, and a bill that would have forced the New Jersey State Police to breach confidentiality of protected gun trace data in violation of federal law. A fourth bill creating a task force to study school security issues was signed by the Governor. A "conditional veto" means that the legislation is dead, unless the legislature reconvenes to resurrect it through amendments that meet strict conditions imposed by the Governor. Whether New Jersey Democrats have the stomach to swallow those conditions remains to be seen. Alternatively, the legislature could try to override the veto by a 2/3 vote of both houses, which is unlikely given the current composition of the legislature. "After 7 months of battle over misguided legislation that won't stop another crime or prevent another tragedy, we are grateful that Governor Christie has finally ended the discussion on the worst of the bills by tossing them onto the scrap heap where they belong," said Scott L. Bach, Executive Director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, the Garden State's premier Second Amendment organization. "These vetoes put gun-banning politicians on notice that exploiting tragedy to advance an agenda against legal gun owners, instead of punishing violent criminals, will not be entertained." New Jersey already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. DETAILS OF THE VETOED BILLS A3659 - The fifty caliber gun ban, would have: banned high muzzle-energy guns of any caliber; blocked heirlooms from family members; imposed civil liability on grandfathered owners if the firearms were used in a crime; and resulted in forfeiture of pending orders by legal gun owners for these $10,000+ firearms that are used primarily by wealthy hobbyists. The notion that banning any particular tool makes society safer is demonstrably false, and ignores the obvious reality that someone intent on doing evil will not be stopped or deterred if one particular tool becomes unavailable. "If box cutters could take down the World Trade Center, does anyone really believe that banning box cutters will stop the next terrorist?" asked Bach. "The same is true of firearms - banning the fifty caliber or any other firearm will not stop someone bent on doing evil," he said. The Governor's statement on A3659 criticizes the scope of the ban, notes drafting errors that would defeat grandfathering, and observes that rather than combating crime and terror, the bill only serves to threaten law-abiding gun owners with imprisonment for lawful recreation. S2723 - New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney's "kitchen sink" omnibus bill, a 42-page monstrosity universally despised by gun owners and sportsmen. The bill, touted by Democrats as the "centerpiece" of their gun bill package and a "national model," would have: thrown out existing firearms ID cards and replaced them with a privacy-invading driver license endorsement or other form of ID; suspended Second Amendment rights without proof of firearms training; ended firearms sales directly between background-checked licensed gun owners; and had numerous other impacts. Under Governor Christie's conditional veto, S2723 could only be resurrected if both houses of the legislature agreed to the following conditions: Remove all provisions that would have created a new electronic firearms ID card; Remove all provisions that would have suspended Second Amendment rights without proof of firearms training; Remove all provisions that would have ended firearms sales directly between background-checked licensed gun owners; and Add a provision requiring the State Police to develop and promulgate literature regarding safe firearms storage and ownership. It is unknown whether New Jersey's Democratic leadership would accept these conditions. While doing so would salvage what is left of their "centerpiece," the final bill would be a gutted version, stripped of the key attacks on legal gun owners about which they have boasted, and very likely an embarrassment to them. Governor Christie's statement accompanying his conditional veto criticized the legislature as "shortsighted" for focusing on gun control instead of comprehensive violence solutions. The statement also noted the bill's failure "to directly combat violence," and the current unavailability of the technology that would be required to implement the electronic ID card. A3797 - conditionally vetoed because of one section that required the State Police to breach confidentiality of federal gun trace data in direct violation of federal law limiting the data to law enforcement only. BATFE has opposed similar efforts to circumvent confidentiality, which could compromise ongoing investigations, and courts have rejected them as well. If the legislature amends the bill to remove this illegal provision, the amended bill would then return to the Governor's desk. The Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs is New Jersey's premier Second Amendment organization. Founded in 1936, it is the Garden State's oldest and largest gun group, representing New Jersey's one million law-abiding gun owners. Its mission is to promote responsible firearms ownership and defend the right to keep and bear arms. www.anjrpc.org CONTACT: Scott L. Bach, Executive Director, sbach@mindspring.com, +1-973-697-9270 SOURCE Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs Copyright (C) 2013 PR Newswire. All rights reservedSaturday, March 1st, 2014 marks the fourth annual Voodoo Carnival Mardi Gras Masquerade, a one night show that is viewed by many as the pre-show for the Steampunk Empire Symposium. This year the Voodoo Carnival returns to the Southgate House Revival (111 East 6th Street, Newport, KY, 41071) for a night of cabaret entertainment and masked revelry. Acts include music from band Animal Circles and DJ Nipples, belly dancing from Zahara’s Tangled Web, sideshow from the Pickled Brothers Circus, contortion from Jeanette Martinez, boylesquse from Lord Spencington, costume contests, and more... all host by yours truly, MC Aloysius Fox. There is no doubt that the Voodoo Carnival is Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky’s most elaborate Mardi Gras masquerade, and tickets are only $10 for advance purchase and $15 at the door. If you have yet to experience this delightfully decadent night of masks and mirth, check out pictures from past Voodoo Carnivals... 2013... 2012... and 2011. As the month of February slides us slowly toward Mardi Gras we shall bring you more details on our acts and what to expect... there’s even rumors of a return from the infamous Mr. Happy Trousers and his peculiar pants-full-of-prizes!Texas Power In Texas, a NET Power team is working towards building a power plant that runs off a form of carbon dioxide instead of steam. This would be the first plant of its kind. If successful, it could lead a massive transition towards green energy production. Traditional power plants generate electricity by pushing and spinning turbines with steam created by boiling water. That sounds green enough until you think about how that water is boiled; most often by burning natural gas or coal. The new design will replace steam with carbon dioxide so hot and pressurized that it’s actually in a supercritical state. This means that it fills up space like a gas, but has the density of a liquid. The appeal of using carbon dioxide is in this density, which allows for the use of much smaller turbines. This process will not only be greener because of the small size of the turbines: additionally, natural gas will be burned to heat the gas — but in an environment of pure oxygen. This will allow the release of only pure carbon dioxide without any additional byproducts. While this is not a completely emission free, environmentally friendly process, it’s by and large more efficient and green than previous methods.A New York State conversation cop saved a deer that was literally caught in a head light. Environmental Conservation Officer Jeff Hull was called to Centereach on Long Island to reports of a deer that had managed to get its head stuck inside a light globe from a lamppost on Tuesday morning. The report said the animal had got its head stuck inside the globe and had been laying in the woods since the night before, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said on its Facebook page. A New York State conversation cop saved a deer (pictured above) that was literally caught in a head light Upon arrival, Officer spotted the deer about 20 yards from the road in a housing development. Officer Hull approached the deer, but on his first attempt, ‘the wet globe slipped out of his hands.’ Unable to see, the deer then ran into a nearby downed tree and fell down, the department said. But then, Officer Hull threw his coat over the globe and grabbed it with both arms ‘as the deer kicked and struggled to break free.’ At this point, the deer managed to slip its head out of the globe and ran off into the woods. ‘ECO Hull was left with a good story and a few bruises, but his integrity intact,’ the department added.Compilation of some incredible moments in the history of visual effects, from silent films to recent blockbusters.The movies included in this clip span over 100 years of cinema history:* 1900 - The Enchanted Drawing* 1903 - The Great Train Robbery* 1923 - The Ten Commandments (Silent)* 1927 - Sunrise* 1933 - King Kong* 1939 - The Wizard of Oz* 1940 - The Thief of Baghdad* 1954 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea* 1956 - Forbidden Planet* 1963 - Jason and the Argonauts* 1964 - Mary Poppins* 1977 - Star Wars* 1982 - Tron* 1985 - Back to the Future* 1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit* 1989 - The Abyss* 1991 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day* 1992 - The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles* 1993 - Jurassic Park* 2004 - Spider-Man 2* 2005 - King Kong* 2006 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest* 2007 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End* 2007 - The Golden Compass* 2008 - The Spiderwick Chronicles* 2008 - The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonDEMBA Ba has issued his strongest denial yet that he is looking for a route out of Newcastle United. Speaking at United’s Algarve training base in a week which has seen him linked with Liverpool and Russian side Rubin Kazan, Ba has rejected talk that he is seeking a money-spinning move away from Tyneside. His well-documented contract clause has placed him at the centre of speculation all summer but, with just four days left until the reported £7.5m clause is de-activated, Ba says his focus is solely on next season with Newcastle. The striker is scheduled to play a part in tonight’s clash with Olympiakos – the first of two games set to be contested in the XII Trofeo Guadiana this weekend. After taking part in a brisk evening work-out yesterday, he brushed off the speculation surrounding his United future with a frank denial of the latest round of rumours. “I don’t care what is being said. I think is part of the game,” he told The Journal. “However, I have never said anything other than I love being at Newcastle. “If they hear something from me about my future, that is the truth. Otherwise everything that is said is not true. “The newspapers and I are not very friendly at the moment. For months and months and months people have been talking about me but there is nothing happening. “Of course, I am looking forward to next season with Newcastle. “We just have to build on the progress we made last season. For me, I just can’t wait to start the first game.” Ba certainly looked part of the United squad as he engaged in a feisty workout under the gaze of Alan Pardew’s lieutenant John Carver. United have been joined by France international Yohan Cabaye – back after his Euro 2012 exertions with France – and Tim Krul was also part of the hour-long session in the evening sun in Portugal. Newcastle intend to give most of their squad minutes in the two Algarve Stadium matches – and Ba will be hoping for more of the same after opening his account for the season with a close-range header against Monaco last week. Although his rebuttal of the reports surrounding his future might paint him out to be frustrated, he cut a very relaxed figure and was happy to set the record straight. He also said he was thoroughly “enjoying” his second pre-season with Newcastle. Ba added: “We have to complete our preparation and we have two very important games where almost every player will get 90 minutes. “It is intense over here, even in training. “However, we will enjoy it and of course it is always better to work when the weather is hot.” Even if Ba stays, Newcastle may look to strengthen their attacking options in anticipation of their battle on four fronts next season. United remain interested in brokering a deal which will bring Andy Carroll back to St James’ Park, but the emergence of West Ham – who have a strong bargaining chip in Kevin Nolan – places the transfer in jeopardy. Liverpool’s insistence that they want to recoup a big slice of the £35million they paid for Carroll also makes the deal a no-goer at the moment.Let's see: 1) Martin Philbert is Chair of the committee looking at the safety of Bisphenol A (BPA.) 2) Philbert is founder and co-director of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center. 3) Philbert's Center receives $5 million (50 times its annual budget) donation from Charles Gelman, who thinks that health risks posed by BPA are exaggerated by "mothers' groups and others who don't know the science." According to Sourcewatch, Gelman also supports our favorite Competitive Enterprise Institute, famous for "CO2: We call it life" the CATO Institute, and Junkscience.com, although all of his previous donations to these types of organizations totalled $72,977; $5 million is a completely different ballpark. 4) Notwithstanding a mountain of new studies about the dangers of BPA, the FDA finds that BPA
for the first time, I was shocked. "I thought to myself - how could I deliver something like this? Now, I am worried about her future. "I prayed to god and expected a very healthy boy or girl baby. (Image: SWNS) "I never thought in my dream that I will be going through such trauma in my life. This baby girl is not normal like other children." Her husband Balindra added: "I am totally confused. I don't know what to do. I am just following the instructions of the doctors at hospital." "God could have given her a healthy baby. But now whatever has happened, it's for good. I am praying for her healthy future." Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now (Image: SWNS) The baby girl suffers from a rare genetic condition called Harlequin Ichthyosis. It occurs due to malnutrition and causes thickening of the skin and deformities. Dr Rajan Sinha who is tending to the baby at the state-run facility, said: "The mother's health condition is good, but we can't say same about the baby. "In such cases the probability of survival is only one in 10 million cases."Updated at 4 p.m. BEREA, Ohio -- Browns running back Peyton Hillis will be out at least a couple of weeks after re-injuring his hamstring in practice today, a source said. An MRI this afternoon revealed that he significantly aggravated the muscle. It happened early in practice on a run up the middle. Hillis came up limping on the play, grabbing at his left hamstring. He fired the ball to the ground, then threw his helmet down in frustration. He limped over to the sidelines and stood talking to one of the team trainers with his head down and his hands on his hips. He then limped halfway down the practice field for further examination by the trainer. Browns coach Pat Shurmur said that Hillis would have an MRI today and his status would be updated afterward. Shurmur added that if Hillis is not ready, "we'll move on." Shurmur added that it's up to Hillis to do everything possible to get back to where he can play as soon as possible. Hillis, who sat out the past two games with the hamstring injury, had returned to practice on Thursday and was expecting to start on Sunday in Houston. Now, with Montario Hardesty out with a torn calf muscle, newcomer Chris Ogbonnaya will start against his former team and newly-signed Thomas Clayton will play as the third-down back. Ogbonnaya was signed Oct. 18 off the Texans practice squad and pressed into serve five days later against the Seahawks. He played well that game and then was thrust into the featured role last week in San Francisco when Hardesty tore the calf muscle.The crew of PT 109 (COURTESY FILES OF JOHN FLORES) By John W. Flores The young, skinny Navy officer walked along the dock at a South Pacific base and met his new crewmen for the first time, as they stood on the sun-drenched deck of a nondescript, navy green torpedo boat. Some of the men on board were crusty old sailors and war veterans, others just young and cocky “swabbies” new to the U.S. Navy's war against the vaunted and feared Japanese Imperial Navy. Some of the guys aboard heard the scuttlebutt—the rampant rumors—that this new captain of the 80-foot torpedo boat, Lt.(junior grade) John Kennedy, was the son of ultra-wealthy Joe Kennedy of Boston. When Lt. Kennedy walked on deck, the men dropped their mops and paint brushes and saluted the new skipper, said Gerard Zinser in his last interview a few years ago, prior to his death. That story was printed in the Boston Globe and Navy Times. Zinser was the last survivor from the final 13-member crew of the boat, and he was a few years older than the rest. He was called “Pops” by the young bucks, but he didn't mind. He just chuckled at their colorful antics and surly attitudes as he went about his engine room duties. Zinser was a motor machinists mate, or “motormac” and was one of three enlisted mechanics responsible for keeping the powerful twin gasoline fueled piston engines in top-notch running shape anytime the 109 was underway—primarily in the area around the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific. Zinser was 81 when I interviewed him at his home in St. Petersburg, Fla., for an article published in the Globe. His mind was clear and sound, even nimble, in remembrances of details from his World War II experiences. But the ravages of time were clearly doing their work on his physical health. He was the last man to tell the true story behind the most harrowing ordeal of his life as a Navy crewman. He told in illuminating and captivating detail about the night his boat was cut in half by a huge, fast-moving Japanese warship. It was late on Aug. 2, 1943 — now 70 years ago. Before the deadly events of that night, some of the crewmen naturally had a few mental reservations about the capabilities of their young and inexperienced skipper, who often scoffed at some of the “overzealous” Navy rules, and who regularly — against regulations —prowled the islands at the boat's helm barefoot, wearing shorts but no shirt only a baseball cap. His second in command, Ensign Thom, once told him that when at the wheel of his powerful patrol boat he reminded Thom of a young teenage hot rodder cruising main street looking for trouble. Kennedy later started wearing a T-shirt, in deference to Thom. A collision in the night On that terrible night, Zinser was first on the deck and just coming off his engine room watch. He was relieved for the night watch by an older mechanic, Chief Petty Officer Pappy McMahon. Suddenly, before anyone could react, Kennedy shouted “full power” and wheeled the boat abruptly to starboard, and the sudden, unavoidable impact with the enemy warship sent the 25-year-old Zinser cartwheeling into the deep, warm void of time. Two men on board, below deck, were killed instantly in the collision, and several others were severely burned in the gasoline fire caused from sparks when the two ships collided. A large gasoline fire from ruptured fuel tanks flared furiously all around the severed sections of the boat, like a target beacon for enemy ships or patrol boats. The crewmen bobbed helplessly like fishing corks for a brief time, until Kennedy and his second-in-command, Ensign Thom — a former collegiate football star — helped them up to the shelter of a still floating forward portion of the severed boat. “The skipper had injured his back severely in the collision,” Zinser said. “Though we didn't know what was happening to anyone at the time, or what condition we were in. The ship damned near cut him (Kennedy) in half, because it hit right behind where he was on watch at the captain's chair on the bridge.” Zinser said despite the injuries he later learned Kennedy was suffering, his skipper would swim around in the dark, choppy seas from man to man, “checking to see how we were holding up. He'd even yell out the names of crewmen to find out where they were.” Hours later, as dawn painted the black skies a dull gray with its timeless brush, Kennedy told the men they'd all have to try and make it to an island located a few miles away. About this time, the forward portion of the boat began to punctuate Kennedy's words with an ominous finality — it was beginning to roll over, upside down, and would soon be headed for the bottom. And where the men were located, near some floating wreckage items, they were also vulnerable to enemy aircraft sightings, Zinser said. Kennedy determined that Pappy McMahon, older and severely burned, probably with deydration problems, would have to be towed. Everyone else had their hands full just surviving, so Kennedy took McMahon and towed him along by the strap of his life preserver. Sometimes, when his arms got tired, Kennedy would place the strap between his teeth and tow Pappy that way for a while. “He had Mac's life jacket clenched in his teeth and it wore him out,” said Zinser. “He might rest a minute, but he kept going. Then Mac started moaning and saying: `Skip, I'm all done. I can't make it. Leave me here.' And the skipper said one time, `whether you like it or not, you're coming Pappy. Don't you know only the good die young?'” Zinser chuckled remembering that. It took the men four hours to swim to the island they later called Plum Pudding, because it looked like a bowl of pudding from water level miles away. Treading water in the darkness The men all collapsed when reaching the sandy shores of the small island that was thick with palm trees, but no fresh water. At least they could eat coconuts and drink the coconut juice for a few days. And it was easy for them to hear approaching Japanese planes, patrol boats and ships, as they remained well hidden in the trees of the formerly deserted island. Kennedy knew they had to act fast in order to get rescued as soon as possible. He feared some of the men would die if he didn't get in contact with the Navy PT base at Rendova, 40 miles away. But there were no radios, or any other form of communication. So Kennedy rested up for several hours and that first evening he equipped himself with a battle lantern from the PT 109, placed a rope around his neck that was tied to a Colt.38-caliber revolver, and after shaking hands with Ensign Thom, he waded slowly and shakily back into the ocean waves in hopes of swimming far enough out into the wide passage between the main ship channel of Solomon Islands, to signal a U.S. vessel — maybe even a passing PT boat sent to search for survivors of PT 109. But nothing would come — just the constant waves, the low clouds, the wind and maddening silence. What Kennedy couldn't have known was that his boat's wreckage and the fire was sighted by an allied coast watcher, and was reported to the distant Rendova Navy Base with the final words: “no survivors.” The Navy later officially listed Kennedy and his crew as killed in action. Meanwhile, as Kennedy tired of treading water in total darkness with sharks undoubtedly nearby, he soon found himself in sight of their little island and waved the lantern to the men, some of whom were asleep. But the strong currents pulled him away from that island and took him helplessly out toward the open sea. Kennedy recounted that night's strange events in an interview with author John Hersey, who wrote a story about the PT 109 ordeal and Kennedy's great heroism in a June 17, 1944, issue of The New Yorker magazine. “(Kennedy) thought he had never known such deep trouble,” Hersey wrote, “but something he did shows that he unconsciously had not given up hope. He dropped his shoes, but he held onto the heavy lantern, his symbolic contact with his fellows. He stopped trying to swim. He seemed to stop caring. His body drifted through the wet hours, and he was very cold. His mind was a jumble,” Hersey wrote. “His mind seemed to float away from his body. Darkness and time took the place of a mind in his skull. For a long time he slept, or was crazy, or floated in a chill trance.” Kennedy later realized a strange current captured him for a time, moving him many miles in a clockwise circle — west, past an island called Gizo, then north and east past another island called Kolombangara, then back to Ferguson Passage to the area where he'd been trying to signal a boat before. Even after all that exhaustive ordeal, he slowly swam wearily back several miles to their new home island, and that time the tide and currents were on his side — helping him get back. Finally, spotted and rescued Zinser said Kennedy would crawl back up from shore and vomit for a few minutes from the ingestion of salt water and from fatigue and lack of water or food. He may have even contracted malaria at that time — a condition later diagnosed by a Navy doctor. Zinser said of Kennedy: “Ensign Thom said he was very sick for a while, but he'd rest up and then go back out there. Trying to find a rescue boat. We didn't eat anything, and the only time we'd get anything to drink was when it would rain and we'd try and catch a few drops on our tongue.” Kennedy later passed orders to other men and was able to get a couple of them to swim out as he had done and try to signal allied ships. But it was a futile effort. The hot, humid days and night passed slowly. Finally enough time had gone by that Kennedy and Thom had to collectively agree on a command decision that would mean life or death for them all. They moved the men from the inhospitable Plum Pudding island, to a small dot on their Navy chart named Bird Island. Luck finally turned Kennedy's way later, when he was spotted by local native islanders as he scouted yet another island for his men to possibly find food, water, and shelter. Amazingly to Kennedy, the natives did not run away, but greeted him — recognizing he was an American. This was the fifth day after PT 109 was rammed. The natives reported to an Australian coast watcher that a Lt. John Kennedy and most of his crew from Navy boat PT 109 were alive on a nearby island, as Kennedy and Thom sketched succinct but vital details into a coconut — their ticket home. JFK kept that coconut on his desk, in the White House Oval Office, during his presidency. Finally, a Navy boat from Rendova arrived with Kennedy and his new native islander friends, and picked up all 11 American survivors, hauling them back to base. Kennedy, already skinny, had lost 15 or 20 pounds from the ordeal. Though very weak at times, he managed to get the job done and saved his crewmen. None died under his command after the ship rammed his boat. The joy of a young presidents's face Zinser said he was invited to many events by President Kennedy and his staff during the thousand days of his administration, beginning with the inauguration — where a replica of PT 109 was made for the parade. All the crewmen who made it through that terrible week in the South Pacific were riding on the replica boat that frigid day in Washington, D.C. Once again these older Navy war veterans seemed to be young men again, shouting and jeering at one another just as they had years before, and they grinned and saluted the man who had kept them alive, through his sustained courage and coolness under the harshest and most hopeless of conditions. As the replica of PT 109 passed President Kennedy, the men acted as if they were at their battle stations, Zinser recalled, half-expecting that their once young and skinny skipper would halt the parade, and take command again. Zinser grinned at the thought. He remembered JFK's incandescent smile, the proud crewmen, and that frozen fragment of time when the new chief executive raised his hand to return their salutes. With that, the day seemed warm again, from the brightness and joy of the young president's face. “I never was much for crying, but I found myself wiping tears from my eyes all evening on Nov. 22, 1963,” Zinser said, looking up on his wall of a picture when JFK was president. “He was very special to all of us. I felt that day, when he died, it felt like I'd lost the best friend of my life. That's what John Kennedy meant to me,” he said. “I think we all felt that way.” Quotes included from The New Yorker with permission from the publisher. John Flores is author of two books about Marine Sgt. Freddy Gonzalez, and one on legendary South Texas oilman Lou Flournoy. He is a former U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue crewman who has worked as a police and investigative reporter. He lives with his wife, Rowena, in Albupeuerque, N.M.Sporting is a multi-billion dollar industry that the masses simply can't get enough of.People, absolute love spending literally billions of dollars on their favorite sports but it doesn't just stop at the stadium anymore.If you look at teams like the New York Yankees and Manchester United, they have completely turned their teams into brands and complete lifestyles really.It's the elevation of sporting that brought this industry to where it is today and has allowed some of the biggest teams in professional sport to construct some of the most ridiculous stadiums, suites for their guests, and dressing rooms for their prized players.It is in this list that we will explore the most ridiculous things that all your hard earned money has gone to purchase for the teams and their fans. Coyboys Stadium The people at HKS Architects in Dallas have just unveiled their absolutely insane new stadium for the Cowboys. Cowboys Stadium seats 80,000 people but has had 105,121 people in it with expanded seating which is a few people but it's true beauty lies in the design and flourish of the stadium. This is basically the pinnacle of the American football stadium construction and it lets it be known. The design manages to be absolutely beautiful with literally tonnes of glass and state of the art design while still retaining its insanely high testosterone levels inside. Either end of the stadium is adorned with a massive glass door that admits views in and out of the stadium and allows for a whole lot of natural light to get in. Beyond all the steel and glass lies Cowboys Stadium's famed television. It's not a jumbotron 5000 or anything, it's basically the exact same LCD TV hanging above your fireplace at home, but like forty times bigger. The two center hung LCD's are now the biggest in the world at 160 by 72 feet and are actually capable of outputting full 1080p high definition. Technically, it has 2,432 pixels wide and 1,088 high ranking it up there into 1080p territory. Because each pixel is made up of four LED's Mitsubishi's patented "Dynamic Pixel" Technology allows it to borrow the corner LED's from the four neighboring pixel clusters allowing for a much cleaner and crisper image. Obviously, somebody who has access to the video inputs of these massive TV's is a gamer because there is some hilarious video of them playing Halo on the monster screen. Allianz Arena Allianz Arena is a personal favorite of mine because I have actually stood in its presence. Earlier this year when I was in Munich, it was suggested that I go check it out at night because it would make for good pictures. I have to say that standing in front of the Allianz Arena is an absolutely incredible experience. Being inside it with 70,000 other screaming FC Bayern MÃ¼nchen fans is one thing but this stadium is special because of what it looks like outside. Its shell is made up of 2,874 ETFE-foil air panels that are filled with dry air giving it that puffy look. The panels appear to be white from a distance but are actually transparent and covered with white dots. This enables the each panel to be changed to either red, white or blue to support whichever team happens to be playing at home that night. When the stadium is all lit up it is a sight to behold and is really quite beautiful. I have to hand it to Herzog & de Meuron for their flagship building. The Vancouver Canucks' Dressing Room The Vancouver Canucks play in a sold out GM place for every single game. The stadium was built in 1995 and seats just 18,810 people so there's really no state of the art numbers or facts to accompany it, but they have just finished building the most incredible locker room for the players. There are two giant fogged glass doors bearing the team's logo that slide open like on the Enterprise. You wonder if mere mortals are allowed to enter. Once you step in, you see that the room is an oval so that nobody has any corners to hide in and the coaches can stand right in the middle and eye down players without a problem. The Jerseys are hung above dark wood benches where the players get dressed for the game. The whiteboard has been replaced with a giant video screen the coaches can draw plays on. There are state of the art exercise facilities, a ridiculous medical room, and even bathrooms that look like a spa's. Each player can shower after a game and shave at one of the many sinks in the bathroom. After, they can take a breather in one of the lounges with white leather couches and watch the game highlights on the giant televisions, or check their email on any number of computers provided for them. The boys would quite literally never have to leave the dressing room if they didn't want to, and who would with digs like this? Bet you never thought you'd see a hockey team's dressing room in a list with the Allianz Arena. Wembley Stadium London's new Wembley Stadium was, at the time it was built, the most expensive sports arena in the world. When it had been completed and finally opened in 2007, the bill was an absolutely staggering 800 million pounds, which works out to roughly 1.57 billion American dollars. The stadium is home to many high profile soccer and rugby games, as well as some of the biggest concerts in the world. Some of the live earth concerts took place here on July 7th of 2007 that were viewed by over 8 million people around the world. The stadium was designed by architects Foster + Partners and its signature feature is a massive circular section lattice arch. It spans an incredible 315m, is mounted at 22Â° off of straight to support the entire weight of the north roof and 60% of the weight of the retracting roof. What really blows my mind more than anything else about this stadium is how the hell it cost as much as it does. When you're inside, it looks just like any other stadium. There are still plenty of trusses supporting the roof that hinder your view of the overhead jumbotron and the field still looks pretty far away when you're up on the top shelf, I just don't understand why this stadium is so special. Granted, it looks kind of like the suspension bridge of stadiums but for 1.5 billion dollars, I would be pretty upset if this is what I got. Torino Palavela Turin updated the incredible Palazzo a vela for their kick at the winter Olympics in 2006 and turned it into the Torino Palavela. Originally built in 1961, engineers and architects were faced with the challenge of renovating the structure to meet today's Olympic standards and seat thousands of people. What the team of architects, led by Gae Aulenti, effectively ended up doing was building a building within a building. I know, that's a lot of buildings. They created a giant sail structure in the middle of three concrete arches set at 60 degrees to cover the building completely and give it a completely new look. The Palazzo is now capable of seating 10,000 people and is really quite versatile in that it can necessitate many different types of events and that it can even still be expanded if needed in the future. What is really incredible about this venue is the fact that it was completely updated to be one of the worlds more striking arenas from an old, and rather boring arena if I don't say so myself. The University of Phoenix Stadium The University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Arizona is the first professional sports facility to have a retractable roofâ€¦ and a retractable grass field. That can't be right. Seriously, this stadium has a field it can roll in and out on a very specially designed tray so that real grass can be played on and the field can be quickly converted to necessitate any number of other playing surfaces. Let's get into some details about this unbelievable slide out field. The tray the field resides in weighs 12 million pounds, is 234 feet wide and 400 feet long and it takes about 45 minutes to roll it in or out of the stadium. It reminds me of the trucks that NASA uses to transport its engines. Not only does this make it incredibly convenient for multiple sporting events, but it also nearly eliminates humidity problems caused by keeping grass alive inside and is supposed to decrease the costs of maintaining the field indoors by $50 million. The stadium is a giant collaboration between the famous Peter Eisenman and HOK. It cost a mere $355 million to build, takes up 160 acres and seats 63,000 people. Everything about the stadium was built with the unusually arid climate in mind. It has a state of the art metal skin that allows for more desirable temperatures and natural light to enter inside due to open-air gaps in between the panels. The sliding fabric roof provides an open air feel even when it is closed and makes a truly unique experience for all 63,000 people in the stadium. Ski Dubai Dubai is becoming an oasis in the middle of a huge desert. Still, the last thing you would expect to see there is a ski hill. Leave it to the East's richest princes to attempt the impossible. This is an incredible example of a ridiculous sporting venue. The resort is absolutely insane taking up 32,290 square feet of winter wonderland. It has five downhill ski runs with various difficulties, a cross-country trail, and a quarter pipe for snowboarders. Of course, all this skiing requires chair lifts so they have those too. It is right next to the mall of the emirates so you can do your shopping, then hit the slopes feeling like an absolute spoiled brat. It also has the world's largest indoor snow park at 9,842 square feet that features tobogganing hills, a bobsled track with two side by side tracks, a snowball fight gallery and even a little cavern to get lost in and pretend you're in the mountains of Afghanistan struggling to survive. The good news is, you're not, you're in the emirates and they want you to spend lots of money here because it cost them $275 million to grow this snow land. The temperature outside in Dubai ranges from 60 to 135 degrees but they manage to keep the ski hill at a constant 28 degrees. The whole building is designed as a giant fridge and uses many of the same technologies. The walls are insulated with many layers and have 23 blast coolers that are constantly adjusting the temperature. There is a two-foot base of packed snow underneath a crisp and beautiful layer of powder replenished nightly. They blast out chemical-free water through an incredible chilling machine and it's absolutely vomited out of snow cannons; the water crystallizes and forms snow before it ever touches the frozen ground. Leave it to Dubai to take ridiculous sports venues to the next level. Beijing Water Cube China really overdid it with their Olympic buildings last year. Obviously, we'll get to the bird's nest in a bit, but first we absolutely have to talk about their stunning so called "Water Cube" or National Aquatics Center, which is a much more boring name so I won't be referring to it as that again. The Water Cube is an absolutely striking building constructed of lightweight Teflon that provides an incredible green house like effect inside the building. This allows for incredibly efficient operation of the building. They didn't stop there though; the building also uses solar energy to heat the pools, which even reuse the backwashed pool water using a double-filtered technique, water that would normally be thrown out. Rain water is even collected and stored to fill the pools. The bubble like shell that houses the pools was developed at Dublin's Trinity University due to extensive studies on the structural properties of soap bubbles. It is said to be able to withstand any degree of seismic activity and is at the cutting edge of modern architecture. This is really an incredible accomplishment of efficiency and engineering and they have spared absolutely nothing to create this incredible building. The Birds Nest Stadium Perhaps even more iconic of the Beijing Olympics is the Herzog & de Meuron masterpiece, the Beijing National Stadium, or Bird's Nest as it was called. It took only four and a half years to build and cost just $423 million, peanuts when you look at Wembley. The design of the arena was actually bidded upon which I found quite weird; a little democracy in a communist country. Anyways, the people picked the nest design and it became a symbol of not only the Olympics but China as well. There are actually two different structures that go into the creation of this stadium. There is the red bowl that houses the playing area and seating, and the intricate and beautiful exoskeleton that supports it all. The Bird's Nest goes in the list not because it is the biggest or the most beautiful, but because it has managed to create an image, a feeling or a state of mind, for all of China, even if that's really just brainwashing people into nationalism. The Azadi Stadium Tehran, Iran has one of my personal favorite stadiums in the world. One that might not get as much coverage as you would normally get for a marvel of this caliber due to our, how do I put this lightly, tension with their so called President. The Azadi was built in 1971 by the then Shah Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and succeeded miraculously at creating not only a place for Iranians to play soccer, but an attitude. It's iconic design is timeless and brought the Iranian people together by creating a very imposing feeling. It's been said that the Azadi is not just a stadium it's an attitude. In fact, famous Iranian soccer player Javad Nekounam famously warned the South Korean player Park Ji-sung that he had never felt anything like playing in the Azadi. He claimed the 100,000 screaming men has to be felt to be believed. I can't imagine playing in the stadium let alone being a member of the crowd. In addition to the incredible atmosphere the stadium is capable of producing, it is also a marvel of architecture and absolutely stunning. It is a timeless design and one that provided an identity to Tehran's people shortly before their revolution.The popular demand for Tom Clancy's action novels exceeded his ability to write new books. As a result, his publisher hired ghostwriters to write novels in the Clancy style. A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, memoirs, magazine articles, or other written material. In music, ghostwriters are often used to write songs, lyrics, and instrumental pieces. Screenplay authors can also use ghostwriters to either edit or rewrite their scripts to improve them. Usually, there is a confidentiality clause in the contract between the ghostwriter and the credited author that obligates the former to remain anonymous. Sometimes the ghostwriter is acknowledged by the author or publisher for his or her writing services, euphemistically called a "researcher" or "research assistant", but often the ghostwriter is not credited. Ghostwriting (or simply "ghosting") also occurs in other creative fields. Composers have long hired ghostwriters to help them to write musical pieces and songs; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is an example of a well-known composer who was paid to ghostwrite music for wealthy patrons. Ghosting also occurs in popular music. A pop music ghostwriter writes lyrics and a melody in the style of the credited musician. In hip hop music, the increasing use of ghostwriters by high-profile hip-hop stars has led to controversy.[1] In the visual arts, it is not uncommon in either fine art or commercial art such as comics for a number of assistants to do work on a piece that is credited to a single artist. However, when credit is established for the writer, the acknowledgement of their contribution is public domain and the writer in question would not be considered a ghostwriter. Overview [ edit ] A consultant or career-switcher may pay a ghostwriter to write a book on a topic in their professional area, to establish or enhance credibility as an 'expert' in their field. Public officials and politicians employ "correspondence officers" to respond to the large volume of official correspondence. A number of papal encyclicals have been written by ghostwriters. A controversial and scientifically unethical practice is medical ghostwriting, where biotech or pharmaceutical companies pay professional writers to produce papers and then recruit (via a payment or as a perk) other scientists or physicians to attach their names to these articles before they are published in medical or scientific journals. Some university and college students hire ghostwriters from essay mills to write entrance essays, term papers, theses, and dissertations. This is largely considered unethical unless the actual ghostwriting work is just light editing. Ghostwriters are hired for numerous reasons. In many cases, celebrities or public figures do not have the time, discipline, or writing skills to write and research a several-hundred page autobiography or "how-to" book. Even if a celebrity or public figure has the writing skills to pen a short article, they may not know how to structure and edit a several-hundred page book so that it is captivating and well-paced. In other cases, publishers use ghostwriters to increase the number of books that can be published each year under the name of well-known, highly marketable authors, or to quickly release a topical book that ties in with a recent or upcoming newsworthy event.[2] Remuneration and credit [ edit ] The ghostwriter for Hillary Clinton's memoirs received a $500,000 fee for collaborating with her. Ghostwriters will often spend from several months to a full year researching, writing, and editing nonfiction and fiction works for a client, and they are paid based on a price per hour, per word or per page, with a flat fee, a percentage of the royalties of the sales, or some combination thereof. Some ghostwriters charge for articles "$4 per word and more depending on the complexity" of the article.[3] Literary agent Madeleine Morel states that the average ghostwriter's advance for work for major book publishers is "between $15,000 and $75,000".[4] These benchmark prices are mirrored approximately in the film industry by the Writer's Guild, where a Minimum Basic Agreement gives a starting price for the screenplay writer of $37,073 (non-original screenplay, no treatment).[5] However, the recent shift into the digital age (15–20% world market share of books by 2015) has brought some changes, by opening newer markets that bring their own opportunities for authors and writers[6]—especially on the more affordable side of the ghostwriting business. One such market is the shorter book, best represented at the moment by Amazon's Kindle Singles imprint: texts of 30,000 words and under.[7] Such a length would have been much harder to sell before digital reader-technologies became widely available, but is now quite acceptable. Writers on the level of Ian McEwan have celebrated this recent change, mainly for artistic reasons.[8] As a consequence, the shorter format makes a project potentially more affordable for the client/author. Manhattan Literary, a ghostwriting company, states that "book projects on the shorter side, tailored to new markets like the Kindle Singles imprint and others (30,000–42,000 words) start at a cost of $15,000".[9][10] And this shorter book appears to be here to stay. It was once financially impractical for publishers to produce such novella-length texts (they would have to charge too much); but this new market is, by 2015, already substantial and has been projected to be a solid part of the future of book publishing.[7] So, with its appearance the starting price for the professional book writer has come down by about half, but only if this shorter format makes sense for the client. On the upper end of the spectrum, with celebrities that can all but guarantee a publisher large sales, the fees can be much higher. In 2001, the New York Times stated that the fee that the ghostwriter for Hillary Clinton's memoirs would receive was probably about $500,000 of her book's $8 million advance, which "is near the top of flat fees paid to collaborators".[11] There is also the consideration of different benchmarks in different countries. In Canada, The Writers' Union has established a minimum fee schedule for ghostwriting, starting at $40,000 for a 200–300 page book, paid at various stages of the drafting of the book. Research fees are an extra charge on top of this minimum fee.[12] In Germany, the average fee for a confidential ghostwriting service is about $100 per page.[citation needed] The Editorial Freelancers Association also suggests rates of 26 cents to 50 cents per word, which would be about $15,000 to $30,000 for a 250-page book.[13] A recent availability also exists, of outsourcing many kinds of jobs, including ghostwriting, to offshore locations like India, China, and the Philippines where the customer can save money.[14] Outsourced ghostwriters, whose quality levels vary widely, complete 200-page books for fees ranging between $3000 and $5000, or $12–$18 per page.[citation needed] The true tests of credibility—the writer's track record, and samples of his or her craft—become even more important in these instances, when the writer comes from a culture and first language that are entirely different from the client's. In some cases, ghostwriters are allowed to share credit. For example, a common method is to put the client/author's name on a book cover as the main byline (by Author's Name) and then to put the ghostwriter's name underneath it (as told to Ghostwriter's Name). Sometimes this is done in lieu of pay or in order to decrease the amount of payment to the book ghostwriter for whom the credit has its own intrinsic value. Also, the ghostwriter can be cited as a coauthor of a book, or listed in the movie or film credits when having ghostwritten the script or screenplay for a film production. For nonfiction books, the ghostwriter may be credited as a "contributor" or a "research assistant". In other cases, the ghostwriter receives no official credit for writing a book or article; in cases where the credited author or the publisher or both wish to conceal the ghostwriter's role, the ghostwriter may be asked to sign a nondisclosure contract that legally forbids any mention of the writer's role in a project. Some have made the distinction between 'author' and 'writer,' as ghostwriter Kevin Anderson explains in a Washington Post interview: "A ghostwriter is an interpreter and a translator, not an author, which is why our clients deserve full credit for authoring their books."[9] Types [ edit ] Non

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